BU BRIDGE, 3
HAPPY PLACE, 5
HEATING UP, 9
PATRIOT CHAMPS, 12
City removes trash and needles under BU bridge.
Instagram worth gallery pop-ups on Boylston St.
Earth month serves as a climate change reminder.
BU golf team wins second PL title in five years
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019
THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
YEAR XLVII. VOLUME XCVI. ISSUE VIII
Boston University offers religious waivers to exempt students from vaccination requirements BY DANA SUNG DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Boston University Student Health Services gives students the option to opt-out of certain vaccination requirements if it is conf lict with their religious beliefs. On SHS’s website, it states that a “religious waiver” is given to students who believe that the vaccination requirements do not adhere to their religion. The website does not specify what types of vaccines can be waived. Tyler Seubert, a patient services coordinator at SHS, said the process for receiving a religious waiver requires a letter and a meeting with SHS. “If you are looking to waive for religious reasons, you would basically write a letter stating the reason why you don’t want to take the vaccination,” Seubert said. “You would submit that and we would enter that into the system and you would make an appointment with one of our providers and we would go over the details of immunizations and then we would waive you after that process.” While every state in the US requires students to be vaccinated, religious exemptions are allowed in all but three states, according to the Nationa l Conference of State Legislatures. However, most states, including Massachusetts, do not allow exemptions for personal beliefs. Although disputed by the scientific community, many people believe that vaccines are unsafe and can cause autism, but that is
Drilling distrupts students on Bay State BY DANA SUNG DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
cause autism nor any other health complications and I think it is important that people understand that. Also, I think the policy regarding religious waiver should be re-examined.” Some students were unaware that there was a religious waiver option for required vaccines at BU. Daniela Kotsonis, a freshman in CAS studying biology, said she was not informed that this was part of the policy. “I’d say that [anti-vaxxers] are
During Boston University’s Spring semester, drilling noises have filled Bay State Road, caused by test wells for the new Data Science Center. BU spokesperson Colin Riley said that the school tries to have open communication with the construction crews that are working on campus. “One constant in the city of Boston is that work crews can show up and begin doing scheduled work and sometimes unscheduled work.” Riley said. Riley said that BU is drilling near Bay State in order to create test wells. These will test the grounding system to see how many wells they will need to build for the geothermal heating and cooling of the new Data Sciences Center. Geothermal heat pumps “allows the system to reach fairly high efficiencies on the coldest of winter night,” according to the Green Energy Mechanical Inc. The test wells determine how many geothermal heat pumps are needed for the Data Sciences Center. BU’s geothermal technology is part of the university’s Climate Action Plan. This project will consist of three different geothermal test wells that will take place in the parking lot of 645 Commonwealth Ave., the alleyway behind 184 Bay
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SERENA YU/ DFP STAFF
Students pass Boston University’s Student Health Services. SHS gives students the option to opt-out of certain vaccination requirements due to their religious beliefs.
not what the religious exemption is about. The specifics of religious opposition to vaccines var y across religions and denominations. According to an article in the Croatian Medical Journal, Catholics who oppose vaccines do so because of vaccines that use “cell lines derived from a voluntarily aborted fetus,” like ones for rubella, hepatitis, and chicken pox. Some Orthodox Protestant parents refuse to vaccinate their
children because it is “an act of interfering with divine providence.” Some Buddhists say vaccines go against one of the Ten Buddhist Precepts, “not taking life.” Gracie Abdalla, freshman in the College of Arts in Science studying biology, said she doesn’t think the science is up for debate and the waiver might not be a good policy. “It has been continuously proven that vaccines are safe,” Abdalla said. “Vaccines do not
City allocates $50,000 Ayanna Pressley leads conversation for immigrant defense on race, women’s rights in Brookline BY MIA CATHELL & JOEL LAU DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Mayor Martin Walsh’s office announced Saturday that the proposed 2020 fiscal year budget will allocate $50,000 to support the Greater Boston Immigrant Defense Fund, which helps fund education and legal services for Boston’s immigrant communities. Walsh said in a City press release that the defense fund, established in 2017, is a statement of Boston’s values and that immigrants deserve access to information about their rights. “I am proud to include City funds in the FY2020 Budget to further the success demonstrated during the early stages of the program,” Walsh said in the press release, “and I thank those who have invested in our City’s wellbeing.”
The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute launched a two-year pilot program of the defense fund in 2017, which was supposed to end in Dec. 2019, according to the press release. However, the $50,000 dollars allocated by Walsh would “jumpstart” the defense fund’s third year by paying for counsel for approximately 30 Boston immigration cases, according to the press release. MLRI immigration attorney Deirdre Giblin said while immigrants have a right to legal representation, the government is not required to provide a court-appointed lawyer. Since many immigrants lack the finances to hire their own counsel, Giblin said, CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
BY NATALIE PATRICK DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Massachusetts) spoke Tuesday about the importance
of building diverse relationships and women’s representation in government. The event was hosted by Raul Fernandez, Boston University
COURTESY OF LAURA BRADFORD
U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley and Raul Fernandez speaking about race and equality on April 23 at the Congregation Kehillath Israel.
Wheelock College of Education and Human Development associate dean for Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion. The event, titled “A Conversation on Race” and was held at Congregation Kehillath Israel. Pressley, who became the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representative when she was elected to represent Massachusetts 7th District in November, headlined the event and was followed by a community discussion on the issue of race in Brookline. Fernandez, who is currently running for the Brookline Select Board, said at the event that he has been inspired by Pressley’s work in Congress, as Boston City Councilor at-large and with multiple advocacy groups. “[Pressley] believes that the people closest to the pain should be closCONTINUED ON PAGE 4