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October 10, 2019
Nahant residents sue over NU construction PRESERVE, from front because they can,” Capano said. “Whether it’s Nahant, Lynn or anywhere else, the idea that that could happen to a natural resource area or a wetland is wrong.” Renata Nyul, a university spokesperson, addressed the lawsuit in an Aug. 26 email to The News. “On July 23rd, the Nahant Preservation Trust, and 29 residents of Nahant, informed Northeastern of their intent to sue the university to
block the proposed expansion of its marine science center, which sits on land Northeastern has owned for more than 50 years,” Nyul said in the email to The News. Before Nahant residents could legally begin their lawsuit to contest the project, Northeastern filed their own suit in land court Aug. 9. “To protect its interests, and to minimize protracted and costly litigation, Northeastern is seeking a declaratory judgment in Massachusetts Land Court. While this process takes place, the university will continue to work with town officials to develop a mutually agreeable plan that allows the university to enhance its important coastal sustainability re-
Photo by Elisa Figueras Bill Mahoney and Christian Bauta discuss seawater outflow pipes installed beneath the Marine Science Center.
search, while preserving the unique vitality and character of Nahant,” Nyul wrote. Marilyn Mahoney, 70, a longtime resident of Nahant and a party to NPT’s lawsuit against Northeastern, said she is frustrated by the university’s lack of communication. “Northeastern had all this stuff in the planning and had never approached the citizens that it was indeed going to impact, which I find appalling,” she said. “I mean, if you’re going to do something to the community that’s going to impact the citizens of the community, they should be part of the process right from day one.” Residents found out about the project, Mahoney said, after the Marine Science Center filed an application for new seawater pipes in early 2018. When her husband, Bill, investigated and told other residents he’d found orange markers on trees on East Point, she said, over 30 people showed up to the meeting where town officials planned to review the application. Northeastern officials held public meetings and took comments from residents later that year. In December, Northeastern presented three revised proposals they hoped would better fit the town’s needs. Only 17 percent of residents who responded to a town-com-
missioned survey supported any of Northeastern’s new plans. The university selected the second of their three plans, which reduces the footprint of the proposed facility from 60,000 to 55,000 square feet. One alternative Northeastern refused to consider, Capano said, is building the facility on the Lynn waterfront instead of Nahant. He said he would welcome the construction of an academic facility in Lynn and sees it as a potential “jumping-off point” for further development. “I had spoken to the economic development director in Lynn, and he said he would roll out the red carpet for Northeastern,” Capano said. “I spoke at the town hall meeting, and I told [Northeastern] that, but they weren’t interested.” Capano said university officials told him they preferred to focus on their relationship with Nahant. But beyond the fact that Northeastern already has a facility near East Point, Capano said he thinks the university chose the site for aesthetic reasons. “It’s like a trophy,” he said. “I mean, why wouldn’t you want to build there? It’s a beautiful spot.” For Nahant residents — human and otherwise — East Point means more than aesthetics. Pivacek worries about endangered bird populations in the area. The lights from the facility, which are kept on overnight for security reasons, could cause navigation issues for migrating birds, potentially lead-
ing them to their deaths, as the birds get confused when they see a bright light while flying in the dark. Bill Mahoney, Marilyn Mahoney’s husband and a fourth-generation Nahant lobsterman, said the larger seawater pipes on the new facility could hurt lobster populations. Northeastern has pledged not to use the pipes at their full capacity, but Mahoney worries the university will slowly increase output as outcry about the facility dwindles. Residents have similar concerns about the facility’s effect on the character of the town. Joshua Antrim, a 58-year-old Nahant selectman, said he fears the traffic generated by Northeastern will increase. He said he is worried about the impact this might have on the town’s culture. “There isn’t really any significant business in town,” Antrim said. “There’s, you know, a pizza shop and a couple of restaurants. People aren’t normally commuting to Nahant ... So, people that [would be] in town on a daily basis [wouldn’t] necessarily have the same connection to the town and the same, maybe, respect for the neighbors.” Marilyn Mahoney said she sees the conflict with Northeastern as a problem of respect. “This community is not for sale,” she said. “Why are the scientists that claim to be environmentalists working to preserve the environment going to rape our Nahant so they can build up a global reputation?”
[from the Swipe2Care program],” Cerrone said. “I think if they actually were to solve the problem and end food insecurity on campus entirely, they would have to incur some costs, and that’s not happening now.” In addition, not every active Northeastern student is eligible to request meal swipes. Jordan Clark, an urban and regional policy graduate student at Northeastern, said he was told about Northeastern’s Swipe2Care program from a few undergraduate students he was mentoring who knew he was struggling with food insecurity. However, when he tried to access the program through his myNortheastern portal, he couldn’t find it. When he reached out to the administration, they told him the program is only available for undergraduate students. “They’re open to the idea of
expanding it, which is really disappointing,” he said. “It answered the question, but didn’t deal with the issue, which is that I was hungry now.” He said he finds it frustrating that an institution like Northeastern University doesn’t do more to ensure that its students are fed. “Being hungry, unfortunately, is not an uncommon thing — it’s something that I’m not afraid of,” he said. “But I know I’m at this resource-rich environment, and I’m a student and an alumnus in this ecosystem where there’s so much free food.” Cerrone and Clark said they both use other methods of finding food on campus, including visiting centers that supply snacks and using an app called FeedShare that allows people to post about free food on campus. “I have a lot of resources and offices on campus where I can get what
I need,” Cerrone said, adding that she worries about younger students who might not know where to go for help. “I’m already thinking about it so much that if you have even more barriers, I can’t imagine how much of your brain capacity it’s taking up.” A spokesperson for the Swipe2Care program declined to comment, but said the program’s administrators have not reviewed any data from the first year of the program yet, and it is unclear whether Swipe2Care will be continued in the future. However, it may take both structural and cultural changes to ensure that students’ needs are met. “We have this normalized culture here of just being very wasteful regarding food,” Sojourner said. “I think that issue needs to be addressed in a better way than Swipe2Care.”
Swipe2Care fails to address student hunger By Maya Homan News Correspondent Every fall, students flock to the 29 colleges and universities in Boston alone. For most of the year, undergraduate and graduate students make up 20 percent of the city’s population, totaling over 138,000. Every fall, nearly half of students nationwide struggle with food insecurity, meaning they will not have reliable access to nutritious, affordable food. Hunger on college campuses has become an increasingly prevalent issue over the last few years. A Hope Foundation survey of almost 86,000 students from April found that 41 percent of students at four-year institutions experienced food insecurity in the last month. In response to the growing rate of food insecurity, Northeastern piloted a program called Swipe2Care last fall, which allows students to donate unused meal swipes to students in need. Students who want to donate meals can do so through their myNortheastern portal before their swipes expire at the end of the week. The donated swipes then go into a pool that students can draw from when requesting meals. However, those who have received extra meal swipes through Swipe2Care said the program still has a long way to go to reduce food insecurity on Northeastern’s campus. It takes up to five business days for a request to be processed and another five business days for meals to be added onto a student’s Husky Card, according to several students who have used the program over the past year. This means it can take well over a week for a student who requested extra meals to receive them — if
their request is approved. “They do it in terms of business days and not regular days,” said Makaila Cerrone, a fifth-year political science and psychology combined major who said it took 11 days for Swipe2Care to supply her with the meals she requested. “But [I’m] a real adult who has to eat. You don’t just eat on business days.” Jill Sojourner, a fourth-year human services major, said Swipe2Care didn’t reply to her request for ten days, by which time she had already sent a follow-up email to the program. Her request was ultimately denied for no specific reason. “Fortunately, I’m not in a position where ... getting declined made it so that I’m not able to eat, period,” Sojourner said. “That being said, I wouldn’t have requested the meals if I didn’t feel I needed them.” Students also expressed frustration over the seemingly arbitrary rules of the program, such as the fact that students can only request three meals at a time, that guest swipes are not eligible for donation and that any leftover donated swipes in the pool expire at the end of each semester. There are also several types of meal plans, such as Profiler plans and Resident Assistant meal plans, that are ineligible for meal swipe donation. “With regard to [Swipe2Care] specifically, I think it’s a great idea,” Sojourner said. “But they’re placing the burden of feeding hungry students on other students, which I think is kind of ridiculous.” Though many Northeastern students agree that Swipe2Care is a good first step for the university, they feel it doesn’t do enough to meet the needs of students. “Northeastern incurs no cost
Photo by Brian Bae While well-intentioned, the university’s Swipe2Care program, which attempts to address food insecurity on campus, has some students feeling like not enough is being done.