Dashboard Inaccuracies

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

Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020 • Volume 74, Issue 6

@berkeleybeacon // @beaconupdate

EMERSON COVID-19 DASHBOARD RIDDLED WITH INACCURACIES, MISSING METRICS Andrew Brinker

The day’s update to the dashbord was correct. That means, according to The Beacon’s records, there were no reporting errors in any metrics on the dashboard (positive tests, positivity rate, cumulative tests, cumulative positive tests, isolation numbers, quarantine numbers.)

Beacon Staff

A review of Emerson’s reported COVID-19 data reveals severe shortcomings in the college’s dashboard, which intends to provide insight into the virus’ presence in the community.

The regularly updated dashboard has been riddled with reporting and mathematical errors, a Beacon investigation found. In addition, it is missing several metrics two public health experts said are crucial to painting an accurate picture of the virus’ spread at Emerson.

“As a general principle, it’s concerning if the numbers are bouncing around, because then you have to question well, why were they?” Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of community health sciences at Boston University, said in an interview. “Which one is correct? And why were they wrong in the first place? What’s going on?”

Cases at Emerson have remained low since the college’s reopening in August. As of publication, the college reported 19 positive tests out of 23,781 tests administered between Aug. 6 and Oct. 7. The reported positivity rate sits at .08 percent. (All students must be tested weekly; faculty and staff were given the choice to opt-in to weekly tests.)

Other New England schools, like Boston College and Providence College, by contrast, have Dashboard, Pg. 2

The day’s update to the dashboard had at least one reporting error. Reporting errors include: 1) over- or underreporting cumulative tests, 2) incorrect isolation metrics, 3) adding positive tests without updating the cumulative test number, 4) mislabeling metrics, 5) incorrect dates.

The Beacon did not track all metrics on the dashboard on this day, or the date is in the future.

Every day the dashboard contained errors.from Sept. 9 to Oct. 7.

The college does not update the dashboard on the weekends.

Diti Kohli / Beacon Staff

Proposed federal DHS rule to limit international students’ time in U.S.

Gregg Winik (right), NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (left) and former NBA comissioner David Stern at 1988 NBA finals

Courtesy NBA Entertainment

Director of OISA Andrea Popa Hongyu Liu / Beacon Correspondent

Charlie McKenna & Alec Klusza

Beacon Staff & Beacon Correspondent A newly proposed U.S. Department of Homeland Security rule could limit the ability of international students to stay in the U.S. for more than four years during their planned course of study.

Proposed on Sept. 25, the rule would curtail the current Duration of Status policy, which allows international students to enter the U.S. and stay until the completion of their academic studies so long as they maintain legal status with the federal government. The current policy also allows for students to take “optional practice training” in their field for up to one year after graduation.

If enacted, the new rule would instead impose a two to four year limit on students’ academic pursuits, a harsh limit for students who may need more time to graduate or are enrolled in a program longer than four years. Students would be able to apply for an extension on their D/S but must pay a fee and wait over a year for a response, Director of the Office of International Student Affairs Andrea Popa said in an interview.

DHS said the rule will serve as a barrier to visa fraud, and to those who

may overstay or otherwise defy the conditions of entry to the U.S as Immigrants would then be subject to a review by the U.S. Immigration Service. However, Popa said the college verifies students are maintaining legal status every semester.

“They’re concerned for the potential for visa abuse and for students to stay here for years and years without direct inspection is what they’re concerned about,” she said. “I don’t think they’re giving enough credence to the fact that students do have to be reporting to their own schools… it’s not that they stay in the U.S.without inspection, it’s that they stay in the U.S without inspection from an immigration officer.”

The policy will include a fouryear transition period for current visa holders, meaning it may not affect the international students already enrolled in college, 14 percent of Emerson’s total student population. Future students may be discouraged from studying in the U.S. The policy will also take months for DHS to finalize.

International Students, Pg. 3

Emerson alum behind acclaimed ‘Last Dance’ NBA docuseries Lucia Thorne Beacon Staff

While documenting Michael Jordan’s last season with the Chicago Bulls in the late 1990s, Gregg Winik ‘84 and the rest of the NBA Entertainment film crew joked that the footage would become either a “great documentary” or “the greatest set of home movies ever assembled.”

At the 72nd annual Primetime Emmy Awards, the former proved to be true. The Last Dance, the 2020

sports docuseries chronicling Jordan’s career and final season, won the Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. The Emmy win represented 22 years of hard work and perseverance from Winik, an Emerson alum and executive producer of the show, and his crew.

The Last Dance is currently available for streaming on Netflix and the ESPN app.

Winik’s dedication to the project and a lifelong passion for sports production are evident from the praise the show has received.

INSIDE THIS EDITION

Scooby Doo, Pg. 7

FSL organizations navigate online platforms during recruitment Pg. 7 Three students on their social lives during COVID-19 Pg. 4 In this sexual desert, opt for masturbation Pg. 5 Scooby Doo takes over Little Building Pg. 7 Two men’s soccer players join forces in new podcast Pg. 8

“The audience reacted to it, the sports world reacted to it, and obviously the awards shows have now reacted to it, and it came out great,” Winik said in a phone interview.

Winik grew up in the suburbs of New York City and came from a family with a background in filmmaking, so he quickly learned he wanted to be a part of the industry. He was also surrounded by sports, since his father was a sports cinematographer and director who owned an independent sports production company.

Greg Winnick, Pg. 6

19 positive

COVID-19 tests

23,700+ tests administered .08% positivity rate

News

The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

2

Metrics left off dashboard raise concerns among experts A Beacon investigation finds that the dashboard was incorrect a third of the time this last month

Cont. from Pg. 1 struggled to contain the virus on their campuses. Providence College reported 240 positive cases, while BC reported 188 to date.

Still, Emerson’s dashboard displayed inaccurate information in at least one of its metrics more than 30 percent of the time—or seven out of 21 days—in the last month, The Beacon’s reporting found.

A statement from Emerson administrators, in response to a detailed list of inaccuracies on the dashboard, said the tracker aims to be as insightful as possible.

“The College’s goal for the dashboard has always been to present a snapshot of data from our community testing program...as clearly as possible, and we are always looking for ways to improve and respond to our community’s feedback,” the statement read.

Diti Kohli / Beacon Staff

Data reporting errors Since the college transitioned to daily updates on Sept. 8, a team of Beacon reporters uncovered a series of errors on the dashboard.

The dashboard displays the college’s cumulative testing totals for both positive and total tests. It also shows the test positivity rate alongside testing numbers for each day.

College officials first opted for weekly, and then twice weekly updates, before eventually settling on posting testing information daily, Monday through Friday. Almost every other local institution began the semester with daily updates.

The dashboard is not updated on weekends because Emerson’s testing site at Tufts Medical Center is closed on Saturdays and Sundays, administrators said.

Over the last three weeks, The Beacon noted seven separate days where inaccuracies or discrepancies were present on the dashboard. That means out of 21 days of testing data, or three weeks with weekends excluded, the dashboard displayed at least one incorrect metric 33 percent of the time. At least one time, on the night of Sept. 15, testing data changed overnight without explanation.

Since the switch to daily updates, reporting errors have become a regularity.

When presented with a detailed list of reporting errors sent to the college via email Monday, administrators said the current data reporting process has “resulted in some errors that we have since corrected.”

The college did not comment on nine specific incidents The Beacon detailed in its list and notes throughout this story.

College administrators attributed the inaccuracies to human error. In a statement to The Beacon on Sept. 21, a spokesperson said Emerson’s IT and Web Services departments are responsible for inputting data into the dashboard.

“Every morning, Emerson IT posts a file which reports on the testing data collected from the Broad Institute,” they told The Beacon. “Web & Digital Services then updates the Dashboard page with the new data….Separately Web and Digital Services receives updates on the isolation & quarantine numbers from [Assistant Vice President for Campus Life] Erik Muurisepp, and makes those changes soon after.”

Nancy Allen, a professor in the college’s Marlboro Institute with a masters degree in public health from Tufts

The testing center at Kneeland and Harrison St. Hongyu Liu / Beacon Correspondent University, said the manual data entry process is a “little weird.”

“I’m amazed that there’s not any sort of automation,” Allen said. “Because when you’re doing it by hand, it feels like they’re just leaving room for human error in there.”

The college’s statement to The Beacon on Oct. 7 indicates that Emerson intends to switch to an automated system, though a spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about when the transition will take place.

“Going forward, we will be moving to an automated system of updating the dashboard that will minimize room for error, and ensure that the dashboard is updated at the same time everyday,” the statement reads.

The most frequently misreported metric is the cumulative testing total, or the number of total tests conducted since early August. That total is used by the college to calculate the test positivity rate.

The Beacon counted three separate occasions when daily or weekly testing totals did not add up to the cumulative total displayed on the tracker. In one instance on Sept. 24, more than 800 tests were added to the cumulative total overnight, though the dashboard still said its last update came the day before at 2 p.m.

A college spokesperson said in a statement that data can change overnight when more test results are received from the Broad Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is responsible for processing the Emerson tests administered at Tufts Medical Center.

“Please also note the dashboard reflects point-in-time results, and test numbers for recent test dates may change as more data comes in from the Broad,” the statement reads.

The spokesperson did not provide an explanation for the mathematical discrepancies in the data, or the incorrect timestamps on the dashboard.

The number of positive tests recorded on a weekly or daily basis has also fluctuated from what the dashboard first reported on multiple occasions.

On the week of Aug. 24, the dashboard, when first updated, reported three positives. Then, the day after that update, the weekly total of positive tests shifted to eight without explanation. Now, archived data on the dashboard lists the total of positive tests that week as five.

In another instance on Sept. 9, three positive tests were reported in one day, but the cumulative total of positive tests remained the same as it was the day before.

For the last month, Beacon reporters have questioned administrators, specifically Muurisepp, who serves as the college’s “COVID Lead,” on the documented reporting errors. On most occasions, Muurisepp said he was unaware of the errors, telling reporters that he would look into the specific incidents in question.

In those interviews, Muurisepp acknowledged some of the errors present-

ed by reporters but did not comment on a change to the data input protocol.

The switch to daily updates was made to give the community “real-time information,” Muurisepp said.

The college has not explained the rationale behind the manual reporting process.

Missing metrics Allen and Siegel said multiple valuable data points are missing from the dashboard.

Without those key metrics—which are included in dashboards at Northeastern University, Boston University, Suffolk University, and Harvard University—Emerson’s dashboard is not wholly indicative of the virus’ presence at the college, they said.

One metric that currently paints an inaccurate or incomplete picture of coronavirus at the college, is on-campus quarantine or isolation data. That datapoint does not include students quarantined or isolated off-campus, as well as faculty and staff quarantined at home—an oversight Allen, who teaches Emerson’s “Plagues and Pandemics” course, said could be misleading.

“They’re only keeping track of people on campus,” Allen said in an interview. “That’s not indicative of the entire community. I worry that by only including people who are on campus, they are artificially lowering the number of community members in isolation and quarantine.”

Siegel said there is no public health argument for excluding the specific numbers.

“That’s just common sense, I don’t understand why you would not want to include [off-campus students],” he said. “They’re students at the school and they’re contributing towards potential spread in the community. I don’t understand the logic of not including them in the first place.”

Also missing from the dashboard, Allen and Siegel said, is a breakdown of testing data among students, faculty, and staff. Currently, the dashboard does not specify which groups of community members testing data applies to. This does not allow the public to see where clusters are forming and how they are eradicated, Allen said.

“With all the protocols in place, if there’s transmission happening in places like a classroom setting, then that tells me that perhaps the protocols in place in the classrooms are not enough,” Allen said. “Transmission to faculty or staff, that does feel like that would be pertinent information about how protocols are working.”

Siegel said the delineation between the different community groups is significant because faculty and staff are statistically at greater risk of developing a severe or deadly case of COVID-19.

“It’s particularly important to separate out faculty and staff,” Siegel said.

“When you start to see employees affected, that’s very different because employees, they’re diverse. They’re not all 18 to 21 year olds. They’re older. Many of them have pre-existing

medical conditions and so infection in an employee is a much more serious situation than in a student.”

In past interviews, Muurisepp said that the college’s testing metrics do not delineate between students, faculty, and staff for the sake of privacy. But the college’s statement to The Beacon appeared to reflect a different line of reasoning.

“COVID-19 dashboards across different schools and universities vary widely, with each institution working to provide test results and information in a format that makes sense for their community,” the statement reads.

“For example, rather than separate out students, faculty, and staff, as some schools do, Emerson’s dashboard displays test results for all community members, which is reflective of our unified and tight-knit community.”

The college’s dashboard also does not include data for those who have recovered from COVID-19, a metric included on most other local dashboards.

By Sept. 9, two metrics—hospitalizations and the rate of invalid tests—had been removed from the dashboard.

Removing hospitalizations, Muurisepp said in an email, was intended to make the dashboard more transparent. He labeled invalid test results “not valuable” data.

“Our aim was to provide as complete a picture of the virus’s impact on the community as possible, but we have come to realize that, unlike universities with affiliated medical centers, we have no way to track those numbers with 100 percent certainty,” Muurisepp said. “As full transparency and accuracy are our ultimate goal in presenting the dashboard, we felt it best to leave hospitalizations off.”

Another metric at least one epidemiologist considers misleading is the college’s reported test positivity rate. The current number being reported is the positivity rate of total tests, not the rate of positivity among community members. The test positivity rate is not truly reflective of the state of the virus at the college, Siegel said.

“The problem is that when [the dashboard] reports the percentage of positive cases, it’s reporting the percentage of positive tests,” he said.

“What it should be reporting is the percentage of people who are testing positive, because what’s happening is people are being tested multiple times.

So if one person gets tested, let’s say they get tested 30 times over the course of the semester, and they don’t test positive for any of those, they’re contributing 30 negative tests when really what you want to know is how many people are infected. So they should really only be counted once.”

The college did not respond to The Beacon’s questions regarding metrics not on the dashboard.

Charlie McKenna and Diti Kohli contributed to this report. andrew_brinker@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

3

Three college vice presidents set to retire before end of 2020 Charlie McKenna Beacon Staff

Three of Emerson’s 12 vice presidents will retire by the end of 2020 after opting into the college’s early retirement program.

Christine Hughes, vice president and general counsel, who has been with Emerson for 16 years, plans to retire at the end of the month. William Gilligan, vice president for IT, and Peggy Ings, vice president for government and community relations, will both step away at the end of December. Gilligan and Ings have been with the college for 36 and 26 years, respectively.

The college launched the early retirement program in July to give full-time employees, except deans and assistant vice presidents, the opportunity to resign and continue receiving their base salary for a period of time contingent on how long they have been employed. Applications for the program opened on July 24 and closed on Aug. 21.

The plan falls under the college’s Human Resources department and is part of the effort to mitigate the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which administrators said could result in up to $76 million in losses. Details on the college’s typical retirement plan were not immediately available.

Hughes is the only one of the three with a clear succession plan in place. Assistant Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Meredith Ainbinder will assume the position following Hughes’ departure. Replacement plans for Ings and Gilligan will be developed over the course of their remaining time at the college, according to the Emerson Today post that announced the retirements.

Gilligan, who began his career as a faculty member, teaching computing, before moving into the IT department, said he feels his greatest

Christine Huges, Peggy Ings, and William Gilligan (left to right) Beacon Archives / Courtesy achievement at Emerson is building relationships with his coworkers.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is the reputation and the quality of work that the people I work with do,” he said. “IT, [media technologies and production], and WERS all have very good reputations both inside the college and outside the college.

The thing I’m most proud of is the quality of the staff I’ve been able to work with.”

The shift from faculty member to vice president meant Gilligan was no longer interacting with students on a regular basis, something he said he misses and looks fotrward to getting another chance to do by getting back to teaching.

“This early retirement program came up out of the blue, so it wasn’t something I’d been planning for, but I think doing some teaching is in my future,” he said. “I’m not sure how soon I’ll go back to it, but it’s always been my first love, and it’s always

“One of the things I’m most proud of is the reputation and the quality of work that the people I work with do” William Gilligan

been something I’ve planned to go back to.”

Gilligan said the chance to spend more time with his family influenced his decision.

“There’s a whole combination of things somebody has to weigh,” he said. “Not just the work situation but also the home situation, the aging process… but it’s a combination of life decisions and family decisions that made it a very difficult but also simple decision.”

Hughes also cited wanting to spend more time with family as a reason for stepping away from the college.

“My partner and I have a new grandson who is all of two months old, and they are local,” she said. “[His parents are] going to find as they have their newborn an extra pair of hands coming in pretty handy.”

As general counsel, Hughes served as the college’s lawyer, representing

Emerson in several high-profile cases, including two Title IX lawsuits brought by students against the college.

Hughes said she was proud to have never lost a case in her time at the college.

“We’ve pretty much won every case that we’ve ever had, so that’s a nice record to retire on,” Hughes said. “[The Title IX cases were] vindicating just because we always felt from the beginning that we had done the right thing by our students responding to their claims of sexual misconduct and sexual assault, and to have two separate federal judges say essentially ‘Yes, Emerson, you did the right thing’ was really gratifying.”

In 2014, two former students sued the college, alleging that Emerson improperly handled their Title IX complaints.

Hughes said she will miss interacting with students and seeing their unique passion.

“I don’t know any other workplace where you get to ride the elevator with so many energetic, engaging, feather-boa-wearing, purple-haired students,” Hughes said, “There’s always been this tremendous sense of energy from these students that really helped me remember what we were really all focused on, which was to take care of students and make sure this was the best place for them [as] possible.”

A next act in teaching appeals to Hughes as well, who said she wants to teach English as a second language.

“When I first moved back to Boston, I did some volunteer work teaching English as a second language to an immigrant and it was an enormously rewarding experience,” she said.

Ings could not be reached for an interview prior to publication.

charles_mckenna@emerson.edu

International students may face new limits on duration of stay Cont. from Pg. 1 For Emerson, the rule could have a negative effect on both enrollment and the international student culture administrators advertise to prospective students.

Popa said the lack of wiggle room the rule would grant international students on student F-1 visas is concerning.

“More flexibility is appropriate for F-1 students,” she said in a Zoom interview. “[With] academics, you can’t quite plan how that’s going to work.

You could finish in four [years], but it is also common and absolutely appropriate for a program to require an additional semester, for students to move on to a higher level of education. And that should happen without a grilling process of immigration review.”

The proposed policy comes on the heels of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement rule that would have barred international students from staying in the country if their school shifted to remote learning. Enacted in July, the rule was swiftly reversed after garnering backlash from universities nationwide, including Emerson.

Administrators now plan to send a letter to DHS expressing their concerns during the 30-day public comment period, which allows those who may be impacted by the policy to ex-

press concerns, Popa said. She added that President M. Lee Pelton would advocate for more flexibility for international students as part of the President’s Alliance on Immigration and Higher Education, an organization made up of college presidents from across the country that aims to provide support for international students.

The letter, she said, could directly influence the policy.

“Rules do change as a direct result of the comments,” she said. “It can directly impact the wording of the law. I think it can also indirectly impact the timing of the law.”

Popa said communication between international students and OISA is imperative as the proposed rule progresses through the DHS rule-making process, which does not involve Congress or federal courts.

“I think communication, just making sure students understand is key,” she said. “Making sure students have access to currently what the rules are but also what proposed rules might be, developing better systems to make sure we’re targeting out to different students that this affects you and so both general and personalized communication regarding rules like this.”

One international student who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from DHS said he was

concerned about the rule preventing him from going to graduate school.

“The amount of hoops I would have to jump through every single semester would be insane,” he said.

The rule caps the number of academic programs international students can pursue while they are in the U.S. at three and limits them to only one downward movement in their education status. A student who transfers would only be able to pursue one post-graduate degree while a student who pursues a Masters degree would only be able to receive one more Bachelor’s degree.

Beyond a statement posted to Emerson Today, which was a copy of the email Popa sent to international students on Sept. 25, the college has not publicly commented on the proposed rule. Northeastern University issued a statement condemning the decision, while Boston University, Harvard University, and Suffolk University have remained silent.

The college did not return a request for comment.

The anonymous student said they wished the college, outside of OISA, was providing more individualized support for students potentially impacted by this rule.

“There hasn’t really been much of a response, really,” he said. “There’s

The OISA office Hongyu Liu / Beacon Correspondent been two emails sent out and…[a Zoom call].”

Popa and OISA held a town hall discussion for international students on Sept. 28.

Isabelle Hung, an international student from Taiwan who is learning remotely this semester, said she is concerned by the uncertainty of the rule’s potential impact on students.

“They don’t know anything, we don’t know anything, we are all just in a group panic,” Hung said in a Zoom interview. “Emerson could have done better in terms of reaching out and

in giving out responses immediately, but I know that’s like reaching for the stars.”

Hung said she was disappointed by DHS’s continued efforts to restrict the freedoms of international students.

“We come to your country to study and contribute to your economy, but we’re not allowed in some ways,” she said.

contact@berkeleybeacon.com

The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

4

Opinion

Three students on navigating a college social life during a pandemic

Courtesy Luda Tang

During my first year at Emerson, I often had the same classes with several of my international student friends. When classes ended, we often texted each other and went to the dining hall together. Two of my friends are from Chongqing, China where people like to eat extremely spicy food. Sometimes when we finished classes early on Fridays, we retreated to famous Chinese restaurants. The last time we ate out was at a Korean restaurant in Chinatown, where they made a really good hot pot and fried chicken. Food brought us together. I miss those good days.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, my friends and I left Boston together and returned home to China. The COVID-19 situation back home was a lot better when we returned in spring, but it was hard for us to meet up even if all of us were home since we live in different regions of the country. Instead, we texted each other. We would share news and memes to the group chat if we saw anything fun and relatable.

As the fall semester rolled out, we still weren’t able to get together. Each of us made our own plans. My one friend and I chose to not leave China and instead study at United International College, Emerson’s global partnership program in Zhuhai. Some of the others decided to take Emerson’s remote classes and the other took a gap year. They were going to come to Zhuhai and visit us at our new partner school. But due to the school’s policy, they couldn’t come into the school as visitors. We had to connect with each other through video call instead.

I assumed it wouldn’t be too hard for us to meet next break since most of us stayed in China — except for my best friend, my freshman year roommate. When she chose to fly back to Boston in August, I didn’t know when I would be able to see her next as the international travel restrictions continue. Thanks to the internet, we are still able to text and share everything that happens in our lives with each other. That way, I know we’re still connected during challenging times.

– Luda Tang Tang is a sophomore studying journalism and enrolled in Emerson’s global partner institution, United International College, in Zhuhai, China this fall.

Everyone knew this fall semester would be unlike any other. It didn’t matter where you go to school or even where you were situated; college life was never going to be the same. Even with masks and social distancing, what is there to do besides taking a leisurely stroll through the park for the millionth time? Many students are inevitably left feeling isolated and lonely. As for me, weirdly enough, I’ve never been more active and social.

Since my first year, I’ve felt disconnected from the Emerson community. This might even be an understatement, considering I didn’t attend one club meeting last semester. After class, all I want to do is relax in my room.

Now though, I have the best of both worlds. I can stay put without feeling guilty about being a total shut-in. I’ve been able to get involved with clubs I would otherwise skip out on. I’ve joined random Zoom meetings for clubs I’m not a part of just to play skribbl, Jackbox Games or Among Us with other Emerson students. I’ve talked to people I’ve never seen on campus and might not ever see. It’s strange to say that I’ve had an easier time meeting people during the pandemic, but it’s true. And with everything going on right now, I’ll take the good when I can get it.

– Caitlin Taylor So So is a junior studying writing, literature and publishing who is staying on campus and taking hybrid classes this Courtesy Caitlin Taylor So fall.

Honestly, this semester is less about making friends and more about making the best out of a bad situation.

It’s undoubtedly awkward to meet people on Zoom calls, and participation during in-person classes isn’t the same either. So it’s taken teachers a long time to help students come out of their shell, and that’s especially true with us freshmen. Now that we are almost five weeks in, classes finally seem less tense. I personally feel better about participating and commenting on certain things with other students, but making friendships isn’t even something on my radar. Maybe because it’s almost impossible to have one-on-one conversations with people on a Zoom call, so I can’t make any sort of intimate connection with someone. My personal social life has obviously changed since I can only see my friends and family at very limited times while social distancing. Although I have tried to stay in touch with everyone at home, so those friendships are still there. But as far as making new friends during a pandemic, the chances of that seem slim.

– Shannon Garrido Garrido is a first-year student studying journalism who Courtesy Shannon Garrido is taking classes remotely this fall.

Navigating the U.S. election season as an international student Jocelyn Yang Beacon Staff

“How’s the U.S. election vibe?

Who do you think will win? Does any candidate pose policies that hurt China or international students?” I received this list of questions from family and close friends back home during the first presidential debate last Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had to tell them it was difficult for me to grasp the whole picture since three men were talking at the same time.

Yes, people all over the world are focusing on what’s happening in the U.S. right now.

The climbing COVID-19 cases in the U.S. and the upcoming presidential election have undoubtedly brought my connections with folks back home closer—on both personal and political levels. Even during normal times, whenever I returned home in China, family and friends often brought up American politics during carpool rides or at the dinner table and asked me how I perceive the latest policies. They considered me a reliable source to answer their questions because I study here.

But in fact, I do not think I am a reliable source. I still freeze like a deer in headlights and get tongue-

tied when someone throws these questions at me. Oftentimes, I did not know the answers myself.

As one of a million international students in the U.S., I find myself in a weird position during the U.S. election season. I have to stay abreast on the election news and engage in class discussions to fulfill my responsibilities as a journalism student. I have to stay on top of proposed visa-related policies that could potentially impact my student and post-student life in this country. Yet, I feel my voice matters less as I am not eligible to vote.

It is a sense of powerlessness.

When many international students and I wish to fight for our rights at this critical time, there is a greater uncontrollable force that attempts to drag us to the unknown.

One of the unknowns is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s recent proposal to establish time limits on international students and exchange visitors. According to the DHS, the proposal would permit international students and exchange visitors to stay in the U.S. until the end of their program, which will not last longer than four years. The goal is to “encourage program compliance, reduce fraud and enhance national security.”

What does enhancing national

security imply here? What would be the impacts on aliens if these policies launched? I looked for answers during these debates but did not get any.

When I researched this on my own, I found that for international students, it means to clampdown on open-ended F-1 student visas. The current rules grant them opportunities to change majors, career plans, and stay in school. The new proposed rule is “enforcement-oriented,” according to Dan Berger from the immigration law firm Curran, Berger & Kludt. “The only basis to request time are ‘compelling academic reasons,’ a medical condition, or a natural disaster or other major event. Students may apply and find out months later that they cannot stay even if the school supports the extension,” he said in a Forbes interview.

Following the Trump administration’s previous announcements to ban international students taking fully-online classes and the recent DHS proposals, I am disappointed and hopeful at the same time. It is election season. At these debates, I wish I’d actually be informed from a discussion about the future president’s blueprint for vulnerable groups who aren’t eligible to vote.

Meanwhile, I would encourage

A student drops off an absentee ballot. Jakob Menendez / Beacon Staff all international students to use this chance to learn more about the basics of the U.S. political system through research, reading, and conversations.

Understanding U.S. politics can help understand our own countries’ political systems, so that we can evaluate more prudently when comparing different government systems.

Colleges also have the ability to invite international students into those conversations aimed at expanding students’ understanding of the U.S. political system. The University of

Utah recently launched a free weekly webinar series to help international students navigate the U.S. election season, covering how the elections work and what rights and responsibilities international students have when engaging in political activism and election advocacy.

Emerson could and should do the same by providing campus resources to help students stay informed during the election season. jiaxuan_yang@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

5

Columns

Going solo: Can sex be ‘safe’ during a global pandemic?

Mariyam Quaisar

Beacon Correspondent “If you’re not going to wear a mask, at least wear a condom,” posters around Emerson dorm buildings read. However, safe sex means a lot more than just wearing a condom.

Just because there’s a pandemic happening doesn’t mean people have stopped experiencing sexual cravings, especially not college students.

College is seen by many as a time to explore yourself, your sexuality, and

sexual boundaries. But how is one supposed to do that when COVID-19 precautions don’t allow close contact with others?

I attempted to research steps toward COVID-safe hookups, but the results are admittedly disappointing.

The coronavirus spreads through respiratory droplets when people are in close contact, whether or not they’re engaged in sexual activity. So hookups are extremely risky if one is looking to avoid the virus completely.

According to the American Sexual Health Association and the Mayo Clinic, direct contact with saliva can easily pass the virus around, which rules out kissing. The virus is not found in vaginal fluid, but it can be found in feces of those infected. I am not going to outright say to not lick anyone’s anus like NYC’s Department of Health, but that would be a good activity to avoid right now.

A recent study also found traces of the virus in semen of those infected or recovering from COVID-19. It is not known if it can be transmitted through semen, however sources are unsure if rimming and anal sex will spread the virus.

So what options does this leave?

Masturbation.

Going solo is the safest sexual activity when close contact could mean contracting the coronavirus. Whether it be from yourself or a toy, masturbation is the least risky way to find sexual pleasure.

And with the help of modern technology, masturbation does not always have to be a solo act. It’s time to use your computer for more than just homework. Video dates, sexting, and phone sex have become more popular during the world’s current “no-touch” crisis as people have found ways to

be romantic and intimate through a screen. Masturbating with your significant other after a beautiful Zoom dinner could be a fun way to keep a sexual connection with your partner.

Masurbating together with physical distance and face coverings could also be an option.

There are also ways to distract yourself from sexual urges if masturbating just isn’t doing the trick. Break out a sweat from lifting weights and cardio rather than humping and rolling. Go for a walk outside into the beautiful Boston streets and parks with a good book. Find that movie you’ve been meaning to watch for a while. And then if you still can’t focus, you can try masturbating again.

That’s what it’s going to come down to for some time, especially as a college student.

Keep in mind, young people can get sick too. According to the CDC, there have been about 400 teenage and young adult deaths related to COVID-19. Nobody wants to knowingly contribute to another person’s severe illness or death by being irresponsible. If we collectively act consciously, this will all go away sooner.

And eventually, we can go back to our normal sex lives.

Remember, if you do decide to have sex during COVID-19, make sure your partner is risk free. Just as you would ask if they have a condom or have gotten tested for STDs, make sure to ask if they are experiencing any symptoms for the coronavirus and how often they are getting tested. It is also important to acknowledge that COVID tests only show a snapshot in time. So even if you are tested the day before, that does not mean you’re completely safe from the virus. The Mayo Clinic advises

Mariyam Quaisar / Beacon Correspondent

to avoid kissing and to wear a mask during sexual activity. Make sure to wash your hands, body, and any sex toys before and after sexual activity.

Use soap and alcohol wipes to clean the area where you are having sex.

Lastly, condoms and dental dams are extremely necessary when having safe sex.

Happy safe sex! mariyam_quaisar@emerson.edu

Red Sox have crucial decisions to make following disappointing season

Nate Lannan

Beacon Correspondent It was never going to be an easy season for the Boston Red Sox. There was enough drama before the season to at least partially derail the team— thanks to the Alex Cora debacle, losing Mookie Betts in a panicked trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers to avoid a salary crunch, and the offseason-long mishandling of ace Chris Sale’s Tommy John injury. The Sox frankly did not have any pressing ex-

pectations for this season. But it was still hard to predict them being quite this bad.

For starters, the pitching was never there. Losing David Price in the Mookie Betts trade during the offseason was bad enough, but it was completely immolated after the loss of Chris Sale became official in the beginning of the season. Trading away Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree at the trade deadline didn’t help matters either.

The Red Sox had a near leagueworst 5.58 team ERA, according to Baseball Reference, a part of the website Sports Reference that tracks stats from players and teams and updates them constantly. Nathan “Nasty Nate” Eovaldi had the only winning record among the starting pitchers, while Martin Perez and Chris Mazza both recorded ERA’s above 4.50.

Aside from Phillips Valdez, the bullpen was just as excruciating to watch as the starting pitching core. The pen had an irritating 4.37 ERA collectively, leading to many games like their Aug. 22 nightmare against the Baltimore Orioles in which they blew two separate late-game leads—a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning and a 4-3 lead in the 10th.

Boston notably went on a ninegame losing streak in which they gave up a whopping 86 runs, allowing opponents to score double-digit runs in

three consecutive games. When compared to the length of a sans-COVID season, that is the equivalent of a 22game losing streak.

Manager Ron Roenicke clearly was not the answer, after leading the Red Sox to a 24-36 record through 60 games, which would disappoint even in a normal season. Not to mention, Boston’s front office essentially viewed him as a placeholder as he was abruptly hired in January after Alex Cora was fired for his role in the Houston Astros infamous sign stealing scandal. Roenicke, who was the bench coach under Cora during Boston’s 2018-19 World Series-winning season, seemed to fans like a solid hire on paper at the time. It never panned out in practice, even if the front office’s expectations of him were low.

Going forward, this offseason is going to be crucial for the Red Sox. The way this season played out presented them with the arduous task of carefully rebuilding the 40-man roster. It is a task that is quite jarring considering the Red Sox were World Champions just two seasons ago.

The pitching core undeniably needs some serious renovation. Overall, Boston finished as the third-worst pitching team in MLB during the 2020 season. The Red Sox, thankfully, could have some remedies for what was by far their worst issue. Though

he only started three games, Tanner Houck looked like the real deal as he won all of them with a stunning .53 ERA, according to Baseball Reference. Boston also holds the fourth pick in the 2021 MLB Draft, which it could use to select a top-tier pitching talent like Vanderbilt University’s Jack Leiter or—fingers crossed—his teammate and other pitching virtuoso Kumar Rocker. Chris Sale should also eventually return to give the starting squad its much needed jolt.

Additionally, the Sox could go a number of directions to fill the glaring hole at manager. The decision will reportedly be made by Chief of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom, team president Sam Kennedy said.

Bloom prefers to keep his process private, deflecting questions about any possible names. He stated he knows it “may be an unsatisfactory answer, but we’re just not going to talk about managerial candidates for our job at this point.”

This leaves potential job candidates up to speculation among fans. A fan-favorite option in the early stages of this search is the idea of an Alex Cora return. Bloom has not ruled it out, and Cora could potentially come in without missing a step since he is already familiar with most of the roster. Other options might include Tampa Bay Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro, former Red Sox catcher and

current assistant coach Jason Varitek, and Red Sox third base coach Carlos Febles. In any case, whoever Chaim Bloom hires will clearly have their hands full rebuilding the team.

Rebuilding the Sox, however, is not impossible. While fan-favorite slugger J.D. Martinez is able to opt out of his contract this winter, indications so far suggest he is looking to remain on the squad for one more season. The team has key pieces returning from injury like Andrew Benintendi and the aforementioned star pitcher Chris Sale. Boston’s incredible draft position could be used to either select a pitcher to eventually shore up the rotation or boost the team’s hitting ability, its one real strength of this season.

The Red Sox faithful should not expect a team that is going to win the World Series next season. Quite honestly, this team has ways to go before truly contending for a title. There are too many holes around the roster to be solved in one offseason. When next season does finally roll around, however, Sox fans everywhere should expect a team that will not completely dissolve so quickly. Who knows? They might even be good this time around.

nate_lannan@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

6

Living Arts

Senior places first in national Fortune 500 marketing competition Campbell Parish

Beacon Correspondent After senior Madison Umina’s summer internship was canceled due to the pandemic, the program that hired her created a Fortune 500 marketing competition to take its place.

Eventually, the marketing communications senior came out on top over more than 150 students.

Umina originally applied for the MADE internship program, intended to place 50 students with paid internships for the coming summer. She was matched with Foote, Cone & Belding (FBC) Health as an advertising council intern.

When the pandemic cancelled most of the internships, MADE quickly pivoted to another solution. They developed a multiple-round competition with the Association of National Advertisers Educational Foundation and the Clorox company. Members of the team that win the contest would each receive an interview for an entry-level job at Clorox.

The competition last two weeks.

Each team received their first-round assignments on July 13, before the competition officially began on July 23. The MADE program notified the five groups who made it past the first round and the final presentations on July 30. “[MADE] created webinars that happened every Friday,” Umina said.

“They would meet with professionals from the marketing industry, and they would talk to us and give us advice.

In addition to that Clorox, who has worked with the ANA Education in the past, they were like ‘We are going to do a case competition and then you guys can get some experience.’”

Umina’s team included three other students, all attending schools in Boston—Erin Qiu from Boston University, Luiza Nascimento of Wellesley University, and Nicole Sullivan from Fordham University.

Umina’s team was the only one made up of all women. She said the group became good friends throughout the competition. They keep touch and are still friends.

For the first round of the MADE competition, groups were asked to create a product that would encompass Clorox’s portfolio and provide helpful COVID-19 information. The product also had to be zero-waste certified and have a technology component to it, meaning it reaches strict guidelines by

Courtesy Madison Umina

Green Business Certification Inc. Her group created a product designed to sanitize the handles of shopping carts, which would help stop the

spread of germs and make one component of the shopping experience safer. “[The product is] a dispenser that goes on the exterior of the [store], and you push the cart underneath it, and it automatically sanitizes the handle,” Umina said. “There were a lot of products that were coming out for that same need, but they were for the entire cart, so they were expensive.

They were bulky. They were hard to assemble. We minimized it and made it to clean the essential part, which is the handle.”

This product earned Umina’s team one of only five spots in the final round, where they were then each given a retailer and a brand to work on a new product. Umina’s team had to design a Glad product exclusively for Kroger Company. They were tasked to increase the use of Glad trash bags at Kroger stores.

Kroger is a popular grocery store that is located in the Midwest. None of Umina’s teammates have been to one before, making the final round more difficult.

The group designed bundles of different sizes of trash bags to make the purchasing process easier for the consumer. The bundle would help consumers cut costs as it included enough bags to last a month. The package also included composting bags, which Kroger does not currently carry. Additionally, to the benefit of the added simplification for the consumer, it also lowers the overall cost of making the trash bags.

“We created a package where instead of going to the grocery store and buying kitchen bags and then separately recycling bags, small bathroom bags, we put them all into one,” Umina said in a Beacon interview.

The winners of the contest received an interview for each team member foran entry-level job at Clorox and a care package.

Umina said she is extremely grateful for the opportunity and the learning experience by participating in the

Senior Madison Umina won the competition by creating the projects above Courtesy Madison Umina

competition and seeing how a Fortune 500 company operates.

After college, Umina said she hopes to pursue a marketing job with a small agency that deals with critical social issues such as human rights programs and women’s rights.

Senior marketing communications and creative writing major Walter Gorden also participated in the marketing contest though he was not a finalist. “[The whole experience] was great, the irony was before I applied I almost talked myself out of it. I started

marketing late, at the end of my sophomore year,” Gordon said. “I got to network with marketing students from around the country.”

Umina was chosen to move further than Gordon. Both, however, said they received beneficial experiences for their future careers.

“My biggest piece of advice, don’t back down from your brilliance, it’s okay to prove yourself or work hard.

You don’t need to accept average,” Gordon said. campbell_parish@emerson.edu

Alum wins Emmy for documenting Michael Jordan’s last season Cont. from Pg.1 “My first memories were going to sporting events with [my father] while he was working,” Winik said.

His combined passion for film and sports landed him at Emerson’s film school—now the department of Visual and Media Arts. He frequently contributed to Emerson Independent Video as a member of the production team, where he met classmates Jeffery Wetzel ‘84 and Scott Weinstock ‘84, both of whom he would go on to work with in his career.

Wetzel worked with Winik at NBC Sports for a number of years, covering events like the U.S. Open and the NBA All-Star games together.

“We worked together over the summers when we were in between semesters at Emerson and then we got out of college, we worked together as well,” Wetzel said in a phone interview. “Can’t wait to work with [Winik] again in the future.”

In 1990, Weinstock got a call from Winik about a position on the crew for the show NBA Inside Stuff, which Weinstock fondly recalls in a

phone interview as “the greatest work experience of [his] life.”

“We were just a bunch of knuckleheads, just a bunch of really enthusiastic sports guys,” Weinstock said.

“We realized what we were doing was going to get a lot of attention, so everyone tried to top the last thing that somebody else did and the level of work we were all putting out was fantastic.”

Winik and Weinstock worked for NBA Entertainment through the ’ 90’s on different projects, one of them being The Last Dance.

While Michael Jordan, the Chicago Bulls, and the NBA approved the filming process for the 1997-1998 season, there was no guarantee the footage would ever be released. Winik would need Jordan’s approval to share the footage, and he would have to find a distribution network to run the docuseries. That, Winik said, ended up being the biggest obstacles that halted this project’s progression.

Due to the mass amounts of footage, the potential lack of profit, and the scale of the story that was being told, Winik felt that there wasn’t an outlet big enough to fully document

the legacy of Jordan. Winik said he and the crew struggled to find the “right time” to release the project.

But finally, 18 years later, Jordan gave them permission and they landed a deal with Netflix.

After two years of production, the show was released in April on ESPN at the height of the national quarantine.

“The success of The Last Dance can’t be separated from the time and place of the pandemic,” Winik said.

While Winik attributes the docuseries’ success to the increasing demand for in-home entertainment, Weinstock said the success of The Last Dance cannot be separated from Winik.

“He never lost faith that someday it was going to be something and he was able to pick it back up twenty years later,” Weinstock said. “The NBA showed a tremendous amount of faith in him that he would be able to shepherd the project through everything.”

Winik said he learned and developed this determination from a principle that he has been applying to his work since attending Emerson.

Film crew shooting The Last Dance in 1988 in Bull’s locker room.

Courtesy NBA Entertainment

“You may not be the smartest, but if you work the hardest you can get a long way,” Winnik said.

His persistence was noticeable to colleagues like Weinstock and Wetzel.

“From the minute I met him, the guy was successful because he had such a great work ethic, he was really passionate about anything he took on,” Wetzel said. “Nobody works harder, and nobody deserves the Emmy more than he does for The Last Dance.”

Winik said The Last Dance not only won him an Emmy but opened

many doors for him. He mentioned possibly documenting the NBA’s season in the Orlando “bubble,” the isolated community where the NBA has been playing out the remainder of their 2019-2020 season.

“Sports shows, sports documentaries, sports in general often do not resonate with a wider audience, and obviously this crossed over,” Winik said. “It is quite an honor to be involved in such a project.”

lucia_thorne@emerson.edu

The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

7

Zooms, outdoor gatherings, and Discord servers: FSLs adapt to an altered semester Karissa Schaefer

Beacon Correspondent Fall is typically the peak semester for fraternity and sorority life on campus, who usually welcome a new member class through recruitment events. But this year, as yet another consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, FSL organizations are forced to reevaluate their recruitment strategies to accommodate social distancing guidelines imposed by the college.

FSL organizations typically rely on in-person gatherings to meet new members, forge friendships, and educate them on the inner workings of their groups. Now, organizations are now heavily reliant on EmConnect, the college’s dashboard site student groups use for events and outreach.

Chapters gave students interested in joining FSL the opportunity to drop in on meet-and-greets, virtual speed dating, and other activities hosted on Zoom. Anybody who wishes to become a potential new member must attend these virtual recruitment events in order to receive a bid, also known as an offer to join a specific FSL organization. From there, new member education begins.

Student Engagement & Leadership Program Coordinator Jenna Coviello said SEAL has worked closely with FSL through these unprecedented times.

“There was definitely some frustration of the fact that things can’t move the way that they normally can, but I think they really dug in and embraced it and figured out what was possible for them,” Coviello said in an interview.

All of the fraternities and sororities worked diligently since the summer to discuss possibilities for the fall term, Coviello said. An advisory board of FSL presidents, as well as other FSL members, was created this summer to ask and answer questions about the virtual setting they would work in this year.

Coviello went on to explain how chapters have taken it upon themselves to meet in socially distanced ways. Whether it is meeting in small groups, gathering outside, or planning a virtual Disney+ watch party, SEAL helps to keep people involved while maintaining proper safety measures.

“We tried to be as accommodating as possible just because we want people to be involved in things,” Coviello said. “Still, the amount of people coming out was a decent amount.”

Kappa Gamma Chi have dedicatedthemselves to philanthropy(top); Delta Kappa Alpha have been holding weekly chapter meetings through zoom(bottom right) Kappa Gamma Chi (top) Courtesy Kappa Gamma Chi Delta Kappa Alpha (bottom right) Beacon Archives

At least three out of nine chapters have decided to continue recruitment this semester, Coviello said. These include Alpha Epsilon Phi, Alpha Phi Omega, and Xi Gamma Nu. Chapters have yet to give SEAL their new member lists.

On the other hand, some chapters opted out of recruitment this semester, including Delta Kappa Alpha, a national co-ed professional fraternity for filmmakers.

“Our national board will not allow us to recruit this semester for COVID-safety reasons, so we actually have had no recruitment events thus far,” DKA President Fiona Torrese

said. “We’ve been holding our weekly [chapter] meetings via Zoom.”

Many chapters are instead taking this semester to focus on their current members and properly prepare for the spring season.

The fraternity’s secretary, sophomore Benjamin Peterson, commented on the transition leading to a decrease in attendance.

“We made the transition okay,” Peterson said. “Attendance has definitely been down compared to last year, but it’s mostly from people who have taken a leave of absence this semester.”

DKA Vice President Antonio Vega-Torres, a junior, mentioned online

most recent LB rendezvous gained more attention. Several students shared their thoughts to the Emerson Missed Connections 2.0 Instagram account.

“To whoever we saw up in the 4th floor common room in a Scooby Doo costume from the third floor, may I have your hand in marriage?” one post read.

The same day his fans’ comments were shared on Instagram, Scooby said an imposter student claimed to be Scooby. Fraud was not something Scooby could let slide, he said, so he created an official Scooby Doo at Emerson Instagram account the next day.

“I created an account and it gained about 120 followers in a day,” Scooby said. “I’m hoping to continue the trend and I’ve decided to expand the brand ‘Scooby Doo at Emerson.’”

To do this, Scooby plans on holding meet and greets, creating a TikTok account, and starting a Youtube channel.

Scooby said he is in the early stages of expanding his brand, but in the future he hopes to donate any proceeds he raises to charity.

First-year student Liza Ovsiannikov said she appreciated seeing Scooby in LB as she felt this embodies the traditional college experience.

“My friends and I were very excited to see him,” Ovsiannikov said in a phone interview. “We were like, ‘Oh my god, it’s Scooby,’ I enjoyed it. It’s a good way to forget.”

Even though many were not lucky enough to see Scooby in person, his Instagram account brings just as much happiness to his fans.

Hayden Scoplitte, another first year, was among the majority who missed Scooby’s visit, but she said she gets her Scooby-fix through the account.

“Honestly, I think it’s one of the most exciting things to happen to Emerson,” Scoplitte said in a phone interview.

Scooby said he will likely be making an appearance about once a week, mainly on the weekends. Students can follow Scooby’s Instagram account for more updates on his future hijinks and meet and greets.

events the fraternity has done since the summer, which includes creating their own Minecraft server.

“Because we’re a professional fraternity, we have the benefit of being able to do events that aren’t purely social, so those have been online and they’re easier to do online,” Vega-Torres said. “In terms of social events, one really big thing we did last semester and a bit over the summer was making a Minecraft server that was open to DKA. We also have a Discord that we all use. Otherwise, it’s planning things like online screenings that we can all take part in together.”

Another chapter that opted out of a

recruitment class this semester is Kappa Gamma Chi, a local professional sorority. Senior President Maria Suevo said they have dedicated themselves to philanthropy by sending postcards to remind people to vote, rewriting their histories, and amending their constitution.

“When we think about rewriting our histories and our constitution, it’s because we knew we were in a transitional period for the better, and we didn’t want to take a pledge class when we weren’t fully ready to give that to the new sisters,” Suevo said.

“Next semester, we’re definitely going to take a pledge class.”

In the future, KGC also plans on doing a mask drive for Rosie’s Place, a woman’s shelter in Boston.

One chapter that took a recruitment class this semester is Alpha Epsilon Phi, a national sorority. Junior Claire Kong spoke about how AEPhi has navigated the fall term. Kong said they are doing a combination of both in-person and online Zoom events.

Recognizing the difficulties from the lack of an in-person student organization fair, Kong said that even though there weren’t as many people as there typically is during a recruitment season, AEPhi still had a decent amount of potential new members attend. In addition, AEPhi also has a pledge class this semester.

Some events AEPhi hosted included both an in-person and Zoom open house, a philanthropy night, and sister speed dating.

“All of our in-person events were outdoors in the Common,” Kong said.

“We required masks to be worn at all times and we were all social distancing to the best of our abilities. We felt really comfortable going forward with outdoor in-person events.”

In order to attend any in-person events, Kong said current sisters had to present their most recent COVID-19 test results.

“To us, it was really important to still be there when people are looking for community at Emerson, especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kong said. “We’re sad that we couldn’t do the full experience, but we’re still extremely grateful that we could do recruitment still and find these wonderful new ladies.”

karissa_schaefer@emerson.edu

First-year student raises money for charity using Scooby Doo costume Lucia Thorne

Beacon Correspondent To the surprise of many, residents of the Little Building earlier this week were graced by the presence of everyone’s favorite mystery-solving canine, Scooby Doo. Scooby, a student who requested to remain anonymous, said he roamed the halls of LB Monday night to “spread love and joy” throughout the dorms, but this visit was not the original plan. According to Scooby himself, a small misunderstanding was where his journey began.

“A bunch of people on the 11th floor of LB were really into Scooby Doo, and so they were doing a shaggy dress up on Wednesday of orientation night,” Scooby said in an interview with Beacon. “The next week, I thought they were gonna do another dress up day so I got the Scooby costume. I show up and they weren’t doing it so I thought, ‘Why waste the costume?’”

Scooby then made his first appearance in-character on Sept. 2, but his

lucia_thorne@emerson.edu

Scooby Doo plans to donate all funds he raises to charity Lucia Thorne / Beacon Correspondent

Sports The Berkeley Beacon

October 8, 2020

8

Soccer duo debuts debate podcast Tyler Foy Beacon Correspondent Men’s soccer sophomore defenders Bo Feekins and Aidan Ferguson have spent the past year creating soccer content for their individual YouTube channels. In an effort to build their platforms, they are now joining forces and starting a podcast, “The Fifty Fifty Podcast.”

The podcast launched its first episode on Sept. 27. It is centered around professional soccer, as it aligns with their YouTube content and personal interests.

The first two episodes of the podcast centered around England’s top division, the Premier League. The pair

said. “This was just taking what we’re doing already and putting it on an audio platform.”

Feekins said finding topics to talk about is not too straining. Most importantly, they have a lot of fun with it as they go.

“Whether there’s a camera or a microphone on, we love to talk about the game,” Feekins said. “It’s not difficult for us to just hit a switch and put it online. At the end of the day, it’s just two friends who love the game of soccer, talk to each other about it, and then put it out there for hopefully other people who have a similar pas-

Senior Sam Willinger in 2019-2020 season Courtesy Sam Willinger

Athletes bond during preseason training with winter season still uncertain José Ríos

The status of the NEWMAC winter sports season remains unclear due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Emerson student athletes have continued preparing for the possibility of competition.

Rather than focusing on on-court training this semester, winter sports teams are prioritizing gym workouts.

“There are a lot of things we can’t do,” first-year men’s basketball guard Trevor Amico said in an interview.

“But we’re trying to get stronger, doing what we’re allowed to do to the best of our abilities.”

Preseason is an integral part of any team’s foundation because it allows athletes to get physically fit and build team chemistry and culture necessary for on-the-court success. However, some athletes said developing bonds with teammates has been the biggest challenge this preseason.

“It’s really hard to get to know everybody during COVID because it’s hard to keep everyone together,” Liv Deslauriers, a freshman guard on the women’s basketball team, said. “Our lift sessions have to be split up between two groups, so we can’t even

lift as a full team.”

Individual athletes have typically been responsible for improving their physical health independently in past seasons. But this year, it’s become more of a team activity.

“Since the last couple of years, lifting has been more an independent thing just because a lot of our schedules are all over the place,” senior men’s volleyball middle blocker Sam Willinger said in a Zoom interview. “Now, we’ve really focused on getting at least two days a week where we all see each other lifting because we are such a small group. We’re only seven guys— six of us are actually able to make it to those lifts—so it’s very few of us lifting at the same time and being able to see each other. But it’s been really cool and kind of important for us to have that kind of time to be together.”

The uncertainty of a winter season still remains in the back of these athletes’ minds, but Amico said they are not allowing it to get in the way of their preparation.

“We just have to have that mentality where we’re going to be playing for something, playing for a championship,” Amico said. “Even in the worst case scenario, if this year is hard, you know, there’s always going to be a future.”

© 2020 The Berkeley Beacon. All rights reserved.

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Beacon Correspondent

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The women’s basketball team, like the other teams, holds a winning mentality during these uncertain times.

“We’re just going to keep practicing, keep working, so when we do get games, even if it’s less than normal, we’ll be prepared and ready to win,” Deslauriers said.

The loss or delay of a season would not affect all of winter athletes equally. For senior athletes like Willinger, this is the last season they would be stepping out on the court of the Bobbi Brown and Stephen Plofker Gym as Lions. In his preparation, Willinger acknowledges he is not just preparing for a possible season but that he is helping the team prepare for years ahead.

“I won’t be here next year, but when I’m not here next year, that momentum is still there,” Willinger said. “My team is small and there’s not too many of us. I’m not sure who’s going to end up taking my place as captain and facilitator. Hopefully we’ll foster more of that through the end of this year and hit that goal. We’re really happy with the freshmen that we have and the recruits that we have coming up in the next couple years, so I’m hoping that the program will stay strong and keep rolling with the punches.” jose_rios@emerson.edu

Letters to the Editor: If you want to respond to, or share an opinion about, an article in The Beacon, you can write a short letter to the editor. Email it to letters@ berkeleybeacon.com. Please note that letters may be edited. Submissions for print must be fewer than 250 words.

Sophomores Aidan Ferguson (left) and Bo Feekins (right) Courtesy Aidan Ferguson gave their takes on topics like who title favorites are, how managers are running their clubs, and how effectively newly acquired transfers will fare at their new club.

The two sophomores embarked on their content-creating journey in 2019, when Feekins started making appearances on Ferguson’s channel, The Fergie Time Podcast. After some time, Feekins started his own channel, Inside Arsenal, which features content about his favorite club, Arsenal FC. “Bo and I have been working together on some creative projects for roughly a year now,” Ferguson said in an interview. “It first started with my YouTube channel. He would come on and we would have debates on there…

He then started his own YouTube channel.”

Inside Arsenal accumulated 2,590 subscribers over the past year, and The Fergie Time Podcast amassed 2,510 subscribers since its inception in December 2018.

After working diligently over the past year, the two wanted to return to their roots and work on a project together.

“We knew for a while we wanted to get back to doing something collaborative,” Ferguson said. “We decided that starting a podcast on Spotify would be the best way to do something together and something new.”

To set themselves apart from the rest of the soccer podcasts in the world, the two have created a podcast where both can share their opinions on a different topics in professional soccer.

“It’s very much like a debate-style podcast,” Feekins said in an interview.

“There’s so many topics and arguments and debates to be had in the soccer world, and so our podcast very much tries to delve into those arguments.”

Feekins said the plan is to release a new podcast every Saturday with a different topic to debate.

“A lot of the reason why we came up with this podcast is because when we walked to soccer practice or were eating at the dining hall, we’re always debating soccer topics,” Ferguson

sion for the game to enjoy.”

The two said they have put a lot of effort into mastering their craft.

Sophomore Connor Dang, Ferguson’s roommate and their teammate on the soccer team, said he has seen the time the pair puts into the content creation.

“I’m in the room with Aidan whenever he’s doing work for his podcast or his own individual channel, and they’ve been working on it for a while,” Dang said in an interview. “I get to see what goes down, especially when I get to see him and Bo working together—going through their own process of getting their videos down and making sure that their scripts are correct, getting down the information that they both want to talk about whilst also doing it in a timely manner. It takes a lot of time or practice as well in order to get that stuff to work properly.”

Feekins and Ferguson’s content has become a talking point in team training sessions. Dang said that conversations focused around the professional leagues goes on to help build team chemistry.

“There are plenty of training sessions, even just within the year, where we talk about their content,” Dang said. “We’ve been talking a lot about the fact that they’ve been making their own podcasts together, and the guys have been showing a lot of excitement. And there’s definitely a lot of times where the videos themselves have been talking points for 30 minutes or so during training just because there’s a lot of stuff to get down into.”

Looking towards the future, the two hope to continue to grow their individual platforms through the podcast and to continue posting content for their supporters on YouTube.

“I’m very happy with where I am with my YouTube channel,” Feekins said. “Obviously, we just started the podcast as well. I think long-term goals are just trying to build the platform more and more everyday and trying to create more diverse content from whatever is already out there.” tyler_foy@emerson.edu