March 20, 2026

March 2o, 2026

The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community

‘It’s a second home’: Black students speak out against new limited hours at JDOAAI

Northeastern implemented new operating hours for the university’s cultural and spiritual life, or CSL, centers on the Boston campus, including the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute, prompting backlash from Black student leaders.

The changes were made to strengthen building safety meas-

ures, Chief Belonging Officer Richard O’Bryant and Dean of Cultural Life Robert Jose told The Huntington News March 18.

The institute, previously accessible to students 24 hours a day, will now be open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

“I’ve been at Northeastern now for more than 23 years, and as time has gone on, we have seen security concerns continue to grow over time,”

O’Bryant said. “The accessibility of

our facilities is fairly well-known.”

O’Bryant said conversations about changing the institute’s operating hours have gone on for years, but the shooting at Brown University last December “raised everybody’s level of concern and attention to the issue of security.”

Jose said there are exceptions to the hours and the institute’s administration is willing to work with students on a case-by-case basis.

Colloquially referred to as “the

Northeastern staple Two Saints Tavern closes

PEFFER News Staff

Boston residents, Northeastern students and regulars gathered at Two Saints Tavern March 8 to celebrate one final night at the bar, which announced the day prior it would be closing after over 10 years.

“[There were] a lot of emotions. Finally saying my farewells and

goodbyes that night, it was definitely tough, but it felt like a sense of accomplishment and success,” said Jonathan Donley, the head of promotions and booking manager for Two Saints.

The news of the bar’s closure surprised employees just as much as neighbors, who were frequent and enthusiastic patrons.

Chuck Hitchcock, the bar’s man-

aging partner, said the staff went “above and beyond” every night.

“It’s a disappointment you have to end that,” Hitchcock said. “It’s the best feeling in the world — when you get to make it just the most amazing night for somebody.”

Hitchcock said insurance costs were the main reason behind Two Saints’ closing.

OPINION

President Aoun, we need to talk

Read the Editorial Board’s appeal for transparency.

CAMPUS

Students share views on campus safety

Read about the results of a Huntington News survey.

CROSSWORD

Solve The News’ March crossword!

Answers will be revealed in the next print issue.

Tute,” the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute, or JDOAAI, is the heart of Northeastern’s Black community, serving as a center of support and belonging on the Boston campus. The Tute acts as a study spot, an event space for the university’s more than 35 Black student organizations, or BSOs, a resource hub and a refuge from Northeastern’s fast-paced, somtimes-demanding culture.

Trump attacked their universities. These students reported on it.

In late March 2025, Adri Pray, then editor-in-chief of Emerson College’s student newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon, stood in front of a room of more than 40 staffers. Immigration agents had just detained Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student, in Medford after she co-wrote an op-ed for the university’s student-led newspaper. The heightened anxiety among the staff, particularly international students, was palpable.

Addressing the group, Pray directed anyone concerned about stories they had published to talk to her if they were worried about their legal status. In meetings, she told her editors to press on with their work, which often openly criticized the federal government as well as university administrators.

Privately, she was terrified.

“I am the leader here, like holy God,” Pray recalled thinking last spring. “I have to remember that people are looking to me to be the example as to how to be a journalist

through these unprecedented times, and I barely know what I’m doing because I’m 22, 21 at that time.” Since the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term, student journalists have been on the front lines, covering high-stakes issues including international student visa revocations, massive research funding cuts and university affiliates appearing in the Jeffrey Epstein files. Throughout the year, pressure mounted on young journalists as the Trump administration put universities under a spotlight.

A few miles away from Pray that same week, in Medford, Josué Pérez of The Tufts Daily was in the throes of reporting on Öztürk’s unprecedented detention, which millions decried as an abuse of her First Amendment rights. Pérez, a thirdyear sociology major who is now editor-in-chief, said he’d stay at The Tufts Daily’s office until midnight each day when the story first broke. On March 25, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents detained Öztürk.

Survey suggests Northeastern students feel safe but are unaware of university’s active shooter protocol

DANIELA RYNOTT AND LILY COOPER News Staff and Campus Editor

Three months after two students were killed and nine were injured in a shooting at Brown University, Northeastern students say they feel safe on campus, but the majority are not aware of the university’s safety protocols in the event of an active shooter.

The shooting, and subsequent murder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro in his Brookline, Mass., home by the perpetrator Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, left students shaken and prompted universities across the country to restrict building access and institute other campus security measures.

Northeastern, however, has not publicly announced similar measures, prompting concern from faculty and students.

In a survey conducted by The Huntington News, more than 84.4% of student respondents said they don’t know what Northeastern’s on-campus active shooter procedures are, despite the Northeastern University Police Department saying it conducts training during new student orientation.

Still, Northeastern Chief of Police Ruben Galindo said the university is prepared for major incidents and takes a proactive approach to safety.

Columbia University, Tufts University and Harvard University, implemented mandatory ID swipes to access university buildings. Northeastern has not announced similar restrictions.

During a Feb. 11 faculty senate meeting, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Beth Winkelstein said that doors will remain unlocked due to Northeastern’s “open campus,” but that safety protocols will be prioritized.

Northeastern’s “open” Boston campus, located in the heart of the city, is patrolled by Northeastern University Police Department, or NUPD, officers and monitored through the department’s 1,200 cameras, according to Galindo.

When asked to rate how safe they feel on campus on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 representing the least safe and 10 being the most safe, roughly 76.6% of students responded with an 8, 9 or 10.

Despite this, 84.4% of student respondents said they do not know what Northeastern’s on-campus active shooter procedures are, and only 15.5% said they would feel prepared if an incident occurred.

Northeastern’s Emergency Planning webpage states that students must “determine whether to run, hide, or fight” in an emergency situation. Galindo also recommended students use the SafeZone mobile safety app.

“We are always on high alert here. In every single shift, we deploy with the anticipation of a major incident happening on campus,” Galindo said in an interview with The News. “We work in a very proactive fashion here.”

In the wake of the Brown shooting, multiple universities, including

He said that, over the past five years, the university has been working on a new security system which would require CBORD Mobile ID tap to access all exterior doors across the university’s global campus network.

In February, The News conducted a survey of Northeastern students prompting them to reflect on on-campus safety and active shooter procedures.

In addition to mandatory trainings at orientation, Galindo said the university offers several initiatives to train students on campus safety, including Preparedness Day and situational awareness training.

While there has never been an active shooter situation on Northeastern’s campus, several recent safety concerns near Northeastern’s Boston campus have heightened awareness of crime in the area.

NUPD’s intelligence-based approach.

“We have constant communications with something called the BRIC, the Boston Regional Intelligence Center,” Galindo said. “They have a morning call where they discuss any threats that are currently being spoken about in Boston, within the region of Massachusetts, New England and beyond.”

In the event of an active threat, Northeastern has several emergency response systems to update students. This includes NU Alert, an emergency notification system that sends notifications and alerts to registered student phone numbers and emails.

One of the most noticeable safety systems in place is the network of over 100 blue light phones.

In case of emergency, students can press the phone’s red emergency button, and an NUPD dispatcher will answer the line. If a student has a non-emergency inquiry or requires an NUPD safety escort, they can press the phone’s black button or dial 2121.

‘It’s a second home’:

Black

In May 2025, the body of 21-yearold Tatyiana Flood was found outside the Alice Heyward Taylor apartments on Annunciation Road — about 0.2 miles from Ruggles Station. In June, a man was charged with Flood’s murder. In July, a man was arrested after allegedly groping a student outside of EXP.

Earlier, in 2019, a 21-year-old man was arrested after shots were fired in Ruggles Station. No one was injured, according to an email The News received from NUPD at the time.

“It gets a little sketchy at night,” Remi Aaron, a first-year cybersecurity major, said of Ruggles station. “I’ve had people try to talk to me and ask for money.”

Galindo attributes the lack of active shooter situations on campus to

This approach, he said, allows NUPD to identify potential threats in advance.

“We listen to all the municipal radio communications from police departments, so if they’re looking for a suspicious car, suspicious person, we immediately focus all our camera systems to see if we can identify a threat before it makes its way on campus,” Galindo said.

James Alan Fox, a research professor of criminology at Northeastern and co-creator of the Mass Killing Database, emphasized that incidents like the shooting at Brown remain uncommon.

“I have a list of all the cases of [incidents on] university campuses where there’s been at least two people killed in the shooting, and from 1990 to the present, over the 35 years … there has been an average of one a year, and that’s out of over 3,000 schools,” Fox said.

Galindo emphasized that while being in the city, especially at night, may put students on edge, NUPD is constantly working to ensure student safety.

“We understand at night, in any big city, you’re going to feel a little uncomfortable, but we try to keep campus feeling as safe as possible with these strategies,” he said.

students speak out against new limited hours at JDOAAI

“The Tute for Black students is basically like a home base,” said Kaylin Daniels, a third-year political science and economics combined major.

Dirk Rodricks, senior director for cultural and spiritual life, initially announced the change in a Jan. 20 email.

“Effective immediately, [Cultural and Spiritual Life] program spaces will close at 8:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and at 5:00 pm on Fridays, which may affect some student organization meetings or programs,” the email reads.

The operating hours have since been extended to 9 p.m.

In response to the change, many leaders of BSOs called on the university to implement alternative safety procedures that do not limit students’ access to the space.

“Although other study spaces exist, this is one of the few places where we feel genuinely safe, supported, and able to be ourselves,” a petition, which was written by BSO leaders and garnered 474 signatures as of publication, reads. It asks the university to reverse its decision.

Additionally, a group of BSO leaders submitted a referendum question Feb. 27 to the Student Government Association, or SGA,

asking, “Do you support pausing the proposed safety changes at the John D. O’Bryant African American Institute and working with BSO leaders to find safety solutions that do not limit student access?”

SGA passed the JDOAAI referendum March 9, meaning it will appear on the ballot in the student body president elections.

Students said the new hours push them out of a place on Northeastern’s campus where they feel fully safe and seen, especially at a university that is a primarily white institution.

Additionally, they feel blindsided by the change, which was implemented “without any prior notification or discussion with any of the students who would be affected,” Daniels said.

Arsema Gebreyesus, a third-year cybersecurity and criminal justice combined major and academic chair of ColorStack, described coming to the institute as a “homecoming.”

“I don’t think I would still be at Northeastern if it wasn’t for the Tute, especially the staff. They care so much about you,” Gebreyesus said.

Phylicia Dias, a third-year music industry and communication stud-

ies combined major and co-president of the Northeastern Black Student Association, said that, at the end of her first year, she felt disconnected from the Black community on campus. Once she “tapped into the institute’s beauty,” her college experience improved significantly.

On March 11, Jose and other institute staff members met with BSO leaders to discuss their concerns.

“We did not consult with them before the decision was made, and for that we apologized. We wanted to let them know, one, why this decision was made and what would be done to get us through the remainder of the semester,” Jose said.

Jose emphasized that the university wants to foster an open dialogue with students about their concerns.

“We have spoken to the students … who have been working on the petition and the referendum. We understand that they are interested in raising their voices and sharing their concerns and we have been receptive to the conversations with them,” Jose said.

BSO leaders have been brainstorming other solutions that balance student safety while maintaining access to the institute, such as requiring students to scan their

Husky ID to enter the JDOAAI after hours.

“One of the things that we are working on is getting the lock on the front door changed from a standard key lock to a tap ID lock that can be programmed to be locked at a certain hour, as well as programmed to allow access to those who need it,” O’Bryant said.

The current operating hours are temporary until JDOAAI administrators and Northeastern administration can find a more permanent solution, O’Bryant said.

While students are dedicated to finding alternative solutions, some are concerned about retaliation from university administration, especially against the institute’s staff, who are not involved in the student-led advocacy effort.

“[The staff are] so integral to running the Tute and making sure our experiences are so great,” Daniels said. “There is a concern about them … being retaliated against for having an opposing view to what the university is trying to do.”

Dias acknowledged the apology but argued that leaders higher up should also be held accountable.

“I appreciate them apologizing, [but] it’s more so a decision that

was made over them,” Dias said in a March 18 interview. “The real issue has been the people above, the Northeastern administration. They’re making some decisions without student perspective.”

Students said the change is just the latest in a long list of ways Northeastern has been diminishing the experiences of Black and brown students amid President Donald Trump’s second term.

In January 2025, Northeastern quietly rebranded its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, or DEI, to the “Office of Belonging,” days after Trump signed an executive order calling for investigations into “egregious and discriminatory” DEI programs.

Some students of color feel that the university’s profit and brand are prioritized over student experience. Daniels said some students feel valued by university administrators only when it is advantageous to them.

“I, personally, think that Northeastern can’t advertise this diversity and this massive sense of belonging in this international community if they are not going to protect the students that they’re trying to attract,” Daniels said.

“We’re not just spaces you can put on your social media. We have needs, and community is a big part of that.”

Bostonians reflect on historic harsh winters

ELISE PEFFER News Staff

This year, Boston experienced severe back-to-back storms, resulting in the heaviest snow accumulation in almost three decades. In January alone, Boston and neighboring cities received more than 25 inches of snow, according to a WCVB StormTeam report. On top of that, Southeast Massachusetts received over three feet of snow in February.

At Northeastern University, classes and administrative offices moved to remote operations Jan. 26 and Feb. 23, according to the university’s social media posts at the time. Boston University, Boston College and Emerson College closed their campuses as well, while Harvard University also moved online.

Reflecting after recent weather, Winchester resident Penelope Metropolis remembered a historic April 1997 storm fondly.

“It was really beautiful, with this white, pristine snow against the backdrop of a very blue sky,” she said.

Giuseppe Graceffa and his family moved to Allston in 1972, settling in the second unit of a three-decker house.

Throughout his early childhood, he could always count on seeing snow in the winter.

“I always remember white Christmases and the snow was there in December, and it left in late February, early March. It was very consistent. It was always white on the ground,” Graceffa said.

While nostalgic, the snow wasn’t always fun, Graceffa recalled, citing the infamous blizzard of 1978.

“I remember coming out as a kid, it was almost up to my neck of snow, and it was probably three to four days before there was any inkling of clearing the main roads … It was just pure quiet. Nothing

was moving. I remember it like it was yesterday,” he said.

But as a child, snowstorms didn’t keep Graceffa indoors — if anything, they pulled him outside. He said he would carry his skates three miles to a frozen pond in Brighton where he and his brothers would stay out all day playing hockey.

Metropolis described snow as a source of joy. She fondly recalled

because it’s happening. We can’t control it, so you might as well get into the mood of the whole thing,”

Metropolis said.

For lifelong Boston resident Kristen Furnas, being snowed-in was her ideal calm before and during the storm.

“Honestly, embrace it. I feel like there’s not many times in life where you can feel comfortable not doing anything, so I feel like snowstorms are

“We’ll go for a walk around, check out what’s going on around the town. People are shoveling around, some people go skiing. That’s always fun to watch. They’ll go down the hills [and] around the town. Just [to] kind of get the lay of the land, see what’s going on,” Groeninger said.

Metropolis said she developed a reliable ritual for winter days: After a long day of shoveling her driveway, she winds down with a good book and her go-to homemade hot chocolate. Along with creating reliable habits like hers, she recommended Boston residents make sure they have a good pair of snow boots and brave the cold to explore the snow-capped city sights.

countless sled rides with her daughter and time spent watching the snow fall from her window.

“I love the feeling of being cozy inside with a book and some hot chocolate and watching the snow. My attitude is just to embrace it

one of those moments where doing less, or really nothing at all, is like the right thing to do,” Furnas said.

For Kevin Groeninger, a resident of South Boston, taking a leisurely walk with his roommates around the neighborhood is a go-to activity.

“Just going around and seeing Back Bay and Beacon Hill. To me, it always looks kind of like something out of a Charles Dickens novel. When you see the lights on, and the snow and the glow coming from somebody’s house, it’s rather magical,” she said.

Groeninger recommended finding a variety of fun indoor activities to try with friends while hiding out from the cold.

“[I] definitely recommend having a movie or TV show that maybe you and your roommates or college friends have been planning on watching and have a movie marathon,” Groeininger said. “Trying a board game you haven’t really tried out much before, making a new meal you haven’t tried out before — I think [those would] be really fun activities.”

Although the winter might be intimidating, Furnas said people should stay positive and be grateful.

“I think we’re super lucky to live in a place where we have seasons and we have snow. I know it’s somewhat of an inconvenience, but honestly, go out and explore. I think it’s important to pause and enjoy it,” Furnas said.

Northeastern staple Two Saints Tavern closes doors after 10 years

Hitchcock said their insurance company, AmGUARD, was exiting the hospitality and liquor liability market, forcing the bar and grill to manage rising insurance costs amid inconsistent sales and limited options to switch insurers.

As of April 2025, the bar was paying an insurance quote of about $82,000, according to a document Hitchcock shared with The Huntington News.

“It’s disappointing. The insurance was the final nail in the coffin, where, when you go from $17,000 a year to $80,000, there goes your entire margin. It’s just an unsustainable prospect,” Hitchcock said.

Azubuike Eleonu, who goes by the DJ name Zazu, has been a resident DJ and promoter for Two Saints since 2023. For him, the bar’s closing was devastating.

“I was crying in the car, [thinking], ‘Does this mean I’m not going to see the students or the team any-

more?’” Eleonu said. “Everybody in that venue, from the students to the staff to security to the promoters, I built a connection with all of them.”

Two Saints’ proximity to Northeastern’s campus made it the go-to place for college students and the neighboring community.

“[Students] loved having that hotspot because nightlife is [at] such a weird shift where venues are just changing or it just gets harder and harder to get to go out to places,” Zazu said.

The bar’s Thursday deals, Friday karaoke and Saturday offerings often saw lines wrapped around the block. Seeing those lines was Donley’s favorite part of the night.

“That feeling I would get when I was driving onto Gainsborough Street every Thursday for about three years straight and just seeing the length of that line, just felt like, ‘Wow, we really built something here,’” Donley said.

The atmosphere reflected a college dive bar aesthetic that residents

and students say is slowly disappearing from Boston.

“That dive bar aesthetic, the neon lights, the very low actual light bulbs, that’s what I love. It makes for a fun environment. It makes it an environment I enjoy being in instead of something that looks like I [have] to be careful at every step,” Hitchcock said.

Brittany Bakula, a fifth-year communication studies major, bartender and events coordinator at Two Saints, said it was a loss for both Boston nightlife and the Northeastern community.

“There’s a death of college bars in Boston. We did the absolute best we could for the longest amount of time we could, and I think that’s something to be proud of,” she said. “There are very few key spaces that have an identity for Northeastern students, and I think we were one of them.”

Before changing owners in 2017, Two Saints was famously known as Our House East — known to many

QUICK READS

Northeastern issues travel suspension notice for Middle East amid escalating conflict

In a March 9 email, Northeastern Student Life announced it would be “pausing all new university-sponsored travel programs to or through the Middle East,” impacting at least one Dialogue of Civilizations program this summer.

The email also acknowledged that “some members of our community are experiencing challenges returning to campus due to flight delays and cancellations related to the current situation in the Middle East.”

The pause comes amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran Feb. 28 that killed former Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Dialogue of Civilizations program “Experiencing the Old and New Middle East” canceled plans to travel to Dubai and Egypt, according to a March 10 email sent to participating students.

The dialogue, scheduled for Summer 1, originally planned to visit Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. The updated itinerary will explore Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.

Northeastern media relations did not respond to a request for comment from The Huntington News.

Iran war sparks opposing Boston rallies

Hundreds joined opposing rallies in Boston Feb. 28 after the United States and Israel launched surprise airstrikes on Iran early that morning.

Around 150 people, from the Iranian diaspora, gathered at noon in Copley Square to celebrate what they described as the beginning of the end of the authoritarian Iranian regime. Organizer Saeid Gholami said they were still processing “confusing, mixed emotions” upon hearing the news.

as “OHE.” Since the bar’s founding in the early 1980s, it served as a hub for nightlife and held private events for student organizations, from Northeastern athletic teams and Northeastern Hillel to Greek life philanthropy fundraisers and the men’s and women’s hockey Beanpot celebrations.

“My dad, who went to school at Northeastern in the ’80s, went to Our House East. It’s been a staple at Northeastern for 40 years,” said Luke Graham, third-year Northeastern communications and media studies combined major who bartended at Two Saints. “There’s no establishment outside of the university that brings Northeastern students together like that.”

In reflecting on Two Saints’ legacy, many community members used the word “family.”

“No matter if you’ve been with us for six months or six years, it really was home, and we’re all going our separate ways, but we’re always going to be family at heart,” Bakula said.

“We’re happy, first of all, because help has arrived for Iranian civilians who were mass murdered a few weeks ago,” Gholami said, referring to the more than 36,500 anti-regime protestors killed by Iranian forces in January. “We’re scared because war is no joke … But we’re hopeful that after all this chaos, Iranians will take to the streets and put a democratic government in place.”

Later, at Park Street station, around 200 demonstrators joined a separate “Stop the War on Iran” protest. They listened to several activists deliver speeches condemning the U.S. and Israeli governments for the strikes before marching northeast to City Hall Plaza.

“[Trump] pretends to care about Iranian people … he only cares about enriching himself and his billionaire friends,” said Ximena Hasbach, Party for Socialism and Liberation organizer. “War never helped anyone. As people in the U.S., we have a duty to stand against war crimes the U.S. government claims to commit in our name.”

As of March 19, thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced across the Middle East due to the war.

From geospatial services to extended realities, these Northeastern programs might surprise you

CECE BOWLING News Correspondent

Staring out into space with both hands tightly gripping his controller, Sam Jeffery gets ready to embark on his next journey across the universe. As a kid, the sound of stars dropping and breaking around him as he stood at the edge of the world while playing Mario Galaxy filled him with a magical feeling.

From a young age, Jeffery knew he wanted to create something that captured that feeling.

“Even when I was a little kid, I was able to recognize that this was a special medium,” Jeffery said, referring to video games. “And I’ve been trying to chase that down for pretty much every year since.”

One way he has been “chasing” the video game medium is through majoring in game design and music technology, a combined program of study offered at Northeastern. As a second year, Jeffery’s studies focus on the sound and audio elements of gaming through prototyping, design, music technology and game engine courses.

Northeastern offers 329 undergrad-

uate majors, more than 200 undergraduate combined majors and more than 200 graduate-level programs. Among this catalog are all the triedand-true degrees like mechanical engineering, political science and business administration. However, unlike most universities, the lineup also includes majors like extended realities, geospatial services and music technology.

Extended realities, or XR, is a master’s degree program that equips students with the “interdisciplinary skills, theoretical foundations, technologies, and processes essential for success in XR,” according to the program’s website. As Assistant Professor Eileen McGivney explained, XR is an umbrella term for immersive technology including augmented, mixed and virtual reality, or VR.

McGivney teaches “Extended Realities History, Theory and Impact.” She said she is excited to see what her students pursue after graduation, as their interests range from game design to fashion and art and from health to education.

“I think they’ll bring kind of both a specialized set of knowledge as well as a really nice interdisciplinary perspective on just how to think about

emerging technology across these fields,” McGivney said.

McGivney first got into the virtual reality field while researching how these tools could benefit student learning. She explained that VR isn’t meant to replace in-person experiences like field trips, but it can bring those experiences into the classroom more frequently.

“I think one of the fundamental challenges with school is that we see it as so divorced from the real world … how do we kind of integrate more experiences into the education system is what I’m really passionate about,” McGivney said. “And [VR] is one tool to do it.”

Victor Zappi, an assistant professor of music technology, emphasized the value of developing interdisciplinary perspectives. Music technology offers an “interdisciplinary application of creative audio technologies to a broad range of outcomes, including analog/ digital systems, hardware and software design, musical instrument design, audio synthesis and signal processing,” according to the program’s website.

In an era of groundbreaking developments in technology and artificial intelligence, Zappi argues that a very

specific major like game design and music actually broadens a student’s options rather than limiting them.

“The more technology evolves, the more need for these hybrid profiles that are … heavily interdisciplinary,” he said.

Jeffery believes the uniqueness of his combined major will set him apart from others in the job market. This is already evidenced by his current co-op position in video production and interactive media at Biogen, a job that incorporates his expressive and technical skills.

“I think it makes it clear to employers that I’m creative … but also able to execute, whether that is through development, whether that’s through hands on editing, whether that’s through sound or audio,” he said.

Kiera Layden, a graduate student in the College of Professional Studies studying geographic information systems, or GIS, said companies across sectors are beginning to incorporate a geospatial services team or department into their organizations. Geospatial services refers to work that captures and senses the reality of the earth, both physically and geographically.

Layden currently works as a GIS analyst at Clark Patterson Lee, an architecture, engineering and construction company. One project she’ll work on in the future, pending proposal approval, will inform where cities should plant trees by using urban heat assessments and tree canopy analysis.

“The city would like to find out not only where trees should be planted, but they also want to make sure that it is done equitably and equally distributed among all communities throughout their city, which is huge,” Layden said.

Because of the unique nature of these programs, most have only a handful of students. Students across different programs said this small size grants them more professor and adviser support and a strong sense of community.

“You get a lot of personalized attention. I think the faculty in this program are really passionate about making sure the program succeeds, making sure our students succeed,” McGivney said. “I think the other thing that’s great about it being a small program is you’ll find a community of people who really care about the same thing you do.”

Northeastern still doesn’t require supplemental essays. How does that affect its applicant pool?

It’s the fall of 2023: college application season for Edlawit Zewde. A senior in high school at the time, Zewde spent every afternoon hunched over her computer writing and submitting applications. She had settled into a routine: assess each university via its perfectly curated website and prepare to draft its required supplemental essay prompts asking “Why this university?” and “Tell us about how you overcame a challenge.”

When Zewde decided to apply to Northeastern, a university climbing in prestige with an acceptance rate of 5.6% at the time, she anticipated writing another two to three essays. But when she clicked on the university’s application, the questions never appeared.

“When I saw that it didn’t require supplemental essays, I kind of looked at it sideways, because it was the only school that I had applied to that didn’t take any of the supplemental essays,” said Zewde, who is now a second-year data science and biochemistry combined major at Northeastern. “I was nervous because I wanted Northeastern to see the personal side of me that other schools got to see.”

While most prestigious universities and institutions across the United States require applicants to submit school-specific supplemental essays, Northeastern does not. Instead, the university evaluates applications based on a students’ academic success, college essay, letters of recommendation, contributions to the community and resumé, according to Northeastern’s Admission Policy and Entrance Requirements.

Some students said that, because Northeastern doesn’t require supplemental essays, the university’s admissions process feels obscure, causing uncertainty about how applicants can build a standout profile in a competitive pool of students.

Northeastern media relations did not respond to request for comment on the university’s admissions process.

In an April 2024 interview with The News, Ken Henderson, Northeastern’s chancellor and senior vice president for learning, said there is an optional essay available, but it is intentionally optional to align with the university’s philosophy of flexibility.

“We have an optional essay, so students can absolutely do that, and we read those essays if they’re submitted,” Henderson said. “We are unlikely to put that in as a requirement because the Northeastern philosophy is about flexibility. If you choose to do some-

thing, great. If you choose not to do it, that’s fine.”

In the fall of 2025, Northeastern received a record-breaking 105,190 applications, continuing its streak of annual increases in applications. Some admissions counselors believe many applicants are attracted to Northeastern because it does not require additional essays, making the application process faster and easier for students.

Deven Gandhi, a fourth-year international business major, said the absence of a supplemental essay was the driving factor behind his decision to apply to Northeastern.

“If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t even know Northeastern existed until my college counselor told me to apply to a school without supplemental essays,” Gandhi said.

After applying, Gandhi said he

was surprised to learn about Northeastern’s prestige.

“It was more like a surprise about the caliber of students, just because it was a school that didn’t require any supplementals,” Gandhi said.

Alexander Quintyne, a second-year computer science and business major, echoed this sentiment. Northeastern was not one of his top choices, but he applied because it was easy.

“I applied because there were no essays, and it was free from a fee waiver I received,” Qyntine said. “I didn’t know much about the school until I got in, so I assumed it was a low-effort school.”

After receiving his acceptance and researching Northeastern, the co-op program swayed his decision to attend.

“I committed mostly for co-op, but also because this was the only Boston school I applied for. And after doing more research, I learned how it’s pretty much one big college town, and I liked the idea of being able to meet students from other good schools around me,” Quintyne said.

What began as another college application on a long list turned into a fulfilling experience as Quintyne discovered more about the university’s resources, academic programs and campus culture.

“I have yet to find something

unhelpful at Northeastern. Everyone and everything is pretty resourceful, and there are so many valuable opportunities I’ve yet to look into. I think learning about free activities on campus on top of the quality education and co-op aspect … is where I feel the value and satisfaction with my choice,” Quintyne said.

Emily Kim, a second-year journalism and English combined major, said the lack of supplemental essays made her suspicious of Northeastern’s application process.

“It definitely made me anxious and curious to see who I was up against … because if you don’t submit any essays or supplements, they look the most at your grades,” Kim said. “So I knew I really had to come through with my SAT score and with my extracurriculars.”

Because Northeastern’s application process does not require supplemental essays, some students said they felt they were not being evaluated as individuals and questioned the criteria admissions officers use to distinguish between thousands of similar applicants.

“It feels like it’s more of a luck game. They didn’t even require the SAT,” said Himanshu Wahi, a second-year biology major. “I mean, if you have a good GPA, it’s just whoever gets lucky enough to be drawn from the pool.”

by Lily Cooper

Review: ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’ underwhelms

JANIRA SKRBKOVA

Lifestyle Editor

After almost four years, Harry Styles is back — but not quite better than ever. Styles’ fourth studio album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally,” dropped March 6 and promised to amp up the groove previewed on “Harry’s House.”

Did it accomplish that? In sound, maybe, but not in substance.

With a kinetic beat and coursing electronic build, the lead single, “Aperture,” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, sticking the landing with the refrain “We belong together” backed by House Gospel Choir vocals. Though less immediately infectious than previous albums’ singles “Watermelon Sugar” and “As it Was,” “Aperture” set “Kiss All the Time” up to be an experimental work with synth pop and genre‐blurring soundscapes.

Unfortunately, by tracks three and four — “American Girls” aside — that atmospheric quality doesn’t do enough heavy lifting to sustain a full‐length studio album. “Kiss All the Time” is, ultimately, a passive listening experience with repetitive

production and a distinct lack of true hooks. Gratification isn’t just delayed in favor of the so‐called avant‐garde — it never really comes.

diagnoses the album’s overarching issue: pre-chorus purgatory. “Kiss All the Time” attempts to build sonic anticipation but never resolves it,

Track five, “Taste Back,” which harkens back to sounds on “Harry’s House,” stands out as one of the only tracks with a memorable chorus. “The Waiting Game” is a bedroom pop track that inarguably has a refrain, but without the buildup to support it, it falls flat. “Season 2 Weight Loss” is pleasant enough but

and the buildup itself isn’t dynamic enough to be interesting on its own. Styles perhaps sought for this very tension to be at the heart of the album, but with homogenous production, that lack of resolve doesn’t feel like deliberate experimentation.

Track eight, “Coming Up Roses,” seems to be the emotional center-

piece of “Kiss All the Time” but is the kind of sweeping orchestral ballad listeners have heard before. The classical strings to contrast the pop vocals and level up on emotion feel like a played‐out production gimmick circa 2019.

“Pop,” which follows, is the second song with a notable chorus, featuring dynamic shifts palpable enough to pack some punch. After that comes “Dance No More,” which, while danceable, is hollow in a way that could soundtrack a Target back‐to‐school commercial.

Lyrically, “Kiss All the Time” is shrouded in emotional distance, with language too vague and coded to discern any clear meaning beyond “disco.” After lamenting that “DJs don’t dance no more,” Styles sings, “You gotta get your feet wet / Respect, respect your mother / Be a good girl, go get it, Fox.” These verses aren’t artfully abstract so much as they are gesturing toward meaning without weight. “Kiss All the Time” holds its cards too close to its chest, not giving listeners the slightest indication of where Styles could’ve found muse or pulled real‐life lyrical inspiration.

“Paint By Numbers” follows with a clearer message than “Dance No More” but relies on cliché allusions to coming of age. With lyrics like “It’s a lifetime of learning to paint by numbers / And watching the colors run” and “It’s a lifetime of picking from one or the other / Kids with water guns, watch them run,” “Paint By Numbers” is unremarkable. On top of the middling lyricism, “Kiss All the Time” is mixed in such a way that the synth and effects often overpower the vocals, leaving listeners straining to hear what Styles is singing, particularly in “Ready, Steady, Go!,” “Are You Listening Yet?” and “Season 2 Weight Loss.”

“Kiss All the Time” closes on “Carla’s Song,” which does manage to end the album on a more triumphant experimental note than the other tracks but isn’t necessarily a standout in Styles’ discography. While sure to be groovy on Styles’ upcoming “Together, Together” tour, at the end of the day, “Kiss All the Time” is disco without substance. Perhaps it should be titled “Kiss All the Time. Bop Your Head Along Occasionally.”

How poetry meets its people ‘every Wednesday’ in the basement of a Cambridge dive

Just a foot from the audience stands a mic and Myles Taylor, the host and president of the Boston Poetry Slam, welcoming new and old artists to the dimly lit Cantab Lounge basement. Wasting not a second more, Taylor booms, “Welcome to the Boston Poetry Slam! We are here every Wednesday.”

Like clockwork, the audience of eager regulars and supportive friends shout back, “Every Wednesday!” and a community of spoken word lovers is reunited once more.

“It keeps us in the moment and reminds us to come back next week,” said regular Theodore Jones, a preschool teacher living in Brockton. “I make the trek to come up to the Cantab every Wednesday because I don’t know what [I’d do with] myself [otherwise].”

Every Wednesday night from 8 to 11 p.m. in the basement of the

Cantab Lounge, patrons indulge in original poetry. For just $4 each, it’s not hard to see what keeps them coming back.

“A certain type of people will come to a show in the basement of a dive bar and sit there for four hours and listen to poetry. Those are your people if you love poetry,” said Boston Poetry Slam, or BPS, treasurer Michael Gill.

Split up into three hour-and-ahalf sections, the night begins with an open mic where anyone can sign up to read their work so long as it’s under three minutes. Then comes the “smoking section,” where staff have the opportunity to share their work as a segue into the main event of the night.

On Feb. 25, the slam decided which four of the first eight poets move on to the Team Selection Finals March 25. From there, they will decide who from BPS will make up the team to compete in three tournaments: Midwest

Mashup Poetry Slam

Apr. 30 to May 2, the Bigfoot Poetry Festival June 25 to 28 and the NorthBeast Regional Poetry Slam and Festival Aug. 8 to 9.

During both the open mic and “smoking section” sets, poems revolve around nature and humor. Sharing several shorter poems, these sets are practice for poets to get better at writing and performing.

With more than eight decorated and known poets in the scene, the slam section takes a serious turn, focusing on themes of religion, identity and familial relationships. From the declining bee population to arguments with parents, each poet reads their work like a sonnet to their former self. Memorized and recited with passion, their moment on stage is filled with minutes and decades of emotion.

shines through during this fourhour window, evolving with the years but remaining an open-armed safe space.

With a rich history of artistic disruption, BPS has always kept its community members at the core of its mission.

With a three-to-four-hour run time every week, it’s an easy, joyful way to get to know creatives from all walks of life.

“You’re experiencing a complete range of people you would not get anywhere else … people from different backgrounds, different worlds we might never be friends with,” Gill said, watching the open mic from the ticket booth. “And now you’ve actually experienced what they’ve experienced for three minutes at that time.”

A small but tangible representation of the thoughts and feelings of the Greater Boston community

“We try to do weird s**t — a lot of incorporation of humor, pushing the boundaries — but the people themselves, the community, has changed over the years very significantly,” Taylor said. “I think it really sort of matches whoever runs it. I think that you could say that about any community space. Ever since I took it over, it’s always been like, pretty queer, but it’s pretty overwhelmingly queer at this point.”

For Zeke Russell, a Brighton‐based case manager who’s been on staff at BPS since 2015, Wednesdays at the Cantab serve as a return home.

“My parents were part of an

intentional artist community in central Maine, and I’ve sort of found that for myself here … it’s just been kind of the fabric of my adult life.”

For many participants and regulars, the big draw is the desire for artistic connection.

“This is an amazing space that is super hard to find,” Gill said. “We are very dedicated to being a community.”

As a nonprofit, all the cash that flows into BPS through the inexpensive ticket cost goes back into the organization to help sustain its work — supporting the organization is “the least capitalistic thing you can do,” Gill said.

For 35 years, the basement of the Cantab Lounge has housed extraordinary creative light and will continue to do so as long as patrons and poets continue to show up.

“We’re all in it for the love of the game,” Gill said. “And we’re all in it to make ourselves better.”

Under a national spotlight, Boston student journalists ramped up reporting

One day later, more than 2,000 protesters swarmed Powder House Park in Somerville, many donning keffiyehs and waving signs condemning ICE. Federal authorities pointed to an op-ed Öztürk co-authored, which The Tufts Daily published March 26, 2024, urging Tufts President Sunil Kumar to adopt pro-Palestinian resolutions set forth by the university’s senate.

The Tufts Daily reported on the protest, along with The Berkeley Beacon and student journalists from colleges around Boston.

“I could feel this anger, a very palpable anger, among the people that were protesting, the people that had organized the protest, and they immediately connected it to her co-authoring of the op-ed,” Pérez said.

Of all the universities caught in the administration’s crosshairs, Harvard University endured an unparalleled number of attacks from the federal government, kickstarting a messy legal battle with the White House in April 2025. As other high-profile universities like Columbia University and Northwestern University signed settlements, Harvard stood its ground. Dhruv Patel, a third-year at Harvard who was a senior reporter for The Harvard Crimson last spring, is among a group of more than 400 people that staff the 153-year-old paper.

“I think it’s fair to say that a lot

in pursuit of some of the changes that they were hoping to enact on college campuses.”

Soon after Trump took office, the Department of Education began

to be anonymous, said Dickerson, who was previously the paper’s city co-editor. Although the practice of granting anonymity to sources is meant to be done sparingly, student

putting select institutions under a microscope. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to crack down on pro-Palestinian student activism following nationwide protests and encampments in spring 2024. In March, the Department of Education launched an investigation into 60 colleges and universities, including Tufts, Emerson, Boston University and Harvard, for “antisemitic discrimination and harassment.”

“I felt very watched, both on campus and nationally,” Pray said of the investigation into Emerson. “I know Emerson was being watched, so therefore we were being watched because we’re the mouthpiece of the student body like any other paper would be.”

of us didn’t exactly anticipate just how much the federal politics and Trump’s actions would define what we would do as student reporters,” said Patel, a computer science and economics double major.

Swiftly after taking office, the administration froze hundreds of millions of dollars in federal research funding to universities, and Trump vowed to crack down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and “woke” research that he claimed was muddying American academia and science. By stunting cash flow to higher education, the Trump administration proved that federal funding remains the lifeblood of both public and private universities.

In September, a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration’s freeze on more than $2.6 billion in research funding to Harvard was unconstitutional. (Harvard recently slid from No. 1 to No. 3 in a global ranking of university research output.)

“We saw that they were the ones that were first challenged with the funding cut,” Patel said. “And after that, it was very clear that funding was one of the many things that the Trump administration was using

Reporting on international students was a central focus for journalists in the past year. At the time of Öztürk’s detention, the State Department had revoked around 300 student visas.

Now, it’s around 8,000, according to a State Department report released in January. Truman Dickerson, a fourth-year senior journalism major and editor-in-chief of Boston University’s student newspaper, The Daily Free Press, co-wrote a piece in March 2025 about international students who became afraid they would lose their legal statuses.

The main source in the article was an international student who asked

journalists had to balance international students’ fears of deportation and their responsibility to share their peers’ stories.

“BU has so many international students,” Dickerson said. “There is a huge community there, and to not publish a story like this simply because you don’t have a source giving her full name, you feel like that’s kind of a disservice to our huge community of international students.”

By October 2025, 44 college newspapers had signed onto an amicus brief supporting Stanford University newspaper The Stanford Daily’s lawsuit against the Trump administration for its decision to revoke thousands of student visas. The lawsuit alleged that the fallout of those revocations resulted in fewer noncitizens feeling safe to express their views in writing. In the aftermath of Öztürk’s detention, Pérez said many wrote to the managing board asking for old op-eds to be taken down or for their name to be anonymized.

“We have a reach of several thousands of readers, and their opinion, their viewpoint isn’t being put out there. And, a lot of the time, they are very nuanced, and that perspective keeps getting lost,” he said. “I think, just in general, we keep going so far out to the extremes that we’re losing nuance, and that I think op-eds have a role in providing different perspectives that aren’t yes or no, either this or that.”

“It’s just sad that that’s what it’s come to, that people are afraid to submit op-eds because they know that there will be retribution if the government decides to look again at student newspapers,” Pérez added. Student newspapers nationwide

took down articles written by international students, who began to fear retaliation from the federal government. Pray said an alum who photographed a political protest for a news article in 2017 called her in the spring, worried that the Trump administration would deport her.

“As I was talking with her on the phone, I had no idea who she was. We had never met before,” Pray said. “She immediately was sobbing. She was immediately very upset. I could tell this was something that she was really fearful of.”

As the Trump administration ramps up its use of executive power, detaining people without serving warrants and conducting unlawful searches, some protesters have pushed for increased anonymity in print and asked not to have their faces photographed, said Meg Richards, who led The Berkeley Beacon as editor-in-chief in the fall of 2025.

protest thinking? Are they annoyed by it or do they understand it? You can kind of gauge the wider public’s reception that way.”

Controversy struck Boston University in November 2025 after Zac Segal, the president of the university’s College Republicans chapter, boasted on social media about calling ICE agents to raid a car wash in Allston that he suspected employed “criminals” who are not American citizens. None of the nine employees detained in the Nov. 4 raid have criminal records.

On Nov. 11, Boston University students and Allston community members protested Segal’s actions and the ICE raid. At the protest, which he covered for The Globe, approximately 150 protesters walked from Marsh Plaza to Boston University President Melissa Gilliam’s house.

Professional journalists from

In October 2025, The Berkeley Beacon covered a pro-Palestinian protest that ended in the arrests of 13 students and injured multiple police officers. The protest swiftly caught the attention of local outlets. Richards, a fourth-year journalism and political communications double major, faced heavy criticism as commenters pointed out that several protesters’ faces could be seen and identified. (The Beacon took down the video, made cuts and reuploaded it.)

That night, Richards was among a small group of journalists present, most of them from The Beacon. Despite the criticism, they said, “I’m still glad we were there because otherwise, it would have been a completely different narrative in the mainstream, and it would have gone unchecked.”

national outlets continue to cover Harvard. But, Patel said, journalists from The Harvard Crimson are in a unique position to deliver the news to their community.

“We don’t have their bureaus,” Patel said of national media outlets. “We don’t have their editors. We don’t have their resources. But what

Before last year, Dickerson had never covered protests for The Daily Free Press. In the last year alone, as protests proliferated nationwide, Dickerson has covered dozens in his capacity as an express desk correspondent for The Boston Globe and at The Daily Free Press. Now, he has a routine.

At protests, Dickerson said he talks to people “as fast” as he can. “And also, of course, bystanders. That’s another angle,” he added. “What are people walking by the

we do have on campus as students is grit and the ability to go knocking on faculty’s doors, go knocking on dorm doors. We have the ability to call students up. We have the ability to call faculty out. We have the ability to be on campus and have a firsthand eye into what goes on on campus.”

And to Richards, news written by students, for students, is a strength.

“It’s so hard to be a student right now under this administration, and no one understands that better than other students,” Richards said. “I think that’s why it’s important that

the

reporting

‘It

only comes down once’: Northeastern students and alumni reflect on Matthews Arena sale

ALEX PAYÁ News Staff

Have you ever wondered where Matthews Arena’s historic items, such as the banners or chairs, will go after the century-old rink is demolished and replaced with a new multi-purpose complex?

Northeastern addressed these questions by launching a website featuring myriad items at a range of price points Jan. 12. The pieces available included locker stalls listed at $1,910, stadium seats mounted on commemorative bases at $1,000, press box seats at $825, regular stadium seats at $690 and staircase signs at $364.95. The website also featured stadium bricks, which sold out within a month.

Pieces are available to anyone, though most purchases have come from students and alumni.

Ryan Henderson, a fifth-year civil engineering major, never misses a Northeastern hockey home game. Having played ice hockey in high school, he arrived at Northeastern with a strong background in the sport, and attending the Huskies’ games became a winter tradition.

Over the years, he has noticed that Matthews Arena is more than just a college barn, considering it has been the home of the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics.

“It’s such an iconic building,” Henderson said. “You can’t really walk

in there without hearing about its history, and I think it’s pretty unique.”

After reading that Matthews memorabilia was up for sale, he did not hesitate to purchase a stadium seat. He said it would remind him of the hectic game nights and the electric roar that once filled the arena.

“I think it’s just kind of a oncein-a-lifetime opportunity to say you have a physical piece of the building,” Henderson said.

Tens of thousands of students have built memories of Matthews, either by playing hockey, shooting hoops or attending games.

Olivia May, a third-year music industry and communications combined major, plays the clarinet for Northeastern’s Pep Band. During hockey games, she sits on Matthews’ upper ring next to the DogHouse and enjoys the spirited atmosphere buzzing through games.

After countless hours at Matthews watching the women’s hockey team, she values how those memories have shaped her time at Northeastern.

“Matthews has been a place where I’ve been able to make a lot of long-lasting friendships,” she said. “It was a place of community for a lot of people and something that I think was very central to a lot of people’s experiences at Northeastern.”

May’s mother, knowing how much hockey and Pep Band mean to her, thought a brick from Matthews would make a special Christmas gift.

Crossword

Edited by Arielle Rabinovich

“I think she was just wanting to kind of help me preserve those memories and just give me an actual, tangible piece of Matthews Arena,” May said.

While finding the ideal spot to place a brown brick or a stadium chair is an uncommon task, May said she plans to put her piece of Matthews on a mantel or shelf once she owns a house.

Like students, many alumni have also purchased items from the historic arena.

Meredith Miller graduated with her bachelor’s degree in 2008 and with a master’s degree in 2011 and played for the women’s hockey team for two seasons. Even though she was forced to prematurely retire from the sport due to a severe injury during her junior year, she has a special connection to Matthews.

Her family is full of Husky alumni — both her brother and mother graduated from Northeastern, and her father, Benny Miller, was the director of Northeastern’s sports medicine department for over 30 years.

Thanks to her father’s connection to the teams, Miller often joined players on the ice at Matthews, where she learned how to skate.

When Miller and her wife, Beth, received the notice about the sale, she found herself torn about whether to buy a commemorative-mounted seat.

“And we were talking about it, and I was like, ‘I should get one. No, I

shouldn’t. Why would I? That’s silly,’” Miller said.

After Miller ultimately decided against purchasing one, her wife had other plans.

“And then when I convinced myself not to buy one, then [Beth] was like, ‘Nope,’ and bought [the commemorative-mounted seat],” she said.

Even though the items have strong sentimental value, buyers say the prices are steep. May said that bathroom signs priced at $154 “are kind of crazy,” while Henderson hoped the prices would be “a little more moderate in order to be more accessible.”

May admitted she had “no idea” whether the sale would take off, though she acknowledged why people

might be drawn to the items if they hold a strong personal meaning.

For Miller, it’s the arena’s long history that makes the pieces meaningful.

“It’s been around for over 115 years, I think that’s what’s the appeal,” she said. “[Items] are small, commemorative and they fit into that bucket of easy to auction off for people’s interest.”

Whether it is value over price or simply the chance to own a piece of history, the Northeastern community is eager to own a slice of the arena.

“It only comes down once,” Henderson said. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if others had the same thought that you need to jump on the opportunity if it’s available to you.”

ACROSS

1. Like emails promising instant co-ops

5. Disney deer

10. With 43-Across, player who just surpassed Kobe Bryant as the second-highest scorer in a single NBA game

13. Single sheet of glass

14. Physics and Peace awards, e.g.

15. “__ _ believer,” song covered by Smash Mouth and appearing in Shrek (2 wds.)

16. Story villains

18. A bit

19. Barnyard sound

20. Treasure

21. Philadelphia Ivy

23. Like some shoes (2 wds.)

25. Nanny played by Debby Ryan

26. What phone calls and test questions warrant

28. High school class where one may learn distributions and probability (2 wds.)

29. Water, in Marseille

30. Helper

32. Professors’ assistants, who are often other students

33. Oscar winning movie centered on a Boston Globe journalism team

37. Enjoyer of

40. Company whose logo is a “swoosh”

41. Curved path

43. See 10-across

46. To empty, as grocery bags or a trunk

49. With “The,” 1999 sci-fi movie starring Keanu Reeves

50. Like partifuls

52. Religion following the Quran

53. Role call answer

55. Pre-A.D.

56. Phone network type

57. Like an Excel document

61. Tax org.

62. Notifies

63. To alter, as text

64. Medium-sized batteries

65. Misspellings

66. “This” in Barcelona DOWN

1. Sends many texts to, perhaps 2. Type of seed oil

3. __ Lavoisier, father of modern chemistry

4. __ culpa, Latin for “my fault”

5. Lead singer of U2

6. Small amount (2 wds.)

7. Mini-__, how a mom may describe her daughters

8. Common deli order

9. Problems

10. Attacks, as fish to bait (2 wds.)

11. Genus of mushroom

12. March __, college basketball tournament

14. Not a soul (2 wds.)

17. Get prettier over time (2 wds.)

22. Time zone in San Diego

24. Memos

25. Image file extension

27. 2:3 or 3:4

28. Common Wordle starting word, or bye in Paris

31. Category or class

34. Typically black variety of agate

35. There are two 45-minute ones in soccer

36. Un + deux

37. What your mother or sibling are to you, in Buenos Aires

38. Latin for “to the stars” (2 wds.)

39. Like a hoop with no mesh

42. Feline sleep spots (2 wds.)

44. Undergarment often containing wire

45. Shoots for (2 wds.)

47. Like some straight-A students

48. Duplicity

51. The thermostat is __ 67 degrees (2 wds.)

53. One opposing 16-across

54. Munches on

58. Toilet paper layer

59. One bicep curl, perhaps 60. Laugh syllable, often preceding “hah”

08 CITY & LIFESTYLE

EVENT CALENDAR

MARCH 20

Baseball vs. Elon

2 p.m. - 4 p.m. at Friedman

Diamond

Admission: Free with Husky Card

MARCH 20

MFA special event: Revolution, Rebellion & Romance in Latin America

7 p.m. - 9 p.m. in Druker Family Pavilion, Room 160, in the MFA

Admission: $30 per ticket

MARCH 21

Holi Mela: Festival of Colors

11 a.m. - 4 p.m. at Adams Park in Roslindale

Admission: Free

by

MARCH 26

CSSH Undergraduate Research Forum

1 p.m. - 5 p.m. at 1135 Tremont St.

Admission: Free

MARCH 30

Northeastern Wind Ensemble performance

5 p.m. - 7 p.m. at the Fenway Center

Admission: Free

MARCH 31

Baseball vs. UCONN

2:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. at Friedman

Diamond

Admission: Free with Husky Card

APRIL 3

SoWa First Friday

5 p.m. - 9 p.m. at 500 Harrison Ave. and Thayer Street

Admission: Free

APRIL 4

Baseball vs. Monmouth

1 p.m. - 3 p.m. at Friedman

Diamond

Admission: Free with Husky Card

As Boston rent rises, students feel the pressure

CHLOE MONDI News Staff

James Tlelo could tell you exactly how long it takes to sprint down Calumet Street and through Mission Hill toward campus at 9 a.m. On most days, the second-year business administration major at Northeastern University wakes up later than he intends to, giving him just a few minutes to decide if he should run, walk or pray that the Green Line shows up on time and he won’t be late for class again.

On weekday mornings, he jolts up from his bed and slings two heavy bags over his shoulder — one with gym clothes and a spare change of professional clothes and one with school supplies — before bolting out of his Mission Hill apartment to class, skipping breakfast. If the Green Line happens to be on time, he will hop on. Other days, he speed walks 25 minutes to campus, weaving through other students making the same frantic commute.

With more than 35 higher education institutions in the Greater Boston area, the city has a long history as a college town. However, as universities face a lack of housing capacity and rent prices near campuses rise rapidly, the idea of living close to campus as an upperclassman has shifted from a standard to a financial privilege. For thousands of college students in the Boston area, commuting is becoming the new norm.

Leonidas Joachim, a realtor with Boston-based Gateway Real Estate Group, said he has watched the

‘Poor

number of students in the market grow every year, especially in Mission Hill, Fenway and the South End.

Joachim said inflation and property taxes are the primary drivers of higher rents in recent years, especially in areas with higher property values. Popular neighborhoods like Back Bay and Fenway, which border Northeastern, have experienced steady increases in cost. Many property owners then pass those tax increases to their tenants.

“Everything is tethered to the market,” Joachim said.

Joachim said students who cannot afford to live near their school sacrifice distance for affordability.

As of February 2025, Boston has the highest average rent among U.S. cities, according to Zillow’s Observed Rent Index.

While Boston has long been known as a hub for higher education, the housing landscape for students has changed drastically.

Enrollment grows each year.

Tom Rund, a licensed broker at Keller Williams in Back Bay and the owner of Lowtide Development, explained that universities cannot provide enough housing for their student bodies. As a result, more students are pushed into surrounding neighborhoods, which have all seen consistent rent increases.

When Boston started seeing enormous increases in graduate students over the last 20 to 30 years, “that put a lot of pressure on the market,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of the

Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard Kennedy School.

Experts say demand for rental units remains relentless, with vacancy rates near zero.“Vacancy rates are way less than half [a] percent near campus,” Rund said. “Students get frustrated when rents go up, but the root of the issue stems from the schools and the city not keeping up with the demand for more housing.”

Many students report the cost of living in Boston puts them under financial pressure.

At Northeastern, third-year bioengineering major Zach Harrington said housing has become his most significant and stressful expense. After this year, “any more money that I put into housing while I’m here is coming out of my grad school fund, which sucks,” he said.

Students living farther from campus are saving some money, but it’s a trade-off. “There are three criteria to keep in mind: One is affordability, one is quality and one is location. So, affordability, quality

and location — in Boston, you can have two of the three,” Rund said.

Like many students, Harrington sacrifices quality.

“The quality of the housing that we’re getting is not very good,” he said. “They’re functional, but you’re not getting what you pay for.”

For many, the traditional college experience is now marked by the pressures of balancing social life, mental health, academics, transit, budgeting, eating and time management.

“I experience burnout. I do feel like I have to overwork myself more just to make the cost of attending here and living here worth it,” Tlelo said.

graphic featuring a student running to a soon-departing Green Line train from a station. Nearly 163,000 students are enrolled in Boston-area undergraduate programs, leading to a student housing crisis.

Clare’ wants you to check your privilege

Northeastern’s Department of Theatre addressed the “West Village Girls” of 13th-century Italy in its production of Chiara Atik’s “Poor Clare.” Directed by Professor Melinda Lopez and running Feb. 18 to 22 in the Studio Theatre in Curry Student Center, the not-so-historical retelling of St. Clare of Assisi’s fall from privilege and subsequent journey to sainthood asks, “What do you give the girl who has everything?” The answer: “Twelve quail.”

Clare of Assisi is a daughter of wealth, possessing everything a woman in medieval Italy could desire: two devoted lady’s maids, a rich suitor with a controversial age gap and the coveted ability to read. Compared to her younger, brattier 15-year-old sister Beatrice, played by third-year psychology and theatre combined major Kathryn Silva, Clare is pious, kind and wise beyond her years — a true eldest daughter. Notably, in an act of 13th-century wokeness, she declares herself starkly “anti-Crusade.” Yet, a chance encounter with a newly monastic and Capitalism-defiant (St.) Francis, vibrantly portrayed by recent Northeastern graduate Ethan Oliver, sends Clare reeling and calls her socioeconomic birthright into question.

Followers of “content dictates form” will shudder at the script of “Poor Clare,” for this story of Catho-

lic sainthood is chiefly narrated in the lexicon of a TikTok comment section. In the words of Francis, the play is “not going for historical accuracy, it’s more about an ambiance.” Nonetheless, the cast of eight successfully bridged the centuries-wide gap, driven largely by fourth-year music industry major and titular actress Arahim’s stellar performance. Other standout turns include Oliver as Francis, Silva as Beatrice and third-year theatre and media and screen studies combined major Olivia Khan as Alma.

Scenic designer Justin Lahue’s ethereal set evoked all that is good and holy. Floor-to-ceiling translucent curtains beset five vaguely European arches reaching out into the audience, the center of which were draped in a striking red fabric. As the show progressed, select arch es lifted and curtains fell, mirroring Clare’s unraveling worldview. In a similar metaphoric manner, the peas ants and beggars of Assisi remained behind

the curtains, cleaved from the likes of center-stage dwelling Clare and her privileged matriarchy. The curtains fell only when Clare mustered the strength to address the poor directly. Yet, the commitment to the motif backfired at times: The area behind the stage left curtain was backlit, and the divider obscured several performances.

For a play chronicling two prominent Catholic saints, “Poor Clare” incorporates surprisingly little religious imagery, instead homing in on the biblical virtues themselves. Though Clare embodies pious traits, Francis makes clear she is still complicit in a social order that oppresses the poor. Struggling to cope with that fact, she ultimately abandons

While Catholic archives immortalize Clare’s decision as saintly, the play employs critical fabulation to interrogate it, staging an eleventh-hour argument between her and Francis over the efficacy of their Christly devotion. “Poor Clare” proposes that the answer to abolishing poverty lies neither in radical self-denial nor in willful ignorance from a position of privilege. Instead, in a five-minute beast of a monologue delivered flawlessly by Arahim, Clare breaks the fourth wall into the 21st century in prayer, asking God to eliminate her poverty blindness and, ultimately, “help [her] be good.”

Photo by Eva Ciolek-Passeri

Francis.

While “Poor Clare”’s approach to poverty is not the end-all be-all, the message hits home for many Northeastern students. Two stops down the commuter line from Northeastern’s campus, where as of 2023 half of students come from the top 10% of earners, homeless Bostonian Carvell Curry died of exposure outside South Station this winter. “Poor Clare” insists audience members reckon with their privilege.

In her approach to the material, Arahim hoped to reiterate to the audience the importance of “having awareness and just being thoughtful and considerate about [the poverty around us] instead of just ignoring [it].”

In the words of Clare herself, as students in Canada Goose turn a blind eye to the person “asking for a swipe outside the turnstiles” at Ruggles, “Poor Clare” pleads for its audience to look up.

Women’s basketball ends in devastating fashion

CASSANDRA JOYCE Deputy Sports Editor

Northeastern women’s basketball (7-22, 3-15 CAA) took a heartbreaking loss to the University of North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks (7-24, 2-16 CAA) March 11, 51-50, in the first round of the CAA tourna-

to bring an end to the season.

The Huskies’ usual offensive weapons — sophomore guard Camryn Collins and sophomore forward Justice Tramble — were shut down, only scoring six and two points, respectively. Sophomore guard Morgan Matthews stepped up for Northeastern, leading in points with 15 and in rebounds with eight.

whole way, with the lead swapping three times. In the final two minutes, Northeastern went on a 6-0 run, courtesy of a 3-pointer by Simmons, a jumper by Collins and a layup by Matthews in the paint. Five straight points for the Seahawks to open up the second quarter brought Northeastern’s lead down to one, but an 8-2 run put the Huskies up

ously struggles out of halftime, and although it still played well, its largest deficit to the Seahawks came in the third quarter, creating a gap it could not come back from.

UNCW opened up the quarter with an 8-2 run to take the lead back for the first time since the first quarter. Back-to-back shots put Northeastern ahead once again at 35-32, and the Huskies held the lead until the Seahawks took it back with a 3-pointer and a layup by freshman forward Icyss Storm, 39-37. A layup for Northeastern in the last 40 seconds tied it at 39 going into the

In the fourth quarter, fouls did the Huskies in, as seven crucial points for UNCW came from the line. Another 8-2 run to open up the quarter for the Seahawks put them up 47-41 as the quarter head-

The Huskies fought back, scoring nine straight to take a 50-47 lead with under two minutes to go. Then, with 49 seconds left, Collins gave up a costly foul to send UNCW’s redshirt freshman center Angelina Pelayo to the line. She sank both shots, cutting the lead to one point. The Huskies held their lead the rest of the way until the final two seconds, when Simmons gave up another foul. Both shots went through the net.

Northeastern immediately took a timeout before stepping back on the court for the biggest possession

of the season. Junior guard Yirsy Quéliz took the ball down the court and into the paint. She shot a layup, but the attempt was no good, giving the Seahawks the win at 51-50. Just like that, the season was over. Although the Huskies’ season was not what they would have hoped for, there were some great successes, especially compared to last season. Their win count improved from three to seven, and the team brought games significantly closer than last season: 10 of its losses came by less than 10 points compared to six the year before. The team largely remained healthy through the year, a big improvement from the team that was down to five players at one point last season.

Transfer players were the driving force behind Northeastern’s success this year. Four of Northeastern’s five top scorers were transfers, and Collins led the way, notching 320 points. Tramble led the team in rebounds and was third in points. Simmons and Matthews also came in clutch for the Huskies and were major contributors.

Quéliz, the longest tenured member of the team, was first in 3-pointers, assists and minutes on the court and second in points and steals.

For next season, the team is only losing two graduates in Simmons and redshirt senior guard Natalie Larrañaga. That means the team can build on its success with more experience under players’ belts and take in new additions to become a stronger competitor in the CAA.

Men’s hockey ends season with loss in Hockey East quarterfinal

Northeastern men’s hockey (1718-1, 11-13-0 HE) lost to the Uni versity of Massachusetts Amherst Minutemen (22-12-1, 14-9-1 HE) 4-1 in the quarterfinals of the Hock ey East tournament March 14.

The Minutemen struck first three and a half minutes into the first period. Junior forward Jack Musa passed the puck along the board back to sophomore defenseman Larry Keenan. Keenan sent the snipe from inside the blue line to open up scoring, marking his eighth goal of the season.

The Huskies outshot UMass 22 to 17, with both teams having brief mo ments of empty nets and power plays in the first 20 minutes.

Northeastern got on the board for first and only in the game to sophomore Griffin scored with seconds remaining in the first period. Sophomore forward Joe Connor took a shot, but it bounced off junior

the beginning of the season when

the list — senior defen-

seman Austen May — only had 53. Borgesi has worn the Husky uniform all four years, serving the most ice time in the country in the 2024-25 season with 28:04 minutes per game. Borgesi, May and senior defensemen Dylan Finlay and Joaquim Lemay are graduating, leaving an impact on the team. May and Finlay came into the season as new Huskies, but they quickly established a strong defense, connecting with Borgesi, Compton and sophomore defenseman Jack Henry in front

Lemay has been injured since November, so he was unable to play his full last season. Still, he ended his second and last season as a Husky with three goals, 10 assists and 54 blocks.

With 14 new players added to the roster at the beginning of the season, the team gelled well for the amount of time it was given. Despite the rough patch in January and February, the team was able to succeed through some tough games and moments. With nine freshmen and seven sophomores, the young team has time to develop and improve as the 2026-27 season approaches.

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President Aoun, we need to talk

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Dec. 14, 2022 — President Joseph E. Aoun sits down with The Huntington News to talk about the global student experience and a new Miami campus, telling us to “stay tuned” throughout the interview. However, over the next three years, 11 written follow-up interview requests, plus requests from members of The News during in-person conversations, will ultimately go ignored. Some receive no answer, others are dismissed and some receive only the most generic of replies, like offers to check the president’s schedule.

asking, President Knowles, why? Surely a university of all places should attempt to satisfy a student’s curiosity. That’s not really too much to ask.” And it’s not too much to ask at all. If decisions are being made, surely there’s a record of the reasoning behind them somewhere. It shouldn’t be that difficult for the administration to release them.

you need to sit down face-to-face with your students, too.

The Editorial Board reflects the official voice of The Huntington News’ opinion section and consists of the opinion editor, the deputy opinion editor and The News’ opinion columnists. Each editorial is the product of unanimous agreement from the Board. The Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom of The Huntington News. The Huntington News Editorial Board urges all readers, both those who support the stance laid out within this piece and those who do not, to make their voices heard. If you would like to submit a letter to the THE HUNTINGTON NEWS

This lack of communication deteriorates The News’ attempt at building a community of trust. It’s hard to trust people — especially leaders — when you sense they may be hiding something from you. Not to mention, secrecy around federally-driven changes — addressed primarily through an unattributed FAQ page — is detrimental in the face of political upset, both on and off campus. Announcing major changes through an FAQ page is not adequate communication — if no one knows there’s been a change, it can’t count as an “update.” There are much better ways to draw attention to developments, like taking advantage of schoolwide email announcements or even hosting events.

This is the perfect time for frequent, clear communication between the student body and the administration; instead, we’re seeing a complete unwillingness to be forthcoming about Northeastern’s policies, stances and future plans.

Northeastern’s hesitance to be open with its students and the public isn’t a new issue, either. A May 1973 editorial from The News read, “That is all students are really

Despite student criticism, Asa Knowles, Northeastern’s president from 1959 to 1975, was far more open with students than Aoun has ever been. He held “press conferences,” issued public announcements and responded directly to student demands, speaking openly about current issues. Meanwhile, Aoun stays quiet behind a shield of overly formalized language and vague statements that should sound generally pleasing to the public ear.

It isn’t like this for other student newspapers in the area, either. Student journalists at The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University’s newspaper, report that their paper (which is funded by the university but editorially independent) has a good relationship with Suffolk University’s media relations team. Waiting more than a couple of hours for a response is unusual for them.

Emerson College’s independent student newspaper, The Berkeley Beacon, has had six interviews with Emerson’s presidents since 2020 — Aoun gave The News three. Aoun’s 2020 interview with The News came after a seven-year stretch of silence from 2013 to 2020, only broken after a month-long social media campaign, a Boston Globe article and a petition that garnered 436 signatures.

Boston University’s independent student paper, The Daily Free Press, last spoke to its president in 2024, and Boston College’s spoke with its president in 2025.

Northeastern stands out here, and it’s not for a good reason — this isn’t the type of differentiation that’s going to help the university or its students. When information is hidden, we have to ask why. Often, it points to a lack of accountability. Rarely do institutions want to admit wrongdoing or to not doing enough. Secrecy breeds misdeeds, or at a minimum, allows them to continue undetected. If we refuse to take a stance on anything — any federal action, any event — it undermines the core principles of education: engagement with the world around us, encouragement of discourse and the courage to speak up for what we believe to be true.

The turmoil of current events in our country and beyond presents a power ful opportunity for Aoun to build trust and truly connect with his student population. Speaking with The News, the only independent, student-run publication on campus, could signif icantly boost his reputation among the student body. We want to work with him to strengthen the bridge between the administration and students, not undermine the work Northeastern does.

Aoun, your stu dents need you to speak up. We, The Huntington News editorial board, urge you to speak with a reliable, student-run news outlet, a way for you to show your students you’re invested in their success. To the public, you are the face of this school — but

The reality of prestige in the job market

In today’s humbling job market, we would like to think that no job is “better” than another, that prestige is purely superficial and that fulfillment matters more than titles or company logos. These statements — while comforting and usually well-intentioned — are also incomplete. For many industries, prestige structures the flow of opportunity. Unfortunately, ignoring that reality makes navigating the job market even harder, especially for students trying to break in.

Prestige has always been attached to work. Certain roles have long carried higher social status, economic security and even symbolic authority. What has changed in recent years is not the existence of career prestige but the intensity of its visibility. Platforms like LinkedIn allow people’s professional identity to be constantly on display, which has turned people’s career paths into far more public-facing narratives.

Prestige, however, isn’t confined to a singular definition. There is prestige to be found in certain roles and

prestige in company names — both of which are conflated. A more prestigious role at a lesser-known company may require more skill than a generic role at a more popular firm, but it’s up to the hiring managers to determine which is more valuable.

And, in the age of AI screening in recruiting processes, it might often be that company name recognition gets your foot in the door.

It might feel unfair, but the reality is simple: You are not the one giving yourself your next job — it’s the hiring managers and the executives. To them, prestige matters, whether we like it or not.

This is where I see the harm in telling young people, “It doesn’t matter where you work.” For someone trying to move laterally or upward in a competitive field, dismissing prestige doesn’t make the struggle easier. In popular industries among Northeastern students, like finance, law, tech and media, prestigious work experience functions as a mini vetting process. A well-known firm on a resume signals that a legitimate party has already invested in you.

Those name-recognition vetting processes have grown stronger as elite education becomes more widespread. Universities like North-

eastern are producing more and more competitive applicants as they expand their educational initiatives and professional networks. When nearly every applicant comes from an accredited university, those credentials lose their differentiating power. Then, prestigious work experience becomes the next filter.

It offers employers an expectation, whether it’s correct or incorrect, about what a junior employee can do, how they can learn and how they might function on a team.

That is not to say that prestigious jobs are inherently “better” jobs. In fact, prestige often captures only one narrow dimension of quality. It is also deeply relative. Prestige matters more in client-facing industries, where perception is a large part of the product. It matters less in fields where outcomes speak for themselves or skills are demonstrated without someone else needing to vouch for them. Not everyone wants to work a prestigious job, and in many careers, it doesn’t necessarily matter.

But in industries where it does matter, it matters quite a bit.

We can ask ourselves a simple question: If prestige isn’t important, why do we put company names on resumes at all? Why not just include

the role, its responsibilities and the accomplishments you achieved in it? It is because the company name carries information. It’s a proxy for scale, selectivity and reputation. Although we may wish it worked differently, pretending those signals don’t exist doesn’t help candidates navigate the system.

We can, however, acknowledge this to be true while also accepting that prestige is not a universally relevant measure of human worth.

For a lot of the students at Northeastern either applying for co-op or looking for full-time opportunities, when it comes to prestige, it’s important to understand that clarity is far more important than false reassurance. Understanding when and why it matters allows for better decision making than holistically ignoring the issue.

Whether we like it or not, prestige is not an illusion — and, in some cases, it is part of the infrastructure.

Honor Seares is a fifth-year history and economics combined major. She can be reached at seares.h@northeastern.edu.

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor in response to this piece, email comments@huntnewsnu.com with your idea.

The awkward third year doesn’t get talked about

SHREYA PILLAMARI Columnist

Walking into your third year of college feels like coming home to find that someone rearranged all the furniture while you were gone.

The campus hasn’t changed (minus the demolition of Matthews Arena) but somehow feels completely new. There are so many underclassmen whose names you don’t know and upperclassmen who suddenly seem impossibly put together, and everyone else is moving through routines that make you feel like you’re doing your third year wrong. You’re no longer a wide-eyed first-year, but also not yet a fourth-year with all the answers, either. It’s a limbo where you know your way around, but everything — classes, social circles, clubs — seems to be quietly reminding you that you aren’t the same person who stepped foot on campus three years ago.

The sense of being in between shows up most clearly in classes. Classes in your third year have a dual personality. On one hand, they matter so much more now because you’ve passed the “general education” classes that all students take early on. Now, you’re learning things that will actually be applicable to your future. The material is harder and more specialized, and it’s not enough to just memorize the lecture slides anymore. On the other hand, by your third year, you’ve accumulated experiences outside the classroom, whether it’s through co-op, taking on leadership roles or working on your own personal projects, and these start to feel more impactful than simply getting an A on an assignment.

I know I’m supposed to care about my classes the same way I did my first and second years, but when the payoff is just … learning things, it’s easy to get sidetracked by the other experiences that feel more directly connected to my future.

And, as classes become more future-focused, it’s hard not to start

thinking about what comes next career-wise. In your third year, you start to form a general idea of what you want to do after you graduate, but you’re still young enough that you can’t make any actionable moves toward it. It’s an interesting dichotomy to start thinking about your plans post-grad but also not quite to start applying to grad school, fulltime jobs or plan to take a gap year. Back in your underclassman years, any opportunity that you got was a good one; now, you have the luxury of being picky with opportunities, but it comes with the weird pressure of feeling like you should know exactly what you want.

Everyone has a plan. You have a vague idea. And that concept is terrifying.

The feeling of being “out of synch” doesn’t just apply to academics and careers; it also shows up socially. Social life in your third year of college is also its own hurdle. The social gatherings and events that you partook in your first and second years, particularly frat basements and dorm parties, feel juvenile.

But you’re still not old enough for Boston’s 21-plus nightlife, leaving you stuck with nothing to do on a Friday night. And when some friends start to turn 21, and others are still 20, making plans to hit the bars becomes a logistical nightmare. Social circles have also completely solidified at this point, so meeting new people and trying to form new friendships can feel incredibly awkward, as if you’re interrupting careful social routines.

Your third year also comes with a subtle shift in how the campus feels, especially because many of us live off campus now. When you’re living on campus, college encapsulates everything — where you sleep is literally where you go to class. Now, living off-campus, that isn’t the case anymore. The campus is mostly just where you go to class, and social hangouts take place outside of school grounds. You see familiar faces in lecture halls, but the dining halls, lounges and spontaneous meet-ups that happened because everyone lived near each other no longer exist. You’re caught between

the nostalgia of when campus was your entire world and the growing independence of managing life beyond it.

Whether it shows up in classes, career anxiety or friendships, your third year is the awkward, in-between phase that no one really prepares you for. It’s uncomfortable, a little confusing and sometimes feels like you’re existing entirely separate from the rest of the university’s population.

But maybe that’s the point. Third year is where adulthood finally starts to click, even if it doesn’t fully make sense yet, and learning how to exist in that uncertainty might be the most important thing we take away from it.

Shreya Pillamari is a third-year computer science and business administration combined major. She can be reached at pillamari.sh@northeastern.edu.

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor in response to this piece, email comments@huntnewsnu.com with your idea.

Everyone on Hinge isn’t ugly — you just have attractiveness fatigue

If you’ve caught yourself complaining about how unattractive the people on your dating apps are, you’re not alone — but you’re also not entirely right.

Dating apps and other online spaces have made us believe that attraction and general attractiveness are synonymous — but they’re not. Looks do, undeniably, matter in a romantic relationship — and studies on the importance of the photos you use for your online dating profiles reflect that. But, unlike in-person interactions, dating apps reduce the idea of attraction to be strictly based on physical appearances (unless, of course, you have somehow mastered using Hinge prompts as a way to convey your personality).

Unfortunately, this strictly physical idea of attraction has negatively influenced how people view themselves and others — and, like so many other Gen Z issues, social media is partly to blame.

Attractiveness is defined as “arousing interest or pleasure.” There are real benefits to being considered physically attractive, but a romantic connection is not a guaranteed one. A person does not need to meet the societal standards of attractiveness in order for someone to be attracted to them. General attractiveness and attraction, while related, are not dependent on one another.

If this seems like common sense to you, then you are against the alarmingly normalized online implication that physical attractiveness is crucial to forming a romantic relationship.

A TikTok I viewed earlier this week posed the question, “Are conventionally unattractive [people] who marry actually attracted to each other … ?”

The more than 900,000 likes the post accumulated made me question the

sanity of the general population.

Along with that, the movement of “looksmaxxers” (also on TikTok, no surprise there) is individuals, usually young men, who are focused on “maximizing” their physical attractiveness through using a gua sha, intense workout routines and, in extreme cases, cosmetic surgery. When did it become so scary to be considered physically unattractive?

Likely when we began thinking, with the help of dating apps, that physical attractiveness is a “must-have” in order to find a romantic partner.

Romantic attraction is more complex than we often give it credit for.

Part of attraction is built on something called mere exposure: the more we see something, the more inclined we are to like it. Social media uses mere exposure to rewire what your brain considers attractive. The more we see videos and pictures of people with similar features, the more we will like those features. This has transformed mere exposure into favoring looks-based attraction, particularly the physical features we see on influencers and models across our social media feeds. Instead of mere exposure making us more attracted to that person we see in class once a day, it favors the influencer we see on our feeds three times a day.

Similar to social media, the design of most dating apps encourages quick decisions and short viewing periods of the content shown. Unsurprisingly, this becomes problematic when the content shown is of real people. Say you’re on your phone. You swipe through Instagram and TikTok, both of which have algorithms created to boost engagement and favor posts featuring attractive people. Then, bored with social media, you decide to open Hinge. In a few short seconds, your brain switches from viewing influencers, celebrities and models to ordinary people in your area.

Instead of acknowledging that the people on social media are of

unusual attractiveness, many people will fall to the opposite end of the spectrum and decide that the people on their dating apps are unusually unattractive or ugly. It’s a harsh assessment.

There’s reason to believe this skewed perception of attractiveness extends into real life interactions, too. For one, we’ve all heard that viewing too much edited or glamorized social media content can impact our self-esteem and body image. If social media can negatively affect the way we’re viewing our bodies, there’s no doubt it’s also affecting how we view others’ bodies.

Of course, walking around campus is different from scrolling on an app and being encouraged to make quick judgments on how attracted we feel to another user.

Still, it makes sense for us to be thinking about attraction in day-to-day life. Our obsession with attractiveness has been around for a very long time. But popularized cultural understandings of what is attractive have had and continue to have serious repercussions for marginalized groups. This is important to understand because beauty standards and cultural attractiveness have always been used as forms of control. By engaging too much with content that reinforces these standards, we’re putting pressure to adhere to them not only on potential partners but also on ourselves.

The corporations that run our digital lives don’t benefit from us building genuine, fulfilling connections with other people. They benefit from more purchases of beauty products and clothing and selling the consumer an idealized aesthetic of attractiveness. In 2024, U.S. sales on TikTok Shop in health and beauty products alone totaled $1.34 billion, making it the platform’s biggest industry. Basically, it’s more profitable to make you think you need to meet cultural ideals of attractiveness in order to find love. And if you’re

holding yourself to that standard, it’s natural you’ll hold a potential partner to it as well — creating an endless cycle of unachievable expectations. At the end of the day, it’s not about being attractive, it’s about finding connection.

Unlike what these companies want you to believe, your ideal future partner probably won’t care if you use a gua sha every morning to sculpt your face or an expensive skincare product to fix your acne. They would care more about your interests, your sense of humor and your values — none of which make for profitable TikTok content.

In the meantime, take comfort in knowing you’re not alone in being single, or even never having been in a romantic relationship. Only 56% of Gen Z adults reported they “were involved in a romantic relationship at any point during their teenage years,” according to a survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life. It’s scary to feel like potential partners just aren’t attracted to you and that you must be doing something wrong. Maybe you feel you’re not attractive enough, the people shown to you by your dating apps aren’t attractive enough or your standards are too high.

It’s these feelings that make us panic-install or panic-delete dating

apps, but attraction isn’t cut-and-dry, and neither is the search for romantic connection.

The best way to meet someone isn’t through a dating app — it’s by pursuing things you’re interested in with people who interest you. Join an on-campus club you’ve been thinking about, go to a run club (if that’s your thing) or seek out opportunities to do things you enjoy in a group. You’ll already have a common interest, and you won’t have to mindlessly scroll through an app — a win-win situation. Even if you don’t find a crush, you can still make some friends.

Don’t let social media, dating apps and other online spaces make you feel like a romantic connection is something you or anyone else has to earn by being physically attractive. Being single, especially in college, is hardly a life sentence. Developing judgmental patterns and training your brain to only be interested in influencers — well, that seems a lot worse than being single to me.

Nora Harr is a second-year English and computer science combined major. She can be reached at harr.n@ northeastern.edu.

If you would like to submit a letter to the editor in response to this piece, email comments@huntnewsnu.com with your idea.