December 10, 2021

The Huntington News December 10, 2021

The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community

@HuntNewsNU

UNIVERSITY-WIDE RACIAL AND CULTURAL LITERACY TRAININGS RECEIVE MIXED REACTIONS

Photo courtesy Claire Blaufox Photo courtesy Matthew Modoono The racial and cultural literacy trainings featured messages from various Northeastern community members, including ourth-year Claire Blaufox (left) and Athletic Director Jim Madigan (right).

In June, Northeastern announced the university’s action plan to address the rise in hate and violence against Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans, or APIDA, communities and students. These steps highlighted two areas of focus: enhancing infrastructure for learning and creating a more inclusive student experience.

Since then, the university has implemented several initiatives, including hiring new deans, launching the Asia America and the World speaker series and, as of the beginning of November, implementing mandatory university-wide anti-racism and cultural literacy trainings.

“In the summer, when the president made the commitment to the university community, the Presidential

By Skye Richmond and Marta Hill | News Staff Council on Diversity and Inclusion will appear as a notification until they convened several workstream groups, are completed. one of which is called diversity work The student trainings are organized stream,” said Phil He, vice provost for into four modules: “Establishing a faculty diversity, who was involved in basic understanding of diversity, the creation of the trainings. “So you equity and inclusion;” “Building racial have a group of faculty and staff workand cultural literacy;” “Privileged ing together to come up with a plan, identities and power dynamics;” and one of which is the training.”

“Taking action against racism.”

The trainings, which are required The trainings and their rollout for all students, faculty and staff in have received mixed reactions from Northeastern’s global network, were students and faculty alike, but those sent to the general Northeastern com- who spoke with The News agreed the munity Nov. 2. They can be accessed trainings were a good start on Norththrough a link sent in an email from eastern’s continued cultural and racial Academic Impressions, an educationawareness and education journey. al consulting company hired by the Within each module there are a seuniversity that specializes in video ries of short videos, ranging from just trainings. They can also be accessed over a minute to almost 10 minutes through the Student Hub, where it long. The videos are hosted by Domi-

nic Rollins, a consultant and coach at Academic Impressions.

The videos also featured members of the Northeastern community, including Athletic Director Jim Madigan, fourth-year Claire Blaufox and Director of Student Services for the San Francisco and Silicon Valley campuses Jackie Li. “I was emailed by Dr. Phil He, and he asked me if I would like to be part of it because they were looking for some people to have some sort of representation of the Northeastern community itself and not just being completely people outside of the community,” said Blaufox, a chemical engineering major and the co-chair of the Pan Asian American Council.

VIDEOS, on Page 3

NU requires booster shots for spring 2022

By Jess Silverman and Gwen Egan News Staff In an email to students Thursday, Northeastern announced it would require students, faculty and staff to receive booster shots by Jan. 18, 2022, or seven days after they become eligible.

This announcement follows similar decisions announced yesterday by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Emerson College and

Boston College to require COVID-19 booster vaccinations by the beginning of their spring semester.

The university cited increased protections against the Omicron variant for mandating the booster shot, which is available to all Massachusetts residents aged 18 and older who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccines at least six months ago. Those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine more than two months ago

are also eligible for boosters.

“The FDA has approved a COVID-19 booster shot in the U.S. for anyone ages 18 and older — and the latest scientific evidence suggests that a booster shot offers significant improvement in protection against the Omicron variant,” wrote Chancellor and Senior Vice President for Learning Ken Henderson.

The requirement applies to faculty and staff who teach both in-person and remotely.

Northeastern previously encouraged students to get the booster shots in an email to students Nov. 23.

“We want to encourage everyone in the Northeastern community who is eligible to receive a booster shot, to do so. Consistent with our decision to require vaccination of all students, faculty, staff, and contract employees, we believe that vaccination remains essential to successfully manage the pandemic,” Henderson wrote.

The university encouraged students to use its partner Pelmeds to schedule an appointment for either Dec. 14 or Dec. 16 at the Cabot Testing Center.

All members of the Northeastern community can schedule their appointment through this system.

Massachusetts residents can search for available booster shot locations through the Massachusetts Vaxfinder website. Booster shots can also be administered at local pharmacies across the United States.

Brief authored by Northeastern legal scholar on abortion heard by Supreme Court

By Erin Fine News Correspondent Repealing Roe v. Wade would make the United States an outlier in liberal democracies, argues a brief filed by Martha F. Davis to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Mississippi’s 2018 Gestational Age Act on

Wednesday, including Davis’s brief.

Davis is a professor of constitutional law and human rights advocacy at Northeastern.

Davis worked with a team of comparative and international legal scholars to dispute the opening argument from the law. The legislation begins by stating that “seventy-five percent of all nations do not

permit abortion after twelve (12) weeks’ gestation.”

Davis and her colleagues’ brief asserts that this argument “is neither relevant nor compelling.”

Rather than argue the United States is out of line with the rest of the world on abortion laws, the brief states the United States should be compared to similar

liberal democracies.

“It is just not accurate,” Davis said.

“In fact, U.S. law is in line with other systems — like Canada, [and] the U.K. — that we share a legal history with.”

In preparation to file the brief, Davis contacted comparative and international legal academics, including Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

LLP, to collect data on abortion laws in foreign countries. The experts focused on Iceland, where abortion until the 22nd week of pregnancy became legal in 2019. The brief argues that Iceland’s law follows the general worldwide trend of liberalization in abortion laws, especially in comparable democracies in western Europe.

ROE v. WADE, on Page 3

CAMPUS

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December 10, 2021

NU Unmasked provides peer-based support

By Kathryn Manning News Staff Originally founded at Dartmouth University, the Unmasked app for student mental health officially arrived at Northeastern University in January 2020. The platform acts as a confidential resource for students to post, comment and converse about mental health topics: A place where, according to the founders, students can “take off their masks.”

The app now has over 10,000 users at 46 universities across the country, according to the Unmasked website.

When Petra Dragar, a fourth-year business administration major, first heard about the app, she knew that it was something she wanted to bring to Northeastern.

“A lot of people on

our team, including myself, feel that mental health support such as counseling at Northeastern can be a little iffy,” Dragar said. “I have had friends who talked to counselors at Northeastern and were sent to a therapist that is not affiliated with the school, and so I felt that accessible mental health care was something that was missing.”

After gaining approval from the founders at Dartmouth, Dragar put together a team of 14 students to monitor posts on the app and spread the word on campus. Due to an increased use of virtual platforms for learning and socializing

during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Unmasked team initially took their marketing efforts online.

Phillip Ricciardelli, a second-year business administration major, is the vice president of the campus relations team for NU Unmasked.

“We had this really cool product and had to figure out what we were going to do with it,” Ricciardelli said. “By the end of the year, we had around 150 downloads. This year we have an initial base and now it’s about how we get the app to be integrated into peoples’ lives. … We want there to be a niche of people that use it.”

Another moderator, Isabel Orchard, a fourth-year politics, philosophy and economics major and member of the campus relations team, said spreading the word about Unmasked has been a gratifying experience.

“One method of distribution for the app was speaking in classes about the app.

Students would message me in the Zoom [chat] and tell me that it looked cool and that they were going to check it out, even though I’d never talked to them before, so that was really cool to see,” Orchard said.

The News asked the NU Unmasked team how they envisioned students using the app once it had been fully established at Northeastern. Dragar explained the app allows

students to be vulnerable with one another, creating a safe environment to normalize conversations about mental health.

“In the most ideal situation, the goal of the app is to provide a platform for students to come and get it out there whatever they’ve been holding inside, it’s kind of life journaling or talking to a friend but anonymously,” Dragar said. “Some people might feel like they’re a burden to their friends or family and if they want to lean on someone in terms of good conversation, and I think that’s where the app comes in.”

Ricciardelli said he was inspired by the app because of its ability to have a real impact despite the simplicity of its design.

“Of course you can type about things that you’re feeling and get it out there, but I think a lot of it too is being able to look at a platform and seeing all the people who are sharing and thinking, ‘Wow, I’m not alone,’” Ricciardelli said. “We aren’t reinventing the wheel, it’s just a simple way to feel heard and feel acknowledged.”

Because the app deals with serious topics, it is designed to protect viewers from sensitive topics. Users can flag posts for certain trigger warnings, such as “drug abuse” or “depression,” and they will be hidden until viewers click on them. In addition, moderators monitor posts for indicators of a more serious situation that may require intervention.

“If we see a post that we think is a bit alarming we tend to private message the individual and have a more serious conversation with them about what state they’re in, and if it comes to it, there is a process through which that account can be uncovered and the person’s details will be shared with emergency professionals,” Orchard said. “In those kinds of situations we will talk as a team and think about what the next best step is.”

The founders said the response from the Northeastern community has been overwhelmingly positive. “[Unmasked] is something that people aren’t necessarily looking for but once they hear about it they think that it will be a great resource and something that they make use of,” Dragar said. “By looking through the app it sometimes even surprises me how deeply people are able to open up to each other.

Hopefully, we can help as many people as possible.”

As Ricciardelli put it, the app is a way for students to reach out to their peers without much added effort, offering accessible support for those who are struggling.

“I just feel like it’s a really cool concept because it’s not extremely foreign to people, but it’s a little something to make a big difference,” he said.

Students looking to download the app can find it on the app store for both Apple and Android devices.

Students volunteer at Alternative Weekends

By Isabella Ratto News Correspondent Four groups of Northeastern University students embarked on service-centric trips to various locations in the New England area, including Providence, Rhode Island; Portland, Maine; and Laconia, New Hampshire between Nov. 12-14 as part of the university’s Alternative Weekend program.

These weekend-long volunteer opportunities are relatively new to Northeastern, adapted from the Alternative Spring Break program made in response to travel challenges created by COVID-19. “[The] 2020 Alternative Weekend was a single trip to NYC. Since then, spring 2021 turned Alternative Spring Breaks into weekend trips adapted to proper COVID safety protocols. Fall 2021 was the first semester with multiple overnight weekend trips,” said Liz Woodwell, a fifth-year computer engineering major working toward her master’s degree in engineering management. Woodwell served as the administration and logistics coordinator for the fall 2021 Alternative Weekend program.

Each trip offered this year had a Northeastern student as the designated team leader, who had the responsibility of selecting service organizations and planning all trip activities.

“I began working on this trip with my co-lead back in August,” said third-year health science and psychology combined major Logan Meda, the team leader for the trip to

Providence, Rhode Island. “As a team leader for Alternative Weekend, I was responsible for planning the trip entirely … and for pre-trip education to prepare participants for the service.”

The Rhode Island trip organized by Meda focused on food insecurity. All organizations the group interacted with are currently working to combat the issue in the Providence area.

“We were able to visit a market called Farm Fresh, which focuses on food education and brings food access to communities. We walked around their Winter Market, talked to farmers and learned about an organization called Hope’s Harvest,” said Sam Yip, a second-year industrial engineering major who participated in the Rhode Island trip.

The students also visited Johnnycake Community Center, where they volunteered at the organization’s thrift shop; the funds from the shop go directly toward meals and food items for the surrounding community. On the final day of the trip, the students visited Red Planet Farm in Johnston, which grows and sells food for local farmers markets.

“There is no standard for what food insecurity looks like, … so we based our trip around unique organizations that work to solve the issue of food insecurity in different ways,” Meda said.

Despite the short duration of this experience, participants found themselves highly connected to one another, mostly attributed to the team-oriented work but also their housing accomodations, where they

stayed in a hostel for two nights.

“Throughout the trip, we were pretty much always together,” Yip said. “We were constantly making each other laugh.”

Meda, Woodwell and Yip are all veterans of the Alternative Spring Break program, each with two trips under their belt.

“I went on my first Alternative Spring Break my freshman year [in Spring 2018]. It was a wonderful experience, and I knew I wanted to stay involved with the program at Northeastern,” Woodwell said.

As a result of their background with Alternative Weekend, these students can offer advice for anyone interested.

“Openness and flexibility are really what are most important to enjoying the Alternative Weekend experience.

We’re in a new place trying new things,” Meda said.

Yip echoed Meda’s thoughts about the program.

“You have to be flexible. There are so many things that can happen, you run late, there’s traffic, plans fall through, the weather is terrible, etc.,” she said. “A big part of Alternative Weekend trips is the reflection and everyone is entitled to their own thoughts and opinions.

Whether you agree with them or not doesn’t really matter, you just have to be open to listening.”

Alternative Breaks will return for spring break in 2022 with nine trips occurring in across the country. Meda, Woodwell and Yip all highly encourage anyone to apply for these programs that are passionate about social issues and working to solve them.

Photo courtesy Danna DeKay Students visited Red Planet Farm in Johnston, Rhode Island, which grows food to sell at local farmers markets.

CAMPUS

December 10, 2021

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Students struggle with access to mandatory educational video modules VIDEO, from front The community members who were involved coordinated with each other to record specific anecdotes and thoughts that would be most relevant to the content of the videos.

Student reactions to the training have been varied; many students took to Reddit to voice concerns and discuss them. Kayla Pringle, a second-year mechanical engineering major, told The News she was disappointed with the lack of engagement due to the abundance of videos.

“I think [Northeastern is] taking the right steps or they have the right mindset, they just need to do a little bit better about what steps they’ve taken,” Pringle said. “They definitely have the idea, and they could be doing nothing. I think they need just a little bit more, but they’re definitely on the right track.”

Blaufox said she was surprised when the trainings were released because they didn’t take the form she expected.

“I think that I didn’t quite go deep enough with my own questioning. I definitely made some assumptions about the execution,” Blaufox said.

“I’m not quite sure where those gaps may have come from, but basically, I was operating under the assumption that it would be similar to the Title IX trainings where you can’t skip ahead, and you have to complete quizzes at the end, and you have to pass those quizzes.”

When taking the trainings, the videos hosted by Rollins fill most of the screen, and the upcoming videos are listed on the left. Viewers can’t skip through the videos or speed them up, and a transcript is available. At a few points in the training, there are open ended questions for viewers to answer, although they are not checked for accuracy before viewers can move on.

Blaufox also had trouble accessing the trainings — when she received the link and logged in, no modules showed up on her account. She reached out to He and was put in contact with Academic Impressions but still was not given access to the

training. She ended up watching them with her roommate.

Blaufox is not the only student this happened to — when she spoke with The News, she said she knew of a handful of other students who also had not received the link or had other technical problems.

Even for students who did receive the emails from the provost and Academic Impressions, issues remained.

“I don’t think I would have even opened the email if I hadn’t been made aware of it by my professors,” said Lauren Bough, a fifth-year international affairs major and member of the Asian Studies Student Advisory Board. “It easily could have been lost in my Outlook inbox. And I think there was one email follow up … but it just didn’t seem like it was very well promoted.”

Beyond problems with accessing the trainings, some students also had qualms with how they were constructed.

Several students who spoke with The News suggested the trainings should have required an additional discussion component, such as incorporating them into a class or requiring a meeting with an advisor to discuss the material.

“I think creating conversations is, in my mind, more important than having these trainings stand alone,” Bough said. “It’s not like you’re having conversation with other students and faculty on campus, and I think that needed to be an important part.”

Pringle said she was hoping for a more engaging training, instead of video modules that are easy to ignore.

“I knew that they were working on this for a while because I had a friend who kind of was helping contribute to it, and at first, I was kind of excited. I thought it was going to be something that was mandatory and more implemented into classes that people had to take,” Pringle said. “And then it came out and it’s just a ton of videos ... so it’s fairly disappointing.”

The trainings should, at the very least, get the Northeastern community thinking about racial issues, Blau-

fox said. But she is concerned the people who need the trainings will skip through or ignore the videos and not get anything out of it.

“I just think that Northeastern needed to have executed this better,” Blaufox said. “It very much feels like something that they can just check off the list of things that [President Joseph E. Aoun] said that Northeastern would do.”

Northeastern requires first-year students to do various other trainings, including a drug and alcohol training and a Title IX training. Blaufox pointed to the Title IX training, which she remembers doing as a first year, as a better implementation of an online asynchronous training.

“I just really would have wanted to see more of an accountability stance, and I think it’s even more disappointing because we know that Northeastern knows how to implement that,” Blaufox said. “Like the Title IX training, this is not something that’s going to solve everything. But I think for a lot of people, it could at least get them thinking and start thinking about things in ways that they haven’t done so before.”

The training includes various short response questions to inspire participants to engage with the material before they are allowed to progress through the modules.

The answers, however, are sent to Academic Impressions and are confidential to Northeastern.

Pringle said she wished there had been more community involvement in the trainings.

“It seems like they got a couple of heads from the university, but if they’d actually ask some of the cultural clubs or some of the social identity clubs to really sit down and maybe record stuff for this and see what was actually impactful, I think that would be a lot more helpful,” Pringle said.

Northeastern staff met with Academic Impressions weekly for many months to create a fully customized curriculum. As the vice provost for faculty diversity, He was involved in the creation process and was influ-

enced by suggestions from various groups of stakeholders, including a student group.

“We wanted a customized training, we wanted our input but we wanted their infrastructure to launch the training. … So we worked with them and co-developed the curriculum,” He said. “During that process, that core team of content design from Northeastern worked weekly with our colleagues from Academic Impressions, and we consulted our faculty focus group, staff focus group and student focus group.”

Allison Bauer, a health science professor, has invested her own time into doing external diversity trainings, including with the Racial Equity Institute and through the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research at Northeastern.

When she spoke with The News she hadn’t had a chance to do the trainings, but she said she thought they were a good starting place.

“It’s important to level set, it’s important to get everybody speaking the same language. You’ve got to start somewhere,” Bauer said. “Having said that, there has to be an ongoing commitment that takes a lot more time and energy and a lot more resources.”

Bauer emphasized that the commitment from the university cannot end with these trainings, and the commitment to diversity and cultural trainings must be a continuous process.

“It’s hard because you want to applaud effort, but it’s not like ‘OK, check the box. We did that,’” Bauer said. “That’s certainly one of the biggest concerns, having done this, do we get to say, ‘we checked the box?’

Versus ‘this is the first step of many.’”

Senior Vice Provost and Chief Inclusion Officer Karl Reid called the trainings “diversity, equity and inclusion 101,” and said they are a starting point; the next step needs to be facilitated conversations.

“Inclusion is about culture, it’s about knowledge, it’s about how we treat each other, how we create psychologically safe environments.

So the training is so very import-

ant around inclusion — it’s about creating a climate of awareness and sensitivity and being able to invite people from all backgrounds and experiences,” Reid said.

Bauer said she is optimistic that the trainings are just the beginning, and she hopes to see a continued commitment from Northeastern to creating a more inclusive, welcoming and educated campus.

“The introductory language in the email said ‘as part of the President’s commitment to’ — I think that there are certainly some good, smart people who are trying to make this be that, but I think that we just all have to keep our eye on the ball,” Bauer said.

Reid encouraged students to start the trainings without preconceived notions and to treat them as an opportunity to learn and help “create a better world.”

“Go into this with an open mind, a growth mindset that everyone can learn something from this,” Reid said. “At the end of the day, what we want to do is interrupt our natural processes to react to situations that are based on our lived experiences, our cultures, etc.”

Pringle said she has seen some improvement in terms of Northeastern’s acknowledgement of different cultures — she especially liked the Juneteenth celebration last year.

“I’m hoping to see more student involvement and really, really just hope that they can do better,” Pringle said. “I know they tried, they definitely tried. But I can’t say that it was successful at all. A lot of people are upset about it and I think a lot of people don’t even know it’s mandatory.”

The deadline for completing modules one to three of the training has been extended to Dec. 31, while the deadline for completing module four remains at March 31, 2022. If not completed by the deadline, students and staff will receive a follow-up email reminder. If a student, faculty or staff cannot access the trainings, they can contact He at n.he@northeastern.edu.

SCOTUS hears abortion arguments ROE v. WADE, from front Additionally, the brief puts forward that even in the 75% of nations that block abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, comparable democracies often have health care systems that make earlier abortions more accessible..

Davis said pregnant people seeking abortions in Western Europe face less costs and legal hurdles. In this aspect, the brief argues that if the writers of the Gestational Age Act wish to compare the United States to other countries, it would be more accurate to compare similar legal systems instead.

Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only abortion provider in Mississippi, filed a lawsuit over the Mississippi bill, which aims to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The Supreme Court heard arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Wednesday, Dec. 1.

In September, the Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law pro-

hibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

“The existing law is clearly on our side,” Davis said. “But the current Supreme Court has shown in its ruling on the shadow docket in Texas that it doesn’t feel bound by the current law.”

Margaret Y.K. Woo, a professor of law with a focus in comparative law that Davis contacted for the brief, said that broader access to health care in other comparable democracies allows for pregnant people to pursue abortions sooner. This can explain a shorter window to receive an abortion in some of these countries, while not making the laws around abortion more restrictive.

“If you look carefully, you’ll find that the systems [of foreign liberal democracies] have a lot more additional support that might justify the shorter time period,” Woo said.

Woo argued if the United States legislators that put forward the bill

wish to align the country with other liberal democracies that have shorter windows for abortion access, they must also align the country with more accessible health care.

“Governments can’t selectively pick and choose,” Woo said. She said the United States is not an outlier in abortion access like the legislation argues. Repealing abortion access would set the United States behind other comparable democracies.

Davis and her colleagues’ brief added to the over 40 briefs filed to the Supreme Court, including those filed by over 500 female athletes and the head of President Joe Biden’s Justice Department.

International law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP served as counsel to Davis in writing the brief. The firm provided expertise on abortion law in England to serve the brief ’s comparative argument.

“Mississippi law currently bans

abortions after 20 weeks and restricts access to abortion at all stages of pregnancy through laws that make it difficult for abortion clinics to operate,” said Jane Nam, senior communications manager for Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. “By contrast, abortion is both legal and widely available up to 24 weeks in England, Scotland, and Wales.”

Davis is “not optimistic” over the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization but emphasized that conservative justices have made unexpected decisions in the past. Some conservative justices may back abortion access on the basis of the legal precedent established by Roe v. Wade in 1973.

“Justice Roberts is not a supporter of abortion law, but he is a supporter of rule of law,” Davis said. “Whether anybody else will move over into that camp — I think the most likely will be Justice Kavanaugh.”

As the United States threatens to

move backward on abortion rights, Davis said the country previously “was a leader when Roe v. Wade was decided, as one of the earlier countries to adopt more progressive abortion laws.”

After Roe v. Wade, Davis said other similar democracies followed suit with progressive abortion laws. Overall, the worldwide trend “reflects a recognition of women’s rights,” she said.

As the United States begins to potentially reverse decisions on abortion, Davis compares it to “places where the political scene is much different — places where they’re teetering on the brink of autocracy.”

Members of Davis’s team on the brief shared their thoughts on the possible repeal of Roe v. Wade.

“It gets so fundamental,” Woo said. “It really goes down to the sense of a woman’s ability to protect her own body.”

CITY

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December 10, 2021

Photo courtesy the city of Boston Michelle Wu made history Nov. 16 as the first woman and person of color sworn in as an elected mayor of Boston. She won against City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George by a 22% margin.

Boston’s new mayor Michelle Wu takes office, transition team works closely to enact change

By Jennifer Suryadjaja City Editor Two weeks after winning the mayoral race, Michelle Wu made history as the first woman and person of color sworn in as an elected mayor of Boston.

Wu took the oath of office Nov. 16 in City Hall, surrounded by her family, campaign team, other supporters and elected officials on Tuesday. Among those in attendance were Governor Charlie Baker, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, former acting Mayor Kim Janey and former mayoral candidate and at-large City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George.

City Council President Pro Tempore Matt O’Malley began the swearing-in ceremony with a welcome speech for those in attendance.

“Much has been written about the long trek to freedom … That is certainly true today, but nevertheless even more special as we gather together for the swearing in for the first woman elected mayor, and the first person of color elected mayor in Boston’s 391-year history,” O’Malley said.

Fenway High School junior Eliana Rivas then led the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an invocation by Rev. Arlene Hall, lead pastor at Deliverance Temple Worship Center.

Janey proceeded to deliver her remarks, recalling her childhood days in Roxbury and paying homage to notable people of color involved in politics in Massachusetts.

“For many in Boston, we were now able to see what is possible, that Boston could be a city for everyone, even those who had been marginalized,” Janey said.

The reason to make a Boston for everyone is because we need everyone for Boston, right now. We have so much work to do, and it will take all of us to get it done. So let’s get to work.

— Michelle Wu Mayor of Boston Janey, who endorsed Wu in her campaign against Essaibi George, closed her speech looking forward to Wu’s work for the city of Boston.

“As I leave office now as mayor, I feel good knowing that you share my love and my passion for

Boston. I’m confident that you will lead our city with integrity and that you will center equity in all that you do,” Janey said. “I know that Boston is in good hands and I’m so proud to call you madam mayor.”

Following Janey’s remarks, Wu stood next to her husband and children, Blaise and Cass, as she recited the oath of office, which was administered by Judge Myong J. Joun.

In her first speech as mayor, Wu described her journey to becoming mayor as “an unexpected full circle journey over the last decade.” She also said she plans to lead with inclusivity, drawing inspiration from City Hall’s accessibility renovations.

“City government is special. We are the level closest to the people, so we must do the big and the small. … Not only is it possible for Boston to deliver basic city services and generational change ​​ — it is absolutely necessary in this moment,” Wu said.

Wu said she needs the people of Boston to work together to enact change, and that the work needs to continue.

“The reason to make a Boston for everyone is because we need everyone for Boston, right now.

We have so much work to do, and it will take all of us to get it done,” Wu said. “So let’s get to work.”

Cassandra Pierre, a member of Wu’s transition team and an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Medicine, said that she was surprised to see how community-centered and

emotionally powerful the swearing-in ceremony was.

“It definitely felt very different and very empowering to really feel like the community was part of this event,” Pierre said. “To see the students there, to see community activist presence, and really have an event that also felt like it belonged to the people of the city of Boston.”

Wu and other newly-elected City Council members will have a full inauguration in January 2022. When asked about the current speed of the transition, Pierre said that the people of Boston should be patient as the team hits the ground running.

“Having the co-chairs of the transition team and the advisors, including myself, fan out, engage people in the community will be one way to start making sure that we’re getting the foundations in place,” Pierre said. “Over the next few weeks, we know that even though there’s a smooth transfer of power that occurred [on Tuesday], here’s still key pieces that we need to put into place.”

Pierre said that the intersectional identities of herself and other transition advisors will open doors for community members who may not feel comfortable expressing their views.

“The other thing that I think is important is to be a conduit of ideas. It’s also making sure that we are highlighting, uplifting people that should be part of this government,” Pierre said.

Dana Alas, one of Wu’s transition advisers and the organizing direc-

tor of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said that she is committed to helping Wu navigate the transition through the lens of a labor activist. Alas shares a similar vision with Pierre when it comes to ​​ supporting students and families though the COVID-19 crisis.

“I think it’s important that [Wu] sought to have representation from the labor community, particularly in healthcare, given the COVID-19 crisis,” Alas said. “I feel like healthcare workers have been the backbone of our community for a very long time.”

Alas is looking forward to working with the other transition advisors to bridge the gap between the government and the people of Boston.

“In the coming weeks, we’re going to be helping her build a team that’s reflective of Boston and connect the work to City Hall and to make real progress towards addressing our pressing challenges,” Alas said. “I know what she’s looking for in the transition team members is for us to bring our own expertise and networks to help inform that process and help her connect neighborhoods and communities across the cities.”

Alas said that she is confident that Wu, her administration and transition advisers will work closely to propel Boston into greater heights.

“One of the things that she said in our first meeting last week was that we can do the big things by doing the little things right,” Alas said.

“Being on the transition team gives us the opportunity to have a voice in that and that’s really special.”

LIFESTYLE

December 10, 2021

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NU Stage returns to the theatre with ‘Into the Woods’

By Karissa Korman Deputy Lifestyle Editor On Nov. 19 and Nov. 20, eager theatregoers filed into Blackman Auditorium for NU Stage Musical Theater Company’s rendition of “Into the Woods.”

NU Stage is Northeastern University’s premier student-run musical theatre group.

Traditionally, the company produces two major musical shows, two concerts and two revues each year.

However, since early 2020, the NU Stage cast and crew have navigated semesters that have been anything but traditional.

When the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic first sent students home, the actors, musicians and artists, who usually devoted their time outside of class and co-op to rounds of late-night rehearsals, moved their typical slew of productions online by translating cabarets into Zoom calls for the better part of almost two years.

“We did our very best to make [the shows] an enjoyable experience, but of course there’s always something missing,” said pit director Jerry Snow, a fifth-year mathematics major.

As the university planned for a more regular, in-person school year, students were eager to get back to the classroom, and those with a penchant for performance were eager to return to the auditorium stage for “Into the Woods.”

Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” intertwines several iconic fairy tales into a musical story that follows Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Rapunzel, Cinderella and a childless baker and his wife who journey into the woods to lift a witch’s curse. The storybook ensemble explores the consequences

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Photo courtesy Doga Tasdemir The cast of “Into the Woods” performed the classic Sondheim musical in Blackman Auditorium Nov. 19 and 20. of characters’ wishes and adventures as their paths collide in the woods.

Scores of student actors, musicians and artists convened with NU Stage to bring this troupe of iconic characters to life, just as the mid-semester academic workload began to increase.

“At times it was very stressful, but theatre has always been an escape for me because I have a very demanding major. It’s been really nice to get away from the numbers and the science,” said first-year chemical engineering major, Anna Schneider, who played Jack.

With a music-heavy show ahead of them and only seven weeks to learn every piece, Snow added extra rehearsals into the orchestra’s rehearsal schedule.

The race to the show’s Friday debut took a village of students beyond the visible pit musicians and the cast on stage. Set designers, costume designers, tech crew members, prop managers and promotional creators put in their time, work and talent alongside the live performers to

create the show.

“It’s crazy how many people it takes,” said Erica Cordischi, a fourth-year nursing major who played Little Red Riding Hood. “You don’t even realize it until you see them all at the cast party.”

As NU Stage’s first theatrical show back from the pandemic’s social lockdown, theatregoers matched the company’s hunger to return to the auditorium.

The potent anticipation in the air before the lights in Blackman dimmed and the uproar of applause as the cast took their bows was a testament to the role that theatre, a uniquely live and communal experience, plays in artists’ and audiences’ lives as both parties hope to finally emerge from the long months of isolation.

“You never actually got to play or sing with one another,” Snow said, reflecting upon NU Stage’s past online shows. “I think that is the absolute biggest difference coming back and something we missed so much, the feeling of being in an ensemble or

collaborating with one another and hearing that come together.”

For many Northeastern students, NU Stage offers creativity in community, self-expression and self-discovery.

As the fairy tale characters of “Into the Woods” came together on stage to lift the curse and resolve their misadventures, the cast and crew of the show below the stage lights and behind the scenes watched as months of trial came to a happy ending.

“You never realize how much pretending that you’re somebody else on stage can make you feel like yourself,” Cordischi said. “I feel like myself so much more this semester than I have in a year and a half.”

Whether they were raised in the theatre or joined on a whim in college, students have found their voices on stage and behind the scenes.

This fall’s “Into the Woods” finally brought these artists back into the live spotlight where their hard work, talents and passions shine brightest.

Column: The late Virgil Abloh goes down as a modern fashion legacy

By Antonia Sousa News Staff The recent death of fashion designer, DJ, entrepreneur and 21st-century-icon Virgil Abloh left shockwaves across industries. At 41, Abloh gained notoriety as a powerhouse in the fashion world.

Most known for founding Off-White, serving as menswear artistic director for Louis Vuitton and working as the creative director for Kanye West’s design agency Donda, Abloh broke barriers. His impact on the industry, particularly as a Black creative, was incomparable.

Abloh’s death ignited a flame within the hearts of designers, creators, and aspiring fashion moguls. In a heartfelt Instagram post, South Korean DJ Peggy Gou described Abloh’s character, explaining how his decision to “fight and work until his last breath was a reflection of an incomparable work ethic and passion.” Unafraid and unapologetic, Abloh was often described as a disruptor — a genius whose work went well beyond fashion.

His passion for collaboration was

Calendar compiled by Lily Elwood & Katie Mogg Graphics by Marta Hill

clear throughout all of his work experiences. He occasionally partnered with household names like Nike, Jimmy Choo, Moncler and Ikea.

“The whole point of collaboration is that you give and take from each other,” Abloh said in an interview with Elle, “that’s how you create things that are totally new.”

Abloh redefined the standards of luxury. Highsnobiety’s editorial director Christopher Morency emphasized how “the biggest impact that Virgil Abloh has had on the luxury industry, is not only has he connected luxury products to youth culture, but he has also extended the reach of what luxury fashion can be, whatever you decide.”

Honoring Abloh’s collection, Louis Vuitton memorialized him by titling the event ‘Virgil was Here.’ Though the original focus was meant to be on his designs, the show became a tribute to Abloh’s success, celebrating his life as opposed to mourning his death.

Finlay Mangan of IMG Models was able to walk at the show, a surreal experience he said was an honor in an interview with The News.

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“Virgil Abloh: Figures of Speech” by jpellgen (@1179_jp) is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 “Virgil was a cultural icon and one of the only designers that became a household name without having a brand named after him,” Mangan said. “He not only opened a door for Black creatives in fashion but held it open, working with Black artists and Black models first and foremost.”

The first Black person to serve as artistic director of Louis Vuitton, Abloh made it a point to continuously nurture and foster Black talent. “‘Everything I do is for the 17-year-old version of myself,” Abloh once said.

Undoubtedly, Abloh’s legacy will remain as that of a genius, a superstar, a creative. Not only did he focus on menswear, Abloh designed a newfound culture, a new truth to fashion.

Abloh set a bar for incoming creatives and members of the industry to continue to explore new ideas, as scary and unorthodox as they may seem. He became a hero for aspiring creators, and a role model for anyone who chooses to combat traditions. A truly inspiring individual, Abloh changed the course of fashion and made history.

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CITY

Page 6

December 10, 2021

Despite COVID-19 pandemic, historic Union Oyster House stands strong

By Kate Armanini News Correspondent Nestled alongside the Freedom Trail, the Union Oyster House sits just as it did 195 years ago. After nearly two centuries, the historic restaurant has endured a lot. The biggest test for the Boston staple, however, came in the past 18 months: the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Oyster House — which boasts the title of the United States’ oldest continuously operating restaurant — was among thousands of businesses that shut their doors in March 2020. Its reopening four months later marked the longest stretch of closure in the restaurant’s nearly two century history.

“It was a real game changer, not just for the restaurant but for the industry,” said Jim Malinn, the restaurant’s general manager. “We didn’t know at the end who would be left standing.”

The restaurant, rooted in history and tradition, had to adapt once it reopened its doors in June. To accommodate customers,

management installed plexiglass and an outdoor patio. They also implemented a takeout option, though the menu had to be pared down due to the labor shortage.

The patio has since closed for the winter, but during the height of the pandemic, it generated 50% of the revenue, Malinn said. Meanwhile, the majority of the employees have returned.

“When we finally did open, we came back to a really tepid public — not many people were very keen on going out to eat indoors,” Malinn said. “We’re fortunate to have a very loyal employee base, but having even said that, it’s just difficult.”

The restaurant has now returned to 80% of its pre-pandemic business, Malinn said. It’s a significant change for an establishment grounded in history. The Oyster House has only had three owners since its founding in 1826, according to its website.

Current owner Joseph Milano started

with Oyster House in 1970, back when his family purchased it. The North End native served three years of active duty in the army before getting involved in the restaurant industry.

“I like food, to cook and I like people,” Milano said. “The hospitality industry is basically a total effect of dealing with people, whether with employees and with customers.”

As Boston’s tourism grew, so did the Oyster House. Under Milano’s care, it went from 250 to 550 seats.

Malinn said the Milano family has worked tirelessly to preserve the integrity and the history of the building, which dates back to the 18th century.

All the work seems to have paid off: in 2020, the Oyster House was honored with a World Culinary Award for Best Landmark Restaurant in North America.

As a Boston staple, visiting celebrities often frequent the establishment.

Popes and presidents are among the Union Oyster House’s extensive guest list, many of whom are listed on a wall in the restaurant.

“You never have a boring day,” Malinn said. “You never know who’s going to walk through the door.”

Recently, celebrities Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds visited the Oyster House while filming a movie locally. High-ranking military officials have also stopped by, given Milano’s role in the army. But it’s not the celebrity guests that make the Oyster House, Malinn said.

“Day in, day out, you have a chance to meet people from all over the place,” he said. “As a

Bostonian, it gives you a renewed sense of what a special city Boston is.”

Pandemic aside, customers continue to visit each day for a chance to experience the Oyster House and sample their famed menu.

“I think the tradition, the goodwill and the consistency of the good product and services [are] what causes people to spread the good word and come back again,” Milano said.

Photo courtesy Joseph Milano After almost two centuries, the Union Oyster House boasts the title of the United States’ oldest continuously operating restaurant. It was one of many businesses to experience closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

LIFESTYLE

December 10, 2021

Page 7

El Jefe’s Taqueria founder’s life story creates restaurant success across Boston

El Jefe’s Taqueria owner John Schall owns multiple locations of the Mexican burrito chain across the Northeast. El Jefe’s is open every day from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m.

By Matty Wasserman News Correspondent The line at El Jefe’s Taqueria stretches to the door. It’s 1:40 a.m., the wee hours of Sunday morning, and droves of college students wait eagerly for their late-night burritos.

This is the brainchild of John Schall, the latest creation in a wild career that’s taken him from Marxist economics to waste management policy to restaurant entrepreneurship.

Schall, 70, is the owner of El Jefe’s, a fast-casual Mexican burrito chain with locations on college campuses throughout the Northeast — including on Huntington Avenue.

Schall’s elaborate career path reflects an ambitious and self-confident entrepreneur unafraid to bet on himself and take bold risks.

After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s radicalized 1970s economic department, he co-founded South End Press, an egalitarian Boston newspaper in 1976.

Needing to make a sustainable living, Schall shifted toward waste management research and policymaking in the 1980s, rising to become Massachusetts’ first recycling director in 1984 and later a graduate professor of waste management policy at Yale University.

Schall’s career came to a crossroads with a job he didn’t ultimately receive. He’d accepted the role of vice president of recycling operations at USA Waste, the third largest solid waste company in America,

and had already shipped his belongings to Dallas, Texas in preparation for his new job.

“Literally on the way there, they discovered I had this radical background,” Schall said. “Because they went to Wall Street and places like that, having a guy that came out of a Marxian economic department didn’t seem like a good idea to them … so they rescinded the offer.”

After USA Waste’s 11th-hour rejection, Schall decided he was yet again ready for new ambitions.

As Schall describes it, he was at lunch with a friend at a Mongolian Barbecue restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1996 when an idea dawned on him: Schall should open a restaurant just like the one he was dining at, except he could make it bigger and better.

“I don’t think of myself as having a short attention span,” Schall said.

“But it seems in my life that I’ve had a six or seven year attention span, and once things are up and running, it’s sort of like, ‘Alright, what’s next?’”

Schall’s entrepreneurial mind took over, crafting the foundation for his new career in real time.

“I spent the next 20 minutes grilling the wait staff and wrote everything down on a napkin, and that was the initial idea for Fire and Ice,” Schall said.

The restaurant business was a dramatic transition from the waste management industry. But to Schall, it all clicked.

“When I sat there in that restaurant that day, I thought, ‘This could

be huge,’ and I could sell it one day and fund the kind of work I want to do myself.”

The drastic and sudden career shift took those closest to Schall, like his son Justin, by surprise. “My dad basically had this midlife crisis,” Justin Schall said. “And we were like ‘Dad, do you really need to open a restaurant?”

But despite having zero experience or background in the restaurant business, just 11 months after that lunch in Ann Arbor, Schall opened the first Fire and Ice in Harvard Square alongside business partner Jim Miller. Fire and Ice was a 250-seat destination barbecue restaurant described by the Boston Globe as “Mongolian barbecue turned up to 11.”

Fire and Ice opened to massive fanfare and was an immediate smash hit, and within four years, two additional locations opened.

But Schall’s grand vision of a Fire and Ice empire never materialized.

After exiting the company in 2000 due to turmoil in the company’s executive ranks, Schall returned to Fire and Ice in 2007 to operate his initial Harvard Square location.

Although operating the singular location made Schall a decent living, by 2015, his ambitions had yet again taken him elsewhere.

“You have to know when things are over, when it’s time to do something else. And I knew Fire and Ice had run its course,” Schall said.

Schall’s next venture remained in the restaurant business, but shifted focus. He opened the first El Jefe’s Taqueria just steps from Fire and Ice

in Harvard Square, focusing on late night service and flat-rate pricing.

Without a background in Mexican cuisine, Schall turned to a trusted source for recipes: Fidencio Saavedra, a cook at Fire and Ice for eight years under Schall.

Saavedra is Mexican American, and his roots are crucial to the authentic quality of El Jefe’s food.

“All of what we cook at El Jefe’s is from Fidencio and passed down from generations of his family recipes,” Schall said.

El Jefe’s, like Fire and Ice before it, was successful from the start.

But this time, Schall was committed to running a company that would grow organically and empower his employees.

Andres Lysandroupolos began 15 years ago as a Fire and Ice dishwasher, and is now general manager of El Jefe’s Bethelhem, Pennsylvania, location.

Twin brothers Fernando Cesario Sanchez and Cesario Fernanado Sanchez have worked for Schall since 1997, rising through company ranks to managerial roles.

“It’s like I got a second bite at the apple,” Schall said.

But Schall feels his success with El Jefe’s has come full circle.

He continues to work on initiatives and passion projects, like battling what he called an “oligopoly” of third-party delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash. During the climax of the restaurant industry’s economic struggles in April 2020, Schall published an op-ed in the Bos-

Photo by Matty Wasserman

ton Globe advocating for regulation of delivery app fees.

It’s clear that advocacy and public policy remains a huge part of Schall’s identity, despite working in the private sector and restaurant business for 25 years.

Schall projects El Jefe’s will earn $25 million in revenue in 2022, its biggest year to date. It will open its seventh and eighth locations next year on the campuses of Boston University and the University of Pittsburgh. On Northeastern’s campus, El Jefe’s has developed a loyal customer base.

“Everyone on campus knows about El Jefe’s,” said Michael Hutchinson, a first-year student in the Explore program. “Especially on weekends at night the place is packed.”

The overwhelming success of El Jefe’s validates Schall’s belief in the concept, and his bold venture into the restaurant industry 25 years ago.

“It works,” he said with a grin. “We know the concept works.”

As Schall reaches the twilight stage of his career, he’s unsure how much further he wants to take El Jefe’s. His son Justin Schall is responsible for overseeing the marketing operations of the company, and he will likely delegate more work as he nears retirement age. But after a career of what-ifs and the constant desire to create something new, Schall views El Jefe’s with a sense of finality.

“A lot of people are benefiting from the success of El Jefe’s,” Schall said. “And it’s really great to see it all in the end.”

SPORTS

Page 8

December 10, 2021

Northeastern’s Black Athlete Caucus inspires change at university, beyond

By Peyton Doyle News Staff The Northeastern University Black Athlete Caucus, or NUBAC, was founded to “seek representation of the Black Athlete within the Northeastern University Community, while promoting the ideals of unity, education, and wellness,” according to its fundraising page.

Since its founding in 2020, NUBAC has focused on uplifting the Black athlete community by developing a relationship with the athletic department and running programs aimed at building community and raising awareness for racial issues. “[NUBAC is] really proactive about how we can continue keeping the awareness of social justice issues and inclusion and diversity and using our student-athletes in the NUBAC group to promote those opportunities,” said Jim Madigan, Northeastern University’s athletic director. “Raising awareness and education is the most important thing — they’re doing that and always looking at doing some type of event that can continue with visibility.”

Sophomore track and field athlete Savion Thompson, the group’s administrative liaison, agreed that NUBAC is focused on increasing visibility. The group not only promotes social justice causes, but also wants to promote itself both on campus and on a national level, communicating with other collegiate and professional programs across the country.

“After the first meeting, we talked about how we could make NUBAC better and how we can get our name out there,” Thompson said. “We also talked about making sure that when you reach out to people, they understand why we’re reaching out, or what our impact was going to be on NUBAC and how not only would it benefit us but how it would benefit them as well.”

Development of the athletic community on campus is another cornerstone of NUBAC. Throughout the last few years, athletes on campus have been greatly affected by the pandemic. Several athletes have discussed how most of their time outside of class is spent almost solely with their teammates and does not allow for much time to get to know athletes on other teams who might be going through similar issues.

Encouraging support at sports events as a whole has also become important for the group, knowing that all athletes appreciate having fans in attendance.

“We’re also really focusing a lot this year on rebuilding the athletic community, making the bond between teams tighter,” Thompson said.

The community that the group has begun to establish helped out freshman soccer defender Katherine Marchesseault early in her Northeastern career. Marchesseault said she found a strong support system in NUBAC and the athletic community at the school.

On Sept. 19, in her second career away game, against the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Marchesseault, who is Black, heard an opponent use a racial slur toward her. Marchesseault, who initially did not tell her coaches

and teammates about the incident, found a welcoming community in NUBAC that was eager to assist in any way possible.

“They were super helpful.

They all reached out to me, multiple athletes. It was amazing,” Marchesseault said.

For example, at the women’s soccer team’s charity game Oct. 10, the team decided to sport warmup uniforms featuring the NUBAC logo on the back under the words, “we stand together” and the word “equality” on the front.

Junior track and field athlete Kennedee Cox, president and one of the founders of NUBAC, started the group to build upon efforts like the Black Lives Matter movement and create a more welcoming environment for athletes at Northeastern.

“I wanted to implement change within our athletic department and after everything that went on with George Floyd and people posting these black boxes,” Cox said. “We wanted to do something where this wasn’t just a moment. We wanted to keep this going — it’s a movement.”

After becoming athletic director in the spring of 2021, Madigan said he made sure not to forget about the relationship that was formed between the athletic department and NUBAC, which was created under former Athletic Director Jeff Konya.

Madigan has assisted in the hiring of a Black sports psychologist as well as an associate athletic director in charge of diversity and inclusion.

It’s about opportunities, to be out in the community, inviting your community members back to Northeastern for events, to participate, watching games. It’s about us and NUBAC going into the local elementary schools and reading with and mentoring the students.”

Thompson said he finds the relationship between NUBAC and the athletic department to be strong. He said NU has been approachable and welcomes the work that the caucus aims to achieve.

“They’ve been really receptive,” Thompson said of the athletic department.

“I wasn’t able to work with Jeff [Konya], but in working with Jim Madigan, he just seems like he’s really understanding even though he might not always get it.

He’s willing to understand, so I really appreciate that.”

As a founder of the group, Cox has seen two athletic administrations

Madigan said he would meet with the group early in transitioning to his new role, offering to help them in any capacity.

“I’ve been … impressed with what they want to do,” Madigan said.

“It’s about education.

NUBAC was founded in 2020 with the goal of representing Northeastern’s Black student athletes.

during her time at NUBAC, each finding their own ways to assist. Cox praised Madigan’s additions to the athletic staff.

“Last year, we had Jeff Konya, and he was supportive of everything that we wanted to do. This year, Jim [Madigan] seems to be even more helpful,” Cox said. “He has been very receptive, very helpful to everything that we’re trying to do, which is important.”

Some of the programs that the group has set up this semester to create bonds between athletes and boost attendance at games include a kickball game and bus rides to Northeastern sporting events. The group has also worked with the school’s field hockey team to gather donations for Rosie’s Place, a nonprofit that serves as a shelter and community center for women in the city.

The work NUBAC is doing is nowhere near finished — Cox and the other leaders want each event to be a stepping stone for the next. The organization wants to make sure to use all the resources available, and are always looking for new avenues to educate people, promote their message and help the local community.

After Thanksgiving break, NUBAC began its first large community service event of the year, partnering with Circle of Hope, to set up clothing drives for homeless individuals and others in need in the Boston area.

Cox and Thompson said boxes have been set up at different dorms, including International Village and the West Villages. The project has also been promoted in Matthews Arena during sporting events.

The group has recently begun the second large community based project that will mostly take place next semester. NUBAC will partner with Boston Public Schools, or BPS, to get local elementary and middle school students on campus, interacting with athletes and going to games.

Thompson said the goal of working with BPS students is to “show them what athletics is about, show them that they can also be a college athlete if they aspire to be.”

The most recent event saw local students filling the stands of a Dec. 1 women’s basketball game against Boston University. Other youth nights will occur throughout the end of this semester and into the spring.

For Madigan, the most important part of NUBAC and its campaigns is that it is driven by students who know what it’s like to be an athlete on campus and can understand the needs of both people at Northeastern and in the surrounding community. Madigan said that he is doing the best he can to assist the group and accomplish all NUBAC aims to do.

“It’s about not so much what is feasible, but what is achievable in making the greatest impact possible,” Madigan said. “Most of all it’s student-led, and we are glad to be part of it.”

Photo courtesy NUBAC

SPORTS

December 10, 2021

Page 9

NCAA hockey championship changes promote equity through bracket expansion

By Sarah Barber and Vitoria Poejo

News Staff On Nov. 10, the NCAA Division I Competition Oversight Committee approved expanding the Women’s National Hockey Championship from eight to 11 teams. The change comes after an Oct. 25 external report highlighted the stark inequities between the Division I men’s and women’s championship tournaments.

The report found that the NCAA spends $4.2 million on the men’s tournament compared to $658,827 on the women’s. In addition, 16 out of the 60 total Division I men’s hockey teams qualify for the yearly tournament. For the women, only eight out of 40 teams qualify.

Following the report, players and coaches from across the NCAA took to social media to express their support for the proposed expansion. Northeastern’s women’s ice hockey associate head coach Nick Carpenito posted on Twitter with a graphic highlighting the championship inequities, with the caption “It’s time. #closethegapNCAA #Timefor-

12teams2022.”

The announced expansion to 11 teams will make the National Collegiate Women’s Ice Hockey Championship on par with the men’s, allowing an equal 27% of teams to qualify for the tournament.

The push for expansion is not new, said head Northeastern women’s hockey coach, Dave Flint.

“We’ve been pushing for it for a while,” Flint said. “It’s nice to see that we are finally making some ground.”

There are many questions that still remain to be answered by the NCAA, and it is still unclear when the 11 team expansion will take place. The changes can be implemented as early as this year’s tournament or in 2023.

The NCAA Division I oversight committee is set to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the final details of the tournament and send its recommendations to the Division I council for final approval.

As a fifth-year with a plethora of experience in the championship tournament, goaltender Aerin Frankel thinks the tournament expansion is a step in the right direction for the

future of the tournament.

“There’s a lot of teams that don’t make the tournament that are deserving of it,” Frankel said. “We saw that last year with the University of Minnesota: They are usually a top three team, and they didn’t make the tournament last year and, with that expansion, hopefully that won’t happen.”

The expansion sparked conversation on social media about the disparities between men’s and women’s sports across the NCAA and called on the association to invest in their women’s programs. Former professional tennis player Billie Jean King vocalized her support on social media, calling out the discrepancies between the NCAA’s funding for male and female athletes.

Some say that the attendance disparities at Northeastern hockey games reveal a larger issue about the perception of women’s sports. For defenseman and graduate student Brooke Hobson, however, there are no stark discrepancies between the way the two teams are treated.

“I think Northeastern does a really

vaccinated and unvaccinated players.

Protocols for vaccinated players are much more desirable. If a vaccinated player tests positive, he still must quarantine. However, once that player receives two consecutive negative tests 24 hours apart, he may return to duty.

On the other hand, if an unvaccinated player tests positive, he is still subject to the 2020 protocols, which require a minimum isolation period of 10 days that the player is asymptomatic upon their return. Other strict protocols for the unvaccinated include having to test every day, wear a mask at all times in team facilities and in interviews and quarantine for five days if deemed a close contact with any teammate who has contracted COVID-19.

Originally, when the news surfaced about Rodgers’ positive test, most NFL fans were saddened by the unfortunate reality but were confident Rodgers would return in a few days following two negative tests.

New information, however, came out later that day revealing that Rodgers was unvaccinated.

ESPN’s Rob Demovsky said Rodgers received an alternative homeopathic treatment prior to the start of training camp in place of the COVID-19 vaccine. Additionally, Rodgers petitioned the NFL for a COVID-19 vaccine exemption, claiming to be allergic to an ingredient found in the vaccine. However, Rodgers lost this appeal but that did not change his mind about getting the vaccine Therefore, Rodgers was required to follow the much stricter protocols the NFL outlined for unvaccinated players.

Aaron Rodgers did not follow these protocols. In fact, most people outside the Green Bay Packers organization believed Rodgers had

been vaccinated. Not because they heard from a source, but from Aaron Rodgers’ words himself. In a press conference with Rodgers Aug. 26, a reporter asked him if he was vaccinated and he promptly replied, “Yes, I’ve been immunized.”

Whether you want to call his statement a lie, clever wordplay or intentional deception, the fact remains that Rodgers was unvaccinated and was not following the NFL protocols for unvaccinated players. He walked around maskless in indoor facilities, and he attended in-person interviews. The media who attended his press conferences were not informed that Rodgers was unvaccinated.

Rodgers put these individuals and their loved ones at risk by not being transparent about his status and pretending as if he were vaccinated.

Many media members voiced their frustrations with Rodger’s deception in the aftermath of the breaking news. Even Stephen A. Smith, perhaps the biggest Aaron Rodgers fan, coined the term “he’s a bad man,” and spoke of his disdain for Rodgers’ actions. On his weekday show, FirstTake, Smith stated that his actions were a “national embarrassment” and he even went as far as calling him a “coward” for lying about his vaccination status.

Following the public backlash, Rodgers went on former Colts punter Pat McAfee’s talkshow to defend himself and double down on the fact that he didn’t lie about his vaccination status. His explanation for not getting the vaccine was because of an allergy to an ingredient in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Furthermore, he went on a rant, claiming he is not an “anti-vax, flat-earther”, a direct shot at Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving. He continued, using phrases like “cancel culture

Photo by Ethan Wayne Northeastern women’s hockey against UConn. good job making us equitable to the men’s team,” Hobson said. “Hopefully [Northeastern] opens eyes for other schools that have discrepancies between the men and women.”

For all who are skeptical about women’s hockey, Flint urges them to attend a game at Matthews Arena.

“For those people that are skeptics, they should come out and watch a game and see how exciting we are to watch,” Flint said. “[Attendance] plays a big role in our team’s performance, and we need fan support down the stretch to help give us that

momentum going into the tournament going into the tournament.”

Last season, Hobson, Flint and the Huskies ended their historic 2020-21 season in a tragic 2-1 loss against the Wisconsin Badgers in the National Championship. It was Northeastern’s first Frozen Four and National Championship appearance.

In the end, the tournament expansion does not impact the Huskies’ final goal.

“We came so close last year,” Flint said. “This year, we want a national championship.”

casket,” “woke mob” and “witch hunt” to describe why he didn’t want to be outspoken about his stance on being unvaccinated.

Perhaps even more outrageous, he cited a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. dealing with a moral responsibility to defy unjust laws. He shared that he received advice from his “good friend” Joe Rogan when contemplating his decision. However, Rogan holds no medical license and has no professional expertise or training in treating infectious diseases. In an attempt to cover for his wordplay, Rogers claimed he would have clarified his position in August if the reporter asked him a follow-up question after his deceptive wordplay and claim of being “immunized.”

Smith is right; Rodgers is a coward and even that’s a generous way to describe his actions and behavior. He was selfish in not being upfront about his vaccination status, putting those around him at risk of potentially catching the virus, having an adverse or even lifethreatening response or spreading it to somebody else who may be immunocompromised.

Additionally, his supposed fears of the “woke mob canceling him from society” are a laughable cover-up for his lies. All you need to do is look at other high-profile NFL quarterbacks like former MVP Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Carson Wentz and Kirk Cousins. All of them were upfront about being unvaccinated initially and followed the protocols accordingly. Last I checked, none of these athletes have been “canceled” or publicly besmirched. In fact, I now have more respect for these quarterbacks and all other NFL players who were honest about their unvaccinated status and acquiesced to the appropriate rules.

Rodgers was sneaky, vindictive, selfish and manipulative in handling the situation. All he had to do was be truthful in the first place and none of this would have happened. But no, Aaron Rodgers wanted to have his cake and eat it too; he wanted to be unvaccinated and only have to follow the protocols for vaccinated players.

He put other people’s lives in jeopardy (literally), and simply could care less about who may be affected by his actions. He certainly deserves further punishment than the $14,650 fine the NFL handed to him.

All in all, nobody looks good in this situation. Rodgers obviously looks bad for his glaring role; the Green Bay Packers look bad for being negligent and enabling Rodgers’s behavior, and the NFL looks bad for knowing his status, not doing anything about it and then giving him the weakest sanction possible.

In a league that is adamant about player health and safety since the convoluted concussion cover-up that lasted far too many years, it certainly makes the NFL look hypocritical on its stance.

Overall, the whole ordeal makes me feel more unsettled about COVID-19 than before. If a high-profile athlete like Rodgers had gotten away with being unvaccinated, there is no doubt in my mind that others are doing the same. This pandemic will never go away if unvaccinated individuals continue to show fake vaccination cards at restaurants and large gatherings. Lastly, we need to hold public figures like Rodgers to a higher standard when it comes to following mandated health guidelines. People look up to prominent figures, and setting an example like this is unacceptable. So don’t look at Rodgers as an example; look at him as the counterexample.

Column: Aaron Rogers should be honest about his vaccination status

By Dustin Birnbaum News Staff On Nov. 3, news broke that Green Bay Packers star quarterback Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 and would miss their upcoming game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

On the surface, the unfortunate news of Rodgers’ positive test appeared to be nothing more than the new normal. Between Aug. 1 and Oct. 30, there were 279 confirmed positive tests from players and coaching personnel identified by routine morning tests. The vaccination rate for NFL players is 94.4%, much higher than the national average, but positive cases continue to linger.

Vaccinated players like A.J. Green, Nick Chubb and Ben Roethlisberger have all been sidelined for a game because of a positive test. NFL protocols, however, differ dramatically from 2020 when there was no vaccine. For the 2021 season, the NFL has devised separate protocols for

“Aaron Rodgers” by elviskennedy is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Aaron Rodgers is a quarterback for the Green Bay Packers.

OPINION

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Column: Mayor Michelle Wu makes history in election win

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Photo courtesy Alyssa Endres The Nov. 2 Boston mayoral election was extremely historic — the candidate that was elected broke down barriers as the first Asian American woman elected to the position.

Two people became frontrunners: Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi George. Although former mayor Marty Walsh was technically eligible for reelection, he resigned earlier this year after being chosen as President Joe Biden’s secretary of labor, blowing the race wide open. Wu maintained a steady lead over Essaibi George in the polls weeks before election day. Earlier last month, Wu won over Essaibi George by a margin of 91,239 to 50,879.

“From every corner of our city, Boston has spoken. We are ready to meet this moment. We are ready to become a Boston for everyone,” Wu said to a crowd of supporters the night she won.

“I want to be clear, it wasn’t my vision on the ballot, it was ours, together.”

Besides being a historic win

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for Boston, she is also a promising politician. Wu proposed sweeping and transformative legislation in her mayoral agenda, promising to address climate change, an issue pertinent to Boston, and other key problems like systemic racism. As a result, the majority of her support and endorsements came from progressive organizations, including the Working Families Party, Sunrise Movement Boston and Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts.

The problems facing Boston that Wu will have to address in office are widespread and complex, including policing issues, poverty, public education, transportation and housing.

Wu also has plans of implementing a city-level Green New Deal for Boston.

This Green New Deal would ultimately aim to confront not only climate change, but also economic equality and the wealth gap. This is a very progressive plan of action that addresses numerous aspects of climate change. All of these aspects can and must be improved within the city of Boston. Wu has already signed an ordinance that requires the city of Boston to divest from fossil fuels and tobacco, as well as a private prison industry by late 2025.​​This just shows Wu’s tenacity and her drive to enact change quickly and efficiently within the city.

Poverty has been an epidemic in the city for years, owing to Boston’s exorbitant cost of living. One of her most prominent points during her campaign was a proposed measure called rent control, pushing back against the increasing cost of housing. She also wants to create a fare-free public transit

system, which would no longer require riders to pay to get onto MBTA services. Both of these plans would lower the cost of living for Bostonians. Wu even filed an appropriations request to make three bus lines free for 2 years on her first day in office. This investment will ultimately allow for Boston to reap the benefits of a fare-free bus service and public transit system.

of Wu’s plans are a step in the right direction to addressing poverty in Boston.

Wu must work with other officials in Boston to actually make these propositions come true in real life. This will not be an easy feat, but she believes change is possible, which is something she has reiterated many times.

Overall, Wu displayed not only great tenacity during her mayoral campaign,

Wu also made it clear she wants to decrease the racial wealth gap in the city.

To do this, she plans on fighting the root cause of wealth and income inequality by shifting “the rules, practices and norms that have enabled racial inequalities to persist since the city’s founding,” according to her campaign website.

In addition, Wu proposed creating a citywide plan and regional coalition to reduce homelessness and substance use disorder, both of which are major problems in the city. These components

but also a great sense of care for the community and city of Boston as a whole. Boston needs someone who will care about the people in the city in order to make changes that are long lasting and beneficial for all, and Wu is the right person for that job.

accountability to the Government and Legislature,” among other things.

In October, Baker filled the brand new board with a total of seven members, five of whom Baker selected weeks after his initial promised deadline.

At the beginning of his first term as governor, Baker brought together a panel of experts to discuss issues with the MBTA system. These same professionals were asked to report back with recommendations on how to improve Boston’s public transportation system.

The former Director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, Paul Barrett, led the commission in 2015. The board was rounded out by past leaders of transportation organizations such as

from Harvard and Northeastern.

However, Baker has not held a panel of this nature since the initial one. If he wants to improve the safety of the MBTA system, he must double back to his original strategy: recruiting outside sources to supplement those permanently heading the MBTA. Increasing the variety of expert perspectives is necessary if Baker wants to see true improvement of local public transportation. This is especially relevant in light of the recent 3% budget increase passed unanimously by the MBTA board; the allocation of the budget will be a make-or-break moment for the issues with Boston’s public transportation systems.

in 2015, locals have taken to social media to poke fun at his hesitancy to take the T. Some progressive leaders, like recently elected Mayor Michelle Wu, make the most of Boston’s public transportation options. Not only does the T prove the “fastest way” to travel around the city, according to Wu, she calls riding it “a chance also to understand how the T itself is working.”

So, as funny as it is to imagine Baker’s 6’ 6” frame wedged into a barely-big-enough trolley seat, the action is essential for inciting change.

Baker will never be completely able to understand the faults of the public transportation in Boston until he tries to scan his ticket and the reader tells him to “see attendant,” waits 18 minutes for a train that was supposed to be there in four, sits in an unidentifiable liquid on an orange line seat or tries to dodge flying pigeons at Ruggles station. In other words, Charlie Baker needs to purchase (or start making use of) his own Charlie card.

As Northeastern students, we have a metaphorical front seat to the trials and tribulations of the T system (and a trolley stop named after NU!). To call Baker’s attention to the lack of safety precautions being enforced and followed within the MBTA system, write him a quick note.

Photo by Avery Bleichfeld Mayor Michelle Wu spoke Nov. 27 in support of City Councilor Lydia Edwards’ senate bid. Edwards previously endorsed Wu in the mayoral race.

Alyssa Endres is a third-year political science and communication studies combined major and opinion editor of The News. She can be reached at endres.a@ northeastern.edu.

Op-ed: The MBTA has gone off the rails

Amelia Ballingall, Ava Cervini, Ellie Acuna, Gabrielle Acuna, Jenna Chin, Jennifer Suryadjaja, Jill Makin, Kayla Shiao, Kira Eske, Nikita Vandrangi

Opinions expressed in The Huntington News through letters to the editor, cartoons and columns are not necessarily those of The News staff or the Board of Directors. Northeastern University students conduct all operations involved in the production of this publication.

December 10, 2021

Over the past few months, Boston’s public transportation system has been going off the rails. The series of events that took place on public transportation and at local stations around the city sound like a dystopian reality: passengers being mauled by an escalator stuck in reverse, trolleys crashing into one another due to speeding drivers, a Boston University professor dying after falling through a rusty set of stairs and a sleeping woman being sexually assaulted multiple times.

So, what can Governor Charlie Baker do to get the public transportation system back on track?

First, Baker needs to hold the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or MBTA, Board of Directors accountable. In 2021, this group officially replaced the Fiscal and Management Control Board, which had been active since 2015 and was responsible for addressing a “lack of long-term vision and strategy, customer focus and

Photo by Quillan Anderson The T has recently experienced a series of freak accidents that exposes how old and underfunded the transportation system has become. the Federal Aviation Administration and the New York City Transit Authority; local experts from MassPort and the mayor’s office; and university faculty

Second, Baker must become a public transportation expert himself — or at least get familiar with something he’s supposed to help run. Since his election

Greta Magendantz is a first-year journalism and political science combined major. She can be reached at magendantz.g@northeastern.edu.

OPINION

December 10, 2021

Page 11

Op-ed: In-person learning brings pluses, struggles

Photo by Quillan Anderson I am an international student who decided to pursue my dream of getting my master’s degree during the COVID-19 pandemic from Northeastern University. There were challenges and uncertainties, yet one thing was certain, and that was my determination to give my best and reach my goal.

The first major challenge that I came across was getting my visa to

study in the United States. Being an international student from India, I had to get my F1-Visa.

However, with COVID-19 cases rising exponentially in the United States when the pandemic first began, there were travel restrictions.

In addition, the U.S. consulates in India were all closed and, even in the rare chance that a consulate was open, getting an appointment for a visa interview was extremely difficult. As such, I decided to start my first semester remotely using the hybrid NUFlex system.

The challenges didn’t stop there — I had to tackle time zone differences, which created a communication gap between students and educators. Having said that, I must say the faculty members at Northeastern did their best to arrange exam schedules according to the different time zones.

One thing I was fascinated by was Canvas, specifically its dashboard.

Canvas has amazing features like timely reminders, schedules, sylla-

buses, announcements, Panopto and grades — everything was at the tips of my fingers. Another thing I want to highlight was the tech support team. Many times while logging into Canvas or Zoom I faced quite a few technical difficulties, but the technical support team at Northeastern did their best to resolve my problems almost instantaneously.

Some of the benefits of online learning were a flexible schedule, a more comfortable learning environment and getting the time to be with family, but online learning challenges you with many unique responsibilities. As such the benefits of in-person learning outweighs online learning and thankfully I was able to make it to the states in fall 2021 when many COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, at least for the international students.

It is true that studying online requires more self-discipline and time management skills, as you spend a lot of time on your own without someone physically close to keep

you focused on deadlines. Look at it this way: your online course will not only teach you about your coursework, but it will also help you become more self motivated, a trait that will make you stand out in the workplace and beyond. Self motivation can help you develop a drive and determination to complete various tasks and goals throughout the workday. If you display high levels of self-discipline within the workplace, it will become noticeable that you’re achieving more goals and are working harder to succeed. Plus, it will look great on your resume.

One major disappointment I faced during my semester online had to do with the co-op program which requires international students to meet the minimum length requirement, one academic year, or its equivalent, and obtain proper authorization from the Office of Global Services before engaging in co-op​​. If this criterion had been changed, at least for the resilient entering class of fall 2020, it would have been great. How-

ever, I had to accept the fact that no amendments were made and so I started preparing for my next steps: searching and booking a slot for my visa. I tried booking a slot and luckily, I got one. To my amusement, on the day of my visa interview, instead of being nervous I felt very confident. I woke up early and headed towards the consulate and it went really great. I was overjoyed when the visa officer congratulated me on getting my visa approved.

Another drawback of online studies was missing the fun of in person college, the full-fledged fantastic events and networking with people from different backgrounds.

Thankfully, I am able to experience everything now as I have finally reached my destination. All in all, I must say that fierce determination is all you need to achieve anything and everything in life.

Priyanka Salla is a second-year pharmaceutical sciences major. She can be reached at salla.p@northeastern.edu.

Column: Schools must act to prevent shootings

Photo courtesy Madison Boudreau Popovic

A few weeks ago, I got a call from my brother. He told me there was a shooter threat at his school and that a bunch of students ran out of the building since the school’s administration had yet to begin a lockdown.

I was immediately petrified. A million questions ran through my head.

What if the shooter is outside the building? What if the shooter is inside the building with all those other students and staff? Where is the shooter? Why isn’t anyone doing anything about it?

The high school I attended and my brother currently attends is Pelham Memorial High School, or PMHS. A student at PMHS posted a concerning Snapchat. At around the same time, another student posted a photo on social media of him holding a gun. A few days after these posts, PMHS students found out the alleged time that the shooting was going to happen.

Despite the undeniably alarming social media posts, PMHS administrators claim that the school was not in any clear danger and that the “planned shooting” was not true. The vague nature of the school’s explanation and immediate dismissal left not only my family, but also many other families, very worried.

While it’s unclear if a shooting was supposed to happen at PMHS on a particular date and time, it doesn’t change the fact that the posts understandably shook the town of Pelham to its core. It made me cry out of worry and fear. A child posting a photo with a gun and another posting a Snapchat which read “Time to f*** up Pelham?” are real, credible

threats — not something to dismiss.

It quickly became a dark day Nov. 30 as Ethan Crumbley, who is 15 years old, went from being just like any other student to a school shooter when he shot and killed four fellow classmates at Oxford High School.

Upon hearing about the tragic event, I didn’t want to know any more details.

When anyone around me brought it up, I asked them to stop talking about it. I didn’t want to hear about a child murdering their classmates — it just hit too close to home. However, little by little, I heard pieces of the story.

The more I heard the more similar it sounded to what happened at the high school I graduated from and that my brother currently attends.

Crumbley, similarly to the PMHS students, showed clear indicators of being fascinated with weapons. A teacher found an image he drew of someone getting shot and bleeding out while screaming for help. Crumbley was then called to the guidance counselor’s office, where he claimed it was for a video game. School officials told his parents to take him home for the

day, but they refused. Not only did he draw this grotesque image, he posted a photo of himself on Instagram with a semi-automatic gun, detailing how he was going to shoot up the school.

Pelham was lucky. Oxford was not.

But there is a similarity between the two stories: Both schools handled the situation poorly. Pelham was dismissive of the threat, and so was Oxford.

The “rumor” about the date and time of the shooting that spread around the halls of PMHS, ultimately making many students flee the school in desperate need of safety, might have saved lives while the administration sat by and did next to nothing.

Studying these two events, it’s clear that many schools aren’t ready to face the unthinkable. No matter how maddening it is, school shootings are all too commonplace in the United States. We need to plan accordingly for the worst outcome and understand the importance of taking threats seriously. If we all did this, plans would be more polished and neglectfulness wouldn’t cost innocent lives.

As part of a school community at

Madison Boudreau Popovic is a second-year political science and business administration combined major with a minor in French. She can be reached at popovic.m@northeastern.edu.

1

Graphic by Avery Bleichfeld

How many school shootings have occured per state since 1999?

Northeastern, we must do just that and make a plan. In 2019, NU students were alerted about a shooting that occured in Ruggles station an hour and a half after it transpired. Ruggles is a common place students go, which makes the late email with this troubling information unacceptable. If every school and local police departments were more transparent, then we would all be safer.

We never think it could be us. We never think that we will be the next victims of a school shooting. We never think that the next day of classes could be our last. This is part of the issue.

Schools must take every threat seriously. Children like Crumbley need mental health resources which many schools lack, including Northeastern.

This issue boils down to who cares enough to stand up for transparency and increase mental health funds to ultimately protect our communities.

35 Data from the Washington Post school shooting database. The database counts any exposure of students to gun violence during school hours since the Columbine massacre in Colorado in 1999. It includes both attacks intentionally targeting schools as well as gunshots that happen to hit schools under the same label.

States marked in darker colors experienced more shootings since 1999. Only six states — Iowa, Maine, North Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming — have no recorded shootings. California has exerienced the most, with 35 recorded shootings.

Page 12

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