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Huntington News Photo by Joe Thomas
Photo courtesy T. Charles Erickson
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE NORTHEASTERN COMMUNITY
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For the students, by the students since 1926 March 19, 2015
Huskies to face Irish in NCAA Tournament
Photo courtesy Colonial Athletic Association
For the first time in over 20 years, the Northeastern men’s basketball team will compete in the NCAA “March Madness” Tournament. This Thursday, the Huskies will face the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, a team Norheastern hasn’t played since a matchup in 1997. NU beat the College of William & Mary on March 9 to win the CAA tournament title. By Matthew MacCormack News Correspondent
For the first time in 24 years, men’s basketball fans can click Northeastern when filling out a March Madness bracket. By capturing the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament
title on March 9, NU men’s basketball joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament. The Huskies’ last appearance was in 1991. Redshirt junior forward Quincy Ford led the way for the Huskies in the tournament, earning Most Outstanding Player honors. Ford
totaled 22 points in the 72-61 victory over the College of William & Mary on March 9 to give Bill Coen his first CAA tournament title as head coach. “It was a huge accomplishment, truly an honor and a blessing. But it was really all my teammates,” Ford said. “I really can’t take too
Ambassador heads to Italy
much credit.” An energetic crowd of alumni, students and fans filled Cabot Gymnasium to the brim on March 15 to await NU’s seed and first-round opponent. A giant projector presented the audience with this year’s CBS Selection Sunday show, a program that hasn’t been directly significant
to the Husky faithful for over two decades. The Cabot crowd erupted Sunday after learning the Huskies garnered the No. 14 seed in the Midwest region and will compete first against the No. 3-seeded University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Tournament, Page 10
By Amanda Hoover News Editor
Photo by Scotty Schenck
This summer, Courtney Kielman, senior international affairs major, will travel to Italy and represent the United States at the 2015 World’s Fair.
Courtney Kielman, a senior international affairs major, was selected to serve as one of 120 student ambassadors from American universities at the the 2015 World’s Fair in Italy, serving as representatives of the United States’ vision for food sustainability. Kielman and the other student ambassadors will staff the USA Pavilion at the Expo Milano 2015, where they will focus on the theme “American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet.” The Pavilion is part of the larger Expo Milano’s 3.6 million-square-foot “smart city,” which has been designed for energy efficiency and will play host to the fair’s exhibitors and guests. “I think everyone that’s going has a passion for the theme,” Kielman said. “We’re really interested in food security and agricultural sustainability, but also in languages, foreign cultures and learning more.” The US focus is part of the larger conversation facilitated by Expo Milano 2015, with the overall theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy Ambassador, Page 3
PPhoto courtesy JessT-R, Creative Commons
The City of Boston’s PILOT program requests Northeastern pay $2.5 million for fiscal year 2014. The university paid $886,000.
NU fails to make full city payment By Alexandra Malloy News Staff
In light of recent criticism, Northeastern University made a payment to the City of Boston on March 2 through the Payments in Lieu of Tax (PILOT) program designed to help cover the costs of
municipal services. The university originally paid nothing for the 2014 fiscal year. Launched in 2011, PILOT calls upon nonprofits with tax-exempt property worth more than $15 million to make two annual payments to cover snow removal, PILOT, Page 5
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Nonprofit to fund eating disorder treatments By Julia Barnes News Correspondent Project Heal, a national nonprofit, is working toward funding vital treatment options for patients suffering both emotionally and financially as they seek treatment for eating disorders. Senior journalism major Genevieve Decatur recently founded the Boston chapter of the program, hoping to bring the treatment-funding program’s message of positive change to her local community. Decatur brought the chapter of Project Heal to Boston in mid-February and plans to launch the new sector in the coming weeks. She is determined to spread Project Heal’s message of hope to the Northeastern’s campus. “We really serve as a testament that full recovery from an eating disorder is possible,” Decatur said. Founded in 2008 by Liana Rosenman and Kristina Saffran in New York, Project Heal is a scholarship program that aims to fund inpatient and outpatient treatment for those diagnosed with eating disorders. Rosenman and Saffran thought of the idea for the program while being treated for eating disorders as adolescents. “There [were] so many people who are more motivated than us that just couldn’t financially afford it, and that really upset us,” Roseman said in the mission video on the group’s website. So far, Project Heal has managed to give financial aid to more than 20 recipients. It was this progress that caught Decatur’s attention, noting that one month of inpatient treatment can carry a price tag of $30,000.
Photo by Scotty Schenck
Genevieve Decatur, a senior journalism major, has started a chapter of Project Heal, a national non-profit that works to fund treatments for patients suffering from eating disorders, in Boston.
Decatur, who has suffered from an eating disorder in the past, was inspired by her own experience to become involved. Last fall, Decatur had to take the semester off to seek treatment for bulimia and anorexia. She and many of the girls she knew struggled to
complete their treatment because of insurance complications, noting that oftentimes insurance companies will stop payment for treatments before a patient is fully recovered. Expert Ana Ramirez believes this stems from societal ignorance of eating disorders. Ramirez is a post-
doctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Eating Disorders Center for Treatment and Research – one of Project Heal’s several grant partners. “I think our society in general lacks a lot of understanding around eating disorders and how medically
compromising and dangerous they can be,” Ramirez said. Her colleague, Erin Parks, emphasized the seriousness of this issue. “Eating disorders are the deadliest of all mental illnesses,” Parks, UCSD director of outreach and admissions, said. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, also a nonprofit, 50 years of research has shown that anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of eating disorders, killing 4 percent of those diagnosed. The organization also states that females aged 15 to 24 are 12 times more likely to die from the diseases than from other causes of death. With first-hand knowledge of this struggle, Decatur decided to take action. She has been involved with the National Eating Disorder Association and NEWCOPE – a group on campus that raises awareness about eating disorders and provides support for sufferers. As founder of the Boston chapter, she will supervise a group of 10 volunteers, manage social media, establish relations with other organizations and plan fundraisers. One such volunteer is Elizabeth Wheatall, a third-year psychology major and president of NEWCOPE. Wheatall said she is excited to join Decatur’s chapter and promote Project Heal’s message. “These kinds of projects allow people who would otherwise not be able to afford treatment get the help they need,” she said. “[They] also decrease stigma through awareness and [promote] healthy image and body positivity.”
SGA votes questions onto annual referenda By Amanda Hoover News Editor
Photo courtesy Student Government Association, DivestNU Facebook Page
On Monday, March 16, SGA voted to put questions proposed by student groups onto the ballot for the annual student referenda. Voting will be open from March 26 to April 2 on MyNEU.
The Student Government Association (SGA) voted on potential referenda for the annual student government elections on Monday, March 16. The referenda gives the student body the opportunity to vote on ideas deemed feasible, fair and in accordance with university policy by SGA. At the SGA meeting, four student groups presented their referendum questions in hopes of making it onto the ballot, which opens March 26. In order to have a question considered for the referenda, each needed to obtain 750 student signatures by 6 p.m. on Monday. Senators were asked to vote on each referendum, of which three of the four passed. Student group 15 Now proposed a question asking if all campus employees – excluding work study students, who are paid federally – should be paid $15 per hour or the salary equivalent. If Northeastern were to increase wages to $15 per hour, it would become the first university nationwide to institute such a policy. In Seattle, a $15 per hour minimum wage has already been instituted city-wide, 15 Now noted. Employees of outside contractors, such as those working in restaurants in Curry Student Center, whose parent companies failed to increase wages to the $15 requirement, would have their wages subsidized by the university. The question was put on the ballot with 34 votes in favor, seven opposed and nine abstaining. The next group, comprised of members of NU Sexual Health, Advocacy, Resources and Education (SHARE)’s Sexual Assault Response Campaign, proposed a question that would allow students to vote on the creation of a Gender Resource Center on campus, which would act as a physical space for Violence Support, Intervention and Outreach Network at Northeastern (ViSION). The language of the question would read, “Do you want a resource center on campus focused on addressing gender issues, including discrimination, sexual assault and domestic violence, that would provide a safe, physical space for collaboration, survivor resources,
student organization meetings, workshops and campus outreach and education?” Members of NU SHARE noted that most other major universities have had women’s and gender resources on campus since the 1960s. The measure was put on the ballot with a vote of 54 in favor, zero opposed and zero abstaining. Two students from Northeastern’s Queer Student Union presented a ballot question that asks students to support an increase in the number of single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms. On campus currently, Northeastern advertises more than 30 gender neutral bathrooms, but many of these are in secured residence halls and are not accessible to all students who may need them. The question would read, “Should Northeastern convert all single-stall use bathrooms to be accessible to all gender neutral students?” In order to make more gender neutral bathrooms, existing signage on bathrooms would need to be altered. SGA voted the referendum onto the ballot with a vote of 46 in favor, zero opposed and two abstaining. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) presented a question that would ask students if Northeastern should divest from companies engaged in human rights violations in Palestine. The text would read, “In accordance with International Humanitarian Law, human rights protocols and the values of the Northeastern community, we ask the Northeastern trustees to divest from companies engaged in the violence in Palestine. We ask that Northeastern withdraw all investments that it may have in Caterpillar, Raytheon, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard.” SJP noted that Northeastern trustees have agreed to divest in the past in regard to apartheid in South Africa, and could be willing to consider doing so again. After much debate in regard to the referendum’s feasibility, the SGA senate blocked the question from the ballot with a vote of nine in favor, 25 opposed and 13 abstaining. The annual student referenda will be open for voting from March 26 to April 2. Students can cast their votes on the three questions on myNEU as well as vote for new SGA leadership.
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news Student to serve
crime log
at the World’s Fair
Compiled by Stephanie Eisemann, news staff
ENTRY OF THE WEEK
NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD NU PD
Northeastern University Public Safety Division Saturday, March 14 @ 2:46 p.m. The parent of a prospective student called from her home in New Hampshire to report that while visiting campus on Friday, her wallet was stolen from her purse while she was inside of the Au Bon Pain in Marino Center. A report was filed.
Monday, March 9 @ 9:24 a.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division While patrolling Dodge Hall, Northeastern University Police Department (NUPD) reported someone may have kicked a hole in the wall in the hallway that leads from Ell Hall. A report was filed.
Wednesday, March 11 @ 12:19 p.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division A Northeastern University (NU) staff member reported from Behrakis Hall that a cell phone was mailed to her, but someone else signed for it, and the phone is missing. A report was filed.
Northeastern University Public Safety Division Thursday, March 12 @ 8:56 a.m. An NUPD officer reported that the rear driver’s side window of a vehicle was broken. The car was parked in front of 34 St. Stephens Street and belonged to a Residence Director (RD). NUPD called to inform her of the situation, and she met with NUPD to confirm nothing was missing from her car. A report was filed. Thursday, March 12 @ 10:10 a.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division NUPD found a vehicle with the rear passenger window smashed while parked in front of 23 St. Stephen Street. A student who owned the car stated he was out of town and his girlfriend, who is not affiliated with Northeastern, was in possession of the car. He planned to contact her and have her meet with NUPD. Nothing appeared to be stolen. A report was filed.
Thursday, March 12 @ 2:01 p.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division A student reported that his backpack was stolen from the Digital Media Commons in Snell Library while left unattended on Wednesday. A report was filed.
Northeastern University Public Safety Division Thursday, March 12 @ 2:24 p.m. An NU staff member reported her co-op student had her iPhone stolen from the front desk at 140 Dockers Hall and continued to get messages stating someone was trying to change the password. A report was filed.
Thursday, March 12 @ 4:16 p.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division NUPD was flagged down by a university staff member in front of 624 Camden Street stating that her vehicle had the rear driver’s side window smashed in. The Boston Police Department (BPD) was notified. The owner stated her backpack and its contents were taken from the vehicle. A report was filed. Northeastern University Public Safety Division Thursday, March 12 @ 11:32 p.m. A janitor in Richards Hall contacted NUPD to report a male sitting in a classroom. Officers responded and spoke with the subject, who was unaffiliated with the university, and escorted him from the building. His information was collected, and he was given a trespassing warning. A report was filed. Friday, March 13 @ 3:03 a.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division NUPD reported speaking with an intoxicated student, underage, in the upper busway of Ruggles Station. The student admitted to consuming wine and beer earlier in the evening off campus. EMS was requested and responded but declined to transport the student and a medical waiver was signed. At 3:26 a.m., NUPD reported the student fell down while sitting on a bench near Ruggles and requested EMS for a second evaluation. EMS responded and transported the student to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The RD on call was notified. Northeastern University Public Safety Division Friday, March 13 @ 6:54 p.m. NUPD reported stopping and speaking with a male at the intersection of Gainsborough and St. Stephen streets. The male, who was not affiliated with the university, was taken into custody for outstanding warrants. Saturday, March 14 @ 4:15 p.m. Northeastern University Public Safety Division A student reported to NUPD that she was supposed to move out of her room in International Village East by Feb. 13 of this year. She did not return to her room until Feb. 14, when she noticed some of her items had been stacked in a bin. She assumed building services had performed this and moved the bin to her new residence on Feb. 14 before noticing the bin contained mostly trash. She believes the rest of the items were thrown away when her former residence was cleaned. A report was filed, and Housing and Residential Life was notified. Northeastern University Public Safety Division Saturday, March 14 @ 11:07 p.m. A student reported he left his bag unattended in a second floor conference room of Egan Research Center. Four days later, he found he was missing his social security card and $60 from his backpack A report was filed.
Photo by Scotty Schenck
Courtney Kielman, a senior international affairs major, is one of 120 American college students selected to represent the US at the World’s Fair. Ambassador, from Page 1 globe with potential language barfor Life.” The US will showcase riers. Kielman, who has studied Italian American innovation in addressing global food issues through a vari- at Northeastern, decided to apply afety of exhibits. The student ambas- ter her professor, Luigia Maiellaro, sadors were selected from a pool suggested the opportunity. “[Kielman] will be a perfect repof about 1,000 applicants and will serve as the face of the United States resentative of the US because she’s during the World’s Fair, which will open-minded, brave and courageous run from May 1 to Oct. 31. Over- and tolerant, but also very serious,” all, the Expo is expected to attract Maiellaro said. “Courtney is a very between 20 and 30 million visitors, smart student. She is very talented according to a press release from the with languages, but she is also not afraid of new situations and new exPR Newswire on Jan. 29. The World’s Fair occurs every five periences.” Kielman has shown an aptitude years, moving to a different host city each cycle. This year, the selection for Italian by co-oping at IIS Luigia process for student ambassadors at Di Savoia in Rieti, Italy as a teachthe US Pavillion was facilitated by ing assistant for English in an Italian Jerry Giaquinta, assistant professor high school. In addition to her lanof clinical management communi- guage ability, she also has a strong cation at the University of Southern interest in food sustainability. In high school, Kielman particiCalifornia. “We have an incredibly diverse pated in the Youth World Fair, hoststudent representation,” Giaquinta ed in Waukesha, Wis. She was sesaid. “These students are scored ob- lected by the local rotary chapter to jectively. We had a criteria of look- represent her high school at the fair. “It was the first time that I was ing at hard data, and also the verbal skills and representation of why they introduced to all these different cultures,” Kielman said. “There were wanted to [participate].” From the pool of applicants, Gia- young people from all over the quinta focused on selecting students world. That really opened my eyes with various language skills who to what people face on a daily bacould bring enthusiasm to the US sis.” Kielman hopes to bring her fortheme. “Courtney was a standout,” Gia- mer experience to this World’s Fair quinta said. “We had many stand- and jump start her career with this outs, as you can imagine, but it opportunity. She has a strong interwasn’t just a quantitative experi- est in international businesses with ence. It was also qualitative, that an emphasis on social entrepreneurthey understand the mission, [speak ship. She hopes that this experience a] second language. It’s just a great will help her to understand how group of what we believe will be the those fields tie into food security and world hunger, and the solutions that future leaders of the country.” The selected students will travel corporations or entrepreneurs can to the Expo in two waves, one from work towards. “I really hope that personally I May to mid-July, and another beginning in July and working until the can be introduced to people working end of October. The ambassadors in the field,” Kielman said. “I think will staff the pavillion and greet the it can really help my career and narestimated 2 to 3 million visitors who row down what I want to do and fofrequent it, according the Giaquinta. cus on after. There [are] tons of new They will also act as translators, innovating companies that are workassisting visitors from around the ing within [food sustainability].”
For more news visit HuntNewsNU.com Or follow us on Twitter @HuntNewsNU
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The Huntington News 295 Huntington Ave., Suite 208 Boston, MA 02115
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Mary Whitfill Sara Tucker Amanda Hoover Rowena Lindsay Jessica Geller Rowan Walrath Scotty Schenck Alana Dore Bailey Putnam Brian Bae
Staff Directory Staff Writers: Stephanie Eisemann, Tim Foley, Matthew MacCormack, Alexandra Malloy, Jodie Ng, Ethan Schroeder, Madelyn Stone Staff Photographers: Kariman Abuljadayel, William Bryan, Ethan Kaley, Arzu Martinez Staff Copy Editors: Miharu Sugie, Brandon Lewis Columnists: Ross Beroff, Daniel McLoone, Angelica Recierdo, Michael Samaha, Kenny Sokan, Rebecca Sirull Opinions expressed in The Huntington News by editorial writers, All Hail writers, cartoonists and columnists are not necessarily those of The News staff or of the Northeastern administration. Northeastern University undergraduate students conduct all operations involved in the production of this publication. THE NEWS WELCOMES LETTERS TO THE EDITOR & COMMENTARIES
Opinion pieces must include the writer’s full name, year, major and position at the university. Letters should be sent in the body of an email, not as attachments. Letters may not run and may be edited due to space constraints. Poems and anonymous letters are not printed. Please keep entries under 500 words. Email letters to Comments@HuntNewsNU.com. Vol. VIII No. 8
Column: Issues to split student vote Student government election season is coming, and that means voting not just for student body president and executive vice president but also voting on various referenda. The Student Government Association (SGA) apRoss Beroff proved three referenda for the ballot and rightfully rejected the fourth. Voting will begin on March 26th via myNEU. One of the referenda is the creation of a Gender Resource Center. While all the positive aspects aren’t completely apparent to me, there are definitely some. Northeastern has had a Gender Resource Center in the past, intermittently closing and opening over time, so even if we do create one, there’s no telling how long it will actually last. There are also potential concerns regarding how effectively it would create a safe space for those who use it. Another of the referenda is to change the signage on all singlestall bathrooms on campus to read “gender neutral.” The reasons why the university needs gender-neutral bathrooms aren’t fully clear to me, but one thing is certain about this referendum: the passing and implementation will mean more bathrooms that everyone can use, and that can always be a good thing, which is why I will vote yes and encourage everyone else to do so. The final referendum on the ballot was put forth by members of the Socialist Alternative, the Marxistesque club on campus, and asks to raise the campus-wide minimum wage to $15 per hour for those working on campus. Before more is said about this, it should be made clear that this raise will not affect student workers as supporters may
want people to believe. This referendum, while well-intentioned, is doubtful to be well-implemented. The idea is wrought with flaws and holes. For one, it does not reasonably take into account all the third-party vendors on our campus such as Wollaston’s, the restaurants in the Curry Student Center and all dining hall workers. It is doubtful that any of these major chains would bend to the will of this small movement and actually increase the wages of their employees to the demanded $15 minimum. The idea of those behind the referendum is for Northeastern to subsidize the difference in wages for all of these employees. This is a lovely idea, but where will the money come from? Supposedly, the funds will come from our magical, never-ending endowment. Of course, as all those except for the Socialist Alternative seem to understand, our endowment is incredibly finite, as much as the Empower campaign is trying to change that. It is not plausible for the endowment to supply the capital required for such an endeavor. The promoters of this initiative have made it clear that there is no room for compromise. They said that if the university were to offer $14, they would immediately reject it. In their opinion, the university wouldn’t do such a thing because they think there isn’t that much difference with only one dollar. However, that dollar adds up to quite a bit when it is added onto every single hour. The endowment might be able to handle only increases in wages by the supposedly nominal one dollar, but surely would not be able to handle the larger jump that this campaign aims for. Instead, the money would need to come from somewhere else, almost definitely leading to a tuition increase. I’m not going to encourage a vote either way on this referendum. Instead, I encourage everyone to think very carefully about all the possible consequences before deciding how they wish to vote.
News illustration by David London
Your child is our business The vaccine debate is a waste of breath. It is unfounded, unsupported and horrifyingly present in the lives of anyone who comes in contact with a child. The debate lacks sanity and, more importantly, brings to light a jarring number of massive critical thinking issues. In 1998, Andrew Wakefield released an infamous study through non-peer-reviewed journal The Lancet, linking autism to the MMR vaccine. In 2004, the study was called into question, and in 2010 it was fully revoked. No scientists have been able to reproduce the results and major studies have since found no link between the vaccine and autism. So why do anti-vaxxers refuse to let sleeping dogs lie? Fear is at the heart of the vaccine debate. An emotion felt by almost every human being on earth, fear can control us and have major influences on our actions, relationships and critical thinking skills. In this case, however, those against vaccinations have misplaced their fear and caused a neurodevelopmental disorder to seem like more of a risk to a child than a number of diseases that have destroyed families and killed countless kids. Vaccines don’t cause autism, but even if they did, is that really a worse fate than bringing polio back to the United States or dealing with measles epidemics in elementary
schools? We are currently facing a public health crisis because an alarming number of people believe that autism is a fate worse than crippling illness or death. In the four years prior to the 1955 licensing of the Polio vaccine, an average of 16,316 paralytic polio cases and 1,879 deaths from polio were reported each year. In 1920, 469,924 measles cases were reported, and 7,575 patients died. The measles vaccine was licensed in the US in 1963 and by 1998, no measles-related deaths were reported. As of 1991, polio caused by wildtype viruses has been eliminated from the Western Hemisphere. Autism, although sometimes devistating for patients and families, has the potential to open up the mind in new ways and is associated with a number of wildly successful individuals, including Satoshi Tajiri and Dan Aykroyd. While a life with the disorder is unarguably more difficult than life without, living with autism is possible; thriving with autism is possible. Living with polio is not. While the idea that a lack of vaccinations could potentially bring back the crippling disease that killed over 3,000 children in 1952 seems dramatic to some, it must be understood that polio is literally a plane ride away from the United States. Before traveling to a num-
ber of countries, polio booster vaccinations are required for all adults because it is that simple to become a carrier and infect a non-vaccinated child at home. As a parent, it is your right to decide how your child is raised. It is your right to decide if they go to a public or private school; it is your right to decide that inorganic vegetables are a death sentence and that Flintstones vitamins are toxic. It is not your right to decide which diseases are reintroduced into society. In this case, how you are raising your child is the business of every person you meet on the street, every surface your disgusting child sneezes onto when you rush into Starbucks for a coffee and of every other parent whose names you’ve only ever seen in online message boards. It is not your right to endanger every child in this country and it is not your right to decide which scientific studies stand. Vaccinate your kids because, believe it or not, there are worse things than having your child placed somewhere on the autism spectrum. There are worse things than having a kid that is different. There are very few worse things than having to bury your child because of a decision you made against all reason and common sense.
Editor’s note: this letter is in response to the Letter to the Editor published on March 5.
primary tool in supporting the disparity and inequality in rights afforded to Israelis and Palestinians. Motorola Solutions profits from Israel’s control of the Palestinian population by providing surveillance systems around Israeli settlements, checkpoints and military camps in the West Bank. In short, each of these four companies profit from the suppression of human rights in Palestine. Therefore, Northeastern University profits from the same when our dollars are invested in them. Is that who we want to be? The referendum is inspired by past campaigns such as those calling for divestment to combat apartheid South Africa or environmentally harmful fossil fuels. Palestinians suffering from injustice have asked that our community join in this non-violent campaign. Those who call for this initiative believe that these peaceful methods of resistance will lead to equality, self-determination and a meaningful, just peace. Divestment resolutions have been passed at many schools across the world, such as Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; Northwestern University; and SOAS, University of London. If we, the Northeastern University community, seek to present ourselves as a “global” university, we cannot walk away from global conversation. Mr. Ramsfelder is correct in stating that there are human rights
violations throughout the world. If he, or any student, seeks assistance in researching violations and our university’s involvement, Students for Justice in Palestine will assist in any way we can. We welcomed Mr. Ramsfelder at a meeting earlier this semester, and we hope that he will choose to return for a meaningful human rights discussion. His letter, and this response, is an important step in that direction. Further, we cannot see the logic in reducing human rights violations to “simple math.” One family witnessing the bulldozing of its home and the loss of its property is one too many. One “Israeli-only” bus in the West Bank is one too many. As we have sadly seen all too many times, one missile cripples hope for a just peace. We thank Mr. Ramsfelder for his well-thought-out letter. It is a fine example of how this referendum will afford the Northeastern community a full educational experience. While many campus events are offered on this and other issues, a referendum offers the unique opportunity to engage the entire student community in a discussion of personal views. By putting forward this referendum, we are seeking another level of meaning and action. This conversation is exactly what we hoped our initiative would foster.
Letter: SJP calls to divest
Earlier this month, student Zach Ramsfelder wrote a letter addressing the divestment resolution being considered by the NEU Student Government Association. While we welcome his concerns, we believe it is necessary to clarify the legislation given some of his published opinions. The resolution asks that Northeastern University divest from four companies that profit from human rights violations in Palestine: Caterpillar, Raytheon, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Motorola Solutions. Caterpillar bulldozers are used to demolish Palestinian homes to make way for segregated Israelionly settlements. These settlements are illegal under international law and exacerbate any hopes for a just and permanent peace. Raytheon is one of the largest military contractors in the world and enjoys a close relationship with our university. Raytheon manufactures weapons sold and used across the globe. Some are designed to carry cluster bombs, the use of which is condemned under international law. HP-designed biometric identification systems are used to distinguish Arab faces from white Israeli faces at checkpoints. Use of this technology reinforces segregation and apartheid. HP’s products are a
– Sean Hansen is a junior anthropology major and SJP president.
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citypulse
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Northeastern, city clash over annual payments PILOT, From Page 1
police and fire and other services provided by the city. Each year, the fees are meant to be increased with the goal that by the 2016 fiscal year, each nonprofit will contribute 25 percent of the property tax bill they would pay if they were not exempt. “Our hospitals, universities, museums and other large tax-exempt institutions play a pivotal role in making Boston a great city, but they also have a civic duty to pay their fair share,” Josh Zakim, the Boston City Councilor for District 8, which includes Northeastern’s Boston campus, said. “Boston is restricted to generating revenue almost exclusively from property taxes. The PILOT program gives tax-exempt institutions an opportunity to compensate the city, at a substantial discount, for the numerous city services they receive.” In the 2014 fiscal year, Northeastern was asked to pay $2.5 million. The university only recently sent a check for $886,000, nine months after the close of the fiscal year. Northeastern paid the same amount in 2013 and 2012, and $30,000 in 2011. “I am disappointed that Northeastern has not met the city’s requested PILOT number in any year of the program’s existence,” Zakim said. As reported by the Boston Globe, 15 of the 19 colleges in Boston did not pay in full for the 2014 fiscal year. Only Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, New England College of Optometry, Showa Institute and Boston Architectural College paid the amounts requested. In a letter sent with the check addressed to the city’s Assessing Department Commissioner Ronald Rakow, Northeastern’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Ralph Martin, Jr. stated that the university wanted to support the city. “We seek to support those efforts without compromising our very substantial financial and in-kind support of Boston academic and community-based programs,” Martin said in the letter. The letter also stipulated that the university doesn’t necessarily agree with the payment program. “We believe the calculation guide proposed by the PILOT Task Force does not account for
Photo by Joe Thomas
After initially refusing to pay the $2.5 million the City of Boston requested in lieu of taxes for the 2014 fiscal year, Northeastern has paid $886,000. It is one of 15 universities that has not paid the full requested amount.
the value of Northeastern’s continuing commitment to important and extraordinary programs and services for Bostonians,” Martin said. “Indeed, our payment should not be construed as support or commitment to the PILOT formula.” Currently, the university provides nearly $12 million in scholarships that support native Boston students and has helped develop or supported Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s programs like Foundation Year, Step-Up, Healthy Kids/Healthy Futures and STEM programs in
Boston public schools. NU is also the only university to host a Boston public charter school, the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers. Additionally, Northeastern students contribute nearly $4 million in volunteer services to the city each year, according to the letter. Together, these programs and others, in combination with a voluntary $2.1 million a year in property taxes, totals more than $27 million contributed to the city annually, according to Northeastern Associate Vice President of
Communications Renata Nyul. Martin also says that Northeastern does not draw upon Boston services. “We collect and dispose of our own trash; we have a very able and academy-trained police force that annually writes nearly $20,000 worth of Boston tickets for parking and municipal violations on public ways within and around our campus, and routinely supports Boston police in searches, arrests and crime-scene management; and we plow snow in and around our campus and maintain public sidewalks
and green spaces,” Martin said. Zakim states that he appreciates the institutions that recognize the importance of the PILOT payments, noting that such actions exhibit positive neighborly behavior and are thoughtful in their commitment to the City of Boston and its inhabitants. “The recent [fiscal year] 2014 contribution, however, is a step in the right direction,” Zakim said. “I hope to continue to work with Northeastern to develop a more positive relationship between the university and the City of Boston and its residents.” Zakim also believes that the school should pay the full amount requested for the last fiscal year and that the city calculates the requests in a fair and thoughtful manner. Both Martin and Zakim can agree that the conversation between the city and the university contributes to “mutually important collaborative work,” as stated by Martin. Sophomore psychology major Alex Peterson says that it is a university’s role to promote its community. “Private education institutions make a decent profit each year, and I would hope that the purpose of these institutions would be to better their students and their surrounding communities,” Peterson said. “Taxes are for the benefit of the community, so why are these institutions not paying their dues? They certainly have the money to do so.” Peterson also notes that if money can’t be spent on bettering the communities surrounding campus, the university should ensure a financially stable environment and salary for professors. Distinguished professor of political science and public policy and former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis thinks nonprofits should contribute to the city financially, but the program may need to be more firmly nailed down. “I think the nonprofit institutions in Boston should make some direct contribution to the city’s finances,” Dukakis said in an email to The News. “How much it ought to be is something that should be worked out, and the universities are also contributing a lot to the city beyond just PILOT contributions. In any event, I am glad to see that NU is making a contribution.”
New commuter maps unveiled in South Station By Chloe O’Malley News Correspondent
An updated map illustrating the public transportation system on an unprecedented scale has been released by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) as of Feb. 27. The new map covers the New England region and New York, and includes routes by bus, ferry and train. The map is the first of its kind in the US. The most obvious transformation from past maps is the jump in size. Whereas the former maps showed just a portion of one state, the new ones show the entirety of multiple states. Another major modification is that five languages – English, Spanish, French, Chinese and Portuguese – are compiled into a single document. “It’s much bigger,” Kevin Green, a vendor at the MBTA’s South Station, said. Displayed on the right wall from the entrance of the bus terminal at South Station, the regional map is also available in printed copy. Meanwhile, web versions are in development, MassDOT Deputy Press Secretary Amanda Richard confirmed in an email to The
News. However, before becoming accessible, federal standards must be met to ensure that they will be perceivable, operable and easy to understand. “Our current maps do not do that, so we were not able to post them,” Richard said. It took collaboration across seven states (Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Massachusetts) to produce this comprehensive new tool for navigating the regional transportation system. While it’s still too soon to note significant impacts, the effectiveness of this new resource will be put to the test as distribution widens across such a large area. “Absolutely,” Stephen Squibb, general manager of the South Station bus terminal, said when asked if the new maps would make a difference. Squibb recalled receiving notice of the version update a few months before the release and is among the first to oversee its distribution. “Some of the regular commuters have already noticed the change,” he said.
Photo by Joe Thomas
New commuter rail and transit line maps, pictured here with commuters at South Station, will soon replace older maps at MBTA stations across the city.
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citypulse
Support needed for sex trafficking survivors By Varun Goyal News Correspondent
Crowds cheered at the University of Phoenix Stadium and all across New England last month as the Patriots secured a victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. But on game day, away from the excitement of the field and the bleachers filled with fans, a very different scene was unfolding as the FBI worked to rescue potential human sex trafficking victims from pimps. In 2014, 25 people were rescued, while the FBI apprehended 45 pimps. “When there are large events that men travel to, there tends to be more prostitution,” Julie Dahlstrom, a clinical legal fellow at Boston University School of Law, where she oversees the Human Trafficking Clinic, and managing attorney of the Immigration Legal Assistance Program at Ascentria Care Alliance, said. “This is about money. Are there more women being exploited there? Yes.” Those 25 children were lucky to escape, but many others are not. Human sex trafficking is a lucrative business. In the US alone, it is worth around $32 billion, producing around $10 billion each year in the country. And with a potential Olympics on the horizon, Boston must turn its attention toward victims of this trade. In January, journalists Nicho-
las Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn launched a documentary on PBS entitled “A Path Appears.” Focusing on victims of human trafficking in Boston and worldwide, they aim to emphasize the importance of gender equality. They travel to different parts of the world to expose the oppression that victims are facing and accentuate that a change must take place. Dahlstrom emphasized that while human trafficking is a global enterprise, it must be treated as a domestic issue as well. “I think that trafficking is too often portrayed as international victims being brought in,” Dahlstrom said. “It is very much happening to US citizens.” Many unsuspecting victims have their lives stolen away when they are sold into prostitution. Boston Police Sgt. Donna Gavin, head of the department’s Human Trafficking Unit, explained how pimps recruit women into the industry. “Pimps usually look for vulnerable young women,” she said. A common method that pimps use to recruit is to form a strong bond with these vulnerable females. Once the female feels a strong emotional connection has been made, the pimp will coerce her into working for him as a prostitute. According to the US Department of Justice, the average age of a child who is sold into the sex trafficking business is 13-14 years
old. According to the documentary, more than 300,000 females disappear yearly, and 100,000 are sold for some type of sex. While hundreds of thousands of women are affected, however, it is significantly rarer for males to be targeted. “We haven’t had cases of male victims in human sex trafficking [in Boston],” Gavin said. At its core, human sex trafficking is operated as a business. That means for it to function, there has to be supply and demand – and the involvement of sex buyers. As long as there is high demand for purchased sex, sex trafficking will continue. Demand Abolition, a program by the organization Hunt Alternatives, is committed to eliminating human sex trafficking by reducing the demand for purchased sex through criminal justice, legislation and public education. “If there were no buyers, there would be no business,” Demand Abolition communication specialist Tripp Underwood said. On March 6, Mayor Martin J. Walsh initiated Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Boston. The CEASE campaign plays a role in 11 different cities that are dedicated to help reduce the demand for purchased sex. “We are trying to reduce the demand by 20 percent over the next two years, and we are doing that with partnerships,” Gavin said.
Photo courtesy My Life My Choice
Audrey Morrissey is the associate director of My Life My Choice. The only survivor-led group in Boston, it supports sex trafficking victims.
A major challenge for women is that there aren’t many services that are specifically focused on meeting their needs, according to Dahlstrom. She believes there must be more survivor-led programs in order to help these women. Survivor-led programs gain effectiveness through their double duty as peer-mentoring programs. My Life My Choice, the only survivor-led organization in Boston, has found great success by these means. The organization takes confidentiality into account and focuses on youth empowerment. “We believe in not further exploiting the youth, but [getting] them to a place in leadership,” Audrey Morrissey, associate direc-
tor of My Life My Choice, said. The My Life My Choice peermentoring program consists of a 10-week prevention curriculum that teaches girls about sex trafficking, how pimps recruit females and how they can build back their self-esteem. “The mentoring program has grown to be the most successful program of My Life My Choice,” Morrissey said. “We are serving about 135 girls, and our prevention curriculum is used in 23 states in the US.” Through these types of programs, human trafficking is starting to gain more attention in Boston. “I believe we will reduce the demand,” Morrissey said. “We have a lot of work to do, but we are ahead of a lot of cities.”
ing his vehicle by the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Two figures, identified as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, are then seen approaching the vehicle. After allegedly wrestling with Collier through the windows of the vehicle, the Tsarnaev brothers are said to have shot the officer six times. The prosecution holds that they did this in order to steal Collier’s .45 caliber Smith & Wesson. Veteran MIT Sgt. Clarence Henniger testified, stating that blood had been “all over the car [and Collier’s] body” when he later found them. MIT mathematics student Nate Herman had bicycled past the vehicle prior to the confrontation. Herman identified Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as being present at the scene when he was brought to the stand. According to the prosecution, the Tsarnaev brothers then carjacked and kidnapped Meng, who earned a master’s degree from Northeastern. Meng testified in court with assistance from a Chinese translator and stated that Tamerlan Tsarnaev entered his SUV when he decided to park to send a text message. Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly identified himself as responsible for the Boston Marathon Bombings and the murder of Sean Collier. After stealing Meng’s money, the victim claimed Tamerlan Tsarnaev forced him to drive around Cambridge as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev followed in a different vehicle. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev soon abandoned his vehicle and joined the two in Meng’s SUV, he said. Video footage from a Shell gas station shows the vehicle approaching a self-service station. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev can be seen leaving to buy snacks from the store. In a splitsecond decision, Meng bolted from the car and ran across the street to a Mobil gas station. With the help of the station owner, he contacted the police. Police then used tracking technology to find the location of the vehicle – the city of Watertown. On Monday, March 16, three Watertown police officers testified about the firefight that broke out between po-
lice and the Tsarnaev brothers. Officer Joseph Reynolds, the first to locate the Tsarnaev brothers, stated on the stand that he “locked eyes” with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who had been driving the stolen SUV. According to Reynolds, Tamerlan then exited the car and opened fire. Reynolds returned fire but was not prepared for the brothers’ arsenal. He testified that Tamerlan Tsarnaev threw explosives during the confrontation. “I could feel all the debris landing on top of me,” Reynolds said. Next to testify was Sgt. Jeffrey Pugliese, who tried to flank the Tsarnaev brothers during the shoot-out. Pugliese stated that Tamerlan Tsarnaev saw the officer and ran toward him, but once Tamerlan tried to shoot the officer, it appeared there was a problem with the weapon. Out of frustration, Tamerlan Tsarnaev allegedly threw the gun at the officer. Pugliese was able to tackle Tamerlan Tsarnaev and was close to handcuffing the suspect, he testified. However, Dzhokhar, who was in the SUV, allegedly drove toward the dog pile. The officers quickly moved out of the way. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was hit by the vehicle and dragged over 25 feet. He died from gunshot wounds and injuries sustained from the car. Earlier that day, the jurors were taken to a South Boston storage facility, where they viewed the boat Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hid in to elude police. Jurors took note of the message he wrote, which praised his older brother for his actions and decried the United States for its wars against Islam. Bullet holes and blood covered the boat. The trial is set to continue through this week with testimonies from Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s friends. The case will continue for the next three to four months. It will be split into two parts: the first to determine guilt or innocence and the second to determine whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will face the death penalty or life in jail without the possibility of parole, if found guilty.
Victims, police officers testify against Tsarnaev
Illustration by Jane F. Collins
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, illustrated here at Moakley Courthouse, listened as the people affected by his alleged involvement in the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombings testified against him. By Jose Castillo News Correspondent
Moakley Courthouse in South Boston just became the stage for one of the most important trials in Boston’s recent history. Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 21, faces 30 charges resulting from explosions at the 2013 marathon finish line and the murder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) police officer Sean Collier. If found guilty, Tsarnaev could face the death penalty. Tsarnaev is defended by Judy Clarke, the attorney famous for defending Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Olympic Park Bomber Eric Rudolph and Jared Loughner, who shot former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in 2011. In all of these cases, the defendant was found guilty. In opening statements, Clarke declared there is no doubt that Tsarnaev played a role in the 2013 bombings, whether or not
his older brother, the deceased Tamerlan Tsarnaev, coerced him into it. This contradicts Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s plea of not guilty. “It was him … the evidence will not establish, and we will not argue, that Tamerlan put a gun to Dzhokhar’s head or that he forced him to join in the plan,” Clarke said to the 18 jurors. However, the defense has established that it will present Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as nothing more than a game piece used by his older brother to carry out the attacks. “You will hear evidence about the kind of influence that his older brother had,” Clarke said. The prosecution used its opening statements to emphasize that this was not the case. “[Tsarnaev] believed that he was a soldier in a holy war against Americans,” attorney William Weinreb said. “He also believed that by winning the victory, he had taken a step toward reaching paradise. That was his motive for committing these crimes.”
Weinreb went on to explain the four “chapters” of the Tsarnaev ordeal: the bombing of the Boston Marathon, the murder of Sean Collier, the carjacking and kidnapping of Northeastern alumnus Dun “Danny” Meng and, finally, the manhunt in Watertown. The prosecution used this outline to present its case, starting with testimony from victims of the Boston Marathon Bombings. Those who testified on the first day of the trial included Executive Director of the Boston Athletic Association Thomas Grilk and Boylston Street’s Marathon Sports Store Manager Shane O’Hara. Grilk established the setting of the first “chapter,” explaining the significance of the Boston Marathon, while O’Hara recalled the chaos that overtook her store after the bombs detonated. “It was like a scene from ‘Saving Private Ryan’ or ‘Platton,’” testified O’Hara. “The thing that haunts me is making decisions … who needed help more?” The days that followed focused on the victims of the bombings. Bill Richard, the father of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old boy who lost his life to the bombings, recounted the vivid scene to the courtroom. “When I saw Martin’s condition, I knew that he wasn’t going to make it,” Richard said. Richard’s daughter Jane, then 7 years old, lost her leg in the blast, while his wife, Denise, lost part of her vision. Richard lost some of his hearing ability. Boston Police Officer Lauren Woods took the stand to describe the death of Lu Lingzi, another victim of the bombings. Zhou Danling, a friend of Lu, had been with her during her final moments. Zhou testified before the court to explain the events that led to the bombings. On the trial’s fifth day, attention was switched from the bombings to the Tsarnaev brothers’ actions during the days following, as video footage acquired from MIT’s Green Building showing the death of Campus Police Officer Sean Collier was presented to the court. The video showed Collier park-
inside
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Review: “The Amish Project” stuns audience By Rowena Lindsay Inside Editor
The set is simple. A single chair and the façade of a log cabin are all that occupy the stage, but actress Danielle Kellermann fills the space with her dynamic portrayal of seven different characters to tell the tragic tale of a school shooting from all angles. “The Amish Project,” a new show running at the New Repertory Theatre, tells the story of the 2006 murder of five girls taken hostage in an Amish schoolhouse in Nickel Mines, Pa. The play was written by Jessica Dickey and is directed by Elaine Vaan Hogue. “The Amish Project” is the first in a series of three one-woman shows the New Repertory Theatre is presenting for its Next Rep Black Box Festival celebrating women in theater. The other two are “Stronger Than Wind,” opening March 23 and “God Box,” opening April 6. The characters Kellermann portrays include an Amish girl, the wife of the shooter, a religious studies professor, several townspeople and even the shooter himself. Their intertwining monologues chronicle the shooting and its aftermath. Kellerman switches seamlessly between characters, her transitions aided by lighting and sound effects. At the beginning of the play, each character was given a longer segment to introduce themselves and acquaint the audience with
the character. As the show went on, however, the characters began to blend more, with Kellermann switching more frequently, sometimes even mid-sentence, from one character to another. The effect was a frantic chorus of voices that portrayed the panic of the situation. Kellermann’s performance is masterful. Impersonating seven vastly different characters for an hour without breaks, props or changes in costume, she takes on the weight of a heavy story all by herself and pulls it off nearly flawlessly. She enthralls the audience from the first lines of the show as an Amish girl talking about her favorite letters of the alphabet, to her last lines as the wife of the man who shot that same Amish girl, saying, “Can you see him? God is here.” While all of the characters were well-developed and played an important role in the show, the wife of the shooter is by far the most interesting. Her tortured thoughts about how if she had been a better wife, maybe her husband wouldn’t have killed the girls, how she still loves him and how the town turned on her, were incredibly moving. Her perspective is one not often given much attention in media coverage, which made it more special. While never condoning violence, the show looks fairly at everyone involved. The shooter says, “I am more than the why,” as he tells the audience that he won’t explain why
he killed the girls, but he will talk about his favorite color and how much he loves his children. In turn, the religious studies professor explains that “the Amish believe there is no why,” and that is how they are able to forgive the shooter and offer condolences to his family. The professor explains and in-
terprets Amish culture to the audience, which contrasts with the other portrayals of the religion in the show: the townspeople’s utter lack of understanding and the Amish girl’s naïve perspective. The show itself is difficult to digest, but Kellermann’s incredibly moving performance makes it easier. The audience was stunned into
an awestruck silence at the end, as it was left to ponder the roles that empathy, hatred, misunderstanding and forgiveness play in life. “The Amish Project” is playing at the New Repertory Theatre through March 22. Tickets are $36 and can be purchased by calling the box office or visiting the theater’s website, www.newrep.org.
for The Longwalls, said. The band consists of Alan Wourinen on lead vocals and acoustic guitar, Comstock on electric and acoustic guitar, Dan London on bass and Kurt von Stetten on drums. Each member of the band comes from a creative background. Wourinen, Comstock and London all went to school for music and von Stetten studied art. The band members define themselves as “Boston popsmiths mining indie rock, country and the worst of basic cable” on their website. The Longwalls’ new album features upbeat pop-rock tracks such as “Hold It” and “Too
Many Prayers,” as well as the more acoustic and melodic songs “Rukia” and “O’ My Brother.” “The title track is kind of a starting point for the record,” Wuorinen said. “It’s not necessarily an overarching concept or anything like that, but there are things in your life that you look back to that are sort of a gold standard, the kind of things that aren’t ever achievable. They are sort of a high water mark in your mind and you can never really match up to them or exceed them.” While the band is not singing about how unachieveable the American dream is on every track, The Longwalls did use the idea
that there is a template for success throughout the album. “Supporting each other and putting out music and art in the world is just enough. The standards have changed a little bit for us, so to hell with the gold standard, we are doing our own thing,” Wuorinen said. Many of The Longwalls’ songs were originally written by one band member who then brought the song to the group for feedback and suggestions. “It is nothing that we planned, it just works out that way. If we could all take six months off and record like Wilco we could … write everything together, but we
get together once a week and all bring in music we wrote,” London said. This writing process allows each band member to showcase their own style while also making it a collaborative effort. “While we collaborate on most of our songs, and there are some songs on this album that we didn’t talk about at all, we just kind of started to play. Like ‘Gold Standard’ was a rehearsal space song,” von Stetten said. Comstock bashfully compared The Longwalls’ dynamic to that of the Beatles’ on the “White Album.” By that point in the Beatles’ career, the members were essentially acting as each other’s backing band. “You would hear a McCartney song, and John Lennon and Harrison would be just trying to kill it on the backing vocals,” Comstock said. “It was cool that they would just arrive and take on these bit parts with such ferocity. I think we do that a little bit. It is cool to be able to pass the torch around.” This give-and-take dynamic works well since all the band members do their own solo projects as well, over which they can have total creative control and showcase their music individually. The Longwalls took a break from playing shows over the past year and a half as various members moved, had children, got married and the band as a whole focused on recording the new album. “The Boston music scene is very temporal,” Comstock said. “You go away for 18 months and you come back and the bands you used to play with have broken up or people have moved away.” Despite feeling detached from the Boston music scene at present, the band is looking forward to playing shows and promoting “Gold Standard” in the coming months. “We have spent a year making this album and we might continue to do little bit of recording, but I think the next year is going to be about not spending any more money and trying to play shows,” Comstock said.
Photo courtesy Andrew Brilliant, Brilliant Pictures
Danielle Kellermann plays seven different roles, including both murderer and victim, in “The Amish Project.”
The Longwalls release “Golden Age” album By Rowena Lindsay Inside Editor
Boston-based Americana pop band The Longwalls is back after a brief hiatus with its sophomore album “Gold Standard.” The Longwalls, formed in 2007, put out its first album, “Field Guide for the Zombie Survivalist,” in 2008. Though this is only the bands’ second full-length album, the group released three EPs in the years between the first album and “Gold Standard.” “In this day and age, it is more about putting out a steady stream of content, which we have done,” Brandon Comstock, guitar player
Photo courtesy Kurt von Stetten
Boston-based band The Longwalls (left to right), Kurt von Stetten, Alan Wourinen, Brandan Cornstock and Dan London, teamed up in 2007.
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Review: “The Colored Museum” pleases crowd By Rowena Lindsay Inside Editor
“The Colored Museum,” a new play at the Huntington Theatre, turns stereotypes upside down by drawing on historically abhorrent theater portrayals, like blackface and human zoos, to create a scathing and hilarious commentary on the representations of people of color. “The Colored Museum” was written by George C. Wolfe in 1986 and is directed by Billy Porter. The entire show is staged by five actors: Nathan Lee Graham, Capathia Jenkins, Ken Robinson, Shayna Small and Rema Webb, and one percussionist, Akili Jamal Haynes. The actors rotate through the “exhibits,” portraying various black stereotypes. The stage features a massive panel which rotates after each scene to give the set a museum-like feel. Two of the exhibits take place in display cases to further this effect. The sets were fairly minimal, using projections on the white walls rather than physical props. Exhibits flowed together as percussionist Haynes came on stage at the end of each scene to usher the actors off stage to the pounding rhythm of the drum. The show opened with Git On Board, a hilarious exhibit which
introduces the audience to the humor of the play. Small, dressed as a stewardess, welcomes the audience aboard the “Celebrity Slaveship,” explaining how to properly fasten one’s shackles and asking the crowd to repeat the mantra “I will not rebel.” As the scene progresses, the ship passes through a time warp during which the audience gets a humorous lesson in African American history. The Last Mama-On-The-Couch Play was one of the best exhibits of the night. The whole cast moved from one black stereotypical TV character to another and incorporated numerous musical numbers and dance styles to make a hilarious and entertaining commentary on the portrayal of black people in entertainment. In The Hairpiece exhibit, two wigs argued over which wig their owner was going to wear to break up with her boyfriend, commentating on black beauty standards. Not all the exhibits were there for laughs, however. The Gospel According to Miss Roj was about a transgender woman. The exhibit started out with Miss Roj strutting across the stage, clearly the life of the party, before getting darker when she begins to reveal how unhappy she really is. Another more serious exhibit, A Soldier With A Secret, was told by
Photo courtesy T. Charles Erickson
The uproarious comedy “The Colored Museum” redefines what it means to be black in contemporary America.
a statue of a Vietnam War veteran in a glass display case. After having a brush with death, he could see all the pain the other men in his unit would cause and bear in the future, so he killed them. The one major flaw with the show was that it was far too long. With no intermission in the two-hour performance, the last few exhibits, particularly LaLa’s Opening, dragged on
and lost the audience’s attention. However, the play redeemed itself in the final exhibit The Party, which brought all cast members on stage at once and ended, like it began, on the Celebrity Slaveship. Small announced that the plane had landed and, in unison, all characters said “before exiting collect any baggage you may have as anything you leave will be trash.”
The play succeeded in being entertaining while also challenging the audience with the double standards, mistreatment and stereotypes that people of color face on a daily basis. The Colored Museum is running at the Huntington Theatre Company’s Avenue of The Arts venue through April 5. Tickets start at $25, but are available to students with an ID for $15.
New MFA exhibit brings gift of song to Boston By Melissa Fitzgerald News Correspondent
Museums are typically thought of as places for quiet reverence and whispers, but artist Lee Mingwei is challenging that notion with his performance art exhibit Sonic Blossom. Mingwei’s exhibit is currently running at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Rather than a portrait or a sculpture, this exhibit features an opera soloist, a kimono, a single chair and a willing listener. Boston–area singers trained by Mingwei roam the halls and offer “the gift of song” in the form of four-minute operas to the
MFA wanderer of their choosing. The project, which first debuted in Seoul in 2013 for the inauguration of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, was shown in Beijing and Tokyo before arriving at the MFA. The exhibit is the first extended performance art exhibit in the MFA’s 145-year history. Each performance begins with a kimono-clad singer approaching a museum attendee and asking if they would like to receive the gift of song. If the person accepts, they will be guided to a special chair in the William I. Koch Gallery, which houses
the museum’s collection of European paintings from 1550 to 1700 and Hanoverian Silver. Fitting with the time period of the gallery, the songs Mingwei chose to perform are four-minute versions of Franz Schubert’s “Lieder,” or art songs. Jen Megel, the Beal family senior curator of contemporary art at the MFA, said that when Mingwei was invited to bring his performance art to Boston, he was taking care of his mother while she recovered from surgery. As she recovered, Mingwei played their favorite songs by Schubert just as she had played for
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him when he was a child. “Lee felt the songs were a source of healing, calm and peace for her, a real gift,” Megel said. This gift is one he shares with museum visitors. Mingwei’s art is about encouraging strangers to push the boundaries of trust, intimacy and self-awareness to connect with others on a deeper level. Museum attendee Kathleen White was tentative when first approached by the singer, as she had not heard about the exhibit. “I didn’t know what to expect,” White said. “But he was very graceful, he was very welcoming and very self-assured, so I felt very safe. And it was a delightful experience … He was so calm and so comfortable in his space; it was transfixing, and he passed that sense of calm on to me.” Virginia Benton went up and shook the singer’s hand. He sung to her daughter, and then he asked her if she’d like to be sung to as well. “I like when he said, ‘May I give a
gift of a song?’ instead of like, ‘Here. Here’s another one,’” Benton said. “I felt a little bit [awkward] when I saw some other people watching… you are sort of singled out… but it was so fabulous.” Cathy Moynihan, a sculptor and barista, laughingly admitted that she stalked the singer around the museum for a while in order to be chosen. “I love experiencing performance art,” she said. “To be part of performance art is just really uplifting and having, like, a completely new experience at the museum is really enjoyable.” Mingwei described the experience of Sonic Blossom like “a butterfly landing on your shoulder while you are walking through a garden of flowers; like the beautiful creature that rests with you briefly then flies away, the song is with you only briefly before it ends and becomes a special memory.” Sonic Blossom will be bringing the gift of song to the MFA until April 9. Just look for the person in a kimono.
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Photo courtesy Lee Studios
The emboided silk obe worn by the singer was made in Kyoto, Japan.
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calendar Entry of the Week
Recycled art gives trash new life in Davis Square Sunday, March 22 Feeling crafty? Find some inspiration at the Nave Gallery Annex in Davis Square with This Into That: Found Object Art, Assemblage, and Other Transformed Work. Explore the exhibit and discover how over 25 artists reworked everyday objects to give them new meaning and life. Works include sculptures, mixed media work, photography and videos curated by experienced photographer and artist Caleb Cole. Catch it before it closes on March 28. 53 Chester Street, Somerville; 2 - 6 p.m.; free. Photo by Scotty Schenck
Calendar compiled by Alana Dore, Deputy Inside Editor
Thursday, March 19
Pack up your soda bread and head down to the Somerville Theatre to catch the opening night of the 2015 Irish Film Festival. The festival’s Best Feature winner “Gold,” starring Maisie Williams (“Game of Thrones”) and James Nesbitt (“The Hobbit”), will be played followed by a Q&A session with director Niall Heery. 55 Davis Square, Somerville; 7:30 10 p.m.; $14.
Friday, March 20
For a classy Friday evening, attend a performance of Mozart’s “C Minor Mass” alongside Beethoven’s short “Elegiac Song” and Haydn’s boisterous “Symphony No. 86 in D” at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. Cantata Singers will continue its 51st season after a pre-concert talk with Amy Lieberman, assistant conductor of the group and professor at the School of Jewish Music at Hebrew College. 30 Gainsborough Street; 7 - 10 p.m.; $25.
Saturday, March 21
Celebrate the Persian New Year at the Museum of Fine Arts’ Nowruz Festival. Try Persian-inspired foods, enjoy dance performances by choreographer Banafsheh Sayyad, attend a 10-minute tour of the Persian art exhibit, workshop with the Iranian Dance Artists and practice calligraphy with artist Leili Solatyavari. Traditional Persian clothing is encouraged. 465 Huntington Ave.; 10 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.; free.
Monday, March 23
Poets, writers and literacy activists rejoice. Celebrated American poet Robert Hass will give a reading in The Castle at Boston University (BU) alongside BU’s associate professor of humanities Meg Tyler. The former poet laureate Hass is most notably known for his collection of poems “Time and Materials,” which won both the National Book Award in 2007 and a Pulitzer Prize in 2008. He was also committed to to improving American literacy and promoting arts education in schools during his time as the chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007. There will be a reception and signing following the reading. 225 Bay State Rd.; 7:30 - 8:30 p.m.; free.
Tuesday, March 24
Wednesday, March 25
Know someone suffering from an autoimmune disease like Crohn’s disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease, lupus or arthritis? Come support them and the 50 million Americans battling these types of diseases on Boston’s first ever Autoimmune Disease Awareness Day at Laugh for Immunity. The 50 Cents for 50 Million Campaign, organized by students and young professionals, is hosting a night of comedy at Laugh Boston to raise money and awareness for those suffering from such diseases. The night includes standup from comedians Don Zollo, Dan Chron, Carolyn Plummer and Rachel Klein, who suffers from Crohn’s disease herself. There will also be a performance by Northeastern’s all-male a cappella group, the UniSons. 425 Summer Street; 7 - 10 p.m.; $25.
Finding faith by redefining religion
In Middletown, N.J., a lot of the residents are Roman Catholic. Whether Irish, Italian, Mexican or Filipino, everyone went to the same churches and went through the same milestones. The biggest sin at confession was teasing your siblings, and by confirmation, you were picking out a saint’s name based on what cool thing they were the patron saint of, like music. The process of Mass was like a reflex to you: sign of the cross, holy water, genuflect, kneel and pray. You mumbled the responses to prayers and committed them to memory like the theme songs to your favorite cartoons. CCD – the Catholic equivalent of Sunday school – was a chance to meet kids from other parts of town and learn that Jesus Christ was just a normal part of your education like learning the multiplication tables. Although I don’t consider myself religious now, I have a great respect for faith and the principles it teaches. Patience really is a virtue. In a fast world, it’s calming to be able to center yourself and keep focus on what’s ahead. Being one of the few people who can sit through an entire flight without any means of entertainment and not feel bored is something I credit to learning to be at peace with oneself and reflecting on the past, whether that be the past year, month or hour. Years of kneeling at my bedside to thank God for everything I have used to feel like a chore, but it is now integrated into the core of who I am. I rarely ever pray anymore, but I think that inner conversation is important for remembering where you are in your life and being grateful for every part of the journey, even the difficult parts. In my apartment, I’ll find traces of religion that I don’t expect to see anymore. Rosary beads on a doorknob, a wooden relic of two hands joined in prayer. They are little signs of strength that ground me, remind me of where I’m from. One thing that has stuck with me is a pension for community service, which is almost always fostered in faith. I remember the story that taught me what service means. It was about a man who Angelica Recierdo gave only two coins at church and was worried The Annotated Muse that wouldn’t make a difference, but he was reassured that his contribution meant just as much, if not more, than the others who gave countless coins, because those two were all he had. Urban living has hardened me to an extent, making me forget what sparing some change really does for the homeless, but I can honestly say there won’t be a day in my life when I don’t have the desire to help others. I didn’t pack religion with me on my way to Boston at age 18. It doesn’t really thrive here the way it would in a New Jersey suburb. I know we’re in the middle of Lent, but I’m not doing anything about it. I’m not abstaining from anything or actively trying to keep the seven sins at bay. I do reflect, though. I stay mindful, and I treat every person I meet with kindness. Our generation is statistically the least religious of any before us, but we’re navigating through with the experiences we were raised on. Maybe we’ve shed certain traditions because they don’t make sense anymore. The word “religion” itself is starched and heavy, outdated. We’re not followers to faith, we are patchers, patching together what rings true in our minds and hearts. -Angelica Recierdo can be reached at Inside@HuntNewsNU.com
Venture off the beaten path to the Brattle Theatre, notorious for playing experimental films and unconventional festivals, and see Recycled Cinema: An Experimental Shorts Program. Crows & Sparrows, a film initiative that curates works from East Asia, has partnered with Balgan, an experimental screening series, to produce this innovative program. The program draws its inspiration from the collaboration of animator Lei Lei and archivist Thomas Sauvin called “RECYCLED.” The screening includes various short films, clips and cartoons that explore memories forgotten and try to reimagine history as well as a Q&A with the filmmakers involved, including Lei Lei. 40 Brattle Street; 7 - 9 p.m.; $11.
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H u n t N e w s NU. c o m
T h u r s d ay , M a r c h 19, 2015
sports
Indoor track and field season comes to a close By David Konowitch News Correspondent
The Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America (IC4A)/Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships, hosted by Boston Univer-
sity (BU) March 6-8, concluded the Northeastern men’s and women’s track and field teams’ indoor season. The men placed 12th of 46 schools, amassing 25 points, while the women finished in 43rd place, scoring only one point. On the men’s side, Monmouth University
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
Junior vaulter Jacilyn Briggs placed eighth at the IC4A/ECAC Championships on March 6-8.
took the top spot with 58 points, and the University of Connecticut won on the women’s field with 53 points. “We are a very young team with almost every contributor coming back next year,” Director of Track and Field Cathrine Erickson said in an interview with Northeastern University Athletics following the meet. Overall, the men had 11 finishers in the top 10 and the women had six finishers in the top 25. The men opened the scoring in the heptathlon, in which freshman multisport competitor Nick Fofana placed second overall, scoring 5,086 points and earning eight points for his team. Graduate student sprinter Damani Wilson finished seventh in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.71 seconds to grab two points for the Huskies. Sophomore sprinter Kyle Darrow continued his dominance in the long jump, winning the event with a leap of 7.53 meters, half a meter more than his closest competitor. In a sixth-place performance, the 4x400-meter relay team of junior sprinter Donovan Henry, redshirt senior sprinter Joshua Norris, sophomore sprinter Anthony Pavlich and senior sprinter Jared Lane broke the indoor school record with a time of 3:12.75. The team eclipsed the 35-year-old record by .04 seconds. “Kyle Darrow and Nick Fofana did a great job putting us in the lead after day two with a really impressive impact from just a sophomore and freshman,” Erickson said. “The 4x400 breaking the indoor school
record was also a highlight of the meet as we say goodbye and thank you to Josh Norris. He finished his collegiate eligibility with a 47.5 split on the second leg of the relay. Donovan, Damani and Anthony also ran extremely well during the relay.” The 4x800 meter relay team of freshman middle-distance runner James Navin, sophomore middledistance runner David McDonald, freshman distance runner Ben Trapani and sophomore middle-distance runner Connor Quinn rounded out the scoring on the track by placing eighth with a time of 7:46.02. The Huskies placed two throwers in the top 10 in the shot put, with redshirt senior Kevin Rosenberg placing eighth and freshman Ryan Kim placing 10th with tosses of 16.11 and 15.74 meters, respectively. The women’s team was highlighted by two performances off the track, starting with lone point-scorer junior vaulter Jacilyn Briggs, whose vault of 3.85 meters earned an eighth-place finish. Freshman jumper Kelsey Sullivan cleared the high jump bar at 1.64 meters and finished 13th in the event. The following weekend, March 14 and 15, the Huskies sent sophomore middle-distance runner Paul Duffey to compete in the 800-meter race at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Indoor Championships. Entrance into the competition is based on finishes throughout the season. With Duffey’s five first-place finishes in vari-
ous events, he qualified for the competition in Fayetteville, Ark. Duffey, the current school record holder in the indoor 800-meter race, entered the championship seeded 12th of 16 participants and was the first Husky to qualify in the indoor championships since 2012-13. Going into the meet, Erickson acknowledged the strides that Duffey had made in just two years. “Going from being a less-thanhighly-recruited athlete to a top-15 nationally-ranked athlete is a true testament to Paul and to the program,” Erickson said. “We are putting the right pieces together for our student athletes to represent Northeastern on a very big stage.” Competing in the second heat, Duffey was contending with the top three runners during the first 400 meters. As the race concluded, the top three pulled away, and Duffey placed seventh in his heat and 14th overall with a time of 1:50.83. The time was his second fastest of the season and the seventh fastest in program history. “There are many takeaways for us to focus on as we move into the outdoor season and prepare for the outdoor championships,” Erickson said. “Given that this is Paul’s first time at the NCAA Championships, we are very proud of him.” The Huskies now shift their focus to the outdoor portion of their schedule where they begin the second half of spring season at the Carolina Classic in Carolina, Puerto Rico on March 20-21.
of six free throws and iced the game. “For about 37 minutes, we played about well as we could play,” Coen said. “[We] made shots, shared the basketball and just played Northeastern Husky basketball.” Ford said that defeating rival William & Mary, with whom the Huskies split the season series, made the moment that much more special. “Beating them for that last time felt so great,” Ford said. The first two rounds of the CAA tournament were a little more contested than the relative handling of William & Mary. In the opening game on March 7, NU slid past No. 6 University of Delaware in a 67-64 thriller. NU’s largest lead was eight points, as the game proved to be a backand-forth affair. The Blue Hens had a chance to take the lead, but
freshman guard Chivarsky Corbett missed a potential game-winner with 14 seconds to go. Husky junior guard David Walker (17 points, four rebounds) hit two free throws directly after to seal the deal. The next day’s semifinal matchup proved to be equally tough. NU took down the No. 2-seeded University of North Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW) in an intense 78-71 contest. Senior forward Scott Eatherton led the way with 21 points and five rebounds, and Walker chipped in 11 points, eight boards and five assists. It was NU’s bench that made the real difference. Donnelly, senior forward Reggie Spencer and freshman guard Devon Begley each tallied 11 points in the game. The matchup produced five ties and nine lead changes, but NU was able to best a UNCW team that had
defeated the Huskies twice during the regular season. NU pulled away for good in the game’s final minute, when Donnelly nailed a triple and then buried a pair of free throws to increase the Husky lead to eight. “We did a good job of really handling the ball in the second half and were able to get past them,” Coen said. After an exciting stretch of games, the Huskies headed down to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night to prepare for the bout with Notre Dame. For those not traveling, the game will be aired live on CBS on Thursday at 12:15 p.m. A viewing party for the Northeastern community will be held in the Curry Student Center indoor quad.
Basketball beats William & Mary to earn bid Tournament, From Page 1 Irish (29-5) won the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) tournament last Friday to earn the automatic bid. The Huskies and Fighting Irish have faced each other only once: in a 1997 game in South Bend, Ind. Notre Dame won the contest 72-45 and the two teams haven’t played since. Notre Dame has won eight of its last nine 2015 contests, including wins over Duke University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) in the ACC tournament. The aforementioned teams earned No. 1 and No. 4 seeds, respectively, in the NCAA. Coen said his team is aware it is about to face a powerhouse. “They’ve already beaten people this week that could vie for a national championship,” Coen said, speaking of Duke and UNC. “We’re gonna have our hands full.” The Fighting Irish averaged 78.8 points per game, ranking them as the 11th most-scoring offense in Division I Men’s Basketball by the NCAA. Senior guard Jerian Grant, who was named as a First Team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association, is the bearer of Notre Dame’s offensive keys. Head Coach Mike Brey’s squad ranks 11th in the nation in scoring and second in field goal percentage. The Irish have a bevy of scoring threats to flank Grant, including Massachusetts natives senior guard Pat Connaughton and junior forward Zach Auguste. “They’re very explosive, maybe the best offensive team in the country,” Coen said. “It’s a game of matchups and this one’s going to be a very difficult one for us.” NU will face the Irish at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday in Pittsburgh. The road to the Big Dance began with three Husky victories in three days in Baltimore. Teamwork was a major factor in the Husky’s CAA success. In the conference championship game on March 9, No. 3-seed NU held off a late comeback to topple the top-seed William & Mary and earn a 72-61 victory. Ford’s 22 points, four rebounds and three blocks helped NU capture its first-ever CAA title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies jumped out to an early 10-0 lead after two 3-pointers from Ford and didn’t look back.
NU was able to hold the lead thanks to strong shooting from both inside and beyond the arc; the team shot 59 percent from the field and 60 percent on 3-pointers in the victory. After going into halftime with a 36-26 lead, the Huskies grew the margin to as many as 22 when the game reached a 62-40 score line with six minutes to play. Redshirt junior guard Caleb Donnelly (13 points) hit three of his four 3-point attempts in the second half. Sophomore guard T.J. Williams and junior forward Zach Stahl combined for 29 points and eight rebounds. William & Mary senior guard Marcus Thornton (20 points) helped spark an incredible 16-0 Tribe run in a three-minute stretch towards game’s end, but the comeback effort fell short. The lead shrunk to 67-61 with 36 seconds to play, but NU hit five
For more photos, visit huntnewsnu.com
Photo by Arzu Martinez
The men’s basketball team reacts to hearing its first round opponent – third-seeded University of Notre Dame – on Sunday at Cabot Center.
H u n t N e w s NU. c o m
T h u r s d ay , M a r c h 19, 2015
sports
P a g e 11
Hockey loses in first round “I believe” chant lifts team spirits By Gordon Weigers News Correspondent
The first round of the Hockey East playoffs didn’t go as planned for the Northeastern men’s hockey team as it was swept at home by Merrimack College in two overtime games on March 6 and 7. Merrimack won the first game 3-2 in overtime and the second 2-1 in double overtime. Head Coach Jim Madigan returned to the Husky bench after serving a two-game suspension that kept him out for the final two games of the regular season. Madigan was suspended for unsportsmanlike behavior following games at the University of Maine and TD Garden. NU’s power play was a disappointment in both games, going 1-for-8 on Friday and 1-for-7 on Saturday. Forwards junior Mike McMurtry and sophomore Zach Aston-Reese tallied the Huskies’ only power-play goals in the series. Merrimack’s senior goalie, Rasmus Tirronen, allowed only three goals on 102 shots-on-goal over the course of the two games. “Their goalie was the difference in the series, plain and simple,” Madigan said. “If not for him, I’m singing a different song.” Merrimack got on the board first on Friday night with a power-play goal by junior forward Justin Hussar. Freshman forward Jace Hennig tipped a long shot past redshirt senior goalie Clay Witt in the second period to give Merrimack a 2-0 advantage through two periods. Under five minutes into the third,
Aston-Reese lasered a shot over the shoulder of Tirronen to bring NU within one goal. Just before the halfway mark of the period, McMurtry shoveled home a rebound on the power play to tie the game at 2-2. Still tied after three periods, NU and Merrimack took game one into overtime. Just one minute into the extra time, junior forward John Gustafsson took a tripping penalty that put NU on the power play. After a shot by Merrimack sophomore defenseman Matt Benning rang off the post, Warrior senior forward Kyle Singleton stormed up the ice and beat Witt on the glove side. After a scoreless first period on Saturday night, the Huskies opened the scoring in the second period. Redshirt senior forward Torin Snydeman’s shot from the crease was stopped by Tirronen, and the rebound came to sophomore forward John Stevens. Stevens’ shot was stopped again by Tirronen, but Aston-Reese backhanded the puck inside the post to put NU up 1-0. Merrimack answered less than five minutes later when Hennig chipped a loose puck past Witt, leveling the score at 1-1. No goals were scored in the third period and the teams geared up for overtime again. The first period went without a goal, forcing a second overtime. With under six minutes left, junior forward Kevin Roy made a rush through the Merrimack zone and got a shot on Tirronen. Tirronen steered the shot aside and was then pummeled by Roy who had built up a lot of speed. Roy
was handed a two-minute minor penalty for goalie interference and Merrimack went to the power play. On the power play, freshman forward Mathieu Tibbet sent a shot on goal between Witt’s legs. Witt’s pad nudged the puck just over the goal line before Aston-Reese flew in and cleared it away. Merrimack began to celebrate and NU kept playing. After a review, it was determined that Tibbet’s shot just crawled across the goal line, giving Merrimack the 2-1 win. “I’ve been here before, losing a game on the power play in overtime,” Madigan said. “The Beanpot and then today, it’s déjà vu all over again.” Saturday’s loss was the final college hockey game for Witt and Snydeman and seniors defenseman Dax Lauwers and forward Adam Reid. The four seniors addressed the Husky fans in a YouTube tribute this season. “I really think we have the best fans in college hockey,” Reid said. Aston-Reese led NU in goals in the series by scoring a goal in each of the two games. Aston-Reese’s production peaked in the final 11 games of the season, where he scored 10 goals and added three assists. In those same 11 games, NU’s leading scorer, junior forward Kevin Roy, scored eight goals along with 10 assists for 18 points. He finished the season with a total of 19 goals and 25 assists, good enough to put him in ninth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association scoring race.
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Photo by Ethan Kaley
Sophomore forward Zach Aston-Reese, 12, scored one goal in each of the two games against Merrimack.
For the first time since 1991, the Northeastern University Huskies are going to the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies punched their ticket to the Big Dance last weekend by winning their first ever Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) tournament title. The No. 14-seeded Huskies will face No. 3 Notre Dame on Thursday in Pittsburgh. NU finished the season with a 23-11 record (15-6 CAA) and won a share of the regular season championship along with the College of William & Mary, University of North Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW) and James Madison University. Due to tiebreakers, NU earned the No. 3 seed in the tournament, giving them a bye to the quarterfinal and one of the tougher paths to the championship. In their opening game in Baltimore, the location of the CAA tournament, the Huskies took on the sixth-seeded University of Delaware Blue Hens, the reigning CAA champions and the school that knocked off the Huskies in last season’s conference tournament. This turned out to be the closest and most nerve-wracking game of the team’s tournament run. NU held eight-point leads twice in the second half, but with 30 seconds left in the game, the Huskies only led by one. NU eventually won 67-64 by shooting nearly 55 percent from the floor and connected on seven of 13 3-point attempts (three apiece from junior guard David Walker and redshirt junior forward Quincy Ford and one by redshirt junior guard Caleb Donnelly). In the semifinals the next day, NU played the Michael Samaha Mike’s Hard Takes second-seeded UNCW Seahawks. The Seahawks swept the regular season series against the Huskies, but there was no way they were going to go 0-3 against the team this time. UNCW was the conference’s best defensive team all season, but after some early problems against the press, the Huskies figured out the defense, leading to 45 second-half points and 78 points in the game. The team shot well from the 3-point range for the second game in a row, hitting seven of 14 (Donnelly and freshman guard Devon Begley had two each and Walker hit three). After going back and forth for a majority of the game, NU took a 4847 lead with 11:40 left in the game on senior forward Reggie Spencer’s free throw and never looked back. The Huskies went on to win comfortably, 78-71. The championship game on March 9 was the true test. NU and William & Mary were the preseason picks to be at the top of the conference, and then played in the CAA championship game with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line. NU had a 24-year NCAA drought, but William & Mary is one of five schools to have never made the NCAA tournament. The topseeded Tribe was led by the conference’s Player of the Year and the program’s top career scorer senior Marcus Thornton. NU was also up against an arena about 80 percent filled with William & Mary fans and a student section almost 10 times the size of NU’s. The best way to combat that kind of crowd is getting off to a hot start, and that’s what the Huskies did. NU started the game on a 10-0 run, eight of which came from Ford. The Tribe fought back and tied the game at 15, but the Huskies never trailed. Northeastern quickly regained the lead on a Begley 3-pointer and took a 10-point lead into halftime, 36-26. Fans could feel the nervousness from the huge William & Mary crowd as the Tribe was held to 26 first-half points, something it wasn’t used to seeing from its super-efficient offense. Ford opened the second half with another three. The Husky lead grew to 13, but a 6-0 run got the Tribe crowd back in the game at 42-35, even leading to an “I believe that we will win” chant from the William & Mary student section. That chant fueled the Huskies, who proceeded to go on a 25-10 run of their own, resulting in a 22-point lead with 3:27 left in the game and a confident NU crowd that could already feel the win coming. But we knew the game couldn’t be that easy. Turnovers and missed free throws helped William & Mary go on a 16-0 run in three minutes. With 36 seconds left and a Tribe timeout, its student section proceeded with the “I believe” chant once again. The Huskies hit five free throws down the stretch and the Tribe didn’t score again, leading to a 72-61 NU victory and an “I believe” chant from the Husky students just before fans stormed the court and mobbed the players. Redshirt senior forward Scott Eatherton, junior guard David Walker and Ford were each named to the All-Tournament Team, with Ford winning the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award. The next game for the Huskies is Thursday against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies can get really hot from the perimeter (12 of 20 in the championship game and shooting 55 percent from 3-points during the conference tournament), and sometimes that’s all it takes to orchestrate a huge tournament upset. -Michael Samaha can be reached at Sports@HuntNewsNU.com.
Gover represents at NCAA By Jodie Ng News Staff
After a leading performance at the 2015 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Championships, freshman diver Jacquelyn Gover represented Northeastern in this year’s National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Zone A Diving Championships. “It was really intimidating,” Gover said. “I knew going into it – it was my first time. I didn’t really know what to expect so I just tried to stay positive and just have fun with it.” This year, the diving championships took place in Buffalo, N.Y. from March 9 to 11. The Husky competed in the 1- and 3-meter events in the preliminary qualifying round. On Wednesday, Gover dove six times from the 3-meter board to compile a score of 218.75. She earned 48th place out of 54 female divers. From the 1-meter
height on Thursday, she placed 50th of 57 with a score of 196.25. According to the first-year diver, Championships predictably brings fierce competition. Gover, who describes herself as competitive, feels that while her opponents may sometimes have better dives, she still tries to maintain a positive attitude. “I did well for being a freshman, but I definitely need to learn new skills because the dives these girls are competing with are incredible, so I really need to step up,” Gover said. “If I don’t have a great meet, it just motivates me to do more for the next meet and work harder. Especially when it came to Zones, it motivated me so much to get better for next year.” Gover explained that the trick is to constantly practice your dives and “fix the little mistakes.” Like any sport, it also has to do with mentality. “Confidence and being consistent is a big part of it,” Gover said.
Earlier this season, the North Easton native took the spotlight when she scored 286.35 points in the 1-meter dive on Jan. 17 against the University of Vermont. She also placed first in the 3-meter dive with 265.04 points at the Dartmouth Invitational the following week. Although Gover may have been the sole representative for the Huskies, the diving squad improved overall from last year. Along with the swim team, they placed fifth at this year’s CAA Championships, moving up from sixth place in 2014. The transition to college athletics can be both daunting and stressful, but Gover says she has enjoyed it, and everyone on the Northeastern swimming and diving team cheers for and supports each other. “We have a lot of fun,” she said. “We dance around, we blast our music, but we get all our work done and focus on getting better in a fun atmosphere, which is really nice.”
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
Freshman diver Jacquelyn Gover competed in the 1- and 3-meter dives at the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships March 9-11 in Buffalo.
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sports
H u n t N e w s NU. c o m
T h u r s d ay , M a r c h 19, 2015
Junior guard Walker ready to play entire game By Bailey Putnam Deputy Sports Editor
Junior guard David Walker was the backbone of the Northeastern men’s basketball team on its road to a Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship and subsequent bid into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Tournament. The 6-foot-6-inch Ohio native was on the court for 1,258 minutes this season and averaged 37 minutes a game, the most of any Husky. Walker was only absent from the floor for three total minutes in the CAA tournament that spanned over three games. Walker also shot 39.4 percent from beyond the arc, pouring in a team-high 67 3-pointers this season. Redshirt senior forward Scott Eatherton was the only one to top him in total points, netting 495 as a opposed to Walker’s 454. Walker shot 86.6 percent from the free-throw line. That statistic earned him the 28th spot among free-throw shooters nationwide. Walker dished out 119 assists this year, averaging 3.5 per game. He also led his team in steals with 40 this season. It’s easy to see why Head Coach Bill Coen credits much of NU’s lateseason success to Walker’s efforts. “Over the last four to five weeks, he’s been our best player,” Coen said. “He just does so much for us; he handles the ball, he gets us in the offense, he has great vision so he makes the game easier for his teammates.” Some of Walker’s best performances came down the final stretch of the season. On Feb. 12, he knocked down seven field goals and went five for six from the line to rack up 20 points against Hofstra University. A week later, he went went four for six from beyond the arc and tacked on five free throws for 21
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
Junior guard David Walker, 4, played 1,258 minutes in the 2014-15 season, shooting a team-high 67 3-pointers. According to Walker, the key for points as the Huskies toppled over Carolina-Wilmington and the chama top-seeded College of William & pionship matchup with William & his team of first-time tournament Mary. Walker only missed one free players will be to keep their nerves Mary team. Three days after that, he poured in throw the entire tournament and bur- in check and simply play their brand of basketball. a career-high 25 points in a thrilling ied three 3-pointers in each game. “We just have to go out and play It’s easy to look back at his pheovertime win over Drexel University on Senior Day. Walker was a perfect nomenal season, but Walker’s focus confidently,” Walker said. “We can’t 12 for 12 from the line and added six is aimed solely ahead at his first ap- play scared. We have to go out and execute, keep the ball moving and pearance in the NCAA tournament. more buckets on the Dragons. “Notre Dame is a great team,” not let the ball stick.” In the two games leading up to the The Huskies have relied on fastCAA tournament, Walker had 19- Walker said. “I’m anxious to get out paced ball movement all season to there and play the first game.” and 17-point performances. The bright lights and large stage create opportunities for shooters to He averaged 14.3 points per game in the tournament and played a full can be intimidating to any player get open looks. That style of play 40 minutes in both the semifinal who has never been on the Big will be their best ally against a redhot Notre Dame team that dropped game against University of North Dance court before.
90 points on University of North Carolina in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game. Walker will likely be called upon to have another marathon performance come Thursday. According to him, he’s ready to do whatever it takes. “If that’s what coach needs me to do, I’ll do it,” Walker said of playing another full 40 minutes. “I’m just happy that Coen trusts me enough to play me so much. Luckily I’m in shape and uninjured, so I’m able to play. I’m just happy to be able to play in this game.”
back on Monday to complete a sweep of Central Connecticut, riding a solid performance from junior pitcher James Mulry to earn a 5-2 victory. Mulry allowed one run in sixplus innings of work, striking out six batters. Offensively, Madigan led the Huskies with RBI singles in the first and ninth innings. NU scored its five runs on only six recorded hits. Redshirt sophomore closer Mike Fitzgerald earned his second save of the season with two innings of relief work, giving the team momentum heading into the Big Five Baseball Bash. NU started off its three games in the event on a particularly strong note, taking its first shutout of the season with a 7-0 victory over La Salle University in Philadelphia. The game was stuck in a 0-0 draw until the fifth inning, when the Huskies broke out for six runs. The scoring was highlighted by redshirt junior first baseman Rob Fonseca’s three-run home run, his second of the season. Berger contributed another impressive performance on the mound, allowing only two hits in seven innings. Berger also logged his 200th career strikeout. His performance last week earned him the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Co-Pitcher of the Week title. “Nick is so important to our team,” Glavine said. “Not only is he a great competitor, but he is also a great leader. It was a scoreless ballgame for five innings and his pitching gave us the confidence to finally break through with run support. He’s been around me for four years now, so he knows when to step in and take control of the game.” Day two of the event went poorly for the Huskies. Unable to string together a third consecutive victory, NU fell to the bats of
Wagner College by a score of 9-3. NU was able to sprinkle runs in during the second, fourth and eighth innings, but the Seahawks’ hitting was better. Wagner managed five runs on 10 hits off of Husky sophomore pitcher Dustin Hunt. Civale came in for relief of Hunt and fared no differently, allowing three runs. Wagner’s first four batters accounted for 12 of the team’s 16 hits. The Seahawks’ senior catcher, Nick Dini, went 4-4 on the day with three RBIs. “The talent is there for our team but we just need to put the pieces together,” Glavine said. “Once we can get our pitching and hitting down in the same game consistently, we’ll start to hit our stride.” In the team’s final game of the event, NU fell to Saint Joseph’s University 2-0 despite yet another strong pitching performance from James Mulry. Mulry allowed only one earned run on five innings pitched with a season-high 12 strikeouts, but due to a strong defensive performance from the Seahawks, one run was enough to seal their fate. The Huskies managed a disappointing three hits over the course of the game. “We need to adjust our hitting a little bit to work the middle of the field more,” Glavine said. “Nine guys have to show up in order for us to win games.” With four weeks now under their belts, the Huskies look forward to their first CAA series this weekend against the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The Seahawks are currently 12-5. “Naturally, the players are going to head into conference games with a little more intensity and a little more adrenaline,” Glavine said. “In our eyes, we’re heading into Wilmington with a clean 0-0 [conference record]. I’m expecting us to raise our game.”
NU baseball sweeps Central Connecticut in two By Ethan Schroeder News Staff
Over spring break, the Northeastern men’s baseball team experienced a roller coaster of wins and losses, finishing the week with a 3-3 record. The Huskies (7-9) began their spring break circuit on Saturday, March 7, stopping in New Britain, Conn. to take on Central Connecticut State and Brown universities. In the first of the two games against Central Connecticut, NU played its first extra-innings game of the season. Senior pitcher Nick Berger set the tone with seven innings on the mound, and Huskies claimed victory in the 11th inning by a score of 5-3. Berger squared off against the Blue Devils’ sophomore starter
Matt Blandino in a pitcher’s duel. Blandino lasted seven innings as well, giving up three runs on five hits. Berger allowed three runs on seven hits. NU was on pace to win the game in regulation, taking a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning, but Central Connecticut struck back with two runs to tie it up and force the game into extra innings. The deadlock was broken in the top of the 11th off of the bat of sophomore left fielder Joey Scambia. His two-run double down the right field line put the Huskies ahead, allowing sophomore reliever Aaron Civale to stifle the Blue Devils in their last at-bats and earn the victory. “Our pitching is starting to turn a corner,” Head Coach Mike Glavine said. “Our pitchers know
their roles. I really believe our best pitching is ahead of us. All it takes is a few minor adjustments now.” The next day, NU faced Brown on Central Connecticut’s field. The Huskies managed six runs on 12 hits, but the Bears blew open the game with a nine-run fifth inning, going on to win the game 13-6. The Huskies struck first with RBI hits from sophomore outfielder Pat Madigan and Scambia in the first inning, but their efforts proved to fall short. Brown took advantage of NU freshman reliever John Amendola for six hits and seven runs. From there, the Bears were able to buckle down and cruise to their first victory of the season. The game ended after eight innings due to darkness. Reeling from the loss, NU bounced
Photo courtesy Northeastern Athletics, Omar Rouhana
The Northeastern baseball team beat Central Connecticut and La Salle Universities over spring break.