September 22, 2023

The Huntington News

September 22, 2023

MISSION HILL RESIDENTS GRAPPLE WITH COLLEGE STUDENTS MOVING TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD

In recent years, more and more Northeastern students have flocked to Mission Hill for off-campus housing. As appealing as the idea of affordable rent and a more spacious living style is for college students in Boston, surrounding Mission Hill neighbors have had to bear the brunt of this transformation.

The influx of students has paved the way for an outburst of rowdy parties and unruly late-night noise

Juliette Piovoso | News Staff

complaints that are hard to ignore for many long-time Mission Hill residents.

“It’s more of an annoyance than anything. I have a fence around my yard that has wooden pickets, and, without fail, every weekend, there’s a broken picket. There are always red solo cups littered in my yard, too,” said Candance Belanoff, who has lived in the neighborhood for 19 years.

In a community that has consistently been known to appeal to those seeking transient or temporary housing, Belanoff feels as if their impermanence in the area contributes to the chaos they bring.

“There is no sense of belonging or feeling like the community

is theirs,” she said. “People feel they can come into our community and party as hard as they want to without affecting anyone else. If you knew it was your mom’s yard, you probably wouldn’t mess with their property like that. But if it’s anonymous, it doesn’t matter because these students are only here for nine months.”

As of this year, more than 3,700 out of Mission Hill’s population of 15,600 are off-campus college students —

more than 11% of Boston’s off-campus students in a neighborhood representing 3% of the city’s population, WBUR reported.

As Mission Hill’s popularity amongst college students rises, Cindy Walling, a resident of 14 years, acknowledges that many Mission Hill neighbors, including herself, don’t mind the flurries of college kids moving to the area.

HOUSING, on Page 3

Boston’s Hemp Fest advocates cannabis reform

By Noelia Arteaga News Staff

After a windy day full of hurricane warnings delayed planned festivities, Massachusetts’ most 420-friendly citizens enjoyed a sunny day on Boston

Common for the 34th annual Boston Freedom Rally, commonly referred to as Hempfest.

Hundreds walked through the crowded Parkman Bandstand walkways in Boston Common Sunday in a smoky haze lined with booths of vendors promoting deals on bongs, pipes, oils, vapes and flower. Whether event goers were planning on participating in the THC or CBD experience, attendees did not have to worry about scoring before the event.

Held annually on the third Saturday of September, the rally is the second largest annual gathering advocating for marijuana law reform after Seattle’s Hempfest, which Boston’s rally is often confused with. The rally achieved its main goal of legalizing marijuana for statewide recreational use in 2016 and has since become a celebration of the plant’s legalization.

While legalizing recreational marijuana at the state level is the main goal for many, medical marijuana —

CAMPUS

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Read how NU students and administration reacted to insensitive SPD footage.

PAGES 6-7

an important first step in the journey of recreational legalization — seems to be getting left behind.

“When recreational [marijuana legalization] comes, medical programs kind of fade away,” said Jeremiah MacKinnon, president and executive director of Massachusetts Patient Advocacy Alliance. MacKinnon’s organization helps medical marijuana patients find products for affordable prices as well as push for bills that make medical marijuana more accessible.

MacKinnon explained when states first made their medical marijuana regulations, they were too restrictive, requiring medical dispensaries to grow their own product, cultivate it, take care of their own manufacturing and act as a business.

Joining MacKinnon at his booth was Frank Shaw, founder of Frank’s Friends, an initiative that helps medical cannabis patients with HIV/ AIDS and financial hardships obtain medical cannabis at a reduced price.

“[Medical marijauna regluations] makes it so our medical market is largely dominated by multi-state, large corporations and not really the small mom-and-pops that really should get a shot at serving patients,” MacKinnon said.

According to MacKinnon, recreational legalization opened the floodgates, and it became easier to operate as an adult-use dispensary. MacKinnon’s organization is pushing for a bill that would make medical licensing systems recreational ones. This means medical marijuana dispensaries would not have to manufacture and cultivate their own products and instead sell through recreational dispensaries as another product on the menu.

Shaw, who is HIV/AIDS positive, believes that if he needs the help, others probably need it, too.

Now that recreational weed is in Massachusetts for good, another desirable garden dweller is looking for a chance to make a positive change in people’s lives: psilocybin mushrooms. Commonly known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, the fungi is making buzz in the state, with many cities like Somerville, Cambridge, Northampton and Easthampton decriminalizing the Schedule I drug.

Lucas Fernandes of Trip2Nite, a business and advocacy group of psilocybin mushrooms for recreational and medical use, grows his own mushrooms so that he knows exactly what he and his customers are consuming.

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“I bought mushroom chocolate from a friend and it turned out to be a research chemical, kept me up for a day and a half,” said Fernandes, who has recovered from a heroin and fentanyl addiction. “Luckily, I was three years into my recovery,

and I had been looking for medicinal benefits from mushrooms, which could have potentially sent me back to the street and I could have been doing fentanyl again.”

LEGALIZATION, on Page 4

LIFESTYLE

Mitski unveils artistic 7th album

Review: read about the latest release from the acclaimed indie artist.

Glass bongs sit on a vendor’s table. Vendors offered deals on bongs, pipes, oils and vapes.

Photo courtesy Megan Moffat

Photo by Sofia Sawchuk

Photo courtesy Nicole Vicino

Graphic by Emma Liu

Graphic by Ali Caudle

Mission Hill, a neighborhood near Northeastern, is home to more than 3,700 students as of this year. Residents have been frustrated with students partying.

Photo by Katy Manning

After devastating earthquake, Northeastern students provide aid to Morocco

By Lily Webber News Staff

On Sept. 8, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck Morocco, killing over 2,000 people and injuring more than 5,000. The quake devastated land and villages in the High Atlas Mountains near the tourism hub city of Marrakech. Aftershocks then rattled the area, including a 4.9 magnitude tremor minutes later.

The rough terrain and remote living locations limited rescue workers’ ability to navigate the scene. Because of this, some villages remained inaccessible. Some Northeastern students found ways to help.

Chloe Cordeiro, a third-year environmental and sustainability sciences and economics combined major currently on co-op working in Marrakesh spoke to The News about her firsthand experience of the earthquake.

“When I stood up, it kind of felt like I was on a boat — the building was definitely swaying,” Cordeiro said. “It was intense. I’ve never felt an earthquake that strong.”

As a sustainability intern at the High Atlas Foundation, Cordeiro has shifted focus and is currently concentrating on earthquake relief.

“Right now at work, what I’m doing is looking on Amazon for winter tents and winter sleeping bags; which

is how people are going to be living through the winter,” Cordeiro said.

“It gets cold in the mountains — it snows — they are going to be basically camping throughout the winter. They really need our help, they need everyone’s help.”

Cordeiro traveled into the mountains of Morocco and viewed the infrastructure of buildings before the earthquake struck, noting that they weren’t strong.

“Now you see all these pictures of them and videos — they are in shambles,” she said. “They are not going to be able to rebuild this in a month. This is going to be really hard for them to come back from. This is the worst earthquake that Morocco has had in 100 years. They need help, they need funding.”

From across the Atlantic Ocean, Wallid Soukaki, a fifth-year bioengineering student, called the Northeastern community to action. In an Instagram post Sept. 13 on the men’s rugby team account, which Soukaki plays for, he shared that his family in Morocco has yet to receive any aid.

Soukaki has organized a GoFundMe, which will be used to aid those who live beyond the reach of government rescue efforts.

“My grandmother resides in the outskirts of Ouarzazate, where national aid has not reached them yet due to the remote nature of the

Atlas Mountains,” the post read. “Any donations to help rebuild my grandmother’s village would be greatly appreciated.”

The Moroccan government has initiated military and civilian response programs, yet criticism over the government’s slow response remains. Despite offers of international aid, the country is hesitant to accept foreign aid and volunteers. According to a statement from Moroccan state media, the interior ministry is staying cautious as the coordination of incoming volunteers may create unwanted chaos within the grieving country.

“A lot of people in that area suffered from devastating damage to their homes, and a lot of people are still missing,” he said in an interview with The News. “The rescue efforts are still ongoing. This money is going to go directly to the rebuilding efforts — … taking food, water, clothes and medical supplies, they are going to go directly to the affected families.”

Taking matters into their own hands, citizens and advocates abroad have begun organizing rescue efforts and supply drives.

“I want to do my best to help these people and help my people where I originated from, and I have received a tremendous amount of support from the Northeastern community, so that

means a lot to me and all the Moroccans at Northeastern,” Soukaki said.

Soukaki, who has family in the area, reflected on the initial response by locals.

“Thankfully, I did speak to my family — my grandmother still lives there and some of my uncles,” he said. “It was definitely a nerve-racking situation. People didn’t know what was going on when it first happened and it was something that kind of came out of the blue.”

The rocky terrain of Morocco, Soukaki explained, poses a challenge to getting aid to those who need it. Locals have come together to support each other during this time.

On the resilience of the local community, Soukaki said, “They are steadfast in helping each other. It’s been a very collaborative effort within the villages and small cities in these remote areas. That is the biggest takeaway I’ve understood from this — people are rallying together like they haven’t before, and it’s really shown the strong comradery of the community.”

He urged students to reach out to those who may know someone connected to the tragedy.

“Check up on those people who originate from these areas because it has been mentally draining and taxing overall, not knowing the exact hour-by-hour situation is something that people have been worrying

about,” he said. “There is a fear of aftershocks happening so Moroccans living here have been tracking that and trying to keep seeing by reading news and keeping up.”

As of Sept. 21, the GoFundMe for Soukaki’s family’s village had raised over $3,700.

Reflecting on the response from the student body, Soukaki said, “In times like these it’s good to rely on your community, and I just want to urge the Northeastern student body, as they already have done, to support their fellow students, because it’s not just me that’s affected, it’s a bunch of students that are being affected.”

The remains of a home that was deeply affected by the earthquake. The destruction caused by the 6.8 magnitude earthquake left many homes like this one inaccessible.

Disorientation 2023: Huskies come together to inform and advocate for change

By Lily Webber News Staff

The 2023-24 school year is just beginning, but student action groups campaigning for the betterment of Northeastern University never stopped working.

On Sept. 9, members from eight student organizations gathered for the second annual Disorientation, a walking tour of campus intended to expose Northeastern’s associations with and contributions to immoral practices and social injustices. Topics included the university’s involvement with gentrification, climate change, the military-industrial complex and more.

“Disorientation is a way for people to get acquainted with the issues while also seeing how and why you should try and be a part of an organization that can do something about it,” said Finn Seifert, a third-year human services major and co-president of NU SHARE.

Disorientation, a play on Northeastern’s new student orientation, consists of a campus tour that highlights locations representative of Northeastern’s ties to social justice issues. At each stop, students share their grievances and inform attendees about ways to initiate change.

“Student organizations and activist organizations are what make the campus better,” Seifert said. “Each club is trying to improve the university and trying to have students be more aware of the issues and improve the student body’s understanding.”

The student organizations that collaborated for the event included Young Democratic Socialists of America, or YDSA; Progressive Student Alliance, or PSA; Sunrise NU; Huskies Organizing with Labor, or HOWL; Divest NU; NU Sexual Health Advocacy, Resources and Education; Graduate Employees of Northeastern University and Mutual Aid.

“The goal of disorientation is two-fold,” said Jonathan Bacdayan, a fourth-year environmental studies major and leader of Sunrise NU. “One is to get new students in — that’s why we are calling it Disorientation. It’s very much meant to complement the official welcome to the university by talking about the things the university doesn’t highlight about itself. The other part of it, in addition to getting new students in, is to foster communication between existing clubs and students who have been around for a while — oftentimes, there’s a tendency for groups to get very siloed.”

Taking charge of the event were leaders from the Sunrise Movement, a climate and political action group, and HOWL, a student coalition supporting Northeastern employees. HOWL’s current focus is helping Northeastern graduate students through the process of unionizing.

The tour includes six stops, beginning in front of East Village and ending outside of Marino Recreation Center

Outside of International Village, Carmen Phillips-Alvarez, a third-year

criminal justice and political science combined major and chair of YDSA, spoke about Northeastern’s highpriced meal plans.

“One-in-four Northeastern students have reported feelings of food insecurity at some point during their time here and that is not okay,” Phillips-Alvarez said. “This is a condition created by the university. They can afford to not starve us, yet they are choosing to do so.”

YDSA has been focusing on the No Hungry Huskies movement for the past two years, which is an effort “to end hunger on campus utilizing Northeastern’s $240 million revenue surplus,” according to its website. The campaign argues that students in meal-plan-required housing should have access to three meals a day at no cost.

The unwillingness of the university to amend its practices and associations was a consistent theme throughout the tour.

Kyler Shinkle-Stolar, a fourth-year biology major and member of PSA, addressed students in front of the Egan Research Center, which houses the Raytheon Amphitheater.

“What we’ve been involved with more recently is Northeastern’s ties with Raytheon which is a weapons manufacturer and other companies that profit off of war,” Shinkle-Stolar said on behalf of PSA.

Raytheon Technologies is one of the largest United States defense contractors and sustains deep ties to the university. A Northeastern alumnus,

Thomas Phillips, was the former CEO and president of Raytheon as well as a member of the university’s board of trustees from 1968 to 1984. His influence is credited with securing Northeastern as a feeder of alumni and co-op employees to Raytheon.

In the 2021-22 school year, the university contributed $50,000 to Raytheon, according to recently filed financial disclosure documents.

Shinkle-Stolar called the amphitheater “a good representation of how close Northeastern and Raytheon are.”

“It’s not just that these companies make weapons, it’s that they sell these weapons to the U.S. military and countries abroad despite them being used to violate human rights and to kill human beings,” Shinkle-Stolar said.

Raytheon rose to prominence in the media in 2020, when the Trump administration reversed an earlier ruling that had limited the sale of weapons supplied by American companies to Middle East countries. This played a key role in amplifying the Saudi-led war in Yemen — and Raytheon products were at the forefront.

“We at PSA want Northeastern to not just sit by and work with these companies and benefit from them while they are doing these terrible things,” Shinkle-Stolar said. “We should hold them accountable and part of that is the university not partnering with them.”

Although Disorientation is an event that is meant to highlight the

immoral and unjust actions of the university, its organizers emphasized their desire to improve the university to benefit the student body.

“It comes from a place of love and it comes from a place of wanting this university to be the best and most just place that it can,” Bacdayan said. “We want it to take care of its students in the way that we know it can.”

In recent years, advocacy groups have been seeing the results of their efforts. In September 2022, Northeastern dining workers of Chartwells Higher Education, the parent company that employs them, achieved a historic new contract that guaranteed improved pay and working conditions. In October 2022, NU SHARE installed a wellness vending machine inside Marino Recreation Center to supply sexual health products to promote sexual safety and pleasure within the local community.

As the 2023-24 school year begins, the fight for social justice and student causes is ramping up on campus. Disorientation is just the beginning for these student advocacy groups as they work toward promoting a more sustainable, inclusive and just community.

“At the end of the day this is our university,” said Mimi Yu, a thirdyear computer science and political science combined major, and member of HOWL and PSA. “We should be allowed to have a say in how it uses its money and influence.”

Photo courtesy Wallid Soukaki

Hummingbird bookstore tackles book bans across state lines, promotes representation

By Annie Cayer News Correspondent

In the quiet nooks of libraries and behind closed school doors lives a battle that’s significance is often hidden from the public eye. It’s a battle over words and the fundamental elements of intellectual liberty.

This is the new reality of book bans: where stories are silenced and knowledge is confined. But as censorship increases, a community of readers and educators have come together to combat this struggle. Hummingbird Books, a local bookstore just a few miles outside of Boston, and educators throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina understand that books are not just paper and ink but rather a window to the world.

Amidst heightened political division, school districts across the United States are encountering an unprecedented increase in book restrictions. Beaufort County, South Carolina had 97 books challenged in

“outrage and frustration from [their] community” and felt the need to “help by giving the organization books,” said Lily Spar, a book buyer and event planner for Hummingbird Books.

Hummingbird is starting the journey of supporting the readers of Beaufort County by sending books to Families Against Book Bans and Lowcountry Pride.

“It was really important to us starting this project that the people who live in Beaufort County decide how they use the books,” Spar said.

“As a bookstore we felt we have a stake in this and really care about it, and so we started looking for ways to address it,” she said.

After spending time exploring where to send donations, it became clear Beaufort County would be the perfect place.

“We were really inspired by a lot of the people we spoke to in Beaufort County, especially Families Against Book Bans and Lowcountry Pride,” Spar said.

race theory,” Henrickson said. One of her favorites on this list is “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a novel written by Margaret Atwood arguing that legally controlling women’s reproductive freedom is morally and politically wrong.

“Reading builds empathy and I think that is something this country is lacking,” Henrickson said.

Hummingbird Books was invested in this community because “60% of students in the county live below the poverty line,” Spar said.

“When we are distanced from a problem, we think we know how to fix it when we really don’t, so it was very important to be cautious of the fact that we want to be helpful and listen to where they wanted these books to go and the main impact of them,” Spar said.

Spar’s favorite book on the list, “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” by Steven Chbosky, is a story exploring trauma, abuse and mental health.

“It was really important to me

according to a report by the American Library Association.

“We knew this was not just about books,” said Angela Wright, co-chair of Lowcountry Pride. When Hummingbird reached out, Lowcountry Pride said it was the perfect opportunity to let people know resources are available and decided to start a lending library.

“The ability to see yourself represented in literature is so powerful,” Wright said. Her favorite banned book is “Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” a historical fiction novel by Malinda Lo that tells the story of a teenage daughter of Chinese immigrants as she begins to explore her sexuality.

“If I had access to a book like this in junior high or middle school, what a difference it would have made about understanding the feelings I was having and feeling less isolated and more understood,” Wright said.

PEN America, a free speech organization, stated in a report that “during the first half of the 2022-

The small town is a good proxy for what is happening around the entire country. “This is simply a nationwide issue at this point,” Wright said.

Lowcountry Pride is specifically seeking titles that were challenged by LGBTQ+ authors or about LGBTQ+ themes.

“We all find it amazing that people in Massachusetts are reaching out about this. I think that shows how big of an issue this is becoming,” Wright said.

More students across the country are losing access to literature, and what initially began as a fight to eliminate certain books from middle and high schools quickly evolved into a social and political movement.

“It’s hard for any one person to be a gauge of what people can read, and it’s hard when specific parents don’t want their children to be exposed to something but somehow have the power to make sure no one’s child is exposed to these books,” Spar said.

Hummingbird Books sent out their first shipment to South Carolina Sept. 13 and “are anticipating a lot of access and use to these books, which is the biggest goal,” Spar said.

Families Against Book Bans and Lowcountry Pride will receive the donations shortly and begin the circulation processes around Beaufort to ensure students don’t lose complete access to this literature, Spar said.

Students can either call or visit the store to purchase a banned book from the Hummingbird Books list as a donation for citizens of Beaufort County.

“Looking ahead, our goals are definitely to be able to help students get access to books,” Spar said.

Photo courtesy Hummingbird Books

Julia Romero, a social media intern and student at Boston College, stands in front of a table full of books for sale. Hummingbird Books has sold and shipped many banned books to organizations that help provide students in Beaufort County with otherwise inaccessible books.

Student residents bring lively energy, garbage-filled streets to neighborhood

HOUSING, from front

As Mission Hill’s popularity amongst college students rises, Cindy Walling, a resident of 14 years, acknowledges that many Mission Hill neighbors, including herself, don’t mind the flurries of college kids moving to the area.

However, the problem that continuously presents itself is the blatant carelessness students have for their neighbors.

“Some of our best babysitters and dog walkers have come from these colleges in the area, so we have nothing against students living here. But what bothers us is it feels like [college students] are super entitled,” Walling said.

Despite the fact that many neighbors have shared their distaste for

the parties, trash and late-night noise student residents bring to the area, some welcome it.

Numerous student residents congregate every day in the heart of Mission Hill to relish the lively dining scene, with one restaurant, The Squealing Pig, standing out for its warm embrace of college students, no matter how boisterous they may be.

“The college kids that live here are a phenomenal addition to our restaurant. They are almost always respectful and just out for a good time. They have also increased our business by a lot,” said Peter Martinez, The Squealing Pig’s bar manager.

Aside from working at The Squealing Pig, Martinez is also a Mission Hill student resident from Wentworth

Institute of Technology. He acknowledges that while the area’s influx of college students may be a moneymaker for restaurants, it is anything but that for the neighbors who go to sleep some nights to the sound of unrelenting noise.

“The fraternity parties here can definitely be disruptive,” Martinez said.

“I know that most neighbors who have lived in Mission Hill for a while view the students negatively because they are often woken up at 1 a.m. to the unpleasant noise of kids partying.”

A member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, Northeastern third-year finance student Drew Seidman senses the innate frustration from his neighbors and the surrounding Mission Hill community.

“A lot of residents have been living here for many, many years,” Seidman said. “So, when there’s a lot of turn over, new kids and big groups moving in and out every year, [residents] can get tired of the constant noise and rowdiness.”

Nonetheless, Seidman and many other fraternity members have taken it upon themselves to foster a more harmonious coexistence between students and long-time residents in Mission Hill.

“We try to have a pretty symbiotic relationship with almost all our neighbors,” Seidman said. “We reach out to them before we throw parties to let them know because

the last thing we want to do is cause problems in the community.”

36% 64% students other residents

Efforts to further destigmatize marijuana underway at this year’s Freedom Rally

Fernandes and other consumers have found relief in psilocybin products ranging from chocolates to dehydrated mushrooms. He said many brands are lying to consumers about what is in mushroom-labeled products to make a profit, ruining the potentially life-changing benefits of the drug for people recovering from addiction and others dealing with depression or other mental health issues.

“I get to help people — get to help this wave of Americans who, for once in their life, they’re willing to try something besides what the doctors recommended,” Fernandes said. “And that’s the revolution of helping Americans self-medicate.”

The Freedom Rally has served as an event for activists to promote change for responsible cannabis users, a party for young adults to express their artistic visions and a fun environment to spend one of the few sunny days left in the year.

Despite the event’s misnomers, much positive change has been enacted by the many activist groups on

site, along with the event organizers who make the day possible. Cannabis reform is not over yet, and much work is yet to be done in the medical

sector that actively works to help those seeking pain relief.

“We’re here for a freedom rally, we’re celebrating people who went

to prison for marijuana. And me being here allows me to feel like I’m helping in a way,” Fernandes said.

“I’m one of the first and one of the

few. But, essentially, I’m going to have to go through everything they went through in order for us to be here today. So, I appreciate it.”

Column: The real reason people continue to care about these celebrity breakups

By Camryn Cunningham News Correspondent

With the recent news of Joe Jonas filing for divorce from his wife of four years, Sophie Turner, social media users have entered a state of disarray. With every major entertainment news outlet sharing the news and fans circulating their own theories behind the split, it is a feat to avoid celebrity breakup content.

Though social media makes it easier for fans to share opinions, this is a phenomenon that has occurred for decades in the entertainment industry, predating social media. When Princess Diana and Prince Charles split in 1992, people showed up outside of Buckingham Palace with signs supporting Diana amidst the cheating scandal.

Similarly, when Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie called it quits in 2016, TMZ was the first to report on it, causing a social media frenzy. Facebook feeds were flooded with images and videos of people mourning “Brangelina,” and Instagram users filled comment sections with broken heart emojis and messages of sorrow.

As technology has made way for more connectivity between celebrities and fans, social media has, for better or worse, given the world an inside look into the relationships of the Hollywoodelite. Fans are now able to see pictures of a celebrity couple’s engagement, honeymoon, family trip and so much more just by opening an app. This blurs the line between an actor on a hit TV

show and a close friend. Because of this access, many fans form parasocial relationships that create an illusory feeling of closeness to complete strangers. Clinical psychologist and breakup coach Dr. Andrea Liner says that the pandemic and subsequent growth of influencer culture have contributed largely to this infatuation with celebrity lives.

This accessibility, though personal, is highly edited and curated to create an image that a given celebrity and their PR team agree upon. So, when a couple such as Sofia Vergara and Joe Manganiello announce that they are ending a seven-year marriage, people are devastated — especially when both parties spent years posting messages of adoration to the other on anniversaries, birthdays or simply just because.

Liner also states that the public cares about these breakups so much because they provide both comfort and despair. It is a reassurance to know that those with infinite resources and riches have problems that everyday people do, but in that same vein, it is also terrifying.

If 12-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift — who also had a breakup this year with her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn — cannot find lasting love, what does that say for everyone else?

It means that celebrities are people, too. Underneath all the glamor, money and scandal, they are real people with real feelings. So, of course Swift’s

“Eras Tour”

would cause substantial distance in her relationship. And it is not far-fetched to assume that Ariana Grande’s demanding life and celebrity image was hard for her real estate agent, soon-to-be ex-husband, Dalton Gomez, to deal with.

At the end of the day, celebrity breakups are endlessly fascinating for so much more than meregossip and speculation. People care about Jonas and Turner’s unexpected divorce because there is a degree of love and care for the pair, even though it is one-sided.

Or, it could also be like the divorce of comedian John Mulaney and artist Anna Marie Tendler, where social media users offered exorbitant amounts of love and support to the latter amidst alleged cheating and the former’s relapse. This shocking end to a 12-year relationship garnered lots of attention and media scrutiny as it seemed out of character for Mulaney, who frequently referenced his admiration for his wife in his uprorious standup routines.

No matter the degree of a celebrity split, the general public will always pay attention.

As psychology professor xShira Gabriel says, parasocial relationships are typically healthy and beneficial. These relationships allow for more expansive social networks to form, and in turn, offer an opportunity to express compassion. In an era of rumor mills and enhanced connectivity with strangers, the fascination with celebrity breakups is certainly here to stay.

A vendor points at items for sale while a customer browses. Vendors sold bongs, pipes, oils, vapes and flower.

Photo by Noelia Arteaga

Graphic by Emma Liu

Review: Mitski’s ‘The Land is Inhospitable...’ gives listeners a lot to unpack

By Sarah Popeck News Staff

Mitski Miyawaki dropped her newest heart-wrenching album Sept. 15 titled “The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We,” and it is stunningly beautiful. Following the legacy of her past discography, the writer sticks to her pessimistic-toned roots with painstaking imagery.

Known mononymously as “Mitski,” the Japanese-American singer-songwriter’s sixth LP, “Laurel Hell,” was speculated to be her last release. She had previously shared that she would be taking an indefinite leave from performing and only produced that album due to an obligation to her label. But fans were ecstatic when Mitski decided to continue producing music and announced her seventh LP.

“There are a lot of things about working in the music industry and about being in the public eye that feels like it goes against my nature,” she explained in a video to her mailing list. “I am also in a miraculously lucky position to be able to make music… and to have an audience like you who gives me the opportunity to perform.”

The trajectory of the album takes the listener through a whirl of emotions, starting with the LP’s first track, “Bug Like an Angel,” which dropped July 26.

“I try to remember the wrath of the devil / Was also given him by God,” she sings, reminiscing with a religious

mind on the promises that she has broken and touching on themes of alcoholism. “I wanted the listener to take whatever they need from [the lyric],” she explained in a behind-thesong video.

While most of her songs are cemented in darker motifs, the album also extends her gratitude towards the people she loves. “Now I bend like a willow / Thinkin’ of you,” she lulls as she imagines her lover, singing, “As I sip on the rest of the coffee you left / A kiss left of you” in “Heaven” to reveal her devotion to her lover simplistically. Mitski keeps much of her personal life private, such as in “My Love Mine All Mine,” expressing “Moon, tell me if I could / Send up my heart to you? / So, when I die, which I must do / Could it shine down here with you?” and hoping that her love will outlast her.

Mitski moves on to lament in “The Deal” as she agonizes, “I want someone to take this soul / I can’t bear to keep it, I’d give it just to give / And all I will take are the consequences.” She deals with the devil in the same way someone wishes on a star naively and wants to stop the pain of her feelings.

She uses snow as a metaphor for memories throughout the album, specifically in “The Frost” when she uses it to describe the pain of losing a friend. “Now the world is mine alone / With no one, no one to share the memory,” she sings, the cold coming across as her realization of

her loneliness. A theme of self-accountability and her lack thereof runs throughout not only the album but heavily in her discography.

Following “The Frost” is “Star,” one of the standout songs of the album. Mitski tells the tale of a lost love, comparing it to a star — the death of a star can be seen from all over, but it is much dimmer in its afterlife. “You know I’d always been alone / ‘Til you taught me / To live for somebody,” she reflects, wondering, “Isn’t it worth holding on?” to return to the passion that their relationship once had.

The romance is immediately followed by the aggressive patriarchal dismay in “I’m Your Man.” She turns away from her soft-spoken tone to scream at the sky. “You believe me like a god / I betray you like a man,” she sings, representing an intense relationship in which her lover romanticizes her as a divine figure rather than

the vulnerable human she really is. It prevented her from making mistakes and falling to pieces because she was the god they worshipped, satirizing men’s emotional tendencies.

A key feature of this album is the prominence of Mitski’s vocals — the production on her previous albums has drowned out her words, but in her newest release, her voice shines through to emphasize the importance of her lyrics. “Laurel Hell” focused on upbeat, rhythmic backings whereas her messages and vocals are the new focus, giving the listener a serene album to digest.

“The Land is Inhospitable and So Are We” is a shattering listen — it is nothing short of a memorable comeback from her previous plans of retirement. In her vulnerability and incredible musicality, Mitski has gifted her fans with some of her most mesmerizing songs.

Sept. 22, 29

Seaport Sweat 2023: Crown Yoga

Work on mindfulness and yoga skills at The Superette in Seaport.

12 p.m. - 12:45 p.m., The Superette, Free.

Review: ‘Bottoms’ is the campy gay high school comedy of the year

By Juliana George News Staff

The plot of two unpopular high schoolers trying to get laid before graduation is not an unfamiliar one; it’s been done in “American Pie,” “Superbad,” “The To Do List” and dozens more. But with “Bottoms,” the method is somewhat unconventional — as the principal refers to them, “ugly, untalented gays” Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ (Rachel Sennott) start a fight club to spend time with their cheerleader crushes Isabel (Havana Rose Liu) and Brittany (Kaia Gerber) under the guise of promoting self-defense for women.

“Bottoms” headlined the SXSW film festival in March before opening in limited release Aug. 25, grossing $8.5 million at the domestic box office and receiving widely positive reviews. “Bottoms” succeeds in many ways: It has a great ensemble cast, plenty of laughs and campy direction that feels somehow both nostalgic and contemporary. But the most admirable aspect of “Bottoms” is its strikingly original screenplay, which manages to pay homage to the teen sex comedies that came before it while also subverting classic tropes to tell a lesbian, feminist(-ish) story that cleverly comments on performative activism, lesbian fetishization and the experience of being young and queer.

The film opens with Josie and PJ getting ready to attend the state fair

Saturday, Sept. 23

What the Fluff? Festival 2023

Celebrate Somerville’s tradition of innovation with live music, fluffalicious feasts and more.

3 p.m. - 7 p.m., Union Square, Free.

Sept. 23, 24, 30, Oct. 1, 7, 8

The Greenway Artisan Market

Support local artists and designers while enjoying a fun carousel and food.

at the start of the school year, PJ confident that this is the year they will finally lose their virginities and Josie cynically objecting. At the fair, after a hilariously awkward interaction between the two and Isabel and Brittany, they witness an argument between Isabel and her quarterback boyfriend Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine), and Josie ends up accidentally tapping Jeff with her car in a misguided attempt to defend Isabel.

After a severe overreaction from the rest of the football team, Josie makes up a story about starting a self-defense club to avoid disciplinary action from the principal, and the fight club is born. But when Josie and PJ fib about going to juvie over the summer to increase their street cred and attract Isabel and Brittany to the club, their lies quickly spiral out of control.

Much of the “Bottoms” buzz undoubtedly stems from the film’s fantastic cast. Edebiri’s excellent comedic timing steals many a scene; she particularly shines during Josie’s several long-winded monologues, such as her fatalistic speech near the beginning of the film predicting the horrors of closeted life as an adult. She also exhibits an easy, charming chemistry with Liu, and the romance between Josie and Isabel is one of the most earnest parts of the film.

Sennott is entertaining as always as a selfish, horny caricature that represents the base instincts of all teens, and Galitzine likewise does a

good job of playing the promiscuous, himbo football player present in most high school comedies. Though they are playing clichés, the actors manage to infuse the roles with their own unique humor.

Another standout performance comes from former NFL star Marshawn Lynch, who plays the negligent history teacher who agrees to be the fight club’s adviser. His improvisations make for some of the funniest moments in the film; for example, when he finds out the club was a ruse for Josie and PJ to seduce cheerleaders, he delivers a long and disappointed speech denouncing feminism. Edebiri and Sennott testify that it was impossible to maintain a straight face during filming.

“Bottoms” gets at a very specific experience that other teen sex comedies lack — though Josie and PJ are essentially loser virgins like the protagonists of any other films in the genre, the loneliness and rejection they face is specific to queer women. As the film points out jokingly, Josie and PJ are not hated simply because they are gay, but because they are also untalented. Throughout the film, they are continually expected to set themselves apart as not just lesbians but “cool lesbians” — lesbians that are as strong as or stronger than the men they claim to be able to defend themselves against.

This pattern continues when, in an effort to expose their lies and hu-

miliate the fight club, football player Tim (Miles Fowler) pits fight club member Hazel (Ruby Cruz) against a male wrestler to a disastrous end. In the climactic scene of the movie, Josie, PJ and the rest of the fight club reunite to defend their football team against the opposing high school’s team, proving that they were underestimated all along. While at this point the film veers into ridiculous territory, it drives home the point that queer women must be exceptional in order to be considered “normal” or even accepted as a peer.

In both comedy and representation, “Bottoms” is a generation-defining achievement. In addition to its major themes of the struggle for acceptance and the dangers of false empowerment, it also touches on a number of near-universal queer experiences. PJ undergoes one such experience when she finds out her longtime crush Brittany is straight, and conversely, the revelation that Isabel is interested in Josie is surprising and triumphant. When PJ kisses Hazel in a moment that required a major diversion, the reactions range from disgust to perverse fascination, both of which are negative but extremely typical reactions to queer public displays of affection.

“Bottoms” is made by and for young queer people — and based on its success, more genres would benefit from incorporating queer stories.

11 a.m. - 6 p.m., Rose Kennedy Greenway, Free

Saturday, Sept. 30

Central Square Dumpling Festival

Indulge in a variety of dumplings from 30 local restaurants and food trucks.

11 a.m. - 5 p.m., 91 Sidney Street, $5.

Friday, Oct. 6

USS Constitution Museum

Movie Nights

Join the USS Constitution Museum for a free showing of the film “Muppet Treasure Island.”

5:50 p.m. - 9:30 p.m., USS Constitution Museum, Free

Calendar compiled by Kristina DaPonte and Laura Emde Graphics by Emma Liu

Illustration by Emma Liu

NU COMMUNITY REACTS TO MOURNS THE LOSS OF

By Sonel Cutler, Emily Spatz, Val O’Neill, Marta Hill and

On Monday, Sept. 11, body camera footage of a Seattle police officer joking about the death of 23-year-old Northeastern Seattle student Jaahnavi Kandula in January sparked national outrage after it was released by the Seattle Police Department.

By the end of the week, Kandula’s name was recognized across the country. Students, activists and people from Seattle to Boston shared posts, threads and videos under the hashtag #JusticeForJaahnavi.

To many, the video, in which a supervising officer says Kandula, an information studies master’s student, was “of limited value” and appears to laugh about her death, epitomized years of misconduct and abuses of power by the Seattle Police Department, SPD.

In the days following the release of the footage, the Northeastern community reacted with outrage and frustration. The following is The News’ coverage of the incident as it unfolded, edited for clarity and length.

Sept. 11: Release of body cam footage

Recently released police body camera footage showed SPD officer Daniel Auderer, laughing, joking and minimizing the death of Jaahnavi Kandula, a graduate student studying information systems in the College of Engineering at Northeastern’s Seattle campus.

Kandula was struck by SPD officer Kevin Dave Jan. 23, who was driving his police cruiser at 74 mph in a 25 mph zone when he hit Kandula while she was walking in a crosswalk, according to an SPD investigation report.

“It’s a regular person … yeah, just write a check,” Auderer, who is the vice president for the Seattle Police Officers Guild, or SPOG, said in the footage recorded the day after the collision while on the phone with SPOG President Mike Solan. “Eleven thousand dollars, she was 26 [sic] anyways, she had limited value.”

Kandula’s family released a statement to Fox 13 Sept. 13 calling Auderer’s comments “disturbing and saddening.”

“Jaahnavi is a beloved daughter and beyond any dollar value for her mother and family,” the family said. “We firmly believe that every human life is invaluable and should not be belittled, especially during a tragic loss.”

Auderer, who was hired by the SPD in 2008, was assigned to evaluate Dave for signs of impairment on the night of the accident, according to the report. According to OpenOversight, a web database that collects information on officers’ disciplinary records, Auderer had 18 complaints investigated by the Office of Police Accountability, or OPA, between 2014-2018.

Four out of 18 complaints were sustained, which included violations of use of force and professional standards policies.

According to an SPD statement included in Auderer’s body camera video, the footage was identified “in

the routine course of business by a department employee” who was concerned about the statements and “appropriately escalated their concerns through the chain of command to the Chief’s office.”

The chief then recommended the video to the OPA, who are currently investigating whether Auderer violated SPD policy.

According to reporting by The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH, a conservative talk radio show which reportedly obtained the complaint against Auderer, the officer’s body camera was accidentally turned on during his conversation with Solan.

He allegedly self-reported his comments to the OPA once he realized the conversation was recorded.

According to KTTH, Auderer wrote that he was mocking “crazy” arguments city lawyers could make in “[a case] like this.”

“I was imitating what a lawyer tasked with negotiating the case would be saying and being sarcastic to express that they shouldn’t be coming up with crazy arguments to minimize the payment,” Auderer wrote in the self-reported statement to OPA. “I laughed at the ridiculousness of how these incidents are litigated and the ridiculousness of how I have watched these incidents play out as two parties bargain over a tragedy.”

Seattle’s Community Police Commission, or CPC, an independent group that provides community input on police reforms, called the video “heartbreaking and shockingly insensitive” in a statement released on their website.

“The reported explanation that he was mocking lawyers does not make this unprofessional and inhumane conduct any better because it shows — in what was believed to be a private conversation with SPOG leadership — a callus dismissiveness towards police accountability systems,” the statement said.

Joel Merkel, co-chair of the CPC, said the video is reflective of the culture within the SPD community and is problematic because Auderer showed disregard towards a victim and mocked matters related to police accountability.

“If this is their view on some of the members of their community, how is that impacting their work?” Merkel said in a phone interview with The News. “How are they treating community members [of different backgrounds]? We don’t know.”

SPD did not respond to questions from The News regarding whether Auderer or Dave were still on duty or whether disciplinary actions had been taken against Dave.

The SPD expressed “deepest sympathy for the tragic collision” in their video statement and said they have been in touch with the family of the victim.

“The people of Seattle deserve better from a police department that is charged with fostering trust with the community and ensuring public safety,” CPC’s statement said.

Sept. 13: Northeastern Indian student association responds to footage, call on Northeastern to condemn Members of NU Sanskriti, Northeastern’s Indian student association, called on university administration Sept. 13 to condemn the actions of a SPD officer after the release of body camera footage showed the officer minimizing the death of a Northeastern student.

“Since she was an Indian student [on] NU Seattle campus, I think it becomes our responsibility as Indian Students’ Association, catering to more than 9,000 Indian students on campus, to ask questions about events that happened after the incident in January and to take up the responsibility of Indian Students on campus,” read NU Sanskriti’s emails to Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun and Chancellor Kenneth Henderson, which were also sent to The News.

In the footage, Auderer describes and laughs at the incident that killed Kandula on the phone with Solan, president of the SPOG.

“Everyone that I know was moved and saddened by that video of him chuckling and laughing and calling her ‘of limited value,’” said Gaurav Mishra, a recent graduate of Northeastern’s master’s program in electrical and computer engineering and long-time member of NU Sanskriti.

“It was not good. It was like an attack on everyone — not just any Indian, but everyone.”

NU Sanskriti called on university administrators to do more to support the Indian student populations in Boston and across Northeastern’s satellite campuses.

“It’s been eight months and we see very little that has come out in this regard from Northeastern leadership. And this is coming from a leadership which has been very, very proactive in calling out all the social injustices pretty quickly,” Mishra said. “I don’t know what agenda they have [in] their head, but for us, this is just as equally important to other issues that they amplify from the president’s office.”

Northeastern’s lack of official response initially to the incident was disheartening, members of NU Sanskriti who spoke with The News said, as it leaves them feeling unsupported and not cared for within the Northeastern community.

According to the club’s email,

they have received “numerous” requests to take up this issue with the university’s leadership.

“In the video released by Seattle Police we can hear the officer saying that the girl had ‘limited value.’ This is honestly what we feel as Indians on campus every day. From unnecessary frowns from [the Northeastern University Police Department] to absolutely no stationary place to express ourselves, it is deeply saddening that Northeastern had not done anything publicly to condemn this incident,” NU Sanskriti’s email read.

“It’s really obvious how people are feeling — people, my friends, everybody is sharing that post … so it’s really obvious, the reaction of the Northeastern community,” said Devansh Mehta, a master’s student in advanced and intelligent manufacturing and the treasurer for NU Sanskriti.

Sept 14: Northeastern administration and student government respond to footage

In an email to all students, staff and faculty Sept. 14, Henderson called the remarks made in the recently released body camera footage by Auderer “callous and insensitive,” and promised upcoming campus gatherings “to allow our community to join together in harmony.”

“This week, Jaahnavi’s friends and loved ones

— Statement from Kandula family

Jaahnavi was an international student who came to this country, like many of us in the crowd today, really pursuing her dreams and those dreams were tragically cut short earlier this year. She traveled half the world to be here in the United States, she left her family, she left the comforts of home, and that takes real courage. It takes ambition, and that tells us a lot about who Jaahnavi was.

—

Ken

Henderson, chancellor, at memorial ceremony

Jaahnavi is remembered as a stellar student and a delightful and effervescent human being. She was a close friend to many and friends shared that they loved her bubbly laugh, sense of humor, and infectious personality.

— Dave Thurman, dean of Seattle campus in a January

statement

Jaahnavi is a beloved daughter and beyond any dollar value for her mother and family. We firmly believe that every human life is invaluable and should not be belittled, especially during a tragic loss.

SEATTLE POLICE FOOTAGE, OF JAAHNAVI KANDULA

are enduring the additional pain of new developments related to this tragedy,” Henderson wrote. “We also recognize that our Indian student community — across all Northeastern campuses — has been especially impacted by this tragedy and its aftermath. We stand in solidarity with you and have every expectation that the ongoing investigations will bring a measure of justice and accountability.”

Henderson wrote that the

posthumously and will present it to her family.

“When a group of us are experiencing anguish, we are all in pain,” Henderson wrote. “These are the times that we must draw strength from each other and move forward in unity.”

The university released the statement after declining to comment on the video in a Sept. 13 email to The News, citing “ongoing litigation.”

age and initiating an investigation into [the] Officer’s actions,” SGA and GSG’s statement continued. “It is essential that justice is served and accountability is upheld in this matter.”

Sept. 14: Activists in Seattle hold rally for Jaahnavi Kandula

On Sept. 14, Seattle locals and students gathered in protest at the corner of Dexter Avenue North and Thomas Street, near the intersection

Participants of the rally, organized

Williams said during his speech at the rally, referring to police violence in Seattle. “We’re going to get justice, and we’re going to get it as soon as we can.”

Mathieu Chabaud, member of the University of Washington Progressive Students Union, spoke to protestors next.

“Jaahnavi was a student here in Seattle at Northeastern University. She came to study information systems,” Chabaud said. “The reason she is not still studying here with us is because of officer Kevin Dave.”

Chabaud said they had protested at the very same corner in January after Kandula was killed to demand justice.

After hearing speeches, the group marched to the Seattle Police precinct and continued to shout demands for justice for Kandula and other people killed by police.

enrollment officer, senior vice chancellor and special advisor to the president, spoke after Jose. Dattagupta grappled with the effect of Kandula’s passing on the community.

“For a lot of us people that are from the Indian and South Asian diaspora, Jaahnavi represents a sister, a friend, a classmate, a colleague — somebody that represents the dream of wanting a better life,” Dattagupta said. “The pain that we feel as a community today, and have felt for a while, is something that cannot be put into words.”

Dattagupta validated the frustration many students felt after the recent footage release.

Sept. 15 saying Auderer’s comments

“We’re pushing for community control of the police,” said Rob Engel, an outreach coordinator for SAARPR, in an interview with The News. “Which is how people will be able to fire these killer cops when they display this gross disregard for human life.”

Sept. 19: NU community gathers to celebrate the life of graduate student Jaahnavi Kandula

over the course of the week. The rally, lost his brother in 2010 to police violence. William’s

was holding a wood

On Sept. 19 members of the Northeastern community gathered on the Boston campus to pay tribute to the memory of Kandula.

Kandula, who was pursuing a master’s degree in information systems at Northeastern’s Seattle campus, was killed in January when Dave struck her with his police cruiser as she walked through a crosswalk. Dave was driving 74 mph in a 25 mph zone, according to an SPD investigation report.

Kandula’s story made headlines again Sept. 11 when body camera footage showed Auderer laughing and joking about her death.

An email sent to the Northeastern student body Sept. 18 invited community members to participate in “a moment of reflection, remembrance, and unity.”

The gathering, which took place in the Sculpture Garden on the Boston campus, included remarks from five university officials.

Dean of Cultural and Spiritual Life, Bob Jose, began the ceremony by addressing the recent release of Auderer’s body camera footage.

The video showed Auderer burst into laughter while on the phone with the Guild’s president. Auderer is then heard saying of Kandula, “Just write a check — $11,000 — she was 26 [sic] anyway. She had limited value.”

“It has come to light that her death was more than just a tragedy — it was enshrouded in injustice,” Jose said. “We now know that Jaahnavi’s death, although a terrible accident, included a police response that diminished her value of life.”

Satyajit Dattagupta, chief

“What happened last week is unfathomable and the words keep echoing in our heads, so if you are a student or anybody that has felt anger or rage, just know that that is absolutely what you should be feeling,” Dattagupta said.

Earlier this month, NU Sanskriti, Northeastern’s Indian student association, called for a response by university officials and increased support for the Indian student population after the release of the body camera footage.

“I would say to our Indian and our South Asian students that there is no community without you, you are the Northeastern community no matter what part of the world you come from,” Dattagupta said.

Anjali Premjit, vice president of student affairs in the Graduate Student Government and a graduate student in the College of Engineering, addressed the crowd and urged action.

“There was increased distress that was created in the community recently in light of insensitive and demeaning thoughts made by a police officer about an immigrant woman of color,” Premjit said. “That strikes very close to home for most of us, and we can really hope that strict measures are taken to condemn these actions.

Premjit said she hoped students would “seek comfort in community.”

On Sept. 14, Henderson, sent a campus-wide email condemning Auderer’s comments and acknowledging the Indian student community’s pain.

Echoing his email, Henderson spoke highly of Kandula to honor her at the event.

“Jaahnavi was an international student who came to this country, like many of us in the crowd today, really pursuing her dreams and those dreams were tragically cut short earlier this year,” Henderson said. “She traveled half the world to be here in the United States, she left her family, she left the comforts of home, and that takes real courage. It takes ambition, and that tells us a lot about who Jaahnavi was.”

Sagar Rajpal, associate director at the Center for Spirituality, Dialogue and Service concluded the ceremony by playing three chimes from a singing bowl as a moment of remembrance and reflection.

“Know that she was, is, and will always be a celebrated part of our community,” Dattagupta said of Kandula.

and Lily Webber | Campus Editors, Editor-at-Large and News Staff

Photo curtesy Vanisudha Chilukuri

Qualifiers camp brings Northeastern dance team closer, paves road to nationals

By Lauren Salemo News Staff

After performing on the national stage in Daytona Beach, Florida, last spring, the Northeastern dance team is aiming for another chance at a championship title. This summer at qualifiers camp, the Huskies walked away with the highest status — a gold bid — to solidify their spot at nationals next April.

Alongside 14 other collegiate teams, the Huskies attended qualifiers camp at Bryant University Aug. 2-4 to compete for a bid to the National Dance Alliance college championship.

“Camp really gets you in that mood to compete again,” said team member Isabella Guzman, a fourthyear mechanical engineering major. “It kind of gets you back into the spirit of things.”

Along with a guaranteed spot at nationals, Guzman said the bid comes with a few advantages. Perks include discounted registration fees as well as priority when choosing hotel rooms and the order in which the groups perform. The higher the bid, the later the teams are assigned to compete within their division, which is preferred by most groups.

While teams can showcase their skills virtually or in-person, the Huskies saw the trip to Bryant University as a head start to the season.

“We usually choose to do it in-person because it’s a good opportunity to be seen by who’s hosting nationals,” said captain Kelsey Hagen, a fourthyear cell and molecular biology major.

“Also, it’s a good bonding experience for all of us to go away before the season starts.”

Before qualifiers camp, upperclassmen hosted younger members

of the team in Boston to practice their choreography and spend time with teammates.

During the first day of camp, the dance team competed in a game-day performance they had rehearsed over the summer. The team performs this style of routine at basketball games, while the pep band blares Northeastern’s fight song.

Over the next two days, each team had to learn a new dance choreographed by the camp’s hosts before performing it on the final day. The routine included jazz, hip-hop and pom styles. The choreography was roughly a minute and a half in length, just about the duration of the Huskies’ nationals performance, which took four months to master.

“Neither our coach nor the people judging our routines expect it to be perfect when you’re learning it in

two days,” Hagen said. “But for us, it’s a nice way to see how our team works with each other.”

Learning new moves in a time crunch can be a challenge, members of the team said. Hagen said she and her team squeezed rehearsals in during lunch breaks and practiced until midnight every night to perfect their number.

“It definitely is exhausting, I think both mentally and physically,” Guzman said. “But a lot of the time, we are all feeling the exact same way. We’re all in pain. We’re all going through the exact same thing, so a lot of our teammates will hype each other up to make sure that everyone is doing okay ... We’re really all in this together.”

At nationals in April, the Huskies placed in the top 10 for their hip-hop performance, while their team dance received a top three designation — the

group’s best placement in school history. After a remarkable run last year, the team hopes to build upon its success this season and beyond. And their performance at qualifiers camp proves the team is right on track.

“I feel like this particular team has found their flow,” head coach Nicole Vicino said. “It’s feeling really cohesive in the first few weeks that we’ve been together as a team.”

This is Vicino’s 10th year with the Northeastern dance team — five as a dancer and five as a coach. Looking back over the last decade, she said the team arrived at qualifiers camp with more confidence and preparation than in the past.

“My message to them is that they’ve got it this year,” Vicino said. “I really think this is their year to win a national championship. They have all the tools they need to succeed. They just have to work hard and work together.”

After a sudden season conclusion, the Huskies skate out with a new lineup

Northeastern came out of this summer’s NHL draft with no picks, but four Northeastern players signed professional contracts at the end of last season — defenseman

The Huskies went into the 2023 Hockey East Championship with a surge of energy.

A fierce, fighting drive was growing in Matthews Arena throughout last season: They had already won the Beanpot, Frozen Fenway and countless other matches, building up to that crucial performance.

Yet they fell in the first round before they had a chance to fight for the crown. Providence College’s overtime goal gave the seventh-seeded Friars the edge over third-seeded Northeastern, and the Huskies stepped off the ice empty-handed.

They finished the season with a 17-13-5 record, winning eight games at Matthews, seven away and two at neutral sites.

For 13 players, the loss against Providence was their last.

Some of Northeastern’s most acclaimed players, including forward Aidan McDonough, goaltender Devon Levi and three others graduated from the program and left incredible legacies.

“It’s always hard to replace guys like Devon Levi and Aidan McDonough, but that’s where new guys in our lineup step up,” said assistant coach Jason Guerriero. “The newcomers we brought in and the grad transfers will fill those holes and meet and succeed our expectations.”

Meanwhile, eight Huskies entered the transfer portal at the end of last season, including Jeremie Bucheler, who will join the University of Vermont squad this fall, and brothers Riley Hughes and Jack Hughes, who are headed to Ohio State and Boston University, or BU, respectively.

In their place, 13 newcomers have joined the team, donning red and black jerseys for the first time.

Jayden Struble to the Montreal Canadiens, McDonough to the Vancouver Canucks, Levi to the Buffalo Sabres and forward Jakov Novak with the Allen Americans.

In his three years at Northeastern, Levi racked up dozens of accolades. He was a crucial part of Northeastern’s 2023 Beanpot victory against Harvard, making 65 saves for a .956 save percentage and earning Beanpot MVP.

In his rookie season, the Quebec native earned the Mike Richter Award twice, finished as a Hobey Baker Top-10 Finalist and tied the Northeastern record for most saves made in a game.

Levi’s departure left a hole that will likely be filled by one of the two incoming goaltenders: graduate student Yale transfer Connor Hopkins or freshman Cameron Whitehead, who verbally committed to the university in 2021.

“We have new strong goalies and it’s anybody’s net. Cam is starting to develop some swagger and confidence,” Guerriero said. “Goaltending is the most important position in hockey, so we’re hoping Cam is gonna be a guy that helps us win some games when push comes to shove.”

Among the new players, there are six transfers: Hopkins, who posted a .842 save percentage and 183 saves in two seasons with the Bulldogs; graduate student defenseman Patrick Dawson, a transfer from Sacred Heart University; senior forward Alex Campbell from Clarkson University; graduate student defenseman Matthew Staudacher from Minnesota; graduate student forward Brett Edwards from University of Denver; and graduate

student defenseman Pito Walton from Princeton University.

The transfers joining Northeastern’s squad will provide the team with an important level of experience and leadership. Seven of the incoming Huskies, though, are new to college hockey. Freshman defenseman Nolan Hayes skates onto the ice from the West Kelowna Warriors. Whitehead, the freshman goaltender, comes from the Tri-City Storm with a .899 save percentage and an incredible six shutouts. He was drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2022 NHL draft.

“The transfer guys are older, and they bring experience. They’re new guys to the university, but not to the game of college hockey,” Guerriero said. “They can hit the ground running and it’s a smooth transition to another college hockey team.”

The remaining rookies are forwards Eli Sebastian, Billy Norcross, Andy Moore and Dylan Hryckowian, and defenseman Michael Fisher.

Filling previous captain McDonough’s shoes will be Hockey East’s Best Defensive Forward, junior Justin Hryckowian. He tallied 15 goals and 21 assists in the 2022-23 season, obtaining multiple Hockey East awards throughout his sophomore season.

“[Hryckowian] is well-liked by his teammates and a culture driver,” Guerriero said. “He sets the bar high and he pushes everybody else around him and they are motivated by him. He’s had a great career here so far and he’s the perfect leader for us moving forward.”

He will lead the Huskies along with the team’s assistant captains — senior forward Gunnarwolfe Fontaine, graduate student forward Matt DeMelis and graduate student forward Liam Walsh.

“I’ve been lucky to have great captains during my time, so I’m

pretty lucky to pick up where they left off,” Hryckowian said. “They’ve left this program in a great place and that’s where my focus is, leave it in a better place than I found it and it’s already in a pretty great spot.”

The Huskies also added a second assistant coach to the team’s staff, Brian Mahoney-Wilson, who joins the program after coaching stints with the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL, the University of Notre Dame and the Army. Mahoney-Wilson was a San Jose Sharks draft pick who played for Lake Superior State University from 2007-2011.

While last year Northeastern was at the top of the Hockey East preseason poll, they were voted fourth this year, with rival and reigning Hockey East champion BU sitting in the first seat. Boston College was selected second and Merrimack College received the third-place seat, while the

University of Connecticut slipped behind Northeastern in fifth place. Some tough games await the Huskies this season that will surely put them to the test. They will play Quinnipiac twice — one an exhibition game — and a matchup against the University of Minnesota Duluth as part of the Kwik Trip Holiday Faceoff tournament. It will be a challenge for the Huskies, given the two powerhouses made it all the way to the Frozen Four finals, with Quinnipiac coming out on top as national champions.

Northeastern’s new lineup debuts Oct. 7 in its home opener at Matthews Arena against Stonehill College.

Despite that the roster suffered in the postseason, the new Huskies complement the returning talent, making the team one to keep an eye on.

“To be successful, you have to be prepared,” Guerriero said. “These guys are.”

Sarah Popeck News Staff

The Huskies celebrate their Beanpot win in TD Garden. Northeastern defeated Harvard in the tournament finals to claim the championship title.

Photo by Colette Pollauf

Here’s what’s in store for the Northeastern women’s hockey team this season

By Amelia Ballingall Deputy Sports Editor

At the culmination of last season, the Northeastern women’s hockey team graduated some of the biggest names in the sport, including its entire top line. After contributing to the team’s six-straight Hockey East Championships and third-straight Frozen Four appearance, the departures left some big shoes to fill for the upcoming lineup. So where do the Huskies stand now, without Alina Müller, Chloé Aurard and Maureen Murphy?

They’re still one of the most promising teams in the country.

Northeastern is already at the top of the polls. Earlier this month, the Huskies were given the top slot in the Hockey East preseason head coaches’ poll, receiving eight of the 10 coaches’ votes. They also earned fifth in the NCAA’s preseason women’s hockey Power 5 rankings.

The eight new faces on the team have already made an impression in the preseason, and for good reason.

Matthews Arena welcomes seven new freshmen to the ice, and each talented rookie has already received national recognition. Some placed in top positions in national juniors tournaments, others competed globally with Team USA and still more were invited to the country’s top development camps.

The Huskies add to their legacy of stellar goaltenders with the arrival of freshman Mattie Robitzer. After captaining the Unionville High School team for four years, the Pennsylvania native took a gap year before stepping into the collegiate rink. Robitzer also comes with a formidable resume from her juniors career with the Philadelphia Jr. Flyers. In her most recent season, she earned a .943 save percentage over 41 games. Over the past three years, she’s acquired three medals at USA Hockey Nationals — bronze in 2021 and silver in 2022 and 2023. With fifth-year netminder Gwyneth Philips entering her final year of eligibility and fellow goaltender Paige Taborski already in her third year, Robitzer is a much-needed addition to the roster.

On the blue line, Northeastern gains just one new freshman in local athlete Rylie Jones, who comes to the Huskies from North Chelmsford,

In addition, Becca Vanstone, a forward from top-ECAC school Yale University, will be joining the Huskies for her graduate year. Vanstone made an early mark at Yale, leading the Bulldogs in goals with 13 in her freshman year and being named to the All-ECAC Rookie Team and the All-Ivy Second Team. While the next few years were fraught with injuries and a playless COVID-19 season, Vanstone hits the ice as a strong and experienced scorer, which is just what the Huskies need in their lineup.

Graduate student defender Megan Carter leads the Husky squad as captain, while fifth-year forward Katy Knoll, senior defender Abbey Marohn and Philips all don an ‘A’ beside her as assistant captains.

Carter led the blue line last season, her 22 points the most of any defender and fifth-most on the team. With three game-winning goals under her belt, the Canadian powerhouse is invaluable to North-

shorthanded goals, Knoll is key to the Huskies’ special teams as well as a leader on the front lines.

Although always an effective defender, Marohn broke out as a two-way player last season, racking up a career-high 17 points, including her first goal.

Philips played a full schedule for the first time last year and impressed the country with her dominant goaltending, earning top honors as Goalie of the Year with an impressive .960 save percentage and .87 goals against average. Nationally recognized as the best goaltender in women’s college hockey, Philips returns this year in her last year of eligibility to do it all again. With the absence of the long-time first line trio, the entire offense will be shifting up to fill their skates. Graduate student Peyton Anderson stepped up last year, scoring a career-high 11 goals. Although she was one of five double-digit scorers last season, she’s one of just two returning this fall. Taze Thompson, a junior who transferred from Harvard last season, is known for getting into the dirty areas of the ice and will be handy in the crease. Sophomore Lily Shannon already made a name for herself as eight points and is a promising upand-comer for the Huskies.

Last season’s out-of-conference schedule left a lot to be desired, with only four games and one exhibition matchup, all of them easy wins for Northeastern. But this year, the Huskies are making up for it, starting off their season Sept. 23 with backto-back weekend series, the first at home facing Penn State before they travel to Long Island University Sept. 30 to mirror last year’s pair of games

As reigning champions in the College Hockey America Division, the Penn State Nittany Lions could prove

some trouble for the Huskies. With a 27-9-2 record in 2023 and a handful of midwestern games to test them, Penn State stayed strong all season, only losing out on an NCAA quarterfinals bid after narrowly falling to Quinnipiac in a third overtime period.

A few weeks later, Oct. 20 and 21, the Huskies will travel to Sacred Heart University to compete in the Ice Breaker Tournament, where they will have the opportunity to take on midwestern teams outside of the NCAA tournament for the first time in four years. Their first-round matchup is against St. Cloud State, which may not be the top program in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, but with competitors like University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota Duluth, and University of Wisconsin-Madison, all of whom are multi-time NCAA championship winners, the other Huskies at St. Cloud State hold their own and are a good matchup for Northeastern.

The Northeastern Huskies will round off their out-of-conference play with a pair of old Eastern College Athletic Conference rivals, Yale and Harvard, in January. The Huskies bested Yale in a tight victory in the NCAA regional tournament in March to punch their ticket to the Frozen Four, so the Bulldogs will certainly be seeking revenge.

Meanwhile, the Harvard competition will be the first of the Beanpot, where teams always play their hardest for the local crown, and with the tournament headed to TD Garden for the first time in its history, there’s more at stake than ever.

Back home in Hockey East, the Huskies have little to worry about. Their only two losses last season were one-offs against Providence and Maine, and the Huskies bested them in every other matchup. Like Northeastern, the Providence Friars lost three of their top scorers to graduation, negating some of the threat they previously brought to Matthews Arena.

With head coach Dave Flint at the helm, backed by associate head coach Nick Carpenito and assistant coaches Lindsay Berman and Melissa Piacentini, the Huskies are in a good position heading into the 2023-24 season. While the changes on the offense may make Northeastern less heavy on the scoring this season, a core group of defenders backed by Philips is still intact, and the Huskies’ net stays just as protected as they

The Northeastern women’s hockey team lined up ahead of a game. They have been the top team in Hockey East for six straight seasons.

Photo by Ethan Valery

Fifth-year forward Katy Knoll heads down the ice, puck in tow. Knoll was dubbed assistant captain during the off season.

Photo by Mika Podila

Graduate student defender Megan Carter holds back an Eagles player in a game against Boston College. Carter was named captain ahead of the 2023-24 season.

Photo by Mika Podila

EDITORIAL BOARD

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NEWS STAFF

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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.

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Op-ed: COVID-19 burnout is not an excuse for neglecting public health

our society’s attitude towards proper sanitation as a whole. As the virus loses its novelty, many citizens lose their vigilance.

Nowadays, the mere words “COVID-19” elicit a sigh of exhaustion from anyone within a five-mile radius — in fact, just writing it made me roll my eyes internally. The coronavirus pandemic, once the sole focus of all major news outlets, is now considered to be passé — a vintage virus. Pandemic burnout has drained many of their ability to properly empathize with the sick and disenfranchised.

In a Piedmont article, Dr. Gwenyth Francis, a physician specializing in infectious disease, stated that a common sign of COVID-19 fatigue is “a decline in compliance with mask-wearing and social distancing.”

Over three years have now passed since the onset of quarantine, and this apathy has transformed into a continuous disregard for public health in a multitude of forms, stretching beyond COVID-19 restrictions and impacting

When lockdown restrictions were lifted, I was going into my junior year of high school and working part-time at T.J. Maxx. I distinctly remember being placed on “front door duty” and instructed to clean all the carts with a sanitary towel and ensure that every customer was wearing a mask. From experience, I can tell you that the feeling of vinyl gloves on your skin for eight hours straight is something you never grow comfortable with. Yet I did not question or challenge it. This was a matter of public health, and in cases like this, nothing is more important than following proper procedures. To use an old cliché, “cleanliness is next to godliness.”

However, as time passed, people everywhere grew increasingly lax about regulating sanitation. Cleaning the store changed from every hour to every two hours, and eventually, it was just one store-wide cleaning at opening and closing times. People were tired, and the initial sense of fear that had motivated such diligent cleaning behavior had worn off. This was simply how things were — if you couldn’t handle a bit of grime and a global pandemic, then that was your problem. What should have been a wake-up call became a voicemail message from an unknown number that nobody bothered to respond to.

The rapid transmission of disease should have motivated us to devote greater attention to hygiene and sanitation, especially in lower-income or heavily populated areas. However, three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health is no longer a priority. Much of the interest in upholding high standards of cleanliness has dissipated, as people everywhere are desperate to move on.

But a cavalier attitude does nothing to assuage the human suffering caused by contamination. In a September 2023 editorial, the World Health Organization, or WHO, estimated that up to 1.4 million deaths could have been prevented annually if proper attention was given to water, sanitation and hygiene initiatives, or WASH. These methods help to curb the spread of disease and are particularly important in high-traffic areas. Additionally, even after the pandemic showcased the significance of adequate hygiene, over half the global population does not have access to safe sanitation facilities. We are still in a public health crisis, even if it is not as glaring as it was in March 2020. It is far easier for the general public to sweep these issues under the rug given that they do not interrupt the continuation of daily life, but that does not make these problems any less real. Human empathy is one of the most valuable resources we have, and at times like these, it is the most crucial one to employ if we aim to enact real change.

This neglect for public health is also noticeable throughout the Northeastern campus. For instance, soap dispensers are running low, hand sanitizers are typically empty and cleansing wipes are often utilized exclusively at Marino Recreation Center. Not to mention, dirty napkins and used plates are left on the counters at Tatte, crumbs are abandoned on dining hall tables and trash is scattered around Snell. Everywhere at Northeastern, it appears that basic sanitation is utterly ignored. In many ways, the only people remaining diligent in proper sanitation are the underpaid campus workers, individuals left cleaning up the messes in dining halls and beyond.

As students and faculty members, we need to be doing more. Hand sanitizers are offered for free at UHCS, with a utilitarian clip that allows them to be easily attached to one’s backpack — so why aren’t we keeping these items on hand? If we want to promote public health and protect our classmates and professors, we must stop neglecting our responsibilities. If we want an environment where health is promoted and protected, we cannot wait for others to clean up our messes. We need to pick up the slack. We need to do our part.

Julianne Panaro is a second-year behavioral neuroscience and philosophy combined major. She can be reached at panaro.j@northeastern.edu.

Op-ed: Popular Black media platforms promote right-wing extremism

on Instagram, according to their official profile, TSR uses its influence to propagate right-wing extremism and both disinform and misinform, creating a cesspool of anti-blackness and the endorsement of white supremacy within the Black community in something as simple and manageable as a comment section.

“All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.” That is what we, Black people in America, are told: that not every other Black person is family, friend, associate or comrade, but rather your enemy and an agent of anti-blackness and white supremacy.

I didn’t quite realize what the elders meant by this as I hadn’t yet reached my current state of racial consciousness and figured my biggest enemies were either the gossiping kids down the street or Michelle Obama for apparently ruining school lunch. But they were right. All skinfolk ain’t kinfolk.

Founded by Angelica Ndidi Nwandu, a Black woman, The Shade Room, or TSR, is a popular media platform offering the trendiest and most scandalous Black or pop cultural celebrity gossip, news and interviews. TSR takes the saying “all skinfolk ain’t kinfolk’’ to unprecedented levels. With a roughly 28.7 million following

In 2020, NBC News reported Zaya Wade, the 16-year-old daughter of former NBA player Dwayne Wade and Black actress Gabrielle Union-Wade, had come out as transgender. In 2019, popular overnight sensation Lil Nas X came out as gay via a series of tweets promoting his latest song “C7osure,” asserted his pronouns – he/him and they/them – and continued to present himself authentically and fluidly. Continuous publications of both of these Black and queer public figures on TSR has allowed for unregulated comment sections riddled with inappropriate and degrading transphobic and homophobic rhetoric. And we must also remember the unsettling misogynoir, featurism and colorism Black female celebrities are subjected to in those comments sections.

But The Shade Room’s manipulation knows no bounds, as its latest and most discussed act of tyranny continues to misinform the community using the very cunning and unfortunately common tactic of clickbaiting. In early August, the New York Times reported wildfires spreading throughout Hawaii, taking nearly 100 lives and leaving many others

without shelter or safety, demanding the need for government aid. It was then announced that President Joe Biden would disperse one-time payments of $700 per household to Maui residents who were affected by the wildfires. The Shade Room, as always, was quick to run the story. But that wasn’t the whole story: in fact it wasn’t even close. The Shade Room failed to mention the additional aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, in the form of tens of thousands of meals, liters of water and bedding, according to an official FEMA press release.

Naturally, the comment section was occupied with anti-Biden remarks. Some questioned the integrity and dependability of Biden as president, comparing what they’d been led to believe about the crisis relief aid for Maui residents to the substantial aid sent to Ukraine amidst a war, while others completely asserted their allegiance to former Republican president Donald Trump.

It was evident that very few commenters had actually read a credible article. It was also evident that The Shade Room had taken advantage of that very fact in the midst of the former president and Republican extremist’s reelection campaign.

So, this isn’t just a simple mistake of misinterpretation, error or confusion. It is a calculated and timely scheme of misinforming Black folk to the very philosophical and political system that devalues, disparages and steals

their identity. And although many are realizing and speaking out against the disservice and deception TSR does to the community, like young TikToker Joshua Joseph, or @jwilliamj, who has publicly held TSR accountable for its harmful agenda setting, a great number of Black folk still use The Shade Room as their immediate source of information, ultimately hindering social awareness and racial enlightenment.

Black people, like every other demographic of people, are not a monolith. Sameness does not exist in any community and cannot be expected to exist in this community. I realize this.

I realize that an individual’s worldview is shaped by many aspects of society — geography, financial status, religion — and inevitably creates contrasting political and social perspectives. But it would be foolish to say that this is just about opinion, but rather the deliberate manipulation and exploitation of the colonialist brainwashing, forced assimilation, fear and educational disparities plaguing Black people everywhere for financial gain.

I fear where this path leads — a regressed community playing puppet and puppeteer with our very own. As unnerving as it sounds, we could become the very thing we fear. But alas, it is as what the elders said, all my skinfolk ain’t my kinfolk.

Jarriah Cockhren is a third year student studying interaction design and journalism. She can be reached at cockhren.j@northeastern.edu.

Photo by Elizabeth Scholl

Photo by Elizabeth Scholl

Op-ed: Implement class-based admissions

Prepscholar, a rate that is 15% lower than the average for most non-profit private universities.

It is safe to say that Northeastern continues to be an incredibly unaffordable school for socioeconomically underrepresented students, regardless of race.

It’s time to look beyond race in the admissions process. Yes, having a racially diverse student body is important, but colleges and universities can and should have both diversity in race and class. Affirmative action is dead, but ways to embrace diversity are alive and well.

The end of race-based admissions creates an opportunity for Northeastern to diversify its student body from a socioeconomic standpoint, a form of diversity this school desperately needs.

About 65% of the undergraduate population comes from the top 20% of earners, with a median family income of $150,900, according to a New York Times report in 2013. Students from the bottom 20% accounted for 3.7% of the population.

In 2023, Northeastern boasted a 5.6% admission rate, on par with many Ivy League schools. As admissions rates fell, annual tuition jumped from $59,752 to $62,329. At Northeastern, 77% of students receive financial assistance, according to

Highly selective and expensive schools should move to a class-based admissions model to account for race-based admissions since they can’t explicitly admit based on race. Although it is not perfect, Black and Hispanic people continue to be over-represented in the poverty stricken population, experiencing poverty at higher rates relative to their representation in the American population, according to Census data. The same data shows that non-Hispanic whites and Asians were under-represented in the poverty population. There is a good chance that admitting on the lower end of the socioeconomic scale will account for race given how closely correlated race and income are. Not only is this a great alternative, but it is also time for higher education to account for the 50% of earners who only hold 2.6% of the total countries’ wealth.

Admittedly, Northeastern delivers on a form of global diversity. In its undergraduate program, Northeastern hosts more than 4,000 international scholars representing 122 countries. However, the American students who enjoy the fruitful networks of globalism come from the higher income brackets.

Besides, Northeastern enjoys the heavy price tags many international

students must pay to attend school, given that finding financial aid as an international student is tricky when you can’t receive federal aid. On average, international students are awarded roughly $22,000, leaving a near $40,000 gap in tuition to meet. While they may struggle to pay for college, an American experience that many internationals bear witness to, it should not be a primary impression imposed on them. And if it is very pricey for an American to pay for Northeastern, it is likely other countries are also not sending their lower socioeconomic citizens.

There is a clear need for economic diversity at Northeastern. Racial diversity is no longer sufficient. It never was. An upper-class Latino has more in common with an upper-class white kid than with a child of undocumented Mexicans. A white student from rural America is very different from a white student who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, where the median income is $178,370. Racial diversity is important — no doubt about it. But given the challenges we now face to meet those demographics, we must not only fill diversity quotas but include populations that have so much to offer if they were only given the chance. Those that believe classbased admissions are an insufficient means of achieving racial diversity cannot see beyond the color of a person’s skin and would prefer for the status quo of higher education to remain rich and white.

Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC, the

Supreme Court lawsuit that ended affirmative action – held that racebased affirmative action programs in college admissions processes violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court’s ruling was on its face about ending racial “discrimination” of white and Asian students who were not being admitted despite their extracurriculars, high scores on tests and classes. It takes time, money and resources to get those kinds of grades regardless of your race. Some of us Black and brown kids can make it to top universities because we have those three things. Some of us, other broke people regardless of color, did it because we hustled. Students for Fair Admissions laughed at our hustle.

In 2019, the College Board tested out the adversity index, an initiative that was highly criticized and ultimately failed. The score was between 1 and 100, averaging the ratings of a student’s school environment and student’s neighborhood and designed for colleges to gauge how much hardship students had faced in an easy way like an SAT math or English score. While the system was flawed because you can’t really put a score on how much hardship a person has faced, perhaps this wasn’t a bad start, given the new limitations on ensuring racial diversity today. Seeing what neighborhood a student comes from can say a lot about the racial demographics a student may fall under. Seeing which school a student attended may also suggest what that student’s ethnicity is. Had the adversity score been piloted today, it may

have stayed around to help compensate for the aftermath of SFFA.

Another suggestion would be for students to hint at their race in their personal statements or write about something that would only pertain to a person from a certain demographic. But again, I don’t really think race is the end-all-be-all of diversity.

I, along with 12 others in my class, am part of a scholarship program called Torch Scholars that offers full tuition to first-generation low-income students. I had a 3.3 weighted GPA in high school. I would have never made the waitlist at Northeastern if it weren’t for this program. Today, my grades are seeing better days. My cohort includes Black, Latino, Native American and white scholars. We are straight, queer, athletes, artists, writers, scientists and mathematicians. The entire program has admitted more economic and racial diversity than any other diversity-promoting initiative I’ve seen on campus.

To say that socioeconomic affirmative action is futile or insufficient is ignorant and unproductive. It is our best bet when Northeastern is, at best, becoming the meta of higher education. It is swallowing campus after campus in a Manifest Destiny fashion, prioritizing a billion-dollar endowment and brand notoriety over admitting valuable students who just need a chance and a bit of money.

Noelia Arteaga is a fourth-year journalism and political science combined major. She can be reached at n.arteaga@huntnewsnu.com.

Op-ed: The first Republican debate: A basic rundown with a hot take

that Christie’s declaration against the oddly beloved former president was a claim that must be valued and considered. To see a Republican candidate convey anger and frustration towards Trump’s actions was beyond refreshing. To uphold the law regardless of what your party wants is a big thing to publicly declare that you are willing to do.

from the crowd when he did not support Trump’s 2024 campaign. It made sense that Christie had won the blue state of New Jersey to a Democratic incumbent, taking 61% of the vote. Because if my home state of Pennsylvania had an open primary, I just might have voted for him.

In a perfect world, Chris Christie would be the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election. Watching the Republican primary debate, I was ready to hear many things that I disagreed with: Donald Trump copycats and candidates that were unqualified to be on stage. And that’s exactly what I saw. That was, until Christie was given a question. No other candidate managed to directly answer any question that was given to them, and I think he is representative of what politics used to be prior to party polarization that occurred during and subsequently after the 2016 election.

Many Independent turned Democrats believed that they could no longer vote Republican after the rise of Trumpism. As an IndianAmerican, registered Independent, and a relatively new voter, I believe

I was in eighth grade when Donald Trump became president. I didn’t understand much about anything, let alone politics. I was born and raised in the U.S. and had traveled out of the country with my American passport but was scared about deportation purely because of the notions that had surrounded this authoritarian diva president.

But as I became closer to the legal voting age, I read more about policy, and I realized that party polarization was not the norm. I talked to my father, one of those Independent turned Democrats, and it was shocking to me that in the 2012 election he had actually considered voting for Mitt Romney.

Because I had grown up in an America that demonized one party over another, it was shocking to me that candidates could be equally considered thoughtfully and without biases about party affiliation. I realized that such level-headed consideration is what used to be the standard. I was shocked when I saw Christie willing to publicly take boos

Let’s do a quick Republican candidate-by-candidate rundown, shall we? We must start with our token brown candidates, Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley. In case you didn’t know, Haley is fully ethnically Indian, but I can’t seem to remember the last time she mentioned that. The only thing I remember is her response to the global climate crisis, which was to tell India to lower their emissions first. I’m sure this was a solid response for world change. As a woman of color, I understand the struggle of alienation from your identity, especially when it comes to receiving white validation. But quite frankly, in the stage of my life where I was seeking that validation, I wasn’t hiding my identity in hopes of ruling the country. I was straightening my naturally curly hair for a boy to have a crush on me.

As for Ramaswamy, he had a strong start by using Obama’s “skinny guy with the funny name” bit. I would’ve called him a bipartisan icon had he recognized who he stole the line from. If Ron DeSantis looked a few years older

and wore a blonde wig, I would’ve refuted the fact that Trump wasn’t on stage, especially after his heavy emphasis on the supposedly new dangers of critical race theory. Wait until he figures out that the concept has been in higher education for the past 40 years. As for Mike Pence, Asa Hutchinson and Tim Scott, had they quoted the Bible one more time I would have turned the TV off.

Now, Chris Christie is far from perfect. It is true he endorsed Trump’s candidacy in 2016. However, it’s not 2016 anymore. The question still remains as to what is to be done with the former president now, and too many candidates on that stage are still willing to support him. By Christie denouncing the actions of Trump, he is rejecting many things, namely populism and polarization. Trump is not currently excluded from

running for the election. But the fact that a majority of the people on that stage were willing to get behind a man who is facing federal criminal charges as a former president, is beyond delusional.

I don’t want to be Independent in name only. I want to have viable options when it comes to voting for who gets to govern me and become one of the most powerful people in the world. And by viable, I mean someone who isn’t pushing 80 years old. I say that Chris Christie would be the right Republican candidate in a perfect world because I don’t know that he will be in this one. I don’t know that people are willing to face the facts.

Aleeza Syed is a thirdyear political science major at Northeastern University. She can be reached at syed.al@northeastern.edu.

Photo by Darin Zullo

Photo by Jessica Xing

Open Newbury builds up community, businesses

By Patrick O’Neal Photo Staff

Every Sunday throughout the summer and fall, Newbury Street is closed to all vehicle traffic and becomes a pedestrian walkway, allowing local musicians, businesses and restaurants to turn the roadway into a lively hub for shopping, dining and entertainment.

The weekly closure, referred to as Open Newbury Street by the City of Boston, is part of a group of street closures that aim to boost community engagement and connect residents with local businesses.

During the event, the entire stretch of Newbury Street from Berkeley Street to Massachusetts Avenue is completely closed to car traffic, with certain roads that cross Newbury Street being open to allow for local traffic to pass through.

This past Sunday, Sept. 17 residents enjoyed their time in the sun looking for a break from the wind and rain of Hurricane Lee. Locals and tourists alike came to shop, walk their pets, dine on outdoor patios and listen to live music performed by busking students and local musicians. Many small business

owners set up tents and tables to sell their products to people walking by or even give away free samples to advertise their business. Many stores also used Open Newbury Street as an opportunity to advertise their products by putting out signs or products along the road.

In addition to Open Newbury, Boston hosts scheduled open street events elsewhere in the city, where streets like Dorchester Avenue, Center Street in Jamaica Plain and Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury are similarly closed to car traffic and become temporary local centers for

entertainment, dining and shopping. The popularity of open street events in the past few years has allowed them to expand this year, with Harvard Avenue and Brighton Avenue in East Boston and Meridian Street in Allston-Brighton being added to the list of events being hosted.

The next Open Newbury Street is Sunday, Sept. 24, and the initiative will run every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. until Oct. 15.

Story has been shortened due to print constraints. View the full story on our website, huntnewsnu.com.

Cambridge City Council supports graduate students on their quest for unionization

By Alexis Algazy Deputy

Editor

Ahead of the union certification election for Northeastern’s graduate student union scheduled for Sept. 19,

the city of Cambridge expressed its support to the union-hopefuls.

During the Cambridge City Council’s Aug. 7 meeting, councilors expressed support for the Northeastern graduate student union, known as

Graduate Employees of Northeastern University-United Auto Workers Union, or GENU-UAW, by passing a resolution in which they urged the administration “to bargain in good faith with the union after the election.”

The unofficial union election results, reported Thursday evening, overwhelmingly favored the formation of a graduate student union. Following the vote to certify the union, the university took issue with the National Labor Relation Board’s direction of an election, filing a petition to review and continuing the tension between graduate workers and the university post-election.

Northeastern graduate students were granted an election through a National Labor Relations Board, or NLRB, authorization in July.

“That the City Council go on record in enthusiastic support of the graduate student workers of Northeastern University and their effort to form a union; and be it further … That the City Council go on record urging the university to bargain in good faith with the union after the election,” the Cambridge City Council stated in its text of orders.

Councilors also addressed the alleged anti-union law firm Northeastern hired in opposition to the unionization efforts.“The law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP is arguing on Northeastern’s behalf to the NLRB that all graduate students across the country should be undemocratically denied their union representation at private universities in what would be a ruinous precedent for labor organizing,” said the City Council in its text of orders.

Councilor Burhan Azeem, the youngest member of the council, graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or MIT, just four years ago. Some of his peers from MIT went on to become graduate students at schools throughout Massachusetts and his

partner is a doctoral candidate at Northeastern. These connections to graduate students make this fight for unionization personal for him, Azeem said.

“It’s incredibly important to support unions of all types. I think it shows solidarity between city hall and students — that they belong in the city. Northeastern might mostly be in Boston, but we are all one region,” Azeem said in an interview with The News. “We stand behind them as they are trying to fight the administration and get to a good deal.”

In an Aug. 9 decision, the NLRB regional office dismissed graduate students’ unfair labor practice charge, filed in response to an alleged NUPD threat to arrest graduate students who participated in a chalking event on campus in April.

Northeastern University did not respond to request for comment from The News.

Northeastern’s anti-union actions have scared graduate students and Northeastern employees from publicly supporting unionization, said Tim Rupprecht, a doctoral student studying electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern who has been involved in the unionization efforts.

“You should see the faces of the students when we tell them; they go from nervous to fascinated that the government is actually interested in something relevant to them, let alone interested in a way that’s trying to advance their interests,” Rupprecht said. Azeem reaffirmed Cambridge’s support for these students.

“The city stands behind you,” Azeem said.

A huge crowd is seen walking down Newbury Street. Sunday’s Open Newbury Street event attracted thousands of people.

City

A band plays jazz outside of Deluca’s Market. The sunnier weather on Sunday provided a much-needed break from recent stretches of rainfall, including rainfall caused by Hurricane Lee.

A woman sells freshly squeezed lemonade at her tent. The lemonade attracted a large line of customers wanting a break from the heat of the open street.