Zoom calls and livestreams on Instagram and Facebook have become part of most people’s daily routines, taking the place of lectures, meetings, special events and even workout sessions.
While quarantined, many students have taken to their Instagram stories, posting bingo cards, motivational quotes and songs they’re listening to. Junior marketing and entrepreneurship major Sam Christie had a different idea. A lover of all sorts of games, Christie started having regular game nights with his friends earlier this semester. When he had to go back to his hometown of Brentwood, Tennessee, he was disappointed he wouldn’t be able to continue the game nights, especially the one he had planned for his birthday.
In a classroom on the second floor of Upham Hall sit 10 students. They drum their fingers on desks, bob their heads and tap their feet while the song “Heading Out to the Highway” by Judas Priest plays. Instead of the regular sounds of muted lectures and shuffling students, the raw chords of the song reverberate throughout Upham’s hallways. At the front of the room, the music video dances across the whiteboard. This is what a meeting looks like for Miami’s heavy metal club known as the Newly Woken Organization Based on Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). The name is a nod to certain metal subgenres like NWOTHM (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal).
On Friday, March 13, Miami University President Greg Crawford sent an email to the student body informing them that a return to face-to-face instruction would not be possible this semester. This announcement displaced many students in dorms, who were initially urged to move out by March 27. In an updated email from Dean of Students Kimberly Moore, students were informed that residence halls would close a week sooner, on March 21. Students may only stay on campus if absolutely necessary.
Since the release of her debut album in 2015, Ashley Frangipane has made a name for herself as singer-songwriter Halsey. Halsey has been known to focus each of her projects around a fictional place associated with a certain sound and concept. Her EP took fans to “Room 93,” her first album to “Badlands” and her second album to “Hopeless Fountain Kingdom.” “Manic” was released on Jan. 17, and it breaks the mold that her previous projects fit. Rather than a place, the album simply explores the self: self-love, self-destruction, self-acceptance and self-contempt.
Being by myself felt like I was behind the game. It felt embarrassing. But I reminded myself that, in reality, every new student had the same anxieties I did and were too busy worrying about themselves to even think about what I was doing.
High school dances may be a cesspool of sweat and hooligans, but one dance I went to will always hold a special place in my heart. When I was a sophomore in high school, my school held a masquerade-themed Winter Formal. Traditionally, it was a girls-ask-guys dance, but I went with a few of my friends.
As I scrolled through my Twitter timeline last week, I noticed a lot of tweets about Billie Eilish, something not out of the ordinary for the past few months. After releasing her debut album in March 2019, Eilish quickly rose to fame. The hot topic trending on Twitter this time? Her first time at the Grammys. At the 62nd Grammy Awards on Jan. 26, Eilish was the star of the night, winning five of the six awards for which she was nominated. She became the youngest person to ever win Album of the Year and the second person (and first woman) to ever win the Big Four: Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best New Artist.
One thousand six hundred and twenty-five miles south of Oxford, five Miami University students spent a week of their J-term submerged in the Caribbean Sea. From Jan. 11-19, members of the Miami Scuba Diving and Snorkel Club took a trip to Tom Owens Caye, an island 25 miles from mainland Belize, to delve, dive and help preserve the ocean.
Nine tables heaped with cucumbers, peppers, onions and tomatoes, pitas, hummus and chickpeas filled the space in Armstrong Pavilion C, accented by a spread of Hershey’s chocolate bars, honey, sunflower butter and strawberry jam.
