The Huntington News Vol. XI No. 11
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
April 19, 2018
NU loses Tinder battle to UMass
File photos by Scotty Schenck, Alex Melagrano, Paige Howell and Lauren Scornavacca News illustration by Michelle Lee
By Samuel Kim News Staff After three weeks of intense competition, Northeastern placed second in the Tinder Campus Swipe Off Contest, narrowly missing a chance to attend a free concert with rapper Cardi B. Northeastern’s second-place finish to the University of Massachusetts Amherst is noteworthy given that students had very mixed views of Cardi B, in addition to varying levels of enthusiasm for the contest. “I was so surprised that we got to the championship round,” said Dana Walker, a fourth-year behavioral neuroscience major. “We showed that we can be competitive and band together to try to win.” Many Northeastern students shared their thoughts about the contest in the NU Meme Collective, CONCERT, on Page 11
Student influx affects religious institutions Student activists held many protests on campus this school year, on issues ranging from fossil fuel divestment to increased benefits for dining hall workers. They all say they have been consistently disappointed by the university’s responses to their movements.
By Charlie Wolfson News Staff
GAPS IN COMMUNICATION ADMINISTRATORS FAIL TO RESPOND TO STUDENT CONCERNS, FROM HEALTH SERVICES TO SUSTAINABILITY
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By Glenn Billman & Derek Schuster | News Staff
nside President Joseph E. Aoun’s Beacon Street brownstone, board members, donors and senior administrators celebrate 2016 with a holiday party. Outside, 11 students are bundled up against the December cold, singing traditional Christmas carols with unconventional lyrics. “On the first day of school Ed Galante gave Aoun / A boat load of oil money,” they sing to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas.” The disgruntled students belong to DivestNU and are carrying signs slamming Northeastern for giving former ExxonMobil Senior
Vice President Ed Galante a seat on the university’s Board of Trustees. To avoid breaking loitering laws, they walk in a tight circle outside Aoun’s door as members of the administration occasionally peer out. The guests send out a caterer with hot chocolate. The protesters send it back. Two hours pass and the DivestNU members finally ring Aoun’s bell to hand Vice President of Student Affairs Madeleine Estabrook a bag of coal with a message for Aoun: The endowment investments have landed him on the naughty list. VOICE, on Page 2
Father Philip Dabney moved to Mission Hill well after the tidal wave of college students began sweeping into the neighborhood. Dabney, a priest at the grand Catholic basilica on Tremont Street known locally as The Mission Church, has been living in the Hill for nine years. Though many of the rowhouses that cram the neighborhood are rented by college students rather than families or older people like him, he said he likes living there. But the church he calls home — a massive, historic edifice built almost 150 years ago called Our Lady of Perpetual Help — is struggling for attendance and money in this era of university expansion and student rentals. Other religious institutions in the area are adapting their strategies to fit the new population of the inner city, but it appears Dabney’s church may be straggling far CHURCH, on Page 8