Western Courier| September 28th, 2020

Sports: Lebron James reaches 10th NBA Final

Opinions: Ways to avoid the stressors in your life

UNIVERSITY.

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Monday, September 28, 2020 - Vol. 121 Issue 8

@WesternCourier

Spring break cancelled due to COVID-19

By Rachel Greene editor-in-chief

Western Illinois University recently made updates to the 2020-2021 Academic Calendar in preparation for the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a press release posted last week, the University said, “Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, Western Illinois University will end its Spring 2021 semester one week earlier than originally planned. The Spring 2021 semester will begin Tuesday, Jan. 19. Classes will continue without break through Friday, April 30,

with finals week scheduled for Monday-Friday, May 3-7. Commencement weekend will remain May 14-16 (a decision will be forthcoming regarding the Spring 2021 commencement)."

For students, this means there will be no spring break, but classes will not be extended an additional week, they will end a week earlier than originally planned.

While the aforementioned press release stated that there has not been a decision made regarding the Spring 2021 Commencement ceremony, but the ceremony for the Fall 2020 semester will be live streamed via Facebook

and YouTube.

When asked his thoughts on the lack of spring break this year, sophomore student Jonathon Lewellyn said, “When I first heard that we were not going to have a spring break this year, I was not as phased as many of my peers were. After thinking about it more, though, I got to thinking about how it is going to be weird to not have the opportunity to go home and spend time with friends and family. The benefit to this is that we will get out of school earlier.”

Another student, first year graduate student Kyle Ramlow, said, “Students really

need some sort of break. This is necessary time for them to relax and unwind, giving them the opportunity to recharge and finish the semester strong. I am fairly worried for the mental health of our student body and I hope that Western does something to help with this situation.”

In terms of the way classes will run next semester, Western Illinois University said, “Much like the Fall 2020 semester, Western will have classes available on campus during the spring semester, as well as classes available in hybrid or online format.

Health and safety protocols and procedures are expected

to remain in place, including social gathering restrictions, mandatory face coverings on campus (inside and outside), social distancing, enhanced cleaning, barrier shields and more. University protocols apply to both Macomb and Quad Cities campuses.” This is subject to change in the event that there are developments in curing COVID-19, but as for now the regulations will carry into the Spring semester.

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Spring break 2021 has been cancelled in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 on campus.

Sports on Page 5: Stars force Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals

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Opinions on Page 3: Introducing the staff

OPINIONS 3 | SPORTS BACK PAGE

NEWS 2

Monday, September 28, 2020

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#MaskUp campaign wins award MACOMB, Ill – The #MaskUp campaign by the Western Illinois University Department of Communication Social Media Lab has been honored for outstanding volunteerism by the McDonough County Quality of Life Advisory Committee.

The award was presented to WIU Associate Professor of Communication Josh Averbeck on campus Thursday morning.

Averbeck worked with students in the Social Media Lab

on a campaign to encourage the University communities in Macomb and the Quad Cities to wear protective masks during the pandemic.

"I'm proud of the work we did," said Averbeck. "Our posts were seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Helping our community is a central part of the social media lab's mission."

The McDonough County Quality of Life Advisory Committee sought nominations and chose local resi-

dents and organizations who have contributed to improving the safety and quality of life in the county.

Using the hashtags #maskupmacomb #maskupwiu and #maskupqc, Averbeck worked with students Josh Brennan, a senior communication major, of Davenport, Iowa, and Elizabeth Lutz, a senior communication major, of California, Missouri. Brennan joined the team this summer and manages the lab's Twitter account. Both stu-

dents have been promoting the hashtags on social media, as well posts by local agencies and organizations, which encourage the use of masks.

The WIU Social Media Lab was formed to give WIU students hands-on experience and to produce content for the Department of Communication's social media accounts.

The lab teaches students new social media analytics tools and participates in social media branding workshops.

For more information on the

social media lab or the mask campaign, visit facebook.com/WIUSocialMediaLab.

COVID-19 Dashboard Updates

WIU.EDU

This data is accurate as of Friday.

WC Located on the third floor of the Heating Plant Annex on the south end of campus across from Sherman Hall.

Mail: 1 University Circle, WIU, Macomb, IL 61455 Phone: 309-298-1876 Fax: 309-298-2309 Hours: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays E-mail: micour@wiu.edu Member: Illinois College Press Association, National Association College Press

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proofreader Mary Kilbourne editor-in-chief Rachel Greene

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photo editor Sara Remar

news editor Rachel Greene

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assistant photo editor Sara Remar

opinions editor Allison Young

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production manager Brandon Trost

sports editor Chris Bean

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business manager Janiya Haynes

assistant sports editor Chris Bean

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The Western Courier is published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the regular school year, excluding holidays, finals week and semester breaks. The WC updates the website weekly during the summer. All content reflects the editorial discretion of the students operating the newspaper and must be interpreted as unofficial university communication. While every attempt is made to determine the validity of advertising contained herein, the advertising in the WC is not to be construed as endorsements of any specific products or services.

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CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS The WC needs your help to maintain accuracy. If you find a factual error, call the WC office at 309-298-1876 between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Please ask to speak to an editor to ensure the inaccurate information can be corrected as quickly as possible.

Ways to avoid the stressors in your life We all know that everyone experiences stress, it is inevitable. But how we manage and prevent our stress can make the difference between having a breakdown, freak out or just a bad day. The first thing you may be asking is what you can do to manage your stress, and you may be worried that you can’t manage something that stresses you out. This is far from the truth and here is why.

A stressor is something that,

for whatever reason specific to you, causes irritation within yourself. Because of this irritation, emotions develop within you and cause you to either overthink, worry or get angry at something.

The first step is to simply identify common stressors that you have. Once you do this, you may find yourself avoiding some people or activities that you know will stress you out. This avoid-

ance in and of itself is a way to avoid stress. The reason for this is because you have acknowledged and identified a common trend and took action to prevent a result from happening, which is stress in this case. Once you have become accustomed to being able to avoid your known stressors, the next step is going to be a lot harder. That is putting yourself in situations that may be prone to stress. Now, before you deny this idea or think that this is contradictory to the previous advice, this step is just as, if not more, important than the first step.

The first step forces you to just look at yourself and stop the common repetitive stressors.

By putting yourself in a situation that is not comfortable, you unlock the ability to find new stressors that you had no idea were even there. The reason this happens is that you are learning to be comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.

So, how do you know if you are doing the right thing or if your hard work is paying off?

The truth is that only you will see the initial development and it is your job, as a promise to yourself even if no one else sees it, you must believe that you are making a change. If you stay on the path of tackling your stress head on, you will notice that the things around you bounce off of you and the people around you

acknowledge your growth.

Once you get to that level, you can't just stop because that is exactly how you will revert to your former self. Although stress is a hard thing to deal with, that’s all it is in the end: hard.

If you decide to take on that difficulty then nothing will be able to get in the way of what you want to do. In the end, life is going to find a way to stress you out, but learning how to avoid, cope or circumvent a way out of your stressors. By understanding these principles you will become a stronger person and be able to tackle problems with a level head even when the situation is anything but level.

Introducing the Staff

My name is Christopher Bean and I'm currently the Sports Editor for the Western Courier. I'm a senior from Farmington Hills, MI, and I major in Sports Broadcasting.

This is my first semester as the Sport Editor for the Courier, but I was the Assistant Sports Editor the previous three semesters. I also have been writing for sports, since my freshman year. Outside of the Courier, I'm a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity Chapter on campus, where I've been a member since sophomore year. And I also was the Sports Director for FM 88.3 The Dog last year.

Write for Opinions

Contact Allison Young

AN-Young@wiu.edu

E2 EDGE

Monday, September 28, 2020

Fall favorites on Disney+ As October quickly approaches, many different streaming services have been working to add their Spooky Season favorites to the list!

Disney+ was one of the first streaming services to begin adding their collection of Fall Favorites to the streaming services library.

These different Fall favorites include movies and TV episodes alike and include forever favorites such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. I will say this every Fall for as long as I am writing for the Courier- but if you have never seen either of these movies before please take the opportunity to do so! These are both family favorites and are essential for every Autumn lover. Hocus Pocus follows the story of a teenager named Max, who recently moved to Salem, Mass. from California

with his family. Max is skeptical about the town’s infatuation with Halloween and its traditions, and most importantly the rumors of the Sanderson Sister- three witches rumored to have once roamed the town streets. However, on Halloween night, Max finds that there is much more to the town heritage than he had once thought. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a wonderful film for those who love both Halloween and Christmas.

The film follows Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, who is tired of just scaring people, and who stumbles upon Christmastown. Jack plots to capture Santa Claus and to take Christmastown under his control. Both of these movies are absolute classics and have continued to be beloved over the past 20+ years.

Disney+ has hundreds of movies available to stream.

There are many Disney movies that throw us all back to the 2000’s such as the Halloweentown series, The Haunted Mansion, The Scream Team and the Twitches series. These are all-time favorites from when I was growing up, especially the Halloweentown series. In addition to the 2000’s throwbacks, there are also some movies that go back as far as 1949, such as The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr.Toad. This is a film that I have never personally seen, but I know I’ll be checking it out this Fall. Some others from before 2000 include Don’t Look Under the Bed, Frankenweenie, and The Ghosts of Buxley Hall.

One of the newest thrillfilms from Disney, Zombies, is also available for streaming on Disney+ right now.

Nothing quite screams Fall like some spooky yet family-friendly movies and some warm apple cider! Be sure to grab your favorite fall drink and a friend to check out these fall favorites on Disney+ this season!

Disney's halloween collection.

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Stars force Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals

It’s always a wild ride in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Saturday night’s game between the Dallas Stars and Tampa Bay Lightning was no exception. The

Lightning were on the brink of winning their second Stanley Cup in franchise history, but the Stars fought hard into double overtime to extend the playoffs

at least one more game.

Corey Perry led off the scoring in Game 5 with a late first period goal to put the Stars up 1-0. Ondrej Palat tied their game up after Tampa Bay’s first line, which has been dominant in this year’s Finals and set up the goal perfectly to tie the game.

The Lighting’s victory looked inevitable after a late third-period goal by Mikhail Sergachev gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead.

However, a late period goal by

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Corey Perry skates towards the puck.

Anton Khudobin makes the glove save.

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Joe Pavelski made certain that if the Stars were to go down, they wouldn’t go down without a fight. With his goal Saturday night, Pavelski passed Joe Mullen for the most playoff goals by an American-born player with 61.

Stars goalie Anton Khudobin looked like a brick wall in the first overtime period, stopping any possible attack the Lightning could throw his way. It wasn’t until the second overtime when

Ondrej Palat focusing on the next play.

Mikhail Sergachev looks for open space.

Perry would net the game winner, his second of the game, and send the Final to Game 6 on Monday.

The Stars and Lightning will try to rest up for Game 6 after closing off these two tight backto-back Stanley Cup Final contests. The Lightning’s series lead shrinks to 3-2 after this doubleovertime loss.

The Stanley Cup Final continues this Monday in Edmonton at 7 p.m. CT on NBC.

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LeBron James reaches 10th NBA Final

That headline is a little bit absurd, but Lebron James did indeed make it to his 10th NBA Finals in 11 years. He becomes just the fourth player in NBA history to reach this mark behind Bill Russell (12), Sam Jones (11) and Kareem AbdulJabbar (10), all Hall-of-Famers.

James dropped an emphatic

38-16-10 triple-double in the 117-107 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals against the Denver Nuggets, but he showed a rather surprising lack of emotion.

He just made it to his 10th NBA Finals, why isn’t the guy happy? Well, he had this to say to ESPN: “Right now, it don't

Lakers celebrate their Game 5 win and clinch their spot in the NBA Finals.

mean s--- unless I get it done. I got to get it done.”

Of the 10 finals he’s been to, he’s won three. That’s not good enough for him. He holds himself to a higher standard than that. If he can’t finish this thing out, against either the Boston Celtics or Miami Heat (as of noon, 9/27) then it doesn’t matter for him.

As his whole team was celebrating the win on the court, James sat courtside with his arms crossed looking rather unimpressed and unamused.

The Los Angeles Lakers missed out on the playoffs the last six seasons. Insert James

and Anthony Davis and it’s no surprise they’re in The Finals.

But throughout all that, despite what he has done for the team, James is still humble as ever.

“We're going to enjoy it tonight, as we should, because this is not promised every year,” James told ESPN. “We can't take this for granted, because this doesn't happen every year to anybody.”

That’s true. Not everybody makes it to the playoffs 13 out of their 16 seasons in the league. Not a lot of people even make it 16 seasons, let alone be so consistent as to always find themselves in the playoffs. With this feat, James has

now been to more finals than 27 other teams. Not players, whole organizations.

He helped the Lakers get to their record 32nd NBA Finals, but now it’s time to get it done, and I believe he will. But, it doesn’t matter if I believe he will, it matters if he believes he can, and he does, once again humbly.

“My shoulders are wide enough to carry a lot of the load,” James said after accepting the Western Conference championship trophy. “But my mind is stronger. Always keep my mind strong. And I'm happy to be in this position.”

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