4-22-2021

YDSA SIT-IN, 2 Thousands of students signed the campaign in support.

C ELEBRATIN G

THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 2021

LIVING LANDSCAPES, 3

NATURAL WONDERS, 4

NO JUSTICE, 5

BU Gastronomy talks food sovereignty.

It’s important to take time to appreciate the planet.

“I have not found solace in the aftermath of this trial.”

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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

J O U R NA LI S M

YEAR LI. VOLUME C. ISSUE XII

Boston University celebrates Earth Week in multiplatform plans Katarzyna Jezak Daily Free Press Staff Boston University has offered several Earth Day activities for students to participate in this week, including virtual events with BU Sustainability and BU Libraries, social media discussions and more.

Lisa Tornatore, the sustainability director of BU Sustainability, wrote in an email the organization’s plans for Earth Week were consistent with issues they have been working to address.

“Our focus this year will be on Environmental Justice and Zero Waste,” she wrote. “Two initiatives that will continue to be a focus for our organization in the coming months.”

As part of a four-part series on environmental justice virtual events that began in the Fall semester, the final panel discussion titled “Exploring Environmental Justice: Energy Justice in the Boston Area” Wednesday included policy experts and local community organizers, Tornatore wrote.

BU Sustainability’s Zero Waste Manager Kaity Robbins and Zero Waste Intern Maddy Scully will additionally be holding an Instagram Live discussion Friday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

WBUR, BU Initiative on Cities, BU Libraries and student organizations are also hosting Earth Daythemed activities as well, Tornatore

wrote.

Diana Ceballos, an assistant professor in the School of Public Health, is speaking at a Wikipedia Edit-aThon organized by BU Libraries Thursday. The virtual event will focus on topics related to environmental health.

The Edit-a-Thon is open to the public, and all participants will be provided with the training and resources necessary for successful Wikipedia editing.

Ceballos said she hopes the event will inspire undergraduates to learn more about environmental health while also providing people the skills to be volunteer Wikipedia editors.

“It’s a great way to serve the scientific community and the general public with disseminating scientific information,” Ceballos said.

She added there are many Wikipedia pages on topics related to environmental health that could be improved and expanded upon.

“You may find what nail polish is, right, but you may not find the implications on health or implications on users,” Ceballos said. “But in terms of … how that relates to your health, that is a little bit harder to find detail.”

Ceballos often gives her students Wikipedia editing assignments, she said, citing one student who pursued “blue spaces,” or areas dominated by water, as her topic.

“The page had pretty much just the bare definition, like a dictionary, and had nothing else, and she converted

into this whole developed page where she talks about examples of blue spaces,” Ceballos said. “You can pick something and always make it more interesting.”

Ethan Brown, a senior in the College of Communication, hosts The Sweaty Penguin, a comedic environmental podcast aiming to “depoliticize environmental issues and make them more accessible and fun.”

Since its launch in April 2020, Brown’s podcast has partnered with PBS’s national multiplatform climate initiative Peril and Promise.

Last week, the collaboration resulted in a special Earth Day episode discussing brownfields and Superfund sites — toxic waste sites with severe health and environmental impacts.

“These sites are disproportionately located in low-income and marginalized communities, Black and Latino communities, communities for whom English isn’t a first language,” Brown said. “That’s one of the big environmental injustices we see.”

He noted the problem has been worsened by climate change and the increased frequency of natural disasters in recent years.

“When you have extreme weather events like a hurricane or flood or a wildfire and it runs through a brownfield, then the toxins will spread into the community,” he said, “which obviously creates a lot of harmful health effects.”

Brown cited the global surge of vanilla prices in 2018 as an example

of how climate change affects everyone, which he said was “one of the most interesting episodes” the podcast had hosted.

“Madagascar got hit by a cyclone, which wiped out a large chunk of the world’s vanilla crop and the price skyrocketed,” he said. “There’s this volatility that’s happening all the time.”

Brown added climate change affects much more than people tend to realize.

“Climate change isn’t a future problem anymore,” Brown said. “I think seeing how climate change im-

pacts things that we interact with on a regular basis certainly makes it feel a little closer to home.”

Brown said he aims to teach listeners regardless of their political views, because environmental issues affect everyone and must be addressed.

“I think a lot of times with the way political polarization is today people aren’t on the same page as to what the environmental problems are,” Brown said. “If we agreed on what the problems are and we were debating solutions, that would be much more productive and lead to more environmental progress.”

ILLUSTRATION BY CONOR KELLEY | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Episode 42 of the Earth Day-themed Sweaty Penguin Podcast episode, which discussed brownfields and superfund sites. The podcast, along with virtual events by BU Libraries and BU Sustainability this week, allow students to engage with topics of environmental justice and zero waste for Earth Day.

Volunteers in the Boston-area create community fridges to fight food insecurity

LIBBY MCCLELLAND | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Mei Mei restaurant’s community fridge in Fenway. More than a dozen community fridges have appeared across greater Boston since September 2020 to fight food insecurity and waste.

Jesús Marrero Suárez Daily Free Press Staff

At 1471 Dorchester Ave., at 672 Centre St. in Jamaica Plain and at 420 Watertown St. in Newton stand three fridges. These are stocked at all moments of the day with healthy, free food. Anyone is welcome to donate what they can and take what they need.

Over a dozen community fridges have popped up in the city since September of last year, as part of a

grassroots movement to address food insecurity and waste in local communities, said Josiel Gonzalez, an organizer of Jamaica Plain’s community fridge.

“We need to start opening our hearts more instead of thinking about it from a wallet standpoint,” he said.

“That’s where we can start to see the shift when we put humanity first and not capitalism.”

Gonzalez had the idea of bringing a community fridge to Boston around June of last year, he said, after reading an article on a similar fridge in New York City. Joined by a group of like-minded volunteers organized on Slack channels, they brought their community a fridge.

At first, he said the goal was to keep the fridge stocked with fresh and nutritious foods — motivated by the prevalent problem of food waste and food insecurity, which had only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

“Especially considering that it’s a pandemic,” he said. “We want to make sure we keep our immune systems up. Giving people access to foods that are anti-inflammatory in nature was pretty important for us.”

Around 9% of Massachusetts residents were food insecure prior to the pandemic. That number is projected to have increased to 14%, or one in seven people, according to statistics by the Greater Boston Food Bank.

But approximately 30% to 40% of food is wasted in the United States, according to the Department of Agriculture.

“There’s always going to be a marginalized group the way our system is set up right now,” Gonzalez said, “ because it’s very clear that [food] is not trickling down in a fair way.”

When Pigs Fly Breads, a bakery in Brookline, partnered with them to donate 80 loaves that would have otherwise gone to waste every week, he said.

People began to donate food of their own accord, and later, menstrual products and cleaning supplies, he added.

“We realized very early on that the fridge was going to be more self-sus-

tainable than we thought,” he said, “because it runs on the kindness in the hearts of everybody around it.”

Others quickly began to set up their own fridge in their own community, Gonzalez said, and the network of fridges spread to different neighborhoods.

The Newton community fridge has been in the neighborhood since March 14, volunteer coordinator Sindy Wayne said. It has since seen a “tremendous” use by an “uncountable” number of people in the community.

“Clearly, the need for supplemental food and other resources is out there,” she said.

Volunteers from local Newton organizations regularly stop by to clean, monitor and stock the fridge, she added, but the fridge itself remains largely unmonitored.

The Newton fridge’s location holds a pivotal role, according to Wayne. Proximity to food pantries and the fridge’s hosts have contributed to its “overwhelming success.”

“Our hosts have been so generous that people can pull into the parking lot for a quick visit and get what they need and then go on their way,” she said.

A fridge’s host owns the land where it’s placed, Gonzalez said.

Sometimes, they’ll cover the $30 per month electricity bill to keep the fridge up and running.

Such was the case with the first Jamaica Plain fridge, he added, where the owner of the D’Friends Barber Shop in the neighborhood offered a space and to cover the cost.

He said as society has become more “individualistic” many people who could benefit from the fridge might have too much pride to do so, but other volunteers believe their anonymity is what separates themselves from other food resources.

“I would say the point of the fridge is to be a resource, a free resource, for people to use where they don’t have to devote any personal information, they don’t have to show an ID, to get the food,” said Michael Zayas, volunteer for the Dorchester community fridge.

Zayas said the Dorchester fridge generally runs itself, the only exception being when a selection of Boston University Community Service Center volunteers aid in a large donation once a week on Saturdays.

He said lack of food resource awareness worsens food insecurity, meaning part of the volunteers’ work is informing the public.

The fridge — which has been up since September — is “only a small cog” in addressing “the broader scope” of food insecurity, Zayas said.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to get rid of the food insecurity problem completely,” he said, “but at least help out as much as we can.”

2 NEWS

YDSA stages sit-in protest for free laundry at BU administration’s Student Leaders Conversation Nick Kolev Daily Free Press Staff

Boston University’s Young Democratic Socialists of America held a sit-in protest on the ninth floor of the Metcalf Trustee Center Wednesday afternoon to advocate for the ongoing Free Laundry campaign started by the organization last Fall.

The sit-in was held in the hallway outside the Kenmore Conference room where members of BU’s senior administration — including Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore, President Robert Brown and Provost Jean Morrison — hosted a dinner for student organization leaders.

The demonstration follows a protest held by the organization at Marsh Plaza last month to encourage Elmore to meet with the group’s members to discuss making laundry in on-campus residences free. The current price of each wash or dry cycle is $1.75.

BU YDSA Vice President Mikey Dedona, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the organization did not feel they were being heard after the group had several meetings with Assistant Dean of Students John Battaglino and Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services Paul Riel.

“Every single meeting has amounted to arbitrary reasons for shutting us down,” he said. “Clearly they’re entertaining us to try to get us to give up without actually having a real conversation with us.”

Dedona said the location of the

sit-in was purposefully chosen to coincide with a meeting between the administration and students.

“We’ve exhausted all opportunities for polite conversation so now we’re here, making our demands in person at a student leadership dinner,” Dedona said, “where I think it would make sense that student leaders should be able to have dialogue with their relationship with the administrator.”

A member of the administration spoke to several protestors in the hallway, but declined to comment.

BU spokesperson Colin Riley said the University has already engaged in

dialogue with YDSA and he did not recognize the grounds for the sit-in.

“We’ve met with them and we’ll keep their request in mind for the future,” Riley said. “I know that these individuals have met with people so I don’t understand the purpose.”

BU YDSA Information Coordinator and CAS freshman Michael Walsh said, based on these discussions, the organization felt the University was not actually willing to implement YDSA’s demands.

“Eventually it became clear through the meetings,” Walsh said, “that they were not going to really be

open about actually talking about free laundry or even subsidized laundry.”

He added the movement was popular with many students on campus and YDSA did not want to let them down.

“We have thousands of students who have signed up and expressed the desire for this campaign to succeed,” Walsh said, “and we don’t want to fail those students.”

CAS senior Marco De Laforcade said they decided to attend the event with their friends who are on the executive board of the BU YDSA. “I was happy to support them

NIKOLAY KOLEV | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

for something like the sit-in, which personally I think is a fantastic way of getting attention,” De Laforcade said They added they believed protesting in the form of a sit-in would be much more effective than other means.

“You can ask nicely to a certain extent, you can try to reach out and cooperate and try to get administration on your side,” De Laforcade said, “but as the saying goes, ‘power concedes nothing without demand.’”

De Laforcade noted the cost of laundry was “just another barrier” for low-income students the University should eliminate.

“It’s less about just, ‘Oh you know, laundry, it’s not a big deal,” they said. “Well it is a big deal for certain people and in your activism, you have to make sure you’re being inclusive.”

Riley wrote in an email that students experiencing financial issues should communicate with the University directly.

“Individuals with financial hardship should contact the Dean of Students or Financial Assistance office,” he wrote.

Dedona added future plans for the Free Laundry campaign include continuing discussions through official means, involving BU parents and bombarding Riel with phone calls.

“We will be cleaning the office, making our collective power and collective voice known,” Dedona said, “and let them know that despite their polite dismissals or whatever they may call them, we’re not giving up until we achieve our goal.”

Members of Boston University’s Young Democratic Socialists of America held a sit-in protest for the Free Laundry Campaign at the Metcalf Trustee Center Wednesday. Demonstrators gathered outside a dinner for student organization leaders that was hosted by BU senior administrators.

With voters undecided, Mayoral candidates debate at forum Samuele Petruccelli Daily Free Press Staff

Education, public housing and police reform were all on the table at a Tuesday night forum, as candidates in Boston’s 2021 mayoral race offered differing approaches to the topics.

The virtual event featured five out of the six major declared candidates — the first time they gathered publicly to debate — who faced questions moderated by GBH Radio and TV commentator Callie Crossley.

Each campaigner explained their previous experience and voiced potential plans to best address city issues. Current city councilor and mayoral candidate Andrea Campbell

shared her plans to form an initiative that would automatically release data on stop-and-frisks and other activities within the Boston Police Department.

“I didn’t need George Floyd’s murder, the recent Patrick Rose case or other cases coming out of our department to know that the Boston Police Department has significant work to do,” Campbell said. “The Office of Police Accountability [and Transparency], I drafted that legislation, worked with the mayor to get it done, my plan is to continue with respect to these issues.”

Also serving as a city councilor and candidate for mayor, Annissa Essaibi-George gave her thoughts on education reform.

“I think that it’s really important that we don’t involve politics any more than it already is,” EssaibiGeorge said.

Under current rules, chairpersons on the Boston School Committee must be appointed by the mayor.

When asked if chairpeople should be

elected rather than appointed, EssaibiGeorge stood alone in her position that “appointments should be done in partnership between the Mayor’s Office and the City Council.”

State Rep. Jon Santiago, D-Mass., also a candidate for mayor, gave his thoughts on expanding affordable housing in Boston, saying “housing equals health.” Santiago pointed to the city’s AAA bond rating as an opportunity.

“I’m going to leverage that bond rating to issue municipal loans,” Santiago said, “to make sure that renters and [Community Development Corporations]s have the equity they need to develop affordable housing.”

An April poll conducted by MassINC Polling Group indicated the road ahead for candidates on the ticket. Maeve Duggan, research director at MassINC Polling, said a major takeaway is the significant number of undecided voters: 46%.

For Duggan, that’s an indication of the race’s volatility.

“There’s a lot of movement that we may yet see before September,” Duggan said.

Though few of Boston’s mayoral races have been conducted during a pandemic, Duggan compared the candidates’ experiences on the campaign trail to those of their predecessors.

“This mayoral race isn’t unique in the number of candidates,” Duggan said. “Boston’s elections have often had a lot of candidates running. What is somewhat unique is Janey having the opportunity to be the incumbent.”

After Mayor Walsh was tapped to serve as the Secretary of Labor for

Boston City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George visits small businesses March 19.

Essaibi-George is one of six major 2021 major mayoral candidates for the City of Boston, all but one of whom publicly debated Tuesday night for the first time.

SAMUELE PETRUCCELLI | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

President Joe Biden’s Administration, Boston City Council President Kim Janey automatically assumed the role as stated in the city charter. This made her the first woman and first person of color to serve as mayor of Boston.

For researchers like Duggan, tracking the months ahead means tracking the candidates’ financial positions.

“I would keep an eye on fundraising, both in terms of month to month, and who has overall the

biggest war chest,” Duggan said.

“Always follow the money.”

With the mayoral primaries set for Sept. 21, the candidates have less than five months to claim the Democratic Party nomination and advance to municipal elections.

“To cross that finish line, candidates certainly need to have their name first known, and second, be an appealing choice,” Duggan said.

FEATURES 3

COMMUNITY

BU Gastronomy hosts Living Landscapes, an event about food sovereignty, racial justice, environmentalism Rachel Do Daily Free Press Staff

Boston University students explored the intersections of the environment, policy and racial justice this weekend with topics including foraging and conservation — and everything had to do with food.

BU Gastronomy hosted a twoday interactive event called “Living Landscapes” Saturday and Sunday where activists, foragers and researchers discussed the social context around topics such as scavenging, food sovereignty and environmental racial justice.

Living Landscapes was organized

by Gastronomy Program students Danielle Jacques and Dana Ferrante who wanted to show that major events such as COVID-19, the murder of George Floyd and the climate crisis are all connected.

“Mainstream discourse on COVID originating in the ‘wet markets’ of China is framed by Western approaches to sourcing food by means of industrial agriculture,” Jacques wrote in an email. “Industrial agriculture and its overuse of limited natural resources, like water, has contributed to chronic drought and wildfires in the American Southwest.”

Jacques and Ferrante began planning for the event last September, Ferrante wrote and received the Diversity and Inclusion Catalyst Grant and Sustainability Innovation Seed Grant to make it happen. They

COURTESY OF US DEPT OF AGRICULTURE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS

recruited event participants from the Gastronomy Students Association and faculty and staff from the Gastronomy Program.

The weekend-long conference included “virtual speakers, discussions, and a Q&A,” on Saturday, and, on Sunday, “more hands-on experiences like a cooking demo, a mushroom hunt, and a remote scavenger hunt activity with resources for identifying plants, plus a collaborative, interactive map,” Jacques wrote in an email.

Maria Pinto, an educator in the Boston area and a mushroom forager, hosted an Instagram live through the BU Gastronomy account Sunday, when she walked around her usual “stomping grounds” and explained why some mushrooms were too early or too late to get picked.

Pinto’s mushroom foraging tour was initially planned to be in-person.

“Due to COVID, we realized that meeting in person would not necessarily be feasible,” Pinto said.

“I love that there were all sorts of virtual ideas put forth about how to continue on with a similar sort of thing, so I jumped at the idea to do the Instagram takeover.”

Pinto said it has been about four years since she found a passion for mushroom foraging, expanding on her interests in sustainability and forest ecology. It wasn’t until one of her friends from Poland, who grew up picking mushrooms, inspired her to get involved in foraging for them.

“I became a little bit obsessed and I immersed myself in study and joined the Mycological Society here

COURTESY OF US DEPT OF AGRICULTURE VIA CREATIVE COMMONS

Tomato plants in a garden. Boston University Gastronomy hosted “Living Landscapes” last weekend, a virtual event on food sovereignty, foraging and environmental racial justice.

in Boston,” Pinto said. “[I] joined all the online groups and befriended many experts so that I could sort of delve more seriously into the study of mycology.”

The Living Landscapes also touched upon efforts to provide low-income communities with selfsustaining resolutions. Kafi Dixon, the lead farmer and the founder of the Common Good Co-op and Women of Color Rural and Urban Farm

Cooperative, spoke at the event and wanted to focus on farming and the racial disparities in Boston.

“The biggest reason that communities don’t have a voice here in Boston around housing is, one, Boston’s history and racism that has yet to be reconciled or even talked about,” Dixon said, “and how a lot of new Bostonians don’t know the violent history, a fairly recent history around racial issues between white,

Black and Asian.”

It is important to have events like Living Landscapes, because as Pinto put it, “humanity has not necessarily been treating our landscapes as though they are living.”

“We like to pretend that the Earth doesn’t have finite resources,” Pinto said. “We like to pretend that living on this land, or with this land irresponsibly is something that won’t turn around and bite us in the butt.”

SCIENCE ‘Picture a Scientist’ screening opens discussion of women’s obstacles in STEM careers Caroline Bowden Daily Free Press Staff Despite recent social movements to promote gender equality and combat sexual harassment — including the #MeToo movement and the fight for equal pay — women in the sciences say they still face such obstacles in their work.

Boston University scientists and Wheelock College of Education and Human Development professionals gathered for a moderated discussion Tuesday to reflect on the documentary film “Picture a Scientist” and their own experiences with gender and race-based discrimination in the industry.

“Picture a Scientist” — which streamed on PBS NOVA April 14 — is a feature film directed by Ian Cheney and Sharon Shattuck that premiered last year. The documentary follows chemist Raychelle Burks, biologist Nancy Hopkins and geologist Jane Willenbring as they discuss their experiences in the field.

From subtle sexism to harassment, the women in the film discuss discriminatory experiences many femme-presenting persons

experience in the workplace.

BU’s virtual film screening was made available through Wheelock over the long weekend. At the following discussion four panelists, an anchor and two moderators reflected on how the film illuminates struggles women and people of color face in STEM and responds to issues brought up in the film.

“We hope that this panel can serve as a starting point for discussions at BU and beyond,” moderator Melisa Osborne said at the event, “and that these discussions can lead to action and change in scientific culture at the institutional level.”

Marisol Dothard, a Ph.D. student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at BU, said at the event the film highlighted the struggles that women in science face even at the height of their careers and how their efforts to combat sexism make the work easier for the next generation.

“I was just really, really impressed by how even at the top you have so much to fear still as a woman,” Dothard said. “I really liked in the movie how they had the aspect of the younger generation … that didn’t realize how much stuff women even before them had to go through.”

Felicity Crawford, clinical associate

professor of special education at Wheelock, said she realized after she watched the film how much responsibility rests on women in STEM to address the sexism within the field.

At the discussion, Crawford said what was particularly moving about the film was how Hopkins, who started working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, described working after hours “in the dark … alone and in secrecy” to collect data to prove female employees were given less space than their male counterparts.

“Why is it that the victims are still the ones carrying the burden of addressing the problem of sexism, while bearing the consequences of victimization?” Crawford said at the event, “and why is this the case when the problem did not and does not originate with them?”

Panel moderators Osborne, a laboratory manager and research scientist at the Segrè Lab at BU, and Barkha Shah, a laboratory supervisor in the biology department at BU, said the discussion was designed to create space for women in STEM fields to share what they face in their work.

“I think that really does help build community, but I also think it helps

COURTESY OF RO*CO FILMS

Molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins in the film “Picture a Scientist.” A discussion of gender and race-based discrimination in the scientific community followed the film’s screening as part of the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development’s virtual film discussion Tuesday.

build a bit of a women in science support network,” Osborne said in an interview “It’s so nice to know that other people understand how difficult certain aspects have been or can be in trying to pursue a career in higher academic science.”

In an interview, Shah said the students working and learning in the labs she oversees are more aware of the pervasive issue of sexism than students of the past, which she attributes to institutional efforts to address complaints of harassment and discrimination.

“I think that in the past things were

hush-hush,” Shah said. “Nowadays, I think it’s much more common to be more outspoken about it because the institutions are saying ‘we want to hear from you.’”

To continue the conversation around women in the sciences, a second panel is in the works for the summer, Osborne and Shah said.

“Even if there’s just one student who maybe came to the panel … who wants to get help, then it’s all worth it, right?” Shah said. “Just let students know that there are people here who care about them and who want to hear what they have to say.”

4 FEATURES

BUSINESS

BU students win sustainability innovation grants, tackle climate change from new angles Divya Sood Daily Free Press Staff Our world faces numerous barriers regar ding sustainability. But at Boston University, there is hope. From first-year students to graduating master’s students, Terriers are making substantial inroads in addressing environmental issues.

BU Sustainability and Innovate@BU awarded seven Sustainability Innovation grants earlier this month to student-led projects for the BU community and beyond.

With the $500 grant, teams of students can bring their ideas to fruition and launch high-impact projects centered around carbon, curriculum, connection and more.

The Queer Art of Sustainability Jere Schulz, a master’s student in BU’s School of Theology, co-founded The Queer Art of Sustainability to empower gender and sexually diverse people advocating for enviornmental justice.

“I’m really very passionate about queer culture, queer content, I think that you can never have enough,” Schulz said. “I was thinking, what about the sustainability of people, particularly queer people?”

After first thinking about investigating the impact of sex products on the environment, Schulz pivoted to look at the “sustainability of queerness” and drag performers, many of whom he said have been performing on “TheServeNetwork” on Twitch, a video live streaming platform, since the pandemic.

The project will culminate in a Twitch event featuring multiple performers recycling materials from past shows in their performance, sharing stories about their work and “how drag sustains them as people,” Schulz said.

They said missions like this are especially important because studies have shown that climate change can disproportionately affect the LGBTQ+ community — queer people are more likely to be excluded from disaster relief, become homeless and have less access to health care, and environmental changes can further negatively impact those existing threats.

“We really want to emphasize that sustainability goes beyond the things that you typically think of,” Schulz said. “Queer life … and I would especially name that trans life is something that is not talked about as being sustainable in America, and so we wanted to uplift that reality, that people and communities should also be really involved in the con-

versations around sustainability.”

Schulz said creating more queer content, at BU specifically, is very important. Schulz said she hopes the University’s support for this project leads to further efforts to amplify queer voices.

Schulz said he hopes the event and ones like it help preserve this “really important cultural phenomenon,” during the pandemic, while allowing more people to engage with and learn about queer culture.

Petal Grove Tara Sarli, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, founded Petal Grove Company to create plant-dyed stationery from used paper found in BU recycling bins, some of which also have seeds customers can plant after use.

Sarli said she created the project after seeing a TikTok about an alternative paper creation process.

The process involves wetting old paper, blending it and then framing it with metal wire, she said. For some paper products, Sarli bakes the chia seeds and flax seeds into the paper in the oven. She said the body of the notebook will have dried petals.

She is also trying to create a pen with compostable ink.

As a low-income freshman, Sarli said she was encouraged to take initiative after seeing the email about the grant. She encourages others to recognize the value of their ideas and be persistent in reaching out to individuals and organizations.

“It’s never too early to start a project that can help me to reach financial freedom at an earlier age than I had already thought,” she said. “You’ll never know if it is successful if you never give it a try.”

BU Low Carbon Dining BU Low Carbon Dining aims to help students become more conscious of how their dining choices impact the environment by adding an icon to dining hall menus indicating a “low-carbon option.”

CAS sophomore Amir Wilson co-created the project with Rachel Koh and Jonas Kaplan-Bucciarelli.

Wilson said because college students are already passionate about

their environmental impact, he hopes this effort will encourage more discussion and engage the student body to think more critically about their consumption.

“The purpose is to spread more awareness around the student body about what is going into making certain food options available to them,” he said. “Providing a carbon icon that indicates this information would allow them to make better decisions in line with their moral and ethical beliefs.”

Wilson said the plan was modeled after systems at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Los Angeles, and the determinations would be made by the World Resources Institute’s Cool Food Pledge calculator.

Kaplan-Bucciarelli, also a CAS sophomore, said he hopes the University will adopt their method.

“We’re proposing this specific method as a way that BU could measure the carbon impact of their food,” he said. “If they like it, which we hope they do, then it would be the method that they use.”

Broccoli in the Fridge For busy young professionals and on-the-go college students, Broccoli in the Fridge is an app that helps people limit food waste through features such as tracking expiration dates, logging leftovers and personalized grocery recommendations based on users’ needs and leftovers.

The project started off as an assignment for Ideas to Impact, a Questrom School of Business course, said CAS senior and co-founder Ezgi Eyigor.

“Sometimes I would see my friends not recycling, because in their own houses they do but on a college campus they’re too busy,” she said. “Sometimes it feels unreal when you’re in a dormitory, but it’s still waste, it still [is] affecting our world.”

Eyigor said individual actions are vital in addressing large-scale problems.

“If you see something on that street that is bugging you … don’t be another person walking,” she

said, “just be the one that initiates and starts it.”

RE:purpose Rachel Koh, a first-semester freshman in the College of General Studies, centered her project “RE:purpose” around the idea of waste.

The project’s “purpose,” Koh said, is to match organizations and create a system in which one company’s waste is another’s raw materials, which encourages transparency. She said such “relationship-based recycling” minimizes waste and also preserves natural resources — a double positive impact on sustainability.

Koh — who grew up in Borneo, a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean — said she’s passionate about conserving biodiversity by changing business practices. This idea, she said, was an extension of her desire to reduce waste and make an impact.

“I grew up very aware of conservation and of the ways in which the jungle where I lived is being damaged and uprooted to make room for commercial palm tree plantations,” she said. “I’ve always been interested as well in the intersection between sustainability and business, particularly in the ways that all of the waste that we interact with we usually purchase it.”

Before winning the grant, Koh worked with the BUild Lab’s First-Year Innovation Fellowship, through Innovate@BU, to bring her ideas to reality, she said. Koh said RE:purpose will work with Goodwill to transform unusable clothing into tote bags and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University to repurpose construction waste into art.

Energy Street TV Dan Katzenberger, a first-year student in Questrom’s online MBA program, founded Energy Street TV: an entertaining series of educational videos and activities about energy, environment and the role humans play in shaping both.

Katzenberger described the channel’s content as a “combination

of ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ and ‘MythBusters’” and one that would enable audiences to connect with the natural world.

“My ultimate goal is I want to give young people the hope, the knowledge and the tools they will need to help complete the transition to 100% renewable energy,” he said.

Katzenberger added the grant will help him keep him to a deadline and make the project a reality — the videos, he said, will be on YouTube in April.

Colors of Climate Change Initiative The Colors of Climate Change Initiative intends to create sustainability-oriented course curriculums geared toward middle and high school students through “Boston Wheelock science teaching practicums,” according to the Innovate@ BU website.

Mira Bookman, a graduate student in BU’s Wheelock College of Education and Human Development and co-founder of the Initiative, said she created the project to disseminate sustainability curriculum to educators.

“The purpose of this grant and the project is to really come up with some standardized way of getting the information out there,” she said.

In addition to classrooms, their work extends to social media, where they will feature student artwork about climate change and environmental issues in addition to infographics.

Bookman said she advises students seeking to make a difference to start by looking at their own lives.

“Focus on starting small and addressing those issues that you see in your everyday life,” she said. “I feel like with sustainability, with climate change, it seems like such an overwhelming issue that a lot of people focus on the broader picture, rather than breaking down what can we actually be doing in our everyday life to make a small difference.”

Seven student-led projects won grants from Innovate@BU and BU Sustainability to tackle climate change.

LIFESTYLE

Seven natural wonders in New England worth visiting this summer Julia Furmanek Daily Free Press Staff As we look toward Earth Day, I think it’s just as important to take some time to appreciate this planet as it is to consider how we can protect it.

For those of you living in or around Boston, here are some ecological miracles to check out in the coming months.

Kancamagus Highway — White Mountains, New Hampshire This 34.5-mile stretch of highway is full of scenic spots to stop at and even swim in. The highway runs right next to the Swift River’s shallow rapids that you can sit and slide over — like a natural water slide.

Flume Gorge — Lincoln, New Hampshire

Also nestled within New Hampshire’s White Mountains, the Flume is part of the gorgeous Franconia Notch State Park, full of hiking trails that take you right through the gorge. You can walk under waterfalls and above beautiful glacial pools, making this spot worth the small admission fee Hammonasset Beach State Park — Madison, Connecticut Visit this stretch on the Long Island Sound for lots of opportunities for outdoor entertainment. Hammonasset Beach is home to a beautiful campground, an expansive boardwalk, multiple birdwatching spots and a nature center to visit.

Cliff Walk — Newport, Rhode Island With unobscured views of historic mansions on one side and the rocky Atlantic coastline on the other, this three-and-a-half-mile trail is worth walking through.

Plum Island — Newburyport, Massa-

chusetts This spot is the first on the list that I haven’t personally visited, but I plan to this coming summer. Plum Island is a coveted destination for birdwatchers everywhere, who flock to see the island’s many native species firsthand.

Plus, the island is accessible by bridge: no need to catch any ferry.

Quechee State Park — White River Junction, Vermont Quechee Gorge is another facet of New England’s ecology worth seeing in person. With easily navigable hiking trails and shallow river zones safe for wading, this would definitely make a good day trip for anyone in the Vermont area.

Mohegan Bluffs — Block Island, Rhode Island As long as you don’t get seasick, Block Island’s Mohegan Bluffs are another natural marvel to feast your eyes on. Accessible by ferry, the island

COURTESY OF PATRICK BREEN VIA FLICKR

Flume Gorge in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. New England is home to myriad natural wonders perfect for summer destinations.

is a great spot for biking and sightseeing. Plenty of visitors also take advantage of the island’s many beautiful sights by renting mopeds for the day and traveling the length of the island.

With just a few weeks left in the semester before the relaxing pause of

summer, now is the time to start planning adventures within a college student’s budget. Luckily, the New England region is full of beautiful places to explore. Hopefully, this list is an encouraging start to a season spent happily out in nature.

OPINION 5

OPINION

Letter from the Editor: We have no justice in a broken system Colbi Edmonds Editor-in-Chief Guilty.

On all the counts filed against him — seconddegree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is guilty for the murder of George Floyd.

Despite the long wait, enduring the dread of a hypothetical “not guilty” and the unfathomable pain of watching another criminal officer walk away unscathed, I have not found solace in the aftermath of this trial. If anything, I have felt continued discomfort.

Floyd’s death undoubtedly sparked a rage that rippled across the country and world. Fed up with law enforcement’s continued, violent disregard for Black lives, people moved to the streets to protest, march and demand Black people be seen as more than the threat they’ve been wrongfully painted as.

But, Floyd was not a martyr. His death was not noble. He was not brave for sacrificing his life because there was no sacrifice — he had no say in the matter. Floyd cried out for his mother in between gasps of air as Chauvin slowly and painfully stole his last breath like he needed it for himself.

Floyd did not put his life on the line for us. He was not a brave soldier who went to battle for the Black Lives Matter movement. He was a human being, a father, a son and a friend who woke up

one morning unsuspecting that he would be murdered on camera for the world to see.

In Floyd’s most vulnerable state, the world stopped and watched Chauvin abuse the Godlike power of his badge.

I’ve never watched the video of the murder all the way through, but I’ve seen enough clips and photos of Chauvin’s boastfulness as he drove his knee into Floyd’s neck, not yet knowing the city he “protected” would soon go up in flames.

I truly doubted Chauvin would be convicted of his crimes, and that is deeply saddening. The evidence was laid bare, right in front of our eyes.

Yet, my profound distrust of the U.S. criminal “justice” system served as a reminder of our bleak reality: White people can get away with crimes they’re clearly guilty of and Black people can’t even get away with their life, regardless of their actions.

For Black people, we’re guilty until proven innocent, and this capital failure continues to take our lives.

When a system perpetuates this mindset, one victory — in this case, Chauvin’s guilty verdict — doesn’t mean we are free at last. We should not have to celebrate and exhale a sigh of relief the way I know so many of us did. There is no question Chauvin is guilty, so why were we all scared to hear the verdict?

Floyd wouldn’t have received justice if his death wasn’t captured on camera, didn’t spark such large protests or didn’t so painfully capture the absurdity of power handed to police officers.

To say he even received justice would be

a stretch. Because of the constant failures of our system and the lengths we have to go to to achieve a guilty verdict for a visible murder, Floyd did not receive true justice.

Justice is fairness. Justice is a protection of rights. Justice is impartial of our race.

The only justice in this situation would be if Floyd were still alive, so the system already failed him — regardless of the trial’s outcome.

We cannot praise the system for doing what it’s supposed to do: convict a murderer for his crimes.

The name George Floyd has been tacked onto a long list of Black people who have been killed by the police. On paper, sure, his murderer walked out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

However, the police force is still riddled with many “bad apples.” In fact, it’s rather rotten to its core.

My heart aches for the people who have not received any form of justice — not even this skewed perception of it — and I wonder if they ever will. But I also know the answer does not lie in one guilty verdict.

Change comes from the ground up, and we can’t use Chauvin’s conviction to justify pausing our efforts toward racial justice.

Growing up with a Black father and brothers, I fear the all-too-real inevitability of them getting pulled over for a routine traffic stop — something that should be so normal and easy, but has turned deadly for many.

When the day comes that I feel comfortable with my father going on a run in a hoodie and

sweats, I will have noticed change. When my family doesn’t have to sit down and have somber conversations instructing my brother on what to do when he gets pulled over, I will have noticed change. When I don’t tense up around a police car, I will have noticed change.

We have normalized our extreme trepidation around police as a way to protect ourselves against an inhumane system that has proven time and time again the same simple truth: Being Black means your right to life is jeopardized by your mere existence, and Chauvin’s verdict does nothing to change that.

But I know why this verdict is simultaneously a cause for celebration. We have waited nearly a year for Chauvin to be held accountable for his actions, and his murder charges signal that the change we need is on its way — we’re just not there yet.

I am happy Chauvin will be jailed for his crimes, but I will not become complacent and naively believe this verdict solved any of our country’s problems.

ILLUSTRATION BY ALEXIA NIZHNY

Editorial: Going digital may not be as straightforward a solution to environmental issues as we may think

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digital devices is outpacing the consumption of global electricity, not even accounting for the energy used to manufacture computers, smartphones and other electronic devices.

Still, electronics seem to be a recognized sustainable alternative. The annual sector emissions for information technology is lower than that of paper, and reading e-books has been proven to be environmentally friendlier than paperbacks.

But because of the materials and e-waste involved, digital does not always mean less wasteful, even if reducing paper waste is a positive.

Furthermore, digital reliance comes with added non-environmental problems. The preexisting digital divide that came with unequal access to resources, infrastructure, Wi-Fi and financial support was only exacerbated by the move to remote learning and working.

More than half of the parents of low-income households stated their children may come across digital barriers with school, according to Pew Research Center.

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Since roughly a year ago, we have reckoned with an increase in disposable masks and personal protective equipment, take-out containers and other single-use plastics. But with that, we have also seen a decrease in paper waste in schools and travel emissions.

These temporary pandemic changes are by no means a sufficient, long-lasting substitute for conscious and environmentally friendly habits.

But perhaps the pandemic is the extra boost our society needed to abandon paper and go digital.

The question is: Should we?

At first glance, going digital seems considerably more eco-friendly than its traditional alternatives. However, electronic waste — such as computers and batteries, which may have toxic chemicals and effects on the environment — may never decompose, or at least take millions of years to do so.

In fact, they are virtually built to last forever.

That means that if they end up in landfills instead of being recycled, repurposed or properly disposed of, they can have lasting, detrimental impacts on surrounding ecosystems and communities.

Alarmingly, the global energy suck from

Going digital for educational purposes can also be developmentally and physically harmful and could even stunt student learning. For especially young children and preschoolers, excessive screen time hinders their growth, which shouldn’t be all that surprising, considering how blue light can throw off anyone’s melatonin production and strain their eyes.

Reading comprehension is also improved by the use of paper instead of screens. And studies have shown too much remote instruction can have detrimental effects on learning and language skills.

For those with learning disabilities, who are not native English speakers or who simply don’t learn well through a screen, the impact of going digital may be even more extensive.

For schools, sustainability should not come at the expense of education.

Reducing paper waste should not be as pressing of an issue. It’s a well-populated myth that paper is the most harmful substance to the environment, when in fact it’s the most recycled recyclable in North America, and the industry follows firm environmental standards created by third-parties such as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Forest Stewardship Council.

Paper wastage has a relatively low environmental footprint compared to other areas of energy or waste. Food waste, which has been relegated to our homes and the restaurants we support rather than local public schools over the past year, is arguably more

important to prioritize right now than paper waste. Institutions that have the resources to implement new procedures or programs have the unique opportunity to do so as part of their reopening.

It’s also unlikely the pandemic will usher in any revolutionary environmental change, or that this remote-learning, uber-digital situation will be permanent. However, we still integrate technology into our lives more and more each day, so it isn’t unreasonable to say we may abandon paper in the near future. It isn’t so much whether we should, but when and under what conditions we’ll make a nearly complete transition to digital.

The pandemic has given us — rather, forced onto us — a taste of that future. It comes bittersweet unto our ill-prepared infrastructures.

This realization should only ignite a fire in each of us to fight for and build better systems so we will be prepared the next time we embrace the virtual frontier or integrate a new, sustainable practice into our everyday routines.

As with all conversations surrounding climate change and environmentalism, we must be as careful and equitable as possible if we require electronic devices and widespread internet access. The issue of sustainability can never be removed from our health, education, economy, pre-existing disparity and other aspects of society, so we have to work to ensure the solution’s social impact is also minimized.

EDITORIAL BOARD Colbi Edmonds, Editor-in-Chief Nick Kolev, Campus Editor Charles Moore, Sports Editor Hannah Yoshinaga, Photo Editor

Cameron Morsberger, Managing Editor Daniel Kool, City Editor

Jackson Machesky, Podcast Editor

Alexia Nizhny, Layout & Graphics Editor Emma Sanchez, Blog Editor

Abbigale Shi, Opinion Editor

Lily Kepner, Features Editor

GRAPHIC BY ALEXIA NIZHNY Andrew Hardwood, Multimedia Editor

OPINION 6

COLUMN Minority Report:

Let them eat meat

Lincoln Currie Columnist Gov. Kim Reynolds, R-Iowa, designated April as “Meat on the Table” month. The announcement was a right-wing culture war response to a “MeatOut” declaration from Gov. Jason Polis, D-Colo. I usually have no taste for this kind of performative nonsense, but I make an exception for the foods that make meals worth eating.

I love meat — pork chops, steak, pork tenderloin, burgers, bacon, you name it. I feel bad for people who didn’t grow up in a place where high-quality meat was readily available at a low price.

Recently, the meat industry has come under attack from environmentalists who say factory farming leads to deforestation and increases global warming.

A few years ago, this information was new to me: I didn’t know meat played a role in climate change. However, I did not change my diet, and I scorn anyone who shames others for making different, “immoral” decisions about what to put in their body.

There are some things in life that are worth even the highest of prices. The same paradox on a famous Roman epitaph applies to a meat-eating diet: Meat destroys our planet, but meat “makes life worth living.”

Do we want to live in a world without steak, burgers, bacon and chicken nuggets? I sure don’t. The last thing I need is environmentalists wagging their fingers at me for buying a pound of delicious bacon from a local family farm.

We also must be aware of farmers’ reliance on a meat-eating society.

It’s not just ranchers or those who raise livestock who profit off of meat. Much of the corn, soybeans and other crops raised in the United States are grown to feed livestock. For example, about 36% of corn grown in the country is used as animal feed.

If someone waved a magic wand to make the meat industry disappear, calamity might ensue.

More than one-third of the corn produced in the country would lose its original purpose — not to mention all the processors and distributors of animal products and the products themselves.

How many jobs would be lost on ranches, in processing plants, butcher shops and every other field that the meat and poultry industry touches? About 530,000 people have jobs directly in meat and poultry, and another 5.4 million in related fields, according to the North American Meat Institute.

It is easy to dismiss meat production as a biohazard with limited upside until economics is brought into the equation.

U.S. agriculture would need a complete rehaul if it could no longer profit from producing meat. And this column has not yet touched on the potential effects on the restaurant industry, too.

What is a barbecue restaurant going to serve

without meat? What are most restaurants going to serve without meat? Vegetarian options at some restaurants remain slim, and in my opinion, generally less appetizing than entrees with meat.

One also must consider how many people meat feeds in the United States. Americans spend a lot less on food than other major countries. For instance, about 6.5% of household expenditures in the United States are on food, but in China, that figure is over 25%.

The relatively low price of meat is a significant factor in the low cost of U.S. food — the reasons being agricultural subsidies and innovation — but either way, the result stands: Americans can eat for cheap.

Some people simply cannot afford to cut meat out of their diet while remaining healthy.

With meat out of the picture, who knows what

would happen to the relatively low prices of U.S. food?

Driving meat out of the market and watching the price of protein options skyrocket in consequence would be even worse. One in 10 U.S. households already experiences food insecurity.

No American should be struggling to find their next meal, and the last thing households struggling with food security need is to be mocked or shamed for purchasing ground beef. Let’s not add to their plight with sniffy moralizing.

If you add up the economic, cultural and pleasurable aspects of meat eating, opposing someone else’s consumption of a food staple starts to look more like grandstanding than conscientious objection.

In a few weeks, I look forward to eating short ribs from Nelson’s Meat Market and letting the anti-meat activists howl into the wind.

ILLUSTRATION BY YVONNE TANG

Ask Sophia:

What should I do with excess produce before it goes bad?

Sophia Yakumithis Daily Free Press Staff Happy Earth Day, bitches.

With the world crumbling before our eyes, this holiday is a nice reminder for us humans to do our part and be a little more environmentally conscious. I, for one, want my grandchildren to know what polar bears and mild seasonal weather patterns look like, given I never got to see woolly mammoths in real life. Feeling ripped off.

But the notion of pushing individuals to “make a difference” is mildly ironic to me. The evil side of humanity — also known as “Boomers”— is ultimately responsible for bringing the world’s climate to its current concerning state, advancing diesel-engine vehicles and proliferating plastic. And their conception of the palm oil market? Don’t even get me started.

Boomers have simply destroyed planet Earth and there is no going back. Sorry, but it’s true.

Earth’s on its way out and it’s their fault, so when Boomers say they want to “reverse” the damage that’s been done, that’s a pipe dream. And hopefully, that pipe won’t ravage the already melting glaciers of Alaska or the ancestral lands of indigenous people … even though the Boomer track record noted above makes both highly probable.

However, look no further than us young people to start implementing the healthy habits and conscientious decision-making skills needed to quell the downward spiral our world is headed toward.

I acknowledge that we’ve been raised with more awareness around sustainability, and those of us privileged enough to access certain resources have made sustainable living pretty habitual. Though I know some serious idiots who can be pretty wasteful, I think my generation

will generally be more kind to the environment than our predecessors.

The issue of food waste is something I was confronted with this past week, when a friend of mine and Mother Earth was presented with a surplus of aging produce she wanted to use in totality.

As a lover of fruits and vegetables, I’ve got some helpful tips for you, my friend. And none of this advice requires compositing or preserving — assuming you and your roommate have the appetites to keep up.

First and foremost, I began college as a double major between international and environ-

mental studies. That is an actual fact. I blindly declared this academic track my freshman year, and you can safely bet your net worth that I yeeted out of that mess immediately when I saw the economics and natural science course requirements. I’m loving art history, though.

What wasn’t in the prerequisites of either major was the ability to rescue appropriately ripe bananas, but I’m locked and loaded and have two words for you: banana bread. Should you need a recipe, I dropped one in a blog post. Not to self promo, but do be sure to like and subscribe.

Next in my fridge, I see cauliflower and broc-

COURTESY OF MARKUS SPISKE VIA UNSPLASH

Fresh produce wrapped in a reusable bag. Baked goods, sheet pan dinners and nutritious smoothies are some successful ways to put ripe produce to use.

coli — neither of which I’m particularly a fan of. I’m not trying to be gassy out here. However, both of these cruciferous veggies last a fairly long time in the fridge, so don’t feel rushed to use them.

If you’re looking for an easy lunch and dinner that you can spread out over the week, roast both the cauliflower and broccoli on the same pan. Then, in the last few minutes, broil those bad boys for a nice, crispy finish. And don’t forget to recycle that cauliflower’s plastic wrap or make something out of it, like a beautiful — definitely Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved and breathable — COVID-19 face mask.

Whether you eat the veggies as a side or main course, I recommend dousing them with sesame oil and the spices of your choosing. Sesame seeds are a good textural component and also bring out the flavor of the oil, but red pepper flakes and flaky sea salt are sufficient, too.

Meanwhile, with the remaining avocado, blueberries and papayas, it’s smoothie time.

Throw in some other fruits if you’re feeling sassy, then add ice and your favorite yogurt.

Or milk. But I hate milk of all kinds. Honestly, I don’t even put yogurt in my smoothies, especially if that creamy avocado is partaking in the adventure. And no hate on Keto diet fans, but f--- protein powder and seeds. This is a smoothie.

Not sure about that pear and plum, but they’re probably rotten by now given the time I received that text. So rest in power to them.

I hope you can compost them, but if not, that’s your problem. Like I said, I switched majors.

I hope you find these recipes — or whatever they are — helpful. At the absolute minimum, I hope anyone reading this is inspired to “go green” if you haven’t already.

Can we bring that phrase back, by the way?

Miss that.