The Huntington News September 3, 2020
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
@HuntNewsNU
NORTHEASTERN REOPENS UNIVERSITY RELIES ON TESTING, DISTANCING FOR SAFE SEMESTER
The Cy Young statue wears a mask. Face coverings are mandatory on campus, indoors and outdoors.
A decal covers the steps of Snell Library. Signs around campus encourage students to wear face coverings.
Claire Pettit, NU admissions counselor and 2020 graduate, sits outside the Visitors Center answering questions for prospective students who are not allowed in the building.
Northeastern has set up four tents on campus, each able to seat up to 50 people for outdoor dining.
There are maximum capacity signs placed around campus in compliance with the state’s guidelines on gatherings. By Charlie Wolfson and Deanna Schwartz, News Staff
O
n Sept. 9, Northeastern students will file into classrooms to begin the fall 2020 semester. That’s where the similarities begin and end between this semester and any on record. More than five months after students were ordered to vacate residence halls as the nation scrambled into a semi-lockdown in March, Northeastern will open its doors for in-person classes. While new COVID-19 cases pile up in the region and the country, the university devised an ambitious viral testing program that it hopes will keep the virus from derailing the fall semester as it did the spring. The college experience, though not online-only like at some other institutions, will be almost unrecognizable to returning students. Face coverings are mandatory on campus, indoors and outdoors.
Social distancing is a requirement, so there’s no crowding a table with friends in Curry Student Center or Snell Library. No visitors are allowed in residence halls. Fall varsity sports have been postponed to at least January, and if hockey and basketball play this season, no fans will likely be allowed into Matthews Arena to watch. Off-campus parties are now viewed as potential superspreader events, but many students fear that some of their peers will crowd into neighborhood apartments anyway. The university has urged students to maintain social distancing, using community peer pressure and warning students that they could face suspension for large gatherings. The building that housed Chicken Lou’s until spring 2020 was gutted in August. The Cy Young statue on campus wears a face mask. REOPENING, on Page 6
Photos by Samantha Barry
President Aoun speaks on reopening, diversity By Kelly Chan, George Barker and Deanna Schwartz, News Staff
Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun spoke with The News in an hour-long video call Aug. 18 about Northeastern’s plans to reopen for the fall 2020 semester and about his anti-racism and diversity goals for the university. Below are six key takeaways from the interview.
1
Aoun is confident in Northeastern’s safety measures.
When asked about outbreaks at schools that have already reopened, such as UNC-Chapel Hill, Aoun pointed out that Northeastern will
be testing every member of the community regularly, including those who are asymptomatic. Aoun emphasized the quick turnaround time and easy process of Northeastern’s testing facilities as a measure that will keep the community safe, in addition to reduced density on
campus and contact tracing. He also said Northeastern has looked to Europe and Asia for guidance on how to safely reopen the community. He said a key factor in avoiding an outbreak at Northeastern will be a “community of responsibility.” “If, God forbid, any student has
File photo by Brian Bae COVID-19, then they are going to be taken care of by Tufts Medical Center in a personalized way,” he said. When asked if Northeastern’s plan guarantees no one will die from COVID-19, Aoun said that “no one in the whole nation and no one
in the whole world can guarantee anything.” He emphasized that Northeastern is one community and said that he trusts the student body to take the proper precautions. AOUN, on Page 2