by Kathryn Farris | Dec 2, 2020 | COVID-19, News Slider
As of Nov. 29, Davidson County has 2,900 active cases of COVID-19. This increases the number of cases that Nashville has had since the start of the pandemic to 46,000. Concerns over hospital capacity and the number of cases per 100,000 residents have led the mayor’s office to implement new restrictions, some of which could affect Lipscomb in the upcoming months. “For the last several of weeks our number of cases have inching up,” says Kim Chaudoin, assistant vice president for public relations and communication at Lipscomb. “We’ve had about three or four weeks where our numbers have really spiked…it’s interesting because it seems like there’s a correlation with as Nashville’s numbers have increased, ours have too.” Over the past few weeks, Lipscomb’s COVID-19 numbers have steadily climbed from zero cases the week of Nov. 2 to 33 cases in the last set of reported numbers on Oct. 23. This rise in cases and the increasing number of students in quarantine prompted Lipscomb to discourage students from returning after Thanksgiving break. “I get that [the correlation of Nashville and Lipscomb cases] makes sense because we have a lot of students who live off campus, people go to eat, they go to church and do a lot of activities,” added Chaudoin. As students go online for the remainder of the semester and most students are now at home, campus cases are sure to decrease. However, the continued national and local increase in cases could signify changes in Lipscomb’s plans for graduation and the upcoming semester. Chaudoin says “the logical question might be what happens with graduation in December and I think we’re just going to kind...
by Kathryn Farris | Nov 17, 2020 | News, News Slider, Politics
For many across the world, the 2020 presidential election has come to a close. After former Vice President Joe Biden was called as the projected winner last Saturday morning, his supporters rejoiced in the streets. Since then, many world and religious leaders have acknowledged Biden’s victory, yet current President Trump has not yet conceded and is exploring legal avenues to hold onto the presidency. “I mean it’s a pretty complicated issue but there were over 300 lawsuits that were filed prior to election day. Those kind of ran the gamut, but mostly the concerns were in regard to the changing rules surrounding elections, the presidential election obviously specifically,” said Dr. Susan Haynes of Lipscomb’s political science department. “Basically, the efforts that states were making, and the changes that they were making in light of the pandemic really faced a lot of legal scrutiny.” Last Saturday, President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani stood before the later viral backdrop of Four Seasons Total Landscaping to claim [without current evidence] that Joe Biden’s victory in Pennsylvania was due to voter fraud. The conversation of voter fraud is a huge proponent of Trump’s argument against current election results, yet currently, there remain substantial claims. “At this point, there has not been evidence of systematic fraud,” says Haynes on the allegations “I think that what’s being reported right now is pretty idiosyncratic and singular. However, I do know that in Georgia the margin at least as of yesterday was 7000 votes and the Governor wants to have a manual recount.” “Those types of efforts are done because the idea is that the manual recount is kind of one of the most...
by Kathryn Farris | Nov 4, 2020 | BREAKING NEWS, News, News Slider, Politics
Tuesday night, Americans turned their eyes upon electoral maps and social media updates in order to catch a glimpse of the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election. However, a pandemic-caused increase in mail-in-ballots has led to uncertainty in certain swing states on who will take the victory. Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania are among “swing states” currently dominating headlines because of unreported ballots. However, what is clear is that this race will be far from a landslide for either candidate. The close race will likely be decided in the coming week and could be legally disputed. Wisconsin is currently favoring Biden, yet 5 percent of the vote has yet to be counted. However, the majority of those uncounted votes are from mail-in-ballots which have statistically favored democrats. Michigan is currently favoring Biden, yet officials say it could be until Friday Nov. 6th for all ballots to be processed and counted. Georgia is favoring Trump, but the race could come down to a number of votes and Georgia Democrats remain optimistic due to uncounted mail-in-ballots from blue counties. Pennsylvania currently favors Trump, yet officials have held that it could take up to Nov. 6th for final numbers. Nevada currently has only 67 percent of the vote in. The state went blue for Clinton in 2016, but Joe Biden currently maintains a lead of only 8 thousand votes. Political science professor, Dr. Susan Haynes talked with us on the instance that a decision wasn’t made on election day. “The constitution does have deadlines and dates, which you have the general election, and then you have the electors of the electoral college...
by Kathryn Farris | Nov 2, 2020 | News, News Slider, Politics
As the reality of the upcoming election sets in, uncertainty about what the night will look like sets in across the nation. During a global pandemic, the US has had an increase in the number of mail-in-ballots, resulting in questions over when exactly we’ll know our next president. “I’ve read about several scenarios, and nobody really has a definitive answer about it,” says Dr. Marc Schwerdt of Lipscomb’s political science department. “Either the victory is going to be by a razor-thin margin, or we really don’t have a good handle on exactly what turnouts going to be like, and you’ll be able to see a fairly significant victory.” So far, voters have cast more than 94 million ballots for this election, a number that makes up more than 68% of voter turnout in the 2016 presidential election. In Texas, a possible swing state for this year’s election, voter turnout has already exceeded that of 2016. Schwerdt believes that the record number of early voters can be contributed to a rise in total turnout but also fears over Covid-19, he says “Certainly, we are having record early voter turnout, but I think it’s also driven a lot by people who are scared that if they try to go on election day, they’ll have a higher risk of catching something,” “This is happening especially among older voters or maybe more vulnerable voters who have a pre-existing condition of some sort. I also think we will see higher turnout because that just seems to be the trend for the last two or three elections.” However, Schwerdt doesn’t see this record turnout favoring one candidate over another. “What’s concerning...
by Kathryn Farris | Nov 1, 2020 | Arts and Entertainment, News Slider
The tradition of Halloweek dodgeball remained strong at Friday night’s SAB tournament, despite an era of social distancing and masks causing a switch-up for the Lipscomb favorite. This year’s dodgeball tournament was moved to Allen Arena to better socially distance. This year’s winners were the “Belmont Boys,” a group of five Lipscomb sophomores aiming to poke fun at our neighbors up the boulevard. “It feels good. We worked really hard and put a lot of work into this, we came prepared and we got the job done,” said the group after their win. The “Belmont Boys” are comprised of Greyson Isenberg, Cody Neill, Blake Crockett, Jeffrey Martin and Jackson Tate. “It really just comes down to execution. We had a plan, so we came out and got the job done.” A gallery of the event, including groups dressed as grandmas, yoga enthusiasts and rednecks, can be found...
