www.alligator.org
We Inform. You Decide.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2020
VOLUME 115 ISSUE 11
Published by Campus Communications, Inc. of Gainesville, Florida
Not officially associated with the University of Florida
FOOTBALL
So, you’ve just beaten the Georgia Bulldogs… By River Wells Sports Writer
…What do you do now? First, you celebrate, because if you’re Dan Mullen, you’ve just beaten a team that has bested you every year of your tenure thus far. On top of that, you’ve defeated your toughest opponent on the road to the SEC Championship. Then, you get back to
work. There is certainly lots to be proud of for the Gators, but even so, the road ahead spans many more miles before Mullen and company finally reach that SEC Championship they’ve been chasing for so long. While there is plenty of good to talk about in a 16-point victory against what is perhaps UF’s biggest rival, Florida still has some issues to address
Courtesy to The Alligator
UF coach Dan Mullen after Saturday’s win over Georgia.
across the board if it wants to make noise at the end of the season. So, you have a recordbreaking offense… …How long can you lean on it? It’s no secret that quarterback Kyle Trask has been a menace this season. He’s thrown four touchdown passes in five straight games (an SEC record) and, after the win on Saturday, finds himself squarely in the Heisman conversation. In addition to Trask, running back Dameon Pierce tacked on another touchdown Saturday evening, proving that Florida’s scoring potential expands beyond its ability to pass. For a half of football, the Gators’ offense looked truly dominant as it has shown the potential to be throughout the course
SEE FOOTBALL, PAGE 11
Former Vice President Joe Biden wins the 2020 presidential election FOUR DAYS AFTER ELECTION DAY, THE RESULTS WERE KNOWN: JOE BIDEN IS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT
By Steven Walker Alligator Staff Writer
A new generation of voters made it clear — the country needed change. The historic election brought about record-breaking voter turnout amid one of the most deadly and polarized points of the 21st century. Former Vice President Joe Biden secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become the 46th president of the U.S. on Saturday morning, according to The Associated Press. Sen. Kamala Harris became the first woman and person of color elected to the vice presidency Biden, 77, is the oldest U.S. president ever elected, but his victory was secured by voters aged 18-29, who voted overwhelmingly for Biden by 25 percentage points, according to AP polling. While record numbers of voters wondered who would win, the U.S. set records in new COVID-19 cases. Biden received the most votes for any presidential candidate ever at more than 75 million and won the popular vote by about 4.4 million as of Sunday. Many of Biden’s proposed policies speak to issues championed by college-aged voters like his plans for higher education, climate change and health care. He has said he supports creating an
affordable publicly funded health care option under the Affordable Care Act. The plan would also protect abortion, a constitutional right under Roe v. Wade. He has plans to provide two years of free President-Elect Biden community college. The president-elect said he’s against the “defund the police” movement, focusing instead on criminal rehabilitation and eliminating systemic racism. He would have the U.S. re-enter the Paris Climate Agreement, an agreement between nations to reduce global emissions, after his inauguration. Trey Hemond, a 21-year-old political science senior and UF College Democrats spokesperson, said young people should be excited about Biden. “Trump’s rhetoric has really contributed to some of the divisions people feel in politics,” Hemond said. “People really showed up to the polls to voice their opinion on that. Although Trump lost the election, he won Florida’s 29 Electoral College votes. Biden won Alachua County by 27 percentage points, about 38,000 votes. The Democratic presidential nominee has won Alachua County in every election since 1992. @swalker_7 swalker@alligator.org
Provost doesn’t agree with foreign language professors’ requests UF PROFESSORS SAY FOREIGN LANGUGAGES CAN’T BE TAUGHT WITH MASKS ON, PUSH FOR ONLINE CLASS
By Kalia Richardson Alligator Staff Writer
Face masks have added an additional roadblock to the pathway to in-person language classes, but UF administration isn’t buying professors, chairs and directors’ reasoning to stay online. Japanese, Spanish and Russian professors said they would prefer to teach through a digital screen rather than lose the ability to read students’ lips, but Provost Joseph Glover argues otherwise. Four UF language chairs and directors sent a letter to Provost Joseph Glover on Oct. 13 asking for non-English courses to remain online during the Spring. Glover wrote that he wasn’t convinced by their reason to stay online and that they should redirect their questions to the dean, according to a public records request. “Based on experience, I don’t buy the argument that students six feet apart cannot communicate,” Glover wrote in response to the letter. President Fuchs pledged on Oct. 9 to increase
Gators Soccer drops sixth straight game SPORTS/SPECIAL/CUTOUT
Story description finishawith comma,skid pg# after UF soccer continued disastrous falling to the Missouri Tigers, 5-2, pg. 11
in-person Spring courses. UF administrators have encouraged Hyflex, short for HybridFlexible, which offers courses online and faceto-face simultaneously. By doing so, language professors will have to wear a face mask. They argue it will make foreign language apprehension more difficult. Brittany Wise, UF director of communications, said that the administration is planning to give students and language instructors clear face masks for in-person instruction but is not sure when. Spanish lecturer Kathryn Dwyer Navajas, who has taught at UF for two decades, said language learning relies on close communication. Students sitting 6 feet apart with clear face masks would be an impediment, Navajas said. She can’t envision standing in front of a fraction of students as the majority log in online in the Spring. It abandons effective communication, she said. “It’s a little bit like being in the circus with the poles and the plates,” Navajas said. “We can only teach effectively one group or the other.” Some students struggle with the letter “R,” which sounds more like a “D” or is rolled to create the “erre” sound in Spanish. Face masks will only make it more challenging, she said. “Even in English, it’s hard to hear people
with masks when they talk,” she said. “Can you imagine students who are a little bit timid about projecting in a second language?” Navajas said that students in language classes also have to group-up with other students to practice conversing. Most language courses have a 25-student capacity and with CDC guidelines, the smallest classrooms can hold as few as two. As a result, in-class students will be limited to less students, she said. While she looks forward to being back in the classroom, she finds the Hyflex format to be ineffective. “I don’t know that there’s any research that establishes that this is an effective way of teaching anything, never mind languages,” she said. Japanese lecturer Yasuo Uotate said his assigned 25-person Spring classroom in Matherly hall doesn’t allow for much social distancing. “Do you want to sign up for a class with only you and another classmate?” he asked. “No, right.” He added that in Japanese, words like “Florida” and “computer” are borrowed, but the pronunciation is not. The F-sound is replaced with the H-sound in hoop, forcing the lip to pucker. “In person, I can say HOO-OR-I-DA pointing out my lip,” he said. “But if I’m wearing my
A UF instructor speaks out on the failures of HyFlex
“Gators, we deserve better,” wrote an anonymous doctoral student, pg. 6
Women elected to office at local and national levels
The Alachua County Commission is now majority female, pg. 4
mask, students cannot see it.” Spencer Farfante, an 18-year-old UF exploratory engineering freshman, is taking a Spanish intensive communications course this Fall and said masks in the classroom would be an added challenge when understanding pronunciation. “That would be awful,” Farfante said. “If the Spanish is just a little muffled, that would just be very difficult because it’s not your native language.” UF professor Alexander Burak also sees teaching in a Hyflex format with face masks as a hindrance and technological inconvenience during his Russian course. It’s important to see what’s happening with students’ lips, tongues and facial expressions, he wrote in an email. A petition, initiated by UF faculty in the history department, has circulated rejecting face-to-face classes in the Spring semester. More than 820 faculty members have signed it, including Burak. “Under the current dire circumstances, teaching language synchronously/remotely on Zoom as a temporary measure would be the best solution,” he wrote. @Kaliarichardson krichardson@alligator.org
FOLLOW US ONLINE FOR UPDATES @FloridaAlligator @TheAlligator_ @TheAlligator @TheAlligator @alligator_newspaper