The Campanil

HEALTH & WELLNESS| Four dialectical behavior therapy skills for college students Story by Iris Kingery "In 1967, a woman who would later become one of the United States’ most trailblazing psychologists moved into a Chicago YMCA following a mental health low. Tallying over two years across several stays in a psychiatric facility for severe mental illness (what she would later come to understand as borderline personality disorder (BPD), a condition marked by profound emotional ...dysregulation), 24-year-old Marsha Linehan was ready to begin her journey to healing. As a teenager, Linehan had been subjected to what were, at the time, leading treatments for people dealing with serious emotional instability and self-harm. These therapies included electroshock, isolation and heavy hypnotic drugs. It would take years of schooling for Linehan to become a psychologist, but at 24 years old, she unknowingly possessed the basis for her life’s work: her own lived experience as a misunderstood young woman with mental illness." Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/It7X50DAVbc

COLUMN| Considering the S-Word: On socialism, safety nets and collective memory This is the first edition of a biweekly column written by Maddie Hsu, a junior at Mills and a History major. "As we approach the one-year anniversary of living within a global pandemic, one might reflect on both the tremendous losses the world has suffered and the curious way in which this event has altered the trajectory of our nation’s future. ... COVID-19 has upended the lives of millions of Americans, and with its onset came the hope of an economic safety net. The one we got came in the form of $1200 stimulus checks which ended prematurely and progressed in fits and starts, giving relief along with a certain sense of unease about the extent of the measures. These stimulus checks, re-started in December at $600 per qualifying person, began to provide a tangible example of what a more socialist agenda could look like in times of need, albeit an example that could use improving. In other times of great need in our nation’s history, there has been a similar embrace of heftier government intervention. The Great Depression saw significant structural changes and government involvement as an answer to widespread poverty and exigency. Those who remember the Great Depression are now elderly; the only person I know who lived through it is my 94-year-old maternal grandmother. Of these holders of memory, there are fewer and fewer. Fear of socialism persists, while memories of its successful application are dying with our grandparents’ generation. The pandemic poses an opportunity to counter this unfounded fear of socialism by forming new memories of its application in the present and shaping our understanding of the rightful functions of government." Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/1BdJ50DAV4j

COVID-19 COVERAGE| One mask might not be enough, is it time to double mask? Story by Alyana Willis "For the past year, health officials have been struggling to get Americans to wear a mask. Now those same officials may be facing pushback again from antimaskers, as a recent research report released in early February by the CDC suggests that, to further slow the spread of COVID-19, Americans should begin to double mask or universal masking.... According to the research report, Universal masking is recommended to slow the spread of COVID-19. Cloth masks and medical procedure masks substantially reduce exposure from infected wearers (source control) and reduce exposure of uninfected wearers (wearer exposure). CDC conducted experiments to assess two ways of improving the fit of medical procedure masks: fitting a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask or knotting the ear loops of a medical procedure mask and then tucking in and flattening the extra material close to the face. Each modification substantially improved source control and reduced wearer exposure. These experiments highlight the importance of a good fit to maximize mask performance. There are multiple simple ways to achieve a better fit of masks to more effectively slow the spread of COVID-19. Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/K2Dx50DAQ5n

NEWS| US expels migrant children from South America to Mexico "An internal email obtained by The New York Times on Oct. 30 says migrant children from South America are being transferred to Mexico, where they may have no family to retrieve them. This violates American Public Health Service (PHS) policies. On March 20, the Trump administration announced that it will no longer detain most undocumented immigrants at the border in efforts to combat the threat of COVID-19 in detent...ion facilities and to personnel. The objective was to begin rapidly sending people who illegally cross the United States borders back to their home countries and would halt the processing of undocumented migrants at ports of entry. U.S. border authorities have been expelling migrant children from other countries into Mexico, violating a diplomatic agreement with Mexico, and testing the limits of immigration and child welfare laws. The details of the expulsions were laid out in a sharply critical internal email transmitted between senior border patrol officials, stating that the actions have been taking place under an aggressive border closure directive set forth by the Trump administration. According to the New York Times, the email stated that the spread of COVID-19 is the motivating factor. Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said the United States would also close the legal entry points along the border with Mexico and Canada to tourism. American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and those crossing a border seeking medical treatment or attend educational institutions would not be affected. Commercial traffic would remain open and port officers would stop processing those without legal authority to be in the United States, including asylum seekers, The New York Times reports." Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/LdKf50CI8zj

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT| Place for Writers: Eboni Dunbar and Miah Jeffra "On November 11, 2020, the Place for Writers hosted a panel discussion with two dual authors and editors, Eboni Dunbar and Miah Jeffra. Dunbar, who received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills, is a managing editor for FIYAH Literary Magazine and a writer of queer and Black speculative fiction, including her recently released novella Stone and Steel, published by Neon Hemlock Press. Jeffra is the found...ing editor and production designer for queer literary collaborative Foglifter Press and the author of multiple books, including The Fabulous Ekphrastic Fantastic and The First Church of What’s Happening; they have also published several shorter works, and have received awards including the New Millenium Flash Fiction Prize and the Atticus Review Creative Nonfiction Prize. Jeffra opened the panel by recounting parts of their artistic background; they got involved in dance and music as a child in Baltimore and pursued those arts during their time as an undergraduate at Oglethorpe University. Although they enrolled in an MFA Writing Program at CalArts, their time there was still spent on interdisciplinary art rather than writing as its own pursuit. It wasn’t until about ten years ago, after moving to San Francisco, that they realized their desire to focus on writing. They pursued a master’s degree in English at San Francisco State, and credit their work with faculty and the school’s literary magazine with helping them begin their involvement in the Bay Area’s robust literary community. They also give credit to the Lambda Literary Fellowship for LGBTQ writers, which they say helped them [embark] on a serious focus, not just in writing but and this is what’s most important for me forging a sense of community within the literary world. Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/EuFw50CI8pJ

NEWS| Mills students demand change and transparency from Student Financial Services and the administration Story by Angel Fabre "On Feb. 2, Heaven Bachand, a sophomore at Mills, shared frustration via MillsGo about a friend being notified by the Financial Aid office that they were in danger of being administratively withdrawn due to non-payment. Prior to this email, the student had a hold on their account which prevented them from registering for Spring courses, and they had ...been unable to get an adequate response from Student Accounts regarding the hold. The post was removed from the platform, causing several students to post similar questions in response to its disappearance. So my post was deleted, Bachand posted on MillsGo. As I was saying, Mills students are getting dropped from their classes tomorrow, and rather than responding to emails students are getting BS responses. When will Mills care about their students? How can we help people not be dropped tomorrow? If they care, they should solve this. A conversation immediately erupted as students shared that they had also received an email from the Financial Aid office threatening to withdraw them from their classes for non-payment. Many students had been trying to get in touch with the Financial Aid office for months and only received an automatic response prior to the withdrawal notification. Others were more confused as their bills were already paid." Read more on our website, http://www.thecampanil.com/mills-students-demand-change-an/

NEWS| Why is Trump stalling leaving office? "At age 77, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. waited a long time to give the acceptance speech he delivered in Delaware on Saturday, Nov. 7. Biden trotted down a runway to an explosion of car horns and cheers, beaming and surprised by the ovation. This moment has been 48 years in the making since he was first elected to the Senate. Throughout the duration of Biden’s career in politics, he has run for president three times. Now, t...he day he has worked so hard for has finally come; his moment to be announced as the next president-elect has arrived. According to the New York times, the president-elect invoked his own spirituality and shared credit for the moment with both his supporters and staff. He even quoted a hymn from On Eagle’s Wings; thanking voters, he professed, I owe you, I owe you, I owe you everything. Biden warmly praised Kamala Harris, his running mate, celebrating the fact that she would not only be the first woman, but also the first woman of color, to serve as vice president, stating, It’s long overdue, and we’re reminded tonight of all those who fought so hard, for so many years to make this happen. Biden’s win was celebrated on a global scale, from dancing in the streets in Biden’s ancestral home in West Ireland, fireworks in Edinburgh and London, to a grand finale of ringing church bells in Paris. A sigh of relief and blessings of congratulations were in order. Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/mKSR50CI8aK

STAFF EDITORIAL| Journalistic objectivity is a futile endeavor what do we do instead? "The world is burning beneath our feet. In the United States alone, institutionalized racism has a death toll that grows higher every day, prisons mimic modern slavery, immigrants are kept in internment camps at the border, the environment has no protection from the corporations destroying it, and we are being ravaged by a deadly pandemic with negligible government support to mitigate its ...effects all as we desperately try to crawl out of the quicksand of fascism into which our country is sinking. At the Campanil, we are not simply impartial observers to this apocalypse, we are also a part of it. We too are impacted. Our staff is diverse, with many people of color, queer people, disabled people, women and trans folk. This week we met as a group, looked at the state of the world, and asked: What do we do? As journalists, what is our responsibility? As journalists, it is often said objectivity is the goal; but when objectivity becomes synonymous with respecting both or all sides of every story equally, what do we do when one side of the story is wrong, either objectively or morally? Is it not our journalistic responsibility to report the truth, even if that truth runs counter to the notion that there were, as former President Trump said, very fine people on both sides? Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/Lxke50DAPGU

OPINIONS| Should we still be protesting The Silence of the Lambs? "DISCLAIMER: This article is an examination of the internal (and transphobic) logic of The Silence of the Lambs, and thus the ambiguously transfeminine character Buffalo Bill will be referred to with he/him pronouns, as in the film. Is The Silence of the Lambs transphobic?... Most certainly yes. Is it worth watching and examining critically? Also yes. The 1991 film from director Jonathan Demme is a hard watch particularly if you’re sensitive to deeply problematic portrayals of trans and gender-nonconforming people. It has received unrelenting scrutiny for its portrayal of transfemininity, and it was at the center of a controversy that exploded immediately upon its release. The year? 1992. The place? The Oscars. Police in riot gear descended on the gay rights protesters outside Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as it hosted the awards show. Reporter Neal Broverman recalled that this was the scene at the 1992 Academy Awards, where activist group Queer Nation staged a protest that devolved into chaos, with objects thrown at vehicles, punches thrown, arrests made, and Fag stickers slapped on 24-foot-tall Oscar statues. Queer Nation and many other LGBT people were furious at Hollywood for what they saw as a pattern of demented, homicidal queer characters. Read more on our website, http://www.thecampanil.com/should-we-still-be-protesting-t/

NEWS| An in-person tour was given to UC Berkeley representatives on-campus without notifying students "Amidst the confusion of an on-and-off campus-wide power outage, students living in the Warren Olney residence hall were surprised to see an in-person tour being given to UC Berkeley representatives on the evening of Dec. 3. This came as a surprise due to the lack of communication to students regarding the tour and the current access policies enforced on-campus due to COVID-1...9. Living at Mills during a pandemic has restricted gatherings of any kind and the use of all common spaces on-campus. Students are prohibited from visiting one another in separate residence halls and from having outside guests. In a statement regarding the in-person tour on Dec. 3, Vice President of Strategic Communications and Operations Renee Jadushlever provided the following statement: Yesterday, December 3, Mills staff conducted a tour of residential and athletics spaces with 12 visitors from UC Berkeley following all COVID-19 health and safety guidelines, including completing required wellness checks. We apologize that students did not receive advance notice of this visit to their residence hall and understand both their surprise and concerns. We had intended to inform residential students of the visit ahead of the tour and take responsibility for neglecting to do so. ...." Read more on our website, http://ow.ly/1a3E50CGjzO

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT| Repo! The Genetic Opera (Otherwise known as that time Paris Hilton starred in a goth rock opera about organ repossession) "The subject of this review is a B-movie that combines science fiction, horror and comedy, based on an earlier stage musical. It boasts some fairly famous cast members but was largely ignored upon its initial release. Despite less-than-stunning critical reception, however, this film has since developed something of a cult following;... some fans even gather in theaters to watch or perform shadowcast versions of the show, dressing up in costumes that mimic the movie’s raunchy goth aesthetic. No, this isn’t about The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), though fans of that movie may find much to enjoy here as well. It’s a totally separate cult classic; the 2008 film Repo! The Genetic Opera. This surprisingly star-studded movie features socialite Paris Hilton, Alexa PenaVega (Spy Kids), Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Sarah Brightman (originator of the role of Christine in Phantom of the Opera), and even Joan Jett, who has a cameo on guitar during one song. However, none of these celebrities really get the chance to show off their full potential here. (Except, perhaps, Paris Hilton, who reportedly forced her way into a Repo! audition and blew the directors away, overpowering their previous reluctance to cast her because of potential sensationalist reactions from the press, according to MTV News and The Playlist). The less than Oscar-worthy performances can’t fairly be dubbed their fault, though it’s hard to imagine what a well-acted role would even look like, within this ludicrous ninety-seven-minute script. " Read more on our website, http://www.thecampanil.com/repo-the-genetic-opera-otherwis/

HEALTH & WELLNESS| With Greenwashing, capitalism evolves for the age of global warming Story by Alyana Willis "Imagine this: you’re walking down the shopping aisle, trying to live a better lifestyle for you and the Earth, so you reach for a product that looks recyclable. The label claims it’s made out of recyclable plastic and with a purchase of the product, a portion of the revenue will go to some charity that you have never heard of before. You buy the product and realize ...a few things upon further research: the supposed recyclable item has the same content and ingredients as the standard, non-recyclable item. Even more concerning, the package it came in can’t be recycled in your area, and the charity that is receiving a portion of profits has been exposed for not releasing funds. While this is an extreme hypothetical, it is an example of Greenwashing. In recent years, more companies have rebranded products to seem more eco-friendly. They advertise recycled cardboard with the buy one, give one slogan plastered all over it. While some companies may actually use eco-friendly materials and plant a tree to give back to a community in need, corporate America has picked up on consumers wanting to be more conscious of what they buy and has targeted them by changing the look of their product packaging but not their business model or product." Read more on our website, http://www.thecampanil.com/with-greenwashing-capitalism-ev/