NEWS The Boston Police Department expanded their cadet training program, allowing more candidates to participate. p.4
MUSE FreeP vs. Food featured boba this week, ranking each spot based on milk tea flavor, boba texture and ambiance. p.6
38°/54° RAIN
SPORTS Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 Miracle on the Ice team, talks about his life-changing goal against the USSR. p.12
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THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017 THE INDEPENDENT WEEKLY STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY YEAR XLVI. VOLUME XCII. ISSUE XI.
‘15 alumna sues BU for lack of disability accommodations BY ELLIE FRENCH DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
PHOTO BY ALEXANDER NOVAKOVIC/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
The Boston University Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center collaborates with the BU Arts Initiative to create an exhibition to showcase how student artists respond to sexual assault, allyship and prevention. The exhibit will remain open at BU Arts Initiative’s office from April 3 through April 12.
SARP uses art to raise awareness about cause BY AMANDA KAUFMAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
In celebration of Sexual Assault Awareness Week at Boston University and National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Center collaborated with the BU Arts Initiative to create an exhibition of students’ artistic responses to sexual assault, allyship and prevention. The gallery, located at the BU Arts Initiative office on the second floor of the George Sherman Union, will remain open until April 10, said Sarah Collins, assistant director of the BU Arts Initiative. Collins said that although the BU Arts Initiative had never worked with SARP before, the creation of the gallery was a
large collaborative effort between the two offices. She said this particular exhibit connects both of their causes while providing an opportunity for students to get involved. “Our working with SARP and their mission is a really good connection that they hadn’t had before in terms of an artistic approach to things,” Collins said. “It was a good opportunity for them to offer an alternative way for students who are dealing with things to engage.” The gallery also allows students to understand sexual assault in a different way, she said. “Everyone has their own way to process things, so this gives people an opportunity to see things in a different light so that they don’t necessarily have to talk about them, but to view other people’s experience and see how other people went through things
or be able to see people’s art work … maybe it is helpful to someone,” Collins said. Sarah Voorhees, a health and prevention educator for SARP, wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press that some students approached SARP before, wishing to brainstorm ways for student art to be included in Sexual Assault Awareness Week. “SARP is happy to be working with BU Arts Initiative to create another platform for students to express themselves and another way for the BU community to engage with BU Sexual Assault Awareness Week,” Voorhees wrote. In addition to the new gallery, Voorhees wrote that the week integrates student art through The Clothesline Project, a project which allows women to express their CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
Residents support Safe Communities Act BY AMANDA KAUFMAN DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
On a gloomy Wednesday afternoon, approximately 150 people gathered at the Boston Common to participate in an “emergency rally” to support immigrants, urging Massachusetts elected officials to support the Safe Communities Act. The rally, planned by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, was intended to take place at the Massachusetts State House to celebrate the 21st Annual Immigrants Day, said Joel Rivera, a field organizer for the MIRA Coalition. “We want to take the temperatures of legislators and we want them to be flooded by people who are supporting this bill,” Rivera told The Daily Free Press after the rally. Rivera said the protest was moved to Boston Common to accommodate the large CONTINUED ON PAGE 3
PHOTO BY KECHENG LIU/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
State Rep. Mike Connolly speaks at the Boston Common Wednesday afternoon and encourages Massachusetts legislators to pass the Safe Communities Act.
A former Boston University student has filed a lawsuit against the university after allegedly being attacked by a fellow student in the Breadwinners at the Questrom School of Business, claiming BU failed to provide a safe space and did not accommodate her disabilities caused by the incident. Alicia Schaefer, who graduated from Questrom in 2015, filed the suit in October, 2016. The linked case involves eight claims, all of which stemmed from the attack that took place in 2013, when Yongjie Fu, her classmate, allegedly “body-checked” her after a dispute in the restaurant. The docket report filed with the Suffolk County Superior Court Civil Clerk’s Office states that Schaefer and Fu were enrolled in two of the same courses that semester. Schaefer was uneasy around Fu because of his “loud” and “aggressive” behavior, where he would consistently follow and bother her, according to the docket. At the restaurant, Fu got in line behind Schaefer, where he screamed at her and ripped a sandwich out of her hands before he began physically attacking her, the docket states. “Fu completely lost it, and seemingly out of nowhere body-checked Ms. Schaefer. And what happened was first she went head first into a wall, and then onto the floor,” said Sara Burns, one of Schaefer’s lawyers. “Fu is not a small person … and as a result [Schaefer] had many injuries: both head injuries as well as injuries to some of her limbs, and so she was on crutches for the remainder of the semester.” Criminal charges were filed against Fu in addition to Schaefer’s current civil charges against him. Her four allegations filed against Fu are for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery. The other four claims Schaefer filed in the case are against BU. The first and primary allegation is for BU’s violation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which guarantees certain rights to people with disabilities. The other three claims accuse BU for allegedly creating an abusive educational environment for Schaefer, cluding carelessly employing Fu as a teaching assistant and failing to protect Schaefer from harassment and battery, according to the docket. The university declined to comment on the lawsuit. Fu’s lawyers did not respond to numerous requests for comment by press time. Burns said that in recovering from the attack, Schaefer needed certain accommodations from BU that were not provided to her. “Because of her injuries, she really needed extended time in taking different exams and needed time away from the university to get medical care,” Burns said. “The nature of her head injury in particular severely limited the amount of time she was say, supposed to think in a day. Head injuries are very unique in that … for the brain to heal itself, it might require CONTINUED ON PAGE 2