9-3-2021

CAMPUS INEQUALITY, 2

WEEKS OF WELCOME, 4

COLUMNS, 5

EDITORIAL, 6

Trans, nonbinary students discuss campus inequalities.

In-person campus life starts strong with three weeks of fun.

Even esports can benefit from a more in-person world.

“Comfort station” to assist drug addicts closes down.

CE LE B RATIN G

FRIDAY, SEP. 3, 2021

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50

YE ARS

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I N DE PE N DE N T

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J O U R NA LI S M

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

YEAR LI. VOLUME C. ISSUE II

BUnited announces goals for the Fall semester Anna Vidergar Daily Free Press Staff BUnited, the current Student Government executive board, has shared their plans to focus on Uniting Health, Uniting Justice and Uniting Community — their three policy pillars for the Fall.

Under the Uniting Health pillar, BUnited pledged to work towards sexual assault prevention and food and environmental justice. They said they aim to offer healthy vending machines, more work and wellness spaces in East Campus and a peer therapy program.

In terms of sexual assault prevention advocacy, executive vice president Hessann Farooqi, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, mentioned the work already done by pre-existing organizations such as 16,000 Strong and the progress already inspired by the protests conducted last February.

He noted a notable recent success was Provost Jean Morrison “[agreeing] to create a campus-wide working group to address the issue and this will be comprised of staff, faculty and students.”

Working with other organizations and their plans on campus is a common theme for BUnited in the upcoming year — a quality Nyah Jordan, the president of BUnited and a senior in the College of Communication, said is new.

“One thing that has made our platform different is that typically you won’t see executive boards build off

of specific things from last year,” said Jordan. “One thing that we’ve made a point to do, was first to acknowledge a lot of the systems and a lot of the work that student clubs and other students have already created and then finding new ways to support that.”

Under the Uniting Justice pillar, BUnited plans to focus on monthly service days mainly focused on the environment, monthly StuGov town halls, prioritizing supporting local and BIPOC vendors as well as social

justice causes.

“At the end of the day, we’re here to serve the student body. We’re here to make sure they’re happy, to bring events, to bring equality, to bring community justice and health to the public and to the student body of BU,” Shahaf Dan, the vice president of finance and a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said.

Although BUnited has been unable to directly work on some areas of this policy plan, such as integrating vot-

er registration into orientation, they have made progress on other aspects, like working to support the LGBTQ+ community on campus.

For instance, Jordan noted the possibility of creating in-person workshops about LGBTQ+ allyship. She also said she looked forward to continuing BUnited’s relationship with BU’s Queer Activist Collective and furthering their relationship with other LGBTQ+ groups on campus like the Trans Listening Circle.

COURTESY OF BUNITED

Student Government executive board members Aimee Mein, Hessann Farooqi, Shahaf Dan and Nyah Jordan. The board has pledged to focus on three policy pillars this year: Uniting Health, Uniting Justice and Uniting Community.

“If we were able to have [workshops] in person and even have interactive activities as well, I think that will be really impactful,” Jordan said.

Under the Uniting Community pillar, BUnited said they would focus on social life and helping people adjust to a more normal life after the pandemic, such as with a peer advising mentorship program, monthly network-building opportunities with professionals, cultural meal events and a monthly Boston brunch day.

The plans also mentioned renewing the “new normal challenge” this year, which encourages students to think of creative ways to navigate campus life with COVID-19.

Celeste Delgadillo, a sophomore in the College of Fine Arts, said she wanted the student government to focus on building community on campus.

“A lot of us were isolated last year and for us to come together as a community this year would be really, really nice,” she said.

BUnited will continue to use a hybrid approach for upcoming meetings, including two Student Government information sessions for anyone interested in joining, with the aim to move towards more in-person meetings throughout the year.

Farooqi said he encourages more students to get involved.

“The biggest obstacle,” he said, “is going to be folks across the student body not thinking that they have the power to make a difference.”

Dan said students can reach out over Instagram @bunited2021 with any concerns or visit the Student Government Office for office hours.

Students claim BU overenrolled Class of 2025, causing unconventional housing assignments for incoming freshmen Olga Benacerraf Daily Free Press Staff

VIVIAN MYRON | DFP FILE

Multiple incoming freshmen and Boston University Orientation employees have said BU Admissions has overenrolled the Class of 2025, which resulted in many freshmen being placed in traditionally upperclassmen housing.

This incoming class of 2025 was selected from a “record-breaking pool” of 75,733 applicants — a 24% increase from the previous year.

BU reported that out of the pool of candidates, 18.3% were admitted, meaning 13,884 applicants received acceptance letters. According to the BU Admissions website, this resulted in a freshman class size of 3,200 students. But BU spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email that “enrollment for the incoming class is expected to be 4,000.”

The University’s number on the website is consistent with past acceptance figures: BU Today reported last March that Admissions aimed to

enroll 3,100 students for the Class of 2024 and enrolled 3,194 students the year before that. Riley said But Aiden Cardozo, a rising sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences who works as a student facilitator for BU Orientation, said he heard from his supervisors “and various administrators that [BU has] been massively overenrolled.”

Cardozo said of the 5,516 students that had enrolled for Orientation, around 5,300 showed up for the event.

“The consistent message that I’m getting is that yes, we have overenrolled. Yes, it’s by a lot. Yes, it’s looking like this is a precarious situation,” he said.

Cardozo added that some incoming freshmen expressed their distress at being placed in traditionally upperclassmen housing to him during Orientation.

“They have all been really disappointed, really frustrated by the lack of clarity,” Cardozo said.

Cardozo added the sharp increase in class size may result in “the University having to put freshmen in the Fenway Campus, having to rent out hotels,” a sentiment also expressed in various social media threads online.

“This would really be a great time for the University to step up and provide some clarity on these issues,” Cardozo said.

BU Housing, BU Orientation and BU Residence Life declined requests

to comment.

Riley wrote in an email that “President Brown has said the freshman class is larger-than-planned.’”

Riley wrote this admissions cycle was “anything but typical.” He wrote that BU has “sufficient on-campus housing capacity” and that he is not concerned by any increase.

According to Riley, the Fall enrollment tally will be tabulated and reported to the Department of Education in late October, but he emphasized that the final class figure will be manageable.

“Our class may perhaps be hundreds of students above, not thousands above, what we initially expected,” wrote Riley. “We’ve been doing this a long time and enrollment fluctuations are not an issue.”

BU has overenrolled in the past, often offering upperclassmen students accommodations in nearby hotels for one semester to place as many new students in on-campus housing as possible.

Cardozo added he felt “encouraged” by his supervisors to refrain from advertising certain freshmen courses — such as the popular First Year Experience or FY101 class, which aims to introduce new students to BU and its opportunities.

“We all received so many questions about housing, so many questions about classes being booked and students being unable to register for their courses,” he said. “We have

nothing to say to them except, ‘Well, we’re sorry and hopefully more information will be coming out soon.”

As far as housing for freshmen, Riley wrote that “incoming students always have been assigned to a wide variety of campus residences, large and small alike.”

Valeria Hernandez, an incoming freshman in the College of Communication, said while she had selected Warren as her top option, she was assigned to suite-style living in 1019 Commonwealth Avenue on West Campus.

“Not only were we mad that we were assigned to not a freshman dorm and that it was far away from where we wanted it to be in East or Central Campus specifically, our parents were also mad because they had to pay more money,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez added although she and her roommate promptly contacted housing and informed them of their “discontent” with their assignment, “they just told us that they were gonna write our names down and just hope for a switch.”

“Overall we were not expecting that [placement], and we’re trying everything we can do to change it,” said Hernandez.

Hernandez, who is originally from Costa Rica, said she hoped being placed in a traditional freshman dorm would help ease her transition to the United States.

BU Housing requires all freshmen

to live on campus, with 99% of firstyear students compliant with this policy. According to Admissions, most first-year students are placed in large dormitories such as Warren Towers and West Campus.

But the BU Reddit community also expressed that many freshmen have not been placed in typical underclassmen housing, with two separate “megathreads” created to discuss Fall 2021 Housing. These subreddits have a combined total of 488 comments as of press time.

Valeria Gálvez, an incoming freshman at the Questrom School of Business, said while she was assigned to her desired building and paired with her roommate of choice, they were unexpectedly placed in a triple in Claflin Hall in West Campus “We were placed in a triple room with another student who we don’t know and we never put her name or her BU ID,” Gálvez said.

575 Commonwealth Avenue, commonly known as “HoJo,” is reopening this Fall for residential living after having been used as quarantine housing the past year, making it an option for underclassmen housing As for how the University will navigate quarantine housing this Fall given the reopening of Hojo, Riley wrote that vaccinations, testing and other public health protocols will “give the University the data and information needed to decide what additional steps, if any, are necessary.”

2 NEWS

Transgender, nonbinary students report incompetent SHS healthcare Emily Stevenson Daily Free Press Staff

Recent Reddit and Instagram posts

by Boston University students have highlighted the shortcomings in the Gender-Affirming Healthcare program at Student Health Services and the inability for transgender and nonbinary students to change their legal sex on BU records.

Officially launched in Spring 2020, the program consists of 10 healthcare providers who can be identified by small rainbows at the end of their staff directory bio, Judy Platt, the director of SHS, said.

Platt said SHS began looking into creating a specialized program in 2019 after realizing that while there were SHS providers fulfilling aspects of gender-affirming healthcare, no comprehensive program existed.

The services offered include primary care, urgent care, hormone therapy, mental health services — including short-term counseling and group counseling — referrals for gender-affirming surgery and referrals to other gender-affirming healthcare providers in the Boston area.

However, students who have received care through the program since it began have expressed issues with it, such as providers misgendering students, using the wrong name or prescribing an incorrect dosage for hormone therapy.

A transgender male student who asked to remain anonymous, said he began hormone therapy with SHS in October of 2020. While under the care of the program, he said he noticed huge changes to his behavior, moods and health after switching from the injection to gel form of the medication.

“I noticed within a few weeks of starting it [I was getting] really bad headaches, really sweaty all the time, just a lot of things very off,” the student said. “Also, I’m a pretty level-headed person and I started getting really angry for no reason, like I had no control over it.”

After going to the emergency room with the symptoms, the student contacted his SHS provider on Patient Connect about the side effects.

Bloodwork was then conducted and came back with “way too high” levels of the hormone, he said.

“She [the provider] said she didn’t really know why and [that] we’re going to monitor it and that was the

end of that, there’s no further discussion or anything,” the student said.

“It eventually got to the point where I felt like I literally couldn’t even go to class, I felt so physically horrible.”

The student’s health declined to the point that he ultimately asked to stop taking the hormones.

“That was a really big decision,” he said. “It was a really exciting thing for me to be able to start and a very monumental moment, and then I was like, it’s not worth it anymore for me.”

Soon after, the student learned the dose of hormones he had been on was “unreasonably high” when the provider called and apologized for the mistake, but the student by then preferred switching to Fenway Health, which focuses on healthcare for underserved communities in Boston such as queer and BIPOC communities.

However, the student noted that SHS has been responsive to feedback and that there have been departments that have been “incredibly helpful” after the fact.

The student said he hopes SHS

refers patients seeking gender-affirming healthcare to Fenway Health or Planned Parenthood in the future to reduce the potential of harm to students.

“I think SHS is really unqualified to say they can provide gender-affirming healthcare,” the student said, “because it is a very specific area of healthcare and I think for them to try and do that has the right intent but ended up causing way too much harm.”

Alex P., a nonbinary student, went to SHS for a referral for gender-affirming surgery in the summer of 2020. They noted the Zoom session was not conducted in a “private environment,” and that the provider seemed unfamiliar with the process.

“Her family could be seen walking around in the background and she had me on speaker,” Alex said, “and she wasn’t respectful of my pronouns or my gender identity and kept questioning it.”

Later on in the Fall, Alex returned to SHS for hormone therapy and saw the same provider who they said asked “invasive questions.”

“She kept asking me if I had discussed whether or not I wanted to have kids with my partner in the future and whether or not I had talked to them about this before I quote-unquote ‘did this to my body,’” Alex said.

Alex said the provider repeatedly tried to convince them to freeze their eggs or undergo fertility preservation before starting hormone therapy.

“It seemed like she was trying to convince me to not undergo hormone therapy,” Alex said.

Alex noted the only “reasonable” action the University can take is to suspend the program until they can hire more “competent providers” and provide more transparency.

In an email, Platt wrote the healthcare providers in the program attended a two-day course led by Fenway Health called Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health, with some additional training depending on the service the member was responsible for providing.

Platt also mentioned that every one to two years the entire SHS staff undergoes bias training, and provid-

ers in the Gender-Affirming program were given a lecture on the topic by Fenway Health.

Platt wrote she hopes to make the Gender-Affirming Healthcare Program a welcoming place for students to come for their care.

“My hope is that any student will want to come to Student Health Services when they are in need of healthcare services and that if we can make this easier and more seamless for our students who are looking for gender-affirming healthcare services that would be wonderful,” Platt said.

Platt added she hopes students will also feel comfortable providing feedback to SHS, which she said is “really critical” for change.

Alex eventually went to Planned Parenthood in Boston to continue their hormone therapy and said it was a “completely different experience from SHS.” “They were respectful of my pronouns, my gender, they didn’t ask questions,” Alex said. “It made me appreciate the care that I got there, even though respectful care for trans people is really the bare minimum.”

In addition to problems with SHS, trans and nonbinary students have expressed frustration over the University’s policies regarding sex identification.

Alex P., a nonbinary student, created a petition and shared their experience in an Instagram post on Aug. 16. The post detailed their experience switching their sex to “X” — a third gender option legally recognized in 20 states for driver’s licenses and 15 for birth records for individuals who do not identify as exclusively male or female — on their birth certificate in their home state of New York.

The post said that it was a 10-month process involving three separate rejections.

The post then went on to detail how when Alex tried to update their sex in the University’s records, BU refused to do so.

The post read that a University official told them that although BU acknowledges different forms of gender expression and identity, they must have only legal binary male/female sex of students for University records and federal reporting. The post said

Alex made repeated efforts to follow up and see if they could speak to someone who could make the change but did not hear back after the initial reply.

While the “X” identification marker is recognized in Massachusetts, Colin Riley, BU’s spokesperson, said that BU is able to list only the binary male/female marker because the University’s Student Information System — the system that includes the Student Link and Faculty Link— cannot currently accommodate another marker.

However, Riley wrote that the system update scheduled for completion in the Fall of 2023 will allow more options for pronouns and gender identity.

“We recognize that that’s a shortcoming of the system, and are working to address that,” he said.

Students can update their name on Blackboard, their Kerberos username, name on their email and their Terrier/ID Card. The BU directory does not let students replace their legal name but allows them to add a “nickname” that will appear in place

of their legal name in some settings.

Alex said when they tried to learn more about why they couldn’t change their sex identification they were met with silence from the University.

“After two months, there’s just radio silence from their end,” they said. “I just kept thinking about how wrong it felt and how I probably wasn’t the only one to deal with this, so I ended up taking initiative and going public about it.”

Alex said since posting on Instagram they have been met with immense support from the BU community. The petition has gained more than 2,700 signatures, passing its goal of 2,500 since being posted.

They added that several nonbinary students at BU have reached out sharing personal stories of difficulty getting their sex identification changed.

“They had the exact same issue and it was just so frustrating and so much work and so humiliating for them that they ended up just keeping quiet about it and taking it from BU,” Alex said.

El Snow, a trans-masculine junior in the College of Arts and Sciences,

tried changing their sex in BU’s records in 2019 but said they knew the University would not change it to X, as it is on their state ID. “I think that it’s really disheartening to see,” Snow said, “and it’s really disheartening that this is BU Administration’s policy surrounding changing legal identification and changing identification in general.”

Snow noted the hypocrisy of BU’s outward appearance of supporting the LGBTQ+ community, but lack of support in reality for the students.

“It’s especially frustrating to see BU come out with things related to Pride Month and things related to being able to support queer students on campus but then not have any actual tangible policies that do that supporting,” Snow said.

Meg Romine, a senior in the College of Communication who is nonbinary, said they have experienced “invalidating language” when communicating with BU Housing about gender-neutral housing selection.

“They were sort of like, because you will be living with other females and you are down as female in our

records, you will just be in general selection,” Romine said.

They noted in particular the complications of working within a system that lacks markers beyond the male/ female binary, and their frustration with having no way to change their records.

“No one gave me any way that I could go about changing the gender that they had on record, it was just this is what it is, this is what you filled out when you came here, and that’s not going to change,” Romine said. “It would make a lot of things so much easier for students if they just had a way of just validating us within the system.”

Alex added that students need to continue holding the University accountable in order to see a change.

“The only way that trans and nonbinary students can be heard is through publicly holding large institutions such as BU accountable,” Alex said, “and putting public pressure on them until BU decides that their image isn’t worth risking upholding antiquated policies that work against trans and nonbinary people.”

HANNAH YOSHINAGA | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Petition created by Boston University student Alex P. after the University did not allow them to change their legal sex to “X” in BU records. Other transgender and nonbinary BU students have also experienced difficulties with University sex identification rules.

Report difficulty changing legal sex

NEWS 3

Boston implements vaccination mandate for city employees amidst COVID-19 surge, Delta variant Isabella Abraham City Editor Mayor Kim Janey announced in mid-August a mandate requiring all City employees, volunteers and onsite contractors to submit proof of COVID-19 vaccination or submit to weekly testing upon rising COVID-19 case numbers in Boston.

“Our purpose is to protect our employees and the public, and our work is rooted in public health guidance and based on data and science,” Janey said in a press release. “I am grateful for the continued collaboration with our municipal unions to ensure the safety of our entire workforce and the residents we serve.”

The mandate will go into effect in phases over two months, starting with requiring employees who serve “high priority residents,” such as those who work in Boston Public Schools, Commission on Disabilities and Boston Public Libraries, to adhere to the policy

by September 20.

“I think these are all great steps to move towards, targeted groups that can be fully vaccinated, especially as we go into the school year,” Jarone Lee, the medical director of the Blake 12 Intensive Care Unit at Mass General Hospital, said in an interview.

Public-facing employees, onsite contractors and volunteers servicing Boston Public Schools, Boston Public Libraries, Boston Centers for Youth

COURTESY OF RAIMOND SPEKKING VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Mayor Kim Janey announced in mid-August that all city employees, volunteers and onsite contractors will have to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or submit to weekly testing starting September in light of Boston’s surge in coronavirus cases.

& Families, the Commission of Disabilities and Age Strong have until Oct. 4 to comply with the mandate, while all others have until Oct. 18.

President of the Boston Teachers Union, Jessica Tang, praised the

vaccination mandate and stated her support of the city’s public health approach in the release.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Delta variant is the dominant strain of

COVID-19 in the United States right now.

Lee said the Delta variant is comparatively “more aggressive” than the Alpha strain of COVID-19 because of the virus’ rapid transmissibility rate.

Research shows that the viral load of the Delta variant is higher earlier on before people may realize they are sick: the CDC said the Delta variant is more than twice as contagious as other variants.

The Daily Free Press’s voting guide to the 2021 Boston Mayoral Race Aaron Velasco Daily Free Press Staff

As a preliminary election approaches to narrow down which of the five candidates will compete for Boston’s mayoral seat, voters prepare to bring the city one step closer towards the historic November race.

Sept. 14 marks the day Bostonians can vote between Acting Mayor Kim Janey, Annissa Essabi George, Michelle Wu, Andrea Campbell and John Barros — for which two will go head-to-head on general election day Nov. 2.

Residents and students registered to vote in Boston have the option to vote by mail by Sept. 8. Individuals can send in their application online to be mailed a ballot.

Early voting starts Sept. 4 and goes until Sept. 10. Polls will be set up in Kilachand Hall to vote in person for election day Sept. 14, but students can find their closest polling location here.

The race on the 14th will bring the city one step closer to potentially electing the city’s first female mayor or mayor of color.

Here’s a brief overview of the candidates: Kim Janey Kim Janey, the first woman and first Black politician to hold the office of Mayor of Boston, took over after Marty Walsh stepped down to be President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Labor. Before that, Janey was the first woman elected to represent District 7 in the Boston City Council.

Janey plans to address policing by reforming criminal justice policies to avoid low-income communities of color being charged harsh penalties for minor offenses. She also pledges to invest in violence prevention and intervention strategies.

To address the housing crisis in Boston, Janey supports building new public housing units and supports

legislation to allow cities to take charge in controlling high rent costs.

She instituted a controversial eviction moratorium earlier this week.

Janey’s policies towards climate justice veer mainly towards cultivating a more green economy with environmentally friendly jobs for Bostonians, promising to

public partnerships to bridge the racial wealth gap and help those affected purchase their first home.

In pursuing racial justice and public safety, she pledges to eradicate mass incarceration through access to equitable labor and mental health resources, allocate a portion of law enforcement funds to social services,

to help solve the housing crisis in addition to cooperating with state powers to expand emergency housing for families affected by violence and using city funds to help first-time homebuyers and disadvantaged people of color purchase homes for themselves.

Wu created her own Green New

COURTESY OF JESSICA WHITTLE VIA FLICKR

An ‘I Voted’ sticker. The Daily Free Press’ guide to the 2021 Boston mayoral race gives a comprehensive overview of each candidate on the ballot for the Sept. 14 preliminary election.

allocate $4 million to the Green Jobs Program. She also prioritizes assisting marginalized communities with the effects of climate change and addressing environmental racism.

Andrea Campbell Andrea Campbell currently serves as a city councilor for Boston’s District 4. She was the first Black woman to be elected as City Council President.

Campbell’s policies on improving housing in Boston vary from updating the zoning laws through a community-focused lens, making it more affordable for lower-income households, and creating private-

and expand body camera use for police.

In the climate justice category, Campbell is calling for the city to become carbon neutral and run on 100% renewable energy by 2035. She also wants to expand the regional rail network, for example, by extending the Fairmount Line to reach underserved communities.

Michelle Wu The first Asian American woman elected to City Council and first woman of color elected to Council President, Michelle Wu has served as councilor since 2013.

Wu seeks to reinstate rent control

Deal plan just for the city of Boston, which includes working with unions to create green jobs to develop the economy and a net-zero carbon footprint by 2024 through mandating net-zero emissions from all Boston buildings and other measures.

On policing, Wu plans to establish an independent civilian review board to investigate police misconduct and will work to decrease housing instability, food insecurity, transit injustice, mass incarceration and the climate crisis as a means to address the underlying causes of crime.

Annissa Essaibi George First-generation American and

former teacher Annissa Essaibi George, was elected city councilorat-large six years ago. She chairs the Committee on Education and is a voting member on six other community committees.

City Councilor Essaibi George’s climate justice policies center around cooperation with City of Boston departments and the communities in the city to build green infrastructure that works for the municipality and the people.

Essaibi George plans to work with the Boston Police Department to institute reforms and also invest in Emergency Medical Services so that the EMS has access to updated equipment.

Her answer to Boston’s housing crisis comes in the form of increasing the amount of housing available to the public, strengthening the current city housing fund to be competitive with private developers and empowering programs that prevent eviction to decrease homelessness.

John Barros Chief of Economic Development John Barros’s housing policies include rent relief for tenants to avoid eviction, accessible education for tenants to understand and act on their rights and tax subsidies for construction companies to make housing more affordable.

Barros’ other policies include closing the racial wealth gap by expanding education and financial aid and enacting climate justice by creating a more walkable Boston and ensuring carbon neutrality in the next 30 years.

To improve public safety, Barros wants to establish working groups in Boston that help address the root causes of violence. He also plans to create a Safe and Healthy Communities Agency to give nonlaw enforcement responders the resources they need to respond to mental and behavioral health issues so that police don’t have to.

4 FEATURES

COMMUNITY Weeks of Welcome return in-person, extend to three weekends Molly Farrar Features Editor The school year always starts with a big welcome from the Boston University campus — except last year, it was on Zoom. This year, the Weeks of Welcome event series is returning in person, with an extra week of events to celebrate the return. SPLASH, the Comedy Night and the Student Showcase are just a few favorite events returning to campus this year.

The Student Activities Office organized the Weeks of Welcome events, and Margaret Babson, the new associate director for the office, helped bring the events to fruition. She said while the events are for all students, with “two years of first-year students,” the events will help introduce formerly remote sophomores and new freshman students to BU. “It’s super important to just have those moments that are not on Zoom, that are in person,” Babson said.

“Being able to be actually out and about discovering the areas of campus, knowing where to go, [knowing] how to navigate the GSU for those different events, meeting people and having that community I think is just so important in any normal year and especially this year.”

The Weeks of Welcome — which encompasses a total of 14 events — began Aug. 27 with the movie night screening of “Booksmart” on the BU Beach. The next morning, the same place also held an hour of beach towel yoga.

Alexis Murad, a sophomore in the College of Communication, said both events were well attended and provided a sense of community for the

first weekend on campus.

“It really feels like you’re coming onto campus, and you’re actually there and you’re involved and you’re actually getting to be a part of your school,” she said. “You actually felt like a part of the BU environment.”

Two of the bigger evening events last weekend were the “Putt-Putt and Pizza” at the George Sherman Union and the Welcome Back Bash — an outdoor music and dancing event — on the BU Beach. Babson said the larger events like the latter were com-

plemented with the more “casual” events like yoga to appeal to a wide range of students.

“We’re really trying to plan a lot of different programs to engage with new students, engage with returning students, have different activities and events that can happen during daytime hours, at night just to keep folks busy and having opportunities to be able to meet new people,” Babson said.

Murad attended the Welcome Back Bash briefly and said she was

“shocked” by the mosh-pit vibe of the event. Though she was personally uncomfortable with the environment, she added that she trusts BU to handle COVID-19 policies correctly.

“We showed up, and it was just like a high school dance with everybody moshing, lots of lights, huge pit of people,” she said. “It was definitely something that I didn’t expect during COVID and stuff like that [but] I mean obviously I’m trusting BU and if they feel that it’s safe for all their students to be going to then

SHANNON DAMIANO | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Students eat ice cream on the College of Communication lawn Monday as part of the Weeks of Welcome ice cream social.

An extra week of events is scheduled this year after last year’s virtual events.

I trust that.”

Babson said all events follow BU COVID-19 guidelines, with masks required indoors and recommended outdoors, especially at events like SPLASH. To enter all Weeks of Welcome events, students are required to show their green badge from BU Healthway.

This week, Weeks of Welcome celebrated the first day of school with the First Day Festival. Tomorrow, the comedy night will feature Michelle Buteau, a stand-up comedian who also hosts Netflix’s “The Circle.”

Marielle Belomme, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she’s looking forward to the comedy set.

“All of the remaining tickets are officially sold out,” she said. “I’m expecting for the event to be packed, which makes me excited because that means there’s lots of people for me to meet.”

Babson said the turn-out for many of the events was higher than expected, and “a lot more events have fully sold out which doesn’t always happen.”

This weekend, SPLASH and the Student Showcase at the Tsai Performing Arts Center are both on Saturday, and “Boom Boom Bingo” takes place on Sunday of the holiday weekend. Next weekend, “Legos and Eggos,” BU at the Time Out Market and an apple picking day trip are planned.

Babson said after a year away, the Weeks of Welcome will help reintroduce students to campus and social life.

“Everyone is really excited to engage with the community to meet new people,” she said, “to get back to in-person interactions.”

ARTS

BU Arts Initiative hosts its annual arts fair, bringing Boston arts community together Rachel Do Daily Free Press Staff

After shifting to a virtual arts fair last year due to the pandemic, Boston University Arts Initiative is bringing its in-person annual BU Fall Arts Fair back this Friday, Sept. 3 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the George Sherman Union Plaza.

Open to all students, the fair is a chance for BU departments and other programs to reach student artists and interns. The fair was designed to present artsrelated opportunities happening throughout the year available to the BU community, including programs outside of BU, said Ty Furman, the managing director of the BU Arts Initiative.

“It really is both a celebration and an information-sharing opportunity largely targeted toward students,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that faculty and staff can get out of it, too.”

The Wheelock Family Theatre is a BU program that has been performing since 1981, and it’s the third year that they’ll have a booth at the fair. Jenna Corcoran, marketing coordinator of the theatre said the company is looking to work with BU students in addition to the graduate and design students who work behind the scenes on productions.

“We are called the Wheelock Family Theatre because we really serve people of all ages,” said

Corcoran. “We have programs that are geared towards younger kids and then college students, all the way to adults.”

Wheelock Family Theatre decided to participate in the fair because they are really excited about “getting to know the BU community more,” and working more with student organizations, Corcoran said.

“We really love working with BU students, and it’s really in our mission to serve all ages,” she said, “and that means serving them from the producing side but also serving from an education standpoint as well.”

Another BU department participating in the fair is the History of Art and Architecture, which promotes “a holistic interpretation” of art and architecture in general, by looking at all kinds of art styles, including western and non-western art, said Gabrielle Cole, an administrator and graduate of the department.

This is the History of Art and Architecture department’s first time hosting a booth at the arts fair.

Cole, who is also a graduate of the program, said she hopes joining the fair will help students get an understanding of the department.

“I’m hoping we get a decent amount of people coming by,” Cole said. “Since I graduated from the program I think it would be really nice to be able to offer my perspective on what it was like to be in the program as an

THALIA LAUZON | DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The George Sherman Union. The BU Arts Initiative will host the in-person 2021 Fall Arts Fair alongside BU Arts Programs and other Boston area arts organizations this Friday at the GSU.

undergrad.”

Rozime Lindsey, a junior in the College of Fine Arts studying voice performance and music education, said he was surprised to see the number of students interested in the arts at a research institution.

“It’s so vibrant here and more people do art on BU’s campus than we think,” Lindsey said.

“That’s why we’re having this fair because there’s so much offered, and there’s so much to give that BU students always thrive to.”

In addition to BU-affiliated programs, Boston-area arts organizations are also joining the fair. Jean Appolon Expressions, a contemporary dance company that

focuses on Haitian cultural dance, is participating in the fair for the first time.

At the fair, the organization is looking forward to providing information about their programs, such as a variety of studio dance classes, said Meg McGrath, the executive director of Jean Appolon Expressions. Two classes JAE plans to promote to BU students include a Haitian folkloric class and a dance cardio class focused on African music. “[Haitian folkloric class] is accessible for all ages, all movers,” McGrath said. “We have dancers and non-dancers alike at that and it’s just a lot of fun. Some people even just come to watch, so we’d

love to have some BU students at that.”

Through the arts fair, McGrath said that JAE wishes to expand its reach as an organization of diversity in the arts and culture of Boston.

Furman said that as museums and concerts come back to Boston, the fair is a way to present those opportunities to students.

“I hope they get really excited about all the things they can do and how much is available to students for free,” he said. “We hope people really come out and enjoy and learn about something new they maybe didn’t know about and get excited about arts and creativity.”

OPINION 5

COLUMNS Minority Report:

The shame of the bishops

Lincoln Currie Columnist

The Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States voted in June to advance a proposal that could bar President Joe Biden from taking Communion. Recently, the Archbishop of Los Angeles described the draft as a “teaching document on the beauty and power of the Eucharist.”

But the statement seems conspicuously timed to pressure Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, because of his pro-choice views.

I would call the decision to draft the proposal unbelievable. However, recognizing the extent to which American Catholic leadership has been infected by a virulent strain of right-wing antipathy towards pro-choice Catholics, the action was predictable.

But before elaborating on the dangerous position many of the bishops have taken, it is essential to understand the role of Communion in Catholic life.

Communion is a recreation of the Last Supper. Catholics believe that when we take the Eu-

charist, the bread we eat and wine we drink are Jesus Christ’s body and blood.

Shamefully, the American episcopate looks poised to pervert this most precious sacrament, and worse yet, do so with thinly-veiled partisan prejudice.

Biden’s election should have evoked at least some warm feelings in many American Catholics — one of our own overcame the bigotry that tarred generations of Catholic politicians.

Instead, what should have been celebrated as a new day in the United States for Catholics has quickly become an opportunity for right-wing zealots to fire another shot in the Communion wars, further dividing a church that derives its name from “universal.”

In this process of partisan Eucharist purity testing, the bishops are opening themselves up to charges of cafeteria Catholicism.

When Catholic former Attorney General William Barr rushed death row inmates to the gurney in July 2019, the American Catholic Bishops raised no suggestion of withholding

Communion from Barr or any other politician who supports the death penalty. Worse yet, Barr was more morally culpable than Biden, as Barr’s role in the executions was active rather than acquiescent.

From the American episcopate, the message is clear. Republicans who support executions, turn a blind eye to income inequality and kiss the ring of a hedonistic, want-to-be authoritarian embody New ILLUSTRATION BY YVONNE TANG Testament mercy. Democratic politicians who support a woman’s right to choose, however, embody Old Testament wrath.

The disparate treatment of each party’s politicians is indicative of a long march rightward within the Church’s leadership in America.

O d d l y enough, the American Catholic Church leadership’s adamant opposition to abortion — and the threats that follow it — are not a reflection of the views of their members. According to a 2019 study from Pew Research, American Catholics said abortion should be legal in all or most cases by a 56-42

margin.

However, among Catholics who attend Mass once a week or more, a 67-33 margin believes abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. While more regular Mass attendance does not necessarily indicate nearness to God in the Catholic faith — see Isaiah 29:13 — one can assume that those most involved in the Church have more vigorous opposition to abortion, which extends to the clergy’s leadership.

Aside from the moral issues created by barring Biden and other pro-choice politicians from taking the Eucharist, the Church would be presented with practical problems.

The first issue is that barring pro-choice Catholic politicians from Communion would defy the Vatican’s public warning against drafting the proposal. Such defiance could cause harmful discord by pitting the American Catholic Church against the Vatican.

The second issue is that any guidance from the American Catholic Bishops that would target Biden himself would have little practical effect. Father Kevin Gillespie, the priest at the church Biden attends in Washington, said he would give Biden Communion regardless of an order from the bishops.

Additionally, Gillespie, or any other priest who would give Biden Communion under a ban, would become a hero to progressive Catholics. Catholic bishops should know about the power of a holy man willing to defy hypocritical religious elders who seek to “lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.”

I implore the bishops not to draft a document that would turn Christ’s body into a political weapon. I remind the bishops of the Holy Father’s statement that the Eucharist is not a reward for the virtuous, but spiritual sustenance for sinners.

Gaming the System:

In esports and college life, let’s enjoy meeting in person again

Nick Speranza Columnist

On August 26, Ultimate Summit 3, an in-person invitational three-day event for Nintendo’s blockbuster fighting game “Super Smash Bros.

Ultimate,” began. While it was not the very first in-person Ultimate tournament since last year’s COVID-19 outbreak, it was one of the most prestigious.

On top of the largest tournament prize pool in Smash franchise history, let alone since the pandemic, Summit only invited the best of the best. All sixteen attendees from Mexico, Canada, the U.S. and Japan were invited on account of high tournament placings in the past, and most represented professional esports organizations.

It’s easy to assume that professional gamers would not be affected by a global pandemic since video games are played online all the time.

While they are certainly better off than traditional sports like football and basketball and esports events can be held relatively successfully online, some games still suffer harshly from remote competition.

In fact, few games experience a worse dropoff in quality than Smash Ultimate. The miserable

state of its “netcode” — the way the game handles internet connections between players — has been a sore spot among diehard players for years.

“Ultimate’s awful online has always been its, by far, biggest flaw,” said professional Smash player Leffen on his Twitter. The Smash community even made the hashtag #FixUltimateOnline go viral in mid-2020, and it is surely no coincidence that their anger boiled over during the heat of the pandemic.

I’ve played quite a lot of Smash Ultimate online and have also been to an in-person tournament, and I can say with certainty that the difference between the two is night and day.

Not being able to see your opponent’s face and having to fight through laggy connections is a recipe for frustration.

Being able to watch Ultimate Summit 3 was truly a breath of fresh air. I essentially stopped following the game competitively after March of last year when it moved online, and in that time, I had forgotten just how great intense in-person matches could be.

The winner of the historic first-place prize was star player Gavin “Tweek” Dempsey, who beat world champion and archrival Leonardo “MkLeo” López. Tweek, in particular, wowed everyone by playing a new character that he had learned from scratch in the past year, a move he described as his “COVID gamble.” With even more tournaments on the horizon and MkLeo’s reign as Smash Summit champion ended, I know my favorite Smash title only has more thrilling competition to offer as these storylines develop.

All of this is simple proof that remote experiences are not sufficient substitutes for in-person events. It is a good thing to step outside of our rooms and socialize again. Obviously, the pandemic is not over. But now that we have vaccines and a better understanding of how the virus spreads, it is possible to start meeting people in person again — both in esports and on college

campuses.

The organizers of the Smash Ultimate Summit took COVID-19 precautions very seriously, requiring vaccines and masks for all of its limited number of attendees. Excluding commentators and some players during their bracket games, which were cordoned off from the rest of the venue.

These minor adjustments made a world of difference and ensured that the camaraderie and thrill of high-level in-person competition could take place. Now, at BU, the same opportunity has been extended to us as students.

We are also required to be vaccinated and masked indoors, but we don’t have to deal with

online classes anymore and everyone is expected to live on-campus. As a sophomore now, I’ve never known anything except last year’s limited, LfA-ready campus, and I already notice a major difference.

I will readily admit that last year, I became a recluse at times. I used the virus as an excuse to stay in my dorm and socialize less. On the other hand, this year represents a new opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and meet new people again, now that more businesses are open and there are more places to go. I am going to try to make the most of my college experience while I still have it, and I encourage everyone to do the same.

ILLUSTRATION BY YVONNE TANG

6 GALLERY

GALLERY

Matriculation Ceremony Shannon Damiano Daily Free Press Staff

Boston University President Robert Brown addresses the Matriculation crowd and welcomes the class of 2025.

Students are advised to keep their masks on as they walk to Agganis Arena for the Matriculation ceremony.

The Boston University Marching Band accompanies incoming students in their walk to the Matriculation ceremony at Agganis Arena.

Incoming students sit and read through the Matriculation program as they await the ceremony’s commencement.

Incoming students take their seats at Agganis Arena for the 2021 Matriculation ceremony.

An incoming student takes a picture with the BU mascot Rhett the Terrier.

EDITORIAL The closing of Methadone Mile ‘comfort station’ is a life or death issue “The Methadone Mile” is a strip of land near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard known to be populated by individuals with substance abuse issues. Methadone clinics, homeless shelters and drug treatment centers also fill the area.

In 2014, more people were displaced into the Methadone Mile area by the closure of Boston’s Long Island treatment facilities. The bridge to the island was demolished and attempts to restore the recovery center or rebuild the bridge stalled in 2020 after an expensive lawsuit.

The city has made multiple attempts to dismantle the Methadone Mile since then.

In 2019, the Boston Police crushed residents’ wheelchairs in a trash compactor as part of “Operation Clean Sweep,” an effort to expel those suffering from substance abuse in this area.

Mayor Walsh built a task force in 2019 and proposed a “Mass and Cass 2.0” plan to help the people in the area, but the task force rarely met and was badly managed.

In 2020, due to the rise of the pandemic exacerbating the conditions of the homeless population, the city opened a “comfort station” in the area to provide residents with bathroom facilities and medical supplies.

Some people labeled these stations as useless, as they did not provide enough aid, but they nonetheless provided essential services to the residents of this area.

On July 29, Acting Mayor Kim Janey

permanently closed the comfort station due to security concerns, as there were five stabbings in the area this year, and an alleged “permissive attitude” towards drug use. But there seem to be more than security concerns behind the closing.

Businesses in the area have recently complained about their employees not wanting to visit their area and their windows being smashed.

Janey claims a more effective task force is being planned, but she has yet to come up with clear directives or plans as to how this will happen.

“The City continues to work collaboratively to improve the Mass and Cass 2.0 Plan, based on the Mayor’s proposed action plan on how to move forward. The City looks forward to our continued work with the Task Force to best address the needs of individuals suffering from substance use disorder, as well as promote public safety in the area,” Janey’s office stated in the announcement to close the station.

When explaining the government’s work in the area, Janey framed drug-related arrests as a sign of progress rather than an indication of the further criminalization of substance abuse.

Though Janey claims the government does not mean to prioritize businesses over the residents of the area, the lack of clear plans indicate a lack of care for the residents of the mile. Moreover, the lack of specificity feels politically motivated given the upcoming election.

Fear-mongering articles describe the area

as a “third world country” and emphasize the number of tents as they paint the area as crime ridden and lawless. In an article by Boston 25 News, Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkin was quoted saying, “I’m sure there are homeless populations across the country. We don’t live across the country. We live here in Boston.

There is no reason for such an affluent city/state to allow this type of thing to happen.”

The opioid crisis is a pressing issue in Massachusetts. The National Institute on Drug Addiction reported that 88% of drug overdose deaths in the state involved opioids. Moreover, the opioid crisis has exacerbated existing systemic racism. Last May, state health officials stated that opioid-related overdose deaths increased by 70% for Black Massachusetts residents.

Without a real adequate plan for its place, the closing of the “comfort station” is a slap in the face for those people who are struggling every day out there. The pandemic is still at large, and many businesses still have not opened their restrooms to the public — one of the only resources for people experiencing homelessness to gain access to hygiene.

This is not to say that concerns for safety and the violence in the area are not valid issues, however, crime is a symptom of the problem — not the problem itself.

In 2016, the ​​ACLU and the Human Rights Watch published a report emphasizing the devastating results of criminalizing drug use,

which only further perpetuates poverty cycles and causes further human suffering while doing little to prevent drug addiction.

But what does the closing of this station have to do with us? Most college students may never see the Methadone Mile in person, despite the fact that it is a mere 30-minute T ride away from Boston University’s campus.

First of all, it is important to acknowledge the difference between how drug use is treated on college campuses versus how it is treated on the Methadone Mile. A 2018 survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that college students are more likely to misuse Adderall — a drug somewhat chemically similar to meth — and cocaine. BU’s Good Samaritan policy dictates that a student who reaches out for help after using drugs or alcohol will not receive punishment as long as they complete an educational or counseling program. It is important to ask for whom is drug use being criminalized and why?

We as college students may never come across the devastation of the Methadone Mile, but it is crucial that we care about these issues and about the members of our community. In a lot of these cases, police sweeps and displacement efforts are done for our sake.

Politicians should create more substantial plans that provide actual treatment options rather than criminalizing substance abuse and removing essential resources that mean life and death for a lot of the residents of this area.

EDITORIAL BOARD Lily Kepner, Editor-in-Chief Madhri Yehiya, Campus Editor

Emma Sánchez, Managing Editor Isabella Abraham City Editor

Sonja Chen, Sports Editor

Yvonne Tang, Layout & Graphics Editor

Conor Kelley, Photo Editor

Katrina Liu, Lifestyle Editor

Bini Ollivier-Yamin, Opinion Editor Veronica Thompson, Podcast Editor Molly Farrar, Features Editor GRAPHIC BY ALEXIA NIZHNY KK Feuerman, Multimedia Editor