The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper
T H U R S DAY, O C T O B E R 3 , 2 013
spreading ‘care’ abroad
Federal shutdown shakes U students
Italy study abroad program examines domestic, sexual violence in country
Government furloughs jobs, ends services amid congressional gridlock
By Madeleine List @madeleine_list Staff writer
By Jim Bach @thedbk Senior staff writer
Italy has a lot to offer students looking to study abroad: fine art, classic food and — with a university-run program — valuable insight into handling domestic and sexual violence. In March, students will have a chance to study abroad in Italy to explore the way the country responds to domestic violence cases and cares for victims. It will be the second such trip run by the University Health Center’s CARE to Stop Violence program.
the workers’ contract had initially been written with the “best of intentions,” managers had found loopholes over the years that they used to “exploit people” and “take advantage of the workers.”
Jalisa Whitley pursued a career i n p u bl ic se r v ic e b e c au se she wanted to touch lives and help lowincome families, but it didn’t take long for her to realize how difficult it can be to work in a field beholden to federal funding. Whitley is one of 800,000 federal workers deemed “nonessential” and therefore absorbing large-scale furloughs as a result of the government shutdown, which began Tuesday. Her employer, the National Institutes of Health, has furloughed 73 percent of its staff, keeping on a skeletal staff to continue operations considered essential to the federal government. While that may seem high, the NIH’s furlough percentage pales in comparison to the 97 percent furloughed at NASA and the 94 percent at the Department of Education. “It’s my first introduction to the government, and in a little less than a month, I’m already furloughed,” said Whitley, a public policy master’s candidate at this university specializing in nonprofit management and leadership. Her human resources position at the NIH was furloughed almost as soon as she got it. The shutdown came as the climax of a long-standing divide in Congress over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. President Obama’s signature health care legislation, passed in 2010, has been highly divisive among lawmakers and has pitted
See workers, Page 3
See shutdown, Page 3
stephanie rivero (left) and Fatima Burns (right) will lead a nine-day study abroad trip to Italy in March to study violence against women. james levin/the diamondback The trip, built around nine days in Italy, also helps to raise awareness among students about the services offered for victims of sexual violence at this university, said Fatima Burns, CARE coordinator. “We just wanted to build more awareness about domestic violence and reach out to students who didn’t have any idea about our office and what we do,” Burns said.
Italy is an interesting place for students to study this topic because it’s considered a modern country like the U.S., but it’s years behind in terms of its domestic violence policies, said Burns, a co-director for the trip. Between 2000 and 2012, 2,200 women were murdered in Italy, according to The New York Times, and 75 percent of those women were killed by partners or former partners. A
combination of factors, from lack of social services to inefficient law enforcement, contributes to the epidemic of violence against women in the European country, said Stephanie Rivero, assistant coordinator for CARE and codirector for the trip. “They’re still in the beginning See italy, Page 3
University workers rights contract moves forward By Annika McGinnis @annikam93 Senior staff writer After a summer of protests and back-and-forth between the university workers union and the university over negotiation logistics, the workers rights contract is moving forward with discussion of proposals to improve working conditions. A group from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union — which represents 3,000 maintenance and housekeeping workers at the university — presented a set of proposals to
the university in September designed to improve the language of workers’ contracts with their managers, said union spokesman Jeff Pittman. These proposals come after months of hashing out whether workers would have to take their own vacation days to attend negotiations. Workers led a series of demonstrations over what they called a lack of respect from the university, and now the parties are discussing substantive details. “Honestly, we expected that we would be further along than we are now,” Pittman said. “We’re kind of surprised that we were squabbling over who could use their own vacation
housekeepers protested in late June for higher wages and better work conditions. file photo/the diamondback time. … It’s unprecedented.” But after worker backlash and media coverage, managers let workers attend negotiations without penalty. Akilah Jackson, IT coordinator for the Division of Information Technology and a member of the union’s negotiation team, said while she thought
Criminology partners with county police By Teddy Amenabar @TeddyAmen Senior staff writer
Res Life to plan next 20 years Department analyzing renovations, housing By Dustin Levy @dustinblevy Staff writer
criminology and criminal justice majors in Lefrak Hall will soon have a new resource to help them learn: a partnership with Prince George’s County Police to study local crime and enforcement. james levin/the diamondback
Through a new partnership with Prince George’s County Police, university criminology and criminal justice students will be able to study crime and law enforcement as it happens in the local community. Officials signed a memorandum of understanding in September, in which police agreed to let students study the department’s policies and practices on an ongoing basis. The criminology and criminal justice department and police have collaborated on research in the past, but this agreement will cement an official and continual partnership. Developing details about the col-
laboration are in the preliminary stages, said the police department’s Inspector General Carlos Acosta, but the partnership will allow police to receive feedback and stay accountable, oversight the department welcomes. “We want to have an outside set of eyes look at what we’re doing and tell us if we are doing it correctly,” Acosta said. The university doesn’t offer many real-world educational opportunities that give students this level of insight into the field in a setting close to home, and criminology and criminal justice professor Charles Wellford said the experience is valuable. There is a part-
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nership with New Orleans police, in which students and professors from the university work in tandem with officers to track how criminals get access to firearms, but this new partnership could provide opportunities locally. Relationships with police agencies give university faculty members a chance to research trends and allow students to see how agencies really work. “The only laboratories we have are police departments, correctional agencies, etc.,” Wellford said. “In order to really see and practice how many of the things we can teach
SPORTS
DON’T LOOK AHEAD Columnist Aaron Kasinitz writes about the Terps’ early success giving them a chance to contend this season despite talk about a dubious future P. 8
See pgpd, Page 2
This semester, the Department of Resident Life will analyze the scope of the university’s housing options and recommend improvements as part of a wide range of issues the department plans to tackle over the coming months. The department’s goals include a strategic housing plan, an activitybased program for international students and a new presence in social media, Resident Life Director Deborah Grandner said. The strategic housing plan, which will be unveiled in a presentation later in the semester, is the most far-reaching and impactful of the department’s plans. “This will look at the entire program — student life and resi-
dential facilities — and it will put together a plan for the next 20 years of renovations and housing and programmatic emphasis and really our major agendas for the future,” Grandner said. “Quite a bit of my energy is invested in that.” The department hired consultants from campus architecture firm Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company for the project and is also collaborating with Student Affairs Assistant Vice President Mary Hummel, Residential Facilities Director Jon Dooley and Residence Hall Association student members. “It’s really an exciting project that the university is undertaking, and the RHA is happy and proud to be a part of that conversation so that the resident voice is at the forefront,” RHA President Omer Kaufman said. See housing, Page 2
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