The Hofstra Chronicle November 11, 2025

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THE HOFSTRA CHRONICLE

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TUESDAY November 11, 2025

Richard Nuttall: A farewell to greatness

By Anthony Hidalgo SPORTS EDITOR

What makes a successful college athletics program? Is it great players, coaches, a university with a great reputation and resources for its players? Perhaps it’s the culture or history of winning. Hofstra University men’s soccer head coach Richard Nuttall represents all of this and then some. To put it plainly, Nuttall is the men’s soccer program. Over the last 37 years, Nuttall has seen the men’s soccer team grow into one of the most successful and well-recognized teams in the nation.

Before Nuttall arrived in 1989, the Hofstra men’s soccer team had 11 winning seasons in its 33 years of existence, winning just one East Coast Conference Championship in 1985. Nuttall became the ninth head coach in the program’s history and is the only coach to spend more than 11 years with the program.

To say Nuttall is synonymous with the men’s soccer program would be an understatement, but ask him, and he will say this was never meant to happen.

“I fell into it,” Nuttall said. “I was playing in a very high level,

level five in England, which is still very good, and teaching. And the teacher there was a guy called Pete Casket. He asked me to help him with the town team, so I started off coaching and playing.”

Nuttall spent the next few years traveling between England and the United States, playing for a local men’s team in Glen Cove, New York, and working as a physical education teacher

at North Shore High School in Glen Head, New York. It was there that he met his teammates, many of whom were Hofstra graduates. Eventually, the head coach position opened at Hofstra. Nuttall applied and got the job. The rest is history.

“My interest just grew from there,” Nuttall said. “I thought, ‘I’ll do this job for two or three years,’ and then I was think-

Hofstra students react as Mamdani wins

By Kumba Jagne

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral election on Wednesday, Nov. 5, becoming the first Muslim, African and South Asian individual to be elected as mayor. This election had the largest-ever turnout for

race

early voters in a non-presidential election in the city, according to The Guardian.

At 34 years old, Mamdani is New York’s first millennial mayor and the youngest mayor in over a century. Hofstra University students from New York City and beyond expressed their opinions about Mamdani’s platform and highlighted their

relationship to voting.

Senior political science and public policy double major Adallis Pantry noticed people in California and London cheering for Mamdani when he won. Although she was not eligible to vote in the mayoral election, she followed Mamdani’s campaign

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ing about going and living and playing in Australia. But I got a severe injury with the knee … I was enjoying life here.”

With Nuttall now at Hofstra for so long, he can’t imagine a better job than the one he’s held on to for nearly four decades.

“What more do you want?” Nuttall said. “Come to work with young people – you know, on the men’s team – the people

of the same ilk as me, people who love the sport. It’s been very few days I didn’t want to come to work.”

Nuttall’s success wasn’t overnight. His first few seasons at the helm were a struggle. The team went 4-15-1 in his first season and wouldn’t record a winning season until Nuttall’s fifth season in 1993.

Nuttall had to grow into his new role and learn some valuable lessons to build the program from the ground up.

“I think just working hard,” Nuttall said. “The [Athletic Director] at the time said, ‘Look, I know you think you’re a great coach, but I don’t care how good a coach you are.’ He said, ‘It’s the players you [bring] in that will make the program.’ So that stuck with me, and just getting the best players possible … We never really lost many transfers. They had a great experience, they enjoyed Hofstra and we built slowly over time.”

Nuttall wasn’t just growing as a coach. He was still a young man, adjusting to a new life in a new country. It took some time until he truly felt at home on Long Island.

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OPINION

By Julia Capitelli NEWS EDITOR

Good journalism requires courage and adherence to journalistic values without compromise. Too often, many Western news media outlets have lacked the courage to uphold key values, especially in the face of political pressure. This defeats a major purpose of journalism: to be a watchdog. The Society of Professional Journalists’

code of ethics explicitly tells us to “be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Give voice to the voiceless.”

Some may argue that in the United States, the news media is bowing to President Donald Trump’s administration. While this may be true, it is not an excuse to abandon journalistic ethics, nor is it new.

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hofstrachronicle@gmail.com

Editor-in-Chief

Madeline Sisk

Managing Editor Ryan Monke

Secretary

Business Managers

Julia Capitelli Timothy Daly

News

Julia Capitelli

Assistant

Katelyn Buchalter

Sahana Shastry

Veronica N. Wakefield

A&E

Matt Fisher

Abby Gibson

Craig Mannino

Paige Sanacora

Sports Editors

Shannon Bickert

Anthony Hidalgo

Olivia Hillestad

Ethan Poole

Features

Hannah Mudry Denivia Rivera

Opinion

Assistant

Anthony Favilla

Saxa

Gianna Costanzo Meredith Tarsi

Assistant Copy Chiefs

Madison Demko

Emily Hyman

Paula Amoroso Lomelí

Multimedia Editors

Kumba Jagne

Orovitz

Assistant Multimedia Editor Christine Acuña

Social Media Managers

Jess LeMay

Lindsey Lolkema

Editor-at-Large

Frankie DiCalogero

Diversity, dancing and dialogue: First-ever World Gala at Hofstra unites cultural clubs on campus

By Sahana Shastry ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center’s Multipurpose Room was bustling with conversation and music on Thursday, Nov. 6, at Hofstra University’s first-ever World Gala hosted by the Student Government Association (SGA) and Anthropology Club.

The event featured cultural exhibitions of clubs on campus, dance performances, a photobooth, cultural food and a lively dance floor.

“What’s different about the World Gala compared to other cultural events on campus is that it basically is a lot of different cultures in one,” said Celeste Orellana, the SGA equity and inclusion chair and senior nursing major. “We don’t really have a lot of events that really try to integrate many clubs into one space and kind of just celebrate everyone’s culture.”

Several clubs tabled at the event to show their support and talk with the attendees. They each had an activity for attendees to take part in. The Hofstra Asian Pacific Islander Association (HAPIA) set up an Origami table.

“It feels more intimate as op-

posed to other cultural events on campus,” said Parker Driscoll, president of HAPIA and junior audio/radio production studies major. “The tables are around, they’re close together, so naturally people would be closer together.”

The Black Student Union (BSU) table featured a trivia wheel as well as a display of their club’s photo albums and plaques.

“I would just hope that [students] take away just a sense of unity from our organization,” said A’marie Bosley, public relations and historian chair of BSU and junior television and film major. “Obviously with political climate and stuff like that, things are looking a little scary out here. But our biggest thing that we want to share as BSU is that, you know, we’re trying to bring everybody together.”

According to Orellana, the World Gala has potential to become an annual event in the coming years.

“The idea behind the World Gala was an idea that the Anthropology Club brought to me,” Orellana said. “We just wanted to be able to throw a cute little formal event on campus – a celebration of all the different cultures.”

Performances included the Azure K-pop dance group, and attendees of the event dressed in diverse attire, showcasing their roots and personal style as they celebrated the evening.

“Getting a chance to see everybody in their traditional wear is so amazing,” Bosley said. “Everybody looks so beautiful here.”

According to Cornell Craig, vice president for equity and inclusion at Hofstra, the university does a good job of representing diverse cultures although there is always room for improvement, highlighting the collective efforts that are needed to continue to serve the community.

“What’s important and what I really push for from my perspective and from my position is taking account of the voices that aren’t as loud, that aren’t as easy to hear,” Craig said. “What are the experiences of those who may be small in number? Or those who may be overlooked in some respects?”

The energetic atmosphere of the room drew a strong turnout, as attendees were able to enjoy activities, as well as to experience other cultures.

“I feel like coming together in events such as the World Gala definitely does help. I wouldn’t have been able to try food from

Türkiye or from Georgia or even from the [United Kingdom],” said Jean Pierre, a sophomore political science major. “I think that being able to try stuff like that and being able to incorporate different cultures really does help, and it does create a diverse environment.”

The World Gala provided an opportunity for different cultures and crowds to interact with each other and celebrate unity, bridging communities that might otherwise celebrate separately. “I hope students take away that they have a safe space on this campus,” Orellana said. “That there’s so many organizations and clubs here that see them and recognize them, and that there’s a lot of outlets on this campus that you can come to for resources or just even a community.”

What you may have missed

Mamdani wins New York City cont.

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on social media after discovering him on @SubwayTakes. His win was no surprise to her.

Hurricane Melissa destroys Jamaican communities –Monday, Nov 3, 2025

Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm at the time that it struck Jamaica, killed at least 32 people After Hurricane Melissa, no building in Black River, Jamaica, has remained intact Much of the country is still without electricity, and authorities are struggling to clear roads to access stranded communities

Hunger crisis worsens in South Sudan after continuing conf licts and f loods – Tuesday, Nov 4, 2025

It is projected that in the next year over 7 55 million people will face malnutrition in South Sudan during the lean season In South Sudan, April to July is when food supplies are at their lowest The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification issued a warning that the hunger will worsen as the fighting between rival political factions intensifies.

Cars in Hanau, Germany, vandalized with swastikas made in blood – Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

According to German police, about 50 cars were smeared with human blood in the shape of swastikas in the city of Hanau; postboxes and walls were defaced as well All Nazi symbols are banned publicly in Germany. Officials have not yet identified if any injuries were connected to this case

Typhoon hits Vietnam after killing 114 people in the Philippines – Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

Typhoon Kalmaegi is one of the strongest typhoons to ever hit Vietnam Due to the already heavy rain in the area, fears of flash flooding arose with the oncoming storm. Typhoon Kalmaegi tore apart neighborhoods last week in the Philippines, leaving at least 114 people dead.

“As a [political science] major, I hear a lot of people argue that voting doesn’t matter and we shouldn’t vote,” Pantry said. “It’s important to me. I think Mamdani did a great job in encouraging young people that their voices do matter and mobilizing young voters. That’s why I care.”

Mamdani’s win came with democratic victories across the country, particularly in Virginia with Representative Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey with Representative Mikie Sherrill. Hofstra professor of political science Leslie Feldman said his victory had national implications for the Democratic Party.

“He’s now the leader. It’s not a coincidence that the day after he gets elected mayor of the biggest city in the United States that Nancy Pelosi says she’s retiring,” Feldman said. “That’s it. [Pelosi] is out and [Mamdani] is in.”

Ayden Whyte, a junior sports media major and commuter from Queens, has voted in every election since he turned 18 years old.

“It’s my personal philosophy that people who don’t vote relinquish their right to complain,” Whyte said. “Because when there was a chance for them to make their voices heard, they chose not to.”

Whyte said he plans to continue living in Queens when he graduates and sees value in Mamdani’s affordability plan which includes a rent freeze, free childcare, government subsidized grocery stores and improving the bus system.

“I don’t think there are any barriers because the New York city council agrees with those policies, so they will approve the policies,” Feldman said. “I don’t think he is going to find any resistance.”

A two percent increase in taxes on every person that makes more than $1 million a year is slated to fund Mamdani’s initiatives. Currently, New York City taxes everyone at the same rate. Mamdani also wants to raise the state corporate tax rate to match New Jersey’s. These moves will raise $9 billion a year combined.

New York’s budget in the 2025 fiscal year was $112.4 billion. These tax hikes require state legislature and governor approval, though. New York Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed Mamdani in the election but does not support the tax increase on New York’s wealthiest.

“He’s very policy oriented,” said Jake Mandel, senior psychology major. “That’s something I like. His political slogans are literally policies, like ‘Make the buses fast and free’ or ‘universal childcare,’ he’ll say that at rallies and people will chant it back. It’s not just like ‘Make American Great Again,’ [which is] just a slogan. He says ‘I want to do this.’”

Kim Montesinos, sophomore criminology major and president of Hofstra College Republicans, believes in a different focus when it comes to buses. She lives in Suffolk County now but grew up in Brooklyn and took the city bus to school.

“We would feel unsafe as a group of girls by male perpetrators who would either make comments or they would get close to you,” Montesinos said. “We are seeing [things] like the woman who was set on fire on the F train in Coney Island.”

Debrina Kawam, a 57-yearold woman from New Jersey, was set on fire in 2024 while sleeping on the F train and died as a result. Montesinos acknowledged that events like this are rare, but still she said she desires a focus on crime in New York’s government and would have voted for republican candidate

Curtis Sliwa if she was eligible to vote. Sliwa’s plan to “Make NYC Safe” included expanding the New York City Police Department.

“[The solution] is not all this anti-homeless architecture that they’re doing, [nor is it] putting millions of dollars to cleaning up the trains,” Montesinos said. “Raising the fare is not the solution. The solution is to be harder on crime.”

Voters under 30 years old made up about 20% of Mamdani’s votes. Voters for independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa skewed much older. Around 75% of voters under 30 voted for Mamdani and were much more likely than older voters to be voting for the first time in a mayoral election, according to NBC New York.

Frank Chiapperino, a sophomore sports media major who commutes from Queens, said he felt inspired to vote the day of the mayoral election. He started getting into politics over the summer because he wanted to know more about what President Donald Trump was doing since he “knew it wasn’t right.”

“I’m not that caught up on what’s going on with the mayoral election or politics in general, but I want to be prepared for any future election,” Chiapperino said. “I know I’m a big procrastinator. I always say, ‘I’ll do this tomorrow, I’ll do this tomorrow.’ But no, I wanted to do it today.”

Artificial intelligence program to read graduates’ names at commencement

By Ryan Monke MANAGING EDITOR

Hofstra University graduates walking across the stage will not hear their names being read by university officials in the upcoming Dec. 2025 and May 2026 commencement ceremonies. Rather, students’ names will be read by an automated program. While Hofstra has labeled this change as beneficial to ensuring the proper pronunciation of students’ names, the decision has refreshed concerns among students regarding the university’s use of artificial intelligence (AI).

“[Hofstra] is moving deeper into AI and trying to embrace it, and it feels like it’s something that a lot of the student body doesn’t feel comfortable with for a lot of reasons,” said William Jiggetts, a senior psychology major. Jiggetts will be part of the May 2026 commencement ceremonies, and he noted his aversion to walking the stage to an automated announcement of his graduation. “I don’t want to hear my name read off by an AI.”

“It’s just so impersonal and almost like a slap in the face to the students who have worked so hard to reach graduation only

for a robot to say their name in a bland voice,” said Callie Holiway, a sophomore preearly childhood and childhood education major with a creative writing minor.

Hofstra’s administration has framed the decision to automate the reading of graduates’ names as an effort to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the process. In a statement to The Hofstra Chronicle, the university noted that the newly implemented program is intended to “improve organizational efficiency by helping Hofstra staff manage attendance and other logistics more effectively to help deliver a smooth ceremony experience for all.”

According to the statement, the automated reading of names

mas. Each graduate will also receive a video clip of themselves walking across the stage.

A major goal of the new program, however, is to ensure the correct pronunciation of students’ names. According to Hofstra’s statement, the new program will “allow graduates to listen to their names in advance of the ceremony, giving them an opportunity to hear and confirm a correct pronunciation.”

Yet, many students remain displeased with the growing role of AI in the university’s campus life.

“I’d rather [have] a human being; I might have [more] sense of connection with [mispronouncing] my name a little than a robot say it correctly,” Holiway said. “Overall, it’s just an

“And this is just the latest in a string of things that they’ve been doing,” Jiggetts said.

“It’s just so impersonal and almost like a slap in the face to the students who have worked so hard to reach graduation only for a robot to say their name in a bland voice.”

is just one part of several updates to the ceremony, including the presentation of graduates’ names and degrees on the arena screen as they accept their diplo-

awful situation … I don’t know a single student who likes that AI is reading names at graduation, even of the people I know who use AI.”

In June, Hofstra unveiled the new logo of the athletics department through an AI-generated video posted on the university’s @HofstraU and @HofstraPride Instagram pages. Student backlash to the video criticized the university’s use of AI instead of utilizing the talents of the student body.

Criticism culminated in a statement from Hofstra’s Student Government Association as well as a petition calling for the university to take the video down, which has amassed more than 700 signatures.

According to Jiggetts, that video, the notion of AI reading names at graduation and the recent development of ChatGPT Edu is indicative of Hofstra’s general embrace of AI.

“People are using AI more and more heavily, and they’re not doing work themselves,” Jiggetts said. “There are issues with AI taking people’s jobs, and it just feels like a bad omen.”

Hofstra is not the first university to use an AI program to read out names at commencement

ceremonies. A video posted by @therundownai on Instagram shows graduates at New York City’s Pace University presenting QR codes to a school official who scanned each code before an artificial voice announced each student’s name as they walked the stage.

Other universities, such as the University of South Carolina and Northeastern University, have implemented similar practices. User @jonaitken’s comment under the video of Pace’s commencement noted that while the AI voice was “a bit monotone,” it accurately pronounced ethnic names that might otherwise be “mangled” by a regular reader.

Universities’ efforts to ensure the proper pronunciation of students’ names are clear. In May 2024, so many names at Thomas Jefferson University’s commencement were significantly mispronounced that the university issued a formal apology. Other universities are taking steps to avoid a similar situation. Still, the use of AI in this way at Hofstra has left some students feeling like their perspectives have been ignored. Jiggetts noted the ethical impacts of AI surrounding issues like the literacy crisis, and Holiway noted the environmental impacts. To some students, it feels like their concerns have not been reflected in the university’s policy. “Read the room, you know?” Jiggetts said.

Government reopening raises questions about ACA

By Julia Capitelli and Ryan Monke NEWS EDITOR & MANAGING EDITOR

Nearing the sixth week of the United States federal government shutdown, increasingly bipartisan efforts to resume government operations have gained momentum in the U.S. Congress. As of Tuesday, Nov. 11, this has been the longest shutdown in U.S. history at 41 days and counting.

Eight members of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus broke rank with their party on Sunday, Nov. 9, joining Republicans to reach the 60-40 majority to advance a deal to the U.S. House of Representatives. This deal addresses many of the major impacts of the government shutdown. It ensures government funding for programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides financial assistance to millions of families to buy food. It also returns many furloughed federal

workers with backpay.

However, the deal does not extend the expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which is the major point of contention between Senate Democrats and Republicans. For many Democrats, the decision of whether or not to vote to pass the bill raises questions about balancing the priorities of reopening the government and preventing rising premiums under the ACA. The deal does guarantee a vote to extend ACA tax credits.

by the ACA are likely to be a part of millions of people who will be unable to afford their health insurance,” Crowley said. “Access to healthcare is something that we all should have a right to and not something that you should have to pay for or worry about being without.”

Rosanna Perotti, professor

“Access to healthcare is something that we all should have a right to and not something that you should have to pay for or worry about being without.”

Michelle Crowley, junior nursing major and vice president of the Hofstra University Student Nurses Association, noted that many students at universities like Hofstra are dependents on parents or guardians’ health insurance policies and would struggle to afford medical support with no assistance.

“On top of tuition and costs of living, students who are covered

of political science at Hofstra, frames the decision to advance the bill as good government rather than a political win. “[The Democrats’] concern really was good government,” Perotti said. “Their constituents were hurting.”

For the Democratic senators who voted to pass the bill, the impacts of the government shut-

down proved too disastrous to justify holding out. Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia represents over 150,000 federal workers, many of whom have been furloughed during the shutdown. Voting to end the shutdown, even with no provisions to prevent rising prices under the ACA, ensures that Virginia’s federal workers return to work with backpay.

In a statement released on Sunday, Maggie Hassan, a Democratic senator from New Hampshire, noted that while her decision to support the bill was informed by the need to recommence government programs, its passing represents a pivotal moment in providing relief for families.

“Congress has one month to engage in serious, bipartisan negotiations to extend the [ACA’s] expiring tax cuts for health insurance,” Hassan wrote. While universities are not typically affected by short government shutdowns, longer ones

Public Safety Briefs

Compiled by Sahana Shastry

PS – Public Safety

HU – Hofstra University

UFD – Uniondale Fire Department

NCPD – Nassau County Police Department

CS – Community Standards

On Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, at 10:25 p.m., an HU student reported to PS that they witnessed three nonstudents trying to pick locks attached to bicycles on the bicycle rack near Vander Poel Hall. PS was able to stop two out of the three nonstudents who were riding

scooters that did not belong to them. The scooters were confiscated and vouchered at PS for safekeeping. NCPD responded and took a report. The two non-students were banned from campus.

On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, at 9 a.m., an HU student reported to PS that they parked their vehicle in parking field six on Oct. 27. Upon return, the student found a note on the windshield from an unknown person stating that they may have caused damage to the student’s vehicle. Police assistance was declined at the time.

On Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, at 2:23 p.m., an HU

student reported to PS that they were involved in a verbal dispute with an unknown driver of a vehicle after leaving the Breslin Hall parking lot. The other vehicle’s license plate number was searched in the Hofstra parking permit database, but the driver could not be identified.

On Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, at 5:06 p.m., an HU student reported to PS that at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28, they left their bag on the back of a chair in the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center. Upon returning the next day, the bag was gone. An investigation is being conducted into this matter.

have the potential to disrupt operations. Universities like Hofstra receive funding from several federal agencies. This funding goes toward programs like financial aid, research grants and federal work study.

Hofstra receives funding from the Department of Education and can receive research grants from agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Hofstra’s funding has not suffered as a result of this shutdown.

The House must still pass the bill to ensure that the government is funded and remains operational through Jan. 30, 2026. If the deal does not pass in the House, the government will remain closed. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that representatives will vote on the bill “as soon as possible.”

“Now that we have gone this long with a government closure, we could go for even longer,” Perotti said. “For democracy to produce such dysfunction is very, very dangerous.”

On Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, at 7:20 p.m., an HU student reported to PS that at 4:30 p.m., while crossing the street by the corner of California Avenue and Huntington Place, they were struck by a vehicle. The driver of the vehicle stopped and then left the scene when the student had stated that they were fine. Later that evening, the student had felt discomfort in their lower leg. NCPD responded and took a report. The student refused any medical attention.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, at 11:45 a.m., PS responded to Alliance Hall on a call from the New York State Fire Marshal stating that while conducting a room

inspection, they observed what appeared to be a knife in plain sight. The resident of the room claimed the knife was purchased to be part of a Halloween costume. The knife was removed and vouchered at PS for safekeeping. The resident of the room was issued a referral to CS.

On Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, at 5:10 p.m., the fire alarm in the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center activated due to burnt food. The alarm sounded, and the building was evacuated in five minutes without incident. PS and UFD responded. The situation was corrected, and the fire alarm was reset.

By Juliana Calcao

SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

Gripping a microphone, a figure emerged from behind a curtain and stepped onto the stage, into the spotlight. Her eyelids, adorned with striking glitter, matched her shiny, rouge lip gloss.

Hofstra University student Rylie Kelley’s music echoes her. It’s vibrant, multilayered and undeniably human.

“I’m bad at understanding how people perceive me,” Kelley said. “You spend so much time with yourself, but then you consider how you might appear to other people. I hope that if they’re getting something wrong about me, it’s that I’m cool and amazing.”

The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication is where 21-year-old college senior Kelley found a mash-up of writing and technical skills. She is working toward a Writing for the Screen major, a communication degree that involves writing scripts for

This Hofstra Life: Rylie Kelley

film, television and video. Throughout her time at East Bridgewater Jr/Sr High School – located in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts – Kelley wrote feverishly. Writing later seeped into an adoration for storytelling, which eventually evolved through a developed interest in visuals and audio. She also toyed with GarageBand – a music production app – making instrumentals and beats.

Since 2022, Kelley has been making music on her own. Her tunes are largely pop because the genre encompasses various sounds and styles, granting her creative freedom.

“I’m not involved in music at Hofstra because it’s such a passionate hobby for me,” Kelley said. “I feel like if I studied it on top of it being a hobby, I’d burn out badly. So, I stay away from music academically.”

She has two albums on Spotify: “SATURN” (2024) and “PINKHEART” (2025), and one single, for a total of 33 songs. Both

albums take her lived experiences and make them danceable through melodies and fun instrumentals. Their overarching theme is girlhood, her focus on femininity stemming from her journey as a transgender woman.

“I want me as a transgender person [to be] releasing art and putting my perspective out there and being different, just because I am different,” Kelley said.

“Music is my way of promoting transgender visibility by just being visible. It’s me screaming, ‘I’m visible, I’m here!’”

Recently, Hofstra student Emma Eitel took on the challenge of producing a music video for Kelley’s most popular song, “THOSE HANDS.” Eitel approached Kelley after watching her perform at Hofstra Danceworks Productions last May.

“It was a lot more intense, but in a good way. It was the first time I’d ever done something of that scale related to my art,” Kelley said. “I felt fortunate that people considered my voice, my

art and my songs in a big enough way that they wanted to work on a music video for one of them.”

For Kelley, it was a whole new world. The music videos for songs on “SATURN” were filmed using just her iPhone on a gimbal. Kelley and her friend went out into the woods and just hit record. With proper equipment and a cast of extras, the “THOSE HANDS” music video was a lot more involved than her previous work.

Bryana Neff, sophomore public relations major at Hofstra, was an extra in Kelley’s music video. “I see the passion that [Kelley] puts into everything she does, and I think the world needs more people like her who are unapologetically themselves,” Neff said. Kelley is a college student with a multitude of interests that all play a role in her talent for making music.

Personal Essay: Being raised by women

By Abby Gibson ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Sitting on a creaky seesaw during fifth grade recess, I had an argument with a classmate about me having a father. While I don’t remember how the conversation led to the topic of how children are made, I do remember how strongly I believed in my statement that I didn’t need a dad to be alive. While my classmate argued that everyone had to have a mom and a dad, I argued I was proof that she was incorrect. I still believe that family is not determined by who is biologically

related to you, but by who shows up and cares for you.

I was raised by two of the strongest women I know: my single mother Gretchen Gibson and my grandmother, Dell Gibson. I believe that their dynamic allowed me to grow into an empathetic and resilient woman. While this might have not been the most traditional household, it was one filled with love, laughter and everything in between. My mom was a travel nurse until I was around five years old. She left her career to be at home with me during my early, formative years instead of having me

stay with my grandmother. My mom has told me a few times of a story my grandmother told her. I would play outside and look up at a plane, point it out and tell my grandmother that my mom was on the plane. This decision of hers shows me her personal sacrifice and dedication to motherhood.

When I think back on my childhood, and even now in my early adult years, I don’t feel a strong wish or longing for a father. Instead, I look around, grateful to have women who are stronger than any superhero.

In kindergarten, my elementary school had a Father’s Day event where fathers would come in for donuts, orange juice and other breakfast foods. I don’t remember my six-year-old mindset thinking that anything was different because my mom and uncle came and ate donuts with me. From what I can remember, I never had a distinct questioning of why other people had fathers and I didn’t. Even when I played with Barbies, I found the story more important than whether the plastic doll had a mom and dad.

Growing up, around the

holidays, my grandmother and I would make Rice Krispy Treats with an addition of Froot Loops. Recently, our cooking has shifted into me and my grandmother making her rendition of banana pudding that I think my entire family would fight over for the last bite.

I think having these two women raise me has given me perspective on others in life that I might not have if I was raised differently. I see the value and importance of showing up for others and creating a sense of family even if it’s not biological. My mom and grandmother never tried to fill the absence of a father figure in my life. They just made sure to give me enough love and support so I never recognized that gap until I was on a seesaw during recess in fifth grade. Even then, I don’t recognize a gap, just extra space filled with my mom and grandmother’s love. It wasn’t until middle school that I really gave thought to the idea of having a dad. Middle school is such a formative time when young people are starting to think about who they are, and I

found myself trying to figure out the whole dad thing. I understood that I biologically had to have a father, but I didn’t feel emotionally attached or connected to the idea of having one. There would be times when I would feel a twinge of jealousy while watching Luke Danes and Rory Gilmore in “Gilmore Girls” or Danny Tanner in “Full House,” but the feeling would then shift into the mindset of gratitude for the parental figures I do have. No, I would never have a father-daughter dance and no, I would never have the cliché of my dad walking me down the aisle; but I do have a mom who taught me how to ride a bike and a grandmother who taught me how to make a banana pudding people would fight over.

Now 10 years after that argument on the playground, I have learned that I am not defined by what I lack, rather I am defined by what I do have. My mom and grandmother’s love have helped me grow into the woman I am today. Someone who is grateful for the women who raised me for 21 years and counting.

FEATURES

Our Voices at Hofstra: Jamelia DeSouza

By Denivia Rivera FEATURES EDITOR

“I think it’s important to have students of color in leadership positions because it then creates a voice for others that might not have it,” said Jamelia DeSouza, senior community health major and psychology minor. DeSouza holds various student leadership positions on Hofstra University’s campus. One of these positions includes her role as president of Hofstra’s Caribbean Student Association (CSA).

“In my role as president of CSA, I host a lot of fun, but also educational events to bring a home to people on this campus that are of Caribbean descent or [to express] our culture to others,” DeSouza said. “I help coordinate a lot of events and let it be a safe community.”

Hofstra’s CSA hosts workshops, presentations, performances and various collaborative events for students, highlighting and celebrating the many aspects of Caribbean culture.

In addition to her role in CSA, DeSouza is the event coordinator of Hofstra’s chapter of

By Tom Saxa

ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR

the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

“Because Hofstra is a [predominantly white institution], I know that coming on this campus and seeing people like me, and experiencing other cultures, has helped me find my space on this campus and helped me help others find their space on this campus,” DeSouza said. “It’s important to improve diversity and awareness for everybody.”

DeSouza tries to plan collaborative events between CSA and NAACP, so that the organizations are aware that they work together and do not oppose each other.

“[Identity-based organizations] are the minority, so it’s important to have us collaborate because it further builds community and allows us to understand each other better,” DeSouza said.

In addition to her executive board positions with Hofstra’s CSA and NAACP, DeSouza is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. (AKA). AKA is the first Black Greek-letter sorority and was founded in 1908 at Howard University.

“My sorority stands for service

to all mankind,” DeSouza said. “We strive for community service and sisterhood. We support each other.”

DeSouza is the sisterly relations chair for Hofstra’s AKA Kappa Phi chapter.

“I help coordinate events where we may go out and make sure we’re building each other up and helping the community,” DeSouza said.

Along with her extracurricular involvement, DeSouza is a resident assistant (RA) at Hofstra. She strives to create a safe environment for her residents.

“As an RA, I host programs for people that live on campus. I make sure that they feel comfortable and they always have somebody to reach out to,” DeSouza said. “I tend to create programs that are de-stressing because people have a lot going on academically and with extracurriculars. Having a space within your dorm is beneficial because then you know you always have somebody to turn to and have a nice mental break.”

DeSouza uses her various student leadership roles to be a voice for other students who may have concerns or ideas they want to be shared.

“If I have my RA hat on and people want to reach out to me about something going on, I know that I can then be a voice for them and speak to them,” DeSouza said. “In CSA, if somebody has something going on in their country that they want to highlight, I can do that through my position in CSA.”

While maintaining multiple leadership positions on Hofstra’s campus can be overwhelming, for DeSouza, it’s all worth it when she sees other students

happily participating in events.

“Having all these different roles on campus is difficult, but seeing other people happy like when CSA had our paint and powder event and when NAACP had our cookout, a lot of people came out and were excited to have a community,” DeSouza said. “Seeing people happy about that is why I continue to be a leader in this community.”

Chron Critiques: Water Fountains

Water fountains are an essential part of student life on Hofstra University’s campus, supplying vital hydration for overall wellness. Knowing its importance, the Hofstra community should do its best to maintain the quality of these water fountains. Unfortunately, it’s never that simple.

Hofstra’s campus is split into two sides – residential and academic – by the Unispan, serving as the bridge between the areas. The reason I bring this up is because I recently conducted a poll asking two simple questions: “What is the best water fountain on campus?” and “What is the worst?”

Results from this poll were eye-opening, revealing a shocking truth about Hofstra’s campus, according to its students. Using the 50 form responses, I developed a theory. The worst water fountains were described to have come from

the residential side of campus. Residence halls such as Enterprise, Constitution, Bill of Rights and Suffolk were namely mentioned. Based on the data, Hofstra has its worst water fountains – those lacking bottle fillers or succumbing to rust – in those buildings.

An overwhelming majority of responses informed me that the best quality fountains were found on the academic side of campus.

C. V. Starr Hall, Adams Hall and The Lawrence Herbert School of Communication received several mentions; one comment praised the quality of the dual drinking and water bottle filling stations commonly found on the academic side of campus. While these models are also found in the lobby of the towers, the fitness center and Hofstra USA dining hall (HofUSA), they commonly receive complaints about temperature and water pressure. The HofUSA fountain, in particular, forces students to suck the faucet

because the water does not lift high enough for a thirsty individual. Even the full-service stations in the tower lobbies receive frequent complaints based on their low pressure, with water even reaching hot temperatures on occasion. Some of the biggest complaints involved water in the residence halls tasting too much like metal, a concern that should be addressed due to its severity.

In contrast, the water fountains in areas outside of the residential side of campus received praise for aspects that its counterpart lacks – students point out their “crispness” or “water-pressure.” Many of the comments from this poll explicitly mentioned the filling stations being essential for a positive water experience, which the towers (specifically the residential floors) lack altogether.

Hofstra incentivizes its students to spend more of their time on the academic side of campus. The fountains in the residential

side are weak, low pressure and outdated versions of a model that’s been perfected as evidenced by the near-perfect stations on the academic side. This conclusion also explains why renovations are almost always on the south side, as more of Hofstra’s time and resources are devoted to improving the academic side while residential students have little improvement.

If you’re an active and engaged student, you’d be spending at

least half your time in the academic area, and this is exactly the experience that Hofstra seems to attempt to curate. They incentivize students to go out of their comfort zone and engage with the community, which is noble until it comes at the expense of its residents. They suffer through lesser quality utilities all in an attempt to psychologically convince them to spend more time on the academic side of campus.

M AN ON THE U NISPAN

What is your prediction for your number one song on Spotify Wrapped?

By Hannah Mudry and Joe Orovitz FEATURES EDITOR AND MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

“I

O verheard @ h O fstra

“I don’t want to see your grandma on the dating profile.”

“Philosophy is the pickleball of the mind.”

“Why don’t you look into counseling? I mean that in the least harsh way possible.”

“I’m the ingrown hair of America.”

“I bet unicorn diarrhea tastes like sparkles.”

“You’re gonna tell me Anne Frank and Helen Keller aren’t the same person?”

“Do you really think Joe Biden would wear sandals?”

“What’s more public than a hibachi onion volcano?”

“Damn bro, Connecticut changed you.”

If there’s something funny you overhear, you can now submit it here!

By Kumba Jagne MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

This Hofstra Life: Livia Vanaver

One could say that Vanaver Caravan, Livia Vanaver’s dance company, started in 1972 with its first concert, titled “Coming Together Festival of Dance and Music.” There, a group of 10 women in Vanaver’s senior class at New York University performed with a Balkan singing group and four live musicians. In reality, the seed of the company was planted earlier that year when Vanaver first met her late husband at a Balkan dance festival.

Bill, co-founder of Vanaver

By Hannah Mudry

FEATURES EDITOR

I recently made the switch from Google Chrome to Safari on my MacBook. I ran out of storage and saw a TikTok video that said that Google Chrome takes up most of a MacBook’s computer storage – spoiler alert: it does. Apple’s default browser is Safari, so when a program like Google Chrome runs, it uses extra data to perform a task.

I made an extreme switch by completely deleting Google Chrome from my software before committing to Safari; however, I’m not upset by it. Safari’s opening window has an appealing layout with bookmarks and favorite tabs sitting in the middle of the screen with a small search bar on top. Google Chrome opens to a large search bar with small

Caravan, was a folk singer at the time. Vanaver would sing songs in his program, and he would compose music for her dances.

“We wanted to create an entity where we could go out and get a booking and then do everything we loved to do,” Vanaver said. “That’s how it started.”

Vanaver Caravan – composed of Bill and Livia Vanaver, along with other dancers – performed at festivals in Canada and the United States and worked for the U.S. Department of State from 1974 to 1981. They traveled around the world in a cultural exchange, performing American folk dances and learning new local ones.

Out of the roughly 30 countries she’s been to, Vanaver said her favorite was Greece. She traveled there in 1971, and it was the first place she went to outside of the U.S. Greece was just the first stop in a tour around the world.

The caravan tried to perform in Greece in the 1970s, but they were met by an audience with an anti-American sentiment who

did not want them to perform. In a cafe, the caravan pleaded their case to the performance organizers, explaining that it was not about politics and that there were good people in America who wanted to be represented in the dance. They were eventually allowed to perform.

“People to people is a good way of saying it,” Vanaver said, describing the conversation with the performance organizers.

During this era, the Vanavers also went on a two-and-a-half month tour of the back rooms of pubs in Europe. People in those towns and villages would have a folk gathering every week and the pair would perform and learn local dances. They met a man named Johnson Ellwood in 1975 who had been either an English clog performer or a teacher for most of his life. He was in his 70s and had a broken ankle when the Vanavers met him, but he held himself up on two chairs and taught the two an English clog dance.

“I remember his daughter coming down the stairs,” Vanaver

said. “She was so moved that her father was dancing and teaching us, she went up and got her shoes and came down [to join].”

The next year, Ellwood won the Gold Badge Award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society – an award that honors significant English cultural contributions. He died in 1977.

“He was a culture bearer,” Vanaver said. “He was able to contribute his memories and his dances that he had done in the English Music Hall scene.”

Now, the Vanaver Caravan does performances, teaches classes and runs international dance programs in local schools. They created a curriculum in 1989 where artists from the caravan teach international dances to students. The program culminated with a world dance performance at the end of the week-long period. This is one of Vanaver’s favorite parts of her job.

“It’s the little epiphanies where all of a sudden there’s a child who never spoke before, or couldn’t read before,” Vanaver

said. “All of a sudden, because they were engaged in movement and singing, they could speak and read.”

At Hofstra University, Vanaver is an adjunct professor of specialized programs in education who teaches Folk and Square dance – a class attended primarily by dance and physical education majors focusing on how to teach national and international dances. She previously taught at Columbia University. According to her, teaching in universities pushes these dances into new generations through the students that go on to teach them to their pupils.

“This is a way that we can create more peace in the world, through appreciation and understanding of one another, so that we’re not afraid of each other – that we really are more curious and interested in embracing each other’s cultures and backgrounds,” Vanaver said. “In this country many things divide us. This brings us together.”

App Review: Safari vs. Google

bookmarks positioned at the top of the screen. For someone who uses a computer to search information rather than to complete homework or work tasks, Google Chrome can be more efficient because the search bar has an easier access point. For a college student, though, it’s more convenient to open an internet browser and immediately see the necessary educational platforms like Canvas and GroupMe. Safari is also connected to Apple IDs, so it has all saved passwords from Apple phones already embedded into the computer. When I made the switch, I was nervous that I wouldn’t remember my passwords and I would log myself out of many platforms. To my surprise, every password was already saved into Safari.

On that note, setting up the browser was relatively easy. I

went through and bookmarked every website I use daily. Since all my passwords were conveniently saved, I did not have to worry about finding my credentials for each website. It took about five minutes to save and log into all my daily applications.

Safari has a lot of positive aspects to its program; however, it also has some negative ones. Whenever a download is processed, it carries to the top of the browser – similarly to how Google Chrome operates – but those downloads can’t be dragged and dropped from the browser, even if they’re being used in Safari. This was a big change, especially for an individual who uses downloads frequently. Having to search Finder instead of conveniently dragging the last download from the browser is a painfully annoying hustle, es-

pecially since Finder sometimes neglects to sort downloaded files by most-recently downloaded. Safari also neglects to paste without formatting, which is a niche complaint, but every time a string of text is copied and pasted, its format is exactly how it was copied and does not adapt to the rest of the document. While it is slightly inconvenient, it also prevents any kind of plagiarizing because it’s easier to paraphrase quotes than to change the font style and color every time a string of text is pasted.

Despite its flaws, Safari has not completely distanced itself from Google Chrome. Safari allows its user to choose which search engine they want to websurf with, so they can choose Google as a search engine inside Safari. Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia can also be set as the default search engine, so the

web experience can be tailored to each user.

Another disadvantage Google Chrome has is that every time a user needs to switch an account, the browser opens a new window. Safari, on the other hand, makes the process seamless. It stays in the same window and tab when an account is switched on the main search engine; it only opens a new tab when a Google application is already in use. This function allows computers to work swiftly, and I don’t get frustrated every time a new window loads to open. Although Safari can be irritating at times, the change from Google Chrome to Safari is not the worst one in the world, especially when a computer has limited data.

spin to win

“Spin the Wheel,” a 30-minute HEAT Network show, had their only show of the semester on Monday, Nov. 10. Sophomore television and film major Boston Piquette and sophomore journalism major Carter Rodrigues hosted four contestants in a series of games. A contestant spun the wheel and chose the first segment of “Word Up!” The second segment was “Guess that Stain.” The two winners of these competed in a final game, “Match the Build,” for the coveted $100 prize.

DANCE FOR A CAUSE

HofstraUSA played host to a number of Hofstra University’s on-campus organizations on Saturday, Nov. 8, for Dance Marathon. Part of a nationwide initiative to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Dance Marathon not only tested the dance prowess of competitors but also challenged them to raise as much money for the network as possible. The total amount raised by each organization determined the winners, and Hofstra Danceworks Productions took home the win by raising over $5,500.

Arts And EntErtAinmEnt

'Rocky Horror:' a staple of queer empowerment

By Meredith Tarsi COPY CHIEF

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” experience is a Halloween-time tradition that transcends the holiday it has been attached to. Since the 1975 film rose to its status as a cult classic, shadow-casted performances – a showing of the film with a cast of actors who (often wordlessly) perform the events of the film in front of the screen – have become tradition across the United States and even internationally.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” itself is not necessarily Halloween-themed, but it makes references to traditionally spooky things – notably “Frankenstein” and the gothic horror genre writ large – and its eccentric nature encourages eccentric costuming, matching the Halloween vibes. This Halloween was no different as dozens of performances were held in and around New York City throughout the weekend. On Saturday, Nov. 1, I was

able to attend The New School in Manhattan, New York’s performance of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” with a shadow cast. The experience was much more than I had expected. I went in completely blind, having never even seen the film before, and I was blown away.

The shadow cast left nothing to be desired. From the character of Dr. Frank-N-Furter to the ensemble dancers, everyone was high-energy, interactive and clearly immersed in the roles they played. They kept up with the film all while running through and around the audience, dancing their hearts out to the musical numbers.

The show also highly supports audience participation, even encouraging viewers to yell lines and phrases at the film and performers. A program of prop cues was available to the audience and an “initiation” segment occurred for those who were “virgin” to the performance (i.e., had never seen it live before).

It took a moment to get used to the informality of that kind of

behavior in a show setting, but veteran attendees made it easy to slip into the current of the performance. My audience was super active; there was barely a moment of the film that went unaccompanied by applause, callouts, hoots or hollers. The crowd was also more than happy to throw confetti, toilet paper and cards at the performers as the program saw fit and engage in some friendly hazing of those marked with the virgin “V.”

All this is quite customary to a live “Rocky Horror Picture Show” experience. It is part of the tradition to attend dressed in whatever's comfortable and on-theme, and to stay loud and proud in participation throughout the film. Even before the opening number, the sense of community that filled the theater is undeniable. After seeing it once, I can confidently say I think it's something everyone should see, especially if you are a part of Queer or LGBTQ+ spaces.

The film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” at its core,

is a story about radical selfacceptance. While many of the main characters' actions are denounceable at best and downright abhorent at worst, the story follows just about every character in the film going on a journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance.

The themes of Queerness, sexuality, other-ness, deviance and hedonism – all in the direction of self-love – allows oneself to engage in their true self, which is powerful. Whether relating to all, some or none of the subthemes of the film, this focus on the true self and self-acceptance is a huge reason this film has garnered such popularity among Queer people. It dares audiences to imagine their life as lived by their truest and purest form of self.

Watching the shadow cast perform this powerful message in a room full of dressed up, enthusiastic individuals, I couldn't help but feel that life was imitating art.

Time traveling in the 21st century

By Craig Mannino ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

Would you believe that you could find one of the greatest dinner-theater experiences ever in New Jersey?

Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, located in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, is an unforgettable experience. Over the span of 90 minutes, patrons are treated to a four-course meal as well as a host of jousts and sword fights.

The show itself is nothing short of spectacular. Audience members are assigned to one of six different color coded sections in the stadium. Each section gets a knight to root for throughout the tournament – which consists not only of jousting and sword fighting, but also some horseback games and horse dancing. The king and queen of the castle also commentate on the show as it happens, breaking up the excitement of the tournament

and giving the audience space to breathe.

Rooting for your knight and watching them win and lose is incredibly immersive. During the show, the crowd’s energy is unmatched. People cheer at everything. By the end of the show, you feel bonded with your knight and your section. You feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. And the day after the show, you may find that your throat is still sore from all the screaming.

The show is also packed with slower moments to make the action more exciting. Chief among these moments is the horse dancing. Before the tournament begins, a trainer walks out a horse who ambles about, ducking, swaying and stepping along to the musical accompaniment. Though not the most thrilling part of the show, it adds to the uniqueness of the experience.

The dining also elevates the experience. Medieval Times

serves its patrons a four-course meal that you’re expected to eat with your hands. During my visit, I enjoyed a tomato bisque, half a chicken, corn on the cob, potatoes and a chocolate éclair (Medieval Times does accommodate dietary restrictions). It is difficult to describe the sensation of cheering for your knight while using your hands to rip pieces of chicken off the bone and eat them. It was primal; it was messy; above all, it was fun.

Medieval Times also has a slew of alcoholic drinks. You could get a Maiden’s Kiss (vodka with peach schnapps), a Royal Knight (vodka, rum and a mixture of fruit juices) or a Dragon Slayer (rum and mango). And even though the drinks are pricey, you get to keep the glass you drank out of, which are good quality, branded souvenirs.

The show isn’t all glorious, though. For one, even though the experience surrounding eating the food was great, the food itself

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for

was lacking. The venue itself can be hard to get to without a car. It also costs $75 per person to enter. However, I think with all that is included between the show, the food and the overall experience, it’s certainly worth the price. Despite its few flaws, Medieval Times is one of the most fun and unique experiences you can have. What’s so attractive about it is its heart. At each performance, the king and queen read out the names, ages and sections of those celebrating their birthdays there. During the show I attended, a woman was celebrating her 79th birthday, and the cheer that erupted from the crowd was unlike anything uttered during any point in the show. For 90 minutes, you feel like a part of a real community with all those attending. Medieval Times is one of the most unique experiences money can buy. If you have the time, the capital, the transportation and some willing friends, it is worth it to check it out.

By Matt Fisher ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

She’s not a mean girl or a machine girl – Adéla Jergová is your next pop obsession.

Best known as Adéla and born in Bratislava, Slovakia, the 21-year-old singer moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career in 2022. She famously appeared as a contestant on Netflix’s “The Debut: Dream Academy” in 2023 – a talent competition show documenting the creation of global girl group Katseye – where she

Introducing Adéla Jergová

stood out for her bold solo presence. While she was dramatically eliminated following critiques on her inability to work well with others, Adéla turned the reviews into fuel and began developing her identity as a solo artist.

With over one million monthly listeners on Spotify, Adéla released her debut EP “The Provocateur” in August. The collection marks her bold entrance to the pop scene. It features seven tracks, including singles “Homewrecked,” “MachineGirl,” “SexOnTheBeat”

By Josh Gordon STAFF WRITER

On Aug. 15, much loved artist, Dijon Duenas (commonly known as Dijon), dropped his long-awaited album titled “Baby.” The album is named after his child (yes, his child’s name is Baby). Throughout each track, Dijon paints a picture of love, family and the experiences that come with being a first-time father.

Since Dijon’s first official album, “Absolutely,” came out in 2021, the singer has accumulated quite a large fanbase who couldn’t wait for his next full-length project. In the time leading up to this year, Dijon had worked on various projects with his iconic friend Mk.gee, a singer and guitarist who has garnered attention lately as well. Dijon even went as far as to work with Justin Bieber on his album, “SWAG.” All of this did nothing but make fans even

and “DeathByDevotion.”

Through her blunt and selfaware lyrics and her lush vocals, “The Provocateur” tackles themes of ambition, defiance, sexuality, exploitation and industry criticism. The song “Superscar” intensely addresses exploitation in Hollywood with lyrics like “Prove how bad you need it / Put on a show for me / Dancin' for the devil / Bring your body and your energy / Kid, you got it, go on, flaunt it / Sell your sex and soul to me.”

Her song “MachineGirl” serves as a message to her haters, who claimed she was unkind to the other contestants during her time on the show. In response, she sings, “Mean girl, mean girl / Make-you-wanna-scream girl / Why you comin' at me, baby? / Yell at the machine, girl.” These lyrics describe misinterpretations of her character and her experience as a product of the music industry’s intense nature. While Katseye embraced a softer pop sound, Adéla took a completely different route with

her work, producing music with maximalist electro-pop and hyper-pop influences. She coproduced several tracks alongside well-known producers and artists, including Dylan Brady (one half of experimental electronic duo 100 gecs), Brett McLaughlin –known for collaborations with major artists like Troye Sivan and Selena Gomez – and Grimes. The EP’s aggressive production perfectly matches the blunt and unapologetic themes of the songs within it. Adéla isn’t just asking you to listen; she’s making you. The EP's greatest strength is how it draws listeners in. The lyrics and production inspire a sense of sexual and personal freedom. While it only spans 20 minutes in length, it delivers electropop-dance hit after hit, making anyone want to slap on a messy smoky eye, a pair of Pleaser heels and go to the club. These messages are only amplified by the project’s music videos. In them, Adéla’s background as a professionally trained dancer is on full display, evoking a great sense of

Dijon drops sophomore album 'Baby'

more hungry for his newest project, meaning the hype surrounding “Baby” was intense.

The introductory and title track, “Baby!” is an ode to both Dijon’s wife and his child. In the song, he recounts the evolution of his relationship with his wife up to the conception of his child, Baby. He recounts first meeting her singing, “Yes, I did dance with your mother before I knew her name.’” He chronicles their first date, them making love, talking about their marriage, his wife’s pregnancy and Baby’s birth.

Dijon also repeats the word “baby” throughout the song, and while it is the name of the song and of his child, it clearly has multiple meanings, as Dijon's nickname for his wife is "baby" and he mentions talking to his wife about having a baby in the song. In this song, Dijon paints the themes that he explores throughout the rest of the project, and he does it

exquisitely.

Dijon has always been noted for his raw lyrics, and this shines on songs such as “Baby!,” “Yamaha” and “HIGHER!” Dijon has a certain skill when it comes to writing about love. He doesn’t just write it; he encapsulates his songs with the feeling of love that he feels towards his wife. He explodes on each song with lyrics like, “Baby, I'm in love with this particular emotion / And it’s sweet, you in this particular motion / You shouldn’t hide it, honey,” on the song “Yamaha.” In the song “HIGHER!” he says, “It could kill me / And it’s the thirst that’s doing my ass / But when you really love, it’s easy.”

This album was a real change of pace for Dijon in terms of what his last album was. His debut album full under the category of R&B/Neo-Soul and was slow with a lot of live instrumentation rather than using a

admiration from audiences. Her ability to combine the beauty of ballet with the grittiness of electro and hyper-pop demonstrates how she can translate her skills across multiple mediums.

Overall, “The Provocateur” succeeds in its mission of aggressively introducing Adéla to the pop music scene, helping her career grow exponentially since its release. She just concluded her first tour, where she spent the last month performing in small venues across cities including London, New York City and Los Angeles. It was recently announced that she will serve as the opening act for Demi Lovato's upcoming “It’s Not That Deep Tour.”

Adéla is the start of the pop genre’s next generation, and her debut EP is the vocal equivalent of her breaking down a wall with a glittery-pink sledgehammer, walking through in thigh-high platform boots and nonchalantly saying, “I’m here.”

MIDI device – this is shown in the film for “Absolutely” that features Dijon and his collaborators performing the album's songs. But in “Baby,” Dijon makes his first foray into using hip hop samples, synthesizers and fast paced instrumentals with pop elements in a decent amount of the songs.

Many fans didn’t like this change, but I love it. There’s something about an artist evolving their sound that I admire. Dijon deciding not to stick with

what he knew, rather choosing to do something different is a breath of fresh air. While I do love “Absolutely,” I wouldn’t want him to repeat the exact same style that he did before. The only theme that stays the same is Dijon screaming his love for his wife and considering that, I wouldn’t change a thing about his music.

By Ethan Poole SPORTS EDITOR

Paramore frontwoman Hayley Williams’ new album, “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party,” is an album with a lot to say. It masterfully balances scathing political commentary, feelings of intense nostalgia, navigating through a (rumored) breakup and the impact of all these things on Williams’ mental health.

The rollout for the album was quite irregular. On June

Hayley Williams continues her solo career

28, Williams surprised fans by uploading 17 singles onto her website. She waited until August 1 to upload the songs onto streaming services. The songs were combined into an album released on August 28, along with an additional song “Parachute,” which has received acclaim and some traction on TikTok.

The Paramore fandom has debated whether “Parachute” and another recently released song, “Good Ol’ Days,” could be a sign of the end of Williams’

By Kimberly Lopez STAFF WRITER

Whether you know him from hunting supernatural beings or taking on supes like Homelander, Jensen Ackles has almost certainly appeared on your screen before. The now 47-year-old actor has held many notable roles throughout his career, including the voice of Red Hood in “Batman: Under the Red Hood.” Yet, despite having a resume as impressive as some of the greatest modern actors, he doesn’t get brought up as much as he should. Ackles, a Dallas, Texas native, first started out as a model at the early age of 4, appearing in ads for RadioShack, Walmart and Nabisco. In high school, he participated in the school’s theatrical program, in addition to playing varsity for both baseball and lacrosse. Ackles’s father, Alan Ackles, is an actor and Ackles’s older brother, Joshua Ackles, is a director and writer. It is clear that

relationship with Paramore bandmate Taylor York. While this somewhat parasocial rumor hasn’t been confirmed or denied, these two songs pack an incredibly emotional punch. “Good Ol’ Days” is an R&B-inspired track laden with references to Williams’ past, like the lyric “Who knew the hard times were the good ol’ days?” being a reference to Paramore’s 2017 hit “Hard Times,” for example.

“Parachute” is a more traditional break up song. Williams sings about the movie-like life she envisioned with her partner before lamenting that he couldn’t catch her – declaring that she now knows better than to leave home without a parachute.

The album has garnered the most attention for its title track, “Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party,” which targets the racism prevalent in the Southern music scene. The opening line, “I’ll be the biggest star at this racist country singer’s bar,” sets up a surprisingly chill song which angered the fans of country stars such as Morgan Wallen. On “The New York Times’” music pod-

cast, “Popcast,” Williams said, “[Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party] could be about a couple [people], but I’m always talking about Morgan Wallen.”

While the title song got Williams plenty of attention, her performance of the song “True Believer” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” kept her in the public eye. Williams was supported by a backing orchestra mainly composed of people of color and delivered a rousing performance. “True Believer” is easily the most loaded song on the album; the first verse deals with gentrification and how this process has slowly destroyed many of Williams’ most formative memories. The second verse delivers an even stronger message, critiquing modern Christianity: “They say that Jesus is the way, but then they gave him a white face / So they don’t have to pray to someone they deem lesser than them.”

Musically, Williams mainly takes an indie rock approach but dabbles in several other genres. For example, the ragefilled opening track “Ice In My

Profile: Jensen Ackles

his family’s background played a large role in influencing his early interest in acting.

Ackles briefly went to Texas Tech University, where he pursued a degree in sports medicine, before deciding to instead pursue acting in Los Angeles. At 19-years-old, he booked the role of Eric Brady in the hit television (TV) show, “Days of our Lives.” It made him popular with daytime television audiences, and he even won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer for the role.

The role that changed his life came in 2005, when he was cast as Dean Winchester for the hit TV show, “Supernatural.” The show became loved worldwide and earned a dedicated fanbase that’s still growing strong. Though the show’s creator, Eric Kripke, claimed it was only supposed to last five seasons, the show went on to have 15.

Other roles Ackles is known for are Priestly in “Ten Inch Hero,” Tom Hanniger in “My Bloody

Valentine” and Jason Teague in Season 4 of “Smallville.” Ackles auditioned for the role of Clark Kent himself in 2001 but lost the role to Tom Welling. I guess everything happens for a reason!

Another career defining role for Ackles is the arrogant and proud Soldier Boy in the “The Boys.”

He was introduced in Season 3 of the show, broadcasting his talent to new audiences. That season has become a fan favorite, with Ackles’ character being one of the season’s highlights. He also made a small cameo as Soldier Boy in Episode 6 of Season 1 of “Gen V,” a spin-off to “The Boys.” Ackles will return to play Soldier Boy in another spin-off titled “Vought Rising.”

Ackles also likes to work behind the camera, having worked as a director and producer. He was an executive producer to “Supernatural’s” spin-off, “The Winchesters,” and directed a few episodes of “Supernatural.”

“It was a little bit like the first

OJ” has elements of noise rock. Occasionally, she goes back to her typical pop-rock style with songs like “Glum” and “Kill Me,” but the songs where she steps out of her comfort zone are where Williams truly stands out. “Mirtazapine” takes a post-grunge approach while “I Won’t Quit On You” falls into the folk category. Experimentation and variety are what make the album special. Williams takes chances and wildly weaves her way between styles. While not every song is a masterpiece by any means, they all feel distinct, making for an incredibly interesting and enjoyable listening experience.

The album is incredibly well produced, the variety of instruments is mixed perfectly and the incredible voice of Williams is always able to shine through even during the loudest moments.

“Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party” presents a varied hour of music that packs a punch. Williams excels vocally, as always, and has delivered yet another essential piece to her solo discography.

time I did it – just a little hesitant on a few things – but really, once I started rolling it was like riding a bike,” Ackles told “Variety” when speaking about directing an episode on “Supernatural’s” last season.

He also directed an episode of “Walker,” a TV series lead by actor, Jared Padalecki – who costarred with Ackles for 15 years on “Supernatural.” In fact, Ackles and Padalecki grew an unbreakable connection working together. They still do yearly conventions for the show together where their

brotherly bond is still evident. A man of many talents, Ackles is also a musician. He released his debut album, “Sounds of Someday,” in 2018 and has since collaborated with musician Steve Carlson to form the band “Radio Company.” He has received praise for his musical endeavors and his husky voice.

With such a stacked list of talent, Ackles deserves more praise. We are lucky that he will grace our screens for many years to come.

The views and opinions expressed in the Opinion section are those of the authors. They are not an endorsement of the views of the Chronicle or its staff. The Chronicle does not discriminate based on the opinions of the authors.

By Tom Norman OPINION EDITOR

In September, Hofstra University President Susan Poser announced that students would be gaining access to ChatGPT Edu through the school. This announcement was met with criticism from the student body, who have made their disdain known.

I believe that many criticisms of the addition of ChatGPT Edu are not only misguided, but also flat out ridiculous.

To start, I do not support generative artificial intelligence (AI) as it pertains to generating images and videos. Creative fields are special because they have something that AI will always lack: creativity. There is nothing creative about entering a prompt into a website. That being said, broadly grouping ChatGPT Edu with generative AI is not an accurate represen-

Outrage over ChatGPT Edu is absurd

tation of what the service aims to provide.

ChatGPT Edu is an enhanced version of ChatGPT that gives users access to the latest Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) model – GPT-5 as of right now – and the ability to make custom GPTs, doing so without collecting user data to train other AI models.

It is not hard to see how an AI platform as advanced as ChatGPT could be utilized in an academic setting. Often it seems like we only hear about it in academia when used to cheat. However, there are plenty of ethical ways to use AI in the classroom.

Speaking from personal experience, I have used it in the past to separate data in spreadsheets, categorize items for projects and create personalized quizzes for myself based on in-class readings. There are plenty of uses for AI without

towing the line of academic dishonesty.

On the topic of academic dishonesty, many detractors like to point out that Hofstra embracing AI is encouraging students to do that very thing: violate academic integrity. However, the base version of ChatGPT is a free product that already has the capability to do that very thing. If a student wanted to make AI do their homework for them, they already can and probably already do without the need for ChatGPT Edu.

AI has also become such a large part of our everyday lives that you would be remiss to find anyone who has not used it or thought about using it. To act like Hofstra is the reason a student would use AI maliciously in an academic setting is ignorant.

It is also ignorant to completely block AI from your education. Yes, it depends on

the field you plan to enter, but I would venture to guess that most people will be entering a job field after college where AI plays some sort of role in their job.

Whether you like it or not, a majority of the workforce will incorporate some sort of AI in its day-to-day operations from now until the next major technological innovation comes along. If anything, Hofstra exposing us to AI now is an advantage towards us students as potential job candidates. There are plenty of real reasons to not like AI, specifically if you have concerns about its detriment to the environment. According to the Harvard Business Review, training a large language model can match the carbon emissions of hundreds of American homes. While those concerns are valid, blaming the consumer for those emissions is misguided. The

Wake up, Western media

By Julia Capitelli NEWS EDITOR

CONTINUED FROM A1

When the U.S. waged war on Iraq from 2003 to 2011, many U.S. media outlets became little more than propaganda machines. Rather than holding the U.S. accountable for atrocities in Iraq, the media largely fed the people a narrative that made the war sound necessary and righteous.

The failings of Western news media have been made blindingly clear during Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians. People have criticized egregiously poor reporting on social media.

One issue in Western news media is a lack of respect for Palestinians. The SPJ code of ethics tells journalists to “show compassion for those who may be affected by news coverage.” Yet, too many news outlets have used dehumanizing

language to talk about Palestinians. Not only does this not show compassion for them, but it also creates a pro-Israel bias. Bias has no place in journalism where we have a duty to objectivity. Palestinian children have often been referred to as “minors,” like in the Los Angeles Times, while Israeli children were referred to as “children.”

There is no compassion being demonstrated by using a cold legal term for Palestinian children. This is not giving voice to the voiceless.

A 2024 BBC broadcast showed a reporter talking about a Palestinian child who was killed at a border checkpoint in which he referred to the threeor four-year-old as a “young lady.” He also said, “accidentally a stray bullet found its way into the van” where the child was. People on X criticized this language as too passive. It did not hold anyone accountable.

The story’s language was condescending, invalidating and dehumanizing. Not calling a child a child sends the message to viewers, or readers, that the child in question is less than, and therefore not someone to be concerned about.

The Center for Media Monitoring later investigated BBC’s reporting and concluded it was “systematically biased against Palestinians in Gaza war coverage.”

The New York Times published a story on July 25, 2025, with the headline “Gazans are dying of starvation.” Firstly, using “Gazans” rather than “Palestinians” perpetuates the idea that Palestine does not exist. This points to a larger style issue in Western media that contributes to erasing a people and their home. Secondly, the phrase “dying of starvation” is passive and does not hold Israel accountable for withholding food.

blame should fall solely on the corporations who enable their products to do as much harm to the environment as they do.

The point I am trying to make is simple: you don’t have to like AI or use it in your personal life, but to not expose yourself to it at all is doing yourself a disservice as a student. Hofstra is giving us a great opportunity to utilize it in an academic setting at no extra cost to us.

There is more to the AI bubble than just Sora-generated Ring camera videos and making Peter Griffin say something outlandish. Now is the time to embrace the many functions of AI instead of plugging your ears and refusing to listen.

Tom Norman is a senior journalism major. You can find him on Instagram @_tomnorm.

Mohammed Zakaria alMutawaq was an 18-month-old baby included in the story who starved to death. A correction was later issued that read “after publication of the article, The Times learned from his doctor that [al-Mutawaq] also had preexisting health problems.”

This addition is irrelevant and offers a scapegoat to be blamed for al-Mutawaq’s death.

Even PBS and NPR have been diplomatic. It is not the news media’s job to be diplomatic or neutral. Neutrality is a stance and not to be confused with objectivity. We must also be fair and obtain all sides of a story. However, that should never deter reporting the truth. In practice, journalistic values should complement one another, not contradict each other.

Recently, there has been a debate over whether journalists should use the word “genocide.” There are sound journalistic reasons for not

using it; however, “conflict” is inadequate, and “war” in many contexts is not quite right. We must open a discussion about choosing language that does a situation justice without making us judge, jury and executioner. The part of me that understands the journalistic reasons for not using certain words often argues with the part of me that knows what she is seeing. So, I do not have an answer for this conundrum. But once we return to journalistic responsibilities and values and discuss improvement, we will take one step toward courage.

Julia Capitelli is a senior journalism major. You can find her on Instagram @julia_cap23.

OPINION

The views and opinions expressed in the Opinion section are those of the authors. They are not an endorsement of the views of the Chronicle or its staff. The Chronicle does not discriminate based on the opinions of the authors.

1 Steady stream 5 __ and cheese 8 Nowhere to be found

Duplicate 13 Guitarist's speaker, for short

Story by Aesop

15 Giver of emotional support

17 Atlantic or Indian, for example

18 Non-humanities academic acronym

19 Actress Aniston, familiarly

20 Underground burial place

21 Apple tablet

23 Pair

24 Good and evil, for example

31 Hamburger side order

32 Televise

33 "Gossip Girl" sign-off

34 Diminutive start of many rap artists' names

35 Award-winning series about a Chicago chef, or what the starts of 15-, 24-, 45- and 60-Across go with 39 Makeup of Dorothy's heart-seeking friend 40 Seed of a thought

Commonly torn knee part, abbr.

Build up

45 American president with significant expansions to the national parks system, familiarly

Kick the bucket 50 Unrestricted

Correct a pencil mark 54 Cotton gin inventor, Whitney 55 Measure words per minute

59 Opposition

60 Cosmic object with an inescapable pull

62 Poker player's surrender

63 "Go back" on a keyboard, abbr.

64 Business big shot

65 Penny's value

66 When doubled, dance move that accompanies a whip

67 Shut with a bang

1 Sharp's opposite, in music

2 Fantastical backstory

3 Five thousand, two hundred and eighty feet

4 Sopping

5 Get by

6 Last word to a prayer

7 EMT's skill, abbr.

8 Popular flavored seltzer brand

9 Follow unconditionally

10 Act of violence by Will Smith at the 2022 Oscars ceremony

11 Pitched shelter

12 Loops in on an email, for short

14 "Lock in!"

16 Not quite closed

22 History, with "the"

23 Cartoon explorer

24 Lion's congregation

25 Lubricated

26 "Guernica" painter Picasso

27 Pizza unit

28 Wreck completely, as a car

29 Be

30 Mama's boys

31 Move like a butterfly

36 59-Across, to a tortoise

37 Environmentally friendly prefix

38 Raging party

41 Season, minimally

44 Minty fresh additive in many chewing gums

46 Triangular traffic sign

47 Comfort in hard times

48 Sprawling story

51 New York mayor Adams

52 Teeming (with)

53 Stratford-upon-__

54 Disney's ice queen

56 Bendy exercise

57 Peach relative

58 Shockingly slippery swimmer?

60 London's Big __

61 U.K. units of distance

The views and opinions expressed in the Opinion section are those of the authors. They are not an endorsement of the views of the Chronicle or its staff. The Chronicle does not discriminate based on the opinions of the authors.

Hofstra Beef is for losers

By Ricky Hubert SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE

As human beings, we all have little things we see and hear on a daily basis that drive us crazy. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean students need to share them via the Hofstra Beef Instagram account.

Are there issues that occur on this campus that students should be made aware of? Yes, absolutely. However, many of the issues that the Hofstra Beef account provides a spotlight to are unimportant and do not need to be posted on social media.

Not to single anyone’s particular

submission out, as I am sure they feel their concern is valid, but a complaint such as “Whoever decided to put pickle ketchup in the Stu needs to be strung up and fed to the sharks,” doesn’t necessarily need to be posted on the internet.

Another example would be “I will NEVER forgive Einstein’s for removing the raisins from the chicken salad. They know damn well 5 ppl buy that and I’m 3 of them.”

Or even my personal favorite, the post referencing someone with a loud cough in Alliance Hall and how the volume of the said individual’s cough

annoyed this specific poster so much that they felt it required an acknowledgement on the online forum.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in free speech and the right to speak out regarding legitimate issues on campus, but perhaps save the little things that annoy you for a Friday night tea session with your friends at Applebee’s and not for posting online for all to see.

Ricky Hubert is a senior audio/radio production major. You can find him on Instagram @therichardhubert.

Hofstra misleads

freshmenincoming

By Tom Saxa ASSISTANT OPINION EDITOR

Think about what made you decide to enroll at Hofstra University. Was it the campus, the staff, maybe even the dining hall? Regardless of the reason why you chose Hofstra for your college experience, its campus no doubt went above and beyond your expectations as an educational institution.

Then you took a class. Freshmen are so focused on the aesthetics of Hofstra’s campus that they neglect to see how flawed the classes tend to be, which becomes a problem when faced with the realization that classes are the lifeblood of the college experience. My first student tour

group concisely avoided a trip through a residential building, a choice that had to be intentional on Hofstra’s part, seeing that the bathrooms alone may derail a student’s plan of living on campus. If not that, then the rooms suffering from a deafeningly drab aesthetic and plain style could make a potential student rethink their plan for on-campus residency. My speculation is only enhanced by the residence life website – which displays fully furnished dormitories – and the tours showing only fully-staged rooms.

As a student who still loves the school, it pains me to see some of the changes Hofstra has begun to make, like Student Government Association budget

cuts, increased prices at the student center and classes about and including the use of AI. It pains me as a junior who noticed these flaws from the beginning to watch the incoming freshmen be unaware of the hardships that they are about to unknowingly face.

Hofstra seems like a dream come true for prospective students, but beyond the aesthetics, there are countless flaws holding the university back from becoming the pictureperfect image that the school likes to project.

Tom Saxa is a junior film studies and production and English double-major. You can find him on Instagram @ tbone_saxaphone.

Fighting authority one frog at a time

By Katelyn Buchalter ASSISSTANT NEWS EDITOR

Seeing videos of protestors wearing funny costumes and dancing wildly is all fun and meaningless, right? Except it’s not. Sure, frogs dancing around and challenging the National Guard is a silly way to insert humor into a protest, but it is also what’s protecting us.

In the past, we have seen media sources use videos and pictures out of context to frame protestors as violent and anti-American. It was present in Oregon protests and continued with President Donald Trump’s comments on the state of Portland during an Antifa Roundtable on Oct. 8, when he said, “Antifa thugs have repeatedly attacked our officers and laid siege to federal property in an attempt

to violently stop the execution of federal law.”

Of course, protesting is a right we are all given, protected by the First Amendment. However, this will not stop the media from sticking Trump’s quote under a picture of regular protestors yelling. The protestors did nothing wrong, but viewers will not know this. How about if that same quote was put under a picture of an inflatable frog holding a “Frogs Together Strong” sign? You would laugh because it is ridiculous to think anyone in a giant costume could really be scary or threatening. This is how the frogs are changing the narrative.

It also serves to confuse authority. Violence against protestors has been a potent issue for a long time, but especially in recent years. Authority knows a violent act against any protestor is wrong, but

one against an innocent inflatable unicorn is an indefensible action. It looks bad on camera and damages any sort of justification for violence.

This is not necessarily a new fad or trend; wearing costumes to protests has been around for decades. Examples include women dressed as “Handmaids” to protest threats against women’s rights and members of the Black Panther Party wearing leather suits and berets to convey militancy during the Civil Rights protests. What we are seeing now is an exaggerated, yet simple evolution of the past, and it is being used to defend our First Amendment rights.

Humor is a shield, and it might just be one of the most effective ones. It humanizes us; it makes us laugh, makes us feel for and see others. As we know from historical ex-

amples, one of the easiest and best ways to make people turn on each other is to dehumanize certain groups, making one group see the other as less than human. If someone is willing to laugh at a banana costume, they might even be willing to read its sign. Social media also plays a role in the impact these costumes have. Protestor costumes are not just a combative tool against authority; they are walking ads. People on TikTok, Instagram and X spread funny videos like wildfire. In this day and age, videos of inflatable costumes holding humorous signs up to the National Guard are going to be shared more than pictures from regular protests. Not that those pictures do not spread, but to put it simply, funny content gets people clicking the send or repost button.

I have seen comments float-

ing around about the possibilities of these costumes diluting the message protestors are trying to get across, and while I understand that point, humor draws attention, inspires others and keeps morale high. The idea of making protests desirable, fun and engaging inflates the cause and draws in more people to rally for change.

Unicorns, frogs and dinosaurs are not weakening the protests or “memeing” the cause; they symbolize resilience and open doors for new forms of protest. If anything, this has highlighted the idea that the best way to fight ridiculous power is with ridiculous costumes.

Katelyn Buchalter is a freshman journalism major. You can find them on Instagram at @ kdbuch31

SPORTS

Pride falls short of fifth straight CAA title

By Anthony Hidalgo SPORTS EDITOR

The No. 22 Hofstra University men’s soccer team was eliminated from the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Championship in a stunning 2-1 loss to Stony Brook University. The loss took place at Captains Field on Sunday, Nov. 9.

Stony Brook’s Ryan Farr scored the game-winner in the 80th minute, just 42 seconds after Scemar Webb tied the match with the first of two second-half goals for the Seawolves.

The Pride dominated the first half, creating multiple chances in the first 10 minutes. Daniel Burko sent a shot from the left side of the 18-yard box toward Stony Brook goalkeeper Heidar Hermannsson, who punched the near-post attempt over the crossbar.

Laurie Goddard, the CAA Midfielder and Player of the Year, broke the scoreless tie

a few minutes later. Stefano Campisi made a run just outside the left side of the 18-yard box, dribbling past a pair of defenders and sending the ball past another two to reach Goddard. Goddard spun around his defender before sending a shot on goal. The shot was deflected off the leg of Jamie Orson, floating up and over Hermannsson into the net.

“I thought we had a really, really good first half, and probably should have got one more goal,” said Hofstra head coach Richard Nuttall. “[In the] second half, the conditions were tough, and it became a bit of a scrappy game … and for reasons beyond our control, we got put into a difficult decision.”

The Pride were in control from the jump, holding Stony Brook without a shot until the 61st minute. Hofstra defender Thengill Orrason received a second yellow card in the 77th minute, resulting in a red card and turning the game on its head.

“Stony Brook are a feisty, good team, and they’ve worked hard,” Nuttall said. “They used their resources and done well to beat us. Two good goals were scored against us.”

With the Pride down to 10 men, the Seawolves immediately capitalized, taking two shots in two minutes and forcing Sean Bohan to make his second save of the game.

Just moments later, Nelson Reynoso earned the assist on the equalizer. Reynoso got the ball on the right wing at midfield, got up to the edge of the 18-yard box and sent a low-arching cross to the far-side post. The ball found a running Webb, who headed it past Bohan.

Hofstra looked to regain the lead after the restart but came up empty on their first possession. The Seawolves struck on the counterattack as Reynoso found himself in a familiar situation, running up the right wing with the ball and sending a cross into the box. This time Reynoso

went near-post, where a diving Farr got his head on the ball and into the right corner of the net. Sunday’s loss was the first time the Pride has lost in the CAA tournament since 2020.

The Pride still have a chance to qualify for the NCAA Championship tournament but will need an at-large bid to secure a spot.

“I feel like we’ve really done enough to be in the tournament,” Nuttall said. “With our eight-game win streak, our RPI ranking and our ability with a couple of great wins in the top 50, I feel as though we should [have] a really good chance at getting a bid.”

Pride’s season ends in CAA semfinals loss

By Evan Papadopoulos STAFF WRITER

An early goal from Lilly Ricks, a third-quarter goal from Milla Frye and three goals in the final five minutes sent Monmouth University to their third consecutive Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) Championship Final. With these goals, they defeated the Hofstra University field hockey team 5-0 in the CAA semifinals. This is the Pride’s first appearance in the CAA Championship since 2015, while the Hawks have made it every year since joining the conference in 2022.

Just like the last time these

two teams played against each other, Monmouth had the first opportunity to score a goal.

Maia McCourt put a shot on net, but Riley MacIntosh made a defensive save before it crossed the goal line; however, her attempted clearance found the stick of Ricks. Her shot beat Luci Hollister, giving Monmouth an early lead.

The Hawks earned a penalty corner less than five minutes into the game. Lauren Relik’s insertion for Monmouth found the stick of CAA Rookie of the Year, Florence van Doorn, who was robbed by Hollister with a sprawling save.

With 12 seconds left in the first quarter, Monmouth earned another penalty corner. Relik inserted again for the Hawks. The ball found the stick of Frye, and Hollister made a kick save to keep the score at 1-0 through the first 15 minutes.

With about eight minutes left in the second quarter, Monmouth earned their fifth penalty corner of the game. Relik inserted and found van Doorn again.

Her original shot was blocked by Jamie Lewis and her second shot missed wide.

Monmouth also had the first chance of the second half from a penalty corner they earned less than six minutes into the third quarter. The ball found the stick of Frye, but her shot was blocked by Teresa Karoff.

Less than two minutes later, Monmouth earned another penalty corner. Hofstra cleared the chance, but Monmouth retained possession of the ball. Frye eventually regained possession and fired a backhanded shot that beat Hollister five-hole and doubled Monmouth’s lead.

Less than five minutes into the final frame, Emily Singer was robbed by Hollister twice.

On the other end, Hofstra went on the counterattack, and Kelly Levengood made her way into the shooting circle, but Charlie Bowman came out of her net to deny the Pride and stop them from getting a shot off.

Hollister wasn’t done making dazzling stops. To keep the

score at 2-0, she made two more sliding saves Hollister made eight saves and allowed five goals in the loss.

Hofstra denined two Hawks penalty corners, but the Hawks kept possession. Claire Campen tipped a van Doorn pass past Hollister to put Monmouth up 3-0.

Monmouth added to their tally less than four minutes later because Hannah Tromble played a centering pass that took a bounce off a stick and landed in Hollister’s net to give the Hawks a 4-0 lead.

Monmouth delivered an exclamation point about a minute later with a player up. A hard shot from Alicia Vanderlyde beat Hollister at her near post and extended the Monmouth lead to 5-0.

The Pride finished their season at 9-9. This was their first season at a winning percentage of .500 or better since 2015.

By Eric Leaf STAFF WRITER

Pride can’t overcome early deficit

The Hofstra University men’s basketball team dropped its second straight game to start the season, falling 81-73 to Iona University on Friday, Nov. 7. The Pride were unable to fully recover after Iona landed a 20-2 point punch in the first four minutes of the game, which proved to be too hard to overcome despite several comeback attempts.

“I think we lost this game in the first four minutes,” said Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton. “They came out and punched us in the mouth and we kind of took it. I don’t know what they were expecting, but I thought we came out too casual, too cool.”

The opening four minutes of the game ended up being the story of the night. The Gaels ripped off a 20-2 run, which quickly ballooned into a 24-point lead. Iona was scorching hot from all areas of the court, but the backbreaker was from behind the arc. Iona opened the game shooting a blistering 70% from deep.

This was Iona’s first game of the season, featuring a radically revamped roster from top to bottom. The Gaels introduced first-year head coach Dan Geriot, while Luke Jungers stands as the lone returner from last year’s squad.

“It’s hard [preparing for a team with little film],” Claxton said. “It’s a brand-new team, this was their first game, so there wasn’t a lot of film out on them. We had to do a lot of stuff on the fly; that’s just what it is this time of the year.”

Another critical shortcoming for the Pride was their inability to walk the fine line between suffocating defense and undisciplined play. Hofstra committed a staggering 24 fouls. In the Pride’s first two games, they’ve fouled their opponents 52 times.

A bright spot early in the season has been freshman guard Preston Edmead, who led Hofstra with an impressive 18 points on an efficient 53% shooting. Edmead also made six assists, flexing his control on the offensive side of the ball.

“Honestly, [Edmead] was our toughest guy out there,” Claxton said. “For him to be a freshman;

he definitely doesn’t play like a freshman. The kid is going to be special.”

Forward Victory Onuetu, a 6 feet 10 inches junior from Spain, is also beginning to find his footing with this new Hofstra squad. Coming off the bench, Onuetu’s fingerprints were all over the game with 13 points and nine rebounds, six of them on the offensive glass. His impact wasn’t limited to scoring, as he also added

two steals and a block on the defensive end.

Hofstra ended their early two-game losing streak and captured their first win of the season at home against Division II Molloy University. The game was slated for Monday, Nov. 10, at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex. Tip-off was set for 11:30 a.m.

Pride miss opportunity to hold first place

By Shannon Bickert

SPORTS EDITOR

The Hofstra University volleyball team’s 10 consecutive-match win streak was halted by a back-andforth five-set loss to Towson University on Saturday, Nov. 8. Towson knocked Hofstra out of first-place in the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) on the Pride’s Senior Day. Campbell University now owns sole possession of first place in the conference. The loss puts Hofstra at 19-3 on the year and 11-3 in CAA play.

After coming off a five-set defeat the day prior, Towson

came out firing on all cylinders.

The Tigers had 65 kills, with three different attackers reaching double-figure kills.

“Being up 19-12 in the first set and [then] losing the first set, at some point that comes back to unfortunately bite you,” said Hofstra head coach Emily Mansur. “They played better than we did, they hustled better than we did and they unfortunately got a win today.”

Despite Hofstra dropping the match, Izadora Stedile had a career day in her last match at the David S. Mack Physical Education Building. Stedile notched a season-best 26-kill performance while adding 14

digs and contributing on three blocks.

Beatriz Braga continued to shine for the Pride, putting up 20 or more kills in four consecutive matches. Braga also saw a season-high in kills, with 22, and helped defensively with eight digs.

Stedile and Braga carried Hofstra’s offense on their backs, combining for 113 total attacks. Both attackers posted a hitting percentage over .300.

Defensively, the Pride saw their fair share of struggles against a top-ranked offense in the CAA.

“We need to be better,” Mansur said. “If we want to win a championship, we need to be better defensively.”

Hofstra had a slow start in the first set, conceding the first two points to Towson, but found runs spearheaded by Towson errors. The Pride were able to gain a seven-point lead late in the set, but the Tigers chipped away at every opportunity. Hofstra let off the gas, and the Tigers rallied their way to a 17-4 run to cap off the victory.

Hofstra could not shut down a

blazing-hot Towson offense that committed just three errors and hit at a .441 rate in the first set.

The Pride answered in the second set, limiting Towson’s opportunities offensively and holding them to a .146 hitting percentage. Early in the set, the two teams clashed, exchanging points, but the momentum swung in Hofstra’s way, as the Pride found a 5-0 run. The Pride were able to close out the second set comfortably with a 25-20 win.

The Tigers fought back in the third set, as Hofstra struggled to get their footing, recording eight attack errors. Erin Brothers led the Tigers to a 25-20 set victory with four kills.

The fourth set was the most lopsided of the day, as Hofstra came out on top 25-16. The Pride got up early and stayed in command due to an 11-2 start. Towson did their best to rally back, but Hofstra’s early lead, combined with Towson’s miscues, proved to be too much.

Heading into the fifth set, tensions rose as the CAA standings, a perfect home record and a 10-match win

streak were on the line for the Pride. Hofstra got off to a hot start, earning three of their first six points on Towson errors. With a three-point advantage, Hofstra’s margin of error was slim, and Towson found a way to capitalize. Sarah Callender put up two kills during a 6-0 Towson run to give the Tigers a 13-9 lead. Hofstra answered with back-to-back points, but Towson slammed the door with back-to-back errors from the Pride to cap off the win and spoil the Pride’s streak.

Stedile, Clara Bal, Emilly Nunes and Mairi Hadjipetrou were honored following the matchup in a Senior Day ceremony. All four seniors have been reliable four-year members of the program.

“So grateful for all four of them,” Mansur said. “Honestly, four years in the world we live today, four great players, it’s unbelievable.”

Hofstra looks to bounce back in their last series of the regular season against Northeastern University on Friday, Nov. 14. First serve is scheduled for 1 p.m.

SPORTS

Hofstra Wrestling: Showtime

By Olivia Hillestad SPORTS EDITOR

In Jamie Franco’s first year as head coach of the Hofstra University wrestling team, the Pride went 7-6 in dual meet action, while graduate students Kyle Mosher and Ross McFarland qualified for the NCAA Championships. The two were also crowned Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Champions, boosting the Pride to a seventh-place team finish with 72.5 points.

McFarland, a five-year starter for the Pride, went 0-2 at the NCAA Championships at 184 pounds, falling to two eventual All-Americans. Mosher, a transfer student from Columbia University, went 2-2 at 165 pounds, earning the most wins by a Hofstra wrestler since Greg Gaxiola in 2021.

Besides McFarland and Mosher, the Pride also graduated key starters Dylan Acevedo-Switzer at 125 pounds, Justin Hoyle at 141 pounds and Nickolas Miller at 197 pounds.

“I think there’s a lot of confidence in our team right now [from] knowing that they were going toe-to-toe with some of these guys in the room last year and saw that what they were doing, how they were training and how, as time goes on and you believe in it, things are going to happen and they’re going to go deep,” Franco said.

This season’s roster blends returning talent with a wave of incoming freshmen. At 149 pounds, junior Noah Tapia returns from a strong 2024-25 season in which he posted an

18-13 record and placed fourth at the EIWA Championships. He led the team with five wins by technical fall and embodies the showmanship Franco hopes to see.

Graduate student Chase Liardi and redshirt junior Jurius Clark are taking a note out of McFarland’s book and are both moving up weight classes this season. Now at 141 pounds, Liardi brings a wealth of experience and leadership to the lineup. In 2024-25, he posted a 12-14 record with multiple wins by pin and major decision. Clark, now two weight classes higher than last season at 174 pounds, is coming off a seventh-place finish at the EIWA Championships and a 1315 record.

“[Clark] made a big jump, not just in his efforts, but in his weight,” Franco said. “He jumped up two weight classes, and it’s one of those things where … guys move weight classes and they’re not always fully confident that they are ready to do it. To go up two is even harder, but he did a really good job this year in the weight room putting on good size. He looks good, moves well still and he’s filled out, which is really nice.”

The incoming class brings a wave of expectation and adds depth to the Hofstra roster. At 125 pounds, Tommy Aiello arrives from East Northport, New York, with a decorated high-school career as a twotime New York State Champion from his sophomore and senior years. Two more Long Islanders join the Pride alongside Aiello: Gino Manata, a 133/141 pounder out of Hauppauge,

New York, and Josh Jorgge, a 184-pounder from Hicksville, New York.

At 157 pounds, Chase Hontz is one of Hofstra’s best recruits as a three-time Pennsylvania state medalist from Faith Christian Academy. Rounding out the freshman class at 141 pounds is Jackson Slotnick, a two-time New Jersey state medalist and health science major. He will now compete alongside his brother, Jake Slotnick, redshirt sophomore.

“You’ve got to feel comfortable in a room,” Franco said when speaking about recruiting guys who have existing connections on the team. “College wrestling is hard, and there’s gonna be times where you break and you’re gonna feel like it’s only you, and when you have no connections other than moving in and meeting the guys, it’s hard sometimes. You need someone to lean on.”

The 2025-26 schedule for Hofstra is loaded with opportunities from several highprofile dual meets, giving the Pride chances for wins, growth and statement performances.

“The advantage of having [ranked teams] in a dual meet is [that] we’re going to see six to ten nationally ranked guys, depending on who’s coming in,” Franco said. “We’re guaranteed a lot of top-ranked matchups, and just more opportunities for our guy to knock those guys off and get noticed, get confidence. This is who we need to beat if we want to get on the podium at the end of the year and be an All-American. These are the guys that we need to knock off, and it’s better to see them earlier in the year than for the first time seeing them at either conference [semifinals] or NCAAs.”

The Pride’s first dual meets were against Duke University and Appalachian State University on Saturday, Nov. 8, immediately followed by one of the toughest earlyseason tournaments against the Journeymen Collegiate Classic on Sunday, Nov. 9.

Hofstra hosts its first home dual against Columbia on

Sunday, Nov. 16, and continues facing Ivy Leagues the next week against the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday, Nov. 22.

For their first Big Ten opponent of the season, Hofstra hosts the University of Wisconsin on Dec. 7. They end the year with three duals at the Bucknell Quad against the University of Virginia, Morgan State University and Bucknell University on Dec. 21.

January is a quick schedule for the Pride, starting with the Journeymen Armbar Duals, where they face Princeton University and Binghamton University on Jan. 4. Then they travel to the Franklin and Marshall Open on Jan. 9 before heading upstate to the University of Buffalo on Jan. 25.

For the last month of the regular season, the Pride will travel for three back-to-back EIWA duals before hosting some of the most anticipated matchups of the season. On Feb. 9, the Pride hosts rival Long

Island University, followed by Harvard University and Brown University both on Feb. 15, before ending their homestead against Rutgers University on Feb. 18.

Last season, Franco’s theme for the year was effort. With a young roster and many tough matchups, this season’s theme is performance.

“Just put on a show,” Franco said. “Last year was effort, this year we’re stepping up, we gotta put a show on for the guys … We want to put a product out on that mat of guys that are gonna go out and live and die on their sword of competing hard … Let’s go put on a show … for the fans, because we want the fans to come back, so the only way we’re gonna do that is by scoring points … The big change for this year is just the effort and to make it exciting, push for points at all times.”

Richard Nuttall: A farewell to greatness cont.

By Anthony Hidalgo SPORTS EDITOR

CONTINUED FROM A1

“I met my wife Christine about 30-odd years ago. [The] first few years were a bit rocky, shall we say, but I married her, and you know [had kids] all this stuff at 27, 28 [years-old],” Nuttall said. “I just love Long Island. Long Island’s got everything. It’s got entertainment, it’s got beaches, it’s got the city, it’s got the travelers, it’s got the sports teams. After four or five years at Hofstra, and things were getting better, I just sort of [thought], ‘This is a great place to be.’”

The tides were turning, not just in Nuttall’s personal life, but on the field as well, but the results didn’t appear right away.

Hofstra joined the North Atlantic Conference in 1995, when Nuttall’s team went 3-16, by far his worst season, but the trust he earned from Hofstra allowed him to find his way as a winning coach.

“That was a tough one,” Nuttall said. “But look, you’ve just got to keep going and build and build and build. Thankfully, Hofstra kept me employed and allowed me to keep my job and to keep building the program.”

Learning how to lose is an important step for a coach, and the adversity that Nuttall faced early on in his time at Hofstra allowed him to build the mental fortitude to finally start winning.

“I try to internalize most of [losing] because I’m the leader

of the group, and my actions, generally speaking, have got to be the best they can be to help the group,” Nuttall said. “The tough losses stay with you … It’s all about the next step in the journey. As you get older, you learn. It’s easier to [not] take the next step when you’re younger and a bit raw and emotional; it’s not as easy, but I’m used to it now. I’m used to the eyes on us. I tell all the new coaches here, ‘Don’t get too high when you win, and don’t get too low when you lose,’ and I think that’s the secret to coaching.”

By 1997, Hofstra joined the America East Conference and went 14-4-3 with a perfect 9-0 in conference play, winning the regular season title. Nuttall led Hofstra to three winning seasons over the next five years before joining the then-called Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in 2003.

From 2004 on, Hofstra only had three losing seasons under Nuttall. The team won the first of eight CAA championships and made its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1968. Nuttall’s side won three straight CAA championships from 2004-2006, making the second round of the NCAA tournament two times.

“I mean, the first one’s always special, but each year it gets better,” Nuttall said. “You just go in with different players, with different experiences. You’ve got different memories on the way to each one. How you get there is different each

time, and the types of teams you have are different. They all have their own identity, and you remember all the players from each team and who they are and what they were.”

Nuttall captained the ship through two dynasties. First with the three-peat in 2006 and again in 2024 after the Pride became the first team in CAA history to win four straight conference championships. While it’s hard enough to win one championship, the constant turnover from year to year for a college program makes sustained success even more difficult, but Nuttall has seemed to find the recipe for winning.

“I think players come and go, don’t they? But I think the processes remain relatively the same,” Nuttall said. “You don’t motivate all players the same way. You’ve got to be a little bit different every year, depending on your clientele [and] who’s in your team, and [you’ve got to] understand how they are … You manage them slightly differently each year, but underlying our culture, our general culture of accountability, directness, hard work, organization and ability to let skillful players play in the right areas, yet retain the workman-like performances, that stays the same.”

That system has pushed the Pride to be the team with the most wins in the nation since 2021, developing hundreds of players along the way. Nuttall has coached nine All-Americans, 36 AllRegion selections, over 90 All-Conference players across three different conferences, five CAA Player of the Year winners, five CAA Defensive Player of the Year winners and 29 players who have gone on to play professionally in Major League Soccer and United Soccer Leagues.

While scouting talent is part of the job, it’s convincing those recruits to commit and join the team where the challenge lies. Luckily for Nuttall, being in what he calls “the greatest city in the world” helps a lot as well – even if he does leave out how bad the traffic can be.

“I [say], ‘It’s incredible people and I love coming to

work every day,’ and I sell them on that. I sell them on the people [and] the culture within the program. I sell them on the academics, the facilities and the success of the program now. I suppose … I sell them on my coaching staff being great, existing players and a chance to be successful, and I sell them on maybe becoming a future [professional player] and if not, we help all of our players in their job search after college anyway, so I settle them on that.”

Outside of winning a national championship, Nuttall has accomplished nearly all there is in college soccer. Suddenly, 37 years have passed, and now Nuttall must face a new challenge in his life – saying goodbye.

“When you’re younger, you don’t really think, do you? Just like, what’s happening in the next 10 minutes,” Nuttall said.

“I would never have thought I’d be here for 37 years. No chance. I’m the son of a pig farmer. So, being at a major university for 37 years, it’s not bad, is it?”

While Nuttall still feels like he can coach for another decade, he understands that his time is up.

“There was many factors: great assistance, 37 years, we’ve been brilliant for the last seven or eight years, let somebody else move them further forward, time with my family and wife, Christine, and time with the kids ... I want to be part of their lives,” Nuttall said.

Nuttall won’t be gone completely. He will be taking on a new administrative role as assistant director of Athletics for Development and Alumni Affairs. He hopes to still provide support for the men’s

and women’s soccer teams, while also mentoring other coaches across Hofstra. Students and faculty may even see Nuttall around campus supporting other teams from the stands.

“I will help both men’s and women’s soccer with fundraising and then events, and then whatever else they tell me to do, I’ll do it,” Nuttall said. “I’ll be at the basketball games, which I love watching anyway.”

Until then, and until the day Nuttall leaves Hofstra for good, he’s going to look forward to coming into work every day.

“I love walking into the [Athletics] building because everybody in the building gives me energy,” Nuttall said.

With Nuttall’s time as head coach coming to an end, it’s a chance to catch up on all that he’s missed. Nuttall is a soccer lifer, meaning someone whose life and career have been consumed by soccer and will continue to dominate his life after Hofstra, but he still wants to make room for his family and thank them for sticking by his side the whole way.

“[To] my wife, I want to say ‘thank you,’” Nuttall said. “She’s supported me all this time. I don’t know if we’re still together either … I’m being honest. I’m never there. She’s done a lot, bringing up the kids, and being where I am, I miss a lot of parties and not being there a lot. So, I think I’m very thankful to my wife for sticking with me through thick and thin.”

The Pride now await their fate, as their NCAA tournament hopes lie with the NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Committee, who decide at large bids in the tournament.

SPORTS Men’s basketball looks to bounce back

By Eric Leaf STAFF WRITER

With another season of Hofstra University men’s basketball upon us, the Pride once again enter the year with a retooled roster. The roster is a mix of promising freshmen and key additions from the transfer portal. The foundation from last season remains, with returners like Cruz Davis and German Plotnikov expected to take on larger leadership roles. While there are new faces, fresh challenges and a long road ahead, the mission for Hofstra head coach Speedy Claxton and company remains the same: bring another Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) title to Hempstead.

The current landscape of college basketball revolves around the transfer portal. Since the introduction of Name, Image and Likeness and the launch of the portal in Oct. 2018, the sport has undergone major changes. Another significant shift came in 2021, when the NCAA removed the requirement for first-time transfer students to sit out a season, opening the floodgates for player movement like never before.

The Pride welcomed in seven new transfers: Biggie Patterson from Iona University, A.J. Wills from the University of Wyoming, Trey Boyd III from Pace University, Victory Onuetu from Spain, Joshua Aaron Reaves from the University of Illinois-Chicago, Alex Tsynkevich from Kentucky Wesleyan College and Brandon Morgan from Western Carolina University. With so many new faces transferring into Hofstra, one of the biggest concerns is building chemistry quickly and becoming acclimated to the coaching schemes. Hofstra associate head coach Mike DePaoli feels that the new players are coming around nicely, especially with the help of the veteran leadership in the locker room.

“I think the new guys have been great. I think they’ve immersed themselves and I’ll use the word ‘culture’ lightly. I think you used to be able to

have a lot more culture when you had guys like [Plotnikov] who have been here for a lot of years,” DePaoli said. “I think having [Plotnikov] and [Davis], and [Silas Sunday], and [Joshua] DeCady, give us a chance to have culture, ‘cause I do think culture is when you walk in the doors, and people show you the way to act, interact and respond to situations. It was taught and led to players, which we still have. It’s just not as strong as it used to be. But, yeah, the new guys are immersing themselves. They’re doing a good job. They’re coachable, they work hard.”

Along with the seven transfers, the Pride were able to recruit two new freshmen as well.

Freshman guard Preston Edmead has quickly made a name for himself, standing out not only among the first-year players but also the incoming transfers.

“[One of the] new guys that have stood out [has] been [Edmead]. Everyone’s gonna talk about – he had 16.6 assists [in] his two scrimmages. He was terrific in both, from a fill-up-the-stat-sheet standpoint, but what I like most about [Edmead] is [that] there’s not a box that he doesn’t check – other than being 5 [feet] 11 [inches] – that we want here at Hofstra,” DePaoli said. “He’s a great kid. He comes from great stock. He’s a local kid. He works extremely, extremely hard. Basketball really matters to him, and those guys typically tend to do really, really well here, ‘cause it really, really matters to us. And that’s a nice way of saying he’s just really committed to becoming a better player. He has great toughness; he has no back down in him. He loves to compete. So, he has stood out.”

One of the biggest gets in the transfer portal for Hofstra in the offseason was Onuetu, 6 feet 10 inches junior from Spain. The Hofstra forward played at IES Fuente Lucena in Alhaurín el Grande, Málaga, Spain. He started playing basketball at 12 years old and climbed through Spain’s development ranks.

A young star for the Spanish youth national teams, he captured titles at both the FIBA U19 World Cup and the FIBA U18 European Championship, representing Spain in the FIBA U20 European Championship as well.

“[Onuetu’s] upside is through the roof ... It’s stupid how talented he is,” DePaoli said. “His game, his habits and all that stuff, he’s improved, so he didn’t get here till Aug. 25. So, it’s not like he was here with us all summer. [If] he was here with us all summer, it’d be scary, ‘how could he be right now?’ But every single day, he’s getting better, and this is all brand new to him. His first time touching down in the [United States] was Aug. 25.”

Although this Hofstra team features nine new faces, the Pride managed to retain several key pieces from last season. One of the most important pieces of this era of Hofstra basketball is Plotnikov, who returns for his fourth year with the program. In today’s era of college hoops, where roster turnover is constant, a player sticking with one school this long makes Plotnikov something of a unicorn.

“We kind of found out later on that I will have another year and, obviously, I had my postseason meeting with [Claxton] and there was no hesitation in his voice,” Plotnikov said, “I feel like he wants me to come back and I had no hesitation as well coming back to Hofstra. Giving it another good year.”

With Plotnikov playing such an instrumental role in the program, he carries not only the responsibility to perform on the court but also to serve as a veteran leader for the many newcomers joining the team. This is something that was not lost on the senior guard.

“I think I kind of take pride in [being a locker room veteran],” Plotnikov said. “One of the things I’ll always emphasize is not just giving it my all on the court, but it’s also giving it off the court as well. Whether it’s telling the guys what to do, basketball wise or in school [and] off campus, things like that. It’s kind of a good mix

where you can be helpful, not only on the court, but off the court as well. Being a leader: it’s nothing but a blessing and I appreciate doing it.”

Along with Plotnikov, star point guard Davis, forward DeCady and 7 foot tall center Sunday, will also be suiting up in the blue and yellow for another season.

Hofstra built its identity on its straitjacket defense last season, shutting down opponents while on their way to the top defensive ranking in the CAA. This year, the Pride are determined to bring that same lockdown mentality back.

“[There are] three cores to our defense and the three maximums. We say you have to play with maximum effort. That’s where it starts. That’s the standard. If you don’t play with absolute maximum effort, you’re not gonna be able to play here from a defensive standpoint,” DePaoli said. “Next one is maximum ‘LEO,’ which [is] our term for communicating loud, early and often – that’s how we’re going to communicate to each other. And then the last one is maximum discipline.”

The Pride’s biggest issue last year was their struggle to close games. Hofstra lost seven games which they led at halftime, with an average lead of 7.4 points and a seasonworst blown lead of 16 in an overtime loss to Campbell University. DePaoli reflected on those second-half collapses, calling them a mental battle and

emphasizing how important it is for the team to clean that up heading into the new season.

“That was frustrating last year. I think it was more the mental side of it. ‘Are we really this good?’ The doubt crept in, and then we would kind of get in those situations again, and it would be what you’re talking about. Here we go again,” DePaoli said. “How do you fix that this year? You live in an attacking mindset. You’re always in an attack mode. One thing we’re trying to preach [to] these guys in huddles ... you’re up 25 on [teams]. It’s not about that. Like, be so process oriented that whether you’re up 25 or you’re down 25, you’re still just immersed in the process.”

With a new season of Hofstra hoops underway, both DePaoli and senior guard Plotnikov have their eyes set on something bigger. After last year’s ups and downs, the Pride look ahead to the ultimate goal.

“I know it just started, but one thing I definitely would like to add for this upcoming season is a trip to March Madness,” Plotnikov said.

“I think the nice thing when you’re at Hofstra is that you’re competing for a championship every single year,” DePaoli said. “So that’s always our goal, to win the championship.”