The Huntington News April 1, 2022
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
@HuntNewsNU
UPPERCLASSMAN HOUSING NOT GUARANTEED FOR 2023 FIRST-YEARS By Chunyu (Andy) He News Correspondent With the recent uptick in enrollment, Northeastern has changed its housing policy to accommodate the growing size of the student body. Beginning Fall 2023, Northeastern will only guarantee first- and second-year housing for incoming classes, while accommodations will still be available to students beyond their second year. Prior to the change, Northeastern offered its students guaranteed housing for four years. “To clarify, this is not effective immediately; the incoming firstyear class of Fall 2023 will not have guaranteed upperclassmen housing. Nothing changes for students currently enrolled,” Northeastern spokesperson Shannon Nargi wrote in an email statement to The News March 21. The change in guaranteed housing may be less impactful than it appears for some students because there are many options for off-campus housing. “It is important to note that the vast majority of upper-class students already choose to live off-campus,” Nargi wrote. Several students who spoke to The News already foresee themselves choosing to live off-campus as
upperclassmen after being required to live on-campus for their first and second years. The co-op program creates a unique schedule for housing as many students come and go during each school year. Jessica Gudin, a first-year business administration and economics combined major, said she believes that she will be living off-campus because of her co-op. “I do think I’ll be living off-cam-
pus, probably once it is time for my co-op cycle, as I won’t be in classes for that time and won’t need to be on campus. Also, co-op goes into the summer, and only some of Northeastern’s housing is designated as summer housing,” Gudin said. Along with co-op, housing selection numbers also play a role in students’ decision-making. Students with a high selection number might not get their desired housing. Ezgi
Bas, a first-year computer science and mathematics combined major, said the possibility of getting a bad selection number might motivate her to move off-campus. “It also depends on my selection numbers. With the possibility of getting a bad selection number, I might go off-campus,” Bas said. Even for students taking classes, many choose to live off-campus after their second year at Northeastern.
Photo by Marta Hill International Village, alongside East Village, is one of the dorms that will see new beds added this summer as part of Northeastern’s broader plan to accommodate the increased student body.
“I am sure I will be living off-campus for my third and fourth year at Northeastern. My friends and I have always talked about getting an apartment together because we don’t have to worry about not getting the housing we want or being separated,” said Elizabeth Mashini, a first-year health science and business administration combined major. Despite wanting to live off-campus, Mashini believes that Northeastern should still guarantee upperclassman housing. Guaranteed housing provides more security to students, as renting an apartment as a college student can be difficult. “I have never rented a place by myself or with other people, [I] foresee potential conflicts that might arise from the process. For many students who do not want to deal with that, it is important for the school to provide them a place to stay during their third and fourth year,” Mashini said. Finding off-campus housing has many obstacles, even in a busy and populated city like Boston. The city’s housing shortages are a continual problem, and students’ lack of experience in renting apartments presents further issues. ON-CAMPUS, on Page 3
‘The Embrace’ memorializes Boston’s civil rights history, provides immersive experience By Katie Mogg News Staff Boston has a long standing and intricate civil rights history and Hank Willis Thomas, a New Yorkbased artist and photographer, is working alongside local architects and organizations to immortalize one part of it. They are creating a monument titled “The Embrace” to honor Martin Luther King Jr. The 22-foot-high sculpture sitting on a circular, granite plaza is slated to be placed in Boston Common Jan. 16, 2023. Based on an image of civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr., or MLK, and his wife Coretta Scott King, “The Embrace” depicts the loving connection shared
between the couple after MLK was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The monument aims to memorialize the civil rights work of MLK and Coretta Scott King while highlighting other prominent figures of Boston’s Black history. “I’ve seen racial inequities in my city and it’s actually unfortunate that that’s what my city is known for,” said Sam Giarratani, a Boston native and public art manager who works closely with Thomas at the Songha & Company art studio in Brooklyn, New York. “So this project was really thought about to help address those conversations … [The monument] shouldn’t be a stopping point. It should be the genesis for change.”
The process to assemble and install “The Embrace” is finally underway, and the vision of a monument emulating Boston’s civil rights movement was years in the making. In 2019, King Boston, a branch of The Boston Foundation dedicated to honoring the legacy of MLK and Coretta Scott King, selected Thomas’ proposal of “The Embrace” after sorting through hundreds of monument designs submitted to their competition. Thomas could not be reached by The News for an interview. Jonathan Evans, principal architect at MASS Design Group, a local firm collaborating with Thomas and King Boston to bring “The Embrace” to life, said the monument honors Black history in more
ways than one. Not only will “The Embrace” immortalize the advocacy work of Corretta Scott King and MLK, but the plaza will honor 65 figures who contributed to the civil rights movement while shining light on unique aspects of African American culture. “Looking at how we patterned the stone … the plaza feels like it’s a quilt, which evokes certain connections to African American quilt-making and folklore around the Underground Railroad,” Evans said. “There’s other layers of the story that we’re trying to tell here with the design.” Evans explained that the monument is meant to provide an immersive experience. Visitors
can walk around and through the large, embracing arms, allowing them to feel particularly connected to the work and the values it represents. He hopes the monument’s inviting design will inspire visitors to actively fight against racism in Boston. “How do we actually try to inspire people to take action, inspire people to care and have a little bit of empathy and a little bit of agency to do something? That was a lot of the underpinnings of the project.” Evans said. “[We want to] leave it to the user to think through what [the monument] means to them, but I think the hope is that it does make you feel something.” STATUE, on Page 5
LIFESTYLE
CITY
MULTIMEDIA
Read about third-year student Rachel Domb’s plant-based snack business.
Learn about the Green Line Extension that opened to the public March 21.
Check out our podcast about this week’s top stories.
Student-run snacking business Rooted Living
PAGE 9
Green Line Extension in Somerville
Photo courtesy Rachel Domb
PAGES 6-7
Hot Off the Press: a recap podcast
Photo by Avery Bleichfeld