Hello all,

I hope you are doing well and staying healthy during this confusing time. As the spring semester is coming to an end, Food Allergy Awareness is taking steps to prepare for the fall semester; specifically with board elections. 

Both Briana -the vice president- and I -the president- are graduating and will not be able to fulfill these required roles for the club to stay active. If you are interested in running for the vacant positions of president, vice president, secretary or against our current treasurer, please let me know by April 20th via email! The duties of each role are outlined below:

The duties of the President shall include:

• Chairing a committee

• Managing member retention and recruitment 

• Overseeing all committees

• Exploring and sharing the history of the organization

• serving as the organization's official representative for communicating with SGA and UMBC staff

• Additional duties as assigned in the bylaws

The duties of the Vice-president shall include:

• Developing and managing events 

• Developing and managing projects 

• assuming the role of President in the event of the President's absence or incapacity

The duties of the Treasurer shall include:

• Fundraising 

• Exploring and sharing the history of the organization

• managing the organization's funds and ensuring compliance with all financial rules and guidelines

The duties of the Secretary shall include:

• Managing communication within the organization 

• Managing member retention and recruitment 

• Managing public relations 

• Additional duties as outlined in the bylaws

Let me know by the 20th if you are interested in running or if you have any questions.

Madelyn Estrella

mestrel1@umbc.edu

FAA President

Guidelines for Fall 2020 Elections

1. Nominations for e-board will happen between April 16th-April 20th.

2. Nominations for e-board will be collected by email.

3. Candidates will give their speeches/response to a questionnaire by email to foodallergyawarenessclub.umbc@gmail.com.

a. What questions would you like each position to answer?

President (necessary):

What is your vision for Food Allergy Awareness and how would you promote change on and off campus? 

What ideas do you have for events, general body meetings etc? 

What makes you passionate about spreading food allergy awareness?

Vice President (necessary):

What is your vision for Food Allergy Awareness, and if that vision differs from the president, how would you navigate those differences?

What makes you passionate about spreading food allergy awareness?

Treasurer (necessary):

What is an idea you have for a fundraiser that promotes the club’s vision in spreading food allergy awareness? 

What makes you passionate about spreading food allergy awareness?

What do you think are the most important skills and traits for a treasurer?

Additional officers: Secretary, fifth member

4. Candidates speeches/answers to questions will be posted by April 23rd

5. Candidates speeches/answers to questions will be posted on MyUMBC

6. Elections will be taking place on April 24th-27th

7. Elections will be made available via Google Form and MyUMBC 

8. Election results will be made available by April 28th and via myUMBC and email. 

9. The election process will be sent out to all members by the 16th and made available via myUMBC and email. 

by Kathryn McKinley, Professor of English, UMBC

The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor.

The wealthy work remotely and flee to resorts or pastoral second homes, while the urban poor are packed into small apartments and compelled to keep showing up to work.

As a medievalist, I’ve seen a version of this story before.

Following the 1348 Black Death in Italy, the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a collection of 100 novellas titled, “The Decameron.” These stories, though fictional, give us a window into medieval life during the Black Death – and how some of the same fissures opened up between the rich and the poor. Cultural historians today see “The Decameron” as an invaluable source of information on everyday life in 14th-century Italy.

Boccaccio was born in 1313 as the illegitimate son of a Florentine banker. A product of the middle class, he wrote, in “The Decameron,” stories about merchants and servants. This was unusual for his time, as medieval literature tended to focus on the lives of the nobility.

“The Decameron” begins with a gripping, graphic description of the Black Death, which was so virulent that a person who contracted it would die within four to seven days. Between 1347 and 1351, it killed between 40% and 50% of Europe’s population. Some of Boccaccio’s own family members died.

In this opening section, Boccaccio describes the rich secluding themselves at home, where they enjoy quality wines and provisions, music and other entertainment. The very wealthiest – whom Boccaccio describes as “ruthless” – deserted their neighborhoods altogether, retreating to comfortable estates in the countryside, “as though the plague was meant to harry only those remaining within their city walls.”

Meanwhile, the middle class or poor, forced to stay at home, “caught the plague by the thousand right there in their own neighborhood, day after day” and swiftly passed away. Servants dutifully attended to the sick in wealthy households, often succumbing to the illness themselves. Many, unable to leave Florence and convinced of their imminent death, decided to simply drink and party away their final days in nihilistic reveries, while in rural areas, laborers died “like brute beasts rather than human beings; night and day, with never a doctor to attend them.”

After the bleak description of the plague, Boccaccio shifts to the 100 stories. They’re narrated by 10 nobles who have fled the pallor of death hanging over Florence to luxuriate in amply stocked country mansions. From there, they tell their tales.

One key issue in “The Decameron” is how wealth and advantage can impair people’s abilities to empathize with the hardships of others. Boccaccio begins the forward with the proverb, “It is inherently human to show pity to those who are afflicted.” Yet in many of the tales he goes on to present characters who are sharply indifferent to the pain of others, blinded by their own drives and ambition.

In one story, a dead man returns from hell every Friday and ritually slaughters a different woman who had rejected him during his lifetime. In another, a widow fends off a leering priest by tricking him into sleeping with her maid. In a third, the narrator praises a character for his undying loyalty to his friend when, in fact, he has profoundly betrayed him over many years.

Humans, Boccaccio seems to be saying, can think of themselves as upstanding and moral – but unawares, they may show indifference to others. We see this in the 10 storytellers themselves: They make a pact to live virtuously in their well-appointed retreats. Yet while they pamper themselves, they indulge in some stories that illustrate brutality, betrayal and exploitation.

Boccaccio wanted to challenge his readers, and make them think about their responsibilities to others. “The Decameron” raises the questions: How should the rich treat the poor during a time of widespread suffering? What is the value of a life?

In our own pandemic – with some of the most well-off now clamoring for the economy to re-open, despite the ongoing spread of the disease – these issues are strikingly relevant.

* * * * *

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

Kathryn McKinley, Professor of English, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Header image: A tale from The Decameron, by John William Waterhouse, Public Domain.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.