Seattle U Spectator

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Seattle U Spectator

The Spectator has been the official student newspaper of Seattle University since 1933.
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09/30/2024

A helpful guide to where The Spectator distributes the newspaper on campus every Thursday. Go out and get your physical copy now!

06/05/2024

Readers, I am so excited and fortunate to announce that the 2024-2025 Spectator Editorial Board will be under the leadership of this year’s managing editor, Chloe Platt. Her work with The Spectator thus far has been equal parts diligent and delightful, exemplified both in her writing and editing. Throughout this work, her love for both the craft and the people she interacts with is clear.

“I really love people, and I really love storytelling. I think journalism is a beautiful opportunity to take the care that I have for others… and be a voice for them—and to not only learn things about others, but learn things about yourself.”

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporter, Genny Sheara

(📸: Jordie Simpson)

06/03/2024

Between gowns dripping with jewels, thrilling dance routines, and delightfully varied lip sync performances from professional drag queens and audience volunteers alike, the night kept audience members at the edge of their seats. May 21, Seattle University’s 18th Annual Drag Show, “Slay O’ Goddess & Drag Me to Hades,” hosted by the Triangle Club, transformed the Campion Ballroom into a glittering showcase of resplendent q***r expression.

Seattle U’s Fashion Club (FCSU) was featured at the event, with two runways showcasing original clothing designs. Hypnotic music and flashing lights transported the audience to the whimsical “Bugland,” where green and purple patchwork, outstretched fabric wings, and draping chainmail created glamorous interpretations of various bugs.

Ian Van Eeuwen, a third-year design major and graphic designer for FCSU, values having space for students to freely explore their creative interests.

“Fashion Club is a very open space where people can kind of do whatever they want; they do a good job being open to everyone’s ideas,” Van Eeuwen said.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporter, Keagen Brooks-Torres

(📸: Sean Alexander)

05/31/2024

Content notice: This article includes mentions of sexual assault and abuse.

The recent Spectator coverage of Fr. Stephen Sundborg, S.J.’s return to Seattle University this fall as Chancellor has sparked mixed responses from the Seattle U community. While the faculty quoted in the original article expressed excitement, former Seattle U students shared concerns about Sundborg’s return.

While Sundborg’s return was announced via a President’s Update from Eduardo Peñalver Feb. 22, this was not emailed to the student body like many university developments are. Alumna Anabel Pinto was unaware of Sundborg’s return until she saw The Spectator’s article.

Pinto felt as if the original coverage did not fully address Sundborg’s time as president of Seattle U. In her eyes, having him return as Chancellor, a role Sundborg described as “public Jesuit ambassador” for the university, feels incongruent with what the student body actually thought about him.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporters, Natalie Schorr & Sam Bunn

05/30/2024

The very last Campus Currents episode of the year is out now! Click the link in our bio to watch the full thing.

05/29/2024

As the end of the 2022-2023 academic year approached, two organizations seeking to serve students of marginalized identities—The Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), and Student Success and Outreach (SSO)—began the process of merging into one organization. The new organization was announced in September as “Meaningful Opportunities for Student Access, Inclusion, and Community,” or MOSAIC.

After a year of MOSAIC’s presence on campus, both student employees and administrative staff reflect on the program’s challenges and successes. Gabby Rios, the former assistant director of MOSAIC, who is now stepping down, discussed some of the difficulties of the merger.

“This first year has been a lot of change. In our office we keep saying we’ve been building the plane as we fly it, and so our office and the staff members [have] been kind of just trying to figure out what works,” Rios said.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporter, Dylan Berman

(📸: Jordie Simpson)

05/27/2024

The Photography Senior Bachelor in Fine Arts (BFA) Show is an annual celebration of the graduating seniors’ past years of hard work. The opening ceremony took place May 16 at the art gallery in the Fine Arts building. Photographers of Seattle University, from fresh-faced first-years to alumni, gather together to admire museum-worthy collections produced by the senior cohort.

I look forward to this event every year, anticipating the opportunity to come into a community with so many admirable artists, family, friends and teachers. There is something deeply personal about each and every work of art; an intimate expression of self.

During his speech, Professor Trung Pham described the show as “a journey of true identity.”

“We need them. They go into the depth of their being and get us to see what those moments look like. So we’re here to celebrate them, their contribution to what we are facing right now; With immigration, politics, racial injustice,” Pham said.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporter, Fern Creson

(📸: Fern Creson)

05/24/2024

The excitement was palpable walking into the Seattle First Baptist Church, with the cheerful murmurs of the crowd perched in dark wooden pews, and stained glass glowing red, purple and blue in tandem with the warm lamplight. In the early evening of Friday, May 17, uproarious applause greeted each singer in the combined choirs, donning concert black as they filed evenly onto stage, beginning by rhythmically drumming over their hearts before leaping into the upbeat choral hymn “Blessed Be” by Melanie Demore.

“Endless Song,” the final concert of the Seattle University Choir‘s 2023-2024 season, is bittersweet, honoring the graduating seniors and their hard work throughout their time in choir. Additionally, they welcomed springtime through a variety of both classical and contemporary choral pieces.

Jessica Chacko, a fourth-year nursing major and featured soloist, reflected fondly on memories of her time in the choir as she prepares to graduate.

“It’s been my safe space, and I feel like music is always going to be that way for me, and the friendships that I’ve made in that program are going to be long-lasting. It’s really hard to find people that you can just be creative, be yourself with, and this has been that community for me where I feel like I can leave all of my stresses at the door, come in and just make music, and it’s a very freeing and fun space to be in,” Chacko said.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporter, Keagen Brooks-Torres

(📸: Courtesy of Seattle U Choirs)

05/23/2024

As encampments continue to arise throughout the United States, university students' right to free speech and expression is called into question...

05/22/2024

As the second iteration of a KXSU and Fashion Club collaboration event, students listened to great music and viewed displays from different artists and designers. Held Friday, May 11, Radio Fest had something for every student who stopped by.

Held on the Sinegal patio, the setup provided a location for students passing by to stop and listen or see what different items were in the market. Yet the overall ambiance was a more somber feeling for some of the graduating seniors in KXSU, as this was their last major event.

Megan Okuma, a fourth-year communication and media major and the graphic designer for KXSU, provided some of the challenges of an outdoor setup.

“Usually when we’re in these rooms, there’s so many outlets that it doesn’t really matter but it’s definitely one of those things that always sneaks up on us like ‘Oh, yeah, we definitely need to figure out how to get every power to everything,’” Okuma said.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporter, Riley Zalbert

(📸: Jordie Simpson)

05/20/2024

Seattle University has seen multiple demonstrations, teach-ins and announcements; a speaker series; and online and on-campus debates surrounding administration support for a ceasefire and expression of solidarity with Palestine, funding and endowment transparency, and the university’s ties to Boeing particularly heightened since Oct. 7. In response to continued student and faculty efforts, President Eduardo Peñalver has emphasized the university’s role as a space for free expression, and sees adopting an official university perspective as being antithetical to that mission.

“Seattle University does not take positions on world issues in order to preserve the freedom for members of our academic community to express their own views. This is not the same as a blanket assertion of neutrality. But, as a university, the primary way we take positions is through our actions, and always at the same time with an affirmation of the importance of the academic freedom of those who may disagree,” Peñalver wrote to The Spectator.

Despite this stance, one of the main sources of student frustration is the perceived neutrality of the university. This frustration is compounded by students’ alleged difficulty navigating the policies within the student code of conduct regarding demonstrations and concerns about certain speakers who have and haven’t been allowed on campus.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporters, Leila Bunker, Sam Bunn and Genny Sheara

(📸: Kevin Frazier)

05/17/2024

After 12 years in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), Seattle University will be moving on to a new sporting home. After over a year of negotiations, Seattle U is officially set to leave the WAC for the West Coast Conference (WCC) in July 2025, accompanied by longtime WAC rival Grand Canyon University (GCU). The 2024-2025 season will be the last in the WAC for Seattle U.

The move, which was announced May 10, marks another milestone in the progression of Seattle U back to being a nationally recognized athletic program—the school was a member of the WCC from 1971-1980, back when it was known as the West Coast Athletic Conference. Seattle U President Eduardo Peñalver reiterated that this has always been the goal.

“It’s just an exciting day for Seattle University athletics and for the entire Seattle University community to be coming home to the West Coast Conference,” Peñalver said. “When we rejoined Division I athletics, [we] did that with the hope and expectation to be able to rejoin the West Coast Conference, and today is a culmination of that effort.”

Click the link in our bio to read the full article.

Reporters, Qasim Ali and Riley Zalbert

(📸: Luca Del Carlo)

05/16/2024

Pop it, Lock it, Polka-Dot it, Countryfy and learn more about the breakdancing community in Seattle!

05/15/2024

“Queer Prom” was a night of theatricality. The emancipatory utopia, housed in the alumni building in the Stuart Rolfe Room, May 3, provided an atmosphere of rich, cozy celebration. The night had poured in crowds of jeweled costumes. In its intimate space, the spirit of the room was playful. A lovely charade of kicking stilettos and angsty sounds. The angels were dancing.

Reign Riley, a third-year double major in film and media studies and sociology, disciplines his craft through a lens of societal reflection with his band “Fluttering,” an elaborate reinvention of alternative rock.

“Celebrating q***rness is super important, especially how it relates to art and how the art scene is always tied to progressivism. Keeping that aspect of art alive, not only making sure that the art we’re playing is progressive, but that it also has some kind of progressive message too,” Riley said.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article

Reporter, Hannah Mwangi

(📸: Fern Creson)

05/13/2024

Hip-hop’s absolute cultural dominance in the American music landscape has grown increasingly unstable in recent years. The ubiquity and saturation of figures like Kanye West and Jay-Z is unmatched by any modern day equivalents. Kanye and other hip-hop legends, of course, still release music and are largely relevant, but arguably out of their prime.

Many look at the current landscape of hip-hop and feel unsure about the future of the upbeat music genre, and they are not alone. Who are the strong and talented new voices in the field?

Increasingly, ‘break-out’ artists find their footing in meme-able and repetitive tracks that feel designed for TikTok fame. Ice Spice is a lot of fun to listen to and talk about, but does anyone really expect her to release something influential, something with genuine artistic merit, something that will be remembered? Playboi Carti has a unique, infectious and evolving take on mumble rap, but he chronically refuses to release music.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article

Reporter, Dylan Berman

(📸: Kay McHugh)

05/10/2024

Named Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Freshman of the Year, Seattle University Men’s Golfer Kevin Li had an impressive end to his first season. Li became the first freshman to win the WAC individual title since 2015, and the second Redhawk to ever win the conference tournament.

Taking place April 26-28 in Payson, Ariz. at The Golf Club at Chaparral Pines, Li shot a three-round total of six-under 210 (69-72-69), securing himself first place and a ticket to the NCAA regionals by one stroke.

However, it was not always a straight road to success during Li’s freshman season. The business economics major had to overcome his own stress and self-criticism in order to play his best golf of the season when it was win or go home at the WAC Championship.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article

Reporter, George Burquest

(📸: Kevin Frazier)

05/09/2024

Guess what? The latest episode of Campus Currents is out now! Click the link in our bio to watch the full video

05/08/2024

As the credits rolled on “Lovebugs,” the first film on the opening night of the National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY), I realized it was the first time I had been in a movie theater where people cheered for the names in the credits.

Usually, the credits are the least important part of the movie–going experience. They signal that it’s time to check your phone while an endless scroll of VFX artists, producers and cast members flash past. These people worked tirelessly to create the film, but their names are so numerous that you can’t possibly connect with them.

This is what NFFTY offers: a chance to watch films alongside the people who created them. The credits become a time for raucous applause, erupting from the crowd each time a young camera operator sees their name on the silver screen.

Click the link in our bio to read the full article

Reporter, Daniel Truog

(📸: Fern Creson)

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Videos

The very last Campus Currents episode of the year is out now! Click the link in our bio to watch the full thing.

As encampments continue to arise throughout the United States, university students' right to free speech and expression is called into question...

Pop it, Lock it, Polka-Dot it, Countryfy and learn more about the breakdancing community in Seattle!

Guess what? The latest episode of Campus Currents is out now! Click the link in our bio to watch the full video

You may have noticed some new art on campus. But where exactly did they come from? Click the link in our bio to watch the full episode.

The Indigenous People's Institute at Seattle U has a new director! Get to know a little more about her in the most recent episode of Campus Currents. To watch the full episode, click the link in our bio!

Episode 5 of Campus Currents is out now! Check out the full episode by clicking the link in our bio!

A brand new Campus Currents Episode is out now! Check it out by clicking the link in our bio. As always, a big thanks to @seattleumpc for all their help in making Campus Currents possible!

Hello Seattle U community! The Spectator is hiring designers, a business manager, social media manager and online editor for next year! If you are interested in applying, please send an email to [email protected] and [email protected]

REDHAWKS ‼️ We thank you for your patience while we try to figure out our print situation. It will be available at our stands shortly. In the meantime, we’d love to direct your attention to our first spring quarter digital edition of the newspaper! We went ahead and provided you all with a quick glimpse of what we published. For the full edition, click the link in our bio!