The Institute Diversity department at Tech announced that it was receiving the Insight into Diversity magazine’s Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) award for the third year in a row.

Tech is one of 82 universities to receive the award this year, and will be featured in Insight into Diversity’s Nov. 2016
issue. Dr. Archie Ervine, vice president for Institute Diversity, expressed pride in receiving this year’s award, saying that “[2016] has been a landmark year for the Institute, from the most
diverse freshman class in Georgia Tech’s history to the launch of the Black Student Experience Task Force and Gender Equity Initiatives. But there is still more work to do.”

On the selection process, the publisher of Insight into Diversity, Lenore Pearlstein, said that “we take a holistic approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a HEED Award recipient.”

“Our standards are high, and we look for institutions where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being accomplished every day across their campus.”

When asked about how
Institute Diversity works with student government, Dr. Ervine highlighted how the department seeks to work on issues the Student Government Association (SGA) highlights as important to the student body. He also discussed how students are the “lifeblood of the institution” and that he knows Nagela Nukuna, undergraduate student body president, very well.

Dr. Ervine explained that Institute Diversity works with multiple organizations throughout campus, with SGA representing only a small portion of the collaboration the
department participates in.

Declining to name any specific program as the most important or impactful, Dr. Ervine emphasized Institute Diversity’s focus on recruiting a diverse group of students as the most important activity it undertakes.

Dr. Ervine expressed hope that “we continue to emphasize the need to make the campus community more supportive of everybody that’s earned their way into Tech. I have a theory that everyone at Tech has earned their way into being there.”

Dr. Ervine also noted that diversity is not limited to
ethnicity or background, saying that “there is an intellectual
diversity perspective that is absolutely critical to creativity, innovation and productivity. Absolutely. Intellectual diversity — that is academic.”

Continuing, Dr. Ervine said: “I think that, you know, in order for us to be a great university, we have to be more than just one discipline. So, I believe that the great challenges of our time require expertise from many
disciplines across campus, not just our technical ones.”

On Tech’s support for diversity in its faculty, Dr. Ervine said that “we have a very aggressive agenda around leadership development at Georgia Tech for faculty and for staff. The provost’s office, just this last year, launched a new initiative to give faculty and academic leaders an opportunity to learn leadership skills and traits that would make them better prepared to become academic leaders such as chairs, associate chairs, deans, administrators, vice
provosts, those kinds of things.”

The HEED award emphasizes a number of areas in its application, including the overall demographics of the school, retention rates by demographics, job advancement opportunities for faculty as well as the overall academic strength and culture of the school. Dr. Ervine explained that many factors which are not necessarily listed in the application may come out in the final stages of selection, when candidates for the award are compared against one another to select the most qualified institutions.

One specific criteria that becomes important in the last stages of selection is a university’s continuing commitment to improving diversity. Dr. Ervine explained that, since the publication is always seeking to highlight new universities, applicants have to continually compete against their peers and prove that they are worthy of receiving the award.

Dr. Ervine explained one of these aspects of continuing improvement, saying that “[Institute Diversity is] positioned to continue to push and develop a vision for an inclusive and welcoming campus community.”

He tied this into the department’s work with other campus organizations, saying, “You can’t do this alone. If you’re working alone, you’ve got a problem.”

The HEED award selection process is overseen by Potomac Publishing, Inc., the publisher of the INSIGHT into
Diversity magazine.

As the football season wears on, I continue to ask myself, “Are we still a football school?”

The legacy of Tech football is one of the richest in college football history. As one of the early leaders at the collegiate level, it seems that we would have big expectations to live up to, but more and more I’m beginning to feel that isn’t true.

The last time Tech won a National Championship was 1990, 26 years ago. Before that, it was 1952, a 38-year gap. It seems right now that we are in a large dip in terms of football performance. Theoretically, we can bounce back, but is the mindset at Tech too far gone?

While the rest of college football has continued to evolve and adapt, Tech’s program has seemingly stagnated. Is it because of our offense? Is it because of our coaching staff? Do we not recruit well? I think that these problems are all symptomatic of a larger issue: a general sense of apathy that is growing on campus.

This sense of apathy is not just coming from one source, whether it be the students, the staff or the executives at Tech. Fingers can be pointed at each and every demographic related to Tech, but I generally think that everyone is to blame as a collective.

Now, do Tech football fans have a reason to be apathetic? Of course. The team is not performing well, but instead of continuing to support the team in times of adversity, fans have started to abandon hope, finding other things to do on Saturdays.

Fair-weather fans will always exist, but it seems that people are beginning to forget the past and the bar it sets for the present and future of Tech football.

This in turn creates a vicious cycle of stagnation. If the football team doesn’t perform well, fan support drops and donors are less likely to give money. When donors are less likely to give money, the image of the team suffers. When the image of the team suffers, recruiting suffers, which in turn usually leads to poorer results on the field than fans of an ACC football school would demand.

To prevent this from happening, all of these steps must be broken. The team must perform up to or above its expectations to encourage the fans and donors. Then, the fans must continue to support the team through thick and thin and have faith in the ability of the coaching staff and the players.

The high of 2014 was followed by an extreme low in 2015, and it seems that this year will be in between. Either the team or its fans and donors will have to budge to achieve progress.

Tech’s basketball team will embark on a very different journey this season. Newly appointed head coach Josh Pastner will seek to make a name for himself and his young team in the Atlantic Coastal Conference — arguably the toughest basketball conference in Division I sports.

Leadership will fall upon Quinton Stephens, a fourth-year Atlanta native. He returns to the roster as one of the most experienced players in the lineup and the highest scorer returning from the 2015–16 season.

Stephens recently sat down with the Technique to discuss his introduction to the sport, this year’s team, new strategies and basketball culture at Tech.

Technique: How long have you been playing basketball?

Stephens: I officially started playing when I was 9 years old. My father was a professional basketball player; he played at Drexel University. Then, he played overseas and coached overseas.

I actually quit basketball between the ages of 11 and 12 just because … I was fed up with the way my dad was coaching me. On my 12th birthday, I got back into it. … I’ve been playing ever since.

Technique: What is your favorite arena to play at?

Stephens: I had a lot of fun at Louisville last year. That was awesome. … [It was] our first visit to Louisville, with them joining the ACC. Plus, it was my birthday, and it made it that much
more special.

Technique: Do you have a favorite NBA team?

Stephens: My favorite NBA team would probably be the [San Antonio] Spurs just because I like the way they move the ball. I think they play the game well.

[I like] the Atlanta Hawks also. After the Spurs won their championship, the Hawks kind of changed the way they were playing. They were moving the ball much better, so I like the style of play of the Hawks too.

Technique: Who is your favorite player to watch?

Stephens: My favorite player of all time would have to be Steve Nash. I remember watching him play against the Hawks, and I just fell in love.

Technique: So you’re in love with unselfish play?

Stephens: Yeah. … I like seeing the ball move.

Technique: Have you seen a big change in the team after the switch from Coach Gregory to Coach Pastner?

Stephens: I think we’re all embracing the change right now. We have so many new freshman and new grad students, so everyone has to contribute to this team. Last year, we had a few grad students and lots of experience, whereas this year, we don’t have as much experience on the court.

We have guys that are seniors and grad students, but we don’t have as many guys that have played those significant minutes in the ACC. That’s a lot of opportunity to be taken.

Technique: Has Coach Pastner suggested new play styles or play strategies?

Stephens: Yeah, I think we’re playing at a higher pace. We’re moving the ball as opposed to holding the ball — letting it stick — and letting the defense set, but ball movement and player movement are really what we emphasize right now.

Technique: And do you think this will translate into wins?

Stephens: I believe so. I think it’s going to be more exciting for the fans and much better for the recruiting base that we need to develop.

Technique: What main goal do you have for this season?

Stephens: My goal for this season is to fully establish the [basketball] culture here at Georgia Tech. We’ve had players that related to what Georgia Tech basketball is supposed to be, but overall … my goal is that we’re all on the same page and that we’re building this culture the right way.

She waited four days. Four days of preparing, sweating kilograms and keeping herself warmed up between events. Four days of consulting spreadsheets and trainers to plan her strategy.

For Arthi Nithi, a powerlifter, those 96 hours boiled down to a matter of minutes.

“You’re only given a minute to complete your lift,” Nithi said. “It’s all timed. You do each lift three times, so I’m only on display for a total of nine minutes.”

Nithi left quite an impression at the USA Powerlifting Nationals, held last weekend in downtown Atlanta. Her performance earned her a spot on the United States national team, alongside whom she will compete next summer in Minsk, Belarus.

To understand how Nithi got to that point, though, one must understand the third-year New Jersey native’s beginnings. As a senior at Wayne Valley High School, she was inspired to improve her fitness.

When she came to Tech, she found a community that was ready to transform her from an enthusiast into a competitor.

“I joined [the Georgia Tech Barbell Club] because I was … super into fitness, and there was a mentorship program, and I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s give
it a try.’”

Her mentor was Fedor Klimov, another Tech student and Barbell Club veteran who immediately noticed her talent.

“She was doing a lifestyle fitness routine,” Klimov said. “Nothing serious. But after our first session, I knew she had the potential to go far in powerlifting.”

Klimov’s intuition was spot-on: Nithi quickly displayed an aptitude for the sport. As it so  happened, a gym run by Tech and Barbell Club alumnus Obi Anachebe and Citadel Nutrition had just opened. It provided a perfect training space for Nithi.

“Luckily, it was completed right when I got into powerlifting, so that was the end of my first semester,” Nithi said of the serendipitous timing. “That gym kind of has more equipment geared towards competitive lifting. So I started going there, and it just picked up from there. I was training … with the intent
of competing.”

The training came with a cost. In Summer 2015, she injured her back after repetitive training. Not knowing whether the pain was caused by typical post-exercise fatigue or something else, Nithi pushed too hard.

“[I] took a break from powerlifting,” Nithi said of the next six months of recovery. However, she did not leave the gym.

“I basically wasn’t compressing my back or loading that much weight on my back. … By January [2016], I was completely healed,   and that’s when I started training for my first competition.”

That was Lift for Life, a local meet at which Nithi would have her first opportunity to impress judges and begin paving her way to the national competition.

Competitors have to meet certain marks in local or state competitions in order to advance. Nithi made it on her first try.

From the summer onwards, Nithi trained for nationals.

“This actually ran four days, and there were multiple platforms,” Nithi said of nationals.

She was grouped by age class  and weight in order to ensure she was competing against fair rivals.

The nerves leading into the national competition were significant for Nithi, who was only in her first full season as a powerlifter. Over the next four days, her performance would determine whether she was good enough to represent her country.

“I actually sweated half a [kilogram] the night before because I was so nervous,” Nithi said. “It sounds crazy, but I was so jittery and so nervous. Because this was my second meet, … people come in with more experience, and there were just so many expectations … because I knew going in that I had a good chance of winning the teen category.

“I was nervous until my first lift, my first squat, but once I hit that, all my nerves started to settle down. After my second lift, I was like, ‘This is fine.’”

Nithi and her trainers had done their homework. They scouted her competition and she knew the numbers she needed to achieve to move on. They were well within her reach.

Her teammates within the GT Barbell Club were instrumental to her success.

“It’s basically a big community,” Nithi said. “A large part of it is a community of people who come together who like to lift. … One of the greatest things is how supportive everyone is. … You have people from different ages, different backgrounds who all come together just to support you.

“When it comes to that lift and you’re hit with your nerves and there are people cheering you on, that always means something.”

At the end of the weekend, Nithi waited with bated breath to find out if she had made the cut to accompany U.S. teammates to Belarus next summer for the international competition. She quickly learned that she had.

“I was just like, ‘This is crazy.’ The fact that I just started and I was given this opportunity, I think it’s still sinking in. … I think I was just lucky, too, with the meet being in Atlanta, having all these opportunities and resources.”

Nithi has more competitions to prepare for, between Arnold Sports Festival, whose namesake is Arnold Schwarzenegger,  and the World Championships. She is no doubt a heavyweight contender moving forward.

In the Paul Johnson era, it has become exceedingly rare for true freshmen to start games, unless they are filling in an injury-riddled role. However, this year, one freshman has burst onto the scene and proven his worth as a starter: B-back Dedrick Mills.

Mills started getting mentioned early this year, before the season even started. After enrolling early and starting school in the spring semester of 2016, he made his name known. Throughout the spring, many a teammate and coach would mention him as someone to look out for in the fall and definitely someone to look out for to compete for the starting spot at B-back.

Mills quickly showed that he could live up to the hype. In his first game, he capped off the game-winning drive against Boston College with a 4-yard touchdown run.

His first touchdown would turn out to be one of many. Mills leads Tech in touchdowns and rushing, but he is not just leading Tech in many offensive categories; he’s almost topping the ACC and the country. In total scoring, Mills is third in the ACC behind FSU kicker Ricky Aguayo and Louisville’s Heisman candidate Lamar Jackson. He is also ranked sixth nationally in touchdowns scored, courtesy of ESPN.com. That is no small feat for someone who was playing against high schoolers this time last year.

When asked about how he has adapted to college play so quickly, Mills responded, “I feel pretty confident. I mean, it’s pretty much the same stuff I did in high school, so it ain’t nothing to come from doing that to bring it up here and do the same thing but do it twice as hard.” It is this straightforward mindset that allows Mills to succeed.

His running style matches his mentality. Mills does not dabble with cuts and spin moves; he simply gets his job done.

His powerful, slogging style allows him to succeed at pushing through in short yardage situations, especially near the goal line.

So far this year, Mills has not run around hapless safeties, nor has he leaped over linebackers. He has instead run straight through his opponents. As the true freshman said earlier this week, “If I have to run into somebody, I do.”

That style is what has allowed Mills to have the most touchdowns out of any freshman in the country. According to ESPN.com, he is the No. 1 freshman in the country when it comes to scoring touchdowns.

The only shocking thing about Mills’ performance so far this season is the lack of recognition he has received nationally relative to his peers.

Within the ACC, he has received Rookie of the Week for his performance against Miami in Week 5, but beyond that he is quietly having an excellent season.

In addition to his physical ability, it seems that Mills is rarely fazed during a game. He stays focused and engaged on the game, even when he is not always getting the ball.

When asked how he stays in focus so well, Mills responded, “Basically just paying attention to my assignment and paying attention to what other people are doing, listening to the coaches on the sideline and listening to what’s going on.”

Furthermore, Mills channels all of the positive energy from the game into his play. In the Boston College game, he and the rest of the team could have easily failed to advance the final drive, even after the 4th and 19 conversion.

This drive is the quintessential example of the trust Paul Johnson has in Mills when the team enters a goal-to-go situation. Both plays for the Jackets within the 10-yard line on the drive put the ball in Mills’s hands.

For a freshman in his first game, it was meaningful to both have the trust of the coaches and live up to it with serious implications on the line.

Scoring the game-winning touchdown was more than just another score for Mills. It was early evidence of the trust and responsibilities placed on him early in his college career.

However, it should be noted that Mills still has work to do. In his opinion, he needs to work on his blocking, specifically in passing situations.

B-backs coach Bryan Cook thinks Mills has a long way to go before he is a force. The most important thing Mills has to work on is his off-ball activity.

“Playing the same way when he doesn’t have the ball in his hands [is important],” Cook said, “because we’ve seen him when he’s got it. When he’s got it, he’s violent, and he’s doing some really good things. We’ve got to carry that over when he doesn’t [have the ball].”

His improvement is tangible, though. On the third play of the game against Georgia Southern, quarterback Justin Thomas broke away for a 58-yard run for the first touchdown of the game. The run wouldn’t have been possible without the block set up by Mills.

Early in the play, Southern’s Ironhead Gallon was prepared to stop Thomas before he even reached the first-down marker. However, the delay created by Mills allowed Thomas to slip by Gallon and break away for the opening score. The play created momentum that the Jackets did not relinquish over the next three quarters of play.

This sort of unselfish play is what will differentiate Mills from other talented runners who are perhaps less willing to take the dirty work required to succeed in the Tech offense.

Despite its occasional offensive struggles, the Jackets have a medley of talented runners, from the speedy Qua Searcy to converted receiver Clinton Lynch. Mills, however, has come the closest to filling Zach Laskey’s role in the vaunted 2014 unit: a power runner with a nose for the end zone and the temperament to move the chains in short-yardage situations — a key asset.

Make no mistake, Dedrick Mills is still early in his Tech career. He has yet to play in a bowl game and yet to face serious athletic adversity, a difficult injury or a painful blunder.

However, while he does have a lot to work on if he hopes to become even better, Mills is up for a formidable challenge.

“You either gonn’ go play, or you ain’t gonn’ play,” Mills said of his preparation, “ So I just be ready to play all the time.”

The Men’s Golf team is highlighted by young stars such as Luke Schniederjans and senior leaders such as Michael Hines and Vincent Whaley. In the middle is junior James Clark.

The middle child of the golf team from Columbus, Ga., is highly touted. Clark sat down with the Technique to talk about team leadership, his golf roots and mastering the sport.

Technique: What got you to start playing golf?

Clark: It was really when I was little. It was weird how I got into golf because my family never played golf. Dad, mom … nobody ever played golf. So it was weird how I got playing. I lived right next to my home course in Columbus. I have a twin brother, and we kind of just got the bug for it.

We would walk back and forth from the course, and we had a natural little knack for it. It went from there. I was always competitive; I always was looking for being a little better each and every day. My size was kind of limiting for the other big sports, and so golf was the perfect medium.

Technique: What’s the hardest aspect to master?

Clark: Golf is one of those sports that’s so long-term. I’ve been playing golf since I was six or seven years old and am still looking to keep improving.

And it’s every aspect. Some people are different: some people struggle with putting, some people struggle with ball striking. And so everybody has their own tendencies and weaknesses.

For me, when I’m putting well, I usually hold up pretty well because I feel like my ball striking is pretty solid. I think sticking with it is the other big thing. It’s such a long-term sport that it’s easy to get down … it’s easy to get up.

Technique: Is there someone you’ve tried modeling your
game after?

Clark: I’m not one of the longest players out there, so for me to perform well, I really have to hit my wedges and short clubs well and putt well. Zach Johnson on the PGA Tour does that perfectly. So I’ve always looked up to him mainly because he putted with a Seemore putter. It’s a unique brand, and that’s what I putted with growing up. So I was like, “He’s my model.”

Technique: Do you have a favorite or least favorite course from your career so far?

Clark: There are definitely some favorites. I like Peachtree Golf Club here in Atlanta. That’s one of my favorites. I’ve played it four or five times. It’s really kind of an exclusive club; we actually just played it a couple weeks ago. I love that place. It’s so cool, so that’s one of my favorites for sure.

Technique: What’s your proudest moment as a golfer on Tech’s team?

Clark: At Tech, my freshman year in the spring semester I was able to make the team for the postseason. We won ACC’s my freshman year, and that was the coolest thing ever. We got in the playoff with Clemson, and I’ve never been as nervous and amped up in my entire life. It was really cool to pull that out.

Technique: What would you say to someone who doesn’t think golf is a “real” sport, the way baseball and football might be considered by some?

Clark: Well, golf is totally different: it takes strength everywhere. For 18 holes, you’re out there for five hours, walking a 7-mile course carrying the barbell from the weight room on your back for the entire 7 miles.

Nothing is ever the same. There are different courses, … always winds, different yardages; the course turns different ways. There’s definitely an added mental component that I think is present.

Over the past few weeks, news has been good for use of Tech facilities by outside benefactors. On Oct. 4, the ACC announced that the 2017 ACC Swim and Dive Championships would be held in McAuley Aquatic Center after being moved from Greensboro, N.C., due to controversy over the state’s controversial anti-transgender legislation.

This event is one of the first to have its new location announced after the decision that all postseason events would be moved from N.C. The following day, new Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise Atlanta United announced that its home opener and all games would be held in Bobby Dodd Stadium until the opening of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The Swim and Dive Championships were originally going to be held in the Greensboro Aquatic Center. However, due to legislature passed by multiple states following N.C. House Bill 2 (HB2), the event was moved to Atlanta.

The legislation passed by states such as New York prevent state travel to North Carolina, meaning that student athletes would not receive the funding to travel to North Carolina for the event. This made an already difficult logistics situation virtually impossible for a number of teams.

Tech is no stranger to hosting the ACC Swim and Dive Championships; McAuley last played host in 2015 and additionally hosted the NCAA Zone Diving Qualifiers and the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships last season. The women’s swimming and diving along with the men’s diving championships will be held from Feb. 13–16 while men’s swimming will be held from Feb. 27–March 2.

Atlanta United’s announcement comes as the fervor for the team continues to grow. The team recently broke the MLS-record for ticket sales by crossing the 22 thousand mark.

Right now, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is slated to open in June 2017. The futuristic stadium is slated to replace the neighboring Georgia Dome and will also play host to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and a number of other entertainment events.

The exact date for the opener has yet to be announced. However, it will be sometime during March 2017.

The decision to play early games at Tech came about because the team did not want to open its season with three straight months on the road. As a result, Atlanta United has agreed to shoulder all costs related to its games at Bobby Dodd while a more permanent venue is constructed.

What North Carolina has lost seems to be a significant gain for the Jackets. Rather than traveling north to Greensboro to compete next semester, they will have the benefit of competing where they train: in their home confines.

Spring is usually seen as a rather uneventful time for large sporting events in Atlanta. The Falcons and Braves are in the offseason for months; only the Hawks and college basketball provide entertainment. With the Swim and Dive Championships and a new MLS franchise in town, that will likely change quickly.

Tech’s facilities are not the best in its conference, let alone the nation. Coaches and administrators alike have acknowledged that changes need to be made for the Jackets’ amenities to remain competitive with its rivals.

For the time being, at least, Tech seems to have endeared itself to a pair of prestigious organizations. Visitors to McAuley Aquatic Center will experience championship-level competition, and Bobby Dodd Stadium will birth a sports franchise.

The office might be new and the responsibilities different, but when Todd Stansbury accepted the Athletic Director position at Tech, he was not just taking another job; he was coming home.

He was coming home to Bobby Dodd Stadium, where he played football under coach Bill Curry for four years. He was returning to the Georgia Tech Athletic Association, where he served as the Assistant Athletic Director for Academics for seven years, earning a national championship ring.

Stansbury, a former banker, followed an unusual path to his current position.

“When you come to Georgia Tech, you’re kind of programmed that you’re going to go to Wall Street or something,” Stansbury said with a laugh in a one-on-one interview. “It wasn’t until I had been in banking for a couple of years that the opportunity, and even the idea, of working in athletics presented itself. But once I did it, I knew that this was what I wanted to do.”

When Tech’s search committee called, Stansbury responded.

“This was something that … throughout my career, the idea would be that hopefully I’d have the opportunity to come back to Tech,” Stansbury said. “Of course, you just never know … whether you’ll get the opportunity or what the timing will be. So for this to be presented at this time in my career is a real blessing.”

Stansbury’s arrival might well be a blessing for Tech, too. While the Jackets have posted academic figures that rival national leaders, their performance in key revenue-generating sports like football and basketball has lagged behind that of their rivals.

Meanwhile, questions remain as to whether the money Tech athletics has is being allocated appropriately. Tech basketball is now paying three head coaches.

There is Paul Hewitt, a coach who so irked administration that the school agreed to buy out his contract. His successor was Brian Gregory, who was fired last season after a mediocre campaign. Moreover, this spring, the Tech administration announced that Memphis recruiting maven Josh Pastner would be the next to try his hand in the role.

As a result, Tech has been unable to muster the cash necessary to attract and keep great assistant coaches. Entering this season, LSU’s staff made a combined $5.5 million annually, courtesy of USAToday.com. Tech’s made a paltry $2.5 million.

Expecting the Jackets to keep up with foes across its conference and nationally with half the funding is a futile exercise. The issues go beyond personnel.

“You guys, look, you don’t have to ask me. Do you think we have the same things Clemson does?” asked football head coach Paul Johnson after the team’s loss to the Tigers, courtesy of myAJC.com. “How can the expectation be to beat them?”

Stansbury might be able to solve these issues thanks to his experience with similar positions at Oregon State University and the University of Central Florida.

“I don’t know that you could get more extreme [in terms of differences between UCF and Oregon State]. … UCF is a relatively new school … to Division I athletics. Oregon State is a land-grant university on the West Coast that’s been around for 150 years. … They have similar challenges for different reasons.”

So far, Stansbury has distinguished his institutions by adding distinctive cultural features to his stadiums. At UCF, it was a tiki bar built on the premises. At Oregon State, it was a terrace that would host craft beer and showcase the cuisine of the Northwest.

Every day, Stansbury said, was different. He might arrive to the office expecting to address a certain issue and leave not having considered it at all. Day-to-day challenges were variable.

“You’re trying to push the longer agenda, or the … more strategic aspect of what you do at the same time you’re doing your day job,” Stansbury said. “That’s the balance you have to make as an athletic director.”

For Stansbury, that long-term focus could be a number of things.

“I think initially, I’m … going to be in the learning-listening mode for a little while, just because I’ve been gone for 20 years.And so just because I think I know the culture well and I really understand Georgia Tech, I don’t necessarily know what we do on a day-to-basis and the ‘why.’”

A key priority, though, is the Tech brand: “embracing who we are … and using that to our advantage” as Stansbury put it.

For Tech’s ninth athletic director, there remains work to be done in Corvallis, Ore., in order for him to leave Oregon State and focus his attention in Atlanta.

“The [thing] I’m trying to do there [is] helping the interim athletic director … basically help her transition,” Stansbury said. “So I will be, for the most part, in a very low-profile position of really just making sure that nothing falls between the cracks … and [the incoming athletic director at Oregon State] can hit the ground running when they arrive.”

In the 21st century, most Americans do not really think about having to earn their freedom; they feel entitled to it because they live in the United States.

Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” reminds audiences how far the nation has come. It portrays the true horrors of the economic system of slavery that was the way of life 200 years ago, when the film is set.

Despite its familiar storyline towards the beginning, the film manages to distinguish itself from blockbusters such as Steve McQueen’s “12 Years A Slave” and Lee Daniel’s “The Butler.” With its myriad of unrelenting moments and emotionally riveting performances, the film has the potential to become one of Hollywood’s great historical films.

Besides directing the film, Nate Parker (“Non-Stop”) plays an African-American slave named Nat Turner. Taught to read the Bible at a young age, Turner becomes a preacher to his fellow slaves.

His master Samuel Turner, portrayed by the versatile Armie Hammer (“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”), realizes Nat’s talent. He begins to profit from Nat’s services to other plantations.

Cherry Ann Turner, played by Aja Naomi King (“How to Get Away with Murder”), delivers a performance that stays true to the emotions depicted throughout the film. Through his travels and in his personal life, Nat encounters the true gruesomeness of slavery. He then decides to become a different type of preacher and to make a stand.

The originality of the plot satisfies. Nate Parker truly understands what it takes to captivate the audience and simultaneously make an impact on the viewer’s psyche through the accurate depiction of true events.

The portrayal of the slave rebellion that happened in Southampton County, Va. in 1831, embodies a story like no other. The vile and thought-provoking sequences take the audience by surprise.

“The Birth of a Nation” delves into exactly what its name suggests. The film not only succeeds at depicting a captivating event, but it also makes the historical events personal to the audience. In today’s society, where many citizens seem to be detached from what it means to earn our freedom, this film is eye-opening. The themes encompassed in “The Birth of a Nation” are precisely what America was built on, and they instill both feelings of remorse and gratitude.

Although this element seems to be the crux of many of Hollywood’s greatest period films, the portrayal of strength of the human spirit remains jaw-dropping and inspiring. When Nat preaches to and galvanizes fellow slaves, the origins of the powerful African-American churches of today can be seen. The great sacrifices endured in order to make America the land of the free stir deep, lingering emotions in viewers.

The film’s visual appearance befits a cotton plantation in the 19th century. The shots are full of deep colors, yet they still carry the heavy themes of the film. The actors never fail to depict the intensity of situations.

With mesmerizing accuracy, the costumes and the set design offered a conduit to the past. The skillful cinematography makes the film fluid in rendering a wide spectrum of emotions. Both violent scenes and the graceful attraction between Nat and Cherry are well depicted.

Despite these strengths, the film does not break away from mainstream Hollywood storytelling. Like any movie within its genre, “The Birth of a Nation” faces the challenge of creating a unique portrayal of history while still staying true to the facts.

In the first half of the film, as Nat is on his journey to understand the magnitude of wrongdoings and how they do not align with his faith, the film seems to lose momentum at times. But thecomedy is just as it should be in a period film: subtle and unvaried.

When it comes to the powerful message it conveys and how it conveys it, the film still does not disappoint. The haunting and brutal finale especially makes the film worth the watch. Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation” is a fairly compelling insight into an often neglected chapter in the American narrative.

“Luke Cage,” the Netflix-exclusive show was released Sept. 30 and follows Marvel’s Luke Cage, played by Mike Colter (“The Good Wife”), as he grapples with confronting his past, complicated relationships, and most of all, his bulletproof body. However, unlike its titular protagonist, “Luke Cage” is certainly not bulletproof.

Colter, reprising his role as Cage after first appearing in last year’s “Jessica Jones,” delivers a dynamic performance, but not dynamic in that Colter shows incredible range; instead, the word is fitting in that it conveys the sometimes-believable sometimes-robotic acting on display. However, Colter’s shoulders should not bear blame for all elements of his character’s shortcomings. Bad writing appears far too often for the actors to be solely responsible for his subpar performance.

Neither was the plague of poor scripting quarantined to Colter’s character. Detective Mercedes “Misty” Knight (Simone Missick, “Douglass U”) and Domingo Colon (Jacob Vargas, “Sons of Anarchy”), present the viewers with this gem of an interaction: “How do you have time to commit crimes and train boxers?” says Knight. Colon responds, “I guess you must have to be good at multitasking,” prompting forced chuckles by both actors.

The weak writing even extends outside the realm of dialogue and into the storytelling. It has always been unclear what the Marvel shows’ goals are when they introduce heavy topics and themes. On one hand, they delve into issues of serious import, like rape and sexual abuse in “Jessica Jones” or gang culture in “Luke Cage,” then include elements of absurdity alongside whatever ideas and discussions are presented.

When Cornell “Cottonmouth” Stokes (Mahershala Ali, “House of Cards”) suddenly appears on a roof in the middle of Harlem with a rocket launcher, then blows a whole building to pieces with it, any suspension of disbelief comes crashing down. Furthermore, Cottonmouth’s character is presented as a hot-tempered gangster whose laugh is a dead ringer for that of the Count from Sesame Street. He responds with laughter to almost any situation, whether having just made a threat or having just been threatened.

Yet in the episode of his death, the audience is pressured to feel bad for Cottonmouth through a series of flashbacks leaving the audience to question why the writers needed to present a second face to this previously one-dimensional character right before he dies. Was having him as a mindless crazy villain for the first half of the season just too important to pass up?

Yet despite the phoned-in writing that so often shakily supports the show, it cannot be denied that the premise and plot are genuinely interesting. Whether that is a credit solely to the source material is impossible to say, but it is very refreshing to see a superhero with a scientific explanation for his “abilities” instead of just having them shoved in the audience’s face with no context.

Another bright spot in “Luke Cage” is its hip-hop influence, which permeates the show like water in a sponge. It is perhaps most apparent and well-implemented in the soundtrack composed by Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The original recordings heard during lapses in action distinctly recall Younge’s other work and are very welcome whenever they appear in the show. The viewer even granted a snippet of Ghostface Killah’s “King of New York,” during a contemplative scene with Shades.

While the soundtrack may be a high point, other elements of the flavor leave something to be desired. For the number of times Harlem is brought up in dialogue, more effort should have been spent matching imagery, references and music with locale.

The looming picture of the Brooklyn rapper Biggie in Cottonmouth’s office is recognizable to a mainstream audience, but it would make much more sense to have Harlem rappers Big L or even Cam’ron instead.

It also has to be asked why Gang Starr, also from Brooklyn, was so important to the fabric of the show that every episode had to be named after one of their songs. These might seem minor issues to the casual observer, but when a show goes to such lengths to cater to a certain niche audience, it has an obligation to get the small details right.