LSU LEGACY Magazine Winter — 2014

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FASHIONDabble in the dark

What does keeping it cost?

See the magicbehind game day

LA COAST

LSU FOOTBALL

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY / FALL 2014 / ISSUE 2

Legacy FINAL.indd 1 10/29/14 10:44 AM

L E G A C Y2 l s u l e g a c y m a g . c o m

What is your legacy?I pose this question to my staff, to my management team and to myself. It is

a question with no easy answer, and often it can only be addressed when looking back.

Defining a legacy in the moment is nearly impossible.

In this issue, you will meet two brothers whose paths diverged and later converged to create a unique sound. Their legacy is their music.

Other legacies, like a party-school reputation, have consequences. You will read about LSU students seeking recovery and the organizations that are helping.

You will also find the story of two record-breaking teams, one well-known and one relatively obscure looking to carve out its own niche at LSU.

We are all working toward our legacies, and it saddens me that in aiming for mine, this will be my last issue as Editor in Chief.

Saying goodbye is never easy, but I am certain whoever takes my place will continue the legacy of this publication and continue its mission to serve the LSU student body by producing critical, engaging and beautiful content.

It has been my pleasure serving as your LEGACY editor these past two semesters.

lsulegacy

lsulegacymag

legacy magazine

Mission statement: LEGACY is a

quarterly student-produced magazine

that explores the diverse community

of Louisiana State University

through in-depth features, profiles

and photography. LEGACY focuses

on student entertainment, leisure

and academics, and it strives to be

informative, provocative and dynamic.

Editor in ChiefSydney Blanchard

Creative DirectorSarah Kershaw

Managing EditorRaina LaCaze

Multimedia DirectorAshley Monaghan

Lead DesignerChase Whitney

DesignersCassidy DayAnne Lipscomb

WritersLogan AndersonAnna JiangDavid JuddAryanna PrasadLucas Roberts

PhotographersAllie AppelMichelle Ayoubi

Sales ManagerMatt Duhe

Technology AdvisorAlex Cook

Advisor Tim Schreiner

PublisherOffice of Student Media

Sydney BlanchardEditor In Chief

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There’s a darker side to the “drinking town with a college problem.”

Two musician brothers explain why life is better off the beaten path.

Chelsea’s is a BR stable - but what’s the story?

LSU’s Tigrisomas keep their eyes on the skies.

Winter apparel inspired by all things black and gray.

We investigate where local women can turn in times of crisis.

Coastal erosion is shrinking Louisiana’s coastline, but what is being done to stop it?

Try these delicious dishes on for size.

We explore what goes into orchestrating LSU gameday.

It’s an issue that goes beyond black and white.

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SUBMERGED

BAND OF BROTHERS

UNDER THE OVERPASS

BIRD IS THE WORD

FASHION

WEIGHING YOUR OPTIONS

THE COASTAL COST

SETTING THE TABLE

BACKSTAGE

BLAME GAME


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SUBMERGEDwords ANNA JIANG illustration ANNE LIPSCOMB

There’s a darker side to the “drinking town with a college problem.”

Early on a Wednesday evening, Bob Petit Blvd lights up with gaudy fluorescent signs over similar one-story buildings. Cars dot the parking lot. Tigerland is unpopulated at 6:30 p.m., but in

a couple of hours, students will flood in for drink specials. A mile past the familiar neon signs a different group is meeting

in the Student Union. Around 20 students and alumni spread out in a conference

room on the fourth floor of the Union and scarf down cake before the meeting starts.

The topic of the night’s Alcoholics Anonymous meeting: Find-ing balance.

While Alcoholics Anonymous is a recent addition to campus, LSU has a long history of drinking culture.

DRINK DRANK DRUNKLSU is largely known as a party school. Tigerland is only a

mile away from campus and holds drink specials and events almost everyday. Not only can students party every night, tailgating for games provides another reason to drink.

Moderation seems to be an foreign concept at LSU. Seventeen years ago, in a small bar off campus, 20-year-old

Benjamin Wynne enjoyed a night of drinking with his friends. The night quickly spiraled out of control with binge drinking, and Ben-jamin died from alcohol poisoning with a blood alcohol content of 0.55g/dL, over seven times the legal limit.

Shortly after, LSU became part of a grant project from the

Robert Wood Johnson foundation, a philanthropy focused on pro-moting health in America, to address high risk drinking and binge drinking. After the grant ran out, the Office of Behavioral Health for Health and Hospitals sponsored a new program. The Louisiana Center for Addressing Substance Abuse in Collegiate Communities (LaCASU) was founded to offer services to students at LSU and other universities in Louisiana.

The core alcohol and drug survey, performed every other spring by LaCASU, found that LSU had higher averages than the national percentage for driving a car under the influence, performing poorly on an exam due to being hungover, and missing a class due to alco-hol and substance use.

Further, LSU has a higher 30-day alcohol use than the national average along with higher instances of binge drinking.

SOPPING UP THE PROBLEMLaCASU provides different resources for students seeking

recovery, implementing campus-based AA meetings in fall 2013. The organization also offers a support group called Students in Recovery as well as a sober tailgate on game days to provide an alcohol-free zone for students on the mend.

LaCASU is not the only organization that provides resources on campus. In July 2004, LSU integrated MyStudentBody as a requirement for incoming freshmen.

Susan Bareis, a health promotion coordinator the the Student Health center, said the program’s goal is to educate and motivate


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students to make healthy decisions and to prevent risky behavior in students.

“The University Administration wanted to take a proactive approach to encourage health protective behaviors in the LSU community,” Bareis said.

According to MyStudentBody, studies show that the first few months of college are an important time in the overall academic experience of students; and LSU observes alcohol-related incidents occurring each semester involving first-year students.

MyStudentBody indicates around one in three male students and one in five female students reported having five or more drinks at their last social event.

Allison Smith, the associate director of LaCASU, said it is a Louisiana thing.

“The cultural factor of being in Southern Louisiana is huge. There is a social and cultural norm that is different here,” she said.

And naturally, culture is a major influence when it comes to drinking.

Brandon*, 21, agrees.“This is Southern Louisiana. We’re all about football, partying,

and good food,” he said. “The good times are always rolling.”

UNDER PRESSUREBareis said part of the problem is students’ perceptions of each

other. “The college environment is unique in that students depend

upon their peers and feel pressure to fit in which may lead to engag-ing in risk-taking behavior, like drinking alcohol,” she said. “Stu-dents have the perception that their peers are engaging in these risky behaviors more often than they actually do.”

According to a 2013 study by American Health College Asso-ciation, 17 percent of LSU students perceived the typical student on campus used alcohol daily in the last 30 days, when in actuality, only a little over one percent of LSU students reported using alco-

hol daily in the last 30 days. For many students, it is difficult to internalize the possibility

of a drinking problem.Melanie*, a 22-year-old student, said it can be hard to tell if

you have a problem.“Sometimes its easy to lose track of how much you’re partying

at LSU,” she said. “There always something going on, and it’s so accepted to go out on school nights and party all day Saturday.”

And those who can admit they have a problem sometimes strug-gle to find rehabilitation in a party environment. In fact, LaCASU reports around 5 percent of students said they were unsuccessful in quitting drugs and alcohol, and about 13 percent reported that they may have a drinking or drug problem. Melanie found it difficult to find balance in her social life.

“I don’t particularly like drinking, but I don’t want to be the awkward, lame friend,” she said. “I don’t know if I have a drinking problem, but most of the time I feel like I’m drinking just to fit in.”

Melanie felt alone in her struggles until she found out AA was available on campus.

The AA meeting was discussion-based, and did not include any propaganda or lecturing. Members were able to express not only their problems with alcohol but with their social life, home life, and school life. There was no alienation at AA, and participants were deeply involved in the meeting as the discussion unfolded into find-ing balance in living. Personal stories stay within the confines of the meeting, so members can feel impervious to judgement.

Smith said AA on campus is a place for students to feel secure and safe.

AA is not for everyone, but it is one of the many helpful resources available on campus.

Smith hopes to see a decrease in alcohol rates in the 2015 survey now that AA meetings are available on campus every Wednesday.

*Students interviewed chose to only be referred to by first names.


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Two musician brothers explain why life is better off the beaten path.

words LOGAN ANDERSON photos ALLIE APPEL design CHASE WHITNEY

The duo that comprises Faubourg, Wesley and Jacob Johnson, can be perfectly summed up by the music they create.Named for an area of New Orleans near

Marigny, Faubourg’s hit song “All Tried Up,” is a strong statement to both simple musicality and technical musical production. The smooth sounds of a skillfully played acoustic guitar serve as the base on which a mountain of soulful vocals, sharp percussion and modern synth techniques are layered. Despite the complexity of the track, at no point does the music begin sounding over-whelming or overworked – instead, it cre-

ates a balance of tradition and technology.The Johnson brothers exhibit the same

combination of intelligence and charm in person that they do in their music.

The Alexandria natives have the kind of spirited camaraderie between them that only comes from growing up together. They finish each other’s sentences and playfully tease one another, while laughing at old inside jokes and trying to remember the names of hometown venues. They are both lighthearted and passionate, smiling as they tell stories of their childhood. They could pass for twins. They speak in iden-

tical Southern drawls, with the same easy cadence to their words as one another. They are clearly close and say they have been their entire lives.

“We’ve had some of our moments,” they both say simultaneously, laughing, “but for the most part we’ve always gotten along,” Wesley finishes. “We’re definitely the closest of all our siblings.”

Despite their similarities, though, life pulled the two brothers in very different directions for years.

After majoring in biology at LSU, Wesley went to medical school and began

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studying to become a doctor; meanwhile, Jacob followed his musical dreams to Boston, attending Berklee College of Music. Both brothers excelled at their respective educational pursuits, but one enjoyed his time in school more than the other.

“I was miserable,” Wesley says, shaking his head as he reminisces. “I missed music so much.” “I didn’t help that,” says Jacob as he begins to smirk at the memory of taunt-ing his brother.

“I would call him while I was at Berklee and be like ‘Dude, I’m playing with the guy who played with Herbie Hancock!’” Jacob says.

“And I’m over here like studying for my Step 1 exam and trying to pass my tests!” Wesley retorts.

As they reminisce about their time apart, it becomes obvious how happy the pair is to be reunited.

The youngest of four, the two spent most of their time as children together. They even became interested in music at

the same time: at age 8, Jacob began to bang on books and suitcases, while Wesley, 11 at the time, started toying around with the guitar.

“When they got him his first guitar,” Jacob thumbs toward his brother, “I was expecting to get a drum set, but that didn’t happen. So for a few years I was just playing on the books and a Tonka drum. And I was killing it!”

Wesley nods in agreement. “He was good,” he says, “but drums are

annoying. So we think our parents wanted to make sure it was really something he was into before letting him have it.”

“It’s wonderful how it all came to-gether,” says Jacob, as he begins to describe their reunion. Wesley decided to take some time off after completing medical school before pursuing a residency, in order to follow his musical passions. After touring the world playing drums for various bands, Jacob landed back in New Orleans. The two moved in together and began trying to

make music together for the first time in years, and began to hone their respective sounds into something that felt right.

“We wanted to work together so badly, but we just couldn’t get it right.”

The duo attempted to record 10 dif-ferent albums, but claims each time the sound was wrong. “I’m just now getting to the point, production-wise, where I feel like I’ve got everything figured out, and I think that really shows in our music.”

All it takes is one listen to a Faubourg song to know that Jacob is absolutely right; their music is all at once inviting and myste-rious, soulful and polished, warm and sharp. The duo have figured out exactly what to do to create a uniquely Johnson brothers’ sound – and that sound is something worth hearing.

Faubourg is recording new music now and plans to book shows for early winter. Like them on Facebook for updates.


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UNDER THEOVERPASS

Chelsea’s is a BR staple – but what’s the story?

words LUCAS ROBERTS photo MICHELLE AYOUBI design CASSIDY DAY

“We’re a restaurant first and a venue second,” Chelsea’s Cafe Owner Dave Remetter says. Then why does Yelp list Chelsea’s as the high-

est rated music venue in Baton Rouge?Driving down Perkins Road long enough will

reveal Chelsea’s bright neon sign peaking above the overpass, almost as if its raising a rock salute to the city. The sign acts as a beacon for musicians, poets, Ph.D students, science junkies,or people who just love grilled cheese.

Perhaps Chelsea’s local air paired with its di-verse offerings lift its brand into popular appeal.

Remetter said he owes it all to the food. “That’s our bread and butter,” Remetter said.

“Everyone loves the grilled cheese.” It might be something more intangible, some-

thing that can’t be filled with cheese and grilled.Chelsea’s had a history for being a haven for

local musicians even before it was raising its neon fist above Perkins. The original Chelsea’s stood on West State Street now occupied by the College Row Shopping Center, a place where present-day students gorge on sushi and binge on coffee.

Remetter says he and his staff enjoyed music, so they would turn to friends and bands from the neighboring State Street to help draw a crowd for the young restaurant.

Since its inception in 1987, Chelsea’s changed ownership twice before ending up in the hands of

the current owner Dave Remmetter in 1999. In 2006, Remmetter relocated Chelsea’s to its present spot on Perkins.

Within that timespan and beyond Chelsea’s would play host to local favorites like Prom Date and Davey Crocket and the Wild Frontier. Other notable acts extend beyond Baton Rouge: Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, Black Joe Lewis, and John Scofield.

B.U.G., a Monroe, La. based band, spoke highly of their experience at Chelsea’s. Joe Ford, B.U.G.’s vocalist, said that it was one of the best shows they’ve ever played.

“Whoever was running the soundboard that night was fantastic,” Ford said.

The band even received a recording of their live performance from Chelsea’s afterwards.

“They were really cool and helpful,” Ford said. Non-music fans can enjoy what Chelsea’s has to

offer in the back room. From dissertations, poetry, or monthly lectures from LSU Science Cafe that covers local science issues and topics, Chelsea’s serves up many after dark options to its patrons.

Chelsea’s strives to fulfill Baton Rouge’s crav-ings: be it food, entertainment, or hobbies with more to come in the future according to the owner. Know-ing this, the neon sign that resembles a fist might just be rebellious gesture to a bland night in Baton Rouge. That goal in itself may be all it took for Baton Rouge residents to make Chelsea’s a local staple.


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LSU’s Tigrisomas keep their eyes on the skies.

WORDis the

BIRD


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In 1982, late LSU professor and famed ornithologist Ted Parker, along with his Princeton colleague Scott Robinson, set

the record for identifying 331 species of birds in 24 hours. The pair remain famous in the bird watching world, and their re-cord went unchallenged for over three de-cades. Until now.

At 4 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, a group of graduate students begin their route through Peru equipped with bin-oculars, a field guide of Peruvian birds, cameras with long-focused lenses, and a collection of audio recordings.

The group seeks to break Parker’s re-cord.

They call themselves the Tigrisomas, LSU’s bird watching team. The name de-rives from the genus name for the tiger heron, a native bird found around the LSU lakes whose feathers resemble the pattern of a tiger’s coat.

The team comprises of LSU grad students Michael Harvey and Glenn See-holzer, LSU Museum of Natural Science Research Associate Dan Lane, and re-search assistant and Peru native Fernando Angula.

Working on little sleep, the Tigrisomas continually cupped their ears in search of familiar bird songs they learned from over 10 years of study in South America. Hear-ing birds is faster than spotting them.

Harvey and Seeholzer agree that iden-tifying birds by sound comes relatively easy to them – almost like muscle memory.

“It’s like recognizing a family mem-ber’s face from yards away, except it’s a bird,” Seeholzer says. “Though birds are pretty much family at this point.

Harvey and Seeholzer are not Loui-siana natives, but their passion for birds along with stories of Ted Parker drew them to LSU. The pair have long waited

for an opportunity like Big Day Peru to arise.

“It takes a lot of organization and planning to pull off an event like this,” Seeholzer says.

With the help of their advisor, direc-tor of the LSU Museum of Natural Sci-ence Robb Brumfield, the group managed to raise enough money for the trip through fundraisers and research grants.

Currently, LSU does not sponsor the Tigrisomas, making them an independently funded organization.

The team continued through Peru, enduring harsh weather conditions like heavy rain.

“I just had so much adrenaline and Redbull running through my system then,” Harvey says.

Harvey’s fascination with the birds pushed him to keep going.

Finally, at 9:45 p.m., the team spots their last species, an oilbird, but the record remained uncertain.

“We’re moving so fast that we don’t have time to count,” Seeholzer says. “We couldn’t be sure we were breaking the re-cord.”

After a tally, the Tigrisomas succeeded in breaking the world record by identify-ing 354 species.

But who keeps the team in check when the sporting activity involves no ref-erees or overseers?

The activity mainly relies on the hon-or system.

Despite being unregulated, the team collected various sound bites and photos to prove their victory.

However, Brumfield was elated when he heard the news, but he was skeptical.

“The record hadn’t been broken since 1982,” Brumfield said. “For LSU, I think it’s a nice feather in the hat.”

words LUCAS ROBERTS photos MICHELLE AYOUBI design CASSIDY DAY

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calcite

photosSARAH KERSHAW

concept BROOKE SALTER

styling ASHLEY MONAGHAN

make-up BROOKE SALTER

designSARAH KERSHAW

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bodysuit byALEX ENGELHARDT


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crystal crown byBROOKE SALTER


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leather gauntlets byBROOKE SALTER


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top byALEX ENGELHARDT


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special thanks toALEX ENGELHARDTfor lending his wardrobe


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WEIGHING YOUR OPTIONSwords ANNA JIUNG illustration ANNE LIPSCOMB

Where can local women turn in times of crisis?

If a young woman in Baton Rouge finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she may be up a creek without a paddle. By the time the second

line – the one indicating pregnancy – appears across the screen of a home pregnancy test, one million thoughts may be racing through her head. Like most millennials, her first im-pulse may be to turn to the Internet for an-swers. This is where many Louisiana women first encounter a phenomenon known as Crisis Pregnancy Centers.

Depending on who you ask, there are two definitions for what a CPC is. Pro Life Louisiana’s website describes them as “centers that are willing to provide counseling during a pregnancy to educate you on all the choices that are before you, including abortion. In ad-dition, many provide post abortion counseling, assistance after birth, adoption assistance, and many other services.”

An affiliate website, adifficultchoice.com, states that CPCs are “local, non-profit orga-nizations designed to help those facing an un-planned pregnancy,” and says that all services are free, professional and confidential.

The image of CPCs painted by pro-life organizations is a bright one. Their websites are cheery, featuring young woman looking inquisitive in front of pink backgrounds. They offer many free services, they have 24-hour ho-tlines and they can recommend you to a center close by, where you can speak to someone face-to-face about your options (the word options is used in abundance). Their message is clear: they are here to help confused young women. However, pro-choice organizations paint a

much darker, sinister picture of the centers.National Abortion and Reproductive

Rights Action League (NARAL) Pro-Choice America sets the scene on their website:

“Picture this: You're scared that you might be pregnant. You see an ad for a free pregnancy test and counseling. You call the number and make an appointment. You're told that birth control is the same as abortion and that if you have an abortion, you will probably get breast cancer. You're vulnerable, scared, and confused. You have walked into a so-called "crisis preg-nancy center" (CPC), and you have been lied to and manipulated. You deserve the truth: comprehensive, unbiased, factual, and medi-cally accurate information. You likely won't get these things at a CPC.”

They go on to detail the ways in which some states support Crisis Pregnancy Cen-ters: Louisiana is one of 23 states that have laws protecting CPCs; one of nine states that have “Choose Life” license plate programs (the proceeds from those license plates go directly to funding CPCs); one of 20 states that refer women to CPCs; and one of eleven states that fund CPCs directly.

If someone Googles “abortion Baton Rouge,” the first result that comes up is the Delta Clinic, the only abortion clinic still op-erating in Baton Rouge. The rest of the links on the first page are to either crisis pregnancy centers in the area or articles about how the state government has recently made it much harder for women to have abortions in Loui-siana. One of those first page articles refers to the signing of a bill that threatened to close

OPINION


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WEIGHING YOUR OPTIONSdown Baton Rouge’s only clinic, as well as most (if not all) of the other abortion clinics in the state.

The law, signed in June, requires all doctors per-forming abortions have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 minutes of the clinic. Though veiled as a way to make abortions safer, this law was proposed with the intention of shutting down abortion clinics. Rep-resentative Katrina Hamilton, who proposed the law, has been quoted multiple times saying that she “looks forward to the day abortion is not legal in this country.” Abortion doctors scrambled to apply for admitting priv-ileges in nearby hospitals, but nearly all were denied.

The Sunday before this law was set to go into effect, a federal judge ruled that doctors could continue to perform abortions while seeking their admitting privi-leges, temporarily blocking the law. At the time of the judges ruling, there was only one doctor in Louisiana who had hospital admitting privileges. That doctor has stated that if all other doctors in the state were forced to stop performing the procedure, he would be so fearful for his own safety that he would also stop performing abortions.

While there is only one abortion clinic in the Baton Rouge area, there are five crisis pregnancy cen-ters. Because they are not in any way medical offices, crisis pregnancy centers are not subject to the same laws and restrictions that clinics are. As the state’s five clinics are threatened legally, 32 CPCs are able to exist

without legal restrictions, supported financially by Louisi-ana’s powerful network of pro-life donors.

The arguments between the pro-choice and pro-life movement over the purpose of CPCs are long, varied and in-credibly heated. They can be boiled down to the pro-choice movement believing that the pro-life movement created CPCs in order to lure impressionable pregnant women away from safe, unbiased clinics in order to scare them out of get-ting abortions, and the pro-life movement believing they are helping women find alternatives to abortions, which they view as murder. Every year, NARAL Pro-choice America gives states grades on how efficiently they’ve protected re-productive rights. During 2013, the state of Louisiana was given an F. During that same span of time, the Americans United for Life declared Louisiana the most pro-life state in the country; Governor Bobby Jindal acknowledged this as an honor.

Both sides believe that they are helping women, and that their opposition is operating with malicious intent. There is no gray area.

Unfortunately, this means that women searching for in-formation are often caught in the middle of a fight for their attention – a fight that only causes more confusion during an already confusing time.


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lsurevielle.com/application


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Coastal erosion is shrinking Louisiana’s coastline, but what is being done to stop it?

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words ARYANNA PRASAD photos MICHELLE AYOUBI design CHASE WHITNEY

Present-day south Louisiana looks dif-ferent than what its greying natives remember, but it’s not just Cajun

Americanization or desegregation that has changed its look.

Over the course of the past century, a new Louisiana has taken shape, one that has lost nearly 2,000 square miles in ninety years.

Without the Mighty Mississippi strengthening its delta, Louisiana marshes have crumbled under the pressure of hurri-canes, saltwater intrusion, withering barrier islands, nutrient pollution and oil canals.

As a football field of marsh drifts into the Gulf of Mexico every hour, Louisianans are forced to root themselves in a sobering reality: the boot is losing its sole.

“Louisianans have their own very per-sonal reasons for interest in coastal and environmental sciences,” said Dr. Richard Shaw, Associate Dean of the LSU School of The Coast and Environment.

“For centuries, Louisiana’s geography and abundance of natural resources and wildlife have bound lives and livelihoods inextricably to the coastal environment,” Shaw said.

The nation’s largest area of coastal wetlands is not something Louisianans can afford to lose—yet money and politics play a role in sunken livelihoods.

Dirty Politics Though cementing the Mississippi

into place with levees largely created this

environmental issue, systems within and without the state reinforce these structures. The Army Corps of Engineers built the modern levee system after the Great Flood of 1927, and the expansion of oil and nat-ural gas industries have encroached on the fragile deltaic plain.

Louisiana’s government has been his-torically laissez-faire toward industrial manipulation of the coast, but recent steps toward environmental protection include the 2012 Master Plan and the creation of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E).

Ultimately, energy interests override environment ones, as Governor Jindal signed a bill to prohibit the non-partisan SLFPA-E from suing 97 energy companies for damaging Louisiana’s coast. The coast that took 6,000 years to form has been “brought to the brink of destruction in the course of a single human lifetime,” SLF-PA-E notes in its lawsuit.

Senate Bill 469 was designed to “stop frivolous lawsuits,” according to Jindal. In addition to “reducing unnecessary claims that burden businesses so that we can bring even more jobs to our state,” the bill will

“send future recovered dollars from CZMA litigation to coastal projects, allowing us to ensure Louisiana coastal lands are preserved and that our communities are protected.”

According to its lawsuit, the non-par-tisan Levee Board, charged with “operating the flood protection system that guards millions of people and billions of dollars’ worth of property in south Louisiana from

destructive floodwaters” filed the myriad of lawsuits on the grounds that “hundreds of thousands of acres of the coastal lands that once protected South Louisiana are now gone as a result of oil and gas indus-try activities,” supported by United States Geographical Survey data.

Despite flippant comments about Baton Rouge’s expanded waterfront, hope in the capital city is not as sunken as Loui-siana’s coastal communities.

The state’s flagship university has an entire school dedicated to preserving and rebuilding the Louisiana coast—and sub-stantial grants to boot.

Gaining Ground Environmentalists grapple with advo-

cating for an environment that companies are using to build unsustainable fortunes.

This is why the School of Coast and Environment urges students to strengthen their understanding of the precarious bal-ances struck between the environment and the economy to preserve a healthy, environ-mentally sustainable lifestyle into the 21st century, according to Dr. Shaw.

LSU SC&E students are encouraged to see the coast from various angles, an approach that invariably contributes to their comprehensive research and proposed solutions.

The SC&E consists of the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences and the Department of Environmental Sciences.

Classes range in focus from the nature


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of ecosystems and watersheds to managing environmental law and policy. The school’s mission includes rebuilding barrier islands, restoring water balance in coastal environ-ments and protecting the ecosystem from overfishing and storms.

The school is able to achieve its mis-sion by carrying out grant work. Since 2008, the school has received approximately $69 million in extramural grant research. The school received over $15 million in 2010 alone due to the aftermath of the BP Deep-water Horizon oil spill.

Grants are awarded to various areas to support SC&E’s own multidimensional ap-proach to coastal research. They allow the school to improve their own educational methods. A $50,000 Keck Foundation grant supports SC&E faculty in developing a curriculum to innovate new solutions to Louisiana’s coastal challenges.

Grants also support SC&E in creative projects to communicate coastal issues to the public. The LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio (CSS), a joint project between the College of Art and Design, the College of Engineering and the School of the Coast and Environment, garnered $200,000 from the Kresge Foundation to address city planning and land use through the Loui-siana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA).

The program has allocated about $100,000 to “contribute to adaptive, resil-ient and sustainable human communities in the dynamic Louisiana coastal landscape.”

Digging Deep For Answers Johnathan Canales is a part of this in-

terdisciplinary effort to rebuild the coast.The a third-year architecture graduate

student is working with CSS to design a CPRA exhibit at The Water Institute in downtown Baton Rouge. Fellows, super-vising professors, graduate students and undergraduate students work together to develop the exhibit, a process that is ex-pected to last 18 to 24 months.

The exhibit is designed as a “massive working model” to illustrate the processes of Louisiana’s “working coast,” Canales said. CSS has an idea of how to best communi-cate CPRA’s efforts to the public.

When viewers enter the exhibit, they see the concept of the “working coast.” This includes natural deltaic processes as well as how humans affect these processes, all while demonstrating the grave importance of these processes in preserving the coast.

Once the viewer understand how the current coastal environment works, the factors contributing to coastal loss—subsid-ence, sea level rise, oil canals—are explained, drawing correlations as to how these occur-rences create land loss.

Yet the viewer’s hopes should not be dashed—CPRA is “trying to provide a promise of an optimistic future,” said Cana-les. After educating the viewer on what the problems are, CPRA provides their meth-ods and research in building back our coast. The space is filled with informational kiosks, one for each CPRA project.

Canales thinks the interdisciplinary and academic aspect is what makes the pro-gram so innovative.

“The university is an ideal workplace for progressive ideas,” he said.

Just as ideal classroom learning meth-ods differ between individuals, the general public understands environmental issues through various presentations. Canales went on to describe a profound “map of

languages” CSS has created: a map explain-ing coastal process in scientific, geographic, and journalistic terms.

“This story must be told in an import-ant and dynamic way that it becomes relat-able to everybody,” he said.

CPRA’s efforts are meant to show people that humans are capable of hurting or helping the coast.

“Human intervention has worked to ruin the coast, but it can also aid in its res-toration,” Canales said.

Room 212 in the LSU Design Building is the CSS workspace as well as a showcase for the work the studio is producing. An “asset to any student on campus,” Canales encourages students to pop in to see what the group is doing.

Building A Solid Future LSU students supported by these

grants understand the immediacy subsid-ence calls for—and the importance of finan-cial support.

“People think the natural environment is much larger than it is, and they have no clue how quickly it’s disappearing,” said Matthew Repp, a senior in Natural Re-source Ecology and Management.

Repp believes supporting LSU stu-dents through grants empowers those who know how to solve this issue. “The only way people can make a difference is to support people who have the ability to,” Repp said. “In other words, give scientists the ability to make the changes we know we need to make. Funding is the best way.”

Louisiana’s foot may be half in its watery grave, but LSU SC&E research keeps hope for a renewed coast afloat.


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SETTING THE TABLETry these delicious dishes on for size.

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words ARYANNA PRASAD photos ALLIE APPEL design CASSIDY DAY

Don’t have the budget to travel around the world? Films and photos are telling, but food may be the best way to get a taste of life outside of the States.If you want more than what the LSU area has to offer, here are

some Baton Rouge restaurants for the cultured palate.

Curry-N-Kabab

Baton Rouge has several hot spots for spicy South Asian cui-

sine with Curry-N-Kabab being the most recent addition. Owner Shaheed Khan describes it as the Whole Foods of In-

dian food Curry-N-Kabab is remarkably health-conscious. Khan offers fresh food made in-house, without heavy amounts of flour and sugar.

This is not the only alteration to traditional recipes: chili chicken wings and tropical lassis are twists on classic flavors.

Despite the variety in South Asian cuisine, Indian restaurants in the U.S. often offer North Indian specialties. Curry-N-Kabab makes a conscious effort to include dishes from all over the subcon-tinent, including biryani, naan and pakoras.

The most popular dishes are the goat curry and the chicken tikka masala, often paired with a basket of garlic naan.

Curry-N-Kabab, located on Coursey Blvd.,has a daily lunch and dinner buffet, delivery service and a 20 percent discount on Sunday’s lunch buffet for students, making this spicy fare accessible to the LSU campus.

Sa Dek Kitchen Amidst the various restaurants and groceries on Florida Blvd.,

Sa Dek Kitchen stands out. After 15 years, many say it has “the

best pho in town.” The famed pho stews beef bone for a full 24 hours, double

the length of a standard 12. The recommended house pho features various beef cuts to start with, although seasoned eaters often order bowls with their preferred piece of meat.

The steamed rice cake bánh cuon is also a distinguished dish, being the only one quite like it offered in Louisiana. Consisting of steamed rice paper, ground pork, fried potato dumplings and a hearty helping of bean sprouts and shallots, this dish is best served warm with a side of fish sauce and a refreshing limeade.

When gumbo weather hits south Louisiana consider cozying up to a nice, hot bowl of pho.

La Reyna Though geographically closer to home, Central American food

is more of a rarity in Southwest Louisiana. This is why Honduran eatery La Reyna reigns supreme as a popular spot for any carne asada craving.

La Reyna’s menu features dishes found throughout Latin America: the paella, tostones, enchiladas and tres leches from dif-ferent regions are all found in one place. However, there are dis-tinctly Honduran dishes such as baledas, thick tortillas filled with mashed refried beans, are a crowd pleaser and a popular street food in Honduras.

Tex-Mex connoisseurs will recognize enchiladas and tacos, but with a Honduran twist. The Honduran enchilada features sliced egg and avocado; the Honduran tacos are served on a bed of cabbage and tomato sauce.

Unlike the often-piquant taste of Mexican food, Honduran and other Central American specialties are not as spicy. The tostones


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BACKSTAGE(fried plantain slices) served with cre-ma (sour cream) are an example of ro-bust flavoring without the heat. For the Louisianans who bring Tony’s and hot sauce to the dinner table, rest assured: the Pollo En Mole and Camarones Pi-cante bring the heat (as does the Tabas-co bottle flanking the salt and pepper shakers).

La Reyna is an enclave for Lati-nos to enjoy Spanish conversation and pick up corn flour from the adjunct tienda for homemade tortillas. After 11 years, the establishment remains an inviting place to experience Honduran hospitality.

From biryani to bánh cuon, the world’s culinary wonders can come together all in one zip code. Scattered about the capital city area, excursions to these places are well worth the trip.


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BACKSTAGEBACKSTAGE

We explore what goes into orchestrating LSU gameday.

words ARYANNA PRASAD photos MICHELLE AYOUBI design SARAH KERSHAW

It takes a team of thousands to prepare the largest, most theatrical show in Baton Rouge. Designers spend hours each day working on the set to make sure each piece is in place. Choreographers study

the motions of each person on the stage and instruct them where to go each and every moment. Props are set up days ahead of time, and intricate costumes get their final polishes just hours before the lights hit the stage. Tens of thousands gather to watch the culmina-tion of decades of work, by a large and mostly unseen crew.

During the show, everyone executes their tasks flawlessly; all props are replaced immediately if broken, ripped costumes are mended without a lost moment, and injured actors are tended to, creating the perfect scene for those in the audience. It is a show that is better orchestrated than the grandest Broadway production.

It is Saturday night in Death Valley. And, like Broadway shows, while the cast receives all the attention, the crew is largely forgotten.

The Tools of the Trade Greg Stringfellow has served the LSU Equipment staff for

more than 30 years.“Most people, for some reason, think that we just do laundry all

day,” he said. “But equipment managing is so much more than that.” After three decades, Stringfellow has distilled the ins and outs

of the job down to a science. Stringfellow said that for football, the equipment staff is in


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charge of everything, including uniforms, padding, helmets, and shoes. He ticked off his department’s responsibilities on his fin-gers as he listed them.

“Everything that you see someone step out on that field in, we’re in charge of it.”

Stringfellow’s small staff assists him in the day-to-day duties of managing the team. During football practice, his staff is on the field, doing whatever coach Les Miles needs them to do.

According to Stringfellow, they main-tain the facility, the practice facility and the locker room on a daily basis. And Stringfellow does not shy away from the less glamorous parts of the job.

“We do do laundry,” he admits. “And that is a big part of what we do.”

Beyond laundry, Stringfellow’s team decides what equipment the team will use. That translates to hours of research on a myriad of things including the most effi-cient fabrics, the safest and most technolog-ically sound helmets, and the newest, most advanced shoe technology.

When game day arrives, Stringfellow and his team are prepared. As soon as the team gets back, he said, they begin working on the pads, cleaning helmets and noting what needs to be replaced.

“We’re always getting ready for game day,” he said.

The Thursday before each game, the equipment team begins packing a large 18-wheeler with the multitude of things that the team will require, including alter-nate outfits for every coach on staff, “just in case.” This process happens regardless of whether the team is playing across the street or across the country.

Stringfellow also knows that, despite what may happen on the field, the show must always go on, and tries his best to ensure that all actors can continue to play their part despite injuries.

“If someone gets hurt, we’re there with wraps and tapes to see if there’s any way we can get them back out there and keep them playing,” he said.

Also like a stage manager, Stringfellow prefers to remain out of the spotlight, let-ting his work speak for him. When asked about the sideline stitching that took place


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during last year’s Iron Bowl, he rolled his eyes and sighed.

“We all have sewing machines,” he said, “but there’s never a need to do that kind of thing on the field. That guy was just showing off for the cam-eras. We don’t need to do things like that.”

Getting ready for the closeup

A football game is just as carefully choreographed as the most lavish dance numbers in any over-the-top musical. At every mo-ment, each player on the field has been given de-tailed instructions on ex-actly how to move, based on dozens of external fac-tors. This choreography is crafted by the coaches, with the majority of the vision by Doug Aucoin, the video coordinator for the LSU football team.

“We shoot the games differently than what you’re used to seeing on TV,” Aucoin said.

Aucoin sets up a wide shot on the sideline that captures all 22 players, he said. That way, the coaches can see what ev-ery player on the field is doing at any moment. In the endzone, he sets up a tighter shot so coaches can get a better glimpse of po-sitions.

Aucoin and his staff film every LSU football game and practice for use in strategic game planning. This means that each time LSU football players step on the field, Aucoin and

his team are there, captur-ing every snap, every tack-le, every throw and every fumble. The video depart-ment edits the footage and presents it to the coaches as soon as the players step off the field.

“During games, we’ll have the whole game put together by the time the team gets back on the bus, so that they can instantly begin reviewing,” he said.

After editing football videos for 28 years, Au-coin said he still enjoys his job now as much as he did when he first began.

“I still tell my wife that I’m going to have to figure out what I’m going to do when I grow up,” he said. “I’m having too much fun.”

Greener PasturesThe field in Tiger Sta-

dium is known nationwide for its quality. Though often admired for the fa-mous, intricately painted eye in the center, months of preparation go into per-fecting the ground itself.

Once the season be-gins, the ritual of creating and recreating the set each week is set into motion.

Amanda Adams, man-ager of Internal Projects and Facility Operations for the Tigers, said the field is mowed every day and monitored for mois-ture content and fertility.

Preparing for game days is a different story. Each Wednesday, the first coat of paint for logos is applied. On Thursday, the lines, numbers and hashes

are painted. By Friday, the logos receive their second coat and touch-ups are made.

At the beginning of each week, the process repeats itself. After each game, Adams’ team works to improve.

“We notice could have worked better and always keep an eye on how we can strive to be the best,” she said.

Like the equipment and video departments, much of the work Adams and her team do goes un-seen. Not only are they responsible for maintain-ing the field, but also for the mechanics of the items that help them do so, in-cluding lawn mowers and the maintenance of all golf carts utilized by the ath-letic staff.

The grounds crew prunes and pulls any and all weeds on the field, while the custodial staff makes sure that the venue is in its best shape before the audience arrives.

It is the true founda-tion of LSU football; no extravagant show can be staged without an equally extravagant set on which to play, and a lot of work goes into ensuring that field is up to the highest standard. Adams acknowl-edges that it is the collabo-ration of all these different efforts that ensure the Sat-urday night spectacles are always executed smoothly.

“It is the hard work of all our of staff together as a team that makes us able to accomplish what we ac-complish.”


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BLAME GAME

words DAVID JUDD illustration ANNE LIPSCOMB

It’s an issue that goes beyond black and white.

If you watched news coverage of the protests in Ferguson, Mo. after a white police officer shot a young,

unarmed African American, then you probably took sides: either with the people of Ferguson or with the police.

After the shooting, the ensuing firefight of stories, op-eds, edito-rials and public statements divid-ed audiences into two camps: the

“white” group, who saw that Michael Brown’s alleged violence against the cop precipitated his own demise, and the “black” group, who condemned the killing as an indication of their second-class citizenship.

Regardless of your position on this issue, it is undeniable that this dichotomy of the “white” group ver-sus the “black” group distorts the im-portant questions that the incident in Ferguson brings up such as racism, police militarization, pluralism, etc. Furthermore, it dangerously furthers the racial divide between ethnic com-munities in our country, rather than mediating those differences to form a peaceful coexistence that all citizens can enjoy, whatever their skin color.

This phenomenon of racializing deracialization—that is to say, read-ing race into a discourse about tran-scending race—is backward progress that only seems helpful because race factors into the equation.

But it hinders racial progress by pitting ethnic communities against each other.

OPINION


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Take, for example, a typical response from the “white” camp.

Juan Williams, in an editorial in the Wall Street Journal says, “If we are to stop angry clashes between police and poor black men, it is time to admit that thuggish be-havior creates legitimate fear in every com-munity.”

He then goes on to cite high school drop-out rates, unemployment and out-of-wedlock births as causes of this behavior.

Without proper acknowledgment this rhetoric becomes ammunition for certain readers to shoot the burden of guilt at the black community, absolving themselves of sin.

I’m not suggesting Williams should censor these types of comments; on the con-trary, these are important elements of the racial problems that deserve to be discussed. But there must be an acknowledgment of the different sources of these problems: a disproportionate educational system, a shortage of proper role models or leaders for young black men and women, and an imbalanced penal system, among others.

More importantly, however, is what does not need to be in these articles and people’s opinions across the country.

There should not be a sweeping ac-cusation of guilt for such a deep, complex topic as race aimed against a single ethnic community as if it were a monolithic con-sciousness without diversity of opinion. Not only are these accusations patently false and untrue to the intricacies of the problem, but they also stoke the fires of hate and in-tolerance among communities by throwing guilt around like a hot potato.

If our generation is serious about equal-ity, about judging people not by the color of their skin, then we must be willing to see justice or injustice, freedom or oppression, not black or white, male or female.

Certainly in situations like Ferguson race can still matter as a potential target for discrimination, without determining anything about an individual. White cops are not necessarily evil by virtue of their whiteness, but, if they are evil, it is because of their brutality—a quality certainly not dependent upon race.

And by the same logic, young black men are not guilty by virtue of their black-ness. If we want true progress, then charac-ter must always trump race.


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Documents

LSU LEGACY Magazine Winter — 2014