Emerson College’s student newspaper since 1947 • berkeleybeacon.com
Thursday, January 23, 2020 • Volume 73, Issue 15
Swastikas found in Piano Row Chris Van Buskirk, Beacon Staff
Four swastikas were found in a Piano Row stairwell early Wednesday morning. • Jakob Menendez / Beacon Staff
ECPD to unveil safety app
Tiny Thrift Store helps avoid fast fashion
Carlee Bronkema, Beacon Staff Emerson police plan to launch a new safety app called LiveSafe in the coming weeks designed to increase overall student safety on and off campus. The app, a joint project of ECPD and the Department of Emergency Management, will provide safety resources and information to the Emerson community in a way that is more convenient, ECPD Lieutenant Robert M. Bousquet Jr. said in an interview. “It is an added safety resource for our community members to communicate and share information with the police department,” Director of Emergency Management Chris Beaurpere told The Beacon. The implementation of a safety app has been in the works at the ECPD and the Emergency Management Department for a year and six months as the two departments examined different apps before settling on LiveSafe, Beaupere said. LiveSafe is commonly used among colleges and other organizations and serves three main functions. One is to provide information that students would originally have found in the Emergency Preparedness and Safety Guide, which is posted in various locations on campus and given to students during orientation. The guide provides community members with information regarding what to do in extreme weather, how to report crimes, and what to do for utility issues. See LiveSafe, page 2
Emerson police are investigating the source of four swastikas “scrawled” in Piano Row after a student reported the graffiti early Wednesday morning, according to college officials. The discriminatory, anti-Semitic graffiti was located between the 10th and 11th floors of the residence hall and it remains unclear when it was created. Vice President and Dean of Campus Life James Hoppe said ECPD might encounter difficulties when determining the perpetrator and recovering physical evidence from the site. “Odds are somebody knows who did this and so if anyone would have their ability or willingness to come forward and share information they know that would be very helpful,” he said. In a community-wide email sent out late Wednesday afternoon, Pelton said he is consulting a handful of senior administrators about the best way to “engage our community in our strongest denunciation of this hateful act.” As of publication, administrators were in the early stages of planning a vigil for Thursday at 4 p.m. with a location still up in the air. Jewish Advisor Jake Freedman and Hoppe plan to lead a vigil at 4 p.m. in the Reflection Room located in 172 Tremont St. “At a time when anti-Semitism and other ugly forms of bias are on the rise around the world, the Emerson community needs to hold all the more strongly to our values, and to be united in our condemnation of it,” Pelton wrote in the email. The incidents at Emerson College follows a nationwide, heightened sense of awareness among the Jewish community. Residents in New York experienced a string of anti-Semitic crimes including the stabbing of five Hasidic Jews by Grafton Thomas at a rabbi’s home as they celebrated Hanukkah in December, according to the Associated Press. See Stairwell, page 2
Taina Millsap, Beacon Staff
Young men’s volleyball team begins season By Pedro Figueiredo • p. 8
After years of being surrounded by nature as a Boy Scout and accidentally stumbling upon the environmental studies minor, junior Ben French decided to create a small thrift store on campus to help students avoid shopping at big chains that support fast fashion. French’s project, called the Tiny Thrift Store, consists of a cabinet in the Colonial basement next to the building’s laundry room. There, he said students can donate and pick up clothes and shoes for free to avoid supporting fast fashion and help steer Emerson toward a more environmentally conscious campus. “What you literally do is go down to the Colonial basement and take whatever clothes and shoes you have and just put them in the cabinet, and you’re welcome to look around at any time of day,” French said in an interview. “If you find anything you like you’re welcome to take it. You don’t even necessarily have to donate clothes to take anything.” In fall 2018, French started brainstorming the idea with his advisor, Campus Sustainability Manager Cathy Liebowitz. French said they set up the Tiny Thrift Store around two months later. As an eco-representative at Emerson, French’s job is to create sustainable projects that improve campus life. See Advocates, page 6