Some Students to Move Off of Waitlist Next Week
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Today: Rain/Thunder THE TUFTS High 54 Low 51 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper PM Showers Since 1980 High 65 Low 49 VOLUME LIII, NUMBER 58 DAILY FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2007 Res Quad to re-open by Commencement Some students to move off of waitlist next week BY ROB SILVERBLATT A waitlist of this size is not Daily Editorial Board unprecedented, but last year only 50 students were waitlisted, King Many of the 125 rising sopho- said. “There is no significant reason mores currently on the waitlist for why the rising sophomore waitlist housing will start getting rooms is bigger this year,” she said in an next week. But while they have e-mail. been waiting for housing assign- During this year’s lottery, no sin- ments, some students found out gles were available for rising soph- earlier this week that the rooms omores, but some of them who that they had already secured for had high numbers and selected next year are no longer available. doubles will get first choice on the Current sophomores have until singles that become available, King Monday to inform the university said. about their study abroad plans; According to Reitman, students after that, the rooms of students whose roommates move into sin- who have recently decided that gles will then have the option to they won’t be on campus next change their living assignments to year can be distributed to the ris- live with friends who are in a simi- ing sophomores who are on the lar situation. This will leave more waitlist. full doubles so that students on the “That’s where the bulk of the waitlist can live with their preferred openings come from,” Dean of roommates. Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said While all rising sophomores are of the rooms that become available still guaranteed housing, King said after students decide to go abroad. that it is unclear whether they will REBEKAH SOKOL/TUFTS DAILY Immediately after the lottery, all get rooms by the end of the aca- Construction on the Cabot Intercultural Center, which consequently closed the Res Quad, is nearly complete. Director of Residential Life and demic year or if some assignments Learning Yolanda King told the will have to be made over the sum- BY GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO ing to Director of University can grow in. Daily that she estimated slightly mer. Daily Editorial Board Facilities Robert Bertram. “The green stuff that you see over 100 rising sophomores were But while some students will be “Certainly, for the lawn area is [the fertilizer that] they use on the waitlist. The final tally, which taken off of the waitlist, a few oth- A construction project on the to be done by Commencement in the hydro-seeding process,” included students that did not ers may have been added. Cabot Intercultural Center that — that’s our goal,” Bertram Bertram said. “The reason that show up for the lottery, was 180. During the beginning of the began in 2005 has been virtually said. it’s fenced in is so that people Since then, around 55 of them have semester, the university fire mar- completed and the Residential New grass has been planted don’t get in it and walk and been removed because they will shal conducted inspections and Quad, which was used during on the lawn in the Res Quad, destroy the new grass seed that’s either not be returning to Tufts or noticed that several woodframe the project as a dumping ground and it is currently being hydro- down there.” have decided to commute, become houses were not in compliance by the construction company, is seeded and fertilized. A fence Much of the grass on the an RA, live in a fraternity or sorority with a safety code because in some expected to be back to normal has been erected to encircle the or pursue other related options, by Commencement, accord- quad so that the new grass seed see CONSTRUCTION, page 2 according to King. see HOUSING, page 2 Health Service can no longer offer Clearing up misconceptions special low-priced birth control BY LILLY RIBER participated in the program, many did Daily Editorial Board and “that worked great for a long time,” Higham said. Due to changes in federal law, Tufts Over the years, however, the number Health Service can no longer offer the of brands that provided low-price clin- significantly reduced prices on birth ic packs to Health Service decreased control pills to which many students from the original 10 down to only have grown accustomed. three: Ortho Tri-cyclen Lo, NuvaRing While students were previously able and Cyclessa. to buy “clinic packs” of pills from a vari- Changes in law have primarily ety of brands for $7 or $8 per month, accounted for these limitations. Over many of them will now have to bear time, she said that more and more higher costs, according to Tufts’ Health states have passed laws requiring Service Medical Director Dr. Margaret insurance companies to cover con- Higham. traception. According to the National She said that this change has little Conference of State Legislatures’ to do with her office. “Obviously we Web site, Massachusetts has had this would love to keep things as cheap as requirement on the books since 2002. possible for people but we really didn’t As a result of this trend, many com- have a say in it,” she said. panies stopped providing the low- According to Higham, Health Service priced clinic packs. began offering birth control prescrip- The federal government has also tions at reduced rates starting about 15 redefined the term “underserved pop- to 20 years ago, largely because “at that ulation.” Tightened regulations that REBEKAH SOKOL/TUFTS DAILY time, very few insurance plans covered were instituted this fall provided “the Ahmed Elewa, the outreach coordinator for the Muslim American Society’s Boston contraceptives,” she said. final nail in the coffin,” Higham said, chapter, spoke to an audience of around 30 people last night in Pearson 104. Elewa Until recently, students had been because most Tufts students do not fit was joined on a panel by sophomore Hawazin Naseef and junior Shirwac Mohamed able to benefit from “a federal program into this group anymore. during the event, which was sponsored by Tufts’ Muslim Students Association that allowed drug manufacturers to “In order to be considered, you had (MSA) and entitled “Islamic Awareness Week Revisited Misconceptions about provide very cheap sample packets of to submit a lot of paperwork about Islam.” The event featured a speech from Elewa and a question and answer session pills to what were called ‘underserved poverty levels, etc. which really aren’t during which he and the two student panelists fielded inquiries from the audience. populations,’” she said. pertinent to our student population,” Tufts’ original Islamic Awareness week was at the beginning of the month, but Under this arrangement, students Higham said. “So drug companies in the sponsors felt that more discussion—especially related to myths about the religion were able to pay directly for their pre- fall told our pharmacy that they could —was needed, according to sophomore and MSA Co-Chair Nayema Khan. scriptions rather than going through no longer provide the brands of pills —by Rob Silverblatt insurance companies. Though not all drug manufacturers see BIRTH CONTROL, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections WE LIKE, WE LIKE TO PARTY WORTH THE ‘HYPE’ News 1 Viewpoints 9 With Spring Fling on the way, The Daily can’t keep students say the campus quiet about these Features 3 Comics 12 social life has improved mimes Arts | Living 5Classifieds 13 Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 5 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Friday, April 27, 2007 WORLD IN BRIEF BEHIND SCOTLAND VOTE JITTERS: Only a few tasks left to be done in Cabot construction COSTLY DIVORCE FROM BRITAIN CONSTRUCTION had to wait until we could get up there as it did before the construction. As Scotland’s biggest election in decades continued from page 1 to regrade the area ... We had to wait “We had to remove the entire exte- approaches, citizens are grappling with the major Res Quad was destroyed when the con- until we could get it in the condition it is rior of the building in order to stop the issue of a possible Scottish divorce from Britain. struction company, Shawmut Design now.” moisture and the water leakage from Scotland votes in local elections May 3, and and Construction, set up shop there. It disappoints some students that the getting in. We haven’t really changed the if the polls hold, the Scottish National Party, or Shawmut closed in a portion of the Res project has rendered most of the Res look of the building other than [that] the SNP, is on course for a historic upset of the ruling Quad behind Olin Center with chain- Quad unusable just as the weather is windows are slightly darker than ... the Labor Party, which has dominated elections in linked fencing coated with opaque green becoming pleasant. Also, they say, hav- original windows were.” Scotland for more than 50 years. vinyl. This fenced-in section was deemed ing the Res Quad fenced off makes walk- This work was done in two phases. The centerpiece of the SNP’s platform is the a hard-hat area. ing around uphill less efficient. During each phase, two exterior walls establishment of a fully independent Scotland. “That area was used as a staging “Besides the ... lack of aesthetic appeal, were reworked; therefore, when both But while recent opinion polls show the SNP area for the contractors; in other words it’s a nuisance if I’m going ..