Fall 2020

Edition 3Fall 2020FeaturesNews

Campus COVID-19 Testing

Written by Lili Stevens. For the students who have been lucky enough to live on campus, or who live close enough to campus to participate, the University of Puget Sound has been hosting free COVID testing days for students, faculty, staff and community members since early September 2020. In these events, hosted by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, participants are able to get tested and receive results quickly for the small price of waiting in line outside the Wheelock Student Center.  On most days that I have participated in, the...
Edition 3Fall 2020News

Fall 2020 Graduates

Written by Hadley Polinsky. Graduating college is a major accomplishment and should be celebrated accordingly, but Fall 2020 graduates may not get to experience the normal fanfare that accompanies graduation. Not only will many Fall 2020 graduates be graduating without their friends by their sides, but they are also entering the real world during a global pandemic.  “I am excited to be done with school and to be moving on to the next phase of my life but I am kind of bummed that I am graduating with no one...
Edition 3Fall 2020News

Diwali 2020 and New Religious Accommodations at the University of Puget Sound

Written by Rachel "Checks" De Guzman. Have you lit your candles yet? Are you dressed your best? Have you reached that internal point of disco ball chic? Are you ready to dance?    These are the questions that a former student at the University of Puget Sound, Sahiti Shankar, once asked me in 2018 when we celebrated Diwali together.   At the time, Shankar had long missed her home community and remembered her favorite memories of Diwali with them. Community is such a large part of this time of year....
Edition 2Fall 2020News

Online Teaching at the University of Puget Sound

Written by Hadley Polinsky and Lili Stevens. Many people are often drawn to liberal arts schools because of the experiences one obtains in classes and interacting with their peers. With online classes, this is virtually impossible. Not only are many students missing out on the quintessential college experience, but classes have proven to be challenging over the online format.  “I think this semester has been harder for me cause I have lost a lot of motivation by being in the same space all the time. For me, I am a...
Edition 2Fall 2020

TikTok superstars at the University of Puget Sound – “It knows.”

Written by Daniel Pollock.   Chris Moore, a third year at Puget Sound, broke his foot because of TikTok.  Moore (@prettyboyswagchris on TikTok) was filming a video while longboarding when he fell and injured himself. He’s been on crutches since September; his surgery is scheduled for January.  “TikTok has given me literal scars,” Moore said, laughing. Being immobile and on painkillers allowed Moore to spend more time on the app. His phone analytics show there was a point when he was on the app seven hours a day. Moore says...
Edition 2

How to stay motivated: study tips and tricks for virtual finals

Written by Chloe Daugherty-Brunak. As students everywhere are facing a lot of unknowns amidst the pandemic, staying on top of schoolwork may feel overwhelming. This is not uncommon.  Results of the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium student survey at UPS found that 20% of students rated their ability as “poor” in terms of pushing themselves to stay motivated in a pandemic. 40% reported this ability as fair, and only 37% of students who took the survey reported their abilities in this area as good. In terms of finding healthy ways...
Edition 2

Three-dimensional art piece, The Girl House, takes students’ experiences on a tour of the Tacoma area

Written by Nicole Steinberg. You’ve probably noticed the little yellow house parked across Safeway on N. Adams St.  The Girl House is the summer research project of Emma Piorier ‘21 and Miranda Karson ‘21. The installation is a resistance to rape culture through the telling and sharing of experiences of coming of age, gender, sexuality, and sexual injustice to create community in a society that seeks to isolate narratives of girlhood and womanhood. The installation, a 7’ x 14’ tiny house on a trailer, creates a physical space for the...
Edition 1

Tacoma brings in new prosperity with the Light Rail system that connects Tacoma to Seattle, but will it sweep away long-time Tacoma residents?

The Hilltop neighborhood in Tacoma, Washington, is one of the most impacted by gentrification in the country, according to a study that compared census data from 2000 and the 2016 American Community Survey. Hilltop was ranked #20 in the entire country — this was in comparison to rapidly grow neighborhoods in San Francisco, New York City, and Houston. Hilltop was once a thriving part of midtown life in Tacoma’s early history, but the migration of major businesses away from Tacoma — as well as the development of the Tacoma Mall...
Edition 1

New beginnings: the class of 2024 goes virtual

The class of 2024 is having one of the most unique freshman experiences ever to be recorded in history. On July 29, President Isiaah Crawford sent out an email letting the entire student body and community know that we were going to be virtual during the fall semester. The school had held out until the end of July to decide in hopes that we would be able to continue in-person during the fall. When President Crawford announced that we would be going virtual, the entire semester became an unknown. The...
Edition 1

McMaster lecture draws controversy from student groups

The Susan Resneck Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs and the Arts normally invites esteemed speakers such as Jed S. Rakoff and Valerie Jarrett to campus. This year, however, the student body was less than pleased about who the university chose to speak: H.R. McMaster.  McMaster has a long history of working for the military, from his time in the Gulf War to teaching at West Point. Most notably, there are a multitude of human rights violations against him. When he was a commander in the second Iraq war, he oversaw...