Lying in the University's Special Collections is a series of print editions of Perspective from the 1990s. The paper uplifted Black student voices; in each addition, BSU members shared their Hopkins experience, news writers covered domestic and international events, editors addressed the University's progress in promoting an inclusive on-campus community and poets expressed themselves through advocacy-driven creative writing. The University recognized the BSU as a student organization in 1969, originally in tandem with the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Perspective, as such, grew as an extension of BSU's mission to improve diversity and, as the name suggests, amplify Black student perspectives. In the March 1990 editorial, Richard Anderson, Perspective editor, shared how published opinions are intended to come from the minority, sometimes even serving as an "instrument of protest."

The News-Letter studied available Perspective archives to share the extent of their coverage. While the paper featured BSU updates, future events and publicized notable events and talks throughout the University, most of Perspective's content featured critiques about the University and commentary about national affairs. A description of the paper and its scope is explained in the 1997 BSU records.

"The Perspective is a news and editorial journal that covers campus, local, national, and international issues. This subcommittee edits, distributes, writes and solicits articles and advertisements for the Perspective. The Perspective will be published in late October, early December, early February, mid March, and late April. Budget: $3000 (Perspective production costs, 5 issues at $600)," the record reads.

Hopkins Critiques

On the front page of the December 1992 edition (Vol. 4, No. 2) is a list of 5 Spring Courses being offered that relate to African-Americans, written by an anonymous student under the pseudonym "the Watchdog." These include courses such as "Contemporary African Literature" and "African Politics through Fiction." This critique of the lacking diversity in the University's course offerings is one of many issues regarding Hopkins' racial policies raised by Black students in Perspective.

The March 1990 edition publicized a survey to assess programs intending to support Black students, hoping to initiate new programs to increase their success and participation.

National Commentary

The March 1990 edition of Perspective reports on global conflicts, primarily focusing on newly independent nations and post-colonial adjustments. For example, articles explained the history behind "LA CASA," a Somali refugee shelter in Canada, analyzed statistics of Black students following the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education and questioned US involvement in Panama, highlighting local atrocities. This edition also highlights notable leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Roy Wilkins, who became the Executive Director of the NAACP amidst his advocacy to implement civil rights legislation and integrate the US Army.

Notably, Perspective continued its coverage alongside The News-Letter. The formation of a second newspaper can be attributed to the overflow of creativity, passion and desire for change within the BSU at the time.

The Current Perspective

Since the 1990s, the paper publication has developed into an online magazine published annually by the BSU. In an interview with The News-Letter, BSU President Oluwatoyosi Fowowe discussed the transformation of the publication over time.

"It was very activism focused," Fowowe said. "Very much fighting injustice focused, and over the years, it's kind of evolved more into a celebration."

This year, development and distribution are under the direction of sophomore Kemka Okoroafor, BSU's Research, History & Education Chair. In an interview with The News-Letter, Okoroafor outlined his plans for this year's edition, which will be available online on April 25.

"Our theme is going to be our roots, because it is the 150th anniversary of Hopkins, and it is the 80th anniversary of the first Black student graduating [from] Hopkins," he said. "We are going to take a historical look, a look back at the organizations on campus, and a look back at how we've developed since 80 years ago."

Fowowe also described the importance of inclusion to the BSU's mission on campus and how important it has been for the executive board to encourage student participation from non-Black students outside of BSU.

"We do a big event to launch the magazine every year. All of our events are open to everyone, but I think when people see that it's the Black Student Union it's mainly black students who attend the event, which is something we struggle with," she said. "People think it's exclusive to black students at Hopkins, which is not the case at all. Everyone is invited - everyone. We love to share all our events and initiatives with everyone."

Chinese New Year is coming up, so I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with my culture. This will be the third year where I haven't celebrated it because I won't be home with my family to do so. It is especially frustrating when I think back to how I sat around at home on the 25th of December, spending the day doing my very best to become one with the couch because there wasn't anything worth celebrating on that day for my family, and yet that is the day we all had off.

For the past three years, there has been nothing I could do but FaceTime my mom and watch the festivities from 200 miles away. My roommates and I will at most cook some dumplings we brought from home and eat them together before retreating to our rooms to finish our assignments. This sad attempt at celebration almost feels worse than not doing anything at all, but we still can't bring ourselves not to try.

It scares me to think of the possibility of never properly celebrating the New Year again, as irrational as it may be. It feels like the older I get, the further I'm slipping from my heritage.

This semester, I am in a fiction class that focuses on immigrant stories. In our most recent class, we discussed an essay by Christopher Castellani where he wrote, "every child of immigrants is born into this sort of loss, that loss itself is encoded in our genes, that every immigrant story is an elegy." This "loss" is something that I feel acutely every day. There is always a heavy weight lodged in my chest when I have to use a translator to read the texts my mom sends me. Or when she calls me in frustration to have me translate to my younger brother what she's trying to say, only for me to not understand everything either. Or when I can never remember when any of my older family members' birthdays are because they go by the lunar calendar, and I don't know what the conversion is. Or when it is Chinese New Year, and I'm not really celebrating, but relatives call and I can't remember how to say any of the phrases for prosperity other than the most basic ones.

I don't know what else to call this feeling other than mourning. When I see videos of my five-year-old self living in China and speaking my native language more easily than I can now, it really feels like I've lost something I can't get back. I don't think I'll ever be able to reconcile with that.

As I deal with this eternal struggle of not feeling Chinese enough, I recently found myself facing the annoying fly in my ear that is the internet. All of a sudden, every other reel I see is people talking about being in "a Chinese time" of their lives. At first, it was mostly Chinese-American creators sharing their attempts to connect more deeply with Chinese culture, which I empathized with and even appreciated, especially with the turmoil I've been experiencing with my own identity. But now, I rarely see any Chinese creators making these videos; instead, people who aren't Chinese in the slightest - most who aren't even Asian - have begun claiming the Chinese identity for themselves and bastardizing our traditions and practices in the name of joining a trend. And while I am aware it is simply a joke that will pass in the blink of an eye, as all things on social media do, I cannot help but be disturbed by the ease with which they call themselves Chinese. Maybe it is because I don't feel the same ease, because I struggle with this strange impostor syndrome even though I am the one who grew up speaking the language, eating the food and facing the racism that comes with being Chinese.

I can't help the slight hesitation I always feel when I say I'm Chinese, even though I know and have always known that is what I am. It's like I'm scared I'll be put to the test, and I'm not sure if I'll pass.

This Chinese New Year, I will once again call my mom during dinner time. She will show me the large spread of dishes I have grown up eating, the many bodies in the kitchen, the kids running around in their adorable, red traditional clothing. I will show her the dumplings my roommates and I have compiled together so that we can all try the different flavors that each of our mothers have made. I'll say the celebratory phrases I know and maybe I'll ask her to teach me a new one. Maybe it's a little lackluster and sad, but I am Chinese. I can't bring myself not to try.

Harmony Liu is a junior from Queens, N.Y. studying English. Her column shares moments in her life that feel significant and profound enough to be written out and cast to sea for any to find. This article was written before the Chinese New Year.

Hailing from a background in chemistry, Professor Xia's research primarily focuses on nanomaterial development. In addition to studying the fundamental science involved - such as the morphology explaining the specific shapes and sizes formed - his lab has a major emphasis on finding their applications. For instance, they are involved in energy conversions using fuel cells, an essential innovation to minimize pollution. Additionally, nanomaterials have countless biomedical uses from being efficient carriers for delivering drugs to even regenerative medicine.

This has been a special area of interest for Professor Xia, especially using scaffolding materials. For example, they can be used to enable stem cells to develop and differentiate, thus benefiting nerve repair. Rotator cuff repair is also another key area of his work, finding ways to resolve joint issues that begin to develop for those 60 years old and above.

"We are trying to find an efficient way to attach tendons to the bone surface to form a strong junction. Right now, the challenge for this rotator cuff repair is really the similarity between these two, even the materials at the interface. Tendon is kind of soft, bone is kind of rigid. If you just put tendon on bone the interface is not stable, it's not robust. It can be detached very easily. So we're trying to find some scaffolding material that can really help that interface to recover," he explained.

Xia, who recently joined the Hopkins faculty, highlighted the University's strong biomedical research focus and School of Medicine as key factors supporting his research endeavours. He looks forward to more strongly implementing translational efforts through the medical school over the next few years, including the commercialization of some of the materials his lab is working on.

"One of them is about electrospun nanofibers. You can make fibers very, very thin diameters. Those fibers can be aligned, and basically can guide cellular migration used for wound management. They can be used in the hospitals as patches to allow the wound to close as quickly as possible, to avoid infection."

His past experiences working with research that grew to become of major interest to industry has served as a useful background for these ventures. His academic background, rooted in working with soft lithography under the guidance of George M. Whitesides has also helped build the bridge to his current work with shaping softer matter in nanomaterials. Reflecting on his journey, Xia highlighted what he found to be the essential qualities of a scientist.

"During this process, you have to have a good understanding… otherwise, you're going to become a technician, right? The difference between scientists and technicians is really the scientific understanding. As a scientist, you always know what you are doing, you don't just repeat things manually and mechanically."

When speaking specifically about the recent honor of being elected to the National Academy of Engineers, Xia emphasised that his key driving force remained a scientific curiosity and desire to benefit the community rather than awards. He looks forward to carrying out his projects and ensuring his research remains impactful.

"For me, it's really in your curiosity and interest, right? [Wanting] to solve some problem, [wanting] to understand something and trying to get something useful to society. So that's really the driving force… This national academy thing is a good recognition. It's a good thing to have, [but it] should not become your personality."

The discussion began with logistical details about the Jay-fil-A chicken sandwich giveaway planned for Wednesday, Feb. 25 from 6-7 p.m. on the second floor of the Bloomberg Student Center (BSC). An announcement was made about the upcoming Freshman Masquerade Ball set to occur on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Glass Pavilion and Great Hall from 7-10 p.m. and the upcoming Sophomore Garden Party scheduled for March 8 at Gertrude's in the Baltimore Museum of Art from 7-10 p.m.

The conversation moved to the Committee on Student Elections, which currently has no members. Only one eligible student filled out the application by the time of the meeting, and the application was set to close on Wednesday, Feb. 25. One senator proposed the revival of a 2019 referendum policy allowing students to answer optional survey questions formulated by the SGA while voting on SGA elections. The survey results would give the SGA more information about how they can best advocate for student interests; it was noted that the 2019 referendum reflected a widespread desire for a new student center, which has since been fulfilled with the opening of the BSC.

Senator Seán Durkis-Dervogne then gave a summary of his previously proposed Course Transparency Funding Bill, which would create a pilot program aimed at gathering data on what percentage of students in a given course received a B- or under. In response to senators' questions, Durkis-Dervogne mentioned that preliminary surveys have shown overwhelming support for the initiative, and he is coordinating with the legal team to ensure complete privacy with regard to student data. He also noted that the code for the program would be open-source, and any potential negative mental health effects would result in a reconsideration of the program after the first semester. Following the discussion, the bill was sent to the Finance Committee.

An SGA Bylaws Omnibus Update, intended to revise the organization's bylaws to account for more recent amendments, was sent to the Internal Affairs committee.

Senator Jason Yu followed with two proposals. The first was for a funding increase for the Student Services Committee, of which he is the chair, in order to purchase filming equipment to be used for conducting student interviews on campus and improve interactions with the general student body. His next proposal was for a tabling event during which free umbrellas would be handed out to students in response to concerns regarding weather-related support while students were encouraged to fill out a survey regarding Wi-Fi accessibility. Both bills were sent to the Finance Committee.

SGA then passed a proposal by the Academic Affairs Committee for a tabling event set to occur on March 2 during which plushies will be distributed, students will be encouraged to complete a survey regarding credit overload, and information will be available regarding the sample major pathways currently being developed by the committee.

Last on the agenda was Senator Jason Yu's March Tabling Funding Bill for a tabling event during which the Student Services Committee would distribute Asian snacks to students. The bill for the event, aimed at celebrating Asian culture and promoting dialogue among students, was passed.

Brief initial addresses by the University President Ron Daniels and Mission Area Executive for Space Formulation at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Jason Kalirai reaffirmed the institution's belief in looking towards the future, and specifically towards the sheer vastness of our cosmos. Space exploration is a field with historic ties to Hopkins; the first color image of Earth was possible thanks to the contributions of the APL.

The panel discussion straddled the lines between the varied disciplines of the faculty members involved. Aptly beginning with philosophy, Ismael grappled with the question of how humans could claim to understand any of the universe at all.

"Maybe the universe everywhere is made of the same kind of stuff, obeying the same kind of laws, so that we can, by studying stuff that we do have immediate access to, discern laws that govern everything in the universe. [But] there's no guarantee that that's correct. It just happens that as far as we know, our universe is structured like that, and it was that insight that made science as we know it now possible."

Picking up on the thread of how scientists strive to decode the cosmos, Riess brought a cosmologist's perspective on why the universe remains worth studying, looking at our understanding of science as almost akin to a sweater.

"We're tremendously curious about some of the things that don't fit in the universe… I'm most interested in the loose threads on the sweater. You know, sometimes you pull them and they just come off. And sometimes they unravel the sweater," he said.

This spirit of inquiry is reflected in threads running back millennia, as addressed by Mheallaigh when considering the thoughts of Greek antiquity.

"The cosmos, it's a beautiful word in ancient Greek. It means beautiful order… It's the very word that we have in cosmetics… When they looked at the system, they saw order, and then they connected that with all sorts of other systems of order, like political or internal order. So they saw connections between the way we live, ethically and politically and socially; how we interact with one another in societies."

By contrast, Riess described cosmologists to be almost like cartographers: carrying forward the attempts made by ancient civilizations to quantify the world around them, though foregoing those civilizations' searches for beautiful harmony in the universe. Nonetheless, even the end of the universe itself, be it through heat death or a "big crunch," has captured human interest, as Ismael pondered. Representations of this essentially aesthetic quality of the universe have enraptured the human imagination since the Homeric era, discusses Mheallaigh.

She specifically honed in on the shield of Achilles as a representation of the universe: a state of being both inside and outside existence at once. Other cosmological metaphors, though perhaps less literary, have also permeated the popular consciousness. Riess appreciates the likening of the expansion of the universe to the rising of raisin bread, with the raisins growing further apart from one another.

Of course, there remain those phenomena which still remain beyond scientific understanding. For such scenarios, Mheallaigh turns to the writings of Seneca, a philosopher and advisor to Roman Emperor Nero.

"Seneca did this incredible thing. He said, 'No I disagree with Aristotle. We don't know enough yet. I don't think Aristotle is right, but we won't know until someone in the future answers the question,'" Mheallaigh stated. "Our knowledge is incomplete. And for me, that generates a sense of that kind of intellectual humility… and that seems to me to tear open a membrane between antiquity and the future. It's like I'm waiting back with Nero for someone out there in the future to answer the questions to the universe."

Approaching the question of science's limits from a broader philosophical stance, Ismael remained optimistic that science would be able to eventually provide these answers.

"One of the things about science is that nobody knows the answers to these questions," Ismael began. "All of my money is on science being ultimately able to understand these questions… not because we know what the final science looks like, but because science won't be completed until it does. So there's no reason to think there's no set of laws that will encompass and show the human being to be completely a part of the fabric of the universe."

After briefly tussling with the difficult challenge of life beyond the Earth, the panelists tackled the scientific systems that define the boundaries of human discovery. Ismael described it as a massive mathematical framework where each new piece of the puzzle came one step closer to reconstructing it into something more accurate.

Yet, an essential aspect of the conversation was acknowledging that the framework could not remain isolated unto itself. Still, there remains a tremendous difficulty in truly bridging the gaps between different fields, as Riess describes when thinking about his day-to-day work.

"I mean, when we talk interdisciplinary, we're like, oh, talk to the mathematician, the chemist, like that. Oh, my God, engineers? There are interesting questions as we talk about these philosophical questions that sometimes come up in our work, like, how do I think about this cosmological principle? How do I think about Occam's razor? These are philosophical questions that I think if I stop and think about it more, I would go and visit [Ismael and Mheallaigh's] offices."

Nonetheless, there remains hope for more synergy in the future, with the professors acknowledging Hopkins to be one of the most interdisciplinary universities they have worked in. As the panel came to a close - with the promise of the next panel in the series being one focused on solving the hunger crisis - this essential spirit of connections across departments and subjects resounded as a concluding statement.

Hooker is a professor of social sciences at Brown University and a political theorist who specializes in racial justice, Black political thought and more. In addition to this, she is also the author of Black Grief/White Grievance: The Politics of Loss. In her presentation, Hooker gave historical examples of Black resistance to racist commemoration and public memory.

This particular discussion focused on Mary Church Terrell and W.E.B Du Bois in relation to slave monuments. Terrell was an educator, speaker and activist who campaigned for women's suffrage and social equality for African Americans in the late 19th century. She was also a founding member of the National Association of Colored Women and the first Black woman to serve on the Washington, D.C. Board of Education. Du Bois, in turn, was a sociologist, historian and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He used his scholarship and editorial work to challenge racist historical narratives and advocate for Black civil rights. He also wrote extensively about the politics of memory and the representation of Black Americans in public life.

The event began with a discussion of a 1951 poem, "A Black Woman Speaks... of White Womanhood" by Beah Richards. Hooker analyzes this poem through the lens of epistemic injustice and racialized memory.

"Richards's poem centers a figure - the mammy, often referenced as the embodiment of race relation - and then systematically dismantles this racist myth by narrating the experience from the black woman's perspective, foregrounding the sexual violence that produces interracial kinship," Hooker explained. "She allows that Black mammies cared for their white charges, as they did not starve them to death [...] but she also shows how complex and fraught nurturing white children was for Black women."

An example from the poem that Hooker cited came from the line where Richards described the way that white mothers taught their children to hate the Black women who had raised them, detailing how they "despoiled my daughters and killed my sons."

Despite the limitations of post-Reconstruction political disenfranchisement, Hooker explained how African American intellectuals, activists and everyday people resisted the Lost Cause myth and fought to level the epistemic playing field by engaging in their own forms of memory by preserving and disseminating African American history to Black publics.

"Black club women, for instance, studied black history, encouraged their children to learn black history in schools and at home, and wrote articles about African American history," she outlined. "They undertook educational outreach and support for community libraries in order to try and transmit to children and the general public a different version of African American, Southern and American history than that in the Lost Cause propaganda."

The Lost Cause is an interpretation of the American Civil War (1861-1865) that attempts to frame the role of the Confederates through a positive lens. This point of view attempts to preserve the honor of the South by attributing the Confederacy's loss as a result of overwhelming Union advantage and celebrates an antebellum South of supposedly content enslaved people.

Hooker then went on to analyze attempts to build 20th-century faithful slave monuments (statues erected to promote the "Lost Cause" narrative) and the fierce resistance to them by African Americans. She emphasized that these monuments were designed to naturalize racial hierarchy by presenting enslaved people as loyal and devoted to their enslavers.

"Now, faithful slave monuments are a particular type of racist monument. They are not statues honoring racists like those of Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee, nor are they statues built without racist intent, but whose form or placement nevertheless conveys racist messages, such as statues that feature kneeling slaves," Hooker said. "African American intellectuals challenging faithful slave commemorations in the 1920s and 1930s - especially Mary Church Terrell and W.E.B Du Bois - became pioneering theorists of epistemic injustice by identifying [...] harms of racist monuments."

She explained that these monuments had actively shaped public understanding of slavery and reinforced white supremacist narratives.

In particular, Hooker highlighted two major campaigns to construct faithful slave memorials. Two attempts in the early 20th century sparked national debate and organized protest within Black communities.

"I analyzed two attempts to build faithful slave monuments in the U.S. in the early 20th century, and the fierce resistance to them by African Americans, especially Terrell and DuBois," she explained. "The first ultimately unsuccessful effort was the proposal by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the UDC, to build the National Monument to the black mammy nearby in Washington, D.C in 1923. The second effort was the Haywood Shepherd Memorial, which was installed by the UDC and the Sons of Confederate Veterans at Harper's Ferry."

Hooker also examined the UDC's cultural influence, including its Catechism for Children. Through educational pamphlets and children's materials, the UDC successfully campaigned to construct monuments and shape historical narratives across the South.

"The UDC shaped official history by asserting control of public school curricula and monument buildings, while professional historians like the members of Columbia Dunning School and Woodrow Wilson gave Lost Cause inversions the imprimatur of scientific rigor, the grassroots historians of the UDC inserted them into everyday institutions in the South - as we can see here from their Catechism for Children, which contains their questions and answers about the Civil War, slavery, etc," Hooker explained.

She argued that this effort represented a coordinated strategy to institutionalize Lost Cause ideology in education and public spaces. Hooker contended that the UDC's work blurred the line between grassroots activism and official historical authority.

This influence extended beyond monuments into classroom instruction, shaping how generations of Southern students understood slavery and the Civil War. It also marginalized Black perspectives by presenting Confederate memories as the objective truth.

"The UDC also successfully campaigned to build monuments in every city, town and state of the former Confederacy," she illustrated. "It was so successful, Historian Karen Cox argued, that one of the very significant explanations for the increase in monument building between the 1890s and World War I was the rise of the UDC."

In doing so, the UDC embedded racial hierarchy into the everyday landscape of Southern life. This normalization made racist interpretations of history appear natural and unquestionable, limiting opportunities for alternative perspectives to gain legitimacy.

"African Americans were keenly aware of the games of Faithful Slave Monuments, as we can see from some of these cartoons that appeared in Black newspapers," she said. "One editorial in the black press noted that no subject has brought forth a more unanimous protest except lynching since the Civil War than has the proposed black Mammy statue during an era of Black political and cultural self-assertion of The Harlem Renaissance."

The event concluded with a question-and-answer session.

In an interview with The News-Letter, freshman Vivian Gan, studying Medicine, Science and the Humanities described her experience participating in the event's interactivity. Gan highlighted how she appreciated audience members engaging in the conversation.

"I honestly enjoyed the questions the most because it was interesting to see how other people's perspectives wrapped into what the lecturer was saying," she said. "[Audience members] showed up to [...] the previous two lectures, so I appreciated context [...] as well because they drew more from the modern era rather than just [the] Confederate statues of faithful slaves."

Additionally, senior Joshua Pamphile detailed his reflections on the lecture's exploration of art, memorial and racial power in an interview with The News-Letter.

"The main thing that interested me was probably the way that art was used to beautify oppression," Pamphile said. "Because I feel like in a lot of readings about [...] slavery and the antebellum style, you don't really hear so much about the artistic side of oppression more - like the innate brutality and monstrosity of it. So, being introduced to a new [point of view] like that was definitely very interesting to me."

In the opening sequence, we are introduced to our characters, the most important of all being the roadway itself. The movie begins to paint a picture of three individuals each struggling with their own set of flaws. Chris Hemsworth is Mike Davis, a clever thief with a moral code whose modus operandi is robbing locations just off Route 101. Mark Ruffalo's Detective Lou Lubesnick is hot on his heels despite the disapproval of his superiors. Meanwhile, Halle Berry's Sharon faces ageism and sexism in her insurance broker's firm as she is denied being named a partner despite years of loyalty.

Their stories collide when Mike denies a risky heist from his boss Money (Nick Nolte), and Money's backup, the reckless Ormon (Barry Keoghan), botches the job. Now Mike is setting up his own heist on a wealthy businessman and his wife, while Ormon is dispatched by Money to learn about this new plan and do the job himself. Throughout the 140-minute runtime, we find ourselves split between these three main characters and their lives as chaos ensues on the Pacific Coast. But does it stick the landing?

Mike is a great thief; he is meticulous, implied to be struggling with OCD and some secret from his past. He is restrained in his personality, a choice meant to strengthen his serious persona. Yet the execution of this can be difficult to believe with Hemsworth in the role. As opposed to piquing the interest of the audience regarding what lies beneath, his performance comes off as stale. There is something we don't know about our complicated protagonist, but there is not much urgency to find out what is wrong.

Enter the love interest, Monica Barbaro's Maya, a publicist who literally crashes into Mike's life and helps him find a little humanity before their inevitable breakup as the heist plan spirals. Among the complexities that arise in the plot, her character is simply put to the wayside save for a few cute date scenes and other stereotypical girlfriend bits. It is an odd choice that this actress (fresh out of a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated A Complete Unknown) would be so underutilized. Her lack of presence led me to wonder if she would return in Act III by being somehow embroiled in the schemes. Instead, Mike predictably sends her a childhood photo and asks if they can get back together.

As Mike juggles a girlfriend and a career in crime, he must also evade the only person who understands his modus operandi: Ruffalo's Lou Lubesnick. An aging veteran cop who has hit a rough patch and is determined to prove his theory of a robber operating solely on the 101 does seem to harken back to previous cop characters over decades of film, but the script is able to flesh out his arc better than the supposed main character. Paired with Berry's Sharon, whose frustration and desperation can be felt through the screen, they prove to be the driving force of the narrative. Keoghan's performance as Ormon also gets a shoutout for capturing the rookie's explosive rage and lack of experience in the business as he tries to prove himself.

Though the first two acts take their time in building up the conflict, Act III kicks the movie into high gear as the storylines finally converge and brings all of the previously separate characters together into the same room for the ultimate showdown. In a standoff, the two thieves and the detective face off while the millionaire couple watches helplessly, unaware of the one person connecting them all. This is preceded by what stands out as the most riveting scenes in the movie: Mike driving Lou holding a briefcase of money, and a tense conversation about vintage cars and Steve McQueen movies. Are they aware of each other's plots?

All comes to a head in a somewhat anticlimactic ending. In true Hollywood fashion, Mike is able to atone for the crimes and make peace with Lou and Maya. The music swells and the credits start to roll, but something feels off. This would be the lack of screen time for Mike's boss, Money, in Act III. The ending seems to forget the existence of this character. Shouldn't there have been some sort of payoff in Mike giving Lou the location of this greedy, insidious man and sending him to prison as opposed to simply gifting him a vintage car? Perhaps there wasn't enough time. Or they're holding out for a sequel.

Despite these shortcomings, this film does succeed in presenting an interesting heist plot and is able to flesh out most of its characters to provide the drama and tension on which the story relies. Underlying themes surrounding the precariousness of morality and the nature of a capitalist society are explored in a Los Angeles captured in its most raw, whether it's the lights of traffic on the 101 at twilight or the stretch of tents that line the sidewalks in the day. A few car chases later, and this movie isn't the worst way to kill time on the weekend.

Currently, Yeh is a part-time advisor and experienced officer for Cherish, a company that develops intelligent radar-based sensor platforms, and the founder of Yeh Innovation, where she pursues her deep commitment for patient centered care, advocacy for consumer voice in healthcare and the celebration of aging. She has previously held numerous leadership positions where she had done a lot of work with Medicare and Medicaid, in addition to serving on governance and advisory boards. However, Yeh started her career off working as an emergency physician, and shared that it is within the experiences she gained from working as a doctor that ignited her passion for advocacy.

"To me, we tend to focus in healthcare a lot about the what: what is it we need to do, what condition do we have, how do we diagnose this, how do we treat it, [but] I think in this new era, we need to be going back to the who and the why," Yeh said. "[As an emergency doctor], I would see everyone coming in, and you could see the friction in their day to day living that just couldn't allow them to follow through on instructions because we didn't understand who they were [and] their experiences."

These observations as a physician drove her down the path of navigating how to address and minimize friction points primarily associated with healthy aging. Her ongoing work with EssilorLuxottica, the largest global leader in eyewear and med-tech and home to many established brands such as Ray Bans and Chanel, is actively doing so by working to creatively tackle one of the most common and normal consequences to aging: hearing loss.

Yeh started working with them in January 2026 and shared how it had initially surprised her that the companies decided to get into the hearing space. She later explained that the reason they did so was because they wanted to see the culture shift that occurred with vision to be applied to hearing.

"Growing up, you didn't want to admit you needed glasses. Now, everybody wears glasses, and as you can see, they are a fashion statement," Yeh said. "That's really what led to nuanced audio, which is [EssilorLuxottica's] subsidiary that [creates] hearing aid glasses."

Yeh personally expressed favor in utilizing these hearing aid glasses herself as she opened up about having some mild drug induced hearing loss. She noted that she also wears glasses on a regular basis and found it difficult to wear glasses and hearing aids simultaneously, mentioning that the hearing aids would often "fly off." She goes on to explain how this innovation is a prime example of why research revolving around the cooperation of the health care side of hearing and business is necessary.

"You guys are great at seeing stigma and how many people are doing this and that, [but] how many of you are actually, this is where you could cooperate with industry, looking at form factor function and [comparing] open air like a nuanced audio versus over the ear versus in the canal," Yeh said. "How many of you are thinking: Where are the friction points for adoption? How many of you think about as you progress into cognitive decline mode, and you have hearing loss, they can't handle the little hearing aids… they go into memory care, nobody checks the batteries."

By studying these types of questions, Yeh acknowledges that researchers will not only contribute to increasing the adoption rate of these beneficial med-tech products and better health but will also contribute to opening up the marketplace that heretofore was not easily accessible. Additionally, she mentioned how it appears to be that people tend to resort to hearing aids as the ultimate hearing solution, but she encourages researchers to study the supplemental tools to amplify hearing, such as speech to text captioning and facial readings.

Yeh has personally witnessed the potential of speech to text captioning when she had accompanied her dad to the hospital. She shared how at age 95, he had endured two cancers and got a cochlear implant due to profound hearing loss, and brought an iPad with speech to text captioning on it. This technology allowed her dad and the hospital staff to directly communicate with one another. She implied that the staff initially were not drawn to this method of communication, but their perspective did eventually change.

"The second time they came in [they said], 'where's that device… I've got to talk to your dad,'" Yeh said. "It made it easier, faster… they didn't have to repeat themselves [and] the best part is, my dad, halfway through the hospitalization, turned to me and said: 'Do you know, this is the first time they're not talking to you… they're talking to me.'"

Yeh also talked about the importance of being able to distinguish between hearing loss and cognitive decline in elderly as she shared another story about her father where she first attributed his growing cognitive decline in communicating with family attention span to developing dementia. However, she decided to get him the Xander glasses, speech to text detection virtual reality glasses and after a couple of days wearing them, she immediately noticed that he was starting to communicate again. She used this experience to illustrate why it is worthy to further research into the relationship between hearing loss and dementia and how technology and even AI can be used to distinguish between the two.

"I can see the use of AI in monitoring people longitudinally to then begin to say the correlation of what appears like cognitive decline and hearing loss… to say, at what point do we want to distinguish and figure out what's the right treatment," Yeh said. "Everyone goes to the drugs but the drugs for dementia might not [solve the problem] if the [patient's] problem is hearing loss."

In addition to this example of how AI can be a useful tool in hearing and aging care, she suggested that there are a myriad of other implications that are waiting to be explored, such as how AI can be useful in evaluating somebody in terms of their dexterity, vision, hearing etc. Overall, she reminds researchers to actively think about the application of the data they have collected and how it translates into the business side of things in order to make a real impact.

"We need you and we need you to do this," Yeh said. "So, please do not lose that passion because, like I tell you the stories of my dad, these are real people who need what you know and how to apply it to real world experiences. So, if you want to have an impact, make sure to understand who your audience is, your end consumer."

The six new FAs are as follows: FA1 Writing and Communication, FA2 Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning, FA3 Creative Expression, FA4 Engagement with Society, FA5 Ethical Reflection and FA6 Conceiving of and Realizing Projects. FA1 requires one foundational course in writing and one in oral communication, followed up by two ePortfolio assessments in those two courses that require a minimum assessment of "Proficient." FA2 requires four to six courses and a laboratory associated with one of the natural science courses, most of them being fulfilled by a Whiting School of Engineering majors' requirements. A minimum of 12 credits combined under FA3 and FA4 must be completed. FA5 requires one foundational course in ethical reflection with its respective ePortfolio. Lastly, FA6 consists of at least two ePortfolio assignments completed by taking a class that has an assignment eligible for the requirement.

These changes follow the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences' (KSAS) updated FA system that was first implemented in the 2024-2025 school year, albeit with differing categories and credit counts. KSAS's FA system also has six categories: FA1 Writing and Communication (15 credits, including 6 within the major), FA2 Science and Data (15 credits), FA3 Culture and Aesthetics (15 credits), FA4 Citizens and Society (15 credits, with 3 credits falling under FA4.1 Democracy), FA5 Ethics and Foundations (15 credits), and FA6 Projects and Methods (6 credits). Courses cannot double count across multiple FA areas, except for Writing and Communication and Projects and Methods.

One significant step taken by the University to help streamline the transition is the launching of Stellic, a degree audit program with features that display the FA category a specific class might fill, which has been offered to assist students in mapping out four-year plans.

Similar to the criticism toward KSAS FAs, WSE students expressed their concerns about how these new changes increase the difficulty to double major and graduate early, criticizing the University's lack of transparency regarding the FA requirements.

In an interview with The News-Letter, an anonymous freshman going by the pseudonym "Robert," majoring in Computer Science, spoke about his experience with FAs and meetings with academic advisors. Robert noted that he happened to take one of his favorite courses from the semester because he registered to a philosophy course for the FA4 requirement. He credited the requirement as an incentive for students to explore outside of their comfort zone, but highlighted his frustration with the current tagging of courses.

"Firstly, courses for FA6 were not listed in the course catalog. The reason, according to [academic] advisors, is because freshmen can't take FA6 courses in their first semester. I find that kind of off-putting because what if there is an FA6 course that has three semesters worth of pre-requirements?" Robert continued, "That's more of a niche concern but in general, some of the FAs seem pretty arbitrary, specifically with the way they are categorized. Why does Elements of Macroeconomics fulfill FA4 when Elements of Microeconomics does not? The thing is, you can't impose that expectation and then restrict the avenues in which you can pursue those FA requirements. I feel like if they expanded the catalog of courses that fulfilled every FA requirement, it would be a lot better."

Currently, the public course catalog does not have a tag for FA6eP, which would be the label corresponding to courses that fulfill the ePortfolio requirement under FA6.

Robert also explained that accounting for FAs in his schedule has shaped his decision to double-major and take on minors.

"When double-majoring, you're unable to take enough higher-level courses in both majors, and I think the FA requirements amplify that. They impact my decision [against] double majoring across schools; since there are already more credits to take for a single major, my double major itself seems less productive. What FAs mean is that instead of going in depth into both majors of choice, you go a little bit in depth into one, fulfill the other [major's requirements], and then the rest of your credits are for meeting FAs. Especially for somebody who wants to graduate early, the FAs [make] minoring [difficult]. Without the FAs, I could possibly have done a minor in Entrepreneurship and Management. That's 14 credits. But with the FAs, that's just not an option," Robert stated.

Another freshman, going by the pseudonym "Claire," discussed her experiences double-majoring in Biomedical Engineering (BME) and a KSAS major. As BME is her primary major, Claire is under the WSE FA system.

"The system is so complicated; you could very easily make a mistake and just take a class that you don't actually have to take. Also it makes double majoring across schools so hard. Whereas you could see our upperclassmen, and they are triple majoring, becoming specialized and ready to go into the career that they want to go into."

Claire also stated that one of the reasons for choosing to attend the University was due to her campus tour guide talking about their ability to triple major, one of which included Claire's primary major, BME. She learned about the changed FAs requirements during orientation. Claire expressed her understanding of the administration's reasoning behind the FAs, but she disapproved of the current state of its implementation.

"I get the merit of FAs - being a well-rounded student - because Hopkins has a lot of pre-med kids, and we want our future doctors to be aware of things outside of medicine. But [the FAs] are unfair because it hinders our actual progress. We need to be able to find the line between creating informed students, but also letting us do what we want to do in our jobs and our education."

Tyler Lee, a senior double-majoring in Materials Science and Engineering and Philosophy, offered his thoughts as a student under the previous distribution requirement system before the rollout of the FAs in an email to The News-Letter.

"My program of study requirements [under the previous system] enabled me to pursue a second major in humanities without having to take substantially more credits. Furthermore, flexibility in my schedule has allowed me to explore research that isn't strictly in my primary department. I'm grateful that I had the time and credit availability because these other topics, while not essential to the completion of my primary degree, are things that I would not have had the chance to learn about if the curriculum had been more restrictive. Looking back, the best aspects of my undergraduate education have been exploring topics that are personally interesting to me," Lee wrote.

The Student Government Association (SGA) has been in contact with KSAS Vice Dean Erin Rowe and WSE Vice Dean Michael Falk regarding students' perspectives on the FAs. In an email to The News-Letter, the SGA Executive Board, as well as senators in SGA's Academic Affairs committee, outlined its progress navigating these changes, highlighting the diverse array of experiences heard from WSE students. Complaints include difficulties in planning FA requirements with classes required for their major and double-majoring. SGA also received perspectives from students who are still able to graduate early by a semester or a year. During Fall 2024 and Fall 2025, then-Freshman Senator and current Sophomore Senator Kevin Xu and current Freshman Class Council member Issac Zhang included reducing the intensity of the FAs in their individual campaign priorities for the Class of 2028 and Class of 2029 SGA Freshman Elections, respectively.

One of the steps SGA took was to conduct a survey regarding student responses to bring to the administrations of both schools. A timeline provided by SGA to The News-Letter displayed that in January 2025, a survey about student reactions to FA requirements was sent out to the Class of 2028, whose KSAS cohort was the first to experience the school's new FA requirements.

Questions from the survey asked about the importance of FAs guiding the student's decision to attend the University, when they first learned about FAs, the FAs' impact on their career plans and more. Results of the survey were shared to the general undergraduate population through Xu's personal website. SGA first met with Rowe and Falk in March 2025 and then held an Executive Board meeting with them during November 2025, and they summarized their interactions in an email to The News-Letter.

"[Through these meetings,] Dean Rowe agreed to push for retroactive tagging of some courses with FAs but was reluctant to push for the alteration of the FA system in a significant way, [including] the solutions we proposed based on survey results such as more double counting and reduced number of credits. Dean Rowe cited the recency of the implementation and stated that any review and changes to the curriculum itself would only be considered in a few years once the effects are fully clear and the new students are no longer affected by the knowledge of the less restrictive distribution system."

The statement added that they intend to continue working on the FAs with the arrival of the class of 2029 SGA representatives. SGA also addressed that the WSE FAs were made to be less credit-heavy than KSAS requirements due to the larger credit hour requirements for WSE majors.

"Since the implementation of FAs, the university's communication with students has improved. Stellic has been a helpful tool for students to create 4-year plans that [fulfill] the FA requirements but it is not enough," SGA wrote. "There is still a large disconnect between students' understanding of the FA system, the information shared by academic and/or faculty advisors, and the new graduation requirements themselves. As the class of 2029 begins to plan their sophomore and junior years, we are communicating with the schools and sharing the need for more thorough and consistent communication."

SGA commented that this year's progress appears to be more productive, although results will be limited to potential intersession and summer courses, as well as FA workshops.

Keerthana Rajesh and Alex Pan contributed to the reporting of this article.

Friday

Charm City Django Jazz Fest, Baltimore Museum of Art, 10 Art Museum Dr., doors open at 7 p.m., show starts at 8 p.m.

The 11th annual Charm City Django Jazz Fest returns to the Baltimore Museum of Art for a night of Django Reinhardt-inspired jazz and swing. The lineup features international and local performers including Luca Pino, Natalie Hanna Mendoza, Tim Kliphuis, Jimmy Grant and the Hot Club of Baltimore with trumpeter Sean Jones. Tickets are $55.

Lancelot Chimera, Voxel, 9 W. 25th St., All-weekend event, 8 p.m.

This electroacoustic concerto for amplified bassoon and tape blends experimental sound and multimedia performance into a 45-minute immersive work exploring transformation, individuality and chaos. The performance includes flashing lights, fog and sensory effects. Tickets are $15 for students.

Saturday

Candlelight: 90s Unplugged, Maryland Center for History and Culture, 610 Park Ave., 6:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

The Candlelight concert series brings a string quartet performance of 1990s classics to the Maryland Center for History and Culture, illuminated by candlelight. The Listeso String Quartet performs arrangements of hits by Nirvana, Oasis, Alanis Morissette, Radiohead and more in an intimate, hour-long concert experience. Tickets start at $47.

Liquid Courage, Baltimore Museum of Industry, 1415 Key Hwy., 5-10 p.m.

Liquid Courage returns to the Baltimore Museum of Industry for its second annual celebration of Maryland's cocktail and distilling history. The event features curated tastings of local spirits, food pairings from Baltimore eateries, workshops and demonstrations with industry professionals, plus live music and dancing throughout the evening. General admission tickets are $125 and include access to all tastings, programming and entertainment.

Sunday

Terry Brewer featuring Presence with Sean Jones, Keystone Korner Baltimore, 1350 Lancaster St., 5-9 p.m.

Baltimore-born pianist and arranger Terrahn "Terry" Brewer leads an evening of jazz infused with gospel influences alongside trumpeter Sean Jones and an ensemble of acclaimed musicians. The performance highlights Brewer's work across jazz, theater and orchestral music in one of the city's premier live jazz venues. Tickets start at $35.

Karina Wizevich, associate program director and senior lecturer for the MA in Museum Studies program, opened the discussion. She introduced the topic of AI intersecting with the museum sphere and welcomed the event's moderator, Dr. Joyce Ray, another Assistant Program Director and senior lecturer for the MA in Museum Studies program.

Ray then introduced the two main panelists: Nik Honeysett, now CEO of the Balboa Park Online Collaborative, and Alexandra Kron, a community manager at Terentia.

Honeysett, a former adjunct faculty member at Hopkins, was the primary lecturer for the first half of the event. He described his recent work, which focuses on AI in museums, and began with a discussion on whether institutions were willing to adopt AI tools in curatorial practice. Honeysett conducted a survey on this question and found that nontraditional individuals tend to be skeptical about AI.

"This is important when you think about it, because in any group of people, not only in an institution, a museum, you're going to get this group of people, but also your audience is the same," he said. "There are some people who are totally up for AI adoption and [who] embrace it, and there are others where it is the last thing they'd want to do."

Honeysett then described the current scope of museums in relation to AI usage. Museums have for-profit corporate board members who embrace AI adoption. However, there's a gap in which those very individuals in leadership lack the time necessary to delve into AI discourse. Honeysett continued on the idea of digitization as fuel for AI. He noted that museums should be adopting governance early with these systems, referencing Google's search engines that influence how museum websites are trafficked.

"If you've been using Google certainly for the last four to six months, you'll notice that when you search, rather than getting a set of results, you're actually getting an AI interpretation," Honeysett said.

This has had impacts on museum websites, where there was a spike in traffic per the AI "bots," followed by a dip in that same traction because Google had taken away those AI possibilities. Honeysett expanded on this by explaining generative energy optimization (GEO), which is how websites are designed to be AI-friendly.

However, there are challenges with GEO. For example, Honeysett presented on a website called Living Museum. He described how a coder in Canada took the British Museum's entire collection and attached an AI assistance tool to the service, available in any education level or language. While benefit is personalization, the drawbacks are nonnegligible - museums could lose control of their voice and historical accuracy.

"Museums need to be treating AI like a publication platform with all the editorial guidelines and goals and rigor behind it that they would do under any circumstances," he said.

Green AI policy is also significant in the grand scheme of AI utilization. The goal is to use AI to enhance operational efficiency as well as visitor experience, all while minimizing the environmental impacts of its use. According to a chart presented by Honeysett, Google Gemini is the most efficient AI platform for the environment. Ultimately, he argued, AI is not a replacement for people, rather it is there to supplement human productivity.

"You are certainly seeing an overestimation of [AI's] ability right now, but it is going to have a massive impact over the long term," Honeysett concluded.

Kron then began her section, which focused on the role of digital asset management systems (DAMS) in building intelligent museums. She first outlined what occurs behind the scenes of AI tools, such as an engine that identifies dataset patterns, biased outputs and AI's lack of context awareness. Products of AI are shaped by the context and data that we provide it with.

"As we're using those AI tools more and more, we're seeing a rise of what I'm going to call AI-enhanced projects, and by that, I mean projectswhere AI supports human work -not replacing it. In a museum context, this looks like generating or enriching metadata, suggesting keywords, possibly identifying people or places in images, transcribing handwritten documents, or converting audio and video into searchable text," Kron said. "But AI's role isn't limited to efficiency. AI is increasingly also shaping search and discovery. It can influence which objects are surfaced, how materials are connected, and what patterns are becoming visible in your collections."

AI in museums presents both opportunities and risks. With advances in efficiency, scale and insights, there are risks of a loss of context. The argument goes back to the fact that AI's outputs are based on our own context. Kron referred to DAMS as a "truth anchor" for AI, suggesting that they can provide a home for files, metadata and version history. When AI operates within DAMS, it operates under governance. It can assist with tagging and transcription under institutional rules and human review. AI working outside the DAMS may rely on incomplete or decontextualized data.

Kron also highlighted the critical uses of DAMS based on institutional priorities. She called attention to The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a project in Medora, North Dakota.

"What makes this project really unique is that it began without a traditional collection... The library started with almost no physical materials on site and no existing digital infrastructure. So to build its collection, the team had to aggregate records and digital assets from more than 30 institutions, including Harvard, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives," she said.

Like other projects, there were familiar challenges such as data consistency and rights agreements. The solution was to establish a single system of record, or a trusted AI digital repository that consolidates collections data, among other benefits. AI tools have archivists review outputs, approve confidence records and flag others for review. This performance will improve over time. The lesson, though, is that AI can accelerate projects only when it is influenced by strong governance and human oversight.

A question-and-answer session followed Kron's demonstration. Honeysett deliberated on how museums can be more AI-friendly.

"The best training for an AI engine is a combination of data - so, collections data," Honeysett said. "And there's some examples that we've done [in] a project with Strategic Air Command [where] collections data [was] augmented by recording volunteers giving tours around the institution and recording the questions that are asked of them and their answers."

Another concern is education with AI tools. The solution is increased utilization. AI will not replace jobs, but those with more skills in using those very platforms will. This conversation extends into job applications, where there is a shift in making a resumé more AI- than human-friendly.

The panel concluded with a discussion of museums that are skeptical about using AI tools. The consensus was that being informed on AI itself and learning how to gain the most out of its advancements are key. When interacting with AI, they argued that the most effective approach is acting as a performance director, emphasizing a controlled environment and understanding how these engines are designed in the first place.

The event began with opening statements from Caitlin Berry, director of the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery. Berry explained the purpose of the archival event, detailing the importance of teaching and learning about relationships with archival materials.

Elisabeth Long, the Dean of the Sheridan Libraries, Archives and Museums, further elaborated on the significance of showcasing archival materials that highlight African American history and culture. She emphasized that these collections provide critical insight into the historical and contemporary experiences of Black communities.

"Sometimes, I think that when people hear libraries, archives and museums, they think of sedate, hermetically sealed buildings where they are always getting shushed. But that is really the opposite of what we want," she said. "While we - of course - want to keep our collections safe, we equally want them to be used, to be seen, to be read, debated, reckoned with and used in creative ways."

The Irene and Richard Frary Gallery is a free art gallery that presents rotating exhibitions drawn from the University's collections in addition to special exhibitions created from partnerships with leading museums and collections. Located in the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, the gallery is open to the public from Tuesday through Saturday.

This current exhibition, Ceremony, by artist Lindsay Adams, explores the history of Black movement. As the centerpiece of the showcase, Adams's painting "Kind of Blue" represents the commitment of individuals to honoring local artists. Inspired by Miles Davis' 1959 album Kind of Blue, the work reflects a blend of musical influence and visual storytelling to convey rhythm and heritage.

Moderated by Ceremony's guest curator Claudia M. Watts, the discussion explored themes of memory, family history and the preservation of African American history. In an interview with The News-Letter, Watts discussed her role in organizing the exhibition as well as her goal of facilitating dialogues between contemporary artists and historical archival materials to deepen understanding of cultural heritage.

"This talk really thinks about the archive and Black archiving - and within the exhibition, I paired Lindsay's works with archival documents from the Sheridan Library's Special Collections," she said. "You will see, when you go in [the exhibit], various conversations with postcards, sheet music and programs - all from various points within Black history. There are things from people who are unknown as well as people who were famous - like Billie Holiday and Josephine Baker - and that was really the catalyst for having this larger conversation."

Individuals featured in the event included Adams, Jason Reynolds and Savannah Wood. Each panelist shared their personal connections to history and the ways in which archives have informed their creative and professional work.

Adams is the gallery's first solo artist to feature a series of works directly engaging with archival documents. Opening the panel, Adams explained her inspiration and her desire to create pieces that respond to different aspects of the human experience.

"I do allude to both psychological and emotional landscapes in [my] painting," she explained. "So part of that is a reconciliation of what makes us who we are... How do we use that through both an emotional lens and a psychological [one]?"

Moreover, Adams stated that her art seeks to create connections between history and contemporary life. She also noted that her work often integrates materials and references drawn from archival sources.

"I was able to do [an] independent seminar, [during] which I went back to seven drawings," Adams noted. "In those drawings, I incorporated some of the soil from Edenton with the cult wax - and the ink - and was able to bring in the land and the history."

Wood is a descendant of a formerly enslaved man, John H. Murphy Sr., who founded the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper in 1892. She shared that learning about her ancestors' work provided her with a deeper understanding of her family's legacy and the role of Black media in American history.

"It took going to other cities and exploring these other archives to really come back and think about this family legacy," she said.

Wood further described the emotional weight of connecting with her ancestors and the responsibility that came with preserving their stories. She emphasized the importance of preserving these stories for future generations.

"That's the fear, right? It's like when you recognize that you're supposed to do something but that it is going to take over your entire life, and that you are just going to have to submit to it," she explained. "And you don't know what that means yet, but you know it's going to be life-altering - that's the fear."

Jason Reynolds is an author who is deeply invested in tracing his family history through archival research. During the discussion, he described how discovering documents like letters, photographs and legal records helped him connect to his family. Reynolds then spoke on the importance of preserving personal and familial archives for understanding identity and history.

When asked which of his archival documents he considered to be the first, Reynolds detailed the marriage license of his first ancestor post-emancipation.

"[It is] the very first time that we're on paper - like I own the first example of our love on paper," he said. "The interesting thing about having pieces like that you get to wrestle with, not only the history of it all, but the way that names worked back then and how [our] names are constantly changing."

For example, Reynolds explained how one of his early relatives' names was spoken as "Stone." Yet, on his marriage license, Stone's name was written as "Stones." This instance served as an example of how historical records can both preserve and alter family narratives.

Reynolds then highlighted certain items in the current exhibition, such as letters from Langston Hughes when he was writing Black Nativity. For Reynolds, these acquisitions had less to do with what the person was saying and more to do with the shape of their handwriting. Other additions include Louis Armstrong's letter to the person who made his lip balm.

Afterward, Watts asked the panelists about their views on the impact of digital catalogs. The panelists discussed how digitalization increases accessibility but cannot fully replace the experience of handling physical archival materials.

"I think that nothing will ever beat analog," Adams said. "Nothing will ever be like being able to touch something, feeling it and possessing it yourself... The key will always be a balance between [digital and analog]."

Adams added that digital tools are valuable for research, but personal interaction with archives creates a unique emotional and intellectual connection that could not be understood otherwise.

In response, Reynolds echoed the sentiment, noting that archives are not just information but lived experience and describing the way that physical artifacts are able to assist in maintaining continuity between generations.

"Our humanity is wrapped in the boring bits," he said. "I have a check that Jackie Robinson wrote to his daughter for $20. I don't know what it was for, right? But I get to live in the black imagination of my ancestors - that is a special thing that I'm afraid we'll lose."

Later in the event, Watts asked the panelists to illustrate how the archives allow scholars to experience the past and present simultaneously. She prompted the speakers to reflect on how that notion impacts their perceptions of the future as it relates to the Black experience.

"Just thinking about things that are absent from the archive and the way that having an interiority is actually a strategy that we should hold onto - also that everybody doesn't need to know everything," Wood said. "We talk a lot about access in archives - and yes, that's critical - but for black archives, I think there's like another layer there that we need to be careful of: how much we're giving away and how much of our survival is based on what we've kept."

Reynolds agreed and reflected on the notion that secrecy can be protective and empowering in archival practices.

"I agree with this, and I think that our secrets have kept us alive," he said. "And I think our secrets have kept us enslaved."

The event then opened to a question-and-answer session with the audience. Members asked questions about preserving cultural memory in personal and community archives.

In response to a question regarding youth engagement with historical archives and preservation, speakers offered advice on maintaining digital and physical records of personal and family histories.

"If there are stories that you care about, then have a backup copy of [them]," Wood advised. "Anything that you have on Instagram, TikTok is not necessarily gonna be there forever."

An audience member asked about the use of technology as a tool of archiving. He explained that he had a recording of his mother's voice that he treasured as a direct link to her memory. Listening to it allowed him to experience the emotional nuances of her speech that no transcription could capture.

Adams responded that this type of personal audio archive demonstrates how technology can preserve intimate memories that would be impossible to record otherwise.

"Technology is a mode of accessibility, of bridging a gap between not only the past and the present, but also letting people experience information in various ways. To the point of the voicemails that you have... this device is still working to help you remember the moments that you have had with her," Adams explained. "Technology can enhance their overall experience of [the moments]."

Moreover, Reynolds emphasized that technology should always complement and not replace human connection to memory and material culture. He noted that while digital tools can store information, the emotional experience of interacting with artifacts and hearing a loved one's voice cannot be replicated.

"It's dope, right? But it's because I think that one thing that is important to know is that it's actually your mother's voice, correct?" Reynolds said. "A different conversation [is], if you [said] 'I had AI recreate my mother's voice,' right? The reason that you can feel everything is because it is, and it's that intangible thing that we can't quite put our finger on."

Reynolds's point highlights the role ordinary, everyday artifacts play in preserving history and how small details carry significant weight.

In an interview with The News-Letter, Eilah Brown-Davis and her husband, Alexander Davis, discussed how paying attention to ordinary moments and objects allows people to see the significance of appreciating the mundane.

"I feel like a lot of times, people will look for their lives to be unique and [for] things to really stand out, and we kind of get obsessed over it - like with social media, we want to capture [ourselves] at our best moments," Davis said. "But you know what [the best moments are]? When [...] we're sitting on the couch and we're watching Love is Blind, those are [the] things that get you through the tough moments."

Brown-Davis emphasized the importance of family stories, demonstrating how memory can be preserved in ordinary routines.

"I think that [the discussion] was a great reminder, like now more than ever, that as African Americans, our ancestors were so resilient, and now we can look back on that [and] see how that shows up in many different forms," Brown-Davis elaborated. "Like art, letters [and] music - and it's so great to be reminded of that, especially in this time."

Additionally, speaking on family and memory, Germaine Norman, father of Lindsay Adams, shared his perspective on the importance of preserving everyday history in an interview with The News-Letter.

"I think the key takeaway is that all [of] our histories are important and that we should keep track of [them] and share [them] with our friends and family," he said. "I think [that] I'm going to be more intentional [about] sharing my history and my life with my kids - and my family - things that I haven't shared before."

The sound of a blender at seven in the morning is usually the herald of a New Year's Resolution. It's the sound of frozen blueberries, spinach, protein powder and milk being pulverized into some slush; the kind of health smoothie that promises a fresh start with a healthier body and mind.

But as I stumbled downstairs from my room to the kitchen, half-blinded by the sharp grey January, the air didn't smell of berries. There was a sulfurous sting of raw garlic, the sharp bite of onions and the grainy, floral sweetness of Korean pears.

My mother was making the "slushie" base for kimchi.

I watched her pour the white frothy mixture into a massive stainless-steel bowl, followed by a violent heap of gochugaru, or ground red pepper flakes, that turned the pale liquid into an angry crimson. Then came the fermented anchovy sauce to anchor the spice with an earthy funk. Outside, the world was locked in a brittle frost, the trees standing like skeletal needles. Inside, my mother was elbow-deep in a red sea of salted cabbage, performing a ritual of preservation that felt less like cooking and more like alchemy.

I like to think of the process of making kimchi as a mirror for the process of living. There is a specific kind of violence to it at first. The cabbage is hacked apart and buried in salt until it wilts. It reminds me of those "salty" seasons of life where we have moments in which the weight of expectations or a long, exhausting winter seems to drain the crispness right out of you. We have all had days that feel like being brined; we feel smaller, more brittle, and perhaps a little more broken than we were the day before.

But standing there in the kitchen, watching the red paste coat every leaf, I see that the salt is just there to prepare it for the spice.

And I would compare the red pepper spiciness with passion. It's the heat, the "kick," the intensity that keeps me moving even when the sky is flat, uninspiring. It's the part of us that refuses to be bland. And I think that passion alone is boring; it needs that fishy depth of our complicated experiences and the sweetness of the pear.

I find the beauty of this process in the fact that kimchi is edible at every single stage, and each stage has its own value. There is the geotjeori, which is the fresh, unfermented version. It's crunchy, brash and immediate. It's the newness of a project or the high-energy start of a new year. It's delicious, though it lacks the wisdom of time.

The real transformation happens once the hangari, or traditional Korean ceramic jars, are sealed. My mother tucks them away into the cool, dark corners of our kitchen. To an outsider, it looks like nothing is happening. It looks like cabbage rotting away in a jar of red salt. But underneath the surface, the sharp, aggressive heat of the garlic is mellowing; the cabbage is absorbing the spice, getting better, deeper and more complex as the days move.

I think we are often in our hangari phases without realizing it. We feel stuck in the winter, buried under the cold routine of January. We feel like we're just sitting in the dark, waiting for our lives to start fresh again. And maybe that "sitting still" is the most important part of our making. We're being cured and seasoned.

As I watched my mother seal the last jar, I realized that I don't need to be "finished" yet. I am currently a mixture of things: a bit of the salty, tired cabbage, a healthy dose of spicy ambition and a lot of raw ingredients that still need to mellow out.

So I find that sometimes the "making" of life is the act of sitting in the dark and trusting that we are becoming something better as time moves on. The blender eventually went silent, leaving the kitchen in a ringing quiet. Then, the jars were lined up like soldiers, ready for their long winter wait.

Outside, it was still cold, but for a moment, the waiting felt like progress.

Kathryn Jung is a freshman from Silver Spring, MD, majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Her column reflects the process of creating and how the small things we make, notice and hold close bring meaning to everyday life.

One study Hantsoo is working on is funded by a two-year long NIH R21, which investigates hormone changes throughout an individual's menstrual cycle, particularly in patients with PMDD. PMDD is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Symptoms mostly occur a week before menstruation and include increased depression, anxiety, irritability, fatigue and lapsed concentration. Physical symptoms may include bloating and weight gain.

"There's a real range… 5% of people who have periods will have PMDD… My patients and study participants describe [the disorder] like this roller coaster where they'll have two or three weeks every month where they feel fine, they feel like themselves, and then they have a week or two [before their period] where they say, 'I feel like a different person. I feel really down, or I feel really irritable.' And then [their period] starts and [they say] 'I feel like myself again.' It's an interesting disorder, because on one hand, it's cut and dry: it's very tied to the menstrual cycle. We see this very clear on and off pattern," she said.

Hantsoo aims to explore this regulation at the molecular level. Hormones of interest for the study include the neurosteroids estradiol and progesterone that not only play crucial roles in reproduction but also protect neurons and regulate neurotransmitters. One specific progesterone metabolite is allopregnanolone, which modulates GABAA receptors that reduce neuron activity, and may cause sedative effects.

"We think that it's possible in women who have premenstrual mood changes, there is some issue with either the way those [ovarian] hormones are shifting across the late luteal phase, which is that week or so prior to menstruation, or the way that the hormones might be interacting with these receptors… We wanted to trace what the levels looked like of these neuroactive steroid hormones, and then also the GABAA receptors that they interact with," Hantsoo explained.

Participants included people with and without PMS symptoms. Their blood was collected every other day during the week before their period and sent to a collaborator at University of Illinois, Chicago. There, molecules of interest like isomers of progesterone metabolites and neuroactive steroids were qualitatively and quantitatively measured through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

"The nice part about [the frequency of the blood collection] was it gave us this really detailed picture of what these hormones are doing. This is letting us test the hypothesis that perhaps there are differences in the pattern of what the neuroactive steroids are doing. So for instance, right before someone's period, in the few days before you'll start to have a decrease in things like allopregnanolone. Maybe the rate of decline could be different in people who do versus don't have PMS," Hantsoo said.

Hantsoo also discussed one of the challenges of PMDD: the difficulty of diagnosing the disorder. She explained that to properly provide a clinical diagnosis, the individual needs to track their symptoms every single day for two full menstrual cycles for the provider to observe a possible pattern of the symptoms' starting date and length. The time-consuming nature of this activity might act as a barrier to receiving care, particularly in individuals that might not have the time and energy everyday.

Another difficulty in diagnosing PMDD is related to menstruation not being taken seriously in popular culture, Hantsoo noted. The severe symptoms might be considered as normal to some people, therefore not brought up to their doctor. The stigma that surrounds discussion about menstruation and related disorders also contributes to the issue.

"There's almost a double stigma to it, or double taboo. It involves not only mental health but also involves the menstrual cycle…People with PMDD can face really upsetting [reactions]. [PMDD] is just like things like major depression or generalized anxiety disorder or panic disorder -- it's a mental health diagnosis. To joke about it or minimize it, or say, oh, 'that person is just PMS-ing' can really feel minimizing to people who have that diagnosis. [To] really respect the diagnosis is to not brush it off," Hantsoo said.

However, Hantsoo highlighted the increasing awareness of such disorders. She touched upon social media as a method of sharing experiences related to reproductive health.

"Social media can make people feel more comfortable opening up about that. If they see other people posting 'I'm struggling with these symptoms,' they may be more comfortable opening up themselves, being like, 'Okay, this is a thing.' Because what I've seen clinically is that patients often feel kind of isolated. They might be the only person they know who has these PMS symptoms, and they might feel really isolated because of that… This might be really comforting, and I'm hoping that that awareness continues to grow."

Editor's Note, 2026: The article was updated to include a link to Hantsoo's PMDD Biomarker Study.

The new dormitory intends to support the removal of the Alumni Memorial Residence (AMR) I as a housing option. According to a University spokesperson, AMR I will be demolished this semester; as a wider plan, the University plans to build a new dormitory and dining hall on Freshman Quad. In an email to The News-Letter, a University spokesperson detailed these plans.

"Once construction on the AMR I building is complete, it will serve as residential housing for first-year students. The University intends for The Academy to continue as a JHU residential housing option once construction on AMR I is completed," they wrote.

To convert the building into a dormitory, the University will not need to implement any major renovations; instead, it will primarily increase security and residential staff.

"The Academy will be very similar to other JHU residence halls in terms of safety, staffing, and student support, while offering apartment-style living options and on-site amenities like other JHU residential housing," the spokesperson wrote. "The building will be staffed by a professional residence hall director who will reside in the building, and it will have JHU-provided 24/7 security. Like our other residential housing, resident assistants will also live in the building and provide student-centered community programming and events for residents."

The Academy features studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and four-bedroom apartments, with in-suite laundry facilities, a gym, a library and an entertainment room. While tours officially begin on Feb. 28, these amenities have excited current freshmen for their second-year housing prospects. In an email to The News-Letter, freshman Minal Mustafa shared her thoughts on the option in comparison to McCoy Hall, which only contains double bedrooms in four-member suites.

"I think it's great that the Academy is being introduced as a new housing option. It would provide all sophomores with single rooms within suites, which is currently not an option available to sophomores in McCoy," Mustafa wrote. "However, the only discouraging factor is that it's pretty far away from campus relative to other housing options... Since the tours start on the 28th of Feb, the only downside is that it gives students 2 days to make their decision before selection day, so it would've been better if tours were spread out across a longer period of time."

The Academy is located at 3700 N. Charles St., about a four-minute walk from Homewood Field and a 10-minute walk from the Bloomberg Center for Physics & Astronomy. Freshman Raniah Imran corroborated Mustafa's sentiments, adding her perspective on the building's distance from campus.

"We haven't been able to tour the building yet, but I've seen a video of a walkthrough, and it has a lot of amenities like an in-unit washer/dryer and a full kitchen, so it's really nice. I know some people may complain about the distance, but I feel like it's equally as far as [Homewood Apartments], and I think it's a nice addition for housing," she said.

According to a University spokesperson, the University acquired the Academy in fall 2023 with the intention of increasing on-campus housing options; however, it did not publicize this purchase to the student community until fall 2025. Students signing leases for the building until the current 2025-26 academic year shared that they did not receive official University notice. Non-Hopkins affiliates and graduate students must move out of the building by July 2026, but rising seniors may remain in their apartments. In an email to The News-Letter, a junior choosing to go under the pseudonym "Chloe," who currently resides in the Academy, shared her experience with University communication and future plans.

"The first official communication I have is from early October, but I heard about it from word of mouth almost as soon as I moved in. I don't have to move out as a rising senior, but I don't want to be subject to dorm security again (i.e residential advisors, signing people in), so I'm moving to another building," Chloe explained.

Junior Nyle Dar, also a resident at the Academy, shared a similar experience in an email to The News-Letter, noting that the University has recently been promoting other apartments for current junior student residents. Dar explained that, while he heard from peers that the University bought the Academy when he moved in, he did not expect the conversion into a dormitory to happen this quickly.

"Recently, they've been sending lots of emails about [the dormitory conversion], and it seems like [the University] wants us to move out. They keep telling [residents] that apartments in Nine East are open. I think this does affect my residence. My roommates and I are wondering if we should stay or not, since it's already expensive and being [within] university housing would suck," Dar stated.

The University stated, however, that they contacted residents of the Academy about this matter since 2023.

"We have been in contact with residents of The Academy since the initial purchase to ensure students were informed about the transition timeline and have the support and information needed to meet their housing needs. Undergraduate students who are eligible to remain at The Academy, including rising seniors, have been offered priority," a spokesperson wrote. "Our Off‑Campus Housing Office has provided one‑on‑one support and hosted in‑person and virtual information sessions to help residents identify alternative housing options and ensure a smooth transition when The Academy becomes JHU residential housing."

When asked about their thoughts on the dormitory option to begin with, both Dar and Chloe expressed dissatisfaction with the decision. On the one hand, Dar felt concerned about the year disparity in the building.

"I'm not a fan of [the Academy being a dormitory]. I don't wanna live with underclassmen as a whole senior. I also don't want to live in University housing because there [are residential advisors], and you have to sign in people," Dar explained.

Chloe agreed with Dar's sentiments, adding that she wished the University would communicate its intentions earlier during her apartment search.

"Obviously it's frustrating on my end, especially since I could have avoided having to move if I signed a lease elsewhere at the beginning of the year, but the building and rooms are very nice and the location is ideal if you spend a lot of time at the [recreational center] and/or [the Bloomberg Center for Physics & Astronomy]," Chloe added.

Women's Basketball: W (81-37), W (71-54)

Officially undefeated!

The Hopkins Women's Basketball team accomplished a feat that had never been done in school history, as they finished the regular season undefeated. Their final two games came against Mary Washington and Dickinson, capping off a historic season of dominance.

Despite the final scoreline, the first quarter of their game against Mary Washington was quite close, as the Blue Jays found themselves down by one point at the end of the first. However, Hopkins kicked into gear and dominated on both ends from here on out, outscoring Mary Washington 65-20 in the final three quarters. Freshman guard Faith Williamson led all scorers with 18 points, while senior forward Emily Collins and senior guard Macie Feldman combined for 23 points and 21 rebounds.

In their final game of the season, the Blue Jays once again got off to a slow start, falling behind 21-7 early in the second period. However, they would not let this get in the way of their pursuit of perfection, mounting an admirable second-half performance that saw them win by 17, placing this season in the history books once and for all. Williamson once again stood out, scoring 21 points, her career-high at Hopkins.

The Blue Jays' season is not finished, as they will host a conference championship semifinal this Friday, Feb. 27. Good luck!

Swimming: Centennial Conference Championships

Over the weekend, the Centennial Conference Championships took place for both swimming teams in Lancaster, Pa.

It was another overwhelming success for the Hopkins men's team as they emerged from the four-day event as conference champions. It was the first conference title for the Blue Jays since 2006, marking an impressive performance on all fronts that saw them leave with 11 individual titles. Among the most impressive performers was freshman Kai Henrikson-Brandt, who took home the honors of Most Outstanding Performer.

In the women's division, Hopkins performed impressively as well, finishing in second place in the championship standings. Sophomore swimmer Ken Lee stood out on the third day of competition, winning two conference titles in the 200 Backstroke and 400 Free Relay.

Next up for both teams are the NCAA Championships, which take place from March 18-21 in Indianapolis.

Baseball: W (24-0), W (5-4), L (6-9)

The 2026 Hopkins baseball season is officially underway, as the team played its first three games of the season this week.

The season opener came against Rutgers-Newark at home, in which the Blue Jays scored their most runs in an opener since 1946, romping to a comprehensive 24-0 victory. This marked the beginning of the tenure for newly hired head coach Nate Mulberg. Hopkins burst out of the gates with its guns blazing, putting up seven in the first inning and another three in the second. By the fifth, they had already mounted 24 runs against their opposition and the game was all but finished. A notable mention for fellow sports editor Joseph Rainbolt, who pitched a scoreless inning in relief with two strikeouts.

Next was a doubleheader on Saturday, in which the Blue Jays came up against Baldwin Wallace University for a much more competitive contest. After a scoreless first inning, Hopkins broke the stalemate with a three-run second, thanks to a two-run homer by junior designated hitter Aaron Bock. Baldwin was able to respond with a run in the top of the third, but the Blue Jays managed two of their own in the bottom. This would ultimately be enough to seal the victory, despite a late push by Baldwin with a three-run shot in the top of the eighth.

The second half of the doubleheader came against St. John Fisher. Unfortunately, Hopkins was behind the eight ball from the get-go and was never able to truly get back in the contest. The game was closest in the bottom of the second after a home run from sophomore outfielder Shane Keough closed the gap to just one, but St. John Fisher never relented. A scoreless ninth from Hopkins sealed the deal as they lost 6-9.

Women's Lacrosse: W (15-9)

The Women's Lacrosse team continued its hot start to the season with a 15-9 win over No. 14 Pennsylvania. After taking down the previously ranked No. 14 team, Duke, the Blue Jays pivoted their sights to a contest away from home against a strong UPenn side.

The game started out close with the sides trading goals, before junior midfielder Lacey Downey imposed her will on the contest and scored three straight goals, two unassisted. From here on out, the Blue Jays began to separate further from Penn thanks to impressive performances from both Downey and senior attacker Ava Angello, who combined for 10 goals and four assists.

Hopkins will return home this week for two games against Georgetown and Colgate, so make sure you come and support them!