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TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
VOLUME 115 ISSUE 38
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Gainesville Fire Rescue team helps with efforts in the Surfside Condo collapse Three UF alumni are missing following the collapse By Isabella Barnet, Julia Cooper & Jake Reyes Alligator Staff Writers
When Stefanie Alvarez talks about her boyfriend, Moises Rodan, she emphasizes his empathy. Once, he was driving down University Avenue in a heavy downpour when he spotted an elderly woman at an uncovered bus stop. Alvarez recalls how Rodan pulled over, escorted the woman in the vehicle with an umbrella and drove her home. Rodan is one of three UF alumni missing after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South Condominium in Surfside, Florida. A few days after the collapse, a team of specialists from Gainesville and neighboring counties were deployed to Surfside to aid in rescue efforts. They returned home Sunday. Alvarez said Rodan was a positive person who always wanted to do good for others. He would go to the McDonald’s on University Avenue, buy dozens of burgers at a time and give them to homeless people nearby. “He would do this around three times a month and wouldn’t tell anyone about it,” she said. “Sometimes I would find out about it, but it was something that filled him with joy — it was something he loved to do.” Alvarez said Rodan’s greatest accomplishment in life was graduating from UF, after receiving his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering in May. The 28-year-old UF alumnus lived on the fourth floor of Champlain Towers in unit 403. Alvarez received a call from Rodan’s mother, who told her about the building collapse. She immediately went to Miami to see the site in person. His parents, who were in Venezuela, flew to Miami to find their son. “Hopefully there is a miracle that someone is still alive, hopefully it is my Moises,” she said. “We already think he passed away, and that it was an immediate impact...and that gives us peace.” Rabbi Berl Goldman, who serves as the director of the Chabad Jewish Center, said Rodan served on the Chabad UF student board for three years. “Moises is known as a very humble and incredible friend to anybody that knows him,” Goldman said. “He had a million dollar smile and he’s just really a humbled, genuine, young man.” Five floors above Rodan in unit 804 were Nicole “Nicky” Langesfeld and Luis Sadovnic. Sadovnic was also Venezuelan and married Langesfeld, who was Argentinian, in May. The pair met at UF — now, they’re among the missing. Sadovnic graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in food and resource economics with a specialization in international business. After leaving UF, Langesfeld went on to graduate from the University of Miami School of Law in 2019, and was working as a full-time lawyer at Reed Smith. The two were also involved with the UF’s Chabad Jewish Center. “They were a model couple,” Rabbi Goldman said. He said their love was like a fairytale. President Joe Biden met with families of victims in his visit to Surfside on July 1, including Martin Langesfeld, the brother of Nicky Langesfeld. On June 27, Gainesville Fire Rescue sent eight of its highly trained Ur-
SEE SURFSIDE, PAGE 7
SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT Gators in the Olympics
Floridadescription Story has representatives finish with comma, in Tokyo pg# for both Team USA and international countries. Read more on pg. 11
Courtesty to The Alligator
Florida Task Force 8 members bow their heads in front of a memorial wall in Surfside, Florida. Gainesville Fire Rescue sent eight members to Surfside to aid in rescue efforts after the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium on June 24.
Man arrested in hit-and-run case resulting in death of UF student The Gainesville Police Department arrested Joshua Alexander Figueroa in the hit-and-run case that killed Maggie Paxton By Jake Reyes Alligator Staff Writer
The Gainesville Police Department arrested a man Thursday who was connected with a hit-andrun car crash that killed UF student Margaret (Maggie) Paxton in December. Joshua Alexander Figueroa, 31, was charged with failing to stop for a crash involving a death. GPD spokesperson Graham Glover said Joshua Figueroa is currently being held
at the Alachua County Jail after being charged with a felony. The state attorney’s office will move forward with the case evidence and prosecute him. On Dec. 9, 2020, Paxton was crossing the intersection at West University Avenue and Gale Lemerand Drive near Ben Hill Griffin Stadium when she was struck by a blue BMW. The 18-year-old UF natural resource conservation freshman died at the scene of the crash.
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While COVID-19 hit home, some UF international students watched from Gainesville, pg. 4
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The driver fled the scene of the crash without stopping to give aid or provide personal or vehicle information, which is required by Florida law, according to a GPD press release. GPD interviewed eyewitnesses, obtained information from automated license plate readers and executed search warrants for the location of the vehicle and Joshua Figueroa’s cell phone, which identified him as the driver. In December 2020,
GPD executed a search warrant and seized the car from Best Motor Works, a mechanic shop that Miguel Figueroa, the father of Joshua Figueroa, owns. Originally, Miguel Figueroa denied investigators access to the car. Investigators noticed damage on the front of the car consistent with evidence from the scene of the crash, including blood splatter on the passenger side of the exterior of the car. Inside the car, investigators found paperwork belonging to
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2 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
Tropical Today’s Storm Elsa signals start of Weather hurricane season for North Central Florida GAINESVILLE RESIDENTS CAN PREPARE FOR SEVERE WEATHER EMERGENCIES THROUGH AVAILABLE RESOURCES AND FOLLOWING EMERGENCY GUIDELINES
By Phong Huynh Alligator Staff Writer
Hurricane season is in full swing — here’s how students and Gainesville residents can be prepared. The season began June 1 and will last until Nov. 30, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts an aboveaverage Atlantic hurricane season this year with about 13 to 20 named storms and six to 10 named hurricanes. Elsa, the fifth storm this year, is expected to make landfall in North Florida on July 7. The storm formed in the east Caribbean and is forecasted to travel north across Central Florida, based on models from NOAA. Elsa was originally labeled a Category 1 hurricane on Friday, which made it the first named hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season, but it weakened to a tropical storm the morning of July 3. The City of Gainesville tweeted residents can expect 2 to 4 inches of rain from the impending tropical storm, and cautioned that a large amount of rain in a short period of time can result in flooding, fallen trees and debris. Residents are encouraged to report any issues through the myGNV website or the corresponding app. Alachua County residents can
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prepare for the possible impact of tropical storm Elsa and future storms this hurricane season by following preparation guidelines before and during a storm. The Alachua County Emergency Management recommends having a charged NOAA weather radio and a sufficient supply of bottled water on hand and keeping an emergency kit of water, food and medicine that can last 72 hours. Residents can sign up to receive emergency alerts from the county about severe weather systems through a notification system called AlertAlachua, an emergency notification system from Alachua County. It’s designed to give updates about a variety of emergency situations such as a hurricane or storm. UF also has weather updates accessible for students. Students can closely follow UF Alert, an emergency notification system, on its site or by the messages that are automatically sent to students and faculty via email or text. Students
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and UF affiliates are automatically enrolled to receive these alerts. There are no hurricane evacuation zones in Gainesville or on campus, but shelters are offered during severe weather. Emergency shelter availability can be found by calling 311 and through the Alachua County Emergency Management website. Campus buildings can operate as shelters for students and faculty when UF housing determines them necessary, but students are advised to stay in their assigned residence halls. @phongphont phuynh@alligator.org
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TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 ALLIGATOR 3
New sexual assault prevention measures will launch at UF in Fall UF STUDENTS AND EMPLOYEES WILL HAVE ACCESS TO A NEW APP AND TRAININGS
By Makiya Seminera Alligator Staff Writer
This Fall, two new sexual harassment prevention measures are coming to UF: a revamped sexual assault prevention training for incoming students and an app to aid students and employees who need sexual assault resources. The new training and app — led by the Office for Accessibility and Gender Equity — aim to educate the UF population on sexual harassment, methods of reporting sexual misconduct and tools to avoid dangerous situations. “We understand that preventing sexual-based discrimination and harassment and interpersonal violence is complex and multifaceted. So, it
requires a more comprehensive, holistic approach,” Jessica Baker, the Office for Accessibility and Gender Equity engagement and prevention coordinator, said. The Office for Accessibility and Gender Equity plays a larger role in ensuring equal opportunity for all students through addressing violations to Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act — which are both federal civil rights laws that prohibit sex-based or disabilitybased discrimination. The office’s new mandatory Fall training for incoming students will work to improve sexual harassment education through four key tenets: understanding consent, identifying behavior that contributes to interpersonal violence, incorporating bystander intervention and observing how personal identity and inclusion affect relationships. New trainings will also be made
available for UF employees on sexual assault prevention and understanding approaches to disclosures of harm. Launching in August, UF students and employees will also have access to a new app meant to equip users with emergency and support resources on campus or in the greater Gainesville community. The app will contain various features to help students prevent unsafe sexual encounters. Functions on the app include a GPS-location contact alert and a “time to leave” tool, which allows the user to send his or herself a fake text or call to leave an uncomfortable situation. “The whole point of this app is to put these resources in people’s hands so that they don’t have to remember a website,” Baker said. “It’s all right there in an easy-to-get format so that when people are in need, they have quick and simple
access to these resources.” In an email to students in May, Vice President of Student Affairs D’Andra Mull, Ph.D., referred to the Fall initiatives as a “proactive approach to prevention.” The development of new campus resources to prevent sexual assault and harassment came after a 2019 survey found nearly one third of UF undergraduate female students experienced nonconsensual sexual contact by force or inability to give consent. Nationally, 81% of women and 43% of men experience a form of sexual harassment of assault in their lifetime, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. The primary approach the Office for Accessibility and Gender Equity took to address the results of the 2019 survey was through hiring Jessica Baker, the engagement and prevention coordinator for the office.
In addition to the comprehensive sexual assault measures launching in fall, Baker leads the Gender Equity Student Advisory Board — a 19-student panel that helps create new gender equity and accessibilityrelated policies. As a way to act on her passion for gender issues, Marina Bolser, a 23-year-old health education and behavior senior, joined the board for the 2021-2022 school year. She hopes to address issues such as sexual discrimination in academic settings during her time on the board. “This is a way that I can actually turn my opinions and beliefs into real action,” Bolser said. “I can influence things in my small corner of the world and feel a little bit less powerless because even small change is change.” @makseminera mseminera@alligator.org
A new proposal for a grocery store in East Gainesville leaves community members concerned A BRAVO SUPERMARKET COULD BE BUILT ON SOUTHEAST HAWTHORNE ROAD
By Lucille Lannigan Alligator Staff Writer
What was supposed to be a step toward addressing the pressing need for a grocery store in East Gainesville left some community members feeling left out of the decision process. Gainesville has 11 census blocks designated as food deserts, according to a report from the city. The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines food deserts as low-income areas where many residents have low access to a grocery store. Walmart is the only grocery store in East Gainesville. Some East Gainesville residents have to travel across the city to grocery shop despite a majority of these households not having access to a vehicle. Bravo Supermarket, a small food chain designed to cater to the needs of customers living in a food desert, was proposed as a partial solution to the food desert by Fredric Washington, a real estate developer, during a Gainesville city commission meeting on June 17. The city offered a $3.3 million loan in tax
money to open the store. The city commission passed a motion 3-2 to give the city 30 days to review the Bravo proposal. Within these 30 days, the city is welcoming developers to submit a proposal for a grocery store. Bravo would also bring in 30 new jobs starting at $15 an hour with residents of surrounding areas being prioritized for employment, Washington said. Washington said Bravo would make a good fit for East Gainesville’s food desert, defined as a neighborhood more than a mile away from a chain grocery store, making it difficult for residents to buy fresh food. He said it would attract people looking for Bravo’s fresh produce, freshly cut meat and shelves stocked with items customers specifically request. Tina Days, a 42-year-old East Gainesville resident, said she had never heard of Bravo Supermarket until this proposal. She and others in the community would have liked to hear more about the proposal before it was brought to the city commission, she said. People on the East Side are in desperate need of a new supermarket, but she said the process needs to be slower and involve community members. “We don’t want fast and wrong. We want slow and right,” she said.
Bravo would be at 2286 SE Hawthorne Road, where a Save-A-Lot and Food Lion used to be before closing years prior and furthering the issue of grocery store access. It would offer a salad bar and a cafe, along with space for local vendors to rent out booths to sell their products, Washington said. The supermarket would also have a credit union, which are scarce in East Gainesville, and would possibly house a medical clinic. Bravo has also been offered as a space for classes for UF students. It will also be a place to teach minority and disadvantaged contractors how to do business with UF, Washington said. Chanae Jackson, a 41-year-old community activist, said she is not in favor of the proposal and its partnership with UF. “Anytime they state they want to do something and provide services for the University of Florida, and they say they want to provide students with classes, all I see is gentrification,” Jackson said. Jackson said she was disappointed the city manager found a developer to build a grocery store instead of pursuing a community model. She believes there hasn’t been any meaningful engagement with East Gainesville residents or organizations like Grace Grows, a
non-profit organization partnered with Grace Marketplace to empower those experiencing homelessness or food insecurity through horticulture. Grace Grows has conducted research on food insecurity in East Gainesville. She also said it would be frustrating to have a space in East Gainesville for UF students when residents don’t have many meeting spaces of their own. “If it’s really something that’s an initiative for East Gainesville, why would you not make meeting space be available for the rest of us actually over there,” Jackson said. Responses from the city commission were mixed. Commissioner Gail Johnson said the decision is difficult for her as she ran on the promise of a community grocery store. She said she believes the proposal must go through public process before approval, however. “Things change when there is $3.3 million on the table,” Johnson said. “We have not given that opportunity to everybody.” Read the rest online at alligator.org @lucillelannigan llannigan@alligator.org
4 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
COVID-19
International students watch restrictions loosen in Gainesville as COVID-19 rages at home SEVENTEEN UF STUDENTS FROM 13 COUNTRIES WITNESSED INEQUALITY, CIVIL UNREST AND VACCINE SHORTAGES
By Isabella Douglas & Alexandra Harris Alligator Staff Writers
After a year of timing phone calls between time zones, punctuated by pleas to “stay safe” as if it could be the last goodbye with their loved ones, international students at UF are watching their peers in Gainesville return to pre-COVID life — while the virus still wreaks havoc back home. There have been over 180 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide since December 2020, according to the World Health Organization. For many Americans who now have access to almost 300 million vaccines, the pandemic is slowing down. This is not true for many countries outside of the US. Almost 6,000 international students from 140 countries, more than half of them graduate students, attended UF in Fall 2020, according to the UF International Center. Students witnessed inequality, civil unrest and vaccine shortages while in their home countries. Others read about their country’s pandemic in the news and listened to their loved ones overseas. Transformed by the tragedies of the COVID-19 pandemic, international students grieved not only for loved ones but their countries. Dr. Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh, UF associate professor and chief of infectious diseases in the department of pediatrics, believes the world can’t let its guard down without global vaccination rates rising. With her parents in India, she watched from afar as their lives were threatened and her home country devastated. “When you have a virus that has the potential to evolve and evade vaccines over time, it endangers not just the people in those countries without access to vaccines, but also those with access to vaccines,” Bhaduri-McIntosh said. Even with nearly half of the U.S. fully vaccinated, she said there is little hope for the near future if the virus is not controlled elsewhere. Only 1% of people in low-income countries have been vaccinated with one dose, according to Our World in Data.
“Which makes the access to vaccines that much more important in other countries worldwide,” she said. “It’s not just enough to have access to vaccines and for most people to take the vaccines in the Western world.” Grief surfaced tears for UF international students who lost their families to the pandemic. Yet laughter and smiles persevered as others found humor in solemn situations. On May 5, 2020, Gabrielle Quadrado tied the knot with her husband, Matheus Bose, in her hometown Rio Grande do Sul State — just as Brazil teetered on the brink of a grueling descent into chaos and tragedy. “[It was] really early in the pandemic and we didn’t know how to act,” Quadrado, a 25-year-old climate science Ph.D. student said. “We were so scared.” As soon as she received her acceptance letter to UF for her Ph.D. in climate science, she set a date. Even with love blossoming, loss was around the corner. Away in Ecuador awaiting visa approval, Quadrado received crushing news from home. Her uncle, Leandro Pereira, died from COVID-19 at 46 years old on December 17, 2020. “So young,” her voice broke. “He had a whole life ahead of him.” While visiting her family before coming to the U.S., she said she wouldn’t hug anyone because of the virus. On the last day she spent in her hometown, she made an exception. “I decided I was going to give a hug on my grandma and also my uncle,” she said. “And I didn’t know that was our last hug.” Bolivia While Adriana Rojas Muriel, a 22-year-old UF biology junior, spent her summer alone in Gainesville, her mind was on Bolivia. Instead of lively Muriel Saturday conversations during meals with her mother, sisters and grandmothers in her hometown of Santa Cruz, she listened to them describe Bolivia’s vaccine shortages, driving bans and protests against government corruption happening 3,000 miles away. In Gainesville, she pushed through online
classes and her independent research about Leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease in Bolivia. “Stay at the worst point of the pandemic — where you were unemployed, where one of your families was at the hospital, at your worst point — that’s the point that Bolivia is living in right now and is living every day and has been living for more than a year,” Rojas Muriel said. Over 444,000 Bolivians have tested positive for COVID-19 and over 16,900 have died, according to the World Health Organization. Rojas Muriel lived in Santa Cruz de la Sierra for 18 years before moving to Gainesville in May 2018, where she stayed through the pandemic. She planned to visit home this summer, but her parents thought she had a better chance of surviving the virus with the U.S. healthcare system. Bolivia’s hospitals are running out of oxygen supplies and hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, according to the Human Rights Watch. Rojas Muriel saw Bolivian families break because of the deadly disease. Her 10-yearlong friend’s father died of COVID-19 May 27. Rojas Muriel’s father is still grieving the death of his best friend who died January 3. “It’s not about you not getting sick or you not getting COVID,” Rojas Muriel said. “It’s about others not getting it.” Rojas Muriel’s grandmother, an 80-yearold hospital director, received Sinopharm vaccines in April because of her age. Unvaccinated medical students still worked with COVID-19 patients in the same hospital. In late May, anti-vaccination groups spread false information about “satanic” vaccines. As of June 7, confirmed cases of COVID-19 spiked, according to the WHO. Less than 16.5% of Bolivia’s population received at least one dose. “I don’t like when people tell me here that they don’t want to receive a vaccine because they don’t want any side effects,” Rojas Muriel said. “I would die for to take those vaccines that are not being utilized back to my country.” While the virus still ravages the country, Rojas Muriel said many Bolivians also fear the crime that came with the pandemic. Her family’s bicycles were stolen off the patio. She worried someone could break into her family’s home and threaten them. During the pandemic, 74% of workers stopped working, according to a Gallup poll. “In developing countries like mine...they need help from outside governments to inter-
Shelby Cotta // Alligator Staff
fere, to provide vaccinations, to provide food, to provide just some security in their life,” Rojas Muriel said. Colombia Dios de pan a quien no tiene dientes. God gives bread to the people who don’t have teeth. The Spanish saying reminds Orlando Sanchez, a 31-year-old public health master’s student, of those who Sanchez reject vaccines during shortages and crises. The Colombian international student witnessed some in Gainesville turn down the same life-saving vaccines his family and community needed back home. Sanchez lived in Barranquilla, Colombia for 30 years before moving to Gainesville in December. In Colombia, there have been about 4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 108, 000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. On average, about 27,000 new infections are reported each day. The U.S. embassy in Colombia warned travelers about the mass protests against the government last June. Colombian international UF students scoured for news about the pandemic and political instability tearing through their home country. As mass protests broke nightly curfews on the Colombian streets, the students fumed over the unequal vaccine access between their home country and Gainesville. The 2020 protests against government corruption and income inequality repeatedly broke Colombia’s 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, which was set because of the high death toll. Sanchez does not agree with what the government is doing. “The answer is not the right or left-wing,” Sanchez said. “None of them is the answer.” About 14% of Colombia’s population has been fully vaccinated, according to Our Data World. Sanchez worked at a hospital in Barranquilla. From March to May 2020, the hospital was at full capacity without enough respirators, he said. The hospital directed people to other facilities because it ran out of oxygen tanks. When patients were being treated, COVID-19 restrictions banned family visits. While in Gainesville he checked his Facebook feed for news about Colombia and regularly called his family. Daniel Acosta, a 30-year-old public health Ph.D. student, also watched from his screen in Gainesville as his country protested its government’s mishandling of the crisis. “People that are protesting because the country is not really doing well and the prospects and the future of many is in jeopardy right now,” Acosta said. “Most of the population are not happy with some of the decisions from the government and I think the pandemic just exacerbated that.” At age 27 he moved to Gainesville with a Colfuturo Latin American scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. in public health. From 2017 to 2019, Acosta returned to Colombia once a year to reconnect with his Colombian family and culture. He grew up visiting the beaches and national parks of Barranquilla, but the pandemic has kept him from visiting for two years. In January, Acosta received his full COVID-19 vaccination in Gainesville. It took three more months before his parents in Colombia received their first dose. “It’s always a striking difference with the U.S.,” Acosta said. “Here we have so many
SEE COVID-19, PAGE 5
The pandemic isn’t over COVID-19, from pg. 4 vaccines we don’t know what to do with them and basically [Colombia is] just still slowly rolling them out — a bunch of people still waiting for vaccines.” Guatemala At 4 years old, Ana Barrientos moved from Guatemala City to Gainesville. At age 22, the UF international studies senior received her second COVID-19 vaccination at UF’s Ben Hill Barrientos Griffin Stadium in April. Her grandparents, both 72, lived in Guatemala all of their lives. They too had to travel to Gainesville to receive vaccines in May and June. Guatemala had over 301,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 9,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Less than 1% of Guatemala’s population has been fully vaccinated. The rest of Barrientos’s Guatemalan family hasn’t been able to get a vaccine. Concerns about the quality and expiration date of the vaccines are widespread, she said. “It’s a privilege to live in the United States. It’s a privilege to have the vaccine already, for the pandemic almost to be over. That’s almost unheard of in other places,” Barrientos said. With the current numbers, the additional 10% of the Guatemalan population will be vaccinated in ten months if 11,000 people are vaccinated every day. With over 1,400 COVID-19 cases being recorded every day, the Barrientos family in Guatemala has been quarantining since the beginning of the pandemic. When the pandemic started, Barrientos’s aunt experienced a lockdown in her neighborhood in Guatemala City, which the government blamed on a gas leak. She was told to stay indoors. It wasn’t until three weeks later her neighbors told her it was because of a COVID-19 outbreak. ”You’re losing that cultural part of social interaction,” Barrientos said. “Especially for Latin American countries where the social interaction is such a big part of the culture.” September is usually filled with parades, parties and feasts of traditional dishes to celebrate Guatemala’s independence from Spain. Celebrations were canceled last September due to the pandemic. Barrientos’ cousin is a medical student in Guatemala who works at a hospital. She tells her family hospitals are still overrun with COVID-19 patients and not enough resources to go around. Miscommunication from the Guatemalan government hasn’t helped the crisis, Barrientos said. “There was a promise of vaccines, and in the end, those vaccines were only available to certain people who had government connections and not necessarily to the general population,” Barrientos said. Barrientos wants vaccine providers held accountable so her family can start getting vaccinated in their county. When Barrientos thinks about graduating from UF, she worries. She faced visa complications at the beginning of the pandemic, which suggested international students would not be able to stay in the U.S. if they were online. Although UF’s International Center tried to support her, Barrientos felt like it wasn’t enough. She didn’t feel heard. “There’s a lot of red tape when it comes to immigration and I feel like that’s not a conversation that’s had very often,” Barrientos said. “The system is really skewed against people
who want to immigrate to the U.S. legally.”
Saudi Arabia Hussah Bubshait woke up crying in her Gainesville apartment last July. Her sister in Saudi Arabia tested positive for COVID-19. “I cried more than her,” Bubshait, a 35-yearold UF international nursing Ph.D. student, said. “You feel bad because you are away from your family, and even when they call you, they will not even tell you the whole truth.” The country has about 492,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 7,800 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. About 5% of the population of Saudi Arabia has been fully vaccinated. The pandemic allowed Bubshait to reunite with her family for four months at the beginning of lockdown. Since moving back to Gainesville, she’s struggled with the 7,000 miles separating her from her loved ones. Bubshait was nine months pregnant with her second child when she moved to Gainesville from Dammam, Saudi Arabia with her husband in August 2019. She started her nursing Ph.D. at UF ten days after giving birth. “It was very hard, in the beginning, to go out, or deal with others or talk with others,” Bubshait said. “Having two kids at home makes you feel lonely... and doing that first year of Ph.D.s, it was very hard.” In November, Bubshait decided she would rather be locked down with her family. She traveled with her husband and two children to Saudi Arabia. Her sisters, brothers and their families quarantined together in Bubshait her parents’ house for four months. Her youngest child met their uncles, aunts and cousins for the first time. “In Saudi Arabia, people are supportive to each other,” Bubshait said. “You will never feel lonely.” She was required to download a Saudi Ministry of Health app called Tawakkalna, which provided a history of the individual’s COVID-19 status, alerted residents of curfews and GPS tracked them. “You will never be allowed to go anywhere, even to the supermarket or shopping mall without this application,” Bubshait said. Shoppers piled outside of mall doors trying to present their apps with a faulty internet connection, Bubshait said. From March to May 2020, Saudi Arabia was in complete lockdown with curfews. Gatherings of more than 20 people in households were not allowed and facemasks were always required when outside homes. Starting May 11, individuals who did not comply with COVID-19 regulations would be fined anywhere from $2,666 to $13,329. The pandemic reduced the demand for oil and gas, causing economic pressure for Saudi Arabia. People across the country felt the effects of wages and job losses, including Bubshait’s cousin, who lost his job as a pilot. Bubshait and her family returned to Gainesville in February to continue her classes. While Saudi Arabia closely monitored and enforced COVID-19 restrictions, the U.S took a different approach. Despite being able to move more freely in Florida, she felt more isolated inside her home. Away from her support system, she stayed in her apartment with her kids and focused on her studies through Zoom. Bubshait longs to return to Saudi Arabia after she completes her degree. “I miss [my family] so much,” she wrote. “But I’m here for a goal and I have to finish it.”
TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 ALLIGATOR 5 Indonesia Christa Geraldine witnessed privilege change how people experienced the pandemic. As an Indonesian UF online student, she recognized massive disparities between America and the over 17,000 islands that make up her home county. Privilege determined who got the vaccine, which schools stayed open and which hospitals received supplies, she said. The 25-year-old digital strategy student joined UF online from Indonesia at the beginning of the pandemic to earn her master’s degree. She works as an assistant lecturer of communication an hour outside of the capital, Jakarta, on Java Island. Indonesia has over 2,300,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and about 61,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Over 42,400,000 people have been fully vaccinated, less than 5% of the population of Indonesia. Geraldine believes COVID-19 cases in Indonesia are higher and the government’s lack of transparency and information is to blame for unreported cases. “For the last one and a half year we’ve been encountering undocumented cases from everywhere,” she said. “The number of the reported cases, they are so small when compared to the real exact number. We don’t even know the exact number.” Geraldine believes the government lacked urgency in its response to the outbreaks. Hospitals across the country floundered without supplies throughout the pandemic. Java and many smaller islands still struggle to stock their ventilators and oxygen. The government’s goal to have 40.2 million health care workers, public officials and elderly citizens vaccinated by the end of April wasn’t accomplished, with 93% of health care workers and only about 8% of the elderly receiving the vaccine. “The first world countries are pretty privileged to get the first vaccines and they have big doses of them,” Geraldine said. “It’s pretty easy compared to rural countries, especially underdeveloped countries.” Against the advice of medical experts, the government prioritized vaccinating healthcare workers, public officials and working-class adults over elderly citizens. In April, some local governments held vaccination events for business owners, employees and law enforcement. During this time, some non-priority individuals bargained and used their connections to illegally receive vaccines, Geraldine said. “People who are privileged and have connections, they already get vaccinated because they sneak into the crowd and say, ‘I’m from this shop,’” Geraldine said. Citizens under the age of 18, who are not prioritized, have access to the vaccine this way. Geraldine said the rich take advantage of the loophole. “I can just slip in and say that, ‘Oh, I’m a relative of this shop so, can you please vaccinate me,’ and you will get through,” Geraldine said. “That’s kind of the corruption, that’s what’s happening in Indonesia.” Areas with high tourism, like Bali, forced domestic visitors who violated the mask policy to do pushups. Last year, villagers were forced to dig COVID-19 graves as punishment for not abiding by the government’s guidelines. On Java, fines and punishments for not wearing a mask aren’t as commonplace. People often host parties and disobey safety protocols, she said. “We’re not really protected because the awareness of wearing the mask here, like facial masks and other protective equipment are so low,” Geraldine Geraldine said.
Pakistan The morning after Rubab Ajmal received her COVID-19 vaccination at UF’s Ben Hill Griffin stadium, she woke up to a Facebook post about her childhood classmate dying of the deadly virus in Pakistan. “It was so hard knowing that I’m at a place where I got the vaccine earlier,” Ajmal said. “Knowing their pain and not being there with them kind of makes you hate your own privilege.” The 25-year-old agriculture and biological engineering master’s student lived in Lahore, Pakistan her whole life before moving to Gainesville in December 2020. Pakistan has over 960,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 22,400 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Over 17 million doses of the vaccine, less than 1.5% of the population of Pakistan. Ajmal’s parents received their vaccines two weeks ago while her grandmother received the vaccine in Pakistan in May. On June 3, the government announced individuals 18 years or older could sign up for the vaccine. After coming to the U.S. in the middle of the pandemic, Ajmal noticed similarities between her home and Gainesville. “Lahore is just like the Florida of Pakistan,” Ajmal said. In both countries, people are skeptical about the quality of vaccines and don’t want to wear masks. Ajmal is disappointed when people refuse the vaccine that could have saved her friend and millions of others. In Pakistan, lower-class people are jailed and fined for not wearing masks or social distancing, she said. For the rich, parties and social life persisted. After months of isolation, she can’t wait to go home where she has her support system all in one city. “I have been placed somewhere where I don’t know anyone and I don’t have anyone to fall back on,” Ajmal said. “Having a network and having a place where my roots were is something I miss the most.” After months with no in-person classes and an empty campus, Ajmal reached out to UF’s CWC in March. Every week, she looked forward to relaxing outdoor activities with new friends and tips on how to cope during the pandemic. As Ajmal spent her time at UF in online classes away from her family in Lahore, UF student Fahad Rafiq was deferred a semester and spent the pandemic in Pakistan. Rafiq, a 32-yearold UF animal science Ph.D. student, lived in the city of Burewala for all his life before moving to Gainesville in May. In spring, he took synchronous classes in Pakistan. The nine-hour time difference forced Rafiq him to wake up close to midnight to attend morning classes. Throughout the day he pleaded with his friends and family to ignore the stigma surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan. He heard a false rumor back home about the vaccine, where if people got vaccinated they would die in two years. “All we can do is think of others when we are wearing masks or getting vaccinations,” Rafiq said. “It is not that we are doing it just for ourselves, we are thinking of the illness, the people who won’t recover.” “One life lost is too many,” Rafiq said. Read the rest online at alligator.org @Ad_Scribendum idouglas@alligator.org @harris_alex_m aharris@alligator.org
TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 www.alligator.org/section/the_avenue
THEATRE
Rate and Review: ‘In the Heights’: Latinos taking one step forward but three steps back THE BROADWAY MUSICAL INSPIRED MOVIE ACTS AS A BIG STEP TOWARDS LATINO REPRESENTATION, BUT FOR AUDIENCES, IT WASN’T ENOUGH
By Melissa Hernandez Avenue Staff Writer
Between vibrant music and colorful dancing, “In the Heights” presents a story of the collective Latino struggle specifically in the Washington Heights community. The film highlights the endless inheritance of the American dream on the shoulders of firstgeneration immigrants. The cast, mostly made up of Latinos such as Anthony Ramos and Leslie Grace, brings authenticity and a sense of representation for the Latino community. “Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu and “In The Heights” musical creator Lin-Manuel Miranda merged their imaginative minds, inviting audiences to be part of “el barrio,” which is Spanish for ‘the neighborhood.’ With a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film sets a precedent for future movie musicals — showing success in the transition from Broadway to movies. The movie centers around a love story between Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who are a part of a flavorful neighborhood called Washington Heights. Alongside the romantic plotlines, the movie highlights other characters’ struggles, such as Nina (Leslie Grace), a first-generation Puerto Rican who finds her way out of Washington
Heights. She’s the neighborhood’s superstar — the one who won the one-way ticket to success by getting into Stanford. As Nina returns home to Washington Heights after her freshman year, she realizes how alone she feels at Stanford with no community to keep her roots grounded. I share sentiments about Nina’s struggle, especially coming back from my first semester in college. First-generation Latino students, who exceed academically, often find themselves corralled in these predominantly white institutions. The burden of achieving the American dream weighs heavy on their shoulders, and Miranda greatly executes these shared experiences on screen. There are Caribbean influences within the dance styles, meals and clothing throughout the film – one of the first times I’ve seen Cuban foods such as “ropa vieja,” (a traditional entree), crackers with guava and cheese, and tamales so beautifully represented in Hollywood. There’s an honest reflection in Abuela Claudia’s (Olga Merediz) home that translates through the screen. It all comes together at the peak of the movie, where the “Carnaval del Barrio” occurs. Flags representing Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Puerto Rico, along with typical dances and clothing, meld together during one of the movie’s iconic scenes. “Carnaval Del Barrio” gave a feeling of togetherness and unification regardless of nationalities. Despite the feelings and themes of a unified Latino community, Chu and Miranda’s vision excludes a significant group who are the real
foundation of Washington Heights. The block referred to as the “Little Dominican Republic” in real life missed the opportunity to highlight darker-skinned Dominicans. There were also voids of Dominican-inspired music like Dembow, Bachata and Merengue. Without these sounds, the movie fails to uphold the Dominican culture prevalent in the real Washington Heights. The film represented the collective Latino culture and seeping through that fictional facade were the Latino community’s ties to colorism. Soon after the movie successfully arrived in theaters and streamed on HBO Max June 10, it received backlash about the lack of Black Dominicans as lead characters. Some celebrities, such as Puerto Rican icon Rita Moreno, who found success in the original “West Side Story” Broadway show, came to the defense of Miranda. “You can never do right, it seems. He is the man who literally has brought Latino-ness and Puerto Rican-ness to America,” Moreno said on Stephen Colbert’s Late night show. “I’m simply saying, ‘can’t you just wait a while and leave it alone?’” Many people on social media were angered about Moreno ignoring the importance of darkskinned Latino representation in Hollywood. Moreno later apologized for her remarks on Twitter soon after Miranda recognized the movie’s issues with colorism in his apology. “In the Heights’’ failed to represent Afro-Latinos as the leads were light-skinned or white Latinos, meanwhile the dark-skinned characters were reserved for background representation.
Aside from lackluster Dominican representation, it was surprising to see how buried Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and Carla’s (Stephanie Beatriz) relationship was in the plot. They arguably received a couple of lines of dialogue during the end of the movie, leaving their queer relationship up for interpretation. Daniela and Carla’s relationship is a perfect example of the plotlines the film compromised in order to finish the love story between Usnavi and Vanessa. Yet, the movie excels in highlighting a sense of community within the block. Impressive solos such as Abuela Claudia’s song “Paciencia y Fe” on the subway invokes emotional tears. For Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV), one of the younger characters, finding out about his undocumented status is a direct call out to those protected by the DREAM Act, often called “Dreamers,” touching on a personal perspective regarding immigration. Miranda and Chu tried to encompass all parts of Latino struggles and culture but fell short by leaving loose ends on the character’s storylines. Sonny, Nina, Daniela, Carla and Benny (Corey Hawkins) were sidelined by Vanessa and Usnavi’s love story. Ultimately, the movie delivered a piece of flavorful and catchy music with the right intentions but wrong effects. Rate: 7/10. A satisfactory feel-good movie that serves as the first step in Latino Hollywood representation. @mhernandezdlc Mhernandez@alligator.org
LATINX
‘In the Heights’ through the eyes of Latino students UF STUDENTS REFLECT ON THE BROADWAY INSPIRED FILM’S REPRESENTATION
By Alexis Carson Avenue Staff Writer
UF’s Latino community discussed film representation upon the release of the “In the Heights” movie. Launched in theaters and on HBO Max June 10, the movie is based on Lin Manuel Miranda’s 2008 Tony award-winning Broadway hit, “In the Heights.” Miranda wrote the musical when he was 19 years old, and the storyline centers around the lives and adventures of a Latino community in Washington Heights, New York. Now told on the silver screen, the musical marks a moment of representation for the Latino community and the beloved, loyal musical theatre fans. UF Hispanic Student Association president Kevin Trejos, 21, said
there’s yet to be a movie that fully represents his nationality, making “In the Heights” an impactful film. “It’s not too often you get to see a movie that tries to represent Hispanic/Latino culture in the best way that it can,” he said. Trejos said the support UF’s HSA offers is meant to help deal with things similar to what Nina’s character (Leslie Grace) faced at Stanford, who struggled to find her home in college because she felt like her Hispanic roots were underrepresented. He said the lack of being surrounded by people you can connect to is a problem he hopes to conquer with HSA. “Well I guess Stanford doesn’t have an HSA, because that’s what we try to do at HSA is make sure that every Hispanic person, every Latino person, anyone who is interested in Hispanic/Latinx culture can find a place where they can express themselves, learn about the culture and surround themselves with people that have the same kind of pas-
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sions,” he said. HSA Vice President of Communications Nick Suriel, 20, comes from Dominican and Puerto Rican descent and has family that lives in Washington Heights. Suriel also related to Nina and said he felt overwhelmed coming to UF, a predominantly white institution. He noted HSA is where he found his home and hopes others can, too. Suriel added that Latino representation, which “In the Heights” had, was long overdue and hasn’t been given in American society. “The conversation has always been focused around more general stereotypes or has been focused on things that are not really pertinent,” he said. Not only has “In the Heights” created a platform of representation for Latinos, but theater fans were excited to see a meaningful musical on the big screen. Maria Gutći, 22, a third-year public relations major at UF, was in a “In
the Heights” production her senior year of high school. Being Venezuelan and a lover of theater, Gutic said “In the Heights” was particularly special to her. “It just rings so close to my heart, of course, because of the storyline but also because I was part of the ensemble of ‘In the Heights’ in my high school production of it,” she said. “I feel like in every single number that we did for that musical, all of us were bawling our eyes out. And people thought, ‘What phenomenal actors,’ when in reality, we’re just relating to the stories. They hit too close to home.” The film received backlash regarding issues of colorism in casting choices, where audiences preferred to see more dark-skinned Latinos. But Gutic said she was more excited to see any sort of representation, which she felt while during her school’s version of the musical. “I feel like that’s when we really got the most knit together, not only because, again, we’re all Hispanic,
we relate to the stories that are said but it was just like one of the best memories I have from high school,” she said. Despite the backlash, Suriel said not everything is going to come out perfect. “Everything requires a little bit of work, so now that we have this good start, how can we build off that to continue having this representation but again just being more inclusive in who we’re casting?” Trejos said overall, the storyline of the movie makes him feel grateful to be at UF. kk “It reminded me of the fact that here I am at HSA, here I am at the University of Florida and here we all are at UF studying at such a fantastic university,” he said. “And we have our opportunity to give back to our families that struggle to get here and to the families that are still back at home.” @Alexis_Carson99 acarson@alligator.org
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TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 ALLIGATOR 7
GFR aids in rescue efforts SURFSIDE, from pg. 1 ban Search and Rescue Specialists in an effort to locate missing people in the rubble of the 12-story condominium. The eight GFR specialists are part of a broader rescue team, Florida Task Force-8. The team also has rescue specialists from Marion County Fire Rescue and Ocala Fire Rescue. GFR Interim Deputy Fire Chief Joseph Hillhouse said these rescuers are trained for state catastrophes and emergencies, such as hurricanes, structural collapses and vehicle rescues. The eight Florida task forces formed after 9/11. Marion County Fire Rescue spokesperson James Lucas said 29
members of FLTF-8 were deployed to Surfside. The team worked 12-hour rotations — noon to midnight — until they left Sunday. In these shifts, rescuers used jackhammers and saws to pull through debris. They also had microphones to listen for voices. “The work is very physically, mentally and emotionally taxing,” Lucas said. After their shifts, FLTF-8 members slept in tents among other rescuers that were deployed to the collapse site. The tent camp is equipped with food, water, personal protection equipment and rescue tools, according to a GFR Facebook post. Hillhouse said FLTF-8 made progress in their search efforts since they started at noon on June 28, recovering multiple bodies at the site.
As of July 5, 27 people are confirmed dead and 118 remain missing. Hillhouse said it meant a lot for GFR to be part of the search efforts in Surfside. “You get into the emergency services business because you want to help people,” he said. “You’re not going to be able to save everybody, but hopefully they will be able to bring closure to some families during that recovery effort.” While FLTF-8 was in Surfside, the team was ‘positive’ and ‘upbeat,’ focusing on the rescue mission, but there’s always a human element of sorrow in their work, Lucas said. “Many of the men and women that are down there right now have children of their own,” Lucas said. “So it was especially hard when the team recovered the bodies of two children.” Dr. Benjamin Abo, an EMS physician and GFR medical director,
Arrest made in University Ave. crash PAXTON, from pg. 1 Joshua Figueroa. GPD also executed a search warrant for Joshua Figuerora’s cell phone records, but it’s unclear when this occurred. Records revealed Joshua Figueroa called a friend, Marc Painton, 15 minutes after the crash and admitted he hit “something or someone.” On June 29, 2021, GPD interviewed Painton where he said he told Joshua Figueroa to meet him at Lillian’s Music Store during the phone call. When he arrived, Painton said Joshua Figueroa was upset and drank alcohol, according to the police report. The men went outside to look at the car until Painton told Joshua Figueroa he didn’t want to know anything else about the crash. Joshua Figueroa was arrested Thursday after he came in for questioning, Glover said. It’s unclear whether he came willingly or if GPD called him in. The investigation has
been ongoing for more than seven months. William Mulligan, the lawyer for Maggie Paxton’s family and the family of Sophia Lambert, said it’s taken “all hands on deck” to figure out who the driver was. The car was owned by the suspect’s father, Miguel Figueroa, but Mulligan said it was more likely Joshua Figueroa was driving. The next step is to add Joshua to the civil lawsuit filed by the Paxtons, Mulligan said. He also hopes to obtain more information, such as witness statements, from the criminal case. Mulligan, a UF graduate, said it’s been hard for him to be in Gainesville while representing both cases. “I’ve crossed that same crosswalk, that same road that Maggie was crossing that night, many, many, many times. It hits home with me as well,” he said. Mulligan said Lisa and James Paxton, Maggie Paxton’s parents, will cry during some phone calls, and they had mixed emotions following the arrest. They are
helped maintain the well-being of FLTF-8 while in Surfside. He catered to their mental health while mending any physical injuries that rescuers may have suffered on duty. “I was basically working 22 out of 24 hours a day,” he said. The eight GFR responders have begun four days of rehabilitation to reset and destress before going back to their normal emergency response jobs, according to a GFR press release. Among those coming together to help Surfside are volunteers from across Miami-Dade and Broward County who work out of Casa de Jesus, or CASA, church. About every two hours, volunteers are escorted by police to offer food, drinks and prayers to rescuers. The operation has been set up to give aid “since day 1,” Jessica Guzman, a volunteer with Tabernáculo de Su Presencia in Kendall, Florida said.
happy the arrest was made but sad nothing can bring their daughter back. “Lisa and James are incredible individuals,” Mulligan said. “They’re incredibly strong, they’re passionate and every time we speak on the phone with them, they’re well-spoken and educated.” Ann von Thron, Maggie Paxton’s aunt, also appreciated the news. The 57-year-old retired pediatrician said the past several months have been difficult. “I have watched my brother and my sister-in-law have their hearts ripped out without anesthesia,” she said. “I have been heartsick for eight months now. This arrest gives us a sense of relief.” Although Joshua Figueroa was arrested, von Thron believes officials should prioritize pedestrians rather than cars on West University Avenue. “If they’re going to put so many enticing reasons for students to go enjoy themselves and to get stuff done, they need to provide a safe way back,” von Thron said. “Maggie was walking home on a legal crosswalk to go to bed early because she had a test the next day—everything her parents had taught her to do. It wasn’t enough.”
Mary Djan, 56, a resident of Surfside for about 20 years and former immigration paralegal who worked on the 100th floor of the World Trade Center around the time of the 9/11 attacks, said her community is not giving up hope. “When you give up, when you have no hope, when your hope diminishes — that’s when you’re suffering,” she said. “I was there in the World Trade Center, so I know. Life is precious.” @frlJakeReyes jreyes@alligator.org @JuliaArinCooper jcooper@alligator.org Ibarnet@alligator.org
Kailey Kiss, 21, the founder of Florida Not One More and Maggie Paxton’s sorority sister in Kappa Kappa Gamma, said she was delighted by the announcement of the arrest. “It’s long overdue,” she said. “I’m very, very happy that the Gainesville Police Department was able to bring justice to Maggie and her family and her friends.” She said she founded Florida Not One More, a student-led organization that advocates for pedestrian safety and road reforms, because of Maggie Paxton. “She just had an energy about her that was just so kind and passionate,” she said. “She’s smart, caring and beautiful. It’s really devastating to see just amazing girls like Maggie taken over things that could have been prevented.” Although several reforms have been made on West University Avenue, Kiss believes there’s more work to be done, such as redesigning the road. “We’re far from over,” she said. “I wish that we were, but if I’m being honest, it’s going to be at least a couple years.” @frlJakeReyes jreyes@alligator.org
8 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
‘Clean Start’ program provides grooming to rescued dogs
A local grooming service is partnering with the Humane Society of North Central Florida By Maya Erwin Alligator Staff Writer
Mingmei Li // Alligator Staff
Sarah Headley, a pet groomer at Scenthound, sprays water on Daisy, the dog, on Tuesday, May 25, 2021.
On May 26, five rescued poodles shrunk to half their size after groomers shaved off several pounds of matted fur. Unrecognizable before the shavings, the dogs were brought in to be groomed after their owner died. Several other dogs now also have a chance for a new start. Scenthound, a wellness-centered grooming service, launched a partnership with the Humane Society of North Central Florida on July 1. They will help groom and care for rescued dogs, including taking care of health concerns such as matted fur, which is when overgrown fur becomes knotted and tangled. Kathryn Pizzurro, the co-owner of Scenthound Gainesville, said the ‘Clean Start’ program offers one free grooming to each dog adopted from the Humane Society, as well as free grooming services to dogs that have been rescued and await adoption. The service includes a bath, ear cleaning, nail trimming and teeth brushing. “The Clean Start program essentially acts as a reward or a ‘thank you’ for adopting a dog,” she said. Humane Society kennel technician Sally Ross adopted her beagle, Bessie, four months ago and advocates for adoptions from the no-kill shelter. She believes the new partnership will encourage people to adopt more dogs. “It is a nice service because it gives you the opportunity to introduce your dog to a new groomer without knowing anything [about grooming],” she said. “It opens that door to you.”
Margot DeConna, the director of advancement at the Humane Society of North Central Florida, said the Pizzurros reached out to them in March asking about forming a partnership, and the Humane Society was thrilled at the opportunity. Scenthound co-owner Joseph Pizzurro said the idea for the partnership came from Scenthound’s South Florida branches, which partnered with the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League, another adoption service for dogs. “We have a lot of alignment within our mission statements… so a partnership made a lot of sense,” Joseph Pizzurro said. Laur’en Cocozello, a 21-year-old UF finance senior, adopted a Labrador Pitbull mix named Dasani from the Humane Society during her freshman year. She is hopeful the new partnership will increase adoption rates. “Seeing how some of those dogs show up there, they deserve nothing but great treatment and whatever they want,” Cocozello said. “It’s really nice that you can go and get them taken care of and groomed.” While Scenthound and the Humane Society are excited about the new partnership, both hope this new initiative will lead to more partnerships in the future. “If this partnership helps to remove some of the barriers to the dogs being adopted and for their proper health and care after they are adopted, then everyone benefits in the end,” Joseph Pizzurro said.
Cat cafe opens in downtown Gainesville THE FEELINE GOOD CAT CAFE PROVIDES A SPACE FOR GUESTS TO PLAY WITH ADOPTABLE CATS WHILE GRABBING FOOD AND DRINKS
By Joelle Wittig Alligator Staff Writer
A brown and gray, tiger-striped tabby cat hid in a cat tower by the window of the Feeline Good Cat Cafe. After 20 minutes of head patting and coaxing from her future owner, she emerged from her hiding place. Rachel Selby, a University of Central Florida digital media sophomore, went to the Feeline Good Cat Cafe at 201 SE Second Place near the Hippodrome State Theatre on June 26 and left with Nali, the newest addition to her family. “When I went to go leave to go get something from the cafe, she followed me,” she said. “That’s when I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, I think she might slightly be attached to me,’ which is nice because it’s hard to make bonds with cats, especially when you first meet them.” The cafe opened on June 21 and gives guests a chance to interact with cats that are up for adoption. The first floor has a coffee bar with muffins, cookies, tea and coffee, and a separate room for people to visit the cats, decorated with a cat
tree, climbing shelves and window perches. The second floor is filled with tables and couches for guests to lounge and study. The cats are provided by the Humane Society of North Central Florida, which has 30 adult cats available for adoption as of July 3. The room at the cafe allows a maximum of 10 cats at a time but has stayed between five and seven so far. Margot DeConna, the 35-yearold director of advancement for the Humane Society, said they provide cats that will be comfortable around the other cats at the cafe. “We basically have been bringing over fully vetted, spayed, neutered, microchipped, vaccinated, adoptable adult cats to the cat cafe where they live and wait to find their forever home,” she said. The collaborative effort makes the adoption process easier. In the cat room, a QR code leading to the adoption application allows the process to be done entirely online with an adoption cost of $75. Francesca Hall, the 23-yearold founder and owner, said more than a dozen new cats have been brought over since the cafe’s opening. She grew up around cats and was inspired by the Witty Whisker Cat Cafe in St. Augustine, where she got her second cat. Hall said she still gets photos from people who adopt cats from her cafe. “The most rewarding thing so
far has been the feedback of their cats in their home,” she said. “Just seeing them happy and healthy.” Hall’s family helped bring her dream to life by helping her renovate and decorate the space after she signed the lease on Jan. 21. Her dad and 26-year-old sister, Gabby Hall, who serves as the cafe’s social media manager, have been a big help in getting the business off the ground during opening week, she said. “It’s been very busy — super
busy,” Gabby Hall said. “Between the three of us we’ve been able to manage it pretty well.” Both Francesca and Gabby Hall adopted cats from the cafe. Francesca Hall adopted a 2-year-old orange tabby named Que, and Gabby Hall took home Andre, an 8-year-old black cat. Andrew Poirier, a Florida State University computer engineering sophomore, adopted Apollo, a 5-year-old white and gray cat, for his girlfriend.
@mayaerwin3 merwin@alligator.org “Since it was her first cat ever, we were thinking of getting a calm, older cat that wouldn’t be as difficult to take care of,” he said. “This cat would sleep all the time so that’s also what made the decision really easy.” After adopting a cat, the new owner can take a polaroid with it to go on the wall at the cafe. Selby said she took two photos so she could take one home. “I have a polaroid wall of special memories,” she said. “Now, we have Nali on the wall, too.” @JoelleWittig jwittig@alligator.org
Mingmei Li // Alligator Staff
A white cat sits at the window of the Feeline Good Cat Café on Sunday, July 4, 2021. At the café, visitors can pet cats while enjoying beverages.
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St. Francis House is a homeless shelter located in downtown Gainesville. Our mission is to empower families with children to transition from homelessness to self-sufficiency by providing case management, housing, food, training and educational resources in a secure environment. If interested in volunteering please contact the volunteer coordinator at 352-378- 9079 ext 317 or sfhcoor@stfrancis.cfcoxmail.com St Francis House depends on monetary support from individual donors and community businesses in order to provide meals to the homeless and the hungry. To make a donation by mail, please send checks payable to St. Francis House P.O. Box 12491 Gainesville Fl 32604 or our website at Stfrancishousegnv.org
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1. Name the player from Senegal who was the first-round 1. Tommie Aaron, brother of Hank, hit pick for how the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Draft. many home runsininthehis2001 seven-season Major League Baseball career? 2. Before Phil Mickelson won the PGA Championship at age 2. Bill Chadwick, the NHL’s first 50, whoU.S.-born was the oldest golfer toand winlater a major tournament? referee a broadthe New York "Lone Rangers, 3. Whatcaster racecarfor driver, nicknamed Star went JR," won the by what nickname? Indianapolis 500 in 1974, '76 and '80? 3. The name for the Albuquerque Minor League Baseball 4. What Isotopes Detroit Tigers right-handed pitcher hadclub a 31-6 winwas inspired by a fictional team from loss record in 1968? what TV comedy series? 4. Madrileno" Jim Covert Edbetween Sprinkle, two 5. "El Derbi is aand match which two rival members of the Pro Football Hall of SpanishFame footballClass clubs?of 2020, spent their entire careers with NFL fran- but is 6. Whatplaying Irish stick-and-ball sport what is similar to hurling chise? traditionally played only by females? 5. What traditional Japanese martial is literally translated “the way of a ver7. What art rapper and Toronto Raptors as superfan got into the sword”? bal altercation with the Cleveland Cavaliers' Kendrick Per6. Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated kins in Game of the 2018 Eastern what 1mixed martial artsConference superstar semifinals? in a 2017 boxing megafight in Las Vegas? © 2021 King Features Synd., Inc. 7. What Croatia-born basketball player won three NBA championships answers on pg. 10 with the Chicago Bulls from 1996-98 and was the 1996 NBA Sixth Man of the Year?
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TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021 www.alligator.org/section/sports
TEAM USA
Florida has five track and field stars Tokyo bound for Team USA THE GATORS HAVE FIVE TRACK AND FIELD OLYMPIC BERTHS AFTER THE U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS
By Kaitlyn Wadulack Sports Writer
Courtesy to The Alligator
Florida's Taylor Manson competes during the Pepsi Florida Relays on April 3 in Gainesville.
Five Olympic rings. Five Gators going for gold. Florida track and field athletes past and present competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials from June 18 to June 27 in Eugene, Oregon. Current Gator Taylor Manson and former Gator greats Will Claye, Cory McGee, Marquis Dendy and Grant Holloway all booked their tickets to Tokyo. Taylor Manson will make her Olympic debut in the 4x400 relay. The redshirt junior missed the individual qualification for the 400 when she finished seventh in the final round despite a new personal best 50.79, the third-best time in school history. Manson ran the first leg of UF’s 4x400 relay team this year, earning silver at SEC Outdoors. The team was the country’s top seed going into nationals and ended the 2021 season fourth overall at NCAA Outdoors. Two-time Olympian Will Claye looks to add a fourth Olympic medal to his collection. Claye made Team USA for the
third consecutive Games after finishing first in the triple jump finals with a 17.21 meter (56-5 ¾) mark. 2012 was a triumphant year in Claye’s career. He took home gold at the World Indoor in the triple jump and became the USATF Indoor triple jump champion. He went to his first Olympics to cap his victorious summer, where he secured silver in the triple jump and bronze in the long jump. Claye became the first American since 1904 and the first man since 1936 to win Olympic medals in both the long and triple jumps after his London appearance. Claye also had a podium finish in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games with a second consecutive silver medal in the triple jump. UF record holder Cory McGee joins Team USA in the 1,500. She placed second in the 1,500 finals with a 4:00.67 time, six seconds faster than her 2013 school record. At Florida, McGee collected bronze at the USA Outdoor Championships and finished as a two-time NCAA Outdoors runner-up in the women’s 1,500. She also won six SEC titles as a middle-distance runner. Marquis Dendy makes his Olympic comeback in the long jump. The 2015 Bowerman winner logged a season-best 8.38 meter (27-6) mark in his second attempt and obtained a second-place finish. He qualified for the Rio 2016 Olympics but
withdrew prior to the Games due to a lower right leg injury. Dendy was the champion of champions in his time as a triple and long jumper at UF. On top of holding the school record in both the long and triple jumps, he is a four-time SEC Indoor Champion, three-time SEC Outdoor Champion, three-time NCAA Indoor Champion and four-time NCAA Outdoor Champion. The Middletown, Delaware, native was also named the 2015 USTFCCCA Indoor and Outdoor National Field Athlete of the Year and struck gold at the 2015 USATF Outdoor Championships. Reigning world champion Grant Holloway is adding the Olympics to his astounding resume. Holloway clocked in at 12.81 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles semifinals, the second-fastest time in world history. He secured his Olympic ticket after sprinting a 12.96 in the finals, the only runner to crack 13 seconds in either attempt. “The main goal was to set myself up and to let everybody know that I'm here to win,” Holloway said. “I didn't come to this party to sit on the wall, I came here to dance.” The Olympics are scheduled to open July 23. @kwadulack kwadulack@alligator.org
INTERNATIONAL
Gators past and present set to represent their respective countries in Tokyo FIVE FLORIDA TRACK AND FIELD COMPETITORS ARE MAKING OLYMPIC APPEARANCES FOR THEIR HOME COUNTRIES
By Kaitlyn Wadulack Sports Writer
One current Gator and a handful of Gator greats punched their tickets to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics for their respective countries. Redshirt freshman Joseph Fahnbulleh and former Gators Eddie Lovett, Lloydricia Cameron, Yanis David and Genevieve LaCaze Gregson are set to compete in the prestigious games. Fahnbulleh makes his Olympic debut for Liberia, the country his parents emigrated from, in the 200-meter dash. He had an impeccable season for the Gators this year, reigning in a secondplace finish at SEC Outdoors and SEC Indoors while finishing third at NCAA Indoors in the 200-meter dash. Toward the end of the season, Fahnbulleh earned his first national outdoor title in the 200 with a 19.91 time. Lovett will make his second
Olympic appearance this summer, representing the U.S. Virgin Islands in the 110-meter hurdles. In the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Lovett placed 30th in the preliminary with a 13.77 time, 0.38 seconds longer than his UF record of 13.39 in the 2013 NCAA East Preliminary. Lovett had a stellar freshman season at UF in 2011. He was the SEC Indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles after a 7.73-second sprint. His regional performance awarded him the honor of SEC Men’s Indoor Freshman Track and Field Runner of the Year. He continued the year with two more podium finishes at SEC Outdoors: gold in the 4x100 relay and silver in the 110-meter hurdles. In total, Lovett is a four-time SEC Outdoor titleholder in the 110-meter hurdles, four-time SEC indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles, two-time national indoor titleholder and placed second at NCAA Division I National Championships in 2013. He also holds the second-best and third-best time in school history in the 60-meter and 110-meter hurdles, respectively. Cameron will compete for Jamaica in the shot put. The former Gator won the shot put title at SEC
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Indoors and the Jamaican Senior Championships in 2018 and finished runner-up at SEC Outdoors in the discus throw that same year. Cameron’s name is littered over UF record books. She holds the thirdbest discus throw and the fourth-best mark in the indoor and outdoor shot put on UF’s Women’s All-Time Top 10 lists. David joins Team France in the long and triple jumps. Her collegiate career was one for the ages and featured two NCAA championships and four SEC championships. Internationally, she is a two-time gold medalist at the 2016 CARIFTA Games U20 Division, and her gold rush continued in the 2016 IAAF World U20 Championships, 2017 European U23 Championships and 2018 Mediterranean Championships. David racked up the hardware in her final season at UF in 2019. She was a Bowerman finalist, the Honda Sport Award winner for track and field and was named the regional and national Indoor and Outdoor Women’s Field Athlete of the Year. She holds the school record in the indoor and outdoor triple jump with 14.11 meter (46-3 ½) and 14.35 meter (47-1) marks, respectively, as
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well as the outdoor long jump with a 6.84 meter (22-5 ¼) mark and the fourth-best mark in the indoor long jump. Gregson, who competed at UF under the last name LaCaze, represents Australia in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for her third Olympics. She finished ninth in her second Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. As a freshman in 2009, Gregson won the steeplechase at SEC Outdoors in just her second time competing in the event. She also held the top steeplechase mark in the SEC during her freshman season. Fast forward to senior year, Gregson was the 2012 NCAA runnerup and broke the school record four separate times in the 3,000-meter steeplechase that year alone. She was named SEC Co-Runner of the Year. Gregson holds the top steeplechase time in school history, which she earned in the 2012 Olympic Games, her first Olympic competition. The Summer Olympics are scheduled to open July 23. @kwadulack kwadulack@alligator.org
Courtesy to The Alligator
Florida's Joseph Fahnbulleh competes during the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships on Feb. 27, 2021 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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12 ALLIGATOR TUESDAY, JULY 6, 2021
NCAA
NIL bill ushers in new era of college athletics FLORIDA ATHLETES WASTED NO TIME FINDING WAYS TO BENEFIT FROM THE NEW NAME, IMAGE AND LIKENESS BILL THAT WENT INTO EFFECT JULY 1
By Joseph Henry Sports Writer
It did not take long for many Gators athletes to take advantage of the new opportunities available under the name, image and likeness bill which went into effect July 1. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill in June of 2020 that would allow college athletes in the state to profit off of endorsements and other company revenue. The Florida legislation was set to go into effect July 1, 2021. Eventually the whole nation got on board, and the NCAA announced all athletes would be eligible to be paid starting July 1. The NCAA decision also opens the door for profit from autographs and personal advertising campaigns. Student athletes across the country quickly explored their new options under the NIL rule, including many in the UF community. Merchandise has been the hottest item on the market for members of the Florida football team. Wide receiver Jacob Copeland got the party started June 30 when he took to Twitter to unveil a t-shirt with a new personal logo. The insignia features his initials and a hyena. There was a strong positive response from Gator fans, and the redshirt-junior promised a link to buy the shirt would be available soon.
Running back Malik Davis created an instagram account called MD Apparel and offered a look at his first shirt June 30. The design features his number, initials and lightning bolts all in orange and blue. The redshirt-senior also encouraged his followers to “get at [him]” with a repost of a news update about the NIL bill. Emory Jones’ likeness can be found alongside 12 other DI quarterbacks on shirts for QB Takeovers merchandise shop, an online store created by renowned quarterbacks coach Quincy Avery. Safety Trey Dean III launched TD3 Clothing. His branding features his initials. The site offers a black and white version of a shirt, both listed at $45. Defensive lineman Gervon Dexter tweeted out a link to his new clothing brand G9apparel July 1 featuring four shirt designs. Three designs feature his new logo and the other is branded with the phrase “counted out.” Defensive end Zachary Carter, safety Rashad Torrence II and safety Kamar Wilcoxson created accounts on Jenloop, a service where fans can request customized shoutouts on the athlete’s Twitter and Instagram. Depending on the social media platform and type of post, prices fall between $20 and $80. Quarterback Anthony Richardson, defensive tackle Antonio Shelton, defensive end Jeremiah Moon, wide receiver Jordan Pouncey, safety Mordecai McDaniel and Dexter all became a part of Dreamfield — a platform where fans can purchase face-to-face interactions with athletes. Their hourly rates
Karina Wilson // Alligator Staff
The NCAA logo at NCAA D1 Women’s Lacrosse Tournament on May 14. The NCAA announced increased NIL freedoms for the entire country starting July 1. range from $50 to $500. Cornerback Avery Helm and Torrence II announced they partnered with Yoke, an app that gives athletes an opportunity to charge fans to play video games with them. Some Gators found an avenue to explore in food promotion. Freshman defensive tackle Desmond Watson is an official athlete of Spencer’s Jerkin’ Jerky. Gymnast Savannah Schoenherr and infielder Colby Halter teamed up with GoPuff, a consumer goods and food delivery service. Both athletes posted tweets featuring a $25 referral link. Schoenherr highlighted her favorite chips, while Halter used the service to get a ballpark staple: sunflower seeds.
Barstool Sports also became a prominent component of the NIL era after founder Dave Portnoy offered all student-athletes a brand deal via Twitter. The company is bringing on a plethora of athletes, including many Gators. Barstool athletes can be found on Florida’s football, basketball, baseball, soccer, lacrosse and swimming teams. The NIL bill changes the landscape of collegiate athletics forever. Players of all popularity levels are taking their shot to use the platform they have, and they’re just scratching the surface less than a week into this era. @Josephhenry2424 jhenry@alligator.org