Issue 5 - Volume 137

THE CYNIC

Est. 1883 | Issue 5 - Volume 137 | September 29, 2020 | vtcynic.com

Board of Trustees

700 COVID violations

Trustees reveal $23 million deficit due to lower enrollment. More BPD patrols to be funded this fall.

As the University’s overall COVID-19 positivity rate remains low, the number of students punished skyrockets.

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Student employees strike over flag policy Lilly Page Cynic News Reporter

Davis Center employees have gone on strike after the University denied their request to fly an identity group’s flag for more than five business days.

The roughly 23 studentemployees began their strike after Gary Derr, vice president of operations and public safety, approved the removal of the Hispanic Heritage Month flag from outside of the Davis Center.

“I think the message is very clear that we as the BIPOC population of the staff, as well as our white allies, who are also striking with us, we’re serious,” said UVM Junior Adrian Pastor, president of Alianza Latinx.

“We’re done being made to feel small, unseen and pushed to the side.”

Pastor said the flag has flown outside of the Davis Center for all of Hispanic Heritage Month for the past three years.

Controversy over UVM’s flag policy first began when it changed abruptly over the summer.

Daphne Wells, director of student life who was in control of the flagpole at the time said she had put up the Black Lives Matter flag after George Floyd died.

Shortly after, she was told the flag policy had changed, moving control of the flag from Wells to Derr and now limiting the duration a special events flag can fly to five days.

In the days before the flag

Image courtesy of Adrian Pastor

Alianza President Adrian Pastor and Former President Jaylyn Chalco hold up the Hispanic Hertiage Month flag underneath where it once flew Sept. 25. was removed, SGA unanimously passed a resolution Sept. 22,

calling on the administration to allow identity groups’ flags

control Davis Center special events flag again.

This new policy puts Derr in charge of the operations of the flagpole, and limits the duration of a special events flag to five business days, according to University Operating Procedures.

Students met with Derr the morning of Thursday Sept. 24, a day before the Alianza’s flag was set to come down, to talk about their concerns.

At 3:49 p.m. Friday, the students were told the flag was coming down.

“It is important that we remain consistent in the time that flags are permitted to be flown at the Davis Center,” Derr stated in the Sept 25. email to Lopez, Pastor, Chalco and Rhoden. “I hope you will find other meaningful ways to celebrate and mark Hispanic Heritage Month.”

However, when Zyakkiriah Rhoden, the chair of the SGA Finance Committee and the current treasurer of the Black Student Union, looked out a Davis Center window moments after seeing the email, the flag was already gone.

“I ran to the third floor and looked outside to where the flag was supposed to be flying,” she said. “It had already been taken down, which means the flag was taken down before Gary responded to us.”

Story continued on page 2

to stay up for longer than five business days and to give Wells

Panel brings environmental racism to the forefront Paige Fisher Cynic News Reporter

As the afternoon sun beamed down on the tents for the 29th day of the Black Lives Matter encampment in Battery Park, organizers set up chairs to talk about environmental racism in the Queen city.

Organized by activist groups The Black Perspective and Organize UVM, the Sept.

21 event attracted a group of roughly 75 people, mostly UVM students. The panelists included students, professors and community leaders.

Throughout the panel, the speakers pointed to a massive dissonance in our community: UVM prides itself on being a progressive champion of environmentalism, but it overwhelmingly attracts white students and faculty.

“I forget the fact that I’m constantly trying to fit into a community that truly does

not accept me,” said panelist and UVM professor Bindu Pannikkar.

Trish O’Kane, another UVM professor, said race discussions “need to be better integrated” in classrooms at UVM. O’Kane encouraged students to hold their educators accountable by holding private study groups about enironmental racism and bringing their ideas to class.

UVM Senior Sarah Scioctino, organizer of Monday’s panel, thinks that white environmentalists aren’t doing enough to be intersectional.

“A lot of the environmentalists that I know ... have just not been showing up as much as I had hoped,” said Scioctino.

Sciortino said conversations she has in UVM environmental groups have been apathetic towards the Black Lives Matter protests, which she fears excludes students of color in

these groups.

UVM Senior Chris Harrell, another student environmentalist, said they experience similar issues.

“I’ve had conversations with environmentalists of color who really feel like they are just not welcome or invited to these white environmentalist spaces still,” Harrell said.

Alan Strong, a panelist who previously worked as the associate dean for the Rubenstein School at UVM, said that the administration has been “trying to have more conversations about race and equity and justice” for several years.

The biggest difficulty, Strong said, is making the college itself more diverse.

Professor Amy Seidl, assistant of UVM’s environmental studies program, said UVM lacks diversity because of systematic racism.

“UVM and its

PAIGE FISHER/ The Vermont Cynic

Panelists discuss environmental racism at Battery Park Sept. 21. environmentalism is a product of a history that was exclusive, and that history was predominantly white and affluent and predominantly male, Seidl said. “And that history lives with us today.”

Seidl said she makes a point to include discussions on race in her environmental studies curriculum.

Burlington City Councilor

Zoraya Hightower spoke to the crowd about her experience of feeling excluded from the environmental movement.

She explained that her colleagues often expect her to limit her role to solely discussing race.

“It’s like if I’m an environmentalist, I must be an urban environmentalist because I’m Black,” Highwater said.

NEWS

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Four takeaways from the Board of Trustees meeting

Staff report UVM will fund police patrols of student neighborhoods despite a $23 million budgetary shortfall from lower levels of student enrollment, the UVM’s board of trustees decided in their first meeting of the academic year.

The board met virtually for the first time this academic year Sept. 25 to discuss the trajectory of the University amidst the pandemic.

In addition to discussing enrollment updates and the financial burden of the pandemic, the board heard from faculty who expressed their disagreement with the administration’s budget cuts and a dismissive relationship with staff.

Here are four key takeaways:

Faculty and staff morale at an all-time low: One report presented at the meeting exposed the low morale faculty and staff are experiencing due to the pandemic, citing economic hardship and neglect from the administration.

“My updates on nonrepresented staff are the least positive of my tenure as president,” stated Steve Lunna, president of the Staff Council in his staff report.

Lunna stated the July pay cuts on non-represented staff combined with other COVID stressors have taken a toll on staff.

“This loss of pay has been difficult for many struggling to meet essential needs during the pandemic.”

Lunna’s report referenced a survey conducted on staff which found they feel they are shouldering the bulk of the financial burden, that they are unheard by administration and

that they are overworked.

Five professors also took time during public comment to express their grievances at the University for their lack of support during the pandemic.

Some criticized UVM for taking the Black Lives Matter flag down and fostering an unwelcoming and sometimes hostile environment for BIPOC community members.

Patrick Brown, chair of the United Academics Civil Rights Committee and a UVM professor called on the Trustees to reinstall the Black Lives Matter flag to help prevent systemic racism.

“It is indeed a small step, but a significant one,” he said.

“The faculty and students and indeed, the greater community feel it is important to fly the Black Lives Matter flag to send a strong message that Black lives do matter.”

Julie Roberts, president of United Academics and a Linguistics Professor, said that at a time where the UVM administration could have chosen to step up, they let the professors down.

“The current UVM administration appears to have chosen a leadership style grounded in maximum control and minimum collaboration,” she said.

She and other faculty members never received a response from the president or provost about their

concerns and have been repeatedly rejected by higher administration, Roberts said.

Budget Committee talks budget cuts amid economic shortfalls: Significantly fewer out-ofstate students and slightly more in-state students enrolled this semester, costing the University approximately $23 million in tuition.

The board of trustees discussed the consequences of

generate revenue, such as the Honors College. Then, the committee opted to cut from non-academic units, rather than academic units, to maintain the school’s educational quality.

However, this will still only cover a fraction of the cost.

“We have to find a way to structure ourselves, and enhance revenue such that we can balance next year’s budget without returns,” said VP of Finance Richard Cate.

Members of the committee stressed that the financial loss UVM is facing will have longterm impacts for years to come, depending on how quickly the student body returns to its normal size.

“The current UVM administration appears to have chosen a leadership style grounded in maximum control and minimum collaboration.”

-Julie Roberts this and other COVID-19 related expenses during the Budget, Finance and Investment Committee meeting.

Although the University expects to receive about $10 million from the state and federal government through the CARES act to cover expenses related to COVID-19, President Suresh Garimella said the full cost of COVID-19 could easily be $10 million more than that.

To mitigate these expenses, the committee has decided to reduce salaries at various levels and make budget cuts across the entire institution.

The first cuts will fall on academic units that do not

UVM refunds controversial police patrols:

UVM will pay the Burlington Police Department $100,000 to patrol student neighborhoods in an effort to enforce UVM, city and state COVID-19 regulations, according to a resolution passed by the board.

This amount is consistent with previous “education circuits” the school has funded over the last several years, which are typically used to address noise complaints.

“This first agreement arose out of the city’s concerns expressed by some of its citizens that students will engage in risky behavior, particularly during COVID, like hosting large, unmasked parties,” said Sharon Reich Paulsen, UVM vice president for legal affairs

and general counsel.

The COVID-related patrols originally started in June 2020 but were terminated shortly thereafter due to “low levels of activity,” according to UVM. Many students spoke out against the patrols in the Spring, and some called on UVM to cut ties with Burlington Police Department, saying the relationship made Black, Indigenous and people of color feel unsafe.

Provost pushes for more in-person spring instruction: The administration will push for more in-person learning in the spring after enrollment data shows fewer students came back to UVM this fall.

Provost Patty Prelock presented the updated statistics on enrollment to board members, noting a 1.9% decrease in overall enrollment, from 13,548 students to 13,292, roughly 1,400 of which opted for the online option this semester.

Jennifer “J” Dickinson, the associate provost for academic affairs, said that in-person instruction has been the most fulfilling for faculty and students according to feedback.

“We want to improve the experience of at-home students and work on really engaging remote experiences,” she said.

“We also are working with the new schedule of courses to increase the potential percentage of fully in person classes and to make it easier for professors to do more inperson instruction if they so choose.”

Because a number of out of state students deferred to Spring of 2021, Prelock said the school is working to try and get most of those deferrals to still come to UVM next semester.

Photo illustrations by KATE VANNI

NEWS

Hundreds violated COVID rules Anna Morrill Cynic News Reporter

Although 700 UVM students have already been disciplined for COVID-19-related violations just four weeks into the semester, students still congregated in large crowds without masks this weekend.

However, two days prior to Stevens sending a statement to the Cynic wiht this number, VTDigger reported that only 300 students had been disciplined for COVID-19-related violations in a Sept. 22 article, citing an email statement from UVM Spokesperson Enrique Corederra.

The penalties students have received range from warning and parental/guardian notifications, to educational sanctions, to fines and probation to suspension according to a Sept. 24 email from Annie Stevens, vice provost of student affairs.

Stevens also sent an email to students Sept. 27 warning them that risky behavior could close the school after students gathered in large numbers Sept. 26 on North Beach, drawing UVM Police to the scene.

“Yesterday, I learned that large crowds of college-aged students were gathered at North Beach and Leddy Park,” the email stated. “Large gatherings can be ‘super-spreaders’ of COVID-19; it only takes one positive case to infect hundreds.”

UVM Sophomore Victoria Smeltzer, who was at North Beach Saturday, said she thinks students have become too relaxed about masks and social distancing because of UVM’s low COVID numbers.

“There were a lot of people and obviously no masks,” Smeltzer said. “And honestly, I don’t think it’s any different to what was happening at the beginning of the year either.”

Smeltzer, who was fined $250 for missing her test, said she thinks UVM’s sanction policy is fair but wishes the rules were better laid out.

“I wish that they had given me 24 hours to comply before they fined me,” she said. “But there has to be consequences.

Otherwise, people are just not going to do it.”

Smeltzer said she is considering trying to fight the fine and that she has spoken to other students in similar situations.

“I think most people who get fines are going to try and fight it,” she said. “It’s just a matter of what the University is going to accept or not.”

According to the Center for Student Conduct website, students can submit an appeal in a “shortened window” for COVID-19 violations.

In order to protect student privacy, Stevens said the University is not going to be providing a breakdown of all the penalties that have been administered to students.

Although most students are complying with the Green and Gold Promise, Stevens said the University is handling conduct violations properly.

“We have made it clear to students that we intend to hold them accountable for behavior that violates the Promise and can interfere with our efforts to keep the community safe,” she said.

According to UVM’s student conduct page, students

Cynic file photo

Annie Stevens makes a phone call at a student protest for racial justice Feb. 22, 2018 in front of the Waterman Building. are fined $250 for missing their COVID test once, and are suspended for missing it twice.

The same policy is in place for other egregious violations of the Green and Gold Promise, including hosting an indoor event of more than 10 people, failing to wear a mask or social distancing.

Non-egregious violations include forgetting your rmask and attending a hosted event

without a mask.

Non-egregious violations result in an education sanction after the first offense, a fine after the second and a suspenson after the third.

“I accept the fact that they have to be really strict about rules here,” Smeltzer said “Because it is a pandemic. It’s not just like the flu. Its a serious, serious thing.”

UVM addresses concerns over testing Irene Choi Assistant News Editor

UVM is struggling to keep track of weekly student COVID-19 tests, according to one administrator, despite reassurance from the University that testing and contact tracing have been a success.

Gary Derr, vice president for operations and public safety and Annie Stevens, vice provost of student affairs, spoke to students and their families during a UVM livestream event where many raised their concerns to the two decision makers.

One anonymous parent said their student was wrongly fined by the University for skipping mandatory weekly COVID-19 testing even though the child had not missed a single test.

“Tracking all the right names for testing has been more challenging than we thought,” Derr said in response.

According to the Green and Gold Promise, missing a test results in a $250 fine after the first violation, and suspension after the second.

After apologizing to the par-

ent, Derr recommended talking to the Center for Student Conduct and going through an “appeals process” while the University checked its records, then he moved onto the next question.

Another anonymous parent asked what UVM is doing to control student activity on Redstone.

150 students gathered on the Redstone Green on Sept. 6, many ignoring social distancing and other COVID protocols, according to a Sept. 16 Cynic article.

Stevens responded, saying that, “Police Services are on and around the Redstone Green, and will be writing documentation for students,” who do not follow UVM guidelines.

Each week the number of reported test results received has gone down.

In the first week of classes, UVM reported that 11,466 test results were received. The next week only 8,039 were received and then 10,043 the week after.

This past week, 10,874 results were recieved. However, during a Sept. 25 board of trustees meeting, UVM Provost Pat-

ty Prelock said there are nearly 12,000 students.

Some of the issues in compliance come from students misunderstanding when exactly they’re supposed to get tested, stated UVM Spokesperson Enrique Corredera in a Sept. 23 email.

“Students wrongly [assume] that it’s fine to test once a week, regardless of how many days go by in between tests,” he stated in the email. “[However], students have to test every seven days, and no later than nine days, to remain in compliance.”

Fluctuations in the reports

Photo illustration by Sawyer Loftus

can also occur because “students are not necessarily testing on the same day of the week each week”, he stated.

In a Sept. 16 email to students, Derr reiterated the importance of testing and thanked students for “meeting their testing responsibilities.”

“We are currently working through compliance issues and notifying those not in compliance of the clear expectations and consequences, which include fines and other sanctions, including suspension,” he stated.

3 Lilly Page Cynic News Reporter Story continued from page 2 In a Sept. 26 statement, UVM spokesperson Enrique Corederra said UVM joins in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month despite removal of the flag 25 days before the annual event concludes.

“While the University supports the right of members of our community to express their points of view, it expects employees to fulfill all of the terms and conditions of their employment,” the statement reads.

Pastor said he was upset when he realized the flag had already been removed because he had wanted to stand by the flagpole when it was taken down and ask the person that took it down why it was removed.

“It was very emotional,” he said. “We were all very upset.

Jayln and I were both crying.”

After the flag was removed, Jayln Chalco, the student adviser of Alianza Latinx and also a Davis Center employee, told her boss that she was not going to be working for the rest of Hispanic Heritage Month to protest Derr’s decision.

Across campus, the Black Lives Matter flag that was flying outside the Patrick Gym was also taken down.

In a statement posted to Twitter by the UVM Students Atheletes of Color Affinity Group, protested the action by Derr.

“The removal of the flag also comes with the disregard of the values embodied by the Black Lives Matter Movement and their wrongful identificiation of it as a political trend.”

The flag was intially raised Sept. 12 in front of the Patrick Gym to show the UVM community that UVM athletes condemn racism.

In their statement, the group said the University is continuing to “perpetuate a harmful notion,” through the removal of the flag.

Other students who worked at the Davis Center, including Pastor, Rhoden and Jessica Suquilanda, former treasurer of the Black Student Union, followed suit, sending emails to their coworkers urging them to do the same.

“I and some of my fellow student coworkers will be taking Gary’s advice and for the rest of Hispanic Heritage Month, [taking] off of work to ‘meaningful celebrate and mark’ Hispanic Heritage Month,” Rhoden stated in an email to other employees, copying Gary Derr to the email.

Rhoden said they plan to strike at least until the end of Hispanic Heritage Month Oct. 15.

“Hopefully between this time, Gary will come to his senses when the Davis Center cannot run without us,” she said.

HOUSE AD

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THE CYNIC

OPINIONO

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

OPERATIONS Operations Manager Katherine Izadi operations@vtcynic.com Distribution Manager Inquries email cynic@uvm.edu

EDITORS Copy Chief Will Keeton copy@vtcynic.com Culture Sarah Robinson cynicculture@gmail.com Features Greta Rohrer cynicfeatures@gmail.com News & Sports Emma Pinezich news@vtcynic.com sports@vtcynic.com Opinion Gabby Felitto opinion@vtcynic.com Podcasts David Cabrera vtcynicpodcasts@gmail.com Layout & Illustrations Kate Vanni layout@vtcynic.com

Put the damn flag back up UVM Staff Editorial

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n Sept. 17, students and staff gathered at the Davis Center Oval to join UVM’s Hispanic identity group Alianza Latinx, in raising their flag for Hispanic Heritage Month.

“We are here together, always and forever and that is what this flag is about,” said Adrian Pastor, the club’s president.

But as this past Friday Sept. 25 was winding down and students left their last classes for the week, the Hispanic Heritage Month flag was lowered and taken off the flagpole. In it’s place, a flag bearing the name of the Davis Center and an illustration of the building.

Here you have a symbol of pride, solidarity and awareness for a group of marginalized students and their histories, being replaced by a University ad.

If there ever was a metaphor for where the administration’s values lay, this is it.

“It is important that we remain consistent in the time that flags are permitted to be flown at the Davis Center,” stated Gary Derr in a Sept. 25 email.

We do not accept this excuse.

Whenever we write editorials, it’s the job of the writer to put themself in

Assistant Editors Mac Mansfield-Parisi (Layout), Cole Fekert & Izzy Pipa (Illustrations), Irene Choi (News), Hayley Rosen (Sports), Emily Johnston (Opinion), Sophia Venturo (Culture), Jacob Goodwin (Podcasts) Page Designers Will Guisbond, Ellie Scott, Maggie Adams

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communities, now was the time.

However, the University has elected to side with the oppressor. And they always have.

We’re reminded of when University administrators handed out conduct violations to nine students, including leaders from NoNames for Justice and other social justice groups on campus, for holding a rally in the Waterman building Feb. 26, 2019 in

order to honor the Waterman takeover back in 2018.

After 33 faculty and staff members sent a letter to UVM administrators stating they were concerned students’ rights were being violated, they said then, “we don’t police language, we do policy,” according to a Mar. 2019 Cynic article.

Even a few months ago, UVM administrators decided to take down the Black Lives Matter flag, just two months after George Floyd was killed by white police officer Derek Chauvin, sparking historic protests across the country and within Burlington.

There are simply no good reasons for taking the flag down, only bad ones.

Detractors might think we are making too big of a deal over a flag, but these flags stand as symbols of support and inclusion.

This decision should serve as a clear message to marginialized students oncampus: The University will always side with policy over your voice.

Staff editorials officially reflect the views of the editorial board, which includes the Editor-in-Chief, Managing Editor and Opinion Editor. Signed opinion pieces and columns do not necessarily do so.

The Cynic accepts letters in response to anything you see printed as well as any issues of interest in the community. Please limit letters to 350 words. The Cynic reserves the right to edit letters for length and grammar.

Please send letters to opinion@ vtcynic.com.

As our climate worsens, so do our prisons

Photo Bailey Samber photo@vtcynic.com Digital Media Mills Sparksman cynic@uvm.edu

the other side’s shoes, to understand their point of view and anticipate their objections.

However, when we put ourselves in the administration’s shoes, trying to figure out a motivation for taking the flag down, it’s hard to come up with a reasonable answer.

Yes, there’s a policy, but if ever there was a chance for the University to both garner some positive press and lend their support to marginalized

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Emily Johnston Assistant Opinon Editor

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he world is red; burning with smoke filling the nostrils of the strong men and women fighting against the flames.

They work hard. It’s sweaty, it’s tiring, it’s skilled labor and they do it for free.

Forest fires, specifically the megafires in the West, are worsening due to a warming climate which feeds back into the corrupt prison system.

This leads to states looking for cheap fire-management, which comes mainly from prisons.

California is reliant upon the criminal justice system to fight the forest fires.

It’s behavior comes from the prison-industrial-complex, a term coined by Angela Davis, describing the expansion of the prison system after the monetization of the industry.

It’s a version of modern-day slavery that persists and will worsen with inaction against climate change.

Despite the job being deadly as they’re exposed

to noxious gas and high temperatures, prisoner firefighters only make $1 an hour, according to a Sept. 2 article by the Marshall Project.

No one should do lifethreatening work for $1 an hour, even if they are imprisoned.

The same people who fight forest fires are also often not allowed into the profession after their sentences due to background check laws.

It isn’t rehabilitation if prisoners can’t use their new skills once free.

Incarcerated individuals are as human as those with a clean slate and are deserving of living wages and the ability to use skills gained in prison.

According to the NAACP, 1 out of every 3 Black boys is sentenced to prison compared to every 1 out of 17 white boys.

This can only create one conclusion: the racist criminal justice system is exploiting black bodies to save money.

Climate justice and social justice are linked, this issue showcases how climate change causes problems that perpetuate racist systems.

UVM and Burlington are a part of this problem.

Sodexo, the company that UVM hires to run its dining

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halls, has money in private prisons.

It’s branch, Sodexo Justice Services, runs several forprofit prisons throughout eight countries, according to the Sodexo website.

Some prisons they operate in have histories of violence, according to a January 2020 Cynic article.

As long as UVM has ties to companies operating in private prisons, UVM will be linked to the prison industrial complex.

Vermont isn’t reliant upon prison labor, but do send prisoners to out-of-state forprofit prisons, according to a January 2019 VTDigger article.

As long as Vermont supports the capitalistic prison

empire, we’re responsible for the slave labor systems running in other states.

When society puts profit above wellbeing, the quality of life decreases.

Megafires and the prisoners used to stop them are the result of this.

We need to move the systems we live in away from the prison-industrial complex and away from fossil fuels in order to live in a just world.

The current system cannot sustain us. It must change.

Emily Johnston is a Junior environmental science major. She has been a Cynic since fall 2018.

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OPINION

Sophie Oehler Opinion Columnist

I

n high school, I watched too many crime shows and decided I wanted to be an FBI Agent.

My school resource officer sent me to the New Hampshire Police Cadet Training Academy, a program for students interested in law enforcement. I should’ve stayed home.

What I thought would be an informative “camp”, was actually eight days of boot camp.

We marched to classes in drill formation, sat silent at dinner and faced punishments for things like not removing your hat fast enough when walking through a doorway.

It was enough to make me give up on being the next Olivia Benson.

I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about the effects of that training on police officers.

And since I tend to be one for dramatics, I contacted two police officers from my hometown to find out.

Officer Heather Blase is the resource officer at Souhegan High School. She trained at Citizen’s Police Academy in Concord, NH, after being hired

by Amherst Police Department.

That’s how getting a policing job works. You graduate college, or high school, apply to a few

departments, and then whoever hires you sends you to the academy, free of charge.

It makes law enforcement an attractive job for individuals without a college degree, or of lower income.

At the academy, much of the cadet’s time is spent studying in class. They start firearm training around the third week of training; target practice, shooting at night and shoot-don’t shoot drills.

They run driving simulations, practice how to break apart a domestic and how to administer a breathalyzer test.

At the end of sixteen weeks, they’re released to their department, where they spend the next few weeks in “field training” with a senior officer who shows them the ropes until they’re ready to patrol alone.

Not all police officers are trained the same. Detective John Smith works for Amherst Police Department. He is the one responsible for feeding me to the wolves in blue at the training academy.

He trained in North Carolina, at the Western Piedmont Community College taking a class called “Basic Law Enforcement Training”. His training looked much different than Heather’s.

While Blase attended a

Monday-Friday residential “camp,” Smith went to class for eight hours, took a lunch break, and went home at night.

While Blase had to train at 5 a.m., Smith didn’t even have to pass a PT test. And while Blase spent every day being screamed at, Smith says the most stress he experienced was academic related.

I asked John if he thinks his relaxed training makes him any different of a police officer than someone like Heather with her militarized training.

“I don’t think it makes me any better or worse,” he told me. “The more rigid academy creates more of a comradery with all the officers in the state because they’ve all been through this rough experience together. I didn’t really have that.”

That rigid academy accomplishes more than comradery. Cadets have to earn their right to talk to one another, which teaches discipline.

What Smith calls “mind games” (i.e. ripping your sheets off your bed if you don’t make them correctly) prepares cadets for the jarring life of a police officer.

“Even with the mental and physical exhaustion, you still have to be on top of your game,” Blase explains, “It was just a simulation of what we would be up against.”

Those mental games are used to teach the same mindset: complacency kills.

They drove that part home a lot in the eight day program.

“You need to stay alert,” they screamed at us after dragging us out of bed at midnight to make us do wall sits in the hallway, “Or you’ll

get yourself killed.”

Then they’d return to the “protect and serve” mantra.

It got to a point where I had to wonder: are we protecting and serving our community, or ourselves?

I asked John and Heather their thoughts on my hypothesis, but neither of them shared those feelings. Maybe they know what I’m getting at. Or maybe they’re just good people who are able to differentiate between the two.

We’re familiar, of course, with the police officers who can’t.

They’re the kind of people who joined the police system to intimidate and belittle. They abuse a power they didn’t earn, and cower behind a badge they never deserved to wear.

They’re the kind of people who shoot first and ask questions later, and view others’ lives as disposable.

It’s the kind of mentality that turned Tamir Rice’s toy gun into a lethal weapon, and Breonna Taylor’s sleeping body into a looming danger.

If Black men and women are already criminalized, and police officers are already paranoid, there’s no hope for justice in our criminal justice system.

It’s easier to look for other, changeable factors, like police training. It’s ridiculous that a hairdresser’s training takes longer than a police officer’s.

It’s bizarre that certain states have different methods of training our police officers.

And it’s abysmal for police officers not to be held to the standards of the laws they’re supposed to be enforcing.

I asked Heather her advice for an aspiring police officer before they start training.

“Make sure you really want to be a police officer,” She says, after a pause, “You can make a difference, you just have to know who you are.”

Sophie Oehler is a junior political science and French major. She has been a Cynic since 2019.

COLE FEKERT

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CULTURE

Poesía en resistencia: poetry in resistence Moirha Smith Culture Staff Writer

Throughout Tina Escaja’s career, she has expressed her feminist views inside and outside of the classroom throughout Burlington and beyond.

Escaja is a Spanish professor and director of the Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies program.

On Sept. 20, Escaja and co-editor Mark Eisner released a book that features radical feminist poems about marginalization, oppression and sexuality.

The book, “Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution,” is a multilingual anthology of revolutionary poems by 54 different Latin American poets.

The cover is decorated with a brown fist covered in flowers.

“Compiling poems and putting together the book took ten years to finish,” Escaja said. “To get the right voices and right poems is not easy.”

The book starts with poems written by men, and as the book continues it changes to contemporary voices, often women across the Latin American diaspora.

The book also features Afro-Latinx poets.

Nancy Morejòn is a renowned Afro-Cuban poet and revolutionary. Her poem, “Mujer Negra,” depicts the resilience of Black women.

“Perhaps I have forgotten my lost coast, or my ancestral tongue,” the poem reads. “They left me here and here I have lived.”

When it comes to her work, Escaja says it is both personal

ELAINA SEPEDE/The Vermont Cynic

Professor Tina Escaja stands with her new book “Resistencia,” a book of poems on protest and revolution, Sept. 24. and academic.

“I’m an administrator but it affects my activism, my way of thinking and of course my scholarship,” Escaja said. “My work is always within gender, the fight for equality.”

Escaja said she often uses books other than her own in her classes.

“I try my best not to use my own books,” Escaja said. “The reason why I used this book is because it was born in the classroom.”

This fall, Escaja is teaching SPAN 295: Poesía en Resistencia. “Resistencia” is the only required book for the course.

Most poems are translated

from Spanish to English, but some are translated from indigenous languages such as Mapudungun and Miskito.

“The way that indegenous voices are presented is not the traditional one,” Escaja said. “I wanted to give strength to these voices.”

Jacob Potts ’20 was a Spanish major at UVM. He is thanked in the acknowledgements of “Resistencia.”

“She is dynamic, high energy and has a radiating passion about everything she is teaching,” Potts said.

Potts took two classes with Escaja during his time at UVM. After graduating, Potts worked

with Escaja over the summer promoting the book.

“As far as anthology goes it is unprecedented in regards to its inclusivity,” Potts said.

When it comes to her favorite poem in the book, Escaja said it’s hard to choose.

“I chose all of them because I love all of them,” she said.

Escaja settled on “Huelga” (“Strike”) by Giaconda Belli.

Belli is a Nicaraguan poet and political activist.

Belli was exiled to Mexico in 1975 because of her involvement in the Sandinista struggle against the Nicaraguan Somoza dictatorship.

“The last lines I read in

terms of what’s going on in the election and generally,” Escaja said. She read from Belli’s “Huelga.”

“I want… a strike where it is forbidden to breathe, a strike where silence is born, so you can hear the footsteps of the tyrant as he walks away.”

“Resistencia” highlights poets resisting oppression in Latin America.

“The only way for change is resistance. Everything we manage, that we could manage, is through resistance,” Escaja said. “I want resistance to be our guiding force.”

After twenty years, the Prism Center finds a new home Jean MacBride Culture Staff Writer

After years of asking for a larger and dedicated space for LGBTQ students to feel safe on campus, the Prism Center is getting a new forever home.

For the last 20 years the Prism Center has grown and expanded throughout UVM’s Allen House located on Main Street.

The center is an affinity space for queer and trans UVM students.

Now, the center is moving to Living and Learning building C, offering greater access for students on campus.

As the center’s need and popularity has grown, Director Kate Jerman said the move to a larger, dedicated space was what students wanted.

“Moving has been something students have asked for many years,” Jerman said.

Jerman said there had been only one main room to use as a student lounge, a kitchenette and for meetings.

The new Prism Center lo-

cation at Living and Learning would be bigger and better, Jerman said.

“Everything is much closer together and there’s two suites dedicated to students,” Jerman said.

The new space will host a number of amenities, she said.

“There’s going to be one with a computer lab and kitchenette and the other will be a student lounge,” Jerman said.

The Prism Center started as one office on the third floor of the Allen House.

However, the center slowly expanded into available spaces in the building, sprawling across multiple floors, she said.

The new space for the Prism Center in Living and Learning would be intimate but more convenient, Jerman said.

“It’s in the middle of things but it still has a level of privacy which I think will fit most people’s needs.” she said.

Senior Kaley Dillon said the move will be a positive thing for the Prism Center community.

“It would be nice to have the space in a more convenient lo-

MAC MANSFIELD-PARISI/The Vermont Cynic

The bisexual and LGBTQA+ flags fly in front of the Allen House, Sept. 25. The Living and Learning C building will be the new home for the Prism Center that was previously in the Allen House. cation, since the Allen House was a bit of a walk depending on where you were,” Dillon said.

Jerman said that the growth of space had coincided with changing attitudes about LGBT people at the school and across the country, among other practical and financial priorities of

the Prism Center and the UVM administration.

“There’s always been a need for us to have more space as the community has grown.” she said.

Some admission applicants tend to be drawn to UVM because of the progressive nature

of the Prism Center, Jerman said.

Although there is some uncertainty around the move, Jerman said she has a plan.

“We’re hoping that staff will be there in October and that students will be there by the end of the semester,” she said.

8

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FEATURE

The wheels keep turning on CAT Busses

Elizabeth Roote Feature Staff Writer

Seven months ago, Catamount Area Transportation Busses rumbled down campus roads, packed to the brim and alive with conversation. Now, its ridership caps at 14.

COVID-19 changed many aspects of UVM’s campus, and the on-campus bussing system is no exception. Both CAT Bus drivers and UVM students adjusted their lifestyle to the altered policies beginning this Fall semester.

Some changes include limited hours, reduced capacity, and plexiglass barriers both between seat sections and to protect the drivers, according to an email from Jim Barr, Director of Transportation, Parking, and Sustainable Transportation Services.

“Ridership capacity is limited due to social distancing measures, and thus far riders have complied with all of our protocols, and have not exceeded capacity restrictions,” Barr wrote in an email.

These precautions prevent the potential spread of COVID-19, but also result in less of a social work environment for CAT bus drivers.

Joe Sweeney, a Burlington native, has been driving for UVM Transportation for over 10 years. He views the difference between this semester and those previous as staggering.

“We used to be really busy,” Sweeney said. “We would get 700-800 kids at night, and in the day it would be the same.

Now, we’re down to anywhere

between 50-100 a day per bus.”

Even with the changed environment and increased risks, Sweeney was glad to get back to work after months of the campus being closed.

Not only has behavior on the busses been compliant with COVID protocol, but the students he passes on his routes are also wearing masks and social distancing, Sweeney said.

“It’s a rewarding job, believe it or not,” Sweeney said.

“It’s only driving a bus, but you know you’re doing something that everybody needs you to do, and they appreciate it.”

Like Sweeney, sophomore Chloe Hendron views the bussing system as more than just a convenience, it builds community. She felt pleasantly surprised to hear that the busses would continue operation this semester.

“I thought they wouldn’t use the buses at all,” Hendron said.

“I’m surprised that we have them.”

More students may want to take the busses when temperatures drop, and Hendron said she wonders how this will impact the already compromised system. In connection with these restrictions, Hendron’s personal experience with the CAT Busses has also shifted.

“One of my favorite bus drivers drove the late night route,” Hendron said. “He would play rock music and sing along. I loved it, it made riding the bus really fun. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen him as much anymore this semester.”

CAT Busses provide an easy way to get to and from class,

but one of their biggest roles is keeping students safe, especially at night and on the weekends.

“Instead of walking back from Redstone in the dark, I could take the bus,” Hendron said. “It was a safer option, and it made me feel much more comfortable.”

In past semesters when the CAT Busses operated normally, some students found other reasons to take the busses other than necessity alone. Hopping on a campus bus, especially on a weekend or during the evening, makes students feel a part of a community, Hendron said.

Paul has been driving the CAT Busses and CATSride vans for ten years. He had already been working with UVM when he got his commercial driver’s license, so he switched to driving busses.

“It’s nice to have contact with people during the day,” Paul said.

Some members of the Burlington community were surprised that UVM was re-opening this semester at all. Paul, a native of Chittenden county, echoed some of these concerns.

“I was a little apprehensive about thousands of students coming back to campus from all over the country, but I was open to the idea,” Paul said.

The return of in-person class and on-campus students allow Paul to continue driving the CAT Busses, even if the system looks different than its original busy, conversational and communal environment.

“I think we’re still all a little concerned, but it looks like, so far, people are doing the things

KYLE ELMS /The Vermont Cynic TOP: A UVM CAT Bus pulls away from the Patrick Gym, Sept. 24.

BOTTOM: A CAT Bus drives around campus, Sept. 24. that they need to do to keep the virus down,” Paul said.

Despite potential anxiety regarding re-opening, UVM reports 21 positive COVID-19 tests of on and off-campus students, according to the Weekly Testing Report.

No one has reported transportation problems regarding

bus capacity, mask wearing and other policies, according to an email from Barr.

Despite all of these changes, the sense of community students and drivers feel using the CAT busses hasn’t seemed to waver, even if they’re feeling it in smaller numbers and through plexiglass barriers.