Friday, November 20, 2020

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Friday, November 20, 2020

VOLUME CLV, ISSUE 43

SCIENCE & RESEARCH

ARTS & CULTURE

Brown EMS adapts services during COVID-19 BEMS staff provide clinical, non-clinical services following pandemic EMILIJA SAGAITYTE SCIENCE & RESEARCH EDITOR Vivian Van ’21 rests in her official dark-blue Emergency Medical Services uniform, which matches the sky in the backdrop of the window behind her.

It’s past midnight, but she’ll be ready to respond if there is an emergency call. The clock ticks onward, pushing into her 12-hour shift.

A COVID red comes in — a call for a person experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

An experienced Advanced Life Support colleague, who is equipped to provide advanced, life-saving care, joins her from an adjacent room. At this time last year, a group of EMTs, supervisors and recruits in training would be dashing out the door of EMS headquarters. Now, it’s just the two of them, new recruits noticeably absent.

Van, a Basic Life Support supervisor, climbs into the ambulance and slips on her seatbelt in the driver’s seat as her non-student colleague assumes the risk by preparing to attend to the incoming patient.

The ALS member is clad in the proper protective equipment: body garbed in gowns and gloves, face warmed by their breath insulated underneath a mask, moonlight reflected off their face shield. Van will not be interacting with the patient directly, but mirrors her colleague in appearance with her eye protection, gloves and mask.

Forty two years after its founding, Brown EMS sirens still blare from its headquarters during the day, and its signature red and white hue whizzes across the backdrop of dorms throughout the nights. Formed amid the Great Blizzard of 1978, Brown EMS finds itself once again responding to the call of a community-wide problem: COVID-19.

BEMS’ purpose to care for their

BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

patients has not faltered. “It’s still the same words that we say when we go into the room, we just might be wearing more on our bodies,” said Emily Pham ’21, training officer and Basic Life Support supervisor at EMS. But the pandemic has challenged first responders to rethink how they approach their roles while ensuring the comfort and safety of their staff.

Shifting priorities BEMS operates 24/7 and relies on the time and commitment of students like Van and other more experienced staff, including medical students, to

stays in buildings where students are isolating “every night to be a warm presence” and to offer support or guidance to further resources, Sanderson said.

To ensure proper preparation and safety in responding to calls, patients are asked about their symptoms, temperature and COVID-19 test results, among other questions, before EMS personnel are sent out to them, Van said. If the case is marked COVID green, meaning it is not determined to not be a COVID-19 risk, responders are required only to wear masks, gloves and goggles

Contract Tracing: The Herald’s COVID-19 loveline

SEE EMS PAGE 9

HEE WON CHUNG / HERALD

Students, Herald staff members reflect on how their pandemic romances

BY KATHERINE OK ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

All staff who consented to assist with Brown Emergency Medical Services during the pandemic are being paid. administer direct patient care and attend to tasks such as handling private medical information, according to Director of Emergency Management for Health and Wellness Amy Sanderson.

While making changes to ensure the safety of their staff, BEMS “gave students the opportunity to continue their clinical work and the work that they really love doing for the campus, and to expand those opportunities to other people who were less comfortable actually working on the ambulance,” Sanderson said.

BEMS staff have continued with traditional responsibilities like administering flu shots, though they are not delivering any COVID-19 tests, Sanderson said. This semester, BEMS workers have also coordinated with dining services to deliver meals, mail and school, self-care and home supplies to students in isolation. An EMT

With College Hill’s foliage saturated in crimson hues and Uniqlo HEATTECH fabric materializing on the student body,

temperatures dip below the 50s and midterm exams vigilantly march on by.

And so our biological clocks rattle earnestly against our wind-bitten skin, urging us to covet the happiness of a lovestruck couple nestled in a Ratty booth or third-floor Rock carrel. But amid the COVID-19 pandemic, when all 20-something-year-olds are legally and socially mandated to mask half of their faces, the possibility of a meet-cute af-

SEE LOVE PAGE 4

UNIVERSITY NEWS

Professor Anani Dzidzienyo, beloved and brilliant, dies at 79 Students, colleagues, friends remember Dzidzienyo’s mentorship, empathy

BY HENRY DAWSON METRO EDITOR Professor Anani Dzidzienyo, renowned scholar, mentor and educator, died on Oct. 25. Dzidzienyo was 79 years old.

Following over four decades of teaching at the University, the Ghanaian academic has left behind a legacy

of internationally respected scholarship and a deep memory of his empathy, character and capacity for connection.

He was a foundational presence in the field of Afro-Latin American studies, and worked to illuminate Black experiences in Latin America and beyond.

“I’m still in awe of his humility,” said Beau Gaitors ’08, a student and friend of the late professor. “His humility in being such a great scholar, a great mentor, a great professor. A great instructor. He was great in so many ways and carried it all with humility.”

Gaitors described Dzidzienyo as a welcoming, nurturing figure. Early in

his undergraduate career, Gaitors was unsure he would stay at the University.

Dzidzienyo counseled Gaitors to remain and offered him a position as an office assistant.

In the office, watching Dzidzienyo’s compassion and care for others, Gaitors realized he wanted to stay at the University and one day become a professor: “I wanted to be like Anani.”

Gaitors, under his mentorship, graduated with a concentration in Africana Studies.

He is now Assistant Professor of

SEE DZIDZIENYO PAGE 3

VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

Metro

Commentary

Commentary

Alan Rosenberg of the Providence Journal, now retiring, reflects on nearly 43year career. Page 2

Editors’ Note: The Herald announces the 131st Editorial Board and other leadership positions. Page 6

Editorial: First year students may not have a typical experience, but can still have a real beginning. Page 7

TODAY

TOMORROW

62 / 43

59 / 32

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

Friday, November 20, 2020

METRO

ProJo Exec. Editor announces retirement from paper After 43 years of nonstop journalism, Alan Rosenberg accepts buyout from Gannett

of the 29 years prior in the features section.

At the beginning of his career, Rosenberg didn’t plan to stay at the Journal for longer than five years. He dreamed of prestigious legacy papers such as the New York Times or his

if he could afford to retire. “I did the math,” he said, and the math told him to take the deal, to make a change.

Because the decision came suddenly, Rosenberg does not know what he will do after his final day at the Providence Journal Dec. 1.

BY BEN GLICKMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER Things change fast in the news business. Alan Rosenberg knows this better than most.

In his nearly 43-year career at the Providence Journal, Rosenberg has seen changes big and small. He saw journalism shift online in the mid-2000s.

He was there when the Journal was purchased by then-publishing giant GateHouse Media in 2014. He was there (and is still) during the COVID-19 pandemic. And he has seen many of his colleagues forced to leave the Journal as the paper’s circulation has shrunk.

Rosenberg has seen his fair share of personal change within the Journal as well, taking on new positions many times within the paper. His last career change was assuming the role of executive editor in May 2017, the pinnacle of a career spanning more than four decades at the Providence Journal.

Next month, Rosenberg will change things again: He announced Nov. 13 that he would retire from the Journal, accepting a buyout from the paper’s owner, Gannett, which is the largest newspaper publisher in the country by total daily circulation.

Many of the changes in Rosenberg’s career were unexpected. He was first approached about his ultimate position by former Executive Editor Dave Butler before Butler’s retirement. Butler took him out to lunch and asked him, “Have you ever thought about running this place?”

“No, I haven’t,” Rosenberg recalled responding. The question caught him off guard because he thought of himself as a “features guy” — he had spent 24

COURTESY OF ALAN ROSENBERG

Alan Rosenberg, the executive editor of The Providence Journal, announced his retirement after a nearly 43 year career at the paper. hometown papers in Chicago. Things changed when he met Avis Gunther, a young woman from Cranston, whom he would one day marry.

His put his job search on hold, where it would stay for decades. Telling the story, he couldn’t help but grin.

According to Rosenberg, many of his moves from position to position within the Journal were simply offered to him. “We think you would be good at this,” editors would say to him. He did not seek out new roles — the paper’s leadership came to him.

His retirement was also unexpected. In October, Gannett announced a round of voluntary buyouts for its staff of over 250 newspapers. About 500 of Gannett’s 21,000 other employees — 5,000 of whom are journalists — are also taking the deal.

The buyout was generous, Rosenberg said. He considered his age and

“I’ve always been open to what the universe is bringing me,” Rosenberg said. “And so far, it has worked well for me.”

Change as Executive Editor During Rosenberg’s tenure as executive editor, he took it upon himself to change the way the Journal connects with its readership.

In a column titled “As new executive editor, let me say hello,” published shortly after he was chosen for the position, Rosenberg introduced himself to readers. He welcomed a new dialogue about the paper’s coverage.

“We’ve tended to be a quiet bunch here on Fountain Street, but the days when we can simply put our work on our pages and expect it to speak for itself are long gone,” Rosenberg wrote.

In retrospect, Rosenberg said he always thought the Journal should change

CA L E N DA R

what he called a “stiff-upper-lip approach to the rest of Rhode Island.” The paper often had a “never explain, never complain” attitude, he said. Rosenberg said that approach has been out of step with the times for a while now.

In sum, Rosenberg feels like he has delivered on his promise of open communication. He began writing weekly columns — an unprecedented duty for the Providence Journal’s executive editor — almost by accident. He kept having something to write about week after week, Rosenberg said, until it became a regular task.

In his columns, he explained what changes were being made in the paper’s coverage. Even the little things matter: He wrote one column explaining how the paper tries to balance coverage of the University of Rhode Island’s and Providence College’s basketball teams, a longtime rivalry.

He heard back from readers as well.

They told him what they thought the Journal should be covering, and what they thought the paper had gotten wrong. After Rosenberg announced his retirement, some readers reached out to say that they didn’t always agree with him, but they did think he was sincere.

As local journalism struggles around the country, Rosenberg said that connections within the community have become crucial. “The main thing you are selling is trust,” he said, “and your reputation for truth and probity.”

The COVID-19 pandemic made connecting with the community even more difficult for Rosenberg and the Journal.

Not only were reporters mostly working from home, but Gannett required that all of its newspaper staff take one week of furlough per month until July. So, the Journal was covering a huge story with one hand tied behind its back.

When one reader wrote in to the Journal to point out an error, adding a complaint about “the complete lack of effort that is considered ‘news,’” Rosenberg wrote a column defending

the newsroom (which had gone remote).

They had continued to put out a daily paper despite a scattered and reduced staff.

Rosenberg said that his furlough weeks were bizarre for him. He had taken vacation while at the paper, but the work didn’t really stop when he was away.

“Today, there’s no off duty,” Rosenberg said, adding that he often finds himself checking his email and voicemail four or five times an hour when he’s home.

But on furlough, he was forbidden from doing any kind of work at all.

To his surprise, Rosenberg was not bored with his down time. “It’s kind of nice,” he said. “Who knew?” His weeks of furlough turned out to be a “dress rehearsal for retirement.”

Still, Rosenberg found himself missing the buzz of the newsroom. He has spent most days of his 43-year career around people in the office — colleagues sitting next to him and behind him, people making phone calls and tapping on keyboards. His face lights up when he talks about the feeling when news breaks, and everyone scrambles to tackle a different task.

It makes him sad to think about never having that experience again.

Rosenberg knows that his successor will face the challenges of a remote newsroom, where building camaraderie is difficult. He thinks keeping reporters and photographers safe — both from COVID-19 and a world that is increasingly hostile to journalists — will be another challenge.

But Rosenberg is not worried about change as a result of his departure.

During his time at the Journal, Rosenberg has seen many journalists come and go. He has learned that change is always unsettling and scary.

“We experience change as loss,” he said, and most people think that the status quo is the way it should be.

Change, Rosenberg added, is natural. “We don’t get to stand still in our lives.”

COVID -19 AT BROWN LAST 7 DAYS*

NOVEMBER Completed Tests

People Tested

S

M

Tu

W

Th

F

S

11,625

6,757

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Confirmed Positives

Positivity Rates

38

0.3 %

8

9

10

11

12

13

14 SINCE AUGUST 24, 2020*

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Completed Tests

People Tested

121,489

7,668

Total Cases

Prevalence

116

1.5 %

*AS OF NOV. 19

Friday, November 20, 2020

DZIDEZIENYO FROM PAGE 1

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This semester, he is teaching ‘Blacks in Latin-American History’ — the class in which he first met Dzidzienyo.

Gaitors remained in touch with Dzidzienyo after he graduated; their friendship is one of the many strong bonds the late professor forged throughout his career.

Many people forged lifelong relationships with Dzidezienyo at the University and beyond.

Brian Meeks, chair of Africana Studies, remembered how at Commencement in 2016 waves of alums mobbed Dzidzienyo “like a rockstar” outside the Van Wickle Gates. Alumni also lined up outside his office for a chance to chat,

and kindness personified,” wrote Shamara Alhassan ’17 Ma ’19 PHD, a past student of Dzidzienyo, in an email to The Herald. “He was a scholar in the most important sense of the word. As a scholar, he was curious about everything.”

Former students recalled how Dzidzienyo worked to connect with them in class. He would cold call students, not to catch them off guard, but out of a kind-hearted, genuine curiosity, Cardoso said. Dzidzienyo wanted to learn both from and about those he taught.

“Anani was actually truly invested in helping his students in any way that they needed,” Cardoso said.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies Keisha-Khan Perry told The Herald that many Black students who have African ancestry “came to him like

of her life at the time, navigating the racial landscape of Brazil was challenging and emotionally straining. She was immersed with little scaffolding in an unfamiliar country and a pervasive, violent “psychic structure of racism.”

Harding found herself in a profoundly Black city, yet one with no Black people visible in positions of power and a host family clearly unaccustomed to living with a Black person who did not work for them, she said.

She came to Dzidzienyo upset.

“Anani looked at me and he said, ‘Rachel, if I had told you what it was really like, would you have gone?’” Harding said. “It was precisely the experience I needed to be able to later do the work I have done as a historian of African movement, culture and religion. It provided me some visceral understandings

many with children in tow.

At conferences, Dzidzienyo was consistently cited by multiple speakers as sparking their interest in the study of Blackness or race in Brazil or Latin America, Watufani Poe GS remembers.

Even in his office hours, Connor Cardoso ’19, a former Herald opinions editor, said, alums from years past would

the long-lost uncle they never had.”

Like Gaitors, many students found a sense of place and belonging with Dzidzienyo.

The professor’s drive to nurture his students manifested both in classroom conduct and his advising style, which impacted many students beyond their academic experiences at Brown. Dr. Ra-

of the context of Brazil.”

Centering this visceral, personal understanding of the communities he wrote on was at the heart of Dzidzienyo’s scholarship.

Dzidzienyo’s scholarly interest “came from a space that deeply wanted liberation for Black people worldwide,” Poe said. “This kind of empathetic understanding, wanting to understand all Black experiences, cannot be separated from also wanting all Black experiences to experience freedom.”

As befits a scholar who played a central role in developing the field of Afro-Latin American studies, Dzidzienyo’s impact and ability to connect reached across nations.

Gaitors recalls attending a conference in Peru with Dzidzienyo three years ago: “It was mind-blowing to see all of these people from different institutions in the U.S. and across the globe just wanting to spend time with Anani.”

This, Gaitors says, reflects Dzidzienyo’s legacy. “He made a lot of people realize just how intriguing and exciting research could be.”

One summer, while in Rio de Janeiro conducting research, Poe ran into the widow of Abdias do Nascimento, a

COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICANA STUDIES

stop by to schedule a meal with the professor and catch up.

These relationships are a product of the impact Dzidzienyo had on the people around him, especially his students.

“Wofa Anani was generosity, love

chel Harding ’86 MFA ’90 remembers how Dzidzienyo encouraged her to study abroad in Brazil through the University’s then-nascent study abroad program.

Although Harding counted the trip as one of the most important events

3

COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AFRICANA STUDIES

Former students and others shared memories and reflections of the lasting impact Professor Anani Dzidzienyo had on them. prominent Black activist. The two had met before at a memorial conference in honor of do Nascimento organized

by Dzidzienyo and Perry.

“She was surrounded by a bunch of Black activists from Rio. And she said ‘Oh my gosh, this is Anani’s student!’” Poe said. “And as soon as she said Anani’s name, everybody’s face lit up. They asked me how he was doing, they were so excited that I was working with Anani.”

Following his passing, one of the first obituaries for Dzidzienyo was published in the Folha de São Paulo, one of the most widely-circulated publications in Brazil.

Although the people he touched are spread across the globe, the physical legacy of Dzidzienyo’s scholarship is housed in his office in Churchill House on the University’s campus.

Dzidzienyo’s office itself, as many of his former students recall, is a spectacle. Newspaper clippings, memorabilia

from Ghana’s independence, gifts, letters, magazines, old assignments and a multitude of books: rare books, out-ofcopy books, books signed by African or Latin-American leaders and the books of former students, inscribed with gratitude for Dzidzienyo. The office is the rich embodiment of a lifetime of scholarship.

In the spring 2021 semester, Perry will teach a class, AFRI 1941: “Archiving the African Diaspora: The Life and Works of Anani Dzidzienyo,” where students will work to archive the contents of Dzidzienyo’s office.

Perry hopes that the class will be part of the healing process for students who knew Dzidzienyo as well as a chance to help preserve his extraordinary legacy in a concrete way.

Dzidzienyo was “compassionate, empathetic and I like to use the adjective, or noun, if you wish, ‘Human,’” Meeks said. “He was remarkably human, in the true meaning of that term.”

4

LOVE FROM PAGE 1 ter long nights of Fox Point party-hopping seems to have been desecrated.

Tinder swipes, or first dates, now carry the weight of a pandemic social contract. Has the pandemic, however, just become a sort of Hobbesian Leviathan that binds us in a more concrete social contract of romance? Thomas Hobbes, in 1651, wrote that a severe sovereign entity was necessary to prevent civil war and “the war of all against all.” The virus, now, dons a crown and emerges from the landscape holding a sword and a crosier to rain down laws of social limitation.

Here, what Hobbes claimed was the state of nature we feared — summum malum, the fear of violent death, or in this case the fear of COVID-19 — determines students and youth to monogamy or isolation.

I spoke with students willing to comment and reflect on their romantic experiences following the campus exodus in March. And it seems that although the Leviathan has executed sudden contracts of social distancing, exclusivity and text-Zoom relationships, the urge to cuff has prevailed during crisis.

For students already in committed relationships, there is, of course, the possibility of full-on quarantining with your partner. After campus closed, Emilia Sowersby ’21 spent four months at her partner’s family’s house. “We are in the same quarantine ‘pod,’ so it’s actually given us a lot more time together, which is really lucky for us,” she said.

But the effects of the pandemic seem to be the most contentious for those who are single or who have just begun quar-dating. Hannah Gelman ’22, a junior currently living off-campus in Providence, started a relationship during this fall, and by the second date, COVID-19 had fast-tracked conversations of exclusivity. “An aspect of my experience with this person that was unique to COVID-19 was that we had to establish monogamy right at the getgo,” she said. “Which forced us to have the ‘what are we’ talk basically on our second date.”

COVID-19’s social limitations have put different terms and conditions to the bargain and process of dating.

“Something unique to this moment is how proactive and deliberate you have to be if you’re interested in anything from a casual hookup to a future spouse,” Gelman continued. “There is no more meeting someone at a … party, or library, no more waiting until you

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS bump into someone in the Blue Room and make your move. No more random cute baristas you can slip your number to, no more hotties at the gym, no more planning to go out on a Saturday and kiss someone — literally anyone, it doesn’t matter who — but you know you will end the night kissing someone.

None of that can happen anymore. It all has to be planned now.”

knowledge we would never be meeting up with anyone because of the safety risk,” he said. “In certain ways I think it makes the idea of romance way more speculative.”

And perhaps this cheeky daringness set forth by the pandemic will eventually rewire our romance-wracked brains.

Gelfond emphatically explained that he feels more willing to even give long-dis-

Perhaps the sieve of coronavirus dating, however, makes dating altogether more deliberate, meaningful and uncomplicated. Gelman explained that to her, dating during coronavirus, with

tance relationships a shot. “I think a lot of people have become considerably more comfortable with starting friendships online and communicating wholly digitally, and that this newfound comfort will eventually make us more likely to do the same with romantic interests,” Gelfond said. “The idea of meeting a love interest on the internet and interacting with them wholly digitally no longer feels ridiculous.”

Some students have done exactly that. Alisa Caira ’22 met her current boyfriend through Tinder while quarantining at home in Boston. “It was really nice to have something sort of ‘new’ going on while everything else was put on hold,” she said.

Even beyond dating apps, Gelman said that she has had some friends who have been hit on by classmates in the Zoom chat box, or shockingly, via email.

Are our smartphones and computers transforming into carrier pigeons of romance?

requirements of social distancing and podding, drew out aspects of her relationship in a positive way. “By the time we literally even touched each other for the first time, we had already established a certain level of comfort, trust, familiarity and affection,” she said. “I actually really appreciated the opportunity, if not the obligation, to set those boundaries early on, because then for the rest of the relationship I didn’t really have to worry about my position in his romantic and sexual life.”

Others echoed this tenuous silver lining that Gelman alluded to. A student, who has asked to remain anonymous for fear of personal repercussions, explained the gamut of criteria that has changed. “I think the virus has taught people how to be more communicative about feelings and expectations, since there’s generally a lot more at stake than just emotions,” they said.

“Though it’s kind of sad it took an airborne plague for that to happen.”

It isn’t surprising, either, that coronavirus relationships have taken to the digital frontier. “The best part about corona is that everyone’s bored, which means that you’re more likely to get a text back,” the student said.

The prohibition of in-person dates has granted some fantastic digital freedom. Dating app usage has increased by 18.4 percent since 2019, with nearly 26.6 million Americans swiping through the likes of Hinge, Bumble, Tinder and Grindr.

Lucas Gelfond ’23.5 noticed this sort of surreal dating carte blanche. “I think there’s a weird lack of reality to it. Out of boredom, friends and I would swipe through dating apps with full

Consulting Herald staff: Writers on this new-age dating format For a week, I was plagued by confusion over whether or not my cohort had regressed to a frankly medieval method of courtship: the covering of faces, not meeting your partner until an arranged date, long, drawn-out communication through the written form (text).

I decided to interview my colleagues at The Herald to hear about their experiences.

Heralders have been lucky enough to experience some cyber fairy tales of COVID-19 courtship. A Herald source, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of personal repercussions, shared her ongoing saga that began over FaceTime.

“We met during first semester and lived in the same dorm. We were class friends,” she explained. “After we went back (home), we would text a lot, because there was a lot of homework. …

Our conversations went from texting

Friday, November 20, 2020

about class to texting about non-class things.”

Going into summer, the FaceTime relationship ramped up to watching films together. “I may have watched all 12 hours of a certain franchise that is not that good,” she said. “But the announcement came out, of whether we could go back to campus or not. He went back, and I didn’t.”

But the distance hasn’t halted this Heralder’s cyber-romance. After a number of mixed signals from each party, mostly involving “nerd flirtations” of homework questions or proposed study sessions, both individuals danced around half-serious love confessions. “I asked him, what if I don’t come back next semester?” she said. “He said that we would cross that bridge when we get to it.”

sation of exclusivity happened. “After two weeks, I was like, you know what?

This is very nice, and this works pretty well. And we’ve been dating for twoand-a-half months now,” she said.

Since then, the couple has gone on many more dates, including a kayaking trip.

“Even if we had met outside of a COVID context, we would have had the same progression and dynamic,” Galarraga said.

For some Heralders, the pandemic was a revelation for their relationship.

Corey Gelb-Bicknell ’23, a senior staff writer, has been in a long-distance relationship for over a year and a half — until quarantine brought him and his girlfriend back to their shared hometown.

“We started dating senior year, and soon after that, we went off to college,” he

Vicky Phan ’21, The Herald’s copy desk chief, and her boyfriend, Alex Galarraga, also sat down over Zoom to discuss their quarantine romance.

“This might be an unpopular opinion between the two of us,” Phan said.

“Because (Alex) got to take the year off from Swarthmore and is working a lot

of tutoring jobs, he gets a lot of free time, and I feel like we get to spend more time together than we would if (Alex was) in school.”

Galarraga disagreed. “We would have spent this much time together if I was in Zoom school,” he said. “I don’t

said. “We kind of experienced the most distance we could have from each other and really having separate lives, and then in a day or two, she became the only person I could see.”

Gelb-Bicknell explained how the pandemic has expanded how he understands intimacy and distance in his relationship. “We’ve been best friends for a long time, but it is easy to think that always spending more time with each other will be easier.

But both spending a lot of time apart and together requires a bit of practice,” he said. “Now that we have done the two extremes, we can do anything. Just having that whole range of intimacy has continued to show me how much I love her.”

It seems perhaps, then, that the pandemic exercises our patience and forces us to deliberate why and how we love or date. COVID-19 has us return to seemingly courtly, medieval values

know what you are talking about!”

Phan and Galarraga met over Tinder.

They spoke to how COVID-19 has possibly contributed to their relationship.

“Vicky here is not usually the one to get hitched, like I am,” Galarraga said. “But on our first date, I was like, ‘Yo, let’s get hitched.’ Not really.”

Phan explained how their conver-

of devotion, exclusivity and piety, and this can encourage us to have faith even in non-extraordinary, ordinary circumstances.

Morrissey, troubadour of emotional isolation and longing, would arguably articulate this phenomenon best — that “it’s the bomb that can bring us together.”

post-

See Full Issue:

NOV 20 — VOL 26 — ISSUE 10

POST.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

FEATURE

NARRATIVE

Au Revoir, Switzerland

twelve years of memories in Geneva

By Minako Ogita Snow Winter was the worst time to move.

That was what I thought, trailing close behind my parents as they walked through the looming black gate. We stepped into a courtyard boxed in by three-story buildings with washed-out walls; at the far end, bare trees framed the edge of what I was later baffled to learn was a Greek theatre.

In what world was this considered a school? The imposing scenery bore no resemblance to the long, low buildings and homey colors of the school I’d left behind in North Carolina. I looked to the ground, intimidated by the incomprehensible

People, Places, and Things

what are we thankful for in 2020?

by Post- Staff illustrated by Elliana Reynolds Things: In a year spent motion sick, it’s the things I could grip onto.

A pencil, at first, tucked in a new notebook, sheathed in black matte leather. For thoughts and

story of my grandmother entering quarantine, as she sheltered from a novel coronavirus just across her city’s bridge to Wuhan.

Pages—turned into handlebars—as her story became mine, and then new pages to reprocess.

Still short of direction, though, as I grieved my community fleeing.

Whispered goodbyes into necks, fleeting.

A replacement: the neck of my guitar, into which I sang to cure my vertigo. Crooning, careening. The only stable point: a pen firmly on paper.

- Ethan Pan

their consequences, words.

The hard spine of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. A story that, for the first time, invited me

I was gifted a beautiful teal Moleskine journal as a high school graduation gift. Three-and-a-half years later, I’m embarrassed to admit that only six out of the 240 pages have been filled.

to join it on its pages, representing me as a queer Asian American. How it said you can write too. How

I had plans for this journal: I entered college with the intent to document my not-so-wild life, a

Ocean’s storm was my weather.

Resulting: the first piece I ever submitted for publication. My first pages of pride, processing the

goal of reflecting at least every week. Clearly, this was wishful thinking...

- Jasmine Ngai

vastness of this “campus,” and grew even more afraid that I wouldn’t fit in. As if changing schools in January wasn’t enough, I was also being abruptly catapulted into middle school.

Swaddled in the thickest jacket I’d ever owned and fitted in clunky snow boots (both of which were foreign to North Carolina, where temperatures rarely dipped below freezing)...

ARTS & CULTURE

polishing off the thanksgiving plate not the perfect day,

not just another thursday

By Ethan Pan If you asked me a year ago what my perfect Thanksgiving was, I’d have immediately shown you one thing: Bon Appétit’s Making Perfect: Thanksgiving. The holiday follow-up to their breakout series Making Perfect: Pizza, these videos had everything I wanted. Decadent shots of

“I have a big juicy ass that you won’t get to see on Zoom. Please hire me for this job.”

“She’s such a ray of fresh air.”

burnished turkey skin, tournament-style brackets pitting pumpkin against pecan pie (they settled on mixing the two together), and a coterie of funny, knowledgeable, freakishly charming coworkers.

Four-plus hours of USDA-prime food content...

LIFESTYLE

Things We’re Thankful COVID Took Away

1. Having 10 minutes between class to run from Watson to Smitty-B

5. Running into professors in person and making a fool of yourself

2. Dressing nice in case this is the time you bump into that one night stand from freshman fall

6. Roaming Faunce to find just one seat

3. Accidentally setting bread on fire in the Ratty toaster 4. Going to an event for free food and it’s all gone by the time you get there

post–

Want to be involved?

Email: amanda_ngo@brown.edu!

7. Hearing your neighbors do the devil’s tango 8. FOMO about the party you’re too tired to go to 9. Cold noses 10. When Jo’s runs out of spicy mayo and the good fries

Things We’re Thankful for this Holiday Season

By Eashan Das and Gus Kmetz Things Being Due Later Than You Thought: Do you ever have a rough week made worse by a problem set due 11:59 p.m., only to see the professor has pushed it back a couple of days? There is no better feeling in the whole wide world. Perhaps the only exception might be the professor telling you...

November 20, 2020 5

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

Friday, November 20, 2020

EDITOR’S NOTE

The Herald announces 131st Editorial Board

The Herald is proud to announce the members of its 131st Editorial Board, who will oversee the paper through its 130th year.

The 131st Editorial Board will be led

by Editor-in-Chief and President Kayla Guo ’22, a Public Policy concentrator from Muttontown, New York. Henry Dawson ’22, a Biology concentrator from Washington, D.C., will serve as managing editor and vice president. Li Goldstein ’22, an English Nonfiction concentrator from New York City, will serve as managing editor.

Joining them on the editorial board are Senior Editors Kamran King ’22, an

Kate Ok ’22, an English concentrator from Irvine, California; Emily Teng ’22, an International Relations and Applied Math concentrator from Shanghai; and Emilija Sagaityte ’22, a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology concentrator from Wayne, Pennsylvania.

In a moment of unprecedented challenges and unique potential for digital transformation, the 130th Editorial Board has full confidence that the new leadership will ensure The Herald continues to move forward and serve the University community to the best of our ability. We are excited to see what you accomplish, and are already so proud of you all.

International Relations and Economics concentrator from New York City;

The Herald also announced business leaders and department heads:

SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD Editorial Leadership Editor-in-Chief Colleen Cronin Managing Editors Sophie Culpepper Allie Reed Senior Editors Elise Ryan Alex Smolar post- magazine Editor-in-Chief Amanda Ngo

Sections Arts & Culture Editors Katherine Ok Emily Teng

Special Projects Coordinators Jacob Lockwood Melanie Pincus

News and Metro Editors Olivia Burdette Henry Dawson Olivia George Daniel Goldberg Li Goldstein Kayla Guo Clara Gutman Argemí Isabel Inadomi Kamran King Spencer Schultz Sarah Wang

Commentary Opinions Editors Jordan Allums Johnny Ren Krista Stapleford

Science & Research Editors Emilija Sagaityte Cate Ryan

Multimedia/Production Design Editors Hee Won Chung Keelin Lyons

Sports Editor Ryan Handel

Head Photo Editors Rebecca Ho Victoria Yin

Editorial Page Board Amanda Brynn Lola Olabode Vicky Phan Krista Stapleford Dylan Tian

Copy Desk Chief Vicky Phan Illustrations Editor Summer Zhang Graphics Editor Usha Bhalla Director of Technology Jed Fox Business General Managers Nicholas Fabrizio Mariel Jackson Office Manager Diane Silvia Directors Rey Blandon Arman Lateef Michael Wang

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88 Benevolent St., Providence, RI (401) 351-3372 www.browndailyherald.com Editorial: herald@browndailyherald.com Advertising: advertising@browndailyherald.com

Business General Managers: Noah Colon ’22 and Michael Wang ’22 postEditor-in-Chief: Olivia Howe ’22 Managing Editors: Alice Bai ’23, Minako Ogita ’21, Emma Schneider ’22, Caitlin McCartney ’22

—Editors’ Notes are written by The Herald’s 130th editorial board: Colleen Cronin ’21, Allie Reed ’21, Sophie Culpepper ’21, Elise Ryan ’21 and Alex Smolar ’21

Submissions: The Brown Daily Herald publishes submissions in the form of op-eds and letters to the editor. Op-eds are typically between 750 and 1000 words, though we will consider submissions between 500 and 1200 words. Letters to the editor should be around 250 words. While letters to the editor respond to an article or column that has appeared in The Herald, op-eds usually prompt new discussions on campus or frame new arguments about current discourse.

All submissions to The Herald cannot have been previously published elsewhere (in print or online — including personal blogs and social media), and they must be exclusive to The Herald.

Submissions must include no more than two individual authors. If there are more than two original authors, The Herald can acknowledge the authors in a statement at the end of the letter or op-ed, but the byline can only include up to two names. The Herald will not publish submissions authored by groups. The Herald does not publish anonymous submissions. If you feel your circumstances prevent you from submitting an op-ed or letter with your name, please email herald@browndailyherald.com to explain your situation.

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The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. is a financially independent, nonprofit media organization bringing you The Brown Daily Herald and Post- Magazine. The Brown Daily Herald has served the Brown University community daily since 1891. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, excluding vacations, once during Commencement and once during Orientation by The Brown Daily Herald, Inc. Single copy free for each member of the community. Subscription prices: $200 one year daily, $100 one semester daily.

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Friday, November 20, 2020

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

7

EDITORIAL

A Letter to the Class of 2024 in the time of COVID-19 To incoming first-years: As you prepare to join our campus ranks in a semester like no other, we write to share words of wisdom (we hope) that may help guide you through the months ahead. When you were completing your applications last fall, we imagine none of you envisioned spending your first semester away from home in a moment such as this — a moment starkly different from the one we, a group of mostly seniors, experienced our first year on campus.

Our first week on College Hill, we held awkward conversations at the Main Green ice cream social, all overeager to make friends.

We took pictures with people we met just two days prior next to a giant blue lamp bear, who was only a bit less new to campus than we were. We spent most of shopping period getting lost in Barus and Holley on our way to class.

We’re saddened that you won’t get to experience these same cringeworthy rites of passage. But we are confident that, in the shared experience of navigating this strange freshman year with your peers, you will develop your own new traditions and memories, making your unique mark on College Hill. As you do so, we hope you’ll find comfort in the guidance that we share with you from our own haphazard navigation of college — both in normal times, and in this unique year.

There is no denying how much the pandemic has cast a shadow on the college experience — especially for you. Not only has it delayed your arrival to campus, but it has redefined the way we share in this experience with each other. This was difficult for every single one of us to accept, but we can tell you firsthand that adapting to the heightened challenge — always wearing masks (yes, even in dorm hallways!); maintaining distance

the faculty and other members of Brown’s community who will be impacted by our actions. We are confident that you will be able to do this as well.

Navigating the first few weeks — really, months — of the first year of college can be really difficult for everyone, even without the added complexities (and oftentimes isolation) of virtual courses and social distancing.

Here’s some advice: Shopping period is a wonderful tool, but there’s no right way to take advantage of it. In many ways, Zoom has made it even easier to pop between courses in a given hour, but don’t overindulge. Keeping up with 13 courses for a week until you figure out which ones to drop gets overwhelming quicker than you’d think!

Many of us found this advice difficult to internalize, but try not to worry too much about concentration requirements; you will never have as much flexibility to explore as you do now. Encourage yourself to learn more about the world around you by taking language classes and DIAP courses. Work on your writing — it will pay off. Take a first-year seminar. While we’d encourage you to join a small discussion group in any semester, we can also assure you that seminars are some of the best courses to take over Zoom, as well as one of the best ways to foster connections virtually with peers who share your interests.

And now, perhaps more than ever, investing time in clubs and other extracurriculars will be highly rewarding. Social connections likely won’t be able to occur as organically as they would have in the dorms or dining halls, but we can promise you that finding people with similar passions working on a joint initiative — like, say, the newspaper! — will be a meaningful way to form new connections, even in Zoomland. But don’t feel pressure to say yes to every opportunity that comes your

use this as a definitive benchmark for your whole Brown experience or even the quality of a particular department you are interested in. Instead, reach out to older peers to seek their insight: Departmental Undergraduate Group leaders, your course teaching assistants, your Residential Peer Leader, upperclassmen in your clubs. Sending a random email may seem weird, but trust us, we are more than happy to find these sorts of messages in our inboxes.

And be kind to yourself. We have all found that this new way of living and learning has left us drained in new and unexpected ways.

Avoid stacking too many virtual classes or activities together. As many of you know by now, existing in a virtual world for hours on end can be more exhausting than it seems.

Ultimately, there are pain points to this experience that are difficult to avoid. Do not blame yourself if you are struggling more than expected. In isolation, it may seem like you are the only one. Please know you are not: This is a lesson we upperclassmen are struggling to internalize as well. Resources exist to support you in these struggles, such as deans, whose job it is to provide support when you are uncertain where else to go, or Counseling and Psychological Services, which a quarter of all Brown students take advantage of.

You will almost certainly feel behind at some point in the coming semester, if you do not yet already. The truth is, even under normal circumstances, it’s natural for a firstyear to feel behind. We felt it, too, during our first few weeks — that frantic urge to find friends, plan schedules, join clubs — and sometimes we still do. And it’s even harder to do these things over Zoom.

We’re here to tell you that it’s okay to feel behind and to feel lost. You don’t need to know exactly what to do or what a “spicy

This year, however, those memories may look different. You will have to sacrifice crowded parties for Zoom calls or small pod gatherings instead. You won’t get to enjoy the sticky tables of the V-Dub and will have to dine in your dorms instead. But you will make memories nonetheless.

Maybe you will look back fondly on your housing pod, having serendipitously found your friends for the next four years. You might even enjoy the non-sweaty Zoom and pod gatherings of this year more than the (overhyped) frat parties of normal years. Or perhaps you’ll find that you enjoy having more time to yourself without the typical fear of missing out.

But we do not mean to say that the way things are right now is perfect or ideal. The truth is, you may not get to experience the most meaningful social interactions this semester. You may feel isolated sometimes.

Even under normal circumstances, many of us did not meet our best friends or feel at home at Brown until after our freshman year. This semester will not define the rest of your college experience.

The pandemic has impacted all of us differently and at different points in our college timeline. Because this will be your first exposure to campus, we know for you the impact may be that you will face greater obstacles to figuring out your place here and what Brown means to you.

But we are so glad that, at long last, you can come to the campus you have been waiting to make home since May, or even longer.

In the coming years, you will have plenty of time to join in on the normal festivities of college. Just not yet. For now, even under these circumstances and with these restrictions, being physically here on College Hill is enough for you to have a real beginning.

from people outside our pods; only ordering takeout — has paid off. It has allowed us to remain on campus, keeping positivity rates remarkably low, when others have had to remain home. As tiring as it is to limit and adapt our social interactions and to remain so vigilant, we have maintained this behavior not just for our own protection but also for

way. Your existence at Brown is more than enough to inspire a fulfilling, memorable and productive life after College Hill.

Nevertheless, we know our best advice will only go so far in this environment. While some classes and activities have transitioned well to Zoom, others have not. Courses may not be as stimulating as you had hoped. Don’t

with” is. In fact, when you look back on your four years at Brown, you will realize that it is often the unplanned moments that you will treasure most. Those unexpected detours to India Point Park. That surprisingly delicious Ratty meal. The time you shopped a random class and finally discovered what you want to concentrate in.

Editorials are written by The Herald’s editorial page board, whose members encourage you to read The Herald’s 2019 First-Year Guide to Brown for a glimpse of Brown as it was. This editorial was written by its editor and assistant editor, Krista Stapleford ’21 and Johnny Ren ’23, and members Lola Olabode ’21, Vicky Phan ’21 and Dylan Tian ’21.

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | COMMENTARY

Friday, November 20, 2020

Reflections on First-Year Fall

BY JAEHYUN HONG AND JORDAN DE PADOVA STAFF COLUMNISTS

As the semester comes to a close, The Herald’s two first-year columnists look back on different aspects of their unconventional fall.

Academics De Padova: Taking my first college class, a seminar on essay writing, completely online has left me wondering how different my experience was from an in-person one. I found myself even less motivated than I was my last semester of high school when the pandemic first hit. Due to the nature of Zoom, most of the extraneous (but meaningful) social aspects of class — small talk before lectures, group projects and off-topic discussions — were replaced with muted microphones and turned-off cameras.

Because it takes minimal effort to attend class, it’s easy to slowly fall into a routine of taking shortcuts. The pandemic gave us more leniency in terms of due dates and attendance, and I feel like a sloppier student for letting myself take advantage of that. My academic experience this semester was slightly disheartening.

I’m now more apprehensive than before about my ability to engage myself in online work.

Hong: The fall semester was an exercise in self-discipline and taking initiative. For the one course I took as a first-year, a philosophy class on logic, I only had around six or seven deadlines the entire semester. Consequently, I had the freedom to create my own homework and pre-reading schedule, much the way I pleased. I found the experience liberating — it was a far cry from the rigid homework schedules that my high school teachers would give me. But the fewer the due dates, the more I had to hold myself accountable throughout the weeks, keeping up with

self-imposed deadlines.

Besides requiring self-discipline, the online class format emphasized independent study.

It took more effort than usual to get homework assistance or discuss class material. But once I made the effort to connect with others — whether that was joining a Zoom study group, talking with my professor online or meeting my TAs — I found that it was not actually hard to engage academically, even in cyberspace. As long as I took the initiative, I “got out what I put in” to my class this semester.

few people.

Hong: At the beginning of the semester, I had already accepted that socializing online would be difficult. I didn’t try very hard to make new friends or join Brown social communities — it seemed wise to wait until the spring. Instead, I focused on extracurriculars that mattered to me, which often favored individual work over collaborative efforts. I did a lot of writing.

Throughout the fall, I met several nice peers, but I still had a stunted social experience.

it being. Things can only get better from here.

Looking forward, it seems that there could realistically be a COVID-19 vaccine in the next six months, which gives me a sense of hope.

Hong: Even if many classes, events and social gatherings will still be online, there is no substitute for finally being on campus. I’m excited to live on College Hill, and I wonder how the on-campus atmosphere will transform me. I hope to enjoy Providence and meet inspiring professors and friends. I look forward to my newfound

“Even if many classes, events and social gatherings will still be online, there is no substitute for finally being on campus.”

Social and Extracurricular Activities De Padova: I had serious doubts about not only how accessible extracurricular activities would be, but also how they would be any different than a Zoom call for a class. I was pleasantly surprised in almost every way. Many clubs held programs in the fall and dove right into their usual activities as best as they could. The Brown Daily Herald helped me publish a few columns this fall and the Mock Trial team hosted game nights for the team. By holding events virtually and pushing online content, the clubs I became involved in weren’t just biding their time until we came to campus — they provided meaningful ways for us to engage. Unexpectedly, this semester I had Mock Trial practices to go to and Brown Daily Herald column deadlines to meet.

In many ways, my virtual experience with clubs was much better than with online class. When I get to campus, I feel like I will already know a

Brown did its best to promote various activities that aimed to build community — via the Bruno Beginnings postings, the Activities Fair and the Zoom events advertised in Today@Brown emails, for example. These helped a little, but still felt lacking for a first-year fall experience.

I am excited to be in Providence in the spring, and I can’t wait to meet my peers in person.

Looking Forward De Padova: This semester went by quickly. I’m happy that, as I move into next semester, I feel more familiar with the structure and expectations of a college class than I did in September. I’ve had the opportunity to talk to many upperclassmen, and I think I will be making more informed course selections than I would have otherwise.

This semester has given me a chance to establish a baseline expectation for my experience at Brown and it is more positive than I foresaw

college independence, even during the pandemic. These are all hopes of typical first-year students, I suppose, regardless of which year they entered university.

This first-year fall was less than what many of us had hoped for. Still, I am grateful that I can expect two on-campus semesters this academic year. Perhaps, when the pandemic abates, I’ll find myself enjoying more Brown in-person lectures, concerts, student events and sports games. Until then, I’ll enjoy the socialization that I can have on-campus within the limits of public health measures.

Jaehyun Hong ’24 can be reached at jaehyun_ hong@brown.edu, and Jordan De Padova ’24 can be reached at jordan_de_padova@brown. edu. Please send responses to this opinion to letters@browndailyherald.com and op-eds to opinions@browndailyherald.com.

Friday, November 20, 2020

EMS FROM PAGE 1 in an effort to conserve personal protective equipment during the ongoing shortages.

Nevertheless, staff are “always encouraged to wear the PPE that we feel comfortable providing care” in, she added. Van and Pham both said they felt safe while working on EMS. Pham said that she trusted the University to support BEMS workers through Brown’s COVID-19 testing plan, adding that she felt more comfortable in her work since she primarily interacts with University students and staff.

BEMS also continues to bring students back from the hospital or transport them to isolation residences on campus, which BEMS manages with University Health Services. During the summer, they had helped drive symptomatic students to Rhode Island Department of Health COVID-19 testing sites before an on-campus testing site was established this fall.

For transport, BEMS has also been utilizing their “COVID car” — a vehicle that has been repurposed so it can now legally be used to drive people, Sanderson said. This change has enabled the team to respond to more calls at the same time.

While BEMS traditionally operates as a volunteer service for undergraduates during the school year and a paid job during breaks, all staff who consented to assist during the pandemic are being paid. But the opportunity to help the community in a clinical as well as nonclinical capacity, albeit through brief interactions, is rewarding in itself.

When coordinating non-clinical responsibilities, such as dropping off deliveries to students in quarantine, “usually (the EMS member is) the first human interaction that person’s going to have for the next X amount of days for the time they’re isolated,” Van said, “so, you want to be as warm and friendly as possible while being of course socially distanced.”

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

9

Pham has enjoyed these non-clinical opportunities. The “best feeling about that is when someone replies to the door knock and is like, ‘Thank you!’” she said. “It’s not just delivering food,” she added, it’s “showing people that you care.”

Recruits are also permitted to help out through these non-clinical means.

This is not the first time BEMS has had to prepare to respond to a public health threat. When Ebola cases had turned up in the United States back in 2014, “We never had to deal with it directly in Rhode Island, but we were ready,” Sanderson said. “I really channeled that lesson” at the time of COVID-19, she added.

In this context, considering student members’ academic obligations alongside high quality service “is a real balancing act in the collegiate EMS service,” Sanderson said. “EMS is always a dangerous job, and then you add to that the exposure risks in the time of a pandemic, and it needs very careful planning.”

These unexpected scenarios emphasize the importance of BEMS’ standard goals: “being scalable, innovative, meeting the needs of a community, considering equity (and) cultivating equity,” Sanderson said.

BEMS has “been looking for ways that we can be a part of the greater Brown community,” Pham said. The pandemic “was a catalyst for us to get there, and I think we’re making a real impact.”

Pham is “really glad that Brown as a University is still allowing us to work and trusting us,” and she has found “great value” in helping fellow students at this uncertain time.

“Doing all these nonclinical shifts or tasks (has) actually made me realize that there’s many many ways to help someone rather than just fulfilling their clinical needs,” Van said. Acting as a “warming presence for someone who’s undergoing not a great time in their life, it brings me back to why I became an EMT ... to provide patient advocacy, being there for the patient.”

VICTORIA YIN / HERALD

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THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

Friday, November 20, 2020

ARTS & CULTURE

Alums talk future of a fashion industry in flux Elgort ’08, Picchione ’86, Geller RISD ’01 discuss COVID-19’s impact on fashion

BY KATHERINE OK AND NICHOLAS MICHAEL ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR AND SENIOR STAFF WRITER To synthesize the luxury fashion industry feels a fruitless task, for it is in many ways a field emphatically characterized by the four changing seasons. The sense of the liminal permeates each fashion season, as a sundry of new garments are brought onto runways and into stores across the globe, rendering designs from only a few months prior out of trend.

But this kinetic energy was paused by the COVID-19 pandemic. With government-mandated lockdowns, the fashion industry has been forced to reckon with a society forcibly moved into the private. The public necessary to the performance of fashion was put under quarantine, and in April, as COVID-19 cases began to escalate, clothing sales fell nearly eighty percent.

Consumers, now put under the duress of “work from home,” traded their suits and dresses for sweatpants and slippers.

The synchronized fall of landmark tastemaking boutiques, then, feels anything but coincidental. In 2020, Opening Ceremony shuttered its doors, while Barneys officially filed for bankruptcy — both closures seemingly signalled that the luxury fashion house was no longer marketable.

In Irina Aleksander’s profile for The New York Times Magazine of sweatpants designer Scott Sternberg, she described the fall of so-called fashion giants during COVID-19. “Over the next few months, J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Brooks Brothers and J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy,” Aleksander wrote. “Gap Inc. couldn’t pay rent on its 2,785 North American stores. By July, Diane von Furstenberg announced she would lay off 300 employees and close 18 of her 19 stores.” Fashion, an industry characterized by excess and frivolity, seemed to bear the brunt of both a health and economic crisis that denied these exact things.

This industry apocalypse seems to be a necessary precursor to understanding fashion houses’ subsequent scramble to rethink consumer interaction. With production suddenly put on pause and in-person runway shows largely inaccessible, fashion houses accustomed to the luxury of in-person runway experience were forced to consider alternate modes of presentation and marketing.

Yet, perhaps the halt of the interminable fashion cycle was exactly what the industry needed. Sophie Elgort ’08, a fashion photographer who has worked with the likes of Vogue and Elle, pointed to the pandemic as perhaps a catalyst for preeminent changes.

“Fashion was sort of changing anyways already,” Elgort said. “For example, brands were sort of trying to get out of the normal fashion cycle, whether it was because they were responsible for too many collections per year and they couldn’t keep up, or whether they were just kind of fatigued by the fashion calendar.”

Menswear designer Robert Geller RISD ’01 has embraced this new

NICHOLAS MICHAEL / HERALD

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the fashion industry’s cyclical kinetic energy. Nicholas Picchione ’86, Robert Geller RISD’01 and Sophie Elgort ’08 discuss the industry’s digitization, democratization and the ways in which they’ve seen the industry evolve pre- and post-COVID-19. mode of fashion production that Elgort pointed to. Geller previously won the GQ Best New Menswear Designer Award in 2009 and went on to receive the CFDA Swarovski Award for Menswear in 2011.

“Because of Covid-19, I have decided to move away from the two big annual collections and work off schedule to drop products as they are ready,” Geller said. “The existing structure was kind of falling apart anyway.”

Geller, who majored in apparel, maintains this strong sense of personal change and innovation as intrinsic to his time on College Hill. “RISD gave me the chance to build my confidence to believe that I could have my own brand.

The foundation year really made me believe that if I put my mind to something, I could come up with a good solution,” he explained. “That was the most important thing in all of my studies.”

Elgort, who has spent much of the past six months quarantining with her family in New York, saw her whole photographic calendar uprooted by the pandemic. “Basically, all of my shoots that were scheduled past March 15th were canceled,” she said. “I remember I set a reminder for a month later to reschedule all my meetings, because I thought within a month it would have been sorted.”

But as the pandemic persisted relentlessly, the fashion world was forced to adapt.

In April 2020, Elgort did her first shoot over Zoom and Facetime for M Milenio, a magazine based in Mexico.

“I mostly shot over Zoom, and I had the actress’ mom use a phone camera to take the pictures,” Elgort said of the virtual directing process. “We had two phones going so that the actress could hear me directing her poses and so that I could direct the mom taking photos.

It was kind of more like directing a film — because you’re directing both the cameraman and the subject.”

But much of the collaborative, in-

terpersonal effort so imperative to the photographic process was lost, Elgort said. “Being able to collaborate with the other creatives on set is one of the things I love most about taking photos, so it was almost more like creating personal work or something,” she said.

And, it is this in-person experience — this intimacy with the creative process and garments — that consumers are ostensibly missing as well.

Nicholas Picchione ’86 P’20 pointed towards the difficulties of digitizing luxury fashion.

“It could just be that the digital model has to evolve, as technology and AI evolves and such, you never know. But from the people I’ve spoken to, a digital showroom can never replace picking up a garment, trying it on, touching it, feeling it, seeing how the fabric drapes — there’s a disconnect there,” Picchione said. “With apparel, it will always be about that tactile experience — how it makes you feel, and it’s hard to replicate that digitally.”

When Picchione graduated from Brown with degrees in Biology and Economics, he knew neither medicine nor strict business were right for him, and he made his foray into fashion through retail. “I just started pounding the pavement … and applied off the street at the Armani boutique on Madison Avenue in New York, and I was hired as a cashier,” Picchione said. He has worked as senior vice president and chief merchandising officer of Ralph Lauren’s luxury Childrenswear, Men’s Purple Label and Men’s Black Label lines.

This in-person experience in luxury fashion was formative to the fondness Picchione developed for the industry.

“I was super excited to be working in fashion, and even though I was making no money, I just really loved the environment,” he said.

But the fashion world is changing, Picchione explained. “There are still a few exclusive brands that still don’t

consider selling online, but we’ve seen a general acceptance of the digital space,” he said.

Although much of the digital shifts have been mandated by the pandemic, Picchione, like Elgort and Geller, suggested that this was a change already in motion.

“I think particularly as brands need to attract a new and younger customer, you need to talk to customers in a different way,” he said. “And because those younger consumers are so digitally savvy, it was first informational and then it became transactional, and now, in the past six months, it’s for everyone.”

It is the ability to adapt to the unprecedented global and cultural shifts, to engage with the younger customer without alienating the old customer, that allows a company to succeed in the contemporary landscape, Picchione said. With the bankruptcies of household boutiques like Neiman Marcus and J. C. Penney, “a lot of people are blaming it on the pandemic, but those companies were having problems all along. This just brought it to a quicker conclusion,” Picchione said.

Picchione says that consumer priorities are more different now than ever before. Younger customers, in particular, place more value in brand authenticity and issues of ethics. “Now, you look to brands that are socially responsible, that treat their employees well, that are environmentally conscious — that becomes part of the brand message,” he said. “It’s not just about imagery in a magazine, which is what it used to be. Those digital story moments, whether it’s online on their website, or on Instagram — however they choose to convey that message — is important to connect with the customer.”

Trends have shifted during the pandemic landscape as well. “I think that the definition of luxury is changing,” Picchione said. Athleisure is the work from home uniform.

“There has been a general casualization of how people dress — no one is buying a suit or a gown now,” Picchione said. But, he also thinks there could be a resurgence of fashion-experimentation once the pandemic is over. “I think it’s very possible the trends will change, and when people are able to go back to work and parties, they’re going to dress up like they haven’t in ages.”

And, Picchione maintains that once the pandemic is sorted, the physical shopping experience so central to the fashion landscape will be reignited as well.

“Even with the tremendous rise in e-commerce, I think that brick and mortar stores will always be important,” he said. “It’s just a question of what that looks like.”

Geller, who has spent his quarantine in Lisbon with family, hopes to see small boutiques carrying indie designers revivified. “Here in Lisbon, there are tons of small boutiques with really amazing things, that you don’t see everywhere else,” Geller said. “Shopping became so boring, because you saw the same 10 brands in every store. There was no originality.”

Speaking to the sudden economic challenge that the pandemic poses, Geller offered his own perspective.

“Sometimes (life) makes things very difficult and it is by working through these difficulties that you gain your experiences and come out stronger for having worked through the challenges,” he said.

At the same time, Geller sees the pandemic as a possible stimulus for creativity and agility. “The one good thing from dropping rents is that it will give a chance to a boutique that has more of a vision and is willing to take chances,” he said.

Perhaps the in-person shopping experience will be necromanced, reinvigorated with a youthful life-source that begets a new frontier in the fashion industry.

Friday, November 20, 2020

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD | NEWS

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David Morales MPA ’19 on route to RI State House State RepresentativeElect Morales to push for affordable housing, healthcare

BY KARLOS BAUTISTA SENIOR STAFF WRITER Just under one year ago, David Morales MPA’19 was in the midst of organizing a protest for climate justice with Sunrise Rhode Island. Now, he’s the District 7 state representative-elect, and he has no plans to stop advocating for progressive causes.

Within the first several weeks of arriving in Rhode Island for his Master of Public Affairs at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Morales was already a presence in the Rhode Island State House. He worked with local advocacy groups to lobby representatives to enact a Percentage of Income Payment Plan and testified on behalf of the Reproductive Health Act. Morales is the youngest graduate of the University’s MPA program at 20 years old. Now, at the age of 22, he will become the youngest Latino legislator in any state legislature in the country, he said.

“I realized that there’s a lot of potential to create systemic change here, given the scale and (Rhode Island’s) size,” Morales said. “If you believe very strongly about a particular issue, you can have an advocacy group of just five people … and really make a lot of noise

at the State House.”

Inspired by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Morales grew up living in public housing in Soledad, California. He was raised by a single mother who immigrated from Mexico, worked 2–3 minimum wage jobs and worried that her son would become a victim of the school-to-prison pipeline and end up incarcerated.

Morales, while in high school, took college courses at night and over the summers and joined extracurriculars like speech and debate. Near the end of his time in high school, Morales said he was inspired by Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) 2016 presidential bid.

“I realized what I wanted to do, and that was some form of political advocacy,” he said. “I wanted to be involved at the table where the decisions are being made on whether or not we increase the minimum wage, whether or not we decide to invest in affordable housing.”

Morales would go on to receive his bachelor’s degree in urban studies by the time he was 19 at the University of California at Irvine, before arriving at the University to pursue his MPA. Advocacy and the push to run for office While at Brown, Morales worked with various local advocacy groups, such as the Providence Democratic Socialists of America, Sunrise RI and immigrant rights organization Never Again Action Rhode Island. After graduation, he continued to work with those

groups, which eventually encouraged him to run for the State House.

Together, Morales and other activists saw running for office as a way to address what they viewed as “complacency” among current State House leadership.

During his time living in Mount Pleasant — a neighborhood located within District 7 — Morales said he felt a lack of engagement from Deputy Majority Leader and Rep. Daniel McKiernan, the incumbent for District 7 whom Morales would unseat in the Sept. 8 primary election.

While campaigning, Morales said he “was often told by people who lived in the neighborhood for over 10 years that I was the first candidate to ever come to their door.”

“I realized that if I … had a grassroots message centered around a $15 minimum wage, universal health care, public school investments and affordable housing, that I could be successful (and) that our campaign would be able to change the culture of local politics in our neighborhood,” Morales said.

The campaign trail To get an early start on fundraising, Morales started his campaign against McKiernan in December 2019, 10 months before the statewide Democratic primary. According to Morales, over the course of the campaign, he raised $23,000 — none of which came from any corporate political action committees or special interest groups.

Morales spent time canvassing in the

At 22, David Morales MPA’19 will become the youngest Latino legislator in any state legislature in the country.

district’s neighborhoods, which consist of Mount Pleasant, Valley and Elmhurst, from February until the pandemic hit in March. As Rhode Island went into a state of emergency in response to COVID-19, he and his team pivoted to phone banking and working to connect neighbors with resources for free food delivery.

Morales also wrote letters to neighbors he had visited before the pandemic and distributed homemade face masks.

In June, Morales and his team went back to canvassing in person with public health guidelines in mind. The primary would ultimately be a three-way race between Morales, McKiernan and Angel Subervi, director of small business development for the City of Providence.

On Sept. 8, despite not receiving the local Democratic committee’s endorsement, which went to Subervi, Morales won the primary with 49.4 percent of the vote, effectively securing the seat with no Republican contenders in the Nov. 3 general election.

Issues and policy ideas In his first year in office, Morales wants to get a lot done.

“We have a lot more people here at the State House now than ever in any time in history, I would argue, that recognize the importance of policies such as the Green New Deal and investment in affordable housing,” Morales added.

His first priority, he said, will be to address the state’s finances. “We will not allow for a state budget that cuts social services while using COVID as an excuse for the reduction of spending,” Morales said.

Throughout his first year, Morales plans to focus on the state’s health care, affordable housing, minimum wage, hazard pay and utilities costs.

To tackle the Ocean State’s recurring fiscal woes, Morales wants to address what he calls the state’s “unfair” tax code and pass legislation that would allow cities and towns to tax wealthy nonprofit institutions like the University, Rhode Island School of Design and Johnson and Wales University.

As a nonprofit institution, the University is largely exempt from paying property taxes to Providence, but has an agreement to make voluntary payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOT payments. For fiscal year 2020, the University has paid $6.2 million in PILOT payments, up from $4.38 million in fiscal year 2018.

According to an estimate from 2012, the University would owe the city about $38 million per year if it paid commercial real estate taxes on its properties.

Taxation of wealthy nonprofits like the University “would open us up to

pursue a lot of these different policy ideas … such as affordable housing, quality public education, making investments toward renewable energy and other initiatives that are part of a Green New Deal,” Morales said.

While campaigning and canvassing, Morales said that access to affordable health care was an issue for every constituent he met. He plans to “start raising the conversation about what a universal health care system would look like here in Rhode Island.”

According to Clinical Assistant Professor of Family Medicine Dannie Ritchie MPH’03, a rise in health care costs, along with reductions on spending for services like Medicaid, has limited access to affordable care in the Ocean State.

In 2018, the Rhode Island Department of Health found that 32.5 percent of the state’s adults were either uninsured, did not have a doctor or could not afford insurance.

With Morales and other progressives in office, Ritchie said that she is “more hopeful that we will have legislative changes that actually change the conditions for the better, for those that are marginalized or pushed out and pushed down.”

Morales also intends to work with housing advocacy groups, such as Brown student group Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere, which Morales volunteered with during his time at the University. One of his first orders of business will be to add a housing line item on the state’s budget.

HOPE plans to also work with Morales on legislation to ban source-ofincome discrimination in housing, in addition to a program that would grant those facing eviction the right to free legal assistance, HOPE Co-Director Dhruv Gaur ’21 said.

Former HOPE Co-Director Nathaniel Pettit ’20, who had Morales as a teaching assistant for URBN 1260: “Housing in America,” said that Morales “sets a pretty great example for Brown affiliates in the potential of what you can do to … commit yourself to understanding and advocating for the issues that are most important to folks throughout Providence, throughout Rhode Island.”

“I believe systemic change will only happen through grassroots advocacy.

It won’t simply happen through the push of a button at the State House,” Morales added. Instead, “it’s going to happen if we mobilize working people in our communities of color to advocate for laws and policies that will improve their standard of living.”

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Friday, November 20, 2020

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R.I. environmental initiatives persevere in face of pandemic Environment experts find unexpected silver linings despite COVID-19 challenges JULIA GROSSMAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER “For the Rhode Island state government, response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an “all hands on deck” operation since the initial outbreak in spring of 2020, according to Terrence Gray, deputy director for environmental protection at the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.

But this predominant focus on mitigating the pandemic does not mean that state and city governments have pushed environmental and climate-related initiatives to the wayside. There have been delays concerning certain plans and funding streams, but many ambitious goals are still on track, Gray said. But there have also been unexpected silver linings to be found in the midst of such unprecedented times.

Environmental policy progress Overall, many of R.I.’s environmental and clean energy goals are proceeding as scheduled, despite the impact of the pandemic, State Energy Commissioner at the State of R.I. Office of Energy Resources Nicholas Ucci wrote in an email to The Herald. “OER has not pushed back any deadlines, nor backed off any of our scheduled work/initiatives,” he wrote. “Just the opposite — the COVID crisis serves as a stark reminder of the importance of public and private sector collaboration and commitment to address daunting challenges.”

For instance, in January 2020, Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an Executive Order for R.I. to meet 100 percent of its electricity demand with renewable sources of energy by 2030, The Herald previously reported. The executive order states that OER must provide Raimondo with a “specific and implementable action plan to achieve this goal” by the end of the calendar year.

Ucci wrote that the work to develop this “bold, but achievable goal” of using 100 percent renewables by 2030 is underway and that OER is “on schedule” to deliver their report to Raimondo by the end of the year.

With “comprehensive safety protocols” in place, many of the state’s clean energy initiatives are advancing, according to Ucci. For instance, “Rhode Island largely avoided significant industry shutdowns in construction-related industries,” he wrote, which “has allowed the build out of local solar projects, as an example, to continue throughout the crisis.”

Dawn King, senior lecturer in environment and society at the University, confirmed that the recent push for solar energy has been substantial, with many new solar farms and subsequent jobs being created in the state.

Other projects, such as the state’s commitment to utilizing offshore wind, are also ramping up. The Revolution Wind wind farm installation — proposed and approved in early 2019 — is set to provide the state with 400 megawatts of electrical capacity and the project has begun to advance, Ucci wrote.

Additionally, on Oct. 27, 2020, Raimondo announced plans to procure up to 600 more megawatts of offshore

NAT HARDY / HERALD

There have been a few unexpected “windows of opportunity” during the pandemic to effect positive enviornmental change, said Dawn King, senior lecturer in enviornment and society at Brown. wind in a Request for Proposal. This amount of energy would be enough to power 36 percent of the state’s demand, “the equivalent of powering nearly every home in Rhode Island,” Ucci wrote.

According to the Providence Journal, this new procurement is a crucial step toward reaching 100 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Gray affirmed that many study groups are working diligently on the goals outlined in Raimondo’s January executive order, adding that these other initiatives, such as various studies and stakeholder group discussions, are “setting the stage” for significant reports that he expects will be released by the end of this year.

One such initiative concerns the feasibility of a statewide carbon fee, which would be a “market-based solution to reduce carbon emissions in the state,” Gray said. These studies are still underway, and they constitute an important effort that has not been impacted by the pandemic, he said.

Gray also cited Raimondo’s commitment to improving green transportation options in the state. By moving toward more electric vehicles and green infrastructure and by improving biking and walking trails, the state hopes to “look at green options to improve mobility and transportation for all Rhode Islanders,” Gray said. He added that implementation plans for these goals are proceeding on schedule and he expects them to be completed by the end of December.

Another integral piece behind R.I.’s environmental policy progress is that the R.I. Executive Climate Change Coordinating Council has continued to meet throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Gray said. The EC4 was created in 2014 with the passage of the Resilient Rhode Island Act, The Herald previously reported. Established to set greenhouse gas reduction targets and to consider the impacts of climate change on R.I., the EC4 has continued to hold virtual meetings during the pandemic “without any kind of disruption,” according to Gray.

Additionally, environmental and climate plans remain important in Providence. For instance, Leah Bamberger, director of sustainability for the City of Providence, has confirmed that Providence’s Climate Justice Plan is still a priority. The plan aims to combat climate change in Providence while

focusing on communities most affected; this is especially important as low-income communities tend to be more vulnerable to the devastating impacts of climate change.

“COVID has certainly changed a lot, but the foundation of the (Climate Justice) plan will not shift,” Bamberger wrote in an email to The Herald. Many of the policies outlined in the Climate Justice Plan may take years to implement, so the pandemic has not had a profound effect on them, Director of Marketing and Content at the City of Providence Ben Smith added in an email to The Herald.

Unexpected silver linings As certain climate policy plans have either advanced on schedule or been delayed by COVID-19, there have been a few unexpected “windows of opportunity” during the pandemic to effect positive environmental change, King said.

The pandemic has also highlighted the connection between the environment, public health and racism. “If anything, COVID illuminates the severity of these issues and should help prioritize the implementation of the (Climate Justice) plan,” Bamberger wrote.

Ucci wrote that during this time, he believes that people are “reminded that climate change and carbon pollutants are affecting our people, our communities and our economy today, and will continue to do so in the coming years.”

Additionally, Gray and Elizabeth Stone ’96, who supports programs and policy in the director’s office at RIDEM, have also found a much higher level of public involvement in climate change issues since the onset of the pandemic.

Gray said that “attendance is up significantly” in many of RIDEM’s meetings and workshops.

Stone, who provides staff support to the EC4 meetings, also noticed that attendance has increased since EC4

meetings moved online. And without the need to travel to and from such meetings, participants are also, in effect, emitting less carbon into the atmosphere, Stone said.

Participants in these meetings are only a small portion of people who are staying off the road more amid the pandemic — and according to Gray, there is some evidence that during the initial lockdown period there was “an almost immediate improvement in air quality in the communities along the sides of the highway.” While this evidence is preliminary, “it did give a glimpse in terms of what it would be like to limit the emissions from vehicles on our highways, and how that would pretty quickly improve air quality,” Gray said.

These findings again emphasize the link between public health and environmental racism. “COVID’s a respiratory disease, and respiratory impacts from air pollution are pretty critical,” said Gray. “So when you see the overlap of people that are impacted by air pollution, and their vulnerability to COVID, there’s clearly a nexus there.”

King agrees that by holding more events virtually during the pandemic, companies and businesses — and even the University — are starting to see that old habits are both inefficient and bad for the environment. By spending less money on faculty travel to conferences or flying in guest speakers, not only does the University save money, but it also happens to reduce its Scope 3 carbon emissions, of which travel is a significant contributor. “Efficiency usually tends to be more environmentally friendly,” King added.

Overall, despite some setbacks, Ucci emphasized that combating climate change remains a high priority in the state government. “There is no more existential threat to our people and way of life than climate change,” Ucci wrote. “Our team is more committed to our work than ever and we will continue … to ensure our commitments are sustained through 2030 and beyond.”