Emerson College’s student newspaper since 1947 • berkeleybeacon.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2020 • Volume 73, Issue 22
IN ONLY A WEEK, SEMESTER ENDS WITH BLISTERING SPEED
For nearby local establishments, the loss of students hurts business
How COVID-19 left most Emerson students scrambling Dana Gerber, Beacon Staff The COVID-19 pandemic has left little of Emerson College unscathed as the quickly growing public health crisis ignites action from national, state, and local governments. The action at Emerson, a college with roughly 4,000 students, left community members scrambling to find ways to transition classes online, adjust to new guidelines from the state and city regulating businesses and nightlife, and move out by March 20. The timeline of the past week shows the extent to which officials, both inside and outside of the college, have gone to curb the outbreak of COVID-19. The story of a weeklong series of changes started with President M. Lee Pelton announcing on March 10 that all college classes would transition to online instruction with a weeklong break for professors and students to adjust to the new medium. Only hours before, Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts. The college plans to use a video-conferencing service, Zoom, to conduct all classes, and the IT department confirmed on March 14 that students and faculty would have access to Zoom Pro, which can hold presentations for up to 100 attendees. See Pandemic, page 2
Stephanie Purifoy, Beacon Staff Local businesses are reeling after Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin Walsh laid out a sweeping set of regulations over the weekend that prohibits restaurants from serving food and alcohol in-house and restricts operating hours. Baker announced the regulations in a press conference Sunday that prohibit establishments from serving food to people in-house—restricting them to only take-out food—and banning all gatherings over 25 people. Walsh’s regulations mandated that all restaurants, bars, and clubs must close by 11 p.m. Only two days before these announcements, Emerson asked all students to vacate on-campus housing by March 20. Katherine Mantia, a veteran employee of Maria’s Taqueria on Tremont Street, said she found out about Emerson’s announcement when her father, one of the owners of the restaurant, told her after a shift. The developments have devastated their business, she said, estimating that at least 50 percent of their customers are Emerson students who will largely be gone within the week. Sophomores Jillian Lamberson (left) and Lauren Bjella on Monday pack their things into a car on in front of Piano Row on Boylston Street. Jakob Menendez / Beacon Staff
See Local, page 3
HOW A VIRUS FORCED STUDENTS OUT OF DORMS IN FOUR DAYS March 2020
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• Classes move • WHO says online and Coronavirus students are has become a given option to pandemic leave • NBA player • Gov. Charlie Rudy Gobert is Baker declared diagnosed with a state of coronavirus emergency in after playing in Massachusetts Emerson gym
Inside This Edition EVVYs cancels both awards shows, pg. 2
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• Students in Spain and France are advised to return home
• Students are told that they are to leave the campus by March 20 • President Trump declares National Emergency over COVID-19
• NEWMAC
cancels all remaning spring games of the semester
Housing decision dates in the air, pg. 3
Marlboro moves classes online for spring semester, pg. 2
News A pandemic rapidly changed students’ lives The Berkeley Beacon
Continued from page 1 Although Pelton initially gave students the option to either stay in the campus’s residence halls or return home, on March 13, he officially announced the closure of all residential operations. Students are required to vacate both the Boston and Los Angeles campuses by March 20. Exemptions will be provided for international students and those with “special circumstances,” according to Pelton’s statement; students unable to leave campus had to complete a form for extended housing by March 16. Many students expressed fear, frustration, and anxiety surrounding the quick turnaround with which they are expected to pack up their rooms and travel home while considering travel restrictions and familial quarantines. “I was going to stay here because my sister is quarantined and my mom is quarantined and now I have to go home to that,” junior Joe Davidi said in an interview Friday. “Hopefully they don’t have [Coronavirus] at all so I don’t have it going home to them because my mom is in a risk group.” Cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Massachusetts, with 197 confirmed cases in the state and 36 in Suffolk County, where Emerson is located, as of Monday, according to the Department of Public Health. A total of 1092 individuals have been tested, according to the same data. No Emerson College students have been confirmed positive for the virus to date. In Boston, Mayor Martin Walsh declared a public health emergency in a press conference on March 15 in an effort to receive more aid from the state and federal governments to combat the virus and its effects. The city and state governments, looking to impose restrictions on nightlife, moved to order an 11 p.m. mandated
Left to right: Carrie Aubin, Chloe Shaar, Eva Charbonnnier, and Isabella Espejo, calling their parents to let them know of the college’s decision asking them to leave campus by March 20. Jakob Menenndez / Beacon Staff closure for all restaurants, bars, and clubs starting March 15. The businesses are also mandated to transition to takeout-only in an attempt to curb crowds. As a result of these regulations, Emerson’s dining facilities have responded by shifting to offering only pre-packaged meals for students starting March 17. This will replace sit-down meals, and the Dining Center will open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Max Cafe’s hours will be adjusted to 11 a.m. to 12 a.m., and its grille will no longer be serving prepared food. The Paramount Cafe, the Lion’s Den, and the Backstage Cafe have all closed. Many Emerson facilities and resources will stay active in varying capacities. Emerson Counseling and Psychological Ser-
vices, the Social Justice Center, and Academic Advising Center will continue meeting with students virtually or over the phone, while the 172 Tremont Campus Center and the Iwasaki Library will remain open with modified hours. Both the housing selection process and fall class registration have been delayed, and decisions for resident assistant positions have been postponed. As of March 13, the Student Government Association is proceeding via online communication for the remainder of the semester, including the Annual Budget Request process and elections. Many Emerson traditions and programs have been forced to cancel due to student travel and broader restrictions.
March 16, 2020
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The 39th Annual EVVY Awards canceled both their Gala and Majestic Awards Show, though they still plan to announce nominees and winners online. The WEBN television station, WECB radio station, ArtsEmerson, and the Bright Lights film series have all ceased programming for the remainder of the semester. The WERS radio station plans to continue service with professional staff replacing student hosts. In the Boston area and across the Commonwealth at large, steps are quickly being taken to slow the spread of the virus putting Emerson students at risk. Gov. Baker banned gatherings of more than 25 people in Massachusetts until April 17, though the White House has recommended gatherings exceed no more than 10 people. The MBTA also announced reduced service for buses and trains starting March 17. Baker also launched a COVID-19 command center, which gathers experts to work toward expanding lab capacity testing, planning quarantine operations, and other duties. The center will have access to state funds, including a $15 million aid package approved by the State Legislature. Since testing protocols have become more flexible, clinicians have more individual discretion on who to test, and while more national and state labs are gaining approval to conduct tests, the number of tests conducted in the state is expected to increase in the coming days. Across state lines, Marlboro College has announced plans to move classes online and shut down their dorms. Since the college is currently on spring break, students have likely spent their last days on its campus before its planned alliance with Emerson takes effect in the fall. dana_gerber@emerson.edu
Coronavirus pandemic cancels 39th EVVY awards Dana Gerber, Beacon Staff The EVVYs canceled both of their award ceremonies for the first time in the show’s 39year history due to the public health risk surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization’s faculty advisor said Monday. “I haven’t been here all 39 years, but there’s never really been a situation like this in any of our lifetimes, including the EVVY Awards’,” EVVYs Advisor Eric Fox said in a phone interview. Nominees for the 39th Annual EVVY Awards, the nation’s largest student-run, multi-camera live production, will be announced as planned on April 6. The two shows, the Gala and EVVY Awards show, were slated to take place on April 19 and May 8, respectively. Liz Bradford, aesthetics executive producer for EVVYs 39, said the decision to cancel the awards was based on student safety, specifically ensuring students would not feel as though they
had to stay in Boston despite health risks. “If someone was, say, stuck here because they were going to the EVVYs, that’s terrible,” she said in a phone interview. “We had to put our students first, even if it means shutting it down.” Rhegan Graham, logistics executive producer for EVVYs 39, said the decision was especially difficult because of the months of hard work that goes into producing, hosting, and broadcasting the ceremonies. Over 250 students make the yearly programs possible. “Everyone has been working together for so long, and then knowing that we’re going to have to make the call that pretty much brings a halt to a lot of people’s work, and a lot of people’s dream positions, or something that they’ve been working for all of Emerson, is a really hard decision to make,” Bradford said. “But it’s also one of safety that we had to think about.” Graham said the organization will not refund the $10 submission costs for the nearly 800 sub-
missions as the cost goes toward the submission platform. Graham said the team has not decided how to proceed with announcing nominees and winners, but they hope to still incorporate creativity in whatever capacity they can. “We definitely will still have something, but we’re still brainstorming,” she said. Rachel Westra, content executive producer, said it’s important to the team to make sure the awards still showcase student innovation and imagination. “There will definitely still be a way that people get recognized that isn’t just a Skype call,” Westra said. Fox, the advisor, said there was never a question as to whether the awards themselves would be given out, with or without a ceremony. “When all of these changes started happening, submissions had closed and the judging process had already started, and that’s a process
that can be done online no matter who is judging,” he said. “From a business continuity perspective, we still do have awards to give out, and we will still award them.” Students who signed up to work on the show will still receive a non-tuition credit from the organization, and they are working with Dean of the School of the Arts Rob Sabal to determine “different modalities” to allow students to receive credit, according to a March 13 press release from the EVVY Awards. “We are immensely proud of our team this year, whether or not we got to see it to the end,” Graham said. “But we are so thankful for everybody that works on the show, everybody that submitted to the show, and everybody that supported the EVVYs, and we share everybody’s heartbreak with it being canceled.” dana_gerber@emerson.edu
Marlboro students say premature goodbye to Potash Hill Jacob Seitz, Beacon Staff Over the past three years, Marlboro College student Charlie Hickman hasn’t left Potash Hill for more than a few months at a time. If the proposed Emerson-Marlboro merger goes through, Hickman and their peers may never live on the hill again, as all Marlboro classes are moving online for the remainder of the semester. “I’ve lived here since my freshman year—I haven’t left,” Hickman told The Beacon in a phone interview. “And while I understand why we have to leave, that doesn’t make it feel any better. And the fact that we don’t get to come back in the fall makes it a million times worse.” Marlboro College President Kevin Quigley announced in an email Monday evening that the college would be transitioning to online classes after spring break—which ends on March 30— for the remainder of the semester. The college is giving students until March 22 to move out of their residences. The Beacon reported on Friday that Marlboro classes were transitioning online for two weeks but Quigley said updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data swayed his decision to move them online for the remainder
of the semester. “It’s so sad that we don’t get to be a commu“The CDC’s guidance has shifted,” Quigley nity right now because we’re not supposed to said in a phone interview. “We’re trying to fol- be touching each other,” they said. “There are low the best practice … we’re also wondering no words to describe how absolutely devastatabout our ability to support students in our iso- ing this is.” lated setting if staff Hickman said and faculty start getthe community was "[We were hoping] to have a ting sick.” looking forward to Quigley said the semester that we were all going sharing the potendecision is in the tially last semester best interest of stuto have together to be able to on the hill with one dents, despite the another before the negative immediate commiserate with one another, COVID-19 panimpact. demic struck. and now we’re going to be “This probably “[We were hopsounds counterintuiing] to have a sescattered across the country— mester that we were tive, but it’s thinking about our students’ all going to have that is heartbreaking." best interest—of together to be able trying to provide to commiserate with - Charlie Hickman some certainty in a one another, and time of enormous now we’re going to uncertainty that is anxiety-producing,” he said. be scattered across the country—that is heartHickman said the pain of leaving Potash Hill breaking,” they said. “There’s no way to make for possibly the last time is compounded by the it better.” inability to grieve uninhibited with their fellow Quigley said he is confident that Marlboro students. will be able to adjust its current classes to an
online medium. “Our faculty and students are working together to make the best of these very challenging circumstances,” he said. “It’s going to require a lot of flexibility and creativity on the part of our students and faculty, but I’m confident that they will find ways to do what needs to be done in the days ahead.” Hickman said they are hopeful they’ll get to say goodbye to their community again. “Hopefully, we can have a commencement ceremony some time and be able to say goodbye as a community, because that’s what’s being taken from us right now,” Hickman said. “It breaks my heart that I might be leaving Marlboro and then have to show up to Emerson in the fall without having a real end.”
jacob_seitz@emerson.edu
The Berkeley Beacon
March 16, 2020
News
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No scheduled date for spring housing extension decisions Jacob Seitz, Beacon Staff Applications for students who apply to remain on campus are being judged on a case-bycase basis, according to a college official. Emerson announced on Friday that all students must vacate the dorms, but the college would allow students with “extenuating circumstances” to remain on campus if they submitted an application, which was due at 5 p.m. on March 16. Associate Dean for Campus Life Erik Muurisepp said he could not define exactly what would allow students to qualify for extended housing. “It’s extenuating circumstances, which is very broad,” he said in an interview. “There’s not a model case.” Muurisepp did not have a timeline for when housing decisions for students would be made and did not know which dorm building students would be living in, though he did say they would be consolidated into one building. He also could not provide The Beacon with a number for how many students applied for extensions. Muurisepp said each section of the college was still coming up with plans of operation for the next few months. “Every department is assessing how we still support the students that will be remaining here safely and in accordance with whatever the city puts out,” he said. According to an email from Muurisepp and Assistant Vice President of Campus Services Duncan Pollock, the Dining Center will move to grab-and-go options only. These meals cannot be eaten in the Dining Center and will be
provided three times per day. Senior Suzy Zhou said she immediately applied to remain on campus because of the restrictions on travel to her home. “A big reason is that…[they’re] canceling fights between the United States and China,” she said in an interview. “So, if we want to fly back to Shanghai, Beijing, it takes more than 30 hours. So I think it’s really crazy, and some doctors and professors in China say to stay in your house, try not to eat anything on the plane, so 30-hour flights without food and drink.” Zhou said she submitted her application this weekend and has not heard anything back from the Office of Campus Life. While Zhou was upset at the college’s decision, she understood their reasoning. “I kind of saw it coming, because China did a similar thing,” she said. “But I think the school should [be doing] more about international students, especially students from China or European countries who also have the travel ban.” Zhou explained her plan if her application does not get accepted. “I will go to their office,” she said.
"Every department is assessing how we still support the students that will be remaining here safely and in accordance with whatever the city puts out." - Erik Muurisepp
Stephanie Purifoy contributed to this report.
jacob_seitz@emerson.edu
Tucker Jones and his mother pack up their car prior to heading home for the rest of the spring.. Jakob Menenndez / Beacon Staff
Local restaurants to struggle with lack of college students Continued from page 1 She said they plan to push their to-go orders through delivery services. They have also cut back on how many staff members work at a time, in an attempt to both save money and ensure cleanliness. “We’re just taking it day by day because everything’s changing so fast,” she said in an interview. “We keep checking the news to make sure we’re still allowed to be open. As long as we can serve food, we will by any means.” This all comes after the COVID-19 pandemic exploded in Boston over the past week. Cases have expanded to 197 as of Monday, rising 33 from Sunday. Fourteen people have been hospitalized but none have died. Most colleges and universities in the state and around the country have shifted classes online and sent their students home in an attempt to slow the virus’s progress. Diky Melville, general manager at The Fourth Wall, said they would have to shut down the bar portion of their establishment and shift only to doing takeout orders from the kitchen. “This is a small, family-owned business that’s not backed by a corporation,” he said, “We’ve never had to deal with anything like this. How do we come out the other side of this? I don’t really know.” Mellville said the rapid pace of developments have left him and his staff scrambling. “It was devastating to hear, such a change of pace,” he said while pouring a draft beer for a customer at the bar. “I’m trying to be optimistic that these drastic measures will keep everyone better and we can get back to normal as soon as possible.” Boston resident Gary Garner said he has lived on Stuart Street for four and a half years and goes to either The Fourth Wall or The Tam four nights a week to drink and hang out with friends. He said last night he started crying while at the bar. “People may not realize it but when you see people every day, you get to know them,” he said. “The bartenders and the regulars here do become like family. . .These are my friends and their income is gone. Many of [the regulars] are salaried individuals who are still going to get a paycheck but these guys won’t. It’s scary.” stephanie_purifoy@emerson.edu
Dicky Melville, the general manager of The Fourth Wall, posing for a photo behind the bar. Jakob Menendez / Beacon Staff
Editorial Continuing campus news coverage amid a global pandemic It’s been a hectic week, to say the least. There are 197 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts as of Monday, according to public health officials. The college made the decision Friday to ask students to leave residence halls at both the Boston and Los Angeles campuses for the remainder of the semester. Student organizations like The Berkeley Beacon are forced to work remotely. The Beacon also faced difficult decisions within the past few days. With many of our writers and editors leaving Boston, we are struggling to determine how to keep our organization running to the best of its ability. This week’s edition may be short, but it’s special. It is our way of saying that despite everything going on in the world, we are not going anywhere. As journalists, our professors and mentors trained us for covering news during turbulent times, and a global pandemic certainly qualifies as turbulent times. Our duty as student reporters is to serve the Emerson community. So, as long as we possibly can, The Beacon will continue publishing articles and keeping our audience informed about campus news. While we will have to modify our reporting, we are committed to updating the community about issues that affect them. We have consistently reported Emerson news for 73 years, and we sure as hell aren’t stopping now. We have to admit, this is a hard time for journalists to do our jobs. Since most people are ordered to work from home and practice social distancing, meeting with editors about stories becomes almost impossible. All the interviews have to be done over the phone, and all communications and edits are done through chats and comments. Newspapers in areas with confined cases wonder how they can keep their employees safe while covering news. Because the college is trying to send as many students home as possible, The Beacon only has a few editors left in Boston, with the number decreasing as each day passes. Soon enough, all of us might have to leave the campus entirely.
This is also an exciting time for journalists, in the worst way possible. This is exactly what all of our education has been preparing us for. In a New York Times article that talks about how The Seattle Times operates during the pandemic, a reporter named Sydney Brownstone said “the whole newsroom just snapped into gear” as she describes how they started covering the virus at the epicenter of its spread. This is what we did when the Marlboro merger happened, and this is what we did after the college sent out the first email regarding COVID-19. We know the importance of this paper during this difficult time. Rumors about housing, academics, and dining hall services fly around the campus, and we need to take on the responsibility of helping our readers understand the situation. During this time of uncertainty, we are going to do our best to deliver the most necessary information as quickly as possible. This is the time that we work together to heal and repair our community. As people leaving campus head back home to different places around the world, as alumni learn about the closing online and with social media, The Beacon must step up and provide a platform that brings people together through information. Graduating seniors are looking to us for information about commencement, students who need gear from the Equipment Distribution Center for their projects are looking to us for information about the hours, and students who don’t yet have a place to go are looking to us for information from the Office of Housing and Residential Education. Our community needs information to make vital decisions and we hope our reporting will help their decision-making. While this is our last print edition of the paper, this is merely a new beginning as we start to cover this virus and the effects it has on our campus and community. No matter where we are, we will continue to track what’s happening in the community to keep our readers informed. When we come back this fall, we hope you step onto campus and still have a good idea of what it is to come.
This editorial was written by Print Managing Editor Domenic Conte, Digital Managing Editor Stephanie Purifoy, Opinion Editior Ziqi Wang, and Assistant Editor Jess Ferguson.
Editor-in-Chief Chris Van Buskirk © 2019 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. Website berkeleybeacon.com
Phone (617) 824–8687
Email Office Address contact@berkeleybeacon.com 172 Tremont St. Boston, MA 02116
Digital Managing Editor Stephanie Purifoy Print Managing Editor Domenic Conte Visual Managing Editor Jakob Menendez Businesss Managing Editor Dylan Rossiter Advisor Douglas Struck
A note to our readers: While COVID-19 is forcing us off campus and we suspend our print product until next semester, make sure to check out www.berkeleybeacon.com for updates on COVID-19 and news across campus. - Editor-in-Chief Chris Van Buskirk
The Berkeley Beacon
March 16, 2020
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Editorial Cartoon By the Editorial Board Illustration by Christine Park
Working from home might not be as bad as we think
Farewell Column: Too much love, not enough time Stephanie Purifoy Purifoy is a senior journalism major and The Beacon’s Digital Managing editor. The newsroom had been planning a Beacon party for weeks. We spend so many hours in a work setting that we need time with each other without all the stress and pressure. And then our lives were flipped upside down and inside out by the COVID-19 pandemic that has sent shockwaves rippling around the world. For the entire week, I’ve been compartmentalizing—one of my specialties. I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel what I knew was coming. The semester was speeding to a halt at a blistering pace, and none of us could wrap our heads around it. But we had a job to do. We still had to serve our community and provide crucial information that might help ease some of the overwhelming anxiety and uncertainty that’s palpable in every corner of campus. It wasn’t until our party that I had a chance to look everyone in the face and comprehend the level of loss coming my way—I plan on attending the Washington D.C. program in fall 2020. There aren’t really enough words to describe what this organization has meant to me over the past three years. I have found a purpose and a calling in bringing attention to things in this community and in holding institutions of power accountable for their actions. But most of all, I found a family. It’s a family that values the same things I do while still bringing unique perspectives to the table. It’s a family who is just as ambitious and hardworking as I am. Whenever I was scared of asking too much of our staff, they would push even further and ask, “Okay, but what about this?” We have been through successes and failures, we have laughed and cried, celebrated and grieved—all of it together. We fight, yell, and argue, but at the end of the day, I love every single one of them. This newspaper and the people in it have changed my life forever and all I can say is that I am so incredibly proud of everything we’ve accomplished, especially in the last year. Chris finally got the city tab on the website he wanted. Aaron, Kyle, and Ethan built out a badass sports section. Diti and Ziqi gave people space to express their perspectives and blew me away daily doing it. Grace and Taina continually cast light on the artistic works of this school with unrivaled skill. Jakob and Rachel have revolutionized the photo department with their endless creativity and curiosity. Katie, Lara, and Aaron started a Kasteel Well vertical, showing a level of commitment that I didn’t previously think possible—even if it only lasted for a week or so (sorry guys). The news team continued to dig into every facet of the college, which includes building
Jakob Menenndez / Beacon Staff out a Marlboro beat that brings consistent and vital information to their community. They were fearless and persistent the whole way through. Tomas, I’m so sorry you never got to go to Marlboro College. To say that I am devastated is an understatement. I am angry and bitter and sad that the month and a half I have left is being ripped away from me. I am mourning the projects and the memories that could’ve been. It wasn’t until Friday’s party that I realized that while I am overcome with this grief, I am not scared about the future of this paper. Even though this is my last edition of the paper and my last semester with this organization, we are continuing to build this legacy of ambition that will continue long after I have left. The Berkeley Beacon will continue to push against what we thought was possible for ourselves and will continue to do so with our community in mind. I came here with no friends, no purpose, and not really knowing where my life was going. I am leaving with a family, a blazing purpose, and a path forward. It has been the honor of my short life to work for this newspaper and I cannot thank you all enough for making that possible.
stephanie_purifoy@emerson.edu