THE WAIT IS OVER
PAGE 5
OSCARS FASHION
PAGE 8
THE MASSACHUSETTS
DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
A better world stArts with A plAn
News@DailyCollegian.com
Students head to State House with message Advocacy Day holds several goals By Marie Maccune Collegian Staff
ALEX LINDSAY/COLLEGIAN
PLAN founder Alex Freid talks to UMass students about creating a better environment.
Virus revived from deep freeze By Geoffrey Mohan Los Angeles Times
A 30,000–year-old giant virus has been revived from the frozen Siberian tundra, sparking concern that increased mining and oil drilling in rapidly warming northern latitudes could disturb dormant microbial life that could one day prove harmful to man. The latest find, described online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, appears to belong to a new family of mega–viruses that infect only amoeba. But its revival in a laboratory stands as “a proof
of principle that we could eventually resurrect active infectious viruses from different periods,” said the study’s lead author, microbiologist Jean–Michel Claverie of Aix–Marseille University in France. “We know that those nondangerous viruses are alive there, which probably is telling us that the dangerous kind that may infect humans and animals – that we think were eradicated from the surface of Earth –are actually still present and eventually viable, in the ground,” Claverie said. With climate change making northern reaches more accessible, the chance of
disturbing dormant human pathogens increases, the researchers concluded. Average surface temperatures in the area that contained the virus have increased more steeply than in more temperate latitudes, the researchers noted. “People will go there; they will settle there, and they will start mining and drilling,” Claverie said. “Human activities are going to perturb layers that have been dormant for 3 million years and may contain viruses.” Claverie’s co-author, Chantal Abergel, nonetheless cautioned that their finding is limited to one innocuous
virus infecting an amoeba. “We cannot definitely say that there are some human pathogens in there,” she said. They will re–examine the drill core samples, Abergel said, to “find out if there is anything there that is dangerous to humans and animals.” Claverie’s laboratory was behind the discovery, in Chile, more than a decade ago, of the first giant DNA virus, dubbed Mimivirus. They next identified a far larger virus of an entirely different family in 2011, dubbing it Pandoravirus salinus, in homage to the mythical Pandora’s box that see
VIRUS on page 3
Gay marriage trial begins
Clerk says she only responds to judge By Tresa Baldas Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — Oakland County Clerk Lisa Brown said she is ready to begin immediately issuing samesex marriage licenses if a federal judge rules that Michigan’s ban on such unions is unconstitutional. She said she answers to one authority: the courts – not the state attorney general. “My job is to follow what the judge says,” testified Brown, a defendant in a case that could make Michigan the 18th state to legalize gay marriage.
Last fall, Brown testified, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette sent 82 clerks statewide a memo instructing them not to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples, even if a federal judge overturns the ban. The memo holds nothing over her, Brown said, pointing out that she doesn’t report to Schuette, the governor or any state official – just the judge. Brown’s testimony Monday kicked off what turned out to be a roller coaster of a day for the state in Michigan’s gay marriage trial, in which two lesbian nurses are seeking to overturn the state’s ban on same-sex marriage so that they can marry and adopt each oth-
ers’ children. After Brown’s testimony, the state presented its first witness – a Princeton-educated philosopher – but U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman dismissed him after concluding he was not qualified to testify in this case. The state had expected his testimony to last two hours. That brought in the state’s next witness: Mark Regnerus, a University of Texas sociologist whose 2012 pro–traditional marriage survey has stirred controversy among social scientists, psychologists and medical experts. Regnerus testified that until science can prove otherwise, the ideal family structure in America
is still a mom and a dad raising kids together. “The science in this domain is new ... it is very new. And intellectually, it’s frustrating to see social science close off a debate by saying this is settled,” said Regnerus, who urged Michigan to uphold its ban on samesex marriage. “The most prudent thing to do is wait ... before making a radical move on marriage.” During his nearly four–hour-long testimony, Regnerus, who has researched and written studies about family relationships, tried to debunk same–sex parenting studies that say there is no difference between kids see
GAY MARRIAGE on page 2
Serving the UMass community since 1890
Students from all 29 Massachusetts public college and university campuses will be heading to the State House to lobby legislators during Massachusetts Public Higher Education Advocacy Day on Wednesday. The event is being coordinated in large part by the Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts (PHENOM) and the Center for Education Policy and Advocacy. Ferd Wulkan, communications director for the grassroots advocacy group PHENOM, expects that at least 100 students will be in attendance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus alone and estimates that almost 600 people will attend overall, including students, faculty and staff. In regards to this year’s lobbying focus, Wulkan said, “It is definitely to remind and convince the legislature to follow through with what they began last year. They took a big step in reaching the 50-50 plan and we want to continue in that direction.” Johannes Raatz, a UMass student studying social thought and political economy as well as economics, is the access and affordability coreteam leader for CEPA and is also working to coordinate the event. “Our message is about college affordability,” Raatz said. “Because this is a public institution, the state has a lot of control over that. We want to thank the legislature for the increased funding they passed last year, and to ask for more. “For the UMass system specifically, which consists of the five UMass campuses, we’re asking for $40 million,” Raatz continued, adding that this funding would enable a second year of tuition and fee freezes for the university system. The cost of education has risen consistently throughout the decade and according to Raatz, a lot of lower income students are being left behind., “If we look at income numbers compared to tuition and fee costs, you have some families needing to use a third of their income towards college,” he said. Raatz said that Massachusetts is lacking specifically in early and higher education. Kindergarten through 12th grade remains fairly strong. “In recent years, a bigger
“Our message is about college affordibility. Because this is a public institution, the state has a lot of control over that. ” Johannes Raatz, CEPA coreteam leader portion of our budget has been diverted to health care,” Raatz said. “Prison costs are also another large portion of the state budget. Massachusetts is one of the few states that spends the same amount or more on its prisons as it does on education.” Raatz hopes that as the state looks into other health care system options, such as a single-payer system, more revenue will become available for education. Similarly, Raatz believes that if more money is put into education systems, including those used at prisons, the state will be able to proactively reduce prison demands in the future. A tuition and fee freeze is not the only goal, however. According to Raatz, they will also be advocating for $100 million more for the Massachusetts State Scholarship Program and $14 million to fund collective bargaining at UMass. In terms of reaching their goals, Raatz is optimistic. “The Governor’s numbers came in pretty close to ours, so we’re hoping that as the budget goes through the appropriate committees, such as the Ways and Means in the House, we will reach our goal,” Raatz said. Wulkan had similar sentiments saying, “I think the day is going to be incredibly successful. Legislators were very receptive and responsive to our students last time, but there are a lot of competing interests in the state. We have to remind them of the importance of higher education.” Raatz believes the Senate will be the biggest barrier. “Compared to the House, members of the Senate are more fiscally conservative and may put up resistance to increased funding,” he said. “But, we’ve reached a crisis in this state and in the nation in terms of student debt. And, I’m seeing the pendulum swinging back towards more funding for public education so kids can go to and stay in college.” Marie MacCune can be reached at mmaccune@umass.edu and followed on Twitter at @MarieMacCune.