The Huntington News December 10, 2021
The independent student newspaper of the Northeastern community
@HuntNewsNU
UNIVERSITY-WIDE RACIAL AND CULTURAL LITERACY TRAININGS RECEIVE MIXED REACTIONS
Photo courtesy Claire Blaufox Photo courtesy Matthew Modoono The racial and cultural literacy trainings featured messages from various Northeastern community members, including ourth-year Claire Blaufox (left) and Athletic Director Jim Madigan (right). In June, Northeastern announced the university’s action plan to address the rise in hate and violence against Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans, or APIDA, communities and students. These steps highlighted two areas of focus: enhancing infrastructure for learning and creating a more inclusive student experience. Since then, the university has implemented several initiatives, including hiring new deans, launching the Asia America and the World speaker series and, as of the beginning of November, implementing mandatory university-wide anti-racism and cultural literacy trainings. “In the summer, when the president made the commitment to the university community, the Presidential
By Skye Richmond and Marta Hill | News Staff Council on Diversity and Inclusion will appear as a notification until they convened several workstream groups, are completed. one of which is called diversity work The student trainings are organized stream,” said Phil He, vice provost for into four modules: “Establishing a faculty diversity, who was involved in basic understanding of diversity, the creation of the trainings. “So you equity and inclusion;” “Building racial have a group of faculty and staff workand cultural literacy;” “Privileged ing together to come up with a plan, identities and power dynamics;” and one of which is the training.” “Taking action against racism.” The trainings, which are required The trainings and their rollout for all students, faculty and staff in have received mixed reactions from Northeastern’s global network, were students and faculty alike, but those sent to the general Northeastern com- who spoke with The News agreed the munity Nov. 2. They can be accessed trainings were a good start on Norththrough a link sent in an email from eastern’s continued cultural and racial Academic Impressions, an educationawareness and education journey. al consulting company hired by the Within each module there are a seuniversity that specializes in video ries of short videos, ranging from just trainings. They can also be accessed over a minute to almost 10 minutes through the Student Hub, where it long. The videos are hosted by Domi-
nic Rollins, a consultant and coach at Academic Impressions. The videos also featured members of the Northeastern community, including Athletic Director Jim Madigan, fourth-year Claire Blaufox and Director of Student Services for the San Francisco and Silicon Valley campuses Jackie Li. “I was emailed by Dr. Phil He, and he asked me if I would like to be part of it because they were looking for some people to have some sort of representation of the Northeastern community itself and not just being completely people outside of the community,” said Blaufox, a chemical engineering major and the co-chair of the Pan Asian American Council. VIDEOS, on Page 3
NU requires booster shots for spring 2022 By Jess Silverman and Gwen Egan News Staff In an email to students Thursday, Northeastern announced it would require students, faculty and staff to receive booster shots by Jan. 18, 2022, or seven days after they become eligible. This announcement follows similar decisions announced yesterday by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Emerson College and
Boston College to require COVID-19 booster vaccinations by the beginning of their spring semester. The university cited increased protections against the Omicron variant for mandating the booster shot, which is available to all Massachusetts residents aged 18 and older who received either the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccines at least six months ago. Those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine more than two months ago
are also eligible for boosters. “The FDA has approved a COVID-19 booster shot in the U.S. for anyone ages 18 and older — and the latest scientific evidence suggests that a booster shot offers significant improvement in protection against the Omicron variant,” wrote Chancellor and Senior Vice President for Learning Ken Henderson. The requirement applies to faculty and staff who teach both in-person and remotely.
Northeastern previously encouraged students to get the booster shots in an email to students Nov. 23. “We want to encourage everyone in the Northeastern community who is eligible to receive a booster shot, to do so. Consistent with our decision to require vaccination of all students, faculty, staff, and contract employees, we believe that vaccination remains essential to successfully manage the pandemic,” Henderson wrote.
The university encouraged students to use its partner Pelmeds to schedule an appointment for either Dec. 14 or Dec. 16 at the Cabot Testing Center. All members of the Northeastern community can schedule their appointment through this system. Massachusetts residents can search for available booster shot locations through the Massachusetts Vaxfinder website. Booster shots can also be administered at local pharmacies across the United States.
Brief authored by Northeastern legal scholar on abortion heard by Supreme Court By Erin Fine News Correspondent Repealing Roe v. Wade would make the United States an outlier in liberal democracies, argues a brief filed by Martha F. Davis to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court heard arguments on Mississippi’s 2018 Gestational Age Act on
Wednesday, including Davis’s brief. Davis is a professor of constitutional law and human rights advocacy at Northeastern. Davis worked with a team of comparative and international legal scholars to dispute the opening argument from the law. The legislation begins by stating that “seventy-five percent of all nations do not
permit abortion after twelve (12) weeks’ gestation.” Davis and her colleagues’ brief asserts that this argument “is neither relevant nor compelling.” Rather than argue the United States is out of line with the rest of the world on abortion laws, the brief states the United States should be compared to similar
liberal democracies. “It is just not accurate,” Davis said. “In fact, U.S. law is in line with other systems — like Canada, [and] the U.K. — that we share a legal history with.” In preparation to file the brief, Davis contacted comparative and international legal academics, including Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
LLP, to collect data on abortion laws in foreign countries. The experts focused on Iceland, where abortion until the 22nd week of pregnancy became legal in 2019. The brief argues that Iceland’s law follows the general worldwide trend of liberalization in abortion laws, especially in comparable democracies in western Europe. ROE v. WADE, on Page 3