TheOnlineBeacon.com
Thursday, October 22,, 2020
Volume 91 • Issue 6
COVID-19
College Considering Spring Break Changes BY BRIAN RHODES EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The college is considering shortening or even entirely eliminating spring break during the Spring 2021 semester. Adrienne Wootters, vice president of academic affairs, discussed the topic at MCLA’s Board of Trustees’ Academic Affairs Committee meeting on Thursday, Oct. 14, noting that a plan is going through governance. “We are proposing a change of spring break from a full week to two days,” she said at the meeting. “That would be Thursday and Friday, so a four day weekend.” MCLA President James Birge noted to Wootters, however, that Academic Policies Committee is pro-
posing an alternative plan, which would be the outright cancellation of spring break. “[Academic Policies Committee] are saying to wipe out spring break, to not have any spring break, and start the semester January 27,” Birge said at the meeting. “So it’s moving the start back a week and eliminating spring break. That’s what they’ve proposed and they have had, I think it was unanimous support, among the faculty on the committee.” Wootters noted that a shortening or outright cancellation of spring break would be a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. She said that any change to the length of spring break would change the start date of the spring semester.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY GINA PUC
Gina Puc, vice president of strategic initiatives, noted that discussions are ongoing between the col-lege’s committees to finalize the spring schedule. Part of this process includes making a decision about spring break. “Even going home for a long weekend, as we’ve found from this last one [Colombus Day weekend], intro-
duced a lot of new moving parts,” she said. “and we had to make sure students were safe when they came back.”
Voter Registration Deadlines Coming Soon
PHOTO BY RICARDO RAMIREZ BUXEDA
Voter registration deadlines for several states in the Northeast are coming up soon. Once you are registered, make sure that you vote in the upcoming state and general elections. More information on voting on back page (Page 12).
Gina Puc, vice president of strategic initiatives, noted that discussions are ongoing between the college’s committees to finalize the spring schedule. Part of this process includes making a decision about spring break. “We know that spring break because it is such an extended period of time, may pose some concerns around the public health and safety aspect with students and faculty and staff,” she said in a Microsoft Teams interview. Puc said that no decision has been decided on for certain as of yet, but that students will hear more about the spring semester in the coming weeks. She noted that break time for student and faculty mental health is a major concern. “It’s still being worked on, so a number of these concerns are being thought out,” she said. “We’re watching
Spring, Page 10
Massachusetts Ballot Questions Explained BY NATALIA GIACOMOZZI MANAGING EDITOR
Alongside the candidates running for elected office this November, the Massachusetts ballot features a question on expanding the state’s 2013 Right-To-Repair law and a question on the approval or dismal of ranked choice voting. According to an NBC10 Boston report on Oct. 9, question 1 seeks to give independent mechanics “broader access to telematics data,” the computerized diagnostic codes of a vehicle’s parts which are sent to a remote
server and are used to determine the extent of repairs. In a Sept. 13 article, the Boston Globe defined question 2 as seeking to transition the state to use the ranked choice system to vote. “Under the proposed system, voters have the option of ranking candidates for an office in order of preference. If a candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote, then he or she is the winner. But if no one does, the candidate with the fewest votes is stripped away, and those voters are reallocated based on their second choice,” the Boston Globe wrote.
The Boston Globe editorial board also endorsed voting yes on question 1 on Oct. 13 and voting yes on question 2 on Oct. 11. Samantha Pettey, assistant professor of political science, theorized that the questions will still be lob-bied by interest groups in the state even if they do not pass in this election cycle. “I would imagine if the initiatives fail, there are people who will still try and pass these policies. Specifi-cally, I’d guess rank choice voting would continue to be a lo-
Questions, Page 3
PHOTO PROVIDED BY ERIN KILEY
Professor Erin Kiley included this sample ballot of ranked voice voting in an activities packet she made for one of her math courses.