Tower The Masters School
VOLUME 73, NUMBER 4
49 Clinton Avenue Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. 10522
Editorial Donald Trump’s executive order targeting immigrants and refugees from Muslim countries stigmatizes followers of a faith with over one billion adherents worldwide, thereby raising the risk of terrorism. In addition, Trump’s order is blatantly xenophobic, subverting the American ideals embodied in the Statue of Liberty and Emma Lazarus’s famous poem.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 7, 2017
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Admin grapples with teacher pay By dAvid oks Copy Editor
PHOTO COURTESY OF PAX AHISMA GETHEN
DURING HIS FIRST WEEK in office, President Trump approved the reopening of construction on the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. President Obama had halted the projects in response to numerous protests by Native American activists and environmentalists.
Trump resurrects controversial pipelines By Phil Minton Opinion Editor Within his first week in office, President Trump made full use of his executive power as president, stirring a lot of controversy. It is not uncommon, however, for presidents to sign many executive orders to distinguish themselves from former administrations. “Presidents are allowed to issue an executive order unilaterally, which means that neither Congress nor the courts have to approve it beforehand, and it’s essentially a law,” political science teacher Colleen Roche said, “Sometimes presidents issue executive orders because they can’t get Congress to act. “One such famous example happened when Harry Truman issued an executive order to desegregate the army, which was met with some opposition, but Truman could justify it
because it was the right thing to do. What Trump is doing fundamentally flies in the face of the essence of American values.” One of the orders that he signed revived construction of the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, the same pipelines former President Obama stopped construction on earlier in the year. Both pipelines have been met with fierce opposition, but for different reasons. Trump argues that the Keystone XL Pipeline, which will create a faster route for crude oil to travel from Canada to Nebraska, will create many long term jobs. Many argue that the pipeline is extremely vulnerable to spills and that this kind of oil sinks to the bed of lakes and rivers, making the cleanup incredibly hard and the environmental impact severe. The Dakota Access Pipeline is meant to provide a more “cost effective, efficient means of transporting crude [oil], rather than shipping barrels by train,” according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
With most of the pipeline built, it is the section closest to Standing Rock, North Dakota (ND) where the construction has stopped. Protestors argue that it would contaminate drinking water, but more importantly cross through sacred Sioux burial grounds. Some Native Americans have even expressed the same feeling of persecution that their ancestors might have felt at the discovery of the New World. Navajo Tribe Member and University of Southern California sophomore Karolyn King said, “At the beginning [1492], they took our land, then sent us to land that was undesirable to them, and now they are digging up our dead and replacing it with oil pipelines.” Masters Alum Anna Feldman was able to stay with the Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. “We were invited onto that sacred land not in protest but in prayer and ceremony, in solidarity, as protectors and we were there to protect the life force of Mother Earth,” said Feldman. She said that the “spirit of love, community, brother and sis-
terhood,” kept them all warm in the extreme temperatures. Many Native Americans look at Trump’s order to restart the pipeline as a huge defeat for Native American and environmental rights. King was noticeably upset when talking about the pipeline. “It’s really just frustrating but not surprising at the same time. The problem is that this has been going on for hundreds of years, and the only thing that has changed is that the internet gave us the platform to spread awareness,” King said. She went on to describe the executive order as a “blatant slap to Native American rights,” and that she believes that Native Americans are more excluded than any other minority in the United States. Overall, President Trump’s executive order to restart the pipeline has caused a lot of protest but continues to be swept under the rug as a result of new orders being issued daily. Only time will tell if protests or legal challenges will be successful in halting the construction on the pipeline.
The state of teacher compensation, which has contributed to a number of trends, including the departure of several teachers who felt pay was inadequate, has piqued the interest of faculty and the administration—leading Head of School Laura Danforth to take action. Masters’ “Strategic Plan 20152020,” released two years ago, states that “a highly competitive compensation structure” is essential to “maintaining a faculty of true distinction,” and thus promises to make teacher pay more competitive. Much of this issue is particularly difficult for faculty who live off-campus, who are more vulnerable to Westchester’s high cost of living and steep property taxes. “Due to the cost of living in Westchester, just in property taxes alone, teachers who live off-campus are especially feeling the pinch,” Skeff Young, chair of the History and Religion Department and leader of the Subcommittee To Review Employment Practices (STREP), said. According to USA Today, Westchester has the highest property taxes in the nation. These taxes add to already-exorbitant housing expenses: According to Zillow, the median house in Westchester costs $555,000 to buy and $2,690 per month to rent. Living in Westchester on a teacher’s salary can be financially daunting. This drives some teachers to live far away, into upper Westchester or low-cost areas of New York City with a long commute, and may encourage teachers to look elsewhere for employment. “We can’t offer housing to everyone,” Ed Biddle, Masters’ Chief Financial Officer, said. The limited resource of faculty housing means that those who can’t live on campus face paychecks stretched to uncomfortable limits and earnings that aren’t always rising in response.
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Faced with disadvantages as a former all-girls institution, Masters’ Annual Fund fills budget needs By Allie Berdon Editor-in-Chief In the past 20 years, Masters has made great strides financially, increasing its endowment and enrollment dramatically. From 1877 until 1996, Masters was an all-girls school, and in its earlier years it was primarily a boarding school. “By 1995 it was hard for Masters to sustain a steady applicant pool, and enrollment was down to 180 students,” history teacher Colleen Roche said. The decision to integrate boys into the community saved Masters from economic failure. Historically, women’s schools tend to have lower endowments, and are at a financial disadvantage compared to all-boys schools, both boarding and day. Many women’s high schools and universities have been forced to either merge with larger, more established men’s schools, or go co-ed. Director of Annual Giving Mary Ryan said, “Historically, when women attended private high schools and colleges, they were less likely to donate to their alma
maters after they married because most of the money went to their husband’s respective alma maters.” Going forward, women’s schools have a harder time raising money due to the overall lack of alumni support, which then discourages other women to donate, perpetuating the cycle. In order to prevent this cycle, there has been a push to increase alumni giving in the Masters community. Masters’ total operating budget for 2016-2017 is about $37 million, which is equal to the total revenue for operating expenses, so the net gain of the school is zero. Factored into the total revenue is the Annual Fund, a yearlong fundraising campaign, which accounts for about an 8% gap in the school’s revenue. This gap shifts yearly, and this year’s Annual Fund goal is $2.2 million. “Tuition, renting out spaces in the Fonseca Center, endowment income and other revenue is always less than the total revenue of the school, and this year the gap is about 8 percent, which is normal for a school of our size,” Mary Ryan said. The Annual Fund is raised through
donations from alumni, parents, faculty and grandparents. About 16 percent of alumni donate to the fund, and its goal for the 2016-2017 school year is to raise participation. While 16 percent is normal for a day school, it is relatively low for a boarding school. Schools similar to Masters, such as Rye Country Day and Riverdale Country School, have higher alumni participation at 24 percent and 18.5 percent respectively. However, Masters does have strong donors, including the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, which donated a record $10 million to the school in 2015, as well as the record breaking 90 percent of faculty who donated to the Annual Fund in 2016. “When alumni give and show support for the school, it shows that Masters still holds an important place in their lives and it encourages other people to donate, as well as send their kids to Masters,” Ryan said. Ryan also noted that Masters has a hard time getting older alumni to give because it is difficult for them to understand that even though Masters is now co-ed, the same spirit still lives on in the community.
ALLIE BERDON/TOWER
THE ANNUAL FUND ALLOWS Masters to support projects such as the construction of the Fonseca Center, a facility for arts and athletics opened in Sep. 2015.