Campus reopening

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

Thursday, Sept. 3 2020 • Volume 74, Issue 1

@berkeleybeacon // @beaconupdate

A REIMAGINED CAMPUS WELCOMES STUDENTS AS PANDEMIC PERSISTS

tk name (above); Plexiglass at Piano Row tap desk (top right); Tatte Bakery (bottom right) Lizzie Heintz & Rachel Culver / Beacon Staff

‘It’s definitely a weird vibe’

College reopening plan elicits excitment, anxiety from returning students Beacon News Staff Five months and 11 days after Emerson prematurely shuttered its campuses due to the initial U.S. outbreak of COVID-19, the college officially reopened its newly-retrofitted campus Monday, welcoming thousands to a campus strikingly different than it has been in the past.

Those returning were greeted with plexiglass in front of residence hall tap desks, boxed meals from the dining center, and a mandatory quarantine requirement after undergoing testing upon move-in. As the semester began, students attended classes wearing masks in distanced classrooms, theaters, and the Park Plaza Hotel for the first time.

The return to campus has elicited a mix of reactions from students. For many, coming back is a welcome return to some semblance of normalcy.

“This is my first experience at college, so all we’ve known is masks and social distancing—it’s not that bad,” Visual and Media Arts first-year Kerri Stephenson said while lounging in Boston Common, sitting next to another student in the honors program who she met online over the summer.

“I feel like maybe upperclassmen are probably struggling more.”

For others, the return brought newfound anxieties and safety restrictions difficult to adjust to.

“I was very nervous obviously,” Junior Zoe Mccoy(CQ) said. “But I just want to graduate and get out so taking a gap semester really wasn’t an option,

so [I felt] a little bit of a grim acceptance of having to come back.”

Mccoy said the influx of information on the virus and the regulations related to it have been a lot to keep tabs on.

“I feel like that the hardest part is on top of classes, I also have to just keep track of all of the additional information,” she said. “To go into every building and having to have [the symptom tracker] ready is lanother level of forethought that just makes it a little bit harder.”

Before students began returning to campus, the plan had garnered backlash on social media from both alumni and current students, who said sending community members to downtown Boston was dangerous for both them and other residents.

“I was apprehensive at first and to be honest, Boston is a pretty densely populated city,” Sophomore VMA major Prince Wang said. “I’m from California, and California is pretty suburban in a lot of areas but cases are horrible there. So in my mind I was wondering how they were able to pull it off.”

Conversely, junior journalism major Kaitlyn Fehr said the plan has gone better than she expected.

“I’m pleasantly surprised because I don’t have that much faith in Emerson, and I feel like they handled it much better than I thought they were going to,” she said.

Fehr said walking around campus with the new regulations in place has been off-putting.

“It’s definitely a weird vibe as a whole cause the campus feels super

empty,” she said. “People are so spread out, and some just didn’t come back.”

Claire Rodenbush, a junior creative writing major, said they feel like the sacrifices students are making are worth it to keep everyone safe.

“It’s definitely going to take some getting used to and some adapting, but it’s also necessary,” they said. “I’d rather be a little thrown off by an aesthetic if it’s going to help people. It’s definitely going to be weird for some classes… when you’re all sitting facing one direction, you can’t actually look at people.”

For Wang, his return to Boston from California was motivated by a desire to spend more time on Emerson’s campus.

“All of us are spring admits, so we started school last January,” Wang said while eating dinner with his friends in the 2 Boylston Place alley.

“So we only had like two months of actual physical school. My main reason [for coming back] was that I wanted to physically be in this school for a while. But the caveat was being in Boston is probably safer to be in than California.”

The aspect of campus life that has arguably taken the biggest hit is socialization, as any large gatherings are specifically prohibited. Typical on-campus spaces that students may meet up in are under strict capacity restrictions.

Sophomore Business of Creative Enterprises Major Halle Korman, who is a member of Sigma Pi Theta, said she is still trying to figure out how best to interact with her sorority Students, Pg. 2

Junior Jilly Towson advocated for BLM on social media Pg. 7

Without an athletic season, some sports resume practices safely Pg. 8

Contact tracing effort employs professionals, students Pg. 3

Why you should opt for optimism in an otherwise upsetting year Pg. 5

INSIDE THIS EDITION

Local restaurants anticipate a needed boost in business Beacon Living Arts Staff Businesses neighboring the bustling Emerson campus usually overflow with students, tourists, and commuters in early September. But this year, several nearby restaurants and bars remain eerily empty inside— void of crowds that will likely not return until the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.

Beloved spots in and around the Emerson bubble have opened as allowed under Massachusetts’ reopening plan. Many have created makeshift outdoor seating arrangements, complete with umbrellas and socially-distanced tables. Others continue fielding a steady stream of takeout orders or accommodating a small number of patrons indoors.

The Beacon spoke to four businesses by the Boylston and Tremont St. intersection to see what they think this altered semester means for them.

Most are eager to welcome back college-aged patrons.

“We’re really excited about [students coming back],” Katherine Mancia, manager of Maria’s Taqueria, said last week. “Even just yesterday, we saw the sales go up a bit more. So we’re definitely really excited to see a lot more foot traffic.”

For some spots, like Maria’s, college campuses reopening could boost their chances of turning a profit in a year otherwise marred by financial ruin. In fact, several owners and employees said the mass return of 20-somethings is especially important now since many Boston commut-

ers will not be working in the city until at least 2021.

Mancia said Maria’s never entirely closed and instead operated solely as a takeout business for many months to keep up its profits. Still, the spot struggled to boost their sales in the pandemic’s early stages when residents stayed almost entirely indoors.

“If it does go back to [shutdown], our sales will definitely drop,” Mancia said. “But as of yesterday, everyone was doing a pretty good job keeping their distance and wearing their masks inside the restaurant and in the streets…So we really hope everything stays as it is.”

Fajitas and ‘Ritas owner Brad Fredericks, who also owns Back Deck and French Quarter in Downtown Crossing, said he doesn’t expect students to cause problems with crowding in the Tex-Mex restaurant and bar.

Restaurants, Pg. 6

17% of students chose remote-only learning for the fall semester, more on pg. 3

News

The Berkeley Beacon

September 3, 2020

2

Administrators say reopening on track Incident Journal Andrew Brinker, Beacon Staff

The first week of Emerson’s reopening put into practice a plan that attempts to continue in-person instruction while staving off COVID-19 outbreaks, like those popping up at universities nationwide. So far, Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Jim Hoppe said the plan has been mostly effective.

Out of 5,093 tests administered by Monday, five positive results have been reported amongst community members, including three positives in the last week. But Hoppe said some cases of the virus were all but inevitable.

As of Monday, the college’s positivity rate sat at approximately .1 percent, a much lower mark than what other universities have hit after the virus raged through their student populations. Keeping case numbers down relies almost entirely on community adherence to social distancing and mask guidelines, Hoppe said.

“It’s a cultural change, he said.

“And so part of what we’ve been trying to do with the education and with the information is make sure that everyone understands what’s going to be necessary. The reality is the expectations of operating within a pandemic are an overlay to everything else that we typically do.”

The regulations represent a stark change to societal behavior that has proven difficult for some students thus far. At least a few gatherings that did not follow safety regulations have already been spotted by students or reported by residence assistants, Hoppe confirmed.

“It’s pretty anxiety-inducing...es-

Cont. from pg. 1 “We’re trying to figure out how to do that with everything right now and it’s a little difficult,” she said.

“So it’s a little stressful, but we just have to kinda figure it out.”

Sophomore VMA student Maximus Papsadore said interacting with his friends has become harder.

“In our suites, we are allowed a guest number up to basically [half] the amount of people in our suite,” Papsadore said. “So we have six people in the suite, and we’re allowed...three guests.”

Despite the strict rules on residence hall access and limits on group congregation, Stephenson said she has still been finding ways to make friends.

“I honestly don’t think that our social aspect of college has been affected that much,” she said. “We’re still just hanging out and stuff. You just have to be safe.”

Sophomore writing, literature and publishing major Chelsea Gibbons, who is on the girl’s basketball team, said the regulations to Emerson’s sports teams have been difficult to adapt to. For example, only half of any team may go to the fitness center for conditioning at one time.

“Normally, the captains would have set something up for us to see each other or go to the gym,” she said. “But obviously you can’t really do that, so it’s hard to get those team bonding experiences in. We’re still a close team, so we’ll probably be fine with just practices and things, but it’s a lot of uncertainty.”

Gibbons said she’s been looking into literary magazine clubs to join now, since she decided not to join any organizations during her fresh-

Dean of Campus Life James Hoppe wearing a mask in the alley at 2 Boyston Place. Courtesy of James Hoppe pecially when I do catch seven kids in one room or have to tell people to put on their masks,” Kiran Mahboob, a senior Business of Creative Enterprises major and RA in Little Building, said. “But everyone saw what it was like to get sent home, and I’m hoping no one wants to repeat that. I also do really appreciate how quickly the college is suspending people or putting people on probation” Hoppe said punishments for students violating guidelines vary on a case-by-case basis, and that suspension or removal from on-campus housing would be considered in extreme or repetitive cases.

The most poignant threat to the reopening plan, Hoppe said, would be students gathering in large numbers at bars or off-campus parties that could lead to case clusters.

The college’s testing program, which includes regular weekly tests for students, has been a bright spot in the reopening. Wait times have re-

mained low, Hoppe confirmed, with students waiting an average of 24-48 hours to receive results. Some have even reported receiving results in as little as 10 hours.

Hoppe said Tufts Medical Center and The Broad Institute, who is processing the tests, were equipped to handle the increase of testing capacity that came with the influx of students this last week.

“In addition to the tests from Emerson, I think The Broad [Institute] did 42,000 tests on Friday from campuses around the state New England,” he said.” So we’re into that mix as well. But the staff at Tufts have been very helpful and seem to have gotten themselves into a pretty good rhythm.”

Information about positive cases has come via the college’s COVID-19 dashboard, which administrators have said will now be updated twice weekly, or when information is particularly pressing. Data was initially

set to be released weekly, but after hearing community input the college decided that it will provide updates on both Monday and Thursday.

Assistant Vice President for Campus Life Erik Murisepp, who has been integral in the college’s COVID-19 planning, did not comment on why Emerson has opted for a biweekly update, instead of a daily dashboard, like colleges—Northeastern, Boston University, and Suffolk.

The data does not specify if the five positive tests were produced by students, faculty, or staff, or how many of the 5,093 tests have been administered to each subset of the community.

Murisepp said the data in the dashboard is vague to protect individuals’ identities.

The U.S. Department of Education has indicated in new guidance related to COVID-19 that data should be published by colleges and universities as long as it does not allow for students to be identified through the data. Legal experts have said that the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act does not give schools a legal right to withhold COVID-19 data, so Emerson’s choice to do so is administrators’ prerogative.

One of the key principles of the plan, Hoppe said, has been an emphasis on fluidity, meaning administrators are willing to make changes to adapt to different circumstances.

“We always have to make some adjustments as we go along, just because that’s what always happens with the start of the semester,” Hoppe said. “There’s probably going to be some adjustments as we learn people’s patterns and timing.”

andrew_brinker@emerson.edu

Fri. August 14. An officer discovered a smashed metal lockbox inside Allen’s Alley. The lockbox and its contents were collected and placed in the department’s lost and found for safe keeping.

Tues. August 25. A student reported having several hundred dollars stolen from their debit card after accidentally dropping their wallet inside the Boston Common.

Tues. August 25. A student reported having a shopping bag stolen after accidentally leaving it next to a picnic table inside the Boylston Place Alley.

Wed. August 26. An officer working the move-in of students was struck with water from the Colonial Building. A student admitted pushing water over the ledge but was unaware the water would land on the public sidewalk.

Wed. August 26. OHRE confiscated two small Ziplock bags of cannabis and a grinder from the Little Building and turned them over to ECPD. Thurs. August 27. A Residence Director turned over drug paraphernalia and drug contraband confiscated from a student from inside a residence hall to ECPD. The Emerson College Police Department provides the Incident Journal to The Beacon every week. Beacon staff edit the Incident Journal for style and clarity but not for content.

A drastically altered semester brings mix of emotions

More than 3,000 students made their way back to campus this month for hybrid classes and altered campus life. Rachel Culver/Beacon Staff man year to acclimate to college and the team.

“I was like, ‘I’ll just do it next year,’” she said. “But now I’m like, ‘Wait, I should have done it before, because now it’s harder.’”

Student employees, like Anna Dannecker, a senior comedic arts major who works in the Iwasaki Library, also had to quickly adjust to new practices. Students must now make appointments through Spacebook in order to enter the library, and books must be quarantined when they are returned.

“It’s new for everybody,” she said.

“The people training us are like, ‘this is the first time we’re doing any of

this too,’ so it’s just being patient with each other.”

Despite the learning curve, Dannecker said the new procedures helped to ease her worries.

“Coming into work…this is really reassuring,” she said. “Even though there’s so many new things to learn, that we have, like stickers on the floor, and a pathway to go to class, and a pathway to come to the desk, and the appointment system, and all this plexiglass, I feel safe.”

Dannecker, who is also a Little Building resident assistant, said she feels bad for her residents, who are itching to socialize with each other. She said she worries about what

would happen if there was an outbreak of COVID-19 in a residence hall, and the whole building had to quarantine.

“At some point, Paramount can only hold so many people,” she said.

However, she said she is confident most Emerson students will wear masks and follow guidelines if they receive “constant reminders.” When she went to the Dining Center, she said, Dannecker observed people failing to stand on the stickers demarcating social distancing space, and instead bunching up in a line.

“I’m really confident in all the procedures in place, it’s just every-

one remembering to follow them,” she said. “If everyone were to follow procedures every day, we’d be fine.”

Papsadore said safety hasn’t been much of a concern for him so far.

“Honestly, Emerson’s plan has been pretty good so far,” he said. “I haven’t felt exposed to any virus or situation like that.”

Still, some residents’ worries persist.

“I still am afraid but a lot of precautions are being made,” Mccoy said. “So I guess there’s still a little bit of anxiety, but there’s not a lot else [the college] can do.” contact@berkeleybeacon.com

The Berkeley Beacon

September 3, 2020

3

Campus capacity severely limited with new retrofitting measures Charlie McKenna, Beacon Staff Administrators drastically altered Emerson’s vertical downtown Boston campus in the weeks leading up to the fall semester to adhere to COVID-19 safety restrictions and new retrofitting.

Instead of students populating up to 20 floors of different buildings and cramming into elevators in their rush to classes, the campus has shifted to a mostly horizontal layout, meaning a significant portion of buildings’ upper floors will be all but abandoned, a college official confirmed. The college also redesigned confined spaces, like elevators and stairwells, to prevent a buildup of larger groups.

“We tried to flatten the campus, so students can get to most of their classes on the first or second or third floor and we tried to keep the upper floors offline,” Assistant Vice President of Facilities and Campus Services Duncan Pollock said in a phone interview.

The Walker Building and Tufte Center, two of the most active buildings in a typical semester, will see their capacities slashed. The 10-story Walker Building will still have classes on floors two through six, but will accommodate significantly less people in its halls.

Pollock said that in a normal semester, the Walker Building would have 327 students on the second floor at 10 AM. But with new restrictions, the second floor will hold just 39 students in the same time frame.

The Paramount Center will seemingly be one of the busiest buildings in the fall, with classes spanning five floors and being held in 10 studios, one classroom, the Blackbox Theater, and the film screening room.

The residential floors in the Center will function as the college’s designated quarantine space, meaning healthy students will take classes just one floor below where the infected and exposed will be housed.

Pollock said the residence hall portion of the building is entirely separate from the space below and essentially functions as a bubble.

“The residential piece of the Paramount is basically a capsule unto itself,” he said. “It’s isolated from the rest of the Paramount in all respects. We’re not going to be using the main entrance unless you choose to do so… for students going to classrooms. [Students are] going to go through the Paramount Theater system.”

A variety of larger, non-traditional spaces on and off campus will be utilized for classes including the Bill Bordy Theater, the Colonial Theater, the Paramount Theater, the newly renovated Cabaret in the Little Building, the Cutler Majestic Theater, the

Black Box Theater, The Beard Room, conference rooms in the W hotel, and three spaces in the 20 Park Plaza hotel.

Students will be spread out in those spaces according to social distancing regulations. So a theater, like The Bordy, which typically holds 160 students, will be a 30 person classroom, Pollock said.

“We took our larger spaces on campus and off campus and made them into what used to be the large classrooms and then we took the larger classrooms and made them into what used to be the smaller classrooms,” Pollock said in a phone interview.

Emerson’s back to campus guide contains detailed floor plans of all available classroom space for the fall that include student traffic flow directors, capacity limits, and seating charts for each room. The floor plans indicate that at one time, with full utilization of all listed on and off-campus spaces, the college will be able to hold under 1,000 students at a time.

Space capacity is even further limited by goals to keep students from congested elevators, staircases, and hallways. That limited space in comparison to previous years means administrators have had to work strategically to stagger classes throughout each day and space.

Another part of the de-densification strategy is employing the use of two “non-traditional” stairwells in the fall. The Ansin Building’s emergency staircase will be used for traffic descending floors, while the main staircase will only admit community members heading up the building. The second will be in the Little Building, where the main staircase will be designated for those going up and the back stairs will only be for those going down.

A series of 200 plexiglass installs are another piece of the retrofitting puzzle that have been installed to help curtail the spread of COVID-19.

Those installs have been placed in spaces where six feet of social distancing would be difficult to maintain, like guard stations at the entrance of buildings and the Equipment Distribution Center, Pollock said.

“We identified everywhere there’s people within six feet of distancing that are going to be face to face and we put plexiglass up there,” he said.

On-campus dining also changed to accommodate distancing with the Dining Center, offering limited in-person seating and all meals to-go.

A number of other spaces have been converted into makeshift spaces for seating including the Lion’s Den, the Whiskey Saigon bar, the lobby of 2 Boylston Place, the bookstore textbook annex, and the third and fourth floors of the Paramount.

The decision to have local restaurants, including those recently

opened on campus, accept Board Bucks instead of EC Cash was an effort to lessen the number of students in on-campus dining spaces, Pollock said. EC Cash is money uploaded to student’s ID cards in addition to normal room and board costs, while Board Bucks are included in the standard meal plan.

Preparing classrooms has been a months-long process, Pollock said, as the college began retrofitting its campus in April. Crews have been working throughout the summer to flatten Emerson’s campus.

Pollock said he didn’t know a cost estimate for the whole process.

charles_mckenna@emerson.edu

The dining hall features separated seating and protective glass for workers, and the mailrrom was relocated to account for social distancing.

Lizzie Heintz / Beacon Staff

What does contact tracing look like so far?

Andrew Brinker, Beacon Staff Emerson has assembled two teams of contact tracers in compliance with state guidelines to track infections and potential exposures to COVID-19.

One of those teams will be assigned to handling student-related contact tracing, and the other will be dedicated to faculty and staff, Vice President and Dean of Campus Life Jim Hoppe said. Both teams are composed entirely of

full-time faculty and staff.

Those tracers are charged with notifying community members of exposure to the virus.

Once a community member tests positive, contact tracers are immediately notified and begin interviewing the infected to figure out who they have been in close contact with.

Close contact is defined as being within six feet of another person for at least fifteen minutes.

Once the initial interview is completed, the tracers then reach out to those who had been in close

contact with the infected and conduct a similar interview with them.

Throughout the process, contact tracers must conclude whether or not someone in contact with the infected must be quarantined.

“The contact tracer helps determine whether each potential contact fits the definition of a close contact, and if they do, then that person is asked to go into quarantine,” Hoppe said.

andrew_brinker@emerson.edu

Total enrollment peaks, undergraduate enrollment lags behind Dana Gerber, Beacon Staff Emerson reported an all-time high in total enrollment for the 2020–21 academic year with 5,411 undergraduate and graduate students attending hybrid or online-only classes—a 4 percent increase from last year.

The uptick is largely due to a 34 percent increase in the college’s graduate student population. However, undergraduate enrollment now sits at its lowest in eight years at 3,714 students, a 157-student dip from last year, Vice President Ruthanne Madsen said.

Approximately 17 percent of students opted for online-only learning in the midst of the pandemic. These students paid the same tuition costs as those enrolled in the hybrid model. It is unclear if the college’s reported online-only enrollment includes those in graduate programs.

Madsen said the numbers indicate “much stronger” enrollment than what was projected by administrators over the summer and stand in contrast with earlier fears about low enrollment for the academic year. In mid-July, President M. Lee Pelton cited “students electing not to return to the College in the fall term” as one of the major projected sources of revenue loss for the college.

“I am very pleased with our numbers given the unusual circumstances that the Enrollment Management team had to work through,” Madsen wrote in an email.

Significantly lower enrollment would have further exacerbated the college’s projected 2020–21 losses, which administrators predict could go as high as $76 million.

Emerson is a heavily tuition-dependent institution, according to the college’s 990 tax form. In 2019, about 89 percent of the college’s $264 million revenue came from tu-

ition and housing charges. Schools like Harvard and Northeastern, by contrast, rely more heavily on their endowments and the higher incomes they pull in each year.

In total, graduate program enrollment rose by nearly 400 students since the last academic year. Madsen said the increase can be attributed to strong registration in the online Speech@Emerson and Digital Marketing and Data Analytics programs.

Jan Roberts-Breslin, Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies, said the Speech@Emerson program alone brought in over half of the graduate student enrollment this year. The online Master of Science in Communication Disorders program, which launched in September 2018 and holds three enrollment cycles per year, is meant for aspiring speech-language pathologists.

“With COVID, we really weren’t sure what our enrollment would look like,” Roberts-Breslin said in a phone

interview. “But [it has] stayed steady, plus the Speech@Emerson program.”

Given the growth of other online graduate programs over the past few years, she said she believed the enrollment numbers would look similar even if COVID-19 wasn’t a factor.

“We were headed in that direction anyway, and things were going well,” she said. “It so happens that at this time, that is going to make it easier for a lot of people to be able to start or continue their graduate education.”

The cost of undergraduate tuition for a full year, beginning in Fall 2020, is $50,240. That translates to a total revenue loss of more than $7.8 million from undergraduate tuition alone.

The increase in graduate enrollment may help to compensate for the undergraduate shortfall. However, the cost-per-credit is $274 less for graduate classes than for undergraduate classes, and the number of credits a student requires depends on their

specific program.

Tuition for the Speech@Emerson program, excluding foundational courses, costs nearly $70,000 in total, according to the college’s website.

A breakdown of undergraduate enrollment by major was not available at the time of publication, but Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Michaele Whelan said the Visual and Media Arts Department saw an increase in students from last year.

There are 170 new transfer students this year, compared to 195 new full-time transfer students last year.

This does not include the 57 students who transferred from Marlboro College to the Individually Designed Interdisciplinary Program, who are included in the category of the 945 new first-time students.

dana_gerber@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

Opinion

September 3, 2020

4

Let off-campus students test somewhere else Editorial Testing all Emerson students weekly is both a noble goal and a requirement this year. It’s been widely proven that the most effective way to pin down the coronavirus before it spreads—or shortly after its transmission begins—is through frequent testing with fast turnaround for results.

And so far, the college has delivered on its promises.

Hundreds of students have undergone quick self-swab tests. The vast majority have received negative results, which they found out through an online portal. Four days after the initial test, most underwent the process again. In fact, the testing process—coupled with the rule against large gatherings—is one of the most important measures allowing campus life to run smoothly so far. In all sincerity, we hope it stays this way.

Still, a sad reality remains.

Off-campus students are just as likely, if not more likely, to contract the virus by trekking to Tufts Medical Center, where they are required to be tested. While testing at the facility right by campus makes sense for students living in the dorms, it is a far bigger ordeal for some off-campus students.

What’s the point of hauling them downtown when they could easily test at a facility closer to home? Why not allow them to test at a reputable spot right in their neighborhoods?

In an ideal world, administrators would create a list of trusted medical centers in neighborhoods in and around the city that house a swath of Emerson students. From there, the college could coordinate to directly receive test results from facilities on their pre-planned list. Otherwise, administrators could accept proof of a negative result, preventing students from potentially bringing the virus to downtown residents.

This plan would be easier and safer for the hundreds of students in question. That way, they could schedule the tests for any day of the week per their convenience, rather than sticking to days when they are already attending in-person class.

And more importantly, it would be safer for everyone. Allowing our off-campus peers to test far from campus would prevent potential crowds from building up at the center at the

corner of Kneeland St. and Harrison Ave. For the student themselves, a neighborhood testing plan would mean they could avoid a scenario where they are infected en route from the testing facility to their quarantine location. It’s proven that the virus spreads through respiratory droplets and close contact—of which there is plenty on public transportation. A positive yet preventable COVID-19 case could occur just because a student had to take the T to receive their test.

Aside from the inconvenience, off-campus students are also likely to have to spend additional money for public transportation if they do not live in the vicinity.

Right now, all the tests administered by the college are carefully packaged and sent to the Broad Institute for processing. A different off-campus student testing plan could disrupt this careful process, but it would be well worth it.

Implementing the off-campus process is more important now than ever when a number of students who wouldn’t be off-campus in a normal year now are. While the dorms are still brimming with (hopefully socially distanced) students, new pandemic-era rules have allowed an influx of Emerson folks to coop up in small apartments with roommates to weather the storm.

For a healthy Emerson community, it remains vital then to grant our off-campus students the same convenience afforded to those on campus.

At the end of the day, despite any inconveniences, additional testing means fewer potential cases. And fewer cases means everyone—students, staff, and faculty—stays safer.

In an already odd and sometimes anxiety-inducing semester, permitting off-campus testing is the least the college can do.

© 2020 The Berkeley Beacon. All rights reserved.

Editor-in-Chief Diti Kohli

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.

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

‘What’s the point of hauling them downtown when they could easily test at a facility closer to home?’

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The college negotiated with local businesses to offer class space Christine Park, Beacon Staff

The Berkeley Beacon

September 3, 2020

5

Don’t ignore the ‘invisible’ among us How the college’s reopening plan leaves the homeless behind Bill Brodeur, Beacon Correspondent On a walk to Paramount my sophomore year, I turned a corner and saw my friend Paul slumped on the ground. Paul is a homeless man in his late 60s who sports a heavy limp.

I met him one day outside of CVS when he asked me if I would buy him a roll of gauze tape.

Since that day, I regularly sit with Paul at the Washington St. curb after my walk home from work. It is normal for me to pass through Downtown Crossing and see him. But one day, I watched in shock as people carelessly stepped over my friend’s prone body. There, I helped him get back on his feet and grab his walking stick.

That situation showed me how our community contributes to the kind of negligence that adversely affects the way we view the homeless.

Our institutions on every level see through them and do not accommodate them into our time.

I fear that Paul and the other homeless people who live downtown are being actively endangered by the return of Boston’s college population in the midst of the enduring COVID-19 pandemic. To accommodate for the intense increase in foot traffic, travel, and population in the area, Emerson should take responsibility to allow free testing along with

their new student locations.

There are currently about 30 testing sites for COVID-19 in the greater Boston area. However, the closest sites that appear to operate in the downtown area are Massachusetts General Hospital (approximately a mile from campus) and a slightly closer facility open on weekdays in the Boston Living Center.

Many of these existing sites are appointment-based, meaning you need a phone or access to the internet to get tested, which many homeless or low-income people do not have.

All other sites in the city are significantly further out from the area.

The opening of non-exclusive testing sites on campus would allow our neighbors—who may not have previously had access to a test—into a system designed to ensure the safety of our community at large.

As a city, we cannot expect the homeless population to survive on random pop-up testing facilities they may be lucky enough to happen upon. We must begin to look at the homeless community in America, not by them. Emerson has the opportunity to use its influence in the area to encourage others to treat these community members with a shred of decency.

I dread the thought of Paul and other homeless people being around these sites where people can potentially transmit the virus. The Biogen Conference outbreak, which ushered

Christine Park / Beacon Staff

in the age of COVID-19, directly infected half the residents of the Pine Street Inn. I also worry that the janitorial, culinary, and administrative staff at Emerson will be disregarded in the strategies for monitoring and providing safety on campus.

Will these campus sites treat them in their needs as well? If not, what point are we making by demanding students come only to provide testing for them alone? Where does that place our values as an institution?

For anyone who would argue that Emerson has no responsibility to care for those outside its community, I remind you that few people would even have been able to come to campus if the college had not permitted it. Our arbitrary system of deciding what must be open and what is “non-essential” to society is one of many reasons we have extended this

horrific suffering for so long.

Emerson’s administration could easily reallocate excess testing kits and any they have set aside for students who have since decided to learn remotely toward operating a free walk-in center. Even donating these tests to Tuft’s free walk-in center would be so much smarter than using them for students that have no reason otherwise to be coming to campus.

Emerson should demonstrate that it values human life more than the lives of its paying customers—not to mention it would be advantageous to Emerson’s own self-interest to provide these tests.

If the college chooses to have people attending classes in Boston and acknowledges its responsibility to provide testing, it must also bear the burden of the danger this puts our homeless and low-income community members in.

I do not just fear for the homeless community as some abstract concept, some number to dwindle one way or the other. The harsh requirement of progress is empathizing with every

family and individual around Emerson that would not have any defense from the onslaught of new bodies in place surrounding the Common.

Before we ever experienced COVID-19, we stepped aside when others in our community needed help. We walked over them to avoid responsibility. It is not a question of class if a person deserves to have access to a COVID-19 test. Emerson has the capabilities of expanding its testing to allow for walk-ins, and it has a responsibility to protect the people it has chosen to endanger, whether willingly or not. They are primed to set a true example around a nation that has lost any compassion it once had for its downtrodden.

There may never be a free testing site around the Boylston T stop, but there will be an army of Emerson students who can step up and change the way they might have been looking at their neighbor. I urge you not to ignore the suffering around the corner. william_brodeur@emerson.edu

In the midst of chaos, I look for silver linings

Christine Park / Beacon Staff

Althea Champion, Beacon Staff In a room full of pessimists, I am the first to say that the world is going to hell. Nowadays, I cannot believe I am alone in that assertion, especially among my Gen Z peers who also attend Emerson College.

The world is fraught with uncertainty at the moment, and those of us, who under normal circumstances hold rather downbeat views, are wallowing in what we could have never foretold: a devastating pandemic, a national reckoning with systemic racial injustices, a grossly inadequate president, and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression— you’ve heard it all before.

At the onset of the pandemic, my

general despondency toward the future began to significantly affect my outlook on life. Days started to flip by like pages on a word-of-the-day calendar. I sincerely found it difficult to look too far into the future because of the impending doom that without a doubt laid ahead. There was nothing to work toward, no future to invest in.

I am not alone in this.

Kim Parker and Ruth Igielnik write in a May 2020 PEW Research Center article that although Gen Zers are set to be the most educated generation in history, the outbreak of COVID-19 has altered a future that once looked uniquely prosperous.

“Unlike the Millennials—who came of age during the Great Recession—this new generation was in line to inherit a strong economy with record-low unemployment,” write Parker and Igielnik. “That has all

changed now, as COVID-19 has reshaped the country’s social, political and economic landscape. Instead of looking ahead to a world of opportunities, Gen Z now peers into an uncertain future.”

The cloud ahead of us is grim, but to spite the dark mass, I find it necessary to reach for the silver linings that are both large and small, inconsequential and momentous. In the small creases between the blocks of time that are held stiffly in place by obligatory work shifts, compulsive bouts of news-reading, and classes, I resolved to find things that nurture optimism: a prescription I, and presumptively many pessimists and Gen Zers alike, desperately need.

My first saving grace is that summer is coming to a close. I imagine if you are a true cynic or are at least often cynical, you like or at least ap-

preciate the color black. It is chic and goes with almost everything. You can count on it because it is very seldom fallible, but it absorbs heat. It is for this reason that Goth Girl Summer has never really come to fruition.

Therefore, we can relish in the fact that the unbeatable heat will be coming to an end relatively soon.

On top of that, summer, specifically the one in question, is ruthless in its pursuit of unearthing the realities of climate change—perhaps a positive, if you look at it sideways.

Record-breaking hot weather, an impressive fire tornado, and swarms of Californian earthquakes are shamelessly off-leash this season, each cracking its smoldering whip on modern civilization. Perhaps this will inspire a reckoning with the truth from climate change deniers, or trigger a greater sense of urgency from those in high places. Nevertheless, I am grateful for August closing its doors.

I will be resuming classes from home this semester. I made this unfortunate decision by calculating the plentiful risk factors, measuring just how perturbed I would be, and then factoring in the money I will save as a result of room and board being removed from the equation—a whopping $9,384.

So, considering I will be on my computer all day long participating in Zoom classes, writing papers, and consuming entertainment, I will take this opportunity to find my silver lining in a material investment: a pair of blue light glasses, the perfect remedy to my life-long ailment of 20/20 vision. I have in mind ones that scream intelligent and stylish, but leave the proficiency of my vision ambiguous.

And, as all of our screen times double, triple, and even quadruple, you might want to consider making the same purchase.

Lastly, despite immeasurable odds, it is essential we uncover some sliver of light in our dark political landscape. This is where I tend to keep a tight leash on my skepticism, because it is where my contrived emotional fortitude protects me most from the false trappings of hope. The prospect of the abhorrent incumbent’s reelection is a pit of darkness too deep and full of doom for me to plunge into, but it remains a cavern I teeter on the edge of every day.

The Biden/Harris ticket, however, encourages my confidence in their presidential potential every day, especially after each of their impressive speeches at the Democratic National Convention. I will never fully let go of the leash tied to my skepticism, but I have loosened the reins a tad in hopes to inspire confidence in others and myself. An added bonus is the highly- anticipated Vice Presidential debate on Oct. 7, of which I am waiting for with bated breath and will almost definitely find joy in.

Additionally, joining a new community, opening a fresh stick of deodorant that your mom paid for, or the fact that trips to the dentist can kind of be skipped this year, are all possible sources of light if you can see them.

Ultimately, we are left to make the best out of a bad situation, and to do everything we can to ensure a better set of circumstances in the future: vote, wear masks, stay safe. Silver linings, no matter how minuscule, are important for us to stay cognizant of, especially when the world seems to be going to hell in a handbasket. They remind us of a future that is worthy of our investment.

And after all, things could always be worse. althea_champion@emerson.edu

Living Arts

The Berkeley Beacon

September 3, 2020

6

Bye-bye fantasy...

Taina Millsap, Beacon Staff Throughout my entire childhood, I always loved books. I forced my grandma to take me to the bookstore after my Friday classes every week, so that I could spend hours upon hours browsing the shelfs. In my literary journey, I’ve visited many different places: Hogwarts, Olympus, and Panem, among others. But once I began college, it started to bother me how out of touch I seemed to be with books about real people and their stories in the contemporary world.

As far as my interest in fantasy goes, I have all my childhood years of reading to thank for that, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I spent drives back home from the bookstore trying to explain to my grandma why 12-yearold me was so similar to the Divergent main character, Tris. Or about how all my friends and I had taken the Harry Potter house test and everybody else had gotten Gryfindor, while I was the only one who got Slytherin—thinking that made me special somehow. These characters and stories gave me insight into worlds that fascinate me to this day.

Toward the end of high school, however, I let go of my constant reading habits so I could be more social and give full attention to my then-present surroundings. I think that not reading for a couple of years caused my taste in books to stick in the chapter of my life where I did read a lot—my early teenage years.

After moving from Brazil to San Diego in eighth grade, a lot of my time was spent either with my family or by myself, reading books. Once I finally started to find my identity and friends in the U.S., a part of me started to let go of my reading habits. Now around four years later, when the need to quarantine put a lot of free time in my hands, I decided to once again dive into the book world—but with a twist.

Instead of exclusively reading the usual teen romances and fantasy novels I was so crazy about years ago, I decided to give other genres a chance. This is largely thanks to a YouTube channel I discovered called Jasmine’s Reads.

Jasmine Allen is currently a philosophy student at the University of York and development editor at Sweet Cherry publishing, an indie children’s book publisher based in Leicester, England. Most of the books I’m mentioning here are brought to you courtesy of Jasmine.

My reading journey started when I decided to read a mystery novel at the same time as my best friend. Our choice was The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware, a book I already had on my bookshelf back home in California. The story follows Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine. Lo has just been given an assignment to attend a luxury cruise with 10 cabins. But once onboard, things take a turn when she witnesses a potential murder in the cabin next door, which is supposedly empty. Though it had been sitting on my bookshelf for years, it always felt too intense for me. And it definitely didn’t seem like a book that would have the swoon-worthy love interest always found in my favorite childhood books.

A couple of months before reading that book, I developed a psychological thriller movie obsession, so I thought a mystery/crime novel wouldn’t be too far off and would be a good start to diving into books with more adult themes.

Sitting on my balcony during the beginning of quarantine and trying to get rid of my pasty Boston complexion, I decided it was the right time to start off.

After reading it, I sat there and realized my usual favorite elements of a book like romance and magical worlds were not there, but I still really liked the story. It was refreshing to read about something completely different that made me really interested in reading more crime and mystery books.

Now on with the journey. I also decided to start reading a dystopian feminist novel, The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh. The book follows three sisters who live with their parents on a deserted island due to a mystery disease that makes women sick in the mainland, when one day their father disappears, and two men wash ashore the next day.

This book is one I was really excited for because I felt there was so much potential in the premise. But much to my disappointment, it was very slow and really didn’t touch on any of the feminism and gender roles topics that it promised; it barely scratched the surface. I did enjoy Mackintosh’s writing style because it was very poetic, but not in the way that makes me re-read every sentence—it was beautifully written but simple. I liked the relationships presented, but I felt I needed more from the world they were in. The dystopian aspect just wasn’t developed well enough.

Onto my most challenging genreI decided to read literary fiction; no fake worlds, no mystery to be solved, just real life people, relationships, and a lifetime of interactions to be analyzed. This genre scared me for a long time because it seemed too real. Books were almost like an escape from reality for me growing up—not that I didn’t have an amazing childhood. But I loved being able to dive into stories of people doing incredible things while I sat on my grandma’s couch drinking chocolate milk.

Now, as a 20-year-old, I started to realize I wanted to dive into literature that makes me think more deeply and read about points of views I never thought about before. My choice for this genre was Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. The book follows the lives of two families who live next door to each other in the New York suburbs, it spans through decades and touches on topics such as blame, forgiveness and love. This one started off incredible, then slowed down, but then picked back up again towards the end. To me, it just showed how well written it was because the book was just like life—there are stages and some are better than others, and that’s exactly what the book felt like. My next literary fiction novel to be read will be A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, which was shortlisted for 2015 Man Booker Prize.

I don’t think I’ll ever not love fantasy, but I’m excited for my literary taste to grow with me and read about different experiences. Meanwhile, I will also be diving into one of the best fantasy books of all time, just for old times sake, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. taina_millsap@emerson.edu

Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh (above) and El Jefe’s Taqueria (below) fed a steady stream of students this week.

Lizzie Heintz / Beacon Staff

Nearby restaurants ‘excited’ by return of college-aged patrons Cont. from Pg. 1 “We welcome the students back, and we certainly have missed them,” Fredericks said. “I don’t think it’ll be so much that there would be any concerns of overcrowding or being able to maintain the distance we currently maintain at Fajitas and ‘Ritas…Students are generally not an aggressive type. They’re somewhat laid back to generalize, so I don’t foresee them being a problem.”

The West St. restaurant first reopened on June 25 near the start of Phase 2. Fredericks said business has not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, partly due to the loss of Theater District tourists. Large live events venues are not permitted to open until Phase 4, which begins when there is a treatment or vaccine for the virus.

“We’ve been significantly down during this pandemic period, so we’re certainly hoping that’ll slightly change in the fall,” Fredericks said.

“I know that the other components of our business, like tourism, offices, and theatre activity won’t be coming back. I think we’ll still be significantly down, but if we could just improve a little bit over time, that’ll be helpful.”

The reduced student population also uniquely affects new businesses, which are starting to build a customer base amid the ongoing crisis.

Derek St. George, the manager of new Boylston St. hotspot, Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh, said he is already excited by the movement of

students that have walked through his doors.

“A lot of [students] are already starting to move in, and streets are a little more bustling then they have been,” St. George said.

Located right next to Piano Row, Garbanzo replaced the Griddlers

‘Students are somewhat laid back to generalize, so I don’t foresee them being a problem.’

- Brad Fredericks Burgers and Dogs, which closed more than a year ago. St. George spoke highly of students following COVID-19 regulations, and also said the spot will offer student discounts to Emerson and other nearby college

students. They offer a handheld entree and a drink for $9 plus tax or $11 for a knife and fork entree and drink.

“It’s been very spread out and done very well, but we’re looking forward big-time to students back in class full swing,” St. George said. “As long as Emerson and the community itself adheres to the guidelines that are smart and safe, I think it’ll be a great semester,” St. George said.

Located in Little Building, the Tatte Bakery and Cafe also adapted to the reality of first opening at a strange time. Tatte founder Tzurit Or said that since few local college students had moved in when the location swung open its doors on Aug. 17, business was slower than usual.

“It was kind of a quiet opening for us,” Or said. “It’s just pretty gloomy to open a Tatte when we usually have a line out the door. It’s just not a great feeling. But these days, I guess if you’re still in business and opening a location, you should be very grateful and thankful for that, so I’m not going to complain.”

Or emphasized the importance of health and safety protocols they have in place at Tatte to reduce virus exposure.

“We’ve been living in pandemic life for six months now,” Or said. “I hope that the last six months provided [college students] with a sense of self-awareness, responsibility, and respect towards others [and] that they will follow the guidelines.” contact@berkeleybeacon.com

The Berkeley Beacon

September 3, 2020

7

Katiana Hoefle Beacon Staff Jilly Towson never questioned whether or not she should post online about the Black Lives Matter movement.

“It’s my life, so it is impossible for me not to be aware of it,” Towson, a Black junior marketing major, said in a Zoom interview from Chicago. “But just because I knew it was going on didn’t mean the rest of the world would.”

The police killing George Floyd on May 25 propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into the mainstream media, fueling a massive social media effort that initially started in 2013 to eradicate white supremacy and police brutality. Perhaps one of the most organized and widespread instances of social media activism in the United States to date, BLM showcases the strengths of accessibility.

Towson is one of many Emerson students utilizing online platforms to provide resources for protestors, educate people about systemic racism, and showcase Black voices.

This momentum is currently on the decline particularly among white Americans, as a study from Democracy Fund and UCLA Nationscape indicated that their views on racism are slowly returning to their pre-protest baseline. Questions in the study asking whether or not Black Americans face racism and if white Americans disapprove the police have shown a drop in affirmative responses.

“For me, it is almost a diary,” Towson said. “It’s a way to release and feel a bit more heard, because a lot of times Black women are kind of silenced and nobody really cares about what we have to say. But since it’s my page, you’ve got to hear what I have to say.”

From May 26—the day after George Floyd was killed—until June 7, the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was used approximately 47.8 million times on Twitter, a record high, according to the Pew Research Center.

Some of the most prevalent #BLM content shared on Twitter are videos of police intimidation tactics during protests, as well as Instagram posts featuring graphics or drawings filled with information to encourage more engagement. The posts are then shared on users’ platforms, usually through Instagram stories, where they are only visible for 24 hours unless highlighted on the account.

The constant stream of information online provoked Generation Z to take an initiative not only to post, but take to the streets, as 15 to 26 million people protested for the BLM movement in the U.S. If protestors were incapable of leaving the house, especially during a pandemic, they were encouraged to find alternative ways to support that include signing petitions, donating to organizations supporting BLM, and sharing as much relevant information as possible.

The impact went beyond its online reach, as police brutality cases were reopened while states and cities began to enact police reform through initiatives like banning chokeholds and ordering officers to wear body cameras. In Minneapolis, they voted to remove the police department as a charter department and instead utilize a community-based public safety model.

While social media activism has traditionally been belittled for its performative nature, now it was a catalyst for change to be made.

On June 1, Emerson College President Lee Pelton released an open letter regarding his support for BLM and encouraging the Emerson community to take a stand. Shortly after, many campus organizations released their own statements on Instagram denouncing racism and publicly declaring their support for the movement. Others decided to take it a step further by creating their own BLM content that relates to students at Emerson.

Jilly Towson is one of hundreds of Emerson students taking to social media to promote Black Lives Matter. Jilly Townson / Courtesy

How social media fueled a renewed outlook on activism at Emerson

Beneath the Surface, an Emerson Channel documentary series about students of color at a predominantly white institution, posted a list of courses offered at Emerson that highlight non-white perspectives, as well as collaborated with POWER (Protesting Oppression with Educational Reform) to post ways to be allies to campus intercultural organizations, on their Instagram @beneaththesurfacedoc. Their 17 posts in the last 12 weeks predominantly originate from the crew’s own research.

“I can’t change the world, but I can change my community,” Gabriella Leonel, one of the executive producers, said in a Zoom interview. “Change is hard to come by, but it is easier to start with what you have access to. I have access to Beneath the Surface, my fraternity, and my community at Emerson.”

Throughout June and July, the Emerson Hip-Hop Society posted on their Instagram feed @thehiphop_society a series of albums within the hiphop genre that focus on consciousness and activism while showcasing the experiences of Black people in the U.S. Each post included a description written and researched collectively by the organization, including where the album falls in terms of hip-hop history, what effect it had in society, and why it is still relevant today.

Their first post highlights Gil Scott-Heron’s album “Pieces of a Man” (1971), which includes a reference to the opening track “The Revolution Will Not be Televised.” The Hip-Hop society then explains how it serves as an example for how hip-hop can be political as it calls for action against Ademir Monteiro, president of the Hip-Hop Society, said it’s important to recognize the context of hip-hop music when appreciating the genre.

“It’s important to recognize these voices within the hip-hop genre and to recognize that hip-hop is more than just some music you put on at a party, it is also a way that real people express their struggles and pain and experiences,” Monteiro said. “I think to just listen to hip-hop but not actively listen to the stories and the culture that it comes from, you’re doing the genre a disservice and yourself a disservice because there’s a lot that you can learn from just listening.”

In order to get as many people to engage with BLM as possible, Leonel said she became strategic with her posting, considering the time of day, the amount of content she had posted already, and how popular the information was.

Towson also used this strategic element as she aligned her BLM content to her usual posts on her Instagram @jilly.t by providing information about Black-owned fashion brands and Black authors. She said that viewing the levels of engagement had its drawbacks however, as she was able to see who would only respond to posts of her and never engage with photos about BLM. “Sometimes you’ll think someone might actually care about you as a person, but then when they kind of shut you down and don’t really want to hear or respond or have conversations with you about things that impact your everyday life, that’s frustrating,” Towson said. “I shouldn’t have to make you care, that’s not my job.”

Towson said she received direct messages from followers who disagreed with her posts, which led to constructive, open discussions that, at times, resulted in a change in her followers’ perspectives.

Monteiro, however, saw in his

hometown Facebook group that conversations online allowed anyone to say harmful things without repercussions as they hid behind their computer screens. He said that even when people would just post the phrase “Black Lives Matter,” they would be met with a myriad of hate and racist comments.

“I’ve seen some of my friends be called horrible things because they don’t want to be killed in the street and they are letting it be known and trying to spread the word,” Monteiro said.

Monteiro said some social media activists don’t realize the effect of their posts and how triggering videos of police brutality can be for Black Americans. Oftentimes, they end up harming the same community they were initially trying to help.

“I get really anxious and I find it hard to breathe and stuff like that when I find out about new videos or see pictures,” Monteiro said. “For a lot of people it really is a form of trauma that unfortunately isn’t paid that much attention to because it’s so commonplace. You shouldn’t have to see a black person die to care about black people.”

This performative aspect of the movement is further revealed through the popularity of various trends. Many believe that Instagram users posting a chain of ten names of people who support BLM or a Black square with #BlackLivesMatter tag are often giving the illusion of support.

“For people that don’t know much about it, that doesn’t send them any information,” Towson said. “It’s not really helpful. It just makes you ‘look good.’”

The trend aspect, Monteiro said, just reveals the disproportionate amount of privilege in the people who

are fighting for their lives compared to those who just post temporarily to make themselves seem “woke.”

“I can’t not be an activist, because then I wouldn’t be fighting for myself,” Monteiro said. “I wouldn’t be fighting for my brother, my mom, my father, my sister, my family, my friends if I just stopped and was like this is not going to be a part of my life anymore. It innately is a part of my life whether I like that or not.”

Leonel said she believes the performative aspect of the movement is connected to image, as students are not posting with the intention of helping the movement, but making it about how other people will perceive them.

“I think at the end of the day, it’s all about letting go of your ego and recognizing that this movement is bigger than any of us,” Leonel said.

Even with engagement dwindling from some people, racial injustice remains a prevalent issue, as Black Americans are still being murdered by police officers. Protests are still erupting like in Kenosha, Wisconsin as recently as August 25 due to the police shooting and resulting current paralysis of Jacob Blake as he tried to enter his SUV. Monteiro said the main indicator of whether or not a post is harmful is based on the user’s self reflection by questioning your intention to post and the affects your post will have.

“There’s definitely no excuse [to not participate] because everyone that I know either has an Instagram account, can print out posters, can sign petitions, or can have one-onone conversations,” Towson said.

“There is no excuse not to care.”

katiana_hoelfe@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

Sports

September 3, 2020

8

Teams prepare for practice plans in the absence of athletic season Ethan McDowell, Beacon Staff

Emerson’s decision in July to cancel fall athletic competition created a void for student athletes and coaches alike that will be filled by two fiveweek-long practice periods.

Athletic Director Patricia Nicol said the college plans to divide its practice facilities and resources into two sections—one for fall sports and another for winter and spring sports.

Women’s soccer head coach David Suvak said the Lions are set to begin their off-season training on September 14. Over the following five weeks, Suvak said the team will take a three-phase approach, beginning with two weeks of fitness training. The Lions will then move on to a week of individual technical work before a final two weeks of full team workouts.

Nicol said these workouts will be done in the safest way possible in order to combat the potential spread of the coronavirus.

“We’re going to be following all NCAA, state, and institutional guidelines for resocialization during the five weeks,” Nicol said in a phone interview with The Beacon. “It will be very closely monitored.”

When the women’s soccer team begins their training in mid-September, Suvak plans on dividing the team into two groups of seven and one of eight. Two groups will train on Rotch Field first, and the third group will work out there an hour later.

Women’s basketball head coach Bill Gould said they will follow a similar format when they start training in mid-October. First, the team will splinter into small groups for conditioning before progressing to normal practice activities.

Unlike the college’s soccer programs, which will be able to train outdoors, the women’s basketball team will train in the Brown and Plofker Gym. The gym, which is usually open for practices, games, and open gym time for athletes looking to sharpen their skills, is now closed to everyone.

Gould said the Lions are not letting a lack of facilities stop them from improving. Some players on the men’s and women’s basketball teams have even scouted out outdoor courts in the Boston area to practice individually.

“There are outdoor courts, and kids want to compete,” Gould said in an interview with The Beacon. “Kids want to play, kids want to get better, so they’re trying to find ways.

I’ve talked to them, they have to be smart and they have to not put themselves or their teammates or classmates or anybody at risk, so you have to be smart about it. But if you take a ball and go to the outdoor courts and shoot, like, okay, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

The Lions will have to train either alone or in low numbers for the time being. Still, Gould is confident the team will get the most out of their

Men’s basketball players Stephen Fabrizio and James Beckwith dribbling through Boston Common.

Rachel Culver / Beacon Staff training.

“The one benefit of basketball, unlike some other sports, [is that] it really is the only sport that you can simulate an actual game by yourself,” he said. “I mean, you can ball-handle, the only thing you can’t do is pass, I guess, but you can shoot, you can dribble, you can rebound. There are a lot of things you can do, and then certainly you can play a game one-on-one with one other person and really mimic what a game is like.”

Approximately 17 percent of the college’s student population opted for online learning this semester, including a few members of the women’s soccer and basketball teams.

Suvak said two members of the Lions’ 24-person roster will attend Emerson remotely these next few months, while three members of the women’s basketball team will not return to campus.

Suvak said he is confident that the remote members of the team will continue to do what they need to in order to keep pace with the rest of the team.

“They’re involved in everything that we’re doing, whether it’s a phone call, or a Zoom, or things like that,” Suvak said in a phone interview with The Beacon. “So now, just like in summer training, it’s on their initia-

‘So now, just like in summer training, it’s on their own initiative that they have to stay fit for the spring and next year.’

-David Suvak

tive that they have to stay fit for the spring and next year.”

The Lions will begin training in less than two weeks, and Suvak will have the opportunity to build off of the momentum the team established during their playoff appearance in 2019. Even though they won’t be competing this fall, Suvak said the

team will do everything it can to be ready for the next time they take the field.

“I feel that, if we have the ability to train 30 times between now and the fall of [2021], and then add the class of ‘21 to this, we still could be in a really good situation,” Suvak said. “We again may be young in that year, but

I think a lot of colleges are going to be in the same situation. We’ve built a very good program for Emerson, and I’m confident that the momentum is going to keep going up for this group.”

ethan_mcdowell@emerson.edu

Weekly Crossword 1

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Down 1. Dean of campus life 2. Unlikely occurrence 4. Ferocious hybrid offspring 6. Type of apple 9. Dihydrogen monoxide 11. High-pitch horn

Across 3. Popular board game 5. Taylor Lautner 7. Nightime bug; sport 8. Tree top 10. Nonsense; rubbish; balderdash 12. X marks the spot

13. Remodeling; plexiglass, designated trafficking 14. Colored wax utensil Answers at berkeleybeacon.com