THE PEPPERDINE GRAPHIC VOLUME XLIX
|
ISSUE 17 | March 19, 2020
|
pepperdine-graphic.com
|
3/11/20
3/1/20
1/28/20
follow us @peppgraphic
4,400 cases
87,200 cases
Shanghai program suspended
Heidelberg, Lausanne to return home
2/27/20
118,400 cases All Malibu classes move to remote, on-campus students must leave campus
3/10/20
82,500 cases Florence program to return home
3/13/20
113,900 cases
136,900 cases
BA, London to return home
Bible lectures cancelled
Pepp MOVES ONLINE: Students React Austin Hall S taf f write r Kay iu Wong Di g i tal E d itor It’s been six weeks since Pepperdine suspended the Shanghai international program, the first in a succession of major decisions the university has made to prevent a community outbreak of coronavirus. Wednesday, that saga reached its peak when the university announced all students must leave campus and finish classes online. After less than a month of reacclimating on the Malibu campus, Shanghai participant Mason Chin is having to pack his bags once again. “I just drove back out here from Iowa,” Chin said. “Now I have to drive back because I don’t really have any other choice.” President Jim Gash sent the community-wide email at 8 a.m.
Wednesday, stating that students must move out of their on-campus housing by Sunday, March 15, and that the university will begin remote online classes Monday, March 16. Chin said he feels his class is equipped to handle the situation after last year’s Woolsey Fire and Borderline Shooting, followed by the recent suspensions of all abroad programs with the exception of the Washington, D.C. “I would say partially I’m numb to it at this point,” Chin said. “This is the fourth biggest thing that’s happened recently, so I’m sure the students will keep rolling with the punches.” With seven weeks left in the spring term, students said the abrupt ending makes them feel like the rug was pulled out from under them. “We’re all scrambling, trying to figure out what to do,” senior Luke
Whartnaby said. “Because it’s, like, if you live across the country like I do and like a lot of students do, do you just go home and say goodbye to everyone?” Whartnaby is one of thousands of students who had to pack up their on-campus residence last weekend. He filled out the university’s exemption form to petition to remain in his Seaside dorm to complete his senior thesis and have more time to figure out his plans. For seniors who were hoping to have an eventful finish to their college career, the news hits especially hard. “[It’s] my last two months, so it was a time I thought I would enjoy more, that I would see friends, that I would explore more of California,” senior Lorraine Nuñez said. Nuñez is from Puerto Rico and says figuring out her travel plans while having to pack and finish
schoolwork is taxing. “I’m trying to stay calm, but it’s been tough,” Nuñez said. She also applied to stay in her on-campus housing, since traveling to Puerto Rico is a difficult process. If she doesn’t get the exemption, Nunez said she would have to fly home. “I have nowhere else to go,” Nunez said. Senior Chase Manson said he is caught between feeling safe and having closure. “I’m having mixed emotions, honestly,” Manson said. “On one hand, I get to go home and be with my family, and I think that’s a blessing. But on the other, I have to cut my time here pretty short with my friends. I think there will always be a part of the book that’s left unwritten. Manson, a resident advisor in Drescher, was caught off guard by the email and said it put him and his
Housing and Residence Life (HRL) colleagues in a frenzy. “While I applaud the university for taking steps to protect our safety, I think that it came very abruptly,” Manson said. “I was in the middle of an HRL meeting, and it was just a mass pandemonium because no one knew — not even my boss. It kind of blindsided everyone, and I wish that there was a way to transition into this a little bit better.” The sudden end of the semester is hard to take in for some after the back-to-back disruptions the Pepperdine community has faced. “I just can’t believe it,” junior Aileen Blomdal said. “Year after year, there’s something going on campus, and it’s just kind of hard to process still.”
AUSTIN.HAL L @PEPPER DINE.EDU K AYIU.W ONG@PEPPER DINE.EDU
A look inside the Emergency Operations Committee Ky l e m c cabe Ass i s tant news e d itor Pepperdine’s decision March 11 to cancel in-person instruction and move students off campus came in an email from University President Jim Gash. Although the email bears his name, Gash said it was a team of university leaders who made the decision to move to remote classes. The Emergency Operations Committee (EOC) and its Infectious Disease Task Force had monitored the spread of COVID-19 and concluded that remote classes were an appropriate response. Pepperdine’s Chief Operating Officers Gary Hanson and Phil Phillips serve as the co-chairs for the EOC. “During times of emergency, we convene this committee, which is made up of all the senior leaders of the university so that the whole university is represented in one space,” Phillips said. “You want to all be in one place so you’re getting all the information that is relevant.” Gash meets with the EOC as one of its members. Phillips said when important decisions need to be made during emergencies, the EOC and Gash have the final say.
“We work to a consensus,” Phillips said. “If someone’s got a concern about a direction we’re going, we try to work through it as a group. [Gash] wants to hear what other people are saying, but of course we put a lot of weight on what he wants. It’s ultimately his responsibility.” When the EOC comes to a decision, there is no formal vote. Phillips said the committee addresses all the concerns presented by its members until they reach a consensus on the best course of action. The topic of how long to conduct remote classes came up a lot in the EOC’s COVID-19 meetings. Some schools, like the University of Texas at Austin and UC Berkeley, expected students to return to campus after two or three weeks. “We really went back and forth with, ‘What if we did two weeks?’” Phillips said. “Most of the schools that are doing two weeks don’t have a calendar like ours. Most of the schools that did it are still on spring break.” On March 15, UT Austin extended their March 16-21 spring break to March 30, and on March 10, UC Berkeley suspended in-person classes until March 29. Both schools
S tay u p t o dat e w it h: the thewaves wavesreport report
have since gone to remote instruction for the remainder of the semester. Phillips said the logistics of making students leave campus for a few weeks and then come back did not make sense for Pepperdine. “Imagine if we do that, and the students leave all of their stuff in the dorms, and we say, ‘You’re going to come back to us,’ but you can’t,” Phillips said. “They might not be able to get back here, or you have to buy another airfare to get back here.” Phillips also said the EOC deliberated a lot over when to begin online instruction. “We came to a decision [that this is] the right thing to do because we don’t have a crisis on campus,” Phillips said. “We think it’s important that we act before [there is a crisis].” The EOC’s desire to act before a coronavirus outbreak had a chance to occur on campus contrasted with Philip’s description of the importance of in-person education. “It’s not something we want to just give up without some real good reason to,” Phillips said. “If we wait until someone in the campus community gets infected and then we do it, it’s super rushed.” The decision to move stu-
Th e G rap h
Available on Spotify and Apple Music
Fri: Fri:3-5 2 ftft
Milan Loiacono | Photo Editor Early Ending | A majority of students leave the Malibu campus as classes go online and as students are encouraged to work remotely. The decision to go remote was made by the Emergency Operations Committee. dents off campus aligns with what Phillips said was the EOC’s goal: to have as few people on campus as possible. Pepperdine’s restrictions on visitors to campus, announced in a March 12 email from the Public Relations Office, lasts through March 31 and reflects the goal of limiting the campus’ population. “The whole idea is to reduce the density and have as few people here as possible so that we can get the benefits of that and help curb the spread of the virus,” Phillips
Th e p ixel
said. “The more people who want to be here, then the less we get that benefit.” The EOC will now turn most of its attention to the summer abroad programs that are expected to happen as originally scheduled. Phillips said the EOC has already talked a lot about the programs, but the only one of which they came to a decision was Shanghai, canceled Feb. 17. “We won’t make one decision for all of [the programs] at the same time because we
https://pepperdine-graphic.com/contact/
SAT: Sat:2-3 3-5ftft
SUN: sun:2-4 3-5ftft
want to wait as long as we can to see if things get better,” Phillips said. “Our hope is to have it, obviously. Until we see [the trend of cases] really flatten out, it’s going to be hard to make future plans.” In a March 13, email to IP summer students, International Programs Executive Director Beth M. Laux wrote that they plan to make decisions about each summer program by April 1.
K YL E.J.M C C ABE@PEPPER DINE.EDU
Our podcast and email newsletter will be increasing production to get you the latest news on everything COVID-19 and Pepperdine.
MON: Mon:2-3 2-4ftft
TUES: Tue:2-3 3-4ftft