News
Ethan Long

The College Newspaper Round-Up is a weekly look at various stories published in Boston-area student newspapers, plucking out the most interesting pieces that are important to communities across the Commonwealth: the students, the faculty, and the residents of neighborhoods that house them all.

To start, take some time to read some of the great work students have done in the past 24 hours covering the death of former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

 

Haunted Spirits on Emerson Campus?

  • Agatha Kereere of the Berkeley Beacon reports that a Fisher College building, located across the Boston Common from Emerson, is haunted.

The Ghosts of Harvard Past

  • Of course, the area’s oldest institution must have a variety of ghost stories. A quick search on the Harvard Crimson’s website uncovers many articles on the subject, such as this one by Amy N. Ripich in 1986 which, while tongue-in-cheek, gives a brief tour of the haunted spaces across the Cambridge campus. An interview with the special assistant to the dean of faculty at the time reveals that a pizza once mysteriously appeared on statue John Harvard’s lap. The assistant had heard rumors of a student prank, but in lieu of proof he believed it may have come from paranormal activities. Another article by Rebecca M. Myerson in 2005 asked if the school’s Holden Chapel is haunted. The article reveals that while under renovation in 1999, a pile of human remains was discovered deep within the structure. Ghosts? Medical students’ cadavers? We may never know.

 BU Dorm Was Once a Haunted Hotel

  • Decades after a playwright died in a Boston Sheraton Hotel, the building — now Boston University dorm Shelton Hall, is allegedly haunted, according to a 2012 Daily Free Press article by Chris Lisinski. Knocks and creaks had been heard on the fourth floor, but students have been said to embrace the unknown. Lisinski spoke with David Zamojski, director of Residence Life, who revealed his experiences in the building during the 1980s, and said that many students were “absolutely convinced the floor was haunted based on their own experiences.”

Harvard Pushes for More Inclusiveness in Club Culture 

  • Some of Harvard’s unrecognized social clubs attended an annual closed-door meeting this month with Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana. The annual meeting is a chance for the administration of the university to touch base with leaders of unrecognized clubs, such as Harvard’s final clubs, to set expectations and continue cooperation, according to Madeline R. Conway and Theodore R. Delwiche of the Harvard Crimson. The article states that Dean Khurana spent much of the time speaking with “between 30 and 40 affiliates of final clubs and other unrecognized social organizations” about issues such as gender disparity and diversity issues. Many of these organizations have come under fire for their exclusivity and culture. Because the meeting was closed-door, it is hard to know exactly what happened in the meeting, but hopefully it was productive.

 MIT Suspends Fraternity

  • After a woman fell from a window during a first-week rush party for MIT fraternity Lambda Chi Alpha, the school enacted a 49-person limit at social events held at frat houses. According to Patricia Z Dominguez of the Tech, that limit has been lifted, but only for frat houses in Brookline and Cambridge. The 49-person limit still stands for houses located in Boston.

The MIT chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha, on the other hand, will be moving out on Sunday as the national organization of LCA announced a five-year suspension. According to an article written by the Tech’s Editor-In-Chief Austin Hess, the suspension comes after not just the one September incident, but multiple policy infractions over the past couple of years.

Suffolk Gets the Gubernatorial Pep Talk

  • David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, spoke to the Suffolk University community last Friday morning about next Tuesday’s gubernatorial election, according to Sam Humphrey of the Suffolk Journal. The SUPRC, which is fairly small, has started to grow in size and recognition after collaborating with USA Today on a number of polls. Paleologos commented that because of her popularity as candidate for Attorney General, a gubernatorial run for Maura Healey may be in the cards in the future. To check your voter registration status in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, click here.