Biden Inauguration

Emerson College’s student newspaper since 1947 • berkeleybeacon.com

Thursday, Jan. 21, 2021 • Volume 74, Issue 13

@berkeleybeacon // @beaconupdate

BIDEN INAUGURATED, EMERSON INVIGORATED End of Trump administration sparks hope, relief

Dana Gerber, Ann E. Matica, Alec Klusza, Frankie Rowley Beacon Staff After 1,462 days of one of the most contentious presidential administratiowns to date, the sun broke out in Washington D.C. on Wednesday as Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. The day also saw the inauguration of Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian person and first woman to serve as Vice President.

The inauguration comes just two weeks after a violent right-wing mob stormed the Capitol Building in an effort to overturn the results of Biden’s electoral college victory, and a week after Donald Trump was impeached for a second time. The insurrection was incited by false claims of election fraud touted by Trump and congressional Republicans.

“I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days,” Biden said in his inauguration speech. “I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real, but I also know they are not new.”

Inauguration, Pg. 8

Sophmore brings first predominantly Black musical to Emerson Margarita Ivanova

Beacon Correspondent Sophomore theatre and performance major Jasmine Hawkins is set to become the first Emerson student to produce a musical with a predominantly Black cast at the college.

The show is in the midst of planning an in-person production that is expected to open Fall of 2021 due to COVID-19.

Jelly’s Last Jam is based on Jelly Morton, an American jazz pianist and one of the initial driving forces behind the genre’s growth in the early 1900s. As well as providing the world with a cultural understanding of jazz, Jelly’s Last Jam tackles issues of systemic racism that still impedes on the lives of Black com-

65

positive COVID-19 tests

.13%

positivity rate

President Joseph R. Biden sits behind his desk in the Oval Office after his swearing-in ceremony Wednesday. / Courtesy White House Pool munities.

“Jelly’s Last Jam is based on a lot of Black issues in this country’s history, and Emerson doesn’t do enough shows like this,” Hawkins said. “It’s a musical that tackles issues of colorism and financial disparities while also tying in the history of jazz.”

Growing up with a gospel-singing mother and jazz musician father, Hawkins has always been immersed in music. She was first introduced to Jelly’s Last Jam her junior year of high school and began listening to the sound track along with Buddy Bolden’s tunes. Bolden, also known as “the jazz archivist,” played a huge role in standardizing the New Orleans Jazz Ensemble.

Listening to the soundtracks put her in a state of euphoria, Hawkins said. However, Hawkin’s love for the music was overshadowed on a walk down Tremont Street this semester. As the soundtrack blasted through her earbuds, she said the rest of the world felt like a music video. Walking past a Black homeless man, Jasmine noticed that his dancing perfectly mimicked the upbeat song playing. Hawkins described how he seemed genuinely happy, but those around him didn’t seem amused—she said everyone who passed looked at him in disgust.

“When I saw that homeless man, it was like the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Hawkins said. “It made me so angry, and I didn’t want to feel helpless anymore.”

In that moment, Hawkins said she knew she wanted to use her role in Emerson’s theater industry to combat stigmas against the Black community.

Being driven by her own experience with racism in Boston led Hawkins to dedicate her time to honor people like Bolden, whose work she Jasmine, Pg. 6

‘It is uncharted waters’

Epidemiologists say risk of college reopening diffused by regulations Dana Gerber Beacon Staff Emerson is marshaling thousands of students from their homes across the country for the second time this academic year, as the 7-day average of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts sits at over ten times what it was when students returned in the fall. However, some public health experts believe the measures Emerson has in place may be sufficient to contain the virus and prevent spread among community members.

To do so will require a bevy of new, intense on-campus restrictions: Twice-weekly testing for students, staff, and faculty at Tufts Medical Center.

Registration for overnight travel to stay with people outside the Emerson

community. Mandatory faculty and staff testing. Fully remote classes and a partial quarantine are instituted until Feb. 1.

When students first flocked back to Boston in late August, the seven-day average of confirmed COVID-19 cases hovered around 300. That figure climbed to about 2,600 when students departed for Thanksgiving break. As students return, the state is averaging about 3,000 cases a day, after infections were topping 6,000 each day just two weeks ago.

Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, cited “decreased mobility,” such as not bringing students back to campus following the Thanksgiving holiday, as a primary factor in keeping Emerson’s cases low. However, he added that the measures the college takes

after students travel back to Boston are more paramount to mitigating transmission than travel itself.

“Bringing college kids back on campus, could that lead to some increase in transmission? Of course it could.

But I think what’s more important is what you’re doing before you take off for travel and what you do after you get there,” Ellerin said in an interview.

“The amount of transmission right now that’s going on is more than we’ve ever had at any other point since the beginning of the pandemic, so it is uncharted waters.”

In the fall, early campus outbreaks in Boston concerned epidemiologists, many of whom anticipated an onslaught of cases in the urban area. Instead, the college town was heralded as one of the nation’s few reopening success stories.

COVID, Pg. 3

INSIDE THIS EDITION Thousands pour back to campus after break Pg. 2 Editorial: Don’t end action with Biden’s election Pg. 4

Column: Finding narratives in modern video games Pg. 7 Women’s soccer announces 2021 captains Pg. 8

Emerson’s weekly testing totals remained relatively low until late November. / Graphic Diti Kohli

News

The Berkeley Beacon

January 21, 2021

2

Students from coast to coast return to school as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on Cumulative COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people

CONNECTICUT

FLORIDA

NEW JERSEY

CALIFORNIA

NEW YORK

(Source: CDC data)

Ann E. Matica Beacon Staff

This week, thousands of Emerson students are emerging from their month-and-a-half winter break to descend on the Boston campus for the spring semester. Across the city, the state, and the nation, coronavirus cases are hitting new highs.

On Jan. 8, Massachusetts reached the highest single-day total—7,635 new cases—since the start of the pandemic.

As of print time, the state has nearly 460,000 total confirmed cases and a seven-day average positivity rate of 5.8 percent.

Those returning from the five states home to the highest Emerson student populations—other than Massachusetts—expressed trepidation about traveling and fear for the longevity of the spring semester.

CALIFORNIA – 417 students Junior Julija Garunkstis spent her winter break back home in Los Angeles, California, where she quarantined with her family and rarely left the house. A distant family member recently died from the coronavirus, a tragedy she says makes her even more cautious about returning to Emerson.

“The most ideal thing would be having fewer cases than we did last semester,” Garunkstis said. “Just to know that I am in a safe environment and that I did make the right choice in coming back to school this semester, even though cases are rising nationwide.”

The L.A. Times reported that estimates show one in three people in L.A. County has been infected since the onset of the pandemic. On Jan. 16, L.A. County surpassed 1,000,000 coronavirus cases. The county, the nation’s most populous, has a COVID-19 test positivity rate of nearly 20 percent, more than double that of Massachusetts.

The 417 Emerson students hailing from the Golden State make up the second-largest student population from any state, after Massachusetts. That figure represents approximately 13 percent of the undergraduate population, according to college data from 2020.

During past years, Garunkstis would fly back home for Thanksgiving before returning to campus to finish out the fall semester. This year, she spent the holiday in Boston, away from her family, due to her job in the city and fears about flying.

“I don’t have the liberty to travel back and forth as much,” Garunkstisshe said.

Despite her reservations about returning to campus, she said she feels safer in Boston than in L.A due to better citywide mask compliance and accessible testing through the college.

“In L.A. you can wait [in line for] up to 10 hours per test, which is absolutely ridiculous,” she said.

A visual and media arts major, Garunkstis said she was grateful to be able to return to campus to gain handson experience in her classes. She said her worst-case scenario would be students getting sent home once again, as they were back in March.

“I don’t think it’s the safest thing to send however many thousands of kids back home on flights and stuff just out of the blue,” she said. “I know that all the students who are coming back this semester consciously made that decision, but then forcing everyone to pick up and go back home I feel can be kind of risky.”

NEW YORK – 323 students Sophomore VMA major Birk Buchen returned to campus early due to his obligations as a resident assistant.

Despite his position at the college, he said he still feels uncertain about the outcome of the spring semester.

“I know that with these rising numbers, and everything going on in the world… there is a likely chance that we have to leave again like we did in March,” Buchen said. “I’m just trying to stay positive and go with it because I have a job to do and I love to be in Boston.”

New York has had an average of 14,876 new coronavirus cases over the past week, a drastic increase from the daily average of 659 new cases the state saw in August.

In 2020, approximately 10 percent of Emerson’s undergraduate student body were from the state of New York. Students from New York make up the third-largest state population at the college.

Buchen spent his winter break in Westchester, New York, once the virus’ primary hotspot, in an apartment with his mom. Buchen was separated from the rest of his family—his two older brothers— who live in L.A. and New York City. His brother who lives in New York City contracted the virus, preventing them from spending the holidays together.

“He and his girlfriend had to quarantine in their apartment, and thankfully they didn’t get [severe symptoms],” he said. “But they still got it, and it was still a big risk for me and my mom to be able to see him around the holidays.”

In lieu of their company, he created a “bubble”, interacting only with his mom and two best friends from high school.

“I can feel comfortable hanging out with that circle,” he said. “You know that if one person tested positive you are all positive because you just hang out with each other.”

NEW JERSEY – 232 students Calvin Kertzman, a first-year VMA student, spent the duration of the break with his family in Long Beach Island, New Jersey, rarely leaving his house. His mother, who is immunocompromised from chemotherapy and Lyme disease, made Kertzman even more cautious about where he went and who he interacted with over the break.

“When you have immunocompromised family members, you don’t want to think about it, but whenever I go outside or something I’m always like, ‘I have to be really careful because I don’t want to kill my mom,’” Kertzman said.

New Jersey has consistently topped more than 5,000 new cases per day in the past week, a spike from the daily average of 313 cases the state saw when Kertzman first left the state in August.

That surge makes him reluctant to engage with people outside his household.

“When you are out here, you don’t really want to leave your house because if you leave your house, one out of ten people you might interact with might have the virus,” he said.

Students from New Jersey make up a little more than 7 percent of the college’s undergraduate population, according to data from 2020. At 232, students from the state make up the fourth-largest population at the college.

Kertzman said he worries about the potential for students to disregard college guidelines or fall into a complacent mentality as the pandemic drudges on.

“Coming back is not going to be the same as the fall,” he said. “We just really need to hold each other accountable, and do it in such a way where it’s not seen as negative or toxic.”

His biggest fear of returning to campus, he said, is the potential of getting the virus.

“I’m worried about contracting it and quarantining at Emerson,” he said. “I’ve only heard less-than-stellar things about people quarantining in Paramount, so that’s nerve-wracking.”

After the end of his senior year of high school was upended and forced online due to the pandemic, he said feels lucky to be able to have in-person classes at all.

“I feel like that’s something that hasn’t been addressed enough,” he said. “Just the fact that being at Emerson right now is a privilege. I myself am very grateful to be in-person right now going to college.”

CONNECTICUT – 173 students First-year VMA major Noah Matalon, who hails from West Hartford, Connecticut, said he’s worried about students flouting safety precautions. With infamous Boston winters making outdoor socialization more difficult, he’s concerned his peers will turn to congregating indoors, as he remembered them doing in the fall.

“With the cold weather, more people inside, I’m just nervous because from my experience I know people were in rooms and weren’t necessarily wearing masks,” Matalon said.

Connecticut has had a seven-day daily average of 2,167 new coronavirus cases, a sharp uptick from the 124 new case average during the last week of August.

Approximately 5 percent of undergraduate students at the college came from Connecticut in 2020, comprising the fifth-largest state population at the college.

Matalon said he didn’t know anyone who had the virus before he left campus to return home for winter break. Now, he said his neighbors, multiple friends, and friends of friends have contracted it.

“I literally have not been allowed to leave my house,” he said. “Knowing what’s going on right now, there’s a moral aspect that you really shouldn’t be hanging out with friends even if you all are just staying home. It’s the right thing to do, to help protect family members and friends.”

Matalon said his parents will drive him back to campus from Connecticut, which has surpassed a total of 200,000 coronavirus cases since the pandemic first began. The spiking case numbers in Boston, though, make him wary of returning at all.

“I think the worst-case scenario is that some students get so sick that there’s real medical emergencies,” he said. “I’m not trying to dwell on that when thinking about going back.”

FLORIDA – 161 students Junior political communications major Cameron Kugel said he sees campus as a safer spot than his home in the Sunshine State. He lives in Palm Beach County, where the cumulative case total has surpassed 90,000. The county has seen an average of 771 new coronavirus cases per day in the past week.

“I think I would probably be safer if I was in Massachusetts rather than down here,” Kugel said. “It’s like 7,000 cases [per day] for a state of how many people, meanwhile Florida—we have a lot more cases. If you look at the probability of me getting it, down here is higher than it is up there.”

The 161 students from Florida made up 5 percent of the college’s undergraduate student population in 2020, marking the fifth largest student population at the college.

Palm Beach County currently does not have a mask mandate, despite having the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in Florida.

“It seems like almost everyone I’ve talked to, they know someone that has had it,” he said. “I would say like two or three of my friends have gotten it.”

Kugel said that when he flew from Palm Beach International Airport to Boston Logan International Airport for the fall semester, the airports were packed.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be different flying up to Boston this time,” he said. ann_matica@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

January 21, 2021

3

New Mass. law named for Emerson alum Alec Klusza Beacon Staff

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed “Laura’s Law” into the state’s legislature on Friday, named after a beloved Emerson alumna who died of an asthma attack in 2016 while sitting outside a locked emergency room door.

In the early hours of Sep. 16, 2016, Laura Levis collapsed outside the Somerville Hospital. She’d suffered an asthma attack—a condition she had dealt with her entire life. Levis, an Emerson alumna, sought emergency assistance only to find the entrance to the emergency room locked and the security desk deserted. Levis later died in the hospital after spending critical minutes sitting outside, waiting for assistance. She was 34.

The bill, a two-year effort spearheaded by her widow Peter DeMarco, requires the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to ensure “every hospital emergency department in the state to have entrances that are properly monitored by security, clearly marked, and easily accessible, particularly to patients in distress,” according to a press release from Gov. Baker’s office.

Emergency facilities in the state are not required to make these changes until the present state of emergency is lifted, enacted to combat the

coronavirus pandemic on March 10, 2020.

A writing, literature and publishing graduate of Emerson’s class of 2004, Levis served as editor-in-chief of The Beacon during her time at the college. Levis’ friends and peers at the paper recall fond memories of passing the hours with her in the newsroom.

“My nickname for her was Levs— no one else called her that,” Melissa Kaplan said, who served as a Beacon managing editor while Levis was editor-in-chief. “The Beacon is where we forged our friendship, but we maintained a lifelong friendship after that.”

Kaplan said she met Levis when they were both freshmen WLP majors living in the Little Building. Levis had a knack for making her friends laugh, Kaplan said.

“One time I was like, ‘I’m going to prove how dedicated I am, I’m going to sleep overnight in The Beacon office. And I’m going to do all this work’—I called it the ‘Beac-over’—I don’t know if this was allowed, but I did it and the next day, she laughed at me,” she said. “She’s like, ‘Did you get anything done?’ It was ridiculous.

We laughed so much. Journalism felt really dry and she helped me find humor in it and we would just like to laugh.”

Levis was not only a talented reporter, but also set an example of poise and maturity, Kaplan said.

College reopening raises safety questions amid pandemic Cont. from Pg. 1 Emerson racked up 60 positive tests over the course of the fall semester—a positivity rate of about 0.1 percent— among students, faculty, and staff. Cases were contained on Emerson’s campus through nearly all of the in-person semester until the final week of classes brought 16 new positive tests, as cases in the city and the state ticked up.

“Do I think colleges drove this epidemic? Absolutely not,” Ellerin said.

“I’m super impressed with how safely most of these college campuses have reopened in the setting of COVID transmission.”

Testing has been a key cornerstone of the college’s plan to keep cases contained, both on campus and within the community, especially after the student migration back to campus. Over the fall and spring semesters, the college will have spent more than $5 million on testing alone, according to Vice President for Administration and Finance Paul Dworkis.

Professor Jamie Lichtenstein, a biologist who was one of three health experts the college recruited over the summer as a consultant on reopening, said the new twice-a-week testing program will catch most cases before they get a chance to spread.

“That’s actually catching people in the incubation period—in almost all cases we’re going to catch them before they can actually transmit,” Lichtenstein said in an interview last week. “Is there some theoretical possibility that we could miss a case? Yes. So nothing is risk-free. I think it’s a very low possibility.”

Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said higher education had “a surprisingly small effect” on virus transmission in Boston after students returned in late August.

On Nov. 25, the day the campus closed for Thanksgiving break, the statewide positivity rate with higher education testing included was 3.6 percent—without higher education, it was 5.2 percent, indicating a large volume of higher education tests came back negative.

“That’s good evidence that colleges and universities, and people attending them, have done a much better job than the population as a whole in containing the spread of coronavirus,” Kuritzkes said of the higher education positivity rate. “Whether its contribution of testing and case finding and then isolation… the net result is that I think there was a minimal impact overall on the epidemic by having all the students come back.”

Boston institutions’ relative success at containing the virus stood in contrast to the failure of some other U.S. colleges in keeping infections low. One study indicated some colleges nationwide had a superspreading effect on their local communities, underscoring the potential impact of an uncontrolled outbreak on a college campus.

For Emerson, the difference this semester is the rate of virus transmission in the state and the nation, which is now far higher than when students were on campus in the fall.

The increase in cases and hospitalizations in December prompted Governor Charlie Baker to roll back the state’s reopening on Dec. 8. This measure precipitated the Executive Office of Health and Human Services asking all Massachusetts colleges to push back bringing students back to campus, forcing Emerson to institute a weeklong delay in residential move-in.

The influx of positive tests at Emerson near the end of the fall semester, Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Erik Muurisepp, who heads the college’s COVID response, said were all unrelated and picked up somewhere in the city.

Last week, as Resident Assistants began funneling back to campus, the college reported five positive tests.

“We’re going to probably have some more positive cases than we want to see in the city and maybe in our campus in the coming weeks, but I don’t think just shifting online would have kept the ethos of what Emerson is all about,” Muurisepp said. “We really do feel we can safely operate our campus community.”

Initial repopulation of the Boston

Peter DeMarco (left) and his wife, Laura Levis (right) / Courtesy Peter DeMarco “She was just a really talented editor,” Kaplan said. ‘She was just a powerhouse— just the smartest, savviest, warmest person. Someone you could trust and treated everybody really well. I admired how grown up she was, more dignified. She wasn’t intimidated by being an editor. She mentored me a lot. I looked up to her. We were the same age, but I just looked up to the way she presented herself and the work she did.”

Kaplan said she is relieved the bill finally passed.

It was like the stupidest shit that took her life,” Kaplan said. “Why isn’t there a law in place?”

Stephanie Guyotte, who also worked alongside Levis at The Beacon, remembered her as a gifted writer and unwavering reporter. Guyotte said she and Levis had a long and close friendship, often giving each other a hard time over Levis’ love of the Yankees and Guyotte’s loyalty to the Red Sox. “She was never the loudest person in a room, but had such confidence

and poise,” Guyotte wrote in an email to The Beacon. “We immediately hit it off and just had so much fun working at The Beacon together and as friends long after. She wrote some amazing stories and was never afraid to ask hard questions or do a tough interview.”

Kaplan recalled spending evenings on the rooftop of Levis’ Beacon Hill apartment unwinding after long days, dreaming of what was to come next in their lives as they tackled their co-op positions at the Boston Globe.

“What’s funny is part of our job at the Boston Globe when you’re a co-op is to write obituaries,” Kaplan said. “When you have to sum up your friend’s life, it comes flashing at you at all of these little precious moments that make this mosaic of your time together. And how meaningful and wonderful that is’.”

DeMarco, Levis’ husband, met her while they were both working at The Boston Globe. The tragedy was brought on by improper signage, a completely preventable failure of the

emergency response system, he said.

“So many things failed Laura that morning when she got to the hospital,” DeMarco said in a phone interview with The Beacon the day after Gov. Baker signed the bill into law.

“Our 911 system failed her, our entire emergency health care system failed her. But one of the things that struck me the most was when she got to the hospital, there wasn’t an emergency room sign above any door for her to see. A simple thing like an emergency room sign above the right door to use would have saved her life.”

Fearful of losing the bill to bureaucratic limbo, DeMarco said he, along with friends and advocacy groups, made over 500 phone calls and sent over 1,800 emails to State House leaders in the days leading up to Jan. 5.

“It was very hard to get Laura’s law passed, but I love her,” DeMarco said.

“So no matter how long it took, I was going to keep trying.”

campus may also prove a difficult barrier of spring reopening. In one study published earlier this month, an analysis of 30 colleges—including Boston University—demonstrated that campuses are highly susceptible to outbreaks during the first 14 days of instruction.

“I think the hardest time period will be those first two weeks,” Lichtenstein said.

However, the riskiest and most volatile variable, both administrators and epidemiologists agreed, was community behavior. According to the American College Health Association, campus outbreaks in the fall were tied to social gatherings either on or off-campus, especially at colleges with a high number of off-campus students, such as Emerson.

Even if campuses stayed closed, one study published in late December by the Annals of Internal Medicine, said infections would still result from faculty living in the community and off-campus students living in the area.

“I think the students at highest risk are probably students living, say, with four other Emerson students in a crowded apartment off-campus,” Lichtenstein said. “That wouldn’t change if Emerson at this point said, ‘Hey, we’re going to be remote for the entire spring semester.’”

Lichtenstein urged students who travel often on public transport or who have off-campus jobs to wear higher quality masks.

Another new challenge the college must combat this semester is the new variant of COVID-19 first discovered in the United Kingdom, which has spread to the U.S. and Massachusetts. Initial studies estimate this variant may be between 50 to 70 percent more infectious than other strains.

Despite the high levels of community transmission in the Boston area, Lichtenstein said bringing students back to Emerson may pose no greater risk than having them remain in their communities.

“A student from L.A. might be safer coming back to Emerson—it’s hard to say—but maybe safer coming back to Emerson, with all of the surrounding layers of precautions, than they could be staying in L.A., where they’re having such high levels of transmission and overwhelmed hospitals,” Lichtenstein said.

The average daily cases per 100,000 individuals over the last seven days in the U.S. is 60; in Massachusetts, sits at 66, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“Given the rates that we’re currently having in the state overall, I’m not sure that the risk of coming from elsewhere is worse than the risk of coming from Massachusetts,” Kuritzkes said. “It remains a serious issue, but it’s hard—it’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black at this point.”

But epidemiologists have warned in the past that travel, especially among young people, who are more likely to be asymptomatic carriers of the virus, presents a dangerous potential for the virus to spread as cases spike from coast to coast.

The college asked students to self-quarantine for 14 days prior to returning to Boston. Upon arrival, residential students must quarantine in place until they receive a negative test result, receiving delivered meals. After producing a negative test, a ‘soft quarantine’ will continue until Jan. 29, wherein students can leave their dorms only to pick up meals, check mail, go to work at off-campus jobs, and attend medical or testing appointments. Off-campus students are also asked to leave their homes only for essential tasks.

Classes will remain remote until Feb. 1 to “safely rebuild our Emerson bubble and help limit the risk of exposure of our community, but also to the Boston community,” Muurisepp said.

Public health experts lauded this remote run-in period paired with rigorous testing as a way to catch any asymptomatic or presymptomatic infections as students return to campus. In the Annals of Internal Medicine study, routine laboratory testing on college campuses was estimated to prevent 96 percent of infections.

Colleges like Emerson, with quarantine housing, accessible testing, and contact tracing protocols, may have better infrastructure than students’ homes to monitor and manage cases when they arise, Kurirtzkes said.

“The key thing is identifying cases and having something to do once you’ve identified the case,” Kuritzkes said. “In many respects, colleges are in a better position to be able to act on that information

than the health department is with people who test positive in the general community.”

Although some schools in the Boston area, like Harvard University, have opted for completely online learning as a method of containing the virus, Muurisepp said that option was never on the table for Emerson for the spring semester. The college’s contact tracing program found no classroom-based transmission of the virus in the fall, even when students who were infected attended an in-person class, Muurisepp said.

Despite being cited as the lowest-risk scenario by the CDC and the only option for some immunocompromised or other individuals vulnerable to the virus, remote learning isn’t necessarily a catch-all solution, Kuritzkes said.

“The challenge is not so much having people in a classroom,” Kuritzkes said.

“The challenge is all the social events, dining, and how you organize meals in a way that continues to promote sufficient distancing that you minimize the risk of transmission from people who may have been unwittingly infected.”

In-person learning is also in the college’s financial interest. Emerson is a heavily tuition-dependent institution, according to the college’s most recently available 990 tax form. In 2019, about 89 percent of Emerson’s $264 million revenue came from tuition and housing charges. A July 6 letter from President M. Lee Pelton said a fully online academic year would result in a deficit topping $100 million, though the college is now predicting the “best case scenario” of $30 million in losses during the 2021 fisical year.

As the one-year milestone nears since students’ lives were first upended by the virus after being sent home and shifting to virtual learning in March, some worry this disruption is fated to repeat, even as vaccine distribution picks up in the state.

Ellerin said Emerson has succeeded thus far in “shifting with the epidemic.”

“I would continue doing what you’re doing,” Ellerin said. “Emerson has done it right so far. And I think you’re continuing to think about it in the right way.”

dana_gerber@emerson.edu

dana_gerber@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

January 21, 2021

4

Opinion We settled for Biden Editorial We can all breathe a sigh of relief after President Joe Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday. The tumultuous years of President Donald J. Trump’s administration are over, and now the hope for brighter days in American politics remains.

But now is not the time to take a break, despite how exhausting the past four years have been. With the new administration settling in, we need to remind President Biden of the promises he made throughout his campaign.

On the first day of Biden’s presidency, the dire issues our country is facing could not be more clear.

COVID-19 continues to rage across the country more than a year after the virus was first discovered with more than 400,000 American lives lost to the virus, and the slow vaccine distribution thus far has been deemed a “dismal failure.” The pandemic has plunged the country into the worst economic crisis it’s seen since the Great Depression, and many small businesses may never recover.

Each moment that passes without action, these problems continue to grow.

The Beacon wrote a similar editorial last semester following the election, but we will say it again. If we want the Biden administration to address the issues Trump ignored for so long, then the pressure on the 46th president must be consistent and undeniable for the remainder of his term. If we want to be the change, then it is our responsibility to ensure Biden cannot ignore our calls to action.

It is tempting to take Biden at his word when he touts himself as “the most progressive president in history.” But this only reflects the state of progressive presidents, seeing how many of his policies do not reflect those of well-known progressives. According to The Washington Post, his opposition on the Green New Deal, Medicare-for-all, and defunding the police could put him in the category of “a practical politician, not an ideologue”. This could be the reason that in August, 56 percent of Biden voters said they were voting for him because he’s “Not Trump.”

The Washington Post writes that this comes from a rather rocky track record ranging on issues that many young voters and progressives care about. This goes from his work with the Obama administration that led to the deportation of millions of immigrants, the 1994 crime bill he helped write that led to mass incarceration, and to this day he still opposes Medicare for all.

Still, there is a lot to look forward to under the Biden administration that will help mend some damage from the past four years. Biden has already promised permanent protection for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program that Trump continuously threatened to overturn. With a new COVID response team, Biden plans to control the spread of the virus and provide monetary relief to Americans with his $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan”. And, of course, there is his proposal to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour as part of his the plan.

His willingness to assist struggling Americans and consider policies that are typically left-leaning show that he could be receptive to new ideas—but only with the right push from progressives.

With the detrimental effect COVID has reaped on our country, people need the left-leaning government assistance programs that have been deemed too extreme or unrealistic now more than ever. With slim Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, now is the time to make bold new changes. This majority will not last forever, so we must remind Biden to take advantage of it while he can.

After a historic year for activism, our work is still not done. Breonna’s Law and Stacey Abrams’ work in registering Black voters that ultimately flipped Georgia blue in both the presidential and Senate runoff races, both serve as prime examples of the real life impact of activism.

Clearly, Biden does have the capacity to listen to his base, so now is not the time to give up and go back to brunch. Actions speak louder than Instagram posts. While it is important to raise awareness on issues of race, marriage equality, reproductive rights, and COVID-19 (to name a few), it is even more important to donate to causes you care about, and find more actionable ways to engage with activism.

It sounds simple, but the need for activism is stronger than ever. So what can an Emerson student do?

Boston is home to many political advocacy organizations such as Refuse Fascism, Freedom Fighters Coalition, Movimiento Cosecha and more.

Emerson has numerous organizations that provide safe spaces for marginalized communities such as Flawless Brown, Amigos, Muslim Student Association and many more. Protesting Oppression With Education Reform is an organization for students of color who are “dedicated to increasing cultural competency (and) creating a safe, antiracist school.” These can be places to incubate constructive activism.

Biden may not be Trump, but now is not the time to give up on activism.

Let’s get to work.

This editorial was written by the Beacon’s editor-in-chief, managing editors, and opinion editors. The opinions expressed by the Editorial Board do not impact the paper’s coverage.

Courtesy Katie Redefer

Letter from the editor

The days that lie ahead Katie Redefer Beacon Staff

Last semester, after The Beacon dreLast semester, after The Beacon drew a wave of public criticisms and staff resignations, it made me question everything I know about journalism. Prior to this fall, I looked back on my years at The Beacon through rose-colored glasses. I wrote and edited more stories than I ever thought possible. I met countless student contributors, whose love for reporting inspired me. I watched those same students grow into robust journalists, and some landed the jobs of their dreams.

But after Protesting Oppression With Educational Reform (POWER) published a letter in September saying one of our stories “amplified the voice of a white ally and, in the process, diminished the voices of BIPOC students,” I realized The Beacon I had come to love had more flaws than I knew.

In the weeks that followed, I considered how easily I had risen in ranks of the paper, while some talented students from different backgrounds did not have the same experience. I thought about the times staffers raised concerns over editorial decisions at our staff meetings, only to be pushed aside. I realized that even if I have the best intentions with my reporting and editing, I still have inherent biases as a white person that impact my worldview, and I need to confront those biases Editor-in-Chief Katie Redefer

© 2021 The Berkeley Beacon. All rights reserved.

The Beacon is published weekly. The Beacon receives funding from the Student Government Association of Emerson College. Anything submitted to the Beacon becomes the sole property of the newspaper. No part of the publication may be reproduced by any means without the express written permission of the editor.

(617) 824–8687 berkeleybeacon.com contact@berkeleybeacon.com 172 Tremont St., Boston, MA 02116

Managing Editors Madison Goldberg (Content) Charlie McKenna (Content) Maximo Aguilar Lawlor (Multimedia) Dylan Rossiter (Operations) Section Editors Dana Gerber (News) Josh Sokol (Living Arts) Juliet Norman (Opinion) Christopher Williams (Sports) Hongyu Liu (Photo) Advisor Rachel Layne

routinely. I felt disappointed in myself for not seeing these problems sooner, and instead continuing to exist in an unfair environment.

Everyone deserves a fair chance to succeed at The Beacon. Anything short of that is unacceptable. Here’s what we’re working on right now to improve the issues within our organization: The Beacon management team finalized an advisory board of five professionals this month, as dictated under our newly-ratified constitution, and are consulting them for guidance on this paper’s edition.

This currently includes Meghan Irons, Bianca Vázquez Toness, Lisa Williams, Anthony Miller, and Greg Lee. It’s my hope this professional guidance from BIPOC journalists will help us to responsibly report on issues of diversity, like racism and ableism.

We are finalizing the first content audit of many to identify weakness in our coverage, like lack of BIPOC sources used or misleading photos. It covers more than 1,000 stories published between Fall 2019 through Fall 2020. The final report in the coming weeks will explore successes and shortcomings in more depth. Admittedly, we did not finish the audit over the break as we had hoped. But we have completed more than half the stories at hand. We want to ensure the final product is comprehensive before we release our findings, giving each story of the hundreds we’ve read through the critical eye they deserve. We will complete an audit of every semester’s content in the future.

The Beacon invited back Robert Amelio, a diversity and inclusion consultant who previously was Emerson’s director of diversity and inclusion excellence, at the advice of the Social Justice Center. Robert will hold two bias training sessions for the entire staff and one session just for the managing editors to encourage additional productive conversations about bias in our newsroom.

The Beacon is incorporating the

Diversity Style Guide into the Beacon Style Guide, as mandated by our constitution, in order to ensure our writers use of proper language when reporting on marginalized communities.

We successfully appointed our new editor-in-chief and managing editors through more democratic processes. This includes a staff-wide election process for EIC, while a board with editors from every section appointed the managing editors.

Life goes on at Emerson.

COVID-19 will still impact campus life; the college will still raise our tuition; and the systemic injustices within the college will persist. We are here to report on these issues, to shine a light on these harsh realities, to give the people a news source independent from the college’s control, and to call on our community to create change.

I know how good The Beacon can be. There are countless students who had positive experiences at The Beacon. The work we do as reporters is essential to a well-informed community. Through a series of concrete actions, I hope I can increase the positive influences The Beacon has, while minimizing the harm we have caused in the process.

It is not my intention to undermine criticisms of The Beacon by saying this. It’s important to note that if we are not serving all members of the community fairly, then we are not serving our true purpose.

The Beacon does have institutional problems, and we cannot continue to exist without addressing them.

But the first step in making positive change is accepting responsibility.

For this reason, I, like Diti Kohli, our last Editor-in-Chief, extend my sincerest apology to any former or current staffers that have been hurt

by The Beacon—especially to those who felt neglected because of their race, ethnicity, disability status, or gender. We had many opportunities to fix our institutional problems before the fall but failed to do so in the timeframe we intended. We are committed to correcting these wrongs.

I also apologize to our readers.

Our coverage fell short in properly addressing sensitive issues, especially regarding race and disability.

We hope to demonstrate through our actions that we are committed to becoming a more reliable source of information for everyone.

One lesson I learned in the fall: the biggest truths are often uncomfortable to accept. I want to express my genuine gratitude to our former staffers that spoke publicly about their experiences. It is not easy to speak up, and if we ever want to create a Beacon that offers fair opportunities for all students, then we need to listen to everyone.

I invite anyone with criticisms, questions, or suggestions for The Beacon to attend our monthly town hall meetings. These meetings are intended to give the public a space to provide feedback on The Beacon.

We intend to listen to and address all future criticisms. Our first town hall will be on Jan. 28 at 7 p.m., which anyone can join via Zoom. These open forums will continue throughout the semester, occuring on the fourth Thursday of every month. Access information and the complete schedule can be found on EmConnect.

Everyone who works at The Beacon deserves the positive experience I had, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, or disability status.

My staff and I are dedicated to actualizing this fairer, more equitable future for The Beacon. We hope to earn your support. kathryn_redefer@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

January 21, 2021

5

Hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine?

Don’t be.

Shannon Garrido Beacon Staff

Amid a pandemic that has taken 2.06 million lives and is set to infect many more, the world anxiously awaited a vaccine. Vaccines typically require years of development before reaching the clinic, but the events of 2020 forced scientists to speed up and produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine by this year.

Because of this, we saw much skepticism on the effectiveness and safety of a COVID-19 vaccine. The Pew Research Center showed in September of last year in a survey that only 51 percent of U.S. adults indicated a willingness to take the vaccine.

The Washington Post claimed that “a lot of this mistrust is likely to be a result of recent attempts, especially by President Trump and his aides, to interfere in the scientific and regulatory review process.”

However as Trump’s presidency comes to a show-stopping end, confidence in the COVID-19 vaccine rose to 60 percent who claim they “will definitely or probably get a vaccine for the coronavirus,” according to another Pew Research survey.

As 2020 wrapped up, on Dec. 18 Federal regulators gave emergency approval to vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both of which require patients to receive two doses spaced weeks apart. These have been described as possessing “remarkable initial efficacy” by STAT.

Biotech company Moderna announced the final results of the 30,000-person efficacy trial for its candidate in a press release on Nov 30.

Only 11 people who received two doses of the vaccine developed COVID-19 symptoms after being infected with the coronavirus, versus 185 symptomatic cases in a placebo group. This is when volunteers are randomly assigned to either a test group receiving the experimental intervention, or an inactive substance that looks like the drug being tested.

According to the New York Times, only 13.6 million Americans have received a dose of the vaccine so far.

Every state was granted an amount of the vaccine roughly in proportion to its population. Data from clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines suggest they prevent symptomatic COVID-19 infection in roughly 94.1 percent of people vaccinated.

Knowing that there is a higher probability of a positive reaction to taking the vaccine, why is 39 percent of America so suspicious?

For starters, President Trump’s efforts to pressure the FDA to issue an “ Emergency Use Authorization” before the Nov. 3 election — before the vaccine trials were finished — deepened a sense of distrust. A survey conducted in December of last year showed that of 2,000 doctors and nurses in New Jersey, although 60 percent of doctors planned to take a COVID-19 vaccine, only 40 percent of nurses intended to.

This unease is also particularly high among Black and Latinx communities.

A Pew Research Center poll released in mid-September indicated 32 percent of Black adults said they were definitely or probably going to be vaccinated. This is worrying given that people of color are being infected and dying at a disproportionately high rate in the pandemic.

Health officials fear that “public adoption” will be crucial in stopping the spread of the virus. NBC states, “Experts say there isn’t an exact threshold for the percentage of people that need to get vaccinated to stop the virus’ spread, but it is expected to be at least 60 percent of the population.”

A report by the London-based nonprofit organization ‘Center for Countering Digital Hate’ found that the anti-vaccination movements have gained about eight million followers since 2019.

According to a new report from First Draft, a global nonprofit organization that researches online misinformation, conspiracy theories on the COVID-19 vaccine have flooded Instagram and Facebook.

Another astounding factor to a consistent mistrust in the vaccine is the current deep distrust of the government. A survey released this week by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 42 percent of Republicans said they would definitely or probably not get vaccinated, as compared with 12 percent of Democrats.

Of course, Trump’s refusal to take the vaccine has not helped matters.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a correspondent covering health policy wrote in The New York Times in December, “One reason for the partisan divide over vaccination, experts said, is the president himself.”

Trump’s repeated denigration of scientists and insistence that the pandemic is not a threat, Stolberg said, has contributed to a sense among his followers that the vaccine is either not safe or not worth taking. Matthew Motta, a political scientist at Oklahoma State University who studies politics and vaccine views stated in the NYT story, “We

Illustration Lucia Thorne

need [Trump] taking a proactive role.”

The mass conspiracy theory that the vaccine contains a microchip allowing the government to track people has spread ever since news of the vaccine surfaced. There is a plethora of widely shared videos and viral posts on social media, baselessly claiming that such technologies could find their way into syringes delivering shots. A YouGov poll suggested that 28 percent of Americans believe that Bill Gates wants to use vaccines to implant microchips in people—with the figure rising to 44 percent among Republicans. These rumors have been debunked by Mr. Gates himself, who told the BBC that the claims were “false.”

However, vaccine development breakthroughs during the pandemic have been nothing short of extraordinary. It is true that a few years ago, the notion that the world could start vaccinating against a pandemic like COVID-19 within a year would have been considered unlikely. But for desperate times come desperate measures.

According to STAT, vaccine makers compressed clinical trials, running Phase 1/2s or Phase 2/3s instead of the normal

sequence of three phases with pauses in between. With the help of several partners like the—U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Gates Foundation — batches of vaccines were produced and stockpiled before they were yet proven to work, shaving months off the time to vaccine deployment.

Cases have been rising nationally since September, from an average of about 35,000 cases a day to more than 250,000 cases daily. We need to work together to stop this spread, and that starts with understating what this vaccine can do. Experts say that “herd immunity”— the point at which enough people are immune that the spread of a virus is diminished— can be achieved when roughly 75 percent of the population is vaccinated. By continuing to maintain social distancing, wearing masks and proper hygiene, this pandemic can be fought, taking into account that our next step as a country is the vaccine. shannon_garrido@emerson.edu

Social media normalizes plastic surgery in a dangerous way

Illustration Lucia Thorne

Juliet Norman Beacon Staff

When a friend in middle school told me she couldn’t wait to spend her Bat Mitzvah money on a nose job, I told her to “go for it.” I remember thinking that plastic surgery was a positive thing; that it helped people feel more confident about themselves.

As I got older, plastic surgery became more and more popular. Since 2000, the year I was born, plastic surgery procedures have risen by 115 percent, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. But I began to notice that instead of creating self-confidence by erasing long standing insecurities, these procedures sometimes transfer those insecurities onto other people.

I understand someone wanting to change something they dislike about themselves. For so many people, especially women, cosmetic procedures can provide a newfound sense of empowerment. When I first heard the argument that plastic surgery could be a feminist decision from a friend, I agreed. It felt consistent with someone taking ownership over their body through female sex-

ual liberation or deciding to get a breast reconstruction after a mastectomy. Still, I can’t ignore that a cancer patient making the choice to undergo life-saving surgery is not the same as someone deciding that their body just isn’t curvy enough.

The message behind the surgeries is ugly. I would never judge someone personally for going under the knife because it’s the plastic surgery epidemic as a whole that feels dangerous. It’s sad to me that people go to such lengths to erase a part of themselves in such an invasive and expensive way. It makes sense that so many young girls feel genuinely insecure when outside influences like Photoshop and social media constantly tell them they shouldn’t feel pretty just as they are. Surgeries like rhinoplasty to achieve a tiny nose and blepharoplasty (more commonly known as double eyelid surgery), among others, continue to promote eurocentric beauty standards as well.

Miami plastic surgeon Michael Salzhauer, known online as “Dr. Miami”, gained notoriety by sharing surgical videos on Snapchat in 2016.

These videos have done wonders to boost his clientele. In a Forbes interview, Salzhauer said 60 percent of his

customers hear about him directly from social media.

Back in 2008, Salzhauer even wrote and published a book intended for “children under the age of eight,” titled “My Beautiful Mommy.” The picture book is centered around a young child who understands and learns about their mother’s plastic surgery procedure. After the mother’s surgery at the end of the book, Salzhauer writes that the mother is now “the most beautiful butterfly in the whole world.” I can’t even put into words how sick it is to brainwash young children into thinking that their mother’s body needs to be fixed.

Following Salzhauer’s footsteps, countless other plastic surgery social media accounts have sprung up online.

Many show surgical procedures through daily invasive videos of the patient before, during and after the surgery. It’s not uncommon for someone to log onto Instagram and see a start to finish video of someone getting a tummy tuck on the Explore page.

New York City plastic surgeon Matthew Schulman said in a VICE interview that when he posts these videos, he helps educate people on the ins and outs of surgery. Schulman also said that his patients “tend to be younger.”

Think about the demographics of the majority of Snapchat users: teenagers. The availability of seeing a step-by-step video of someone getting a breast augmentation on your iPhone screen normalizes these procedures.

The constant stream of “before” and “after” images on social media subconsciously—and maybe even unintentionally—tells people that if they look like the “before” picture, they should feel inadequate. Perhaps the worst part about this media exposure is that the girls in the “before” photos always look completely fine.

But because they don’t possess a figure akin to a Kardashian, their body just isn’t good enough. Mutilating and cutting up your body to appear more desirable to others shouldn’t be considered the standard for beauty.

With the rise of celebrity YouTubers and online personalities, it’s hard to miss how regular these non-essential procedures have become. Lip injections are basically a right of passage for someone with a large social media following.

These social media personalities don’t hide it, either, often vlogging their entire experience and flaunting the results to their young followers. Some influencers are even paid or given free procedures as part of sponsored posts to promote specific doctors and treatments to their followers.

Since the pandemic started, it makes sense that more people feel the need to alter themselves surgically, especially when they are sitting at home scrolling through social media all day. In an ABC

‘Cutting up your body to appear more desirable to others shouldn’t be considered the standard for beauty.’

News interview, Dr. Heather Furnas, a plastic surgery associate surgeon in Santa Rosa, California, said that quarantining has only made the desire for surgical procedures grow.

“It’s like there was this pent-up demand for surgery–breast augmentation, breast lifts, tummy tucks...demand is huge,” Furnas said. “We filled up immediately.”

I recently discovered the popularity of vaginal rejuvenation surgery, or labiaplasty, among young girls. In this procedure, the surgeon reduces the size of the labia minora by quite literally cutting off excess skin. If you know anything about women’s anatomy, you know that

the clitoris has nerve endings that extend all over the labia. This means that women who have this procedure are potentially forgoing sexual pleasure to maintain an aesthetically pleasing vulva.

Dr. Julie Strickland, the chairwoman of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said that lack of pleasure post-surgery is possible. “The big thing I tell patients about labiaplasty is that there are a lot of unknowns,” Strickland said. “The labia have a lot of nerve endings in them.”

I cannot fathom a woman deciding to have terrible sex for the rest of her life to appeal to a sexual partner who does not notice or care. Yet, the amount of women who go under the knife for labiaplasty grows every year. In 2016, of the 12,000 labiaplasties performed in the United States, 500 were for girls under the age of 16.

This procedure furthers the idea that every single feature on a woman’s body exists solely to please others.

Bodies are functionary. They help us learn, move, and create, not just “look pretty.”

I understand why someone would feel pressured to have a surgical procedure, but it’s important to note that without these now normalized surgeries, it’s likely that more people would feel good about the way they look naturally. The decision to undergo surgery is invasive and personal, and any adult who wants a procedure should be able to get one. But it’s also worth noting that the message behind these procedures can be harmful and getting surgery to alter your appearance continues the cycle of unrealistic body standards.

I don’t see this rise in cosmetic surgical procedures slowing down. It’s so easy for someone, especially young girls, to feel disgusting when they open Instagram and see bodies being surgically altered to look less like them. You don’t look unattractive or disgusting because you have a regular body. You look like a normal person. juliet_norman@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

January 21, 2021

6

Living Arts

‘It’s the kind of fun that never goes away’

Comedian Bowen Yang engages with Emerson students on professional experiences Juliet Norman Beacon Staff

Saturday Night Live featured player Bowen Yang joined Emerson students during a live Q&A titled “A Night with Bowen Yang” on Tuesday night. During the hour-long Zoom webinar, he discussed Andrew Yang’s run for New York City mayor, the making of Saturday Night Live’s Sara Lee sketch, and how he brings his queer identity into sketch comedy.

The webinar, hosted by Director of Student Leadership and Engagement Jason Meier and moderated by sophomore Monica Keipp and senior Max Boone.

Meier, who has been working on getting Yang to speak for the event since November, said Student Engagement wanted to kick off the spring semester with something exciting for the college’s “Week of Welcome.” Meier said he handpicked Keipp and Boone as student moderators for the event.

“I just knew they would have such good chemistry and so much to say and learn from,” Meier said in an interview. ”That was maybe the easiest decision I’ve had to make all year.”

Yang joined the cast of SNL in 2018 as a writer. A year later, he was promoted to featured player, also known as a trial cast member, for the show’s 45th season. Yang said that, while he does miss the creativity of the writers room, his work acting as Edmund on Comedy Central’s Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens prepared him for his on-camera role as a cast member.

Bowen Yang, who impersonates Democratic mayoral candidate Andrew Yang frequently on SNL, got positive feedback on his performance from the politician himself. Andrew Yang reached out to commend the portrayal during his primary run in 2019.

During the webinar, Bowen Yang revealed that after the former presidential candidate saw his impersonation, Andrew Yang kept in touch with him. Andrew Yang called Bowen Yang around Christmas to let him know he was planning on announcing his run for New York City mayor.

Bowen Yang is best known for impersonating former presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Juliet Norman / Beacon Staff “I was getting in the shower, completely naked. I get a phone call from an unknown number. I was butt-naked talking to Andrew Yang on the phone, being like, ‘congrats,’” Bowen Yang said.

Since 2016, Yang has also hosted Las Culturistas, a pop culture podcast, where he and his co-host, Matt Rogers, have perfected their signature segment, “I Don’t Think So, Honey!”

Yang called the podcast segment “the lowest-concept idea.”

Yang said the segment has lasted so long because of how little preparation goes into creating each episode.

“It’s just us being loose and talking extemporaneously,” Yang said.

Yang said that even after being on television, he still gets nervous before auditions.

“I remember auditioning for SNL before I got hired as a writer and thinking, ‘well, I’ll never be nervous for anything ever again because this is the most nerve-wracking thing I could imagine,’” Yang said. “But then, of course, things just sort of level up with you as you move along.

So it’s kind of fun that it never goes away.”

‘The best comedian is who people love; people who you would listen to talk forever.”

Bowen Yang

Yang helped create the Sara Lee sketch that later starred him, Harry Styles, and Cecily Strong. In the sketch, they make fun of the bread company Sara Lee with ridiculous social media posts. Styles’ character captioned photos with personal updates that chronicled his sexual frustrations as a queer man. Yang said the sketch that the writers originally created for comedian John Mulaney, as the intern, was to be paired with the brand Nestlé.

“This was right around the time when it had been an established phenomenon in social media that certain corporate accounts would be tweeting from, like, a weird, disconnected voice,” Yang said. “Mulaney had also occupied this very fun space in people’s imaginations in terms of struggle, Twitter, and people just love to attach a queerness or a queer thirst to Mulaney.”

As SNL’s third openly gay male cast member, Yang noted that his perspective for queer comedy is limited to his experiences as a cisgender man.

Yang—who often worked closely with writer Julio Torres in the writer’s room—said that they couldn’t create sketches which fully showed univer-

sal queer experiences. Yang said he wants all of the queer community to be able to somewhat relate to the sketches that he writes.

“SNL has had this whole legacy of queer writers from the beginnning,” Yang said. “The way that I try to weave in some other thread in my experience is that there’s a way to present this to the audience.”

Yang said he was hesitant to add a reference that suggested one of his characters, Chinese military general Chen Biao—known on the show as “Trade Daddy”—might be queer, but ultimately decided to go with it.

“You kind of have to accept this with equal weight in order to appreciate the joke and once you do, hopefully you like it,” Yang said. “So that’s the method so far.”

The beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic started at the tail end of SNL’s 45th season, resulting in the last three episodes being produced virtually from the cast members’ homes. Not having access to NBC studios was challenging for Yang, who had to figure out how to work a ring light, fit a green screen in his apartment, and improvise without the props he normally had access to on set.

“I was barely in those shows, and I think it’s because I was really struggling with the way things worked,” Yang said.

The experience of performing for SNL from home, as with many other television programs, set new standards for producing mainstream entertainment with less of a production team. Yang said that because media production is constantly evolving, it’s important for performers to find something they can do well for a unique audience.

“The best comedian is who people love; people who you would listen to talk forever,” Yang said. “Just set up the foundational building blocks first and then you’ll have a sense of ‘oh, I can do something differently that no one else has seen yet.’ And that’s what really grabs someone.” juliet_norman@emerson.edu

Jasmine Hawkins to lead show on musical icon, Jelly Morton Cont. from Pg. 1 felt had been overlooked in the jazz industry due to his race.

Hawkins said experiencing Black history through shows and visuals can give students a better understanding of the culture.

The Emerson community as a whole does not do enough to represent Black culture, she said.

“There’s even a statue of Norman Lear in front of Emerson, who made money off Black culture, but nothing depicting the actual culture behind it,” Hawkins said. “At Emerson, we read about August Wilson plays in classes and have these discussions, but we won’t actually perform them.”

Hawkins is pushing to open the show’s curtains at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, Emerson’s largest theater.

“The show should be in the Cutler because it fits the time period and aesthetic of the show, and I will do everything in my power to get it,” Hawkins said.

Not only will the Cutler Majestic match the show’s setting, but the seating availability can promote social distancing. The audience

capacity of 1,200 will allow for the audience to be separated and distanced by groups.

Complications raised by COVID-19 pushed the opening for Jelly’s Last Jam’s from Spring 2021 to next fall, Hawkins said.

The show’s casting will be decided virtually and is not yet set in stone.

She is also partnering with student organizations like RareWorks, a theatre company that aids the underrepresented. This organization can help sponsor the show and also help Hawkins obtain a production team, she said.

Social media platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok have helped Jelly’s Last Jam gain donations. In November, Hawkins’ GoFundMe blew up on TikTok through one of her good friends, Charlotte Odusanya, a sophomore with 102,000 followers on the app. It helped Jasmine surpass her goal of $6,000, and the GoFundMe now sits at $7,161.

“It’s not something I would’ve ever expected,” Hawkins said. “It made me so happy sitting back and watching the numbers go up so much in a matter of four days.”

Putting together a show like Jelly’s Last Jam requires the help of other students and faculty. Sophomore and performing arts major McKennen Cambell and Director of Student Leadership and Engagement Jason Meier, are teaming up with Hawkins to put together the production.

Meier spoke highly of Hawkins’ passion for the project.

“Jasmine has really put a lot of heart and soul into this, and our job is to help guide her forward and turn this passion into a reality,” Meier said.

Meier has connected with different student organizations to reserve spaces, but the circumstances regarding place and time remain in an unfamiliar gray area during the pandemic.

SiouxSanna Ramirez-Cruz, a professor in the musical theatre department, said she connected with Hawkins through a former student.

“I didn’t seek to advise a student,” Ramirez-Cruz said. “This was initiated by students supporting students. That in itself is evidence that we are creating change.

Discrimination back then wasn’t

Courtesy Jasmine Hawkins

talked about, and now we are starting to scratch the surface. As for me, the whole point of being in this industry as a woman of color is to help.”

As an artist, producer, director, and choreographer, Ramirez-Cruz is guiding Hawkins through the production process.

“I love Jasmine’s spirit, tenac-

ity, and fire,” Ramirez-Cruz said.

“From day one, she knew exactly why she wanted to represent the Black community at Emerson, and because of COVID’s impact on this industry, there’s gonna be a bigger appetite for us to reunite and support one another.” margarita_ivanova@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

January 21, 2021

7

Artist Daniel Callahan appointed president of the Roxbury Cultural District board of trustees Shawna Koniecnzy Beacon Staff

Video games are the modern form of storytelling Karissa Schaefer Beacon Staff

Video games have been around since the 1950s, bringing forth old-school classic computer games like “Tennis for Two” and “Spacewar.” Since then, video games are continuously proving to be the newest technology on the market and the increased demand for games from all age groups.

Nowadays, an increased number of people look to games for not only gameplay, but for the narrative they tell. As one of the newest forms of storytelling, video games allow gamers to immerse themselves into a fictional setting as if they are the stars of their own movie.

Storytelling spans back centuries in human nature; progressing from oral communication, to written stories, and then to a visual format, such as movies and television. Video games set themselves apart from other storytelling formats by giving their audience the ability to make their own decisions within the story.

Long playthroughs of storytelling games is what got many gamers through quarantine during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Being stuck in the house for days on end can weigh heavily on the mind as people grow bored and tired of routine, yet video games can provide a much-needed escape from this reality.

The 1981 release of “Donkey Kong” marked the beginning of storytelling in gaming. Elements like cutscenes, animations, and text convey the damsel-in-distress story. The story is secondary to the gameplay as it gives the player a goal to achieve. These stories give players the motivation, reasoning, and determination to continue playing.

The writing staff for video game companies is just as important as the staff that works on graphics and the technological side of things. For example, take a recent video game series in the last decade that has leveled up to par with A-list movies, called “The Last of Us”.

These games are emotionally gripping and can even be draining for players. After I finished, the games left me thinking about the ending for days. The beginning of both games, as well as the end of the sequel, elicited some of the rare moments that a video game has ever brought me to tears. This is exactly the emotional payoff that I, as well as other gamers, want from video games.

Not only does the gameplay make for hours of enjoyment, but the story and character development received “universal acclaim” from gaming critics. As a game set during a zombie apocalypse, there’s a lot of heavy themes and morally grey areas told primarily through character interactions.

The gamer plays as Joel who escorts teen Ellie, who is immune to the fungal infection that caused the outbreak. Joel

does this in hopes of finding a cure. Ellie suffers tremendous survivor’s guilt that’s noticeable in subtle facial reactions and more noticeable dialogue.

The two grow this bond during their journey, giving Joel a second chance to be a father after losing his teen daughter at the start of the outbreak. In the end, he chooses to save Ellie rather than allowing her to die at the hands of the only doctors able to find a cure. Although part of me felt this was a selfish choice on Joel’s part, the emotional complexity of the story allows the player to sympathize with him.

Part two of this series takes place five years later, beginning with Joel’s on-screen death. This not only sends Ellie on a revenge path, but the player as well. Although the sequel got a lot of backlash from the game’s fans– for Joel’s death and misleading marketing, among many other critiques– there’s no denying the complex story is still pretty well done. There’s no wonder why both games won game of the year in 2014 at various gaming awards and 2020 at The Game Awards.

While “The Last of Us” is a linear story, role playing games and open world games can be just as convincing in their story delivery. An example of this is a long-time beloved franchise: “Mass Effect”.

Personally, this trilogy game is one of my all time favorite games to play.

If someone has never heard of it, they may ask a fan, what makes a game set in space so special. Nearly every player’s answer ends up being the characters.

“Mass Effect” allows the player to choose how the game is played, from character customization, to dialogue choices, and big plot points. Not only does this leave room for hundreds of hours of replayability, but it also grants the player time to become emotionally invested in the world the game creates.

The overarching plot across all three games can be summed up as: you play as Commander Shepard, a human space marine for the Alliance leading their own crew on a mission to defeat the Reapers, and a Lovecraftian artificial intelligence set to harvest advanced races across the galaxy. Only Shepard and their human-alien mixed crew is able to stop them.

While the first game focuses on creating the lore of the franchise, the second game really narrows in on the character aspect. Everytime I start the game up, it’s like visiting old friends. There’s a uniqueness in this game considering the player’s choices are carried over between each installment. It’s hard to find a game that has as many themes intertwined throughout its vast universe.

You’re not forced but rather naturally pushed to care about not only the impending doom of everyone in the galaxy, but the people that help you along the way. If the player doesn’t like a character, they don’t have to survive in the end. If the player does grow a bond with one, then they’ll be able to gain

Illustration Lucia Thorne

their loyalty.

Originally released in 2007, the game trilogy’s remaster, including all DLC, is set to be released this spring.

It’s evident players love this game as they still come back to it over a decade after the first installment’s release.

The game also experienced a lot of user outrage following the ending of the third installment. Myself and many players agree there wasn’t proper closure to this world the player was completely immersed in. But also, saying goodbye to the world would mean saying goodbye to the characters they grew to love so much.

Sure, it may be fun to play a multiplayer shooting game just for the hell of it, but I eventually grow bored. I itch for more, something worth spending upwards of $60. Games continue to grow in their complexity, paying attention to even the most minuscule details. If a game has an intriguing story that makes me feel something to the point where I take a week to reflect on it, then it’s worth it in my book.

Video games allow an escape from all the rough things that may be going on in the real world. You can turn on any PC or console and absorb the fictional world, even if just for a few hours a day. It’s a step up from grabbing your favorite book and plunging into the setting it creates in your mind.

Games allow the player to engage in something that can make them think, emotionally or logically. Series like “Uncharted” and “Tomb Raider” have puzzles while also focusing on a bigger story. “Uncharted 4” specifically takes the characters you’ve grown to love over the course of the third-person action series in a stronger, story-focused game.

Just look at the upcoming “Uncharted” movie inspired by the game series or the popular episodic, graphic “The Walking Dead” game. The comic and TV show world is spun on its own story.

Media influences media, and this goes to show how important and iconic video game narratives have become.

While gamers may not need video games to survive, the games are definitely a crucial role in their ability to have fun and wind down. I grew up watching my Dad play, then playing together, and now I play story driven games on my own. I haven’t known a life without them.

Modern games blow my mind away with the visual graphics that technology allows them to have. Take Naughty Dog as an example, the company that makes the “Uncharted” and “The Last of Us” games. Their games are visually stunning, so much so that it embraces the movie feel and makes it even more realistic.

On the other hand, you can take open world games like Rockstar’s “Red Dead Redemption 2” or Guerilla Games’ “Horizon Zero Dawn”. Two of the latest decade’s biggest games that are beautifully handcrafted and well done.

You really feel like you’re a part of these worlds, and that is great storytelling. shannon_garrido@emerson.edu

Multimedia artist Daniel Callahan, an affiliate professor of Emerson, has been appointed by the Roxbury Cultural District as the president of the board of trustees.

A resident of Roxbury, Callahan said that this appointment is his way of giving back to the community which helped support him as an artist.

“The job of the artist is not only just to create art, it’s also to create the environment where art can thrive,” Callahan said. “It’s about creating art that touches people and that somehow enriches their lives.”

President Callahan said he will target the issue of gentrification in Roxbury, a neighborhood where housing prices increased 100 percent from 2014-2019, according to Point2Homes. He said that the development of the neighborhoods is a threat to the local culture.

“For the most part, the people who gentrify don’t know that’s what they’re doing,” Callahan said. “They really have no way of changing that. The most important thing is to become aware of any effort to preserve the arts and culture of a space.”

Roxbury is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Boston, known in recent decades for its cultural diversity. 57 percent of Roxbury’s residents identify as Black and 30 percent identify as Hispanic, according to a 2017 study from the Boston Planning and Development Agency. Yet as the racial and ethnic diversity of the neighborhood grew, the economic disparities expanded as well—years of redlining and blockbusting by real estate groups continue to harm the community in 2021.

The threat of gentrification lies heavily in the fact that in 2017, 80 percent of Roxbury’s 19,046 housing units were renter-occupied, leaving the fate of those who rent at the hands of the 20 percent who own property.

Daniel Callahan (Media: Daniel Callahan/Courtesy) This leaves room for developers to purchase property and raise rent prices, driving current inhabitants away due to income disparities.

The median average income for Roxbury residents was $27,721, compared to $62,021 throughout the rest of Boston, according to the Boston Planning and Development Agency.

“Finding ways to safeguard and preserve the culture that’s there as this development is happening there is a number one priority of ours,” Callahan said in an interview with The Beacon. “Affordable artist housing is something that we’re really advocating for.”

Callahan said a large portion of the work that the Roxbury Cultural District does is about connection

Courtesy Daniel Callahan

in terms of giving power and voice to the arts already within Roxbury.

“Our plan of attack is not to recreate the wheel. We’re more about adding spokes to that wheel to strengthen it,” Callahan said. “A big part of that is connection.”

Callahan said that part of that connection is working with other cultural organizations such as the Roxbury Innovation Center as well as local artists, the state, and the city to identify, uplift and support the artistic community of Roxbury.

“It’s really about trust-building, and it’s about relationship-building,” Callahan said.

Callahan said that Emerson should look at Roxbury as an “arts center” by bringing artists and prospective students from those communities to Emerson.

“If [Emerson] can do more investment in the community through community partners to pique the interest of teens and youth, that would be an investment that’s really important,” Callahan said.

Callahan, who has lived in Roxbury for 12 years, is an artist in his own right. His work, which spans film and design, has been featured locally at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. As an artist, Callahan said he feels he has matured as a person and that his art is pushing him beyond himself. He is currently working on a new piece that addresses the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism.

Callahan said that while being president of the Roxbury Cultural District has him juggling his responsibilities with his own artistic practice, taking on the role is part of his process.

“Once you’ve centered yourself, it’s about moving out and bringing your craft and abilities to other people,” Callahan said. “That’s been the next step in my artistic career.” karissa_schaefer@emerson.edu

Courtesy Daniel Callahan

The Berkeley Beacon

Sports

January 21, 2021

8

New women’s soccer captains take the reins as pandemicera practices continue Joey DuBois Beacon Staff The women’s soccer team announced their captains for next season on Jan. 2—junior goalkeeper Megan Rose, junior forward Grace Cosgrove, and sophomore midfielder Cali Bruce.

All three Lions were named at the 2019 New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer All-Conference Team. Rose and Bruce were members of the first team, while Cosgrove made the second team.

The women’s soccer team was unable to compete last fall as the NEWMAC canceled the fall season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Head coach David Suvak, however, said he saw enough from these leaders the last time they took the field during the 2019 season to name them as captains for the Fall 2021 season.

Rose becomes a third-year captain after leading the team for the past two seasons, while Cosgrove and Bruce are first-time captains. Rose was named second team all-conference her freshman year, leaving her as the only returning Lion with multiple all-conference accolades. “[Rose] was an excellent leader the year before,” Suvak said in an interview.

It is rare for a sophomore to be named captain, but Rose has handled it in stride since the beginning.

Cosgrove said she learned a lot about what it takes to be a captain over the past two years by observing how gracefully Rose stepped into the role.

“Megan’s always been a leader since freshman year,” Cosgrove said in an interview. “She’s kind of a natural leader. Even when she wasn’t officially named a captain, she defi-

Students, faculty share hope for the Biden presidency Cont. from Pg. 1 Mneesha Gellman, a Marlboro Institute and political science professor, streamed the ceremony live with her children, ages 6 and 9, who were “counting down the minutes until inauguration.”

Gellman said it’s important for this administration not to revert to a pre-Trump normal, but to pave a new path for the nation.

“Though there’s been a lot of really important talk about not returning to normal because normal was unfair, it was unjust, and returning to normal is not going to help people who have been historically and contemporarily marginalized by that normal,” Gellman said. “It’s important to recognize the hunger that we have as a society for a sense of safety and wellbeing that can come with a new normal and normal that is dedicated to truly to justice for all.”

While Gellman said she would have preferred a more progressive candidate, she’s encouraged by Harris taking up the mantle of the

The women’s soccer team huddles with each other during a practice. / Courtesy Grace Cosgrove

nitely had a leadership role on the team.”

Rose will be joined as captain

by Bruce, Emerson’s breakout-star center back in 2019. After a strong season her freshman year, Bruce is ready to step into a larger leadership role.

“Cali has a lot of very good club experience with Richmond United, and she is coming in as a very competitive player,” Suvak said. “She is competitive, she is driven, and I think she wants the best for this program.”

Bruce said she believes her learning experience from her first season with the Lions prepared her for this opportunity, despite never being a captain before.

“Having to step into the role of center back kind of suddenly really put me in a different form of leadership position that led me to sort of

leading the team verbally from the back line,” Bruce said in an interview. “I had to take on a big leadership role from a very early point in the season.”

Cosgrove rounds out the group of captains after contributing a teamhigh eight goals as a sophomore in 2019. Suvak highlighted Cosgrove’s positive attitude as one of her strengths as a leader.

“Grace has a very welcoming personality where she motivates players and keeps players engaged,” Suvak said. “So, I think that’s an important role as a captain as well, just bringing the team together and keeping them unified.”

Cosgrove was quick to praise her fellow captains, but also gave herself some credit when reflecting on her soccer career to this point.

“The experience that I’ve had all these years playing on differ-

Vice Presidency.

The diversity of Biden’s cabinet which includes Deb Haaland, who would be the first Native American person to lead the Department of the Interior, if confirmed is encouraging to Gellman as well.

“These are also situations where people’s intersectional identities will allow them to bring a deeper awareness of issues that affect people who have not traditionally held the reins of power,” she said.

Leo Duch Clerici, a resident of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and visual and media arts senior at Emerson, said the former occupants of the White House filled him with dismay, especially because he lived so close to the nation’s capital.

“Every time I walked past the White House for the past four years it just gave me this feeling of disappointment in the whole system,” Duch Clerici said.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done and there’s still a lot of ingrained issues that need to be solved. But it does feel like one step in the right direction.”

Graduate student and medical physician Bruce Kilstein said Biden should lay out a plan to move forward from the previous administra-

tion, rather than drag out a long and laborious impeachment process.

“I understand that they want to not be able to have Trump running again,” Kilstein said. “If they want to have a trial to impeach Trump, there’s no reason they can’t do it down the road, but the [vaccine distribution] needs to be something that they start working on right away.”

Boston police increased their presence in the city between Saturday and Inauguration Day. Emerson College Police provided additional officers and surveilled events on campus, while also monitoring information from state and local officials, according to a Jan. 15 email from Director of Emergency Management Chris Beaurpere. No largescale demonstrations materialized.

Grace Tepper, also a Maryland native and a political communications senior, attended Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

“The atmosphere at Trump’s inauguration was very different,” Tepper said. “Some people were very excited and in their minds patriotic, but for me and my friends, it was very sad and it rained and it was just depressing. So it was interesting to see this inauguration and to hear all the speeches and see a very much more diverse

ent teams with a bunch of different types of players has put me into a position where I can kind of adapt to anything,” Cosgrove said.

While all three are talented on the field, Suvak said it’s who they are away from the game that made the task of choosing captains easy.

“They’re great people, they really are,” Suvak said. “They all bring something special to the program.”

Rose agreed with Coach Suvak, expressing that she could not have picked a better group of captains.

“I think that they’re two amazing people to lead the team with,” Rose said in an interview. “I’m feeling really optimistic about how they are as people and how they are going to be as leaders, for sure.”

With those three at the helm, expectations are high for when they finally hit the field again next fall.

The Lions finished 10 -6-3 in 2019

with a young roster that looked set to improve. While they were unable to compete last fall, the team continued to lay the groundwork for future success. Suvak believes the mix of veteran leadership and young talent could yield historic results in the upcoming season.

“I really believe that the team in [2021] will be one of the best teams that Emerson has put out,” Suvak said.

Rose is confident next year’s team will give her and the rest of next year’s seniors a chance to go out on a high note.

“We thought that this past year was going to be our year to take home the title,” Rose said. “But, without a doubt, I’m feeling very confident that next year we’re going to be bringing home the title.”

joseph_dubois@emerson.edu

Courtesy Biden Campaign

platform and be a little bit more excited about it.”

Gellman added that the ceremony is, literally and figuratively, only the beginning.

“More than celebrate, I think just start to shake off the cloak of trauma that has really been ensconcing us for the last four years and get to think about feeling hopeful at the beginning and end

of each day, rather than beginning each day with a sense of despondency about who will be hurt by a new executive order this time,” Gellman said. “The plans are really to just focus on the work ahead because Inauguration Day is the very beginning of a much longer process.”

contact@berkeleybeacon.com