SINCE 1891
THE BROWN DAILY HERALD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2021
VOLUME CLVI, ISSUE XXXXI
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
SCIENCE & RESEARCH
Students, staff build COVID-19 filters Cheap-to-build CorsiRosenthal filters to be placed around campus in weeks
Lifespan hires student workers to offset staff shortages Students from Brown, R.I. schools support hospital staff, offered flexible scheduling
BY KATHLEEN MEININGER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
BY GABRIELLA VULAKH SENIOR STAFF WRITER
The School of Public Health hosted a Corsi-Rosenthal Cube air cleaner building event Friday, Nov. 19, during which University students and staff gathered at Alumnae Hall to construct air filtering cubes that will be placed around campus in the next couple weeks. The Corsi-Rosenthal air cleaner was originally designed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by filtering virus particles from the air, The Herald previously reported. Creators Jim Rosenthal, CEO of Air Relief Technologies, and Richard Corsi, dean of engineering at the University of California, Davis, never patented the
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BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM
COURTESY OF ABBY HEALY
The air cleaners are built with four MERV-13 filters, a box fan, cardboard and tape, and effectively filter out viral particles.
Lifespan launched an initiative this fall to hire students as temporary workers to assist with the reduced number of general staff at Rhode Island Hospital, Hasbro Children’s Hospital and Miriam Hospital caused by the pandemic. “Healthcare entities and hospitals across the country are feeling the impact of staffing shortages, so the program is intended to help address (that),” said Lifespan Senior Public Relations Officer Richard Salit. Students can “develop marketable job skills, enhance resumes” and get the “experience of working in a field where it’s all about helping other people heal,” Salit said. “It’s giving students an opportunity to make money and feel that they’re also doing their part to help out
the healthcare system and our hospitals at a time when it is a real challenge.” Tasks include answering phones, delivering supplies and meals, helping with patient discharge, monitoring atrisk patients, managing administrative and patient data and providing emergency command center support. Hired student workers are required to show proof of standard vaccinations, including COVID-19 vaccines, and must undergo training prior to beginning work at the hospital. Training consists of several online modules as well as “spending the first day or first couple of shifts with a mentor” who can answer questions, Makoto Kobayashi ’23, who works as both a Lifespan volunteer and paid part-time worker, said. This initiative is different from Lifespan’s volunteer opportunities as this is “paid work to students who are willing to take on shifts for four to eight hours long and in critical, clinical and operational services,” Salit said. Kobayashi’s volunteer work began
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ARTS & CULTURE
UNIVERSITY NEWS
‘Red Notice’: barely better than ‘Green Lantern’
Students reflect on Brown’s pre-med pathway
Netflix’s latest perfunctory cash grab film fails to even provide fun BY JULIA VAZ STAFF WRITER Remember all those times Ryan Reynolds joked about his epic regrets about starring in “Green Lantern,” the 2011 superhero film which currently sits at a 26% on Rotten Tomatoes? Now he can add the film “Red Notice” to his self-deprecating skits. Directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber and produced by Dwayne
ing but a collage of action sequences and Reynolds’ signature jokes. “Red Notice” follows John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson), an FBI profiler, in his attempt to capture the experienced art thief Nolan Booth (Reynolds). The movie begins with a documentary-style exposé of the narrative’s propelling force: the pursuit of Cleopatra’s three golden eggs, the valuable artifacts Booth and The Bishop (Gal Gadot), his rival in art theft, are competing to acquire. After a chase-sequence within a museum — which features some disappointing CGI given the film’s enormous budget — Hartley is framed by The Bishop and forced to work together with Booth to clear his name. From that point on, the movie doesn’t take long to establish a
Pre-meds discuss stress, tradeoffs between Open Curriculum requirements BY JASPER YEH SENIOR STAFF WRITER With the dream of ultimately enrolling in medical school at stake, many pre-med students navigate a uniquely stressful undergraduate experience as they fulfill medical school course prerequisites and participate in extracurricular activities that can demonstrate a passion for medicine. The Herald spoke to four pre-med students who described their experiences preparing for medical school, and how the ongoing pandemic has impacted their paths.
ASHLEY CHOI / HERALD
difficult academic requirements of the track. While requirements differ slightly across universities, at Brown, some students start with CHEM 0100: “Introductory Chemistry,” depending on their high school chemistry background. Most pre-med students then take CHEM 0330: “Equilibrium, Rate and Structure,” followed by two consecutive semesters of organic chemistry, and lastly, BIOL 0280: “Biochemistry.” Giannopoulos, who transferred
“The Rock” Johnson among others, the latest million-dollar Netflix blockbuster “Red Notice” is a failed attempt at generic action-packed entertainment. With predictable plot twists, mediocre writing and a lack of chemistry between actors, the movie offers little beyond grandiose settings and Hollywood A-listers. In the absence of any meaningful development of plot, world or characters, the movie is noth-
reliance on tropes and archetypes. Reynolds is the playful expert prone to excessive quipping, Johnson the self-serious law enforcer and Gadot the alluring femme fatale. None of those tropes are subverted in any inventive developments. All the movie’s attempts at fostering a connection between the characters feel complete-
Sports
Sports
Commentary
Sports
Football loses final game of season 52-31 to Ivy cochamps Big Green Page 2
Women’s basketball loses to Wagner College 67-57 on Saturday Page 3
Editors’ note: The Herald announces the members of its 132nd Editorial Board Page 4
Women’s ice hockey team drops two games over weekend Page 8
SEE RED NOTICE PAGE 6
Transitioning back to in-person exams over a year into COVID-19 For Angelo Giannopoulos ’23, organic chemistry is currently one of the particular challenges he faces as a pre-med student. The core four-semester chemistry course sequence is a requirement for all pre-med students, and, for many, it is one of the more
into Brown at the beginning of fall 2021, is currently taking the second semester of organic chemistry. As for many other students, this fall represents a particularly difficult transition for Giannopoulos, because the first half of organic chemistry was taught virtually in spring 2021, while this semester is completely in-person. Last semester, all exams were virtual and untimed, usually spanning an en-
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