Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016

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Former student accused of rape will stand trial Jury selection to begin this morning By anthony chiuSano Collegian Staff

The trial of Longmeadow Native Patrick Durocher, a former University of Massachusetts student accused of raping a female student on campus in 2013, will begin today. Durocher, 20, has pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated rape, kidnapping and

assault and battery. His trial is expected to last about a week, per the report. No longer a student at the University, Durocher was reported to have allegedly raped a 19-year-old female student on Sept. 2, 2013 – the first week of his freshman year at UMass. According to court documents, Durocher approached the female in the early hours that night and allegedly raped her on the Campus Center lawn. Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Jennifer H.

Suhl, the prosecutor in the case, added that Durocher “strangled her, held her against her will and raped her on an open grass area on the UMass campus until bystanders intervened,” according to a MassLive report. These bystanders reportedly told police that they witnessed Durocher on top of the female and that she was unconscious. A separate MassLive report from last week said testimony will be introduced that indicates both the woman

and Durocher were extremely intoxicated that night. Durocher’s lawyer, Vincent Bongiorni of Springfield, and prosecutor Jennifer H. Suhl appeared in court last week as a part of a pre-trial hearing. Durocher has been freed on $10,000 bail along with a GPS monitoring condition, according to MassLive. Jury selection will begin Tuesday morning. Anthony Chiusano can be reached at achiusano@umass.edu.

SHANNON BRODERICK/COLLEGIAN

The alleged assault took place outside the Campus Center.

UMPD’s sexual assault alert faces criticism

WMUA forges ahead

Police plan to change policies By Patricia LeBoeuF Collegian Staff

SHANNON BRODERICK/COLLEGIAN

WMUA will implement new guidelines that limit community member programming, introduce a new station manual and expand its board of directors.

Station sets new policies amid turmoil By SheLBy aShLine

N

Collegian Staff

o matter what day of the year or hour of the day, students and community members within 25 miles of Amherst can tune in to WMUA, the radio voice of the University of Massachusetts. A staple in the Pioneer Valley for more than 65 years, the station has experienced massive growth to become one of the largest student organizations on campus, broadcasting an eclectic mixture of music, news programs and live sporting events. Recently, however, the station has faced criticism from community members due to planned structural changes that UMass administrators announced in December. The decision to restructure came after an external review of WMUA was conducted by a four-person team of media advisors. One advisor, Gregory Adamo, an associate professor in the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore, said that he and the team suggested WMUA expand its board of directors, rewrite its manual and limit community programming to 24 hours per week, which the station plans to do starting this spring. He also suggested the University hire a fulltime advisor to assist the students. In particular, the deci-

sion to limit community programming has sparked a rift between students and community members, who feel their influence is being restricted. Some community members, which are non-student members of the station, asked for a University investigation into the Vice Chancellor’s office in response to the decision to restructure the station. A petition that has more than 2,300 signatures is also circulating online to “Keep Polkas Alive” at the station, which significantly reduced its weekend polka programming this spring. The station’s polka programming was wellreceived within the Pioneer Valley, as was “Focus,” a 50-year-old public affairs show that was also cancelled. But Adamo believes the changes will be to WMUA’s benefit. “Students should be a priority,” Adamo said in a phone interview. “I’ve always been convinced that college radio stations should be studentcentered … I think the students will get a better experience through more decision making and the radio station will operate more smoothly.”

Growth over the years Since WMUA was first formed back in 1948 it has experienced several significant changes. It all began when World War II veterans returned to UMass to earn their education under the

In response to criticism regarding a crime alert email for an on-campus sexual assault that occurred Dec. 11, the University of Massachusetts Police Department plans to examine its practices regarding sexual assault crime alerts. Liana Ascolese, a senior political science major who sent an email to the UMPD expressing her concerns with the Dec. 11 crime alert, criticized what she said was victim-blaming wording of the UMPD’s alert via email and social media. “I understand that the purpose of sending the email was to inform people that a crime had occurred,” she said. “But I think some of the little safety tips that they put on the end misunderstand sexual assault and why it occurs … there’s this issue

of power and male entitlement and what consent means,” she said. According to the National Institute of Justice, which is an agency of the United States Department of Justice, about 85 to 90 percent of sexual assaults reported by college women are perpetrated by someone known to the victim. The wording of the tips at the end of the email put the onus to prevent assaults on victims instead of perpetrators, she said. “If I had survived an assault and I had received that email, I would have read that as, these people who are supposed to protect me are saying that I should have done more to protect myself,” she said. Ascolese said that she was encouraged to send the email to the UMPD after her post about her concerns on Facebook received over 100 likes. The police department first learned about see

ALERTS on page a3

Amherst sees rise in armed robberies ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN

Community members have asked UMass to investigate the recent changes at the station. GI bill. Many had extensive radio knowledge and decided to come together to operate a station on the fifth floor of South College. WMUA officially launched on Nov. 21, 1948, broadcasting at 650 AM according to a UMass press release. In 1952, the station moved to 91.1 on the FM dial, making WMUA one of the first college-run, non-commercial FM radio stations in New England. Since then, WMUA has been operated out of Marston Hall and then the basement of the Campus Center, where it currently resides in the Scott J. Bacherman Broadcast Center. According to the press release, the center was named after a UMass alumnus who served as WMUA’s program director from 1973 to 1975. It was under Bacherman’s lead-

ership that WMUA instituted 24-hour operation with paid management staff. Even after his death in 2002, Bacherman’s family and friends continued to help shape WMUA into what it is today by funding its remodeling, according to General Manager Andrew DesRochers. The station’s annual budget of more than $100,000 is derived primarily from the Student Government Association, along with selling ad space and donations received throughout the year and from an annual fund drive. Following renovations that were completed last year, WMUA gained the most up-to-date equipment that DesRochers likened to the equipment used by very wellsee

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Six reported in last months of 2016 By Stuart FoSter Collegian Staff

In November, two crime alerts were sent out to the University of Massachusetts-Amherst student body, informing them of separate reports of armed robbery which had took place twelve days apart. In both cases, one at the Puffton Village and the other at Brandywine Apartments, a gun was alleged to have been shown during the encounter. Those two incidents are part of a larger surge in armed robberies in Amherst, which has seen six armed robberies reported since Nov. 6 through Dec. 21. In addi-

tion to the armed robberies students were notified of in the November crime alerts, two armed robberies were reported at the Boulders and Southpoint Apartments each. “Armed ro bb e ries are not common in Amherst and having the amount that we’ve seen in the past two months is much higher than we’ve seen in the past,” said Jennifer Gundersen, captain of administration at the Amherst Police Department. Before Nov. 6, only one armed robbery in Amherst had been reported in 2015, Gundersen said. Gundersen said the armed robbery reported at Brandywine Apartments was different in nature from the other ones reported, which she see

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