FALL BREAK EDITION THURSDAY November 19, 2020
THE DAILY ILLINI
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Vol. 150 Issue 26
Semester in review: UI adapts to pandemic COVID-19 exposure puts BY ETHAN SIMMONS
Thanksgiving plans at risk
NEWS EDITOR
Despite an abbreviated in-person tenure, the University’s fall 2020 semester was anything but uneventful. The advent of a cuttingedge saliva-based COVID-19 test by University faculty and students guided the return of around 40,000 people to the C-U campus. What followed — “hybrid” instruction, a spike and decline in cases, a lockdown, student protests and struggles — captured national attention. Here are the highlights of the University’s threemonth rollercoaster ride:
BY MONA ALRAZZAQ STAFF WRITER
As Thanksgiving break approaches, some students’ plans to return home for the holiday might be interrupted due to an unexpected need to quarantine. Sarah Mendes, junior in LAS, was advised by the C-U Public Health District to quarantine for two weeks after being exposed to somebody who tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday. Though she has been tested twice and the results came back negative, she is hoping that result stays consistent over the next week. She had a plan to head home for the week off but might now put that plan on hold. “It was a lot of back and forth with my parents about whether I should come home or not,” Mendes said. “At the end of the day, I decided that for their safety, in the event that I do test positive, it’s better that I do just stay on campus.” If Mendes’ tests remain negative, her plan changes to going home for the weekend and self-isolating in her room for the remainder of the two-week period. Despite the disappointment of potentially remaining on campus when she planned to go home, she is coping well. “I’m kind of really focusing on school work and trying to keep myself busy to not dwell on the fact of that possible positive COVID test,” Mendes said. Marianna Kalembasa, senior in LAS, has also been recently exposed to COVID-19. Though she did not receive a call from any officials, she took it upon herself to do her own research and isolate herself accordingly. “I will be quarantining for a full two weeks for the safety of my other two roommates,” Kalembasa said. “I don’t want to get anyone else sick.” Kalembasa has been taking COVID-19 tests every other day since she was exposed. So far, they have also all come back negative. Her plans for Thanksgiving break are impacted slightly due to her situation, though she hopes they are not permanently altered. Saturday will be two weeks since her exposure, so she will head back
Expectations meet a surge
On the eve of the first week of classes, University administrators gathered with the Shield: Target, Test, Tell team to share their plans and forecasts for the semester. The hope: The campus population would test twice a week and avoid most unsafe gatherings, responding to contact tracers if exposure occurred. The converted Veterinary Diag-
CAMERON KRASUCKI THE DAILY ILLINI
Illini football players Doug Kramer Jr., Owen Carney and Marquez Beason take a knee to honor those who have died at the hands of police during a Black Lives Matter protest on Aug 31. Hundreds of students and community members participated in local BLM protests this fall.
nostic Laboratory would process tens of thousands of campus tests each day, returning results in a matter of hours. After a bump in cases, University and public health efforts to control the
spread would curb the virus to a trickle for the rest of the semester. Un iver sit y mo delers nailed the number of imports; about 300 COVID-19 positive people in
the entry screening of tests. What happened afterward was a murky mix of late test results, weekend social gatherings and refusals to respond to contact tracers. COVID-19 cases swelled
far beyond University expectations. By Sept. 1, after the first week of class, more than 1,200 people had been infected on campus. SEE SEMESTER | 3A
Marching Illini find new ways to support each other BY ROYAL SHRESTHA STAFF WRITER
The feel of the football season is certainly not the same without the fans cheering and the band playing. Instead, Memorial Stadium is packed with over 300 cardboard cutouts of Marching Illini performers, with pre-recorded touchdown and end-game winning performances that are played throughout the football game. “It’s still not the same, but we are still part of the experience and that’s the key thing for us,” said Barry L. Houser, director of athletic bands. “We are able to support our team no matter what, and that they hear and at least see a little bit of our support for them along the way.” Since the beginning of March when COVID-19 hit, every student at the University was impacted, but for students pursuing fine arts and music, the experience has completely changed. With the Marching Illini’s band having over 400 student members, the pandemic certainly had a “significant
impact on the students, as coordinating rehearsals and practices over Zoom was just impossible,” Houser said. Because of the latency issues over Zoom, this has become a challenge not only for Illinois but for many other schools in the U.S., Houser said. Instead, the students have been utilizing the extra time to learn more about inclusiveness and diversity, and open up more about how they’re doing along with their mental health. These aspects, Houser believes are something never really talked about in a normal football season with so much going on, but he believes that the most important thing is “continuing to engage and meet, just being able to have a conversation, which is hard to do these days.” Houser organized a performance by a small, senior group of Marching Illini members to play during the 100th celebration of the Altgeld chimes on Oct. 30. As there were a lot of wind instruments during the
THE DAILY ILLINI FILE PHOTO
Members of the Marching Illini stand in the end zone before the game against Minnesota at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 3, 2018. The Marching Illini recently performed during the 100th anniversary of the Altgeld bells.
event, intensive research studies were done on aerosol particles produced by such instruments months prior to the event. Bell covers and special student masks were created just to help negate the spread of these particles. Houser was able to share these research results with high schools and colleges and was eventually contacted by
the Illinois Department of Public Health. “We were able to share the research information, and the IDPH and our team were able to create some really safe guidelines together so that programs throughout the state could actually meet once again and continue to teach music,” Houser said. The feedback to the guide-
lines was really positive and schools over Illinois have already started to implement them, Houser said. It will still be a while before the Marching Illini can perform like in a regular season, but he believes massive leaps are already being taken to move forward with music. royals2@dailyillini.com
LONGFORM
What America has failed to hear A Year of Racial and Political Division: Where do we go now? BY GRACE MALONEY STAFF WRITER
A Movement Re-Ignited
KAITLIN MIKRUT THE DAILY ILLINI
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Shootings. Protests. Riots. A movement ignited. Eight months. Over 250 days. That’s how much time has passed since Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician from Louisville, Kentucky, was fatally shot by police officers executing a no-knock warrant in her apartment. One of the officers, Brett Hankison, was fired on June 23, over three months after Taylor’s death. The other two officers involved — Jon Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove — were placed on administrative reassignment. Not one of them has faced criminal charges, but hundreds who have protested in response to Taylor’s death have been arrested
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instead. A grand jury did not charge any of the police officers with Breonna Taylor’s killing, though one former detective was indicted for “recklessly firing” into a neighboring apartment during the raid, according to a New York Times article. A Change.org petition, started by law student Loralei HoJay, is calling for the arrest of the three officers involved in the case. It addresses President Donald Trump, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, state Attorney General Daniel Cameron and others. The petition has garnered over 10 million signatures, the secondhighest amount in history. Seventy-three days — two-and-a-half months — after the death of Breonna Taylor, another name was added to the list of Black people killed by the police. “Please.” “Mama.” “I can’t breathe,” George
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Floyd — a 46-year-old Black man — begged at least 16 times. “My stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts,” he told the four Minneapolis police officers — only to be told, “You are talking fine.” On March 25, Floyd was killed at the hands of a white police officer who knelt on his neck for almost 9 minutes. The arrest was for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill. His death sparked a national outcry for justice. The petition garnered over 19 million signatures — the highest in history.
Features: Contest rewards creative writing student PAGE 4A
Decades of damage
It is more than the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd that have incited hundreds of marches and protests in all 50 states. It’s more than
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