William Jewell College’s College Union Activities (CUA) and Student Life office intend to provide student support. The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated this pursuit, as many CUA events are in-person, large gatherings.

Kristin Wooldridge, director of student engagement, described the challenges CUA has faced due to COVID-19.

“The biggest issue is gathering larger groups safely. In a normal year, popular events like CUAt the Movies have over 375 attendees that take over the B&B Northland Theatre. That is not possible right now. To have events that are safe enough and not being a superspreader due to crowd size is an ongoing conversation,” said Wooldridge.

At the beginning of the semester, CUA hosted more in-person events but are now focusing on what they can do to support students.

“During the opening of campus, CUA hosted Grocery Bingo outside on the Quad, Twilight Yoga and a concert on Greene Field. CUA has shifted to focusing on what is possible to bring joy to the student experience. Starting the first Friday in October, there has been a food truck for students from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. This is a great avenue for students to enjoy free food and keep their distance safely. Plus, the food vendors are watching all the safety protocols. Food trucks are planned through November 13th,” Wooldridge said.

“One event has been canceled and we still have a credit with our trivia vendor,” Wooldridge continued. “That was canceled with the campus changed to level C during Orientation. Trivia was supposed to be hosted on Greene Field. Our Trivia DJ is now able to host virtual trivia and that might be scheduled in early November.”

Wooldridge described how student organizations have worked to host meetings and events.

“Many student organizations have been creative with meeting outside and with masks/social distance inside,” said Wooldridge. “They are working well with their advisors to make sure events are safe.”

Wooldridge explained that CUA is doing the best it can given the current circumstances and restrictions.

“When we can host more events in person, we will. I believe that people are created for community, and it has been hard not to provide more options. By partnering with [residence life], student [organizations] and Greek Life, we are finding new ways to have smaller sized events that can be safe for the community and follow [Operation Safe Campus] protocols,” said Wooldridge.

Students have primarily missed having CUAt the movies – a typically popular event. Wooldridge described how she’s tried to update CUA’s approach and accommodate the desire for movies.

“I have upgraded and replaced CUA’s inflatable screen and projector to make it easier to host movie nights. CUA also covers the $350 movie licensing that is required to host a movie inside or outside for up to 100 students. I work with our contact at SWANK to make this happen as many times as possible. Of course, Missouri weather can greatly [affect] outdoor movie nights and we have had to reschedule a couple.”

Wooldridge concluded by describing CUA’s plans for the future. 

“We hope to host the trivia night virtually and plan for spring semester since we have the food trucks leading up until Thanksgiving Break when the campus goes fully virtual,” said Wooldridge.

Once I got past the obligatory girls-in-skimpy-outfits and let’s-remind-everyone-this-is-about-fast-cars scenes, I was actually entertained. The main conflict of “Furious 8″ as portrayed by the trailer was that, allegedly, Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) betrays his entire team for no apparent reason. Of course, it doesn’t take a genius or an avid Furious fan to figure out why he would do such a thing, so I can’t say this movie held any surprises there. The lack of surprises, however, works in the favor of this franchise, because its whole purpose is to give the audience what it expects, and it does. It delivers the adrenaline-packed, testosterone-filled, fuel-injected joy ride that we all paid ten bucks to see. There was enough engine-revving and car crash sounds to last me the rest of my life, that’s for sure.

Speaking of car crashes, when audience members enter the world of a movie, they tend to do what is called “suspending their disbelief:” they accept the reality of the movie, even if it isn’t their own. With that said, “Furious 8″ really challenges its audience’s ability to suspend said disbelief through its over-the-top, physics-defying, rulebook-abandoning car stunts. However, speaking as one of the mindless audience members, the sad thing is that I wanted to believe it. I wanted to believe Vin Diesel could rig an old clunker to go 200+ mph in reverse gear, and I wanted to believe he could drive over an exploding submarine and make it out with barely a scratch. The very ludicrousness that makes it so unbelievable is also what makes it entertaining. My friend and I counted the number of unrealistic survivals on our fingers, a ritual we had developed during “Furious 7.” There were easily fifteen, probably more. Perhaps diehard fans would find this condescending, but we found it hilarious.

Then, there’s the villain, a genius but expectedly evil hacker named Cipher (Charlize Theron). I’ve been impressed by Theron’s performances before, and though I wouldn’t say this was her worst, I wasn’t totally convinced with the villain as a character. Not that I expect the Furious villains to be anything profound, but since I am working from limited experience, I’m basing this on my comprehensive knowledge of movie villains. She was sometimes chillingly scary and ruthless in a calm, coldblooded way, but I think she lacked convincing motivation, and above all, a realistic element of humanity. I think that perhaps the writers were trying to create a villain who would function as a foil to Dom, but in the process, they made her a hollow shell filled with metaphors about the animal kingdom. Also, her ending was incredibly anti-climactic. On the plus side, she did manage to pull off blonde dread locks and still look fierce. Not bad, not bad.

I can’t say “Furious 8″ was anything inspiring, but it was fast-paced and entertaining, which is its primary function. The cast has good chemistry, a feature that I feel has contributed to the franchise’s success. Even with the loss of Paul Walker, I still think they managed to pull it off. There were some punchy one-liners that made me laugh, and though the script is formulaic and at times annoying, it isn’t unbearable. There’s a fight scene with Jason Statham towards the end that I felt was borderline brilliant, if not a little gimmicky, but its moments like that that give the movie some charm.

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