Clinton counts
Kids show artwork
Why we shouldn’t dismiss Clinton so quickly
Campus Children’s School showcases students’ artwork
Opinion
BURLINGTON, VT
VTCYNIC.COM
VOL. 132
ISSUE 17
Arts pg. 6
pg. 4
facebook.com/ thevermontcynic
@vermontcynic
instagram.com/ vermontcynic
youtube.com/ cynicvideo
W E D N E S DAY, F E B R UARY 1 0, 2 0 1 6
Police chase ends by UVM dorm by Bryan o’keefe bokeefe@uvm.edu
A destructive high-speed chase involving a stolen car came to a stop near Jeanne Mance after colliding with a Domino’s delivery car. The suspect, 27-year-old Ashley Martin of Colchester, allegedly stole the car from behind the Pine Street Maltex Building just before 9 p.m. Feb 4, before colliding into the Battery Park side of Burlington Police Department headquarters, according to a Burlington Police Department press release. Lt. Paul Glynn then saw the car speeding north on North Avenue, before colliding with two parked cars, totaling both the vehicles, according to the press release. Another vehicle was damaged by debris flying off of the stolen car on the corner of Pearl Street and South Winooski Avenue. The chase came to an end in front of Taft School after the vehicle collided with a privately owned car being used for Domino’s delivery, according to the press release. Jeanne Mance Hall is across the street from where the chase ended, and the scene outside caught the eye of some students.
“The crash happened so suddenly and soon everyone on my floor was alerted to the fact that police were brandishing guns outside,” sophomore Kira Nemeth said. “We were all glued to the windows waiting for whoever crashed into the Domino’s car to get out.” Students scrambled to look out the windows to see what was going on, sophomore Michael Daley said. “There was a sufficient amount of noise as a result of the excitement,” Daley said. “People were shouting and
loudly debating what was occurring across the street as it was happening.” “Once it became apparent that there were firearms involved, the RA on duty began to warn students to avoid the windows in fear of a violent response from the driver,” he said. Junior Clarence Ng is an RA in Jeanne Mance and was working the night of the incident. “Many residents in the building heard the screeching of tires, the sirens of police and, ultimately, the crash,” Ng said.
COLE WANGSNESS/The Vermont Cynic
“I could see the police with their weapons drawn facing the [car],” he said. “It was scary for sure.” Bruce Bovat, BPD deputy chief of operations, said they received many calls from people thinking that officers drew firearms out of their holsters without knowing what they were facing. “[The officers] did a really good job of slowing the situation down, containing the situation,” Bovat said. Despite police attempts to communicate with her, Martin
was unresponsive and wouldn’t get out of the car, he said. After about five minutes, officers were able to position themselves so they could deploy pepper-balls into the vehicle, Bovat said. “At this point, keep in mind, they have no idea who this person is, why they were eluding [the officers], what condition they’re under, if they have any weapons in the car,” he said. They then decided to use nonlethal beanbags, discharged from a rifle into the suspect’s thighs twice, Bovat said. This caused Martin enough pain that she communicated with the officers, who were able to remove her from the car without further incident, he said. Officers did not suspect Martin was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, which the UVM Medical Center confirmed after she was taken to the emergency room for minor injuries, Bovat said. “We think that the driving force for this person at this time was that they were suffering from some sort of mental health anguish or incapacity,” he said. Domino’s Pizza declined request for comment.
Sullivan requests increase in state funding by Rachel Peck & Claire madden rapeck@uvm.edu/cgmadden@uvm.edu
President Tom Sullivan visited the Statehouse Jan. 27 to ask the House and Senate Committees on Education for more funding for fiscal year 2017. Sullivan asked for a 5.2 percent increase in funding for the University. During his presentation he also said UVM’s out-of-state tuition dollars fund the University, and a goal of the administration is to lower tuition for all students. UVM is “having a hard time recruiting and retaining out-ofstate students because of that price tag,” Sullivan said. UVM is the fourth most expensive public university for out-of-state students, according to a Dec. 2, 2014 article by U.S. News and World Report. Vermont was also ranked 49th for the funding of its state colleges and universities in 2013 and is consistently among the lowest, according to a 2013 report from the State Higher
Education Executive Officers Association. A funding increase would lead directly to a tuition decrease, Sullivan said to the Senate committee. “The greater the support from the state,” he said, “the less [UVM] can hold out on tuition.” State funding has not increased in six to eight years, Wendy Koenig, director of Federal and State Relations at UVM said. Gov. Peter Shumlin has not budgeted an increase for UVM and the University will likely not receive an increase in funding from the state, Koenig said. “The state budget is not in good shape,” she said. Sullivan also asked the committee to repeal the “40 percent rule.” This policy sets a cap on in-state tuition at 40 percent of the out-of-state rate. If this rule were dropped, Sullivan promised to lower out-of-state tuition and not raise in-state. “I can guarantee you it will
not affect Vermonter tuition or enrollment,” he said of the proposed repeal. The 40 percent rule was recently repealed from graduate tuition, though the initiative only passed because lawmakers were told it would not apply to undergraduates, said Sen. Philip Baruth, who teaches English at UVM. Over 1,000 Vermonters graduate from UVM every year and some of the money would be used to help the University’s efforts to attract and graduate more Vermont students, Sullivan said. “I think our goal is to have more Vermonters educated,” he said. “I hope we can educate them in our great institutions here in Vermont.” Thirty-two percent of Vermont students at the University are the first in their families to attend college, and 28 percent of Vermont students are Pell Grant recipients, Sullivan said. Some students see the benefits of an increase in funding.
UVM is the
4th
most expensive public university
Vermont is
49th
in public state funding
Out-of-state tuition:
$37,056
Data from UVM website, State HIgher Education Executive Officers Association and U.S. News and World Report
“If more funding means more scholarships, then it sounds good to me,” first-year Talia Cohen said. Sullivan also said the University’s goal is keeping graduated students in-state. UVM plays a role in the foundation of Vermont’s current and future economic status, he said. His testimony to the House Education Committee centered around the idea that efforts to
make UVM more affordable for students would provide jobs and resident retention. He said 91 percent of 2014 graduates were employed within one year of graduation, and 44 percent of those students were employed in Vermont. For every dollar the University receives from the state, the University puts $25 back into the local economy, according to Sullivan’s presentation.