INSIDE
Skate Park
Skinny Pancake Popular downtown restaurant opens location next to the Marché
BURLINGTON, VT
VTCYNIC.COM
VOL. 132
ISSUE 8
SPECIAL
REPORT
Construction on new waterfront park is set to finish this year page 15 sports
page 6 LIFE
W E D N E S DAY, O C T O B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 5
The
Word
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UVM IRA is sponsoring a Town Meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Brennan’s Pub. Come make your voice heard!
Men’s soccer faces off against UMass-Lowell at 1 p.m. Saturday at Virtue Field.
Come cheer on the men’s hockey team as they take on North Dakota 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Gutterson Arena. Go Cats, Go! Comedian John Mulaney is coming to Burlington. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Monday at Higher Ground. Read more about the event. on pg. 12 in Arts. Join IRA for loads of fall fun from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday on the Southwick green. Fall Family Fest will include cider donuts, a bounce house, henna and face painting.
Don’t forget to get a flu shot! The next drop in clinic will be 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m Nov. 4 in the Davis Center outside of Living Well.
The Word is a weekly collection of reminders, interesting events on campus, news items and more. Submit suggestions or comments to theword@vtcynic.com.
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For your own safety The path to the ‘drunk tank’
M
ore than 100 UVM inebriated students were taken to the sobering up facility last year, better known as the “drunk tank.” Unless a student needs to go to the hospital, they end up in one of two places: ACT 1, a non-profit detox center, or Chittenden Regional Correctional Facility, a local jail. There are many forks on this path to sobriety, from runins with police to long nights in clockless and windowless rooms. All of these people are screened by ACT 1, and their information — full name, birth date, blood alcohol content level and more — are sent to UVM in monthly reports. The University pays ACT 1 $10,000 every semester as part of a contract in return for its services. In order to stay at ACT 1 and avoid a night in jail or the hospital, one must be cooperative, said Uli Schygulla, program coordinator for ACT 1/ BRIDGE. If a student refuses a Breathalyzer test at ACT 1, they are denied a bed. If a student is
uncooperative or violent, they will be denied a bed. If a student breaks any of the ACT 1 program’s rules, either by leaving a room or talking to another person staying at the facility, they will lose the bed. A student might not have a choice on whether they can stay at ACT 1. According to ACT 1 staff, the facility has six beds: one room with three beds, two rooms with one bed and an extra cot. Last school year, 10 percent of students screened by ACT 1 were denied a bed because none were available, according to ACT 1’s monthly reports. University officials and ACT 1 staff said this system is for the safety of the students and those around them. Students who go through the process said they learn lessons about alcohol use, but also question the University’s motives for having such a system. These students tell their stories with both a sense of humor and of regret. No one “drunk tank” experience is the same — aside from a $200 bill from the University.
READ THE FULL STORY PULL OUT SPECIAL REPORT INSIDE
Photo Illustration by RYAN THORNTON
Greek housing could be taxed BY Kelsey neubauer keneubau@uvm.edu
The end of a property tax exemption for Greek life in Vermont may cost many fraternities and sororities their houses. Come January 2017, the Greek system at UVM will have to come up with approximately $30,000 a year in order to account for the property tax, said Jonathan Wolff, the association’s legal counsel. Greek houses have been property tax free for more than 100 years. Junior Hayden Audy, head of recruitment for UVM’s Alpha Gamma Rho chapter, said he remembers being told that the fraternity may not be able to keep the house with this expense. “All of the sudden everything changes... your home is ephemeral,” Audy said. Greek life has been on campus for over 175 years, according to the UVM Fraternity and Sorority website. In 1906, the state of Vermont passed a law that gave Greek houses tax exempt status
because of their philanthropic and academic nature, said Tim King, president of the Greek life alumni association. Grace Coolidge, the 30th first lady of the United States and member of the University of Vermont class of 1902, was a member of UVM’s Pi Beta Phi Female Fraternity, which later became UVM’s Pi Beta Phi Sorority, according to the White House Historical Association. In 1931, Coolidge had the Pi Beta Phi house built. “No one has ever lived in the house but Pi Phi, it is a historical legacy,” said Rachel Hurwitz, president of UVM Pi Beta Phi. Hurwitz said that the property tax will likely cause the house to shift hands for the first time in its 80-year legacy. “If this sunset [property tax] comes to pass, which it probably will, we cannot ask any more of our members than we already do, and we will lose our house,” she said. If this happens, the homes will most likely be bought by either the University of Vermont
Alpha Gamma Rho’s fraternity house on South Prospect St is pictured. A Greek tax exemption is being struck down by Vermont legislature. OLIVER POMAZI/The Vermont Cynic or Champlain College, both tax exempt, Wolff said. The 200 students living in the homes would be displaced and forced into the Burlington housing market, as most are juniors and seniors, he said. Hurwitz said she feels Greek students are an easy way to get money because they are a group of young people. UVM Greek life raised a total of $140,000
for charity and gave 21,000 hours of community service in the past year, she said. “It almost feels like we’re being targeted because of our age,” she said. “They think we’re not going to know how to fight to stop it.”
See HOUSING pg. 4