PAGE 5
PAGE 4
THE MASSACHUSETTS
A free and responsible press
DAILY COLLEGIAN DailyCollegian.com
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Serving the UMass community since 1890
News@DailyCollegian.com
Vitale/Rampone win 2016 SGA presidential election Ticket unofficially tallied 1,395 votes B y Stuart F oSter Collegian Staff
ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN
Anthony Vitale (left) and Nick Rampone (right) were unofficially elected president and vice president, respectively, of the Student Government Association early Wednesday morning with 1,395 votes in the 2016 SGA Election.
Anthony Vitale and Nick Rampone were unofficially elected president and vice president of the Student Government Association e a rl y Wednesday morning with 1,395 votes in the 2016 SGA Election. Khalif Nunnally-Rivera and Maija Hall, who were also running for president and vice president respectively, received 1,261 votes. There were 134 write-in votes as well. “We hope we are able to further what we’ve been campaigning on to make sure the students really do benefit and we further student representation here on campus,” said Vitale, a sophomore studying economics. Rampone also thanked the Nunnally-Rivera and Hall campaign for “put-
ting up an amazing competition.” Josh Odam, who ran for the position of student trustee unopposed, was elected with 2,516 votes. “I’m excited to work with Mr. Vitale and Mr. Rampone,” said Odam, a junior studying political science and legal studies. “I hope students of color and Young Metro trust them.” In the Graduate Student Senate elections, Canan Cevik was elected president with 267 votes, Daniel Morales was elected vice president with 259 votes and Talia London was elected treasurer with 141 votes. Nunnally-Rivera said that, while disappointed with the results of the election, he and Hall planned to “continue to fight for the rights of the UMass student body.” “The election results will mean we have to work even harder to accomplish see
SGA on page 3
Communication disorders dept. hosts fundraisers Graduate students, staff embark on Walk and Roll for Stroke and Aphasia Parkinson’s Unity Walk next month will be held on UMass campus April 2 B y ShelBy aShline Collegian Staff
Graduate students and staff from the University of Massachusetts communication disorders department will participate in the 22nd annual Parkinson’s Unity Walk on Saturday, April 23 in New York City’s Central Park. Lisa Sommers, clinic director at the Center for Language, Speech and Hearing, clinical professor in the communication disorders department and captain of the UMass team, decided to form the team to encourage her students “to connect in the community.” “We’re trying to teach students all the different ways that you can be an effective speech language
pathologist,” Sommers said. She explained that this includes learning and evaluating research and picking good techniques to use with patients, but also “learning to connect with people on a personal level” by joining support groups and participating in events like the Unity Walk. “It’s about more than being in a therapy room with someone,” she continued. “It’s about advocating and being there in the different ways that you can, and that includes (community events like the Unity Walk).” The UMass team, which has never participated in the Unity Walk before, currently has 16 members who have already raised $1,610 toward their goal of
$2,000. All teams involved in the Unity Walk have already raised a total of $426,684. Sommers considers the Unity Walk to be a great way for her students to participate in community service, particularly because 100 percent of the donations are distributed among the seven major U.S. Parkinson’s disease foundations to fund research. The event also features informational booths where participants can speak with healthcare experts and meet with representatives from the various Parkinson’s foundations. Sommers sees the event as “an opportunity to learn about Parkinson’s see
UNITY on page 2
By ShelBy aShline Collegian Staff
When Dr. Jacquie Kurland began teaching graduate students in the communication disorders department at the University of Massachusetts, she decided to experiment with some non-traditional assignments. As a final project for her two-semester course “Language Disorders in Adults” Kurland requires students to participate in a community service project, which she said has “turned out to be the thing that the students learn the most from.” In the history of the project, students have implemented monthly support groups and pal programs for people in the community who have suffered a stroke or who live with aphasia, a language disorder that
COURTESY OF DR. JACQUIE KURLAND
Participants in the first Walk and Roll for Stroke and Aphasia held in 2009 walk down North Pleasant Street in Amherst. affects a person’s ability to express and understand written and spoken language usually as a result of a stroke. In 2009, a student proposed the Walk and Roll for Stroke
and Aphasia. Because of the popularity and success of the event, it will be held for the fifth time on Saturday, April 2 see
APHASIA on page 3
St. Patrick’s Day panel discusses ‘Trapped’ screens evolution of Irish culture, identity at UMass on Wed. Event took place Wednesday evening B y Patricia l eB oeuF Collegian Staff
Delta Xi Phi Multicultural Sorority, in collaboration with the Amherst Irish Association, presented a panel on Irish culture and identity in the Campus Center Wednesday night to roughly 20 attendees. The panel, “St. Patrick’s Day Meaning & Practices: A Conversation on Identity,” included two Irish-American students,
Kathryn Rogers and Mary O’Connor, along with cochair of the Amherst Irish Association Íde O’Carroll, and Anthony Tuck, associate professor of classics at the University of Massachusetts. Blarney Blowout, the series of annual drinking parties held in Amherst on the first weekend of March, was the inspiration for the event, Rogers said. The event was created to help dispel unfortunate and harmful stereotypes perpetuated by Blarney. “I think there is something very strange to a celebration that starts
“The expression of St. Patrick’s Day was to be one of pride…and association of Irish pride in identity.” Íde O’Carroll, Co-chair of the Amherst Irish Association at 6 a.m. with a glass of vodka,” O’Carroll said. O’Connor contrasted the St. Patrick’s Day celebration of her childhood, which involved food, music and family celebration, with the drinking culture of Blarney. “It didn’t ring true to me,” she said. “It was about…keeping our history and identity alive.”
According to O’Carroll, the intent of the panel was to “open a conversation.” “I think there is no one interpretation of what St. Patrick means,” she said. The panel members discussed the evolution of Irish identity and cultural practices connected to St. Patrick’s Day in the consee
IRISH on page 2
Film follows fight for abortion rights By Marie Maccune Collegian Staff
Trapped, a film by Dawn Porter that focuses on the fight for abortion rights in the United States, screened Wednesday night at the University of Massachusetts. The screening was sponsored by the UMass departments of history, political science, legal studies and women, gender and sexuality studies, as well as Five College Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice Program, Smith
Program for Study of Women & Gender and VOX UMass: Students for Reproductive Justice. TRAP stands for “targeted regulation of abortion providers” and is used to describe legislation that creates barriers to provide abortions as a means of limiting abortion rights overall. The event’s Facebook page explained that “since 2010, 288 laws regulating abortion providers have been passed by state legislatures. In total, 44 states and the District of Columbia have measures subjecting abortion providers to see
FILM on page 3