Our Take: 4.5/5 Stars

Over the past two weeks, Twitter has seemingly been overrun with screenshots of cute animal animated characters living on a deserted island. From the outside, “Animal Crossing” may not seem like much. For people who have not played any installments in the game title, it probably looks like all there is to do is fish, catch bugs and be enslaved to a capitalistic raccoon. While those are some of the main features of the game, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” offers much more to those who have picked up the title to pass the time during quarantine. 

“Animal Crossing” is not exactly a traditional “gamer’s” game. There is no big final boss you have to defeat. There are no violent cut scenes featuring the villagers kicking each other off ledges. Instead, players take the game day-by-day with the deserted island they are plopped onto. Upon starting “Animal Crossing: New Horizons,” it is up to users to create and customize the game into their own virtual getaway. 

After picking an island layout and meeting the first two animal villagers that will embark on the journey with users, players get to scrounge around for natural resources to craft into furniture and essential tools. The crafting aspect of the game is new to the series, and while it comes with opportunities to customize item colors and allows the players some autonomy to obtain items beyond what is offered in the shop, there is one major drawback. The crafted tools frequently break, and do so at some of the most annoying times, including when players have spent their hard-earned “Nook Miles” to travel to another island to do some resource mining. 

One major improvement to New Horizons is the new inventory system. For older fans of the game, seeing the dreaded “my pockets are full already!” message right in the middle of fishing or digging up fossils was always an annoying and unwelcome sight. Now, players have the ability to expand their inventory capacity by purchasing the “Ultimate Pocket Organizing Guide” with Nook Miles. On top of this, the game now automatically stacks different items, such as fruits, weeds, tree branches and other important crafting supplies.

In older titles, players had to manually shift their inventory around to stack and maximize space while playing the game, but it is now organized for them. Because of this, players can spend more time freely playing the game without having to constantly check their pocket space. While these new features of the game may go unnoticed by new players to the series, they show a slight improvement in the player experience in comparison to the previous games. 

For novice players just picking up “Animal Crossing” for the first time, “New Horizons” serves as an incredibly satisfying gaming experience for multiple reasons. With daily mini-goals, such as catching five bugs, talking to three neighbors or stopping by the “Nook Stop” incentivizing players to log on every day, the game can quickly become incredibly attention-grabbing. Add on a daily rotating furniture and clothing shop collection and the vast freedom to customize the island, the game consistently leaves players coming back for more. 

For those wishing they could go outside and be closer than six feet to their friends and significant others, the game offers a very stripped multiplayer experience. By inviting others to their island, players can enjoy a nice stroll through the beautifully designed museum exhibits that will make players feel like they are at Fernbank with their boo-thang again. 

However, a setback in the game that will hopefully be fixed as updates are released, is the lack of any real multiplayer functions within the game. Besides mailing each other letters and fishing next to each other, players who choose to utilize the island visiting function do not really have much to do. Some players have gotten creative and made their own “olympic games” through the terraforming feature that allows players to create land areas from scratch, but other than that players are left to figure out how to entertain their guests themselves.

Perhaps the feature of the game that reels in the most players to spend hours playing is the relationships formed with their fellow islanders. The animals within the game are some of the most loved video game characters of any Nintendo game series. Despite many viral social media posts depicting players bullying their “ugly” villagers to force them to move off the island, most players love and cherish their daily conversations and interactions with their villagers. Animal neighbors will always be there to cheer players up by giving them items and engaging in riveting conversations about whatever they have chosen to obsess over, be it working out or becoming a famous celebrity. Their personalities give life to the game and make the player feel like their daily presence really matters. 

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons” is the perfect game for anybody wanting an escape from the real world. The game has no overall objective, so there is no wrong way to play it. This is for game lovers that want to spend their days harvesting fruit trees, fishing and catching tarantulas to pay off their debts and flex their creative skills to renovate their island getaway. If players want to just talk to their villagers and spend the rest of the day listening to the waves of the ocean crash at their feet, they can do that too. With the game having no real ending, the possibilities are endless. 

Our Take: 4/5 Stars

This Friday, following a seven year long hiatus, The Strokes dropped their sixth LP “A New Abnormal.” The record’s title could not have been more auspicious given the current chaotic state of the world. Nearly two decades ago, The Strokes released their debut album “Is This It.” They garnered overnight success with songs “Last Nite” and “Someday,” which would later go down as indie rock anthems. The Strokes had a major hand in making indie alternative rock the genre it is today. The insurgence of this genre breaking through to mainstream media and radio can be affixed to their undeniable popularity. In the early 2000s and 2010s, it was nearly impossible to not hear “Last Nite” at a school dance, and practically everyone knew the name Julian Casablancas, the band’s lead singer and early 2000’s “It” boy. Whether audiences love or hate them today, no one can deny the impact and influence that they have had on many other celebrated bands like The Arctic Monkeys and The Vaccines. 

It is evident that over the course of the band’s six-album discography, not every record was a hit. Sure, they lost their way in the middle of their career, but most importantly they found their way back. Their most recent release “The New Abnormal” is a mature and focused effort. It is the band’s most concentrated sound yet. After listening to just one track off the new album, it is apparent that The Strokes have not changed themselves to keep up with the times. “The New Abnormal” still holds onto the integrity of rock while reminding listeners of the alternative, indie feel they know and love. 

The best track off the album hands down is “Eternal Summer.” Flowery and magnetic, it will put listeners in a trance. The majority of the song’s weight sits in the lap of Casablancas and his unfiltered falsetto, while the steady guitar licks keep a good pace and mimic a summer fantasy. “Eternal Summer” feels like sitting on the roof on the hottest day of summer or walking back from the neighborhood pool. 

Another standout song off the album is the up-tempo track “Brooklyn Bridge to Chorus.” This is the perfect song to throw on when getting ready to go out. The track feels hopeful and full of possibilities, much like the feeling most people have when they are about to hit the town. This song features techno vibes, yet does not lose The Stokes’ alternative rock sound. One thing that stands out is the fact that the track’s instrumentation does not play second fiddle to its lyricism in the way that many radio-friendly songs of the same genre do. 

One of the final tracks to check out on this album is “The Adults Are Talking.” This song playfully pays homage to The Strokes’ debut and highly acclaimed album “Is This It.” It features Casablancas’s casual and laid back vocals over top steady and repetitive guitar chords. This is not a musically impressive song, but it is clean and uncomplicated. It follows the same formula that has provided them with monumental success in the past. 

The Strokes have found a way to maintain their popularity over the course of twenty plus years without losing the sound that makes them, them. After their most recent release “The New Abnormal,”  they have proven to be one of the last few rock bands not to sell out. It is clear that The Strokes adhere to the sentiment that “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” and that, although the world of music is evolving, The Strokes will stay true to themselves no matter what.  

Jane Austen’s perfectly crafted satire on perfectionism and meddling, “Emma.,” has been adapted once again for the big screen. Director Autumn de Wilde’s (“The Postman Dreams”) 2020 adaptation of “Emma.” is yet another example of a timeless tale claiming a front-and-center spot in modern filmmaking — and proving that it deserves it.

Featuring many young, up and coming actors, “Emma.” sets itself up for success. Anya Taylor-Joy (“Split”) is Emma Woodhouse, a young woman in Georgian England who Austen pens as “handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition.” At the surface, Emma is all of these admirable qualities — yet de Wilde’s adaptation seeks to establish her obvious flaws. In the opening scene, Emma’s privilege and arrogant nature are on full display when she snaps at a maid in pursuit of the perfect flower. 

This time, de Wilde updates the beloved novel with a setting fit for a game of Candyland or the spinning teacups at Disneyland. The bright, colorful palette of the film is the first thing that catches the viewer’s eye, but what truly draws them in is the perfectionism that the protagonist, Emma, possesses — or believes she possesses.

Emma herself is all about appearances — she comes across as snobby and arrogant very early in the film — and she clearly believes herself to be infallible. de Wilde sheds light on the importance of appearances beautifully in the cinematography and set design. The film is captivating. It is hard to look away from the picturesque pastels and perfectly symmetrical lines which make the film aesthetically stunning. The setting is an overly-idealized version of what most daydreams of 19th century England look like. 

Yet, Austen’s satire of this overtly perfect, covertly flawed dreamland is still present. de Wilde’s film is strengthened by providing opportunities for its protagonist to be criticized, making “Emma.” charmingly imperfect. Despite her high opinion of herself, de Wilde makes sure that the audience sees Emma trip up from time to time. 

Emma’s main strength, at least in her opinion, is her matchmaking. She seeks to maintain her perfect record of pairing her friends with suitors by finding a match for Harriet, played by Mia Goth (“Highlife”). Here, once again, Emma’s faults are on full display as she mistakenly ruins her friend’s chances at love by encouraging her to turn down a suitor in favor of one that Emma believes is better. Though she thinks she knows it all, viewers come to see that she knows painfully very little (like any 21-year-old would). 

The protagonist finds her counterpart in one who is very counter to who she is. Mr. Knightly, played by Johnny Flynn (“Clouds of Sils Maria”), strongly opposes Emma throughout the film. He challenges her antics and attempts to make Emma aware of her own faults. He is unabashedly critical of her and honest about the ways Emma is no better than anyone else. It is in that realization, that Emma herself is not spectacular and perfect, but rather human and flawed, that Mr. Knightley — and the audience — find Emma’s true charm. 

It is comforting to see that amidst the beauty of de Wilde’s film scene, that realistic mistakes and faults are still at the forefront. “Emma.” does not use its picture-perfect setting and color palette to disguise its shortcomings; rather, it uses these things to elevate it. The laughter and enjoyment of the film come at the recognition that everything, even Emma, is anything but perfect. 

The film’s setting serves as a foil to the mistakes of its main character, and Emma is made even more endearing and lovable through her journey to self-awareness and acknowledgement of her lack of perfection. 

Autumn de Wilde’s “Emma.” is available to stream now for $19.99 on Amazon Prime Video, YouTube and Google Play.

Nobel prize-winning singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has appeared to be in effective retirement since the release of his last album of original music, 2012’s “Tempest.” Granted, he has toured continuously and released three cover albums in the intervening period, but Dylan’s true work has always been the writing.

On March 27, though, Dylan showed the music world that he still has something to offer, releasing on his YouTube channel a previously unreleased song titled “Murder Most Foul.” It is just one song, and it is unclear when it was recorded, but the track is an emphatic declaration that Dylan is not done developing musically.

“Murder Most Foul” is possibly Dylan’s most ambitious song to date. The 17-minute epic starts as an elegy reacting to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and goes on to explore the tumultuous era of the 1960s counter-culture movement in the same tone.

Lyrically, Dylan almost uses the song to present a historical thesis — that the conflict that defined the 1960s began with Kennedy’s assassination — in a deeply sentimental, elegiac style. Dylan describes Woodstock and Altamont with the same tone, with which he describes the titular murder and sings that 1963 ushered in “the age of the anti-Christ.”

Still, “Murder Most Foul” is not Dylan rebelling against the movement and the era that birthed his career. While he likens the strife of that era to an apocalyptic age, he alludes to the great music of the time as a reaction to the conflict, as the product of young people trying to make sense of the terror of the unraveling world. Dylan whispers to the age’s children “you’ll soon understand / The Beatles are coming they’re gonna hold your hand.”

The lyrics of “Murder Most Foul” are packed with allusions to the era’s pop culture, and diehard Dylan fans will spend years analyzing the track to uncover its secrets. Still, possibly the most interesting aspect of the song is its instrumentation.

Musically, “Murder Most Foul” might seem to most Dylan fans to be a complete left turn, a wholesale departure from the artist’s previous style. It is even tempting to describe the song as completely unlike anything Dylan has released before.

The track features a soft, delicate backing of piano, violin and percussion which feels almost like the instrumental backing to a dramatic play’s central monologue. The music sets the tone and nothing more, leaving Dylan’s vocals free to do their work.

As unique as the music is, the style is not without precedent in Dylan’s discography. In fact, there are obvious similarities between “Murder Most Foul” and the last track on “Tempest,” “Roll on John.” The music in that track — which bears lyrical similarities to “Murder Most Foul” as well, recounting the death of Dylan’s friend John Lennon — is similarly sparse and spiritual, though it does exhibit slightly more flourish and melody than the new track. With “Roll on John” as a data point, Dylan’s progression to “Murder Most Foul” feels natural and continuous.  

Dylan fans have been starving for eight years, but they finally have a new bone to chew on. With the lyrical depth and simple instrumental beauty that “Murder Most Foul” has to offer, fans should be satisfied for a good while.

Since March 23, Tech’s Stamps Health Services has recorded 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the campus community. In addition, Tech has collaborated with federal and state officials to offer a rapid testing site for COVID-19.

“We are proud to put our motto of Progress and Service into action in this way to serve the city, our state and the region,” stated a press release from the Institute.

The new rapid testing site on campus is located at the North Campus Parking Deck, where GTPD has collaborated with the Office of Emergency Services and CVS Health to offer COVID-19 testing for at-risk individuals. 

This location was chosen in order to provide an area for testing and waiting for results while maintaining social distancing guidelines. Because campus has transitioned to an online-only format for the remainder of the spring semester as well as the summer semester, Tech expects no resulting congestion in this area.

More information can be found at cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing.  

The testing serves all Georgia residents, but COVID-19 has also impacted both students and staff of Tech. Out of the 19 confirmed cases, 12 are students while the remaining seven are staff members. 

The cases are being updated daily at noon on health.gatech.edu/coronavirus/health-alerts.

According to the health alerts page, Stamps Health Services states that while they “understand the concerns and fear around COVID-19, it is important to remember that the risk of exposure remains low.”

For many of the students affected, their symptoms began after they left campus for spring break. Most of these students have not returned to campus, and as a result, there is no impact on campus. 

On-campus Greek housing has been impacted by some of these cases. One alert states that after learning that a student living in a Greek house tested positive, “the affected house was closed immediately upon notification and remains closed indefinitely.” 

After traveling for spring break and beginning to feel ill, one student returned to his fraternity house. Once he received confirmation that he had COVID-19, he and his housemates began to isolate in separate rooms in the house.

A third house was affected when a “staff member had limited contact with those moving out of the sorority house last week. Sorority members are being notified and no one else remains in the residence with the staff member.”

Any students, staff or faculty who have tested positive for COVID-19 are advised to immediately contact Stamps Health Services and self isolate for at least 14 days.

While many neglect to think about where their disposable coffee cup or styrofoam take-out container will go after being thrown in a trash or recycling bin on campus, the lifecycle of materials plays a pivotal role in the health of the environment. 

For Campus Recycling Coordinator Emma Brodzik, the lifecycle of materials after being thrown in a recycling bin has always interested her.  

“Even when I was younger, I always made sure my parents recycled,” said Brodzick. “And when we moved to Georgia, our neighborhood didn’t have a collection, so I would force [my parents] to take me to have it dropped off and drive the recyclables.” 

During her time as an undergraduate student at Georgia College, Brodzik worked for the university’s Office of Sustainability. 

“They oversaw the recycling and waste programs, so I got even more involved with … the waste side of sustainability,” Brodzik explained.

Before working at Tech, Brodzik also managed a waste and recycling program for commercial properties, like malls and office buildings. 

“I got to learn a lot more of the operational side, which has really helped me here understanding a lot of the industry terminology, and not just the broader sustainable goals that recycling usually hits on,” said Brodzik.Here at Tech, Brodzik works in the Office of Solid Waste Management & Recycling. 

“Our office oversees the solid waste contracts for the campus,” said Brodzik. “We oversee the collection of landfill as well as recyclable material. Daily life is thinking about programs, how we can increase recycling, whether that’s with our traditional collection of materials or finding new pilot programs.”

Brodzik must work closely with several other departments to coordinate waste and recycling pick-up, including Dining Services, Housing and Residence Life and Environmental Health & Safety (EHS). 

Her work with EHS is to collect batteries for recycling since batteries are considered to be a hazardous material. Public-facing drop off locations for the batteries are in Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons, Crosland Tower and West Village Dining Commons. 

Brodzik also manages styrofoam collection on campus. 

“The styrofoam pilot started in July 2019 and we have collected about 900 pounds of styrofoam,” said Brodzik. “That’s a lot considering that it doesn’t weigh very much at all.”

Most of the styrofoam is collected during move-in, as well as from the Engineering Biosystems Building and Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, from styrofoam coolers used to supply lab equipment. 

Besides these specialty programs, most of the Tech community utilizes general recycling. A defining characteristic of the Tech recycling program is that almost all on-campus recycling is source separated.

“That means all of our materials are kept separate from one another and in each of their categories,” said Brodzik. “So the plastic is kept separate from the aluminum, and paper or cardboard are all kept separate.”

There are a few exceptions to this system, namely some single-stream recycling bins. These bins are used outside the on-campus housing and on game days and are not source separated. Single-stream recycling has become a controversial topic in recent years for several reasons. 

“If you just generally say recycling to someone, they may not know every material,” Brodzik explained. “When you break it down into source-separated, everything is labeled more precisely, so it takes some of the guesswork out of it.”

Single-stream recycling often lends itself to people accidentally mixing trash with recyclables. 

“A lot of times people have the mentality of, ‘Oh, it’ll be sorted,’ because they do know that there is a recycling facility out there where this material is eventually going to go, and it’s going to go through some machines and some people,” said Brodzik.

Brodzik believes this is a dangerous misconception to have. 

“That’s not really the purpose of the sorting,” she said. “It mainly was created to just separate the different recyclables from one another and is not really separating out trash or contamination.”

On Tech’s campus, one way Brodzik monitors contamination of recycling is through a waste audit.  

“It is with our work for RecycleMania, which is a national competition to kind of benchmark different universities with one another and kind of check in and see how your program is going,” Brodzik explained. “So we have to report our waste and recycling rates and that’s done through pounds of material every week.” 

Although the process can be labor intensive, it creates a useful snapshot of the effectiveness of the recycling program in different buildings. 

“Basically, we collect material — it’s usually about 24 hours worth of material to get a snapshot of what one day would look like — and we will pick through all of it,” Brodzik explained. “So we’ll first start by sorting all of the trash or landfill material, and we will see how much recycling is in the landfill.”

The same process will then be done with trash in the recycling bins. 

“We will sort everything, weigh, record all of that and then we’ll look at the percentage of contamination for each,” said Brodzik, who will then use these percentages based on weight to analyze how much cross contamination is present in a building. 

Although Brodzik acknowledged that contamination occurs on Tech’s campus, she still focused on the positives. 

“There’s been a lot of news about the negative side of contamination and how that’s been affecting recycling,” said Brodzik. “I think we’re doing everything we can to get people to understand that we do have a slightly different program where we have things sorted. It keeps things much more clean and we work really closely with our vendors to make sure the material we are getting is clean and that they are taking it to someone that will close that loop.”

Additionally, Brodzik shared the importance of communication within her team so everyone is on the same page. 

“We have our recycling crew, whose responsibility is to pull the recyclables just so there’s never confusion about where the material should go between different staff members, to kind of keep the communication between a smaller group to make sure the material gets to where it needs to go,” said Brodzik. 

In terms of outward communication with the public, the Office of Solid Waste Management & Recycling has re-started their Instagram account @recycle.gatech.  

Looking forward, Brodzik noted several areas for continued improvement on campus.  

“We always want to increase our volumes,” said Brodzik. “I think we have a fairly good handle on contamination, but just making sure that the recycling is accessible all times …  that wherever you go, you would have the option to recycle, or if you had multiple items, you would be able to sort the materials as landfill or recycling.”

To assist with this, Brodzik would like to create an inventory of all indoors bins to determine if certain buildings need more or less bins to increase accessibility. 

For now, Brodzik’s biggest piece of advice for the Tech community is to be more conscious of what is going into recycling bins and focus on cutting waste. 

“People often have a wishful thinking, which a lot of people call ‘wish-cycling,’ because as people are becoming more aware of their waste footprint, you don’t want to feel like you’re throwing things out or contributing to the landfill,” said Brodzik. “So they are hopeful in the fact that ‘If I send this material, it will be recycled,’ but a lot of times, they’re items that just aren’t recyclable, so it would be better to try to … eliminate some of those materials.”

According to a statement released by the Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard, Jr., the DA’s office has decided not to pursue criminal charges against Tyler Beck, the Georgia Tech Police Department officer who shot and killed Scout Schultz on September 17, 2017.

“The death of Scout Schultz is a tragedy of major dimension,” stated the press release. “Though, it is difficult to make exact psychological conclusions in such matters, all of the available evidence indicates Schultz decided to take [their] own life by provoking police officers to shoot [them].”

The release goes on to state the circumstances of the incident and provides a recommendation for further action.

“This case should cause police departments to require officers to receive additional training related to the arrest of citizens with psychological issues,” the statement said. “Additionally, this incident should encourage departments to purchase equipment such as bean bags, tasers, and other non-lethal weapons.”

In the years since Schultz’s death, GTPD’s Chief Robert Connolly ensured that all of its officers received Conflict Intervention Training, informed on LGBTQIA issues and equipped with a further arsenal of nonlethal weapons.

Beck has continued to work at GTPD in an administrative capacity as the three year investigation continued.

“Georgia Tech cannot comment on the District Attorney’s decision due to pending civil litigation,” said a statement from Institute Communications when asked for a comment from GTPD. “Officer Beck currently works in the GTPD office as a member of the administrative team.”

In September, 2019, the Schultz family filed a civil lawsuit against Tech, the Board of Regents and Beck himself, claiming that officers on scene were not trained to handle a mental health crisis. That lawsuit is still ongoing.

The attorney representing the Schultz family could not be reached for comment at this time. 

Editor’s Note: The Technique corrected the pronouns used in the provided DA statement to align with Scout’s pronouns. 

Riding a bicycle is an increasingly popular mode of transportation, and it comes with several benefits not just for the riders but also for their communities and even the world. An effective mode of transportation and exercise, biking can boost general health and wellbeing while also reducing one’s carbon footprint. This past semester, Tech’s campus saw many students use a bicycle to get to their classes, connect with others, exercise and have fun!

For its standards of biking infrastructure, education and events, the League of American Bicyclists have even named Tech a “Gold Level Bicycle Friendly University.” In fact, the Institute has created a “Bicycle Master Plan” that is gradually being set in motion. This plan, a comprehensive 104-page document available for free at space.gatech.edu/bicycle-master-plan, is gradually being put into effect. Its goal is to promote a more bike-friendly campus and to ensure the safety of cyclists and non-cyclists alike. 

The Institute hopes to achieve this goal by making biking more visible on campus, improving biking access to campus, developing and supporting bike culture, establishing dedicated funding and identifying and clarifying partner roles. The Technique spoke to Kristine Ferguson, fourth-year ENVE, who has worked for Outdoor Recreation at Georgia Tech for two years. 

More commonly referred to as ORGT, the group is a facet of the Campus Recreation Center (CRC) and is dedicated to promoting a healthy campus lifestyle by providing students with the resources they need for a wide range of outdoor activities, from kayaking to backpacking to many more. Fergusson shared her insight into Tech’s growing bicycle community as well as what can be done to make it even better. 

“I’d love to see more bike infrastructure around campus,” said Ferguson. 

From ORGT’s space in the CRC, students can even rent equipment. The group also organizes several mountain biking and bikepacking trips throughout each semester. Not only does the group host weekly meetings and biweekly night rides, it even offers opportunities for more experienced cyclists to go on higher adventure trips.

“In August, nine people are going to Newfoundland,” Ferguson shared. “They are going to bike across the island in Canada, so that’s going to be pretty fun!”

The city of Atlanta has also garnered attention for the prominent use of biking. As of 2016, Atlanta has been ranked by Bicycling Magazine as one of the top 50 biking cities. 

“There’s still a lot of infrastructure changes that the city and state need to make,” says Kris Dunbar, speaking about Atlanta’s bicycling infrastructure. An Atlanta resident for 25 years, Dunbar is the owner and lead technician for Aztec Cycles, based out of Stone Mountain Georgia, as well as Clutch Bicycle Shop in Atlanta’s West End. 

“The city has been making some leaps and bounds, with the Beltline, bike lanes, traffic speed limits,” Dunbar continued. “It’s slow and go, but the sad part about it is the initial infrastructure was never set up for bicycles so we’re working backwards.”

Dunbar also shared insight into Aztec Cycles, his mobile repair shop which has traveled all over the state, including Tech. In order to help students with bike repairs and tune-ups, Dunbar has transported Aztec Cycles to participate in the campus’s community market. Dunbar explained that flats, brake adjustments and gear adjustments are the most common repairs on campus. 

His advice for keeping your bike in tip-top shape? “Keep up with your air pressure and don’t leave it in the rain are the two most basic things you can do.” 

In late March, a petition began on Change.org to allow pass/fail classes at Tech. The author of the petition, “George Burdell”, cited five reasons why the university should move to a pass/fail option: students’ mental health, “willy nilly” class syllabi, unequal access to online learning, other schools’ policies in favor of pass/fail and disparate difficulty between classes. 

The author stated, “I do think it is not fair to grade us amidst a virus outbreak that nobody could have anticipated.” As of early April, the petition is nearing two thousand and five hundred supporters. The comments reveal a diverse range of signatories, from current students and concerned parents to fellow students from other universities. 

While a few stragglers used the opportunity to troll, several students commented with deeply personal concerns. One student brought up her ADHD, writing “I have now been forced to learn in a manner that is exceptionally difficult for me.” Another student signed, “Let our grades be a reflection of our ability, not our privilege this semester.” A similar petition at UGA gathered about nine thousand signatures.

Despite this, the University System of Georgia (USG) elected to not shift to a pass/fail option. On March 30, a spokesperson for USG said, “We trust our faculty to teach and grade students effectively. In times of adversity, we should reach higher, not lower.”

In solidarity with student sentiment, on March 31, the undergraduate Student Government Association (SGA) passed a resolution in favor of pass/fail. “I hoped to add another vital voice behind the movement to move to P/F grading scheme,” said Tolga Ustuner, chief author of the resolution. Echoing Tolga, Noah Shirk, another author of the resolution, added “The ability to opt-in to Pass/Fail also protects students who may require that classes be taken not Pass/Fail for scholarship eligibility, graduate school requirements, or other purposes.” 

The resolution, which passed unanimously, stated that since Georgia Tech moved to a distance-learning format on March 23, there were many reasons to support pass/fail. Many students did not have access to a fast, reliable internet connection. There was an “unfair burden on the students … to work through the communication barriers imposed upon them.”

Out of state and international students face the added difficulty of variable time zones. According to the authors, these circumstances would have unfair repercussions on students’ academic performance and mental health. Furthermore, the “trauma of having to move out,” and travel home while being socially isolated and fearing illness negatively impacted students’ well being. 

Like the petition, the resolution also noted policies at other engineering institutions, stating that forty seven out of fifty institutions had allowed students to choose between a pass/fail or letter grade option. The authors pointed out that while changes were being made to syllabi, the expectations to succeed in courses had changed substantially and students no longer had access to the same support essential for successful learning. With this in mind, the undergraduate SGA urged the Tech administration to allow a pass/fail option and engage with USG on behalf of its students. Among others, the resolution was distributed to the president of Tech, the USG Board of Regents and the chancellor of USG.

The fifty peer schools referred to in the SGA resolution above were compiled via a collaborative Google document developed by students. According to the document, all top fifty schools in U.S. News’ Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs have implemented some sort of pass/fail policy, with Tech being the sole exception. The anonymous authors of the document state, “Why do you stand by a USG statement that reeks of privilege, disregards underprivileged students, and calls it reaching higher, not lower? We deserve better than this.”

With both students’ and faculty’s lives being thrown into turmoil this semester, many are calling on President Ángel Cabrera to put his foot down and appeal to the USG Board of Regents. A student on Reddit writes, “When the needs of disadvantaged students at every single peer institution are being met, but those specifically at Georgia Tech cannot say the same, his silence is not acceptable.”

Last week, the Technique examined the 1992 horror film “Candyman,” which used an urban legend to allegorically depict racial inequities in Chicago. The next pick is not quite as laced with symbolism, but it is every bit as interesting to dissect.

One of the great filmmakers of the last few decades, Spike Lee is most commonly known for exploring American conceptions of race in movies such as “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X.” Prior to those works, his debut feature launched his career via its take on an independent young woman. The 1986 comedy “She’s Gotta Have It” details the three romances of Nola Darling — a carefree African American woman who refuses to be tied to any one man.

Crucial to the very essence of this movie is the remarkable central performance from Tracy Camilla Johns (“New Jack City”), who stars as Nola. Had it come out today, she might have quickly ascended into stardom, as opposed to the sparse filmography that she has to date. Nonetheless, her charm and wit take a role — one that could have been vilified in other hands — and supply that character with life, vibrance and total self-assurance.

An opening quote from Zora Neale Hurston’s writings sets the tone from the start. For men, romances are alike watching ships, hoping one might come to shore. Women, on the other hand, “forget all those things they don’t want to remember and remember everything they don’t want to forget.” This suggests that the central woman of “She’s Gotta Have It” follows her own whims and fancies, unguided by anything other than wants.

Facing the camera, Nola then tells the viewers that she only wants to clear her name, although she is unashamed of herself, suggesting that she does not believe in monogamy and that the men in her life knew “the deal.” The movie then cuts to the first of her lovers, Jamie Overstreet (Tommy Redmond Hicks, “The Meteor Man”), who refers to Nola as his soulmate. These opening moments call to mind similar romantic comedies like “Annie Hall” or “500 Days of Summer.” However, “She’s Gotta Have It” is quick to differentiate itself by placing the woman’s wants front and center.

Nola has two other suitors as well. Greer Childs (John Canada Terrell, “Def by Temptation”) is an attractive but self-absorbed model; Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee) is an unambitious but quippy ball of energy. Put aside the hopeless romantic Jamie, and the three pose as starkly different representations of men catching Nola’s eyes.

A male archetype, Greer obsesses over his own looks, physique and presentation. He brags constantly and seems to view Nola more as a trophy than a person. Although she certainly is attracted to his confidence, the woman frequently dismays at his self-obsession, sometimes mocking him. In one comedic sequence, she slowly loses interest when it takes him forever to get prepared for bed.

Everyone knows Mars Blackmon. He certainly leans on overly gendered notions in a lot of his behaviors and opinions. However, Mars’s irresistible charm constantly makes Nola smile and laugh, something that separates him from the others.

Jamie might be the most classically appealing, at least in a conservative sense. The man is well-dressed, even-tempered and courteous. But his civil mannerisms sometimes make him a boring suitor for Nola — an exuberant woman. Even worse, his “nice guy” characteristics belie his possessive attitudes and violent tendencies, as made apparent when he rapes Nola near the end of the film.

Through these men’s efforts and expressions, “She’s Gotta Have It” forms a rounded conception of courtship as seen through their eyes. This is augmented by a sequence of hilarious male pickup lines. To them, women are objects to catch and obtain. For romantics like Jamie, companions offer a dream-like euphoria, depicted remarkably in a dance sequence — the movie’s only scene in color.

Where one might feel sorry for them in a way, one thing is clear: Nola does not believe in monogamy. She told the viewers and the men from the beginning, and she never snuck around or hid anything. Some of the filmmaking choices also coincide nicely with the literal text of the movie.

“She’s Gotta Have It” is shot beautifully in black and white, 16-mm film. The color choice mirrors the facts as Nola sees them: as clear as black and white. Ernest Dickerson’s (“Do the Right Thing”) camera constantly gazes at Nola but is less adoring of her male counterparts.

Similarly, the movie has a charming jazz score, provided by Spike’s father, Bill Lee (“Jungle Fever”). The genre’s free-flowing liveliness and spontaneity match Nola’s personality.

The film’s ending has significance, too. After breaking things off with Mars and Greer, she returns to Jamie to try to make it work while she takes a break of celibacy. Always the fool, Jamie accepts her back.

Abruptly, it cuts back to Nola. She tells the camera that the celibacy did not last, and neither did her romance with Jamie. Crucially, she adds, “It’s about control — my body, my mind. Who is gonna own it, them or me? I am not a one-man woman.” As she proudly proclaims this, it is hard not to smile and admire her steadfast convictions and self-assurance.

Incessantly charming, Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It” triumphantly champions a woman who lives the life she wants — not the one society says she should.

Next week, the Technique will take a look at Ana Lily Ampour’s 2014 horror movie “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” which is an aptly titled vampire western. The Persian-language film is streaming for free on Kanopy, Hoopla and Shudder. Students can make a free Kanopy account on their website by either linking their Tech info or a public library card. The movie is also available for rental on YouTube, Google Play, Vudu and Apple.