Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

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The 2020 United States Election Results  November 7, 2020  Jose Chavez

The UC San Diego Guardian’s Guide to 2020 State and Local Election Results

With the state and local election results now available, The UCSD Guardian has put together an overview of the victors of each race while offering a brief summary of the winners’ goals for their first year in office.

Presidential Results in California

The Associated Press announced that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Senator Kamala Harris have won California, with the Democratic ticket winning by a 25- point margin in San Diego county as of Nov. 5 at 1:36 a.m. EST. The AP declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 Presidential Race at 12:25 p.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 7.

The Biden-Harris ticket is hoping to address many pertinent issues for Americans. According to the campaign’s website, Biden intends on implementing “a real strategy to Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

take on the threat of COVID-19,” creating millions of jobs to “build back better an economy that works for everyone,” and building upon the Affordable Care Act to ensure every American has affordable health care.

U.S. Congressional Representative – 49th District

Voters from Oceanside to Encinitas gave incumbent Congressman Mike Levin a eight-point lead, winning him the race against Councilmember Brian Maryott.

Levin’s campaign ran on the achievements that it touted, such as the inclusion of his Green Vehicles Act of 2019 in the Climate Action Plan. He also supported the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2019, which aligns with his belief that a woman should determine what is best for her health.

U.S. Congressional Representative – 51st District

Votes from Chula Vista to National City gave Congressman Juan C. Vargas 70 percent of the votes over Juan M. Hidalgo Jr.’s 30 percent.

Vargas is the incumbent of the 51st congressional district. He campaigned on the protection of Medicare and Social Security, comprehensive immigration reform, and investments in research and development to further innovation. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the National Education Association among many others support him for his consistent voting record.

U.S. Congressional Representative – 52nd District

Voters from La Jolla to Downtown San Diego gave Congressman Scott Peters 62 percent of reported votes over Jim Debello’s 38 percent.

Peters has been the incumbent for the 52nd district since 2012 and, as a former environmental lawyer of the Environmental Protection Agency, is dedicated to combating climate change and bolstering the appeal of renewable energy. He has also championed civil rights, housing and homelessness, national security and defense, and a myriad of other issues. Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

State Assembly – 78th District

With 57 percent of the votes from Coronado to Solana Beach, San Diego City Councilmember Chris Ward is declared the winner for California’s 78th State Assembly district over challenger Sarah Davis.

On his website, Ward states that “California must target immediate assistance to support jobs as an investment in the quality of life of our region,” ensuring families have a chance to “attain the California Dream.” He has comprehensive plans on tackling homelessness, climate change, as well as supporting quality education.

State Senate – 39th District

Toni Atkins received two-thirds of the vote compared to Linda Blankenship’s one-third, giving the former the victory.

Atkins, the current State Senate Pro Tempore, was elected to represent the 39th District in the state body in 2016 and has passed a variety of legislation, among which was Senate Bill 2 which created a permanent source of funding for affordable housing through a $75 fee on certain real estate transaction documents.

Superior Court Judge Office 30

Tim Nader is currently leading Paul Starita by eight points for the 30th Superior Court Judge Office.

Nader has an extensive legal background as a criminal prosecutor for seven years, child support attorney for six years, civil litigator for 11 years, and 18 years as a California deputy attorney general.

“The combination of strong legal background and community leadership make me uniquely qualified to serve as a judge,” Nader said in a San Diego Union Tribune interview. “I have a strong understanding of public safety, environmental and economic development issues. I understand fully the relationship between branches of government, the appropriately limited role of a judge, and the impact on law-abiding citizens of the decisions a judge makes every day.” Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

Mayor of San Diego

Although the votes are still being counted, votes tallied for San Diego mayor had shown that Todd Gloria took an early lead against his opponent Barbara Bry. As of 4 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 6, Gloria held 56 percent of the vote while Bry had 44 percent.

Gloria‘s campaign kickoff was filled with matched ambition as well and can be evidenced by his “Back to Work SD” blueprint for economic recovery. Co-chaired by U.S. Congressman Scott Peters and VP for Business Affairs at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Paola Avila, the taskforce intends on pushing for “intelligent investments in schools, childcare, housing and homelessness, infrastructure, and small businesses,” according to the “Back to Work SD” text.

“My parents worked hard, were able to buy a home in San Diego, put their two kids through college, the first in our family to go. That story was possible in San Diego a few decades ago. I think most people recognize that today that’s nearly impossible. We should change that. We should work very hard to change that,” Gloria said in a Q&A session with the San Diego Tribune.

City Council – District 1

The race for the District 1 seat on City Council seems to be in Joe LaCava’s favor over Will Moore’s, with 62 percent of the votes being in the former’s favor.

LaCava intends on addressing multiple issues in his first year in office including:

• Improving upon homelessness in relation to the pandemic through the Housing First Program, which depends on the passing of Measure A • Supporting efforts to construct an entertainment center in the Midway District to improve San Diego’s Real Estate • Increasing the number of San Diego Police Department officers while also being in support of police reform.

While Joe LaCava has many ambitions to fulfill his first year in office, he acknowledges that the beginning is always a bit rocky.

“As candidates, we start our campaigns off with big ideas and then we get faced with the reality of what is happening on the day you get sworn in … clearly a few things are going to come into play here,” LaCava said in an interview with The UCSD Guardian. Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

The Board of Supervisors

Terra Lawson-Remer is leading incumbent Kristin Gaspar by 19 points to represent the area between Old Town and Golden Hill.

Lawson-Remer, a former economist for the Obama administration, put public health and environmental leadership at the front of her campaign through her defending of the Affordable Care Act and calls for implementation of a bold County Climate Action Plan. She also plans on realigning some public safety resources to create an unarmed crisis response team of mental health workers, medical professionals, and other trained specialists to respond to nonviolent 911 calls for service.

“I will put public health first and listen to county health officials to get the pandemic under control, and will defend the Affordable Care Act. I will push San Diego to lead on climate action and protect our environment and open spaces. I will expand access to quality, affordable childcare and I will stand up to the Trump administration’s attacks on our communities.”

The City Attorney

The city attorney race for San Diego has resulted in the victory of Mara Elliot over challenger Cory Briggs.

Elliot, the current incumbent and the first woman and first Latina to serve in the position, has garnered many achievements in her first year in office. They range from relaunching the San Diego Family Justice Center to prioritizing consumer and environmental protection through the creation of the Affirmative Civil Enforcement Unit. As of July 2020, she was the first San Diego City Attorney to be named “Public Lawyer of the Year” by the California Lawyers Association in Sacramento.

“I’m humbled and grateful that the people of San Diego have placed their trust in me to fight for them for another term,” Elliot said in a statement t0 KPBS on Nov. 3. Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

Measure A

Measure A, entitled “City of San Diego Affordable Housing Bonds,” was passed by San Diego City Council 6–3 and got 57 percent of the “yes” vote. This measure will place a $900 million housing bond that raises taxes on city property owners for roughly 7,500 subsidized apartments.

Measure B

Measure B, which is focused on San Diego police reform, garnered 75 percent support. This will likely result in the restructuring of police oversight practices via the new Commision on Police Practices.

Measure C

Measure C’s passing is favored at 70 percent, leading to serious election reforms for the San Diego Unified School District board members. This means that all voters now vote for the one council member representing the district where the voters live once every four years. The previous hybrid model was theorized to marginalize voters in certain subdistricts.

Measure D

Measure D has garnered 86 percent support, leading to change in the San Diego Unified School District school board member removal procedures. If a member is found guilty of dereliction of their duties, they can be voted out by a three-fourths majority of the full board.

Measure E

Measure E has garnered 57 percent of the popular vote, leading to the removal of the 30-foot Height Limit in the Midway Area. This would allow for the construction of buildings exceeding 30 feet in height.

Prop 14

Proposition 14 received a narrow lead at 51 percent. The passing of this proposition will allow for $5.5 billion in general obligation bonds to be doled out to the state stem cell research institutions while also making changes to the institute’s governance structure and programs. Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

Prop 15

Proposition 15 was rejected with 52 percent of votes in opposition of the measure’s passing. The opposition of this proposition ensures that commercial and industrial properties will continue to be taxed based on the property’s purchase price rather than its market value.

Prop 16

With 82 percent reporting, Proposition 16 has received 56 percent “no” votes. This means Proposition 209 enacted in 1996 will not be repealed and the institution of affirmative action practices will not occur. Proposition 209 grants that “the government and public institutions cannot discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to persons on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, and public contracting.”

Prop 17

With 72 percent reporting, Proposition 17 has been passed with 59 percent of votes being in favor. This means a constitutional amendment will be passed to allow people on parole for felony convictions to vote.

Prop 18

Proposition 18 was rejected with 58 percent “no” votes. This will lead to continual prohibition of 17-year-olds who will be 18 at the time of the next general election to vote in primary and special elections.

Prop 19

Proposition 19 was passed with 51 percent “yes” votes. This will allow for eligible homeowners to transfer their tax assessments anywhere within the state and to be transferred to a more expensive home with an upward adjustment.

Prop 20

Proposition 20 was rejected with 62 percent “no” votes. This means the initiative to add crimes to the list of violent felonies for which early parole is restricted. Accessed: 11/8/2020 The 2020 United States Election Results - UCSD Guardian

Prop 21

Proposition 21 was rejected with 60 percent “no” votes. This means that rent control on housing that was first occupied after Feb. 1, 1995 and housing units with distinct titles will be prohibited.

Prop 22

Proposition 22 was passed with 58 percent “yes” votes. This ensures that app-based transportation and delivery drivers will continue to be defined as independent contractors, allowing for specific labor and wage policies specific to app-based drivers and companies to be adopted.

Prop 23

Proposition 23 was denied with 56 percent “no” votes. This means that dialysis clinics will be allowed to continue operating without being required to have a doctor on-site during all patient treatment hours.

Prop 24

Proposition 24 was passed with 56 percent “yes” votes. This ensures that California’s consumer data privacy laws will be expanded, specifically allowing consumers to direct businesses to not share their personal information.

Prop 25

Proposition 25 was denied with 55 percent “no” votes. The contested legislation Senate Bill 10 will soon be repealed, thus keeping the use of cash bail for detained suspects awaiting trials as an option.

Photo courtesy of PBS News Hour.

This article was updated at 5:00pm on Nov. 8 to correct for minor formatting issues. Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020  November 8, 2020  Guardian Staff

The San Diego Asian Film Festival returned on October 23 to 31 as one the consistently largest exhibitions of Asian American and international cinema in the United States. The festival transitioned to a predominately digital experience for their 21st edition, providing accommodations and safety measures for COVID-19. Celebrate these acclaimed films with Arts and Entertainment, as we highlight our top picks from the festival. For more information on these films or the festival, visit sdaff.org. Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian “LOVE AND DEATH IN MONTMARTRE” Directed by Evans Chan

“Love and Death in Montmartre” is a documentary film about the queer Taiwanese author, Qiu Miaojin, and her post-mortem role catalyzing queer movements in her home country. Interspersing reduced shutter-speed surrealism with a dynamic set of interviews, director Evans Chan explores the author through a variety of proximities. These range from a UC San Diego professor engaging with Miaojin’s work through translation, to one of her admiring French professors, to her closest and oldest friends. Within the foreboding frame that the author took her own life at the age of 26, the film paints a picture of a brilliant woman aiming to control multiple self-truths. These include assurance in her attraction to other women, yet immense loathing toward these expressions of passion.

Partially told in voiceovers reading from Miaojin’s letters, the film examines her fierce determination to create works of art externalizing her truths, and strengthens the audience’s empathy with the complexity of her convictions. This is furthered by each interview, as Miaojin’s impact on people — regardless of how close they were to her — is palpable and eternal. Individuals were visibly overcome with emotion when speaking about her work, and it is both incredibly moving and painful to witness the longevity of her legacy when the author herself lived such a momentary life. Watch this documentary to feel, and to feel deeply, and to cautiously avoid romanticization. As Miaojin’s former classmate interprets her warning, “repressed emotions, once unleashed, could annihilate lives” (Chan).

— Marina Lee, Staff Writer Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

“Human beings live artificially and hypocritically and would do well to study the dog,” reads the opening card of Elizabeth Lo’s “Stray.” Diogenes’ quote frames the rest of the 2020 documentary as it follows the daily routines of three stray dogs — Zeytin, Nazar, and Kartal — in present-day Turkey. As viewers, we silently follow on the heels of the trio as they roam the urban streetscape of Istanbul searching for food, places to sleep, and companionship in both humans and other dogs.

It is clear they are wholly independent creatures in the way they weave naturally through cars and feet, oblivious to the bustling lives of those around. In every scene we hear the humdrum of human life: a couple arguing over Instagram, people watching political commentary on TV, women marching and protesting. But these snippets of society are treated by the film with equal, if even less, importance to moments where one dog chases a cat or another sniffs at a trash bag. With a camera that hugs the ground and audio in which people’s voices blend and fade into other sights and sounds, “Stray” slowly but masterfully shows the human world through the eyes and ears of a dog.

But “Stray” is not a condemnation of human behavior. We see a strong communal concern for the stray dogs; people feed them, name them, and even defend them from harm. Rather, Lo’s film prompts us to think about how to better protect the vulnerable. Parallels are drawn between the dogs and a group of young Syrian refugees as both groups eke out a living on the streets. By filming them without resorting to showing animal abuse or poverty porn, “Stray” brings compassion and respect to the unseen perspectives of society.

In the end, the dogs in “Stray” remain free; they are never lost or missing. They belong to nobody but themselves, and this is both a strength and a right that we as humans can better practice for ourselves and others.

— Natalie Tran, Senior Staff Writer Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

Jinglin Li’s documentary “Export My Love” follows matchmaker Jany Murphy in Boston as she coaches Chinese women through international online dating. Murphy, who is happy in her fourth marriage, believes that marrying abroad can be the turnaround for Chinese women who are often shunned due to the stigma that surrounds divorce and widowhood. Most of her clients are unable to speak English, but the language barrier is merely a small obstacle — Jany’s assistance with translating messages, writing WeChat texts, and presenting clients as knowledgeable about American culture are invaluable tools to the women she helps.

“Export my Love” is a voice for Chinese women who are silenced by their position in society. It was eye-opening to watch these unique, individual women learn English and get coached through romantic interactions on WeChat — a sign of their commitment to their children —as they focus on finding fathers for them and creating stability during their school years. Moreover, the struggles of each woman is put into the context of the trials and tribulations of Jany’s overarching life story: a single mother escaping dangerous relationships to ultimately find love and safety with her current husband. Jany’s unwavering spirit and compassion for others in the face of struggle is inspiring, and the film does the important and necessary job of humanizing these women and drawing attention to the issues they face due to cultural stigmas.

— Deyshna Pai, contributing writer Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

“Death of Nintendo,” directed by Raya Martin, follows a group of young teens during the 1990s in the Philippines. The story is about the coming of age of Paolo (Noel Comia Jr.), Kachi (John Vincent Servilla), Mimaw (Kim Oquendo), and her brother Gilligan (Jiggerfelip Sementilla). The film takes on the usual coming of age movie tropes like young love, rejection, bullies, and general hormonal outbursts, and while these tropes are obviously not new, what made this movie stand out to me is how it tackles the cultural aspects of the time, the presentation, and how much I found myself relating to the film.

Early on, the movie establishes the idea of masculinity in the boys through actions and rituals considered to be masculine. These examples include smoking, looking at Playboy Magazines, and masturbating. However, the ritual that brings the boys fully into manhood is circumcision. Paolo initially shows hesitation to get the circumcision performed, but after an argument with his mother, he concludes that he needs to undergo this process in order to become a man. As a result, Paolo, Kachi, and Gilligan set off on their journey (with Mimaw tagging along) to find the barrio doctor to perform the ritual.

Now, in contrast to the boys in the movie, the movie establishes that the girls’ coming of age tend to revolve around reproduction. The first instant of this is when Mimaw attempts to befriend Paolo’s love interest, Shiara (Elijah Alejo), and Shiara tries to explain a game called “kisses,” where a girl puts a pink bead and blue bead in a piece of cotton to see how many children they will have. Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

The movie had a colorful yet muted color scheme, and whether it was Paolo’s room filled with video games and toys, or the hut at the base of Mt. Pinatubo that the group stayed in after the circumcision, every shot is satisfying to look at. Another aspect I enjoyed was the attention to the role of video games in the movie, and one of the details I really appreciate in this regard were the TVs in the movie. In most movies, the graphics on the TV are produced using a green screen and usually have clear graphics. In “Death of Nintendo,” however, the graphics on the TV were faded and discolored, and looked to be recorded with an actual camera of the time. Additionally, I also appreciated the role of the Nintendo Famicom in the film, as it represented the childhood of the group, and plays a pivotal role in the development of Paolo. When his mother takes his Famicom, his childhood, he feels the need to become a man, leading him to his journey. At the end of the film, the whole group plays with the Famicom one last time before the boys play on the Sega Genesis as they wait for Mimaw to come down with her luggage, representing the new stage of their life.

While “Death of Nintendo” uses the same tropes of most coming of age movies, it uses them in a way that fits the social context of the time and makes for an entertaining watch.

— Hector Arrieta, Senior Staff Writer Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

“I work with film.” Hearing that, one might immediately think of directors, actors, and other glitzy professions. To the people tasked with archiving film, this is the problem. As important as filmmakers are to creating culture, film archivists are vital to preserving culture.

“Archiving Time,” a 2020 documentary by Lu Yuan-chi, shows the laborious work of film preservationists and restorationists at the Taiwan Film Institute. Retrieving, sorting, and labeling hundreds upon hundreds of film reels is a tedious and time-consuming activity in itself, but the real effort is seen during the restoration process. Archivists wear masks and gloves and perform minute and precise alterations to celluloid strips like surgeons with scalpels. They also act as sound engineers, chemists, and digital artists. All of this work adds up. Restoring 10 minutes of film takes a month. High operating costs and a lack of space do not help and ultimately limit the Institute to restoring a few feature-length films a year.

Given this snail-like pace of work, film archivists seem to be the most patient people in the world. But in reality, they work with a massive pressure — time itself. It is a race against the clock as reels deteriorate, and once a reel begins to have an infamous vinegar smell, it becomes too late to save. It is heartbreaking to see when a worker enters a storage room containing thousands of film reels and is hit by the overwhelming smell of vinegar, knowing that there are thousands of reels that are dying before ever being restored. Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

As a result, film archivists try not to be emotional or biased when preserving films. When trying to decide what makes a film valuable or significant, they come to no satisfying conclusions. They treat all films the same, as cultural relics. Their selflessness and dedication to their work is admirable.

So what is the fruit of their labor? “Archiving Time” highlights the restoration process of a black-and-white version of the National Anthem, one that used to play before movie screenings in theaters many decades ago. Once completed, the archivists showed the final product to a room of older people. According to these people afterwards, the restoration gave them back a collective childhood memory they had forgotten. It is for these moments that make the work of film archiving so culturally important and why ultimately greater appreciation and financial support is needed for their work.

— Natalie Tran, Senior Staff Writer Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Asian Film Festival 2020 - UCSD Guardian

The summation film of 2020’s San Diego Asian Film Festival, Bassam Tariq’s debut feature film “Mogul Mowgli” follows the British Pakastani rapper Zed, played by the actor and film’s co-writer Riz Ahmed, as a sudden autoimmune disorder forces him to engage deeper in conversations regarding his culture. The film showcases thought-provoking concerns from immigrants of color regarding the significance of their names, and the refusal to cater to whiteness by sacrificing their own culture. These conversations are interjected into the lyrics of his raps, which become more and more abstract and profound each time, and into scenes of familial dialogue. For example, Zed’s whitewashing of his own name is a point of contention for the family, as he argues that he is empowered through the reclamation of his new nickname. However, his family compels him to process his reasoning deeper, as they find the roots of several of his behaviors to be seeded in an ingrained self-bias. As the film progresses through his gradual unearthing of the core aspects of his identity, the film is constantly bombarded with live performances of his slam poetry-like raps, and these jarring interruptions reflect the very essence of the film’s message itself: combative thoughts with one’s own identity is often an exhausting and disconcerting experience, but a necessary one, in order to confront both societal and inner misconceptions about culture and self.

— Hemmy Chun, A&E Editor

Images courtesy of Asian Movie Pulse and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Using Psychiatric Terminology in Colloquial Conversation Promotes Stigma, Find Thesaurus - UCSD Guardian

November 8, 2020  Savannah Gamboa

That roommate who religiously cleaned their side of the room and asked for everyone to keep the suite orderly might have come off as demanding; that does not constitute OCD. The date that forgot their wallet at home and had you pay for the meal and then asked for gas money might not have met your expectations, but that in itself is not indicative of them being a psychopath. And the classmate who speaks in a condescending tone during discussion might be rude; however, that is not sufficient evidence to deem them a narcissist. In fact, in colloquial dialogue, unlicensed individuals are never warranted to diagnose anyone with a mental disorder.

Using mental disorders as adjectives, synonyms, and metaphors in daily interaction may seem harmless, but you have to ask yourself: on what basis are these disorders being used to describe other people and situations? It may not be intentional to undermine the realities many individuals who live with mental disorders face, but the casual use of mental health Accessed: 11/8/2020 Using Psychiatric Terminology in Colloquial Conversation Promotes Stigma, Find Thesaurus - UCSD Guardian

terms to negatively describe people or occurrences perpetuates the stigma against mental disorders.

Over 40 percent of people with mental disorders are living with an untreated mental illness. While there are a variety of reasons that prevent people from gaining access to treatment or reaching out to providers for said treatment, the stigmatization against mental health is still a contributing factor.

Stigma itself can be broken into two smaller components: public stigma and self-stigma. Public stigma can be presented as negative perceptions of those with mental disorders, emotional agreement with stereotypes in a manner that elicits fear, anger, or disgust against those with a diagnosis, and behavior that enables individuals to avoid or discriminate against those with a mental diagnosis.

By virtue of public stigmas, patients may begin to self-stigmatize. Self-stigmatizing can look like a negative self-view and the allowance of these negative self-assumptions to influence behaviors that are taken. The suggested panacea is for these individuals to simply receive treatment. However, in studies done within America regarding the effect on the wellbeing of patients with mental disorders before and after treatment, it was found that stigma impedes the well-being of patients despite the improvement of their symptoms and behaviors.

“The prejudice and discrimination of mental illness is as disabling as the illness itself. It undermines people attaining their personal goals and dissuades them from pursuing effective treatments,” reported psychological scientist Patrick W. Corrigin in his journal that investigated the effects of stigma as a barrier to treatment. And in the modern era, the outlets and means in which stigma is continuously employed are as subtle as they are profound.

Through side comments that compare the day’s inconveniences to psychiatric terms, the minimization and criminalization of mental health is able to remain a prominent issue that many struggling with their mental health face. These comments can be presented as unintentionally insensitive comparisons of a disorder to the weather or classifying someone with a given disorder based on a characteristic of theirs that is found to be undesirable.

Seeing as mental health has historically been held in a negative esteem, the continuation of depicting psychiatric disorders as perilous or explanatory of deviations from a perception of socially acceptable behavior only elicits further misconception regarding mental disorders. The stigmatization of mental health disguised through figurative and flowery language only works to sustain the presumption that those with a psychiatric disorder are at fault for the Accessed: 11/8/2020 Using Psychiatric Terminology in Colloquial Conversation Promotes Stigma, Find Thesaurus - UCSD Guardian

majority of violence, brutality, and general shortcomings within society.

Ironically enough, those with a severe psychiatric disorder are reported to be 10 times more likely to be a victim of crime, and only three to five percent of those with disorders are found to engage in violence. Statistically, there is not sufficient evidence that would substantiate that the notion that those with mental illness are more dangerous holds true. Despite this, in a national stigma study, it was found that 60 percent of participants believed those with symptoms aligning with a diagnosis for schizophrenia were more likely to be threatening.

It is due to statistics that verify the misapprehension of those struggling with mental health that it is increasingly imperative for society to be hypervigilant of how it speaks about psychiatric disorders. Humans are naturally subject to implicit biases, and by continuing to push this narrative of mental illness as a dehumanizing factor of life, even in the form of a joke, we set ourselves up for the potential of subconscious fear and prejudice against the mentally ill. We should not be romanticizing or glorifying mental illness, or any disorder for that matter; but, we should not denigrate those who do have them either.

This is especially vital within the space of the collegiate system, as more than 25 percent of college students have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. In fact, most students face their first onset with mental health issues or the exacerbation of symptoms they previously struggled with during their college years. Those struggling with their mental health are not a couple of assumably dangerous social outliers; they’re peers, friends, or even partners. That is just one of the reasons why it is essential to be cognizant of how we perceive mental health and how we decide to speak about it.

As a society that is constantly attempting to be a proponent of progression, it is vital that we are conscious of how we perceive those with mental illnesses. “Bipolar” is not a synonym for fluctuation, “panic disorder” is more than the fear that oncomes you missing a test, and mental disorders are not the butt of a joke. Sometimes, it truly is unintentional to make those comparisons between character traits and mental disorders. One solution posed by mental-health advocate, Natash Tracy, is an apparent one, yet one that we sometimes need to be reminded of: “We must consciously be aware of our own thoughts and feelings towards our own mental health and fight to ensure that any unhealthy thoughts are replaced by more reasoned ones.”

Art by Yui Kita for the UC San Diego Guardian Accessed: 11/8/2020 Celebrities and Corporations Have Found the Solution to COVID-19, but They’re Not Sharing - UCSD Guardian

Sharing  November 8, 2020  Mehda Upadhyay

The Kardashians are not known for being role models; after all, courting controversy is how they remain relevant. But this past week alone,two separate members of the Kardashian-Jenner clan have come under fire for their conduct during the pandemic.

Kim Kardashian’s 40th birthday celebration on a private island with her friends and family — complete with multiple rounds of testing and quarantining for all the guests — was heavily criticized as being tone deaf. Many pointed out that the money spent on the trip could have been put to better use helping those who were struggling financially, while others responded with how they spent their pandemic birthdays alone.

Just days later, Kendall Jenner threw a Halloween party that also doubled as a celebration for her 25th birthday — with many A-list stars in attendance, including Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, and The Weeknd. Despite Kendall’s reported “no social media” rule, clips of maskless guests quickly went viral. What wasn’t apparent, though, was that all the attendees were required to take a rapid COVID-19 test on site, which is supposed to identify infectious individuals within minutes.

take a rapid COVID-19 test (https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/10/418761/rapid-covid-19-test- shows-promise-community-test-setting) on site, which is supposed to identify infectious individuals within minutes. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Celebrities and Corporations Have Found the Solution to COVID-19, but They’re Not Sharing - UCSD Guardian

Even if these celebrations were relatively safe, people are right to be angry. If the Kardashians can throw lavish parties, Marvel can film a movie without a single cast or crew member catching COVID-19, and the NBA can carry out its season without any COVID-19 cases, it starts to seem that a relatively normal life during the pandemic may be within reach. When everything in pop culture is returning to normal, viewers feel like their lives can return to normal as well. This is an extremely dangerous fantasy for the common folk to buy into because the resources necessary for a safe return to normalcy, such as rapid testing and pod systems, are not being evenly distributed. Instead of being used to help get kids back in school, these resources are being used for celebrity parties.

The pandemic is real, but it’s becoming agonizingly clear that the solutions are also real; they’re just available exclusively to the rich. In the midst of a public health crisis, the whims of corporations and celebrities are prioritized because they have all the money.

Though an actor or an athlete may be pushed into possibly unsafe working conditions by their employer, there is no excuse for a rich family wasting precious resources to throw a party. Even today, many Americans cannot get testing for COVID-19 unless they are showing symptoms, and you can forget getting tested multiple times in one week just for the sake of attending parties.

As America struggles with the Coronavirus pandemic and death tolls continue to rise, the best course of action remains staying home and limiting large gatherings whenever possible. And if these rules don’t apply to the rich and famous, there’s only capitalism to blame. The fault doesn’t only lie with the people who are using their money to have a good time; it also lies with the system that allows them to take as much as they can afford while others die.

Since everything is for sale, the resources that could be used in order to save lives and curb the damage of the pandemic are being bought up by the rich to throw parties and take vacations. Capitalism has ensured that they are saved first, while the rest of the population is resigned to months more of lockdown.

The most dangerous thing that could come out of this is normal citizens emulating the behavior of these celebrities. If fans were to copy these celebrities’ behavior — meeting with friends, going back to work, travelling — without all the necessary precautions, the consequences would be disastrous. These celebrities really are taking the pandemic seriously, but they have resources beyond imagine keeping them safe. As always, audiences only see the fun that they’re having, not all the work going on behind the scenes to protect them. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Celebrities and Corporations Have Found the Solution to COVID-19, but They’re Not Sharing - UCSD Guardian

But let’s be honest, if given the opportunity to meet friends and family safely, most would take it. As it stands, though, the majority of America is looking forward to a very lonely holiday season.

Art by Ava Bayley for the UC San Diego Guardian Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Among Top Cities in United States Fighting Climate Change - UCSD Guardian

San Diego Among Top Cities in United States Fighting Climate Change

 November 8, 2020  Niloufar Shahbandi

A report released by The Brookings Institution, a major think tank organization, showed that among cities in the United States, San Diego experienced the sixth largest annual decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. The cities on this list above San Diego were Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by the District of Columbia and Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina.

The report looked at the top 100 most populous cities in the U.S. as of 2017, of which only 45 had created Climate Action Plans. CAPs include an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions while also establishing reduction targets and strategies for doing so, and California stands at the top with 11 cities having them.

The report stated that since 1991, “over 600 local governments in the United States have developed CAPs that include GHG [greenhouse gas inventories] and reduction targets.” The aforementioned 45 cities were able to save approximately 365 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Among Top Cities in United States Fighting Climate Change - UCSD Guardian

According to a San Diego County Climate Change Vulnerability, Resiliency, and Adaptation assessment report, sea level rise could lead to the California coastline to increase by 10–18 inches which would greatly impact San Diego. Additionally, changes in climate patterns could cause more extreme natural events — higher temperatures may lead to increased wildfire risk while the winter season may bring higher intensity rainfall resulting in increased likelihood of flooding.

The county states that they acknowledge all of these risks and have taken them into account in developing the General Plan, which is aimed at “reducing local contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and encourages sustainable land development, mobility, water use, waste management, and energy use; best management practices; and ecological stewardship.”

San Diego County is moving forward in improving its carbon footprint and achieving its CAP goal of using 100 percent clean energy by 2035. The city was able to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent over the past decade and in 2019 marked its fourth consecutive year of reductions. Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Among Top Cities in United States Fighting Climate Change - UCSD Guardian

While these local initiatives have been credited with making progress at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, government rollbacks in environmental protections present hurdles. The intersection of public policy and combating climate change is an ongoing debate at the national and local levels. Federal policy under the Trump administration, including its withdrawal of the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, have prevented any significant steps in reducing national greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the report, these cities’ collective reduced emissions “equate to roughly 7 percent of the emission reductions to which the U.S. originally committed to achieve by year 2050 in relation to the Paris Agreement,” highlighting how there is still much to be accomplished to stop climate change.

Additionally, the report points to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on climate change as having caused the largest decline of global greenhouse gas emissions on record. However, it predicts that the pandemic will ensure that cities who were previously committed to climate- friendly policies will remain committed while other cities may become more reluctant as climate policies will become less prioritized in comparison to other local issues that rose as a result of the pandemic.

Many UC San Diego students feel passionate about furthering climate change policies as well as learning how to lead more sustainable lifestyles. There are many campus clubs and resources that reflect students’ desires, including the Student Sustainability Collective.

The SSC is a group of student leaders that is passionate about different sustainability issues on campus. They aim to “foster a community of collaboration and responsibility through promoting eco-friendly policies, educating students on different environmental problems, and dialoguing about the intersectionality of environmentalism.”

Ethan Olson is the editor-in-chief of The Climate Change Review, a group of undergraduate student writers who produce articles and feature research papers about climate change. In an interview with The UCSD Guardian, Olson shared his view that UCSD has done considerably well in regulating their sustainability.

“Perhaps unsurprisingly then, in comparison to other universities, I would say that UCSD has made impressive progress in its efforts to reduce emissions and become a better climate actor,” Olson said. “The 2019 Climate Action Plan goes into much more detail about this, citing upgrades to our buildings, campus vehicular fleet, and onsite renewable energy.”

“UCSD, and all other major universities and corporations, should aim to become self-sufficient Accessed: 11/8/2020 San Diego Among Top Cities in United States Fighting Climate Change - UCSD Guardian

in terms of their energy usage and completely carbon neutral,” Olson continued. “We have a massive campus — it’s practically a small town — and it needs to be a net zero emissions producer. Greenhouse gas emissions released on campus, released via the commute of people to campus, and released elsewhere thanks to university-related functions, need to be reduced drastically. The emissions that remain must be sequestered, perhaps through an expansion of greenspaces that ensure that we are not being a net-producer. And carbon offsets, which are being passionately protested by groups such as the Green New Deal at UCSD, should be abandoned altogether when creating campus targets. When you plan to become carbon neutral through purchasing emission permits, you are just shifting the responsibility for decarbonization to other actors — you are essentially buying their good practices. As a university, we cannot allow ourselves to resort to this tactic. Let’s reduce our emissions, not buy them.”

Amy Wong, director of operations and resources of SSC, commended UCSD and its efforts to reduce emissions and waste, including the use of light-duty fleet vehicles that are hybrid or zero emission as well as the numerous Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified buildings, such as the new Mesa Nueva building which has achieved a gold LEED rating.

However, Wong also stated that it is important for students to keep UCSD accountable for its actions and emphasized that past student advocacy has been important in “maintaining momentum of ensuring a sustainable future.” Wong believes that demanding transparency from the university in regards to its ongoing goals of achieving Zero Waste by 2020 and Carbon Neutrality by 2025 — of which they argue that the university is failing to meet both — is very important.

SSC recommends that students can make a difference through small lifestyle changes such as eating less red meat, investing in reusable products, not supporting fast fashion, recycling, and taking public transportation or carpooling. In terms of large-scale actions, they recommend that students stay educated about and involved in campus and local environmental issues.

UCSD students who are interested in learning more about the Student Sustainability Collective and its mission are encouraged to visit their website. Those who want to learn more about UCSD’s plans to respond to the climate crisis can review the 2019 Climate Action Plan on their website.

Graphic by Alicia Gunawan

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Accessed: 11/8/2020 “From Generation to Generation”: AS Hosts Racial Justice Panel with Angela Davis and Salih Muhammed - UCSD Guardian

“From Generation to Generation”: AS Hosts Racial Justice Panel with Angela Davis and Salih Muhammed  November 8, 2020  Jocelyn Brossia

Dr. Angela Davis and Salih Muhammed spoke at a virtual panel on Nov. 2 titled “Racial Justice: A Holistic Discussion,” as part of the UC San Diego Associated Students Office of External Affairs’ “From Generation to Generation” event. Open to all University of California students, faculty, alumni, employees, and community members, the event centered around anti-Blackness and decoloniality.

Moderators Essence Carrington, a third year from Earl Warren College, and Rachel Asiedu, a fourth year from Earl Warren College, led the panelists in an hour-and-a-half-long discussion about decoloniality, assimilation, violence, intersectionality, and prison abolition. The discussion extended to the accessibility of knowledge among the working class, and concluded with a Q&A portion where panelists answered questions from the attendees.

Decoloniality refers to the separation of production of knowledge from Eurocentric processes and modes of colonization, such as white supremacy, land theft, and violence, among other things. Accessed: 11/8/2020 “From Generation to Generation”: AS Hosts Racial Justice Panel with Angela Davis and Salih Muhammed - UCSD Guardian

“How do we decolonize our minds?” Dr. Davis asked during the panel, referencing the works of author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o.

“In all honesty, we don’t know the face of decoloniality,” Muhammed added. “In truth, none of us — and historically, it hasn’t happened, right? So we don’t have a very clear road map of what it means and what it looks like to reverse the process and to reverse the trends of what has happened.”

The second half of the event was specifically for the Black community: a Night of Healing, hosted by Black Zen. The healing event came as a response to UCSD’s Counseling and Psychological Services’ inability to adequately treat racial trauma, which refers to the compounding mental and emotional injury that comes with regular exposure to racism as a person of color.

“We really created that because we started recognizing that CAPS and our university mental health services — at the moment, the feedback we’ve received was that it’s not necessarily equipped to help students who are processing racial trauma,” Saxena said. “There’s this belief right now that racial trauma only comes from death, but racial trauma comes from a variety of sources.”

“It was only Black UC students allowed, just for the sake of healing from a lot of stuff that was going on — we wanted that to be a private, safe space,” Asiedu explained. “It pretty much entailed having different meditation, different breathing exercises that we can do while we’re at home.”

“We know that that’s very important with the violence that’s going on right when you walk out the house,” Carrington said. “You kind of have to just be aware and even make sure you’re walking a certain way just so you are not perceived as violent in America.”

Dr. Davis, a UCSD Thurgood Marshall College alumna who graduated in 1969, was a founding member of the UCSD Black Student Union who advocated for the presence of Black studies on campus as well as greater university focus on the needs for BIPOC and white working class students. She was a part of the UCSD Lumumba-Zapata Coalition and Movement, which fought for a diverse, inclusive curriculum and admissions for the university’s third college, which would later be named Thurgood Marshall. While she was a graduate student at UCSD, Dr. Davis joined the Black Panther party and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Accessed: 11/8/2020 “From Generation to Generation”: AS Hosts Racial Justice Panel with Angela Davis and Salih Muhammed - UCSD Guardian

“Dr. Davis is one of my biggest role models in terms of someone who didn’t allow her institution or her circumstances to cause her to conform to anything,” Asiedu shared. “She was willing to break the boundaries that she was a part of. To organize, she risked her job, her career, her life — she was on the FBI list because she was not well-liked in her time, but she didn’t care about that. She wanted to be an activist.”

What Carrington took away from moderating the discussion with Dr. Davis and Muhammed revolves around Dr. Davis’s ideas of re-learning and accountability.

“I learned in my approach to organizing and being an intellectual capitalist that I must be accessible to everyone and start with the foundational belief that everyone is smart, along with knowing that we (the masses and those privileged to go to college — not much of a distinction because again both very smart people, but current American modalities love class distinctions) but us both will move forward with love, mistakes, and resilience,” Carrington shared.

The A.S. Office of External Affairs developed the idea for the “From Generation to Generation event” after seeing inadequate action taken from the university following demands released by the BSU at UCSD on June 22.

“Many entities within our campus and throughout the UC System were quick to write statements promising solidarity and action, and the Black Student Union, along with our Black student body as a whole reported to see limited results from these promises,” Saxena said in her opening speech. “This, combined with the history of anti-Blackness on our campus and beyond, led us to develop part one of this event.”

“There was no action, besides painting the sidewalk like ‘Black Lives Matter,’ which was not really helpful,” Asiedu shared regarding the university’s response. “Another thing they did was doing an anti-Black challenge — a 21-day challenge, which […] the BSU found was not very effective.”

After the BSU demands were made in June, on Oct. 22, it was announced that Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla and Executive Vice Chancellor Elizabeth Simmons committed to providing $2.5 million to the UCSD Black Studies Project over the span of five years.

The BSP is focused on research, scholarly collaboration and strengthening of Black Studies among undergraduates and graduates at UCSD alike. Accessed: 11/8/2020 “From Generation to Generation”: AS Hosts Racial Justice Panel with Angela Davis and Salih Muhammed - UCSD Guardian

The commitment from UCSD is intended to aid specifically in “multi-tiered fellowships, grants, research internships and mentorships in African American and Black Diaspora studies at all levels,” in order to encourage and foster academic and professional interaction and mentorship across all levels.

In a closing speech from grassroots activist and Thurgood Marshall student Huda Ahmed, she shed light on racist issues at UCSD and offered hopeful words for future organizations.

“The voices of the Black Diaspora has always been silenced,” Ahmed said. “And sure enough, even within a movement that has slowly become gentrified as its popularity grew, we still have to scream and shout just to be heard and understood. The worst of this issue is that it’s intersectional amongst every category of institution within our society. Whether ranging from education, from even campuses like UC San Diego itself, where Black and Indigenous students feel the need to scream and shout just to draw light to its historical and occurring racist, anti-BIPOC realities. ”

“Famously quoted by Assata Shakur,” Ahmed continued, “‘we have nothing to lose but our chains.’”

The “From Generation to Generation” event was co-sponsored by the BSP as well as the UCSD’s Department of Political Science, the African American Studies Minor, the Ethnic Studies Department, and the BSU. A recording of the panel was said to be made available to all attendees following the end of the meeting.

Image courtesy of the Bettmann Collection.

This article was updated at 4:55pm on November 8 to better reflect the stated viewpoints of those interviewed for this piece. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Campus Researchers Plead For Participants in Convalescent Plasma Trial - UCSD Guardian

Campus Researchers Plead For Participants in Convalescent Plasma Trial  November 8, 2020  Jose Chavez

Researchers at UC San Diego’s Jacobs Medical Center and from John Hopkins University are looking for additional participants for their clinical study that aims to test the effectiveness of a century-old treatment to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Convalescent plasma is now being injected into participants who have been exposed to but have not tested positive for the disease, yielding favorable results.

The specific type of trial being enacted here is called a post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) clinical trial, where recipients receive medicine after a possible exposure to a pathogen as soon as possible.

PEP trials don’t study a medicine’s proficiency at treating a disease, but the prevention of its transmission. To weigh the effectiveness of the medicine against a control group, around half of the recipients are unknowingly given placebos to see if they contract or successfully dodge the disease. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Campus Researchers Plead For Participants in Convalescent Plasma Trial - UCSD Guardian

The UCSD researchers are following in the footsteps of a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, where the large implementation was not to demonstrate efficacy but rather ensure that blood plasma treatment is safe and scalable.

Dr. Edward Cachay, an infectious disease specialist and Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego elaborated on these findings in an interview with The UCSD Guardian.

“The post-exposure prophylaxis aims at one key principle … it wants to give the plasma to an individual who has a high-risk exposure to someone who is already living with COVID-19,” Cachay says.

The injection is derived from donated blood from people who have recovered from the virus at least four to six weeks prior. Once the plasma is separated from the blood, researchers are able to inject this concoction of primed antibodies into high-risk individuals. These include people who are regularly exposed to the coronavirus at their job in healthcare, other essential frontline workers, and those people living in the same household.

Dr. Cachay and his colleagues need to gain more participation in this clinical trial to ensure this treatment works and can be approved and administered to frontline workers as soon as possible until a coronavirus vaccine becomes available.

Cachay told the UCSD Guardian about one couple who recently benefited from a convalescent plasma treatment.

“The husband tested positive for COVID-19, the wife received a heart transplant in April … The chances that this person will become ill are high. Are we going to wait and wiggle our fingers and say ‘Well let’s hope this person doesn’t get a complicated disease?’”

Cachay states that this is exactly why we need an accessible PEP for the coronavirus, as the wife never contracted the virus after receiving an injection of convalescent plasma.

“This is not to replace a vaccine, it is an important bridge until we get a vaccine,” Cachay emphasizes.

Enrollment numbers within the trial have not been as high as they could be due to the stigma surrounding blood transfusion or a lack of information on how to get involved. To ensure that convalescent blood plasma becomes viable to administer widely in the future, Dr. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Campus Researchers Plead For Participants in Convalescent Plasma Trial - UCSD Guardian

Cachay stated that it is imperative that more adults opt-in to participate within the study, with anyone who has been exposed within the past 72–96 hours benefiting greatly from the treatment.

“We have the opportunity in our hands to provide legacy, not only for this pandemia but for future diseases that could affect us,” states Cachay. “I think that is where we need the participation from the community to support. I cannot tell you ‘Oh yes, this will work 100 percent for sure,’ but this is the reason we are doing this study.”

Any interested adult wishing to participate can contact the research study coordinator Brandon Palugod through his Cell # 619-537-9426 and Dr. Edward Cachay through his email address [email protected]. Interested parties can also check if they are eligible to participate by looking at https://covid-plasmastudies.com.

Image provided by Adobe Stock. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Midseason NFL Awards, First Half Storylines, and What to Look Forward To - UCSD Guardian

Midseason NFL Awards, First Half Storylines, and What to Look Forward To  November 8, 2020  Hayden Wellbeloved

As we sit halfway through the 2020 NFL Season, it’s time to take a pause and take a look at the top performers — and underperformers — across the first 8 weeks of the year. Rookie quarterbacks Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert have more than exceeded expectations, proving themselves as true franchise cornerstones through just a few starts. Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, and Big Ben Roethlisberger have turned back the clock and are playing like it’s 2015 again. And while teams like the Steelers, Seahawks, Chiefs, and Buccaneers are at the top of the conference currently, the majority of the league still has shot at the playoffs — sorry Jets fans, but on the bright side, Adam Gase will be gone soon. There are loads of storylines, but who gets our awards? Let’s get down to it. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Midseason NFL Awards, First Half Storylines, and What to Look Forward To - UCSD Guardian

Biggest Surprises & Let Downs

While Buffalo and New England made headlines early in the season with Josh Allen’s gaudy start and the Patriots’ addition of Cam Newton, the Miami Dolphins were somewhat forgotten in the thick of the AFC East. But so far, the 4–3 Phins have proven to be no joke, tallying convincing wins against the 49ers and Rams, in part to their punishing defense and Brian Flores’ scheme. If newly-injected rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa plays anywhere near the level he did in Tuscaloosa, then the Dolphins will certainly make a playoff push — something not many would have foreseen coming into the year.

Up in Seattle, we heard rumblings that Pete Carroll and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer were finally going to “Let Russ Cook” this year. So far Russell Wilson is on pace to reach 5,000 yards and 50-plus touchdowns, something that only Brady, Peyton Manning, and Patrick Mahomes have done. Part of the issue with Seattle over the past couple years has been their philosophy to run the ball incessantly on early downs and early in the game. This often caused them to fall behind and essentially left Wilson to play Superman in the second half of games. This year, however, per Ben Baldwin, the Seahawks are leading the league in early-down pass rate over expected at 64%, which means the team passes 13% more than expected on 1st and 2nd downs. This shift in offensive ideology can in large part take the credit for Seattle’s success and Wilson’s historic play this year.

Most Valuable Player

The MVP race is an intriguing one, as right now, Russell Wilson and Patrick Mahomes clearly lead the way, but with many games left to play, there are certainly opportunities for others to make a run at it. In the last 10 years, 8 of 10 MVPs have been quarterbacks on teams with a playoff bye, meaning their team had the first- or second-best record in their conference. Mahomes has led the Chiefs to a 7–1 record, continued to make mind-boggling plays each week, all while posting a 21:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio, something that would be considered unearthly for anyone other than the Chiefs superstar. If I’m a betting man, my money would go on Mahomes; however, if you are looking for a dark horse, Ben Roethlisberger could be that guy. He’s playing fantastic this year coming off elbow surgery, and has led the Steelers to a 8–0 record including a signature win over the division rival Baltimore Ravens. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Midseason NFL Awards, First Half Storylines, and What to Look Forward To - UCSD Guardian

Offensive Rookie of the Year

The Rookie of the Year race is going to be one of the more neck-and-neck races in recent memory, with both Burrow and Herbert already emerging as young stars. Burrow was selected first overall, and with that comes more expectations, but he has done more than live up to them. The LSU product is on pace for 4,544 yards this season, which would shatter the rookie passing record (4,374) set by Andrew Luck back in 2011. But beyond the stats, Joey Burrow has transformed the Cincinnati Bengals’ culture with his coolheaded demeanor that exudes confidence. In last week’s win against the Tennessee Titans, Burrow was making plays all over the field, putting his poise and elite ball placement on full display. Each game the Bengals have played has been competitive, with the exception of the Ravens game, and he has led his team to a 2–5–1 record with one of the lesser rosters in football. Although Herbert is also a stud and may have a higher ceiling, what Burrow has been able to do on a consistent basis week in and week out earns him my R.O.Y. vote thus far.

Defensive Rookie of the Year

There hasn’t been as much buzz over the DROY at this time compared to previous years. Defense is down league-wide, and rookies are getting fewer defensive snaps than before. But there are still a few rookies who have distinguished themselves. Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. is proving to be a key piece in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense, the top defense in the NFL by Football Outsiders’ defensive efficiency rating. Though he is listed at free safety, Winfield has played all across the field, logging snaps at free safety, strong safety, and slot cornerback. It’s incredibly impressive to see a rookie come in and be able to excel at multiple positions. Winfield is also an excellent blitzer, with 2 sacks, 1 quarterback knockdown, and 3 pressures. Jaylon Johnson, cornerback for the Chicago Bears, is another player to watch out for in this category. Like Winfield, Johnson is also contributing to a top-ten defense. The second-round pick from Utah has allowed a 50% completion percentage when targeted. Johnson hasn’t been perfect — allowing a passer rating of 91.9 — but he leads all rookie CBs with 10 passes defended.

Coach of the Year

Through 8 weeks, making a coach of the year pick is probably the easiest decision out of all the awards, and that pick is Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins. As noted earlier, many were quick to write off the Phins, and letting Tagovailoa acclimate to NFL life on the bench certainly added to a lack of hype. But in B-Flo’s second year, the Dolphins are already proving they are legit. Flores has constructed a New England-esque defense by putting together an Accessed: 11/8/2020 Midseason NFL Awards, First Half Storylines, and What to Look Forward To - UCSD Guardian

elite secondary of Xavien Howard, Byron Jones, Bobby McCain and Eric Rowe. With this myriad of starting corners, it gives the defense flexibility to play man coverage at a high percentage, which has been the Patriots mantra for some time now. We saw this scheme and defense utterly destroy the 49ers, and make Rams quarterback Jared Goff look like a deer in headlights. The offense has been above average with Ryan Fitzpatrick at the helm, ranking 11th in scoring at 26.9 ppg, and hopefully Tua can keep things rolling. Even the biggest Flores believers could not have predicted that he would turn around this Dolphins team this fast, and he is quickly becoming a star amongst the coaching ranks.

Comeback Player of the Year

This award should be a slam dunk at this point. Coming off Tommy John surgery, many wondered how Big Ben would fare this late into his career. The Steelers’ 7–0 record says a lot about his recovery process. As opposed to sticking with his gunslinging, deep pass mentality that made him a star, Roethlisberger has become a wiser, more precise passer this year, finally accepting that he doesn’t always need to force the ball down the field. With a promising squadron of receivers in James Washington, Juju Smith-Schuster, Dionte Johnson, and Chase Claypool, Big Ben has been able to throw the ball short and let these receivers do all the work after the catch. This is evident in Washington’s and Smith-Schuster’s average depth of target which has declined from 15.2 and 9 in 2019 to 9.2 and 5.9 in 2020, respectively. Nonetheless, props to Big Ben for coming back and leading the Steelers to the league’s best record so far. And come playoff time, be careful — Big Ben is one of the only AFC quarterbacks with postseason experience and success.

Second Half Story Lines

As more teams acclimate to COVID protocols and earn more practice time together, some teams and units will become more dangerous. One of those will be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, yes, I know, they’re first in their division already, but they are just scratching the surface of their potential. Brady and the Bucs were never expected to be elite from Week 1. It was expected that it would take time for Brady and the receivers to build a rapport, and for Rob Gronkowski to get back into football shape. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have also been battling injuries, and once both get healthy, adding Antonio Brown to the mix may present us with the best trio of receivers we’ve seen on a single offense. With the emergence of Carlton Davis, stellar play from rookie Antoine Winfield Jr., and the wrecking balls they have at linebacker, the Bucs defense is elite as well. Give it a little more time and this may be the best team in football. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Midseason NFL Awards, First Half Storylines, and What to Look Forward To - UCSD Guardian Another interesting outcome to follow will be the AFC South division race between the Colts and the Titans. Phillip Rivers is just starting to find himself in Indy’s offense, the defense is elite and ranks second in yardage allowed, and most of the team is young and developing by the week. If they can get Jonathan Taylor going they could certainly make a playoff run. The Titans, on the other hand, have played inconsistent football as of late, but should never be counted out with the punishing cyborg they have on offense in Derrick Henry. Henry has already had one monster game with 212 yards and multiple scores against the Texans this year, and we know his numbers only get better as the season progresses. Ryan Tannehill has also been great, ranking fifth in passer rating, and the receiving core has steadily improved, with Corey Davis finally proving why he was a first round pick four years ago. The battle for the division will come down to the wire, and the Colts-Titans matchups in weeks 10 and 12 will be some of the most pivotal games of the season.

Photos courtesy of Larry Maurer and Jeffrey Beall Accessed: 11/8/2020 Behind the Tritons: Q&A With Associate AD in Communications Jeff Tourial - UCSD Guardian

 November 8, 2020  Praveen Nair

The following is the transcript of an interview with UC San Diego Associate Athletic Director in Communications Jeff Tourial, conducted on Nov. 4 over Zoom. It has been lightly edited for grammatical purposes, and some questions have been cut for length. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Behind the Tritons: Q&A With Associate AD in Communications Jeff Tourial - UCSD Guardian

Could you explain what the duties of the communications staff are?

The short version is that we are charged with telling the story of UC San Diego Athletics, our teams, and our coaches or scholar-athletes, and we do that through a variety of means, including working with media members, such as yourself, and through media relations efforts. We do that through telling our stories ourselves, through our website, and our social media channels, and we do that through our video production and creative services units. And those are just some of the ways we reach out, and our audiences include fans, alumni, parents of current scholar-athletes, the scholar-athletes themselves, and very important recruits. Our coaches are always trying to find the best recruits to come play here in the future, so a lot of our messaging is targeted towards them.

What does a normal day look like (pre-pandemic) for you and your department?

It’s a funny question. It depends. If we had a basketball home game, leading up to that day we’d create the game program that goes out for fans that attend the game at the arena, write a preview for the website, go to practice, and talk to the head coach and a couple of the players about what to expect with that opponent so we can work that into the preview and so on.

So all that’s done before game day. On game day itself, I tend to come in a little bit later because it’s going to be a longer night. So I come in and make any last edits to the program and print and make those final copies. If we have media attending the game, whether that’s associated with the visiting team, such as their radio broadcaster, or if we have print media or television coming to cover our game, we make sure that we have credentials for them and that those get to our ticket office for later distribution.

We go to shootaround sometimes — not always, but sometimes we go to see if there’s any last minute changes to our lineup, or if somebody has been injured, finding out whether or not that person might play that night to have that latest information. Then I head over to the arena a couple hours before tip-off. So for a 7 o’clock game, I would want to get there at 4:30 to make sure that we set up the computer that keeps the official stats that go to the NCAA and make sure that tablet is working properly with our video board so that fans in the arena can see how many points someone has or how many fouls they have. All of that data is generated automatically. Then I make sure our television broadcasters and any radio on site have everything they need, make sure they know our team storylines, and have correct pronunciations of everybody’s name so they’re obviously not mispronouncing anything. We also oversee the table crews for the game management folks — the person that runs the Accessed: 11/8/2020 Behind the Tritons: Q&A With Associate AD in Communications Jeff Tourial - UCSD Guardian

scoreboard, the person that runs the shot clock, the person that runs the game clock, the statisticians who keep the official stats, the official scorer, which is the person that wears the referee jersey that sits at the table who keeps a handwritten book in pencil. And that’s the official record of how many fouls the player has and those kinds of things. So we make sure all that staff gets where they need to be.

And then of course, the game will happen, and postgame, if there is media onsite, I coordinate postgame interviews and make sure that media gets to talk to the coach, the players, whomever they’d like to speak with, all the while writing my own recap to put on our website and distribute to media in a timely fashion and managing social media during the game. Postgame, I’ll add in a video recap, highlights, and an interview, and upload all that to our website. So usually again for a 7 o’clock game I’m probably finished 10 or 10:30 p.m. and then I head home, and then usually I still have some more to do — archiving photos, creating a photo gallery and so on, but I like to do that stuff from the comfort of home.

UCSD is often seen as not a very big sports school, and not especially a large brand in the area — are there unique challenges to marketing athletics at a school like this one?

I think that’s one of the really exciting things, frankly, and a big opportunity for us. One of the reasons that I was interested in working here and that I’m excited to be here is that the move to Division I really opens so many doors for UC San Diego Athletics to enhance our brand and grow our identity, which we in turn believe — and those of us who’ve worked in Division I our entire careers are quite confident — will enhance the university’s brand, and will enhance the visibility for UCSD as a whole, now that we’re in Division I.

Frankly, marketing games to students is a much bigger challenge in Division II where our opponents may not be as well known. They’re not household names per se, and that’s not to take anything away from those universities, but for maybe a casual sports fan, or a student on campus who’s not a big sports fan but is looking for something fun to do recreationally, they have this opportunity now. Now that we’re in Division I and will be playing Big West opponents, the likelihood is that the casual fan is much more familiar with [California State University,] Fullerton or UC Irvine than maybe the opponents we were playing prior.

We think that over time, that affinity for our teams will grow amongst the students on campus, and within the San Diego community. Now we will be mentioned in the same breath with [San Diego State University] and with the University of San Diego, and while we don’t play football, we think that over time we’ll be competitive in basketball, and in other sports, Accessed: 11/8/2020 Behind the Tritons: Q&A With Associate AD in Communications Jeff Tourial - UCSD Guardian

maybe even sooner than that. And that’s a big opportunity for us to grow awareness in the community. The underlying part of it that I didn’t even mention was that we have the biggest enrollment of any school in the area now; as of last week, there are over 40,000 currently enrolled at UC San Diego. And so, as those students progress and then become alumni, our alumni base will grow and hopefully, again, that affinity will catch on.

What has changed about the way your department has operated since the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March?

Well, I think the biggest thing is, fundamentally, there aren’t games to cover, write about, talk about, and promote. And for us, as a department staff, we’re working remotely. So not being on campus every day, and not having that face to face interaction with our scholar athletes that we’ve had in the past, that’s been a big adjustment. But for us in communications — and this would apply to our friends in marketing as well, but really, all of us in external operations — without games, we’ve had to pivot and find other ways to try to keep our audiences involved.

So in communications we have created a lot of series, primarily for our website and for social media, to tell our story a little bit differently. So one of the first things we did was a series called Alumni in Action where we focused on UC San Diego Athletics alumni who work in the healthcare profession as doctors, nurses, etc. And we did several feature stories about former Triton scholar-athletes who now are making a difference in the world and helping to fight this pandemic. And we’ve continued that throughout the summer, through various series that we’ve done. One that we’re doing right now, we call Triton Tuesday, and every Tuesday we’ll do a piece about the university that the casual fan may not know, and that really is, again, targeted at prospective scholar-athletes as they look to learn more about our institution.

While they can’t come on campus and see a game and see what the atmosphere is like, they may not know that UC San Diego is ranked so incredibly highly in all these national and international rankings, and they may not know that we have Nobel Prize winners on campus, or they may not know — though they probably do — about how the amazing weather here in La Jolla and the access to the beaches and so on. So we’re trying to shine the light there. It’s very different now that I’m sitting in front of a computer on Zoom all day as opposed to being on campus, but we’ve obviously all had to adjust.

When sports start coming back, starting with basketball on New Year’s Day, what are your department’s plans to balance safety and effectiveness? Accessed: 11/8/2020 Behind the Tritons: Q&A With Associate AD in Communications Jeff Tourial - UCSD Guardian

That’s the right question. And to be clear, health and safety is paramount. That is above everything else, so everything we do to cover those games will start with the health and safety lens, and how can we best ensure that we are doing everything we can to keep the scholar- athletes and the team safe, and of course ourselves and anybody who might be working or covering the event.

Specifically, with those games, there won’t be fans. The Big West Conference has decided that. I’m not sure that we would have been able to, even if we wanted to, but the conference took that out of our hands and there won’t be fans onsite. So that element has been removed. But for us, how can we staff the events and do what we need to do, what we’re required to do, but have fewer bodies if possible? And when that’s not possible, how can we space them out from one another so that there is more space between each of them? And, of course, we’ll all be wearing masks — that is a university requirement anytime anyone’s on campus.

We’re modeling that out right now, and I don’t have a final plan to share with you, but in the coming weeks we’ll have a finalized plan of how we’re going to approach that.

What do you think is the biggest challenge in UCSD’s transition to Division I, especially at this current moment?

The biggest challenge right now is the environment that we’re in. There were a lot of grandiose plans we had as a department and as a university to celebrate the move. It’s something that’s been many years in the making, and the pandemic changed that. It wouldn’t be right or appropriate, and probably not feasible, to do a parade in downtown San Diego, or to spend a lot of money on billboards that go up along Interstate 5 promoting the move. Not to say some of that can’t happen down the road, but those kinds of plans have been shelved.

July 1 is when the move happened as far as the NCAA is concerned, and throughout this fall it should have been a lot of celebrating and milestones. First this and first that, first Division I game, first Division I goal, first Division I win. A lot of that has been muted a little bit, but we’re taking the long view in that, when the students and faculty voted, several years ago, to make this move to Division I, it was for all the reasons that we talked about a few minutes ago, and how this is really going to help not only the department, but the visibility of the university. And all of that will still happen, it’s just the short term celebratory tone that isn’t there, and that’s too bad. That’s unfortunate, but again, it’s obviously nothing that any of us can control, and so we’ll try to make the best of it. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Behind the Tritons: Q&A With Associate AD in Communications Jeff Tourial - UCSD Guardian What are you looking forward to the most in UCSD’s transition to Division I?

I think today, in early November, it’s just some semblance of getting back to playing games. I think that’s why we’re all here. But, in the big picture, UC San Diego will be a leader. Look at the university and everything it’s done in its 60 years of existence. It’s been a leader. It’s been an innovator. We’ve tried to do that in athletics too, and I think now, given this Division I platform, as our school and our programs make the transition into the Big West Conference and into Division I, over time you will see UC San Diego as a leader in the conference and beyond. And we do expect to win conference titles and more than that in the coming years — that’s not something that will necessarily happen here in 2021, assuming we play games, but in the coming years after we’ve made the transition into Division I, I think we’re going to be ultracompetitive. That’s going to be fun to see because UC San Diego, as you and I know, is such a special place, and the ability to showcase that to a much, much broader audience than we would have been able to do in the past, I think that’s the exciting part.

Photo courtesy of UC San Diego Athletics Accessed: 11/8/2020 Sneakers as a Spectacle of Art and Culture - UCSD Guardian

Sneakers as a Spectacle of Art and Culture  November 8, 2020  Justin Cho

Sneaker culture has become mainstream, and despite its association with hypebeasts and poor financial decisions, it was built from a deep appreciation for the art.

We lost many things with the transition from in-person to online classes: engaging participation, connections with classmates, and the ability to flex your shoes. A pristine pair of Jordans or Yeezys sell for hundreds if not thousands of dollars, but college students all over the country still wear them, subsequently making me feel bad for just wearing Vans to class.

The hobby of collecting expensive sneakers has grown from being a subculture to mainstream, and, in the process, the community has developed its own identity separate from the fashion community at large. Clearly, there’s something here that draws people in, so what makes these shoes so popular?

“I think it’s true that a lot of people just buy expensive shoes because they look cool,” Eleanor Roosevelt College senior Joshua Hoang said. “However, I also think that there are a lot of people who feel a deeper connection [with their shoes].” Accessed: 11/8/2020 Sneakers as a Spectacle of Art and Culture - UCSD Guardian

For many “sneakerheads,” shoes aren’t just about how they look or feel. Every shoe has a story, something that people remember it by. Rather than an explanation, this is better understood with an example.

The year is 1989, and Michael Jordan has just made a jump shot, bringing the Chicago Bulls into a 99–98 lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers with only six seconds left on the clock. The setting: the Eastern Conference, a tournament for teams in the East to fight for positions in the NBA Playoffs. It’s an important game for the Bulls, and they are the underdog.

There wasn’t a doubt in any basketball fan’s mind that the Cavaliers were going to win. Before this game, the Bulls had lost all six of their games against the Cavaliers in the regular season. Going into the conference, the Cavaliers were seeded third and the Bulls were only sixth.

But now, Chicago had a chance to make an upset. They were able to grab the lead, and there were only six seconds left for the Cavaliers to bring it back. Shortly after Jordan’s shot the Cavaliers called a timeout. The ensuing play was made by Craig Ehlo and Larry Lance. When the game resumed, Ehlo passed the ball to Lance. A pass back immediately followed as Ehlo drove into the court. Sprinting through, Ehlo scored the layup, reclaiming a 100–99 point lead for the Cavaliers.

Bulls fans grew tense. Now it was Chicago’s turn to call a timeout; with only three seconds left on the clock, there would only be one last play in the game. This was Chicago’s last chance to pull off the upset and add to their legacy.

When the game resumed, Cleveland immediately sent Ehlo and Lance to double-team Jordan. Drifting right, Jordan faked out Lance. He quickly shifted left to catch the pass from Brad Sellers. Jordan ran to face the basket from the free-throw line. As the buzzer screeched for the end of the game, Jordan jumped and made the shot, winning the game for the Bulls 101–100. From then on, this moment was dubbed simply, “The Shot,” and famously, during “The Shot,” a crisp pair of Nike Air Jordan 4s were on Jordan’s feet.

From then on, when a kid in Chicago went to their neighborhood court in some 4s, they relived the moment when Michael Jordan hit that shot. By playing basketball in his shoes, fans felt closer to their hometown hero. And so, the Jordan 4s became more than just a shoe; it became a symbol of Chicago’s triumph over a giant.

This legendary shoe is celebrated through the story of “The Shot.” Today, much of the younger generation of sneaker fans were not there to experience the 1989 conference game live. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Sneakers as a Spectacle of Art and Culture - UCSD Guardian

However, whether they know it or not, they experience a piece of its legacy through that moment’s shoe.

“What draws me to sneakers … is the story each sneaker has and what it means both literally and culturally,” Luis Aguilar said. “This alone makes every sneaker a piece of art and demonstration.”

While they do look good on your feet, they derive more meaning from what they represent. It’s about what time period they’re from, who made them, and what story they have to tell. This deep appreciation for the product is what has allowed fans to become attached on a personal level, and it’s why they’re willing to splurge large amounts of money.

Today, most shoes become meaningful through their association with a well-known icon. Along with Michael Jordan, many prominent basketball players like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and James Harden have received their own shoe line. This business strategy has become a staple, and it was all started by Converse.

In 1917, Converse released a basketball shoe called the “Non-Skids.” Although they performed fine, basketball player Charles “Chuck” Taylor wanted to modify the shoes in order to improve their flexibility and ankle support. In 1921, these revisions were implemented, and the shoe was released under the familiar name, “Chuck-Taylor All-Stars.”

The success of Chuck Taylors is unprecedented. By the 50s, they became the standard among basketball players, and by the 60s, they had captured nearly 80 percent of the basketball shoe market.

And today, nearly a hundred years after they were released, the Chuck Taylors are still prevalent and shifted status from sports to a classic, casual shoe that can be seen in many students’ wardrobe.

Since Converse, different player-branded basketball shoes have experienced a rise and fall in popularity such as AND1’s Tai Chi with Vince Carter and Pony’s Topstar with David Thompson. However, none have been as consistent as the aforementioned Nike Air Jordan. This brand has indisputably remained at the top of the sneaker game for the last 35 years. Every basketball apparel brand wants to have a line like the Jordans, one that develops a cult following and is always profitable.

In order to achieve this dream, corporations fought to sign the most successful players to Accessed: 11/8/2020 Sneakers as a Spectacle of Art and Culture - UCSD Guardian

imitate Jordan’s influencer business model, slowly standardizing this practice within the shoe industry and inadvertently laying the groundwork for what modern sneaker culture would become.

Since then, sneaker culture has slowly crept from a niche hobby to the mainstream, but there isn’t a single, identifiable reason for this.

A large part of the success was likely due to its close relation to hip-hop culture during its rise to prominence. In addition, it was also likely because luxury goods in general have gained popularity with the rise of social media. The marketing strategy for sneakers was also very ahead of its time, taking advantage of influencer marketing before the internet even existed.

Today, one of the most prominent examples of influencer marketing in this industry actually isn’t a basketball shoe, it’s Kanye West’s Yeezy line. The Yeezys are a unique fusion between a running and casual shoe, but ultimately, they aren’t the star of the show, Kanye is.

“When I think of Yeezys, I think of Kanye,” Hoang says. “I think he’s probably the reason why I got them.”

Kanye is a clear symbol of how much influencer association has propelled sneaker culture. This bizarre artist, who even ran for president, has the perfect persona for attention and virality. So when you think about Yeezys, you think about Kanye; they’re not just nice shoes, they’re Kanye’s shoes. This along with the now common practices of developing hype with a limited supply has brought this newcomer “toe-to-toe” with Jordans and the top of the sneaker hierarchy.

The practice of generating hype through artificial scarcity cannot be avoided when talking about modern sneaker culture. It’s one of the most prominent characteristics that non- sneakerheads associate with the culture. While stories may bring a community of people together to celebrate a memory, hype brings people together for a reason many critics would call superficial.

When thinking about hype culture, the image of a crowded line of broke college students waiting to make a poor financial decision comes to mind for many. The stories and icons associated with shoes were always ultimately the result of a business model, but hype culture has arguably furthered the presence of business in the community. Buying and reselling expensive shoes have become its own industry within the sneaker industry at large, a practice that not only draws a lot of attention but also a lot of criticism. Accessed: 11/8/2020 Sneakers as a Spectacle of Art and Culture - UCSD Guardian

Those who fall into this negative stereotype are referred to as “hypebeasts,” but many dedicated sneakerheads distinguish themselves from this group, claiming that they hold an inherent interest in the product as opposed to a superficial attraction.

However, distinct boundaries are hard to draw, as there are simply too many different kinds of fans now that the culture has become mainstream. Even though sneakerheads consider hypebeasts to go against the spirit of sneaker culture, ultimately, they have become an inseparable part of it. The culture has evolved to have “superficial” fans, but this is a natural process for any culture that grows in popularity, and this may not be a bad thing.

“No matter which side one is on, I just want people to learn that there is much more to sneakers than just some color or price,” Aguilar said. “For many people, like me, it is also a piece that represents where I came from and my experiences in life, to where I am now.”

Art by Angela Liang for The UCSD Guardian.