Wednesday, October 5, 2011 Year XLI. VolumeThe LXXXII. Issue XIX. Daily Free Presswww.dailyfreepress.com [ The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University ] Campus & City Spotlight Sports Wrong about bongs: Tricks and treats: Breaking even: Weather Today: Cloudy, High 65 Clearing up confusions Local farms offer M. soccer bests ranked opponent to Tonight: Cloudy, Low 42 about drug Tomorrow: 60/41 paraphernalia page 3 fall festivities page 5 page 8 reach .500 Data Courtesy of weather.com BU students organize to join Occupy Wall Street protests Underfunded Mass. public schools may soon be seeing relief By Lester Black Daily Free Press Staff A bill proposed to the Massachusetts State Legislature Tuesday could provide more money for the most underfunded school districts across the state. The bill, proposed by Rep. Lori Ehrlich, of Marblehead, would require the state to follow through on its pledge to fund 17.5 percent of every community’s foundation budget within two years. Each school district’s minimum budget, its foundation budget, is calculated by the state through a complex process referred to as Chapter 70. District-specific variables are put into a LEFT PHOTOS BY CHAD MCKAY, RIGHT BY SCOTT DELISLE/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF formula to produce the foundation budget Occupy Boston protests continue in downtown Boston Monday morning. Boston University students recently started their and the amount of funding the state is will- own Occupy Boston group. ing to provide through Chapter 70. Each By Emily Overholt Occupies Boston” on Sunday. Within two CAS sophomore Luke Rebecchi, a school district is then required to make up Daily Free Press Staff hours of its creation, he said he saw the member of BU Occupies Boston, said that the difference between the two numbers group gain more 200 members. the movement speaks for the economic dis- through local taxes. When College of Arts and Sciences ju- “If we really organize the correct way parity between 99 percent of Americans This process has not been totally equi- nior Brandon Wood attended an Occupy and have a message that reaches every stu- and the top 1 percent. table, Ehrlich said. Wall Street protest on Sept. 17 at Liberty dent we can do a lot for BU, Boston and “There isn’t one unified message, but if “Some communities based on those fac- Square in New York, he wanted to draw our generation as a whole,” Wood said. I had to sum it up it’s that there’s a lot of tors, sometimes for some fluky reasons, in more Boston University students to the BU Occupies Boston is working with money in our political system and it kind of ended up with very little funding with the movement. Students Occupy Boston, which was distorts what should be getting done. Good majority of the burden on the local taxpay- “People are really into this. People re- formed by College of General Studies policies don’t come out and they affect er,” she said. ally want to get involved,” Wood, who also freshman Kaya Juda-Nelson. The group, people,” Rebecchi said. Superintendent of Swampscott Public attended the Occupy Boston march at Dew- also organized via Facebook on Sunday, “The quote is ‘99 percent,’ we’re the 99 Schools Lynne Celli told the Joint Com- ey Square last Friday, said in an interview. met Monday night for its first meeting and percent,” he said. “We’re the people who mittee on Education how her school district Inspired by both protests, Wood decid- headed out to march at Dewey Square with SCHOOLS, see page 2 ed to create a Facebook group titled “BU other protesters. OCCUPY BOSTON, see page 2 BU team aims to ‘heal the world’ with stem cell research project By Alex Diantgikis said. doctor Gustavo Mostoslavsky and associ- a cell becomes part of someone’s eyes or Daily Free Press Staff The disease was selected from a myr- ate professor of medicine Darrell N. Kot- skin or heart, they are pluripotent cells, he Boston University School of Medicine iad of diseases such as cystic fibrosis and ton, created the Center for Regenerative said. These “magical cells can become any assistant professor George Murphy said scleroderma because of the “high percent- Medicine, as a group of “like-minded re- tissue in the body” and be manipulated to that he and his crack team of students are in age of trait carriers in the community,” he searchers” interested in the abilities of “generate any type of tissue needed,” he the lab seven days a week, tending to speci- said. stem cells. The center works in various said. mens of sickle cells with hopes to provide Murphy said that through their research disciplines including physician research- As the ethics of using embryonic stem more options for treating diseases. he and his team aim to “heal the world.” ers, biomedical engineers and stem cell cells is debated, the researchers work BUSM’s Center for Regenerative Medi- For example, if a patient with a failing researchers. mainly with induced pluripotent stem cells, cine received a $9 million grant from the heart could not accept a transplant, a doctor Murphy said he works with a group of which are the central building blocks for National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, could give the patient a heart grown from four students in the lab with stem cells, the center’s research, Murphy said. Those for a five-year project to study stem cell the patient’s own DNA. undifferentiated cells that are most com- treatment for sickle cell anemia, Murphy Murphy and Boston Medical Center monly found in embryonic tissues. Before STEM CELLS, see page 2 Lights, camera, action: Boston to become new Tinseltown By Eddie Donga spending they bring to Mass. if they create Daily Free Press Staff at least half of the film in the state. Star struck fans have been swarming “Boston is an attractive location because downtown Boston to get a peek of the film it’s. .attractive,” said Charles Merzbacher, set of “R.I.P.D.,” a Universal Pictures film an associate film professor in Boston Uni- starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges, versity’s College of Communication, in in- that began shooting in the city last week. terview. “It has a distinctive look and has But the film is not the first to make the Hub neighborhoods that represent a wide vari- its filming grounds. ety of styles and eras.” “R.I.P.D.” will be the 28th movie to be In addition to being a source of revenue filmed in Boston since 2006, according to for the city during a recession, the film The Boston Film Bureau. It joins the ranks boom has provided film students with op- of films such as “The Departed” (2006), portunities related to their craft. “Gone Baby Gone” (2007), “Shutter Is- “Students get the benefit of observing land” (2010), “The Town” (2010) and “The professional film productions up close,” Social Network” (2010). Merzbacher said. “Although their sched- The number films shot in the city be- ules are usually very booked up, we’ve tween 2006 and 2011 is more than double been able to get some of the filmmakers to the 12 that were shot in Boston between visit BU while filming here, which is an- 2000 and 2005. other welcome benefit.” In 2005, a bi-partisan film tax credit law, He said, however, that films in Boston which was put in place by former Mass. do not necessarily mean work experience Gov. Mitt Romney, led to the increase in for students here. number of films. Gov. Deval Patrick made “When people hear that a film shoot is subsequent upgrades to that law in 2007. coming to town, the natural tendency is to The law states that studios, producers think that this will yield lots of production AMANDA SWINHART DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF and filmmakers are eligible for a tax credit The “R.I.P.D.” production crew and cast filmed scenes on the corner of Boylston equal to 25 cents for every new dollar of FILM, see page 2 and Exeter Street in downtown Boston on Sept. 28. 2 WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2011 Students Occupying Boston leader says group Professor, students search for treatments for sickle cell will lead march from Marsh Plaza on Friday anemia with $9 million grant formed across the country in San that we’ve created a system where OCCUPY BOSTON: From Page 1 Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago these people can make their rules STEM CELLS: From Page 1 molding. and Portland since the first protest and do what they want,” Rudra The team is beginning this spe- don’t have all the money to throw in New York. said. “That’s why I’m here.” cells are “custom made stem cialized study with the collection at Barack Obama or whoever else More than 1,000 protesters at- Juda-Nelson said that Students cells” that can become an “exact of 300 specimens from sickle cell is making decisions, and we want tended the Dewey Square protest Occupy Boston is organizing a match to a patient’s DNA,” which patients, developing the “world’s that back. We want to assert our on Friday, The Daily Free Press student-led march that will join are created with a specialized vi- largest” sickle cell library and place in our democracy.” reported on Monday. the general march in Dewey this rus developed by Mostoslavsky. starting to differentiate the sam- “It seems a bit backwards go- Aditya Rudra, a School of Friday at 5:30 p.m., which will In a process called backwards- ples, said Sarah Rozelle, a student ing into the streets and then plan- Management sophomore, said the likely start at Marsh Plaza.