NAHANT — An early-morning protest outside the gates of Northeastern University’s Nahant facility came in the wake of Tuesday’s Appeals Court rejection of an injunction request filed by 28 residents last August.
The group hoped to delay the school’s plans to build a 55,000-square-foot coastal sustainability institute on the town’s East Point.
“We’re here to let Northeastern know it’s unacceptable the way they’ve been treating the environment,” said Nahant resident Tess Bauta.
Bauta was one of about 50 Nahantians gathered at the school’s existing facility Thursday, the day after crews began the preliminary phases of site testing required by MEPA before Northeastern is allowed to proceed with construction plans.
“They cut down trees yesterday. It broke our hearts to see these tall, beautiful pines fall down and be crushed to nothing,” Bauta continued.
Massachusetts Superior Court denied residents’ initial injunction request earlier this month.
For many in Nahant, the demonstration was about more than trees or site testing, however. Several residents said they are upset with what they called a continued lack of communication between the school and the town.
“It’s important the university try working with the community,” said protester Michelle Capano. “They claim they’ve done some of that, but I don’t think they’ve done enough of it, and they didn’t do it early on.”
She added, “(They’ve never talked) to the community and said, ‘if we were to expand classroom presence and do some things differently, what would work with the community?’”
In a statement given Thursday by Michael Ferrari, NU’s Assistant Vice President for External Affairs, Ferrari said the school has made several past attempts to engage the town.
“For over two years, Northeastern has engaged in good faith with Nahant officials, residents, and stakeholders about the project. The university has been responsive to feedback, making several design changes to reduce size, mitigate visual impact, and enhance the natural environment.”
According to residents, transparency, or a lack thereof, has been an issue at the heart of the contentious battle they have now waged against the university for more than two years.
In an interview conducted with the Item in April 2018, the university’s Vice President of External Affairs, Michael Armini, said he felt Nahant residents had been given “a lot of misinformation” about the project, and added that the school’s aim during that stage was to “set the record straight.”
To help quell the spread of misinformation, Northeastern sent out a series of mailings that addressed some of residents’ most frequently asked questions.
More than a year later, however, some town residents still believe the university has done little to integrate the small island community into its plans, leaving many skeptical about NU’s intentions.
As a professor of Environmental Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Nahant resident Susan Solomon has been exposed to the inner workings of higher education throughout her career.
She said she was unimpressed by Northeastern’s actions.
“I think it’s fair to say other institutions behave in a more transparent manner,” Solomon said.
“I think MIT right now is very transparent in what it’s doing in Kendall Square. You may not be happy about it, but people know what it is, and it’s within the boundaries of urban Cambridge.”
Solomon said Northeastern has a history of failing to be forthcoming with communities it inhabits.
“In Roxbury, there are many concerns with what happened there with Northeastern. I think it’s their way of operating when they can get away with it,” she said of the controversy that accused Northeastern of displacing Roxbury residents after the institution built a dorm in the Boston neighborhood last fall.
Solomon listed several areas where she said the school has failed to be transparent, including the proposed facility’s size and the initial projected number of people who would use it.
“They originally said they wanted to build a 55,000-square-foot building and put 35 people in it,” she said. “That’s an absurd number, and when I stood up in a town meeting and said that, they dodged the question and suddenly, out of nowhere, the number magnified by a factor of three.
“Many of those people are part-time … so why are they being listed as full-time? I’m not even sure if all of the faculty are full-time. We have to wonder, who is this really for?”
Ferrari’s statement expressed the school is open to working with the community going forward, rejecting the idea Northeastern is uninterested in finding a compromise both entities can agree on.
“With two separate courts now casting doubt on the viability of Nahant Preservation Trust’s legal claims, we hope town leaders will re-engage with us to reach a mutually beneficial resolution,” his statement read.
