2010-04-09

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THE TUFTS DAILY

Showers 57/40

TUFTSDAILY.COM

FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2010

VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 44

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Initiative aims to Collegiate Housing bill could have large bring independent impact for Tufts’ Greek community bookstore to Davis BY SAUMYA VAISHAMPAYAN

Daily Editorial Board

BY

GABRIELLE HERNANDEZ

Following the March 2008 departure of local bookstore McIntyre and Moore Booksellers from Davis Square, community members have organized a grassroots effort to attract another independent bookstore to the area. “I think that the vibe and community of Davis would be a great place for a bookstore,” said Krysta Chauncey, a Tufts graduate student involved in the movement. Chauncey said she thought a bookstore would provide new cultural opportunities that the Davis Square area would be wellpositioned to take advantage of. “Besides the obvious of a place to get books, it’s a good flashpoint for local authors, a good meeting place for reading clubs, a great place to be a local community hub, and I think that Davis is the kind of community that could support something like that,” Chauncey said. The group spearheading the effort, known informally as the Davis Bookstore Project, is made up of community professionals who hope to find a bookseller interested in opening a store in Davis. The project started as the brainchild of online entrepreneur Jay Neely, who said she was inspired by a message written on the construction barriers surrounding Starbucks while it was in mid-March undergoing renovations. “When I was walking through Davis,

Even as two recent evictions this semester have raised questions about the maintenance of fraternity houses, one Tufts student is heavily lobbying for the passage of a U.S. Senate bill that could have a significant impact on Greek organizations. The Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act of 2009 (CHIA) on April 2, 2009 was introduced in the U.S Senate and seeks to improve collegiate housing while alleviating rising college costs. CHIA addresses the disparity between universities and non-profit organizations, such as fraternities and sororities, in the area of taxdeductible donations for the creation and improvement of college infrastructure. Universities are currently allowed to accept tax-deductible charitable donations for college infrastructure upgrades, but other organizations that also provide housing on campus, like fraternities and sororities, cannot. “Any organization that seeks to provide a housing component as part of its educational program is currently unable to use tax-deductible dollars for improvement of infrastructure,” Dan Backer, a volunteer with the Zeta Psi Government Relations Program, told the Daily. If passed, CHIA would modify the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to

see BOOKSTORE, page 3

see HOUSING, page 2

Daily Staff Writer

DAILY FILE PHOTO

The CHIA bill could potentially increase funding for the maintenance of fraternity houses.

Research Symposium lets undergraduates showcase work BY

CARTER ROGERS

Daily Editorial Board

MCT

Panelists on Wednesday discussed how to rebuild Haiti after the country’s devastation in the aftermath of the January earthquake.

Panelist calls for real rebuilding, not finger pointing, in Haiti BY

BETHLEHEM MEBRATU Daily Staff Writer

Boston Attorney Jacques Dessin speaking on Wednesday evening at Cabot Auditorium about his home country of Haiti stressed the need to focus on the actual process of rebuilding Haiti instead of appropriating blame. “We need to think of what we can do instead of simply blaming the Haitian government,” Dessin said. Dessin was speaking as one of

the panelists at “What it Means to Rebuild Haiti,” a discussion in which distinguished panelists shared their insights on the process of rebuilding Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake that in January devastated the country. The panel was made up of Tufts faculty members with specific connections to Haiti, as well as specialists within the local Haitian community. see HAITI, page 3

This afternoon, members of the Tufts community will be able to see undergraduates from all academic disciplines display their research. The Undergraduate Research Symposium, now in its 12th year, allows Tufts undergraduates to showcase the research they’ve done either on or off campus. This year’s symposium planning committee consisted of seniors Nicole Cherng, Michael Shusterman and Rebecca Ross Russell; Associate Professor of Biology Harry Bernheim; and Director of Advising and Scholarships Laura Doane. Bernheim credited the students in the planning committee with doing the majority of the work planning the symposium. The symposium will consist of 47 oral presentations and 60 poster presentations, according to Cherng. The oral presentations will take place in rooms in Eaton Hall from 1:30 to 3 p.m. and from 3:45 to 5:15 p.m. The poster presentations will be held in Tisch Library from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Inside this issue

There will be four rooms in use in Eaton with five or six presenters in each room. Students are limited to about 15 minutes for their presentations. “The university likes to say that they like the hybrid conditions here as far as faculty teaching and doing research and also having interaction with the undergraduates in research settings, and this way this symposium gives the university a way to show off all the research done by undergraduates,” Bernheim said. Though the research being presented focuses on a variety of subjects, most presenters were part of the Tufts Summer Scholars Program. “Our students heavily come from Summer Scholars, the former Summer Scholars are required to present their work at the symposium, and we also have a [good number] of students from the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) with Sherman Teichman,” Cherng said. “Those are our two biggest groups.” Summer Scholars make up the biggest contingents of presenters because they agree to present at the symposium as a part of their grant. Summer Scholars are given

a grant to pursue research at Tufts over the summer. “The provost’s office and some very generous donors [fund] between 40 and 50 grants every year,” Doane, who runs the Summer Scholars Program, said. “It’s full funding with the intent to help the students be able to pursue research opportunities full-time without having to work in addition. The idea really is to encourage mentorship between faculty and undergraduate students.” While their actual research takes place over the summer, Summer Scholars often build off their summer research throughout the year. “For Summer Scholars, obviously their commitment is over the summer, but oftentimes, a lot of Summer Scholars will use their work over the summer to do a senior thesis or project, and so that helps a lot. In the fall, there’s an opportunity for the Summer Scholars to show their work, but in the spring, we have Summer Scholars but we have [other students],” Cherng said. see RESEARCH, page 3

Today’s Sections

Sarabande’s spring show features themes of the season.

Men’s lacrosse team defeats Bates 12-6.

see ARTS, page 5

see SPORTS, back

News | Features Arts & Living Comics

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Classifieds Sports

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