The Tufts Daily - October 5, 2017

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MEN’S SOCCER

Network shows to watch this fall see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 7

Jumbos show strength in long week of games

International students, mentors share close bonds through Passport see FEATURES / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

THE

INDEPENDENT

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T HE T UFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXXIV, ISSUE 20

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Thursday, October 5, 2017

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

ResLife designates multi-stall bathrooms in Carmichael as genderspecific, following confusion

SEOHYUN SHIM / THE TUFTS DAILY

A women’s bathroom door is pictured here on Oct. 3. A student had previously posted a makeshift gender-neutral sign, which has since been removed. by Jesse Najarro News Editor

The Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) has designated all multi-stall restrooms in Carmichael Hall as gender-specific, and all single-stall restrooms as gender neutral. The change

was announced in a Sept. 19 email from ResLife, according to Community Development Advisors (CDAs) Jayanth Dabbi and Nick Kamkari. This decision came after confusion arose about which restrooms people should use at the beginning of the school year, according to Dabbi and Kamkari.

In spite of the email from ResLife trying to clarify the situation, some residents of Carmichael Hall have generally chosen to treat the bathrooms as all-gender, reverting to the status quo before the email. Dabbi, one of the CDAs on the second floor of Carmichael, explained that from the beginning of the year, there was con-

fusion on many floors over the bathroom policy. He and other CDAs tried to resolve confusion through voting, and each floor tried to implement its own arrangement. Residents on the first and second floors agreed on gender-neutral bathrooms, Dabbi and Kamkari said. “My floor was pretty unanimous,” Dabbi, a junior, said. “We’re all just kind of spread all over the place … so having gender-neutral would mean anyone who identifies any way can use the bathroom closest to them and ideally be as comfortable as they can be.” Dabbi also wanted to provide a forum for people who did not feel comfortable with gender-neutral bathrooms to express their concerns, and asked residents to email him. Ian Seerung, a resident of the second floor of Carmichael, said the results of the floor vote meant that both of the floor’s two multi-use bathrooms would be gender-neutral. However, Seerung was surprised when he received the email from ResLife that multi-use bathrooms would now be assigned genders. “I personally was very confused because I had just heard nothing about it,” Seerung, a sophomore, said. “I sent an email to ResLife an hour after ResLife sent [their] email … I thought it was ridiculous that we weren’t told [what had] happened.” However, Seerung said that, soon after residents received the email, they chose to ignore the policy. Students of all genders continue to use both of the second floor’s multi-use bathrooms. see BATHROOMS, page 2

Fletcher School hosts Algerian independence freedom fighter by Hannah Uebele News Editor

Zohra Drif, a leading figure in the Algerian independence movement and former politician, discussed her memoir “Inside the Battle of Algiers: Memoir of a Woman Freedom Fighter” on Wednesday at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. The talk, titled “Memories of Algeria’s Struggle for Freedom,” took place at the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. It was co-sponsored by the Colonialism Studies program, the Department of History, the International Relations Program, Middle Eastern

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Studies Program and the Jonathan A. Tisch College of Civic Life. Drif played a key role in the Battle of Algiers in 1956 and 1957, which was fought between the occupying French government and Algerians pushing for independence. In particular, at the age of 20, Drif set off a bomb in the Milk Bar café in Algiers, killing three people and injuring dozens. Drif has argued that the bombing was in retaliation against French aggression and colonialism. The Milk Bar bombing was not discussed during the event on Wednesday. Fares Center Director Nadim Shehadi told the Daily in an email that he is unsure of whether Drif’s role in that

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bombing 61 years ago factored into the decision to invite her to Tufts, because he was not personally aware of it. The event was hosted both to promote Drif’s memoir, which was published in English this year, and to bring awareness about Algeria to the greater Tufts community, according to History Professor and Algeria specialist Hugh Roberts. “Algeria is an extremely important country that is generally neglected in America in studies of the Middle East and Islamic world, so part of my role and purpose is to bring Algeria to the attention of people here at Tufts,” Roberts said. Roberts said it is significant that the book is now published in English. He

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hopes that Drif’s visit will educate a younger generation of American students. “It was important in my view that Tufts also provide a welcome for [Drif ] and encourage Algerians to look more towards America as a country that is beginning to take an interest,” Roberts said. “It’s also the idea of giving some encouragement to the development of relations between Algeria and the United States.” Drif spoke to an audience of around 50 people in her native French while Roberts translated her responses in English to the crowd. The talk began with Drif relating the background history of Algeria and the see ALGERIA, page 3

NEWS............................................1 FEATURES.................................4 ARTS & LIVING....................... 7

COMICS.......................................9 OPINION...................................10 SPORTS............................ BACK


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