Coming off a freshman season in which he led UH in receptions and receiving yards, wide receiver Nathaniel Dell has high expectations of himself in 2021. | Courtesy of UH athletics

Nathaniel Dell is coming off a freshman season where he led Houston in both receptions, with 29, and receiving yards, with 428, despite not having a chance to truly develop a rhythm with quarterback Clayton Tune.

Despite a productive freshman year, the 5-foot-10-inch sophomore receiver, nicknamed Tank by his mother because of the big head he had as a baby, is confident that 2020 was just a start and that he can elevate his game to another level this season.

Dell has set lofty expectations for himself in 2021, striving to take a massive step forward in terms of increasing his production from the shortened 2020 season.

10 or more touchdowns. At least 50 receptions. 1,200 receiving yards. These are just some of the goals that Dell has his eyes on accomplishing during the 2021 football season.

“I set high goals for myself that most people will doubt me on,” Dell said. “But I set them for myself so that I can attack them every day and help myself get better, help the younger guys get better and push my teammates.”

While Dell spent the spring and summer focusing on getting off the line cleanly and being able to effectively hand fight the defensive back, he put the biggest emphasis on improving his chemistry with Tune.

Tune has witnessed firsthand the kind of elite receiver Dell is capable of becoming.

“(Dell’s) a super explosive athlete,” Tune said. “He can run really fast and make real quick fast cuts. He just makes it look easy. And on top of that, you pair that with really good hands and that makes for a great receiver.”

But with the 2020 season interrupted on a weekly basis due to COVID-19 issues, the 6-foot-3-inch quarterback never really had an opportunity to develop a rhythm and routine with Dell before.

So, the quarterback-wider receiver duo made it a priority to spend as much time as possible together over the offseason to build that timing and chemistry between themselves.

“Me and Tune’s chemistry has been great,” Dell said. “We’ve been working (together) every Monday through Saturday from the spring all through the summer.”

The duo believes the timing and chemistry they worked so hard on building over the offseason has laid the foundation for both of them to make major improvements from 2020. They both have hopes that it will play a big role in the Cougars’ goal of winning the American Athletic Conference title.

Tune and Dell expect all the work they have put in to be on full display every Saturday this fall.

“The chemistry’s there,” Dell said. “We’re ready to roll.”

sports@thedailycougar.com

—
“Nathaniel Dell and Clayton Tune have built a strong chemistry together” was originally posted on The Cougar

CA announces testing, vaccine requirements for school staff

Andrew Huang/File

California has announced new guidelines for school staff about mandatory testing and vaccinations. In addition, the Berkeley Unified School District will be discussing vaccination and testing policy on Wednesday at a board meeting.

As California residents prepare to return to school amid the rapid spread of the COVID-19 delta variant, the state announced new guidelines Wednesday for school staff on mandatory testing and vaccinations.

Under the health order — the first of its kind in the nation — from the California Department of Public Health, or CDPH, all school staff will be required to show proof of vaccination or be tested at least once a week. Taking effect Aug. 12, the order will require schools to be in full compliance by Oct. 15.

“To give parents confidence that their children are safe as schools return to full, in-person learning, we are urging all school staff to get vaccinated. Vaccinations are how we will end this pandemic,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsom in a press release. “As a father, I look forward to the start of the school year and seeing all California kids back in the classroom.”

In line with state guidelines, the Berkeley Unified School District will be discussing vaccination and testing policy for staff at Wednesday’s district board meeting.

In addition, the school board will examine the possibility of requiring mandatory student COVID-19 testing during the fall semester, according to the board meeting agenda. The board will hear a presentation on the legal and logistic issues of implementing testing requirements for students, the agenda added.

“There’s no substitute for in-person instruction, and California will continue to lead the nation in keeping students and staff safe while ensuring fully open classrooms,” said Dr. Tomás J. Aragón, CDPH director and state public health officer.

Aditya Katewa is the executive news editor. Contact him at akatewa@dailycal.org, and follow him on Twitter at @adkatewa1.

The Daily Californian

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If Sutter Health prices are up, why is the quality of patient care down?

Health care keeps getting more and more expensive, especially in Northern California. Sutter Health, which operates Alta Bates Summit Medical Center here in the East Bay, is a big part of the problem. Sutter’s corporate health care model hurts patients, health care workers and our community, and it has made care less affordable for UC Berkeley students and staff as well as the city of Berkeley.

For years, Sutter has driven up the costs of health care throughout Northern California, prompting exposés in various news outlets and a lawsuit from the state of California, which accused Sutter of violating antitrust laws.

One would think that the higher prices at Sutter would mean better care. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Front-line workers at Sutter say their hospitals are constantly understaffed. Being overworked is rough on caregivers, especially during the second year of this pandemic. Additionally, health care workers at Sutter facilities say they are run ragged with little or no time for breaks, and patients in the emergency department often face long wait times for the care they desperately need.

For example, average emergency room wait times at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center are more than an hour longer than those at other hospitals in California. Caregivers say patients in the emergency room who are identified as acutely ill and need hospital admission are sometimes delayed in their transfers from the emergency room to other nursing units because those units don’t have sufficient staffing to take more patients.

Health care workers at Sutter are facing another surge in the fight against COVID-19. Sutter puts up signs saying “Healthcare heroes work here,” but normally, people listen to heroes — and Sutter doesn’t seem to be listening. Health care workers are forced to beg for appropriate staffing to stop the unnecessary patient wait times and delays in care. It’s exhausting, undignified and unheroic.

Workers say they have patients who risk falling when they get up to use the bathroom because there aren’t enough caregivers to monitor their safety. They injure themselves trying to move or lift patients alone because there’s nobody else available to help. And they see emergency room patients waiting hours for potentially life-saving tests because there just aren’t enough technicians to administer the tests.

The situation was bad enough before the pandemic, but Sutter is making it worse. A few years ago, Sutter announced it wants to close the emergency room and inpatient rooms at Alta Bates Summit’s Berkeley hospital. The emergency room on Ashby Avenue sees more than 40,000 patients a year. Where are they supposed to go? For non-Kaiser Permanente patients, the nearest emergency rooms are in downtown Oakland, which can be up to a 20-minute drive in traffic, and the closest emergency room to the north is in Richmond, which is much farther away.

When you’re critically ill, every second counts. The people of Berkeley and the communities up the Interstate 80 corridor deserve better.

Sutter has already made $189 million in profits this year. It received $843 million in taxpayer dollars during the pandemic and it is paying its executives millions in salaries and bonuses. Sutter can afford to keep our full-service local hospital running past 2030, the year it plans to close acute care services in Berkeley.

It’s time for Sutter Health management to listen to caregivers, safely staff their hospitals and put patient and health care worker safety first.

Anthony Benjamin is a food service aide at Sutter Health’s Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley. Rigel Robinson is the Berkeley City Council member for District 7. Riya Master is the ASUC external affairs vice president and is a medical assistant at New Day Pediatrics in North Berkeley.

Contact the opinion desk at opinion@dailycal.org or follow us on Twitter @dailycalopinion.

The Daily Californian

Washington, DC – August 11, 2021 – The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the premier national nonprofit organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Latino leaders, has announced it is accepting applications from college students and recent graduates for the 2022 spring, summer and fall edition of its fast-paced, hands-on paid internship program on […]

Washington, DC – August 11, 2021 – The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the premier national nonprofit organization dedicated to developing the next generation of Latino leaders, has announced it is accepting applications from college students and recent graduates for the 2022 spring, summer and fall edition of its fast-paced, hands-on paid internship program on Capitol Hill. Apply Today at chci.org/programs

Students will gain invaluable experience in embarking on careers in public service. Interns will work closely with Hall staffers, policy experts, and elected officials tackling the nation’s most urgent challenges impacting the Latino community. Real-world experience in Congress will be enhanced by weekly programming sessions with CHCI.

In addition to participating in a graduate-level non-credit course in public policy, presented by the Cisneros Leadership Institute and Trachtenberg School of Public Policy, interns will meet with Latino leaders in a variety of sectors, engage in important conversations about identity and Latinx culture, visit different sites within Washington, D.C., and explore different aspects of public policy.

Program benefits include:
• Connecting with powerful Latino leaders from a wide range of professional backgrounds, from Capitol Hill and Fortune 500 companies to NGOs and nonprofits that support Latino education and leadership development
• Growing and expanding professional networks to include more than 4,100 members of the CHCI Alumni Association from across the country and Puerto Rico
• Committing to civic engagement, including group and individual service projects to give back to the D.C. community

Additional benefits include:
• Congressional office placement
• Stipend of $3,750 (Fall/Spring), $3,125 (Summer)
• Domestic round-trip transportation to Washington, D.C.
• All-expenses covered housing
• Leadership training and development
• Metro transportation benefits
• Health insurance, with premiums covered by CHCI

Program Dates and Deadlines for 2022:
• Spring 2022 Internship (12 weeks)

• Program Dates: January 24 – April 15, 2022

• Application Deadline: October 1, 2021

• Summer 2022 Internship (10 weeks)

• Program Dates: May 31 – August 5, 2022

• Application Deadline: December 1, 2021 (standing deadline)

• Fall 2022 Internship (12 weeks)

• Program Dates: August 29 – November 18, 2022

• Application Deadline: February 15, 2022

To learn more and apply, prospective interns can visit chci.org/programs. For the latest news, follow CHCI on social media and join the conversation by using the official hashtag #CHCIinterns.

• Instagram: @chciprograms
• Facebook: @chcidc
• Twitter: @chci
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Join the Conversation: #CHCIinterns

CHCI IG Post: @CHCIprograms is now accepting applications for its hands-on paid internship program on Capitol Hill. Interns work closely with Hill staffers, policy experts, and elected officials tackling the nation’s most urgent challenges impacting the Latino community. Housing and transportation are included. Apply today at chci.org/programs #CHCIinterns #Internship #CHCI

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) is the premier Hispanic nonprofit and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization in the country dedicated to developing the next generation of Latino leaders®. CHCI provides leadership, public service, and policy experiences to outstanding Latino/a/x students and young professionals, and convenes Members of Congress, other public officials, corporate executives, nonprofit advocates, and thought leaders to discuss issues facing the nation and the Hispanic community.

Media Contact
Claudia Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Communications
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On Sunday, Aug. 1, the University of Utah campus was soaked by the storm that reached much of northern Utah, causing flooding in various places around campus.

One of many buildings on campus affected by flooding was the U Hospital.

“I don’t think any of us were expecting [the storm],” said the Executive Director for the U Hospital Allison Flynn Gaffney. “We had minor to medium issues [Sunday] night and through to Monday morning; at no time was patient care disrupted.”

According to PR and Strategic Communications Specialist of Campus Facilities Wes Mangum, as many as 20 buildings sustained water damage caused by flooding.

“Restoration work [on these buildings] has already started,” Mangum said. “In addition, landscaped areas throughout campus were flooded and [will also need] restoration.”

Campus Facilities worked to respond to the many incidents of flooding that occurred around campus and successfully kept all campus operations from being interrupted during the storm.

“In a situation like this, a large part of the situation is responding as soon as it happens and as it develops,” Mangum said. “As soon as we became aware of the floods, we had members of our facilities team on site.”

The Campus Store was also among the many buildings affected by Sunday’s storm, despite already having precautionary measures in place.

“The store has seen heavy rain like this before, but not often,” said Campus Store Marketing Coordinator Nikayla Spriggs. “We have implemented more advanced drainage systems, [however] this was unique because of the amount of debris in the area. [It] ended up clogging our drainage systems.”

The clogged drainage systems resulted in flooding, causing minimal damage to the building, merchandise and fixtures within the building.

“We will have to spend some time cleaning up all of the water and silt,” Spriggs said. “As well as shampoo and steam clean some areas of the store.”

The A. Ray Olpin Student Union was another building impacted by the storm.

According to the Facilities & Operations Manager of the Union, Ben Crookston, it was faced with flooding in the basement, leaving behind mud and water but no serious damage. Crookston estimated that at least two days of clean-up would be needed until the building was fully recovered.

After Sunday’s storm, the Union is working to better prepare for future storms of this nature.

“[We] hope to fully seal the foundation from outside water,” Crookston said. “How this can be done, [we are] not sure at this time.”

Moving forward, Campus Facilities intends to set up more preventative measures around campus to help better prepare for storms such as this one while continuing what they already have in place.

According to Chief Facilities Officer Robin Burr, the U will be using multiple sump pumps around campus, even installing them permanently in certain areas.

A sump pump is a device, often found in basements, used to remove water after incidents of flooding. Water is collected through a building’s drainage system and deposited in the basin of the building’s sump pump, where it is then pumped out.

Facilities will also be updating some landscaped areas around campus.

“We learned that wood chips can travel a long distance in a flood, and they clog up storm drains,” Burr said. “Small rocks do a better job of staying in place.”

For future flood prevention, the Campus Facilities will be further evaluating campus’ stormwater infrastructure.

To learn more about these preventative measures, visit the Campus Facilities website.

d.oldroyd@dailyutahchronicle.com

@oldroyd_devin

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I’m not an experiment

I had a hookup late Saturday night with a man I had just messaged over Grindr half an hour before.

I was inspired by my friend to finally make a move — partially because I was hanging out with her before two of her hookups, and we were trying to have a “twinning” moment by hooking up with someone in the same night. I realized that my Tinder matches of 30 or more miles away would not cut it; I needed someone quick and accessible.

Even though I did not end up hooking up with someone the same night as my friend, I finally found someone the very next night. It was around midnight and I was heading home from my other friend’s going away party when I stopped in a dark neighborhood close to my house and decided to give Grindr one more chance. And to my surprise, it worked.

I messaged a man around 12:30 a.m. and got to his apartment at around 1:00 a.m. On the way over, my body was shaking uncontrollably. My past hookups have always come to me, and this was the first time I was entering someone else’s place and doing anything this late at night. Before I came over, he mentioned that this would be his first time doing anything with a man, which in some ways worried me.

The sex only lasted around half an hour, but I didn’t really do much of anything beyond giving him head until he came.

We tried anal, but he quickly became soft, which is why I resorted to giving head. And while I know that it was not necessarily because of me, I still felt as though I failed. I failed at giving him the experience he wanted, or perhaps wanted to try. Queer sex did not seem like something that enticed him, and I felt somewhat ashamed.

Normally, I don’t think sexual attraction is necessary for a hookup, but there is something incredibly validating if someone wants to have sex with me even if they are desperate. But this man was not desperate, and from the moment we started talking, I realized that there was no attraction between us in the slightest. The hotness of the moment was completely drained as I realized the gap between us.

In some ways, it felt as though I were having sex with a straight man; I was his experiment — a body for him to use. And it’s not that I mind being a body, but I felt a certain level of indifference from him toward me but not the same indifference of my other hookups. I do not want to say that he isn’t queer or that he was just bicurious because no one can ever truly know another person’s sexuality, but I will say that his queerness and my queerness were not the same.

Whereas my other hookups were already established within their queerness, he was new to everything and surprised by my use of sex toys, but not in a way that indicated attraction. Rather, he was unknowledgeable of anal play and queer sex and had an aversion to sex toys and jockstraps, whereas I was entrenched in these things.

Queerness — or more specifically in my case, gayness — was always something that was attached to me. I walked throughout my life as a gay boy, whether I wanted to be labeled that way or not, but he had just newly emerged or perhaps was just experimenting with queerness. Hooking up with this guy made me realize how alone I actually am in my experiences, and how queerness failed to unite us. The gap was too obvious for me that it ripped me from my hookup fantasy and again reminded me of my own position as an outsider.

This is not to place blame on my hookup nor is it to say that he was a bad person; the situation just happened at the wrong moment. He was actually pretty nice and understanding when we were talking and was curious about the “gay scene,” as he had called it. Still, when talking about queerness with him, he seemed to talk about it as if it were not a part of himself, and while I appreciated the short conversation, I realized that we were incompatible at that moment in time.

He still needed to figure out his own sexuality and attraction, and he needed to view himself as queer before I could ever relate to him. Of course, I am not saying that he has to do anything, but rather, I wish him luck in his journey. I do believe that if we had met at a different time in his sexual exploration, our experience would have been better and there would have been more of a mutual understanding.

In the future, I don’t want to be someone’s experiment. But this is not to say that I discourage people to experiment with queerness; rather, I think it’s necessary to explore one’s sexuality and I encourage more people to learn about themselves. I just don’t want to be constantly reminded of my own isolation as a gay man and the struggles I experienced coming into queerness when all I wanted was some fun.

Joaquin Najera writes the Tuesday column on sex. Contact him at sex@dailycal.org.

The Daily Californian

JUSTIN HALL AT THE MOVIES

This week on “Justin Hall At The Movies,” I’ll be reviewing director M. Night Shyamalan as he places a group of people on a mysterious beach where they become “Old.”

“Old” is writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, but it might as well be called his latest disappointment. He once again crafts an intriguing premise, but it’s let down by being in the usual trappings of pretentiousness, ludicrous payoffs, and especially unintentionally hilarious.

The movie stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps as a married couple who are about to be divorced and they take their kids on a last vacation. Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie costar as their kids.

They go to a tropical resort with a private beach as recommended by the resort’s manager and while they’re visiting, they encounter other people also exploring the beach including a doctor (Rufus Sewell) and his wife (Abby Lee) and their daughter (Eliza Scanlen). Others include another physician (Ken Luang) and his epileptic wife (Nikki Amuka-Bird).

Soon after they’re on the beach, strange occurrences take place such as the married couples’ two kids rapidly aging into teens. The rest of the party tries to make sense out of the predicament, but oftentimes, they’re left with more questions than answers. So are we.

Other nonsensical moments including an increasing amount of disturbing behavior that leads to the party trying to kill off one another and one character’s revelations are so ridiculous that we don’t even care when it’s revealed. That’s how I felt about a lot of Old.

As I mentioned, Old is filled with moments of unintentional hilarity and seems to be a specialty of Shyamalan’s. Idiotic dialogue and plot twists around in a way that only either make us howl with laughter or roll our eyes. No sense of shock or amazement is to be found. Here’s another example of a good cast and a great production put under the services of a lame script.

Old is appropriately named because we feel like a lot of moments are lethargic in nature and when it’s not that, it’s odd, scare-free, silly, and just when we hope there’s a method to the madness, we realize there’s only madness.

Grade: C-

(Rated PG-13 for strong violence, disturbing images, suggestive content, partial nudity and brief strong language.)