Sept. 9, 2020
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Volume CI
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Est. 1929
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www.sjuhawknews.com
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The Student Newspaper of Saint Joseph’s University
H AWK S B EHI N D TH E MA SK S
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Editorial
The Hawk Newspaper
Sept. 9, 2020
Coronavirus blues Alone on campus and on campus alone Editor in Chief Jackie Collins ’21 Managing Editor Ryan Mulligan ’21 Copy Chief Cara Smith ’21 Faculty Adviser Shenid Bhayroo Contributing Adviser Jenny Spinner
Copy Editor Celia Hegarty ’21 Copy Editor Carly Calhoun ’21 Copy Editor Olivia Giannetta ’22 Multimedia Editor Nick Karpinski ’21 News Editor Devin Yingling ’22 Assistant News Editor Eddie Daou ’22 Assistant News Editor Christine DiSanti ’21 Opinions Editor Tayler Washington ’22 Assistant Opinions Editor Sehar Macan-Markar ’22 Features Editor Giana Longo ’22
For those of us who elected to return to campus this fall, one reason was to feel a sense of normalcy again. We hoped that taking Zoom classes in our dorms or in off-campus housing would feel better than in our childhood bedrooms, or that seeing our friends in class would bring a feeling of social connection even if it was from six feet away. We were wrong. With the coronavirus to blame, St. Joe’s leadership has repeatedly assured us that they are doing their best to provide a “normal” semester, despite the undeniable feeling of impending doom for many of us. We believe that the university’s administration, faculty and staff have made a sincere effort to make this happen. But campus does not feel remotely as warm or as familiar as it has in past semesters. We feel grateful to have the opportunity to see Barbelin Hall in person again and eat an Einstein Bros.’ bagel for the first time since March. In the past few weeks, we have realized that maybe our expectations for this semester were unreasonably high. The places we usually go to that make St. Joe’s our second home do not feel familiar at all. The Post Learning Commons, well known for being one of the main hubs on campus to meet friends and catch up on work, is too quiet, even for a library. It now feels empty and lifeless, representative of the overall mood on campus. The same goes for many other spots on campus, such as Starbucks, which is usually bustling and the perfect place to meet friends, and Saxby’s with its upbeat music and comfortable atmosphere. Both are open for business, but students aren’t allowed to sit and relax unless it’s outside, which will become more challenging as the weather gets colder. The communal places that we have traditionally been drawn to make us ask “What’s the point?” Instead, we choose to remain in our rooms or apartments. Living in a pandemic isn’t easy by any means, but we thought coming back would
allow us to escape, momentarily, from the scariness of it all. But being on campus emphasizes that feeling even more while we wonder when, or if, our school will be next to succumb to a virus outbreak and the inevitable campus closure. Campus feels lonely for us, but that uneasiness grows exponentially when people you see everyday in your hall, dorm or classroom disappear for 14 days at a time with no mention of why. Then you wonder if you might be next. It doesn't help that we are mostly in the dark about St. Joe’s COVID-19 active case
“Living in a pandemic isn’t easy by any means, but we thought coming back would allow us to escape, momentarily, from the scariness of it all.” status and all positive test data. This adds to our stress. The St. Joe’s COVID-19 Dashboard is difficult to understand and none of us is sure what the benchmark will be for closing campus. In addition to the dashboard, we don’t know how many people are currently in quarantine or in isolation, which is another cause of stress among students, faculty and staff. Along with this, the dashboard is updated weekly rather than daily. Temple University has a straightforward three-column chart that shows how many students, faculty and staff tested positive for the virus. Villanova University has a more detailed dashboard that includes potential cases and contact tracing. Drexel University shows cumulative cases since the beginning of their semester. These dashboards seem informative and easy to read, and regular updates
definitely reassure the community. St. Joe’s bare minimum COVID-19 Dashboard induces more anxiety because we don’t have enough information. We understand privacy policies and student safety, but communications to students at other universities suggest that St. Joe’s is not doing enough. The University of Pittsburgh, for example, sends emails to community members to make them aware of hot spots as well as outbreaks in off-campus student housing. The lack of transparency we’re experiencing makes us feel even more frustrated. Accurate, up-to-date information is critical in the midst of a public health crisis. The combination of these stressors contribute to an overall decrease in motivation within our community. Students are noticing that some of their professors are feeling defeated, even as they continue teaching. Our professors are clearly concerned in the classrooms about their safety, students, the lack of information and unfulfilled promises. We want St. Joe’s to know that we, students, are also concerned. Was it wise to want to return to campus in the first place? Yes, because we were reassured that our safety was a top priority for the university. Did we think it was going to feel normal? Of course not. But when we signed the iCare Pledge and agreed to do our best, we expected the university to do the same. —The Editorial Board
The Hawk welcomes Letters to the Editor, typically no more than 300 words. They can be emailed to hawk.editorial@gmail.com.
Assistant Features Editor Nenagh Sheehan ’21 Assistant Features Editor Elaina Wall ’21 Sports Editor Riley Frain ’21 Assistant Sports Editor Tyler Nice ’23 Graphics/Illustrations Editor Casey Wood ’23 Photo Editor Mitchell Shields ’22 Social Media Manager Sam Jenkins ’21 Business Manager Angela DiMarco ’22 Assistant Business Manager Colin Messenger ’22 Assistant Business Manager Danny Remishevsky ’23 Assistant Business Manager Jillian Bodemer ’23
Letter from the Editor To our readers: It is week three of the fall 2020 semester, and members of the St. Joe’s community still don’t seem to be acclimated to this “new normal.” This is not the St. Joe’s that we know and love. This is to be expected since this is, after all, college life in the midst of a global pandemic. We feel lonely because campus feels empty and many of our friends are doing remote learning. We feel frustrated because we have to remember so many things: a mask, hand sanitizer, wiping our desks, sitting in assigned seats, staying six feet apart all the time. We sometimes feel overwhelmed because we have to keep track of our classes and schedules of mixed modalities. We feel anxious because every other day, someone in our classes has to isolate or quarantine, and we wonder if we will be next to go fully online like many other universities in our area.
What alleviates these feelings of mental and physical isolation, even if it’s just for a second, is conversation. We are not alone in feeling lonely. This week, The Hawk had socially distant, open discussions with members of the university community. We will continue to report stories about what is happening on campus and the experiences of our readers. We will continue to hold St. Joe’s accountable. That, after all, is our duty. But during this strange time that is college in a pandemic, we thought it important to stop and ask members of the community, “How are you feeling?” In this week’s special issue, we bring you the voices behind the masks. The Hawk staff interviewed as many students, faculty and staff as we could to hear how they are coping so far this semester. We hope that this effort validates everyone and shows that you are not alone in your loneliness.
Part of The Hawk’s mission is to be a platform to elevate diverse voices. Please continue to share your experiences with us during this pandemic. You can DM us on Twitter or Instagram (@sjuhawknews). If you prefer email, write me a letter at hawk. editorial@gmail.com. Now more than ever, we need to act with kindness, understanding and care for each other-for the whole person. Everyone is going through their own personal pandemic experiences that we often don’t know about. In the following pages, you will read about how your fellow Hawks have experienced the pandemic so far. Sincerely, Jackie Collins ’21 Editor in Chief
Sept. 9, 2020
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The Hawk Newspaper
What is your biggest challenge right now? “It’s kind of like a ghost town on campus, you barely see anyone. You want to hang out with people, but sometimes you can’t. It’s just little frustrating. At the same time, you know it’s for the right reason.” Daniella Campos ’23
“My biggest challenge would have to be finding the motivation to do school work from my dorm. It feels like my summer was so long and COVID-19 just made things feel even longer. It’s harder to come back to taking classes.” Diego Ramirez ’22
“My biggest challenge right now is trying to connect with classmates and friends. As a person of color, it’s hard to find others that have a similar background and experience as me and it’s already hard to talk to people with social distancing.” Deborah Duong ’24
“It’s just frustrating when we haven’t seen some of our friends for six months and we want to throw a huge get together of like 80 people and we can’t do that. You just want to see all of your friends at once. Now it’s just going to lunch with one at a time, which I understand, but I’m ready for this to go away.” Alessandra Leone ’22
“I feel really disconnected from everything right now, so it’s hard to maintain any motivation to actually do my assignments because it feels like there’s no actual, tangible reason for doing them. When I had class in person, I felt like, ‘oh, I need to do this before going to class tomorrow.’ But now, I don’t have anywhere to actually go.” Dana Ortgiesen ’22
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What makes you happy right now?
“I like being able to walk to class get out and just see people. I’d rather be here than at home.” Clare Hanlon ’23
The Hawk Newspaper
Sept. 9, 2020
“I’ve been indulgent. I’m a music lover so I listen to a lot of music to keep me relaxed. I talk to a lot of my friends, the few that came back, and we spend a lot of time outside of campus walking around, so we talk a lot about the challenging stuff.” Colin Powell ’23
“The Latino Student Association is doing a lot of virtual events, and other events practicing social distancing. So, that’s been a good way to keep my mind off of schoolwork and the stress of the semester.” Stella Gonzalez ’21
“I love it here, and I love how people are welcoming other people to engage. They are breaking [the norm], which has been that you don’t want to talk to anyone.” Abdullah Alshamrani ’24
“Seeing everyone makes me happy even if it’s not in the most normal way.” Nikki Pejavara ’21
Sept. 9, 2020
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The Hawk Newspaper
“I’m worried about the families of people who are going home, and the professors who are quite genuinely putting themselves in harm’s way to be on campus. Especially professors who have loved ones, young children or have elderly parents. I just hope that we, as a student body, have enough respect for them, as they are showing up for us, and making sure that they stay safe because we don’t know anyone’s life story outside of our own, and who has support systems and who doesn’t.” Stephanie Zellner ‘22
“My health, of course, is definitely on my mind. But the fear of being sent home or all classes going virtual so soon in the semester kind of worries [me].” Alex Vlahovic ‘22
“[I think] knowing that things can change in five minutes and having that constant worry of what’s going to happen five minutes from now. Am I going to get an email that I don’t have class in 10 minutes? Or am I getting an email that I have to quarantine or I have to go home?” Emily Ash ‘23
What are you most worried about right now? “I’ve been worried about if, or when, they’re going to send us home because I like routines, and any routine right now is difficult. I feel like it’ll be difficult for me to stay motivated if everything is moved online.” Anna Kalafatis ‘22
“I’m nervous about my grades and being able to keep up with [work] being online. That’s the struggle, just to stay focused. I try to go to different places on campus to do my work so I get out of the dorm. I think [I’m nervous about] maybe that too, being stir crazy in my dorm.” Emma Nemeth ‘24
“Both of my parents are high-risk, so any chance of getting COVID-19 is kind of scary for me.” Zach Lisowski ‘22
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The Hawk Newspaper
FROM QUARANTINE “I got [to the Homewood Suites] at 11:40 p.m. I finally got to my room and immediately I just went to bed. I was so upset, so exhausted. I woke up the next morning at 9:30 a.m. and I had gotten an email from someone at 1:15 a.m. That person [wrote] ‘Respond to this email before 7 a.m. for [for a food order] the next day.’ Obviously I couldn’t, [I was] sleeping from 1:15 a.m. to 7 a.m. I just didn’t end up getting food from 4 p.m. [the night before] until 4 p.m. the [that] day.” Aidan Dowling '23
“I guess my worry is just how long are we actually going to be on campus? I know that the transition to go from home to school, back home, back to school is just a lot. It was a lot mentally, it was very overwhelming. So to think that I might have to do that again, I hope it’s worth it now that I have been [in quarantine] for more than a week.” Julianne McGuire '23
“I work better in person. So it’s now a little tough, not being able to be in [in-person] class. I have been missing out on a lot [of schoolwork]. I am just falling behind in one or two classes because they were classes I was struggling with before and I was meaning to get extra help in person.” Katerina Calvo '24
“The hardest part was going from being surrounded by classmates and who [I] lived with to being completely alone, but also trying to keep up on my schoolwork and make sure [I’m] still going to Zoom classes. The times and days kind of fade together. I had to make sure I was on top of what time I got up and try to stay in a routine. When you’re just laying down and have nowhere else to go, your motivation slips.” Skylar Morgan'22
Sept. 9, 2020
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BEHIND THE SCREEN Remote Learners
From Bella Cocozza ’21 to Everyone: From Victoria Myers ’22 to Everyone:
“I would say the struggle is being off campus. I’m a pretty involved student so keeping busy kept me more on track with my schoolwork, [instead of] being at home and having all kinds of things going on rather than my busy schedule.”
“I’m not worried about my grades or anything because I already had the spring semester online so I know what to expect. I think my biggest concern is just more the social aspect. I’m having F.O.M.O. [fear of missing out] more or lessbecause of not being on campus and missing out on things that my friends and classmates are getting to experience.”
From Kayla Evans ’23 to Everyone:
“I would say motivation [is my biggest challenge]. When you’re on campus, you see all these people going to class, you see people around you doing a little work. When you’re at school, your whole environment is school like everybody around you in some way, shape, or form is doing some sort of school, whether it’s extracurriculars or homework. Now I’m at home and my brother is playing Fortnight, my dad is talking about his 30 mile bike ride, my cousin is playing basketball and the [landscapers] are outside so I can’t even hear the class.”
From Larissa Bazile ’21 to Everyone:
“I have to admit that it’s sad because I just transferred to St. Joe’s in the spring. I was just starting to get to know the school, I was just starting to get to know the people of the area. I’m not from Philadelphia. I thought my senior year would be a lot more fun.”
From Ginika Nkwonta ’22 to Everyone:
“What has made me happiest is how flexible my professors have been with making their classes accessible for people to participate in remotely, even if that wasn’t their initial intention.”
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The Hawk Newspaper
What are the biggest differences you’ve noticed walking around campus? Gabby Bekoka ’23
“It’s interesting, the experience of going to my classes every day and having to figure out which ones are on Zoom and which ones are on campus. It’s just a little harder because I live off campus.”
“It’s much quieter on campus than I expected. I know that a maTed jority of classes Dolan ’21 are online, so I figured there wouldn’t be as many people walking around during the day, but in a very general sense, campus is very quiet and often looks like a ghost town.”
Sept. 9, 2020
“It definitely is not how I saw Claire Fitzgerald my senior year going, and in ’21 some ways, it’s definitely disappointing. But I think I’ve learned to accept it and kind of take it in stride and say, ‘Yeah, it’s different, but we’ll figure out the ways to make the most of it.’”
“It’s so empty. People used to always be Marissa outside and together Hona ’22 and always hanging out. It’s just so quiet and empty, which is a little disheartening because it’s nice to be back, but at the same time, I kind of just miss people.”
Giovanna “It’s a little different Constantito see no one prac- no ‘23 ticing on the soccer field or the lacrosse field. I used to always walk by and look at practice. It’s sad. The library’s so quiet, I feel kind of uncomfortable talking in there.”
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The Hawk Newspaper
“I’m trying to take advantage of the free fitness classes to try and stay healthy, and not be inside in a crowded gym, but also still help my immune system. I got my flu Zoe Hoag shot, drink lots of water, '23 take vitamins every day and just try to be as proactive as I can.”
Maria Johnson ’21
“I’m a little iffy about the dorm situation. I live in Villiger [Hall], so seeing people gathering in larger crowds than they should be is really frustrating. I usually have to remove myself from that kind of situation.”
What are you doing to keep yourself safe and healthy? Noah “I keep hand san- White ’23 itizer in my bag and take that everywhere. Obviously [I] wear a mask everywhere, wipe down my desk before I sit down at class and just avoid close contact with people, because you never know.”
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“Even though it’s different and much more limited, I am still extremely grateful just to have any type of gym access and to be around my teammates and coaches again.” Mary Sheehan Senior, Women’s Basketball
The Hawk Newspaper
Sept. 9, 2020
ATHLETICS “Typically I see a bunch of my friends while walking to and from campus but nobody is on campus unless they have class. It feels like a ghost town. I am still on campus a lot between lift, class and other things, but not many other people are.” Nate Thomas Junior, Baseball
“[Strict requirements] do not allow for much variety in training. We basically can only do individual skill work. Although everyone understands why, it’s just a difficult training setting. The team is committed to safety first.” Coach Don D’Ambra Men’s Soccer
“I think remembering my mask all the time has been the biggest challenge.” Ryan Daly Redshirt Senior, Men’s Basketball
“Constantly reminding myself of being confined in the house for the last five months has surely kept me positive about returning to campus, being on the court and around our guys.” Coach Justin Scott Men’s Basketball
“Being able to workout in a safe environment has really been beneficial. We have been given the opportunity to schedule individual gym time seven days a week. Working out allows me to take my mind off of missing home and what’s going on in the world.” Kaliah Henderson Sophomore, Women’s Basketball
“It was great to see our team again, but the first two weeks certainly weren’t filled with the normalcy we were expecting. We have adjusted and adapted and are getting back into the swing of things.” Coach Gerry Quinlan Women’s Rowing
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“I am pregnant, so coming back to work was a risk. My doctors didn’t really want me coming. That’s one of the biggest fears that I have: protecting myself and my child.” Brianni Blume, Aramark Employee
“My son is no longer going to school, to the physical space. So, the most difficult thing for me to adjust to was the fact that I have so many more responsibilities in terms of parenting than I would have had.” Brian J. Yates, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History
FACULTY & STAFF “It has been really challenging coming to work every day and knowing that this campus, which normally would just be so vibrant and so alive, has been so quiet. Having to tell students and student leaders ‘no’ is just so very hard, because the last thing someone like myself in my role in a student leadership office ever wants to do is to prohibit students from connecting and being engaged.” Beth Hagovsky, Ed.D., Director of Student Leadership & Activities
“We are working on it together. By wearing masks, you save someone else’s life. I’m wearing my mask, and I save your life. The virus is not prejudiced. [It will] walk in anybody’s door. This virus, it’s not prejudiced.” Fresnee Cuviller, Public Safety Officer
“My biggest worry concerns my son, Greg Lewin, who was one of the co-founders of the Minnesota Freedom Fund (MMF). He has been in the thick of the protests in Minneapolis and did a lot of volunteer work. At the end of June, he quit his job to become Interim Executive of MFF. He is in and out of jails, talking with many people every day. In other words, he’s at risk both of COVID-19 and violence regularly.” Alison Williams Lewin, Ph.D., Professor of History
“Disappointingly, the campus is very quiet, numb, not very active, to say the least. The most action I see is walkers, not from the university but locals, walking around campus in the mornings. There is very little activity, which is sad.” Donald Townsend, Professor of Marketing