The Huntington News March 11, 2022
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
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MARCH FOR UKRAINE IN BOSTON COMMON GATHERS THOUSANDS By Erin Fine News Staff Thousands attended a march Feb. 27 to show support for Ukraine, organized by Ukranian Northeastern student Diana Zlotnikova. The march began in the Boston Common and traveled down Newbury Street, with protestors bearing the blue and yellow of Ukraine’s flag and chanting “hands off Ukraine” and “stop the war.” A group led the march with a large heart made up of dozens of blue and yellow balloons. Since Russia invaded Ukrainian territory Feb. 24, over 2 million Ukrainians have fled the country. The tension between both countries is part of the larger Russo-Ukrainian conflict since 2014. Fourth-year business administration major Zlotnikova said as the invasion approaches its second week, her morale is low. “One of these really difficult moments for me this week is that for most people around me, for my
friends who don’t have a connection with Ukraine, realizing for the rest of them life goes on,” Zlotnikova said. “It’s a hard thing to process. While my world falls apart for some reason, for them nothing has happened.” Zlotnikova said Friday before the march, she expected about 350 participants, but over 5,000 people arrived to show their support. The march lasted for two hours, ending at the Massachusetts State House. “I really appreciate the amount of support we’re getting from around the university and our friends and people we don’t even know,” Zlotnikova said. While planning the march, she reached out to the Ukrainian communities at several colleges around Boston, including Northeastern, Harvard University, Boston University and Tufts University. The news of a march also spread swiftly through Ukrainian Facebook groups. Zlotnikova said the response was a widespread show of unity.
“We’re trying to stick together, to stay together,” Zlotnikova said. “We’re trying to be united. One of the main reasons [for the march is] … to show support to each other is because it’s a shared experience for everyone. Most of the people who are going to be participating in the march, they have family back in Ukraine, friends back in Ukraine.” While Russia continues its military invasion, some marchers with ties to Russia disagree with the actions of their homeland. Many Russians and Ukrainians alike have loved ones in the country that they are now at war with. “It’s painful, and my husband is from Ukraine and I’m from Russia,” said Katya Brezgunova, a writer and co-founder of TurnPark Art Space, who attended the march. “None of my friends wanted this war, and it’s all because of one crazy dictator.” As a Ukrainian, Zlotnikova agrees. “It’s a war between Putin and the rest of the world,” Zlotnikova said.
“A lot of Russian people are showing so much sympathy. … Most of them support the idea that this war is totally pointless.” In many Russian cities, protestors are also taking to the streets in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, leading to hundreds of arrests per day.
The unity Zlotnikova brought together on Newbury Street is an echo of the togetherness of Ukraine allies from Boston to across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond. Northeastern students also had a significant presence at the march. TENSIONS, on Page 5
Photo by Erin Fine Ukrainian Northeastern student Diana Zlotnikova organized a march for Ukraine in Boston Common, traveling down Newbury Street Feb. 27.
WISE summit offers learning Northeastern ends opportunities for all mask mandate
Photo courtesy Meghan D’Arcy WISE is holding its second annual summit March 26 in ISEC, organized by several leading members including those pictured.
support each other,” said Ho Yan Ho, a fifth-year international affairs major and director of operations and logistics for the summit. “That’s really what the WISE community is about, we’re all there to support each other and empower each other, so I’m really excited to have the community be able to experience this on the summit.” WISE is a Northeastern student organization that strives to create an equitable environment in which women and nonbinary students from all majors are given the space and resources to develop entrepreneurial skills and foster innovative mindsets. “WISE was founded by two amazing women a few years back with the goal that it would be an entrepreneurial space for women and nonbinary people who may have not seen themselves represented in other Northeastern organizations,” said Meghan D’Arcy, a third-year business administration and design combined major and director of marketing for the summit. ENTREPRENEURSHIP, on Page 3
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By Adessa Jayne News Correspondent The Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship, or WISE, will be holding its second annual summit later this month. The event will feature a variety of speakers and workshop sessions centered around ingenuity and positive change within the field of entrepreneurship. Registration is $25 per person and will close March 20th.
The summit, which will be from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. March 26 in the Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Complex, is designed to serve as an opportunity to highlight the resources the organization has to offer while encapsulating the group’s culture of inclusivity and enthusiasm. “The environment that WISE events tend to bring is really invigorating, really energizing and people are there to learn and
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By Marta Hill Editor-in-chief Mandatory masks indoors are a thing of the past on Northeastern’s Boston campus. Starting March 5, masks are required in the University Health and Counseling Services building. The change was announced online Tuesday and in an email to students March 2. “The university is marking another milestone in its management of COVID-19 as we move to align our mask policy with recent public health guidance,” wrote Chancellor Ken Henderson and Provost David Madigan in the email. “The decision is guided by scientific data and the latest public health guidelines.” The change came just hours after the city of Boston announced its mask mandate for most indoor settings would lift March 5. The reaction from students has been mixed. Some on Reddit have expressed excitement that masks will no longer be required. Others wish
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Northeastern would keep the mask mandate in place longer. Still others think there should be a policy in between, such as requiring masking in certain situations. For fourth-year computer science major Marley Robinson, the change was expected but still disappointing. She said since Northeastern did away with mandatory testing, it has been clear masking was also coming to an end and that the university was just waiting for Boston to change its guidance. Robinson is the president of Diversability, a disability advocacy and education group awaiting club approval at Northeastern. She said the sentiment among club members is that the change doesn’t consider those at higher risk. “In all email announcements about anything related to COVID, they always pivot the story to make it seem like we’re a majority healthy and young community,” Robinson said. “They don’t even really mention any disabled people who are on campus COVID-19, on Page 3
Photo by Kayla Shiao