THE VANGUARD PROUDLY SERVING BENTLEY UNIVERSITY SINCE 1963
VOLUME XLVII ISSUE VIII
THURSDAY, MARCH 26, 2009
WWW.BENTLEYVANGUARDONLINE.COM
This Issue Policy change: campus alerted to incident of bias
An Incident of Bias
Student Employees Drinking & Studying Obama’s Higher Education Plan .............4 Club Updates ..................5 Gerri Taylor....................6 Food Dude: Microwaved Part II........7 For Your Entertainment: Junior Boys ......................8 Snuggie Review............9 Magnamagic review ....9 Mistress of Issues: Possibly a Pet ..............10 Notes from Abroad.....11 Business ......................12 Men’s Lacrosse............15 Ice Hockey .........................16
Dan Merica STAFF WRITER
In an e-mail to the Bentley community on March 4, Jeanette Buntin, director of the Multicultural Center, notified campus of an “incident of bias” that occurred on campus. “An incident that is currently being investigated by our university police and residence life staff occurred between two students, that resulted in offensive language of racial nature being shouted within the Slade Residence Hall,” read the email. In an interview with The Vanguard, Buntin stressed how important it is for the whole of the Bentley community to understand that these acts of bias do occur on campus. “This incident happened in a residence hall, removed from all other areas at Bentley,” said Buntin, “These incidents do happen on this campus and its important to let people know that when [they] do happen, people are ready to act and help so that if this happens to any other person,” they’re prepared. The Bentley community is not unaccustomed to large scale e-mails, but it is a change of policy for the Multicultural Center that Buntin says, “needed to be made in order to squelch rumors and keep
Photo from www.bentley.edu
The incident occured recently in Slade Hall.
everyone informed and most importantly, [to] start a process of healing.” “When something like this happens in Slade, it takes only a few minutes for someone who was there to take their information and talk to people where they live in say, North Campus,” said Buntin, “I know that students are not regulated to just one residence hall.” Before the change in policy, as Buntin alluded to, the incident and response would have been contained to the building or community in which it occurred. While this is not a huge change in policy, the
inclusion of everyone signals a move by the Multicultural Center to draw attention to these issues and include everyone in the thinking process that comes with dealing with racism and discrimination. While this academic year has been fairly quiet in regards to acts of bias, the academic year of 2007-2008 was plagued with these sort of instances. “About a year ago we really had a rough time with these types of things on campus,” said Buntin. “This year we haven’t had very many issues but I do think that they happen regularly. To the point that
there are people who feel somewhat isolated and feel as though they don’t have places to turn to, so it’s just something they get used to.” Just as in the past, the Multicultural Center has laid out plans for attacking these issues and preventing them from happening again. In the e-mail, Buntin noted that both Campus Police and the administration are investigating this incident and gathering the information for possible charges. Due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, Buntin could not comment on (continued on Page 7)
Student employees recognized at luncheon The college student balance
Leslie Dias CAMPUS LIFE EDITOR
With a superior emphasis on job opportunities and career initiatives, Bentley recognized student employees and supervisors last week during National Student Employment Week. The crowded Executive Dining Hall held many student employees, supervisors, and other interested faculty
Photoby Bree Johnson
and students who eagerly awaited the announcements of this year’s Student Employee Winner and Supervisor Winner. During this year’s event, 19 student employee nominees and 5 supervisor nominees were recognized by their departments for outstanding work ethic and value. Candice Garabedian, assistant director
of Student Employment, hosted the event and gave insight to each student employee’s exceptional job performance. Among the top student employees included third place finisher Nicole Darvirris from Undergraduate Admissions, runner up Chrislene Paillant from Student Activities, and winner Julia Guilger from Library Services. Guilger entered Bentley at the young age of 16 and became a valuable asset to the Library Services desk. She performs dual roles as an inter-library loan assistant and library services representative. Her astute knowledge and eagerness to learn earned her the top spot among her peers at this year’s ceremony. The two runners up received fifty dollar gift certificates to Barnes and Noble while the winner was given free books for her next semester at (continued on Page 7)
between drinking and studying
Photo from USA Today
Melody Shekari STAFF WRITER
Throughout our culture, it’s assumed that college is now all about drinking, but is it really? Campus can feel like that on a Friday or Saturday night, but the hours that Bentley students spend in the library on weeknights and Sundays suggest otherwise. But what is the balance between drinking and studying for college students? According to a recent USA Today article, nearly 50% of college freshmen
that drink spent more time drinking than studying. The survey found that an average of 10.2 hours a week were spent drinking compared to 8.4 hours a week studying. In order to find out if Bentley has similar statistics as the average college, Jessica Greher, Assistant Director for Wellness and Coordinator for Alcohol and other Drug Education, was able to provide information comparing national and Bentley survey results regarding alcohol. (continued on Page 6)
Police Log 2 Cartoon 3 Editorial 3 Voices 8 Horoscopes 10 Games 13 Falcon of The Week 16