A leader from Boston to Beijing and back
including in halls that were designat ed as first-year residencies last year, like International Village, or IV, and Kennedy Hall.
Without a kitchen, living room or other amenities provided by apart ment-style housing, the high price of suite-style and traditional housing
A single bedroom in IV, which is considered an enhanced suite-style, costs $6,560 per semester, while a single bedroom in any enhanced apartment-style accommodation with a kitchen and living room costs $7,985 a semester. Including the
Students who are reliant on these lines to reach campus, com mute to work or explore the city have been forced to seek alternate routes as they move through the back-to-school season.
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Northeastern’s newest science building
This change in living space and quality was upsetting for some students who found out about the
Northeastern’s campus is home to both the E branch of the Green Line and the Ruggles Station stop on the Orange Line. On an average day, students are bustling in and out of subways and streetcars. But, as of Aug. 19, students and Boston residents have had to put their train riding on hold.
Madaras said after reading articles about the shutdown, the month-long Orange Line hiatus made sense to her, as opposed to prolonging projects.
Northeastern students prepare for school with Orange Line shutdown, Green Line closure
Students enter International Village during Welcome Week Sept. 3.
SPORTS
The Massachusetts Bay Transpor tation Authority, or MBTA, has shut down the Orange Line from Aug. 19 through Sept. 18 for repairs, includ ing rail and signal replacement. This shutdown comes in conjunction with
“The absurd price we are paying for such a small space — [living in International Village] costs almost as much as living in a standard apart ment, but they have a considerably larger space and kitchen,” Carmen Cheng said. “In addition, those living in IV are forced to enroll in the costly meal plan.”
However, this does not mean these second-year students will be living in the same residence hall conditions that were offered to students from the previous years. Over the summer, the university added approximately 700 more beds to IV, converting singles into doubles and doubles into triples. Bunks beds have been installed in these residence halls in order to accommodate for the demand for extra bedspace.
“[The Orange Line shutdown is] just going to make getting around Boston in general so much harder,” said Adeline Muller, a second-year student in the Explore Program. Muller said she took the T about
“I was like initially like, ‘Oh, that’s a bummer,’ and I was lucky enough to kind of have something to fall back on, but I know that that’s not necessarily the case for other people,” Madaras said.
five to 10 times a week during her first year at Northeastern as a way to explore the city. She noted that public transportation was “the way to go” considering high Uber prices and her lack of car access.
RISING SECONDYEARS DIFFICULTIESFACE IN PROCESSSELECTIONHOUSING
despite the inconvenience it will cause them.
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She said she sees the shutdown’s impact on Northeastern students as a reflection on the university, rather than the city.
“The reason that we rely so much on the trains is because we are being pushed off campus by the university itself, so if we had affordable housing, and if we have enough housing proportional to the student population, we wouldn’t have to worry about a shutdown affecting our ability to get to class on time,” Madaras said. “And that’s not the fault of the city for trying to make the train safer, it’s the fault of the university.”
By Ivy Tran | News Correspondant
Photo by Marta photo by Sarah Olender
Learn about the near completion of the new EXP research building.
PAGE 9
“I think the bus system is probably going to be my backup, that and maybe just limiting how much I get around the city for that first month after move-in,” Muller said.
Read about Alina Mueller, a three-time NortheasternOlympianhockeyplayer.
the closure of the Green Line from Union Square to Government Center stops from Aug. 22 through Sept. 18.
LOTTERY, on Page 2
After Northeastern admitted nearly 1,000 more students than usual in 2021, the rising sopho more class is facing a shortage of apartment-style housing.
In a press release, the MBTA said the shutdown will allow projects to be delivered on an accelerated time line, as opposed to the original plan which would take five years of night and weekend work.
Photos by Avery Bleichfeld
“Being forced to be within a few feet of my roommate at all times, having to step around each other and our things will not cultivate the environment we need as students. If my [double] has the same amount of space as a single, I would want to avoid it entirely,” Carmen Cheng said.
The Green Line E branch between Copley and Heath stations was also closed from Aug. 6 through Aug. 21.
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When students apply for on-cam pus housing, Northeastern assigns them a random lottery number that determines what order they choose housing — the lower the number, the earlier they get to pick housing and, theoretically, the better choices are available. This year, in order to ensure that all second-years are placed in university housing, even some students with low lottery numbers have been placed in suite or traditional dorm style housing,
“Over 30% of the rising sec ond-year class is or will be assigned to suite or traditional style housing,” Northeastern spokesperson Shannon Nargi wrote in an email statement to The News Aug. 9. “This is more consistent with historical housing trends for second-year classes than last year when the rising second-year class placements were affected by the larger first year class. While last year had first-year students living in International Village, with this year’s (Fall 2022) incoming class returning
further frustrates Carmen Cheng.
Alex Madaras, a third-year history, culture and law student, said she will utilize her bike as her main source of transportation during the Orange Line shutdown. They live in Jamaica Plain and rec ognize the need for the shutdown,
situation only after applying for second-year housing, including second-year chemical engineering and environmental engineering com bined major Carmen Cheng, who will be living in IV.
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community @HuntNewsNUSeptember 6, 2022 The Huntington News
Hill File
to a more traditional size, Interna tional Village is again housing for second and third year students.”
By Alyssa Fell Deputy City Editor
The executive order protects repro ductive healthcare providers from fac ing criminal charges in states that have criminalized abortions and prohibits extradition, which refers to moving someone who obtained an abortion in Massachusetts to a state where they would face criminal charges. As these measures are being signed into legisla tion, universities in Massachusetts may help students from around the country access safe, legal abortions.
However, some advocacy groups on campus see this as just a first step in a long path towards reproductive justice for students.
PAWS is a process in which the university places students in hous ing that becomes available after the initial housing selection time due to other students studying abroad, taking co-op opportunities outside of Boston or securing off-campus housing. When going through
On the preference form, Kaufmann and her roommate indicated that they wanted an apart ment, mainly for the kitchen.
“I didn’t know that Northeast ern had any of these policies, and
With a lottery number in the high 5000s, Tadeusiak will be living in International Village this fall. Thirdyear business administration major Kevin Cheng said that in previous years a number in the 5000s was considered a decent number as the numbers for second-years ranged from 5001-9375 for the previous school year.
“At the very least, our community needs to be vocal about supporting each other throughout this process. We need to create an environment in which seeking reproductive care is not stigmatized and is accessible to all who want it. We are far from getting there,” she said.
By Grace Comer Campus Editor
information about the resulting hous ing changes to students.
students during the spring semester, when students started the housing process. She said had known the situation that she is currently in, she would’ve chosen a different group with a better housing number.
Despite not being put into an apartment, Kaufmann believes that Northeastern did the best it could this summer.
According to Alexandra Nieto, a fourth-year biology major and the vice president of NU SHARE, the club has ordered a generic version of Plan B, Levonorgestrel, to stock the vending machine, making it more physically accessible to students and less expensive than a drugstore.
Winett and Ramamurthy shared resources that are available to students outside of Northeastern, including national resources like Abortion Out Loud, a project by Advocates for Youth that compiles helpful information from across the web; and local organizations like the Resilient Sisterhood Project, a Boston-based group that helps Black women and gender non-conforming people access reproductive health care. They also said they encourage students to volunteer with organiza tions providing reproductive health care, gender affirming care or any other support to women and gender non-conforming people.
Ramamurthy said she would also like to see Northeastern continue investing in initiatives to improve the accessibility of reproductive care for“Whenstudents.students come onto campus, [Northeastern] showing them and telling them that they are supportive and they are willing to go the extra mile, whether that’s allo cating a certain amount of funding for abortion care and for emergency contraceptives, for people who are coming out of state, it would be reaf firming that they are safer here and they won’t be criminalized,” she said.
“While completing housing, I definitely felt that Northeastern did not do a good job with their housing because the lack of places was shock ing, and I think it was that way for a lot of people,” Tadeusiak said.
NU to install contraception vending machine, students hope for more changes
Carmen Cheng said she believes Northeastern students are currently facing the consequences of the uni versity’s over enrollment in previous years, and that Northeastern should’ve done a better job at communicating
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Additional desks and dressers have been added to the forced doubles and triples to increase work and storage space for residents.
Photo courtesy Stephen Triandafellos
“Focusing energy on [these orga nizations] right now is important, and there’s not a lack of need. Just reaching out to any of those organi zations, asking if you can volunteer, asking if they have resources for you when you need them, I think really it’s such a mutual relation ship — you help them, they help you, we’re all helping each other in this. Now is the time to band together and tackle intersection al issues,” Ramamurthy said. “I feel the past few years have really highlighted how imperative it is for us all to support each other in the attacks on our autonomy.”
However, with the NUSHP totalling almost $2,500 a year, some students choose to search for less expensive alternatives or remain on their parents’ healthcare plans. Students who are not on the NUSHP may not have access to these benefits, and those who have plans from states where abortion is criminalized may feel unsafe seeking reproductive health care through their insurance.
“I think [the anti-extradition bill] is great for people, especially from south ern states like Texas, and especially for college students that are coming from southern states to Massachusetts,” said Julia Krupp, a second-year business administration and communication studies combined major who has lived in Texas her whole life.
In a post-Roe world, universities in states like Massachusetts, where Roe has been codified in state law, may become a safe haven for students hailing from states that have criminalized abortions. The Massachusetts Senate cemented the right to an abortion in state law in December 2020, and immediately following the United States Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June, Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order to expand these existing rights.
required meal plan for students living in housing without a kitchen, which is a minimum of $2,412 per semester, suite-style housing adds up to be at least $8,972 per semester — almost $1,000 more expensive than a similar quality apartment. Even the new triple rooms in IV ring up at $4,790 a semester, which is only $987 less expensive than a triple room in an apartment.
Julia Winett, a third-year law stu dent at the Northeastern University School of Law pursuing her Juris Doctor degree and the other co-chair of Lawyering for Reproductive Justice at NUSL, wants to see a more supportive community for students seeking reproductive health care.
that’s really cool, but they should do a better job spreading the word,” Krupp said. “With the recent Roe v. Wade being overturned and abortion being criminalized [in some states], I think it’s fantastic that Northeastern’s offering all these under their student plan, because I couldn’t imagine any university in Texas being able to do that without the governor trying to sue them or something.”
She also emphasized the impor tance of informing students, espe cially those whose home states are criminalizing abortion, about their rights in “MakingMassachusetts.surethatpeople are fully aware of their rights, that’s impera tive,” she said. “Just having laws is not enough because laws are inaccessible — a lot of people are not going out of their way to read the law because hon estly, if you haven’t studied the law for a really long time, it’s incomprehensible.”
On-campus residences limited for class of 2025
“We were talking about different phases of the vending machine and having different products and not just emergency contraception in there, there’s potentially pregnancy tests coming in the future,” Nieto said. “I’m always hopeful that stu dents will advocate for the needs of the students, and I hope that in the future beyond the vending machine, we work closely with the university to see some more tangible change.”
“It is inaccessible for a lot of people to be paying the amount of money that we pay for student health care services, and an emphasis on ‘student,’” said Ruchi Ramamurthy, a third-year student at the North eastern University School of Law, or NUSL, and Tufts School of Medicine.
PAWS, students must fill out a preference form to indicate what type of accommodation they desire, which includes living in a tradition al room, suite or apartment.
“I know that I cannot say that [the situation] is unfair because there is nothing much they can do. It’s not like the Boston housing market has tons of open apartment buildings [for the university to lease out to their students] but it is upsetting to be told for so long that it would be so great to have a kitchen, which made me want to get one, especially as someone who loves baking,” Kaufmann said.
When it was time for Kaufmann to choose housing, she said she realized all the apartments were taken, leading her and her room mate to find housing via Placement Assistance With Staff, or PAWS.
“I am going to be on co-op during the spring, I can’t be dependent on a campus meal plan if I am going to be off campus,” Kaufmann said.
Northeastern is working to give its students access to reproduc tive health care. The Northeastern University Student Health Plan, or NUSHP, provides coverage not just for medical abortions, but also for birth control, voluntary sterilization and family planning support.
“NU SHARE is working closely with [the university] providing student input to make it a reality for students that would be applicable for us, such as a location that’s easy for students to get to, what our habits are, and when we would need access to it,” Nieto said. “We’re really input ting students’ ideas and what would actually be feasible for us.”
“Healthcare in an ideal world should be free to everyone, but [students] are not even considered to be in the ‘real world’ Ramamurthy,yet.” who is pursuing a Juris Doctor and Master of Public Health, is also co-chair of If/When/ How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice at NUSL, a student organiza tion that provides education for law students to advocate for reproductive justice, as well as related intersection al issues like gender affirming care and menstrual justice.
LOTTERY, from front
“I thought it was going to be very easy and that I didn’t have to worry, but it ended up being super messy and unexpected,” Tadeusiak said.
Lauren Kaufmann, a second-year psychology and criminal justice com bined major, was anticipating living in 780 Columbus or 10 Coventry St., which are both standard apart ment-style accommodations. With a number in the 5000s, Kaufmann said she and her roommate thought they would at least have a chance to live in these apartments because they were not as popular as the Davenport and West Village residence halls in the previous years.
Like Tadeusiak, Kaufmann said she thought that Northeastern did not relay enough information to their
“I would have planned differently had I known this would be an issue,” Kaufmann said. “They definitely should’ve said [something about the situation] earlier.”
As a result of the difference in living conditions and options to pre vious years, some students, such as second-year mechanical engineering student Emma Tadeusiak, were shocked by the lack of residential choices they had once they reached their housing selection time slot.
essarily be successful in our own health because of the costs and the barriers to healthcare. I think that hopefully, as we grow, we can ad dress more of those barriers and try to take on initiatives that address the importance of accessible and comprehensive health care with [Northeastern] administration.”
“[Students] do have to encounter the real world in our daily lives, but we don’t have the support or the structure to be able to nec
For students who are not on the NUSHP, Northeastern is begin ning to make alternative resources available. Following a petition from the student organization NU Sexual Health Advocacy, Resourc es and Education, or NU SHARE, Northeastern is planning to install a vending machine on campus offering emergency“Althoughcontraception.supplychainissues are delaying the installment of emergency contraception vending machines on campus, we will have a temporary solution for the fall semester. We are making an existing vending machine available to dispense emergency con traception at a location that is accessi ble 24/7,” Northeastern spokesperson Shannon Nargi wrote in an email statement to The News Aug. 9.
According to Northeastern’s fall and spring housing selection website, any multi-person group must fill a vacant apartment of the same size as the group. For a group of three, the system will not allow them to occupy spaces in a five-person apartment.
To make up for the temporary loss of the Green Line E branch, she opted to take the 39 bus.
By Andy He Deputy Campus Editor
In lieu of the Orange Line, transportation options include the Commuter Rail and Bluebikes, both free throughout the city amid the shutdown, and shuttle buses. Buses also replaced the E branch of the Green Line during its“Iclosure.knowthe message that we’re really trying to send out is to not drive, if at all possible, because traffic is going to be really bad during the shutdown,” said Hannah
“If the national surveillance sys tem isn’t implemented on campus or on a smaller scale, it is not enough for the school to provide peace of mind for its students. If we had this system at certain high-traffic build ings on campus like [Stetson East, International Village, East Village and Snell Library], I think it would definitely provide more peace of mind,” Krupp said.
not limited to, replacement of over 3,500 feet of tracks and two cross overs, along with tie replacement and concrete work, according to a press release from the MBTA.
She said she has also noticed re cent construction on Huntington Avenue as a result of the tempo rary closure.
Jared Auclair, the associate dean of professional programs and gradu
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health recorded a total of 317 monkeypox cases in the Common wealth on Sept. 2 since the state’s first case was announced May 18.
The Orange Line shutdown maintenance will include, but is
While students in Boston over the summer planned for the Orange Line shutdown in mid to late August, some already felt the impact of the loss of a T line with a portion of the Green Line E Branch out of service through Aug.Eliza21.Greenberg, a third-year political science and international
MBTA, from front
“Northeastern is actively mon itoring cases of monkeypox in the regions surrounding its campuses across North America and in Lon don. We are prepared and equipped to handle cases should they occur, just as we would with any infectious disease. Northeastern has also taken a leadership role by establishing a national surveillance testing system to test for monkeypox at airports and other entry points across the U.S.,” Northeastern spokesperson Shannon Nargi wrote in an email statement to The News Aug. 8.
Krupp said she hopes that North eastern can aid and monitor its stu dents with the vaccination rollout.
“I was also really grateful that they are finally paying enough attention to the Orange Line be cause I have been getting increas ingly nervous about all of these episodes that have been happening safety-wise, like the fires and the derailings,” Madaras said.
Since the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declared Aug. 5 that the monkeypox outbreak is a public health emergency, North eastern is playing a role in the obser vation of the spread of the disease in the Boston area and beyond.
“I wish the school will educate us and inform us about the mon keypox in the future, so students will not be misinformed,” Laats said. “Mainly educating the stu dents and prevent any fearmonger ing can be the first step Northeast ern take to ensure the safety of its students.”
Madaras noted that the T is cru cial to the livelihood of Bostonians who are not students and rely on it for transportation to work. They said this is a safety issue, and that it’s important to maintain stan dards of public transportation.
it got this bad,” Greenberg said.
Students lack confidence in NU’s plans for monkeypox outbreak
“I am already scared of COVID-19, and monkeypox has a greater effect like excruciating pain.
“If we see continuously increas ing cases in Boston, Northeastern should reinforce quarantine like how they did with COVID-19, and implement a no-tolerance policy toward students who break it,” Tran said. “The school already went through COVID-19 at its peak, so I
affairs student, uses the Green Line E branch to commute to work, which she said is about a 45-minute walk from her summer housing in Mission Hill.
The MBTA has released “A Rider’s Guide to Planning Ahead” regard ing preparations and what is to be expected. Despite the inconvenience faced by Boston residents through out the next month, the agency anticipates the repairs and updates to the transportation lines.
The Life Sciences Testing Center at the Innovation Campus in Burling ton, which operated as Northeastern’s COVID-19 testing lab, is also used to surveil the spread of monkeypox.
Julie Tran, a second-year psy chology major, is concerned about returning to school with the rising cases of monkeypox.
Greenberg said the two main issues she faces are that the bus is often late and crowded.
According to the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eligibility criteria, only those with known contacts identified by a public health department, those who have a sexual partner in the past 14 days was diagnosed with monkeypox and those who had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days in a
September 6, 2022 Page 3CAMPUS
T riders use alternate forms of transportation while lines are closed for repairs
“I feel relatively safe coming to campus, but I am a little worried about going to the gym and such because it is an area with a lot of sweat and bodily fluids, and I know that’s one way monkey pox can spread,” Krupp said. “If monkeypox spreads on campus in the fall, I don’t really know what Northeastern will do. On one hand, I think having a place to quarantine so you don’t spread it to others is nice, but I don’t think Northeastern has the infrastruc ture to pull that off as we’ve seen with their handling of COVID-19.”
“I think it’s definitely kind of a failure on the MBTA’s part to not do this gradually over time, before
“Northeastern should ensure everyone is vaccinated for mon keypox when it starts to distribute to a wider population. With all the new infrastructures, the school should also serve as a vaccine distribution center if that means students will get access to the vaccine,” Krupp said.
ate affairs in the College of Science, is a leading technical supervisor at the Life Sciences Testing Center, whose team is collaborating with Ginkgo Bioworks to develop a system to test samples collected at airports and other places of entry to the country for Northeastern’smonkeypox.nationalscale con tribution still leaves Julia Krupp, a second-year business administration and communication studies com bined major, with concerns about her own personal safety.
Moving forward, students such as Margo Laats, a second-year psychology major, hope Northeast ern will further educate and spread trusted information to its students.
Archer, a co-op on the transit team of the policy and planning division at the Boston Transportation Department and a Northeastern graduate student. Her division of the Boston Transportation Depart ment is working under the city and in conjunction with the MBTA.
Illustration by Aubrey Burgess
While Krupp said she currently feels comfortable coming back to school, she is unsure how the school will han dle the situation if there is an outbreak.
The school also has no way to pre vent body-to-body contact, which is how monkeypox is primarily trans mitted,” Tran said. “Northeastern also has not talked to us a lot about it, so I don’t know what to expect.”
“It was kind of mixed emotions,” Madaras said. “I was glad to see that they’re finally investing some time and effort into making it safer, because so many people rely on it, and obviously it is an in convenience for a couple of weeks personally for me, but it’s not something that I can’t manage.”
jurisdiction with known monkey pox are eligible for the JYNNEOS vaccine. The administration of the JYNNEOS vaccine is only available by appointment at designated health care locations.
think Northeastern should be better equipped to contain monkeypox.”
students are home on summer break.
“Sometimes we don’t feel com fortable when we have not met the new hires, so it gets really frustrat ing trying to communicate with a team that does not know how to work together,” Rivera said. “It’s dif ficult to shift from the teamwork we had with the older employees there to that of a team of new hires.”
Photo courtesy Louiza Wise
Because summer tends to be less busy, many employers who spoke with The News said it is a struggle to keep up with the sudden influx of students when September rolls around.
By Kate Armanini City Editor
Photo courtesy Louiza Wise
Hopkins estimated the design of the Emerald Tutu will be finalized in a year, but it will take longer to fully grasp its biochemical processes. Researchers will need to observe each mat through the
“The challenge with every nature-based solution is getting ev eryone to agree on a singular thing that can span multiple coastlines,” Hopkins said. “These things tend not to work if you just follow mu nicipalThoughboundaries.”conversations with the City of Boston about the possibility of the tutu have just begun, the com munity response has been positive.
other proposed climate solutions, interconnected biomass units are relatively inexpensive and modular, so they can be deployed and removed in fragments. Hopkins said this will help the “delicate process” of accommodat ing other interests on the waterfront.
Playa Bowls, a smoothie bowl shop, has three locations in the Greater Boston area. Rivera has worked at the Huntington Avenue location for 10 months. He said not only has he expe rienced the fall move-in rush, but also the challenges that come with it.
Like many college cities, frequent employee turnover is often inevitable. Despite the quick transition, Boston’s businesses find ways to keep up with the crowds and still strive to provide their best service.
Hopkins has high hopes for the proj ect — she said the tutu has potential in every port city in America. With each new location, the materials could be adjusted to fit local ecosystems.
Julia Hopkins, an assistant pro fessor of civil and environmental engineering, is a founding member of the Emerald Tutu project, a proposed network of floating biomass units which mitigate rising sea levels and storm surges, funded by the National Science
Each individual mat within the pro posed tutu is composed of biodegrad able materials, such as wood byproduct and coconut fiber, and secured with burlap and marine rope. Arranged in a series of concentric rings, the mats can dampen wave energy, effectively functioning as a wetland.
Many local businesses near Northeastern, such as Giovanni’s Market on Columbus Avenue, experience a sudden influx of customers in September as college students return to Boston.
“We have grassroots community partners and see the vision of the Emerald Tutu as a community access point,” Wise said.
Page 4 September 6, 2022CITY
“Qdoba is a lot quieter in the sum mer,” Harkins said. “There were days when it was just me in there, but it’s typically busier during the fall.”
“It’s been busy, but not like the win ter time,” said Miguel Rivera, a shift leader at Playa Bowls on Huntington Avenue. “When the college students come back we hold a lot of fundrais ers, and those are an eleven out of ten for busyness. It’s way too busy.”
“People will come in to get flowers for students doing auditions at Berklee right across the street, so that definitely does affect the business level,” Van Der Hoek said.
While understaffing may seem like the biggest threat to businesses during the busy seasons, Rivera had a different perspective.
“[Climate change solutions] have to actually be responsive to commu nity needs and solicit community feedback,” said Will Hardesty-Dyck, the greenhouse manager. “I think [the Emerald Tutu] is a fantastic project. I’m excited to see where it goes.”
When Wise joined the project in 2021, this was her primary focus. She had experience studying the usage of constructed wetlands to treat wastewater during her co-op at Floating Island International as a Northeastern undergrad.
In the coming months, the tutu will have a larger-scale pilot program and there will be further dialogue with the city and its residents to gauge interest.
College students bring busyness (and business) back to Boston with move-in
Sarah Harkins, a third-year physi cal therapy graduate student, has also noticed the change of pace in restau rants around campus when students return for the fall semester.
Other local vendors, beyond just restaurants, who spoke with The News said they experience the same rush of busyness during the fall and spring
Among those grassroots organi zations is Eastie Farm, a non-prof it which teaches East Boston residents about climate justice and sustainability through urban gardens. Eastie Farm has previous ly collaborated with the Emerald Tutu’s project lead, Gabriel Cira, to build a geothermal greenhouse.
“When our college kids leave to go back to school, we are really under staffed, so we hire new people to have that extra support,” Rivera said.
As of 2018, around 138,000 college and university students pack into the city, accounting for about 20% of the total population in Boston.
“Heresemesters.atthefloral shop, it has been slower in the summer, and spring is the busiest because of holidays, so that makes our shop crazy busy,” said Alyssa Van Der Hoek, a college
The tutu comes as Boston faces mounting climate pressures. Ac cording to the Boston Globe, sea levels in the Northeast could rise as much as two feet by 2050, drastically increasing frequency and severity of flooding. East Boston’s low-lying location made it the initial focus of the Emerald Tutu project. Unlike
seasons to understand the mat’s life cycles and how the mats cycle carbon and nutrients.
“I thought I could use my back ground and offer up what I had in terms of using wetlands for nutrient reduction and water quality purpos es, because that was another goal they had been looking to tap into but hadn’t researched it a ton,” Wise said.
The tutu could function as a community greenspace, with interconnected walkways and places for other water recreation activities.
“A lot of these urban areas are built around places that used to be marsh ... which means that we have removed what was the original flood defense,” Hopkins said. “The Emerald Tutu was intended to put it back, but put it back in a way that did not displace people.”
“The tutu is going to be, hopefully, ingrained in the community as anoth er infrastructure project that needs continual maintenance and provides jobs and a sense of community,” said Wise, a 2021 Northeastern graduate.
By Christina McCabe News Correspondent
Photo by Quillan Anderson
One Northeastern professor has a plan to beautify and protect Boston’s shoreline from rising sea levels: a series of public walkways, built on artificial marshes designed to prevent flooding.
“We’reFoundation.somewhatambitious about what we’re trying to do, but it’s ambition that matches the scale of the problem,” Hopkins said.
While college students spent their last few weeks of summer pre paring to move into Boston, local businesses prepared for move-in as Fromwell. fall to spring, Boston is a bustling college town, with almost three dozen universities in the city.
student who works part time at Fern, a Boston florist shop.
When asked what the hardest part is when the students come back to campus, he said it was teamwork.
The name of the project is a spin on Boston’s Emerald Necklace, a chain of interconnected parks across the city. Like its namesake, the tutu could serve as a commu nity space, Louiza Wise, the team’s ecological engineer, said.
NU researchers develop Emerald Tutu to protect, beautify Boston’s coast
College students aren’t always in the market for flowers on a regular basis, but they drive Fern’s sales in unexpected ways.
“When people, coastal managers and governments look to the future, and what their cities could be in 20 years, 30 years, I want them to think of solutions that mimic what nature had in the past,” Hopkins said. “I want the tutu to be one of those technologies that is considered.”
Each unit of the tutu is composed of biodegradable materials, such as wood byproduct and coconut fiber, to avoid pollution.
Rivera added that it is a challenge hiring for such a fast-paced work environment, especially when their hiring seasons are in November, when many college students return home for the holidays, and June, when most
At the end of the 2021-2022 sea son the team graduated 16 players, Mueller and Brown included. But the two will return, along with teammates Maureen Murphy and Chloe Aurard, as graduate stu dents to lead the team into its next season. Mueller has been named head captain and said she has a focus on keeping the same team
“From that point on … I was more motivated than ever to get a women’s team over there,” the 29-year-old said. “And so, I took it upon myself, with the help of a couple chair mem bers, to [put a team together].”
Chelsey Goldberg on ice against Team Israel at the 21st Maccabiah Games.
and after I got back — everybody was so proud. That’s nothing I’ve ever felt before,” she said.
As captain, Goldberg led Team USA to silver.
The Swiss-born Northeastern women’s hockey center has a list of accomplishments that seems never-ending. She’s a three-time Olympian with the Swiss women’s team, bringing home the bronze medal at 15 years old and becoming the youngest Olympian to medal in the competition. She was named the Hockey East Player of the Year for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons. From 2019 to 2021 she was a three-time Patty Kazmaier top-10 finalist, making the top-three in 2020.
“We don’t know how much yet, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
Northeastern alum Goldberg brings women’s hockey to Maccabiah Games
“The thing that stood out to me early on, especially in our first few practices, was not only how good she was — I knew that — but how selfless she was and how much of a team player she was,” Northeastern women’s hockey coach David Flint said.
hockey had was twofold.
“[Schorr] was all in with me, want ed this to happen just as much as I did. So, for the past eight years, we’ve been tag-teaming and figuring out what we needed to do on our end to make it happen,” Goldberg said.
Second, participating in the games gave her an opportunity to explore and connect with people through her faith.
Back in Boston, her teammates were simply happy to have her with them again — Brown called her return to Northeastern a “reset” for the“Justteam.her coming on the ice, the whole energy level just picked up in practice that day,” Flint said about Mueller’s first day back.
“[There was] a lot of DMing on social media, a lot of social media posts.”
Three teams battled for gold at the inaugural women’s hockey com petition in July: the United States, Canada and Israel.
Hockey Federation’s Women’s World Championships.Witharesume like that, the graduate student would be deserving of an ego big enough to fill Matthews Arena. And yet, Mueller just wants to play hockey with her teammates.
“Her games were at horrible times. I got to catch one with a couple of my teammates. I think it was eight in the morning, which was really funny,” Brown said, recalling watching her play while drinking a morning coffees.
“It’sculture.allabout family and holding each other accountable,” she said.
Growing up, the only thing that mat tered to Alina Mueller was ice hockey.
One of the world’s largest sporting events, the games bring together some of the best Jewish athletes in the world — but women’s hockey has never been featured.
Alina Mueller: Leading from Boston to Beijing and back with grace
In Mueller’s absence, the team had lost to the University of Vermont for the first time in four years and then, in the first round of the Beanpot Tournament, to Boston College. The team’s lines
“For eight years now, I’ve had an on going spreadsheet of girls that I either remember being Jewish that I’ve played with, or that people had sent to me that they know are Jewish,” Goldberg said.
First, it aligned perfectly with her professionalGoldberg,mission.whohas played hockey professionally since graduating from Northeastern in 2016, currently plays for the Professional Women’s Hockey Player’s Association, or PWHPA. The PWHPA is a nonprofit organization devoted to expanding women’s hockey and advocating for the rights of professional women’s hockey players in North America.
The PWHPA was built after the collapse of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, or CWHL, a league that paid only in small stipends and provided few opportunities for wom en’s hockey players to play.
had been shifting all season, and another shift was coming with Mueller’s“Everythingreturn.was going to settle, and I think people knew that. She got back and hit the ground run ning and we started to climb to get to the NCAA playoffs,” Brown said.
“It brought tears to my eyes, just of joy, seeing that women’s hockey does exist over in the Middle East,” Goldberg said. “It’s contin uing to grow. I told them that I want to help them as much as I can from the States. It’s going to be a team effort moving forward with every party involved: Americans, Canadians, Israelis, all moving forward. We all want women’s hockey to Goldberggrow.”saidshe is “so beyond hopeful” for the future of women’s hockey.“Weare actually getting paid this year in the PWHPA,” she said.
“Nobody could really put into words what they were feeling, myself included,” Goldberg said of seeing her dream come to fruition. “It still hasn’t hit me, to be quite honest.”
Growing hockey in Israel will not be an easy task. Hockey does not occupy the same cultural space
“I was devastated when we lost a game, I was the happiest person when we won games. That all kind of decided how my life was going,” Mueller said.
The support Mueller felt was overwhelming.“Thevideosthey made and all the messages they sent me before, during
“It’s just a vibe to her presence, she’s very level-headed,” graduate student forward Mia Brown, Muel ler’s teammate, said. “Everyone just believes in her so much that that just turns into her leading by example.”
“What a cool experience to have all these Jewish athletes come to gether representing their sport and combining their faith and sport,” Goldberg said. “You looked around, and you were like, ‘Wait a second, they’re Jewish. They’re Jewish.’ It was just a special bond that we were all sharingGoldberg’stogether.”next mission is to create more opportunities for Israeli hockey on the international stage.
It began with proving there was en thusiasm for a women’s hockey event.
By Julia Yohe Deputy Sports Editor
Goldberg again asked to join the team when her brother was offered a spot in 2017, but to no avail.
there that it does in Canada or the United States, but Goldberg knows there is potential.
During her first season, Mueller was a leader on the team Flint said, and that only continued in her sec ond season when she was named an assistant captain.
While the Swiss team fought hard during the Olympics, with Mueller leading the team with seven points, the team fell to Finland in the bronze medal game.
“We formed the PWHPA to fight for a league and fight for a sustaina ble league,” Goldberg said. “[In the
This year, she realized her dream.
In July, she was named the 2022 Swiss Hockey Woman of the Year. And in August, she joined the Swiss National Team at the 2022 International Ice
Mueller said she felt the stress of attending the Olympics during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that some of the intense protocols and isola tion before the Games took away from the excitement. But once she was back on the ice, she played just like any other game. And while away, she and her NU teammates worked to support each other from opposite sides of the world.
Chelsey Goldberg had a dream: to play at the Maccabiah Games in Israel.
In 2013, her twin brother was invited to play on Team USA at the Maccabiah Games. As there was no women’s team, Chelsey, then a sophomore ice hockey forward at Northeastern University, asked to play alongside him. Her request wasThedenied.Maccabiah Games, also known as the Jewish Olympics, occurs every four years in Israel.
CWHL], we all had to work full time as well as playing professionally. So we were balancing two full-time jobs.”
she joined the Swiss Olympic team and left her Boston teammates feeling her loss acutely. Brown sat next to Mueller in the locker room that season and recalled looking over at her teammate’s empty spot and missing their pregame chatter.
September 6, 2022 Page 5SPORTS
For Goldberg, the personal impact that Maccabi’s inclusion of women’s
The team went on to win the Hockey East Tournament Champi onship for the fifth year in a row, beating the University of Connect icut 3-1. Mueller scored two of the goals with an assist on the third.
After almost nine years of compiling resources and recruiting athletes, the former Husky hockey player and two-time Beanpot cham pion succeeded in bringing women’s hockey to the 21st Jewish Olympics.
From then on, Goldberg and Schorr worked tirelessly to pull together a team.
In the middle of the 2021-2022 season, Mueller left for Beijing where
By Alex Sumas Sports Editor
Photo courtesy Larry Slater
“It’s not easy. I’m very disappointed that we didn’t win the bronze medal, obviously,” Mueller said. “But it was another great experience.”
Unsure of where to begin, Goldberg reached out to Devra Schorr, co-chair of Maccabi USA’s ice hockey team, for help building a women’s hockey program.
While students have watched the construction site looming over Ruggles train station slowly come to resemble a building over the past two years, the project’s final year of construction will bring less outward ly noticable changes as it sprints toward completion.
At the center of the pinwheel is a “collaborative hub” with conference rooms and other amenities, the architects said.
So what will the interior of EXP actually look like?
“It’s a series of clusters of labs that are about a [half] the length of ISEC that pinwheel around a central space and it’s very small — it’s like a communicating stair that goes up through all the floors. And then the offices are sort of embedded within the laboratories on the perimeter,” Sullivan said.
Schaeffner described the pinwheeling lab clusters as “little neighborhoods.”“Thisissosmaller scale research groups could actually have their own little community on each floor, so there could be different specialties and different things going on,” Sulli van said. “This was to give North eastern a different type of commu nity, they already have sort of a big open lab model, which is in ISEC, and EXP is actually more intimate.”
The bridge was intended to create a link that extends the campus over the train tracks. Schaeffner said the idea was that nobody in the new complex should feel isolated from
EXP’s footprint is about one-anda-half times the size of ISEC, and it allows for public spaces that radiate out toward the exterior like spokes on a wheel, Schaeffner said.
“President Aoun drove us hard to get to something that nobody’s done before. I have to hand it to him because as a partnership, it’s been incredible,” Schaeffner said. “When he’s not satisfied, he can’t even always explain what it is. But when there’s something bugging him you know it’s for real, and he’s helped us elevate.”
“Whereas ISEC is inward looking toward the atrium as a space, this pushes those social clubs to the perim eter. It’s a reversal in a sense,” Schaeff ner said. “It’s definitely a more intimate and less singular feeling probably than ISEC. But yet it harmonizes.”
Now, the project is entering its last year of scheduled construction, with the 350,000-square-foot building ex pected to open fall 2023. This fall, the project managers said they will make the building weather tight so progress can be made on interior details.
While the building, located at 815 Columbus Ave., has certain similarities to ISEC (it is, after all, another STEM hub on campus), the design is “totally different,” Sullivan said. When you walk into ISEC from street level, on the right side there are several floors of laboratories stretching above the first floor, but on the left there are smaller “beans,” or clusters of offices.
The large construction site is none other than the final building in the complex containing the Interdis ciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, or ISEC, and the iconic rust-colored bridge across the Rug gles train tracks. The new building is called EXP, which, unlike ISEC, isn’t an Thisacronym.complex has been in the works since 2012, when Payette architects Kevin Sullivan and Bob Schaeffner won a competition to design the space. When they first came up with the swoosh motif for the bridge crossing the train tracks, they said, they realized the entire complex needed to be about flow and“Wemovement.almostthought of it like the whole site had two hard shells on the perimeter with a soft connective tissue in the middle, almost like an oyster or something,” Sullivan said. “But when we started thinking about the urban design, we didn’t want the block to be too monolith ic. So EXP is similar in some ways, but different — it doesn’t have the sameThoughskin.”it is apparent that EXP and ISEC go together, the internal work ings of the newer building may be more of a mystery to some students.
“We’ve got the shell almost sub stantially complete and it’s basically finished, so drywall, … flooring, paint, bringing in furniture, putting in audio visual systems — anything that kind of needs to be protected we wait until that weather tight mark so that it’s a secure space and a safe space to put equipment and things,” Valencia said.
the science programs on the central campus — the bridge is intended to avoid ISEC and EXP becoming an “ivoryISEC’stower.”opening in 2017 was the first stage of the project, followed by the opening of the rust-colored bridge in 2019.
“Wemuch.did
The swoosh shape of the bridge is intended to flow very naturally into the larger complex and create a sort of “pebbles in a stream” effect with the buildings, Schaeffner said.
“That public space in the center is quite a bit smaller than the space in ISEC. But the intention is about the intensity of that community of peo ple,” Sullivan said. “They are all glass walls looking toward the center. And you’re almost getting to look into three or four different lab communi tiesStudentssimultaneously.”returning to campus this fall will likely notice that the walkway between ISEC and EXP is closed, as it has been since May. It is closed until the end of the school year, Valencia said, to facilitate the construction of aan underground utility connection
CAMPUSPage 6 September 6, 2022
“It’s a much more industrial building, much more work focused, research focused, student focused,” said Jacqueline Valencia, a senior project manager, referring to the building as a Construction,“workhorse.”overseenby Suffolk Construction, started on the $300 million dollar building in spring 2020, at the start of the pandemic. While supply chain delays and high inflation rates have made headlines throughout this project, Paul McAndrew, another senior project manager, said the con struction team did not feel the effects too
By Marta Hill Editor-in-Chief
a lot of our buyout in advance of inflation and supply chain issues really hitting the industry hard,” Valencia said. “So that’s not to say that we haven’t had some of those issues, but just not nearly as much as others in the industry.”
Northeastern’s newest research building moves toward completion
Beyond the central staircase, other features include a two-story robotics high bay with garage doors leading out to the street — most noticeable from Columbus Avenue.
intended to minimize heat gain from the sun and help the building run moreEXPefficiently.alsohasa rain collection system, low consumption toilets and furniture from recycled materials. Valencia said that throughout the building process, the university made choices to minimize the impact on the environment. In the overall plans for the complex, the architects included features like HVAC and air circulation techniques to more efficiently use pure air.
Photos by Marta Hill
“One thing about the [plaza] con nection, we are doing a utility con nection under it. So there’s a chilled water connection between EXP and ISEC so there’ll be a district for chilled water,” Valendica said. “[It’s] just an efficiency of resources there and I think it’s a huge benefit to the campus in general.”
“We’re [getting points] through electric vehicle charging stations in [a] neighboring garage and also another project that is going to be loaning Northeastern some points for LEED is a photovoltaic project, so a solar project,” McAndrew said.
“[On] the ground floors of this building there are going to be so many more students taking classes. [With] the makerspace, the class rooms, the chemistry teaching labs, all that — there’s going to be a lot more students,” Sullivan said.
CAMPUS Page 7September 6, 2022
“ISEC has that elemental stair that sits in the atrium and [in EXP it] kind of cuts through. It still makes that same connection floor to floor that ISEC has, but it’s just a completely different vantage point,” Valencia said. “We’ve got a couple of pictures of it during construction, and it’s already looking cool without any of the finishes.”
“I think the roof garden is going to be a remarkably iconic piece of history Sullivanexperience,”andsaid. “If it’s allowed to be used, if your Adirondack chairs make it up there, I think that’ll be very interesting.”
Once completed, people will only have to be outside for about 50 feet to get between the first floor of EXP and the revolving door in ISEC, the project managers said.
Left: The corner of EXP closest to both the footbridge and ISEC, photographed June 14 while the exterior was still under construction. The project managers for the new building are hoping to have the structure weather tight this fall so focus can move to interior details.
Though the project is still a year out from completion, the Northeast ern community is close to having a brand new 350,000 square foot researchstate-of-the-artcenter.
between the buildings.
One thing EXP shares with ISEC is a statement staircase, though EXP’s is almost the inverse of ISEC’s.
The upper floors, much like ISEC, will have seating areas for students and staff to get work done.
The building is overall a bit taller than ISEC, with EXP having eight floors plus a penthouse as compared to ISEC’s six floors. Five floors in EXP will be dedicated to research in anything from “chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, dry labs, antibi otics,” the architects said.
Right: ISEC, as seen from inside EXP in June. The walkway in between the buildings is closed this school year, as workers continue working on the connection between the buildings.
Part of the unfinished central staircase hangs in EXP in June. In contrast to ISEC’s statement stair in an open area, EXP has a main staircase cutting through the floors.
Above: Clouds in a blue sky reflect off of the windows on the side of EXP on Columbus Avenue. Off the street, passersby will also be able to see into a two-story robotics bay.
The university also has plans to have EXP LEED certified, a designa tion of the building’s environmental impact. McAndrew said the goal is to reach LEED Platinum, one designa tion higher than ISEC. To achieve the LEED Platinum certification, the project must earn a certain number of points by adhering to prerequisites and credits by addressing things like carbon, energy and water.
This statement staircase was both McAndrew and Valencia’s favorite element of the building and goes from the second floor all the way to the research level at the top of the interior space.
Another exciting feature of EXP is a roof deck on the eighth floor that will be designed to be open to the campus community during fall, summer and spring, the architects and project managers said.
“The structural way that it’s connected to the building too is a little bit different than ISEC — where ISEC is connected at floor levels, but it kind of sits as a foundation to it, this stair is almost hung from the structure. You’ll be able to see the rods that hang it from each floor level,” McAndrew said.
The vision for the both buildings in the complex was initially “flam boyant, organically shaped” build ings, but when making the vision a reality, Schaeffner and Sullivan used climate response as a way to make the buildings real. For example, ISEC has vertical external screening
Photo by Marta Hill
As the 21st century rolled around, mi nority groups that were previously erased from television were better represented on-screen, but not by much. “Gossip Girl” (2007-2012) featured one Black woman in a recurring — but supporting — role and one gay man who similarly lacked any significant amount of screentime.
“Teen Wolf: The Movie” is a new revival set to release in October that will follow the story of the original “Teen Wolf” that premiered in 2011. Several lead actors from the original cast, like Dylan O’Brien and Tyler Hoechlin, have said they will not be returning for the movie because they are working on other projects. Arden Cho, who cemented her fame as one of the only recurring nonwhite actresses, has also said she is not returning — but for a different reason than O’Brien and Hoechlin. In an inter view with The Cut, Cho revealed that she turned down the revival role after being offered less than half as much in pay as her white co-stars. Cho is not the only one. Other Asian American actors in the movie have also reported receiving less pay than their white counterparts.
In “Original Sin,” Tabby even punches her classmate after he makes a microag gressive comment about “angry” Black women — how’s that for direct?
even well-loved actors like Deutch and O’Brien play characters that are detestable and at times painful to watch. “Not Okay” is 103 minutes of pure secondhand embarrassment, and although Shephard leaves whether or not to feel sorry for Danni up to the viewer, not even the exceptionally kind Rowan is able to forgive her.
a good job of charting the catastrophic rise and fall of fame in the internet age. Although initially it might seem as though Danni gets everything that’s coming to her and more, the conse quences for her actions are ultimately rendered ineffective in teaching her any kind of lesson. Though her parents aren’t happy with her, she’s able to move back into the comfortable home she grew up in at no cost, and it appears that as long as she wears a baseball cap, she’s largely — albeit inexplicably — un recognizable in public. Danni’s wealth, whiteness and attractiveness all shield her from the repercussions she would receive if not for her privilege, which makes it even more difficult to summon up any sympathy for her. She’s unhappy, but she’s always been unhappy; now she just has a better reason to be.
Like the new “Gossip Girl” reboot, the producers of “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin,” which premiered on HBO Max this year, have put forth a noticeably more diverse group of girls as the show’s main leads. In an interview with Girls United, actress Chandler Kinney, who plays Tabby Hayworthe in the revival, praised the
for the bombing rather than admit to her mistake. From there, her fame skyrockets, resulting in a promotion at work and an unsatisfactory hookup with Colin. Eventually, she takes her lie too far and inevitably gets caught, and her fame plummets into scandal.
tiracial actresses with light skin, which maintains a commitment to colorism in the reboot. Although this is not a sur prise considering Hollywood’s past track record — only 19% of Black female leads in the past decade have had dark skin.
Others have argued that the diversity in the new “Gossip Girl” is not diverse enough. Three Black women, in the main cast of eight, are played by mul
Herein lies the ultimate question of Shephard’s film: Danni is loathsome in every way imaginable, and each scene
In recent reboots and revivals, some producers and cast members returning to breathe new life into old television titles have noted that they prioritized building a diverse cast and tackling is sues that were previously seen as taboo in Hollywood filmmaking. In HBO Max’s new “Gossip Girl” series, which premiered in 2021, the main cast fea tures fewer white actors than its 2007 predecessor. Characters in this revived series are also more accepting of nonbinary gender identities, non-het eronormative sexual orientations and sexual liberation, which the original “Gossip Girl” barely touched on.
LIFESTYLE
Movies about getting too famous too fast and sacrificing integrity to get there are nothing new — but Quinn Shephard’s sophomore film “Not Okay,” which premiered on Hulu July 29, gives the genre a new context. In the age of TikTok and social media, virality has never been more within reach, and it’s possible for anyone to be famous as long as they have a story.
However, some viewers of the new reboot have pointed out that aside from the main characters and their parents, the rest of the cast is dominated by white actors. Not to mention, the leading group of five girls — two Black women, one Latina woman, one half-Asian woman and one white woman as the central lead character — have love interests who are all white men.
Danni’s character is meant to be as unlikeable as possible. Virtually every decision she makes is completely indefensible, and she doesn’t experi ence any character growth, let alone a redemption arc. Her worst offense is attending a support group for sur vivors of terrorist attacks to make her story more believable and befriending Rowan Aldren (Mia Isaac), a young anti-gun violence activist who survived a school shooting that killed her older sister. Danni gets close to the girl to leech off of her fame, and even when she starts to become genuinely fond of her, she doesn’t feel true remorse for her lies until a suspicious co-worker threatens to expose her. Even at the end of the movie, she confesses that she doesn’t feel she’s learned anything.
the only person of color in the main cast. Another popular show at the time, “Teen Wolf” (2011-2017), featured Asian American actress Arden Cho, who played a recurring main character. Cho was the only non-white actress in the main group of characters, and her character was cut from the show without warning before the series ended.
Danni represents the brand of instant celebrity that modern social media has bred: both prone to mis takes and thoroughly ill-equipped to handle the rapid shift from constant praise to overwhelming hatred. Danni’s case is an extreme one, because she’s actually guilty of everything people are accusing her of, but the film still does
A 2021 study by consulting firm McKinsey & Company found that the film and TV industry loses $10 billion a year due to lack of Black representation in front of and behind the camera. Sticking to all-white casts, crews and storylines isn’t just bad for press — it’s bad for business.
“Pretty Little Liars” (2012-2017) featured four white actresses and one half-Asian actress, Shay Mitchell, who played a lesbian character in addition to being
By Cathy Ching Deputy Lifestyle Editor
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, actress Whitney Peak, who plays Zoya Lott in the reboot, expressed her gratitude for better representation in the new series.
Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch), a friendless photo editor employed at a Buzzfeed-esque digital magazine called Depravity, decides to put her Photo shop skills to use by posting pictures from a fake trip to Paris. She succeeds in attracting the attention of her work place crush Colin (Dylan O’Brien), a perpetually-stoned influencer who serves as cringey comic relief. But a fake photo of herself at the Arc de Triomphe that she posts just minutes before a devastating terrorist attack sends her lie into a disaster-spiral. Af ter fielding worried texts from family and Instagram mutuals, Danni makes the decision to pretend she was present
It’s easy to cast a diverse group of ac tors and put them in front of a camera, but when it comes to diversity beyond mere on-screen optics, leaders in film and television seem to still be fumbling.
At first glance, the reboots of the original 2000s shows seem to have made tremendous progress in highlighting minority communities by casting a diverse slate of actors. However, these reboots miss the mark in authentic representation. It is not enough to simply show non-white ac tors on screen and call it diverse story telling when behind-the-scenes, white voices dominate the writers’ room and studios shell out less compensation for the work of people of color.
“It’s dope being able to see people who look like you and who are in terested in the same things, and who happen to be in entertainment, be cause it’s so influential and obviously reflective of the times,” Peak said.
Column: Television reboots revive flawed representation amid demand for diversity
Given the recent attempts at diverse representation in the new reboots, pro ducers have shown a lack of understand ing of the difference between promoting a diverse cast and true representation.
Page 8 September 6, 2022
These shows, despite being popular, struggled throughout their years-long runtimes to truly embrace diversity. Today, television creators are trying to do things differently.
The internet often thinks more highly of its celebrities than they may deserve. Aided and abetted by the warp-speed, worldwide reach of social media, fame is so instant and all-consuming these days that regular people are elevated to an idol-like status before fans even really get the chance to know them. Since virality comes so suddenly, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s equally sudden when that fame sours. If the backlash for mistakes that celebrities made was nuanced and constructive, the speed wouldn’t be a problem. But of course, criticism on the internet never is.
demands that the audience jeer and throw popcorn at the screen; so when the death threats and hateful insults start rolling into Danni’s inbox, should the same audience feel sympathy?
Review: Hulu’s ‘Not Okay’ explores the toxicity of fame on the internet
But some viewers of the reboot disagree. Despite the higher number of non-white faces on screen, critics have pointed out the hypocrisy in bringing in a diverse cast without addressing the reality that their
It’s unclear whether “Not Okay” is Shephard weaving a cautionary monkey’s paw tale with a modern spin or just testing how much she can get audiences to hate Deutch. Either way, the film is undeniably hellish to watch. Newcomer Isaac delivers an earnest standout performance as the film’s only likable character, but
By Juliana George Deputy Lifestyle Editor
The early 2000s are making a comeback to modern television — this time, with more diversity.
Heeding criticism about the lack of diversity in television, Hollywood pro ducers have rebooted shows like “Pretty Little Liars,” “Gossip Girl” and “Teen Wolf” that reigned supreme — mono chromatically — in the 2000s and 2010s in an effort to right their past wrongs. From its foundation, Hollywood has harbored a notorious penchant for underrepresenting marginalized stories and storytellers alike. Today, critics of Hollywood’s exclusionary past have leveraged online platforms to call out the film and television in dustries’ ruling creatives. Social media campaigns, like the trending hashtag #OscarsSoWhite of 2015, have sent Hollywood a clear message: The pub lic is tired of the white-out on-screen. This public disapproval has turned into real pressure on Hollywood.
diversity in the show for lending visi bility to minority groups who are not often represented in television. Unlike “Gossip Girl,” the “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” reboot takes a more di rect, unfiltered approach to the forms of racism and marginalization that would realistically impact its characters’ lives.
A critical eye can spot reboots that promise diversity for the wrong reasons. Although casting people of color is a first step in the right direction, Hollywood producers must understand that shal low representation is not the same thing as diversity and that reviving a flawed story from the past without true diversi ty is only a reboot of racist history.
characters would face. The “Gos sip Girl” characters are often seen discussing white privilege in the halls of their elite private school or in their multi-million dollar apartments, but they fail to ever acknowledge the systemic racism that people of color face beyond passing remarks.
The style, dialogue and plot of “Not Okay” make the film perfectly repre sentative of the current phase of the internet (or maybe the 2021 internet). The “getting famous” story arc itself is nothing new, but Shephard did a remarkable job of contextualizing the classic tale within a specific cultural moment. With Danni’s technicolor avant basic wardrobe and ubiquitous pop culture references, “Not Okay” already feels slightly dated, and it’s im possible to say whether this time cap sule of a film will be deemed amusing or mortifying in 10 years. Maybe choices like Danni’s thick blond front streaks are commenting that the trend cycle moves almost as quickly as the fame cycle does. Or maybe Shephard just wanted to embarrass the internet by holding up a mirror to it.
Illustration by Jessica Xing
But when their manager began cranking up the pressure to recruit more sellers, the student decided to cut their losses and sever their ties with“HeCutco.would want me to DM as many people as I knew on Insta gram. He wanted me to download Facebook at one point so that I could communicate with my clients and then also show off what I was doing and attract more people,” the student said. “Text, Snapchat, any form of communication.”LeavingCutco proved more difficult than joining. The student found themself on the receiving end of several of their manager’s iMessage monologues about their obligation to the direct-selling team. He even offered to relocate the student to a Vector Marketing hub in his hometown.
Try fresh samples of local food at this festival.
Boston Arts Festival
Attend Somer Fest to support performances and art made from people of color.
Tuesday, Sept. 13
By Karissa Korman Lifestyle Editor
Museum Day
Yoga at the Frog Pond
A third-year who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation heard that their friend’s job was hiring during their first year at Northeastern. They wound up spend ing months working for Cutco, a company that has sold kitchen knives through a multilevel network since 1949, and its younger direct-selling subsidiary arm Vector Marketing.
7 p.m., Seven Hills Park, Davis Square, free.
11 a.m. to 7 p.m., Christopher Columbus Park, free.
College students are the new recruits in multilevel marketing schemes
Employees — or “business owners,” according to the MLM dialect — sell products, like plastic food containers and Mary Kay makeup. But the real income comes from a percentage of the sales of their own recruits, who are in turn encouraged to sell and recruit, and so on and so forth.
Graphic by Karissa Korman
When Nivjana Minga, a former business administration major who graduated from Northeastern in 2022, posted about her internship search on her Snapchat story, an old friend from high school reached out to her with a “marketing” opportuni ty at Monat, a hair care company that was founded in 2014.
Friday, Sept. 9
In a FaceTime call with Minga, her friend’s team leader rattled off a series of unconventional work benefits. But Minga had more than a few questions when the recruiter shared that she had sold enough Monat products to win a free car. Even though the recruiter’s story about the SUV raised her suspicions and she doubted she would ever win one herself, Minga liked the sound of financial freedom that the Monat re cruiter promised enough to entertain the unusual anecdote.
groups. But it’s a swindle that is disguised as business.”
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Whether it comes as a suspicious direct message on Instagram or as a text from a distant high school ac quaintance, the script rarely wavers: “Hey, boss babe! I have an opportu nity for Messagesyou.”like this make enticing promises of financial security and entrepreneurial prosperity to college students, but often come from multi level marketing schemes, or MLMs, that hide a long, often shadowy past of economic exploitation behind the lures of “independence,” “being your own boss” and general “girlbossery.”
ident Jon M. Taylor put it plainly: “Worldwide feedback suggests that MLMs are also extremely viral and predatory. They feed on the product investments of a revolving door of new recruits, each subscribing to product purchases to qualify for commissions or advancement in the pyramid of participants. But for almost all newcomers, they are being sold a ticket on a flight that has already left the ground.”
A 2018 AARP study found that 71% of MLM salespeople have yet to complete a bachelor’s degree, and almost half join in their twenties. Against rising tuition rates and correspondingly vast student debt, growing costs of living and an increasingly uncertain job market, today’s college campuses are hotbeds of financial anxiety. And even after thorough image rebranding, MLMs have still been able to recycle their 1950s housewife messaging about “becoming your own boss,” “working when it works for you” and above all, generating an income that is at least supplemental, if not financially emancipatory, for students.
“These are all things that normal businesses would never do,” FitzPat rick said. “If you go to an MLM meet ing, they don’t sit down with you and say, ‘Well, here’s how this business works, and here’s how you get paid.’”
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“It’s a grotesque distortion of business,” said Robert FitzPat rick, the founder of the watchdog consumer organization Pyra mid Scheme Alert and author of “Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multilevel Marketing.” “It adapts with the internet. It goes after new
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“So, Herbalife comes in and says, ‘We’ll deliver you from all that,’” FitzPatrick said. “‘We’ll solve all yourAccordingproblems.’”toFitzPatrick, who has spent decades overseeing legal fallouts over MLMs and advising na tional regulatory trade associations, recruitment strategies follow patterns of socioeconomic exploitation, shifting from homebound women to immigrants and, finally, to students.
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Instead, MLMs make promises about easy financial success that are difficult for students in need to passEvenup.with the FTC’s legal blessing, decades of shifting social and eco nomic pressures and changing gen erations of hungry jobseekers, MLMs are still wrapped up in manipulation. Only this time, college students are getting caught in the crosshairs.
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In lieu of a dramatic legal take down, the FTC urges that jobseekers exercise extreme caution and lend a critical eye to multilevel marketing recruiters who may still borrow tactics from supposedly obsolete pyramid schemes. And while the jury remains out on the total legality of multilevel marketing schemes, companies have been free to run amok and exercise their modified, legal practices on a revolving door of new recruits for decades.
Students, FitzPatrick said, are perfect candidates to be duped by the flimsy promises of multilevel marketing schemes.
Although the distinctly pyrami dal structure of many direct-selling businesses is unconventional — and even eyebrow-raising, in Minga’s case — it is legal. The FTC officially defines MLMs as companies that sell their products or services through one-onone sales, in which employees sell their brand’s product directly to others.
When FitzPatrick first began his research in the 1990s, college students weren’t among the mothers and immigrants that MLMs had made a habit of targeting.
“As a college student, it’s always been about finding success early on. I think people are kind of in love with this romanticized idea of, ‘I’m an entrepreneur and I work for my self,’” Minga said, “which is strange, because someone else is signing your paychecks.”
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Sept. 10 through Sept. 11
“This job showed up on my door step. I was in need of money,” they said. “And then I was like, yeah, what could go wrong?”
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Under precisely the right conditions, a multilevel marketing scheme isn’t du bious or exploitative, let alone against the law, yet the ground beneath that claim is less than concrete.
Sept. 8 through Sept. 29
In fact, many direct-selling compa nies no longer refer to themselves as multilevel marketing schemes at all but rather choose terms like “network marketing companies” and “affiliate marketing organizations.”
The old-school predecessors of contemporary MLMs sank their teeth into 20th century suburban women, whose labor was tied to the home. Companies like Tupperware promised women the opportunity to generate an income and gain a sense of independence in the process. They established the red-flag hierarchical business model that future genera tions of MLMs would follow, in which the salesforce is financially incentiv ized to recruit additional employees.
new millennium, ultimately, inex perienced students are their own worst enemies when MLM recruiters swoop into college campuses.
“You might take a part time job when you’re a student, but you really weren’t under a heavy financial pres sure, and you didn’t need a lot of mon ey,” he said. “Well, I mean, my God, that’s certainly not the case today.”
“You [have] got youth, inexperi ence, insecurity, fear, worry and real, absolute real, economic pressure,” FitzPatrick said, describing modern college students. “And, plus, not a whole lot of experience to enable them to do a lot of due diligence or critical analysis of [new job opportunities].”
“She used a lot of those pretty words, like ‘business owner’ and ‘in dependent,’” Minga said, describing her friend’s initial pitch.
FitzPatrick pointed to Herbalife Nutrition, a major multilevel mar keting corporation that sells dietary supplements and has landed in hot water with the FTC in recent years. In 2013, the Los Angeles Times reported that an estimated 60% of Herbalife Nutrition’s sellers were Latino, many of whom were undocumented immi grants who couldn’t work elsewhere at companies that asked more ques tions and required more paperwork.
In a 2011 report for the FTC itself detailing the convoluted legality of multilevel marketing schemes, Consumer Awareness Institute Pres
While crippling student debt and an insurmountable cost of living may seem obvious and financially devastating to anyone who’s glanced at a tuition bill on this side of the
The student didn’t see any obvious red flags in their first weeks selling knives over Zoom from their dorm room. Even after they realized they were part of a multilevel marketing scheme, they stayed with Cutco and reasoned that as long as they didn’t recruit anyone else to join, they were more or less alright.
Decades since their rise to domestic infamy, MLMs don’t look the way they used to, no longer sending housewives door to door to host Mary Kay makeup parties with their friends. That’s due, in part, to modern companies learning to take cues from internet-savvy marketing tactics and to separate themselves from pyramid schemes’, MLMs’ illegal cousins, past battles with the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC.
only a handful of LGBTQ+ clubs have been recognized by the Center for Student Involvement, leaving the resource center to support all the other affinity groups themselves.
comparable number of undergrad uate students between Northeastern and BU, this doesn’t feel like it’s the result of a lack of need. Northeastern itself has many more LGBTQ+ orga nizations and affinity groups than BU does, from the general (NUPride), to highly specific (Jewish Queers of Northeastern University). Rather, it feels like a lack of initiative from administration and a lack of support reminiscent of the year-long period with no staff in the resource center.
Op-ed: Northeastern needs to fix the current housing crisis
remained uncertain until a few weeks before the first day of classes.
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Some students hoped the univer sity heard their previous requests for increased attention to the housing crisis. However, as the new school year approaches, I personally feel none of the prior complaints from my peers or myself have been addressed. The fall housing selection process was so frustrating and there was nothing students could do but wait for the university to assign housing.
Northeastern is in the process of building another advanced science and engineering research building called EXP on the Boston campus, which accompanies the Interdis ciplinary Science and Engineering Complex. The new 350,000-squarefoot research building costs $300 million, yet only benefits a small percentage of Northeastern’s student population. According to Northeastern’s 2021 enrollment, the majority of undergraduate full-time students are a part of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business rather than the Colleges of Engineering or Science. North eastern needs to make a similar investment towards constructing more residence buildings in order to handle the current housing issue. Since the university has the financial capital to build large facilities, they should redirect these resources towards creating a more comfortable and welcoming hous ing environment for their students. If they do not act now, Northeast ern will only exacerbate the future housing crisis.
posted twice about Pride month. In one of the tweets Northeastern posted, there are multiple inaccuracies. For instance, the LGBTQ+ resource center has been primarily based in Curry Center room 101 for the past year, not in room 328 like the tweeted resource says. It also lists several student orga nizaitons which are inactive, as can be seen on the resource center’s website. Northeastern frequently publicizes many other cultural celebrations by sending out campus wide emails, but in at least the past year, there’s been no official communication on respect for LGBTQ+ rights. All of this reflects the lack of consistent support Northeast ern has for its LGBTQ+ students.
Meredith
According to Northeastern’s Housing & Residential Life, “un dergraduates who enter as first-year students through fall admission and N.U.in will live in university housing during their first and second years.”
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While Northeastern boasts an in clusive environment on campus, in stitutional support for the LGBTQ+ community is minimal at best. To provide an example, June, Pride month, is a time for members of the LGBTQ+ community to honor those who have fought to give the rights we have today, celebrate who we are and organize for the future. My organization, NUPride, marked this month by holding events, attending parades and using the opportunity to reach out to a wider audience. This was also a time where non-LGBTQ+ organizations reached out to my or ganization, asking for collaborations and resources, which we happily provided. However, Northeastern didn’t seem to be one of those helpful organizations, before, during and after Pride month.
It took six months, until mid-Au gust, for my roommate and I to receive our housing information. This summer was filled with stressful planning and setbacks, as we vied for a dwindling number of dorms. By the time our selection time had arrived, none of our desired options were available. I could not even con sider outside housing on short notice because Boston’s apartments are both limited and very expensive in the current seller’s market. With a new school year quickly approaching, one would presume that the simple question of “Where are you living next year?” would have been already answered by the end of the spring semester. Unfortunately, despite Northeastern providing upperclass men students with a selection num ber on Feb. 4, my housing situation
Northeastern must do more. This includes using mass emails to say definitively “we support the rights of our LGBTQ+ students, and will stand up for them against those who wish to take their rights away.” While the LGBTQ+ resource center can send out its own emails, the center reaches far fewer people than the emails Northeastern sends out to the community. A letter from President Joseph E. Aoun to the nearly 300,000 Northeastern faculty, alumni, students and staff stating that Northeastern supports its LGBTQ+ community would at least indicate that Northeast ern has our backs on some level and is willing to touch base on these topics.
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Op-ed: Northeastern shows little support for the LGBTQ+ Community
Photo courtesy Rachel Umansky-Castro
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Northeastern tried to acknowl edge the current overcrowding crisis by accepting fewer students. However, downsizing the universi ty is not the answer. Northeastern University’s class of 2025 acceptance rate was 18.38%. For the class of 2026, the acceptance rate dropped down to 6.7%, after receiving a record-breaking 90,000 applicants. Rejecting prospective students for the sake of housing capacity is not a sustainable admissions model for the university. The current housing situation needs to be addressed di rectly because squeezing returning students and incoming students into
Since second-year students must live on campus, students choose housing based on randomly assigned lottery numbers ranging from 3,001 to 9,998. Northeastern’s housing website states that students are only assigned through the Placing Assis tance With Staff, or PAWS, process if they did not choose their room within their short selection window. But this year, numerous students had no choice but to do the PAWS process. The PAWS program has the university choose the students’ dormitory for the upcoming school year based on a preference form, where students can indicate their preferable housing situation.
though International Village, or IV, was previously made up of single or double rooms, Northeastern decided to push nearly 900 beds into the East Village, or EV, and IV dorms, turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples. This decision might create an uncomfortable living condition as there is not enough physical space, which may lead to students feeling overwhelmed.
small living spaces will likely lead to more frustration from students.
In years past, approximately 25% of students were placed through PAWS, according to the Housing and Residential Life website. However, today Northeastern no longer has enough capacity for the growing number of undergraduate students. My roommate and I had a 6,000 number, which falls right in the middle of the lottery numbers, yet we had to fill out the PAWS form because no other housing option was available. Furthermore, even
Ezra Statsky-Frank is a fourth year majoring in computer science and finance. They can be reached statsky-frank.e@northeastern.edu.at
Chaya Rachel Erwin
Lincoln
The problem is that, although the LGBTQ+ community has a resource center, our university as a whole is doing very little directly to show their support, and, as in any margin alized community, doing little can be just as harmful. At a community level, Northeastern gave the resource center only one room and that did not take place until Thrive moved out. At an individual level, there are few resources outside of a namechange form that are freely offered to students outside the resource center. Those same resources are locked behind a system so byzantine that it often requires the assistance of mul tiple staff members. To make matters worse, staff were not even present in the center from June of 2020 to August of 2021. Organization-wise,
Dan
EDITORIAL
Aubrey Burgess, Elaina Murdock, Wong, Liza Sheehy, Matthew Chu, Kayla Shiao
BOARD
Northeastern needs to help the re source center and the various student organizations to shine a light on our community, not only for one month of the year but for every month, ev ery year. That could be Aoun sending out a letter to the 300,000 people in Northeastern’s network, accurately advertising resources offered to the LGBTQ+ community on campus, or even just making a few more posts about our community on the main social media accounts. All these ideas can’t be done by the resource center and student organizations to the same extent a university with a billion-dollar endowment can. I hope the administration will listen to some of the suggestions so that our com munity can celebrate our identities knowing Northeastern has our back.
Photo courtesy Ezra Statsky-Frank
Jasmine
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Rachel Umansky-Castro is a second-year criminal justice and journalism combined major with a minor in communications. She can be reached at northeastern.edu.umansky-castro.r@
When looking at neighboring universities such as Boston Universi ty, there is a large disparity. To start, in June, during Pride month, the Boston University administration posted dozens of stories and resourc es across their social media accounts, ranging from a list of BU resources and events for their LGBTQ+ com munity, a list of LGBTQ+ faculty and staff and even a month-long series on some of those staff members’ life stories. The university also posted a guide on BU’s website, which pro vides a condensed rundown of what’s offered on campus. Considering the
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Across all social media platforms, Northeastern’s main accounts only
OPINIONPage 10 September 6, 2022 The Huntington News
Frank R. Mastroianni is a fourthyear studying criminal justice and political science. He can be reached at mastroianni.f@northeastern.edu.
Another effective tool is empa thy-based education. Liz Plank stated in “Divided States of Women” that it is important for fraternity brothers to learn that 7% of men are survivors and that 93% of men that are abused were abused by another man. These survi vors may be fellow members and an environment should exist where they feel comfortable. In addition, making more female friends can go a long way in developing empathy. Fraternities must also minimize hazing and other hierarchical practices to encourage members to call out problematic behavior. When allegations of miscon duct do emerge, fraternities must take it as a condemnation of their culture and commit to substantial change.
The privilege fraternity brothers hold must not be seen as a burden but instead as power to make positive consequential change. First and foremost, fraternities that do not already have a member of leadership devoted to sexual violence prevention must immediately do so. This person should be responsible for educating themselves, building relationships with sexual violence prevention advocates and Northeastern administration and creating educational materials for their peers around consent, bystander inter vention, party expectations, relation ship with alcohol and related areas.
Expectations around hook-ups should evolve. While it is accept able for someone to desire sex, it is completely unacceptable to abuse their position to force a sexual act on
The centuries-old power struggle between the sovereignty of states and the federal government to which they pledge fealty has given rise to great schisms in American democ racy and ideals. The overturning of Roe v. Wade under the guise of states’ rights could mark the onset of a wave of similar conservative judicial actions aimed at unraveling the civil liberties of Americans under similar pretenses. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, several states have moved to criminalize abortions, opening the door for prosecuting patients and health care providers alike.
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While sexual violence on campus is in no way limited to fraternity life, certain risk factors exist in that kind of environment. According to The Berkeley Beacon graternity men arethree times more likely to commit rape, and women in sororities are 74% more likely to be survivors of rape than non-affiliated peers.
The Sexual Assault Prevention Chairman (or similar role) must also encourage higher level change in their organization. An envi ronment completely intolerant of abusive activity must be created and maintained by breaking problematic feedback loops and toxic masculinity.
while individual fraternity brothers’ actions are seen as an aberration.
Most (78%) of all reported sexual assaults are perpetrated by a man, giving credence to the idea that being male carries privilege and power in modern society. In the college context, fraternity culture is the manifestation of male identity because it operates in an insulated, single gender environment. Additionally, membership in fraternities requires the payment of hundreds of dollars in dues every semester, creating a high barrier for entry for those with little economic means. This intersection of gender and economic class creates powerful privileges that can be used to advocate for major social change.
Photo courtesy Frank MastroianniR.
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Traditionally, sexual violence preven tion has been deemed a women’s issue and women’s groups and their allies have borne the brunt of the struggle. This was evident in how Northeastern students responded to the Title IX changes in 2020.
the unwilling masses. Neverthe less, even if you accept the states’ rights argument at face value, it must be acknowledged that leaving the prerogative to the states hasn’t historically always led to morally defensible solutions. Remember, it was states’ rights that propagated slavery and Jim Crow laws. If states cannot be entrusted to protect the basic tenets of liberty and equality, then how can they be entrusted to protect reproductive healthcare, much less same-sex marriage or contraceptive protection?
The biggest risk factor in a fra ternity is that the single-gendered environment can be homogenous and lacking in dissent. This can cultivate problematic feedback loops and complacency amongst members that manifests in the form of toxic masculinity. Warning signs for this kind of environment include a tendency for members of organizations accused of miscon duct to downplay the allegations and focus on individual actions instead of group accountability. In The Atlantic, Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi made an important comparison between how fraternities and gangs are treated in society, stating that gangs as a whole are often condemned,
demonstrated their espousal of the doctrine of states’ rights by hold ing referendums aimed at either enshrining abortion protections or banning them with few exceptions. However, the conservative plan to thwart American women’s access to reproductive rights appears to be falling short in some states. Abortion is widely popular among Americans irrespective of political affiliation and referendums are reaffirming this stance with stark clarity. Most notably in Kansas, a firmly red state, voters have responded in the nega tive to the question of criminalizing reproductive healthcare. The Pro-Life Value Them Both amendment which, in the spirit of states’ rights, was put before Kansans on Aug. 2, 2022, lost by a margin of 165,389 votes. The failure of the proposed amendment means that abortion rights will be securely cemented into Kansas’ Constitution. Kansas is the first of several states where abortion is on the ballot. Reproductive rights and its supporters in California, Vermont and likely Michigan will face similar tribulations in November.
This work can go a long way in redefining masculinity for the better, especially since fraternity environ ments hold so much pull in the public imagination. I care so deeply about this issue because I established the position of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education chair in Northeastern’s chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, or FIJI, and served in the role from January to August 2022. The information described above is what I researched and implemented. Although it is not a perfect plan, I sincerely hope the above described changes are a substantial step in the right direction. I urge all or ganizations on our campus, especially fellow fraternities, to do their absolute best to fight sexual violence. Only together can we end this epidemic.
In response to these changes to Title IX, Northeastern students, predominantly women and especially those involved in the Sexual Assault Response Coalition took action. Important achievements such as advocacy for the informal Title IX process and widened awareness of the Instagram page @neuspeakout helped increase public discussions and accountability. While much was achieved, those least responsible for sexual violence cannot be expected to solve the issue when those who are most likely to perpetrate it fail to act.
Op-ed: The masquerading of states’ rights
If the ideologues upholding the facade of states’ rights were honest in their intentions then one would expect them to be content with the outcomes that resulted from the democratic referendums they fought for. This is demonstrably not the case. Ever vituperative in their opposition, Value Them Both advocates have called for a recount in the Kansas referendum under the pretenses of election integrity, a phenomenon that is becoming all too common in the modern American political landscape. Despite the large margin of defeat, supporters have amassed $119,000 for recounts in nine counties in Kansas. Furthermore, right-wing media has struggled to spin togeth er a coherent message coming out of the referendum that aligns with both their indefensible pro-life biases as well as their defense of states’ rights. These are not the actions of safeguarders of democ racy protecting the liberties of the people and the sovereignty of state governments from overreaching federal tyrants that they pur port themselves to be, but rather oppressive demagogues pushing archaic and unpopular views on
Editor’s note: The Huntington News wants students to know Northeastern University and elsewhere provide sexual assault resources for students.
In 2020, the Trump-DeVos Depart ment of Education issued updated Title IX rules that were described by advo cates to be deeply flawed. Among the biggest changes were recommendations for a higher standard of proof in Title IX investigations and mandatory cross examination for accusers. This created a more legalistic system that gave the accused more due process rights. Some argued this was more fair, while others argued that these changes were exactly the opposite of what was needed, as sex ual violence on campus is an underre ported crime — around four out of five female students choose not to report.
It is imperative that Northeast ern students show their support for reproductive rights and other liberties that may fall victim to the states’ rights ideal. There are a wide array of student organizations — like NU Share and the Progressive Student Alliance — that students may partake in to better educate themselves and catalyze action within the Northeastern community and Boston in general. It falls upon us to ensure that the unelected, unac countable judiciary does not trample our freedoms in the name of bigotry under the false flag of states’ rights.
Trigger warning: Discussions of sexual assault, violence and rape
Gabriel Holder is a second-year majoring in behavioral neuroscience. He can be reached at holder.g@north eastern.edu.
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of undergraduate women and around 7% of undergraduate men experience sexual violence at some point in college. As major contributors to the issue, fraternities are in a unique position to take substantial action to fight sexual violence on campus.
someone who does not consent. Sex is a privilege, not a right.
Op-ed: Fraternities have a duty to combat sexual violence on campus
In the months since the United States Supreme Court’s momentous and unprecedented overturning of Roe v. Wade, several states have
With the fall of Roe, this princi ple is jeopardized and other SCO TUS cases with a legal basis in the aforementioned principle may be in peril. Justice Clarence Thomas rather plainly elucidated his opinion on substantive due process by calling for erroneous rulings based on this prece dent to be re-litigated. What is a cause for grave concern is the precedent set by Roe is the foundation for Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), the protection of contraceptives; Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), the protection of interracial marriag es; and Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015), the protection of same-sex marriages. The current conserva tive super-majority Supreme Court has adopted a capricious attitude towards stare decisis, a legal princi ple mandating that courts respect precedent, thus endangering the civil liberties of Americans who merely dare to seek equal protection under the law. The proponents of states’ rights would have you believe that these rulings should be left up to the individual states to decide as opposed to the federal government wielding sweeping power. This, however, is but
Roe v. Wade stood on the legal principle of substantive due process. This precedent, deriving from the Fifth and 14th Amendments, affirms that courts could shield citizens’
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a mask for their more nefarious and less palatable motivations.
• Sexual Assault Prevention and Survivor Services (SAPSS) Sexual violence is an epidemic, and solving it requires combatting the problem close to its source. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, or RAINN, estimates that about 26%
rights from legislative or executive interference regardless of if the rights in question remain unenumerated elsewhere in the Constitution.
Fraternity men do not often act to prevent sexual violence because they do not feel empowered to do so. Some feel threatened by those who condemn their group culture and others do not understand the risk factors behind sexual violence. Northeastern must continue to stress the need for comprehensive by stander intervention, consent and related forms of education. Fraternity brothers must realize they are on the same side as sexual assault prevention advocates, fighting against an evil afflicting our peers. Fraternities can play an outsized role in improving campus culture.
Photo courtesy Gabriel Holder
Making the process more intimidating would only make the problem worse.
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