9-5-2013

Page 1

The Daily Free Press

Year xliii. Volume lxxxvii. Issue III

MYLES TO GO Renovations to Myles Standish Hall for 24/7 study space, page 3.

[

Thursday, September 5, 2013 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University

SEQUEL CALLING

Second Boston Calling to kick off Saturday, page 5.

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www.dailyfreepress.com

CI-CONN-E

WEATHER

Midfielder to lead BU against UConn, page 7.

Today: A.M. showers, high 67. Tonight: Mostly clear, low 48. Tomorrow: 69/51. Data Courtesy of weather.com

2014 Boston Marathon to see spike in participation Splash moved to give groups, clubs time to organize By Alice Bazerghi Daily Free Press Staff

SARAH FISHER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Compared to 27,000 spots in 2013, there are 36,000 spots available for the 2014 Boston Marathon runners.

On April 15, almost everyone in Boston became a runner. When two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, many organizers and residents said they wanted the 2014 Boston Marathon to be the biggest and best yet as a sign of hope. They may yet get that chance, as on Aug. 29, the Boston Athletic Association announced a 9,000-runner increase in field size for the 2014 marathon. The BAA is capping the field size at 36,000 participants, an increase from the 2013 Boston Marathon’s cap of 27,000 runners, but it does not surpass the record of 38,708 entrants set at the Centennial Boston Marathon in 1996. Wayne Levy, a guide for RunBoston and member of the BAA, said the 2013

Marathon, see page 4

Homeless housing costs Mass. taxpayers $1 million a week By Steven Dufour Daily Free Press Staff

Homeless housing run by the Commonwealth’s emergency shelter program has crept up to near-record levels in August, but City of Boston officials said they would like to shut down a part of the program that places homeless families into motels. As of Wednesday, 1,801 families were in motels funded by the Commonwealth, higher than about 1,700 families in motels in Aug. 2012. “It was more than we expected in terms of the number of people applying and entering the emergency shelter system [this summer],” said Aaron Gornstein, undersecretary for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. “It [a shutdown of the motel program next summer] is a major challenge … but we’re hoping the numbers will taper off, so that [the shutdown] is still our goal.” Based on the $82 average nightly cost to house a family in a motel, the state paid just short of $146,000 for the families’ shelter on Tuesday. If the number stays consistent for the week, the weekly cost on tax funds is more than $1 million. Though only the component of the pro-

gram that houses families in motels may close down, some advocacy groups and shelter owners said the caseload is too heavy to close down anything in the near future. “I don’t think it [the shutdown] will happen,” said Trudy Bartlett, director of Cambridge Young Women’s Christian Association Emergency Family Shelter. “We’re full. We’re always full … and the people that come through don’t usually have skills. They don’t have a GED. They’ll never make it without a subsidy.” Homes for Families Executive Director Libby Hayes said she doubts the motelhousing program could close by June 2014, but her main concern is having the program acquire and manage higher-quality properties for families. “The number one solution we need is more housing,” she said. “We have a shortage of housing in general, so we need an aggressive housing agenda, which is cheaper than hotels. We need to be spending that money differently.” Several officials, shelter owners, and advocacy groups said taking care of those already homeless was important, but a bigger issue for them was preventing home-

lessness in the first place. In addition to the Commonwealth-run Residential Assistance for Families in Transition, shelters work to get homeless children out of the poverty cycle. “You need to address the issues that brought people on the doorstep in the first place,” said David Tavares, program director of the Families in Transition shelter in Boston. “That way, when a family does secure permanent housing, it helps their chance of being able to maintain it. I don’t believe housing in and of itself is the essential issue. There are bigger issues behind it.” Regardless of whether the motel-housing program closes next summer, Gornstein said the state has done much good and will continue to help the homeless through programs such as RAFT. “We have helped thousands of families get back on their feet and get into affordable, permanent housing,” he said. “We’ve prevented thousands of families from becoming homeless in the first place … the approach we’ve been using has helped thousands of families. We just need to keep at it and continue our efforts going forward through our variety of resources.”

By Rachel Riley Daily Free Press Staff

Boston University’s Student Activities Office officials decided to hold Splash a week later for the 2013-14 academic year to give student groups more time to plan, prepare and set up, officials said. Splash is set to take place Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the Cummington Mall, near BU’s College of Communication, exactly one week after matriculation. In past years, Splash was hosted immediately following matriculation. “One of the things we’ve found in the past is that Splash comes up very quickly,” said SAO Associate Director Raul Fernandez. “It’s difficult for some of our student groups to move into their residence halls and then be ready to represent their student organizations, so we’re giving them a little bit more time to think about what they want their setup to be and how they want to recruit members.” On Saturday, a celebration called Scarlet Fever immediately followed matriculation on Nickerson field in place of Splash. At least 5,000 students attended the event, where SAO officials, Scarlet Ambassadors and other members of the BU community greeted new and returning students with cheers, Fernandez said. The event also featured musical guest Karmin. “It [Scarlet Fever] is certainly different from the way any other school in the area is opening up their year as well,” Fernandez said. “We were pretty excited with the results.” Over the summer, SAO officials also decided to merge BU Central and BU’s Programming Council for the 2013-14 academic year to create the Student Activities Programming Team, Fernandez said. Merging the two is beneficial as the new group will have a larger budget as one entity, and will have the venue of BU Central in the George Sherman Union building to host gatherings.

Splash, see page 2

Kilachand Hall receives new name, serves as home for Honors College By Rachel Riley Daily Free Press Staff

After partial renovations over the summer, Kilachand Hall, formerly known as Shelton Hall, is now home to approximately 140 students of Boston University’s Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College. Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore said Kilachand Hall provides a variety of spaces for students to live and work together. “It’s nice that we’ve been able to make the investments, in large part due to the generosity of the Kilachand family, to be able to make sure that if we’re going to have that livinglearning environment, we’ve got it backed up with the kind of spaces we need to make that happen,” Elmore said. KHC Manager of Student Advising Amanda Scobie said in an email that the newly renovated residence has new and improved features. “The first floor of the Kilachand Hall was renovated during the summer of 2013 to create spaces for the Residential Life and Kilachand Honors College Offices, and includes a common room, kitchen, bike room, laundry and vending facilities and a seminar room,” she said.

While the sixth, seventh and eighth floors of Kilachand Hall are open to all BU students, the remaining floors house KHC freshmen and upperclassman, Scobie said. In addition, the fifth floor is a specialty community for College of Engineering students and the fourth floor contains a Writers’ Corridor for students interested in writing. After BU officials received a large monetary donation from 1974 Graduate School of Management alumnus Rajen Kilachand, BU officials made the decision to transform Shelton Hall to a specialty residence for KHC students. “By having our students, administrative offices, classes and a common space for our faculty and students to interact all in one building, Kilachand can realize its vision of being a true living and learning community,” Scobie said. Additionally, Scobie said renovations to Kilachand Hall will continue throughout summer 2014, though specific plans for improvements are still in progress. College of Communication sophomore Martine Subey, a KHC student living on the seventh floor of Kilachand Hall, said she looks SARAH FISHER/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF Shelton Hall was officially renamed Kilachand Hall for the fall 2013 semester. In addition forward to getting to know her neighbors.

Kilachand, see page 2

to designating three floors for students in the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College, officials made renovations to the lobby and to the study lounges.


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