Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Apr. 30, 2014

Page 1

TAKING WHAT UMASS WINS 5-4 THEY CAN GET

FAKING it

REVIEW

PAGE 8

PAGE 5

THE MASSACHUSETTS

A free and responsible press

DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Serving the UMass community since 1890

News@DailyCollegian.com

UMass Dining proposes changes Response from students is mixed to meal plan By Marie Maccune Collegian Staff

University of Massachusetts Dining Services announced a new Residential Meal Plan on Monday, which includes three options for on-campus students that are different from the current ones. The changes include two different plans that offer unlimited access to dining commons options as well as a “basic” plan of 200 DC swipes per semester, according to a handout provided by UMass Dining. On-campus students will no longer have YCMP swipes and instead use Dining Dollars at retail services. Commuters, on the other

hand, may choose from various YCMP plan options. Though prices are tentative, they do indicate an increase in cost from the current Value Meal Plan offered. Executive Director of Auxiliary Services Ken Toong said the 2014 Residential Meal Plan is a product of “extensive” planning. “We started the process back in November during the budget planning process, when we interviewed our student ambassadors, listened to the feedback from students through comments cards, surveys, social media and emails, and talked to our peers at UNH, UConn and URI,” he said. “We also received recommendations addressing flexibility, convenience and value for the meal plan from external review peers from the Administrative Quality Assessment and Development.”

Toong emphasized that plans are subject to change, noting a town hall meeting that will occur on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Worcester Dining Common that will be open to students to discuss the meal plan changes. “We are aware of the questions and concerns on social media and have received comments from students about the new meal plan these past couple days,” he said. “We appreciate all of the student input and take it all into consideration. I encourage everyone to come to the town hall meeting and ask questions. Our goal is always to put students first as we strive to offer you the best dining program in the nation.” Director of Residential Dining Services Garett DiStefano said that the move toward unlimited meal plans follows a trend in

dining across the country, especially at UMass’ peer schools. DiStefano also said that survey data reported students wanting more flexibility of when, where and how many times they could eat. “Food is a big deal here at UMass,” he said. “Students don’t want to lose a swipe with a small purchase, they want stronger buying power. We want our students to be able to utilize dining commons as a home kitchen away from home. We want to build a community around food.” In terms of price increases, DiStefano said, “Every year, unfortunately, food prices go up. We are faced with higher and high costs from suppliers, operations, etc. But we are not a forprofit organization. Our bottom line is student satisfaction.” According to DiStefano, UMass

Child survivor relives her experience

Dining hopes to move rapidly in finalizing options “so that when you look at your SPIRE bill you know exactly what you’re getting.” The new meal plan has not come without reactions from the student body. “It bothers me that they’re trying to market something as a regular meal plan that doesn’t even constitute more than 1.8 or 1.9 meals a day,” UMass freshman Dan Riecker said. Becca Brossoit, a junior studying psychology, also had reservations about the changes. “I think they should put careful reconsideration into changing the meal plan so drastically, as well as increasing prices,” she said. Serena Thomas, a freshman see

MEAL PLAN on page 2

UMass doctor to tell Marathon story Staff physician will share experiences

ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN

Henia Lewin talks about her time during the Holocaust at the UMass Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies.

Holocaust speaker tells UM her story By Marleigh Felsenstein Collegian Staff

Henia Lewin, a child survivor of the Holocaust, spoke at the University of Massachusetts Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies on Tuesday night as she shared her experiences living through the genocide. Before Lewin spoke, there was a candle-lighting ceremony in which UMass students lit six candles. Each candle represented one million Jewish people that died in the Holocaust. Lewin, who speaks at various events and schools, discussed her time as a child in Lithuania during the Holocaust. Born in January 1940, her family was forced to move into the Kovno Ghetto on Aug. 15, 1941. When they lived in the ghetto, her father, who worked in the wall paint business, built a fake wall with shelves that housed a

space for her to hide while he and Lewin’s mother went to work. Some of the men in the house also dug a hole in the ground as another hiding option. “The main thing was to get a job assignment,” Lewin said. There was a “round-up of intellectuals.” She said this consisted of 526 men who spoke different languages because the Germans needed them to translate certain documents. When they were taken, however, they never returned. Many of Lewin’s family members were killed in these round-ups, including an uncle who was among the 526 volunteers. She remembered these roundups always occurred on Jewish holidays. A priest in a local seminary helped her mother for a while. When she had to leave because it was unsafe for her to remain in the ghetto, she was sedated and smuggled out of the ghetto in a suitcase. Lewin was then given to the Stankevicius family,

“I’d like to think that Hitler is turning over in his grave. Shoah is not just your normal genocide. The kind of things that were done to Jews in history is unique and it shouldn’t happen to anyone ever.” Henia Lewin, Holocaust survivor Christian family friends of Lewin’s family. She remained in hiding with them under a fake name for almost two years. Her parents ran away in 1944 and hid on different farms until they were reunited. Lewin’s family also adopted her cousin Shoshana, who also had been in hiding with Lewin. She was given to a different family when they had to flee the ghetto, and moved out of Lithuania. They first went to a refugee camp near Frankfurt, Germany, then moved to Israel and later moved to Montreal, Canada, so her mother could be somewhere cold because of problems with climate. Before the war, there were 250,000 Jews in

Lithuania. Out of 40,000 Jews in the Kovno ghetto, only 2,000 survived. “Being one of them (a survivor) makes me cry,” Lewin said. In 1995, Lewin returned to Lithuania to find the mother of the Stankevicius family that had helped to hide her years ago. She returned to all of the places that she had been to as a little girl, and paid her respects to the deceased. Jonas Stankevicius had died 11 years prior to her return, but upon the ceremony that was held in honor of the Stankevicius family, Lewin obtained Jonas’ medal of honor to pass on to her family. “I’d like to think that see

HOLOCAUST on page 2

A year ago, University of Massachusetts staff physician Pierre Rouzier was at ground zero of the bombings that rocked the 2013 Boston Marathon. One year later, he was back at the 2014 Marathon. On Wednesday, he’ll be among those to share their experiences about being in Boston one year later. Rouzier, along with select runners and volunteers who participated in this year’s Boston Marathon, will speak about their experiences at a talk called “The Boston Marathon: One Year Later” in Herter Hall Room 227 on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Rouzier, who has been in the medical field for over 30

years –17 of them at UMass –was volunteering as a triage doctor at a tent less than 100 yards from the finish line when two bombs exploded on Boylston Street during the 2013 Boston Marathon, which killed three and injured more than 200 others. Rouzier immediately rushed to the scene, using belts that he transformed into tourniquets to try to save lives of those injured by the explosions. On April 21, Rouzier returned to the scene where his and many other lives were impacted as he worked triage near the finish line at the Marathon for a sixth straight year. Collegian News Staff

Death toll rises to at least 30 in southern storms Storms keep raging through the South By Michael Muskal Los Angeles Times

After leaving a trail of death and destruction across at least six states, a series of violent storms that spawned dozens of tornadoes continued to move through the South on Tuesday morning. It was the third day of deadly weather to rip from the Midwest through the eastern portion of the nation, bringing severe thunderstorms, fierce winds and large hail. In all, at least 30 deaths have been reported since Sunday in a swath from Oklahoma and Iowa to Alabama and including Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee. Hundreds of injuries have been reported as homes and buildings

toppled, mobile homes were tossed like confetti and heavy vehicles twisted in the wind. More than 70 million people live in the area identified by the National Weather Service, but the number in the prime danger zones were about a fifth of that. “The NWS Storm Prediction Center is forecasting a risk of severe weather Tuesday afternoon and into Tuesday from the Great Lakes southward to the central and eastern Gulf Coast and eastward to the Carolinas and Virginia,” the National Weather Service warned. “The greatest risk is from eastern Mississippi to central Alabama, where a Moderate Risk is in place. Several tornadoes, large hail and straight line damaging see

STORMS on page 3


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.