THE TUFTS DAILY Est

Where You Sunny Read It First 76/58 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 10 THURsday, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 TUFTSDAILY.COM Election Results Tufts Divest rallies before Seven freshman Tufts Community Mauri Honickman, and the sophomore Union (TCU) Senate seats, two Judiciary class council vice president of academic Massachusetts State House positions and three Committee on programming is Matthew Marber. Student Life (CSL) positions, along with Warren Rixon and John Rodli won the BY VICTORIA LEISTMAN UMass Amherst, Wheaton College and various Class Council seats, were filled senior Senate seats in an uncontested Daily Editorial Board Worcester Polytechnic Institute. during yesterday’s student election. election. Students heard from a variety of speak- Senior Nina Bernstein, senior Walker Freshman voter turnout was 56.53 Members of Tufts Divest For Our ers, including Downing; Chris Condon, Bristol and freshman Tafari Duncan will percent this year, as opposed to last Future attended a rally and spoke at director of politics and legislation of fill the CSL positions. year’s freshman voter turnout of 49.04 the Massachusetts State House on Sept. the Service Employees International Sophomore Matthew Ender-Silberman percent, sophomore Paige Newman, 10 in support of legislation that would Union’s Local 509; State Representative and freshman Anna Weissman will serve public relations chair of Tufts Election require Massachusetts’ divestment from Denise Provost (D-Somerville) and on the Judiciary. Commission, said. fossil fuel companies within five years. Mark Files Schwaller, member of the Students elected Oghenefego Ahia, “It was a statistically significant high- Sophomore Will Pearl and senior activist rock band Melodeego. Isabella Kahhale, Ramiro Sarabia, Gauri er voter turnout,” she said. Devyn Powell, both members of The speakers, banners and live music Seth, Shai Slotky, Constantin Weiss The total voter turnout this year was Tufts Divest, participated in a stu- during the rally created a strong atmo- and Bryson Wong to fill the freshman 27.88 percent, up from 22.76 percent dent panel that testified in support sphere of support prior to the hearing, Senate seats. last year. of the bill, along with representatives according to Powell. PJ Allen will serve as freshman class “We are always encouraged by voter from Boston University (BU) and the “That was a very empowering expe- council vice president of social pro- turnout, and we want to thank the University of Massachusetts Amherst rience,” she said. “There was a lot of gramming, and Anna Linton was elect- Tufts community for voting and encour- (UMass Amherst). really good energy, and people came ed freshman class council vice president age them to continue voting and con- The bill, titled S.1225, was pro- from all over.” of academic programming. tinue to be active citizens in their local posed in January by Senator Benjamin The bill calls on the Pension Reserves Michelle Bornstein was elected elections,” Newman said. Downing (D-Pittsfield, GSAS ’08), Investment Trust, a board charged with freshman class council treasurer, Katie according to Pearl. managing the pooled assets of state Waymack will serve as freshman class The rally began at 9:30 a.m. and employees and local retirement sys- council secretary and Prastama (Praz) included a large crowd of Tufts stu- tems, to divest 100 percent of its assets Perkasa was elected freshman class dents in addition to students from in fossil fuel companies progressively council president. BU, Brandeis University, Harvard over the course of five years. The sophomore class council vice University, Massachusetts Institute president of social programming is — by Abigail Feldman of Technology, Suffolk University, see DIVEST, page 2 Asbestos removed Tufts among top Teach For America colleges from Houston Hall BY DENA L I TIETJEN For America (TFA), a national non- members of the Class of 2013 enlisted Daily Editorial Board profit organization that employs col- in TFA, according to last year’s TFA BY DANIE L GOTTFRIE D lege graduates to teach in underprivi- Recruitment Director Joni Roberson. Daily Editorial Board Tufts ranked sixth among medium- leged schools. Each year, TFA recruits high-per- sized colleges and universities with the The university is up 14 spots from Workers contracted by the university most graduates participating in Teach last year’s No. 20 ranking. Thirty-five see TEACH, page 2 abated asbestos in Houston Hall this sum- mer during a routine renovation project. Asbestos is a mineral that was widely used in construction until 1973, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to regulate its use due to its ability to cause lung and other organic diseases. Director of Facilities Services Bob Burns explained that abatement, or removal, of asbestos in buildings during renovation projects happens frequently and follows standard procedure. “There [were] asbestos found, but that isn’t uncommon,” he said. “For many buildings built prior to the 1980s, asbestos was used and has many different applications. Unless it is airborne, which is called ‘friable’ [asbestos], it isn’t an issue.” According to Burns, when renovation projects occur, the possibility arises that asbestos will be disturbed. “Our policy is, if there is asbestos in a space and we have to pull up the carpeting or any minor demolition, then we would abate the asbestos,” Burns said. “You don’t have to deal with asbestos just because it is under the floor. You have to deal with asbestos if you pull up the floor, and we always do that when we renovate any of our buildings.” The project was completed over the sum- mer when no students were residing in the hall, he added. “We do most of our renovations when students and faculty are gone,” he said. Residents of Houston Hall were contact- ed last year informing them that the renovations and removal would occur following their departure from the dorm, according to a Resident Assistant in Houston Hall who wished to remain anonymous. “All we saw was preparation,” he said. “I don’t think there was any danger. The MCT see ASBESTOS, page 2 Thirty-five members of the Class of 2013 are currently enlisted in Teach for America. Inside this issue Today’s sections The Tufts-SMFA dual- The Museum of Bad News 1 Op-Ed 9 degree program tries Art is a hidden gem in to tackle its high drop- Davis Square. Features 3 Comics 10 out rate. Weekender 5Classifieds 11 Editorial | Letters 8 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see WEEKENDER, page 5 2 THE TUF T S DAILY NEWS Thursday, September 19, 2013 leadership, active citizenship TEACH which she believes eventu- Tuftscontinued from applicants page 1 ally benefit lead to her acceptance from forming college graduates at Tufts. to teach in urban and rural “If I didn’t have those TFA classrooms, Roberson said. teachers who believed in Twenty-three Tufts graduates me, I would not be where I are now serving their second am today,” she said. year as TFA corps members, As a current corps mem- totaling 58 Tufts grads in the ber, Porter is eager to rep- two-year program. resent the organization and Roberson credited the to help make education a university’s high ranking national priority. to the university’s wealth “I believed in the pro- of leadership opportunities gram and its mission and relationship with local statement to bridge the communities. inequality opportunity “I think that Tufts, the gap,” she said. CourtesY 350 MASSACHUSETTS university itself, has a strong With a rigorous applica- Last Tuesday, Tufts Divest participated in a rally to advocate for Massachusetts’ divestment from fossil fuel companies connection and commit- tion process that involves within five years. ment to the community in essay responses and several Somerville, which exposes interviews, TFA has accept- students to social issues ed less than 15 percent Students promote state divestment bill around race, class and of applicants for the past DIVEST Ten Tufts students attended the “We’re Massachusetts,” Powell privilege and makes them three years. Roberson said continued from page 1 testimonials that followed the State said. “We’re a leader in everything. strong candidates for the the next application dead- “If we lead with this [bill], it House rally, according to Pearl. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t corps, along with the many line for seniors consider- would have a huge ripple effect,” Although each testimony was be the first state to take a step like opportunities students have ing joining the corps is Oct. Pearl said. limited to three minutes, the this. If an entire state divests all to hold leadership roles dur- 25. As a new feature this Pearl coordinated a student event lasted two and a half hours, of its holdings from the fossil fuel ing their time at Tufts,” she year, TFA will also accept divest meet-up at Old West Church Pearl said. industry, that’s a huge thing.” said. Sade Porter (LA early applications — due the night before the rally, accord- “The over-arching narrative was Last year, Tufts Divest gar- ’13), who joined the TFA by Feb. 20 — from juniors ing to Powell. Around 30 students that we are young people, and cli- nered 1,500 student petition corps this year, explained interested in the program. participated in the event in prepa- mate change is going to affect our signatures, 240 alumni signa- the impact that TFA had Roberson encouraged ration for the rally. generation.” Powell said. tures and over 40 faculty sig- on her middle school edu- interested students to get “The idea of that was that we Powell added that the group natures in an effort to achieve cation in the Bronx, New in contact with this year’s wanted to bring as many stu- received overwhelmingly positive divestment on the Tufts campus.

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