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‘ONLY VOICE THEY HAD’ Ivor van Heerden saw the potential for New Orleans’ destruction. But no one listened.
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L SU Re ve i l le.co m @l s u r e ve i l le
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BEFORE THE STORM
B-16 Hodges Hall Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, La. 70803
This scientist warned about Katrina and helped rebuild New Orleans
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BY LIV TEES On an unusually cold morning in September, tucked away in the outside courtyard of Highland Coffees, Ivor van Heerden recounted his experience working as a scientist in the lead-up to hurricane Katrina. Van Heerden was the main scientist who ran storm models and suggested what the city of New Orleans would need to do to survive a Katrina caliber catastrophe. What followed was the story of a man begging for help that never came, issuing a warning that wasn’t heeded. Restoring the coast A native of South Africa, van Heerden dedicated his life to advocating for the protection of the coastal wetlands and educating the public about the consequences of coastal land loss. Van Heerden graduated from South Africa’s University of Natal, now University of KwaZulu-Natal, with a bachelor’s degree in geology, coastal geology and civil engineering in 1976. By 1983 he completed his master’s and doctorate degrees in marine sciences by LSU. When Hurricane Andrew hit the Gulf Coast in 1992 as a Category 5 storm, van Heerden realized that while it caused immense damage, it lost strength so quickly because of the strong presence of wetlands and healthy coastlines. “That really reinforced to me that we really needed to restore the coast,” van Heerden said. He rejoined the LSU community in 1992 to start an applied research, science and engineering program. Due to its success, former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards asked van Heerden to run the coastal restoration program. “What became obvious to me was because of the politics, we were never going to restore the coast at this time,” van Heerden said. As van Heerden continued his work with the coastal restoration program, he started developing surge models to predict future hurricanes and their paths. His findings revealed that New Orleans was particularly vulnerable to inundation. “People had told me for years from when I first arrived, ‘Oh, you know, that there’s going to be a magic bullet hurricane that’s going to come up the Mississippi River. It’s going to sink New Orleans,’” van Heerden said. Heeding the warnings of his colleagues at the coastal restoration program, van Heerden and his colleague Marc Levitan convinced LSU to start the LSU Hurricane Center. The center focused not only on the science of hurricanes but also the storm’s impact on public health. The models van Heerden and his team had been running since
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A home in the Southdowns neighborhood is demolished by a fallen tree during Hurricane Katrina. 2001 showed that in the near future, there would be a storm strong enough to demolish New Orleans and its population of around 480,000 people. From these findings, van Heerden and his team convinced the city of New Orleans and FEMA to fund the 2004 Hurricane Pam exercise. The 10-day test brought together federal and local government agencies to discover how to prepare a city like New Orleans to withstand a severe storm. The result demonstrated that New Orleans and its people suffer longterm damage if a Category 3 hurricane were to strike. One year later Hurricane Katrina proved them right, inflicting damage on the city that can still be seen today — 20 years later. “It was obvious to me that [for] some of those agencies, it was lipsynchronized service to be there,” van Heerden said. Van Heerden said the biggest issues the exercise exposed were that the levees would not keep out the water and the city would need to be prepared to evacuate the nearly 180,000 people who didn’t have cars. Many of those people were from impoverished Black communities. He argued that the city needed to plan to set up tent cities for people whose homes would be destroyed and would have no money to rebuild. He said the response was, “Americans don’t live in tents.” In 2004, van Heerden spent his time talking to media outlets, running storm surge models and pleading to all levels of government officials that they would need to take drastic measures to avert a generation defining tragedy. ‘This is it’ Three days before Katrina hit, van Heerden ran the model that showed what the storm would
look like. “I went to Marc Levitan, I said, ‘This is it.’ And then it came,” van Heerden said with tears in his eyes. Sunday night, van Heerden drove home from work in relatively calm weather. On Monday morning when he returned, he recalled people in his office congratulating each other because the storm didn’t hit as hard as expected. Instead, it hit as a Category 3 storm. What they didn’t know was that the levees had broken, filling up the city with water after the storm hit. Van Heerden was given permission to fly with the National Guard from Baton Rouge over New Orleans for one hour. He video taped the city underwater to show to former Gov. Kathleen Blanco that the National Guard needed to be more concerned. Van Heerden was the first person to officially tell Blanco that the levees had been breached and that 80% of the city was underwater. There were over 50 levee breaches during Katrina, the most notable one being the 17th Street Canal levee. It took FEMA several days after the storm to send enough medical supplies, food and buses to get everyone safely out of the city. The first time van Heerden went into the city by boat, he was surrounded by destruction, debris and dead bodies. He was told that when he came across the deceased, he should place a GPS tracker near them so that their bodies could be recovered later. After the storm, van Heerden’s days started at 4 a.m. and ended around midnight. He spent his time taking water samples from the city to see what kind of bacteria was in the water, using his personal boat to rescue people from their homes
and alerting the Coast Guard of where people were stranded on rooftops. In one day, he rescued 89 people trapped in their homes. During one boat ride, van Heerden came across a boardedup house with a single abandoned Barbie doll on the mantle. This struck him in particular because his daughter was playing with Barbies. It suddenly became all too real for him. “They’re gone,” van Heerden said. “The house is gone. Their jobs are gone. Everything’s gone. Where are they? So I started to realize that the only voice they had was mine.” Van Heerden realized that no one outside Louisiana knew what had happened in New Orleans. He found Mike Grunwald, a Washington Post reporter, and told him everything. “I took him in the field for two days,” van Heerden said. “I showed him all the evidence of what had gone on, how the levees had failed, so on. And he wrote a story. It was above the fold, front page. And that’s when the world hit off. That’s when the world knew about what was going on.” The article, titled “Experts Say Faulty Levees Caused Much of Flooding,” was published Sept. 21, 2005, 24 days after Katrina made landfall. Aftermath Following the article, van Heerden continued to speak out against the Army Corps of Engineers who he, and many other esteemed scientists and engineers, believed were responsible for the breach in the levees. Political officials from federal, state and local levels traded blame on who was responsible for the damages in Katrina and in the midst of it all, van Heerden said that scientists received much of the backlash.
see KATRINA, page 4
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ABOUT THE REVEILLE The Reveille is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. A single issue of The Reveille is free from multiple sites on campus and about 25 sites off campus. To obtain additional copies, please visit the Office of Student Media in B-39 Hodges Hall or email studentmedia@ lsu.edu. The Reveille is published biweekly during the fall, spring and summer semesters, except during holidays and final exams. The Reveille is funded through LSU students’ payments of the Student Media fee.
NEWS CHANGES COMING
New course evaluations take center stage at Faculty Senate meeting
BY MAIA TYLER Staff Writer LSU’s Faculty Senate held its first meeting of the semester on Wednesday discussing a proposed change to end-of-semester Student Course Evaluations. Other items on the agenda included changes to the I-grade remediation window and international travel registry. The new evaluation form, now titled the Course Experience Survey, was presented to the committee by Tara Rose, associate vice provost for institutional effectiveness, and Kristen Mauch, associate dean of student service for the College of Art and Design. This suggested remodel included changes to the CES core prompts, cutting the questions down from 20 to eight and making questions shorter for an easier student experience. “Our goal was to get rid of the 60 questions for all these courses that are tagged all these different ways, and just have a very short set of prompts that are small but meaningful,” said Rose. Many members of the Senate criticized the proposal, claiming that this proposition does not aid faculty in end-of-semester feedback. The proposed prompts would ask students, for example, whether the course objectives were clear, if the materials and activities enhanced learning and if they received feedback that helped the student improve. “These are quantitative questions that require qualitative answers,” said Carla Vance, a French studies professor. Faculty members expressed concern that the revised CES prompts would be ill-suited for certain types of classes, including online classes and those with over 200 students. Although this was not presented as
page 3 RESEARCH
Archival research uncovers LSU history BY ASHLYNN BAILLIO
MAIA TYLER/ The Reveille
Faculty Senate gathers on Jan. 14 in the Dalton Woods Auditorium. an amendment, many members expressed that they wanted to get rid of course evaluations altogether. The Senate also passed a new set of regulations for the LSU Online’s Graduate School I-grade remediation, which was proposed last October. The amendment will give online graduate students until the second following semester to rectify their incomplete grades. “This is my third year of Faculty Senate. This issue has been before us many times since,” said Paul Manthei, director of Logistics for Online & Continuing Education Partnerships for LSU’s College of
Human Sciences & Education. There were also updates to the international travel registry, which is the system used by the university to track faculty and students travelling abroad for safety and emergency communication. This change was prompted by a 2023 audit by the LSU auditors of International Services, which suggested that the university should adopt a policy that better protects faculty and students from emergencies they might experience while abroad. The revised policy was implemented on January 1. Faculty mem-
bers have said that the new policy has gone off without a hitch. “If somebody called and said, there’s been an explosion in Paris…because that did happen, and it took me eight phone calls and six hours to find the people and figure out who was in Paris at the time,” said Jane Cassidy, senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs. “27 people have already used it and there’s not been one question about it,” said Cassidy. The Faculty Senate will have their next meeting on February 12 at 3 p.m. at the Dalton Woods Auditorium.
Above the quiet study rooms of Hill Memorial Library sit four hidden floors of archival material, largely unknown to the students who walk past them every day. This summer, however, three undergraduate students stepped inside, digging through decades of LSU history as part of a research program designed to teach them how to investigate, question and rediscover the past for themselves. Through a partnership between LSU Special Collections and the Office of Undergraduate Research, the students spent 10 weeks designing original projects built entirely from primary sources stored in Hill Memorial Library. Instead of learning history through lectures or textbooks, they were asked to navigate the archives themselves. Senior journalism major Emily Bracher spent her summer sifting through decades of student newspapers, scrapbooks and correspondence to map the evolution of student media at LSU. “These were first-hand correspondences, telling stories I never imagined reading,” she said. “It showed me how much impact student voices have had, even when people tried to silence them.” Sophomore social work major Nsreen Saleh researched LSU’s desegregation and spent weeks listening to interviews with people who had fought for the right to attend the university.
see RESEARCH, page 4
ACADEMICS
$2.2M grant awarded to Integrative Community Studies program BY MADELYN LONG Staff Writer LSU’s Integrative Community Studies program received a $2.2 million grant to continue providing opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to complete their undergraduate degrees. The grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities will be distributed over a five-year period. The current two-year program helps students get involved with college life, from earning workforce
credentials to attending sporting events. Students receive support from staff, student mentors and volunteers to learn life skills and gain independence. “ICS is so much more than a program. It’s a community that champions inclusion, belonging and possibility,” said Sarah Ayala, an ICS graduate assistant. “Our students are fully engaged on campus, taking classes, building friendships and contributing their strengths to LSU in meaningful ways.” Project directors credit supportive faculty and staff for the program’s success by creating an environment where students
with disabilities can be a part of the LSU community in every way. Allie Boquet, an assistant professor of education and ICS coproject director, said students in the ICS program attend LSU the same way their peers do by taking college classes and engaging in campus life events and community experiences. “The strength of this program comes from collaboration across the university,” Boquet said. “Faculty, staff and students play a vital role in helping create an inclusive campus culture where every student can thrive.”
see ICS GRANT, page 4
PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLIE BOQUET
Thursday, January 15, 2026
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RESEARCH, from page 3
“That’s when the whole attitude with LSU and to some extent, the federal government changed because you were now becoming a voice that in their minds was picking them apart,” van Heerden said. Van Heerden was asked to leave LSU in 2009 amid his controversial stance against the Army Corps of Engineers, and in 2010, he sued the university for wrongful termination. The lawsuit ended in 2013 when LSU paid van Heerden $435,000. To this day, van Heerden holds no hard feelings toward the university and understands the decision was a political one, not reflective of his scientific merits. “I think I’ve done a good job,” van Heerden said. “I tried my best. I did what I thought was my Christian duty. I tried and helped all these people.” In 2006, the Army Corps of Engineers admitted in a 16-page report that their updates to the levees in 2000 did not take into account global warming and rising sea levels. Van Heerden started a consulting company to help coastal companies and was a key figure in exposing the man-made factors that caused the BP oil spill in 2010. Since then, he has traveled the world teaching and talking to everyone he can about the potential for Katrina 2.0, something he thinks New Orleans wouldn’t survive. He said that with the dwindling funds for research and science in the coastal sector, there is little anyone can do. “It might not be in your watch, but it could be your children’s or grandchildren’s,” van Heerden said. Van Heerden, the man who spent his professional career warning everyone about the potential for natural disasters, has retired, as much as a scientist can ever retire, on the coast of the Chesapeake Bay in Reedsville, VA. His daughter, Vanessa van Heerden, works at LSU and heads up the EnvironMentors program at LSU. He also wrote a book called “The Storm,” which details what went wrong during Katrina and how most of the devastation could have been prevented. He lives on as a reminder that science is more than just numbers and test tubes, but a crucial part of public safety and the protection of the future of the planet.
“You realize people didn’t lack a voice, their stories were just buried,” she said. Junior studio art-printmaking major Ella Blandino focused on working through the unprocessed Union Art Gallery collection, which included decades of LSU’s student art exhibitions. “It took far longer to go through a large unprocessed collection like the Union Art Galleries than I would have expected,” Blandino said. “There was a lot of going through parts of a collection and realizing it wasn’t really useful. It really just took a lot of time.” For LSU’s university archivist Zach Tompkins, this is exactly the point. His job is to collect items of significant historical value to the university, integrate them into teaching and help anyone doing topical research on LSU, from graduate students writing dissertations to faculty designing a single class session. Three years ago, Tompkins and LSU Special Collections’ Associate Dean Gina Costello began talking with the Office of Undergraduate Research about something that was missing. “Everything that we have here in LSU Special Collections, all of the archives, all the manuscripts, all the rare books, are designed to support some kind of research interest, and so we sort of position ourselves as the laboratory for humanities research,” Tompkins said. They worked to launch a new summer research opportunity. Students were paid $15 an hour to design original research projects built around primary sources instead of lab equipment or datasets. Each student is paired with a mentor, a faculty or staff member whose expertise matches the project. Before they can begin, students must learn how to read archival finding aids, search the catalog and request materials in the reading room. “There’s a high learning curve to coming in and doing primary source research,” Tompkins said. “It’s not like the other library, where you can come in and see all of the books and go browse the stacks yourself. Everything has to be retrieved for you.” Students start by learning how to read archival finding aids, search the catalog and request materials in the reading
room, he said. “We caution the students to be very careful about basing their research idea on what historical items are available because we can’t invent something that doesn’t exist anymore,” Tompkins said. “They spend the first portion of that summer working pretty much daily in the reading room,” Tompkins said. “It’s a very hands-on physical process. You kind of never know what you’re gonna uncover, so that takes a long time. That’s the bulk of the project each year.” Some students arrive knowing the archival research they want to pursue, but others don’t. “I knew immediately that I wanted to study the history of Student Media at LSU because it was something I did not only want to learn more about for myself, but want to share with my classmates,” Bracher said. “I didn’t even know what I wanted to research,” Saleh said. “I just knew I wanted to learn more about LSU beyond its reputation as a sports school.” Saleh gravitated toward archival records documenting attempts to integrate LSU. Her project became centered on oral
histories, recorded interviews that captured the emotions and personal experiences of those involved. “I knew education was a privilege,” Saleh said. “But I didn’t realize how much people had to fight for it, not because they couldn’t afford school, but because they were discriminated against.” At the end of the program, the students’ work becomes part of a public exhibit inside Hill Memorial. Each researcher helps select items from the collections, arrange them in display cases and write captions explaining their significance to visitors. The students also present their projects twice: once during a small gathering for friends and family and again during LSU’s Family Weekend open house. Blandino said presenting next to the display she helped create made the research feel real in a way no class assignment ever had. Hill Memorial Library houses more than 10 million archival items and 150,000 rare books, some dating back to before the invention of printing, Tompkins
said. Behind its public reading rooms is a temperature-controlled stack system spanning six floors and a basement. The building is kept at 66 degrees Fahrenheit with 30% to 40% humidity to ensure the archives remain preserved, said Tompkins. The stacks contain campus architectural plans, alternative student newspapers, civil rights legal papers, microfilmed Louisiana newspapers and personal family collections donated for public research use. “These materials are the raw data of history,” Tompkins said. “When you put them together, you get a clearer picture of the past.” While Hill Memorial’s hidden floors remain locked to most of campus, the students who accessed them this summer left with a deeper understanding of history, not as something written for them, but something they could touch, question and interpret themselves.
ICS GRANT, from page 3
program. “When the campus partners with ICS, it helps create a university environment where every student has the opportunity to learn, grow and be valued for who they are,” Ayala said. The ICS program also opens its doors to students who would like to volunteer regardless of their major or classification. Speech pathology senior Meadow Swanson is one of those students. “My favorite part about volun-
teering with ICS is just getting to hang out with the students and chat with them,” Swanson said. “No matter what we are doing, it is always a good time, and I just love getting to know them and their stories as much as I can.” LSU was one of 28 schools nationally to receive this grant. Co-project directors Boquet and Paul Mooney knew that more funding was necessary to meet the growing needs that came with more student enrollment, credential options, employment
development and independent living. “As the program matured, it became clear that expanding our resources was necessary to both utilize and inform best practices and to build a truly comprehensive model,” Mooney said. The program plans to use the funding to expand into a fouryear track, giving students more time to learn new skills and earn credentials for success in longterm employment. New areas of industry-based credentials in-
clude hospitality, pharmacy and emergency preparedness. The expansion of the program to four years will also allow it to take in more students each year. “Students with intellectual disabilities deserve the same opportunities for academic enrichment, meaningful campus engagement and pathways to competitive employment as any other student,” Boquet said. “ICS reflects LSU’s commitment to equity, innovation and community impact.”
ICS’ program manager Leanora Hernandez said that they work hard to equip students with the skills for a self-directed life. “By nurturing critical skills in academics, employment and independent living within a curriculum that fosters intrinsic motivation, we build the confidence and self-trust that allows ambition to flourish,” Hernandez said. Ayala said that it’s not just ICS students who benefit from the
ERIN BARKER / The Reveille
The Hill Memorial Library sits on Field House Drive on Nov. 3, 2023, on LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge, La.
Ashlynn Baillio is an LSU mass communication senior. This story was produced as part of the Manship School’s newspaper and online journalism course.
ENTERTAINMENT Check out these bakeries for the best king cakes in Baton Rouge PUZZLES
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BY PAIGE CHERAMIE Staff Writer
With the winter holidays wrapping up and the new year beginning, it is officially the start of the Carnival season. With Mardi Gras on the horizon, it is the perfect time to enjoy king cake, a delicious trademark of Carnival. For those new to the South, king cake is a traditional Mardi Gras dessert. Cinnamon and sugar are rolled into dough, which is then shaped into a ring, topped with icing and decorated with purple, green and gold sprinkles. Lastly, a small plastic figurine of baby Jesus is hidden in the cake. Tradition holds that whoever gets the slice with the baby is expected to host the next Mardi Gras party or simply purchase the next king cake. If you’re looking to try king cake for the first time, or if you just moved to Baton Rouge and are unsure of where to purchase one of these delectable treats, look no further than this list of places you can find king cakes in Baton Rouge.
Joe Gambino’s Bakery With locations in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette, this bakery is a great place to purchase a multitude of different king cakes. Joe Gambino’s Bakery was founded in 1949, and this New Orleans-born company was grown through a love of baking and a rich history of delicious treats. From traditional to applefilled, this bakery on Goodwood Boulevard has it all when it comes to these festive cakes. Joe Gambino’s bakery has many bundle deals, ranging from a pack of six cream cheese king cakes to a Fat Tuesday bundle. This bundle features three king cakes of different flavors with packs of decorative icing on the side for a fun activity during Mardi Gras celebrations.
cake and bingo class where you can learn to make a king cake while playing bingo with fellow classmates. The pricing of these cakes depends on the flavor and filling. There are many fun varieties to choose from, such as blueberries and cream, banana pudding and cookies and cream. There is even a gluten-free option for traditional king cakes, as well as a DIY king cake kit with the dough pre-made and ready for a cinnamon sugar dusting. This kit comes with baking instructions, perfect for beginner bakers.
CounterSpaceBR CounterSpaceBR is a bakery located on Government Street dedicated to cookies and layered cakes, but for the Carnival season, it opens its doors to the traditional New Orleans treat. Although this bakery only offers a traditional cinnamon sugar king cake, it provides a variety of cake options, with dietary needs a focus of their sweets. When placing an order for CounterSpaceBR’s cakes, you can choose between a traditional sized king cake and a mini king cake. After selecting a size, you can choose between traditional, vegan, gluten free and gluten free and vegan options. If you have an extra sweet tooth, you can even order a cookie-filled king cake, a unique flavor not found in many places.
The Ambrosia Bakery This bakery, located on Siegen Lane, is dedicated to spreading the celebration of Mardi Gras. Not only are there a variety of king cakes for sale at their store, but they offer UPS shipping for their king cakes, allowing this Mardi Gras tradition to travel vast distances. There are two UPS shipping options, including UPS Next Day Air shipping or UPS Ground shipping. All shipped cakes are shrink
wrapped and come with icing and sugar sprinkles on the side, allowing you to decorate the fresh cake upon arrival. For those in town, you can order a cake for in-store pick-up at The Ambrosia Bakery, where a variety of fun flavors are up for grabs. The bakery even features a purple and gold king cake, a wonderful treat for any Tigers celebrating Mardi Gras.
Supermarkets If you don’t want to go through the process of ordering a king cake — or simply don’t want to drive to a bakery — you can always pick up a cake in the bakery section of your local supermarket while shopping for your groceries. Walmart and Rouses Market have similar limited flavor options with an average price of $20. However, if you want to stay close to campus, you can take a short walk to Matherne’s Market right across Nicholson Drive, which sells a few different king cake flavors starting at $17. These stores may have limited flavors, but they make up for it in convenience and pricing. Trader Joe’s is also an excellent place where many people, including Louisiana natives, can try a new Mardi Gras dessert. The store does not offer a traditional king cake, but it does offer a King Cake Kringle — a Danish pastry inspired by king cake. This sweet treat costs about $15 and is similar in size to a traditional cake, making it one of the cheapest supermarket and bakery options. If you are looking for a wide variety of flavors to choose from while also shopping for groceries, you can visit Oak Point Market St. George, a grocery store known for its selection of king cakes. With fun flavors inspired by the media to traditional flavors like cream cheese filling, this grocery store has it all. The store is constantly marketing its cakes on Facebook, so be sure to check out its page for limited time special flavors.
Eloise Market and Cakery This market and cakery, founded by LSU alumna Madelyn Schmidt, is a Baton Rouge-grown company. Schmidt built this business with the support of her family after beginning her cake decorating journey while she was an undergraduate student. You can purchase a king cake from the Eloise Market and Cakery located on Perkins Road by pre-ordering at least 24 hours in advance or stop by the market and purchase a cake on a firstcome, first-served basis. However, if you’re looking to try your hand at baking, you can attend a king
COURTESY OF JOE GAMBINO’S BAKERY
A traditional king cake from Joe Gambino’s Bakery.
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THE Daily Commuter Puzzle by Stella Zawistowski ACROSS 1 Young blossoms 5 Osaka’s country 10 Wagers 14 Desktop image 15 Colombian corncake 16 Steakhouse option 17 Tomato-juice cocktail: 2 wds. 19 Region 20 Ballet-class support 21 Upright piano 23 Melody 26 Travel by cruise ship 27 Vision test: 2 wds. 30 Bike rider 34 Growth on stale bread 35 Attend, as a party: 2 wds. 37 Passover meal 38 Birth control type: Abbr. 39 Sports data, for short 41 Promise to pay: Abbr. 42 Dog’s reward 45 Go __ detail 46 Kia SUV 47 Small, hot chile 49 Not appropriately 51 Director Joel or Ethan 52 Waffle brand 53 “The magic word” 56 Inflexible 60 Heavy metal 61 Reduce in intensity 66 Simplicity 67 __ your lesson 68 Divisible by two 69 __ in your pants 70 John of music 71 “Ratatouille” rat DOWN 1 Lettuce variety 2 The NCAA’s Bruins: Abbr. 3 Entryway 4 Laughed derisively
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5 Former QB Cutler 6 Pitcher’s asset 7 Sphere in a pod 8 Fourth month: Abbr. 9 Reject 10 Written language for blind people 11 Deserve 12 Maple or magnolia 13 Place to perch 18 Un, __, trois 22 Photos 24 Pesters 25 Hope or sadness 26 Pippen of basketball 27 Gives off 28 “__ kidding!” 29 Senior citizen 31 Total fool 32 South Korea’s capital 33 Genuinely 36 Author Amy 40 Composer’s product 43 Game parlors
Wednesday’s Puzzle Solved
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44 New Mexico town 46 “__ alert!” 48 Sewing implement 50 Taj Mahal’s city 53 Earnest entreaty 54 Low-fat 55 __ Orange, NJ
1/15/26
57 Donated 58 Celebrity couple 59 Reject 62 Snakelike fish 63 Have a meal 64 Sold-out theater’s sign: Abbr. 65 “The Situation Room” network
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Students board a Tiger Trails bus as they head home after classes.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
Highland Road is divided into lanes with traffic cones and road closed signs.
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Thursday, January 15, 2026
Psychology senior Emily Bradley sits on the Parade Ground while studying.
HUSTLE BUSTLE and
Photos by Luke Ray | Design by Emily Boudreaux
A group of students walk through Memorial Oak Grove.
The start of the Spring semester brings busy scenes around campus and Highland Road on Jan. 14.
Students sit in the LSU Student Union eating, studying and spending time with friends.
A freshly paved section of Highland Road sits completed during ongoing construction.
Students walk through the Quad as they transition between classes.
Construction workers tear up the road during ongoing construction on Highland Road.
Students walk through Free Speech Alley as vendors set up selling clothing and other items.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
page 8 FILM & TV
Rev Rank: ‘Hamnet’ is on track to becoming instant classic BY SARAH WALTON Staff Writer “Hamnet,” directed by Chloé Zhao, may just be the best film of the year. It just won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, and the American Film Association named it as one of the outstanding movies of the year. As “Hamnet” continues to rack up nominations and awards, it proves time and time again the beauty and the strength of its storytelling. There is a quality like no other to this film, as if it is living and breathing right along with its audience members. “Hamnet” tells the story of Agnes and William Shakespeare, their love story and the tragedy that came when losing their son Hamnet. The film follows the parents after experiencing one of life’s greatest tragedies and shows how it led to the creation of one of the most famous plays of all time, “Hamlet.” “Hamnet” is based off of the 2020 book written by Maggie O’Farrell. Zhao translates all of the best parts of the book and brings the visuals she is most well known for. The script, written by Zhao and O’Farrell, is beautiful in such a poetic way that it is so easy to fall in love with this story. The camerawork was phenomenal, and the smoothness and beauty in its movement, as well as the intentional placement of objects within the frame, helped to masterfully develop the story.
The visuals, like all of Chloé Zhao’s work, was spectacular, mixed with a sensational score, it can make an audience member feel like they are truly living in this story. One of the greatest tools used when creating this film was sound. A lot of time is spent in the forest and in Shakespeare’s birthplace, and the natural sounds make the film better. In the forest scenes, you can hear the birds, the wind and all the subtle and great movements of the forest, grounding the audience in the world of the film. The costumes and set design
were incredible as well. They were accurate to the time period and added to the reality of the film. The use of light and color in the set and the costumes also tell an interesting story if you can keep your eye on it. “Hamnet” is fantastic in technical terms, but it is the performances that are the heart and soul of this picture. Paul Mescal gives a great performance as Shakespeare, bringing a loving and fatherly perspective of a figure so talked about but barely known. Hamnet is not the first role for 12-year-old actor Jacobi Jupe, but it sure is his greatest
so far. He brings such a charm and wonder to the role. A sobering and yet darling fact about the casting of the film is that his older brother, Noah Jupe, plays a character that mirrors Jacobi’s later on in the film. Jessie Buckley is a gift to the world of performing. She truly became Agnes and gave a beautiful and heartbreaking performance. Buckley just won a Golden Globe and a Critic’s Choice award for Best Actress, and they were more than deserved. To depict the joy, terror, anguish and bliss that comes with being a mother in the way
AGATA GRZYBOWSKA / Focus Features via AP
A scene from “Hamnet.”
she does is a marvel. As a Shakespeare scholar, history nerd and poet with a bleeding heart, I have never seen something so beautiful and brimmed with an understanding of the human experience like this. This movie was a truly compelling look at grief and love with Shakespeare in the mix. Out of all the things in this film, the final scene really did it for me. I have never seen a better depiction of why I find theater to be so important and moving. Seeing the way Agnes and the spectators of a production of “Hamlet” are comforted and connected to the story moved me to tears. If you haven’t seen it, I won’t spoil what happens, but there is such a beautiful magnetism to this ending. It is such a gift to create work that, in some way, connects you to others and allows you to exist in your humanness. I couldn’t help but think how beautiful it is that in his grief, Shakespeare wrote a play about his son and his own grief. And now the entire world knows of and loves, even in a small way, his son Hamnet. The prediction is that “Hamnet” will be at minimum receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, but time will tell, with the nominations being released on the 22nd. And for those who wish to see “Hamnet” on the big screen, AMC Baton Rouge 16 is set to show the film Jan. 23–28.
FOOD & RESTAURANT
Starbucks’ new Dubai chocolate menu is a year too late
BY MIA HATTAWAY Staff Writer Microtrends are an inevitable cycle that always end with the soft whimper of overexposure. While Dubai chocolate took over the world in 2024, I fear Starbucks has forced the sweet treat to embrace the “grindset” as it transitions to its corporate era. As an addition to the U.S. winter menu, Starbuck s launched a Dubai chocolate palate for matcha and mocha on Jan. 6. The former blends matcha with pistachio sauce, topped with a chocolate cold foam and a salted brownbuttery crumble, while the mocha is topped with a pistachio cold foam and the same nutty crumble. Dubai chocolate is a pistachio and kataifi filling shelled by milk chocolate, which was inspired by knafeh, a traditional Arab dessert. Though FIX Dessert Chocolatier has been selling the treat since 2021, it wasn’t until December 2023 that it blew up when
Ukrainian influencer Maria Vehera posted a taste test of the “Can’t Get Knafeh Of It” bar. chocolate-dipped From strawberries with pistachio butter to Labubu- shaped Dubai chocolate bars, the flavor has seen many iterations – all of which contributed to the snack’s popularity to the point of the term becoming a staple in brainrot culture. Posts about fanum tax and Livvy Dunne were just a swipe away from a performative male, who carries a Bell Hooks novel in one hand and a matcha in the other. Herein lies the apparent target audiences for Starbuck’s newest drinks – those enamored by brainrot and performative males. Starbuck s has been pushing in recent years to stay on top of trends, though each attempt tends to arrive just slightly too late. As Dubai chocolate became more mainstream and accessible to the public, its general appeal decreased. If the
coffee chain had released these flavors during early to mid-sum mer, there would be a lot more buzz than is present now, after over a year since the trend original ly took off. Even worse than being mostly irrelevant, Starbuck s couldn’t even manage to make the drink half decent. Though I would consider myself a matcha connois seur and a casual appreciator of the viral sweet treat, Starbuck’s Dubai Chocolate Matcha ended up falling flat. While I don’t particularly enjoy the chain’s matcha, it especial ly misses the mark here. The cold foam ends up overpowering every other flavor, making it taste more like a malt than a matcha. To make matters worse, the pistachio is entirely too subtle for it to even begin to be considered similar to Dubai chocolate. As I took my final sips, I couldn’t help but think it lacked the main appeal of Dubai chocolate: the sensory experience. The crunch of the kataifi contrasted by
the pistachio cream that envelops it is what makes the treat so delectable. Such a mouthfeel simply isn’t compatible with a handcra fted iced drink, no matter how many ways you try to replicate it. Though frappucinos are considered dated, I think they are the only
drink that would translate the texture effectively. With so much brainrot talk, I feel it’s only right to rate the drink based on the merits of TikTok sensation the Rizzler: Starbuck’s Dubai Chocolate Matcha gets a measly two out of five big booms from me.
COURTESY OF STARBUCKS
Starbucks’ new Iced Dubai Chocolate Mocha and Iced Dubai Chocolate Matcha.
SPORTS
page 9
BASEBALL
Baseball tops preseason polls
DOUBLE TROUBLE
BY ALEX SHEESLEY Staff Writer This past week, two major pollsters forecasted LSU baseball to be one of the top teams in the country once again. LSU is ranked No. 1 and No. 2 by Perfect Game and D1Baseball in their respective preseason baseball polls. This is the first time it is ranked No. 1 in any preseason poll since 2023, the same year LSU claimed its seventh national championship. These rankings continue a trend of the Tigers not opening a season ranked out of the top 10 under head coach Jay Johnson. LSU has ranked no worse than eighth in major preseason polls since he took the top step of the dugout in 2022. The 2026 roster blends established starters with freshmen and transfers with tremendous upside. LSU returns seven posi-
see POLLS, page 10 TIGER GIRLS
Kiffin secures two top quarterbacks out of the transfer portal
RICK SCUTERI / AP Photo
Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt (10) in the first half of an NCAA college football game against Texas State Sept. 13 in Tempe, Ariz. BY ROSS ABBOUD Deputy Sports Editor LSU head football coach Lane Kiffin inherited an LSU roster that would end up having no scholarship quarterbacks on it as the transfer portal opened. For a week, fans were concerned about LSU’s inability to land a quarterback commitment as transfers seemingly poured into every other position. But in a 48-hour span, starting Monday, Kiffin has turned around the quarterback position. It started with Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt. Leavitt was a consensus top-
three player available, with multiple outlets naming him the top player. Leavitt began his career at Michigan State before transferring to Arizona State as a redshirt freshman. He would earn the starting job that season and throw for 2,885 yards and 24 touchdowns as he led the Sun Devils to the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. Following his redshirt freshman season, he was named the 2024 Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year. He entered 2025 as a player to watch for the Heisman. He threw for 1,628 yards and 10 touchdowns in seven games before be-
ing sidelined for the season with a foot injury. He underwent surgery late last year on his foot, and is expected to be healthy before this season. Then, on Wednesday, it was former USC quarterback Husan Longstreet. Longstreet is the No. 6 quarterback in the transfer portal and a top-20 overall player after transferring from USC. He comes from Corona, California, and was rated as a five-star and a top-50 prospect out of high school. He redshirted as a freshman, only appearing in four games for the Trojans. He went 13-for-15 as a passer with 103 yards and a
touchdown, all while recording 11 carries for 76 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. Longstreet has a standing relationship with Kiffin, having placed Ole Miss as one of his final schools in his recruitment last year. Longstreet also has family in Louisiana and grew up in Texas and Tennessee before moving to the west coast. Kiffin and the offensive staff have been able to stabilize a room that was plagued with departures just weeks ago. Now, with three scholarship quarterbacks, LSU has depth and talent as it nears the end of the transfer portal window.
When do Tiger Girls compete at nationals? Men’s basketball blows potential first SEC win by letting up buzzer-beater to Kentucky MENS BASKETBALL
BY AINSLEY FLOOD Sports Editor
The LSU Tiger Girls have arrived in Orlando, Florida, where they will compete against the top programs in the country for the 2026 UDA College & Dance Team National Championships this weekend. They are four-time DIA Hip Hop national champions, most recently in 2022 and 2024, but only placed sixth last year after reaching the finals. During the performance to Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River,” some of the dancers’ umbrellas — used as props during the dance — malfunctioned mid-routine. LSU’s jazz performance just missed the cut for the finals with a 12th-place overall finish after the semi-finals. In 2024, the group placed third with a dance to “Are You That Somebody” by Aaliyah, a program-high finish in the category. This year, the Tiger Girls are looking to top that with a brand
see UDA, page 10
BY RAMI BURKS Staff Writer The LSU men’s basketball defense fell apart late to lose its fourth straight SEC game versus Kentucky despite an electric atmosphere in the PMAC. The atmosphere carried LSU to a lead for most of the game, but the matchup was ended by a silencing Kentucky buzzerbeater. LSU was up by 18 points at the turn of the half, but the Tigers slowly crumbled in the second. Mistakes piled up, and with less than two seconds left on the clock, Pablo Tamba missed two crucial free throws, which left the Tigers vulnerable. With the score 74-73, one point stood between the two teams. The ball was launched downcourt, and Kentucky’s Malachi Moreno jumped to catch the ball over the fingertips of Robert
Miller III. He turned and put up a jump shot near the free-throw line, killing LSU’s hopes and clinching a 75-74 win. “They really got going from behind the 3-point line, and we could not get enough stops there,” head coach Matt McMahon said. “All that said, you’re in position to win the game, and unfortunately, I couldn’t help get our guys across the finish line there. So really proud of our players’ response, I think we got a lot better the last couple of days. Obviously crushed that we weren’t able to finish the deal.” After three upsetting outcomes to start conference play, the Tigers took another loss to continue this rough patch. However, no matter the outcome of this game, the fans kept the game interesting. The electric atmosphere was
see KENTUCKY, page 10
CHANDLER TROTTER / The Reveille
LSU men’s basketball senior forward Marquel Sutton (10) shoots the ball during a game against Kentucky Jan. 14 at the PMAC in Baton Rouge, La.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
page 10 GYNMASTICS
GYMNASTICS
Jay Clark’s passion is fueling LSU Kailin Chio earns SEC gymnastics into meet vs Georgia Gymnast of the Week BY GABBY GRAY Staff Writer
BY DELANEY POTTHAST Staff Writer
No. 2 LSU gymnastics is on the prowl as it prepares to face No. 8 Georgia this Friday night in Athens, Georgia. Despite placing second in the Sprouts Collegiate Quad on Saturday, the Tigers managed to bring some stand-out performances to the table, with sophomore Kailin Chio snagging the all-around title at the end of the night. Following Chio in fourth place for the title, was junior Madison Ulrich, who tied with Oklahoma’s Addison Fatta for her spot. “We have so much depth, and we have so many routines that we can put out there,” Chio said. “So I think that this meet showed that anybody can step up and prove themselves.” Standing by the Tigers throughout the competition is LSU head coach Jay Clark, who was the subject of controversy following last weekend’s meet. As his team competed on the balance beam for its final event of the night, footage of Clark engaging with the meet referee was captured on the broadcast following junior Konnor McClain’s routine. Clark addressed the ordeal during a press conference on Monday, where he explained that he was inquiring about Lexi Zeiss’ awarded score and how it was being calculated. Zeiss was originally awarded a 9.875, until a judge changed her score card at the last minute, dropping Zeiss to a 9.750. “I put an inquiry in because I thought she [a meet judge] was not counting that turning element that Lexi does,” Clark said. “It’s called a double wolf turn. It’s worth two tenths, not one. It’s an E, not a D. And I thought maybe she had missed that, and that ended up being the case.” After the judge corrected her score card, Zeiss’ score was expected to return to a 9.875, but, that was not the case. As a 9.850 flashed on the screen, Clark visited the meet referee to figure out why Zeiss’ score wasn’t restored, prompting what some gymnastics fans considered to be inappropri-
In just the second week of the season, LSU’s Kailin Chio has earned the SEC Gymnast of the Week award following an outstanding performance in the Sprouts Collegiate Quad this past Saturday. With an average score of 9.900 in her season debut, the sophomore had managed to surpass the UCLA Olympian Jordan Chiles for the individual allaround win with an all-around score of 39.600. The Tigers saw their first rotation on the floor exercise, with Chio putting up a 9.900 performance, the best of the rotation. Not long after, the reigning
ERIN BARKER / The Reveille
LSU gymnastics head coach Jay Clark talks to the team before competing on bars Jan. 19, 2024, during LSU’s 198.125-197.600 win against Kentucky in the PMAC in Baton Rouge, La.
NCAA Vault Champion earned a 9.900 on the event, followed by a 9.850 on the uneven bars. By rotation four, Kailin was trailing Chiles by just 0.025 points and a stellar beam performance resulted in a near perfect 9.950, her highest score of the season thus far. Winning the 2025 SEC Freshman of the Week award nine times and the 2025 SEC Freshman of the Year award last season, Chio has set the bar high in her first week of regular season competition. As LSU gears up for a matchup against the No. 8 Georgia Bulldogs on Friday night, all eyes will be on the talented sophomore as she continues to make her mark.
ate behavior. “What you saw me being animated about was explaining to the meet referee, ‘This is what went up, this is what was put into the system and this is the score that was flashed,’” Clark said. “Then it got changed, and now we’re reviewing it. We’ve been shown to be correct, and yet the score didn’t return to what it originally was scored.” While some fans deemed Clark’s behavior to be inappropriate and deserving of a “yellow card,” others felt that he was advocating for his gymnasts with a passion. “It was just a frustrating thing,” Clark said. “You know, I’m not questioning anybody’s integrity. It’s possible there was a mistake that the flasher put up the wrong score in the first place. I don’t know, but it just seemed ironic, you know? And it was a frustrating moment.” Whether Clark was truly in the wrong is something for viewers to decide. However, the support that he extends to his gymnasts is undeniable and will continue to follow his team to Athens this weekend. The strides Clark makes for his gymnasts go beyond advocating for their performances but also accounts for their growth and how they can push themselves to be better.
“We tell them whether it’s good. We don’t stay there,” Clark said. “If it’s good or bad, we don’t stay there. We’re not looking back ever.” LSU’s performance as a team echoes Clark’s coaching mentality, one that focuses strictly on what’s next regardless of the level of the competition. While some fans feel the pressure of a conference opening meet weighing down on their team, Clark ensures that his gymnasts are going to compete like they would any other day, focusing only on what they can control. “We do have a regular season championship, so you want to win these for sure, but philosophically, and the way that I think — I ain’t giving it another thought,” Clark said. “It’s on to the next one, it really doesn’t make any difference to me.” Since LSU has claimed back-toback SEC Championship titles over the last two years, Tiger fans have high expectations for the team this season; however, this program is reminding them that it’s not about the past, it’s all about the future. “Jay always talks about the five minutes in front of your face, and that’s what’s next,” Chio said. “What we did last week now, doesn’t matter. What happens this week in Georgia is what matters now.”
KENTUCKY, from page 9 second to none, as most LSU athletes come to expect, and McMahon said they appreciated the fans for bringing the noise and energy. “I thought the atmosphere, especially in the second half, was phenomenal,” McMahon said. The Tigers played a bit more of a backwards game than they have in the past. Many times this season, the offense has started off fairly strong in the beginning, but after a few minutes, the defensive struggles kick in, and LSU has to fight for the momentum it started the game with. The defense stepped up big time tonight for the purple and gold, holding the Wildcats to 22 points in the first half, but faltered in the second, allowing 51. LSU took hold of Kentucky’s mistakes for most of the game, something it had struggled to do prior to this game. It was a step in the right direction, but the Tigers couldn’t execute when it mattered. Fifth-year senior forward Marquel Sutton led LSU in scoring by a long shot, which is something he hasn’t done as of late. He’s had hot and cold moments the last few games, and tonight was a hot moment.
He scored 16 points in the contest, going 5-for-9 from the field. He played well off the energy in the stadium and contributed to it at the start of the game. Not only did he lead the team in scoring, but he also made the first bucket of the game: a 3-point shot two minutes into the game. The one area LSU’s number of free throws trended back upwards on Wednesday. In nonconference play, LSU gold typically shot over 20 free throws a game, but it’s dipped under 18 for each SEC game. Other than the matchup against Kentucky, the next lowest scoring game at the free throw line was against South Carolina, with 14 attempts. On Wednesday versus the Wildcats, the Tigers only had 28 attempts, and they made 18 of them. While the number of times the Tigers got to the line was an improvement, they missed more than they have all season. After all the drama in the PMAC on a Wednesday night, the Tigers dropped their fourth conference game in a row, effectively putting McMahon in the hot seat. LSU takes on Missouri on the road Saturday at 2 p.m. CT to try to rewrite the story of the season.
UDA, from page 9
POLLS, from page 9
new set of routines they’ll hope can capture a fifth national title. Competition begins on Friday, Jan. 16, at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex with LSU taking the floor at 5:48 p.m. CT to wrap up the DIA Jazz prelims. The Tiger Girls will unveil their hip hop routine in the semifinals on Saturday night at 8:56 p.m. CT. All performances and award ceremonies can be streamed live with a subscription to Varsity TV. Finals for jazz and hip hop will take place on Sunday, Jan. 18, and final results will be announced that day starting at 2:15 p.m. CT.
tion players who had substantial starting time in 2025, headlined by sophomore outfielder Derek Curiel, who is projected to be one of the nation’s best players and a candidate to be taken in the first round of the MLB Draft after this college season. The pitching staff retains 10 arms and contains a pair of preseason All-Americans in senior right-handed pitcher Zac Cowan and sophomore righthander Casan Evans. LSU is also set to regain junior righty Gavin Guidry’s services after he sat out all of 2025 with a back in-
jury. The Tigers boast a No. 3 ranking from Baseball America for their most recent recruiting class, bringing in a number of top high school arms from around the country. Right-handed pitchers Marcos Paz and Reagen Ricken were both ranked by Baseball America as top-25 recruits at their position. LSU gained depth through the transfer portal, as well. Six of LSU’s 11 incoming transfers were ranked in Baseball America’s list of top 100 transfers. Junior infielder Trent Caraway comes to Baton Rouge after making it to Omaha with Or-
egon State in the 2025 College World Series. Caraway earned Most Outstanding Player honors in the Corvallis Regional during the Beavers’ run. Twenty-one of LSU’s 56 games will be against teams that are in either set of rankings, making for one of the more challenging schedules in the country. The Tigers will play series against Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Georgia and Florida, teams that all feature in at least one of the two rankings. At large, LSU is joined by eight other SEC foes on the Perfect Game rankings: No. 3 Ten-
nessee, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 8 Texas, No. 10 Auburn, No. 12 Florida, No. 15 Georgia and No. 19 Vanderbilt. D1Baseball has 11 SEC teams in its rankings and still has LSU as the best in the conference; No. 3 Texas, No. 4 Mississippi State, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 9 Auburn, No. 13 Florida, No. 14 Tennessee, No. 15 Georgia, No. 18 Kentucky, No. 23 Vanderbilt and No. 25 Texas A&M. LSU kicks off its 2026 season on Feb. 13, hosting Milwaukee in what the Tigers hope to be the start of a successful title defense.
OPINION
page 11
Enjoy, experience music beyond lyrical language barriers BERGERON’S BRIEFINGS THOMAS BERGERON Columnist Not to date myself with this reference, but in “The Fault in Our Stars,” when our main characters, Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters, meet their favorite estranged author, Peter van Houten, they find him listening to Swedish hip-hop. Lancaster, now disappointed in meeting her hero, complains “We don’t speak Swedish, sir,” whereas van Houten retorts, “Who the hell speaks Swedish? It’s not what nonsense the voices are saying, but what the voices are feeling.” While not at all the highlight of John Green’s beloved 2012 novel, this interaction stuck with me, especially as I began to listen to music in languages I didn’t understand or, in some cases, music that abandoned words altogether. I found that the lack of lyrical comprehension not only gave me
more to think about but actually increased my enjoyment of music that much more — in the same kind of way that solving logic puzzles tickles the brain. Speaking from experience, writing can be hard, so I can only imagine how hard writing lyrics to a song can be. Balancing reason, rhyme and rhythm can be tricky business, making a track unforgettable — good or bad. However, when I can easily understand every word, it can sometimes seem like a singer is dictating to me what to feel and how to feel it. Much like van Houten’s refusal to write a definitive ending for his novel, “An Imperial Affliction,” I much prefer to solve the intentions of a composition myself. I know very little Spanish, but I love the bold, story-driven ballads of Mexican corridos. I know only a handful of Arabic words, but can groove to the mellowed, otherworldly sounds of Arab synth-pop all day. I know only enough Russian phrases to get myself into trouble, but the emotive dark synths of Russian post-
punk could easily make up most of the soundtrack to my life. Despite the obvious linguistic barriers, none of these genres feel particularly inaccessible to me. If anything, the absence of lyrical comprehension makes a piece far more honest, exposing the elements hiding behind the surface of sound. Without the focus on the meaning behind words, the character of the musical variables speak for themselves: the strained intonation of a singer’s voice can reveal the intense pain behind lyrics, a complex bassline can weave a lattice of attitude to keep a bluesy track ice cold or a subtle background guitar jangle can be the only thing keeping a chorus from sounding hollow. Without lyrics providing emotional directions, you’re left to interpret feelings through textures, rhythms and vibes. This listening habit takes an awful lot more participation, but the payoff is far more rewarding than your average two-minute-and-53-second Top 100 track. Art enjoyers of the cinephile
GRAPHIC BY JACOB CHASTANT
category also deliver a similar thesis about watching their niche foreign films, especially without subtitles — once dialogue stops carrying, the other methods of visual story telling like cinematography, physical and emotional acting and sound designs absolutely supplement a viewing experience. While usually missing the visual medium, music operates
in exactly the same way. When words step back, everything else has room to speak. These days, lots of items in pop culture are demanding your consumption with their mathematically successful advertising and their algorithmically digestible stories, attempting to make art nothing more than cheap novelties for you to get a quick dopamine hit, then move onto the next bauble. Listening to music through the language barrier not only adds a hint of hand crafted spice to your life but also can serve as a radical liberation cry against consumerism. So, you don’t need to know Japanese to feel the luxury of city pop, Brazilian to get hype on phonk or German to stomp down to industrial techno in an abandoned warehouse. You just need ears that hear and a mind that’s open. The voices don’t always need to make sense — they just need to feel. Thomas Bergeron is a 25-yearold graduate student from Baton Rouge, La.
Med students are in critical condition. BR needs a med school RILEY’S REVIEW RILEY SANDERS Columnist Since I was in the seventh grade, I’ve always dreamed of becoming an electrophysiologist, a cardiologist that specializes in care for the electrical system of the heart. To some, that may seem an absurd dream for a 13-year-old; for me, however, it is one that has always been close to my heart. Both my mom and my aunt are nurses, and my cousin is a doctor. My family also has a multitude of genetic heart issues. To seventh-grade me, such an aspiration was a no-brainer. Now in college, I am actually beginning the journey to achieve this goal of mine. Out of the many issues I’ll have to overcome along the way, one seems to nag at me more than the others: LSU has no medical school in or around Baton Rouge. The idea that LSU has no nearby medical program feels somewhat ridiculous to me. In the last few years, LSU has really hammered down on their campaign to appear
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Managing Editor
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News Editor
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Sports Editor
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one of the most STEM-forward institutions in the South and in the nation at large. In 2024, LSU broke ground on a 200,000 square-foot Interdisciplinary Science Building in partnership with Our Lady of the Lake. The university has added nearly $488 million in research activity over the last year and as a result contributed a massive $1 billion sum to the state’s economy. Through the Gordon A. Cain Center for STEM Literacy, LSU also amped up its Pathways initiative, which provides curriculum, scholarship and research support to K-12 schools all throughout Louisiana, over the past year in an effort to increase interest in pre-engineering, pre-veterinary, pre-medical and other science-based study programs. With these and many more landmark moves to further STEM education and advance professional STEM roles in Louisiana, it is laughable to me that LSU does not have its own medical school campus in or around Baton Rouge for a multitude of reasons. Firstly, at least for myself and many of my pre-med friends, I am certain that the choice to apply to
certain medical schools will be difficult because none of us want to attend LSU Health New Orleans or LSU Health Shreveport. It is not that these schools are not excellent; rather, they are poorly placed. New Orleans is not exactly the safest city for young people, or any people for that matter. Shreveport is arguably an even worse option as it lacks not only the liveliness and eventfulness of a large city like New Orleans, but it also lacks proximity to the rest of the LSU education system and health system at large; additionally, it is far away from most major urban employment hubs in the rest of the state. Secondly, while Louisiana is projected to face a physician shortage of nearly 5,000 by 2030, there is no shortage of pre-med students wishing to apply to medical school in the state. In the last academic year, there were 7,959 combined applicants to LSU Health New Orleans and LSU Health Shreveport, out of which only 345 were accepted — a mere 4.3% acceptance rate. Moreover, when factoring in that Louisiana’s only other doctor of medicine program, Tulane University School of Medicine, only accepted 190 applicants out of 15,708 — a
1.21% acceptance rate, Louisiana medical schools overall only accept around 2.3% of applicants yearly. To ignore such a serious demand for another medical school in Louisiana on both an interest-level and a level of necessity to the wellbeing of our state’s population is completely abhorrent. Lastly, LSU has a large amount of classroom space to use. The new OLOL Interdisciplinary Science Building exists solely for the purpose of educating undergraduates in STEM programs here and is one more connection to the already strong relationship between LSU and the Our Lady of the Lake health network — why not utilize some of that new space for medical students? Additionally, many programs of study do not have classes concentrated in singular buildings or areas. For example, many English classes are in Lockett Hall, but many are in Coates Hall and other buildings. So many classrooms sit empty for hours or even days on a weekly basis, and it makes no sense not to concentrate as many classes as possible in specific buildings by time scheduled. This large amount of free lecture space could be easily
Editorial Policies and Procedures The Reveille (USPS 145-800) is written, edited and produced solely by students of Louisiana State University. The Reveille is an independent entity of the Office of Student Media within the Manship School of Mass Communication. Signed opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, The Reveille or the university. Letters submitted for publication should be sent via e-mail to editor@lsu.edu or delivered to B-39 Hodges Hall. They must be 400 words or less. Letters must provide a contact phone number for verification purposes, which will not be printed. The Reveille reserves the right to edit letters and guest columns for space consideration while preserving the original intent. The Reveille also reserves the right to reject any letter without notification of the author. Writers must include their full names and phone numbers. The Reveille’s editor in chief, hired every semester by the LSU Student Media Board, has final authority on all editorial decisions.
utilized by an LSU Health branch in Baton Rouge. The idea that a medical school here would need to be centralized is a nonsensical one, especially as first- and second-year medical students are more involved in lecture material than active practice whereas third- and fourth-year medical students do more hands-on work. The former groups could be lectured in the Interdisciplinary Science Building, these empty halls and perhaps in a newly constructed building while the latter groups could be integrated into the OLOL hospital system right by LSU much like their New Orleans and Shreveport counterparts are at their respective locations. LSU isn’t exactly wanting for funding at the present moment, and if the system at large can shell out a reported $91 million to new football head coach Lane Kiffin — a single individual, mind you — then perhaps it ought to put the same or more money toward the localized medical program that people so clearly want and need. Riley Sanders is a 19-year-old biology major from Denham Springs, La.
Quote of the Week “Where there is no vision, there is no hope.” George Washington Carver American Scientist 1864 — 1943
page 12
Thursday, January 15, 2026
It’s past time to set your phone on Do Not Disturb
Letter to the Editor: ICE tears families apart
AVA’S POV AVA FRANCIS Columnist There’s a time in your life when you crave silence over everything else. Picture this. It’s Sunday. You sleep in but set your alarm early enough to enjoy the last moments of your weekend. Come mid-afternoon, you feel a sudden jab of anxiety when you hear a chime from your phone. You look across the room where it resides on a charger. Your gaze returns to the television and you sink your body into the cushions of your couch, falling into a deeper state of leisure.
Ding. You ignore it.
Ding, ding. You ignore the annoying chime once more, but eventually you lose the fight. The sound of incoming texts, calls and emails infiltrate your state of peace. You finally make your way off the couch, retrieving your phone to put the ringer on silent. It’s too late; you’ve seen too much. Oh no — the Sunday scaries have struck again.
That aesthetic lock screen you picked out is now hidden under a sea of notifications. A LinkedIn notification reads, “your friend Peter Parker has just accepted a job as a freelance photographer at the Daily Bugle” — a Gmail notification reads “don’t miss out on the last day of the Nordstrom sale” — then you read “Instagram, @carriebradshawwritesss liked your post” — 15 missed calls from Miranda Priestly … a Moodle assignment is due in 5 hours from William Schuster and a text that says “will you be my bridesmaid?” from Belly Conklin soon to be Mrs. Conrad Fisher. Oh, brother. If only there was a way all of this could have been avoided. You would still be binging HBO Max. To make sure this never happens again, you hop a flight to Paris, delete all of your social media, become a barista at Café de Flore, ditch your phone in the Seine on the way to Normandy for your weekend getaway and live happily ever after, free of the Sunday scaries. Or you can always just put your phone on Do Not Disturb. Let’s face it — sometimes that darling little feature is the closest thing we have to a disappearing act. No one likes feeling bombarded; that’s why a lot of people don’t make it through “Dry January.”
They become so stressed they reach for the sauvignon blanc. Ever since I joined the “Do Not Disturb Club” sometime last year, I have avoided the pure chaos that jumps out of our phones into our minds and causes an outbreak of overwhelming feelings and unnecessary levels of stress. Granted, ever since I’ve become accustomed to DND, I’ve missed my invitation to the Golden Globes and Charli XCX’s wedding, not to mention other lifechanging events. Don’t get me started on how many times I’ve been late to some pop culture news all because my Instagram notifications were turned off. Going on DND may be looked at as an irresponsible move, but I have to disagree. If something was incredibly important, we would send messenger pigeons, throw pebbles outside of each other’s windows or better yet, hold up a boom box until we “Say Anything.” An “in” for 2026 should be using DND as much as our hearts desire. Going MIA is necessary to protect your peace, having strong boundaries all while maintaining a chipper attitude. Sometimes silence is the answer. The world is loud and chaotic, but that doesn’t mean your life has to be. I’m thinking our collective tagline of 2026 reads, “Please leave
a message at the tone.” In all seriousness, turning our phones on Do Not Disturb shouldn’t be used as an excuse to ignore our responsibilities but a way to cope with our stress. We can’t let our inbox lead us into a life of fearful thinking, but we can tackle it by turning our ringers off and putting our notifications on pause. So here’s to a year of DND not dungeons and dragons, this isn’t Stranger Things we’re talking about — do not disturb is the DND we’re leaning into.
turn. There is a sadness here not only on the level of civilian death or the warping of a federal agency into a weapon, but also on the level of Good’s story being elevated above countless other murders by ICE. We must admit this story grasped national attention due to Good’s whiteness. I’d imagine most, including myself, have looked at ICE as a threat to minorities more so than anyone else. It’s easier to ignore injustice when isn’t knocking at your door, but Good’s murder should encourage us to take a hard look at ourselves; moreover, we must examine our administration and its tools. They don’t have our best interests at heart. We must pay attention to other victims of ICE: Marimar Martinez, Carlos Jiminez and others. Good’s death is a stark reminder that we are veering further away from individual critical thinking and increasingly closer to groupthink, which should frighten us. Do not let your leaders think for you and do not assume they are making decisions with your best interests in mind — we are far beyond this in today’s America. “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” - Abraham Lincoln
“This facility will also send a message that illegal immigrants should self-deport rather than face detention.” That prophecy, penned by a Louisiana representative months ago, bore fruit on December 29th last year with this horrific headline: “ICE contractor pleads guilty to sex assault, admits monthslong relationship with Louisiana detainee.” The representative’s opinion, “‘Louisiana Lockup’ will make America, Louisiana safer,” can be found online; it was published September 26th through The Washington Times. Though perhaps meant for just a few, all of us would be wise to read it to the end. This is not because it’s demographically accurate, as the story cherry-picks men, but the survivor is a mother. It’s not because it shines true, as the story paints detainees as akin to pardoned Proud Boys, but three-fourths of detainees don’t have any criminal record. Some aren’t even foreign-born — American citizens are now being detained. Both writings’ truth lies in their message to us all. In “deterrence” prisons, our loved ones may meet guards like David Courvelle of the headline; he still insists his predation was both a relationship and consensual. If he’s even charged, prosecutors may also shine their terror in this light: Government filings describe the survivor, held in The GEO Group’s “South Louisiana ICE Processing Center,” as in a “romantic relationship” with the 56-year-old man. Her romance was being “bribed” through smuggled-in pictures of her daughter and through unspoiled food. She’s not the only woman processed this way. Before both contractor Courvelle’s conviction and the representative’s commentary, another headline proved prophetic: “Civil rights complaint alleges systemic sexual abuse at Louisiana ICE facility.” The complaint diagnosed men like then-hidden Courvelle not as isolated predators but as “part of a systemic pattern of abuse that those in authority at the facility cannot or will not correct.” Mothers deserve better than that.
Riley Sanders is a 19-year-old biology major from Denham Springs, La.
Andrew Kemp is a 36-year-old LSU alumnus from Baton Rouge, La.
Ava Francis is a 22-year-old journalism major from New Orleans.
GRAPHIC BY CARMEN RANDOLPH
Renee Good’s unjust death shouldn’t be leveraged RILEY’S REVIEW RILEY SANDERS Columnist On Jan. 7, a Minneapolis woman named Renee Nicole Good, 37, was shot and killed by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Thanks to bystanders, millions quickly witnessed the event. Good parked her vehicle on a residential street to obstruct an ICE operation. Good allowed four vehicles to pass while her partner questioned an agent walking around the vehicle. Two ICE agents exited, commanding Good to “get out of the car.” The agent speaking to Good’s partner shifted to the front driver’s side. One agent attempted to open Good’s door after she switched into reverse and then into drive. As Good attempted to steer away, noticeably attempting to avoid harming agents, the agent in front shot Good three times through the windshield. In the following hours, it seemed everyone had something to say. People crafted their own narratives — Good was a saint or terrorist and Ross an American hero or murderer. Fortunately, many witnessed the events through raw video footage before anyone could divert the conversation. Nevertheless, our regular agita-
tors did what they do best — they lied and turned the situation into one benefitting their own agendas. Trump in a Truth Social post described Good as having “violently, willfully, and viciously r[un] over the ICE officer.” He also claimed the officer was acting in “self-defense.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called Good a “domestic terrorist” and said that Ross was simply “defend[ing] himself … and those individuals around him.” Rep. Ilhan Omar framed Good simply as an innocent “legal observer.” Had anyone not seen the footage from several angles before consuming these reactions, it would appear as if Good was some villain attempting to ruthlessly murder federal agents or an angel, with no in between. This is far from the truth. Good was neither violent nor vicious; rather, she waved multiple cars on including those of ICE agents. Confused and frightened, she attempted to drive off and veered her wheel away from the officer, at which point she was shot. To title Good as some insurgent is not only entirely disingenuous — it’s entirely ludicrous. Even worse, to defend Ross as some hero is absolutely disgusting in light of his actions. He endangered people around him by shooting into Good’s active vehicle and allowing it to accelerate freely away.
He proceeded to walk toward the vehicle, refused nearby medical care and told bystanders to call 911 as he and other agents fled the scene. Ross committed a felony by tampering with an active crime scene he created. Of course, of the opposing claims being made about this situation, there are people who seek to turn Good into a martyr. Good was a daughter, a mother, a partner, a friend and just your average person with no record of deviance; that said, she was not entirely innocent. She was obstructing a federal operation and was caught between a rock and a hard place. She was breaking the law, but it is apparent she tried to correct herself, if only too late. The weaponization of a civilian woman’s death as a means of division is certainly wrong. To frame Good or her killer purely as saint and sinner or vice versa is foolish. The truth is in the middle. The most reasonable view of the situation is that Good was at most a petty criminal and otherwise a normal civilian, and Ross committed negligent homicide and felony tampering with a crime scene. Good was clearly frightened, conflicted and confused. On some level, perhaps Ross too was afraid if only by the fact that his foot was some feet from an active vehicle. That said, the footage clearly indicates that Ross was prepared to shoot before Good attempted to
BY ANDREW KEMP