We want to do our best to have as many folks as possible feel at home. Here is a transcription of the episode.

INTRODUCTION MUSIC BEGINS TO PLAY

ANNOUNCER – Welcome Home. From Simmons Radio: The Shark and The Simmons Voice, this is Welcome Home. A show about news, culture, and stories that impact Simmons University. No matter where you are we’ll keep you updated on what’s happening at home.

Katie Cole

 Welcome back to Welcome home. My name is Katie Cole. I use she/her/hers pronouns.

Sarah Carlon

My name is Sarah Carlon. I use she/her pronouns. 

Iz Indelicato

And my name is Iz Indelicato. And I use the or she pronouns. 

Katie Cole

This week, we have a good amount of stuff to get to. But before we get into the meat and potatoes of our episode, I just want to give a little shout out to the staff of the Simmons Voice. Over the weekend, the voice won a Mark of Excellence Award for region one from the Society of Professional Journalists. It’s an award for … 

Sarah Carlon

Woooooo!

Katie Cole

Yes!  COVID coverage for a university of under 10,000 students, technically it’s under 9,999 students, but we’re super proud of the Voice. And we have been working so hard throughout the pandemic to provide our community with excellent news that keeps you informed and updated. And we’re just so proud to have this recognition from the journalism community. So congratulations to everyone and yeah, keep following the Voice. So to get into, as I said, the meat and potatoes of this episode, we’re going to start this week with some of the biggest breaking news that came out this week. Sarah, do you want to take her, take her away?

Sarah Carlon

Definitely, Katie. So on April 8, Simmons University president Lynn Perry Wooten announced in an email to the community that Simmons will be hosting four in-person commencement celebrations for the class of 2021. Graduating seniors ceremonies will be divided into the four different colleges under the universities, and the celebrations will be held on May 24 and 26. According to the Simmons website, each celebration will last two hours, it will contain remarks from the deans of each college and there will also be an informal social gathering on the residential quad. The celebrations themselves are not the same as a commencement ceremony. They will include ceremonial elements, such as opening remarks by the deans recognizing the names of graduating students, and the option of wearing caps and gowns. But the official commencement ceremony will still be held virtually on May 28th, and will recognize graduating students across the university as well as conferring honorary degrees. The announcement comes after students petitioned to have an in person commencement ceremony, there was a change.org petition that went around created by a Simmons student that, as of April 8th had over 1,900 signatures to it. This announcement was in, largely in response to this petition, as many students were pushing for some sort of in person commencement recognition.

Katie Cole

Yeah, and I think I want to note that this isn’t the only in person event they’re holding for what they’re calling quote, “commencement week,” there’s going to be some other events like, I think, graduation portrait photography, and some other in-person gatherings. So it’s kind of a push from Simmons to give as much in person as possible, without having too much of a risk on the community itself. They didn’t necessarily specify any specific COVID precautions and the email that they announced or on their website. We’ll be checking in with the president of Simmons this week about what this will look like.

Iz Indelicato

And do we have any sense from the community as to how they’re feeling about this? I know that in regards to the original position, petition, there were some students who were very much in support of there being some in-person celebration, and I know there were some students who were very much against it for various reasons, whether it be health and safety or inequities with travel and things like that. Do we have any sense of how the community is responding? And if there’s still that divide? Or if people sort of, how are people feeling? How’s it How’s it going? How are they doing? 

Sarah Carlon

Um, I think that overall, people are just happy that Simmons put out kind of an official recognition of the fact that graduation is you know, online, and how difficult that has been for many students. I think that many are glad too, that they’re responding to this petition, which clearly had a lot of support as of right now. I think because the details of what the celebrations will look like aren’t fully fleshed out, students don’t really have a kind of specific opinion about it, or many of them don’t because it’s unclear like what, like, what they’re going to look like, like what the ceremonies, you know, 

Iz Indelicato

right. So unclear as to whether parents will be able to go and things like that.

Sarah Carlon

Exactly, yeah, and you know, saying things like, ceremonial elements, you can wear your caps and gowns, you know, recognizing of names. These are this kind of like vague language, not not necessarily like the fault of anyone, I think that they’re still kind of trying to finalize details, which totally makes sense. But I think that, for the most part, students who were supporting the petition are happy. Um, I have seen some students who still kind of feel as though an in person commencement ceremony itself could happen. I think at this point, it’s unlikely that will be realized, that dream will be realized. Especially because we are only like a month or in some change out from, you know, our virtual commencement, I think that they’re also really trying to bring in that aspect of, like, being back on campus to many students who have not been on campus for a long time. You know what I mean, like, kind of that last hurrah in the res quad. So I think that maybe some, you know, the, some students will have more finalized opinions. I know personally, as a graduating senior I like I’m not really sure how I feel about it yet. I kind of want to know a little bit more about the event and what it’s going to look like. And, you know, how many, can I bring guests like, what, like, just kind of logistics like that. But I will also say that, from folks that I’ve talked to, especially last semester, when the class of 2020 was graduating online, many spoke to the fact that although it was, you know, a remote Zoom graduation, it was, it felt incredibly like homey, you know, what I mean? And, and it was actually, like many students felt that it was a really good tribute to the class of 2020. You know, it was cool to see. Like Lily Thorne. I interviewed her a couple weeks ago for a story about the petition, and she’s a class of 2020, she said how it was great to see, like, people’s parents and their pets, like, in the little Zoom square and being at their home. And she was also saying that her grandmother wouldn’t have been able to travel to Boston for an in person commencement. So this way she was able to, you know, Zoom in. So there’s definitely pros and cons I feel with both, but it will be important to and interesting to see what the university specifically has planned for the celebrations.

Katie Cole

Kind of speaking of when we’re back on campus. We are going to be going back on campus in the fall. And I know that we have talked about this a little bit in previous pod episodes, and we’ve reported on it in print for the Voice. In the original email we received from Simmons, President Lynn Perry Wooten on March 5, when she announced that basically all students will be welcomed back to campus for the fall 2021 semester for in person classes and activities. Wooten also mentioned, quote, campus enhancements. And the email she said, quote, “we have utilized this past year of virtual learning to redesign and modernize our physical campus.” So I kind of wanted to talk a little bit about that right now. So, we already knew that Simmons was persisting and constructions in students absence from campus, Abby Vervaeke, reported on that last semester. But now that we are officially going back to campus next semester, I wanted to see how much was done and what campus will look like. So to figure this out, I talked to Laura Brink Pisinski. She is the Vice President of University Real Estate and Facilities Management, she has really been the point person on construction on campus. So for a little bit of background Simmons announced in spring 2019 that the campus would undergo a major construction project, completely renovating academic campus spaces and eventually knocking down the park science building and replacing it with what they call a Living and Learning Center, which will basically end up replacing Simmons residential campus. And this is all set to be completed by 2025. But construction will still be taking place on campus next semester too. I want to talk to Brink Pisinski about what campus will look like for when students return in the fall. She said that campus is going to look quote “fantastic.” She said that they have updated most of the existing spaces and campus folding is giving them a bright new interior, more study spaces and she said that they have painted pretty much every surface possible on campus, including the classic stairway and the main college building, which are the original steps from the original build of the MCB, main college building. And now buildings are going to be dedicated to specific colleges, for example, the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, which is the college that contains Political Science, Economics, Sociology and the like, will now be exclusively housed in the School of Management building. And because of all these new spaces and different places where specific colleges are going to be located, Brink Pisinski said that they created new wayfinding signs and updated some of the existing classroom numbers to better fit through redesign of campus. But as I said, there’s still going to be construction happening when students are on campus in the fall specifically in the West Wing of the MCB and Lefavour Hall, they will be undergoing renovations until the summer of 2022. Lefavour used to house the library, but now library services have been temporarily shifted to the fifth floor of the MCB. I asked her if this construction which will persist when students are in campus and in classes will create noise and disruption for the learning. She said that there will be some noise but hopefully it will be minimal and construction should primarily be limited to those two areas of Lefavour and the West Wing. But she also said that a bit of the academic quad has been dug up and that there is construction fencing around some of it because they need to work on the mechanical systems underground. So basically, a quarter of the quad is fenced off with construction fencing. And there will be signs posted around campus to navigate around the quad construction. So the overall timeline for the project has changed and that the finished campus constructions are still set to be complete and 2025. That’s a little bit of a rundown. Everything that’s coming down the tracks. 

Sarah Carlon

Katie, I was just wondering if Brink Pisinski spoke at all about any considerations that the construction crew in the planning group have been taking when thinking about COVID safety, especially with students going back on campus in the fall?

Katie Cole

Yeah, so President Wooten also mentioned that in the email, but all of the ventilation systems and the Main College Building have been examined and updated where needed. But also we talked a little bit about the construction workers on campus who will be doing construction while students are there. And it’s likely that COVID won’t be gone by the fall. So I asked her what kind of precautions are going to be in place and she told me that along with the construction plan for the city of Boston now you have to also say what your COVID plan is for construction workers. So basically, all the construction workers have to be using PP and they can’t, for example, eat with the other students in the, say, Common Grounds, which is in the MCB, and they can’t use the bathrooms that the students are using. So they can use bathrooms that are operational in the West Wing and will favor or they can use porta potties, which they have. So those are kind of some of the COVID precautions that the construction workers will be taking. When we were when we returned to campus.

TRANSITIOn MUSIC BEGINS TO PLAY

Sarah Carlon

This week on the pod we are joined by Maddie Horn. She is a graduating senior here at Simmons, and she’s also a citizen of the Cherokee Nation she sat down with us to talk about big brands like Urban Outfitters and their harmful appropriation of indigenous culture. Take a listen. 

Iz Indelicato

Hey, Maddie, how’s it going?

Maddie Horn

I am doing good. How are you?

Iz Indelicato

I’m doing well. Thanks. Thanks so much for hopping on the pod this week. I really appreciate it. We missed having you.

Maddie Horn

Yeah, I’m happy to be back.

Iz Indelicato

Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about who you are?

Maddie Horn

Hello, everyone. My name is Maddie Horn. I’m a senior at Simmons and I also happen to be a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

Iz Indelicato

Awesome. So you a few days ago posted to your story something about urban outfitters being culturally appropriative to the indigenous community. Can you tell us a little bit about what is happening most recently with Urban Outfitters?

Maddie Horn 

Yeah, with Urban Outfitters. What the big issue was, is I believe it is the second time they have done the same exact thing, which is stealing. I don’t want to say indigenous designs because it doesn’t look like the beadwork of any indigenous people I know. So it’s a knockoff. And like a really poorly designed to knock off of the beautiful beadwork that indigenous artists go ahead and produce. And the other issue I take with it on top of the appropriation is just the insane price for this pair of earrings that Urban Outfitters is selling like $88 which is just crazy. So it goes back to the fact that you could support an artist who’s actually indigenous, who actually knows how sacred and beautiful of a practice it is to do beadwork. And maybe pay a fraction of the price. And you might have to pay more just because of the time and energy that goes into making a pair of earrings like that. And they would look a lot better too.

Iz Indelicato

And in a couple articles that I read about this, there were indigenous folks who said that it’s okay to wear, to wear these patterns in these designs and these products as long as you are buying them from indigenous people who are making them and supporting their work. Do you have a take on that about white people and people who are not indigenous wearing products that are designed by indigenous people and in where’s the line between it being appropriation and depreciation?

Maddie Horn

I totally agree with that statement. Like, if you want to go ahead and wear some beaded earrings, please buy them from an indigenous artists, but like you’re saying there is a line. So like a few. A few years ago, I grew up going to middle school in Arizona. So I don’t know if it was a trend here. But girls loved putting feathers in their hair like, 

Iz Indelicato

oh man, the feathers, extensions, it was definitely, definitely a thing

Maddie Horn

It was a huge thing. So with that, I don’t know if I necessarily take an issue with like, wearing those kinds of feathers, because that is just so far from how native people wear feathers. But this is being where the line comes into play. Like when, like when I see people dress up for Halloween. And if I see someone in a headdress that makes my skin crawl so badly, because with traditional headdress, like everything has been blessed, like every father has been blessed. Every bead that has been placed on the headdress has been blessed like it is a super duper sacred part of like, the ceremony that we wear. So if I see someone at Halloween costume with the headdress on, that makes me extremely uncomfortable. But if I saw someone who was white presenting in a pair of beaded earrings, I wouldn’t it wouldn’t invoke the same guttural reaction, I would just hope that they had bought them from an indigenous artist. So there definitely is a line. And you just have to check in with yourself when you get to that line every time of like, hey, am I appropriating? Or am I appreciating?

Iz Indelicato

Right, right, right. And then say if a white presenting person is wearing earrings that are made by an indigenous person, is that still sort of an iffy gray area? Is it best to just sort of like stay away from it and not and not wear those types of things? Or is it just about like, recognizing everything that goes into making it and the history and all that’s behind it instead of just being like, Oh, this is a pair of earrings, this is what I got.

Maddie Horn

Personally, if I saw someone who was white presenting and beaded earrings, I don’t think I would take any offense to it. Like, again, I know that in the back of my head. I would wonder if they had purchased from an indigenous artist. And I would also wonder if they’re indigenous, because I think that’s another really important part of the conversation to bring up is there indigenous folks out there who are super duper pale, and then there are indigenous folks out there with beautiful brown skin. So, you know, like, there’s definitely a stereotypical image of what a native person looks like. But hundreds of years later, we’re still here. And that’s changed a lot from how we were before colonizers moved here, 

Iz Indelicato

Right. 

Maddie Horn

So, I also bear in mind that like, if someone is white presenting they very well could be indigenous as well. So yeah, there are lots of things that would come into my head that

Iz Indelicato

Right, right, 

Maddie Horn

I would wonder about, but yeah, just hoping that they had purchased from an indigenous artist and then it would be really cool if they did happen to be indigenous to and it’s cool if they’re a white person and they are, you know, just appreciating the culture and again, Like, that’s the other thing is if you are a white person, and you’re buying from an indigenous artists like money is power and like our communities have been so disenfranchised for so long, like what’s going on with Urban Outfitters that it’s kind of like you can’t stop it necessarily. So you might as well, I don’t know, channel it into something that can benefit our people.

Iz Indelicato

I know that calling attention to urban outfitters and different companies selling things is definitely a huge piece of the puzzle and what not buying it and then also calling attention and letting people know Is there anything else that people who are not native can do to spread the word and make it make the load a little bit lighter to carry?

Maddie Horn

Yeah, I think just that like spreading the word, like, part of what sparked this conversation you and I are having right now is I did something as simple as posting something to my story. And I got a flood of responses back from people that were like, I had no idea this was going on. I was like, yeah, you know, knowledge is power too in addition to making sure we’re all aware and just growing and learning and holding companies like this accountable. And that starts with something as simple as posting on your Instagram story.

Iz Indelicato

Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on, Maddie. I really appreciate it and your insight and just being able to see your face over Zoom, even though the people listening cannot see it. I can and it’s so great to chat with you. So I really appreciate it.

Maddie Horn

Thank you for having me. I love being on the pod.

Iz Indelicato

Come come back anytime. You’re always You’re always welcome here.

Maddie Horn

I so wIll.

Iz Indelicato

Thank you so much to Maddie for that contribution. It’s always great talking to you. And if you are listening right now and want to get involved in Welcome Home or the Voice of the Shark reach out to us. We are always looking for folks to contribute, whether it’s for an interview, something that you want to talk about you making your own segment doing something silly, I know that we have some exciting, silly, lighthearted stuff up our sleeves in the next coming weeks with perhaps maybe perhaps some game shows and trivia and stuff like that with administrators. So looking forward to that. And like I just said, really anything that you want to do, please, please come to us and tell us we will welcome you with open arms virtually and we’d love to hear your ideas. So reach out to us on social media or via email. All those contacts will be in the episode description. 

Sarah Carlon

All right, that is all we have for this week. Thank you to everyone who tuned in and we’ll catch you back here. Same place next week. Are you ready guys? Ready? Three. Two. One

OUTRO MUSIC BEGINS PLAYING 

ANNOUNCER – Welcome Home was created and produced by Iz Indelicato, Katie Cole, and Sarah Carlon. Our editors are Iz Indelicato and Katie Cole. The theme music for this podcast was created by Matthew Harrison, aka Matty Sun. The cover art for this podcast was made by Carly Dickler.  Special thanks to everyone who contributed in the making of this podcast through writing articles, conducting interviews, creating segments, and so much more. This has been a production of Simmons Radio: The Shark, and The Simmons Voice.