THE TUFTS DAILY Est

Where You Sunny Read It First 66/52 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 42 WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2011 TUFTSDAILY.COM New federal student loan program will cap repayments, consolidate debts BY GABRIELLE HERNANDEZ Earn.” Daily Editorial Board Patricia Reilly, director of financial aid and co-manager U.S. President Barack Obama of Student Financial Services at on Oct. 26 announced changes Tufts, explained that Obama’s to federal student loan programs proposal would impact students that seek to facilitate student after graduation. loan repayment. “The changes in the student Speaking to an audience at the loan programs will impact stu- University of Colorado Denver, dents at the point that they Obama outlined his “Pay As You begin repaying their loans, Earn” proposal, which will allow typically six months after they students with student loans graduate,” she said in an email. from income-based repayment “These change[s] will allow (IBR) plans to cap their student students with lower earning to loan payments at 10 percent of lower their monthly payments their discretionary income as and make their payments more early as 2012. manageable.” The IBR plan caps monthly The proposal also addresses payments for certain federal debt forgiveness, stating that student loans based on income borrowers who make pay- and family size. ments for 20 years can apply ANDREW SCHNEER/TUFTS DAILY “These proposals from to have their debts forgiven, The Tufts University Police Department has extended the hours of its weekend safety shuttle service this fall. the Obama administration as well as those employed in are opportunities for stu- public service occupations, dents to manage their repay- who would become eligible ment,” Martha Savery, direc- for forgiveness after 10 years TUPD revamps safety shuttle tor of Community Outreach of loan repayments. for Massachusetts Educational “Because many Tufts stu- Financing Authority (MEFA), dents pursue careers in the service, extends hours told the Daily. lower paying public service BY BRIONNA JIMERSON cated safety shuttle service on fortable using it when police The proposal expedites an sector, these changes may be Daily Editorial Board Thursday, Friday and Saturday officers operate the service, existing measure enacted by of benefit to some of our grad- nights to any students in need. Maguire said. Congress to improve the IBR uates,” Reilly said. The Tufts University Police The safety shuttle service — “We heard a response from plan and reduce monthly pay- The proposal also calls for Department (TUPD) has recent- which this semester extended students that they were nervous ments caps from 15 percent of the consolidation of loans from ly implemented two changes the hours on Thursday, Friday to use the service if there was discretionary income to 10 per- the Federal Family Education to its safety shuttle service in and Saturday nights — is a police officer providing it,” cent on July 1, 2014. Prior legis- Loans (FFEL) program into the response to increased student now also operated by cam- Maguire said. “What we don’t lation passed by Congress had Direct Loans program. There demand and voiced concerns. pus security officers instead of want to do is have students be capped loan repayment plans at is currently $400 billion in TUPD offers Safety Escort sworn TUPD officers, accord- reluctant to use the service.” 15 percent of graduates’ discre- outstanding debt owed to the Service 24 hours a day, seven ing to Director of Public and Maguire anticipates that the tionary spending. FFEL program. days a week to transport com- Environmental Safety Kevin current system will help stu- There are currently an esti- FFELs typically have higher munity members between vari- Maguire. dents feel more at ease call- mated 1.6 million student bor- interest rates than Direct Loans, ous campus locations, to local This move to have a cam- ing TUPD for security escorts rowers who could be able to and must be paid separately transit stations and to neigh- pus security officer run the around campus. cap their loan repayments at 10 borhoods around campus. They safety shuttle service occurred percent as a result of “Pay As You see LOANS, page 2 also offer an additional dedi- because students felt less com- see ESCORT, page 2 Senate calls for increased web security BY MAHPARI SOTOUDEH Daily Editorial Board The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate earlier this semester unanimously passed a resolution calling for the university to expand its virtual private network (VPN) service, which would offer students the option to access a secure Internet connection. The VPN secures user data on certain Tufts services, such as the research cluster or the per- sonal drive (P: drive), according to TCU Senator Michael Vastola, a member of the Senate Services Committee Currently, students who are using a wireless connection outside of Tufts and still want to access Tufts services are redirected through the VPN’s secure virtual “tunnel,” which JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY protects their data while they Students celebrated the fall at Tufts Mountain Club’s Autumnfest yesterday on the Res Quad. Attendees played in giant piles of crisp leaves while use these services, accord- listening to a performance by Tufts B.E.A.T.s. see SENATE, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s sections News 1 Op-Ed 9 The ExCollege exam- ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ines cuisine culture. dances into the hearts Features 3 Comics 12 of Boston ballet goers. Arts & Living 5Classifieds 15 Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 5 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Wednesday, November 9, 2011 UIT considers Senate resolution to increase Internet security SENATE you access Facebook, you’re directly continued from page 1 connecting to Facebook. If you access ing to Vastola, a senior. This change your P: drive, then you’re connecting would offer students this protection to your P: drive to the VPN,” Vastola at all times, TCU Senator Shawyoun said. “If they change the setting, then Shaidani, chair of the TCU Senate what will happen is that you’ll con- Education Committee, said. nect to Facebook through the VPN.” The university currently uses a The service, which many compa- system of “split tunneling,” through nies and universities provide to their which users have secure access to employees and students, will help Tufts services through the VPN but solve the university’s long-standing their other online activities are not problem of web security, according to protected, Shaidani, a junior, said. Vastola. A “full tunnel” system would instead “This has always been an issue,” he send all Internet activity over a secure said. “Tufts offers this great service connection, Vastola said. The VPN that’s the VPN but it doesn’t configure it acts like a proxy service by providing in the optimal way that it should be.” an intermediary data route to web- UIT Director of Communications sites for users that are not connected and Organizational Effectiveness to the Tufts network, he added. Dawn Irish said she was glad students The TCU Senate resolution calls were considering the issue of Internet for Tufts University Information security. Technology (UIT) to offer this redi- “We’re excited in general that the rection service to students outside students are interested in security,” the Tufts network. Irish said. “This is something that MCT President Barack Obama last month announced the new ‘Pay As You Earn’ proposal, which “We want to make it so that all your we’re always trying to publicize with will allow students to more easily manage their debts. data goes through that secure tun- the students and the fact that they nel, even if you’re on Google,” Vastola came to us with a resolution is really said. exciting.” Pay As You Earn to ease management Students may be subject to hacking “When they come to us with an while using off-campus wireless con- idea that will help them be more nections and would be safer using the secure, we’re always excited to hear it of student loans VPN, according to Shaidani. and if we can implement it, then we LOANS lier,” she said. “One of the things we always “We wanted to offer the option to will,” she added. continued from page 1 want students to do is be great consumers, [students] to surf the Internet through Irish noted, however, that UIT will under the current program. educated consumers, and understand how a secure connection and that’s a rela- have to weigh the benefits and chal- “I remember writing like five different much it is that they’re borrowing. If there tively easy change to make,” Shaidani lenges of implementing the program checks to five different loan agencies — are programs to help offset what debt stu- said. “We can’t change the nature and plans to review the idea over the and if you lost one that month, you couldn’t dents have incurred, that’s great.” of the connections that people have next few months. get all the bills together, you missed a pay- Sophomore Camila Ibagon is encour- but what we can do is redirect them She expects that UIT will have ment, and then suddenly you were paying aged by Obama’s proposal. “In this financial through this secure network.” reached a final decision by the end of a penalty. We’re going to make it easier for situation, it’s great that he’s giving students It is safer for users to access web- the calendar year. you to have one payment a month at a bet- a break,” she said. sites through the VPN rather than “I think that in general we think it’s ter interest rate,” Obama said in the Oct.

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