The Waltonian

When thinking of the library, one might imagine quiet corridors and dusty shelves filled with books long unopened, or perhaps cardigan-wearing old women, smelling of mothballs, peering over their bifocals, sternly shushing patrons. While this cartoonishly unsettling picture can be a fun trope, libraries are often thriving community centers.

Wherever you are, it’s likely worth it to check out the activities and resources offered by your local library. For Eastern students, it certainly is. Kathy Hecht, the Access Services Librarian at Eastern’s Warner Library, shares some of the effort and intentionality that Eastern’s librarians put into creating a welcoming, productive, fun, and educational environment for students. She and Robyn Cunningham, Warner’s Reference & Outreach Librarian, were the initial advocates for Warner’s latest duckling-hatching initiative.

“Robyn and I were at the Pennsylvania Librarians Association conference back in October, and the farm that we’re working with was there. They had a display and all these baby ducklings, and they’re like, ‘We can set up a whole project with you.’”

Hecht and Cunningham were looking for a follow-up to the library’s Lego project, where student tips vote for what community member is added to the Lego-replica of Eastern. They saw the duckling hatching as an exciting, interactive activity that could connect to the classrooms, too.

“So then we called the Biology department, and Dr. Fichera came over—we let other departments like Elementary Ed and Psychology know too—and they’re giving credit for volunteering and integrating it into some of their classes.”

Students were able to volunteer to rotate the eggs in the incubator to mimic the rustling of a mother duck, and later to babysit and care for the ducklings. The first duckling hatched Sunday evening of April 13. Students (initially there for the ducklings, but eventually choosing to study) and student workers were there to see the miracle of life, as well as the viewers on the library’s livestream of the incubator.

Warner is also currently hosting their Blackout Poetry contest through the end of April, where students can submit poems created from words selectively not blackened out on discarded book pages. Later in the month, they will be bringing in dogs for students to visit during the pre-finals study day. These are just some of the many events and projects they host throughout the year.

Some Eastern community members may recall the “Blind Date with a Book” initiative hosted in February, where students may check out books with nothing but a brief genre description to inform their selection, or their various voting programs deciding the best books or characters within a given genre. Recent changes also include the dedicated chess set and recreational reading lounge in the first floor atrium. These are among the many programs the Warner librarians think of to engage students in.

“Research has shown that when students are in the library, even if they’re not sitting and studying, it still raises their grade point average. There’s something about watching other people study and feeling like this is your identity as a ‘library person’ actually helps you in school. So that’s another reason for all of the fun things. We want everyone to feel like, ‘Yes, I’m a library person. I might be a duck person, I might like those books. I’m a library person.’”

The librarians are also looking forward to integrating a scavenger hunt within the library, particularly aimed at getting first-year students to simultaneously have fun and become familiar with the layout and resources of the library.

“We’ll take suggestions about what people are interested in,” Hecht shares. As for the duckling hatchings, “We might think about doing it again. The farm we’re working with does other things like chickens and a bunny project.”

Many thanks to the Warner librarians like Hecht and Cunningham who curate such programs for students to enjoy. Students may follow Warner Library on Instagram @warner.library for updates on events, programs, and more.

In the celebration of Eastern’s centennial, the university has reflected on its origins and distant history. It is prudent to reflect on the recent history of Eastern, particularly the many changes it has undergone under the tenth and current President, Ronald Matthews. From changes in the university’s official position on LGBTQIA+ relationships, additional sports teams, structural renovations, navigating pandemic-related difficulties and financial struggles into stability, President Matthews’ tenure has been marked by significant growth and change.

But Eastern, in turn, has changed him. Eastern became an environment that challenged what he believed was possible for Christian communities. “I love Eastern. Eastern changed my life, as it changes most of ours, really. We have the energy of diversity and unity, because if we have homogeneity, that’s not unity. It’s sameness. Eastern has always been that unusual Christian community that had and respected diversity and that was willing to take risks that transcended [its] reputation. That was amazing to me. I’d never seen a Christian community disagree so agreeably.”

This ability to “disagree so agreeably,” is vital in a community as theologically varied as Eastern. “When I came to Eastern, I found some of the language that was presumed to be shared by everybody at my former school, couldn’t necessarily be shared here. Some students were not Christians. Some Christians were really intelligently schooled in the scriptures; others just liked to worship God.”

“For me, what I appreciated was that it felt more like the world in the best sense of the word. I didn’t feel I was pulling away into some monastic circle. I felt that this was the real world. It gave me an opportunity, actually and candidly, to feel more human, more complete as a person because I didn’t have to be ‘something’ for the common good. I could be me for the common good. That was amazingly liberating, inviting, and rewarding.”

President Matthews first joined Eastern’s community as a professor in the music department, an experience that would prove to be formative for his style of leadership as university president. The music department and the arts hold a special place in his heart. Though he is often busy with his responsibilities as president, Matthews still makes time to perform with the music department, including a recent chapel wherein he collaborated with Turning Point to perform some of his original pieces.

“We had such a beautiful, tight community in music. There was this laughter all the time. There was honesty, painfully at times; there were tears. It made it feel so like family that as students and faculty, we were almost waiting for the shoe to drop. It was like, ‘How can this be so good?’ We would hang out, pray, and sing together. Having the music faculty sing—oh my goodness—that’s like glory, you know?”

What many may not know is how instrumental Matthews was in forming the music department. Matthews and his team were literally “building it from nothing.” Previously, Matthews had worked as a touring musician and a worship and performance coordinator in church settings.

“After the seminary had found an original Mozart manuscript, in 1990, I was brought in as a consultant about starting music majors—there had been a twenty-year hiatus—and so that was really my first exposure to the educational model. I came in 1992 to start the music majors program.”

“The first year was just writing curricula and getting it submitted to the state. [Ours] was so different. We taught from the present day backward. There were no textbooks that did that, so we had to prepare everything.” Matthews and his team were disinclined from traditional approaches, such as starting with medieval music history. “It’s like, how many hundreds of years is that away from popular culture? Right? So we tried to really integrate the academy and the street.”

The music department has seen incredible growth over its thirty-year history. However, it too was hit in the round of financial struggles, low enrollment, and layoffs. “It was incredible to watch it become something. The painful part was that something started to go towards nothing. The surprising thing was when I was on sabbatical—that was 2015-2016—there was a giant reorganization and it ended up that the fine performing arts and music lost 60% of the full-time faculty while I was away,” Matthews said. It was not long after this that Matthews was approached about interviewing for the presidential position.

“It was so weird. When I think about it, it seemed like the Lord waited until I reached what was my climactic professional failure. Then the board says, ‘Now we want you to take over the whole institution.’ It’s like, ‘Do you know what you’re asking?’”

Matthews points to the ways the Lord has been faithful in leading the university into growth since then. “Now, of course, the arts are flourishing. Academics are flourishing. Athletics are flourishing. Athletics and the arts are together with band, cheer, and dance. It’s just so amazing. It’s all God and great people. I mean, our faculty and staff are unbelievable. They’re just so, so great. If you include this, please give them a shout-out.”

It is evident that his time in the music department, the spiritual and practical insights he gained and the value of Eastern’s special community continue to temper business practicalities to inform his leadership. Matthews’ legacy is still being written, but his impact has resonated throughout the music department and, now, beyond.

Within his first few hours in office, President Trump decisively began releasing executive orders. He overlooked the less-pressing concerns like affordable healthcare, affordable housing, disaster relief, student loan debt relief and social isolation, and focused on what the American people really need: another online platform on which to waste their time, erode their self-esteem, fragment their relationships, and otherwise rot their brains. He immediately instituted a 75-day deferral of the law banning TikTok in the hopes that the app would be sold to a US buyer.

In case you missed it, TikTok was indeed banned and inaccessible to the American people–for just a few hours. Congress voted to ban the social media platform on account of national security concerns prior to Trump’s executive order. Now, the constitutional legality and chosen grounds for prohibition aside, is there a reason to ban TikTok?

A group of 14 attorneys general from across the country and political spectrum think so. This bipartisan group filed lawsuits in October 2024 against TikTok for harming children’s mental health, citing addiction, disruption of sleep cycles, and encouragement to engage in risky behavior. Additionally, the exposure to filtered, edited, and now AI-generated content create unrealistic expectations children and teenagers compare themselves to, encouraging body image issues and other related physical and mental disorders. As if that were not enough, TikTok insiders have shared that they are well aware of the fact that underaged users are accessing the app, which is unconcerning until one looks at the rate of sextortion, child sexual abuse material, and other forms of sexual exploitation occur on the platform. Lastly, the compulsive level of use (the type the platform wants you to have) has been connected to loss of “analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, and increased anxiety,” according to the legal brief filed by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman.

Let’s not forget, businesses like TikTok which operate in the attention economy derive profits from maximizing user’s time spent on their platforms (specifically, so they can view more ads). Those designing the app are designing it to maximize the likelihood of users becoming addicted and thus increasing revenue. They do not care how this affects your quality of life. They

do not care how it affects your relationships, your self-esteem, your belief system, your ability to read critically and engage with people and ideas, or how much of your life you actually live.

I have qualms with social media on the whole for degrading real-life interactions and creating a warped understanding of relationships wherein the type of relationships we invest more time, thought, and energy into are not real or meaningful relationships at all. TikTok is less offensive in this regard than, say, Instagram. However, my primary offense against the app, which is known particularly among Gen-Z as being the most attractive and consuming platform among all the available options, is the fact that we spend so much time on it.

Why on earth, with this one wild and precious life we have, would we want to spend it watching other people do interesting things in 30-second clips for hours at a time, when instead we ourselves could be doing interesting things? Why do I want to watch someone interacting with and interviewing strangers when I could very well talk to a stranger myself?

We have this artificially developed instinct to pacify ourselves in all the little moments. Because of this, we fail to think as deeply, to grow comfortable with silence, to grow comfortable with ourselves or even to notice little things like birdsongs and the person next to us on the train. I, personally, want to be in deep community and relationship with my surroundings. That includes my neighbors, the birds, the squirrels, the thoughts and feelings bouncing around within my own being, the whispers of the Holy Spirit, the crunch of the snow, the invigorating cold air–well, maybe not that last one.

It is a beautiful thing, to truly know another thing or person in great detail. There comes a point where we can know things too well to feel anything but love for them–of this I am convinced. I wish to know this place well. I wish to know and love my neighbors well. This life we are given is beautiful in both the magnificent and in the mundane, and I’d be loath to look back on my life and realize I was occupied with a simulation of another person’s life (if not just a simulation altogether) instead.

Now whether to ban TikTok or not, I’m uncertain. I’m reminded of something about leading a horse to water. I would love to see a massive movement of people forsake the allure of online existence and invest themselves fully in their actual lives, every moment of it. Maybe banning TikTok would provide a breakthrough for people to realize that’s how they want to live. Maybe another app would come along to replace it. It is evident that there is considerable harm from excessive activity on the app; although what qualifies as “excessive” is uncertain. Increased

regulations would certainly be prudent. If nothing else, the question at least calls us to examine our lives and see if the app makes it easier or more difficult to live the way we want to. How do you want to live?

Sources: After Babel, CNN

With the spring semester underway, we approach the one-year anniversary since our neighbors at Cabrini closed their doors. At the same time, many students who transferred from Cabrini are approaching the end of their first full year at Eastern. How has their adjustment been?

“It seems—I don’t know if it’s because we are juniors or not—but it seems harder here to just start a conversation with somebody,” explained Emma Galati, a former Cabrini student. “At least in my department, I’ve had a harder time doing that. It doesn’t feel like ‘Oh I could just talk to the person next to me.’”

“That’s been our issue,” Deirdre McBurney, another former Cabrini student, confirmed. “A lot of cold shoulders here.” This has been the primary obstacle they’ve encountered in connecting with the Eastern student body. Galati and McBurney both feel how difficult it is living in a place of unfamiliar faces, knowing their own faces are just as unfamiliar to those around them.

“Especially the second semester,” Galati added, “I’m like, ‘Oh, you were in my class last semester.’ Do they know who I am? Probably not, because they haven’t been seeing my face for two years like they’ve seen most other people. So I get that aspect, too—like, ‘Who’s that girl?’” Transitions are always difficult, but the circumstances of the Cabrini students’ transitions especially so. “I think the fact that it wasn’t a choice for most of us to transfer is a big part of why we’re just unhappy in general.”

McBurney agrees, “I feel like we didn’t have much time to pick either, but I feel good about this decision here.”

It can feel daunting trying to make extracurricular or professional connections on campus as upperclassmen who are new to the community. “I feel like when you start as a freshman you gain those connections with your professors and people around you off the bat, and it stays with you for those four years…and now it’s like we’re all apart. We know them online now, but here it’s hard to gain those connections again, already two years deep,” McBurney shared.

Fortunately, McBurney finds some comradery among former Cabrini faculty members who have taken up teaching positions at Eastern. One such professor is Dr. Katie Farina, who has filled the role of Director for the Criminal Justice program. McBurney explained the sense of solidarity through experience, saying, “I feel like it’s some sort of a comfort, because when I went to her trying to apply for classes, she was having a hard time too. It was like we could learn it together.”

Unlike her friend, Galati found nobody from Cabrini’s Business Department transferred over to Eastern. However, senior Sam Sturkey, who transferred to Eastern in the spring of 2024, has been a huge source of support and comfort for McBurney and Galati both. Galati said, “I think it’s been better because we have each other, because I think if I had come here by myself, I would’ve been gone by now.”

“A lot of the Cabrini students here that I know kind of look at me like, ‘Hey, this is our first year here, can you help us with the transition?’ Because it was a really big transition,” Sturkey said. “So I’m kind of that piece of ‘Hey, if you need help with something…I’m here,’ which has been also very helpful for me this semester to see more familiar faces, more people to talk to.” Sturkey knows from experience how difficult this transition can be when done alone. “I transferred a semester early because I knew I didn’t want to be a senior at a new school. I knew it was gonna be a tough transition—so I knew if I transferred while the school was still open, it’s only right across the street if I needed something.”

This also allowed Sturkey to still participate in some of Cabrini’s final activities while adjusting to her new normal. “To be honest, I think it made it easier, because I knew I still had that community across the street, and if I needed a break, that I could go over and see them and hangout for a little bit.” It also helped provide a support system as Sturkey learned to work around the issues of navigating Eastern’s campus in a wheelchair. “Even though it was right across the street, Cabrini was a much less hilly campus. The landscape was totally different—I mean, that’s the biggest piece that I struggle with. Also no elevator in [Walton] is also something I struggle with. But we’re working out a way to try and accommodate [that] building.”

Though Sturkey has since found her place, she struggled at first with making friends. “I just felt like everybody already had their friend group, so it’s kind of hard to meet people and talk to people.” Fortunately, she’s been able to find a community as a campus intern, a teaching assistant, Psi Chi Honors Society member, the manager of the women’s basketball team, as well as her efforts to increase campus accessibility. “I started to find my way around, a lot of the girls started to get to know me with basketball, so I got to get to know all of them.” But she still misses the “small-school feeling” Cabrini had. “You definitely feel like it’s a lot bigger here.”

Approaching a year and a half at Eastern, Sturkey said, “I feel like now that I’ve figured out my place and people have gotten to know me, the students are really welcoming…you just have to give them time.” If she were to have given her initial impressions of the transition this time last year, Sturkey “would’ve had more negatives than highlights, but it’s definitely a lot better now.”

Galati and McBurney both expressed that they’re hopeful for how Eastern may continually feel more comfortable. McBurney noticed, “When I do go home sometimes, on the way back I’ll be like ‘I’m going home,’ and I’m like ‘Oh wait, I’m calling [Eastern] home.’”

Galati echoed McBurney’s sentiments, “I’m also just trying to remember that I’m still acclimating, it’s gonna feel better soon.” Eastern may yet feel like home. “I think that will happen,” Galati said, “just gotta wait a little longer.”

New York is the city that never sleeps; California is the state that never stops burning, and it may only get worse. Since January 7, wildfires have been burning in California, spanning from Los Angeles to San Diego. The most recent numbers indicate that 27 people have died as a result of the fires. Schools and businesses have been closed, power outages have occurred and evacuation orders have been issued across San Diego, Ventura and Los Angeles counties. In Los Angeles county alone, more than 15,000 structures have been destroyed and 38,000 acres of land have been burned. In Altadena, a city within Los Angeles county, residents were permitted to return to their homes as of January 21, assuming it was still standing. One Eastern alumnus, Chris Pack, who has been residing and working in LA’s entertainment industry, lost his home earlier in January to the fires.

“I have no idea where I’m going to live,” Pack told FOX 29. “Literally everything I’m wearing today someone took out of their dresser and gave me. The shorts I’m wearing, the shirt and the shoes. Everything was lost.” The only thing of Pack’s which survived the fire was a nativity scene hand-made by Pack’s grandmother, miraculously intact amidst the embers. Perhaps most startling is how close the residents came to perishing with their belongings. “If we had gone to sleep and waited for the evacuation order we would have died straight up,” Pack continued.

While the exact source of the wildfires remains unconfirmed, many look to the extreme winds (as high as 102 mph) originating from Santa Ana as a significant factor. Unusually high winds have been linked to global warming, as the rapid heating of the planet continues to change environmental patterns culminating in extreme weather events. This includes wildfires.

There are various factors which influence a region’s susceptibility to wildfires, including natural land management strategies, water storage, water replenishment (rain or snowmelt), moisture content of flora, temperatures and even wind speeds. In California, these factors often collide to create a very dry climate, which is the ideal condition for wildfires to begin and for contained fires to spiral out of control. Climate change, spurred on by global warming, has exacerbated such problems. Over the past twenty years, temperatures have risen consistently,

with the past several summers bringing consecutively record-breaking highs. Additionally, California experiences frequent long-term droughts. The most recent and severe droughts spanned from 2007 to 2009 and again in 2012 through 2016, but moderate droughts have disturbed the state as recently as 2020 through 2022. Now, with global warming affecting various regions of the globe and changing typical weather patterns, California’s fire seasons are extending well into the winter. Historically, this is very unusual, but recent years have shown California burning year-round with greater frequency.

The Los Angles-San Diego wildfire disaster is only the latest in a string of climate-related tragedies. Also fresh in American memory is the damage of Hurricane Helene, which affected parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee in late 2024. Many families and communities are still struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives. Tennessee Governor Bill Lee proposed a disaster-relief plan which will involve a $450 million investment in direct relief efforts, though damage costs in Tennessee alone are estimated to exceed $1.2 billion. This seems steep, and it is; however, the U.S. is fortunate as a developed nation to have resources to effectively address these disasters, though they may seem woefully inadequate. Climate and environmental experts continue to hope that world leaders–such as those in developed nations like the US, whose carbon footprints are massively disproportional to their populations–will begin to enact climate policy with greater urgency and commitment as climate-related damage continues to escalate.

Our condolences and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of those lost in the fires and all those who have experienced loss or displacement due to climate disasters. Support for those affected–such as Chris Pack, Eastern alumnus–can be given through crowd-sourcing platforms such as GoFundMe.

Sources: USA Today, CAPRadio, Public Policy Institute of California, National Centers for Environmental Information, Frontline Wildfire Defense, The New York Post, FOX 29, Britannica, Johnson City Press, Center for Disaster Philanthropy, Phys.org