December 10. 2014

The

G atepost

Hilltop Players present: ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ Page 12

Framingham State University’s independent student newspaper since 1932 volume

83 • number 12

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FSU holds final Chief Diversity 175th anniversary and Inclusion celebration Officer hired

By Sara Silvestro Editorial Staff

By Mark Wadland Editorial Staff

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

US Rep. Katherine Clark [D-Mass.] addresses FSU community in front of the McCarthy Center.

FSU recognized for sustainability efforts

By Corin Cook Staff Writer

Framingham State University has gained recognition as the 17 most ecofriendly and affordable school in the nation - a product of the University’s sustainability efforts over the past few years, and a motivation to pursue further eco-friendly efforts while getting students involved.

The recognition, published on Best Choice Schools website, a site of lists designed to help prospective college students select schools, considered over 300 schools, according to the website’s editor Reese Bradley, but only the most affordable schools were considered in the final list of 50.

This is not the first award FSU has received for sustainability efforts. “In the last four years we have been listed in Princeton Review’s list of 200 green colleges in the country, and we were also awarded a Leading by Example Award from the state in 2012,” said Carl Hakansson, University Sustainability Coordinator.

“We have accomplished an extraordinary amount in a relatively short time compared to most other schools,”

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark [DMass.] arrived at Framingham State University Monday to read a proclamation celebrating the University’s 175th anniversary from President Barack Obama.

In the proclamation, Obama stated, “With hard work, nothing is beyond our reach.”

Clark said, “We have so many wonderful universities [in Massachusetts]. … And that connection makes it a wonderful district and country.”

The proclamation will be displayed outside the McCarthy Center Forum.

- Continued on page 4

Educator and diversity trainer Sean Huddleston was hired as Framingham State University’s first Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) last Friday.

Huddleston will begin work Jan. 13, 2015 while students are on winter break.

“As soon as classes start, I expect him to start working with students and faculty immediately,” said University President F. Javier Cevallos.

The CDIO will report directly to Cevallos and sit on the executive team. The job description posted online described, the CDIO’s duties as including heading the FSU Leading for Change diversity consortium team, managing the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) budget and measuring campus climate and use the results to drive strategic planning regarding - Continued on page 7

FSU football team adopts 6-year-old facing health issues

said Warren Fairbanks, Associate Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning.

FSU President F. Javier Cevallos said, “I am extremely proud of being part of a university that makes taking care of our environment a priority.

There is an old Native American saying, ‘We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’ I think that is what we are trying to accomplish.”

FSU’s improvements were yielded from the University’s Climate Action Plan, initiated in 2010 by the Sustainability Committee. The plan, originally written by previous FSU President Timothy Flanagan, has been updated every year, and through these persistent efforts FSU has made great strides in sustainability.

Since the initiation of the Climate Action Plan, “FSU has met a number of significant Climate Action Plan goals, most significant being the upgrades to the central steam boiler plant and the conversion from Number-6 fuel oil to natural gas in the plant,” said Fairbanks.

- Continued on page 3

By Lauren Campbell Editorial Staff

As the FSU Football team captains walked out to midfield for the ceremonial coin toss on their Nov. 8 game against MASCAC rival, Bridgewater State, had their newest, pint-sized player holding on to the hands of safety Matt Mangano and Kevin Donahue.

The FSU football team had an incredible season this year, finishing with a record of 10-1, winning nine in a row to end their campaign. They went undefeated in the MASCAC and were crowned ECAC North Atlantic Bowl Champions.

Their biggest accomplishment, however, was adding a new player to their 86-man roster, 6-year-old Declan Cassidy.

Declan was diagnosed with optic track glioma, a tumor that impacts the optic nerve, when he was just 2-yearsold. He uses a cane to get around, and reads Braille. He is legally blind in one eye.

Rams’ head coach Tom Kelley reached out to Team IMPACT, a non-

profit organization which pairs children who have life-threatening illnesses with college athletic teams. He asked for the team to be connected with a child.

Once Team IMPACT paired the Rams with Declan, they worked directly with Mary Welker, who worked as the liaison between the team and the child’s family.

Last season, the football team worked with the organization and they paired the Rams with a child named Henry for the season, but it didn’t work out. “Henry came to a practice and to a game, but then he kind of disappeared,” Kelley said. “I got nervous we did something wrong. You always think it’s on your end.”

It turns out, Kelley said, that Henry didn’t enjoy athletics and that he enjoyed music and the piano. “We were excited to try it again” this season, said Kelley. “They thought we did such a good job the last time with Henry that Declan would be a perfect match.”

To get acclimated with Declan, Mangano said he, along with

- Continued on page 14

Inside Women’s basketball nets second win in a row 27

First Amendment in jeopardy 10

Football captures North Atlantic Bowl Title 27

FSU gets ink’d up 15

News

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Editorial Board 2014-2015 Editor-in-Chief Kaila Braley

By Phil McMullin Staff Writer

Can you briefly describe your resume and educational background?

News Editor

Scott Calzolaio

I went to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and I got a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in political science. After that, I was a journalist for four years - first up in Manchester, New Hampshire for a small daily newspaper called The Manchester Daily Express. It was a start-up paper that no longer exists, unfortunately. Then I worked for the Sentinel & Enterprise in the LeominsterFitchburg area for a couple of years before I came here.

Sports Editor

Can you describe your role at Framingham State University?

James M. Sheridan Jr. Assistant Editor Mark Strom

Interim Assistant Editor Alexandra Gomes

Arts & Features Editors Brad Leuchte

Sara Silvestro Assistant Editors Kristen Pinto

Lauren Campbell

Interim Sports Editors Mike Ferris

Jennifer Johnson Opinions Editor Mark Wadland

Photos Editors Melina Bourdeau

Danielle Vecchione Assistant Photos Editor Jeff Poole

Web Editor Jill Chenevert

Design Editor Brittany Cormier

Staff Writers Danielle Butler

Cesareo Contreras Corin Cook

Hadley Cook

Kylie Dembek

Cameron Grieves Andrew Mades

Are you working on any projects?

Right now, I’m working on the spring, 2015 alumni magazine, which is going to be focused on the comprehensive fundraising campaign. So, the magazines are big projects. They’re each about thirty pages, and it’s a lot of work that goes into them.

When will those be out?

The spring magazine will hit campus probably around early April.

Do you have any hobbies?

Ryan Normile

I’m a huge sports fan, so I follow all the local teams - the Patriots, the Bruins, the Red Sox and the Celtics. So, I’m big into watching sports. I also enjoy reading.

That’s pretty much it.

Jennifer Ostojski Julia Sarcinelli Rob Tate

Kyle Torres

Morgan Zabinski Staff Photographers Jennifer Wang Kyle Torres Advisor

Dr. Desmond McCarthy Assistant Advisor Kelly Wolfe

fsugatepost.tumblr.com 100 State Street, McCarthy Center Room 410 Framingham, MA 01701-9101 Phone: (508) 626-4605 Fax: (508) 626-4097 gatepost@framingham.edu

Director of Communications Media Contact for FSU

I would say, I think, just my ability to transition into this position is one of my biggest accomplishments. I started as a journalist, and that’s what my formal education and background is in, but it’s not uncommon for a lot of journalists to become PR folks - you’re sort of on the other end. Instead of asking the questions, you’re answering them, and I’m really proud of the fact that I’ve been able to do that - I hope - successfully here, and sort of do a pretty good job with that in my role here.

What are your favorite books?

I’m a big fan of Matt Taibbi, who we actually had on campus the other week.

I enjoyed his book, The Divide, as well as his book, The Great Derangement. I just read Scribe by Bob Ryan, which is about his career as a sports journalist. So, those are some books that I like, that I read recently.

Can you tell me about one of your biggest accomplishments?

Brad Leuchte/The Gatepost

What was your best undergraduate experience?

One of my best undergraduate experiences was doing an internship at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that I did while I was at UMass. It was a fabulous experience - getting out, and getting a chance to really hone your craft, and be able to apply the things you’re learning in the classroom to a professional experience. When I talk to students on campus, one thing I’m always recommending to them is to get involved with an internship, because they really are critical experiences, and they really do help you out - particularly when you start looking for jobs and that sort of thing - to have that on your resume as a booster. So, I would say that was one of my most positive undergraduate experiences.

What class do you think every student should take before they graduate?

I think everyone should take a writing class. I think a lot of folks struggle with writing. Even if you just take an introductory writing class, it’s a really important skill to have - especially when you’re looking at writing resumes, cover letters - I think it’s something that could apply to almost every job. So if writing something is more of a challenge for you,

What was your favorite course in college, and why?

I really enjoyed a course I took on U.S. history as it relates to politics. I’m fascinated by politics, and I was a minor in political science, so I really enjoyed learning about the political history of the United States, which is really interesting.

Aside from that, I’d say my more practical journalism courses, where you got to go out and just cover stories that were happening on campus, that sort of thing - so, I’d say those two courses were my favorites.

When I was in Manchester, I was working for a start-up paper, and I was the politics reporter, and this was in 2006.

Students might be surprised to see that I covered Barack Obama’s first visit to Manchester, New Hampshire, which was this crazy big event that sort of announced that he was going to be running for president. When you go to visit New Hampshire, that’s basically like saying, “All right, I’m running for president,” because that’s the primary. You’ve got to win the primary there to have a good shot. So, that was an incredible experience - just being able to see all the presidential candidates come through. I got to meet a few of them. If I didn’t meet them, I at least attended events that they were at. So, that was a really fascinating experience. I was lucky to be working at a paper that was just a start-up, because I had almost no experience, but they were working on such a limited budget that they had to use entry-level folks. So, it was a really unique opportunity, and I definitely appreciate having it.

What advice would you give to students?

I guess I would say just get involved on campus. You know, you’re only here for four, five years, or however many, and there’s so many things going on on campus - whether it’s cultural events, student clubs, you know? Some of my best experiences when I was in college were just meeting folks through different clubs whether it’s intramural sports, or a student club in your area of interest. I’d say just try to get involved. Make it more than just going to class. Try to do some things outside of class that either enhance what you’re learning, or just help you get to know folks.

Police Logs Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014 00:37 - McCarthy Center - Intoxicated male vomitting in front of College Center. Transported to Metrowest Medical Center, served with Interim Suspension paperwork.

02:07 - Towers Hall - Medical-Male party transported to hospital.

@TheGatepost

I think taking a writing class could be really beneficial to all students.

Did you ever cover any big news stories?

I’m the Associate Director of Communications, so in that role, I’m the primary PR person. I handle all media inquiries.

I do a lot of writing for the university.

So, I write stories for the website. I do the alumni magazine - I write most of the content for that. I also do some of our social media, and I do other publications: The President’s Report, Campus Currents which is an internal e-newsletter that we send around on campus, so things like that. But, that’s primarily my responsibility, mostly media-relations is the big one.

Phil McMullin Chris Monroe

Dan Magazu

Gatepost Interview

Associate Editor Joe Kourieh

December 10, 2014

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014 13:46 - State Street-Motor vehicle accident.

Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 23:03 - Maple Street Athletic Fields - Suspicious motor vehicle-vehicle stuck in the mud. Henry’s towed vehicle. Report taken.

Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014 00:57 - Towers Hall - Alcohol investigation.

08:07 - Hemenway Hall - Lost property.

13:03 - Larned Hall - Alarm (fire/smoke).

News

December 10, 2014

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FSU Recognized for Sustainability Efforts - Continued from page 1

Additionally, FSU has installed solar panels on the roof of the campus center, created composting and recycling projects and a vegetable garden.

The cafeteria has implemented watersaving practices by eliminating lunch trays and investing in water-conserving dishwashers. The University has even changed class schedules so that commuters could to travel to campus less, which reduces emissions.

Several students have noticed the improvements the campus is making in sustainability.

“Almost everywhere that there is a trash can, you are able to find a recycling bin,” said senior Patrick Merrill.

“We are also a smoke-free campus.

This reduces litter and air pollution.

Our school also just got two Zipcars that are eco-friendly and help cut down on kids using taxis and busses that pollute the air more. I believe it is important to be an eco-friendly campus because it helps form long-lasting habits for our students, which will then help society when they graduate.”

According to bestchoiceschools. com, 75 percent of FSU’s campus buildings have undergone energy-efficient renovations. North Hall, which opened in fall 2011, is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold-certified residence hall, the second highest ranking below platinum by the grading system used by the U.S Green Building Council. Fifteen percent of FSU’s buildings are LEED certified.

There is no specific portion of FSU’s budget allocated to sustainability efforts on campus, but Fairbanks said the money invested is worth it because “we save money by burning less fuel in

the boiler plant and by using less electricity on campus.”

The project to switch to natural gas from oil has reduced emissions by 33 percent and is expected to save FSU $15 million over 20 years, according to an FSU press release regarding the ranking.

“It is a win/win for a student to choose a school that was affordable while still supporting his or her con-

“

es.

“Until recently, the cost of alternative sources of clean energy were prohibitively expensive, however, due to recent technological advancements almost every family can now afford to install at least one solar panel on their roof,” said senior Zack Thomas.

“A truly eco-friendly school would be self-sustainable which, in theory,

It is important to be ecofriendly on campus because it’s economically and environmentally the right thing to do.

Trevor Gorman

”

class of 2015

cerns regarding the future of the environment,” Hakansson said.

Senior Brianna Tarantino said it is impressive that FSU is able to be eco-friendly while still maintaining affordability, because often times, eco-friendly translates to expensive.

She said, “I know a lot of things that are eco-friendly or organic, or stuff like that are usually higher priced.”

While this may be true, FSU is finding ways to invest in practical resourc-

should eliminate the institution’s energy costs. This reduction in costs should be passed along to the students in the form of lower tuition and fees, resulting in an institution which is more affordable for the average American student.”

Senior Eamon Pac added, “I relate the terms ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘affordability’ to cost effectiveness. Most buildings seem well-insulated, and I assume the reduction in energy spend-

ing translates as cost savings to students.”

Despite its accomplishments, FSU still hopes to make greater advances in sustainability efforts.

This year’s Climate Action Plan includes goals to increase the use of renewable resources, recycling, computer and building energy efficiency, while decreasing water use and reducing paper and toner use, among other goals.

Fairbanks suggested that, “The next sustainable effort on campus is to develop student interest in climate action and sustainability. Not many university students are presently active in sustainability actions on campus. The students are capable of effecting change on campus if they organize and vocalize their desire for the campus to increase sustainable practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This initiative needs to come from the students, not the administration.”

Senior Trevor Gorman said, “If I had a voice in the matter, I’d like to see the school seriously look into solar power. If FSU has the proper position, solar power could be a huge boon for the school. Solar power would cut the schools costs and possibly be a source of revenue down the line.”

He added, “It is important to be eco-friendly on campus because it’s economically and environmentally the right thing to do.”

Students who have passion for environment and conservation can get involved by joining the Green Team, the on-campus student organization with goals to promote sustainable practices across the campus.

Administrators discuss police policy and other student concerns

By Julia Sarcinelli Staff Writer

Administrators met with students Tuesday, Dec. 2 to discuss guidelines for students to record campus police investigations and faculty diversity, among other issues.

Fernando Rodriguez, a junior, asked what policies are in place for students to record campus police during investigations for the students’ legal protection.

Rita Colucci, chief of staff and general counsel, said that in general, there a lot of polices and certifications to follow by police. “There is a state law that talks about not being able to record unless you have permission.”

Susanne Conley, vice president for enrollment and student development, added that in light of a recent student complaint there is an internal investigation ongoing.

“The only policy that I know of,” said Conley, “is if they choose to record, they ask the student if the student minds being recorded and the student

can always deny or allow the recording.”

Conley said the police department should make it clear what the policy is.

Dale Hamel, executive vice president, said campus police policies are chosen by using, “the best practices

“

that are identified by the profession,” and that he will follow up on what the official guidelines are.

A student asked how FSU is attempting to diversify the faculty. Linda Vaden-Goad, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said five new

The plumbing code is written and enforced by basically grumpy old plumbers who are very resistant to change.

Warren Fairbanks,

Associate Vice President of Facilities and Capital Planning

”

faculty members are hired every year and the administration has “made great progress in faculty.” Half of new hires were from under-represented groups last year.

Melinda Stoops, dean of students, said that based on the diversity data of the campus, specific goals have been set for each office to hire people from different backgrounds.

Colucci also referenced a plan which was written in 2012 to create a more diverse faculty but she also said that accomplishing these goals can be difficult.

“We can’t say ‘In the chemistry department, can we have more men’ because that’s illegal,” said Colucci, “but what we can do as a university is say we have a goal that we’d like to reach, but when you’re hiring, you can’t take those factors into account, so it’s tricky.”

Another question that was raised repeatedly concerned food service on campus. Sarah Cowdell, junior, ex- Continued on page 9

News

4

Time Capsule

December 10, 2014

By Morgan Zabinski Staff Writer

- Continued from page 1

In honor of FSU’s 175th anniversary, administrators announced Monday in front of roughly 60 students and faculty that a time capsule will be buried underneath the sidewalk outside of Hemenway Hall following the completion of the addition.

Among the items buried, the capsule will include a Framingham State University pennant, a 2014 map of FSU, several notes from students explaining their reasons for attending and what they like about the school and a letter from FSU President F. Javier Cevallos to the Class of 2064.

Brandon Martinez and Molly Buckley, both interns for SILD, created a video for the time capsule, so that students 50 years from now will be able to see how the university looked in 2014.

Martinez said he and Buckley asked students several questions, and most “froze” when asked what they think they’ll be doing 50 years from now.

Others, however, knew they would like to come back in 2064.

Michelle McGonagle, a senior sociology major, said, “I love FSU and I would love to see the community in 50 years. I think it was really great how faculty, students, staff and alumni” came together to celebrate the 175th.

Kaylee Brazell, a sophomore

News

December 10, 2014

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

US Rep. Katherine Clark [D-Mass.] Presents FSU President F. Javier Cevallos with a proclamation from President Barack Obama congratulating the institution on its 175th anniversary.

chemistry major and the president of the Class of 2017, said, “I think I’ll come back because I love FSU. I thought they did a great job - they always do a great job.”

Susanne Conley, vice president for enrollment and student development, said, “[FSU has] a very old history and a very proud history.”

FSU alumnus Larry Liuzzo, former president of SGA, said, “I hope I will be here” when the Class of 2064 opens the time capsule.

Riley Fallon, a senior elementary education major, said, “I am currently the president of SUAB, so I have a lot of ties to this school.

I think the 175th is a great way to

commemorate this school.”

Cevallos said he is happy to be part of the 175th anniversary. “We depend on our government to help us educate the people of the commonwealth. … We’re proud to carry on this tradition for 175 years.”

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Food study lacking participants

Framingham State Food Study researchers are working to determine if there will be enough participants to complete their study with statistically significant data within the two planned years, according to Study Director Pat Luoto.

“We are sort of up in the air in terms of how many participants it was realistic to expect,” said Luoto. This problem can be attributed to short recruitment time, dropouts and a large commitment required from participants. This means researchers must find a way to make up for the lack of participation.

“From the beginning of the study, Boston Children’s Hospital identified that they need 150 participants to complete the study,” said Luoto.

This is the number required for the study to have statistical significance in the scientific community.

Boston Children’s Hospital and FSU are fully committed to meet the overall recruitment goal according to Luoto.

The food study is a two-year nutrition project, which researchers hope will determine the effects of carbohydrate intake on weight loss and overall health. Study participants are only allowed to eat food provided by the program, and are prohibited from drinking alcohol for a full academic year.

The Nutrition Science Initiative (nuSI) funds the Framingham State Food Study in collaboration with Boston Children’s Hospital. “The total grant to Boston Children’s Hospital is $12 million … It is anticipated that about $4 million of that will be coming to the Univer-

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

A special cafeteria station has been built to distribute food to the study participants. sity,” said Luoto.

This amount includes all expenses, including the participants’ stipends, Sodexo expenses and salaries.

According to Sarah Pilkenton, chair of the chemistry department, “When a scientist submits a grant proposal involving human or animal test subjects, they have to provide information about the number of subjects needed in order to have a viable data set. In science, one result is not good enough.”

Food study recruitment began in

February 2014 and continued until June 2014. Most research studies begin recruiting at least a year in advance, rather than six months, according to Luoto.

Recruitment for year two of the study begins next month. Researchers plan to have an information table in the McCarthy Center and multiple information sessions for students, along with their parents and faculty, said Gloria Klein, another study director.

Luoto said the researchers have always expected that the second

Framingham State celebrated its final 175th annaversary event in the McCarthy Center Forum last Monday.

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

Melina Bourdeau/The Gatepost

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

Their food is specially portioned to allow participants to lose enough weight over the course of the first part of the study.

year of the study would have greater numbers. “We think that potential participants in the future will look to those who are in the study currently to answer questions,” thereby making people feel more comfortable and knowledgeable when making the decision to join the study.

“It’s a nine-month commitment that people have to make,” said Luoto. “The number of participants is lower than our original target of 75. … The academic year-long commitment is a rigorous one, even with significant compensation for the participants’ time,” she added.

Junior communication arts major Christina Hatzopoulos said she knows of one participant who dropped out because the rules were “too strict” and prohibited alcohol consumption. Another student also dropped out because the study was simply struggling to resist other food. “She would be sitting in her room at night and just wanted to grab something from the vending machine,” said Hatzopoulos.

Hatzopulos is considering joining the study next year. “The money is a pretty good incentive to improve my diet,” she said.

There have been dropouts throughout the study, which Luoto said has already been accounted for from the start because that is always expected in research. Not having enough time for the study and not being able to meet study requirements are the main reasons participants have dropped out.

In order to minimize the number of dropouts, the study team is working to accommodate food preferences and offering nutrition counseling from a dietician.

- Continued on page 8

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News

December 10, 2014

CDIO

- Continued from page 1

the diversity and inclusion initiatives across campus.

“What I am hoping the candidate will do is take a really crisp look at that strategic plan, look at where it’s strong, where it’s weak and help us move it along,” said Rita Colucci, chief of staff, general counsel and chair of the CDIO search committee.

According to Colucci, FSU’s population has changed. In 2008, 13 percent of the undergraduate population was from underrepresented groups.

“I can tell you our incoming freshmen this year are 27 percent diverse,” said Colucci. “That is the most diverse class we have ever had.”

Now, it is time to take the next steps to “create a really inclusive campus so that every student that comes here feels welcome, feels like there is a place here for them, [and] is free from harassment,” Collucci said. She added some steps the administration has already taken include the formation of the CDI, the construction of the multicultural center and the hiring of its director, Kathy Martinez, who will now report to the CDIO. Martinez said she is looking forward to working with Huddleston because his “energy and enthusiasm for working with students were apparent during his interview process and I think that is a vital component for this position.”

Since the opening of the Multicultural Center in 2013, Martinez has been actively involved in collecting and analyzing data to help with diversity initiatives across campus.

Martinez is hoping the CDIO will potentially refine current initiatives, create new ones, and “jump start our plan,” she said.

Martinez said a 2014 survey showed students of color “feel significantly less valued then their peers.

“I expect Sean to lead campus-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives,” said Martinez. “As an institution, we must improve our campus climate statistics and retention rates which have indicated that underrepresented students’ experiences need further consideration and attention.

“To improve those aspects, it will take a university-wide effort, which Sean will develop and manage. However, he and his office can’t do it alone,” said Martinez. “So, I hope he will help getting many facets of the institution on the same page to work collectively to improve these dimensions.”

Martinez said she would like to see “data-driven initiatives.

“I’m particularly looking forward to Sean’s experience working with bias reporting systems and creating programs to improve the retention rates of Latino and black students - both of which are much needed here at FSU,” said Martinez.

Colucci said she would like the CDIO to be accessible to the entire campus. However, he will be less available to students.

“I think the CDIO is going to be accessible to students, but I do not think he will have much day-to-day interaction with students,” she said.

The CDIO search committee included Kim Dexter, director of equal opportunity, Title IX and ADA Compliance, Professors Patricia Sanchez-Connally and Zhe Li, Accountant Chamara Eranga Sandaradura, Director of Academic Support/Disability Services LaDonna Bridges and students

Nuzaiba Haider and Gabriella Betonces.

The committee selected four candidates for on-campus interviews in an external search.

Throughout November, candidates were accessible during meet and greets, open forums and one-on-one interviews with Cevallos.

Attendance at the forums ranged from five to 14 students along with a large number of faculty and staff. At the events, attendees were asked to provide feedback via surveys, which included space for them to list what they believed were strengths and weaknesses of each candidate.

Students and faculty members were curious about what inspired the candidates, why they chose Framingham State and if they would share challenges they have faced during their careers in diversity and inclusion.

Cevallos said, “We were very fortunate that we had a very strong pool of candidates. … Any one of them could have done the job.”

Huddleston grew up in Detroit in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and said he did not experience racism until he entered the work force after graduating college because growing up, he said, “Everybody in a position of authority looked like me.”

He graduated with his B.A. from Siena Heights University in Adrian, Michigan and his M.A. in adult and higher education from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan. It wasn’t until he joined the workforce, he said, that he started focusing on diversity and inclusion.

Huddleston said he wishes to assist Framingham State University in its diversity and inclusion initiatives with both a strategic approach and as a guide “to all of the structures, and systems of this institution.”

Huddleston is leaving his position as assistant vice president for strategic implementation, inclusion & equity division at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

During his meetings with students, staff and faculty, Huddleston said he was “really pleased with the level of authenticity ...

People have not held their tongues and that is really important to me because quite honestly, I have been to some other places and all I have heard about is how wonderful and exciting things are.

“People share with me some of the challenges,” he added. “But along with challenges they also share opportunities.”

Along with Huddleston, other finalists included Darcy Orellana, Joe-Joe McManus and Roland Davis.

Orellana, Affirmative Action Officer and Assistant Director of Human Resources at Middlesex Community College was the second of the candidates to be interviewed by the FSU community.

Orellana has her B.A. in education and french from Tufts University, her M.A. in community social psychology and her Ed. D. (ABD) in higher education administration from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

She said she wanted to focus on expanding the search committee training during her time at FSU. “If we can’t impact who we hire, and how we look at individuals and how we assess credentials, we are never going to be able to change the structural diversity on campus.”

McManus, executive director of Rootstrong and a Sr. Associate, Kingston Bay

News

December 10, 2014

7

New Gender Inclusion Committee pushes for gender-neutral facilities

By Rob Tate Staff Writer

Melina Bourdeau/The Gatepost

Sean Huddleston

Photo Courtesy of LinkedIn.com

Melina Bourdeau/The Gatepost

Darcy Orellana

Photo Courtesy of Bates.edu

Joe-Joe McManus

Roland Davis

Group, was another candidate.

McManus has his Ph.D. in educational leadership from Florida A&M University, his M.A. in multicultural education and B.S. in psychology with a minor in space sciences from Florida Institute of technology.

McManus said a CDIO needs to be a “collaborative leader,” and added he would want to look at the benchmarks that exist and tweak them so the University could reach inclusive excellence.

He said, “This particular role is set up really well to be successful, and there is a lot of support. I get that there is resistance, but there is resistance everywhere, and there isn’t always support like there is here.”

Davis, an educational consultant, was the last candidate.

Davis has his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of New Hampshire, his Master of social work and clinical practice from Boston College, and is B.A. in history and sociology from Bates College.

As a CDIO, Davis would like to address retention and networking. He said FSU has “made progress in recruitment of staff and faculty that are of color or underrepresented groups.” However, Davis said a lot of work still needs to be done regarding student retention.

Fernando Rodriguez, a junior and leader of Student Leaders in Diversity, said he would like to see the CDIO diversify faculty and staff and address the campus climate data.

“Dealing with the climate data, it says

that only white men feel safe on campus and that the retention rate for people of color has been dropping,” said Rodriguez.

He added he would like to see more open forums to create conversations about recent events like “the sexual assaults and the racist incidents that happen on campus. [Huddleston] has to take charge. Those things really, really need to matter.”

Cameron Zamagni, a junior and an intern at the Multicultural Center, said, “I would like to see an overhaul on a number of campus policies,” concerning sexual assaults and gender-neutral facility policies.

According to Zamagni, the CDIO should work with and for students because they are the “paying customers of this institution.

“The CDIO should look to students rather than faculty, staff, administration and executives for guidance on what to do and how to do it,” he added.

Regarding Huddleston, Zamagni said, “I think there was positive and negative to all candidates. … I have full faith in his abilities and I look forward to working with him.”

Jimmy McKeon, a senior, said, “I want them to engage with students like me - keep students informed. I know we have a diversity center, but I don’t know what goes on there.”

Colucci said, “I hope people are welcoming, cooperative and allow this person to do his job to the best of his ability. I really hope this campus embraces this position and this individual. It can really do wonderful things for us.”

The SGA Gender Inclusion Committee is lobbing for gender-neutral facilities, following the lead of campuses around the country, including Massachusetts institutions like UMass Amherst and Emerson College.

“We have a population on campus that is having difficulty with bathrooms and housing situations, so we want to alleviate that problem,” said Cameron Zamagni, co-chair of the Gender-Inclusion Committee.

The committee, which meets Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. in the SGA office, was created at the end of last semester.

“Our main focus is on the LGBTQ community and gender-neutral facilities, with our big project being gender-neutral housing,” said Calvin Ridley, chair of the committee.

“It’s more about creating a safe space for people to be. The population of LGBTQ is a lot higher than people think it is so it would protect them from a lot of uncomfortable or unsafe situations they could face,” Ridley said.

Kim Dexter director of equal opportunity, Title IX, and ADA compliance said, “I believe that inclusive facilities have a meaningful impact on community members in regards to their feelings of comfort and safety,” “Gender-inclusive facilities support the needs of those in the community who do not identify as a binary gender (male or female), who are gender-questioning, or who are in a gender transition,” Dexter said.

Kimberly Awiszio, president of FSU’s Pride Alliance Club, said she thinks this initiative is “a great way to get the conversation going. I mean Pride Alliance is great, but we are really only scratching the surface of the issue and don’t have the resources to do this sort of thing.”

She added having a committee through the SGA strengthens the argument for gender-neutral facilities. The club and committee are two separate entities.

Maureen Fowler, environmental health and safety coordinator, said,

“

“I think it’s fantastic this conversation is being brought up. When we created the list of single occupancy bathrooms, we thought that this could be a starting point where people can be comfortable.”

In total, there are ten designated “single occupancy restrooms” located throughout the campus she said.

However, four of them are gender designated. This number excludes the single occupancy bathrooms in North Hall.

When asked what it would cost to make or convert a bathroom into a gender-neutral bathroom, Fowler replied, “Not that much.” She added that the state building inspector has requested that FSU keep bathrooms gender-assigned.

Dexter said, “these types of facilities, particularly restrooms, also support persons who are disabled and require the assistance of an at-

mittee to create those problems.

Ridley said, “With housing, you could designate yourself as genderneutral or that you were OK with living with gender-neutral [people]. …

It takes away the gender label without alienating anyone.”

Liz Dresser, a junior communication arts major, said, “If you were to let two people live together without just throwing them in a single, I think that allows you to recognize that yes, these people do exist, and we are accommodating towards them.” She added that even if administrators added floors to any dorm that was simply gender-neutral, it would be a step in the right direction. lthough many students are positive about gender-neutral facilities, some believe the school is accommodating to everyone and putting a spotlight on the LGBTQ community may cause some negative backlash.

Rob Alvarez, a senior communications arts major said, “I don’t really see a point.”

He added, “FSU couldn’t already be more accommodating to diversity, so I don’t see the need.”

Vinicius De Sousa, a senior business major, said, “I think it would make things worse for people of the LGBTQ community. It’s a fine line, and you run the risk of creating a stigma, and I think people would be leery of using that bathroom, because while we may accept it, others may not be accepting.”

Elizabeth Medeiros, a senior communication arts major, said, “I think it’s good that the campus is trying to be more inclusive so that no one feels singled out.” She added that while she thinks the negativity toward the possibility of gender-neutral facilities it is a valid concern, “I feel like if this becomes a thing, people will have more options for places to go on campus where they can feel safe.”

Regardless of the opposition, Ridley remains positive.

“I really want people to come to the meetings. If you’re interested and you have something to say, come help out. Let’s do this together.”

I think it’s good that the campus is trying to be more inclusive so that no one feels singled out.

Elizabeth Medeiros, Class of 2015 Communication arts major

tendant who may be of a different gender, parents who wish to accompany their young children into restrooms, and persons who may otherwise have anxiety in regards to using public restrooms.”

Mauricio Buitrago, a sophomore environmental science major said, “Knowing that there are people who don’t identify with their assigned gender and don’t feel comfortable using gender assigned bathrooms, I think having their own space where they do feel comfortable will be beneficial to them and the campus.”

In regards to support for genderneutral housing, Zamagni described it as a “mixed bag.” He said, “Some faculty look at the legal issues, such as people in relationships living together where domestic violence becomes a problem.” Zamagni added that it is not the intent of the com-

”

SGA allocates over $4,000 for Gatepost journalism convention

By Julia Sarcinelli Staff Writer

The Student Government Association allocated $4,288.98 to The Gatepost for a trip to the three-day Spring National College Media Convention in New York City, which the group has attended for the past two years.

This trip will be held March 11-14.

The cost for four students and their advisor to register for the conference is $560. Two student rooms cost $888.34 and the advisor’s room costs $750.64 at the Sheraton Hotel for two nights.

Bussing will cost $1,610 and food for the four students and advisor will cost $480.

Kaila Braley, Editor-in-Chief of The Gatepost, said additional staff members who wish to attend will be paid for through The Gatepost’s advertising revenue. Braley added that this conference will allow staff members to learn invaluable skills from other professional and student journalists such as layout, writing, editing and journalism ethics.

SGA also passed The Puzzle Club’s constitution with three opposing and one abstaining from voting. SGA senators asked for clarification about the duties of eBoard members as well as suggestions for revising the constitution.

President and founder Kevin Fitzgerald described the new club as a place for students to engage in “every type of puzzle anyone can think of”from crosswords to riddles to Sudoku.

A safety walk around campus will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 6:00 p.m.

Students will meet in the McCarthy Center lobby with President F. Javier Cevallos, among other administrators.

Students are encouraged to attend to discuss lighting problems, potholes or other safety concerns on campus.

In other news: Amending the SGA constitution has been tabled until next Wednesday, Dec. 10.

The last bi-weekly meeting with dining services will be Thursday, Dec. 11 at 2:00 p.m. in the Marketplace in McCarthy Center for students to have an open discussion with dining staff.

Hospitality tables with stress balls, candy, and baked goods will be set up Dec. 9-11, courtesy of SGA, as a stress release for students.

Ezequiel De Leon, sophomore, was the recipient of the “You Rock” award.

News

8

Food study

- Continued from page 1

“The projected dropout rate for a long-term feeding study is around 30 to 40 percent,” said Luoto, and the food study dropout rate is currently at 37 percent.

Junior studio arts major Calvin Ridley said, “The time commitment is worth the money, for sure. We’re getting paid to lose weight and to eat the food given to us. That’s all that is asked of us.”

Ridley said he has been hungry between meals, but not excessively.

“To be honest the food is fine, the choices may not be what we all want or specifically like or enjoy, but the food is good quality and tastes pretty good,” said Ridley.

Junior business major Alysia Bryant said she joined in order to lose weight and “was excited about the prospect of being paid to do it.”

The study’s offer of 10 to 12 percent weight loss was a big draw, but her experience thus far has been a challenge.

“Everyday situations feel a little more awkward as my friends examine my plate to see what today’s meal has to offer. It sounds strange, but eating is a more emotional experience than I’d ever realized,” said Bryant.

“Eating what you want when you want to is something that I feel most people do but take for granted,” said Bryant. Hot chocolate during the cold weather and alphabet soup when sick are no longer a possibility, she said. However, Bryant has yet to encounter any study meals that she simply dislikes.

“I think the food study meals affected different people in different ways. A friend of mine would say that she was always hungry and that made her tempted to snack, but that was never the case for me,” said Bryant. “I’m a full 26 pounds lighter than I was in June. That’s a really awesome feeling.”

Bryant said she had a difficult time adjusting to the study at the beginning because she still felt hungry after her meals. In addition, watching her friends eat pizza or macaroni and cheese was difficult.

“One of the best motivators for

me has been being weighed every morning,” said Bryant. Now, the portion sizes seem completely normal to her.

The food study researchers will be meeting with the Framingham State administration in the coming weeks to determine what the best approach would be to reach 150 participants and if it is feasible to achieve that in two years, according to Luoto. There will no impact on the financial stability of the

“

lose the weight,’ “as if it was going to happen, and it did happen.”

The downside, she said, is that she sometimes is tied down by the study. “If I want to have a meeting off campus, I have to plan for that and take my meals home,” said Eck. “It gets me up early because my breakfast is one town over.

“My daughter would say ‘it looks like my dollhouse food’ but I started to like that way of eating,” said Eck.

Eating is a more emotional experience than I’d ever realized.

Alysia Bryant Class of 2016 Buisness major

study, she added.

At this point in time, no decisions have been made in terms of how this number will be reached and “we are considering all options,” said Luoto.

English Professor Lisa Eck said, “Because of the long time commitment, this will be my new normal.

It’s not just going to be this miraculous weight loss in the fall.”

Eck said she realizes the study is harder for students because of their schedules. Participants receive one snack for the night. However, college students are typically awake well into the night. “If I get hungry, I go to bed and when I wake up, I eat breakfast.” Being up until midnight grading papers has been the hardest test so far, she said.

Eck’s favorite aspect of the study has been that the study team has always used the phrase ‘when you

December 10, 2014

”

Eck is now on a weight maintenance diet, meaning she must consume the exact number of calories that her body requires. “It seems obscene how much food I’m having to eat. It’s interesting - in a short amount of time we all adjusted to preferring the smaller portions,” she said.

Sophomore biochemistry major Alyssa Kaplan said her friends, who are participants in the study “get weird combinations of food.

“I have friends in the study, and they’re kind of irritated with it,” she added. One friend is annoyed because she is now on a weight maintenance diet and is gaining back the weight that she lost, while the other is simply sick of the food.

According to sophomore nutrition major and study participant Kaitlyn Shannon, once participants reached the 10 percent body weight

loss, their calories were increased.

Most participants were placed into test groups at the beginning of this month, she added.

“I enjoy having a properly portioned meal every time I go to sit down to eat,” said Shannon.

Even the participants’ Thanksgiving meal was provided by the food study. The dinner menu included roasted turkey breast, mashed potatoes, bread stuffing, gravy, green beans, roasted butternut squash, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie, along with apple crisp for dessert with their lunch.

A support meeting was held for participants with a dietician who talked about strategies for Thanksgiving, according to Luoto. The food for Thanksgiving weekend was available to them on Tuesday or Wednesday for pickup and they faced tables of homemade turkey and mashed potatoes with their tray of study food in hand.

Undeclared freshman Katie Fitzpatrick said, “I feel like it would obviously be a good alternative to cafeteria food.”

Dan Costello, a junior sociology major and study participant, said he has had “a great experience with the staff,” and would recommend the study to other students.

“The first three weeks were tough.” He said, adding after that time, the inconvenience of picking up his meals is the most difficult part of the program. “Food is so much adjusted around our social life,” said Castello.

“I know some people who did not make it to the next phase” because they did not lose the required 10 percent of body weight, he added.

According to senior communication arts major Andy Lincoln, “It’s supposedly healthy, and it would be nice to have the diet planned out.”

As a college student with a budget for groceries, it would be nice not to have to worry about affording food, he said.

Eck said, “I’m hoping to imitate this type of eating in the future. …

It’s becoming pretty clear that I’m going to need my stipend for new clothes.”

December 10, 2014

News

9

Google representative Administrators visits marketing class discuss campus issues

By Kaila Braley Editor-in-Chief

- Continued from page 3

pressed the concerns of some students who would like more vegan options to be available at the Snack Bar in the McCarthy Center.

Ralph Eddy, director of dining services, said the there are fewer options in the Snack Bar in an effort to reduce waste and because of low demand.

Eddy said there is a large number of vegan options in other locations on campus, but he is open to the opinions of students.

Karl Bryan, freshman, asked about the hours of the cafeteria and whether they could be expanded. Eddy said the cafeteria is open until 7:30 p.m. during the week and dining dollars are also an available option for off hours. Eddy added that there are exceptions for students who cannot eat during the regular hours and advised them to contact dining services if that is the case for meal exceptions.

The availability of food on weekends was a concern raised by for another student, who complained about the hours the cafeteria is open. Eddy said dining services is looking into offering coffee early in the Dining Commons on Saturdays and Sundays and is open to changing hours based on demand.

Safety for LGBT students on campus was a concern raised by Calvin Ridley, junior, who asked administrators about whether gender-neutral bathrooms are a possibility. President F. Javier Cevallos said he hopes to create a safer, more welcoming environment for all students. “I believe that we have to provide some gender-neutral bathrooms,” Cevallos said. “I think that one of the best things you could do is put pressure on the state to change the regulations.”

Warren Fairbanks, associate vice president of facilities and capital planning, agreed that gender-neutral or unisex bathrooms should be available, but meeting plumbing regulations is harder than it seems. Fairbanks said that Massachusetts, though it leads the rest of the country in fire and building codes, is less progressive when it comes to plumbing codes.

“The plumbing code is written and enforced by basically grumpy old plumbers who are very resistant to change,” said Fairbanks who, along with Cevallos, encouraged students to go to the plumbing board meetings about changing the fixture law which, regulates the number of bathrooms available per building.

This fall, an FSU marketing class Marketing Principles, continued a campaign begun last semester to promote attendance at men’s hockey and women’s basketball games, specifically focusing on the games played on Nov. 22.

The class last spring came up with the idea for this campaign, and set up a system with liaisons who would connect the class to the sports teams. This class began the preliminary planning for this campaign, which would be launched by the Marketing Principles class this fall.

Both classes used this campaign to practice hands-on marketing skills and gain experience.

Professor Randall Glickman asked a representative from Google to visit the class both semesters to talk about their project.

The hockey game had 398 attendees, according to the data recorded by the Athletic Department, which is an increase of over 200 people from the previous game.

The women’s basketball game, which “had to share the attendance with the phenomenal Men’s ECAC football game,” according to Glickman, “drew 230 in attendance.” This team’s previous game had 79 attendees.

The students in the class also worked on a fundraiser for the Special Olympics, and raised $580, according to Glickman. These funds were raised through a bake sale, raffle ticket sales and ticket sales for the games.

The Special Olympics website posted information about the two teams’ games and brought a child associated with the Special Olympics to sing the national anthem.

Glickman said the students decided to work on this “highly commendable” aspect of the campaign in an initial brainstorming exercise.

“Business is made up of people,” he said. “Making a profit is one aspect of an organization’s goal, [but] providing a better world by helping people in need makes for an organization that people want to be part of.”

On Oct. 14, the class was visited by representatives from Google who re-

viewed their campaign strategies and made suggestions.

Glickman said, “Google’s support of the class in this community effort is an example of an organization that supports this mission.”

The class was split into groups which implemented marketing techniques such as print advertising, search optimization and social media. The student presentations focused on carefully choosing keywords, creating ads for print and doing outreach via social media through making videos and sharing content.

Brian Cusack, Industry Director at Google, congratulated the students on their work and gave advice on how they could improve their project.

He spoke about the stages of creating a marketing campaign which include conceiving, building, executing, measuring and postmortem. Cusack gave advice on how to work on a successful campaign at each stage.

He, and the other representative from Google, then answered questions from the students.

Cusack said “Google is a culture” that “believes in giving back.” He said he was excited to work with the class.

Juan Franco, a sophomore business major in the class, said, “Google is one of the biggest companies in the world.

You never get a type of experience like that.”

Phil Noel, a senior business major, said it was nerve-wracking to present in front of Google representatives, but said, “we can do it.”

Franger Baez, a sophomore business major, said he wasn’t nervous about the presentation because “they’re just humans.”

Jalen Green, a sophomore business major, said the class brought fresh ideas to the project that was started by the previous marketing class last spring. He added their ideas were able to “piggy back” off of the work of last semester’s class.

Christina Pickett, a sophomore finance major, said she liked that they were able to “build off of that foundation.”

She added that she was excited that a representative from Google came to their class. “It’s friggin’ Google!”

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December 10, 2014

10

The Gatepost Editorial

Change starts here

Since August, the town of Ferguson, Missouri has held the nation’s attention. The recent grand jury decision not to indict a police officer, Darren Wilson, who shot and killed a black teenager, Michael Brown, has left many Americans distressed and unsettled.

A grand jury also recently decided not to indict a New York police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, who put a black man, Eric Garner, in a chokehold, which led to his death.

After these decisions were announced, protests, both peaceful and violent, as well as riots, have taken place across the nation. People feel angry at and disillusioned with our legal system. Speculation about corruption and racial bias in these events has run rampant.

Regardless of whether one believes Wilson or Pantaleo should have been found guilty of crimes, we at The Gatepost believe there should have been trials. Americans needed to see these cases go through the proper channels. We needed to hear verdicts. The public deserved to see the evidence and hear the arguments made for both sides of the case.

If, after their trials, Wilson or Pantaleo had been found innocent, some people would still be angry, but there wouldn’t be a sense that the cases was mishandled, that justice is not equal and that the loss of a black lives isn’t worth fair and full trials.

But the grand juries announced that there were no indictments. The decisions have been made.

This leaves many Americans wondering what they can do, and what these decisions mean for their lives moving forward.

Although thousands of people are protesting across the country, many Americans still feel powerless.

President Barack Obama has announced funding to expand an initiative to equip police with body cameras so that the details of any particular case will be clearer.

But is that enough? Will it actually make a difference, considering there was a video of the incident in New York?

We as FSU students often believe we have little control over events that happen in places as far away as Missouri. What can we do that will make an impact?

One answer is that we can look at our own community and begin to take a stand for equal recognition and fair treatment of everyone here at FSU. Recently, some students on our own campus have felt either ignored or marginalized after reporting an incident or crime.

Some students believe there has been racial tension on campus that hasn’t been acknowledged, as when racially offensive graffiti was reported in Towers, and concerned students believed that the administration’s response was inadequate.

Other students don’t know what their rights are when they interact with Campus Police. At a recent administrators’ forum, a student asked in what situations students have a right to record interviews with Campus Police. None of the administrators gave a clear answer, though Executive Vice President Dale Hamel promised a follow-up answer.

The incidents in Ferguson reflect the issues many Americans still face on a regular basis - issues that students on this campus have been struggling with this semester. Injustices happen all around us, every day - some more severe than others.

Where we as students really have the most power to make a difference is in our own community.

Those who make policies here at FSU are well within our reach - through an email, any student or community member is able to present a concern to the upper administration at our university, including President F. Javier Cevallos. The school has now hired a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer to whom students will also be able to bring their concerns.

Through submitting to The Gatepost, any student is able to offer his or her voice to the community’s conversation.

Through initiatives like the Tumblr blog called Framingham Speaks Up, students can express their opinions on issues such as discrimination.

But is that enough?

The answer is, not if students don’t exercise this power and use their voices.

If we want to see change in our community, we need to start working for it. We need to speak up. We need to demand that our voices be heard. And our administrators, as a first step in protecting student rights and well-being, need to keep a genuine and sincere line of communication open to address the most basic concerns. Administrators can’t just wait for these issues to go away, but it’s students’ job to make sure that they don’t.

Though America is composed of countless communities, they all face similar challenges. But our path to change, both local and national, starts right here at FSU.

Op/Ed

1st Amendment in jeopardy

In the Dec. 1 edition of The Chicago Tribune, an article stated that the Supreme Court would consider whether to uphold a conviction against a man, Anthony Elonis, from Pennsylvania, who spent three years in jail for threatening his wife on Facebook, who had recently left him.

According to the article, the justices are trying to decide whether it was enough for the prosecutors “to show Elonis’ intent to threaten or if it was enough for them to show that a reasonable person would have felt threatened.”

Regardless of whether Elonis’ conviction is upheld or overturned, there will be negative consequences.

If it is overturned, Elonis will likely be released from prison, but at the same time, the Court will have acknowledged that it was a mistake that Elonis was imprisoned Elonis made a mistake and ruined three years of his life.

On the other hand, if his conviction is upheld, then a major blow will be dealt to the first amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech. Although Elonis was convicted of violating a federal law prohibiting people from sending threatening messages to others, according to the article, I think the U.S. Consti-

tution ought to take precedence over that law.

People make mistakes every day, and although this mistake cost Elonis three years he can never get back, I believe his conviction was unconstitutional. Regardless of how idiotic his messages may have been, no one should be thrown in prison for speaking his or her mind (in this case, in the form of rap lyrics).

The article states that a ruling is expected in June, meaning that six months from now, every Americans’ first amendment rights could be diminished.

The first amendment states no law shall be created restricting free speech - as great as the U.S. claims it is, it has a dire flaw if someone can be thrown in prison for years just for speaking his or her mind.

Elonis’ messages were likely borne out of anger, not a genuine hatred for the woman who left him. I do not agree with what he said, but I respect his right to say whatever he wishes I think it’s one of the greatest aspects of this country. If the Supreme Court hinders our right to free speech, we won’t have much left.

Mark Wadland Opinions Editor

This text was found in the third floor McCarthy Center men’s bathroom on Dec. 4.

Robert Tate/ The Gatepost

“Snapcash”

Danielle Butler/ The Gatepost

The Gatepost welcomes submissions from students, faculty and staff for the Op/Ed page.

Please send submissions under 300 words to gatepost@framingham.edu.

The Gatepost editors reserve the right accept or reject submissions, and to edit spelling and grammar as is deemed necessary.

Op/Ed submissions reflect the opinions of their authors only and do not necessarily reflect those of The Gatepost or its staff.

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December 10, 2014

11

Reflecting on my first semester of college As first semester comes to a close, I, as a first semester freshman at Framingham State, believe I tackled college as well as I possibly could have. Personal circumstances have me bound to Fitchburg State University next semester, but that’s not something I want to publish in the paper. As first semester comes to a close, I, as a first semester freshmen at Framingham State, feel as though I tackled college as well as I possibly could have. Personal circumstances have me bound to Fitchburg State University next semester, but that’s not something I want to publish in the paper.

If I could pull a Marty McFly and talk to myself to warp the past, I absolutely would. But wouldn’t we all? I wish I knew more of what I was about to experience coming into college.

Learning is experience, but a few of the lessons learned I wish I had learned by word of mouth rather than first hand.

I came into college pretty optimistic, tricking myself into this false reality of “Oh, I’m definitely not going to procrastinate! I’m going going to do everything on time, nothing could possibly get in my way!” As we all know, life tends to happen and most often, it doesn’t come on slowly. Life hits you like a passive aggressive truck driver

at the end of an 18 hour drive, and like crooked teeth coffee stained smile, it’s not going to be pretty. We’re all human, and sometimes we let our emotions and our day-to-day experiences hinder our functionality for the rest of the day. My advice; don’t beat yourself up and try to keep that pretty smile on.

You’re going to have a lot to offer to the world some day, and this one awful week in your life is just a little bump in the road.

Deadlines are obviously important, but again, life happens, and believe it or not your professors are people, and life happens to them too. They get it, they understand and obviously won’t be at your throat if you only finished half of your 1,200 word rough draft. If I had only known that, I wouldn’t have been weak at the knees the first time I ever went to office hours, which ended up with me having a heart to heart with my professor.

This University is a loving one, and no matter how much it may seem like it during finals week, your professors do not have a bi-weekly meeting with the Legion of Doom to make your life as chaotic as humanly possible. Procrastination makes you feel so alive, but after an all nighter with three Redbulls, the bags under your eyes are quite ca-

Homework is painful, but essential to success As we near the end of the semester, final grades become an increasingly important concern. A few students are in danger of failing, and a disturbing number of them are in this position because of a sincere lack of effort.

Before I continue, I want to make it clear that I am not at all suggesting that a low grade always results from laziness. Some students don’t have enough time to complete all assignments, and some courses contain difficult content or taught by challenging professors. I completely understand that, and I’m not at all criticizing you.

But I’m amazed at the number of students who cannot understand why they are failing when the reason is extremely obvious to an objective observer. From what I’ve seen, there are three general behaviors that tend to result in poor grades and are easily avoidable.

Before I list those behaviors, I want to stress that I am not criticizing any of my fellow students. I am not suggesting that, if you fall into the categories I’m about to list, that you’re a bad person. All I’m saying is that if you don’t engage in these behaviors, your grades will most likely improve.

First, there’s the habit of skipping class for no legitimate reason. It’s one thing to miss class because of an emergency, an illness or a genuine feeling that you can gain nothing from attending the class that particular day. But it’s another issue entirely to skip class just because you don’t feel like it. It’s fairly simple - if you miss class, you’re going to miss lectures, and you’re go-

ing to end up falling behind.

Second, the habit of excessive phone use in class. Professors always have some sort of cell phone policy, yet I’m always seeing students texting when a professor is explaining an assignment or an important point. So do yourself a favor and put your phone away. Facebook will still be there when class is over.

And finally, there’s the habit of not doing homework assignments. I get it - homework is never fun. But, it’s being assigned for a reason. The professor isn’t assigning it just to make your life miserable. For instance, some of the parts in the assignments are topics which the professor did not have time to cover during the actual class.

So if you’re engaging in those behaviors, and your grades are poor, chances are the behaviors are the reason why.

Mark Strom Editorial Staff

daverous. Whenever, if, life happens, be hopeful for the best but prepare yourself for the absolute worst.

If I could pull a Marty McFly and talk to myself to change the past, I absolutely would. But wouldn’t we all? I wish I knew more of what I was about to experience coming into college.

Learning is experience, but a few of the lessons learned I wish I had learned by word of mouth rather than first hand.

I came into college pretty optimistic, tricking myself into this false reality of “Oh, I’m definitely not going to procrastinate! I’m going going to do everything on time, nothing could possibly get in my way!”. As we all know, life tends to happen and most often, it doesn’t come on slowly. Life hits you like a passive aggressive truck driver at the end of an 18 hour drive, and like crooked teeth coffee stained smile, it’s not going to be pretty. We’re all human, and sometimes we let our emotions and our day-to-day experiences hinder our functionality for the rest of the day. My advice - don’t beat yourself up and try to keep that pretty smile on. You’re going to have a lot to offer to the world some day, and this one awful week in your life is just a little bump in the road.

Deadlines are obviously important,

but again, life happens, and believe it or not your professors are people, and life happens to them too. They get it, they understand and obviously won’t be at your throat if you only finished half of your 1200 word rough draft. If I had only known that, I wouldn’t have been weak at the knees the first time I ever went to office hours, which ended up with me having a heart to heart with my professor.

This University is a loving one, and no matter how much it may seem like it during finals week, your professors do not have a bi-weekly meeting with the Legion of Doom to make your life as chaotic as humanly possible. Procrastination makes you feel so alive, but after an all-nighter with three Redbulls, the bags under your eyes are quite cadaverous. Your professors and everybody you choose to surround yourself with will be there for you, through good times and bad, and your first semester of college won’t be as scary as you think.

Ryan Normile Staff Writer

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December 10 , 2014

ARTS & FEATURES

December 10, 2014

FSU students share the stories behind their tattoos Arts & Features

15

Meredith Nelson said many of her tattoos have personal meaning and express who she is nonverbally.

By Lauren Campbell Editorial Staff Melina Bourdeau/The Gatepost Melina Bourdeau/The Gatepost

As sophomore geography major Anna Reynolds walks into the Natick Mall to start her shift at work, she notices people looking at her arm as they walk past her.

Reynolds, who has a full-sleeve tattoo covering the entirety of her left arm, said she catches people looking at her exposed ink constantly. “It [the tattoo] isn’t very hard to miss when I’m wearing a short-sleeve shirt,” she said. “I like showing it off. I expect people to stare. It’s extremely colorful and eye-catching.”

The tattoo, depicting an ocean scene, gets more than just curious looks. Reynolds said people have questioned her, asking why she got it, even going as far to tell her she will

MAZGAL

Artistic Expressions

By Danielle Butler Staff Writer

Currently, the Mazmanian Gallery is showcasing the artwork of artist and musician Clara Lieu’s, in her exhibit titled “Hiding.” This collection makes up half of a larger project called “Falling.” The other half currently on display at Simmons College.

“Violent, aggressive emotion” is how Lieu explained the seven four-foot-tall portraits which were the first installments of “Hiding.”

After the portraits, she made smaller sculptures of the subject’s face. From there, she went on to make a cast of the sculptures in beeswax. Lastly, she engraved the mezzotints, which is a printmaking technique using small dots to create a desired tone.

The seven portraits were created through the use of X-Acto knives on the semi-clear durlar surface. Through the use of beeswax, lithographic crayons and etching ink, the rest of the collection was completed.

All of the faces were an interpretation of Lieu’s struggle with depression, a disease she has lived with since the age of ten.

The depictions were a sample of the many periods Lieu experienced during depression where she felt, as she described, “emotionally and physically out of control.” Though this was her own body’s experience with the disease, Lieu hired an actress to act out the haunting emotions rooted in depression.

“I gave her loose, vivid descriptions [and] had to trust her to give me the emotions I was looking for,” said Lieu.

Sheila Teixeira, a senior, said that Lieu “captures the faces very well. The experience of being in there is like having a bad dream.”

While viewing the art, Cory Ortiz, a senior, said “This person’s distressed and angry.” He added, “You can see the steps of depression, until finally, she opens her eyes.”

Lieu is also a columnist for the Huffington Post, where she writes a column titled “Ask the Art Professor” to lend advice to other visual artists. She is also a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Meredith Nelson has 20 tattoos, including the one shown above.

regret it when she is older. “I’ll never regret getting this tattoo,” she said.

Although Reynolds doesn’t mind when people stare and even ask questions about it, she doesn’t like when people grab her arm to look at it.

“While I waitress, I’ve had customers literally grab my arm as I walk by their table,” she said. “They’re mostly elderly people asking me, ‘What in God’s name is that?’”

Reynolds said not all of her customers are like that. “I always get asked about my tattoo at least once during my shift,” she said. “Most [of them] are just curious and ask me what it is, how long it took to complete and if it hurt.”

Although she doesn’t mind offering an explanation for her tattoo, Reynolds said she doesn’t like that people feel it’s okay to grab her arm, especially while she’s working. “There are better ways to get my attention,” she said. “I would have no problem if they simply said, ‘Excuse me’, and ask about it. I don’t appreciate being told I will regret it or I’ll never get a job other than waitressing. It’s my decision as to why I want to get tattoos, not theirs. I don’t make arrogant statements about people not having any tattoos. I would like the same respect in return.”

There are many reasons why someone chooses to get a tattoo. Meredith Nelson, a senior English major, said she gets them because it is “an unspoken expression of myself.” She added, “It’s hard to describe yourself in words. Sometimes, your own art speaks louder than what you verbalize.”

Nelson, who has over 20 tattoos, said she notices people looking at her legs when she wears shorts. “They look at what the tattoo is or what it might represent.”

Because she has so many, Nelson said that sometimes she gets unwanted questions about her ink. “My biggest pet peeve is when people ask, ‘Why do you have that?’ or, ‘What does it represent?’ Most of my tattoos have very personal meanings, and I don’t like to share that [information] with strangers.”

Kimmi Awiszio’s half-sleeve depicts a Harry Potter collage.

Of the 20-plus tattoos Nelson has, she said her favorite is on her right calf and it depicts a mountain scene.

“My girlfriend has the same one except the difference is mine is set in day and hers is at night.” She said the reason they got this tattoo is because they wanted to “capture a perfect moment in our relationship.”

Kimmi Awiszio, a senior English major with five tattoos, said she likes to get them because she wants to remember every part of her life. “I want to be able to portray my identity in the most original and permanent way possible.”

Awiszio has had people approach her, asking about her tattoos. She has three which are almost always visible - one on her chest, which is the word “Alohomora,” one on her arm, a half sleeve depicting a Harry Potter and Horcrux scene and one on her forearm, spelling out the word “love.”

“People have asked me, ‘What are you going to do when you need to get a real job?‘” she said. “Not only does that bother me because it belittles the job I do have, but also, so many people in the work world, specifically the business world, judge people with

tattoos as if their tattoos affect their skills in the office.”

Dan White, a senior elementary education major, has a matching tattoo with his brother. He said, “I like the idea of recording what matters, or mattered, in your life on your own body.”

He has one tattoo which gets judged frequently whenever it is visible.

The tattoo depicts the American and Lebanese flags which cross one another. Underneath the flags, he has his brother’s name, David, written in Arabic.

“My brother has the same tattoo in the same place with my name,” White said. “It’s a reminder that, no matter what, we will always be brothers.”

Because the name is written in Arabic, White said he has encountered some ignorant comments from people. “’What, does that mean you’re a terrorist now or something?’ ‘Did you convert to Muslimism?’ ‘That’s pretty un-American.’ ‘Why would you put Islam on your shoulder?’” said White, recalling some of the questions he’s been asked. continued on pg. 17

Arts & Features

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December 10, 2014

Author Matt Tiabbi discusses white collar crime in America

By Cameron Grieves Staff Writer

Author Matt Taibbi made an appearance in DPAC to promote and talk about his critically acclaimed book “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap” on Nov. 20.

A native of Massachusetts’s South Shore, Taibbi was exposed to the world of journalism from a young age. His father was a well-known news reporter at the time.

“Have you guys ever seen the movie Anchorman?” he asked the audience.

“Yeah, so that was my life. … My dad was the angry, tall guy with the ridiculous muttonchops.”

Taibbi has had a prolific career as a journalist, writing about a variety of subjects including media, finance and sports. In the ‘90s, he worked on a biweekly free English-language newspaper in Moscow that drew controversy in the post-Soviet state. As well as writing for such publications as Rolling Stone and the New York Press, Taibbi also authored two other books before “The Divide.”

In his book, Taibbi talks about a fundamental flaw in the American justice system today - one that he urges young people to become educated on. As the author explained, over the past few decades, poverty has gone up while crime has declined, and the prison population has skyrocketed. The rich keep getting richer, and the poor keep getting poorer, according to Taibbi. Depending on where you fall on this economic see-

Melina Bourdeau/The Gatepost

Author Matt Tiabbi speaks about his book, “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap.”

saw, he said, will determine what sort of rights you will be entitled to in today’s democracy - a democracy for the privileged.

“In the summer of 2008, a few months before the global economy collapsed, I started to become disillusioned with my work,” Taibbi said.

He talked about being on the campaign trail covering then presidential candidate John McCain. At the time, there was an enormous surge in energy prices, particularly the price of oil.

Taibbi said, “Despite all this, there was no real explanation for it in the me-

dia. All Obama said was people should drive more energy-efficient cars. …

On the other side, McCain comes up with this idea that the solution was we had to drill for more oil in the Gulf of Mexico.”

As Taibbi explained, everyone in the political sphere at the time was quick to place blame or to come up with solutions to getting more oil, but no one in the media or in politics really knew why the problem was there in the first place. No one knew or cared why energy prices were skyrocketing.

As the country would soon find out,

the problems in the American financial system ran deeper than a few simple oil rigs could fix. What really lay at the root of the problem was rampant white-collar crime in the financial sector, according to Taibbi. This was the same type of crime that would lead to the 2008 economic collapse that wiped out 40 percent of the world’s wealth.

Taibbi talked extensively about the sub-prime mortgage crisis, a phenomenon in the early to mid-2000’s in which banks would give poor people triple-A rated mortgages, then sell these mortgages to insurance companies. When the people were not able to pay off their mortgages, the companies collapsed and the banks collected on the mortgages they bet against - all highly illegal activities.

“All they did was play around with the math on whether these were good loans or bad loans, like in horse-racing,” he said.

As Taibbi explained, these white collar criminals hardly ever do time in prison, because their crimes aren’t seen as being as dangerous as regular crimes like theft, prostitution or drug use. A poor person could go to jail for years for a drug-related crime, while a white collar investor could get off with just a fine for stealing vast sums of hardearned money, as Taibbi described.

Taibbi said that it is up to the youth of today to decide what we should consider criminal – otherwise, those in power will always pull the strings.

Visiting lecturer Gloria Casañas celebrates FSU’s historical significance in education

By Joe Kourieh Associate Editor

Throughout the second half of the 19th century, Argentinean President Domingo Sarmiento set out abroad on a mission, aimed at one primary goal: to draw resources from nations around the Western world in order to overhaul and invigorate the educational system of Argentina.

After first traveling to Europe, Sarmiento found the teaching structure there unsatisfactory. It wasn’t until he heard about an educational trailblazer named Horace Mann that Sarmiento set his sights on the United States – specifically Massachusetts, the main site of Mann’s now legendary educational innovations.

The ultimate product of this storied journey of Sarmiento was the importation of 65 teachers - mostly women, and all from the Lexington Normal School (now Framingham State University) – to Argentina to spearhead the daunting task of reinventing an educational system in a country and culture vastly different from their own, thousands of miles from home.

This challenge is the central pillar of “La Maestra de la Laguna,” a historical fiction novel by Argentinean lawyer, educator and author Gloria V. Casañas, who is currently finishing her semester as a visiting lecturer in the modern languages department here at FSU. During her visit, Casanãs has been able to find a deeper connection to the Normalites who inspired her work, and walk, literally at times,

Joe Kourieh/The Gatepost

Casañas has explored Massachusetts with her colleagues throughout her semester-long residence at FSU.

in their footsteps.

Casañas, who was educated in law at the University of Buenos Aires, where she now works as an educator, described her visit as a kind of “reverse of history,” as she has made the opposite journey as the Normalite teachers of a century ago. However, her experience has included similar obstacles like learning an unfamiliar language and culture.

Casañas’ visit was arranged by Department Head Emilce Cordeiro, partly to commemorate FSU’s 175th anniversary. While here, Casañas has been teaching two courses as well as giving presentations throughout Massachusetts on her works and research.

During the semester’s visit, Casañas has taken up residence in a special apartment in Foster Hall designated for visiting faculty members complete with full amenities and a view. She described the setup and her time there as very comfortable and pleasant, with the only commotion - an accidental tripping of the smoke alarm, and subsequent heroism from her Foster Hall neighbors - safely in the past.

She described the experience here as a “different vision” both of this historic region and of her home.

“Here I can meet people from different places, with different languages and different idiosyncrasies,” she said.

She added that this new perspective

has improved her ability to understand and teach her own literary material as well, and has illustrated to her the profound ability of education to connect places as different as New England and Argentina.

While she walks figuratively in the steps of the storied Normalites, Casañas has taken to walking during her recreational time as well, in order to drink in the picturesque beauty of her New England environment on various roads and paths. She has also made trips with Cordeiro, who she described as an “extraordinary hostess,” to places such as Concord, Newport, Rockport, Cohasset and Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

Casañas revealed that her experience on campus has been so rich and stimulating, it has given birth to a new idea for a novel, centering around a secondary character from another novel of hers, who she plans on inserting into Bostonian society.

Casañas said that living and working at FSU has been a major change due to the differences in size between this school and her own.

“The University of Buenos Aires is a monster,” she said with a laugh, explaining that, while back home her classes were very large, at FSU they are small enough to allow for a relationship with every student.

“Here, life is very peaceful,” she said. “The people are very warm.

“I’m doing what I love to do - to teach and to write,” she said. “And I’m doing it in a lovely environment.”

December 10, 2014

continued from pg. 15

He said once he explains what the tattoo means, “They think it’s a sweet thing, [but] some people still think it’s terrible I didn’t get it written in English.”

Bobby Creed, a junior math major, said he has one tattoo representing his family. The tattoo, which covers the lower half of his arm, spells out “Blood is thicker than water.”

“Family is the most important thing to me,” he said. “I wanted to represent that and what better way to do that than permanently on my body?”

Creed said he has been questioned a few times about his tattoo, but it doesn’t really bother him unless he catches people staring. “Sometimes I hear people asking their friends what’s on my arm. I don’t see why they can’t just ask me if they’re so curious. I don’t mind telling people what it represents because it’s very meaningful to me.”

Brittany Malo, a junior math major, said she has three tattoos that are rarely visible to others unless she is wearing a bathing suit or a shirt that is low-cut in the back. “I love the idea of expressing myself through tattoos, because I can put something that means something to me on my body.”

Malo has the word “live” on her left shoulder, “laugh” in the middle of her shoulders and “love” on her right shoulder.

She said the only time she’s really been asked questions is if she’s wearing a dress or a bathing suit that exposes her ink. “A lot of times, people will say, ‘Those will look great when you wear a wedding dress,’” Malo said. “It’s unwanted and unnecessary negativity, no matter who the comments come from. It’s my body, not theirs.”

Nelson, Awiszio, White, Creed and Malo all have plans to get additional tattoos. Nelson said she plans on finishing her half-sleeve on her right arm in the near future and starting a fullsleeve on her left arm after her right arm is complete. She also plans on covering her legs and getting a back piece when she is older.

White said he has at least three more in mind: the triforce from the Legend of Zelda, a phoenix shoulder piece and an Ouroboros.

Malo plans on getting a sunflower on her foot, but wants to stop getting tattoos after that. “I know they’re addicting,” she said. “But, I really only want one more.”

Creed said he plans on turning his quote into a full-sleeve, all representing his family. “I want to get a symbol that represents each member of my family. A hockey stick for my little brother, music notes for my older sister, a blue jay for my mom and a Boston sports theme for my dad. Each symbol represents something that is extremely important to them.”

Jacob Ferry, a sophomore psychology major, said he and his dad each have part of a quote on their forearms.

“It was his eighteenth birthday present to me,” he said. “My dad had always wanted a tattoo, and he knew I wanted one and we both thought it would be cool to get one together.”

Jacob’s father’s tattoo reads, “Remind that we will always have each other,” and Ferry’s tattoo finishes the quote saying, “When everything else is gone.”

Ferry said he thinks it’s great his father has a tattoo. “When I was growing up, he was always against them and didn’t want me or any of my sib-

Arts & Features lings getting them. So when he agreed to get one with me, I knew I had to get one that represented the both of us.

He’s my best friend.”

Tina LaBelle, a junior marketing major, said her parents didn’t know about two of her four tattoos until a year ago. “I was scared to tell them,” she said. “They hated the concept of them and every time I brought up getting one, they would either ignore me or tell me not to ruin my body.”

LaBelle got her first tattoo on her eighteenth birthday, a simple heart on her foot. “It doesn’t really represent anything,” she said. “I think I got it more or less to piss them off, which was dumb looking back on it now.”

She also has the word “bulletproof” tattooed on her right thigh, right below her hip bone. “It was easier to hide the one on my thigh than the one on my foot,” LaBelle said. “I could always cover my thigh, even in the summer.

With my foot, I either wrapped up my foot and told my parents I twisted my foot in dance, or always wore socks.”

Her most recent two are on both of her shoulders. She has “Love mom” and “Love dad” on them, which is written in their hand writing. “My

have a mother-daughter tattoo. “My mom surprised me on my nineteenth birthday, saying we were going to get dinner,” she said. “We stopped at the tattoo parlor and that’s when she said we were going to get the tattoo I told her jokingly would be fun for us to get.”

Kayla’s mother has “You are my sunshine” tattooed on her right shoulder blade while Peyton has “My only sunshine” on her left shoulder blade.

“My mom would always sing that song to me when I was a kid. I never thought in a million years she would take me seriously when I mentioned getting it.”

She said people often assume it is a quote shared with a boyfriend or a friend. “People think it’s the cutest thing when I tell them it’s a tattoo with my mom. My mom is my best friend and I’m glad we have this reminder of one another on our bodies.”

While students at Framingham State use tattoos as a form of self-expression, others believe it is simply just a trend. Michelle Damon, a junior math major, said, “I see some tattoos that people have and just think, ‘Why?’ I can appreciate some people’s tattoo

Some students hide their tattoos while in public or at their jobs to avoid unwanted judgement or questions. parents would write me notes before I went to school in the morning and always signed them with love mom and love dad,” she said. “I showed them once I got it done and even though they were against the idea of tattoos, they loved this one.”

After she showed her parents those two, she admitted to the other two.

“They were kind of mad after that, but they’re over it now. They just don’t want me to get anymore,” LaBelle said. “I did get the heart on my foot covered up, though. It’s an anchor with the saying ‘I refuse to sink.’”

Kayla Peyton, a sophomore geography major, said her and her mother

choices, but there are some I feel people are going to regret.”

Damon said she doesn’t disagree with getting tattoos, but believes people should really think about what they are going to be putting on their bodies. “It’s a permanent decision and people need to make sure they are going to be happy with what they choose.”

In 2010, the Pew Research Center reported that 40 million people in the United States have at least one tattoo, which is more than double the number from a generation ago.

As more and more people are getting tattoos, businesses are finding

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themselves hiring more employees who have ink on their bodies. According to www.allbusiness.com, tattoos have gained a wider acceptance. “For years, many people associated tattoos with gangs, bikers and other groups that were thought to operate outside of the social center,” according to the site.

The website states that companies banning tattoos altogether is not only inappropriate, it can violate the law.

The site uses the example of a fourstar hotel not wanting their concierge to have “large tattoos of skulls and crossbones on the back of each hand.”

The site said it is the hotel’s responsibility to write a policy “drawing appropriate lines in which visible tattoos may or may not be appropriate.”

It gets more complicated, however, as the site addresses a bank hiring an administrative assistant who has no interaction with customers. “The odds are that while the bank may not appreciate a facial tattoo, it’s probably not worth the chance of losing a good employee or not being able to retain a new one by having a policy that would prohibit the tattoo altogether.”

Nelson believes there should be more acceptance in the work place because tattoos are able to give people a chance to express themselves in a personal and artistic way. “I’m not suggesting that anyone gets a face tattoo, but it should be more accepted,” she said. “There is nothing wrong about art on human skin.”

Tim Morris, a senior marketing major, said he has a tattoo of a cross covering the majority of his left shoulder and his place of work doesn’t have a problem with it. “My boss and I talk about tattoos all the time,” Morris said. “Having a tattoo doesn’t mean I’m less capable of completing a task than a non-tattooed person.”

Ashley Thompson, a junior food and nutrition major, said she covered up her tattoo on her wrist for nearly six months at her job. She has the word “love” wrapped in the infinity symbol. “I would always have a large bracelet on, or even a wrist band,” Thompson said. “One day, I forgot to put any jewelry on. I got so many compliments on it, even from the general manager.”

Morris said there is no reason work places shouldn’t be accepting of tattoos. “I can understand face or neck tattoos,” he said. “But if you have a tattoo that’s meaningful and represents something important to you, how can a place of employment tell you it’s wrong or unacceptable? I don’t see how having tattoos hinders one’s ability to do a job.”

Thompson agreed with Morris.

“Work places that aren’t accepting of tattoos could potentially miss out on an amazing employee. Would they really turn down someone who was everything they wanted in an employee because they have tattoos?”

Jordan Ricci, a junior sociology major, has a full-sleeve on her left arm and said her employer has no problem with her ink. “If any work place sees an issue with tattoos, they are the ones with the problem, not the person who has them. … By denying someone [a job] because of tattoos, they’re missing out on not only an amazing person, but an amazing would-be asset to their company. I hope any company who denies a possible employee because they have tattoos, then they are denying them for how they express themselves.”

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Coming to terms with rape Arts & Features

December 10, 2014

One student’s journey toward understanding

By Kaila Braley Editor-In-Chief

Jane jolted awake in a bed that wasn’t hers. She couldn’t remember having fallen asleep. Startled, her first thought was, “I don’t remember where I was before this.”

Looking down at herself, she realized she was naked from the waist up.

Clutching her breasts, she turned to her two friends who were also just waking up and asked, “Guys, where’s my shirt?

What happened?”

In the dim light of the early summer morning, feeling confused and still drunk, she thought back to the night before, struggling to figure out what had happened. Jane remembered being invited to a party by Dan, a student from Framingham State University whom she had started to see at the end of spring semester after breaking up with her long-time boyfriend.

She and Dan had hooked up a few times in the spring, and even though they would soon be separated during the summer, Jane had started to have strong feelings for him. When he asked her to come to his house for a party, she was excited but apprehensive to go.

Jane remembered driving to the party at Dan’s house with two of her friends.

There were between 15 and 20 people there, mostly men and mostly his friends. She remembered drinking, talking and hanging out. She remembered smoking a “blunt,” throwing up outside on Dan’s porch and then a hazy memory of sitting up in bed, throwing up again into a bowl one of her friends held for her, struggling to speak but not being able to form sentences successfully.

“I don’t understand anything you’re trying to say right now,” she remembered the friend saying. “You’re not making any sense.”

Realizing she couldn’t remember anything else that had happened the night before, Jane needed to talk to Dan to find out. Dragging herself out of bed, Jane found the bag she had brought and threw on a shirt she had packed as a change of clothes. Wanting answers, Jane stumbled to Dan’s bedroom, but he wasn’t there. Her head foggy and achy, because she was still drunk and hung over, she staggered downstairs and found him sleeping on the couch.

“Did we fuck last night?” she asked him, as he groggily woke up.

“Yep.” Feeling disoriented and sick, Jane went back upstairs and gathered up her clothes, which were strewn around

Kaila Braley/The Gatepost

the guest bedroom where she had been asleep. She couldn’t find her bandeau - a stretchy band of cloth worn around the bust - that she had worn under her shirt.

One of Jane’s friends, who had driven the three of them to the party, had to go to work, so they left the house early that morning.

On the way out the door, Jane apologized to Dan for puking on his porch and thanked him for hosting the party.

She said goodbye and kissed him on the cheek.

Later that day, Jane texted Dan, apologized again for getting so drunk and throwing up on his porch, and asked him to let her know if he found her missing bandeau.

She asked again if they had had sex, saying she couldn’t remember anything.

He responded, “Yep lol.”

“He literally ‘loled’ me,” she said, with an incredulous laugh, recalling the day after the party.

“I was really confused. Usually you know, you know? Usually there’s some kind of evidence, but there was no evidence.

“I couldn’t feel anything. I was literally touching myself, trying to figure it out. There was no moisture. There was no pain. I was like, ‘This is weird. I don’t like this.’”

Jane texted Dan again, asking whether it had been good sex, because she didn’t remember it at all.

She texted him again, saying, “It’s really shitty not knowing what happened.

I do not remember anything. Please, can you explain to me what happened?”

Dan never responded.

In September, Jane, who asked that her real name not be used, disclosed what happened to her at the party to a Gatepost reporter. Dan is a pseudonym as well.

She brushed off the significance of the actual event, speaking about it as if it were not a big deal and didn’t bother her much, and mostly focused on feeling ignored by Dan since the party. “What really upset me at first was the fact that he didn’t text me back. It wasn’t what happened - it was just that he didn’t respond.”

Jane asked her friends to fill her in on what they knew happened after she blacked out.

Jane’s friends told her that she had felt sick after smoking marijuana, so they led her to the bathroom. She didn’t throw up there, but they then brought her outside for fresh air, where Jane threw up “a ton” on the porch. “He de-

served that, because he had to clean it up the next day,” she said with a sardonic laugh.

Her friends gave Jane some bread and water, and brought her upstairs to a guest bedroom. They stayed with Jane for about an hour, they told her, until she fell asleep. Then they went back to the party.

“Which, I think, is a pretty crappy thing of them to do,” she said. “I was really unhealthy drunk and I should have had someone there to watch me.

I shouldn’t put that on them, but at the same time, it’s like, if my friend couldn’t make sentences and was puking and passed out, I probably would sit with them.

“They were drunk, too. Everyone was drunk. Not that that gives excuses, but,” she said, trailing off with a shrug.

Later that night, Jane’s friends said Dan told them he was going upstairs to check on Jane. He came back downstairs about 45 minutes later. When Jane’s friends went up to check on her later in the night, she was passed out on the bed completely naked.

They tried to put her clothes back on, which she said they told her was “a real struggle. I did not wake up. I did not move. They were able to get some shorts on me, and that was it.

“So I highly doubt that I was awake when it happened because if they waited an hour for me to fall asleep and then I was not moving when they came up - I don’t know, but I think that’s what happened.”

In a phone interview in October, one of Jane’s friends, who asked to remain anonymous, recalled what happened at the party that she attended with Jane that night in June.

She said that Jane drank “fast” and wasn’t feeling well, so she and her other friend brought her upstairs to put her to bed. She said that Dan came upstairs with them, but that the two women sent him back downstairs until Jane went to sleep.

She said she and her friend then returned to the party. Back downstairs, some of Dan’s friends were making fun of Jane for being so drunk. “They were calling her, like, ‘Puke Girl,’ which didn’t sit right with me.”

She said Dan didn’t call Jane names, but he also didn’t tell his friends to stop.

“I talked to them. I said, ‘You know, we’ve all been there,’” Jane’s friend said.

When Dan got up and went upstairs, she said she didn’t think much of it.

“He came back downstairs and just sat back down. And, I don’t know, everything seemed OK. So we asked him if she was awake, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, she’s awake.’”

Jane’s friend asked if she seemed OK, and Dan said she was fine.

Jane’s friend said she stayed downstairs because she thought Jane was “probably sleeping, because she was passed out. I mean, she was gone when we left her.”

She said an hour or so later, she and the other friend went upstairs to make sure “she hadn’t thrown up more or anything. … We walked into the room and she was just like completely naked, lying on the bed, like no blankets or anything. So we kind of like freaked out.”

She said Jane was lying on her stomach. “She wasn’t in a disturbing position or anything.”

Jane’s friends tried to put her into pajamas, “because she was like dead.

I mean, the girl was out. My God, she was passed out so hard. I was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of scary.’”

Jane’s friends wanted to leave right away and take Jane home. The two women were drunk, though, and decided that they were in no condition to take care of Jane or to drive. They also didn’t want to make a “big deal” about what happened by leaving so abruptly, so they stayed in the guest bedroom with her.

Jane’s friend said Dan came upstairs later that night and asked how Jane was doing. The two women sent him away and went to bed.

Jane’s friend said she didn’t have any reason not to trust him because she didn’t think it was her place to question Jane’s judgment, and “he seemed really nice. … I was getting really good vibes from him and from everyone around us.

So it definitely wasn’t something we were kind of worrying about or anything, but it definitely was kind of really sketchy when we just found her like that in the room later that night.”

She said she thinks it’s possible that Jane was awake when Dan went upstairs, but “there’s so much uncertainty.

“I think it still bugs her - like the fact that she doesn’t remember it. … It’s hard to give her all the details of what me and my friend remember from that night. The only person who would remember, you know, is [Dan], and what he says is that she was awake and that continued on pg. 19

December 10, 2014

continued from pg. 18

he would never do something like that.

“Something like that - a night like that is not going to go away anytime soon.”

She said, “Obviously, if we were there, that never would have happened.

I do wish I had stayed with her because, you know, these weren’t people that we knew, and it probably would have been a better judgment call to stay with her.”

But, she said she doesn’t feel guilty about what happened to Jane that night.

“I don’t blame myself for it happening. It’s not my fault, but I wish that I could have prevented it.”

Jane’s friend said she wouldn’t necessarily label what happened as rape or sexual assault, but rather a “gray area.”

She also said she doesn’t condone two really drunk people having sex, and that she doesn’t really know what happened.

Back at FSU on the day before classes began, Jane met a few of her friends at the Black and Gold Beginnings Barbeque in Crocker Grove. She caught up with those around her in the late summer heat, talking about what they’d been doing the past few months, as she disinterestedly nibbled at chicken and watermelon.

Glancing over the crowd, she saw Dan from behind as he walked past with his friends.

She felt a sickening jolt - a feeling she said was akin to waking up suddenly and realizing she was late for work or had failed a test on which she really needed to do well. She felt horror twist in her stomach, and in a way that she couldn’t explain, she felt as if she were the one in the wrong - the one who should be embarrassed.

Then, Dan turned and looked back at her. They made eye contact for a moment and then he turned away again.

On the verge of tears, panicking, Jane got up and without telling her friends where she was going, ran back to her room. She began crying. As soon as she could choke back her emotions, she “packed a bowl” of marijuana and left her room, headed for a nature spot about a mile or two across Route 9.

Before the incident in June, Jane had smoked marijuana occasionally with friends. After returning to school and seeing Dan around campus, Jane began smoking marijuana on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day, to help deal with her feelings of sadness and confusion.

Almost every time she ran into Dan, she would smoke marijuana immediately after to repress the emotions she felt when she saw him.

She often went on walks to smoke marijuana and to get away from campus. She believed being in nature helped “center” and calm her.

A week later, having lunch with another group of friends, Jane saw Dan again from across the dining hall.

Offhandedly, she told her friends about her experience at the party that summer. She said she wasn’t really sure what happened, but that even if she were awake, she didn’t know why he would have thought she was attractive after she had just been throwing up.

She made light of the situation by saying he’d gotten pudgy since she had last seen him.

One of her friends asked whether she had considered reporting the incident.

Another friend said she should consider whether he might do “something like this” to someone else. She said she didn’t know - he might.

Jane said she didn’t want to report it, though, because so much time had passed and she “didn’t want to ruin his life.”

Arts & Features As the conversation turned to more trivial matters, Jane couldn’t really focus on what was being said. She found herself sitting rigidly and trying to stop herself from looking in Dan’s direction.

In late September, a female student reported two sexual assaults, and Jane saw first-hand how the FSU community reacted to the report. She first saw the email about the report in her room, and didn’t feel much impacted by it. However, as she walked around campus and attended classes that week, she began to feel strongly affected by what people were saying about rape and sexual assault.

It seemed as if everyone on campus was talking about it - some students victim-blaming and slut-shaming the student who reported the attacks, especially on social media sites such as Facebook and Yik Yak. Jane herself even wondered whether the report was true. She said she got swept up in her peers’ conversations in which they speculated that the student might have been lying about what happened.

and she said her counselor helped her acknowledge that what happened to her was a “legitimate thing” that she could report if she wanted.

At this point in late September, Jane had confusing emotions about what she had been through. Some days she was angry at Dan and wanted to look into reporting the incident. Other days, she rationalized what had happened to her so that she could more easily pretend that it didn’t bother her.

She said she didn’t think it was right for this one mistake or bad judgment to define Dan for the rest of his life. She said she wished he had some sort of punishment, but not as drastic as being labeled a sex offender.

She believed there was a spectrum of sexual assault, where some cases were worse than others, and that hers was not as bad as other situations.

Jane understood they were both drunk, which she said doesn’t excuse what happened, “but it makes more sense, because when you’re drunk, you make stupid decisions. So I feel like, it didn’t validate it for me, but it’s not like he found me in an alleyway and raped me. He wasn’t doing it trying to hurt

19

The night before the party at Dan’s house, Jane and her ex-boyfriend attended a concert together. The two had met at a high school dance and dated for years, breaking up last spring. Feeling unsure about the breakup, Jane began spending time with her ex again at the beginning of the summer.

The day after the concert, Dan texted Jane, saying he was excited to see her that night. She texted back “half-heartedly, ‘Me too.’”

Jane felt uneasy that she was spending time with both men, but reassured herself that because she was single, she should explore her feelings and see what happened. She still loved her ex, and believed she would always love him, but she also really liked Dan. She even bought Red Sox tickets for Dan’s birthday so they would go to a game together later that summer. After the party, she sold the tickets without ever telling him she had bought them.

When planning the party, Dan asked what day she was free before choosing the date and repeatedly told her he couldn’t wait to see her. Looking back, she said she wished she hadn’t gone to

Kaila Braley/The Gatepost

Jane often goes outside to find clarity and solace when feeling distressed.

She felt hypocritical judging or questioning the student who reported the incident, though, because something similar had happened to Jane herself and she didn’t report it. Jane felt a kind of kinship with the student and wanted to defend her.

While she was “proud of her, whoever she is,” for reporting the assault against her, Jane couldn’t help looking around, seeing her peers’ reactions and feeling as if she didn’t want to be subjected to that type of backlash. She felt hurt or insulted by some of the comments she overheard, even though she knew they weren’t directed at her.

At the time of the first reported sexual assault, Jane was having a hard time sleeping. One night in the week after the report, she was up until four in the morning because she was feeling “bummed out,” so she called a friend who is an insomniac whom she knew would hang out with her at that time of night.

The night before that, she said, “I was just feeling really bad. I was trying to sleep, but I couldn’t get it [the incident from the summer] out of my head. I texted - I can’t even tell you how many people I texted until someone gave me a number of someone who could sell me weed.”

She had been going to the Counseling Center on campus since the summer,

me or trying to be, like, dominant - like, I know a lot of the time rape is, like, a dominance thing.”

She added, “I don’t think it is something that would define him, whereas if it was someone who went out with the intent to rape someone, like that kind of defines them as a person.”

She thought that what happened to her doesn’t fit the way rape or sexual assault is typically portrayed in the media.

“What happened to me was upsetting, but it wasn’t scary.”

There are a lot of factors that have influenced Jane’s decision not to report what happened, including what others would think and the consequence it would have on Dan’s future.

“I have very mixed feelings on it. I really, ideally, would just like to talk to him and have him apologize. … I don’t think it’s right for him to get away with it, and I don’t want that to happen to anybody else. But at the same time, it’s really nerve-wracking to report it because I waited so long, my parents have no idea, and then there would be people who would say, ‘You shouldn’t have drunk so much.’ It shouldn’t matter, but people will still say it.

“I know I shouldn’t have drunk so much,” she said, “but regardless, it doesn’t mean he should have done that.”

the party because it seemed to be implied that Dan expected she would have sex with him, even though she wasn’t sure she wanted to.

Thinking back on that night, she said she didn’t believe what he did was meant to hurt her, “but I just felt like, he was just doing what he thought was going to happen. And he just wanted it to happen.”

Jane’s ex asked her to hang out the night of the party, but she said she couldn’t, lying to him about where she was going.

She didn’t tell him what had happened at the party for a while after that night, even though she was uncomfortable being intimate with her ex after what happened. “Being with him after that made me pretty uncomfortable, but I couldn’t tell him that because I didn’t want to tell him what happened. So when he went, like, making the moves, I didn’t really want to do anything, but I didn’t want to say why, so I just went with it.”

Jane also said she had a hard time drinking alcohol after the party. When she went out with her ex to another party that summer, she almost couldn’t make herself swallow her drink. The thought of drinking wine now makes her sick.

Eventually, she did tell her ex what continued on pg. 20

20

continued from pg. 19

had happened. At first, he was furious at Dan, listing the different ways he wanted to kill him. But after she told him when the party was, the night after Jane had gone to the concert with him, he was hurt and lashed out at her. They talked for hours that night, she said, trying to work through what had happened.

The two tried to make a relationship work for the rest of the summer, but she said her ex “wouldn’t let” her be sad about what happened to her because it was a point of tension in their relationship. She largely pretended it didn’t bother her to avoid a fight.

For most of the summer, she was able to suppress her feelings about what happened by staying busy. She was working two jobs and spent little time alone.

When she drove to and from work, however, alone in the car, she would often not be able to stop herself from thinking about the night of the party and crying.

Before Jane and her ex broke up last spring, they often talked about just leaving everything behind and going somewhere together. One night in August, Jane’s ex joked, “Let’s just run away.”

She said, “Let’s do it,” and went out the next day to buy food for the trip.

Her parents, conservative Catholics, didn’t want her going on an overnight trip with a man, and threatened to kick her out of the house and stop paying for her education if she disobeyed them and went anyway.

Feeling as if she had to take a stand for her independence - an ongoing struggle she had been having that summer with her parents - she went on the trip, which lasted about a week. Jane and her ex drove his brother’s VW Jetta, which was good on gas but didn’t have working air conditioning, all the way to Washington, D.C. and back.

The trip was fun, she said, and filled with memories she will cherish forever, but also tainted with the anxiety of what she might face on her return home.

Every day during the trip, she felt anxious about what her parents might say, and whether she even had a home to which to return. Her ex offered to let her stay with him if her parents didn’t allow her to come home, but because their relationship was “rough,” she said she didn’t want to have to rely on him for a place to live.

On the last night of the trip, Jane was worrying about what her parents might say when she got back, and said she felt as if her father sometimes thought she acted like a slut.

Her ex replied that she shouldn’t act like a slut if she didn’t want people thinking she was one, referencing the night of the party.

In the argument that followed, he said that he had no sympathy for her because she had put herself in a situation in which she would likely have sex.

She began yelling at him, and he said he didn’t want to be her boyfriend because he couldn’t trust her.

She said he shouldn’t act as if it had been her choice to have sex at the party that night. She didn’t make the decision - the decision was made for her. She felt so betrayed that he blamed her, because in reality, she had been the victim of rape that night.

After the argument ended, and their anger faded, the two of them became sad and quiet. They both realized they couldn’t be together - that this was the end of their relationship. They went to bed in their tent that night without much conversation. In the morning, they drove for nine hours back to Massachusetts.

Jane said she has never felt as alone and abandoned as she did that morning.

“I didn’t have my parents, and it felt like

Arts & Features at that point, I didn’t have him either because he didn’t want me.”

Jane said she didn’t know whether she really wanted to date her ex again last summer or whether she was just clinging to the one person whom she felt really cared about her.

Jane’s house was empty when they got back to Massachusetts, so she waited anxiously until her parents came home. When they arrived, they told her to never do something like that again, that it was the worst week of their life, but that they wouldn’t kick her out.

Jane and her ex have talked briefly since the summer, and they saw each other over Columbus Day weekend when he drove back to his school and stopped by FSU on the way.

She didn’t want to invite him into her dorm room, so they smoked marijuana together outside in the cool fall air. They

stopping to talk then.

She was on her way to a nature walk with a friend. The conversation could wait.

Jane texted Dan later that week and they planned to meet in her dorm room after they both got out of their respective labs, which happened to be scheduled at the same time. She was nervous to be alone with him because she didn’t know how he might react to the conversation she had to have with him.

“I really had no idea how he felt about the situation and how he would react to what I had to say. … Just because of the fact that I totally didn’t expect what happened with him to have happened, I had no idea what to expect in any situation with him.

“I don’t know what he’s capable of or what he’s willing to do.”

Despite feeling nervous, she wanted

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, about one in five women “reported experiencing rape at some time in their lives.” Approximately 19 percent of undergraduate women experience attempted or completed sexual assault. Over 50 percent of the perpetrators were intimate partners and 40 percent were acquaintances.

According to RAINN’s website (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network), victims of rape or sexual assault are three times more likely to suffer from depression, and 26 times more likely to abuse drugs.

According to the FBI’s website, “Not everyone has the same reaction [to being the victim of a crime]. In some people the reaction may be delayed days, weeks, or even months.”

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault or rape, there are resources available at FSU. The Counseling Center is available to all students. Additional resources can be found here: http://www.framingham.edu/shape hugged when saying goodbye.

“I’d like on stay on good terms,” she said, “but I can’t ever be with him again.”

About a month into the fall semester, Dan messaged Jane on Instagram.

Dan said he had gotten a new number, which is why he hadn’t been receiving her messages, and asked her to text him so he would have her number.

She texted him and asked if he wanted to get lunch, and he said, “Maybe, but what are you up to tonight?” He asked if she wanted to go out with him that night. She said no and that she wasn’t feeling well, so he asked if he could “hit her up” when he got back, and she said if it wasn’t too late, he could.

He said, “I missed you. I just didn’t have your number.”

She didn’t text him back, thinking, “You don’t miss me.”

He texted her “a bunch of times” that weekend, but she didn’t respond, because she knew she had to talk to him about what had happened that night at the party, but felt as if she wouldn’t have time to fully discuss the issue until Monday, when she was back on campus.

Dan texted her Sunday night. According to Jane, he said he understood she was upset about what happened, but he didn’t think he had done anything wrong, and didn’t know what she wanted him to say.

She said she just wanted to talk to him about what had happened and asked to meet up. He agreed.

She was nervous to meet with him, so when she walked by him leaving the cafeteria one day, after they had messaged each other, she just nodded in his direction and kept walking, rather than

to meet him in her room because she was concerned about becoming emotional in public. She also felt safer because they were meeting during the day and she had her phone with her, just in case she had to call somebody.

Before he came over to her room, she tidied up. She said she almost didn’t expect him to show up, but only about 15 minutes after she got out of her class, he texted her.

He joked that she was going to “pop his Ho Mann cherry,” since he had never been in that residence hall before which she said made her less nervous.

They met outside her residence hall and hugged, which also calmed her nerves.

“It was a caring gesture, so it made me feel better about everything, I guess.”

Both students sat on Jane’s bed as they talked.

She told him “how shitty it was for him not to ever respond to me and let me know what happened.”

She said Dan told her he knew she was upset, but he was upset about the night as well, because it was the first time she had met his friends and she had gotten so drunk. He said he was embarrassed by how she handled herself.

He said he was really “fucked up” that night, too, and that’s why he just wanted to “drop it.”

“But dude, I don’t even know if I was awake when it happened,” she said.

“Of course you were awake. What kind of creepy person do you think I was?” he asked. “What do you think I’m some kind of pedophile?”

They began to make awkward small talk. Dan got off the bed, where Jane was still sitting with her legs crossed.

He rested his head on her knee and said, “I missed you.”

December 10, 2014

She told him she was seeing someone new to deflect any advances - a halftruth since she was in a nonexclusive relationship with someone she mostly considered a friend. He said he understood, but they should still “chill sometime.”

They hugged when they said goodbye outside the building.

A friend of Jane’s, who knew about what had happened at the party, saw them leave the dorm building together and hug. She told Jane if she hadn’t known better, she would have thought they were old friends just catching up.

At a round table in the McCarthy Center Starbucks, Jane pushed her hair back and held a cup of tea as she recalled the conversation a few days later.

Jane felt Dan was being genuine and she “understood where he was coming from.” She didn’t insist on an apology because she wanted them to be “cool” with each other.

She was relieved the conversation was over, and said she was less anxious when she saw Dan around campus. However, she didn’t say all of the things she wanted to, or really explain the extent of how hurt and upset she was about what happened.

She spoke thoughtfully, and occasionally, there was a flash of frustration or anger. She seemed to catch herself in her own inconsistencies as she spoke, saying she was happy with the way the conversation went - but only if she pretended she got a genuine apology.

“It was a pretty brief conversation, actually, because I didn’t get into details because he was pretty defensive already about it. And I got him to just say that he should have just texted me. But I honestly don’t even remember if I got him to say sorry, but I like to pretend that he did, just in case.”

She said she felt better being on a good terms with him, even if it meant she had to pretend that he had apologized.

In one sense, she seemed to understand that Dan’s response wasn’t good enough, but she was also willing to justify what happened, and his response, in order to put it behind her more quickly.

She said she was glad she no longer felt uncomfortable seeing him on campus, and that they weren’t on bad terms, but she wishes she had “been harsher” and explained how hurt she really was.

He texted her a few days after they talked and said, “Just saying, I wish that you were still single.”

She replied that they could just hang out as friends, but he said, “I don’t think I’d be comfortable with that because I’d want to make a move on you.”

As she reflected on the meeting in her room, Jane realized she was still struggling to understand how she felt about Dan. Some days, she was angry, but other days, it was hard for her to move past the feelings she used to have for him.

Feeling uncomfortable about her conflicted emotions, she said, “I’m never going to hook up with him again, because that’s just creepy.”

She added, “We’re on good terms now, which makes me feel a lot better.”

She admitted that she sometimes caught herself wishing she could find a way that they could date, “but then I remember what happened, and I will never do that.”

After the conversation in her room, Dan texted her frequently, at least once a week, asking if she were single yet and whether she wanted to hang out.

She largely ignored his texts unless she was looking for someone to buy marijuana from, because he knew people who sold it. continued on pg. 21

December 10, 2014

Arts & Features

continued from pg. 20

In mid-October, Jane was prescribed Prozac for depression that occurred after she was raped.

“It’s definitely made a difference. …

What I’ve noticed, since I’ve taken it, is the things that upset me kind of pass more quickly. I don’t get into these huge mental breaks over anything anymore.

So, it’s pretty good.”

She said memories of the incident set her off before she started taking medicine.

After taking the medicine for about a week, Jane said she was not sure whether she liked the way Prozac made her feel. While it helped to curb the depression and sadness, it left an “empty” feeling in its place, and dulled many of her emotions.

Jane also didn’t know whether the combination of marijuana and her new

Jane leaves her room on the way to her classes in late November, thinking about how she can turn her grades around, about how she can try to get her chemistry assignment done during her free time at her new part-time job, about how she really wants to end this semester on a “positive note.” She locks her door and walks down the hall with her backpack slung over her shoulders, passing by posters and banners hung all over the lobby of her residence hall.

“SEXUAL ASSAULT IS NOT OKAY,” is written in huge letters on a white banner stretching across the top of a window.

Smaller signs posted around the lobby read: “If they aren’t sober, they can’t consent.” “’We’ve had sex before’ is not consent.” “Silence is not consent.”

The emotions she has been repressing all semester surface for a moment. Most

and pain was visible in her eyes. She wasn’t joking about the incident anymore, as she had been earlier in the semester. She spoke about her family and friends whom she felt she couldn’t turn to when she was alone and hurt.

She recalled a car ride back to school a few weeks earlier during which her mother had asked if she had ever been forced to have sex.

Jane was taken aback by the question, but she immediately and impulsively said, no, she hadn’t.

Jane wanted to her mother about the party, waking up naked and how she had been feeling over the past few months trying to cope with not remembering what happened to her. She felt her mom would probably have been able to console her, as she had when Jane confided in her about the difficulties of being away from home as a freshman.

“I wish there was some way I could try to tell her, but I know that would

21

hard time sleeping, staying awake until two or three in the morning most nights.

A few days after she stopped smoking marijuana, Jane found one of Dan’s old T-shirts, which had been in her dorm room all semester. She had even worn the shirt to bed a few times without thinking much of it. But when she saw it that night, she burst out crying and threw the shirt away.

One night, very late when she couldn’t sleep, Jane considered calling Dan and really confronting him. She thought about bluntly telling him, “What you did to me was rape.” But she put the phone back down and blocked his number instead.

As she continues to assess what she’s learned about herself and what she’s been through since June, Jane is beginning to recognize that her story is part of a larger social dynamic. She has begun to think about “rape culture” and what that phrase really means.

Photos by Kaila Braley/The Gatepost

These are some of the signs that Jane passed every day when leaving and coming into her residence hall.

They were a daily reminder of what has happened to her.

prescription would have adverse effects.

She was still smoking marijuana multiple times a day to help repress feelings of anxiety and depression she felt when she couldn’t stop thinking about what happened.

Jane also said that she was not doing well in most of her classes because she often went to class high and really needed to push herself to catch up.

Jane discussed how she would label what happened to her. She was surer of her assessment than she was a month earlier, but she still tempered her responses with some rationalizations.

She said she believed what happened to her was “kind of like date rape, I’d consider it. Because we had sex in the past, and it was kind of implied that it was going to happen, but if I’m in that state, it’s not OK regardless.”

She was beginning to blame herself less, but she was having a hard time fully admitting what had happened to her. “I don’t think that because you’re drunk, it’s going to completely excuse that. So I do see it still as rape … but I won’t say that to him. I’ll admit it to my friends and myself.”

She said she still wouldn’t tell her family that she had been raped. “And to him [Dan], I wouldn’t say that’s what it was. I don’t know - with him, I guess it’s just because I don’t want to cause any more problems, but with my parents, it’s kind of like a mix of I lied about where I was that night and also a shame sort of thing. I don’t know,” she said.

“It’s not - I guess it’s not something that I want to admit has happened to me because it’s not something that I would ever have imagined happening.”

she pushes them away.

A few weeks ago, she had mistakenly believed she was beginning to put what happened behind her. Now, she didn’t care about being on good terms with Dan anymore. She realized, as he continued to text her, asking whether she was single, that he did not care that she needed space. “There’s no respect here.

It’s just about the sex. So like, I don’t have any respect for him, either.”

But some days, or even weeks, are still difficult - even more so now that she has been trying to stop smoking marijuana.

Jane is trying not to smoke marijuana for a two-week period as a type of “experiment.” She hopes that after these two weeks are over, she won’t feel so dependent on marijuana, though she isn’t sure she will be able to quit.

It’s been difficult for her not to have a crutch to lean on when her emotions are overwhelming, when she can’t stop thinking about what she’s been through or when she can’t sleep.

“I can’t lie now and say it doesn’t bother me anymore,” she said a few evenings earlier, after she had stopped smoking marijuana for a few days, “because I guess the only reason it didn’t bother me is because I didn’t allow myself to think about it.”

After not smoking marijuana, she said she felt as if she had woken up for the first time this semester, but she was also feeling irritated and anxious. The emotional pain she was keeping at bay was now surfacing frequently and the closure she had convinced herself she had attained, she was realizing, was not real.

Now, as she reflected on the incident, she said, “I want to be able to be comfortable in my own skin sober. That’s the ultimate goal. I just don’t know if I can do that or if it will just take me a long time to get there,” she said.

Jane was on edge as she spoke that evening. She seemed restless, agitated,

have to be something I felt like I could bring up. I would never answer her if she just asked me … because I know it’s not something I could just say, ‘Yes, that happened,’ because there’s everything else that goes along with it.”

She had confessed to her mom over the summer that she had had sex with multiple men. Her mom had known that she had had sex with her ex when they were in a long-term, committed relationship, and she had disapproved. Jane’s mother said she thought it seemed out of character for her to have sex with more than one person, which is why she asked whether she had been raped.

Jane also considered how it would devastate her mother to know what had happened to her. How her father would find out, and probably insist she report the incident, which she didn’t want to do. And how she would have to admit to lying about where she was that night, and drinking and smoking marijuana at the party.

So in that moment, Jane said no, that had never happened to her. She doesn’t know if she will ever tell her mother that she was raped.

At school and at home, Jane feels alone and not really understood by those around her. She realizes that her friends don’t really know what she’s going through.

“Being who I am - I’m generally a pretty funny person, and I try to stay positive, make people happy, make people laugh. So people don’t check in with me. My friends don’t say, you know, ‘How are you doing?’

“That weighs on me, too. I come off as a different person than I am inside, so it’s kind of hard. I feel like a lot of people don’t really know who I am.”

When she is busy, as when she is hanging out with friends or at work, it’s easier for her to pretend nothing is bothering her. But at night, alone, she has a

She is thinking about who she is, and how being a victim of rape might define her.

“It feels like - almost like it’s a part of me,” she said.

Jane said she now understands how “easily” someone can be sexually assaulted or raped - how someone who seems trustworthy might disrespect or violate someone else when that person is most vulnerable. How friends and loved ones may not be supportive in the aftermath of an assault in the ways that the victim needs them to be.

On this November morning, standing in the lobby of Horace Mann, Jane has a hard time pushing away the memories that surface when she sees the posters.

The posters promise a community willing to accept and support a victim of rape or sexual assault, yet she is still fearful of telling people what she experienced.

They offer resources to find information about how to report an attack or receive guidance and support, but she still feels alone in her struggle for understanding.

Jane reads the punchy slogans again, and recognizes that the posters were made with good intentions. But it is difficult to reconcile these simple statements with her confusion and the complexity of the emotions she has been trying to understand this semester.

Hiking her backpack up, she turns from the posters and leaves the building, wondering when she might find real closure for the trauma she has experienced since that morning in June when she woke up in someone else’s bed.

Arts & Features

22

December 10, 2014

Multicultural Center hosts forum to discuss student reactions to Ferguson

December 10, 2014

Arts & Features

23

Campus Conversations W h a t i s yo u r o p i n i o n o n t h e decision not to indict Darren Wilson in the Ferguson case?

By Cesareo Contreras, Cameron Grieves & Ryan Normile

“In a case that is obviously murder - they let a person go who was charged with murder just because of his social standing.”

“I think it’s wrong. I think he should have been recognized as a guilty man.”

- Ross Graenier, freshman

-Sha’kim Bush, freshman

Brad Leuchte/The Gatepost

By Brad Leuchte Arts & Features Editor

Students and faculty members filled the Multicultural Center to discuss their reactions to the controversies in Ferguson, MO sparked the shooting death of Michael Brown.

This dialogue was hosted by the Committee for Diversity & Inclusion and the Multicultural Center, and was led by the Center’s director, Kathy Martinez.

This is one of the initial “FirstMinute Programs” run by the Center, developed as an easy way for students and faculty to share their thoughts

and feelings with one another in a safe space as soon as possible.

The event began with an overview of the case and the events leading up to the grand jury’s decision, as well as the protests that followed. The attendees then engaged in both small group and open discussion.

Academic Diversity Fellow Patricia Sanchez-Connally encouraged open-mindedness and respect in the discussion, saying, “We’re not here to say ‘We’re right,’ or ‘You’re wrong.’”

Much of the discussion focused on the riots that were happening around

Brad Leuchte/The Gatepost

the country. Screenshots of the popular social media app Yik Yak were shown which depicted many FSU students’ anonymous thoughts on the events that occurred earlier that morning and the night before when the riots were occurring.

“I don’t want to promote violence, but how can you not be angry?” asked junior Fernando Rodriguez. “We forget about the life that was lost [because we are] focusing on the riot-

ing.”

Junior Miles Garnett said, “The narrative of looters started to define everyone who was upset.”

Martinez closed the dialog with a few words for the participants to keep in mind.

“The reaction of the protestors does not delegitimize the sadness people are feeling,” she said. “Power yields nothing without demand.”

Interstellar Interstellar is both literally and figuratively out of this world, heightening every human sense and emotion in this intense apocalyptic film.

Christopher Nolan’s ninth film is just as entrancing as his previous eight, through the use of deception and mind tricks which leave the viewer unsure of what to think and make him or her see the world through a different scope.

Unlike other space travel movies, the exploration in this film is done strictly out of necessity. With the earth nearing inhabitability and the entire human race approaching extinction, Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey) and his crew must explore planets in another galaxy which evidence suggests could sustain human life.

A brilliant asset of the film is the way in which the Earth feels like the most overwhelming environment. Typically in space exploration movies, the viewer feels a sense of relief when scenes transfer from space to the earth similar to the feeling of transitioning from night time to day time in horror movies. In this film however, the Earth is much more anxiety-inducing than space.

The earth’s setting, with famine

and catastrophic dust storms, is chaotic but when entering space, everything suddenly gets silent and still, portraying the eminence of disaster on Earth.

This is partially a product of the

of Zimmer’s signature sounds including bass and synthesizers, which is both overwhelming and mood-controlling, but it is the addition of a resounding pipe organ that diversified this piece from

photo courtesy of IMDB.com

films impactful score. Interstellar’s score is composed by Hans Zimmer who is widely considered among the best film composers of all time for his work on films such as The Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Inception, 12 Years a Slave and several other renowned films.

Interstellar’s score features some

Zimmer’s recent work.

The biggest surprise of the film is 14-year-old Mackenzie Foy. Only 12-13 during filming, this debut actress’ tear-inducing portrayal of a daughter losing her father and best friend to the vast unknown of outer space is highly remarkable.

In fact, the film does not offer any sub-par acting. McConaughey

- Stephen Brown III, senior

-Ryden Hope, sophomore

“I hear a lot of people who disagree, but honestly, I don’t know [enough] about the case, but I do feel the police often abuse their power.”

Movie Review:

By Corin Cook Staff Writer

“I think it was a fair decison given the lack of evidence against him.”

“I feel like as unjust as it is, it is a good opportunity for us, the people of America to show that we want change.”

is impressive as always, however, the character of Cooper does not allow last film season’s Academy Award Winning “Best Actor” to portray his range of talent. Casey Affleck’s role as Cooper’s son Tom (adult), who is stubborn against leaving his family farm despite the harm it is causing his family is both frustrating and heartbreaking.

Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Caine also give memorable performances.

While the film’s plot is engaging, some critics complain that the original script was of better quality than the final project. Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonathan Nolan originally wrote the script for Stephen Spielberg, but when Spielberg dropped the project in 2009, Christopher Nolan helped his brother rewrite it with many changes and picked up the project himself.

Despite script changes, the plot does not lack originality. Each plot twist is blind-siding and it is nearly impossible to predict any resolutions.

Interstellar is leaving theatres around the world awe-stricken baffled by the possibilities of space travel and questioning the significance of their existence on Earth just one small planet of the unfathomable number that exist in places we may never even know about.

- Niko Daughtry, freshman

Last issue’s solutions:

“I think he should have been indicted. I think the six shots into him were excessive and he had ulterior motives” - Melissa Gabriele, freshman

24

Sports

December 10, 2014

Scoring the goal: Marisa Parent

By Lauren Campbell Sports Editor

In 2013, the Framingham State Women’s Soccer team ended their season with a 13-3-1 record, were undefeated in the MASCAC, captured the title as MASCAC Regular Season Champions and were led by then-junior forward, Marisa Parent.

Parent had 17 goals in 22 games, good for 41 points on the season.

“After last season, I really wanted to have another great season like that,” Parent said.

That’s exactly what the Framingham State soccer star did this 2014 campaign. The senior capped off the year with 17 goals in 18 games, reached over 100 career points, became the Rams’ all-time leader in goals, was named to the 2014 MASCAC All-Conference Second Team and wrapped up the season by taking home the ECAC Championship.

Teammate Brini Varetimos said, “Her passion for the game is admirable and that’s why she played with such composure and confidence.”

Teammate Marissa Miele said being Parent’s teammate is one of the simplest things to do.

“She’s easy to get along with and her incredible skill on the field makes our job so much easier when you play with her.”

Teammate Jenny Johnson said, “Marisa is truly a competitor. She is always striving to the best.”

Parent came to love the sport of soccer when she was just 4 years old. “Growing up with two older brothers who played soccer, I was always around sports,” she said.

“My town had a co-ed clinic that I started playing at. Ever since then, I fell in love with soccer.”

The senior, a Revere native, then took her skills to her city’s travel team as well as club soccer for the Force. She did that for five years until she reached high school, where her accomplishments on the field foreshadowed the career she would have at Framingham.

Parent had an outstanding career while at Revere High School. She was a four-year varsity starter and led the school all four years in goals. During her junior and senior years, she was named to the North Eastern Conference (NEC) All-Star Team.

Varetimos said, “She worked hard and played with passion and that’s why she was able to be the player that she was.”

Along with earning the title of captain of the team her senior year, Parent was also asked to join the Agganis All-Star Classic Team. “It involves all-stars from eight different conferences in Massachusetts,” she said.

Aside from soccer, Parent also played basketball and ran outdoor track in high school. But her heart has always been with soccer. “I was supposed to play basketball here at FSU,” she said. “But I decided to stick with just soccer.”

During one of her games in her senior year, former Framingham State women’s soccer coach Tucker Reynolds began recruiting Parent.

She said, “I visited the campus, did an overnight visit with the girls on the team and knew that Framingham was the perfect fit for me. I’m very happy with my decision to come and play here.”

Miele said she first met Parent when she was a freshman and Parent was a sophomore. “From the beginning, every other team knew Marisa was a force to reckon with,” Miele said.

Parent has put in a lot of hard work and dedication since her freshman year, giving much of the credit to Reynolds and her teammates over the years. “I learned a lot under Tucker as a coach as well as our assistant coaches,” she said. “At the end of each season, he would tell me something I needed to improve on - like playing with my back to the goal or turning quicker

with the ball.”

She would then spend her offseason perfecting what she needed to work on, which is something her teammates admired. “If during practice, she can’t get something, she’ll sit there and work on it until she perfects it,” Varetimos said.

Parent played on summer leagues in order to keep herself in shape and to keep playing the game she loves.

In 2011, during Parent’s freshman year, she scored eight goals and had four assists. She matched this goal count in 2012.

2013 was a monstrous year for Parent, during which she scored 18 goals and tallied five assists for 41 points on the season. She was the team leader in goals, and was one point behind the overall team leader that year, Kayla Austin (‘14). Parent also had a hat trick in the season, and took home three MASCAC awards.

The team capped off its 2013 campaign by taking home the title of MASCAC regular season champions.

“Each year, we have gotten better and better,” she said.

Varetimos said, “Ending our season with an ECAC championship was a dream come true. There are very few teams in the country that can end their season with a win. For me, personally, it meant a lot to be able to win the ECAC and I know for Marisa, it meant a lot to be able to finish her career with a win and a title.” She added, “Winning the ECAC was an incredible victory because nobody thought we could ever do it. And with Marisa being such a powerhouse on the field, it was made possible.”

Teammate Sara Sullivan agreed with Varetimos and Miele, saying, “To go out with a win for all of us was great, but to win a championship your senior season must be a great feeling.”

Johnson said, “I’m so happy we won the ECAC. It was an amazing experience. I think that Marisa, and all of our other seniors, truly deserved it. Marisa put her heart into every game.”

Parent, who will graduate from FSU in May, leaves behind quite the legacy on the field. “Marisa is clearly a legend, and all the current players, as well as the incoming girls, will always look up to her,” Varetimos said. “Her talent, dedication and passion is something that we will all remember and admire.”

Miele said, “Marisa is an amazing player and person and will be missed so much next year. Her presence will be sorely missed on the field and in the team dynamic.”

She added, “A lasting impact Marisa will leave on the team is the inspiration to truly work hard at what you do and love the game you play.”

As Parent looks to a future after she hangs up her Rams uniform, she said she will continue to play the game she loves. “I can’t picture my life without soccer after I graduate,” she said. “Playing overseas in Europe is something I would love to do if the opportunity presented itself. If not, I will definitely join a women’s league to continue playing. I want to keep playing as long as possible.”

Parent’s teammates look up to her, calling her a role model and praising everything she has accomplished over her years here. “I believe that Marisa accomplished everything she wanted to and more,” Varetimos said. “She broke an FSU record and also helped lead our team to an ECAC championship, which is the first that the women’s soccer team has won. In my eyes, her final season was a great success and she should be proud of everything she has accomplished.”

Miele said, “Marisa had an incredible finish to her amazing career. Not only did she break the record, but she was an incredible captain and played for the Boston Breakers college team this summer. She really showed us all that hard work does pay off.”

Johnson agreed, “She wants everyone to be the best player they can be 100 percent of the time. She may not be the loudest on the field, but the way she plays and hustles says it all.”

Parent said her four years at Framingham State were the best of her life. “I couldn’t have asked for better teammates and friends throughout my time here,” she said. “Playing soccer with these girls has given me memories that will last a lifetime- and I can’t thank them enough for that.”

“She may not be the loudest on the field, but the way she plays and hustles says it all.”

-Jenny Johnson on senior teammate, Marisa Parent.

“Freshman year, we didn’t make the conference playoffs, and last year, we ended first in the conference.”

During the summer before her senior year, she played for the Boston Breakers college team. Miele said, that it “is an incredible feat in itself.”

Parent’s final season in a Ram uniform was one for the record books. She scored at least once in 13 of the team’s 22 games, bringing her total goal count for the season to 17, just one behind the team leader, Isabela DeSouza.

Her 17 goals helped her break a Framingham State record for all-time goals, held by former Rams Kellie Dewar, who played from 1987-90, and Karen Burns, who matched Dewar’s record during her 1994-97 run with the team.

“Coming in as a freshman, I never imagined becoming the all-time goal scorer in Rams’ history,” Parent said. “I’m extremely proud of this accomplishment, but I definitely couldn’t have done it without the support of my teammates, especially those setting me up with all those scoring opportunities.”

Varetimos said, “Taking over the record for all-time goal scorer is an amazing accomplishment. I don’t think it was something that she really thought about.”

Johnson said, “When she scored the goal that broke the school’s record, it gave us goosebumps. She always gets excited when she scores. But you could really tell that one goal was special.” She added, “We didn’t really know what was happening. She had kept to herself how close she was to beating the record.”

Miele said, “It’s quite obvious she’s a tremendous soccer player. She possesses so much power and skill in the way she plays.”

The women’s soccer team ended their 2014 season when they captured the ECAC title, just narrowly beating the University of New England. “I think the season ended just as everyone wanted it to - with a championship,” Miele said. “She was a huge impact in every game and in that final game, she truly left it all on the field.”

[Editor’s note: Jenny Johnson is an editor for The Gatepost]

December 10, 2014

Sports

25

Jennifer Wang/The Gatepost

From left to right: Captain Matt Silva, Kevin Donahue, Declan Cassidy and Matt Mangano.

FSU football team adopts 6-year-old facing health issues - Continued from page 1

fellow teammates Travis Hayes, Donahue, Matt Silva, Randall Kelleher, Jared Gauthier and Kyle Soja, sent a welcome email to Declan.

“We let him know how excited we were to have him be a part of our team,” Mangano said.

The captains then set up a luncheon so they could meet Declan and his family face-to-face. “We ate sandwiches and had a cupcake bar,” Mangano said.

Once they finished eating, Declan was shown around the campus, and then Mangano, Silva, Donahue, Hayes, Kelleher and Soja played with him in the gym and outside as well. “It was as much fun for us to see him having a blast as it was for him,” Mangano said.

Donahue said, “All he wanted to do was run around. Just to see him smile and have fun with all that’s going on in his life really inspired our team and brought a little more excitement to our guys.”

After they were done running around, Kelley said Declan was so tired that Mangano had to carry him back to his car.

Kelley said, “They lose a lot of their social contacts. They’re not in school a lot, so they don’t have friends around. So when you put them on teams like ours, they get that back and they become a member of the team.”

On Nov. 8, Declan was introduced to the rest of the football team when he and his family attended the Rams’ game at home against their conference opponent Bridgewater State. Declan walked out with Mangano and the other captains for the coin toss, and was even given the coin as a gift.

Kelley said the coin toss became more meaningful when the referee realized he knew Declan’s father. “It made it all that more special,” Kelley said. “The officials were excited this was happening. It was really a special day.”

Silva said, “Declan was in the center of our pregame huddle as he was introduced.” He added, “He

broke down the huddle by saying, ‘Rams on three.’

The team was very into it, and he got us fired up for the game.”

At halftime, the Rams found themselves down, 10-0, a predicament they had not been in since Homecoming Weekend on Sept. 27. “We reminded our team of the strength and courage that Declan has shown with his condition and how much of an inspiration he was to us,” Mangano said.

Silva said, “He gave us motivation to not lose this game with him in attendance. We knew it was his only game” he would be attending.

Declan being there with the team inspired the Rams and they were able to score 33 unanswered points and win the game.

Donahue said, “He chose a great game to come to.

It was a huge win for us against a big rival.”

The win against Bridgewater sealed another MASCAC Championship for the team, and Declan was there to witness it. “He is now a part of our team and will be forever,” Mangano said.

Silva said it was indescribable. “Not only was it a good win for the team, but Declan being able to be there for it and feel something special is a great feeling.”

Kelley said he had a ball cheering his team on from the sidelines. “He’s full of energy and a really neat kid.”

Declan was only able to make it to one game this season, but it was one he will always remember because he got to see his new teammates capture the conference title.

Mangano said despite Declan’s condition, he is still one of the most “outgoing, enthusiastic and fun kid” he’s ever been around. “It is so inspiring to see this 6-year-old boy completely ignore his condition and just live life to the fullest. … He takes nothing for granted.”

“Seeing him be so happy made me realize sports

are bigger than just wins and losses,” Silva said. “It’s the memories that truly last a lifetime, and Declan will have this one forever now.”

Silva said Declan’s favorite superhero is Spiderman, and which he dressed up as for Halloween. The 6-year-old also loves running around and playing outside and his favorite food is hot dogs. “He’s just a very happy kid,” Silva said.

Donahue described him as a future track star who’s “fun, funny and energetic.” He added that the 6-yearold is a fighter. “With how happy he was, you would never guess he was battling an illness. He’s truly a special kid who is an inspiration.”

Declan has a lot to celebrate on top of the Rams’ stellar season. A week before he was introduced to the team, his mother gave birth to a baby boy, making Declan a new big brother.

Although the season has ended, Mangano said the team will be keeping in touch with Declan through emails and face-to-face meetings. “I know that we have started a very special relationship with him and we look forward to continuing to do so,” Mangano said.

Kelley said they plan to bring Declan back next season. “We’ll do some things even in the off-season. … They’ll probably go over to his house and play with him in the yard, do stuff like that.” He added, “We’ll have spring practice, so we’ll bring him out for one.”

Silva said, “Declan being part of our team and program was a memorable experience, not only for him, but for me too. We were able to make a change in someone’s life - someone who is less fortunate than us and we were able to make him happy.”

Kelley said he’s very proud of his players. “It’s really emotional and special to these guys. They’re great people and really stepped up for this cause. I can’t tell you how proud I am and how thrilled I am to be dealing with Declan.”

26

SPORTS

December 10, 2014

Rams hockey drop two in a row

By Jennifer Johnson Interim Sports Editor

The Rams fell 4-0 at home against Fitchburg State University in their fifth conference matchup this season on Saturday Nov. 22 dropping their MASCAC record to 1-3-1.

Framingham came out strong in the first period when Brendan McCarron won the faceoff and slid a pass to Keith Barnaby who notched the first shot of the game. Fitchburg goal tender Ryan Wysocki pocketed it, earning him the save. Despite the two teams offensive bursts the period remained scoreless and without penalties. With 1:34 remaining on the clock, Framingham State’s Derek Ridgeway was called for slashing, leading to a 2:00 power play for Fitchburg.

The Falcons were unable to capitalize off the power play in the first and the teams seemed to be evenly matched. The period ended scoreless with Framingham trailing Fitchburg in shots, 10-9.

Coming back from the break, there were 26 seconds left on Fitchburg’s power play proving to be just enough.

Seventeen seconds in Ryan Connolly slipped one by the Rams’ goalie, Alessio Muggli, to make it 1-0 and ending the Fitchburg power play. Teammates John Celli and Craig Halpin were credited with the Fitchburg assists.

The Rams let down and 10 seconds later Fitchburg found the back of the net off a Jon Johannesson goal assisted by Paul Falanga, extending the lead 2-0. At 16:58 Ridgeway was called for slashing giving Fitchburg their second power play opportunity of the period. With

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

The Rams were shutout by MASCAC opponent, Fitcburg State, despite putting 38 shots on goal.

1:42 left in the second, Falanga scored an unassisted goal, propelling Fitchburg to a 3-0 lead.

The fourth period remained scoreless until the Rams pulled their goalie in hopes to score. The Falcons’ Cameron Snyder notched the final goal of the night on the open net with just one minute to play. The Rams outshot the Falcons 38-27 but were unable to light the lamp.

McCarron was chosen as MASCAC Men’s Ice Hockey Player of the Week for the week ending Nov 23. McCarron led the Rams to their first MASCAC win of the season, registering a hat trick and assisting on another goal to beat Worcester State 5-2.

The Rams took the ice again on Tuesday Nov. 25 in a non-conference matchup at New England College and letting up two goals in each period dropping the game, 6-0.

The two teams battled out the majority of the first period, each getting their fair share of opportunities. Framingham was awarded a power play 4:05 in. The Rams were unable to capitalize for the remainder of the period.

At about the 14 minute mark, NEC’s Kyle Manlow put in the first goal of the game off an assist from teammates Nilsson and Bryce Nielsen. Framingham answered with a shot from Ryan McDonald, but it went wide.

With 11 seconds left in the period ,NEC slipped another one past Muggli to make it 2-0 going into the second.

New England College put two more away in the second period, one from Nielsen and a power play goal by Cheyne Matheson. The Rams allowed two more goals in the third and failed to score making it 6-0 on the night.

The Rams were outshot 48-17 and went 0-for-4 on power plays. Muggli

played the majority of the game and had an impressive 37 saves.

The Rams hosted MASCAC opponent, Plymouth State, at Loring Arena on Thursday Dec. 4.

Plymouth got on the board early in the first and held the Rams at zero. FSU went into the break down 1-0.

The Rams came out fighting and McDonald tallied a goal with 16:40 left in the period. Six minutes later Plymouth struck back making it 2-1.

With 8:04 left, Plymouth slipped another one past Muggli making it 3-1 to end the second.

Things weren’t looking good for the Rams when the Panthers knocked one just about two minutes into the third to pull away 4-1.

Tyler colacchio sparked the Rams scoring with 10:11 in regulation marking his first collegiate goal off an assists from Jay Nichols and Cameron Hoffman.

Peter Mingus slipped another one past the Panthers’ goalie with 5:04 to go cutting the lead 4-3.

About two minutes later Vaughn Guetens ripped a shot from the blue line to tie the game at four.

The two teams headed into overtime and the Panthers scored just under two minutes into overtime defeating the Rams in exciting fashion 5-4.

The Rams are back in action on Wednesday evening at Loring Arena in a non-conference matchup beginning at 7:40 p.m.

Men’s basketball losing streak sinks to three

By Mike Ferris

Interim Sports Editor

After jumping out to an early 2-0 start, Framingham has dropped four of its last five games, falling to 3-4.

The first of this five-game stretch came at the Moe’s Queso Classic, when the Rams faced Coast Guard.

Framingham shot an abysmal 19 percent from the field and four percent from three-point territory, as they got handled by a final of 56-33.

Daniel Gould made the only three, as he shot 1-8 from beyond the arc, scoring four points while adding four rebounds, a steal and an assist in a team-high 29 minutes.

Bertholyn Alexandre and Joseph McCabe led the team in scoring, each contributing six. McCabe also grabbed two boards while Alexandre snagged four.

The Rams never led and looked to put the poor performance behind them as they battled Thomas College the following night in the consolation game of the tournament.

Framingham came out on top, beating Thomas 65-57 and securing third place in the Moe’s Queso Classic.

The Rams nearly doubled their field goal percentage from the previous night, shooting 36 percent while also shooting a much higher, 37 percent, from three.

The free-throw percentage stood out.

The Rams hadn’t been shooting too well from the charity stripe prior but shot 1718, 94 percent, against Thomas.

Tim McCarthy led Framingham in scoring with 14. Alexandre and Jacek Louisville were the only other Rams in double digits with 12 and 11, respectively.

Alexandre recorded a double-double as he collected 10 boards with those 12 points.

Framingham continued to dominate its opponents in bench scoring, beating Thomas in this category 29-9. The Rams also outrebounded the Terriers 4226, while dominating on the offensive glass, winning second chance points 142.

On Nov. 25, the Rams traveled to Hartford, CT for a non-conference showdown with Trinity College.

The game, which went back and forth for most of the night, included eight lead changes and two ties. Framingham jumped out to an early advantage, but Trinity ultimately captured the lead late, and secured a 59-46 win.

The Rams shot 29 percent from the field, 39 percent from three and 62 percent from the free-throw line.

Patrick Gould was Framingham’s only double-digit scorer as he led the Rams with 14. He was followed by Alexandre, who had seven and McCarthy and Patrick Cuff who added six each.

Framingham was handled in almost every category - losing in rebounds, 4329, points off turnovers, 19-11, second chance points, 18-5, points in the paint, 30-14 and bench points, 20-12.

Looking to avenge the loss to Trinity, Framingham battled another opponent out of Connecticut on Dec. 2. Western Connecticut State traveled to Framingham and handed the Rams their second straight loss, 74-68.

The Rams lost despite putting up a season-high in points.

McCarthy once again led the way with 19. He was followed by Cuff with 18 and Alexandre with 11. Both Cuff and Alexandre recorded double-doubles. They secured 10 and 11 rebounds, respectively.

Framingham dominated most categories, and despite shooting 49 percent from the field and 42 percent from three, the team lost in large part thanks to turnovers.

The Rams turned the ball over 23 times and it resulted in 26 points for

Western Connecticut, ultimately enough to squeeze past Framingham.

The Rams traveled to Brandeis on Thursday, where they suffered their third straight defeat.

Despite six ties and 11 lead changes, Framingham was on the losing end of the 63-51 final.

Framingham shot 44 percent from the field, 31 percent from three and 71 percent from the free throw stripe.

Framingham was once again haunted by turnovers, as they committed 20, leading to 20 Brandeis points.

McCarthy led the Rams in scoring with 14. Tim Mangano followed with 11 while McCabe put up eight.

Cuff pulled down seven boards in 24 minutes while contributing two points, two blocks and a steal before ultimately fouling out.

Brandeis dominated in bench points getting 30 from its reserve while holding Framingham to 18.

After seven games, McCarthy leads the team in PPG with 10.1, while averaging a team-high 29.3 minutes.

December 10, 2014

sports

27

Football concludes season as North Atlantic Bowl Champions

By Mike Ferris

Interim Sports Editor

Framingham couldn’t have ended its season in a more thrilling fashion.

The ECAC North Atlantic Bowl came down to overtime. Each team got one possession from the 25-yard line.

Framingham got its possession first.

It started with a 12-yard completion from Matt Silva to Tevin Jones, setting the Rams up at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 13.

Framingham then proceeded to give Robert Sivret three carries in a row.

One for six yards, one for five and a one-yard rush down to the RPI one.

On second and goal from the one, Silva ran a quarterback keeper into the endzone for six, and after a failed twopoint conversion, Framingham gave the game to its defense, just needing one stop.

The ensuing RPI drive started off a nightmare. Only needing a touchdown and PAT to capture the win, Rensselaer started its possession with a 17-yard rush down to the Framingham eight.

Needing to stand strong down inside their own 10, the Rams did just that when Kyle Soja tackled the RPI runner for a loss on first down.

After running for no gain on second down, RPI was faced with a third down. The pass fell incomplete and on

fourth and goal, the Rams’ season came down to one play.

After a completion, senior and MASCAC Defensive Player of the Year, Kevin Donahue,’ came up and made the game-winning tackle four yards short of the goal line, securing the 42-36 win.

Despite such a close outcome, Framingham outgained RPI in total yards, 537-368.

Of the 537 yards of offense, 264 came on the ground, while 273 came by way of Silva’s arm. Silva also added four touchdowns and an interception.

Jalen Green captured another 100yard rushing game and led the Rams in that category with 162. He was followed by Sivret who had 26, Ricardo Calixte who had 24, O’Shane McCreath who had 20 and Silva and Aaron Owens who contributed 16 yards each.

Silva distributed his 273 yards to four receivers. His fellow Dracut alum, Jared Gauthier, caught 96 yards, while Jones was just behind him with 90. Travis Hayes added 46 yards and Sivret contributed 41.

Framingham (10-1 overall, 8-0 conference) ends its season on a nine-game winning streak and this 2014 Rams squad now holds the program record

Jennifer Wang/The Gatepost

The football team celebrate their 42-36 overtime over RPI on Nov. 22.

Women’s basketball nets second win in a row

By Lauren Campbell Sports Editor

After a four-day break, the women’s basketball team was back on the court, playing host to Western New England University in a non-conference bout.

During the first half, Framingham never surrendered the lead, going up by as much as seven points. The home team led at the half, 34-30, with senior guard Margo McCarthy and sophomore center Alycia Rackliffe combining for 19 points of those 34.

The Rams lost their lead for the first time in the game five minutes into the second half, and found themselves playing from behind for the remainder of the matchup.

With seven minutes left on the clock, WNEU’s Emily Anderson sunk a threepointer to put the Golden Bears up comfortably, 59-45.

Framingham found its offensive spark, going on an 18-5 run to pull within one, 64-63, with under a minute left.

After forcing a turnover, the Rams ended up losing possession, then fouled WNEU’s Dorothy O’Neil, who successfully made both of her free throws, putting the visitors up 66-63 with 23 seconds remaining.

Despite a last-ditch effort from the Rams, they were unable to capitalize on two three-point shots from senior guard Johanna Annunziata.

With the heartbreaking 66-63 loss, Framingham fell to 2-2 while the Golden Bears improved to 4-1.

Jeff Poole/The Gatepost

Senior guards Johanna Annunziata (3) and Margo McCarthy combined for 39 points in the Rams’ 88-80 victory over Rivier.

Rackliffe led the team in points with 17, Sophomore guard Monta Connolly right behind her with 15.

The Rams had to put the loss behind them as they traveled to Curry College on Nov. 25 in another non-conference game.

Framingham only saw the lead twice as the team went into intermission down, 33-27.

Sophomore forward Sarah Palace lit up the court in the second half for the Rams, starting by leading it off with a three-pointer. Just within three, the Colonels opened up the lead to seven when

back-to-back shots were made.

The Rams once again found themselves playing catchup, but started steadily chipping away at the home team’s lead.

Rackliffe tied the game at 55, after making one of her free throws, just before freshman forward Payton Bruegger split her free throws, giving her team a slim, one-point lead.

Framingham’s lead would not be relinquished and they would go on to win, 69-62, boosting its record back above .500.

The Rams were led by Palace, who

proved to be a force on the court, scoring 14 of 18, a team high, points in the second half.

Rackliffe earned herself a doubledouble, scoring 16 points with a teambest 11 rebounds.

The ladies continued their threegame road trip when they battled it out with Rivier on Tuesday in another nonconference bid.

The team struggled against the Raiders last season, losing 60-47.

Annunziata, Rackliffe, Connolly and McCarthy came up big for the Rams, all reaching double-digits in points.

With just over three minutes remaining in the first, Framingham found itself down by two before Annunziata ignited a 19-6 run. The senior knocked down four three-point shots while senior guard Nicole Bostic netted one of her own.

With a 47-36 lead going into the second, the Rams kept putting up points, never giving up their lead and winning, 88-80.

Annunziata had a game-high 25 points, including making five of her eight three-point attempts. Connolly added 14. McCarthy had a double-double, notching 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Rackliffe added 10 points and nine rebounds of her own.

The Rams improve to 4-2 on the season and look to continue their two-game winning streak.

December 10, 2014

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SUAB Presents Minute to Win it and Lip Sync Battle SUAB hosted Minute to Win it and the Lip Sync Battle this past week in the McCarthy Center Forum. Minute to Win it included competitions in which students recited the alphabet backwards, tried getting an Oreo from the forehead to the mouth without using hands and pushing a softball across the stage using a banana tied on a string around the waist.

All of the planning for the Lip Sync Battle was done by the two concert co-chairs, Maddie Alper and Denae Pieroni. The audience decided the winner of the competition by casting thier votes with whatever loose change they had into buckets corresponding with each performer. All proceeds go to Notes 4 Cancer.

(Left) Brian Leonard won first place for the lip sync contest in the Forum on Thursday night. Each of the pize-winners received a SUAB prize pack. The first-prize winner gets a free ticket to SUAB’s concert in March along with a meet and greet with the artist.

(Above Left) This year, SUAB is bringing country singer Jana Kramer to campus to perform in DPAC. Members of SUAB unveiled the artist singing the song “Why ya wanna?”

(Above Right) Luisanna Castillo, Amari Veale and Iracely Sanchez won third place with their performance of “We are sisters” by the Cheetah Girls.

Photos by Melina Bourdeau / The Gatepost