Men’s basketball head coach Josh Pastner has been relieved of his duties after seven seasons at the Institute. On March 10, just two days after the team’s season ended in Greensboro, N.C. against Pittsburgh, Tech athletic director J Batt announced Pastner’s departure from the program. This past Monday, Boston Celtics assistant coach Damon Stoudamire was named as Tech’s fifteenth head basketball coach. 

Pastner joined the Institute staff in 2016 after spending seven seasons with the University of Memphis as head basketball coach. He went 167-73 during his time with the Tigers, taking over the head coach position at the age of 31 in 2009. He brought Memphis to the NCAA Tournament for four consecutive seasons, in three of which they also received Conference USA tournament titles. He made history at Memphis as the winningest head coach for the first six seasons in the history of Memphis’s program. While he did bring the team to four NCAA Tournaments in his first five seasons, he failed to do so in his final two. In his final season with Memphis, the team went 19-15 and shrunk in size and talent as players transferred out. Pastner’s end at a jaded Memphis was a blessing for Tech, who needed serious rebuilding and a replacement for former head coach Brian Gregory.

The ebbs and flows of his time at Memphis parallel those at Tech. He started out strong at both, bringing his teams to championships towards the middle of his tenure and producing conference award-winning talent. The Jackets saw three winning seasons and their first ACC Championship since 1993 under his leadership and he developed multiple NBA prospects and draft selections. 

When Pastner arrived at Tech after his Memphis team fizzled out, he took Tech from an underwhelming roster to a conference underdog. With ACC coaches publicly praising Pastner’s contributions to the slowly developing 2016-2017 team, campus spirit for basketball was rekindled by his arrival. In his first season with the Yellow Jackets, the team went 21-16, exceeding the expectations of most. 

The potential that Pastner showed to rebuild the program led to his contract being extended to the 2022-2023 season, and he was awarded 2016-2017 ACC Coach of the Year – only the third Tech basketball coach to receive the honor. Despite the excitement, Pastner would not have a winning season again with the Jackets until the 2019-2020 season, which was tainted by the COVID-19 pandemic and Tech’s exclusion from participation in the postseason. 

The following season, however, was a historic one for Tech. After no appearances in the ACC Tournament for nearly 30 years or the NCAA Tournament for 11, Pastner brought the Jackets to both. With berth in the NCAA Tournament, an ACC Championship win, an 11-game winning streak at home and multiple players winning ACC honors, Tech’s program enjoyed an immensely successful season that cashed in on the potential Pastner promised. This would be Pastner’s last winning season, with a 17-9 overall record and an 11-6 record in the ACC. 

Similar to his time at Memphis, Pastner’s last two years were significantly worse than his best times. The 2021-2022 was a disappointing follow-up to the team’s championship season, and Pastner’s failure to recruit top billing to the team began to show in the season’s losing record. In the final season of his contract, Pastner’s team went 15-18 overall and 6-14 in the conference, ending in a loss to Pitt in the second round of the ACC Tournament. 

Pastner departed from Tech with a record of 109-114. J Batt, the athletic director hired in October, released a statement thanking Pastner for his time and expressing Tech’s desire to improve.

“We have high expectations at Georgia Tech for all of our sports programs, and it is imperative that Men’s Basketball achieves a greater level of success,” J Batt wrote in his message. “Our Men’s Basketball program is important to our Department, and to our institution. We will not shy away from expecting to consistently compete for ACC championships, NCAA Tournament appearances, and sustained success.” 

Pastner is the second head coach that J Batt has fired since his arrival to the Institute in October. Former football head coach Geoff Collins was relieved of his duties in the fall, and his assistant coach Brent Key was named interim head coach for the remainder of the season. Associate head coach Anthony Wilkins was named the interim head coach for the brief period that Tech sought Pastner’s successor. Wilkins’ stint, was short-lived as Tech announced the hiring of Boston Celtics assistant coach Damon Stoudamire to the head coach vacancy on Monday, about 48 hours after news broke of Pastner’s departure. Stoudamire has entered a five-year contract with Tech, while Pastner’s three-year contract extension post-ACC title puts Tech $2.5 

million out to him. Stoudamire played at Arizona from 1991-1995, departing one year before Pastner’s arrival to the Wildcats. He boasts an impressive professional career with four different NBA teams and won NBA Rookie of the Year in the 1995-1996 season. His 15-year run in the league as a point guard was immediately followed by his entrance into coaching, and he held a head coach position at the University of the Pacific for five seasons. He departed collegiate coaching to assist the Boston Celtics in 2021. As lead assistant coach, Stoudamire has been valuable for the development of the Celtics, helping Boston go to the 

2022 NBA Finals in his first season there. Now, with five seasons in front of him, Stoudamire will have his work cut out for him. The Yellow Jackets have not seen a NCAA Tournament win in 12 years, only appearing in the tournament three times since 2005. Pastner’s firing has already caused one prospective Tech player, high school senior guard Blue Cain, to reopen his recruitment and release himself from his National Letter of Intent to Tech. Despite Atlanta’s rich recruitment pool, Tech’s recruiting classes have ranked consistently low in the last few years, with the exception of 2021’s No. 17 recruiting class. Tech hosted an introductory press conference for him on Tuesday. Stoudamire reflected a desire to recuperate the program to its former Bobby Cremins-era glory.

“This is a tradition-rich program, and one that aspires to get back to winning championships,” the new head coach said. “We’re going to galvanize the community, the student body, and just get this thing going in the right direction.” 

With Stoudamire and Pastner being Tech’s contributions to the coaching carousel, the future of Jackets men’s basketball is unclear – but the new coach’s attitude, much like a particular coach before him, is enthusiastic.

“The Avengers” changed Hollywood and pop culture as we knew it back in 2012. After five Marvel movies of varying quality were released between 2008 and 2011, “The Avengers” was a corny, satisfying and exciting payoff for those who kept up with the franchise. 

It attracted audiences who grew up with the comics as well as the more cynical crowd of movie-goers who thought that nothing could beat Sam Raimi’s “Spiderman” or Christopher Nolan’s “Batman” series. 

After becoming the most successful film of 2012 and the third-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) became a cash cow of epic proportions. 

Moving into Phases Two and Three, the need to pull more heroes from the comics, no matter how obscure, increased exponentially. 

As long as a movie trailer began with the Marvel logo, Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures knew they had a guaranteed audience, eagerly awaiting the expansion of the universe and the crossovers that would come with it. Prior to the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” the most Marvel releases in one year would be three movies, making the journey to “Endgame” a long but manageable one. 

“Avengers: Endgame” was a cultural and financial juggernaut, and for many, it was a perfect ending to the MCU altogether. However, for Disney and for many fans, it simply marked the beginning of a new era of heroes. 

Furthermore, there were many OG characters whose arcs were clearly not finished, and Disney kept up this momentum by releasing “Spiderman: Far From Home” less than three months after “Endgame.” 

With fan buzz and box office success still at a high, Disney’s next move sealed the evergrowing popularity of the MCU: the creation of Disney Plus. 

Disney Plus was launched on Nov. 12, 2019 following years of anticipation for a Disney-based streaming service from the general public. 

The sheer amount of properties to which Disney had the release and streaming rights made the platform invaluable, especially with their ownership of Star Wars and Marvel Studios, two of the biggest cinematic franchises of all time. 

Existing Marvel fans or those who had been interested in it now had all of the movies at their fingertips, as well as smaller television shows released by Disney subsidiaries in the early 2010s.

Disney Plus followed suit of the many streaming services before it and announced plans for multiple Disney Plus original shows and movies. 

Outside of the service, however, theatrical Disney releases were put to a halt by the pandemic shutting down Hollywood mere months after Disney Plus’ launch. 

Movies that were supposed to come out in 2020 were instead released on the service, beginning with an added charge to view the movie until it became available for free on the service a few months later. 

Being able to get a free trial for a week on this service made movie releases futile, as Disney could not profit if someone began their free trial just to watch one thing and then neglect to subscribe to the service. 

So, once their TV shows were ready to be released, Disney found a good way to keep people on the platform: weekly episode releases. 

What possibly began as a way to maintain fan hype from week to week between episodes of the first Disney Plus MCU show, “Wandavision,” became a model that would allow Disney to maximize profit no matter how negatively it affected the quality of their output. 

If people would subscribe to Disney Plus so that they could keep up with MCU shows every week, then why not greenlight as many shows as possible so people will continue to pay $8 a month instead of a one-time $10 payment for a movie theater ticket?

Phase Four of the MCU is composed of seven theatrical movies and eight Disney Plus originals. As of now, Phase Five is slated to have six theatrical releases and seven television series. 

Origin stories for new heroes have gone from two-hour movies to eight-hour television series, and the quality of these products are very obviously declining. Stories that would be well-suited to a stand-alone movie are now padded with filler, hit-or-miss jokes, and rushed CGI, which are all turning off Marvel fans with each new release. 

Online discourse from many comic enthusiasts and MCU originalists seems to blame the writing and a “push for diversity” as more starring heroes are women, non-white and/or people with a disability. 

Many people post TikToks comparing bad jokes from the newest “She-Hulk” series to previous Phase Two and Three movies. Others post critiques about shows being slow, boring or repetitive, especially once shows reach their third act, which are notoriously bad for MCU shows. 

I think the obvious problem here is not the new heroes, the actors playing them or even the writers of the show, but Disney Plus itself. 

It seems to have all of its eggs in the MCU basket — and, to be fair, the Star Wars basket — and will sacrifice the quality of their continued MCU world-building for the sake of keeping people subscribed. 

When writers are presented with eight hours of run-time to fill, fast deadlines so that there is never a lull in content and limited budgets being split between multiple other shows, it is not shocking that jokes are subpar and storylines are dragged out. 

People’s investment will also be much harder to keep. Sitting through a mid-tier Marvel movie is not unfamiliar to long-time fans, so if these shows were actually theatrical movie releases, the damage to the MCU would feel much smaller. But, holding fans’ attention for eight hours to introduce them to unrecognizable properties seems to only be getting more and more difficult for the MCU. 

I don’t believe Disney will change this new plan, however, until their profits start to reflect fan disappointment. There has been public outcry about Disney live-action remakes for years, but those have not gone away in the slightest. 

While the MCU has always been milked by Disney for profit, the existence of Disney Plus has increased their behavior tenfold, and it is tanking the MCU along with it.   

Five days after a tough loss to No. 4 Clemson, Tech football defeated Western Carolina (WCU) 35-17 on the night of Saturday, Sept. 10, breaking its seven-game losing streak since last October. Despite the rainy start to the game and a tough matchup early in the week, the Jackets kept up with the Catamounts score by score before pulling ahead in the second quarter and maintaining their lead through the end. 

The first quarter began strong for the Catamounts, with junior quarterback Carlos Davis throwing a 49-yard pass over the middle to Terrence Horne for an early touchdown. 

The following drive by Tech had a rocky start, with sophomore quarterback Jeff Sims making a few incomplete passes. 

Sims made two significant rushing gains later in the drive and junior running back Dontae Smith secured Tech the first touchdown of the night, tying the game with 8:22 to go in the first quarter.

Tech defense allowed some significant gains for the Catamounts throughout the game, often being caught in the pocket and allowing WCU’s receivers and freshman running back Desmond Reid to be wide open. On the second drive of the game, Davis completed a 30-yard pass to Reid. At 6:02 left in the first quarter, Davis completed a 22-yard touchdown pass to freshman wideout Toler Keigley for the last Catamount touchdown of the night. 

On the following four-play, 58-second drive by Tech, Sims completed a 17-yard pass and rushed for a nine-yard gain before Smith ran for a 51-yard touchdown, pulling Tech even and scoring the final points scored in the first quarter. The final two drives of the quarter saw each team’s quarterback get sacked, and Sims’ seven-yard loss marked the end of the first quarter.  

Tech sophomore defensive back Kenan Johnson downed the ensuing punt on the WCU two-yard line to begin the second quarter. Tech’s defense did not make it easy, with Davis throwing two incomplete passes and being sacked by junior defensive back Jaylon King. Despite two successful rushes by Reid, the drive was ended by Tech’s first interception of the night by junior defensive back Derrik Allen. 

The Jackets kept the momentum with a five-play scoring drive starting at the Tech 40-yard line. At 10:56 in the second quarter, sophomore wide receiver Nate McCollum rushed to the left for 40 yards to score the first rushing touchdown of his career. After freshman kicker Jude Kelley made his third extra point of the night, the scoreboard stood at 21-14 in the Jackets’ favor. 

The next few drives were spent trading punts and penalties until junior defensive back Myles Sims intercepted a pass by Davis at the Catamount 40-yard line after WCU took their final timeout of the half. With just two minutes to go until halftime, Tech scored once again in a quick 39-yard drive. Carolina’s offense fell apart in the last drive of the half, between Davis scrambling out of the backfield on each down and two penalties on the offensive line, leaving the score at 28-14 by halftime. 

With the rain gone and a fast-paced game, the second half began with a colorful drive. While Davis and Reid proved to be a powerful duo on offense, Tech’s defensive line only allowed for incremental advances down the field. In the middle of the drive, the Catamounts fumbled the snap and senior linebacker Ayinde Eley recovered the ball in the third turnover of the night. However, on the first down of Tech’s possession, WCU junior defensive back Rod Gattison intercepted a pass by Sims. Davis continued to scramble, with Tech defense missing two tackles before senior defensive lineman Keion White sacked Davis in the backfield. 

On Tech’s following drive, characterized by excellent blocking and a focus on rushing the ball, junior running back Dylan McDuffie scored Tech’s fifth and final touchdown of the night with 3:55 to go in the third quarter. This also marked McDuffie’s first touchdown as a Jacket following his transfer from Buffalo. As a final nail in the coffin for WCU, Davis was injured in the final drive of the quarter and freshman backup quarterback Cole Gonzales was put in for the rest of the game. 

The final points of the game were put on the board in the beginning of the fourth quarter. WCU redshirt junior Richard McCollum hit a 44-yard field goal to make the score 35-17 with 11:21 left in the game. 

Tech secured their third interception of the night later in the quarter, leading to a missed field goal attempt from 25 yards by Kelley. Despite some missed tackles and points left on the board from the turnover, Tech defense showed a significant improvement from the Clemson game earlier in the week. With the offense’s emphasis on the running game and defense’s strength up front, Tech was able to run up the score and stop WCU from scoring for the entire second and third quarter.

Head Coach Geoff Collins and the Jackets were in high spirits at the post-game press conference, but they were also determined to keep working. When asked about what the team focused on following the loss to Clemson, Collins said, “We told the guys last week that all of the critical mistakes we made last week against the No. 4 team in the country are all fixable mistakes.” 

On the short week, Collins said, “It was a physical game Monday night… [this week] we had to accelerate the process to learn the opponent we’re defending, learn the game plan, and to be ready to go. It’s not easy playing two games in five days.”   

Looking toward next week’s game against Ole Miss, Collins said, “We’ve got a lot of work to do for an ABC matchup next Saturday at 3:30 back here in Bobby Dodd Stadium.” 

Tech cross-country’s six-meet regular season is set to begin on Sept. 1 at the Berry XC Opener in Mount Berry, GA. The schedule was announced on Aug. 1, with the Jackets scheduled for three local and three out-of-region meets. On Sept. 16, Tech will travel to Huntsville, AL for the North Alabama Invitational. The team is then set to compete in a split weekend, with the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, PA on Sept. 30 and the Alexander Asics Invitational on Oct. 1 in Fairburn, GA. The end of the regular season will also be a split weekend, with the Penn State National Open on Oct. 14 in University Park, PA — which recent Tech graduate Nicole Fegans won last year — and the Berry Invitational on Oct. 15 in Mount Berry, GA. 

The Jackets plan to field their strongest runners for the postseason, with a return to the ACC Championships coming on Oct. 28 in Earlysville, VA and the NCAA South Regional on Nov. 11, once again being hosted in Huntsville, AL. The NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships will be held on Nov. 19 in Stillwater, OK. 

The Jackets’ 2021 season came to a disappointing end at the NCAA South Regionals, hosted in Huntsville, AL, where the men’s team placed 13th and the women’s placed ninth. Multiple runners placed in the top 50, with Fegans placing 11th overall and earning her second All-South Region Honors. Despite some great individual performances, no one from Tech qualified for the NCAA Championships. The women’s team qualified in the 2020-2021 season and had the best overall team finish in Tech’s history. The men’s team has yet to qualify. 

Six women and five men from the team graduated in the spring, including Fegans, who set multiple school and ACC records throughout her career. Still, many notable runners are returning for this season, including Liz Galarza and Sarah Copeland for women’s and James Cragin for men’s. 

Galarza has accumulated multiple top-ten finishes and ACC awards throughout her career, being a consistent top performer on the team and will be entering her fifth season with the Jackets. Cragin is also entering his fifth season with the Jackets and has led the men’s team in multiple races, winning last season’s Kennesaw State XC Opener and running PRs in last season’s final two meets.  

Copeland was awarded ACC Women’s Co-Freshman of the Week three times last season and placed first at last season’s Alexander Asics Invitational, showing a very strong start in her career and solidifying her as a runner to watch this season. 

Tech’s men’s golf team competed in both the NCAA regional and championship tournaments this May, marking Tech’s 31st appearance in the championship tournament. The NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Committee hosted six tournaments from May 16 to May 18 throughout the country for the regional. The regional qualifiers would go on to compete in Scottsdale at the Grayhawk Golf Club from May 27 to June 1 for the championships.

The regional, which Tech has competed in for 24 years in a row, began on May 16. Tech was seeded second behind Oklahoma State to compete in Columbus at the Ohio State Golf Club. The Columbus tournament saw thirteen teams and ten individuals competing in a 54-hole, stroke-play tournament on a par 72 course.

Tech began round 1 paired with Oklahoma and Arizona in cold weather. Junior Ross Steelman and freshman Benjamin Reuter shot 1-over-par 72 and tied for 14th place. Sophomore Christo Lamprecht clocked two double bogeys in the back nine and shot a 78 for the day. Juniors Bartley Forrester and Connor Howe each shot 2-over-par 73 and tied for 25th place.

The Jackets ended the day tied with No. 6 seed, Ohio state, for the fifth championship-qualifying spot. The top five winning teams and top individual of each regional qualified for the championship tournament. The Jackets were 6-over-par for a total of 290 while No. 1 seed, Oklahoma State, went 4-under-par for 280. Clemson, Duke, Ohio State, San Francisco and Tech went into the second round within four strokes of each other.

The Jackets went into round two with No. 3 Arkansas and No. 11 Kentucky. Steelman shot a 4-under-par 67 with only one bogey and ranked second individually after Tuesday. Lamprecht, Howe and Reuter shot a 3-underpar 68, earning the latter two rankings in the top ten individuals. Tech ended with a 13-underpar 271 in round two.

The final round of regionals paired Tech with Oklahoma and Ohio in a cloudy forecast. While the round began with Oklahoma tying up with Tech, Reuter and Steelman shot birdies to maintain the team’s position. Steelman shot his final round 3-under-par 68 while the other players shot an even-par 71, making Tech tie with Oklahoma State for first place and qualify alongside Arkansas, East Tennessee State and Ohio State.

Tech qualified with the lead in par-5 holes and 48 collective birdies, ranked second in par-3 scoring and third in par-4 scoring. Reuter tied for fourth with 2-under-par 211 (-2) and Howe tied for seventh with 1-under-par 212. Lamprecht tied for 29th with 217 and Bartley Forrester tied for 40th place with 219. Howe and five others tied for 7th with 212 (-1).

The NCAA championship saw thirty teams play a 54-hole tournament with Oklahoma seeded first. Tech was the No. 10 seed going into the NCAA championship and paired with Texas A&M and Stanford for the first two rounds. Arizona State, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pepperdine, Texas, Texas Tech and Vanderbilt also competed.

Forrester and Lamprecht began the first round shooting 3-over-par 73s, bringing Tech to 23rd place in the championship with an overall 18-over-par 298. Forrester and Lamprecht tied for 42nd place while Steelman and Howe tied for 101st. Texas A&M scored 300 (+20) and Stanford posted 295 (+15).

Tech brought themselves up to 17th place with 9-over-par 289 the next morning for round two. Tech’s partners Texas A&M and Stanford placed 17th and 14th respectively. The top fifteen move onto the final stroke play round of the championship to determine the top eight teams that will move on to match play.

Tech was tied with both A&M and Ole Miss for the advancing place and was once again paired with A&M for round three. Forrester shot a 17-foot birdie putt while his partner senior Sam Bennett bogeyed on the hole. Lamprecht and A&M sophomore Daniel Rodrigues also bogeyed the 18th hole. Tech tied with Ole Miss for 14th place and advanced to the final stroke play tournament on May 30. Forrester had a good round and shot 2-under-par 68, tying 15th at the championship.

The Tech team lost six shots to par and their score of 294(+14) brought them to 12th place, the highest in seven years for the Jackets at the NCAAs. Tech’s final round partners, Ole Miss and Oregon, ranked 14th and 15th respectively.

The championship and Tech’s successful season places Tech men’s golf ranked No. 10 by Golfweek, marking the 19th top ten final ranking since 2000, a remarkable stretch for any golf program. With a great end to the season, many are excited for what comes next for the Jackets.

The Tech men’s tennis team began the 2022 spring season on MLK weekend, hosting the MLK Invitational at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex. Tech competed each afternoon of the three-day invitational, competing against Columbia, Illinois and North Carolina.

Tech’s Marcus McDaniel and Andres Martin, ranked the No. 3 doubles pairing in the nation, won their match 6-3 against Columbia’s Alex Kotzen and Hugo Hashimoto. Tech’s Keshav Chopra and Pablo Schelcher also won their doubles match against Alex Finkelstein and Max Westphal of Columbia.

Tech had three singles wins against Columbia, with Chen Dong, Keshav Chopra and Marcus McDaniel winning their respective matches on the first day. Chopra won against his opponent, Hugo Hashimoto, who is ranked No. 87 nationally.

Tech saw a doubles win and four singles wins on the second day of the invitational. Schelcher and Chopra were Tech’s doubles winners of the day, defeating their Illinois opponents 6-2. 

Chopra earned a victory over a ranked player once again, winning against Kweisi Kenyatte of Illinois, who is ranked No. 116 nationally. Andres Martin, who is the highest ranked singles player in the ACC and the No. 9 ranked singles player nationally, won against Illinois’s Alex Brown, ranked No. 113.

Dong defeated Hunter Heck, and McDaniel defeated Gabrielius Guzauskas, giving each of them their second singles win for the weekend. 

Tech ended the invitational on a high note, winning all of their matches on Monday. Chopra won his singles match against Ben Gollin of North Carolina, giving him the singles title. Andres Martin also won his singles match against Jayden Templeman of Columbia.

In doubles action, Martin and Dong won against Mac Kiger and Peter Murphy of North Carolina 6-3. Chopra and Schelcher won their third doubles match of the weekend 6-3 against Ben Gollin and Hugo Hashimoto of Columbia, giving them the doubles title.

The ACC named Chopra the ACC Men’s Tennis Player of the week following his undefeated performance at the invitational. 

Tech men’s tennis will host Georgia State at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex on Jan. 21.

Tech women’s tennis began their spring schedule at the Carolina Kickoff, hosted by South Carolina, with Auburn and Wake Forest attending as well. Going into this tournament, the ITA National Ranking Committee released the Preseason Coaches Poll, in which Tech’s women’s team was ranked at No. 12 and Auburn at No. 25.

The round robin-style tournament was originally slated to have one round of singles and doubles on Jan. 14, two rounds of doubles and one round of singles on Jan. 15 and a final round of singles action on Jan. 16. Inclement weather changed the schedule so that the tournament would end on Saturday, Jan. 15, with teams playing one round of singles and one round of doubles.

On the first day of the tournament, Tech won five singles matches. Gia Cohen, Monika Dedaj, Rosie Garcia Gross, Mahak Jain and Kate Sharabura all secured wins against South Carolina. In the doubles, Sharabura and Carol Lee won 6-3 against Ariana Arsenault and Selin Ovunc of Auburn.

The tournament concluded on Saturday with Tech earning five singles wins and one doubles win. Carol Lee, ranked No. 85, won against Anna Campana of Wake Forest, who is ranked No. 75. Jain, Cohen, Marsh and Sharabura also secured singles victories against Wake Forest. Lee and Sharabura won their doubles match 6-3 against Anna Brylin and Brooke Killingsworth of Wake Forest, who comprise the country’s No. 2 ranked doubles team.

Following the tournament, Sharabura was named the ACC Freshman of the Week, winning four of her five matches at the tournament. Tech women’s tennis will host Georgia Southern at the Ken Byers Tennis Complex on Jan. 22.  

The Division of Tutoring and Academic Support (TAS) will be expanding their new Learning Assistant Program in spring 2022 after a successful fall launch. Students are hired by TAS as Learning Assistants to support faculty who need more support in their courses. The Learning Assistant Landing webpage cites the transition from online learning to in-person as an opportunity for the program to flourish.

Learning Assistants give faculty more options when it comes to what will be available for students virtually or in person. Learning Assistants can work with students in smaller groups, act as a supporting guide during lectures and labs, and lead more interactive, peer-based discussion. They are able to share their guidance from taking the class previously.

The other responsibilities that Learning Assistants have include leading office hours, working with the faculty member who instructs the course on a weekly basis, and taking a 1 hour course hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning. TAS offers three other resources for tutoring: 1-to-1 tutoring, Peer-Led Undergraduate Study (PLUS), and drop-in tutoring. 1-to-1 tutoring allows students to create appointments with student tutors. There is also drop-in tutoring, which does not require appointments. PLUS sessions are more collaborative, allowing students in specific courses to work together with the help of PLUS peer leaders. PLUS leaders have already taken the course and attend the classes that they are supporting in a given semester.

They do not help faculty with grading or leading recitations like TAs. Learning Assistants have responsibilities similar to both tutors and PLUS leaders. They help with grading, supporting students during class, and hosting 1-to-1 tutoring or office hours.

Their responsibilities do not interfere with teaching assistants, but rather supplement the support that professors and TAs are able to provide by using their recent experience taking the course to connect with students.

During the fall, Learning Assistants were used in nine courses, but the program is expanding to 14 courses in the spring.

Learning Assistants receive $11 per hour for their work and are typically required to work between 6 and 8 hours a week. If you want to apply to be a Learning Assistant, you can apply at tutoring.gatech.edu.

To date, I have yet to witness a teen or young adult show that has successfully executed a time jump.

I am sure there are some shows that have been able to do something interesting with jumping a few years ahead.

Sometimes, based on the format of a show and how the circumstances in which characters need to be together may change, time jumps are necessary if the show is going to continue.

For most cases I have seen, after a significant event or change has occurred in the show, a time jump makes the most logical sense. For example, most teen shows that choose to continue after the characters graduate will require a time jump past college since it cannot be expected that all of the characters stay in one place.

One of my favorite shows, “One Tree Hill,” fell victim to this. “One Tree Hill” followed the lives of two half-brothers, their families and their friends in the town of Tree Hill. It was a typical teen dramedy full of love triangles, family drama and the occasional murder.

After four of some of the greatest seasons of teen drama television that I have personally ever seen, “One Tree Hill” elected to continue after a four-year jump into the future instead of ending with their characters graduating from Tree Hill High School.

Oddly enough, the show’s fourth season finale was very reminiscent of a series finale, as it showed the end of the characters’ high school careers and had very emotional goodbye scenes. I personally thought it was the perfect way to end the series. Despite this, the show continued for another five seasons after its time jump and padded its seasons with weird plot lines and
short-lived characters.

While I did watch until the end, the last few seasons put a bitter taste in my mouth and made me remember the show less fondly than I think I would have if it had ended after season four. The same can be said for another popular teen show—”Pretty Little Liars.”

Anyone who was over the age of 10 when that show premiered can probably remember how much it ruled the pop culture scene.

This seven-season show followed four best friends who began to receive anonymous texts signed with an “A” at the end of them after their other best friend, Alison, went missing.

Despite being ABC Family’s most popular show for most of the 2010s, it seemed to crash and burn after the show went through a time jump following the show’s fifth season. Again, the time jump made the most narrative sense, considering all of the main characters had graduated high school and the mystery of A’s identity was, for the time being, solved.

A different kind of time jump that ended in a much worse disaster than the other two shows I mentioned was witnessed with “The 100.”

This was a show set in the distant future following a world-ending catastrophe, forcing what was left of mankind to live in spaceships floating above the Earth. It followed teenagers who were imprisoned for criminal acts on the spaceship, who were then sent down to Earth as a test population to see if it was liveable. The show became pretty complex as the seasons went on and as the characters explored Earth further, and I felt that the first four seasons had great storytelling. However, this show experienced a situation where they somewhat wrote themselves into a corner. The fourth season (spoiler alert) does end with the characters having to return to space and wait for six years while the Earth recovers from another catastrophic event.

Unlike the other shows, this last season before the time jump ended on a cliffhanger and had a lot of room left to tell a story.

I felt that this was a situation where the writers had no choice but to use a time jump as more of a plot device rather than from necessity to accommodate the status quo like the other shows did.

If a show comes to a standstill point, writers can create a slew of conflict using a time jump.

Ripping characters apart for long periods of time after they have formed relationships can provide a lot of content, which was very heavily the case with “The 100.”

Another show that seems to be approaching their upcoming fourth season with this strategy is the beloved fantasy Netflix show, “Stranger Things.”

I love this show as much as the next person. With the fourth season starting after a time jump and their season three ending with the main cast being split apart, this time jump seems to be functioning as a device to create unfamiliar conflict.

There are many shows that choose to save time jumps for a final season, a reboot, a reunion or more often, the series finale.

I typically can forgive and tolerate these types of time jumps, as these have more often been used for skipping events that can be predicted or giving shows a satisfying ending.

I often see time jumps being used to compensate for writers’ lack of creativity, a network’s inability to let go of a juggernaut show despite its story coming to a natural conclusion or both.

For shows like “One Tree Hill” or “Pretty Little Liars,” preserving artistic integrity did not seem to be more important than continuing to milk a cash cow for their respective networks, and the time jump ultimately tainted the legacy that these shows were destined to leave behind.

More tragically, however, attempting to preserve artistic integrity through a time jump forced “The 100” into a downward spiral and immediate pop culture irrelevancy due to its poor execution and unpopularity with fans.

Either way, a time jump always seems to indicate that there will be a decrease in the show’s quality and there will always be fans who hate it.

In my book, time jumps are the ultimate television kiss of death.

Tech’s Solar Racing Team had a big win last month at the American Solar Challenge, where their solar-powered car won fifth place in a race across the country.

Georgia Tech Solar Racing, or GTSR, is composed of over 50 students working together to build cars that are fully solar-powered.

The team has attended track competitions before, but this past summer they qualified for the American Solar challenge, or the ASC, which is a cross country race that spans 1700 miles across the United States. In order to qualify, the team competed in Austin, Texas in the Formula Sun Grand Prix.

The Formula Sun Grand Prix is a track race taking place over three days.

Because the car drives a much shorter distance, it requires different strategies and more frequent pit stops compared to a cross country race.

Teams who complete the most amount of laps around the track over the course of three days win.

GTSR’s present car, the SR-3 Endurance, competed for the first time in the 2019 Formula Sun Grand Prix.

After being built and put on the track in record time, the SR-3 has received many improvements over its two-year run and carried GTSR to fifth place in the 2021 American Solar Challenge.

The 2021 American Solar Challenge took place on a route starting in Independence, Missouri and ending in Las Vegas.

Cars are ranked on their time completing the route and being able to complete it without using a trailer to bring the car along. GTSR competed in the Single-Occupant Vehicle, or SOV, class.

At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 3, the challenge started in Independence, Missouri, passing through Kansas and Colorado before completing in Las Vegas.

Endurance completed the route in just over 39 hours, placing it at fifth place behind MIT, Kentucky, Principia, and Illinois.

They were also given the Perseverance award.

There are 6 different divisions within the team: leadership, mechanical, electrical, race operations, business, and outreach — which allows students from all different majors and fields of study to participate.

The winning Institute team was composed from students representing all factions of the divisions listed.

While it is easy for the mechanical and electrical portions of the competition to take the forefront, the victory most certainly would not have come together without the hard work and perseverance of each and every member of the team.

The positioning not only continues to show Tech’s capabilities on the national level, but also bodes well for future solar car races that the team plans on competing in. You can read more about these divisions, the team, and joining GTSR at solarracing.gatech.edu.