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THE TUFTS DAILY
VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 39
Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM
Thursday, November 3, 2011
University restricts availability of winter break housing by
Corinne Segal
Daily Editorial Board
Tufts administrators have this year decided that only international students who are either freshmen or on financial aid will be able to live in university housing during winter break, according to International Center Director Jane Etish-Andrews. The International House and the Commuter (Hillside) House will house any eligible students, with 26 spaces available, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman. This marks the first time the university has restricted winter break housing to those two groups, Etish-Andrews said. Before 2009, any student could opt to remain on campus during winter break and move into another student’s room in Metcalf, Stratton and Richardson Halls, according to Reitman. The system has since been abandoned due to a number of problems and concerns that arose. Etish-Andrews explained that since there was now limited space available, it was essential to prioritize the students, especially those who do not have the option of returning home due to financial reasons. “We first need to take care of the kids who don’t have the money to go home,” Etish-Andrews said. Freshmen should also receive priority because they may not understand their options for winter housing, Office
of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) Director Yolanda King said. “They’re still beginning to learn the area; they’re developing new friendships,” she said. “They don’t have the connections, they don’t have the friends,” Etish-Andrews added. “They don’t know as many people here. They’re very new to campus.” As of now, no upperclassmen have approached ResLife to request housing for this year’s winter break, according to King. The International Center notified students of the new policy twice by email, Etish-Andrews said. She noted that students who wish to stay during winter break but are ineligible for university housing have the option of subletting an upperclassman’s off-campus apartment. The center will serve as a resource for such students, including helping subletters locate an apartment on TuftsLife, according to Etish-Andrews, who added that it has also placed announcements in the Tufts alumni newsletter asking for local volunteer host families. “We’re asking local host families to give us a response by early December,” she said. Reitman explained that the previous system of having students move into other students’ rooms in designated halls over winter break was problematic and led to see HOUSING, page 2
Takuma Koide/Tufts Daily
Members of Task Force Somalia used this semester’s Cause Dinner as an opportunity to raise funds for and awareness about the famine in the Horn of Africa.
Task Force Somalia raises awareness about ongoing famine by
Nina Goldman
Contributing Writer
A group of students in the Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) class last month formed a task force in response to the current famine in Somalia and other countries located in the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa includes the countries of Eritrea, Djibouti and Ethiopia, in
addition to Somalia. Task Force Co-Chair Agree Ahmed, a freshman, said that the group aims to increase awareness of the famine in the area and to raise money to support relief efforts. “We felt that the Somalia issue was being under-covered at the Tufts campus, and so we wanted to both increase awareness of it on campus and possibly help see SOMALIA, page 2
Inside this issue
justin mccallum/Tufts Daily
Negotiations are being conducted between current janitorial services provider UGL Unicco and the Service Employees International Union following the recent change in janitorial service providers.
Janitors’ union files grievance against UGL Unicco by
Bianca Blakesley
Daily Editorial Board
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has filed a grievance with UGL Unicco, Tufts’ campus-cleaning contractor, for neglecting to post job vacancies created during the recent transition from American Building Maintenance (ABM) Industries to UGL Unicco. The SEIU and UGL Unicco met on Oct. 25 to discuss the grievance, according to an email from Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell. The email was sent to individuals who signed a petition submitted to University President Anthony Monaco addressing the issue. The two parties could not accurately determine how many employees worked for ABM before the switch and therefore have not reached an agreement about the exact number of vacancies, Campbell said. She added that the administration has asked for evidence from both parties about the number of temporary workers rehired, a matter that was also of dispute between the two.
UGL Unicco was required to first offer jobs back to all of the eligible janitors working under ABM before the switch and to then offer the remaining jobs to part-time janitors who want to assume full-time positions, according to Matt Gulish, deputy director of Higher Education for SEIU. “There are, by our count, roughly 60 positions that have been left vacant,” Gulish said. “Our contract says [UGL Unicco] needs to post any vacant full-time positions for existing employees to apply for.” UGL Unicco could not be reached for comment. Jumbo Janitor Alliance (JJA) co-Chair Liam Walsh-Mellett explained that the approximately 60 vacancies were created by the departure of 50 full-time and 12 part-time janitors, some of whom were not rehired after the contract switch because of documentation issues. However, UGL Unicco has not offered the vacant positions to part-time janitorial workers currently employed by UGL see JANITORS, page 2
Somerville commission to promote growth of developing industries by
Philippe Maman
Contributing Writer
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone has decided to form a Future Economies Commission (FEC) with the goal of attracting growing industries to the City of Somerville, according to Somerville’s former Director of Communications Michael Meehan. The commission will serve as an advisory board to both the mayor and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development (OSPCD). It will be comprised of local business owners and entrepreneurs, as well as several of the mayor’s chief advisors, capitalizing on the area’s highly educated and diverse community, Meehan said. “This is a fairly out-of-the-box idea for a municipality to engage in the business community at this level,” he told the Daily. The FEC’s role is to identify industries
that would be suitable to enter into a symbiotic relationship with the city, according to Meehan. “The commission, thus far, has been doing mostly high-level brainstorming about industries that the City of Somerville should be courting,” Larry Slotnick, a core member of the FEC and co-founder of Taza Chocolate, told the Daily. The commission aims to address the economic and demographic transition that is taking place in the city, according to Slotnick. “The problem is that Somerville is currently in the process of a long-term transition,” he said. “It is moving from a fairly blue-collar community with a manufacturing base to an intermediate state, where those manufacturing facilities have not yet been replaced by offices or research and development centers.” see SOMERVILLE, page 2
Today’s sections
The Daily takes a look at the Fringe art collective in Somerville.
The women’s soccer team reflects on their season after a heartbreaking loss to Wesleyan.
see WEEKENDER, page 5
see SPORTS, page 11
News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters
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Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds
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