One of my goals has always been to be someone who is constantly changing, adapting and evolving as I acquire more knowledge and enter new chapters in my life. I can assuredly say that recently I feel like perhaps one of the most noteworthy transitions of my life is occurring, and I could not be more ready to embrace it. The other day I received a leaflet on campus which elucidated the realities of animal agriculture – it rendered me utterly speechless.
A Community Task Force made up of residents of surrounding neighborhoods – the Fenway, Mission Hill, Roxbury and the South End – is currently reviewing the notification form and will advise on it. The administration drafted the notification form, the community is reviewing it and the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) will have the final word. But there is one key group missing from this equation: students.
Two years ago, the PT Kizone factory in Indonesia that made collegiate apparel shut down after brands including Adidas refused to use a factory where workers had organized. Since the factory closure, the 2,800 former PT Kizone workers have fought to make Adidas pay $1.8 million in severance pay – a benefit that all companies are required to pay under Indonesian law since workers often don't have access to social assistance like unemployment benefits.
This week President Joseph E. Aoun launched a new initiative to promote diversity and harmony at Northeastern, through the Presidential Council on Diversity and Inclusion (PCDI), and a series of events to promote these values. These are certainly laudable efforts; it is encouraging to know that President Aoun and the administration recognize the need to encourage such ideals at Northeastern. The administration, faculty, staff and students alike should work together to carry out this vision.
I have been working in the restaurant industry since the time I could legally hold a job. I started as a phone girl/busser at a small restaurant in New York and moved up to waitress, then to a new restaurant, and many more after that. But in all the establishments I’ve worked at, one thing has remained the same: the patrons.
Growing up in Vermont, things were … slower. Nobody was rushing around. Nobody was worried about the latest this or that. But almost everyone knew their neighbor, their town clerk, their postman and their convenience store owners, and everyone would help their community members if they ever hit a rough patch. That is what I find lacking in my current life here at Northeastern.
I can walk to class having made the choice to protect my health by choosing not to smoke and – this has happened – have smoke casually blown directly into my face over some uncaring student’s shoulder. I won’t get cholera from this and there’s still a good chance I’ll make it through life without ever having lung cancer. But what if I had asthma? What if I had a bad cough and that smoke sent me into a coughing fit? What if I just really hated having some jerk blow smoke in my face?
With the first open forum on Northeastern’s consideration of a smoke-free campus taking place this week, the debate over the question is reaching a climax. Proponents of this ban have several talking points; among the most credible is that a smoke-free campus will discourage students from smoking. Research on the subject has resoundingly supported the idea that smoke-free campuses, as have been implemented at colleges and universities across the country, successfully accomplish this goal. But this empirical research is only relevant in relation to the normative question: Is it the university’s responsibility to make health choices for its students? This paper believes it is not.
