C
The
Volume 51 Issue 8 May 21, 2020 - June 10, 2020
ommunicator Spokane Falls Community College
STUDENT CREATIVITY SHINES THROUGH PANDEMIC | PAGES 4-5
MUST-WATCH, MUST-LISTEN RECOMMENDATIONS | PAGE 8
“Omnipresence” cover art by SFCC freshman Megan Jones
GRAPHIC DESIGN STUDENTS TAKE HOME MULTIPLE AWARDS | PAGE 6
CONTENTS
The Communicator · 05.21.2020
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ONLINE RESOURCES FOR HOMEWORK HELP DURING SPRING NEWS
If you are a Spokane Falls Community College student struggling during this time of online classes, don't worry, because there are steps you MENTAL HEALTH DURING COVID can take to help boost your grades and pass your classes. SFCC has always offered peer services and tutoring at its tutoring center on campus, but what do students do now that campus is closed? CREATIVITY IN QUARANTINE As it's the middle of the quarter with midterms and CREATIVITY CONT. exams are hitting hard, SFCC offers online help and tutoring for all students. There is free online tutoring through Western eTutoring Consortium, and students can receive help through these serGRAPHIC DESIGN AWARDS Courtesy of CCS vices during extended hours, weekends and most holidays. INTERNATIONAL CLUB MEETINGS Students who need help have three options. One of them is the Online Writing Lab. Students can submit your papers to an e-tutor and ask for specific feedback, and they will reply MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS within 48 hours. There's also Live E-Chat tutoring, in which students can get a tutor’s help through online video chats. Finally, there's Offline eQuestions, in which students can leave an eTutor a question and receive a response within 48 hours or sooner. Follow us on Instagram at: Find us on Facebook at: To do any of these helpful things, go to SFCC’s home page, type in “online tutoring” and @TheFalls_Communicator TheFallsCommunicator click the first link. Other helpful steps SFCC has taken to ensure the success of our students is to create a classroom in Canvas that any student can join called Peer Tutoring, SFCC. Follow us on Twitter at: This class in Canvas has a Ask-A-Student Chat Lounge via Zoom to meet with tutors and Visit our website at @SFCCcomm get help. If you would like to find a tutor for a specific class, you can find that in the modules communicatoronline.org section and make a one-on-one appointment. The tutoring schedule is also available on the SFCC home page. By typing in the search bar Staff members may be contacted at: sfcc.firstname.lastname@gmail.com “online tutor schedule,” and you can arrange your appointment today. -Allison Manion
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A&E 4 5
FEATURES 6 7 8
OUR STAFF EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ollie Fisher Allison Marion
Ollie Fisher
Johnathan Curley
Parleen Kaur
MANAGING EDITOR Allison Manion ADVISER Lindsey Treffry REPORTERS Johnathan Curley Parleen Kaur Jillian Rockford
Jillian Rockford
Lindsey Treffry
This could be YOU!
WANT TO JOIN THE COMMUNICATOR STAFF? Any SFCC student is welcome to join our staff by enrolling in College Newspaper Production I (JOURN 101). No previous experience is required.
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News
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The Communicator
Mental health effects of the coronavirus Students aim to cope with realities of virus felt by millions across the globe Jillian Rockford The Communicator COVID-19 has affected all students in many ways. When we think about the issues that this pandemic is causing, our minds don’t automatically go to mental health. We think about the money that we lost, the activities we can no longer participate in, and the schools we can’t attend anymore. Even though the emergency funding and the stimulus check helped some students with financial issues, money can’t fix all problems. Danielle Stroud, a student at SFCC who received emergency funding and the stimulus check is still behind on bills. “The stimulus check, well it will only cover my rent for March and April for which I have not paid. It does not cover May. The order will be lifted soon, and I am still behind,” said Stroud. It is obvious some students feel like they are being cheated out of getting proper in-person class time. However, students should be grateful that their suffering is due to having to participate in online classes and having overdue bills rather than suffering the loss of a loved one due to a deadly virus. Coronavirus has infected 4.44 million people worldwide. Out of those 4.44 million people, 1.59 million have recovered while 302,000 have tragically lost their fight against the virus. Out of those 302,000 people, 25 were children. Skylar Herbert, the daughter of Detroit first-responders, died from coronavirus complications on April 19. She is the first Michigan child to die of COVID-19. Herbert was only 5 years old. “She loved putting on dresses, (and), of course, playing in mommy’s makeup.” said LaVondria Herbert, Skylar’s mother stated in an interview with WDIV-4. “I cry all day, I cry all night, I cry in my sleep. My baby loved teddy bears,” LaVondria Herbert
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Courtesy of the World Health Organization
said. “I slept with the teddy bears that she slept with at the hospital. I just hold on to them.” Complications of the coronavirus include acute respiratory failure, pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome and acute liver injury. A new and mysterious virus called pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome is thought to be linked to coronavirus. A patient at Seattle Children’s hospital had pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, which means that at one point the child contracted COVID-19. This pandemic is not only taking an emotional toll on those who have contracted COVID-19 or those who have lost a loved
one due to the virus, health workers are also experiencing difficulties with their mental health. Mental distress is one of the many outcomes of the coronavirus pandemic. Right now, mental distress is mostly common among health care workers and children. According to a United Nations policy briefing, before COVID-19 appeared, the global economy lost more than $1 trillion per year due to depression and anxiety. Depression affects 264 million people in the world, and suicide is the second-leading cause of death in young people ages 15-29. Around half of all mental conditions start by age 14. People with severe mental conditions die 10 to 20 years earlier. Despite this, fewer than half
of countries report having their mental health policies aligned with human rights conventions. In low- and middle-income countries, between 76% and 85% of people with mental health conditions receive no treatment for their condition, despite the evidence that effective interventions can be delivered in any resource context. Globally there is less than 1 mental health professional for every 10,000 people, and human rights violations against people with severe mental health conditions are widespread in all countries of the world. As stated by the American Psychiatric Association, 48% of Americans are anxious about possibly contracting coronavirus. Four in 10ten (40%) Americans are anxious about succumbing to coronavirus. Over half of Americans (62%) are anxious about their loved ones contracting coronavirus. Over one third (36%) of Americans feel like the pandemic is affecting their mental wellbeing. Before the spread of the virus in China, the demand of mental health reinforcement was “huge”as stated by the United Nations, Dr Fahmy Hanna, Technical Officer, Department of Mental Health and Substance Use at WHO. The United Nations calls for all governments to include mental health services in their COVID-19 procedures. Although these times are hard, we should all be grateful that the Community Colleges of Spokane provides us with the tools that we need to get through this difficult time. Skitch’s Food Bank ocated at SFCC has been assisting students in getting proper nutrition during this pandemic. “Skitch’s Food Bank and the SFCC mental health counselor have been more essential to me than the emergency fund,” Stroud said. If you are alive and in good health, this should not be an era wasted by sulking and wallowing in your grievances about situations (graduations, online classes, etc) that are out of your control. “I think it’s important to keep people’s spirit alive. I also think it’s important to not give false hope,” Stroud said.
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The Communicator
Creativity shines through quarantine SFCC’s artists are finding various ways to stay active in their crafts at home Johnathan Curley The Communicator While the coronavirus has challenged the world in many different ways, it hasn’t kept the students and staff at Spokane Falls Community College from letting their creative sides shine. From aspiring artists to emerging musicians, the coronavirus closures and enduring quarantine have marked an unprecedented time for them to practice their passions remotely. “Since all my classes are art classes, one of them is an experimental drawing class, we’re always doing new stuff,” said freshman Devon Martinez, who’s pursuing her associate’s degree in Fine Arts. “If anything, it’s keeping me going.” Martinez and her creative mediums, from collages to crafts and pastels, are a representative of just a few of the many artistic outlets that have sustained students and their imaginations through isolation. “I do feel like I’m kind of just trying to figure it out on my own in a way, but it’s definitely made me experiment more in terms of what I have available to me here at home,” Martinez said. The quarantine has also enabled artists to pursue their own projects without being restrained by outside responsibilities, like in the case of freshman Zachary Hartman, who’s studying for his Audio Engineering certificate. “I’ve been working on a potential solo album for the longest time, but during quarantine I’ve had the time to actually sit down and work on stuff because we have so much more free time now,” said Hartman, who released his latest single, “Losing Dimensions,” in February. Still, that doesn’t mean the abundance of time indoors hasn’t come with its own challenges to the creative process. “Usually, I would go outside and experience things or smells or sounds that would be like, ‘That makes me feel a feeling, I want to make a song about that.’ But there’s no more of that since I’ve been
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Courtesy of Zachary Hartman
Zachary Hartman’s visual collage featured references to his music career, with the audio level graphic, as well as a vintage aesthetic.
locked in my house, so it takes much longer to actually come up with ideas for anything,” Hartman said. For some, those new challenges and restrictions are at the core of what making art is all about – communicating ideas and concepts by overcoming those same difficulties. “In terms of how artists work, I think the opportunity is there for you to explore a different way of working and that’s part of the artistic process,” said Rob McKirdie, sculpture and drawing classes at SFCC for the past five years. “That’s really what artists do, is solve those types of problems whether they’re self-imposed or imposed
CREATIVY Continued on page 5
Courtesy of Devon Martinez Devon Martinez’s chalk artwork titled “On the Road” features a limited color palette. www.communicatoronline.org
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Quarantine creativity continued ... CREATIVY
Continued from page 4 by a quarantine.” For McKirdie, who remains a practicing artist, those same elements of problem-solving and unrestricted freedom have led to new developments in his own work, too. “I’ve been making drawings more than I have been making sculptures, which is a different thing for me,” said McKirdie, whose work was recently featured in Gallery 110’s “Paper Mill” exhibition and the North Dakota Museum of Art’s “Art in Isolation” gallery. But he hasn’t been the only one to grow to the new methods of quarantine creativity. The recent work from his students, and those seen on the Spokane Falls Community College Fine Art Facebook group, have been testaments to that same artistic spark. “Those people that have found the way to modify or change their practice to incorporate the fact that they can’t leave their house or can’t be involved with other people, you’re seeing things that are different or new,” McKirdie said.
Courtesy of Megan Jones Megan Jones’ artwork “Omnipresence” gives only a glimpse at a Lovecraftian beast curiously filling up a fantasy styled snow globe with a golden castle contained inside. sfcc.johnathan.curley@gmail.com
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Features
05.21.2020
The Communicator
Graphic designers win multiple awards SFCC students and instructors took home lots of awards from the AAF Ollie Fisher The Communicator Despite being isolated in quarantine due to the coronavirus, art has still managed to flourish within the Spokane community. Recently, both graphic design students and instructors of SFCC participated and took home awards from the Spokane Advertising Awards. The Spokane Advertising Awards is “the first level of a three-tiered national competition conducted annually by the American Advertising Federation (AAF),” according to the Spokane Advertising Awards’ website. Overall, two instructors, John Mujica, under the pen name Johnny Xerox, and June Roys, both received awards for their artwork. In addition to this, SFCC graphic design students and club members took home seven gold, 16 silver, and one Best-in-Show award, totaling 23 out of the 27 available awards. Mujica has been at SFCC for two years now, and Roys is one of the advisors for the Graphic Design Club. Mujica’s gold-winning entry was a poster designed for the Spokane Print Fest, another annual, local competition that features art done via the process of printmaking, including methods such as screen printing, relief, and letterpress, as stated on Spokane Print Fest’s Facebook page. Mujica said that he drew Courtesy of John Mujica inspiration for his design through the festival’s acronym, SPF. Mujica said he “played off the acronym for Mujica’s poster design for the Spokane Print Fest, playing off of the acronym being the sunscreen.” As such, the art promi- same as sun protection factor (SPF). nently features the acronym over a bottle of sunscreen, with a brightly said aimed to stress “environmental sign program. shining sun behind the bottle. safety as well as interactivity and She said she “definitely plans Mujica said that he tries to stay functionality.” on entering (her) designs into future “as active as (he) can within (the Her simple, boxed packaging competitions” but noted that she Spokane graphic design and art) “aims to reduce environmental doesn’t know when that will be, community and industry,” espewaste,” she said, as a lot of tea bag due to the coronavirus. Bolin hopes cially “within the local AAF,” in packaging often can’t be recycled to pursue a career in graphic design order to set an example for aspiring very well, due to it containing plasafter graduating from SFCC with a designers. tic mixed with recyclable materials. degree in said field. Graphic design student Ashley Bolin is currently in her third Bolin also gave praise to the Bolin won gold for her loose leaf year of schooling at SFCC, but in graphic design instructors at SFCC tea packaging design, which she her second year of the graphic deas well, saying they provide lots of
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help to students to help them “get through it.” For those interested in supporting or showing interest in Bolin’s work, her Instagram is @allsmiles_overhere. Instructor Mujica offered some advice to aspiring graphic designers and artists, encouraging those striving for careers in those fields to stay humble, lest you be humbled by the world, but also reminding that your failures don’t define who you are and that perseverance is key to success.
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Features
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The Communicator
International club takes meeting online CCS club still meeting via Zoom, chatting, playing games, more for students across the world Parleen Kaur The Communicator Because of the sudden outburst of COVID-19, things are feeling out of place lately. Community Colleges of Spokane are handling the situation composedly, and students are seen to support the college clubs. With the classes going online for this whole spring quarter, many activities are left behind. The spring quarter is known to be the best and most happening academic quarter of the year. Students from both colleges said that they miss going to International Club meetings. “I usually felt like I was traveling to all those countries just by imagining what I’m told by my fellows,” said Kenyan student Prince Mayan, who attends Spokane Community College. The International Club is known to connect Americans and students from other countries to promote likeliness, cultural diversity and to help international students feel at home. These clubs conduct different activities where international students can get to know Americans and vice versa. “When I return back from Japan, I would like to attend the meetings and experience fun stuff at school,” Spokane Falls Community College student Yuka Kaneko said via video chat. Like Kaneko, many students went back to their own countries for a short period of time due to coronavirus while continuing their studies online. Global Education Program Coordinator Christiana Hennings said, “Ashley had fun Zoom sessions scheduled throughout April, and I will continue to hold Zoom sessions for students throughout the end of the quarter to chat, play games, talk to other peers and ask any questions they have in a relaxed … environment.” Christiana added by saying that a graduation party will possibly be held for international
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Courtesy of CCS Global Education
The International Club and staff pose for a photo in the Spokane Convention Center before coronavirus took over.
“When I return back from Japan, I would like to attend the meetings and experience fun stuff at school.” -Yuka Kaneko, SFCC student who returned to his home country to continue his studies amid coronavirus
students soon, carried out and planned by Global Education and American Success. The team still checks with the students to make sure they feel at home. The Global Education Program Coordinator Julie Hands from Spokane Community College is conducting online Zoom club meetings too. “Let us use this time to work on ourselves, spread and share the love and hope that we always have as individuals and stay safe,” said second-year Spokane Com-
munity College student Elysee MK, who comes from the DRC Congo.. Everyone is remaining positive in this crucial time and putting their efforts to extract the most out of it. “There’s only about one month left of spring quarter! Push through, don’t give up, and reach out to me or any staff member if you’re having trouble with anything. We’re in this together! I am rooting for you!” said Christiana Hennings.
Interested in SFCC student leadership?
Clubs aren’t the only way to get involved on campus. ASG leadership applications are available online at sfcc.spokane.edu/ For-Our-Students/Student-Engagement/Leadership
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Movies, music to enjoy in quarantine Must-watch, must-listen entertainment for all Johnathan Curley The Communicator There’s only so much time in quarantine to be productive with our internet use. Here are some recommended movies and songs to occupy your brain in the time between Zoom calls and Canvas tabs. “Uncut Gems” - Netflix (2019) Audiences knew Adam Sandler as much for his roles in iconic classics (“Billy Madison”) and first-ballot dumpster fires (“Jack and Jill”), but “Uncut Gems” showed audiences a side of Sandler that maybe not even he could expect. In it, Sandler plays Howard Ratner, a New York jewelry store owner whose hot pursuit of hotter diamonds leads to him betting his life on a million-dollar opal and a Celtics game. “Uncut Gems,” one of the cinematic essentials of 2019, comes back to the small screen for your viewing convenience.
“Dead to Me,” Season 2 - Netflix (2020)
that’s exactly what makes “The New Abnormal” essential listening.
“The Fantastic Mr. Fox” - Disney+ (2009)
“High Off Life” - Future The Atlanta rapper aims his emotional output at piercing highs (“Touch the Sky”), fragile lows (“Pray for a Key”) and more conventional definitions of high (“Trapped in the Sun”) across the 21 songs in “High Off Life.” A fervent collaborator, Future stays true to form, trading verses with Travis Scott, Drake and YoungBoy NBA (“Trillionaire”) for matchups that marry unmistakable aggression with effortlessly cool hooks.
For the benefit of either background noise or binging, the second season of “Dead to Me” is here. Following two unconventional friends, one of which is still trying to solve the hit-and-run murder of her husband, while the other is Linda Cardanelli (who maybe did the hitting and running). All of the complexities of the first season return with a new intensity in the second. Together, they navigate parenting, life, death and lots of wine.
Based on Roald Dahl’s 1970 book of the same name, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is still a piece of stop-motion sincerity in a indulgently digital world. What that means is you can expect all of Wes Anderson’s dynamic storytelling devices and quirks and a knock-out cast featuring George Clooney, Merryl Streep, and Bill Murray. It’s campy, captivating, charming and upholds the source text’s commentary about the degrees of morality to a tee. “The New Abnormal” - The Strokes Almost two decades after their seminal debut “Is This It” and first
Wes Anderson
sign of life since their 2016 “Future Present Past” EP, New York rock combo The Strokes make a triumphant return to form with the perfectly-titled “The New Abnormal.” Flashing the lightning-in-a-bottle energy of their debut with the New Wave stylings of their later works, the only thing that could make it better is the fine production pedigree of Def Jam Records founder and sonic legend Rick Rubin. And that’s exactly what happened. And
“Blake Braley” (self-titled) For a more local flavor of music, look no further than Spokane’s own R&B boss Blake Braley. The former SFCC student’s crowd-funded, self-titled EP released in late April packs six tracks that never shy away from slinky bass grooves (“Neon Nights”) and vocals that sweetly teeter between mellow and searing. Imagine if Nathaniel Rateliff dove into all those classic Earth Wind & Fire records. Every second sounds like, and feels like, the more blissful side of life in the Pacific Northwest.
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It’s not too early to start thinking about turning your associate degree into a bachelor’s. Unlike many other institutions, Whitworth accepts both A.A. and most A.A.S. degrees, so you save time and money as you transfer. With evening and hybrid courses, you can work during the day and balance family life as you earn your degree. Start planning now; talk to one of our advisors early. 509.777.3222 | whitworth.edu/evening
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