THE GATEPOST Framingham State’s award-winning independent student newspaper since 1932
Volume 88 • Issue 8
FSUgatepost.com
November 1, 2019
‘Seeing yourself’ in STEM Week 2019 Embracing the diversity of students in STEM fields By Leighah Beausoleil Asst. News Editor Over 100 events were held by the MetroWest STEM Education Network (MSEN) for the second annual Massachusetts STEM Week beginning Oct. 18. MSEN is “one of nine Regional STEM Networks charged by the Massachusetts STEM Advisory Council to coordinate the implementation of Mass STEM Week 2019,” according to the MSEN website. In an interview, Irene Porro, director at McAuliffe Center for integrated science learning, said FSU is the hub of MSEN and serves as a host for several of the events that take place during STEM Week. “Because [MSEN] is based at FSU, without FSU, [MSEN] couldn’t do its work,” Porro said. The events held during STEM Week focus on areas of celebration, awareness, exploration, and immersion. One of the events held during this year’s STEM Week was the McAuliffe Center’s open house at which the University showcased its 3D replica statue of Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 spacesuit, donated by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Other events held this year include shows at the McAuliffe Center’s planetarium, presentations at the Boston Museum of Science, and activities held at various elementary, middle, and high schools in the MetroWest area. The theme for this year’s STEM Week was, “See Yourself in STEM,” according to the MSEN website. “I was very pleased that this was the theme,” Porro said. “It is very important for two reasons.” She said one reason is to encourage each person in STEM fields, regardless of “historical participation of both your cultural and racial group. “Everyone belongs in STEM if they wish to be a part,” she said. Porro said the second reason is the diversity of STEM disciplines themselves. She said, “We often talk about how you cannot be a scientist or engineer if you’re not creative. “We forget to remind people that,” she added. Porro explained, “There are a lot of different skills that are involved in what we call STEM disciplines or STEM professions.” People can embrace their creative sides within the STEM field through the diversity of jobs that require multiple skills sets, she said. Events at FSU demonstrated the importance of this theme through the diversity of the students involved
See STEM WEEK page 4
Students attend the “Great Gatsby Escape Rooms” in Crocker Hall presented by SUAB Oct. 30.
The bewitching history of Framingham The escape to Salem End By Thomas Maye Opinions Editor
In 1692, Sarah Towne Cloyce stormed out of the sermon in which her sister, Rebecca Towne Nurse, was accused of conspiring with the devil - inevitably putting herself at the mercy of Salem’s witchcraft hysteria. Described as “a model of good Christian behavior” by historian Chadwick Hansen, Nurse made for an unlikely suspect - she was 70 years old, frail, hard of hearing, and, by most contemporary accounts, wellliked by her community. Nurse was hung. No one knows where the elderly woman was buried, according to “Salem’s Witches are Missing,” an article in the Huffington Post. Local folklore alleges Nurse’s son buried her on their family farm, retrieving her body from a mass, unmarked grave, the article said - the truth, though, has been lost to the ages. Life in Puritan New England was a foreign world fraught with death and danger. Suffering from famine, bloody battles, and a culture of repression, the population of Salem was gripped by a collective hysteria. Many innocent people were killed due to the false belief in witchcraft and magic - a grim, sober reality easy to forget in the festive environment
Caroline Gordon / THE GATEPOST
News OBITUARY pg. 3 FRESHMAN ROOM SELECTION pg. 5
of modern Salem. But plotting Cloyce’s escape from a similar fate - or Clayes, or Cloyes, or Bridges, depending on the records you read - you can still trace cautious footsteps across a violent, unforgiving world, from Salem to Framingham. Where history ends and folklore begins, though, has always been difficult to determine - Puritan worldviews, and the ways history were told, were vastly different. Scholars know most of the popular theories about the Witch Trials are inaccurate at best, FSU history professor Maria Bollettino, who teaches a course on the Salem Witch Trials, said in an interview. Though Bollettino specified she is not an expert in Salem studies, she said she was familiar with some of the scholarship concerning the topic in an interview. For example, she said the popular claim the madness was all because of a hallucinogenic trip on ergot - a fungus that grows on rotted barley has been largely discredited. “We look for scientific explanations, excuses” in the current age, she said. She criticized those approaches, calling them “very presentist explanations” that don’t take into account the different beliefs and worldviews held by the Puritans.
See BEWITCHING HISTORY page 10
Opinions
Evan Lee / THE GATEPOST PB & PAY pg. 6 RICH SUCESSFUL AND ANXIOUS pg. 7
Arts & Features
Donald Halsing / THE GATEPOST DEAF AWARENESS pg. 9 ARCADE ARCHIVES pg. 11
Sports MEN’S SOCCER pg. 13 CARLOS’ CALL pg. 14
INSIDE: OP/ED 6 • ARTS & FEATURES 9 • SPORTS 13