The Huntington News October 10, 2019
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
@HuntNewsNU
Photos by Elisa Figueras “This community is not for sale,” said Marilyn Mahoney, a 70-year-old Nahant resident and a party to the Nahant Preservation Trust’s lawsuit.
NAHANT RESIDENTS DENOUNCE NU CONSTRUCTION ON ‘WILDLIFE PRESERVE’ By Isaac Stephens Deputy Campus Editor In its 1965 proposal for the Marine Science Center at East Point, Nahant, Northeastern pledged to make the tract of land next to the facility a “wildlife preserve.” Now, the university is clearing the foliage to make room for a 55,000-square-foot Coastal Sustainability Institute. Residents of Nahant fear the addition will disrupt the area’s wildlife and fundamentally alter the residential character of the town, which is one of the smallest in Massachusetts.
Nahant Bay is designated as an “important bird area” by Mass Audubon and is a valuable habitat for lobster, flounder and other species of aquatic life, according to a report by the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act Office. Linda Pivacek, a 78-year-old wildlife enthusiast and a retired medical professional, said she first discovered Northeastern had begun clearing land for testing in June. She planned to search for confirmation that two state-protected birds sighted at East Point were breeding in the area. Instead of nests and baby birds, Pivacek
found a cleared access road and piles of freshly cut wood. “It had been bulldozed illegally by Northeastern,” she said. “The whole area where the birds were was gone.” Pivacek and other residents said Northeastern notified the town about testing-related work that would occur June 28, but that university officials had not been clear about the magnitude of damage it would cause. After hearing about the damage, Kristen Kent, the chairman of Nahant’s conservation commission, issued an enforcement order to NU’s project manager, calling for
the university to cease work on the tract of land designated as a “wetland resource area.” Kent said the rest of the damage occurred on land outside of the commission’s jurisdiction. In late July, members of the nonprofit Nahant Preservation Trust, or NPT, notified the university of their intent to sue. NPT argues that the land is zoned as a public park, citing a long history of pledges by university officials to maintain the site as a preserve. The nonprofit is seeking an exception to the Dover Amendment, a Massachusetts law allowing educational
institutions and other nonprofits to ignore zoning ordinances. State Rep. Peter Capano (D-Lynn) said he supports the suit and has pushed for changes to the Dover Amendment that would allow for waivers in cases of potential environmental damage. While the statute in its current form has done good things for nonprofits in the state, he said, it leaves room for abuse of the environment. “It’s not right that a billion dollar institution … [is coming] into a place and just [destroying] it, you know, PRESERVE, on Page 2
Jury duty surprises students, conflicts with classes By Emma Plante News Correspondent When the judge called Julia Mannix to the bench during a jury selection, she was asked which university she attended. When she said she went to Northeastern, the judge told her, “For $70,000 a year, you shouldn’t have to miss a day of class.” Mannix, a second-year human services and communications studies major, was dismissed. Students who hope to avoid being selected to serve on a jury evidently feel the same. Such students include Padraic Burns, a third-year computer and electrical engineering combined major, who was summoned for jury duty last fall. Burns, whose
mother is an attorney, said he was educated enough about the process that he found a way to be dismissed. The jury for the trial Burns was selected for on the day of his summons involved a crime that took place near Ruggles MBTA Station, close to where he was living at the time. His proximity to the crime made him ineligible to serve as a juror, and he was dismissed. Burns said being impaneled and having to attend the trial would have been an inconvenience for him. “It was an inconvenience without being picked,” he said. The state of Massachusetts compiles a master list of potential jurors every year based on the state’s mandatory annual municipal census. Ev-
ery city and town in the state takes a census each year, and the results are sent to the jury commissioner. This process creates a larger jury pool than other states, which typically use lists of citizens registered to vote and those with driver’s licenses. In Massachusetts, this list is then split into 14 separate lists, and jurors are randomly selected using the software program Jury+. Massachusetts also allows students to serve, which is another unique decision that increases the potential jury pool for the state. According to a WGBH article from last year exploring jury selection in the Commonwealth, about 10 percent of the population receives summons every year. Included in that
Photo by Deanna Schwartz Jury duty has proven to be an inconvenience for students with busy schedules. population is the large number of students who attend Massachusetts’ 114 colleges and universities. Mannix said when she was summoned for jury duty, she was originally interested in the process. That
was until she found out the trial she could be chosen for was a medical malpractice case with a scheduled duration of nine days, which would significantly impact her ability to JUSTICE, on Page 3