The Fate of Ophelia
Certified banger. Keeps her literary references (Ophelia, but make it a bop), flips them into something upbeat and happy. Feels like the thesis of the whole album: she used to be sad, reflective, drowning in metaphorical rivers, but she’s been saved from her tragic fate. Now we get a pop album to celebrate. Honestly? Shakespeare could never.

Elizabeth Taylor
Solid follow-up. Continues the themes from the opener, production is fun, and the drums are BACK. 

Opalite
So much fun! About creating man-made happiness, just like opalite is man-made (and shoutout to our favorite Kansas Citian, Travis Kelce, whose birthstone this is). 

Father Figure
Taylor sings about buying her masters back like a boss. She doesn’t just own her work — she is the music industry. Scooter Braun is crying somewhere.

Eldest Daughter
Switches up the vibe (maybe necessary after the strut of the last track). Looks at why Swift became who she is. Some say the lyrics are shallow and expected more depth. Personally, my issue isn’t the words — it’s the production which feels kind of boring.

Ruin The Friendship
Meh. Not terrible, not memorable. A filler track you skip after the second listen.

Actually Romantic
Iconic. Should honestly be sung by Reneé Rapp.  People think it’s a diss track aimed at Charli XCX (a response to “Sympathy is a Knife”), which… fair. But Taylor has a long line of haters, from pop girls to the literal President Donald Trump. So this could be about anyone! Either way, it’s deliciously petty.

Wi$h Li$t
I support her dreams, but in this political climate, do I want to listen to Taylor sing about wanting to be a tradwife? Not really. Still, she’s allowed to put “wife and mom” on her vision board. (We all had embarrassing Pinterest boards in 2014, let’s not judge too hard.)

Wood
My favorite track on the album. It’s stuffed with double entendres, and while some people have called lines like “new heights of manhood” cringe, I think it’s hilarious. Let her be goofy! Let her flirt! If we survived “Me!” we can survive her being horny.

CANCELLED!
This one stirred the pot. Critics called it tone-deaf and privileged. And yeah, she is a billionaire. But here’s the thing: she owns it. The song balances her acknowledging unfair criticism while also flexing that her life is actually great. She’s not pretending to be a struggling underdog anymore, she’s saying, “Yup, I’m rich, famous, and thriving, and you still hate me.” 

Honey
Sweet but not a standout. The lyrics are solid though, about how pet names used to feel condescending, but now that she’s in love, they’re actually… well, honeyed. Cute, but not the one I’ll be replaying.

The Life of a Showgirl (Ft. Sabrina Carpenter)
My least favorite. It may be the title track, but it doesn’t capture the themes or energy of the album at all. Sabrina kills the bridge, but the rest? It feels like they cut a Midnights B-side and just slapped it here for marketing.

Key Takeaways

• Taylor Swift is a millennial, which means some lyrics are destined to be “cringe.” (Sorry, Gen Z, she’s not writing exclusively for TikTok captions.)
• She is in love. Like, nauseatingly, hopelessly, Disney-princess-in-the-last-ten-minutes-of-the-movie in love.
• She knows she’s on top, and at this point nothing can stop her (Father Figure, CANCELLED!, Actually Romantic).
• Despite the album’s title, this isn’t really about the gritty behind-the-scenes life of a showgirl. It’s about Taylor winning. In love, in fame, in life. It’s her victory lap, moving from sad-girl reflections to upbeat, sparkly triumph.

The press release noted that Van Horn’s vision for Jewell’s future emphasized “personalized education rooted in the liberal arts and humanities, aimed at preparing students for successful careers and civic engagement in a constantly changing world.” His experience includes tenures as the president of Brevard College in North Carolina and Young Harris College in Georgia, both of which had or continue to have affiliations with the Methodist church.

It is not surprising that the Trustees have chosen Van Horn as interim president given the new direction of the College under the Reimagine Jewell initiative. Bill Gautreaux, chair of the Board of Trustees, noted that Van Horn’s “[unique] data driven results-oriented focus” would help the College “build on Jewell’s long history of academic excellence and student success.” It is unclear what emphasizing a “results-oriented focus” means at this time for programs and faculty, given cuts to both last year.

A New Direction

In an interview with Higher Education Digest, Van Horn outlined a myriad of policy outcomes for smaller private colleges that he believed would help them flourish. Two of his policy proposals are particularly relevant in viewing the way Van Horn will lead the College.

First, Van Horn emphasized that “[i]nstitutions must continue to identify low-producing majors and eliminate them from their offerings.” As Jewell thins its program offerings (having eliminated majors in International Relations, Mathematics, Oxbridge, Philosophy, Spanish, and Theatre this past year, among others), Jewell administration appears to have already emphasized identifying and removing “lower-producing majors” in an effort to reduce program spending.

Second, Van Horn emphasized that colleges, especially small private colleges, must “refocus the Boards, alumni, faculty, and staff on the mission of the institutions… focus on the type of student that [they] historically served and determine if this was still the mission for the institutions.” This includes, where necessary, “reducing the number of hours in the core curriculum” and changing the institution’s focus from core curriculum to double majors or certificates that enable student success, particularly in the workforce. As Jewell becomes more diverse and moves away from its Baptist roots, College administrators must decide whether to double down on Jewell’s historical mission or upend it.

No matter one’s feelings about Critical Thought and Inquiry (CTI) classes, it is clear that the Reimagine Jewell initiative, under the leadership of Van Horn, represents a significant shift for William Jewell College and its administration. Will Van Horn lead a shift out of exigency and toward a flourishing Jewell? Or will the College lose sight of the liberal arts emphasis that has caused its success for so long?

As usual, only time will tell.
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Despite being one of the smallest liberal arts colleges in the country, William Jewell College has long been a well-regarded institution in the Kansas City area. This reputation is due not only to its high academic standards but also to its athletic prowess: nearly two-thirds of Jewell’s students participate in sports, making athletics a central part of student life and recruitment. 

However, the 2025-2026 academic year began under unusual circumstances. After years of financial difficulties, Jewell declared financial exigency during the 2024-2025 academic year, a rare and serious measure that reflects the severity of the challenges facing the institution. Although the administration emphasized that the situation remained manageable, the announcement plunged the university community into a state of heightened uncertainty.

For student-athletes, the impact is particularly pronounced. As the school was reevaluating financial priorities, the possibility of reshaping athletics and cutting specific programs seemed very real. As a result, the student athlete experience now oscillates between relative stability on the field and constant questions off it.

Jewell student athletes have always had to deal with busy schedules and high expectations, but in the spring semester of 2025, these pressures intensified. The athletic medical staff made a controversial proposal to increase student secondary insurance fees (special insurance for athletes designed to cover the remaining medical expenses related to sports injuries) by an additional $350 for student athletes. Although this fee was intended to protect players’ health and ensure they had medical coverage, it was perceived by many student athletes as an additional financial burden, particularly when combined with rising tuition fees and a temporary freeze on scholarships. In other words, no athlete will see their scholarship increased for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Compounding this unease, a wave of athletes transferred out of Jewell during the last semester. For those who remained, one question lingers at every practice and every game: What will athletics at Jewell look like next semester? Softball, for example, has faced one of the most visible challenges. The team’s head coach resigned at the end of last semester, leaving players in a precarious situation as the season approaches. However, the administration took an unusual and refreshing step: it directly involved the players in the interview process for hiring a new coach. Indeed, the players will have a say on the final hiring decision. This level of athlete involvement is rare at the university level and marks a significant shift toward greater student participation in program decisions.

Although the declaration of financial exigency cast a shadow over the athletic department, it also reignited crucial debates about transparency, resource allocation, and the future of sports at Jewell. The story of Jewell softball highlights the vulnerability of sports at small universities, where limited resources make athletic programs particularly sensitive to personnel changes and enrollment fluctuations. However, Jewell’s willingness to involve players in decision-making could also pave the way for new models of resilience.

For now, the semester seems too short to judge whether athletics at Jewell will emerge stronger or even more fragile. But what is clear is that the student-athlete experience at William Jewell is being reshaped, in real time, by the financial crossroads at which the university finds itself.

Photo by Briana Tozour via Uplash.

If you’re looking for a good sports city and atmosphere, Kansas City is your place to be. It’s host to four major professional sports teams across three different sports: baseball, football and soccer. This article aims to be a survey of Kansas City sports, highlighting each team and providing a little history for each.

Chiefs Kingdom: Kansas City Chiefs

The Chiefs are the oldest professional sports team in Kansas City, although they weren’t established in Kansas City. Our beloved Chiefs were established in 1960 as the Dallas Texans by then-American Football League (AFL) founder Lamar Hunt.

A minor tangent about the AFL: The AFL was created as an alternative to the NFL by Lamar Hunt. To avoid a talent war, the AFL merged with the NFL to create one league in June 1966. The AFL became the American Football Conference (AFC), whose title still bears Mr. Hunt’s name. The first AFL-NFL championship in 1967, amusingly called the World Championship, kicked off what would become the Super Bowl era.

In 1963, the Dallas Texans moved to Kansas City and rebranded as the Kansas City Chiefs. Since then, they’ve won six league titles (four Super Bowls and two AFL championships, before the AFL and the NFL merged) and are currently one of the best teams in the league. Under the leadership of star quarterback Patrick Mahomes II and head coach Andy Reid, the Chiefs have won their division for nine straight years, the AFC championship game for five of the last six years, and three Super Bowls.

On first arrival in Kansas City, they played at the Municipal Stadium on E. 22nd Street and Brooklyn Avenue. In 1972, the team moved to Arrowhead Stadium in Jackson County, where they have played for the last fifty years.

Across from Arrowhead is the second team we’ll encounter on this tour of KC sports: Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals.

The Boys Are Playing Some Ball: Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals inhabit Kauffman Stadium (in the same sports complex as Arrowhead), named after entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing M. Kauffman. (His family foundation also contributed significantly to Kauffman Gardens and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, both located in downtown KC.) Like the Chiefs, the Royals also played in Municipal Stadium until 1972.

The Kansas City Royals are currently in-season. As of the time of writing, they place third in the American League Central, trailing the Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers. The Royals haven’t seen as much success as the Chiefs. They’ve only won the World Series twice, in 1985 and 2015. Since that win in 2015, the Royals have only made the playoffs once.

That said, the Royals are looking to turn things around this year and build on their AL playoff appearance last season. Stars like Bobby Witt Jr. (#7) have garnered significant attention; Witt Jr. was selected as a starting shortstop on the US national baseball team. Last year, KC Royals ace Cole Ragans (#55) was named to an All-Star team, and the Royals hope he can continue to deliver.

The Other Midwestern Football: Sporting KC

Sporting KC came to Kansas City in 1996 as the Kansas City Wiz, creating electric football from the second they landed in Kansas City. A decade and a half of KC Wiz brought an MLS Cup (2000), a US Open Cup (2004), and a dramatic victory against Manchester United in 2010 at Arrowhead Stadium; Man Utd. would go on to win the English Premier League that year.

In late 2010, the Wizards rebranded as Sporting KC and opened their own stadium, Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas, although they’ve kept elements of the Wiz heritage ever since. Six years of MLS playoff appearances through 2017 have been followed by what the Sporting website politely calls a “dip in form.” Although the team is third last in Major League Soccer, they’ve won two of their last three matches against St. Louis and San José.

Making a Splash: KC Current

The Kansas City Current are KC’s newest addition to professional sports, playing in the NWSL – the National Women’s Soccer League. In Dec. 2020, the NWSL awarded an expansion franchise to Kansas City, and the city was up for the challenge. KC Current owners constructed CPKC Stadium for the club, the first stadium in the world specifically created for a women’s professional sports team.

While some may be tempted to write off the Current due to a rocky start in 2021-23 (where they had two seasons placing in the bottom three), the Current have made waves in the league ever since. They qualified for the 2024 playoffs as the #4 seed and made it to the semifinals, losing to top-seed and eventual NWSL champions Orlando Pride.

The Current have substantial talent on their side, including 2024 Golden Boot winner Temwa Chawinga (#6), whose 20 goals last year set an all-time NWSL record. This year, the Current have only allowed one goal this season and won their first five regular season matches, the only team in the league to do so. Their only loss came to the North Carolina Courage on Apr. 26, 3-2.

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Whether you prefer watching boys in blue or exploring #TealTown, Kansas City knows how to bring the energy to its local sports teams. At home, away, and at the stadium, there is always a KC sports team for you to discover.