4-30-2020

CAMPUS CLEARED, 3 Students adapt to life during the pandemic.

SENIORITIS, 8

CELEBRATIN G

50

YE A RS

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COVI D -19

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2020

CONSPIRACY, 13

Senior year takes a hit from social distancing.

E-SPORTS, 11

Misinformation is the real COVID-19 conspiracy.

I N DE PE N DE N T AT

B O STO N

STU D E NT

BU sports teams adjust to working remotely.

J O U R NA LI S M

U N IVE R I STY

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

YEAR L. VOLUME XCVIII. ISSUE VII

BU’s dynamic response to the COVID-19 outbreak Pandemic leads to remote learning

BY SAMANTHA KIZNER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Boston University President Robert Brown announced classes would be held online from March 16 to April 13 as a result of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in an email March 11. The same day, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic, prompting BU to announce March 17 that remote learning would extend through the end of the Spring 2020 semester.

In the initial March 11 announcement, students were encouraged to not return to campus if they had already departed for spring break.

In the March 17 announcement, this suggestion became a plea for students to vacate their residences as soon as they could.

The university recognized the disruptions these new circumstances would cause for students, but maintained that they must put the health and safety of students, faculty and staff first.

“I recognize that this is a painful decision for all our students, who thrive on the interactions with others as part of their experience as members of the Boston University community,” Brown wrote. “I know this is especially difficult for our seniors and other candidates for graduation who undoubtedly have questions about how we will celebrate their achievements.”

As these announcements shaped what the semester would look like for students in Boston, those in study abroad programs were also receiving word of how the pandemic would affect their semester.

Executive Director of Study Abroad Gareth McFeely updat-

BY MELISSA ELLIN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

ANGELA YANG/ DFP FILE

Benches outside the George Sherman Union stand empty as Boston University’s campus remains largely deserted. The university has developed a COVID-19 recovery plan detailing how to ensure students can return to campus for the fall semester.

ed students on the severity of the impact COVID-19 would have on their programs in a series of emails.

While certain programs, such as those in Shanghai, were canceled as early as Jan. 27, others, such as those in New Zealand and Australia, didn’t instruct students to return home until as late as March 17.

The forced return to the U.S. prevented many students from continuing experiences such as internships, though certain students were able to continue working remotely. This was the case for Oksana Chubrikova, a junior in the Sargent College of Health and

Rehabilitation Sciences, who was studying Auckland, New Zealand.

“I’m in contact with my supervisor back in Auckland about doing some kind of remote research project,” Chubrikova said, “but I’m really in the works of trying to figure out how to continue it.”

Despite the toll COVID-19 had taken on the university’s original plans for the Spring 2020 semester, it wasn’t until March 25 that there were three confirmed cases on-campus. Two students and one staff member were confirmed to have cases of the virus, according to Colin Riley, a BU spokesperson.

At the time of this information’s release, Riley said the university had no knowledge of these cases when asking students to vacate campus a week prior. He said the university only became aware of the infections a day before the publication of a BU Today article that revealed the cases.

“When we were asking students to relocate on campus, from particular residences because they were suitable to the use of putting students in there who needed to be isolated, that activity preceded the decision to ask students to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Professors and students have navigated the nuances of remote learning since Boston University President Robert Brown’s March 17 announcement that classes would remain online through the end of the Spring semester. This has largely been through Zoom, a video conferencing service that universities and organizations across the globe have started using for schooling, work and general communication to comply with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on social distancing and quarantining.

In addition to Zoom, professors have been communicating with students via emails and Blackboard announcements. Blackboard is also the main platform on which exams have continued.

Learning how to provide and receive remote education has proved challenging for all parties involved.

Professors must find quiet places to hold live lectures, potentially record them for later viewing and deal with students’ abilities to employ or reject their microphone and camera features.

Students like Grace Helmke, a freshman in the College of Fine Arts, find themselves unable to continue work in certain courses, or forced to work in suboptimal conditions without the equipment or space necessary for some classes. Helmke is enrolled CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Homebound residents donate homemade masks Boston, from buzzing to bunkered

BY KASIA JEZAK DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

With coronavirus infections rising and personal protection equipment dwindling, health care workers across the country continue to risk their lives with limited supplies.

In Massachusetts, some residents have been spending much of their quarantine sewing homemade face masks to donate to hospitals and other care facilities quickly running low on surgical and N95 masks.

The practice has been gaining traction nationwide as people, especially those who cannot donate financially, find new avenues to help relieve an overwhelmed health care system.

Mohamad Yasmin, a physician and team lead for the Massachusetts COVID-19 Academic Public Health Volunteer Corps, said he has watched the mask deficit grow as people, health care workers included, began hoarding out of panic.

BY ANGELA YANG DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

SOPHIE PARK/ DFP FILE

An ambulance speeds by the Boston Medical Center. While health care workers in hospitals around the country have struggled with supplies of personal protective equipment, ventilators and coronavirus test kits, volunteers have started remotely tracing confirmed cases of the coronavirus in order to stop the spread.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Much of the bustling city of Boston is on self-enforced lockdown. Daily life is in a state of transformation as residents learn to live in homebound isolation. The streets of lay almost bare and rush hour traffic is virtually nonexistent. But signs of life persist even as all normalcy seems to wane: A man walks his dog with a face covering on. Customers stand six feet apart in line at the grocery store. An elderly couple carry their purchases home as an oncoming jogger steps out onto the street to create a wide berth as they pass.

Several small businesses are now shuttered, while others struggle to survive. Many lines of work have shifted to remote operation.

How did we get here?

The novel coronavirus first CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

2 NEWS

Systems change as COVID-19 pandemic develops RESPONSE, FROM PAGE 1 leave campus,” Riley said. “These students are in suitable facilities now, and that would be in a single bedroom with a single bathroom.”

A day after the news of the three cases came to light, the university announced they would be postponing their annual commencement ceremony to a date in the late summer or early fall. As of yet, a date has not been set.

“It’s one of those things we didn’t want to do too quickly with so much uncertainty about how things are going with the spread [of coronavirus,]” Riley said. “It also fits into a timeline within the academic year.”

The next announcement from the university about cancelations came in an email to students April 6, and it addressed summer programming. While both Summer Term sessions would be held remotely, all domestic and international trips were canceled alongside all K-12 summer programs, both on and off-campus.

Brown wrote that above all else the university wants students to return to campus in the fall, and that this decision was necessary in working towards that goal.

“Although this decision will be disappointing to many,” Brown wrote, “we believe it is necessary to achieve our ultimate goal: to return our students, staff, and faculty in the fall to our residential campus community and resume the quality in-person programs that are our hallmark as a leading

GRAPHIC BY ANGELA YANG

Information according to Boston University spokesperson Colin Riley and BU Today.

private research university.”

Riley said the decision came after seeing positive feedback on this semester’s ongoing remote learning.

“We’ve been really pleased with the remote teaching [and] how well our faculty and students have adapted,” Riley said. “We thought it would be prudent to essentially make these decisions sooner than later, so that people can properly prepare.”

This also marked the first occa-

sion of Brown addressing what has become the university’s ultimate goal: a Fall 2020 return to campus.

The details surrounding how the administration would work toward this goal came on April 10 with the announcement of the COVID-19 Recovery Plan.

Jean Morrison, university provost and chief academic officer, said the plan is designed to utilize the best case scenario. She said after making the decision to use remote learning for summer sessions, she and other

recovery plan contributors began detailing how they’d achieve their goal of bringing students back to campus next semester.

“Once the decision was made about Summer one and Summer two, we’ve had the time to begin the really fairly detailed planning that’s going to be necessary to successfully bring students and faculty and staff back to campus or opening in the fall,” Morrison said. “And we have kept as our highest priority in thinking about coming back in the fall, how do we do so and protect the safety of everyone in our community.”

Morrison also said that the larger public health situation and guidance from health officials will be critical in helping BU determine their course of action.

However, it is because of the uncertainty surrounding public health that the university cannot predict when announcements regarding the Fall semester will be made.

“We have to follow guidance from the state around when it will be safe. So we don’t know [when we can make an announcement],” Morrison said. “But we’re in touch with a lot of public health experts who are helping to make sure that we have the most up to date modeling and information. As soon as we’re in a position to come out with dates around our plan, we are eager to do so.”

Victoria Bond and Jennifer Suryadjaja contributed to the reporting of this article.

Service industry suffers after strict state measures

BY ANGELA YANG DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Food and retail establishments still packed two months ago now stand empty across the city. Dozens have ceased operation while others are trying to adapt to limited service.

Home to more than 50 universities, Boston is a city that leans on college students as consumers. Many in the service industry have taken major hits since schools began closing their campuses mid-March, sending tens of thousands of students home.

Several small businesses on Commonwealth Avenue have been feeling the effects, and the reverberations continue to compound.

Joe Rastellini has owned T. Anthony’s Pizzeria since 1976. At 71 years old, this is the first time he’s been at a loss for how to proceed with the place.

“Usually when you’re in business for a long time and you feel you’re managing something and you’ve done it for a long time, you feel you have some kind of control,” Rastellini said.

“I don’t have that feeling, that sense, at all.”

T. Anthony’s business waned by about 10 percent over the week of Boston University’s Spring Recess, a time simultaneously fraught with intensifying coronavirus concerns. But since Gov. Charlie Baker’s dine-in ban on March 17, Rastellini said business is now cut by about 60 percent.

“Everything’s upside-down so I don’t even know what’s going to happen in an hour,” Rastellini said. “Every time you wake up in the middle of the night it’s on your mind. What’s coming down the road?”

This unprecedented and “drastic” drop-off rate, Rastellini said, has forced him to begin worrying about whether he will be able to keep doors open. Rastellini wants to do the right thing, he said, but no longer knows what that entails.

“Some people can stay home and work from home, but other people, this is my livelihood and I have a big responsibility to try to make this place work so I have to come to work no matter what,” Rastellini said. “So there’s a certain percentage of people that have to come to work and be exposed and I’m in that category. And

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

T’s Pub on Commonwealth Avenue, whose customers are mostly Boston-area college students, has closed in the wake of the coronavirus and subsequent campus shutdowns.

I’m not young.”

Nud Pob Thai Cuisine manager Wanna Watt said her restaurant also noticed diminished business beginning at Spring Recess, more so than the typical vacation lull.

“It’s very bad. It’s never happened like this before,” Watt said. “Compared with summertime when the students are not here, this is worse, I think.”

Watt initially said she would likely not be laying off any employees. Instead, everyone had to cut down on work hours.

“Normally the people who work here, for example, in the kitchen, we work [with] five people the whole week, every day,” Watt said on March 17. “Now, each person works only three days a week, something like that.”

But by March 21, the store had closed indefinitely. Its once-bustling location on campus now displays a dark storefront with chairs hung neatly over tables.

Also seeing an especially severe dip in business was T’s Pub Boston, according to manager Dan Quintino.

The bar entered a temporary closure soon after.

“I think the tip employees are the ones that are going to be hurt the most. And a lot of people that work as servers and bartenders, they use

this as their only way to make money,” Quintino said. “We have a bunch of people that rely on this as their only job.”

Quintino said he hopes all former employees will return to work once the venue reopens, although he expects he’ll need to rehire.

“Because I’m assuming that once this whole thing is over, and the cabin fever that’s set in when everybody is not able to go out, I think it’s going to be booming here for probably a month or so,” Quintino said. “So we’re going to have to stock up and stock up on employees quickly. It won’t be easy.”

But restaurants and bars are not the only local businesses suffering.

Boston City Florist has lost at least 80 percent of its business, according to manager Nick Sabokrooh.

“All our functions are gone from BU. All our events are canceled,” Sabokrooh said. “It’s a disaster. It’s devastating for the store.”

Employees were working less, Sabokrooh said, because there’s “nothing” for them to do. While he hadn’t made any layoffs yet, Sabokrooh said he might soon have to in addition to buying less inventory for the store.

“I don’t know how we’re going to adjust to all of this. I honestly don’t know. It’s such an uncharted territo-

ry,” Sabokrooh said. “It’s so unfortunate that we all have to go through this and it’s nobody’s fault. You don’t know who to blame.”

Many off-campus restaurants and bars in Boston are faring no better.

After 22 years of running Bukowski Tavern in Back Bay, owner Suzi Samowski laid off her staff and filed for unemployment herself.

“I got the last payroll in and scrounged up enough money to make sure everyone got paid,” Samowski said. “But I can’t pay my rent. I’ve called my landlord for leniency. We’re looking for a loan. We have a lot of bills to pay, and we can’t pay them.”

Over the end of February into early March, Samowski said, business in her restaurant had dropped by about half. Then, all eateries in the state lost their remaining dine-in customers March 17 in accordance with Baker’s announcement. But Samowski determined that the Tavern would not survive this way.

“We opened Monday all day and there was hardly anybody, so we made the decision to close completely,” Samowski said. “Because we can’t afford to pay our employees to stay open for takeout when there’s no one around. It doesn’t make sense.”

Though they’ve become unemployed for the present, Samowski said the Tavern will rehire every worker upon reopening. Meanwhile, she’s had to take care of the food that was unsold.

“We froze what we could freeze,” Samowski said. “We had to throw out everything else because we don’t even know when we’re going to reopen but we know it’s over two weeks, so we have to throw away anything that was already pre-prepped.”

Once the Tavern heads back into business, it will open first with a limited menu. While Samowski said the adjustment might be rough, loyal locals have also expressed a willingness to step up their support.

“If we can’t order more food right away, we have some food and we’ll just sell what we have just to scrape by,” Samowski said. “And we have a lot of really good regular customers who are going to come in right away and spend a lot of money. They were already telling us that.”

GRAPHIC BY ANGELA YANG

NEWS 3

Local volunteers sew face masks to meet rising demand MASKS , FROM PAGE 1 “Everybody went out and got one,” Yasmin said. “It just kind of overwhelmed the system.”

Wearing masks are most helpful when the wearer has symptomatic cases of the virus, Yasmin said, echoing what most U.S. medical professionals emphasized when the outbreak first began trickling into the country.

“That being said, in theory, if everybody had one on at all times, of course, it would be better,” Yasmin said. “But how feasible is that?”

Numerous online communities have sprung up to connect local mask makers in search of fabric and elastic with those willing to share their own surplus of these materials.

35-year-old Christine Rondeau of Auburn had previous experience sewing quilts and pillowcases before she began sewing masks to donate to hospital workers. Rondeau said she sews from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. most nights while also caring for her toddler and young child.

When she first started, Rondeau said, making one mask took her 12 minutes, but now that number is

down to nearly five minutes.

Since Rondeau began posting on Facebook to seek fabric donations, several women have contacted her about learning how to sew. One woman, after reaching out for encouragement from Rondeau, began trying it herself.

“She taught herself how to sew,” Rondeau said. “Never sewed a day in her life, and has sewed over 300 masks now. How impressive is that?”

A coworker of Rondeau’s also learned how to sew masks after the two convened over video chat.

Rondeau said she sent her some materials to get her started.

“It just inspires me of the strength of women, and just how they’re like, ‘Okay. I’m going to learn something and I’m going to help,’” Rondeau said. “And I had no idea that me trying to get fabric donations would lead to that.”

In lieu of a filter pocket normally present in professional masks, Rondeau makes her masks with an extra layer of either fleece or other fabric to deliver added protection, in alignment with CDC guidelines.

General public health guidelines initially dismissed the use

of face masks in public unless the individual was already infected.

As confirmed cases continued to rise, however, many municipalities have begun enforcing mandatory mask-wearing.

“Even if it wasn’t based on historically what the research has shown, the recommendations became stronger and stronger gradually,” Yasmin said.

People who reach out to Rondeau via Facebook then pick up the

masks from her doorstep. Among them have been an emergency room nurse from Framingham, as well as paramedics and hospice nurses who have contacted her online.

Rondeau has donated about 200 masks to front-line workers while also handing them out to others who are high-risk in the community, such as the immunocompromised or the elderly, and those who are simply anxious about current circumstances.

ILLUSTRATION BY AUSMA PALMER/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A mask made from a T-shirt. People have taken to creating their own masks at home to avoid taking supplies away from hospitals where N95 and surgical masks are in short supply.

“I just feel like if this is upsetting you, and me making a mask for you can give you a tiny bit of peace, I’m going to do it,” Rondeau said.

Meanwhile, people who have had their normal employment disrupted have also turned to sew masks as a way to make use of their skills and offer a vital resource to their communities while they are confined at home.

Such is the case for 32-year-old special education teacher Erica Joyce of Somerville, who joined the effort to produce homemade masks because sewing and quilting had already been a hobby for her.

“When I heard people needed this, it felt like a no brainer,” Joyce wrote on Messenger. “I have the skill, without a doubt I had to.”

Joyce chooses only to donate, partly because some who opt to sell their masks have lost work whereas she still has full employment. She wrote she does not want to compete for supplementary income with those who need it more.

“Lots of people have offered to buy masks from me, but for me, it’s not about that,” Joyce wrote. “It’s about making sure that everybody has one and can be protected.”

Students on campus adapt to empty Commonwealth Ave.

BY ANGELA YANG DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The sound of birds chirping on Commonwealth Avenue has grown clearer these past few mornings with the typically bustling street now near-devoid of pedestrians and cars.

Though life seems to stand still at Boston University, several students continue to go about their day-to-day out of sight in residences on campus.

Nearly 1,000 students have petitioned successfully to stay for part or the whole of Spring semester, BU spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email. This makes up about 10 percent of the university’s on-campus student body.

College of Engineering senior Ahsan Fuzail appealed to remain at BU within half an hour of receiving President Robert Brown’s March 17 email with a link to do so.

As an Indian citizen, Fuzail’s family resides in Dubai, but the United Arab Emirates had halted the issuance of all non-diplomatic visas effective March 19, two days after BU announced all students must move out for the semester. For Fuzail, going home had suddenly become near impossible.

“So, that was never an option,” Fuzail said. “And then India [had] really long lines at the airports, a lot of exposure to people who are showing symptoms of COVID-19. So, that also was quickly discounted as an option.”

Fuzail said he now stays indoors about 95 percent of the time. The only moments he leaves his apartment at 708 Commonwealth Ave. are to take out trash and get takeout from the dining hall.

“I think the biggest difference is that I’m just not used to seeing campus this empty,” Fuzail said. “No matter the time of the day or night, there’d be people out, there’d be a lot more activity going on on-campus and it’s just very eerie seeing campus this quiet and this unpopulated.”

Currently, he is most concerned about the lack of clarity on whether he will have to move into another residence. In the March 20 email sent to students who successfully appealed, John Battaglino, assistant dean of students, had written it may be necessary to relocate them into consolidated housing.

“The gaps in communication since then have been a little worrying, like

being stuck in limbo about this has just been a lot of anxiety because I have set up the space to be in self-isolation for the next month, month and a half,” Fuzail said. “And every day I dread seeing an email from Housing that says, ‘Oh, we reassigned you to another space.’”

Any students who receive notice during the remainder of the Spring semester to relocate would struggle to fit such a change into their schedules since online classes have already been in session for a while, Fuzail said. Because the mandate would apply to a small minority, affected students cannot expect professors to cancel classes or give adequate time to catch up on missed material.

“Classes are still going on, and to have to move out in the middle of that would be a complete nightmare,” Fuzail said. “[And] if I were to move out I’d be exposed to a lot of people over the course of the entire moveout, and that’s not only a risk for me but it’s also a risk for other people as well.”

Also still on campus is Chikezie Asuzu, a freshman in the College of Communication staying in Claflin Hall.

Asuzu was already sure he wanted to stay in Boston this semester and through the summer, as he held a stable job and had been applying to local internships. But personal desires aside, he said he also worried about the risk he would pose to his family if he returned home to Georgia.

“I have traveled a lot this semester. I’ve not only been all around the Boston area but also to New York, and both my parents are rather old,” Asuzu said. “My dad is in his ‘70s and, in the past, battled cancer, and has immune system deficiencies.”

Asuzu said it was “chilling” seeing his peers quickly trickle out of campus.

“I had made the decision early on, but it doesn’t make it any easier to kind of feel like just that quickly, my entire freshman year experience was over,” Asuzu said. “Especially seeing so many friends for the last time, realizing there’s so many friends I saw for the last time before they left for spring break and I didn’t even realize it yet.”

He now only ever heads out for two reasons: going to work and obtaining basic necessities. Asuzu said

SOPHIE PARK/ DFP FILE

A Boston University residence on Bay State Road. Nearly 1,000 BU students remain on campus, many of whom cannot return home because of travel restrictions or fears they could transmit the coronavirus to vulnerable family members.

he believes social distancing should be taken seriously, and tries to limit his in-person social interactions whenever possible.

“Especially on-campus, people are not interacting at all,” Asuzu said. “Or, in the streets, we’re used to [seeing Commonwealth]. Ave. being so full of people all the time. Hardly if anyone is on there, and if they are, they don’t even look like college students to me.”

Asuzu has since been laid off from his job at the Student Activities Office and is relying on furlough payments for income. Additionally, he is unable to resume his second job as a barista at Starbucks with the governor’s order to close all non-essential businesses.

Neha Iyer, a senior in the Questrom School of Business, is another student who knew immediately she needed to remain at the university once the eviction notice came out.

As an international student from India, she had submitted her Optical Practical Training visa — which would permit her to work in the U.S. after graduation — application a few weeks prior to the announcement and selected to mail the visa to a friend’s home nearby.

“I knew that I had to be here when that visa arrived, or I wouldn’t be able to get back into the country,” Iyer said.

A second reason that pushed Iyer to stay was the health of her family back home. Her grandmother had just moved in and, being elderly and “very” ill, she did not want to risk tak-

ing the virus to her.

Iyer said she is disappointed with the seemingly haphazard way BU opted to communicate with its students, and believes the university should have made a definitive decision with the first email it sent out over Spring Recess.

“Stalling that decision until later definitely was a detriment to a lot of students,” Iyer said, “because people came back on spring break, settled in, or they just felt like, ‘Okay, I can just stay on campus and take my online classes,’ and suddenly they were asked to leave.”

She said it was difficult for her to see many students moving out so swiftly, as she knew that as an international student, she does not have the luxury of having her parents drive up to help pack everything up and head home.

“Even if I decide to go back home, I’ll take two suitcases and I’ll leave,” Iyer said, “but all of my other stuff will probably come trailing behind in a shipment or something that BU will have to send to me because there’s no way I can take that back.”

Iyer said she planned in advance to obtain all necessary supplies, and has found the biggest challenge is to stay busy and motivated in a stagnant environment.

“I think the most challenging part has to be finding a way to be self-motivated and organized,” Iyer said.

“There’s no real beginning or end to your day when you’re basically work-

ing out of a six-by-six room.”

Annabelle Winter, a senior in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, is the only one in her family not immunocompromised — and home, for her, is New York City. After seeing Brown’s email, she realized she might be forced to put her family at greater risk.

“I was pretty scared and I immediately had to start thinking of various contingency plans before I appealed to stay,” Winter said. “But I did call my parents and say, ‘Hey, this is possibly going to happen and I might actually have to leave and come home, so be ready.’ And I had to mentally prepare myself for that.”

She ultimately remained in her brownstone apartment on Bay State Road while watching yellow moving carts line the streets as her neighbors emptied out after BU students received an email to empty the campus.

“I’m used to hearing cars go down the road every day and obviously hearing people walk down the street,” Winter said, “but looking out my window and just not seeing anyone for hours at a time and maybe someone jogging is just an odd feeling that I’ve never experienced before.”

Winter said she has made herself relatively comfortable in her residence, as she went out for extra groceries and bought more food from City Convenience as soon as BU first announced classes were going online.

She has also relied on food delivery services.

“So things definitely still feel up in the air,” Winter said, “but knowing that I’m relatively set with having my life in my room in my apartment and then being able to get deliveries and being able to have the freedom to go outside and take a walk, take a run is comforting.”

Winter said she has experienced more difficulty focusing since spring break ended. She said she is used to the physical routine of attending class and living her life mostly outside of her apartment, and the adjustment has been tougher than she expected.

“I’m definitely just a lot more worried,” Winter said. “I’m still trying to find a balance between how much news is personally healthy for me to consume every day about the virus and how much I need to take my mind off of it and be doing other things.”

4 NEWS

BU sees a shift to remote learning amid COVID-19 pandemic LEARNING, FROM 1 in a wind ensemble class, which no longer meets after the shift to virtual learning, and piano class that only started meeting mid-April.

“One of my professors said that our remote work for chamber music provided maybe a third of the value of normal chamber music,” Helmke said.

“But it’s definitely better than to do nothing.”

Mary Gerbi, manager of School of Music Ensembles, wrote in an email that students in wind ensemble classes, like Helmke, will still be able to complete their requirements.

“It is not uncommon for a student to perform in only one concert with our instrumental ensembles,” Gerbi wrote. “So that was considered to be adequate in terms of course completion in most of their cases, [and] students who were not in that concert [have been provided] remote assignments.”

CFA art classes, such as lithography, a studio course designed to teach students the art of printing with special equipment like the printing press, faced similar detractors, according to Karlena Fletcher, a junior in CFA. Fletcher said that because the materials needed for lithography are provided by BU. As remote learning means reduced class time the instructor assigned readings on the history of the art form and drawing homework she could have “made in high school” rather than practicing lithography.

“One of the things that drew me to BU’s art program in the first place is the incredible facility,” Fletcher said.

“No longer having access to those, especially for a course where the tools and machinery are required to learn about that art form feels like a complete waste of time.”

Students in the College of Communication have also faced challenges due to inaccessible equipment. Geoffrey Poister, an associate professor of television, said that while his students can no longer access video equipment, he’s optimistic about what this experience could teach them.

“This will be an exercise in resourcefulness and creativity — to be able to find a way to make a film under unusual circumstances — but I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad education,” Poister said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from filmmaking it’s that you can never give up.”

Labs — meant to give students hands-on learning experience, also had to go digital — changing their entire structure.

A lack of equipment has forced certain professors to change the structure of labs. James Lawford Anderson, a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences who teaches geology, said that he had to adapt his labs due to the lack of microscopes – instead opting to insert pictures of rocks.

“There’s a lot of resources out there and we can do this,” Anderson said. “I’m going to import field shots as we expand beyond the classroom and beyond the physical laboratory.”

Physical education courses in departments including Aquatics, Dance and Nutrition that are taught at the Fitness and Recreation Center were canceled altogether.

Study abroad courses also faced disruption and were forced to shift to remote learning. Komal Kadel, a junior in Questrom, who was part of the London Internship program said two of her courses ended before the pandemic, but her internship was cut short.

She also said she must work directly with her company, who currently has no remote work that would allow her to continue the internship portion of study abroad. However, she is thankful she will still be able to earn the credits she had planned to obtain this semester.

“This is really hard, but I think we have to stay together,” Kadel said.

“I’m really glad that BU is still offering the credits, because if not that would mean that I wouldn’t even be able to graduate in time.”

Moreover, all parties are dealing with variables out of the control of professors, such as potentially unstable internet connections or time zone variability. Some students unable to return home or already in Eastern Stan-

ILLUSTRATION BY AUSMA PALMER/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Boston University courses are being conducted virtually through the video conference platform Zoom for the remainder of the Spring semester.

dard Time can tune into lectures and participate relatively normally, but others may have as big as a 12-hour time difference.

Cordelia Theseira, a junior in CAS, is currently in Singapore. She wrote in an email that her professors record her lectures so she doesn’t have to watch them live and she had a 24-hour window for an exam, but she still misses the class experience.

“Not being able to engage in discussions or not being able to ask questions as they come up [has been difficult], Theseira wrote. “There’s not really anything or anyone holding me accountable to classes and work except myself.”

Extra effort has gone into making remote learning accessible to students with disabilities, according to Lorraine Wolf, director of Disability and Access Services at BU. “All of our students who already had accommodations can expect to receive the same accommodation as appropriate for an online environment,” Wolf said.

Wolf also said that she realizes there are additional challenges to online education, such as increased distractions and migraines related to screen-use, but she and her colleagues are ready to accommodate these new

issues.

As a result of remote learning and the pandemic, there have also been miscommunications between the university and students and also professors and students. A petition was sent from COM students to COM Dean Mariette DiChristina regarding a professor’s emails mandating students continue reporting assignments, which students believed were encouraging in-person reporting that would put themselves at-risk amid the pandemic.

DiChristina later clarified that students were expected to conduct remote reporting.

Jean Morrison, university provost and chief academic officer, said administration understood students are struggling to adapt to their new system of education, and made the decision to allow students to accept their grade in a class, or designate courses as “Credit” and “No Credit” for this special Spring semester.

Morrison added that students can opt for “credit” in courses they received a D or higher, and “no credit” in the case of an“F” or for classes students prefer not to count in the graduation requirement. Any class marked credit/no credit will not factor into students’ GPA.

For Evan Teplensky, a freshman in CAS, this decision was a major win for students. Teplensky circulated a petition that hundreds of students signed to lobby for a pass/fail option during spring semester, and he saw the credit/ no credit as recognition.

“I’m grateful,” Teplensky said.

“BU likes to use the words “common ground” and [this decision] was what they saw as the common ground, and they really thought about student input.”

BU’s graduate schools remained relatively untouched by remote education, with the School of Medicine sending their students to early graduation April 10, so they could immediately enter residency and help pandemic efforts. The School of Law started online coursework, and saw much success with online moot courts, LAW’s version of mock trials, according to Jeremy Thompson, assistant dean of LAW. “It’s not exactly the same as being in person,” Thompson said. “But [the director of moot courts] is finding [remote courts] effective and the students seem to be bought in and doing quite well within the context of the virtual environment.”

Summer Terms, as of April 17, will be held online, and BU is looking toward fall semester and beyond, keeping what it has learned about Zoom’s capabilities in mind. Morrison said, depending on how the pandemic progresses, BU may employ online technology with an on-campus fall semester 2020.

“For large lecture classes, we are exploring which of those we might do remote learning for the lecture portion, and students could stay in their dorms to do that portion,” Morrison said, “but then we would gather in person for discussion sections.”

In the event that the pandemic worsens or remains the same, BU will continue the fall semester online, Morrison said. However, “the focus right now is on coming back for the fall of 2020,” according to her.

Jane Avery, Shannon Damiano, Samantha Kizner, Nathan Lederman and Jahnavi Sodhi contributed to the reporting of this article.

A look at how state, local officials responded to coronavirus OFFICIALS, FROM 1 entered Massachusetts on Jan. 31, the same day the federal government declared the outbreak a public health emergency. The state announced a confirmation on Feb. 1.

A University of Massachusetts Boston student had tested positive for COVID-19 after returning to Boston on a flight from Wuhan, China — the presumed origin of the virus that had begun to span the globe.

For the next month, things remained calm in the Commonwealth as local health officials monitored the situation with no findings of new cases. Risk remained low in the state, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported throughout February.

The DPH recommended the public take the same precautions as those against seasonal influenza: hand-washing, covering coughs and sneezes and staying home when feeling sick.

On a fact sheet published on Feb. 27, neither the state nor the medical community at large advised that people should wear face masks in public unless they already suffered from a respiratory illness.

Then, in early March, cases began to rise. One new Massachusetts confirmation appeared on March 2, then another on March 5. The next day, three were confirmed in Boston — and the uptick rolled into a surge.

On March 9, Boston’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade became the first major gathering in the state to be canceled due to coronavirus concerns.

That morning also marked the first decision from a major Massachusetts university to shift all classes to online instruction, as Harvard University announced students must move out by the end of the week.

A slew of at least eight colleges followed suit on March 10, just as Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in the Commonwealth, with more schools soon to join the bandwagon.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts topped 100 on March 12.

By March 13, the Boston Marathon was postponed until September. This meant Boston’s longtime tradition, and the most prestigious marathon in the world, was halted for the first time since 1918 — yet the multitude of college students who typically celebrate had by now already scattered back to hometowns across the country.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh then declared a public health emergency on March 15, the same day Baker issued a statewide emergency order prohibiting dining in at restaurants and bars, as well as gatherings of more than 25 people.

Over the next week, Boston Public Schools closed districtwide, with the deadline to reopen ultimately extended from April 27 to

GRAPHIC BY ALEX LASALVIA

Chelsea has been hit especially hard because about 80 percent of residents are essential workers, highly reliant on public transportation and live in a dense area, according to Boston.com

the end of the academic year. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority began running on reduced hours, and the City of Boston suspended all non-emergency construction work.

Another emergency order by Baker on March 23 shut down on-site operations of all workplaces not deemed essential, a precaution later extended from its initial April 7 end date to May 4 and then again to May 18. Those exempt from the mandate included health care facilities, grocery stores and restaurants relying solely

on takeout or delivery. And now, gatherings could not exceed 10 people.

Massachusetts reported more than 6,600 COVID-19 cases by the end of March, with nearly 90 deaths.

Come April, Boston had begun encouraging residents to wear face coverings while in public, ideally homemade reusable cloth ones to reserve essential medical-grade masks for front line workers.

The Boston Public Health Commission issued a public health advisory April 5 for all except non-essential workers to observe a 9 p.m.

to 6 a.m. curfew. Residents should now leave their homes only to pick up necessities, according to City guidelines.

Many municipalities, Boston included, have imposed moratoriums on evictions as employment plummets, as well as continued providing free pick-up meals to public school students who rely on the provided food.

Massachusetts has extended its income tax filing deadline from April 15 to July 15, matching a newly extended federal tax deadline. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security extended its deadline to apply for a Real ID by one year, to Oct. 1, 2021.

The federal government has started to deliver stimulus checks of up to $1,200 to eligible individuals in mid-April, as part of a $2 trillion economic stimulus package. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has committed $500,000 to the issuance of grants to small businesses impacted by closures and lost revenue, as Boston offered up $3 million in City funds to help residents meet rent.

At the time of publication on April 29, Massachusetts has reported new 1,963 cases and 252 deaths, according to data from the MDPH — the highest single-day increase in fatalities yet. In total, the state now has 60,265 reported cases and 3,405 reported deaths.

NEWS 5

BU labs, researchers and students help in fight against COVID-19

BY ELLIE YEO DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University research community have committed themselves to combating the coronavirus since the campus shutdown announced on March 17. Medical students, lab technicians and professors have joined an international movement of private institutions dedicating their resources and expertise to pandemic response.

The BU National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories announced at that time that they had begun researching options for COVID-19 vaccine development, as well as antiviral therapy development and general understanding of the disease’s properties and spread.

Mohsan Saeed, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the BU School of Medicine and researcher at NEIDL, said BU is uniquely predisposed to conduct this research, although it will take several months for the labs to reach any outcomes.

“BU is in a unique position because we have this laboratory,” Saeed said.

“Here we have a [biosafety level 3] facility, which is required to work on this SARS coronavirus. Many other institutes in the city do not have this.”

To support a medical system under pressure, BUSM officially graduated the class of 2020 a month early on April 17. They did so alongside the other three medical schools in Massachusetts at the request of the Massachusetts Secretary of Health and Human Services, Marylou Sudders.

Karen Antman, dean of BUSM, wrote in an email that the decision came as part of the commitment of BUSM and Massachusetts’ other three medical schools to supporting

COURTESY WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories at Boston University began researching the novel coronavirus in mid-March in order to develop a vaccine and analyze how the virus is spread.

and contributing to the coronavirus medical response.

“We may need as many health care professionals as we can get, just about the time that these students will be graduating,” Antman wrote.

Rachel Bocchino, a fourth year medical student studying internal medicine at BUSM, said she feels it is “an honor” that the deans of BUSM consider her and her classmates essential to the medical workforce, and have decided to send her into the field ahead of schedule. She also said the decision made clear to her the severity of the environment she will be entering.

“It still kind of took my breath away when we got the email just because it really highlighted the severity of what is going on in our world right now,” Bocchino said. “I have technically already finished my requirements to

graduate, so it’s not like anything really changed for me besides the date, but it still felt like ‘wow, this is scary what’s happening around us.’”

The School of Public Health has also turned its attention entirely to education and research surrounding the coronavirus. Sandro Galea, dean of SPH, has been especially vocal via social media and SPH platforms regarding the coronavirus outbreak.

As chair of the Massachusetts Public Health Association’s Emergency Task Force on Coronavirus and Equity, Galea has emphasized the importance of state policies that improve conditions for high-risk members of the community, including the disabled, elderly and low-income individuals.

“We need to create guidelines and suggestions for the Commonwealth to make sure that we have policies in

place to protect those who are most vulnerable in a [time] of change,” Galea said. “Those groups we often don’t think about, but those are the groups who are going to be most affected.”

In addition to public policy work, SPH has been holding weekly online seminars and Facebook live events addressing various coronavirus-related topics, including the intersection between the virus and social media, mental health, politics and the future of the American healthcare system.

Galea said he believes the coronavirus pandemic offers a unique opportunity for medical researchers and students at BU to apply their knowledge toward progressing scientific understanding and innovation.

“I think this virus highlights how much room there is for research and how much there is that we need to learn,” Galea said. “A moment for us to do more science and better science.”

NEIDL researchers have also recently announced their development of a way to illuminate the virus using glowing antibodies, allowing the team to expedite testing of drug efficacy against the disease.

Robert Davey, professor of microbiology at BUSM and NEIDL researcher, told BU Today that his team has begun using this new development to screen thousands of different drug compounds, and has been contacted by several biotech and pharmaceutical companies for screening in the past weeks.

NEIDL is the one of the few facilities in the country with the lab capabilities to work with pathogens as dangerous as the coronavirus, and Davey’s team is the only lab group in New England to be working with live models of the virus, making their work particularly valuable to the Boston medical sector.

Davey told BU Today his team has received a donated cell-imaging machine from the lab equipment provider BioTek Instruments, doubling the lab’s capacity to screen the ever increasing supply of incoming drug compounds.

In addition to professors, BU medical students, whose research has been put on hold, have turned their attention to the coronavirus.

On March 23, the BU Center for Regenerative Medicine, in partnership with the Boston Medical Center, deployed an in-house test for COVID-19, and have been receiving and processing test results ever since.

Aditya Mithal, a PhD candidate at BUSM and researcher at CReM, is a member of the test development team, comprised mostly of student and research volunteers from BUSM. Mithal said he and his colleagues joined the project as a way to make use of their time and knowledge, as well as the resources BUSM has to offer.

“We were trying to figure out how we could help and this opportunity presented itself,” Mithal said. “We have a lot of equipment and we have a lot of technical expertise, but obviously we’re a research lab and we’re not set up to do any of this.”

Mithal said he and the rest of the BUSM community are committed to coronavirus research and testing for as long as it is necessary to support Boston’s medical system.

“We’re just going to chug along here for as long as we need to go,” Mithal said. “We’re here for the long haul, and we’re hoping that we can just try and make a small contribution to keeping Boston safe and healthy.”

Samantha Kizner and Sarah Readdean contributed to the reporting of this article.

Boston hospitality industry hard-hit amid self-isolation

BY JULIA MARUCA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Hotels in Boston that normally thrive by means of the tourist industry now face harsh difficulties and are changing their policies in the wake of sharp declines in business due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker issued updated guidelines for Boston businesses on March 31 limiting hotels to housing health care and emergency workers, displaced residents and quarantined people.

The mandate affects hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts, inns, resorts and other short-term rentals such as Airbnbs.

As stay-at-home orders remain in effect across the country, sporting events and concerts are scrubbed and tourism grinds to a halt. These changes are taking a toll on the hospitality industry.

Several hotels in the Fenway area have suspended business due to a lack of customers booking rooms. Kenmore Square hotel The Hotel Commonwealth has suspended operations and canceled upcoming bookings and the Hotel Buckminster has shut its doors permanently, informing guests with upcoming reservations via email about their closure.

Hotel Commonwealth also

CONNYR LU/ DFP FILE

The Hotel Commonwealth is one of many Boston hotels that has had to suspend operations and cancel upcoming reservations as a result of the novel coronavirus.

closed temporarily as of March 29, according to its website. Adam Sperling, the hotel’s general manager, said keeping operations running was no longer an option.

“It became obvious in the days leading up to the closing that it just wasn’t viable,” Sperling said. “It’s a difficult time for everybody.”

Sperling said the hotel hopes to reopen for reservations on May 16, but that that date may change.

“Obviously that will be dependent on the governor’s recommendations from a health and safety perspective,” Sperling said.

Several other hotels have remained open, but are continually reassessing their prospects.

Sharad Chand, manager of the Residence Inn by Marriott in Back Bay, said closing the hotel is a cumulative decision that relies on looking at the situation each day.

“It’s a day-to-day thing, and depends how business is going,” Chand said. “We want to stay open for anyone who needs accommodation. Today we can confidently say we are open, but it might be different tomorrow.”

The Marriott, as an extended-stay hotel, is different from the Buckminster and Commonwealth in that all of its rooms are suites.

It’s also closer to medical facilities: Boston Children’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital,

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Joslin Diabetes Center are all nearby.

Chand said several floors have been shut down altogether. The hotel has also closed amenities for guests, like the pool and terrace.

“It’s a very tough time for the hotel and hospitality business,” Chand said. “Everyone is going to take a hit.”

The loss of customers from a delayed Boston Red Sox season and many canceled concerts have presented a severe threat, especially in a city well-known for tourism.

Other hotels in the Fenway area have also remained open for medical personnel, but with significantly changed policies.

At the boutique Verb Hotel on Boylston Street, only guests, associates and essential vendors are allowed into the building. Rooms are left untouched for 48 hours after guests leave before being cleaned by housekeepers, front desk personnel no longer touch guests’ credit cards or IDs and in-room requests are left outside each guest’s room.

General Manager Paul Leader wrote in an email the hotel will continue to adjust its plans as needed.

“The future is very unclear for our industry,” Leader wrote.

“However, we feel very confident that the Verb will bounce back quickly in our vibrant market.”

Leader wrote that the Verb

Hotel also began offering a discounted “Healthcare Hero Rate” for local health workers employed at the hospitals in Longwood.

William Vasbinder, program director of management at Fisher College, said perishability is one of the factors that makes a break in business like this so devastating to the hospitality industry.

“In a manufacturing environment, if you don’t sell it today you can sell it tomorrow,” Vasbinder said. “In hospitality, a day is the unit, and if it doesn’t get sold today, it’s not going to get sold, it’s revenue gone. And so every day that rooms are not sold at the rate that they should be, they’re taking hits.”

Vasbinder predicted that many of the hotels closing right now will return, but not without scars.

“As long as it doesn’t impact them so much, the majority of them will be back, but they’re going to be constrained,” Vasbinder said.

“They’re going to have an ugly year, almost certainly.”

However, he said that a longer quarantine would likely have a larger financial impact on the industry.

“We’re probably already even starting to see it, but marginal players will begin to fail,” Vasbinder said. “Those businesses that are just making it probably won’t be able to get around this.”

6 GALLERY

Halting regular life completely at first, locals have slowly started to adapt to a different way of living during the COVID-19 pandemic.

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Customers of Anna’s Taqueria in Brookline wait in line spaced six feet apart from one another, per social distancing guidelines.

ANGELA YANG/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

An elderly man wearing a face mask and gloves crosses a street in Brookline.

West Campus appears vacant as Boston University’s campus remains shut.

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

On a nearly empty B-line train to Boston College, a woman wearing a rain poncho, latex gloves and a scarf around her face reaches into her bag.

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A UPS driver, donning a face mask and gloves, continues to make rounds.

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

On rare days when the weather is pleasant, Brookline residents head outside. Three men kick around a soccer ball in the middle of a street.

LAURYN ALLEN/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As cases in Boston continue to pile up, so does the trash. Discarded masks and gloves litter the city’s sidewalks.

GALLERY 7

Our photographers captured their lives under lockdown, from confronting the virus to living on a near-empty campus.

ANGELA YANG/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

City Editor Angela Yang continues covering Boston’s news from her West Campus dorm room, where she has been since before spring break. She supports her family by working on the frontlines of the outbreak as a cashier at Star Market. “We are not heroic for working,” Yang said. “We simply have family or ourselves to support.”

SOPHIE PARK/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

In late March, staff photographer Sophie Park started experiencing shortness of breath and pressure in her lungs. She braved going to the emergency room to get tested for COVID-19 and spent an uncertain week waiting for the results to come back. Though her test eventually came back negative, she may never know whether she ever actually had the coronavirus.

HANNAH YOSHINAGA/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Staff photographer Hannah Yoshinaga has watched as all aspects of life in her home state of California have been transformed by the pandemic. Fast food joints and amusement parks have shut down, sprawling freeways are desolate and murals — a cultural tradition in Southern California — are being used to share messages of encouragement during lockdown.

RACHEL SHARPLES/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Staff photographer Rachel Sharples has been coping with illness in her family while at home in New York the past few weeks. She has been helping to care for her sick mother, who has been unable to get tested for COVID-19, while balancing schoolwork and trying to keep in touch with her extended family virtually.

8 FEATURES

COMMUNITY Classes of 2020 and 2024 say senioritis is different in quarantine

BY SARAH READDEAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

She was leaving her last waitressing shift at Max Brenner and stopped at Earls Kitchen and Bar for a drink.

It was while she was there when she heard Mayor Marty Walsh’s announcement that restaurants must reduce to 50 percent capacity.

“I think that’s when it really hit me that everything was getting really serious,” Zoe Beard, a senior in the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences, said.

Four days later, without a job and with classes moved online, Beard made the decision to drive back home to Colorado, dodging state stay-athome orders by mere hours, she said.

“That was the second wave of, ‘Oh crap, this is the end of my senior year,’” Beard said. “This is how we’re going to end.”

BU’s incoming and graduating students were crossing stages to “pomp and circumstance” this spring, with BU either in hindsight or foresight. But this is now only a romanticized vision as the future fills with uncertainty.

Genesis Velasco, who is planning to study health sciences at BU in the fall, said she feels anxious about the uncertainties in the plan for the future. With open house and orientation programs moved online and not having visited campus before, she said

it will be harder to be left on her own on campus in September.

“It puts more pressure on me to speed through that process as soon as you get to campus,” Velasco said. “It makes you feel in a sense more lonely once you get to campus since you don’t know where everything is and who people are.”

After having spent her senior year working hard in school and applying to colleges, Velasco said she had been looking forward to taking the summer to relax and focus on her relationships at home.

“I know everybody talks about the magical moment between your senior year of high school and your freshman year of college,” Velasco said. “They’ve already said their goodbyes, they’ve officially ended their high school chapter… they’ve had all the fun that they wanted to have.”

Velasco said she feels disappointed in losing the sense of closure that high school seniors usually feel before beginning a new life chapter.

“For four years, you have this expectation that you’re going to go to graduation and prom… you’ll be able to be commended for all your efforts,” Velasco said. “All of the senior activities are supposed to be like a closing to this chapter.”

Sara Goldman, a senior in CAS, said she had planned to teach English in France next year and hasn’t made alternative plans yet. She said she

ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/ DFP FILE

Graduates wear decorated caps during Boston University’s All-University Commencement Ceremony for the graduating class of 2016. Boston University’s

was looking forward to enjoying her last spring semester and end-of-year activities.

“Obviously, I’m ending my senior year at home, and I think it’s really surreal and weird that I’m going to be done with class… and it’ll just be another day in quarantine,” Goldman said. “Enjoying the fact that it’s ending and I worked really hard — I think it’s that sense of what I was missing out on.”

Goldman said that she kept working at Pure Barre during Spring Recess, where she said they increased their cleaning techniques, but she hadn’t yet realized the extent of the coronavirus. She came home to Pennsylvania the following week and

realized the severity of the pandemic.

“It really hit me after school got canceled that this was a problem,” Goldman said. “I continued going to my shifts at work but I got a lot more stressed about [working and] my hands were super dry from cleaning everything.”

Marshall Brown, who is planning to study journalism at BU in the fall, said he accepts that things might not go as planned, but still feels hopeful for the future and is excited to immerse himself in the BU community whether living on campus or remaining at home.

“I was looking forward to more so being on my own and dedicating all of my time exploring new things,

learning new things and not really being tied down by much,” Brown said. “Being able to meet new people and expand my horizons, that might be put on hold with [coronavirus], but I hope that that can still happen.”

Brown said he feels bad for college seniors who are missing out on their final events and academics and graduating into difficult circumstances.

“I think college seniors have it a lot worse because we have our college years as a buffer to wait for the economy to get better but they’re expected to just go out there,” Brown said. “And all of the things that would close off the end of that senior year… it’s probably totally messed up by this.”

The stage of life that both high school and college seniors are currently in is the biggest time in their lives thus far, Beard said. But she said that, uncertainties for the future aside, it is important to remember that this is just one moment.

“If you step back and think about it, there’s going to be other big moments and that’s one of the things that’s helping me through [this],” Beard said. “Yes [graduation] is a big one that we’re missing out on and is dramatically altered, but at the same time, we’re going to move forward and we’re going to get through it and things are going to return to some semblance of normalcy.”

ARTS

Student artists, performers continue to create, cope in quarantine

BY CAMERON MORSBERGER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

C om mon w e a lt h Av enu e remains dormant for the second half of the Spring semester as BU students finish their spring semester online. With social distancing policies in place, Boston performances and artistic showcases remain uncertain, postponed or outright cancelled.

But this has not stopped BU creatives from completing and collaborating on projects from across the country. Singers, painters, dancers and actors, without a physical audience, are adapting to a student community broadcasted via Zoom and other social media sites.

Sam Weinberger, a junior in the College of Fine Arts, is an artist popular for street painting on Marsh Plaza. Known as “Big Sam,” said he wanted to continue to share his endeavors through his newly launched YouTube channel and said quarantining has been creatively freeing.

“The reason that I started [the channel was] to show people it’s possible to keep creating, keep making, even in a time of quarantine,” Weinberger said. “I’m really just influenced by the things that I love and love to create… I have more freedom in the ways that there’s no commercial pressure

right now.”

Despite the lack of professional supplies, such as quality paints and canvases, Weinberger said his work has been therapeutic during social isolation, which he said he hopes to offer to others through his vlogs and Instagram updates.

“Art is definitely a coping mechanism or an emotional outlet [of] sorts,” Weinberger said. “So I’ve been, of course, trying to have positivity in my own artwork, but also show positivity to the community and to other artists and… trying to really inspire others to keep creating a time of distance.”

However, BU on Tap, whose tap dancing members have prepared four dances for an end-of-year performance dedicated to graduating seniors and show dancers, has suffered from that distance.

Lilia Bohensky, a sophomore in the College of Communication and treasurer of BU on Tap, said that the group is tight-knit with fewer than 20 members, which makes their physical absence all the more difficult.

“We’ve all gotten really close… so it’s really just not being with all of my friends and catching up with them on almost a daily basis,” Bohensky said. “We all worked so hard on [the show] and then obviously it got cancelled, which has been a really, really big bummer.”

Theater organizations —

COURTESY ECE YAVUZ

Boston University Stage Troupe performed The Yellow Boat earlier this year, the only show we were able to put on this semester, with all proceeds of the performance benefiting Boston Children’s Hospital.

including BU on Broadway and Stage Troupe — were also forced to call off rehearsals and productions.

BU Stage Troupe saw cancellations of their final two of three shows this semester. “The Yellow Boat” was performed the last weekend of February, but the group’s productions of “Medea” and “If/Then” were cut.

Kimberly Zak, president of Stage Troupe and senior in CFA, said it was hard to lose her on-campus community that she has belonged to since her freshman year. Zak said she feels

fortunate that “Yellow Boat” was held prior to spring break, but in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic she feels removed from her refuge at BU. “Stage Troupe has definitely been one of the cornerstones of my college experience,” Zak said.

“I think that’s where people are feeling the most pain, is where they’re losing their extracurricular communities and pastimes.”

The annual Boston Marathon — a shared Bostonian experience and campus-wide celebration and day off from school — has been postponed to September in response to

the coronavirus. However, on the traditional Marathon Monday, BU students organized an online concert through Zoom in honor of the postponed event.

“Zoomathon Monday,” which ran for 12 consecutive hours on March 20, featured Terrier talents, one of which is singer-songwriter Radha Rao, a junior in the Questrom School of Business who released an EP in February.

Rao said she thinks the online performance, which doubles as a fundraiser for BU’s Student Life Emergency Fund, is a unique opportunity to bring awareness and “artistic energy” to those who may be struggling during the pandemic.

“It’s so difficult during this time to keep the spirits up and to feel energized,” Rao said. “I’d love to be of help and also just enjoy myself along with everyone else during this event.”

Rao said this period is conducive to self improvement and introspection, that in isolation, people can return to their true selves.

“I think that this quarantine time has provided us with different opportunities to get back into other things that maybe we’ve forgotten or lost touch with,” Rao said. “This time, it’s [about] self reflection time and coming to new understandings of ourselves. ”

FEATURES 9

SCIENCE Social distancing prevents spread of COVID-19, poses other side effects

BY SARAH READDAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Empty streets, empty shelves and uncertainty about the future — these things are now commonplace across the globe since the outbreak of COVID-19. The virus transferred from animal to human in late 2019 and spread rapidly through humanto-human contact. It is now categorized as a global pandemic, with over three million confirmed cases and over 220,000 deaths worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

Fears of the virus spreading have left people quarantined in their homes, staying socially-distant as advised by public health officials and state governors in order to slow the transmission of coronavirus.

The incubation period — the time between exposure and appearance of first symptoms — for someone exposed to COVID-19 can take up to 14 days, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have stated that symptoms can start as early as two days after exposure.

However, the danger for community spread lies in asymptomatic carriers. Thus, the CDC has recommended that individuals wear a face mask, practice good hygiene and avoid non-essential physical contact and social gatherings.

Eleanor Murray, assistant profes-

LAURYN ALLEN/ DFP FILE

An empty bench on the Boston University Beach. Public health officials have emphasized the importance of social distancing in the wake of the coronavirus to prevent the virus’ spread and minimize the burden on the healthcare system.

sor of epidemiology at the Boston University School of Public Health, wrote in an email that social distancing creates intentional space between people because the virus is spread through both direct and indirect physical contact.

By staying indoors, individuals run a lower risk of exposure to the virus on public surfaces, such as door handles, subway poles and elevator buttons, Murray wrote. Social distancing also serves to minimize the number of sick people needing medical care all at once, she wrote, which can help society to return to normalcy quicker.

“The goal of social distancing

is to keep people far enough apart in space and time that there aren’t chances for transmission to happen,” Murray wrote. “This will keep everyone safe, including doctors and nurses, cleaning staff, and people who need medical care for reasons other than [COVID-19].”

This recommended isolation, however, may also negatively impact individuals’ psychological and emotional well-being, Wendy Lippe, a clinical psychologist at BU’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, said.

“We have lots of mental problems that can emerge from isolation because without social contact,

we’re in our own head,” Lippe said.

“We are going to see significant increases in depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and I fear suicide.”

Statista, an economic data platform, reported that 29 percent of surveyed Americans identified their mental wellbeing as one of their primary concerns about the pandemic, as of April 27.

The psychological toll comes not only from naturally social beings suddenly self-isolating, but also from media updates that constantly present new statistics and restrictions — a “media risk,” as described by Lippe.

But at the same time, she said technology can be used in healthy ways to maintain otherwise lost interactions.

“The pace at which things are moving and the information changing I think is absolutely psychologically overwhelming for people and is traumatizing,” Lippe said.“Talking with and connecting with other humans helps us stay in reality.

It provides a reality check, and it helps us regulate our physiological anxiety.”

Experts suggest that maintaining health and wellbeing at home during this time can ease the mental impacts.

While staying at home helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 among communities, it can create an increased sedentary lifestyle. But the

World Health Organization posted that maintaining some level of physical activity around the home is beneficial to one’s physical and mental wellbeing, which is especially critical during the pandemic.

Jennifer Hanway, a certified holistic nutritionist and Instagram influencer, said she is an advocate of using food as a way to improve health and nourish the body.

“I do believe that food is medicine,” Hanway said. “But I believe right now that food is bringing us together by being in our own homes, but also bringing us together as a society. It’s something that we have, it’s something we can control and it’s something that’s spreading a lot of joy.”

In the midst of the feeling of chaos, Melanie Smith, a senior lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Writing Program, said the first step people can take to feel more at ease is to acknowledge the situation.

“We’re going to go through a scary thing. We’re going to miss people.

We’re going to have moments when we feel hopeless. And then we tell ourselves [that] we’ve been through other things like this,” Smith said.

“You draw on those strengths that… you possess.”

Caroline DeHaven, Irene Chung, Jennifer Suryadjaja and Miriam Fauzia contributed to the reporting of this article.

BUSINESS

Boston businesses creatively serve their community amid COVID-19

BY LILY KEPNER DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The onset of COVID-19 pandemic threatened people’s lifestyles and health in unprecedented ways, prompting Boston University to send Terriers home from campus.

But the businesses they left behind didn’t have that option.

As an undeniable impact of the pandemic, the economic drought Boston businesses face is severe.

And yet, many businesses — student-owned, small and large — have adjusted creatively to protect from potential closure and continue to serve the community.

Pavement Coffeehouse, a convenient and always-packed study spot on Commonwealth Avenue, made the tough decision to close indefinitely on March 19. Andrew LoPilato, director of operations at Pavement, said he first started to see a significant drop in business on the weekend of March 13. He said this drop was particularly severe at the BU location, where they went from hundreds of customers a day to a few dozen.

“The impact to the business is very, very severe. There’s no understating it,” LoPilato said. “Most stores, on a case by case basis, we’re going to be considering this going forward… if it’s feasible to stay open.”

Juan Ortner, an assistant professor in the Department of Economics

JUSTIN HAWK/ DFP FILE

Pavement Coffeehouse on Commonwealth Avenue is one of many non-essential businesses that relies heavily on college students’ business and has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic

at BU, wrote in an email that government action, as well as how long social distancing lasts, will play a great role in determining the severity and ability for businesses to bounce back.

“Some businesses can adapt to these circumstances relatively better than others,” Ortner wrote.

“Small businesses and brick and mortar stores are among the ones most affected by this situation.”

While Pavement is still selling coffee beans and tea leaves on its website — allowing employees to keep working at their roastery — other types of industries have been able to adapt in different ways to keep their business afloat.

Elise Caira, owner of Sweat Fixx, a Massachusetts fitness studio with a location in South Boston, said that not only has launching live streams of classes allowed her business to stay up and running, but it has united the community in a time where “sticking with the routine” is crucial.

“Through our live-streaming, [people are] able to see everybody work hard [and] sweat together,” Caira said. “I feel like it’s made our community even tighter than it was before.”

Sami Lea Konczewski, the director of marketing, brand and strategic planning and instructor at Down Under School of Yoga in

Brookline, said that though the studio is feeling the financial burden of the pandemic, but the flexibility of online classes has allowed more people to join than normal classroom sizes allow, opening the studio up to more customers.

“We definitely are feeling the financial anxiety,” Konczewski said, “but we’ve also been able to realize that our community is really strong and really supportive.”

Art galleries in Boston are also exploring different mediums to keep their clients engaged despite social distancing.

Kristine Hammond, co-director of Galerie d’Orsay, said that the team at the gallery is “trying to be [as] creative as we can” to continue to promote their artists’ work.

For Hammond, not only does this mean driving across state borders to deliver artwork to collectors before travel advisories began to unravel across East Coast states, but it also means boosting the gallery’s online presence, she said.

“Like everyone else in the world, I’d say we’re pushing to increase our online presence,” Hammond said. “I think Galerie d’Orsay is at its best in person, and so it’s really hard. All of us really love what we do…Trying to bring the charisma and… educational quality to online programming is going to be key for us.”

Emily Perelman, a sophomore in the College of Arts and

Sciences, has been designing prints and stickers since the summer of 2018. Perelman said that though the market for art has become a bit depressed, she is optimistic about growing her projects in different ways despite the lack of customers.

“I want to take this time to be productive,” Perelman said. “I want to come out with a new line of stickers and try to sell prints and all that.”

Whether buying a gift card, consuming online content or purchasing products online, it is clear that Boston businesses need support right now.

Jose Bay-Cheng, a chef at OTTO pizzas on BU’s west campus location, said although business dropped off initially after they closed in-person operations, he thinks they are receiving a “consistent” amount of deliveries and take outs. Loyal BU customers can support them best by “just [staying] healthy and [staying] safe.”

Bay-Cheng said that this is a difficult, unprecedented time, but he is not worried about what the future holds for the company.

“I think we’re all in this anxious kind of state right now — we’re all in the unknown,” Bay-Cheng said.

“But… I have a lot of hope for what’s coming next.”

Lily Kepner, Jennifer Suryadjaja and Yiran Yu contributed to the reporting of this article.

10 SPORTS

Numbers Roundup: Athletes help us pass time in quarantine

BY HANNAH YOSHINAGA COLUMNIST

I’ll admit, it’s easy to find things to complain about when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on sports — and life, as we know it. But on the bright side, pro athletes are coming out in throngs to add something positive to our daily conversations. Players from every team in every professional American sports league have taken advantage of the opportunity to connect with fans from home in inventive ways, whether it be chicken coop building a la Ryan Getzlaf or simple updates on social media.

Here are a few of my favorites, Numbers Roundup style: 89 Jr. NBA at Home online workshops The NBA is doing its part to keep kids across the country occupied and in shape to return to basketball once they can start playing again. The Jr. NBA at Home program involves daily minute-long videos that encourage, “skill development, physical activity and character development,” according to the Jr. NBA Website.

Popular NBA and WNBA players like Trae Young, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jewell Loyd have all pitched in to teach their favorite skills and create challenges for young players. NBA coaches like the Mavericks’ Rick Carlisle and retired players like Muggsy Bogues have also starred in short videos offering tips for young

basketball players.

The activities pro athletes are providing for kids haven’t been limited to sports. Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Lindblom offered some entertainment for kids by sharing a full-length video of himself reading a bedtime story to his three children.

The Brewers organization posted the video on Facebook with the hashtag #MLBAtHome, in which other teams and players have also used to connect with fans throughout the last few weeks.

The coronavirus pandemic is terrifying to adults, so it’s hard to imagine what kids must be going through. It’s nice to know that prominent people within the sports industry are keeping children in mind as well.

16 NBA Players in the NBA 2K Players Tournament Games are postponed for

the foreseeable future, but NBA players are still doing their best to provide fans with some kind of competition to watch. The NBA and video game publisher 2K recently partnered to create a players’ “NBA 2K20” tournament featuring players such as Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Donovan Mitchell.

In order to make the tournament seem as similar to real NBA competition as possible, the event will be shown on ESPN and will feature live commentary.

The first-round matchups took place on Friday and Sunday, and the next two rounds to determine the champion will stream on Thursday and Saturday later this week.

One of my favorite matchups was Patrick Beverley vs. Hassan W h iteside, feat uring some grade-A trash talking. Derrick Jones Jr.’s first-round upset

against Kevin Durant’s Clippers was also one for the books. How long until we get “My Next Chapter, Part 2: Miami Heat Edition?”

Before the tournament, many NBA gamers took their talents online for fans. Heat center Meyers Leonard even partnered with other players and gamers in a “Call of Duty” fundraiser aimed at raising money for COVID-19related charities. After receiving a positive response from his first fundraising tournament, Leonard will host another one on Sunday.

Teams have also gone online with simulated games for fans.

Anaheim Ducks fans were devoid of the Kings-Ducks rivalr y game scheduled for April 3, but Anaheim Ducks Gaming and the Kings’ eSports affiliate took the faceoff onto Twitch instead. It’s not the same as experiencing an actual in-person game, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.

30 Minutes per week of home workouts with the Dodgers Many people involved with professional and collegiate sports have posted videos of their homeadapted workout routines. Some, including New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and Los Angeles Dodgers director of player performance Brandon McDaniel, have taken it a step further and led their own workouts for fans to follow along with at home.

McDaniel posts two 30-minute instructional workout videos

per week. The workouts resemble popular workout program P90X and involve some of the same exercises used by players in the Dodgers organization. McDaniel encourages those participating in the sessions to be creative when it comes to working out in their homes; this could involve using ordinary household objects as weights. McDaniel has pledged to continue creating the series until the 2020 MLB season begins.

Edelman partnered w ith Planet Fitness to shoot a shor t, 10- m i nute workout video. Throughout the workout, Edelman provided a variety of exercises and gave shoutouts to fans across the country. One of the best parts of the workout was Edelman’s humorous jabs at former Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. While discussing the importance of hydration, Edelman said, “Old quarterback I used to have used to talk about it a lot. Brady, what was his name?

Oh yeah, never mind.”

Detroit Lions wide receiver Danny Amendola, Edelman’s former teammate, is set to be the next athlete host of the Planet Fitness workout series.

I wouldn’t call myself an exercise connoisseur, but athlete-led workouts are a fun way to pass the time. I suppose that’s the entire point of what all these players are doing — finding ways to make hours spent at home feel more like minutes, and making the world feel like it extends beyond our front doors.

On a Patriots’ Day like no other, we remain Boston Strong

BY JACOB GURVIS COLUMNIST

I have always loved Patriots’ Day. It ma rks the unoff icia l beginning of spring in Boston and the holiday is as integral to the identity of the city as clam chowder, the Freedom Trail and “pahking cahs in Hahvahd Yahd.”

Si nce 2013 , Patr iots’ Day has taken on another level of meaning. In the face of pure evil and devastation, that tragic day gave birth to the idea of Boston Strong. More than a slogan or bumper sticker, it is a rallying cry for the city that symbolizes its unbreakable resilience.

Much l i ke that fatef u l Marathon Monday seven years ago, Bostonians spent this year’s holiday cooped up in their homes, afra id – – on ly this time, the enemy is invisible. And as we’re all painfully aware, we don’t have sports to distract us.

Even before the coronavirus pandemic put the entire sports world in timeout, Boston fans had endured a truly heartrending opening to 2020.

In January, during the fallout of the Houston Astros sign-stealing scandal, beloved Red Sox manager Alex Cora was shown the door. Days later, the world was shocked by the tragic death of basketball legend Kobe Bryant.

In Februar y, the Sox shipped

fan favorite Mookie Betts off to L.A. In March, the Boston University men’s basketball team secured its first trip to March Madness since 2011, on ly for the tournament to be cancelled.

Then, perhaps the biggest dagger of all: Tom Brady announced he was leaving the Patriots.

Have we ever needed Patriots’ Day more?

Instead, the Boston Marathon was postponed for the first time in its 124-year history. The race had been held in times of war and extreme weather, but with a field of 30,000 runners and hundreds of thousands of spectators, the

historic event was forced to bow to the pandemic.

Boston’s other main Patriots’ Day attraction — the annual 11 a.m. Red Sox home game — will have to wait as well since Major League Baseball remains indefinitely paused.

R a t h e r t h a n t a ke to t h e streets to cheer on the runners, Boston ia ns stayed home a nd directed their support to the countless medical professionals on the front lines of the pandemic. This Marathon Monday, the Boston Globe ran a series of full-page ads entitled “Boston is still cheering,” writing, “There

are still people to cheer for. Use the signs provided in today’s paper to color in your support for our frontline healthcare workers. They are the heroes this Marathon Monday and every day.”

The Boston Athletic Association, which puts on the Marathon, also took out a fullpage ad to show its gratitude to essential workers. Its powerful message reads, “To the doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, medical personnel, EMTs, police off icers, f irefighters, grocery store workers, custodia ns, posta l workers, delivery drivers, bus drivers, train conductors: We’ll wait to start until you reach the finish.”

In truth, a marathon is a fairly apt metaphor for what we’re going through right now: it’s long, painful, and physically and emotionally draining. And while most of us remain on the sidelines, we continue to support and cheer on those who are leading the charge.

We just have to hope the finish line is near.

B a c k i n 2 013 , B o ston’s s p o r t s te a m s l e d t h e c it y on its long, winding road to recovery. From David Ortiz’s unforgettable speech declaring that “this is our f ***ing

city” to fans joining together for chilling renditions of the Star Spangled Banner, it was sports that brought people together to heal. Fenway and TD Garden became more than sports a renas – – they were centers of communal gathering, safe spaces for fans to come together and spread the love.

Perhaps that is what makes this Patriots’ Day so strange.

Races and ball games can be postponed. But the incredible sense of communit y sports of f e r s u s i s i r r e pl a ce a bl e .

Watching the Sox play in jerseys with the word Boston sewn into it, walking through crowds of people to get a glimpse at the runners passing by –– there is nothing like it.

There is no question that t he coron av i r us pa ndem ic has caused more damage and heartbreak than just cancelling sporting events. But in the face of tragedy, we often turn to our teams and athletes for distraction, inspiration, and a sense of belonging. Now, we’re just at a loss.

Nobody knows how long we will have to wait to get our sports back, but one thing is certain: whenever this horrible crisis ends, sports will be there, waiting for us. And we’ll be ready, as Boston Strong as ever.

SPORTS 11

Pandemic forces short end to BU playoff runs, spring seasons

BY CHRIS LARABEE DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

COVID-19 has left a potential Cinderella run cut short and a missed chance at history in its wake after has forcing the NCAA to cancel its winter sports’ playoff tournaments and the entire spring sports season.

The NCAA made its announcement to cancel all sporting events on March 12, just one day after the Boston University men’s basketball team captured its first-ever Patriot League title and its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2011.

On the women’s side, the team was scheduled to play in its firstever Patriot League semifinal game, and was set to tip-off just over four hours after the Patriot Leag ue announced that it was canceling the conference tournament.

Women’s basketball head coach Marisa Moseley was not shocked by the Patriot League’s decision to cancel the tournament, but she said she was hoping the league would at least finish up the three games left.

“I kind of had an idea because prior to our shoot-around because the Big 10, A merican and SEC had theirs canceled,” Moseley said.

“I had an inkling that we would potentially follow suit. I was hoping that we could potentially make it through the weekend and at least finish out the championship.”

Once the decision was made, Moseley addressed the team and broke the news about their season being over. When she told the team about the season, Moseley said she called out the seniors and thanked them for their contributions before

attendance.

“We were all in shock for a few hours after we found out,” Irving said. “We were scheduled to play that game with open attendance … if anything I just thought they wou ld a nnounce ‘oh we’re just going to close the games off from spectators.’”

Losing a chance at the Patriot League title was a gut-punch to Irving and her team, but the threeyear starter said she understands why the season had to end. She added that she was happy to have created a positive impact on the team over her four years. “ [ S e n i o r g u a r d ] Va n e s s a [Edgehill]’s and my goal was to always leave the program in a better place than when we first got there,” Irving said. “After speaking with the rest of the team and the coaches after we found out the season was canceled I really felt like we were able to do that. All the hard work we’ve put in over the last four years has really translated both on and off the court.

The men’s hockey team’s playoff run was also cut short. The Terriers were scheduled to travel to the University of Massachusetts Lowell before Hockey East officials agreed RACHEL SHARPLES/ DFP FILE to cancel the conference playoffs.

Despite the abrupt ending to her college career, senior forward Nia Irving, shown Spring sports were not spared in a Feb. 15 game against Navy, said the hard work that she and fellow senior guard from the NCAA’s decision either, Vanessa Edgehill put into the program paid off. as both BU lacrosse teams and the team came together for one Senior forward Nia Irving, who the softball team have had their final embrace. had helped lead the program to seasons canceled.

“It was really emotional and I its f irst Patriot Leag ue semif iDespite their seasons already got a chance to thank our seniors nal despite a nagging injury, said being in full swing, the NCA A specifically, “Moseley said, “and the team was shocked when they has offered spring sport athletes everyone embraced. There’s not heard the announcement because a reprieve by allowing spring sport a whole lot you can say in that they thought they would just have athletes to receive another year moment.” to play the game with no fans in of eligibility — athletes are only

allowed to play four seasons in college — once the organization works around current eligibility rules in place. It has not been decided if basketball, hockey and other winter sport athletes will be granted another season of eligibility.

The softball team carries two seniors on its roster, pitchers Lizzie Annerino and Kali Magane, who will be the most affected by the cancellation.

Both BU lacrosse teams will be more greatly affected by new eligibility rules, as the men’s and women’s teams each carry seven seniors on their 2020 Spring roster.

Women’s lacrosse coach Laura Morton had two things come to mind when asked about her initial reaction to the season being canceled: shock and heartbreak.

“Shock is one of the big gest things. Certainly it shows how grave a risk this is from a national a nd inter nationa l sta ndpoint,” Morton said. “Heartbroken for all the people who are suffering from it and on the small scale, I’m really heartbroken for our seniors.”

Morton said she was able to set up a day for the team to honor their seniors before the team left campus.

“We had an impromptu senior day our last day we were together,” Morton said. “Just to honor them.

They’ve all played really big parts in the program… we had a chance to connect with them.”

D e s pite t he s a d sit u at ion , Morton said a time like this can help the team put things into perspective, and allow her players to spend time with their loved ones and bond with one another.

BU coaches face new challenges while working from home

BY NICK TELESMANIC DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Two Boston University teams had potential breakout 2020 seasons ahead of them that came to abrupt stops due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, they’re facing new challenges.

BU softball (14-8) coach Ashley Waters, BU men’s lacrosse (3-3, 1-0 Patriot League) coach Ryan Polley and BU women’s lacrosse (3-3) coach Lauren Morton are finding ways to keep a distanced team together through virtual means after the NCAA announced all spring sports would be canceled March 12.

Men’s lacrosse picked up a win in their first PL game of the season against the Colgate Raiders (0-6, 0-2 PL), which ended up being the team’s only conference bout of the season.

The abrupt ending to the season discontented Polley and the rest of the team.

“Everybody was disappointed here,” Polley said. “We were very optimistic about making noise in the Patriot League.”

Waters shared similar sentiments, stating the difficulty of losing a season that contained high hopes and promises. The team’s season came to a close at the start of the Easton Invitational, only playing one game against Long Beach State University.

“When something was so good and so sweet, that’s the hardest part,” Waters said.

ANGELA YANG/ DFP FILE

Boston University’s Nickerson Field. As sports seasons have been cancelled because of the coronavirus, Boston University’s sports teams have had to continue meeting for team bonding activities virtually.

Morton also shared that the team was extremely confident heading into the spring after what she believes was an extremely productive fall of training. Her team went 3-3 in out-of-conference play and did not get to play any Patriot League games.

“I think it’s hard,” Morton said, “when you don’t have that chance to display the fruits of your labor on the field.”

Communication across the three teams is taking place virtually on Zoom, and meetings take place on an individual and team basis.

Polley said there are three main ways he is both keeping in touch with the team and keeping the team together. He said he has coaches’ meetings, which included himself and po-

sition coaches, plus team meetings on Friday afternoons. Lastly, there are academic groups of 10 players who meet with academic advisors to ensure that players are getting adjusted to BU’s new remote learning model.

Polley resonated with the difficulty his team is facing in keeping his team together as one community and said a big problem is getting everyone to speak actively in group calls of around 50 people.

“It’s just a different model,” Polley said. “It’s a lot easier when someone is in front of you to communicate and connect.”

Waters has also been hosting large virtual calls with the entire team every Wednesday where he gives the players academic updates as well as any

news from BU Athletics. Players are also given check-ins, where they are able to share how they are doing with the team. Furthermore, individual conferences are done by Waters with each player to discuss goals for next season and what can be done in the off-season to prepare themselves both physically and mentally.

Waters emphasized the importance of encouraging her players to stay in physical and mental well-being during the country’s lockdown. “[This is] just to give them a chance to have an option to get out of the house,” Waters said, “or take a break from their academic studies to have some outdoor time.”

Many business matters are being done virtually for Morton, the second-year coach.

These include full-team calls, as well as calls with strength coaches where home workouts are coordinated with players.

Morton has also split her team in half for a virtual costume challenge. In this challenge, Morton divided half of her team as the “red team” and the other half as the “white team.” Whichever team would have someone come on a Zoom call with the best costume—in Morton’s view—would win a point.

“We’ve definitely tried to maintain some of the things we’ve had intact,” Morton said about her team activities being moved virtually. “We’ve been adjusting well.”

Although morale on Waters’ softball team is staying

up during lockdown, the fiveyear-coach said that faceto-face interaction is sorely missed. Both on and off the field, Waters highlighted how well her team clicks together. This is due in part to the team having the Fall semester to bond and become a family before heading on the field in the spring.

“I think for us it’s a really close-knit program,” Waters said. “You build a relationship through the fall and become connected on such a deeper level.”

Polley faces similar issues and said he feels badly for his seniors, who who were not able to demonstrate their ability to lead, and how younger players on the team were not able to fully demonstrate the fruits of their training through the fall.

“It was obviously crushing for the seniors who didn’t have this last opportunity to compete and see what they can do as leaders,” Polley said. “And obviously all the underclassmen were all trying to salvage themselves and have the best years possible.”

In the end, Morton said the fact that she and her team remain healthy after the cancelation of games is what is most paramount. Morton commended BU Athletics and the Patriot League in shutting down games as early as they did in the interest of health.

“It was absolutely the right decision to protect everyone’s health and safety to make sure we did our part in the bigger scheme,” Morton said.

12 BLOG

Maintaining peak performance with the quarantine diet

BY LIAM GROGAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

One of the hardest adjustments when I entered college was learning how to adapt to a dining hall lifestyle.

I wasn’t worried about the “Freshman 15,” though. I’m just a guy looking for decent quality food and variety in his meals. And at the dining hall, the pickings were predictably slim.

Despite all odds, I actually started figuring it out. I had my dining hall routine on lock; I knew what time to get there so breakfast was still being served, and I had the highest

protein choices at the salad bar down to a tee.

Sometimes, I was even seen eating from the vegan station. I know, right?

But then, of course, just as I was learning you don’t have to drown every salad in ranch dressing and stale croutons, all my hard work came tumbling down. Now, in face of the prospect of months stuck at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, I realize that I must once again learn how to take care of myself — a task I was not expecting to face again for at least four or more years.

Never fear my friends. If I can do it, so can all of you. And to help you all out, I’m going to share my new cooking and eating routine, which can help you all live your best lives, even in self-quarantine.

Breakfast It’s important not to spend all your energy and motivation on preparing breakfast, so you have to start off your day easy. That’s why I like to go simple: Eggo waffles cooked in the toaster with syrup.

I know you’re thinking, “That sounds delicious, but is it healthy to do that every day?”

Well, I’ve been doing it every day for a week and a half, and not a whiff of the ‘rona

on me yet. So... probably? dinner. That means it’s time to treat yourself.

Lunch However, you’re also going to be feeling For lunch, I usually like to get a little cre- extremely stressed about the current lovecrafative. For example, today I made myself some tian nightmare we live in; how it could very tacos. well be six months until we see our friends To be more specific, I folded one plain, again, the fact that toilet paper will very soon toasted Eggo waffle in half, then stuffed a be our new national currency and that someblueberry Eggo waffle inside of it and ate that how, we all got tricked into paying $70,000 as a whole. Feel free to add whipped cream on for online classes. top if you’re feeling adventurous.

As you realize that the walls have closed in, You might ask, “Liam, isn’t that awfully leaving you trapped in an inescapable hellssimilar to what you had for breakfast just a cape that is the world, it’s time to slowly creep few hours ago?” And you’re right, it is, but downstairs, and prepare yourself some food. any half-competent doctor will tell you that a And don’t bother doing the dishes either, good routine is essential to maintaining both because nothings going to matter once this physical and mental health. By breaking this half-cooked apocalypse finishes broiling down to its most basic level, using the same anyway. ingredients for every meal, you ensure physFor these times, I recommend eating ical perfection. uncooked frozen Eggo waffles on the floor Dinner of your kitchen, staring into the abyss as the By the time dinner rolls around, you’ll ceiling light slowly flickers on and off. Reality likely be three hours into a midday nap, leav- is scary right now, so find solace where you ing no time for a meal because your family can. will eat without you without even noticing Stay safe, friends, and don’t even try doing that you’re gone. the math on how much each individual Zoom But when you wake up at midnight, you’ll class session costs in tuition, because trust me be starving. And for the record, I don’t eat — that’s just going to make everything worse.

Things are pretty bad right now, but they could be worse

BY SOPHIA YAKUMITHIS DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

I’m fine. No, I’m not. But I am. But I’m not.

I was expecting for us to go remote for the rest of the year since this all started going worse. In fact, I think I was more surprised about President Brown’s original decision to delay the verdict until the beginning of April, leaving us non-New Englanders in the dark on when we should return to campus.

But despite any expectations as to how the university should handle the coronavirus crisis I managed to keep at bay, my system was shocked after receiving the email about becoming “Zoom University” on Wednesday night.

Although I wasn’t expecting to return to campus, everything started feeling very different. It was a fast and surreal change of pace that no amount of memes or nicotine could help me process.

My first ache was for the fact that I might not see friends who are graduating this semester ever again. My next ache was for the belongings I left in my on-campus apartment and the uncertainty as to how I would be getting them if everyone is fleeing campus.

I felt trapped, but I stopped myself right there.

All the factors contributing to my anxiety related to an international public health crisis that has taken the lives of thousands worldwide are superficial things that affect no one but myself.

Once that clicked in my head, I felt embarrassed. I felt like I was starting to echo the incessant, theatrical pessimism I’ve seen online recently related to how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting my generation.

As childish as this sounds, I’ve been physically seething at posts I’ve seen on Twitter and Instagram. There have been posts from people moaning that their college is subjecting them to oppression by evacuating campus. Or that they’re stuck in their six bedroom suburban home,

BMW parked outside with nothing to do but order same-day delivery items off of Amazon.

I’m lucky that I come from a privileged community, but this crisis has illuminated a lot of the ignorance that comes with that privilege. And, frankly, I’m disappointed in a lot of my friends.

At the end of the day, this is an international public health crisis. If you have shelter, you’re already ahead of the game. That means you can safely stay inside, and hopefully, you’re stocked up on food and are able to afford to pay your water bill.

Anything else is secondary. The fact that I have a family to keep me company with and sources of entertainment, like a fully stocked bookshelf, as well as access to internet and TV, are serious privileges in the scheme of things, even if I’ve been feeling sad and claustrophobic from online classes.

I stopped reading those mindless rants on Instagram and Facebook because the people I know who are affected by the coronavirus worse — people who legitimately do not have shelter, a compromised immune system or access to resources they need — don’t have the time to go on and scream into the ether.

The people whose lives are on the line right now are not worried about how they’re

getting their favorite Adidas pants back from their dorm, or how they’re missing their last tailgate “darty.” These people have lost jobs, are scrambling to come up with enough money to survive.

We need to work together to cooperate and to be patient with one another. Everyone is trying to adjust to unforeseen circumstances that will be an inevitable challenge to recover from. We don’t know when recovery from this pandemic will take place and we don’t know what it will look like, but when it happens, I’m fearful we’ll sabotage ourselves.

Not to be all gloom-and-doom (and I realize this is a huge departure from my typical, “celebrities I want to bang”-style articles), but if I know anything about human nature in the U.S. it’s that people can be stubborn. American individualistic tendencies lead people to impose a sense of entitlement onto others, perpetuating that “Well it’s okay if I go to the supermarket, I don’t have the ‘rona,” mentality. Imagine if everyone said that about themselves; the store aisles in “essential businesses” would be as packed as normal.

Any who, instead of griping on Twitter about your first world problems when you get bored, go take a walk. Or a Xanax. But most importantly, keep perspective.

My dog is the only thing getting me through this quarantine

BY JULIA FURMANEK DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

As a kid, my favorite games to play were ones that involved “living” through historical events. Sometimes I was struggling through the Irish Potato Famine, with rocks from the street as makeshift rotten potatoes, or I was battling in the Revolutionary War in my backyard.

My most frequent moments of choice,

however, were ones that involved plagues. My next door neighbor and I frequently fought over who got to be the doctor in the midst of some far-off epidemic set in an ambiguous time which predated the miracles of modern medicine. I can safely say I’m living through history now, and it is certainly not a game.

Quarantine sucks. Massive surges in unemployment suck. And for those essential workers out there risking their health to keep things from falling apart, this situation absolutely sucks. But, it’s here and it’s real.

For many of us, the greatest contribution we can make comes in the form of compliance; staying home and waiting out this catastrophe.

If you’re like me and struggle with any form of uncertainty, this is a tough place to be in.

There is hope though, and he weighs three pounds. My dog Oscar has no conception of coronavirus whatsoever, and he stays at home every day of the week. Among all the noise I encounter online and on the news about the crisis, his perspective is one I’ve

decided to embrace.

To Oscar, quarantine means spending every waking hour with me. It means extra scraps from the kitchen, as my mom has started cooking constantly. Quarantine means laying in the pool of sunshine shining from the window, sleeping whenever he wants to and extra long walks with the humans, so eager to get out.

In the depressing fog of confinement, the wag of Oscar’s tail and the excitement he exhibits from seeing me helps me remember what’s great in the basics. I exist, I have food to eat and there is sunshine coming in from the window. If this is enough for him, why can’t it be for me?

For those of you understandably struggling to find some semblance of joy in this moment, try thinking about your pets if you have any.

What does sitting on the lawn mean to them?

It’s not some desperate attempt to escape the house, but an opportunity. The lawn is a place full of sounds, smells and things to

wonder about. How much entertainment lives in the simple pleasures we’ve overlooked in the rushed lives we used to live?

This a question I keep encountering answers to as my sense of “everyday” continues to dissolve. For the first time in probably a decade, I’ve been playing in my backyard.

Sure, living with my six-year-old sister may have prompted this at first, but I’ve decided she and the dog are onto something with this long-forgotten concept of ‘play.’Maybe it’s just me, but I had forgotten the thrill of riding downhill on a razor scooter until quite recently.

That’s just something to think about. But, if you’re not in a place to get philosophical, now or ever, animals can be very cute and cuteness is it’s own medicine. Eye bleach was made for times like these.

And if you don’t have a real live fur baby to keep you distracted in these trying moments, turn to the internet. An abundance of teacup pigs, frogs in hats and tiny dogs await you.

OPINION 13

COLUMNS Mind Your Business:

Canceled:

Breaking social isolation is not social justice

Enough with the conspiracy theories

BY BINI OLLIVIER-YAMIN COLUMNIST

Over the course of this pandemic, there have been many conspiracy theories floating around among American right-wing organizations that China engineered the coronavirus. These theories, which are untrue, show that even a situation as dire as a pandemic cannot kill the ignorance and bigotry of white America.

But the most ironic thing about conspiracy theories like these is that while there is no definitive evidence that the Chinese government carried out scientific viral experiments on its population, there are written confessions that the United States has.

In 1977, the United States army admitted to having administered 239 germ warfare tests in open air between 1949 to 1969 to determine how to wage biological warfare and defend against it.

This sounds like an insanely stupid conspiracy theory, but the army literally admitted in a two-volume report that they released lethal germs in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Key West and Panama City. Not only did they infect American citizens in public places like bus terminals and airports, but they also sprayed germs in multiple army bases.

The government’s most egregious medical experiments have often targeted communities of color. From 1932 to 1972, the government conducted a study analyzing the effects of untreated syphilis on Black men in the rural South without informing participants that they had the disease or what the study was for. The participants thought they were getting free medical care. In fact, they never received any medical treatment, even after penicillin arose as an effective treatment for syphilis in 1947.

In the first half of the twentieth century, American eugenics laws enabled the government to sterilize anyone they deemed to be “unfit to reproduce,” according to the Smithsonian.

Over 60,000 people, many of which were Black, Latino and Asian, were sterilized by the government.

The United States has a horrific history of using human beings — particularly from communities of color and incarcerated individuals — as lab rats. And as of 2020, it continues to do so. On April 17, President Donald Trump backed the administering of an unproven anti-malarial drug in Mumbai to see if the drug would work against COVID-19. The drug, according to Bloomberg News, has a “patchy efficacy record”

and could potentially cause more harm than good.

This is the second incident in the last month of Western authorities advocating for the testing of possible COVID-19 treatments in previously imperialized countries. Around the beginning of April, French doctors suggested on live television that the BCG tuberculosis vaccine should first be tested in Africa to see if it could be effective against COVID-19.

This follows a long and painful history of France carrying out unethical medical experiments on people from its colonies in Central Africa.

The claim that COVID-19 was created in a research lab in China is racist. Not only because it plays on xenophobic fears, but also because it ignores the long and present history this country has of utilizing science and medicine to terrorize its own people.

It puts the blame on a foreign nation rather seriously analyzing what systemic factors contributed to the spread of the virus, and how the United States’ horrific medical legacy contributes to its present.

It’s one that continually puts the needs of white bodies over those of people of color — that endangers the health of communities of color with unethical and dangerous experiments to test treatments meant to benefit white people.

Why should the vaccine first be tested in Africa?

Why should that questionable malaria drug first be tested in Mumbai?

We have to ask — what exactly about those two places makes the testing of a potentially dangerous drug allowable? There is a value judgment being made here. Certain lives have been deemed more valuable than others.

Black and brown communities have been shown to be more likely to die from COVID-19, according to a Washington Post analysis. Black and brown communities were the subject of unethical medical experiments by the U.S. government in the past. They continue to receive inadequate medical care in comparison to their white counterparts due to implicit bias from providers, economic disparities due to the cost of healthcare and lack of access to hospitals.

There’s a pattern at play here, a structure that systematically disregards, and in some cases, actively destroys the health of communities of color. If anyone caused the pandemic in the U.S., it’s the governments’ inability to take care of its own people.

People are using this virus as an excuse to propagate their racist and harmful misinformation to no end. Western nations are using this disease to treat people of imperialized nations as lab rats. The cycle continues.

There is no huge government conspiracy behind the origin of this virus. But there is a government conspiracy behind the misinformation that led people to think that. This misinformation, which contributes to the government’s refusal to acknowledge the faults of America’s healthcare system, could be as harmful as the virus itself.

VANESSA BARLETT

BY ABBIGALE SHI COLUMNIST

As infection rates have begun to decline, protests and rallies have started popping up across America over the course of the past weeks. These gatherings of a hundred or more people are fighting for the reopening of states and businesses and overall lifting of stay-at-home orders. The string of reopening protests took place in California, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

For the most part, these rallies are true to their purpose, protesting the shutdown of their state and expressing concerns over the fate of their small businesses. But many of the protest signs show that they are also being conf lated with other political debates and icons, such as the political right, the Second Amendment and even swastikas.

It’s dangerous to portray breaking social isolation as some form of social justice. By refusing to stay home, you’re not simply exercising your own freedom to get COVID-19 and arguing for a course of action that puts the people around you at risk. You’re arguing for the chance to endanger others and a second wave of this virus with no consideration for healthcare workers and essential workers on the frontlines.

It’s also counterintuitive from an economic perspective, despite purporting to be an economic solution. If you go outside and become infected, you’ll land yourself in even more financial ruin from the weight of hospital bills. Then, you’ll infect others, leading to a resurgence of the virus that will only cause heightened or prolonged regulations. Already, spikes in coronavirus cases have appeared after protests took place, possibly because of the mentality behind them.

These loud protests may represent a minority of our population as hundreds in states of millions, but their ideals are shared by a quiet, struggling populace — admittedly, with a real reason for outcry.

While it’s easy to look down upon these rallies as inconsiderate and selfish — certainly, the protests could have followed

the health warnings to heed social distancing guidelines and wear masks — the reality remains that quarantine is much more difficult when you are struggling to make a living.

This virus is endangering our lives — by infiltrating not only our immune systems but also our economy and social structure.

These protests are a predictable but highly misguided response to the endangerment of people’s right to support themselves.

It’s clear that tensions are coming to a breaking point, even as the threat of a second wave looms over us. We have a genuine divide in our country because we have different needs and are each differently affected by this pandemic.

Our problems are only magnified by how this confusion is mirrored in our government’s decision making; from week to week, we see President Donald Trump wavering back and forth between stances on the pandemic. His response to these protests has been, at best, contradictory and misleading.

At first, he indicated support — throwing his support behind protests, tweeting about states’ liberation, endorsing Governor Brian Kemp’s premature plan to reopen Georgia. Yet, not a day later, he publicly denounced the plan while essentially giving Kemp the go-ahead.

Trump’s decision to criticize Kemp’s efforts came too late, especially after his initial public endorsement. Just like with many of his responses, the damage was already done. The protestors, who toted Trump’s name alongside their rif les, got the validation they wanted.

Furthermore, the three-step plan, released by the White House for states reopening, is still standing. Now that Georgia is on track to reopen, other states that have also been considering reopening will soon follow suit. Our president’s inconsistent leadership has only exacerbated divides and weakened efforts to maintain established precautions.

Georgia hasn’t met the White House’s 14-day guideline of continuous decline in cases. And if more states follow in Georgia’s footsteps, health officials warn us of coronavirus’ ominous rebound — both in terms of our physical health and economic health.

As time goes on, we should keep in mind the historical tendency for a second wave rather than abandon all precautionary measures. And despite our varying needs and backgrounds, this shouldn’t be yet another dividing force between Republicans and Democrats, or Trump supporters and liberals. When it comes down to it, this is not a cultural war nor a political debate: reopening businesses or states this early is a risk we cannot take, no matter how much we want to.

14 OPINION

EDITORIAL Gender roles diminish women-led responses to COVID-19 Throughout this pandemic, certain countries have had much better outcomes than others — Taiwan, Finland and New Zealand for instance. And these relatively positive outcomes aren’t necessarily correlated to their smaller populations or previous experiences with epidemics. Rather, they are largely shaped by one shared characteristic of these otherwise very dissimilar countries: women leaders.

These leaders acted quickly and decisively when COVID-19 first crept into their borders, taking the necessarily aggressive steps needed to stop the virus in its tracks. Taiwan didn’t need to officially enact a shutdown and Finland will gradually reopen schools starting on May 14th. These positive outcomes are not tied to individuals’ idiosyncratic leadership styles, but rather unforeseen outcomes of the patriarchy.

Women are raised under the constant and pernicious guise of scrutiny, essentially trained to seek others’ approval.

Therefore while it may have been unconscious, these leaders’ actions may have been guided by the fear of backlash to their handling of coronavirus. As a result, they correctly “overcompensated” in ways that male leaders did not or even refused to do. The latter are taught from day one that they are entitled to their opinions and are qualified to handle anything that comes their way.

Now, look at the world we have because of that cultural norm. According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S., Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and France — all led by men — have the highest total deaths attributable to coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University. Yet the only women-led country that has deaths in the thou-

sands, Germany, still has approximately 3.5 times fewer deaths than the lowest of the aforementioned male-led countries, the U.K. This is not a matter of population size: Germany has almost 20 million more residents than the U.K. Under a sociological lens, this gaping disparity goes back to how society raises women. Because it often picks them apart under a microscope, women are socialized to become more cautious and receptive to criticism. In the context of this pub-

Donald Trump carelessly touts unproven insidious process of self-objectification, cures to coronavirus, sales of hydroxy- greatly diminishing their confidence in chloroquine rise and his constituents leap their potential political efficacy. to his defense. Those are demonstrations Further, on the rare occasion that of approval for something a woman could there are women leaders to look up to, never get away with socially. they are needlessly assailed by the media.

That isn’t to say that Trump has Subsequently, young women are taught endured zero criticism for his poor a negative and gendered form of power. response — a lot of which has been repeat- Ambition transforms into avariciousness edly tied to his ignorant worldview. Rather, and emotional intelligence is conf lated his position as a man lends him unfounded with irrationality. If this pandemic has credibility and unjustified protection taught us one thing about leadership, it’s just how crucial empathy is to a job well-done.

Often, dissecting systematica l ly imposed injustice can leave one feeling hopeless. Everything is so intertwined that progress feels next to impossible. But it is happening, and there are actionable steps that can be taken to move it along even faster. Journalists ought to report on the positive things that women are accomplishing to the point of normalcy. Their accomplishments should not incessantly nor constantly be attributed to their gender or a “triumph” over sexism. Making misogyny the centerpiece of a woman’s story can only cause more harm than good.

And women are not oppressed solely on the basis of their gender: discriminafrom criticism by his followers. A woman tion takes place on numerous levels. These leader who enacted a Trumpist response leaders’ work during COVID-19 are huge would be dealing with a very different set feats that ought to be celebrated, but they of cards right now. are also mostly cisgender white women.

Is that even a viable comparison, We have to be thinking about the fact that though? There are so few women in their white and cis identities lifted them such high-level positions of power — an into positions of leadership that are even intended consequence of how young less accessible to women of color and trans women are socialized. Thanks to how women. the entertainment world often portrays A gendered analysis of these successes women, they are repeatedly told that their is not enough to bring about equality or value as a human being is derived solely equity in this world — feminism should from their appearance. This begins the be intersectional.

These positive outcomes are not tied to individuals’ idiosyncratic leadership styles, but rather unforeseen outcomes of the patriarchy. lic health crisis, that manifests as a willingness to listen to experts as opposed to taking their own word for it. Most politicians do not double as public health experts, and these women wholeheartedly accepted that fact.

They did not try to promote falsehoods as fact and actively put their own constituents’ lives in danger. If any of these leaders even tried to deny the presence of the virus, they’d undoubtedly be met with a f lurry of criticism, as well as disparagement in the media. Yet when President

Editorial Board Victoria Bond, Editor-in-Chief Samantha Kizner, Campus Editor Melissa Ellin, Associate Campus Editor Ellie Yeo, Associate Campus Editor

Justin Tang, Podcast Editor

Sarah Readdean, Features Editor Cameron Morsberger, Associate Community Editor Lily Kepner, Associate Business Editor Miriam Fauzia, Associate Science Editor

Sophia Yakumithis, Blog Editor

Caroline DeHaven, Video Editor Tina Wang, Associate Video Editor Anh Nguyen, Associate Video Editor

Jennifer Suryadjaja, Managing Editor Angela Yang, City Editor Elyse Genrich, Associate City Editor

Hillary Hao, Editorial Page Editor

Ausma Palmer, Photo Editor Christopher Gough, Associate Photo Editor Lauryn Allen, Associate Photo Editor Conor Kelly, Associate Photo Editor

Maya Chadda, Layout Editor

Chris Larabee, Sports Editor Maxwell Bevington, Associate Sports Editor Zoe Pantazelos, Associate Sports Editor

Board of Directors Executive Board Vigunthaan Tharmarajah, Board Chairman

Andres Picon, Vice Chair

Sofia Koyama, Secretary and Legal Chair

Victoria Bond, President

Shubhankar Arun, Treasurer

Board Members Kaya Williams, Staff Development Chair Caitlin Fisher, Events and Archival Chair

Jenni Todd, Fundraising Chair

Alex LaSalvia, Web and Readership Chair

t h e i n d e p e n d e nt st ude n t n ewspap e r at bo sto n un i versity 50th year | Volume 98 | Issue VI The Daily Free Press (ISSN 1094-7337) is printed Thursdays during the academic year except during vacation and exam periods by Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc., a nonprofit corporation operated by Boston University students. No content can be reproduced without the permission of Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. Copyright © 2020 Back Bay Publishing Co., Inc. All rights reserved.

Nikki Havens, Public Relations and Grants/Awards Chair

Breanne Kovatch, Alumni Chair

Gabriela Hutchings, Advertising Chair

OPINION 15

Letter From The Editor:

Why I’m grateful to have led a newspaper during a pandemic

It’s funny to think that in December, I had wondered if anything as significant as Ben Shapiro’s campus visit would happen this semesI imagined writing this letter in the FreeP ter or if we’d have anything unique to report on. It office, curled up on the couch I’d been known becomes more clear by the day that what is hapto take midday naps on or in the glow of editors’ pening has never and likely will never occur again. lamps after a long day. The murmur of staff chatThat’s a daunting story to cover for someone ting and fingers typing would have comforted who has only known one newsroom: the baseme as I started a new chapter of my journey at ment of 708 Commonwealth Ave. the paper.

Many editors-in-chief before me filled their Instead, I am at my kitchen table in days with journalism courses and internships. If Kentucky, “Coronacation” playlist on full blast I had a nickel for every time I heard someone to drown out the distracting clamor of my cat scratching to get in and my dad yelling trivia answers at the TV. Once fueled by Starbucks cold brew and midnight runs to CityCo., I’m relying on Nespresso pods and less-exciting trips from the couch to the pantry to get me through the night.

This has become editing home base for me since I, along with most of the student body, was forced to move out of my dorm in Boston — dare I say it — amid the coronavirus pandemic.

I was editing a breaking news brief on my phone at a gas station in Connecticut, mere hours after packing up my room nearly two months early, when I realized I’ll never be in the office with my editors again. At the same moment, I knew COVID-19 would define the Spring 2020 semester, and we had to find a way to safely but comprehensively report on it.

My semester as editor-in-chief had been, and still is, important to me. I wanted to uphold the reporting FreeP had been known for — even improve upon it if I could — and make sure writers, editors and photographers were learning and groaning over a news writing assignment or cursgrowing along the way. But when I found out I ing an upcoming History and Ethics (or is it Law had to pull that off during a global pandemic, I and Principles?) of Journalism exam, I’d buy the was hesitant to ask much of my editors. whole office Insomnia Cookies instead of hoping Instead of shying away from the task, though, they’ll give us their leftovers at 3 a.m. our first remote editorial board meeting was the I often get confused looks when I explain most productive and collaborative we’d had all I’m majoring in Economics and International semester. We were ready to rise to the chal- Relations, with no prior or future reporting gigs lenge, not because we’re bored in quarantine, but planned. While leading FreeP is so much more because we take our responsibility as a publica- than a resume builder, it sure doesn’t hurt when tion seriously. Also, yeah, we’re bored. you’re trying to pick up a beat at a major publicaBY VICTORIA BOND DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

tion down the road.

So, why did I just spend 40 hours a week gaining experience in a field with no apparent relation to my career goals?

Read almost any of these end-of-semester letters and you’ll get some iteration of “I became a writer on the first day of freshman year, climbed the ladder without stopping and suddenly I was editor-in-chief.”

For the most part, that’s my story. I applied to be a Features writer before even moving into Warren Towers, gained some experience that

welcomed my clean slate. At the first Features pitch meeting of the year, I found out I actually had that in common with most of the people in the room, including a fellow budding writer that I had no idea would become a close friend and editor just one year later.

I have a strong passion for journalism after learning the ins-and-outs of reporting the truth and gaining appreciation for the extensive work that goes into a publication. But what drives me more than that, especially now, is my passion for FreeP. This paper may be the beginning and end of my journalism career. To most editors-in-chief, that’s a crisis. To me, it was a reason to put everything I had into making this semester memorable. It’s safe to say I got what I wished for.

These times have seen the FreeP cover everything from the impact of self-isolation on hotels to virtual Earth Day celebrations and what Hogwarts might look like in a pandemic.

By the end of this week, when the Spring 2020 E-Board has published for the last time, we will have put out over 200 stories about COVID-19 — and it’s not because of me.

To Jennifer, Sam, Angela, Ausma, Maya, Sarah, Chris, Hillary, Sophia, Caroline and Justin, thank you. Without your enthusiasm and endless stream of pitches for our next story, this newspaper would have been lost.

To every associate editor, writer, photographer, podcaster and more, thank you for confronting this head-on instead of shying away ANGELA YANG/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF from a new way to report. We aren’t a newspaper without you. semester, became an Opinion columnist the next To the 2019 novel coronavirus, thank you, and was suddenly on the fast-track to running too. You pushed us to work both smarter and the damn thing. harder, and helped us make history along the I applied because I’d gotten pretty good way. grades on essays in high school and for the most Don’t misunderstand me: thousands of part seemed to enjoy writing them more than my deaths and the turmoil of underprivileged compeers. I was also opinionated, which I thought munities are not worth a student newspaper’s might come in handy if I ended up writing col- opportunity to do something unprecedented. umns or editorials — it did.

But if it was inevitable, I am thankful that my Instead of shying away from a freshman with editors and I were safe and well enough to put little tangible experience in journalism, FreeP out some kickass journalism along the way.

Statements from the BU Community “I am disoriented. I thought I was living in a political cartoon, now, I feel like an extra in a science fiction drama that is a commentary on capitalism and society. I am struggling to maintain my wellbeing amidst bad intentions and to maintain hope that a new normal will be the better-making of us all – care for ourselves and for each other. Go world – we’re still here and still will be. I hope you and the people who love you are well during this extraordinary moment.”

Kenneth Elmore, Dean of Students

“Despite keeping us in our individual homes, this pandemic has given us the unprecedented opportunity to broaden our horizons, and both cultivate and strengthen our communities through webinars with guest speakers, zoom check-ins, creative workshops, and countless other events; I know that these displays of passion and support have allowed me to thrive as much as possible in this new environment.”

Tess Ravick, Hillel Student Board President

“The Covid-19 pandemic truly changed everything—it changed how we do our scholarship, how we teach, and how we see our priorities for action. We found ourselves navigating sadness about the human consequences of the event, the loss of life and opportunity for so many, while needing to think how to recreate how we carry out our core functions. My hope is that in time, creative thinking on all areas will lead us to innovate and emerge with better ways to continue to fulfill our mission, to generate ideas and teach them to the next generation.”

Sandro Galea, School of Public Health Dean “The highlight of all of this for me has been the HTC’s commitment to continually fostering community through this trying time. The HTC has been continuing programming like Brothers United and Tea Time over Zoom and it has provided a sense of normalcy for me so I am extremely appreciative. Our HTC staff, and the various student program leaders at BU have shown that connections can be made wherever we are!”

Derrick Lottie, Jr., Brothers United Co-coordinator and Howard Thurman Center Ambassador

“Journalism, especially local and student journalism, has never been more vital to our communities that are looking for accurate information and sources of comfort during these unprecedented times. We could not be more proud of the way our editors and staff have navigated the ongoing crisis with tenacity and creativity, breaking news and publishing stories daily, all while hundreds of miles away from campus.”

Vigunthaan Tharmarajah, Chair of Back Bay Publishing Co. Board of Directors

“COVID-19 has been a life-changing event, upending the way we do so many of the things we often take for granted. Our faculty, students, and staff have responded so beautifully to this challenge, however, and I am continually impressed by their creativity, fortitude, and ability to adapt to very challenging circumstances. Our community has more than risen to the occasion, and the results are borne out each day in the dynamic new approaches we’re seeing in our remote classrooms and in the connections our faculty and students continue to maintain. It is a challenge – and our primary consideration will always be health and safety – but we’ll come out stronger and smarter, and that is a tribute to the hard work of very dedicated, talented people.”

Jean Morrison, Boston University University Provost and Chief Academic Officer