Issue 1 - Volume 137 by Vermont Cynic

THEVERMONTCYNIC Issue 1 - Volume 137 | September 1, 2020 | vtcynic.com

KATE VANNI

NEWS

A guide for navigating campus this fall Anna Morrill Cynic News Reporter

UVM students are scrambling to adapt to all the new rules and regulations put in place due to COVID-19 this fall semester. UVM is striving to provide students with in-person learning as well as a comfortable living experience, said Annie Stevens, the vice provost of student affairs in an email sent to incoming students. “This is an opportunity for us to show our Catamount pride and demonstrate the power of working together toward a shared goal,” Stevens stated. Stevens continued, by asking students to take on the responsibility of helping keep “in-person instruction alive” at UVM by following the rules clearly laid out in the Green and Gold Promise and on the Return to Campus website. Across UVM’s campus, buildings have new hours,

limited access and social distancing. With emails, notices, apps to download, check-ins to take and many other changes, some students may be wondering: what do I need to know about the ins and outs of UVM this semester? Here’s what you need to navigate UVM’s campus this semester:

•

Testing

• All students must take their next test the first week of classes. Students should schedule this seven days after their last test. • Students must download CoVerified, the app to schedule COVID-19 tests, receive results, and complete required daily health screenings.

Study Spaces

• They will be first come, first serve in the Davis Center, Howe library, and large

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tents on three different parts of campus. If all study spaces are full, a student should study in their room or in a common area of their residence hall with a mask on and remaining six feet distance from hall mates. Howe Library will be open to everyone, but with modified hours from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It will also be open for curbside pickup from Monday8a.m.10a.m. Dana Medical Library is open only to medical and allied health students. Spaces that will be closed include: group study rooms, physical reserves, the popular reading collections, the Map Room, and the featured new books browsing area.

Housing

• Residents must wear face maskscoverings at all

times when outside of their rooms. • No guests will be allowed in the dorms. • Gatherings in private homes are capped at 25 people outdoors and 10 people indoors. • Hosts and guests in private homes will also be required to wear masks and keep 6 feet of distance from each other.

Dining

• Closed dining locations include: Cyber Cafe, Brennan’s and Waterman Manor. • Dining locations that require mobile food ordering: Green Roof Deli, New World Tortilla, Campus Perk and the entree station at The Marketplace. • Reusable containers are not allowed in the traditional dining halls or retail dining spaces.

Miscellaneous

• All students are required to complete the brief Student Health and Safety Training, then sign the Green and Gold Promise to activate their CATcard. • Reservations on IM Leagues are required for everything at Patrick Gym, and the following facilities/services will be unavailable: climbing walls, indoor tennis courts, locker rooms, equipment rentals, yoga mats, guest passes, memberships and family hours. • Shuttle buses will be limited-only late night off campus buses and weekend buses will be running. • Recommended apps to download: BITE for mobile food ordering, dining hall space reservations, and meals to-go, and LIVE SAFE for campus safety and alerts.

COLE FEKERT

UVM grad slated to be first woman of color in Vt. Senate Maryann Makosiej Cynic News Reporter

As the first person of color to hold elected office in Burlington and at one time the youngest legislator in the country, Kesha Ram has never been afraid of ambition. The UVM and Harvard alum is set to be the first woman of color in the Vermont State Senate and has broken numerous barriers throughout her career as a scientist, legislator, equity consultant and leader. In the race for a State Senate seat to represent Chittenden county, Ram received 20,171 votes, second only to current Chittenden County Senator Virginia Lyons with 21,187 votes, according to the Vermont Secretary of State. Ram, along with five other Democratic candidates, will face off in the November general election she must win in order to secure her post. Ram’s platform is focused on economics, championing affordable homeownership, green job creation, paid family leave and the expansion of early and higher education opportunities, according to her website. Ambitious from a young age, Ram’s political journey started in the 5th grade.

The daughter of an Indian immigrant father and Jewish American mother, she was first elected as Student Body President of her elementary school in Los Angeles. “I would write speeches on note cards and go to the school board and I would talk about violence around the school and kids who might be going hungry,” Ram said. “They weren’t getting an update from the student council president about t-shirts or something.” Ram graduated from UVM with a Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resources Planning and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science. While in school, she was a member of Slade, a student-run ecological cooperative. Although an activist on campus, she did not envision running for political office. “We didn’t think Washington was the place where you got things done,” Ram said. As then-President of the UVM Student Government Association, she was encouraged to run for office by Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama in 2006. Ram was elected to the Vermont House of Representatives in 2008, becoming the first person of color in state history to represent Burlington.

“I want young people to look at what they’re capable of and to try and to fail, sometimes,” Ram said. “But to fail in a safe way where we can pick it back up and move the ball down the court.” Outside of her role as both a young, female legislator and an equity and inclusion consultant, she has had to confront the notion that she is too ambitious. “My driving force is in making people feel welcome,” Ram said. “But changes are coming in this country and Vermont is on the tail end of demographic shifts of figuring out what the next generation will look like and what demands they will have.” Ram said she believes Vermont should be a state that treats people the way we want to be treated. With a Bachelor’s of Science degree, Ram will represent one of two women elected to the State Senate with a technical science background. She said her educational background was a good source of training that continues to help her make data-informed decisions. “Data tells stories and stories give you data,” Ram said. “I tend to be a dichotomous thinker in terms of being very

Photo courtesy of Kesha Ram

Vermont State Senate candidate Kesha Ram holds up a campaign sign as cars drive by. Ram is set to be the first woman of color in the Vermont State Senate. data-driven and very emotional and oriented towards storytelling.” Ram’s senior thesis at UVM focused on environmental health in Vermont. In the years following her graduation from UVM, she has advocated for more effective data collection accounting for demographic differences across the state. Recently, this initiative has helped to identify how to best distribute resources in the pandemic. “We saw huge disparities in infection rates for black Ver-

monter and for new Americans,” Ram said of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the coming fall and in the face of an ongoing pandemic, Ram says she will focus on continuing to support all members of her community. “This pandemic leaves a lot of people out who aren’t on Facebook or on Zoom so whether on the phone or in an appropriately-distanced setting, my goal is to hear from people,” she said. “If you ask me a question, I will get you an answer.”

NEWS

How the gym will look different this year Reservations, masks and social distancing required Hailey Rosen Cynic Sports Writer

The University of Vermont athletic complex will be open for students this semester, but will now require reservations, in addition to social distancing and masks at all times. Campus Recreation has updated the rules for all fitness areas on campus to comply with Vermont Governor Phil Scott’s set of rules and UVM’s Green and Gold Promise. Some other key changes include the removal of biometrics at check in to limit physical contact and required health screenings through the CoVerified app before working out. “We are doing everything we can to minimize risk and minimize exposure and still allow people to get a workout because that’s important for physical and also mental wellness,” said Gregg Bates, associate athletic director and director of campus recreation. One major change for the on-campus fitness centers is the new requirement of a reservation in order to work out to help regulate capacity limits and in COVID-19 contact tracing. According to the Campus Recreation website, the maximum capacity for the Fitness Center and Upper Running Track is 55 people. The fitness center, aquatic center, indoor track and group fitness classes will require reservations until further notice. If a reservation is not canceled two hours before the class start time and the “no show, no cancel” causes other pass holders to lose a spot in the class, the student’s account will be billed $10 per missed group fitness reservation, according to Campus Recreation’s website. “Since people need to swipe in and make reservations to work out, we will know who has been in the gym and when. [In the case of an active case being traced in the fitness center] we would leave that up to UVM and the contact tracers to determine who was exposed and who needs to get notified.” Bates said. Sophomore Reagan Lockhart purchased a Campus Recreation pass for the 2019-2020 school year. However, she has doubts about purchasing a pass for the coming year. “I trust the gym staff to sanitize and clean the major touchpoints, but it seems likely that someone would take their mask off or partially off when no one is looking,” Lockhart said. Bates acknowledged students who feel the way Lockhart does, and confirmed there likely will be a virtual option for fitness classes available to students in the fall 2020 semester. “I would participate in virtual classes if that were an option,

especially for classes that don’t require a lot of equipment like yoga, pilates or Zumba,” Lockhart said. Bates also emphasized the cleaning procedures the fitness centers will undergo under the new protocol. The first step of the cleaning procedure, patrons cleaning down their machines, is still in place the same as before. “We do still expect patrons to wipe down equipment and we have a lot of new signage up as a reminder,” Bates said. “We’ve also increased our staff levels, so we have additional staff that will be cleaning the entire time that the facility is open.” UVM also has invested in new materials to make deep cleaning more efficient. This includes Gym Wipes, which are disposable wipes that patrons use to clean off the equipment, Bates said. The facility will also be closed at least once a day to do additional cleaning with elec-

trostatic spray guns, which are machines that spray disinfectant on equipment, according to Bates. The gym opened for use Monday, August 31, and will have the following hours:

Mon-Thurs: 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Fri: 8 a.m.- 10 p.m. Sat: noon-8 p.m. Sun: noon- 10 p.m. Under the current guidelines, intramural sports are also still available to begin play, with some exceptions in place due to state laws and university policies regarding the novel coronavirus. Masks will be required for all intramural sports. “We will still offer some intramural sports programming, but it’s going to look different. We’re sticking to sports that are

MARY MCLELLAN/The Vermont Cynic

TOP: The Roy L. Patrick Memorial Gym awaits students’ return. MIDDLE: Signs remind students that masks must be worn at all times and outlines other guidelines when interacting indoors in the Patrick Gym. BOTTOM: The Gucciardi Fitness center, usually bustling with students, now is mostly empty. approved sports for play by the state of Vermont,” Bates said. As of now, sports such as outdoor soccer, badminton, wiffleball, cornhole, and spikeball are approved by the state of Vermont, whereas higher con-

tact sports such as indoor basketball and broomball are not. There will also be eSports, a form of sport competition through video games, offered in the fall 2020 intramural sports lineup.

NEWS

In a historic win for student activists UVM divests from fossil fuels

Irene Choi Assistant News Editor

Kate Vanni Summer News Editor

After almost a decade of student activism, the UVM Board of Trustees voted unanimously to divest from fossil fuels during a July 14 meeting. UVM President Suresh Garimella announced the historic vote in an email to students sent later that day, stating that UVM immediately ended new direct investments in fossil fuels and that all public investments in fossil fuels will be divested by July 2023. “Divestment is part of a long track record of action and leadership in sustainability at UVM,” Garimella said in a press conference over Microsoft Teams July 14. “We have every intention to continue to lead in the future.”

A decision years in the making The decision follows years of mounting pressure from student environmental groups, and a growing trend of divestment at institutions of higher education across the United States. The origins of the movement at UVM date back to 2013, when activists from the Vermont Student Climate Group and other UVM organizations first asked the board of trustees, which controls UVM’s investments, to divest from fossil fuels.

For the first time of many, their plea was rejected. In 2016, the Socially Responsible Investing Advisory Council which advises the Board of Trustees on the morality of its investments made another recommendation that UVM divest from coal after student groups again pushed for change. However, the board did not vote to change their policies. Then, in Fall of 2019, an environmental campus group called Organize formed, pushing again for divestment through petitions, proposals and protests at board of trustees meetings. Over the next nine months, student protesters would fill the public board of trustees’ public meetings, often waving signs about UVM’s sustainable hypocrisy, and speaking during the board’s public comment meeting to voice their anger at the University. In March of 2020, the Board responded by forming the Sustainability Work Group, tasked with advising the board of trustees on fast-moving trends surrounding sustainable investment, including divestment. Five months later, the group brought their final recommendation to the full board: divest from fossil fuels.

How divestment will work After making the announcement, Garimella and the Board of Trustees Chair Ron Lumbra at an online Microsoft Teams board announcement meeting to address questions from the media. UVM will divest by immediately selling the fossil fuel investments under direct University control and slowly move

out of other investments already in lease, Lumbra said at the announcement meeting. The funds will then be reinvested into hedge funds with a larger focus on sustainability, Lumbra said. “We will only reinvest in funds that have declared that they are fossil fuel free.” Looking forward, UVM is planning to accelerate an engagement campaign with the managers of its commingled funds, factoring the financial risks of climate change into their investment decision-making process and sharing their framework for doing so with UVM, Garimella stated. “UVM will continue investing in opportunities that focus on sustainability, climate change mitigation, and other Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, issues,” Garimella stated in the email.

Why now? Both Lumbra and Garimella indicated that the decision to divest was a cumulation of many factors. At the press conference, Garimella said the decision was made at this time as a continued part of the University’s longtime commitment to environmental sustainability. Several financial factors also influenced the decision for divestment, Lumbra said. “Energy stocks have performed poorly in recent years and the forecast is bleak for future performance,” Lumbra said. “Meanwhile, the opportunity to invest in sustainable funds has amplified, which allows us the confidence that

we can still get the finances we need to serve our students.” Lumbra also said that student voice and activism also has a big role in influencing the Board’s decision. “The students did a particularly good job of researching the topic while being clear-headed and thoughtful about all the complexities around the subject,” Lumbra said. “It wasn’t a decision based on emotion. It was very rational, very carefully researched.”

Activists respond to decision Emma Page, an environmental activist at UVM, said that while this outcome was long overdue, she hopes the Board’s actions reflect their understanding of the magnitude of this crisis. “UVM choosing to divest is a testament to the power of organizing,” Page said. “Ultimately it has taken over ten years to reach this win. It’s important to recognize this victory and people’s hard work in this effort.” Page is a coordinator for Sunrise Burlington, an organization dedicated to making climate change an urgent priority across American with particular emphasis on fossil fuel companies. President of Organize Kieran Edraney is very proud of the work that his organization has done for UVM. “One of the great things about the divestment

campaign is it shows people we have a lot of power and we can get things done,” Edraney said. “We should use divestment as a first step to bringing uvm to a new level, making us a premier environmental university.” Organize is a student-led club dedicated to mitigating climate change through political activism. Liv Lopez, the chair of the Student Government Association’s Committee on the Environment said she agrees that this is a small step in the right direction. One change that Chair Liz Lopez suggests is for the University to update its Climate Action Plan. This plan is usually found on UVM’s Office of Sustainability, but the link is no longer working as of July 14. “It’s essentially just one statement that commits to becoming a more sustainable University, and there’s really no real outline or goals that have been set,” Lopez said. Lopez stresses the importance of UVM’s administration to continue listening to student organizations and leaders on campus. Students should be prioritized by UVM and the Board of Trustees in general, she said.

KATE VANNI

OPINION RM

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EXECUTIVE Editor-in-Chief Sawyer Loftus editorinchief@vtcynic.com Managing Editor Alek Fleury newsroom@vtcynic.com

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ADVISING Interim Adviser Inquaries email cynic@uvm.edu

You chose to be here. Now choose to be here safely. Staff Editorial

n Aug. 21 post in the University of Vermont Class of 2021 group featured a report of a party on Hyde Street, the students holding blue solo cups underneath stringed up colored lights. The post sought to report the 75-100 person party to other students as a call to action to socially distance. Most comments on the post were dismayed and ashamed at the fact that students weren’t following COVID guidelines. “Y’all really wanna get people sick and force us all online before Thanksgiving huh? This is so inconsiderate especially of the seniors who are gonna have their final year screwed over because of this shit,” one student wrote. Another expressed disappointment, but not any sense of surprise. “It’s fucking embarrassing to be even remotely associated with these people. I’m disappointed but not surprised.” But one student replied with the brainless and vapid response you’d expect from someone who sees college exclusively as a social environment instead of a place for education. The comment reads, “Boo party on.” Over 10,000 of us chose to be here and we need to not only choose to be safe ourselves, but to put on blast those who are not. As you take the sip of PBR or throw that ping pong ball across the table, think to yourself: How much is this party worth? A case of COVID? A life? The decision to return or not that all students made was the product of a limited amount of choices made in vacuum. The situation leaves UVM students in the perfect position to be the bad guys. Either way at the end of the day UVM administrators get to go home and wash their hands clean of a potential outbreak because of course, it’ll be the fault of students for taking more risks. But regardless, we’re stuck. We have a real chance to come together as a community and work towards a mutual goal of keeping Burlington and UVM healthy and open. Dear potential studentparty-hoster, party-goers, barcrawlers, we’ve all got choices to make and they need to be carefully thought through because every decision we

make will radiate outwards. Burlington has its eyes on the UVM student body. Let’s show them we can be examples of COVID conscious citizens in an anxiety rampant college town. We’ve watched the last few weeks as school after school has closed or shifted to entirely remote learning. We can prevent that from happening here and live to continue badgering the University if we work together to keep each other safe.

That includes: •

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Wearing your mask at all required times. It’s

required on campus and Vermont also has a mask mandate, so it’s the law. Carry around hand sanitizer and use it throughout the day.

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Don’t throw or go to parties, a very clear recipe for disaster and the spread of COVID.

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If you see students violating the safety guidelines not only put out by UVM, but also the state of Vermont they need to be put on blast.

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Accurately and truthfully report your symptoms on the Coverified app.

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In high traffic situations keep social distance and for the love of god walk on the right side of the

hallways.

take us seriously if we are rock solid on all facts about our Although the onus should situation. be on Administration to keep We need to lead by us safe, they have handed example. Everyone is off a monumental amount of wondering how others are responsibility to us. going to act and are going to make their own decisions based At the same time, we have on what they observe. to continue to demand more At the same time, from UVM. University administrators need Don’t let up on the to be held accountable and administration just because pushed to provide us essential we’re in the middle of a services we are paying for. pandemic. We deserve the However, we’re here, so we truth and the whole picture at have to make the most of it. all times. For some of us, this is our We need to continue first college experience and to push the University to first time away from home. guarantee timely access to When you graduate senior year test results to students and of high school and leave to go demand they make a more to college, you are expected to explore and learn things about yourself with a new freedom. We know this is going to be especially difficult for these students. We have to push each other to do better and show the community around us that we won’t fall victim to a situation in which our options have been limited by those who are supposed to care about us. We will rise past this strange moment in UVM history and show what students are capable of because the alternative is something far less desired. Walking around campus, students are sure to see signs promoting maskwearing. Some give reasons why we should wear masks. Like the signs currently posted outside the Cynic office. One reads “I wear a mask so UPB Pub Quiz can be in person.” There’s a whole host KATE VANNI of these signs, but the real message is missing. comprehensive dashboard that We should be wearing gives a live look at test results. masks because it’s up to us A great model is the State of to keep each other safe. We Vermont’s dashboard, which is should be wearing masks updated daily and available to because that’s what the right the public. thing to do is. Although the If you see incidents administration should bear of students partying or a significant amount of the violating other COVID-19 burden to be responsible for guidelines as laid out by the students and their needs it’s Green and Gold Promise, clear that student groups need fill out an incident report to fill that void. form on UVM’s Vermont Student groups are critical Neighbors webpage. to ensuring this semester proceeds as safely as possible. Staff editorials officially reflect That means these groups need the views of the editorial board, which includes the Editor-in-Chief, to make sure the information Managing Editor and Opinion they’re putting out to the Editor. Signed opinion pieces and student population is factual. columns do not necessarily do so. The Cynic accepts letters in When you’ve assumed response to anything you see the role of a campus leader, printed as well as any issues of students look to you and that interest in the community. Please limit letters to 350 words. The means whether you anticipated Cynic reserves the right to edit it or not you have greater letters for length and grammar. responsibilities. The only way Please send letters to opinion@ vtcynic.com. to get the administration to

OPINION

UVM is destined to close over COVID-19 Meg Trogolo Cynic Columnist

VM’s reopening policy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic puts money before anything else. In a July 2 email to all students, Provost Patricia Prelock said that all on-campus students would be required to participate in coronavirus testing twice a week for the entire fall semester. Since then, UVM has scaled back that policy. According to UVM’s reopening website, the university will test students once a week for three weeks, until Sept. 18. The website does not specify why the policy was changed or whether students will be tested after that point. I wondered at first why UVM chose to only test students until a specific date. Then I remembered that Sept. 18 just so happens to be the last date on which students can withdraw from classes, meaning the last date on which students can leave the university for the semester without paying full tuition. First-year and sophomore students are still expected to live in residence halls on campus. When students are expected to stay inside their dorm rooms unless leaving for class or the

IZZY PIPA

dining hall, it is a recipe for disaster. It is also not reasonable to expect that all students will follow social distancing guidelines. We have already seen local evidence of this. On Aug. 21, Burlington Police fined a UVM student $100 for hosting a party with over 75 guests in the Old North End, according to an Aug. 22 WCAX article. For some UVM students, a $100 fine is simply a fee they can afford instead of another reason not to throw parties during a global pandemic. The coronavirus has taken

less than three weeks to spread at universities that have already opened. Two days before Garimella’s press conference, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill shut its campus down due to a spike in coronavirus cases during its first week of on-campus classes, according to an August 18 CNN article. UVM students and community members have taken notice of the danger UVM’s current plan poses, and taken action to oppose it. According to the August 18 Cynic article, UVM’s Union of

Students sent a letter to UVM administrators on August 17 criticizing UVM’s policy in detail and outlining a list of demands to ensure student safety and well-being. However, UVM’s only response to this letter so far was a vague reference to “uncertainty… anxiety and fear” during Garimella’s press conference. The University is on a crash course to create another coronavirus outbreak in Burlington, and their actions to this point have shown they don’t care at all. It’s genuinely cruel of

this administration to keep students on campus until after the withdrawal deadline, putting families in even more student loan debt and exposing students, staff and faculty to coronavirus just to ensure that they get as much money as they can out of this semester. UVM, put your greed aside and shut down campus before it’s too late.

Meg Trogolo is a senior data science major. She has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2017.

Presitgious professors concerned about new cuts Letter to the Editor See the signers online

e, the undersigned, are recipients of the University of Vermont’s highest awards for teaching, scholarship, and community commitment. Our group includes winners of the George V. Kidder Outstanding Faculty Award, the KroepschMaurice Award for Excellence in Teaching, the University Scholars Award, the Glen Elder Leadership Award, and faculty occupying endowed and Distinguished Professorship chairs. Each of these are university-wide awards and recognize the highest levels of pedagogical, scholarly, and institutional achievement. We are concerned about the recent decisions, made under the supposed financial exigency caused by the pandemic, that will result in the reduction of more than seventy lecturers to .75 of their expected full time teaching load. The financial result of these cuts is a 25 % loss in pay for these colleagues, and the academic result is the loss of upwards of one hundred classes. The bulk of these classes are taught by lecturers—many of whom have taught here for decades—

and several of these lecturers are winners of the KroepschMaurice Award cited above. In public, UVM praises “academic excellence,” but over the recent years the administration has been increasingly devaluing faculty expertise and educational funding. The COVID response appears to be an intensification of this trend. These cuts are accompanied by increases in workload demands for all faculty, TT and NTT alike, with consequential pressure on research and time to work with students in need. If the university continues on this path of indifference to the deep ecology of learning and teaching, it will face recruitment and retention problems with both students and faculty that go far beyond the impact of COVID. The cuts the UVM administration has chosen to make—to faculty whose courses are core requirements for all UVM undergraduates, whose courses in many cases are necessary to meet the needs of majors and minors, and whose courses are filled to the brim and receive top evaluations from students— assure that come next year, students’ needs won’t be met. Such cuts thus imperil UVM’s

deeper sustainability. If the administration was sincere about student needs, they would engage in meaningful dialogue with faculty and make any cuts at the highest level and the farthest removed from students and the university’s teaching, research, and service missions. As a land-grant institution, UVM has a duty to sustain and support our communities. The inequity of the administration’s plans in a time of crisis undermines this commitment and UVM’s duty to Vermont’s communities. We are calling on President Suresh Garimella, Provost Patricia Prelock, UVM administrators and Deans, and the Board of Trustees to act on the principles of sustainability and equity when considering any measures responding to COVID and planning the future of UVM. 1. Make any cuts progressive, rather than regressive. 2. Recognize and sustain our investment in the long-term institutional memory and knowledge residing in all of our faculty and staff. 3. Reaffirm the role of faculty governance.

STEPHAN TOLJAN/The Vermont Cynic

The clocktower of the Ira Allen Chapel stands in front of a background of cloudless sky, Oct. 5, 2019. The clock currently does not keep the correct time because of mechanical issues. 4. Allow an independent audit of university finances to ensure institutional transparency. 5. Reaffirm the values of Honesty, Equality, Accountability, and Responsibility that are ingrained on the granite stones outside the Davis Center. Lastly, and most importantly, we demand that in a time of crisis the University act as a single entity. We cannot make financial and institutional decisions under the IBB model that forces units

to compete against each other. Just as we the undersigned are representative of the entire UVM community, we also share a single University budget and must respond to the crisis accordingly. As with the rest of the country, COVID has not just created inequities, it is revealing inequities that have existed for a long time. We believe the other side of COVID is that it has revealed opportunities for just change that addresses standing inequities and creates a more sustainable and resilient UVM and community.

CULTURE

COVID crushes bringing positivity back Emily Johnston Cynic Columnist

VM missed connections is apt in its rise to UVM fame; this Instagram page allows students to connect without meeting in person, making it one of the best things to happen to UVM since the pandemic hit. College students are synonymous with dating. According to the American Psychological Association, 60 to 80 percent of North American college students have had a hookup. However, amidst a pandemic students can no longer meet someone randomly in person who they find cute. That is why UVM missed connections rose to 3.5k followers since its inception on April 18, 2020. It is a way for students to admire without fear of rejection, and a way to connect without being in person. Alleviating the fears that come with in-person connections makes this account one of the best ways to find love in the times we are in. The secret admirer is a classic trope; love interest sends notes or other sweet nothings to their object of affection anonymously. Instead of notes or flowers,

SAVANAH TEBEAU-SHERRY

people are sending love confessions to a google form in a wonderful modern-day take on secret admirers. DMs begone, the new and cooler way to slide into your love’s life is to send a missed connection. There have been several successful missed connections, according to the admins of the account in an Instagram Q&A four weeks ago. Craigslist has also had a thriving missed connection community for years, it being the website that popularized the term. The missed connection

trend started on craigslist 16 years ago, aimed at furthering meet-cutes and other love affairs that could be. While Craigslist’s missed connections is not as popular nowadays, the success of UVM missed connections shows that the concept is still relevant. With 1.6k posts and counting at the time of publication, it is clear this page is well-trafficked by the student population. Now that most classes and clubs are virtual, pages like UVMmissedconnections may be the only way for people to reach out to crushes.

Especially considering that not all catamounts are coming back to campus, the account can help match people up who may not otherwise see each other. Knowing people find you cute is a confidence boost, especially after months of no human contact in quarantine. So, even if the connections don’t work out, the page only brings net positives. The admins work hard to filter out creepy or insensitive connections. While some connections are vague, or shout-outs to clubs (thank you to the person who

First General Meeting of the year Join on Microsoft Teams 7 p.m. Wed

said the entire cynic staff is hot), I think it is a place where people can come together to find love and feel good. So, thank you to the admins of UVMmissedconnections, and thank you to the students who are brave enough to submit your crushes. The love and compliments you share help bring positivity in a time of unease.

Emily Johnston is a junior environmental science major. She has been writing for the Cynic since fall 2018.

Check social media for teams link Email cynicaleditorinchief@gmail.com with any questions

FEATURE

Black Lives Matter

Leader, activist and caregiver: Meet Noel Riby-Williams Kate Vanni Summer News Editor

A smile crept over Noel Riby-Williams’ face as the three kids she nannies tapped on the window and peeked through the blinds, watching her throughout the interview. Sitting on the porch, Noel Riby-Williams, a UVM junior, relayed her past experiences that detail the impact she has had on Montpelier, Vermont, her hair still dripping from swimming with the kids. Riby-Williams’ life in activism began in 2018 when she and her cousin orchestrated the raising of the Black Lives Matter flag at Montpelier High School, the first public school in the U.S. to do so with school permission, according to Riby-Williams. When Riby-Williams heard that year that UVM had raised the flag but then took it down shortly after, her mentor and the school’s social worker Karen McCadden suggested that she lead Montpelier High School in raising the flag themselves. “It took a lot of work, it wasn’t overnight,” Riby-Williams said. “We made a whole month, a Black History month, that had all of these activities like a privilege walk and we watched the 13th as a school showing, it was awesome.” Every black student or child in Montpelier had a chance of pulling the flag up, Riby-Williams said. “We all pulled it up together, which was really beautiful, especially for me holding my brother crying because it was such a beautiful moment, ‘’ Noel said. Growing up in Montpelier, Noel was one of two black people in her graduating class of roughly 86 other students, the other black student being her cousin. Noel’s family moved to Montpelier from Accran, Ghana when she was one year old. Growing up in Vermont as a black woman was good and bad at times, Riby-Williams said. “I was really lucky to have my core family values, and I feel really prideful about being Ghanian,” Noel said. “Growing up here didn’t take away from my cultural values, but it was hard in a sense that there were not many other black people.” Mary Riby-Williams, Noel’s mother, said that the Montpelier community was very accepting and helpful when her family moved into the community from Ghana. At home, M. Riby-Williams says her daughter is very loving. She said Riby-williams helped take care of her brothers while her mom was in nursing school, acting as a second mom.

Photo courtesy of VTDIGGER Noel Riby-Williams leads a team of 200 people, painting “Black Lives Matter” on State Street in front of the Vermont State House in Montpelier. “She is very caring, that she has now carried from her house to her community,” M. Riby-Williams said. The work N. Riby-Willams has done for her community makes M. Riby-Williams very proud as a mother. “I’m a proud mom, but also I’m an African. I came from

Ghana, West Africa. We push our kids to do more, to do better,” M.Riby-Williams said. “I say to her that ‘Yes you did it, you can do more than that.’” M. Riby-Williams said she believes that her daughter will be doing things that are bigger than Montpelier and Vermont “She’s fighting to make the

change in our community and from our community going out to other communities, into the whole country,” M. Riby-Williams said. “The whole country is looking for change right now and I pray that this change will happen.” Two years after the flag was raised at Montpelier High

School, Riby-Williams led a 5,000 person protest in Montpelier to honor George Floyd, Beronna Taylor and all others who have been made victims of police brutality. Six days following the protest, Riby-Williams organized a 200-person-group painting of the Black Lives Matter Mural on State Street in front of the Vermont State House. “I’m kind of shy, I don’t really like talking in public so doing the protest was a big confidence booster,” she said. Close friend of Roby-Williams, Emmanuella Boateng, said she is very proud of the work Noel has done this summer. Boateng recognized that Noel feels she’s not a great public speaker, but said she has done amazing things that disprove that idea. “The fact that she was able to put her fear aside to address racial justice so publicly because of how important it is to her, just shows how far she’s willing to go for what she believes is right,” Boateng said. Boateng is the former president and creator of UVM’s African Student Association, a club she started to create a space for students from Africa. When Boateng created ASA in 2018, she said she was looking for people who had passion and people who were willing to educate others on subjects that are “unpopular” within the community. Around that time, a friend introduced Riby-Williams to Boateng. “Noel had not only introduced African culture to her school but she also had advocated for Black Lives Matter to be a permanent vision in her school, and I was like ‘this is someone I want to be around,’” Boateng said. After two years of Boateng serving as the club’s president, Riby-Williams has now taken her place. “She’s the person I trusted to carry the candle light and hold it up,” Boateng said. “She’s given a new light to ASA in ways that I never saw possible.” Boateng and Noel are also both part of UVM’s Afrofusion dance group that performs both traditional dances as well as upbeat hip hop dances. “We just fool around, have fun and laugh,” Noel said. “It’s not a judgemental environment at all.” Outside of ASA and Afrofusion dance practices Noel said she needs to schedule time to be around other black people. “I’m only with those black people at certain times of the day. I’m not with them in a lot of my classes, I’m not with them when I walk places,” Noel said. “I think when I’m not with them, I know I’m alone.”