real-world conditions

NEWS EDITOR @AMOUNAJT

Th e Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an interim report last week pertaining to the effi cacy of vaccines distributed to healthcare personnel and frontline workers since the initial rollout in December.

Th e report revealed the effi cacy rate of the fi rst dose of both the Pfi zer and Moderna mRNA vaccines was 80 percent eff ective against coronavirus infections two weeks after being administered.

Th e second dose of the vaccines had a 90 percent effi cacy rate, confi rming the mRNA vaccines are eff ective against coronavirus infections in real-world conditions.

Th e study was conducted by having healthcare workers, fi rst responders and other essential workers who got the vaccines take a COVID-19 polymerase chain reaction test weekly for 13 weeks.

Th e use of a PCR test would give researchers the ability to record positive cases whether an individual is presenting symptoms or not.

Following this period, the results were evaluated showing that out of 2,479 vaccinated persons, there were only three that tested positive for coronavirus.

Th e 477 that received one dose of the vaccine had eight individuals test positive.

Th e study mentioned that there will be opportunities in the future to examine the structure of breakthrough infections that were able to bypass the vaccines’ defenses.

Although the study looked into the vaccine effi cacy two weeks after administration, the actual time period between getting the vaccine and developing immunity is still unsure.

Since it’s been under a year from the initial vaccine rollout, there isn’t much data on how long the immunity from the vaccines will last.

UH College of Medicine clinical professor Bhavna Lall said that the continuation of this study would help clear up this uncertainty overtime.

“By gaining an understanding of the duration of these vaccines’ protection, this will also aid in understanding when we would potentially need booster vaccine doses, if needed,” said Lall.

Pfi zer released data that indicated its vaccine showed continued immunity after six months in their study with over 46,000 participants. Health offi cials say that the protection is likely to last longer than that.

“Longer studies of the various vaccines will continue to give us information and evidence of safety and effi cacy of these vaccines,” Lall said.

“Th ese studies will also give better understanding of the duration of immunity from the vaccine and effi cacy of the vaccines with the new circulating variants as well.”

CDC report revealed 80 percent effectiveness against coronavirus infections for single-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. | Gerald Sastra/The Cougar

news@thedailycougar.com

NEWS EDITOR @SYDNEY_ROSEY

After altering dining plans and procedures this past year in light of the coronavirus pandemic, UH Dining will keep some of the same procedures going into the Fall 2021 semester.

With altered dining plans since the start of COVID-19, students have been limited to just one dining hall on campus with socially distanced seating, no self serving food stations and to-go options.

“We have adapted our procedures and policies since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and many of those practices will remain in place,” said UH Dining vice president of operation Charles Pereira.

“We will continue reviewing safety measures to align with (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and University guidelines,” Pereira continued.

Th e current dining hall open is Cougar Woods Dining Commons, but as Moody Towers may possibly not be housing students next semester, it is up in the air as to whether or not Moody Towers Dining Commons will be open.

As classes for the Fall 2021 semester are starting to go back to in-person and operations are starting to go back to normal, dining is still making decisions on how many dining halls will be open and if to-go plans will remain for the upcoming semester.

“Final decisions regarding open dining halls and the to-go program are based on meal plan enrollment, percentage of in person classes and on campus population,” Pereira said.

“Meal exchanges will continue to be off ered and detailed options will be updated closer to the fall semester.”

UH dining is still determining opening additional retail locations and hours of operations once there is more fi rm information on the state of the pandemic, Pereira said.

A plan that was postponed and altered due to the pandemic was the deconstruction of the Student Center Satellite.

In replacement of the satellite, the Auxiliary Retail Center was supposed to begin construction in the summer of 2020, but has yet to begin.

“Th e design for the new retail center, which will be built at the current site of the Satellite, is being fi nalized,” Pereira said.

“Although the demo date has not yet been determined, the Satellite building has been cleared of equipment and is ready for demo to commence.”

Cougar Woods Dining Commons is currently the only dining hall open to students this semester. | Sydney Rose/The Cougar

An anonymous UH adjunct professor wrote a post on Reddit, revealing the low pay received by part-time professors despite their workload and responsibilities. However, what is occurring at UH is also a national problem in higher education. | Juana Garcia/The Cougar

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR @ASHLEYGWANAN

On the social media site Reddit, an anonymous adjunct professor gained attention for describing the lack of pay increase for parttime professors at UH.

Th e post went into detail about how many adjuncts, like the professor, have worked at UH for years and continue to receive low compensation despite experiencing an increase in workload and responsibilities.

Including teaching, adjunct professors are responsible for additional duties such as designing their courses, creating exams, grading and advising students for success in their classes.

In return, lecturers are generally paid $3,000 per course with no benefi ts, although compensation varies based on experience, department and course level.

Depending on the factors, they may receive pay as low as $2,000 or as high as $8,000 per course the entire semester.

As salaries remain stagnant for lecturers, they face increasing class sizes, especially those teaching at the undergraduate level.

“(UH has) not raised our pay in over 20 years and refuse to do it even today. Additionally, we have to pay over $500 for parking out of our own pockets,” said the professor on his post.

“Th ey continue to increase our course enrollment and expectations with not one cent more pay.”

A former UH adjunct professor, who prefers to remain anonymous, reveals those who teach undergraduate classes may have over a hundred students in one course.

“What is worse than the adjunct pay is the use of doctoral students as adjuncts. Doctoral students who are pre-dissertation receive about $2,400 per class,” the professor said.

“My classes were not as large as some undergraduate classes where there can be over a hundred students.”

Additionally, burnout among adjuncts is becoming more prevalent, potentially aff ecting the quality of education for students.

Aside from juggling responsibilities to help with student success, some juggle multiple jobs to receive income for bills, housing and other costs to support themselves and their families.

However, what’s unfolding at UH is not unprecedented.

Across the U.S., adjunct professors at diff erent institutions encounter the same problems of being overworked and underpaid with no benefi ts.

In a report from the American Federation of Teachers, nearly a third of 3,000 adjuncts surveyed earn less than $25,000 a year, placing them below the federal poverty guideline for a family of four.

Another third of respondents revealed making less than $50,000.

Additionally, colleges and universities have implemented hiring freezes and budget cuts due to the fi nancial upheaval caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Combined with future fl uctuations in enrollment, adjuncts face uncertainty with job security in upcoming semesters.

Part of the adjunct problem stems from an increase in administrative positions and the overproduction of doctoral degrees.

After graduating, new doctoral graduates encounter a limited amount of tenure track positions available.

Some have trouble securing non-academic jobs due to being viewed as overqualifi ed, according to Education Next.

While some have a full-time job and do adjunct work on the side, others settle for adjunct faculty positions, hoping to eventually secure full-time employment while relying on it to suffi ce their living costs.

For those relying on their adjunct positions for income, they hope for their per-course pay to increase, especially as institutions continue to rely on them heavily.

“Adjuncts should be able to unionize to negotiate for fair salaries and benefi ts,” said the anonymous former professor.

“UH is depending more and more on adjuncts.”

EDITOR IN CHIEF Jhair Romero

Donna Keeya

Mason Vasquez

NEWS EDITORS Sydney Rose Aminah Tannir

Haya Panjwani Ashley Gwananji

SPORTS EDITOR Andy Yanez

James Mueller

OPINION EDITOR Jordan Hart

Juana Garcia

Gerald Sastra

COPY CHIEF Zai Davis

The Staff Editorial reflects the opinions of The Cougar Editorial Board (the members of which are listed above the editorial). All other opinions, commentaries and cartoons reflect only the opinion of the author. Opinions expressed in The Cougar do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Houston or the students as a whole.

The Cougar welcomes letters to the editor from any member of the UH community. Letters should be no more than 250 words and signed, including the author’s full name, phone number or e-mail address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Anonymous letters will not be published. Deliver letters to N221, University Center; e-mail them to letters@thedailycougar.com; send them via campus mail to STP 4015; or fax to (713) 743-5384. Letters are subject to editing.

Submissions are accepted from any member of the UH community and must be signed with the author’s name, phone number or e-mail address and affiliation with the University, including classification and major. Commentary should be limited to 500 words. Guest commentaries should not be written as replies, but rather should present independent points of view. Deliver submissions to N221, University Center; e-mail them to letters@ thedailycougar.com; or fax them to (713) 743-5384. All submissions are subject to editing.

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Frontier Live featured socially-distanced concerts, arts, crafts and virtual events. | Haya Panjwani/The Cougar

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR @HAYAPANJW

Frontier Fiesta this year was a little different than usual.

In past years, Frontier Fiesta was a week-long affair with carnival rides, competitions, a cook-off and packed concerts. This year, the one thing that did stay the same was a week full of activities.

The event donned a new name, Fiesta Live, and adapted to the circumstances brought by the pandemic with new events like drive-in movies, socially distanced concerts and virtual events.

For Rachel Siba, a psychology freshman, this was her first chance to participate in in-person activities with others since moving on campus at the start of the year.

“It’s nice to see more activities with people showing up, or at least from what we’ve noticed,” Siba said.

“Since me and my friends usually didn’t leave the dorms as much cause of COVID, it’s just nice to see events like this instead of a ghost town”

On Monday, Siba and her friends were able to sit sociallydistanced on blankets and paint while listening to live music performances at Lynn Eusan Park.

Upon entering, all attendees were screened for COVID-19 by being asked a series of questions and having their temperature taken.

Hospitality sophomore Elise Kloster recently transferred to UH mid-pandemic, so Fiesta Live also gave her the opportunity to see who else goes to the school.

“It’s cool to finally have the college experience,” Kloster said. “This is the first event I’ve been to, and I think it’s really neat. It’s nice to see all the students that go to school with me all in one place, since usually we’re really spread out and far apart.”

Other events throughout the week included a drive-in movie, which showed “Soul” and “Tenet” at the TDECU Stadium, as well as a socially-distanced water fight and a cultural fiesta called Loteria Night.

Viviana Zermeno, director of performances for the Frontier Fiesta Association, said her and her team worked hard to make sure they could keep Frontier Fiesta running while still keeping the UH community healthy and safe.

“Our board has been working tirelessly to make sure that we have a completely COVID safe, partially virtual, partially in person, but entirely (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guideline conscious event,” Zermeno said. “We wanted to do this so that our community could get this morale boost that we really need, especially during a pandemic.”

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR @HAYAPANJ

The University is partnering with HEB to administer 600 Johnson & Johnson vaccines via an on-campus clinic on Wednesday.

UH students who live on campus received an email on Monday, allowing them to register for an appointment on a first come, first serve basis.

This partnership between HEB and UH Power-Up Employee Wellness is available for individuals 18 and older.

“The University is excited about this new partnership, which will offer the one-dose vaccine,” said UH spokesperson Shawn Lindsey. “Because supply is so limited, priority registration is being given to specific populations, including UH facilities, custodial and housing staff working on campus, and students who live on campus.”

Following priority registration, if there are appointments left, the school will share registration information with all faculty, staff and students.

This vaccination clinic follows two other distribution efforts at the University, which administered Pfizer and Moderna to Phase 1A and 1B populations.

Texas expanded vaccine eligibility in March, following the announcement of federal efforts to ensure most of the American population is fully vaccinated by this summer.

“I hope to have more information soon on another mass vaccination clinic that we are working on,” Lindsey said. “We continue to request more vaccines

news@thedailycougar.com

UH to administer 600 doses of J&J vaccines on Wednesday. | Courtesy of UH

STAFF WRITER @CHRISTOPHEASTON

It’s hard to make a good sports film. Actually, it’s incredibly hard. For every “Remember the Titans,” there’s a “Draft Day,” and for every “Rocky IV,” there’s a “Rocky Balboa.” That’s why when directors are able to capture the essence that sports bring to our lives, the stories that they tell have the ability to live on forever.

Eddie Huang’s debut on the big screen in “Boogie” makes “Rocky Balboa” look like “Citizen Kane.”

The film follows an Asian American high school student who is supposedly a basketball phenom as he attempts to navigate the recruiting process, relationships and family dynamics, all while attempting to understand how his race factors into each of the above. This is unfortunately nothing more than a glorified table read.

Not only does “Boogie” disappoint in each of the most basic aspects of a film, writing, acting and cinematography, it lazily hijacks the most notable elements of African American ’90s and early 2000s cinema without paying any sort of homage whatsoever.

Early on, we are told the films main character Alfred (Boogie) played by Taylor Takahashi, is a basketball star who has transferred to a new school as part of he and his father’s plan to propel him towards the NBA.

The film’s summary describes Alfred as a basketball phenom, yet Huang does absolutely nothing to prove to us that this is the case.

Nevermind the fact Alfred has zero college scholarship offers as a senior, or the absence of statistics to show that he’s been dominant on the court since a young age or the fact that the actor who plays Alfred is listed at about 5-foot-10-inches.

There are no stories told about Alfred dunking on a player ranked higher than him or dropping 50 on someone’s head at Rucker Park. We are simply told that he is a phenom and we’re supposed to roll with it.

The film’s depiction of athletics in general is nauseating. This includes an awkward weight room scene in which, for some reason, the basketball team is lifting weights with two young ladies who seemingly are the most popular girls in school.

What should irk viewers right away though, is the fact that everyone in the film looks 37. This is something that I thought directors and casting agents working on high school stories were finished with, due to the fact that this sort of mismanagement has become something of a punchline on social media in recent years.

When it becomes clear that Alfred’s temper is withholding him from opportunities to further pursue his dream of professional basketball, his mother hires a recruiting agent to oversee the process. Besides this being an entirely fictional career in regard to high school sports, an amateur athlete working with an agent in any capacity is definitely illegal.

As the film progresses, a main gripe with the plot becomes more and more blatant.

We never see why Alfred deserves a shot. He doesn’t seem like a nice person, and we never get a chance to see that he’s a beast on the court. Still, whether he will or will not make it in sports seems to be the driving force behind the story and that makes no sense.

Alfred begins to fall for a girl in his class named Eleanor, who is played by Taylour Paige. The two have solid chemistry, but the dialogue written for them prevents the magic an on-screen couple needs in order to be believable. What their conversations come across as is nothing more than two preteens who don’t quite know how to flirt.

The antagonist of the film is Monk, a basketball player at the school’s cross-town rival, played by the late rapper Pop Smoke.

Smoke performs well in this role, but it’s much more limited than the marketing of the film will have you believe, which argues the possibility that those who are in charge of the film’s rollout have attempted to use his death at the ticket booth.

At times, it feels like Huang was going for a vibe similar to “You Got Served,” “Juice” or “Above the Rim” with the film, but the knowledge that he lacks in multiple areas stunts the potential of the film fairly quickly.

We don’t see much character growth from anyone throughout the film. In fact, what the movie feels like is honestly just one bad decision after another.

At the end of the film, suddenly everyone is on the same page without any explanation on how they got there.

We’re left wanting more, and not in a good way.

Viewers can’t help but think about how so many of the issues in “Boogie” would have been solved by dropping the high school shtick and committing fully to a street ball universe where adults handle their problems like adults.

“Boogie” regurgitates chewed up material Huang likely consumed as a child and reveals itself as a project that he simply did not have the skill to properly put together.

arts@thdailycougar.com

NEWS EDITOR @SYDNEY_ROSEY

A book like ‘Daisy Jones and Th e Six’ is able to tell a story in a non-traditional novel format that both showcases a diff erent time period and an environment not many know about.

Set in the 1970’s, ‘Daisy Jones’ focuses on a fi ctional rock band as they go through the typical motifs of drug culture, relationship dynamics and handling fame.

‘Daisy Jones and Th e Six’ will be getting a television adaption soon into a mini-series on Amazon. Th ere was no set release date for the project, but production began before the pandemic did and was postponed until later.

Part of what makes author Taylor Jenkins Reid, who also wrote ‘Th e Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’, have a book that is readily available for a TV script is the format in which ‘Daisy Jones’