Skiing, S'mores, and Smiles

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

Thursday, February 13, 2020 • Volume 73, Issue 18

Skiing, S’mores, and Smiles A youth skiing program has become a bright spot in the proposed Marlboro-Emerson merger saga

Megan MacLaren, Beacon Staff

Jakob Menendez, The Marlboro Monitor MARLBORO, VT––The smell of marshmallows and chocolate roasting over the fire filled the air as Spencer Knickerbocker gathered all of the kids together for one last lap around the soccer field.

Reluctantly, the kids plopped their feet into the skis and started around the field. The daring ones would take on the hill, speeding down it with grace before eventually returning to the campfire to leave for their homes. Knickerbocker, who sat on the side yelling encouragements to them, couldn’t help but smile.

Marlboro College hired Knickerbocker ’19 in 2019 to start a competitive collegiate ski team at the college, but after the proposed merger with Emerson College was announced, they scrapped the plans for the team.

Instead of letting the money fundraised for the team go to waste, Knickerbocker decided to invest in his community by purchasing nearly 20 pairs of cross-country skis and starting a youth ski program at Marlboro for the children who live in the surrounding areas. The program, The Marlboro Nordic Ski Club, recently became a chapter of the famous Bill Koche Youth Ski League.

Vesper Tate smiles for a photo as she skis across the field.

Jakob Menendez / The Marlboro Monitor

See Alum, page 2

Journalist’s project set for Salem State show Taina Millsap, Beacon Staff Emerson journalist-in-residence Lina Giraldo taught immigrant community members how to build cameras from recycled materials in 2018 as part of a project with the City of Boston.

Now, the cameras are on display at an exhibit titled Awaken: Conjuring Our Tomorrow and features work from Latina artists that focus on climate issues.

The exhibition, curated by artist Allison Maria Rodriguez, will remain at Salem State University until March 13. Giraldo has two pieces at the exhibit—a video critiquing electronic waste called “Game Over” and four cameras made

by Giraldo and members of the Boston Center-Youth & Families organization—an organization that helps families with after-school care and general community service.

“Each one of the groups, which was middle schoolers, high schoolers and seniors, made the cameras and interviewed the community,” Giraldo said in a phone interview from Boston. “They do a lot of storytelling about what it means to be an immigrant, what it means to be a first generation.”

Giraldo was one of the Boston artists-in-residence hired to help communities grow closer through workshops and projects.

See Project, page 6

The men’s basketball team secured a top four seed in the conference playoffs after defeating Clark University by a score of 103-70, tying their highest scoring total this season.

This is the third time this season the Lions scored over 100 points and the second time they achieved this feat against a New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference opponent.

“I don’t really look at the scoreboard for that,” head coach Bill Curley said in a post-game interview. “Are we doing what we are trying to accomplish offensively? Are we getting done what we want to accomplish on the defensive end?”

The Lions pulled down 34 defensive rebounds off of the Cougars’ 43 missed field goal attempts. Sophomore center Jarred Houston led the Lions with eight rebounds, senior guard Jack O’Connor recorded seven, and freshman forward Ben Allen grabbed five.

“We did a good job of getting to the shooters and making them shoot a contested shot,” Curley said. “With that, there are going to be some long rebounds and our guys were ready to go and get those.”

In the first half, the Cougars shot 30 percent from the field and made five of their 21 threepoint attempts.

The Lions shot over 50 percent from the three-point line and 64 percent from the field.

Houston made all eight of his shots, increasing his NEWMAC-leading field goal percentage to 69 percent.

See Houston, page 8

FEB vote delayed again Emerson Andrew Brinker, Beacon Staff The future of Student Government Association Executive Treasurer Abigail Semple’s proposed Financial Equity Board appears uncertain after several votes on the proposal encountered roadblocks in past weeks.

Before last Wednesday, the proposal, which initially surfaced at the beginning of the semester and has been on Joint Session’s docket since their Jan. 28 meeting, appeared to be on track for approval and put into practice with relative ease. But an “auxiliary” late night meeting called on Feb. 5 saw the legislation’s momentum stop dead in its tracks as SGA members identified a series of issues.

Executive President Will Palauskas told The Beacon following the meeting that he was un-

sure of when a vote would occur, placing a tentative timeline at a few weeks to the end of the semester. With several scheduled votes come and gone, the proposal seems to face an uphill battle with SGA members continually postponing action.

Semple, however, insisted that a vote would happen in the coming weeks, doubling down after last Thursday’s FAB meeting, saying that she expected a vote on Tuesday, Feb. 11—an outcome The Beacon reported as unlikely.

“We’re voting on it this coming Tuesday,” she said after Thursday’s FAB meeting. “We made some adjustments based on a really productive conversation we had [Wednesday].”

See Delays, page 2

Women’s basketball fights for playoff spot

By Kayla Buck, pg. 8

INSIDE THIS EDITION

Ableist discourse hurts the disbaled community Pg. 5

Lion’s clinch playoff spot after win over Clark

The Beacon online

Sophomore explores “Jingle Pop” in new extended play Pg. 6

berkeleybeacon

tuition increase hits Marlboro Jacob Seitz, The Marlboro Monitor Attendees at Marlboro College’s Town Meeting—a weekly forum of the Marlboro campus and the surrounding townspeople—discussed the transition for students coming to Emerson, faculty proposals, and a revision to the Vermont college’s Title IX policies, according to minutes of the meeting provided to The Beacon.

Marlboro students transferring to Emerson will be subject to the college’s tuition increase next year, according to Marlboro Dean of Students Patrick Connelly.

“Emerson has voted a 3.5 percent increase on their tuition, the term sheet says that all Marlboro students will be subject to that increase,” he said, according to the minutes.

The Beacon previously reported that Marlboro students would pay the same tuition they originally paid at Marlboro.

Connelly said that Marlboro is working with Emerson to cover the Beautiful Minds Scholars—a group of Marlboro students receiving partial or full-tuition scholarships at the college.

He also said that the Vermont college is working with Emerson to have financial aid packages applied to room and board, which will increase by $5,555 for Marlboro students.

Amy Beecher, faculty representative to the Marlboro Board of Trustees, said Emerson has received reports from the Marlboro faculty working groups.

Berkeley Beacon

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See Hikes, page 2

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The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

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Juul lawsuit draws positive reaction from some students

Tomas Gonzalez, Beacon Staff Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey filed a lawsuit Wednesday against JUUL Labs Inc. alleging responsibility for creating a youth vaping epidemic by intentionally targeting minors in its advertising campaigns.

Following the announcement of the lawsuit, some Emerson students interviewed Wednesday night said the culture surrounding the act of smoking electronic vapor devices promotes their use. The lawsuit argues that the company illegally advertised and sold nicotine products to underage youth and created an epidemic of nicotine addiction among younger generations.

The suit asks the company to pay for the costs associated with combating the health crisis stemming from vaping.

As of Feb. 4, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a total of 2,785 hospitalized cases or deaths from vaping-related illnesses in 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Between 2017 and 2018, the use of e-cigarettes increased 78 percent among high school students, according to the CDC. The CDC entry also states that, in 2018, over 3.6 million U.S. youth used e-cigarettes.

Junior Jerry Cardona said she started using electronic vapor devices during her freshman year in 2018, attributing her habit to the culture of smoking at the college.

“You start to get kind of wrapped up in [smoking] and you start to question what you’ve been taught your whole life about how cigarettes are bad, they’re getting cancer and how you’re going to die,” she said in an interview with The Beacon. “Since everybody else is doing it, I don’t see it that big of a deal. I guess it’s kind of self peer pressuring.”

Junior Brooke Northrup said she believes the lawsuit is valid because of the unknown effects related to vaping. She said advertising for Juul may not directly influence people’s decision to vape, but rather the community surrounding the practice encourages it.

“I don’t know if I know anyone specifically was like, ‘Hey, this ad enticed me [to Juul],” she said in an interview. “I guess people who saw other people [using Juuls] they’re like, ‘Wait, that’s cool, that looks cool, I want to do that thing.’”

Cardona said she thinks the lawsuit will not be effective because of the resources JUUL has at its disposal.

Between 2017 and 2018, the use of e-cigarettes increased 78 percent among high school students.

Jakob Menendez / Beacon Staff “I think JUUL is pretty heavily interlaced with big tobacco as a whole and they have had a huge impact on lawmaking,” she said.

As of publication, four people have died from vaping-related illnesses in Massachusetts.

Sophomore Evan Belliveau said he knows many people who switch from cigarettes to

Juul.

“You know, we don’t know how much of an improvement that actually is, but I’m sure that’s part of their marketing,” he said as he took a drag from a cigarette. tomas_gonzalez@emerson.edu

Students face tuition hike Constant delays hinder FEB Continued from page 1 “[The working group] has sent ideas to Emerson, Emerson is mulling over our first draft of that…faculty are in the process of working out what they’re going to teach…in visual art lack of facilities has changed to facilities,” she said, according to the minutes.

Beecher mentioned in the Marlboro Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday that Emerson is looking to rent studio space for incoming visual art faculty.

Dean of Faculty at Marlboro Richard Glejzer said that Marlboro would be granting students the opportunity to earn eight extra credits, as Emerson requires eight more credits for graduating students than Marlboro.

“Technically when we do this it’s for future students, but any current students can petition the registrar to count those credits, [and] they will be put in for the semester you complete that requirement,” he said, according to the minutes.

Connelly also again proposed changes to Title IX policies at Marlboro, something he initially suggested weeks ago to Selectboard.

“Over my time here and after discussion with a number of students, it has become clear that our current Title IX policies and procedures fall short,” he said, according to the minutes. “They can be harmful to participants,

including complainants, respondents, students, faculty, and staff who are charged with making difficult and at times impossible decisions that they are often not trained to make.”

Connelly proposed changes to Title IX procedures, splitting the role of Title IX investigator and coordinator into two separate positions, moving away from community hearings for resolutions, and providing a clearer pathway for students who make Title IX reports. If accepted, these changes would apply solely for this spring semester.

At a Selectboard meeting on Jan. 30, Connelly said the proposed changes came after looking at Emerson’s policies.

“Talking with our attorney, we came to the conclusion that believe it or not Emerson’s policies stand head and shoulders above ours, [in regards to] level of detail, methodology, how clearly the process is laid out,” he said, according to the minutes. “In a word document, our entire policies and procedures are five pages.

Emerson’s are roughly thirty. Which shows you the difference in the level of detail… their process is laid out step by step by step, very thoughtful, very clear, including dealing with most if not all possibilities, conflicts of interest, retribution, retaliation, things that currently our policy lacks.”

jacob_seitz@emerson.edu

Continued from page 1 Tuesday’s meeting rolled around without the proposal making the meeting agenda.

In contradiction with her statements from previous weeks, Semple dramatically shifted her tone on the progress of the proposal in an interview Wednesday night, saying that conversations surrounding financial equity should not be rushed.

“We want to make sure that we’re not rushing any conversations that could affect the financial situation and resources available for hours and college students,” Semple said in an interview with The Beacon on Wednesday. “We have a packed schedule as a student government. I don’t see the conversation as over, but we’re just doing some reworking.”

Semple could not provide a specific timeline for a vote on FEB, but repeated that she hoped to see the proposal pass in the coming weeks.

If passed by Joint Session, FEB will effec-

tively serve as the second branch of SGA’s treasury wing alongside the Financial Advisory Board, addressing student concerns surrounding financial equity at the college.

In previous weeks, Palauskas—alongside SGA’s current and former advisors, Jason Meier and Sharon Duffy—have expressed support for the proposal, saying the new board will generate necessary discourse surrounding financial equity.

“I don’t see the conversation as over, but we’re just doing some reworking.”

- Abigail Semple

“I think it’s really important to lift up some students whose voices have not been heard and give them some sort of platform where they can be heard,” Meier said in an interview with The Beacon last week. “I think Abby [Semple]’s been very thoughtful in how she’s put this together and why she’s doing it. There’s tons of details to still work out on [FEB], but I think the mission and the vision of this as a board is really sound—just the general concept.” andrew_brinker@emerson.edu

Marlboro alum leaves legacy through ski program Continued from page 1 Knickerbocker, who competed internationally and once skied for the U.S. National Team, spends hours both day and night grooming the nearly 15 miles of snow-lined trails in the hills of rural Vermont, where the college is located.

“I actually transferred here from University of Vermont, and a big reason was the place and the trails here because there’s very few colleges where you can literally walk out your dorm and be on an extensive trail network,” Knickerbocker said in an interview. “The most fun has been being out with the kids and getting them into it.”

Bronwyn Tate, a professor of creative writing and literature at Marlboro, said she loves the community aspect of the program. The s’mores are definitely a motivating factor to wake up on a Saturday morning for her and her two kids, Vesper and Owen, she said.

“You get to do a lap kind of slow with the neighbors, talk about [life] , see some [of your] colleagues, see the kids, it’s just great,” Tate said.

For Felix Hume, a 10-year-old in the program, it’s not only a fun way to hang out with his friends, but also a great way to practice for the Wendell-Judd Cup, a cross-country ski race that became a tradition at Marlboro since the first race in 1965.

Felix came in third place last year, two spots behind Knickerbocker, who he jokingly said always comes in first. Felix said he loves to ski for competition and to just show off to his friends.

“Just going fast and bragging to my friends about the double diamonds I went on,” Felix said.

This small group of friends and family who share their Tuesday and Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings skiing down the small hill on that soccer field offers a small glimpse of joy on a campus faced with an impossible decision: merge with a larger institution or find a way to stay operational.

Part of the reason Knickerbocker started the program in the first place was to try to leave a legacy at Marlboro.

“I would say that we’re really hopeful that it will continue next year, even if the college isn’t here, [and] that it was set up with the intention that it’s going to outlast our closure,” he said.

As the fire died down and all the kids shuffled their way to the car, Knickerbocker stayed behind, putting the rest of the equipment away.

Once he locked everything up, he got into his trail groomer, waved goodbye, and left a flat, pearly white path behind him as he drove off.

jakob_menendez@emerson.edu

Felix Hulme licking chocolate off his face after a bite full of s’mores.

Jakob Menendez / The Marlboro Monitor

The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

News

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New housing portal to increase transparency Charlie Mckenna, Beacon Staff The college plans to improve communication and transparency with students in this year’s upcoming housing selection process with a redesigned housing portal that will feature graphics to better explain the specifics of the process to students, according to college officials.

Kendra Stokes, associate director of housing operations, said the new housing portal will emphasize visuals and diagrams rather than long blocks of text. The visuals will appear alongside the pre-existing text. Stokes will implement the changes with Housing Operations Coordinator Chris Muchata beginning this month and ending in April.

“After speaking with some student focus groups on the selection process… we made the decision to go ahead and make the process more transparent,” Stokes said in an interview. “The bones of the process are going to remain, in essence, the same, however, the way in which you add yourself to a group will [have] less words and more visual to help our students better understand the process.”

The plan to redesign the housing portal follows a tumultuous housing process in Spring 2019 after StarRez, the college’s housing software, crashed. Last fall, The Beacon reported that five vacancies in the Office of Housing and Residential Education led to the adjustment of the structure of the department. Former Senior Associate Director of Housing and Residence Life Seth Hodge then left the office on Jan. 2.

Stokes stressed that much of the confusion from last year’s selection process resulted from students not paying close enough attention to the materials provided by OHRE. “It was clear that some of the frustration and confusion would have been solved if students took a pause and read some of the materials closer,” she said. “By slowing down and making things visual, that will help students best understand what happens when you do something on a particular page of the process.”

Stokes said the changes to the group creation process may be the most effective because there will be clearer explanations of what suites are

available in each building on campus. Students will see the changes implemented throughout every stage of the housing process.

Housing Operations Coordinator Chris Muchata said while the housing process will stay the same, they are going to use infographics to better explain the process to students.

“I’ve been working on some graphics that we’re going to kind of sprinkle in through the actual process,” he said, “to kind of better visually grasp what spaces are available in certain halls.”

Many of the changes are designed to help first-year students, who may not know what certain residence halls are like.

“Maybe they’ve been to the Max in [Piano Row] but they’ve never really been in [Piano Row]” he said. “So we really want to make sure our whole campus community understands what all the buildings look like.”

OHRE will offer open office hours during the selection process for students to receive personalized advice from Stokes or Muchata.

Muchata said this will help set more realistic expectations for students in terms of what they can expect from their living situation.

“We can explain to students who are like ‘Well I really want to live in x, y, z accommodation with so and so,’ and I think during those conversations we can help clarify what spaces are available,” he said. “But those are going to be individualized conversations [and] we’re hopeful that will be really helpful for folks.”

Stokes believes Emerson’s housing process gives students more autonomy in selecting their experience, setting it apart from other universities.

“At Emerson, we want students to have a hand in their experience, and I want students to feel successful in their spaces,” she said. “We give a lot more freedom into how you want to live.”

charlie_mckenna @emerson.edu

The 2 Boylston Place residence hall which houses 375 students. • Shiyu Pan / Beacon Staff

Student union helps disability activism on campus Dana Gerber, Beacon Staff Sitting around bags of Hershey’s chocolate in one of the fourth-floor rooms of 172 Tremont, members of the new student organization Access Student Disability Union—a space for Emerson students with disabilities and allies on campus—decided that they were all either Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs.

Coupled with boosting disability activism on campus, the organization aims to build a community among Emerson students who identify as disabled. The organization launched this semester, and weekly meeting conversations range from Harry Potter houses to internships and film festivals for disabled students to accessibility activism on campus. The group’s upcoming game night on Feb. 21 will emphasize sensory-sensitive activities.

“We really started [the organization] because there was no space on campus for people with disabilities to engage with their community, talk about the issues that we’re experiencing,” Harper McKenzie, student accessibility services commissioner for the Student Government Association and co-founder of Access, said in an interview with The Beacon. “[And to] just make friends, have people in their life that know what they’re going through.”

The organization is open to any students who identify as physically disabled, experience chronic pain, or are neurodivergent—a term used to refer to non-pathological variations in the brain affecting sociability, learning, attention, and other mental functions. The group is

also welcoming to able-bodied allies.

McKenzie, who is autistic, co-founded the organization with Zach Swasta, who has Asperger syndrome. Student Accessibility Services Assistant Director Matthew Fisher connected them together after they approached him independently with an interest in starting an organization for disabled students. They planned the organization last semester and are now working towards SGA affiliation.

McKenzie said the organization is advocating the college to add more braille signs, set up auditory cues in all elevators, and install a push button on the main entrance of the Walker Building for students who cannot open the door.

Swasta added that much of the sidewalk construction at the college is difficult for physically disabled students.

Fisher said Access aligns well with the mission of SAS and he hopes to work with them to provide input on accessibility matters at the college.

“Our primary mission is to promote access on campus and remove barriers where we can,” Fisher said. “They can be a stronger voice together in terms of their experiences on campus, it can let us know about any issues they’ve seen.

Also, they can let us know what we can do better to better meet the needs of students.”

Besides Active Minds, which focuses on mental health concerns and activism, Access is the only Emerson College organization that deals with promoting advocacy for disabled students.

“I realized there was little to no attention to neurodiversity,” Swasta said. “So I kind of said, ‘this needs to change.’”

McKenzie added that among all the dialogues on campus, disability is not often prioritized.

“We sort of talk about disabilities sort of like the last forefront of civil rights and justice,” McKenzie said. “We talk about gender and sexuality and race all the time on this campus, and disability is never included in those conversations.”

McKenzie said the group is attempting to establish working relationships and meet with other departments on campus, including Facilities Management, and the Office of Housing and Residential Education, in order to promote accessibility.

“It shouldn’t have to fall on us, and we know that we’re not responsible for making these things happen,” McKenzie said. “But at the same time, we want to be doing this work, and we really want to make changes for ourselves and for the future of Emerson.”

Beyond the physical accessibility issues, McKenzie said the organization is also interested in finding ways to streamline the process of discussing accommodations with professors, which she said can often be a difficult conversation. They are also collaborating with the performing arts department on some of their upcoming shows, including the play Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, which features a main character with autism.

“First and foremost, I wanted it to be a community,” Swasta said. “Because if you have the community then you’re going to get the activism out there more fluently.”

Professor Nancy Allen said McKenzie developed the plan for Access as the final project for Allen’s Disability and the Media class.

“I am so thrilled that Access has finally come together as a student org—I feel like there’s been a gap or a need for a long while,” Allen said.

Allen said she is encouraged by Access’s mission and believes it will be a valuable resource on campus for students and administrators alike. She said she hopes Access students will influence curriculum in courses like hers, as well as raise awareness on campus-wide accessibility issues.

“I think we’re hitting a tipping point soon about a broader conversation about accessibility on campus,” Allen said. “I think those students are going to start that dialogue—and it’s a dialogue that absolutely needs to be had.”

McKenzie, an IDIP creative writing and disability studies major, said she appreciates being able to use her identity in this activism outlet.

“This is what we do as disabled people,” she said. “We take this crap and we make good stuff out of it. And we use our creative thinking skills, and we make it work.” dana_gerber@emerson.edu

Corrections & Clarifications The Feb. 6 story “Boston rallies against Senate acquittal vote” incorrectly stated that Refuse Facism helped organize the rally. The groups organizing the rally let Refuse Facism use their microphones, but they did not help organize the rally.

The Feb. 6 edition misprinted the “Title IX fills coordinator position after two-year vacancy” story. The Beacon ran the “IDIP faces curriculum changes” story under that title.

In the cutline for the photo under “Title IX fills coordinator position after two-year vacancy” misidentified new Title IX Coordinator and Investigator Ryan Milligan as Cannabis Control Commission Chairman Steve Hoffman.

The Feb 6. story “Marlboro groups will not present” incorrectly stated that the Emerson merger working groups would present at the next Emerson Board of Trustees meeting.

Editorial Accountability, not agendas On their last show of 2019, The New York Times’ podcast The Daily welcomed their very own Executive Editor Dean Baquet into the studio for an episode titled “The Lessons of 2016.”

In this episode, Baquet goes back and forth with Michael Barbaro, the show’s host, about The Times’ coverage of the 2016 presidential election and if they would have done it any differently.

When referring to the Russian hacking scandal in which thousands of emails from Hillary Clinton and high-profile members of the Democratic party were leaked to the world, Barbaro pushed his boss on the ethics of publishing information, even when they knew the Russians were trying to manipulate the election.

“When we learn important things as journalists, the act of not publishing becomes the political act, not the journalistic one,” Baquet said.

“Publishing is journalism, not publishing is political balancing.”

As editors at The Berkeley Beacon, we have to consider this duty every day, even in our own small community. We have to identify the dark corners of our Emerson bubble and shine lights on them, even when it’s uncomfortable for others.

We recently learned that Student Government Association Executive Treasurer Abigail Semple is knowingly in violation of SGA’s constitution.

Article VII, Section II of SGA’s constitution states that in order for a student to assume the position of executive president, vice president, or treasurer, they are required to be enrolled in at least 12 academic credits at the college.

Semple is currently a part-time student taking eight academic credits, rendering her constitutionally ineligible for her position. Semple also won her position after officials did not adhere to election practices laid out in the SGA constitution.

A simple majority vote was not secured by the top vote-getter as required and a runoff election was not held within five days.

This isn’t an opinion, this isn’t conjecture, this isn’t some clever constitution interpretation. As SGA Chief Justice Joseph Johnson said in an interview, “The constitution is the constitution, I feel like that article— Article VII Section II Point E— is pretty straight forward.” The document is very clear about the standards for holding elected positions. Once we fact-checked and confirmed everything, there was only one thing we could do: publish.

Publishing is an act of journalism and refusing to publish is an act of political balancing.

SGA is responsible for delegating over $1 million to student organizations, a feat that requires hours and hours of work considering the number of groups on campus. We serve as the SGA watchdog because we believe what they do concerns every single student at this college and they should be held responsible for their actions.

We’re in a time where a journalist’s place in society is being questioned, perhaps now more than ever. This comes in stark, dramatic examples like the president of the United States labeling us “the enemy of the people,” but it also comes in simple misunderstandings of what our job is.

Our job as journalists is to hold institutions of power accountable for their actions, no matter how small they are.

We are the watchdogs shining a light on the murkiest corners of the world for all to see. That is our duty. That is how we contribute to make our society better.

Our roles as students and journalists on our campus can be challenging, as shown by events in the past months at other student publications around the country, like Harvard University and Northwestern University. We share classes with those we cover, eat with them at the dining hall, and pass them on the sidewalk.

But this should not stop us from holding the hefty responsibility of keeping our student government accountable for their actions, because at the end of the day, they do have power, and they do affect people’s lives. If they aren’t willing to hold up that section of the constitution, what other parts could become murky territory in the future?

After the publication of the story, some people said we are reaching for stories or seeking out reasons to criticize Semple.

Some have even hinted that we are delving into activism through our news coverage. This is categorically false.

When you’re the only voice in the room, pointing out cut-and-dry facts can easily look like activism. Part of the reason SGA is in their current predicament is because no one else, outside or within their organization, bothered to ask about their election processes.

We are not here to call for Semple’s head. It’s SGA’s job to decide what to do and no matter what they choose, we are confident the precedent established will follow the organization for years to come.

And we will continue doing our job.

This editorial is written by The Berkeley Beacon editorial board, which consist of the Editor-in-Chief, the Managing Editors and the Opinion Section.

Editor-in-Chief Chris Van Buskirk © 2020 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.

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The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

4

Editorial Cartoon illustration by Christine Park

We’re sorry about Beacon Seekin’.

Crossword

by Ethan Spitalney

Down

Across

1. Workout unit 4. Small snake known as the “Egyptian Cobra” 7. It stretches from Florida to Maine 11. Cordial bond 13. By the shore 14. Where men in jokes walk in to 17. “World ___” (associated with 19 across) 19. Poker strategy 22. Stairs have them 23. Roster 25. Handheld Nintendo devices 26. Old, with class 29. Heartened 33. Delicate; Tender 34. Mem. of Congress 35. Lead in to -X, -Y, or -Z

1. Confirms the legitimacy of 6 across 2. It’s trained in music school 3. Ψ 4. Facial problem common in teens 5. Like some vending machine items 6. Football throws 8. NFL’s Kelce and others 9. Upper body garment 10. Cleaned up 12. Marshmallow Easter chicks 14. Pro Australian cricket league 15. Option on a wanted poster 16. Quarrels; Disagreements 18. Sound of 4 across 20. Barrier to a dog 21. Sofa bed 24. Button for stopping video 27. Satisfied smile 28. “Let’s ___!” (cry after grace) 30. Musician’s work, say 31. Adam’s sister 32. Eating spot for Emersonians, slangily

Answers available on https://berkeleybeacon.com/ crossword-answers/

The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

5

Thoughts

Ableist discourse hurts the disabled community

“When I hear people using ableist slurs, they’re usually not in a hateful context.”

Illustration by Christine Park / Beacon Staff and culture?

Shruti Rajkumar Over the past decade, the use of the Rajkumar is a sophomore jounalism major and “R-word” decreased, however ableist slurs such Beacon Staff Writer. as “crippling,” “handicap,” “differently-abled” In 2009, Spread the Word gained traction and “wheelchair-bound” remain normalized in the public school system of Colchester, in our language with complete disregard for Connecticut, my hometown, as well as in the negative connotations they hold toward schools across the country. The campaign disabled people, and this needs to be addressed spread awareness about the derogatory and by society. negative connotations that the “R-word” holds As a member of the disabled community, towards people with cognitive disabilities, and I’ve always felt uncomfortable seeing these it encouraged people to sign a pledge to stop slurs used in conversations, written in books using it. By 2020, the global campaign gained and being thrown around as playful insults over 800,000 online pledges, according to its between my peers, but because they were so website. widely used, it was difficult for me to pinpoint The impact of the campaign is undeniable, why it made me uncomfortable. Unfortunately, but what about all of the other ableist slurs that this normalization remains because of the lack remain embedded within our everyday language of awareness surrounding the trauma disabled

people face in relation to these slurs. he should have avoided the term “handicap” I first became aware of the slur “cripple” because “disabled” is the preferred and in elementary school while watching the politically correct term.

2009 movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

When I hear people using ableist slurs, The original book, published in 1843 by they’re usually not in a hateful context. With Charles Dickens, refers to Bob Cratchit’s son, the word “crippling,” I normally hear it used nicknamed “Tiny Tim,” as a cripple. During the in conversations to describe mental illnesses, 19th century, slurs with a variation of the word such as anxiety or depression, as a way of “cripple” were even more normalized than they emphasizing the intensity of their illness. are today. However, However, people in the modern age of can describe their movie adaptations, mental illnesses the characters still without offending refer to him as a “As a member of the disabled other communities. cripple, even though For example, instead it is an outdated community, I’ve always felt of saying “crippling term. Whenever I anxiety,” they can watched the movie, say “overwhelming uncomfortable seeing these I got the sense anxiety.” Similarly, that calling the slurs used in conversations, ableist slurs can character a cripple simply be replaced portrayed him as written in books, and being by more politically inferior, stemming correct terms. from an able-centric “Accessible” should thrown around as playful place of pity, a replace “handicap,” reflection of how all “disabled” should insults.” abled people view replace “differentlydisabled people. abled” and Consequently, I felt “wheelchair-user” as though I was also should replace viewed this way by those around me. “wheelchair-bound.”

When I hear the word “handicap” used Even if the use of ableist slurs isn’t always in conversations, it’s usually in reference used as an attack on disabled people, the lack to the reserved parking spots or to refer to of awareness about them further permits their a specific disability. Most people, however, normalization in our culture and language. don’t understand the negative implication Consequently, they act as a microaggression surrounding this word. On Feb. 5, 2020, former that ultimately adds to the ableism faced by an Vice President Joe Biden reflected on his already marginalized community. struggle with a stutter throughout his childhood Today, society is making strides in omitting at the CNN Presidential town hall. “You know, the slurs and outdated terms that have a history stuttering, when you think about it, is the only of offending marginalized communities. The handicap that people still laugh about,” Biden disabled community deserves that same respect. said.

Putting aside the inaccuracy of his statement, shruti_rajkumar@emerson.edu

Truth matters in the war against coronavirus Jocelyn Yang Yang is a freshman journalism major and assisstant opinion editor.

In my five years spent studying in the U.S., I’ve never been so worried about my family in China as I have now. When my dad recently said over the phone that it was fortunate for me to return to the United States before the coronavirus outbreak began, I told him I felt sad that I couldn’t be with him while our family is facing this crisis.

Yet, my sadness seems useless. I realized my negative emotional response to the CoVid-19 outbreak is transforming into a new “panic virus” psychology that significantly affects my quality of life.

Originating in Wuhan, China, CoVid-19 quickly spread across the country and then worldwide in about a month. As of Feb. 12, the World Health Organization reported that CoVid-19 has killed over 1,100 and affected more than 45,000 people worldwide. As the number continually grows each day, people’s anxiety about what the outbreak means also mounts.

Over the last three weeks, the outbreak has tugged on my heartstrings with my family. I felt so eager to go home and tide over difficulties with my family when my dad told me the closest confirmed case of Covid-19 was only two blocks away from our home in Beijing.

And I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels the same way.

For all international students from China, we’re far from the epicenter of the outbreak.

We wish we could join our families and support those in need in our home country. But in reality, the truth hurts — face masks hit a shortage globally and China travel bans have spread. Besides calling our parents every day to check in on the situation, we can’t do anything to relieve the tensions that Covid-19 brings to our lives.

I’m worried about my family’s situation in

“We wish we could join our families and support those in need in our home country.”

Illustration by Christine Park / Beacon Staff this health crisis, and meanwhile, constantly quarantined at his home. hearing misinformation about CoVid-19 just “These ideas, like a virus itself, can be makes me more stressful and emotional about easily transmitted from person to person, this tragedy. It seems carried by both uncontrollable to the unwitting and see the flow of the devious,” Matt false claims about Richtel from The “Living in the era of informa- New York Times CoVid-19 spreading all over the place, wrote in his article tion, it’s important to read both on the internet W.H.O. Fights a and on campus.

Pandemic Besides trustworthy media outlets in- Coronavirus: an Since a UMass Boston student was ‘Infodemic.’ stead of conspiracy theories.” diagnosed with With the waves coronavirus, I’ve of false truths about heard wild stories the virus, I turned to about him going visiting FactCheck. out to dinner with friends in Chinatown after org multiple times a day to verify the sources getting off the plane. However, the fact is that he and facts of all the updated news regarding immediately sought medical care and has been CoVid-19. It’s a good habit for a student

journalist, however, these wild rumors are undeniably toxic to our health and minds and need to be fought off.

The CoVid-19 outbreak is like an invisible war, both physically and mentally. No one knows when and where the virus bullet will come next. The doctors became the warriors, going to the frontlines to fight against the virus.

To win this battle, we can help by support those frontline warriors as a logistics team and keeping the truth around CoVid-19 discourse to fight the “infodemic.” One of the easiest ways to avoid suspicious claims and fake news is to check the story on credible news websites such as Associated Press and Reuters that emphasize the impartiality and accuracy of the international news stories. Living in the era of information, it’s important to read trustworthy media outlets instead of conspiracy theories.

The good news is that companies like Facebook and Google began removing various CoVid-19 theories in its search results, according to recent coverage from CNN. However, we still need to look out for each other when facing this global catastrophe.

The alert of “global emergency” sent off by the W.H.O. is a good reminder for all of us to unite and combat the war, regardless of nationality, race, or faith, because no battle can be won if no one fights for it.

For many people in China, their 2020 New Year’s resolution became very simple: survive.

Expanding this yearning for survival, I’d also add to physically and emotionally stay strong and fight for the battle against the health crisis.

It’s been a tough start to the Year of the Rat, but the tough times will eventually pass through.

jocelyn_yang@emerson.edu

Living Arts

The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

6

Sophomore explores “Jingle Pop” in new extended play Althea Champion, Beacon Correspondent Sophomore Mackenzie Morris was relaxing on a sand dune in Venice Beach, California, listening to music with his friends, when his recently released song “Stuck” began playing.

“It just came up and we were, like, screaming it,” Morris said. “We were just singing, and we realized that’s our art. We made that together, and then you’re allowed to enjoy it.”

Morris’ song “Stuck” played at various other locations, including The Mint—a music venue in Los Angeles where he earned his first musical commission—and the Lion’s Den, where he played at the launch party for Five Cent Sound Magazine. His extended playlist titled “Ode to Adolescence” debuted on Nov. 15, 2019 and has amassed 4.5 thousand streams. The EP features five songs: “Overthought,” “Alone Time,” “Stuck,” “Creative Caller 911,” and “Butterfly Kisses.”

His songs combine saxophone, drums, guitar, keyboard, and vocals. The jazz element of the saxophone, mixed with Morris’ pop melodies and bass lines, culminates into what Morris describes as “jingle pop.”

While Morris creates the majority of his song components, including the melodies, lyrics, and vocals, he said he enlists help from friends for the production process. Carl Stoodt, a friend of Morris’ from Los Angeles and graduate of Berklee College of Music, professionally mixed and mastered the EP. “Before [the EP] got to Carl, it sounded like it was made on a computer,” Morris said in an interview. “It sounds beautiful because of his ear. I am very grateful for him.”

Inspired by artists like alternative R&B connoisseur Steve Lacy and genres like bedroom pop, Morris’ songwriting journey began at the end of his senior year of high school in 2018.

By the end of August that year, Morris had four songs he considered satisfactory. He found inspiration for his fifth song, “Butterfly Kisses,” while dealing with the difficult goodbye of leaving home for college. “[The EP] sounds like a teenage boy singing about girls and past experiences,” Morris said.

“Whatever was whipping me left to right internally—that’s a weird expression.”

Dean Gordon, a friend of Morris’ since the sixth grade, plays the saxophone on “Stuck” and “Overthought.” The recording session with Gordon lasted almost five hours, and took place at Morris’ house, where they wrote and recorded the rest of the EP. “It was really fun just seeing how far Mack-

Sophomore Mackenzie Morris relaxing on a slide in the Tad Pole Playground in Boston Common. Kate Foultz / Beacon Staff enzie has developed as a musician,” Gordon said in a phone interview from Amherst College.

Senior Mia Manning, who used to coordinate events for WECB, invited Morris to play at Center Stage for WECB’s Open Mic in spring 2019.

“He told me that he played music, and so I was like, you should play this open mic right now,” Manning said in a phone interview from Emerson’s Los Angeles campus. “He was like, ‘I don’t have a keyboard,’ so I found him a keyboard. And then he played on the spot the music that he made. And it was really good.”

Morris worked on the EP from summer 2018 to fall 2019, a period of growth for his music career, he said.

“I find [the process] really fun and collaborative,” Morris said. “It’s amazing for me to see where things start and where they finish and look back months later and enjoy it.”

While Morris said that he does not like listening to most of his own songs, “Stuck” is his favorite of the five on his EP. “What people don’t see is how many times I screw up,” Morris said. “How many times I’m not satisfied with what is coming out of my mind.”

“We were just singing, and we realized that’s our art.”

- Mackenzie Morris

In the future, Morris said he will continue making music as a hobby while utilizing the Boston music scene. He plans to spend the upcoming weeks recording new music.

“I’d love to have a career in music,” Morris said. “But I’m also satisfied with not having a career in music. It wouldn’t be the end of the world.”

Morris said he initially felt strange releasing music, but he now appreciates sharing his work.

“I can say I did it, which is honestly cool,” Morris said. “It’s cool to think that anyone, if they really wanted to, could listen to this lanky white male. His music is now out and about on all streaming platforms.”

althea_champion@emerson.edu

Salem State shows journalist-in-residence’s project Continued from page 1 From 2017–2018, she partnered with the organization to create a project that brings the community together. As a professor specialized in data visualization and humanizing multimedia stories, Giraldo said the project embodied the idea of creating tools for making stories that did not harm the environment.

“We use recycled materials, the project’s primary motivation is to create ownership, understand identity and the use of technology but the main thing here is how we can actually be makers instead of consumers,” Giraldo said.

The video “Game Over” seeks to inform audiences of the excess electronic waste from computers and video games, especially those with worldwide popularity. Giraldo said “Tetris”, a popular video game, is the main focus of the video, due to its mass waste production.

“The idea is that I went to a bunch of places that recycled computers and I took photos and recreated [‘Tetris’], so the whole point is that computers and video games, particularly ‘Tetris,’ the game that is being played most in the history of video games, are creating waste,” Giraldo said. “So it talks a lot about electronic waste and that’s why it’s called ‘Game Over,’ in this game you don’t win, we always lose.”

On top of raising awareness for climate change and waste, the exhibition aims to highlight Latina artists who have contributed to combating climate change, Rodriguez said. The exhibition includes a mix of different art mediums such as photography, painting, videos, and

other medium forms.

“I knew right away I wanted to do something that supported Latina artists, and my own artistic practices tend to focus on species extinction and climate change but also interweaving that with issues of identity and other alternative ways of thinking about climate issues,” Rodriguez said in a phone interview from Boston.

“Like imagine the planet going through climate change as the brain experiencing trauma. And so I had the idea of combining those two and focusing it on Latina artists.”

Giraldo said Rodriguez contacted her around seven months ago and that she jumped on the opportunity to be a part of an exhibition involving two of her biggest passions—climate and Latin identities.

“My work as a Latin woman artist has always been very important, like how can we amplify the voices of the Latinos and how can we talk about immigration,” Giraldo said. “It’s always been about environmental issues but ever since I became an immigrant the narrative changed a little bit. I learned how important it was to change the narrative as a Latin woman.

Because now I have the responsibility.”

Rodriguez chose artists from all over the country for the exhibit. As an artist herself, she said she found it important to highlight others instead of including any of her work in the exhibit. “[Giraldo] is an artist I’ve admired for a very long time…I discovered her work and we both work with technology,” Rodriguez said. “She also brought in the angle of coding with technology which is a really important aspect of the

conversation about climate change which none of the other artists in the exhibit are doing quite the same way as she is.”

The exhibition includes Colombian painter Ana Maria Velasco’s landscape painting of La Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria, the largest coastal mountain range in the world. Velasco said it is one of the most irreplaceable places in the world in terms of biodiversity.

Velasco said highlighting the work of women speaking about climate issues is important because it relates back to the roots of many beliefs of indigenous tribes in Latin countries: listening to the women in the community.

“Women can have a voice and have a saying about how to take care of this planet,” Velasco said in a phone interview from New York.

“All of these indigenous communities have this connection to the earth and usually women are the ones that have this direct connection to the earth.”

Giraldo said her narrative has changed over the years. However, it’s always focused on the impact of mistreating the environment and its effect on the planet and people.

“For years my main goal is how to talk about the harm that we do and the humankind impact that we have in our surroundings,” Giraldo said.

“And I’m an immigrant so I’m always thinking about how we can be more careful with our environment and include the conversation of the people that are most affected.”

taina_millsap@emerson.edu

Part of Giraldo’s installation that will be displayed at Salem State University.

Courtesy of Lina Giraldo

The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

Living Arts

7

Emerson alum finds success covering dystopian beat

Courtsey of Ben Collins

Erin Renzi, Beacon Correspondent One morning in August 2015, Ben Collins ‘10 woke up and saw the news of Alison Parker—the girlfriend of his good friend and roommate Chris Hurst ‘09—shot and killed on live television.

The shooter recorded himself killing Parker while she conducted a live interview for a local TV station. Photographer Adam Ward also died in the attack. Later, when Collins searched for Hurst’s name, he said the first results were complete nonsense.

Collins said the articles and videos on the internet reported that Hurst worked for the CIA, Parker organized her own murder, and the two of them never existed.

This experience inspired Collins to cover what he calls the dystopia beat, which covers conspiracy theories of the alternative-right and extremism on the internet. He is a reporter for an online publication at NBC, where he writes about disinformation and extremism on the internet. He also does broadcast work and appears on television on MSNBC. Collins then began calling the people who made these video allegations surrounding Hurst and Parker. He found that facts didn’t matter to

those behind the videos—they were focused on building an audience based on conspiratorial thinking.

“This was national news, it was a big thing back then because it was horrific. There was a video of it everywhere,” Collins said in a phone interview.

One of Collins’ most recent articles, published on February 3, discusses conspiracy theories formed around the canceled Des Moines Register poll. The newspaper canceled the poll after Pete Buttigieg’s name was removed from the list of candidates read by the surveyor. In the article, Collins explains how Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang supporters spread false conspiracy theories on Twitter, making the candidates appear more popular than they actually were.

This past October, Collins covered President Trump and Mark Zuckerberg’s secret dinner at the White House, informing the public about details of the dinner. In attendance was Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s seven board members who helps oversee the company. It is unsure as to why the meeting was not made public.

Collins didn’t anticipate appearing and

speaking on television for NBC as much as he does.

“The TV stuff is new and cool. It’s a completely new challenge, I’m winging it every time,” Collins said.

However, he still enjoys going on TV to share details about the stories he covers.

“Anytime I get aggravated by those weird websites like Cable News and TV Clip, and I have to say how bananas things are over and over again, that is the best part of my job,” Collins said.

Collins is currently working on several confidential stories. In addition to those stories, he is working with other NBC reporters who also cover disinformation and extremism to write indepth stories about the 2020 elections and why people lie to each other.

“Whether it’s getting rich, or trying to sell some sort of political ideology, we can tell you the deeper, darker secret there,” Collins said.

“We’re working on two very big stories right now that relate to that, and both of them are two different sides to that coin, but they’re both about deeper underlying ideologies.”

Before working at NBC, Collins wrote for

The Daily Beast, a news and opinion website focused on pop culture and politics, from 20142018. He covered the Russian disinformation campaign that Facebook and Twitter were allegedly trying to hide. Collins worked with reporter Kevin Poulsen, known as the “White Hat Hacker.” Poulsen discovered how Facebook deleted all groups and events related to the campaign at the same exact time.

In March 2018, NBC Digital News Executive Director Catherine Kim asked Collins to come work for the network. Collins said he planned on staying at The Daily Beast, however, NBC insisted Collins join their team. Collins agreed under the condition he could bring along his colleague from The Daily Beast, Brandy Zadronzy.

“I sent them a list and they were like, ‘Okay, we can bring along this researcher Brandy Zadronzy,’ who is the best reporter in the world.

She used to be a librarian, so she knows all these research tools,” Collins said.

During his time at Emerson from 2006-2010, Collins hosted a radio show with Hurst, worked as a co-op for The Boston Globe, and wrote a music column for The Berkeley Beacon.

As The Berkeley Beacon’s music columnist, Collins wrote about a variety of topics, including former senator John McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain’s taste in music in 2008.

“He was very creative in his writing,” Professor Mark Leccese said in a phone interview.

“He took chances. He approached things from 10 or 15 degrees off-center.”

Collins said he always had an interest in the difference between internet and real-life culture, but never expected to write about disinformation. He wanted to be a music columnist.

“This wound up sort of taking over my life, and it’s been kind of an incredible five years,” Collins said.

Chris Mathias, a senior reporter at The Huffington Post covering the far right, said his job can be stressful, but it’s reassuring to have a community of people who report on the same topics. “[Collins] is one of the best people in kind of creating that community and doing that,” Mathias said in a phone interview. “He’s incredibly smart and thoughtful about everything he does.”

Collins emphasized his viewpoint on modern journalism, asking aspiring journalists to stick with their passions.

“Everyone will tell you journalism is about to end and that there’s no such thing as newspapers anymore,” Collins said. “It is not true, things evolve, other things pop up. It happens, stick with it. It’s really good and really useful.”

erin_renzi@emerson.edu

Strapped For Cash: Experience doesn’t pay the bills Juliet Norman is a sophomore journalism major and this week’s Career columnist.

Last summer, a clip of U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez went viral on Twitter. Standing alongside fellow Congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, she shouts into the camera, “Experience doesn’t pay the bills!”

Ocasio-Cortez is highlighting the challenge I and so many other working-class young adults are plagued with following college graduation: not all students can afford to work an unpaid internship.

As a college student, acquiring an internship before landing a job feels like a requirement.

Internship fairs, emails listing countless unpaid positions from the career development center, and professors boasting about former students who now work at major news publications are constantly thrown in my face.

I’ve seen job descriptions targeted towards undergraduates and postgraduates offering free Metrocards as a substitute for compensation.

It’s a nice perk, but I can’t pay my rent with a Metrocard. I’ve even seen peers pay a fee just for an application for an internship. Not only is

this insulting, but it also implies that as interns, in order to afford to stay in college. This is impayment isn’t something we should expect or possible for me financially, but I feel like if I don’t make this sacrifice, I will struggle to land deserve.

According to the National Association of a job after graduation due to a lack of relevant Colleges and Employers, 43 percent of for-prof- experience.

I cannot imagine waking up early every it companies don’t pay their interns. This is exploitive and it should be illegal. It doesn’t morning and getting ready to go to work for a matter that working for free isn’t economically job that gives me zero monetary compensation.

Furthermore, it would feel feasible; they’re usually degrading to walk into the only way for stuan interview where I atdents to gain experience “This automatically tempt to impress someone, before graduating into the workforce. Accordeliminates anyone whose knowing I won’t receive a single paycheck. ing to a 2017 NACE Just because someone survey, 60 percent of parents aren’t paying for will work without pay does college students work at an internship before their living expenses from not mean they should, regardless of their financial graduation. Companies situation. It doesn’t matter know those eager postthe pool of candidates.” if someone can afford to graduates looking to because it sets up the stanbreak into their field will dard for other students and postgraduates to do take on these unpaid positions.

As a sophomore in college, I currently know the same.

Another NACE study found that young of three students who have secured full-time internships for the summer—all of them unpaid. It adults who completed paid internships reis up to their families to pay for four months of ceived 26 percent more job offers than those housing. They might be “gaining experience”, who worked for free. This makes sense to me but they are without a doubt losing thousands of because if a company won’t even provide somedollars. This automatically eliminates anyone one with the minimum wage, then they are likewhose parents aren’t paying for their living ex- ly not serious about hiring that applicant after their internship ends. penses from the pool of candidates.

I have little faith this will change, even with A lot of my peers might be able to afford this, however, I will never be able to. Getting the complaints of bankrupt college students. an unpaid internship would mean I would have The simple fact is companies put more effort to quit my current full-time job, which I need into reaping money for themselves than they

do in giving their interns the opportunity to do well.

In an InternMatch survey from 2013, only 30 percent of employers reported they felt their internship program was diverse enough. This is not just economic disparity, but also a class issue and an inequality issue. This way of thinking perpetuates the never-ending cycle of the poor remaining poor while the rich stay rich. It should be simple—if a company is profiting off of the work or ideas of one of their employees, they deserve pay. Internship programs struggle to attract employees from diverse backgrounds, and it isn’t because these potential employees do not want to work there.

By not paying an intern, a company admits they don’t value their work enough to provide financial compensation. If a company can’t afford to pay their workers, then they can’t afford to hire them. As an employee, I would put more effort into my job if the environment made me feel like my work actually matters.

Right now, working in an unpaid position can feel like the only option. For a lot of students, it’s safer than waiting for the possibility of a company to hire someone with little experience for an entry-level job. I respect myself too much to ever welcome the idea of an unpaid internship, and receiving decent wages for my work is non-negotiable. If an employer thinks there is nothing wrong with free labor, then that is not a company I want to work for. juliet_norman@emerson.edu

Sports

The Berkeley Beacon

February 13, 2020

8

UPCOMING ACTION MEN’S VOLLEYBALL: Emerson vs. Nichols, 1 p.m., Saturday WOMEN’S BASKETBALL: Emerson at Wellesley, 1 p.m., Saturday MEN’S BASKETBALL: Emerson at WPI, 3 p.m., Saturday MEN’S VOLLEYBALL: Emerson vs. Northern Vermont, 3:30 p.m., Saturday

Emerson alumna to run Boston Marathon for charity Victoria Rein, Beacon Correspondent Simone Les ‘15 heard the explosions from the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings while eating lunch on Newbury Street.

“I was still fairly close and could hear the blasts,” Les said in an interview over the phone.

“All the aftermath that ensued that day and that week was a really traumatizing experience.

One that first marred my college experience, and then became a space for growth and a lot of healing.”

Les decided to use the tragedy as inspiration to pursue long-distance running, and she is now two months away from running the Boston Marathon.

“It definitely influenced my drive to be involved somehow,” Les said. “It felt like my taking part would be me physically overcoming it by crossing the finish line myself. Then I just started picking up running more. I started running longer runs and realized I could sustain longer runs than I thought possible.”

Les graduated with a degree in musical theater and now lives in New York City while applying for graduate schools. Les fundraised for Casa Myrna—a nonprofit domestic violence shelter based in Dorchester—as a member of her sorority, Kappa Gamma Chi, at Emerson.

She also began developing a relationship with running, initially working on cardio in the gym until marathons piqued her interest.

“As an Emersonian, you’re in such close proximity to one of the seminal marathons in the country and in the world,” Les said. “I didn’t

realize how important it was to people until I way for people to feel like they’re a part of the went to college and spectated on the finish line.” community and able to make a difference. They Les signed up for her first half marathon in have to raise quite a bit of money, and it’s really fall 2016. With two full marathons and three impactful for organizations.” half-marathons under her belt, she is now trainLes said she learned about Casa Myrna’s maring with the Casa Myrna team under the John athon through fellow Kappa Gamma Chi sisters Hancock annual philanthropy program, which Ellie Brelis ’17, Lauren Cortizo ’10, and Ellen helps nonprofit orgaRothfuss ’16, who ran on nizations gain maraCasa Myrna’s teams in thon bibs. Casa Myrna past. She said watch“I didn’t realize how im- the received five bibs this ing Brelis run in 2017 year, and subsequent her to particportant it was to people influenced advertising encouraged ipate in this year’s race.

Les and teammates “It’s one thing to run until I went to college Jaime Ramirez, Corey the race yourself, but it’s Niswender, Edith Pfisto watch someand spectated on the fin- another ter, and Trisha Sheridan one you love very dearly to apply. do that,” Les said. “I’d ish line.”

Runners on this year’s say she had the biggest team are planning to influence on me, not –Simone Les ‘15 raise $12,000 each, and only believing in running the $60,000 total will be it for Casa but also showdonated to Casa Myrna’s ing me just how that exdomestic violence programs and shelters. Casa perience looked.”

Myrna is available for support throughout the Les joined Kappa Gamma Chi, a professionprocess, but the majority of the responsibility al Emersonian sorority, as a junior. She said the for fundraising falls on the runners. organization fostered her awareness and educaCarly Ruemmele, a development associate at tion about domestic violence and sexual assault Casa Myrna, said she helps recruit, interview, because the sorority often worked with Casa and select runners. She said the race provides Myrna. the team with a great way to give back to the “I feel like at Emerson it was mostly my incommunity. volvement with [Kappa Gamma Chi] and fund“It matches someone’s interest, running, with raising for Casa that did the bulk of education a social cause that they really care about,” Rue- on [domestic violence and sexual assault],” Les mmele said in a phone interview. “It’s a good said. “Obviously, I’m aware of it. I’m a survivor.

I’m not a fan.”

Ruemmele said Casa Myrna selected Les because of her involvement with the sorority.

“She clearly cares about domestic violence and sexual assault and other social issues like that,” Ruemmele said. “We thought that she’d be a great addition to the team.”

Ramirez, one of the other team members, moved to Boston from Texas just over 10 years ago. He works at Metro Credit Union, a nonprofit which has collaborated with Casa Myrna in the past.

“Casa Myrna has been very, very great during this whole process,” Ramirez said in a phone interview. “I’m happy that I’m running for this organization.”

After losing a friend to domestic violence, Ramirez said he gained inspiration to run for Casa Myrna’s team.

“It does ring true to heart because I’m running in honor of a coworker who lost her life due to domestic violence,” Ramirez said. “This is a great organization.”

Les said she does not see philanthropy as her only future career path, but she acknowledged that anything could happen.

“Domestic violence and sexual assault is one of those causes that I do feel strongly about and will probably be something that I put in that whole vein of continuing to devote time and energy and, as much as I can, monetary efforts towards,” Les said. victoria_rein@emerson.edu

Men clinch playoffs, women falls to MIT Women’s basketball fights for playoff spot

Men’s basketball ties season high in scoring

Kayla Buck, Beacon Correspondent

Continued from Page 1 Houston led the team with 19 points, followed by O’Connor’s 16 and freshman shooting guard Max Davis’ season-high of 16. All 13 healthy Lions played in the game.

“It’s good when we can get everybody in,” Curley said. “We do have some talent out there, and they just have to be ready. Some nights they’re in it, and some nights they’re not.”

With the win, the Lions are now in the NEWMAC playoffs with a 7-4 conference record.

The Lions still have three conference games

“We love to be in the playoffs, but we want to climb to the top. We have a lot more work to do, and we are excited to get it done.”

– Jarred Houston

Sophomore guard Nate Martin and the Lions shot a season high 64.9 percent from the field.

Rachel Culver / Beacon Staff.

left, including one against Worcester Polytechnic Institute whom they defeated to win the NEWMAC championship last season but lost to earlier this season by a score of 87-64.

With the win against the Engineers, and a loss by the third place Babson College to WPI on Wednesday, the Lions are now trail Babson by one game in the NEWMAC standings.

Of the final three games remaining this season, two are against teams currently ahead of the Lions in the conference standings.

“We’re not done,” Houston said in a postgame interview. “Coming into the season, we don’t have our eyes on the fourth seed. It’s nice and all, we love to be in the playoffs, but we want to climb to the top. We have a lot more work to do, and we are excited to get it done.”

The Lions will play WPI on the road on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 3 p.m. megan_maclaren@emerson.edu

Senior guard Natalie Clydesdale led the team with six rebounds in the loss to MIT. Rachel Culver / Beacon Staff.

The women’s basketball team shot 38 percent against conference opponent Massachusetts Institute of Technology while suffering a 31 point conference loss Wednesday.

The Lions lost by a score of 80-49 and shot 16 percent from three.

“I thought MIT played out of their minds,” head coach Bill Gould said in a post-game interview. “They played a phenomenal game.”

Gould said the team prepared thoroughly going into the matchup, but the Engineers performed beyond their usual skill set.

“They were hitting 25, 26-foot jump shots, and they’re not usually that good,” Gould said.

Going into the game, the Lions ranked sixth in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference with a 4-3 conference record.

MIT ranked third with a record of 4-2.

The Lions made five of their 14 attempted field goals, zero of three 3-pointers, and zero of two free throws in the first quarter. The team pulled down six rebounds and benefitted from four Engineers turnovers, but MIT led 16-10 at the end of the period.

In the second quarter, the Lions shot zero percent on three-pointers and free throws. Junior forward Sam Boyle contributed a pair of field goals in the period, but the team recorded four turnovers and missed six of their 13 shot attempts.

Boyle made the Lions’ first three-point shot of the game in the third quarter, and scored five of the 12 points from the Lions in the period.

“I try to be a focal point for the team and motivate everyone to work hard,” Boyle said in a post-game interview.

Boyle said playing against a team with tall, aggressive players who shoot well is challenging, and the Lions did not adjust enough on offense to score more.They didn’t pick up momentum until the fourth quarter, where they outscored the Engineers.

“We have to go into every game saying we are going to beat them,” Gould said. “Practice hard, get after it, and win.”

The Lions play Wellesley College on the road Saturday, Feb. 15, at 1 p.m. kayla_buck@emerson.edu