December 11, 2020

The Huntington News December 11, 2020

The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community

@HuntNewsNU

STUDENTS DEMAND STRONGER MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES

By Elena Plumb | News Correspondent Northeastern has decorated the Boston campus with lawn signs and murals touting its COVID-19 response mantra, “Protect the Pack,” but students question where this dedication to student health has been in the past.

Northeastern’s reopening plan, marked by frequent testing, social distancing requirements and the NUflex learning model, has been integral in keeping the school’s infection rate as low as 0.19 percent. However, the school’s capacity to mobilize around this particular health crisis has sparked a conversation regarding the inadequacy of the University Health and Counseling Services, or UHCS, especially when it comes to mental health.

The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only health crisis plaguing college students this year. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that 75 percent of college-aged individuals have reported at least one mental affliction since the onset of the pandemic, and 25 percent have reported suicidal ideation within the past 30 days.

With deteriorating mental health comes a spike in demand for mental health counseling, a trend noted

by UHCS Executive Director Christine Civiletto.

“I think over the last several years we’ve seen an incredible uptick in demand for mental health services.

I think it’s a national trend, we’re seeing that across the country,” Civiletto said. “With the pandemic on top of it, more and more students are now reaching

out and requesting support.”

Universities across the nation have anticipated increased demand for mental health services, but UHCS employs only 11 mental health clinicians to serve more than 14,000 undergraduate students. Despite UHCS adding two new clinicians last fall, the number still pales in comparison to nearby MIT, which employs nearly three times the number of counselors for its small undergraduate population of 4,500. The shortstaffing of UHCS manifests itself in grueling wait times, low appointment availability and a heavy reliance on a referral system.

Fourth-year civil engineering major Julia Ubertini was initially granted a series of on-campus counseling sessions, but soon found herself thumbing through a list of psychologists in the greater Boston area.

“At UHCS, they’ll take you for a little bit, but after that time period, they legitimately cut you off. You cannot go in,” Ubertini said, explaining that students can be referred outside of UHCS as they are only eligible for five sessions per semester. “You have to go to a referral or find another counselor in the Boston area by yourself.”

Further, Ubertini asserts that the referrals provided were ineffective, connecting students with counselors who are either fully-booked or no longer in service.

“Every person I would call was full or not super active,” Ubertini said. “I ended up not being able to

get a counselor, which was not a great experience … I didn’t really know how to deal with my problems.”

Upon receiving similar feedback from students, UHCS established its updated referral network Find@ Northeastern last fall. The system is intended to serve as an extension of UHCS services for students who may benefit from ongoing therapy.

“There were a lot of challenges that students were finding when connecting with therapists in the community,” Civiletto said. “They called, they played phone tag, maybe that copay might’ve been a barrier or the idea of using their insurance felt uncomfortable because they didn’t want their family to know they were participating in therapy. ‘Find’ really helped us to, as much as possible, remove some of those real, clear barriers.”

However, second-year biochemistry major and Resident Assistant Sam Valentin added that initial counseling prior to referral is not always provided. He said residents have complained that they were denied UHCS service under the pretense that they don’t “qualify.”

“I don’t know how they even say what ‘qualifies’ someone for mental health services,” Valentin said.

“It shouldn’t be up to a company to decide if someone needs help. If someone is reaching out, they should receive the help regardless.”

UHCS, on Page 2

Winter sports to return Dec. 11

By Leah Cussen News Staff According to a statement released Tuesday, Northeastern winter sports would return starting Dec. 9. Men’s basketball was supposed to be the first to return to competition, hosting UMass Lowell Dec. 9, but this game

was cancelled due to COVID-19 cases on the UMass travel party.

The statement comes a week after Northeastern postponed all winter sports seasons due to COVID-19 cases on five teams.

“Adjustments were made after an environmental scan of all teams with respect to COVID-19,” said Athletic

Director Jeff Konya. “This is the best decision to have student-athletes compete in a safe climate and at the earliest opportunity. We will continue to make adjustments if needed.”

According to the statement, the men’s basketball and both hockey teams showed few COVID-19 cases during their brief pause in activity.

Women’s hockey will now be the first to return, playing Boston College Dec. 11. Similarly, men’s hockey will open their season against Merrimack Dec. 12.

Women’s basketball is still set to start their season Dec. 19, taking on Merrimack. Men’s basketball will host Bryant University Dec. 16.

SPORTS Pages 6-7

Read more about the only sport to compete this fall and find out what’s coming this winter season

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December 11, 2020

Students question mental health services UHCS, from front Civiletto said she was unaware of this practice and saddened to hear that students experienced dismissal from UHCS in any capacity.

Although these students report being turned away from UHCS, they might still be paying for its services.

Under Massachusetts law, Northeastern students are required to enroll in the university’s Student Health Plan unless they can waive the requirement with proof of comparable health insurance. University spokesperson Shannon Nargi wrote in an email to The News that fees from the health plan bankroll UHCS’s services.

Residential assistants, or RAs, feel burdened with the task of picking up UHCS’ slack. Valentin has seen more and more residents relying on RAs for counseling, but he argues that RAs are insufficiently trained and insufficiently paid to replace mental health professionals.

“The fact that there have been bad experiences with organizations such as UHCS puts more pressure on my end,” Valentin said. “Students know the reputation of UHCS and because of this, they look towards RAs as front lines of assistance, whereas in years past, we’d be a sideline.”

UHCS became aware of the issue and held a meeting with the RAs during their mental health resources training, Valentin said. He said that during that meeting, UHCS representatives reassured the group that they are reforming under new management and eager to be trusted as a resource in the future.

When informed about a friend’s unsatisfactory experience with UHCS, third-year business major Petra Dagar decided to take matters into her own hands. She is in the process of introducing the Northeastern community to “Unmasked,” an app that serves as a virtual support

group through which students can discuss mental health concerns. The app is not meant to replace professional services, but instead offer basic guidance and remind students that they aren’t alone.

“I had a friend who went to the health center looking for a meeting with a counselor, but the counselor sent him straight to a psychologist,” Dagar said. “He didn’t have extreme problems. He just wanted to talk it out and have a person listen to him.”

Civiletto was “saddened” to hear of the negative experiences with UHCS among these students, but she urges the Northeastern community to give the health center another chance, especially as the company rolls out new initiatives.

“I recognize that it might be hard to make that call again,” Civiletto said. “But I hope people will see that changes are happening and that we’re really invested in providing services.”

By Isaac Stephens News Staff

to deny them that right.”

Sisman noted that Northeastern’s undergraduate research and fellowships website posted an article March 25 telling students that “the people who make graduate school decisions are people living through this disruption, just like you, and taking one or two courses Pass/Fail, even in core courses, will not harm your chances of getting into graduate school, particularly if you have strong grades otherwise.” He also pointed out that many prestigious graduate and medical schools, including Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, say they will accept pass/fail grades on 2020 transcripts for admissions purposes.

Sisman said he’s frustrated by the university’s stance particularly because he knows administrators are aware of student need. Nearly 2,000 people have signed an online petition in support of the resolution.

“There’s a huge toll that has on

students, [when] all you’re doing is sitting in your room, taking classes, doing homework and going to sleep, waking up, doing the same thing every day with no actual real stimulation outside of a computer screen,” Sisman said. He said he’s seen students in YDSA meetings break down crying about how much universal pass/fail could help them.

Student leaders said they first learned of the university’s opposition to an expansion of the pass/ fail policy on Nov. 23, after weeks of attempted follow-ups.

SGA President Kate Kuznetsova said Bob Jose, Northeastern’s dean for cultural and spiritual life and administrators’ liaison to SGA, told her in a private meeting that day that administrators saw this semester’s complications as different than those of last semester — when the university implemented a similar SGA resolution — because students knew what they were getting into this time.

“Because the faculty and students and staff went into the semester with the understanding that the grades are going to be valued normally, [administrators] would not be comfortable with changing it,” Kuznetsova said Jose relayed to her.

Rose Meus, a second-year history and international affairs major, said she’s frustrated by administrators’ reasoning because “it’s only gotten worse.” Boston saw an average of 850 new COVID-19 cases each day the week of Dec. 3, a seven-day average more than double last spring’s peak.

Meus said sometimes the on-campus internet cuts out in the middle of class and she’s so overwhelmed that she decides to go back to sleep. She also said her workload seemed like it “tripled” as professors tried to adapt to the new format. Her GPA dropped more than half a point since last semester, she said, and she’d welcome an opportunity to designate one or two of her classes for pass/fail grading.

Jordan Clark, a graduate student in Northeastern’s urban and regional policy program, said the online format has made participation difficult for him. He said this semester his computational statistics grade

To bridge the gap between UHCS and the student body, Civiletto adds that the organization is forging partnerships with student groups.

In cooperation with Active Minds, a student-led organization fighting to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, they have created and distributed stickers listing crisis hotline numbers and other support resources. Further, they plan to release an informational video in the coming weeks to spread information about newer initiatives like Find@ Northeastern.

Civiletto and her team at UHCS believe that the promise to “protect the pack” should extend to mental health support. But a combination of budget limitations from Northeastern and sky-high demand for services prevent the organization from offering extensive, on-campus counseling to every student who requests it.

“If you ask any of us, we would

all like to have 100 clinicians,” Civiletto said.

The addition of programs like Find@Northeastern and the creation of two new counselor positions last fall left Civiletto feeling “hopeful” that the university is responding to the increased demand.

However, some students are skeptical. Ubertini feels the expansion of mental health resources on campus is not a question of capacity, but a question of will.

“I think the COVID-19 testing system that they have right now is incredible … It was something they pulled together so quickly because whether or not they want to admit it, they have the money,” she said, citing the budget surplus reported last semester. “But COVID-19 is such an extreme case … I just don’t see them prioritizing mental health in the same way.”

Northeastern releases statement in opposition of SGA pass-fail resolution Northeastern administrators took nearly three weeks to respond to a Nov. 2 Student Government Association resolution asking them to extend and expand the university’s pass/fail policy. Student leaders said administrators told them privately for weeks afterward that they would offer neither action nor public comment on the issue.

In the unanimous Senate resolution, the Student Government Association, or SGA, calls on university administrators to implement a “universal opt-in pass/fail policy” with a student designation deadline of Dec. 9. Its authors cite concerns about internet access, changes to course structure, difficulties for students with disabilities, time-zone-related issues and mental health.

Northeastern spokesperson Shannon Nargi offered the university’s first public statement addressing the resolution in an email to The News on Dec. 7, more than a month after the Nov. 2 Senate vote.

“The fall semester, while challenging, proceeded according to plan with students and faculty working under the mutual understanding that courses would be graded,” Nargi wrote. “Grades are an integral part of how the university measures achievement. A pass/fail system would place our students at a disadvantage as they compete for job opportunities and admission to top graduate schools.”

Joshua Sisman, co-author of the Nov. 2 SGA resolution and communications director for Northeastern’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, or YDSA, said he thinks administrators’ argument is “absolutely ridiculous.”

“The nature of the policy is that it’s opt-in,” Sisman said. “The students who absolutely need it have the ability to determine whether or not they think it’s worth it, knowing all the factors and all the potential consequences. They are the ones who can decide if they think it’s worth it, and the university should not be the one

Look at the universities who [enact universal pass/fail policies] and why they do it. That’s because they have a track record systematically of caring about students’ well-being.

— Jordan Clark Northeastern graduate student

Illustration by Ashley Mandel dropped 10 percentage points after he didn’t ask a professor a question for fear he’d misinterpret it online.

“I was always the kid growing up who got ‘talks too much in class,’ so participation was like the easy A for me,” Clark said. “Online though ... it’s harder.”

Clark said he’s worried how recruiters might perceive even a small drop in his grades in the context of their prejudices. Clark is Black and has PTSD, and said employers in his field might not give him the benefit of the doubt because of it.

“If ... I’m applying to a position, and they see a B-minus, instead of a B-plus or an A-minus, that could change whether they think I know what I’m talking about or not,” he said.

Clark said a pass/fail designation on his transcript would give him the opportunity to control the narrative and explain himself to recruiters.

“Look at the universities who [enact universal pass/fail policies] and why they do it. That’s because they have a track record systematically of caring about students’ well-being,” he said. “They understand that some people might ‘abuse’ it, but at the end of the day, it’s the environment that you’re creating that allows people the options to make choices and feel like they’re in control.”

The Nov. 2 SGA resolution lists

several colleges that have implemented expanded or extended pass/ fail policies this semester, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University, Tufts University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Stanford University, University of Virginia, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina, University of Delaware, Ohio State University and George Washington University.

Jordan Buchman, chair of Northeastern’s YDSA chapter and a co-author of the resolution, said since YDSA leaders learned administrators opposed the resolution, they’ve had members putting up flyers around campus asking students to email their deans about the issue. A recent YDSA tweet asks students to call the direct number for the office of Provost David Madigan to push for action on pass/fail. YDSA also provided a script for students that do so.

While he was frustrated at the university’s response, Sisman said he’s hopeful about YDSA and SGA action in the future.

“We’re going to take what we’ve learned and make sure that the next time we fight on behalf of the students, that the university will not be able to ignore us no matter how hard they try, because we will hit them where it hurts the most,” Sisman said.

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December 11, 2020

NU Start students torn on in-person, remote learning

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NUPD CRIME LOG Compiled by Mike Puzzanghera, News Staff

MONDAY, NOV. 16 10:12am

Facilities reported vandalism in Davenport B. Officers responded and reported a broken emergency exit sign. A report was filed.

12:33pm

An NU student reported his yellow bike was stolen from the Speare Hall bike racks. A report was filed.

6:04pm

Security at The Westin Copley Hotel reported that a non-NU affiliate had been back on the premises after being banned previously. A report was filed.

TUESDAY, NOV. 17 8:09am Photo by Kelly Thomas Remote students are evaluating their plans for the spring as coronavirus cases spike nationwide.

By Annie Probert News Staff What was supposed to be an exciting spring for many NU Start students arriving on campus for the first time has turned into another semester at home due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic.

With positive COVID-19 cases spiking across the country, in Massachusetts and at Northeastern, many NU Start students said the virus has played a major role in determining their spring semester plans. After her remote fall semester, first-year communication studies and sociology major Azara Mahtani said she is looking forward to the time she will spend on campus in the spring.

“I think more people have become reluctant to go, thinking it’s not safe anymore,” she said. “It’s really half and half. I’ve heard that some people who are on campus right now aren’t even planning on staying and are instead going home.”

For Mahtani, she was originally planning to come to campus in January but decided to wait until later in the semester due to rising coronavirus cases in Boston. The city had reached over 30,000 confirmed cases on Dec. 7.

“I definitely can’t wait to be in Boston,” she said. “I’m excited to actually have a face-to-face lesson

with a professor and be able to do little things like go to the library to study.”

Despite promising developments of several vaccines, first-year chemical engineering major Brendan Pearson said he would be staying home in New Jersey next semester, seeing how campus life has greatly changed.

“The current situation is difficult because of the virus, and it’s changed a lot compared to what college would normally be like,” Pearson said.

“There’s also not a lot of professors teaching on campus anyway, so I weighed the pros and cons and just decided coming to campus wouldn’t be worth it until next fall.”

Sachi Kulkarni, a first-year biology and mathematics major from Texas, also made the decision to stay home next semester in order to save money and spend time with family.

“Coronavirus was the main factor that I considered because I didn’t want to pay full tuition for an experience I knew was not going to be the same as a traditional college experience,” Kulkarni said. “I figured that since I was going to be away at college for the next four years anyway, I wouldn’t be spending time like this at home for a very long time.”

Northeastern is continuing the NU Start program through the spring semester, allowing students like Kulkarni to continue asynchronous learning.

“This format worked very well as I was able to structure my own day and do work when I was most productive, which is at night,” she said. “This past semester in NU Start has been great because I’m able to volunteer. I’ve been taking shifts at the local food bank in the afternoon and if I was in classes I wouldn’t be able to do that.”

Pearson said he is content with another semester as an NU Start student because of his positive experience in the program this fall.

“If I have to be home because of the pandemic, I would choose NU Start. And I’d be happy with that because the professors I had were pretty good at handling the online interface,” Pearson said. “They’ve been very understanding about assignments that are late because they know it’s been a tough time for many people.”

Kulkarni said she views another remote semester as a benefit rather than a setback.

“When I tell people I’m remote, they always say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.

You’re not getting the first-year experience,’” she said. “But I don’t think there is anything to feel bad about because I’m using this time to be at home and spend time with my family, which I won’t be able to do for most of college, and I’m actually really excited to do it again.”

Taking care of people who depend on me while I’m in school 3% Reliable internet and computer access 5% Paying for tuition, books and other costs 14%

Having a space that is good for participating in online classes 9%

Having a space that is good for studying 4%

THURSDAY, NOV. 19 4:47pm

A detective reported muffins were stolen from Cafe Strega in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex.

A report was filed.

11:02pm

Security at the Westin Copley Hotel reported catching multiple NU students on the 22nd floor breaking signs and phones. Officers responded and reported there are no suspects at this time. A report was filed.

FRIDAY, NOV. 20 12:12pm

An NU staff member reported her scooter’s throttle lock was vandalized. A report was filed.

11:57pm

A residence director, or RD, reported an individual who appeared to be unconscious on a bench in Carter Playground. An officer responded and requested Emergency Medical Services for the individual, an NU student. EMS transported the student to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. A report was filed.

SATURDAY, NOV. 21 10:21pm

An NU student reported an intoxicated student in Stetson West who was not responding. Officers requested EMS for the student. EMS transported the student to the hospital.

A report was filed.

SUNDAY, NOV. 22 1:40am

A proctor in Stetson West Hall reported a student who appeared to be intoxicated. Officers requested EMS for the student, and EMS cleared them. A report was filed.

MONDAY, NOV. 30 4:59pm

An NU student reported his shirt was stolen from the laundry room in Davenport A. A report was filed.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 2 3:40pm

An NU student reported his backpack was stolen from Ell Hall. A report was filed.

THURSDAY, DEC. 3

Stress or anxiety 30%

3:09pm

Officers reported a fire on the 5th floor of Kerr Hall that appeared to be intentional. A report was filed.

SATURDAY, DEC. 5

Students’ biggest challenges this fall

1:19am

A proctor in Smith Hall reported an NU student appeared to be unconscious while his friends signed them in. An officer responded to the room and found the student passed out. EMS was contacted and eventually cleared the student. Officers reported confiscating one unopened bottle and ten empty bottles of vodka. A report was filed.

11:16pm

An RA reported the smell of marijuana in the hallway outside of a room in the Midtown Hotel. Officers reported confiscating the marijuana. A report was filed.

Loneliness or isolation 15% Keeping up academically 21%

Data from Strada Center for Education Statistics 2020 nationwide survey.

Facilities reported an exit sign was vandalized in Smith Hall. A report was filed.

Graphic by Jayden Khatib

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December 11, 2020

Boston Community Pediatrics brings comprehensive care to South End

Photo courtesy Boston Community Pediatrics The opening of Boston Community Pediatrics last month is only the start of Riseberg’s attempt to address Boston’s health inequities, specifically for low-income and minority populations.

By Kenneal Patterson News Staff Dr. Robyn Riseberg is addressing Boston’s health inequities by trying something new. On Nov. 16, the pediatrician celebrated the opening of Boston Community Pediatrics, the first pediatric nonprofit practice in the city.

“We have created a model that is based on a pediatric private practice model,” Riseberg said. “[It] is typically not a model that is targeted for low-income populations and minority populations. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

Riseberg said that after 15 years working with the South End Community Health Center, it became a challenge to maintain certain programs in such a large institution.

She thus founded Boston Community Pediatrics as a way to tackle inequities in the healthcare system and provide comprehensive care for all residents.

“Our healthcare system has a lot that is in need of help, especially around making things equitable for low-income and minority populations,” she said.

The center’s website notes that the “traditional model of pediatric service delivery unfairly disadvantages low-income families.

The separation of care between Medicaid and privately insured patients fuels a divide that deepens racial and socioeconomic inequity.”

Patients with both private insurance or insurance under MassHealth can go to the center for treatment.“Everyone from all different backgrounds will be seen here and be getting the same exact care,” Riseberg said.

Clinicians at the center strive to be patient-centered, said Riseberg, as well as implement holistic support for both physical and mental health issues.

Riseberg wants patients to learn that mental health is just as important as physical health.

“We are going to be piloting different ways of reducing stigma around mental health, such as having everyone meet with a mental health clinician,” she said.

Clinicians will be seeing children both in-person and through telehealth

appointments. Mobile testing units will also be integrated throughout South End communities so that patients do not have to leave their neighborhood in order to access care.

The new facility is located near two public housing developments.

The South End neighborhood has the highest percentage of affordable housing in the city, Riseberg said, and around 48 percent of the units are subsidized.

“It’s a community that has a lot of need,” she said. “There are very few private practices in this neighborhood.”

Riseberg said that time and time again, she saw patients encounter barriers to getting appointments or accessing their provider. Some families with MassHealth resort to emergency room visits instead of meeting clinicians at private practices. In fact, Boston Community Pediatrics’ website notes that “the rate of ER visits is 86% higher for low-income families than for their wealthier counterparts.”

Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn, who oversees the South End neighborhood, expressed gratitude for the center’s development.

“I think it will help the South End,” he told The News. “I’m so glad that it’s located within walking distance of [public housing developments].”

Flynn also said he was glad the practice was going to particularly reach out to communities of color and immigrant communities. He noted that the practice will help residents in the South End, Roxbury and Chinatown especially.

“I think it’s important to provide as much outreach and education to communities of color and hard to reach locations as well, including public housing developments,” he said. “Whether it’s through telecommunication or in-person appointments, it’s critical we provide quality health care to everybody regardless of their ability to pay, their background or their immigration status.”

Flynn noted that communities like the South End often bear the brunt of public health issues. These include environmental factors like air pollution and high rates of

COVID-19.

“I think quality health care should be accessible to everybody regardless of income or racial background,” Flynn said.

South End residents are already using the center for their health needs.

Amparo “Chary” Ortiz said that her granddaughter just went to her first appointment. The native South End resident began going to Riseberg when her daughters were young.

Now her eldest daughter is carrying on the tradition and taking her own daughter to Riseberg.

Ortiz’s other daughter has seen Riseberg for over a decade — from ages 3 to 14.

“Dr. Riseberg has been amazing.

I almost feel like she’s become part of my family,” Ortiz said. “She’s the one who [helped me] throughout my whole process of being a mother.”

When Ortiz heard that Riseberg was founding the practice she switched over immediately.

“I had heard that Dr. Riseberg was

Photo courtesy Boston Community Pediatrics Riseberg worked 15 years with the South End Community Health Center where she faced bureaucratic inefficiencies that she hopes Boston Community Pediatrics will overcome. interested in opening up her own practice, and of course I love her, so I was like wherever she goes, I was gonna go,” she said.

Ortiz said that Riseberg helped her navigate “every step” as her children grew up.

“We as parents go through different obstacles in making sure that our children are on the right path,” she said. “Not just health wise — she’s been there to mentor me.”

Although Ortiz hasn’t yet seen the center, she’s heard great things from her loved ones.

“My granddaughter made it in today,” she said. “My daughter said, ‘Oh my God, Mom, it’s so beautiful in there.’”

Riseberg hopes to provide accessible healthcare for people of all different socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds.

“I feel that everyone should have the same healthcare that I would want for my own children,” said Riseberg.

“That’s what Boston Community Pediatrics is creating.”

Photo courtesy Boston Community Pediatrics For its patients, Boston Community Pediatrics has made arrangements for both in-person and virtual appointments, as well as for mobile testing units, to ensure flexibility and accessibility.

CITY

December 11, 2020

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MBTA budget cuts reduce student options

By Maggie Scales News Correspondent A severe decline in ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the MBTA to reconfigure how it operates under substantial budget cuts — leaving frequent riders skeptical of the already unreliable transportation system.

Forging Ahead is the MBTA’s initiative to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which is predicted to leave the agency with a $600 million deficit. The plan includes the proposed budget cuts, effective at the beginning of 2021.

Boston’s public transportation system has never received raving reviews — in fact, when Gov. Charlie Baker ran for re-election in the fall of 2018, improving the MBTA was one of the essential issues he emphasized.

However, since ridership is now nearly a tenth of what it was before the pandemic, these budget cuts are difficult to avoid.

The commuter rail and the ferry system are likely to be hit the hardest by the cuts. Likewise, the commuter rail, a service that has only seen 13 percent of its pre-COVID-19 ridership, will see a drastic decline in available rides. A handful of locations will have decreased stops, including: the Plimptonville stop in Walpole; Prides Crossing in Beverly; Silver Hill and Hastings in Weston; and Plymouth and Cedar Park in Melrose.

Laurel Paget-Seekins, the general manager for policy at the MBTA, relayed Forging Ahead’s commuter rail initiative in a Nov. 17 virtual public meeting.

“On the commuter rail, we are proposing to stop all service after 9 p.m. [and] stop weekend service,” Paget-Seekins said.

Fewer stops on these lines could prove inconvenient for students, whether it be for their commute to co-op or just exploring the city.

Megan Moffat, a first-year psychology major at Northeastern University, depends on the commuter rail on the weekends, and said the cuts will make planning a lot harder for her.

“I use both [the T and the commuter rail] for hiking because to get out of the city you need to use the T or commuter rail. And I use it to get around the city too, like the North End,” Moffat said. “It would just make weekend plans more difficult.”

The T will face a lower volume of rides — a change that will affect the Northeastern community because the Green and Orange Lines, trains that students frequently take, run through campus. Contributing to the system’s 20 percent reduction — an overall reduction from 505 to 430 trains a day— in train frequencies, the Green Line will run at a minimum of nine-and-a-half minute frequencies and the Orange Line every eightand-a-half minutes. With the Forging Ahead plan’s proposal, Paget-Seekins said that “about three percent of current trips would potentially lose access or have to

divert to a different mode.”

The ferry system — a lesser-known portion of the MBTA’s services — is currently operating at 12 percent of its pre-COVID-19 operation. Because of this steep decline, the ferry will be cut from the city’s public transportation service come the new year, affecting riders from Charlestown, Hull and Hingham.

However, riders can remedy this loss by using the 93 bus route or the Greenbush commuter rail line.

In accordance with the Forging Ahead plan, services will only be added back by demand. Paget-Seekins said the commuter rail and ferry services have been declining for a while, which is why the T is being prioritized, and described how the MBTA’s prioritization of services is being allocated based on need.

“We created a framework thinking about two different entities: one was

transit critical population,” Paget-Seekins said. “So where are the riders who are most dependent on public transit? Which includes low-income populations, communities of color and zero-to-low vehicle houses, and they also did an additional screen for seniors and people with disabilities. And then on the other axis we have ridership, so where we are seeing high ridership or project there to be high ridership and where we are seeing low ridership.”

Like those at Northeastern, students at surrounding schools in the city, like Simmons, will also reap the detriments of the MBTA’s budget cuts. While some might argue that Uber is a viable alternative, the T is far cheaper and therefore more accessible for college students.

Margalit Sabin, a freshman at Simmons University, said that the T is her best option financially.

“I’m definitely dependent on it because I work four to five days per week

downtown in between the North End and Financial District,” Sabin said.

“So if I had to walk there every day, it would take me an hour, which is another hour that I could be doing schoolwork. Or I would have to Uber, which would cost a lot of money, whereas the T is like $2.40 and I get there in 15 minutes.”

In addition to the inconvenience of fewer stops and cut services, riders are worried about the effects fewer rides will have on slowing the COVID-19 pandemic. Some riders assume that fewer rides will mean a greater volume of people on each train — a threat to social distancing amid the pandemic.

“Already, people don’t wear masks on the T enough. There’s always like three people who don’t wear them, so that is like really worrying to me because I would rather not get COVID-19 from doing something that I have to do,” Sabin said. “I have to take the T and I know it’s going to be more crowded if there are fewer rides.”

File photo by Scotty Schenck The MBTA budget cuts will impact the frequency of T rides, with the Orange Line now running only every eight-and-a-half minutes.

State to meet emissions goal, ponders future

By Kelly Thomas News Staff Massachusetts is on track to reach its goal of cutting annual statewide emissions to 70.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide this year, experts say.

This year’s goal, mandated by the 2008 Global Warming Solutions Act, or GWSA, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent below 1990 levels and likely be met because of the pandemic, said Massachusetts State Senator Michael Barrett.

“A bitter consequence is that we’ve met our climate goals by bringing an end to all kinds of human behavior,” said Barrett, vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change. “This isn’t the way you want to meet your goals.”

Carbon dioxide emissions dropped 8.8 percent from 2019 levels during the first six months of this year because pandemic lockdown measures spurred a slowdown in transportation and economic activity.

However, they have since surged back to near-standard levels.

Though this year’s goal will be met, Barrett and other experts expressed concerns about the overall strength of Massachusetts’ climate legislation.

“I worry that we’re slipping away as a leader,” said Sam Payne, an organizer at 350 Massachusetts for a Better Future, a Cambridge-based

grassroots climate nonprofit.

In January, Gov. Charlie Baker announced the state’s plans to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 during his State of the Commonwealth address — a step up from the 2008 GWSA’s 80 percent reduction goal.

His administration issued a letter of determination cementing the intention in April.

The Senate finalized its bill focused on meeting this target, along with two other climate bills in late January, while the House put out its equivalent bill, the 2050 Climate Roadmap, in August. A conference committee is currently convening to reconcile differences between the two bills. Though there are no main discrepancies (they both set a net-zero standard and authorize putting a price on carbon emissions), the Senate’s version includes additional provisions that the House’s does not.

While some have praised the Roadmap bill for its commitment to addressing environmental justice, Barrett fears the House’s plans are not strong enough to ensure concrete action in meeting future emissions reduction goals.

“The House wants to stop with a plan, and we’re not satisfied with plans,” Barrett said, explaining the Senate’s stance. “We want to see them actually put into practice. So, the Senate is taking a tougher position here because we think the climate

crisis requires it.”

One change Barrett said the Senate is pushing for in negotiations is the creation of an independent climate policy commission to monitor the state’s progress in achieving its goals, which is absent from the House’s plans. He said the commission would include scientists, journalists, academics and representatives from organized labor and minority communities.

“I do not want Massachusetts’ state government any more responsible for monitoring itself,” he said. “I’m looking for separation between the implementation of policy, which is [the] state government’s duty, and the monitoring of policy, which should be done, in this case, independently.”

A concern both Barrett and Payne share is that the new bill could allow the state too much room to purchase carbon offsets to fulfill its net-zero goal instead of directly cutting emissions from its own sources. Offsets could take the form of investment in outside projects like energy efficiency that would generate reductions equivalent to an allotted amount of the state’s goal.

“We want to make sure that the folks who are doing the calculations are careful about it and don’t build in too much room for airing on the pollution side of things,” Barrett said, explaining how offsets could allow the state to continue burning fossil fuels while reaching net-zero emissions.

Payne said that in addition to banning fossil fuel infrastructure, he hopes Massachusetts will commit to generating 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources, which he said is “entirely achievable” and should be accomplished by 2030 — 20 years earlier than the state’s current goal.

However, he said this effort will not be possible without major investments and a large people-based movement.

“It would take people telling their elected officials that this is of dire importance to them, and that we are okay with taking the upfront costs now to save ourselves in the future,” he said.

The new net-zero bill does have some strengths, however, said Casey Bowers, assistant vice president for government relations at the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

Namely, Bowers praises its interim targets of cutting emissions at least 50 percent by 2030 and 75 percent by 2040.

While Bowers said these targets will be integral toward holding the state accountable, she believes the next important step is ensuring the conference committee creates and finalizes a strong bill before Jan. 5, 2021, the end of the legislative term.

“What we certainly cannot afford is for this not to get passed into law and for this two-year session to really have no climate legislation passed,” she said.

Jennie Stephens, director of Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, said a sense of urgency in accelerating state climate legislation, specifically for expanding renewable energy, is more evident than ever given the rapid rate of the climate crisis.

“We need to act, and we need big, big scale investments,” she said.

Furthermore, she believes a greater diversity of voices, including women and people of color, must be brought to the table of climate and energy leadership so that policy serves “the people who need help the most.”

“They bring very different life experiences, different risk perceptions, and they actually bring different sensitivity and capacity to center the policies on social justice and economic justice,” she said.

Despite the state’s current shortcomings, future climate policy presents an opportunity for Massachusetts to reestablish its position as a leader, Payne said.

“We must be doing far more than the bare minimum to fulfill the requirements. We must be showing the way, that we can transition to a renewable energy economy quickly and be a leader that other states and other countries can use as a model to follow.”

SPORTS

Page 6

December 11, 2020

WHERE WE ARE

Photo Courtesy Northeastern Athletics Varsity esports competes despite COVID-19 and seeks wins throughout the fall season.

Varsity esports team competes to clinch wins in fall season

By Riley Robinson News Staff Justin Adams, a fifth-year computer science major, has been playing Hearthstone since his senior year of high school. But he said he really improved when he could no longer go outside — not because of COVID-19, though. He dislocated his shoulder playing soccer while on co-op in San Francisco in spring 2019, underwent surgery there and was stuck inside to heal far away from family or friends.

“It was something to challenge me mentally, to pour passion into when I was physically in pain and couldn’t really walk much,” Adams said.

But staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic has now intensified the game for other esports players as well.

“When us League of Legends players can’t go outside and go do things, we’re gonna sit inside and play League of Legends all day,” said John Gold, a third-year computer engineering major who plays for the varsity team.

He said this extra time has helped the team build their competitive edge, especially because updates to the game require constant relearning.

Their hours of practice have paid off: In October, NU’s varsity League of Legends team was ranked No. 2 nationally, and went undefeated this semester until Oct. 29. The Hearthstone team was ranked third nationally.

“How did we get there from nothing, when none of us were great players at one point?” Adams said. “That’s something I’ve stewed on a lot.”

Northeastern created a varsity esports team in April, after it had canceled all in-person instruction due to COVID-19. Esports is the only varsity

team that has competed this fall season.

Varsity esports now competes in four games, or titles: Hearthstone, which Adams says is “a combination between poker and chess”; Overwatch, a first-person shooter game; Rocket League, which is soccer played with flying cars; and League of Legends, where players take on a character or “champion” and battle as a team. There are 27 varsity esports athletes among the four titles, and they each receive partial scholarships.

Like any other varsity sport, each team practices with a coach for hours each week. But their practice structure is different, where they scrimmage not just against each other, but also in casual games against other university teams, depending on who happens to be online at the same time. And players still compete against random online users to practice in their spare time. For Rocket League, practices also include sports psychology and meditation exercises.

“We’ve got pretty serious commitments like six or seven days out of the week,” Gold said.

But unlike any other college sport, esports athletes can compete for cash prizes and scholarships. When Adams and two teammates won the spring/summer 2020 Tespa Hearthstone Collegiate Varsity Division national championship, they each won $2,400 in scholarships.

The NCAA, which bans compensation in other college sports, has never operated esports tournaments — in 2019, its board of governors unanimously rejected hosting any NCAA esports competitions. College esports is fractured among different governing bodies.

Northeastern will become the

13th member school in the ESports Collegiate Conference in spring 2021.

However, its varsity teams have recently competed in tournaments run

by Tespa, a national organization of college esports clubs that was founded at the University of Texas at Austin. Tespa competitions are sponsored by game development companies and other large corporations that want to advertise their products. The Hearthstone team finished in the top eight teams of Tespa’s open competition.

The Hearthstone team finished fall competition in the top eight teams of Tespa’s open competition. As of Nov. 25, the Overwatch team held an 11-match winning streak and qualified for a 20-team playoff that will

How did we get there from nothing, when none of us were great players at one point? That’s something I’ve stewed on a lot.

— Justin Adams Fifth-year computer science major

begin in December. Rocket League finished with a .644 winning percentage and 10th place in the Collegiate Rocket League Eastern Conference.

These tournaments, and collegiate esports more broadly, are often promoted as inclusive and co-ed competitions, open to players no matter their gender identity or disability status. But in reality, collegiate players are “primarily white and Asian American males,” according to a June 2020 report by the ​Council of Independent Colleges. The Northeastern esports team is technically co-ed, but Nick Avery, associate director of esports, said the team currently comprises only men.

“It’s going to be a multi-layer plan on how we can continue to foster inclusion and diversity within our program,” Avery said. He said while esports will recruit nationally and internationally like other varsity teams, this multi-layer approach will also seek to generate interest in the current NU student body, and recruit players from the club and intramural level.

This is how most of the current varsity players were recruited to the team.

Current players worry that misconceptions about esports often prevent people from even giving it a try, or keep them from seeing the opportunities it can offer to serious players.

“It can be a healthy outlet for a lot of stress and a lot of other things,” said Florent Astié, a fifth-year mechanical engineering major who plays varsity Rocket League. “I wish people were more willing to potentially learn a little bit more about it before jumping to conclusions, because it’s very similar to almost any sport that we’ve had traditionally. It’s just you’re sitting in front of a computer rather than being in a gym.”

SPORTS

December 11, 2020

Page 7

WHERE WE’RE GOING

Photo by Sarah Olender After last year’s Hockey East Championship, the women’s hockey team is aiming even higher. This time: a national championship.

Listen to Episode 2 of The Huntington Huddle to learn more about the upcoming women’s hockey season!

Women’s hockey preview: Huskies’ sights remain set on a national title

By George Barker News Staff The reigning Women’s Hockey East Champions have similar faces and the same goal, but very different circumstances. After a resounding 9-1 victory in last year’s Hockey East Championship, the team had their sights set on a national championship. The COVID-19 pandemic robbed them of pursuing that in earnest, but the Huskies are locked and reloaded with their sights once again set on the highest crown in college hockey.

“That’s what our goal is, and who knows if we even get to that point this year,” said Dave Flint, the team’s head coach. “But as long as we’re playing games, that’s what our goal is, and the path is going to look a little different this year than years past. But, our goal is obviously the Hockey East Championship and for Frozen Four, even more so, a national championship.”

Last year’s group of Huskies was nothing short of remarkable, setting a program record for wins in a single season. Bringing that strong group back, plus adding a few more freshmen to the mix, gives Flint, senior blueliner and captain Brooke Hobson and redshirt senior forward and alternate captain Andrea Renner the confidence that their ceiling remains as high as it was the last time they hit the ice.

“All our big players are returning. We lost some good leadership last year to graduation, but as far as hockey wise, you got Alina [Mueller], Chloé [Aurard] back up front; you got Skylar [Fontaine] and Aerin [Frankel] on the back

end,” Flint said, commending the group as the backbone of the team. “We have a lot of depth, which is nice, and along with the depth, we have experience and kids that have won. That can be invaluable, too. I think it’s much like the recipe from last year, and we’re looking forward to it.”

Hobson and Renner agreed that outside of just the talent on the roster, the Huskies’ experience and maturity would play a critical role in their success this season.

“There’s a lot of talent, a lot of skill and a lot of hard working people on our team. The big thing too is, the minute we stepped on campus, it felt like everyone was buying into what the leadership group was saying,” Renner said. “I think a huge credit has to be given to a lot of those upperclassmen that we have, the juniors, the other seniors and even the sophomores.

They understand the winning culture that we’ve created, and it’s not tough for them to follow in those footsteps, because they know what it takes.”

But the team can’t rely on its experience and past success to a point of complacency. In a year that could be full of schedule changes and other non-hockey obstacles, all three members of team leadership emphasized taking the season one week, even one game, at a time.

“Clearly we’ve had success in the past, but we’re trying to build a team that stays humble. We’re kind of being relentless through this whole process and keeping our heads level throughout the whole way,” Hobson said. “[Our experience] is going to help us when we face each opponent, but since we’ve had success in the past, we can’t just assume we’re

going to have success now by just breathing through it all.”

The same recipe The Hockey East championship team from last year included junior forwards Alina Mueller and Chloé Aurard who were among the top scorers in the nation last season, with 66 and 49 points each respectively. Mueller is the reigning Hockey East Player of the Year and was a top three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, which is given to the top player in all of women’s college hockey each season.

Senior defender Skylar Fontaine, who was excellent on the backend, contributed a great deal on offense as well, leveraging her skating ability and speed into 42 points of her own.

While the last member of the core four, senior goaltender Aerin Frankel, was top two in the country in goals against average, or GAA, (1.07) and save percentage (.958). The duo, along with the rest of the Huskies’ strong D-core, led the team to the second lowest team GAA in the nation at .97 goals allowed a game, second only to Cornell’s mark of .93.

Each of those core four earned Hockey East First-Team All-Star honors and cemented themselves not just among the best in their conference, but among the best in the nation.

That group alone is enough to drive a dominant team, but they aren’t the only skilled Huskies on the roster. The team saw major contributions last season from sophomore forward Katy Knoll, sophomore blueliner Megan Carter and junior forward Mia Brown. Knoll brought a strong offensive presence to the second line, where she also showed

an extra competitive edge. Carter was extremely impressive on the back end, especially as a first-year player, and Flint expects both players to take a step forward with another year under their belts.

Brown took a second-year leap of her own last season, emerging as an impactful net front presence with strong chops on the powerplay unit.

Flint expects her growth to continue this season as well. Renner, who missed all of last season with a hip injury, is another player Flint expects to add secondary scoring, as she has looked sharp in their practices so far.

Outside of their returners, the Huskies have brought in a few freshmen this year. Flint said he expects freshman forward Ani Fitzgerald to slot onto the top line alongside stars Aurard and Mueller, where left winger Jess Schryver provided a valuable left shot presence last season. He also mentioned Massachusetts native Molly Griffin, another freshman forward, to contribute on the third line. Both Lily Yovetich and Abbey Marohn, two freshman additions to the blue line, are expected to play as well.

Unusual practices, but still high expectations Coming into this weekend’s series against No. 10 Boston College, the Huskies’ preparation looks a little different than usual. Flint said that the two weeks prior to Dec. 1, the Huskies weren’t able to hit the ice.

Since then, they have been able to start getting small groups together to work on skill drills while socially distancing. Finally, over this past weekend, the team was able to hit the ice together again. Flint said Monday afternoon that they had

just begun working on their power play and have yet to begin practicing the penalty kill.

“We really only have had one day of practice with everybody on the ice and doing what we normally do, so this week, it’s a quick turnaround to get ready for BC,” Flint said.

One of the Huskies’ main strengths last season was their penalty kill, coming in with the third-best penalty kill percentage at .913. While it has been a challenge to practice that kill so far, Flint is reassured by the fact that last year’s penalty killers are back, so it will just be a matter of practice.

While the small group sessions aren’t the normal way to get on the ice, Hobson found that there was an increased chemistry amongst the team and the incoming freshmen.

“When [the practices] were smaller group sessions, it gave all of us a chance to get them fitting in well with each other and have more communication on the ice,” she said. “Obviously, there are challenges to this whole thing, but we kind of took it the best way we could and are kind of developing on the spot and thinking of ways to make the team sort of a family here as much as you can before games start.”

Regardless of the various challenges that come with playing hockey during a global pandemic, the Huskies’ expectations for themselves remain the same: a national championship.

“I don’t think [the pandemic] has really changed our goals and what we’ve set out to do,” Renner said.

“We still want to win a national championship, we still want to win Hockey East, we still want to win all the trophies that we can this year.”

LIFESTYLE

Page 8

December 11, 2020

Eva Ullmann reflects on transition to adulthood

By Lily Elwood News Correspondent A six-song EP, an album on the way, over 30,000 followers on TikTok — and she’s only 20 years old.

Eva Ullmann, a second-year music industry major from a small town in Florida, has goals of becoming a household name in the music industry.

“I write songs as my escape and to make me feel better. And if I can make other people feel better too, how cool is that?” Ullmann said. “If people can listen to my song enough to love it and relate to it and want to come see me perform, that’d be my dream.”

Ullmann’s passion for singing grew and turned into a professional aspiration as she entered high school.

At 17 years old, she began writing the songs for her EP “Youth” shortly after a breakup and at the beginning of a new relationship.

The first song she wrote for the EP was “The River,” which was about being “young and stupid in love,” she said.

“I think it’s the coolest one. The

beat and the drums used for this one were so cool,” said Ullmann about her Taylor Swift-esque song. “I don’t even live near a river. I don’t know why I wrote it, but it’s catchy.”

Ullmann said the title track “Youth” was the most difficult one for her to write. For a while, she found herself coming up with nothing as she attempted to write the title track.

But when she finally did, the lyrics came to her quickly.

“Sometimes I feel like when I write a song, it doesn’t even come from me and that’s like the best type of song,” she said. “It funnels through me.”

The song perfectly encapsulates what it’s like to be in high school and in love, and it is one of those songs that an audience can’t help but clap along to. Ullmann said one of the most emotionally challenging songs she has ever written is “Devil’s Blood,” which talks about her mother’s alcoholism.

“There were a lot of times where I would be the parent in the household,” Ullmann said. “I was alone for all of high school, and I had to take care of [my mom] a lot.”

“Youth” is Ullmann’s most recent album.

Photo courtesy Eva Ullmann

Her parents divorced when she was eight. As the youngest of three children, she was left to her own devices when her brother and sister left for college.

“Devil’s Blood” was something she said she played one day at her stepmother’s piano, with just three short verses. After she was done, she closed her notebook and didn’t open it again until she decided that the EP needed a more vulnerable piano song.

Ullmann’s friend, fellow music industry major and second-year Sadie Parker finds that Ullmann’s personality shines through her music.

“Eva is such a sweetheart. She’s super genuine. I think that shows in her music,” Parker said. “She’s able to be fun and vulnerable, which is an amazing duality that not all artists can accomplish. I really think she’s Ariana Grande 2.0.”

The summer she turned 18, Ullmann flew to Los Angeles to record her first EP. Tim Kobza, who taught her sister’s pop music class at the University of Southern California, heard Ullmann sing at her sister’s request, loved her voice and offered to help her record the mini-album.

A year later, he sent her the finished songs, and she uploaded them through Distrokid to streaming services. From that moment on, her career as a musician was officially born.

As she works towards bigger goals, Ullmann said being at Northeastern has helped her to learn that “collaboration is key.”

“Having so many like-minded people around me … was a little bit intimidating,” Ullmann said. “Everyone has different talents. But you can be like, ‘I don’t know how to do this,’ and someone is always like, ‘Hey, you want to collab together?’ It’s just like such a creative environment.”

Ciara McKay, a second-year music industry major and another of Ullmann’s friends, said she loves collaborating with Eva. “I’ve written with Eva before and she has such a natural talent for catchy melodies and powerful lyrics,” McKay said. “Her voice is so insane and I know she’s going to be

successful because of how honest and personal her music is, and she’s so passionate about her career.”

Along with her parents as her biggest supporters, Ullmann said her support system of friends has helped her build confidence about her work and pushes her to be better every day. At the same time, her roommate and fellow music industry major, second-year Andrea Guzman, said that Ullmann inspires her.

I know she’s going to be successful because of how honest and personal her music is, and she’s so passionate about her career.

— Ciara McKay Second-year music industry major Originally intimidated by Ullmann, who had already released her pop EP in 2019, Guzman said, “She knew what she wanted, and she did it. And that’s something I’ve always struggled with — fear of failure… I thought what she did was really cool.”

This past summer, Ullmann found a platform for herself on the video-sharing app TikTok, gaining about 25,000 followers in July. She now has around 31,000 followers total.

She started posting videos of

herself on TikTok as part of a series where she planned to sing a cover of a song each day until she got discovered for her talents.

In her first viral video in July, she sang “Ain’t No Other Man” by Christina Aguilera. The video racked up about 38,600 likes and 304,500 views.

On day five of her series, she posted a video of her singing “Rise Up”

by Andra Day which got a whopping 97,700 likes and 630,300 views, her most popular video to date.

The video ended up on many of her friends’ “For You” pages on TikTok, which features curated videos for users based on their interests.

Things have slowed down since the summer, but Ullmann hopes to get more attention on her TikTok page once she starts teasing songs for her next project, “Woman,” a 10-to14-song album.

“I liked the idea of it going from ‘Youth’ to ‘Woman,’” she said.

When she returned home from her semester in Italy last fall, she wrote the first song for the album, the title track “Woman.” She has also written a second song containing themes of social justice. Although she said she was initially nervous about publishing a politically-oriented composition, Ullmann posted a teaser for the new piece which she hopes to release in January as President Trump leaves office.

“I’d rather be on the right side of history in my eyes than worry about losing a couple hundred followers over it,” she said.

Though many of the songs off her 2019 EP deal with love and relationships, she plans to stray away from the topic on her upcoming album.

“I want the only love song on my album to be a love song to myself, because I’m finally learning to love myself,” she said.

Despite the heavy competition in the music industry and the myriad of challenges artists face, Ullmann said she is determined to persevere.

“I’m pretty sure I was put on this planet to do music,” Ullmann said. “I think I would be letting myself down if I didn’t even try.”

7 ways to finish off the year stress-free

By Clara McCourt Deputy Lifestyle Editor Anyone can argue that 2020 has been the strangest year in modern history. The COVID-19 pandemic took over our lives.

The nail-bitingly close presidential election kept us glued to our news outlets, thinking the most we have ever thought about Nevada and Pennsylvania.

On top of that, there are the nationwide civil rights protests, natural disasters and higher than average number of deaths due to COVID-19. This year has felt like many years already, yet we still have two months left! How can we use this time to decompress?

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Put your phone down Ignorance is bliss, or so they say.

While it’s easy to feel drawn to read every single post that pops up on your social media feed, it’s normal to take a breather, too. Setting a time limit on apps is a good way to combat your urge to scroll, as long as you actually stick to it.

Go for a walk Seize the opportunity while Boston’s weather is still habitable.

Getting outside will clear your head, helping you get out of your dorm room — which is now your office, classroom and bedroom.

an

d family

Watch some political satire If you’re feeling stressed about the current political climate, there’s no better cure than to laugh at it. Go down a YouTube rabbit hole of SNL, Last Week Tonight or Northeastern’s recent guest Trevor Noah.

Safely spend time with friends and family Socialization is something that we are sorely missing right now, but it’s not impossible.

Get together with some loved ones for a socially distanced walk or lunch date. As the weather gets colder and COVID-19 cases rise, start relying on apps such as FaceTime and Zoom.

sel f-care

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All self-care is good self-care There is no wrong way to take care of yourself. If self-care to you is eating an entire box of cookies, eat those cookies. But remember that there are plenty of healthy ways to calm down, like meditation or getting some extra hours of sleep. It can even be as simple as taking some time for yourself.

Get creative No matter your skill level, crafts are a nice way to decompress. Stop by one of Boston’s craft stores and pick up a new hobby.

Pinterest also provides a lot of ideas for simple DIY projects. You can even get creative in the kitchen,

prep

too. Cooking a nice meal may distract from the stress around you.

Prepare for the holidays No matter the circumstances, November and December always bring some desperately-needed holiday cheer. Stores have already started preparing, and window-shopping can always lift your spirits. If that isn’t enough, just start celebrating now! 2020 can’t ruin every holiday.

I don’t know about you, but if I hear “in these unprecedented times” one more time, I am going to snap.

We should make the most of these times and finish 2020 strong. Here’s to our final month ­— may it be the best one yet.

LIFESTYLE

December 11, 2020

Page 9

Visual artist Taraneh Azar releases new musical project ‘Look Here!’

By Luiza Loyo News Staff Taraneh Azar, a fourth-year journalism and political science combined major, just released her new EP “Look Here!” Along with her debut album “Grab Bag,” the two compose a passion project that has been years in the making and reflects different phases of her life.

Azar’s first exposure to music happened at just 5 years old, when her parents enrolled her in piano lessons. However, her true passion developed at 11 years old, after she started taking guitar lessons.

“I got to a point where I felt like I could just branch off and teach myself the rest of the discipline,” Azar said. “I’ve been playing ever since.”

Although she has a hard time classifying her work, Azar, who releases her music solely under her first name Taraneh, believes her sound is close to the lo-fi genre with some elements of shoegaze music.

This style is characterized by obscure and indie vocals, a heavy focus on guitar effects and recording imperfections for aesthetic purpose.

She grew up in Cleveland, where there was a prominent lo-fi music scene emerging around 2014. Azar became a fan of Teen Suicide, an indie rock band that now goes by the name of American Pleasure Club, and traveled to Pittsburgh with her mom and one of her best friends to see them perform live.

“I don’t know if I’d say [the concert] is a turning point of sorts, but I was definitely very attracted to the feeling that devastating music gave

When I was younger, people would tell me, ‘You need to choose one discipline and you need to pursue it really well,’ and for a while, I thought that that was true. But now, I’m getting to a place where I’m realizing that I’m allowed to be scattered.

—Taraneh Azar Visual artist

Calendar compiled by Clara McCourt & Rachel Erwin Graphics by Marta Hill

Now - Dec. 31 CraftBoston Holiday Online Celebrate talented artists this holiday season, and check out a variety of crafts and artwork at the online CraftBoston show.

Check the CraftBoston website for more details.

Photo courtesy Ben Suster Azar with her keyboard. She has been making music since she started piano lessons at age 5. me,” she said.

Azar started making her own music when she was 13, inspired by the people she followed on Tumblr who recorded their own songs.

She used her dad’s classic old Yamaha guitar to write, record and produce her first album on GarageBand, which she released under the name “Fox Party,” her Tumblr username at the time.

In line with her admiration for the lo-fi genre of music, she bought a cassette recorder from a local thrift store.

She was interested in strippeddown acoustic music and thought the cassettes would produce a cool effect when her music was turned from analog to digital.

“Around 2015 I made a post on Tumblr, and I was like, ‘I’m releasing an album, it’s gonna be the best album, and I’m gonna release it in two months,’” Azar said. “Those two months turned into five years essentially.”

Her debut album “Grab Bag” had been in the making ever since, only fully recorded and released during quarantine. Production-wise, not much has changed from when she first started. She still records it all in her bedroom and produces it with GarageBand.

“My music feels very personal in a lot of ways, so I like having that kind of control over the evolution and production of it,” Azar said.

For her new EP, Azar implemented everyday sounds into her music. She recorded a game show that was playing on TV, as well as other seemingly mundane sounds, and mixed it with clips of her playing the keyboard, creating a unique instrumental piece she titled “Hair.”

“I was really intrigued by this concept of having everyday sounds in my music, kind of a soundtrack to a mundane life, like a television in the background, things that are very universal to many people … like just existing and hearing random chatter in the background,” Azar said.

She also likes to riff around with her guitar and try different chord progressions to find her melodies, while her lyrics largely consist of “incoherent jumble, pseudo poetry”

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Photo courtesy Yas Salon As an artist, Azar often experiments with interesting visuals. from her old journals.

Azar’s use of old lines and thoughts from her younger self give her music a nostalgic and deeply personal feeling.

In a song off her first album titled “Body,” she recalls a significant surgery she had which caused her to feel like a spectator to her own body, watching events unfold from the outside rather than actually living them.

“I have so much admiration for my younger self. I sometimes joke that I peaked when I was 13 in terms of creativity and talent,” she said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily true, but I do definitely have a lot of admiration for the Taraneh that created all of these little fragments that I’m now picking apart and putting together.”

Inspiration from her younger self not only drives her lyrics, but other aspects of her art as well.

The cover for “Look Here!” is derived from a charcoal drawing she made during her freshman year of high school, which she digitally scanned and repurposed for the EP. Azar is a multimedia visual artist — she is a photographer, writer and musician who also experiments with video, sculpting and painting.

Due to her experience with different types of media, she has always thought of her creative process as incoherent.

“I’ve experimented with a lot of different mediums in terms of expressing my vision and whatever it is that I want to reflect,” she said. “I didn’t see a clear path until I realized that everything is intertwined.”

She experimented with mixed media on “Grab Bag,” for which she released a visual album on YouTube composed of old VHS videos she’s taken ever since she was 15.

The clips show her childhood home, old high school and drives with her mother layered on top of the album’s tracks.

“When I was younger, people would tell me, ‘You need to choose one discipline and you need to pursue it really well,’ and for a while, I thought that that was true,” she said. “But now, I’m getting to a place where I’m realizing that I’m allowed to be scattered, and I’m allowed to give space to a lot of different things.”

Azar’s newest release “Look Here!” allowed her to stray away from nostalgia and give more space to her new style. Although a few old fragments can be found in the EP, the project allowed her to play with different sound effects and lyrics and grow as a musician.

“Putting out ‘Grab Bag’ felt like an obligation to my younger self, and ‘Look Here!’ felt like it was my creation,” she said. “It felt like my current self-creation, rather than something that was kind of following me.”

Azar looks forward to sharing her passion and her latest music with people — possibly through live shows post-pandemic. For now, she’s already started to work on her next album.

Editor’s note: Taraneh Azar has previously written for The News and is roommates with The News’ former deputy lifestyle editor.

Friday, Dec. 11, Saturday Dec. 12 NU Stage presents: “Fugitive Songs” Tune into this virtual musical on Vimeo. The 19-song journey across America features an ensemble of 20 Northeastern performers.

8 p.m., Free, Facebook event

Saturday, Dec. 12 Performance Project presents: “As You Like It” Immerse yourself in an online production of Shakespeare’s comedy by Piven Theatre’s Performance Project.

3:30 - 6:30 p.m., Free, Online

Sunday, Dec. 13, Monday, Dec. 14 Live Town Hall: In Conversation with Claudia Rankine ArtsEmerson presents a conversation with renowned author and playwright Claudia Rankine. Her new book “Just Us: An American Conversation” focuses on tackling race relations and guilt to build a better tomorrow.

5 p.m., Free, Online

OPINION

Page 10 The Huntington News EDITORIAL BOARD

Op-ed: Students need universal pass/fail

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Photo by Karl Meakin Universal opt-in pass/fail is the correction to NUflex’s failures.

Pass/fail, the system by which students can forgo a formal letter grade and either pass or fail a class, is just as necessary now as it was when Northeastern offered it in the spring semester. The problems of the spring still remain in the fall, and for many, these problems have only worsened.

The NUflex system, which was fully implemented this fall, created many issues for students that affected their GPA and general class performance, preventing them from achieving their full academic capabilities.

First, students who are not on campus may have difficulty accessing resources that are traditionally available, thus impacting their grade. Some of these campus amenities include access to stable, fast internet or desktop computers installed with expensive software. For many, recreating these conditions at home is not financially possible. As a result, many will struggle throughout the semester without the resources they need. This adversely impacts students’ class participation, capacity to focus without a quiet study area and their ability to meet deadlines.

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A decline in students’ mental health can also lead to academic failures.

Most students agree that classes this semester have been isolating, stressful and increasingly difficult. The social aspect of college classes is completely lost by remote learning, leaving many without support systems to fall back on. It is easier than ever to fall behind in class and more difficult than ever to communicate with professors and teaching assistants for help.

For students with anxiety, attention and depression disorders, isolation can be entirely debilitating, leading to a loss of focus and motivation, among other issues. This will affect class performance greatly and decrease students’ ability to complete coursework.

Because these issues are unique conditions of the pandemic, not based on academic capabilities, the radical redistribution of grades which pass/ fail provides is necessary. But not just any pass/fail system — implementing universal opt-in pass/fail will be most effective for NU students.

Unlike other pass/fail systems, a universal opt-in pass/fail system would mean that students would be able to opt-in for pass/fail for any number of their classes. Other universities nationwide have implemented a similar system for this semester that is mandated for all students, but this system would give students more freedom to choose. For Northeastern students, that would mean that they could take all their fall semester classes pass/fail if they wanted to, whereas the university normally only allows students to take one. For this reason, it is the most equitable grading system option.

This system would help to alleviate

the academic stress on students who are struggling in their courses this semester, so that they can focus on their responsibilities outside of school, including their mental health and physical wellbeing, as well as any job they may have to support themselves during this financially draining and destabilizing time.

A universal opt-in pass/fail system would also help to remove the stigma from taking advantage of this system.

If more classes are available to be taken pass/fail, the decision to opt-in will not be a sign of laziness or being a bad student, but rather a widespread response to the pandemic; systemic, rather than agentic choice.

While we hoped the fall semester would be evidence that our school, our country, could adapt to the pandemic, that was not necessarily the case. Student cases continue to increase as the country heads into the worst period of the COVID-19 pandemic we have seen yet. Whatever we have been doing to keep ourselves safe has not been working. It’s time to accept that we simply have not gotten our act together.

Here is where I need you. Northeastern University’s Young Democratic Socialist Association, or YDSA, is leading a campaign to get the administration to implement a universal opt-in pass/ fail system for the fall semester. This would help Northeastern’s student body immensely by giving every student across all colleges the ability to take any number of their classes pass/fail and extend the deadline to decide to Dec. 9.

YDSA’s legislation was unanimously passed by the Student Government Association. Northeastern’s administration, however, still has no plans to enact this academic protection for its students.

Illustration by Edith Olmsted Now is the time to pressure our deans and specifically Provost David Madigan to support universal pass/fail. An email template, a call guide, as well as a petition you can sign, are all located here.

To be sure, pass/fail can be problematic when it comes to scholarships and future applications. But the legislation written by Northeastern University’s YDSA, and passed by the Student Government Association this fall, assures that taking a course pass/ fail would not affect (1) a student’s overall GPA, (2) their Dean’s List consideration or (3) their scholarships from Northeastern. This could protect students applying for graduate or medical school in the future.

It is important to empathize with the experiences of those who are struggling on our campus and around the world. This is the most dangerous and isolating semester we have ever faced. Due to privilege and circumstance, some are able to hold their heads above water, but many are struggling. We can build the support system that so many of us need this semester.

Let’s fight for pass/fail.

Edith Olmsted is a fourth-year politics, philosophy and economics major.

She can be reached at olmsted.e@ northeastern.edu.

Op-ed: NU shouldn’t implement a pass/fail grading system

Ananya Sankar, Annie Probert, Christie Ya-Chi Lee, Elena Plumb, Isaac Stephens, Jacob Kemp, Lucas Cooperman, Madison Boudreau Popovic, Marisa Lijoi, Natalie Duerr, Niyati Parikh, Petrina Danardatu, Seamus McAvoy, Taylor Hsu

Alex Choung, Alexis Santoro, Ariana Bennett, Dayna Archer, Grace Horne, Hannah Anthony, Hannah Rosman, Jenna Chin, Jill Makin, Joanna Zhao, Madison Boudreau Popovic, Maria Lovato, Petrina Danardatu, Samantha Cadenasso, Sarah Brinsley, Savannah Miller, Vishrut Sundararajan

December 11, 2020

Photo by Harriet Rovniak This year has been exceptionally stressful and emotionally exhausting, so the extra pressure to excel in school may seem like the last thing the Northeastern community needs.

In conjunction with this sentiment, Northeastern’s Student Government Association unanimously passed a resolution that calls for the adoption of a “universal opt-in pass/ fail policy, encompassing all classes that a student is taking for the Fall 2020 semester with no impact on Northeastern scholarships or Dean’s List consideration.”

While a universal pass/fail grading system may appear to be the safety net we all need, it is in the students’ best interest to maintain a normal grading system for the 20202021 academic school year.

As a 2020 high school graduate, I can personally attest to the pros and cons of a virtual learning environ-

ment supplemented with a universal pass/fail grading system. To put it simply, motivation plummets.

Feelings of hopelessness, defeat and nihilism clouded the final few months of my senior year. To pull myself out of such an academic slump, I needed to be held accountable again. A normal grading system would do just that.

The transition from high school to college under normal circumstances is difficult in its own right.

It can be a struggle for many to manage schoolwork, a social life and living away from home for the first time. A universal pass/fail grading system would slow the steep learning curve that already comes with the college adjustment. After over a year of relaxed academic standards, returning to a normal grading policy would prove extra difficult — like working out after an extended period of rest and atrophy.

Northeastern University is a community filled with resilient, brilliant and hardworking students. Despite the pandemic, we need to keep this fire alive and hold our students to the high standards that we’re capable of.

The circumstances may be tough, but so are we. And we should persevere.

I acknowledge that the pandemic ushered in unprecedented economic hardship and recognize that this may put extra pressure on students to academically succeed for the

sake of maintaining scholarships. I personally wrestle with this. Close family members of mine have had to pick up extra shifts and even second jobs just to remain afloat. Thus, NU should address this reality by implementing other ways to remove extra economic pressure, yet keep a grading policy that still motivates students to do their best.

For instance, remote learning restricts access to certain resources.

It may be increasingly difficult, especially for lower-income students, to secure a quiet study space or stable internet connection for live lectures. To mitigate this issue, NU should require professors to record their lectures so students can access course content at any time. Students may miss out on important information due to home environments not conducive to learning or poor internet connection that renders Zoom useless. Constant access to class lectures gives everyone an equal opportunity to succeed.

Additionally, access to NU scholarships should not be dependent on grades for the 2020-2021 academic school year. Furthermore, NU should make an effort to account for the potential disadvantages of remote learning while maintaining a traditional grading system. This is the perfect, middle-of-the-road solution that accounts for the adverse economic circumstances many

students are facing while still pushing them to academically succeed.

Our university is all about experiential learning and preparing us for the real world. And while it might feel cruel, the real world doesn’t slow down despite a global pandemic. To prepare us for a world that never stops, we need to be strong and trudge through our academic careers as normally as possible.

Katie Mogg is a first-year journalism major. She can be reached at mogg.k@northeastern.edu.

Illustration by Katie Mogg

OPINION

December 11, 2020

Page 11

Op-ed: A COVID-19 vaccine is almost ready. We need to convince the American public to take it.

Photo by Harriet Rovniak When the coronavirus began to ravage the United States this past March, Americans were largely caught by surprise and had to play catch-up in order to slow the deadly virus’ spread. We needed a plan, and we did not have one.

The drastic lack of governmental precautions and public awareness led to a mind-numbing amount of suffering and death in areas like New York City. Crowded hospitals, the absence of adequate personal protective equipment and a panicked public turned the city into what resembled a warzone, with deserted streets and temporary field clinics set up in Central Park. In response, some politicians advocated for mask mandates, others opposed them and unified public health messaging was thin on the ground. It cannot be emphasized enough that this mismanagement cost tens of thousands of American lives.

We all long for the virus to no longer threaten our way of life, and the answer to our prayers comes in the form of a vaccine. Pfizer recently announced that early analysis of its in-trial vaccine showed it to be more than 90 percent effective in preventing COVID-19, a positive development in the race to provide a cure.

It is very likely that, within the next couple of months, Americans can begin to expect the heavily-anticipated

rollout of COVID-19 vaccines. And when it comes to vaccine distribution, we as a country have a chance to learn from our past mistakes.

The turmoil we all have experienced since March, and the lack of early action to prevent it, will forever be a dark stain on U.S. history. The United States needed increased efforts by the government — since Trump admittedly downplayed the severity of the virus as early as January — and to a slightly lesser degree, national media to proactively anticipate the pandemic and make the public aware of the virus’ disastrous potential. They both ultimately failed to do this.

Now, here we are. Eight months later, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of over 250,000 Americans, with over 10 million confirmed cases in the United States. In late November, the United States shattered the record number of positive cases confirmed in one day, and then followed that up that next day by breaking the record again. As the winter season approaches, experts predict an increase in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

The immediate outlook looks bleak.

According to a September study by the Pew Research Center, 51 percent of Americans said they would definitely or probably get a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 if it was available today, and the other 49 percent say they definitely or probably would not get vaccinated. These statistics are frightening. To achieve herd immunity, experts project that 60 to 70 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated or otherwise have COVID-19 antibodies. In order to eradicate this disease, get our lives back on track and restart the economy, we must collectively agree to get vaccinated, united as Americans with a common purpose.

Federal, state and local govern-

ments, as well as national and local news media, must take an active role in ensuring public health through the creation of public awareness campaigns.

The beginning of the end to this pandemic starts once the public gains insight into the massive effort behind the creation of a vaccine, and how it will be distributed to them. A public awareness campaign should detail how the vaccine is administered, address safety concerns and risks and give logistical information about when and where to receive it. On top of that, compelling and factual messaging should be used to create broad public enthusiasm for vaccination. These messages might take the form of short digital advertisements, similar to the clips encouraging mask-wearing that CNN has been airing. If a media

company is afraid to take a stance on vaccines, think about it this way: Any loss in ad revenue will be made up in public goodwill.

If there is a national media emphasis pushing for the public to take the vaccine, public confidence would increase and lead us closer to a world without the perpetual danger of COVID-19. The race to create the vaccine, dubbed Operation Warp Speed, is scientifically unprecedented and is a significant medical achievement. Development of a vaccine usually takes five to 10 years before it is approved for public use, but the scientific community created a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in mere months.

The more the public knows about the vaccine, the better. There should be an emphasis on the fact that the

virus does not care about political parties — liberal or conservative, the virus kills indiscriminately. We should get vaccinated in order to be responsible citizens. Believing in and accepting a vaccine is the single safest way to achieve herd immunity, and we can do that together by trusting the science and listening to our leaders.

Vaccination should be similar to the notion of wearing a mask: If you do not wear one to protect yourself, then do it to protect the vulnerable people around you.

Lucas Cooperman is a second-year media and screen studies and journalism combined major. He can be reached at cooperman.l@northeastern.edu.

Illustration by Angelica Jorio

Op-ed: Polarization is inevitable with two parties

Photo by Kelly Thomas It’s what George Washington warned against in his farewell address: The bitter partisan divides and false loyalties as a result of our opposing parties have come true.

But Washington anticipated fights over country loyalties, involvement in wars and petty political games.

Today, our political divides include those elements, and also encompass health care access, gay marriage and immigration.

So what happened to the boring stuff that we’re all supposed to associate with politics, like taxes, foreign policy and the size of the government? When did politics become a highly publicized fight over abortion

rights and whether or not the world is on fire?

Truth be told, the only time when American politics didn’t substantially involve civil liberties was when only cishet white men had all their rights. Even the 19th Amendment was a partisan issue, introduced and voted for by primarily Republicans, with far fewer Democrats on their side. The Republican Party was even founded to oppose the Democratic Party’s position supporting slavery; the parties switched platforms in the 1960s due to opposing views on Black Americans’ civil rights. The parties exist to be in opposition to each other, which means polarization is inevitable.

Polarization has gotten worse because more people have been pushing for an expansion of civil rights. As more civil liberties are introduced to politics, the divide between conservatives and liberals has gotten larger as they take more opposing stances on issues.

But the Republican Party isn’t only composed of Southern white supremacists, and conservatism isn’t all bigotry. If you’re a white supremacist who doesn’t believe that Black

people should be able to vote or that the LGBTQ+ community should have rights, you’re not a Republican — you’re a bigot.

True conservatism isn’t any of these things. While some argue that the Republican party can be a platform for bigotry, liberals often take that to the extreme and label every conservative a racist. The Democratic Party has to fight against Republicans to protect civil liberties, which explains why they are so quick to condemn anyone who disagrees on the slightest of fronts. Because of this, I know many people who always vote blue because they are the only party that is supposed to actively fight for your rights if you’re a person of color, poor and/or gay. Biden, for example, isn’t unique in his strategy of appealing to Black voters throughout his campaign, and they ultimately helped him win — though Republicans are no less guilty of using identity politics to attract voters.

Polarization extends to the media as well, or at least the perception of polarization. If we weren’t so polarized, many media outlets wouldn’t be viewed as extremely liberal; in reality, most of them are only slightly

left-leaning. Climate change and calling out bigotry in the White House aren’t necessarily liberal issues, but they may seem more so because there are comparatively fewer news outlets that are slightly right-leaning.

If things weren’t so polarized, The New York Times wouldn’t serve as a stark liberal contrast to conservative news outlets.

Polarization can even be extended to social groups and movements.

Black Lives Matter is seen as a liberal issue, and the conservative Blue Lives Matter was formed in direct opposition to it. Anti-abortion groups adopted the term “pro-life” in direct opposition to Roe v. Wade.

People began using #HimToo after Brett Kavanaugh’s hearing to counter #MeToo. Polarization has made it so that respecting other, often marginalized, social groups is seen as liberal, because the other side is seen as a direct contrast to anything liberal.

So what now? Where do we go from here? If we want to save this system, we should start with respect.

As of now, people on both sides of the aisle are completely unwilling to engage in any meaningful (and respectful) debates. Both sides are

guilty of reducing people to political views, and I think that’s a good place to start. We can’t attempt to fix polarization until we agree to work together without the defensiveness and ad hominem attacks.

For those of us who are less inclined to believe that this two-party system can be salvaged, respect is also a first step. For everyone who’s had to make a choice between two parties that don’t always reflect their values, a more respectful political environment would allow them to express their views more comfortably. That, in turn, could encourage the development of other parties, which would solve many of the problems that our friend George warned us about way back in 1796.

Change has to start on the individual level, with everyone being a little more open to hearing the voices of the other side. Once we take that first step, it will be easier to make politics boring again.

Mia Merchant is a first-year in the Explore Program. She can be reached at merchant.mia@northeastern.edu.

Page 12

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