Kasteel Well outbreak, union negotiations

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Thursday, February 16, 2022 • Volume 75, Issue 20

Faculty and staff unions make headway in contract negotiations

Merit Scholarship recpient Samaya Iman. / Beacon Archives

COVID outbreak at Kasteel Well forces students out of rooms Bailey Allen Beacon Staff

Students at Emerson’s Kasteel Well have been moved out of their dorms to make space for quarantine and isolation housing as part of the satellite campus’ response to a renewed surge of COVID-19.

The Spring 2022 cohort arrived at Kasteel Well for the semester-long study abroad program on Jan. 14. While the castle requires weekly testing, it has not publicly reported any positive tests. Nevertheless, some students allege that anywhere between 15 and 20 students are currently in quarantine or isolation—nearly a third of its total student population of approximately 70—forcing the administration to enact drastic measures.

“Too many people tested positive so they started putting positive people with other positive people who tested at different times,” said Lauren Germani, a sophomore visual and media arts major studying at the castle.

Germani was one of the three initial posi-

tives within the first week of the semester.

She added that multiple students—“about 10 others”—tested positive the second week.

“I was on day seven [of isolation] while [others in my room] were on day two,” she said.

The Netherlands campus’ apparent shortage of isolation spaces quickly became evident once other infected students were placed with her.

“Originally, when we first went into quarantine, [the administration] said, ‘Avoid the other people you’re quarantining with to avoid testing positive longer,’” she said. “But then they contradicted themselves when they ran out of space and then put us all in one room.”

Some uninfected students, like sophomore writing, literature and publishing major Rachel Tarby, were asked to move out of their rooms to make space for COVID-positive students.

Tarby was moved out of her four-bed room for 12 hours the night she got back

Kasteel outbreak, Pg. 4

HBO Max holds ‘My Mom, Your Dad’ roundtable discussion Karissa Schaefer Beacon Staff While college students are already trying to navigate the complexities of their romantic life, HBO Max takes it a step further with their new reality dating show My Mom, Your Dad, making these students set up their single parent in hopes of finding new love.

The eight-part episodic series—hosted by Insecure actress Yvonne Orji—places single parents in a house, dubbed the “Second Chance Retreat,” while their college-aged kids watch from down the street, influencing any magic that happens between pairs. Sure, the concept on paper might sound creepy, but it sure makes for entertaining TV. A big feature of the show is meddle time, a segment in which the kids secretly pick how their parent’s second chance date plays out.

But there’s a catch: each one who chooses to proceed has to give something up or do something unusual. These caveats are pretty harmless and goofy, especially when Myles “MJ” Johnson—who’s probably the funniest on the show—gets five pairs of shoes taken away from his 20-some collection.

“The only thing that we had an argument about was when they peer pressured me to give up my shoes,” MJ jokingly said.

For MJ, this is still a sore spot, as he mentioned a few times in the college newspaper

roundtable interview on Feb. 10. A handful of journalism students were chosen from various nationwide colleges to discuss their experiences, their relationships with their parents, and the relatability they have with other college-aged kids of divorced and single parents.

The cast members who participated were Breana Sturgis, Karen’s daughter; Alexandra Devoe, Scott’s daughter; Philip “PJ” Patrick Jr, Philip’s son; Destiny Orr, Kiki’s daughter; Whitney Strunk, Trish’s daughter; Brooks Brown, Joel’s son; Carlie Kauffman, Grant’s daughter; and MJ, DeNeia’s son. Absent from the panel were Troy’s son, Noah Petrick, Phill’s son, Miles Chevalier, and Stephanie’s son, Brennen Varone.

Among the questions, the kids were asked how their experience as matchmakers influenced their relationship with their parents. In particular, Patrick and Sturgis credited the show for bringing them closer to their parents. Patrick, who never really discussed personal topics like dating with his dad, now views him in a cooler, casual way.

“He’s somebody who has his own stuff to deal with and issues, so I see figure.”

Agreeing with Patrick, Sturgis sees her mom as more of an equal, someone with just as many flaws as her.

HBO dating show, Pg. 7

Emerson Staff Union and ELAF-AAUP logos. / Courtesy Emerson Staff Union and ELAF-AAUP

Abigail Lee Beacon Staff On both coasts, unions at the college are making progress in their respective contract negotiations.

The Emerson Los Angeles part-time faculty union secured an agreement with the college Feb. 4—ending an eight-month bargaining process that required federal mediation.

Emerson’s Staff Union is currently in the midst of its own negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The new contract for ELAF-AAUP members is retroactive to July 2021 and expires in June 2026. The college said the negotiations went amicably and that they are “eager to continue to work with the union to come to a final agreement.”

“Emerson is committed to fair and equitable pay for all of our faculty and staff, whether represented by a union or not,” wrote college spokesperson Michelle Gaseau in an emailed statement to The Beacon.

The 29-member faculty union pushed for better salaries, healthcare eligibility, and contracts, highlighting a disparity between their treatment and that of Boston campus part-time faculty—including what they allege are discrepancies between length of contract and pay.

“We are teaching the same students the same classes for the same degrees so there’s really no reason why we should be paid less for the same work,” said union president Jennifer Vandever.

Unions, Pg. 3

Men’s basketball team beats MIT with style Tyler Foy

INSIDE THIS EDITION Class of 2026 excited for fall Pg. 2 Sustainability new hire Pg. 3 Opinion: Superbowl halftime show Pg. 4

Beacon Staff

Letter: Staff Union Blue Valentines Pg. 4

The men’s basketball team completed the season sweep on Wednesday in a dominant 97-88 win over the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, improving their record to 16-6.

The Lions entered the game on a three-game winning streak—most recently a close matchup against Springfield College on Saturday which ended 89-82. The Engineers, for their part, had lost their last two games as well as their last face-off against Emerson, where they fell 72-79 on Jan. 22.

The Engineers put the first points on the board, stealing the ball from Emerson and capitalizing on it with a three. Lions senior guard Trevor McLean responded by crossing up the Engineer’s defense and sinking a layup. MIT fired back with a jump shot but this would be the last lead they would have in the game.

McLean sank another layup but would be subbed out minutes later after receiving two personal fouls within the first four minutes. Senior guard Chad DiCenzo and junior guard Max Davis were substituted in and made an immediate impact, with a DiCenzo three and a Davis layup pushing the score to 9-5.

Waterhouse showed off his athleticism with a powerful dunk, followed by DiCenzo and senior guard Nate Martin with a couple of two-pointers while on their tear.

“Our team is best when we are in the transition,” DiCenzo said after the game. “We ran in transition and got stops. When we do that, no one can stop us.”

The 18-point run would come to an end after

Men’s Basketball, Pg. 8

Mitski album review Pg. 6 Payale Royale concert review Pg. 7 Men’s Lacrosse 2022 seasonPg. 8

450

positive COVID-19 tests

1.47% positivity rate

30,500+ tests completed

*Accumulated from Spring 2022 Semester

News

The Berkeley Beacon

February 17, 2022

2

Incoming first-years look forward to fall semester Hannah Nguyen Beacon Staff

After witnessing school reopenings, loosened mask mandates, and the nationwide push for booster shots, incoming Emerson students are hoping for a first-year that is closer to normal.

Despite the unpredictability of COVID-19 variants, the class of 2026 remains optimistic that their Emerson experience will outclass their high school years. With the majority of their high school years consisting of masks, canceled events, and constant feelings of uncertainty, the class of 2026 had a far from normal education experience.

“I’ve been lucky to be able to do theater and participate in in-person classes, but not having the security of knowing what tomorrow brings is really draining,” said Tahlia Bernstein, a future theater and performance major. “Of course, we’ve missed out on clubs and activities and such, but the hardest thing for me has been the constant uncertainty and fear of getting myself or my family sick.”

Given its strong theater program, Bernstein said Emerson had long been her top choice. Meeting faculty and prospective students on in-person tours and in information sessions—two options unavailable’s to last year’s incoming class—helped solidify her choice to apply for Early Decision.

When she saw the confetti in her acceptance letter, she said she and her mother shed tears of joy.

“I am a very creative person and feel that at Emerson, I would be able to pursue so many different interests of mine in a professional

way,” Bernstein said. “I have never felt like I fit in somewhere nearly as much as I do with Emerson.”

The college’s reputation for artistic expression was a central factor for many students weighing whether to apply for Early Decision— which, if accepted, would commit them to enroll at Emerson. Bee LaClair, a future stage management and production major from New Hampshire, jumped for joy upon opening their acceptance letter, as Emerson is their dream school.

“My first reaction was just shock,” they said. “I started shaking and jumping up and down. I’m pretty sure I only said, ‘Oh my God!’ for a solid five minutes. I had to give my phone to my sister because I couldn’t say real words.”

Dana Albala, an undecided major from Chile, was surprised when she received her acceptance letter because she didn’t think she would get accepted.

“I truly thought I wouldn’t be accepted for a couple of reasons, but once I got the email, all of those feelings were gone and replaced [by] the complete opposite,” Albala said. “I got a sudden rush of confidence, despite [not seeing] my decision yet because I knew I belonged to this school more than any other.”

The prospect of attending Emerson felt almost unattainable for Albala, who applied without submitting her standardized test scores because they were lower than Emerson’s averages. However, after her cousins convinced her that she was a perfect fit for the college, she knew committing was the right decision.

“I felt like Emerson was a place where I would feel comfortable since the first day I found out about

Courtesy Dana Albala

Courtesy Bee LaClair

Courtesy Tahlia Bernstein

Courtesy Carter Zane

it due to its creative community of students and staff,” Albala said.

Carter Zane, a prospective political communications major from Texas, committed to Emerson just minutes after receiving his acceptance letter because of the positive interactions he had with current students and faculty members during

his application process.

“Each time, I was greeted with genuine interest in my questions, thoughtful answers, and support,” he said. “For me, education is more than facts—it’s also about relationships.”

Because Emerson is smaller than most colleges, Zane knew it would

Emerson Los Angeles COVID-19 numbers reach new heights

The Emerson College Los Angeles Center located on Sunset Blvd./ Beacon Archives

Adri Pray

Beacon Staff Emerson’s Los Angeles campus is recovering from the surge of COVID-19 cases it experienced at the onset of the spring semester, which eclipsed all of the college’s cases last fall.

The campus, which receives COVID updates every week, reported two positives on Feb. 11.

Friday’s numbers were remarkably lower than the 13 cases reported in the second week of the term—a positivity rate of over

seven percent, given ELA’s student population of approximately 180.

Associate Vice President Timothy Chang, who serves as ELA’s chief operations officer, said the surge was due to the global uptick in Omicron cases.

“We attribute most of [it] to the Omicron surge that was going on,” Chang said. “Things are kind of dropping down right now in L.A. County, so we anticipate that we’ll follow suit with that,” said Chang.

L.A. County reported a single-day high of 44,942 cases on

Jan. 13. In comparison, Massachusetts’ single-day caseload peaked Jan. 5 at 30,805 cases.

ELA’s campus health protocols reflect the models of both Boston and Los Angeles, as well as the guidance set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chang said ELA does its best to mirror Boston’s protocols, while noting that ELA students can’t access medical professionals as easily as their Boston counterparts.

“We try to be as consistent as we can with Boston,” he said.

“There are a couple of other factors we throw in to be a little more careful because we don’t have a health center here like the Boston campus does.”

“If a student gets sick, we don’t have a nurse or medical professionals [on-campus] that can actually check in on them,” he continued.

Though staff from the L.A. campus offices of Residential Life and Student Life make an effort to check in on students, Chang said the absence of a health center forces them to remain “conservative with their approach towards the coronavirus.”

Los Angeles County’s COVID-19 policies differ from the policies of the state of California.

Though Governor Gavin Newsom announced a relaxing of the indoor mask mandate starting Feb. 16, L.A. County will continue its mask mandate indefinitely—and Emerson is following suit.

“We’re still being really careful, so we still have a mask mandate in the building,” Chang said.

“Unfortunately we still can’t allow students to have guests yet, and that’s partially what Emerson Boston is doing, but it’s also because the [California] Department of Public Health out here doesn’t want us to have those congregate settings where students and young folks are gathering and potentially spreading the virus.”

ELA continues to take guidance from Boston as well. Chang consults with Associate Vice President of Campus Life Erik Muurisepp, who, as the college’s “COVID Lead,” sets and advises administrators on the Boston campus’s protocol.

“We don’t have any set meetings, but we reach out to each other as things come up,” Muurisepp said. “As we are looking to adjust policies here, we’ll see how that’s translated for LA, which is a completely different situation.”

Chang consulted with Muurisepp when setting the COVID-19 testing requirements for ELA, which requires three rapid tests and one PCR test per week. ELA also enforces the use of N95 masks on campus to further protect students.

ELA also distributed CDC-approved Honeywell masks—a distinct model from the KN95s given to Boston faculty members which some alleged were counterfeit.

“They are legitimate, made in the U.S.A., Honeywell, N95 masks,” Chang said. “They have the markings with the lot number and the whole nine yards on every single mask.”

“The requirement is we use

be easier to build connections with his professors and peers—a key factor in his decision-making process.

He said he had felt emotionally drained by the social stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, almost as if he had “lost almost two years of human interaction.” With that in mind, his first year will be an opportunity to attend new classes and meet new people.

“I love learning and I’m excited to continue it in an environment focused solely on helping me secure a bright future,” he said.

Zane acknowledges the uncertainty of the pandemic but remains optimistic.

“I fear that this pandemic may result in a freshman fall spent at home,” Zane said. “With that said, I know that Emerson will make the healthiest choice, so I try not to worry too much about what this fall will look like.”

Despite spending two years in a pandemic, students feel resilient towards any challenges that come their way. The coming fall semester may be unpredictable but the class of 2026 is prepared to face all challenges head-on.

“I think Covid has made my generation and I more strong and prone to adapting to hard situations, which will definitely be useful for our fall semester,” Albala said.

“We’ve already been through what seems to be the hardest part of the pandemic, so anything that comes after that I believe we’ll be able to overcome as long as we’re there for each other.”

hannah_nguyen@emerson.edu

these N95s on campus and the benefit of them is they’re molded cups, so it gives you a little bit more space to actually speak, and you can actually hear people better with them compared to the ones that touch your lips,” he continued.

Similar to Boston, ELA follows the five-day isolation and quarantine protocol set in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and asks students to continue to monitor their symptoms in the subsequent five days and beyond in order to keep the community safe.

Madison Dey-Richey, a senior screenwriting major at ELA, received a positive COVID-19 test result on Jan. 26 and was moved into isolation just hours later, per ELA’s COVID guidelines. Unlike some on Emerson’s Boston campus, she said she did not have an uncommon relocation experience, according to ELA’s isolation moving and housing protocol.

“I was moved into isolation right away and I quarantined for five days, then they let us out,” Dey-Richey said. “They came, gave us a rapid test to see if we were infectious, and if we weren’t, we got to leave.”

Despite higher case numbers and the recent spike, Dey-Richey says she feels safe.

“Everyone wears a mask out here,” Dey-Richey said. “I know that they’re trying to reduce its spread as much as possible, so overall, I do feel safe.”

adrianna_pray@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

February 17, 2022

3

Emerson College welcomes Jennifer Lamy as new campus sustainability manager

Emerson College’s new campus sustainability manager, Jennifer Lamy./ Courtesy

Jennifer Lamy

Maeve Lawler Beacon Staff

Emerson has hired a new campus sustainability manager to direct the college’s climate policy, filling a vacancy that has lasted nearly two years.

Jennifer Lamy assumed the role on Jan. 24. The position, which includes co-chairing the Sustainability Committee and working towards carbon neutrality, was last held by Cathy Liebowitz who left the role after less than a year in March 2020.

“There was a hiring freeze on all positions [after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic],” said Duncan Pollock, assistant vice president for facilities & campus services, to The Beacon last April. “With the flex learning and remote ‘no people gathering,’ it really didn’t make sense to fill that position—but [by fall 2021] we’ll be back in a better boat.”

Though her hiring was delayed until the spring, Lamy brings substantial experience in environmental policy to the role. After receiving her master’s in environmental management from Duke University, Lamy worked for a Department of Agriculture program focusing on sustainable farming abroad before moving on to a non-profit working to advance sources of alternative protein.

As to why she chose to come to Emerson, Lamy said the position offered an opportunity to work closely with a college community—something she hadn’t done before in her previous jobs.

“I’m excited to use this opportunity to empower students to do as much of the sustainability work and communication as possible, and really get some mentorship and help students find ways to integrate [sustainability] into what they are passionate about,” she said.

Lamy said she and her team have a wide range of proposals in mind to meet the college’s pledge of being “carbon neutral” by 2030.

“We’ll be working on everything from energy in buildings to what we’re using for cutlery when we’re doing catering. So we’ll be able to work on a lot of issues at once toward one common goal for the college,” Lamy said.

Emerson first laid out its Climate Commitment in 2007, signing an updated version in 2016. “[2030 is] coming up really fast,” she said. “It probably felt like a long time ago in 2007 but it’s a few years away, so I’m really pushing to try to get down our final sources of emissions we need to get to carbon neutral.”

One of her main priorities is to “empower students as much as possible to do [sustainability] work,” which she

also views as one of her biggest challenges given the continuous shift in the student body.

“By nature of being a college, you get turnover much more than in other settings,” she said. “Students come in, they graduate, they’re gone. They’re here sometimes and then they leave for breaks.”

To combat this challenge, Lamy said establishing continuity among the student’s role in the sustainability effort is important.

“By having me to provide some of that continuity from one group to the next, that central coordination of faculty and staff who are passionate about [sustainability] will help alleviate some of those challenges,” she said.

Emerson students have expressed their enthusiasm for Emerson’s sustainability manager, and the prospects of a greener campus.

“There are a lot of sustainability issues here at Emerson, especially in the dining hall,” said Emerson Nadelman, a first-year visual and media arts major.

“It’s good that [Emerson] has someone that maybe can get some work done.”

Nadelman noted that the dining center has many compost bins, but few labeled trash bins—meaning non-compostable waste often ends up in the compost.

Karenna Umscheid, a first-year journalism major, said she hopes that Lamy will look at both smaller and larger issues regarding sustainability, specifically pointing to Indigenous climate activism.

“I would hope she would also look at… the sustainability efforts and the environmental activism of indigenous people, especially indigenous youth,” she said. “I feel like that doesn’t get enough attention the way it should. If we were actually to stop climate change, that’s where it would be.”

Lamy said she recognizes that sustainability at Emerson should continue beyond the borders of the campus.

“Working with the Emerson community is about getting students excited, getting them to go into their careers with sustainability in the back of their mind, with these best practices, as global citizens,” Lamy said.

Bailey Allen contributed reporting. maeve_lawler@emerson.edu

Isolation space shortage causes strife in Netherlands Cont. from Pg. 1 from a weekend trip. She said she was told around midnight that because it had its own restroom, her room would become an isolation space, and someone with COVID would be taking her bed.

“It was just crazy because when I packed my stuff to move out—I had to pack up really quickly—they told me to pack for seven to 14 days,” she said. “Then the next day, they told me I could move back in because a bunch of people got out of isolation, so they could move people with the virus into an actual isolation space.”

Rob Dückers, executive director of the Emerson College European Center at Kasteel Well, wrote in an email statement to The Beacon that isolation spaces set aside to accommodate those who tested positive were fully occupied and arrangements needed to be made to supplement the limited number of isolation rooms.

“Because all those in isolation need to use individual (non-shared) facilities, some temporary room moves were required to maintain this requirement,” Dückers wrote.

In a Feb. 11 email to parents of students at Kasteel Well, Director of Education Abroad and Domestic Programs David Griffin sent a “frequently asked questions” page about COVID and isolation at Kasteel Well, prepared by Dückers.

The page included the protocols for the “worst-case scenario”—relocating students who are currently housed in a space with or next to a bathroom and toilet to other rooms.

“I know this one girl whose roommates both had COVID and they had nowhere to put her roommates so they just kicked her out of her room and she slept on the floor in someone else’s room,” Germani said.

Students who test positive at Kasteel Well are required to isolate for at least seven days after they begin to show symptoms. If, after that period they have been symptom-free for 24 hours and test negative on an antigen test, students are able to leave isolation, according to the FAQ email.

Although people can still test pos-

itive for COVID-19 on a PCR test— hence the 90-day testing exemption on the Boston campus for those who have contracted COVID—Dückers explained that an antigen test is a good indicator of when to cease isolation, because when the virus is no longer active, it produces a negative result.

On Wednesday night, the Dutch government announced that beginning Feb. 18, the minimum period of isolation would be reduced from seven days to five for individuals who have been asymptomatic for 24 hours.

Germani and her roommates also attended Zoom classes, which proved difficult due to connectivity issues.

“Since we’re in a 14th-century castle, the Wi-Fi is already really bad,” she said. “Two of my roommates and I all had class at 12:30 pm, and because we were all on Zoom at the same time, it would crash every five minutes. For two weeks, I couldn’t understand anything that was happening in my classes; I have a fourhour class on Thursdays and I think I missed 12 hours worth of class.”

“At times, some professors would get a little frustrated when we weren’t being responsive on Zoom,” Germani added. “They didn’t understand that we couldn’t really understand a word they were saying and were cutting out—meanwhile we were literally sick with a fever.”

Germani said she does not blame the professors for the academic trouble she had during her convalescence, but noted that the language barrier between English-speaking students and Dutch instructors added another layer of difficulty.

“I think [the castle] had, like, one case last semester, so it was a lot different from this,” Tarby said. “I was just kind of shocked because I felt that they would have more isolation space, or be more prepared for us.”

Associate Vice President of Campus Life Erik Müürisepp, who serves as the college’s “COVID Lead,” did not immediately respond to The Beacon’s request for comment. bailey_allen@emerson.edu

Unions push college for more equitable salary, benefits Cont. from Pg. 1 The logistical reason for the disparity is that Boston’s Affiliated Faculty of Emerson College ratified a new contract in 2019, which included higher salary benefits that this agreement seeks to match. Formed in 2015, ELAF-AAUP negotiated its first contract with Emerson in 2016.

But Vandever also added the college’s reasoning has been that ELA faculty is an affiliated model. Therefore, salaries are determined on the basis of what the college can afford according to the tuition-based program.

The union’s new contract includes the adoption of the “salary grid” used

by Boston faculty. Per-course salary of newer, “level one” faculty—which is more than half of the members and most of the faculty of color—will increase 11 percent. Salary for senior faculty’s salaries will increase 10 percent. Those at the middle of the salary range, who had rates similar to Boston’s faculty, will also receive a raise.

“We’re looking out for faculty to be able to be treated equally as other faculty, and also looking at ways for the college to be inclusive,” said Mason Richards, vice president of ELAF-AAUP. Los Angeles faculty will also receive more healthcare benefits. The current re-

quirement that faculty members teach at least 48 hours before being eligible for coverage will be reduced to 24 hours— the same threshold as Boston’s faculty.

Senior faculty with their own healthcare plans will see the college’s coverage increase from 50 percent to 65 percent, and will be able to extend their coverage to other individuals through the creation of a “Plus One” option.

Additionally, the faculty union looked to ensure that the commitment of senior faculty to the college was reflected in their employment contracts. Currently, the satellite campus has fourteen senior faculty members—nine of which have taught for over 10 years, and five for over 20. Under the new contract, senior faculty will now see two-year contracts, replacing the one-year contracts they are currently granted.

“That’s a pretty extraordinary, deep bench in terms of the institutional memory that [senior] faculty bring to the table,” Vandever said.

However, the union did not manage to win all of its requests, including two-semester appointments for junior faculty as well as compensation for “labor outside the classroom,” such as mentoring students and participating in discussion panels.

ELAF was able to keep its 2-to-4 percent annual cost-of-living adjust-

ments—an issue of contention during bargaining. The college’s initial salary proposal included reduced cost-of-living adjustments.

“Given that we were already the lowest-paid faculty at the school and teaching through a pandemic, we found this really unacceptable,” Vandever said.

“For us, it simply didn’t track with the school’s stated commitment to the values of social responsibility.”

The fight for a fair contract persists across Emerson’s campuses. In Boston, the Emerson Staff Union is in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement.

“We’ve got a lot of topics that we’re covering [and] that we’re hoping to either change or see improvements on, and we’re not quite seeing eye to eye with management,” said Dennis Levine, the Chapter Chair of the Emerson Staff Union.

The staff union met with the college Feb. 8 to continue working toward a new agreement. The last one initially expired in September, but was extended to Feb. 15. Union members offered to extend the agreement a month further given the lack of developments.

Boston staff are looking for improved salaries, parental leave, and sick days.

Levine said the process has been moving slower than preferred, partly due to

the fact that negotiations are taking place over Zoom.

“I can tell you that what we are asking for, we feel, is not pie in the sky stuff,” he said. “We are asking for solid numbers [for benefits and compensation]... based on the cost of living in Boston.”

The college has not yet presented its first counter-proposal to the staff union’s “benefits and compensation” offer, which the members had been hoping to hear at Tuesday’s meeting.

The changes to parental leave in the new CBA would involve altering the language to be more accessible. The staff union is also pushing for an evaluation of work-from-home guidelines.

While the college has implemented guidelines for gauging when employees need to work in person, the decision is up to managers’ discretion.

Staff members said they may work three or four days in person when the same work could be done at home.

Amid the pandemic, working in person continues to be a source of both stress and safety concerns.

“It’s the getting to campus, that’s the big issue. A lot of our people have to take public transit, they have to walk through the Common, they’ve got to be around people that are not part of the Emerson bubble,” said Levine.

The staff union is also pressing for

diversity, equity, and inclusion language to be included in the CBA. The college’s response, Levine said, was that DEI language should be a school-wide implementation instead.

“We feel that it’s important to have specific benchmarks that the school should be able to codify,” Levine said.

“We feel it’s important for our members to be hired in such a way that we have fairness and equity and diversity in the staff union.”

The college has acknowledged the prolonged bargaining process.

“Emerson College respects the rights of our employees to bargain collectively, and values each of our staff members represented by SEIU Local 888,” wrote Gaseau. “We are committed to working in good faith with the union to reach a fair and equitable agreement, with bargaining sessions scheduled for the coming months.”

For both the Emerson Staff Union and ELAF-AAUP, the efforts come down to strengthening the college’s commitment to equity.

“We are adamant about making sure that the college is living up to the values that we tell the students,” said Richards.

“It’s about social justice and equity.” abigail_lee@emerson.edu

Opinion

The Berkeley Beacon

February 17, 2022

4

Super Bowl halftime show reflects the Black experience, but its efforts are performative Hadera McKay and Vivi Smilgius Beacon Staff

Barring Eminem—this year’s Super Bowl halftime show was an unequivocal celebration of the Black experience, from the tactful location of SoFi Stadium in the historically Black and Hispanic neighborhood Inglewood, California, to the rock of the halftime performance himself, revered N.W.A. member and producer Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre’s stomping grounds in Compton were just a 20 minute drive from the stadium as a nod to his influence on West Coast rap.

With the inclusion of esteemed West Coast artists Snoop Dogg from Long Beach, Kendrick Lamar also from Compton, and Anderson. Paak of Oxnard,—smiling at us from his trademark drum set during Eminem’s set—the performance felt like a localized celebration of the West Coast Black experience. It was a comprehensive examination of the many ways the West Coast has impacted Hip-Hop, and by extension, the Black experience. For me, it was a damn good day to be Black and an even better one to have roots in California.

Mary J. Blige literally performed the essential Black cookout song— her most streamed song to date, “Family Affair.” Social media was then flooded with Black families dancing along to Blige’s performance in their living rooms.

As with all major institutions that decide to center Blackness as a swift turn around from their institutionally and historically oppressive ways, we had to wonder, was this all a performance? Just another attempt by the NFL to erase their downright racist handling of former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s initial 2016 kneel during the “Star-Spangled Banner?”

Just weeks before the star-studded performance, former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores sued the NFL as well as the Dolphins, Denver Broncos and New York Giants, alleging racist hiring practices and bribery.

Flores said he was offered $100,000

From left to right: Snoop Dog, Mary J Blige, Dr Dre, and Kendrick Lamar / Courtesy Creative Commons for every lost game by Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, who hoped to secure a better draft position by weakening the team’s record. When he did not comply and recorded a relatively successful, 9-8 season,— prior to 2020, Miami hadn’t had a winning season since 2003— Flores was fired Jan. 10.

Flores, who interviewed for the head coach position with the Giants around the time he was fired from Miami, alleged in his 58-page lawsuit that New York only interviewed him to comply with the NFL’s Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview people of color in their hiring processes. Clearly this rule is not working well, as the 32-team league had a single Black head coach as of Jan. 26. The NFL’s half-assed attempts at what always end up being performative activism (see: “End Racism” and “It Takes All Of Us” endzones) point toward ongoing discrimination among league administrators.

It’s both surprising and not surprising that the halftime show was a product of a partnership between NFL and Jay-Z’s entertainment company, Roc Nation, which developed during the protests encouraged by Kaepernick’s kneeling. It’s also no surprise that the Super Bowl’s location in Inglewood spawned important conversations about gentrification, which mirrors the increased presence and exploitative measures taken by

white people in historic Black and Brown neighborhoods.

The commerce and attention that comes with the Super Bowl, though good for the industrial health of the community, might compromise the preservation of the community for its Black and Brown members.

The NFL shifted too easily from skirting the importance of hip-hop and Rapby refusing to center hip-hop artists at the halftime show, to assembling some of hip-hops most controversial figures on one of music’s biggest stages.

Each performer nodded to a stadium full of corrupt corporate overlords and gentrifying attendees while simultaneously winking slyly to those watching at home— in that sense, the 12-minute show felt almost like an inside joke between rap’s greatest and everyone in their living rooms.

A racist establishment gave the mic to some of Hip-Hop’s greatest, putting the Black experience on one of music’s largest platforms for all the world to see. I’m sure the NFL knew what it was doing when it put these people on stage together, but part of me believes all this is going over their racist ass heads, and I’m going to let that part of me dream.

Lamar’s choice to perform ‘Alright,’ a song used since its release in 2015 as a cry of unity at Black Lives Matter protesters, felt both triumphant and poignantly deliberate. De-

scribed by NPR in 2019 as “party and protest… the sound of Black life’s duality,” ‘Alright’ condemns police brutality while recognizing resilience in the Black community. It should be noted that during the line, “And we hate po-po, wanna kill us dead in the street for sure,” the word referencing the police was not audible. There is debate on whether that was censorship or deliberate on Lamar’s behalf.

Nevertheless, it was the perfect way to greet long-awaiting fans after a three-year hiatus from performing and releasing music.

(I must also note that a great opportunity was missed by putting Lamar and Blige on the same stage and without performing ‘Now or Never.’)

The problem with the NFL’s approach is not just the tokenistic exploitation of Black talent for the monetary gain of a racist institution— that’s really the entire history of American football— but the use of this method to excuse those foundationally oppressive values. Can we really call the NFL’s anti-racism performance genuine when the “End Racism” message on the end zone competed with the increased ICE presence in historically Hispanic neighborhoods just outside this major event? It’s clear the league’s goal isn’t to end racism, but to performatively address whatever conflicts bolster its reputation.

The better question is, can we enjoy

something that is so obviously a capitalist coverup for a problem that goes much deeper than players kneeling at the National Anthem?

My great grandparents built their family near the historic Black Crenshaw District, my grandmother went to her first Jackson 5 concert at the Inglewood Forum (a venue that stands in the shadows of the SoFi stadium).

My family still owns homes in South Central Los Angeles and contributes to the community.

The low riders, Chuck Taylors, and crisp pressed shirts and pants over white tees were all incredibly familiar and comforting to me—like hearing my cousins’ stories about their hardships and shenanigans. There was pleasure in being a hip-hop and rap lover, and watching legendary artists create an honest and hopeful mosaic of inherently Black music from producing, to rapping, to singing. There is a certain kind of hope that comes from watching Kendrick Lamar recite the lyrics I’ve been listening to my whole life.

All of these things that I consider so central to my identity as a Black person gave me the ability to appreciate the performance for what it was, while also interrogating the fact that it came from a performative source, and continuing to demand accountability from that source. contact@berkeleybeacon.com

Letter to the Editor: A Blue Valentine’s Day at Emerson The Emerson Staff Union Bargaining Team It is easy to love Emerson. Talented students, brilliant faculty, committed staff: great people. We see individuals learn and grow on our campus, but we also see them stifled. We see them burn out and leave because Emerson doesn’t love them back.

In less than 6 months, we saw more than 40 co-workers leave Emerson. Every email about someone’s last day broke another piece of our hearts. Now, whenever we hear anyone imply that these folks left as part of ‘the great resignation,’ we get angry. Because they are wrong.

The people we know didn’t leave to “go find themselves” or to travel. They are working the same jobs they worked at Emerson, but elsewhere, for more appropriate pay, and more importantly - respect.

To say otherwise is to pretend everything is fine and make it easy for Emerson’s leadership to avoid accountability. As union members and Emerson community members,

we are not willing to do that.

We know people who left because they burned out in understaffed departments. We know staff of color who left because of diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. We know women who were underpaid for the amount of labor they performed. They all made sacrifices for the college, and many felt cheated for caring as much as they did. Many of us who are still here feel the same way.

So the Emerson Staff Union is taking a moment today to send Blue Valentines to Emerson’s leadership. We want them to know why we love this school, while informing them what breaks our hearts about working here.

We know the fight to make this a better place is hard. We know it will take all of us working together to make it happen. So this Valentine’s Day, we invite you to join us in letting Emerson know what breaks your heart. You can write your own Blue Valentine, and if you have a moment, read some of ours.

We are not the first to express our broken-heartedness. In the last

few weeks alone, students have been vocal about Emerson’s failure towards them, and the affiliated faculty in ELA shared some heartbreaking numbers in their own letter.

It is hard to love Emerson. It is hard to see an institution with so many great ambitions fail to live up to its promises. As staff, it’s even harder to realize that those ambitions rely on your labor but don’t include you, that you’re merely an afterthought. Join us in reminding the administration that we are all -staff, students, faculty, and alums -- part of the great community this institution says it wants to be.

Courtesy The Emerson Staff Union Bargaining Team

contact@berkeleybeacon.com © 2022 The Berkeley Beacon. All rights reserved.

The Beacon is published weekly.

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.

Editor-in-Chief Lucia Thorne Managing Editors Shannon Garrido (Content) Camilo Fonseca (Content) Marcus Cocova (Multimedia) Campbell Parish (Operations) Section Editors Frankie Rowley (News) Hadera McKay (Opinion)

Karissa Schaefer (Living Arts) Tyler Foy (Sports) Kaitlyn Fehr (Copy) Advisor David Dahl (617) 824–8687 berkeleybeacon.com contact@berkeleybeacon.com

The Berkeley Beacon

February 17, 2022

5

Internet trolls rejoice, Trisha Paytas is pregnant

Courtesy Sydney Wills/Achona Online/Adobe InDesign

Kaitlyn Fehr, Katie Redefer, & Campbell Parish Beacon Staff

“Remember when I was alone/ Just a queen without a throne/ How could I have known/ My mind was gonna be blown—” by the news that Trisha Paytas is pregnant.

Social media exploded with the news of the YouTube star’s pregnancy on Monday, and opinions could not be more divided. In the aftermath of the announcement, one consensus rings true: we all need to live through the next nine months, otherwise “we risk the possibility of being reincarnated as Trisha’s baby.”

Those who have followed Paytas in the decade since they created their YouTube channel (originally a Quentin Tarantino fan page) couldn’t be more surprised. For years, YouTube’s favorite troll lamented to their followers about their fertility issues, and some viewers collectively breathed a sigh of relief that no

mini Paytas’ would be heard crying on the kitchen floor. Or that no child would be fed by a bedazzled bottle.

Throughout their tenure on the Frenemies podcast with Ethan Klein, Paytas talked often about how they were trying to get pregnant with then-fiance Moses Hacmon.

Hacmon is Klein’s brother-in-law, whom Paytas often picked fights with regarding Klein’s parenting decisions on the podcast. Specifically, Paytas––unprompted––told Klein she would never let a nanny around her child, unlike Klein and his wife.

These fights eventually led to the end of the podcast, and the end of the familial relationship between Klein and Hacmon.

These fights are more relevant now than ever before. Now, the world will see what kind of parents Paytas and their husband are going to be, and if their complaints about Klein are reflected in the parenting choices they make.

Given Paytas’ controversial presence on Frenemies, and their numerous public scandals, the internet’s

reaction to the pregnancy has been less than positive, to put it lightly.

Looking at Paytas’ past actions, it’s easy to see why. In one specific meltdown, Paytas allegedly drove their car into their ex-boyfriend’s house while high on meth.

Though Paytas is sober now, their time on the internet has been marked with repeated scandals and controversy, some of which has been heightened by substance abuse.

Many of these meltdowns and scandals have involved Paytas dragging others down with them, and hurling insults and allegations at anyone who might be slightly involved in their life.

These meltdowns often come seemingly out of nowhere, and Paytas is quick to spiral. These frequent, and sometimes unprompted, breakdowns are obviously a cause for concern when it comes to someone bringing another life onto this planet.

Considering Paytas’ proclivity for publicizing these breakdowns, and how they have already made their

pregnancy public at nine weeks, the internet wants to know whether they would bring a child into these public spirals.

While all of this is valid reason for discourse, the way the internet has responded to Paytas’ pregnancy is completely unacceptable, and beyond parasocial. It only takes a glance at Paytas’ Twitter feed to see the recent influx of hateful comments about their pregnancy. Certain groups— and I’m looking at you r/ Trishyland—have been publicly advocating and hoping for Paytas to miscarry.

I don’t think I even need to explain how incredibly messed up that is, Paytas’ problematic history aside.

Wishing a miscarriage on anyone, especially someone who has struggled with infertility, makes you a bad person. Point, blank, period.

Scrolling through r/Trishyland reveals masses of people proclaiming their desire to “check out” and stop watching Paytas. If you are so involved in an influencer’s life that you have to “check out” because you’re upset with a decision in their private life, especially one as serious as a baby, you should probably go touch some grass.

Even those advocating for child protective services to intervene and take the child away need to knock it off. If CPS decides to intervene and remove the child, it’s because they deem it necessary for the child’s wellbeing, not because idiots on Reddit told them to.

The truth of the matter is that we know nothing about who Trisha Paytas actually is in real life. The persona we see online could entirely be a character, and we would never know. It’s safe to say that we all hope that the popular internet personality is fake and won’t be the one creating a mini-me. The world can only handle one.

The internet needs to stop assuming that they know everything about an influencer’s life solely based on the content they post online. Paytas has uploaded countless videos and posts during their 10+ years on social media, but even still, this could only represent a fraction of who they are.

Only time will tell what kind of mother Trisha Paytas is going to

be, and making assumptions nine months out proves nothing. The jokes about not wanting to be reborn as Paytas’ child, or how the baby could be born a Scorpio are genuinely funny, as long as they don’t get any darker than that.

This is not to say Paytas should be shielded from valid criticism simply because they are pregnant.

Paytas deserves to be called out for their numerous offensive comments about marginalized groups, and their tendency to appropriate religions and cultures which they don’t belong to, among other grievances.

But regardless, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to become an angry mob.

“Given Paytas’ controversial presence on Frenemies, and their numerous public scandals, the internet’s reaction to the pregnancy has been less than positive, to put it lightly.”

There are many acceptable ways to criticize Paytas without wishing death or misfortune on their unborn child.

As problematic as Trisha Paytas is, and as genuine as people’s concerns may be, all we can do as randoms on the internet is sit back and let the family live their lives.

Besides, we should all look on the bright side, we’re definitely getting an updated version of “I Love You Jesus/I Love You Moses” with the baby’s name. contact@berkeleybeacon.com

Age doesn’t exist for accountability, stop acting like it does Adri Pray

Beacon Staff I was freshly 17 when the pandemic started. I witnessed a global recession, the first-ever second impeachment of a United States president, numerous climate change catastrophes, and most importantly, the continuation of unjust racially-motivated murders and the call to action against such injustices.

I turned 18 during a time of social upheaval. A time filled with protests, not just over politics, but also social justice issues—climate change, women’s rights, racial equity. Most, if not all, of these, are contested within the borders of this country and within our government.

I am turning 19 this year, and as we all normally do on our birthdays, I’m reflecting. I am taking time to think about what I’ve accomplished and what I hope to do next; I’m wondering what awaits me in my nineteenth year.

Through this reflection, I’ve been thinking about my family. As part of an older generation that heads the country my family especially disapproves of my extracurricular protesting. They do not want me in harm’s way for speaking my mind.

Their concerns are all valid, no doubt. However, knowing that they’d rather I stay silent and complicit than speak out and challenge the system eradicates my feelings.

Stagnancy has proven useless in a country that has demonstrated time

and time again that movement is necessary to make an impact.

Age is not an excuse to refuse compassion towards your fellow human. If you’re going to be part of the problem, move out of the way. There is no age limit on activism.

Like many families, my family is divided politically. My father’s family favors right-wing ideologies, while my mother’s side advocates for a more left-leaning approach to politics. This split is probably what lead to subsequent years of torturous and futile arguments and eventually their divorce, but my younger brother and I were heavily influenced by my mother’s side, as she had custody.

One of the things my parents did right was allowing my brother and I to have as much political freedom as we desired, so even though my father voted for Trump, I was not expected to join an insurrection because of his political views.

While I tend to lean more to the left, I listen to my father’s side because I want to. It may not be the easiest thing to do, but I don’t want to go into any political action with an “I don’t give a fuck about the other side” attitude like so many this day and age do. However, I still want to make it clear to both sides of my family that I draw the line at blatant ignorance (for example, the validity of human rights is not to be debated).

The conversation hasn’t always been one-sided. I’ve had ample opportunity to discuss and air out my

feelings with my family and others who don’t necessarily agree with what I have to say or how I think.

The trouble comes when clearly close-minded individuals, which in my experience is almost always a part of an older generation, lack the capacity to listen. Countless arguments could have been saved between my grandparents (on both sides of my family) and I if they had listened a little more.

I don’t make this argument to be ageist. I make this argument because for far too long “we the people” have been excusing and normalizing ignorant behavior from older generations and expecting their children to be held accountable for their actions. While it is important to hold everyone accountable, it is unfair to be blatantly biased against one age group when that same principle is not being applied to the other.

The refusal to hold each other equally accountable based on age alone creates a greater divide that cannot stand generations from now. To be part of the solution, we must all stop being the problem.

To set future generations up for success, there must be a call for collaboration. Not only do younger people need to hold their predecessors accountable, but also the older generations need to impart their knowledge and life experiences onto the younger while accepting that this wisdom may be applied differently. Without this collaboration, I, like many in my age group, expect failure.

Courtesy Adri Pray For those with the resources, the internet is free. The only cost of educating yourself is your time, and it’s an investment well spent.

We are living in an age so dependent on the technology of today, and there are virtually no excuses to refuse to learn.

Ask your sibling, friend, child, grandchild, great-grandchild, or anyone with access to the internet to help you understand the conversations of today and how you can incorporate advocacy and activism

into your daily life.

Education isn’t limited to the internet, it comes in many forms.

Pick up a book, have a discussion, watch a film, take a class, or get involved with different social justice organizations. Whatever you do, do it with an open mind.

Accountability and education are the strongest weapons we have against the ignorance of age, so wield them wisely. adrianna_pray@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

February 17, 2022

6

Living Arts

‘You’ll Be [More Than] Fine’ at a Palaye Royale concert

Kaitlyn Fehr with Palaye Royale in 2018. / Courtesy Kaitlyn Fehr Mitski at Showbox SODO. / Courtesy David Lee

Mitski’s ‘Laurel Hell’ is an emotional experience Payton Cavanaugh

Beacon Correspondent It comes as no surprise that Mitski’s recent release Laurel Hell induces pretty much every human emotion in the book. From the heart-shattering misery of “Valentine Texas,” “Working for the Knife,” and “Everyone” to the confusion and desperation of “Heat Lightning,” and to the upbeat nature of “The Only Heartbreaker.”

Laurel Hell embodies the complexities of self-worth, conformation in relationships, and distance from emotion in a very unique and intricate manner.

When I first listened to the album, I went from euphoric highs to lying in a puddle of my own tears, and I’d like to think that’s a universal experience.

One of the most beautiful things about Mitski’s music is that the musical composition can have you, as my friends like to describe, “swaying like kelp in the vast ocean.” Simultaneously, the lyrics will really make you sit and reflect on just about everything in life.

Talking about that feeling, “Heat Lightning” in particular is an absolute masterpiece that genuinely sent chills down my spine. From the very first “I surrender,” this song has me completely transfixed. If I had to choose a track from this album that towers the rest, it would have to be this one.

The feeling of conforming oneself and forcing themselves into the adoring eyes of another is all too common, and “Valentine Texas” chronicles this complexity. It embodies the feeling of confirmation to fit the satisfaction of others, to yearn for love so much that you’re willing to mask your individuality.

I must admit, “The Only Heartbreaker” had me dancing around my small Little Building dorm room, feeling as though I was the protagonist in a cheesy and simultaneously

classic 80s rom-com. And when the lyrics of “Love Me More” stated: “I wish that this would go away But when I’m done singing this song I will have to find something else To do to keep me here Something else to keep me” … I felt that.

Moving into “There’s Nothing Left for You,” I genuinely believed I was getting a break from the emotional turmoil, but when the beat dropped on “you could touch fire,” I think I may have ascended.

To speak on the experience of listening to this album, all I can say is it undoubtedly made me sit and reflect.

Mitski as a whole is simply incredible, and the creativity and artistry in her work is truly phenomenal. This album is remarkable and I can genuinely say it has left me searching for the words to depict its beauty.

The tracks on their own each tell a different aspect of searching for self actualization, yet as an entire album, they tell a story of searching for oneself in the perception of another. These ideas are not unique to this album when looking at Mitski’s discography as a whole, however, the musical approach that was taken is what makes it so special.

Mitski’s “Laurel Hell” is about so much more than what can be understood on its surface. Sure, the songs are about yearning for passion, love, and the feeling of raw nature of emotion. Yet, it’s also about the feelings of detachment curated from a newfound understanding of the world, from reality, and from the person you once were. It is about desperation for the ability to truly feel. It is about not knowing what’s to come, and pleading for what once was.

payton_cavanaugh@emerson.edu

Kaitlyn Fehr Beacon Staff

Picture this: it’s the end of February 2020 and you’re just days away from your 20th birthday.

This year, you’re celebrating in Europe, and you spend days agonizing over whether or not you should go see one of your favorite groups, the glam-rock band Palaye Royale, alone in Amsterdam. You decide not to go, making excuses to yourself that you’ll have plenty of other chances to see them live and that you have to study for midterms.

Now, picture that it’s almost two full years later, and you’re weeks out from your 22nd birthday.

You’re standing in line in the cold on a Wednesday night, waiting for the House of Blues Boston to open its doors so that you can finally, finally make up for that terrible choice you made two years prior.

Admittedly, I’ve seen Palaye Royale live before. Both times were in 2018, on their tour with Pop Evil and on the last full cross-country Warped Tour. I even met them that year, and have the picture to show for it (they were some of the nicest band members I’ve ever met, and all gave great hugs). Both of those times, events out of my control meant I didn’t get to see their full set, and man did I miss out.

Palaye opened their set with “Nightmares,” a song off their newest record, The Bastards. Quite frankly, the scream that erupted from my body when lead singer Remington Leith came on stage wasn’t human.

“Nightmares” is a high-energy, heavy-sounding song, and the opening chords perfectly built the crowd’s energy into pure concert chaos. A lot of the crowd was there for the headliner, Yungblud, but that didn’t seem to matter when Palaye came on stage. The crowd was screaming, jumping, and headbanging, even if they didn’t know the words.

Palaye has some of the best stage presence I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to a lot of concerts.

Likewise, the brothers––Sebastian Danzig, Remington Leith, and Emerson Barrett––truly know how to put on a show.

Between Leith crawling around

on stage and guitarist Danzig dancing from one end of stage to the other, their performance was electric. I could only just make out the drummer, Barrett, from my vantage point, but I could tell he was putting on quite the show as well.

As I’ve come to expect in my years as a Palaye fan, and excitedly told my roommate about it in advance, Leith did climb around on the balconies surrounding the stage in the middle of the set. Leith

“Everyone in that crowd was a current or reformed emo kid, and we all collectively lost our minds scream-singing the lyrics to the iconic song.”

has been warned on previous occasions to stop doing this, but continues to do so anyway because he’s a rockstar.

At one point, someone in the crowd was visibly not doing well, and the brothers stopped the show to make sure they made it out safely before resuming. Danzig, Leith,

and Barrett see their fans as family, and put their safety and happiness above everything else when putting on a show. While I didn’t take advantage of it this time around, they’re known for coming out before and after every single show to meet all the fans they possibly can.

The newer members of the band, Jennie Vee and Andrew Martin, blended in seamlessly. At one point, my roommate who had never even heard of Palaye before turned to me and said that Martin “was like fucking Mozart.”

I was so worried she was going to be miserable, but Palaye put on such an insanely good show that even my roommate enjoyed herself without knowing the words to a single song.

Well, she knew the words to one song. I have never seen My Chemical Romance live, but hearing Palaye cover “Teenagers’’ gave me a sliver of that experience. Everyone in that crowd was a current or reformed emo kid, and we all collectively lost our minds scream-singing the lyrics to the iconic song.

Of course, Palaye played their own songs, and titles like “You’ll Be Fine,” “Lonely,” and “Mr. Doctor Man” were hits with the crowd.

So rarely does a band sound as good on stage as they do on a studio recording, but Palaye always manages to succeed all of my expectations.

I’ve heard some of the tracks before, but they were even better than the last times I heard them.

Finally hearing the songs off the newer albums that got me through the pandemic was truly a magical moment.

Seeing Palaye Royale live on a tour with Yungblud as one of my first concerts back was a full-circle moment. The last real concert I saw pre-pandemic was Yungblud at Paradise Rock in 2019. The last real concert I should have been at was Palaye Royale in Amsterdam.

As mad at myself as I am for missing that Amsterdam concert, Palaye Royale was worth the wait, and I’m so glad they were one of my first concerts after two years without live music. If you ever have a chance to see this underground rock band, even if you have never heard a single song, I promise you’ll have a good time. kaitlyn_fehr@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

February 17, 2022

7

The ‘22 Super Bowl Halftime Show: a memorable, multi-generational performance Karissa Schaefer Beacon Staff

There’s a reason I write about living arts and not sports, so the real celebratory moment on Super Bowl Sunday for me was the halftime performance, not the actual football game between…what teams?

Well, after going to look it up for the tenth time, the Los Angeles Rams and Cincinnati Bengals faced off Feb. 13 in what seemed like a never ending game to me. My suitemates and I even missed the first half hour to instead re-watch the 1993 Michael Jackson and the 2013 Beyonce halftime performances. Finally, the first quarter timer ran out and the audience was introduced to the group of performers one by one.

The set was a fake, white building structure—a unique sight for a Super Bowl performance. There were interwoven rooms the performers moved through, each of the six being introduced in a new one. With the game being set in L.A., the time difference was prominent in the viewing experience, with the sunlight definitely throwing me off. I’m used to it being dark out while stage lights and extra flare are easily visible and able to pop.

The performers featured were classic 90s hip hop and rap artists: Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, and Mary J. Blige. More modern hit artist Kendrick Lamar also performed, and although he didn’t sing, Anderson .Paak also made an appearance on the drums during Eminem’s song—whose bright idea was it to not let/suggest that THE Anderson .Paak sing?

Snoop Dogg headed off the show with Dr. Dre as backup, who was featured with every singer. As he walked through the rooms rapping

Kendrick Lamar on The DAMN. Tour at TD Garden in Boston on July 22, 2017. / Courtesy Kenny Sun “The Next Episode,” he passed by a sign of a part of the set called Tam’s, which made me think about the good old Tremont Tam. While Snoop tried hyping the crowd up, it dawned on me how low energy the audience was, contrasting with how full out the dancers were going. It was just odd considering I was fully bopping my head in the comfort of my suite.

The cut to 50 Cent was hilarious, showing him hanging upside down in a red room rapping “In Da Club.” Maybe I’m too young to understand the context behind why this happened, but the dancers were hot and cool enough to distract from it.

Nevertheless, you bet I was dancing along to this classic song from my childhood.

Next was Mary J. Blige, with her silver thigh high-boots and 70 pounds of beautiful hair making just as much

of a statement as her energetic performance. Her backup dancers, decked out in silver jumpsuits, lined the set’s roofs, hitting every beat with hard movements. Don’t get me wrong, Blige’s singing was great, but the choreography was such a great component, so much so it would often be a distraction from the singer. Even when Blige was the only one on her rooftop singing a slowed down, yet lively song, the dancers were effortlessly swaying their hips to the song’s beat. Blige finished off the song by “death dropping” on her back as she almost sang a sigh of relief, a somewhat funny, yet satisfying end.

Kendrick Lamar was up next, and he was without a doubt my favorite of the group’s. Lamar’s performances never fail to entertain, with every detail used purposely alongside intricate choreography. Personally, Lamar

could’ve headlined the entire show himself, and I would’ve been just as satisfied, if not more so.

All his dancers moved in unison, dressed in all black, wearing sashes that read “Dre Day,” and all rocked shaved bleached hair. All the arm movements were sharp, and as someone who’s been dancing since I can remember, it was pleasing to the eye, a top hip hop dance for sure.

Lamar performed on the ground instead of the house set, which allowed for the camera to get up close and play around with different angles. It followed him around and zoomed in a couple times at the start of the song while Lamar seemed to direct the group using finger guns.

As it switched to an overhead view, it showed the dancers moving in formations along with the ground, which was designed to look like streets.

The song was abruptly ended by the last but not least performer, Eminem. Wearing his signature black hoodie on top of one of the roofs, some of the siding was set to explode.

This seemed completely random and kind of distracting in the beginning part of his performance, before he switched to his hit “Lose Yourself”— yes, white america’s favorite “mom’s spaghetti” song.

As he switched roofs—one where Anderson .Paak was drumming with the biggest smile ever—the dancers on the ground all ran to crowd the structure. His act proved he still has all the star qualities he did back in the late 90s. He didn’t skip a beat or seem tired whatsoever, the work of a seasoned professional.

Eminem knelt down as Dr. Dre got onto the piano—one of the many live instruments I noticed specifically during Eminem’s song, which definitely adds to the production value. The stage lowered as Dre played the melody to the next song, “Still D.R.E.” He transitioned to the center of the set once again, joined by Snoop Dogg.

The dancers were once again slaying the choreography, moving around so smoothly and cool simultaneously.

They hit every step to every beat perfectly together. I could watch this part specifically over and over again.

The rest of the performers made their way to the center, still bringing great energy until the very end. They finished with as much style as when they started. The crowd erupted with applause as the show concluded.

Thoroughly entertained and decently satisfied, that was my fix of Super Bowl LVI, which immediately got turned off just in time for “Euphoria.”

karissa_schaefer@emerson.edu

College newspapers participate in HBO roundtable for reality dating show ‘My Mom, Your Dad’ Cont. from Pg. 1 This made it easier for the two to connect on an even deeper level, and allowed Sturgis to let people in and open up more.

“It definitely humanized our parents and made me take my mom off that perfect parent pedestal,” Sturgis said. “It opened up more conversations between us that we didn’t even know we needed to have.”

As a college graduate, Orr made a noteworthy mention of how our early 20s are an important stage for growth and reflecting, specifically when truly seeing our parents for who they are.

“You’re recognizing things and seeing more, so this experience expedited that process,” Orr said. “The ultimate thing is you get to have this new, unique experience with your parents that you wouldn’t have otherwise, so that’s something special.”

Some of the student journalists present could connect to having divorced and single parents, with their questions tailoring towards the subject and making the 45-minute conversation a safe space to listen to others who have gone through similar situations.

“We had a lot of the same experiences with parents being split and going back and forth between house to house,” Patrick said. “That’s part of the reason we got close so fast. Despite being from everywhere in the country, there was stuff we could relate to.”

The parents weren’t the only ones who forged new relationships. All the kids recalled instant closeness on the first night in their house. What viewers see are only a few selected snippets from weeks of filming and being in the house 24/7 together. Multiple people referred to the group as a family without conflict, one with no dull moments and a good dynamic.

“We got really close really fast for a random group of people who absolutely walked in and just met each other right then and there,” Sturgis said.

“Because we were all really close, there weren’t any major arguments with meddling and stuff.”

Considering the sociable young age group, it wasn’t surprising to Devoe that everyone got along so well. The constant close quarters with each other factored into the decision-making for meddles, prioritizing peace amongst the group.

“We put our friendships first, we didn’t want to step on everyone’s toes,” Devoe said. “We of course had our parents’ best interest at heart, but I would say, for the most part, we were worried about the people we were right next to.”

The opportunity was one of a lifetime for Strunk and her mom, both eager to jump on a plane to the best thing that’s happened in their lives.

The special memories with this group shared behind the scenes will always stick with Strunk, the immediate comfortability waving away any nervous-

ness. “[The cast is] the sweetest people I’ve met, and I would not take any of it back because everything happens for a reason,” Strunk said. “We were all supposed to be at that house exactly at the time we were, so that was the most amazing thing ever.”

Young adults are always trying to balance their busy lives, between jobs and social interactions. Many college students are already preoccupied with finding their own partner—let alone finding one for their parent—so a question arose of competition between parent and child, insinuating a “race” to see who would get a chance at a relationship first.

No matter what’s going on with the kids’ personal and romantic lives— like Kauffman using the show as an icebreaker on dates—they are all supportive of their parents’ freedom in their journey to find love. Orr, who is currently engaged, wants the same happiness for her mom.

“I want [my mom] to have what I have,” Orr said. “We’re off doing our own thing in our own lives, so we want to make sure they have that person with them.”

MJ’s relationship with his mom reflects one of friendship more than parenting, staying consistent even after the show. Despite his own romantic situation, there’s no competition with his mom, who he called his “homegirl.”

“For me, I’m at a point where I just

HBO’s Zoom roundtable discussion. / Karissa Schaefer Beacon Staff got out of a toxic relationship,” MJ said. “I’m just trying to help my mom find someone, maybe with Scott who knows. It’s just trying to make your loved one happy.”

Other interesting aspects of the show are Stunk and Devoe’s quick liners that could’ve been easy to miss and Strunk stated that they don’t find it necessary to put an age limit on searching for romance.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s never too late to find love,” Strunk said.

Devoe reminded everyone the concept of finding love is chaotic, not mattering if someone is 20 or 50.

“No one knows what they’re doing no matter what stage they’re at,” Devoe said.

After being asked to describe their overall My Mom, Your Dad experience in three words, the young adults included memorable, funny, unique, loving, emotional, weird, and according to Brown, “Lit, crazy, movie.”

There was an emphasis on using the word cringey to talk about the abnor-

mality of watching their parents’ actions—from cuddling, dancing, truth or dare, and even seeing them dressed up in superhero costumes for a night.

At the end of the day, Orr told the journalists something to take away, a lesson of self-confidence before anything—or anyone—else.

“Take it as an opportunity to love yourself,” Orr said. “Buy yourself some chocolates, buy yourself some flowers, take yourself to the spa, do what makes you happy. Ultimately, it starts with you. You need to be full and whole and loved on first before you can go find that person.”

Sturgis honed in on this point, further emphasizing one should be content with themselves before moving on to another person.

“Making sure we’re happy within ourselves is what’s most important because you can’t be with someone if you’re not comfortable with yourself,” Sturgis said. karissa_schaefer@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

Sports

February 17, 2022

8

Men’s basketball takes convincing Men’s lacrosse excited to make return to victory with one game left

Cont. from Pg. 1 MIT was rewarded two chances from the free-throw line from a senior center Houston personal foul.

The Engineers would sink both of them making the score 20-7 The teams traded trips to the free-throw line throughout the first half, with the Lions edging out the Engineers on each possession. Emerson led 50-31 heading into the locker room. Martin led the team in scoring with nine points with Dicenzo, Davis, Waterhouse, and Houston following with eight. Waterhouse said the team was able to connect with each other on the court.

“We were passing the ball really well,” he said. “We’re moving it from side to side, getting up and pressuring them and getting them to move up and down a lot… It’s our style.”

The second half opened with the teams trading shots. Davis sank a layup and a three while Houston got two layups. MIT scored two threes and two layups in response.

A DiCenzo layup extended the Lions’ lead to 73-46, which would be their largest lead of the night.

The Engineers would rain threes on the Lions to close the gap to 14, but when the score reached its closest point in over 20 minutes, Waterhouse would make a mid-range jumper and what would have been his third dunk of the game.

Instead, the score was taken away on a disputed technical call,

as he was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct after the dunk—a referee decision met with boos from the crowd.

Waterhouse said he believed it should have counted but he used the energy to his advantage.

“I guess that’s basketball,” he said after the game. “I thought it could have been a foul too, but I should have just played through it and ran back. In my freshman year, I dunked on a kid and I pointed at them, so that’s kind of what I do… it was kind of extra antics. I didn’t need to be there but I [was] in the heat of the moment.”

With three minutes left, he would eventually get his third throwing it down with one arm— to the delight of the crowd in the Bobbi Brown and Steven Plofker Gym. “I feed off that energy,” he said.

The Engineers managed to bring the score down to a ninepoint deficit with 16 seconds to play, but it was too little too late for MIT. Houston led the scoring totals with 24 points and 17 rebounds.

Waterhouse, who scored 20, said the team usually performs well when Houston is on his game.

“Jarred had a huge night,” he said. “We feed off that energy that he brings. Whenever he comes to play, we’re all gonna come to play.”

DiCenzo shot a career-high of 14 points. During his career at Emerson, he had battled with injuries and felt his performance tonight was an accumulation of his

Rotch Field

Courtesy Kayla Buck hard work to get back into form.

With his impending graduation, he said it will be tough to let go of the game.

“It’s definitely emotional for me,” DiCenzo said. “I’ve been injured most of my career. I had an Achilles injury, hip injury, and appendix. So saying goodbye to basketball can be pretty sad.”

The Lions’ next match-up will be a home game against Wheaton College this Saturday. It will be their last game of the regular season as well as the team’s Senior Day.

tyler_foy@emerson.edu

‘We didn’t do anything right’: Lions crushed by Smith 79-34 Jason Tulchin Beacon Staff

Emerson women’s basketball lost to Smith College in a landslide 45-point deficit on Wednesday, the biggest scoring gap experienced by the Lions team this season.

The women’s basketball team was coming off of a 76-45 loss to Springfield College on Senior Day. Smith is the number one team in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference and came into the game 19-2 through their season.

The first quarter opened up with a 5-0 lead for the Pioneers, only broken up by two foul shots from junior guard Chelsea Gibbons. 5-2 was the closest Emerson would come to an even score, as Smith went on a 13 point tear. The first quarter came to a close at 30-10, with Pioneers sophomore guard Jessie Rufner leading the quarter scoring nine points.

Smith began the second quarter quickly, making a layup from a turnover less than a minute in. The quarter would turn into a close-range exchange between the teams, with nearly three-fourths of all points scored in the quarter coming from layups. Emerson would only be outscored by four in the quarter but still faced a massive 24-point gap, heading into the second half 42-18.

The beginning of the third quarter was another fast start for Smith, with senior forward Katelyn Pickunka making a layup 12 seconds in. A layup and a three-pointer from Gib-

Courtesy Kayla Buck bons and a layup from senior guard Katie Beckmann would push Emerson to 25. The Lions’ defense would prevent the Pioneers from scoring in the final two minutes until senior forward Kyra Rideout pushed a layup and fouled Beckmann, whose trip to the line would be the last points of the quarter as both teams moved into the final 10 minutes with a score of 62-26.

The fourth quarter would be the nail in the coffin for the Lions as the Pioneers tallied 17 points, benching their starters and fielding their fresh reserves. Emerson also saw some playtime from their first-year reserves, with guard Bianca Benson and forward Mackenzie Bruno each playing for nine minutes. Junior center Chloe Allen led Emerson’s scoring in the quarter with four of Emerson’s eight though this paled next to

Smith’s 17. A free throw and three layups from Smith closed the game off, 79-34.

“We didn’t do anything right,” Lions Head Coach Bill Gould said after the game. “We didn’t follow the game plan, we didn’t play hard enough, we weren’t good enough.”

Gould believed that there was nothing that they could learn from here—it was simply a bad game to move past.

“It was a useless game,” he said.

“They’re twentieth in the country [in NCAA Division III play]. So if anything, it shows us where we need to go.”

The Lions will be going to London, Connecticut to play Coast Guard Academy on Saturday, Feb. 19.

jason_tulchin@emerson.edu

Courtesy Austin Franklin

Tyler Foy

Beacon Staff The artificial turf at Rotch Field hasn’t seen a men’s lacrosse game since February 2020, but the Lions will make their return this Saturday to start their 2022 season.

At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, all spring sports were shut down—including the men’s lacrosse team, which had played only five games before their season was canceled.

Things were hopeful in 2021 when an abbreviated season of five games was on the cards. Even though the team ended up only playing two away games, Head Coach Matthew Colombini said the limited season had a positive effect on the team.

“It was beneficial that we got out and we were able to play a little bit,” Colombini said. “It was certainly very challenging on the guys to prepare and then not have the opportunity to show all the preparation they did. Both those games were important for the younger guys to get a feel for what it’s like.”

The team participated in restrictive practices in Spring 2021 due to COVID protocols, which isolated players on offense and defense. They were not able to scrimmage due to contact being minimal. Nevertheless, sophomore defenseman Shawn Zheng said he appreciated being able to practice at all.

“It was a pretty helpful transition,” he said. “I got the hang of how everything runs in the field, in the locker room, how you’re supposed to carry yourself, and a college team standard.”

The team has been limited over the course of the past two years, but attacker Austin Franklin said he was ready to demonstrate the team’s growth since the start of the pandemic on the field.

“We’re excited to be able to play a full season and really show how much we’ve improved over the last couple years,” Franklin said. “Unfortunately, playing five games in 2020 and then two games last year with everything going on, I don’t think we’ve really been able to show our full potential.”

The team is full of returning players, including Franklin who is coming back to the team as a graduate student since players were awarded another year of eligibility. While working on his master’s degree in writing for film and television, he said the team atmosphere was the reason he chose to continue playing.

“We’ve got a lot of good camaraderie going on and getting down to the field every day and going to lift every day is a lot of fun,” Franklin said. “It’s hard to say no or to pass up on an opportunity to be around the guys that we’ve got on the team.”

With five juniors, six seniors, and two

graduate students, the team’s 25-man roster is mostly full of upperclassmen.

Colombini said the veteran players have been crucial to the team dynamic and development of the program.

“We have a great group of leaders,” Colombini said. “They certainly know what we expect and what it takes to be competitive. And they’ve done a great job helping the young guys out.”

Zheng said the leadership core of the team had helped him mature as a player.

“Once I stepped on campus I was introduced to all the older guys,” Zheng said “They have helped me a lot in terms of getting used to how everything is supposed to go campus life-wise. These older guys, they set a standard on how this team is supposed to carry themselves, how everybody acts, in class and on the field.”

The team started practicing in the last week of January, and has had to deal with inclement weather impeding its practices “With those cold days that have been canceled, we all have the attitude that it doesn’t matter it’s out of our control— we find ways to get better,” Franklin said. “Whether that’s going to the gym and lifting, or watching more film, or finding ways to work around adversity, we’re still getting better as a program.”

Colombini said the team is in better shape compared to his previous five seasons of being at the helm for the Lions.

“We’re in a great place right now,” Colombini said. “From one to 25 on the roster, everyone is working extremely hard. This is, by far, the physically strongest team we’ve had. It’s the most skilled team we’ve had. More importantly, the guys genuinely enjoy being around each other.”

In their last full season, the Lions went 3-14. However, they are hopeful this season to reach the top of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference.

“The goals are the same as they’ve been since I got here to make NEWMAC playoffs—we want to win the NEWMAC,” Colombini said. “We keep it pretty simple.”

The Lions’ first game of the season is Saturday, Feb. 19 at Rotch Field against Nichols College. To win the game, Colombini said there will be an extra focus on controlling emotions after the drought of competitive play.

“It’s going to be really important to manage for the first five to 10 minutes of the game,” he said. “All the energy, the emotion, and the excitement of not having hosted a home scrimmage at Rotch since February 2020.”

tyler_foy@emerson.edu