The Daily Free Press
Year xli. Volume lxxxii. Issue lxxxxix.
FARE’S FAIR? T stops passengers from sneaking in back, page 3
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Monday, April 23, 2012 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University
MARVEL-OUS
‘Avengers’ director gives Q & A on new movie, page 5
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SWEET GOODBYES Lax seniors end reg. season home careers with win, page 8
WEATHER
Today: Rain, High 64 Tonight: Cloudy, Low 48 Tomorrow: 58/45 Data Courtesy of weather.com
Occupy Boston protesters’ aims smaller, more specific Victim of Allston shooting identified, students more wary By Alex Diantgikis Daily Free Press Staff
Occupy Boston’s next large move will not involve physical occupation, protesters from the group said. Rather than convening and demonstrating as a large group, the Occupy movement in Boston now tends to consist of smaller, more diversified groups, said Jay Kelly, an Occupy Boston protester who has been involved with the movement since the first General Assembly. Members tend to work with the groups they feel the most passionate about, he said. “It really shows what Occupy represents – it’s very horizontal,” he said. “There’s not one person calling the shots. You can go out and do action because you feel good about it and because you’re passionate about it. It isn’t one person saying, ‘Let’s all go here.’” Some occupiers have been sleeping outside of a Bank of America building in “sleepful protest,” while others have been involved with Camp Charlie and other protests against the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, Kelly said. Occupier Bill Lewis, who works on the Facility Team and has been with the movement since its first week, called Camp Charlie a “short-term occupation.” Occupiers set up sleeping bags directly in front of the Massachusetts State House, protesting and sleeping there from April 4 to April 14 and disbanding for one night at the behest of the
By Amy Gorel & Steph Solis Daily Free Press Staff
SCOTT DELISLE/FILE PHOTO
Members of Occupy Boston protest in the streets of Beantown last fall. Occupy Boston does not plan on staging any major occupations in the near future.
U.S. Secret Service while it secured the area for the arrival of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, according to The Boston Occupier. “It’s good because it was all legal. There were no cops around,” Lewis said, referring to the MBTA-related occupation. “It was almost lonely without the cops around.” Camp Charlie may serve as a model for future short-term occupations, Lewis said. He said, however, Occupy Boston members
“talk about [reoccupation] all the time. Definitely not back to Dewey, though. There are whispers about all sorts of [possible reoccupation sites].” Protesters are considering occupying a bank, occupying another building or even renting a building or occupying a different park, he said. “[The site would be an] easily accessible or
Occupy, see page 2
Ideas Festival falls flat with students in light of controversy By Emily Overholt Daily Free Press Staff
While organizers said the Boston University Ideas Festival provided a venue for different groups on campus to converse about different issues, few of the organizations that planned to sign up attended. The festival, which ran Friday through Sunday, featured a debate on intellectual independence, a campus-wide “Blog-a-Thon,” a conference about solutions in the Middle East, a creation of a social contract and a sexual assault symposium. However, the sexual assault symposium sparked controversy due to its approach. Demarius “DJ” Walker, a College of Arts and Sciences junior and main organizer of the event, said the sexual assault symposium did not happen for two reasons. The leader, School of Education Professor Carl Hobert, was unable to attend, and the Center For Gender, Sexuality and Activism actively campaigned against the panel.
“The Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism objected to the symposium on the basis that they did not think the approach was appropriate to deal with sexual assault, and I can at least respect that,” Walker said. In an open letter to the BU community, the CGSA stated the sexual assault symposium was “inappropriate” and “insensitive” because it used “traumatizing tactics.” The symposium was scheduled to work through a date rape case study in which different people would view the case from different perspectives, Walker said. Some people would read the study from the perspective of the accused and some the accuser, some would read the case as the police and others the bystanders. The program was expected to be conducted by Hobert, director the nonprofit organization Axis of Hope. The organization, Walker said, does this kind of workshop routinely. “The way that the workshop actually
worked was pretty set in stone,” Walker said. “He has a pretty routine way he goes about conducting the workshop.” The CGSA, however, deemed the role-play of a case study inappropriate. “The role-playing exercise is predicated on the assumption that there are multiple ways to interpret a case of sexual assault – or that there might be ambiguity or a ‘gray area’ when it occurs,” the CGSA letter stated. “This disempowers and casts doubt on survivors.” The creation of a “social contract,” another aim of the Ideas Festival, never materialized. “What we ended up doing [instead of creating a social contract] was creating a declaration of intellectual independence,” Walker said. “What that means is we wanted to define, over the course of the next year, what we would be attempting to do, and a part of that is creating the social contract.” Beyond the symposium itself, Walker also
BU Ideas, see page 4
The Boston Police Department identified the victim of the recent Allston shooting as Kanagala Seshadri Rao Saturday afternoon, according to the police blog. BU spokesman Colin Riley confirmed the identity of the Boston University Graduate School of Management student, who was shot and killed Thursday at 139 Allston St. at around 2:43 a.m. “We’re truly saddened by his death and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends,” Riley said in an email. “He was extremely well-liked and an exceptional student in a highly competitive master’s degree program in the Graduate School of Management.” The roommate of the victim declined to comment. In light of the recent homicide, a number of students said they are more aware of the possibility of violence in Allston. Amey Owen, a College of Communication and College of Arts and Sciences senior, said she lives down the street from the crime scene, but generally feels safe in Allston. “This doesn’t really change my perception of Allston,” she said, “but it does make me more aware of my surroundings.” Natalie Viola, 21, who attends Harvard Extension School, said she felt less safe walking down Allston Street after the shooting. “I just didn’t even go down [Allston Street] for a couple of days,” Wakelin said. “[I] avoided it at nights, but I only walk [Allston Street] during the day.” Kristyn Wakelin, a School of Social Work graduate student, said Allston isn’t always ominous, but there are disconcerting places. “The weekends are fine,” Wakelin said. “During weekdays sometimes you have to be aware of where you are.” Chris Davidson, an Allston resident and Northeastern University senior, said at first he found the news startling. “I’ve lived here for almost three years, and this is the first time that anything’s ever happened like this,” Davidson said. Davidson said, however, that he does not feel concerned because it appears to be an isolated incident. “It was kind of shocking at first,” he said, “but I feel like this area’s pretty safe.”
Boston-area residents speak out against BU biolab at NIH community forum By Eddie Donga Daily Free Press Staff
Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories will not test lethal, infectious diseases such as Ebola without opposition, community members said at a forum on the biolab Thursday evening. About 200 Boston residents gathered at Roxbury Community College for the final meeting of the National Institute of Health’s risk assessment of the biolab. The biolab is currently conducting Level 2 research on tuberculosis and other lower-risk diseases, but since its opening in 2008, Level 4 testing for more fatal diseases has been unapproved. The NIH invited community members to the meeting for a presentation by infectious disease expert Dr. Adi Gundlapalli on the results of the NIH’s most recent draft of the biolab’s Supplementary Risk Assessment. The forum gave residents the chance to make comments and pose questions to the NIH before it releases its final risk assessment of the biolab. Throughout the evening, about 55 audience
members commented on the 1,700-page risk assessment draft, which the NIH claimed is 90 percent complete. Among those commenting were politicians, attorneys and residents, as well as four BU students and one BU professor. “Residents – speak up, speak out. Let them know that this is not fair and that we don’t want this thing in our community,” said Klare Allen, a community organizer with Safety Net. “They have not proved that it is safe for it to be in our community and we will not stand for it to be in our community.” Following Allen’s invitation, the first community speaker of the evening gave the sole comment in favor of the biolab. “I feel the facility has the potential to do lifesaving research, and therefore, I am in favor of it,” said community member Kevin Norton. After Norton’s comments, two attorneys whose firms are in litigation opposing the biolab criticized the risk assessment for not providing any concrete information about the possible risks of the facility. “The problem here is that the uncertainty of
Biolab, see page 4
RACHEL PEARSON/FILE PHOTO
HazMat suits hang in the Boston University biolab in January during The Daily Free Pressʼs tour. Opponents to the biolab spoke out at a recent public forum.