‘ Northeastern develops new hate crime protocol In an effort to provide students with a better outlet to report hate crimes, Northeastern implemented a Bias Incident Protocol in early June. Donnie Perkins, dean and director of Diversity and Affirmative Action and head of the task force that created the protocol, said the group spent a year and a half finishing the language for the new protocol because it wanted a way to open a communication line between students and the appropriate administrators. Perkins said the school will take all bias and hate acts very seriously, and he hopes the new procedure will lower the annual number of hate crimes on campus. To report a hate crime, students can now fill out a standardized form which is then categorized for severity and dealt with according to a specified set of guidelines. Associate Director of Northeastern Public Safety James Ferrier said he expects more reports of hate crimes to come in because the new protocol utilizes more offices for students who are victims of hate crimes to speak to. ‘- Marley Frankel, News Staff ‘ ‘ MBTA considers fare increase and service cuts In addition to recommending a 19.5 percent fare increase to alleviate some of the MBTA’s debt, T officials also considering cutting E-line train and commuter rail service on nights and weekends, according to a July 9 article in the Boston Metro. Under the plan, E branch service would only run to Brigham Circle during the week and would no longer be available on weekends. The Metro also reported the commuter rail would stop running after 7 p.m. on weeknights and would be taken out of service completely on weekends, according to the article. ‘ ‘- Rob Tokanel, News Staff