Emerson College’s student newspaper since 1947 • berkeleybeacon.com
Thursday, March 18, 2021 • Volume 74, Issue 21
ONE YEAR LATER
@berkeleybeacon // @beaconupdate
A pandemic-battered campus still reeling On the moment everything changed Charlie McKenna Beacon Staff
March 2021
Six Emerson students, now a year into a first-in-a-century pandemic, recalled the moments when they realized life was not going to return to “normal” anytime soon. For some, that moment came quickly—when President M. Lee Pelton moved classes online on March 10, 2020 and then told students to leave their residence halls just three days later, for example. For others, it took months of living at home to comprehend their new reality. Sophomore writing, literature, and publishing major Anna Phillips said the distorted reality of the pandemic set in for her when she received an email from her volleyball coach in mid-July informing her the team’s pre-season would be canceled. “[When I found out we weren’t having a season I was like] ‘well this is going to be very, very weird,’ because I’m already a homebody when I stay at home, but not being able to play volleyball kind of skewed my plans,” she said. Phillips said when she received Pelton’s community-wide email last March, she assumed the pandemic would be short-lived. “I was upset that we had to leave, obviously, but I was like, ‘Okay, I’m sure over the summer, things will die down, we’ll flatten the curve enough
that we can go back and everything will be fine,’” she said. “When that didn’t happen I was like, ‘What? what do you mean?’” Sophomore Christopher Dang, a fellow athlete, said his life was thrown off-kilter when he learned the men’s soccer team’s fall season was canceled. The team’s coach broke the news to the team in a July meeting, which he said helped soften the blow of the disappointing announcement. Sophomore visual and media arts major Giovanna Maralishvilli said the realization struck her when she returned to the Boston campus from spring break and learned of Harvard University’s decision to shut down. That news, coupled with her mother’s insistence that she bring hand sanitizer wherever she went while home, served as the warning of abnormality hiding around the corner. “I remember all my friends and I were like, ‘Oh shit I think we’re getting sent home—something’s gonna go down,’” she said. “Then, sure enough, I was watching something in one of my friend’s rooms, and we got a message in our group chat saying Emerson’s announcing that they’re going to let people have the option to go home now, and we’re like ‘Holy shit.’” Maralishvilli said that moment, compounded with the cancelation of many activities—like a marching band parade for alumni at her high school—prompted her to realize the gravity of the transformation. Ian McClure, a sophomore VMA student, said the country’s increasing case and death totals throughout the summer Instant, Pg. 4
Come fall, a return Coping with the to normalcy? historic loss of life Josh Sokol
Camilo Fonseca
Beacon Staff
Beacon Staff
While scrolling through Twitter—a passive and frequent pandemic pastime—I’ll see tweets along the lines of “We survived 2020; that’s something to celebrate.” While of course, that is something worth celebrating, I can’t help but think of the grand scale of losses from the past year. What of those that did not survive 2020? Those lives who were cut short from a pandemic and neglected by a government who believed COVID would just “blow over.” What of those who lost loved ones and are still reeling from the grief? Since the pandemic began a full year ago, 2,620,416 people across the globe have died as a result of the virus. A number which, when put into words, makes the pandemic seem more concrete and visible. It’s a number without a physical representation, the human brain cannot fathom two million people. The deaths in the United States alone make up 540,297 of that two million, 21 percent of all COVID-related deaths. Each of those individual deaths matter, and each of those deaths have a name, a Grief, Pg. 8
OPINION
11 students. 11 majors. 11 stories. Pg. 6-7
March 2020
Public health experts say there appears to be a “light at the end of the tunnel” shining for college campuses after a year of restrictions, social distancing, and online learning—but warn that administrators and students are not yet out of the woods. The college announced its plan to continue the hybrid model into the fall semester on Feb. 22—allowing for a possible “shift” to fully in-person classes should the conditions of the pandemic allow. Beyond that, though, it is unclear what the college landscape will look like in the fall. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I do think that things can get pretty much back to normal by the fall,” said Dr. Michael Siegel, a public health researcher at the Boston University School of Public Health. “Exactly how normal, I’m not sure.” Emerson has not yet determined whether other aspects of its coronavirus safety policy, like twice-weekly testing, social distancing, and restrictions on public gatherings, will also be carried into in the fall term, Experts, Pg. 7
INSIDE THIS EDITION Letter from the Editor: Reflecting After a Year Pg. 2 The logistical, engagement issues with Zoom school Pg. 2
The pandemic wrought havoc on education Pg. 8 How COVID-19 affect Boston’s museum Pg. 11
Staff continue pushing for benefits return Pg. 3
I’m lucky sports are the worst thing I lost Pg. 12
Represents key dates in COVID-19 timeline COVID-19 timeline continues on Pg. 2 and 3 Diti Kohli / Beacon Staff