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Vol. 107, Issue 13 www.thedailyaztec.com
San Diego State University’s Independent Student Newspaper Since 1913
SDSU approved to administer SDSU students face suspension after failing COVID-19 vaccine by
to report positive COVID-19 results
Brenden Tuccinardi
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Eligible San Diego State students, faculty and staff won’t have to go very far to get vaccinated for COVID-19. In a University Senate meeting on Tuesday, SDSU President Adela de la Torre announced that the university received approval from the state of California and San Diego County to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to the campus community. “We have lost too many lives and too many have become ill due to this virus,” de la Torre said. “Getting vaccinated when your time
by
Catlan Nguyen
SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR
File photo
comes will help keep you, your gamily and your community healthy and safe.” Student Health Services received 300 doses of the Moderna vaccine and will begin opening up appointments to eligible faculty, staff and students in the
coming days. The university has already submitted requests for additional doses. Vaccine eligibility at SDSU will mirror San Diego County’s phases, Student Health Services Director see
VACCINE page 2
More than 1,400 San Diego State students began receiving possible violation notices during finals season in late-November to mid-December for failure to report COVID-19 symptoms or positive COVID-19 tests. “The vast majority of the 1,438 notices of possible organization or individual violation is a result of complaints filed by either another student, commu-
nity member or faculty member alleging that the individual was in violation of COVID-19 policies,” the university said in an email. The notices informed students they may face different levels of disciplinary actions from SDSU up to suspension or even expulsion. Students facing suspension have the option to agree to a settlement choice within 10 days of receiving an email notice or see
SUSPENSION page 2
Remembering Challenger shuttle disaster 35 years later by
Trinity Bland
OPINION EDITOR
The 1980s were an unforgettably unique era. The music, the fashion, the sports rivalries, the movies and television shows all defined the decade. However, for every good thing the 80s brought, there were twice as many unfortunate disasters that came too. On Jan. 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded only 73 seconds after its launch. On board were astronauts Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik, Michael Smith, Francis (Dick) Scobee, Ronald McNair and most notably, school teacher Christa McAuliffe. They were all killed when the shuttle broke apart in midair over the Atlantic Ocean, turning a historic event into a national nightmare. June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Scobee, told TODAY, “The media froze our grief in newspapers and TV
clips. It was so unbearable.” Scobee Rodgers knew that space travel came with risks. “We talked about those risks, and he was willing to take those risks,” she said. When McAuliffe was a finalist for the NASA program she told then radio reporter Beth Germano of WBZ-TV about her enthusiasm for teaching in addition to the lessons from space she would learn and share with her students. “I think I’ve always been a risk taker,” McAuliffe said “I like to do things that are adventuresome. I’m really hoping it generates excitement in the education process to give teachers a more positive role.” Hoda Kotb of the TODAY Show spoke to some of McAuliffe’s former students, Holly Merrow, Kristin Jacques and Tammy Hickey, about how they all became teachers in her honor. They walked Kotb down memory lane as they talked about be-
ing McAuliffe’s students and where they were when they watched the shuttle take off. Merrow did not do the interview with Kotb to gain publicity or notoriety, but to simply commemorate McAuliffe’s legacy. “We never want to forget these people,” Merrow said. “I want her to be remembered as someone who stepped outside of her comfort zone and really took a leap to do something that really no one else got to do. I want kids to feel that they can do the same, that they can do and be anything they want to be.”
After talking with some of her former peers last week, all three of them now teachers, the group decided even though 35 years have passed, they needed people to remember the person their then teacher was. It is that message she hopes resonates with her own students now. Merrow is a second-grade teacher, Hickey is now a middle school physical education teacher and Jacques teaches fifth grade. The tragedy happened 19 years and one day after the deaths of three astronauts of the Apollo program in
Photo courtesy of NASA
1967 in a simulation fire at Kennedy Space Center. Seven more astronauts would die 17 years and four days after the Challenger on Feb. 1, 2003, when Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry. The three tragedies that took 17 lives across one week mark the lowest points in NASA’s history. NASA honors all of them and others who lost their lives in pursuit of space exploration on its Day of Remembrance, Jan. 28, 2021. Crews salvaged the pieces of the shuttle, which were reassembled to investigate what happened. Remains from the seven astronauts were recovered and what could be identified were returned to their families. The rest of them were buried at the Challenger Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery on May 20, 1986. NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Center has see
CHALLENGER page 3