Tuesday, 1/19/20

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

VOLUME 115 ISSUE 17

Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida

Not officially associated with the University of Florida

UF student dead after car crash on University Avenue A CAR HIT A GROUP OF FIVE UF STUDENTS ON A NEARBY SIDEWALK, KILLING ONE OF THEM

By Asta Hemenway Alligator Staff Writer

Just over a month after a UF freshman was killed in a hit-and-run on West University Avenue, another five students were hit –– and one died –– after a crash on the road Saturday evening.

Sophia Lambert, an 18-year-old UF theater sophomore in the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority, died following the crash, and five others were hospitalized.

A Honda Accord was heading west on University Avenue when it tried turning south on Northwest 17th Street and crashed into an eastbound Honda Civic, according to a Gainesville Police Department press release.

The Honda Civic skidded sideways, hitting a pole and five UF students on the sidewalk, including Lambert.

As of Monday afternoon, one student is still in the hospital while three students and the driver of the Honda Civic have been released, GPD spokesperson Graham Glover said. GPD and University Police are investigating the crash.

At about 7:30 p.m., GPD officers were called to the scene near Midtown, Glover said.

Two months ago, Maggie Paxton, a UF student and member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, was killed in a hit-and-run in the same area. Three hit-and-run crashes in

December left Paxton and another dead and one in critical condition in Gainesville.

Now, UF students and city residents are calling on the school and Gainesville to take action. A petition created Saturday night had gained more than 18,000 signatures as of Monday evening. A second petition calling for speed bumps on University Avenue was created Sunday afternoon and had more than 9,000 signatures as of Monday evening.

UF Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Charlie Lane and Vice President for Student Affairs D’Andra Mull sent out a statement to students, faculty and staff Sunday afternoon announcing Lambert’s death, as well as offering counseling and support.

The university asked the community to keep Lambert, her family, friends and the others injured in the crash in their thoughts.

“Please do not hesitate to reach out to us for help,” they wrote in the statement. “The loss of any student life is unfathomable, and we recognize the effect the loss of one of our own has on the collective community.”

They also wrote that conversations about pedestrian and vehicular safety are underway. UF President Kent Fuchs wrote in a tweet Sunday evening that his heart goes out to Lambert’s family and friends and that he is committed to “efforts regarding pedestrian safety on and around campus.”

UF Delta Phi Epsilon posted on Facebook Sunday evening the sorority is deeply saddened by Lambert’s passing during her first semester in the chapter.

Delta Phi Epsilon described her as a bright light who had a passion for theater, politics, Dance Marathon, Hillel, the UF Jewish community, and Chabad UF Jewish Student Cen-

Levin College of Law namesake dies of COVID-19 FREDRIC LEVIN DIED ON JAN. 12 AT 83 AFTER CONTRACTING COVID-19

By Abigail Hasebroock, Alligator Staff Writer

Martin Levin’s voice, slightly quivering from the remnants of tears, confidently announced to those at his father’s outdoor funeral that once the world is safe from COVID-19, a true celebration would be held for his dad.

“It will be a blowout party,” Martin said.

“It will be a Fred Levin celebration.”

UF’s Levin College of Law namesake Fredric Levin died Jan. 12 due to COVID-19 complications. He was 83 years old.

Levin graduated from UF law school in 1961, and UF renamed it to the “Fredric G. Levin College of Law” in 1999 after receiving a $10 million donation from Levin. Though he struggled academically during his time as an undergraduate student, he graduated among the top of his class in law school, UF College of Law Dean Laura Rosenbury said.

“He was always an advocate for the underdog,” Rosenbury said.

“He always reminded me that he had a very low undergraduate GPA and that the dean of the law school at the time when he started assumed he would not graduate.”

Levin went on to not only graduate but become one of the nation’s most

Levin

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successful attorneys. He then used the success and wealth he accumulated to give millions of dollars to universities and organizations.

Levin won several awards throughout his life and was named as the top civil litigator in Florida by the National Law Journal in 1994.

The pinnacle of his legal career was reaching a $13 billion settlement with the tobacco industry that saves over 100,000 lives every year, according to the Levin Papantonio Rafferty Law Firm.

Rosenbury said Levin’s generous contributions to UF have created opportunities for students through numerous scholarships, and his positive example illustrates the power of a law degree.

“He pushed me to take the law school to new heights,” she said. “We’ve made a lot of progress, but we still have progress to go, and I will hear his voice in the back of my head as I move forward.”

Levin was born and raised in Pensacola, Florida, under a roof that housed him and his five brothers. He met his wife, Marilyn, during his time at UF, and after raising four children together and 51 years of marriage, she passed away in 2011, according to the Levin Papantonio Rafferty Law Firm.

Mark Proctor, president of the Levin Papantonio Rafferty Law Firm, worked with Levin for over 40 years. He said Levin’s Jewish heritage often left him feeling like an outsider, especially growing up.

“It was that experience learned at a young age that really molded and colored his entire life,” Proctor said.

Levin developed a heart for every man, which allowed him to represent and give a

ter.

“Our sisters remember Sophia as a kind, sushi-loving, Broadway enthusiast, outspoken girl who cared for others and loved deeply,” the organization’s statement read.

The total number of people in both cars in Saturday’s crash was unknown Sunday afternoon.

The driver of the White Honda Accord was Boris Stoyanov, a 19-year-old UF architecture sophomore, said Cole Wyatt, a passenger in the car.

Wyatt, also a 19-year-old UF architecture student, said he and Stoyanov were OK following the crash but are still processing what

happened.

Wyatt said when he was in the Accord during the crash, the air bag popped up and he noticed smoke but didn’t see what happened.

“It’s scary how fast it happens,” Wyatt said. “It was overwhelming.”

An investigation of the crash is still ongoing.

Julia Cooper contributed to this report. @astahemenway ahemenway@alligator.org

Chasity Maynard // Alligator Staff

A memorial for Sophia Lambert, an 18-year-old UF theater sophomore in the Delta Phi Epsilon Sorority who died following a crash on West University Avenue Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, can be seen at the site of the incident. Five other people were hospitalized after the crash. voice to the people he worked with throughout his career, Proctor said. He won more than 25 verdicts in excess of $1 million with some cases involving the wrongful deaths of a child, housewife and wage earner, according to the Levin Papantonio Rafferty Law Firm.

“He was always looking to level the playing field,” Proctor said. “His spirit will live on in our law firm and in the work we do forever.”

Levin was known for more than his life as a lawyer. He was a father, a grandfather and a loving family man.

In the funeral service conducted by his family, his granddaughter, Jacqueline Goodman, 33, reflected on the man she knew as her fun-loving grandfather.

“To me, he was grandpa,” she said. “My grandpa, who would make up silly songs about berries and threaten to sing them at our school talent show.”

During the funeral, Levin’s family members also recalled how he was an avid fighter against racial injustice, bigotry and greed.

“Dad had a very difficult time even understanding how someone could be prejudiced,” Martin Levin said. “And dad never hesitated, in any capacity, to speak up against the majority, against the authority, against the established and against the popular.”

UF Levin College of Law plans to create a tribute webpage in Levin’s honor. Students, staff and faculty can email Assistant Dean for Messaging and Outreach Whitney Smith at smithw@law.ufl.edu with any thoughts or memories, and gifts to the College of Law can be made in Levin’s honor.

MLK Celebration

@abbeyhasebroock ahasebroock@alligator.org

For the first time in 40 years, the march was held online, pg. 6

Santa Fe COVID-19 numbers

The college is continuing in-person classes, pg. 2

Faculty and graduate students raise questions over ICU capacities FACULTY REPRESENTATIVES EXPRESS CONCERNS OVER LACK OF ACCESS TO ICU CAPACITIES AND ACTION PLAN THRESHOLDS

By Manny Rea Alligator Staff Writer

Intensive care unit capacities are used to determine the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic for hospitals and the areas they serve.

However, UF Health hasn’t released daily ICU capacity figures at UF Health Shands Hospital to the public, said Steve Kirn, the co-chair of the UF faculty union’s COVID-19 task force.

UF administration hasn’t made an action plan available if capacities were to reach a certain level either.

Some are concerned that the UF administration’s lack of publicly available information may leave the university blindsided by a crisis.

Shands had 132 COVID-19 positive patients in its 1,100-bed hospital-wide capacity Monday, UF Health spokesperson Ken Garcia said.

Of those 132 patients, 20% of them were in the ICU. Garcia clarified in an email that this is a snapshot in time, and the hospital census changes

SEE ICU, PAGE 5

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2 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

Santa FeToday’s College Weather COVID-19 update THE COLLEGE REPORTED A TOTAL OF 555 POSITIVE CASES SINCE THE PANDEMIC’S START

By Juliana Ferrie Alligator Staff Writer

Santa Fe College will continue to hold in-person classes this semester while maintaining COVID-19 safety protocols and guidelines.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, 511 Santa Fe College students and 44 employees have tested positive for COVID-19, spokesperson Jay Anderson said. This total represents the college as a whole, including online students, Anderson said. Of the total, 77 students and 17 employees may have visited campus while positive, he said.

UF has reported more than 7,500 positive cases since March 18, according to UF’s Testing Dashboard. The university reports its number of cases through the dashboard; however, Santa Fe does not have a public dashboard on its COVID-19 landing page.

Unlike UF, Santa Fe will not require students to be routinely tested but they are strongly encouraged to, especially if they’re experiencing symptoms, Anderson said. Leading up to and during the Fall semester, Santa Fe College provided opportunities on campus to get tested through the Florida Department of Health in Alachua County, Anderson said. The tests were administered for free, according to Santa Fe’s website.

“We’ve been very proactive since the beginning on this, about if you start to feel sick, do not come to the campus,” he said. “Do not come to any Santa Fe College property.”

All students, faculty and staff should focus on their health first and participate in self-screening, Anderson said. Santa Fe College’s faculty and staff prefer students miss a day of classes rather than accidentally spread COVID-19.

In the Fall, faculty, staff and students were required to complete COVID-19 training modules before the start of the semester, according to Santa Fe College’s website. People were not allowed to return to campus until completing the training, Anderson said.

The college is offering Spring courses in four different formats, including in-person, to give students as many options as possible, Anderson said. Everyone on campus is required to wear a mask, and the number of students per classroom has been reduced to ensure physical distancing.

The college has also transformed larger spaces on its campus, such as the Fine Arts Hall auditorium, into classrooms, Anderson said. These spaces allow the college to accommodate for larger classes while following COVID-19 guidelines.

Aside from in-person classes, Anderson said students have the option to take classes online asynchronously, as a traditional hybrid or as a virtualized hybrid.

The traditional hybrid combines on-campus learning with virtual meetings, whereas the virtualized hybrid is fully online with some synchronous Zoom meetings.

“It’s really been an all hands on deck,” he said. “All the staff and the students have been absolute champs about this, considering the conditions that we’re dealing with.”

Joshua Songayab, a 19-yearold Santa Fe College nursing sophomore, said he chose to stay online this semester because of

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How UF’s gyms are handling COVID-19 GYMS WILL BE INCREASING CAPACITY AND REQUIRING STUDENTS TO BE CLEARED FOR CAMPUS

By J.P. Oprison Alligator Staff Writer

To adapt to a busier campus this Spring while keeping students safe, UF’s gyms increased capacity, required students to be cleared for campus and closed certain spaces.

At Southwest Recreation Center, the weight room’s capacity has increased from 70 to 100 people, and the cardio spaces now have a capacity of over 100 people, Marty Dempsey, associate director for facility operations for all UF facilities, said.

Dempsey said the gyms were able to increase capacity because of the success of the Fall measures and the ability to space out equipment.

Making sure patrons are cleared for campus has been a smooth process, he said.

The gyms have also kept certain spaces closed. Locker rooms, basketball on the multipurpose courts, Olympic lifting and water fountains are closed at Southwest Rec to maintain

social distancing, Dempsey said.

Features like basketball have been moved and playtime is by appointment only, he said.

Everyone is required to wear a mask, and games are limited to 3-on-3 so there are fewer people on the court. Staff members maintain records of who patrons play with and against each game.

“That way, if somebody did contract COVID-19, through contact tracing, we would be able to identify the other participants, be able to reach out, hopefully, help to stop the spread,” Dempsey said.

While certain features have been closed, Dempsey said others have returned this Spring, including more intramural and traditional sports and group fitness classes. In the Fall, the gyms were just offering virtual and outdoor classes.

“As we’ve been able to develop our protocols and procedures and see what has worked, we have been able to return to some of the programs that our participants love,” Dempsey said.

Long lines haven’t really been an issue this Spring, and students are abiding by the safety measures, Dempsey said.

“Every once in a while, we’ve got to have a conversation with somebody and then talk through why we have the policy,” he said. “But I appreciate how well the UF community has re-

sponded to protecting each other.”

Ty Livezey, a 20-year-old UF political science junior, used the gym four times a week last Spring. But he plans to go less this semester because of lower capacities and the closure of certain utilities.

“A lot of the time, if you want to do anything in the weight room, you’re going to have to wait,” Livezey said. “It’s really rare that the weight room isn’t at full capacity.”

Livezey also feels that the cleared for campus requirement doesn’t go far enough, because while it requires students to get tested, it doesn’t require them to obtain a negative result.

“I don’t think that the cleared for campus status means anything if it doesn’t represent a negative test or that you just don’t have the symptoms, ” he said.

While he understands the risks, Livezey said working out is a priority.

“All my classes are online, and I’ve been in quarantine at home for the last nine months,” he said. “So, for me, going to the gym is one of the few activities that are still open and I consider safe.”

Katherine Perez, a 21-year-old UF women’s studies junior, is a facility operations associate for RecSports. She started working this Spring and said that despite COVID-19, she feels safe at work.

Enforcing the safety measures isn’t tiresome, she said, because it’s important to keep every-

one safe. All staff wear masks at all times and patrons aren’t allowed in without one. Despite the precautions, however, she’s more worried about Spring.

“I am a bit more worried there will be an outbreak at the gym because there are much more people on campus than last semester, ” Perez wrote in an email.

However, Perez said she is grateful to have a job right now, especially during a pandemic.

“Having a source of income right now when a lot of people have lost their jobs is a privilege,” she wrote. “Also, having a chance to interact with others has improved my wellbeing.”

Despite the risks, students should feel confident they will be safe at the gym because of RecSports’ strict safety measures, Perez said.

Staff members like Perez have enabled the gyms to remain open for as long as they have and been an integral part of the gyms’ success, Dempsey said.

“Right from the get-go, they were ready to get back to work and help serve the community,” he said. “They have been amazing in helping give feedback about policies, challenging us to look at things in certain ways. They really are the ones that make the magic happen.” @joprison joprison@alligator.org

UF students express frustration over parking restrictions SOME UF STUDENTS FEEL PARKING TICKET FINES ARE UNFAIR, BUT TAPS BELIEVES THEY CREATE AN EFFICIENT ATMOSPHERE FOR GETTING AROUND CAMPUS

By Abigail Hasebroock Alligator Staff Writer

Paige Sam triumphs when she’s finally able to find a parking spot on campus, but she’s less than elated when she returns to find parking citations plastered onto her dashboard.

The 18-year-old UF civil engineering freshman said she received eight parking tickets in the Fall. One was for parking on the white line, but if she hadn’t, she would have hit the car parked crookedly next to

her. The others were for parking in places where her decal didn’t apply because she couldn’t find availability anywhere else.

“We’re in a pandemic, and it’s not like I have $200 to give to parking citations,” Sam said. “It’s just unreasonable.”

UF’s Transportation and Parking Services lost over $1.1 million between April and August of 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic arrived.

Students like Sam are worried TAPS is attempting to make up for revenue losses by issuing more parking tickets. Fox said this is not the case.

In a normal year, UF’s parking ticket payment revenue is approximately $1.4 million, but this year’s is projected to be less than half at about $500,000, Fox said. Despite the expected decrease in funds, Fox said TAPS does not enforce parking

restrictions solely for monetary gain.

“We issue parking tickets reluctantly,” Fox said. “We know we have to issue them in order to maintain some degree of order and control, or things would be chaos.”

TAPS has financial reserves that have been heavily dipped into, which nullifies the need to issue additional parking tickets to gain back funds, Fox said.

“When you maintain 14 parking garages on campus, you need millions of dollars in reserves for the structural maintenance of those facilities,” he said. “You need money in reserve for those rainy days.”

When students angrily approach Fox about the tickets they’ve received, he often asks them what they believe campus would be like if parking wasn’t properly regulated.

Without the rules in place, getting

around campus wouldn’t be efficient or effective for students and staff, Fox said.

“We are truly not about maximizing revenue,” Fox said. “We don’t say, ‘Go out there and write more tickets,’ that’s not what we do, that’s not what we’re about.”

This Spring, 432 housing contracts were accepted, which means more than 400 students are returning to campus in addition to the approximately 6,700 students who previously signed contracts for Fall and Spring. This could create an uptick in parking tickets as parking lots become more crowded and students compete for spots.

UF is offering roughly the same number of in-person classes that were offered in Spring of 2020, which is contributing to the influx of students.

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Though Mindy Frishman said she understands the reasons for the fees and possibility of being towed, the 20-year-old UF biology sophomore feels it can be unfair and unnecessary.

“I just wish they made more spots, but there’s no land for that,” Frishman said.

The lack of land for new parking spots, TAPS’ reliance on reserves and an increase in the student population this Spring are not enough to convince all students that UF has pure intentions.

“UF is really greedy,” Sam said.

“That’s something you see just in general with the pandemic, they care more about making money than safety of their students.” @abbeyhasebroock ahasebroock@alligator.org

4 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

City approves urban forest management plan AFTER FOUR YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT AND SETBACKS, GAINESVILLE NOW HAS A ROBUST ECOLOGICAL PLAN TO MAINTAIN THE CITY’S NATURAL BEAUTY

By Jack Prator Alligator Staff Writer

Managing Gainesville’s urban forest is on the city commission’s to-do list this year, so it approved a robust plan just in time for Florida’s Arbor Day. Urban forests are trees and shrubs that live within a city, often in parks, landscaped streets, gardens and nature preserves.

The 20-year plan, which was approved for funding in 2019, is designed to keep Gainesville’s urban forest abundant, diverse and healthy, while also protecting it from development projects.

Gainesville’s tree cover also

helps energy savings during the summer. Florida’s trees save cities $4 billion a year, according to UF/IFAS researchers.

City environmental coordinator Liliana Kolluri said the project is made up of seven goals to improve the beauty of public spaces chosen by the Public Committee on Urban Forest Sustainability. The project proposes including native plants in landscaping, providing tree shade at every bus stop and ensuring access to parks and trails within a 10-minute walk from any Gainesville home. These proposals are alongside more than 70 other policies named in the plan.

A group of 11 residents helped keep the policy community-centered, Kolluri said.

City staff began surveying 739 residents in 2019 and found that about 90% of those surveyed felt the urban forest was very important to the people of Gainesville.

The city commission approved

the plan with a unanimous vote Jan. 7.

“When you ask people who come to visit Gainesville or live here what they like about it, everyone talks about our beautiful trees and all the vegetation everywhere and our nice parks,” Kolluri said.

Every five years, the Gainesville Tree Advisory Board and the public committee will reassess the plan’s progress. This, alongside annual reports, will help mark progress and hold the city accountable, although the project does not have a strict timeline for completion, Kolluri said.

“There is flexibility in what order we approach these,” Kolluri said. “And it just really depends on the resources needed and the time needed to do some of these specific actions.”

Though the plan was expected to be finalized in December 2019, it wasn’t approved until Jan. 7.

In the summer of 2018, Kolluri said the project fell in her lap after Gainesville’s arborist, the supervisor of the urban forest, moved away. The city went through three arborists during the project’s development.

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the in-person meetings Kolluri’s office had with city managers and technical staff who were working on the plan, she said. After finalizing the proposal through online meetings, her team was ready to present it to the city commission at its last meeting of 2020. But it was pushed off the agenda by higherpriority policies.

While the plan had been in serious development for two years, its inception was back in 2016.

UF/IFAS professor Michael Andreu contributed to the 2016 Gainesville Urban Forest Ecological Analysis, a report requested by the city’s parks and recreation department in 2014.

The report found Gainesville canopy cover reached 47% of the city, referring to the ground area directly covered by trees.

He said the plan was based on a similar urban forest management plan he helped develop in Tampa. Tampa’s tree cover diversity – which has a lot of invasive species and differs greatly from Gainesville – required a very different approach, he said.

“Our forest really does a great job of reflecting sort of what the native forest in the surrounding areas would be like,” Andreu said.

Andreu said the plan split Gainesville into different land use categories, with specific goals for each area. This is necessary due to the size of Gainesville’s urban forest, which is one of the largest in Florida.

“It’s a very progressive plan and certainly, it includes aspects of how do we maintain tree health,” he said. @jack_prator jackprator@alligator.org

UF instructors speak out about week one of in-person teaching INSTRUCTORS JUGGLE LESSON PLANS, NEW TECHNOLOGY AND PRESSURE FROM STUDENTS AND ADMINISTRATORS

By Sofia Echeverry Alligator Staff Writer

Between lesson plans, new technology and added pressure from UF students and administrators, instructors are stretched thin.

As the first week came to a close, UF instructors reflected on the start of the semester with the most in-person classes since Spring 2020. They were asked to shift gears from teaching entirely online to

HyFlex classes. Some found the transition on top of preparing their usual material as added pressure amid the already-stressful pandemic.

Kylie Williamson, a UF doctoral student in bioarchaeology and the instructor of an introductory public speaking course, began teaching HyFlex classes Jan. 13.

She encountered problems balancing her attention between in-person and online students.

Williamson was concerned online students may feel neglected during classes, especially since they cannot see or hear the in-person students.

“Last semester we were all online, all on Zoom, but at least we were on the

Chasity Maynard // Alligator Staff

Velvet Yates, director of Distance Learning for the UF Classics Department, begins class in an empty classroom on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021. She said the university requires her to teach in the classroom, even if no students show up. “It’s absurd,” Yates said. “I’ve been teaching online classes for 15 years. I know how to teach online classes, and this isn’t it.”

same playing field,” she said.

Williamson also had trouble with managing the new technology of HyFlex classes.

“It’s just this added layer of unnecessary stress,” she said. “It’s the fear of the technology not working, students not being able to hear me.”

As the director of graduate student teaching, Anastasia Ulanowicz has observed how graduate students like Williamson adapted to simultaneously teaching online classes and doing personal research since last Fall. She was impressed with their adjustments to remote teaching but said the shift to hybrid and in-person teaching ignored these adjustments by introducing a different system.

“The graduate students are very, very concerned and very afraid,” she said.

Graduate student teachers are also concerned about their health. Many have to ride on public transportation, where they could potentially contract the virus, to get to campus, Ulanowicz said. Others have at-risk loved ones to care for and were refused Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations. Some are even international students who have shared their fears with Ulanowicz.

“They’ve told me that they’re afraid of falling ill and dying thousands of miles away from home,” she said.

These concerns are among the reasons why the United Faculty of Florida-UF, UF’s faculty union, has fought the return to in-person classes.

UFF-UF’s published an official chapter grievance against the Spring 2021 Face-toFace Teaching Mandate and the rejection of ADA accommodations. The grievance states 65% of ADA requests were denied to faculty who applied for accommodations, many of whom have conditions that place them at a higher risk for COVID-19.

The announcement of an addition to the GatorSAFE app garnered even more backlash from UFF-UF. GatorSAFE pro-

vides tools to help keep members of the Gainesville community safe, and the addition allowed students to report instructors if students feel there are inconsistencies between in-person and online teaching.

UFF pushed back against this addition because of its potential to violate the contract between UF and the faculty union. GAU-UF, UF’s chapter of Graduate Assistant United, also protested the addition. UF has since removed the addition’s drop-down menu and changed its purpose description, but the option to report inconsistencies in teaching to the university remains.

Despite concerns raised by the return to in-person classes, some instructors are glad they’ve been given the opportunity to teach in person.

For Angela Decarlis, a UF graduate student in painting and drawing, it is important the figure drawing class they teach remains in-person.

“A lot of people don’t realize that the skill of translating a 3D human form to 2D is different than it would be if we were learning from screens,” they said.

Accommodating Decarlis’s disability, social distancing policies and the course’s curriculum has split the class between two classrooms of six students each. Although their disability doesn’t put them at a greater risk for COVID-19, they wrote there are instructors in their department also teaching in person who are immunocompromised.

By seating students in two separate classrooms and having a work study student in class on days when figure models are present, Decarlis was able to continue teaching in -person.

“There are plenty of educators right now who are teaching the classes I am teaching online,” Decarlis said. “I am grateful to not be one of those teachers.” @sofecheverry secheverry@alligator.org

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021 ALLIGATOR 5

The path to reconciliation: How Alachua County confronts its history of lynchings ALACHUA COUNTY LEADERS REFLECT ON HOW RACIAL INEQUITY PERSISTS TODAY

By Alan Halaly Alligator Staff Writer

Editor’s note: This story contains mention of racial violence.

In 1916, resisting arrest and being related to the friend of a fugitive while Black was a crime punishable by death. That’s what happened to Jim Dennis and his siblings.

When George Wynne tried to issue a warrant for the arrest of Boisey Long, a Black man accused of stealing pigs, Long shot Wynne and then escaped into the night. An angry mob of about 200 mostly white Newberry residents formed to search for Long. They captured him two nights later, but others were caught in the crossfire during their rampage.

Jim Dennis, Long’s friend, was shot and killed in his home for resisting arrest after being suspected of helping Long escape. Dennis’s siblings, Bert and Mary, were rounded up by the same mob and then hanged on an oak tree at the intersection of Newberry Lane and Alachua County Route 235.

With global Black Lives Matter protests in response to police brutality and the continued prevalence of white supremacy, 2020 was a reminder of how the fight for racial equity persists today. Some argue lynchings never stopped, citing incidents such as the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd and what some continue to call lynch mobs.

Since June 2018, County Commission Chair Charles Chestnut has led a county-wide effort to recall Alachua County’s legacy of racial violence with Truth and Reconciliation.

Heading into the first few months of 2021, Alachua County is prepared to continue hosting commemorative events to remember victims and continue to reconcile with stories like Jim Dennis’.

The commission initiated its endeavor in response to national Equal Justice Initiative lynching research.

Local historians were able to confirm a national list of victims and find more. Eleven lynchings happened in Gainesville, according to the county’s timeline.

Jim Dennis’ great-grandson Warren Lee lives to tell his family’s story. He shared what happened on Nov. 15 at Heartwood Soundstage in Gainesville. The Remembrance, Reckoning and Reflection event featured others who spoke on the state of racial equity in the county.

“The tree is gone,” Lee said during the event. “But the memories still linger in the city of Newberry.”

While stories like the Dennises’ are known, historians are unsure of details surrounding other cases.

Between 1867 and 1942, at least 50 Alachua County residents were murdered at the hands of prejudicial lynchings, which is defined as an unlawful murder by a group, sometimes even referring to public executions meant as a punishment.

Some victims still remain nameless. Most of them were Black, but some were white and at least one was Jewish.

Newberry leading the way Among the 50 lynching victims in

Alachua County were the Newberry Six – the Black residents who were murdered following the accusation of stolen pigs, including Dennis and his relatives.

Lee, a longtime Newberry resident, said he’s still baffled that his relatives were murdered over pigs.

He said he still has a hard time returning to the site of their deaths.

“I cannot imagine seeing their bodies flowing back and forth in the wind of the tree,” Lee said on the Heartwood Soundstage. “I can only think: Was it hot that day? Was it cold that day? Did the Florida buzzards peck at their skin?”

Often lynchings, along with other accounts of white supremacy, are poorly documented and hard to uncover, according to a 2020 New York Times report. With time, more accounts of lynchings have come to the forefront, like the 2017 county report that increased the number of known Alachua County lynchings from 21 to 43. More are likely to be found.

Newberry Mayor Jordan Marlowe represents the town in the Community Remembrance effort.

It’s difficult to have accurate records of lynchings because people, generally, can be unwilling to participate in uncomfortable conversations, he said.

He said Newberry has never tried to hide its history of racial violence.

Marlowe and local organizers believe more people may have been killed the day of the Newberry Six lynchings, so they continue to honor the unknown, Marlowe said. After organizing honorary gatherings, he said the town received positive feedback from residents.

Marlowe said he sees police brutality as a modern-day iteration of

racial violence such as the Newberry lynchings.

“Think of the Newberry Six in 1916 and then of Ahmaud Arbery in 2020,” he said. “You tell me if these stories seem similar or not.”

Despite Newberry’s efforts, Marlowe said some other towns in the county, such as Hawthorne and Gainesville, have decided to ignore it by not actively looking for more victims. The reason the Newberry Six is so well-known is because of the town’s dedication to search for and publicize the truth, he added.

“As long as there’s a city left in the county that’s not acknowledging our work, then I will take the position that we’re at the beginning of this process,” he said. “We need to see the truth before we can even really consider reconciliation.”

Micanopy just getting started In Micanopy, Truth and Reconciliation is still a new conversation.

Jiana Williams, a 34-year-old Micanopy resident, never could have imagined that a lynching took place in the same town square where her grandmother used to spend her days working at a mill.

Local historians are just beginning to uncover the lynchings that happened in Micanopy, Williams said. After learning the history, she said she thinks about her grandmother.

“Knowing that she worked in a town where her ancestors could have been lynched,” she said. “It breaks my heart because it makes it tangible.”

Williams joined the Community Remembrance effort just over a month ago. She felt the need to participate in the group effort because

UF Health Shands had 132 COVID-19 patients Monday ICU, from pg. 1 throughout the day as patients are admitted and discharged.

The United Faculty of Florida-UF and the UF-Graduate Assistants United previously demanded increased transparency regarding UF administration’s reasoning to hold more inperson classes and for more faculty accommodations Oct. 20.

Kirn said he is now calling on the administration to provide clarity on the hospital front.

There are no plans to make an ICU capacity dashboard, UF Health spokesperson Bill Levesque said. ICU availability changes too frequently throughout the day to include a dashboard similar to UF’s COVID-19 dashboard, which displays on-campus quarantine capacity and daily test counts, he said.

UF Health has extensive, internal disaster plans and processes in place for all kinds of events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Levesque said, though he did not elaborate on what the plans entailed.

Julia Cooper // Alligator Staff

J. Evans, a Gainesville Police Department officer, directs traffic into Malcom Randall VA Medical Center on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. A long line of traffic formed outside the hospital as Alachua County residents 65-years-old and older waited to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

she said being Black in America is still challenging today, racial violence has just taken new forms.

“I can’t be in the park bird-watching without a white woman calling the cops,” she said.

Williams said she was the only Black teacher at Micanopy Middle School, a town where just over 8% of the population is Black. She said she was the only Black person some of her students regularly interacted with, which she felt added pressure to make those interactions positive.

The approach of remembrance efforts should aim to bring white people into the conversation, Williams said.

“Twenty years from now, we’re going to have the same problem because it’s just getting passed down,” she said. “But these scars are still relevant to the descendants of victims.”

Warren Lee said he wishes Alachua County would teach the history of lynchings in classrooms.

“Not one book will tell you about this incident,” Lee said. “But when you talk to the citizens of Newberry, they want to talk about it. And I think we should.”

He sometimes pictures what his relatives’ final prayer might have sounded like, he said. As his relatives each sat on a horse with a noose around their neck attached to the tree, he said he believes they might have thought of this Bible passage: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

“Did they get to say a final prayer?” he said. “I don’t know, but I know it wasn’t justice.” @alanhalaly ahalaly@alligator.org

Since the onset of the pandemic, UFF-UF and UF-GAU have expressed concerns about the return of in-person classes in the Spring. The groups have said it negatively affects high-risk faculty members and disregards the failures of other universities that tried reopening in the Fall.

For example, the University of Michigan altered Spring 2021 on-campus plans to be a smaller affair by reducing its number of housing contracts and allowing instructors to determine what is the safest class format. UF should follow suit, Kirn said.

The university should lay out thresholds of infection rates showing the risks of transmission like the Centers for Disease Control’s recommended school reopening indicators, he said.

For a university campus, a positivity rate of 5% or higher indicates a moderate risk of transmission, according to the CDC. These figures, alongside ICU capacities, could help UF faculty and staff determine when in-person instruction is no longer viable, Kirn said.

“You can’t wait until you’re at 4.5% and then start taking action,” Kirn said. “By then, it’s too late.”

UF-GAU has had to refer to outside sources to better understand COVID-19 on campus, Rachel Hartnett, the UF-GAU healthcare chair and English department graduate teaching assistant, said.

“It leaves you dumbfounded,” Hartnett said. “We want to make sure our most vulnerable populations are protected.”

Garcia said Shands has the ability to adjust the number of ICU beds to meet the needs of patients. One solution is using step-down beds, which provide an intermediate level of care for patients between a medical-surgical unit and the ICU. Shands is also a major referral center for the Southeast, Garcia said. Being a Level I trauma center also accounts for some occupancies, meaning it can provide total care for an injury from prevention to rehabilitation, according to UF Health.

Levesque said. Shands is comfortable with its ICU capabilities in and out of the pandemic.

Kirn recognizes the hospital is dealing with a moving target of beds and nurses, but he thinks faculty and staff should still have a voice in the process.

“We’re all in this together,” Kirn said. “I mean, that’s become the phrase everybody uses, right? If we are, then let’s really be in it together.” @ReaManny mrea@alligator.org

6 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

No MLK Monday March, but some in-person celebrations at Citizens Field THE KING COMMISSION CELEBRATED MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. DAY ALL WEEK

By Jiselle Lee Alligator Staff Writer

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission hosted King Celebration week in Gainesville once again. But this year, there was no march and half of the weeklong festivities were streamed online.

The Annual Commemorative March in Gainesville has averaged between 3,000 and 4,000 attendees in the past few years. For the first time in 40 years, the event did not take place on MLK Day, Rodney J. Long, founder and president of the Martin Luther King Commission of Florida, said.

Instead, the King Commission hosted three online events leading up to its final in-person event at Citizen Field: The Hall of Fame Gala, The Remembering Martin and Coretta Program and the Social Justice Town Hall Symposium, according to a press release from the King Commission.

Local elected officials, King Commission Board members and award recipients sat on a stage in the middle of the football field at noon Monday. Audience members watched speeches and singing performances from the stands on both sides of the stadium. Face coverings and social distancing were required at all times.

The commission was relieved to have held an in-person event for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Long said.

“It’s an opportunity for people to get out,” he said. “People haven’t been out to events for quite some time.”

Six elected officials attended the event, including Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, Chair of the Alachua County Commission Ken Cornell, Alachua County Sheriff Clovis Watson Jr., Alachua County Property Appraiser Ayesha Solomon, Alachua County Interim Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon and Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe. Each spoke

Chasity Maynard // Alligator Staff

Christal Harris, 2, rubs her hands together after T.J. Pyche, director of communications and outreach for the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections office, gave her hand sanitizer on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Harris attended the King Celebration event with her family. about the effects of politics in Washington D.C. on Alachua County.

“We need a Stacey Abrams movement,” Florida District 20 Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson said. “I suggest to you my brothers and sisters of all races, creeds and nationalities that we reach deep within our being, our souls, and emancipate ourselves.”

The theme of this year’s King Celebration was “Reclaiming the Dream: The Time is Now!” Long said. The holiday is a time to reflect on the core goals of King’s nonviolent movement for equality and reclaim the ideas brought to the forefront of the civil rights movement by young people, he said.

“We can easily reclaim the dream, simply because of social media,” Long said. “Social media is at their fingertips, and they can put together a group overnight and have 2,000 people out on the streets protesting nonviolently about a cause.”

A lot has changed within the organization in the past 40 years. To continue celebrating Dr. King’s achievements and sus-

Julia Cooper // Alligator Staff

Aeriel Lane, a local social justice and community activist, accepts the Martin Luther King Jr. 2021 Hall of Fame Award on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. Lane was honored for her work organizing the March For Our Freedom event in May.

Chasity Maynard // Alligator Staff

A person can be seen holding an “I have a dream/Trump imprisoned sign” among a crowd at the King Celebration at Citizens Field on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021.

taining his legacy, the commission created the Martin Luther King, Jr., Hall of Fame and established two scholarships recognizing local residents for their leadership and emulation of Dr. King’s teachings.

The 2021 Edna M. Hart Keeper of the Dream Scholarship Award Recipient is Taylor Hill-Miles, a senior at Eastside High School.

Hill-Miles hopes to inspire others who want to make a difference in the community. She said she never thought her community volunteering efforts would get recognized.

“I was just doing what I loved,” HillMiles said.“Your hard work will pay off, whether you see the results or not, and I think that is the most important part of community service.”

Aeriel Lane, a Gainesville activist and founder of local nonprofit March for Our Freedom, was selected as the 2021 MLK Hall of Fame Award Recipient. According to the commission, Lane sent a Facebook event in-

vite to ten of her friends, and eventually, March for Our Freedom saw as many as 6,000 participants, becoming one of the largest peaceful demonstrations in Gainesville.

“When George Floyd was killed, my eight-year-old son asked me if this is something that could happen to me, and I was so scared and so sad by that question from someone who is so young. And I just felt this sense of needing to take some kind of action,” Lane said.

Lane said the holiday reminds her how far Gainesville’s Black community has come and how much work the community has left to do.

“I think, frequently, people like to canonize various people and make them the leaders of a movement,” Lane said. “Whereas, we are all leaders of our own tiny movements in our homes, in our families, and in our communities.” @jiselle_lee jlee@alligator.org

Chasity Maynard // Alligator Staff

Ryan Hope Travis helps his 2-year-old son, Rezen Hope Travis, climb a fence at the King Celebration at Citizens Field on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021.

Ryan Hope Travis said it was the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration Rezen was old enough to understand. “Him knowing his history is the foundation of him being able to grow,” he said.

Chasity Maynard // Alligator Staff

The Florida Fellowship Gospel Super Choir performs at the King Celebration on Monday, Jan. 18, 2021.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021 www.alligator.org/the_avenue

SPOTIFY

MENTAL HEALTH

Gainesville therapist offers group sessions for minority clients THE TWO GROUPS, CREATED FOR LGBTQ INDIVIDUALS AND BLACK WOMEN, AIM TO PROVIDE A SENSE OF SOLIDARITY AND COMMUNITY

By Veronica Nocera Avenue Staff Writer

When Berthina McGill noticed a need for minority clinicians in the Gainesville community, she immediately got to work on filling in the gaps.

McGill – who has over 15 years of experience providing mental health services – established her private practice, Appendix Inc., in Gainesville last October. Starting in early February, the 38-year-old licensed mental health counselor will offer two discounted therapy groups for Black women and members of the LGBTQ community, respectively.

Sessions for the Black women’s therapy group will begin Feb. 6 at 2 p.m. The sessions for the LGBTQ group will begin Feb. 4 at 5 p.m.

Meetings will be held weekly and in person at 2790 NW 43rd St., Suite 100, for $30 per session. Masks are required, and COVID-19 guidelines will

be enforced.

McGill said during the past year, she noticed a rising demand for therapy from her clients and the Gainesville community. She said many of her clients have expressed a particular appreciation for their sessions as a form of social interaction since many lost the ability to see friends or family due to the pandemic. The political climate of 2020 only added to the desire to communicate with peers in a safe place.

“This group is something to express any emotion, to feel loved and motivated and to feel better about ourselves,” McGill said.

McGill’s decision to create group sessions specifically for Black women and members of the LGBTQ community stemmed largely from requests from her own clients, she said. Group therapy – and therapy as a whole – is a passion of hers, she said; so when people approached her concerned about the slim options for identityspecific group sessions in Gainesville, she eagerly took on the challenge.

“I definitely have a goal of having different group sessions,” she explained. “I want to see the needs of the community, and then we can nar-

row them down.”

In addition to the discounted group sessions, McGill said she also offers individual sessions at a price lower than most other local services in order to avoid cost being a deterrent for those seeking therapy. Having a high salary, she said, is not what draws her to work in mental health counseling.

“I’m here to be there for the community, be there for the people,” she said. “That’s what brings me pleasure.”

Though the discounted sessions are currently aimed at specific marginalized communities, McGill believes all people can benefit from therapy, which offers an outlet for open communication without fear of judgement. McGill said she strives to be that ear or someone to talk to, from a clinical perspective.

LaNya Lee, a 20-year-old UF psychology junior, plans to participate in both of McGill’s upcoming group therapy sessions.

Lee said there is a noticeable lack of affordable mental health services catered toward Black women and LGBTQ people and spaces in Gainesville exclusive to these communities in general. As these groups compose some

of the most marginalized communities not only in the area but the United States, Lee said facilitating these safe spaces is especially important.

“Living in Gainesville and being at a predominantly white institute, it can be hard to be surrounded by situations where you might not feel safe or comfortable,” Lee said. “It’s crucial to have spaces where these people can come together and feel like they’re welcomed and loved and cared for.”

Providing a space where individuals from marginalized communities can be authentically themselves and process what they’re going through, Lee said, is one of the prime goals of McGill’s upcoming group sessions.

Lee said similar therapy groups centered on transgender people or the Black community as a whole could also be beneficial in the future.

Lee said they hope such opportunities would help these communities survive and process current global events.

For Lee, therapy serves as a bouncing-off point to facilitate open discussion and get difficult topics off their chest, and clients interested in McGill’s group will be provided with a safe space, Lee said.

The Avenue’s back-toschool playlist features the songs we’ve had on replay to get us through the beginning of the new semester.

Those interested in securing a spot can contact McGill at Berthina@ yourappendix.com or (352) 470-0601. @vernocera vnocera@alligator.org

FOOD

Satchel’s Pizza is encouraging patrons to Round Up For Charity THE GAINESVILLE RESTAURANT IS NOW ACCEPTING CREDIT, MOBILE PAY WITH NEW CHARITY PROGRAM

By Heather Bushman Avenue Staff Writer

If you ask Satchel Raye about himself, he’ll tell you he’s just Satch – the guy who sells pizzas.

That’s exactly what he’s been doing since March 7, 2003, when Satchel’s Pizza first opened at 1800 NE 23rd Ave. With stained glass windows decorating the side, a hodgepodge of plants and garden knick-knacks

Courtesy to The Alligator

Satchel’s Pizza has been a staple in the Gainesville community since its opening in 2003.

adorning the lawn and a sky-blue van akin to the Mystery Machine front and center, Satchel’s is a tough building to miss.Over the years, the restaurant has become a Gainesville staple.

Underneath Satchel’s eclectic exterior is the undeniable spirit of community – one bolstered by the recent Round Up For Charity (RUFC) program the restaurant has implemented in tandem with their new acceptance of credit cards, electronic pay and other forms of payment. The restaurant made the switch from its 17-year-long cash-only policy Jan. 12 and added the program, which encourages customers to round up their total to the nearest dollar for donations to charities around Gainesville.

The shift to credit cards wasn’t a decision Raye, 53, ever thought he’d make. Satchel’s was known over the years for being a cashonly establishment, he said, and the ATM machine outside the restaurant allowed customers to withdraw cash quickly if they didn’t have any on hand. The format wasn’t hindering business, so the idea of broadening accepted forms of payment seemed unnecessary.

Consistency wasn’t the only thing holding the restaurant back from making the switch, though. Satchel’s has annually donated all the ATM fees, set at $1.50 per transaction, to charities around Gainesville since the machine’s installation seven years ago, totaling to about $25,000 annually. The removal of the cashonly policy, and the subsequent drop in traffic to the ATM machine, might have threatened those numbers, Raye said, putting the charities that have come to rely on donations from Satchel’s in jeopardy.

“My big hang-up with the credit cards was mostly that I had gotten used to giving all this money to charity,” Raye said. “The charities

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have come to depend on it after so long.”

But with the gradual growth of the business, including the opening of a second location, Satch2, the need to expand became stronger – so the business shifted gears.

Satch2 opened in July 2020 with the acceptance of credit cards and the RUFC program in place. When the format proved to be successful at the second location, bringing in around $1,000 a month in donations with about half the patronage of Satchel’s, Raye made the call to adjust at the main location.

“When we saw at Satch2 that it worked, we said, ‘Well, let’s switch over and do Round Up For Charity,’” he said.

The RUFC program was established as a replacement for the ATM fee donations. Customers will be asked if they’d like to round up their total to the nearest dollar following their purchase, and the extra amount will all be donated to charity. To encourage donations and support for the program, Satchel’s has designed T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise available for purchase.

It’s a program characterized by convenience, Raye said. RUFC couples the default of paying by card with the ease of rounding up instead of making a flat donation, and with the restaurant researching and vetting each charity, the work usually associated with donating to charity is all but eliminated for the customer. For those reasons, Raye said he anticipates the program being a success.

“I’m going to guess 95% of people round up,” he said.

Gainesville’s status as a smaller city, plus the restaurant’s total of $25,000 in ATM fees, has allowed Satchel’s to partner with nearly every charity in the area over time. Those charities include the Sequential Artists Work-

shop, Grace Marketplace and Community Spring.

“We kind of rotate around,” Raye said.

“We give to these ten, and then these ten, and these ten.”

Satchel’s has also donated regularly to the Civic Media Center (CMC), an information center that serves as a resource for grassroots organizing and activism. As a nonprofit, the organization runs completely on donations.

Manu Osorio, a 25-year-old board member and volunteer at the CMC, said continued funding from Satchel’s has been instrumental to the maintenance and upkeep of the center.

“There’s been several times that Satchel’s has come through for us and supported, and that’s the impact,” they said.

Appreciation for Satchel’s, and Raye himself, has been abundant in the community.

From letters to pictures to the Satchel’s logo sprawled on the side of a box truck, Gainesville charities have continually praised the restaurant for their generosity and giving spirit.

But Raye says he couldn’t do it alone. After all, he’s just “the guy in the kitchen, making pizzas with his head in the oven.” The program doesn’t work, he said, unless everyone – customers, employees, and management – participates.

“It’s like the trilogy, like the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. They all equal,” he said.

Raye credits the community effort for the impact Satchel’s has made across Gainesville.

He said getting everyone involved, giving his customers the sense that they made a difference, is the real power of his pizza place.

“The thing about a restaurant is it’s not just a place to make a buck, it’s a place to invest in a larger ecosystem,” he said. @hgrizzl hbushman@alligator.org

Rec Sports and COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic limited several aspects of life, but students still use sports as an escape. However, there are still mixed feelings, pg. 12

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8 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

UF traffic safety conversations: we’ll be listening

W

e’ve seen two of our classmates killed by cars on University Avenue since December. That’s too many.

On Saturday evening, a car crash on University Avenue resulted in the death of UF theater freshman Sophia Lambert and the hospitalization of five others.

UF released a statement the following day about the crash closing with a promise: “The safety of our campus is paramount, and we want you to know conversations are underway regarding pedestrian and vehicular safety, on and around our campus.”

But will conversations be enough?

Just over a month ago, 18-year-old UF student Maggie Paxton was tragically killed in a hit-and-run crash on University Avenue. The driver still has not been identified, and UF never released a statement acknowledging the crash. Was her death not enough to take the issue of traffic safety on University Avenue seriously? If action had been taken then, could we have avoided the terrible events that transpired on Saturday evening?

It’s easy to criticize UF for not advocating on behalf of its students’ safety, but the responsibility doesn’t rest solely on the university’s shoulders. University Avenue is a state-owned road, meaning our state representatives are in the position to make the safety changes needed.

Who are our state representatives? Rep. Chuck Clemons and Sen. Keith Perry. Just in case you were wondering.

If UF’s administration and our state representatives needed ideas on where to start, one traffic safety petition has proposed installing speed bumps on University Avenue and has already garnered thousands of signatures. According to the Florida Department of Transportation, the estimated cost for a speed bump is $2,000, a mere drop in the bucket of our state spending, and about $1,000 less than what one UF student pays for full-time in-state tuition in a semester.

Another idea is to reduce the current 35 mph speed limit. In the Florida Driver Handbook, the standard speed limit for municipal, business and residential areas is 30 mph. Why would University Avenue, a road littered with student apartment complexes, UF dorms and known for heavy student foot traffic, boast a higher speed?

If a 15-year-old is expected to know standard speed limits to get a learners’ permit, our elected officials who put these speed limits in place should too.

Drivers could hold themselves accountable through the use of radar speed displays alongside the road. Speed enforcement cameras could be implemented as well. Even barriers could be placed alongside the road to avoid hit-and-run situations like we saw back in December. The list of solutions goes on and on.

We’ve heard the UF promise to start conversations before, but we have yet to see results on the other end. We’ll be listening closely to see where it goes. Students shouldn’t be afraid to walk off campus, let alone walk along the border of campus. The more time we waste on conversations, the more we put pedestrian lives at risk. Now is the time for action, and it needs to be immediate.

Call Rep. Chuck Clemons, Sen. Keith Perry, and the UF Administration about making University Avenue safer like your life depends on it. Because frankly, it does.

The Editorial Board is made up of the Editor-in-Chief, Digital Managing Editor, Engagement Managing Editor, and Opinions Editor.

CWC creates new program to satisfy high demand for services THE CWC HOPES ITS NEW PROGRAM WILL PROVIDE FURTHER HELP FOR STUDENTS DURING THESE CHALLENGING TIMES

By J.P. Oprison Alligator Staff Writer

Long lines and limited counselors are why students like Cassidy Roberts turned to the UF Counseling and Wellness Center’s new online program, SilverCloud.

The CWC created SilverCloud, a self-guided online resource, to provide students an online alternative to mental health counseling during COVID-19, said Geoff Lee, a clinical assistant professor at the CWC. The online program first became available to students in November 2020 before officially launching just after the first of the year and includes modules on anxiety, depression and stress, he said.

Roberts has been referred to the CWC three times by UF Health physicians, nurse practitioners and her counselor from her hometown. But she’s never gotten an appointment.

“Every single time, they’ve never been able to call me back, or the line has been too long, and I wasn’t an emergency client, so they didn’t get me in,” the 19-year-old UF chemical engineering sophomore said.

The launch of SilverCloud comes after COVID-19 forced the CWC, which was already bursting at the seams, to close March 2020 and resort to telemental health services. The CWC had to set up technology and train staff, and it dipped into its savings to pay for these unexpected expenses. This, along with stagnant funding, led to a limited budget.

SilverCloud is not necessarily a replacement for counseling or therapy, but it’s a good first step for some students, Lee said.

“There are enough students that might be dealing with something, but don’t necessarily have the time or energy to devote to counseling, or may not be ready to take that step,” Lee said. “So, it’s a really nice introduction to things that we can do to take care of ourselves.”

The CWC began working on SilverCloud in early

2020. Work on the online platform was interrupted when COVID-19 hit in March and the CWC had to shift its focus to developing telemental health services. Work on SilverCloud picked up in Fall, and it was officially released during the first few days of 2021, Lee said.

SilverCloud cost about $25,000 to provide access to every student on campus, Lee said.

Currently, 62 students are using SilverCloud, Lee said. A feedback survey from 23 users showed positive results, as they have found the modules interesting, relevant and helpful.

Roberts said she would rather see the counseling center’s money spent on more counselors. But if it can’t hire more of them, SilverCloud is the next best thing.

“I know it would be a great resource for people who are just starting or need a quick stress relief situation,” she said. “It’s a good beginning step.”

Renae Burke, a 22-year-old UF biomedical engineering and music fifth-year, said they haven’t used SilverCloud. But from what they know, it’s a good first step toward making more immediate services available to students.

Burke scheduled appointments with the CWC in Summer 2017, Fall 2018 and Fall 2019. The first time, they were able to meet with a counselor because of higher availability in Summer. But the other times, they were told no counselors were available and to look elsewhere, Burke said.

“They don’t even tell you before you come in that there isn’t a counselor availability,” Burke said. “And it may be another three or four weeks before you’re able to meet with someone who’s not even at UF.” While they said SilverCloud appears to be a good alternative, it may not work for everyone – especially people who have severe depression or anxiety.

“It may be more difficult to put in the work on their own as opposed to being held accountable for working on their mental health with a one-on-one counselor,” Burke said.

@joprison joprison@alligator.org

Aubrey Bocalan // Alligator Staff

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10 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

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25

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24

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021 www.alligator.org/sports

BASEBALL

Florida baseball has a shot at redemption after early 2019 exit AFTER A DOMINANT 2020 CAMPAIGN WAS CUT SHORT, PRESEASON TOP-RANKED GATORS WILL FINALLY GET A CHANCE TO ERASE ITS LOSS AT NCAA REGIONALS TWO YEARS AGO

By Ryan Haley Sports Writer

The day is June 2, 2019.

It’s just before 5:30 p.m. in Lubbock, Texas, on a warm, overcast evening. The wind that has blown the last few hours is starting to settle. Two years after winning the College World Series, the Florida Gators were eliminated from the NCAA Regional Tournament.

The 2019 season started with high expectations. Almost every season at Florida had, especially under coach Kevin O’Sullivan. The Gators were ranked No. 4 by Baseball America before the season began. The memories of 2017’s title run remained fresh on everyone’s minds.

However, the team was alarmingly young, with true freshmen accounting for more than a third of the roster.

“We thought we might have some learning curves with how young we might be and because we played so many freshmen, but we still thought it would be a pretty good year,” said Jacob Young, a

freshman outfielder in 2019.

The season started well enough.

The team won a series against Miami and defeated then-No. 6 Florida State with a jaw-dropping 20run performance. As the schedule transitioned to conference play, the Gators held a 14-5 record.

Florida then dropped five of its first six SEC games — a splash of cold water that doused any momentum. The ship steadied from there, but the Gators would still finish the season with a 13-17 in-conference record. It was the team’s first losing record in the SEC since 2013 and its worst conference mark under O’Sullivan.

Still, all was not lost in the locker room. The Gators gained confidence after entering the SEC Tournament off a season-ending sweep over Missouri, according to Kirby McMullen, who now plays third base for Florida.

A 10th-inning loss to Texas A&M in the opening round of the SEC Tournament led the Gators to the fateful Regional competition in Lubbock. The third-ranked team in the four-squad bracket, Florida dropped its opening contest to the second-seeded Dallas Baptist University Patriots, Florida beat Army to stay alive and force a rematch against DBU. The elimination game against the Patriots started well but turned

nightmarish in the top of the fourth inning. The Gators took the field defensively with a 2-0 lead but returned to the dugout nine runs later, now trailing by seven.

Florida didn’t go down without a fight, bringing in six more runs and advancing the tying runner to third base during the bottom of the ninth for Young.

Young grounded out. After four straight trips to Omaha, the Gators had their first Regionals exit since 2014.

“We knew we had our chance at Regionals,” Young said, “We played some good teams, we had a good chance, but we just kind of felt we came up a little short.”

While Young said the freshmen were gutted for players who would never see the college field again, the seniors and draft prospects who would take their talents elsewhere, the focus of the younger end of the roster immediately shifted ahead.

“We had our year to learn and get experience, and we were ready to attack the next year and make up for some of the wrongdoings,” Young said.

To say the 2020 squad simply redeemed itself would be a monumental understatement.

It was clear that something different was in the air around O’Sullivan’s squad. The talent and

the work ethic were there but there was something else, too. The entire program shared a chip on its shoulder, a desire to make sure that what happened the year before was never repeated.

“All of the sophomores were going to be really ready,” Young said. “We were all really prepared and kind of wanted to show everyone that we’re no joke.”

The team came out of the gates blazing, winning its first 16 games including a sweep over then-No. 1 Miami. It reached the pole position on Baseball America’s rankings on Feb. 24 and looked not only ready to erase the flaws of the 2019 postseason, but to make extra room in the trophy case as well.

Then the rest of the world intervened. The day before the Gators were scheduled to take on Georgia to open conference play, the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Collegiate sports everywhere ground to a halt.

The redemption Florida desired was put on hold. This time, forces outside of their control risked both a chance at vindication and the bonds forged along the way.

“A lot of us were upset about the friendships that might have gotten cut short with kids supposed to be getting drafted and

signing,” McMullen said. “Obviously, a lot of that didn’t end up happening.”

The Gators’ losses from that top-ranked team were actually quite minuscule this offseason.

Star pitchers Tommy Mace and Jack Leftwich weren’t selected in a shortened MLB draft and chose to return to Gainesville for another run. Longtime staple Austin Langworthy didn’t return, but a vaunted recruiting class and transfer arm Franco Aleman added their names to the talent pool on a roster that somehow got even deeper.

As the new season draws closer, it appears the Gators will finally have an unobstructed path to redemption. The NCAA has conducted several championships already and seems to have a plan for hosting athletic competitions. The team now has a chance to prove that 16-1 start a year ago wasn’t a fluke.

“Since we didn’t get to do it last year, that motivation kind of crept forward into this fall,” Young said.

The opportunity in front of this Florida team isn’t lost on those in the locker room, especially those who were there that overcast June day in Lubbock. @ryan_dhaley rhaley@alligator.org

FOLO

Bully ball is the bane of the Gators FLORIDA HAS STRUGGLED TO DEFEND AGAINST LARGER TEAMS THROUGH SIX GAMES OF CONFERENCE PLAY

By Declan Walsh Sports Writer

A glance at the Florida men’s basketball roster, decorated with elite recruits and athleticism, exposes a shortcoming. One that’s a bit too literal.

UF currently has the fourth-shortest team in the SEC, according to KenPom. Florida’s diminutive makeup was a strength when it lived in transition against inferior opposition, but against the trees of the SEC, it’s a decided disadvantage. Mississippi State exploited the Gators down low Saturday, scoring 52 points in the paint while snagging 21 more rebounds.

The Bulldogs are the sixth tallest team in the country, which compares to Florida’s other SEC losses against Kentucky and Alabama, which rank fifth and 45th in height, respectively.

The emergence of junior forward Anthony Duruji, who stands at 6 feet, 7 inches, added

some fortitude to the Gator frontcourt, but UF remains undersized in most positions.

The most common lineup for Florida consists of guards Tyree Appleby, Tre Mann and Noah Locke along with forward Anthony Duruji and center Colin Castleton, according to KenPom. They average out at just 6 feet, 5 inches, leaving glaring matchup problems all over the floor.

Florida faces Tennessee on Tuesday, which ranks ninth in height, and has five games scheduled against top-100 teams in that category. The Gators will need to resolve their struggles against tall rosters in order to keep dreams of an NCAA tournament bid alive.

Cut back on the fouls

Florida made a difficult front-court matchup nearly impossible against MS State over the weekend after many of its taller players suffered early foul trouble.

Duruji was limited to three first-half minutes after two early fouls, one of which came cheaply on offense. Castleton swatted four shots in the first half but was forced to be tentative defensively after setting an illegal screen.

Florida Gators ranked No. 1 in D1Baseball’s preseason rankings.

Florida will officially enter the 2021 season as the consensus No. 1-ranked team, having previously been named No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Perfect Game.

“We have to stop fouling at the end of the day,” Castleton said. “Everybody has to do it.

You put yourself in a bad position when your starting four-man can’t be out on the court.”

Florida has size off the bench in 6-foot10-inch Omar Payne and 6-foot-7-inch Osayi Osifo. While the duo are serviceable defenders, they’re limited scorers and shouldn’t see the floor for many minutes at a time.

Limiting fouls has been a continued point of emphasis for coach Mike White, and Florida’s big men need to heed his advice and keep themselves on the floor.

Team Rebounding

Defensive rebounding has been a continued problem for the Gators, ranking 253rd in offensive rebounding percentage allowed. Lopsided totals on the glass are often blamed on the frontcourt, but rebounding is a team stat and Florida’s guards need to rebound as well.

The backcourt grabbed five offensive rebounds over the weekend, which is concerning given the lack of long rebounds.

UF’s perimeter players were also beaten too easily by dribble penetration, forcing help defense and creating weak-side rebounding opportunities.

Florida’s run ‘n’ gun style of play is stifled by a concerted effort on the defensive glass, but UF only scored 10 points in transition over the

Florida/Vanderbilt canceled The game, which was originally rescheduled, was dropped as the Commodores discontinued the remainder of their season after COVID-19, opt-outs and injuries depleted their roster. Scan the QR code to read more.

weekend anyway. If the Gators are going to be forced to run their half court sets, they must clean up on the boards.

Hope for Lewis’ return

Sophomore guard Scottie Lewis was declared ineligible for last Tuesday’s game against Ole Miss for health and safety reasons. Lewis will sit out against Tennessee on Tuesday and a timetable for his return is still unclear Despite standing at just 6 feet, 5 inches, Lewis boasts a 7-feet wingspan and a reputation as an outstanding defender.

His block percentage (5.5) ranks in the top 150 nationally, and his interior defense from both the two and three is outstanding.

Lewis played just 20 minutes against Alabama and didn’t suit up against MS State. While his return won’t completely solve Florida’s interior issues, they’re exacerbated without the Jersey-born defensive stalwart.

Tennessee has manageable size in the frontcourt, with 6-foot-9-inch center John Fulkerson as the tallest starter. Even with the continued absence of Lewis, Florida should show improvement and be able to contend with the Volunteers down low Tuesday.

Follow us for updates

For updates on UF athletics, follow us on Twitter at @alligatorSports or online at www.alligator.org/sports

@declanaw dwalsh@alligator.org

12 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021

REC SPORTS

COVID-19 changed the game of pickup sports — but not really THE EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC ARE SEEN TO BE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN

By Faith Buckley Sports Writer

wear face masks and be smart about exposure in large events. With loose and unenforceable rules, players often take advantage of any leniency.

David Khaskin, an 18-year-old economics freshman, plays ultimate Frisbee and soccer on weeknights. He said he’s frustrated with the laissez-faire attitude on the field.

“Some of those people do not care what-

soever, and it is concerning to me,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic put an indefinite hold on life in Gainesville, but the bright lights hitting the grass of Flavet, Norman and West Fields tell a different story.

A few days into the spring semester, players lace their cleats and set up nets for pickup games. Spikeball, football, basketball, ultimate Frisbee and soccer games begin during the day and spill over into dusk.

But students share mixed feelings because COVID-19 regulations take a limited presence on the field.

UF’s COVID-19 protocols are similar to last semester’s: Respect social distancing,

Faith Buckley // Alligator Staff

Freshman Campbell Harmon throws a shot during a quick Sunday-night pick up football game.

Khaskin wishes more people would follow the guidelines. Most don’t wear masks while playing, and others aren’t cautious off the field either. Khaskin said he occasionally overhears others talking about attending bars and clubs.

“It’s just embarrassing for this university,” he said. “That should not be happening.”

Not all players mind the current approach to COVID-19 protocols, however.

Andrew Graeler, a 19-year-old history freshman, is satisfied with current regulations when he plays football with friends.

During the pandemic, Graeler said he came to terms with the idea that there’s a risk as soon as he walks onto the field.

“If you want to be social distancing and follow the guidelines, you can’t really go out and play the sports with a bunch of people,” he said.

However, Graeler recognizes that there is room for improvement.

“I try not to hang out with huge groups of people,” he said. “It could be better. When sports come into play, social distancing and any type of regulation goes out the window.”

Jared Beaufait, a 19-year-old biological engineering freshman, has the same outlook on the situation. Everyone playing pickup games is there because it’s a casual and unregulated environment, he said. He doesn’t mind the guidelines, or lack thereof, because he wants to get out and have fun.

“There’s no real way to regulate it,”

Beaufait said. “People like going out all the time.”

Sam Martocci, a 23-year-old biomedical engineering graduate student, has no other option but to oblige by the rules. He plays spikeball as an intramural sport at UF and competitively in Florida Roundnet, an ametuer spikeball league, where he ranks 18th at the expert level. He’s one of many students who travel to meets and attend practices for the sake of competing.

Players on higher levels of the game opt out of wearing masks when facilities allow it. However, while competing within UF facilities, masks are required during the entirety of gameplay. Spikeball requires six feet of distance between each player anyway so the risk of contact is lower, Martocci said.

While loose regulations pass for pickup games, harsher COVID-19 guidelines are required for club sports. Last semester, RecSports postponed all gameplay until further notice.

This semester, screening questionnaires will be required and temperatures will be checked. Masks must be worn during gameplay. Tryouts for intramural sports like beach volleyball and flag football are next week.

“I am very happy that they put those into place so that we can safely play and safely compete,” Marcotti said. @_faithbuckley fbuckley@alligator.org