Today: Partly Cloudy THE TUFTS High 43 Low 32 Tufts’ Student Tomorrow: Newspaper AM Rain Since 1980 High 53 Low 32 VOLUME LV, NUMBER 40 DAILY TUESDAY , MARCH 25, 2008 Senate approves new budget Funding for student groups increases by $46,000 for ’08-’09 BY BE N GI tt LESO N Nine senators sit on the board, and the Daily Editorial Board treasurer is its non-voting chair. Student groups had until Jan. 31 to sub- The Tufts Community Union (TCU) mit budgets, and ALBO reviewed them Senate finalized its student-group budget over a three-week period beginning in on March 9, dispensing over $1.1 million February. to student organizations for the next aca- ALBO divides the 142 student groups demic year. it recognizes into nine councils, each The Senate’s Allocations Board (ALBO) of which has a particular category. One submitted figures for the total sums to be senator, internally elected, oversees each given to individual groups during fiscal council, and all chairs vote on funding year 2009, which covers the 2008-09 school recommendations to the Senate. ALBO year. deals with regular budgeting as well as With a budget of $182,718, Concert other types of funding, such as buffer and Board reeled in the most money of any new group funds. student group. Silverman said the treasurer sets a limit TCU Treasurer Scott Silverman, a sopho- at the beginning of the annual budgeting more, said this year’s budgeting process process on the amount of money that each went smoothly, despite some challenges council can give out. staying within the budget toward the end. The council that deals with social “It went very well. It was overall very programming groups received the most smooth,” he said. “It’s always a challenge money of any council. It will distribute over PAINTTHECANNON.COM every year to get all of the councils under $510,000 to 14 groups for fiscal year 2009. Students can decorate Tufts’ cannon digitally at PaintTheCannon.com. their caps,” he said. Senator Matt Shapanka, a junior who He said that all groups that applied for chairs the council for community service funding were generally satisfied with the and miscellaneous groups, agreed that Students, alumni can paint cannon outcome, but that the last few days of final- budgeting concluded well. izing budgets were particularly stressful. Some problems with budgeting “Pretty much every group I’ve spo- stemmed from former TCU Treasurer Evan online with new fundraising Web site ken with is content with its budget,” he Dreifuss’ resignation at the beginning of BY GILLIA N JA V E T SKI users to donate to the fund. said. Only the mock trial team appealed, this semester, Shapanka said. Dreifuss, a Daily Editorial Board Workers at the fund came up with the Silverman added. Although its appeal was senior, resigned to take medical leave from concept for the site a year ago as a way denied, the team received more money the university. Students hoping to make their mark to reach out to young alumni, according than it had last year, Silverman said. “It was rough because we lost Evan on Tufts’ legendary cannon will no longer to Associate Director of Communications The Senate allocates all money for stu- just as budgeting started, so [at first] have to guard the landmark in the wee Tim Knauer. dent organizations through the Student things were confusing a bit,” he said. But hours of the morning after etching their “We were trying to find a way for Activities Fee. Each undergraduate’s bursar he added that Silverman helped smooth art, thanks to a Web site launched last alumni, specifically young alumni, account was charged $258 this academic the transition. week by the Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences to reconnect and get involved in the year for the fund as part of the annual stu- “Budgeting’s always stressful,” Shapanka and Engineering. school,” Knauer said. “The thought was dent fee. said. “It’s one of the most stressful things PaintTheCannon.com allows users to to play off a tradition that people know, ALBO works directly with student groups we do on Senate. I also think it’s one of the color and draw on a digital image of the on budgeting and regularly makes spend- cannon and features links that permit see CANNON, page 2 ing recommendations to the Senate body. see BUDGET, page 2 Senate resolution on Curtis Street pedestrian safety hits legal stop sign BY DA N PAS T ER N ACK stop sign at the intersection Daily Editorial Board ad hoc. The MUTCD requires traffic surveys to be conducted The Tufts Community Union before multi-way stop signs (TCU) Senate unanimously are placed, and since there passed a resolution this month is already a stop sign on to help improve pedestrian Professors Row at the inter- safety on Curtis Street, but section, any additional sign progress has been hindered by would be considered multi- legal roadblocks. way. The resolution, passed on In addition, while the TCU March 9, urged the City of resolution laments the absence Somerville to install a pedes- of stop signs to regulate speed- trian crosswalk at the inter- ing drivers, the MUTCD states section of Curtis Street and in section 2B.05 that stop signs Professors Row, as well as a “should not be used for speed stop sign for traffic on Curtis control.” Street. Tufts owns several buildings Federal traffic codes and the on Curtis Street’s west side, Americans with Disabilities Act opposite campus. These build- (ADA) complicate implement- ings include some dormito- ing such changes, though. ries, such as Carpenter House. It is legally impossible to Curtis Street brings heavy simply place a stop sign at traffic everyday. Students liv- the intersection, according to ing on the west side of the Jacklyn Rossetti, a spokesper- street must navigate across the son for the City of Somerville. street. The Department of Traffic and The resolution cited the fact Parking “would definitely be that no pedestrian crosswalk REBEKAH SOKOL/TUFTS DAILY open to increased signage, but or stop sign exists in highlight- A crosswalk slows traffic on Curtis Street at the crest of the Hill, allowing students to pass. The TCU there will not be a stop sign,” ing the threat motorists pose Senate has encouraged the City of Somerville to implement a similar crosswalk one block downhill at the she said. to students trying to walk to intersection of Curtis Street and Professors Row. Guidelines from the Manual and from classes or Carmichael on Uniform Traffic Control Dining Hall. the legislation. She submitted the resolu- substantial student support,” Devices (MUTCD), published According to TCU Senator “A lot of people were com- tion to indicate to Somerville Mourning said. by the U.S. Department of C.J. Mourning, who submit- plaining to me about it,” she officials that the entire stu- While a stop sign may be out Transportation, prohibit the ted the resolution, complaints said. “We concluded that it dent body was behind the city from implementing a from many students motivated was an issue.” project. “They need to see a see TRAFFIC, page 2 Inside this issue tuftsdaily.com Today’s Sections The pre-college gap Op-Ed 11 year is becoming Bill Maher’s film News 1 increasingly popular “Sleepwalking” will Features 3 Comics 12 among high school leave you struggling to Arts | Living 7Sports 15 graduates. stay awake. Editorial | Letters 10 Classifieds 19 see FEATURES, page 3 see ARTS, page 7 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Tuesday, March 25, 2008 North Carolina officials reviewing records to determine how UNC, Duke murder suspects were on street BY ANNE BLY T HE for two homicide cases that slain Duke graduate student’s MCT have exposed problems with cell phone. the state’s watch over its tens Cline said during the hearing Alice Wisler saw the photo- of thousands of convicts on that Mahato’s phone had been graph of a man trying to use the probation. used to call Atwater. An arrest credit card of slain University of Demario James Atwater, warrant for Lovette shows a North Carolina, Chapel Hill stu- 22, a Durham resident who is cell phone, iPod, wallet and dent Eve Carson and saw only charged with first-degree mur- $300 as evidence for the rob- an anonymous suspect. der in the Carson case, was in a bery with a dangerous weapon Then police gave the sus- Wake County, N.C. courtroom charge against Lovette in the pect a name, Laurence Alvin two days before the popular stu- Mahato case. Lovette Jr., and the connection dent leader was found dead in a Efforts to talk with the fami- jarred Wisler. Chapel Hill neighborhood. lies of Lovette and Atwater have Memories of her encounters But a scheduling snafu set been unsuccessful. with Lovette flooded back as him free, with a new court date Lovette, according to Virginia DAILY FILE PHOTO police charged the 17-year-old on March 31. Barbee, a Chapel Hill resident The Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences and Engineering is capitalizing on the with the first-degree murder As the state Department who knew him, had a strong longstanding campus tradition of painting the cannon. The fund intro- of Carson, the UNC student of Correction and the Wake bond with his dad, Laurence duced PaintTheCannon.com last week. body president, and Abhijit County district attorney con- Steven “Fuzzy” Lovette, and was Mahato, a Duke University duct internal investigations devastated after his death on graduate student. into what went wrong, Durham Thanksgiving Day in 2003.