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TUESDAY
jan. 23, 2018 high 49°, low 19°
t h e i n de p e n de n t s t u de n t n e w s pa p e r of s y r a c u s e , n e w yor k |
N • In memory
A memorial service was held in Hendricks Chapel on Monday to celebrate the life of SU freshman Raja “Safi” Aziz, who died during winter break. Page 3
P • Agents of change
dailyorange.com
SU’s College Democrats has gained about 20 members since President Donald Trump’s election, and the group is making the most of the new minds. Page 9
S • Leaps and bounds
David Gilstrap never intended to be a hurdler, especially since lacrosse was his first love. Now, he’s one of SU’s best hurdlers and a team leader. Page 16
State of the union
crime
Police: Man taped SU bathroom By Sam Ogozalek news editor
BRIAN HENNIGAN, an organizer of Syracuse Graduate Employees United, said he hopes a union will improve working conditions for the university’s graduate student employees. kai nguyen photo editor
A Liverpool man has been arrested for videotaping women inside of a bathroom in Syracuse University’s Life Sciences Complex, police said. Garrett J. Monds, 27, was arrested by the Syracuse Police Department on Friday and charged with MONDS unlawful surveillance in the second degree, said Syracuse Police Department Sgt. Richard Helterline in a press release issued Monday afternoon. Last Wednesday, Jan. 17, Department of Public Safety officers responded to a suspicious person call at the complex, 107 College Place, police said. A woman had reported that a man was in a woman’s bathroom on the first floor of the complex, Helterline said. DPS officers then observed Monds leaving the bathroom, Helterline said. “Monds was unable to provide any viable reason for him to be see arrest page 6
Syracuse University graduate students detail unionization drive
men’s basketball
Boeheim addresses tax plan
By Casey Darnell design editor
B
rian Hennigan, a geography Ph.D student and adjunct professor at Syracuse University, sometimes doesn’t have enough money to buy groceries, he said. He’ll make $5,000 this semester, but he still must pay $1,600 toward his annual employee health insurance plan, he added. “I’m very ashamed to say this, but I have to lean on my parents for occasional emergency bailouts when I just don’t have the money to make rent,” Hennigan, 31, said. In an effort to improve his working conditions and the working conditions of other graduate student workers, Hennigan is helping organize Syracuse Graduate Employees United. The group announced a unionization drive near the end of the fall semester in an effort to represent graduate students who work on campus as teaching or research assistants. About 1,200 graduate students work in those positions at the university. Like full-time faculty, these student workers receive employee health insurance and file W-2 income tax forms from SU. Most departments provide stipends and additional funding to cover some of the cost of graduate studies. But the wages graduate workers are paid as teaching or research assistants is too little, Hennigan said, so graduate students struggle to pay for basic amenities. “We are kind of stuck in this prolonged adolescence where
By Sam Fortier and Sam Ogozalek the daily orange
A group of graduate students announced a unionization drive in November. hieu nguyen asst. photo editor
we just can’t afford to live like an adult,” Hennigan said. Hennigan said TA wages are, “less than a living wage as calculated in Syracuse.” The living wage in Syracuse is $22,031 annually before taxes, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s wage calculator. Despite students’ dissatisfaction with their working conditions, some said they believe they have no say about what goes into their contracts. “As it is now, we are handed contracts, and it is either take it or leave it,” said Laura Jaffee, who is currently in her fourth year of Ph.D studies in cultural foundations of education. Both Jaffee and Hennigan are on SGEU’s organizing committee. In her first year of graduate school, Jaffee said she was promised eligibility on the employee health insurance plan for four years as part of her fellowship. Instead, see unionization page 7
Jim Boeheim’s salary could force Syracuse University to pay thousands of dollars in additional taxes every year under a provision of the Republican Party’s controversial tax overhaul plan. “I don’t have much of a feeling on that,” Boeheim said on Monday during the Atlantic Coast Conference coaches teleconference. “I don’t understand exactly what this is all about, really. It’s beyond me.” A nonprofit’s five highest paid employees will generally subject their employer to a new 21 percent excise tax on some of their pay if they make more than $1 million a year in taxable compensation, as part of the provision. Boeheim, the university’s head basketball coach, was paid $1,957,449 in reportable income by SU in Fiscal Year 2014. He also earned $2,151,736 in FY 2015. It’s unlikely Boeheim’s annual see boeheim page 6