DePaul Lawsuit, Chicago’s Phase 3 and Production Design Student’s Mural
And homemade lattes
Hello all,
Welcome to another Thursday issue of 14 East’s COVID-19 newsletter. As the daffodils and tulips fade and the trees leaf out, we hope you are doing well and doing your best to enjoy the warming of the season amid stay-at-home. It’s hard to believe we’re already close to the end of the school year and the start of summer. We’re your Thursday team — Meredith, Mikayla and Justin — and we’re joined by Erica Carbajal and Lauren Paris to give you a fresh batch of updates, happenings and other various points of interest.
In our 17th edition, we’ll get into a new class action lawsuit against DePaul, lawsuits against Governor Pritzker, and, in lighter news, a mural-in-progress and the best coffee our readers’ home machines can whip up.
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What’s the latest at DePaul?
DePaul has another lawsuit on its hands. On Tuesday, two students filed a class action lawsuit against the university in wake of the social distancing measures taken during the COVID-19 crisis. They say the university has failed to fulfill its advertised promises of a hands-on, in-person experience and has failed to provide adequate online alternatives to its courses. The lawsuit calls for a partial refund of tuition for DePaul’s Spring and Summer terms and a breach of contract to be declared. DePaul responded to the lawsuit, calling its claims “erroneous” and the measures taken by professors to move classes online “heroic.” The university also further asserted its care and concern for the safety and well-being of students. However, DePaul is not alone. Across the country, students are filing similar lawsuits related to the shutdown and online transitions of universities during the pandemic.
DePaul also announced possible plans to use undergraduate students as contact tracers to track the spread of the coronavirus. While nothing is in place yet, the university is currently collecting information from students to see how many would be interested in participating. The proposed project is being led by the Department of Health Sciences in partnership with the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Howard Brown Health Center to aid city-wide contact tracing efforts.
The current social distancing restrictions have led to drastic changes in sports seasons for players and fans — including those involved with esports. At DePaul, this meant the cancellation of a month’s worth of Big East Conference tournaments for its esports teams and the movement of all operations from its Esports Gaming Center to students’ homes, The DePaulia reports. Now, like many esports teams around the country, they’re discussing when and how they might be able to resume on-campus operations. The biggest issue comes down to adequate cleaning. Before reopening, an intensive cleaning of the facilities needs to be done, but that might not be enough. While gaming devices that PCs are easily cleaned after each use, consoles are a different story, since much of their appeal comes from the ability to quickly pass controllers around to players to take turns. While DePaul’s Gaming Center is striving to maintain as much of the console experience as possible, players and spectators might have to get used to slower turnaround times to allow for proper sanitization when in-person play resumes.
What’s happening in Chicago?
As of today there are 3,239 new known COVID-19 cases and 138 new confirmed deaths in Illinois. On Wednesday, there were 192 deaths, the most the state has seen since the start of the outbreak. Illinois now has had 3,928 deaths and 87,937 cases.
Yesterday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced some of the businesses that will begin to reopen in Phase 3 of the city’s plan, including childcare, construction and elective surgeries. Protective gear and social distancing will be built into the industries’ usual operations. Lightfoot said some parks and libraries could also reopen with strict guidelines.
There are two weeks left of the current stay-at-home order, but some businesses have breached the rules and started to reopen early. Pritzker warned that these businesses will be held accountable and could possibly get their licenses taken away. Still, some suburban mayors are trying to compromise with him. Woodstock Mayor Brian Sager from McHenry County, among others, says that they can safely move into Phase 3, which allows some non-essential business to start opening back up. Prtizker said that federal funding may not be given to any county that tries to reopen early.
While some are trying to compromise with Pritzker, others continue to sue him — most recently the Will County Republican Committee. The committee’s chairman, George Pearson, and Republican county board member Steve Balich (along with some businesses like a pet groomer) filed an 11-page lawsuit yesterday. They are asking for compensation for the small businesses that have had to close or lay off workers due to the extension of the stay-at-home order. In lawsuits against Pritzker in the past two weeks, two different judges from Chicago’s federal court have favored the governor.
U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman was assigned to the Will County case. Yesterday, Gettleman publically disapproved of two churches asking to hold religious services again.
Other Chicago News:
A Chicagoan explains what it feels like to have coronavirus, by Block Club Chicago’s Mina Bloom
The lakefront will continue to be closed, by Block Club Chicago’s Kelly Bauer
Chicago’s most famous bridge is turning 100, by Block Club Chicago’s Bob Chiarito
More people are buying swing sets and trampolines, by Chicago Tribune’s Robert Channick
ComEd program offers help to people struggling to pay bills, by Chicago Tribune’s Susan Degrane
Students want their graduation ceremonies later rather than never, by Chicago Tribune’s Karen Ann Cullotta
If you don’t want to watch the news, here are the national headlines to know:
Unemployment applications hit nearly 3 million last week, bringing the pandemic total to 36.5 million, according to The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Chaney and Gwynn Guilford
The Senate held a COVID-19 pandemic hearing with the country’s top health experts on Tuesday. Vox’s Cameron Peters reports that Dr. Rick Bright, the former research agency director turned whistleblower, testified before a House subcommittee today, stating that “without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.”
White House employees — except President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence — are now expected to wear masks when doing anything other than working at their desks, reports The New York Times’ Michael D. Shear, Maggie Haberman and Linda Qiu
South Korea is seeing a new spike in infections and crackdown efforts after a man who visited five nightclubs on May 2 tested positive for the coronavirus last Wednesday. However, reports that the man attended a gay club have sparked a new wave of homophobia and fear for Seoul’s gay community, from AP’s Hyung-Jin Kim
After the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned Governor Tony Evers’ stay-at-home order yesterday, Wisconsinites flocked to freshly reopened bars in areas without city bans, from the USA Today Network
Students nationwide are suing universities for tuition and fee reimbursements, from the Indianapolis Star’s Arika Herron
Protesters armed with guns gathered at the Michigan State Capitol today in a smaller crowd than the previous two demonstrations, thanks in part to rain and Facebook taking down the organizing group for inciting violence, from NPR’s Abigail Censky
On to other news: how a production design student is making a mural from home.
Caymen Sheets’s “home”-work this quarter is to turn two 4-by-6 foot boards into art.
Sheets, a senior film student with a concentration in production design, is enrolled in a scenic painting course that initially was set to produce two murals for DePaul, one on a wall in The Theatre School (TTS) and the other in the university’s area of Cinespace. However, stay-at-home orders and remote classes changed that plan, shelving the TTS project for the time being.
“A mural is really hard to accomplish when you can't access the space,” she said.
Now, after virtually collaborating to design the Cinespace mural, the class’s three seniors are painting it in pieces. Sheets found some modern geometric movie posters on Pinterest for inspiration, which the class refined into a design that references classic posters to represent the film department’s different concentrations.
“Once everyone kind of worked on them and we went through a couple rounds of editing, they have become more original designs, just based on, like, genre,” Sheets said.
Her instructor, Joanna White, delivered two boards, boxes with deli cups of paint and cans of paint brushes and extra tape to the senior’s homes, even carrying the boards up flights of stairs. Sheets cleared out the back room of her apartment and turned it into a makeshift studio. Painting from home has its pros and cons, she said.
“It's kind of nice, in the sense that I don't have to worry about leaving my house to like work on anything,” Sheets said. “But it's also a little bit hard, just because I'm always at home and motivation is hard to come by.”
A before-and-after of Caymen Sheets’s back room. Photos courtesy of Sheets.
Since she started actually putting the brush to the board last week, her mural sections are coming along, including her action-themed board for directing.
“It looks like the Mr. and Mrs. Smith poster, but they're holding a clapper and like a director's bullhorn instead of guns.”
However, it's still difficult to get the usual feedback.
“It's kind of hard to show other people what you've done, or like, what has happened so far just because showing someone over Zoom isn't quite the same as being able to look at something in person. But otherwise, my professor's doing a really good job of keeping us on task without stressing us out.”
Though she’s not sure of when the mural will be able to be to put in place — the class plans on storing the sections either in The Theatre School building or students’ homes if Cinespace is still closed at the end of the quarter — she’s excited for the work to make Cinespace’s lounge space more relaxing for students.
Here’s what students have been watching!
📺 Taylor is watchingGreat British Bake Off
📺 Megan has been watching Community
📺 Solveiga is watchingInsecure
📺 Nora is watching Money Heist
🎧 Don’t forget to check out our updated quarantine playlist!
With many people missing their coffee shop crafted creations under the stay-at-home order, they’re tuning up their barista skills to brew their own drinks.
Paloma is drinking a Dark Matter iced latte brewed up with a Nespresso Vertuo machine –– topped with cold, creamy oat milk.
Halle is drinking a latte (made simple with coffee instead of espresso), using a handheld frother, she tops it with some milk. The finishing touch: pink sugar, of course!
Caroline is drinking a high protein iced coffee. This one requires no brewing! Simply shake an iced coffee powder with water and pour over ice. For added protein and flavor, Caroline adds an extra scoop of vanilla protein powder and two pumps of caramel syrup!
Bored?
Don’t miss Lady Gaga’s new album, Chromatica, set to release May 29th. If one iconic popstar isn’t enough for you, the album will also feature Ariana Grande, Elton John and Blackpink.
Looking for a fun date night from home? Here are some of the most popular livestreams and virtual concerts coming up!
If you’re a Pete Davidson fan, or just in need of a new movie, The King of Staten Island is available June 12. Watch the trailer here.
Cruise from your couch, and take a virtual guided tour of the Chicago River.
Getting tired of cooking the same old things? Try some of these new vegan recipes!
Overwhelmed?
Check out this mindfulness app called Headspace. Researchers have recently found the app helps to reduce stress in a meaningful way.
Here are 11 relaxing videos to watch if your brain needs a break.
If you are in need of a good laugh, here are some hilarious quick clips.
Contact Illinois’ Call4Calm mental health resources. Residents can text TALK for English or HABLAR for Spanish to 552-020 and the state will put them in touch with a counselor.
If it’s late at night: text HELLO to 741741. Crisis Text Line is a 24-hour hotline that serves anyone, in any type of crisis.
Want to help?
Here’s Chicago organizer Kelly Hayes’ mutual aid form to sign up to help
Sign up to do senior wellness checks for My Block My Hood My City
Lost your main source of income?
Here’s where to apply for unemployment and here’s how to apply
Need financial assistance?
Need food or supplies?
Text 312-775-2391 or email LakeviewMutualAid@gmail.com for food, prescription pick-ups, caregiving, medical supplies and more – ”prioritizing folks who are sick, disabled, low-income, elderly, undocumented and Black, Indeginous and/or People of Color”
That’ll do us for this week’s newsletter, but feel free to tune in, dial up, load or click on the 14 East website tomorrow for more DePaul and COVID-19 coverage. We hope that you’ll try something new this weekend (maybe make a fabulous coffee recipe?) and call your mom again. Thanks for being our shining stars!
Your Thursday crew,
Associate Editor Meredith Melland, Event Planners Justin Myers and Mikayla Rose Price and Contributors Lauren Paris and Erica Carbajal