collegian.tccd.edu
Netflix’s new true crime docuseries PG. 4
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 – Volume 33 • Issue 16 News LEARNING AT HOME Students reflect on the shift to online-only classes. PG. 2
Feature CERAMIC ART Expression through miniature sculptures. PG. 3
Entertainment
Opinion
Editorial
BACK FROM THE DEAD Ubisoft revives Scott Pilgrim for new console generation. PG. 4
2021: THE YEAR OF BOY BANDS Why boy bands are back in style. PG. 5
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY Black history is American history. PG. 5
SOUTH
South Campus presidential race heats up
South Campus has been without an official president since September of 2020. TCC will elect a candidate to fill the position during the week of Feb. 1.
Azul Sordo/The Collegian
The three final candidates presented their case as to why they are qualified for campus president ALYSON OLIVER campus editor
Community colleges are the embodiment of democracy and the center of America’s economic future because they provide access to brighter futures, South presidential candidate Feliccia Moore-Davis said. The final three candidates for the next South president — Daniel Lufkin, Alessandro Anzalone and Feliccia Moore-Davis — spoke during a forum on Microsoft Teams. They each had an hour to answer nine questions submitted in advance by members of the TCC community. During their introductions, they briefly shared about their careers. All have many years of experience in higher education, and Moore-Davis said she is a first-generation college student. They were asked how they intend to get to know and be an advocate for South students, faculty and staff.
Lufkin said he would spend half of his first year listening and learning about TCC’s goals and challenges in order to advocate accordingly. Anzalone said he would focus on meeting and understanding the expectations of faculty, staff and students. Moore-Davis said she hopes to be able to advocate for people on campus by meeting and getting to know them remotely. The candidates provided examples from their careers when they addressed diversity, equity and inclusion. Anzalone said he was born and raised in Venezuela with parents born in Sicily. He believes diversity equals power. “In professional groups, it’s proven that every time that you have increased diversity, you have increased productivity,” he said. “You always come to better solutions to problems.” He said he wants faculty and staff to reflect the population they serve. Moore-Davis said in the case of equity, it takes a village to move outcomes. She said
it is important to look at data holistically when trying to ensure equity and plans to organize equity summits to open up conversations if she is elected. Lufkin cited similar research to Anzalone. He also described his experiences assisting a faculty member who lost her hearing. “I thought I was doing everything I could to help this faculty member,” he said. “Turns out that I didn’t.” After being told he wasn’t doing enough to help, he realized his initial approach — telling the faculty member to come to him with concerns — wasn’t adequate. “If we’re truly inclusive, 100% inclusive, you shouldn’t have to ask,” he said. “It should already be there.” The candidates addressed what they would do for mental health and emotional wellness on campus. Lufkin said at his current school, they’ve implemented a program called Sin-
gle Stop for access to mental health resources and adopted a wellness program for employees. Anzalone focused on the need for people to connect and communicate during the pandemic. He said he’s hosted campus forums and provided mental health resources at his own school during the lockdown. Moore-Davis highlighted the need for continued mental health awareness. She said she would start an awareness campaign and assess the resources available on campus if elected. The candidates were also asked about works that have impacted them, why they chose to look beyond their current schools, how they conduct difficult conversations, what major changes they’ve brought to a school and what their response — plus the eventual outcome — was to their significant professional challenges at their current school. TCC will announce the new South president the week of Feb. 1.
DISTRICT
Harvard professor speaks to TCC students about political division LOGAN LO GAN EVANS
campus editor/photographer
The common ground between political leaders on both sides of the aisle has completely eroded over the last 50 years, says Thomas Patterson of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Patterson detailed this erosion and more in a Jan. 27 lecture to TCC students and staff. The virtual lecture was titled “America, the Divided,” but it began with a display of likeness — a collage of words President Joseph Biden and former President Donald Trump said during each of their inaugural addresses, which illustrated a lot of overlap. “Now, those are very different speeches,” Patterson said. “But I think if you plugged in the speeches of Lincoln, Reagan and Roosevelt, you’d find many of the same words.” Patterson said that despite this, polarization is worse than ever. A Pew Research Center poll featured in the lecture found that 70% of Democrats think of Republicans as closed-minded, while 70% of Republicans think of Democrats as such. Patterson believes that rampant misinformation is to blame. Citing media coverage of the voter fraud
claims that spurred the insurrection at the Capitol, he said that reporting on false information, even just to to label it as false, can still lead to that misinformation spreading. “People tend to remember the claim, but not the fact that it was judged to be inaccurate,” Patterson said. “It still gets nestled into their mind as fact.” This is especially true when confirmation bias — the tendency to interpret evidence based on preconceived beliefs — comes into play, Patterson explained. He believes that partisan media can chain viewers to a single point of view. “We don’t detect misinformation very easily when it’s on our side,” he said. “ When we hear something about how bad the other party is, we’re likely to believe it. Patterson has a history of speaking out against the negative ways he believes mainstream news can impact the political process. In 1993, he received the American Political Science Association’s Graber Award for his book “Out of Order,” a critique on the media’s “domination” of politics. Many ideas explored in his book came up in his presentation. “Dr. Patterson touched on a lot of topics that I feel are very important in the political landscape currently,” NE student Derek Kendall said. “With so much false information
Screenshot courtesy of NE Department of Government Thomas Patterson, a professor at Harvard’s Kennedy School, focused his workshop on misinformation in the news and the government. available to use, it's crucial that we can make informed decisions about what’s presented to us.” NE assistant government professor Christopher Douglas moderated the lecture. He believes that students should take the extra time to consume political news from multiple sources, including from public figures directly. “Various points of view can be more in-
sightful than just relying on the same messenger,” Douglas said. After his lecture, Patterson opened the floor to questions from the audience. A student asked how members of the media should ethically cover misleading info from elected officials. “They’ve got to keep their heads about them,” he replied.