November 18, 2022

Linsley Hall may be sold in AY23-24

By Emily Rosenberg Associate Editor

The University may sell Linsley Hall because of declining enrollment and the University’s financial challenges, according to Executive Vice President Dale Hamel.

Hamel said in addition to repurpos ing Linsley Hall, the University will propose raising student fees for Fiscal Year - 4, ending a freeze voted on by the Board of Trustees which kept tu ition and fees level for three academic years.

Hamel said the University’s goal in five years is to have a balanced budget without the use of reserve funds, add ing one of the largest areas where low er enrollment impacts the University is residence halls, as participation in housing is decreasing.

He added the Board of Trustees elected to use a portion of reserves, based on expectations of state fund ing received in the past, over the next five years to help get the University to a balanced budget.

Approximately 4 of undergrad uate students, 1, , participate in housing. This decline in student resi dency has resulted in a loss of revenue of approximately . million, Hamel said.

The University’s “all funds” budget is approximately 17 million for FY , including million in financial aid, Hamel said.

Student revenues make up approx imately 7 of the University’s 1 million operations budget, which pro vides funding for all other financial av enues such as personnel, capital proj ects, utilities, and maintenance.

Hilltop presents ‘CUL-DE-SAC’

Trustees discuss enrollment, DHE Racial Equity Plan

By Sophia Harris News Editor

By Branden LaCroix News Editor

The Board of Trustees discussed an ti-racist strategic plans, enrollment, and fundraising at its Nov. 16 meeting.

cial Equity and how it relates to Fram ingham State.

He emphasized the importance of treating students equitably instead of equally.

“When we do academic policy and educational policy, we assume that we are treating students equally, but that does not mean that we’re treating stu dents equitably,” he said.

Santiago said, “You cannot do ra cial equity work without changing the underlying culture in our institutions. You simply can’t.”

LINSLEY

HALL page 5

One of the reasons for a decrease in resident participation, Hamel said, is See

The meeting featured an array of guest speakers, including Carlos Santi ago, senior advisor to the commission er of the Department for Higher Educa tion (DHE), who spoke about initiatives for the Strategic Plan for Racial Equity the board has prioritized.

Santiago discussed Massachusetts’ public schools’ Strategic Plan for Ra

He added the DHE is in the early stages of creating a 10-year strategic plan for Massachusetts public colleges

Mazmanian Gallery features faculty photography

By Ryan O’Connell Arts & Features Editor

By Kate Norrish Staff Writer

The Mazmanian Gallery held a re ception debuting the exhibition of three faculty members’ photography collections Nov. 15.

The gallery included chosen work from the faculty’s larger projects, and featured subjects such as middle-class American homes, warped tree trunks, and a professor’s daughters.

Robert Alter, an art professor, exhib ited a series of photos titled “Houses Series.” The collection included pho

tographs of “ordinary houses” from all over the United States, which he cap tured while traveling across the coun try.

He said people’s houses represent their identity, and the plain appearanc es of the homes he encountered across America inspired the series.

“They’re just ordinary houses, but they kind of have personality. They kind of express something about people, and how people live,” he said.

He said he began the series sever al years ago, and he’s “always thought that architecture speaks about the hu man condition.” He said houses specif ically, however, always interested him.

Alter said about five years ago, he

spent time photographing skyscrapers across the world, but eventually felt he needed a new subject. He said he decid ed to pursue his interest in houses next, even though he admitted the subject was “kind of boring.” He added, “The houses just kept calling out to me.”

He said when he began the project, he was worried people would find regu lar houses dull. He said he thought no body would be interested in them until his friends convinced him to continue the series.

“I think the thing about them is you have to look at them closely. You have to look at the details, because there’s all these little things that are going on in

Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST

(From back) Emma Brosnan and William Nee (Front from left) Eric Qua and Christina Chinetti performing at Hilltop’s final dress rehearsal of “CUL-DE-SAC” Nov. 16. The final performance will take place in the DPAC Nov. 1 at p.m.

Courtesy of

Gatepost Interview Leah Mudd

Assistant Director for Orientation & Student Experience

By Naidelly Coelho Staff Writer

What is your educational and ca reer background?

I got my bachelor’s degree in psy chology with an emphasis in clinical and counseling from Bellarmine Uni versity. It’s a small private liberal arts university in Louisville, Kentucky. From there, I went to Florida State University and got my master’s degree in higher education. I worked as a graduate as sistant in the Office of New Student and Family Programs - so, really help ing with orientation and orientation leader training in that capacity. And from there, I ended up here, which is really exciting. So, the preferred “FSU,” I would say - I’m sure others would say the same.

What is your job at FSU?

I’m the assistant director for orien tation and student experience. Primar ily I work with new student orientation, which is our first-year students and our transfer students that are incoming into Framingham State - really just getting them adjusted and adapted to our University. For first-year students, specifically, really highlighting what it’s like to be a college student and what that will look like as a Ram. And then for our transfer students, really getting them used to our institution. Just hop ing that people feel welcome and that they can find their place here and that they feel prepared. In addition to that, I also work with some student involve ment pieces. The Student Government Association - I’m the advisor for that, along with the class officers as well. It’s really exciting to kind of get folks into the door with orientation and then kind of see them through and help them get involved while they’re here. That is the very broad type of overview you know. A lot of people at Framingham State wear a lot of different hats. You’ll probably see me helping out, doing a bunch of random other things that maybe don’t have to do with orientation or student involvement. But, I think that one of the really great things about working here and being in a staff role is that I have the ability to not only do my job duties, but also help around campus - not only to help everyone else, but also my profes sional development as well.

Can you tell me a little about your position as the new SGA advisor?

We had some organizational restruc turing at the University as everyone knows. If you don’t, you should read

your email because it’s all in there. Part of my new role was taking on Student Government Association, and I was ac tually really excited about that because I have past student government asso ciation experience. When I was an un dergrad, I was in SGA at my university for all four years. The last two of those, I was student body president. I have a lot of experience, and it’s really nice kind of getting back to that. I’m excited to kind of see it from the advisor perspec tive and really be able to help guide our students in advocating for the rest of the student body and really making sure that that stays the focus.

What are your career goals?

I’m a very big-picture thinker. Ulti mately, I would love to be a president of a university one day - you know, like way down the line. But for now, I really just kind of want to stay in orientation - in first-year experience, whatever that may look like for me, but ultimately, one day, the retirement job would love to be a president of a university for sure. I mean, you know, go big or go home.

Do you have any hobbies?

It’s getting to be winter time, so all my hobbies will be indoors now. But one of the things that I really do like most of the time to decompress is play Sims on

my laptop, which a lot of people think is funny, but I’ve been playing since the desktop days. It’s my comfort game.

Do you have any advice for stu dents?

There are so many things that come to my head. But, a piece of advice that I got from one of my mentors in the past, and that is to take risks when it comes to getting involved. Applying for jobs and applying for internships. And, you know, really letting them tell you “No,” rather than telling yourself “No,” first. I think a lot of times, we have impostor syndrome and we feel like maybe we’re not as qualified for this job or this in ternship or this leadership role on cam pus. And I always like to say it never hurts to try. You may apply on a whim and think that you won’t get it and ul timately do, and that’s really exciting. I always like to say, take risks. Let them tell you no first because I think that you could miss out on a lot of really great opportunities if you let your brain kind of tell you that you wouldn’t be able to get that opportunity, whatever the case may be.

Sunday,

Sunday, Nov. 13 23:30

Monday, Nov. 14 16:13

Sexual Offense FSU Police Department Report Taken

Tuesday, Nov. 15 16:43

RMV Violation Tow FSU Police Department License Plates Retrieved

Courtesy of Leah Mudd

Students express concerns about lighting during Campus Safety Walk

By Naidelly Coelho Staff Writer

Students brought up their concerns about lighting and accessibility during SGA’s biannual Campus Safety Walk Nov. 15.

Student Trustee McKenzie Ward welcomed all students and faculty in attendance. She said the walk is around the campus perimeter and ev eryone who sees an issue can stop and point to the problem.

SGA President Dara Barros said parking lots, including Maynard and Maple lots, don’t have specific arrows pointing in the direction of the traffic flow.

“This was a problem brought up last year and nothing was done about it yet,” Barros said.

Sergeant Harry Singh said, “Maple Lot has a one way street to enter and exit,” but there is nothing painted on the parking lot itself to facilitate car flow.

Meg Nowak Borrego, dean of stu dents, wrote the concern down.

Barros said there is a lack of light ing between the Admissions Office and CASA. She said, “Once lights from the Admissions Office are shut off, it is pitch dark.”

Danny Giard, director of Facilities Operations, said, “The majority of the light coming out is from the inside. … It’s just a matter of wiring issues.”

Ward brought up another issue in front of Peirce Hall. “There is no ramp access in this area,” she said.

“If someone who is in crutches or in a wheelchair is leaving the Athletic Center, they can’t come down toward this area without having to either go through the parking lot and then come around that way,” she said.

Dale Hamel, executive vice presi

dent, said this will be a project request to generate a cost estimate, and “it might take time.

“And to be frank, it probably isn’t going to be cheap,” Hamel said.

SGA Senator Dillon Riley said this area is not Kiwibot accessible.

Barros expressed concern about lighting issues in the street between Crocker Hall and the RAM TRAM. “It is way too dark for students walking late at night,” she said.

SGA SATF Treasurer Sam Houle pointed to a student walking and said they were barely visible. “This is con cerning,” he said.

It was noted by Nowak Borrego.

Between Dwight Hall and the Whit temore Library is very dark, so it would be important to install an emergency blue light box in this area, Barros said.

“I know it’s kind of financially in feasible right now and also you have to think of electricity, but having blue boxes where you can really kind of look around and see one from every direc tion would be very helpful,” Ward said.

Hamel said, “It’s usually easi er where you can get electricity, and again, it’s the kind of thing to put in for a project.”

Ward asked if there are ways of in stalling an emergency blue light box on a lighting pole.

“Potentially, yes,” Giard said.

Houle said nonresidents of certain residence halls can enter any building to access the emergency blue light box.

Singh said the blue lights in front of the buildings’ entrances are emergen cy blue light boxes. “They are newer versions.”

Ward expressed concern about the area in front of Miles Bibb Hall. She said there are lights on the roof, but no light is coming off and “it is very dark.”

Giard said those lights are very old

and outdated, so “they would need to do some research to see what else we can build from it.”

Hamel said hopefully, there will be a way to get those lights fixed.

Houle asked how students could get from the back of Miles Bibb Hall to Salem End Lot if there is no crosswalk for students.

“Especially for students who are in a wheelchair - they’re not going to be able to cross the road safely if they need to,” he said.

Hamel said it’s a city issue.

Houle also expressed his concern about the curb in front of West Hall. “There is no curb cut on that side walk,” he said.

“I know it’s a city issue, but we haven’t gotten any response yet,” he said.

Ward asked who is the new ADA co ordinator on FSU’s campus.

Hamel said currently, there is no specific person, but Human Resources is a great place to bring up concerns about campus safety.

Students expressed concern about Maynard Lot being too dark.

Singh said, “I swear, those lights shut off and come back on. The reason I know that was because when I was at the stairway, I saw it was dark so I put that on my list, and then I was called back there for some other reason and the light was on.”

Ward asked if an emergency blue light box could be added to the middle of the parking lot on the lighting pole.

Nowak Borrego noted that request.

Singh said the University Police De partment recently hired a new parking enforcement officer who will start next week.

Going up the hill from West Hall, Ward said it is very dark when the

Forecast

O’Connor Hall lights are off.

“I know it can be hard because you can’t project light into the street, but I was wondering if there’s any way to kind of light up that area over there without projecting it directly into the sight of cars,” she said.

Giard said they could possibly have some lighting on the side of the street.

Ward pointed out changes have been made since previous Campus Safety Walks.

“Before that Campus Safety Walk, it was really dark between Foster Hall and McCarthy, and now it’s actually really well lit,” she said.

Hamel said the amphitheater is re ally well lit due to concerns raised at a past Campus Safety Walk.

SGA Diversity and Inclusion Officer Erin Gemme expressed concern about the stairs going up to Horace Mann Hall.

“I come there a lot at night, and it’s hard to see where one stair ends. So, it will be really helpful if the yellow lines on that were repainted because that also helps you with people that are vi sually impaired,” they said.

“That’s easy to do,” Giard said.

Ward emphasized the differences made since her freshman year Campus Safety Walk.

“I feel like we’ve cut down on the amount of concerns by at least half,” she said.

The Campus Safety Walk ended with brownies baked by Ward.

[Editor’s Note: McKenzie Ward is Opinions Editor for The Gatepost]

CONNECT WITH NAIDELLY COELHO ncoelho3@student.framingham.edu

Weather

Sunday night Nov. 20

Mostly clear, with a low around 23. W wind around 10 mph.

Monday Nov. 21

Sunny, with a high near 40. SW wind around 10 mph.

Monday night Nov. 21

Mostly clear, with a low around 28. W wind around 10 mph.

Tuesday Nov. 22

Sunny, with a high near 46. W wind around 10 mph.

Tuesday night Nov. 22

Mostly clear, with a low around 29. W wind around 5 mph.

Wednesday Nov. 23

Sunny, with a high near 48. W wind around 10 mph.

Wednesday night Nov. 23

Partly cloudy, with a low around 26. N wind around 5 mph.

Thursday Nov. 25

Mostly sunny, with a high near 39. N wind around 10 mph.

Gatepost Archives

Gatepost Archives

Board of Trustees

and universities focusing on the new undergraduate experience and the strategic plans for support services and racial equity.

“The strategic plan for racial equi ty I believe is what is essential if we’re going to see long-term success in our enrollment, in our admissions and our retention, our graduation, and social mobility in Massachusetts,” he said.

Chair Kevin Foley asked how the trustees can further these goals on ra cial equity for Framingham State and how the board can support the Univer sity.

Santiago said Framingham State is in “good hands” with President Nancy Niemi because she has a “broad expe rience in this area.”

He said, “I think you will have the resources to do some of this [racial eq uity] work in a major way. So we’ll see. So I’m very optimistic about the future for you.”

Mark Nicholas, assistant vice pres ident for institutional strategic plan ning and the chair of the accreditation team, gave an update on the progress of the New England Commission for Higher Education [NECHE] accredita tion process.

The NECHE accreditation review for Framingham State is due in the spring of 4.

According to the NECHE accredi tation website, NECHE is a voluntary, non-governmental membership asso ciation that serves as an institutional accreditor and promotes educational excellence and quality assurance to its member institutions.

NECHE accreditation determines institutional quality, according to the NECHE website.

Nicholas said it is important the Board of Trustees is actively engaged and informed during the NECHE ac creditation process.

He highlighted the “synergy” be tween the work being done by Lorretta Holloway, vice president of Academic Enhancement, with the University’s strategic rebranding and marketing initiatives, and Niemi’s work assessing FSU’s enrollment and retention strat egies.

He said they will be meeting in De cember to continue to work on the “description phase” and then the “ap praisal phase,” with an aim to com plete the first draft of the 1 -page self study by March 1 , .

“We’ll edit the document in the summer and do a vertical integration across the standards to ensure the nar rative and the storyline is built across them,” he added.

“That’s where we will be hoping that over the summer, we’ll do work and then fall of , we will go on the road across campus and have open houses to give feedback to various governance committees and student bodies,” Nich olas said.

He said there will be an opportunity to involve students in the NECHE ac creditation process.

Nicholas said SGA will select a representative to join the Standard 5 Committee, which is the student stan dard.

There are nine standards, which include missions and purposes; plan ning and evaluation; organization and governance; academic programs; stu

dents; teaching, learning, and schol arship; institutional resources; edu cational effectiveness; and integrity, transparency, and public disclosure, according to the NECHE website.

He said the accreditation team is running a qualitative study with four “important” questions to obtain stu dents’ feedback.

Nicholas said the questions are, “How did you define success before you came to campus? How do you de fine success when you are on campus What is FSU doing well with regard to your definition of success What can we do better?”

These questions will help lay the framework for what students’ opinions are of the University.

Nicholas said so far, there has been 1 participation in the survey from undergraduate students and 1 from graduate students.

He said there will also be a job op portunity for a student to design the

unused residence halls, filling vacant staff positions, and continuing to as sess FSU’s enrollment numbers.

Regarding the Fair Share Amend ment, she said, “It is not clear that higher education will receive that money and if so, how much, and so we need to build a case with not just our selves, but with our collective univer sities to make a case for us to get our fair share of the Fair Share. So that’s one piece that will affect our financial health.”

She said FSU will be discussing ideas with the Massachusetts State College Building Authority (MSCBA to find additional ways to use the residence halls.

Niemi said, “We also are working to find qualified people to fill vacant staff positions. And while that might seem an odd piece for a financial health outlook, it is the case that you have to spend resources in order to make re sources. You have to spend money to

months.

Concerning the decline in residence hall occupancy, Ramsbottom said there are 4 students from MassBay Community College staying on cam pus as part of a “partnership.”

She said it’s something “to be ex plored” regarding “alternative uses for housing space.”

Ramsbottom said she and Holloway discussed identifying the “roadblocks” encountered by students.

She said Holloway has been meeting with student groups to discuss “their perspective around the roadblocks to graduation,” adding, “I think hearing that student voice - how are they expe riencing the institution - is important.”

Ramsbottom turned her report over to Jess Mireles, president of JM Partner Solutions, for the University’s strategic enrollment management report.

Mireles gave a presentation de tailing the recommendations she and Mike Marston, executive consultant

NECHE report cover.

Nicholas said when the NECHE ac creditation team comes in 4, some of the questions they will be asking the Board of Trustees are, “Does the board have a clear understanding of the institution’s mission? Are they well-versed in the areas we identify as needing improvement through the self-study process?”

He said the accreditation team will also be looking at the composition of the trustees to see if their diversity is a representation of the public.

They will also be assessing the trust ees’ bylaws, ensuring there are regular meetings scheduled, and reviewing the orientation process for new board members.

Nicholas said the accreditation team will also ask how the board evaluates its own effectiveness as a board and how well the trustees understand their roles as fiduciaries keeping the best in terests of the University in mind.

Niemi discussed an update to the University’s strategic plan in her re port.

She said the University will be “em barking” on the strategic planning ini tiative in the fall of .

It was originally delayed to focus on the NECHE accreditation process.

She said in regard to the funding of the University, four “big-picture” fac tors that contribute to the financial stability of Framingham State are the Fair Share Amendment that was ap proved the previous week, repurposing

make money. And we have lots of areas where we are probably running at skel etal levels to the point where we might hurt our chances of getting financially healthier.”

She said the last aspect will be to continue to assess Framingham State’s enrollment numbers strategically.

Niemi said, “FSU has seen a 6 de cline between fall 1 and with a 4 decline in traditional under graduate enrollment and decline in our graduate and continuing educa tion programs. We intend to stop this and reverse it strategically.”

During the Student Development Committee’s report, Trustee Claire Ramsbottom said 117 students regis tered to vote on campus.

She said, “It’s important to know that institutions of higher ed - Fram ingham State - are engaged in really helping students understand the im portance of voting.”

Ramsbottom said the number of students visiting the Counseling Cen ter is similar to last year, with 676 vis its, including “a slight increase in male and Hispanic” students.

She said there were 14 fewer cases of CO ID-1 reported this year than during the Fall 1 Semester, but added, “It’s always hard to tell” what the actual infection rate is due to self testing.

Ramsbottom said there have been two vaccination clinics on cam pus, which have administered 11 CO ID-1 vaccines over the past six

for JM Partner Solutions, generated during their visit in October.

She said the University has had ap proximately 4, inquiries about the institution, which is 4 more than last year, but added it still is not enough.

She said most of the people inquir ing about FSU “already have affinity and already know about the institu tion, and we need to talk to more peo ple.”

She added as of Nov. 16, 1, 6 stu dents have submitted applications, which “is less than it was last year.”

However, Mireles said her team “feels fairly confident” in their ability to “impact and influence that number for the fall class.”

She said she and her team have worked to “remove barriers” and streamline the process of admitting students, adding 150 students were admitted so far this semester, whereas at this time last year, only 10 students had been admitted.

“We’ve changed processes pretty dramatically to be able to move that needle much farther along the way earlier and faster,” she said.

Mireles said the first focus is to gen erate and nurture demand for Fram ingham State, which is “typically an 1 -month to two-year process.”

She explained usually, institutions work with senior high school students regarding “financial aid workshops and college planning and things like that.”

She said the goal should be to shift

“I think you will have the resources to do some of this [racial equity] work in a major way. So we’ll see. I’m very optimistic about the future for you.”

- Carlos Santiago Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of the Department for Higher Education

Linsley Hall

that “students got used to commuting” during the CO ID-1 pandemic.

He added of undergraduate students now take two or more online courses.

He said before the CO ID-1 pan demic, approximately 6 of under graduate students lived on campus.

Linsley Hall opened in 1 71 and was renovated in . It is the only residence hall on campus featuring air-conditioning. Its capacity is 157 beds and it is also the only residence hall to offer 1 -month housing.

Linsley Hall also houses MassBay Community College students, inter national students, and students who require housing during vacations and summer breaks.

The budget approved in May by the Board of Trustees projected an enroll ment of 65 more students than actu ally enrolled in the fall, Hamel said. Overall, the University has 4 fewer students than in pre-pandemic years.

He added this enrollment decline impacts the University’s budget by approximately $10 million - 1,000 stu dents at $10,000 per student.

Hamel said financing residence halls is “like a mortgage.” Framing ham State works with the Massachu setts State College Building Associa tion (MSCBA) to lease the buildings.

The MSCBA is an organization that provides construction for residence halls, dining halls, and campus centers across the state.

Hamel added in the past couple of years, the University had to “refi nance” payments made to the MSCBA for residence halls such as Miles Bibb and West halls.

This is done two ways, Hamel saida state appropriation or a debt service reserve. A state appropriation is when the University pays the MSCBA with state funds. However, the University has not elected to use state appropri ations.

A debt service reserve is funds the University sets aside from previous years as a guarantee to the MSCBA that the University has at least one year of payment in the budget.

Hamel said the use of debt service reserves brought down interest rates for the residence halls below . At that point, when the bonds were be ing restructured, the University did not need the debt service reserves. “So that has now been freed up so we can use [the debt service reserves] over the next couple of years to fund the defi cit that is being generated in the res idence halls.

“At some point, we need to make some changes to get to a balanced budget without use of those debt ser vice reserve funds,” Hamel said.

Hamel said repurposing Linsley Hall will not only eliminate debt service, but it will also “drive down the oper ating cost” of residence hall services such as heating, electricity, and main tenance.

In the past, the University has sold other properties such as its Franklin Street parking lot to relieve its finan cial burden and consolidate the Uni versity’s space, he said.

Hamel said the University has been “exploring potential public use op tions that could also align with our ac ademic programs, although the associ

ated state agencies have not expressed a desire to actually own and operate facilities” such as Linsley Hall.

He said, for example, the child de velopment labs are located on campus, but Framingham State is not finan cially responsible for them. The goal for Linsley Hall is to find a use for the building that will benefit the Universi ty academically, he said.

He added the University will be pursuing other options in “upcoming discussions” with the MSCBA and the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, the agency that owns the property.

Glenn Cochran, associate dean of students, said about students cur rently participate in 1 -month hous ing in Linsley Hall.

He said enrollment has also been declining at MassBay Community College, which Framingham State has partnered with to provide student housing. This decline has contributed to the lower number of residents.

Increasing financial hardship during the pandemic may also be playing a role in the lower number of students choosing to participate in housing, Cochran said.

Residence Life’s marketing strategy is that it is convenient to live on cam pus. “You are more likely to be able to [reach] a faculty member during their office hours that you might not oth erwise if you had to wait three hours - work, go home, and come back if you are commuting.”

He said Residence Life has been ac tive on social media, and held events during the summer to encourage stu dent interest in living on campus.

He said closing Linsley is about get ting “housing inventory to the right size for our needs as a campus. I think there’s actually some opportunity in it because now we can stop and look at what we can do to configure the spac es that will be most attractive and of interest to the new population that we have.”

He said Residence Life is also ex ploring the option of offering “premi um singles” to accommodate the rising number of students who want to live in double-as-a-single rooms since the pandemic.

Cochran said it has been challeng ing recruiting student desk attendants for the residence halls due to de creased enrollment. Therefore, closing Linsley Hall will result in “one less se curity desk.”

SATF Treasurer Sam Houle, who is ARA of Linsley Hall and a senior histo ry major, said as a student leader who interacts with Linsley Hall residents and uses the 1 -month housing him self, he is concerned as well as curious where the University will house the students who live in the residence hall during vacations and summer breaks.

He said he agrees with the deci sion because of the declining number of resident students, but considering that Linsley Hall is the only residence hall with air conditioning, the Univer sity must take into account students who use 1 -month housing during the transition and find a suitable alterna tive.

“This is their home, not just the col lege that they go to. There is no ‘home’ to go to. This is it. Those are the ones who are going to bear the brunt of this

decision. Making sure that the execu tion is handled properly” is extremely important, he said.

Hamel said a study is underway to see where air conditioning can be most cost-effectively provided in order to support summer residency.

Houle said he would like to see the transition handled in a way that is en vironmentally conscious.

Nina Eldam, a sophomore biology major, said she lived in Linsley Hall during the summer while working as an orientation leader.

She said she didn’t feel comfortable because of the unappealing atmo sphere of the building, adding while the building is air conditioned, it is still one of the hottest buildings on campus because the air conditioning does not work well.

The University should renovate and keep the building because Residence Life needs the beds in case the “[stu dent] population grows,” Eldam said.

Emily Teabo, a senior marketing major, said she thought closing and selling Linsley was a good idea because she lived there as a junior and there were not a lot of people living there with her.

In addition to the possibility of Linsley Hall being sold, the University will also propose raising student fees for FY 4, Hamel said.

“After three years of level fees and trying to address the enrollment issue, there’s just no way that [that a bal anced budget] can be maintained,” he said.

Hamel added Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) mon eys are being used to balance the FY budget, and accommodate for a mil lion deficit.

Hamel said the University froze tu ition and fees to help retention and enrollment. However, with the deficits the University is facing, that is no lon ger feasible.

He said funding from HEERF is what mainly made the tuition and fees freeze possible. With this emergency funding program ending by the end of FY , the University will have to look for other means to help fund opera tions.

“We’re very fortunate that HEERF funding has been able to mitigate much of the deficits the last couple of years, as well as this fiscal year. Be

cause of that, we haven’t needed to ad dress the deficit and basically tap into the reserves as much as we will in the upcoming year,” Hamel said.

He said in terms of balancing the budget, raising student fees is always the last resort, adding the Budget Plan ning Committee runs through various exercises before finalizing decisions.

Hamel added the University will be lobbying for the University’s “fair share” of funds provided by the Fair Share Amendment for a number of reasons, one of them being to mitigate student fees.

The Fair Share Amendment is a bill that passed as a binding referendum during the Nov. election. It taxes in dividuals reporting an income over $1 million an additional 4 . The amend ment is projected to bring in $1.5 bil lion for public transportation and ed ucation.

The University has a proposal for how they will allocate the fair share money if the Massachusetts legislature votes to allocate a portion of it to high er education, Hamel said.

He added the use of reserves will continue to increase if the legislature does not vote to allocate funds from the Fair Share Amendment to higher education and specifically to FSU.

“When costs increase, the funding either has to come from the state or from the student. Of course, the addi tional state funding can cover the in cremental costs of what had been cov ered from the state and from students. We wouldn’t have to raise fees for that second piece - the state basically pick ing up those additional costs,” he said.

Hamel said ironically, the enroll ment decline impacts financial aid in a positive way.

“We’ve been fortunate in many ways over the past few years, that the re duction in student revenues has been made up by increases in financial aid. That just gives you a level of funding while your expenditures continue to grow,” he said.

Hamel said the University’s dis count rate, the amount of institutional revenue that is returned to the Uni versity for financial aid, has increased during the period of lower enrollment.

About 10 years ago, the discount rate was “below 1 ,” Hamel said,

Emma Lyons / THE GATEPOST

A photograph of Linsley Hall taken Nov. 17.

Board of Trustees

to focusing on junior high school stu dents. “We’re driving applications. We’re driving them to complete and send us all their information. We’re trying to get them admitted. … We’re continuing to nurture them to get them to deposit.”

Mireles said her team is “still re cruiting” up to four weeks into the se mester, adding most institutions start ignoring students once a deposit is put down. She explained many students put in deposits to multiple institutions usually “to hold a spot” or “because they genuinely don’t know where they want to go.

“It’s our job as college admissions officers to continue recruiting them all the way through on the right side,” she said.

Mireles said she would rather see a much higher inquiry rate than applica tion rate, explaining most institutions “trying to recruit a class of 700-ish” typically receive , to 4 , in quiries.

She added, “It’s a highly competi tive market that we’re in, especially in the northeast. We have not only a de clining demographic and a declining population of high school graduates, but we have significant competition here.”

She said one area FSU is doing “phe nomenal work” is the “admitted pool” and completion rate. “The team works really hard when somebody applies. They get highly personalized atten tion. And that is above industry norm.”

However, Mireles said FSU is under staffed in admissions. “Admissions are typically the hardest-working people on almost every campus I’ve been to, and you are no exception. You have ad missions counselors at events around the clock every single day of the week, practically working evenings. They are working hard, and we don’t have enough bandwidth to do everything that needs to get done.

“That’s a pretty common theme amongst most institutions,” she add ed.

Mireles said contract employees have been hired to help lessen the ad missions staff’s workload.

She added her team suggests de veloping a “proactive yield and melt strategy.” Yield refers to the number of new students who enroll and attend a university, as opposed to melt, which is students who enroll, but do not at tend.

Mireles said early financial aid awarding and parent engagement “go hand in hand” with this strategy, as well as moving up the timeline for ad mitting students.

She said FSU is holding its second open house event Saturday Nov. 1 , adding about 600 students and parents are expected to attend.

“The campus visit is one of the most predictive analytics - the more stu dents we can get here on campus, the better we will do year over year,” she said.

Mireles added her team is “work ing with an outside partner” to create “personalized financial aid videos” to students and their parents, which walks through and explains all the de tails regarding their financial aid pack ages.

She said they are also planning to make them in Spanish, and make Por tuguese language videos by next year.

“In an ideal world, the admissions counselor would call and have a won derful conversation with every student and parent and walk through that pro cess and help explain the payments and all of their different options,” she said. “We don’t have the bandwidth to do that. Nor could we ever have the bandwidth when you’re working at a larger institution like this.”

Mireles added, “But this is a way for us to have that personalization to scale.”

She said she also met with Eric Gustafson, vice president of Develop ment and Alumni Relations, to discuss alumni relations and engagement.

During the board’s finance report, Trustee Anthony Hubbard said the Fi nance Committee held a joint session Oct. 11, at which “outside auditors for the University” presented an audited financial report for Fiscal Year , which was approved and submitted to the state.

Hubbard said the committee also met Nov. , when Executive ice Pres ident Dale Hamel “reviewed the man agement discussion and analysis that accompany the last year’s financial statements.”

He added his “takeaway” from the meeting was that as one-time funds which “were used to sustain the Uni versity over the last couple of years” run out, the board “will have some interesting, challenging decisions to make.”

Hamel said the University has “been fortunate in terms of funding that has

Linsley Hall

adding the University’s rate is now at .

The reason the University’s discount rate increased is because institutional aid increased by awarding larger finan cial aid packages to a smaller overall student population, Hamel said.

SGA President Dara Barros said level tuition and fees was a “safety net” for students. “The fact that it will be rising is going to affect a lot of students who relied on their bill to stay the same.”

However, she said “enrollment is going down,” and that is affecting the Student Activities Trust Fund, which

provides money to student organiza tions on campus. She said raising stu dent fees will allow the University to have a “lively campus.”

Raising student fees “allows stu dents to be more engaged and as well as have more opportunities on campus because the number of students that we have on campus with enrollment” has significantly impacted the amount of money SGA has been able to al locate to student organizations and events, she said.

Thomas O’Leary, a freshman busi ness management major, said raising student fees will affect students’ deci sions to attend FSU. He said depending

been received,” adding, “Now we have to figure it out from here.”

He added since the Finance Com mittee was looking at the possibility of the Fair Share Amendment passing Nov. , it built a “base case” on the assumption that it wouldn’t pass, but will make alterations based on “what might flow from” the new amendment.

Hubbard put forth a motion to the board to approve a tuition and fee waiver for students in the AmeriCorps program.

AmeriCorps is an independent government organization which “is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects over 70,000 Americans each year in inten sive service to meet community needs in education, the environment, public safety, health, and homeland security,” according to the organization’s web site.

Hamel said there are an estimated students participating in the pro gram. The waiver would be for 7 covering two “practical courses” the students are required to take.

He added the motion was brought to the board because the waiver would be factored into the annual budgeting process.

The motion was passed unanimous ly.

As part of Niemi’s report, Gustafson said the University received “nota ble gifts,” including $60,000 in “un restricted gifts,” $50,000 for student scholarships, a , endowment scholarship for the Danforth Art Mu seum, and , for endowment scholarship funds.

Gustafson said the Commonwealth Endowment Incentive Program is in effect until June , .

He said the state will match of any gifts made to endowment funds.

Gustafson said FSU has “had a re ally busy fall with lots of successful events,” including the Swiacki Chil dren’s Literature Festival and Home coming Weekend, which featured the 50th anniversary of FSU football.

He added upcoming events include the annual Alumni and Friends Winter Celebration Dec. and “a lot of athlet ics events,” including an alumni bas ketball game.

Gustafson said the Alumni Associ ation Board of Directors held its first meeting of the year Oct. . One of its main goals is to support enrollment and work with admissions staff.

He said, “We’ve identified tasks that

they can undertake that are meaning ful and will be helpful to the admis sions team, with more to come.”

Gustafson said grants and sponsor ship programs “to date” have received .174 million in funding for grants with $1.5 million in “applications pending.”

Regarding the Danforth Art Mu seum, Gustafson said there is a new corporate membership program which will “help build more revenue,” as well as “tie into the local business commu nity.”

He said the museum has a “great core group of supporters and patrons,” adding, “We need to expand that” and “get more people from the MetroWest community to come and see what the Danforth has to offer.”

Gustafson added the museum is also looking to grow its art school pro grams.

He said the school “is having a very successful fall,” with 15 classes for adults and 11 for children and teens.

He added the school now has a per manent endowment scholarship fund. “We won’t have to turn anyone away, hopefully, because of an inability to pay,” he said.

The Student-in-the-Spotlight was Joanne Brown. She was nominated by Claudine Guild, who is a visiting lec turer for the Master of Healthcare Ad ministration program.

She is in her second-to-last semes ter in the Master’s of Healthcare Ad ministration Program.

Brown said she decided to sign up for the strategic planning course with Stephen Lemire and “within the first few minutes, I was hooked. It brought to life the things that I was experienc ing in the real world in the workforce. Things started to align. They started to make sense.”

She said, “I’ve been able to take some of the things that I’ve learned in my coursework and apply them, es pecially [when] looking at the flow of patients from our emergency center through the hospital,” Brown said.

“It’s just been a phenomenal expe rience here,” Brown said.

CONNECT WITH SOPHIA HARRIS sharris9@student.framingham.edu

CONNECT WITH BRANDEN LACROIX blacroix@student.framingham.edu

on how much the fees increase, he will have to take out more loans to pay his bill, which he believes to be true for other students, too.

He added affordability was what made him decide to come to FSU over UMass Boston.

He added although the Universi ty is solving its financial problems, “we’re lessening our attraction to fu ture classes of students.”

Olivia Manzue, a graduate student, said “college in and of itself is a finan cial burden on most students.”

She said while it will be difficult to “keep up” with fees when they are raised, “it will be a good thing as long

as it [the allocated money] is some thing that will ultimately benefit the students.”

Jenna Butch, a sophomore fashion design and retail major, said it is un fortunate that fees will increase next year because there are already certain fees that lead to students having to make “cuts in their lives.”

She added in general, “college is ex pensive, but we’re really lucky to have what we have here.”

CONNECT WITH EMILY ROSENBERG erosenberg@student.framingham.edu

THE GATEPOST EDITORIAL

Be the change

More people turned out for the election in Massachusetts this year than was predicted, with approximately 2.5 million ballots counted as of Nov. 9, according to MassLive.

This is approximately 51% of Massachu setts’ registered voters, according to the site.

It is disheartening that nearly half of regis tered voters did not participate in our democ racy, not to mention those who didn’t bother registering in the first place.

While voting is certainly a necessary act, your civic duty is not limited to the collection of another “I voted” sticker.

Civic engagement is about more than just voting. It’s about making changes that will in evitably contribute to developing a common good.

And if the recent election has done any thing, it has shown us how divided our country is.

Many of the races were only won by slim margins, proving that we need to be doing more - even when it is not an election year.

Though voting is one of the most impactful ways to contribute to the common good, the actions you can take prior to elections are just as important in making the changes this coun try needs.

As college students, there are multiple ways we get involved when it comes to civic engage ment.

The first step is becoming properly informed on political figures, issues, and policies.

Social media has never been a reliable source for information, especially with Twitter now allowing users to purchase the blue check mark verification.

However, according to Statista, a study con ducted in February of this year showed 45% of 18- to 34-year-olds receive their news on a daily basis from social media.

As students at Framingham State, we re ceive a free subscription to The New York Times - take advantage of this. Find the link to register under the database section of the library’s website.

The Associated Press is free online, and oth

er news outlets like The Washington Post of ten have deals for subscriptions, making them available at a lower price such as $1 every four weeks.

For those concerned with the reliability of media and bias, take a look at mediabias factcheck.com, a website that shares whether news platforms have any history of bias or re porting of false information.

Local journalism, such as The MetroWest Daily News or The Boston Globe, is also a re liable way to become informed on what’s hap pening not only in the world, but also in your town or city.

The second step is to find opportunities to become involved with local government, in cluding by volunteering time and attending meetings such as those held by the town hall, city council, and school boards.

When well informed on local issues, there are opportunities to contact state legislators and make them aware of what matters most to their constituents.

Even though elections and opportunities to vote on questions are not always happening, legislators continue to work on writing and passing bills that affect us.

As students, we can advocate for policy changes and bring awareness to specific issues. This can be done in a variety of ways, includ ing writing blog posts, sharing on social media, and publishing your opinion in The Gatepost as well as your own local newspaper in the form of an op/ed.

Becoming civically engaged in our commu nities is vital to making positive change, but we need to have the initiative to do so.

Staying informed, participating in local politics, and amplifying our voices are just a few ways we as students can contribute to our communities.

There are so many issues, problems, and challenges communities face on a day-to-day basis - help us find the solutions and imple ment them.

Be a part of the change.

Breaking down admissions barriers

By McKenzie Ward Opinions Editor

I took the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT) last week, for the second time after taking it previously in September 2022.

The LSAT is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) and consists of four sec tions: logical reasoning, analytical reasoning, reading compre hension, and then an experimental section that could be any of the three other categories.

Individuals looking to apply to law schools that are accredit ed by the American Bar Association (ABA) must take the LSAT in order to apply to those schools.

In recent months, the ABA has introduced a proposal that would allow accredited law schools to be test optional.

Many have argued the LSAT requirement should be dropped because it can be seen as a roadblock for those seeking to apply to law school due to the cost of the test prep and the actual test.

Each time that I took the LSAT, it was $215. Most LSAT tu tors are approximately $200 an hour - if not more. LSAT prep courses are a minimum of $99 for access to all of the previ ous LSAT exams through the LSAC, and then these courses will charge their own monthly fee, typically a minimum of $69.

I could barely afford to take the LSAT, and I had to use free resources like Khan Academy and second-hand books to selfstudy for the exam.

The LSAC does provide opportunities for fee waivers, which would eliminate the cost of at minimum one LSAT exam along with other cost-waived LSAC services. However, the eligibility requirements may prove to be a hindrance for some. While I applied for a fee waiver through the LSAC, my application was denied because I am under the age of 24, and my income was based on my parents’.

While I do agree that the LSAT is a roadblock for many stu dents, including myself, as a result of its cost, I disagree with it being eliminated from the requirements for law school ad missions.

The LSAT is an essential part of the law school admissions process because it can be used as a common measuring stick to compare applicants to one another. While each applicant has a GPA, some applicants went to schools where students can receive A-pluses for a final grade. When transcripts that have A-pluses on them are recalculated by the LSAC, these GPAs can sometimes go over the 4.0 scale, which provides these students an advantage over students at universities or colleges that do not award A-pluses.

The bigger problem with the LSAT and, truly, law school ad missions, in general, is the cost.

The LSAT costs $215 to take, and that is before spending money on tutors or prep courses.

Applicants also have to pay $195 for the LSAC’s Credential Assembly Service (CAS), which “simplifies” the admissions process because this is where one’s letters of recommendation, transcripts, and any other document needed to apply to law school are stored before sending them out to the individual law schools.

CAS is essentially the Common App for law school admis sions.

However, before sending your applications, you must pay $45 per school to the LSAC and possibly pay the law school’s application fee, which could range from $50 to $85, depending on the school.

By the time I am finished applying to 12 schools, I will have spent a minimum of $1,200 - without even a guarantee I will be admitted.

So, while I understand that standardized testing is difficult and time-consuming, in the case of law school, it is the one piece of my application that could be easily compared to others if we make the process cheaper.

By eliminating some of the costs associated with applying to law school, doors will open for those who may be discouraged otherwise.

No one’s dreams should ever be crushed because of the cost of reaching them.

Campus Conversations

How do you stay informed about political issues?

By Maddison Behringer and Adrien Gobin, Editorial Staff

“I subscribe to The New York Times and I have the news app on my phone because I don’t watch the news on TV. So I keep up on my phone as much as I can. But it is kind of hard when I don’t have a routine to keep up, so it’s just like every now and then.”

“I see it on TikTok a lot. I feel like that’s the main source. … Facebook, too. You see it a lot on Facebook and like on the news a lot, too, but sometimes, they’re biased. It’s hard.”

“I

“I stay informed by not just focusing on one specific news source. I try to go around, I try to get as much information as I can, and then form my own opinion on that specific subject. Just making sure I have the most knowledge on what I am voting for and basically if there is any political issue out there that I know, I’m on the side that’s actually correct and not the one that’s trying to tell lies. I want to be right.”

-Dillon Riley, sophomore

“I get informed with political issues on Facebook and TikTok and sometimes Instagram.”

-Olivia Copeland, junior

-Jordayn Padilla, freshman

Yadiel Rivera, freshman

stay informed with political news by reading sources online, my teachers, and as well as social media.”

-K-La Vazquez, freshman

“I have The New York Times and I read through it. And I try to stay informed, but also if I read too much I get kind of angry because everyone is so stupid nowadays with it like in terms of politicians.”

-Thomas O’Leary, freshman

“I don’t know because I am politically pretty inactive.”

-Rick Brown, senior

“Instagram or like social media, Facebook, whatever it is. I feel like whatever pops up on my feed.”

Christine

Jean, junior

“I usually talk with my friends or in class. Some of the ones [friends] I have on campus, we talk about political views and stuff like that.”

-Maya Jones, junior

Football wraps up season under Friday night lights against Worcester State

By Danielle Achin Sports Editor

The Rams football team closed their 2022 season with a 21-16 win under the Friday night lights at Bowditch Field against Worcester State Nov. 11.

Both teams and fans in the bleachers would remember the game, not just for the victory over the Lancers on home turf, but for the rainy and cold weather conditions making for a wet showdown.

The Lancers were the first on the board, taking a 6- lead with a -yard rush from Amir Mells for the touchdown at the 7:50 mark.

With : 1 on the clock in the first quarter, Lancers’ kicker Santiago Rodri guez-D’Atri converted a -yard field goal giving Worcester State the - lead.

A few minutes into the second quarter, Rams’ quarterback Noah Leonard completed a 1-yard pass to wide receiver Nicholas Gordon to the six yard line.

This set up the Rams for a 6-yard rush from running back Marcus McBean Jr. to the endzone. An extra point by kicker Matthew Farley made for the -7 score.

A few minutes later, Rams’ wide receiver Jaden Lewis recovered a fumble. Af ter a 10-yard holding penalty against Framingham, running back Devaun Ford rushed 7 yards to the 1 yard line.

Ford then connected with Leonard for the 11-yard touchdown for the Rams. With another extra point by Farley, the Rams led by 14- , taking the lead for good.

After a scoreless third quarter, McBean Jr. opened the fourth quarter with a 4-yard rush to the endzone less than a minute into the final frame.

A touchdown run from McBean Jr. and another completed kick from Farley left the Lancers trailing 1- .

Worcester State managed to add to their score in the very last seconds of the game, but the final margin would remain with the Rams victorious for a 1-16 score.

With a final game season win on home turf, Farley said although they were not so happy with the overall record, the team made leaps in certain areas that will help them move forward for upcoming seasons.

He said, “We could have easily put our heads in the ground and ended the season with a loss, but we made adjustments and were able to send the seniors off with a win in their last game.

“Guys getting in the weight room and watching lots of film will only help us in the long run. We will be back and better,” he added.

McBean Jr. also commented on the team’s season saying they all had to have complete trust in each other to get the job done.

He said, “This season, we faced some tough obstacles as a team but we never gave up on each other. I felt like everyone played together as a team and we all trusted each other to get the job done.”

The Framingham State football team ended their 2022 season with a 5-5 overall record, and 4-4 in the MASCAC Conference.

Men’s basketball commands Blazers in 78-63 victory

By Adam Levine Asst. Sports Editor

The Framingham State Rams’ impressive shooting helped them secure a victory over the Elms College Blazers Nov. 1 .

The Rams shot for 4 .1 on field goal attempts and made seven out of their three-point field goal attempts, shooting for a strong as a team. The Blazers shot .7 from the field and just .7 from beyond the arc, only making two of their three-point field goal attempts.

Just a few minutes after tipoff, with a score of 6-6, the game was tied for the third time. The Rams’ sophomore Ryan England gave Framingahm the lead with the first successful three-point attempt of the night.

After this, the Rams never gave up their lead as they soared to victory.

Despite Framingham’s lead, Elms kept the game close for the next minutes.

With 11:4 left in the first half, Framingham made three of their next four three-point attempts and went on a - scoring run. The Rams were firing on all cylinders and they extended their lead to 14 points.

The Elms’ Jacob Edgardo Cancel scored two points and stopped Framing ham’s run.

The Rams now led 6-14.

With 7: remaining in the first half, Rams sophomore JD Okafor’s stunning performance sparked another Rams’ scoring run. He was fouled on a successful layup and made his free throw attempt, resulting in a momentous three-point play.

Framingham controlled the next four minutes and scored 11 unanswered points, which increased the score to 4 -16.

The Blazers were able to outscore the Rams 7- in the final minutes of the half.

The Rams led the Blazers 4 - . Framingham and Elms began the second half by trading points.

With 7: 4 left in the game and the Blazers losing 64-4 , the Blazers launched a notable - scoring run in less than minutes.

The Rams’ freshman Julius Goines stopped the Blazers’ comeback by capital izing on two free throw shots.

Just seconds after making a free throw, Goines grabbed an offensive re bound and made a layup on the Rams’ second chance opportunity.

After Goines was aggressively fouled on the play, the referee called a double technical foul on Goines and Blazers’ Dominique Threatt.

Goines’ technical foul sent him to the bench after reaching his foul limit. He ended the night with an impressive stat line of 1 points, six rebounds, and four assists.

Elms crept back and decreased the deficit to 11 points with :1 remaining on the clock.

With :47 left in the game, England made his third three-point attempt of the night and increased the score to 71-57 in favor of the Rams.

Both coaches closed out the last 4 seconds of the game by benching their starters and clearing their reserves off of the bench.

Elms outscored Framingham 4 - in the second half, but Framingham’s stellar first half performance helped them obtain a 7 -6 victory.

Okafor played for minutes and led the team by scoring out of Framing ham’s 7 total points. He said, “I am happy I could perform to help my team get the victory.”

The Rams now hold a record of -1 this season. Okafor said, “I really am confident in this team.”

Framingham will travel to face Western New England for a non-conference matchup Nov. 1 .

Leighah Beausoleil / THE GATEPOST Devaun Ford runs the ball at a previous football game.

Wenchell Pierre / THE GATEPOST

Jaleen Carroll shooting from inside the paint against Elms College player.

Designed by Adam Levine, Asst. Sports Editor

ARTS & FEATURES

Jack Lewis recounts his path to local government

By Emma Lyons Arts & Features Editor

State Rep. Jack Lewis (D-Fram ingham/Ashland) visited campus to speak to political science students in the Alumni Room about his career Nov. 14.

Lewis said he grew up in Ohio where his father was a factory work er and his mother was a preschool teacher. He knew from a young age he wanted to find a job where he would be able to help people, but he didn’t have a specific career in mind.

He said he began looking into ca reer opportunities in government when he was in high school because it was “the most logical place to get involved where [he] could bring about policy changes or support candidates that have values I cared about.”

Lewis said he first got involved in election campaigning through volun teering in Tim Hagan’s gubernatorial campaign in 2002.

Hagan was the husband of Lewis’ idol at the time, Kate Mulgrew. “I re member it like it was yesterday - com ing down the stairs for breakfast and my mom reading the paper being like, ‘Yeah, Jack, that lady you’re obsessed with on TV, her husband is running for governor. I bet if you volunteer for his campaign, you’ll get to meet her.’

“I got to meet Kate Mulgrew within a couple of days, and I became a very, very active volunteer,” he said.

Though they ultimately lost, Lew is said he was impressed by how the campaign trusted him to complete tasks as a 16-year-old. “I’d never ex perienced that before - where some body treated me like a real person and expected things from me and then used the things I put together in a productive way.”

His involvement in Hagan’s cam paign shaped his political views. “Tim Hagan was a progressive Democrat and so - while I came to meet Kate Mulgrew - I left with his politics.

“I joke that had he been a conser vative Republican, who knows where my politics would have gone,” he said.

As he was graduating high school, Lewis said the events of 9/11 guided him to an interest in pursuing foreign service work. This led him to attend the University of Utah with majors in political science, Middle Eastern studies, and international studies.

“I was able to explore going to col lege - something that extended family really didn’t have the opportunity to do,” he said.

While in college, Lewis said he studied abroad in Egypt and Morocco and did a volunteer service summer in Ghana.

After graduating, he attended a “very progressive” small seminary, a theological school that prepared stu dents for the ministry, in St. Louis, Missouri.

He was able to study abroad and traveled to India and Venezuela studying liberation theology.

He said it was during this time that he had “finally come out to [himself] as a gay man.”

This caused personal complica

calls from parents of LGBT+ children who had recently come out, and they were looking for help supporting their children.

These conversations led to him creating Out MetroWest, an organiza tion that provides support to LGBT+

office. He had intended to run for city council or the select board, but became interested in running for state representative after Thompson McAndrew announced he was not running for reelection as a state rep resentative.

He said he had several meetings with elected officials he knew to talk about the potential of running for of fice and “all those meetings ended off with the person being like, ‘Oh, no, you’re running.’”

Lewis said he dedicated nine months to his campaign and won the first race by 64 votes in the Democrat ic primary.

Lewis said state representatives are “expected to do and be involved in everything,” but there is an addition al expectation to find areas of interest to actually contribute to.

“I take a lead on some environ mental things, definitely some LGBT issues, animal welfare - that’s prob ably my main portfolio,” he said. He also works as the co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus, which he said was “an honor to be elected by my peers to lead that.”

tions for him as he was “spending all this time in a country where [he] can’t truly be [himself].”

After graduating from seminary school, he said he did a nationwide search for jobs, but struggled finding churches that would hire him due to his sexuality.

He said he spoke to a lot of congre gations that claimed to be progres sive, but brought up uncomfortable questions when they learned he had a husband.

“I had experienced some discrimi

youth, which Lewis said he ran while still keeping his job in the congrega tion.

“The organization got so large that it was, to some extent, as active as a lot of the church programs,” Lewis said. This led to the decision to sepa rate the organization from the church and become a non-profit organiza tion, causing Lewis to leave his job in the congregation to work for the or ganization full time as the executive director.

While still working for Out

He said a lot of his energy is spent managing his colleagues in the House Progressive Caucus and identifying priority bills. He added over the last four years, about 70% of their priority bills have become laws.

Lewis said he also served for two years on a “relatively new” committee on export development. “Its purpose is to help to support Massachusetts’ international exports and trade.”

Lewis said he has also had the op portunity to become involved with international work around human rights, LGBT+ rights, and women’s rights.

He said during the pandemic he had a lot of involvement with inter national governments.

“A lot of the work I do, especially during the pandemic, is not known to my constituents,” Lewis said.

For example, Lewis facilitated conversations to connect doctors in Framingham to doctors from Wu han, China in the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic to speak about what methods were working and which weren’t.

nation in my life, but not to the extent that I felt during that hiring process,” he said.

He found a church in Wellesley that hired him and he served in the con gregation focusing on social justice programs and religious education. He said this “scratched a lot of itches” because he could work with the things he cared the most about.

Within the first few weeks working in the church, Lewis said he received

MetroWest, he said he also became involved in local election campaigns.

He said he always knew he want ed to run for office, but had doubts of pursuing it because of the low chances of winning the election. “Most people who run don’t get elected, so I need a job to do that’s going to be fulfill ing because, even if someday I run for something, I probably can lose.”

In the summer of 2015, Lewis said he decided he was going to run for

“It wasn’t a conversation that any body was looking to see on the front page of a paper - I certainly didn’t post it on social media - but those were vital conversations that folks wanted and I think were helpful,” he said.

Lewis said it is difficult to keep ev eryone happy while working as a state representative. “It’s impossible to keep everyone happy. Even the peo ple who liked me have been irritated with me at least once over the last six years.”

CONNECT WITH EMMA LYONS elyons3@student.framingham.edu

Courtesy of MetroWest Daily News

Nipmuc tribe member speaks about land restoration project

By Ryan O’Connell Arts & Features Editor

Kristen Wyman, a member of the Nipmuc tribe and environmental con servationist and consultant, spoke about the history of the Nipmuc tribe, the difficulties imposed on them by colonial constructs, and a land resto ration project in Millis Nov. 17.

Wyman spoke about the treatment of Native Americans during King Phil ip’s War in the 1600s, and said there was a lot of paranoia among the En glish that “even the friendly Indians” would scout against them.

She said this resulted in the forced removal of Indigenous people to Deer Island in the winter, where only a few survived, and they were forced to stay

there under penalty of death.

Wyman shared how she learned a lot about her culture during her un dergraduate studies at UMass Boston, and it was the only school she applied to because of their Native student or ganization.

She added she credits her family and her education for her success.

“Much of the work I do is also an honor to her, just knowing I’m her daughter, and I too hope my daugh ter will grow to carry on our traditions and continue to teach and organize and keep our culture alive,” she said.

Wyman spoke about the intention al disruption settlement caused to Native communities, and listed the “idea of allotment,” the pressure to become nuclear families, and the di

vision of land into individual parcels as some of the colonial constructs re sponsible for damaging the “common collective.”

She added rematriation represent ed a push back against the separation of Native communities the patriarchy introduced.

“Patriarchy is this idea of power and dominance and controlling, and when we bring in rematriation and matriarchy, it’s really about seeing each and every one of us for the gifts and the purposes that we have in this life,” she said.

She discussed food sovereignty, then agricology, a system of farming meant to combat capitalist exploita tion of the Earth and to counteract the idea of food being treated as a commodity.

“In the process of trying to ‘mas sify’ your crop, or to make it so that you’re feeding everybody, you’re los ing that relationality,” she said.

Wyman added around 70% of our food comes from “peasants” who are working in “oftentimes really bad conditions,” and suffer exploitation from their employers. Many of them are fighting transnational corpora tions to keep them off their land, she said.

She said the conditions for many of these workers are non-organic, with exposure to pesticides and toxins. She added harvesting your own food helps to recognize your humanity and rela tionship to the Earth.

Wyman said she went into gradu ate school with the goal of integrating

Indigenous knowledge into resource management, such as the park sys tem, because she felt the program didn’t accurately represent what Na tive Americans had used the land for.

“They didn’t talk about how our people were probably - before Boston was filled in, that was all marshland - those were where my grandmas and aunties were going to get berriesthat medicine to feed us and keep us healthy,” she said.

Wyman then circled back to the forced relocation of Native Americans to Deer Island, and how even after some of them returned, the land they were given - split into parcels - need ed to be sold to pay off a medical bill or free a relative from what was likely an unjust arrest.

She said even now more traditional landowners, like farmers, are bullied into selling their land, such as an el derly farmer she knows who is fre quently hounded by land developers looking to get rich.

Wyman spoke about the destruc tion large companies can cause to the land and the communities located on it, and said land restoration projects, like the 64-acre farm in Millis recent ly purchased, are how they’re combat ting corporate greed.

“What we’re trying to do is re claim as much as possible,” she said. “It means something … to take that power back and bring the ancestors home.”

CONNECT WITH RYAN O’CONNELL roconnell1@student.framingham.edu

Students discuss historical and contemporary Indigenous issues

By Raena Doty Asst. Arts & Features Editor

As part of a series of events in rec ognition of Native American Heritage Month, the Center for Inclusive Ex cellence held a discussion about the discrimination and exclusion of In digenous Americans Nov. 16.

The discussion, titled “History in the Making,” began with a few words from Eric Nguyen, director of the Cen ter for Inclusive Excellence. First, he began with an acknowledgement that FSU resides on Nipmuc, Massachu sett, Pawtucket, and Agawam land.

“The other thing I want to ac knowledge too is that land acknowl edgement is a collection of words, and that without commitment to ac tion beyond that, the land acknowl edgement itself is fairly meaningless, and so we are committed to thinking about ways in which we can move beyond land acknowledgement,” he said.

The conversation was led by Ab igayle Versackas, a senior history ma jor, Daniela Marquez, a junior history major, and Jonathan Ribeiro, a senior history major.

They started off by discussing the

long history of residential schools across the United States and Canada and how this contributed to the geno cide of Indigenous people and the erasure of Indigenous culture.

They moved onto talking about the ways in which education fails to inform students of the true gravity of the genocide against Indigenous peo ples.

The student panel asked attendees for their personal educational expe riences learning about Indigenous genocide. Several people spoke up, talking about how their schools mis led them on the subject. They only learned the truth in subjects other than history, or the truth had been codified to make it seem more palat able.

“You can’t just code the message that this was genocide because I think in a lot of people’s heads, genocide is organized. … Targeting minorities and actively destroying whole civili zations is a tale as old as time, unfor tunately,” Ribeiro said.

The student panel gave a few re sources for people to continue edu cating themselves on Indigenous her itage, including following Indigenous activists on social media, buying from

and supporting Indigenous business es, and supporting The Indigenous Foundation.

Versackas said there’s a call from some people to change the Framing ham State seal because of the way it portrays Indigenous people. Nguyen clarified the controversy is because the FSU seal is based on the Massa chusetts seal, which has a contro versial depiction of an arm holding a sword above a Native American.

“If we change the seal altogether, then where is the representation?” Nguyen asked. “Can you keep it, but change it in a way that is more rep resentative or more positive? … It’s a lot more nuanced sometimes than you think it is.”

Several people in the room shared media recommendations for positive representation of Indigenous people, including “Anne with an E,” “Skins” (2002), “In Whose Honor?” and an in terview with Natalie Diaz on podcast “Between the Covers.”

Versackas, Marquez, and Ribeiro said they became involved with this discussion because they believe it’s important for people, especially stu dents and young people, to be in formed on these issues.

They are holding a second History in the Making discussion about miss ing and murdered Indigenous women in the Center for Inclusive Excellence Nov. 30.

“My goal for that was to provide more knowledge about this because it is so relevant and is a massive part of our history.” Marquez said the turn out for the event “shows that there are people who care about this topic and want to know more.

“Many people associate Native Americans with the past, when they are very much still here today. Lis tening and learning directly from individuals who have generational connections is extremely important. They are the ones who will welcome others into learning their history and stories, and how we can better sup port them. We are living on their land, and the best thing that we can all do is recognize that, their history, and the trauma they went through,” she said.

CONNECT WITH RAENA DOTY rdoty@student.framingham.edu

Leighah Beausoleil / THE GATEPOST

Kristen Wyman, a member of the Nipmuc Tribe, speaking at an event for Native American Heritage Month Nov. 17.

Mazmanian Gallery

Continued from page 1

the images that are interesting,” he said.

Alter said his favorite house he photographed in the collection is one with a green door and shutters. He said he photographed it in Laramie, Wyoming, where he grew up.

“It’s so poignant. It’s like it’s really trying to be middle class,” he said. He added he felt “the people in there are really trying to hang onto their dream - the American dream.”

Alter added he settled with the word “striving” when describing the imaginary occupants of the houses.

McDowell said the collection is in part a way of coping and processing with the impact her daughter’s illness has had on her and her sister, as well as a recognition of the struggles and difficulties which have resulted from it.

She added the series also com ments on the future of her family. She said since becoming a mother she’s thought about her own childhood a lot, and wonders how her children will think of their own when they are grown up.

“Fears about their future, my daughter who has the medical issueher future, some of those things that

my thought is ‘OK, that’s an import ant part of the story to share,’” she said.

She said she chooses to photograph obsessions in their lives, first explain ing how she would communicate the impact of the infusions her daughter needs by photographing the process or the mark left behind, and then sharing the significance of the toilet seen in one of the photos.

“The toilet is something that, be cause of her disease, we’ve obsessed about,” she said. “And that caused a lot of stress. The title of that one of course is ‘Is there Blood in the Pot ty?’”

she’d shown the tree collection, aside from sharing one or two of the photo graphs individually in years past.

Starobin added she had left “Out on a Limb” a few years ago, but re turned to it after finding some related photos in her archives. She said she enjoys trying to find the right “par ents” for the trees, and groups them by aesthetics rather than species or location.

“They are, in lots of ways, anthro pomorphic. They’re like people,” she said.

She said she has heard people tie the collection to climate change, but she didn’t go into the project thinking

He said the people inside are trying to live a good life - one in line with the American dream - and end up ex pressing that through their homes.

“They’re striving, they’re strug gling, they’re trying to make it, and they’re trying to live the life that they’re ‘supposed to’ - in quoteslive,” he said.

Alter added he saw a lot of hous es which were worse off than the subjects in the “Houses Series,” but didn’t want the collection to focus on people who weren’t achieving the American dream. “It’s failing them, rather than them failing it,” he said.

Ashley McDowell, a professor who teaches in the Art and Music depart ment and the Communication, Me dia, and Performance department, contributed an untitled project doc umenting the impact chronic illness has had on her family.

come up as a mom are some of the things that I’ve been thinking about and exploring,” she said.

McDowell said the collection also represents the connection between her and her daughters. “It’s like me seeing myself in them, or vice versa,” she said. “It’s our story, you know? Our narrative.”

She said she’s been taking photos of her children since they were born, but the collection shown in the gal lery was started within the last year. She added the collection has become more “focused and poignant” over time, but is still ongoing.

McDowell said the subjects she chooses to photograph for the collec tion mostly depend on their impor tance to her family’s story.

“For example, my daughter gets in fusion treatments for ulcerative coli tis, and that is obviously a part of our personal journey with her illness. So

Starobin said since retiring she’s had more time to work on projects such as “Out on a Limb,” but the proj ect isn’t something she sets out to do every day.

“If I go somewhere I bring my cam era, or if I see something that I want to photograph, I’ll go look for it. A lot of those [photos in the collection] were not taken in the United States, so I took them when I was traveling for another reason,” she said.

Starobin said she’s working on an other collection based on her experi ence taking a roots trip to Poland in 2019 with her husband, adult chil dren, and in-laws, which tracked their lives around the continent.

She said this was the first time

about the environment. “I didn’t do that at all. I was just attracted visually to these trees, and how they look like something else,” she said.

Starobin said she was fascinated by the age of trees, some being hundreds of years old and still alive, as well as the way trees which weren’t native to an area stood out against the land scape.

Starobin said the “Out on a Limb” collection has grown to about 30 or 40 photographs since its inception sev eral years ago.

The three faculty members’ pho tography collections will be displayed in the Mazmanian Gallery until Dec. 9.

CONNECT WITH RYAN O’CONNELL roconnell1@student.framingham.edu

CONNECT WITH KATE NORRISH knorrish@student.framingham.edu

Leslie Starobin, a professor emer itus of photography, created “Out on a Limb,” a collection of close-up pho tographs of tree branches and trunks from across the globe.

Wenchell Pierre / THE GATEPOST Shlomo Segev looking at photography pieces by Ashley McDowell displayed in the Mazmanian Gallery Nov. 15.

Wenchell Pierre / THE GATEPOST (Left) Leslie Starobin and Paul Yalowitz discussing Starobin’s photography displayed in the Mazmanian Gallery Nov. 15.

‘Barbarian’ - a boring exercise in horror

By Jack McLaughlin Staff Writer

“Barbarian” tells the story of Tess (Georgina Campbell), who travels to a home she’s renting to find Keith (Bill Skarsgård) also renting. This awkward double-booking results with Tess staying the night with him, which al lows her to accidentally discover the evilness lurking beneath the home.

This is the solo directorial debut of Zach Cregger, and while there are glimpses of a good film in here, it’s dragged down by its average perfor mances and lacking script.

None of the actors stand out in a way that enhances the viewing ex perience. Everyone on screen does a painfully serviceable job telling the story that I feel could have been con veyed to viewers better if this was not a problem.

The one character who stands out is AJ (Justin Long), but not in a way that’s good. His character is perceived as light comic relief, but most of his humor stems from him constantly swearing in response to the grotesque situations the main characters find themselves in.

The film does an excellent job making viewers passionately despise him. At each narrative turn follow ing his introduction, he progressive ly becomes more unlikable with each passing minute of his screen time and that especially stays true during the ending.

Cregger also wrote the film’s script,

which is filled with all of the ques tionable horror tropes viewers have grown increasingly tired of.

The most egregious trope is in the opening scene, where Tess willingly agrees to stay in the home alone with Keith. Keith is constantly raising red flags with potential ulterior motives that Tess ignores after they have po lite small talk for a few minutes.

Another frustrating trope present here are two cops who ignore Tess when she’s requesting help from them after escaping from underneath the home.

It makes sense in the context of the story why the cops would not im mediately believe Tess’ bizarre story about the house. But since it’s been done endlessly in many other mov ies, it comes off as a lazy cop out to explain why no one outside from the main characters would be involved in the story.

Without any notice, the script con stantly tosses the viewer into differ ent settings and characters with no immediate reason.

The two sequences that do this have fun building up the suspense as to why they decided to break off from the main characters to tell the sto ries of these other characters, but it sometimes doesn’t pay off in the way the filmmakers probably wanted it to.

The first one does an excellent job establishing AJ, who is initially per ceived as a fun actor but is then seen trying to minimize a pretty serious sexual assault allegation that eventu

ally sends him to the house.

The second one, a lengthy flash back that takes place in the ’80s, has touches of unique cinematography and a vibrant setting but it ultimately leads to being shown something that viewers are reminded of again later in the main story, which sort of defeats the purpose.

The viewer does not need to have the information repeated to them, es pecially given the disturbing nature behind it. If the sequence later on didn’t emphasize this aspect as much, it would have made this intricate flashback much more meaningful.

Coming back to cinematography, there are some unique choices made when filming, which gave the story more suspense.

A notable moment is when AJ is walking around the tunnels under neath the home and the flashlight he’s holding is constantly losing pow er. The constant flickering of the light made his encounter with the person dwelling in the tunnel much scarier than I would have expected.

The brief moments of anything re motely interesting will not save “Bar barian” from being another lacking horror release this year. The unim pressive writing and directing make for an unfavorable first impression from Zach Cregger, though there are glimpses of his potential throughout.

CONNECT WITH JACK MCLAUGHLIN jmclaughlin7@student.framingham.edu

Rating: CExcruciatingly average

‘One Piece Film: Red’ - a movie worth sea-ing

By Owen Glancy Staff Writer

“One Piece” is often considered one of the most influential anime series of all time, with it still airing nearly 25 years after its debut in 1999. “One Piece Film: Red” is the latest film en try into the franchise, releasing in Ja pan Aug. 6 and finally reaching Amer ican audiences Nov. 4.

The film follows Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates as they attend a concert held by the famous singer Uta, a childhood friend of Luffy’s. Uta’s concert takes place on the island of Elegia, and aside from brief glimpses of other locations, the movie takes place on this one island. This may seem like a downside, but it allows the film to have a faster pace and a more focused narrative. Uta is an excellent new addition to the world of “One Piece” and adds more depth to both Luffy and Shanks’ characters.

Shanks has always been a polariz ing character in “One Piece,” acting as a mentor for Luffy, yet very rare ly appearing in the show or manga at all. Seeing more of him, even if it was mostly through Uta’s flashbacks, was great and his voice actor really shines with the increase in screen time.

While the overall cast may be smaller than the previous film, “One Piece Film: Stampede,” it means that the characters we do get are far more compelling. Law and Bartolomeo are as fun as ever, and the unexpected im portance of Coby and Oven is incred ible.

The animation is inconsistent. During many of the film’s musical numbers and action scenes, it is in credible. However, some action scenes and many moments of tranquility pale in comparison to the show’s steady increase in animation quality.

The action scenes can feel hard to follow, often focusing on flashy animation and characters yelling at tack names rather than a coherent fight. Even the excellently done final confrontation among Uta, Luffy, and Shanks falls into this trap, even if it is emotionally compelling.

Uta being a villain is probably the least surprising twist I’ve seen in a while, but it still works as it occurs early in the film, allowing her some breathing room to be evil. Uta’s pow ers are confusing, but flashy enough to distract the audience from the ob vious plot holes that they cause.

Uta’s musical performances are the most divisive part of the movie among

the fanbase, with many claiming they ruined the film for them. However, these people could not be more wrong.

The songs sung by Ado are excel lent and lend a ton of character de velopment and fun moments to the film. These musical segments also had the best animation in the entire film, making it feel like a music video at times.

While these song numbers are great, they do derail the plot. Many of these songs take nearly five minutes to perform and in a two-hour mov ie, you really start to notice just how much of it is singing.

The film starts off slow, but really finds its stride once Shanks makes his appearance as more and more charac ters show up to stop Uta.

The final confrontation among Uta, Luffy, and Shanks is emotional and memorable. Uta’s hatred for her father Shanks and Luffy’s worship of him offer an interesting dilemma for the audience, letting them choose who they think is in the right.

This moral ambiguity does lose some of its luster when it’s revealed that Uta’s hatred for Shanks spawns from a misunderstanding, but it doesn’t make any of what was dis cussed earlier in the film any less im

pactful.

At the very end of the film, Luffy and Shanks are preparing to take down Uta with a joint attack. It is here that anime-only viewers are spoiled on a major plot point in the manga that has yet to be animated. While it doesn’t take anything away from the film, it still feels weird to see some thing so important spoiled for those who are only watching the anime ad aptation.

“One Piece Film: Red” is a very uneven movie, with lots of ups and downs. However, the highs are some of the highest in “One Piece” history and is a super great time from begin ning to end. Set sail to your local the ater and give “One Piece Film: Red” a watch.

Rating: B

CONNECT WITH OWEN GLANCY oglancy@student.framingham.edu

The best “One Piece” film yet

Courtesy of IMDb

CUL-DE-SAC

Spread by Design and Photo Editor Maddison Behringer

Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST

(Left) Emma Brosnan, William Nee, Eric Qua, Christina Chinetti, and Amelia Bickford performing a scene during the final dress rehearsal of “CUL-DE-SAC” Nov. 16.

Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST

(Back) Emma Brosnan and (Front) William Nee performing during the final dress rehearsal of “CUL-DE-SAC” Nov. 16.

Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST

(Left) Nathan Noel and Amelia Bickford acting during the final dress rehearsal of “CUL-DE-SAC” Nov. 16.

Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST

(Left) Eric Qua and Christina Chinetti embracing during a scene in “CUL-DE-SAC” Nov. 16.

Adrien Gobin / THE GATEPOST Noah Barnes directing the cast of “CUL-DE-SAC” during the final dress rehearsal Nov. 16.