K A N S A S
S TAT E vol. 126, issue 08 monday, sept. 14, 2020
kstatecollegian.com
HEALTH Campus COVID-19 plan doesn’t include data thresholds because it’s more ‘holistic,’ officials say
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‘It almost didn’t feel real that we were back’: Students react to in-person game day experience
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Soccer team falls to Oklahoma State 3-0, loses Harris for the season
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Students were ‘doing everything right,’ but still contracted COVID-19
Online Only
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ON THE COVER
FALL EDITORIAL BOARD
Illustration by Julie Freijat COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP
The Mission of the Collegian Media Group is to use best practices of journalism to cover and document life at Kansas State University from a diverse set of voices to inform and engage the K-State community. The Collegian welcomes your letters. We reserve the right to edit submitted letters for length and style. A letter intended for publication should be no longer than 600 words and must be relevant to the student body of K-State. It must include the author’s first and last name, year in school and major. If you are a graduate of K-State, the letter should include your year(s) of graduation and must include the city and state where you live. For a letter to be considered, it must include a phone number where you can be contacted. The number will not be published. Letters can be sent to letters@kstatecollegian.com or submitted through an online form at kstatecollegian.com. Letters may be rejected if they contain abusive content, lack timeliness, contain vulgarity, profanity or falsehood, promote personal and commercial announcements, repeat comments of letters printed in other issues or contain attachments. The Collegian does not publish open letters, third-party letters or letters that have been sent to other publications or people.
CORRECTIONS If you see something that should be corrected, call editor-in-chief Bailey Britton at 785-370-6356 or email collegian@kstatecollegian.com The Collegian, a student newspaper at Kansas State University, is published by Collegian Media Group. It is published Mondays and Fridays during the school year and on Wednesdays during the summer. Periodical postage is paid at Manhattan, KS. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to 828 Mid-Campus Drive South, Kedzie 103, Manhattan, KS 66506-7167. First copy free, additional copies 25 cents. [USPS 291 020] Š Collegian Media Group, 2020
Bailey Britton Editor-in-Chief
Gabby Farris Design Chief
Kaylie McLaughlin Managing Editor
Blake Hachen Designer
Julie Freijat Deputy Managing Editor Copy Chief
Sarah Unruh Designer
Emma Witter News Editor Sean Schaper Assistant News Editor Rebecca Vrbas Culture Editor Madison Daniel Assistant Culture Editor Anna Schmidt Opinons Editor
Cameron Bradley Sports Editor Nathan Enserro Assistant Sports Editor Dalton Wainscott Multimedia Editor Dylan Connell Deputy Multimedia Editor
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H E A LT H
KAYLIE MCLAUGHLIN managing editor
As life resumes amid the ongoing pandemic, many institutions, organizations and schools, like USD 383, have rolled out metrics and thresholds that determine the viability of in-person operations called gating criteria. Kansas State is taking a different approach. About a week into the semester, K-State did announce key data points — positivity rate, capacity to quarantine students, hospitalizations, case severity and testing availability — that it would be watching to judge the feasibility of face-to-face instruction, but those metrics did not come with thresholds. That’s intentional, Dr. Kyle Goerl, medical director at Lafene Health Center, said. It’s not that the university is trying to shirk accountability, he said, but that they are taking a different approach to manage the pandemic on campus. There isn’t a specific number of positive cases or a set positivity rate that will au-
tomatically return K-State to remote learning and limited operations. Elliot Young, chief operating officer for university risk and compliance, played an instrumental role in formulating K-State’s reawakening protocol. He said instead of focusing on a set of “alarming” statistics, the university is generally more concerned with its capacity to meet the needs of students. “That’s why we have the matrix and that’s why we have the indicators. That’s why we have all this stuff — so we can holistically assess the situation and make good decisions,” Young said. Marley Kay Lowe, senior in communication studies, American ethnic studies and gender, women and sexuality studies, takes exclusively online classes and lives off-campus. Lowe said she’s glad she’s not living in a residence hall or going on campus regularly because she feels the university’s operations plan for the pandemic leaves some things to be desired. For starters, she wishes there was more transparency on decision-making
Dalton Wainscott | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP
Face covering signs are present on all entrances and exits on campus. With classes beginning during a pandemic, precautions have been taken in every aspect of campus life.
Campus COVID-19 plan doesn’t include data thresholds because it’s more ‘holistic,’ officials say and fewer attempts to assign fault to individual people. “If we don’t collectively decide to care about each other ... we’re going to be [stuck] here forever,” Lowe said. University officials have a responsibility to be honest with students, she said. “The responsibility of the administration is to lead and to do more than the bare minimum,” Lowe said. The conversation about caring for students does include considerations for hospitalization rates, campus illnesses and a handful of other metrics, but more in a big picture approach, vice president for communications and marketing Jeff Morris said. “If you rely on those [metrics] only, then you pigeonhole yourself and your response,” Goerl said. “No decent plan should be built around [just positivity rate and new cases]. ... They’re only part of the decision making process on campus.” For K-State’s plan to work, there needs to be flexibility, Goerl said. K-State has already changed part of its plans. For example, before the semester began, Goerl and other university officials indicated that there wasn’t a clear plan to roll out surveillance testing — randomized asymptomatic screenings — outside of K-State Athletics. The plan at the time was to focus on testing students and faculty who were known contacts of positive cases or those who had symptoms. Recently, however, K-State implemented an expanded strategy to test 10 percent of on-campus residents randomly. Though mostly concerned with the whole picture, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t cause for concern a few weeks ago when the on-campus positivity rate neared 27 percent, Young said. “I don’t think it’s surpris-
ing that the number of cases and the percent positive rate, both on campus and in the community, are alarming,” Young said. Bringing 20,000 people back to town all at once is certain to cause a handful of outbreaks and an increase in overall cases, but Goerl said that spike should start to slow down soon. New cases and the overall positivity rate have started to decline. On campus, K-State documented a positivity rate of about 17 percent in the week of Aug. 31. Last week, Riley County added 173 total new positive cases of COVID-19, a marked decline from previous weeks where the county added several hundred new cases.
There are limits to K-State’s ability to control students off-campus as well as account for all positive cases associated with the university, Morris said. For one, K-State has limited jurisdiction over independent student organizations like fraternities and sororities, but there’s also no mechanism to count students who were tested outside of Lafene. That’s why it is also important for the university to include community statistics and capacities in its decision-making matrix, Morris said. “We know that if we just do campus we’re not going to see the whole picture,” Morris said previously. “If every-
body on campus is following the rules but as soon as they step off campus, [if they are] not following the guidelines, that’s another factor in our decision process.” If the situation continues to level-out locally and the community continues to engage in good prevention behaviors, like social distancing and mask-wearing, the expectation is that K-State will make it to Thanksgiving Break without having to pivot the reawakening plan too much, Goerl said. “We spent all summer preparing the plans and the policies to address a lot of these issues, and where we sit right now, things, by and large are in good shape,” Young agreed.
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GAME DAY EXPERIENCE ‘It almost didn’t feel real that we were back:’ Students react to in-person game day experience MARSHALL SUNNER staff writer
It had been 237 days since the last time Blake Bontrager stepped foot inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium for a Kansas State game day. But 237 days ago, the world wasn’t battling a pandemic. The college game day experience in 2020 has changed significantly. Fans are required to wear masks while in stadiums and social distancing guidelines are in place. As a season ticket holder since his
freshman year, Bontrager, a junior in business marketing, knew this season was going to be different. Bontrager arrived at the stadium for Saturday’s game against Arkansas State at 8 a.m. to ensure a spot in the crowd. After everything that has happened since last school year, he thought a sense of relief would come while he waited. Instead, Bontrager was feeling the opposite. “It felt kind of sad,” Bontrager said. “I’ve been a season ticket holder since freshman year, so you kind of know what to expect from a ‘Caturday,’ and just waiting in line and seeing maybe 20 cars in the parking lot — no one tailgating — it was kind of sad.” Once he was inside the stadium though, the feelings started to shift. A sense of normalcy started
to come back, even with the noticeable differences due to COVID-19 protocols. “Student section-wise, it was weird,” he said. “There were flags like every two rows so you wouldn’t be very close to other people. Throughout the whole stadium, it was very empty. Just spooky for how empty it was for a game day.” Two other students, Aaron Wilson and Cooper Day, also had their own opinions on the abnormal g a m e day. Wilson, a junior in marketing and sales, also said the change in the environment tweaked his experience a little bit — from the empty stadium to the mask protocol. “I liked in previous years how I just walked in and there were just a lot of people hugging and taking lots of pictures and just being super excited to see each other. And tailgating too, obviously,” Wilson said. “But now it was just everyone wearing a mask and trying to keep their distance – trying not to socialize as much. Which is a smart reason, but it just kind of sucks because I miss that atmosphere that we used to have.” Day, a junior in architecture, also mentioned how it affected him. “The whole atmosphere itself was different,” Day said. “I would say it affected my experience because I really enjoy the tailgates and getting rowdy at the games and I just feel like it wasn’t all there.” Like Bontrager, Wilson
and Day knew this was going to be a different experience, and it took some warming up to get a sense of normalcy back. That came back rather quickly for Wilson, specifically. “I think it was once I saw Willie doing the pushups or once we were all doing the Wabash, I was like this feels normal again,” he said. From where Wilson and Day were sitting together, the student section didn’t look as spaced out as it seemed to Bontrager. Wilson described it as almost looking like a “normal student section” at full capacity. “I thought the student section would be smaller than it was, I was actually quite surprised at how many students were there,” he said. “I sat on the opposite side, but I looked across and for the most part, it looked like the normal student section.” As for the mask protocol, all three of the students said they followed the procedure, but did see some people taking masks off throughout the game. Even with those outliers, all three agreed they felt safe throughout the duration of the game. “The people I was around were all wearing masks and we were doing what we needed to do,” Wilson said. “But there were people who, once they got into the stadium, they just were like ‘Yeah, forget the mask’ and took it off.” Bontrager, from the student section, also had no worries. “I did feel safe, we were following every rule in place,” he said. “K-State put those flags there for a reason and no one was being difficult.” At the end of the day, all three of the students were
glad they were able to be back at a sporting event, live and in-person. “It almost didn’t feel real that we were back,” Day said. Bontrager, however, was much more vocal about the emotions he felt throughout the entire day. “Just joy and elation,” Bontrager said. “I mean football, there was a good chance of it not coming back. Obviously, the smartest thing to do is to not have it, so it was an incredible blessing that I was able to go. I think the biggest word is thankful, just thankful that I was able to sit in the stands while there was a world-wide pandemic going on.” But now with one game down, the question arises: will fans continue to be allowed in the stadium moving forward? Both Bontrager and Day believe so. “I feel like we’re at the point where people are just kind of over it,” Day said. “I feel like there are a lot of kids there and they just don’t care or it doesn’t bother them anymore.” However, Wilson has his doubts. “I definitely think that there were a lot of people who just decided not to wear their masks and that’s going to show in the next week or two,” Wilson said. “I don’t know if K-State is going to do anything about that, but I do think they’re going to have some more strict rules or kick people out if they aren’t wearing masks. I feel like K-State might have to do something, but hopefully we’re still allowed to go because it was fun and I enjoyed it.” The next K-State home game is scheduled to for Oct. 3 against Texas Tech.
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OUT MATCHED CODY FRIESEN
staff writer
In front of a crowd of 11,000 people — nearly a sellout in Bill Snyder Family Stadium with new COVID-19 limitations — Kansas State dropped the home opener to Arkansas State 35-31 following a late touchdown drive. The loss snaps a six-game winning streak in home openers, the last coming in 2013 against North Dakota State. “It wasn’t the outcome that we wanted,” head coach Chris Klieman said. “We didn’t play particularly well. I know what the guys have gone through over the past month to five weeks trying to prepare to play, and we can’t make excuses.” Prior to kickoff, the Wildcats took a stand to promote unity with a pregame video and the playing of “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.” K-State wore decals and a patch to show support for unity and push for social justice. T h e K- S t a te defense opened t h e game with a quick three and out. Redshirt freshman defensive back Will Jones II blocked the punt giving the Wildcats the ball at the Red Wolves’ 19-yard line. Two plays later, the Wildcats took a 7-0 lead with a 17-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Skylar Thompson to sophomore wide re-
ceiver Phillip Brooks. The Red Wolves responded with a nine-play 75-yard touchdown drive capped off by a touchdown pass by junior quarterback Logan Bonner to senior wide receiver Jonathan Adams to tie the ball game. True freshman Deuce Vaughn recorded his first touchdown as a Wildcat on a three-yard run to give K-State a 14-7 lead with 13:29 remaining in the second quarter. The touchdown marked the first touchdown by a true freshman since 1988. “It’s surreal. Whenever I got the opportunity, and I hit it, and I got in the end zone, I didn’t know what to think,” Vaughn said. “I was so excited, and I look forward to doing it over and over again.” K-State would add to the lead midway through the second quarter
with a seven-yard touchdown catch by senior tight end Briley Moore. The dive contained four pass plays, including a 42-yard catch and run by junior wide receiver Chabastin Taylor. A 27-yard, one-handed catch by sophomore wide receiver Malik Knowles got the Wildcats into the red zone. Arkansas State would remain in the ballgame with a trick play, 48-yard touchdown pass by sophomore wide receiver Jeff Foreman to junior wide receiver Rashauud Paul with 6:50 remaining in the half. The Wildcats failed to capitalize on good field position after an unsportsmanlike conduct following a 20yard rush by Taylor that put the Wildcats at the 14-yard line. Senior kicker Blake Lynch missed the 43-yard field goal attempt. A r kansas State put
t o gether a strong drive but fumbled at the K-State 11yard line with only 1:26 left in the half and no timeouts.
K-State stunned by Arkansas State 35-31 in season opener
We didn’ t play particularly well. I know what the guys have gone through over the past month to five weeks trying to prepare to play, and we can’ t make excuses. Chris Klieman
K-State Football Coach K-State took a 21-14 lead into the half. The Wildcat defense kept the Wildcats ahead with two takeaways in the first half, including the fumble recovery to end a promising drive for the Red Wolves. After an opening punt by K-State, the Red Wolves again marched down the field to the K-State 11-yard line, but a 10-yard sack ended the drive. Junior kicker Blake Grupe missed a 38yard field goal attempt. Following yet another punt, Arkansas State returned to the red zone after a 58-yard rush by freshman running back Lincoln Pare. A touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Layne Hatcher to senior tight end Giles Amos tied the ballgame at 21 apiece with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter. The Wildcats were held scoreless in the third quarter but were mid-drive at the Arkansas State 29yard line to start the fourth. Blake Lynch missed a 47yard field goal. Arkansas State pulled off two trick plays, includ-
ing a fake punt that lead to a pass interference. The Red Wolves would score off a 5-yard touchdown catch by Jonathan Adams to take a 28-21 lead with 11:49 remaining in the game. Trick plays were the downfall for the K-State defense. “Well [it’s] frustrating on the second one because we called it out and actually had a really good call and didn’t make the play,” Klieman said. “The first one, inexperience in the secondary, was the first one.” K-State had a third and 33 before a roughing the passer penalty on third and 33. To keep the drive alive, the Wildcats would score on a five-yard touchdown run by senior running back Harry Trotter to tie the game 28-28 with 6:35 remaining in the game. Blake Lynch hit a 35yard field goal to give the Wildcats a 31-28 lead with 2:30 remaining in the game. The Red Wolves marched down the field and scored a touchdown with 38 seconds remaining to take a 34-31 on a 17-yard catch by Jonathan Adams.
The K-State finished with 374 yards of total offense compared to Red Wolves total 489 yards. The Wildcats were only held to 91 yards rushing in the contest. K-State averaged 178 rush yards per game in 2019. “All things considered, I thought we made some good plays, but we just didn’t make enough today,” Thompson said. “That’s part of it. We just have to learn from it and move on.” Thompson went 1729 for 259 yards and two touchdowns but only rushed for seven yards on seven carries. The Wildcats struggled to stop Jonathan Adams, who had three touchdowns and 98-yards. “I thought he was too good today.” Klieman said. “A couple of times today, we had our back to the football and didn’t turn back and make a play. On two of the touchdowns he had, we had good vision on him, and he went over the top of us and made a play.” K-State will have a week off to regroup before facing the ranked Sooners at 11 a.m. on Sept. 26.
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K-State soccer falls to Oklahoma State 3-0, loses Harris for the season CAMERON BRADLEY sports editor
Dylan Connell | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP
KSU senior midfielder Maddie Souder follows the ball during the KSU vs WVU match on Oct. 27, 2019.
THISWEEK CAMERON BRADLEY
sports editor
There will only be two athletic events this week for K-State as the soccer and cross country teams travel outside of Manhattan.
SOCCER
After a week where the Wildcats did not know whether they would play until Friday afternoon, Kansas
Within a week, Kansas State postponed their season opener against Texas Tech, and rescheduled their meeting with Oklahoma State to Saturday. The Wildcats were finally able to take the pitch for the first time this season on Saturday night at Buser Family Park. However, the first game jitters showed for the Wildcats fast — they found themselves down 2-0 in just over the first two minutes of the match en route to a 3-0 defeat to start their 2020 season. Oklahoma State junior midfielder Grace Yochum was the first Cowboy to score in that two-minute span, floating a shot over K-State goalkeeper Alaina Werremeyer's head to take a 1-0 lead with just under two minutes gone. Just a few seconds later, OSU senior Gabriella Coleman netted the second goal of the game, stunning the crowd. "I thought we were mentally scared and timid the first five to ten minutes," head coach Mike Dibbini said. "We gave up goals that cost us the game, it's hard at this level when you're giving up goals that early to come back." While falling to the Cowboys was tough enough for the Wildcats, K-State also lost their starting goalkeeper, junior Rachel Harris, prior to Saturday. With Harris out for the season, the Wildcats had to rely on newcomer
Soccer travels to West Virginia, cross country begins season
State fell to Oklahoma State in their season opener 3-0 on Saturday night. Looking to pick up their first win of the season, the Wildcats will play the West Virginia Mountaineers at 6 p.m. on Friday in Morgantown, West Virginia. K-State will be without one of their primary goalkeepers from the past few years as junior Rachel Harris is out for the season due to an
unidentified injury sustained before Saturday’s match. The Wildcats are now left with three freshman goalkeepers — only one seeing action on the pitch as a Wildcat. Alaina Werremeyer got the start on Saturday night and recorded two saves, but allowed three goals for the Cowboys. K-State was also without their star midfielder on Saturday night because senior
DEFE AT
Werremeyer in goal. While the result was not what Werremeyer wanted, she still had high praise for her teammates. “There’s a lot of anticipation going into the game,” Werremeyer said. “I was really excited and my girls took care of me so I felt really settled in. They make it easy to play behind.” Werremeyer finished her night with two saves. Not only were the Wildcats down their starting goalkeeper, but they were down their star player as well, senior midfielder Brookelynn Entz. Coach Dibbini said after the game that Entz had been nursing an injury and he hopes that she will be able to return in time for the Wildcats trip to West Virginia on Friday. Down those two players, the Wildcats were already at a disadvantage before going down 2-0 in the first two minutes to the defending Big 12 Champions. OSU added a third goal in the thirty-second minute to make it 3-0, putting the match just about out of reach before halftime. K-State fought back in the second half on the field, holding the Cowboys scoreless after their explosive start, and the Wildcats even held the advantage in shots 6-5. “In the halftime talk, we were trying to figure out where the disconnect was between our teammates and just trying to get the ball and switching it so I think coming together at halftime and trying to get the whole team on the same page and having more fire in us
Brookelynn Entz was nursing an injury. Head coach Mike Dibbini said he hopes Entz will be available to play on Friday night, but her status is up in the air at the moment. West Virginia is coming off of a season-opening 2-0 victory over Iowa State in Ames, Iowa, on Friday night. The Mountaineers were led by senior Stefany Ferrer-vanGinkel and junior Alina Stahl who both had a goal to their names as well as two shots — both of Stahl’s shots being on goal. West Virginia is currently third in the Big 12 Conference standings and K-State sits at the bottom. The Wildcats were picked to finish above
[helped]," senior defender Shelby Lierz said. However, when it was all said and done the Wildcats just couldn't turn their opportunities into points in the second half, and OSU walked away with a 3-0 victory. It was almost a miracle that the game was played on Saturday — K-State and OSU managed to work out their meeting just a little over a day before the match kicked off. Oklahoma State's original game on Friday night was called off due to positive COVID-19 tests on the Oklahoma side, while K-State's original match on Friday against Texas Tech was called off for the same reason on the Texas Tech side. "It was a challenge for the preparation stage and that's what we saw tonight," Dibbini said. "What you saw was an experienced team that came in and was prepared for us, had we had another day or two to prepare, maybe the storyline is different." Overall OSU finished the night with the advantage on shots 10-9 with Coleman owning the Cowboys' shots, firing off six, with three of them being on goal and one going into the back of the net. K-State was led by senior midfielder Christina Baxter and sophomore forward Kyler Goins who both had two shots throughout the game. K-State will play next at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 18 in West Virginia against the Mountaineers, hoping to grab their first win of the season.
the Mountaineers in the Big 12 preseason poll — K-State is predicted to finish seventh, while West Virginia was picked to finish eighth. The start time for the match on Friday night is set for 6 p.m. with live audio broadcasted through 101.5 KROCK.
CROSS COUNTRY
The men’s and women’s cross country teams will kick off their seasons by competing in the 2020 Bob Timmons Classic on Saturday morning at Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Kan. The men’s 6K race is set to start at 9 a.m. The women’s 5K race is set to start
at 10 a.m. Iowa State and Kansas will be competing alongside K-State on Saturday. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no fans allowed at the meet on Saturday and student athletes will have to wear a mask when they are not warming up or competing. Anybody not competing, such as coaches and staff members, will be required to wear a mask and practice social distancing throughout the meet.
To read more, visit kstatecollegian.com
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MEET THE CANDIDATE
McKinley aims to serve people, provide northern Riley County with an ambulance BAILEY BRITTON editor-in-chief
Greg McKinley doesn’t consider himself an “average politician.” The Republican District 2 candidate for Riley County Commission said he is running for the position to help people, not to hold a position of power. This carries over from his time serving on the Riley City Council. “I just saw something that needed to be done and decided I was the person to do it,” McKinley said. The idea for McKinley’s campaign began about two years ago, he said. In the town of Riley — population of nearly 1,000 people — there is no ambulance and McKinley said it can take up to 45 minutes for ambulances to reach the northernmost parts of the county. His concern for the safety of those residents motivated
his campaign. “They moved an ambulance to the north part of Manhattan and said ‘Oh that’s helping north county,’” McKinley said. “They need to add another station ... and it needs to be in Leonardville because that’s pretty central to the north county area.” McKinley said this is a service to the county, not a business. Advocating for this and searching for ways to ensure northern Riley County has access to emergency services will be one of the top priorities he has if elected. Additionally, he said he wants to meet with every department to see how they run, what they need and how he can best serve them. “It’s so I’m not completely blind when I go in, because it is gonna be ... two new commissioners and [District One Commission-
er] John Ford is going to carry over,” McKinley said. “He’s only been there two years so it’s going to be a fairly new group.” In an effort to be accessible to all his constituents, McKinley said he will also hold office hours outside of the normal workday. “Just have regular office hours, you know,” McKinley said. “A couple hours on a couple of days. Come in, you want to talk about something you’re happy with, come in and talk about what they’re not happy with.” Additionally, McKinley said he would propose holding evening meetings for people to come and discuss topics. These wouldn’t be full business meetings, he said, but would help get more people involved in local government. McKinley carries a note pad with him at all times so he can make notes of issues
people tell him about. He carried this practice over from his time working as a contractor, and it has helped him frequently during his campaign. “When I was working as a project manager and going out on the job sites, I would always say, ‘Let me know what’s going on,’” McKinley said. “They started teasing me about having a pad of paper with a pen, but when you go to three different sites and everyone would say something different, by the time you would get back to the office you would forget.” McKinley said another skill learned on the job — this time as a city council member — that will help
him as a commissioner is the ability to read and maintain a budget. “Government budgets are different than business or even personal budgets,” McKinley said. “There’s all kinds of rules. You got to figure it out ahead of time where everything goes.” He plans to make his job about the people. Campaigning during a pandemic is hard, he said, but he stepped up to do more since he beat incumbent Marvin Rodriguez in the primary election. McKinley said he wasn’t surprised to beat Rodriguez because he is in the race to win. As McKinley looks to-
ward election day, he said he will continue to distribute yard signs and go door-todoor to talk to Manhattan residents. “What I’ve found is that you go knock on the door, step back and see if somebody comes out,” McKinley said. “If they do, talk to them. It’s also a lot of walking through neighborhoods to see if people are out. It’s different I am sure than what it used to be. You can’t go door-to-door shaking hands.” McKinley doesn’t consider himself an outgoing person, but he said he enjoys going out to talk to people and getting to know what they need.
YOU COULD BE YOU K-STATE’S NEW COULD BESTUDENT YOU COULD BE K-STATE’S NEW YOU AMBASSADOR K-STATE’S NEW COULD BE STUDENTSTUDENT K-STATE’S NEW AMBASSADOR AMBASSADOR STUDENT NOMINATION DEADLINE: Thursday, Sept. 10
APPLY ONLINE BY: Midnight, Wednesday, Sept. 23
AMBASSADOR
k-state.com/Studen
For more info and to apply online: NOMINATION DEADLINE: Thursday, Sept. 10
Bailey Britton | COLLEGIAN MEDIA GROUP
APPLY ONLINE BY: Midnight, Wednesday, Sept. 23
NOMINATION DEADLINE: Thursday, Sept. 10 For more info and to apply online: k-state.com/StudentAmbassadors APPLY ONLINE BY: Midnight, Wednesday, Sept. 23 NOMINATION DEADLINE: Thursday, Sept. 10
Greg McKinley is running for Riley County Commission in District 2. McKinley said he wants to help the people of northern Riley County by helping them get better access to emergency services.
k-state.com/StudentAmbassadors
For more infoONLINE and to apply online: Wednesday, Sept. 23 APPLY BY: Midnight,
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monday, september 14, 2020
OPI NI ON VEDANT D. KULKARNI
staff writer
One year ago today, no one could have imagined that a microscopic organic molecule called SARS-CoV-2 would hold the entire world hostage. Together, we face an enemy that has financially, mentally, physically and economically devastated people around the world. Many people were quick to blame globalization for this situation. However, blaming globalization for what happened is ill-informed at best and dangerous at worst. We live in a world that is getting increasingly interconnected. Borders are slowly disappearing and we are becoming more dependent on one another. During this pandemic, we became more dependent on other nations to provide us with important equipment, like N95 masks, personal protective equipment and COVID-19 testing supplies. Even after all this, people around the world blamed globalization for the pandemic. This blame game started because people are generally uninformed about globalization. People tend to believe that globalization is only about immigration — that is false. Investopedia defines globalization as not just
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people immigrating, but rather the spread of products, technology, information and jobs across national borders and cultures. Economically, it is the interdependence of nations around the world fostered through trade. When COVID-19 hit, we were quick to restrict global travel and rightfully so. But that decision did not mean the end of globalization — it was about putting globalization to the test. Nations worldwide came together to supply each other with the aforementioned necessities. The world is currently working to develop a COVID-19 vaccine to start a global immunization program. Per the World Health Organization, 172 countries are actively involved in the development of a vaccine and therapeutic treatments for the illness. These nations are also engaged in a dialogue to participate in COVAX — a WHO global initiative that hopes to work with manufacturers to provide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines worldwide. Once a vaccine is approved, nations around the globe will desperately need it for their citizens. The only way to ensure that we can vaccinate and immunize all 7.8 billion people is through globalization. Only a global eradication project — sim-
The way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is through globalization
ilar to those carried out for smallpox and Polio in previous decades — can help us out of this pandemic and put an end to COVID-19. In a report titled ‘Globalization and Infectious Disease: A review of linkages,’ WHO said that, while a good quality disease surveillance pattern can help detect a disease’s pattern, it is almost impossible to conclude that globalization contributes to disease spread. To prove in any way that globalization is responsible for the increasing prevalence of infection would require standardized monitoring of exposure, the outcome and other determinants of a disease over several years. Even if a causal association was detected, there would be considerable dispute over whether the process or infection was caused by globalization. This research does not mean that globalization is not a contributor to some aspects of COVID-19 spreading. When countries failed to act on the spread of the novel coronavirus by not halting global travel soon enough, the virus spread and became one of the worst pandemics in documented world history. However, some nations, like New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan, did a fantastic job by immediately halting travel and imposing strict lockdowns. Doing so allowed
control over the virus’ spread and helped these nations restart their economies. The entire world is working together to end this pandemic. One report by the multidisciplinary science journal Nature.com suggests that India may be the leading global supplier of the COVID-19 vaccine. Nature.com reports that the world’s largest vaccine maker — the Serum Institute of India — has already agreed to manufacture one billion doses of the vaccine developed by scientists at the University of Oxford and the UK Pharma company AstraZeneca. This vaccine is in Phase III clinical trials in Brazil, the United Kingdom and the United States to test its global effectiveness. Should this project succeed, one dose of the vaccine would cost a buyer nation around $3, making it cheap enough to reach globally. This alone stands out as a fantastic example of how globalization will help us end the COVID-19 pandemic. While people think that the COVID-19 pandemic would mean the death of globalization, it actually shows the disasters that can happen when nations try to conquer a crisis alone. When the pandemic started in China, the rest of the world had over two months to prepare themselves to prevent transmission. On Dec. 31, 2019, China alerted WHO about the occurrence of the disease in Wuhan and announced the first death related to COVID-19 on Jan. 11. By Feb. 10, China had over 900 confirmed deaths and 40,000 infections. The world had weeks to prepare for the pandemic by ordering kits, masks and getting their health systems ready, but the reluctance to believe this issue could be a global issue enabled the global pandemic.
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R E V IE W If you’re going to watch ‘ Tenet,’ plan to watch it twice or plan to be unsatisfied JULIE FREIJAT copy chief
After months of uncertainty, cinema has been resurrected — and who better to bring it back than Christopher Nolan, who has already proven his capabilities with numerous blockbusters. “Tenet” is a film about an agent working to prevent an apparent World War III — but this world war has much more to do with time than its predecessors did. “Tenet” was slated to come out weeks ago, but per the new usual, it was delayed until theaters felt safe bringing moviegoers back into the dark, butter-scented box offices. I’m not sure the wait was worth it. I figured I’d be elated watching anything in theaters after so many months of watching and rewatching films in my bedroom, but “Tenet” left me unsatisfied — at least after the first go around. As is the norm for many of Nolan’s films, “Tenet” warrants a second viewing. I wouldn’t say I felt extremely different about the movie the second time around, but I did appreciate certain components of it more after catching details I’d missed prior. If you’re planning on seeing the film in theaters, plan to watch it twice, or plan to be confused and unsatisfied. My review of this film would be far different after only one viewing. Nolan has a knack for weaving a story that plays with time — and he leans
into that ability with “Tenet.” However, a lot of what could be — and probably is — beautifully crafted dialogue, gets lost in the poor sound mixing. Even an IMAX theater failed to provide viewers with some much-needed context in an already confusing story. Half of the dialogue was lost either in the background noise or score. Nolan’s dialogue is precious, all of it necessary and none of it wasted, so missing a phrase in his films means a lot. The score was well composed, but certainly not at the same tier as other Nolan films. For “Tenet,” though, it worked. When the score kicked up, so did my heart rate, which is usually a good indication that the music is doing its job. However, scores are incredibly critical to a film’s impact, and I wish we heard more of it. I think a lot of the impact of the film was lost to audio mishaps. The cinematography left something to be desired, but the practical effects were phenomenal. Additionally, the acting was spot on. There wasn’t a moment in the film where an actor underperformed. The story, on the other hand, was genius and complicated. Nolan created a perfect blend of time, friendship and politics that leaves the viewer asking questions — but not unsatisfied. He wraps up the story nicely, with a curious monologue that will take you a few tries to grasp.
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