Halloween in a pandemic

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

Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020 • Volume 74, Issue 7

‘ITG are the real heroes of our school right now’

@berkeleybeacon // @beaconupdate

How Emerson tech groups prepared professors for a hybrid semester Domenico Conte Beacon Staff

For journalism professor Diane Mermigas, teaching in a hybrid format through a pandemic meant that she first had to play the role of a student. Throughout the summer, she took six courses taught by Emerson’s Instructional Technology Group in hopes of mastering Zoom and sharpening her computer skills ahead of classes. A typical summer for the ITG, whose focus is teaching professors how to use technological resources, includes training around a dozen faculty members in services like Canvas, Zoom, and Panopto, Director Jennifer Stevens said. This summer, a whopping 302 faculty members decided to sign up for at least one course with ITG. “I think we owe it to the students,” Mermigas said in a Zoom interview. “Many of the faculty, like myself, feel that we owe it to the students, who have really put themselves into a whole new learning experience by bringing themselves back to campus or by deciding to learn completely remotely. We owe it to the students to do the best we can with remote [teaching] also because, in my mind, it’s not just a fallback plan for pandemic time that we’re in—it really is the future.” That group, along with the IT Help Desk, the Iwasaki Library, the Media Services Center, Media Technologies and Production, and IT as a whole worked through the summer to make teaching possible for professors and learning feasible for students. “ITG are the heroes of our school right now,” Russell Newman, a professor in the Marlboro Institute and the head of the full-time faculty union, said. “ITG put in heroic efforts in creating online classes that will serve as really good models for how to do asynchronous learning, with every effort put forward to try and demonstrate best practices.” Newman said he signed up for every course provided by ITG, which included “Remote Teaching Intensive,” “Getting your materials online,” “Zoom and Video Production,” and “Advanced Canvas.” ITG teamed up with different departments to teach these skills to professors synchronously, asynchronously, and in one-on-one meetings. “It was boot camp,” Mermigas said. “It was great. I found it very invigorating. It put us in the students’ shoes, and that was really wonderful. I was interfacing with professors from other parts of the college that I didn’t know. They were coming from completely different departments, and we were all learning together.” ITG hired five temporary workers at the beginning of the pandemic to assist with summer courses and faculty training. Creative Instructional Designer for ITG Christopher Connors said the faculty’s effort and the work they have put in for the sake of students motivated him and his department. “I loved the way they were so open to learning new things, and how nervous they were about making sure students got a good experience across the IT, Pg. 3

THIS YEAR, A HALLOWEEN WITHOUT TRICKS OR TREATS Lucia Thorne Beacon Staff

The pandemic is making it trickier to get treats. Every year, the night of Oct. 31 normally calls for costume contests, frat parties, and trick-or-treating. But with the COVID-19 pandemic raging on, the college social gatherings that typically define the spooky holiday cannot exist safely as they have in previous years. But that isn’t stopping Emerson students from finding new ways to celebrate Halloween. For first-year student Katherine Gustafson, the Halloween celebration

President M. Lee Pelton (top) Courtesy Emerson College // Megan Quirk puts a pumpkin basket outside her room. Diana Bravo / Beacon Staff

began at the right at the beginning of the month. Each day, Gustafson sets time aside to watch one Halloween film of her choosing, either with a friend or on her own. “I love Halloween movies,” Gustafson said in a phone interview. “It’s my favorite time of year, so I watched a ton of movies every year anyway. I thought that since there wasn’t really anywhere to go this year, I might as well watch one everyday of October

Men’s soccer team boasts award-winning team GPA

and make it a marathon.” Some movies on her list include Frankenweenie, Beetlejuice, Coraline, and Halloweentown. Gustafson is saving 1993 cult favorite Hocus Pocus, a tale centered around three coven witches, for the night of Halloween. Eventually, Gustafon and her friends will be visiting Salem while dressed as Harry Potter characters. First-year student Spencer DeLo Halloween, Pg. 6

INSIDE THIS EDITION

The team holds the 22nd highest academic average in the nation Domenico Conte Beacon Staff

The team has a 3.56 combined GPA over the last academic year. Beacon Archives

The United Soccer Coaches organization recognized the Emerson men’s soccer team with the Academic Award for its work in the classroom and its 3.56 cumulative team grade point average, the second highest in the conference. The men’s team trails only Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the NEWMAC for team GPA and is tied for the 22nd highest GPA out of the 942 teams that boasted a 3.0 GPA or higher. It is the team’s first time being honored with the award since 2016. “It’s not surprising because we want them to be excellent and compete in the classroom and on the field, and it’s something we try to instill in them,” head coach Bryan Harkin said in a phone interview. “And the

ultimate goal is whenever [players] leave this program, or every year, you want to try and be academic all conference.” Harkin said he wants players to aim for a GPA over 3.5 so they can receive the NEWMAC Academic All-Conference award. Seven players on the team earned Academic All-Conference honors for the 2019 season. “There’s no reason why you can’t be striving to get a 3.5 or above,” Harkin said. “Whenever we talk to student athletes and their parents, that’s a core value that we have. It’s not an expectation, but we want everyone to try and get to that.” Junior Rye Keeler, one of the seven players from last year to gain Soccer, Pg. 8

Symptom tracker, Pg. 2

Students struggle to adjust to monthly Saturday classes Pg. 3 Editorial: Emerson needs to raise accountability in testing Pg. 4 2020 is not 2016: how this election is different Pg. 5 Music festival brings activism and music together Pg. 7 PawSox President talks heading team in pandemic Pg. 8


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