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THE DAILY ILLINI

MONDAY March 1, 2021

The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871

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Vol. 150 Issue 36

LONGFORM: PART 1

Portraits of faith: ‘Physically distant, emotionally close’ Jewish institutions adapt, overcome pandemic constraints BY MATT TROHER STAFF WRITER

RYAN ASH THE DAILY ILLINI

The Illini Chabad House stands on the corner of Armory Avenue and Arbor street.

It’s coming up on a year since that fateful week in mid-March, when COVID-19 jumped from something people only read in headlines, to suddenly being very real. March 13 was the last day on campus for many students before returning to their homes to quarantine and wait for things to get better. The same occurred for campus institutions — specifically religious institutions. Synagogues, churches and mosques, among other places of worship, closed due to COVID-19. While reopening has been staggered, each institution has had to adapt to keep serving their communities for the past 11 months. There are two univer-

sal aspects to any religion: the individual relationship between the individual and their respective higher power, and the community that forms within a religious institution through their shared devotion to their higher power. However, that communal aspect was taken away when the pandemic forced institutions to close their doors. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is home to roughly 3,500 Jewish students, and myriad Jewish organizations ranging from RSOs to campus institutions. One of these institutions is Illini Hillel, a foundation of Jewish Campus life at the University. Located on the corner of John and Fifth streets, Illini Hillel serves as a center for the Jewish community

at Illinois. Erez Cohen works as the executive director of Illini Hillel. Prior to COVID-19, Cohen worked with Hillel staff and student leadership to create social and cultural programming with a Jewish theme. A typical week would include communal dinners, lunch programs and evening discussions. When students returned to campus in the fall, Cohen was tasked with trying to figure out a way to continue offering programming in the safest way possible. He knew that students who took social distancing the most seriously would also be the most affected by the isolating side effects of social distancing, and aimed to create a space for them to have SEE FAITH | 3A

Waived tests, new deadlines: UI alters 2021 admission process University delays release of early action applications

BY ALIZA MAJID STAFF WRITER

Prospective students received their admission letter from the University on Feb. 19 with new process alterations because of the pandemic. Catherin La, an incoming freshman, is one of the many students who have been struggling to get through the academic year as the pandemic continues to interfere with their everyday lives. College applications were no exception to this issue as students struggled to complete necessary requirements in order to apply to colleges. “It was definitely more difficult to complete appli-

cations. I think because of the stress of doing school all online the first semester and having to do college apps it was much harder. I think that with standardized testing, my ACT got canceled three times. It was kind of frustrating trying to get an ACT score even though I know a lot of schools are test-optional,” La said. Amid COVID-19, the college administration process has changed in order to accommodate students during these unique circumstances. Students are no longer required to submit their standardized test scores and deadlines were altered to aid students in their application process. “During a global pandemic when students can’t take the SAT/ACT, can’t visit the campus and for many, (they) are still taking their high school classes fully remote, it has been difficult to anticipate how this admissions cycle will play out,” said Andy Borst, the

THE DAILY ILLINI FILE PHOTO

Prospective students and their parents take a tour of campus on March 6, 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the admissions process at the University.

INSIDE

Sports: Raina Terry embraces new role

buzz: Video game developer comments on true-crime

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Director of Undergraduate Admissions. The University opened up its submission period on Sept. 1 for all applicants with the early action deadline extending from the original date of Nov. 1 to Nov. 15. The early action notification period was removed in order to give the University more time to assess applications. “We delayed the release of admission decisions for early action applications to the same time as our regular decision applicants,” Borst said. “Students who applied by the early action deadline were given priority consideration for our most competitive programs, honors and merit scholarships.” Students applying all received their notification about their admission status on the same day regardless of their application deadline. “I did apply early action but everyone’s decisions came at the same time,” La said. “I know when you apply early action you usually get your decision back in December but having to wait like an extra two months was kind of nerve-racking.” The University decided to omit standardized testing for students applying for the Fall 2021 freshman admission due to the pandemic limiting opportunities for students to take the exams. This exception was made for one year in order to accommodate this current situation. “I think that it actually positively impacted me because I’m generally not a great standardized test taker so I didn’t submit my score but my GPA was pretty solid,” said Naseem Haleem, a prospective student in GIES. “I think it definitely helped me out because if I had to submit my score I’m not sure that it would have been that great. I think it would have hurt my admission honestly.” Students are now waiting on any potential scholarships that will be available to them by April 1 and send in their decision by May 1. “Many students were admitted to highly competitive programs without test scores. Students’ performance in rigorous core academic classes and their ability to articulate meaning from their experiences played a larger role in our decisions,” Borst said. alizam2@dailyillini.com

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CAMERON KRASUCKI THE DAILY ILLINI

Illinois student Tom Wheeler takes a University COVID-19 test at the ARC on Feb. 1. The University tests about 10,000 students per day.

Champaign, campus health officials hunt for virus hotspots, variants BY ALEXANDRA GERGOVA STAFF WRITER

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise steadily, the University’s SHIELD team has been actively studying the distribution of COVID-19 cases by location in order to instruct certain locations to begin testing more frequently than others, a safety measure that was also employed in the fall semester. According to data shown in the recently updated COVID-19 dashboard, the University tests around 10,000 students a day, with 9,972 students being tested on Feb. 25. These tests are only broken down by population on the dashboard; however, the SHIELD team also analyzes what locations these cases are coming from, according to Allison Copenbarger Vance, a spokesman for the University and a Content Strategy Director in Public Affairs. “We have some data scientists and other experts — epidemiologists as well — who sort of look at the way that the infection basically patterns or trends in our own University community to see what mitigation steps we might need to take,” Vance said. “So, you know, in terms of how it’s spreading, they are looking at the number of cases, where those cases are and how many cases are in each area every single day.” Following these analyses, the experts make recommendations about how to proceed. One of these recommendations involves implementing an everyother-day-testing-order for entire housing locations, such as residence halls, apartments or private-certified housing. Residences in a location that has been determined to

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require every other day testing must do so because the location has received either one positive case in the past three days or three or more cases in the past seven days. “The reason they do it by building and not by specific address is because, of course, we also want to make sure that we are protecting individuals’ privacy,” Vance said. When the team notices a location that falls under this criteria, they flag the location and alert the rest of the team that the location must immediately be forced to test every other day. “Typically we do that once per week,” Vance said. “We make that change once per week unless the SHIELD team notices an increase midweek.” After the SHIELD team communicates that a building meets the criteria to the Office of Student Affairs, an email is sent to all residents alerting them of this change. “Their building access status has also changed to be every other day, so the technical piece is that they’re in both the boarding pass and the Safer Illinois app,” Vance said. “It will change so that they are on every other day instead of twice per week.” Typically, the distribution is evenly split between residence halls, private-certified housing and private apartments. However, the buildings required to partake in this safety measure fluctuate consistently. “Every week when we put people on those lists, we also take people off of those lists,” Vance said. “So it’s a different building based on what the data is telling us. Sometimes if locations continue to show that they still are having three more cases in the last seven days, they

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will be left on the list. But there’s a lot of movement on that list, on or off.” Digging for variants Besides closely analyzing data for patterns in location, the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District has also been sequencing samples for the B117 variant if they meet the criteria set forth by the CDC. Sequencing occurs in the lab and is used to determine specific strains of the virus, according to Awais Vaid, Deputy Administrator and Epidemiologist of the CUPHD. “It takes not just hours but days to sequence samples,” Vaid said. “So not every single sample is set up to be sequenced when they do the PCR testing of a sample. And if certain characteristics are met, then those are the ones that are then sent for sequencing.” The CDC has established two criteria that must be met: the S gene must not be present and the cycle time must be below 28. If the sample meets these, the CDC recommends it to be sequenced. Though the community has confirmed at least a dozen cases of the B117 variant in the community, the spread appears to be limited. “We have been keeping a very close watch on the number of cases and we are trying to catch those, even the probable cases, very early and prioritize their case investigation and contact tracing,” Vaid said. “So because of that, I think we are confident at this point it has not occurred as much so far.” While the CUPHD has not determined a specific location that has tested positive for cases of the variant, it is SEE HOTSPOTS | 3A

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