3-4-2024 Print Edition

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024

UPCOMING: BU’s spring concert to feature artist Sexyy Red on April 27, student tickets available Tuesday

GPA policy causes housing insecurity among RAs

BY MARA MELLITS AND SOPHIA SPIEGEL Investigative Editor and Contributing Writer

A week before classes began this fall, Residence Life removed Guensly Desir from her position as a Resident Assistant.

Desir, a student from Easton, Massachusetts, from a low-income background, said funding her education at Boston University was a “miracle” made possible through her RA job, which provided free housing on campus.

On Aug. 30, the South Campus ResLife office called Desir in while she was helping her residents move in. ResLife told Desir that due to her academic standing from last semester, she would be suspended from her RA position — without guarantee of return.

After working 10 days of training and two days of move-in, Desir left the office without a job, without secure housing and without any idea of what her future at BU would look like.

“I almost decided to transfer because, genuinely, I can’t afford to go here,” said Desir, a senior in the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. “The one thing that was making it possible for me to be here and thrive here was being taken away. It was absolutely jarring.”

RAs said they’ve seen an increase in firings since

they unionized last year. The ResLife Union has since filed an unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board over the GPA/GPI policy.

BU spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email that no RA firings were due to the unionization. He said the GPA/ GPI policy is longstanding and has been consistently enforced, and did not comment further.

Interim Director of Residence

Life Jason Grochowalski did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Jacob Leal, a Graduate Resident Assistant in South Campus and a PhD student in the School of Theology, said this is the first year he’s heard RAs/GRAs losing their jobs due to the policy. This year, he knows at least seven RAs and GRAs who have been fired because of this policy. Multiple RA union members

BUPD’s new member might be its most popular: Meet Bean

BY SANA MUNEER Associate Features Editor

a wellness dog named Bean, who has paw-sitively captured students’ attention.

Bean is a three-month-old golden retriever from Golden Opportunities for Independence, a nonprofit organization in

Walpole, Massachusetts which raises and trains puppies to be future service dogs.

As a wellness dog, Bean’s main responsibility is to comfort the student body, BU Chief of Police Robert Lowe said.

“Nationally, we’re seeing a trend of police departments reaching out to bring in any resources that they can to help them connect with communities,” Lowe said. “This is kind of just a part of that work that’s being done.”

Kelly Nee, the university’s chief safety, security and preparedness officer, took steps to begin the initiative while she was BU chief of police. Nee, the first female police chief at BU, said Northeastern University’s police department inspired her to consider adopting a wellness dog for BU a few years ago, but COVID halted the initiative.

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BU students express frustrations about spring housing assignments

BY KAYLA BALTAZAR Multimedia Editor

Freshmen in the College of General Studies and new transfer students, who moved on campus for the first time at the beginning of the spring semester, are voicing their concerns with regards to their housing assignments.

Ashley Chang, a student who transferred to BU this semester and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, requested to live in a traditional dorm on her housing application and was assigned to live in Hotel Commonwealth.

“I was so disappointed when I saw that email,” Chang said. “I went straight to the website and I saw it was Hotel Commonwealth and I was so confused.”

have confirmed this number. ResLife workers, including RAs, GRAs and Graduate Housing Assistants, operate under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), delineating the terms of their employment. This includes the provision by BU of housing payments for RAs, GRAs and GHAs.

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Basketball beats Holy Cross in senior day doubleheader

BY CHLOE CRAMUTOLA AND EVA SMITH Associate Sports Editor, Contributing Writer

The Boston University men’s and women’s basketball teams both won their Senior Day doubleheaders on Saturday as both teams’ regular seasons come to a close.

The men’s team is riding a high heading into the Patriot League tournament –– five wins in a row –– the most recent against the College of the Holy Cross, 94-84 on Saturday.

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BU Housing does not know how many of its 12,000 beds are available until after the university reopens at the beginning of each calendar year, according to BU spokesperson Colin Riley. With the number of available beds constantly fluctuating, BU Housing does not release their assignments until a “week or more before spring move-in.”

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Allston-Brighton interest groups hope to foster community

BY LEIA GREEN AND ANANYA AGARWAL DFP Writers

Allston-Brighton has become home to a variety of clubs aiming to connect neighbors with shared interests, providing young adults with the opportunity to build community should they seek it.

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Boston embraces the long-awaited return of madness in March

BY LAYLA PENN DFP Writer

TD Garden will host the East Regional, or the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight, rounds of the 2024 NCAA Men’s March Madness tournament on March 28-30.

Boston knows how to host and celebrate sports — whether it be the Patriots, Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox, the energy of the fans is unreal.

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Rhett the Terrier has some competition for Boston University’s favorite furry friend. This month, the BU Police Department adopted

HOLLY GUSTAVSEN | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER

Boston University Police department’s new wellness dog, Bean, with handler Geovanni Chevere.

MATTHEW EADIE | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER South Campus resident assistant Guenlsy Desir (Wheelock ‘24) in her dorm. The GPA policy for residence life workers is causing housing insecurity among some employees.

Jessica Simes advocates for prison reform through research Super Tuesday 2024 is sure to be predictable The upside to the problematic ‘Bachelor Nation’

Students “disappointed” by temporary, unwanted spring housing assignments assignment.

Continued from page 1

Because of this, students are temporarily placed in Hotel Commonwealth at 500 Commonwealth Ave. Riley wrote BU needs time to prepare rooms for students to move into vacancies in the spring semester.

“It just takes time for students to vacate, turn in their keys, and for the University staff to get the rooms to be ready,” Riley wrote in an email.

“It is an extremely busy time.”

As a transfer student, Chang said being placed at the hotel limited her ability to socialize and get acquainted with campus life.

“I couldn’t even tell if someone else was a BU student,” she said.

Chang was eventually assigned to an on-campus apartment on Bay State Road, which was not what she initially put on her housing request form. She was one of over 100 students given a temporary housing assignment at the beginning of the spring semester.

“On the housing list, I put ‘apartment’ as my last choice,” Chang said. “ I was kind of disappointed because the price was way more than I expected.”

Kaitlyn Pinette, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, transferred here this semester and was also temporarily placed in Hotel Commonwealth. While she “wasn’t opposed to the idea” of living in a hotel, she thought it was better than the housing she ended up getting when she got her permanent

Pinette was eventually assigned to live in Danielsen Hall. She said she originally wanted something “centrally located” on campus, and she contacted BU housing hoping for a better solution.

“I actually contacted them to see if I could stay in the hotel until they found a different housing location for me,” Pinette said. ”But they said that they couldn’t do that, and that I had to accept the housing,”

According to Riley, these housing assignments are “not unusual” at the start of the spring semester.

“We certainly understand it may be frustrating — and an inconvenience — for the very small percentage of individuals affected,” Riley wrote.

All students who were temporarily placed in Hotel Commonwealth were relocated to on-campus housing about two weeks ago, according to Riley.

The terms and conditions of BU’s 2023-2024 residence license agreement state that the university “reserves the right to assign and reassign students in the residential system” at any time. The agreement also states that students may be given temporary accommodations at the beginning of the fall semester as a result of “over-subscription” to the residential system.

The housing agreement does not mention temporary housing during the spring semester.

Over-subscription has not only affected transfer students.

Liza Van, a freshman in the

College of General Studies was placed in Danielsen Hall with a random roommate who was not the one she had requested. Van said that Danielsen Hall was not even an available option in the housing application she filled out.

“I didn’t get any of the dorms that I put down on the ranking,” Van said. “With CGS dorms, they give you a housing application that makes it seem like you do have a choice when you really don’t have a choice.”

Van said that her requested roommate also ended up in Danielsen Hall, but on a different floor.

According to Van, other students she talked to who were in CGS also did not get the dorm they wanted. Last year, the Daily Free Press reported that CGS freshmen were living in Student Village 1 and 2, despite the buildings being reserved for upperclassmen.

Sofia Bernitt, a sophomore in the College of General Studies, requested to room with Romina Fernandez, another sophomore in CGS, but were assigned to separate dorms at 575 Commonwealth Ave. last spring semester, similar to Van’s situation this semester.

After having difficulties with their new roommates, Bernitt and Fernandez contacted BU housing to see if they could switch housing and received minimal response.

“I remember lots of waiting on hold, lots of inclusive answers, a lot of people saying there’s nothing we can do about it for now, check back

in a couple of weeks or months,” Bernitt said.

Fernandez said she reached out to BU housing because she was “stressed to the point of tears” and only then received a better response.

“They weren’t willing to help me or offer me any other options until I mentioned that I was in that sort of distress,” Fernandez said. “Why should students be put in that distress to be able to have better opportunities?”

Eventually, Bernitt and

Fernandez were allowed to leave their on-campus housing and move into an off-campus apartment.

“If [BU Housing] has had this problem previously… it’s a little bit disappointing that they’re letting the same thing happen again when they know that it’s putting students in an uncomfortable position,” Bernitt said. “They should’ve learned.”

Maya Mitchell contributed to the reporting of this article.

Extreme heat, flooding in Allston reflects patterns of climate change

BY GEORGE LEHMAN Contributing Writer

Anne Heaney moved to the Allston-Brighton area a year and a half ago. Last May, in a bid to meet new people, Heaney found a dormant Facebook group advertising a local women’s book club and “brought it back to life.”

Lack of tree coverage and rising sea levels across Boston have led to extreme heat and flooding in the Allston neighborhood.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, temperatures in Massachusetts have increased by 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a 2022 report from the City of Boston. Over the past decade, hot days were hotter and high and low daily temperatures were higher compared to the 60year decade average.

The 2022 report emphasized the importance of “urban tree canopy to help stay cooler in hot weather,” which is limited in Allston.

“The tree canopy is one of the best ways that we can protect our communities against extreme heat by providing shade,” said Hessann Farooqi, the executive director of the Boston Climate Action Network.. “But Allston has less … tree canopy than other neighborhoods, like Back Bay right next door.”

Jamie McGonagill, the media and messaging director of Extinction Rebellion Boston, explained how trees have been particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

“Trees aren’t able to rapidly adapt to the extreme shifts in heat caused by climate change and this is causing local species to die,” McGonagill said. “Sugar maples used to be prolific around Boston, [but] in the past 100 years they’ve been in serious decline because of the rising temperatures.”

McGonagill also explained

that salinity levels in the soil are rising due to sea level rise, as well as stormwater flooding.

“As the water gets higher, the salt from sea water gets into the soil, and that will kill off trees,” McGonagill said.

The lack of tree coverage in Allston has contributed to extreme heat in the neighborhood. Sarah Iwany, a member of the Allston Civic Association and Allston Brighton Health Collaborative, said Allston-Brighton is “one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city,” reflected in city-wide heat analyses.

“If you look at heat maps, you’ll see that we have a ton of heat islands here,” Iwany said. “As the temperatures increase, those get more and more intense.”

Extreme heat “puts everyone in the [Allston] community at a greater risk of different health challenges, like heat stroke,”Farooqi said. Tree coverings have also exacerbated racial and social inequities, which the city has attempted to combat through its Urban Forest Plan released in September 2022 with specific recommendations for Allston-Brighton.

Stormwater flooding is another implication of climate change that has impacted Boston, a concern for Allston exacerbated by its proximity to the Charles River. McGonagill said the heavier rainfall Boston experiences is more than the city’s infrastructure was designed to handle.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the sea level in Boston has increased by 8 inches in total since 1950. Over the last decade, Boston’s rise in sea level has accelerated to rising by about 1 inch every eight years.

Iwany said the concern of flooding has become a primary issue for the Allston neighborhood.

“More recently, the problem with these crazy heavy rainstorms

we’ve been having is that … the sewers just can’t handle it,” Iwany said. She said that there has been “flooding in low areas” across the Allston neighborhood as a result, posing a “health concern” for residents.

Erin Glant, the manager of visitor services at the Waterworks Museum, said “safe water access is definitely something that is impacted by climate change.”

Glant said that too much water caused by excessive flooding could “damage infrastructure or also introduce substances” that can be harmful to communities’ water supplies.

Farooqi said parks can be a great tool in protecting against some of the effects of climate change, particularly flooding.

“Permeable surfaces on the ground, which are surfaces that can absorb water well, are a great barrier against flooding, as opposed to impermeable surfaces like concrete,” Farooqi said. “A

park might have grass or some other kind of permeable ground cover, [which] is really good [for] stormwater mitigation.”

B Chatfield, a project manager at Boston Parks and Recreation Department, described how climate change has impacted the way her department approaches the construction and maintenance of parks.

Chatfield said the Parks department was advised to only plant certain trees that are able to survive considering the “greater stress in warmer climates,” impacting species such as the white pine and red maple.

“We’re looking to try and shift our planting decisions, so that we work with trees that have greater longevity and warmer temperatures,” Chatfield said.

There are currently plans for redevelopment for many parks in Allston-Brighton, such as the recent improvements that have been made to Ringer Park,

Iwany said. One of the main improvements for Ringer Park was to implement substantial tree work to improve the health of trees currently planted in the park.

Iwany said a key focus of the redevelopment projects for parks will be to “increase the shade,” as well as put “emphasis on green space and natural, native plants and trees.”

The Parks department is considering “other measures” besides trees to combat the effects of climate change in the city, such as providing cooling options including increasing the quantity of drinking fountains and “water spray play areas” for children, Chatfield said.

Alongside these alternatives, Chatfield said they are trying to include shaded dugouts and picnic shelters to counter the heat.

“We’re really trying to figure out shade in a meaningful way,” Chatfield said.

The corner of Harvard Avenue and Commonwealth

A lack of green spaces in Allston-Brighton is contributing to extreme heat in the area, making it one of the warmest neighborhoods in Boston.

MOLLY POTTER | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER

MATTHEW EADIE DFP PHOTOGRAPHER Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore square. Some students matriculating in the spring semester were temporarily assigned to live in Hotel Commonwealth due to delays in on-campus housing.

Allston-Brighton unites young adults through shared interests

Continued from page 1

Kickstarting the AllstonBrighton Women’s Book Club, where members discuss books and often meet in local restaurants, has made a “huge impact” on Heaney’s life, she said.

“It’s really hard to make friends as an adult when you’re not in college,” said Heaney. “This has been a really good way to meet people that … my path would never have crossed with.”

The club advertises itself to the Allston-Brighton community through the Allston-Brighton Community Discussion group on Facebook, a platform Heaney said community groups still use despite Facebook’s decline amongst Gen Z, according

to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey. The ABCD has amassed over 7,200 members who engage in conversation over neighborhood activities posted on the page.

The Allston-Brighton Crafting Group, founded by Allison Ziebka-Viering, uses the ABCD and word-of-mouth to recruit interested crafters and advertise events.

“We try and provide a platform where they can facilitate meet-ups and provide resources for people,” said Ziebka-Viering, who said the club caters to an array of artistic activities and abilities, hosting events like knitting and crochet sessions for beginners and supply swaps.

Ziebka-Viering considers the club to be an “avenue” through which people can

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNIKA MORRIS

create connections with “likeminded” individuals.

“When I moved up here, especially when I graduated university, it was hard to get to know people in the community … especially after you’re 30 years old, sometimes it can be hard,” Ziebka-Viering said. “It really provides an opportunity for people to find other people of similar interests.”

However, Ziebka-Viering wrote that beyond the two libraries, the neighborhood lacks free community spaces, so finding places to meet is one of their “biggest issues.”

While the craft club attracted a “good amount of recurring members,” ZiebkaVierring does not see “as much engagement proportional to the membership.”

“I think that’s always a challenge when it comes to clubs … getting people to motivate themselves to get involved,” Ziebka-Viering said.

The Allston-Brighton community also has a range of clubs for outdoors activities, such as a reservoir walk club, a swim group and a birdwatching community.

Sarah Iwany, a nanny residing in Allston-Brighton, said she noticed many birdwatching clubs in the area hosted trips that were far away, expensive, or at an inconvenient time. So, Iwany founded a new club, the Allston-Brighton Birders.

“I wanted to create something that was local and accessible for people who don’t have access to a vehicle, and who do have to work fulltime and value … sleeping in on the weekends,” Iwany said.

Iwany led 25 bird walks last year, and 380 people have joined the Birders’ discussion group on Facebook since it started.

“The goal is just to meet people in the area that have similar interests and give myself an excuse to get moving on the weekends and go outside and look at birds and have a social experience,” Iwany said.

Some residents find interest clubs to be an effective way to organically meet people their age in Allston-Brighton.

“From my perspective, there’s not as [many] bar nights, or things like that, that people go to that aren’t college-focused,” said Dayna Mann, a member of the Allston-Brighton Women’s Book Club. “I think having a space that was specifically targeted towards a mid- to late-20s crowd was critical.”

Mann said the AllstonBrighton could vamp up the social scene by getting “young people who are like-minded in the same space,” something she said isn’t being taken advantage of by businesses in the area.

Ajanette Chan Tack, assistant professor of

sociology and public policy at Northeastern University, said the mid-20s and 30s are an “age range of great existential crisis.”

“Up until college … you have structured, institutionalized opportunities for getting together,” Chan Tack said of those who are able to attend college. “When you’re out in the world of young adulthood, you suddenly become pretty atomized.”

Chan Tack also said building a social network as a young person is difficult, especially with a recent decrease of social communities.

“Since the 1950s, there’s been a lot of discussion about the decline of community in America,” said Chan Tack, attributing this to a “decline of religiosity,” “increase of women in the workforce,” and the amplified “difficulty of sustaining [an] economic existence.”

In response to this, Chan Tack said community clubs and organizations are “essential for neighborhood vitality.”

“They are really important for making people have a sense of belonging [and] connecting people to each other,” Chan Tack said. “Not just over the focus task that the group is about, whether it’s knitting or books, but it tends to expand out into other things, because human beings are multidimensional.”

Some RAs face housing issues due to GPA policy

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However, this is conditional upon ResLife’s academic requirements. According to the MOU, ResLife workers must maintain at least a 2.7 GPA and remain in “good academic standing” to keep their positions. If their RA position is compromised for any reason, they will lose their housing accommodations immediately.

BU’s definition of “good academic standing” requires a 2.0 semesterly GPI and a 2.0 cumulative GPA. While the MOU lists a higher standard for RA’s GPA, it does not specify the GPI uniquely required of RAs. At the time of her firing, Desir still had a 2.7 GPA, but her GPI from the spring 2023 semester fell below 2.0.

The ResLife Union created a petition to revise the GPA/GPI policy and reinstate workers dismissed under this policy during the 20232024 academic year.

“When somebody is let go from this position, the university assumes that they are just going to be able to focus fully on academics and that the removal of this role is going to give them more time. But actually, it’s the complete opposite,” Leal said. “It’s a position where people who are taking this position need this position.”

Union negotiations

The ResLife Union formed last spring, and joined Local 509 on March 23, as previously reported by The Daily Free Press. Local 509 represents graduate and resident assistant units in bargaining with BU. The bargaining units are the separate unions that make up Local 509.

The union delivered its full proposed contract and condensed platform this fall. They first met with BU on Dec. 15, scheduled during the fall final exam period.

So far, the union has only had four sessions with the university, and only three more are scheduled for the remainder of the academic year — the final one being May 11, the day after final exams end.

“This is a common union-busting

tactic … not providing long enough bargaining sessions and not having or facilitating productive bargaining sessions,” said Jasmine Richardson, an RA in South Campus and a junior in College of Arts and Sciences. Executive Director of Employee and Labor Relations Judi Burgess declined to comment, as BU does not comment on ongoing labor matters.

RAs detail existing issues within the role

To fill the gap left by the firings in fall 2023, certain RAs and GRAs had to be assigned more shifts than others before new RAs could be hired. RAs took on additional on-call shifts and GRAs trained the newly hired RAs — duties outside their job description, all completed without compensation for the additional work, Leal said. “We need these on-calls filled,”

Leal said. “If they don’t get filled in, they assign them to people who have the least amount of on-calls.”

Instead of receiving a meal plan, RAs with apartment-style accommodations receive a stipend based on the number of residents they oversee. RAs overseeing fewer than 29 residents receive no stipend, those with 30 to 49 residents receive $270 per year and those with 50 or more residents receive $450 per year.

Richardson oversees over 80 residents in South Campus and receives $450 per academic year. After taxes, Richardson’s allotted stipend comes out to $14.25 per week.

“That does not cover my groceries,” she said. “Having the most vulnerable employees be the ones who are subject to the arbitrary ResLife will, it can honestly put people in a very precarious situation.”

The role of an RA is extremely

variable and largely depends on which of the six BU neighborhoods an RA is stationed in.

In South Campus, GRAs oversee residents as well as a set of RAs, whereas in dorms like Warren Towers, GRAs only oversee RAs.

“Some people are on-call two times a semester and some people are on call two times a week,” Desir said. Due to the number of RAs sharing on-call shifts between 575 Commonwealth Ave. and the surrounding brownstones, fewer RAs work the same number of shifts compared to other neighborhoods. Each RA has relatively fewer oncall shifts than other neighborhoods, “which means less hours worked,” said Adam Shamsi, a GRA for 575 in his final year in CAS.

“I don’t have residents, but some GRAs do,” Shamsi said. “Which means that they have to do all the work that I do, plus all the work that an RA does.”

The loss of a community

In addition to his position as a GRA, Leal is also a teaching fellow at BU. He said the graduate student union is fighting alongside the RA union to remove the GPA/GPI policy.

Leal said this policy is “changing the way” he sees his work. He said his grades could directly affect RAs and potentially result in them getting kicked out of their housing.

“We didn’t sign up for our work, our grades that we give, to force people out of their living situations,” Leal said. “Everyone who’s grading should be aware if there are people in their classes who could be essentially evicted if they have bad grades.”

Desir failed two classes during her spring semester junior year and was placed on academic probation, which violated the MOU and cost her position as an RA. However, she was not removed from her position until the following fall — after she had already moved in and signed a contract for the 2023-2024 academic year.

“I could have changed [my academic standing] if I had taken summer classes,” Desir said. “They didn’t allow me the time to rectify

it.”

BU Housing found space for Desir in Danielsen Hall to move into after being removed from her RA position.

“If I were to not live on campus, I’d have to commute from home, which is two hours by train every day,” Desir said “So it was near impossible for me to try to get my grades back up and not live on campus.”

Leal said not only do RAs lose housing when they are fired, they also lose a community.

“They have to go and take on more jobs and work extra in order to pay for the housing that they now have to pay for,” Leal said. “It’s almost impossible to find a place to live within a couple of days of notice.”

Housing on campus can cost anywhere from $11,600 to $20,660 for the 2023-2024 academic year, according to BU Housing. This doesn’t include mandatory dining plans for those living in dorms, which start at an additional $6,510.

Desir said she still has not paid off her housing and meal plan from last semester, and is now about $10,000 in debt.

“I have no clue how I’m going to cover it,” Desir said. “I can still walk but I can’t receive my diploma until [my student account] is settled.”

After bringing her grades back up this fall, Desir asked to be reinstated as an RA. While waiting to hear back from ResLife, Desir’s testimonial was read on her behalf at a ResLife Union demonstration on Jan. 18. A few days later, she was offered a position as an RA.

Desir said she contemplated her decision for a few days, coping with the difficulty of accepting a position from the same place that fired her.

She accepted the offer and was reinstated as an RA in late January. She moved back to South Campus in a different apartment than she was originally placed in.

“I [replaced] another person who was also affected by the same policy,” Desir said. “It’s interesting, seeing how quickly they were to replace me and replace other people.”

Matthew Eadie contributed to the reporting of this article.

ANDREW BURKE-STEVENSON | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER

Jacob Leal, a graduate resident assistant in South Campus, in his building’s common space. Leal is a member of the ResLife union.

BUGWU deliberates over strike authorization, begins voting process

BY ABIGAIL HASSAN, NICOLE GONZALEZ AND JOSH ROSENTHAL Associate City Editor, Contributing Writer and Associate Campus Editor

The Boston University Graduate Workers Union is considering going on strike, following recent contract negotiations with BU.

At their most recent meeting, members of BUGWU agreed to hold a strike authorization vote. The decision to consider further escalation was made on Feb. 14 after about eight months of bargaining sessions with university officials. According to the BUGWU website, voting began on Feb. 28 and will continue until March 11.

“We’re advocating for a living wage and sustainable benefits that work for us as laborers and students,” said Blair Stowe, a PhD student in the School of Theology and member of BUGWU. “Right now, we do not receive pay that meets our basic needs.”

As of 2023, BU has 18,476 graduate and professional students, with BUGWU currently representing over 3,500 graduate workers.

According to Stowe, BUGWU members are seeking increased benefits such as “dental care, childcare [and] academic freedom” in this round of negotiations.

“We need to feed our kids, we need to pay our rent,” Stowe said. “We need to pay for health insurance, and right now, the way in which we’re compensated does

not allow us to do that.”

Eva Paniagua, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, expressed the vital role graduate workers hold in an academic setting, where they often work as teaching fellows.

“I think TFs are really important because they give you a model to look after,” Paniagua said. “I think it’s important to see someone who is in a graduate position, who’s been through what you’re going through.”

In her biology labs, Paniagua explained that graduate students “run the entire lab,” serving the same function as an instructor.

“For psych classes, they run all of the discussion sections,” said Sarah Tayeh, a sophomore

in CAS. “They’re grading homework, grading exams, going over exams with you after that.”

Tayeh also highlighted the unique role graduate students hold when it comes to connecting with the undergraduate students they teach.

“They’re closer to being an undergraduate than professors are,” Tayeh said. “I just feel like they have more relatability and they’re always there for the students.”

Some graduate workers said they believe that because they perform academic labor and research labor, they deserve to be fairly compensated for that.

“I think an argument that gets used a lot is that we’re in

REVIEW: ‘Cendrillon,’ an operatic

BY ANNA ALBRECHT Contributing Writer

In the soft glow of dim lights, the first note of the chamber orchestra called together a group of frazzled young women to center stage. It was impossible not to feel dropped into the middle of a fairytale as the room grew brighter, revealing a twostory set with family portraits and intricately painted details on each wall: here begins the College of Fine Arts’ rendition of “Cendrillon.”

The French title might render it unfamiliar, but don’t be fooled — “Cendrillon” is the timeless tale of a would-be princess losing her shoe at a palace. As a retired Disney princess

superfan, I found the show to be a wonderful showcase of elevated nostalgia.

A co-production between the School of Music’s Opera Institute and the School of Theatre, the fairytale-turnedopera ran at Boston University’s Joan & Edgar Booth Theatre from Feb. 29 to March 3. The Thursday night cast of “Cendrillon” transported the audience to a dreamy world of mystical love and loss.

“Cendrillon” transcends the traditional Cinderella story in the very first scene with a humorous opening number featuring the disgruntled attitudes of young female attendants towards a demanding headmistress.

But “Cendrillon” doesn’t

training,” Stowe said. “That does not excuse the fact that we have basic needs that need to be met.”

Students are not the only people who recognize the importance of BU’s student employees.

“It’s pretty obvious that we are greatly supported in a massive way by our student staff,” said Jim Rivera, associate director of the Student Employment Office. “It’s not an understatement to say that they are a critical component to the endeavors of Boston University and how it moves forward.”

Rivera said that one of the challenges he sees most frequently for student workers is “balancing work, academics and having a personal life.”

“From a student employment perspective, you know, we want as many students to have the opportunity to work on campus, finance [themselves], make up for expenses that they have, but also be able to enjoy this time of their lives,” Rivera said.

While undergraduate workers are not yet unionized, graduate students formed BUGWU in late 2020 and officially announced the union in February 2023.

BUGWU collaborates with Service Employees International Union Local 509: “a labor union representing more than 20,000 human service workers and educators throughout Massachusetts,” according to David Foley, president of SEIU Local 509.

“We are supporting this unit by encouraging workers to lead, and providing expertise for bargaining and legal questions,” David Foley, president of SEIU Local 509, wrote in an email.

BUGWU will continue to discuss their next steps until the end of voting. Despite the looming decision, Foley said he will continue to support the future of BUGWU.

“When graduate workers win their first contract, we will support them by helping enforce their contract and continuing to build power across the campus and in our union,” Foley wrote.

retelling of a classic fairytale

lose the critical elements of the plot — it restructures them for a more mature audience than the Disney original. Cendrillon’s father, played on opening night by Noah B. Rogers, a first-year student in the Opera Institute, kept the audience laughing with his witty asides on the ridiculous nature of his evil wife and stepdaughters.

Then came a thorough display of the animated, absurd nature of Cendrillon’s stepsisters and stepmother, reminiscent of the early trope that every Disney Princess fan feared. After the chaos, resigned onlooker Cendrillon, played by Sarah Zieba, a second-year student at the Opera Institute, descends the stairs to face the audience for the first time alone.

Zieba enchanted us upon her first note. Her humble yet hopeful portrayal of Cendrillon floated through the audience with melancholy that contrasted the stepsisters’ brashness. Zieba was a natural princess, but her voice held strength beyond its years. Now, it seemed only natural for Cinderella to sing opera, instead of chirping to birds in a windowsill.

Twinkling stars emerged across the set’s sky as Cendrillion fell asleep. The dreaminess was enhanced by the voice of La Fée, the fairy godmother, played on opening night by Madeleine Lew, in her second season at BU’s Opera Institute.

As the fairy godmother summoned other forest fairies, one couldn’t help but notice the acute appreciation for nature in the lyrics of her song. In common Cinderella stories, this aspect is overlooked, but “Cendrillon”

spotlights the central role nature plays. The forest sprites adorned Cendrillon in her sleep, harnessing the beauty of the natural world to do so.

Cendrillon awoke in a crescendo of sound, perfectly mirroring her confusion at suddenly being dressed so beautifully. La Fée sent her off with the classic midnight warning, a nostalgic plot point to the story. The set transitioned to the palace ball, a picture-perfect scene of glistening royalty, where we met Le Prince Charmant, played by Ilhee Lee, a first-year Opera Institute student. The prince’s ballad about searching for the love of his life was familiarly charming, and I swooned as he sang about forfeiting his riches and lavishness for love.

Suddenly, the palace lights dimmed. Every eye turned to the center aisle of the theater, where the most beautifully dressed Cendrillon glided into the ball. Immediately, Le Prince Charmant was smitten, and so were we.

The world fell away, both for the characters and the audience, as the stage cleared and only Cendrillon and Le Prince Charmant remained in stunned silence. Emotional music rose from the live chamber orchestra as devotion swept the two characters and they confessed their love to one another. I couldn’t help but feel that passion from the seats.

Midnight struck, and Cendrillon fled the ball — an archetypal moment in the story. Devastated by her departure but determined to find his love once

more, the prince’s emotions were encapsulated with melancholic and hopeful music. The air tensed in the room as everyone rooted for the lovers reunion.

Due to the intimate layout of the theater, actors entered from all sides of the theater with light sticks in hand, almost as if the audience wasn’t there at all. The experience was as though we were stationed in the enchanted forest, watching the spirits convene.

In opposite corners stood the forbidden lovers, Cendrillon ready to turn her life over to the fairy godmother. The lovers circled one another but never touched as they begged the fairies to relieve the other’s pain. I felt five years old again, rooting relentlessly for the willbe-princess’s wishes to come true.

A beautiful and woeful decline of light and sound engulfed the room as the fairy godmother split Cendrillon and the prince with a curse. Lew held a crystalclear high note, a heartbreaking close to the scene.

Cendrillon awoke at home, convinced the love she experienced was all a dream.

But when her stepsisters announced that the prince, dying from a broken heart, invited all the kingdom’s women to try on her abandoned shoe, Cendrillon rushed to claim her prince’s heart amidst a swell of celebratory music. The two reunited, lifting La Fée’s curse and restoring life to the prince.

As the cast turned to thank the audience for accompanying their journey through this dreamy world, I couldn’t help but want to say thank you back.

COURTESY OF OSHIN GREGORIAN

(From left) Ilhee Lee (CFA ‘27) and Sarah Zieba (CFA ‘26) sing as Le Prince Charmant and Cendrillon in the Thursday production of “Cendrillon” at the Joan and Edgar Booth Theatre. “Cendrillon” is a captivating French opera retelling of “Cinderella,” put on by the College of Fine Arts schools of Music and Theatre.

CORINNE DAVIDSON | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER A member of the graduate student workers union holds a sign protesting wages at a rally in November. Teaching assistants are considering joining other BU-employed groups in striking, following unsatisfactory contract negotiations with the school.

Sociology professor Jessica Simes promotes justice system reform through research

BY SARA SUGITA Contributing Writer

Growing up in a racially divided community in Los Angeles, Jessica Simes observed early on in life how white supremacy informs racial segregation. These first-hand observations informed Simes’ interest in social justice and would later inspire her career rectifying racial and social inequalities.

But instead of acting through law, Simes, now an assistant professor of sociology at Boston University, attacks injustices, specifically mass incarceration and prison conditions, with her research.

Simes’ path to working in research started with a sociology course she took her freshman year at Occidental College. She said the class piqued her interest in the field, especially in how social and racial inequality informs law and policy.

During Simes’ sophomore year, Angela Davis, a Black prison abolition activist and an advocate for racial justice, visited Occidental College to speak about the criminal legal system. Simes said Davis’s lecture exposed her to the idea of connecting research about race and inequality with criminal justice issues.

“It was just very inspiring and shifted all of my interest towards studying mass incarceration,” Simes said.

Simes then became interested in how “empirical data and empirical evidence could be impactful for influencing social change [and] creating policy reform.”

As a first-generation college student, Simes described feeling like an “imposter” in higher education spaces. Her undergraduate advisor at Occidental College encouraged her to pursue sociology and do her own research.

“It really empowered me,” said Simes, who went on to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard University.

When Carrie Sheehan, a secondyear Ph.D. student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was an undergraduate at BU, Simes offered them a position on her research team.

Coming from a low-income background with no family members working in academia, Sheehan had not considered research a career possibility — until they met Simes, their sociology instructor at the time.

“She definitely encouraged me to think of myself as somebody who could produce research, and that the questions I was asking were important,” Sheehan said about Simes, who is now their advisor in the Ph.D. program.

A major focus of Simes’ research is place-based inequality and criminal justice. Her findings are detailed in her 2021 book “Punishing Places: The Geography of Mass Imprisonment in America.”

One of the book’s main ideas is that racial composition correlates to incarceration rates in cities — specifically in those with higher concentrations of African Americans, Simes said. To illustrate this point, Simes analyzed racial disproportionality among counties — whether the incarceration rate of a certain race is significantly higher than that of the general population. In an analysis of data from more than 3,000 counties, she found that in 1,200 counties, Black populations are incarcerated at double the rate of the general population — compared to 80 counties for Latinos and three counties for whites.

Simes said these findings had her asking, “How do we even compare the experience of white and Black incarceration in this context, where the racial differences are so vast?”

In the book, she also discusses how incarceration compromises community.

“[Incarceration] changes our labor force,” she said. “It changes who’s going to school, who has both parents at home, who gets to … be healthy and thrive.”

Simes’ research focuses on the health effects of incarceration. She said she believes human dignity is an important driver of seeking changes to societal systems.

One group seeking such change is Citizens for Juvenile Justice, or CfJJ, through “Raise the Age,” a research-based proposal to raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction from 18 to 20.

Joshua Dankoff, the CfJJ’s director of strategic initiatives,

said the move comes from research stating that the prefrontal cortex — an area of the brain that controls behavior and decision-making — continues developing until the age of 25.

“We’re trying to catch the law up to where science is,” Dankoff said.

Another example of research’s potential for substantial impact, according to Simes, is Massachusetts’ recent ban on life sentences without parole for anyone under the age of 21.

Since life in prison without parole is rarely sentenced, Simes said the decision would not bring radical change. Still, she said the ban marks “a really important step” in criminal justice reform, not only

in Massachusetts, but across the country.

But Simes said that research alone is not enough to influence political policy. For “Raise the Age” to go forward, for example, Simes stressed the need to collaborate with activists and organizations who can use research to push for legislation.

William Rodriguez, a lecturer in counseling psychology and human development at Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, has 40 years of experience in the criminal justice field, where he has practiced law, run offender supervision programs and overseen policy research.

Rodriguez said that when he trains his students to do advocacy work, he tells them they cannot make a compelling and convincing argument to the legislature or to the court without using relevant data.

“Most of the criminal justice reform bills that come out in law always rely on the data,” Rodriguez said.

For research to have an impact, Rodriguez said it should create tangible change.

“[Research] must build the capacity or enhance or innovate the growth of an organization that’s doing advocacy and policy reform and law,” he said.

Moving forward, Simes said she wants to make her research more relevant to those who are engaging in activism and deciding policy. She said that researchers don’t often interact with the communities they analyze, which creates a gap between research and real-world application.

Researchers should consider not only science, but ethics, Simes said. Combining data and principles, she said the real question is: “What should our institutions be doing to serve communities better?”

BUPD’s new wellness dog: There when you have a ruff day

Continued from page 1

“People might be intimidated to go up to a person standing there in uniform that might be armed,” Nee said. “Then you have this little puppy or this goofy dog, and people are naturally kind of drawn to it.”

Besides offering students a source of comfort, the wellness dog initiative stems from BUPD’s goal to gain more trust from students. Nee said BUPD is trying to “change the image of policing” and rectify distrust toward police that built up during countrywide fervor regarding police brutality in 2020.

“We had a lot to make up for as far as trying to build up that trust, because our goal is to let every single individual at this university know that we’re here for them, regardless of how they identify, regardless of if they hate us,” Nee said.

Nee said Sergeant Gregory Bellamy was behind the research and proposal concerning the logistics of obtaining a wellness dog.

“I think everybody saw some value in it,” Nee said about BUPD’s response to the proposal. “It shows the police officers in a different role. Not responding to a call, not telling you what you can and cannot do, so it reduces that stress.”

Although BUPD’s search for a wellness dog began while Nee was police chief, Lowe said he is looking forward to introducing Bean to BU and is excited to see the initiative through.

Bean is currently still in training, so she only makes on-campus appearances on Fridays, Lowe said. After she finishes training in 2025, she will be on campus full-time.

“She’s literally a showstopper. Anytime we bring her anywhere, people immediately stop what they’re doing,” Lowe said. “It’s been really great to see the engagement she’s had with the community already.”

Bean lives full-time with her handler, BUPD Officer Geovanni Chevere, who BUPD chose to be Bean’s handler during a competitive volunteer process. Lowe said Chevre and Bean clicked right away.

“[Chevre] didn’t choose Bean,” Lowe said. “Bean chose him.”

After adopting Bean, BUPD reached out to the BU student body to help choose a name for the pup. They opened up submissions via the official BU Instagram Story, where students could suggest name ideas. Lowe said the poll received over 500 responses. The top two name contenders were “Bean” and “Copley,” but Bean ultimately won.

Abby Wilson, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, voted for the name “Bean” and was determined to meet her. Wilson and her friend saw on Instagram that she was making a guest appearance at the GSU Wednesday, Feb. 21.

“I was like, ‘We gotta go meet Bean,’” Wilson said.

When she arrived at the

GSU, Bean was nowhere in sight — “then, all of a sudden, halfway into our meal, the elevator doors opened, and Bean ran out,” she said.

A crowd immediately formed around Bean, who was playful and started chewing on the sweatshirt string of one of her fans, Wilson said.

Wilson, a dog-lover with one of her own at home, said she missed her dog and appreciated seeing Bean. Wilson hopes to see Bean make an appearance at a hockey game, and, better yet, see Rhett and Bean together.

Ericka Correia, a sophomore in the College of Communication, met Bean outside the GSU on Feb. 21, like Wilson. She said a police car pulled up near her group

of friends, and the officer said he had a surprise. Correia said she was confused until Bean came out of the car.

“We got so excited and ran over to the dog because Bean is the cutest thing ever,” Correia said. She noted that Bean was especially curious, playful and “excited to be outside.”

With her own baseball card and even an Instagram account, Bean is a popular addition to BU, Correia said.

“Leave it to BU to create a baseball card for a dog,” Correia said. “I love it. I have it in my backpack.”

Correia said she appreciates BUPD’s wellness dog initiative, as Bean can help students feel more comfortable entering the police station or give support to students who

have to recount events that make them anxious.

“It’s just something that brightens people’s day, to see this sweet little puppy coming around,” Correia said. “I texted everyone I knew and said I met [Bean] and that it made me feel happy and gave me a good stress reliever for the day.”

Nee joked about her jealousy toward Bean, who now takes the crown as BUPD’s most popular member, even though she’s not yet on campus fulltime.

“What we’re trying to do is provide a service to the community and build relationships and trust in this little fluffy, goofy puppy that loves to eat hair,” Nee said.

MOLLY POTTER | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER

A trading card featuring Bean. Bean is a golden retriever puppy that was adopted to provide comfort to the student body.

COURTESY OF JESSICA SIMES

Associate Professor of Sociology Jessica Simes. Simes’ research focuses primarily on social justice within the prison system.

GALLERY

Gallery: Chelsea Cutler performs in Boston

BY HOLLY GUSTAVSEN, DFP PHOTOGRAPHER

Pop singer Chelsea Cutler and special guest Yoke Lore performed at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Feb. 24 promoting her third studio album, “Stellaria.”

Adrian Galvin, also known by his moniker Yoke Lore, performs the opening set at the Chelsea Cutler concert at MGM Music Hall on Feb. 24.

Chelsea Cutler performs to the crowd during her concert.

Chelsea Cutler and her band perform at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Feb. 24 for her tour, “THE BEAUTY IS EVERYWHERE TOUR.”

Chelsea Cutler’s guitarist Dan Graham during the concert.

Chelsea Cutler’s drummer Michael Mason during the concert.

Chelsea Cutler blows a kiss to the crowd at the end of her set.

Chelsea Cutler performs at MGM Music Hall at Fenway on Feb. 24 for her headlining tour.

COLUMNS

Super Tuesday 2024 is superbly insignificant | Not to Get Political But

BY LAUREN ALBANO Opinion Co-Editor

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday, the biggest day of the presidential primary season. The majority of the states — this year there are 15 of them, plus one territory — will vote for the presidential nominee for each party.

The votes cast on this day often comprise a third of the delegates to the Democratic and Republican conventions that are awarded to candidates. For example, Super Tuesday 2024 will account for 874 of the 2,429 Republican delegates: 36%.

The day can also prove quite contentious. In 2008, for example, 24 states held their primaries on the same day to sort out the front runners early, but Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ended up in a virtual deadlock.

But this year, Super Tuesday is going to be about as exciting as the pre-Trump administration news cycle.

If you don’t know by now that November is going to feature a lackluster rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, you’ve either been living under a rock, or you’re still holding out hope for one of the two candidates who haven’t accepted defeat and dropped out of the race yet — sorry Nikki Haley and Dean Phillips.

According to the ABC News Republican primary poll, Trump is leading with 76.7% of the vote to Haley’s 15.1% as of yesterday. As for the Democratic primary poll, Biden leads with 75.5% of the vote to Phillips’ 7.9%.

I get it, anything can happen, but let’s be realistic. There’s absolutely no way Haley or Phillips can pull enough votes together to challenge the front runners of their respective parties.

I’m no math major, but even if they receive the entirety of the one-third of

the delegates tomorrow, I still don’t believe either of them would have enough to surpass — or at least strongly challenge — Trump or Biden. Forgive me for the cliché, but it simply does not add up.

According to the New York Times, Haley could have remained competitive with Trump had she won, or even come very close to winning, in South Carolina or Michigan. But she didn’t — and South Carolina is her home state.

The numbers game aside, Trump and Biden both have too many advantages going for them. It makes me wish we hadn’t wasted these last few months hearing insufferable candidates like entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott spew bigotry on debate stages.

Biden, as sitting president, has the advantage of incumbency against Phillips. He doesn’t really have that advantage against Trump since he also served in office, but it will be the voters’ job to rationally weigh the administrations’ performances in November and decide which one they’d prefer to take the presidency for the next four years.

Biden’s been fighting criticism about his age and eating ice cream while being asked about the conflict in Gaza, and yet Biden will ultimately have the — possibly reluctant — support of Democratic and Trump-hating voters.

As for Trump, he’s been fighting court cases like it’s nobody’s business, with several lawsuits against him including for such crimes as election interference, unlawful possession of classified documents and “hush money” payments. Furthermore, he is an absolute and utter threat to United States democracy.

Yet — as shocking as it is to me — he hasn’t been deterred from running, aside from a few state initiatives to disqualify him from their primary ballots.

I honestly don’t know why Haley and Phillips are trying at this point, with how steadfast Trump and Biden’s leads have been despite their problematic histories.

On Friday, Haley vowed to stay in the race “as long as [she’s] competitive” with Trump. Phillips said that he would still remain in the race, but he had to lay off a significant portion of his staff.

Haley and Phillips need to give up. They’re not competing with Trump and Biden, and they’re ultimately just blowing money on a dead-end journey. Maybe they think that their determination will earn them a respected cabinet spot if their party’s nominee wins. And maybe they’re right — but come on.

Believe me, I despise Trump, don’t love Biden and am generally not thrilled at the idea of either of them being elected president for another four years. But I accepted a long time ago that this primary is a bust.

EDITORIAL

I feel like we’re wasting our time waiting for confirmation that Biden and Trump are the nominees when we could be ramping up campaigning for November. This year’s election isn’t fueled by the same passion and urgency that 2020 was.

Take tomorrow as an opportunity to exercise your right to vote — it’s exciting that most of us college students are eligible this year.

It’ll be good practice for the real deal in November, when — despite both Trump and Biden’s flaws — we will have to vote not only for the candidate that will best represent our interests and our country for the next four years but also for the one who will best uphold our democratic institutions.

Making a habit of reading is paramount in the digital age

Generation Z’s attention span is fried.

To us, 30 minutes of reading feels like an impossible task. Yet, 30 minutes spent scrolling through TikTok feels like three seconds.

The popularity of digital media, especially short-form content, has deterred our generation from reading — and deprived us of not only the enjoyment we can derive from it but also the various health benefits it brings.

Reading is not just a form of entertainment — it also expands our vocabulary, makes us better writers and educates us about the range of perspectives of people around us. It’s also essential to improving our overall well-being.

For example, the well-known health challenge “75 Hard” includes doing two workouts, drinking a gallon of water and consuming no “cheat meals” or alcohol daily for 75 consecutive days. But it also includes reading 10 pages of a book every day for oneself.

Reading is known to reap health benefits. A 2016 study by the National Library of Medicine found those who read books for an average of 30 minutes per day showed a “survival advantage,” compared to those who did not read books.

Yet many of us can’t find those 30 minutes lying around.

With how overwhelming student life can get, it is difficult to find time and — more importantly — energy to pick up a book.

Because of all the readings that go towards our courses, it’s easy to associate

reading with work — deterring us from reading for enjoyment. Doomscrolling on social media seems like the only comfortable option after an exhausting day of lectures, textbook chapters and group projects.

Thus, after exhausting days filled with academic reading for our classes, reading a long-form book, even one that has stricken our interest, feels repetitive and unappealing.

It’s not as though our generation doesn’t want to read — it just feels as though the little free time we have during the academic year is not worth going towards reading novels.

That’s why we find solace in summer and winter breaks: we finally have time to settle down and get through a book without distractions, and fully immerse ourselves in a story.

We look forward to those extended pockets of time where we can read for pleasure — it’s the type of content we often don’t have or can’t make time for in our day-to-day lives.

Of course, it’s hard to make time for hobbies like reading when schoolwork-life balance is already so difficult. But take a look at your iPhone’s Screen Time when you have the chance — it’s likely that between TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat alone, there are plenty of minutes in the day that you could instead delegate towards consuming more enriching content offline.

How many moments of your day can be spent reading? Your train ride to class, the line at Einstein Bros. Bagels or the downtime in your dorm that you’d normally spend on social media are a few options.

Part of encouraging putting down our screens in favor of a book is defeating the stigma that comes with the content we consume — especially in an age where attention is not on reading longform content in the first place.

Historical associations of reading with elitism have and will only drive people further away from the activity. You don’t have to trudge your way through “War and Peace” to make reading a meaningful part of your life. Short stories in the New Yorker, young adult fantasy series or even fluffy romances recommended by the “BookTok community” are all reading

mediums that can certainly be more fulfilling than screen time.

As is the case with any other healthy habit, reading shouldn’t be lost in our daily routines. Like training to hit a personal record in the gym or buying a water bottle to track your daily consumption, reading is a habit we can all build — not just for developing mental clarity but for our own enjoyment and personal growth.

This

Editorial was written by Opinion Co-Editor Lea Rivel.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNIKA MORRIS

Across

2. you might need it for midterms, other than a pencil or laptop

3. the stars’ twelfth house

7. a planned excursion, or to take a tumble

8. BU’s is March 9 to 17

10. you might find it at the end of 28 Across

13. denotes envy, money, or nausea

15. greens & superfoods, or action of a flower

CROSSWORD

18. basketball-induced fever

21. can be dyed, fried or hunted for

22. its opening day aligns with the start of spring

24. seasonal sneezes

25. the name of a holiday and an island

26. Notable literary sisters Jo, Amy, Beth, & Meg 28. ROYGBIV

Down

1. ugly, in one fairy tale

4. McDonald’s March shake flavor

5. one of Boston’s favorite holidays

6. in like a ___... (continued 12 Down)

math teacher ’s favorite dessert

9. spring color palette

10. math teacher’s favorite dessert

11. winner of 2024 Best Pop Solo Performance Grammy

12. ...out like a ___ (from 6 Down)

BY SIENA GRIFFIN Features Co-Editor

14. marks half-way point of a course

16. track for iconic Tom Holland lip sync battle

17. beware of backstabbers on this day

19. subject of songs by My Chemical Romance, Matchbox Twenty and Barbra Streisand

20. fight or ___

22. hill for easy skiing

23. varieties include inch, earth and glow

27. save money for a ___

Pajamas on the plane: A journey finding a cute and casual airplane outfit

BY SAMANTHA MARSHALL Senior Writer

Spring break is coming up and you know what that means — it’s time to start planning the clothes to pack for upcoming trips.

While I practically already have my suitcase packed, I’m struggling to figure out what to wear for the plane ride. This spring break, I’m traveling to Paris and the grand total of travel time, including the layover in Dublin, is around nine hours. It’s going to be a long day, to say the least.

I’ve worn my fair share of athleisure and comfy clothes on regional flights, but since I’m arriving in Paris during mid-day, I’m wondering whether I need to level up my fashion game. Is it acceptable to wear pajamas, leggings or sweatpants? Is wearing athleisure inappropriate in Europe? Are my pajamas easily identifiable as sleepwear?

In the midst of my search for an acceptable airplane outfit, I fell into a small crisis and decided to do some research. While I was trying to find out if wearing nice clothes on the plane truly mattered — due to rumors suggesting possible upgrades based on your outfit — I found that a lot of airlines have dress codes that flight attendants can enforce.

Both American and United Airlines’ dress code regulations, as seen in their “Conditions of Carriage,” prohibit bare feet, improperly-clothed individuals and obscene clothing. Passengers who violate these codes are not dressed appropriately and can be moved from the plane.

Given my Paris trip is in March, I’m not too concerned with the aforementioned clauses, since I plan to layer my clothing. So, my search for more information about the dress codes didn’t make deciding what to wear any easier.

After searching multiple Parisian fashion guides, including Conde Nast’s “What to Wear in Paris, According to French Fashion Designer Jeanne Damas,” I decided my best move would be to find a good pair of jeans or a pair of comfortable cargos with an oversized sweater.

So, I decided to venture out into Boston to find a new pair of “go-to” traveling pants.

Luckily there are numerous stores in Boston that cater to every budget. Here’s a list of what I found — ranging from most affordable to most expensive:

Goodwill: 65 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, Massachusetts

Before emptying my entire bank account on new clothing, I always make sure to browse my local Goodwill to see if there are any hidden fashion treasures I can find.

Thrifting is not only a more sustainable option, but it also offers the chance to find some really unique pieces of clothing. I will admit, though, that there have been plenty of times when I’ve tried to find clothing at thrift stores and am left with nothing.

To break it down, the pros of Goodwill are the affordability, the sustainability and the oneof-a-kind pieces you can come across. The cons include the lack of available sizing and the struggle to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Old Navy: 430 Washington St., Boston, Massachusetts

At Old Navy, I found a variety of pants that were cute, yet comfortable. One of the options I found were tailored cargo pants in three different colors. Even better, they are currently on sale for $28. Old Navy also carries a variety of linen, cargo and tailored trouser pants.

So, let’s break it down.

The pros: a variety of sizes, colors and types of pants. The cons: the options are very basic,

Madewell: 329 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts

At Madewell, there were a variety of pants to choose from: jeans, cargos and trousers. The price range was definitely a bit higher, ranging from about $79 to $118.

There were numerous cuts and styles to choose from in each category of pants, with a variety of springtime colors.

In all, the pros are the multitude of styles to choose from and the vibrant colors. The cons, though, are the higher price ranges and less originality among the basic pieces, compared to those at a thrift store like Goodwill.

Anthropologie: 82 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts

Anthropologie is always one of my must-sees on Newbury Street. Anytime I visit, I am sure there is something bright, patterned or unique on display. I never leave disappointed.

One of the gems I found were the $88 Parachute Pants that come in a variety of shades, from bright to darker, neutral tones. For Anthropologie, the pros include the diverse options of colors and pant styles, offering uniqueness. The one giant con, however, is the steep pricing.

I hope you found this list helpful — especially if you have a long plane journey planned for spring break like me. If you can’t find what you’re looking for and all else fails, you can always shop online or, you know, stick with your good ol’ pajamas!

How camera rolls become anxietyinducing | My Heart Will Go On

BY LILY SMOKLER DFP Columnist

I’ve always loved taking pictures. Whether I’m in front of or behind the camera, I love capturing different moments and being able to look back on them. Therefore, I’m frequently scrolling through my camera roll and reflecting on all of my memories.

However, there’s been a shift in the enjoyment that I get from this scrolling ever since my breakup. Rather than feeling happy and nostalgic, I feel anxious and upset.

Once I scroll deep enough through my camera roll to hit the time period of my past relationship, I begin to feel anxious, expecting to be reminded of everything, regardless of whether there are pictures of us right away. Before I even reach this time, I can already feel a pit forming in my stomach.

Since being at school, the number of photos in my camera roll has multiplied considerably, which means I have to dig deeper to get to the summer. However, as I previously mentioned, I’m often scrolling through all of the pictures, frequently reminiscing on something that is no longer.

Oftentimes, I simply search for a specific image or memory, preferably a happy one. Instead, I am hit in the face with pictures of someone who is no longer in my life and memories that I struggle to look at and remember without crying.

While the simple solution is to just delete the photos, that means they’d be gone forever. I don’t

want that. I don’t want to strike out these pictures of my first love and have all the memories we made together completely lost. I don’t want to delete the photos and act like it never happened — because it did.

I had an incredibly serious and real relationship that I don’t want to dismiss and forget. However, if I keep the photos, I get triggered every time I go through my camera roll. It feels like there’s no perfect solution.

I decided to delete some images, but given how long we were together, I still have hundreds of pictures.

As time has gone on, I’ve had an easier time with it. I’ve filled my camera roll with so many new memories and experiences to the point where it doesn’t feel like our relationship consumes my camera roll anymore.

Honestly, I think that it’s completely ok to be upset about it. We’ve only been broken up for five months — a checkpoint where no one is expected to be completely healed or over everything.

I know there will be a time when I can look at all my pictures and smile rather than cry. I’m not there quite yet, and that is fine. In the meantime, I’m focusing on doing what I love to do — photographing my memories and scrolling through them however often I desire.

I’m taking more photos now than ever before and, as I’m sure everyone

knows, digital cameras are making a huge comeback. While I’m continuing to take photos on my phone, using my digital camera has truly helped me relieve this anxiety.

I can still take as many photos as I want, and they come out with better quality. Without having to search through anything else, I can stay strictly focused on the moment and not on the past.

It’s almost as if the comeback of the digital camera and its popular demand was made for me during this time to help me transition back into doing what I love.

Regardless of what medium I’m using, I’m taking advantage of every moment and opportunity, whether it’s simply for a good time or a good picture.

Something I never really realized is how many pictures I took with my exboyfriend, and how little I had with my friends. Now, with only my friends in the picture, I can fully focus on my friendships and avoid associating pictures and camera rolls with romantic relationships.

No matter what, camera rolls are bound to be anxiety-inducing following a breakup. However, having a more positive outlook and beneficial techniques, such as shifting the focus onto friendships and trying out new mediums, allow me to reinvent and return comfortably to this passion of mine.

ILLUSTRATION BY LILA BALTAXE

‘Bachelor Nation’: Maybe it isn’t so bad

BY AMANDA BRECHER DFP Writer

I am a new member of Bachelor Nation — and I have no shame.

Every week, usually on Tuesday evenings, my friends and I gather to view the week’s episode of “The Bachelor.” We set up a projector, light a few candles and pile into one bed as Joey Graziadei appears before us, projected onto a disoriented, partially unironed bedsheet.

I look forward to this feeling every week. The comfort of being surrounded by my best friends consumes me as we take in this one night a week where our busy schedules have an overlapping gap. We throw away our stress, put aside our hours of schoolwork and exist altogether as if we had no responsibilities outside of the room. I’m free, safe and happy.

From the way that I count down the minutes of each week until the drama can resume, you would think I have watched every season, every year, since I was four years old.

However, this is the first season that I have consecutively watched every episode, and I plan to do so until Joey finds his perfect match and we have the next bachelorette set in stone.

I obsess over the past episode’s strategic rose allocation and the inevitable girl-fights — oh, and

by the way, I’m team Maria. I grew up with the idea in my head that “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” set a poor example for women. My parents never wanted me to watch it, even though my mom had it on her bedroom television like clockwork every week.

My parents believed that “The Bachelor” perpetuated the idea that a woman needed to fight for a man to fall in love with them — publicly and at the expense of other women. They also believed that the producers pit women against each other to maintain viewership, and the majority of the “group dates” are simply competitions where the prize is a rose granting them a safe passage into the next week.

Ultimately, they believed that this show would instill a negative perception of love and how it emerges and evolves.

Had I watched this show when I was 13, they probably would’ve been right. I was naive, unaware and highly malleable by what I was told and what I observed. I probably would’ve compared myself to the women on the show by thinking about whether or not I’d be able to win if I were on “The Bachelor” — and the even more damaging question: why or why not?

Would I be pretty enough to

win? Maybe. Would I be funny enough to win? Perhaps. Would my personality be enough to pull me through? I would hope so. I would’ve been evaluating my own self worth based on all of these questions, which I now understand would ultimately not matter if I were on the show, considering my chances of winning would be more accurately at the whim of the producers.

Although I don’t agree with the idea that the fate of supposed star-crossed lovers is up to a lesser-than-divine power, I love the show nonetheless.

I am now old enough to understand the true game that is “The Bachelor’’ and admire it from the other side of a screen without internalizing its ideals.

For that reason, I can separate the drama and toxicity from the reality of my own relationships and those that I will embrace just as openly in the future, whether it be romantic, platonic, familial and anything else in between.

While I love the show for its endless entertainment, I think my love stems more from the women I watch it with. Everyday, they are pure examples of the relationships which prove to me that “The Bachelor” is a mere manipulation of connections. You could play the worst TV

show of all time — any absolute, headache-inducing eyesore — and I’d still count down the minutes until the next episode aired if it meant I would be watching it with these women.

They are there for me as unconditionally and loyal as they come — to each other and even to the contestant in “The Bachelor” who they choose to rally behind. Now that’s the sign of true friendship, character and even morals.

If these girls truly saw no issue in Sydney or Jess’ actions, who have come across to viewers as

gaslighting and hypocritical for targeting girls out of spite for her confidence and connection with Joey, it would speak volumes to their real-life values.

As for the negative notions that this show undeniably presents, I’ll always be young and impressionable, but the most important impression that brands me is left on me by the people I surround myself with. They are genuine, kind-hearted and caring.

I can say with unwavering certainty that these women would receive any rose I had to give.

Four old movies for classic cinema beginners

BY LINA BARCLAY DFP Writer

I was sitting at the George Sherman Union the other day when an older gentleman approached me and asked about the sticker of actress Lauren Bacall pasted on the back of my laptop. After bonding over our shared love of Jean Arthur comedies from the 1930s, the man posed a question: How can we get more kids your age to watch old movies?

Perhaps it’s useful to start with an idea of a standard movie lover. You watch most of the Best Picture nominated Oscar movies each year, you get an average of three likes on your Letterboxd one-liners and you’ve seen enough David Fincher films to have a favorite. You’ll watch an international film if it’s showing in a theater near you and you might even have an AMC Stubs

A-List membership.

You consider yourself knowledgeable about movies, yet rarely watch films made before 1970. Sure, you’ve seen “Casablanca” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but why is it that you haven’t gone further than your odd one-off musical or film class screening?

I can understand some of the reasons for avoiding the cinema of yore. Actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood often speak in a different way — using a midatlantic accent — that can make dialogue difficult to decipher without subtitles. Perhaps blackand-white cinematography isn’t stimulating enough for the modern TikTok doomscroller’s hyperactive mind.

It’s impossible to fathom how a movie made in the 1930s could be relatable in any way to a young adult living in 2024.

Sure, there are definitely boring, unrelatable films from

the early twentieth century. That doesn’t mean there aren’t also boring, unrelatable films from the past five years — “Amsterdam,” for example. Just like modern cinema isn’t homogenous, classic cinema isn’t all the same either.

So many modern film tropes and techniques only exist because these older films effectively executed them first.. The late1990s and early-2000s rom-coms that we all know and love wouldn’t exist without screwballs from the 1930s and 1940s. Did you like the “I’m Just Ken” sequence in “Barbie?” Gene Kelly did the whole dream-dance-sequence with colorful, expansive sets first, almost eighty years ago.

Here’s my pitch: Give these old movies another shot.

I won’t tell you to watch “Citizen Kane.” I promise. Instead, I’m suggesting one film from each Old Hollywood decade that is more accessible to you, the modern viewer. My hope is that

you’ll watch at least one. That’s all I ask. Just one. Oh, and maybe write a Letterboxd review of it afterwards.

“The Apartment” (1960)

This one goes out to all the depressed romantics in the room. Jack Lemmon plays Bud Baxter, a sensitive insurance clerk who lets his coworkers use his apartment as a place to carry out affairs. One night, his boss’s date goes awry, and Baxter is left picking up the pieces — and a romance with none other than Shirley MacLaine.

“The Apartment” is a tragic, romantic and funny film for the ages. I don’t know about you, but I can certainly relate to Baxter’s simultaneous grindset and solitude that director Billy Wilder perfectly encapsulates in this two-hour film. He longs for companionship amidst a city of lovers, and there’s no desire more timeless than that.

“Roman Holiday” (1935)

If “The Apartment” is for the depressed romantics, “Roman Holiday” is for the hopeful romantics. Audrey Hepburn stars as a bored princess who shirks her royal duties for a day to explore Rome with Gregory Peck, who plays an undercover American reporter.

This is probably the most accessible movie on this list. You can see echoes of its fantastical 24-hour romance in more modern titles like “Before Sunrise.” Filmed on location in Italy, this movie is not only charming, but also a nice respite from the look of typical Hollywood studio sets.

“The More the Merrier” (1943)

Set during the WWII housing shortage in Washington D.C., this screwball comedy follows Connie Milligan — played by Jean Arthur — who decides to rent out one of her rooms to a soldier. To her initial frustration, she winds up with two men living in her apartment. But when one of the men tries to set her and the other guy up, she begins to enjoy her living situation more than she

expected.

“The More the Merrier” incorporates all sorts of physical and verbal gags that will keep you entertained for its 104-minute runtime. Not only is it comedic, but it’s also pretty raunchy at times. Despite the production code in place during the filming of this movie, the staircase scene in “The More the Merrier” would probably scandalize audiences today. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but the sexual tension is definitely tangible.

“Bringing Up Baby” (1938)

This film might not be as relatable compared to the other classics on this list because most people haven’t had the experience of caring for a leopard named Baby. “Bringing Up Baby” is literally about Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant running around with a leopard. Quite frankly, there’s really no other way to describe this movie other than a whole bunch of shenanigans ensuing.

This comedy is probably the hardest sell out of the four movies here, as it’s the most stereotypically Old Hollywood. But if you’re less in the mood for a dramatic romance story and more in the mood for a silly comedy with famous actors and witty dialogue, definitely give “Bringing Up Baby” a chance.

There’s a lot that this list is missing. I didn’t mention any musicals, any technicolor films or any noirs. I did try to make this list as accessible as possible while also including some deeper cuts, which meant focusing on tried and true themes: comedy and romance.

Maybe you won’t watch any of these, and while that makes me sad, I hope this list at least inspires you to step out of your film comfort zone in whatever way that may be.

But, maybe you’ll take a chance and watch one or two of the movies on this list. If you do, I hope you’ll realize, as I once did, that classic cinema is a lot more entertaining than you originally thought.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNIKA MORRIS

SPORTS March Madness returns to Boston

Continued from page 1

While “The Garden” as many locals refer to it, hasn’t hosted nearly as many NCAA games as more popular venues like the University of Dayton or Madison Square Garden, it’s exciting to see it make a possible comeback for future March Madness games.

Boston has not hosted a March Madness game since 2018, when Villanova battled out Texas Tech University in the Elite Eight.

Each year, March Madness is a wildly popular tournament, drawing in diverse viewers from around the country and the world. Teams generate a global audience due to having countless, talented international players.

Fan-made brackets specifically are a highlight of this event. Watchers fill out roughly 70 million brackets for the tournament in hopes of winning prize money.

One of the biggest winnings recorded at Bovada Sportsbook was nearly $37,000, just about quadrupling the original bet.

With the rising popularity of

sports betting, these numbers will increase this year.

In 2023, an estimate of 39.2 million people had placed bets in relation to sports within a 12 month span. 71% of sports bettors bet at least once a week, and 20% of that group is betting once a day.

Although local Boston collegiate teams most likely will not be competing, locals as well as people from all over New England will attend that

weekend’s games to get their fix of the tournament’s hype.

But television viewership is still producing strong numbers.

In 2023, the average viewership per game was roughly 8.4 million for just the first round of the men’s tournament.

The final round of 2023’s tournament between The University of Connecticut and San Diego State University had 14.7 million viewers, putting a

ILLUSTRATION BY ANNIKA MORRIS

serious spotlight on the teams participating. However, in the last few years the viewership in the championship round has been declining in recent years.

The significance of March Madness to Boston is the revenue and tourism on the way for local businesses. It is estimated that in some cities in 2024, March Madness games will bring in billions of dollars to the host cities, with revenue coming from sources including hospitality and ticket sales.

This tournament also projects a huge profit for local businesses in hosting cities. In 2021, San Antonio hosted the NCAA women’s March Madness Finals Four, generating $27 million in economic impact.

But there is as much excitement on the court as there is off it.

Unlike most professional sports where a team in the playoffs must win a series to move on to the next round, March Madness is win-or-gohome. One bad game can mean the end of the road for any given team.

Take St. Peter’s College for example. In March 2022, the

small Jesuit school in New Jersey had a historic March Madness run, with many labeling it as the “Cinderella Story” of the tournament. The low-seeded team upset multiple of the expected best and advanced to the later stages of the bracket, to the surprise of many.

St. Peter’s at the time landed the fifteen seed and faced Kentucky, the two seed, in the first round. The team shocked viewers after beating them, but no one expected more until they went on to beat seven seed Murray State University and third seed Purdue University, advancing to the Elite 8.

St. Peters’ ride in the tournament came to a halt when they fell to North Carolina, but their historic run and players like Doug Edert showed that anyone has a chance to win.

That’s why March Madness is one of the best sporting events of the year — the tournament provides a feeling of excitement unlike any other, as fans watch their brackets fall apart and watch in awe as an underdog proves themselves to the world.

Men’s, women’s basketball celebrate senior day with double header against Holy Cross

Continued from page 1

“We’re one of the toughest teams in the league, so that’s what’s going to bring us a long way,” senior wing Anthony Morales said. “We’re not hitting shots? Okay, we’re tough. We’re just going to move on to the next play.”

Despite defeating the Crusaders (9-22, 6-12 PL), the Terriers (1516, 10-8 PL) had to bear down on that toughness in order to prevail.

BU was successful behind the arc early, making 58% of their threes in the first half.

Morales understood that many of the younger players were still getting accustomed to the college game. Coming off an injury and finally finding his footing, Morales noted that the team had to rely more on the underclassmen for some time.

“Especially early on in their career, I knew we were going to have growing pains,” Morales said. “But then I felt everything came together and we were all able to gel together.”

Despite the Terriers’ strong shooting efforts, the Crusaders were dogged in their pursuit.

Still, the Terriers went into the second half with a 53-36 lead, an imposing 17-point lead they would struggle to keep.

Early in the second half, the Crusaders went on an 11-0 run, cutting the BU lead to just four.

Throughout the season, the Terriers have dismantled in the second half, despite strong first

halves.

BU head coach Joe Jones emphasized the need to focus right away after halftime, and that the first four minutes of the second half are critical.

Morales agreed.

“The intensity and the toughness that we’re going to have has to be a lot higher in the second half than it is in the first,” Morales said. “Once we got through that drought, that’s what we realized.”

Up until the finish, both teams exchanged shots and turnovers until the Terriers topped out as victors.

Not only did BU win –– it was Senior Day for Brewster and Morales. While Brewster led in assists and rebounds, Morales had two steals and tallied a game-high 20 points.

“All the best experiences I’ve had and all the best games I’ve been a part of have been when everybody’s making sacrifices,” Brewster said. “I think back on the games I played well and that’s been cool too. But honestly, it’s been winning and doing something with a collective, with the collective’s interests in mind. That’s really what sticks with me.”

Jones also credited his team for being extremely coachable and accountable. They did not fight with him or the other coaches. If they did not do something right, they attacked the problem and got better.

“There’s enough that we’ve

LACROSSE

March 6 at Boston College

March 9 vs Bucknell

done in the last three weeks that gives you a chance to feel like you’ve got a legitimate shot,” Jones said. “Now you’ve got to go get it done. It will be very hard. The first game will be really tough, but at least you feel like you’re in the equation now.”

BU will host a PL quarterfinal game on Thursday and enter the PL tournament as the No. 2 seed.

On the other hand, women’s basketball faced Holy Cross for their penultimate game of the season and their final home regular season game.

The Terriers (18-10, 10-7 PL) honored their three seniors — forward Caitlin Weimar, guard Kelsi Mingo and guard Sophie Beneventine prior to tip-off.

While it looked like the Crusaders (16-12, 10-7 PL) were going to take the win, the Terriers never gave up, erasing a 21-point deficit and coming out victorious with a 66-63 win.

“Those are typically how these games go with them,” BU head coach Melissa Graves said. “It’s such an emotional game. It’s such a big rivalry and such a big history with them. It typically starts off slow and then there’s runs back and forth and a big deficit and it gets close.”

Holy Cross took a dominant lead in the first quarter with help from their strong defense and senior Bronagh Power-Cassidy, who scored 12 out of the team’s first 22 points.

The Terriers found themselves down 12 going into the second

Bottom Line

MEN’S ICE HOCKEY

March 7 at Providence

quarter after only scoring eight points in the first.

The Crusaders continued their hot start into the second quarter, but BU started to find a way back into the game after picking up their defense and with some key shots made by junior guard Alex Giannaros.

While BU made good progress in the third quarter, they couldn’t stop the Crusaders offensively, leaving them down 10 going into the fourth.

With one minute left in the game, freshman guard Inés Monteagudo Pardo connected on her second three of the quarter, cutting the Crusader’s lead to one.

After only leading once after

their first score of the game, Weimar scored an and-one layup, putting the Terriers up by two with 21 seconds left.

After a miss from Holy Cross, the Terriers converted on one of two free throw attempts. A miss on the final possession of the game sealed the deal in the comeback effort.

“I think we talk a lot, and we talked a lot in the huddle and at halftime about staying composed and that’s our theme for the week, composure,” Graves said.

The team will play their last game of the regular season against Colgate on Wednesday at 6 p.m. and will then start PL tournament play.

March 6 at Colgate

March

ZACH SCHWARTZ | DFP PHOTOGRAPHER (From left) Senior guards Kelsi Mingo (3), Sophie Beneventine (40) and senior forward Caitlin Weimar (11) celebrate a point in a game against Lehigh on Wednesday. The Terriers narrowly defeated Holy Cross 66-63 during the senior night doubleheader on Saturday.