Emily Rutkowski

My Recent Work

Chicago State of Mind •

Chicago Fire FC: Team Effort Propels Fire Into Fourth Place Following 3-1 Masterclass

Photo by CSOM SportsThe Chicago Fire’s depth showed Tuesday night with a huge 3-1 victory over the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Whitecaps in a total team effort. Three different players found the back of the net, while five players remained away on international duty. The win marked the Fire’s second consecutive victory, giving the team momentum heading into the final stretch of the regular season.The Tuesday night crowd of 31,381 showed up at Soldier Field, rallying behind the Fire’s fi...
Chicago Sky •

Sky Take on Sun in Final Mohegan Sun Clash

The Sky head to Connecticut for the final time ever before the Connecticut Sun move to Houston on Tuesday, Aug. 25 in Mohegan Sun Arena. Chicago leads the season series against Connecticut 2-1 and is 36-40 against the Sun all time.En route to the Sky’s first WNBA championship title in 2021, Chicago faced off against Connecticut in the semifinals, winning three of their four matchups. In the first game of the series, Sky legend Courtney Vandersloot recorded a triple-double and broke the single-ga...
Chicago Sky •

Cloud’s Career High Helps Lift Sky over Liberty at Home, 93-86

The Chicago Sky defeated the New York Liberty 93-86 in Wintrust Arena on Tuesday, Aug. 18. After two one-point losses earlier in the season against New York, the Sky got it back on their home floor.

The Chicago Sky defeated the New York Liberty 93-86 in Wintrust Arena on Tuesday, Aug. 18. After two one-point losses earlier in the season against New York, the Sky got it back on their home floor.

The Chicago Sky defeated the New York Liberty 93-86 in Wintrust Arena on Tuesday, Aug. 18. After two...
Chicago Sky •

Sky Open Three-Game Road Trip Against Seattle

The Chicago Sky hit the road on Monday, Aug.10 for a three-game stretch, beginning with a matchup against the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.Chicago enters the contest looking to rebound after a close loss to the Indiana Fever in the final game of a five-game homestand. The Sky face Seattle for the second time this season after earning a 95-90 victory in their first meeting.In that matchup, Courtney Vandersloot helped Chicago control the closing minutes before Natasha Cloud sea...
Chicago Sky •

Sky Look to Bounce Back Against Valkyries as Road Trip Continues

The Chicago Sky remain on the west coast for the second of their three-game road trip when they face the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday, Aug. 12, at Chase Center. After falling to the Indiana Fever and Seattle Storm in back-to-back close losses, Chicago looks to bounce back and continue the road trip on a strong note.The Sky and Valkyries have already met once this season, with Chicago earning an impressive 69-63 victory on May 13 in front of a sold-out crowd in Golden State. As Golden Stat...
Chicago Sky •

Sky Faces New York Liberty in Second Matchup of the Season

The Sky close out the last game before the 2026 All-Star break with a road matchup against the New York Liberty on Wednesday, July 22. The game marks the second meeting between the two teams this season, with Chicago looking to even the season series after falling 96-95 in a tightly contested matchup on June 17. The Sky trail the all-time series, 36-39.The first meeting featured 15 lead changes and 11 ties, with five Sky players scoring in double figures. Chicago shot 49.3% from the field, 52.2%...
Chicago Sky •

Chicago Sky Looks to Get Back on Track Against Portland Fire

The Chicago Sky (4-12) return home on Wednesday, June 24, to face the expansion Portland Fire (8-9). Chicago is looking to go up 2-0 in the season series, which would win it for the year after the Sky defeated Portland in the season opener.The two teams first met on May 9 in the Fire’s first game, with Chicago coming away with a double-digit victory. Chicago’s Natasha Cloud did not play in the first meeting between the two teams. If she plays tonight (questionable, illness), she’ll add a new dim...
Newhouse Sports Media Center •

Syracuse Falls Short in the Fourth Quarter to Virginia

Syracuse, NY – In a close game, The Syracuse Orange (8-13, 2-8) women’s basketball team fell 70-67 to the Virginia Cavaliers (12-11, 4-7) Sunday afternoon at the JMA Wireless Dome.

The Syracuse Orange rocked pink uniforms to honor National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Before the game, Syracuse women from various sports hosted an interactive day for girls to try different sports. The kids tested out the rowing machines and tossed the lacrosse balls back and forth. Afterward, the participants...
Charleston City Paper •

10 years later: Why Chris Singleton forgave his mother’s racist killer - Charleston City Paper

Chris Singleton received a phone call 10 years ago about 9 p.m., just after he got home from playing in a summer baseball game.

That call changed his life.

It was from Felicia Sanders, a friend from church. She told him he needed to come down to the church because something “really bad” happened.

“At 18, that’s when I figured out that the worst day of my life was about to happen,” Singleton recently said. “That was 10 years ago, but I still remember it like it was yesterday.”

By June...
The NewsHouse •

Trump's orders put university DEIA efforts in jeopardy

On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education sent a chilling letter to colleges and universities, but this Valentine’s Day letter was anything but loving. 

The “Dear Colleague” letter informed institutions receiving federal funding that they had two weeks from that date to eliminate their race-conscious programs under President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI policies. 

Now, more than a month later, the uncertainty surrounding those orders has left universities scrambling to...
Newhouse Sports Media Center •

Syracuse Sends Seniors Off with Dominant Win Over Boston College

Syracuse, NY – Syracuse Women’s Basketball (11-17, 6-12 ACC) capped off their regular season at home with a resounding victory over Boston College (15-15, 6-12 ACC) on Sunday evening, avenging an earlier season loss dominantly. Playing perhaps their best game of the year, the Orange led comfortably from start to finish, showcasing composure and confidence on the heels of their recent road win against Pittsburgh. 

The Orange exploded out of the gate, building a 9-point lead in the first quarte...
The NewsHouse •

Rain can’t dampen spirits of My Morning Jacket, Nathaniel Rateliff fans

The rain fell on the brave concertgoers, who wouldn’t let their tickets go to waste on Tuesday night for the Empower Federal Credit Union Amphitheater’s last performance of the year. 

My Morning Jacket and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats are on a joint tour, switching back and forth between headliner and opener. Before the show, the ticket upgrade line stretched far back, with attendees trying to relocate from the grass lawn to covered seating. 

The crowd was a sea of different-color...

Index Alumni Returns to the Old Stomping Grounds – The Pacific Index

After working as an Editorial Page Editor and Managing Editor at the Lewiston Morning Tribune, Mindy Cameron—an alumna of Pacific University and a former staff member of Index—carried her journalism career to new heights, joining the Seattle Times. Now a retired journalist, Cameron has published an memoir, Leaving the Boys, in which she discusses her career, family life, and experiences as a woman in her chosen profession.

After a high school English instructor pushed Cameron’s interest in jour

Street-level Education – The Pacific Index

Professor Boykoff’s Politics of Homelessness Course immerses students in the pressing realities of homelessness in Portland through both travel and classroom materials.

The distance between Forest Grove and Portland is approximately 25 miles. Students attending colleges and universities have heard over the years that Portland is not the same as it was in the past. If you ask a college student why they do not spend much time in the downtown area to take in the sights and sounds of the city, you

Benching the Bench – The Pacific Index

After controversial graffiti, the university struggles with unregulated free speech

On the morning of November 15, Pacific University students awoke to the Spirit Bench sprayed in Palestine’s red, green and white colors, circled by sliced watermelon, with “Free Palestine” written in the center. It is unclear when, but soon after the bench faced yet another act: Swastikas were said to be covering the messaging on the bench. And then, no more than two hours later, the bench was dumped in white pa

Grand Ghost Stories – The Pacific Index

A century-plus old, and plenty of ghost rattling around

The 101-year-old Grand Lodge is well known for being haunted; it is one of the hotel’s main draws. Built more than a century ago as a retirement home for the poor, aged, and ill, the main building—where guests stay—was converted into a McMenamins in 2000; the tall, red-brick structure appears to have been lifted straight out of a horror film—and next door is the Children’s Cottage, formerly a children’s orphanage, now a private event space

Fumbling Student Athletes! – The Pacific Index

Higher roster numbers are associated with declining retention rates for male athletes at Pacific

Student-athletes are a major source of enrollment—and pride—for Pacific University. Nearly 60 percent of incoming male students play sports—a statistic that Pacific boasts about in speeches and promotional materials, and uses as a marker about the soul of the school. But that number also creates an unyielding problem, and casts a dark shadow across student retention: When these recruited athletes do

Maui Wildfires Hit Close to Home for Pacific Students – The Pacific Index

On August 8th, a historic wildfire struck the island of Maui. With Pacific

University having a strong connection to the islands of Hawai’i, the aftermath could be felt

hundreds of miles away.

Wildfires flared on Maui, Hawaii, more than three weeks ago, and the heavy winds from the

hurricane made them challenging to control. Pacific University has approximately 60

undergraduate and graduate students from Maui. Between 2018 and 2021, 17-20% of first-year

students from the state of Hawaii enr

Malynda Wenzl Elected as Mayor of Forest Grove – The Pacific Index

If you want to see the change, you must be willing to participate in the solution. A middle school teacher, Malynda Wenzl has spent years listening to her students’ suggestions for improvements to their small town of Forest Grove. She recognized the importance of a larger platform for change, but could not run for school board, being a paid employee of the Forest Grove school district.

Wenzl’s roots are deep in this community: She graduated from Forest Grove High School and only left town to at

Adjunct Professors Deserve a Raise in Pay – The Pacific Index

Part-time adjunct faculty pay has not increased in a decade

The last time that adjunct professors at Pacific University received a pay raise, Barack Obama had just begun his second term as president—which is to say, it has been a full decade. More keenly, at the time, minimum wages in Oregon were 65% what they are today; yet over those past ten years, wages for adjunct professors—those instructors who teach one or two classes essentially as a freelancer—haven’t budged a single penny at Pacific

Will The Real Vera Stand Up? – The Pacific Index

Pacific University is haunted. Many ways over. But perhaps the most famous ghost of all is Vera, who, if we are to believe the stories, has been living rent-free in Knight Hall (also known as the admissions office) for nearly a century.

The story that current admissions staff share is that Vera, a young student, was looking out the window from the third story of Knight Hall when she spotted her boyfriend fancying another girl; distraught, Vera stormed down the stairs, tripped, broke her neck, a

The Sleepover in Knight Hall – The Pacific Index

“I had friends in college when this was music,” explains Uncle Jeff, referring to Knight Hall. “I had buddies who stayed here overnight, and they wrote for the Index and went running out of here early in the morning because Vera had spooked them.”

According to the tale, Vera spoke to the boys and told them to stop playing music and talking loudly. The tale inspired me: Being on the Pacific Index staff, I was intrigued to spend an entire night in Knight Hall—and to succeed staying a full night w
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