February 18, 2021

opinions features sports a & e ... February 18, 2021 Letter to the Peace, Love Put your Dukes Poetry, pod- Editor and Magnolias knowledge to casts, ballerinas Volume 104 SGA President Black business owner the test Entertainment is Number 5 responds to action brings southern Try the DU basketball teeming on and off taken against Shank sweetness to baked crosword challenge campus www.duqsm.com goods PAGE 5 PAGE 6 PAGE 8 PAGE 9 THE DUQUESNE DUKE Proudly Serving Our Campus Since 1925 Ash Wednesday: A sprinkle of Update: something new in COVID-19 times Bi-weekly COVID-19 testing starting soon Kellen Stepler editor-in-chief Asymptomatic, bi-weekly sur- veillance testing on-campus will begin this week – a couple weeks later than scheduled. On Jan. 13, Duquesne issued an update about the Spring 2021 semester, noting that the university “will have required surveil- lance testing.” The delay in testing, Duquesne spokesperson Gabe Welsch said, Katia Faroun / Features Editor was due to “issues with support Although a dark, ashen cross on the forehead is the standard symbol of Ash Wednesday in the U.S., this year, the pandemic has led churches across the country technology.” to slightly alter the tradition. To avoid making physical contact, ministers have resorted to sprinkling the ashes on the recipient's forehead. “With the issue now resolved, testing will begin this week,” T Welsch said. testing resident students first, symptomatic testing program since Duquesne’s website. The Allegh- More updates on CO- The process will go something and then will test commuter stu- the beginning of the semester. eny County Health Department VID-19 testing are to be dents and employees. Appoint- “When coupled with pre-ar- maintains the county dashboard, like this: Students will utilize a made available in the platform called SONA to sched- ments for testing are required. rival testing, Duquesne has co- which is updated every day. coming days. ule test appointments, track their Even if a student has already ordinated the administration of results and relay other communi- received a vaccine, they still are 7,300 tests (as of Feb. 16) since cation relevant to testing. Stu- required to participate in the the beginning of the calendar dents will receive an email with testing, according to the email. year,” Welsch said. a link to register when it is their However, students who have Additionally, Duquesne dis- turn for testing, according to a tested positive for COVID-19 are played a new COVID-19 dash- campus-wide email sent Wednes- not eligible to participate until board on their COVID-19 website day afternoon. they have passed the required this week. “Participation in Duquesne 90-day window from the date of “To see the testing figures as Testing is mandatory for all stu- diagnosis. well as a range of other informa- dents who are on campus this se- The tests will take approxi- tion, people can visit the univer- mester in any capacity,” the email mately 15 minutes, but students sity’s significantly upgraded CO- read. “Non-compliance will result should be reachable by phone in VID-19 dashboard,” Welsch said. in the student being prohibited the event that they test positive. The new dashboard offers an from campus (including from re- “You will be contacted via overview of average case data siding in on-campus university phone within one hour in the and weekly test data on campus. housing) and having to complete event of a positive result and The information is updated Mon- Griffin Sendek / Multimedia Editor all coursework remotely.” contacted by email in the event of day through Friday by a dash- A view from the catwalk at the Genesius Theater shows the newly installed testing Testing for each student will a negative result,” the email read. board team comprised of seven stations. For the remainder of the semester, all individuals who come to campus be required every two weeks, and While this testing was de- staff members at Duquesne. in any capacity will need to be tested here. While the infrastructure for testing has will take place in the Genesius layed, Welsch pointed out that COVID-19 data across Allegh- been in place since the start of the semester, university administration struggled to Theater. Duquesne will begin Duquesne has continued its eny County is also shown on assure the proper technology to carry out their extensive testing plans. 2 POLICE briefs Celebrating Darwin Day: A closer look Here are the crimes reported at biology in the age of the pandemic from Feb. 8 to Feb. 15. Peyton Harris On Feb. 11, a Duquesne Univer- staff contributor sity employee reported a harass- ing phone call. A report was made The beginning of a life that and the case is active. would drastically change the way the scientific community and the Also on Feb. 11, the resident di- world as a whole believed it func- rector of Assumption Hall confis- tioned started on Feb. 12, 1809. cated marijuana in the building. This date is the birth of English The student is being referred to naturalist Charles Darwin, who the Office of Student Conduct. fostered the theory of evolution by natural selection, which since has become the foundation for everyday evolutionary studies COVID-19 and works. Two hundred twelve years NUMBERS later, Duquesne University and many educational institutions across the globe paid tribute to The new dashboard features the man whose work is still be- Courtesy of Duquesne University campus COVID-19 data ing put into practice today, and The program logo for "Trees and Disease," presented for Darwin Day 2021 at Duquesne, seemingly fits the year's along with information from in relation to current events: the theme: a discussion about viruses. Allegheny County. study of COVID-19. The campus data dashboard Annually, Duquesne hosts an over to Worobey, Seaman dove gin as early as November, but breaks down COVID-19 and included a variety of uni- event called “Darwin Day” in into how genomic epidemiology was first recognized by the U.K. cases, tests, isolation and versities across the country. The is working to track and discover a short time later. It is also likely quarantine spaces and vac- which one facet of Darwin’s vast main discussion, titled “Trees studies are expanded upon to a different strains of COVID-19, all that B.117 will become the vari- cination information. and Disease: Evolutionary In- wider audience. while sticking to the basic Dar- ant most prevalent in the U.S. sights into Viral Pandemics,” “The Department of Biological winian principles of evolutionary by this March, due to its potent As of Feb. 17, there were four was led by Seaman. the featured theory. While the first diagnosed positive tests at Duquesne, Sciences, with support from the transmission rate. guest speaker was Worobey, a case in the U.S. was at Seattle- Bayer School of Natural & Envi- By the end of the discussion, and 494 tests conducted. Tacoma International Airport on Jan. 15, 2020, the work done by questions that had been blindly As of Feb. 17, three students Worobey and his colleagues, as submitted into the chat feature are in isolation. well as those at The Seattle Flu were answered by Worobey, who Project, concluded that since was optimistic in the efforts of multiple genomic sequences mitigation as well as the vaccines SCAN HERE FOR were being found in Washington coming to the forefront and not- COVID-19 DATA state, COVID-19 had been in the ed that “the escape-hatch of vac- area for quite some time prior to cinations” would bring about a the first official U.S. case. large change in transmission and “In retrospect, based on analy- furthering of the disease. Most ses of viral genome sequences questions had been answered be- using evolutionary trees, we now fore Worobey experienced tech- know that the first COVID case in the U.S. did not lead to an out- nical difficulties and was discon- break in Seattle,” Seaman said. nected from the talk, leaving the “This was probably the result of rest of the discussion to Seaman. swift action to isolate the patient Seaman directed the discus- Courtesy of Unsplash.com and prevent contact with other sion to apply the works of Darwin A statue of Darwin sits outside the Natural History Museum in London to serve people. This was the first good to science today, and believes as a reminder of his momentous contributions to the field of science. evidence, way back in January that Darwin’s discoveries con- of 2020, that aggressive public tinue to be relevant today. ronmental Sciences, has held a professor within the University health measures could be essen- “It is easy to mistakenly think public talk to celebrate Darwin of Arizona’s Department of Ecol- tial in preventing the spread of that evolution is only relevant ogy and Evolutionary Biology. COVID.” Day for nearly 20 years. Dr. Da- for understanding the distant vid Lampe started this event at Seaman opened the discus- The discussion explored differ- JOIN THE DUKE! past,” Seaman said. “But every- Duquesne in 2003, and now he sion with a few remarks on Dar- ent ways in which Darwinist the- thing that we have learned over If you’re interested, email thed- and co-coordinate the annual win and the ensuing talk, saying ories played a role in determin- [email protected] or stop by our event,” said Duquesne University “nothing in biology makes sense ing disease origin. The speakers the last 150 years of evolutionary newsroom located in the basement professor Michael Seaman. except in the light of evolution.” discussed the likelihood that the biology, including the nature of of College Hall (Room 113).

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