March 19, 2021

The Huntington News March 19, 2021

The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community

@HuntNewsNU

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WOMEN’S HOCKEY WINS FOURTH STRAIGHT HOCKEY EAST CHAMPIONSHIP

By George Barker | News Staff

Photos by Ethan Wayne

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Hockey East First-Team All Star Chloé Aurard and the Huskies skated their way to a 6-2 victory March 6.

Senior goaltender Aerin Frankel was named Cammi Granato Hockey East Co-Player of the Year Award.

The Huskies lifted their fourth-straight Hockey East trophy after their win over Providence in the championship game.

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History has become routine for the Northeastern women’s hockey team, and once again tonight, the Huskies set a new standard for greatness at the historic Matthews Arena. In a 6-2 win over the Providence Friars, Northeastern claimed their fourth straight Hockey East Championship and cemented their senior group as undefeated in the Hockey East playoffs in their four-year careers at Northeastern.

“I told [the seniors] some people go through their whole career and never win one championship, so winning a championship is pretty remarkable, but to win four in a row is usually unheard of. For them to never have lost a Hockey East playoff game is a credit to them as people and as student-athletes,”

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said head coach Dave Flint.

Northeastern (20-1-1, 20-1-1 HEA), who is ranked number one in the nation, is now the third program in Hockey East history to win four consecutive championships, joining UNH and Boston University in the prestigious club.

NU took control early in a contest where they outshot the No. 3 seed Friars (12-7-1, 12-7-1 HEA) 47-31 and got goals from six different skaters to extend their unbeaten streak to 20 games, the longest such streak since the 1988-89 season. The scoring from up and down the lineup comes as a great encouragement to Flint with the national tournament looming.

“That’s what we’ve been doing most of the year, and that’s what we need going down the stretch here into the NCAAs. We’re going to face tough opponents and we’re going to need that depth,” Flint said.

Senior goaltender Aerin Frankel secured tournament MVP honors, an award bolstered by her strong 29 save performance in the championship game, including 13 saves in the first period.

CHAMPIONSHIP, on Page 3

Buttke - Galinkin, running uncontested, want to tranfrom SGA from the inside

By Isaac Stephens News Staff For three years in a row, Student Government Association elections have presented Northeastern students with a binary choice: a single slate of candidates or a vote of no confidence.

This year is no different. But Casey Buttke and Izzy Galinkin, nominated for student body president and executive vice president respectively, say they have a pitch for students who are considering a no-confidence vote. Buttke directed her campaign volunteers to give a simple answer when faced with students who say they don’t like Student Government Association, or SGA: “We don’t either.”

The pair hope to catch students’ attention in the

election, held March 14 to 18 on the Student Hub, with a platform that focuses on collaboration with existing student advocacy groups, responsiveness to student feedback and facilitation of dialogue between students and university administrators.

Buttke is a third-year criminal justice and political science major from Toronto, Canada, who currently serves as SGA’s chief of staff.

She’s also part of Northeastern’s peer tutoring program, a member of Sigma Kappa Omega and a peer mentor for first-year students in the NU Start program.

Galinkin, now SGA’s vice president Photo Courtesy Casey Buttke for academic affairs, is a second-year business administration major from Casey Buttke and Izzy Galinkin are running for SGA president and vice Morristown, N.J. president, respectively.

The News spoke to each can-

didate this weekend about why they’re running, what students can expect from them and how they think SGA leaders should be held accountable. The transcript below has been edited for length, clarity and organization. Each candidate’s answers have been tagged with their initials.

Why are you running? What made you want to do this?

CB: I’ve been chief of staff for two years, and I really missed the advocacy side of SGA. That’s why I got involved in student government to begin with. Chief of staff is definitely very administrative and more process-focused, and I wanted to get back to doing the work that motivated me to join student government in the first place. Beyond that, I have gotten very used to the procedures within SGA, and I’ve developed a lot of problems with the procedures within SGA. I think that there are a lot of things that could be done better Q&A, on Page 2

CAMPUS

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March 19, 2021

Candidates work to engage student body Q&A, from front to use our platform on campus to amplify student activism.

IG: I joined when I was a freshman, my first semester, and I just really loved the idea of advocacy. My main intention in student government is to be able to take the issues and questions that students have and to turn them into initiatives to help them out. I really enjoyed that, and I want to kind of do it on a bigger scale, so when Casey asked me to run with her I was extremely excited for the opportunity.

It seems like the majority of the action items on your platform are oriented to reform the way SGA works and interacts with campus communities, whereas slates in past years have set priorities that have a specific, direct impact on students. Is there a reason you’re aiming your campaign in that direction?

CB: SGA is a platform for student advocacy. That is what it should be.

That is what it was designed to be. I think that right now, that’s not how SGA is functioning. So, as much as there are things that are incredibly important to me in terms of my personal advocacy — like, one thing that comes to mind is I think that communication between mental health resources on campus needs to be improved — the whole core of our platform is ‘Power to the Pack.’ I think that creating the space for more student-initiated advocacy is 10 times more important than any list of projects that Izzy and I could come up with.

IG: If we’re not able to support the students and work with them and have a good working relationship with them, then none of the initiatives are going to get done, and that’s kind of the biggest problem. We think that by starting with that goal of just restructuring SGA so that it can be more supportive of students, then we can really look to get more projects done. We don’t want to present the projects as much as we want students to come to us with projects. There’s so many great student leaders on campus, and we want to hear from them.

Casey, there are some students who worry about your candidacy because of your position as chief of staff under former SGA President Chris Brown, who has been accused on various occasions of racism and misogyny.

What was your relationship with Brown, and how did you handle those questions?

CB: I think it is incredibly important to hold people accountable in your life, whether they’re friends, but especially if they’re co-workers and especially if they’re people who do have a position of power. If you have their listening ears, that is your responsibility to hold them accountable to what they say. One instance comes to mind where there had been a couple discussions among the women in Cabinet where we were realizing that [Brown] was not talking to us the way he was talking to our male counterparts, and I would say that this was even more noticeable with the women of color in Cabinet.

It got to a point where, in [a Cabinet meeting], I just looked at him and I said, ‘Chris, I don’t think you’re aware that you’re doing this, but you need to know the impact that your tone and your words and your behavior are having, because it needs to stop.’

I am very confident in speaking out against people that I work with if I don’t agree with what they’re doing.

In a recent article, The News detailed accusations from students that SGA’s rejection of a community COVID-19 testing referendum was “racist” and “classist.” As a result of their public comments on the issue being circulated on social media, some SGA senators received threats of violence.

Going forward, in situations similar to that, how do you feel you can thread the needle between accountability and safety for SGA senators?

CB: I’m not convinced that there’s going to be a one-size-fits-all solution to things like this. I think it is incredibly important to myself and to Izzy that transparency and accountability is absolutely present within SGA. We are accountable to our constituents.

The press being involved with SGA is something that is of utmost importance. When it comes to Senator safety, I think a lot of factors played into what happened. I think one of them is that people don’t like SGA, so any opportunity to attack senators like that is easy to take up, especially when it’s online. The first step is really encouraging active, lively discussion

with full respect for each other’s opinions and [recognizing] that we all come from different backgrounds and different perspectives and that’s part of debate. And we should be welcoming that, as opposed to creating arguments or things like that.

IG: We don’t want to limit anything that [senators] say, but we do need to educate them. We do want to take steps immediately, and we’ve already been talking about it in [SGA] leadership to have a training program for our new senators to make sure that they understand that everything that they say is public knowledge and information that can be posted in the media. One other thing we wanted to make sure, and this was part of the goal with kind of developing a better relationship with campus media organizations, is that senator’s words aren’t being misconstrued in any way. We do want to make sure that we have a person for that. Our executive director of communications, whoever it might be in the next following years — we want to make sure they have a really good relationship with these media sources.

The reasoning for a lot of students’ mistrust of SGA is that they don’t feel it has enough power to actually get things done. Referendum questions or pieces of legislation will be passed by a large majority, and when they’re brought to the administration, they just don’t do anything about it. Do you have an answer for students who are skeptical as to what SGA is actually able to do?

CB: One of the first things that I want to do if I get elected into office is to have a sit-down with upper level administration at the university, and say, ‘Where’s the disconnect?

Why are these student movements getting ignored?’ SGA makes a lot of concessions procedurally to how the administration wants things done when it comes to referenda specifically. All of those concessions were made by past SGA administrations because there was a promise that those procedures would allow and encourage the administration to take those referenda seriously.

But it’s clear that that isn’t working.

There have been a lot of [pieces of legislation] that have been adjusted because of something someone in administration said, again with the promise of, ‘Oh, well, if you change this wording, then we will back this and we’ll be comfortable with this.’

At a certain point we are not going to keep making these concessions if [administrators are] not holding up [their] end of the bargain.

IG: In the past, it’s been just a conversation between SGA and administration [after students pass a referendum], and then, like you said, nothing really happens from there.

So what we’d like to do is possibly create a position just for referenda involvement. Another thing we’d like to do is invite the authors and supporters of the legislation and the referenda to actually meet with us with [administrators] because we think that will hold the administration more accountable to actually put in these initiatives.

Ted Landsmark’s legacy is more than a photo

By Riley Robinson Projects Editor Ted Landsmark is a man of many “ands” — he is the director of the Myra Kraft Open Classroom and the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy, a Boston Development and Planning Agency board member and former president of the Boston Architectural College. He has a bachelor’s, a master’s and a law degree from Yale, a Ph.D. from Boston College and has taught across the disciplines of public policy, city planning and African American culture.

His varied interests shine on the walls of his home office, which display his collection of banjos, art and historical maps. He’s also on the board of the Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library.

“It’s difficult to wrap your head around the human that is Ted Landsmark, because he is a scholar in the truest sense of the word, and a good human in the truest sense of the words,” said Rebecca Riccio, Director of the Social Impact Lab. “He has such a vast array of academic areas of expertise.”

Despite all his achievements, some people first identify him with a photo taken 45 years ago. He was assaulted outside City Hall by anti-busing protesters when Boston attempted to desegregate public schools.

An image of that moment, “The Soiling of Old Glory,” appeared on the front pages of newspapers across the country and won the 1977 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography.

Landsmark was a young lawyer at the time, working with contractors from marginalized groups to obtain infrastructure deals within the city.

The flagpole narrowly missed his face, but a punch from another demonstrator left him on the ground with a broken nose.

“My initial reaction was to indicate that I wasn’t angry with the young people,” he said. “But I felt that the city needed to address their having been provoked into violence by political leaders who were trying to perpetuate patterns of racism in the city.”

The attack thrust Landsmark into the spotlight — but before and since, he dedicated his career to less-publicized issues of social justice across policy, design and higher education.

“He’s like a Boston legend,” said Hilary Sullivan, director of community service and civic engagement at Northeastern City and Community Engagement. Sullivan collaborates with Landsmark on Northeastern’s Voter Engagement Coalition. “His opinion and advice and thoughts are very sought after.”

Landsmark grew up in Harlem and was raised by a single parent in public housing. He fundraised for Freedom Riders during the Civil Rights movement and participated in the march across Selma and the 1963 March on Washington.

“I would never have gotten to Yale if I hadn’t encountered a young white seminary student who took me under his wing and said, ‘You’re a pretty smart guy, you ought to think about going to Yale,’” Landsmark said. “And I looked at him and said, ‘Yeah. And

I’m going to be an astronaut too.’”

Landsmark was admitted, but spent an extra year at a college prep school in New Hampshire before matriculating in New Haven. He said that experience was an important transition to the culture of elite higher education.

“When I was in college, if you went to an elitist New England school as I did, if you are from the South, or the Midwest, you can often feel very isolated and sometimes diminished by students who look down on you,” Landsmark said. “I was used to dealing with a wide range of white students who might otherwise have looked down on me. And when I got to Yale, I was ready for all of the elitist attitudes that I was likely to encounter.”

He recalled his freshman year roommate, who was from a small city in North Dakota.

“I settled in very comfortably. He went home after Thanksgiving and never returned to Yale, because he felt so isolated from the rest of the culture there,” Landsmark said. “Clearly, today, the same thing happens among students who arrive and who haven’t already been exposed to the Greater Boston academic culture.”

Those lessons stuck with him later in his career, when he transitioned from practicing law to becoming a professor and leader in higher education. Landsmark served as the president of Boston Architectural College, or BAC, from 1997 to 2014. The school credited him for significantly increasing the diversity of its faculty and student body and expanding its scope of degree programs.

In 2006, the American Institute of Architects honored him for his work to make the profession more inclusive of people from marginalized identities. Since then, he has continued to advocate for social justice issues both in and out of the academy.

“We need to have a learning community that recognizes people’s differences, recognizes the ethical responsibilities,” he said. “It is essential that higher education institutions recruit and provide support services for more diverse students … We need to recognize that because the world’s leadership moving forward will be much more diverse than it has been up to now.”

Landsmark was dismissed from BAC in 2014 following institutional financial struggles, but then joined Northeastern’s College of Social Sciences and Humanities, where he is now director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

In 2014, Mayor Marty Walsh appointed him to Boston Planning and Development Agency’s five-member board, which approves all major construction projects in the city. Landsmark said during his time there, the panel has signed off on more than $50 billion in development projects.

At Northeastern, Landsmark is now researching voter wait times in various states in collaboration with other faculty. Last summer the group received a grant from the university to develop the Time To Vote app, which reminds people to vote and collects data on how long they wait in line.

“We’re really excited about using

this technology to support voting rights advocates in their work to promote equitable allocation of electoral resources,” said Shannon Al-Wakeel, managing director of Northeastern’s Center for Public Interest Advocacy and Collaboration. “We want this smartphone app to be able to get really precise data that advocates can use to make their cases, and really identify where the biggest issues are.”

The team rolled out the app in Arizona and North Carolina during the 2020 presidential election, and later the Georgia senate runoffs.

Al-Wakeel said they might also make it available to voters in the Boston mayoral primaries this fall.

Landsmark also supports student-led voter engagement with the Voter Engagement Coalition through mentoring a range of socially-engaged capstone projects.

“Many of our students come from cultures and economic backgrounds where ethnic or racial or gender discrimination exists to a considerable extent, but it’s largely set aside as an issue that students should engage with,” he said. “This is a moment when students have the opportunity to learn from and to engage with people in the United States and elsewhere in the world, around issues of achieving social justice and equality.”

SPORTS

March 19, 2021

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Women’s Hockey are headed to NCAA Tournament CHAMPIONSHIP, from front Her opponent in the opposite crease, senior netminder Sandra Abstreiter, performed admirably as well despite the lopsided score, facing a multitude of NU shots and stopping 41 of them. Redshirt junior forward Maureen Murphy scored the game-winning goal for NU on a second period power play, while senior defender Skylar Fontaine, who earned two points during the night, junior wing Chloé Aurard and junior center Alina Mueller all joined Frankel on the all-tournament team.

“I think it has unified us as a class, and we’re so proud of one another, coming in here and winning freshman year. [It feels] like it was yesterday, winning the first program Hockey East Championship, and I think just since then, we’ve cherished that feeling so much. I think that’s part of the reason why we’ve been able to do it four years in a row,” Frankel said of her senior class’ undefeated status in the Hockey East postseason. “Credit to our coaching staff, because they are a huge part of why we’ve been so successful in the postseason, but our class has been having a pretty special run.”

The victory of the Hockey East championship guarantees NU’s place in the NCAA national tournament starting next weekend, placing NU in the same spot they were last season before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down athletics across the world – knocking on the door of a national championship with more momentum than possibly anyone else in the country, years of playoff experience and success on their side. This year, they also have three top-10 Patty Kazmaier, which is given to the top player in college hockey, nominees. “[A Hockey East Championship] means a lot to them, and it means a lot to me, and to be able to do it four times in a row is amazing. Now, we just got to focus on getting to the NCAAs and doing some damage there. Hockey East Championships are nice, [but] our next goal is Frozen Four and national championship,” Flint said. “I think we have the makings to do it this year. We got a great group and a ton of talent …

The nice thing is we picked up where we left off last year. We ended strong, and I feel like this year with all the uncertainty, we still picked up right

where we were.”

While the 6-2 score creates the impression that Northeastern completely dominated the contest, Flint felt it was close for much of the game, but eventually, Providence’s short bench got too fatigued to keep up with Northeastern. The Friars could only dress 10 forwards and five defensemen due to COVID-19 protocols.

“It affects the way you can forecheck, get on loose pucks, create offense definitely. That’s happened over the last couple games, for sure … Northeastern is a great skating team, so playing at their speed definitely takes some out of you,” said Providence head coach Matt Kelly, who added that around the middle of the second period fatigue really started having an impact. “[You] just try to take as many whistles as you can and live to the next TV timeout to get your breath back.”

Outside of the first two minutes of the first period, Northeastern controlled the puck and hounded Abstreiter with it all period, forcing the German netminder to make 19 saves in the opening 20 minutes, including 16 from NU’s top five skaters and a one-on-zero breakaway shot from Mueller. Abstreiter’s skaters leveraged a quick trigger finger to 13 shots of their own, but not of as high quality as the Huskies opening stanza chances.

While Abstreiter managed to keep the Maine Black Bears blanked for 62 minutes for an overtime shutout win in the semifinals, it took NU just four minutes and seven seconds to get one past her. Senior blueliner Lauren Macinnis snagged a puck near NU’s blueline and banked it off the boards to senior wing Katie Cipra, who has made a name for herself with her flashy and accurate shotmaking abilities. With only one defender to beat to get to Abstreiter’s cage, Cipra used the full length of her stick to keep the puck safe and predictably lobbed a top-shelf backhand into the twine for a 1-0 Husky lead.

“It was a quick transition in the neutral zone, she got a good head of speed and the defenseman got caught outside the dots there, and [Cipra] got inside and got to the net,” Flint said. “I told them pregame, ‘Let’s try to pop one in the first five minutes.’ … So it was nice that we responded so quickly.”

The second period was much more evenly matched, but the Huskies won

the middle stanza anyhow. Senior forward Tessa Ward got NU their first goal of the second period via unconventional means, as she sent more of a dump than a shot toward Absreiter from the blue line; a fairly common hockey play to get set up behind the defense got the puck set up directly behind Providence’s netminder instead though. Ward’s “shot” struck Abstreiter’s stick side post, and since she had come far out in her crease, the puck was able to bank off Abstreiter and into the net for Ward’s sixth goal of the year to give NU a 2-0 lead just under seven minutes into the second period.

Providence kept the game close though, and after an offensive zone faceoff win that followed a long TV timeout of planning, the Friars jumped on the board for just the second time all season against NU. Providence senior blueliner Ariane Julien sent a ripper on net that Frankel was able to save through traffic, but her attempt to send the puck into the corner and prevent a dangerous rebound backfired as the puck deflected from Frankel right to the efficient stick of Providence junior wing Caroline Peterson who sent the puck right in for her eighth goal of the year eight minutes into the second period to push the score to 2-1.

“Obviously, the second goal was a tough one, right? So I think the kids were a little bit stunned,” Kelly said. “[I was] just trying to build them up and get them back … I love the response we had and obviously got a goal real quick, and we started getting our legs going there for a little bit.”

NU got some revenge on the power play five minutes later, courtesy of a goal from former Friar Maureen Murphy. After masterful work on the power play to generate a few dangerous shots on Abstreiter, Murphy finished the job with a snapshot one-timer from her knees in the slot to give the Huskies a 3-1 lead to carry into the final intermission and trigger one of the rowdier celebrations from the Huskies that we’ve seen this season.

“I was so excited for her as everyone else was … She’s just a huge piece of the puzzle that we have. We have so many talented players on our team and just adding her to the mix

is huge for us. She’s such an amazing person, not only a great hockey player, but a great person,” Frankel said.

“So just seeing her get that rewarding goal, especially against a team that she just came from and has played on before, I think just speaks measures to her and her work ethic. She left it all out there.”

Four-on-four hockey to start the final period gave the Huskies’ number four freshman wing Molly Griffin a chance to push the score to 4-1 early in the final stanza for her first non-empty net goal of her Husky career. After receiving a pass from senior defender Brooke Hobson, Arlington native Griffin got a scoring chance quite similar to Cipra’s from earlier and bore down on Abstreiter’s net with a slick wrister that just snuck over Abstreiter’s pad and under her glove two minutes into the third.

Junior forward Miceala Sindoris followed Griffin’s snipe with one of her own four minutes later. Her linemate Ward fought hard for the puck behind Abstreiter’s cage and won it from Providence captain and senior defender Chloe Gonsalves, giving Sindoris a chance to shoot from just a couple feet from Abstreiter.

Sindoris picked her spot and hit it, nailing a short side shot just over the Providence netminder’s shoulder and under the post, one of the smallest windows to break in hockey.

The Friars looked to claw back with a goal of their own with six and a half minutes to go after senior wing Giana Savastano grabbed her first

career goal in what could be her final collegiate game of hockey after acting as an overtime hero against Maine with a critical OT assist. She scored with a deflection of Julien’s shot from the blueline, which gave Julien her second assist of the game.

The comeback effort was shortlived though, as when the Friars emptied their net with just a few minutes to go, Fontaine won a race to a cleared puck and even as Julien forced her to the ice, she was able to backhand the puck into the Friar cage for the Huskies’ sixth and final goal of the game.

The Huskies defeated Robert Morris University March 15 in a physical 5-1 win. For the first time in program history, the No. 1 women’s hockey team has fought their way into the Frozen Four and sit just two wins away from the largest trophy in women’s college hockey.

“I know it’s something a lot of teams had to go through, so I think everyone has that competitive edge on their shoulder this year knowing that they were denied the opportunity to play last year. I think we have that in the back of our head and that feeling in the bittersweet of the Hockey East Championship, but then not being able to compete for the national title, so I think we’re all super motivated,” Frankel said.

“We’re ready to go and we’ll celebrate tonight, but we’re going to get focused on our opponent tomorrow when we find out and get ready for the tournament.”

is a hard feat. Oriyomi has achieved this feat five times this season, most recently in a win against University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“Our team has great chemistry and all three point guards have done a good job of finding me and putting me in a position to score,” Oriyomi said.

One of her three point guards, senior Stella Clark, has seen an incredible change in Oriyomi’s play and fluidity from last season to this season.

“Our connection on the floor gets better every day. Some of my favorite plays are mine and Mide’s backdoor connections because she’ll sneak by and it’s just such a great moment,” Clark said. “I think she’s been doing an amazing job this season especially taking on a bigger role after only having one year under her belt.”

Two of Oriyomi’s best games came early in the season, both against Delaware, who sit on top of the CAA standings. Despite losing both, Oriyomi was consistent in leading the charge and earned her career-high in points with 22.

“I wanted to take advantage of my height, being a tall guard/forward, I have that advantage against the people I go against and I think my rebounding has really improved this year,” Oriyomi said. “My goal is at least five boards a game.”

This goal is definitely on track to being achieved as the Ontario native leads the team in rebounds, having contributed 121 of the 554 that the Huskies have grabbed this season, setting a career-high of 17 in a win against Manhattan College.

“I’ve definitely had to step into more of a leadership role because we are such a young team and being on the floor a lot I’ve definitely had to adjust to that,” Oriyomi said.

The court isn’t the only place that Oriyomi is a leader; she also serves as president of the Northeastern Black Athlete Caucus, or NUBAC, and is a student-athlete representative on the CAA’s United for Change committee.

“We’ve made a lot of progress. We finished our mission statement, are currently working on an anti-discrimination statement and working on every school playing ‘Lift Every Voice’ after the anthem,” Oriyomi said about United for Change. “We’re thinking about what the community needs over the long-term because this isn’t a short-term commitment.”

Photo by Ethan Wayne Frankel holds up the Hockey East trophy after defeating the Friars, 6-2.

Mide Oriyomi: A Hero On and Off the Court

By Niyati Parikh News Staff In a team riddled with upperclassman injuries, one underclassman has stepped up to the plate to fill in the gaps: sophomore forward Mide Oriyomi.

Last season, then-rookie Oriyomi led the class of 2023 in scoring averages and even earned herself CAA Rookie of the Week Jan. 13 2020.

This season, she shattered nearly all of her records and continues to be a key player for the Huskies.

“Mide has been a great steady for us in the last handful of games and I think that’s a position that she’s comfortable being in,” said head coach Kelly Cole. “If Mide can continue being that steady player, it gives her

Photo by Mike Puzzanghera Sophomore forward Mide Oriyomi leads the Huskies this season, breaking multiple personal records. teammates the opportunity to help and contribute around her.”

Given the start-and-stop nature of playing during COVID-19, achieving a double-double, which is when a player reaches double figures in two of the five main statistics, once in the season

CITY

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March 19, 2021

Helpsy’s clothing donation bins save the environment, taxpayer money

By Sydney Steinberg News Correspondent Founded in 2017 by three childhood best friends, Helpsy aims to keep textiles out of landfills to reduce carbon footprints. Last winter, Helpsy won a competition hosted by the city of Boston in which companies submitted proposals for city-wide textile collection programs.

According to the city, textiles make up 7% of solid waste and can be expensive and carbon-heavy to process. Helpsy proposed utilizing both city-wide collection bins and curbside pickups to keep clothes out of landfills, focusing on making clothing donations easy and convenient.

Dan Green, one of Helpsy’s founders, said he and his partners initially started Helpsy because of an entrepreneurial drive, not an interest in waste reduction. However, after buying out and combining a variety of small companies and parts of larger companies to form Helpsy, Green has become deeply passionate about waste reduction.

“I was originally interested in buying a company because I wanted to run a company in what I think of as

the right way,” Green said. “When we stumbled on these clothing collection companies, we really got a sense of their environmental impact.”

After employees collect donated clothing, the majority of textiles are given to thrift stores. Clothes that are unwearable are either turned into cleaning rags or filling used in construction.

“The life of an item of clothing typically ends because the consumer decides to throw it in the trash, it doesn’t typically end because it’s worn out,” Green said.

Boston’s superintendent of waste reduction, Brian Coughlin, said that partnering with Helpsy will save significant taxpayer money as the city will spend less on processing and recycling waste.

“Recycling is not cheap; we’re not getting rebates and credits like we were getting in 2017 and prior to that,” Coughlin said. “So there’s other things we need to come up with and start making some changes to the operation. If we can do that and also be more environmentally aware of what’s going on, that’s a win also.”

While the program’s most immediate impact is the attention given to environmentally-sound waste

management, there are also other widespread benefits.

“It potentially is going to spark economic growth through job creation, and there could be some need for infrastructure for the city as well, which would create more jobs,” Coughlin said.

The project has exceeded expectations in terms of the amount of clothing collected since October.

“We’re getting some really good numbers. Each location on average is producing almost 1,000 pounds per month. That’s far more than I expected it to be as we add locations,” Coughlin said.

Green thinks the pandemic has contributed to the pro-

gram’s unexpected success.

“We are seeing a big increase as people have been stuck at home and are buying more online,” he said. “Online stuff tends to generate more returns and is also more painful to return, so we’re getting a lot of material that people bought online, don’t want anymore and just drop in our bins.”

Community members are taking notice of the clothing donation bins.

“I tell myself I’m going to go to Goodwill, then I drive around with [old clothes and] then dump them at [the Jamaica Plain] bin, so I end up using [Helpsy’s bins],” said South End resident Jessica Amador.

Photo by Sydney Steinberg The Helpsy clothing donation bins in Jamaica Plains offer community members another way — aside from thrift stores and landfills — to dispose of their old clothes.

While some still choose to donate their clothes at second-hand stores such as Goodwill, Savers and the Salvation Army, there is a consensus that the collection bins experience significant traffic. “[The clothing donation bin] has only been there for a few weeks, maybe a month or so, and it seems to be pretty full every time I see it,” said Jamaica Plain resident Pete Papadopoulos.

Helpsy has also been pleasantly surprised by the frequency at which clothing collection bins are visited.

“Some of our bins are busy enough that our drivers will encounter multiple people dropping off clothes while they’re servicing the bins,” Green said.

Green and Coughlin expect to add an option of curbside pickup to the textile donation program in the spring to make it even more accessible for residents. As of late February, Helpsy collected over 100,000 pounds of clothing.

“The overall story is a good story.

It’s not going to the trash dump,” Coughlin said. “It’s not being collected by workers and put in the back of a truck. It’s going to other places and putting other people to work.”

Radical Imagination for Racial Justice aims to support Boston creatives of color

By Julie Sung News Correspondent Although art has long served as a medium for expression and advocacy, artists and creatives of color are often disregarded when considering what racial justice might mean to themselves and their communities in Boston. Radical Imagination for Racial Justice, or RIRJ, a new three-year renewable grant initiative established by the Surdna Foundation’s Thriving Cultures Program, seeks to combat this by providing funds to support creatives of color.

The program aims to fund up to 260 projects around the country, working with a variety of partners, such as organizations that serve Latinx and Indigenous communities, those that seek to address inequalities in the distribution of art grants and local arts nonprofits.

RIRJ’s program coordinator Perpetual Hayfron said that of the 11 partners selected by the Surdna Foundation for this three-year national initiative, the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and the City of Boston’s Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture are the only municipality and higher-education institution to receive this funding. The $1.2 million award has been used to make 10 $1,000 grants and six $40,000 grants to artists using their work to imagine and share their vision for a racially-just Boston.

“A lot of art grants in Boston are awarded to the same group of people,” Hayfron said. “Through this program, we aim to change the artistic landscape in Boston and increase access to this funding in the arts for people of color, specifically.”

Hayfron said that racism experi-

enced by people of color in Boston extends to every sector of society.

“The racism in Boston is disguised in so many oppressive, backhanded practices. We see it in housing, transportation and also within art. Art grant practices are deeply rooted in language that is oppressive and not accessible to people of color,” Hayfron said. “Purposefully and intentionally aiming this grant at ALAANA+ [African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, Native American, etc.] and BIPOC communities is so important because they are often overlooked, and if they are included, they are exploited.”

Lily Xie, one of six artists receiving a $40,000 grant, said the arts have a central role in education; it not only allows people to know, but to also feel what communities are experiencing.

Xie said her project “Washing” is a multimedia art project created alongside four Chinatown residents about the legacy of the two highways in Chinatown.

“At the time [the highways] were built in the ‘50s and ‘60s, they caused a big physical and emotional scar on the neighborhood, displacing so many families and residents [whom] were not given an option about whether they wanted these highways in their neighborhood,” Xie said.

“The project seeks to explain how it feels today to be living near the highways and the side effects such as air pollution, limited space, traffic.”

“Washing” will consist of interviews and videos with residents of Chinatown. The project will culminate in a projection event in Chinatown, Boston June 2021 in the last publicly-owned lot in the area, Parcel R-1.

“In Chinatown, there is always development happening. It is important for people to know what the consequences of development can be,” Xie said. “The highways are a big source of emissions and particles that can cause asthma and cardiovascular disease. The same is true for large apartment buildings that are always being planned. We want to remind people that there are people living in Chinatown and that their lives matter.”

Over 300 applications were reviewed by community-based panels consisting of individuals of color with different backgrounds and ages. Aside from the requirements of being residents of Massachusetts, at least 14 years old and creatives of color who live and/or work in Boston, projects were evaluated for their vision for justice, ability to impact Boston by December 2021 and collaboration with the community.

“The majority of [the community-based panelists] were a huge part of building RIRJ, with our advisory group consisting of people from all over Boston who work in different fields and within the arts,” Hayfron said.

“They were able to tell us what they saw in the city and what they felt was needed when rolling out

RIRJ. We also did this with our Street Team, with our youth.”

The Street Team, comprised of individuals between 14 and 24 years old, was tasked with ensuring young people at least 14 years of age were aware of the opportunity to participate and apply to RIRJ. “Young people are the future,” Hayfron said. “The youth are integral to keeping [RIRJ’s] work going forward. We want to see projects that are cultivated now but that can be sustained in the city 10 years later, because [their work] will become what we also call Boston history.”

The opening celebration for the inaugural cohort of artists was held Jan. 22, and a closing ceremony will be held in December. During this time, grant recipients will be expected to participate in gatherings with

each other to share their projects, cultivate fellowship and discuss racial justice in Boston.

Adobo-Fish-Sauce, consisting of Anthony Febo and Ricky Orng, will use their $40,000 grant to tell the stories of youth in Boston using poetry and cooking, encouraging them to create pieces that honor their cultural identities and promote cross-cultural engagement with their communities.

As this is the pilot year for RIRJ, Hayfron anticipates the program to potentially take different forms in future years. Whether this means reevaluating what another cohort of artists would look like or something entirely different, RIRJ hopes to support Boston’s creatives of color in furthering racial justice now and in the future through their community-collaborated projects.

Photo by Quillan Anderson “Breathe Life 3,” a Roxbury mural by Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, showcases the talent and vision of just one of many Bostonian creatives of color.

CITY

March 19, 2021

Page 5

Fenway Health serves LGBTQ+ students amidst the pandemic

By Gabrielle Hernandez News Staff Content warning: Discussion of suicidal thoughts.

Editor’s note: The Huntington News wants students to know Northeastern University and elsewhere provide mental health resources for students.

• WeCare: wecare@northeastern. edu, 617-373-7591, 226 Curry • University Health and Counseling Services (UHCS): uhcs@northeastern.edu, 617-3732772, Forsyth Building, 1st Floor • 24/7 Mental Health Support: for students by phone (FIND@ Northeastern) – 877-233-9477 (U.S.), 781-457-7777 (international) • Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255 • OptiMindHealth Back Bay: 617-507-1472, 800 Boylston St 16th Floor, Boston, MA 02199 • Network of Care Massachusetts: COVID-19 mental health support The COVID-19 pandemic has taken an irreversible toll on many communities, especially LGBTQ+ youth. People with non-conforming gender identities and sexualities have faced adversity in healthcare systems for decades — Fenway Health is trying to change that, even during a pandemic.

A poll of just under 3,000 UK students conducted by Just Like Us, an educational charity for LGBTQ+ young people, found that 55% of LGBTQ+ respondents worried about their mental health on a daily basis during the early months of the pandemic. Individuals in this community are already at a high risk for mental health issues— a 2016 report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, demonstrated that lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are five times more likely to have attempted suicide than

heterosexual youth in 2015.

During the pandemic, students had to leave their universities and high schools, separating many LGBTQ+ youth from their support networks and forcing them to return to their childhood homes.

“It was very isolating,” said Luc, a nonbinary fifth-year psychology and linguistics combined major. At Northeastern and in Boston, Luc surrounded themselves with queer friends and a queer community.

After the pandemic, they were surrounded by non-LGBTQ+ people — specifically, their parents. Like Luc, many LGBTQ+ students found themselves lost without the support of the friends and community they had at college.

Because of these alarming statistics, heightened by the conditions of the pandemic, organizations like Fenway Health haves tepped up even more to serve the LGBTQ+ community.

Fenway Health is a medical clinic formed in 1971 with the mission of caring for the people in the Fenway neighborhood, the LGBTQ+ community and people living with HIV and AIDS. In the beginning, they served as a clinic for blood pressure checks and STD screenings.

Now, since growing their organization over the last 50 years, they offer family medical, behavioral health, dental and eye care services.

On top of that, they are a research and educational institute for understanding disparities in health care, especially within LGBTQ+ communities. They provide services to homeless youth and those struggling with substance abuse, sex work and street violence. They have achieved their goal of serving the community by being an open and accessible space for all people.

For college students specifically, Fenway Health provides an array of services.

“Like other populations, college students have a broad range of health care needs and Fenway [Health] works hard to address those for our college-age patients,” wrote Chris Viverios, director of communications at Fenway Health, in an email to The News. “Sexual health services, including contraception counseling, addiction recovery & wellness and STI screenings, can be important in some cases, as well as general healthcare, dental and eye care.”

The Northeastern University Student Health Plan, or NUSHP, covers Fenway Health, which is not only of value to all students, but specifically provides an accessible and safe health care location for LGBTQ+ students.

Luc was searching for a new doctor in Boston days before the city and Northeastern shutdown, and they prioritized finding a doctor’s office they would be comfortable in.

“I wanted to make sure I was going somewhere that I knew was going to be really trans-friendly and that I would have an opportunity to talk about potential hormone therapies,” Luc said, seeking out Fenway Health for its reputation. But days later, Luc had to leave Boston for home in the Midwest and cancelled their scheduled in-person appointment.

At the onset of the pandemic, Fenway Health had to make some quick changes, just like institutions across the world.

“Patients still need the same care and services as before the pandemic, but now there is the added issue of stress and isolation affecting many people,” Viverios wrote. “Initially, we had to scale back in-person services so we quickly made the pivot to telehealth.”

The switch to telehealth proved advantageous for Fenway Health — they now offer care to patients in 27 states outside of Massachusetts.

As many Boston healthcare

Photo by Harriet Rovniak Even during a pandemic, Fenway Health provides comprehensive care for many college students, LGBTQ+ community members and homeless youth. organizations received the proper PPE and supplies to reopen, Fenway Health restored on-site services, but many patients were still being seen through telehealth services.

Their quick turnaround during the pandemic was necessary — their services and reputation are unique in a country where discrimmination against LGBTQ+ people in healthcare is still alive and well.

Many recently inaugurated state legislators have proposed antitrans health care bills that include punishing doctors with fines and jailtime for making “best practice,” transition-related suggestions to transgender youth. On March 3, the “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act” passed in the Alabama state Senate by a landslide, prohibiting gender-affirming treatments for trans youth and criminalizing teachers that do not disclose to parents if their child is considering a gender identity change.

Fenway Health exists in opposition to these restrictive healthcare measures. On Twitter, they promote transgender health care and legislation that seeks to support the LGBTQ+ community,

The dark states on this map are the places where legislators have introduced anti-transgender bills regarding school sports in 2021.

rather than restrict and degrade it.

In March, state representatives in Massachusetts filed a bill, “An Act Relative to HIV Prevention Access for Young Adults.” If passed, it would allow healthcare providers to prescribe Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug that reduces the risk of HIV infection, as well as treatment for HIV to minors without parental consent. Fenway Health endorsed this legislation, aligning with their mission of providing healthcare to LGBTQ+ youth.

“Knowing about a place like Fenway Health and the existence of a place like Fenway Health is really cool and exciting to me because I’ve been trying to find trans-friendly healthcare providers in the Midwest and it has not been going well,” Luc said. “I’ve been looking for like six months.”

Fenway Health’s motto, “Healthcare is a Right, Not a Privilege,” echos their dedication to the marginalized LGBTQ+ community, pandemic or not.

Graphic by Jayden Khatib

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Page 6

March 19, 2021

Women in STEM at Northeastern perseve through male-dominated classes, fields

By Cathy Ching News Correspondent Despite the rapid growth of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines across universities nationwide, the percentage of female students in these majors has only grown 1% since 2015 — from 25% to 26%.

To address this disparity, Northeastern has created several programs focused on diversity and inclusion, such as the Women in Engineering Program, or WIE. In hopes of increasing the percentage of women in STEM, WIE offers resources to female engineering students to promote success.

Despite the university’s efforts, female STEM majors at Northeastern still find themselves in classes filled

with male students.

Erica Moore, a first-year bioengineering major, estimated that female students only made up about one-fourth to one-third of each of her STEM-focused classes. Although Moore said she feels lucky to not have experienced any explicit verbal discrimination or sexism, she recalls her male classmates taking charge more than the females in group projects.

“Girls have to work harder to have a leadership position or make their voices heard,” Moore said.

Moore was sure she wanted to major in humanities until she changed her mind at the end of her junior year of high school. Although she liked science, it was a big change for her to adjust from humanities-focused classes to STEM-focused classes. She said that her desire for more female representation in STEM has

inspired her to persevere in the field.

“I know the culture around being in engineering is that it’s very hard to succeed as a woman,” Moore said. “If I succeed in this career and [become] a woman in STEM, that would be [more] representation for younger girls in the future.”

Sreya Katabathuni, a second-year computer science and business administration combined major, agrees with the need for representation of women in STEM. Originally going into college as a business administration major, Katabathuni said she experienced imposter syndrome when she added the male-dominated computer science major in the summer before her second year.

“I think there might be this notion that because I’m not doing full [computer science], I’m not as competent as people who are doing the straight

[computer science] major,” Katabathuni said.

Along with female representation in STEM, Katabathuni also emphasizes the need for more representation of people of color in STEM. She recognizes that there is a low growth rate for people of color to progress further into high tech roles, thus building a sense of suppression in the “Caucasian-focused” field.

In 2015, the National Center for Education Statistics reported low percentages of women of color receiving STEM degrees from higher education institutions. Only 5% of Asian women, 3.8% of Latinas and 2.9% of Black women received these degrees. Other studies found that 45% of women in STEM leave their jobs after feeling both underpaid and underrepresented.

Although it is challenging to be a

woman in STEM, some students say that the classes are rewarding. Kelly Choate, a first-year computer engineering major, finds the course load to be heavy but interesting.

“I genuinely enjoy engineering,” Choate said. “When I go ‘what homework do I want to do first,’ I usually go to the math and sciences.”

Many attribute quality professors to their love for STEM classes.

Moore admires Professor Otonye Braide-Moncoeur, her chemistry professor for the fall semester.

Working with young girls, Professor Braide is able to offer more female representation in STEM, Moore said.

Even though the classes and professors at Northeastern inspire female STEM majors to keep going, there is still a disproportionate amount of male and female students in STEM. Tasmiha Amir, a first-year

CCEELLEEBBRRAATTEE

WOMEN’S HIST

AN

Photo courtesy Searchlight Pictures Linda May and Frances McDormand in the film “NOMADLAND.” © 2020 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

As Women’s History Month wraps up, I collected a list of six films directed by women that deserve the attention their male counterparts received. This list doesn’t focus on a particular genre or release date in the hopes of presenting a well-rounded collection. I found it particularly difficult to curate such a small list from the many amazing women in film, but these are some of my favorites.

“Cléo de 5 à 7,” Agnès Varda On the surface, “Cléo de 5 à 7” is about a woman accepting her mortality, but upon closer inspection, the film digs into how 1960s

French society treated women. The film follows burgeoning singer Cléo (Corinne Marchand) from literally 5 to 7 p.m. as she waits for lab results that will confirm if she has cancer.

The people surrounding Cléo belittle her worries and seem to be taking advantage of her talent. Varda crafts technically beautiful shots, using mirrors throughout the film to examine Cléo’s self-obsession.

Varda was a rarity as one of the only women behind the camera during the French New Wave movement. Her films blur the line between fact and fiction, creating a unique critique of society. Varda’s contributions to the

art of cinema are immeasurable, and a list of historic women filmmakers is incomplete without her.

“Cléo de 5 à 7” is available to stream on HBO Max and Criterion Channel.

“Lingua Franca,” Isabel Sandoval “Lingua Franca” follows Olivia (Isabel Sandoval) as she takes care of others while her country fails to care for her. Olivia is a caregiver, a lover, an immigrant, Filipina, a transgender woman — all of these identities collide to create a sublime story. Sandoval is a total powerhouse: acting, directing, producing, writing

and editing this film herself. Her touch breathes so much life into this personal epic and features women who are often marked invisible.

Sandoval made history in 2019 as the first transgender woman of color to direct and star in a film competing at the Venice Film Festival. Ava Duvernay’s ARRAY later acquired and released the film.

“Lingua Franca” is available to stream on Netflix.

“The Watermelon Woman,” Cheryl Dunye Cheryl spends her days working at a video store with her friend Tamara.

During her time off, she creates a documentary about a woman who was erased from history — a 1930s actress credited only as “The Watermelon Woman.” She digs through archives and interviews people who may have known the elusive woman, hoping to reconstruct her story. This historical investigation lends itself to a film that is part narrative, part pseudo-documentary. The film is not only a time capsule of what it was like to be a Black lesbian in the 90s but also is a solid romantic comedy-drama.

“The Watermelon Woman” made history as the first narrative film to be released by an out Black lesbian.

March 19, 2021

ere

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH

Page 7

Photo by Harriet Rovniak To address the gender disparity in STEM courses, Northeastern has created programs such as the Women in Engineering Program, or WIE.

computer engineering and computer science combined major, thinks this is because the stereotype of a male-dominated field drives females away from pursuing a career in STEM. “I think many young women are discouraged by what they hear about it and going into a major knowing it’s almost all men is not the most inviting feeling,” Amir said.

Despite the hesitation of female students joining STEM majors, Katabathuni expressed hope for a more diverse future in STEM. “For me, I had no experience in CS and I didn’t think I would like STEM but I ended up persevering,” Katabathuni said. “At the end of the day, it never hurts to try. Finding something new [and] seeing if you like it is the best way to determine if it’s what you want to do in life.”

TORY MONTH

WITH FILM S DIREC TED BY N D S TA R R I N G W O M E N

By Natalie Duerr | News Staff

In 93 years of the Academy Awards, only ONE woman has won best director and only seven have been nominated. In 2021, the Academy recognized more than one woman in the best director category for the first time ever, nominating both Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell.

Only about 1.5 in 10 film directors are women, and women of color’s share is even lower.

Hollywood has effectively silenced the perspective and gaze of over 50% of the world’s population. While behind-the-camera representation is out of sight, it must not be out of mind.

The film also dissects how an excluded past can continue to haunt us in the future, highlighting that Black women, especially Black lesbians, have been struck from historical records and archives.

“The Watermelon Woman” is available to stream on Showtime and Kanopy.

“We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Lynne Ramsay If you like thrillers, “We Need to Talk About Kevin” is a must-watch.

The film stars Tilda Swinton as Eva, a woman experiencing a mother’s worst fear — not being able to

connect with her child. Ramsay’s non-linear storytelling creates intense suspense that will have you trying to connect the dots before the film concludes. The distinctive narrative forces the viewer to contend with Eva’s treatment — is it right to place all the blame on the mother for the destruction her child caused?

“We Need to Talk About Kevin” is available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi.

“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao Zhao has the gift of explorative empathy. You walk away from her films with more kindness for your

fellow humans. “Nomadland” centers on a group of people who live off the grid and find their own path forward post the 2008 financial crash. The film follows Fern (Frances McDormand) as she travels in her van across the Midwest, making friends and finding jobs along the way. Fern’s journey is one of self-discovery, reminding the viewer it is never too late to be a new version of ourselves.

Zhao made history this year as the first Asian woman to win Best Director at the Golden Globes. She also became the second woman ever to win the award. In addition, Zhao was nominated for best director at the

93rd Academy Awards and became the first woman of color recognized in the category.

“Nomadland” is available to stream on Hulu.

“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig When I initially saw “Lady Bird,” it was the first time I left a movie theater feeling like a film understood me. Now, it is a film I watch at least once a year. “Lady Bird” is a compassionate coming-of-age tale and marked Greta Gerwig’s solo directorial debut. The film follows Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) through her senior year of

high school. Lady Bird isn’t perfect, yet that’s what makes this story feel so genuine. She’ll say cruel things without realizing the weight of them, hurting those who are just trying to help. “Lady Bird” is a journey about growing past our apathetic teenage tendencies. The film clearly comes from Gerwig’s personal experience and is soaked in tender care for forgiving our past selves.

“Lady Bird” is available to stream on Netflix.

LIFESTYLE

Page 8

Calendar compiled by Clara McCourt and Rachel Erwin Graphics by Marta Hill

Ongoing Boston Women’s Trail Tour Take a self-guided walking tour of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail. There are multiple options in different Boston locations, such as Back Bay, Beacon Hill and Chinatown.

Online registration, Free

Now - March 31 Phenomenal Women in Art This virtual exhibit counters the male-dominated narrative in art history, showcasing the work of female artists and artists of color.

Online, Free

Saturday, March 20 ICA Reopens After being closed for a few months due to COVID-19, the Institute of Contemporary Art is reopening to the public. Timed tickets are required and are available for purchase now.

ICA Boston, $10 for students

March 19, 2021

CHAARG empowers students to take charge of their wellness

By Gwen Egan News Correspondent Changing Health, Attitudes, + Actions To Recreate Girls, or CHAARG, is a women’s fitness group that recruited 120 members in its first semester at Northeastern. The student organization hosts weekly workouts (some in-person, some virtual) and small group events as well as a biweekly running group.

According to the national organization, its central mission statement is to “liberate girls from the elliptical” and show women that fitness is something that can be enjoyable.

CHAARG started at The Ohio State University in 2012. There are now 105 chapters of CHAARG across the country, with the NU chapter joining its ranks in the fall of 2019, started by Avery Collard, a third-year psychology major and lifelong athlete.

“When I came to Northeastern, I was coming out of being a twosport varsity athlete in high school,” Collard said. “I had always had a really strong athletic community around me, and that’s kind of how I structured my life.”

But when she arrived at NU, she found there wasn’t a group that could replace the kind of kinship she felt with her teammates. She had joined a club sports team and a sorority but couldn’t find her community — until she stumbled upon CHAARG. “It looked like a fitness sorority for lack of a better word; essentially it was a community at college campuses all across the country geared toward empowering women to find their fit,” she said. “That essentially means finding what makes them happy and healthy in their own body and for their mind.”

Upon founding the NU chapter, she took part in a nine-week training program through the national CHAARG organization, which assisted her in finding her group for the executive board. As of spring 2021,

CHAARG at NU currently has 175 members. CHAARG representatives said they welcome people of all gender identities to join if they’re interested in finding their fit.

Collard explained the cost is $52 per semester where $42 goes to the national chapter of CHAARG and $10 goes to the NU chapter. Furthermore, if a prospective member cannot pay the amount, CHAARG has a “wellness/accessibility fund” that students can apply for. The national organization handles all these transactions and applications.

Audrey Murdock, a third-year international relations major, attended the most CHAARG events last month out of all its members. When talking about her experience joining the organization, she said she initially joined for the cost-efficiency.

“I joined because it’s a deal, and I stayed because of the people,” she said. “It’s also obviously proven working out in college and just having a supportive community and healthy lifestyle really just helps in all sorts of aspects.”

Murdock found herself willing to be bolder and stand up for herself in her personal life after drawing inspiration from members like Collard, she said.

“It’s definitely empowering just to be surrounded by a strong female community,” Murdock said. “It’s navigating not only the problems that you face in college, but as a woman and having people [be] your support group through everything.”

Nicole Victory, a second-year business administration major, considered joining CHAARG but found herself both too busy and wanting to make her workouts more personalized.

“So far I’ve tried to make my workout schedules for myself and sometimes it’s hard for me to commit to, on a

weekly basis, at this day, at this time, you’re going to be doing this workout — because I need a lot of flexibility with my workouts,” Victory said.

CHAARG also utilizes social media to normalize talking about fitness in a way that doesn’t include harmful messages about women’s bodies. Every member is encouraged to use the hashtag #neuCHAARG or create their own CHAARG Instagram account to document their journey with fitness.

“You can scroll through and see everyone’s personal blog about their health and wellness journey and how they’re feeling — which is a great way to kind of connect with people,” Collard said.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, CHAARG has run workouts online, which allowed all members to attend virtually. They also facilitated small group workouts outdoors with visiting instructors from local studios for their weekly meetings.

As COVID-19 vaccinations roll out across the country, CHAARG will be able to accommodate more members in studios for their weekly workouts. Collard said she’s specifically excited to get all her members crammed into a spin class studio, sweating it out together.

Nicole Abbatine, a second-year biology major and vice president of membership at CHAARG, said she is looking forward to how CHAARG will change in the coming semesters and how their community will be able to grow even more at NU. “We’re going to be able to have higher capacity at studios, which means we’re going to be able to take in a lot more members,” Abbatine said. “Right now, it is very restricted ... that capacity will greatly increase, which is going to be even better because we’re going to have more things for people to take part in.”

I joined because it’s a deal, and I stayed because of the people.

It’s also obviously proven working out in college and just having a supportive community and healthy lifestyle really just helps in all sorts of aspects.

— Audrey Murdock CHAARG member

March 21 - 27 Northeastern Wellness Week Join various Northeastern organizations for a week of self-care and wellness. Featured activities include a game night, a sexual health pop-up, a yoga session and more.

Online and on campus, Free

Thursday, March 25 Author Q&A with Heather Clark Join Heather Clark, author of “Red Comet: the Short Life and Blazing Path of Sylvia Plath,” in a Q&A about the life of the prolific female poet.

Online, Free

CHAARG at Northeastern hosts weekly workouts and wellness activities.

Photo courtesy CHAARG

LIFESTYLE

March 19, 2021

Page 9

Second-year Debby Nguyen publishes book on traditional medicine worldwide

By Kelly Chan News Staff Craving Vietnamese food during quarantine, second-year PharmD student Debby Nguyen began shopping for groceries in Chinatown on a weekly basis. Yet it was never the food that caught her eye.

As she shopped, she found herself entranced by a pharmacy counter inside the market, which caused a rush of nostalgia. She was engulfed by childhood memories of helping her late grandfather package powders and pills for his pharmaceutical patients back home in Vietnam.

These moments sparked her curiosity for traditional Vietnamese medicine, as she said she felt a “strong call to home and understanding [her] family history.” She began to research practices among other cultures and learn about medicine across the globe directly from experts.

This marked the beginning of her journey writing her book, “Pills, Teas, and Songs: Stories of Medicine Around the World.”

“It’s not as much about the scientific side of medicine as it is about the cultural side and how people really interact with these practices,” she said. “I’m curious about how history, culture and politics shape how people view and approach medicine.”

Nguyen was also intrigued by how different forms of cultural, tradi-

tional medicine are often grouped together into one category: “alternative medicine.”

“There’s so much artistry behind these kinds of practices. … But in the U.S. it’s just called ‘alternative,’” she said, hoping to give voice to underrepresented communities and cultures. “And by saying that another culture’s medicine is ‘alternative,’ it’s like saying it’s less than ours because it’s not the main one.”

Now, Nguyen awaits the April release of her book, which features 30 interviews from nearly every continent and includes diverse perspectives, such as those from Black and Indigenous communities.

“I wanted it to be a very well-rounded book on different topics all around medicine,” she said.

“It’s really about the diversity of not only the practice but the population that medicine serves.”

The book’s range in voice and medicinal practice felt particularly unique, said Diedre Hammons, Nguyen’s developmental editor who freelances at New Degree Press.

“What really struck me was how intentional Debby was in seeking the right people to tell these stories of various cultures,” Hammons said. “It gives a level of authenticity to a book that I think we rarely find.”

A chapter that particularly impacted Nguyen highlighted Black maternal health, where she spoke with midwives

and birth coaches. She learned how Black women in the United States are at a disproportionate risk of pregnancy-related issues due to lack of accessibility to quality healthcare.

“This systemic racism is really at the heart of everything,” she said, highlighting how she gained a stronger understanding of the racial disparities within the healthcare industry. “Witnessing that inequality and racism based on your ethnicity or skin color pains me. It hurts all women of color.”

Dr. Alisa Lincoln, director of the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, also advised Nguyen during the writing process with every chapter. Integrating such diverse stories into one piece, Lincoln said, enabled Nguyen to find connections among different cultures and communities, even if they were thousands of miles apart.

“There are sections of the book where she really finds commonalities among groups where you wouldn’t expect it,” Lincoln said. “The book reminds us that we are all more similar than we are different.”

For Lincoln, what she loved most about the book was how it became a culmination of academia, storytelling and personal connection.

“She blends together understandings that she’s gained as a pharmacy student around medication and STEM, with the power of lived experience and

Photo by Kelly Chan Debby Nguyen, a second-year PharmD student, is set to release her debut book titled “Pills, Teas, And Songs: Stories of Medicine Around the World.” narrative,” Lincoln said. “That’s really what makes the book so special.”

Nguyen only learned about Western medicine in college, but as she conducted interviews, she said she developed a greater understanding of how important other types of medicine are. She also explained how she realized that people she knows in the healthcare industry often use other methods of healing as well, such as her favorite professor who is a licensed acupuncturist and her father, also a pharmacist, who always drinks tea after meals.

“I think there’s a perception in Western society that Eastern and Western medicine are the only two that exist and that they’re at odds with each other,” she said. “But now I see that they complement each other

rather than fighting each other.”

Hammons also admired how this book allowed Nguyen to learn more about herself, in addition to other communities and healthcare overall.

“She wrote this book with so much sincerity and thoughtfulness,” Hammons said. “It was also nice to watch her as she explored other cultures, which gave her the outlet to explore her own family history and culture in a way she hadn’t done before.”

Following its release, Lincoln believes that Nguyen’s book and journey will inspire students to tell their own stories and explore their passions.

“I hope it will encourage other people to find creative ways to bring together their own lived experiences, their own stories, with their scholarship and the things they’re learning,” she said.

Photo courtesy Marvel Studios Elizabeth Olson as Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany as Vision in Marvel Studios’ WANDAVISION exclusively on Disney+. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

For a moment, Marvel’s ‘WandaVision’ breaks free from MCU mold

By Nolan Piccola News staff It’s been over a year and a half since the release of Marvel’s last project. Since then, fans have anxiously waited for the studio to continue kicking off its newest phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, after its first three phases concluded with “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.

With multiple delays and changes to the original plan for phase four, Marvel Studios debuted its newest project and first series on Disney+, “WandaVision.”

The show stars Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), who were first introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as supporting characters in “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Normally known for blasting bad guys with magic and energy beams, the unusual couple is instead found living a normal, suburban life in Westview, New Jersey. But, of course, not everything is what it seems.

The series is largely presented as a sitcom, paying tribute to multiple decades of television as it progresses.

The first two episodes are displayed in black-and-white and give multiple nods to shows like “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “I Love Lucy” and “Bewitched.”

Though these episodes are rather slow, seeing Olsen and Bettany take on the challenge of playing their roles while still conforming to the style of 50s-60s television made them worth watching. This goes not only for the beginning of the series, but also for the later episodes set in future decades.

While some MCU fans may have been disappointed at the series’ beginning providing little to no action compared to what they’re accustomed to, the episodes provide several hints that indicate something larger is at play in the town of Westview.

In fact, the show’s most compelling selling point is that it is much

different from anything Marvel has released in the past. This provides an opportunity for newer audiences who may not have been interested in the superhero genre before to experience the romance and story that is Wanda Maximoff and Vision.

Since their introduction to the MCU, Wanda and Vision were commonly overshadowed by the main characters of the first three Marvel phases. Now with a new phase and Disney+, they’re given the opportunity to develop as lovers as well as individuals.

Though the show places more emphasis on Wanda’s story than Vision’s, especially during the final third of the season, it’s nice to finally see both of these characters step onto their own mantles in the MCU — even if it’s only for one show.

The series also features an extended cast of new and returning characters from the franchise. Agnes (Kathryn Hahn), the wickedly “nosy neighbor” of Wanda and Vision;

Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), who was first introduced as a child in “Captain Marvel;” Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), from the first two “Thor” films and Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), who made his Marvel debut in “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

Episodes three through six are where “WandaVision” performs the strongest. As its extended characters are trying to figure out the Westview mystery, so is the show’s audience.

Though the pacing may feel a little choppy as it skips from a sitcom to something typical of a Marvel movie, watching the show unfold — with each episode grander than the last — made for an exciting viewing experience and proved just what Marvel Studios could accomplish with Disney+ as an altermate medium.

As the show reaches its final segment, “WandaVision” begins to shift back to the conventional MCU mold that Marvel fans have grown accustomed to over the years. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it

may discourage viewers who were expecting something different from the franchise.

Despite this, the last three episodes set more of a spotlight for Wanda, which gives her character even greater depth. While this means we see less of some of the show’s supporting characters, it gives the series the opportunity to examine Wanda’s grief and how her past experiences have shaped her into who she is now. This, in turn, makes her an even more compelling character and prepares her and the audience for the leading role she’ll play in Marvel’s fourth phase of movies.

Overall, “WandaVision” is a thought-provoking, charming and exciting addition to the next chapter of the MCU. Though it may not achieve everything it set out to accomplish, the show’s strong performances by Olsen and Bettany and its satisfactory ending bring enough to the table for both Marvel and non-Marvel fans to enjoy.

OPINION

Page 10 The Huntington News EDITORIAL BOARD Editor-in-Chief

Valeria Vazquez

Op-ed: Stop Roxbury gentrification by opposing LightView 2.0

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NEWS STAFF Ananya Sankar, Annie Probert, Arjun Ramachandrula, Christie Ya-Chi Lee, Elena Plumb, Erin Walsh, George LaBour, Grace Comer, Isaac Stephens, Jessica Brite, Julie Sung, Katie Mogg, Lily Elwood, Lucas Cooperman, Luiza Loyo, Madison Boudreau Popovic, Marisa Lijoi, Maeve Singer, Mia Merchant, Natalie Duerr, Niyati Parikh, Petrina Danadatu, Sarah Barber, Seamus McAvoy

Photo by Harriet Rovniak When you think of what you need from Northeastern, what is it? Maybe real mental health support, healthier meal plan options or reduced tuition.

What students do not need are new luxury dorms.

Northeastern University plans to build another luxury dorm at 840 Columbus Avenue in 2022, further gentrifying Roxbury and failing to offer its students affordable housing options.

The current plan for the dorm includes 810 bed spaces, with bed space pricing anticipated to be quite comparable to LightView, the cheapest option there coming in at a hefty $1,374 per month. The dorm will be built and contracted by American Campus Communities, a real-estate development company hired by the university to avoid exorbitant building costs and allow a multi-billion dollar corporation to augment its wealth. Northeastern will profit by at least, if not much more than, $13 million per year in student “rent” — more plainly, extortion.

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Students do not need more luxury dorms. The vast majority of us need affordable housing options that allow us to continue our education without adding several digits to our loans.

Northeastern’s cheapest dorms are often infested by rats and mold, and still cost over $900 a month; students can find comparable or cheaper rents in Roxbury, with far better conditions and freedom from residential life rules and proctors. With first and second-year students required to live on campus, predatory loan companies force students to take out larger loans than needed. These student loans offer the illusion that these dorms are affordable options; in reality, paying exorbitant prices for housing only contributes to the student loan crisis and buries Northeastern graduates in more and more debt after attending a university fully capable of drastically decreasing rents. Even if this dorm is filled exclusively by wealthy students, it is still not good for the Roxbury community, nor should university housing ever cost so much.

Northeastern has more than enough resources and money to spend its time improving the housing it already possesses. The university expects to have a $28.5 million surplus at the conclusion of fiscal year 2020, despite the pandemic. Further gentrifying the Roxbury community with a shiny, new dorm that many students cannot afford, and which none of them asked for, is an unnecessary evil perpetrated by the university in a thinly-veiled money grab.

Roxbury residents will also experi-

ence the detrimental repercussions of this luxury dorm. The housing crisis in Boston, before and during COVID, is tragic and pressing. This dorm would increase the market rate rental prices of buildings in Roxbury and push out its native residents. The university’s excuse for this construction is to create more bed spaces in order to give back a number of its leased properties in Fenway to the Boston community; this does nothing to help Roxbury residents, who would find these properties unaffordable. Students, community members and the mayor should unapologetically push for 840 Columbus Avenue to become a green, affordable and union-built public housing complex for community members in need.

I was appalled during a virtual Boston Planning and Development Agency meeting in January, when a Northeastern representative was more concerned with what type of vendors could occupy the first floor of the building rather than addressing the serious issues community members brought forth. One task force member reminded the attendees that when the university expands into communities, the NU Campus Police naturally enters those communities as well.

Bringing the campus police further into Roxbury is not something the community needs or wants.

How can Northeastern begin to right its wrongs, aside from canceling its plans to build this luxury dorm?

The university should begin with a renewed commitment to its payment in lieu of taxes, or PILOT. Northeastern, and most universities, retain

nonprofit status, which means they are not required to pay property taxes to the city. The city requests, with no enforcement, that nonprofits such as Northeastern pay 25% of the taxes to which they are exempt. A staggering 70% of the city’s revenue in fiscal year 2020 came from property taxes, meaning this loophole has disastrous consequences. A university should not make massive profits at the expense of its students while cowering behind nonprofit status.

No one benefits from this dorm other than the Northeastern administration.

It will continue to exploit its students for every last dime, while maintaining a careless attitude toward the neighborhoods it pervasively gentrifies.

Students deserve better from the university to which they pay $54,360 in tuition. Community members deserve to live affordably. We must demand more from Northeastern University. A movement against the luxury dorm is already on the rise, organized by groups including Northeastern Socialist Alternative, Northeastern Young Democratic Socialists of America, Northeastern Sunrise, Boston Socialist Alternative, NU for the Common Good and more.

Get involved by signing the petition here or visit the Facebook page @Stopthelux for the Fight the Luxury dorm campaign!

Julianna Milidantri is a first-year biology and political science major and a member of Boston Socialist Alternative. She can be reached at milidantri.j@northeastern.edu.

Op-ed: To honor everything we’ve been through in the past year, continue to take COVID-19 seriously

Alex Choung, Alexis Santoro, Ariana Bennett, Avery Westervelt, Dayna Archer, Emily Zhang, Hannah Anthony, Hannah Rosman, Jenna Chin, Jill Makin, Joanna Zhao, Jo Ashman, Katie Mogg, Katrina Makayan, Laurenl Booth, Lea Packer, Lily Murphy, Madison Boudreau Popovic, Maria Lovato, Petrina Danardatu, Rachel Mann, Santhosh Kumar Vijayakumar, Sarah Brinsley, Vishrut Sundararajan, Zoe Baumgartner

Abbie Tyler, Alaine Bennett, Charlie Allan, Laurel Booth

March 19, 2021

Photo by Harriet Rovniak It’s been about one year since the rapid spread of the coronavirus was officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization March 11, 2020. Massachusetts had just six confirmed and 95 presumptive cases of what was then called SARS-CoV-2, and Boston recently learned that it unknowingly played host to an international superspreading event. At Northeastern, students had just returned from spring break and were transitioning to online classes. A few days later, the university would be hustling students out of on-campus housing.

A lot has changed since then.

Over the last chaotic, heartbreaking, stressful and occasionally hopeful 12 months, we’ve learned a great deal.

Suddenly we all know big, science-y words like “inoculated” and “comorbidity.” A year ago, if people knew Pfizer, it was probably because of Viagra or Xanax. Moderna was a place where your STEM friends completed their co-op. Johnson & Johnson was just ‘the family company.’ If you’re a Northeastern student who spent the last year on or near campus, you’ve probably stuck a Q-tip up your nose over 50 times, and you’ve probably made awkward eye contact with someone you kind of know from class while swabbing your nose about half of those times.

Over the last year, we’ve also endured almost unfathomable loss.

Over 500,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, more than the number of U.S. casualties in Vietnam, Korea and World War II combined. Early research also suggests that the social isolation brought on by the pandemic took a significant mental and emotional toll on much of the U.S. population.

A June 2020 survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention found that 40% of respondents had symptoms of anxiety, depression or increased substance use, and over 10% said they seriously considered suicide in the preceding month. In 2018, only 4% had

seriously considered suicide for the entire year.

People also lost jobs, homes and businesses. Conor Larkin’s, the Huntington Avenue bar that was frequented by Northeastern students and alumni looking for a casual, any-night-of-the-week beer or two, was forced to shut its doors in June.

Although it’s a tiny loss in the sea of huge, unbearable losses, I’ll miss the trivia nights, the bingo nights and the $5 pitchers of mystery beer — not just for me, but for the generations of students who never got to experience it.

Of course, people gained a lot of new skills and took up new hobbies too. Some people picked up the guitar again or completed thousand-piece puzzles, while others learned how to bake bread from scratch or broke their personal record for hours logged on TikTok. And there was the tie-dye.

So much tie-dye.

We also got new music across the board from Juice WRLD, to Lady Gaga, to Bruce Springsteen, to Dua Lipa. Taylor Swift dropped two (Two!) new albums, and Rihanna has gotten really, really close to maybe possibly dropping one too. On TV, we became obsessed with tigers, money laundering, Michael Jordan and Steve Kornacki.

Some things didn’t age well — Quibi, Andrew Cuomo, Trump’s Twitter account, the food your roommate left in the fridge when she left to quarantine at home for four months. Other things got an unanticipated revival — chess, Joe Biden, sweatpants/shirts/suits.

It’s been almost a year, and we’ve all gone through it together, apart.

However, it’s crucial we remember that it’s not over yet. Recently, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he would be lifting the state’s mask mandate and allowing businesses to open at 100% capacity, a move that has public health officials worried, especially as new variants of the virus emerge. At the time of Abbott’s announcement, more than 6,000 Texans had COVID-19. More than 1,700 of those were in intensive care units.

A post-pandemic world seems to be inching closer every day, but we need to continue to care about the pandemic the way we did a year ago.

If we do, maybe a year from now — maybe sooner, even — we’ll be back, elbow to elbow, drinking from the same $5 pitcher.

Kelly Garrity is a fourth-year political science major. She can be reached at garrity.k@northeastern.edu.

OPINION

March 19, 2021

Page 11

Column: Overpopulation should not be a controversial topic or just a women’s issue

Photo by Kelly Thomas In the late 1960s, Paul Ehrich published “The Population Bomb,” which warned people of the detrimental effects of overpopulation, including mass starvation, political unrest and environmental deterioration. Although his predictions of famine in the 1970s and ‘80s proved wrong, they could still happen in the future. Ehrlich’s position was extreme, but I am grateful someone was talking about it because it served as a stepping stone for people to think of their own decisions. Unfortunately, his views were generally dismissed. However, the points he brought up remain as pertinent as ever, as the world’s population has doubled since the 1970s.

Overpopulation is one of the biggest threats to our generation and the generations that will follow us. It is unfair to blame it solely on certain countries that have a higher population growth rate. We need to look at the issue holistically; it is not a coincidence that, in affluent countries, resource distribution is more equal and the rate of growth is much lower than in countries that have higher unequal resource distribution.

This imbalance creates higher rates of social problems which, in turn,

creates unequal rates of population growth. In more developed countries, the rate of population growth is less than in developing countries. To blame certain countries for a problem that affects every single continent will prove useless.

Most likely, I am a product of China’s one-child rule. It was implemented in the late 1970s with the hopes that it would be a catalyst for an economic miracle. I am aware that I was very lucky to be adopted, as it allowed me to escape historic, controversial and unjust laws that had horrible effects on entire populations – including mass sterilization and other despicable policies. I am acutely aware of the pain caused by policies implemented because of overpopulation and of the religious arguments against anti-natalist policies. By no means do I hope to invalidate many people’s hurt from policies implemented because of overpopulation, but the taboo surrounding talking about the issue needs to end, especially as much better alternatives and solutions are being brought to light.

Even though I never imagine myself having more than two kids, overpopulation has always impacted my perception of my future.

Now, growing up and realizing the overwhelming influence that each individual has the potential to have, my fears have subsided. Combating overpopulation needs to be played out on a local level. In small communities, it is the labor force, infrastructure and resources that are affected the most by a burgeoning population.

As such, resource use and distribution of materials, basic healthcare, food and shelter should all become equally accessible. Policies that would equally distribute these resources

would avoid one individual using more than they need and a tragedyof-the-commons-type situation. For example, improving public schools, community activities in after-school programs and bigger scheme policies such as an effective income tax would fight for the underrepresented. To fight for our future, we need to put aside our own perceptions of our individual rights versus the rights of society. This argument is not meant to discourage you from having kids; instead, it should encourage you to have kids intelligently and focus on resource use as well.

I used to think that vegetarianism was the one true solution to the resource problem posed by overpopulation. Even though food-related emissions are estimated to drop 70% by 2050, resulting in a healthier environment, this is not the one-all solution. The real answer lies with each individual taking responsibility for their own education and helping those who do not have access to it.

An increase in education directly correlates to a lower number of

Morals are relative to each society and every individual, meaning your definitions of good and bad are going to be different from everyone else’s.

That means defining things — and people — as solely good or bad overlooks a lot of their complexities.

Take the weather. We all do it.

Labelling things like the weather as good or bad depends on how convenient it is for you. Cold weather is bad. Warm weather is good. Rain is bad. Sun is good. But weather wasn’t invented for humans, and not all humans feel the same way about it.

Here’s an example: The recent warm weather might be seen as “good” because you’re tired of winter, but that ignores the reality that it’s a direct result of climate change.

Looking at the world as how it solely relates to you and your feelings allows you to ignore other perspectives. Just because something is good for you doesn’t mean it’s good for someone else. Along the same line of thinking, just because something is good for humans doesn’t mean it’s good for other species.

Now, let’s talk about people. We are all incredibly complex. Everyone

has good and bad in them. We have to take so many things into account when we judge a person, and labelling everyone as only good or only bad leaves a lot unsaid.

Just to be clear, I’m not making the argument that we should only see the good in people, or that we should look past “bad” actions or words. I suppose this is where some of you will think of cancel culture, and, like everything else, there’s good and bad in that. I do think we should allow people to apologize for genuine mistakes, depending on their severity, but a lot of people who have been “cancelled” have done more irreparable harm than good.

I can’t really speak of modern internet-related cancel culture because I’m not on social media, but I can speak to it in a historical context.

History is littered with controversial historical figures: Thomas Jefferson (along with every other American president), Mother Teresa and Gandhi are the people who come to my mind. Thomas Jefferson was a person who did a lot of bad things.

So was Mother Teresa. And Gandhi did some questionable things, too. No

children per woman and those who can conceive children. Good and fair access to birth control could also drastically alleviate overpopulation.

Reducing the need for surprise family planning empowers women and is tied to a decrease in environmental and economic strain. In some ways, empowering women is easier than relying on every single person to use only the resources they need.

Although I wholeheartedly support women and their reproductive rights, I also agree that the entire burden is not just on women who plan to have children. It takes two to tango. Education of men’s contraceptives and birth control should be widespread. It is a celebration of very easy to focus on educating women and those who conceive children, but this also makes it way too easy for men to perceive contraception as a woman’s responsibility. Both parties involved should be held responsible.

March is international women’s month. It is a celebration of women’s achievements across the globe that calls to action an acceleration of

women’s equality and serves as a month of recognition for women’s rights. Let’s celebrate this women’s month by working together to talk about overpopulation, and diffuse the responsibility of population not only on women.

Global population is supposed to level off around 11 billion, but the road there is going to be very complex. Again, this data should not discourage you from having children, but it should make you feel accountable for your footprint on this earth.

Overpopulation should be talked about and debated more – there are simply not enough discussions about something that will affect us all in the years to come. It is up to each individual to take responsibility for their own education on the issue and educate others on the steps that will preserve our world.

Maeve Singer is a first-year computer science and environmental science combined major. She can be reached at singer.ma@northeastern.edu

GLOBAL POPULATION GROWTH

600 million

990 million

1.65 billion

4 billion

5 billion

6 billion

= 1,000,000 persons

2 billion

7 billion

3 billion

7.7 billion

Data compiled by https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth

Graphic by Ashley Mandel

Column: We must acknowledge the good and bad in everything and avoid labels

Photo by Kelly Thomas Humans are hard-wired for dichotomous thinking, or thinking about things in terms of binary opposites without acknowledging everything in between. Good and bad, black and white, us and other — I could go on forever. From an evolutionary perspective, it makes sense: In order to survive, we had to determine which things would be beneficial or harmful. But these days, the world is so much more complex than that, and confining our worldview to a binary schema erases all the gray areas in between.

Specifically, I’m here to talk about using the labels of “good” and “bad.”

one should be worshipped like Gandhi and Mother Teresa are because they are human, and all humans are a mix of good and bad. We should talk about them like people who do good and bad things, such as using person-first language when we talk about actions, too.

One could argue that if someone has done more bad than good, they should be labelled as bad. That mentality can go way too far way too fast and leads some of us to “cancel” everyone who’s made one ignorant comment on social media. For dead people, we have to accept and talk about them as human, but, for the living, we have to acknowledge their capacity to recognize their harmful actions and change.

As for ourselves, a lot of us judge the things we do as good and bad as well. We define our habits as good and bad (and I say habits as in our daily activities, not actions that are directly harmful). I have a bad habit of staying up till 3 a.m. I have a good habit of doing my work the day it’s assigned. The list goes on and on. If morals are relative to society, we’re simply confining ourselves to

society’s norms as opposed to doing what we truly want to. Thinking of our habits in terms of good and bad allows us to generalize our habits to our whole selves, which can lead to low self-esteem and self-worth.

Humans like simplicity. We would all love it if everything were black and white, predetermined for us. But we all need to be more comfortable with gray areas. What we get when we reduce people down to good and bad is a just a shell of who they truly are.

Nobody can be defined by any one thing, so we can’t call entire people “good” or “bad.”

This thinking is something I’m still trying to get better at. It’s a work in progress, just like I am, and just like all of you are. All we can do is be conscious of how we label people and things, and, if we are able to stop labelling things as entirely “good” or “bad,” we’ll be able to see more sides to each story and appreciate more of the complexities of our world.

Mia Merchant is a first-year in the Explore Program. She can be reached at merchant.mia@northeastern.edu.

Page 12

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