January 30, 2019

The Huntington News January 30, 2020

The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community

@HuntNewsNU

STILL HOUSES STUDENTS AFTER TWO YEARS

By Savannah Miller | News Correspondent

Students were placed in the Midtown Hotel, despite past assurances that the hotel would no longer be a housing option. About 80 upperclass students coming back from co-op and study abroad were temporarily housed there in January.

Northeastern first used the Midtown Hotel for student housing in the spring semester of 2018, when 60 N.U.in students were placed there. Since then, the hotel has been home to more N.U.in students, as well as firstyears in the ContiNUe program, transfer students and upperclassmen returning from co-op or study abroad.

“The university leased additional beds at the Midtown for the month of January for about 80 upperclass students assigned there temporarily while they are waiting for space on campus that may open up as a result of cancellations or withdrawals,” university spokesperson Mike Woeste wrote in a Jan. 27 email to The News. “Most of the students who stayed at the Midtown have now received their assignments and the university has provided moving support for them over the past couple of weeks.”

When students were first housed in the hotel, there were concerns over distance from campus, as well as lack of amenities such as Northeastern WiFi and laundry machines.

However, students who were housed there temporarily in January had few complaints about the logistics of living in the hotel, including locations and accommodations.

“I have no issue, it’s pretty cool,” said Justin Harvey, a third-year business administration major who temporarily lived in Midtown until on-campus housing opened up. “I’d be fine living here the whole semester.”

In a January 2018 town hall, Francis Bourgeois, the director of Northeastern Housing Services at the time, said that housing students in the Midtown Hotel was a “one-semester thing,” and that “there are no plans or discussions as we sit here now, at least at my level, for Midtown to be an option in the future.”

However, Northeastern has continued to use the Midtown Hotel for student housing, both temporary and semester-long.

Zhanna Sheyner, a first-year bioengineering major and ContiNUe student, said she likes the space at the hotel.

“I have a single with a lot of space, which is better than a lot of the other first-year housing options,” Sheyner said.

The hotel’s distance from campus raises concerns for some students, as it sits just beyond the Symphony MBTA stop.

“The walk is inconvenient, but you just have to give yourself five extra minutes in the morning,” said Sam Sagherian, a first-year mechanical engineering major in the ContiNUe program. “It’s a really good location, we’re so close to the Pru[dential Center].”

Security is more relaxed at the hotel compared to residence halls, without a requirement to check in with a proctor to access the building or sign in guests.

“I haven’t had any problems with the lower security,” Sheyner said, mentioning the ease with which she can come and go with friends.

Meghan Barber, a second-year biochemistry major, chose to live in the Midtown Hotel as a resident assistant after being in the ContiNUe program during her first year.

“I wanted to be a kind of role model for other ContiNUe students because I was in the program last year,” Barber said. Most of her residents are students in the ContiNUe program, as well as temporary residents arriving on campus from N.U.in. “Spots open up for N.U.in kids so they move around.”

ContiNUe students live together in the Midtown Hotel as part of a living learning community during their first year, with the option to commute if they live nearby. “They try to make it a tight-knit group of kids for connections later on,” Sagherian said of ContiNUe students being housed together.

The ContiNUe program’s admissions website states that “beginning in the Summer I 2020 term, students may participate in the housing process for transfer students, for which university housing is not guaranteed,” raising questions about the program’s future use of the Midtown Hotel. A university spokesperson did not respond to request for comment on this.

Efforts are being made to alleviate housing pressure at Northeastern. LightView apartments, which opened this past summer, added 825 living spaces for Northeastern students. American Campus Communities Inc., the company which owns and operates LightView, is collaborating with Northeastern again to build a new 26-story mixed-use building at 840 Columbus Ave., with construction starting in 2021.

For the students housed in Midtown temporarily, their stay at the hotel has ended. “All undergraduate students were able to successfully move into their assigned housing,” Woeste wrote.

Photos by Kelly Thomas | Art by Devin Raynor

Northeastern announces new campus in Portland, Maine

By Lucy Gavin Deputy Campus Editor Northeastern announced Monday that it is launching a new graduate campus in Portland, Maine, a coastal town approximately 108 miles north of Boston. The new campus, called the Roux Institute, will specialize in digital technology and life sciences, with an emphasis on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The institute, which is slated to open this spring, is taking on 10

corporate partners to develop the curricula and fund research and innovation. The partners include Bangor Savings Bank, IDEXX, The Jackson Laboratory, L.L. Bean, MaineHealth, PTC, Thornton Tomasetti, Tilson, Unum and WEX. “We can’t do it alone. We need, from day one, the institutions, the companies, the enterprises to be at the table,” President Joseph E. Aoun said at the official launch announcement Jan. 27. “Here, from the get-go, we have our founding partners … from day one, we are going to work

together to establish what is needed in terms of talent, to create curricula and programs to meet those needs.”

Aoun also spoke about the possibility of collaborations with other academic institutions such as the University of Maine.

“With the University of Maine, we are talking about the possibility of articulation agreements that will allow the students at the University of Maine to be with us for a couple of years and vice versa, to have faculty working together. We have research partnerships as we speak

that are being formed,” Aoun said.

The campus is being funded by technology entrepreneur David Roux and his wife, Barbara Roux, who have committed $100 million to the Roux Institute. The project has been in the works for multiple years, with Northeastern signing on in the past year.

Roux, a Maine native, created the institute in an effort to stimulate the state’s economy and bring more technological innovation to the region.

“Our plan is to focus exclusively on the practical application of

artificial intelligence and machine learning on digital engineering and life sciences,” Roux said at the launch. “It’s a narrow but incredibly powerful target that we’re aiming at, which happens to represent the most important growth engine in the economy.”

This is Northeastern’s latest endeavor to expand the university’s national and global presence, joining its satellite campuses in London, Toronto, Vancouver, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nahant, Burlington and Charlotte.

CAMPUS

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January 30, 2020

Students find co-op takes toll on social life

By Riana Buchman News Correspondent It wasn’t until Erika Christiansen returned to Northeastern University after six months of co-op in Chicago that she noticed a change among her group of friends. In the fall, instead of reminiscing on their shared experiences together, they recounted stories Christiansen hadn’t heard before. “Erika, I don’t think you were here.” “She’s never here.”

The little comments took jabs at her absence, but Christiansen didn’t get the jokes. “The feelings of missing out were far more prevalent coming back,” Christiansen said.

When she worked in Chicago, Christiansen, a fourth-year communication studies major, received updates over the phone from her friends about college life. In return, though, she felt she didn’t have much to share that was compelling. Every day, she rode her two-hour commute to work in the morning and evening, ate dinner and went to sleep.

Although Northeastern students may reap many benefits from Northeastern’s co-op program, it can also complicate the relationships they form on campus, romantic and platonic alike. Meghan Trainor, a third-year nursing major, found this rang true and that her unusual co-op schedule impacted her social life, despite still living in Boston at the time.

Working full-time at the hospital for Trainor meant taking night shifts and sleeping throughout the day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Most days, she had only been awake for a couple of

hours before she needed to work again. She also worked on some weekends, which took up even more of her free time.

“When we’re on co-op, it feels like we only ever see our roommates and people we work with,” Trainor said.

With co-ops currently available in approximately 36 states and 146 countries, it’s not unusual for students to take opportunities outside of Boston. Karleigh Corliss, a second-year communication studies and business administration combined major, recently began her first co-op at Apple Music in Los Angeles.

“I really didn’t see it coming,” Corliss said. “Immediately after, I actually had a meeting with my advisor and said, ‘I don’t know if I want to move so far away and all my friends are here.’ I would have major FOMO.” FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” can be common for students who move far away from their friends and are unable to attend social events.

Corliss said she did not plan on leaving Boston for her first job.

“The only reason I applied was I knew it would be so dope if I got it. Then it was a feeling of ‘I kind of wished I never applied for this position because I knew if I got it, I would have to take it,’” Corliss said.

Zipporah Osei and her boyfriend, Nate Caldwell, both moved out-ofstate for their respective jobs at the same time. Osei, a fourth-year journalism

major, went to Washington D.C., and Caldwell, a fourth-year communication studies major, went to Atlanta.

“For me, I think it was very emotional, not knowing what was going to happen,” Osei said. “We had a lot of long conversations and talk[ed] about what would be the best communication for us.”

Caldwell said he knew they wanted to stay together. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy or the same as anything we’d done before. It was something where I was prepared for it, and I knew it was coming, but it was still difficult.”

Michelle Hagopian, the co-op advisor for journalism and game design students, helps prepare students working abroad for these transitions by recommending networking events to connect with those in similar situations.

“I encourage students to attend events through the Off-Campus Housing and Support Services office. They typically have events for students going to certain location[s] for them to meet before they leave campus,” Hagopian said. “It’s a good chance to find roommates or friends before you head out on coop. Off-Campus Housing also does events when you’re actually out on co-op so you can meet alumni or fellow students to help you adjust to your new city.”

Some romantic relationships and friendships may not differ at all when students are reunited after not seeing each other for extended periods of time. For certain relationships,

though, this distance may prove the breaking point.

“I thought I was good enough at maintaining connections that it wouldn’t feel that different,” Christiansen said, referencing her time in Chicago. “At the time I was in a relationship that had been long distance for a while, and I was pretty confident that any relationship I had could function long distance if the most important [relationship] could.”

The transitional nature of Northeastern comes as no surprise to its current students. Most students recognize their college experience is not traditional.

According to data from the class of 2016, 96 percent of graduates participated in at least one co-op, while 78 percent participated in two or more. Northeastern’s environment normalizes this frequent coming and going so that students have a common expectation of change.

Every semester, numerous students simultaneously arrive and leave campus. This influx of students also applies to changes in clubs, activities and housing, contributing to an always-adapting student body.

“Everything about the institution is set up to be a revolving door,” Christiansen said.

Although they knew the implications of co-op beforehand, some Northeastern students feel the university does not prepare or adequately support them during potential changes in romantic and platonic relationships.

“They don’t really help you with that or give you that sense of, ‘you’re

Photo courtesy Zipporah Osei Fourth-year journalism major Zipporah Osei completed a co-op in Washington D.C.

going to lose all your friends,’” Osei said.

For Northeastern students, striking a balance between work and social life can be challenging. Some have found the only way to navigate working full-time and maintaining relationships is through trial and error.

Co-op forces several students to think ahead, some of who have already planned excursions with friends during breaks in their fulltime jobs. Some also decreased their involvement in clubs or extracurricular activities because they know they won’t be able to participate in them while working.

For her second job, Christiansen decided she wanted to invest more time in her relationships, knowing that she was already capable of prioritizing her career.

“I’m at a place in my life where I feel like I can put more emphasis on my people and feeling more comfortable letting people factor in my decisions,” Christiansen said. “I stayed in Boston primarily for my friends this next co-op, and I’m comfortable with the fact that I’m dating someone.”

In terms of putting careers first, many students use their co-op as an opportunity to grow more connections at their respective workplaces or potential future ones. While some relationships may drop off, students can combat this by developing professional ones.

“I think it’s a great idea to have coffee or lunch with as many people as feasible on co-op, just to get to know them or learn about their career path,” Hagopian said.

Co-op’s culture may also help prepare students for postgraduate life, where many relationships will be tested by factors like distance and job opportunities.

“I think in practice we’re really seeing it. I am making this decision to be away from my friends for eight months,” Corliss said. “We think about where we want to go after graduation hypothetically. We’re realizing now this is going to happen to us at some point and are trying to navigate that.”

Students acknowledge that the co-op program is just the beginning of their futures, and they need to determine what is best for them at the time. For some, this means pursuing every job opportunity no matter where it is or what the schedule entails. For others, this means choosing a career close to their loved ones or one in which they may be able to spend the most time with them.

Whatever the choice, there are side effects regardless.

“You lose some connections you think you might’ve had, but also, co-op is good because the people who do disappear are not meant to be in your life,” Osei said. “There were people we only talked [to] because we’re in the same city, taking the same classes, seeing each other.

Having that distance co-op kind of forced me to have shown what friendships are worth maintaining and worth letting go.”

Editor’s note: Zipporah Osei was formerly an editor for The News.

CAMPUS

January 30, 2020

Lean on Me provides peer-to-peer support

By Pavithra Rajesh News Correspondent In today’s day and age, almost everything can be done online. This could be anything from food service, navigation, shopping and now, anonymous peer-to-peer guidance counseling.

Lean on Me, a texting service that provides non-crisis support to students, from students, is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology brainchild that is slowly but surely finding its place at Northeastern.

By texting the hotline, students are matched with other students who are given the tools and resources to listen emphathetically, respond thoughtfully and help within the limits of a non-licensed support system.

While a Northeastern chapter of Lean on Me briefly existed a few years ago, the club soon dissipated.

However, students this semester are dedicated to reengaging the Northeastern community with this texting hotline and are currently in the process of becoming an official Northeastern student organization.

Students like Lean on Me Recruitment Coordinator Brigitte Cronin, a second-year chemistry and environmental geology major, and Chapter Coordinator Grace Rootness, a second-year psychology and criminal justice major, are responsible for leading the team as a whole. Meanwhile, club members, known as Supporters, undergo training that allows them to be a resource to Northeastern students in need of emotional support.

Supporter initiation includes an interview with the leadership team, an hour-long online training session, a three hour in-person training session and with an hour-long timed online assessment.

“They’re very motivated to stay in it and to be able to reach out and help these people,” Rootness said.

“We also have a very diverse set of majors. It’s really based on their personal interest in the issue and not just their major.”

Kelly Gim, a second-year psychol-

ogy major and Lean on Me training coordinator, also found comfort in receiving applications from students of a variety of backgrounds.

“We know that the people texting in are going to be from different backgrounds with different majors and hometowns — who knows? Our Supporters can relate to a variety of people,” Gim said.

“We are a listening ear that is there no matter what. We’re there to support them, no matter who they are — we don’t know who they are, they don’t know who we are. It’s just kind of an unconditional empathy, I guess.”

— Grace Rootness Chapter Coordinator

The Supporters, who range from first-years to fifth-years, all have individual reasons for being involved with Lean on Me. “It seemed like a really cool program,” said Rebecca Scheldrup,

a first-year criminal justice and psychology major. “Especially with colleges, I know a lot of people are stressed out and a lot of people are feeling lonely. It’s cool to be involved with helping that. I love helping people, so this was a really great option for that.”

Mirah Gordon, a second-year bioengineering major, emphasized how mental health is just a part of life, and it’s a huge part of college.

“Being able to provide this resource for people is incredibly important, and I’m just really excited that this chapter has started at Northeastern because I think it’ll be a really helpful tool and resource for all the students on campus,” Gordon said.

Jasmine Ho, a second-year psychology major, said she used a hotline during her first year that really helped her.

“I want to be a person who can help somebody else in the same way too,” Ho said.

While the members are adamant in expressing that the hotline is solely for non-crisis support, there is a general consensus that an informal, easily accessible tool as such holds importance.

“I think Lean on Me is the right place between professional help and when you don’t want to talk to a friend,” said Katie Kuhn, a fourthyear business administration major.

“It’s anonymous, but it’s still a good emotional support system without having to go to professionals because you don’t feel like it’s important enough or urgent enough.”

The leadership and Supporters of Lean on Me strive to be a presence that gives Northeastern students a platform to rely on.

“We are a listening ear that is there no matter what,” Rootness said. “We’re there to support them, no matter who they are — we don’t know who they are, they don’t know who we are. It’s just kind of an unconditional empathy, I guess.”

Northeastern students can access the confidential texting hotline at (617) 202-2948.

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NUPD CRIME LOG Compiled by Deanna Schwartz, Campus Editor

TUESDAY, JAN. 14th 1:23pm

Officers responded to Ryder Hall to serve a warrant for an NU student and placed the student under arrest. A report was filed.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 15th 7:54am

The manager of Wollaston’s Market in Marino Recreation Center reported a student stole an energy bar. A report was filed.

THURSDAY, JAN. 16th 5:09pm

An MBTA transit police officer reported an armed robbery inside the pizza shop in Ruggles. Officers reported checking the area with negative results. A report was filed.

5:28pm

The manager of Wollaston’s Market in Marino Recreation Center reported a potential shoplifter in the store. Officers reported speaking to the NU student and banning him from both Wollaston’s locations. A report was filed.

SUNDAY, JAN. 19th 1:25am

An NUPD sergeant requested Emergency Medical Services, or EMS, for an intoxicated NU student outside Smith Hall. EMS responded and cleared the student. A report was filed.

9:25am

An NU plumber reported observing a man unaffiliated with NU who appeared to be sleeping in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.

Officers reported stopping the man and banning him from all NU property. A report was filed.

MONDAY, JAN. 20th 12:42am

A proctor in West Village A reported observing an intoxicated Boston College student in the lobby. Officers requested an ambulance to transport the student to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A report was filed.

1:16am

A resident assistant in East Village reported observing an intoxicated NU student in a common area. Officers requested an ambulance to transport the student to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A report was filed.

11:43am

An NU student reported her unattended bag was stolen from the atrium in Marino Recreation Center. A report was filed.

TUESDAY, JAN. 21th 2:00pm

An NU student reported his unattended bag was stolen from Dodge Hall. A report was filed.

10:12pm

An NU student reported his bike was stolen from Robinson Quad. A report was filed.

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 22th 4:29pm

An NU staff member reported observing a man unaffiliated with NU stealing a bike from outside Behrakis Hall. Officers responded and placed the man under arrest for larceny. A report was filed.

FRIDAY, JAN. 24th 1:45pm

An NU student reported receiving an email from another student letting her know that a homeless man handed him her wallet outside Curry Student Center. The NU student reported her license was missing. A report was filed.

SUNDAY, JAN. 26th 12:42am Photo by Pavithra Rajesh By texting the hotline, students are matched with other students who are given the tools and resources to listen emphathetically, respond thoughtfully and help within the limits of a non-licensed support system.

A proctor in West Village C reported observing an intoxicated NU student. Officers requested EMS and reported the student declined treatment. A report was filed.

LIFESTYLE

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Review: Nightlife redefined: A Bowie experience that is out of this world

By Mihiro Shimano News Correspondent With an unusual mix of science, technology and art, James Wetzel, producer of the adult programs at the Museum of Science, coordinated the David Bowie Experience at the Charles Hayden Planetarium.

The audience, made up of many Bowie fans, were enchanted by the astronomy and abstract visuals, accompanied by some of Bowie’s most famous singles, such as “Fame,” “Heroes” and “Space Oddity.”

“I think who he was and his style of music fits and blends so perfectly with the planetarium,” Wetzel said, explaining the production of the show.

Throughout the show, the planetarium dome was filled with visuals that engulfed the audience, with many members feeling like they were traveling through outer space. Some of the visuals included scenes of a rocket launch, the rocky surfaces of Mars and other planets, as well as intergalactic travel through stars.

Some abstract visuals used were more psychedelic, such as traveling through a light tunnel. Gasps from the audience arose during some of these visuals as the whole dome seemed to be moving. The visuals were paired with the lyrics of Bowie’s hits, relating to the theme of the song.

Daniel Quinn, a member of the audience, had gone into the show not really knowing what to expect.

“I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it,” Quinn said. “But the theme of the music actually really matched the song.”

Another member of the audience, Laura Xavier, recalled the appealing and complementary visuals as well.

“It was interesting to see how many of David Bowie’s songs have space as a theme,” Xavier said. “It was a good wedding.”

We want people to leave feeling like we paid tribute to this incredible musician whose influence still is in the industry and in culture.

— James Wetzel Event Coordinator The list of songs was also curated carefully, with each song embodying a different style, beat and tempo.

Wetzel explained that when planning the show, the setlist is determined based on how each song flows with one another. In order to keep the audience engaged, there must be

a balance between up-tempo and mellow moments.

Despite the producer’s close attention to the audience’s reaction, this experience was never initially planned as a show to the public.

“This sort of started as a tribute that our staff put together for us internally for us to pay tribute and started just as a meditation of playing his music underneath the stars and everyone to sort of just have a moment when the news broke,” Wetzel said. “Then we really thought that it was a great opportunity to open it up to the public.”

Coming from a theatre background, producing for years at the American Repertory Theater, Wetzel recalls his newfound interest after moving to the Museum of Science.

“When I came in, the first room that I fell in love with was the planetarium because I saw the potential of us to create immersive experiences in ways that nobody else in the city is able to do,” he said. “We’re the only ones with the planetarium.”

The planetarium acted as a medium where Wetzel could explore his creativity and create new ways to experience artists like Bowie. With a team of animators and artists, he was able to create a new and dynamic experience for the adult community.

“We want people to leave feeling like we paid tribute to this incredible musician whose influence still is in the industry and in culture,” he said. “We want people to come who are fans and remember him and experience his music in an immersive new way.”

January 30, 2020

Calendar compiled by Kelly Chan | Graphics by Alaine Bennett & Avery Bleichfeld

Friday, Jan. 31 Fill your documentary film appetite at the Mountainfilm on Tour in Somerville with a lineup curated from the annual Mountainfilm Festival in Colorado. 7:30 pm; $12; Brooklyn Boulders, 12A Tyler St, Somerville

Friday, Jan. 31 Saturday, Feb. 1 The Boston Arts Academy is partnering with Roxbury Community College for a show dedicated to Aretha Franklin’s musical legacy and social activism.

Times vary; $10 for students; Media Arts Center, Roxbury Community College, 1234 Columbus Avenue

Friday, Jan. 31 Sunday, Feb. 9 Grab a friend and watch a variety of 2020 Oscar-nominated short films at the Institute of Contemporary Art Museum throughout the week.

Times vary; $5 for students; ICA

Saturday, Feb. 1 Wear your school colors, and join the largest snowball fight of the season in Boston Common.

Saturday, Feb. 1 Celebrate Lunar New Year at the MFA with activities and performances relating to Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese culture.

10-5 pm; free; MFA

Saturday, Feb. 1 Enjoy some free chili samples from restaurants in Harvard Square and vote for your favorite to win the Harvard Square Chili Pot. 1-2:30 pm; free; 31 Brattle Street

Sunday, Feb. 2 Watch the Lion Dance parade in Phillips Square, or enjoy calligraphy and crafts in Culture Village to ring in the year of the rat.

10-3 pm; free; Phillips Square

Monday, Feb. 3 Support Northeastern at TD Garden as the men’s hockey team takes on Harvard University in the annual Beanpot tournament.

5 pm; ticketed; TD Garden

Tuesday, Feb. 4 Support Northeastern at the Walter Brown Arena as the women’s hockey team takes on Harvard University in the annual Beanpot tournament.

5 pm; ticketed; Boston University’s Walter Brown Arena

Wednesday, Feb. 5

Photo Courtesy Museum of Science The David Bowie Experience at the Museum of Science incorporates Bowie’s music with innovative graphics.

In honor of the museum’s anniversary, the MFA is offering opportunities for visitors to take a 15-stop highlights tour and create their own artwork.

10-10 pm; free; MFA

LIFESTYLE

January 30, 2020

Page 5

Review: What ‘Little Women’ tells us today

By Christie Ya-Chi Lee News Correspondent

Photo by Sarah Olender Little Women, a story that takes place in the mid 1800s, reflects contemporary gender struggles.

In the opening scene of “Little Women” (2019), Jo March (Saoirse Ronan) accepts $5 fewer than usual from her publisher, Mr. Dashwood (Tracy Letts). He tells her that her kind of work typically pays between $25 and $30, but he pays her $20. Jo smiles hopefully and nods.

Director Greta Gerwig deconstructs the chronology of the book to highlight personal sacrifices, such as acquiescing to a lower pay, that women frequently made throughout the 19th century and even today. By showing Jo’s glimmer of hope and acceptance without question, Gerwig does Louisa May Alcott’s semi-autobiographical novel justice. Aside from its successful cinematography and thematic approach, the movie is lighthearted and humorous while not missing the gravity of many difficulties. More importantly, she shows through these women how past struggles in society are still relevant today.

With the deconstructed chronology, Gerwig allows the audience to see how universal and modern Alcott’s story is. The themes of the book resonate with each other throughout the movie and with her contemporary audience.

For instance, Jo sells her long hair, pretends as if it were no big deal and cries afterward. This scene connects to the opening one because she sacrifices a piece of herself for her family’s needs, as she sacrifices a bit of her pay — and her dignity — to continue working as a writer.

Jo’s sacrifices not only reflect how much of themselves women have to surrender, but they also depict the conflicting emotions of coming-of-age that are all too relatable.

She insists on breaking traditional expectations of girls, but she is also sad because her hair now looks like

the hair of a boy. These portrayals are true to the human experience: sometimes, one’s actions and emotions are contradictory and paradoxical, but that is how it goes. With an expectation of life as grand as Jo’s, there is a lot of pain that goes unresolved.

In each of their own personal ambitions, the March siblings share struggles of love. In the movie, Amy declares, “I believe we have some power over who we love. It isn’t something that just happens to us.”

Although this declaration is not in the novel, it conveys Alcott’s perception of love.

Amy’s speech defies the romantic idea of love that it “just happens”; in truth, loving someone takes more than Aphrodite’s whispers and daily conscious choices. Jo ends up quickly marrying Professor Friedrich Bhaer (Louis Garrel) instead of Laurie (Timotheé Chalamet), but is it really easier to love a man with whom she has much in common than someone she has grown up and shared countless smiles and secrets with?

The difficult questions and controversial opinions that the movie raises are often the ones people choose not to confront, but have significant impact on their lives.

Thus, Gerwig’s adaptation calls attention to the importance of each individual’s story and is not only made for the sake of feminism. The March family alone shows many different kinds of ways women make their voices heard and the nuances that they face. These nineteenth-century motifs are still relevant to our current society, in which one faces conundrums and is forced to make difficult life decisions.

“Little Women” ultimately helps viewers to reflect on their experiences, find ways to relate to the characters and navigate their journeys.

As Alcott narrates in the book, “There are many Beths in the world.”

And these women are in each of us.

MFA calls all artists to attend free drawing event

By Sasha Shrestha News Correspondent While 20 people silently sketched out the live model in the gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts, Elsa Zhao was not sketching her as others were.

Instead, she decided to sketch one of the Rococo-style portraits in the Ann and William Elfers Gallery. The gallery holds magnificent works like Claude-Nicolas Ledoux’s “Carved Panel” (1770) and Claude-André Deseine’s “Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau” (1791).

“I can’t draw that [live] model very well, so I came over here,” said Zhao, sketching Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s painting, “Portrait of a Young Woman” (1797), following the contours of the painted girl with her pencil. “Sometimes you draw good or bad depending on if you find the model attractive.

If you don’t feel anything towards her, you can never draw her well.”

Every Wednesday night from 6-9 p.m., artists of all ages and skill levels flock to the Museum of Fine Arts, or MFA, to participate in the free “Drawing in the Galleries” event.

Visitors are welcome to pick up supplies and draw from live models or artworks in the galleries. Every-

thing is provided for participants, from necessary materials to a drawing instructor that is available throughout the night.

Zhao lives in Brookline but makes the trip to the MFA twice a week, taking advantage of the free drawing event every Wednesday night.

“I’m not a student, but I’m kind of a student because you should learn forever,” she said.

“Drawing in the Galleries” is just one of many events hosted by the MFA to promote accessibility of art and education. The event is open to everyone and provides a judgement-free space for practice, skill building or even just for fun. It is a great opportunity for people looking to get into sketching or to practice on a live model.

“It’s intimidating but seeing the range [of skills] is very comforting,” said Boston local Sofia Cabanas, an elementary school art teacher and frequent attendee.

This week Cabanas brought her friend Caleb Simone, a graduate student at Simmons University.

Simone mentioned how accessible the program is for anyone interested in participating.

“You come in, you tell them you

want free tickets to the drawing thing and it’s in a different gallery with a different model every week,” Simone said. “I will definitely be coming back.”

The MFA strives to encourage more active involvement in the arts.

By promoting programs that are open to anyone and everyone, the exclusivity of the art world dissolves.

“The reality is that art is for the elite,” said Mahesh Viswanathan, a Greentech entrepreneur attending his first drawing event. “It always has been. It’s always been the really rich people who sponsor the best artist.

So there is that serious professional part of it, but then there’s the part where anyone and everyone can make art. And everyone should.”

Participating in the arts can seem out of reach based on the costliness of museum tickets or art supplies. Elizabeth, who declined to provide her last name, said she has been a facilitator for the MFA for the last 14 years.

“To get into the arts, just find something beautiful that you love.

Anything that fits your soul,” she said as she picked up an eraser and handed it to the newest participant of the event. “You don’t need much to be an artist — all I had was a pen.”

Clarissa Yingling moved to

Boston five years ago and now has a membership at the MFA. For her, art museums were less accessible growing up.

“I’ve always really liked going to art museums,” she said. “As a kid I didn’t get to go to them very often just because I didn’t live in a big city, so I

mostly just looked at art in books.”

Art programs like “Drawing in the Galleries” offer experiential learning opportunities for the community without any cost. The MFA provides a space that sparks creativity and inspires artists of all experiences.

Photo by Sasha Shrestha A Museum of Fine Arts visitor tries to recreate museum classics during the Wednesday Drawing Night.

SPORTS

Page 6

January 30, 2020

Photo courtesy Brian Bae Knoll sits just outside the crease during an NU power play against BU.

KATY KNOLL

brings auto racing drive from family to the ice

By Paige Stern News Staff Northeastern University women’s hockey player Katy Knoll has made incredible strides for a player her age. But for the promising athlete, it’s the passing down of traditions and passions through her family that has made her who she is today.

Knoll, 19, grew up in Amherst, New York, like her father. Following the footsteps of a businessman who owns a gas station, towing company and an auto-repair shop all-in-one, Knoll is pursuing a degree in business management at Northeastern.

“My dad owns his own business, and he got that from his father — it’s kind of a generational thing,” the freshman said. Like her older brother and sister, the forward player has often worked for the business.

“I’ve learned so much, just from my grandfather passing things down to my father, and my dad passing things down to us.”

Photo courtesy Brian Bae Knoll dives to get her stick during a rivalry game vs BU earlier this season.

And since the business has “kept the family tight,” why would hockey be any different? Though her father never played competitively, he grew up loving the game, and was a fan of the Buffalo Sabres for most of his early life.

“As soon as he could get my older siblings on the ice, he did,” Knoll said.

Her siblings competed from young ages and throughout high school, which left Knoll hanging around the rink more often than not.

“I was the little kid that, at home, would always put on one of my sibling’s still gross equipment and just walk around the house in it,” Knoll recalled, smiling in reminisce. She even recalls putting on skates for the first time at two years old, and that

no matter the age, claims that it gives her the same feeling, every time.

“It got to the point where they got me my own skates, but I was so small that I couldn’t skate yet, so they put those rubber skate guards on them.

And once I started walking up the stairs with skates on, they were just like, ‘okay, we’ve got to put her on the ice. It doesn’t matter that she’s only 2,” she said, laughing.

While this may sound typical of most athletic families, how the Knolls spend their time in the off-season is rather unique.

“My family also has a really heavy background in auto racing,” Knoll revealed. “My grandfather and my dad both raced asphalt, my dad still races asphalt to this day. All of my siblings and I raced our cars.”

Like her siblings, Knoll started with go-carts around the age of 6, and eventually graduated to micro-sprinters, which she described as a car with a big wing on top.

“The way we were brought up was if you want to race the car, you have to work on it,” Knoll explained. Her family would often compete against one another, and if not working on their own, they would work on each other’s crews during a race. But race tracks and ice rinks alike, Knoll always depended on her family’s guidance. And when it came down to it, she knew hockey was the path for her.

“I believe that once you pick the sport you want to specialize in, it should be your focus. And I picked hockey a long time ago.”

Having stepped onto the ice at a young age, it always seemed like Knoll was always one step ahead — at least age wise. Whether she was playing on an under 8 (U-8) years old team at the age of 3, 14 years old on a U-16 team, or 15 years old on a U-19 team, she never let age stand as a barrier.

In her freshman year, Knoll enrolled at The Nichols School in Buffalo, New York, and followed the footsteps of her older sister, who played hockey at the college-preparatory school for three years, a program the school is renowned for.

During the off-seasons, Knoll even dipped her toes into golf and tennis.

She still enjoys golfing with her grandma when home.

But it was also at Nichols where her former coach, Scott Welsh, assisted in Knoll’s recruitment process with Northeastern women’s hockey associate coach Nick Carpenito.

After working with Knoll for four years through the recruitment

process, Carpenito seems to be only more impressed by her everyday.

“As far as a hockey player goes, she’s the total package,” Carpenito said. The coach had also known The Knolls when recruiting Knoll’s older sister at his previous job, an offer she had to turn down due to a knee injury. “Katy had a pretty significant role for us right away, which we expected with her abilities.”

Those abilities were developed further by Welsh’s successor. Former NU women’s hockey player and alumni Shelley Looney took Welsh’s place at Nichols during Knoll’s sophomore year. But going into her junior year, she found herself being offered a spot on a Provincial Women’s Hockey League Team in Canada, the Toronto Aeros, where her coach Dave Gwyn served as a final touch.

“Between Scott Welsh, Shelley and my coach from Toronto Dave Gwyn, all three of them had a significant impact in the way that I play my game on the ice, the way I look at a game off the ice, and how I work everyday to try and better myself.

Not only as a player, but as a person because in the long run, [I] can’t play hockey forever, as sad as that is,” Knoll said.

However, after getting recruited right before her sophomore year of

high school, and knowing the risk of getting injured in an auto-race, Knoll made the decision to take a step back from the race tracks. She had previously broken her hand in eighth grade in the midst of a race, and felt she couldn’t put her future on the line.

“We used to joke that if she started racing once she accepted our offer to come to the school, we’d have to put her in bubble wrap,” Carpenito joked.

But when she has the chance, Knoll still loves to support her father by giving him an extra hand on his crew during the racing season.

“I think I’m so passionate about it because of how passionate my brother and father are. And I know how passionate my grandfather was,” Knoll said. “I didn’t know my grandfather for very long, but I still hear stories to this day from my father, and I see pictures, and it’s just been a part of my family’s life for so long.”

Initially, Knoll attempted to balance playing for her high school team as well as the Toronto Aeros, but having to commute four hours to-and-from Toronto four or five days a week proved to be too hard on the student athlete. With that commute throughout her junior year, Knoll would have to miss several practices for her high school team,

SPORTS

January 30, 2020

Katy has got incredible humility.

She’s just a great person.

She would do anything for her teammates if they asked her to. She’d probably do anything for anyone if they asked her.

— Nick Carpenito Northeastern women’s hockey associate coach

and didn’t want to lead her younger peers with poor commitment.

“My senior year I knew I was going to be someone kids looked up to, and I didn’t want to set that example, where when I came, I was just getting played, while all of these kids are going to practices and they can make everything, and I would be played over them,” Knoll said. “I decided not to play, and it allowed me to focus on my Toronto team and my studies for my senior year before I came to the university.”

Knoll credits her experience and success on the Toronto team for how she skates today.

“It was one of the biggest steps I’ve ever taken in my life, but it was so worth it in the end, and it helped me just get that much better.”

Even when Knoll doesn’t think anyone is watching, according to Carpenito, her devotion to the game shows. One of her greatest attributes, the coach claimed, is her consistency.

After every practice, he’ll catch Knoll out on the ice long after their session has ended.

“It shows that she is in a higher class of athletes among the team,” Carpenito said. “It shows not only in the way she carries herself during practice or when everybody else is around, but also in the little things she does when she doesn’t think

people are watching.”

Knoll has achieved some of the greatest honors an American hockey player can. In her first year of playing in Toronto, her team won the Triple Crown —a provincial championship, a league championship and the Final Four League championship.

In the same year, she was selected for the U-18 U.S. National team, where she flew to Russia to beat Canada and Sweden, as well as win gold. In the following year, she was re-selected to join the team in Japan, where, even though the U.S. lost against Canada, all of her successes further affirmed “that what [she] was doing in Toronto was really paying off,” especially since she got to share the success with her family as they got to fly to Russia to see her win gold.

But what is most demonstrative of Knoll’s character is that even with several national recognitions and titles, she first-and-foremost considers her achievements to include racing with her family, where she’s competed in, and won, several go-cart and micro-speeding races.

“If you talk to her outside of the rink, you probably wouldn’t necessarily know she was a hockey player. You probably wouldn’t necessarily know the success she had at the national level,” Carpenito

Page 7

said. He compared her to former NU hockey player Kendall Coyne, who he described as an incredibly humble, highly-achieved player with starpower.

Carpenito’s comparison speaks volumes, as Coyne’s hockey resume is remarkable, including an Olympic gold medal, an NWHL championship and a seventh place finish in the 2020 NHL All-Star Fastest Skater competition.

“Katy has got incredible humility.

She’s just a great person. She would do anything for her teammates if they asked her to. She’d probably do anything for anyone if they asked her.”

However, don’t be fooled by the wholesome, warm traits that make Knoll who she is. She likes to think she’s “a lot nicer off the ice than on the ice.” Another aspect of the game passed down to her from her sister.

“She was a defenseman, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her, to this day, go into a corner and not come out with the puck,” Knoll recalled. “Once you put the equipment on, you have to be in a zone where you don’t have friends on the other end of the ice.

You can be friends after the game, but you’re out there with a purpose, and it’s to win the game.”

Even Carpenito spoke of the forward with a little fear in his eyes as

he described her opposition style.

“Everything she does is violent.

She goes into corners violently, she goes to the net violently, she shoots violently. She plays with an extra edge. I think that’s just her competitive nature. She competes so hard all of the time, that it just looks violent.”

But while the equipment and uniform may set a mental and physical precedent for Knoll’s merciless edge, underneath it all is a hard working, dedicated and excited two-year-old, putting on her skates for the very first time.

“She is someone that’s going to be a leader in our locker room, if she’s not already. Just with her work ethic, and how she does those little things that a lot of people don’t necessarily see. The way she carries herself, she’s someone I can definitely see being one of our leadership group down the road,” Carpenito said.

Knoll’s love for the game has only grown since she was first brought to the rink because of what her siblings showed her: the harder she works, the greater potential she has to achieve the unimaginable.

“I’ve been playing for so long that it’s pretty much my life, but I think I’ve made it really worth it,” Knoll said. “I’m enjoying the journey and doing what I love. It won’t last forever, so enjoy it while it’s here.”

SPORTS

Page 8

By Valeria Vazquez Deputy Sports Editor

January 30, 2020

Jordan reaching record highs Roland: and keeping close ties

The numbers don’t lie: 42 points in a single game (an NU record), 99 three-pointers in a single season (another NU record) and 1,000 points in his college career. Redshirt senior guard Jordan Roland is the type of player colleges see once a decade, and it’s his final season.

His journey started young, at the age of 3, since he grew up in a basketball family in Syracuse, New York. His father, Rahsaah Roland, played at Mercyhurst University, and his younger brother, Ryan Roland, is currently a senior guard at Le Moyne College.

By the seventh grade, he started to pursue basketball as more than just a hobby, taking the time to do extra drills on his own. It clearly paid off as he joined Westhill Senior High School’s varsity team as a freshman.

“I was kind of a role player, and then I kind of just got a bigger and bigger role as we went on,” Roland said.

He was able to play on the same team as his brother, where the duo won two New York state championships in his junior and senior years and the elder Roland won New York State Class B Player of the Year after both of those years.

In his junior year, he averaged 23.9 points, followed by 21.3 points the following year.

After a stellar end to his high school career, he was recruited by George Washington University for the 2015-16 season where he played 35 out of 38 games and reached a career high of 11 points. In the 2016-17 season, he started in 10 of 35 games and hit a career-high of 27 points.

Although there was a coaching change and playing was relatively inconsistent, Roland says he had a pretty good experience overall.

“I had a lot of fun at GW,” Roland said. “I met a lot of my best friends there.”

It was around this time that the coaching staff at NU decided to recruit Roland, after their failed first attempt when Roland was a senior in high school.

“The first time around we didn’t get the opportunity to get him to campus,” said NU head coach Bill Coen. “When he decided to make a change, we wanted to reintroduce ourselves, and lucky for us, he decided to come.”

Northeastern’s track record of excellent guard play was a major factor in Roland’s transfer decision.

“They sold me on the idea that they were really good at developing guards,” he said. “They have had really good guards in the past, and I wanted to be the next one. They definitely fulfilled that promise, and I credit that to them.”

However, when a student transfers to another university, the NCAA does not allow transfers to participate in a sport during their first year on campus, which made Roland a “redshirt.” Unable to travel and go to games, he still trained and practiced, but he spent the year

focusing on himself.

“I thought it was a pretty beneficial year,” Roland said. “When the team went away, I had to stay back, which was tough, but I got to go back home more.”

Since coming to NU, Roland has broken multiple school records, helped the Huskies win last season’s CAA championship and took the Huskies all the way to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2015. The CAA championship and the NCAA tournament appearance were both his proudest moments at NU. “I’ve seen him grow most as a person,” Coen said. “Coming in after his GW experience, he lost a little bit of confidence in the game. But to watch him this year and see him play at such a high level, I think it’s a tribute to his work ethic.”

Now a senior in his final semester of graduate school, Roland is not only trying to carry the scoring load, but he is also working on his leadership skills.

“He commands a lot of respect [from the team] because of his game,” Coen said. “He’s a guy that comes in each and everyday and does his job, and when you’ve got somebody that behaves like that, the mutual respect just rolls.”

When he’s off the court, he spends his time relaxing and reconnecting with old friends from GW and family via Fortnite. Although he is often the center of attention on the court, his usual demeanor is quiet and humble, and he focuses his time with those that matter most in his life.

“I think it takes a little while for him to get used to people, but once he does he’s an awesome guy,” said roommate and NU senior guard Bolden Brace. “Jordan’s pretty lowkey. He’s a hard worker, really funny and overall an awesome guy.

He’s always looking out for people.”

His loyalty and supportiveness seem to come from those who raised him.

“I don’t know if his parents have missed a game in the last two years,” Coen said. “If they have, it’s only a couple. They drive down from Syracuse for every home game, and when we’re on the road, they’ll show up. They love the game, and they love their son, so they’ll come and support him.”

Just when you think you’ve figured Roland out, you discover a new talent that only adds to his character, including the fact that he won his high school chess tournament in his sophomore year and still plays a little.

“He’s actually left-handed. He does everything with his left hand but shoot, which is pretty funny and uncommon,” said Brace. “But I think it’s accurate and reflective of him as a person.”

With future plans to play professionally or “at the highest level possible,” the only other box to check off is another CAA championship.

“Obviously he wants another CAA championship,” Coen said.

“When they’re a senior they see the hourglass ticking, and they want to make the most of it.”

Jordan Roland Stats 2018-19 Season Minutes: 1038 Field Goals: 167 3-Point FG: 99 Free Throws: 65 Offensive Rebounds: 16 Defensive Rebounds: 65

SPORTS

January 30, 2020

Page 9

Northeastern athletics has been on a long hot streak. Why do so few people go to games?

By Charlie Wolfson | News Staff

Photo by Samantha Barry Despite two nationally ranked teams, Matthews Arena often has many empty seats when the puck drops. Initiatives from the athletics department are trying to rectify this problem.

The Northeastern athletic department has seen considerable success in recent years, but one thing belies that fact: Many home games, even for the relatively popular basketball and hockey teams, see a large number of empty seats at Matthews Arena.

The men’s hockey team has been consistently ranked in the top 20 nationally, but almost always plays in front of fewer than 3,000 people.

The men’s basketball team last year finished as league champions after playing in front of sparse crowds including fewer than 100 students on many occasions. The women’s basketball team draws fewer student supporters than the pep band that loyally cheers on the team.

The women’s hockey team, which is ranked third in the nation at 21-3-1 and is the defending Hockey East champion, hosted local rivalry games against Boston University and Boston College that each drew fewer than 600 people to Matthews.

Students spread thin Many students have so much work related to school and extracurriculars that what little extra time they have isn’t spent on attending a sporting event.

Jasmine Agreda, a first-year chemistry major, said she’s too busy to go to games and the only way for the school to get her into Matthews Arena would be “lowering my homework.”

“Northeastern is a hard school that keeps us busy with work,” Agreda said.

Lauren Murphy, a second-year behavioral neuroscience major, said “I just don’t have time.”

Awareness is another limiting factor on fan interest. Many students describe a lack of knowledge about the teams, their achievements and opportunities to cheer them on.

“I feel like you have to be interested in it to know when the games are because otherwise I don’t hear about them,” said Mia Narciso, a fourthyear English major. “I think you have to be in the know.”

Setting priorities A new marketing approach that

Athletic Director Jeff Konya revealed in an interview with The News reflects the student body’s limited interest in attending games.

He said the department selected a handful of “emphasis games” for each sport, intending to go all-out to promote those, rather than try to push each game equally.

“We’re not going to be able to do it for every game,” Konya said.

The Nov. 16 men’s basketball game against Old Dominion was one of those circled dates. A 1 p.m. Saturday tip.

The game’s total attendance was announced as 2,209. Student attendance was 413, per a department spokesperson. (This indicates the number of students who requested a free ticket online.)

If the “pick your spots” method worked for the Old Dominion basketball game, it had a side effect. That same evening, the men’s hockey team hosted a nationally-ranked Providence team for an important Hockey East game. The student section was sparsely populated.

“It might be a big ask at an academic institution like Northeastern to designate an eight-to-nine hour block for athletics,” Konya said. “So if you had to pick and choose a game that day you might have chosen the basketball game.”

Athletics culture at NU Some people do go to the arena on a consistent basis.

Ben Forman, a fifth-year mechanical engineering major who leads the men’s basketball student section (“the NZone”), sees the games as a special opportunity.

“I literally stand on the court at games. It’s a unique experience,” Forman said. “You really can’t get that at most colleges, obviously, and at the professional level, no way.

He said the games are most fun when there’s a large student crowd.

Often, though, the student section has many empty seats and the only people standing courtside and actively cheering are Forman and a few other NZone leaders.

“I’ve seen it like, there’s maybe 25, 40, 50 kids and they’re spread out

and nobody really gets into it, and it’s kind of just us five standing there yelling, but it’s really quiet and it’s kind of awkward. That happens a bunch.”

He explained that the subdued atmosphere at many games is a catch 22 — when students come to games for the first time, he said, the lack of excitement drives them away, and the problem persists.

Why is it hard to get students out to see a Division I, “March Madness” team? Forman said he thinks the student body “just doesn’t really care” about athletics.

“I think it’s a culture where it’s not just that kids don’t like sports, but it’s kind of cool to not like sports,” Forman said.

Clayton Manchester, a fifth-year leader of the hockey student section (“the DogHouse”), said NU’s athletics culture is not as “ingrained” as it is at schools like Duke or Kentucky.

Northeastern students do turn out well for the Beanpot, the annual four-team hockey tournament held at TD Garden. In 2018 and 2019, Husky fans filled more than six sections of the massive arena’s upper deck.

Both years, those thousands were delighted by championship play on the ice and a festive atmosphere in the stands. Why didn’t that electrified experience translate into more attendance at Matthews Arena?

Forman posited that the Beanpot has become a “social event” for students, akin to the Underwear Run or Springfest, and regular home games have not reached such status. Manchester said that there’s simply a limit to how much sports students will consume in a short period of time.

“It might be as simple as, if you’re going to the Beanpot you’re going to two games in two weeks, that’s more than most people do,” Manchester said. “If you go to the next one you’re going to three games in two weeks.

It’s kind of a lot.”

Some students who don’t often attend games cited a lack of general “school spirit” on campus.

“I feel like students here don’t really have the spirit for that,” said Marilyn Miao, a second-year biology major. “Like, if they win the game,

we don’t really feel the success for them. I don’t know why though, it’s just not the spirit around the campus.”

Narciso, when asked what the school could possibly do to attract her to attend more games, said: “Nothing. Is that a bad thing to say?

Nothing? For me, I just do not have interest, or school spirit for that matter.”

‘Pillars’ of distribution Inside a suite of offices in the Cabot Center is an athletics department constantly churning, trying to raise the department’s brand as high as its resources can lift.

Konya said in the past year there’s been a focus on student traditions (like singing “Stacy’s Mom” at hockey games) and a rewards app designed to incentivize students to show support. Konya’s staff tests countless new ideas, like an in-game host at the arena and a new beer garden at men’s basketball games.

Konya pointed to three avenues, or “pillars,” through which people can engage with NU sporting events: ingame attendance, broadcasting and social networking.

“It’s not a Northeastern issue, I think it’s an industry issue right now,” Konya said. “You’ve got the Alabama football coach complaining about attendance and they’re ranked in the top 10. I think for us to be relevant, we have to exist and hit home runs in all three of those spaces.”

It’s hard to know exactly how many students attend NU games. The school doesn’t list student attendance online, and the capacity of the general admission sections isn’t posted.

But The News estimates that the DogHouse, which consists of the balconies at each end of the arena, can hold approximately 600 students on each side. The NZone consists of two areas of courtside folding chairs, totalling about 150 seats.

The sections are virtually never packed, and they are often less than half full.

As Konya pointed out, people can consume the games in other ways.

He said games broadcast on NESN

have garnered more than 200,000 viewers since the team partnered with the station ahead of last season.

The men’s hockey Twitter account has more than 12,800 followers.

Attendance is not a problem unique to NU, as Konya said. Boston University draws more for men’s hockey, but that’s a more historic program with championship history.

Boston College men’s basketball never drew as many as 6,000 people to a game last year despite being in the top-notch Atlantic Coast Conference.

Attendance is down in professional sports, too.

But it seems as if there’s a disconnect at NU between the success of the department and the response from the community. The recent past has seen a stunning amount of achievement: the last two men’s Beanpot titles, four combined Hockey East titles since 2016, and an men’s NCAA basketball tournament appearance last year.

“Winning breeds winning, and winning breeds more interest,” Konya said. And perhaps that’s working just fine. Men’s and women’s hockey and women’s basketball have seen modest increases in student attendance this year.

But the empty red seats are still there. In the middle of a sportscrazed city, perfectly wedged into a campus of more than 20,000 students, never more than two or three thousand file into Matthews for big games. As winning breeds interest, a dull atmosphere breeds disinterest.

“I think it could be like ‘Oh there’s a basketball game, let’s go.’ and you have the expectation that it’s going to be loud and fun,” Forman said. “I don’t think that exists now.”

“I think after a few games and the kids stop showing up, and the people who do go think it’s awkward. You need that big crowd to let everyone lose themselves in it.”

Leah Cussen contributed to this story.

OPINION

Page 10

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Look at Sweden’s reality, not Bernie Sanders’ version

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January 30, 2020

You have most likely heard that the United States has a presidential election coming up this year. One of the most enthusiastic front-runners for the Democratic Party is Bernie Sanders. His political platform promises solutions to complex societal problems, and many of these proposals involve expanding the role of government.

As students, we are rich in many things, but not money. Naturally, it can be appealing for students to hear an enthusiastic man screaming with hands over his head that he will make expensive necessities “free.”

Sanders claims that by inflating the government’s role and allowing it to operate health care, education and even banking services, it will work in favor of the less-off people. It instigates a feeling of hope among us — that we can restore the tremendous problems this country is facing like income inequality, increased cost of living and declining economic growth. Many contemporary issues in the U.S. economy can be traced to corporations and their control over almost every political stage. Legislation is then naturally skewed in favor of corporations in the United States.

Inflating the role of the government like Sanders calls for sounds like a great adverse option for the nation. However, students who are eligible to vote should listen critically to what Sanders has to say, particularly when he refers to my home country of Sweden.

Sanders often refers to Sweden as a success story. Poverty is nearly non-existent, workers are well-paid, prosperous entrepreneurs are everywhere and we are currently ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world. If you think about it, we, with 10 million people, have a higher GDP than the Philippines, which has 110

million people. It sounds like a utopia, and it’s understandable why someone would want his or her country to move in the same direction as us.

But Sanders wants the United States to resemble Sweden in its socialistic era, which lasted from 1970 to 1991. During that period, Sweden was run entirely by social democrats who believed the government was the answer to everything. Telecommunications, railroad, television, health care, education, pharmacy, energy and postal services were all industries with legal monopolies held by the government. However, they were not performing well because without competitors, they had no incentive to do so.

Furthermore, it was not free to operate all these services and monopolies, in particular when there was no real inducement for companies to run on a surplus. It was extremely costly, in fact, we had peaking budget deficit throughout the 1980s.

In order to fund all these ineffective government programs and monopolies, the government was forced to adapt a concept that was essentially to tax everything that is moving until it stops moving. Taxes crippled companies and entrepreneurs all across the country. As the pressure from labor regulations and taxes increased, major corporations like IKEA began fleeing the country. One of Sweden’s most prominent authors, Astrid Lindgren, found that she paid 102 percent in taxes. In the same period, we experienced stagflation, meaning that we had rapid inflation while our economy stagnated. This is an economic death sentence. This might sound like a nightmare to you, and if you vote for Sanders, this is the direction your country will head in.

Sanders has misunderstood the Swedish success story. It does not come from the historic large role of the government; it comes from the

historic retreat of the government.

The government should provide vital societal services, but not through the means Sanders wants. If the government operates services you will have inherent monopoly issues. The government should provide funding for private enterprises in welfare sectors and regulate how they are allowed to operate. The voucher system Sweden has introduced in both health care and education should be studied and instituted here in the United States.

Another lesson the United States should draw from Sweden is the support the government gives to entrepreneurs. We have benefited from the good effects of trickle-down policies in Sweden because regulations are often placed on large corporations and not small businesses. In these small ventures, employers and employees work closely with each other and there is a link between the proximity between employers and employees and increasing wages. Wages have not stagnated like they have in the United States and we have seen tremendous economic growth. In 2018, Sweden was ranked as the sixth best country to be located in as an entrepreneur.

We encourage innovation by having small entry barriers and low corporate taxes for small companies.

Sweden has four times as many startups per capita compared to the US. Spotify, Skype, Klarna, iZettle and Minecraft are all products of policies introduced in the 1990s that encouraged people to start their own business. This sizzling startup community in Sweden is more alive than ever today. In fact, Stockholm has the second-most billion-dollar tech companies per capita in the world after Silicon Valley. We have realized that small business owners and startups are the backbone of society. American politicians have yet to come to the realization that they should empower small independent

Photo by James Chen businesses and not large corporations. According to the Swedish economist Lars Persson, Sweden has modified its regulatory landscape in favor of small business, with substantial anti-monopoly laws and prohibiting industry consolidation.

The United States has done the opposite, molding its regulatory landscape in favor of large corporations.

So, you are probably wondering which candidates truly understand the Swedish success story. Based on the platforms presented by each candidate, Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg are the ones you should consider. They want to empower small business owners and be tougher on corporations, which are shirking their fair share of societal duties. Whenever you hear a candidate screaming about empowering small business owners and voucher systems, a green light should appear in your head. On the contrary, some proclaim that the government should start to operate businesses. Additionally, they state that small-business owners should be regulated. This should set off a red light in your head. Don’t believe Sanders’ false depiction of Sweden’s success. Our success was based in free markets, not government socialists.

Column: Northeastern must invest in its students’ health

By Poon Singhatiraj Columnist When a Northeastern student gets sick, it’s likely that one of the first things they will do is visit University Health and Counseling Services, or UHCS. That’s exactly what two of my friends did during one of the cold/ flu outbreaks last October. First-years Elena Plumb and Madison Xagoraris both called ahead to see if they could make an appointment, only to find the earliest available appointments were a week away.

Walk-in it was, then. They went in with different symptoms, but both had similar experiences. Aside from the 45-minute wait, the receptionists rudely inquired about their medical histories and insurance information, and stony-faced clinicians spent little more than five minutes assessing their conditions before hastily prescribing medication and ushering them out the door.

Because of their negative experiences, both of these students said

they had no intention of returning to UHCS if they became ill again.

Indeed, they have gotten sick at least once since their UHCS visit, but decided the best course of action was to stay in bed and tough it out with over-the-counter medication.

Here were two college students who decided getting medical help at UHCS was not worth the experience. They took the potential risk of staying sick longer and increasing the likelihood of contaminating other students.

This worries me. Inadequate health services can have major ramifications on university students if serious, virulent diseases appear on campus. Students deciding to “tough out” something that turns out to be more dangerous than a cold or the flu run the risk of spreading it further. This concern is not unfounded. Earlier this month a Northeastern student was diagnosed with measles.

College campuses are ground zero for deadly pathogens like meningococcus. According to the

Center for Disease Control, college students are six times more likely to contract meningitis than the overall United States populace. Princeton University, University of Oregon and Providence College have some of the most recent outbreaks.

Northeastern should improve UHCS’s services by expanding their medical staff to help with wait times and alleviate pressure off existing staff. According to their website, UHCS currently employs roughly 10 medical clinicians for 17,506 NU undergraduates, or about one for every 1,750 students.

This ratio falls far short of the standards laid out by The National Association of School Nurses, which encourages educational institutions to have one school nurse for every 750 students. This poor ratio is part of the reason why UHCS is not accredited with the International Association of Counseling Services.

Northeastern students deserve better, especially considering the hefty $1999 bill many students pay for the

Photo by Julian Perez University Student Health Plan.

Furthermore, mental health services at UHCS are notoriously deficient. The Huntington News has covered numerous instances of students speaking out against the lack of resources for mental health on campus. In addressing long-term mental care, UHCS only offers referrals for outside treatment, putting the burden of coordinating actual sessions with mental healthcare providers on the students themselves.

Students pay exorbitant amounts of money to attend Northeastern. It would be nice to see this wealth reinvested in something as fundamental as our health.

OPINION

January 30, 2020

Page 11

Op-Ed: Exchange Students Can Be More Integrated Into Campus NU promotes its global campus as one of its strengths. It provides numerous study abroad programs, such as N.U.in and satellite campuses in Seattle, Toronto, London and San Francisco. In addition to having a high proportion of international students, NU hosts over 100 exchange students, enhancing campus diversity.

However, as a current exchange student, I cannot say the university did enough to prepare me for the experience of living in Boston.

Although Northeastern might do its best to host incoming exchange students, it does not provide enough support and resources for this group as a whole.

As an incoming exchange student from Japan, I looked forward to experiencing college life in the United States. I was especially excited to live in a dormitory with my peers.

Residential education was supposed

to be a unique part of my experience while studying abroad, as my home university does not provide such opportunities. In fact, the incoming exchange application website states, “[w]e strongly encourage students to consider living on-campus, as it is a unique part of the American collegiate experience.” So you can imagine my shock when I received a notification that on-campus dormitories were unavailable.

They encouraged me to seek off-campus housing by sending me some databases and suggesting I contact off-campus housing services.

Looking for a place to live in a country across the ocean was very stressful, as I was totally unfamiliar with the rent system in the United States and did not know which neighborhoods were safe. I eventually found an apartment with a 20-minute commute to campus.

Another downside of living off-campus was that I lost an opportunity to meet other students and make friends in a non-academic setting. For exchange students without a solid social circle, a dormitory is supposed to provide a sense of community. The people living in the same flat are not necessarily college students, and I struggled with a flatmate who did not share my values.

Honestly, my experience as a student here was totally different from what I expected.

The problem also extends to academics. The course registration process for exchange students is different from the registration process for other students. It is understandable that since we come from various countries with different education systems, the university wants to confirm that we meet their prerequisites. It is also important for them to check whether

exchange students are taking the courses needed to maintain their visa status. However, exchange students cannot add or drop classes freely, which is a major inconvenience.

The exchange student advisor registers us for classes on our behalf, which takes an enormous amount of time. This semester, I did not have a full schedule until the second week of the semester, and I missed several classes that I would not have if it were within my control.

The root of the problem is obvious: The number of exchange students overwhelms the capacity of the Global Experience Office, or GEO. There is only one staff member assigned to over 100 exchange students, and this unbalanced staff to student ratio leads to insufficient support. I believe the university needs to increase the number of GEO staff members to resolve the problems faced by exchange

students.

My life at Northeastern was totally different from what I expected, but it hasn’t been all bad. I met many new friends who are genuinely kind and care about me. I love my classes because they teach me new perspectives. I experienced many amazing things here unlike I ever could have imagined. As such, it is a huge disappointment that I had to live off-campus and I did not have access to my own course registration. I felt like I wasn’t treated like a true NU student. I hope the university makes a greater effort to improve the lives of exchange students here, so we can be more stress-free.

Yuki Takahashi is a third-year sociology major at The University of Tokyo, participating in an exchange program at NU for one year.

Column: Deportation of NU Student Undermines American Integrity

By Maya Homan Opinion Editor On Sunday, Jan. 19, Northeastern economics student Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein Abadi arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston to begin his spring semester.

He was greeted instead by agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, who detained him overnight and questioned him, despite the fact that he had obtained a valid F1 student visa prior to arriving in the United States. His lawyers intervened, filing an emergency motion to delay the deportation for 48 hours for a federal judge to review his case, but his flight back to Iran took off minutes later.

Abadi’s detainment sparked waves of protests at Logan International Airport and on Northeastern’s campus. By Tuesday, the story had appeared in national newspapers, and Massa-

chusetts Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey both tweeted their support.

However, this incident did not occur in isolation. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 10 Iranian international students with valid visas have been denied entry at U.S. airports since last August, and at least seven of those instances occurred at Logan International Airport. Since Iranian General Qassim Suleimani was killed by a U.S. drone strike, it is estimated that roughly 200 people of Iranian descent were detained at American airports.

Admittedly, the full story has not yet emerged. According to Jigisha Patel, Northeastern’s chief advisor for International and Immigration Services and assistant general counsel, CBP has not disclosed a

reason for denying Abadi entry. An unnamed source interviewed by The New York Times said airport officials believed that Abadi’s family members had affiliations with a company sanctioned by the U.S. government. They also alleged that he was involved with a YouTube channel that called for retribution against the United States in the wake of Suleimani’s death.

His lawyers have questioned both claims, arguing that such evidence would have been uncovered during the background check necessary to obtain a student visa.

As a university with the third highest number of international students in the country, the treatment that Abadi faced should concern us all.

Regardless of your political stance, the fact that CBP agents defied a judge’s order and deported a student with a valid visa should concern you. The realization that American citizens are paying the price for a reckless instance of U.S. military

intervention should set off alarms.

Regardless of Abadi’s family connections or personal beliefs, he is entitled to the same Constitutional rights as American citizens.

For those facing deportation, that includes the right to a hearing with an immigration judge, the right to obtain legal representation and the right to an interpreter for those who do not speak English. The government must also provide evidence to support their reason for removing someone from their borders. Negligently returning Abadi back to Iran sends the message that the United States cannot even be trusted to uphold its own laws.

While CBP claims to be protecting the United States from the threat of extremism, they may find that their fear becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is no evidence to suggest that ostracizing Iranians and Iranian

Americans will make our country any safer. According to a report from the Department of Homeland Security, immigration has a poor correlation with radical extremism. Most foreign-born, violent extremists in the U.S. aren’t radicalized until several years after they enter the country. I can’t help but wonder if the treatment they experience as immigrants is a contributing factor. A different study published in the Journal of Global Security Studies found that while terrorism did increase with higher levels of immigration, this was due to right-wing extremism, and immigration was not correlated with an increase in instances of hate from other extremist ideologies.

Abadi’s experience only heightened tensions in an already precarious time and furthers the narrative that Iranian citizens should not trust America. The world is watching, and I worry that the damage has already been done.

Photo by Kelly Chan Students gather on Centennial Commons to protest Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein Abadi’s deportation.

CITY

Page 12

January 30, 2020

Bostonians gathered near the Common Jan 4. to condemn U.S. involvement in Iran and Iraq, following an airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Photo by Nicholas Stolte

Hundreds protest at Boston Common to condemn U.S. involvement in Middle East

By Nicholas Stolte News Correspondent On Saturday, over 400 participants rallied in Boston Common as part of an event hosted by the ANSWER Coalition to denounce U.S. actions in Iran and Iraq — including an airstrike which killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani — and sanctions against Iran.

The “No War With Iran” protest was hosted by the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism Coalition and featured over a dozen speakers from various organizations such as Pride at Work, Massachusetts Peace Action,

and the Boston Teachers Union. The demands of the protesters were for the U.S. to “end its war drive” with Iran, that they end the “genocidal” sanctions against Iran and that U.S. troops leave Iraq, according to ANSWER Coalition Organizer Nino Brown.

“What really set this off… was that the United States committed an illegal and brazen war crime,” Husayn Karimi, another organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, said referring to the killing of Soleimani.

Between speeches and during their march that brought them down to Downtown Crossing, protesters shouted chants such as “occupation is

a crime, from Iraq to Palestine.”

Many speakers touched on the role that class played in the activities and consequences related to U.S. presence in the Middle East.

“When our ruling class decides to invade a country, it is never for the benefit of our working class siblings in those countries, it is always to protect the interests of capitalists,” Pride at Work member Cailey O’Keith said.

U.S. military spending was also something speakers criticized, saying that the funds could be repurposed as aid for the working class in the nation.

“Since we spend all our money on war, we can’t rebuild our infrastruc-

ture. We can’t have decent healthcare in this country. We can’t have a Green New Deal. We can’t have fair education,” Massachusetts Peace Action member Brian Garvey said.

The rally comes after Iranian NU student Mohammad Shahab Dehghani Hossein Abadi was deported on Jan. 20, despite having a valid F1 student visa, which Amrita, a member organizer of the Boston Teachers Union whose last name was not given, denounced in her speech.

“It’s just pure bigotry and xenophobia, it’s outrageous,” said Mike Bresnahan, a 70-year-old math paraprofessional in the Lawrence Public

Schools who attended the rally as a protester. “To me, right now, we’re sliding towards fascism.”

During the rally, the ANSWER Coalition collected donations for a Puerto Rican earthquake relief organization, collecting over $500.

Protesters hope that this rally will inspire others to engage in similar activities.

“I think that more people should understand how protests and public action can actually make a difference,” Bishti Samaraweera, a 19-yearold student, said.

According to Karimi, the ANSWER Coalition plans on organizing another protest some time in mid-March.

Boston residents won’t stop Ubering everywhere Photo by Julian Perez Uber and Lyft drivers are increasing in demand around Boston. Ridesharing has become one of the main sources of transportation in the city — as well as the main reason for traffic.

By Julia Preszler News Correspondent Julianne Subia peered out of her window onto the street where she lives in Back Bay, and counted the rideshare drivers that she could see pulled over alongside the curb. “Two, three, four,” she counted. “Now, I see five.”

Since moving to Back Bay a few months ago, Subia has limited her use of rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft. But when she lived in Somerville after graduating college in the Netherlands two years ago, ridesharing was a convenient way to get around in a part of the city that had fewer public transportation options.

“When I was living in Somerville, just to do laundry, I had to take an Uber,” Subia said in a phone interview. “It would either be walk 20 minutes or I’ll do UberPool and it will be a five-minute drive.”

Boston is the most congested city in the United States, according to the 2018 Global Traffic Scorecard by transportation analytics firm, INRIX — and

the widespread prevalence of rideshare apps in the city certainly contributes to the snarling of Boston’s streets.

Ridesharing services are very popular among residents in the Boston area, with residents calling an average of 68.3 rides per person each year, according to data collected by the Department of Public Utilities. For less central areas, the number can be even higher — such as in Cambridge, where the average is 74.4 rides per year. Although rideshares account for just 4 percent of all traffic in Boston, in some parts of the city such as the Seaport and around Logan Airport, rideshare vehicles account for 20 percent of the street traffic, according to data prepared by the transportation analytics company StreetLight for a Boston Globe report on congestion.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker proposed increasing the per-trip tax on rideshares from 20 cents to $1 in the 2021 fiscal year budget proposal released last Wednesday. The tax is expected to generate $135 million in support for the MBTA.

Ted Landsmark, a member of the Boston Planning and Development Agency’s Board of Directors and the director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern, said that for his students, deciding whether or not to use a rideshare is all about convenience. And depending on the cost of the fare, taking an Uber or Lyft could even be cheaper when split among multiple students, he said.

The subway system, which has a reputation for being a faster and more reliable mode of transportation than the bus, is not always conveniently structured, depending on where a traveler needs to go.

“For anyone who lives in Roxbury, most of Dorchester, Allston-Brighton, Cambridge and Brookline, public transportation is readily accessible, although not always as convenient as it needs to be,” Landsmark said. “A person living in Dorchester who is working in Cambridge may have to take a bus to a subway line in order to

get to work.”

Rideshares can be a tempting option when there is no simple path between point A and point B, and when the T is not running.

Aaron Foster, a studio performance and political communications major at Emerson College, typically only uses ridesharing services when returning home late at night after spending time with friends.

“I think, personally, the T should be running all through the night, and there should be night busses,” Foster said. “A lot of other cities have night buses. It’s really not that crazy.”

Day to day, he can walk 10 minutes from his dorm to class, and take the T if he needs to go somewhere farther in the city. Why does he choose public transportation over rideshares?

“Uber costs more, obviously,” he said. “That’s the main reason.”

He also cited the higher impact rideshares have on congestion and the environment.

“Public transit is how people should

be getting around in a dense urban core,” Foster said. “Uber’s not going to fix traffic problems. It’s going to make it worse. People should be taking public transit as much as possible.”

Landsmark said students should consider the environmental impact that choosing a rideshare over public transportation can have. About half of the time, ridesharing vehicles are not carrying passengers, and are instead driving around or idling waiting for rides, the Boston Globe report said.

“Many of our students are deeply committed to reducing their carbon footprints and reducing the extent to which they add pollution both here and at home,” Landsmark said. “And yet, many of those same students place the convenience of ridesharing over their commitment to reducing their carbon footprints. That raises some difficult questions about the extent to which we put into practice in our daily lives the commitments that we have to addressing climate change in the abstract.”