The Crimson White: Rumor Edition, November 2021

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4A RUMOR November 18, 2021 CW / Jo Dyess CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The Politics John Archibald, a Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter for AL.com, graduated from the University in the ’80s. He cohosted “Greek Gods,” a podcast about the Machine, in 2018 with AL.com’s Reckon Radio. Archibald said a primary reason he cares about the Machine is because “it doesn’t stop in college, and it manifests itself in the real world.” He also noted a more personal connection. “The Machine is the reason I do what I do today, because in addition to being a great training ground for a corrupt politician, that’s a great training ground for journalists who are indignant about corrupt politicians,” he said. “It’s also the reason I’m married to my wife.” He met his wife, Alecia Archibald, while working at the CW and covering Machine activity on campus. He recalled “staking out” the Sigma Chi house and watching Machine representatives put bags over their heads to get to cars that quickly pulled up for them. She said Phi Mu’s faculty advisor told her to break up with Archibald and quit the CW or she would be kicked out of Phi Mu. Smith said what sticks out to her most from her time in the Machine is that she was told she could vote however she wanted as a senator, but when she didn’t vote how the Machine wanted, there was “punishment.” “I think one of the most telling things is that if it really wasn’t a big deal, if this group really isn’t as bad as people make them out to be, then why are they punishing people when they don’t fall in line?” she said. Smith said that once she left the Machine, her sorority members reacted negatively, and she felt “exiled.” “It became very apparent that no one wanted to sit with me,” she said. “No one really wanted to be my friend. Things were said in our pledge class group about me leaving the Machine and how it would reflect poorly on our house. I received dozens of blocked phone calls from numbers I didn’t know cursing at me and saying very ugly things. Fellow Machine senators no longer wanted to work with me on any issues or any type of legislation.” McGehee later worked on the presidential campaign team for Gene Fulmer. Fulmer’s opponent Jared Hunter, had enough election violations to be disqualified, but his campaign was only suspended with community service hours. McGehee said the candidate campaigned for only a few hours but won with over 60% of the vote. Hunter won the presidential election and publicly claimed a connection to the Machine. McGehee later got a call from a Machine representative acknowledging that the Machine-backed candidate should have been disqualified. The Elections Board resigned after the campaign cycle over the incident. While campaigning for an independent candidate in his junior year, he was followed by people he had never seen or met before, including staffers from other campaigns. McGehee left the SGA in his senior year. “The reason I dropped out of SGA senior year was because I wanted a cabinet position,” he said. “The incoming Machine administration knew that and promised me a paid cabinet position before campaign season in exchange for campaigning for the Machinebacked candidate for SGA President. I didn’t take their offer and campaigned for independent candidates. I met with the president-elect and asked if it was worth my time to apply for a cabinet spot after elections. He said yes, but I was ultimately not offered any role in SGA.” When Smith ran for homecoming queen, she wanted to campaign at a sorority house but was denied the ability to speak. She said the Machine “infiltrates” honor societies and campus organizations, so it was hard to build relationships for the rest of her time in college. No one takes the SGA as seriously as the Machine, according to Smith. It’s a real organization. It’s dangerous. People shouldn’t feel apathetic toward it. They have real power on this campus statewide. “When you have a third of campus automatically coming in as freshmen, essentially being forced to be politically involved in SGA, then that automatically gives the Machine an advantage,” she said. “Whereas other students who are coming in who are not members of the Greek system are not being exposed to SGA and the politics of what the Machine is.” The anonymous freshman sorority member said she is embarrassed for those still in the Machine. “There’s obviously a very large voting bloc of Greeks who will vote how the Machine tells them. It’s been harmful. I mean it goes back into the 1800s as being a racist organization, and honestly, if you’re involved in the Machine, I think it’s embarrassing. That’s why I decided to distance myself from that. I decided to speak up.” Archibald said he thought the Greek Gods podcast would be an interesting story to tell about the culture of Alabama politics. “I wanted to do it because of the sheer number of politicians who come out of that system,” he said. “It’s really a breeding ground for politicians. It’s a classic story of privilege versus justice.” The Voters Historically, voter turnout in campus elections has not been high. The recent homecoming election saw the largest voter turnout since 2015, with over 13,000 students – onethird of the student body – voting. McGehee said student voter apathy leads to the Machine-backed candidates consistently winning, but doesn’t think it’s the only reason. “There’s definitely some student apathy, but I think that that’s an excuse,” he said. “I mean, just because there’s apathy, ... it doesn’t give you the right to rig elections.” The freshman sorority member said she sees student apathy but wants the student body to know what’s going on behind closed doors. “People should know that it’s real,” she said. “It’s a real organization. It’s dangerous. People shouldn’t feel apathetic toward it. They have real power on this campus and statewide.” Now that Smith has had several years to reflect on her experiences, she has a message for students currently involved with the Machine. “There is not a day that goes by that I ever regret standing up for what I believe in or the injustices that I saw,” she said. “Just knowing that you have the ability to stand up for what is right, for what you believe in. I just hope that people who are in college now can understand that that will be so worth it in the long run, even if it seems like it would do harm to you in the now.” While the University’s administration has never officially acknowledged the Machine’s existence, the freshman sorority member said she does not believe that the administration is unaware. “Obviously the administration has to know about it,” she said. “It’s Alabama’s dirty little secret.” Which former UA professor started a cult? ETHAN HENRY CONTRIBUTING WRITER In 1997, the Heaven’s Gate cult took part in a mass suicide, under the assumption that they would ascend to heaven in a UFO. Marshall Applewhite, one of the founders of this cult, was a music professor at The University of Alabama for a few years in the mid-’60s before teaching at St. Thomas University and eventually having a psychotic break. If you see that astonishing, pale, ghostly face that’s on the Heaven’s Gate website, it’s almost as if he cultivated a look that made him look alien. NEELY BRUCE Following this psychotic break, he became close with Bonnie Nettles, his nurse. After he began having visions, the two formed their own set of apocalyptic spiritual beliefs, recruiting followers and spreading their alien-centric spiritual message to anyone who would listen. Despite the way Applewhite’s mental health deteriorated throughout his life, his time at The University of Alabama painted a different picture for Neely Bruce, a composer, professor of music at Wesleyan University and UA alum. “His singing was truly remarkable, and I like to remember him as a very good singer who had a lot of charisma on the stage,” Bruce said. For Bruce, it was a shock to hear about how much Applewhite’s life had shifted. Bruce had been casually following the story in the news, and he didn’t realize it was his former music professor until a friend informed him. In the ’60s, it was widely rumored that Applewhite’s time at Alabama ended following an affair with a graduate student, but little evidence of this exists. Bruce had no idea why Applewhite left the University, but said the rumors about his being with a graduate student weren't true. “This rumor was circulating [in] lots of places. It annoyed me because I didn’t have any direct evidence of this, and I don’t think people should spread rumors,” Bruce said. In addition to the path Applewhite’s life had taken, Bruce was surprised by how much his appearance had shifted. “If you see that astonishing, pale, ghostly face that’s on the Heaven’s Gate website, it’s almost as if he cultivated a look that made him look alien,” Bruce said. Heaven’s Gate made an initial splash in the media in the ’90s, but public interest in the cultic topic has reappeared. Lily Davenport is a doctoral candidate studying English at the University of Cincinnati who taught multiple firstyear writing courses at The University of Alabama centered around cults. She attributed this resurgence in interest to podcasts. “A lot of the media around cults is coming out of the podcast world, and I think that that grows directly out of the growth of true crime podcasts,” Davenport said. A 2020 HBO documentary about the cult also revitalized interest in Applewhite’s life. The story of Heaven’s Gate holds more weight with a modern audience because Applewhite utilized modern-day techniques to gain followers. “One thing that I often talk about with my students is that they were one of the first cultic groups to utilize the internet as a means of recruitment,” Davenport said. The Heaven’s Gate website, now a relic of the ’90s, has been preserved and is still accessible online. Davenport said that due to its utilization of technology, if the cult was around now, it would have “cornered the meme market.” Alexa Tullett, an assistant professor of psychology at The University of Alabama, said people are often drawn into groups like Heaven’s Gate to feel a sense of belonging. “We want to be part of communities. So sometimes I think groups, especially groups that have a fringe belief system or unconventional belief system, can feel very inviting to be a part of,” Tullett said. A 2021 study published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality found that 57% of reported cult members were female and that over half “had a university education.” It might seem surprising that educated people frequently join these groups, but dependence can lead members of a cult to disregard outside information and evidence. “There’s a certain effort that comes with questioning all of our actions and questioning the claims that are made by our political leaders or people who are in power, but I think sometimes people like to have a source of information or advice that we don’t question,” Tullet said. It’s important to remember that the people who are drawn into cultlike groups don’t always fit a stereotype. Russell McCutcheon, chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University, said the wide variety of people involved in the Heaven’s Gate suicides made the group stand out in the media. “It got difficult to dismiss them as crazy or disaffected, as many at first rushed to do, when the ‘goodbye’ videos were released and we realized how diverse and articulate/educated the group’s members were, how old some members were, how excited they all seemed to be for what awaited them,” he said. Many in the public saw parts of themselves in the Heaven’s Gate members, and that’s a key piece of what made it so terrifying for some. Applewhite seemed to convince the group that their ascension to heaven was imminent. Heaven’s Gate is also the story of a mental health struggle — one that not only impacted Applewhite, but resulted in the death of 39 people. “It’s not pretty, and people need to be more and more aware of the real damage that mental illness does to its victims,” McCutcheon said. CW / Jo Dyess
RUMOR November 18, 2021 How do faculty impact students’ legacies? JEFFREY KELLY CULTURE EDITOR It’s debatable to say that all The University of Alabama creates is legends, but it’s hard to debate the role faculty members play in students’ careers, especially faculty members like Qianping Guo. Guo, an associate professor of dance who danced with two of the top ballet companies in China and America, is a gold and silver medalist in multiple international ballet competitions. On the second floor of Clark Hall, Guo leads his students through intricate ballet combinations, making sure that students learn the techniques and understand why they matter. For Guo, ballet isn’t just about “beautiful movements”; it’s about the reasoning. In the 10 years he has been at the University, he has created bonds of trust with his students and instilled in them an attention to detail. According to some of his students, Guo’s dedication to his craft has helped them tremendously. Carey Hodovanich, a corps de ballet dancer at Ballet Pensacola and a UA alumna, said Guo’s passion for ballet was obvious. “You can tell how much he loves it, and that makes me love it even more, because I know I’m learning from someone who loves it,” Hodovanich said. “It’s not just him giving me corrections because that’s his job. He’s giving it because he loves the art form, and he wants to see me do it the best that I can do it.” Hodovanich said Guo always saw room for improvement in every dancer and pushed them to be better while encouraging them. She said that Guo was intent on making sure his students worked hard, which helped her grow as a dancer, and that his attention to detail made her think less about the big picture and more about the details and the “intention behind it.” “It clicked in my brain, and it helped make picking up choreography a lot easier, and it just kind of helped me with my artistry because it gave my movement purpose,” she said. “It then helps me be successful in the professional world, because I was picking up details and not having to wait to be corrected on them.” While Guo has affected UA students, he’s also created connections through mentoring and teaching students outside of the University like Lumeng, Jiao Yang and Jolie Rose Lombardo, all of whom have won medals in international and national ballet competitions. In 2016, after evacuating Orlando due to Hurricane Hermine, Lombardo, a Florida native, had her first class with Guo at age 14. After the class, Lombardo left excited to learn more. “The class was so good. I love being challenged. … I want to have a combination that I can’t do yet, ... and his class was so difficult and absolutely on the Vaganova training that I was like, ‘That’s a real class,’” Lombardo said. Lombardo and Guo continued to work together throughout 2018 until the regional Youth America Grand Prix, after which Lombardo got sick and went back to Tuscaloosa to recuperate. During this time, he not only helped her get back to 100%, but also helped her prepare the variation her previous ballet teacher gave her for the Youth America Grand Prix finals. Stephanie Lombardo, Jolie’s mother, said that after six weeks the variation looked completely different. Jolie Lombardo took the piece to New York for the Youth America Grand Prix competition and received a gold medal. “[The directors of the competition] kept saying, ‘You’re a different dancer,’ not that her ballet teacher wasn’t great in Atlanta. She was wonderful, but they didn't give her the amount of time,” Stephanie Lombardo said. “When you have somebody that will spend time with you and fix everything and prepare you for a competition that big — that’s what he did, and it was his phenomenal training.” Through Guo’s preparation, Jolie Lombardo went on to become one of the youngest finalists at the USA International Ballet Competition. After that, Lombardo won a full scholarship to the John Cranko Schule, a renowned ballet school, in Stuttgart, Germany. Things for Jolie Lombardo took a harrowing turn when after Christmas in 2019, she began to have trouble sleeping and experienced excruciating pain when she tried. At a hospital in Germany, she found out she had a tumor on her spinal cord. Reluctant to let her daughter have a major surgery like that without her around, Stephanie Lombardo worked to get her daughter back home. A day later, Jolie Lombardo and her parents were at Children’s Scottish Rite Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, when a doctor informed them that if they had waited a few more days to come in or if Lombardo had fallen asleep from exhaustion and the tumor had moved the “slightest bit south,” she could have been paralyzed. The surgery went well, but for the first three days, Lombardo was paralyzed even though she was supposed to be able to move. “For me having three weeks off is a nightmare, you know? Being not able to move, I never thought I’d ever have to experience that in my entire life, because my life is moving,” Lombardo said. “So when I woke up and I could not move, it was the most frustrating thing. ... It was absolutely horrifying. The worst feeling in my CW / Anna Butts entire life.” 5A Luckily, on the fourth day, Lombardo was able to move her arm, then from there she worked her way from the bed to a wheelchair to a walker, and then she was off to a rehabilitation center in Florida. It’s not just him giving me corrections because that’s his job. He’s giving it because he loves the art form, and he wants to see me do it the best that I can do it.” CAREY HODOVANICH Stephanie Lombardo said that the second she was able to get into a studio, Jolie called Guo. During this time, Jolie Lombardo could only do half a barre sequence, but with Guo’s help she got better. “Everyone thinks it’s my school [the John Cranko Schule], but it’s not. It’s here, and it’s because we love the University so much,” she said. Stephanie Lombardo said she credits Guo’s training along with her daughter’s positive thinking. She said there was never a doubt in her daughter’s mind about the trajectory of her career. Now, Jolie Lombardo has a job with Stuttgart Ballet, a leading German ballet company, and can openly give that credit to Guo, whereas before she couldn’t because of her connection to the John Cranko Schule. Hodovanich said she loved being able to experience class with Lombardo because it gave her something to strive for and showed her that Guo’s methods work. “It was kind of like the proof, not that I needed it, but it was nice to be like, ‘Oh, yes. This is good,’” she said. “[Lombardo] came back, and she was saying that the level class that we were doing, we looked absolutely fantastic. So, it was nice validation to hear from someone who was in the professional world at the college level.” Representing Students in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court, Tuscaloosa District Court, Northport Municipal Court, and Criminal Case Expungements 205-454-7500 Representing Students in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court, uscaloosa District 705 27th Avenue Court, Tuscaloosa Northport Alabama Municipal 35401 Court, and Criminal Case Expungements No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. Representing Students in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court, 05-454-7500 Tuscaloosa District Court, Northport Municipal Court, and Criminal Case Expungements Representing Students in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court, 205-454-7500 Tuscaloosa Representing District Court, Northport Municipal Court, and 705 27th Avenue Criminal Students Tuscaloosa Case in Tuscaloosa Expungements Municipal Court, Tuscaloosa District Court, Northport Municipal Court, and Alabama 35401 Criminal Case Expungements 205-454-7500 No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater 205-454-7500 than 705 the 27th quality Avenue of legal Tuscaloosa services Alabama performed 35401 by other lawyers. No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. 705 27th Avenue Tuscaloosa Alabama 35401 705 27th Avenue Tuscaloosa Alabama 35401 No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. No representation is made that the quality of legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.
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The Crimson White: Rumor Edition, November 2021

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