#dlmate admin

all current players please ‘like’ this post by friday, july 31st at 5pm CST to ensure you’re still intending to participate in our group ! 

bee sinclair

                                                 cumlaude plot drop

                                          case closed.

         their weekend getaway had turned into hell on earth in mere moments. 

           instead of packing their bags and heading back to vermont, the students were sequestered in professor mav’s beach house, listless and bored in between their hours long interrogations at the local police department. the search for an answer - how does a young girl wind up on the shoreline of a beautiful beach the morning after a party ? - is a grueling one, and few have any sort of answers.             a time line is put forth : the last person to see her, as far as they could tell, was richard holloway, kissing her goodnight on the back porch before he ducked inside to find some sleep around 1am. the bonfire had long since been put out, the rest of their friends slipping inside different rooms.             the answer feels clear there - the boyfriend always does it, after all. 

           but charles drake can confirm that he passed richard holloway at 1:10am on the way to the restroom, giving an alibi before either even knew one was needed. and iris lexington could have sworn she overheard lennon laughing as she smoked with the window open around 2am - though the other voice wasn’t distinctive enough to have made out clearly. at 3am, wesley klein thought he heard noises coming from the beach as he smoked on the porch, unable to sleep, but assumed it was two of his classmates, escaping the house for some extracurricular fun.          reese lewis was the first to rise around 5am - all was quiet as he laced his sneakers for a pre-dawn run along the beach. when ellis hunter and ivy lexington awoke at 9am, they stayed indoors, preferring the silence of the house over coffee to the crowds that were sure to crawl to the beach mere moments. and at exactly 9:07am, beatrice sinclair was the one who screamed, coming across lennon’s body as she strolled along the beach for a breath of fresh air. 

           none of the time leaves much room for any of them to have been a perpetrator of any crime.             on july 20th, the detectives involved in the investigation finally rule the case an ‘accident’, letting the students pile up in their cars and head for their home a few hours away. cards are slipped into hands, asking for any information if things come up. a morose group drives silently; mourning and preparing for the onslaught of questions sure to follow at their campus upon their arrival. 

           after all, they left with nine. they’re coming back with eight. and while the cops have been fooled into thinking it was merely an ‘accident’, the others know : every one of them is hiding something, and one of them could very well have killed lennon themselves. 

our group is now open for play ! 

feel free to begin to post starters / interact with one another on the dashboard. 

while lennon’s death has been officially ruled an accident, the students still have to face the school’s inquiry upon returning, as well as prepare for the memorial service hosted by the school in early august. her funeral has already been hosted in her hometown of tennessee, though none of the students were able to go. 

if you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask ! 

                                                cumlaude events

                                         smut saloons.

        once a month, the graduate students of the fulton university journalism program get together for what they’ve deemed their smut saloons. an evening of decadence, hosted by professor morales, the monthly event is a way for the group to bond together over art, wine and sex. 

           the students ( and staff who occasionally join them ) are required to bring forward a piece that speaks to them on a more primal level; some bring forward literature, some bring forward journals, some bring forward art or cinema - the point is to bring forward a discussion about one’s own sexuality and how it blends into the world that they live in, how it affects them all as creators of the world. 

           the next saloon was originally dated for tuesday, july 21st, though in the wake of the death of lennon mccartney it has been cancelled. the next saloon, hosted by the lexington twins at their home with ellis hunter will take place on tuesday, august 25th - the theme for the night will be released closer to the date of. 

                                        cumlauderpg presents grad school -fulton university style.

                every university is different, which makes the graduate programs encompassed in them even more unique. this is a small, simple guide complete with a list of resources at the end for further research for how the schooling side of cumlauderpg will work ! 

             technically speaking, graduate school is an advance program focused on one particular discipline or profession. unlike undergrad, the completion of your degree is often focused with rigorous coursework, work experience ( research, internships or teaching ), and usually culminates with a thesis written and presented to a team of 2-4 advisors, depending on the focus and level of the degree. 

          fulton university offers limited graduate studies. the primary programs are journalism, english, french, and art history. while there are a few other programs, those four tend to be the ones given the most funding and attention at fulton university.         admissions ; to even gain entrance into the program, you must have graduated cum laude from your undergraduate institution - at minimum, the top 25% of your class. high scores on the graduate record examination ( GRE ) are required, as are three letters of recommendation from past mentors, professors or supervisors. an interview is required before acceptance, and the choice is up to the head of the department on each individual selected - professor marisa morales. the journalism program allows a maximum of twelve students in each class - currently, the class expected to graduate in the spring of 2021 has a total of nine members. 

         classes & professors ; the graduate program focuses more on workshops than classes, per se, and each is overseen by one of the three primary professors in the journalism focus. as well as professor morales, mav and professor hill, there is also professor paetz, professor emberton and professor yanes. for an idea on the coursework, see below the cut for the uc berkeley link to master’s of journalism - it gives a great insight to what the expectations are, and has an example of courses the students would take. 

         living expectations ; while there are select campus apartments for graduate students, the journalism focus at fulton primarily live in one of two houses just off campus - ivy, iris and ellis live in one, while charles, reese, wesley and richard live in the other. lennon and bee live in an apartment above the local grocer on the main strip, where the crew often collapses after a night on the town at the prospect. 

        teaching & research ; while the journalism program doesn’t have a research department, students who apply for the position are able to help teach in between their own assignments. after a semester long mandatory pedagogy class, they can then begin teaching courses - either as an assistant, or on their own as an ‘instructor of record’. 

        while there’s obviously more to being a graduate student, this is merely meant as a base to learn more about the environment and provide a series of resources to begin our group on, allowing all of our players to start on the same page with some basic information!  

        below the cut are links to further resources and links ! as always, if you ever have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.  

                                                  cumlaude plot drop

                                           the end.

          it was supposed to be a fun weekend.                      all nine students of the fulton university graduate program of journalism piled into two cars, driving from their hometown of whiteridge, vermont down to the sandy beaches of massachusetts. beer, fireworks, s’mores - the plan was to relax, to celebrate a year down of their two year graduate program, to take a break from all their hard work.               friday, saturday - all was fine. the group lounged on beach chairs, played volleyball in the sand, played in the seaweed infested waters, screeching about how cold it was. they built a bonfire, roasted marshmellows on it while they barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers, devouring corn on the cob and drinking away all their stress they’d tried to leave behind them. when it was too dark to continue, too late to keep the party going, they crashed in the various rooms of the beach house their professor mav had let them borrow. three to a room, a pile of bodies on beds that was as interwoven as their lives had become.               sunday was the end of it.               a scream from the beach; bee had awoken early to take a walk, trying to stave off the worst of her hangover before they cleaned up after themselves and departed back for the real world once again. of papers and peer reviews and the bi-weekly ‘smut saloon’ they had started six months ago, another way to blow off steam together. it was bee who had found her. laying there, body half covered in seaweed and ocean water.               it was her scream that alerted the others.               someone had called the cops - no one from their group, but another tourist, dragged out by her shrieking. reese had a hand around her waist, trying to comfort her, trying to pull her back. ellis looked on with hollow eyes while the twins looked just as confused as richard and charles. it was wesley who made the announcement, clear as day: