Where You Read It First Partly Cloudy 72/58 THE TUFTS DAILY Est. 1980 VOLUME LX, NUMBER 10 THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010 TUFTSDAILY.COM Referendum 3 wins by a single vote BY MATT REPKA AND BEN GITTLESON Yu said, reading a statement to the Daily. Daily Editorial Board “Acknowledging the one-vote disparity in the outcome of the revote, ECOM stresses the By the slimmest possible margin, importance of voter participation.” Referendum 3 early this morning emerged TCU President Sam Wallis commended as the winner of yesterday’s student body- those involved for the extensive outreach wide vote on reforms to the effort. community representative “Congratulations to the authors of system. Referendum 3,” said Wallis, a senior. “I think Referendum 3 extends that even those who disagreed with it have community representatives been impressed with the effort they put into full voting rights on all Tufts publicizing it and getting the student body’s Community Union (TCU) attention on this issue. I’m thrilled we were Senate matters, including finally able to bring it up for a vote and allow VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY those concerning the disbursement of the students to have as well-informed a choice as Some Delta Upsilon brothers have found themselves in Wren Hall overflow rooms. Student Activities Fee. Under Referendum we could under the circumstances.” 3, the groups with representation nominate Wallis also addressed the polarized nature candidates who will then be voted on in a of the election results. DU brothers await all-clear campus-wide election. “Clearly, there was a large portion of those The referendum passed with 516 votes to who voted who felt otherwise, and we will be Referendum 4’s 515, Elections Commission getting their feedback, as well as [that of] the to move back into house (ECOM) Public Relations Director Will Yu said authors of Referendum 3, as we move forward early this morning. to implement these,” Wallis said. “There are a BY MICHAEL DEL MORO Approximately 18 students, many of The final vote breakdown came to 43.74 lot of questions left unanswered and a lot of Daily Editorial Board them football players engaged in pre- percent voting for Referendum 3, 43.63 percent specifics that need to be ironed out now that season training, moved in with other DU voting for Referendum 4 and 12.64 percent of we know the framework.” Nearly 20 members of Tufts’ Delta members living off campus or took advan- students abstaining, said Yu, a sophomore. Wallis called for calm in light of the razor- Upsilon (DU) fraternity were forced to tage of empty dorm rooms offered by the Turnout for the election was 22 percent. thin win margin and the heated debate on the fi nd alternative housing for the past three Offi ce of Residential Life and Learning, “Regarding the referendum revote on matter leading up to the vote. weeks while their house was being repaired according to DU President John Rinciari. Wednesday ... ECOM would like to thank to comply with city inspections not com- all those who participated and voted,” see ELECTIONS, page 2 pleted at the beginning of the semester. see DU, page 2 Multiple registration mix-ups cause headaches BY DAPHNE KOLIOS Daily Editorial Board Following a room assignment error, the Registrar’s Office shifted the giant Economics 5: Principles of Economics (EC 5) introductory class from the D+ block to the F+ block, causing confusion and forcing students to readjust their schedules. The mix-up was one of sev- eral registration errors that occurred this semester across the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering. The Registrar’s Office scheduled both EC 5 and Biology 13: Cells and Organisms (Bio 13) for the D+ block, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:45 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Both classes have a maximum enrollment of over 400 students; the only classroom on campus able to accommodate classes of this size, however, is Cohen Auditorium, according to Registrar for Arts, Sciences and Engineering Jo Ann Jack. Because Bio 13 was already assigned to Cohen Auditorium during that block, EC 5 was mistakenly reassigned to Barnum 008, the next largest room available dur- JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY ing that time. A number of scheduling conflicts on Student Information System (SIS) created confusion at the start of the semester. Barnum 008’s seating capacity is only 200, according to Jack. As a result, e-mail to students informing them to go that I realized that the class had been who stayed in the class, however, were more people than could fit into Barnum Cohen for class. scheduled for Barnum. At that point, forced to rearrange their schedules to do showed up for the first class. Sophomore Grant Zyskowski saw I contacted the Registrar’s Office and so, which included dropping their con- Professor of Economics George Norman’s e-mail only an hour before the said, ‘This can’t be right; this has to be flicting classes in order to stay in EC 5. Norman, who teaches Economics 5, did class’s start time. changed.’ They then reacted immedi- “I found out that they were moving it not discover the error until the first class “I went to Cohen the first day of class ately … The Registrar’s Office reacted to the time of my favorite Spanish class, on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Despite the fact that and I found the auditorium filled with incredibly quickly so that we were actu- and basically I had to take econ during the official listing said the class was to be students taking bio,” Zyskowski said. “I ally fine by Thursday.” that block and take another Spanish held in Barnum, Norman thought “that didn’t think that was right, so I went to Jack e-mailed students on Sept. 7 class, and it was really terrible,” sopho- must be a mistake,” he said. He can- Barnum and found out that class was informing them that the course had more Sarah Blinka said. celled the first class so that the situation cancelled.” been moved to the later F+ block, from Blinka criticized the scheduling error, could be resolved. “I thought that the [classroom] on noon to 1:15 p.m. on the same days. saying that the mix-up was preventable. Many EC 5 students went to Cohen on the departmental listing was wrong,” Over 85 percent of students in Ec 5 “I feel like having a 300-person class that day anyway. Thinking the class was Norman said. “It was only when I checked were able to take the course at its new to be held there, Norman had sent an on [Student Information System (SIS)] time, according to Jack. Some students see REGISTRAR, page 2 Inside this issue Today’s Sections Researchers have News 1 Editorial | Letters 10 found new uses for Boston continues to silk, including the attract filmmakers in Features 3 Op-Ed 11 potential for an search of a locale. Weekender 5Classifieds 14 invisibility cloak. Comics 9 Sports Back see FEATURES, page 3 see WEEKENDER, page 5 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS Thursday, September 23, 2010 DU brothers expect to move into house soon DU continued from page 1 After an inspection yesterday, DU has collected four of the five signatures needed to clear the house for reoc- cupation. Since the beginning of the month, brothers have had only limited access, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and have not been permitted to stay in the house overnight, accord- ing to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman. Reitman served last year as the interim director of fraternity and sorority affairs. Reitman said that such situations are not uncommon and usually are resolved within a month. “I don’t recall that ever it’s been more than the fi rst three or four weeks of school that anybody’s been out,” Reitman said. Still, three weeks of homelessness were an inconvenience. “It was tough because we were in the middle of preseason and obviously a lot of our guys play football and we needed a place to stay,” Rinciari said. “It was just an issue, like, none of the issues at DU were life-threatening, they were just things that needed to be done that the city requires.” Rinciari, a junior, said the required DANAI MACRIDI/TUFTS DAILY repairs were minor and included fi xing Some blame miscommunication between the national Delta Upsilon organization and the local chapter for the current housing situation. smoke alarms, replacing old exit signs and repairing leaky pipes. so we had to get contractors to come in department is expected to visit the house property in these cases who are really the Both Reitman and Rinciari under- and do the work instead of us doing it.” today. ones who are responsible for it,” Reitman scored the fact that the university does The City of Somerville requires that Most of the fraternities on campus said. “It’s not so much the students’ fault not own DU’s house and that similar a building’s owner obtain fi ve separate are university-owned, and the univer- as it is the owners of the property — in situations have happened in the past. signatures from the fi re department, sity works with the City of Somerville this case, the housing corporation.” The house is owned by the fraternity’s police department, electrical inspector, to ensure inspections are carried out “It’s defi nitely something the owners national organization. health inspector and building inspector, on time over the summer. But in non- of the house need to take care of in the “We had inspection in late August and according to Reitman.