George Fox Instagram (Crescent)

                  Instagram accounts centered on George Fox University (GFU) are nothing       new, as a Crescent article from over two years ago can attest. But the                  landscape has shifted since then, with new pages rolling in as replacements          for those that have been lost.

One successful account is @gfu_memes, which has amassed over 1,100 followers. The account became a year old on Nov. 12. Its creator, who wishes to remain anonymous, made it clear that running the page is no light task.

“I’ve been grinding on it every day,” the account creator said. “It’s been taking lots of time from me.” The account averages more than a post a day, which the creator said is “about 75 percent me, 25 percent submissions. It’s nice to get students to do their part and share what they believe is funny.”

This page was created to fill the void left by less frequent posts from an older account, @georgefoxmemes. The old account still posts occasionally, but has put up nine memes this year compared to @gfu_memes’s 490.

“I’ve thought about slowing it down,” the creator of @gfu_memes said, “so not posting every day. … [But] I still want to be active.”

Part of the reason for this is limited material and complaints about repetitiveness. “I try to use different types of humor, but not stretch it too far,” they said. “I’m also trying to see if I can find other areas and limit the memes about the Bon.”

The creator’s personal favorite post came during the recent shooting lockdown at GFU, and was simply the meme format “I’m in danger”  from The Simpsons with no explanatory text. “I posted it right at the same time as the thing was going on,” they said, “and people went nuts over it.”

There are a number of smaller, newer accounts—just a few examples are @gfubagels, which is exactly what it sounds like and has 204 followers; @tom.gfu, which chronicles the journeys of the campus cat Tom; and @dislike_a_bruin, which lets people vent about personal grudges on campus.

The last of these seems to have been created in response to another larger account, @loves_a_bruin, which has 630 followers. This account lets Bruins anonymously confess their crushes via a Google form and have them shared on the page.

“We want people to know just how hot they are!” said the anonymous owner of @loves_a_bruin. “And if someone can talk about their crush on insta, they can totally tell that person face-to-face.”

The frequency of posts is higher even than @gfu_memes, perhaps made easier by the submission format. Nonetheless, there are “almost 100 submissions that haven’t been posted,” according to the creator.

@loves_a_bruin also emerged from a fallen account—@gfucrushes—which served a similar purpose with a different, less anonymous format.

Given @gfu_memes' description of the effort involved, it's no surprise that many GFU Instagram pages have died out. This includes several department-specific meme pages, such as @gfutheatrememes, @gfuengineeringmemes, and others. 

If the present examples are any indication, though, there’s always hope for revival under new management, as long as passion and hard work are involved. 

“There’s nothing I’ve got out of it except doing it because I want to,” said @gfu_memes. “What keeps me going is the reception I get.”

Hoover in Newberg: A Quiet Legacy (Crescent)

                 <Newberg, Ore.> It takes five minutes to walk from the Hoover-Minthorn       House Museum in Newberg to the Hoover Academic Building at George Fox        University (GFU). Herbert Hoover was once listed by TIME as one of the          nation’s most “forgettable” presidents, yet this small town seems to remember       him well enough.

However, even Newberg’s claim to this seemingly uninteresting historical figure is somewhat tenuous. In a world that has been questioning what historical figures should be honored, another question arises: do this town and university deserve whatever honor Hoover’s name bestows?

Hoover was born in Iowa but was taken in by his uncle and aunt, John and Laura Minthorn, after he was orphaned at nine years old. A devout Quaker family like his own, they lived across the country in Newberg, a town of around 200 people. John Minthorn was a doctor and also the superintendent at Friends Pacific Academy, which would later become GFU.

Hoover at age 3. Photo courtesy: Hoover-Minthorn House Museum

“[Minthorn] offered for him to come here and help out with chores and he could go to school for free,” said Nina Dahl, director of the Hoover-Minthorn House Museum. This historical site is the house Hoover lived in during his time in Newberg, refurbished with period furniture and decorations.

The facts of Hoover’s time in Newberg cast doubt on the university’s association with him. He only lived here from the ages of eleven to fourteen before moving to Salem, and at the time what is now GFU was a small academy—a totally different institution, despite their close historical connection. Additionally, his relationship with his uncle was strained.

Hoover would go on to Stanford University, which naturally became more of a factor in his later life than the Quaker academy he attended as an adolescent. Nevertheless, he maintained correspondence with college President Levi Pennington. In a letter about the commencement of Pacific College in 1941, he wrote, “If I still believe in the moral and spiritual foundations of civilization, [Friends Pacific Academy] is where it was implanted in me.” 

Hoover’s years in Newberg may have been brief, but he eventually came to regard them as formative.

During and after World War I, Hoover found great success as head of the newly formed Food Administration. He managed to strike a balance between his opposition to excessive federal action and the need for strong leadership. 

Hoover’s White House biography states that when his decision to give aid to Soviet Russia was questioned, he responded by saying, “Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!”

Yet Hoover’s presidency would be defined by a time when this cautious strategy failed him—the Great Depression, which began in 1928, the first year of his term. 

In comparison to the New Deal policies of his successor, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Hoover’s response was relatively inactive. This strategy was based on principles that limited federal involvement and encouraged private efforts to address problems, and his reticence is seen as having been partly to blame for the Depression’s persistence. 

“No individual political leader could have solved [the Depression]...No matter what country you’re in, everybody always blames whoever’s leading the country at the time of an economic recession,” said Caitlin Corning, GFU history professor and chair of the Department of History and Politics.

“I don’t want to say that all of his policies were successful, but he was president at a particularly difficult time,” Corning said. “Traditional economic theory was not working out.”

Herbert Hoover. Photo courtesy: Getty Images

Though Hoover wasn’t able to solve the Depression, his presidency wasn’t the only part of his political career. In Hoover’s 90-year life, the presidency took up only four years, and they were some of the most difficult he could have been dealt.

Hoover is not counted among the greats of American history. Even beyond economic mismanagement, he had views on race that—though not extreme for the time—are nonetheless morally indefensible.

Senator Mark Hatfield said at the dedication of the Hoover Academic Building in 1977, “I don't think it's necessary to make him a saint or a hero; his actions speak for themselves." Though Hatfield’s words seem meant to lionize Hoover, his actions do tell a story. And despite all his failures, he’s not beyond redemption.

It takes five minutes to walk from the Hoover-Minthorn House Museum to the Hoover Academic Building. Neither is flashy. Neither is crammed with tourists eager to learn about the 31st president or to stand in awe of the great works of Herbert Hoover. They’re just buildings, a part of the scenery, nothing exceptional.

Maybe this is the legacy the man—and the town—deserve.

Hoover-Minthorn House Museum dedication day in 1955. Photo courtesy: Hoover-Minthorn House Museum

Much Ado About Nothing Review (Crescent)

         “Man is a giddy thing,” says Benedick in Shakespeare’s 'Much Ado About Nothing.' George Fox University’s production of the play, which ran for two weekends in October, delivers this message in delightful fashion.

The classic comedy tells the story of two concurrent romances. Claudio (played by Luke Peters) and Hero (Gabrielle Brinkman) are engaged to be married until a villainous plot drives them apart. Meanwhile, frenemies Beatrice (Lydia Crist) and Benedick (Johnathan Billington) are both against love and marriage, but are brought together romantically through their friends’ trickery. 

Though there were standout performances, the collective effort to put together this show may be more commendable than any individual’s role in it. Johnathan Billington, who plays Benedick, said that “the school has spread us thin” by cutting the production budget and the theater program as a whole.

“We are always working long hours when we get close to the show,” Billington said, “but this time was even more challenging than usual. Part of that is definitely because of the sheer scope of this play, the large cast, and the incredibly impressive, complex, beautiful, intricate designs by all of our designers. But another major issue was that we simply didn't have enough people.”

None of that trouble was apparent to the audience. From the beautiful set and costumes to the practiced ease with which the actors made their way through Shakespeare’s script, everything came together for a delightful two and a half hours that had the audience laughing loud and often.

Billington’s and Crist’s performances in the leading roles shone among the rest. Some of the scenes that drew the most laughter involved their characters hiding on-set in increasingly ridiculous fashion as other characters—very aware of their presence—make each believe that their rival is deeply in love with them. The two also delivered their characters’ famous repartee—one of the play’s defining aspects—with wonderful timing. 

Billington said of that scene, Act II, Scene III, “I suggested to Rhett that I climb upside down. [...] I knew he was going to say no, so I said it in the tone of a joke. But instead, he paused, looked at where I was suggesting it, and essentially said,  “Let's try it.” That moment, in which Billington hung from the ceiling, drew one of the biggest laughs of the night.

Another noteworthy performance was Shannon Keehn, as the inept constable Dogberry. The humor of the character lies largely in mistaken words, which Keehn delivered with perfect bumbling sincerity.

Some characters in this play are written as male, yet performed by women in this production due to the gender composition of the cast. Leonato and the villainous prince Don John, for example, were rewritten as female characters, becoming “Leonata” and “the Princess.” 

This led to a few confusing moments, such as when a female character was referred to as “sir.” For the most part, however, the slight changes to the script took place seamlessly.

Danny Walker, playing the prince Don Pedro, also deserves mention. Though the character receives less stage time than Benedick or Beatrice and less focus than Dogberry, his convincingly regal performance commanded attention.

The play was directed by Rhett Luedtke and featured Johnathan Billington, Lydia Crist, Gabrielle Brinkman, Danny Walker, Alexa Burris, Luke Peters, Emilia Corazza, Shannon Keehn, Emma Johnson, Maddie Teel, Thomas Millage, Elizabeth Herbert, Jenny Fournier, and El Maciel.

This is the first of three plays that the George Fox University theater program will put on this academic year. The subsequent shows will be the musical “Godspell” starting on January 27, then Rohina Malik’s “The Hijabis” beginning March 31.

Depression Resources at GFU (Crescent)

         Whether you’re a native Oregonian or a newcomer to the state, you’re likely beginning to feel the effects of winter. Running between classes in the rain, layering clothing for chilly mornings, and making activity plans around the weather forecast are all part of the drill.

However, some take the transition into winter harder than others. In fact, winters in areas with short daylight hours and little sun can sometimes lead to increased depression rates. This is known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD.

About 0.5% of the general population has SAD, according to Dr. Bill Buhrow of George Fox’s Health and Counseling Center (HCC). It is not known how the seasons may trigger depression, but the effects are more intense in regions that receive less sunlight.

“The best course of action is to focus on basic things in life,” said Buhrow—things like eating, sleeping, exercising, and socializing. 

“Americans, and college students as a subset of that, tend to be pretty abusive to [their] bodies,” he said. He especially drew attention to the sleep schedules of students, which can trend towards dysfunctional. 

“The number one answer when we ask ‘What are you doing when you’re not sleeping?’ is watching something on their phone,” Buhrow said. And while there may be some students who genuinely can’t get adequate sleep due to homework, it’s not as common as some might think.

Buhrow also made it clear that not just any instance of depression in the fall or winter should be attributed to SAD—it can only be seen when a pattern is established in which depression repeatedly follows the seasons. In fact, SAD is about twenty times less common than Major Depressive Disorder.

However—whether or not symptoms of depression are attributable to the seasons—there comes a point at which altering lifestyles isn’t enough. 

“If it’s really getting in the way of life,” Buhrow said—for example, when symptoms lead to social withdrawal, isolation, or an inability to work on school— “that’s when you want to talk to someone in the HCC or in [the Office of Spiritual Life].”

Like any other form of depression, SAD should be taken seriously. Though some amount of emotional change in the winter can be normal, depression is never normal, and no one should have to encounter it alone.

GFU students have the option to get free counseling at the HCC, and anyone who is experiencing symptoms of depression—seasonal or otherwise—should use the resources they have.

New School, New Paper, Same Person

Hello, no one!

I'm just going to keep throwing stories up here to keep a record. I know blogging isn't the way to become a titan of the internet, but this way at least if people want to look at my writing they can.

For the aforementioned record, I'm a student at George Fox University now. I'm working at the Crescent here, hopefully with a little more expertise than when I started at the Commuter. 

So far, I've written two non-published stories for my journalism class, one of which I'll be putting up here, and two for the paper, both of which I'll put up once the edition comes out. I don't really know the rules around publishing my own work here, now that I think of it. I should probably ask. Do I give up my creative rights when I'm actually getting paid?

That's about all I have to say. Just for the sake of continuity, I guess I should talk about cross country, since I mentioned it in my last personal post. I ended the season with a 15:28 5k on the track last Monday, after setting a good (but not ideal) freshman 8k PR of 26:32. I wasn't on the conference team, but we won on both the men's and women's' side.

Toodles,

Aidan