4-22-2022

E V I E W AT T H E F R E E P R N I R A E Y A CE LE B RATIN G

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2022

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50

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J O U R NA LI S M

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

YEAR LII. VOLUME A. ISSUE X

Former, current students accuse BU assistant professor Christophor Cavalieri of sexual misconduct Walker Armstrong City Associate The following article contains mentions of sexual misconduct.

In the spring of 2018, while on the set of Bay State — the nation’s longest-running college soap opera — assistant professor Christophor Cavalieri asked Whitney Swoboda to help him grab something from the prop closet.

Swoboda, a freshman at the time, said Cavalieri followed her inside.

“He sort of says, ‘It’s up there,’ ” she said. “And so I start climbing up the ladder, and he grabs my butt unnecessarily.”

Stunned, Swoboda said she quickly climbed down the ladder, left the closet, returned to the studio and sat down. A few moments later, she went over to her then-boyfriend Felix Phillips and told him that she was leaving the class.

Later that day, she told Phillips, also a freshman at the time, that Cavalieri had unwantedly and inappropriately grabbed her. Phillips confirmed he remembers this conversation.

Cavalieri, 62, has been the faculty adviser for Boston University’s student-run television station butv10 since its inception in 2005. In his capacity as an assistant professor, Cavalieri teaches Television Studio Production at the College of Communication.

Cavalieri will return as both a faculty adviser and assistant professor in Fall 2022, according to Student Link’s course registration page.

Swoboda, who has since graduated from COM, is just one of several former and current students who have alleged misconduct involving Cavalieri, ranging from verbal abuse to sexual harassment.

The Daily Free Press has spoken to 51 individuals, including 35 former and current students, about Cavalieri’s conduct.

Cavalieri did not respond to multiple requests for comment regarding allegations brought against him.

Prior to the Bay State incident, Swoboda said Cavalieri unwantedly and inappropriately touched her multiple

times during a one-on-one camera operating session earlier that spring.

“I had expressed to him, during Bay State, an interest in learning how to operate the cameras that we shot on,” Swoboda said.

Cavalieri suggested she stop by the studio outside of class time to work on camera technique and operation together, she said. During the session,

he would stand to the side and direct them and point like, ‘Hey, turn that knob, turn this.’ ” In separate interviews, both the former student and Swoboda likened their experiences to a romantic golf outing, where a man would help a woman with her golf swing by guiding her from behind.

Multiple students also claimed that

program or activity.”

Swoboda distanced herself from butv10 after the Bay State incident, and eventually stopped participating altogether.

“I felt literally, physically unsafe being in his presence,” Swoboda said. “I felt like it would somehow be my fault if it happened again, because I knew that he had done it once.”

MAGGIE WEN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A control room in Studio West at Boston University College of Communication.

Swoboda said Cavalieri repeatedly touched her arms and back while he was teaching her how to operate a camera.

“We practiced camera techniques, or whatever, but he was very, very touchy, very unnecessarily pushing his body against my back,” she said.

“Instead of just letting me do it, he would be completely, like, bear hugging me from behind and moving my arms for me.”

Swoboda later told Phillips and another friend, Taylor Arnette, about the incident, according to all three parties. Swoboda never reported the incident to the University because of hesitations she had about the Title IX process.

Another former COM student, who spoke to The Daily Free Press on the condition of anonymity, said she had similar experiences with Cavalieri.

“But where it was weird was it was typically only with the women in the group,” the former student said. “For the male camera people, if he was adjusting something on their camera,

Cavalieri acted inappropriately only toward female students.

“To put a young girl in a space where she’s between her professor and the camera, and she can’t move, something there’s wrong, obviously,” the former student said.

According to Michael Schoonmaker — chair of the Television, Radio and Film Department at Syracuse University and faculty adviser for Syracuse’s student-run television studio, CitrusTV — Cavalieri’s behavior when teaching Swoboda and the former student how to operate a camera would be incorrect and inappropriate, if true.

“Especially between genders, it’s just not appropriate,” Schoonmaker said. “Not at all, not in this century.”

BU’s Sexual Misconduct Policy describes sexual harassment under Title IX as “unwelcome conduct that a reasonable person would determine to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the University’s education

Phillips said both he and Swoboda expressed a desire to report the incidents with Cavalieri but hesitated after learning more about the formal Title IX complaint process. Under Title IX, the University would have been obliged to disclose Swoboda’s identity to Cavalieri.

“If a person submits a formal complaint, their identity will be disclosed to the respondent by the institution,” Amanda Walsh, a senior attorney of the education program at the Victim Rights Law Center, wrote in an email. “This is because the accused person cannot respond to the report without knowing who is bringing it forward.”

Swoboda said this concerned her and ultimately led to her decision not to file a formal complaint.

Swoboda and the COM student were not the only former students interviewed by The Daily Free Press to have felt uncomfortable in Cavalieri’s presence.

Amanda Domuracki, who completed a master’s degree at COM in 2016, and a former executive

producer of the award-winning butv10 program, Paper Trail, said Cavalieri routinely acted in ways that she described as pervasive, offensive and inappropriate.

“It was so bad, so immediately to me, that I had an unofficial rule with myself not to engage him for mentorship, and not to be alone with him or put myself in situations where I would be in his office for one-onone coaching,” Domuracki said. “The general sense that I got is that he was blatantly sexist, and that it had a pretty patently obvious impact on my ability to do my work at butv10.”

Domuracki did not raise her issues with Cavalieri to the University, also citing concerns with the reporting process.

“I didn’t trust BU to be able to take meaningful action, knowing the process to file a claim for anything like that is that the person you’re accusing is basically notified,” Domuracki said. “I knew it would make it worse…and then he [Cavalieri] and everyone knows that I have this issue with this teacher who’s in charge of a lot of programs.”

A stalwart in the COM department, Cavalieri developed strong relationships with many students through the years, some of whom said they remember him as a mentor.

“Professor Cavalieri was a great support system for me,” said Brooke Singman, a former student who cofounded the butv10 morning news program Good Morning BU. “My experience with him was nothing but positive.”

Singman, now a Fox News Digital politics reporter, said it was because of Cavalieri that Good Morning BU became a reality in 2013.

Complaints against Cavalieri continue to arise On April 8, 2021, then-COM junior Samantha Dilsheimer left Cavalieri’s Television Studio Production class in tears to speak with Dean Mariette DiChristina.

As part of the course, Dilsheimer, now a senior, said students were tasked with performing and passing an exercise known as “director rotations” — a mock TV multicamera interview where each student took turns directing a production.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Fenway Park gets a makeover ahead of new season Jit Ping Lee Staff Writer The Boston Red Sox played their first home game of the 2022 MLB season at Fenway Park Friday where fans were greeted with improvements to the stadium’s infrastructure and gameday experience.

According to an April 13 press release, the stadium has “transitioned to a fully cashless environment” this season and fans must use a credit or debit card for payment. Fans can exchange their cash with a Mastercard debit card by using the Cash-2-Card exchange kiosks.

While hawkers are equipped with cashless point-of-sale devices to facilitate cashless payments when selling food and beverages at the

stands, they are still accepting cash payments from fans.

Massachusetts Attorney General candidate Shannon Liss-Riordan has raised concerns over the transition to cashless payments at Fenway, arguing that the Red Sox could violate a part of Massachusetts State Law that states “no retail establishment offering goods and services for sale shall discriminate against a cash buyer by requiring the use of credit by a buyer in order to purchase such goods and services.”

An experienced hawker at Fenway Park — who chose to remain anonymous — said the new cashless system has slowed down the sale of snacks at the park, causing long queues at concessions stands and slower service from hawkers.

While cash transactions can be completed in seconds and allow for

multiple transactions simultaneously, each card transaction requires a hawker to pull up the right product and input various data before passing the machine over to the customer, the hawker said.

“There’s nothing about [card transactions] that could be as fast as cash,” the hawker said.

The hawker also noted other difficulties implementing the cashless system, such as spotty Wi-Fi signals throughout the stadium that affect the card processors.

“If we were completely cashless, sales would have dropped a lot,” he added.

However, the hawker said he believes both methods of payment should be accepted.

Meanwhile, visitors and fans said they welcomed the move to go cashless.

Leon Goodwin, a Needham resident who was visiting the stadium

with his son, bought ice cream, hot dogs and peanuts from hawkers during his time at the game.

“Actually, [the cashless system] seemed like it sped up the lines a little bit,” Goodwin said.

Other renovations made to Fenway Park during the offseason include a new 8,800-square-foot open-air concourse, a new pre and post game studio, a 7,600-square-foot indoor event space and a new video board.

The larger size of the video board — 62-feet-wide and 16-feet-tall — allows the Red Sox to include additional information for fans such as the name of the walk-up song being played, team lineups and batter statistics.

Mike Consiglio, a Walpole resident, said he noticed the bigger video board during his first trip to Fenway Park this season.

“The new one seems to be like a massive screen that can split up into tiny screens, so it’s way better quality than the old ones,” Consiglio said.

Consiglio said he has seen various improvements made to the stadium over the years.

“You have to update it somehow to stay with the times so it still has a nice touch of tradition,” Consiglio added.

Having visited newer, modern stadiums across the country, Goodwin said he believes there is a charm to older, historic stadiums such as Fenway Park.

“I’m sure that you could make lots of improvements to make it a better stadium objectively,” Goodwin said.

“But I think I would lean towards tradition over changes to make it more modern.”

The Red Sox did not respond to requests for comment.

2 NEWS On April 8, during a director rotation, then-COM sophomore Amanda Schneider was seated in the control room and was assigned the position of “technical director,” she said.

At the end of the interview, Schneider, now a junior, was supposed to fade to black but cut to camera two instead, she said.

“It was a few seconds after the interview ended and I was sitting at the board, and then Cavalieri was to my left,” Schneider said. “He was like, ‘That ending was really good until Amanda went all autistic on us.’ ” Three other students — including Dilsheimer and then-COM senior Avery Bebon — all corroborated in separate interviews they heard Cavalieri refer to Schneider as autistic.

Shortly after, Schneider said she left to go cry in the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Dilsheimer, who was present in the room, left to go speak to DiChristina.

“We were all so incensed with his behavior,” said Dilsheimer. “I’m red, like angry, and I don’t get angry very easily. So, I say ‘I’m going to do something about this.’ ” Bebon then asked to speak to Cavalieri privately and confronted him about his alleged comment.

According to Bebon, Cavalieri “immediately got angry” and denied calling Schneider autistic.

Instead, he said he used the word “artistic,” Bebon said.

According to Bebon, Cavalieri then instructed everyone to get back in the classroom so that he could address the situation. When Cavalieri realized that Dilsheimer was not in the classroom but at DiChristina’s office instead, he proceeded to explain — by “screaming” and “yelling” at the class — that he did not call Schneider autistic, Bebon said.

“I said that Amanda was acting artistic,” Cavalieri said, according to Bebon.

Another former student who was in class that day — but was not present in the control room — and who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they had heard Cavalieri use the word “artistic” in the past.

“He had said this before to students, when training, when teaching the dissolves and the cuts, he did say, ‘We don’t have to be artistic with it,’ ” the former student said.

In her meeting with DiChristina, Dilsheimer said she told the dean what she thought Cavalieri had said about Schneider. When she returned to class, Dilsheimer said Cavalieri was waiting for her in the control room.

“I sit down, I’m shaking, trembling, still crying,” Dilsheimer said.

In audio recordings obtained by The Daily Free Press, Cavalieri can be heard berating Dilsheimer.

In interviews, nine students

independently corroborated that Cavalieri took Dilsheimer into the control room and addressed her in a manner that was loud and inappropriate.

“It was probably ten minutes of me sobbing while he just berates me inches from my face,” Dilsheimer said. “Maybe an inch from my face.”

The student, who recorded the audio recording and has since graduated from BU, did not submit the audio to the University for fear of being in violation of the University’s policy prohibiting in-class recording.

In an email, Elizabeth Mustaine, a professor and chair of the Sociology Department at the University of Central Florida — one of two experts who reviewed the audio recordings — described Cavalieri’s behavior as “obviously unnecessary” and that he came off “extremely angry.”

“By pulling the student aside and angrily yelling at her, the possibility of seeing his behavior as retaliation for her reporting him is now on the table,” Mustaine wrote. “Title IX expressly forbids retaliation against someone for making a report.”

Several students present that day said the yelling was so loud that the teaching assistant stood up, walked over to the control room and closed the door.

“If the professor is berating a student after they filed a complaint against him, I mean, that to me, it seems like it could be retaliation,” said Shiwali Patel, director of justice for the National Women’s Law Center. “That is a concern that I would have.”

Dilsheimer said she spoke to DiChristina two more times following the April 8 incident and told the dean about Cavalieri berating her after their initial meeting.

Several other students present in the Television Studio Production class also said they spoke with DiChristina in the week following the incident.

DiChristina declined to comment on the specifics of the situation and wrote in an email that she was not permitted to speak “about an EOO [Equal Opportunity Office] complaint.”

Faculty informed On April 12, 2021, DiChristina met with Dilsheimer via Zoom to discuss the events of April 8. Then, on April 14, in an email sent to Dilsheimer, DiChristina wrote that she had “connected with [Cavalieri] about the issues raised.”

Coincidentally, on April 15, Swoboda submitted a post to Campus Survivors — a non-profit organization that anonymously posts the experiences of sexual assault and sexual harassment survivors on Instagram — detailing her prop closet experience with Cavalieri three years earlier.

When Phillips — who was no longer in a relationship with Swoboda

at the time — saw the post, he said he knew who it was. On April 16, Phillips then emailed Master Lecturer Maura Smith and told her, without mentioning Swoboda by name, that he had knowledge of the incident and could corroborate the account.

The Daily Free Press obtained a copy of the email, and confirmed Phillips’ statements.

In the email, Phillips embedded the Campus Survivors post and told Smith he knew the person referenced was Cavalieri.

“While nothing has happened to me, I know people by name who he has harassed or assaulted,” Phillips wrote.

Smith responded to Phillips later that day, writing that she had made contact with others in the department and informed them of his email, including the chair of the Department of Film and Television, Paul Schneider. (Paul Schneider is not related to the aforementioned Amanda Schneider).

“I’ve contacted the department chair and shared with him the post and your comments,” Smith wrote in an email. “He has assured me that it will be investigated.”

When contacted by The Daily Free Press, both Smith and Paul Schneider did not comment on the specifics of the case, writing they were not able to speak on EOO investigations.

“Please understand that in order to safeguard the privacy of all involved I cannot comment on personnel matters,” Paul Schneider wrote in an email. “However, I can say this. If a student tells a faculty member that they have been sexually harassed, the faculty member is obligated to report the allegation to the Title 9 Coordinator in the Equal Opportunity Office. Even if the student does not file a complaint with the EOO, we still must report what we have been told to the EOO, which will address any allegations in accordance with the University’s Sexual Misconduct Policy.”

Phillips never heard back from the University or any third-party investigators following his email exchange with Smith, he said.

Investigation launched, concluded At some point after the April 8 incident, and after Phillips’ email to Smith, an outside investigator — New York City-based attorney Dan Schorr — wrote to students he was “engaged by Boston University to conduct an investigation into allegations of misconduct.”

Throughout the Fall 2021 semester, Schorr sent emails and conducted interviews with current and former students. It is unclear which incident, if any, triggered the investigation.

Schorr invited the recipients, via email, to participate in a Zoom interview to discuss the “allegations” he alluded to. In interviews with Schorr, students — including Dilsheimer and Schneider — said

they discussed their experiences with Cavalieri, including the April 8 incident.

Schorr did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Instead, The Daily Free Press’ inquiries were referred to University spokesperson Colin Riley, who wrote in a March 21 email that “there is no open investigation.”

A source close to the matter told The Daily Free Press the investigation has since concluded.

In Schorr’s emails to former and current students, he copied the University’s Title IX Coordinator Jessica Nagle.

Nagle did not comment on the specifics of the investigation, but wrote in a separate email that the University can engage with thirdparty investigators.

“The University may hire an external investigator to investigate a complaint of alleged policy violation by an employee,” Nagle wrote.

Sandra Hodgin, founder and CEO of Title IX Consulting Group, said it is “good practice” for universities to outsource investigations into Title IX policy violations. She said doing so allows for a degree of impartiality.

“Whenever there’s a Title IX case, that lawyer will be, or whatever law firm they pick, is their investigator under Title IX,” Hodgin said.

In separate interviews with The Daily Free Press, Dilsheimer, Schneider and three other students interviewed by Schorr said they were not made aware of the outcome of the investigation.

Both Phillips and Swoboda said they were not aware that an investigation had been initiated.

Prisha Sujin Kumar, a senior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences and a co-founder of Campus Survivors, said she believes that if the Title IX process was more empathetic, people who experience sexual harassment would be more likely to report.

“I think a lot of people would come forward with their sexual assault and sexual harassment if they were allowed to be anonymous, I think that a lot of people get worried, of course, of repercussions or retaliation,” Kumar said. “I don’t think Title IX is a very comfortable process to go through.”

Heidi Lockwood, a professor of philosophy at Southern Connecticut University and a gender studies researcher, said addressing the problem of faculty-student sexual harassment is difficult because departments at universities are closeknit and insular.

“Faculty hire faculty,” Lockwood said. “If you’re a faculty member, or small faculty in a philosophy department, or whatever, and you’re looking for colleagues to join you — potentially for the rest of their life or your life — it’s almost like inviting

somebody into a family.”

Despite the fact that universities openly condemn sexual misconduct, Lockwood said the issue has become more “under the table.”

“Especially in the wake of #MeToo, universities have been pushed in the interest of brand protection to, for example, find faculty guilty of nonsexual harassment because then it doesn’t get counted against them as a Title IX problem,” she said. “There’s a public relations and marketing incentive.”

A source close to the COM administration informed The Daily Free Press that Film and Television faculty were told not to speak to the press about specific instances of administrative misconduct or faculty mistreatment. It was also communicated, according to the source, that faculty members were specifically instructed not to cooperate with The Daily Free Press.

In an email, Paul Schneider denied that any such language was used.

“At our regular faculty meeting the faculty were reminded exactly what I wrote to [The Daily Free Press] last week, ” Paul Schneider wrote. “We cannot comment on personnel matters regardless of whether it is the NY Times or any other media source.”

UCF professor Elizabeth Mustaine said sexual harassment and sexual violence is an underreported phenomenon, but that the underreporting does not imply its non-existence.

“I do think that it is quieter now because it’s not acceptable,” Mustaine said.

When it comes to incidences of faculty-student misconduct and sexual harassment, the perpetrator is typically a respected individual in their field, Mustaine said.

“And so then I think the impulse is to say, ‘We don’t want to ruin someone’s career over this,’ ” Mustaine said. “Never mind that it already has destroyed the life of the victim.”

Swoboda and Dilsheimer said their experiences continued to impact them long after it happened.

“I think that my kind of self blame was on account of him [Cavalieri] telling me it was all my fault,” Dilsheimer said. “I wasn’t able to just brush that off.”

At this point in time, the University has not made the outcome of the investigation known.

If you want to share your story on sexual, verbal or emotional abuse on campus — or know of someone who might — please reach out to The Daily Free Press at news@ dailyfreepress.com.

Campus News Editor Jesús Marrero Suárez was involved in the butv10 show Shadows in fall 2021 and early spring 2022. He disaffiliated from the show on March 14, 2022.

Students walk out in protest of conservative speaker event at BU Talia Lissauer Senior Newswriter Nine minutes into Michael Knowles’ speech, students in social activist groups at Boston University walked out of the Law Auditorium in a Thursday protest.

Knowles — who is a conservative political commentator — was at BU to deliver a speech titled “Teach the ABCs, not the LGB(T)s” focusing on gender identity in primary education.

At one point during the sold-out event, organized by BU’s Young Americans for Freedom, Knowles discussed parents’ first-hand experience with the “gender unicorn” — a tool used by primary education teachers to help students understand their gender identity and sexual orientation — after distanced learning began at the start of the pandemic.

“They [parents] saw teachers in middle schools, in elementary schools, sometimes even preschools, presenting kids with sexual classroom materials such as the gender

unicorn. Are you familiar with the gender unicorn?” he asked, at which point students took off in the dozens.

Schools and teachers across the country have been criticized in recent years for including the “gender unicorn” in their curricula. Some parents and lawmakers have argued it is inappropriate to teach its material to young children.

Alex Brumfield, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said the walkout was organized by several student activist organizations.

“We wanted to stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community and trans community on campus,” Brumfield said outside the auditorium, moments after the walkout.

BU YAF coordinated with the University to establish a security detail, Rishi Anand, BU YAF president and CAS junior, wrote in an email.

Anand added it was a “shame” students walked out, but wrote that the overall event went well.

“What I want at BU is dialogue between students who disagree, that’s why I came to BU and that’s why I am the head of the YAF chapter here

at BU,” Anand wrote. “Not having the dialogue and having them leave and know that they were going to leave in some sort of solidarity shows how on campus we do not have that dialogue across the aisle that I want and I hope for.”

In the hours following the speech, several student organizations released statements in solidarity with the transgender community across the University — among them, the Queer Activist Collective and BU Students for Reproductive Freedom.

“Transphobia and homophobia in any form are deeply harmful and we are appalled and disappointed in BU administration’s failure to ‘restrict the speech that is directly incompatible with the safety of the community,’ ” SRF’s statement reads, quoting BU’s Statement on Free Speech and Expression.

University spokesperson Colin Riley declined to comment on the event, deferring to BU YAF. A podcast host and author of Speechless — a book on the idea and history of political correctness — Knowles is a frequent speaker

on college campuses. His March 3 speech “Banning Transgenderism” at Washburn University was met with protests at the time.

Knowles addressed the walkout a few more times throughout his speech after students left, using the term “wacko leftists” to refer to its organizers. He said he invites liberal students to hear his speeches, adding

he tries to “speak the truth with love.”

“It was the libs who decided to reserve a bunch of tickets and then tried to keep this event silent by not showing up, or showing up and then making a big spectacle of themselves and storming out,” Knowles said.

Senior newswriter Emilia Wisniewski contributed to the reporting of this article.

ANH NGUYEN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Young America’s Foundation website. Some students from Boston University’s social activist groups walked out in protest of an event organized by BU YAF, which featured conservative political commentator Michael Knowles.

NEWS 3

126th Boston Marathon brings energy, community back to Patriots’ Day Fiona Broadie Staff Writer Talia Lissauer Staff Writer

More than 28,000 runners from all 50 states raced from Hopkinton to Boston for the 126th Boston Marathon this Monday, marking the first regular schedule of the historic race since 2019.

The 2020 Boston Marathon was held virtually due to COVID-19. In 2021, the marathon took an unusual format — held in October after being postponed and with some participants running virtually.

This year, as part of COVID-19 safety measures, all participants, including volunteers, were required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Masks were also required in all buses and medical tents.

This year also marked 50 years since women were allowed to officially participate in the marathon.

“In 1972, the first year a women’s division was officially established, eight women ran, and this year … thousands of women and girls … will be participating in the marathon,” Wu said.

One of 10,000 volunteers at the marathon included J.D. Hale — a bike spotter and former marathon

finisher — who said his morning began at 3:30 a.m. when he arrived at Copley to go to Hopkinton with the wheelchair racers.

He then biked the 26.2 mile track making sure slower runners stayed to the side and faster runners were able to get through.

This year marked Hale’s ninth year volunteering after four years as a bike spotter and five years volunteering at

the finish line. Hale said his love for the marathon brings him back year after year.

“I grew up in New Hampshire, and I came down to watch my college roommate run in 1979. Something captured me about this city, about the race, the history, competition,” Hale said.

Event Marshal volunteer Dave Miles said spectators’ bags were

checked before they entered the viewing areas, so his job was to make sure spectators were not crossing the barriers and to give directions in case people needed them. “[My job is to] stand inside the barriers here and tell people how to get where they’re going and make sure no one goes where they are not supposed to,” Miles said.

After running over 26 miles to

COLIN BOYD | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Commonwealth Ave during the 126th Boston Marathon April 18. This was the first regularly scheduled marathon since 2019, after the 2020 marathon was held virtually due to the pandemic and the 2021 marathon took place in October.

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complete the Boston Marathon, participants said they felt happy, accomplished and exhausted.

Ricardo Vidales stretched on the side of the road after completing his fourth Boston Marathon. He said finishing the race was “a dream come true.”

“I’m stretching right now because [if I don’t] tomorrow I won’t be able to move,” Vidales said.

Michael Garrity said it was the hardest marathon he’d ever done.

“Mile 16 to 21 was all uphill,” Garrity said. “I feel accomplished.

Probably will do it again.”

Mauricio Vazquez said he felt “so many feelings at the same time” upon completing the marathon.

“Sometimes [you doubt yourself] but then you remember how hard you trained, and you convince yourself that you are ready to do this and that’s why you’re here,” Vasquez said.

Kenya’s Evans Chebet and Peres Jepchirchir won first place in the professional men’s and women’s division with a time of 2:06:51 and 2:21:01 respectively.

Manuela Schar of Switzerland won the women’s wheelchair division with a time of 1:41:08 and American Daniel Romanchuk won the men’s wheelchair division with a time of 1:26:58.

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Boston health officials renew mask recommendations as COVID cases rise in Massachusetts Seamus Webster Staff Writer Two days after the decision to lift the mask mandate on public transportation, the Boston Public Health Commission released a statement citing a 65% increase in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, COVID-19 cases spiked recently, hitting a high of 2,583 confirmed single-day cases on April 11.

The statement from the BPHC urged residents to continue abiding by measures such as testing and staying home if unwell, as well as renewing its indoor mask recommendation in order to prevent further spread of the virus.

“It’s also important to stay up to date on your vaccinations,” Bisola Ojikutu, executive director of the BPHC, stated in the press release.

“These precautions are how we protect the progress we’ve made in our community.”

The BPHC also noted the importance of booster shots, and added that they protect against “waning immunity.”

Jacob Bor, an assistant professor of global health and epidemiology at Boston University, said vaccinations are important in order to safeguard against varying rates of COVID-19 throughout different communities.

“So it’s a real concern that these disparities in vaccine booster coverage will translate into health inequities during this current surge,” Bor said.

A group of researchers published an article on April 11 examining the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and

booster shots in Massachusetts. The data suggests there are still prominent inequalities in vaccine distribution across racial, economic, age and education groups in the state.

“The booster is really essential when it comes to preventing morbidity and mortality with the omicron period,” Bor, who co-authored the report, said. “People who are vaccinated and boosted will probably be just fine, and people who are not may

have higher rates of poor outcomes.”

The report also found that 77% of residents ages 20-39 received a primary vaccine-series and only 35% percent of them were covered by a booster.

Paul Beninger, a professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts Medical School, said the statistics hadn’t come as a surprise to him.

“People felt like they were comfortable,” Beninger said. “So the

drive to get the booster has always seemed to have been less pressure, more elective, less essential. It always seemed to be secondary unless of course you fall into any of the risk groups.”

According to the report, education was a stronger indicator of coverage than race or wealth.

“Across the state, zip codes with higher education levels had much higher vaccination and booster cov-

JASMINE LI | DAILY FREE PRESS FILE

A person prepares to give a COVID-19 vaccine at Boston University’s Fitness and Recreation Center in 2021. The Boston Public Health Commission released a statement April 21 showing a 65% increase in COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks as well as recommending residents to continue testing, stay at home if unwell and for the city to renew its indoor mask policy.

erage than others,” Bor said.

As of last Tuesday, masks are no longer required on the MBTA or at Logan International Airport. Following a federal judge’s decision to overturn national mask mandates on public transportation — almost a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the mandate until May 3 — President Joe Biden has stated publicly that he plans to seek to appeal the ruling.

“I think now lifting the mask mandate gives people more room to exercise their own decisions,” George Tang, a Boston city resident, said.

“Now is a good time to open up.”

Quincy Stuart, another Boston resident, said lifting the mask mandate — especially on public transportation — makes him feel “uncomfortable.”

“I still would feel a bit scared because again we still are in an age where there is a pandemic,” Stuart said.

Bor said if a city is experiencing a rise in COVID-19 cases, they should consider their own public health measures.

“I think it’s — from a public health perspective — a no-brainer that [mandates] should be on the table as one of the options,” Bor said.

“I would love to see our city take a stand and see what happens.”

Although public health restrictions are relaxing, Bor added vaccines are an important measure to keep in mind.

“I think part of the normalization of COVID in our lives needs to be the normalization of vaccines,” Bor said.

“It should just be integrated into our lives.”

City Associate Editor Phoebe Chen contributed to the reporting for this article.

4 FEATURES

COMMUNITY

BU organizations raise awareness with Denim Day display Adithya Iyer Contriubting Writer “You are not alone,” “You are heard” and “You matter.” These are just a few of many quotes left on patches of denim up on display in the George Sherman Union for Denim Day. Boston University’s Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center, the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism and student organization It’s On Us BU have joined forces to put on a display in the lead up to Denim Day on April 27.

Three Denim Day displays are scattered throughout campus, one of which stands in the GSU, where students can write “empowering messages” on pieces of denim and pin those messages onto a large poster board, Kaylan Comenole, the director of CGSA and junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said.

“We’re hoping that by the end of the month, [the boards] will be all full and you’ll be able to come and see them and see how all the students at BU are rallying around survivors,” Comenole said.

Denim Day is an international campaign that takes place every year on a Wednesday in April, according to the official Denim Day website.

The campaign first started in 1999 after an Italian Supreme court ruling overturned a rape conviction by stating that the victim had to have aided her assailant given the fact that she was wearing tight jeans.

In a show of solidarity, many women in the Italian Parliament arrived to work the next day wearing jeans in response to the “victim blaming and destructive myths that surround sexual violence,” the Denim Day website says.

Since then, Denim Day officials have recorded almost 12 million people participating in the campaign worldwide including, but not limited to, middle, high school and college campuses.

In the GSU, many students such as Mehreen Kamal, a junior at the CAS, were drawn to the large display and wrote messages of their own.

“I think it’s a great initiative,” Kamal said. “We all need little reminders of support and love here and there.”

One of the main challenges that Kristen Schallert, president and cofounder of It’s On Us BU and senior in CAS, faced was making sure that the survivors were kept in mind when creating event ideas for Denim Day. “We want to make sure that we’re simultaneously raising awareness while not retraumatizing any survivors on campus,” she said.

HUI-EN LIN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A Denim Day display in the George Sherman Union. This is one of three displays across Boston University campus where students can write “empowering messages” on pieces of denim and pin them onto a large posterboard to show solidarity with sexual assault survivors.

The displays will remain standing for student involvement throughout campus until April 27.

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SARP, CGSA and It’s On Us BU have also organized an event called Cones for Consent on Denim Day.

Students wearing denim will get free ice cream from the ice cream truck parked at the BU Beach throughout the day.

Comenole said the purpose of this event is to raise awareness for sexual assault prevention and how to support survivors.

“We’re just trying to use an easy event like this to try and grab people’s attention and get them to learn more about sexual assault prevention, how to support survivors,” Comenole said.

Along with SARP, CGSA and It’s On Us, other student organizations are also raising awareness for Denim Day. Schallert said sororities especially like to ask members of It’s On Us BU to train them during this time of the year, during Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“Across the campus, we just are getting a flood of support from everybody,” Schallert said.

Individuals still have an opportunity to get involved with Denim Day. Schallert said It’s On Us BU is currently recruiting for executive board positions and are looking to hear from fellow survivors, allies and “just people who really want to support the group.”

“Our job is to support survivors on campus and direct them towards the resources that they might not hear of every day,” Schallert said.

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ARTS

Grad student ‘tackles’ women objectification in art Jasmine Grant Staff Writer Eva Lewis, a soon-to-be master of fine arts graduate of painting at Boston University, currently has her artwork on display at the LaiSun Keane gallery in the SoWa Art and

Design District near South Boston.

Lewis’ art generally focuses on female-identifying peoples in different spaces, such as nature or domestic spaces.

She said she draws inspiration from personal memories and that many of her paintings may be loosely based on mythological stories. Lewis explained

TALIA LISSAUER | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Eva Lewis, a master of fine arts graduate candidate at Boston University, and her work at the LaiSun Keane gallery. This is the first solo showcase of Lewis’ work, which emphasizes the use of color and different body types.

how Greek and Roman mythology often relied on the objectification of women for the sake of symbolism, which is what primarily sets her apart from traditional Renaissance artists.

“I definitely am trying to take a reclamation of those scenarios and putting these women in more of an authority of the space they’re in,” Lewis said.

“Disparate,” the name of Lewis’ exhibition at LaiSun Keane, is the artist’s first solo showcase of this historical commentary. The gallery provides her with the opportunity to chat about technique with many different people.

“I got a lot of responses from people like female identifying people who went to the show that said they really related to the work and thought that it was something that they could see themselves in or see themselves around,” Lewis said.

Lewis’ work includes the use of oil and acrylic paints and incorporates a lot of color. After coming from her hometown of Dayton, Ohio to BU, she was forced to employ “different ways of using color,” she said.

The gallery owner, LaiSun Keane, also commented on these aspects, emphasizing Lewis’ use of color.

Lewis works with a lot of “bright pink and magenta or deep pink or red,” she said.

“All those colors are so interesting to me because using monochrome is actually harder than using the whole palette right in the color spectrum,” Keane said.

Keane first saw Lewis’ work

at a group exhibition in another gallery across from LaiSun Keane and reached out to her for a studio visit. Keane said she was impressed not only by her paintings but her personality as well and said “she’s young and dynamic. She’s really fun to talk to.”

Keane said she was first intrigued

by Lewis’ perspective, being a woman from the Midwest, but also found universal meaning in her paintings.

“What I was concerned about is more the representation of women.

She, to me, stood out because of the body positivity in her subjects in her painting,” she said.

Lewis said representing different body types actually helps to expand upon the scenarios her paintings are based on.

“I might not have this certain type of body but I know somebody does,” Lewis said.

Through distortion, especially in body proportions, Lewis said she likes having the ability “to be able to break the body if I need to.”

Keane, whose gallery focuses primarily on non-mainstream voices such as women and minority artists, said she likes “to champion emerging artists.” Keane said she appreciated Lewis’ art for its influence by the aesthetics of the Renaissance and Rococo art movements and how she “uses it to make her own representation.”

“I think annually we probably produce, quite a lot of, hundreds of graduates,” Keane said. “But they don’t have a place to show. So as

a Boston gallery, I feel that it’s my responsibility and my obligation to feature local artists.”

Typically, Keane’s gallery features about nine to 11 shows a year, each one running for about four to five weeks.

“Art is actually a reflection of the society we live in,” Keane said. “The more access we have to art, the better we are as people.”

Lewis’ exhibition made its premiere with an opening reception on April 1.

“It was a really wonderful, fun event because a lot of Boston University students came,” Keane said.

The following day, the gallery hosted an artists talk between Lewis and Lucy Kim, an associate professor of art, painting at BU. Lewis has been a student of Kim’s for two years now as she nears the end of her MFA program.

“Eva is a very promising young artist who truly loves her medium [oil paint] and the discipline of painting,” Kim wrote in an email interview. “The joy emanates from her paintings.”

For advice to young artists, Lewis said being consistent is extremely important.

“It’s hard to be consistent, especially in a world that calls for us to do so many things and it has a lot of expectations from us,” Lewis said.

“But whether it’s like just drawing in a sketchbook consistently or painting every night or every other day, just some sort of practice. That consistency will help lead you to where you want to go.”

FEATURES 5

BUSINESS

New North End record store promotes community building, sustainability Annika Chaves Contributing Writer Skateboards hung above the red fireplace, vinyl records covering nearly every inch of the room and a neon sign that says “all in good taste,” this is GOOD TASTE Records — a new record store in Boston’s North End. The store, which is co-owned by a husband and wife, aims to promote connections and community building through vinyl records.

“We want to turn people on to good music … just having people pop in whether it be once a month, everyday … sharing stories and getting to know people through their music taste,” Lindsey Smith, coowner of the business, said.

The store offers primarily vinyl records but also sells turntables, CDs, cassettes and cleaning supplies for record players, Coty Smith, co-owner of the business, said.

Before starting GOOD TASTE Records, Coty was a digital marketer for e-commerce companies, but he had been collecting vinyl for over 15 years. Vinyl is an extension of one’s identity and personality, he said, and is something people can build connections from.

“There’s a you know a reference point. Do you like Prince? Great I do too … Before you know it you’ve made a friend,” Coty said.

GOOD TASTE Records brings something “different” to the North End, Zach Grimes, a Gloucester resident, said.

“You don’t really have a lot of stores in the North End or in this community that really showcases a lot of musical talents,” he said. “It’s really cool that they’re trying to bring in this

sort of musical aspect to the North End that is deeply rooted in different traditions.”

First starting their business online during the pandemic, Coty said they brought GOOD TASTE Records to the North End for its close-knit community feel and neighborhood aspect.

“It’s in the heartbeat of everything,” Coty said. “To help with some of the cultural aspects, the artistic aspects, those are the things that we felt like we could also help contribute.”

the day.”

Coty and Lindsey are also planning some of their “first in-store events and signings” as a way to further bring art, culture, music and connections to the community, he said.

“We have some artists who will be touring through to Boston on their own performance tour who we’ve been working with … that’s going to be happening on May 13,” Coty said.

GOOD TASTE Records not only collaborates with local musicians but also with its own customers through

Placing their custom stickers around town was one of the main reasons how Jack Mitchell, a North End resident who is “super into” vinyl, discovered GOOD TASTE Records.

“I was like this is really sick,” Mitchell said. “It’s really cool because I live just right around the corner.”

Another aspect GOOD TASTE Records focuses on is sustainability, which is a large part of their “ethos,” Coty said. They have combined vinyl records and tree planting as a way to help reduce their carbon footprint.

TAYLOR COESTER | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Coty Smith organizes records in his new store Good Taste Records. Starting their business online during the pandemic, Smith and his wife recently brought their store to the North End with a goal of community building through vinyl records.

With International Record Store Day happening on April 23rd, the store is gearing up for its grand opening, he said.

“It’s International Record Store Day which is our big industry event where it brings everybody together,” Coty said. “It’s basically a big party for

a custom sticker program called Slap of the Month. This program allows customers to design a sticker related to music, those that get selected will win a $50 gift card and have their stickers printed.

“We also want to be inclusive of our customer community,” Coty said.

“For every record we sell, online and in store, we plant mangrove trees in Madagascar,” Coty said. “We’re a little more than 1,300 trees planted.”

Enhancing the experience of vinyl records over streaming services is also something that is important to the store, he said.

“It all comes down to quantity versus quality” said Coty, who said that the music streaming experience often turns into only background noise. “Vinylism is again something that you must invest your attention to, you must put it on, drop the needle, sit back and let it play from beginning to end, stop, flip, repeat.”

Lindsey said with streaming services you skip around songs, but with vinyl records you can experience the full album.

“With a record you don’t know the song but you have to listen to it so you can explore new music and your sound,” Lindsey said.

Mitchell also said that vinyl records help him experience albums as a whole.

“And I can get more into the album as a piece of an entire work, like an entire piece of art, as opposed to just listening like song by song,” Mitchell said.

After these last two years in the pandemic, Coty said GOOD TASTE Records offers an “aesthetic” in-store experience, allowing customers to shuffle through records and use their listening booths.

“That’s something that you know could you go on Google, could you get on YouTube? … Sure, but it’s not the full singular experience,” Coty said.

In terms of advice for people who want to open a business, he said to “just do it,” by staying curious and being passionate. “[I] still don’t feel like I know enough or know everything I need to do it the right way, whatever the right way is,” Coty said. “But I’m curious to figure out what I do need to figure out.”

SCIENCE

How to celebrate Earth Day around Boston Jeanna Cooper Contributing Writer Claire Law Science Asscoiate It’s Earth Day, which means it’s time for the Boston and the Boston University community to come together and celebrate in support of environmental protection.

Following BU Sustainability’s Earth Day festival, here’s how you can get involved to help better our planet this weekend.

Tree plantings, Boston cleanups Throughout Boston, communities are coming together for clean ups and to plant more trees to make more green spaces for families to enjoy.

GreenRoots Chelsea is hosting a tree planting event Friday and a clean up Saturday. Iliana Panameño, spokesperson for GreenRoots Chelsea, said the organization’s mission is achieving environmental justice for communities who face the burden of climate change and environmental racism, particularly Chelsea.

“Folks that live in Chelsea, East Boston that are majority working class, immigrant folks and folks of color,” Panameño said. “We bear a lot of the brunt of climate change and contamination and fossil fuels.”

Chelsea is a very industrial area, which residents are affected by, she said.

“There’s many factories here, there’s many terminals and trucks

going day in and day out,” Panameño said. “Many folks have asthma or some sort of respiratory issue because of that.”

This weekend, roughly 30 volunteers have signed up with Tree Eastie, an urban forestry program, to dig 30 holes in empty tree wells on the sidewalks in various parts of East Boston, founder Bill Masterson said.

Next Tuesday, they will then plant trees in the various holes they’ve dug.

The mission of Tree Eastie is to increase East Boston’s tree canopy coverage — the area shaded by trees — which is 7%, as opposed to the city of Boston’s 27%, Masterson said.

“There are some streets in East Boston that don’t have one single tree on them,” Masterson said. “It’s like a tree desert here.”

Last year, Tree Eastie launched an “adopt a tree’’ program, where people can sign up to water a tree in front of their house, Masterson said.

“The more people that sign up to water trees, the better it’s going to be for the trees’ chances of survival,” Masterson said. “[Street trees] need 15 to 20 gallons of water a week to survive during the first three years, but a lot of times … there isn’t enough rainfall to be able to sustain them.”

Masterson said those looking to volunteer with Tree Eastie should contact treeeastie@gmail.com.

Seedling bagging, Arbor Week events Speak for the Trees, Boston, a forestry nonprofit aiming to “improve the size, health and equity of Boston’s

tree canopy,” is hosting a seedling bagging at Seaport Common from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday.

“We’re getting 1,400 seedlings … separate them out with each seedling

put in boxes and distributed to our community partners around the city.”

The seedling bagging Friday is a part of a series of events Speak for the Trees, Boston is hosting for Arbor

AMANDA CUCCINIELLO | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Flowers in bloom at the BU beach. The Daily Free Press staff share activities to do in Boston for Earth Day.

in a different bag,” David Meshoulam, co-founder and executive director of Speak for the Trees, Boston, said. “Then those seedlings get

Week — a celebration of trees.

Earth Day marches, demonstrations Massachusetts Peace Action, a

nonprofit organization for a more just and peaceful United States foreign policy, is hosting a rally and march Friday at Park Street Station calling for people, planet and peace over profit. Starting at 1 p.m., there will be speakers and music.

Demonstrators can then march to Copley Square by 3:30 p.m., where Extinction Rebellion, an international, non-violent movement focused on environmental issues, is starting its Freedom from Fossil Fuels tour. There will be marching, art, dancing and “disco-bedience,” according to a flier.

Charles River Watershed Association People can also volunteer to participate in 24 clean-ups near the Charles River Friday and Saturday, hosted by the Charles River Watershed Association.

Executive Director Emily Norton said that participating in cleanups can help people feel like they are doing something to better the environment.

“There’s a sense of futility, the challenge is so big,” Norton said.

“This is something very specific that people can do.”

The organization started in 1965 because people were “disgusted by the state of the Charles River,” she said.

“Ideally we would not be throwing the garbage on the land or the river in the first place,” Norton said. “But until we do a better job at stopping the source at least we can be cleaning it up.”

6 PHOTOS

GALLERY 126th Boston Marathon

April 18 marked the 126th Boston Marathon, and the first regularly scheduled marathon since 2019. The Daily Free Press staff captured moments of Boston’s iconic Marathon Monday.

Anh Nguyn Associate Photo Editor

David Johnson (front) and Sheila Johnson hold a sign to cheer on their son, Hayden, and his boyfriend, Alex, who participated in the Boston Marathon. MAGGIE WEN / DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

TALIA LISSAUER | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

An athlete in the wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon. HUI-EN LIN / DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

MAGGIE WEN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

HUI-EN LIN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

COLIN BOYD | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

A participant, wearing a Superman costume, runs in the Boston Marathon. COLIN BOYD / DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF HUI-EN LIN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

HUI-EN LIN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

TALIA LISSAUER | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

HUI-EN LIN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

EDITORIAL 7

EDITORIAL

We report on sexual misconduct — who’s solving it?

ILLUSTRATION BY SMARAN RAMIDI

On Feb. 17, Harvard Crimson published an editorial titled “We Are Not a Title IX Substitute,” after the collegiate newspaper took the brunt of a sexual misconduct investigation into three Harvard professors. Two months later, as The Daily Free Press looks back on a year of publishing, there have been many moments when our newsroom bore an uncanny resemblance to exactly the kind of “Title IX Substitute” our peers at Harvard coined.

Despite years of Beanpot rivalries and competing for prospective students’ attention, it has become evident that no matter which side of the Charles River you’re on, student journalism has become intertwined with sexual misconduct investigations of an incredibly heavy nature.

In September of 2021, The Daily Free Press reported on a student alleging inappropriate internet communication with BU professor Eric Ruske. That December, we covered a Boston University Title IX investigation into Carlos Apostle. And just this March, a story came out on a former Sargent student being charged with similar counts of sexual assault.

Examples of student newspapers publishing these heavy stories, stories that have profound impacts on their communities, are ubiquitous — just a quick peruse on Average State University’s

independent newsroom website yields multiple troubling articles on various counts of sexual harassment.

But the increasing role student journalism has had to play in reporting on the subject brings up an important question. Why exactly do so many victims of sexual harassment feel more comfortable bringing their stories to 18 to 20 year olds in newsrooms, than official Title IX resources at their universities?

In theory, the media is the last place victims of sexual assault want to go with their story.

With everyone from your middle school teacher to Fox News having free access to published stories, it’s a gamble worse than the BU housing system whether their story will be met with sympathy or scrutiny. Additionally, though an article can get retweets and comments from the faithful readers of student newspapers, it cannot directly lead to, say, the firing of a predatory professor or a formal court case.

The case for reporting on sexual assault gets more complicated when considering student journalists. Although we pour hours of hard work and careful consideration into these pieces, ultimately, as Crimson pointed out, we lack formal professional training in the subjects they entail.

Perhaps the reason there seems to be more interview recordings of sexual assault allegations than formal Title IX investigations — never mind their actual results — is a lack of transparency and accessibility underlining the whole process. Launching a Title IX investigation is notoriously convoluted, and something universities don’t make clear to their students how to do. What’s more, once an investigation is opened, any further action is tucked safely away from the prying eyes of the public.

This privacy is undeniably beneficial for those involved in the case, but it creates an aura of inaccessibility that makes victims of sexual assault wary of sharing their stories. More compelling of a deterrent is universities’ vested financial interest in downplaying mounting sexual misconduct allegations against their staff. After all, it’s difficult to justify paying upwards of $50,000 a year to walk into class every day not knowing if you’ll receive an economics lecture or an untoward comment.

We have watched as Harvard professor Gary Urton held his position for 18 years, during which time he sexually harassed multiple students. We have watched Florida State University allow Jameis Winston to continue

playing football for them after a woman accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2012.

With the example universities have set thus far, it’s no wonder victims of sexual misconduct feel they’ll get more justice from a first year journalism student than their school’s Title IX office.

To be clear, the goal of journalism is to seek the truth and tell it. If student journalism can provide a safe space for victims and help in any way to bring them justice, we do not shy away from this role. But the phenomenon the Crimson has commented on, the phenomenon occurring in student newspapers across the nation, should not go unnoticed.

Every student journalist reaching out to sources, contacting Title IX experts and editing late into the evening is a physical reminder of the inadequacies of universities when it comes to sexual misconduct occurring on their campuses. Maybe it’s unfair for students burdened with the prospect of uncompleted HUB credits to be doing the work of Title IX officials. Maybe exposing the truth in this way is what they signed up for when they agreed to be student journalists.

Whatever the case is, this cannot and should not be solely up to them.

EDITORIAL BOARD Jean Paul Azzopardi, Editor-in-Chief Jesús Marrero Suárez, Campus Editor Mitch Fink, Sports Editor Taylor Coester, Photo Editor Nellie Maloney, Co-Podcast Editor

Emily Stevenson, Managing Editor

Cici Yu, City Editor

Sujena Soumyanath, Co-Opinion Editor

Smaran Ramidi, Layout & Graphics Editor Michelle Tian, Lifestyle Editor Taylor Hawthorne, Co-Podcast Editor

Emily Pauls, Features Editor Brian Foisy, Co-Opinion Editor

Mary Geena Prestia, Multimedia Editor GRAPHIC BY ALEXIA NIZHNY

8 OPINION

COLUMNS Divine Politik:

Leftism and Catholicism can and should coexist

Caroline McCord Columnist As I write this, it is midway through Holy Week, the most sacred time of the year for practicing Christians. During this week, we reflect on the Paschal Mystery — the life, suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who we believe is the Son of God. We also meditate on our own mortality, our conscience and our lives as people of faith.

Throughout my meditations this week, I have been provoked to again consider how I reconcile my spiritual beliefs with my political beliefs, both personally and generally.

To be both progressive and Catholic is often seen as an oxymoron, particularly considering the better-known Christian nationalism of many on the religious right. And for quite some time, I also struggled with this, worried that to hold on to my religious traditions was to besmirch my political character. I worried I was inherently

oppressive for living as a Christian.

After all, Christians have perpetuated innumerable harms against marginalized communities — religious colonization, Indigenous boarding schools and abuse against children come to mind — and as a leftist, I felt as though these evils outweighed any good my religion offered to the world.

Before I continue, I find it imperative to affirm that there is no excuse for the aforementioned bigotry, cruelty and hatred. No apology will ever suffice in terms of the harm Christianity has inflicted, and often still inflicts, upon so many innocent people. But still, I am so, so sorry.

In efforts to assuage my internal conflict, I began to do research, and was very pleasantly surprised to find a trove of literature regarding progressive Christianity — Catholicism in particular. Because so many Catholic institutions are devoted to ancient, patriarchal and repressive traditions, I had never heard many of these left-wing names or theologies, even though I went to Catholic school my entire life. But they existed, in droves, and allowed me to see how leftist ideology and a Christian identity are not at all in opposition. They actually work far better in conjunction with each other.

Take Dorothy Day, a socialist, feminist and anti-war activist who founded the Catholic Worker Movement — a pacifist collective that engages in mutual aid and civil disobedience in support of the poor and marginalized.

Or the Berrigan brothers, two Jesuit priests

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who worked in tandem with the Trappist monk Thomas Merton to protest the Vietnam War and nuclear warfare, spending years in jail for their protests — which included burning draft documents and pouring human blood on nuclear equipment. Father Daniel Berrigan, one of the brothers, was also a prominent activist in support of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

Or perhaps Leonardo Boff, one of the main supporters of liberation theology — a community of Catholics who preach a Marxist gospel that upholds the revolutionary nature of Jesus Christ and works to liberate the oppressed proletariat and diminish the power of the rich.

More famously, Father James Martin — a Jesuit priest who is well-known even in secular circles — is an avid and vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, especially in terms of their acceptance and well-being within the Catholic Church. Concurrently, Catholic Sister Helen Prejean works tirelessly to exonerate death row prisoners, dedicating her life to ending the death penalty and working as a spiritual adviser to those prisoners who will not be saved.

These are isolated examples, of course, but they do highlight an undercurrent of progressive politics and theology that is alive and well in the Catholic faith. Even our Sacred Scripture is far less conservative than fundamentalists would admit. Within the pages of the Bible, women lead revolutions, sex workers and men on death row are honored and valued, a poor brown girl bears and mothers the

Savior of the World, a lowly shepherd boy and the son of a king are lovers, slaves are freed, leaders are shamed and humans are called to steward and serve the earth — not the other way around.

The Bible is a rich tapestry of diverse, messy, complicated human beings, most prominently members of oppressed groups. The ancient humans in this text make mistakes, try to do good and constantly seek the Divine — no better, no worse and no different than human beings now. Considering this interpretation, leftism is the only biblically-sound political theory that ever made sense to me, as it is the only system that consistently supports the oppressed, advocates peace and mercy and fights for the marginalized.

Pacifism, feminism, liberation, equality, inclusion, justice and love encompass what Catholicism is to me and many others.

Simultaneously, these are the values that my political ideology stems from. So as Holy Week winds to a close and we usher in the joyous Easter season, I finally feel peace between my spiritual and temporal beliefs, anchored by the rich tradition of radically progressive ancestors and theologies — albeit somewhat hidden — of my faith.

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Sing about Me:

Watching The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a valid grounding technique

Aidan Mega Columnist As is perfectly natural for someone in their early 20s, I recently found myself watching The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie by myself on a Friday night.

If you’re wondering, I harbor absolutely no regret in doing so — should the opportunity present itself, I can’t think of another practical manner in which I’d rather spend my time.

It’s come to the point where I shamelessly enforce my obsession onto others — ask the Cinco de Mayo crowd, which unfortunately found itself in my vicinity during after hours last year. Was I impaired when I grabbed that TV remote? No comment. But everyone present that night will tell you how exceptional of a post game that was.

Alas, I digress. There I was on Friday, absolutely housing a box of Goldfish, barely

giving myself time to chew and swallow before grossly cackling at scenes of which I’ve seen a million times. Knowing the script verbatim has never dampened how timelessly hilarious the movie is. The neural payoff that comes from Plankton uncovering Plan Z is only comparable to nursing a fine wine — or a Corona with a lime, depending on whether you were in that living room with us a year ago.

The misadventures that constitute SpongeBob and Patrick’s trek to Shell City make up a cult classic that still feels fresh almost 18 years after it was released. The tandem reclaims Neptune’s crown, hitch a ride back to Bikini Bottom on the speedboat that is David Hasslehoff and save the town upon arrival — this is only after Mr. SquarePants hits the filthiest guitar lick that the world has ever heard, of course. But as the movie came to a close, I was hit with a bittersweet sense of nostalgia of which I can never avoid.

In the most triumphant moment in modern cinematic history, SpongeBob was duly acknowledged as both a hero and the newest manager of the Krusty Krab. The credits rolled, and Ween’s “Ocean Man” — one of my favorite songs of all time — began to play. All of a sudden, there I was — crying over The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie on a Friday night, wishing I’d went out with my friends like one is supposed to.

But it’s a motor reflex. Every time I see “Directed and Produced by [the late and great] Stephen Hillenburg,” with washed strings accompanying Gene Ween’s psychedelic

vocals as a slideshow of my favorite childhood characters takes its course, the dam just breaks — and the tears flow more and more as the ensuing existential crisis grows more potent.

The first verse hits, with the singer beckoning to revisit familiar territory — “take me by the hand, lead me to the land that you understand” — which flows ever so smoothly into choruses detailing nothing more than a “childlike man” enjoying a beach day. The track is undoubtedly short, sweet and simple, but it takes me back to times when I didn’t have a care in the world.

For the millionth time, I found myself confronted with a serenity which has become foreign to me in the sphere of adulthood. My little ritual of watching this movie from time to time makes me reminisce on when I allowed the TV show to define my childhood — when I’d come home, loosen my tie and put down my briefcase after a long day at elementary school, tuning into Nickelodeon as soon as I stepped through the front door.

The serenity turned into a yearning for years long passed. After I pulled myself together, and the existential questioning of where all the time went ceased, I found myself wondering whether I turn to the familiar so often — The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and “Ocean Man” alike — because of how daunting and unfamiliar adult life is shaping up to be.

ILLUSTRATION BY JACKLYN TSUNG

So many platforms have covered the neuroscience behind why stimulative nostalgia is so sought after, most of which discuss the dopamine highs associated with tapping into memory through music — play The Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” at any social gathering and you’ll see the effect as clear as day. But I often find myself embracing nostalgia as a means of necessarily reconnecting with my past, reminding myself that the happy-go-lucky kid in me is still there in the midst of a decade defined by infinite stress.

Watching this movie on a quarterly basis is an obsession, but it’s also a grounding technique.

The panic over a childhood out of grasp always subsides, and I’m left in touch with myself every time the credits fade.

It’s also probably worth talking about how I ate two

dozen servings of Goldfish in one sitting, but that’s a conversation for another day.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR 9

A Letter from the Editor

I

CICI YU | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

n the heart of central campus, on the ground floor of 708 Commonwealth Avenue, a glass door with a posterboard sign separates the world from what’s inside.

On that sign read the words, “The Daily Free Press, The Independent Student Newspaper At Boston University.”

Inside, editors of the student-run newspaper work tirelessly into the early hours of the morning — writing, editing and publishing stories for the Boston University community.

Oftentimes, lost folk wander in from the street, confused and perplexed that we, in fact, don’t sell cookies. “No, that’s Insomnia Cookies, just one floor above,” we tell them, “and if they have any spare, we’ll happily take some,” we let them know. It’s not uncommon for FreeP editors to work grueling hours – even up to 12 hours on a print night … at least the leftover cookies help.

Instead, what The Daily Free Press offers is truth in storytelling, a passion for impactful journalism and a space for students to grow as writers and editors.

This semester’s editorial board has taken those expectations and pushed them to a place far beyond what is expected from a group of students that work together ephemerally for just four

Sujena Soumyanath

Taylor Coester

months. Since January, The Daily Free Press has investigated claims of unjust treatment by BU’s Disability and Access Services Director Lorre Wolf and sexual harassment allegations leveled against College of Communication assistant professor Christophor Cavalieri. We wrote about a BU alum jetting off into space and covered the heroic efforts of women’s basketball head coach Melissa Graves as she led the team to another winning record in her first season all while being heavily pregnant.

What The Daily Free Press has accomplished this semester, and this year has been nothing short of excellent.

Our accomplishments in digital and physical print echo the work carried out behind the scenes. This semester alone, The Daily Free Press extended its reach on campus by establishing collaborations with student clubs and publishing work cross-platform to reach BU’s wider, international community. The FreeP also introduced a new sports podcast, pushed for more video content on our social media channels, scrapped the dreaded digital print and laid the foundations for an investigative team moving forward.

But it wasn’t easy — just ask the editors and writers who called this office home for a semester, working till 2 a.m. five days

Jean Paul Azzopardi

a week, fuelled only by the adrenaline of telling a good story.

Was the five hours of sleep per night and extra gray hairs worth it? For what we achieved with our work this semester, absolutely.

As mentioned in a BU Today article, I truly believe The Daily Free Press is the heartbeat of local journalism. After four print nights and over 300 edited articles, the 13 editors that piece together this paper do what they do because, at the end of the day, it’s what they love to do.

I speak on behalf of this semester’s editorial board when I say that none of this would’ve been possible without the support of those who are with us in spirit every night. From family members and significant others who worry about us working late hours to friends and housemates who excuse our absence as of late and the wider FreeP community whose donations and support keep this paper running semester after semester. To all of you, thank you.

As the semester winds down, the editorial board will soon close another chapter at The Daily Free Press — our chapter soon to be told on the pages of the blue history books confined to the back of the “basement” office. Some will graduate, others will study abroad and

Emily Stevenson

Emily Pauls

the rest will continue their journey at BU next year. I wish you all the best of luck in whatever you do. Summer beckons and it’s time to put down the pen and paper for a few weeks and focus on yourself — such is the rare privilege of a journalist.

But come September, the printing press will start churning out papers again, The Daily Free Press office will be filled with fresh, eager faces and stories from the BU community will once again be told.

It’s time to pass the baton. As editorin-chief, I hope our editorial board has served you well this semester and told the stories you wanted to hear. This is the closing of one chapter and the opening of another for The Daily Free Press.

Enjoy a well-deserved break and a sun-kissed summer, for the future of journalism burns bright on Comm. Ave.

Jean Paul Azzopardi Editor-in-Chief

Jesús Marrero Suárez

Cici Yu

10 GAMES

CROSSWORD

A Goodbye From the Editorial Board

Issues created with the help of Layout Associates Haley Alvarez-Lauto & Monet Ota, DFP Graphic Artist Team, and Photo Section.

LIFESTYLE 11

Lifestyle

Lessons from 3,269 miles away Katrina Liu Senior Writer Deep breaths. Look out the window. Remember to consciously recognize your gratitude. 15 weeks. Enjoy it.

These are only some of the sentences I’ve been reciting to myself since the morning of Jan. 9 when I landed in London. With bleary eyes, a large suitcase and no expectations, I threw myself headfirst into studying and living in another country for the first time.

Now, as I’m writing this in the midst of week 14 out of 15, I can say with all confidence that it’s been a whirlwind of an experience. And thank goodness for that.

I’ve visited as many places as possible and that’s been satisfying and extremely fun. But the experience has been more mental than anything, stimulated by the fact that I’m in a city that will never quite feel like home, but brings an unexplainable ease to me now than it did when I first got here.

The gratitude underlying it all has been something I’ve struggled and redefined for myself. I’ve wanted to study abroad ever since I knew what it was, and I’ve talked about doing

it in London since I was in middle school. And having the chance to study in a city as lively as London is such a wonderful opportunity.

Yet, sometimes, that’s a really hard thing to remember.

It’s hard to remember when you have to figure out how to not spend too much money in a place where everything is expensive.

Or when you almost get run over by cars because you’re looking in the wrong direction. Or when, simply, you’re just living in a new country and diving right into it for four months.

As someone who’s always been quite jarred by big change, you’d think I would’ve seen it coming.

But I’ve come to realize that no matter if you expect it or not, the experience is always something different than what you could’ve imagined. And despite how frustrating it can be, wouldn’t life be so boring if you knew exactly what was coming?

No feeling or thought is straightforward or black and white. There’s a contour and nuance to everything you feel — a push and pull. And it’s okay and valid to feel the more negative side to something even when you’re supposed to be having the time of your life.

In short, your problems and emotions come with you no matter where you are in the world.

They may just be presented in a different light.

But in between the mental battles, this abroad experience was filled with blissful moments I will keep with me for the rest of my life. From sitting in Hyde Park for hours during the one sunny week London had, listening to music and people watching to sitting in front of the ginormous Prague Castle with two friends just admiring the sheer splendour of it all to running down empty streets at night coming back from

it’s okay to still feel sad was something that I struggled with.

I didn’t want to be sad about feeling off when I was living in an experience that I had been thinking about for a very long time. But that’s not how life works. We exist in an equilibrium.

Maybe this isn’t synonymous with studying abroad and just comes along with growing up, but I’ve learned that life doesn’t get put on hold. Ever. If anything, it’s

peace to your mind and that it’s essential to make time for it, no matter if the circumstances are telling you otherwise. Of course, I wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone in London, but I learned that if I didn’t make time to do things that I know bring me joy, then I would get too swept up in it all and lose footing.

I don’t want to say that I became a new person abroad, because that’s just unrealistic and not true. But, as with any new experience, I definitely tapped into different parts of myself — some amazing and some I’m not extremely proud of. But what a privilege it’s been.

When I come back home and people inevitably ask how studying abroad was, the answer I give will vary. Maybe I’ll say that it was brilliant and wonderful.

Maybe I’ll say that it was one of the hardest semesters I’ve had yet. Whatever answer I’ll give, I know that I’ll have no regrets and I know that I’ll verbalize my immense gratitude.

With all that being said, I’m ready to come home. And I’m also going to miss London very much.

Push and pull. An equilibrium.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHLOE HANNUM

a pub to going on the Tube and knowing exactly where to get off — this is what it’s all about.

The balance between being grateful and acknowledging that

Favorite Lifestyle Headlines:

just going to continue speeding up.

But more than anything, I’ve learned that it’s important to know what comforts you and brings

“The music that shapes Boston University” (02/27/2022)

“Struggling student athletes, it’s okay to seek help” (04/06/2022) “Finding self-love through an unexpected turn of events” (02/23/2022)

“Being told as a ‘girl gamer’ to go back to the kitchen in 2022” (01/31/2022) “Sum of your parts” (03/17/2022)

My semester — ­­ A Boston spring Bailey Clark Senior Writer Originally I had the spring 2022 semester — the second semester of my sophomore year of college — mapped out as an inconsequential one. I had spent the last year and a half building a solid foundation for myself in Boston. My job, friends and school work all seemed stable.

The flight back to the city after winter break felt natural and less overwhelming than past journeys back to school. My biggest worry was the huge grocery haul that my empty kitchen desperately needed.

The calmness that embodied my perception of the next few months of my life should have been an initial warning sign.

Things are never as one would expect.

I was welcomed back to Boston in the dead of winter, and boy oh boy! There is a reason why the first response to a mention of attending university in Boston is “It’s cold up there!” Believe me, they are right.

Just a few weeks into new classes, my life began to replicate nature’s attitude. A surprising and difficult conversation with my roommates left me hurt, confused

and in need of an apartment for next year.

Although I quickly sorted out the latter of the three, February felt as though there was a blizzard in my head. Pounding down feelings of self-loathing, immediately followed by selfcomforting and brought together by immense self-questioning. I did not know if I was embarrassed by myself or proud of myself.

But, alas, the snow melts! I began investing my time into relationships I had not been as focused on. These people listened to me, checked in on me and allowed space for me to grow — this began the thaw of February’s ice. Well, this and the immense attention and conversation surrounding the upcoming sorority recruitment.

Practically five days straight of all of my energy placed into one goal: get to know a bunch of really cool girls. I may have complained my butt off, but these five days felt like the light at the end of the tunnel. And though I plan on studying abroad next year when recruitment takes place, it brings a smile to my face. They felt like that first warm day in March.

However, if you know anything about winter in Boston, that first warm day is simply a tease. And

the bitter days that follow seem a bit colder than before.

First, a text to call my previous acting teacher during which she delivered devastating news about the unexpected loss of one of my favorite students. A couple of weeks later, an eerily similar text from my mom to answer the phone. The purpose of that call was to inform me of our family friend passing away. Suddenly, it is March, and it is below freezing with whipping winds.

A complex type of grieving takes place when you are isolated from anyone who feels your loss.

Instead of everyone knowing and understanding, you have to tell people what has happened and who these people were to you and what they did for the world in a selfish plea for comfort. This got tiring quickly, and suddenly, I had to do it all again.

March hurt me. But, somehow, woven into this month of loss and grief were those random 70 degree type days. My friends who did know what was going on were so caring, and my calendar was filled with coffee dates to meet the new girls in my sorority.

I came back to Boston after returning home for one of the funerals, and time just sort of began to go by without my noticing. Weekends were fun,

school was busy and my thoughts focused more on apparition, rather than sadness.

About a week ago I had a postclass Wednesday picnic with two of my friends. The weather was beautiful, dogs came up to us and I was enjoying a salmon avocado roll. I was happy. We all agreed on the bizarre magic of a Boston spring.

It felt as though overnight flowers came out of nowhere and buds lined the branches of trees for the first time in months. The excitement of not needing a jacket

to go outside and the promise of fast summer approaching — it is all just so Boston spring!

Boston spring is healing.

Boston spring is exciting. Boston spring marks the end of Boston winter and man! Do I need my Boston winter to be over!

I am officially ending my sophomore year in my Boston spring.

ILLUSTRATION BY SMARAN RAMIDI

SPORTS 12

SPORTS

After four years at BU, Riley Childs set to bring energy and leadership to George Mason Mark Fraenkel Senior Writer Few players in the Patriot League can energize a home crowd quite like Boston University women’s basketball player Riley Childs.

“I love the memories of her getting super hyped on the floor. And just like any ‘and-one’ she stomped, she’s screaming,” head coach Melissa Graves said.

Despite a pandemic-riddled junior season and a serious injury that took her off the court for a considerable amount of time her senior year, Childs said she is grateful for the memories she made as a part of the program over the past four years.

Next season, Childs will play a fifth year at George Mason University after grad-transferring from BU. During her stellar career at Medway High School, Childs began looking for schools to play at the next level. On her visit to BU, she fell in love with the program and the school.

“A lot of the other schools I was looking at were Patriot League,” Childs reflected. “The big thing that brought me here was when I met like the other girls in the program who were already here I just felt very welcomed and it was like the one school that I visited where I felt truly

like a part of the program without even being there yet.”

On the court as a freshman, Childs contributed to a team which was selected to finish at the bottom of the Patriot League standings, but succeeded on the court in large part due to her contributions.

“Because I was able to play so much and really establish myself on the floor just working hard and doing the little things, I was able to really establish myself as a leader,” Childs said.

Former BU head coach Marisa Moseley rewarded Childs for her contributions by naming her a captain in her sophomore year.

“It’s very rare to be a sophomore captain, so I was very appreciative of it and I really learned a lot,” Childs said. “I don’t know if 100% I was ready for it. But I think that it was the right step for me because it put me in a position to be even more successful junior and senior year.”

That campaign also had an abrupt end, when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ll never forget when we found out that the season got canceled.

We were at our shootaround for our semifinal game in the gym and I thought Coach was joking when she said that it got canceled and I mean, that was definitely a hard moment and I think that whole summer was definitely tough,” Childs reflected.

The following season, BU had

Favorite Sports Headlines: “Champions again! Men’s hockey brings Beanpot back to Comm. Ave in one-goal thriller” (02/15/2022)

no non-conference schedule and played Holy Cross five times in a season shortened by the pandemic.

After beating Lafayette College and American University in the Patriot League tournament, the Terriers fell to Lehigh University in the championship game.

Following the season, Mosely headed to the University of Wisconsin and was replaced by Graves, who was immediately impressed with Childs and her approach to the game.

“The biggest thing that stuck out was her personality,” Graves said.

“She’s loud. She loves to talk. She’s someone that anyone can get along

with. She has that personality that people gravitate toward. So, I thought that was really special.”

Graves was also impressed with Childs’ on the court abilities.

“Riley’s one of the best rebounders in the conference. She has a tenacious ability to just go after rebounds, crash the glass super, super hard,” she said.

Childs finished her career at BU with the fifth-most rebounds in program history.

Childs’ final season in Boston would take an unfortunate turn during BU’s Jan. 12 matchup with the United States Military Academy, when Childs suffered a finger injury.

“I put my arm up and it was like a normal basketball play and I just heard a crack and I was like, ‘That’s weird,’” Child recounted. “And I thought my finger had cracked. So I looked down and I grabbed my hand and it cracked again.”

The injury sidelined Childs, giving her a new perspective for the game and her role on the team.

“I realized I need to adjust how I’m a leader,” Childs said. “And it was a really rare opportunity for me because … I want to be a college coach. So that for me was … what it would feel like when I am done playing and just watching from the sidelines.”

After a speedy recovery, Childs would return to the Terrier lineup. She would play an important role down the stretch for BU, scoring ten points in the Patriot League quarterfinal win over Army.

“I’m super thankful that I did end up here and it hasn’t been the easiest career obviously. I’ve had a couple of injuries and a lot of coaching changes, and a lot of new stuff go on,” Childs said. “I’m super thankful for the lessons and the things I’ve learned while being here and playing for the school for four years has been great, and I wouldn’t take back anything.”

HUI-EN LIN | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Senior Riley Childs in a game against Bucknell University Feb. 26. Head coach Melissa Graves reflects on her impressive presence on and off the court, as Childs’ final season playing for Boston University wraps up.

“Dance and cheer receive energetic send-off to Nationals” (04/04/2022)

“Former BU star escapes Ukraine days before Russian invasion” (03/11/2022)

“Meet Melissa Graves: head coach, role model, and now mother” (02/25/2022)

Boston University Professor David Somers runs Boston Marathon for family, diabetes research Brendan Nordstrom Senior Writer Found within the buzz and festivities of Patriots’ Day this year was David Somers, chair of Boston University’s Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, who ran the Boston Marathon for more than just a fast time.

After two of his three daughters were diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and Somers was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, Boston’s Joslin Diabetes Center has been omnipresent in his life.

In an effort to give back, Somers ran the marathon for diabetes research.

“This is a sort of recognition of my health, and my kids’ health,” Somers said. “Being able to pay it back to the institution that helped us the most so that they can help the next families that come along feels like the best way to really communicate that gratitude.”

Somers’ family first began to deal with diabetes around Halloween of 2002 when his youngest daughter, Ellie, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age three-and-a-half and spent multiple days in the hospital.

Somers recalls having to monitor her blood sugar every two to three hours, even throughout the night.

“It’s pretty traumatic,” Somers said. “It’s like a bomb goes off and with diabetes, you sort of have to change the way you deal with everything.”

The next week Somers was at Joslin, which helped the family adjust to their new lifestyle. “[Diabetes] is not a sprint, it’s a marathon,” Somers said. “It’s a long term, ‘How do I live with this? How do I manage this?’ ” Joslin, the world’s largest diabetes center, takes an allencompassing approach to diabetes treatment, according to Brenda Goodell, the center’s senior director of Development and Event Fundraising. “[Diabetes] doesn’t just affect the person who’s diagnosed, it affects the family, it affects friends, it affects everyone,” Goodell said. “It’s 24/7, 365. You don’t get to take a vacation from it or a night off.”

Six years later, Somers immediately noticed a warning sign in his middle child, Anika, and measured her blood sugar levels, which were nearly triple the normal amount. He then called Joslin, set up an appointment and left with Anika’s type 1 diabetes diagnosis in time for the school dance that night.

In 2014, Somers himself was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, which caused significant changes

to his lifestyle. He beat the disease, though his avoidance of the doctor’s office for a few years after led him to hospitalization in 2019 with undiagnosed high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes once again.

Somers recalls the gruesome image of seemingly endless blood coming out of his eyes, nose and mouth.

“That kind of sent a wake up call message,” Somers said. “I was lucky that the bleed was in my nose and not in my brain is the way I looked at it.”

While recovering and locked down during the COVID-19 pandemic away from home, Somers began to walk up the surrounding hills for hours every day. He eventually thought to himself, “Well maybe I’ll just start running,” once he moved back to Boston — a much flatter landscape.

When Somers began running, he was far from completing marathon distances, struggling to even run a half mile. He kept building up his mileage before eventually hitting 18 miles and deciding it was time to run a marathon.

“Here’s a guy who has taken his passion and his dreams of a cure and put it into action … and he’s aggressively pursuing the kind of fundraising that fuels our research efforts,” Goodell

said. “It’s one thing to write a check, it’s another thing to run a marathon or two or three.”

Somers had his sights set on the finish line near Copley Square for over 30 years when he first experienced Marathon Monday as a graduate student at BU in the

COURTESY OF BOSTON UNIVERSITY

Boston University professor and chair of the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, David Somers. Somers finished the 126th Boston Marathon April 18, raising over $11,000 for the Joslin Diabetes Center to “pay it back” to the institution that has helped him and his family.

late 80s.

“What I love about the Boston Marathon . . . you go from these elite athlete bodies to some really fit bodies and if you wait long enough, your neighbor

will run by,” Somers said. “Like that doesn’t happen at the Super Bowl, your neighbor doesn’t get to play in the Super Bowl.”

Brianna Higgins, the Event Fundraising coordinator, spent months working with Somers before the race.

“It’s just fantastic to see them from start to finish throughout this entire process within the program and especially being able to cheer them on on race day,” Higgins said.

Somers ended up raising over $11,000 for Joslin, exceeding his initial goal of $10,000 he set before the marathon.

Somers also plans to run the New York Marathon on Nov. 6 alongside his daughter Ellie to celebrate her 20th “diabirthday,” the anniversary of her diagnosis.

He crossed the finish line on Boylston St. with a personal record time of 04:29:36 at a pace of 11:40 minutes per mile.

“It really is an epic and iconic Boston experience, even better than I imagined,” he said. “I put my name on the front of my singlet and probably never went a minute after the 10 mile mark without someone shouting out my name in support … really just a memorable day.”