On Nov. 15, the UnprecedenteD Upsilon Delta Chapter of Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority, Incorporated, introduced their Tau line at Herrick Hall for a new member presentation. 

Those present included members of the Beta Zeta Chapter of the Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity, the Zeta Phi Chapter of Lambda Theta Alpha, Alpha Psi Lambda and Delta Phi Lambda, which are all chapters of Denison University. New member presentations officially unveil new members to campus and celebrate their work during the new member process, along with showcasing the sorority’s history, values, and traditions.

The celebration started at approximately 7:09 p.m., with the lighting in Herrick Hall dimmed down, displaying their trademark colors, shocking pink and majestic purple. When the new member entered, their face was hidden by a pair of sunglasses. The ceremony passed by beautifully, with the mentee thanking those that have helped them along their journey. They gave a special shout out to their associate member educator and assisant associate member educator, to whom they state they couldn’t have finished their journey without. 

After her reveal, Sara Amjad ‘28, said, “Sigma Lambda Gamma has given me a place of comfort and love. My siblings are truly some of the best people I have ever met, and they complete me!”

“Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority, Inc is the largest and fastest growing multicultural sorority in the nation. We strive to create an inclusive environment for women of all cultures through the promotion of our five principles, academics, community service, cultural awareness, social interaction and morals and ethics,” says vice president Natalie Gutierrez ‘26. 

The SLG Chapter at Denison University was established on Mar. 31, 2010, as part of the Multicultural Greek Council. Since, they managed to grow to become one of the most diverse sororities on campus which is reflective of their motto, “Culture is Pride, Pride is Success.” Their newly presented Tau line comes from an Egyptian background, but past members have come from all walks of life, including but not limiting Mexican, Brazilian, and Japanese roots. They emphasize that while the sorority is Latina founded, they are not Latina exclusive. 

One of the key philanthropic contributions the Denison Chapter of SLG does is continually fundraises for breast cancer. During Breast Cancer Awareness Week this year, they hosted many events, which included a Matcha and Mingle event and a Breast Cancer Awareness Walk. Their most recent event was an Abuelita chocolate and cookies fundraiser. 

The purpose of new member presentations is to showcase new “lines” of culture in the sorority, and allowing other members space to appreciate that culture.

The post SLG reveals Tau line at new member presentation  first appeared on The Denisonian.

Liv Gjestvang worked on her first computer server on the floor of a coat closet. 

She had just recently graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in English and was working at David Zwirner, an art gallery in New York. 

Before she was hired, she was asked if she knew computers well. 

“I thought he meant Photoshop or something like that,” Gjestvang said. 

But when asked to work on the computer server, she had to enlist help from two owners of a company named Cyber City, inc. which assists art galleries in need of technological support. 

“They came in to help with my network, because I didn’t know what was going on,” Gjestvang said. “Then they ended up offering me a job to go work with them. That was really where I started.”

24 years later, Gjestvang was hired as the chief information officer (CIO) of Denison. She was recently given the 2025 EDUCAUSE organizational culture award and 2024 Ohio CIO of the Year ORBIE Award. She’s also a mother of three children, including being a surrogate mother. She has directed a film which won numerous film festival awards and has worked with companies such as PBS and Amazon. 

Her journey to her position and current accolades come from a career which is a winding blend of information technology work, artistic creation and advocacy. She said that she loves “the intersection of technology, innovation, creativity, education,” which generalizes the diverse career and life experiences she’s had. 

Throughout her time at Denison, she credits much of her work to her colleagues.

“I work with a really talented team,” Gjestvang said. “Having directors who lead different areas is super helpful, and I’m really trying to listen, advise and collaborate with them.”

Although one may imagine a CIO buried in the technical side of informational services, her position is much more wide-reaching. 

“I am not, like my team would probably tell you, a person who’s gonna go home and read about, cybersecurity, security protocols, or routers, in my free time because it’s my favorite thing to do,” Gjestvang said. “I’m much more interested in strategy and mission.” 

Her typical day starts with her and her wife helping get their children to school. She then heads from her home in Columbus to Denison. She tends to park up The Hill from the ITS building so that she can bike to work. Once she’s at work, there isn’t one way to describe what her day might look like, but it often centers around “really strong collaboration” of departments and parts of administration.

“It’s very helpful to be able to be at the table and thinking about and engaging with the strategic work across the whole college,” Gjestvang said. “IT has historically not always been at that table. But technology is integrated into every part of the college, and being there and hearing about what people are trying to do and being able to support them is important.” 

She said that bringing these teams together is one of the main focal points of her job.

“I’m super interested in how teams work together.” Gjestvang said. “How do we ensure that we have a really thriving campus environment that is welcoming and engaging for different kinds of students to learn… that’s what I’m super interested in.”

Besides meeting with departments of the college to discuss IT services, some of her work involves physically going to parts of campus to see what’s working and what isn’t. This past week, she’s followed a tour that prospective students take to closely examine the spaces students move through while visiting campus. 

Gjestvang and her team’s working process is always changing. She said that focusing on how their teams decide to spend their time more can refine their own processes. 

“It’s really about thinking of what’s most important and how can we make sure our work stays relevant and also engaging,” Gjestvang said. 

The technological field is also constantly changing, according to Gejestvang, so she and her team “has to constantly learn.”

“Nothing is the same as it was even a year ago,” Gjestvang said. “People need to be able to have an incredible amount of expertise and discipline, and also be able to be curious and find time and ways to learn new things. I love that part of my job.” 

As a leader, she tries to make sure those around her are recognized for their work. In her experience, “everything is better when people have the opportunity to do amazing work and be appreciated for it.” 

“Historically, there was this idea that the worker is there to serve the company, but the company also serves its workers too,” Gjestvang said. “Being able to do meaningful work and be appreciated for that work and to grow in the process… is really important to people.

Working within a learning environment is something Gjestvang has done throughout her career. After working as a network consultant for the gallery in New York, she moved to Columbus, where her wife lived, to work as an educator at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Her role included teaching documentary film and audio production to youth in the area. She founded the Columbus Jewish Film Festival shortly after her move, and also directed a film, “20 Straws: Growing Up Gay,” which featured LGBTQ students’ coming out and staying out stories. 

Gjestvang spent the majority of her career at the Ohio State University, where she said she got to “grow in a lot of ways and do some really fun and exciting projects” over the fifteen years she was employed there. 

“I did not think I was going to stay that long, but there kept being new opportunities to learn,” she said.

Following her time at OSU, she worked for Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a leader for an executive and community engagement team, which covered the worldwide, public sector, and higher education divisions to address challenges that institutions face.

“I’d been in the same environment for a long time and realized just how motivated I am by learning and being in a new environment.”

She eventually left that job to work at Denison, but before she did, she had apprehension about the CIO role. 

“I probably am on record somewhere saying I would never want to be a CIO because I think, especially when I was a little bit younger, I heard people who are in these tech leadership jobs who deal with security breaches, and get called in the middle of the night when stuff breaks,” Gjestvang said. 

Yet the job posting for the role at Denison stood out to her because she said, “it focused on strategy, vision, relationships and trust building.”

She hasn’t avoided late-night calls, however. Sometimes she’ll be called after working hours to address a school-wide technological problem that demands urgency. 

“In those moments, the best thing that you can do is create a really productive, safe and engaging context for people to push through,” Gjestvang said. 

When she leads her team through these processes, she also said that she doesn’t think it’s effective to “barrel through” but rather build an alliance while also stressing urgency while holding people accountable. She also said that means that most typically this means holding technological vendors accountable rather than her coworkers. 

She also makes sure to hold herself and those around her to high, but not unreasonable, standards. 

“I do feel like there’s sometimes a standard of what feels like an external pressure to be really good at so many different parts of your life,” Gjestvang said. “It’s taken me a long time, but I definitely have found that balancing a lot of different roles that matter a lot to me is unrealistic to deliver at a high standard all at the same time.”

One part of her life that she also said is very important to her is being a mother. Balancing her work-life standards while also making time for them is a constant tightrope she walks. 

“I want to take my kids to school in the morning, not every day, but some of the days… I want to be there for the real connections in my family,” Gjestvang said. “But I’ve had to recognize that there are certain places in your life where I’ve had to let myself drop the bar so that I can excel in the things that matter most.” 

One of the most demanding times, according to her in terms of balance, was when she was a surrogate mother for another couple she was friends with. She had originally gotten the idea after watching an HBO documentary called “Paternal Instinct,” and said that “it was touching to me to see” someone else have a family. 

 “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, it’d be so cool to do that, to give to someone that gift,” Gjestvang said. 

She made the decision to become a surrogate mother after she had her first two children, who were 2 and 4 at the time, creating a hectic home life for her and her wife. She humorously lamented the ease of the family she was being the surrogate for. 

“I was pregnant, just exhausted with baby number three, and two little kids, while these two guys are off living their best life in Europe, just waiting for the baby to show up.”

Nevertheless, she described it as “an amazing experience,” even through the hardship. She also went through an unexpected grieving period, however when she gave up the child 10 days after giving birth. 

“I never felt like he was really mine,” Gjestvang said. “I didn’t want to have another kid. But to birth the baby and give him away… it was intense.” 

Despite this, she was really happy to give the family the child. 

“Some of the most meaningful things you do in your life are incredibly hard,” Gjestvang said. “Climbing Mount Everest is probably amazing, but it’s freaking hard.” 

Gjestvang also said that setting realistic standards for yourself is important. She said that she thinks social media and the visibility it gives into other people’s lives can often put more pressure on people since you’re more likely to just be seeing the high points of other people’s lives. 

In her role as CIO, she finds that the strongest way to perform well is to use some of the values she has found in higher education. 

“The sense of curiosity and persistence and engagement, communication, critical thinking have served me throughout my entire career,” Gjestvang said. “It’s part of what I love about being at Denison is it’s something you develop, you have this phenomenal opportunity to really deepen these really meaningful skills. Despite how much the world is changing, I don’t think that’s different.” 

The post Liv Gjestvang balances Denison CIO position, motherhood and artistry first appeared on The Denisonian.

Students might know Dr. Hoda Yousef from her work in the Middle East and North Africa Studies Department. 

She teaches introductory classes on topics such as the making of the modern Middle East as well as upper level courses on the Ottoman Mediterranean and urban life in the region. She is of Egyptian American ancestry and has roots in the Midwest- specifically in the the state of Wisconsin. She attended Duke University for her undergraduate studies and then went on to Georgetown to complete her masters degree and doctorate. 

Yousef began her college education as a computer science major and then for two years began a career at “a large company” in the field. However, she described it as unfulfilling. 

Yousef has had a lifelong passion for history that started when her grandmother would talk about the Egyptian leader. Later, when reading a textbook about him, she realized there were contradictory messages; this brought her to see that history has many sides to its narrative. Thus she began pursuing her current path.

She first started teaching at Franklin & Marshall College and then came to Denison in 2016. She welcomed being able to return closer to home by coming to Ohio but she also had other factors pushing her to Denison.

“I didn’t have a traditional liberal arts experience in my undergraduate education,” she said. In graduate school she met students who had attended liberal arts colleges and said she “was impressed by the breadth of their knowledge, their way of thinking, and problem solving ability.” She said that teaching at liberal arts colleges is like a “breath of fresh air,” and her experience so far at Denison has been “wonderful.” She notes the “dedicated faculty and curious, motivated students” as why. 

Yousef is a historian and never tires of teaching the subject.

“Students always ask really great questions,” she said. There is a lot of information on the topic she teaches about in the media that she describes as “misunderstood.” She said her role as a professor is to break through the noise and show students “a wider aperture of the past, of culture, politics, and society.” In her classes, she shows primary sources that shed light on the feelings of people who lived through history. 

Dr. Yousef is not just a professor at Denison; she holds several other important roles. She is a member of the Academic Freedom Task Force which seeks to protect freedom of expression within the academic setting. She also works with the center of learning and teaching. The focus of this is to provide professional development and resources for Denison’s teachers.

“We have great discussions among the faculty about how to improve and meet students where they are,” she said about their work. She is also a published author by Stanford University Press writing Composing “Egypt: Reading, Writing, and the Emergence of a Modern Nation, 1870-1930.”

Editor’s Note: The professor spotlight is a recurring  feature. Email denisonian@denison.edu if you would like to suggest a professor to be featured.

The post Professor Spotlight: Hoda Yousef explores all sides of history first appeared on The Denisonian.

Marriage may not always be a typical part of one’s time on The Hill, but for a few students, this love and partnership have become central to their undergraduate experiences. 

P.J. Suppes ‘26, who married his wife, Hannah, in August 2024, right before his junior year, described his marriage as a very important part of his life.

Suppes felt that the timing of his marriage was right, and that it was “something [he was] open to.” Hannah was eager to settle and choose where they would live. 

Their first months were spent staying with friends 10 minutes off campus, but by February, they chose to move closer, seeking a routine that made school and married life blend more seamlessly. 

Suppes reshaped his academic schedule into a strict 9-to-5 structure, carving out evenings for intentional time together. The adjustment hasn’t been without sacrifice, as he sometimes misses the spontaneous interactions of living on campus with his close friends. 

Still, marriage has reshaped his social life, pushing him to build friendships more intentionally. 

“[I] take advantage of trying to build relationships in places that I hadn’t previously been,” he said. 

He describes marriage as a deeply maturing experience and a daily practice in understanding another person and making thoughtful decisions.

For Brody Lewis ‘26, who married in August 2025, the choice to wed before graduation came from certainty rather than convenience, as he said, “no doubts, then no point in waiting.” His wife, Emilia, a nursing student, balances her own demanding schedule, and together they rely on constant communication, often by text or FaceTime. 

Lewis mirrors Suppes’ approach to academics by treating school like a 9-to-5 job, ensuring evenings are theirs to spend time together.

While he hasn’t turned down opportunities because of marriage, his priorities have shifted.

 “I’ve diverted my focus from chasing parties and events. It’s just her,” Lewis said. 

He’s aware of the misconception that young couples must meet certain financial or life milestones before marrying. For him, marriage is about aligning the relationship and committing fully to it.

Suppes added that marriage was “a good financial decision” for them because of potentially receiving more financial aid for tuition from the federal government through eligibility status. 

Alyssa McPhee ‘27 offered a slightly different perspective. Now engaged, she plans to marry next August when her fiancé, Donald Kennedy, graduates. 

Kennedy plans to move to Granville, work flexibly, and follow McPhee wherever she goes for graduate school. 

McPhee anticipates the challenges of juggling coursework, a social life, and marriage, but she believes in prioritizing people she loves, managing busy seasons as a team, and balancing time between her friends and her partner. 

She also noticed a subtle skepticism from society about marrying young, though she insists maturity is not measured by relationship status. Marriage, instead, shifts her long-term perspective and the way she makes decisions.

These relationships have brought meaning and stability to these students’ lives, according to the students. 

Though there are some sacrifices that these students face, from living off-campus to potentially having more responsibilities, these students have also found an immense opportunity for upward growth and increasing maturity. Through being married, these students have prioritized being intentional in their social lives and managing their time well.

The post They said ‘I DU!’ Married students at Denison first appeared on The Denisonian.

Recent policy changes at the Wellness Center have prompted feedback from students, and the meeting was held to give students a space for their questions regarding this policy and for any other concerns they had. 

The new policy bills students’ insurance after their sixth counseling visit within an academic year. Students must also pay for any psychiatry appointment. Both counseling and the first psychiatry visit were covered in the previous policy. 

Holly Levin, the director of wellness, education and health, and Michelle Barcelona, the director for medical services, both attended the event. 

“Levin and Barcelona attended the DCGA meeting this week, and overall, the discussion was positive and constructive,” a member from the Wellness Center said after the meeting. “Our goal was to provide clear and informative responses to student questions while emphasizing our commitment to transparency and student well-being. We wanted students to know that their voices are valued.”

Anna Crum ‘28 attended the meeting. She said it was the first town hall hosted by DCGA she had attended.

This semester, Crum had also reached out to Dr. Ric Hall, the Vice President of Student Life, to discuss some of the recent changes at the Wellness Center. She said she “wanted to go to the town hall to voice” her opinions once again. 

“[The meeting] gave me a little bit of the same information,” Crum said. “I had some questions that still weren’t answered, but it was good to hear new people talk about it and I think [the speakers] knew the wellness center a little bit more intimately than other members of administration.”

She also said that she thought it was nice to hear other students’ questions and consider their views, saying she “wanted other student perspectives besides” her and her friends.

 “It was good to be there,” Crum said. “It was an opportunity for people to talk about something that is important to them.”

One of Crum’s biggest concerns was that limiting counseling sessions may decrease mental health support because those struggling might be deterred by the potential financial burden.

“Limiting counseling sessions… doesn’t get as many people through the door, because they know after their first six sessions, they have to start paying,” Crum said. “That alone is going to make people not move to counseling, especially when counseling is already hard for a lot of people to make that first step toward. There is an issue with accessibility.”

Certain studies have attempted to measure to what degree cost affects access to counseling. Published in the Journal of Family and Economic Issues, a study measured perceived financial stress and its relation to counseling services in adults and found that higher levels of anxiety arose due to financial stress. 

It also suggests that accessible financial counseling programs are demanded to help prevent negative influences on individuals mental health. But it doesn’t clarify what these accessible financial counseling programs look like, as they often depend on the situation. 

“I think it’s hard enough to talk to a counselor,” Crum said. “I don’t think applying for a scholarship to get help is reasonable for the school.”

For Crum, counseling services have played an important role in her life. 

“It’s a big deal to me, and it has been really impactful,” Crum said. “I was told before that I don’t need therapy. I think coming to Denison, when it was free, and it didn’t matter if I needed it or not, was really meaningful.”

She also said that free mental health access was a factor in her decision to enroll. Before the new policy, she used to see a counselor who worked in the Wellness Center. Now, she is seeing a counselor outside of Denison. 

“For me to utilize that for one year and then have it taken away was kind of rough,” Crum said. “I think it’s a drawing point, maybe not the main one, but a drawing point for a lot of students, and so for them to be cut back it feels limiting in a lot of ways.”

Although the limits were a point of discussion among a number of students at the town hall, there were an array of other suggestions and questions posed to Levin and Barcelona, covering the new wellness vending machine, visibility on campus and qualities about the staff, among other comments. 

Ikera Olandesca ‘26 also attended the event, and asked Levin and Barcelona about the lack of people of color on the counseling staff.

“The issue of a [person of color] therapist is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” Olandesca said. 

Olandesca said that she wasn’t necessarily hopeful that herself alone could make any change, but she wanted to understand the situation better. She said that the meeting was “very revealing and insightful,” but also “eye opening and disheartening” in other ways. 

She hoped that she was able to communicate why she believes people of color are important to have on a counseling staff at the meeting. Her personal experience with counseling at Denison, which she said “didn’t really suit me,” has been one of the reasons she feels a diverse counseling staff is important. 

“When I did counseling, I felt supported in some areas, but I always felt like [my counselor] was catching up to me, because there was always something that she didn’t fully understand,” Olandesca said. “If I complain about being homesick, that’s very different than being homesick when you’re like a state apart versus a country away.”

The post DCGA hosts town hall regarding Hoaglin policies first appeared on The Denisonian.

Students have had different reactions to this change. 

Brooke Chavez ‘29, who is living on East Quad, said that she “really enjoys living on East Quad.” She said that she “personally thinks the overall concept was a good idea,” but has felt that there is anger from the upperclassmen who were expecting the opportunity to live on East Quad this year.

Bryce Korbuly, a fellow class of ‘29 student, is enjoying the change and thinks that the FYQ should continue 

“I believe that keeping freshman housing in one quad would be beneficial, especially because that closeness builds a strong community.”

Both students are not fond of the random roommate process that many first years go through, though. 

“The roommate selection process is not as extensive or in-depth as it should be. There has been a multitude of individuals who have issues with their roommates as the personality form when going random did not ensure honesty,” said Chavez. 

She said she had concerns about the room change process. 

“The process is difficult and very unsupportive. The fact that singles are not available for first-years should they mentally need to move out of their rooms is a major issue that needs to be fixed in future years,” says Chavez.

Despite that, Chavez said, “the first-year housing office is doing an amazing job.”

Korbuly shares the same frustrations as Chavez, emphasizing that “the First-Year Office could update the roommate selection form to be a bit more intensive with more questions so that roommates are paired in the best possible manner.”

Jamil Alvi, a Community Advisor  (CA) on East Quad has had a positive experience with the new change. 

“I would say visitor participation in events has definitely risen since last year,” he says. “When I host an event, I host mostly on the 1st floor of Crawford. I’ve had people come from other buildings like Shepardson, East, and Huffman.”

Not only has attendance risen in residential events, it also risen in the Bandersnatch. Alvi said that there used to not be a large population at the Bandersnatch during the week, but with the First-Year Quad, attendance has gone up. 

“Now that all the freshmen are here, they have an excuse to spend time with one another. And so they do end up going to the Bandersnatch, whether it’s for playing some games, a movie night or just getting some bagels. I think that’s been one thing that’s been pretty positive that I’ve seen.”

The post First-Year Quad residents reflect on their experience first appeared on The Denisonian.

Being “woke” has been the norm of progressivism for the past 10 years. 

Since its resurgence from the Black Lives Matter movement, being “woke” has taken on a wide variety of meanings to different people and focuses on many different facets of oppression. However, being “woke” has been stolen and co-opted by the very systems and people it was created to fight against. 

I intend to point out the issue with our current form of “‘woke’ ideology” and to show how it prevents actual systematic change, and actually helps the established status quo put on the face of change while they really exploit us more. 

To discuss how the word “woke” has been co-opted, we must first define it. In my own words, being “woke” is a movement designed to highlight the systemic inequality marginalized groups face around the world. 

While a most definitely noble goal, the conservative critique, that I agree with, would be that it limits the possibility for change via only focusing on marginalized groups in society, which does not have every member of that group oppressed. Economic oppression is the most pervasive form of oppression in modern society, and many issues of inequality in society can tie back to it. I often see racial barriers being brought down between people when they are in similar hardships, especially due to the fact that the hardships themselves are what might have caused the bigotry. 

I used to have views that were somewhat bigoted against immigrants; I used to believe they were genuinely stealing our jobs and ruining the American culture and economy. However, my opinions changed radically when I simply sat down with immigrants. I went to a high school with a massive Somali population, and seeing their stories and relating to them broke down my bigotry and gave me much more empathy. This is primarily because going through the same experience, or trauma as someone else, brings you closer together and allows you to relate to them.

Corporations and the elite love to focus on “being ‘woke,’” at least from an outsider’s perspective. Whether it’s Pepsi’s infamous ad with Kylie Jenner, stopping a protest from colliding with the cops via giving cops a Pepsi, or the fact that most social media corporate accounts change their profile pictures for pride month and keeping their Middle Eastern accounts normal. While I think it’s foolish to seek support from these massive entities that are only focused on profit, it still goes to show how disingenuous this support is to begin with, as it shows they are simply trying to get more market share instead of actually solving the problem. 

In fact, assuming that these multinational corporations actually care about human rights is quite comical. In the pursuit of “maximizing shareholder value,” corporations have ended up committing horrendous atrocities, such as child slavery, death squads, and many other atrocious acts. 

To illustrate the damage corporations do while pretending to be “woke,” one of the most iconic examples is necessary. 

Nestlé is a multinational corporation with a market cap of over $250 billion that specializes in many different food products, ranging from baby food to bottled water to ice cream. However, despite their production of very unassuming items, since the 1970s Nestlé has faced waves of criticism for forced labour, child labour, modern slavery, union busting, deforestation, and multiple types of misinformation. 

While all of this happens, Nestlé pushes a narrative of progressiveness by making negligible yearly donations to democrat politicians, such as $45,000 to Kamala Harris, $2,750 to Sherrod Brown. Although their official political stances can be very up in the air, partly because they also donated $9,000 to Trump’s 2024 political campaign. Nestlé also promotes its LGBTQ+ initiatives and workplace, and brags about being ranked highly on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index. 

I am happy they provide an inclusive and supportive workplace but it feels extremely performative while they are making the lives of people, especially in third-world countries, much worse.

Jonah Sela ‘28 is an economics major from Powell, Ohio.

The post ‘Woke ideology’ prevents systemic change and supports status quo first appeared on The Denisonian.

As of Nov. 1, nearly 42 million people will not be able to benefit from the necessary resources provided by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). That is roughly one out of every eight U.S. citizens losing a steady food flow. This also means that there are now 16 million children without access to food.

On Sept. 30, 2025, the U.S. Government shut down due to Congress not being able to pass bills that finance programs and operations from federal agencies. It is currently the longest U.S. shutdown to happen.

Not only have SNAP users lost a steady flow of food, but government workers have as well. There are roughly 730,000 federal workers who are not getting paid during this shutdown. This includes TSA (Transportation Security Administration) officers, military personnel, IRS workers, and many more. This increase in people who are unable to feed themselves and their loved ones has led to a surge in the number of individuals flocking to food pantries to make ends meet.

Nick Linkenhoker is the Executive Director of the Worthington Resource Pantry in Columbus. 

“We had some of our first families who were impacted directly from the shutdown over the weekend shop with us. So FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] employees who now have gone a month or more without a paycheck, and at this point, we don’t know when they’re going to get paid next. We don’t know how long the shutdown might be impacted,” He said. “That was a difficult one.”

Linkenhoker further said that at the Worthington Resource Pantry, they try to make it a “pretty happy place,” and that they “don’t want folks to come in and think that this is a place of last resort.” 

“I think that this weekend, there were more tears than normal,” Linkenhoker said.

Kathy-Kelly Long, the Executive Director of the Broad Street Food Pantry in Columbus, said that they have already seen an “almost 50% increase in the number of families coming to the pantry every day.”

Why does this matter for you and me, though? Maybe we’re one of the lucky ones who never have to worry about their next meal. Putting empathy aside, the shutdown of SNAP affects all of us much deeper than you might realize.

Grocery stores rely on a certain portion of their profit to come from SNAP. Stores such as Walmart, Kroger, and Costco rely on SNAP users, with nearly 26% of Walmart’s grocery sales coming from SNAP users. With that taken away, stores may have to raise prices or shut down to deal with the pullout of SNAP money being spent at their store; that means more expensive food for you.

Many of us utilize air transportation to get to faraway destinations, which are kept safe by FAA and TSA officers. Those offices are now not getting paid, leading to them not being able to buy food. Do we really want the people who are keeping us safe to be starving throughout their shift?

What about the kids? What about the millions of children who now have to go to sleep with grumbling stomachs? How about the babies who won’t stop crying because their parents don’t have the money to buy formula? Do those innocent lives deserve to be starved because our government can’t do its job?

Many of us have power in this situation, though. Both Linkenhoker and Long emphasized the importance of donating money, resources, and time during and after this shutdown. Food pantries rely on us to keep people fed. They rely on our generosity, empathy, and love for strangers to get people through hard times. Yes, the powerful aren’t doing anything, but we are not powerless.

It’s not fair that our elected officials twiddle their thumbs in big, plush chairs with money to buy food for years while there are children and other people who have no control over their situation, starving. But we can help.

Elected officials work for the people of America, and the people of America are hungry.

Ellen Hansen ‘28 is a psychology and journalism double major from Columbus.

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Writer and illustrator Martha Park visited Denison University on Nov. 6 to engage students in the hybrid work of graphic journalism. 

Park grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, and began drawing at a young age; she describes how her mother put her in drawing classes at age nine after Park repeatedly drew an identical orca whale. Originally a printmaking major, she took creative writing courses during her senior year at Ohio Wesleyan. Park describes her “internal resistance to specializing” as she became determined to not have to choose between art and writing. Park received her MFA from Hollins University. 

Park’s connection to Denison stems from creative writing professor Amy Butcher, who discovered Park through Instagram. Butcher admired Park’s illustrations and writings and reached out to her about writing a graphic essay. The result, “Consolation Puppies,” a piece based on Butcher’s experiences of fostering needy beagles while reflecting on the results of the 2016 election, was only Park’s second graphic essay. Neither author was familiar with the process of creating graphic personal narratives. Butcher stressed the importance of writers “winging it,” “failing,” and then “writing into the solution.” The two authors also reflected on their literary friendship, made possible through technology and mutual admiration. 

Park discussed her first sequential comic, “Washed Away,” which combines the “flashy story about landslides and how they’re increasing” and the deeper story of insurance struggles. “Washed Away” journalistically follows a family financially devastated by a landslide crashing into their house. The piece was eventually printed and distributed by Appalachians for Appalachia with the goal of helping Kentuckians understand insurance issues and access resources.

Park has published several other pieces in notable publications such as Guernica and The Rumpus. She has done graphic, illustrated, and comic journalism. Her topics include “the final days of Memphis’s last public housing project” and “the history and struggles of Cairo, Illinois.” Her 2025 book “World Without End” is a series of illustrated essays that explore the intersections of faith, climate change, and parenting. 

Park’s initial process of creating graphic essays was a “taxing back-and-forth” of uploading each layer that had been completed on paper. When Park became pregnant with her son in 2019, she threw out all of her art supplies and got an iPad, because she knew that her studio would become his room. Park gave Denison students a tutorial on how she now completes her graphic journalism, explaining that she writes before illustrating as her words influence the color palette and artistic style. 

One student asked Park how combining art and writing has changed her writing style. Park explained that when she’s writing a graphic essay, she knows that it needs to be under 2,000 words, so she has to remain brief. When she’s writing without illustrations, she knows that she needs to bridge the gap left in the reader’s mind between the words and the images. She explains that graphic journalism has changed her initial process of ‘spewing’ in a first draft; at the beginning of her writing career, she was focused on making the reader feel what she wanted them to feel. Now, she tries to pull back and allow the reader to feel whatever emotion the work creates in them.

Park encouraged student writers to live interesting lives, rather than become “monkish” about the practice of writing. “Make good food,” she urged the class, “read stuff that doesn’t fit in your workshop.” 

“You don’t need as much time to write as you think you do.”

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The University Programming Council and Ballet Club teamed up to bring a group of interested students to see a live performance of “Swan Lake” on Nov. 4 at the Davidson Theatre in Columbus. The ballet, originally composed by Tchaikovsky, was performed by International Ballet Stars.

The promotional packet explained that “with world-renown ballet artists from Italy, Spain, Georgia, Ireland, Turkey, Brazil, Great Britain, Ukraine, Japan, Tajikistan, Moldova, and Kazakhstan, [the] performance embodies the spirit of international artistry and excellence.”

Divided into two acts, “Swan Lake” is a ballet about Prince Siegfried, who falls in love with Odette, a princess cursed by the sorcerer Rothbart to be a swan by day and a human by night. In act one, scene one, the prince celebrates his coming-of-age and learns he must marry at the next day’s ball. At the end of the scene, as the party ends at nighttime, he sees a flock of swans and takes a crossbow to hunt them. 

In act one, scene two, as Prince Siegfried draws his bow to hunt a swan who landed on the lakeside, the swan turns into Odette. Odette tells the prince of the curse, which can only be broken if a man swears true, eternal love to her. The prince confesses his love and devotion to her, promising her they will marry. Rothbart watches them and decides to trick the prince at the ball.

In act two, scene one, which begins at the next day’s ball, and Prince Siegfried is uninterested in any of the women in attendance; he thinks only of Odette. Then, Rothbart arrives with his daughter, Odile, who is impersonating Odette. This deception caused the prince to break his vow to Odette. Rothbart reveals himself and the prince flees to go back to the lakeside to see Odette.

In act two, scene two, the prince searches for Odette to explain that he was tricked. The ballet typically ends in one of two ways: Prince Siegfried not making it in time to save Odette, sealing her fate to be a swan forever, or Prince Siegfried battling with Rothbart, declaring his love for Odette before sunrise. In this performance, Odette protects the prince from a deathblow, breaking the curse with her love for him. Rothbart is defeated and Odette is human.

Students and other audience members alike applauded and cheered at the end when the dancers took their bows.

“It’s always a cool experience to be able to see live performances,” said Addison Fransen ‘28, an attendee of the trip. 

UPC has planned trips for the student body like this in the past, such as last spring when they took a group of 50 fans to The Ohio State Stadium to see the Columbus Blue Jackets play Detroit Red Wings. 

UPC provides opportunities for Denison students that they may not have access to otherwise, allowing for memories to be created among the student body.

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