Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Nov. 9, 2015

Page 1

THE MASSACHUSETTS

A free and responsible press

DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Monday, November 9, 2015

Serving the UMass community since 1890

News@DailyCollegian.com

RSOs plan Million Student March RHA’s budget Event to be held at down to $20K 12:30 p.m. Thur. By BRendAn deAdy Collegian Staff

As the clock neared 6 p.m. Friday, Filipe Carvalho, a senior majoring in economics and finance, sprawled across the floor of Center for Educational Policy and Advocacy’s office and let out an exasperated sigh. His humorous gesture was an acknowledgment of the exhaustion shared by all the students in the room. Carvalho, the policy and legislative director for CEPA, was surrounded by representatives from UMass for Bernie Sanders, MASSPIRG, the

Coalition to end Rape Culture, the Student Labor Action Party and a few others. The collection of RSO’s have collaborated since the beginning of the semester to organize an event that they hope will serve as a catalyst for future student activism and draw attention to issues on the national and local levels. The Million Student March, planned for 12:30-1:30 p.m. in front of the Student Union Thursday, is the brainchild of nearly a dozen RSO’s and coincides with demonstrations on nearly 100 campuses across the country, according to Carvalho. The event, which borrows its name from the Million Man March in Washington D.C. of 1996, is an indepen-

dent and decentralized day of action where students, workers, debtors, teachers and citizens come together to protest a broken capitalist and political system that runs on exploitation, according to the event’s website. The agenda for this year’s Million Student March consists of three demands: liquidation of all student loan debt, a national minimum wage of $15 an hour and tuition-free public higher education. “I think these three issues are the biggest facing students in terms of economic justice and they're all related.” Carvalho said. He explained that the 1.2 trillion dollars of student debt owed collectively in the United States is detrimental

to the economy. Carvalho said loan payments limit the purchasing power of graduates and the production potential of individuals as future contributors to growth. The call for a minimum wage relates to the right of each individual to have access to livable wage, he said. Carvalho acknowledged that the liquidation of debt is an idyllic goal and the resistance of the institutions and mentalities that the idea of debt has have been interwoven into is a daunting opponent. However, he believes with enough fervor and demonstration from the populations that are impacted, small victories could lead to long-

see

MARCH on page 2

Nearly $70K spent on three expenses By stuARt FosteR Collegian Staff

The University of Massachusetts’ Residence Hall Association’s current budget is comparatively lower than in year’s past, as the organization has spent significantly on the funding for a weekend retreat, RHA merchandise and stipends for members of its executive board. The RHA’s budget currently sits at $19,964 after

beginning the semester with $77,638, according to information provided to the Daily Collegian via the RHA. The organization previously believed it had just $5,964 left in its budget for the year, before members discovered roughly $14,000 in carry-over funds from the previous fiscal year’s budget. The RHA is a subsidiary student government that votes on funding requests from other student organizations on campus. The group’s funding for see

RHA on page 2

UMass Amazing Race sees spike in competitors Organizers pleased with event’s turnout By shelBy Ashline Collegian Staff

A sea of students in bright blue shirts swarmed upon the Fine Arts Center Friday night, formed staggered lines as they waited under florescent lights, and jittered in place as they anticipated the challenges to come. But first, they had to complete the task in front of them – a simple game of cornhole. Soft thuds could be heard as beanbag tosses landed on a series of six cornhole boards. Each team competing in the competition had to land two bean bags on their board to pass the first challenge of the fall semester’s Amazing Race. The event, which has been held biannually since the fall of 2011, attracted 35 teams this semester, as well as four teams who registered but did not compete and one team that dropped

out midway. Having 35 teams and 105 participants is quite impressive in comparison to years past, according to Wilma Crespo, the interim co-director of the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success, which is a key organizer of the event each year. “We had many more this year,” Crespo said. “I think last year we were in the low 20s, so we almost doubled (our number of teams).” The competition, which is based on a popular television show, requires that students participate in 10 challenges across campus, which test them both mentally and physically. Once they successfully completed a challenge, such as cornhole, teams then receive a clue that they must decipher in order to move on to the next task. The event also allows students to work with the University of Massachusetts Police Department, which is see

RACE on page 3

SHELBY ASHLINE/COLLEGIAN

The competitors of the Amazing Race pose at Wilder Hall after completing the competition on Friday night.

WMUA site visit scheduled UMass releases number of Station to undergo unpaid graduate workers program review By Anthony Rentsch Collegian Staff

WMUA is set to undergo the site visit portion of its program review – a process intended to assess the health and effectiveness of the department – next week, as the organization eyes structural change and community members’ concerns with student leadership at the University of Massachusetts’ radio station remain. The site visit is part of a five-phase program review led by the department of student affairs and campus life aimed at providing a “formal and meaningful assessment of how well a program achieves its stated mission, goals and outcomes, and the identification of ways to sustain and create program excellence,” according to an email sent by associate vice chancellor of student affairs and campus

life Annemarie Seifert to station members. The visit, which is scheduled to last from November 8 to November 10, will provide an external site review team the opportunity to gain input on how the station functions and to create and submit an external review report. Gregory Adamo, an associate professor in the school of global journalism and communications at Morgan State University; Warren Kozireski, general manager and instructor at the student radio station at the College at Brockport, New York; Becca Herman, University of Connecticut radio adviser; Annie Dooley, a WMUA student member; and Heather Milkiewicz, a WMUA community member, make up the team, according to UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski. WMUA general body members will be able to provide input on Monday, November 9, from 4 to 5 p.m. in Campus Center room 904. In her email, Seifert wrote

that the purpose of the review would be to “assess how well WMUA performs in relation to its mission, goals, objectives and university priorities; “Encourage strategic thinking about WMUA’s plans for the future; discover ways that WMUA can continue to improve upon the quality of its programs, services, activities, and operations; provide evidence of the excellence and effectiveness of WMUA’s programs, activities, services, and operations; determine the extent WMUA has managed its resources in an efficient and effective manner; evaluate the extent to which WMUA has successfully addressed student learning and development outcomes; and identify obstacles that inhibit WMUA from achieving its desired goals and develop ways in which these obstacles can be managed.” Station manager Andrew DesRochers said he hoped an external review could provide

see

WMUA on page 2

403 were not paid in first pay cycle By seRenA McMAhon Collegian Staff

The Graduate Employee Organization has received official word from the University of Massachusetts that 403 graduate student employees were not paid by the University on the first payday of the semester. The official number came Nov. 2, more than a month after the GEO filed an information request with the University. On Sept. 25, hundreds of graduate student employees complained of not receiving their first paycheck. GEO co-chair Santiago Vidales said the numbers are daunting, since 63 percent of graduate student workers were not paid

because of delays in human resources such as missing documentation, failure to process paperwork by the payroll deadline and other problems, according to information provided by UMass. The University has held the position that the majority of paycheck delays are through the faults of graduate student employees, such as not filling out paperwork properly or not handing it in on time. Vidales said the issue of late pay stems from a “structural, systemic dysfunction” within the University, noting that GEO is seeing an infrastructural failure within the UMass payroll office, specifically that there are not enough personnel to be handling the abundance of forms necessary to process payroll. Only 127 graduate

student employees that went unpaid were first time hires, the information request revealed. Additionally, out of the 403 student employees that went unpaid, 342 graduate employees were eligible for an emergency salary payment, but only 145 of them received the actual ESP for one reason or another. ESP is a system in place through the University which grants graduate student employees 80 percent of their gross pay if not paid on time. The document further breaks down the number of graduate student workers that did not get paid by department. The highest included the computer science department with 39 unpaid student workers, followed by the education department with 32 and the

see

GEO on page 2


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.