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THE MASSACHUSETTS
A free and responsible press
DAILY COLLEGIAN
Thursday, January 29, 2015
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Serving the UMass community since 1890
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UMass asks for responsible Super Bowl celebrating Game-day resources website online today By Aviva Luttrell Collegian Staff
U n ive r s i t y of Massachusetts officials have taken a number of steps in the week leading up to Super Bowl Sunday to reduce the likelihood of a large, crowd-related disturbance taking place in the Southwest Residential Area after the game, including modifying the school’s guest policy and planning alternative activities for students. For 24 hours, beginning at noon Sunday, no guests will be allowed in any residential hall on campus, and students will only have access to the dorm in which they live. UMass residents will be allowed to sign in a total of four guests from
Friday to Sunday morning, but only two can be non-UMass students. Additionally, University administrators have been monitoring social media closely in preparation for the event and plan to unveil a new website Thursday with a variety of game-day resources for students. UMass has a long history of crowd-related disturbances, especially after Red Sox and Patriots championship games, Vice Chancellor Enku Gelaye told the Collegian. Last October, 15 students were arrested after a World Series celebration got out of control, and 14 arrests were made after a similar disturbance took place after Super Bowl XLVI in 2012. In anticipation of this year’s game, Gelaye said administrators have been
watching all forms of social media closely, including Twitter, Fade and Yik Yak. “Most of the UMass Super Bowl posts have the word ‘riot’ in them and ‘riot’ is a very specific word,” she said. “‘Riot’ is not the same thing as ‘celebrate.’ I think if social media was abuzz with celebrating the Patriots winning or going to the Super Bowl, I think we may be having a different conversation.” Gelaye and UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski said former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis’ report on large, crowdrelated disturbances at UMass was a central aspect of the planning process for Sunday. The 65-page report, released in September, outlines a number of findings and rec-
ommendations for how the University can better deal with these disturbances, with a focus on community policing, police planning and response, high-risk drinking, social media, student and University accountability and public perception. Blaguszewski noted that administrators understand that the vast majority of students are not inclined to engage in destructive activities, but an important piece of the Davis report talks about how the broader student body can easily get swept up into the crowd mentality when things start to get out of control. “Those who go to watch it are also unknowingly swept up into the dynamic of what happens in the Southwest area because those people need onlookers to be validated,” Gelaye
COLLEGIAN FILE PHOTO
Almost 3,000 people gathered in the Southwest Residential Area in 2013 after the Red Sox won the World Series. UMass administration is trying to prevent a similar incident this year. said. “Those people need somebody with a cell phone to take a picture and post it. That feeds that environment in ways that makes it dangerous for everybody involved.” During last year’s World
Series disturbance, a crowd of more than 3,000 gathered in the Southwest concourse and a structured celebration was trashed, prompting police to deploy see
SUPER BOWL on page 2
Bright lights glow on a chilly night Jordan may take
ISIS hostage deal Pilot and Japanese journalist requested By Donna Abu-Nasr and Isabel Reynolds Bloomberg News
CADE BELISLE/COLLEGIAN
The library is lit up at sunset as students hurry to and from classes in the subfreezing degree weather on Wednesday.
Beautiful encourages discussion on body image and loving oneself Club looks toward “I went to the first empowering students By Catherine Ferris Collegian Staff
When Adrienne Gagne, a psychology and public health major, was a freshman, she spoke with friends about a club that would focus on body image. She later discovered that Beautiful, a relatively new club, was just that. One year later, the sophomore Gagne is now the president, with one friend the vice president and the other an active member. “I went to the first meeting, and just felt very safe. It was nice to talk about these things and not feel like you’re in a class discussion where some kid in the back is rolling his eyes at what you’re saying,” she said. Founded in the fall of 2013, Beautiful is a club focusing on young people accepting themselves and their bodies. “The point of this club is to encourage open discus-
sion about body image in the media and in our society, particularly in college,” Gagne explained. Gagne said she has noticed subtle changes since the club’s founding. While the message of body image continues to be heavily discussed, she said the club also encourages members to love themselves for who they are physically, mentally and emotionally. “I think that’s one of the things I like being part of a club that’s new. We’re still testing the waters,” she said. The first semester of the club’s existence did not have as many events as it had meetings and discussions. However, Gagne said last semester, Beautiful became involved in more events. For the Nearly Naked Mile the club made and held up posters. The club also held a masquerade ball. Gagne said she saw those
events as “come one, come all” affairs. “When you get into a college environment I feel like people are less likely to want to come to those events unless there’s more of a purpose. It’s no longer like middle school where it’s like ‘Let’s sit here and make arts and crafts and talk about our feelings,’” she said. As opposed to throwing large events, the club is trying to hold more condensed ones, focusing on a variety of topics including an anti-tanning campaign, a No Makeup Day and setting aside a warm day to smash scales to empower body image. Gagne said the club has roughly between 30-45 members. “It changes from time to time,” she said. “It’s hard because a lot of people will come for half the semester and then they’ll drop out, but come back the next semester.” Although the club talks about body image, she said males are welcome to come to meetings, and there are about four males in the club
meeting and just felt very safe. It was nice to talk about these things and not feel like you’re in a class discussion where some kid in the back of the room is rolling his eyes at what you’re saying.” Adrienne Gagne
now. “One of the struggles is trying not to feminize it too much,” Gagne said. She explained the discussions are not totally focused on the way women are portrayed in the media and that there are meetings that talk about men’s roles and image in the media. “With eating disorders, that can be a very big topic geared only toward women, see
BEAUTIFUL on page 2
BEIRUT — Jordan will release a militant that Islamic State wants freed in a prisoner swap only if a captured Jordanian air force pilot being held by the group is part of any deal. Islamic State has demanded that Jordan hand over Sajida al-Rishawi, a convicted Iraqi jihadist on death row, as its price for freeing Japanese war journalist Kenji Goto being held in Syria. The militant group didn’t mention releasing the pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbeh, in a video posted on the Internet on Tuesday offering the swap for Goto. Jordan has said it is taking unprecedented steps to ensure the freedom of the two hostages, and Bassam Al-Manaseer, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the lower house of parliament in Amman, said on Wednesday that he expected to hear good news “in the next few hours.” In the latest video, Islamic State threatened to kill both men if Jordan failed to release al-Rishawi within 24 hours. The deadline passed with no word on the fate of the hostages. The Jordanian government was seeking proof from Islamic State that the pilot was still alive before a transfer could be considered, Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said in a post on Twitter at about midnight in Tokyo. Islamic State’s threat to execute the two men ratcheted up pressure on the governments in both Amman and Tokyo to resolve the crisis. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly said he would never cave in to terrorists. A deal would involve a public concession to the militant group, potentially straining relations for both
Japan and Jordan with the U.S., which has pushed allies not to negotiate with terrorists. Goto was shown in the video released on Tuesday holding up a photo of alKaseasbeh, who was captured in Syria last month after his plane crashed during a bombing run against Islamic State. “Please don’t leave us to die,” Goto said in the video. “Any more delaying tactics will simply see both of us getting killed. The ball is now in the Jordanians’ court.” The video was distributed by Islamic State-linked Twitter accounts, according to SITE, a company that studies militant movements. Al-Rishawi was convicted for her part in attacks on three hotels in Amman in 2005 that killed dozens of people. Her husband carried out a suicide bombing, while her bomb failed to explode. As the deadline neared in Tokyo, more than 100 people gathered outside the residence of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a vigil in support of Goto, a war correspondent who specialized in drawing attention to the plight of children. The crowd held up signs saying “I am Kenji” and “Free Kenji” in English, French and Arabic. Earlier in the day, Goto’s mother made an emotional appeal to Abe on behalf of her son. “Please save Kenji’s life. Please put all your strength into negotiations with the Jordanian government right until the end. There is very little time left,” Goto’s mother Junko Ishido said in a faxed letter to Abe that was also distributed to journalists. Islamic State first made the offer to swap Goto for alRishawi in a Jan. 24 video that contained images of the see
JORDAN on page 3