The Daily Free Press
Year xliii. Volume lxxxxvii. Issue XV
YAWKEY WAYS Red Sox strike deal with Boston for nearby streets, page 3.
[
Thursday, September 26, 2013 The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University
REAL DON JUAN
Joseph Gordon-Levitt talks objectification in Don Jon, page 5.
]
NIL-NIL
www.dailyfreepress.com
Men’s soccer plays to scoreless draw against Harvard, page 8.
WEATHER
Today: Sunny, high 66. Tonight: Mostly clear, 51. Tomorrow: 68/50.
Data Courtesy of weather.com
Politicians struggle to get students involved in elections Harvard campaign
ALEXANDRA WIMLEY/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
A small number of BU students voted in the mayoral primaries Tuesday. According to Mark D. Trachtenberg (left), precinct election supervisor, fewer than 30 students voted all day at 111 Cummington St. By Rachel Riley Daily Free Press Staff
Boston is faced with an election conundrum: Perhaps more notably than any other major American city, a significant portion of the Hub’s populace are students from other states that are not registered to vote in any Boston or Massachusetts elections. Boston University officials — along with many politicans — recommend students vote in Boston-area elections because the outcomes directly affect them. “It’s important for students to participate in local elections, like the Boston mayoral race, because BU is now your home,” said Assistant to the Dean of Students Katherine Cornetta on behalf of DOS. “It’s your home for four years. Even if you study abroad for a semester, you’re still spending the majority of your time here in the city of Boston.” BU students living on campus who are registered to vote in Massachusetts will have access to on-campus polls for the November mayoral election, Cornetta said. Although many students are not registered
to vote in Boston elections, their daily lives are affected by policies and candidates decided in local elections, she said. “By college students not being engaged in the voting process, it actually hurts them, because they end up having less of a say in policies and procedures around Boston,” Cornetta said. College of Arts and Sciences professor Graham Wilson, chair of the political science department, said it is important for students to have their voices heard in local elections. “There are all sorts of policies that take place at the local level that affect students, ranging from safety in apartments, city inspections … to basically how receptive people in the city government are to the needs of the university and its students in general,” he said. Participation in the upcoming mayoral election is especially relevant, because the winner will replace longtime Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Wilson said. “[This is] the first contested election for a long time,” he said. “Mayor Menino has been
in a really strong position, been pretty respected in his performance, so we haven’t had many serious challenges in the past.” Because there are so many colleges in Boston, students in the area have the power to protect their rights and make a significant difference with their votes, Wilson said. “We have the potential to be a much more powerful block,” he said. “There are a lot of students here in Boston.” College of Engineering sophomore Andi Ellis, a resident of Seattle, said she is registered to vote in Washington state because she was in high school when she turned 18 and decided to register. “Because I’ve lived in Washington my whole life and I know the community where I grew up really well, I feel like I am better [at] representing that region than I am at representing Boston,” she said. “I haven’t lived here very long, and I don’t know a lot of the policies.” Ellis votes in local-level elections in Washington via absentee ballot. While many college students are most interested in voting in large elections, such as presidential races, their votes have more of an impact in local elections, Ellis said. “The more locally you vote, the bigger impact your voice has,” she said. “You can elect people ... then their voice has a larger impact, and they can represent you the way you want to be represented.” CAS senior Chelsea Quezergue, who is registered to vote in her home state of New Jersey, said she is not surprised many BU students are not registered to vote in Massachusetts. “Things in general that require some sort of registration, like voting or getting your permit or license — people just tend to do that stuff when they go home over break,” she said. Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences sophomore Priscilla Suzal-Wright said she is registered to vote in her home state of Florida. “I probably should be registered here since I live here for the majority of the year,” she said. “However, that’s my hometown. That’s where I’m from. That’s where my family is. For me, it’s more important to be registered there.”
plan to fund Allston campus expansion By Sanica Apte Daily Free Press Contributor
Harvard University publicly launched a $6.5 billion fundraising campaign on Saturday that will help pay for the construction of new properties as it continues to expand into the Allston area. Harvard is in the early stages of implementing its Institutional Master Plan, an outline of construction and renovation projects across Allston over the next 10 years. Harvard President Drew Faust said in a speech on Friday that parts of the funds gathered from the campaign would go towards the proposed construction and renovations that span from Western Avenue north to the Charles River. “This campaign will provide the momentum as well for further developing our Allston property as an integral part of Harvard,” she said. “It will enhance collaborations across disciplines and schools and encourage connections among the University, the community and new partners in industry and research” The IMP still has to be approved by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, but Harvard already has a presence in Allston, as its sports facilities and business school are there, and other plans to build in the area have been approved in the past, including an IMP in 1997. Brent Whelan, a member of the Harvard Allston Task Force, an advisory group made up of Allston residents that monitors Harvard’s construction proposals south of the Charles, said the community has had little say in the developments. “What we in Allston are negotiating with Harvard for [is] a very modest program of community benefits that we would like to see Harvard bring to this community as it’s bringing its new campus here,” he said. “We feel
Harvard, see page 2
Mayor Thomas Menino announces initiative to fight homelessness in Boston By Felicia Gans Daily Free Press Contributor
In an attempt to combat homelessness in the city of Boston, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino introduced a plan called “Bringing Boston Home” on Sept. 19 to look into housing options for homeless individuals and to offer them support in their time of need. “We have the top sheltering rate of any city in the United States of America … we do a really good job on this, but the mayor believes very strongly that we can’t stop until every Bostonian has a place to call home,” said Lisa Pollack, director of media and public relations at the Department of Neighborhood Development. Since 2009, the homelessness rate in Boston has dropped by 23 percent. Compared to other cities across the country, Boston has a relatively small population without shelter, as about 3 percent of homeless persons go unsheltered, according to a Sept. 19 press release from the mayor’s office. “We’ve had great success in reducing homelessness, and the Leadership Council has courageously taken on some of the most difficult remaining issues faced by our homeless population,” Menino said in the release. “We are going to help our most challenged and medically frail homeless off the street, make sure that the mentally ill, ex-offenders, and youth don’t unnecessarily wind up in shelter, and help families in subsidized housing keep their homes, even
when unexpected circumstances make it hard to pay rent.” Bringing Boston Home has seven steps, starting with helping Boston’s street homeless and ending with discharging some to homes rather than shelters, according to the plan. document. The plan also has built in support systems so that someone is making sure these individuals are taking their medication and looking for employment. Pollack said a large focus of the plan would be housing those who use a large amount of emergency services. “There is a cohort of homeless people who use emergency rooms as their primary source of both shelter and healthcare … that is the most expensive way to do it,” she said. “We’ve identified 80 of these people and our goal is to help all 80 of them.” The total cost of the plan is estimated at $7.3 million. The city already has $2.4 million in existing resources and the other $4.9 million will come from re-prioritizing existing resources and from new fundraising efforts from public and private entities, Pollack said. “I think by 2016, we’d like to see the shelter system working the way the shelter system is supposed to work, and we’d really like to see people with roofs over their head, a table to eat around, a place for kids to thrive in school and a place where families can gather,” she said. Pollack said the Leadership Council on Homelessness has worked with the city to put the plan together and she is proud of
ALEX HENSEL/DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino announced the “Bring Boston Home” plan on Sept. 19. The plan aims to reduce unsheltered homelessness by 50 percent by 2014.
what they have accomplished thus far. “What’s great about this is that it’s not just a thing that the city’s saying we’re going to go do,” she said. “It’s the city and the Leadership Council saying, ‘This is how we’re going to work together. This is how the whole network of providers and funders is going to work together to get this done.’ That’s what’s going to make it work.” Eliezer Garcia, 25, from Puerto Rico, said he experienced firsthand the effects of an aggressive plan against homelessness.
“I have broken English, and it was hard,” he said. “I couldn’t get a job.” Garcia said he lost his home due to unemployment and spent a year at the WoodsMullen Shelter on Massachusetts Avenue, one of two emergency shelters run by the Boston Public Health Commission. “Homeless ... I don’t like that name,” he said. “But I was only here for a year … housing helped me and I got an apartment
Homelessness, see page 2