Beach Weekly S9E4: Fine Arts students protest building conditions, Tropical Storm Kay hits and Queen Elizabeth II dies

In Season 9: Episode 4 of Beach Weekly, we are taking a look at how recent weather events are impacting Long Beach State students, on-campus mask policies, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II. Southern California's record-breaking heatwave continued through last week, with temperatures reaching nearly 100 degrees on Long Beach State's campus. While all students are being affected by the extreme weather, Fine Arts students are experiencing it worse than most others. Buildings within the Fine Arts Department have lacked air conditioning since their construction in the 1950s, and Long Beach State has not attempted to improve building conditions amidst the recent heatwave. On Wednesday, Fine Arts students and faculty members staged a walkout of classes to protest the building conditions and demand action from the university. Daily Forty-Niner News Editor Hannah Shields provides more coverage of the walk-out and where the situation stands now for the Fine Arts Department. Tropical Storm Kay hit Southern California on Friday afternoon after traveling north along the coast from Baja California. Though initially categorized as a hurricane, Kay was downgraded to a tropical storm upon hitting California. An extremely rare occurrence, the storm brought rain, high winds, surf warnings, and slight flood damage in some areas. While many Long Beach State students and faculty members expected the in-class mask requirement to be lifted by now, the university has not mentioned any plans to do so. Mixed opinions are held about the policy, as mask-wearing is not required in many settings on campus and because Los Angeles County has not enforced indoor masking in most settings for several months. Long Beach State has not mentioned any plans of listing the mask policy for in-class settings. Queen Elizabeth II died last Thursday at the age of 96, after serving as Great Britain's monarch for more than 70 years. Though Queen Elizabeth worked to modernize British society and has seen the monarchy through the progress and turbulence of the last near-century, her legacy is laced with the reality of Britain's history of colonization and violent oppression of numerous Asian, African, Caribbean, and South American countries. Following Queen Elizabeth’s death, her son, Charles, has now been crowned King Charles III. Host: Isabel Silagy Guest Host: Hannah Shields Edited by: Calla Delos Reyes Like, comment, and follow us on your favorite platform for more content! Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beach-weekly/id1488484518?uo=4 Google Podcasts https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy9kMzEwMjEwL3BvZGNhc3QvcnNz Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4HJaqJep02kHeIQy8op1n1 Overcast https://overcast.fm/itunes1488484518/beach-weekly