Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Feb. 29, 2016

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THE MASSACHUSETTS

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DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Monday, February 29, 2016

DenieD no more

SGA divided over executive veto Senators defend approval of RSOs By stuart Foster Collegian Staff

After Student Government Association President Sïonan Barrett vetoed a Senate motion to approve two prospective groups as registered student organizations during a Senate meeting last week, SGA members disagreed over whether they thought the veto was necessary. Nick Andrade, the secretary of the registry for the SGA, denied 10 groups the title of an RSO on the grounds that the applications did not list 10 undergraduates involved with the organization. Seven of the 10 groups who were denied RSO status appealed Andrade’s decision to the Senate, who then granted two groups their appeals. Barrett recently vetoed the Senate’s decision to retroactively grant the UMass Obstacle Course Racing Club and the Society of Asian Students

and Engineers an RSO status because the prospective organizations did not satisfy the member requirements, which necessitated them to list 10 undergraduates involved with the group on the application. Following her veto, SGA Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Jeremy Tibbetts questioned the decision. “I think the last thing student groups need is student government serving as an obstacle to how they’re supposed to function on campus,” said Tibbetts, a junior studying public health. Tibbetts said that there were questions of how clear the application was for prospective groups, saying that the required amount of names was not specifically mentioned in the application itself but was attached to the application as a link. Those two groups, Tibbetts said, were voted on at a Feb. 16 meeting of the SGA, which occurred one week after the other see

VETO on page 2

Amherst College hosts LitFest 2016 Inaugural event draws top writers By Brendan deady Collegian Staff

A number of magazine editors and writers who’ve received the literary industry’s highest accolades, from Pulitzer Prizes to National Book Awards, are flocking to Amherst College’s inaugural “LitFest 2016” this upcoming weekend. The literary event, held from March 3 to 5, is celebrating the “extraordinary literary life (of Amherst) by bringing to campus distinguished authors and editors to share and discuss the pleasures and challenges of verbal expression, from fiction and nonfiction, to poetry and spoken-word performance,” according to the college’s website. The three-day event kicks off with a conversation with Angela Flournoy and Lauren Groff, who is an Amherst College graduate, Thursday night at the

Johnson Chapel. Groff is the author of four books, her latest, “Fates and Furies,” was a finalist for the National Book Award. Flournoy, a graduate from the prestigious Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop, just published her first novel, “The Turner House,” which was also a finalist for the National Book Award. The event continues the following day, where Michael Chabon, the Pulitzer Prize winning novelist of “The Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay,” will host a reading and Q&A session Friday night. A poetry slam featuring Amherst College students is scheduled to close out the night. The following morning Stacy Schiff, also a Pulitzer winner, will join Mark Bowden, the award winning investigative journalist and author of “Black Hawk Down”, for a discussion in Valentine Hall. The literary weekend was coordinated by “The Common”, a literary journal based at the college, see

LITFEST on page 3

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Aldon Morris delivered the 23rd annual W.E.B. Dubois lecture at the Campus Center on Friday, Feb. 26.

DuBois called ‘father of sociology’ By Luis FieLdman

Collegian Correspondent

Northwestern University professor Aldon Morris gave the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries’ 22nd annual Du Bois lecture Friday night, celebrating the scholarship and influence of the founder of America’s first scientific school of modern sociology. The University celebrated W.E.B. Du Bois’ work and words by hosting the author of “The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth

of Modern Sociology” to reflect on the contemporary relevancy of Du Bois’ life and ideas. The annual lecture series honored Du Bois’ birthday, Feb. 23, by giving insight into his work. “There is an intriguing well-kept secret regarding the founding of scientific sociology in America,” Morris told the crowd of nearly 100 in the Student Union Ballroom, “The first school of American scientific sociology was founded by a black professor, located at a small, economically poor, racially segregated, south-

ern university.” Morris continued, “At the dawn of the 20th century, from 1898 to 1910, the black sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois developed the first scientific school of sociology at Atlanta University.” During an era of racial segregation and Jim Crow laws in the south, Du Bois pioneered a new branch of social science that Morris claimed has long been cast to the shadows. “I am not making a small claim when I say that W.E.B. Du Bois developed the first scientific school of sociology

in America,” Morris said. “My purpose in writing The Scholar Denied was an ambitious one.” He added, “My book aims to shift paradigms, disrupt dominant narratives and illuminate new truths.” Morris’ lecture dove into the history of American sociology by pointing out that early sociologists rarely used empirical methods to collect data. He described early sociology closer to being “armchair theorizing” that relied heavily on casual observasee

DUBOIS on page 2

Fraternities reach out to authorities Barbeque meant to bridge distance By stuart Foster Collegian Staff

In the backyard of the Theta Chi fraternity house at the University of Massachusetts, police officers, fire fighters and fraternity and sorority members exchanged greetings over hotdogs and burgers this past Saturday. At the “Building Bridges Barbecue,” held from 1 to 4 p.m., students had the opportunity to interact with law

enforcement and establish a working relationship with emergency personnel in anticipation of “Blarney Blowout” next weekend. Daniel Schauer, a sophomore studying communications who is the vice president of health and safety at Theta Chi, said that members of his fraternity held the event partially to determine how Greek life organizations can make the Blarney Blowout as safe as possible. “We want to make that day the safest it can be for everyone here,” Schauer said. “We see

BBQ on page 2

SAMANTHA HALM/COLLEGIAN

Officer William Laramee mock arrests two Theta Chi brothers


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