Friday, November 9, 2018

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SINCE 1891

THE BROWN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018

VOLUME CLII, ISSUE 98

WWW.BROWNDAILYHERALD.COM

City Council to vote on Hope Point Tower Dining Services raises wages Council to vote on for all student workers zoning change for height restrictions for proposed Hope Point Tower

After student concerns over hours, pay, Dining Services also abolishes oncall, forms working group

By COLLEEN CRONIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

By ALLIE REED

Following two public hearings on the proposed Hope Point Tower project, the Providence Committee on Ordinances voted Thursday night to open the project to a full City Council vote. The Hope Point Tower is a 600-foottall luxury apartment complex slated to be built on former I-195 land downtown. If the tower receives the necessary zoning approval from the City Council, it will be the tallest building in Providence and the tallest residential tower in New England. As early as next Thursday, the City Council could vote on whether to approve the proposal. Out-of-state developer Jason Fane hopes to build the tower on a parcel of land zoned for 100-foot-tall buildings — a restriction created three years ago under a citywide, comprehensive zoning plan. The ordinances committee’s recommendation to approve the plan came down to a three-to-one vote.

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

TINA YANG / HERALD

Throughout the meeting, Ward 13 Councilperson Bryan Principe — who voted against the zoning change — voiced frustration with the proposal, saying that it did not comply with the comprehensive plan’s guidelines. “We’re sticking it to developers,” Principe said, explaining that other development projects have had to follow the comprehensive zoning rules. “We’re saying to everybody else, ‘We’re for sale.’” Ward 5 Councilperson Jo-Ann Ryan, who voted to move the proposal

Protesters call for Senate to protect Mueller probe Appointment of Whitaker as acting attorney general met with protests across United States By DYLAN MAJSIAK SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Community members surrounded the R.I. State House late Thursday afternoon to denounce President Trump’s appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general. Over 900 other demonstrations took place across the country to protest the appointment as an obstruction to the investigation of Trump’s relationship with Russia, said rally organizer and IndivisibleRI founder Andy Acciaioli. In collaboration with national progressive advocacy group MoveOn, Indivisible — a volunteer collective with over 6,000 chapters — planned the Providence rally late Wednesday after former Attorney General Jeff Sessions accepted Trump’s request to resign, Acciaioli told The Herald. Following Sessions’ resignation, Whitaker is now in charge of Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia. In

INSIDE

a CNN op-ed originally published Aug. 6, 2017, Whitaker publicly criticized the probe for “going too far.” As acting attorney general, Whitaker will likely either stop the investigation or defund it, said Assistant Executive Director of IndivisibleRI Shawna Rihani. Whitaker’s public defense of Trump demonstrates that he is a “Trump loyalist,” she added. “Mueller could get fired tomorrow,” Rihani said from the steps of the State House. “We are on the cusp of a national emergency, and it is our responsibility to make our voices heard.” Rally attendees shouted “Lock him up” — a jab at Trump’s 2016 campaign chant about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — and thrust signs into the air, some of which read “No One is Above The Law” and “Innocent Presidents Don’t Act This Way! PROTECT MUELLER INVESTIGATION.” IndivisibleRI Area Director Kamila Barzykowkski called for Whitaker to recuse himself from the investigation to keep Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in control of the probe. She also demanded that the Senate pass special protections to safeguard the investigation, such as the one Sens. Jeff » See RALLY, page 2

forward, disagreed. “We need to say to other developers, ‘We’re here, and we’re open for business,’” Ryan said, calling the project a “once-in-a-decade opportunity.” Ryan voiced support for the tower because of its potential to create jobs, a proposition that drew laughter from some in the audience. Thursday night’s meeting was not a public hearing but an opportunity for the ordinance committee to discuss the tower and vote on whether » See TOWER, page 2

Following discussions between Brown Dining Services and the BuDS student management team, Dining Services raised student workers’ wages for all positions, wrote Director of Dining Services Peter Rossi in an email to The Herald. As of Nov. 2, workers’ starting rate increased from $10.60 to $11.00 an hour. Supervisors, assistant unit managers and unit managers’ pay differentials increased to $2.00, $4.50 and $5.50 above the base worker rate respectively, Rossi wrote in a separate email to the student management team. The starting wages for junior and senior supervisors were previously $1.50 and $1.75 over the base wage, respectively, The Herald previously reported. Assistant unit managers previously earned $2.25 over the base wage and unit managers earned a flat rate of $14.35 an hour, wrote Savanna

Rilatos ’20, general manager of BuDS, in an email to The Herald. Discussions about wage increases have been in progress since August, Rilatos said. Supervisors and unit managers have reported feeling overworked and underpaid, The Herald previously reported. Since mid-October, “staffing has gotten so much better,” Rilatos said, adding that several new supervisors have been hired in the past week. In addition to implementing these wage increases, Dining Services has eliminated on-call hours for carts, cashiers and Blue Room workers, Rilatos said. To fill these hours, Dining Services “added shifts for nonstudent employees” and continues to “review operational adjustments to further support this change,” Rossi wrote. Carts Unit Manager Katherine Jimenez ’20 and Assistant Director of Retail Dining for Dining Services Bobby Noyes were instrumental in redesigning the on-call system for carts, Rilatos said. Under the new system, units “will have the direct support of retail professionals … to help with subbing, no-shows and other day-to-day » See DINING, page 2

Watson panel extols virtues of marriage

JACK JACOBY / HERALD

Professor W. Brad Wilcox (left), Ethan Shire ’19 (middle) and Professor Glenn Loury (right) discussed the impact of marriage on adults, children and society as a whole through a sociological and economic lens.

Profs point to social, economic benefits of marriage, some audience members raise concerns By SPENCER SCHULTZ CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Professor of Economics Glenn Loury and Professor W. Brad Wilcox, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, engaged in a discussion titled

“Perspectives on Family Structure, Marriage, and Inequality” last night. The two professors examined how marriage can affect social and economic trends, and Wilcox ultimately offered a defense of the institution of marriage. Wilcox began by contextualizing the state of marriage in the United States: “Since the 1960s, we have seen a retreat from marriage that has impacted less educated, less affluent and minority Americans much more than it has affected upper-middle-class and

college-educated Americans.” He cited data indicating that 77 percent of teens in college-educated homes live with both parents, compared to only about half of teens from less educated homes. This decline in marriage poses a great risk to the economic and social well-being of future generations, Wilcox said. With links to higher income, greater economic stability and social benefits, raising a child in a twoparent household is the “gold standard” » See PANEL, page 3

WEATHER

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2018

NEWS UFB to release first budget report Nov. 21 after working with SAO to better understand available data

SPORTS Carchio ’20 finishes season with one goal, two assists in Senior Day match against Yale

COMMENTARY Klein ’20: Duke basketball is unmatched in skill, performance due to several top-rated players

COMMENTARY Anthony ’22: To make most of Brown experience, make peace with learning at your own pace

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