The Cowl

October 30, 2025

Providence College's Student-Run Newspaper Since 1935

Sep252025A New Kind of Change

It is a given that at some point when young adults are trying to decipher who they are, disheveling emotions…

Grace Pappadellis ’29

Sep252025Night of the Connecticut Swallows

The young swallows flylike black ashes in the sky.Take no time for rest,for the skies they must infest.The birds fly…

Andrew Auclair ’29

Oct22025Mental Health Awareness Month

by Rachel Barter ’27 on October 2, 2025

The Importance of Prioritizing Our Mental Health As College Students

Although Mental Health Awareness Month is only one month out of the year, this does not mean we should only monitor or prioritize our mental health during October. Instead, I think of mental health awareness as a yearly reminder for us to reevaluate our mental health and how we could be doing more to improve it. Additionally, it encourages everyone to become aware and educate themselves about mental health conditions, reduce stigma associated with seeking treatment, and highlight the availability of mental health resources and support systems, such as the Personal Counseling Center here at Providence College. Overall, the importance of this designated month is to educate people about mental health, normalize conversations around mental health, and foster a more compassionate society where individuals feel empowered to seek help.

Particularly, I find that as a college student whose main task is to study for our classes and do homework, it is easier to let our mental well-being slide in order to accomplish our academic goals while balancing clubs, jobs, family, and friends. Hence, college seems to be a breeding ground for poor mental health and for neglecting to value our mental health over other priorities. For instance, rigorous studying can cause us to neglect exercise, spending time outside, eating, and having fun with friends, which are all influential factors on our mental health.

It is important to correlate our ability to complete assignments with our ability to successfully retain information. If we let our mental health slip in our list of priorities in order to prioritize academics, we are actually degrading the quality of work we attempt to complete. This is not to say it is easy to take this advice and begin to prioritize our mental well-being over our academics, but even taking baby steps towards this goal, like occasionally making active choices, are great ways to approach this goal in a comfortable way.

One way I accomplished this last week was taking a walk before I started homework that had been stressing me out that I had consequently been pushing off. This simple 30-minute break calmed me down to a point where I could focus on the work at hand and approach the assignment in digestible sections. Another way that I worked on my mental health last week was by saying yes to my friends and roommates when they asked to hang out. Instead of scheduling this around my homework time I had set out, I scheduled my homework around what we wanted to do. This solution is simple, and it helps to take the anxiety away that comes when I feel like I am forced to take time away from my studies. I get to feel like I am truly maximizing my study time when I know my activity schedule first. Lastly, I find that the most important thing I do for my mental health is to set limits on how long I will devote time to academics. It’s important that I know when to stop studying because I have gotten to a point where I will not be very productive and can better utilize this time by taking time for myself.

Similar to how Mental Health Awareness Month is about encouraging improvement rather than forcing you to change your routine or list of priorities, I simply want to offer my opinion as a friendly encouragement to consider what small steps you could take to improve your mental well-being. Lastly, I encourage everyone to seek information on the different types of support you can receive either here at PC or elsewhere, and to understand that it is not necessary to carry our mental health conditions stoically without the help of others.

Oct22025Athlete of the Week

by Flagg Taylor ’27 on October 2, 2025

Rich Barron: Third Year Loyal Friar

Rich Barron ’27 is entering his third year of college basketball, and during the past two transitional and challenging seasons for the Friars, he has remained loyal to the team and head coach Kim English. With last season being one of the worst seasons the team has faced in recent history, fans are eager to put it in the past, especially with the assistance of several new and exciting faces being added to the team. It is great to see excitement and support for new transfers and incoming freshmen, but it’s important to recognize and appreciate players like Barron who have shown dedication to the program over many seasons in this new dynamic NIL landscape. 

Barron joined the Friars for the 2023–24 season. He was one of English’s first recruits, originally committing to play for George Mason University, English’s previous school, before decommitting and following English to Providence. Barron was born on March 5, 2005, and grew up in Chicago, IL, with his parents Richard and Cory and sister Dylan. He played for St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago, graduating in 2023. In his senior season, Barron averaged 16.5 points, 4.8 rebounds, and three assists per game. He received first-team all-state honors in the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association 3A division, as well as first-team in the Chicago Catholic League. The 6’5”, 220-pound forward will be entering his junior year season still boasting the No. 10. 

In the 2024–25 season, like the team as a whole, Barron experienced some struggles. Before the season began, he had shoulder surgery for a nagging injury from the previous 2023–24 season. This likely affected his game at the beginning of the season. Throughout the 2024–25 season, Barron also struggled with concussions and a groin injury, leading to rocky and inconsistent play for the sophomore. Although it was generally a disappointing season for Barron, on Feb. 8, he lit up Hinkle Arena with seven three-pointers and 23 points in a heartbreaking one-point loss at Butler. This game proved he still had the potential he had shown during his freshman season. 

With all these exciting new players joining the team, it is easy to forget about the improvements returning players will be making. Barron has been grinding during the off-season, and coming into this season healthy, fans will see improvements and performances like his freshman year potential alluded to. In Barron’s freshman season, he shot three-pointers at 42.9 percent and scored eight or more points on nine different occasions for the Friars, providing an important offensive spark off the bench. Barron was named Big East Freshman of the Week on Jan. 22, 2024 after lighting up DePaul with four three-pointers. In my opinion, his best performance as a Friar came in the 2024 Big East Tournament against Creighton. Taking a bigger role after Bryce Hopkins ’25 injury, he stepped up when needed that season. The Friars needed to start the second half off strong and keep the momentum which Barron did, Barron stepping up and draining back-to-back threes, sparking a scoring run and creating a ton of momentum. Barron also hit an impressive swooping reverse layup against the four-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year, Ryan Kalkbrenner. The Friars won this game, and Barron was a huge part of the momentum. Last season, plagued by injuries, Barron could not showcase his potential. This year, with a new and improved team around him, a more confident coach, and a refreshed coaching staff, Barron will be able to continue improving and put his talents on display at  the Amica Mutual Pavilion. I’m certainly excited to watch guys like third-team All-SEC Jason Edwards ’G26 take the court as promising transfers, but I’ll always be most excited to watch loyal Friars like Barron get back on the court, giving it their all for the hope of  going dancing in March with a Providence jersey on. 

Oct92025A Review of The Long Walk

by Sydney King ’26 on October 9, 2025

An Adaptation Done Right

Stephen King—or the deemed “father of horror”—wrote his novel, The Long Walk (1979), at age 19 as a freshman in college. While most college freshmen are dreading their assigned reading and writing assignments, King managed to craft a complexly horrific and emotional allegory for the draft during the Vietnam War that I have yet to see any other modern allegorical novel match. When I heard that they were making a film and that it was to be released this fall, I excitedly called my mom, who was a fan of the book in her youth and has claimed that the book has stuck with her despite having read it decades ago. So, when I sat down in theaters last Sunday and watched the film, I went in expecting to be scared and tense. I left, however, having cried twice, and feeling as though the events of the film were real and that I was involved in them firsthand. 

The concept of The Long Walk is simple—50 boys (100 in the novel) selected from each state voluntarily put their names in a lottery to be selected for the annual Long Walk, a contest that starts in Maine and has no official endpoint. The walk is based on one essential rule: you must keep a pace of three miles per hour. If you drop below this, you get one warning, if you stay under for 10 seconds, you get a second warning, and if you stay under for another 10 seconds, you get your ticket. If you go off the road, you get your ticket with no warning. The usage of “warning” is intentional to minimize the actual punishment of the walk, the ticket, which means being shot to death by the soldiers that accompany the boys in tanks beside them.  

There is something so uniquely straightforward yet sinister about making 50 young men, from ages 18 through their early 20s (13–18 in the novel), walk themselves to death. While the walk is presented as entirely optional to the participants, even giving them until the day before to back out, they are driven by the reward of an endless amount of money and to have one wish granted. Not only that, but the boys are motivated to participate because of the affirmations and reassurance given to them about their strength and bravery. The tragic beauty of this story is that it is a doomed narrative—as the boys walk, they form intense friendships with each other that are bound to end in suffering and trauma. As the days go on, the boys’ expressions seem to shift from fear and panic to relief whenever they are approaching their deaths. For the sake of not wanting to spoil the relatively new film, I will leave out the specifics of the deaths, but just know before starting the film that the deaths all result from complications that are completely human. 

The Vietnam War metaphor is not to be forgotten while watching the film. The frustrations and grief that come with signing up for something presented as rewarding and masculine, only to be left with internal emptiness and external abandonment, are directly reflected in the boys on the walk. The saddest aspect about this film, however, is that despite it being written in the 1960s, it holds just as much relevance today, given the current climate of our country. 

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Campus

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Sports

2022 College Football Season Preview

Why the To-Go Boxes Shouldn’t Be Seen as an Inconvenience

In spring 2022, PC Dining announced its plans for Eco To-Go, a program that allows students to use reusable to-go boxes in Ray instead of wasteful single-use containers. While the initiative is supported by many students, others complained that it is inconvenient. Considering the significant environmental impact of paper and plastic, which these containers are made of, this is an ignorant complaint given our current ecological state. 

While some may argue that these boxes aren’t environmentally harmful because they can be recycled, this is not the case. It is important to reduce our consumption before recycling, which is why the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” is in this order. First, we’re supposed to reduce, then reuse, and finally recycle, meaning that recycling is not the solution. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 only 8.7 of plastic was recycled, leaving plastic in landfills and oceans. There is a significant impact of plastic pollution on our marine ecosystems. It’s estimated that every year, eight to 10 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans. The effects of this are devastating, as plastic breaks down to form microplastics, which many small organisms mistake for food. This is also an issue in terms of biomagnification, as organisms who consume these organisms indirectly ingest this plastic. This is one of the reasons why scientists have recently discovered microplastics in human blood for the first time. 

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Dec82022A Totally Unnecessary Rant About Hallmark Movies 

by David Salzillo Jr. ’24 on December 8, 2022
Opinion Staff

This article might be upsetting both to regular viewers of Hallmark movies (if such people really do exist) and to children who still believe in Santa Claus. To the latter group, I offer my sincerest apologies.  

Ah, Christmastime—the season for caroling, hot cocoa, and…bad Hallmark movies. Why humanity must suffer through that last one is a mystery. Yet here we are: the filmmakers (one uses that term VERY loosely) behind these cinematic travesties are at it again.  

Technically, they were at it again long before now. Hallmark’s chief executives seem to believe that Halloween marks the first day of the Christmas season. Forget waiting until after Thanksgiving; forget about waiting until the first of November. These people have managed to outdo those infamous radio stations that play Christmas music 24/7 from November to January. Ugh. Doesn’t Hallmark have any sense of shame?  

Now, if the movies were halfway decent, maybe some of this shove-it-down-your-throat-until-you-die-in-a-Christmas-induced-coma consumerism could be forgiven. But alas, trying to find a halfway decent Hallmark movie is like trying to catch Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Where does one even begin? How about with the filmmakers’ complete lack of effort? Seriously, do they care about what they are doing, insofar as it is not bringing them a paycheck? Don’t they understand that snow on someone’s clothes will melt after a few minutes, as opposed to staying there for an entire scene? And don’t they understand that people generally swallow after drinking coffee? If you ever have the displeasure of watching some of these movies, you will be able to find countless other egregious errors like these. It does not take a Francis Ford Coppola or a Martin Scorsese to get these things right.  

Then there’s the incessant presence of hot chocolate, cookies, and bake-offs. The bake-offs in particular irk me: I have never seen nor been to a bake-off in my life, yet somehow they always manage to be a central plot point of Hallmark’s Christmas programming. They would make you think that bake-offs are a fixture of the average American’s life. They have to keep up that small-town aesthetic.  

This brings up another falsely represented aspect of Hallmark movies: their inane platitudes about small-town life. To be sure, I don’t hate small towns, nor do I hate people who like small towns. Living in a big city is not paradise on Earth. Yes, big cities have pollution, traffic, and, worst of all, people. But must their messaging be so clumsy and obvious? By the way, where are the homeless people in these small towns? Where is the trash? Most people have been to enough small towns in their lives to know that they have not eradicated poverty and garbage. 

And don’t get me started on those corny love stories or that stupid derivative rom-com music that plays whenever the main love interests of the stupid plot first meet in the stupid way that they always do. Couldn’t these writers come up with a better way for the true loves to meet, without the clumsily concocted pratfalls? Hallmark characters appear more accident-prone than even the worst of klutzes.  

But why bother getting so upset about this? Because I am upset for you, dear reader. I am upset that you must be subjected to this for the next three months or more. As the great writer Ralph Ellison said, “who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”  

Or maybe not. In that case, try to develop better taste in movies.