OCT. 19, 2020
Monday Edition
Emerald Media
AS FOOTBALL SEASON RETURNS, COVID-19 CASES MAY RESURGE STUDY: EUGENE MOST VULNERABLE COLLEGE FOOTBALL TOWN NEWS: REMEMBERING UO BIOLOGIST JEFF MCKNIGHT P. 3
A&C: MARINA HAJEK ART EXHIBIT P. 6
OPINION: SYNCHRONOUS VS ASYCHRONOUS CLASSES P. 7 M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 1 9 , 2 0 2 0
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NEWS
BELOVED UO BIOLOGIST
Around OR
JEFF MCKNIGHT
VOL. 122, ISSUE NO. 18
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ON THE COVER
Autzen Stadium will remained closed to fans throughout the 2020 Pac-12 season. (Maddie Knight/Emerald)
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DIES 6 MONTHS AFTER CANCER DIAGNOSIS
REGIONAL AND STATE NEWS
BY CLAIRE WARNER • TWITTER @CLAIRENWARNER University of Oregon snacks — “some of which were his lab. When someone tore Assistant Biology Professor delicious and others which down posters encouraging Jeff McKnight had a keen were not” — and enjoyed their LGBTQ+ students to take part sense of fashion, often reactions to them, said David in STEM, McKnight printed sporting beanies and Garcia, assistant biology and hung 50 new posters colorful sweaters. professor. and talked to the UO science His most memorable His food-sharing practices community about the incident. attire was his galaxydidn’t stop with his colleagues, The posters disappeared the print hoodies, as he hosted spicy ramen next day, so McKnight printed emblazoned with challenges, during which he and hung 100 more. llamas, cats and tested his lab students’ spice “He cared very much about panda bears. tolerance with Samyang 2X our community,” Orlandi said. Sometimes, spicy noodles. McKnight loved science he would pin “Our lab was like a family,” and was always enthusiastic his daughter’s doctoral candidate during scientific discussions artwork to his of molecular with his colleagues. Last shirts. biology Kona winter, he learned how to Scott Hansen, Orlandi said, extract chromatin structures assistant noting that from fungi. Excited about his chemistry and McKnight’s findings, he began collecting biochemistry wife, Laura, mushrooms, picking them professor, said his managed from the ground and wife asked McKnight the lab. purchasing them from the to pick out some yarn One could grocery store. so she could knit him find their “He burst into my office a sweater. He chose a daughter, one day, waving a bunch multicolored yarn with Katherine, of mushrooms, saying, ‘It pinks, blues, greens and coloring under works!’” said Mike Harms, a oranges. McKnight’s desk biochemistry professor. “Every “It looked like when she had a time you walked into the lab, something out of a candy day off of school. there would be mushrooms shop,” Hansen said. “He Students who everywhere.” would wear that worked with Biology Department all the time, and it McKnight in his lab Head Bruce Bowerman Courtesy of Laura McKnight totally matched his reflected on admired McKnight sweaters.” their experiences for his scientific McKnight died Oct. 4 of fondly, noting the accomplishments lymphoma after celebrating googly eyes plastered and compassion. his daughter’s eighth birthday. to every piece of lab “He went out of his He was diagnosed with the equipment. McKnight Scientists want to way on a regular rare blood cancer in March. often rode his scooter maintain some level of basis to reach out McKnight specialized in around the lab and to individuals who professionalism and manipulating the structure the science building’s were struggling in oftentimes don’t want of chromatin, a material cells halls and encouraged various ways and to put themselves in use to control which genes students to play with helped them navigate positions that make are turned on and off. His his fidget spinners. their challenges,” them vulnerable…Jeff colleagues and students miss “Jeff was definitely Bowerman wrote in was able to elegantly the playfulness he brought to someone special an email. the scientific community. who saw his students act silly but also be To honor the professional.” “Scientists want to maintain as equals and not compassion some level of professionalism as anything lesser,” McKnight showed SCOTT HANSEN Assistant and oftentimes don’t want to said Bryson Tyler his students, the Biology and Chemistry put themselves in positions Ricamona, a UO Institute of Molecular Professor at UO that make them vulnerable,” biology alum. “It was Biology established Hansen said. “Jeff was able to really enlightening the Jeff McKnight elegantly act silly but also be and very motivating to know Memorial Fund, which “will professional.” that somebody really believed be used to recognize and McKnight had a monthly in us, not only in the work support graduate students subscription to Universal that we’re doing now but the demonstrating resilience in the Yums, a company that delivers potential work that we could face of challenge,” according to snack foods from around the do in the future.” the IMB website. world. McKnight encouraged McKnight supported his colleagues to try the students inside and outside of
PORTLAND HOMES IN SHORT SUPPLY: Portland homes are running out, and sellers are reaping the benefits, The Oregonian reported. J. Lennox Scott, chairman and CEO of John L. Scott Real Estate, told brokers with the company Portland is “virtually sold out,” the report found. In September, the number of Portland metro homes that joined the market fell by 16% from August. Population growth, owners not selling during the pandemic and wildfires worsened the for-sale home shortage. – ARDESHIR TABRIZIAN DUCKS SET TO HOST TRACK AND FIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS FROM 2024-27: Track and Field fans, rejoice. The NCAA awarded Hayward Field as the home for the Division 1 championships for 2024-2027. Prior to this decision, Hayward Field was already set to host the championships for 2021 and 2022. Due to COVID-19, Hayward Field, which went under a $200 million makeover, has yet to open to fans. – GABRIEL ORNELAS
(Emerald Archives)
OPERA OUTSIDE: This September and October, Lark Opera put on the first full opera production in Oregon since March. After the first scheduled performance at Utopia Vineyard in Newberg was smoked out due to wildfires, the troupe performed “The Magic Flute” at Lady Hill Winery in St. Paul. With few props and no set pieces, the performers relied on the most important elements of the drama: music, words and acting. – SARAH-MAE MCCULLOUGH
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COVER
AS COLLEGE FOOTBALL RETURNS,
STUDY PINPOINTS LANE COUNTY AS MOST VULNERABLE COMMUNITY BY CLAYTON FRANKE • TWITTER @CLAYFRANKE1
Autzen Stadium will remained closed to fans throughout the 2020 Pac-12 season. (Maddie Knight/Emerald)
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COVER October Saturdays in Eugene are strange this year. The electricity that seemed to come with every gameday has vanished while an increasingly familiar feeling of anxiety and uncertainty has replaced it. Recently, Ducks fans received some consolation: The Pac-12 will play a conference-only schedule starting Nov. 6. Autzen Stadium will remain empty, but the community has a team to pull for. However, according to a recent study conducted by the Surgo Foundation, the very thing the community thrives on could have great consequences. The Surgo Foundation, a privately funded social science and data research organization, developed a tool called the COVID-19 Vulnerability Index. Their goal is to identify communities at risk for the greatest consequences once a COVID-19 outbreak starts. The index combines six different social factors: socioeconomic status, household composition and disability, minority status and language, housing type and transportation, epidemiological factors and healthcare system factors. Each community is given a score from zero to one, with one being the greatest vulnerability. “We wanted to show people how this tool we created can show how a community is vulnerable not just in the typical obvious ways,” Bethany Hardy said, director of communications for the Surgo Foundation. The Surgo Foundation then applied this index to college football towns. Turns out, Lane County and University of Oregon rank as the most vulnerable college football town in the nation. As of Sept. 29, the first day of online classes for UO students, there was a 68% weekly increase in cases in the county. Lane County scored a .49 on the CCVI, driven by a high score in housing type and transportation — the study found crowded housing and lack of transportation. Additionally, 18.3% of the population is over 65 years old, above the national average of 15.2%. The combination of these three factors is what placed UO at the top of the list for vulnerability. According to Unacast, a big data organization that tracks the spread of COVID-19, Lane County has a social
distancing grade of D-. This grade is based on the number of non-essential events, reduction of average mobility of the virus and decrease in encounters. Overall, the state of Oregon has a grade of C-. Even without fans, the return of college football won’t help this grade. “We’ve seen younger students not following social distancing policies,” Staci Sutermaster said, a Surgo Foundation research fellow who led data analysis for the study. “Even if not at the university stadium or around that area, just amongst friends, those are still opportunities for spread to happen.” The Ducks fan base will have to control some of their excitement and keep watch parties to a minimum. UO students, who are three weeks into their second term online, pose the greatest threat as spreaders of the virus. As of Oct. 15, the university plans to ramp up testing. According to President Michael Schill, students living in residence halls have already been regularly tested, but testing will be expanded to certain groups of students and employees, with a focus on students living in large houses, such as fraternities and sororities. The UO coronavirus task force has recorded 421 coronavirus cases since June 1, including 140 new cases over the week of Sept. 28-Oct. 5, 133 of which are off-campus students. Younger people are often asymptomatic, meaning students pose a great risk for spread. Face coverings are required for all UO faculty, staff and students across all UO campuses. UO has also implemented hand washing stations across campus and has modified physical spaces to fit distancing guidelines. “There’s something very intrinsic about vulnerability, but then there’s also a dynamic component about vulnerability,” Tich Mangono said, the program manager for the study. “What are the policies affecting the situation around COVID? What are the events that are happening? We’ve seen that as
schools open there are events that lead to big spikes in COVID-19. We sat down internally and thought about the best way a tool can be used to make some policy decisions around COVID-19.” On Aug. 11, the Pac-12 postponed all 2020 sporting events based on three areas of concern from the Pac-12 medical advisory committee: lack of testing, prevalence of the virus in Pac-12 communities and risk of cardiac concerns related to the virus. But just over a month later they reversed this decision based on evidence of improvement in these three areas. There will be no fans allowed at football games, a policy that other conferences have not adopted. But the Surgo Foundation has provided a deeper understanding of community vulnerability as it relates to COVID-19. The University of Washington also made the top six, with a significant population of people with underlying chronic conditions and a social distancing grade of F. Other teams are also seeing effects firsthand, such as Alabama with the recent positive test of head coach Nick Saban. UO certainly isn’t the only community at risk. “You may not be thinking of these college football communities as at-risk areas, but then when you layer on these vulnerable populations in the surrounding counties, it absolutely is,” Hardy said. The Surgo Foundation plans to follow up this study by tracking the spread of the virus over the course of the season. Only time will tell how these policies will pan out. In some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated even further the role that the UO football program plays in the Eugene community. The decision to play football is one that affects the safety of the entire community, not just the players or even the students. The return of UO football is almost painfully exciting; the very thing Eugene craves to return could also be detrimental to the community.
Autzen Stadium will remained closed to fans throughout the 2020 Pac-12 season. (Maddie Knight/Emerald)
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A&C
Marina Hajek’s Retrospective Exhibit
is a tale of culture, immigration and the human condition BY GRACE MURRAY • TWITTER @GRACIEE_MURRAYY
The stories of Guatemala, the Mayan culture and various immigrants come to life in artist Marina Hajek’s Retrospective Sample exhibit through sculptures of all different sizes and materials. Each piece tells a different story from a different perspective, but the collective exhibit comes together to form Hajek’s life experiences as an immigrant from Guatemala. She grew up during their civil war, came to the U.S. to pursue a college education and learned the cultures and histories of different civilizations from her grandfather, an archeologist. The exhibit will be on view at the Erb Memorial Student Union in the Adell McMillian Gallery until Nov. 6. “It’s always cool to see a retrospective because you get to see kind of how someone’s work has evolved over time,” said Lily James, social media coordinator of the UO Visual Arts Committee. “She has such a vast breadth of work, like there’s cast bronze and there’s clay and these paper sculptures.” The pieces on display include bronze, clay and a form of paper sculpture created through paper
This piece, In Gold We Trust II, belongs to a series displayed within the exhibit. Marina Hajek 1989-2020: A Retrospective Sample. Hajek’s sculptures focus on her experiences in Guatemala and the United States, as well as the experiences of women and immigrants. The exhibit will be on display from late September to early November in the EMU Adell McMillan Gallery in Eugene, Ore., Oct. 15, 2020. (Madi Mather/Emerald) PA G E 6
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pulp that Hajek creates herself using recycled paper. Taking up one side of the exhibit is Hajek’s “Let’s Hear Their Voices” sequence, which highlights the stories and faces of real immigrants. Along one wall, the five pieces hung up in a line show large portrait molds of different faces, some old, some young and a married couple paired side by side. The sculpture is made from paper pulp and displays a detailed face rising up out of a flat surface. Written across the face is a letter written by the depicted subject detailing their experiences as an immigrant. The pieces almost look like a written letter come to life on the page. She asked the participants to write letters to the American people explaining their reason for leaving their home country to come to the U.S. and what they want people to know about them. “I just think that we need to give a chance for the American population to hear the other side of the story and also the chance for the immigrants to be able to have their voices heard,” Hajek said. “I want the American people also to connect with them because we need these connections.” Another sculpture in the exhibit is a bronze bust of a human body displaying only its mouth, neck and torso. The mouth of the sculpture is wide open, as if it is letting out an ear-piercing scream, which is meant to symbolize a person fighting for justice and human rights. Hajek compares it to the university students in Guatemala who were killed and tortured during the Civil War for speaking out for justice. “What’s really important is I think students really respond positively and strongly to a story told through art,” said Suzanne Hanlon, advisor of the UO Visual Arts Committee. “This one seemed to clearly meet that and meet the purpose, action and results of the team,
The description for In Gold We Trust reads, “We tenuously cling to spirituality that is all but obliterated by the tempting glow of materialism.” Marina Hajek 1989-2020: A Retrospective Sample. Hajek’s sculptures focus on her experiences in Guatemala and the United States, as well as the experiences of women and immigrants. The exhibit will be on display from late September to early November in the EMU Adell McMillan Gallery in Eugene, Ore., Oct. 15, 2020. (Madi Mather/Emerald)
which is that art is for everyone and that it can be a lot of different things.” At the far end of the exhibit wall is a bronze sculpture that culminates all of Hajek’s experiences. Titled “Sacrificial Altar,” the piece depicts an armored face with bullets rising up from its head that are holding up an ancient sacrificial altar. The face belongs to a Guatemalan Civil War soldier with his eyes missing, meant to represent the human sacrifice that he has been put through as he is forced to kill his own people. Hajek compares this to the real human sacrifices the Mayan people performed. The ancient sacrificial altar is modeled after a real animal sacrificial altar used by the Mayans that Hajek’s grandfather, an archeologist, found in one of his excavations. The exhibit is on display in the Adell McMillian Gallery in the EMU until Nov. 6. A UO ID is required to gain access to the EMU, but the UO Visual Arts team uploaded an artist talk that displays the exhibit and Hajek’s information about the pieces on their Facebook and Instagram with closed captions.
A sculpture named Mother Corn reflects on the beliefs of the Mayans. Marina Hajek 1989-2020: A Retrospective Sample. Hajek’s sculptures focus on her experiences in Guatemala and the United States, as well as the experiences of women and immigrants. The exhibit will be on display from late September to early November in the EMU Adell McMillan Gallery in Eugene, Ore.. Oct. 15, 2020. (Madi Mather/ Emerald)
OPINION
SHOULD STUDENTS HAVE SYNCHRONOUS OR ASYNCHRONOUS CLASSES? MOST UNIVERSITY OF OREGON STUDENTS HAVE TWO DIFFERENT KINDS OF CLASSES. SYNCHRONOUS CLASSES TYPICALLY MEET REMOTELY VIA ZOOM OR OTHER VIDEO-CONFERENCING PLATFORMS AT A SET TIME. ON THE OTHER HAND, ASYNCHRONOUS CLASSES DON’T REGULARLY MEET. INSTEAD, STUDENTS COMPLETE ASSIGNMENTS ON THEIR OWN TIME. BUT FOR THE MOST OPTIMAL EDUCATION EXPERIENCE, WHICH KIND OF CLASS IS BEST FOR STUDENTS?
BY Jael Calloway and Andy Stevens
CALLOWAY: SYNCHRONOUS LEARNING IS KEY TO BRINGING BACK A SENSE OF ACADEMIC NORMALCY As school approaches us, students are faced with another term taking place predominantly online. COVID-19 has stolen our sense of normality, but we can use synchronous learning to regain a sense of order and routine. All students felt the harsh, immediate switch from being physically in a classroom to being confined to their homes. This transition came with new roadblocks that students were expected to overcome immediately. In-person interactions became non-existent, our assignments seemed to double each day and the worry that we were missing class or an assignment became an everyday occurrence. Not having a consistent class schedule
not only lowered my motivation and the effort I put into my work, it drastically increased my overall anxiety toward school in general. I understand the want for asynchronous learning and the personal benefits of not having class at a certain time. That freedom allows us to pursue a personal agenda that too often becomes secondary during the school year. But synchronous learning happens in real-time, allowing students to get immediate feedback. It brings a sense of community and collaboration that the pandemic destroyed in early March. And it’s this solid class itinerary that will bring back some of the normalcy that was stripped away from our educational experience.
STEVENS: ASYNCHRONOUS CLASSES ALLOW FLEXIBILITY All classes this term should be asynchronous to allow students to work while taking classes. Since we will have this entire term online without any reduction to tuition, the university should allow students to support themselves without having to worry about missing a class. Having class at a specific time every day is an attempt to maintain normalcy amid the chaos of the pandemic, but instead of trying to emulate real school, the University of Oregon should lean into the online model and allow students to work on their own time. Since we are going to have online school no matter what, we should take advantage of the inherent benefits it offers.
An entirely asynchronous schedule also allows students to take classes that would otherwise conflict. It would be possible for students to customize their schedule exactly to their liking without having to worry about overlap. For small classes, teachers would still be able to meet oneon-one with students when needed, and for large classes, teachers could host their office hours at a specific time each week. The important aspect of an asynchronous schedule is the lack of attendance that allows students to make their own schedule that revolves around them — and not the school.
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