The Daily Free Press
Year xli. Volume lxxxii. Issue lxxxxiv.
BU-CKET LIST Seniors embark on last adventures, page 3
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Wednesdayday, April 11, 2012 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University
READY, SET, GO BU alumni train for Marathon, page 5
]
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EAGLE DOWN? Terriers take on BC in lacrosse, page 8
WEATHER
Today: PM Showers, High 58 Tonight: Showers, Low 42 Tomorrow: 53/40 Data Courtesy of weather.com
Students weigh in on gender-neutral housing initiative Police investigate By Megan Allison Daily Free Press Staff
Student Union members outlined their plan for gender-neutral housing before Boston University students at a panel Tuesday night, seeking suggestions to help implement the proposal within the next year. A group of panelists presented the gender-neutral housing proposal to more than 20 students. By soliciting student responses, members said they aimed to engage students in the conversation in raise awareness. The proposal for gender-neutral housing passed through Union in late March, but it had not been formally presented to students. School of Management freshman Jonathan Reyes, SMG sophomore Caitlin Seele, SMG freshman D.A. Whatley and College of Arts and Sciences senior Ariana Katz led the panel, pitching their five-year plan. Subcommittee members said they aim to implement the proposal by housing selection in the Spring 2013 semester. Members noted a positive response from students in the online survey introduced earlier in the semester that measured support for the proposal. “We got over 2,000 student responses and around 410 signatures,” Reyes, a senator representing the West Campus Residence Hall Association, said. Seele, chairwoman of the gender-neutral
housing subcommittee, said of the 2,000 surveyed, 491 indicated they would live in gender-neutral housing. “This meeting is falling right before [the proposal] reaches President Brown,” she said. “It’s at the point where it’s happening. It’s just kind of a waiting game right now.” She said administration had demonstrated they were open to the proposal. “It’s very student driven,” Seele said. “That’s definitely helped us when we approached members of the administration. It helps to have a strong undergraduate proposal.” Outreach Committee Chair Alyssa Sarkis, a sophomore in the School of Education, said Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residence Life David Zamojski gave his seal of approval to the proposal. Union’s proposal would make genderneutral housing available as a specialty housing option. The five-year plan suggests gender-neutral housing be made available first in Student Village I and StuVi II and in certain rooms of South Campus residences. The plan would expand the option to East Campus apartments and brownstones in the second year, all South Campus, StuVi and East Campus residences in the third year and Myles Standish Hall, Shelton Hall and 1019 Commonwealth Ave. in the fourth year. Gender-neutral housing would become available to all BU residences in
death of BUSM student, Hazmat By Amelia Pak-Harvey Daily Free Press Staff
rights,” she said, referring to the period of guerilla warfare and changing regimes – in which she herself fought– that marked Brazil’s transition from dictatorial to democratic rule in the 1960s and 1970s. “It is much better to hear the multiple voices . . . even if they are against you, than the absolute silence of dictatorships,” she said, adding that “the Brazilian state will be held accountable to ensure high quality of public services” to all citizens. Bringing electricity to all of the country’s regions is key to that struggle, she said, calling attention to her administration’s efforts to do so. By late 2012, the Brazilian government will have totally universalized access to electricity, even in the most rural parts of the country, she said. But Rousseff attached a greater signifi-
Police are investigating the death of a Boston University pharmacology graduate student after responding to a call that resulted in a Level 3 Hazmat procedure, officials said. On Monday evening, Boston Police Department officers responded to a call regarding an overdose at 676 Massachusetts Ave., where they found the victim on the floor and “attempted to speak to the victim to no avail,” according to a redacted version of the police report. News reports said the student’s death appeared to have been a suicide. Officials, however, could not confirm details surrounding the death or elaborate on the investigation. Police have not confirmed or released the victim’s identity, according to an email from BPD. Firefighters later entered the apartment to look for certain chemical hazards based on what the victim may have ingested, said Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald. “Based on information we were getting, we suited the firefighters up in protective clothing, we evacuated the building,” MacDonald said. “About 12 people were evacuated from several apartments.” Four police officers and two emergency medical technicians who first arrived on the scene were checked into Boston Medical Center for any hazardous material on their clothing or any contamination, MacDonald said. They were released at about midnight. Firefighters found nothing hazardous and left the scene at about 1:45 a.m., he said. “Whenever there’s a chemical issue . . . we always call hazmat, which then in turn calls the fire department,” said BPD spokeswoman Nicole Grant. Boston emergency medical services sent the victim to BMC and treated her for “an overdose of an unknown quantity of prescription pills,” according to the report, although investigators said she might have ingested a chemical related to cyanide. The woman was later pronounced dead at BMC, MacDonald said. MacDonald said a Level 3 Hazmat situation is the highest level and dictates how firefight-
Brazil, see page 4
Student, see page 4
MICHAEL FERRUGGIA/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Jonathan Reyes and Caitlin Seele answer students’ questions at the Gender Neutral Housing Panel hosted by Student Union in the College of Arts and Sciences Tuesday night.
the fifth year. “If it seems appropriate to add Warren [Towers] or West [Campus] to the third or fourth stage, then we’ll do so,” Seele said. Gender-neutral housing is designed to provide an alternative for students who do not feel comfortable living in same-sex housing.
Gender, see page 4
Brazil’s president heads to Harvard after State House visit By Meg DeMouth Daily Free Press Staff
After “decades and decades” amid financial and social uncertainty, Brazil has emerged as a leader in the Western hemisphere, said President of Brazil Dilma Rousseff in an address at Harvard University Tuesday night. In the address, which was given in Portuguese, Brazil’s first female president outlined the changes her country has undergone over the past decade, mentioning that the country’s economy has become the sixth largest in the world. The address came after Rousseff’s visit to the State House, where she met with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. “The current ranking of Brazil,” she said, “is the result of economic and social changes.” These changes came about in part because of the administration of her presiden-
tial predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. During his two terms, Silva focused on closing large income inequalities. Her administration, Rousseff said, has focused on bringing equal opportunities to segments of the Brazilian population marginalized in the past, adding that more and more Brazilians have been lifted out of poverty or the lower class and into the country’s growing middle class. Brazil’s middle class comprises more than half of the nation’s population, according to data released by the Brazilian government, and numbers have been increasing, Rousseff said. To achieve that growth, she said, the government focused on expanding its infrastructure and its social services, all under a “due observance” of democracy. Her generation “learned not from books [but] through our first-hand experience about the value of democracy and human
Petition on teacher evaluations under debate By Sonia Su Daily Free Press Staff
Arguing for an initiative that would set strict teacher evaluation standards, Jennifer Rush, a parent from Lowell, said her daughter should attend a school where she does not have to rely on luck to have a good teacher. Rush, a parent and member of Stand for Children Massachusetts, said on Tuesday in front of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education that she had to choose between her job and her child’s public school education upon receiving the news that her child had to be held back. “It was a hard choice, but my child’s education came first,” Rush said. “Within weeks, her reading fluency and comprehension improved significantly. I realized the [classroom environment] was destroying her confidence.” Rush left her job to work with her first-grade child on reading comprehension because she was told her daughter was “basically illiterate.” Rush and other members of SFCM advocated before the state’s Education Committee for a
petition that would require every school district to adopt a “comprehensive educator evaluation system” by the 2013 school year, according to the petition. Under the new petition, schools would consider such evaluations in their decision to hire, dismiss, demote or promote teachers. “I’ve seen as a student and as a teacher the powerful impact of high quality educators,” said Jason Williams, executive director of SFCM. “The policy proposal will allow Massachusetts to build upon its reputation as our nation’s leader in education.” But Williams said accurately measuring a teacher’s quality is not simple. Researchers consistently document how layoffs fail to keep the best teachers in classrooms, he said. Therefore, all state schools should “prioritize a teacher’s effectiveness rather than his or her length of time in the system and . . . protect the rights of children to access a high-quality education and the rights for teachers to keep
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DIRTY LITTLE SECRET?
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College of Communication freshman Ethan Leavitt admires the Boston University Secret exhibition, organized by Active Minds, in Warren Towers on Tuesday.