Celebrating 107 years of journalistic integrity
1
“Dream come true”
Professors move in
Dean Heidi Bostic and family live on-campus, near students for the academic year
From Marquette Gaming and eSports to 2K League champ SPORTS, 12
NEWS, 4
Volume 105, Number 2
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
WWW.MARQUETTEWIRE.ORG
2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 SPJ Award-Winning Newspaper
‘As faculty retire there are fewer options’ Concern grows over staffing issues in Asian studies dept. By Jolan Kruse
jolan.kruse@marquette.edu
Barrett McCormick, a retired professor for Marquette’s department of political science, said there were two specializing Asian studies faculty in 1984. “They had more Asia faculty back then than in 2022,” McCormick said. Marquette University currently has three professors teaching general Asian studies in its international affairs, political science and history departments. One is Michael Wert, associate professor of history who specializes in Japanese studies. The other two experts specialize in Chinese studies: Daniel Meissner, associate professor teaching Chinese history, and Jen-Li Ko, an assistant professor teaching Chinese. Meissner, the only China history expert at Marquette, is set to retire after next
semester. This lack of diversity and resources could cause gaps in student curriculum. “As faculty retire, there are fewer options. Asian studies minors will suffer because there are narrower options,” Meissner said. “After years of trying, there seemed to be no support for expanding the program beyond what we put in.” A failure to expand the program means a more narrow education for students. In 2019, 18% of the United States total goods imports came from China, totaling over $450 billion. Meanwhile, exports to China supported 1.2 million United States jobs. The Marquette Wire collected data on the ratio of fulltime Asian faculty members to undergraduate students at six schools in the midwest. Out of the schools that were compared, Marquette University had the fifth lowest ratio percentage of faculty members to students with three full-time faculty members and a student population of 7,660. “The university is only good without broad horizons. People
Graphic by Emily Bittman emily.bittman@marquette.edu
Kiwibots start delivering food on campus Sept. 14.
that want to study beyond Marquette are just going to choose something else,” McCormick said. “We can’t understand America’s economic prospects without knowing those
of Asia. China is a huge part of humanities.” McCormick specialized in international politics of Asian and Chinese media for 35 years at Marquette. He said
he developed a passion for learning about China at the young age of 18. As a firstyear student at the University See OPTIONS page 2
New Puerto Rican Club Kiwibot brings food delivery to MU Creating a space for everyone on campus, regardless of culture By Hannah Hernandez
hannah.hernandez@marquette.edu
When Paola Velazquez, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, first arrived on campus, she said she searched for a community but felt like there wasn’t a club that represented her and other Puerto Rican students. At the end of the spring se-
mester of 2022, Velazquez began the Celebrating Puerto Rican Culture Club with the help of her two friends, Paula Pascual and Stef Hernandez, both are sophomores in the College of Arts & Sciences. “When I first got here, I was looking around for club and I didn’t feel represented in a way and there’s a lot of Puerto Ricans in the school, and it was so weird to me that nobody thought of doing a club of something. So, I wanted to start something See CLUB page 3 INDEX MUPD REPORTS...........................................3 CROSSWORD................................................7 COMICS.........................................................7 A&E................................................................8 OPINIONS....................................................10 SPORTS........................................................12
Robots begin a food delivery odyssey, but with a cost to campus By Timothy Littau
timothy.littau@marquette.edu
Having a robot deliver food to you might sound like a futuristic experience, but at Marquette University that is happening soon — today, actually. Kiwibots are the mini machines hitting the sidewalks on campus to deliver food to students and faculty. They are box-shaped NEWS
robots that weigh 45 pounds, have four wheels, insulated compartments, bumpers, shock absorbers and LED screens to display eyes and messages and drive two miles per hour. They use a mixture of computer vision and GPS to drive autonomously. Among the bobbing heads of students and faculty bustling to and from different buildings are the Kiwibots’ orange safety flags that are roughly four feet high. Until today, the bots have not been delivering food yet, but they have been mapping the campus and surveying food ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
pickup locations. Melanie Vianes, Marquette’s director of dining services, said that Sodexo Global, Marquette’s campus dining provider, partnered with Kiwibot to make getting food more convenient for community members and to compete with food delivery services like Uber Eats. “This is going to give us an opportunity to kind of get into that market but also provide the convenience if someone is studying or a professor is working on a See KIWI page 2 OPINIONS
Living where you work
Whatchu Tolkien ‘bout? Protection for Journalists
PAGE 6
PAGE 9
Inside the life of MU facilities managers
Remembering Marquette Haggerty Art Museum debuts exhibit with orignal manuscripts alum Jeff German PAGE 10