Issue 1, Fall 2020 - The Quadrangle

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Volume CII, Issue 1

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NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

The Contract and the Controversy:

Aramark Comes to Campus, Community Reacts Gabriella DePinho Editor-in-Chief

Welcome Back, Masked Jaspers!

Students arrive to campus for the first week of the fall semester have been greeted with new signs.

BRIAN ASARE/ THE QUADRANGLE

First Positive COVID-19 Test Result on Campus Maria Thomas News Editor

In an email to students, parents and employees sent out on Aug. 21, news was released that there has been one confirmed COVID-19 case on campus thus far.

Currently, all on-campus testing is being conducted by an independent company, Enzo Clinical Labs. At the date of the email notification, Enzo Clinical Labs had processed 298 test results, with one positive result.

According to the email sent out by the college, “That individual, who has not displayed any symptoms, was notified immediately and is isolating off campus at home.”

In addition to the student being removed from campus to quarantine, the email states

IN NEWS:

Manhattan administation forms council for diversity on p. 3

that Manhattan College’s “contact tracing team identified all other close contacts of this individual. They were also notified and are quarantining, per New York City Department of Health and Manhattan College guidelines.”

These numbers are not current. The school has made no update to testing results, and these tests were mainly being conducted for students moving back onto campus and some employees.

Test results for all students taking in-person classes or living on campus are due on Monday, Aug. 31, the same day that classes for the Fall semester commence.

All resident students, as well as commuter students who plan on attending classes in-person, are required to submit test results by Aug. 31. In

IN FEATURES: Jaspers continue bagging summer internships remotely on p. 7

a more comprehensive email sent out on Aug. 20 with the subject line “As we return to campus, let’s make this work”, it says “Employees and commuter students should be tested in the two-week time period prior to their return to campus, and do not have to use the oncampus test site.”

Enzo Clinical Labs will remain on campus, offering COVID-19 testing to the Manhattan College community, including employees and commuters, on the following dates: Monday, August 31: 10 a.m.

- 4:30 p.m.

Thursday, September 3: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Friday, September 4: 10 a.m.

- 4 p.m.

In addition to getting tested, any students returning to campus are expected to fill out the COVID-19 Daily Symptom

As summer months waned on, Manhattan College leadership quietly announced a new 20-year contract with Aramark Higher Education, beginning for the fall 2020 semester, which would manage and centralize the college’s physical plant, dining services and housekeeping services. Affected staff were informed in late June, but thanks to a concerned student, word of the partnership hit social media in early July, prior to the college’s official announcement.

However as the news of the partnership spread, so did word of Aramark’s well-documented history, which has been filled with complaints and lawsuits from colleges and prisons across the country.

Immediately, social media commotion, a resolution, and anxiety ensued. In the end, the anxiety lingers while Aramark has already set foot on campus.

Manhattan College and Aramark’s Partnership In a letter dated June 22, 2020, affected staff of physical plant and housekeeping services were informed the college would begin a partnership with Aramark “on a range of integrated campus services.” In the letter, Brennan O’Donnell, the college’s president, wrote that Aramark would oversee management of dining services, physical plant operations and maintenance, the campus grounds, energy management and custodial/housekeeping services.

The Quadrangle was not able to confirm if members of dining services were informed in a similar manner.

The announcement of this partnership is not the first time the college has outsourced any of its services. Sodexo has been in charge of most campus housekeeping services since approximately 2005 and dining

IN A&E:

An extended summer playlist on p. 10

services has been managed by Gourmet Dining since 2011.

However, this new partnership marks the first time physical plant workers will be managed by external leadership.

The following week, in a letter dated June 29, O’Donnell wrote to members of physical plant and housekeeping to inform them that following “significant discussions with members of our senior leadership” the college decided to put the transition of those services on hold. The Quadrangle cannot confirm if staff from dining services received a similar letter.

Residential housekeeping and physical plant staff are entirely separate in management but are both part of Local 153 Office and Professional Employees International Union.

Dining staff is not a part of this union. A representative from Local 153 OPEIU confirmed with The Quadrangle that since the second letter, the union has entered effects bargaining with the college regarding the college’s decision to subcontract the employees.

As students have begun to return to campus, dining services and campus housekeeping formerly under Sodexo have already been put under Aramark’s leadership. A Manhattan College representative confirmed that the residential housekeeping staff is set to transition on September 21.

Additionally, the representative confirmed that all but one former Sodexo employee has stayed with the school and that one individual left “due to personal reasons.”

How Word Got Out The college notified affected staff with less than two months to the original transition dates, some of which went through. This timeline left some upset with the school.

A representative from Lo__________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

IN SPORTS:

2020 Fall sports impacted by COVID-19 on p. 12

Opinions & Editorials

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the Quadrangle Volume CII, Issue 1

THE QUADRANGLE

LETTER from The Editor Welcome back Jaspers!

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

The Editorial Board Gabriella DePinho Editor-in-Chief

Maria Thomas News Editor Alexa Schmidt Arts & Entertainment Editor Managing Editor Christine Nappi Features Editor

Nicole Fitzsimmons Anna Woods Asst. News and Features Editors Jilleen Barrett Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor

Pete Janny Sports Editor Managing Editor

Whit Anderson Asst. Sports Editor

C. Garrett Keidel Social Media Editor

Samantha Walla Production Manager

Brian Asare Photography Editor

Emily Hollar Asst. Photography Editor Asst. Production Editor

Kelly Kennedy Nicole Rodriguez Asst. Production Editors Madalyn Johnson Katherine Heneghan Web Editors Nicholas Gilewicz Faculty Advisor About The Quadrangle A tradition since 1924, The Quadrangle is a news or ganization run by the students of Manhattan College. We strive to cover news around campus and the greater community, publishing weekly in print and daily online. Our goal is always accuracy, relevancy and professionalism.

The opinions expressed in The Quadrangle are those of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board, the College or the student body.

Join The Quadrangle The Quadrangle’s staff holds weekly open meetings on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in Kelly Commons Room 412. All are welcome to come and join the club.

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Whether you’re reading this on campus or from your remote education base, we’re happy to have our work back in front of your eyes. For those that are new here, I’ll reintroduce myself.

My name is Gabriella and I am the current Editor-in-Chief. We have an amazing staff working hard to keep you up to date on the latest campus news. I promise The Quadrangle will be working hard all semester, no matter what happens with the pandemic.

Speaking of the pandemic, I want to use my space to urge you to be responsible this semester. Everyone has something at stake here so please, wear your mask, socially distance and be honest on your symptom tracker. I want everyone to have the best semester as possible and while it look different than it traditionally does, I know it’s possible to be safe AND have fun.

The world is not the same as it was six months ago. It blows my mind how much has happened and changed, but I firmly believe we are all better for it. We have had months of a slow pace, months of social movements. Time to reflect, time to learn, time to grow. Now, it’s time to put it into action. For us, here at The Quadrangle, what that looks like is writing away. We will always ask the hard questions and we’ll be here, in-person and remotely, recording the first draft of the college’s history. This chapter is new and exciting but we’re ready for it. I hope you enjoy the hard work in these pages.

If you’re interested in joining us, shoot us an email at thequad@ manhattan.edu and we’ll add you to our mailing list. Meetings will be virtual this year, which is our way of contributing to a safe but accessible environment.

Have a great start to the semester & happy reading!

Sincerely,

Gabriella DePinho

Editor-in-Chief

Sign up for our monthly newsletter by scanning the QR code.

SUBMIT YOUR OWN LETTER OR OP-ED Letters to the Editor or an op-ed may be submitted to thequad@manhattan.edu by Saturday at noon to be considered for publication. Profanity, vulgarity and hate will not be published. The Quadrangle reserves the right not to publish a letter.

News

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

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Manhattan College Administration Announces Diversity Council As BLM Movement Grows Jilleen Barrett Asst. A&E Editor

As a result of the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been an increase in dialogue between members of the Manhattan College community. An Instagram account, @letstalkaboutitmc, was created to allow students to recount racial discrimination on campus and it even inspired students at other schools to do the same. Petitions were drafted to take former NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s name off the building that houses the multicultural center and to keep the school from having any affiliation with Aramark. Many clubs and organizations, such as the Student Government Association and the Black Student Union, have spoken out in solidarity with people of color.

More recently, a Diversity Council was announced. On June 5, the Manhattan College community received an email from President O’Donnell and some of the council’s steering committee, Sheetal Kale, Dr. Esmilda Abreu-Hornbostel and Dr. Cory Blad which explains the efforts they hope to put into action during the fall semester. “[The Diversity Council’s] primary purpose is to promote dialogue, seek meaningful change, and build a truly inclusive educational environment at the College.” the email stated.

According to Kale, who is also the Director of Equity and Diversity and the Chief Title IX Coordinator, the council was inspired by the results of a survey from last year that reflected

negatively on inclusion on campus.

“Last year our associate provost as well as our AVP for student life [created a survey for students], and as a result of those surveys we learned that many people of color don’t feel they are treated as well as their white counterpart,” Kale said.

“They also feel as though there isn’t racial harmony on campus, and so we were planning to start as a baseline kind of a diversity climate survey and doing all the strategizing this summer. Obviously COVID threw a big wrench into that, and then with the killing of George Floyd and the protests surrounding that obvious need to address race … so we decided to speed up the timeline for the formation of this council.”

In addition to the steering committee, there are about 30 to 40 members of the council who meet weekly in subgroups, and their meetings determine the purpose of any future work.

David Witzling, the head of the Critical Race and Ethnicity Studies (CRES) minor, is one of these members. He addressed that the Diversity Council was not only put into action because of recent tragedies but that it has been progressing over time.

“There was a strong desire to get this Diversity Council up and going in conjunction with what’s been happening in the world in the last few years,” he said. “So a lot of things have kind of unfolded on somewhat of an ad hoc basis.”

Throughout the last month, students and employees have received several emails from the council related to the inclusion of not only people of color

but also the LGBTQ+ community at MC. A recent anonymous message to @letstalkaboutitmc raised a concern that despite these emails, the council was not being communicative enough.

“What we need from MC and the advisory council is transparency, not this facade of putting people’s names up there in hopes that the council steering committee can say that students and faculty have been included on the council.” the anonymous concern stated.

“Inclusiveness doesn’t work like that.”

The creators of @letstalkaboutitmc, two students of color at Manhattan College, also feel strongly that all faculty members and students should be held responsible for change.

“Some faculty and administration went through the process of creating a statement opposing institutional racism at Manhattan College,” they said.

“To start, the Diversity Council can address many of the issues on campus through the process and guidelines set up by this statement.”

Additionally, they feel there should be more support for people of color on campus.

“We believe that the council should be focusing on amplifying the voices of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and People of Color] students and faculty,” they said. “We want intentional policies implemented to offer support and resources to marginalized populations on campus.

“We believe that the Diversity Council should be engaging all of Manhattan College’s population in the dialogue and focus on being more transparent with the student body.”

Witzling wants to remind students that even though the council might seem like they aren’t doing much, there is more going on than some may think.

“I think that people who are worried that the Diversity Council won’t be effective have good reason to be worried because often in the past, it seems that when people announce something like this, the real commitment to doing the work isn’t there,” he said. “I know that a lot of the people who are most committed to make the community a better place for not just students of color but faculty and staff members of color as well as people who are really interested in doing that work are involved in the Diversity Council so I have high hopes to some degree of pessimism.”

Priya Varanasi, a former undergraduate student, thinks that a Diversity Council is exactly what Manhattan College needs, but only if they make a legitimate effort to create a better experience for people of color in our community.

“I know that the intentions are good and that having a Diversity Council is extremely important. It is what we need,” Varanasi said. “But my first question is will the work be put in, over time, throughout the life of this Diversity Council, to ensure that students are always included, to ensure that students’ perspectives as new students come in are really included in this council?”

Kale and Blad addressed this concern, saying they hope to involve the Student Government Association and the Black Student Union in their efforts,

as well as students who wish to participate. Additionally, there are many members of the council who were not mentioned in the email but are just as faithful to the cause.

While the council believes it is extremely important that people of color are heard, Blad is encouraging the whole community to put forth an effort to spark change. This means everyone will be having difficult conversations and educating themselves and others on racerelated topics.

“I think that the topic of education is a multifaceted one and a difficult one,” Kale said.

“Because obviously we want to gain insight from people of color but at the same time we don’t want the entire burden of educating others on them.”

Blad further emphasized this point.

“Everybody is a part of this process because everybody is part of this community.”

Kale has hopes that the council will address problems that stretch beyond racism.

Her goal is to put these plans into action so every student can feel safe at MC. “My thought is that the advisory committee will head up various subcommittees focusing on different topics such as campus climate– which is obviously a huge issue– admissions, hiring, grants, commuter students specifically, LGBTQ students, particularly those of color intersectionality,,” she explained. “So a variety of topics that need to be addressed, as well as action steps. We don’t want to just talk about things– we want to actually do them.”

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THE QUADRANGLE

Manhattan College Announces New Partnership wit __________________________ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 cal 153 told The Quadrangle that, “it [the deal] was done very quickly, without all parties being fully informed.” While Manhattan College was within its rights to delay the notice as close to the transition date as it did, the representative said this decision was “something that should have been put on the table a year ago.”

Additionally, according to a physical plant employee, some staff received their letters early, getting them the day before Father’s Day. Kevin Ahern, an associate professor of religious studies at Manhattan College with a background in labor studies, noted that in Catholic Social Teaching, respecting human dignity is a key value, even in communication.

“Clear, transparent and timely communication with workers about the state of their jobs is a basic requirement of respecting one’s dignity,” he said. “To respect someone’s dignity, especially in the midst of this economic downturn where people are so anxious about their futures, they deserve to be informed in a timely manner and they deserve to be informed clearly about what’s happening.”

Ahern gave the college the benefit of the doubt that “in the midst of everything going on, maybe communication wasn’t as clear as it could have been in a normal year.”

According to O’Donnell that was the case.

“We did not communicate well,” O’Donnell wrote in a statement to The Quadrangle.

“In-person communication is always best and would have been the preferred method. Unfortunately, COVID upended that option.”

Matthew McManness, , the college’s vice president of finance and chief financial officer, and O’Donnell have since apologized to the staff for the delivery of the notification and O’Donnell confirmed that he has met with staff and “apologized to them for the manner in which they were originally notified.”

Nicholas Jimenez, a 19-year veteran of Manhattan College’s staff, who has spent the last 15 years with the physical plant, attended one of the meetings with the president.

“The president did come out and apologize and said like ‘the way we went about it was totally wrong and communication’ and whatever and some people told him how they felt,” Jimenez said.

“Change is going to happen, we know it’s going to happen, but there’s a right way to go about it and a wrong way.”

While staff grappled with

the news and the delivery of it, many students and unaffected employees were made aware of the new partnership well before O’Donnell sent his official announcement to the community on July 13.

Brandon Martinez, a member of the class of 2020 and the son of a physical plant employee, posted news of the contract and information about Aramark Corporation on his personal Instagram account on July 2. He posted the picture of the June 22 letter on his account on July 3. These posts have garnered 303 likes and 248 likes respectively, as well as numerous reshares.

In a notes app screenshot from his initial post, Martinez wrote, “The Manhattan College student body and the wider Manhattan College community should be alarmed by our College’s intent to enter into an agreement with Aramark as it has a history of RACIST and UNETHICAL MISCONDUCT. Just as alarming is Aramark’s involvement in and support of prison systems that it financially benefits from.”

His post also called upon the college’s Lasallian values.

“Affiliating with a company like ARAMARK goes against the ethical and religious beliefs that we are taught at Manhattan College! Manhattan College emphasizes to the Manhattan College community that as a Lasallian institution concern for SOCIAL JUSTICE IS ONE OF THE CORE VALUES OF THE LASALLIAN TRADITION. Manhattan College must practice what it preaches!”

Martinez then ended the paragraph with the promise that “Pressure will be applied” and attached five additional screenshots of headlines, campus news articles and other information on Aramark.

His posts sounded an alarm for those who had never heard of the global company before to pay attention.

A Crash Course on Ara-

“the customer service business across food, facilities and uniforms, wherever people work, learn, recover, and play.” With several branches to the corporation, Aramark services a number of educational institutions, hospitals and healthcare facilities, sports and entertainment facilities, as well as business and government services, including a number of prisons.

Aramark advertises numerous services for institutions of higher education and with the new partnership, is in the process of bringing them to campus.

One such service is EverSafe, which was “developed by Aramark in accordance with recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and other leading health organizations,” according to Karen Cutler, the vice president of communications at Aramark.

Some EverSafe practices students can expect to see on campus will include the installation of additional splash guards in dining spaces, new cleaning and disinfecting procedures and introducing new mobile ordering and self pay kiosks, among other things.

While Aramark’s arrival to campus mid-pandemic comes with the promise of cleanliness and safety, Aramark arrives with a long history of complaints as well.

The accusations against Aramark come from a variety of universities and prisons across the country, some of them hitting close to home.

In February 2018, New York University students who dined at Weinstein Passport Dining Hall, which was serviced by Aramark, walked into an insensitive menu of ribs, collard greens, Kool Aid and watermelon flavored water, among other things, that was designed to supposedly celebrate Black History Month.

The incident came a week af-

In recent years, Aramark has been the subject of many complaints nationally.

ARAMARK.COM / COURTESY After a bidding process that began in 2017 due to a campus dining hall failing a New York City Department of Health inspection, NYU decided to cut ties with Aramark in 2019. Concerns around the company’s ties to prisons and the February 2018 incident added pressure to the university to switch companies.

Barnard College, Trinity College Dublin and American University have dumped Aramark in recent years as well.

Students from University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Loyola University Chicago, have applied pressure on their schools to cut ties with the corporation. Petitions to cut ties with Aramark exist for other schools, such as Boston College and the University of Rochester.

These colleges and universities have cut ties or are facing pressure for a number of reasons: poor food quality, unethical employee terminations, and social justice causes.

The Westchester County Jail’s cafeteria is serviced by Aramark as well and in recent years has received a number of complaints. In 2018, an inmate

-----------------------“Clear, transparent and timely communication with workers about the state of their jobs is a basic requirement of respecting one’s dignity,” he said.

“To respect someone’s dignity, especially in the midst of this economic downturn where people are so anxious about their futures, they deserve to be informed in a timely manner and they deserve to be informed clearly about what’s happening.”

-----------------------mark’s Histor y Aramark has its beginnings in the 1930s, starting out with its founding brothers selling peanuts, and now, nearly 100 years later, identifies itself as

ter a similar menu had been served at a Loyola University Chicago dining hall. Aramark apologized after both incidents and Loyola University Chicago has kept their services.

filed a federal complaint on behalf of himself and five other inmates claiming they were served “rotted, stale, under cooked, molded, unsanitary, cold foods.” That same year,

some inmates allegedly boycotted the food for the same or similar reasons.

Over the course of many years, Aramark has been at the center of numerous complaints in prisons, with issues of maggots found in food, prisoners being served food that had been nibbled on by rodents, employees smuggling in contraband and employees engaging in workplace sexual misconduct.

While Aramark has faced numerous problems with its prison operations, it also strives to provide opportunities for inmates with a program called IN2WORK. “We are actually part of the solution with a strong commitment to rehabilitating incarcerated individuals so they can transition back to their communities,” Cutler wrote in a statement. “We help rehabilitate them through vocational training so they can get jobs upon release. We also provide scholarships so they can get degrees. In many facilities, the incarcerated individuals who work in the kitchen earn money for their trust accounts and/or a reduction in their time served. None of the information being shared online ever mentions our role with these programs and how they reduce recidivism by as much as 30 percent.”

Representatives from both Manhattan College and from Aramark emphasized that the company does not operate private prisons.

“We have become the target of a well-organized campaign questioning our role in providing important food and nutrition for people that are in the justice system,” Cutler wrote. “While we understand and respect the passionate debate around our nation’s prison system and its disproportionate impact on black and other nonwhite populations, we disagree with how Aramark is being characterized and cast as part

News

JANUARY 21, 2020

5

ith Aramark for Start of Fall Semester Amid COVID

For the first time, Manhattan College’s physical plant employees will be subcontracted.

CUPPEK PHOTOGRAPHY / COURTESY of the problem.”

Ahern also noted that Aramark is part of the Fair Food Program, which was launched by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, “and is trying to make sure that at least certain produce in the supply chain is produced in an ethical way and employees on the fields are paid a living wage.”

Activism on Social Media and Beyond As this information regarding Aramark’s history poured out through Martinez’s posts, the anonymous Instagram page @LetsTalkAboutItMC started sharing information, as did Guelybell Capellan’15 ’19, a former full-time physical plant employee and Manhattan College grad. Capellan created a six minute video discussing Aramark’s history and her concern with the school’s decision to partner with Aramark, which was shared on her personal account and reshahred to other public Instagram accounts.

Capellan posted her video on July 6, the same day the newly formed Diversity Council sent an email to the student body announcing and sharing its mission statement. Within the paragraphs of the email, the Diversity Council quietly addressed growing concerns with Aramark.

The Diversity Council steering committee wrote that they would be “remiss” in their message if they “did not acknowledge that the impending announcement of our partnership with the Aramark Corporation has raised some concerns among members of our community.” The council promised they were “aware of these concerns and have been addressing them in discussions with Aramark’s Diversity and Inclusion and leadership teams” and promised that discussions would continue “not only dur-

ing the transition, but throughout our partnership with them.”

A college representative confirmed a virtual panel will occur on Sept. 16 at noon with both college and Aramark leaders participating.

While Martinez’s post and Capellan’s video spread throughout the online Jasper community, so did a miniature wave of activism. These posts, though informative, could not necessarily lead to change just by existing.

Some students felt compelled to email Manhattan College leadership. The account administrators of @LetsTalkAboutItMC created a short link which opened a student’s email application with a new draft that would be sent to the president’s office and McManness’ inbox, as well as to the provost’s office, Brother Daniel Gardner, Richard Satterlee, the vice president of student life and Rob Walsh, the senior advisor for strategic partnership.

Students were encouraged to draft unique emails.

One student, in an Instagram story reshared by @LetsTalkAboutItMC, emailed her dorm building’s housekeeping staff to show support and encouraged others to do the same.

Martinez co-authored a resolution with Kerry Cavenagh ’20 to be presented in front of the Student Government Assembly. The resolution, shared on July 10, calls for Manhattan College to cut ties with Aramark, citing a number of concerns, both about the company’s history and the campusoriented effects.

“In times like these, we’re smart enough,” Martinez said of the resolution. “We have the access to knowledge, we have the access to information and we’ve seen that side of justice. This resolution might not

be pushed, they [the college] might say, ‘whatever, we’re going to side with Aramark,’ but that doesn’t mean we’re going to give up.”

The resolution has garnered 641 signatures from current students, alumni, current faculty and staff, and campus organizations, as well as students and alumni from other institutions of higher education. Though the assembly held some meetings this summer, the petition has not yet been voted upon.

Ahern even suggested that students could take it a step further.

“We can’t necessarily change [Aramark], we can put pressure on and ask Aramark to change its policies and relationships and its role in the private prison complex but we really don’t have that big of a

Manhattan College while students were protesting the naming of the Kelly Commons. She is afraid to see history repeat itself in student voices being ignored when it comes to Aramark.

“It does feel a little like history is repeating itself, but I will say it does feel like this protest is much bigger than what I’ve seen in the past at the school,” Capellan said. “We know now how to make a bigger fuss.”

What Does This Mean For Affected Employees?

While concerned parties have raised the flag about Aramark’s ethics, they have also raised questions about what this new partnership and decision to subcontract means for the college’s employees and the benefits those employees receive.

Working at a college or university comes with an attractive benefit that faculty and staff cannot get elsewhere: tuition reimbursement. Tuition reimbursement is applicable for the individual employee, as well as their children.

“Traditionally colleges have been stepping stones for the middle class for the workers,” Ahern said. “That is something colleges should be very proud of: that through tuition remission, they [the workers] themselves or their families have been able to climb social mobility ladders.”

This plays out in real time as employees may pass up on better-paying opportunities for their children’s chance at a paid-for college degree.

“We don’t get paid the greatest there but we sacrifice that for our families in the future,” Jimenez said. “Somebody like me is a good example. My kids are only nine and three. I’m sacrificing this pay so my kids can go to school for free but that

employees would still see this benefit, specifically identifying the members of Local 153.

However, The Quadrangle has not been able to confirm whether or not Aramark has signed any paperwork to ensure that.

Some also share the concern that the benefit is guaranteed for now, not forever and not necessarily for all future new hires.

“Now what they’re saying is that the tuition reimbursement will still be guaranteed in the contract between Aramark and Manhattan College employees but what they’re not saying is if Manhattan College has two or three years left with the physical plant and housekeeping workers, after those two or three years once that contract is up, what’s going to happen after that?,” Martinez said. “Are the employees still going to get tuition reimbursement? Are some employees going to get fired because Aramark is now going to bring in some of their employees and put their people in?”

Capellan feels that the decision to partner with Aramark, given the company’s history and the new uncertainty around the benefits, undermines the hard work of the employees.

“This shows them that all their sacrifices to give their families a better life, to give their kids an education, the education that a lot of them couldn’t get, now they’re being told basically that none of that matters,” she said.

Tuition reimbursement also benefits the school, according to Ahern.

“I think the whole idea of tuition remission really benefits the college because it really strengthens the community so if you’re a staff person and you know that your child is going to go to this institution, the way

-----------------------“We have the access to knowledge, we have the access to information and we’ve seen that side of justice. This resolution might not be pushed, they [the college] might say, ‘whatever, we’re going to side with Aramark,’ but that doesn’t mean we’re going to give up.”

-----------------------voice there,” he said. “Where we do have a voice is that we can demand through a resolution of the college senate that anyone who works on campus, even if it’s through a private contractor should get these rights and should get these benefits. That’s a very clear and achievable goal that is not a huge cost for the college, in a way that other things might be.”

Capellan was a student at

means I’m sacrificing another 10 years just for my oldest. I’m really sacrificing another 15, 16 years. How do I know I’m still going to be there with this company?

“A lot of these people just want to work and get their families through.”

Transitioning to a subcontracted position left many concerned about the state of the tuition reimbursement benefit.

The college has promised that

that you clean the bathroom or the way you fix something or the way you prepare food will actually be better, just even subconsciously, so it strengthens the community to have benefits like that,” he said.

So How Did MC Get Here?

Concerned parties like __________________________ CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

News

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THE QUADRANGLE

Resolution to Rename Kelly Commons Gains Traction Sophia Sakellariou Senior Writer In the wake of recent police brutality against people of color, Manhattan College students have made strides towards changing the name of the Raymond W. Kelly ‘63 Student Commons Building to better align with the institution’s Lasallian values, drafting a resolution outlining why they deem it necessary to do so.

Built in 2014, the building stands tall at the intersection between the College’s North and South campus, serving as a symbol of connection and community that college life brings.

Home to the Lasallian Women and Gender Resource Center, the Multicultural Center, the Club Room and Fitness Center, Kelly Commons has provided a place for students to make valuable connections and further their learning experience.

However, students have taken a step back and assessed the meaning of the name behind this building and how it aligns with Lasallian values, the latter to which they deemed it doesn’t.

“I don’t see how someone

like this can have a prominent building on campus that houses our Social Action Suite, Multicultural Center and a place of rest for all of our students,” said Daniel Aguirre De Araujo, a 2020 grad program graduate and co-author of the resolution.

Dedicated to Raymond W. Kelly ‘63, the name honors the former police commissioner and alum. Kelly was the longest serving commissioner in the history of the New York Police Department and the first to serve two separate tenures, making him a well-known and highly esteemed leader in law enforcement. It is not these accolades that students at Manhattan have an issue with, but his enforcement of the stopand-frisk policy during his second tenure from 2002 to 2013 under Mayor Bloomberg.

The controversial program defined Michael Bloomberg’s policing as mayor of New York City which was brought to the surface and scrutinized during his presidential campaign. According to a New York Times article, police officers stopped and questioned suspected criminals more than five million times during his tenure, the majority of whom were

young Black and Latino men.

In 2009, Black and Latino residents of New York were nine times more likely to be stopped than white residents. These searches rarely materialized in the weapons officers were searching for.

Kelly fiercely defended the effectiveness of the policy alongside Bloomberg in the face of criticism. They argued that stop-and-frisk was an essential police tactic, the halting of which would lead to increased crime rates. This proved to be untrue. Only 14 out of every 10,000 stops conducted during Bloomberg’s tenure resulted in a gun and only 1,200 out of every 10,000 resulted in an arrest.

“We feel as though the current name of the student commons building does not reflect our Lasallian Mission- specifically that of Inclusive Community and Respect For All People,” said Ireland Twiggs, a senior peace and justice studies major who contributed to the drafting of the resolution.

“Since I was a freshman on campus, I have heard rumors of the controversy surrounding the naming of Kelly Commons and a push to change it. In the wake of recent events in our

nation, it caused me personally to do more research on our nation and college’s history. It was then that I was approached

by Rabea Ali, Liam Moran, and Dan Aguirre about co-authoring a resolution on renaming the Raymond W. Kelly ‘63 Student Commons,” Twiggs said.

Several students cited social media as their main source of information on the policy and Kelly’s past with it. An influx of posts drawing attention to and supporting the Black Lives Matter movement have brought racial inequalities to their attention, prompting action.

“Social media has played a vital role in the spread of information during this civil rights movement and I believe that it is a powerful tool that activists have used to help educate large audiences,” said Nicole Nuñez, a senior international studies major.

Nuñez found out about the resolution “through an anonymous students Instagram page,” and saw many more students and alum sharing it on their accounts, as well. The resolution has over 600 signatures from students and alumni and over 50 from faculty members.

“I signed the resolution because I will not stand idle while I watch the college that I love idolize a person who has ruined the lives of many people of color due to his own racist ideas,” said Nuñez. The policy that Raymond Kelly pushed was racially charged and disproportionately targeted people of color.”

Signing the resolution is just one way students have become involved in today’s racial and social movements.

“Petitions, donations, educating ourselves, and protests are just some of the main ways people are fighting for this,” Aguirre said. “I believe that it is our job to support in any which way we can. This is to ensure we can start rebuilding our society and legislation to truly develop an area of inclusivity and equality for all. All lives don’t matter until Black Lives do, too.”

“I hope that the Administration at Manhattan College can see that we are trying to ensure that we reflect the necessary changes that must be made to promote inclusivity,” Aguirre said. “We do not wish to cancel Kelly, but perhaps be more mindful of his past actions.”

Aramark to Service MC’s Campus __________________________ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 Martinez, Capellan, and Jimenez wondered how the college decided to contract with a company like Aramark.

“The president [of the college] keeps saying they had groups of people doing extensive research. He has yet to release who did the research,” Capellan said.

Jimenez, who noted that the majority of affected employees are minorities, said that he and his coworkers did their research on the company.

“We’re regular people,” he said. “You’ve got people who basically came to this country, 35, 40 years ago and came straight to this job. They don’t know anything but this job and they can even go online and see how bad this company is. So you’re telling me that in your position with the access you have, the resources you have that you didn’t notice any of this stuff?”

Martinez did research with his parents as well.

“We looked up Aramark and within minutes maybe, we started finding articles of all the negative records,” he said.

“It’s not like the stories are be-

ing hidden. They’re out there.

So it’s kind of shocking to see that Manhattan College is willing to do business with a business like that.”

McManness claimed in an email to The Quadrangle that the decision did not come easily, noting they had meetings with Chartwells, Sodexo and Aramark.

“The College developed a comprehensive questionnaire and provided a Request for Proposal to the three leading companies in the U.S.,” McManness wrote. “All companies were extremely capable of providing excellent service to Manhattan College. Our primary purpose was to enhance services in a comprehensive and efficient manner for our students and community. After a thorough review we felt Aramark provided us the opportunity to best meet the primary long-term goals of our strategic plan.”

The college created a longterm strategic plan in 2011, with goals of enhancing student, faculty and staff experience, while also improving the college’s operations, programs and facilities. The college just approved phase three, which

encompasses 2020 to 2025, but according to O’Donnell this change in service is tiedin mostly under core goal two which was “creating a distinctive learning environment.”

“While it’s not explicit, that goal includes everything from ResLife programming to enhancing and building on the success of Arches, to fundraising and responsible management of resources, to making sure that our auxiliary services (all the non-core operations we engage in because we’re a residential college, including facilities, dining, housekeeping, etc.) are run as well--as effectively and efficiently--as possible,” O’Donnell wrote. “Working toward this goal, it became obvious that integrating multiple parts of these business operations would allow us to improve service significantly.”

The emails concerned students and alumni sent did not fall on deaf ears. However, according to O’Donnell, in both his email to the community on July 13 and in an email to The Quadrangle, the college had considered Aramark’s history before deciding to partner with them.

“We also received numer-

ous positive references from among the 500 or so colleges and universities that they serve,” O’Donnell wrote. “No large company is without its failures and faults; the question is do the negatives add up to a pervasive pattern, or are they anomalies. The key, of course, is how they dealt with the faults and failures. Did they take appropriate action to correct? Our questioning satisfied us that they did - and do -take such action.”

Some feel like the decision to look past the notable instances goes against the college’s Lasallian values.

“One of the core Lasallian principles is respect for all persons and in this deal, there was no respect for the physical plant employees, no respect for the victims of Aramark in prisons and all around the country, there’s no respect for the student and alumni bodies who clearly don’t want this deal to go through,” Capellan said.

The school’s Lasallian values were even called upon in the resolution multiple times.

As students arrive back to campus for a socially-distanced semester, Aramark is just beginning to settle in for a 20-year

long haul. Those who oppose the company’s arrival or are concerned about its effects still have the resolution in waiting and still have other avenues of pressure to consider.

However, for some, this is a little deeper than just a company’s ethics, just a college’s decision and just the food you get as the result of your meal swipe. For some, this is about doing right by family.

“I mean, the way I look at it, the Manhattan College family is more than just students, teachers and alumni,” Martinez said.

“It goes beyond that. It’s also the workers there, the people who come early in the morning to prepare us food until 10, 11 o’clock at night. It’s not just the students and faculties, it’s more than that.

“We all take ethics classes in whatever major that we choose.

They teach us with specific cases of big companies trying to do shady business and why this is unethical and we see examples of people rising up and fighting against it. If it wasn’t me [speaking out], it was going to be somebody else.”

Features

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

7

Remote Internships? Now That’s WISE!:

WISE Program Adapts

Christine Nappi Features Editor

Summer 2020 meant canceled internships for many, but not for those in the Women Inspiring Successful Enterprise summer program. Although the current coronavirus pandemic may have put a damper on summer plans for most, this was only a slight bump in the road for WISE. After adjusting to the circumstances and adapting to a solely remote format, the WISE program was still able to provide internships and professional development opportunities to 22 students.

WISE is an eight-week professional development summer program that matches female undergraduate students to internships that correspond with their respective major or area of interest. In addition to an internship, students also attend professional development workshops and are provided with on-campus housing. Once returning to school in the fall, the fellows present their internships at a symposium. However, the program adapted to a virtual format this past summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is such an in-person program,” Rachel Cirelli, director and founder of the WISE program, said. “We adapted it, so it was fully virtual, [and] essentially, it was the same. But… there’s this nice thing about the students living together, they’re on campus together, and they didn’t get that opportunity.”

Although the pandemic may have halted internship plans for most, Cirelli ensured that the WISE fellows would still receive an internship and obtain the full WISE experience this summer. Despite students not being able to live on campus or intern in-person, Cirelli matched each student with a remote internship. The WISE fellows would attend their internships remotely each day, yet on Wednesdays, the groups would meet virtually for professional development seminars.

This year, the WISE symposium will still be held while socially distancing. It will take place on Sept. 18 on the fourth floor of Kelly Commons from noon to 3 p.m.

WISE fellow Syndey Collins, a junior urban studies major with a minor in environmental studies, was a community development intern at WHEDco, a women’s housing and economic development corporation based in the Bronx. Collins in particular found the remote format to be challenging for

community development endeavors, yet saw it as a beneficial learning experience.

“It was definitely a big switch because it’s community development, so not being in the community was very difficult at the beginning, but it was a lot of working towards making everything online,” Collins said. “I’m a people person, [and] the biggest challenge was just not being around people and kind of having to work on something and learn how to do it on your own, but I feel like that was almost a good kind of challenge.”

Although the WISE fellows may have missed the opportunity to complete this program in-person, Cirelli finds many benefits of the remote format.

She describes that many companies could shift to remote or hybrid formats in the future, thus preparing students when they enter the workforce.

“They missed the opportunity to physically be in an environment where they could gauge if they actually just like how the whole thing feels,” Cirelli said. “But I think on the other end, we realize that environments are changing so much that maybe [being remote] is appropriate.”

Senior Casey Whittaker, a double major in marketing and global studies, was a public relations intern at Anat Gerstein, a non-profit public relations firm in Queens. Wittaker finds many benefits of having completed this internship remotely and describes it as a beneficial learning experience. “[Being remote] was definitely different but not in a bad way,” Whittaker said. “It forced you to reach out if you had any problems and communicate more with your bosses or coworkers… you had to make that extra effort to communicate with other people, so that was definitely a benefit to it and you learned that that type of communication is so important.”

After the WISE program was complete, Whittaker had the opportunity to intern an extra month at Anat Gerstein, and the company invited her back to intern this fall.

In addition to remote internships, the WISE program itself was fully remote. As Cirelli describes, a main component of the WISE program is the community formed with the participants. She notes that students are able to meet women across all majors and establish relationships with women they may network with in the future.

When living on campus, the students can more easily get

to know each other and form these connections.

Despite not being on campus, Cirelli adapted the program to the virtual format to ensure a sense of community.

After professional development seminars, the WISE fellows would go into breakout rooms over Google Meet to discuss topics and hear other’s viewpoints. This also gave students the opportunity to talk about how their internship was going.

Senior Ella O’Brien, an economics major and finance minor, interned as a financial analyst at American Express this summer and found that meeting with the other participants regularly helped her through her internship.

“You always think you’re the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on or you’re like I’m the only one who’s stressed out right now,” O’Brien said.

“But knowing that you had people to talk to [and] come back to every week, and kind of relate to was super helpful.”

In addition to weekly Google Meets, Cirelli also created a book club where the students would meet each week in small groups, allowing them to bond with each other. As Whittaker describes, the WISE program in general is a community in itself because each participant shares a unique experience together.

“There’s a community that comes with WISE that it doesn’t matter if you’re virtual or if you’re in person,” Whittaker said. “I just learned so much professionally and everyone was so helpful.”

Despite being remote, participants agree that they still achieved the full WISE experience. O’Brien was offered a full-time job at American Express after she graduates, an opportunity she describes as not being possible if it weren’t for WISE. She found the program to be helpful and beneficial to all participants.

“Without the WISE program, I never would have had that opportunity because I know for American Express especially they are very selective on what schools they go to,” O’Brien said. “[WISE] has been so beneficial to everyone in the program for the past years, and I know that everyone’s loved it. The more girls that sign up for it, the better I think, and try and push more people to do it.”

The program is open to females of all majors who are rising juniors and seniors. WISE is a highly competitive program, and students must have a 3.0 GPA. The application for next summer will be open this

As part of her internship with Anat Gerstein, a nonprofit public relations firm, senior Casey Whittaker implemented public relations practices to promote the unveiling of the first statue of real-life women in Central Park on Aug. 26.

CASEY WHITTAKER / COURTESY fall, and the recent participants encourage other students to apply because of how much they got out of the program, even in the remote format.

“The wise program itself is just amazing [with] everything that it stands for and does for the school, it’s one of the best programs in the school like for sure hands down,” Collins said. “[Being remote] just shows how strong the program is and how we were still able to complete a full summer being virtual and still get professional development.”

Cirelli describes how the recent WISE fellows are the forerunners of the remote work environment for being one of few to complete an internship

under COVID-19, giving them a unique experience. Going remote may have not been ideal for the WISE fellows, but they still are still grateful for this learning and professional development opportunity.

“I’m really proud of the students, they really impressed me, they had really good attitudes, and they did a very good job managing up,” Cirelli said.

“I’m just so proud of them, they really represented the college well [and] all the evaluations I’m getting back from the employers, they’re so impressed.

I’m just really happy and grateful and I’m grateful for them for being such good ambassadors for our college.”

Features

8

THE QUADRANGLE

Manhattan College Club Leaders Remain Optimistic Despite COVID-19

Jilleen Barrett Asst. A&E Editor

As the fall semester is beginning to unfold, both remote and in-person learners at Manhattan College wonder what the upcoming year will look like. Due to the effects of COVID-19, almost every aspect of the college will be operating differently, including student organizations and clubs.

Many clubs will be impacted by the new rules set in place this semester. Seen as both social and academic activities, clubs contribute largely to the sense of community that is beloved on this campus. Without regular meetings and each group’s traditional events, club members look to their leaders to create a new normal.

One of these club leaders is Jenn Bueti, a rising senior and the president of the Manhattan College Singers. The performing arts group used to practice in a small room in Thomas Hall and host many in-person events, but their 45 to 50 members need a larger space to practice and perform while maintaining social distancing guidelines.

“New things I would like to bring to the group are more online sessions with recorded parts of the songs we will work on,” Bueti said. “So students who cannot make it to every rehearsal still have a sense of the music and do not fall behind.”

Bueti is expecting to plan online performances for Open House and Lessons & Carols, two fall semester shows.

Junior Meghan Hartson, president of the Pep Band, is undergoing some of the same planning as she prepares for the upcoming basketball season. Hartson believes there will have to be some of the same adjustments in rehearsal space and performances.

“Our plan is to practice in Smith once a week,” Hartson said. “We used to practice in Thomas 517 so we need a bigger space, and social distancing will be enforced. We also plan on holding virtual meetings every so often to make sure everyone is okay and adjusting to remote learning. Another thing we talked about is possibly recording some pieces of us playing music for them to play on the screens in Draddy during games if fans aren’t allowed.”

As for the rest of the performing arts groups, Hartson explained that there will be a

small, virtual club fair specifically for students interested in any related clubs. Bueti adds that anyone interested in Singers should contact club advisor Andy Bauer.

According to John Bennett, the director of the Office of Student Engagement, there will be several different types of club fairs occurring this semester to cater to different interests.

“Right now we’re thinking of doing both a virtual club fair, by holding a Google Meet with breakout rooms, but also a club fair in person, spread out over the course of a few days or a week,” Bennett said. “That way, only related groups will be set up each day.. We’re also planning to hold it on the Jasper Backyard, so it’s not in the walkways of the quad.”

Although most undergraduate students are having a hard time dealing with how different everything is, freshmen have to adjust to college life in general as well as the unfamiliar rules provoked by the pandemic.

Tyla Boone, a freshman political science major, is feeling the stress of having to adapt during these strange times.

“I am slightly nervous about coming to campus but I don’t know whether they are freshman nerves or COVID nerves,” she said. “I also feel that if everyone does their part we should be fine during this time.

Compared to other schools, Manhattan has done a fantastic job about what they plan to do once we get to campus which has been very reassuring.”

Boone, who plans to attend the virtual club fair, hopes to join Model United Nations and possibly the Black Student Union. Though a group of students has gathered for meetings of the Black Student Union for the past three years, this academic year is the first that it will be recognized as an official club. Junior Ashley Baptiste, the vice president of the club, explains that its meetings will be virtual so as to not exclude remote learners.

“We are living in an uncertain and unprecedented time, but the one thing that is certain is that this semester will be like no other,” she said. “BSU’s main goal is to provide a comfortable and inclusive environment for all students in the Manhattan College community especially for those of color. Whether we operate virtually or on campus, we will fulfill that goal.”

Some clubs weren’t able to continue operating the way

they have in the past, such as the Love Your Melon crew. The group primarily had as many as 20 in-person events per year and worked with children in hospitals, but the pandemic has kept them from being able to physically be with the patients.

Senior Brona Nielsen, the president of the Love Your Melon club, says the group will still be doing substantial work.

“The non-profit Pinky Swear is ‘taking over’ the program, so we’re now the Manhattan College Pinky Swear PACK Program,” she said. “The PACK programs are all nationwide at colleges and universities so the club headquarters make us a constitution and plan out what we are doing for the semester.”

Though the club is different from what she expected for this semester, Nielsen feels that they will continue to have an impact on children in need.

“My goals for this semester are to try and keep everyone positive,” Nielsen said. “Everything is very tentative right now with our club so we might not be doing as much as we had in the past, like meeting with kids and getting to see the impact that we have on their lives.”

Many clubs plan to use social media and virtual sessions to recruit members. The Black Student Union, for example, will be taking advantage of the virtual format to increase membership. Their first meeting will be on Sept. 16 over Zoom.

“We will be discussing anything and everything about BSU and answering questions,” Baptiste said. “For now we will be using one of our biggest platforms, social media, to recruit new members as well as promoting upcoming events.”

Overall, club leaders are optimistic about the upcoming semester despite current events.

“In my opinion, I think this semester is going to be very weird but I’m still excited for it,” Nielsen said. “I hope that everyone on campus stays safe and that we can have as close to a normal semester as we can get.”

Baptiste is also excited for this semester and is confident that clubs will be able to overcome any challenges the pandemic may bring.

“These past couple months I’ve observed that as BSU, fellow Jaspers, and citizens of the world, we can persevere through any obstacle, and personally, I am excited to see what these accomplishments this semester brings.”

TOP: Hartson hopes that this semester will be as successful for the pep band as past semesters have been.

MEGHAN HARTSON / COURTESY BELOW:The 2019 club fair brought crowds of students to the quadrangle, but the 2020 club fair will look very different.

BRIAN ASARE / THE QUADRANGLE

Arts & Entertainment

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

9

“Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine,” but She Doesn’t Have To Be BOOK NOOK Sophia Sakellariou Senior Writer When I picked up Gail Honeyman’s “Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine” at my local Barnes and Noble, I was struck by how the description on the back alarmingly mirrored my own COVID induced existence: “Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and … weekends mostly consist of frozen pizza, vodka and phone chats with Mummy.” Yikes. The only difference is I now live with my mummy so there’s no need for phone chats. I had to read this book to see how Eleanor, and partially myself, prevailed from this monotonous existence.

The beginning of the book is quite troubling. Eleanor has been working at the same company, in the same position since she graduated university, yet has no friends amongst her co-workers. A scar across her face, a burn mark from a childhood trauma that is gradually revealed to the reader as the novel progresses, signifies that she is different from the rest before she even has the chance to open her mouth. Her coworkers mock her peculiarity, yet she seems perfectly okay with being on her own.

Then she meets Raymond, the new IT guy who is the first

person to actually see her and not the large scar that covers her face. After a chance encounter with a fainting man on the bus, Raymond helps Eleanor see the joy in the little things in life- having a meal with loved ones, helping an old man and his family, and going to a pub with a pal for a pint.

The story of Eleanor and Raymond is not a love story in the romantic sense, but a love story between two friends, an important narrative in today’s times. Loneliness is not something people consider when talking about people in their 20s. After all, a person’s 20s are their “selfish years,” the time where they explore their passions with little responsibility, or so they say. Yet, amongst the pandemic there is another epidemic at work-- loneliness.

When we were pulled from our daily routines we were re-

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The story of Eleanor and Raymond is not a love story in the romantic sense, but a love story between two friends.

moved from the social aspects that kept us afloat, even on the hardest days.

This book made me think deeper about changes I want to make in my own life. It made me think about what it means to be a good friend, as the occasional check-ins from my friends have gotten me through some dark times these past few months. It also showed me the value in being brave enough to step out of your comfort zone to help others and to not be afraid to ask for help for yourself.

Although the title of this novel claims Eleanor is completely fine, she isn’t and she doesn’t have to be, and neither do we. We can be happy, sad, excited or scared since those are the emotions that make life the wonderful mess that it is. Eleanor tells everyone she’s fine and appears so, yet her crippling loneliness eventually becomes so unbearable that she breaks under the weight of it all, and luckily Raymond is there to pick up the pieces.

This novel will make you laugh, cry and think about what it means to be human. It serves as a reminder that it is okay to not be okay and just because life is hard, we don’t have to go it alone. And that is a lovely thought.

Honeyman’s novel follows, Eleanor, a girl who struggles with social skills, who meets a new coworker.

SOPHIA SAKELLARIOU/ THE QUADRANGLE

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Weekly Open Meetings TUESDAYS @ 4 P.M. Via Google Meet Email thequad@manhattan.edu for the link @mcquad

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Arts & Entertainment

10

THE QUADRANGLE

The Dog Days of Quarantine:

Five Months of Summer Jams JASPER JAMS Gabriella DePinho Editor-in-Chief

Summer always feels both long and not long enough, but this year, thanks to an early end to the in-person semester, summer felt as if it was five months long, even though we were still buried in work from classes.

For most of us, when classes actually ended, our summers looked quite different than we had planned. I was fortunate enough to maintain my in-person internship because news personnel are considered “essential workers” but many lost theirs or were forced to work remotely.

Despite my work schedule of Sundays to Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., I still was very much in the midst of the pandemic with everyone else. I still baked banana bread, bingewatched shows, played Xbox with my brother, went for walks or runs, did my chores, ate a bunch of ice cream and tried not to lose my mind when I felt trapped inside the house.

One thing that helped me pass the time on days stuck in the house was listening to and looking for new music. This habit actually came in handy when work started because I was the only intern with a car at the newspaper I worked at, which meant I was frequently sent far distances. Below is the playlist for my pandemic, essential worker summer made of the songs I listened to while staring at the walls at home or as I drove to Pennsylvania, Connecticut or any of the five boroughs for work.

Stuck in the Middle - Tai Verdes I found this song on one of those “stare at the walls” types of days, but it quickly became a popular choice to play multiple times over in one drive. On Instagram (@taiverdes) in a July 1 post, the artist wrote the song was “the most honest thing [he’s] ever written.” It’s safe to say we can expect more from him.

You And I - LÉON Part of my goal this summer was to really dig up and listen to full albums of artists that I was finding, rather than just one or two tracks. While this is one of the contemporary pop artist’s more popular tracks, it’s

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Music to help you through the pandemic, whether you’re fielding boring stretches at home, navigating being an essential worker, or something in between.

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still one of my favorites from her debut, self-titled album that came out last year.

Betty - Taylor Swift For once, Swift’s latest release, “folklore” was her least anticipated album, both in timing and in genre, considering it’s tagged as alternative. I thought the deep clean of my room I did was a productive use of my time this quarantine, but Swift has me beat. I had sixteen tracks to pick from but I picked this for no other reason than it’s a bop.

Supercuts - Jeremy Zucker I knew a number of people who, pre-pandemic, went to a Zucker concert in the city but hadn’t heard any of his music.

Now, finally having the time to listen to his entire discography, I finally understood the hype and even followed him on social media, which is how I heard this recent release. And yes, it’s Supercuts as in the chain hair salon.

Tandem Bike - Emma Jayne A good high school friend of mine had introduced me to Emma Jayne’s singer-songwriter tunes a while ago, but I just heard this song for the first time recently. I sound like a dying duck while singing along,

but I feel empowered when I do.

Nothing Left to Lose - Transit One of my friends from MC texted me about Transit’s 2014 album “Joyride” during quarantine. I listened and quickly became obsessed with this album as the perfect “summer” album. I’m sad I missed its release in 2014 because I would have loved it then too. The band actually split in 2016, so maybe it’s a good thing I didn’t get attached back then.

Lovin’ In My Baby’s Eyes Leftover Salmon In quarantine, I finally got to read “Always and Forever, Lara Jean,” which is the third and final installment in Jenny Han’s series that started with “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”

Without giving anything away, this song was mentioned in the book and due to my loyalty to the characters, it ended up on my own playlist.

Sunday - Joy Oladokun Oladokun’s music is just so good, it was hard to pick one song to recommend, but I settled on “Sunday,” which was the first tune of hers that I actually listened to. This track can be found on Oladokun’s

recently released album “in defense of my own happiness (vol. 1),” which is her second album ever. I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled for volume two.

Little League - Conan Gray Without realizing that Conan Gray was a singer, I found myself liking multiple tweets of his as they appeared on my timeline. When I finally looked up who he was, I found his indie-popish album “Kid Krow” that came out in March of this year. This track came out on top because it felt like a summer song.

Nora - Raavi & the Houseplants This one popped up in my “Discover Weekly” playlist, which is a playlist that I do not listen to frequently enough considering how much I like finding new tunes. The band’s whole 2019 nine-song release, “Don’t Hit Me Up” is full of great tracks that I highly recommend; hopefully, this one gets you hooked.

Not Going Home - Great Good Fine Ok If the band name alone doesn’t want to make you listen to them, I don’t know how I’ll convince you to listen to them.

This song is great for a drive

Add Jasper Jams to your Spotify by scanning the QR Code:

with the windows down and the sunlight fading behind the mountains as you shoot down the thruway heading back home after a long day at work.

(The irony is noted.)

Sunlight - Yuno I found Yuno thanks to a Twitter thread that I was reading, which is truly a first for me when it comes to discovering new music. Yuno has been releasing music, starting with a platform on Bandcamp, since 2010, so if you want to stop being 10 years late to the party, I recommend checking out his music.

Nothing in My Head - Richie Quake This suggestion came from my older sister who actually moved out in June. But before she moved out, she used to walk into my room while I was doing homework and talk to me about random stuff while she took breaks from work. Many of those conversations centered around what music she was listening to while doing her work and one day, it happened to be Quake. I wasn’t expecting to like Quake but I ended up deep-diving his discography and liking all of it.

Sports

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

11

Cross Country Team Remains Positive After Season Cancellation Jilleen Barrett Asst. A&E Editor

The upcoming semester is certainly shaping up to be strange. What it means to be a college student in the United States has completely changed.

Between remote classes, mask mandates, and social distancing, nothing is the same as it used to be, including for student-athletes.

The Manhattan College Cross Country program was devastated to learn about the MAAC’s decision to cancel fall sports on Jul. 27 even though they expected it to be the likely outcome all along.

“It was a lot different than what happened in March,” Manhattan Cross Country Head Coach Kerri Gallagher said. “Whereas in March it was very sudden—that news hit very hard— in this case, it was the anticipation of the news that was probably the hardest throughout the summer, so to hear it officially wasn’t a big surprise for us, although it never feels good to find out.”

Gallagher, who Director of Cross Country Matt Centrow-

itz referred to as “Virtual Kerry” given her management of most of the team’s online functions, has been with the Jaspers since 2016. No stranger to competition, Gallagher previously coached the cross country program at American University for five years and also enjoyed a professional career as a runner competing globally. Although the fall cancellation certainly feels strange for everyone, Gallagher is working hard with her runners to make sure they are prepared for future seasons.

Centrowitz also has an impressive resume that has earned the respect of many in the running world. During these tumultuous months, Centrowitz seems to be avoiding getting wrapped up in the stress of the situation and instead is keeping his eye on the prize while ensuring his runners do the same.

“One of the best things that Kerry and I’ve been doing is getting them used to our training pattern and being consistent,” Centrowitz said. “It’s hard to be consistently thinking and training athletes. Every day is a new environment, a new situation and it’s just a lot

of stress to these kids instead of having fun. They’re following more rules than ever. And they’re concerned about their safety and their good health.”

Junior runner Marc Carrera believes the MAAC is doing right by the students in opting to wipe out the fall season. Right now, he is trying to remain positive and focused on the sport itself even though there will be no official races.

“I just had to bite the bullet, you know, swallow the pill, even if it hurt,” Carrera said.

“And there are some pros in this situation and there will be a lot of time to reflect now on ourselves and our training.”

Michael Hennelly, a junior runner and accounting major, appreciates his coaches and the opportunity to work with them despite the challenges 2020 has posed.

“I mean, you know, coming from my high school where I guess we didn’t take running as seriously it’s definitely very different, but I’m blessed to say that I’m able to run for them in this program,” Hennelly said.

Andria Scaglione, a sophomore runner and exercise science major, expressed similar

sentiments when reflecting on the impact of her coaches.

“It’s great running for both of them,” Scaglione said. “Since they have so much experience and they were in our shoes once, it’s like they understand what we’re going through and they’re just very supportive.”

Additionally, many cross country runners and fans are disappointed that there will be no Manhattan Cross Country Invitational this fall. According to the invitational’s Facebook page, it has been a tradition since the late Ed Bowes ‘64 established it in 1973. Gallagher confirmed that the annual event, which is enjoyed by many high schoolers, will instead have virtual festivities this year to continue the cherished tradition and develop relationships with prospective recruits.

“Manhattan is going to be putting up an open house and there’s gonna be an athletic aspect of it and so basically our virtual expo will be housed in that,” Gallagher said. “So it’s going to be kind of through that admissions initiative, and we’re really excited about it.”

The future is a mystery as

far as whether later seasons will be canceled as well, but many are trying to remain optimistic. Alexandra Preckajlo, a senior thrower on the track and field team, is looking forward to the possibility of still getting to compete later in the semester in the indoor competitions.

“We lost six seniors and we’re getting back three athletes that I’m aware of, and I’m excited to see what we’ll do with the young team,” Preckajlo said. “We were very excited for outdoor so I’m excited to put that energy into our indoor because there are new people on the team.”

Although there will be a lot of challenges in the road ahead, Gallagher manifests her belief in the promising future of the Manhattan cross country team in the way she leads her team during the good times and the bad. She is preaching the importance of togetherness now more than ever.

“This is a new challenge that we’re facing. It’s been tough from the coaching end and it’s certainly been tough for the athletes, but the one thing that’s worked for us is to stay together.”

LEFT: Junior Marc Carrera is grateful for the opportunity to run on the team and hopes to compete again soon.

RIGHT: Michael Hennelly, a junior on the team, is living with teammates and plans to continue training with them despite the season’s cancellation.

GO JASPERS / COURTESY

Sports

12

THE QUADRANGLE

Fall Sports Will Be Sidelined in 2020 for MAAC and Most other Conferences Pete Janny & Colleen McNamara Sports Editor & Staff Writer

At most schools around the country, including Manhattan College, fall sports will be put on the backburner as the threat of the coronavirus continues.

The current realities of our country’s ongoing battle with COVID-19 dictated the terms of the decision by the MAAC and most other conferences around the country to cancel fall sports.

After holding out hope for a while, the MAAC begrudgingly chose to put the notion of playing this fall to rest following a meeting between the Council of Presidents early in the day on July 27. The official ruling was the culmination of a monthslong process of brainstorming a safe and practical way to go forth with athletic competition this fall. In the end, there was just no clear way forward to minimize the impact of the coronavirus enough to make competition worth it in the end.

“Health and safety protocols have been of the utmost priority the last several months, but unfortunately, there are too many factors that prohibit the MAAC and its institutions from safely delivering a competitive atmosphere that these individuals deserve,” said MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor, according to the GoJaspers website.

“It is difficult to put into words how I feel for all of the studentathletes, coaches, and administrators who put in so much work on a daily basis.”

The announcement to cancel marked another grim moment for MAAC sports more than four months after the threat of the coronavirus terminated the 2020 MAAC Hercules Basketball Tournament in its third day of competition.

Lost in the whirlwind of emotions felt during those dismal days in mid-March were bigger thoughts about how the situation would look in a few months’ time when fall sports athletes would be scheduled to compete.

There were few concrete long-term answers then, and there are still few now. As a result, fall athletes will have to overcome the same setbacks experienced by spring athletes just a few months earlier.

Moving forward, a top priority at Manhattan is ensuring that all students, including the large sector of student-athletes on campus, can best handle the mental health challenges caused by COVID-19.

“The mental health of our students and our society, let

Manhattan College’s Athletic Director Marianne Reilly is faced with leading the school’s athletic programs during the coronavirus pandemic.

THE RIVERDALE PRESS/ COURTESY alone our student athletes, is a very important topic that I feel needs to be addressed,” Manhattan Athletic Director Marianne Reilly said. “No one wants to cancel or postpone anything because these are peoples’ careers. Being an athlete totally enhances the overall experience in your college career.”

The prospect of having no fall sports started to look more real by late July after reports surfaced of outbreaks among student-athletes on campuses across the country during summer workouts. The bulk of athletes infected were football players, who were back on their respective campuses early to begin their regular workouts ahead of the season. Consequently, most of the public concern about college athletics was consumed by the mysterious fate of the college football season, given its money-making factor for many schools and its popularity among sports fans.

Since Manhattan does not field a football team, the school and the rest of the MAAC conference at large were mostly unaffected by the buzz in the media regarding the next steps for college football and its financial implications.

“I think there was a lot of pressure on the football schools to try to make this work,” Manhattan Athletic Director Marianne Reilly told the Quadrangle. “The culture of those schools need football and in a local college town the ho-

tels and local businesses could suffer.”

Figuring out a plan to play fall sports during the spring season is a main priority for the MAAC and other conferences; an announcement will come at “a later date” upon further discussions by the Board of Presidents. Assuming that the country has more control over COVID-19 by the spring, one of the ideas reportedly being considered is some kind of “bubble” format that would allow Division I college sports teams to live, eat, train, and most crucially, compete in the same enclosed location.

There have yet to be formal conversations about the bubble idea among the NCAA and other conferences, but it may ultimately provide the best approach to keeping studentathletes and coaches safe when competing. Regardless of the format, the most important thing is bringing back college sports without jeopardizing the health and well-being of all involved.

“There is hope that we will have something in the spring, whether that is NCAA or conference, we’re going to try to do that,” Reilly said.

In the case of fall sports, there could be a lot of value in taking the fall to train together and strengthen bonds as teammates with the end prize being a spring season. Just imagine the benefits of enhanced skill development and crisper team chemistry that could come

from all this.

“If I have to say there is a silver lining it’s that coaches can do more skill development,” Reilly said. “Now they are actually going to be able to really build and develop that team chemistry and skill development. We want to engage them where they still feel that they are working something because they still are. It may not be the championship right now, but it could be in the spring.”

As a result of the cancellation, the teams at Manhattan that will be left without competitive seasons this fall are men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball, women’s rowing, and men’s and women’s cross country.

Head men’s soccer coach Jorden Scott is staying optimistic despite having to wait longer than ever before to see his team back in action again. Scott has developed a patient and mindful outlook to prepare for the task of meshing a team with 14 new players. The importance of team chemistry and skill development resonates deeply with him nowadays.

“The biggest challenge this fall is going to be blending the team,” Scott told the Quadrangle. “When you lose a lot of those guys, it takes time. We have to build the time back up again.”

Traditionally, most college sports teams that compete in the fall are given a brief transition period to get ready for the season after the long summer layoff. Head women’s soccer

coach Brendan Lawler knows how tough that quick transition could be for his players, especially the freshman class. With more time to prepare this fall, he is looking forward to the opportunity to let his freshmen players grow into their roles on the team.

“My message to the team, starting with the freshmen, is that it’s tough in the fall to get adjusted to college soccer essentially with a two week preseason,” Lawler told the Quadrangle. “Now we get to build up to it and I’m excited about that as a teacher and educator you can take your time to get everybody on the same page to get them used to college soccer and college in general.”

With the fate of fall sports determined, rumors are starting to swirl about the plans for college basketball. The season’s scheduled start date of Nov. 10 is looking unlikely and as a result later dates are being discussed by NCAA officials, according to CBS Sports.

A vote on the start date for college basketball is expected to happen on Sept. 16 on behalf of the D-1 Council. The talk of a bubble format has mostly been linked to college basketball although it is nothing more than speculation at this stage. The bottom line is the NCAA will have to get creative to avoid the financial nightmare of having to cancel March Madness for the second year in a row.