THE TUFTS DAILY Est
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Where You Read It First Partly Cloudy 75/51 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2009 TUFTSDAILY.COM Alert system test New rules regulate breaks records sexual activity in BY KATHERINE SAWYER Daily Editorial Board dormitory rooms A test of Tufts’ emergency alert system ran BY ELLEN KAN successfully yesterday, reaching more people Daily Editorial Board than any before. This is the third consecutive year Tufts There are lots of things roommates fight has been working with Send Word Now, the over — sharing food, where dirty clothes go external vendor behind the alerts. Dawn and how loud to play music, to name a few. Irish, director of communications and But a new university policy is looking to organizational effectiveness for University preempt conflicts that can arise over when Information Technology, said the system it’s acceptable to engage in sexual activity. improves each year. The Office of Residential Life and “I think that Send Word Now continues to Learning (ResLife) has added a new stipu- exceed our expectations in terms of delivering SHREYA GHANDI /TUFTS DAILY lation to its guest policy that prohibits any emergency communications to the commu- Dining Services annually raises food prices on campus in response to inflation and to sex act in a dorm room while one’s room- nity,” she said. provide modest raises to hourly staff. mate is present. The stipulation further Send Word Now sent 9,604 text messages states that any sexual activity in the room in under three minutes yesterday, according should not interfere with a roommate’s to Irish. Text messages are the fastest form Dining Services works to privacy, study habits or sleep. of delivery for the emergency alert. “In a real ResLife’s Assistant Director for emergency, that’s a statistic that matters, how Community and Judicial Affairs Carrie quickly those texts got sent out,” Irish said. minimize price hikes Ales-Rich explained that the change “If there were a real crisis, that would be the comes as a result of an annual review of method that most people would first hear BY SAUMYA VAISHAMPAYAN cial circumstances of the student body, residential policies that examines the pre- about it.” Daily Editorial Board the increase in meal plan prices this year vious year’s trends. The emergency alert also made 18,309 first is less than in previous years, Klos said. ResLife received a significant number of attempts to leave voicemails in five minutes. Dining Services says it is working to She said that while overall food prices complaints last year from residents both- Ninety-two percent of these attempts were curtail food price hikes in order to help usually rise by about four percent each ered by their roommates’ sexual behavior. successful and able either to receive an answer students deal with the recession. year, this year student charges went up Ales-Rich said that this was one of the or leave a message. Meal plan prices rise each year due to at a rate of approximately 3.5 percent, most commonly cited sources of conflict Irish attributed the test’s success in part to inflation in the cost of produce and food- and meal plan prices were held to a two- between roommates. the number of people in the emergency alert related supplies. Annual price increases percent increase. “There were incidents that occurred last system this year, which considerably topped are also necessary to give hourly staff The slight price hike has not deterred year, and in the past, where residents of the number of registered individuals in the modest raises, according to Director of students from buying meal plans. Klos rooms started to feel uncomfortable with past. “Last year at this time, we had about 53 Dining and Business Services Patricia what their roommates were doing in the percent of all those on our three campuses Klos. Taking into consideration the finan- see DINING, page 2 room,” Ales-Rich said. “This happened logged in and reporting updated contact info,” more often than we’d like.” she said. “This year it’s 71 percent, which is a The sex policy, Ales-Rich said, is intend- significant improvement.” ed as a tool to facilitate conversation and Geoffrey Bartlett, technical services manag- Candidate forgotten in Class Council election compromise between roommates, rather er for the Department of Public Safety, agreed than simply proscribe behavior. Ales-Rich that the test was successful. “It was a success The Class of 2013 yesterday elected four tomorrow in the rescheduled secre- emphasized that ResLife hopes students and the technology continues to exceed our students to the Freshman Class Council, but tarial vote. will be able to resolve the issues on their expectations in terms of how quickly it’s able the contest did not go off without a hitch. Twenty-one percent of freshmen voted own instead of allowing conflicts to reach a to get out a message to the Tufts community,” The Programming Board mistakenly left in the election, according to Elections point at which the office has to intervene. he said. candidate Smriti Choudhury, one of three Commissions Chair Kevin Terhorst, a senior. “We want to make perfectly clear that Bartlett agreed that the test went smooth- freshmen vying to be the council’s secretary, Habib, a junior, said she was surprised by the we do not want to hinder someone from ly. “We expect there were probably a small off the ballot. Another election will be held scarce interest in filling the positions. engaging in any personal or private activi- number of people who had problems and for the secretarial position from 9 a.m. to “We had a lot of people ask for applica- ty,” she said. “But when it becomes uncom- recognize that,” he said. “Those are known midnight today. tions,” she said. “We were surprised that we fortable for the roommate, we want to have factors in the use of this sort of technology, In the race for class president, Victor only received seven.” something in place that empowers the resi- many things we can’t control for, like being in Wang, running unopposed, snapped up the Terhorst said that though the turnout dents to have a good conversation with the a building with poor cell coverage.” position. was low, it was similar to that of prior roommate.” Improvements in technology continue Hilary Ludlow and Dan Kim came out years. Freshman Class Council elections in Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator on top in a field of three students running 2008 received a 24-percent voter turnout; Bruce Ratain, who chairs the Administration see EMERGENCY, page 2 for vice presidential positions, Programming in 2007, about 30 percent of the freshman and Policy Committee, said that while his Board Co-Chair Sarah Habib told the Daily. class voted. committee has worked with ResLife before, Ludlow garnered the most votes and there- Terhorst attributed the low numbers in it was not informed or consulted about the fore received the vice president of social part to a lack of advertising and scarce fresh- policy change. programming spot. Kim came in second, man knowledge of the election. Ratain, a junior, said he felt that ResLife earning him the vice president of academic Aside from the ballot error -- which was should have done more to include students programming position. not the fault of the technology system -- when drafting the new guidelines. Freshman Julia Hajnoczky ran unopposed Terhorst said the vote, which was run by the “I understand the intent and prob- as class treasurer. online voting service VoteNet, ran smoothly. lem they are trying to solve, but putting Choudhury, Sharonne Holtzman and Rosiris Leon-Rivera will be on the ballot — by Alexandra Bogus see SEX, page 2 Tufts works to upgrade online presence BY KATHERINE SAWYER diverse and dynamic institution. and enticing,” Efi Georgiou, the senior art Daily Editorial Board “We really wanted to be Tufts and director of publications, said of the univer- not be anyone else,” Director of Web sity site. “We also wanted to meet target Tufts is giving its online presence a wide- Communications Bill Denneen said of the audiences’ needs externally and internally.” ranging makeover, with a recently updated new Tufts.edu. “We wanted to embody the The alumni Web site has not been Tufts.edu Web site and a revamped alumni global perspective and the forward thinking updated since 2000 and needed an over- site on the way. and bring those things into the site.” haul, said Andrea Schmitt (LA ’90), co-chair The refurbished Tufts.edu launched on In renovating the new sites, the university of the Alumni Council’s Communications Aug. 20. Administrators expect to unveil the is making an effort to meet the needs of its Committee. ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY Alumni Association’s new Web site on Oct. 5, Web audience. “The old Web site didn’t capture the The Send Word Now emergency alert system capping a year of work on both sites that the “We wanted to highlight the vibrancy of sent over 9,600 text messages yesterday. creators said will better represent Tufts as a the campus, wanted something dynamic see WEB SITE, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s Sections WMFO is starting its The women’s soccer News 1 Op-Ed 11 own record label, and team beat previously it’s looking for Tufts undefeated and nation- Features 3 Comics 12 bands to fill out the ally-ranked Wheaton Weekender 5Sports Back roster. 2-0 yesterday. Editorial 10 see WEEKENDER, page 5 see SPORTS, page 16 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Thursday, September 24, 2009 ResLife sex policy aims to reduce roommate conflict Emergency alert SEX continued from page 1 test successful together a policy that meets everyone’s interests should involve a larger con- EMERGENCY versation,” he said.