GET ON BOARD, 2
GLOSSI-AH, 6
BOOK SMART, 9
RED SACK, 10
Cardboard recycling initiative mitigates movein waste.
Boston pop-up Glossier brings Gen-Z beauty to Seaport.
Parents are paying large sums to put their kids in “public” schools.
Dave Dombrowski was fired as Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Sunday night.
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THURSDAY, SEPT. 12, 2019
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THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Free campus menstrual product dispensers BY NYAH JORDAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
Boston University installed free menstrual product dispensers over the summer in six buildings on the Charles River Campus as part of a menstrual products pilot program first proposed to the university more than three years ago. The pilot was first proposed to the BU student government by Senate alumnus Nehemiah Dureus and College of Arts and Sciences senior Hayley Gambon in fall 2018. The initiative earned preliminary support from Senate and in spring 2019 a semester-long pilot program began to test the program. After the pilot program ended, Campus Planning and Operations worked with the Dean of Students to implement the program over the summer. The CAS student government was to place a dispenser in every bathroom across campus. So far, the university has placed dispensers in the Questrom School of Business, College of Communication, CAS, School of Law, the George Sherman Union and College of General Studies. Jennifer Lloyd, the project manager of the menstrual product pilot, said there are 164 dispensers across campus, and for now, BU’s administration does not plan on expanding it. Michael Donovan, the vice president for Campus Planning & Operations, said that the pilot program is going well and concerns from trying this initiative in previous years have not been an issue. “Actually, we’ve done a number of times years ago, and due to vandalism, theft and probably abuse, in so far as overuse, it was difficult for us to maintain
YEAR XLVII. VOLUME XCVII. ISSUE II
A look into funds for city council campaigns BY JOEL LAU DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
GABRIELA HUTCHINGS/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The new feminine hygiene dispenser in the College of Communication. Boston University has installed new dispensers around campus with free feminine products.
a reliable supply of products,” Donovan said. The dispensers are also in the men’s bathroom in order to be inclusive, Donovan said. “There are people who identify gender wise as a male that may have a need for the product,” Donovan said. “We’re just being respectful of that and trying to be accommodating.” Mary Murphy-Phillips, the director of Graduate Student Life, believes the initiative is something that should happen on both the Charles River and Medical Campuses, as well as in dorm buildings. “I just want to stress that it is very
important for it to happen in both campuses,” Murphy-Phillips said. “Right now, we’re doing it in the School of Public Health because it’s something that’s important to us. But I’d like to see it also in the dorms.” BU’s School of Public Health led a similar initiative called “The Period Project” that works towards the goal of placing dispensers in bathrooms on campus and beyond. Caroline Ezekwesili, the president of The Period Project, believes that the initiative should have taken place long ago, as student government senators proposed this idea last fall semester. “I think it’s definitely long overdue,”
Only London for CGS freshmen
Ezekwesili said. Ezekwesili said she believes providing dispensers in the bathrooms at BU is an equity and access issue, and she was grateful for the support the SPH immediately put forward after The Period Project was created. “Whenever I think about it, it doesn’t make sense to me how providing menstrual products is a topic of debate and a topic people don’t agree with for some reason as we provide other hygiene products on campus for free,” Ezekwesili said. “Sure, people have been navigating this for literally years, but it doesn’t mean it’s okay. You’ve been navigating it because you have no other choice.”
BY JOEL LAU
DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The College of General Studies at Boston University no longer offers students the chance to study on campus for their first fall semester. All incoming CGS first-year students are now in the Boston-London January Program and will arrive on campus for the first time in January 2020. BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email that many CGS students will benefit from this new program. “It seems attractive to a number of students who also benefit from spending time studying abroad in their freshman year,” Riley wrote. “And the enrollment is growing.” From now on, all students accepted into CGS will start with a gap semester. They will all attend BU for the first time in January and study abroad in London over the following summer. Natalie McKnight, the dean of CGS, wrote in an email that a January admissions program is very popular in other universities and a
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation awarded $5.1 million dollars, split between 18 different cities across the state, to help fund construction projects that will improve the safety and accessibility of city roads for all its users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and public transit riders. The funds were allocated as part of the Complete Streets Funding Program, which was established to help fund street improvements in cities across the state and has awarded a total of $38 million since February 2016. The 18 cities chosen during this round of funding will use the money for a variety of street improvement projects, which include creating bicycle lanes, replacing sidewalks and installing speed-monitoring radar. The cities were awarded anywhere between $100,000 and $400,000 dollars for these projects. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said in a press release that the state has always been committed to improving the safety and
CONOR KELLEY/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
gap semester can have its own benefits for students. “Many universities have January admissions programs,” McKnight wrote. “One reason is that more students study abroad in the spring than in the fall, [is] so universities have the capacity to bring in more students in the spring. But there are other benefits that relate more to the student experience. The gap semester has proven to be really valuable to incoming freshmen.” Courtney Zenner, a sophomore
in CGS, was a student that came through the fall semester program of CGS and said she would’ve liked to see BU keep the fall semester as an option for CGS freshmen. “I’m sad to see that they are no longer offering the CGS fall semester,” Zenner said. “I don’t think I would have applied for the CGS program if I had to take the gap semester. I’m sure it is great for a lot of people and study abroad looks fun but I don’t think it would be for me.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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$5 mil for city streets
BY DANA SUNG
The outside of Boston University’s College of General Studies. Beginning in the 2019 academic year, CGS has removed its fall program and now solely offers the Boston-London January program.
With the preliminary elections for Boston’s 2019 City Council race less than two weeks away, candidates across the city are readying their campaigns and rallying volunteers as they begin their final push to reach voters before polls open for the preliminary elections on Sept. 24. There are many factors at play in deciding a race’s outcome, but by examining and comparing candidates’ fundraising totals, one can get a fair idea of the level of support candidates have raised throughout their campaigns. State law requires ever y city council candidate to file monthly campaign finance disclosures, detailing all contributions and expenditures, to the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance, which then releases the data to the public through their online database. While last week’s article looked at the campaign finance records for all 15 candidates for councilor at-large, this week, The Daily Free Press compiled fundraising data from the four district council races taking part in September’s preliminary elections.
accessibility of its city streets, and that the Funding Program will work with a bill recently proposed by Baker that seeks and additional $18 billion in funding to modernize the state’s transportation system. “We are pleased to have included support for the Complete Streets program in our administration’s recently filed transportation bond bill,” Baker said in the press release, “so that the Commonwealth can continue to invest in improving mobility, access, and safety for all roadway users across the Commonwealth.” Of the $18 billion dollars requested in the bill, $20 million will be reserved for the Complete Streets Funding Program, according to the bill. The rest of the bill’s requested money will be used for various transportation initiatives, including creating a program to prevent traffic bottlenecks on local roads, expanding the use of bus lanes, improving pavement and bridge quality and modernizing the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, according to a state press release. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3