Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Nov. 5, 2013

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FINISHING STRONG Cross country performs well at A-10 Championships

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ENDER’S GAME A dissapointing adaptation

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THE MASSACHUSETTS

A free and responsible press

DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

SGA talks World Series, scheduling and peer mentors Major issues on tap for this week By Katrina BorofsKi Collegian Staff

At Monday’s Student Government Association meeting, senators discussed a number of important topics, including last week’s SGAsponsored events, new implementations for the peer mentor program and a change in scheduling that will take place next fall. U n ive r s i t y of Massachusetts Chancellor Enku Gelaye was among a number of people pleased with the outcome of the event programming that took place on Wednesday night for the World Series. “I think this is a significant turn in in see programming on campus,” Gelaye said. “I am proud of the thousands of students that came and celebrated peacefully and dispersed peacefully.” In the weeks leading up to the World Series, the SGA coordinated with students, faculty, staff and the UMass Police Department in order to plan the programming that took place on the quad in the Southwest Residential Area last Wednesday night. “It didn’t go exactly as planned. However, it was successful in a way that we gave students an awesome experience in an environment that was very exciting and energetic,” said Senate Speaker Sionan Barrett, who put hours into the planning of this programming and volunteered at the events that night. SGA Adviser Lydia Washington expressed that she was similarly pleased from an advisor’s perspective as to the outcome of this event. “I was so touched, as your adviser, to see you out there

not just interacting with the crowd, but cleaning up afterward,” Washington said. The events that took place on Wednesday will serve as precedent for future event programming. Although police were forced to disperse crowds and arrest students that night, the event as a whole was considered “a major success.” The University Vice Provost of Continuing Education Carol Barr also spoke at this week’s SGA meeting to discuss a number of important topics, including the new schedule being initiated next fall as well as a new program for peer mentors. Starting in the fall of 2014, 75-minute class blocks will be included to Monday/ Wednesday/Friday classes. Currently, classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are only 50 minutes long, while classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays are 75-minute classes. Increased enrollment conflicted with scheduling because Tuesdays and Thursdays are currently filled to 100 percent utilization. This often causes issues regarding schedules for many students. With increased enrollment, the issue worsens. Tuesdays and Thursdays will remain the same – the only difference being that classes will now begin at 8:30 a.m. as opposed to 8:00 a.m. As for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, there will still be 50-minute class blocks, but the afternoon classes for these days will be 75 minutes long. “We kept six 50-minute time blocks for classes like Introductory Mathematics and certain language classes, who prefer the 50-minute class time,” Barr said. This implementation will become feasible with the finalization of the new academic see

SGA on page 2

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Students for Liberty activist group reaches out to UMass New Amherst branch helped by University senior

get involved however their mind tells them to. The child of immigrants who fled Portugal from political oppression, Fatal always felt strongly about asserting indiBy Brian Bevilacqua vidual rights and freedoms. He started Collegian Staff the New England Objectivists Society as University of Massachusetts senior a space where students can discuss and Nathan Fatal passionately wants to develop their personal philosophies on recruit you; for what exactly, he would life in order to decide how to get engaged in the issues that they find important. rather leave up to you. Fatal, a political science major, wants Fatal is now stepping back from his students to get involved in any political first group and bringing a new group, issue they feel strongly about. As leader Students for Liberty, on campus to work of the New England Objectivists Society with multiple groups, including the at UMass, he is helping the internation- UMass Gun Club and Cannabis Reform al group Students for Liberty establish Coalition. Several student activists from UMass itself on campus in an effort to encourage students to think for themselves and and other Five Colleges have already

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aligned themselves with the organization. SFL is a worldwide, non-profit Libertarian group based in Washington, D.C., working with thousands of supporters to protect what they see as the freedoms of personal choice that are attacked by politicians from all parties. They work with many colleges and wanted to extend support to UMass through Fatal. Fatal, along with SFL representative Daniel Morris, held their first meeting on campus two weeks ago and were recruited 11 UMass students to go to the SFL conference in Boston Nov. 2, and expect their support to grow as they introduce themselves to more student see

LIBERTY on page 3

plAce to sit , steep And tAlk teA

XIAOXIAO HU/COLLEGIAN

Students meet over hot pots of tea in a University of Massachusetts classroom to talk about tea and the Japanese language.

Senate works on bill to ban Inquiry sheds light on ‘dark workplace bias against gays money’ in 2012 elections Approval still looks unlikely in House By William Douglas McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON – A longstalled bill banning workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is likely to pass the Senate as early as this week, a sign of the fast-changing political landscape for gay rights. The fight over the measure is far from over, however. Conservative groups launched a last-ditch effort to stop it in the Senate. In the House of Representatives, prospects for approval appeared even slimmer as Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced his opposition. The Senate signaled its likely approval Monday with a 61-30 vote clearing the way for a final vote later this week on the proposed Employment Non-Discrimination Act,

which would make it illegal to discriminate in the hiring and firing of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers. Monday’s vote and likely Senate approval reflect changing times and changing public and political attitudes among Democrats and Republicans toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. “Today marks another step forward in the progress of the United States of America in making sure that all of our citizens are treated fairly and equitably under law,” said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. “It is a huge step forward, one too long in coming.” The bill, which has been introduced in Congress every year since 1994, failed by one vote in the Senate in 1996. It passed the House in 2007 but died in the Senate. Since then, Congress overturned the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in 2010 and ended the ban on gays and lesbians serving in uniform.

Poll after poll shows greater acceptance of same-sex marriage. “This is an extremely important moment for the LGBT movement in our country,” said David Codell, legal director for the Williams Institute, a research group that advances sexual orientation law and public policy at the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles. Still, the bill’s battle in the 113th Congress could be just beginning. With more than two-thirds of the public supporting a federal law to protect gay people in the workplace, some opponents have seized on a provision in this year’s version of the bill that would extend the same protections to transgender people, who face higher rates of job discrimination than gays, lesbians and bisexuals do. Some opponents, such as the conservative Family see

BILL on page 2

Looking at mixed up money trails By chris megerian anD anthony yorK Los Angeles Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Tony Russo had a multimillion-dollar problem. The Republican consultant and his team had raised piles of cash to use in California politics as last November’s election approached. But a wrinkle in state law meant he couldn’t spend it in the final two months of the campaign without jeopardizing the anonymity he had promised his rich donors. So Russo turned to what he called “the Koch network.” He asked a political consultant who has worked with billionaire Republican contributors Charles and David Koch to shuttle the money through an Arizona

nonprofit. That group, which is not required to reveal its donors, could send cash to California causes without names attached. But things went from bad to worse. Although Russo handed over $25 million, only about $15 million ended up back in California. And when the money surfaced, it sparked an investigation by state authorities, who last month levied $16 million in penalties against the Arizona group and three others. The case offers a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of politically active nonprofits, which have played an increasing role in elections nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court eased campaign rules in 2010. They provide donors a way to influence elections by piping major money around the country until it resurfaces - without their fingerprints - in a campaign.

Advocates of transparency in government call it “dark money.” Russo declined to be interviewed by the Los Angeles Times. But he and his colleagues detailed their experience for California investigators, conversations that were recorded in hundreds of pages of transcripts. Those records and other documents released by authorities show a convoluted money trail. They also show the risks of operating in a political world so intricate that even Russo didn’t fully understand how it worked when he threw in his donors’ money. “There’s all kinds of groups all over the country that I wouldn’t even know,” Russo said. California Republicans faced two major battles last year: a fight against Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hike and see

INQUIRY on page 3


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