Brown Daily Herald

Sahyouni ’21: Don’t Wait for Washington to Solve Your Problems

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 02:37:49 GMT

Even during a presidential election cycle that has been more devoid of policy discussion than any in recent memory, it’s not a surprise that both candidates have made their fair share of lofty promises, the bulk of which I’m sure they cannot keep. Every election season, Democrats and Republicans assure us that the reason why some can’t afford college or healthcare and why many don’t have a job or live paycheck to paycheck is that the no-good, very bad other party has put policies in place that hold Americans back.

Having lived through a few election seasons during my life, it’s the same story every time. And frankly, it’s getting really old. We’re always one election away from either losing America forever, or total salvation. One politician away from eternal darkness, or perpetual virtue. According to many of our country’s most prominent political figures, you must vote for their party like your life depends on it. The only problem, of course, is that this is largely false. Government is a slow-moving, bureaucratic, blunt-force instrument that was never meant to, and is rarely good at, solving the day-to-day problems of normal people. I believe that for most Americans, personal decision making is a much greater factor in success than public policy.

Along with discussing the ineffectiveness of the federal government, we need to ask what the role of Washington D.C. should be in everyday life. While this is a hotly debated question in contemporary politics, the American tradition points to a government of a radically different scope than the one we have today. The founding fathers saw government as a tool to protect fundamental rights like life and liberty. The state, deriving its authority from the consent of the governed, was only intended to operate under a limited set of powers enumerated in the constitution. These powers were specifically tailored to allow the government to perform its core responsibilities — maintaining national security, settling legal disputes, enforcing the law — and nothing more.

To be sure, a government with such narrow power might not be appropriate for the 21st century. That is, I don’t think many people would advocate that Washington should let its citizens starve on the street if they can’t afford food in the wealthiest nation on Earth. But at the same time, we should look to the philosophy of the world’s longest standing national constitution as a valuable influence on our political thought today.

Of course, I don’t think that a strict adherence to Federalist ideology is required to be skeptical of the state’s role. All one has to do is look to history for myriad examples of government ineffectiveness and wastefulness. Since President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, American federal government has spent an estimated $12 trillion on poverty reduction programs. Yet, according to Michael Tanner of the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, there has been no noticeable reduction in the official poverty rate over that period. Granted, some alternative measures of poverty have declined, but it’s unclear how much of that decline can be attributed to the war on poverty programs, specifically. This fact, among others, is more reason to believe that government welfare programs have often failed to address the root causes of poverty. And government failure is by no means limited to liberal presidents, either. Consider President Richard Nixon’s war on drugs. Again, the federal government will spend an estimated $35 billion on drug control in 2020, yet statistics show that overdose deaths have been increasing over the last two decades.

To reiterate, none of this is to say that instances when government policy has made a real and impactful change in people’s lives don’t exist. But it is to say that the federal government as an institution is not well suited to handle issues relating to the everyday needs of individual citizens. It is in the nature of federal legislation to produce one size fits all solutions. National policy is rarely tailored well on a case-by-case basis. Local welfare-oriented institutions like charities and churches have a better idea of the unique needs of their communities, and are thus able to more effectively allocate resources to those individuals who need help the most. Even local governments serve as a better option than Washington to maintain welfare in their area. Therefore, why would anyone want to entrust their community’s well being to a handful of elite octogenarian politicians in cushy D.C. residences?

I freely admit that it’s still possible, even being aware of all the state’s shortcomings and inefficiencies, to believe that the government is an imperfect but necessary tool for addressing certain problems in our society. But even if an individual believes that public policy is a reason that they struggle to get ahead, and that different laws would change that, it still is insufficient to see change through Congress as the only, or even the most fruitful, option.

It should be clear that Americans have more direct control over their life choices than law, but why exactly is personal decision making a seriously important factor in determining individual life outcomes? There is some evidence to support the power of individual action. For example, in the book Creating an Opportunity Society, research by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill from the Brookings Institute found that of low-income teens who finished high school, held a full-time job and did not have children before the age of 21, just two percent remained in poverty, and a full 75 percent joined the middle class or better. This is just one of multiple routes toward preventing financial hardship in the United States. It might seem like the obvious result of this fact is that Washington should focus her efforts in these three areas. But there is little reason to believe that government will be more effective here than it has been in other areas.

Granted, there are certainly some people who through no fault of their own cannot avoid these outcomes. These teens may have been impacted differently by other factors beyond their control, such as challenging family situations, but some element of individual choice must have been present in their resolve to persist through high school and find a job. But statistics describing employment opportunities and the nation’s high graduation rate suggest that the vast majority of people can meet these standards under a healthy national economic climate. And for the minority who can’t, local organizations can in many cases still provide more individualized support than the federal government.

It is consequently a terrible mistake to tell people struggling through difficult times that they are stuck where they are until they elect new representatives. Not only is it untrue that government fiat is a fix-all solution to hardship, but it is a damaging and condescending myth to continually insist to Americans that their lives critically depend on who wins in November. Politicians need to get real. They aren’t going to solve your problems in their next term, and they likely never will.

Donnie Sahyouni ’21 can be reached at donnie_sahyouni@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

Professors Share Experiences Teaching Hybrid Classes

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 02:04:14 GMT

Shriram Krishnamurthi walked into the Center for Information Technology at 8:30 a.m. to set up the broadcasting system for his first day teaching hybrid classes of the semester. He and technology specialists in the CIT didn’t finish until 9:50 a.m., ten minutes before the start of Krishnamurthi’s class, CSCI 1730: “Design and Implementation of Programming Languages.”

“I don’t generally get intimidated by technology,” Krishnamurthi, a professor of computer science, told The Herald. But, since setting up for class involved juggling zoom links, document cameras and screen sharing, “I went to teach in class completely frazzled.”

Like Krishnamurthi, other University professors have navigated unfamiliar territory teaching hybrid courses – classes that are simultaneously in-person and online, since the University began allowing some in-person instruction on Oct. 5.

Many professors shared their experiences with The Herald on the difficulties of teaching students who are both in their classrooms and on their screens, which has led some to return to fully online formats.

Assistant Professor of Archaeology and Classics Candace Rice originally planned to teach a course this semester on maritime archaeology. She scheduled a multitude of field trips for the class to visit harbors on the coastline. But when taking field trips no longer became an option due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Rice concluded that she and the students would be happier if she redesigned the class for a pandemic world.

One of Rice’s biggest concerns when designing a hybrid class was how to ensure a high quality experience for both in-person and remote students in a way that “wasn’t favoring one group over the other.”

Her solution was ARCH 0526: “Behind Closed Doors? Domestic Life in the Roman World.” The class incorporates three different modes of instruction. Mondays are fully online, Wednesdays involve collaborative discussion posts on Canvas and Fridays are discussion-based classes run via a hybrid instruction in Rhode Island Hall.

On Fridays, two cameras — one facing the front and one facing the back of the room — broadcast the discussion to members of the class studying remotely.

Rice hopes this format allows for higher levels of student engagement, no matter where a student is learning from this semester.

Normally, as part of her class, Rice would pass around objects from the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World’s vault collection “so students get to actually touch and play with ancient objects.”

As an alternative in her hybrid class, Rice leverages digital 3D models of artifacts, such as collections from a Roman site in Austria, which she says has worked well in engaging students.

But not all hybrid classes have found similar success. Katherine Van Riper ’23 is taking ENGL 1361P: “Shakespeare’s Girls” with Assistant Professor of English Connie Scozzaro.

The discussion-based class attempted hybrid learning, with half of the students spaced around Metcalf Hall Auditorium and the other half online. But the people online couldn’t hear the students, so students had to walk up to a microphone in the front of a lecture hall whenever they wanted to speak, Van Riper said. “If we did say something without doing that, then Professor Scozzaro had to repeat it all into her microphone.”

“It was just hard to get discussions going and it was frustrating for a professor to make it work,” Van Riper said. The following week, the class went fully online.

Professor of Classics and History Graham Oliver teaches CLAS 1130: “The Fragility of Life in Ancient Greece” via hybrid instruction. He said that while both students “online and in the classroom feel … as engaged as when the class was fully online” before Oct. 5, “it’s not so easy to do breakout rooms” in person.

Oliver added that he could try breakout rooms for the students attending in person, but students would be talking across the room to each other.

Scozzaro did not respond to requests for comment.

Paul Biberstein ’23, who is taking Krishnamurthi’s class in person and has taken another class with him previously, says that the professor’s lecture style involves a lot of participation. He asks “quick off-the-cuff questions” without expecting students to raise their hands, and often requests that they turn to their neighbors and talk about problems.

“Even though there’s analogs for that virtually, you can’t fully recreate that experience online,” Biberstein said.

“The problem in person is they’re all spread all across the room,” Krishnamurthi said. “There’s no neighbor … and the only way you can talk to somebody six feet away is yelling a bit. So that dynamic is completely destroyed.”

Wearing a mask in a hybrid class is also challenging. Krishnamurhti’s teaching style involves mouthing the answers to difficult questions he poses to students. “I’m trying to do it through my (face) covering,” but it doesn’t work as effectively, he said. “I feel as though someone just stole a useful technique away from me.”

Masks also impede the instructional methods of Benjamin Driver GS, who teaches GREK 0300: “Introduction to Greek Literature,” but has also taught high school French.

When teaching a language, he wants students to be able to view how he shapes his mouth when he pronounces certain words and sounds.

While Driver admits this isn’t as much of a barrier when teaching ancient Greek (since it is not a spoken language), the masks still are as much of a metaphorical barrier to connecting with the class as a physical one. “The thing that I think is mostly lost is that sense of community. There’s a lot of things like trust that are built through (making) a joke and someone knows you’re telling a joke because you’re smiling.”

Usually, Driver assigns a reading in Greek for homework. Then the class would reconvene in person to discuss it and a class leader would facilitate the class through text readings every day, “which also engages them more.”

Like Driver, Rice also was concerned about creating a sense of community and engagement in the class this semester, having felt that part of that was lost when the University went fully online in March.

Rice knows that she cannot fully recreate the in-person experience, but she feels that the changes she has made to the course have been largely successful. “The students are engaged, and that makes all the difference in the world,” she said. “I miss seeing everyone in person so much but it’s nice to be able to see their faces and have them interact online.”

Dean Jha: ‘It’s really critical that we take a moment and just reflect’

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 01:51:04 GMT

Dean of the School of Public Health Ashish Jha spoke with The Herald Oct. 23 to reflect on the state of the COVID-19 pandemic over the past week. He spoke to climbing case numbers and related current events in Rhode Island, including Rhode Island’s release of vaccination plans Oct. 16 and the external review underway at Roger Williams University in response to a contained cohort of positive tests within one of its research buildings housing a lab focusing on COVID-19, according to WPRI.

Herald: How significant is the recent rise in cases in Rhode Island, and why do you think we’re seeing this rise?

Jha: I think it’s pretty significant … obviously we’re seeing substantial increases across much of the country, so it’s not a Rhode Island alone phenomenon — more than 40 states are seeing large increases. …

I do think that some of the big outbreaks that we’re seeing got set off by Labor Day weekend, just because of the way you can look at the national pattern. But what happens is, once these things get momentum, they start feeding on themselves. … It becomes self sustaining. So yes, you can say the initial impetus was that holiday weekend, but then you’ve had many, many weeks to try to act on it. …

When people gather indoors, they’re not wearing masks and there isn’t great ventilation. That’s the context in which the virus spreads. Nationally, we know indoor dining (and) bars are major sources of spread. And then indoor gatherings. People have this kind of mental image of their home as a sanctuary, and they’re getting people together. … There’s national data that colleges have triggered large outbreaks. But I’ll be very clear about this: Colleges that have triggered large outbreaks have had no testing, no real plan on keeping students and faculty isolated and safe.

In the news this week, there were reports that Roger Williams University had an outbreak where they were doing their research. Could you speak to what some potential causes could be that led to that lab-based outbreak?

There’s a lot we don’t know. So, we know that a lot of individuals who worked in this lab all tested positive. And then we heard from (Roger Williams) University that they were handling material that could trigger a false positive (a positive test result for someone who is not actually infected), and that was a part of the concern. And then a large chunk of the people got retested and came out negative. And that, to me, suggests they probably were false positive tests.

But it brings up a broader question, which is, are laboratories dangerous? Are they dangerous places for these viruses? And the short answer is not really. … The safeguards for working with dangerous viruses are really quite robust. I’m not saying it never happens, of course, it can happen. But it’s pretty rare that you get outbreaks from laboratories just because we have spent so much time and resources in our country really building up safeguards. … If we discover that somehow Roger Williams wasn’t following those safeguards, or something went wrong, then we can revisit this, but everything I’ve seen so far suggests that it probably wasn’t a breach of any of the kind of protocols for keeping people safe.

Recently, Rhode Island released a COVID-19 vaccination plan. What do you think about the effect of the state having drafted that plan earlier, even before a vaccine is out?

There are two important parts about the vaccine. One is you have to develop one, which is hard enough, and the science is hard. And then the second is you have to have a plan where people are going to feel confidence in the vaccine. They’re both really, really important.

We are at a point where the science of vaccine development has gone very well. It’s been done with a lot of integrity, and we’re very close. There are four vaccines right now in late stage trials. And I suspect — expect — that probably two of them will get preliminary authorization over the next month or six weeks. I don’t know exactly, … but the point is at least two of them are clicking along in a way. And then two more may follow after that. But then there’s a whole host of other vaccines that are coming down the pipe. …

So then the question is, how do you build confidence? The truth is that we have seen politicization, we’ve seen President (Trump) talk about timelines for the vaccine, talk about how it’s his vaccine. It’s not anybody’s vaccine, it’s the scientific community’s vaccines, the American people and the people of the world actually, their vaccine. So that politicization has been harmful. …

(Rhode Island leaders have) got to come up with a plan locally. And what you want to do is you want to engage local, clinical and public health leaders, and lay out an approach that people are going to look at and say, yeah, that feels really reasonable and comfortable. And that’s what they’re doing. And they have a committee of a lot of people who inspire confidence in the greater Providence and the Rhode Island community.

I think that the distribution plan … is going to evolve as these things usually do, but I think it’s a really good idea for every state to develop such a plan.

How do you see schools like Brown being a part of that process of distributing vaccines? We know that there’s also a ranking of who gets the vaccines first usually, so where do you think students come in, as well, in that rank?

I haven’t seen yet a national plan on priorities for distribution. There are a couple of approaches that are reasonable. One is, there’s broad consensus that healthcare workers and first responders should be in the first group, and I think that’s right. But the second group is interesting.

It’s very logical to believe (that) high risk individuals should go next, elderly people, people with chronic disease, people who are in nursing homes and other congregate settings, care settings. That makes total sense. There is an argument to be made that actually young people may be better in that second group after health care workers, probably because the immunologic response in young people is going to be more robust from the vaccine, and young people are driving a lot of the infections that eventually are spilling into older people. So if you can actually cut it off among young people, you’d actually be able to do a better job protecting everybody.

I haven’t seen the plan, (but) the National Academies of (Sciences, Engineering and) Medicine put out a plan … suggested elderly and vulnerable people second. Let’s see what we come up with as a nation. … What colleges and universities will do will really depend first on what the national and the local plan is. …

Assuming it all goes well, I’m going to push pretty hard for people to get vaccinated because it’ll make a huge difference in terms of building safety into our community and making it a safer place for people to get together and go to school. But I think ultimately, that’s going to have to be driven by how safe and effective the vaccine is. But I expect Brown to play a very active role in helping get the vaccine out to its community.

Any final thoughts or messages to the Brown community?

What’s really remarkable is how well the community at Brown continues to do with COVID-19. And we are seeing these large increases across Rhode Island, and yet the numbers (at) Brown continue to look very good. And they continue to look good, not just because testing is a really important part of keeping people safe, they look good because people are being careful, people are being thoughtful and people understand that we’re in a very difficult situation nationally.

And we all know that is not happening everywhere in America. I think it’s really critical that we take a moment and just reflect on that. I want to say to the Brown community, to our community, thank you for being vigilant and thoughtful and careful in this moment, because it not (only) keeps our communities safe, but it also makes sure that we’re not contributing to broader spread in the Providence and Rhode Island communities. And it’s really remarkable because again, I look at the numbers every day from the Brown COVID-19 dashboard, and so far, knock on wood, we’re doing great. And we just got to keep going. So I just think we should acknowledge when people are doing a good job.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

-Additional reporting contributed by Emilija Sagaityte

Virtual play ‘Songs of a Caged Bird’ tells story of Panther 21

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 01:40:55 GMT

Rites and Reasons Theatre launched the second iteration of “Songs of a Cage Bird,” the theatre’s first ever digital production written by Christopher Lindsay GS Oct. 22. The play tells the historic story of the Panther 21, a group of 19 men and two women who were convicted of plotting to kill police officers. The play demonstrated the multi-dimensionality of its characters, who were either survivors of the system or in some cases, representative of the system itself.

The play begins with Lee Berry, portrayed by JaQuan Jones GS, doing pushups and performing a monologue within a jail cell — as seen through a Zoom window. As the scene transitions to include other inmates and their interactions with police officers, the play chronicles the suffering that Berry as well as the other inmates faced in jail while allowed only limited visitations.

At the play’s climax, Berry suffers a stroke due to the terrible jail conditions, but is ultimately saved by Dr. John Cordice, played by hired actor Derrik Moore. The actors performed from their respective homes, finding new ways to evoke emotion in a virtual setting which added a new, modern sense of isolation to the narrative.

Lindsay’s grandparents were Black Panther members who were involved with the case, so “the story (of Panther 21) was a legend growing up,” he said during the panel discussion. Lindsay was motivated to write the play because of the way that history repeats itself, which he has seen in the various parallels between the Civil Rights and the Black Lives Matters movements. He started writing the play during the Ferguson unrest in 2014, when the lives of black activists began to take hold.

Playwriting and telling stories, Lindsay said, is his way of giving back to the community.

The cast and crew worked tirelessly to adapt the production to the digital format. Rehearsals started in early September, and were followed by a few days of recording. Public coordinator Ellie Winter ’21 said that immersing herself in the play was “much harder when we’re all at home.” It was also a challenge to not inhabit the same physical space during the production process.

On Sunday Oct. 25, the play’s cast and crew gathered to host an online panel discussion including multiple former members of the Black Panthers, allowing audience members to ask questions of the play and its story. Discussion centered around the intersection of art and activism and how to portray these events in a truthful manner. Lindsay said that it gave him “a sense of pride and responsibility to the community” to write the play, especially because there are a lot of negative stigmas against the Panthers. Former Panther member Jamal Joseph praised the play and the emotions that it evoked, describing it as “electric.” Sylvia Ann Soares ’95, an actress at the Rites and Reasons theatre, congratulated Lindsay for capturing the humanity of characters through dialogue and construction of the play. She recounts “the performance artists in the 60s, 70s, 80s who inspired ensuing work that was a foil to Blaxploitation and misrepresentation and justification of the oppressor.”

Joseph said that the play showed “strength through vulnerability,” explaining that the Panthers demonstrated that even during the most oppressive regime, one could make a difference, even from prison. Lee Berry, Lindsay’s grandfather, thanked Lindsay for the portrayal of Dr. John Cordice, who saved his life and several others.’ Jones thanked the panel for the “special experience” and that he “never felt so close to my people” even through a Zoom call.

After sharing insights into the process of writing, producing and acting, the discussion shifted towards how actors and artists can move beyond performance to incite change. Former Panther member Dhoruba Bin Wahad raised precautions over how art could be politicized, but also acknowledged that “everyone has a role to play in the struggle.”

Grant Achilles talks maintaining morale during baseball’s search for new normal

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 01:37:27 GMT

Grant Achilles, baseball’s 17th head coach since 1900, was hired as an assistant coach in 2012 and promoted to head coach midway through the 2014 season. Under his direction, Brown has earned 13 All-Ivy selection titles with multiple First Team honorees. Achilles has seen several players drafted to Major League Baseball, including Austin French ’16, Rob Henry ’17, Christian Taugner ’17 and Reid Anderson ’18. Henry and Taugner represented the first dual selection of Brown players in the draft since 2005. Bruno was just a third of the way into their 2020 baseball season when spring sports were canceled due to COVID-19. But Coach Achilles continued to rally his team virtually, even when he and his wife Elizabeth welcomed their new daughter, Ali Jo, mid-pandemic. For his dedication on and off the field, Coach Achilles has been selected for this edition of The Herald’s Coach’s Corner.

Herald: College baseball does not look the same as in previous years. How are you working to keep milestone events ceremonious and fun despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic?

Coach Achilles: Trying to maintain normalcy of naming our captains. This year it’s going to be (Joe Lomuscio ’21) and (Collin Garner ’21). There are certainly still ceremonies and things like that that we can do, it’s just being creative with the ways we implement them. We may not be able to order all of the gear that we want, but to still go through and plan for the new normal, the new approach that we’re going to have as a team and to involve all our players’ input into that (process), will be critical to drawing closer together as we move towards the season. I’d like to think it will be easier when everybody’s on campus, but that almost feels like such a long ways away that we want to try and do as much as we can in the short term to maintain closeness as a program.

How have you been working to maintain closeness as a program while having players studying remotely in different time zones and living situations?

We’re trying to respect the time of our players as best as possible without inundating them with meetings here and meetings there. What works best for our team is only calling a meeting when there’s something to talk about. Now that we’re in the virtual world, we’re especially trying to have more one-on-one and small group connection points so that a bond really continues to formulate between us as a staff with those players. (The players) do a pretty good job of communicating. I mean, from the get-go there’s always been a playful banter … (between players and staff). So, the social normalcy returning has been very beneficial for that integration.

How has the trimester system, which brings different class years to campus at different times, affected the team dynamic?

(Currently), our juniors and seniors are all on campus, and our freshmen and sophomores are all remote. Over the last three years, our respective incoming classes have created a tight bond in the fall of their senior years in high school. So the trimester has certainly had a negative impact on a lot of the normalcy, but I truly believe that our players are continuing to progress without skipping a beat. … In that respect, we almost welcome the unique side of the challenge of bringing in the freshmen a little bit later. Seeing how our team has bonded together has almost made this easier in some ways.

What is your plan for returning to competitive play in the spring after having spent the fall and winter without full access to training facilities?

The mental side of our preparation has continued. I understand that it’s challenging not to play hypothetical games of “what if” in athletics and all the way down the road to an academic and social perspective. But since our season got canceled, and we transitioned power from the 2019-20 team to the 2020-21 team, we’ve been allowed to have the focus, wherever we are, whatever we’re able to do, on having the mindset of competing for an Ivy League championship. Our players are scattered, but we know that wherever they are now, they’re going to have two weeks from the end of the fall semester until the projected start of the spring semester, to get going. While there are physical things that we will need to play catch up on, I think the mental toll that missing last season had on us provided that inner fire to do whatever it takes within our capacity to be ready to finish this year out strong.

Can you share a fun fact about your life off the field?

My wife qualified for this year’s Boston marathon and was registered to run. Two days after our season got canceled, she found out that the Boston marathon got canceled. She had been training for months. So, when she was nine months pregnant, I worked together with her to structure the South of Boston Marathon. A totally socially-distanced 26.2 miles. Two loops around our house, around the Brown athletics facilities and the campus that she could run. She ran a full-on marathon, while pregnant, the week after the Boston marathon was supposed to take place. So, that’s my fun fact. I coordinated and was the grand marshal for the South of Boston marathon, during the pandemic. Actually, my real fun fact is that I’m married to her.

Brown Baseball is involved with Team IMPACT, a charitable organization that pairs young athletes battling health issues with college teams. Has the team stayed engaged with their Team IMPACT member during the pandemic?

(Our Team IMPACT member Alex’s) birthday was Oct. 2 and we had guys send videos and FaceTime him for his birthday. … (He and the team) still stay in constant communication. This is sad to say, but we were ready to move into a new phase with a new Team IMPACT player when the pandemic hit. Not because of a sad or poor experience, but quite the opposite, because our experience with Alex and his family has been so great and he’s had a phenomenal recovery. We now need to continue the story with a new Team IMPACT member.

Is there anything that you would like to take from this experience into regular seasons?

Our core principles as a program are brotherhood, integrity and gratitude, and I’ve really seen those playing out within our team during this pandemic. They’ve seen that our individual actions can have a very profound influence. Whether that’s (flattening the curve) of the pandemic, or participating in the election, whatever the case may be, it’s holding onto that “life is about more than just me as an individual,” lesson and the gratitude that comes with it. (Those of us on campus) have conditioned as a team a few times since getting back, and one of those days it was kind of wet and nasty, so we had a conversation about, “Hey, you know what? We all probably had that thought go through our mind of, ‘Ah, this is a miserable day.’ But let’s bring our minds back to March 13 when the world absolutely changed and we weren’t sure when we were going to see each other again.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Brown School of Public Health announces Actions to Confront Anti-Black Racism

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 01:33:01 GMT

Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the School of Public Health, announced Actions to Confront Anti-Black Racism on Sept. 23, building upon the School’s Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.

The plan includes modifications to increase diversity and inclusivity in research, faculty and staff hiring and public health pedagogy. “As a School dedicated to improving the lives and health and well-being of people in our community and around the world, we must be part of the solution to end racism in America,” Jha wrote in the announcement.

Anti-Black racism in the United States is a large factor “prevent(ing) people from achieving long, healthy lives,” Jha said. “Take almost any statistic and it is worse for Black Americans, and racism is a really fundamental part of that.”

“My ambition is very clear,” Jha said: “We need to change the face of public health leadership in America, and if that’s not what we achieve, then I will feel like we will have failed.”

The plan was a “collective effort with a lot of engagement,” including the diversity and inclusion committees across schoolwide departments, Jha said. The process of drafting the Action Plan began before Jha assumed his position as dean Sept. 14. “Once I got involved in it, for me, it felt very personal. I’ve spent 15 plus years thinking about and studying these issues, and now I had the chance in a very different way than I’ve had before” to implement changes, he said.

One aspect of the plan is to promote diverse student recruitment, in part through the recently launched Brown-Tougaloo Health Equity Scholars program. Through the program, the School of Public Health has committed to admitting up to five current students or graduates of Tougaloo College — a historically Black college in Mississippi. The program “includes a full tuition scholarship, enhanced mentorship and internships focused on training the next generation of public health leaders,” according to a School of Public Health announcement June 8.

Since 1964, a long-standing partnership between Brown and Tougaloo College “has allowed generations of students and faculty at both institutions to visit with each other and learn from each other,” according to the Brown-Tougaloo Health Equity Scholars announcement. “The need to focus on equity has come again into sharp relief with the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people of color. The combination of systemic racism, the coronavirus pandemic and disproportionate economic devastation has made it clear that we must all respond,” according to this announcement.

Wendy White, principal investigator and director of the Jackson Heart Study Education Center at Tougaloo College, is “very excited” about the initiative and believes “it’s a natural fit,” she said. “We’ve been working toward doing something like this for years. It’s unfortunate that we had to have all this socio-political unrest and a pandemic to bring it together. … I’m glad that we’re engaging in this.”

Tougaloo College was one of the forerunners in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. White believes the Scholars program will help combat anti-Black racism because this background means “the students are coming there sensitive to the needs of African American communities … Brown will provide them that extra knowledge that they need to have to combat the racism that they’ve seen in their lives.”

White said she hopes the program continues to grow in the future. She wants to see more research projects, and would “like to see those research projects be community-based and whatever outcomes they have are shared with the African American community,” White said.

Jha hopes for expansion as well. “Our number one priority beyond (COVID-19) and keeping people safe is building a program,” but he does not want to wait five years to expand it: “No, we’re going to expand it soon,” he said. “The Tougaloo Health Equity Scholars program is a very important start, but it’s a start.”

“I want (the School of Public Health) to be a place that over the next 10 years you can look back, whether I’m here or not … and say that this school and this university have played a pivotal role in transforming the leadership of public health in America,” Jha said. “My goal is to expand this program very substantially to build up a whole set of activities around leadership development.”

Jha said that he is motivated to pursue this initiative because the public health community in the United States is such a diverse group of nurses, social workers, physicians and other health practitioners. But, “when you look at leadership of public health in America — not so diverse. It’s primarily white. I think that is not acceptable and … I want the Brown University School of Public Health to be a place that changes that over the next decade,” Jha said.

VP Carey: Brown sees most positive COVID-19 cases ‘in a three day time period to date’

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 00:41:11 GMT

Eight University students tested positive for COVID-19 from Oct. 21 to Oct. 23, the most “in a three day time period to date,” according to an Oct. 24 email from Executive Vice President of Planning and Policy Russell Carey ’91. This is also the most positive test results the University has seen in a one week period since the asymptomatic test program began.

But “these results do not represent an emergency based on public health standards,” Carey wrote.

The recent increase brings the total number of positive cases from asymptomatic testing to 37.

Meanwhile, at the state and national levels, “there are very serious concerns about the trends and positivity rates,” Carey said. “We are going to continue to emphasize the messages the governor is emphasizing about wearing masks, social distancing (and) keeping gathering sizes low.”

The University has not made, and does not anticipate making, changes following Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo’s Oct. 22 address which cautioned increased safety.

The governor asked for increased vigilance with “small family gatherings, small gatherings with friends (and) work environments,” Carey said. In these places, “people know each other, they trust each other, they take their mask off, and they are in close proximity to each other,” he added. “Somebody could be asymptomatic in that setting but still transmit the virus.”

Raimondo’s messaging on COVID-19 precautions is consistent with the University’s public health campaign, Carey said during a conversation with The Herald Oct. 22, before his email announcement.

“There is nothing that we had to do that we weren’t already doing from the last week or so of communications from the state,” Carey said.

The governor asked for increased vigilance with “small family gatherings, small gatherings with friends (and) work environments,” Carey said. In these places, “people know each other, they trust each other, they take their mask off, and they are in close proximity to each other … somebody could be asymptomatic in that setting but still transmit the virus,” Carey added.

“The most important step we can all take to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 is to wear a mask whenever you are with other people beyond your immediate household or pod,” Carey reiterated in his Oct. 24 email. “Mask wearing is a simple but critical step to prevent the spread of this virus.”

University students can practice the same vigilance by strictly limiting social interaction to pods and maintaining mask-wearing during class and during passing conversations, which are the “best practices that students and faculty are already following very carefully,” Carey said.

With Election Day coming up, there are options for emergency voting at the Providence City Hall. Voting is considered an essential off-campus activity, “but people should wear a mask and maintain social distancing while they do that,” Carey said.

In addition, the University will be hosting a polling location on campus in the Pizzitola Center on Election Day. “We are working very closely with the city to make sure that is conducted safely,” Carey said, emphasizing alternative ways of voting safely, such as voting by mail and early voting.

Gathering size limitations will still apply on Election Day. “This is not an election where we can host a watch party in Leung Gallery, and that’s unfortunate but (those are) the circumstances that we are in,” Carey said.

Representatives from campus life, the college and other offices on campus will be available on election night and into the early morning to “provide guidance, support, and, if people are gathering, remind them of safety regulations particularly with regards to mask wearing and social distancing.”

–Kamran King contributed reporting

Facilities implements new safety precautions to keep projects on schedule

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 23:34:32 GMT

As COVID-19 continues to affect nearly every aspect of University operations, Facilities Management has had to adapt to keep new construction projects on track and workers safe.

Marston Boathouse and the Performing Arts Center, two of the University’s capital construction projects, are set to finish on their original timeline.

“We here in Providence and Rhode Island have been so fortunate that our projects have continued essentially uninterrupted,” said Paul Dietel, assistant vice president of planning, design and construction. “We haven’t skipped a beat.”

Construction of the Performing Arts Center is on track despite some initial concerns about acquiring materials during COVID-19, Dietel said.

The building will host space for performance, teaching, and research for music, theater and dance,” according to the Facilities Management website.

It is now scheduled to be completed in Spring 2023, and “after completion, there will be several months of testing and commissioning before the venue can ‘go live,’” Dietel wrote.

In order to adhere to a schedule while also keeping workers healthy, the University has also introduced new safety precautions on all active construction sites.

Workers have their temperature taken and fill out a symptom and exposure questionnaire each day before work. They must maintain an appropriate distance from each other, and handwashing stations were also installed at construction sites.

All workers are also required to wear a mask at all times, which often fogs up their work goggles, Dietel said. Small changes, such as workers continually taking off their goggles to clean them, have caused minor productivity loss.

Workers are not required to take COVID-19 tests and do not participate in Brown’s asymptomatic testing program. If they are feeling sick or exhibit symptoms, they are turned away from work.

Despite the new difficulties, the workers “keep showing up,” Dietel said. “They are at risk to a degree, I guess anybody is, but without them, we couldn’t build these projects, so we are very, very fortunate and thankful to our labor force.”

The PAC’s topping-off ceremony — a construction industry event where the highest piece of structural steel is signed and placed — is planned for December 2020. The recent topping-off ceremony for the Wellness Center and Residence Hall project, which was expedited to welcome students for the summer semester, was held virtually. Still, Dietel said he hopes “to have people on site socially distanced for (the Performing Arts Center) when the time comes.”

The Marston Boathouse Renewal, a project updating the building that houses the men’s and women’s crew teams near India Point Park, will be completed in December, Dietel said. The first round of renovations was completed in 2018 and included a new bulkhead, boat ramps, dock enhancements and floats.

The second phase of renovations consists of “structural stabilization, life safety upgrades, mechanical, electrical and plumbing system upgrades, as well as program realignments in the team locker rooms and tank room, and cosmetic enhancements throughout the building,” according to the Facilities Management website.

In addition to major construction projects, facilities management took on several smaller projects over the summer to support the return of students to campus, including installing audio-visual upgrades to classrooms for hybrid learning, removing and upgrading classroom furniture to allow for social distancing and upgrading bathrooms with no-touch faucets and door foot pulls.

Brown researchers contribute critical components to EXCITE telescope

Sun, 25 Oct 2020 23:31:17 GMT

Beyond the bounds of Earth’s solar system, exoplanets revolve in space and are the target planets of ongoing research efforts, including those of Professor of Physics Gregory Tucker. Tucker is leading a team of Brown students to build key parts of the Exoplanet Climate Infrared Telescope, aptly referred to as EXCITE.

The major components of the telescope are being built in a collaboration between the University, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Arizona State University and the University of Toronto, said Peter Nagler PhD ’17, principal investigator of the project and NASA researcher.

The EXCITE instrument and telescope “involves a balloon-borne experiment to look at the atmospheres of exoplanets,” Tucker said. The EXCITE will initially remain in flight for 14 days at a time, in contrast to space telescopes like the Hubble that travel through space for longer periods of time.

EXCITE will use spectroscopic observation — the study of how objects interact with wavelengths of, in this case, near-infrared radiation — to continuously analyze these hot exoplanets for multiple days, according to Tucker. Given researchers’ limited access to space telescopes such as the Hubble or the James Webb Space Telescope, having many days to trace out entire orbits of planets by using the EXCITE is of great value, Tucker added.

EXCITE is designed to measure the radiation absorption and emission of very hot planets, which may shed light on the planets’ composition. “Ours is a purpose-built instrument,” Nagler said. “We can get a lot of information from watching (the planets) orbit their host stars for entire orbits at a time” over the course of multiple days.

The class of exoplanets the researchers hope to look at is called a “hot Jupiter,” which are exoplanets that are physically similar to Jupiter but with orbits closer to their suns, resulting in short orbital periods and high surface-atmosphere temperatures.

“They’re of a similar size, and they’re gaseous like the Jupiter in our solar system, but they’re a lot closer to their suns than our Jupiter,” said Tim Rehm, a second-year University PhD student working with Tucker on the project. “Because they’re so close and they get so hot, we can analyze signatures in the atmosphere as the host star’s light passes through it.” The researchers aim to identify which signatures, or elements, make up the planets’ atmospheric composition, such as water and carbon monoxide.

“Brown is currently focusing on the cryostat, which is the tool that will keep the (spectrometer) at temperatures that we need,” said David Grinstead ’23, who is modeling temperature effects on the telescope’s instruments as part of Tucker’s lab. The optics and detectors need to be cooled down to a certain temperature to effectively collect data, he added.

The University researchers are also working on developing the analysis pipeline — software for processing data collected by the instruments — and integrating the research efforts of teams at other institutions who are collaborating on EXCITE.

Once built, EXCITE will be able to fly above 99 percent of Earth’s atmosphere to get precise data from exoplanets. “EXCITE is going to get to spacelike conditions to give us the precision we need,” said Brian Kilpatrick PhD ’19, exoplanet science fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute. It’s also “much less expensive to do a balloon-based program” than using a space telescope.

“What’s really interesting is that we’re going to learn about the three dimensional structure of these atmospheres, … the chemistry of these planets, what the circulatory winds are like, and there’s really no other way to get this kind of information,” Kilpatrick added.

“We’d like to understand how to (eventually) measure the atmospheres of Exo-Earths, Earths outside of our solar system,” Tucker said. In the meantime, the researchers continue their design process, hoping for a test flight in three to four years.

IN PHOTOS: Brown students around the world

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 05:25:35 GMT

This semester, many undergraduate students remain scattered across the globe. Some are studying, attending class and participating in extracurriculars remotely. Others are pursuing personal projects at home or elsewhere. To capture the diverse Brown experience of current undergraduates, we asked our photographers to photograph and share the familiar sights around them. Among them is a first-year who found purpose exploring northern New Jersey and a junior who is studying remotely at her grandmother’s farm.

Below is a glimpse into the everyday life of a handful of remote students:

Ryan Rhew ’24

Ridgewood, New Jersey

“As a first-year, I only have one class this semester, so I decided to spend some of this extra time exploring what’s around me. I was able to capture some things and scenes that I could never even dream of seeing, back in the good old days of ‘normalcy.'”

Ryan Rhew / Herald

Elise Ryan / Herald

Danielle Emerson ’22

Fruitland, New Mexico

“Remote studying on shimasaní’s (my grandmother’s) farm.”

Danielle Emerson / Herald

Mukul Khanna ’23

Mumbai, India

“It’s just a photo of a pretty sunset, but through the window (because of lockdown).”

Mukul Khanna / Herald

Areez Khan ’23

Rockville, Maryland

“A morning walk in Maryland.”

Areez Khan / Herald

Andrew Ding ’22

Beijing, Shanghai, Hainan

“I’ve been doing my own app project, hanging out with my girlfriend, getting into coffee brewing and surfing.”

Andrew Ding / Herald

Tiffany Ding ’21

Schenectady, New York

“Fall at home has brought beautiful nature walks with my mom, chestnut picking at a local farm, and the birth of a jack-o’-lantern we have named Little Bob.”

Elise Ryan / Herald

Victoria Yin ’22

Providence, Rhode Island

“Apple picking with Mia Stone-Molloy ’22. In an alley on Thayer Street with Mia.”

Victoria Yin / Herald

UCS discusses class year representatives vote, delays vote on potential endorsement of ...

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 02:59:58 GMT

At its general body meeting Wednesday, the Undergraduate Council of Students debated whether the general body passed an amendment to introduce class year representatives after a previously overlooked Council rule left the status of the proposal uncertain.

UCS was scheduled to hear Decolonization at Brown’s follow-up presentation about its initiative to replace Ancient Roman statues on campus. But due to time constraints, the presentation and subsequent UCS vote on whether to endorse the initiative were both pushed to next week’s general body meeting.

The Council spent much of their meeting discussing the class-year representatives amendment, which was proposed Oct. 7 by UCS Chief of Staff Sam Caplan ’22. The amendment would establish representatives for each class year in UCS.

UCS previously concluded that the proposal needed a ⅔ supermajority vote to pass and thus had not passed with 55 percent of the vote. But in an Oct. 19 email to general body members, the Executive Board and Elections Chairs wrote that an overlooked portion of the council’s bylaws states that a measure to “create special internal or external committees” needed only a simple majority to pass.

Section 4.1 of the council’s code of operations reads, “When it deems necessary, the Council shall, by simple majority vote, create special internal or external committees, either standing or ad hoc, in order to investigate certain issues or fulfill Council tasks.”

UCS Parliamentarian Zanagee Artis ’22 and Appointments Chair Eamon McKeever ’22 raised concerns about the applicability of this statute.

The point of inquiry regarding the class representatives amendment is still under consideration, pending an upcoming meeting with Director of Student Activities Joie Steele.

UCS also heard a presentation from Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere and introduced a proposal to allow UCS-appointees to University committees to become general body voting members.

Benjamin Styler ’21 and Lauren Fung ’22 presented on behalf of HOPE, advocating for increased collaboration between the group and UCS to help combat housing inequality in the Providence area.

“Brown and its students have left expansion of student housing unchecked,” Styler said.

Drawing on his experience as a former member of UCS’ Campus Life Committee, Styler remarked upon the University’s role in the surrounding community. Within UCS, “there wasn’t a lot of discussion about Brown’s impact on adjacent neighborhoods,” he said, expressing that HOPE believes working with UCS is integral to increasing awareness of local housing issues among the student body.

Styler said that before the 1960s, the neighborhoods surrounding the University, specifically Fox Point and Lippitt Hill, were vibrant communities composed mostly of Cape Verdeans and a large Black population. “Since then,” he said, “it has mostly turned into student housing and largely been gentrified.”

As a result of the increased number of juniors living off-campus this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the University’s impact on the housing supply of surrounding neighborhoods has been even more drastic, Styler said.

As the University’s off-campus student population continues to grow, “in order to not repeat the actions of the past, we should put measures in place and create a student culture where we do not have this impact on other neighborhoods,” he said, adding that he hopes future discussions with UCS will raise awareness about this issue among students.

Also at the meeting, McKeever presented a bylaw amendment that would integrate University committee appointees into UCS as voting members. The appointees, who are selected by the UCS Appointments Committee, primarily serve as student representatives on University committees.

“If they’re more integrated with the community, they’re more likely to help implement the policy proposals UCS puts forth,” McKeever said.

General body members will vote on the amendment after next week’s meeting via Google form, UCS Vice President Summer Dai ’22 said.

Aaron Sorkin and Jeremy Strong discuss ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ at virtual IFF event

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 02:09:12 GMT

The Ivy Film Festival welcomed renowned writer and director Aaron Sorkin and acclaimed actor Jeremy Strong for a conversation on their latest film “The Trial of the Chicago 7” on the evening of Oct. 21.

The historical courtroom drama is based on the infamous 1969 trial. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines and Lee Weiner were all charged with inciting riots and conspiring in countercultural and anti-Vietnam War protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film focuses on the proceedings during the district court trial phase where the seven defendants were faced with the antagonization of Judge Julius Hoffman. While all defendants were ultimately acquitted of conspiracy charges, five were convicted for inciting riots and contempt of court. These convictions were later reversed on appeal.

“It all started when Steven Spielberg invited me to his house,” said Sorkin, who was approached by Spielberg with the idea for the film almost two decades ago. “I thought it was possible that I was going to be killed — but instead he said he wanted to make a movie about the Chicago 7,” Sorkin joked. “I left his house, called my father and asked who the Chicago 7 were. So at the beginning, I was just excited to work with Steven Spielberg.”

Because of his lack of prior knowledge about the case, Sorkin had to do a great deal of research, referencing books, “a 200-page trial transcript” and several conversations with Hayden. Hayden passed away in 2016, but the film’s portrayal of his character, played by Eddie Redmayne, pays tribute to his life as an anti-war and civil rights activist.

Sorkin wrote the screenplay 14 years ago, but “the project kept getting kicked down the road for a lot of reasons, one of them being the riots (in the film),” Sorkin said. “We didn’t have the budget for those scenes.” Finally, the production came together for “a confluence of reasons.”

One of these reasons was the 2016 election. Trump “would look at rioters and say stuff like, ‘In the old days we would have carried that guy out on a stretcher,’” Sorkin explained. “He was talking about 1968. Those were the old days.”

Sorkin also attributed his ability to finally create the film to the experience he gained from making “Molly’s Game,” his directorial debut in which Strong also acted. “I remember asking you that last day on set what was happening with the (Chicago 7) script because it really was the greatest script I had ever read,” Strong said. “I like to think I had a hand in finally getting (the movie) made,” he added, laughing.

“I think it’s an important film for people to watch right now and see the historical connection to what is happening right now in the United States,” said Charlotte Wall ’22, a member of IFF and moderator of the event.

“Between the demonization of protests, … police brutality … we didn’t need it to get more relevant but then it did suddenly,” Sorkin agreed, in reference to the resurgence of protests relating to the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd.

“It’s all a bit surreal,” Strong said. While filming, “we were in Chicago … marching down Michigan Avenue and chanting ‘no justice no peace,’ and ‘the people united’ — the same chants they were yelling at the police riots,” he added. “It’s troubling because it speaks to how far we haven’t come in this country. The people we portrayed in this film? They’d be on the front lines right now.”

Strong paused and gestured to his virtual audience. “They’d be you guys,” he said.

“You know what else they’d be?” Sorkin asked. “They’d be women. That’s what we’ve seen more and more, especially these last few years all starting with the Women’s March immediately after (Trump’s) inauguration.”

Conversation arose around Trump’s presidency and the portrayal of Judge Hoffman in the film. “I really saw the judge as a figure of male, white supremacy,” Wall said, prompting Strong to ask Sorkin: “Do you think the judge is a simulacre for Trump?”

“Yes. He is the authoritarian … trying to preserve with (his) last breath that quieter, whiter, 1950s America.” He is “the guard of white America,” Sorkin responded.

“It was interesting to see how (Sorkin) has adapted with the times,” said Isabella Yepes ’23, a member of IFF who watched the film and attended the livestream. “‘The West Wing,’ for example, was very idealistic, while I think this film shows the justice system at its worst,” she said.

“Sorkin’s body of work has always been relevant but ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ is especially stunning in its eerie echo of our polarized country in violent conflict today,” Sasha Pinto ’21, a director of IFF, wrote in an email to The Herald. For example, “film scenes showing the demonization of peaceful protests and police brutality in 1968 looked disturbingly similar to what we saw last summer in places like Minneapolis, Seattle, Kenosha, Lexington and Lafayette Park,” she added.

Sorkin stated that he maintains faith in the institutions of democracy, “but it really matters who is in there. … (The film) is a call to action to vote, please. And if you are young and healthy as I assume many of you are, go volunteer as a poll worker for just a few hours.” He and Strong mentioned that students could find polling places and volunteer opportunities at vote.org and protectthevote.net.

This call to action was an “extremely special” way to end the talk, Claire Zhang ’22, a director of IFF, wrote in an email to The Herald. It “truly highlighted the relevancy of our conversation … and how, in many ways, the film characters and plot mirror today’s political and social climate.”

Pipatjarasgit ’21: Change final grade submission rules and deadlines: they’re unrealistic ...

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 01:59:19 GMT

Toward the end of each semester, Dear Blueno becomes filled with many variants of one type of question: When will final grades be submitted to Banner? Why hasn’t Professor so-and-so submitted grades yet?

In theory, the answer to these questions should be simple. Part 3, Section 10, I.1 of the Faculty Rules and Regulations (Version 17.2, October 7, 2020) states that final grades “shall be returned to the Office of the Registrar within 72 hours from the time of the final examination, except for courses which have the final examination scheduled on the last day (of the exam period); grades for these courses shall be due within 48 hours.” A notable exception to this occurs for the submission of seniors’ grades in May, when each of the preceding standards is reduced by 24 hours.

What is confusing is that the Faculty Rules contradicts itself. Part 3, Section 8, I.A of the Faculty Rules prescribes an alternate deadline for the fall semester, which stipulates that all grades, regardless of exam date, are due shortly after the new year. In other words, this deadline implies that, for some courses with exams occurring at the beginning of the final examination period, grades are due several weeks after the date that the previous rule stipulates. No such alternate, conflicting deadline exists for the spring semester.

Students’ complaints of instructors missing grade deadlines stretch as far back as 2004. Faculty members had a chance to fix these discrepancies and make other amendments to the policy on final grade submission deadlines when this issue was discussed at a meeting of the Faculty back in 2015, but no action was taken.

Maintaining rules that no one follows is problematic. For example, my high school had a very flexible, lenient dress code that few students knew or paid attention to. One of my teachers made the argument that the dress code should be enforced, changed or eliminated; otherwise, it shows the school’s implicit endorsement of rule-breaking. The same can be said here. At Brown, faculty members breach the 72-hour deadline all the time with impunity. While I am not suggesting that there should be career-ending repercussions (such as a faculty misconduct complaint or denial by the Tenure, Promotions, and Appointments Committee) for professors who do so, it is certainly disrespectful to students, especially because they have no recourse.

Policy change at the University is not an impossibility. Here, I believe the most logical course of action is a rule change; a rule that is inconsistently followed and leaves students confused and frustrated is not worth keeping around. Furthermore, clearer, more standardized guidelines will likely be beneficial for faculty, too. Honestly, I am surprised that the Faculty didn’t make some of these changes years ago, especially when this issue was actually on the agenda. Is it really reasonable to expect instructors of large classes, even with the help of teaching assistants, to properly grade hundreds of students’ work in merely 72 hours?

My solution would be as follows: The deadlines as currently prescribed in Part 3, Section 10, I.1 of the Faculty Rules will only apply to the submission of final grades for undergraduate students on the Registrar’s list of probable graduates for that semester or academic year. For all other students, Jan. 6, currently the alternate deadline, should be the hard deadline for faculty members to submit final grades for the fall semester; as for the spring semester, a date at the end of May should be set as the hard deadline for grade submissions. In cases where instructors have approved coursework extensions at any point in the semester, implemented SEAS accommodations on final exams or made religious accommodations for students, these rules should still apply, but instructors needing more time would be able to request it, except when these students are on that semester or academic year’s list of probable graduates. Instructors who miss this deadline to submit final grades without an acceptable excuse could face repercussions such as lower priority in departmental service requirements, course teaching assignments, course scheduling, room assignments or teaching assistant preferences. These penalties won’t negatively affect instructors’ careers long-term, but ideally, they would create enough of an annoyance to serve as a strong incentive to submit grades on time.

This solution prioritizes seniors, whose grades are needed by the Office of the Registrar in order for their graduation to be processed. It also takes into account the need for the Committee on Academic Standing to review academic progress and calculate students’ standing in a timely manner.

The time to make this change is now: There are only two more meetings of the Faculty between now and the end of the semester. I encourage anyone interested in my idea, especially voting faculty members, to raise the question with the Faculty Executive Committee as soon as possible.

Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit ’21 can be reached at poom_pipatjarasgit@brown.edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

UCS kicks off modified first-year representative election process

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 01:55:53 GMT

The Undergraduate Council of Students kicked off its election process for first-year representatives last week with two information sessions. First-year elections will take place entirely virtually this year, with freshmen candidates campaigning from home in accordance with the University’s tri-semester instruction model.

“Because of the virtual format, COVID restrictions and abbreviated semester, UCS has made adjustments to the (First-Year) Representative campaign and election process,” the Council wrote in an Oct. 12 email to first-years. The election timeline and several logistical changes were solidified through an amendment to UCS’ constitution, The Herald previously reported.

While first-year representative elections usually occur within the first three weeks of the academic year, an exception was made due to the COVID extenuating circumstances this fall. The campaigning and election processes will now occur late October through early November.

This election, UCS also eliminated the requirement for candidates to obtain 200 signatures from the student body and extended first-year representative terms to include the summer semester.

The Council is “trying to really think very intentionally about how we do these elections to make them accessible for everybody but also still attract quality candidates,” said Chair of Campus Life Zane Ruzicka ’23.

The signature requirement “is really supposed to allow candidates to go out and talk to their constituency,” he said. “Unfortunately for first-years, they don’t really have that opportunity; most of them likely don’t know 100 or 200 other people on campus yet.”

But Ruzicka added that he still has reservations about how first-year representatives will be able to engage with their class, expressing that he hopes they will find ways to make up for the face-to-face campaigning opportunities lost during this election cycle.

Students interested in running for the position had to attend one of two informational sessions during the week of Oct. 12 or watch a recorded informational session, attendance of which was assessed through a Google Form.

The informational session “definitely helped me understand exactly what a first-year rep does and also how exactly the election will work,” said a first-year who attended. She said that the session made her more interested in running for the position than she was before.

The student could not be named as potential UCS position candidates may not announce their intent to run prior to an official announcement.

The sessions also furthered interest in UCS among students already looking to get involved in student government.

“Getting involved with UCS has been on my radar for a while, and the info session really solidified my interest in the role and clarified what it is about,” another first-year attendee said. He also said that hearing personal perspectives from UCS members was valuable and helped him form a more holistic view of UCS beyond what can be gleaned from the Council’s online presence.

Candidates must notify the Council of their intent to run by Oct. 24, with the campaigning period running from Oct. 26 to Oct. 30. Online voting will be open to first-years Oct. 30 to Nov. 4, and results will be announced at 12 p.m. EDT on Nov. 5.

The Council has had to work harder than usual to prepare for this first-year representative election season, one year after the position was introduced, said UCS President Jason Carroll ’21. “We had 40 people at our first (general body) meeting, and that was without the student activities fair, so I’d say we’re doing a pretty good job.”

Election Chair Ophelia Duchesne-Malone ’22 said that the Council hopes it can foster a community through virtual campaigning. “So far, there seems to be a lot of first-years turning out at general body meetings,” she said, “so I think there will be pretty good turnout for the first-year rep position.”

Ruzicka anticipates “somewhat of a more crowded field than last year, when there were only five candidates. For there to be more than that would be really awesome, and it would really put the onus on candidates to really differentiate themselves.”

Chinatown and Metro Mart expand amid pandemic financial troubles

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 01:52:27 GMT

Despite financial difficulties stemming from the pandemic, two businesses on Thayer Street are expanding their physical spaces.

Chinatown on Thayer and Metro Mart, located at 277 Thayer St. and 221 Thayer St., respectively, have both leased the storefronts adjacent to them and are expanding their businesses. The restaurant and convenience store are undergoing renovations that will likely finish within several months, according to their owners.

Chinatown will move into the space formerly occupied by Durk’s Bar-B-Q at 275 Thayer St. after renovations to the space are completed, which owner Mike Boutros estimates will be in January 2021. The restaurant’s square footage will double, from 1,200 to 2,400 square feet, in its new space next door, Boutros said.

Boutros plans to start a new restaurant in Chinatown’s current space, though he has not decided yet what it will be.

Chinatown will add sushi and rice bowls to its menu once it moves into the new space, Boutros said. The new space will have 40 seats, compared to 15 in the current restaurant, and have a larger kitchen area.

Renovations began in May, but Boutros initially leased the additional space in late February before pandemic restrictions took effect in Rhode Island. The pandemic made it difficult to obtain proper permits for construction, Boutros said, and the site is restricted to only two workers at a time.

“Nobody goes inside (the site) without wearing a mask,” Boutros said.

The pandemic has also caused financial strain for Chinatown, like most restaurants on Thayer Street and beyond.

Boutros said earlier on in the pandemic, the ingredient costs increased — for example, the price of beef and pork doubled. Plus, he added, many of his staff did not feel safe working during the pandemic.

Still, Boutros believes that the additional space will be financially viable for Chinatown in the long run, and he is confident that customers will continue to come no matter what.

“People like our food,” Boutros said. “We buy the top quality.”

Rath Rith, who has worked at Chinatown since it opened in 2018, said he believes that “branching out will be better for business.” Rith added that there is often a line stretching outside of the restaurant down the street, and he does not believe that will change with more space.

In fact, he said that the additional options like sushi and rice bowls might bring in even more customers.

Down the street, Metro Mart is also increasing its offerings with a larger space. Owner Roshan Baral said he plans to use the space for pre-prepared food, a deli counter and some fresh produce. He also wants to stock new products like kimchi and dried noodles.

“We want to be a little grocery store where you can find a little bit of everything,” said Baral, who has owned Metro Mart for nearly a decade.

Baral leased the space next door at 219 Thayer St. after Seven Creamery closed. He started renovating the space two months ago, and hopes to open the expanded store by Nov. 1.

Metro Mart is currently cramped, Baral said, and additional space and new options will help business.

The pandemic brought hard times for Metro Mart — Baral said that business is down nearly 50 percent since March, and he’s had to cut hours for employees. Like Boutros with Chinatown, Baral also had trouble securing permits for his renovation.

“Since the pandemic started, we have made no money,” he said.

He has had to dig into his personal savings to keep the business running and to afford the renovation. Still, he is confident that his investment will pay off.

“We’re hoping the hard times are over,” Baral said.

Soban plans to reopen following renovations with new menu options

Fri, 23 Oct 2020 01:21:23 GMT

While multiple businesses on Thayer Street closed their doors for good because of pandemic financial troubles, Soban Korean Eatery plans to reopen this weekend with a new menu and renovated space.

Soban’s menu will feature items from bb.q Chicken, a South Korean restaurant franchise with locations around the world, as well as items from its old menu, Soban’s owner Wooma Cho told The Herald. The restaurant’s renovation expanded dining space and added new equipment necessary to make the bb.q Chicken items.

After nearly four months of renovations, the space will look a little different: To enlarge its dining space, the kitchen is now smaller. When the restaurant reopens, instead of ordering at a counter connected to the kitchen, customers will order and pay at a counter surrounded by hanging sheets of plexiglass, with refrigerators underneath.

Soban had initially closed on July 11 so that it could respond and adapt its space and menu to the demands of pandemic business.

Cho said that after the University closed campus to prevent the spread of COVID-19, business was down by about 60 percent. Students account for about 80 percent of Soban’s business, Cho said.

The pandemic caused restaurants to shift to takeout and delivery, which presented a challenge for Soban.

“With Korean food, you want to eat it here,” in the restaurant, she said. “It’s better.” Cho added that Soban’s soups are best served hot, which she says is difficult with delivery, and that packaging can change the taste of the food.

“Customers love eating here,” Cho said. “But when coronavirus happened, everyone ran away.”

So, Cho franchised with Genesis BBQ, the parent company of bb.q Chicken, because the food is better suited to takeout and delivery.

Genesis BBQ had approached her in the past about franchising, but Cho had always turned them down.

“Coronavirus broke my menu,” Cho said. “But with fried chicken, delivery is not a problem.”

The bb.q Chicken menu includes a number of different styles from fried chicken, grilled chicken and chicken wings, all offered in various flavors.

bb.q Chicken, which stands for “best of the best quality,” first came to the U.S. in 2014, and now has 48 locations in 15 states, according to the company’s spokesperson Claire Song. The chain now boasts over 2,000 franchises worldwide, the majority of which are in Korea.

“We are looking to expand new locations and we want to be your everyday meal option,” Song wrote in an email to The Herald.

The renovations took about three and a half months to complete, but assuming nothing goes wrong with inspections, the restaurant is set to open this weekend.

John Luipold, vice president of real estate and strategic initiatives for the University, told The Herald that the renovations took as long as they did because of the changes in the kitchen.

“All that work has to be done by code and has to be properly permitted,” Luipold said. Many construction projects have slowed down in Providence during the pandemic, Luipold added, because it’s more difficult to get permits from the city.

The University owns the building that Soban is in at 272 Thayer St., and approves the contractors that tenants use for renovating the space.

Cho is hoping that Soban’s key customer base — students — will return once its doors reopen.

Ambika Miglani ’21 has fond memories of eating and studying in Soban, and she plans to return once the restaurant opens again, saying it always “felt very homey.”

“I’m glad that they found something to keep them going, even if it is in a different capacity,” Miglani said.

Zara Lei Norman ’22 went to Soban about once a week before the pandemic began. When she first saw that they were adding bb.q Chicken options to their menu, she was distressed because she is a vegetarian. She was relieved to find out that the restaurant was keeping items from its old menu.

“It’s a great idea to have more options,” Norman said. “There’s something for everybody in there.”

Wellness Center and Residence Hall construction expedited for summer 2021 occupancy

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 04:13:21 GMT

The University has expedited the construction of the new Wellness Center and Residence Hall in preparation for hosting students and staff for a summer semester.

The residence hall is the University’s first new dorm to be built in about 35 years, and was initially planned to be completed in August 2021.

The plans for the new residence hall were announced in fall 2018. The center will house Counseling and Psychological Services, Health Services, BWell Health Promotion and Emergency Medical Services, and it will also contain suite-style housing and co-housing areas with common spaces for student, adding 162 new beds.

The building housing both the new dorm and wellness center is now expected to be completed by May 2021, according to Paul Dietel, assistant vice president of planning, design and construction.

The University will be able to move students into the residence hall by May and the Wellness Center teams — including Counseling and Psychological Services and Health Services — will move into the building over the summer.

The tri-semester model, which plans for instruction during the fall, spring and summer semesters, was implemented to de-densify campus, decreasing the number of students living in residence halls at one time and prevent the potential spread of COVID-19.

Nat Hardy / Herald

The Wellness Center and Residence Hall is expected to be completed in May 2021, in time to house students during the summer semester.

According to current plans, the first-year and sophomore students could be among the students who attend the summer semester, which is currently set to start May 12, 2021.

Expedited construction did require more resources from contractors and designers, but they achieved this “through efficiencies in the process with no additional cost to the project,” Dietel wrote in an email to The Herald.

The project is in “peak construction right now” as the exterior is closed and made ready to withstand winter weather, Dietel said. They will then begin work on the interior.

While some projects have been sped up to accommodate pandemic planning, the Lincoln Field Building renovation is on hold until further notice, wrote Vice President for Facilities Management Michael Guglielmo Jr. in an email to The Herald.

The Lincoln Field Building renovation and expansion has been put on hold “out of an abundance of caution” due to financial pressures from COVID-19-related costs, Dietel wrote.

There is no current timeline for when construction will resume, Guglielmo wrote. Construction had not yet started, so the building is still fully occupied by the Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.

Brown instigates initiative to change status quo surrounding climate change

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 03:58:58 GMT

Effectively addressing climate change entails changing a status quo that has been accepted for decades. The University’s new three-year Climate Solutions Initiative aims to use research, innovation and collaboration to overcome climate inertia — the tendency to maintain existing structures and systems, even if they are contributing to climate change — by reframing conversations about climate change toward addressing barriers and finding solutions.

The initiative seeks to address climate inertia at four levels: universities, cities, New England and the globe. At each level, “what we need to do is step back, try to recognize what those power structures are that control the status quo and remove them or alter them so that we can consider climate change in our decision-making process,” Dov Sax, interim director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and one of the leaders of the initiative, said.

At the university level, the initiative will work with other universities on sustainability plans by sharing Brown’s ongoing efforts toward decarbonization.

“Oftentimes everyone, or almost everyone, on campuses wants to do something about climate change, but the siloed information about how the university actually functions prevents action,” Assistant Provost for Sustainability and Professor at IBES Stephen Porder, another initiative leader, wrote in an email to The Herald. Porder has been discussing the knowledge gained from the University’s work on decarbonization with other universities around the country, “so they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

The second level of the initiative focuses on how American cities can effectively reduce their carbon emissions. Working specifically out of Providence, the members of the initiative hope to tackle heating, which is a major source of carbon in the atmosphere, Sax said.

The third level addresses the impact of Public Utility Commissions in the New England region. PUCs are groups that regulate companies providing natural gas to consumers. Professor of Environmental Studies, Environment and Society and Sociology at IBES J. Timmons Roberts, who is leading this section of the initiative, plans to study how PUCs impact decarbonization efforts. He will bring together stakeholders to discuss ways for states and PUCs to work toward clean energy, a task that these groups were not initially created to do.

PUCs “were created a hundred or so years ago with a mission to make electricity and heating fuel cheap and reliable,” Roberts wrote in an email to The Herald. “That is, they had no mission around environmental sustainability or human health.”

The initiative’s attempt to reform this existing structure exemplifies its commitment to changing the status quo.

The fourth scale, which is global, also works on targeting cases of climate inertia, including those related to international trade.

For example, “policies at the WTO, the World Trade Organization, were designed at a time before … we were aware that (climate change) was a serious problem,” and “they need to change now,” said initiative co-leader Jeff Colgan, associate professor of political science and international studies at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. But “because we’ve locked into those policies decades ago, we haven’t yet updated the rules and made it possible for countries to enact pro-climate trade policies.”

The new Climate Solutions Lab, housed at the Watson Institute and an outcome of the initiative, aims to use the interdisciplinary knowledge that exists at the Watson to find ways to modify existing systems. The inertia that exists around old policies is exactly “the kind of inertia that … the Climate Solutions Lab want(s) to address,” Colgan, who is running the lab, added.

Along with finding solutions to overcome the climate inertia at each of these four scales, the Climate Solutions Lab, as well as other co-leaders and associates of the initiative, will also offer courses on climate change that aim to prepare students to address the issue.

“When (climate initiatives) happen on college campuses, I get very excited because I think that these students are the solution for the future,” said Deborah Gordon, senior fellow at the Watson Institute, affiliate of the initiative and former director of the Energy and Climate Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The new courses will help students “learn how to … probe and ask the right questions.”

Colgan is currently teaching POLS 1435: “Politics of Climate Change,” which he describes as a “solutions-oriented course” that brings together global perspectives.

The new, formal bridge between IBES and Watson — two of the University’s largest departments — is another novel aspect of the initiative, which formalizes the interdisciplinary connections that are necessary when thinking about climate solutions, Sax said.

“The approach to focus on climate solutions rather than just the politics of climate change … is really intentional in that we’re trying to bring a positive spirit to the problem,” Colgan added.

“The initiative is very cross-cutting,” Gordon said. “The idea that you can get engineers and political scientists and anthropologists and economists (together) … is the solution. We can’t have this conversation from any one perspective.”

Meiklejohn Program remotely welcomes Brown’s first-years

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 03:51:26 GMT

Although first-years will not arrive on College Hill until at least the spring semester due to the coronavirus pandemic, the University’s Meiklejohn Program is currently working remotely to prepare and mentor the class of 2024 for life at Brown.

First-year students do not have a full class load this semester, but some have taken advantage of the opportunity to take one University course for credit, free of charge. The program, which facilitates peer advising for first-years, is supporting all students in the incoming class, regardless of whether or not they are currently taking a course.

Students have been matched with an academic advisor and a Meiklejohn Peer Advisor in groups of five to six. Like past years, they still have access to academic advising, student support deans and academic support initiatives such as peer tutoring, the Writing Center, CareerLAB and the Curricular Resource Center, wrote Connor Jenkins ’22, one of the Meiklejohn Leaders who trains the other peer advisors, in an email to The Herald.

The program has not only shifted online; it has also shifted its advising content.

The Meiklejohn program is happening “at a more limited capacity” this semester, “given that we don’t have access to first-years in person, and also because first-years are only taking one class,” Meiklejohn Leader Phoebe Kennan ’21 told The Herald. The job is less about advising class choices, “but more about getting first-years to get involved with campus life before coming back and really starting their time at Brown in January,” she added.

Despite the different nature of Meiklejohns’ advice, Kennan stressed the program’s priority is providing support to first-year students.

“The most important thing for us … is that the advisees feel supported or attached to a support network, and for us to reach out to let students know that there’s an avenue of communication between the University and the student” she said, so that student concerns or questions could be addressed.

Kennan said it is important as a Meiklejohn Peer Advisor to try to find the line between reminding students they are there for them if they want to reach out and “at the same time not to make them feel like you are a parent, always checking in.”

This is especially true when first-years are scattered around the world and participating in different kinds of activities.

One of Kennan’s mentees is currently backpacking while another is taking a prerequisite course for a concentration requirement. Jenkins’ advisees are focusing mostly on engaging the community in their respective hometowns and families.

Advising remotely can make it challenging to know how these students are doing.

“I have found the most difficult part of interactions to be gauging how people are doing because of the ease with which we can all burrow into our physical spaces and disconnect from the virtual world,” Jenkins wrote.

Advisees face a similar difficulty. “It’s really hard to meet a stranger over Zoom and feel super comfortable talking about all your questions and concerns — in that way it’s definitely a barrier,” said Saadhya Bahudodda ’24, a first-year mentee. Due to the virtual format, meetings have been “super formal” and “structured,” she said, though she looks forward to seeing her advisor when she gets to Brown.

“I assume it’d be nice to have familiar faces around campus,” Bahudodda said, “and when you see each other, you can casually talk.”

Kennan agreed that building in-person relationships is easier than remote ones, but she also suggested that the shift to a remote space has catalyzed reflection on what’s most important to the Meiklejohn Program.

“Being forced into the virtual mode has also forced (the College) to update our techniques and strategies in a way that we probably would have done more slowly before,” and the process encouraged faculty to be comfortable with web resources, said Carol Cohen, senior associate dean for class advising and health and personal issues.

Though the structure of the program has largely remained the same, the Meiklejohn training process and the student engagement dynamic has changed to allow for more flexibility. In usual semesters, the Meiklejohn Leaders would receive training three weeks before the start of the fall semester, while training for Peer Advisors would take place at the beginning of the fall semester, after which Peer Advisors would join their faculty advising partners to meet with first-year students in-person.

This year, instead, the training for Peer Advisors took place asynchronously through a digital format that included PowerPoint presentations which ran through the aspects of advising, timelines and logistics. This training also prepared them to advise first-year students correctly according to the changes to the University’s COVID-19 policies, Kennan said.

Peer Advisors were also asked to watch videos concerning advising and complete a Google form consisting of a few case studies that asked them what they would do in different hypothetical advising situations. The Meiklejohn Leaders would then proceed to evaluate the preparedness of Peer Advisors through the form, Kennan added.

The Meiklejohn Program and other student advising programs still face an undetermined plan for the spring and summer semesters due to the changing public health and University guidelines.

“Everyone is concerned about what next semester is going to look like, how prereg(istration) is going to run. The biggest concern is really uncertainty. Even when answers are announced or put out there, it’s still within definite parameters of uncertainty,” Yolanda Rome, associate dean for class-year advising told The Herald

Kennan said that for the Meiklejohn Program, there will be more rigorous training for Peer Advisors in preparation for the spring semester, but the specific format and the programming for the summer semester are still up in the air.

Summer semester Meiklejohn advising is likely to be limited by capacity, especially given that some of the Peer Advisors will be graduating or have other activities that would interfere with participation in the program during the summer, Kennan said.

‘When is this going to feel more possible?’: PPSD teachers describe challenges, anxieties ...

Thu, 22 Oct 2020 03:39:07 GMT

The last thing Cindy Castellone’s students need to know is that she’s angry, angry at a system said “can’t be fixed by me.”

Castellone is an English ESL teacher at Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School in Providence, and said she’s not alone in her feelings.

“The staff, we’ve got to take our anger and process it in a way that they don’t feel it,” she said.

So far, the school year has caused a mix of frustration and concern for Castellone as she has had to navigate teaching during an exceptionally turbulent time. While her students’ mental and physical health is always at the front of her mind, Castellone also has to balance her own health concerns as she regularly comes into contact with high schoolers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Castellone, who said she has an underlying health condition that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, puts her especially at risk if infected with the coronavirus, hoped to be placed as a teacher in the Virtual Learning Academy, a fully remote learning option available to students of the Providence Public School District.

The district indicated that they would give preference to teachers with underlying conditions when filling positions in the online platform, but, despite Castellone’s medical condition, she was not chosen.

“I am not sure why I was turned down, she said. “It was never really explained to me.” Castellone said her husband also has an underlying health condition

Laura Hart, a spokesperson for PPSD, said the district was proud of its focus on teachers’ medical needs in deciding placement for the virtual learning academy. “We figured out where we needed teachers. And the priority was given to those teachers who had a documented health issue,” she said.

But Hart did acknowledge that medical conditions were not the only factor that determined teacher placement. “If you were in a particular specialist category and there were several people with health conditions, and we needed only one of that specialist, then no, we wouldn’t make extra positions that we didn’t need,” she said.

While the pandemic has presented unique challenges, for teachers working in PPSD can feel stressful even in the best of times.

For Maya Chavez, a Civics teacher at Dr. Jorge Alvarez High School, the challenges have only increased since COVID-19.

“Working in urban education, working in Providence, has absolutely never felt sustainable” in the long run, Chavez told The Herald. “It’s my seventh year, and I am constantly (wondering), when am I going to have a work-life balance? When is this going to feel more possible? This year it is so much more, and then there is the added stress of feeling like we are not safe in what we are doing. That obviously weighs on me a lot.”

“I work 12+ hours a day M-F. I work every weekend,” she wrote to The Herald. She added that shortages in resources, challenges in communication with families, last-minute policy changes and safety are also major concerns.

Teaching during a pandemic has also taken a psychological toll on teachers, Chavez said. “The stress is real; the burnout is real; the lack of feeling safe is real. A lot of teachers with kids are really, really struggling, especially if their kids are not doing in-person school, … they have to arrange additional childcare.”

Chavez recounted a story of one of her colleagues emotionally breaking down in front of her while setting up for the SATs and PSATs Oct. 14.

“She broke down and burst into tears because she had just found out that her daughter’s childcare (center) had been closed, and she doesn’t have family available to fill in,” Chavez said. “She is not sure who is going to look after her kid and if she is going to have to use family medical leave. … People are feeling extremely overwhelmed.”

Hart said that there are district resources in place to help teachers with their mental and social-emotional wellbeing. “We have a contract with an employee assistance program that is available to teachers anytime they need it regarding emotional and mental health issues,” Hart said.

The EAP has “been working with us to come up with professional development opportunities for people to talk about how to deal with stress during the time of COVID,” she added.

The district appreciates teachers during this difficult time, Hart told The Herald. “We are very proud of our team here; we are very proud of our educators,” Hart said “And we understand that it is a time of a lot of anxiety, and we are trying to put in place support (systems) to help folks manage.”