The Huntington News February 14, 2025
@HuntNewsNU
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
Weeks into Trump administration, NU researchers wonder what’s next
CITY Boston City Hall earns landmark status Read about this historic building’s controversial history.
Photo by Jessica Xing
LIFESTYLE Love from the heart or love from your wallet? Has Valentine’s Day become too consumerist?
Graphic by Morgan Conway ALEXA COULTOFF News Staff Following Northeastern’s removal of nearly all diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, messaging from its websites and social media platforms Jan. 29, postdoctoral teaching associate Griffin Zimmerman sent a Canvas message to students in all four of his writing courses. Zimmerman told them he was cancelling class the next day to work on restructuring the curriculum, which
focuses on DEI and disability-related readings. After a student posted Zimmerman’s message online, Northeastern administrators called a meeting with the English professor, asking him to remove the message from Canvas. According to Zimmerman, the administrators told his supervisor that it was not the university’s intention to prevent faculty from teaching their classes as planned. “I didn’t want to give an opportunity for the university to become
Graphic and photos by Catherine Gore, Elizabeth Scholl and Nia Calais a target because my classroom was Northeastern was among the first continuing a focus that the univerhigher education institutions to resity needed to have rebranded,” said spond by instructing faculty Jan. 29 Zimmerman, who is transgender to report whether research funded and advocates for the inclusion of by the National Science Foundation marginalized students. involved DEI principles and state Zimmerman and other Norththat they have ceased any such eastern professors have been left research. The email was sent after in a state of confusion over what over 430 faculty attended a tense coursework and research can faculty senate meeting, which was continue in the wake of President dominated by conversations about Donald Trump’s slew of executive threats to federal research funds and orders that have axed DEI research the future of DEI. and programs on a federal level. FACULTY, on Page 2
CROSSWORD Solve The News’ February crossword! Answers will be revealed in the next print issue.
Graphic by Emma Liu
Op-ed: From Cupid to college cynic SAMANTHA DENECOUR Columnist Ah, the long-awaited Feb. 14 — Cupid is coming to town. Either you’re single and dreading Valentine’s Day, or you and your significant other have a Contessa reservation locked down and are wondering why everyone is being so darn negative about the whole dating thing. The happy couples have a point. Over the years, Generation Z singles have come to view the modern dating scene through an increasingly pessimistic lens — and there’s no lack of TikTok videos, articles and young people across college campuses to prove it. For every pleasant experience out there, it’s the dating “nightmares” that have captured our attention. The stats also look pretty murky: 79% of Gen Z feels burnt out by dating apps. Nearly half of young men have opted out of dating. A 2024 Hinge study found that although 90% of Gen Z report wanting to find love, crippling fears of rejection stand in the way. No doubt about it, this generation’s dating scene has gotten messy. But do our extreme levels of cynicism actually fix anything? Before the complaints from swaths of Valentine’s Day haters
start to roll in (no judgment, I’ve been guilty of it too), it’s time Gen Z takes some personal accountability for our role in shaping and perpetuating modern dating culture. We are living the ultimate dating irony: By incessantly complaining about problems in the dating world, we feed into them, transforming the inherently fun process of getting to know someone into an unenjoyable experience for everyone involved. For evidence of Gen Z’s dating cynicism, look no further than our daily vernacular on campus. If you eavesdrop on just one “study” session at Snell Library, it will quickly become clear that our generation is consumed with using negative, hyper specific terms to characterize our relationship experiences. Today, people are immediately written off as “red flags.” They “love bomb” by disingenuously showering you in affection far too soon or “ghost” conversations, unexpectedly halting communication without saying why. And how can we forget about the newest dating craze: the “situationship.” This undefined relationship status has become not only Gen Z’s new norm, but a term used to excuse any type of manipulative behavior under the sun. CUPID, on Page 10
Photo by Devyn Rudnick Passengers wait at the Nubian bus station. The EPA reported quality concerns with every tested area in Roxbury this year.
Clean air continues to evade Roxbury residents DEVYN RUDNICK News Staff Living in Roxbury for a week has the same health implications as smoking roughly 5.25 cigarettes. Toxic air pollutants have plagued Roxbury for at least a decade, according to collected Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, air emissions data. Air toxics are airborne substances that have eerily similar effects to
cigarettes when inhaled, causing serious health problems like fatal lung disease and cancer. Using an air quality index calculator, the real-world equivalent of these pollutants’ damage is revealed. A low-income and ethnically diverse community, Roxbury has developed into a mass transportation hub and an archetype of poor air quality in Boston. This past year, the EPA reported environmental justice concerns in every tested
sector in Roxbury. The neighborhood scores in the 90th percentile or worse, on several EPA measures of air toxicity, including cancer risk, respiratory hazard and proximity to hazardous waste. This puts Roxbury in the top 10% of environmental justice concerns for both the state of Massachusetts and the entire U.S. Other neighborhoods in the area, like Brookline, display no pressing environmental justice concerns. ROXBURY, on Page 2