Initially, the professors had submitted individual proposals to the Foundation but were rejected for funding. However, Jennifer Banks, director of the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations, who worked closely with Wellesley faculty members in the grant application process, recognized an opportunity to weave these separate applications into a cohesive project.

She explained that there was a common thread that could unify the professors’ efforts, “I felt like they were all speaking to the impact that narrative can have on how we see ourselves and how we see others in different ways.” 

After Banks asked the professors to meet and discuss their proposals, “They found the right path for themselves,” she said.

Professor Yoon Sun Lee, Chair of the English department and Anne Pierce Rogers professor of English, spearheaded the collaboration effort. She explained that the team started meeting in the spring of 2023 and met throughout the spring and summer every other week. 

“It took many meetings and many hours,” she said. 

Lee described some of the major questions and themes that grounded the conversation during the drafting process. 

“The idea is that we want to really think about the specific kinds of questions that people in the humanities ask: what kinds of objects do we study? How do we study them? How can we bring our specific skills and interests and concepts to bear on these kinds of questions like identity and environment,” she said. 

This grant was given as a part of the Mellon Foundation’s “Humanities for All Times” initiative which is designed to support new humanities curricula that teach future leaders how humanities practices contribute to social justice efforts. In alignment with this initiative, Dan Chiasson, Lorraine C. Wang professor of English, shared a perspective on redefining the humanities’ role at Wellesley College.

“[The humanities are] not asked questions so much about structures of inclusion and exclusion, as much as say, a political scientist or a sociologist would be. But humanities methods — storytelling, metaphor making, image making — those are all human practices that have a lot to say to big social, civic, political questions. So, I think it could reset the humanities at Wellesley as a place to go for valid, innovative answers to questions that have sometimes tended to land in the laps of the sociologists or the political scientists, or even folks in STEM.”

The grant funds will be used in three distinct areas: curriculum development, student research and public humanities projects. The grant proposal plans for 30-40 new or revised classes and nearly 200 students involved in paid research. Banks elaborated on the nature of the new and revised courses, noting that “they are going to be … aligned with areas of social justice, democracy, climate, justice and identity in some way.” 

Lee explained that the funds will specifically cover things including stipends for student internships in the summer, student researchers, workshops with outside speakers, stipends for faculty participating in the grant’s projects, and the humanities hub in Clapp. She specifies that the faculty will also be hiring a full-time administrator to assist with implementing the grant project. 

Professor Martha McNamara, director of the New England Arts and Architecture Program and senior lecturer in the department of art, specified that the grant funds are not meant to hire more faculty. 

“We weren’t looking for staffing, but rather we said we have all of these people — resources — here doing amazing work, they just need a lift,” she said. 

Each semester, a smaller cohort of faculty members will assemble to discuss upcoming grant projects. 

“Each one is going to be like the engine that drives the changes that we hope to see happen across the humanities,” Lee explained. 

55 humanities faculty members (40%) have already said that they would be a part of this group, which will change each semester to maximize the grant’s impact across departments. 

“That cohort that comes together each semester or year will do that kind of cross-pollination and discussion across disciplines … We expect that they’ll change — it’s going to be very fluid because we’re trying to reach all the disciplines across the humanities … We really want this to be a fundamental transformation,” McNamara said. 

The spring 2024 semester is the initial planning stage for the grant. 

“[We] see this semester as a planning semester to enable us to sort of hit the ground running in September of ’24,” McNamara said. 

The first meeting of the faculty working group will be on Feb. 26. Lee explained that she hopes the group will be able to offer a certain number of new student internships this summer and new and revised courses available in the 2025-26 school year. The grant proposal states that one-third of the new or revised courses that utilize the grant’s major themes will be in courses open to non-humanities majors, an attempt at exposing as many students to the humanities as possible. 

Lee is particularly excited about the student research part of the grant. 

“Wellesley students, first-year students in particular, often ask about opportunities to do research. In the sciences, obviously, everything is already set up; there are labs and offices that help direct interested students to these opportunities. I think that students will find it really exciting and rewarding to learn more about what research in the humanities consists of and how they can also do it,” she said. 

She also explained that one of the grant’s major focus areas is inclusion. 

“We were especially interested in trying to make the humanities more inclusive and welcoming to students who might be coming from underrepresented backgrounds … We are aiming, through providing internships and research opportunities in the humanities, to help to transform students’ lives,” she said. 

McNamara is excited about the grant’s potential to revitalize the humanities at Wellesley.

“When we think of liberal arts colleges, we think of them as really being grounded in the humanities, and I think that’s true, but as there’s been more and more of a clamor for STEM education, the attention has sort of shifted, it seems to me, much more towards STEM … and that’s not a bad thing, but this has been great to enable us to really highlight and foster humanities scholarship here at Wellesley,” she said. 

“It’s so validating to have a foundation like Mellon give us such a tremendous amount of funding …  it’s just such a vote of confidence,” McNamara said. 

The story begins three years into the war and My Luck wakes from a landmine explosion to find his fellow soldiers gone. This sets him on a frightening journey chasing after his platoon through a brutally war-ravaged landscape. This search and the story as a whole exist on two different planes: the tangible physical journey through dangerous terrain and the fatiguing spiritual journey through memory. His search for his lost group converges with a search through his past memories. 

Wearing a broken, but sentimental watch that only tells the time in minutes, time is relative and non-linear for My Luck, which makes the narrative fragmented for us. In moments, it’s as though time bunches up between the past and the present, like everything in the middle collapses and My Luck is able to step in between now and then. There is an eerie quality to the seamless crossover in how he reexperiences the past as he encounters it in the present physical landscape, the same eerie quality possessed by his never-ending pack of cigarettes. 

Fragmentation, as revealed through the narrative, is also steadfast in its recurrence through My Luck’s memory of bodies, voices and people. In a job where “bullets and shrapnel from mines and mortar shells can tear a body to pieces,” bodily fragmentation is the prevailing casualty. But this destruction to the body occurs on multiple levels. When My Luck is put under the doctor’s scalpel, the intrusion of the other that results in the loss of his voice is a form of dismemberment. The loss of voice is also a fracturing of identity; the procedure becomes the demarcation between his life pre-colonial subjectivity and his one after, as a soldier. 

John Wayne, the Western officer who trained and led the platoon, had a memorized book of protocols he would dictate from. One such protocol required a count to be taken of the dead, but it fails to take into account how the war rips people apart, 

“An arm here, a leg over there in the foliage – all of which have to be retrieved and assembled into the semblance of a complete body before there can be a count…Many of the parts do not add up. This is the enemy’s cruelty – that much of the generation who survive this war will not be able to rebuild their communities.” 

The tragedy of this war goes beyond the gruesome deaths, mangled bodies, and horrifying acts forcibly observed or committed by child soldiers. In a narrative that flits between the past and the present, Abani shows us the true tragedy found in the future when the cruel effect of war lies in the permanent fragmentation of families, communities, and nations. Even the survivors can not escape the dismembered fate of the dead. 

As My Luck travels through his past in an attempt to search for his comrades, his struggle is not for survival, but to understand the horrific cruelty of the world and his place in it. There is no simple morality to his quest for self-comprehension as he relives the atrocities he has both committed and seen. As a child who has killed and raped, he says to us, “Even with the knowledge that there are some sins too big for even God to forgive, every night my sky is still full of stars; a wonderful song for night.” 

In a landscape where everything is thoroughly ravaged by war, a delicate beauty still exists. It’s found in the taste of freshly caught fish, in the sun that warms the skin, in the dolphin that says hello, and in the love that washes the aftertaste of rape. But beauty doesn’t just exist in these thin threads. Through Abani’s deft prose, it often dually exists with the macabre in a single moment. In a river of corpses, My Luck gives a skeleton a proper burial and wears its cobwebs as a cape. A scene of death and ugliness can be transformed into one of beauty and sublime. This is how Abani crafts a story that seemingly dissolves, but ultimately reinforces the potential for hope.

Professor Ahmed began his career as an economist. After completing a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and a Bachelor of Arts/Master of Arts in economics at Northwestern University, he worked at the White House Council of Economic Advisors and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. His transition to academia began during his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago where he had to teach as a part of his degree. After experiencing the teaching side of academia, Professor Ahmed explained, “I really enjoyed that aspect of it. I like the research side of being a professor, but the most rewarding part about it, I think, is the teaching aspect, being able to interact with students, convey knowledge to them.” Before coming to Wellesley, Professor Ahmed taught at Princeton University for nine years. The move to Wellesley is an especially welcome change for him because it is a transition to a more teaching-focused and student-centered environment.

Professor Ahmed’s main area of research is political economy with a focus on international economics and international political issues. Other topics that his research branches into include development, political violence, international economic law, and the political economy of migration. Recently, in 2023, he published “Conquests and Rents: A Political Economy of Dictatorship and Violence in Muslim Societies,” which is a book that examines reasons for why much of the Muslim and Islamic world tend to be underdeveloped. As he explains, “a central piece of that argument is thinking about historical processes in the way that Islam spread across these regions and so writing that book I have more knowledge on thinking about the role of history in political and economic development.” Looking towards the future, Professor Ahmed hopes to teach a course on something related.

The reason for this change has to do with the student-led sustainability initiative in 2021 to reduce red meat consumption on campus. Wellesley Fresh explained that, “With Lulu serving the largest number of students daily, adding back pork and increasing plant based items into the rotation allowed for the opportunity to decrease red meat consumption as a whole in dining.”

Halal food refers to food that is permissible for Muslims to consume according to Islamic dietary laws, as outlined in the Quran and the Hadith. The term “halal” is an Arabic word that means “permissible” or “lawful,” so it also covers other aspects of life, food only being one such regard. 

There are a few key tenets of halal food; the one that most people are familiar with is that Muslims are not allowed to consume pork, carnivorous animals, birds of prey, carrion, and blood. The term “Zabiha” is an Arabic word that refers to the requirements for slaughtering an animal for food.

Chaplain Amira Quraishi, who is also the Muslim Life Coordinator at the College, explains that requirements zabiha refers to include, “having humility in the act of taking a life, using an extremely sharp blade to make the slaughter as fast and thorough as possible, not allowing the animals to see other animals being slaughtered, draining blood upside-down, and a prayer of gratitude and blessing over the animal before being slaughtered.”

At Wellesley, the halal dining program is defined as “a culinary program that uses zabiha halal meats and eliminates the use of any items containing pork or alcohol in the creation of culinary items.” Fruits and vegetables are always halal, as long as they are prepared without the use of alcohol. In addition to Tower Dining Hall being halal, all other dining halls offer vegetarian or vegan options at meals. 

Since the switch from Bae Pao to Tower was announced before returning students were able to select their housing for the 2023-24 school year, it is possible that it influenced some students’ housing choices. The Co-President of Al-Muslimat, the student-run organization that is dedicated to supporting all Muslims on campus, Rahnuma Aroshi ’25, noted that the Muslim community is less centered around the Quint this year, as it has been in previous years. The Quint, which includes Beebe, Cazenove, Munger, Pomeroy and Shafer, are the dorms located closest to Lulu Chow Wang Campus Center, where halal dining was previously located.

Upon move-in, the first-year students received a brochure that had information that stated Tower Court was the halal dining hall. However, the Wellesley College website, at the time of move-in and still to this day, states that halal dining is located at Bae Pao. This has caused confusion for some of the first-year students who are still learning to navigate the College’s campus. The Secretary of Al-Muslimat, Salma El Boudali ’27, explained that “there were first-year students … who were misinformed that Lulu was the halal dining hall and they ate meat there … I don’t think that there was clear enough communication about the change in the dining hall.”

Despite the confusion, both El Boudali and Aroshi have attested that there is an adequate halal food selection at the College. When asked about the selection, El Boudali said “I think there is a pretty reasonable and abundant selection … even when I go to other dining halls they typically have a lot of vegan options and a lot of vegetarian options. So I have not found trouble at all at Wellesley in regards to not being able to eat something I want to eat.”

Murakami, one of the literary world’s foremost writers, has published over a dozen novels, several short-story collections and works of nonfiction, all of which have been translated from their original Japanese into more than 50 languages. Some of his most recognizable titles include “Kafka on the Shore,” “Norwegian Wood,” “1Q84” and “Killing Commendatore.” Murakami’s fiction is distinctive in its experimental nature and exploration of spaces where the self can be transformed. His prose style contains a characteristic blend of simplicity, surrealism and philosophical inquiry, which draws readers of all ages with a moonlike pull. 

In an Oct. 2022 interview with The Wellesley News, Murakami expressed why he was drawn to accept the College’s invitation: “I’ve run the Boston Marathon six times and was always greatly encouraged by the Wellesley students who cheered us on as we passed through the Scream Tunnel. But I’ve never really had the chance to spend time on your beautiful campus, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to get to know it better.”

Each year the College is able to appoint a visiting professor of the humanities to be in residence for a semester or a year, and Murakami was invited by the Suzy Newhouse Center for Humanities through this process. In the duration they are here, they engage with the College’s students and faculty through seminars, courses and lectures, as well as other informal ways. Past visiting professors in recent years have included Rosemary G. Feal, executive director emerita of the Modern Language Association of America, and Emmanuel Akyeampong, professor of history and African American Studies and the Oppenheimer director of the Center for African Studies at Harvard University. 

This past semester, Murakami has been leading a faculty seminar on what his fiction says about gender. The faculty have been reading his short stories written in a woman’s voice and having free form discussion with the writer, receiving a window into Murakami’s creative process. Also present at some of the faculty seminars is Murakami’s wife, Yoko Murakami, who brings an interesting perspective to the conversation as both a woman and Murakami’s first reader. Newhouse Center Director and Professor of Japanese Eve Zimmerman, recalls in a discussion on the short story “Sleep,” “[The faculty was] basing an argument about gender on the fact that the story moves in present tense.” In the midst of this conversation, Yoko stood up and voiced a clarification. She explained that the grammar the faculty’s interpretation hinged on was not an issue in the original Japanese version. To Zimmerman, “the fact that she just stood up and said, look, let me give you another perspective, was just fantastic.”

In addition to the faculty seminar, Murakami has made two appearances in a course this spring taught by Zimmerman, “Haruki Murakami and Modern Japanese Literature.” Offered by the College’s East Asian Languages & Cultures department, the class explores Murakami’s world-making by reading half of his major novels, in addition to short essays and non-fiction works. In the time that students spent engaging in discourse with the writer, they covered a rich variety of topics. Murakami commented on space within his stories, noting that libraries are a “special station” that often appear in his works. He revealed interesting tidbits about his writing process; sometimes he comes up with a title first, then takes it as a challenge to form a story to fit it, “Kafka on the Shore” being one such example. 

Eva McNally ’25, a student in this class, recalls when Murakami was asked about how he enters the mindset to write a female character, “he said something along the lines of ‘every man has a female factor, and every woman has a male factor.’ For him to write a female character, he has to find the female factor within himself … and the other versions [of himself] that exist within the subconsciousness.” Unlike attending a book signing or watching an interview, students were given the opportunity to engage critically with Murakami in an academic setting.

Beyond the classroom, Murakami also collaborated with the Wellesley Japan Club, hosting “Tea Time” with Haruki Murakami at Acorns House in March. A group of approximately 25 students were selected through application to attend the event with both the writer and his wife Yoko. The tea lasted for an hour, during which students had an engaging discussion with both of the Murakamis, who appeared excited to be on campus and interacting with students. Kazu Shimada ’23, who is the Co-Cultural Chair of the Japan Club, said that the event had a memorable intimacy: “I was really happy to know more of the personal side of how Haruki Murakami has viewed his life and his advice on life to us college students who … are in a limbo stage, trying to adult in this world.” Another highlight from the event, as told by the Japan Club’s EALC Liaison Takami Harano ’25, was the opportunity to ask Yoko questions. Unlike her husband, scarce information can be found about Yoko online, so receiving her perspective has been particularly special.

In his time as a Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor, Murakami has enriched the intellectual life of the College. When asked what he hoped to gain from his time in residence, he answered simply and humbly: “I try not to think in terms of what I might gain. But I find that being in a new place tends to inspire new thoughts and ideas. I’ll just have to see what happens.”

Murakami’s last event at Wellesley will be the highly anticipated Cornille Lecture, taking place on the evening of April 27. At this community-wide event, he will be sharing his reflections on writing in an era of COVID-19 and war. The lecture will be followed by a short question and answer session moderated by Zimmerman. Although students and faculty eagerly await to see the spaces of Murakami’s mind we will be made privy to, he views his lecture with resounding modesty: “Well … I’m just a writer. The only thing I really know anything about is HOW TO WRITE. So perhaps I’ll talk about that.”

Zainab Khan and Sanna Walker contributed to reporting.

“The way the class has worked in the past, and [the way it works] currently, is that the class takes on a project to try to address some environmental issue on Wellesley’s campus,” George said. “In the past, we had one focus on recycling at Wellesley and one focus on composting, and the one this year … is focusing on waste reduction and waste diversion more generally on campus.”

The waste audit is one of the ways ES 300 can collect data to show what waste on campus is generally composed of. To get a diversity of waste, the class selected Bates and Green Halls to audit; Bates Hall has both dining and residential waste, while Green Hall has administrative and academic waste, which they could then use to extrapolate information about overall trends. Using a week’s worth of waste, groups of students in the class sorted through to broadly group items, such as compostables, recyclables and trash, with the help of a few volunteers. These groups were then further organized to get specific insights on what kind of waste was most prevalent. Luka Pearson ’23, the overall data manager of the project, broke down the actual data in an email correspondence.

“We found that of all waste placed in the trash, approximately 27% is plastics, 19% is food scraps, 18% is disposable dishware and food packaging, 6% is paper, 6% is glass, 1% is metals, 1% is durable goods, 1% is textiles and 21% is other miscellaneous waste,” they wrote. “Out of all waste placed in the trash, we believe 42% is correctly placed, 36% could be recycled and 22% could be composted.”

Pearson explained that these are only the preliminary calculations from the waste audit. For more in depth information, the class will be authoring a final report that is posted on the College’s website under Environmental Studies, Greening Wellesley, on the page ES 300. They also performed a recycling audit, and the results from that will also be included in the final report. 

While the students in the class were prepared with the general scope of the project and data from previous classes, the audit was open to volunteers due to the scope of work required. Plank found out about the opportunity through their friend, Maddie Speagle ’24, who was taking the class and invited them to join. Having helped to found a club about environmental science in high school, Plank was interested in helping and seeing some of the more unique things that can be found discarded on-campus.

“I actually have a succulent right now that I’m trying to nurse to life that I found in one of the trash bags. It’s not going great, but she’s still alive and I am doing everything I can to keep her that way,” Plank said. “Otherwise there was just a lot of papers, a lot of weird food … Wellesley’s got weird waste, and I’m proud to say that.”

For Amadi Mitchell ’24, president of WiCkeD, emphasizing the rich variety of cultures was especially important. This was the inspiration for this year’s theme.

“Every island has its own culture. Every island has its own traditions … But every island is also influenced by one another,” Mitchell said.

In Fitzpatrick’s talk, she focused on the amalgamation that is Caribbean culture and the ways in which intercultural diversity and its celebration is crucial to Caribbean community. While there is a diverse range of languages, religions and traditions, it is still one united community. This is even exemplified through the national motto of Jamaica, “Out of many one people.”

One of the ways this “Melting Pot” aspect was incorporated at “Expo” was through the series of dances. As explained by Jivonsha Ffrench ’24, vice president of WiCkeD, the dances were not only from Fever Dancers, a dance group currently part of WiCkeD, but also from other cultures and organizations on campus. There were dance performances from Yanvalou, Cielito Lindo and BabsonSOCA. A highlight for Ffrench was also the last dance featuring WiCkeD’s e-board members.

“It [was] nice to show … that while we’re all from different places in the Caribbean, we can come together … work cohesively and put on a culture show that represents everyone,” she said.

In addition to the dances, there were singing performances, poetry performances, and people reading short stories that originate from the Caribbean myths and folklore. 

Starting off the event, a pop-up shop was held to support small businesses. Vendors sold items such as waist beads, candles, and wire jewelry.  The wide assortment of small businesses was intentional on WiCkeD’s part.

“We … really worked on creativity to diversify the aspect of ‘Expo’ by including vendors which we had not done previously and [also] presentations on Wellesley courses,” Sylvette Dupe-Vete-Congolo ’25, co-social chair of WiCkeD, said in an email correspondence.

The event also served as a fundraiser for the Authentic Caribbean Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Boston that is dedicated to providing education, training, health and support services to people within the Caribbean and the Diaspora. The group is especially focused on transforming the lives of Caribbean children and adults who are impacted by disabilities and HIV/AIDS. 

Spotlighting the vivid nature of Caribbean culture through “Expo” furthered WiCkeD’s goals of improving the campus’s knowledge of Caribbean culture. Dupe-Vete-Congolo emphasized the importance of this event for the members of WiCkeD.

“‘Expo’ made us reflect on what WiCkeD and the Caribbean meant to us, as well as how both influenced our upbringings (the storytelling) and our history (intersectionality of different cultures).”

During the Dean’s Corner, Dean of Students Sheila Shaw Horton brought to students’ attention that cases of norovirus have been reported around the world. Norovirus is a highly contagious virus that causes diarrhea and vomiting. She informed students that there have been no reported cases on campus, and would like for the situation to remain that way. Dean Horton also shared information about Willow, an online depression program built by Wellesley students, for Wellesley students. Continuing with mental health, she reminded students that the Stone Center and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life are readily avaliable to provide support when needed. Dean Horton shared flyers for both Willow and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life.

Title IX Presentation

CW: includes topics of sexual misconduct

Director of Nondiscrimination Initiatives and Title IX Coordinator Justin Bell gave a presentation regarding sexual misconduct and consent. He began by introducing his role on campus: he deals with anything discriminatory in nature. It was also shared that he is on campus Mondays, Wednesdays, and most Fridays. In his presentation, he reminded students that consent is something that is “active, voluntary, enthusiastic, and ongoing.” When engaging in sexual activity, it is important that both parties are participating and aware the activity is occurring. Director Bell stressed that consent can not be obtained through direct or implied force, corcercion, or incapacitation through drugs, alcohol, or injury. 

Gender Ballot Initiative Presentation

There was a presentation on the Gender Ballot Initiative. This initiative is aiming to align the College’s messaging with the demographics of the student body and alumni. It was proposed for future communication from the College to replace gender-specific language with gender-neurtal language when referencing the student body. For example, instead of using “she/her,” using “they/them.” Additionally, it was proposed for Wellesley College Admissions to be inclusive of all transgender and non-binary prospective students. 

Cabinet Announcements

There is a new date for SBOG Ice Skating. It is now on Feb. 25 from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM at the Babson Rink.

SOFC is finishing Spring Emergency and applications for Bookie positions are now open. 

Despite being the most prestigious art fair in the western hemisphere, I find Art Basel Miami Beach to also be the art world’s preeminent joint display of fine art and conspicuous consumption. Along with billionaires descending upon the city in their private jets to battle for Basquiats and Boves, there is a weeklong circus of celebrity product launches, commercially sponsored pop-up events and Gatsbyesque parties. 

But this bacchanal of opulence is not experienced by everyone in the city. The poverty in Black-majority communities such as Overtown, Little Haiti or Liberty City serve as a stark backdrop to the coastal high-rises and Rolls Royce clogged streets. The wealth disparity in Miami-Dade County is startlingly clear and is something we need to pay attention to. Even before COVID-19, Miami has consistently been a city that has suffered some of the highest levels of income inequality in the United States. A part of this has been as a result of Art Basel. 

Underneath all of the splendor, art is a financial instrument for the uber-rich. Starting in the early 2000’s, the contemporary art market saw massive growth despite the global recession that plagued this period. Record sales were seen almost every month because of former Soviet oligarchs, Chinese billionaires, Middle Eastern magnates and high networth individuals (HNWI’s) from Silicon Valley. Contemporary art was especially appealing for investors with easy money policies beginning in 2008 and the “new normal” of low yields on bonds and equities. Since the art market is currency neutral, meaning it’s independent of the stock market, the resale value of artwork can still remain high even if the economy isn’t doing well. 

So when Art Basel Miami Beach began back in 2002, presenting Modern and contemporary artwork, it began bringing a wave of global elite to Miami every December. Specifically, it brought Chinese, Russians and Turks, who fueled the already-growing local art scene and bought real estate in the area. It wasn’t until the pandemic, however, that Americans decided to capitalize on Florida’s generous tax laws, and join this wave of buyers. 

This influx of buyers has caused property prices to increase intensely. In the last year, Miami-Dade County home values have gone up 24.5%. The super boom of the real estate market is without a doubt intertwined with the art world. In an article published by Art Basel themselves, they attribute Miami’s ability to lure HNWI’s from Silicon Valley and New York to the flourishing cultural institutions that have been a result of Art Basel’s arrival 20 something years ago. With matured art institutions and a city designed by starchitects, Miami is now considered an art city and a top-tier cultural destination.

What the article written by Art Basel fails to acknowledge, is the effect this has had on local people who are removed from the art scene. Out of the county’s 2.7 million residents, only 8% can now afford the current median house price of $490,000. With rising property prices, rent has risen drastically as well, faster than anywhere else in the US. The displacement of people who have previously been living in these areas is made even worse by the city’s new law that essentially “criminalizes homelessness” by banning encampments.

This law, I find, speaks volume to the priorities of the city: promote economic growth with no heed to the consequences. In a time where the cost of living is rising inordinately in a compressed time frame, it gives no grace to those being displaced. Rather, it prioritizes the aesthetics of the streets, keeping it free of blemishes to preserve property value and to cater to the predilections of wealthy contemporary art shoppers. 

Art Basel has transformed Miami’s social fabric. It has not been all negative, local gallerists have seen increases in business and local artists have felt the scene become more dynamic. But along with the thriving art scene also comes a story of displacement and loss. It is a modern day gilded age and a tale of two cities. Acknowledging the effects of Art Basel Miami Beach is just the first step.

Despite the polarizing opinions surrounding MIT fraternities, I must admit that they are convenient, economical and sometimes the only option if you are not yet 21. But most importantly and somewhat paradoxically, they are also the most fun. It is the land where beer pong and discussions about quantum error correction combine, giving those of us who love to let loose of everything except our superiority complexes, the best of both worlds. So, as a retired frat frequenter who has seen one too many YikYaks from first-years looking for a party, here is a guide and some opinions on the MIT frats. 

What all the college themed movies tricked us into believing is that as a girl, you can walk into any party. By reason of that, I am sure many of us were viciously humbled on our first MIT frat outing when we discovered the ever-elusive guest list. Fortunately, Tinder works as a great way to form initial connections as most of these frat guys are on the app for the sole purpose of inviting girls to their parties. 

Start off the year by matching with some brothers and asking them to add you and your friends to their list. Once at the party, be nice to the person who invited you but never feel obligated to be any nicer than what you’re comfortable with. It could be in your best interest, however, to casually keep in touch with one or two brothers at the frats you like. Think of this as networking, nothing will prepare you better for corporate world schmoozing. 

While most of us do not know the Greek alphabet, there is no better way to learn it than familiarizing yourselves with fraternities. In honor of that, here are some of Emma and my opinions about a few select MIT frats. 

Phi Beta Epsilon (PBE) 

M: PBE is the frat of soccer and football players. I have yet to figure out why they are so exclusive but they have a notoriously hard door. When the line gets long, even being on the guest list will not help you. The brothers do, however, have wristbands that they give to friends and other friendly acquaintances that get you in like a VIP pass. How those wristbands are attained, I will leave it to your imagination. Personally, I recommend just being on the guest list and showing up at 10 p.m. on the dot before the line forms. Overall: a nice house with unsanitary jungle juice but a decent number of cute brunettes for your flirting needs. 

E: Formerly a hotel, PBE is definitely the Ritz-Carlton of all the frats. Not only are their rooftop parties a spectacular way to see the Boston skyline while dancing to very bad music, but you can also see all the first-year girls waiting in line … and getting declined. Their five-star rating makes it almost impossible to get in and can honestly be the most degrading experience. But at this point, being stuck outside PBE is a rite of passage. It is on the MIT side of the Charles, so you can get off at the 77 Massachusetts Ave. stop and take a quick walk over. 

Chi Phi 

M: Apparently Chi Phi is also known as the land of coke and whippets, which explains why they play so much EDM. Although the house is gorgeous architecturally, the lack of upkeep is just sad and the bathrooms are always out of toilet paper. Here, I have seen the most sapphic sights out of all the frats, the most memorable being two girls aggressively finger-banging one another on the dance floor. A close second was when I saw someone put up a sign written “Lesbian” in the middle of the dance floor, and a hoard of girls consolidated around her within the next second.

E: I have never been, but I heard that they have the highest number of lacrosse players,and a couple cute ones at that. 

Delta Tau Delta (Delts)

M: Delts is where you will get the quintessential frat basement experience: sticky bodies, sticky floors and a thick layer of sweaty fog when you walk in. It’s not really for me but I still hold them in higher regard than Chi Phi because their bathrooms are always fully stocked with toilet paper and a pledge once made me a really good gin and tonic. The brothers always seem to be more interested in dancing with one another than the girls.

E:  One of my favorites simply because of the music …Taylor Swift fans anyone… Although the parties are usually thrown in the increasingly musty basement, after a couple of Bud Lights or so, you forget, becoming easily distracted by men in togas dancing with one another. 

Phi Sigma Kappa

M: Never been, but I’ve heard about the cages.

E: I lost my frat virginity to Phi Sig and I have some regrets. Their theme was, “Phi Sig Uncaged,” and upon entering the house I was astounded to see a literal cage in the middle of the room with girls straddling themselves onto the metal rods. Unironically, “Come Get Her,” was blasting through the speakers to which all the brothers were chanting the lyrics loud and clear. If you are unfamiliar with the song, it goes a little something like this, “somebody come get her, she’s dancing like a stripper.” Overall, this experience did not sit well with me and I will not be returning. 

Phi Kappa Sigma (Skullhouse): 

M: They’re called Skullhouse not because they are into punk and heavy metal but because the founders were neuroscientists. The good Skulls parties I’ve been to are the ones in the basement where multiple games of “beer pong and die” are going on at one huge table and Puerto Rican music is blasting. Unfortunately, when the party is upstairs, it’s not worth staying for. 

E: My personal favorite, but I’m biased because I’m friends with most of the brothers who are Puerto Rican like me. It is the only frat that plays reggaetón, which is probably why they attract so much of the Latinx community. Honestly, there is no better way to spend Friday nights than “perreando” to Bad Bunny and drinking endless amounts of Medallas with your friends. 

Now that I have written this article, I can suitably say that all of my experience at frats was simply research in the spirit of journalism. My partying days are well over, and I now find that there is nothing more enjoyable than a wine and cheese night with my closest friends. A realization that we all eventually accept is that frats are overrated and you do not always have to go. But if you see me at PBE next weekend, don’t say anything.