In light of the current pandemic, everyone is doing their part. For some, that means staying home, but not everyone has that luxury. Those who work at hospitals, grocery stores and banks must continue to work during this time, as they are essential.

Madison Lott, senior elementary education major, is one of those essential workers. Lott works at Cosentino’s Price Chopper in Kansas City, where she is the supervisor in the customer service department.

One of her many duties is floorwalking, where she helps cashiers and customer service with any issues that may arise. She is also in charge of which cashiers go on break, which employees are bringing carts in from outside and other administrative tasks.

Another important duty Lott has is counting all the money that comes into the store, from lottery tickets to WICs to coupons. Lott said that even before the pandemic she was cautious about handling the money, but she is now much more careful. 

“I have this weird fear that me and my other coworkers in customer service will be the ones to catch it first, because of all the money and items we handle,” Lott said.

Lott also expresses her fear that if she or someone at her house gets sick, she must quarantine herself for two weeks, which would mean she would not be paid during that time. 

“That may not be a huge deal for some people, but as a college student that handles all their own bills and pays for their own schooling, that is a lot of money to lose out on,” Lott said.

As to what has changed throughout the store, Lott details an extensive list: reduced store hours and a one-hour shopping window for those more at risk, plexiglass coverings at every register and no returns or exchanges allowed. There are also now employees whose only job is to clean continuously. Additionally, customers have to walk a certain one-way path throughout the store, and the number of customers in the store at one time has been limited to 255. Each cart can only have one customer at it. 

Lottery tickets must be purchased from a machine now, and employees cannot touch customer’s Price Chopper cards. Masks and gloves have been given to employees if they wish to wear them. The deli’s buffet-style soup and salad bar have been closed.

Lott also said that the store is constantly out of items like toilet paper and cleaning supplies. The store now gets daily shipments of these items, but the shipments themselves are scarce. Before the pandemic there were just weekly shipments of these items, Lott detailed.

For Lott, a typical day before the pandemic included class from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., teaching clinicals from 1-3 p.m. and then work from 4-10:30 p.m. However, she no longer has clinicals, so her schedule is the same except she goes into work at 1 p.m. instead.

She also explained how understanding her managers are, as they know she is a full-time student. On weeks when she has tests and papers, Lott says that her managers reduce her hours to 30 instead of the usual 35-39.

As to how she keeps up with everything, Lott uses a detailed planner to keep her on a strict schedule. She also has a family that supports her, especially when she feels overwhelmed. Additionally, Lott makes sure to schedule time for herself, which usually includes walking her dogs.

On April 6, William Jewell College adopted a new pass/fail policy for the rest of the semester during a special faculty meeting. Faculty and Student Senate leaders debated together to come to this decision.

The spring 2020 grade policy allows students to choose to take Critical Thought and Inquiry (CTI) courses and electives for pass/fail credit. Students are usually able to take only elective courses for pass/fail credit. Students taking language classes taken for CTI credit can opt to take the courses as pass/fail.

Normally, students could only take one pass/fail per semester, but this restriction has been removed. Students usually have to limit their total number of pass/fail credits to 20 credits, but courses taken pass/fail this semester will not count towards these 20 credits. First-years can take classes pass/fail in the spring 2020 semester – normally they are not allowed to take pass/fail classes.

The minimum number of graded credits to be considered for the Dean’s List has been reduced from 14 to 12 credits for the spring 2020 semester.

Several aspects of the grade policy remained the same. The minimum passing grade for CTI and elective classes is a D-, which was kept the same. Once a student chooses to take a class pass/fail, the professor will not know but will submit a final grade as usual, and then the registrar will look at this grade and put either a “pass” or “fail” into the student’s record.

Dr. Gary Armstrong, professor of political science, was one of the faculty members involved in the decision-making process. 

“In the grip of a public health emergency and economic emergency, Jewell faculty came to believe that students were facing extraordinary stress or could be facing extraordinary stress in very unusual circumstances,” said Armstrong in an explanation of why the policy was changed.

Armstrong stressed that the faculty realized some students may be in complicated situations away from school. This pass/fail option allows students to relieve stress during this time and lets students prioritize academic efforts so students could focus more on classes for their major and less on electives and/or CTI classes, if they so choose.

Hannah Keeney, 2019-2020 Student Senate president and senior psychological science and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry major, commented on the Student Senate perspective.

“Regarding the pass/fail proposal and later policy for the Spring ’20 semester, I supported it through and through. I believe the intention was to relieve some stress by allowing students to opt for pass/fail in their elective courses,” said Keeney.

Another important topic discussed was that, obviously, students and faculty did not know that half of this semester would be online when they signed up for classes. Therefore, this pass/fail policy does not extend to summer classes – as students know whether their classes will be online or not when they sign up for them.

Many alternative plans were discussed and faculty looked at what different schools were doing – including mandatory pass/fail in all classes, pass/fail in any class the student chose and pass/fail only in core and elective classes. Armstrong relayed that, at first, many faculty members were in favor of mandatory pass/fail in core curriculum classes.

Armstrong expressed that some programs were concerned about pass/fail for major classes. The accounting faculty were concerned because some states don’t allow pass/fail classes to count for the number of required credits needed to take the Certified Public Accountant exam. Although many states are altering these requirements during this unprecedented time, he said it is hard to know what to tell students. The nursing program also was concerned about moving to pass/fail for all classes.

Because of these concerns, the faculty were able to come to a consensus that allowing students to choose pass/fail on CTI and elective classes only was the best option.

Regarding feedback after the policy went into effect April 6, 23 students had elected to take a class pass/fail as of April 28. Armstrong expressed that that number was much lower than the faculty expected, but the deadline to declare pass/fail was not until May 1. He wondered if the low number indicated that students were in a much better place than faculty had anticipated.

Students have reacted differently to the pass/fail policy change – some express desire for the chance to have more options about pass/fail in major and minor courses and some prefer sticking with graded courses.

“I’m motivated by A’s, so I’d do the bare minimum in a pass/fail class,” said Charlene Noble, sophomore psychological science and elementary education major.

“I would have considered pass/fail if it could be applied to my major or minor, but since it didn’t, I chose not to take any classes pass/fail,” said Jenna Hultgren, sophomore English major.

The United States is currently having the worst outbreak of COVID-19 out of any country. The CDC reported that as of April 1, the United States had 186,101 confirmed cases and had 3,603 virus-related deaths. Missouri had 1327 confirmed cases. By the next day, April 2, the number of confirmed U.S. cases jumped to 213,144, with 4,513 deaths, and globally, we surpassed 1 million confirmed cases.

In one week, the week of March 30, data from Johns Hopkins showed that Missouri alone saw an increase of 600 percent in total cases, which is currently the largest increase in the United States, reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

It is necessary to understand that these numbers just represent confirmed cases. Many people have had and will get COVID-19 without showing symptoms or without getting tested and can easily spread it to others.

This is a pandemic, and many people are not taking this seriously enough, especially in the United States.

First, there are those who deny its significance. President Trump refuses to see how dangerous the current situation is and says he wants everything to go back to normal by Easter. A pastor in Florida was arrested for holding a church service with hundreds of people after defying orders to stay home. 

“The World Health Organization has come in and is using a pandemic to take over not just America, but the whole of the world,” the pastor commented.

Second, there are those who are panicking, which is also not the appropriate response. Buying all the toilet paper you possibly can does not make you immune to the virus, nor does it help anyone else by hoarding everything for yourself.

It is normal to be anxious and uncertain during this time, but it is important to remember that everyone else is going through the same experience. Additionally, one mindset to have is that if you are social distancing at home, you can be thankful that you have the ability to be safe at home.

Third, some people have decided it’s okay if they get the virus, which again, is not a good approach.

This is one of the many reasons why it is imperative that people stay home and practice social distancing. Going to the store to buy groceries is considered an essential activity and is okay to do, but hanging out with your friends is not okay. By staying at home, you drastically reduce your chances of getting the virus and passing it on to someone else. While you yourself may not die from contracting the virus, you risk spreading it to those who have weakened immune systems or are elderly.

However, there are many people who are doing their part in all sorts of ways. Doctors, nurses, and all medical professionals are putting their lives on the line to help those infected by the virus. Additionally, many schools, churches and other organizations are providing meals to children who usually rely on schools to feed them. Teachers are adapting and continuing to teach children during this unprecedented time too. We also cannot forget all the selfless essential workers at grocery stores, banks and restaurants.

All of these people are doing their part, and we need to do our part by staying home. The sooner we get this virus under control, the sooner our lives can go back to normal.

As of March 6, Woody Allen’s publisher, Hachette Publishing Group (HBG), decided to not release his upcoming memoir, “Apropos of Nothing.” However, a division of the HBG company, Grand Central Publishing, will release the memoir, as scheduled, on April 7.

Unsurprisingly, four publishing agencies before HBG turned down his memoir, the Washington Post reported.

HBG explained that they “do not cancel books lightly,” while Grand Central Publishing announced that “Grand Central Publishing believes strongly that there’s a large audience that wants to hear the story of Woody Allen’s life as told by Woody Allen himself. That’s what they’ve chosen to publish,” writes the Rolling Stone.

The day before HBG announced they would not be releasing Allen’s memoir, dozens of HBG employees participated in a walkout. Some employees had automatic email replies that read “We stand in solidarity with Ronan Farrow, Dylan Farrow, and survivors of sexual assault,” NPR writes.

For some background, CNN writes that the controversy surrounding Allen started when his former wife, Mia Farrow, his son, Ronan Farrow and his daughter, Dylan Farrow, accused him of sexual abuse. Allen denies these allegations. Allen is also now married to Mia Farrow’s adopted daughter, Soon-Yi Previn.

Ronan was surprised and saddened to hear that HBG would be initially publishing his father’s book, as he used the same company to publish his book, “Catch and Kill,” in 2019. His book was even “about how powerful men, including Woody Allen, avoid accountability for sexual abuse,” Ronan told Rolling Stone.

Dylan and Ronan also called out HBG for not fact-checking the memoir with them.

Additionally, Ronan interviewed and wrote about more than a dozen women’s accounts of the abuse they suffered from at the hands of Harvey Weinstein over the course of three decades. This can be read here. For this reporting, Ronan was even one of the Pulitzer Prize winners in 2018.

Before these allegations, a memoir would’ve been appropriate given his many awards for his movies, books and so on, but with the rise of the #MeToo movement, the publishing of this memoir feels like a slap in the face and a step backward for survivors of abuse and sexual assault.