Massachusetts Daily Collegian: January 21, 2014

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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

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‘The shadow of crisis has passed’ President delivers State of the Union address

Continuing Ed students offered fewer resources

By Kathleen Hennessey and Christi Parsons

By Anthony Rentsch

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called on Americans to “turn the page” in a State of the Union address Tuesday night that laid out a sprawling, post-recession domestic agenda aimed at leveling the economic playing field – and revitalizing his presidency in what he dubs its “last quarter.”

“America, for all that we’ve endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the state of the union is strong,” Obama said early in his address.

Obama’s speech included a proposal for free community college, expanded child care tax credits, a push for paid leave and a proposed tax increase on the wealthy to pay for programs the White House argues will help a battered middle class participate in the economic turnaround.

Obama spoke of “a breakthrough year for America,” a declaration of a new day that was a first for a president who has spent all of his time in office either slogging through grim economic news or pleading for patience for better times ahead.

His aim is to create a stark contrast to his political opponents, who in their rebuttal to Obama’s remarks will paint Americans as still rattled from the aftershocks of the Great Recession. Sen. Joni Ernst, a freshman Republican from Iowa,

When mediation failed last spring between a University of Massachusetts student in the University Without Walls program and his ex-wife, a UMass graduate student, in regard to legal custody of their child, he went to the Student Legal Services Office for representation.

However, since Continuing and Professional Education students do not pay the equivalent of the undergraduate Student Activity Fee or the graduate senate tax – portions of both are allocated to Legal Services – the student, who wished to remain anonymous, was ineligible for its services. Even though Legal Services “cannot represent or advise two students against one another,” his exwife was able to receive representation because non-fee paying students are not “eligible students,” according to Legal Services policy.

In the end, the UWW student hired a private attorney and paid just under $10,000 in legal fees to receive shared legal and physical custody of his child.

Most concerning for the

Collegian Staff

Tribune Washington Bureau

MCT

President Barack Obama arrives to deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday. squarely blamed the president’s policies, including his landmark health care law.

“We see our neighbors agonize over stagnant wages and lost jobs. We see the hurt caused by canceled health care plans and higher monthly insurance bills,” she was to say in the Republican response, according to excerpts released in advance. “Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mindset that led to failed policies like Obamacare. It’s a mindset that gave us political talking points, not serious solutions.”

Obama looked out on a House chamber filled with the first entirely GOP-

controlled Congress in a decade and more Republican opponents than at any point in his time in office. Still, the president did not signal that he would come to the podium bearing offers of compromise and political centrism.

Buoyed by rising public approval and an improving economy, Obama is eager to use the moment to show the public – and Washington– he won’t go quietly, White House aides suggested.

He was expected to talk of policies aimed at challenging Republicans and trying to shape the debate for the final two years of his term, and likely the 2016 see

Serving the UMass community since 1890

SOTU on page 3

student was that he never had a chance to pay a fee to make him eligible for resources and services reserved for fee-paying students.

“I was never given an option to pay the fee,” he said. “I can’t say, ‘Hey, I’d like access to these resources.’”

According to Melanie DeSilva, director of Marketing, Communication and Recruitment for UWW, Continuing and Professional Education students are not allowed to pay the Activities Fee, the graduate senate tax or any equivalent fee, something that she would like to see changed.

“I would like students to have the option (of paying the fee and receiving the benefits),” she said.

“We want to keep the costs low for Continuing Education students, who are often people working full-time that don’t want extra fees for things they do not use,” she continued. “But some students would pay for it. We don’t want it to be required, but we want it as an option.”

Currently, Continuing and Professional Education stusee

SLSO on page 2

Ambassador Baibourtian Amherst, UM work on teaches with a global touch housing and relations

Prof. gives students real world experience

ence department at the University of Massachusetts.

This is Baibourtian’s third semester at UMass teaching courses focusing on security

By Marie MacCune Collegian Staff policy, globalization, and the Caucasus region. He uses his Armen Baibourtian has held many titles in his life: extensive background in diplosenior advisor for the United macy to guide his lectures.

Nations, deputy foreign minis- “I always try to show some ter of Armenia, and Armenian practical sides of diplomatic ambassador to India, relations: how does it work Indonesia and Sri Lanka, to in the real world? You know, how this or that conflict was name a few.

His most recent title, how- arranged,” he said. “When you ever, is visiting professor of read (it) is great, you need (the) practice for the political sci- theory, but you also need the

practical side too.”

One way he demonstrates the practical side is through what he calls “study visits” with students to the United Nations in New York.

Over winter break, Baibourtian took 21 of his students to the UN. “Why I call it the ‘UN study visits’ is because there are normal visits that are mostly tours that many universities organize, but what I organize is very much different,” he see

AMBASSADOR on page 2

Town Gown offers number of options

ter integrate the University within the community and improve the overall desirability and affordability of living and working within the town.

By Catherine Ferris The 24-member steerCollegian Staff ing committee was formed In a recent letter to in October 2013 to address University of Massachusetts shared areas of interest Chancellor Kumble between the University and Subbaswamy and Amherst the town, including housing Town Manager John Musante, and economic development, Co-Chairs of the Town Gown according to the committee’s Steering Committee David website.

Ziomek and Nancy Buffone “We are very much a colmade a number of recom- lege town,” Musante said in mendations for how to bet- a recent interview. “This was

an opportunity for both to look at our collective master plans and identify where they overlap and where they are not connected.”

The committee’s recommendations outlined in Ziomek and Buffone’s letter include the creation of a University-Town of Amherst Collaborative (UTAC) to oversee work on the housing and economic development efforts, as well as more exploration by UTAC of the see

TOWN GOWN on page 2

Islamic State threatens to kill Japanese hostages Captors demand $200 million ransom

By Patrick J. Mcdonnell and Batsheva Sobelman Los Angeles Times

BEIRUT — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday called for the immediate release of two Japanese hostages being held

by Islamic State extremists seeking a $200-million ransom.

“I strongly demand that they not be harmed and that they be immediately released,” Abe, speaking through a translator, told journalists in Jerusalem, where he was wrapping up a regional tour. “We will make all possible efforts to release

our citizens as quickly as possible.”

The prime minister said he was immediately dispatching his deputy to Tokyo.

Japanese officials were reportedly consulting with other countries’ intelligence agencies.

“The international community will not capitulate to terror,” Abe said.

Japanese authorities in Tokyo said they were looking into the authenticity of the video, which was distributed on militant websites.

It appears to be the first time that Japanese hostages have been publicly threatened by the Islamic State group, an al-Qaida breakaway faction previously known as the Islamic State in

“The international community will not capitulate to terror.”

Shinzo Abe, Japanese Prime Minister Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. In the images posted on the Internet, a militant threatens to execute the two Japanese citizens unless Tokyo pays the ransom. The militant speaks with a British accent and resembles an extremist featured prominently in previous hostage videos and dubbed “Jihadi John” by the British media.

Islamic State extremists have beheaded at least five Western hostages, including two U.S. journalists, an American aid worker and two British citizens. Videos of the Western captives with

threats to kill them preceded the earlier executions.

But other European hostages held by Islamic State in Syria have been freed after ransoms were paid. In his comments on Tuesday, the Japanese prime minister did not directly rule out paying a ransom. U.S. and British authorities say they will not negotiate with “terrorists.”

The images posted on militant websites shows two men in orange jumpsuits identified as Japanese citizens Kenji Goto, a freelance journalist, and Haruna Yukawa, described in media accounts

as an adventurer and selfstyled security consultant.

A black-clad, masked man speaking English and baring a knife gives the Japanese public 72 hours “to save the lives of your citizens,” according to a transcript issued by the SITE organization, which monitors jihadi websites.

“Otherwise this knife will become your nightmare,” says the black-clad figure, standing between the two hostages.

The ransom demand, the militant says, is to make up for the $200 million in nonmilitary aid that Tokyo has pledged for nations affected

by Islamic State expansion in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

On Tuesday in Jerusalem,

Abe said the money was meant to help refugees and others forced to flee their homes because of the conflict raging in the two nations.

Military advances by Islamic State have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and Syria.

The Japanese prime minister vowed that the $200 million in aid would be provided despite the Islamic State threats.

The two Japanese men reportedly knew each other before they were taken prisoner in separate incidents.

Last August, a video surfaced online that appeared to show Yukawa being interrogated roughly by his captors, apparently in Syria.

2

THE RU N D OW N ON THIS DAY...

In 1999, one of the largest drug busts in American history took place when the United States Coast Guard intercepted a ship with over 4,300 kilograms of cocaine on board.

AROUND THE WORLD

Yemen

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni

rebel leader Abdul-Malik alHouthi, whose fighters have surrounded President Abd Rabu Mansour Hadi’s personal residence and overrun parts of the presidential palace, Tuesday warned Hadi to abandon a proposed division of the country into six federal regions.

Al-Houthi denounced the plan, which would divide northern areas dominated by

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

his

Shiite

movement

between three regions, as an international conspiracy aimed at “tearing up the country.” dpa

Lebanon BEIRUT

—

Japanese

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

TOWN GOWN sites identified for potential mixed-use development.

It was also suggested that the University and the town jointly pursue partnerships for addressing future development to include private investment on public property and public investment on private property Furthermore, the letter recommended the creation of an economic development director position, as well as the creation of an “Anchor Strategy” by the University, which embraces Amherst.

This would contribute to the local innovation economy through its arts and culture plans and academic research spin-offs, promote faculty and staff housing in town and create more opportunities for local restaurants.

The letter ended, saying, “Many perspectives have brought us to this point and continuing to seek out and include different perspectives will be critical for the success of this work going forward.”

According to a November report by consultants U3 Advisors, Amherst’s economic and residential grown is driven by the University, and the local housing supply is not keeping pace with demand, including student demand. Development constraints such as available land, zoning and the approval process contribute to the imbalance between UMass and Amherst.

SLSO

continued from page 1

According to the report, UMass tops the list of employers in Hampshire County with 6,397 employees. Approximately half of Amherst residents are UMass students, faculty or staff.

Objectives outlined for the University include high quality housing for as many students as possible; providing on-campus social events, particularly for underage students; a welcoming downtown; and professional, research and entrepreneurial opportunities outside the classroom.

Town objectives included creating a vibrant downtown and strong village centers; diverse and affordable housing; preserved character; neighborhoods and open space; and local employment opportunities and increased tax base.

Subbaswamy and Musante plan to meet within the next month to discuss some of the steps that will be taken moving forward.

Musante said there will be a better timeline for the projects as more discussions occur.

“I was really pleased with the many areas the study of the steering committee focused on, and I think it provides an excellent framework to work with in the future,” he said.

Catherine Ferris can be reached at caferris@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Ca_Ferris2.

continued from page 1

on Tuesday called for the immediate release of two Japanese

hostages

being

held by Islamic State extremists seeking a $200-million ransom.

“I strongly demand that they not be

harmed and

that they be immediately released,”

Abe,

speaking

through a translator, told journalists in Jerusalem, where he was wrapping up a regional tour. “We will make all possible efforts to release our citizens as quickly as possible.”

The

prime

minister

said he was immediately dispatching his deputy to Tokyo. Japanese officials were reportedly consulting with other countries’ intelligence agencies.

Los Angeles Times

France Within an hour of being asked, Microsoft turned over data linked to the Charlie Hebdo probe to the FBI, Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith said in a speech delivered in Brussels on Tuesday.

The French government sought emails from two customer accounts as it pursued the Charlie Hebdo suspects.

Microsoft concluded that the request was “proper” and delivered it to the FBI in New York, all in 45 minutes, Smith said.

That showed private com-

panies can cooperate with the government, according to Smith – though he added that extra snooping should only happen if strictly regulated.

Los Angeles Times Distributed by MCT Information Services

ROBERT RIGO/COLLEGIAN

The Student Legal Services Office is unable to provide help to Continuing Ed students because they do not pay the SAF or graduate senate tax. dents are offered a limited number of resources through the University, including academic support through the library and writing center, technical support from the Office of Information Technology, eligibility for financial aid and access to a few other support services, like Veteran’s Services and the Stonewall Center BGLQT Support Center.

Jill Dubnanksy, a student services coordinator at UWW, said Continuing and Professional Education students can also pay a discounted membership fee to access recreation facilities. All students in Massachusetts are also eligible to purchase health insurance.

DeSilva said there is uncertainty as to why Continuing and Professional Education students do not have the ability to pay a fee that allows them to access

resources, such as SLSO, that their base fees do not cover.

She speculates that the answer lies somewhere in the difficulty of the logistics.

“There are two different fee structures for daydivision and Continuing Education students,” she said. “Adding an optional fee takes extra work and some of the administration departments are short-staffed.”

DeSilva said that models for this type of optional fee do exist. Currently, undergraduate students have to choose a meal plan, as well as whether or not they wish to receive health insurance on SPIRE. “We pride ourselves on being student-centered,” she said. “It would be nice if (our students) did have access to things like legal services.”

Anthony Rentsch can be reached at arentsch@umass.edu.

DailyCollegian.com

2010 spill leads to largest fine

By Michael Muskal Los Angeles Times

The U.S. government argued that BP should pay the maximum environmental penalty, $13.7 billion, in the final phase for the Deepwater Horizon explosion, which spilled millions of barrels of crude into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

“They continue to focus on their own hardships,” Justice Department attorney Steven O’Rourke told U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, according to reports from the courtroom in New Orleans.

The judge has already ruled that BP acted with “gross negligence” in the disaster.

BP faces up to $13.7 billion in fines for violating the federal Clean Water Act, the largest such penalty ever sought by the government.

The previous record was $1 billion paid by Transocean Ltd. in a 2013 settlement

from the same disaster.

Transocean owned the drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, killing 11 people.

Crude oil poured into the gulf for months, fouling beaches and harming wetlands from Texas to Florida.

Businesses in the region incurred large losses.

Last week, Barbier ruled that 3.19 million barrels of oil poured out of the Macondo well, about 41 miles off the coast of Louisiana.

The oil gushed for nearly three months, until the well was capped on July 15. It was declared sealed that September.

The amount of oil that came from the well was sharply debated, and critical to BP. That number is the basis for the fine. At a maximum of $4,300 per barrel, BP is liable for up to $13.7

AMBASSADOR said.

“We don’t just see the buildings and the premises,” he added. “But what I organize is very heavily focused on meetings with people – with ambassadors representing countries at the United Nations, meeting with the human resources leadership – because for me it is important that my students, and students of UMass, have an opportunity for internships and jobs at the UN.” During the most recent “study visit” last month, students had the opportunity to meet with the director of the UN Security Council Affairs Division, who organizes all Security Council meetings.

Baibourtian said, “The meeting with this director was very interesting for the students. And the meeting (took) place in the Security Council meeting room which is normally restricted even for the UN employees.”

“That means students had the opportunity to ask questions and interact with these people, and at the same time be in the same environment where decisions are made, to feel, to see, to become a part of this entire process,” he added.

Baibourtian said he’s received “fantastic” feedback from his students about the meetings.

“These ‘study visits’ come to complement the lectures that we have because we study how things work, or what steps the UN is taking, and then you have students go to the UN where it is happening and talk to people who are the decision makers.

So that makes the teaching cycle complete,” he said.

The UN is not the only place Baibourtian has

billion.

The government had sought an $18 billion fine, based on a larger estimated oil flow.

Barbier had previously ruled that BP had acted with “gross negligence and willful misconduct” in its actions leading up to the explosion, making it liable for the maximum fine.

The energy giant argues that the fine should be capped at $3,000 per barrel.

BP has already paid an estimated $42 billion for spill response and cleanup, and more than $4 billion to settle criminal charges.

The government responds that that the unprecedented size of the disaster merits the most severe fine.

Environmental groups are also supporting the largest possible fine as a way of sending the energy industry a message.

continued from page 1

brought his students to experience the real world of diplomacy. Last summer, four of his students had the chance to study at the European Union Summer School in Batumi, Georgia.

In the summer, Baibourtian teaches a course on regional security at the Austrian University of Graz, which organizes the EU Summer School.

Baibourtian said the four students were able to learn more about the region and network with other students from across the globe. He explained that the experience helps students understand what kind of life they’ll have if they choose to enter the field of diplomatic service.

“It is a mini exercise of sorts,” he said. “And it helps them get prepared for that.”

Baibourtian hopes to expand his “study visits” to include a trip to Washington, with meetings at the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Congress, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and more.

For Baibourtian, education has always been an integral part of his diplomatic service.

“When you try to develop relations with a region or country, education is a very important component of these relations. For any country, in any part of the world, education is key in very many aspects,” he said.

“Normally people say political relations, or political and economic relations, prevail in diplomacy and of course they are very important, but education in itself – if you engage in education, you have an impact on all other (aspects of relations).”

He explained, “When you

deal with cultures in your job, completely different cultures, and different people, different civilizations … you always try to link them in your mind. It’s difficult to find common features but then you realize the beauty in the diversity itself and that you don’t need to link them.

This diversity is so beautiful.”

Education has been a way for Baibourtian to understand and better experience that diversity.

He said that through teaching, not only was he sharing his experience with students but also learning from them at the same time.

“For me it was very important to understand different cultures, political ideologies, mentalities of the people. And my interactions with students was a fantastic opportunity to understand these people and learn the countries of these people where I was posted,” he continued. “So that is why I try to keep up with this pattern of teaching in (so) many places.”

As he strives to understand different perspectives in his diplomatic service, Baibourtian appreciates his students doing the same in his classes.

“What I enjoy so often is when students speak from different sides and perspectives when discussing really difficult issues, voicing different opinions. (I consider that a) really excellent characteristic.”

In short, he said, “I really love this school.”

Marie MacCune can be reached at mmaccune@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @MarieMacCune.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

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US, Cuba to work on diplomatic relations Countries expected to take concrete 1st steps

By Tracy Wilkinson Los Angeles Times

HAVANA — Acrimonious neighbors for 50 years, Cuba and the United States this week are expected to take the first concrete steps toward opening diplomatic relations and an entirely new relationship in trade, traffic and tourism.

The most senior American official to meet with Cuban officials in a generation is to arrive for two days of talks beginning Wednesday on normalization and immigration.

It will be a major test for both sides of their commitment and ability to move the relationship beyond the historic decision announced last month by President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro, to the nuts and bolts and the reality.

A number of issues will be on the table: exchanging ambassadors; lifting restrictions on Cuban and U.S. diplomatic personnel in each other’s country; fugitives and convicts on both sides of the 90-mile-wide Florida straits; property disputes; and financial and technological deals that will be necessary for full business interaction.

The talks “send a signal to Cuba that the (Obama) administration is taking this seriously, and it raises expectations in Cuba, and to the

SOTU

extent expectations are raised, that can facilitate change on the island,” Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Washington-based Cuba Study Group, said in a telephone interview.

American officials headed to the Communist-led island nation this week say they are eager and open to many possibilities but remain wary about Cuban intentions.

Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel as president, has been playing it close to the vest, welcoming the overtures of the Obama administration but declining to say how far his own government will go, and, in fact, insisting that the socialist model will remain intact.

A senior U.S. State Department official who will participate in the talks said it remained unclear what issues the Cubans will present.

“A lot depends on the willingness of the Cuban government ... a lot of the pace of (normalization) depends on ... the tolerance of the Cuban government for engagement,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters Monday in Washington.

The official said that aside from Castro’s initial and fairly brief speeches on the new detente, as well as a smattering of other official comments, “we have seen very little in the way of signals.”

Acknowledging that change will not come overnight, the official said, “It is hard to know exactly what will come out of this first conversation. ... I am not oblivious to the weight of history.”

The U.S. delegation will be head-

ed by Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson, the top U.S. official for Latin America and the highest-level U.S. official in Cuba in more than 30 years.

Top on the list is the elevating of current diplomatic representations in both countries to that of a full embassy, correcting a longstanding and outdated Cold War dynamic considered fundamental to normal ties. Since the 1970s, each country had an “interests section” in the other, a reduced status and populated by diplomats not allowed to travel outside Havana or Washington.

U.S. officials will seek, in addition to the opening of an embassy, the lifting of restrictions on their diplomats’ travel, the cap on the number of American diplomats allowed to be stationed in Havana, and the limit on shipments of supplies to the staff. They will also request unfettered access for Cubans who want to meet with U.S. officials, the State Department official said.

At the core of the talks, however, is the need to establish trust and communication after half a century of the opposite. It will be a precarious path, with hard-liners and naysayers in both countries eager to spoil the rapprochement.

Cuba and the United States “need to be clear they are partners for this piece of the road” even if their larger visions diverge, said Arturo Lopez-Levy, a former Cuban government intelligence analyst who teaches at New York University. “It needs to be clear

Associations accept Republicans’ push MCT

Various points of national interest were covered in President Obama’s speech for the State of the Union.

MCT

The length of each speech for each State of the Union has varied for different presidents.

Obama was to point to other areas of potential cooperation with Republicans –trade, cybersecurity legislation and Cuba policy top the list. The president will tout his plans to open up U.S. policy toward Cuba, urging Congress to end the half-century-old embargo. Alan Gross, the imprisoned American aid worker freed in conjunction with the new policy, was invited to attend the speech with first lady Michelle Obama.

Still, most political observers saw Obama’s proposals as more of a search for political high ground than for common ground with his newly empowered GOP opponents.

Obama was expected to pick up on last year’s theme of executive action and vow to work around Congress when necessary. Officials said he intends to try to build on his recent success in getting China to commit publicly to cutting carbon emissions.

He will vow again to veto any bills further sanctioning Iran that arrive on his desk while international negotiators are still engaged in talks to halt the country’s military nuclear program, the officials said.

Some Republicans answered the White House’s symbolism with their own during the annual Washington

Three days later, on Jan. 15, the U.S. administration lifted a number of restrictions on trade, travel and remittances, vastly expanding the pool of American citizens who can go to the island.

The Jacobson visit follows that of a U.S. congressional delegation, whose trip to Cuba ended Monday and may have softened Cuban anxieties, although officials did not meet with Raul Castro.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a frequent visitor who was instrumental in the release of Alan Gross, jailed by Cuba and ultimately a bargaining chip, led the group and met with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez. Leahy said the Cubans seemed receptive “to every single issue, from trade to communications to ... agriculture.”

Both countries have strong motives to make the new relationship work, experts and analysts said.

Castro desperately needs helpforeign investment and other aid-to salvage his economy and his gradual but real attempts at reform.

The prospects of trade and new business for U.S. companies is similarly a motivating force for the U.S. government.

“It would take a major negative event to derail this process,” said Theodore Piccone, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies Cuba. “There will be lots of starts and stops, but the moves on Dec. 17 (the original announcement of detente) look big enough to sustain momentum for some time to come.”

Wireless, cable groups welcome net neutrality

continued from page 1

presidential race threatening to soon overshadow him.

White House advisers said he planned to propose a tax package that raises $320 billion in new revenue over a decade. It would increase the capital gains and dividends tax to 28 percent, close what the White House calls the “trust fund loophole” and impose a new fee on large financial firms.

The money would pay for a $60 billion plan that offers two years of free community college to some students. It would expand higher education tax credits, the child care tax credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit, which benefits lower-income workers.

White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer, previewing the plan, described it as setting up a showdown between “middleclass economics” and “trickledown economics” to “see if we can come to an agreement.”

After a year of being whipsawed by foreign crises, Obama was to defend his policies overseas as “a smarter kind of American leadership.”

“We lead best when we combine military power with strong diplomacy; when we leverage our power with coalition-building; when we don’t let our fears blind us to the opportunities that this new century presents,” he was to say later in the speech, according to excerpts released in advance by the White House.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing right now – and around the globe, it is making a difference.”

The president will cast the U.S.-led coalition battling extremists in Iraq and Syria as strong, and urge patience.

“This effort will take time.

It will require focus. But we will succeed,” he will say, adding that he would work with Congress to rewrite the law for use of force that has authorized the air campaign already underway.

Even as Republicans in Congress refuse to allow the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to U.S. prisons, Obama planned to affirm his belief that the U.S. should go beyond its dramatic reduction in the number of detainees at the controversial prison and close it altogether, as he promised he would do shortly after taking office in 2009.

they are sleeping in the same bed, even if they don’t have the same dream.”

Although the establishment of embassies could take place in a matter of months, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry has announced plans to visit Cuba, thornier issues like U.S. fugitives who sought refuge in Cuba decades ago, claims on property confiscated by the Castro government from citizens who fled to the U.S., and the special immigration privileges granted to Cubans by the U.S. (which the Castros claim only encourages their flight) are likely to take much longer to address.

Another major stumbling block: The U.S. continues to include Cuba on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Obama has requested a review of that status within the next six months.

Annual reviews of Cuba to determine whether it should remain on the list have come up with steadily skimpier evidence, Bilbao said. “Including Cuba undermines the credibility of the list to begin with,” he said.

Meanwhile, American companies, including the Marriott hotel chain and numerous agricultural businesses and telecommunications companies, are said to be eager to move into Cuba and tap a largely virgin market that would be inflated by arriving Cuban Americans and other tourists taking advantage of lax regulations.

Among the conditions sought when Obama announced detente, Cuba released 53 jailed dissidents.

ritual. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida invited Cuban activist Rosa Maria Paya to the speech. Paya’s father promoted democracy in Cuba and was killed in a 2012 automobile accident that some have suggested was orchestrated by Cuban officials. Rubio said he hoped her presence reminded Obama of the regime’s abuses as high-level diplomatic talks get underway in Havana.

Also invited to attend with the first lady was to be Ana Zamora, an immigrant living in Dallas who qualified under the president’s 2012 deferred deportation program for Dreamers. Her parents are potentially eligible for the same protection under the executive action Obama announced in November.

The first lady’s guest list also suggested Obama planned to address racial tensions and policing in his speech, after riots in Ferguson, Mo., last year helped catapult the issue to the front burner. Obama was to honor a Los Angeles Police Department captain and his wife for their work building community partnership in Watts, the White House said.

By Todd Shields Bloomberg News

WASHINGTON — Wireless and cable trade groups welcomed a Republican proposal for open-Internet legislation as an alternative to regulations backed by President Barack Obama.

Trade group officials supported the congressional proposal in testimony submitted for hearings Wednesday in the House and Senate.

Lawmakers are to weigh a proposal that sponsors say would prohibit blocking or slowing of Web traffic by Internet service providers, and forbid preferential treatment for payment, or paid prioritization.

Democrats said the proposal undermines the Federal Communications Commission’s authority to regulate how com-

panies handle Web traffic.

Republicans said their draft bill would ensure fair treatment of Internet traffic without giving the FCC authority that Obama called for in November.

“It’s an uphill battle to pass a bill” due to “important policy differences that won’t be easy to bridge,” Paul Gallant, a Washington analyst with Guggenheim Securities, said in a note Tuesday to clients.

CTIA-The Wireless Association, representing mobile carriers including U.S. leaders AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., called the draft bill released by the commerce committees in the Republican-controlled Congress “an excellent start,” according to the testimony.

Successful legislation could avoid the “regulatory limbo” that would follow if the FCC uses strong rules backed by Obama, and the wireless industry sues to overturn them, Meredith Attwell Baker, president of the Washington-based trade

group, said in her testimony.

Michael Powell, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, with members including largest U.S. cable company Comcast Corp., called legislation “a muchneeded alternative” to legal fights over the FCC action, according to his testimony.

Powell is a former FCC chairman in the George W. Bush administration.

The FCC is to vote Feb. 26 on rules to be proposed by current Chairman Tom Wheeler. The Democrat on Jan. 7 said his path will align with Obama’s blueprint.

The agency will consider rules next month, Shannon Gilson, an FCC spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement.

The draft bill was released Friday by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, chairman of the Commerce Committee, and Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Supreme Court rules in favor of religious freedom

By David G. Savage Tribune Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously for a Muslim prisoner Tuesday, deciding he has a religious-freedom right to grow a half-inch beard.

The justices said prison authorities in Arkansas had no convincing reason for contending that Gregory Holt’s neatly trimmed halfinch beard would represent a danger.

It is “almost preposterous to think that you could hide” a dangerous weapon in such a beard, a magistrate commented when the case was first heard.

The Arkansas prison system’s no-beard policy was unusual. The “vast majority” of states and federal prisons permit inmates to grow half-inch beards for

religious or other reasons, said Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. The case of Holt vs.

Arkansas drew attention mostly because it followed last year’s contentious dispute involving the Hobby Lobby stores and their refusal to provide a full range of contraceptives to their female employees.

In a 5-4 decision written

by Alito, the court ruled that this requirement, part of the Obama administration’s health care law, violated the religious-liberty rights of Hobby Lobby’s corporate owners. As evangelical Christians, they objected to paying for certain contraceptives that they said caused early abortions.

In both cases, the court applied laws passed by Congress that require fed-

eral agencies and state prisons to defer, when possible, to a person’s sincerely held religious beliefs.

In Tuesday’s opinion, Alito said Holt, who is also known as Abdul Maalik Muhammed, had a sincerely held belief that he must grow a beard. And he said Arkansas prison authorities had not shown that enforcing their no-beard policy was necessary for safety or security.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor concurred in the decision, although they dissented last year in the Hobby Lobby case. This case is different, Ginsburg wrote, because “accommodating (Holt’s) religious belief would not detrimentally affect others who do not share (his) belief.”

Opinion Editorial THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

“This doll looks like my mother.” - George Costanza

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Editorial@DailyCollegiancom

Finding political Police turn backs on New York City theories in the Ian Hagerty anime universe For many of my fellow political science majors, theories can be daunting and confus-

intricate and exciting programming. Both are set in universes where the strong dominate the weak. “Fullmetal” is ruled by powerful scientists who are able to manipulate the elements. As another show that deals with bureaucracy and military hierarchy, “Fullmetal” constantly forces the viewer to question the human condition and the reasons we make decisions.

“Code Geass” is less mystical, in that there is no magic. In that world, England maintains a Hobbesian ideology and an absolute monarchy, and has turned most of the world into a massive nation called Brittania. The tyranical and nearly unstoppable enemies make for great action sequences, but the philosophical and political implications of the shows make them unique.

Revolution and its implications are discussed at length as characters are forced into the dog-eat-dog world of their enemies in order to defeat them.

Colonization and domination are also covered with great nuance. Often it is difficult to understand why oppressed peoples do not rise up, and theorists like John Gaventa and James Scott have written extensively on why this is. However, if reading these works sounds like it would be easier with superpowers involved, it is very possible that anime is for you. There are countless characters that choose to revolt passively for the sake of their families, and more still that have acquired a kind of Stockholm syndrome for their oppressors.

Because the conflicts in these shows are tied to conspiracies with massive implications, the philosophical aspects only improve the viewing experience. You will truly hate the emperor of Brittania, whose only sympathies lie with the strongest in battle, but his worldview is fleshed out in the show through myriad scenarios and over time the logic behind it reveals itself.

While this isn’t quite a replacement for reading actual political theories, it certainly does have an effect on the way you may view a text. For 20 minutes an episode, I would call that well worth it.

Julian del Prado

ing. They often seem to have no real-world application, with only a collection of dense and verbose books to guide your understanding of the material. Fear not, my fellow students, I believe I have an answer for all of us: watch more anime, and behold the wonder of fictional dystopian universes. If a philosopher has lamented on it, there is a real chance there is a group of writers in Japan who has done the same and gone through the trouble of animating it. Here’s a crash course on anime that tackle political theories succinctly and intelligibly.

If you’re taking a course on power or surveillance, and need to understand the theories behind it, look no further than “Psycho-Pass.”

Set in Japan in the faroff future, “Psycho-Pass” is an automated world where everything from medical care and schooling to your mental health is constantly monitored and assigned based on mind-scans. Everyone can become a “latent criminal” if a scan deems them mentally unstable, and a bad enough crime coefficient (a number that represents the likelihood of committing a crime) will result in execution. Because the show follows police, the viewer gets to see all the abuses and flaws in such a system. With tranquility valued above all else, the denizens of “PsychoPass” are often subject to punishment regardless of whether they are a perpetrator of a crime or a victim. Next time a professor uses Foucault as reference material, his conception of surveillance and the panopticon can be seen through gritty noir animation and a great plot.

Max Weber and Hannah Arrendt are also theorists who feature heavily in the show’s logic.

After all, the only reason this dystopia can exist is because of a society full of bureaucrats whose biggest crime is refusing to speak out.

For context, Weber and Arrendt attempted to deal with the ability of human beings to commit heinous acts under the authority of others. “ F u l l m e t a l Alchemist” and “Code Geass” are also great Julian del Prado is a Collegian examples of writers turn- columnist. He can be reached at ing political theories into jdelprad@umass.edu.

On Dec. 20 officers Rafael is indeed a major slowdown.

Ramos and Wenjian Liu of the Even summons for simple offenses like public intoxication are down by 94 percent since last year.

New York Police Department The NYPD did this in an were murdered sitting in their attempt to throw some weight cruisers in an execution-like around. They wanted to show manner. With recent public what could happen to New protests and backlash against York if they weren’t arresting the NYPD and a soft approach people for every minor crime to the activism led by Mayor they could see. However, Bill de Blasio, much of the this drop in arrests for petty NYPD has banded together in protest of the mayor’s response, openly blaming him for the officer deaths. Many called for his removal from office.

At Ramos’ funeral, officers in attendance turned their backs to de Blasio in an act of defiance against his authority. crimes and violations hasn’t Since that time, arrests and caused any noticeable probsummons in New York City lems. In fact, it mostly just have plummeted dramatically takes weight off of the jusin what can only be seen as an tice system in the city. There orchestrated wide spread act have been concerns about a by the NYPD. Unfortunately major crime wave engulfing for them, a reduction in minor New York with the police slow infractions and arrests only down. So far, there has yet to hurts the prison industry and be even a ripple. a protest of this type only fur- Another unseen folly of the ther discredits the NYPD in slow down by the NYPD is the incredible drop in business general.

The NYPD is justifying for the prison system, one of the drop in arrests by stating the main supports of a large that officers are being urged police force. Three-quarters to only make arrests if abso- of the inmates in New York lutely necessary for the sake jails are there for minor of officer safety. However, crimes and are only forced to even tickets for simple traffic stay because they can’t afford violations are down 92 per- bail. With the slow down by cent from the same weeks last NYPD officers, most of these year. If officers are concerned prisoners wouldn’t be in jail enough for their safety to not in the first place and their even risk pulling over cars minor non-violent crime most for reckless driving then this likely wouldn’t have affected

the public at all. Public urination could be unpleasant to a bystander, but do you really care?

The budget for New York prisons is $2.7 billion dollars a year. The cost of the state prisons is $3.6 billion dollars. With three-quarters of inmates in jail for essentially senseless reasons, New York could save incredible amounts of money by reducing its arrest and

“This drop in arrests for petty crimes and violations hasn’t caused any noticeable problems. In fact, it mostly just takes weight off of the justice system in the city.”

ing to show the city and the mayor how crime would rise and flourish if they were to take a step back. The NYPD was openly willing to risk the safety of the public, the group it is sworn to protect, in order to make a point. They were willing to see innocent people get hurt to prove their own usefulness.

As all evidence points at this moment, this plan backfired. However, it shows a complete indecent lack of care for the citizens of the city. It showed that the NYPD would only protect its citizens if they were never scrutinized or critiqued, the complete opposite of the point of public servants.

DWI arrests in New York decreased by 67.1 percent compared to the same weeks last year. We can safely assume, with such a large decrease in DWI arrests from one year to another that either New Yorker’s stopped drinking as much, or the NYPD has been allowing people to drift between lanes, risking any number of deadly accidents.

While many arrests by officers are pointless and simply support our conviction happy courts, certain crimes like DWIs or violent offenses need to be taken seriously. Why should we trust someone to protect us when they abandon us after a little bit of criticism?

incarceration rates. Thanks to an experiment by the boys in blue, it is now plainly obvious that we are wasting countless taxpayer dollars. The average inmate costs New York State $60,076 a year – more than most post-college salaries. If we take anything at all from this police slowdown, it’s that we can probably reduce our police force and prison system immensely.

The NYPD slowdown over the last couple of weeks shines on the character of the NYPD force as a whole.

Because Mayor de Blasio upset the NYPD by supporting protesters, the NYPD essentially abandoned their posts to get back at him. This decision, while it does affect the mayor, had the potential to affect the Ian Hagerty is a Collegian columnist public much more. ands can be reached at ihagerty@ The NYPD was attempt- umass.edu.

GOP vs GDP: government spending issue Recently, the 114th United States Congress convened in Washington D.C, and for the first time since Jan. 2007, the Republican Party now controls both

Nicholas Pappas the House of Representatives and the Senate. That’s good news for a variety of reasons, but the biggest is the future of federal fiscal policy.

Here is the full breakdown: our national debt has surpassed U.S. GDP (gross domestic product) and is now over $18 trillion in total. The annual budget deficit (the amount we add to the debt in one year), as a percentage of GDP, has been shrinking recently, going from 4.1 percent in 2013 to 2.9 percent in 2014 according to the Congressional Budget Office. However, the CBO projects that after bottoming out in 2015, our deficit will slowly increase back to 3.8 percent of GDP by 2022 (along with the overall debt-to-GDP ratio increasing again from 2018 on). In other words, the good times of shrinking deficits aren’t necessarily going to last long.

So what is to blame for causing our poor fiscal situation up to this point, and going forward? You’ve probably heard many explanations from both political parties. Republicans have made it clear that the biggest and most consequential issue is the federal government’s growing and entangled system of transfer payments.

According to the statistical whiz Nate Silver, back when he was at the New York Times he wrote an article titled “What is Driving Growth in Government Spending?” in which he made clear: “it has a relatively straightforward answer: first and foremost, spending on health care through Medicare and Medicaid,

and other major social insurance and entitlement programs.”

Referring to the charts and numbers that Silver provided in his post, what he calls “entitlement spending” went from being virtually nonexistent on a federal level in 1930, to 5 percent of GDP in 1970, to 10 percent in the 1990s, to almost hitting 15 percent in 2010. And this is only entitlement spending on the federal level; if you add in state and local transfer payments, the numbers go much higher.

Over the long term, growth in programs like Medicare and Social Security will continue to absorb larger percentages of GDP, as reported by the CBO.

slightly less than 5 percent of GDP. The Treasury Department estimated in Sept.

2014 that the defense budget for the full fiscal year would end up being $583.84 billion. That comes out to roughly 3.48 percent of our $16.77 trillion GDP (est.

2013 World Bank).

In addition, as the Tax Policy Center states in their record of previous tax receipts, since WWII (post 1945) the lowest that federal tax receipts have ever gone is 14.1 percent of GDP in 1950. The highest is 19.9 percent in 2000. From 1946 to the present, tax revenue has always been in that range, mostly going up and down with cyclical economic factors (higher with good economic times, lower with bad ones), not so much with changes in the tax rates themselves.

In fact, when the tax rate was 39.6 percent for top income earners in 2000, the federal government took in more revenue than during any year in the 1950s, when the top tax rate on incomes was 91 percent and higher than today on lower brackets as well. Turns out, tax rates haven’t got much to do with federal revenue if you ignore loopholes, deductions, tax shelters, and economic growth.

Medicare by itself will go from 5 per- Americans still paid more in taxes overcent to 8 percent in the coming decades. all with supposedly “lower tax rates.”

Social Security will grow further as well. Total federal tax receipts are estiAlready, transfer payments make up a mated to be 19 percent in 2018, higher majority of the federal budget. They’re than the post-war average. The problem becoming so bloated that they are start- isn’t taxes. The problem isn’t the military ing to push other services out of the either, which is being hammered by the sequester. The problem is the welfare room.

‘But isn’t our poor fiscal situation the state. It has gotten way too big for our result of military spending and tax cuts?’ nation to sustain for the long term. That No. is why we should all be thankful that As the data Silver provided shows, the GOP has more power in Washington military spending as a percentage of than before.

GDP has mostly been on the decline since the 1950s. In the early 1950s, it Nicholas Pappas is a Collegian contributor and can be was over 10 percent. By the 1990s, it was reached at npappas@umass.edu.

“Republicans have made it clear that the biggest and most consequential issue is the Federal government’s growing and entangled system of transfer payments.”

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The Massachusetts Daily Collegian is published Monday through Thursday during the University of Massachusetts calendar semester. The Collegian is independently funded, operating on advertising revenue. Founded in 1890, the paper began as Aggie Life, became the College Signal in 1901, the Weekly Collegian in 1914 and the Tri–Weekly Collegian in 1956. Published daily from 1967 to 2014, The Collegian has been broadsheet since January 1994. For advertising rates and information, call 413-545-3500.

PRODUCTION CREW on staff for this issue NIGHT EDITOR - Mark Chiarelli COPY EDITOR - Jaclyn Bryson WEB PRODUCTION MANAGER - Robert Rigo NEWS DESK EDITOR - Catherine Ferris O p /E d DESK EDITOR - Maral Margossian ARTS DESK EDITOR - Cory Willey | Erica Garnett SPORTS DESK EDITOR - Andrew Cyr COMICS DESK EDITOR - Tracy Krug GRAPHICS DESK EDITOR - James Desjardin

Arts Living THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

“The time is always right to do what is right.” - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Arts@DailyCollegian.com

TECHNOLOGY

Snapchat hopes users will Getting technical with CES gadgets could start sending cash with app 2015 be revolutionary

Its latest feature is called Snapcash

By Johnny McCabe Collegian Staff

By Erica Garnett Collegian Staff

In November 2014, the popular app Snapchat partnered with Square, the wellknown mobile credit reader, to release Snapcash. This allows for Snapchat users to send money directly to their Snapchat friends in a few easy steps.

Eligibility is exclusive to the United States, excluding all U.S. provinces such as Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Any international U.S. military base is also ineligible. Participation also requires that you are 18 years or older and have a standard U.S. issued Visa or MasterCard debit card. Other than that, any preexisting Snapchat user or newcomer within those guidelines is eligible.

The process within the app is just as simple. After you type in your debit card information, you simply swipe the person whom you wish to send money to by entering a chat. Type the dollar sign followed by the desired amount and press the green button to send. There is an initial $250 weekly limit when sending money and a $1,000 limit per the 30-day period when receiving money. These amounts can be surpassed after you provide identity verification including your full name, birth date and social security number.

The funds will be directly deposited into the bank accounts of those receiving the money within one to two business days after the transaction was initiated.

This excludes holidays and weekends. There is an option within a user’s Snapchat profile to view their transactions and receipts in order to track their spending and receiving of funds. Tutorials are available on support.snapchat. com, showing the entire regis-

GADGETS INFORMER/FLICKR

All money sent with Snapcash is transferred via Square. tration and sending process.

Within Snapchat’s terms of use, it explicitly states that this exchange system is not for commercial use or to buy, sell or offer compensation for any weapons, drug paraphernalia, access to someone’s account, becoming someone’s Snapchat friend or for actual snap pictures and stories. Violation of these terms results in the termination of one’s account.

According to a Forbes article by Brian Roemmele, various social/chat platforms which incorporate payments have been widely successful in China. The article refers to the partnership between Snapchat and Sqaure as a “perfect match” for both companies.

In an article with Macworld, CEO of Square, Jack Dorsey, claims that this partnership is evidence of the company’s willingness to participate in partnerships in order to diversify itself and stay relevant.

Similarly, Snapchat is looking to continue its popularity and stand out against competition from current P2P platforms such as Paypal, Venmo and Google wallet. The most prominent difference between Snapcash and its competition is its lack of processing fees.

Despite the simplicity of its use, Snapchat and Square did not come up with Snapcash over night. Due to Snapchat’s history of being an insecure app, especially after the

“Snappening” where tens of thousands of pictures were leaked, Snapchat hashed an effort to convince the large amount of current Snapchat users who are worried about their personal information being used. Reviews from the Google Play and iTunes app stores from paymentpop.com both suggest that Snapcash is an “unnecessary and untrustworthy” feature. Android users also reported more difficultly using the Snapcash feature than iOS users. Overall, it does seem ironic for personal information to be entered on an app that was originally launched as an anonymous messaging service.

In order to avoid pushing users away, all payments and personal information made over Snapcash will only be stored in Square, which holds a good reputation for security.

However, some people do not need convincing. Investors have been happy to participate in Snapchat, providing $12 billion in funding recently, according to a December 2014 article on Mediapost. No matter the public’s reaction to Snapcash, it shouldn’t significantly hinder the progress of a company that has solidified its role as a major presence in social media.

Erica Garnett can be reached at egarnett@umass.edu.

2014 was a landmark year for consumer technology, continuing the trend of each new year surpassing the expectations set by the previous, only to be dwarfed itself by the following year.

In 2014, the iPhone got bigger, the smartwatches got smaller, and murmurs began to surface about a mythical promised land of “higher-than-high” definition known only as “4K.” True to form, the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada doubled down on all of these fronts. If last year’s show was a proof of concept, showing consumers what was happening at the furthest fringes of development and research, this year was undoubtedly the sales pitch – the onus was on the industry to show how the newest and most innovative tech was not just around the corner, but downstairs in the living room, the kitchen, and even the garage. With the “Internet of Things” and self-driving cars front and center, 2015 is shaping up to bring the future closer than ever before.

CES is often characterized as a proliferation of everything at the bleeding edge of science and technology; this proven even more, true in 2015, as TV capabilities seem to have literally doubled. TV manufacturers such as Toshiba, Panasonic, Sharp, and Samsung had all the manner of gargantuan, 90-inch displays, ranging from curved to 4K to the previously unheard of “8K;” a rather ironic progression, seeing as CES 2015 also witnessed the birth of “the Ultra High Definition Alliance,” a multi-company task-force of sorts designed to combat the confusion and vague lack of standardization behind the less-

than-stellar performance of current 4K TVs. Adding to the mix was the emergence of so-called “quantum dot” TVs, which thankfully seems to have replaced 3D as the go-to gimmick and are actually no more complicated than a more efficient way to light the pixels which make up the screen.

More thematically unified than the CES’s TV offerings was the omnipresent “Internet of Things,” an abstract but all encompassing brand concept that essentially boils down to things that communicate with each other.

If 2014 was “the year of the wearable,” hardware manufacturers would very much like 2015 to be “the year of everything;” companies like Google, Fitbit, and Microsoft have taken the risk to prove that there is a very profitable market for fitness and lifestyle trackers, and with Apple, the Godfather of tech, poised to step into the ring with its own wearable offering, the industry as a whole

evance than all of these miniature devices was the show’s host of self-driving and electric cars. Arguably at the forefront of both the technological zeitgeist and of the CES’s staple offerings, automated automobiles were better than ever before. BMW showcased its prototype i3, which could both stop itself before a crash and act as its own valet. The company’s M4 hybrid sports concept model featured adaptive OLED laser headlights, which detect other drivers and organically adapt to prevent blinding while also highlighting hazards further down the road.

Mercedes also debuted its concept for a completely driverless car, the garishly named “F 015 Luxury in Motion,” while Android Auto compatibility was as ubiquitous as electric and battery powered cars.

For all of its overt and profit driven artifice, the CES 2015 nonetheless carried with it a certain romantic retro-futurism.

Arguably at the forefront of both the technological zeitgeist and of the CES’s staple offerings, automated automobiles were better than ever before. seems to be enthusiastically committed to the idea of a suite of gadgets and gizmos which all operate in a digital ecosystem of convenience and automation. Whereas attendees at CES last year might have balked at the occasional Bluetooth fridge or electric unicycle skateboard, CES 2015 was home not only to the predictable deluge of smartwatches but a veritable army of appliances, sound systems, wear-ables, and stand alones, ranging from music playing light fixtures to motion-sensing yoga mats. And for the record, the unicycle skateboard returned this year, as well.

Perhaps of greater rel-

What began as cautious poking and prodding at the fringes of the smartphone bubble has ballooned out into a wacky, no-holdsbarred hack fest, with the end goal of making the smart homes of the 1950s a reality. Of course, there’s always going to be insincere, kitschy, cobbled-crap, but for every ten ugly smart bands or buggy drones there will be at least one truly great, revolutionary idea – something that could truly change the way we go about our lives. If CES was any indication, 2015 might just be the year that happens.

Johnny McCabe is a Collegian can be reached at rjmccabe@umass.edu.

FA S H I O N

Popularity of blow dry bars rising in latest blowout craze

By Brittany Anas

with blowouts being the only service offered. In addition to the blowout craze, salon Getting a salon-quality grade hair styling products blow dry after a cut and color and blow dryers are becoming is one of our favorite parts of more readily available so that the beauty game. Hey, we’ll you can perfect the blowout at even make dinner reservahome. tions or plan an impromptu Ready to be blown away? night out so that we’ve got Here’s the scoop on how to get somewhere to show our blow- a perfect blowout. out off. It would be a shame to waste such a good hair day Visit a Blow Dry Bar on a night in with Netflix or melt away our hairspray at the They’re everywhere! The gym, right? basic concept of “no cut, Thanks to the growing pop- no color, just styling” isn’t ularity of blow dry bars, you necessarily new. (Just ask don’t have to wait until your Grandma, who has a standing next hair appointment before 9 a.m. Tuesday appointment at you get a professional style. the salon to get her hair set).

Salons are adding blowouts But today’s blowout bars are to their list of services and appealing to those who want to standalone blow dry bars are look good fast, whether you’ve popping up across the country, got an important client meetShopAtHome.com

ing, big date or are headed to a party.

You can typically get in and out in under 30 minutes and many places don’t require appointments: Just wash, blow and go.

Among the popular chains? Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who has said she has trouble blowing out her hair, invested in a chain of Blo Blow Dry Bars that are spread across the United States, Canada and abroad. DryBar, another popular chain, has locations in California, New York City, Texas, Georgia, Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. In addition to the chains, there are lots of locally owned dry bars and many salons have begun offering blowout

services.

The cost? A blow dry will typically run you about $40.

At DryBar, a “Shirley Temple” is on the menu for those 10 and under and costs $28. You also can get a “Barfly membership,” which includes two blowouts a month, a free birthday blowout and 10 percent off products in the salon.

To get your money’s worth on a professional blowout, follow up with a dry shampoo so that you can extend your ‘do. DryBar sells its signature Detox Dry Shampoo, $12 at Sephora. The dry shampoo absorbs oil while adding body.

Perfect your at home blowout For years, we’ve been paying close attention to how our

stylists dry and style our hair so that we can try to imitate the technique at home. (Just wait while we get our protractor out to try to measure the angle in which she’s drying our locks and what is the circumference of that curling iron barrel she uses to give us those perfect beach waves?)

That’s why we rejoiced when salon-quality styling products (including those used 9y DryBar stylists) became available for our own use.

DryBar has a whole line of hair tools and products at Sephora.

Before you start drying and styling, add a heat protectant, like the Hot Toddy heat protectant, $33 at Sephora, which is a lightweight lotion that can protect your hair up to 450 degrees for a shiny finish.

Section off your hair like a true pro with these Hold Me hair clips, $16 at Sephora, so that you can dry in sections.

Next, dry your hair with a high-tech dryer. The highly rated Buttercup blow dryer, $195 at Sephora, features a super-powerful motor to get your hair dry, stat. Nanolonic technology helps break up water quickly for reduced dry time. Nano beads within the dryer emit negative ions that seal and smooth the hair cuticle _ which means less frizz, more shine and trapped moisture for healthy, hydrated hair.

Finally, finish off your look.

A Mai Tai spritzer, $25, adds beachy waves and texture. Or, the Southern Belle volumizing mousse, $25, creates va-vavoom volume.

B6

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Comics

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JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB! JOB!

COME BE COMICS EDITOR NEXT YEAR! Put your editing in front of thousands of readers.

Apply to me at: comics@dailycollegian.com IT’S THE BEST I PROMISE!

Ugh. Where my vegan lunch curry and kale at.

D inosaur C omics

B y R yan N orth

Legalness

P oorly D rawn L ines

B y R eza F arazmand

aquarius

HOROSCOPES Jan. 20 - Feb. 18

leo

Jul. 23 - Aug. 22

Some nights it’s a toss up between going to The fact that it’s orange season now when it’s the dining hall to eat plain pasta with cheese not a gazillion degrees outside is one of life’s or staying in to make plain pasta with cheese. foremost inconveniences.

pisces

Feb. 19 - Mar. 20

virgo

Aug. 23 - Sept. 22

Why is a meatloaf okay but the moment I suggest meat muffins I’m called “disgusting” and told “you'll never make friends that way.”

I hope this fortune cookie reveals all of your hopes, desires, aspirations and unexpected turns of life.

aries

Mar. 21 - Apr. 19

libra

Sept. 23 - Oct. 22

taurus

Apr. 20 - May. 20

scorpio

Oct. 23 - Nov. 21

gemini

May. 21 - Jun. 21

Show your professor how much you’re interested in the subject matter by unpacking and sitting at their desk the entire class.

If you’re using a cylinder in lab right now, does that make it an “undergraduate” cylinder?

Looking to propose to your honey soon?

Forget diamonds. Tell them you really love them and get them a 10-ton ruby.

Libra is so weird. They want to marry their honey! You know what honey is? Bee excrement.

sagittarius

Nov. 22 - Dec. 21

Sometimes you eat something only because it looks “cute”, only to realize that that is no natural reason to ever eat something ever.

If it’s not the size of your face, are you sure what you’re eating is a muffin?

cancer

capricorn

Jun. 22 - Jul. 22

The reason your jack o’lantern isn’t moldy yet is because he is here to stay. Make him up a bed why don’t you? Be a polite host.

Dec. 22 - Jan. 19

It’s really never too early to stake out that computer in the library and plant yourself there until finals week.

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

DailyCollegian.com

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

7

NFL

Questioning Belichick’s legacy Patriots accused of deflating footballs

By Paul Doyle The Hartford Courant

NFL to have the outcome overturned, but commis Before we had sioner Pete Rozelle refused Deflategate, there was because the Patriots had not broken any rules.

Spygate.

Has any professional Shula, by the way, recentcoach _ a hugely successful ly referred to Belichick professional coach, mind as “Beli-cheat” in a South you _ ever been so tied to Florida Sun-Sentinel story. cheating or bending the The Tuck Rule Game rules? Bill Belichick is the “gate” coach, linked more Another bad weather closely to Richard Nixon game in the final game at than Vince Lombardi. the old Foxboro Stadium, From the tuck rule this one kicked off the game in 2002 through to Belichick-Tom Brady era. the ineligible receiver conThe Patriots were facing fusion in 2015, Belichick’s the Oakland Raiders in Patriots have continually the AFC Divisional playforced viewers to consult offs on the snowy night of the rule book. Accused of Jan. 19, 2002. After trailspying on opponents and ing 13-3, the Patriots began now deflating the football, a fourth-quarter comethe Patriots are nefarious back when Tom Brady in the eyes of many across scored on a touchdown the country. run. With less than two The truth is some of this minutes left, Oakland corstarted before the Belichick nerback Charles Woodson era. blitzed Brady and appeared Let’s rewind 34 years to knock the ball out of and start with first Patriots the quarterback’s hand. controversy when Belichick Linebacker Greg Biekert was not the coach. recovered at the Oakland 47.

The Snowplow Game After the play was It was cold and snowy reviewed on replay, it was at Schaefer Stadium Dec. ruled that it was in fact an 12, 1982. The artificial turf incomplete pass. With the was saturated by rain so drive alive, Brady moved the surface was frozen and the Patriots into field-goal slippery at game time. It range and Adam Vinatieri was a scoreless tie head- tied it with a 45-yard field ing into the final five min- goal with 27 seconds left utes when the Patriots were in regulation. In overtime, driving into Dolphins ter- Vinatieri kicked a 23-yardritory. With 4:45 left and er to win the game, 16-13. the ball on the Miami 16, The tuck rule, which was Patriots coach Ron Meyer born in 1999, lasted another sent John Smith in to decade before it was finally attempt a 33-yard field goal. removed from the rulebook.

Before the kick, Meyer sent The Patriots would go on to stadium snowplow driv- win their first Super Bowl er Mark Henderson in to and the game kick-started clear a spot on the field. Brady’s Hall of Fame-level Henderson, who was work- career. Of course, the coning at the stadium as part troversy surrounding the of a work-release program game hasn’t died. ESPN’s at a prison, drove the John Ray Lewis recently said Deere machine to the line “the only reason we know of scrimmage which was Tom Brady is, is because of considered acceptable, the tuck rule.” since officials were calling for a snowplow to locate the line of scrimmage _ but he turned left and also cleared the spot where Smith would be kicking. Smith converted the field goal and the Patriots won, 3-0.

Miami coach Don Shula called it the most “unfair act” ever in league history and he petitioned the

Spygate

No story defines Belichick like this one.

Already established as an NFL dynasty after winning three Super Bowls, Belichick’s reputation was tarnished when the Patriots were punished by the NFL for videotaping the signals of Jets’ defensive coaches

NFL to investigate NE after AFCCG

By Bob Glauber Newsday

MCT

The NFL is investigating the Patriots for deflating footballs vs. the Colts. during a Sept. 9, 2007 game.

It all began when New York coach Eric Mangini _ a former New England assistant _ reported the accusation to NFL Security. The league investigated and found the Patriots broke NFL rules. Belichick was fined $500,000, the team was docked $250,000 and the Patriots lost their firstround draft pick in the 2008 NFL draft.

There was later a Boston Herald report that the Patriots videotaped the St. Louis Rams’ practice before the 2002 Super Bowl, a story later retracted.

Former New England video assistant Matt Walsh spoke to the NFL about the team’s video practices and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter became vocal while the story played out. The Patriots have not won a Super Bowl since.

The Deception There were no rules broken, but the Patriots seemed to rattle the Baltimore Ravens during the AFC Divisional Playoff game two weeks ago. New England continually sent extra receivers into the game, declaring them ineligible. The Patriots were running a “hurry-up” offense while changing formations, confusing the Ravens and _ at times _ officials. After New England completed a 35-31 comeback victory, Baltimore coach John Harbaugh called it a “deception” because “[Brady] would take it to the line right away and snap the ball before [we] even figured out who was

lined up where ... it was clearly deception.”

Were the Patriots breaking rules? No, although there have been reports the team did not alert on-field officials before the game.

That’s not necessary, but it is considered the accepted practice. For his part, Brady said the Ravens should “study the rulebook and figure it out.”

Deflategate The last controversy broke early Monday morning, just hours after New England completed a 45-7 AFC Championship Game win over the Indianapolis Colts. The NFL is investigating a report that the Patriots deflated game balls, which would assist Brady with his grip on a wet night. Each team is responsible for supplying its balls and regulation balls are supposed to be inflated between 12.5 to 13.5 pounds.

Officials check the ball a few hours before kickoff and game officials are continually holding the ball between plays. Would an official notice if a ball is deflated? Reports now indicate the Colts became suspicious during an earlier game and the team alerted officials during the game, perhaps after linebacker D’Qwell Jackson interception Brady in the second quarter. Belichick said the team is cooperating with the NFL and Brady laughed about the story in a radio interview Monday morning. If the Patriots are found guilty, they could lose a future draft pick.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Minutewomen headed to the Bronx UMass travels to Fordham on Wed.

By Frank Corona Collegian Staff

As if Sunday’s nationally televised home game against George Washington wasn’t already enough of a challenge for the Massachusetts women’s basketball team, the team will be put to test yet again with a trip to Fordham on Wednesday afternoon.

The Minutewomen (8-9, 2-3 Atlantic 10) will take the court against the conference leader in an attempt to thwart the Rams’ undefeated record in A-10 play and put a halt to their current five-game winning streak.

Although UMass has found a newfound surge in the 2014-15 season, taking down Fordham in Rose Hill Gym will certainly be easier said than done.

“I feel like our team tends to step up in a big way, anytime our backs are against the wall we are not counted out at all,” Cierra Dillard said following the loss to George Washington. “We’ve showed that in a lot of the games in the past.”

The Rams’ undefeated conference record comes as no fluke – they are the A-10s top scoring defense, hold-

ing its opponents to just 53.4 points per game. In addition to scoring defense, Fordham has also held opponents to just 35 percent shooting from the floor and 25.2 percent from behind the 3-point line, both of which are tops in the conference.

These defensive statistics have directly translated to wins for the Rams, compensating for the third worst scoring offense in the league (60.5), while shooting just 41.3 percent from the field.

Senior forward Emily Tapio leads the offensive charge with 12.2 points per game, the only Fordham player who averages doubledigits in the scoring column.

Guard Hannah Missry is second on the team in scoring at 9.3 ppg while forward Samantha Clark follows closely behind with 9.1.

With Fordham’s defense being a focal point coming into the matchup, the Minutewomen offense will have a chance to continue their success behind the second-highest shooting percentage in the conference at 42.4 percent, as well as showcase Kim Pierre-Louis, who holds the A-10’s top individual field goal percentage at 54 percent.

It also comes as no surprise that she also leads UMass in scoring, putting up

NFL investigators met Tuesday with Patriots officials to determine whether footballs used in New England’s 45-7 win over the Colts in the AFC Championship Game were not properly inflated, according to a person familiar with the league’s handling of the situation.

But the investigation may ultimately include more than simply looking at the footballs from Sunday’s game at Gillette Stadium. The league will also look into whether the Patriots used underinflated footballs in previous games, according to a source.

NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent said in an interview Tuesday on NBC radio that the investigation could be concluded by the end of this week.

Another person familiar with the investigation said the league might make a statement by the end of the week. But the timing of any potential discipline is uncertain, especially if the league needs more time to determine if the Patriots had underinflated footballs in previous games.

Coach Bill Belichick, who said Monday that he would cooperate with the NFL’s investigation, said he was not aware of the issue of potentially underinflated footballs until early Monday morning.

“We’re hoping to wrap that up in the next two or three days,” Vincent said

HAWKS

of the investigation. He didn’t say when any punishment might be imposed if it is determined that the Patriots violated the league’s rules requiring that all game-day footballs are inflated to between 12.513.5 pounds per square inch (PSI).

The result of Sunday’s game counts, and the Patriots will play the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on Feb. 1 at University of Phoenix Stadium. If the NFL finds that the Patriots used underinflated footballs, the league could fine the team and/or remove future draft picks.

The Colts discovered the possibility that at least one underinflated football was used Sunday after linebacker D’Qwell Jackson intercepted quarterback Tom Brady in the second quarter, according to a source.

Jackson gave the ball to a Colts equipment staffer, who noticed that the ball seemed underinflated and informed head coach Chuck Pagano. General manager Ryan Grigson was called in the press box, and he then contacted NFL vice president of game operations Mike Kensil.

A person familiar with the investigation said that ball, as well as several others from the game, were removed from play because of suspicions that they were underinflated.

Belichick would not say whether the league had contacted the team.

“Any questions on that, you should talk to (the league) about that,” Belichick said during a press briefing Tuesday. He was not asked any additional questions on the matter.

continued from page 8

“They’ve usually had pretty good teams, so the combination of those three things makes them a formidable opponent.”

But UMass enters in a much different situation. It struggled to string together wins this season and knows it’s nearing a crucial portion of its schedule. The Minutemen have won three of four in conference play.

It’s now or never to make a run.

According to Davis, the team realized it was time to

make a run after its loss to Davidson.

“After we won those two games and then lost that one, I think that was the last straw,” Davis said. “We told each other ‘Alright, ‘let’s make our run right now’ before the Rhode Island game.”

UMass will see if it can continue that run at 7 p.m. at Hagan Arena.

Mark Chiarelli can be reached at mchiarel@umass.edu and followed on Twitter @Mark_Chiarelli.

STRUGGLES

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Kim Pierre-Louis attacks the basket in UMass’ 69-54 loss to GW on Sunday.

18.2 points per contest. The Minutewomen’s secondary offensive weapon, and only other player averaging double-digit scoring numbers, is Dillard, with 11.1 points per game.

Pierre-Louis and Dillard both see improvements in their offensive games when facing conference teams.

Pierre-Louis shoots nearly 60 percent (59.3) from the field against the A-10 while Dillard’s scoring ups to 15.5 ppg within the conference.

“Like coach tells me, just keep attacking the basket and looking for my teammates,” Dillard said. “If I have the drive I have to take it and believe in myself.”

As impressive as its

offense – and even its season – has been so far, UMass has an opportunity to really cement its success within the conference if it can manage to take down an impressive Fordham team on the road.

Despite their loss on Sunday to the Colonials, the Minutewomen seem confident that a bounce-back is imminent.

“I have total confidence in this group and I like the way they work, I like the chemistry we have, and I like the leadership we have,” head coach Sharon Dawley said.

Frank Corona can be reached at fcorona@umass.edu

Kellogg said.

“They have a good familiarity, and they’ve had one of the better teams in the league for many of the years that we’ve been here.”

While both teams in Wednesday’s matchup in the City of Brotherly

DEFENSE

continued from page 8

Love might have a similar track record, when tipoff rolls around none of that will matter and it’s just another A-10 conference game.

Andrew Cyr can be reached at arcyr@umass.edu and can be followed on Twitter @Andrew_Cyr.

continued from page 8

own against stiff competition as of late.

Statistically speaking, Richmond and UMass are strikingly similar, sporting almost the same number of blocks, assists and steals per game. In the meeting last season, despite a double-double from Pierre-Louis, the Minutewomen lost a shootout to the Spiders, 89-76.

This season, the UMass defense is allowing just 63.8 points per game, so a repeat of last year’s highscoring affair is unlikely.

If the Minutewomen can finish these two road games with at least one

win, they would be in a solid position moving forward with the rest of their conference schedule. As Dawley said on Sunday, “It’s all about doing the best we can in the conference, and then attacking the conference tournament.”

UMass’ match up with Fordham starts at noon on Wednesday. After coming back to campus for a few days of practice, the Minutewomen will take on Richmond at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Arthur Hayden can be reached at awhayden@umass.edu.

THE MASSACHUSETTS DAILY COLLEGIAN

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Sports@DailyCollegian.com

@MDC_SPORTS

MEN’S BASKETBALL

HUNTING FOR HAWKS

Minutemen and SJU plagued with similar problems Both teams lost key contributors

By Andrew Cyr Collegian Staff

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Trey Davis (12) leads the break in the Massachusetts men’s basketball team’s 60-56 win over Rhode Island Jan. 17.

UMass to take on Saint Joseph’s

Bench play carrying UM in A-10 games

By Mark Chiarelli Collegian Staff

The Massachusetts men’s basketball team received a game-changing contribution from an unlikely source in its win over Rhode Island Saturday.

Now, UMass (10-8, 3-2 Atlantic 10) coach Derek Kellogg hopes that can start a trend.

“What I’ve really been waiting for, and it’s hopefully coming along slowly but surely, is some guys that aren’t on the scouting report that are waiting here to step to the forefront,” Kellogg said.

In a 60-56 win over URI, redshirt freshman Zach Coleman scored a careerhigh 13 points off the bench to erase a Rams lead and push the Minutemen to a victory.

According to Kellogg, there’s a number of players capable of giving such a performance on any night.

“Whether it’s Demetrius (Dyson), Donte (Clark), Zach, Tyler (Bergantino) or Jabarie

(Hinds), I think they’re capable,” Kellogg said.

They’ll receive their first crack at making a dent in a conference opponent Wednesday night, when UMass travels to Saint Joseph’s (7-9, 1-4 A-10) to face the Hawks.

If there’s been one constant through five games of Atlantic 10 basketball for the Minutemen, it’s been that Kellogg’s required all hands on deck. Only one player is averaging more than 10 points (Maxie Esho, 12.2).

In wins against La Salle and George Mason, he reached to his bench to play considerably more minutes than earlier in the season.

Against Davidson and St. Bonaventure, a lack of offensive output played a part in downing UMass.

According to point guard Trey Davis, the entire team can get on the same page quickly if it focuses on playing defense first.

“We just have to try to come out with the same intensity as against Rhode Island,” he said. “I think if we play defensive-minded, then things on offense will just happen for

“I think if we play defensive-minded, then things on offense will just happen for us.”

Trey Davis, UMass guard us.”

UMass held URI to only 41 attempted shots and worked them on the boards, winning the second-chance point battle 18-3. It’s the second straight strong defensive showing for the Minutemen, who also held a prolific Davidson offense to only 71 points and 41 percent shooting.

The defense must now turn its attention to Hawks forward DeAndre Bembry.

He’s the unequivocal leader of St. Joe’s and leads the team in minutes (37.6), points (16.6), rebounds (6.6), assists (2.8) and blocks (1.1) per game.

At 6-foot-6, he’s capable of playing all over the court.

“I think he’s established himself as one of the better players in the league,” Kellogg said. But he also cautioned against placing too much emphasis on one player.

“When they’ve been really good they’ve had other

guys step in there,” he said.

“You want to be conscious of Bembry, obviously, but also make sure nobody else doubles their scoring average or does some things that are uncharacteristic.”

The last time UMass visited St. Joe’s, which is 5-2 at home this season, it was disastrous.

The Minutemen were ranked No. 21 at the time and trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half.

They struggled to deal with a raucous environment and entered the half trailing by 16. UMass very nearly came back, too, tying the game at 67-67 before missing two crucial layups. St. Joe’s won 73-68 and knocked UMass out of the national rankings.

“I think they’ve always drawn well against us and the crowd seems to be right on top of it,” Kellogg said. see

HAWKS on page 7

As the Massachusetts men’s basketball team prepares for its trip to Philadelphia to take on Saint Joseph’s Wednesday night, it won’t have to look much further than the opposite bench to realize the similarities they share.

Last season was a redemption tour for the Hawks as they returned to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 2008 season. Similarly, UMass made its first trip back to the “big dance” for the first time in 16 seasons.

However, despite both teams making postseason appearances last year, the present has not been as kind to either of these two A-10 rivals. While the Minutemen sit at 10-8, with a 3-2 record in conference play, Saint Joseph’s enter Wednesday’s match struggling to tread water with a 7-9 record overall and 1-4 in the A-10. “(Phil Martelli) been through it before,” UMass head coach Derek Kellogg said of the Saint Joseph’s coach. “They’ve had that curve where they go to the (Elite Eight in 2004), it takes your team a few years to get going again.

Then you’ve got a team last year that I thought could potentially do the same thing. Now he’s filled in some new guys that are pretty good to try to be competitive.”

The first thing than many people will turn to when trying to decipher each teams’ struggles is the departure of highscoring stars from each team. The Minutemen lost their leading scorer from last year in Chaz Williams (15.6 points per game) as well as starters Sampson Carter (10.4) and Raphiael Putney (8.8) to graduation. Williams also led the team with 6.9 assists

per game and finished his career with 702, good for the top spot in program history.

The Hawks lost their fare share of talent as well with the departures of three of their top scorers in Langston Galloway, Ronald Roberts Jr. and Halil Kanacevic. Galloway led all scorers last year with 17.7 points per game while Roberts and Kanacevic finishes with 14.2 and 10.8 respectably.

Kanacevic’s versatility has been greatly missed as he finished with a team-high 149 assists and 8.8 rebounds per game.

In addition to both teams laundry list of departures, each team has struggled this year scoring the amount of points as it did in the 2013-2014 season as Saint Joseph’s averages nine fewer points per game as a team (71.6 compared to 62.6).

While the Minutemen aren’t down nearly as far, they still average 4.4 points fewer than they did a season ago (75.8 to 71.4).

Saint Joseph’s field goal percentage is down over six hundredths of a point while UMass is shooting .18 percent lower than last year. Both teams’ assists totals have also decreased as well.

Although the talent lost has not been on par with the talent received, both teams have had their fare share of tough nonconference opponents as well. The Minutemen have lost games against Notre Dame, Harvard, Louisiana State, Florida Gulf Coast, Providence, and Brigham Young. The Hawks haven’t had much of a cupcake schedule either, dropping road games against No. 13 Gonzaga and No. 10 Villanova – both by 28 points or more – and a home game against Western Kentucky.

“From being around in the league for so many years (Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli) has a good feel of most of the teams in the conference,” see

STRUGGLES on page 7

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Minutewomen set for pair of conference games

By Arthur Hayden Collegian Staff

The Massachusetts women’s basketball team is undoubtedly on the upswing in terms of overall program success. The Minutewomen (8-9, 2-3 Atlantic 10) have already doubled their win total from a season ago and continue to improve on both ends of the floor.

Now comes a point in UMass’ schedule where its mettle will be tested and the rest of the conference will find out just how much progress this surprising – and confident – young team has made since last winter.

After suffering a loss on Sunday to George Washington, the topranked team in the A-10, the Minutewomen have yet another formidable challenge as they travel to the

Bronx to take on Fordham, the defending conference champions Wednesday.

The Rams (13-5, 5-0 A-10) are currently tied with the Colonials for top seed in the conference. But despite both program’s widespread success, Fordham and GW offer two distinctly different styles of play. While the Colonials beat you with consistent interior scoring – they’re third in scoring offense and first in field goal percentage – the Rams’ aggressive defense is the core of their winning formula.

Fordham head coach Stephanie Gaitley, the third winningest coach in A-10 history, has transformed her program into a perennial conference power with her trademark defensive style that once again has the Rams at the top of the leaderboard in scoring defense, averag-

ing just 53.4 points allowed per contest. UMass head coach Sharon Dawley and the Minutewomen will have their work cut out for them, transitioning from two opponents that are both highly successful and strikingly different, all on two days rest.

The performance of forward Kim Pierre-Louis is key to UMass’ success. Averaging 18.2 points per game, she struggled early against GW and the Minutewomen couldn’t dig themselves out of the early hole. Getting her involved early and often will drastically boost the Minutewomen’s ability to come out with a win. PierreLouis and guard Cierra Dillard are the only players on the team who have averaged more than 10 points per game this season, so if Fordham focuses on shutting down those two, the rest of

UMass will have to step up to fill the offensive void.

Senior forward Emily Tapio is the Rams’ leading scorer this season, but she averages only 12.2 ppg, further highlighting Fordham’s reliance on its defense, since it ranks 12th in scoring offense in the A-10.

Swatting the Spiders Once the Minutewomen get past the Rams on Wednesday, the road becomes – at least on paper – a bit easier. UMass heads to Virginia to face Richmond Saturday. The Spiders currently sit just above UMass in the eighth spot in the A-10.

The Spiders have been a streaky team this winter – they lost four games in a row, starting in late November, and then proceeded to bounce back with five con-

CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN

Cierra Dillard attempts a shot against George Washington on Jan. 18. secutive wins. Coming off a commanding win against George Mason on Sunday, Richmond sports a 10-7 overall record and 2-2 in conference play.

Leading the team offensively is sophomore guard

Janelle Hubbard at 14.7 ppg. She scored 18 points on 5-of-13 shooting against the Patriots and will be a key target for the Minutewomen defense, which has held its see

DEFENSE on page 7