THE TUFTS DAILY Est
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Where You Mostly Sunny Read It First 53/37 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXVIV, NUMBER 58 THURsday, APRIL 23, 2015 TUFTSDAILY.COM Phishing email Community rep. scam targets Tufts students by Kathleen Schmidt representative as a combina- by Melissa Kain News Editor tion of factors such as lack Assistant News Editor of transparency in Senate, Shortly after midnight, impatience with Senate oper- On Tuesday, April 7, many junior Brian Tesser won the ations and impressions of Tufts students received a scam positionselection for Tufts Community still Senate asunfilled a harmful space for email, which appeared to be Union (TCU) President. But in minority students. sent from the address alert@ an election held on April 7 for “I think part of it is that tufts.edu and told students that several Senate and other TCU community reps didn’t have someone was trying to replace positions, five of the six com- great experiences on Senate the security information in their munity representative posi- this year and therefore weren’t email account. The email told tions went unfilled. going to recommend it to recipients that if they had not Community representa- other people to do and aren’t EVAN SAYLES / THE TUFTS DAILY replaced the security informa- tives come from the Asian rerunning,” she said. “And I Student activists marched from the Mayer Campus Center to Ballou Hall tion, they needed to verify their American, Africana, Latino, think that’s partly because we on April 22 to call for university divestment from fossil fuel. account information by clicking women’s, LGBTQ and inter- didn’t start off the year real- a link in the email. This email national communities — ly educating the body about was signed by the “TUFT Email the same communities that anything, so it wasn’t a very Protesters stage sit-in, Team,” and provided a phone comprise the Group of Six. intentional space.” number, adding to the apparent Representatives are full sena- Former LGBTQ community legitimacy of the message. tors with the voting pow- representative Renee Vallejo, According to Sergeant Joe ers and responsibilities of a junior, said they decided not demand divestment Tilton, TUPD did not conduct other senators, according to run again in order to avoid by Kathleen Schmidt nities around the world, and a full investigation into this to junior Paige Newman, being in a space that could be News Editor so we are just hoping to get email scam. chair of the Tufts Elections mentally harmful, silencing commitments from our school “It … appeared to be a scam Commissions [ECOM]. and invalidating. This morning, a group of to move forward on divest- from the onset, so we had Tufts Senate Diversity and “I served as LGBTQ com- 33 students, mostly mem- ment,” she said. Technology Services (TTS) Community Affairs Officer munity rep, but I only ran bers of Tufts Climate Action This is the first action in a [investigate],” Tilton said. Allison Aaronson, a sopho- because if I had not no one (TCA), entered Ballou Hall to series of movements called the According to Tilton, the more, said that in the April else would have, and the demand that the university “month of escalation,” dur- email was a phishing scam, 7 election, only the position of community would have been completely divest from fossil ing which students through- which is a common type of international community rep- without a rep,” Vallejo told fuels over the next five years. out the country have been email scam. Phishing scams resentative was filled. the Daily in an email. “At the The movement is being pushing for their schools are designed to collect personal “I’ve been thinking about time a friend of mine was on spearheaded by sophomores to divest, McGough said. information from those targeted it a lot,” she said. “I’m really Senate, so there was at least Brian McGough and Shana Student activists at univer- and usually appear to come from alarmed by it.” one person that I knew I had Gallagher. sities in the Northeast and a legitimate source. Aaronson attributed the in my corner of support. This According to Gallagher, the around the country, includ- lack of interest in running for campaign to divest has been ing at Swarthmore College see PHISHING, page 2 the position of community see ELECTIONS, page 2 going on for the past three and recently at Harvard years and has included a University, have staged sit-ins student referendum, a Tufts calling for fossil fuel divest- Community Union (TCU) ment that have lasted several Senate vote, a faculty petition days or longer. and alumni petition. “Our pressure on the admin- “We think it’s wrong for our istration doesn’t end with the school to be funding the cli- sit in,” McGough said. “We’re mate crisis and destruction of the environment and commu- see DIVEST, page 2 Engineers Without Borders hosts second 5K by Gabriella Zoia The Tufts chapter of Engineers Assistant News Editor Without Borders currently has two ongoing projects: one in The Tufts chapter of Engineers Uganda and one in El Salvador. Without Borders (EWB) hosted A third is tentatively planned in a 5K run and walk last Sunday, the Dominican Republic. COUrtesY MAYA DEBELLIS April 19 around the Medford/ Sophomore Emma Inhorn, a Somerville campus to raise member of EWB, said that the Tufts Sustainability Collective hosts Earth Fest awareness about the organiza- Uganda project involved creating tion and to raise funds for the a water pump system for a village Tufts Sustainability Collective Sustainability, Tufts Bikes, Tom and made pledges to do so [at group’s projects, according in Shilongo. (TSC) is celebrating Earth Fest Thumb’s Student Garden and the fair],” Ng said, adding that to junior Mary O’Kane, one of “They get their water from a this week to commemorate the Boston Organics. over 100 pledges were made. EWB’s fundraising chairs. EWB, borehole, and our project was 45th annual Earth Day. Events “TSC has been actively Other highlights included free an international interdisciplinary to improve timing so that they include locally sourced food at reaching out to various groups vegan cookie samples from organization, seeks to take engi- could get their water faster and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, a on campus because we believe TuftCookie, according to Ng. neering outside of the classroom improve access,” she said. virtual reality simulator of the that everyone has a part to “The Tufts community is at the undergraduate, graduate Senior Matt Walter, also life of a factory-farmed chick- play,” Earth Fest Director concerned about social justice, and professional levels to imple- an EWB fundraising chair, en and an edible campus tour Ashlynna Ng, a first-year, said. but environmental problems ment projects around the world. explained that the project in El led by Department of Biology “Everyone has the capacity to affect marginalized populations “We do all of our own fund- Salvador is similarly aimed at Professor George Ellmore. make a difference just by being disproportionately,” she said. raising, so it’s one of our main improving access to water. The Earth Day Fair, held yes- conscious and making small “Moving forward, environmen- goals,” O’Kane said. “We use TCU “We implemented water terday on the Academic Quad, changes in our lifestyles.” tal justice should have a bigger [Tufts Community Union] fund- tanks to improve both quan- featured a clothing swap by “Lots of students, faculty place on our campus.” ing for prototyping our projects, tity and quality of water in the Eco Reps as well as infor- and even some non-Tufts stu- but we have fundraised all of our the entire community [that mation and activity booths by dents learned about how to travel through grants. Last year we were working in],” he said. groups such as the Office of lead more sustainable lifestyles — Jei-Jei Tan Matt [Walter] and I raised close to $13,000 in grants.” see ENGINEER, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s sections Next year, the QSA looks SOC cultivates talent News 1 Editorial | Op-Ed 10 to restructure in order to across diverse dance styles, better connect queer stu- which it will showcase Features 3 Op-Ed 11 dents, especially first-years, tonight and tomorrow in Weekender 5 Comics 12 with resources on campus. “We Mean Business.” Arts & Living 6 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see WEEKENDER, page 5 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Thursday, April 23, 2015 Protesters occupy president’s office to push for fossil fuel divestment DIVEST McGough suggested that these continued from page 1 efforts were an attempt to “greenwash” not going anywhere, so we’re going to the university while it continues to get what we want and we’re going to place investments in unsustainable continue to pressure the administration companies. until they divest.” “More than that, speaking specifi- Executive Vice President Patricia cally to divestment as the most impor- Campbell said that while the university tant tactic … part of creating a just was open to the possibility of investing in university is, yes, solar is important, other, more sustainable options, it is not yes, the sustainability fund is impor- financially feasible to do it at this time. tant, but you can’t have these things “It would really change the way we without also pulling your investments invest significantly if we were to go to a from the very companies that these fossil-free policy for our endowment,” technologies and these funds are work- Campbell said. ing against,” he said. Gallagher is confident the university Gallagher concluded by reaffirming is capable of divestment, pointing to the students’ determination to pres- other organizations such as universi- sure Tufts to divest from fossil fuel ties, churches, corporations and cities corporations.