Massachusetts Daily Collegian: Monday, Jan. 25

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THE MASSACHUSETTS

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DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com

Monday, January 25, 2015

Serving the UMass community since 1890

News@DailyCollegian.com

National Weather Service calls UM ‘StormReady’ Officials say win was a collaborative effort

of Massachusetts, the National Weather Service has given it a “StormReady” designation, the first to be awarded to a public university in Massachusetts. By Shelby Ashline According to a UMass press Collegian Staff release, there are several core After reviewing the emer- requirements that a university gency preparedness programs must meet in order to earn a being utilized at the University StormReady designation, which

is valid for three years. The press release states that “a university must establish a 24-hour warning point and emergency operations center; have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts and to alert the public; create a system that monitors weather conditions locally; promote the

importance of public readiness through seminars; and develop a formal hazardous weather plan, which includes training severe weather spotters and holding emergency exercises.” Jeff Hescock, director of University Emergency Management and Business Continuity, said he and his col-

Heroes don’t get any bigger

leagues began the application process about a year ago. The initial application included detailing the University’s plans and procedures for monitoring and responding to severe weather. Hescock said it took a couple of months to gather all of the necessee

STORMREADY on page 2

Classes aim for real world prep Students feel ready to enter workforce

ROBERT RIGO /COLLEGIAN

The University Programming Council held a movie night where they showed Ant-Man in the Cape Cod Lounge Sunday night.

they can then utilize in building careers in public leadership after college. Ariel Dickerman, a senior studying political By Ben Keefe science, participated in the Collegian Correspondent program. As college students “I applied to be part approach graduation, of UMass Women into the looming reality of Leadership (UWiL) the real world creeps because it sounded like a closer and closer. One great opportunity for me approach the University of to learn and grow in proMassachusetts has taken fessional environments,” to ensure students are Dickerman said. ready for post-graduate She added that, “As a life is offering career-ori- student coming from a ented classes. low-income background, These courses, special- it’s not as easy to pay for izing in career prepara- business casual clothes, tion, are available in many business cards and head different forms through- shots, or even know that out a variety of programs those are things you at the University. should have.” One example is the Dicker man also Women into Leadership explained that the program program run by the made her realize she needdepartment of political sci- ed to develop certain skillence. The course is geared sets, including confidence towards providing women in networking, wage negowith experience in professional development that see CAREER on page 2

Forum focuses on using Blizzard moves off east coast Officials prepare empty buildings for art for days of cleanup

Area artists met in Northampton Sat. By Rachel Ravelli Collegian Staff

About 50 Pioneer Valley residents gathered on Saturday to learn about how they can work together to transform local forgotten buildings into multi-purpose, mixed-use spaces for artists. Seth Lepore of the Easthampton Co. Lab hosted the event, titled “Giving a S*** About Everything and Everyone,” at Flywheel Arts Collective in Easthampton. Lepore used AS220, a nonprofit community arts center located in Providence, Rhode Island, as a model to demonstrate the methodologies and business practices needed for the Pioneer Valley to advance artist-centric ownership. Located near the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, AS220 is comprised of three buildings of space for galleries, studios and music. The area was once deteriorating and useless. After the generation of grants, loans, organization and the right staff, AS220 now hosts around a dozen events each week. “AS220 is a space where artists come first, then managers,” Lepore explained.

Some of the youth resources AS220 offers include shared work studios and private studios, commercial tenants, print shops and labs, performance space and restaurants. “We can create something like this, that people strive to be a part of,” he added. Leore explained that though Providence was once known as “the armpit of New England,” social enterprises that foster engagement and community have allowed the city to become known as the “creative capital of New England,” in the last decade. Lepore emphasized that young, recently-graduated artists can steer their creative energy into the growth of forgotten cities. However, the coupled effect of lack in opportunities in low-income towns and the exorbitant costs of living in artist-driven communities like New York or even Northampton have made the movement difficult. Todd Trebour, program coordinator at the Arts Extension Service at the University of Massachusetts attended Saturday’s meeting. He explained how his team is working to find opportunities for struggling young artists. “We look for internships that match with the specif-

ic skills that our students need,” said Trebour. “These internships need to be paid and that’s hard to do with some of these local spaces who cannot afford to support them.” Throughout the meeting Lepore discussed how artists may communicate, collaborate and create space for one another. “It’s also important to find people you trust,” Lepore added, “Buildings are complicated beasts and you need to select only your best allies.” At one point during the lecture the crowd split off into groups determined by where they live: Northampton, Easthampton, Holyoke and Springfield. Groups discussed the assets, allies, advocates and challenges they believe affect artists in their specific communities. “I’m here because of curiosity and community,” said Gracie Janove, a teacher and writer living in Northampton. The Northampton group, which held a few Amherst residents as well, described high rent, unsupportive landowners and an overall lack of space for their work as challenges in their area. However, they did have see

FORUM on page 2

By Noah Bierman and Matt Hansen

Tribune Washington Bureau

NEW YORK — One of the fiercest blizzards to strike the eastern United States in decades moved offshore Sunday morning, leaving a trail of record snowfalls in major cities and heavy flooding up and down the coast. Now mayors and governors will try to figure out how to remove heavy snow so businesses can reopen, children can go back to school and more loss of life and property can be prevented. “With this much snow on the ground, it’s going to be there in some form or another for two or three weeks, if not more,” said meteorologist Patrick Burke at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md. Burke said the storm moved off Cape Cod, Mass., Sunday morning. New York City fell one– tenth of an inch short of setting a new snowfall record in Central Park. Gov. Andrew Cuomo lifted a travel ban. Subway and above– ground transit had largely returned to normal by Sunday morning, but service on some lines — espe-

cially the main rail lines serving Long Island and the city’s northern suburbs — would take longer to restore, officials said, as crews sometimes had to dig the tracks free. New York’s airports slowly returned to life Sunday, though hundreds of flights remained canceled. Thousands were grounded throughout the country over the weekend. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said his state’s main commuter rail service would also resume operation by midday. Christie said all highways in his state were clear and that the number of residents without power, including 18,000 on the Atlantic Coast, was shrinking as crews worked to restore service. State shelters had seen 100 people stay overnight along the coast, he said, a result of the flooding. “The weather is nice, it’s sunny outside, and folks will begin to go out there to clean up,” he said. But sporting events and other activities throughout the East Coast were canceled. Schools, businesses and museums were closed. Residents were urged to stay home and begin shoveling out. “We’ve made a lot of progress,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “We’re not of the woods yet, we’re not done.”

Cuomo said no deaths directly linked to the storm had been reported in New York, but that five people had died while shoveling snow. In Central Park, 26.8 inches of snow fell. Snowfall records were broken in Baltimore (29.2 inches at the airport) and Allentown, Pa. (31.9 inches). Washington Dulles International Airport recorded its second–highest total (29.3 inches), while Philadelphia had its sixth– highest total (22.4 inches). Moderate morning high tides on Sunday were expected to spare coastal communities across Delaware and New Jersey from another round of severe, icy storm surge flooding like that on Saturday. Sussex County, Del., reported that floodwaters topping nine feet hit Lewes on Saturday morning, nearly breaking a record set in 1962, as heavy winds pushed water into the streets. Dunes, which normally soften the blow of tidal floods, couldn’t cope with the floodwaters in some areas. A state highway near the coast was washed out at the height of the storm. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser canceled school for Monday and the city’s rail and bus systems remained closed Sunday.

see

BLIZZARD on page 2


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