10-18-2018

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WEEK OF CRIME, 2

GET OUT THE VOTE, 4

City discusses need to lower crime rates after recent streak of violence.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2018

Students are registering to vote thanks to BU’s partnership with online tool TurboVote.

HUBWEEK HAVOC, 7

ONE MORE WIN, 10

City Hall Plaza lit up as HUBweek 2018 was underway with large domes and art.

Field hockey needs three more points to secure top seeding.

THE INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY

YEAR XLVI. VOLUME XCIV. ISSUE VII

COM BYOD policy faces mixed reactions

ZOE ADES/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

The Boston University College of Communication’s Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy went into effect this fall, forcing many students to use their own laptops for assignments.

BY AUDREY MARTIN, LEXI MATTHEWS AND CONOR KELLEY DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

On the first day of her Motion Picture Editing class, film and television student Caroline Barry was going to start her classwork of importing, rendering and editing footage. Instead, Barry and her classmates spent upward of three hours downloading software onto their laptops. “We had to input all the same footage and programs so we’d all be on the same track,” the junior said. “Instead of taking a half an hour like our teacher expected, it took longer

than the class itself.” Barry and her peers are among the first wave of students to experience the pros and cons of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy now in effect at Boston University’s College of Communication. Last spring, COM announced that fall 2018 would see the removal of all but one of its computer labs in the COM building and the complete shift to the BYOD policy for students. The department claimed that the expenses required to maintain the 11 computer labs in COM had become unjustifiable, since more and more students were already bringing their own devices.

Additionally, the Adobe licenses connected with computer labs are no longer necessary, as a deal BU made with Adobe last year now allows students to download the Adobe Creative Cloud suite onto their personal devices for free. Now, only one computer lab in Room 338 remains open, with 13 iMacs available for use inside. Some students have had trouble downloading the Creative Cloud and other software, specifically Avid Media Composer, COM Director of Technology Brad Fernandes said. The initial version of Avid COM posted was not compatible with certain iMacs, he said, but students

have primarily faced issues such as full hard drives and bad media management. “So far, we’ve had surprises that we didn’t anticipate, and we anticipated things that were not really problems,” Fernandes said. Over the summer, Fernandes said, COM purchased 35 new loaner Macbook Pro laptops using its technology budget for students to check out for classes. COM lends an average of 5.5 laptops per day, he said. “If anything, right now we’re showing that maybe we bought too many,” Fernandes said. The new laptops, having been recently purchased by COM, were in good condition at the start of the semester and showed no signs of damage or overuse. Students can check one out, along with a charging cable and mouse, for three to four hours inside the COM building. Students must present their BU ID to the COM technology office and disclose what class they require it for in order to check one out. Overall, aside from the overbuying of loaner laptops and some “hiccups” with students installing the new software, Fernandes said he thinks the new policies are going well. “I think we overthought some things over the summer and some of the areas we didn’t know,” he said, “but that’s going to be the case with everything [with] 3,000 students here at COM.” Along with students, COM professors who either taught classes in the computer labs or currently rely CONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Kenmore Square scene to change further BY ALEX LASALVIA DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Boston University students have already felt the loss of Bertucci’s and Bruegger’s Bagels, and now, even more familiar Kenmore Square businesses will be disappearing. The Kenmore Square branch of City Convenience shut down Monday, and Barnes and Noble will be relocating as changes and redevelopment come to Kenmore Square in the upcoming months. Kenmore Square is being redeveloped by Related Beal, the Boston branch of the real estate firm Related Companies. According to Patrick Sweeney, managing director of the Boston-based company, the Kenmore Square area has a good transportation infrastructure and the company sees potential in the underused buildings in the square. “We love Kenmore,” Sweeney wrote in an email. “This project will further enhance the activity and prominence of Kenmore Square as one of Boston’s centers of urban life …” Construction will begin in early 2019 and is set to be completed by early 2021, Sweeney wrote. The project was designed by architect Roger Ferris, Sweeney wrote. It will involve a variety of changes, including modifications of some buildings, rebuilding of CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Debate over Question 1 continues leading up to midterm elections BY JOEL LAU DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Ballot Question 1 will impact every nurse, hospital and patient in Massachusetts. But, while this initiative is being championed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association — the state’s largest nurses’ union — nearly every hospital across the state opposes it. The question, which will be decided on by voters in the upcoming midterm election, proposes that the state set limits on the maximum number of patients that can be assigned to each nurse at a given time. These guidelines will be set based on patient need and carry a fine of up to $25,000 dollars every day a hospital violates the rules. Taylor Maher, a spokesperson for the Committee to Ensure Safe Patient Care, explained that the union believes maximizing nurse-patient interaction is the only way to guarantee nurses can devote enough time and focus to adequately serve each of their patients. “Without safe patient limits,

medical errors occur, readmission rates skyrocket and the standard of care is not up to par,” Maher said. “Patients deserve quality care when in the hospital, no matter where in Massachusetts they live.” However, the Coalition to Protect Patient Safety, which is comprised of seven Massachusetts nurses associations and nearly every hospital within the state, opposes the proposition. Coalition spokesperson Maddie Clair said the proposal will increase health care costs, lengthen emergency room wait times and ultimately “end up limiting access to care for more residents of Massachusetts.” Boston Medical Center projected that the proposition will cost BMC nearly $28 million and will force the hospital to limit the number of patients it can treat. “For example, if this ballot question passes,” BMC wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press, “... our Emergency Department, which is the largest provider of trauma services in New England, would have

to reduce capacity by more than 100 patients a day.” What worries Clair the most, she said, is that the proposal will impose restrictions that she said will severely hinder nurses’ abilities to provide the best possible medical care to their patients. “[The ratios] do not allow for nurses to collaborate with one another and use their skills and judgment to make the right call for patients,” Clair said. “So, at the end of the day, it’s the patients that will suffer.” It is these ratios that convinced Laura Mylott, a registered nurse and clinical professor at the School of Nursing in Northeastern University’s Bouvé College of Health Sciences, to oppose Question 1. She said she is primarily concerned that this “one size fits all” solution cannot sufficiently account for the many elements that dictate nursing assignments. “RN variables, such as educational level, experience, expertise, certifications for certain kinds of skill sets as well as organizational

ILLUSTRATION BY SOPHIE PARK/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF

Brookline resident Susan Park reads about patient-to-nurse limits in the Massachusetts 2018 Ballot Questions booklet.

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