September 8th, 2021

The Emory Wheel Since 1919

Emory University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Volume 102, Issue 9

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Printed every other wednesday

20 years later: Professors, students reflect on legacy of 9/11

By Claire Fenton Associate Editor

“The prevailing memory I have is how quiet the skies were.”

For Professor of Pedagogy Peter Wakefield, the relative calm up above in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 stood in stark contrast to the distress and horror worsening daily on the ground below. Questions raced through Wakefield’s mind as the event morphed from an isolated plane crash into multiple and from an accident to an attack, yet he said his memory clings to the absence of activity instead of the “utter confusion” following the attacks.

“It was very bizarre because Atlanta has so many [planes],” Wakefield said.

“You don’t realize how many planes fly over the campus every minute and it was completely silent in that way. And that was quite eerie.”

The Sept. 11 attacks involved mission members of the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacking four commercial planes with the goal of crashing them into iconic American buildings. The most infamous and longlasting images came from the first two crashes into the Twin Towers in New York City, which resulted in thousands of deaths and the complete collapse of both structures. Another plane flew into the Pentagon, and the last crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Long Island, New York native Gregory Galant (05C), a first-year undergraduate student in 2001, was oblivious to the tragedies occurring in his home state until he saw screens displaying live footage of the Twin Towers upon entering the Dobbs University Center for breakfast that morning. It was there that he watched the towers fall and spent the remainder of the day back in his dorm room, glued to the news with his hallmates and trying to connect calls across the oversaturated phone lines.

The Emory Wheel printed its first issue after the Sept. 11 attacks three days later, on Friday, Sept. 14, 2001. Emory community members lit candles on the Quad the day after the attacks to remember those who died. “[I did] a lot of calling of the people who I knew in the New York area,” Galant said. “I grew up on Long Island and would go into the city a lot, so just being far away from it, not that I could have done anything if I was there, made me feel even more helpless at the time.”

When a radio broadcast informed Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of

Psychology Robyn Fivush that a second plane had flown into the Twin Towers, dread set in as she realized that what she was witnessing was no accident. Fear and anxiety defined the hours that followed, she said, as she frantically tried to reach family whom she knew were near the site of the attacks.

“The images were playing again and

again all day,” Fivush said. “Everything was overloaded. There was no good information coming out. The televised scenes were frightening, to say the least.”

Wakefield decided to hold class that afternoon, hoping to construct some normalcy for his students to combat the grief and shock many were feeling.

“A lot of my teaching is about the

community of the classroom, and I thought it might be good for everyone just to see that we’re going to go on, somehow, even if it’s inadequate,” Wakefield said.

Galant admitted that while it was difficult to feel that his academics retained any gravity after the attacks, he was grateful for the routine and distraction his classes provided.

“On one hand, it makes it kind of hard to think seriously after something like that; it shifts your magnitude of things,” Galant said. “On the other hand, it was nice to have structure or something else to throw myself into, because you can’t just think about this existential issue all the time.”

Although Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Mary Dudziak was on the opposite end of the country on 9/11, she too experienced the visceral terror felt across the nation. After waking up in Los Angeles to radio broadcasts relaying the attacks as they unfolded, she watched the south tower fall live on CNN. In the “horrible” aftermath, Dudziak, believing that she and her colleagues should address and analyze the attacks, organized a conference at the University of Southern California at which scholars spoke about the historical context of 9/11.

“The whole reason for the conference was to push back from the idea that scholars didn’t have anything to say yet because we had to wait and study,” Dudziak said. “In the aftermath of 9/11 historians had quite a lot to say about it, and those insights have held true over time.”

Afterwards, Dudziak edited, assembled and published the essays from the conference in her 2003 book “September 11 in History: A Watershed Moment?”

The book, widely used in high school curricula across the country, was recent-

See A TRAUMA, Page 1

Positive student cases surge, overwhelm conference hotel

By Matthew Chupack News Editor Emory University recorded a nearrecord 50 positive student COVID19 cases on Sept. 2, a 455% increase from the previous Thursday. The spike in cases has overwhelmed the Emory Conference Center Hotel, which had to open up additional rooms for isolating students and is now having students reside in isolation with a roommate.

Over the past 10 days, 209 students and 20 faculty and staff members received positive test results, according to the Emory COVID-19 Dashboard. This constituted a 4.58% positivity rate among the student body and a 0.82% positive rate among faculty and staff as of Sept. 7.

The recent campus spike nearly matched the surge in positive cases in mid-February, when a record 51 students tested positive on Feb. 17, according to the COVID-19 dashboard, prompting the University to institute testing two times a week for on-campus students.

While cases on campus have risen dramatically, COVID-19 cases have decreased in Georgia and DeKalb

NEWS SGA President

Seeks to Fill Vice President PAGE 2 Vacancy ...

P

County. Cases have dropped by 27% in Georgia and 28% in DeKalb County over the past 14 days, as of Sept. 7.

Nationwide, cases decreased by 12% over the same period.

Conference Center makes additional rooms available, experiences delays This surge contributed to a nearly 500% increase in hotel accommodations in a single week, Executive Director for COVID-19 Response and Recovery Amir St. Clair said. As of Sept. 7, 141 students are in isolation and eight students are in quarantine in on-campus accommodations.

While the Conference Center has not reached its maximum capacity, Emory had to utilize more rooms than previously assigned to accommodate students.

“Over this past week, as numbers quickly surged, the space required escalation quickly,” St. Clair said. “We worked to procure additional rooms, leverage the space that we had not previ-

See STUDENTS, Page 1

EDITORIAL Emory’s

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NEWS

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

The Emory Wheel

Students placed in doubles in conference center Emory receives over $50 million

for HIV cure research

Continued from Page 1

ously designated for such use and turnaround services as quickly as possible.”

St. Clair noted that the process of getting students to the hotel was partly delayed, not because the hotel was at capacity, but due to the scaling up the hotel’s quarantine and isolation processes in a short period of time to meet the demand of positive cases.

The University’s delay in accommodating positive students in the hotel resulted in some positive students isolating within their dorm.

Sophomore Advisor Adeola Adelekan (24C) said a resident in her building tested positive for COVID-19, but the hotel did not have the space yet to house that student. Consequently, the COVID-19 student was isolated in their dorm room while his roommate was moved to a different room in the hall.

This was not an isolated incident, Adelekan explained. One of Adelekan’s residents approached her and called housing, indicating she didn’t feel comfortable staying in her dorm room after her roommate was a close contact with someone positive.

“Housing said that there was no … other rooms in the form or in the conference center for her to go to,” Adelekan said. “They said she should just stay in her room, so she ended up having to sleep in the same dorm room with someone who was a close contact.”

St. Clair said this policy follows CDC quarantine guidelines, which the University aims to adhere to. If a close contact is fully vaccinated and remains asymptomatic, they do not need to quarantine but must get tested within three to five days of exposure.

Students placed with roommates in Conference Center The University has begun doubling up students in isolation and quarantine “to support an optimal approach to the academic, the emotion and the overall health” of students, St. Clair said.

After Emily Silver’s (24C) roommates tested positive for COVID-19 and experienced mild symptoms, Silver also tested positive for the virus, despite being fully vaccinated. When she arrived at the Conference Center on Sept. 3, Silver was assigned to a room with another student who she did not know.

Although she could see how having a roommate could be “rough” for some students, Silver said that she “got really lucky” and has had a decent hotel stay because she has enjoyed living with her roommate thus far.

Unlike her quarantine in the

By Tanika Deuskar Senior Staff Writer

Courtesy of Emory Conference Center Hotel

As of Sept. 7, 149 students are either in isolation or quarantine at the Emory Conference Center Hotel.

Conference Center last year, Silver said that having a roommate made her feel less isolated.

The University’s student health and public health teams are evaluating whether students will continue living with roommates in the hotel, even when the hotel has the capacity to accommodate students in individual rooms, St. Clair said. This decision entails reviewing feedback and data to better understand how to balance students’ medical needs with their mental health.

Sharing a room has come with some logistical issues, however, as some rooms were not built to accommodate two people and only contain one bed and desk.

Silver and her roommate constructed a makeshift desk so that they could both work at the same time. While Emory did provide a cot to accommodate the additional person, the cot is “smaller than a dorm bed and just looks so sad,” Silver said.

“We’re just going to share the king bed now because it’s ridiculous,” Silver said. “The cot is like a tiny little bed they set up on the floor next to the king bed.”

To mitigate these additional burdens, St. Clair emphasized the importance of respecting COVID-19 guidelines.

“We’ve got to be vigilant as a community together because our systems are stressed, our personnel are stressed and our teams are stressed trying to maintain a very large increase,” St. Clair said. “We’ve got to have good partners to make sure that we minimize this and lower transmission.”

On-campus COVID-19 guidelines remain in f lux As of Sept. 7, 95.4% of students and 91.6% of faculty and staff are fully vaccinated. However, of the positive screening tests since Aug. 23, 70% have been vaccinated, St. Clair said in a Sept. 2 email.

The rising cases prompted Emory to reevaluate its operating conditions, with the University sliding back into a “modified” yellow region on the University’s operating status meter.

Under the new operating status, access to Dobbs Common Table and the Oxford Dining Hall are restricted to students with meal plans, with carry-out options available. Outdoor masking is now “encouraged” for vaccinated individuals and it is recommended that non-academic indoor gatherings of more than 250 individuals be moved outdoors.

However, the University has not instituted any additional COVID-19 regulations as most positive cases originate from off-campus according to St. Clair.

“The evidence from our contact tracing or cluster investigations … continues to point that off-campus transmission is largely responsible for what we see as high levels of transmission,” St. Clair said. “We’re really good at following protocol on campus … but we’re just not seeing the same level of diligence and adherence when off campus.”

— Contact Matthew Chupack at matthew.chupack@emory.edu

Emory University received two grants amounting to $25 million and $26.7 million each from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for research into HIV cures on Aug. 17. The grants, which will be disbursed over the next five years, are part of a larger $53 million per annum award by the NIH to 10 research organizations that are part of the Martin Delaney Collaboratories for HIV Cure Research.

The $25 million award aids the Enterprise for Research and Advocacy to Stop and Eradicate HIV (ERASEHIV) project, which will be headed by Mirko Paiardini, associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the School of Medicine.

The $26.7 million award supports the Pediatric Adolescent Virus Elimination (PAVE) research program, a collaboration between Emory and Johns Hopkins University (Md.) that aims to find a cure for HIV in children and young adults.

It is the only research program part of the Martin Delaney Collaboratories that focuses specifically on finding a cure for HIV in children.

The project will be led by Emory Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Ann Chahroudi and Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Deborah Persaud.

“For people living with HIV, there is very effective antiretroviral therapy.

HIV infection in the 80s and 90s was like a death sentence. The life expectancy of a person with HIV was two years, now it is more than 50 years,” Paiardini said. “But what antiretroviral therapy doesn’t do is that it doesn’t eliminate the virus … If you stop treatment, the virus basically comes back.”

Both the ERASE-HIV and PAVE programs aim to identify the different cell types in which HIV persists by using non-primate models to identify targets for agents that could potentially eliminate the virus.

According to Paiardini, one of the key aims of ERASE-HIV is to understand the mechanism by which HIV is able to evade the body’s immune system to establish reservoirs of latent virus so that the mechanism can be disrupted.

“We are trying now to push the virus out of latency so that if the cell has the virus, it will express on the surface and the immune system will be able to recognize them and kill it so that it can eliminate these reservoirs,” Paiardini explained.

In addition to exposing the virus, the immune system would also have to be stimulated so that it can eliminate the virus, Paiardini added.

Chahroudi has also been working

to identify HIV reservoirs, but said she focused on pediatric patients to ensure that they were “studying HIV persistence and HIV cure in a pediatric setting to the same extent that it had been in adults.”

Chahroudi noted that strategies for cures in children might be different from those in adults as HIV infection is not only “much more pathogenic” in children than in adults, but it also infects a type of immune cells called naive CD4 T cells that “have been considered to be not that important in HIV infection of adults.”

Short of a complete cure, the PAVE research program also aims to develop strategies that help patients to “achieve a remission.” This would allow individuals to take medication only a few times a year instead of daily.

“The patients that I interact with, one of the things that really bugs them is this daily medicine,” Chahroudi said.

“A lot of the time, they tell me that they choose not to take the medicine because they just don’t want to think about HIV every single day, and so being able to give somebody something that they can take every six months is something that would eliminate a lot of the social stigma that they are feeling from the outside, but also from the inside.”

Both ERASE-HIV and PAVE strive to develop a strong bidirectional connection with the community through communicating their research to those affected by HIV and gaining insight from the community about what they think “an acceptable risk to be HIV free” is.

Paiardini sees the risk associated with some of the HIV interventions to be one of the biggest challenges in finding a cure.

“For cancer, many of the people go through more aggressive interventions because without an intervention they have a very short life expectancy,” Paiardini said. “With HIV, these people can take antiretroviral therapy and they can have a normal life expectancy.”

Thus, any cure will have to be “very well tolerated” and a “very strong alternative” to the antiretroviral therapy currently available, Paiardini added.

While it is difficult to estimate when a cure might become available, Chahroudi said she believes that the funding to the Martin Delaney Collaboratories’ member institutions is encouraging.

“It is a very exciting time, particularly with the next phase of the collaboratories,” Chahroudi said. “There are 10 total funded by the NIH, which is more than ever before, so there is really the potential for new ideas to come out that could have an effect on patient care.”

— Contact Tanika Deuskar at tdeuska@emory.edu

SGA President aims to fill VP vacancy by end of September

By Ninad Kulkarni Senior News Editor Student Government Association (SGA) President Rachel Ding (20Ox, 22B) intends to have a new executive vice president appointment confirmed by the legislature by the end of the month. The vacancy was created by the resignation of Amon Pierson (22C) in late August who cited mental health concerns.

Pierson was elected alongside Ding in a second election last spring after the Constitutional Council ruled that the opposing ticket violated the election code.

There is no clear established procedure in SGA governing documents for what to do if the executive vice president resigns, which caused confusion for Ding and SGA Speaker

Rachel Ding, SGA President

Courtesy of R achel Ding

Joseph Banko (23C) regarding how to proceed.

Pierson informed Ding of the planned resignation at the end of the spring term.

Under the current SGA code, however, even a temporary appointment requires approval from the legislature, which is not in session over the summer.

Before consulting with Lisa Loveall, the director of the Student Involvement, Leadership and Transitions office,

Banko was prepared to step into the role, as per the order of succession for the SGA president. But this order is only used in replacing the president temporarily and cannot be applied to the post of executive vice president.

“We assumed that the same line of succession applied to the VP position,” Banko said. “We realized there isn’t really any guidance that our governing documents offer us in a situation like this.”

Under the SGA code, the president is granted the authority to have emergency appointments for positional vacancies, although the appointment must be confirmed by an unspecified majority of the legislature. The code additionally stipulates that such an appointment must be presented in a bill to the Speaker prior to the “next regularly scheduled legislative ses-

sion,” which is on Sept. 13.

However, Ding said this timeline is not ideal, as it would mean “essentially just picking someone.” “[Loveall] suggested we go through a regular cabinet process where I actually interview people and they apply,” Ding said.

Ding plans to release applications for the executive vice president post and other SGA positions after the first-year representative election cycle, which concluded on Sept. 6.

The process being followed is that of an emergency appointment, Ding said. Unlike typical emergency appointments, the selection for the new executive vice president position would not be temporary.

“Emergency Appointments do not completely encompass an EVP replacement because there will not

be a temporary appointment followed by a permanent appointment,” Ding wrote in a Sept. 7 email. “If the bill is not submitted before the next legislative session, it simply means that the temporary appointment is no longer valid. Therefore, regardless of when the bill is submitted … , the formal confirmation of the office of Vice President will still be permanent.”

If a new process for the replacement of an executive vice president is created, Ding plans for it to be made in addition to and not in replacement of existing emergency appointment procedures.

“We can only follow these proceedings because there are no others to follow,” Ding said.

— Contact Ninad Kulkarni at nkulka7@emory.edu

NEWS

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

‘A trauma that’s going to be passed on through generations’

Continued from Page 1

ly made openly accessible to the public in honor of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

Fivush also wasted no time in examining the attacks from an intellectual perspective. For five days in a row immediately following 9/11, she and her colleagues asked Emory students to write narratives of their experiences and later performed a long-term follow up to compare the accounts.

They found that as time passed, the narratives became “more coherent and more emotionally modulated” as the subjects tried to extract evidence of positive growth and development from the tragedy.

“For 9/11, it was very hard to find those kinds of redemptive qualities,” Fivush said. “I think that the narrative that came out of it was [that] it brought us together and we overcame this horrific tragedy. As a nation, it didn’t bring us to our knees.”

While Dudziak said the attacks transformed American policies, attitudes and practices, she cautions that the historical events since the attacks are too deeply intertwined for scholars to assign any definitive causality to 9/11 alone. Blaming the attacks for how history has unfolded the past two decades, like in the case of the recently terminated War on Afghanistan, ignores important decisions precipitating and following them that “foreclosed” alternate timelines.

“A lot of what determined the way that history would unfold after the attacks was how the United States responded,” Dudziak said. “There wasn’t one way to respond to the 9/11 attacks. There was a wide range of possibilities.”

Wakefield expressed a similar sentiment, reflecting on the global unity and compassion the United States received as the country struggled to make sense of the tragedy.

“The world showed an outpouring of solidarity with the United States which, in my lifetime, was rather rare,” Wakefield said. “There was a lot of ambivalence worldwide about the United States … and it struck me in that moment that the expressions of international solidarity were quite extraordinary.”

Dudziak argued that the brief window of opportunity for the United States to reconcile some of its strained

relations with other nations slammed shut when former President George W. Bush responded to the brutality of 9/11 with more violence by declaring war on Afghanistan.

“That moment allowed for other opportunities that maybe a different leader would have followed up on,” Dudziak said.

Wakefield added that the Bush administration’s half-hearted defense of innocent American Muslims did little to combat the “horrible and blatant” racism directed against them, an attitude that still lurks behind modern immigration policies.

“There was a parallel kind of aggression which ultimately, I think, somehow led to the developments we’ve seen recently in the presidency of Trump,” Wakefield said. “These all have a piece of this idea that the United States is under a sort of vague threat from evildoers from certain parts of the world who look certain ways.”

As Muslims living in Atlanta in the wake of 9/11, Mina Masody (23B) and her family experienced firsthand such “hurtful” prejudices and treatment from other Americans.

“There’s always people who go out and commit things that are against their [group’s] values, their mission,” Masody said. “But we’re held to the standard that’s like, ‘You’re evil, your religion’s evil.’”

For Masody, whose family is from Afghanistan, the attacks were irreparably damaging to American perceptions of the Islamic faith and Muslims. While some white Americans said they found that their grief slowly soothed over the last two decades, Masody said being a Muslim in America has, in many ways, been an othering experience.

“We kind of grew up with this feeling that we should be ashamed of who we are,” Masody said. “Maybe you’re healing from your white perspective, but the generation of Muslims that grew up in America post 9/11 ... will never be able to heal from that. That’s a trauma that’s going to be passed on through generations.”

Fivush said the lingering effects of 9/11 — whether as tangible as airport security procedures or ephemeral as the distorted “flashbulb memories” — form a collective traumatic event and are reminders that the wounds are still

3

Stanton M. Paddock/Senior Photographer

More than 2,000 students, faculty and staff gathered on the Quad Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 evening for prayer, songs and a moment to grieve. Some students shared their personal reactions to the crisis.

healing two decades later.

While memory is naturally erroneous and unconsciously revised as time passes, Fivush said accuracy is unimportant when it comes to processing collective trauma. Swapping stories and experiences allows Americans to understand the senseless violence of that event and its consequences and is an important part of the United States’ twenty-year healing process.

“We use our memories to make sense of our experiences, to make sense of who we are, to make sense of our identities,” Fivush said. “We are just driven as human beings to try and understand it and process it through telling each other what happened and trying to create a coherent story.”

— Contact Claire Fenton at claire.fenton@emory.edu

Amy Rubinson/Contributing Photographer

Students gather outside Glenn Memorial Church on Sept. 11, 2001, where a memorial service was held for the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

St. Clair explains University’s new approach to mitigating spread of COVID-19

By Madison Hopkins Senior Staff Writer With overmore than 95% of Emory’s students population and more than 91% of faculty and staff have been vaccinated as of Sep. 4, the University has taken a new approach to managing COVID-19 in the fall semester, according to Amir St. Clair, Associate Vice President and Executive Director for COVID-19 Response and Recovery.

Before vaccines were widely available in the U.S., the University used statistics such as case numbers and level of transmission to determine safety policies. Now, “we’re looking at severe illness, hospitalization, and death” to guide decision-making, St. Clair said during the virtual University Senate Town Hall on Aug. 31. The Town Hall was open to all Emory faculty, staff and students.

“Ultimately, the goal [in previous semesters] was around infection prevention,” St. Clair explained. “When you move to a largely-vaccinated community, and you yourself are vaccinated, which we’re asking everybody to be, how you measure risk changes.”

Now, St. Clair said that the goal now is to “ is to ultimately minimize illness.” This change in approach is due to high vaccination among Emory community members, but also stems

from acknowledging the realization that COVID-19 has continued and will continue to spread.

“The biggest reason why we pushed requiring vaccinations is because we knew that was the most critical tool for us to get over this hump of infection prevention and be able to position our community members to have the most critical tool to prevent illness,” St. Clair said.

“Certainly, we’d love to have zero cases, but the reality is we’re going to have COVID with us for a while.”

Since the Town Hall, Emory has moved to a “modified yellow” operating status, restricting the Dobbs Common Table and Oxford Dining Hall to students with meal plans and requiring large events with over 250 people to be held outdoors, according to a student-wide email from St. Clair sent on Thursday.

When asked how the University will handle booster vaccines, St. Clair emphasized that the FDA has not approved boosters, nor does the CDC currently recommend them. He also explained that, while the FDA has approved a third dose for immunocompromised individuals, a third dose is part of the primary vaccine series, while a booster helps increase the immunity of fully vaccinated individuals after time has passed.

TOn Aug. 12, the FDA approved an Emergency Use Authorization for a third dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine on Aug. 12 for “solid organ transplant recipients or those who are diagnosed with conditions that are considered to have an equivalent level of immunocompromise.,” according to a press release.”

Emory is currently offering three types of COVID-19 testing services for students, faculty and staff. These services include entry testing for unvaccinated students arriving back on campus; screening testing, which is available for all students, faculty and staff but only required weekly for individuals who are currently not fully vaccinated; and diagnostic testing, for those with symptoms or known COVID-19 exposure.

Among unvaccinated individuals required to be tested weekly, compliance was 95% for students and 98% for faculty and staff for Aug. 23 to -27, according to St. Clair.

The percentage of positive screening tests for the 10 days preceding Sep. 4 was 4.80% for students and 1.08% for faculty and staff, as reported on the Emory University COVID-19 Dashboard.

In addition to case numbers and vaccination rates, the University is also monitoring the volume of students in

isolation and quarantine at the Emory Conference Center Hotel.

“We have reserved spaces based on projection models. When we hit a certain threshold we go ahead and automatically activate the next set of spaces that we need for those quarantine and isolation conditions,” St. Clair explained.

The University is also monitoring the CDC’s travel policies, to ensure students can travel and study

abroad safely, St. Clair said. He explained that the school is prepared to “increase our testing capacity,” “pull back on gatherings or travel” or “change masking protocols” if case numbers, the isolation and quarantine population, CDC guidelines, or other factors require it.

— Contact Madison Hopkins at first.last@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel Volume 102, Issue 9 © 2021 The Emory Wheel Alumni Memorial University Center, Room 401 630 Means Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30322 Business (404) 727-6178 Editor-in-Chief Isaiah Poritz isaiah.poritz@emory.edu

Founded in 1919, The Emory Wheel is the financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University in Atlanta. The Wheel is a member publication of Media Council, Emory’s organization of student publications. The Wheel reserves the rights to all content as it appears in these pages, and permission to reproduce material must be granted by the editor-in-chief.

The statements and opinions expressed in the Wheel are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Wheel Editorial Board or of Emory University, its faculty, staff or administration.

The Wheel is also available online at www.emorywheel.com.

The Emory Wheel

O������ W��������, S�������� 8, 2021 | Opinion Editors: Sophia Ling (sophia.ling@emory.edu) & Martin Li (martin.li2@emory.edu)

EDITORIALS

Emory’s COVID response isn’t enough In the past week, the number of positive student COVID-19 cases on Emory campus has spiked. With 209 students testing positive and 141 in isolation, the situation is becoming more dire everyday. And since not all Emory students are regularly tested, the true number of cases is likely higher. Emory’s ambitious reopening plans have been curtailed by the Delta variant. In order to protect its students and staff, Emory needs to scale back some of its reopening plans by requiring all students to get tested weekly and shifting to take-out dining.

In an email sent to students on Sept. 2, Associate Vice President and Executive Director for COVID-19 Response and Recovery Amir St. Clair addressed the rising case numbers and updated the community on new COVID-protocols. In that message, St. Clair outlined a shift to restricting dining and events. The message also encouraged students to get tested weekly to monitor their own health.

However, this is not enough, as students will likely consider this a voluntary measure rather than a necessary precaution. University administrators must ensure the protection of its students, staff and

faculty by enforcing mandatory protocols in a proactive manner. By leaving it up to the discretion of individual students, we are all forced to assume the responsibility of others’ decisions or lack thereof. This ambiguous protocol is not a realistic means of establishing a healthy community that honors the safety of all its members. It is this very lapse in judgement from the federal and state government that has left the U.S. and Georgia in its current state.

Currently, the U.S. is experiencing the fourth wave of COVID-19, which has been deadly for the unvaccinated. Hospitals see an average of 100,000 COVID patients every day, and August was Florida’s deadliest month of the pandemic.

The U.S. is currently averaging 166,000 cases per day and hospitals have been overwhelmed. The Atlanta area is no exception. Georgia recently set a new high in COVID cases and the hospitals are overflowing. Even Emory University Hospital has begun turning away patients due to overcapacity.

The Delta variant is as contagious as chicken pox, and even with high vaccination rates, it can still spread.

We need a stronger response from Emory.

Since the first week of school, residence halls no longer require students to wear masks in both their own buildings as well as those they choose to visit. In essence, this means that students do not need to wear masks around each other and their friends, and defeats the purpose of the University’s attempts to enforce the indoor mask mandate.

This not only fails to comply with the guidelines of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention but also puts students at greater risk of transmission. Instead of allowing people to run maskless in residence halls, Emory needs to reinstate a strict masking policy inside dorms.

The administration’s most glaring errors have been with dining.

Within dining areas, numerous students, faculty, staff and hospital workers are often maskless eating together for extended periods of time. Strongly encouraging people to eat outside is not enough, the University must take action to enforce this policy. Until cases subside around campus, Cox Hall and the Dobbs Common Table need to shift to a take-out only plan.

Testing is another major issue for the University. Since there are

only 15,000 screen tests available per week, Emory may not currently have the capacity to test all 28,177 faculty, students and staff every week, and we should revise our testing policy to closely monitor potentially positive asymptomatic cases. If Emory continues to test building wastewater as they did in the previous year, they must not only release the results to the public but also test buildings with positive cases. One viable option could be mandatory testing of a random batch of students weekly, potentially catching cases of students who would not get tested otherwise. If the University provides the community with repeated testing and monitoring, we may be able to slow down the current upward tick in cases.

We understand that administrators face daunting logistical challenges, especially regarding isolation and quarantine protocols. But this is no excuse. Emory needs to expand their infrastructure for students who have COVID-19. In fact, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School concluded that students in residential colleges should be tested every two to three days in order to prevent the spread of cases

from asymptomatic students.

Emory should work to expand testing to at least three times per week.

Until our campus is under control, we are all at risk; we will continue to have COVID-19 scares weekly and live in fear of contracting the virus. Vaccinations alone will not get us through the semester safely — Emory must do better because they are currently failing to foster a safe learning environment.

All of these precautions would help us forestall another online semester — something many students wish to avoid. Luckily, as St. Clair outlined to students, faculty and staff, there is no apparent evidence of classroom transmission.

Shifting classes online again would kneecap students' mental health and social wellbeing for months to come. Vigilance now should help us stay in person for the whole semester — we cannot sacrifice that for a frat party or a few big meals inside the dining hall. COVID-19 isn’t going away anytime soon, and the fragile semblances of our community could exacerbate the ever-increasing risk of deadly variants.

That’s a reality Emory simply must accept. If we fail, our entire year is doomed.

Hurricane Ida exposes our inaction on climate change Last week, Hurricane Ida devastated Louisiana, displacing numerous families, leaving over a million without power and ravaging peoples’ livelihoods.

Although Hurricane Ida’s devastation is still raw to many living in Louisiana, their pains have been eased by a relatively successful disaster response plan. While the coordinated effort by the local and federal government is laudable, it side-steps the larger issue at hand: combating the effects of climate change. Without sustained efforts to reduce our global greenhouse gas emissions, the occurrence of such cataclysmic weather events will only increase in frequency and intensity that will leave devastation

in its wake to the most susceptible populations.

Currently, we are still falling short of our obligations to reduce the planet’s overall warming, unable to reach the carbon emission pledges that we made under the Paris Agreement. The cost of our ineptitude, as exemplified by the consequences of Hurricane Ida, will come at the expense of people who have done nothing wrong.

With climate change at the heart of such a destructive catastrophe, scientists warn that these natural disasters will likely worsen at an alarming rate. Storms that appear anemic offshore will potentially spin into monsters in the span of 24

or 48 hours. Policymakers have a shrinking window of opportunity, which requires at least 72 hours to prepare for a disaster, and the residents reliant upon them are forced to make an even more grueling decision to leave their homes. These cataclysmic weather events leave civilians with few options compounded by the residents’ socioeconomic statuses.

Though it is easy to advise people to evacuate and leave the city they call home, many cannot do so.

More often than not, they are lowincome individuals, Black and brown residents, unable to abandon their jobs and homes. At its root, the events in Louisiana only further prove that unless we take

immediate action to combat climate change, natural disasters will continue to ravage citizens without the capacity and resources to ensure their own safety. Climate change is not just a far-off catastrophe; it is impacting civilians every day who do not have the resources to evade disaster.

Therefore, we must take climate change seriously. We cannot wait around for disasters to strike and then figure out how to alleviate the people suffering from its consequences. Instead, we need to work toward preemptive solutions to reduce carbon emissions. For instance, we should watch our carbon footprint and prove that we’re serious about sustainability through

wasting less food and walking to places that you can.

If we are to prevent further such calamities in the future, for the benefit of the people of Louisiana and the many other victims across the U.S. The fallout from Hurricane Ida demonstrates our obligation to reform our reactions to natural disasters.

Because of our actions, the situation of climate change is deteriorating at an exponential speed. It is time to take responsibility for the damage that we’ve caused, and make necessary sacrifices and steps to alleviate the environment from human hubris.

The above editorial represents the majority opinion of the Wheel’s Editorial Board.

The Editorial Board is composed of Viviana Barreto, Rachel Broun, Sara Khan, Sophia Ling, Martin Shane Li, Demetrios Mammas, Sara Perez, Leah Woldai and Lynnea Zhang.

The Emory Wheel Volume 102 | Number 9

ISAIAH PORTIZ EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ANJALI HUYNH EXECUTIVE EDITOR BRAMMHI BALARAJAN MANAGING EDITOR JESSICA SOLOMON MANAGING EDITOR CAILEN CHINN CHIEF OF DIGITAL OPERATIONS PHYLLIS GUO Copy Chief NINAD KULKARNI Senior News Editor MATTHEW CHUPACK News Editor SARAH DAVIS News Editor SOPHIA LING Opinion Editor MARTIN LI Opinion Editor LAUREN BLAUSTEIN Emory Life Editor KATILIN MOTTLEY Emory Life Editor SARU GARG A&E Editor

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The Emory Wheel welcomes letters and op-ed submissions from the Emory community. Letters should be limited to 300 words and op-eds should be at least 500. Those selected may be shortened to fit allotted space or edited for grammar, punctuation and libelous content. Submissions reflect the opinions of individual writers and not of the Wheel’s Editorial Board or Emory University. Send emails to emorywheelexec@gmail.com or postal mail to The Emory Wheel, Drawer W, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, 30322.

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The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

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5

Across:

Down:

1: Famous fabulist 6: Actor Gooding Jr. 10: Recommended cost of goods 14: Hurried marriage 15: From a distance 16: And others 17: Avid computer user 18: Military reserve training 19: Dumb or disoriented 20: Praying figure in paintings 21: Irrelevant artifacts end up in the “___ ___ of history” 23: “Illmatic” rapper 24: Flagship NBC reality show 26: Geographic characteristic of 6-, 33-, 45- and 64-across 29: Type of evergreen 30: ___ cute, romantic trope 32: Maiden name indicator 33: 4th most populous country 37: Macklemore, “___ ___ Danced” 39: Liquor served straight 40: e.g. horror, sitcom, country 42: CEO of Disney until 2020 43: Kitchen clothing 45: Densely populated country in southeast Asia 47: Onomatopoeic gun noise 48: Thomas Hardy title character 50: Transcontinental organization headquartered in D.C. 51: Actress Helfer 53: Airport nearest to Emory 54: Teaching labor union 57: Foolish people 60: Proverbial best part of cake 62: Couple 64: Fancy water brand 65: 3 times, “Seinfeld” conversation filler 66: Nickname of NBA player McGrady 67: Condition often resulting in a discount 68: Minnesotan pronunciation of “about” 69: Enemy of teenage skin 70: Opening sentence of a news article 71: “Twin Peaks’” Audrey, Ben, Jerry

1: First Targaryen king in Game of Thrones 2: Moon of Jupiter 3: Drugs in “Brave New World” 4: “___ sesame!”

5: Relevant to 6: Gemstone unit 7: Abnormalities seen near Roswell, Highland, etc.

8: Chaucer’s Wife of ___ 9: Redhead comic character 10: “What do you want, a ___?”

11: Inconsistent traffic speed 12: Hip hop 13: Layer of material 22: “This” in Spanish 25: “Succession” cousin 27: More contemporary than 28: Agricultural equipment manufacturer 29: Phonetic picture 30: Common variation of snack foods 31: Donald Glover’s “Atlanta” character 33: Ill-suited- unbecoming 34: Mathematical unit for ratios 35: Scholar of “On the Origin of Species” 36: Latin root meaning sit or stay 38: Pinches sharply 41: Rare entertainment distinction held by Audrey Hepburn, John Legend 44: Dismissive acronym 46: 90s R&B legend 49: Lengthy reprimand 52: “Odyssey” witch 53: In theater, dialogue directed to audience 54: Smell of burning fat 55: “___ ___ a high note” 56: Quartz variety 58: River connecting France to Belgium 59: Ancient Egyptian symbol 61: Mexican resort city 62: Idiosyncratic director of “Magnolia” 63: “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad” network

Emory, communicate COVID goals Daniel Matin Up to this point, the objective of Emory’s COVID-19 rules has been clear.

In the beginning, the goal was to “flatten the curve” of cases and hospitalizations.

As the fall 2020 semester approached, cases overwhelmed hospitals nationwide, causing thousands of deaths.

Emory implemented a mask mandate, kept classes online, restricted gatherings and only invited first-year students, with few exceptions, back to campus. Unlike today, these past goals were understood by the community, and protective measures were then better aligned with them.

These earlier policies called for sacrifice to safeguard our community with clear objectives in mind: flattening the curve and preventing severe outcomes. But the game changed when effective and safe vaccines were available to everyone 12 and up.

With limited exceptions, Emory mandated all students, faculty and staff be fully vaccinated if they wanted to operate on campus in person in fall 2021.

On Sept. 2, the University announced it would switch to a “modified yellow” operating status. In addition to the preexisting indoor mask mandate, this meant restrictions on large gatherings and modest changes to dining and recreation. However, Emory Forward, Emory’s COVID-19 update website, does not explicitly cite a data-driven reason for the change. Beyond a surface explanation of a rise in cases, there has been little messaging to the Emory community on what necessitated the switch, or why Emory shifted to yellow and not orange or red. There should be clear, quantifiable metrics for the community to work toward. The Emory community deserves to know what conditions need to be satisfied to achieve a standard like green or yellow.

Policies to protect our community do

not work in a vacuum. They require individual compliance. For instance, asking staff to constantly ensure everyone is wearing a mask indoors is impractical. A mask requirement only works in practice if people will follow it on their own.

Emory’s policy mandates aren’t meant for those who would exercise caution without a mandate. Instead, they should target the least cautious people who are most likely to engage in high-risk behav-

Emory needs to be clear with communication on the purpose of the policy.

ior like attending unmasked indoor gatherings and spreading the virus. This targeting takes the form of clear communication. Whatever metric Emory is attempting to reach — a certain level of cases or zero deaths and hospitalizations — it is crucial for Emory to communicate its reasoning to those disregarding the current policies. Emory needs to be clear with communication on the purpose of the policy.

I’m not arguing that the time for preventative measures against COVID-19 like mask mandates has passed. Some people are immunocompromised and cannot get vaccinated, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has still not approved vaccines for those younger than 12. Recently, the surge of Delta variant cases has stretched Georgia and Atlanta hospitals almost to capacity. Addressing these problems is a worthy goal, but the University should explain how its rules are doing that. Emory has simply not laid out what goals it is hoping to achieve. While the implicit goal seems to

be to simply have less cases, there has been no explanation of what an acceptable level of cases would be.

Close to two years into the pandemic, one thing has become clear: the U.S. is not going to achieve herd immunity. Despite having a 95.4% vaccination rate among students, Emory is still having caseloads comparable to the peak last spring. We, both in the world and in the Emory community, are never going to have zero COVID-19 cases — the disease is likely to become endemic.

It does not make sense for Emory to formulate policy with the general goal of getting rid of cases. Clear metrics are necessary to evaluate what measures are needed to deal with the virus as it transforms from a novelty to a permanent part of life. At some point, Emory is going to have to grapple with the fact that there is no normal to return to. We are going to have to live with this virus for the long haul.

This endemic endgame for COVID-19 means eliminating cases entirely is an unachievable goal. The fight against COVID-19 should be about preventing severe outcomes — hospitalizations and deaths. But I concede, I am a university student and not a public health expert. Maybe Emory believes they should prioritize limiting the number of cases among vaccinated people. Even so, they have failed to take all the measures, like mandatory weekly testing and closing indoor dining, they should have taken to achieve that outcome.

Justifying restrictions by saying that we are living in “unprecedented times” and to “listen to the science” isn’t going to cut it anymore. Emory needs to better explain what its COVID-19 policies are trying to achieve and why it needs the community to comply with these policies to reach that goal. We can’t work toward a goal if we don’t know what it is.

Daniel Matin (25C) is from Franklin, Tennessee.

The Emory Wheel

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Blame univ. for COVID spike Sophia Peyser This semester feels like the premise of a really sick scientific experiment. What happens when 7,000 undergraduates are allowed to run amok during a pandemic?

What if you don’t require testing for vaccinated students? Vaccines are required, except for people with health problems and “strong personal objections.”

The answer: the Emory Conference Center Hotel (ECCH), which houses positive students, has seen a nearly 500% increase in students in the past week. Student Health Services (SHS) is bombarded with so many symptomatic testing requests that not only can they not accommodate them, but students, such as Danny Roytburg (25C) and Bella Piekut (25C), are also being shipped off to the hotel before receiving test results. With this, some people who aren’t COVID-19 positive are taking hotel rooms away from positive students. Students that book asymptomatic testing appointments are stuck waiting 24 to 48 hours for their results, with no instructions to quarantine. The University has proven inept at protecting its students against COVID-19 and other medical ailments.

Health problems other than COVID-19 still exist, despite the worrying spike in cases. Yet, some students can’t even book in-person appointments for nonrespiratory issues at SHS anymore. The Student Health Portal reads that they are experiencing a large number of COVID-19 related visits, thus they have “very limited space available for non-respiratory visits.” The website directs students to nearby Urgent Care clinics instead. The term “limited space,” however, is misguided. After attempting to schedule a Primary Care appointments online, Margaret Hecht (25C) and I both found that there was not a single appointment available within the next few months.

Telehealth and Urgent Care are now the only remaining options for those with non-COVID-19-related concerns. In serious situations, students are directed to Emory University Hospital Emergency Room. Unfortunately, the reality is that Emory is attached to an internationallyrenowned hospital but unable to provide students with basic health care, like con-

cussion treatment or stomach pain diagnosis. For a school that gloats endlessly about its mastery of medicine, it’s shocking that its students are now struggling to receive basic care. Both off-campus partying and the University’s lack of proactivity in testing bear significant responsibility for the spike in COVID-19 cases over the last 10 days. Had Emory tested students upon arrival and isolated positive cases immediately, the number of positive cases might have been different.

Perhaps, like Rice University (Tex.), Emory should have taken classes online for two weeks. Though a few unlucky students would have spent the first 10 days of college in the ECCH, the University could have avoided the seemingly uncontrollable surge in positive cases.

While it’s difficult to prevent newly independent 18-year-olds from partying, it is possible to isolate COVID-19-positive students through regular testing.

Contact tracing and speedy testing are additional measures Emory must take to squash the surge in positive cases. Emory should increase the number of weekly tests available, invest in tests with quicker results and establish a more logical contact tracing system. Currently, contact tracing often doesn't function adequately; personally I have only received emails about isolated positive cases in my residence hall, despite being exposed to COVID-19 on two separate occasions.

Furthermore, results from asymptomatic tests can take up to 48 hours to come back, cultivating anxiety and spreading COVID-19. On two separate occasions, my friends and I resorted to buying athome antigen test kits for quick results after being exposed to COVID-positive individuals. If Emory Village’s barren CVS can provide students with tests, the University with the 22nd best medical school has a duty to provide students and staff with free, quick testing at all times.

Emory’s endowment is in the billions, and the University has the resources and personnel to keep students safe and healthy during a pandemic. While Emory has taken steps like changing its operating status to yellow and advising students to eat outside, nothing will improve until testing is prioritized and contact tracing is performed consistently.

Sophia Peyser (25C) is from New York, NY.

6

Coping with anxiety in 21st century Martin Li This century will be a painful one.

Our generation has already suffered through a recession, a pandemic and an authoritarian in the White House.

The years ahead don’t bring much hope.

The climate catastrophe will only worsen, leading to sinking cities, water shortages and more. Technology risks rendering jobs obsolete and the threat of nuclear weapons continues to hang in the background as the international community becomes more volatile.

When I try to imagine where I’ll be and what the world will look like when I’m 30, 50 or 70 years old, it isn’t a happy picture. But this is no reason for anxiety.

In the essay “Personal Identity,” British philosopher Derek Parfit offers a radically different view of personal identity that can help alleviate this anxiety. Instead of viewing every future moment of my life as something I will experience soon, I should focus on what will happen to me within the next few weeks. We should all incorporate this mindset into our anxiety about the 21st century.

Parfit distinguishes between psychological continuity and psychological connectedness, which are traditionally thought of as making up our personal identity. Psychological continuity refers to the continuous stream of consciousness that connects me to my entire life.

Psychological connectedness refers to the values, memories and beliefs I might hold onto at one time. As a person, I am psychologically continuous with both my past and future self.

But, I am not psychologically connected with the past and future

versions of myself. I can’t remember anything of my younger years, and I have forgotten all the ambitions, beliefs and fears of toddler me. Likewise, many of the ambitions, beliefs and fears that define me right now will mostly be abandoned in the coming decades. If I were to meet 70-year-old and six-year-old me, it would almost be like I was speaking to two different people.

Instead of viewing every future moment of my life as something I will experience soon, I should focus on what will happen to me within the next few weeks.

Instead of thinking of all the versions of us as one personal identity, we ought to incorporate Parfit’s theory into our daily lives by thinking of ourselves in degrees.

I am more psychologically connected and related to the person I will be in two weeks than the person I will be in 10 years. When we think of ourselves, we should think of our psychological connectedness rather than our continuity. This way of thinking helps alleviate some of our fears for the 21st century.

When we think of facing climate catastrophe and nuclear war, we are imagining ourselves as psychologically connected with the versions of ourselves that will face these problems.

The issue of Miami sinking into the Atlantic in the year 2070 is imagined as a problem I might face very soon.

The issue of Artificial Intelligence potentially achieving superintelligence and replacing humans in 2050 is imagined as something affecting my job prospects right now.

I imagine a psychologically connected version of me facing these problems, but this isn’t the case.

The version of me facing these problems might be as different from me as I am from me starting elementary school. We will be psychologically continuous, but not psychologically connected.

I will have different beliefs and ambitions, and worrying about it now doesn’t do any good for me.

There should be people planning and preparing Miami for far-future floods and people monitoring and proposing laws for the development of Artificial Intelligence. But, there’s no use for me, as a college student, to worry about these issues because they won’t affect me for a long time.

What’s left are the problems that a psychologically connected version of us will face. To be fair, these problems are many. From the Supreme Court, to the pandemic, to the immediate effects of climate change, there is still a long list of issues taking our attention and giving us worry.

But, I think Parfit gives us a reason to remove the scary yet distant ones from this list.

Instead of being trapped thinking of the problems of the far future, we can focus our attention on what is happening now and what we have to address today.

Martin Shane Li (22Ox) is from Rockville, MD.

&

The Emory Wheel

Arts Entertainment Wednesday, September 8, 2021 | Arts & Entertainment Editors: Saru Garg (saru.garg@emory.edu) & Stephen Altobelli (saltobe@emory.edu)

High museum’s “Gatecrashers” explores America’s complexity

By Zimra Chickering Senior Staff Writer

Joan Marcus

Elijah Malcomb, Joseph Morales, Kyle Scatliffe, Fergie L. Phillipe and Company - ‘Hamilton’ National Tour

Atlanta has its eyes on you: ‘Hamilton’ returns to the Fox

By Abby Williams Staff Writer

My friend and I held our breath as soon as the Fox Theater lights dimmed on Aug. 25 and the overture for “Alexander Hamilton” began. After listening to the live musical soundtrack for months, we were finally in the room where it happens.

As its title suggests, “Hamilton,” a musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tells the tale of American founding father Alexander Hamilton (Pierre Jean Gonzalez). As Hamilton’s sister-in-law Angelica (Ta’Rea Campbell) laments in “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” “every other founding father’s story gets told.” “Hamilton” therefore dedicates two hours and 50 minutes of

a mixture of rap and show tunes to describe decades of the political conquests and relationships of the ragsto-riches historical figure. Miranda’s decision to tell Hamilton’s story using a multiracial cast and a hip-hop musical style set “Hamilton” apart from other American historical retellings as “a story of America then told by America now.” The musical grew in popularity from its Broadway debut in 2015 and its Disney+ recording release in 2020. The Fox Theatre’s production will run from Aug. 26 to Sept. 26, 2021.

Though I’m incredibly partial to the original cast of “Hamilton” (LinManuel Miranda’s rendition of “My Shot” will always give me chills), I was nevertheless star-struck by how the Fox Theatre’s production added its own quirks and idiosyncrasies to

each character. Stephanie Jae Park’s portrayal of Eliza was more emotive than that of Phillipa Soo: Park delivers Eliza’s resolute line “I’m erasing myself from the narrative” with an irritated, rather than a removed, tone, which made me gain a new respect for her as a bold character.

Neil Haskell plays King George with a nasally, grating voice that only furthers his obnoxious role in the musical.

Gonzalez in particular plays a tough, confident and direct Hamilton who raises his voice at British officials and boldly asks for Eliza’s hand in marriage. I certainly missed the wistfulness and warmth of Miranda’s portrayal, but I appreciated that we as the audience received an entirely new

See LIVE, Page 8

and 1950, a time during which the public sought original art separate from European tradition that represented “Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self- the character and cultural history of Taught Artist in America,” on view at this vast country. The exhibition folthe High Museum of Art, is a beauti- lowed the trajectory of these artists ful and earnest portrayal of America over time, inspired by the first ground— its pain, its beauty, breaking exhibitions its wrongs, its comof self-taught artists at The collection of MoMA in 1938, 1939 forts, its hope and its downfalls. Through artists displayed in and 1942. While Kane, Pippin and Moses their unique narrathis exhibition were may have been the tives and individual hurdles, which mirror vastly more diverse three most prominent names in the world what many see in the United States already, in race, class, gender, of self-taught artists from the U.S., the the exhibition’s feastyle and lived curators clearly did tured self-taught artnot want to turn this ists represent a culexperience than I exhibition into a nartural history that is distinct, complex and had seen in a special row look at their lives emotional. oeuvres. Instead, exhibition before. and The collection of the curators also celartists displayed in ebrated the lesserthis exhibition were known self-taught vastly more diverse in race, class, gen- artists of that same period, includder, style and lived experience than I ing Josephine Joy, Morris Hirshfield had seen in a special exhibition before, and Pedro López Cérvantez, situating standing in stark contrast to the popu- these artists in conversation with one lar Calder-Picasso exhibit housed just another.

The dynamic between the more a few floors above. Featured artists John Kane, Horace Pippin and Anna popular and the lesser-known artists, Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses as well as their varied artistic techeach experienced barriers to art train- niques and biographies, brought the ing and were self-taught, rising to pop- exhibit to life. Despite featuring over ularity in the first wave of mainstream 60 works in a small gallery space, I felt as if the exhibition passed in the blink interest in self-taught art.

That ascension in artistic popularity occurred in the U.S. between 1927 See SELF-TAUGHT, Page 8

‘Q-Force’ doesn’t want to subvert stereotypes, it wants to reclaim them

By Catherine Aniezue Contributing Writer When Netflix’s marketing team released the teaser for “Q-Force,” an animated series about queer super spies, they probably expected that all those rainbows and flashing transitions backed by pulsing EDM would have the gays quaking with excitement.

The reality was quite the opposite.

The short trailer had queers of all kinds revoking their gay cards just so they wouldn’t be associated with the series. This queer, however, believes “Q-Force” does more than people are willing to recognize right now.

The show, created by Sean Hayes and Gabe Liedman, follows Agent Steve Marywhether (Sean Hayes), a gay James Bond-esque spy whose career at the fictional American Intelligence Agency (AIA) is sidelined when he comes out after graduating

from the academy. In an obvious act of dicrimination, the director of the agency assigns Agent Mary to a team of abandoned queer agents in West Hollywood, including Deb (Wanda Sykes), a Black lesbian mechanic; Stat (Patti Harrison), a hacker who falls in love with a robot; and drag queen Twink (Matt Rogers). As many spy team stories go — together they save the world from chaos and doom.

The backlash “Q-Force” has received thus far has less to do with the plot and more to do with the show’s use of stereotypical queer characters and dialogue. As the spectrum of gender and sexuality continues to widen and diversify, and our understanding of identity grows more complex, some find it derisive that “Q-Force” still uses sayings like “yas queen” and “slay” to convey queerness.

I don’t think the problem lies in how much slang the show uses, though.

Deb (Wanda Sykes), Mary (Sean Hayes) and Stat (Patti Harrison) in ‘Q-Force’ The “Q-Force” dilemma stems from the fact that Sean Hayes and Gabe Liedman tried to make a show that reclaims stereotypes while society is still focused on subverting them.

But, the problem with subverting or destroying stereotypes is that we tend to reject anything that comes close to the stereotype, even when it’s an authentic part of our existence.

Instead of pretending that there is no basis for the stereotype, reclamation lets those who were stereotyped control the narrative. That is what “Q-Force,” a queer series made by queer producers, actors, animators and other queer creators, aims to do.

One of the ways “Q-Force’’ choos-

es to reclaim stereotypes instead of subverting them is through Twink’s character.

Viewers of the teaser were notably uncomfortable when it came to Twink, likely because he was “too gay” for them. By “too gay” I mean he possesses many of the traits normative society use to criticize queer people.

He is an effeminate gay drag queen who talks frequently about his body.

He represents why heterosexual culture often attacks members of the LGBTQ+ community.

For many queer people, he is the type of representation they want to avoid, as he might perpetuate the unfair treatment they endure. This is

Netflix

valid.

However, the truth is that there are still many “Twinks” in the world, and to these individuals, his character can truly serve as a positive representation. Although the teaser paints him as a shallow character that is reduced only to negative stereotypes, the actual show depicts him as a strong, confident character whose super powers stem from the very things homophobes hate queer people for.

His name which many took offense to, is actually a name he adopted as a way to renounce his emotionally abusive past. “Q-Force” doesn’t want to deny Twink, and those who-

See NETFLIX, Page 8

8

A&E

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Netflix show reexamines representation Continued from Page 7 may relate to him, any part of themselves; instead, the show allows them to bravely reclaim all parts of their identity.

Still, I understand why some queer people are upset over “Q-Force,” especially considering the way Netflix advertised it.

Netflix released the woefully criticized teaser during Pride month, a time when queer people become increasingly suspicious of the companies that turn their logos rainbow-colored to raise sales and not awareness of the LGBTQ+ community.

As a well known giant in the business and entertainment world, it is easy to question Netflix’s motives for “Q-Force.” It’s hard not to read the show as one company’s rigid depiction of queerness. But we can’t be too quick to forget that queer people produced “Q-Force” from their own hearts and minds.

This doesn’t mean it should be exempt from criticism, but it does mean that we should be careful when we judge the authenticity of the art and characters.

“Q-Force” is not without faults. In terms of diversity, there aren’t many POC characters or characters that identify outside of the gay/straight binary. It also doesn’t feature explicitly

transgender characters. The writing of the show is also lacking at times, as it uses jokes and references that might seem dated.

I’m not arguing that the show is the best queer creation to exist, or that everyone should love it, but rather for a re-examination of how we use stereotypes to judge whether representation is good or bad.

There is no doubt that stereotypes can be harmful, yet the mere presence of tropes in a series should not make it unworthy of our viewing.

Rather, we should assess how those stereotypes are used: are they the sum of the character or a feature of their collective traits?

Are they used to propagate prejudice or are they accepted as part of everyday life? We can’t always immediately advocate for the destruction of stereotypes, which “Q-Force” proves.

If we try to eliminate all the stereotypes we see in the media, we may inadvertently kill off parts of real people who identify with those stereotypes.

So, rather than trying to destroy the stereotypes themselves, let’s reclaim them and change the voice that gets to control them.

— Contact Catherine Aniezue at canziezu@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Live theater returns to Atlanta Continued from Page 7 representation of Alexander Hamilton along with Gonzalez’ stronger vocal ability.Beyond its novel characterizations, I also marveled at how the live theater production used light and sound to bring Alexander Hamilton’s resilient story to life. The Fox Theatre was bathed in a cool aquamarine during “Hurricane,” and lit up with striking, vibrant colors during the gunshots in war songs such as “Right Hand Man.” As an audience member who knew an embarrassingly little amount about American history, I found that the shocking, sudden flashes of lights helped immerse me into the narrative. “Hamilton’s” sharp contrast between loud and quiet moments in the soundtrack were emphasized by the Fox Theatre’s rich acoustics, which caused the voices of the ensemble to grow louder than any song on its Spotify soundtrack. I particularly noticed that the live production introduced longer pauses than its original counterpart: Angelica’s extra beat of silence while on stage alone with Hamilton in “Satisfied,” for example, only exemplified her regret at throwing away her chance with him.

The charm of the immersive live theater experience is being part of a dynamic audience. After its Atlanta

production had been postponed for 18 months, the theater was packed with masked patrons who, like Aaron Burr, were willing to wait for it. In a year-and-a-half filled with solo Netflix screenings and living room movie nights, many of us have likely forgotten what it feels like to experience a work of art in a community with a crowd. For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, I watched as a musical I loved evolved from my own individual experience to a collective one as the audience around me clapped, cheered or laughed at King George’s dance moves.

I felt that the musical’s themes of hope, resilience and determination were especially poignant after the school and family stress that I have experienced due to the pandemic in the past year. The audience’s resounding applause following the closing number “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” not only honored the immense talent of the cast, but also celebrated that the pandemic did not cause the production to throw away its shot.

“Hamilton” was certainly a collective experience, but it also granted me an opportunity to reflect on how much the musical meant to me. Hamilton’s earnest desire to “not throw away

my shot” reminds me of the values that my parents and Emory’s culture have instilled in me to work as hard as I can academically. On the other hand, I empathized with Aaron Burr’s ambiguous future idealization of being “in the room where it happened” as a senior at Emory, because he reminded me that it is never too late to realize your passions. My connection to these characters made the production feel intimate and personal to me, even as I was surrounded by people who were laughing at the same jokes or tearing up at the same numbers.

As an audience, we collectively experienced each high and low of the production, but I guarantee that every member in the Fox’s 4,000+ seats encountered their own unique interpretation that made “Hamilton” feel like home. With a brilliant cast, extraordinary sound and lighting and the joy of returning to in-person theater, seeing “Hamilton” at the Fox Theatre was a night to remember.

The Fox Theatre production mixes the best of the original production with new twists to drive home a central “Hamilton” message: how lucky we are to be alive right now.

— Contact Abby Williams at abby.williams@emory.edu

Self-taught artists display a rich cultural history Continued from Page 7 of an eye. The gallery design allowed this exhibition to flow smoothly, with an eye-catching first entrance leading into winding galleries painted in deep, viridescent earth tones.

Both the artworks themselves and the historical context provided by the labels and wall text enrich the viewer’s experience, especially as you learn of the “firsts” accomplished by many of these artists breaking down barriers in the elitist world of high art.

Each canvas was more than a pretty sight; they were a collection of histories, narratives and, quite frankly, victories.

A prime example of this is Joy, the first female painter to have a solo

exhibition at MoMA, despite not being classically trained.

These featured artists were so defined by their outside employment that their first exhibition catalogues used their trades, not their art, to identify them. “Grandma” Moses was identified as “farm wife,” as she tended to her many children and worked on her farmland while creating detailed, unique artworks.

While her artworks appear simple from a distance, they are comfortingly detailed up close. There is a nostalgia imbued into her work, even if you have never known the places or the people she portrays.

Moses’ depiction of rural American life was unusual for the high art scene of her time, and many were struck by

the tranquility and naïve style of her work. Her landscapes are dreamy, yet her artistic practice is quite raw and real.

While the exhibition did celebrate these quotidien portrayals of the peaceful countryside, the curators were clearly not ignorant about the hostilities toward self-taught artists and artists of color in the U.S. The artworks of Pippin, the first Black man to be the subject of a monograph, added significant nuance to this narrative of the U.S. Pippin had fought in the all-Black 369th Infantry Regiment in World War I, and after suffering a gunshot wound to the arm, he used art to help his rehabilitation, creating artworks with a wood-burning technique that recalled the brand-

ing of enslaved people in the U.S. Artworks like “The Whipping” stood alongside the tranquil countrysides of Moses, the smooth New Mexican landscapes of López-Cervántez and the plaid-wearing men of Kane, impelling visitors to not just accept a singular perspective on the history of the U.S. Not only were the sundry artworks quite intentionally tied together by the curators, but the entire exhibition was repeatedly linked to the work of contemporary self-taught artists in the High Museum collection at large.

Placards labeled “Collection Connection” were featured along the way, explaining how current selftaught artists have used means similar to those in early 20th century U.S.

These labels inspired me to explore the rich “Self-Taught and Folk Art” gallery on the top floor of the museum as well.

Everything from gallery design to label writing and artist representation was considered with great intentionality, helping educate the viewer and place the more than 60 artworks in their context.

Without using the heft of “big name” artists or famous subject matter, “Gatecrashers: The Rise of the Self-Taught Artist in America,” closing December 11th, is a success and one of my favorite exhibition experiences at the High this year.

— Contact Zimra Chickering at zimra.chickering@emory.edu

Zimra Chickering/Emory Wheel

Horace Pippin, ‘The Whipping.’ 1941

Zimra Chickering/Emory Wheel

Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses, ‘Shenandoah, South Branch.’ 1938 (left). ‘Shenandoah Valley (1861, News of the Battle).’ 1938 (right)

The Emory Wheel

Emory Life

Wednesday, September 8, 2021 | Emory Life Editors: Lauren Blaustein (lblaust@emory.edu) & Kaitlin Mottley (kaitlin.michelle.mottley@emory.edu)

STUDENT AUTHOR

Emory student’s debut novel brings Black Muslim representation to YA literature

By Allison Reinhardt Contributing Writer

The past five years have encompassed some of the most politically turbulent times in our nation’s recent history. Between the country’s complete political polarization, the COVID-19 pandemic and countless other pressing issues, the United States has experienced significant turmoil since 2016.

At the epicenter of it all, Laila Nashid (23C) watched the conflict brew in her hometown of Washington, D.C. as a sophomore in high school in 2016.

As anti-Muslim sentiments continued to grow, Nashid decided to put her pen to paper and fight back with a novel that tackles online activism and the assumptions we make about each other.

Now as a junior at Emory, Nashid is finally seeing her work come to fruition as her novel receives the ultimate seal of approval: publication. Inspired by works such as the Netflix show “Dear White People” and the novel “Love, Hate, and Other Filters” by Samira Ahmed, Nashid’s “You Truly

Assumed,” a young adult contemporary novel published Inkyard Press, will be available in stores on Feb. 8, 2022, and is available for pre-order now. “You Truly Assumed” is the story of three Black Muslim teens who start a blog to foster community after a nearby terrorist attack spurs growing Islamaphobia.

Laila Nashid (23C) poses for her official author headshot.

Courtesy of Nohelia Valentin

“Going to school in D.C. and just living in that area, politics is always in the background of everyday life,” Nashid said. “The Muslim ban and how anti-Muslim sentiment was being used politically really inspired this book, and also I wrote it a little bit after the 2016 election, so I think [I] was also just grappling with [what] that result meant for me as a Black

“I was originally a book blogger, so I had connections with authors from that perspective,” Nashid said. “But I didn’t really know about the publishing side until I started taking my writing more seriously.”

After talking to published authors and doing her own research, Nashid set forth on the path to publication.

She began writing during her junior year of high school in 2017 and completed several writing mentorship programs during her senior year to help her with the process. After finishing her initial draft, Nashid queried her novel and signed with her agent in

See JUNIOR, Page 10

Back to in-person school: Pants now included

Even though the Georgian sun continues to beat down heavily on the newly revived Emory campus, the summer season is nonetheless fleeting. A Gilmore Girls-esque fall is hopefully on the horizon and with it, a new wardrobe — one that now includes pants. If you’re looking for some inspiration for your on-campus outfits, below is a guide to some summer-intofall fashion trends.

Mid-length denim shorts This summer, I made the dramatic shift from the short-shorts I’ve worn since I was 14 to longer cut denim. I have nothing against those who continue to go the shorter route, but I want to bring attention to the beauty of a longer cut, which has been neglected for far too long.

For starters, longer shorts are comfortable. It’s game-changing not having to continually pull down a pair of shorts as they move around throughout the day. Plus, the extra coverage keeps you from the pains of an icy cold auditorium seat or a scorching leather car seat. The longer shorts also allow you to boast a longer shirt without

looking pantsless. It’s officially time the mom jean trend makes its way to shorts.

Necklace stacking It’s simple yet effective; layering jewelry on top of a basic tee is a tried and true lazy person staple.

This look is also great because you likely already have the pieces in your closet.

Sometimes, we forget that accesories can do just as much for a look as clothes themselves. A simple white or black shirt with a few gold necklaces looks classy, tasteful and is always rewearable. It’s a perfect daily look.

Check out The M Jewelers, Urban Outfitters or Baublebar for some necklace stacking options.

Collared shirts Middle school me, who was subjected to a rather unfortunate school uniform of collared navy shirts, would be stunned that I now elect to reach for such an item. Yet, collared shirts can be made to look both casual and formal.

If you head home for fall break, try sorting through a parent’s closet for a well-loved collared shirt that could be worn unbuttoned as a layering piece or buttoned and tucked into a pair of shorts.

A stiffer collared shirt is also great, especially if you grab a pair of scissors and modernize the top by cropping the bottom or cutting the tight sleeves.

Yoga pants

Courtesy of Sophie Gern

Sophie Gern (24C) and a friend sporting mid-length denim shorts.

Yoga pants have been on a recent return in part to YouTuber Emma Chamberlain. She’s often seen sporting yoga pants, a retro sweatshirt and some big “I’m famous don’t talk to me” sunglasses.

Emory community gives and receives at Camp Twin Lakes

Muslim woman as well. All of that coalesced, and I also used to be a book review blogger, so the blogging aspect of my book comes from that.”

Eager to see more Black Muslim representation in literature, Nashid had no problem coming up with the concept for her novel, but the writing and publishing process was quite long and laborious.

FALL FASHION

By Sophie Gern Contributing Writer

FEATURE

Courtesy of Sophie Gern

Sophie Gern (24C) and a friend layering necklaces.

And she’s certainly onto something — yoga pants are comfortable, flattering and not overly sweaty, which can’t always be said for their tighter counterpart, leggings. Check out Athleta, Nike or Aerie if you want to hop on Chamberlain’s trend.

Sweat suits I have a friend who has always sworn by sweat suits, and until recently, I did not understand the obsession. Something about matching your lazy outfit makes it that much less lazy. A sweat suit communicates that even though you may have woken up fatigued, you can still manage to look chic.

You can have fun with colors and patterns and even bring sweatshorts into the picture on a hotter day. The sweat suit is time efficient, bold and comfy, so you really can’t go wrong.

If you’re hoping to start the year in a fashionable yet comfortable way, the above items are key to your success.

It’s tough churning out new looks every day after a year and a half of Zoom. But look at your return-to-campus outfits as an exciting conquest, one that you would’ve been delighted to take on last year.

— Contaact Sophie Gern at sophie.gern@emory.edu

Courtesy of Vrushali Thakkar

Camp Twin Lakes staff lead a dance during the opening ceremony for Camp Sunshine Family Weekend.

By Xavier Stevens Contributing Writer As Vrushali Thakkar (22Ox) commanded a zip line tower 50 feet above the ground, she carefully clipped in campers, but one camper wouldn’t budge. Terrified to tackle the zip line, he refused to push off the platform.

But Thakkar took her time with the camper, understanding that he needed patience and support.

After an hour-long pep talk, he stepped off the tower and flew down the zip line, smiling.

For more than 25 years, Camp Twin Lakes has offered children with special health care needs and life challenges an engaging community full of other kids in similar situations.

Many of the children that attend the camp are patients served by Emory University Hospital and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA).

Based in Rutledge, Georgia, the camp is staffed with student volunteers. This past summer, Thakkar and Josef Quispe (24C) participated as medical liaisons and members on Vrushali Thakkar (22Ox) had the opportunity to explore her passions and her career path at Camp Twin Lakes.

Courtesy of Vrushali Thakkar

the Outdoor Adventure Team, which assisted campers in activities like zip lining, rock climbing and a giant swing.

“We are both just kids like [the campers] but just a little older,” Quispe said. “Anything they find fun, we would also find fun. They saw me and Vrushali as a big brother and big sister to trust and find inspiration.”

In their 10-week program, Camp

Twin Lakes hosts a new group of children each week — Camp Sunshine for child cancer patients, Camp Kudzu for children with Type 1 diabetes and Camp Braveheart for children with heart defects, to name a few.

The campers participate in a week of fun, adaptive camp activities like a high ropes course, nature trails, talent shows and a wheelchair-accessible treehouse.

“To see people who have always been told that they can’t do something because of their disability, like climb a rock wall or ride a zip line, is the most rewarding experience,” Thakkar said.

“They have the opportunity to do that here.”

As members of the Outdoor Adventure team, Thakkar and Quispe assisted campers in wheelchairs by helping them climb rock walls.

They communicated with non-verbal campers through observing the movement of their arms and legs to help them confidently navigate the high ropes course. They also splashed water at the campers while kayaking to create a fun and exciting environment to grow.

“Something that my boss told me is to have fun and not highlight their illness or challenge,” Thakkar said. “The camp is to feel included, belonged and supported by your community who knows that you can push your limits and is there to encourage you every step of the way.

We are here to have fun and support one another. It’s not a hospital, it’s a camp.”

Thakkar is on the pre-med track and hopes to become a pediatrician, and Quispe aspires to become a pediatric oncologist nurse.

Camp Twin Lakes gave them the opportunity to have a summer of helping children and creating friendships while also learning how to accommodate children with different health challenges each week.

Every day at camp, they worked with members of the specialized medi-

See CAMP, Page 10

EMORY LIFE

10 Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Junior finds sociology classes useful for writing her novel

Courtesy of L aila Nashid

Left: Nashid’s debut novel will be available in stores on Feb. 8, 2022 and is available for pre-order now.

R ight: Nashid holds her novel ‘You Truly Assumed’ for the first time.

Continued from Page 9 October 2019.

A little less than a year later, “You Truly Assumed” sold to Inkyard Press shortly before Nashid started her sophomore year at Emory. Throughout the process, Nashid made sure to include her friends as much as possible by sharing snippets of her drafts.

“Seeing Laila go through the process was incredibly educational,” said Olivia Bautista (23C). “I got an inside scoop into the publishing world that I never expected. From rounds and rounds of edits, to picking the background color of the book cover, and even how taxes work for an author, Laila was incredibly open to sharing and including her friends in the experience.”

Difficulty navigating the publication process was compounded by problems that arose during the pandemic.

However, Nashid’s friends watched her overcome the numerous obstacles in her path with ease.

“It’s been truly inspiring to see Laila persist in this goal for as long as she has,” said Helena Zeleke (23C). “There were times, especially in the thick of the pandemic, where the circumstances seemed least conducive to accomplishing a feat as big as publishing a book, and yet she continued to write, edit, wrestle with all of the other obligations that come with publishing, and do it all with such grace.”

There was also, of course, the challenge of balancing college courses

with creating a novel. Yet, Nashid feels that her studies actually helped her improve “character development and world building” in the novel.

“Being a sociology major gives me a greater understanding of social interactions and how people see themselves in relation to others,” she said, “and being an English major helps me learn more about the craft of writing through interacting with various texts and also about what types of stories or themes appeal most to me.”

With the book moving through its final edits, Nashid has realized that it was an unrealistic goal to write about every perspective of Black Muslims in a single novel. Letting that desire go was one of her greatest challenges, she said.

Although Nashid cannot represent everyone, she was determined to include as many unique views in her book as possible and hopes that choice will resonate with people.

“I think the biggest thing that I want people to take away is that there’s no one way to make change,” Nashid said. “Because ‘You Truly Assumed’ follows three different point of view characters, they’re all bringing different perspectives to the blog, and they’re all making change in different ways. There is no right way to really do activism; you can make change the way that makes sense to you.”

— Contact Allison Reinhardt at allison.brooke.reinhardt@ emory.edu

Camp serves kids with special health care needs Continued from Page 9 cal teams that include several doctors and nurses from Emory University Hospital. These individuals taught Thakkar and Quispe about different diagnoses and how to care for certain children.

“I saw physicians who care so much about these children outside of the hospital setting,” Thakkar said. “It really inspired me and solidified that this is the field I want to go into.”

“Being able to get education on their conditions from friends in a really fun, stress-free environment helps them feel like a normal kid,” — Dr. Caroline Ray

Both she and Quispe also received several opportunities for research and shadowing from Emory doctors who attended the camp.

One of the doctors was Dr. Caroline Ray, an Emory University resident doctor specializing in child neurology and a veteran at Camp Twin Lakes.

She was an undergraduate medical liaison on the Art and Music Team — which assisted children in learning to drum, dance or make pottery — before graduating to the

medical lodge, where all the doctors reside, when she entered medical school. This summer, she worked in the medical lodge at Camp Kudzu to train staff and mentor excited newcomers, like Thakkar and Quispe.

Ray understands that the camp is a special opportunity for both campers and medical staff to come together outside hospital walls and understand the children’s conditions.

“Being able to get education on their conditions from friends in a really fun, stress-free environment helps them feel like a normal kid,” Ray said.

Camp Kudzu holds a tradition every year where its counselors, all of whom have Type 1 diabetes themselves, line up according to how long each has had their diagnosis. The oldest counselor has had Type 1 diabetes for 50 years.

The youngest counselor for 18 years.

The line wraps around the entire cafeteria.

“It really inspired campers with a message of ‘You can do this,’” Ray said.

“This is a life-threatening diagnosis, but we are going to provide you [with] the resources and community to get through this.”

Like Ray’s journey through her young adulthood, Quispe also plans to return to Camp Twin Lakes next summer.

Quispe’s experience with one of his campers sealed the deal for him.

During the first week of camp, Quispe brought his campers to the pond to fish. One timid camper refused to touch any of the fish he reeled in, but Quispe lightened him up by giving each fish a kiss and releasing them back in the pond.

By the end of the week, the camper

was taking fish off the hook himself and gave each fish a kiss as well.

When the week ended, the camper started to cry and made Quispe promise that he would come back next year.

“I was engulfed in camp and these Dr. Jenny Shim plans to return to Camp Twin Lakes after seeing her patients in a happy environment.

Courtesy of Dr. Jenny Shim

kids, understanding what they are going through and trying to make their week here at camp the best week of their lives,” Quispe said.

Dr. Jenny Shim is a pediatric hematologist and oncologist at CHOA and fellow at Emory University researching pediatric tumors.

She was a newcomer this summer working in the medical lodge at Camp Sunshine. But after only one summer, she plans to return and urges Emory students to join the community.

“When volunteering, you might think you’re giving more, but when we go to camp, we are receiving too, by watching patients enjoy the camp and be happy in a community,” Shim said. “It’s a big motivation for me to go back, and it will be a great experience for students.”

— Contact Xavier Stevens at xavier.anthony.stevens@emory. edu

SEASONAL FOODS

Food must-haves this fall

By Esther Kim Contributing Writer With the new school year upon us, the unfortunate end of summer has also arrived.

However, when the leaves turn to fall, it means new menus all around.

As we dive into the beginning of autumn, there are several foods and drinks perfect for this season, all found at chains in close proximity to Emory’s Atlanta campus.

A review concerning season-based foods and drinks will hopefully earn you a go-to dessert.

Pumpkin bread at Kaldi’s Coffee My personal favorite and go-to dessert is Kaldi’s pumpkin bread. With its soft texture and moistness, the pumpkin bread tastes heavenly. Kaldi’s pumpkin bread, sold for under $4, consists of a perfect mix between cinnamon spice and pumpkin, making it perfect for the fall season.

The pumpkin bread is also addicting in taste and rich in flavor, so be sure to absorb every bit because after one bite, it’s gone.

Pumpkin donut at Dunkin’ Donuts

Illustration by Christopher L abaza

The Emory Wheel

Dunkin’ Donuts’ Pumpkin Donut is a one-of-a-kind, moist and chunky treat. Topped with a hint of glaze, this donut evokes a perfect variety of spice flavors.

It brings out both a pumpkin and cinnamon goodness, proving to be the best snack you can munch on.

Eaten alongside the Dunkin’ Donuts Signature Pumpkin Spice Latte, this donut seems to be a great fit for the

fall, especially at its price of $1.45.

Vegetarian autumn squash soup at Panera Bread The sweet and yummy, vegetarian autumn squash soup at Panera Bread took me in for a pleasant surprise.

With a smooth consistency, this soup turned out to be great when paired with a french baguette.

Appetizing and simmering hot, the vegetarian autumn squash soup can serve as a perfect breakfast meal.

Light and creamy, this soup sold at Panera Bread for $6.39 is definitely a must-try for vegetarians and nonvegetarians alike.

Iced Masala Chai Latte at Kaldi’s Coffee The Iced Masala Chai Latte sold at Kaldi’s Coffee for $5.25 is another personal favorite of mine.

With a rich balance of sweet and spicy, this chai latte is incredibly flavorful, and its mixture of spices proves to be a match-made-in-heaven combination.

Consisting of a strong cinnamon scent, the Masala chai latte, hot or iced, is great for a quick tea break and is a gratifying reminder of the start of fall.

As we come closer to the beginning of fall, now is the perfect time to explore these autumn-inspired foods and drinks.

If you’ve ever wondered which foods to dive into near campus, hopefully this list adds to your must-try food list.

— Contact Esther Kim at esther.kim3@emory.edu

Courtesy of Esther K im

Top to bottom: Kaldi’s Coffee Pumpkin Bread, Kaldi’s Coffee Iced Masala Latte, and Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Donut

Rahm misses victory by only one stroke Continued from Back Page and a half rounds, Cantlay finished the third round with three bogeys on the back nine and opened his final round on Sunday with two bogeys on the front. The momentum seemed to swing Cantlay’s way when his shot on the par-4 13th hole dropped five feet from the cup. However, his putt lipped out and Rahm was able to stay in contention. Cantlay then hit another stellar approach on the par-4 16th hole to seven feet. Unlike the 13th hole, he drained the birdie putt and took a twostroke lead into the 17th hole with two holes left to play.

Rahm still wouldn’t fade away, even though he was down two strokes with two holes remaining. Cantlay hit poor shots, leading to a five footer for bogey on the 17th green. Rahm, on the other hand, stuck an approach shot next to Cantlay’s ball, leaving Rahm with a great birdie chance and Cantlay a tough bogey save. Rahm missed his birdie putt and Cantlay drained the bogey, narrowing the lead to one stroke approaching the 18th and final

Wednesday, September 8, 2021

SPORTS

The Emory Wheel

hole of the tournament.

Cantlay swiftly sealed the deal with a remarkable approach from 217 yards, sticking it to 11 feet off the pin. An easy two-putt birdie would follow, securing a one-stroke Cantlay victory over Rahm, who raced his eagle putt past the hole.

Cantlay has had an exceptional season on the PGA Tour this season.

Back-to-back victories to secure the FedEx Cup should propel Cantlay into

the discussion for PGA Tour Player of the Year.

And while the victory certainly wasn’t easy, it surely was entertaining. There was never a dull moment during the 72-hole shootout, especially for the wire-to-wire champion Patrick Cantlay who can now rest easy knowing what he just accomplished.

— Contact Josh Gelfond at josh.gelfond@emory.edu

Courtesy of Eric Zielasko

SWOOP’S SCOOP Opponent

Sport

11

Time

Friday Sept. 10

Volleyball

@ East-West Battle 2:15 p.m. & 6:45 p.m.

Saturday Sept. 11

W Soccer Volleyball

Greensboro @ East-West Battle

12 p.m.

6 p.m.

Sunday Sept. 12

W Golf

@ Montgomery W Int.

All Day

Monday Sept. 13

W Golf

@ Montgomery W Int.

All Day

Tuesday Sept. 14

W Soccer

Covenant

7:30 p.m.

Golfer Patrick Cantlay lines up his shot during the 2021 PGA Tour Championship.

*Home Games in Bold

Room to grow after Labor Day weekend games

Continued from Back Page

fielder Will Tichy took a shot that went slightly over the crossbar, giving the Eagles the offensive motivation they needed for the second half. Senior defender Josh Berman almost finished a header off a corner kick while junior forward Madison Conduah hit the crossbar soon after.

The Eagles’ aggression continued throughout the half and paid off in the 65th minute when junior midfielder Alejandro Gomez converted a header to tie the score at one.

By the end of the match, the Generals had acquired four yellow cards, which is telling of the intensity throughout the game.

The game continued scoreless into overtime, and the Eagles were unable to find the back of the net again, finishing the first game of the Invitational with a 1-1 tie.

On Sept. 5, the Eagles picked up their first win of the season in their final game of the Invitational at Oglethorpe University (Ga.).

Emory scored first with a goal by junior defender Cole Hendricks in the first half. Hendricks scored off a pass

by Tichy, who almost scored himself early in the second half but missed a penalty kick.

Instead, Oglethorpe was able to tie the game at one with a goal by senior midfielder Logan Llano in the 63rd minute. Not even a minute later, junior defender Luke Price broke the tie and put the Eagles up 2-1.

The score would hold for the remaining minutes, giving the Eagles their first victory of the season. Hudson also had a stellar performance, finishing the game with six saves including one in the final minutes to keep the Eagles’ advantage.

Hendricks and the Eagles are happy the team was able to take home the victory, despite some growing pains early on.

“We started a little slow, but once we relaxed and played our game the goals came,” Hendricks said. “We are stoked for the win over our crosstown rivals and appreciate all the support from our traveling fans.”

The men’s soccer team is now 1-0-2 and next hosts the No. 3 Calvin University (Mich.) Knights on Sept. 17.

“While having to travel six hours on a bus isn’t ideal, it definitely allowed for some good team bonding.”

— Lindsey Breskow, Senior Midfielder Women’s soccer comes out swinging in season opener On Sept. 1, the women’s soccer team kicked off their season at home against Berry College (Ga.). Not even ten seconds after Berry opened the scoring, junior forward Aubrey Blanchard responded with her own goal to even the score. In the 33rd minute, senior midfielder Lindsey Breskow scored to put the Eagles ahead. Breskow finished the game with a goal and an assist on six attempted shots.

In their first collegiate soccer half, sophomore midfielder Mia Han found sophomore midfielder Grace Reyer in the middle of the field who found the

back of the net to extend the lead. All scoring occurred in the first half, and the Eagles won 3-1 in front of their home crowd.

Women’s soccer travels to Kentucky Labor Day weekend Following their season-opening victory, the team traveled to Kentucky for two non-conference matchups. Their first game was against the No. 18 Ohio Northern University Polar Bears on Sept. 4. While the team’s first game of the season was all about the first half, all action occurred in the second half of their second game.

Senior forward Molly Miller and senior midfielder Samantha Hilsee scored the team’s three goals en route to their 3-1 victory. Miller scored first in the 52nd minute while Hilsee scored the next two in just over three minutes. The Eagles controlled play, posting 22 shots in comparison to Ohio Northern’s six.

The following day, Emory returned to the pitch against Centre College (Ky.). The teams played to a scoreless tie with the Eagles only putting three

shots on goal while senior goalkeeper Emma Platt only had to make one save on one shot on goal. Breskow took four shots with only one ending up on target. During overtime, junior forwards Natalie Klar and Kylie Hall combined for four shots but were also unsuccessful. Although their road trip ended in a tie, Breskow still believes it was a productive road trip, both on and off the field.

“While having to travel six hours on a bus isn’t ideal, it definitely allowed for some good team bonding,” Breskow said. “It was the first away trip for both the sophomores and the freshman, and I think throughout the weekend they were really able to experience the culture of our team on and off of the field.”

The Eagles come home with a 2-0-1 record and host Greensboro College (N.C.) on Sept. 11 at noon at the Woodruff Physical Education Center.

Editor’s note: Sophomore midfielders Grace Reyer and Mia Han are staff writers for the Wheel.

— Contact Michael Mariam at mmariam@emory.edu

Martin named MVP, Hong Rebuild a work in progress, expect QB shifts to All-Tourney Team Continued from Back Page

Continued from Back Page the Eagles secured the (insert set score here) victory. To Martin, the Emory Classic is a great way to build chemistry with her teammates ahead of UAA conference play.

“This [past] weekend is probably one of my favorite weekends just because it’s a lot of matches really early on,” Martin said. “I think everyone’s nerves are really high — it’s the first time we are playing a lot of games.

Obviously we haven’t played that much since 2019 before COVID. It’s really exciting to get back in the gym and be able to play. It’s really indescribable.”

To finish off the weekend, the Eagles beat Covenant (25-15, 25-19, 25-19), holding a 42-36 advantage in digs. Martin dominated yet again, supplying 11 kills, and the team hit .354, which was its second-highest outing of the season.

The Eagles will next travel to

Thousand Oaks, California, to compete at the East-West Battle where they will face off against Trinity College (Conn.), College of Saint Benedict (Minn.) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas (Calif.).

Starting the season with four straight wins is an impressive feat, but the team is more focused on the return to competition and appreciating the game they love.

“Sometimes you start to take things for granted, but then you are able to take a step back and realize that you are actually so lucky to be able to play at such an amazing school,” Martin said. “We all had that taken away last year due to COVID, and it definitely put things into perspective for everyone what volleyball means to them and how special it is that we get to play. It’s truly a gift.”

— Contact Sofia Himmel at sjhimme@emory.edu

the Falcons selected phenom tight end Kyle Pitts out of the University of Florida.

Pitts received the John Mackey Award for the top tight end in college football last season, and is expected to provide an instant spark to the Falcons offense.

Along with Pitts, the Falcons will be looking to rely on their other rookies like safety Richie Grant, offensive tackle Jalen Mayfield and cornerback Darren Hall to fill in some of the weaker spots on the roster.

The bad news

Unfortunately, the overall roster has not improved much since last season and has lost some serious talent along the way. Not only did the Falcons lose veteran superstar wide receiver Julio Jones, they also lost starting center Alex Mack to free-agency.

Starting left guard Josh Andrews suffered a broken hand in practice, landing him on the injured reserve list on Aug. 31.

Cornerback Kendall Sheffield was

placed on the injured reserve, too, with an undisclosed injury on Sept. 2, and backup quarterback A.J. McCarron suffered a season-ending ACL tear in week two of the preseason.

Atlanta’s offensive line already struggled to protect Ryan last season, allowing the 11th most sacks in the league with 41. With the loss of Mack and Andrews, there is serious reason for concern for the 36-year-old veteran.

This brings up another area of concern –– will Ryan continue to be the “Matty Ice” of years past at age 36?

Ryan will be the fifth oldest starting quarterback in the league behind only Aaron Rodgers, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Ben Roethlisberger and the ageless wonder Tom Brady.

Atlanta also gave up the fourthmost yards per game last season (398.4) and the most passing yards per game (293.6). While the Falcons ranked sixth in rushing yards allowed per game with only 104.8, the Falcons are in desperate need for improvement on the defensive side of the ball and will rely on Pees to help tighten up coverage.

In recent years the Falcons have relied heavily upon their high-powered offense to compensate for their rather lackluster defense, but with sizable departures and injuries as well as an aging quarterback, the defense will need to hold strong more than ever to keep their team in games this season.

Safe prediction The Falcons will finish with a better record than last season. In my eyes, they’ll be right around 8-9, give or take a game.

Bold prediction Ryan will be replaced as the starting quarterback this season. Former first round pick Josh Rosen might get another shot at NFL glory with the Falcons.

Even bolder, quarterback Feleipe Franks will get a chance to show off his speed at the quarterback position if the Falcons are in need of a shakeup.

— Contact Scott Miller at scott.david.miller@emory.edu

The Emory Wheel

Sports

Wednesday, September 8, 2021 | Sports Editor: Michael Mariam (mmariam@emory.edu)

PGA TOUR

Cantlay crowned PGA Tour champion

By Josh Gelfond Contributing Writer

edge against Brevard but were able to finish and close out the game on a 12-0 run.

“There was a super positive mindset going in and throughout the tournament,” Hong said. “[It’s] something we really emphasize in practice and in our team culture.”

On the second day of the tournament, the Eagles were first up against Greensboro, who ended the tournament with just one victory. However, Martin led the way, earning six kills and a .500 hitting mark which tied the team high.

The match ended with the Eagles attaining a .290 hitting performance compared to Greensboro’s -.080, and

PGA Tour golfer Patrick Cantlay has had his eyes set on a FedEx Cup victory for months. With the season winding down, Cantlay entered the Tour Championship atop the FedEx Cup standings after winning the second event of the playoffs. The Tour Championship — held this past weekend at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta — is the final tournament of the threeevent playoffs. A victory at the Tour Championship would seal his spot as the FedEx Cup champion and secure him the hefty $15 million dollar prize.

After four days of play from Sept.

2 to 5, Cantlay secured the Tour Championship victory. However, fending off the best players in the world is no easy feat. Fresh off a win at the BMW Championship in a six-hole playoff over Bryson DeChambeau, Cantlay earned a 10-under par advantage to start the Tour Championship due to the “staggered stroke” format.

Yet, even with a 10-stroke handicap to start the week, Cantlay ended up needing all of his extra strokes.

Finishing At -11 gross and -21 overall, Cantlay barely surpassed fellow golfer John Rahm, who shot (-14) gross and (-20) overall.

Although Cantlay played consistently throughout the tournament, there were some bumps in the road.

After cruising through the first two

See MARTIN, Page 11

See RAHM, Page 11

Lin Yu/Staff

Senior outside hitter Tara Martin throws up a jump serve in the Emory Classic Tournmanet, the first of the volleyball season.

Volleyball serves up a classic in first tourney

By Sofia Himmel Associate Editor From Sept. 3 to 4, Emory University’s volleyball team went undefeated in the first tournament of the season. While an impressive feat, winning is the norm for the Emory women’s volleyball team.

The volleyball’s winning culture being on full display is no surprise to Head Coach Jenny McDowell. While winning the first tournament sets the tone for the season, it was expected that Emory would come out on top.

“We’ve played in the last two national championship games,” McDowell said. “We win because we work really hard at it, we win because they are really committed to playing for each

other, we win because we are absolutely 100% committed to playing for each other.”

During the first day of competition, the Eagles faced off against Willamette University (Ore.) and Brevard College (N.C.). The team then went up against Greensboro College (N.C.) and Covenant College (Ga.) to round out the tournament.

In their first match against the Willamette Bearcats, Emory had a hitting mark of .266, limiting the Bearcats to a mere -.027. The Eagles toppled the Bearcats with nine total blocks, led by senior outside hitter Tara Martin who converted a team high 10 kills to pace the offense and was later named MVP of the Emory Classic tournament.

Freshman libero Deborah Hong

SOCCER

also emerged as a leader in her Emory debut, as Hong led the team with 17 digs and was named a member of the Emory Classic All-Tournament team.

While Hong is new to the University, she is well aware of what it meant just to get back on the court and play again after a year off.

“Everyone has been waiting so long to finally have a season again,” Hong said. “Just being able to not only play but play with everyone who has been waiting for so long was super exciting and super fun.”

Emory’s match against Brevard went smoothly, with 13 different players accounting for at least one kill.

Nearing the third set of the match, the Eagles were holding a narrow 13-12

NFL

Soccer kicks into Falcons flock into 2021 with uncertainty drive with no losses

By Scott Miller Contributing Writer

By Michael Mariam Sports Editor Emory’s men’s and women’s soccer teams opened their seasons this past week without a mark in the loss column. Of the three games that each team played, the women’s team picked up two wins while the men’s team brought one home.

Men’s season opener at Covenant The Eagles opened up their 2021 campaign at Covenant College (Ga.) on Sept. 1 after a year-long hiatus. Senior goalkeeper Jack Hudson stopped five shots on net in what became a defense-oriented game. Hudson made an impressive leaping save in the final minutes leading up to overtime to keep the game tied at zero.

In overtime, the Eagles outshot Covenant 5-2, including one by junior forward Zachary Kornblum in the first minute of the second overtime period which was stopped by Scots senior

goalkeeper Henry Hooks. Earlier in the game, Kornblum stole the ball and had a clear one-on-one against Hooks, but Hooks made the save to keep his clean sheet.

Senior forward Ethan Cohen and junior midfielder Trey Rielly also had opportunities early in the second half which Hooks made great saves on.

Hooks finished the game with nine saves and led the Scots to a scoreless tie in the Eagles’ season opener.

Men bring action back to campus at Sonny Carter Invitational

The men’s soccer team opened at home in front of a big crowd on Sept. 3 to face the No. 11 Washington and Lee University (Va.) Generals in their first game of the Sonny Carter Invitational.

Washington and Lee opened up the scoring in the 26th minute with a goal by sophomore forward Adrian Zimmerman after Hudson turned the ball over just outside the box.

As the first half ended, senior mid-

See ROOM, Page 11

The 2021 NFL season is nearly upon us. At long last, and despite questions swirling around COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination hesitancy, the 2021 season is poised to kickoff Sept.

9 between the reigning Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Dallas Cowboys.

As teams enter their final week of practice before the regular season, the question on Atlanta Falcons’ fans minds remains: how will the Falcons bounce back from their historically abysmal 2020 season?

At 4-12, the Falcons finished last in the NFC South and tied with the Houston Texans for the third worst record in the NFL. While a 4-12 record alone would be cause for disappointment, what made the 2020 season especially difficult to watch is that the Falcons lost five of their games while leading at halftime and five losses were decided in the last two minutes of play.

Despite the poor record, quarterback Matt Ryan finished fourth in total passing yards while the Falcons finished 14th in points against per

game and 16th in points scored per game. Even though the Falcons ended the 2020 season losing five straight games, Atlanta is poised to perform better than last year if they simply play hard for all 60 minutes.

The good news

The many end-of-game collapses last season left the Falcons with a record that did not accurately reflect its level of talent. The Falcons were by no means a playoff-ready team in 2020, but they should have been around a .500 team at the end of the season.

Ryan proved at 35 years old that he was still more than capable of stretching the field, and even developed a strong connection with breakout wide receiver Calvin Ridley, who had 90 receptions for 1,374 yards and nine touchdowns. Kicker Younghoe Koo also had a sensational year, missing only two of his 40 attempts, going a perfect eight of eight on attempts from 50 yards and beyond and finishing with the most field goals made in the NFL. The Falcons also signed former Carolina Panthers running back Mike

Davis to a two-year deal. Davis brings experience and power to the Atlanta offense, especially around the goal line where Atlanta struggled mightily last season. On the defensive side of the ball, the team added former Las Vegas Raiders veteran safety Erik Harris.

Changes in personnel were not limited to only the roster — the Atlanta Falcons also remodeled their coaching staff, hiring former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to the role of head coach.

Smith coached the Titans to the second-most rushing yards per game (168.1) last season, tied for the second-most total yards per game (396.4) and the fourth-most points per game (25.3).

The Falcons hope Smith can revitalize the team along with the rest of the revamped coaching staff which includes offensive coordinator Dave Ragone, defensive coordinator Dean Pees and special teams coordinator Marquice Williams.

The only upside to a disappointing season is that the Falcons were rewarded with the fourth overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. With this pick

See REBUILD, Page 11