3 CULTURE
4 ARTS
Culture Desk Staff: The Traditions That Keep Us Grounded
Billie Eilish’s Documentary Breaks Barriers of Pop Stardom
VOLUME LVI | ISSUE 1
MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021
Letter From the Editor: Why is WSN Coming Back? Given the number of issues we had, why have we returned to the newspaper? By ALEXANDRIA JOHNSON Editor in Chief Dear readers, After we resigned last fall, it is no surprise that people are wondering why the newspaper has returned. As one of the three deputy managing editors who signed the resignation letter, I stand by the decision we made. The firing of our previous Editor-in-Chief in addition to the remarks made by our former advisor was unacceptable. Included in our resignation letter was a list of 15 demands, which included the resignation of our former advisor and fundamental changes to how our Publication Board operates. Before the resignation, our Publication Board included two professors from the journalism department, the Editor-in-Chief, and the Business Manager. Our former Editorial Advisor is no longer affiliated with the newspaper. The two professors involved in the Board have left the paper as well. For the past couple of weeks, I have worked with former WSN alums who are passionate about rebuilding the newspaper and in doing so, addressing the major issues that led to its abrupt hiatus. SUSAN BEHRENDS VALENZUELA | WSN
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
NYU Plans Return to Classroom Instruction for Fall 2021 By SUHAIL GHARAIBEH Staff Writer Students and faculty should expect a return to fully in-person classroom instruction for the Fall 2021 semester, according to the NYU administration. Provost Katherine Fleming announced the plan in a letter published Feb. 23, which NYU Local reported on the same day. This plan represents an end to the combination of in-person, blended and online courses that students have become familiar with over the past two semesters. “We are indeed planning to resume in-person instruction in full for Fall 2021,” Fleming wrote in a statement to WSN. “That means faculty teaching students in the classroom … But as with everything else about [COVID-19], it’s hard to be really precise on forward planning.” According to Fleming, the deci-
sion to return to fully in-person instruction was based primarily on the increasing availability of COVID-19 vaccines rather than a decline in the current case count. “We expect that vaccinations will be much more widely available as the rollout continues,” Fleming said. “And, based on assurances from the President, we expect all faculty and staff and students to have access to vaccines by the start of the fall term.” President Joe Biden vowed on March 2 that there would be enough vaccine supply “for every adult in America by the end of May” — an update to an earlier timeline, which would see vaccines available for everyone by the end of July or beginning of August. The updated timeline is partly based on a White House sanctioned deal between Merck and Johnson & Johnson. These two pharmaceutical corporations are expected to produce
millions of doses of a single-shot vaccine. New York City’s mass vaccination sites, including the Javits Center and Yankee Stadium, have already begun to administer this shot, according to a press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s off ice. At least 7,000 members of the NYU community — eligible as members of New York’s Phase 1a and Phase 1b groups — were offered vaccinations through NYU Langone Medical Center. The university has been approved as a vaccination site and is waiting to receive stock from the state. NYU’s Off ice of Strategic Assessment, Planning & Design and the COVID-19 Prevention and Response Team have released a blueprint for a planned vaccine distribution center on the f irst floor of Bobst Library and have announced another vaccination site at the Student Health Center. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
LEO SHEINGATE | WSN
NYU Langone Medical Center is located at 550 1st Ave. The hospital has offered COVID-19 vaccinations to at least 7,000 members of the NYU community.
Washington Square News
2
MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021
NEWS
NEWS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by TRACE MILLER
NYU Plans Return to Classroom Instruction for Fall 2021 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
“NYU will encourage and assist the vaccination effort in every way we can, in compliance with the law,” Fleming said. “As a state-authorized vaccination site, we intend to vaccinate community members here at our Student Health Centers—both at [Washington Square] and in Brooklyn—and at a converted space in Bobst Library as soon as we receive supply. We’ll notify the community when we have greater clarity on exactly when they’ll be up and running.” In New York City, the rate of new cases, though declining, remains at around 3,600 new cases per day as of press time. Experts are also warning that a new variant of the virus, named B.1.526, is spreading rapidly through-
out the city and tri-state area. “We certainly are taking the New York variant, the 526, very seriously,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor on COVID-19 to President Biden, said in a recent White House press briefing. “We have to really keep an eye on that for its ability to evade both monoclonal antibod[ies] and, to a certain extent, the vaccine-induced antibodies. So it’s something we take very, very seriously.” NYU’s current safety guidelines will not necessarily disappear, according to Fleming, even once mass vaccination has been achieved. “The exact form that classroom teaching will take (occupancy limits, social distancing, face masks, et cetera) will need to be determined over
the coming months as the pandemic and public health protocols evolve,” she said. “In spite of what we may be planning, public health and state and city recommendations will always trump our plans.” Days prior to Fleming’s announcement, the CPRT warned of a rise in cases. In-person contact between students as well as both small and large gatherings were the two factors that contributed to the spike. “To continue to facilitate physical distancing, we’re currently planning to accommodate classes in bigger spaces and at lower occupancy,” Fleming said. “We’ll likely begin the year mandating that students and instructors continue to wear face coverings until public health officials advise
us otherwise.” Fleming also confirmed that BioReference swab and binx health saliva tests would remain available to NYU students in Fall 2021, stating that regular testing has been essential to controlling the virus’s spread on campus. “We have no plans to discontinue our testing program for the foreseeable future,” she said. Despite the optimism of the administration’s plans for faculty and students to return to on-campus, in-person instruction, Fleming admitted that some courses are likely to be taught in a blended or remote format. “Though we’ll endeavor to promote in-person learning wherever possible, the mode of delivery for
classes will likely be determined on a case-by-case basis, by professors in consultation with their departments and units, and taking into account the needs of students particularly those facing ongoing travel restrictions,” Fleming said. Still, some parts of campus life could begin to approach normalcy. “As more and more of our community members get vaccinated, we’ll be able to resume doing the things we took for granted back in 2019— interacting in laboratories, attending small-group seminars, eating in on-campus dining locations, going to the gym,” Fleming said. Email Suhail Gharaibeh at news@nyunews.com.
Transparency Collective Publishes 70 Gigabytes of Data Hacked from Right-Wing Social Media Network
NINA SCHIFANO, ALANA BEYER, JAKE CAPRIOTTI, & ALEX TRAN | WSN
The NYU Center for Cybersecurity is a collaboration among NYU School of Law, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and other NYU schools and departments. Maxwell Aliapoulios, a PhD student and researcher at the center, received advance access to GabLeaks and briefly reviewed the data.
By TRACE MILLER News Editor The nonprofit transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) released 70 gigabytes of hacked user accounts, passwords, direct messages and public and private posts from the right-wing social media network Gab on Monday, March 1. The GabLeaks was procured by the hacktivist JaXpArO & My Little Anonymous Revival Project, who goes by they/them pronouns. DDoS published the leak as a limited distribution dataset available to researchers and journalists upon request. Maxwell Aliapoulios, a PhD student and researcher at the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, received advance access to GabLeaks and briefly reviewed the data. However, academic researchers are questioning the ethicality of using parts — or any — of the data in academic studies. DDoS gained notoriety last summer after publishing BlueLeaks, a dataset containing 269 gigabytes of hacked law-enforcement files. Wired reported
that the nonprofit released ransomware hacked from corporations, posts scraped from Parler and the .Win Network and data stolen from corporations in Myanmar after the military coup d’état. DDoS typically releases datasets publicly, but published GabLeaks as a limited distribution dataset because of the large amounts of personally identifiable information contained within. “The mission of transparency and reliability are at the core of this and other publications,” Lorax B. Horne, the director of DDoS, told WSN in a text message. “We distinguish ourselves from other data collectors and archives in our commitment to announce what we have, and to make some of these coveted data properties available to researchers that are believed to work in the public interest.” Horne added that they generally put datasets on the limited distribution track when they contain too much [personally identifiable information] to be worth our time to redact, from non-relevant parties. DDoS might make a version of Ga-
bLeaks publicly available in the future, according to Horne. However, when and how DDoS releases datasets will depend on the source’s needs and wishes. “We are working on protocols to put in place that could redact any dataset,” Horne wrote. “What we do with a particular dataset, usually responds to source direction. So it could be this Gab dataset, or a future release of Parler or something else.” Aliapoulios, who researches cybercrime and online extremism, co-developed the Social Media Analysis Toolkit, a website that allows users to search keywords on and access data from fringe, alternative and mainstream social media sites such as Twitter, Reddit, 4chan, Parler and Gab. He does not have academic plans to research GabLeaks because the data is not publicly available. When Aliapoulios glanced at the dataset, however, he noticed a pattern. The number of new Gab users surged in early January — around the time Twitter banned Trump and Amazon deplatformed Parler — leading him to conclude that Twitter and Parler users
migrated to Gab. “There was a massive, massive amount of new users signing up, hundreds of times more than the normal new-user count,” Aliapoulios said. “But what I found interesting was that those new users didn’t participate. So they joined, but the overall post count didn’t change.” Using Parler as a case study, Aliapoulios said he is interested in studying the effects of deplatforming extremism, to learn whether deplatforming pushes extremists to deeper, darker places on the internet or to other, similar social-media networks like Gab. GabLeaks could be useful for historians and social scientists mapping social networks and studying how groups organize online, A.J. Bauer said, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama’s Department of Journalism and Creative Media and a former visiting assistant professor at Steinhardt’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. Gab is known as a haven for neo-Nazis and white supremacists, according to Bauer, who primarily researches conservative and right-wing media. It is smaller and more niche than Parler or Twitter, he said, which might make it easier for white supremacists to find chats about tactics or methods of winning influence. Private chat logs reviewed by WSN appear to show users discussing relationships, family life, follower counts, Christianity, QAnon, the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, the difficulty of finding Aryan women with which to breed and the best tactics for forming a fascist party in the United States, among many other things. “If I’m a historian in the future and I want to look back to the present moment, maybe I see similarities between two different fascist groups and I’m wondering whether they were in contact,” Bauer said. “[GabLeaks] may be evidence that says, ‘Well, actually they were talking with one another, and here’s what they were saying.’” GabLeaks could also be useful for scholars researching radicalization, according to Bauer.
“Maybe there’s some user who’s kind of disconnected from far-right organizing, and you can kind of watch their gradual radicalization through their messaging and comments and posts,” he said. However, Bauer is concerned about the ethics of using GabLeaks for research or for academic studies. It presents severe violations of privacy and consent, he said. He wouldn’t feel comfortable using the data for research without the consent of the people he’s researching. “If you’re using without consent, you would at least need to be engaging in a lot of anonymizing of the data, so that you’re getting the insights you want, but without exposing whoever the person is,” Bauer explained. Justin Hendrix, an adjunct professor at the Tandon School of Engineering, who studies disinformation and media manipulation, echoed Bauer’s sentiments. Hendrix researched and reported on publicly available data scraped from Parler, but has no plans to look at GabLeaks. Parler was crawled and only public information was taken, he explained, but Gab was hacked and both public and private information was extracted. “With the Gab data … there are going to be some questions that folks have to ask about what are the ethics of looking at this piece or the other,” he said. One piece consists of usernames, passwords and other personally identifiable information, according to Aliapouilios. The other piece consists of public data that could have been extracted with a crawler. The former portion is a no-go for him. Yet Bauer said he sees the purpose and political benefit of the GabLeaks release regardless of whether or not researchers can use any of the data for academic studies. “It’s making it harder to be a fascist,” he said. “If you’re on Gab or something like that, you know that your words aren’t private. That might chill speech in some way, keep you from organizing in some way.” Email Trace Miller at tmiller@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News
MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021
CULTURE@NYUNEWS.COM
3
CULTURE
Edited by DANA SUN
Culture Desk Staff: The Traditions That Keep Us Grounded It’s been almost a year since the start of the pandemic in the U.S., and life has been the same ever since. Check out the traditions our staff writers follow to keep themselves sane, especially over Zoom University.
The Rhythm of Wontons By DANA SUN Culture Editor I’ve been wrapping wontons with my parents ever since I learned to walk. It’s usually just the three of us, standing around that wooden dining table with a pot of f illing and a stack of wonton skins in the middle. We’re a family that exchanges very little words with each other. You’d think it’d be awkward for us to stand there in silence as we wrap wontons. In reality, we’ve all fallen into a unif ied rhythm: grab the skin, place the f illing and tuck it in. That type of unspoken synchronization is better than any conversation I could ask for — it’s when I feel most connected to my parents, and any feelings of stress I have vanish. I hadn’t joined them in any wonton-wrapping sessions in the years since I left for college, until a week ago. Midterms season was here and I was holed up in my room, f inishing up a six-hour study session. When I f inally came outside, there was that familiar giant pot of f illing and those stacks of wonton skins on the dining table. All I had to do was walk up to my parents — who were silently wrapping those wontons — and fall into their rhythm. In that moment, my midterms no longer existed. It was just the wontons, my parents and me. Email Dana Sun at dsun@nyunews.com.
Family Pen Pal By SABRINA CHOUDHARY Staff Writer The NYU Public Safety officers in my residence hall always give me strange looks as I eagerly check the mail sometimes multiple times a day. I have a family friend who is an avid letter writer, and she has sent me sporadic cards for years. I was always inconsistent in replying and usually too distracted to respond. The pandemic changed that. Now, I whip out a pen as soon as I read her note. We decorate our letters with fun stickers and themed stamps. I walk to the mailbox across the street with purpose. I keep all of her letters in one desk drawer for safekeeping. This routine always gives me something to look forward to, since I never know exactly when the next letter will arrive. It always puts a smile on my face when one does. Now that I’m always staring at one screen or another — Zoom classes, reading PDF and FaceTiming my friends — old-fashioned communication has become even more special to me. It is also a stress-relieving way for me to have a way to connect with my friend that slows time down; nothing is urgent. As a bonus, it supports the postal service! Email Sabrina Choudhary at culture@nyunews.com.
SAMMY TAVASSOLI, ALANA BEYER & ALEX TRAN | WSN
Helping out in the kitchen, having a relaxing movie night, or writing to family members. Listen to the traditions that are keeping us sane in the middle of the pandemic.
Friday Night Films
Home Is Where the Kitchen Is
By FELICITY HUANG Staff Writer
By MADISON SAN MIGUEL Staff Writer
Quarantine in March gave my family the luxury of having the time to start a new tradition — weekly movie nights. Every weekend, even as we have gotten busier, my parents still put aside their emails and conference calls and my little sister puts away her video games. Sometimes, we only had time for a short episode of Seinfeld that my parents first watched in their tiny New York City apartment. Other times, we would watch different award-winning mockumentaries assigned for my psychology class. We get to escape together, albeit temporary, to a different reality. What I enjoyed most was not the movie itself, but rather the conversation it sparked afterward. As one can imagine, the viewpoints of two first-generation immigrants compared to their two American-born daughters differ greatly. Arguing about our film theories are a welcome distraction from the pandemic, politics and work at the dinner table. These movies have helped me learn more about my family’s perspectives on issues that we would otherwise never discuss without the aid of the film. Now that I am in college, my family continues this tradition without me, but when I go back on weekends, it’s like I never left.
“Todo para la familia,” translates to “everything for the family.” That is what my grandpa used to say at every family function. Even when I was younger, I was taught to put family before anything else. Food was always a big part of our traditions. I am not the greatest cook now, and could never beat my grandma’s enchiladas, but my greatest memories were, and still are, in the kitchen. Prior to the pandemic, my family and I used to make a special dish every Thanksgiving. Our last Thanksgiving together was spent making homemade tamales in our family kitchen. My grandma would make the masa herself and have my cousins and I spread the mixture on a corn husk. The tangy smell of the masa, and the mess we made with it, is a fond memory of mine. While we cooked, we’d laugh about a funny memory or something my cousin Joseph did. That is why I love sitting at the table and watching my family cook when I’m back home in Texas. It brings back the happiest moments of my past. In New York, I have to substitute homemade tamales for Panera Bread’s macaroni and cheese — a dish I don’t mind eating everyday. While I’m eating in my dorm room, I video chat with my family. A phone screen is not the same as an in-person conversation in our kitchen, but like my grandpa used to say, family is all I need to get through the toughest days, no matter where I am.
Email Felicity Huang at culture@nyunews.com.
Email Madison San Miguel at culture@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News
@nyunews
@nyunews
Washington Square News
4
MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021
ARTS
ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by SASHA COHEN and NICOLAS PEDRERO-SETZER
Billie Eilish’s Documentary Breaks Barriers of Pop Stardom By ANA CUBAS Music Editor “Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” directed by R.J. Cutler, whose past documentary films include “The September Issue” and “The War Room,” is the newest addition to the music documentary genre that has taken the world by storm in recent years. Music documentaries, such as “Framing Britney Spears” or Lady Gaga’s “Gaga: Five Foot Two,” have been able to influence an artist’s public image at a time when image is increasingly important. Every artist wants to present an authentic version of themselves to the world. Documentaries have become a strategic way to connect with people, especially now when concerts and physical fan interactions cannot occur. “The World’s a Little Blurry” chronicles teenage star Billie Eilish’s creation of her highly anticipated first album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?,” both on and off the stage. The film makes us, as the audience, reconsider our expectations of pop stars and examine why musicians are idolized in the first place. The relationship between a documentary subject and viewer is meant to be intimate, indulgent and meaningful. For an hour or two, we can become a fly on the wall, learn the subject’s daily routine or see them at work. “The
World’s a Little Blurry” exceeds expectations of intimacy by redefining what the unfiltered life of a celebrity looks like. The documentary feels like a blend between a YouTuber’s vlog and a parent’s home video. Her performances are the only direct shots, which allows for a moment of reflection for viewers to focus on her talent, eccentric concerts and connection to her fans. Musician documentaries present a degree of intimacy and reframe how an artist is perceived by the public. Since they are longer projects, they can reign over any assumptions made from social media, guest appearances or music. There is always a risk that these documentaries can become artist propaganda as opposed to offering a slice of life. In Eilish’s documentary, both the bad and good are deliberately intertwined and evenly showcased. It recognizes that Eilish experiences frustrations, bad days and familial arguments, just like everyone else. One scene shows Eilish’s brother, Finneas, talking to his mother in their cluttered kitchen. He said, “I feel like I’ve been, like, told to write a hit, but I’ve been told to not tell Billie that we have to write a hit.” We are shown the complexities of not only being a teenage star but a star in general. Celebrities are idolized for a variety of reasons. It may be for their art, looks, lifestyle or personality. While we do expect stars to be honest, in a way, we do
not expect them to be normal. We want to see their Los Angeles mansions, their custom sports cars and their perfectly behaved purebred pups. In Ariana Grande’s recent documentary “Excuse Me, I Love You,” a majority of the shots are taken from live concert bits, there are over 10 minutes of her discussing her pets, and a bubblegum pink veil obscuring the intimacy and authenticity of the film. “The World’s a Little Blurry” lacks the glamour and glorification of such a lifestyle. Eilish’s documentary makes the case for idolizing a star who represents the normal teenager, who can relate to the average teenager. Yes, she is cool, but the documentary doesn’t bother to prove it. The film showcases Eilish practicing for her driver’s license in the family’s van, bickering with her mother and going to physical therapy. Not only are we able to see “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” created in Finneas’ bedroom, but we can hear her say, “We made this album in a bedroom, in our house that we grew up in, and it was mastered in somebody’s living room. It’s really, like, anything is possible.” The concerts, meet-and-greets and backstage preparation are not depicted as glamorous. They showcase her struggle with fame, problems with her boyfriend and dealing with mental health. The moments are real. We are not meant to see her as a saint or some-
SUSAN BEHRENDS VALENZUELA | WSN
“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry,” released on Apple TV+, is a music documentary about singer-songwriter Billie Eilish. The documentary showcases both the good and bad moments of Billie Eilish’s life and stardom.
one who is nearly flawless. Rather, as a regular person. Eilish deserves praise for discussing topics that are considered taboo and those that are particularly left unsaid in attempts to maintain a celebrity image. “The World’s a Little Blurry” is almost the teenage version of Taylor Swift’s “Miss Americana,” showing what Swift’s documentary might have captured in her early years. The film is a reflection of Eilish’s normality in the best way. Her nonchalant manner of discussing every aspect of
her life cannot be seen as anything but brave. Not only does Eilish appeal to her current fanbase, but her authenticity is enough to reach new admirers. “The World’s a Little Blurry” questions what a celebrity’s lifestyle is meant to look and feel like and sets a new standard for authenticity in music documentaries. I can only hope that other music documentaries follow in Eilish’s footsteps. Email Ana Cubas at acubas@nyunews.com.
How ‘WandaVision’ Became More Than Just a Show
CHANDLER LITTLEFORD | WSN
“WandaVision,” a miniseries recently released on Disney+, is the newest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The release of “WandaVision” and its highly anticipated finale has entertained Marvel fans and newcomers alike.
By ELIZABETH WINTERS Contributing Writer Spoiler alert: this article mentions important scenes from the show.
My roommate and I were among the millions of Marvel enthusiasts who caused Disney+ to crash in anticipation of the “WandaVision’’ series finale. To many, “WandaVision’’ has become more than just a show, but also a community. The show has taken social media by storm, with constant tweets, TikToks, and YouTube videos reacting to the show, while memes and fan theories were being developed between episodes. In Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, “WandaVision,” a show within a show, acted not only as Wanda Max-
imoff’s (Elizabeth Olsen) sanctuary, but as our own. In the show’s series finale, the world Wanda created begins to crumble as Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn) exposes the pain Wanda has inflicted on the residents of Westview. Wanda is faced with a heart-wrenching decision: save the family she created but keep an entire town’s residents as prisoners, or free its residents and lose her family. In typical Marvel fashion, the villains and heroes of “WandaVision” meet in a climactic episode in the center of Westview for a CGI-heavy battle. The fight between the two Visions (Paul William Bettany) culminates in a debate in the Westview library about the ship of Theseus’ thought experiment. The conversation answers the question
posed to viewers since the first episode: Who, and what, is Vision? During this debate, Wanda and Agatha fight in a crimson-clouded sky, as witches should, with twists and turns as the unwitting student becomes the master. Agatha believes she has obtained Wanda’s powers only to discover Wanda has forged runes around Westview that allow her to use the full power of her magic. As Agatha said in the previous episode, “In a given space, only the witch who cast [the runes] can use her magic.” As a viewer of this chaotic fantasy, I feel like Agatha and Wanda’s exchanges feel rushed yet needed. With slower-paced and much more mysterious episodes in the beginning of the series, the writers of the show had a lot of questions to answer, causing the build-up to feel like a slight letdown. Perhaps the show could benefit from another episode? Many were skeptical about how the series could possibly wrap up in a 50-minute finale with questions still lingering: will Mephisto finally make his reveal? why is X-Men’s Quicksilver in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? has it really been Agatha all along? (Yes, the jingle is still stuck in my head, too.) Most of these questions are answered, but the right amount of loose ends left untied to keep Marvel fans impatiently craving more. Hopefully, we will get those answers in the next few movies: “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “Captain Marvel 2.” The “WandaVision” finale included not only one, but two end credit scenes, which Marvel rarely does. The first end credits scene suggests that
Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), a S.W.O.R.D. agent turned superhero, and her new powers will play a major role in the second “Captain Marvel” movie. Like many fans, I’m ready to see more of Monica. The second end credit scene hints at what Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange’s next encounter could be, as Wanda mirrors a scene from the first “Doctor Strange” with an out-of-body reading of the ancient spellbook Darkhold. It is clear that Marvel is headed toward the world of witchcraft as they prepare to unveil a much darker world than previously seen. Will Wanda be a villain or an ally to Strange? Will the evil powers of the Darkhold corrupt Wanda’s mind? We’ll have to wait and see. “WandaVision” has made us even more anxious to get back to the big screen, which is part of the brilliance of formatting the show as a television series rather than a film. Spacing out nine episodes over eight weeks also allowed a strong online community to form. Fan theories and videos explaining all the hidden easter eggs in the show have kept viewers captivated in Wanda and Vision’s love story. Whether you were as thrilled by the finale as I was, or disappointed that your theories didn’t come to fruition, everyone was invested. In a time of isolation and social distancing, a show like “WandaVision” was needed more than ever. In the finale, love and grief, emotions that have recently felt more prominent in our lives, take center stage. At its core, that is what “WandaVision” is really about. With a heartbreaking and melancholic performance from
Olsen, Wanda grows tremendously as a character in the finale. Despite her willful ignorance at the beginning of the series, Wanda decides to free the captives of Westview, and says goodbye to the only family she has left — her children and Vision. As the shield around Westview shrinks towards their home, Wanda and Vision share a moment of hope and tragedy — they’ve said goodbye before, and they just might say hello again. Wanda explains that this version of Vision is her grief, the part of him that is always with her, but mostly, he is her love (this is the part of the finale where a lot of fans, including me, couldn’t stop the waterworks). However, it is a moment in episode eight, “Previously On,” that explains Vision and Wanda’s bond, something we’ve only had glimpses of in other MCU movies. Vision and Wanda sit on her bed in the aftermath of the events of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” where Vision wonders, “It can’t all be sorrow, can it? I’ve always been alone, so I don’t feel the lack. It’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve never experienced loss because I’ve never had a loved one to lose. But what is grief, if not love persevering?” And there we have it: “WandaVision,” a show that has entertained millions with its mystery and action, still has room to be profound and hopeful. “WandaVision” is more creative than we have ever seen it, giving hope to newcomers and longtime Marvel fans alike of what is to come. Marvel phase 4, here we go! Email Elizabeth Winters at arts@nyunews.com.
Washington Square News
MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021
5
OPINION
OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by EMILY DAI and ASHLEY WU
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Letter From the Editor: Why is WSN Coming Back? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The most fundamental of the coming changes to WSN is how we’re restructuring the board. We aim to introduce two additional staffers, one for the editorial staff and one for the business side. We hope that more student representation will encourage staff at WSN to express their thoughts without fear of backlash. After I graduate, I will stay on the board to help the next Editor-in-Chief transition into their position. I plan to work with the Business Manager and WSN alums to revisit the Constitution and make sure that it clearly addresses the needs/expectations of the staff. Although many of the problems concerning WSN were structural,
Submitting to
we must also acknowledge the issues that exist within the newsroom itself. As a Black woman, I acknowledge the lack of diversity demonstrated in previous years. From my experience, I could count the number of people who looked like me on one hand, and it should not be like that. I want people from all backgrounds to feel that they have a place in the newspaper to voice their opinion. As the leader of this publication, I do not want to tokenize someone’s experience. I do believe that in order for WSN to create content that serves the student body, we need to accurately represent them. In terms of recruitment, I reached out to identity-based clubs in hopes that they would promote our Open House flyer. My managing editor,
Paul, made sure that our flyer reached international students. I spoke with a former colleague about promoting our flyer to LGBTQ+ organizations, and I am willing to work on making our staff more diverse this semester. This is just one example of us looking for writers and other creatives from different walks of life, but we want to continue this mission for the rest of the semester. Given that NYU is a predominantly white institution, we are aware that this will be an uphill battle. This leads me to my last point, which is our contentious history with activist organizations on campus. When I f irst joined WSN as a news staff writer my sophomore year, I was briefly told that activist organizations were boycotting the paper,
but there was no mention of how we could alleviate tensions and report on their issues. This led to us looking for tweets or other forms of social media as a substitute for interviews, which undercut the quality and impact of our stories in the long run. This letter serves as an invitation to any of the leaders from activist organizations to talk about how we can better cover this crucial part of the NYU community. Taking time away from WSN allowed me to think deeply about both the positive and negative aspects of the paper. I decided to return because I know that the newspaper has the potential to grow, and I wanted to be a part of that change. Despite its problems, WSN has been a part of my life that I treasure. Many of the
people I met through the newspaper had a positive effect on me, and I want to share that with the people who decide to join this semester. To the readers who are reluctant to trust WSN, we are working to earn your trust back as a credible newspaper. We are going to do our best to make the paper the best it can be, not only for the staff but for you: the audience. I hope that each person who reads this letter leaves with a sense of clarity about how the newspaper will operate differently. Sincerely, Alexandria Johnson Email Alexandria Johnson at ajohnson@nyunews.com.
SEND MAIL TO: 75 THIRD AVE. #SB07, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10003 OR EMAIL: OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM WSN welcomes letters to the editor, opinion pieces and articles relevant to the NYU community, or in response to articles. Letters should be less than 450 words. All submissions must be typed or emailed and must include the author’s name, address and phone number. Members of the NYU community must include a year and school or job title. WSN does not print unsigned letters or editorials. WSN reserves the right to reject any submission and edit accepted submissions in any and all ways. With the exception of the staff editorial, opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them.
Washington Square News Staff Under the Arch
Editor-in-Chief
Alexandria Johnson
MANAGING EDITOR
Managing Editor
Paul Kim DEPUTY Kaylee DeFreitas, Mina Mohammadi
Caitlin Hsu, Vaishnavi Naidu ADVERTISING Business Manager
Mel Bautista
Creative Director
Deborah Alalade, Susan Behrends Valenzuela
Director of Sales
Multimedia
Customer Specialist
DEPUTY MULTI
ADVISING
Alexandra Chan PHOTO Jake Capriotti
Yejin Chang Catherine Chen
Manasa Gudavalli, Alex Tran Social Media
Maria Gracia Santillana Senior Staff NEWS Trace Miller CULTURE Dana Sun ARTS Sasha Cohen, Nicolas Pedrero-Setzer Deputy Staff NEWS Roshni Raj FILM JP Pak VIDEO GAME Nathan Chizen MUSIC Ana Cubas DINING Gabby Lozano
INFORMING YOU FIRST
NYUNEWS.COM
Director of Operations
Nanci Healy
ABOUT WSN: Washington Square News (ISSN 15499389) is the student newspaper of New York University. WSN is published in print on Mondays and throughout the week online during NYU’s academic year, except for university holidays, vacations and exam periods. CORRECTIONS: WSN is committed to accurate reporting. When we make errors, we do our best to correct them as quickly as possible. If you believe we have erred, contact the managing editors at managing@nyunews.com.
Opinion Page EDITOR Emily Dai, Ashley Wu DEPUTY Diya Jain, Kevin Kurian, Asha Ramachandran
Washington Square News
@nyunews
We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our printstandard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.
nyunews.com/underthearch underthearch@nyunews.com
@nyunews