TuftsDaily10-01-2012

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THE TUFTS DAILY

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

Monday, October 1, 2012

VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 17

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Curtatone hosts Social Community Day brings area Security, Medicare forum residents to Academic Quad by Stephanie

Haven

Daily Editorial Board

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone on Friday hosted a public forum in Cohen Auditorium, leading a discussion panel on the pertinence of today’s health care issues, particularly in the upcoming presidential election. Five speakers discussed immediate and long-term benefits for local residents of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, a law designed to improve access to affordable health care. Panelists included U.S. Representative Michael Capuano (D-Mass.), Secretary at the Executive Office of Elder Affairs at Commonwealth of Massachusetts Ann Hartstein, Director of

Governmental Relations and Policy for the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Dan Adcock, Health and Human Services Regional Director Christie Hager and Associate Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine Raymond Hyatt. Since the Affordable Care Act passed, each person in Massachusetts has saved $610 on health care costs, amounting to $76 million statewide, Hager said. “Make no mistake, this is historic change,” Hager said. Hartstein said that as 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 years old every day, the senior population is increasing along with health care see FORUM, page 2

Local arrested for sexual assault on campus by

Nina Goldman

Daily Editorial Board

A Tufts student was sexually assaulted on Sept. 16 as she left the Jackson Photo Lab in the Aidekman Arts Center late at night, according to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD). Although the sexual assault victim could not be reached for comment, police reports indicated that she did not know Jean Baptiste before he approached her, told her she was beautiful and touched her inappropriately. The student left the scene and called TUPD from her dorm room at 10:50 p.m., according to the

TUPD police log. The alleged perpetrator, 20-year-old Berthony Jean Baptiste, was arrested by TUPD on the fourth floor of South Hall after a resident assistant (RA) there called to report a suspicious person whose description matched the assailant’s, the log said. Jean Baptiste was positively identified by the student as her assailant and brought to the Somerville Police, who held him on a $1,000 bail for indecent assault and battery, trespassing and furnishing a false name and social security number, according to TUPD Sergeant Robert McCarthy. see ASSAULT, page 2

UIT pilots program for classroom iPad use by

Melissa Mandelbaum Daily Editorial Board

University Information Technology (UIT) will distribute 70 iPads to faculty and students this year as part of a pilot program to test their educational uses, according to Sheryl Barnes, assistant director of client services at UIT’s Educational and Scholarly Technology Services (ESTS). Faculty members seeking to participate in the program submitted applications to ESTS in August. Later this fall, ESTS will choose two to four small classes to receive iPad loans in the spring, Barnes said. While ESTS prepares for the iPads for Education project, 62 faculty members on Tufts’ Medford/ Somerville and Boston campuses can borrow one of the new thirdgeneration iPads for the fall semester. Twenty-seven of the tablets

have been lent out to undergraduate professors, Barnes said. “It’s really great that we have the capacity to do this as an experiment,” Barnes said. The decision to loan iPads to professors and students is a onetime experiment to determine their instructional value and identify the classes in which iPads would be most useful, she said. UIT allocated a section of its budget this year toward the purchase of the iPads, as well as lightblue protective cases and a Tufts University Police Department tracking tag for each device— an allowance they do not plan to set aside in the future, Barnes said. “There’s no particular expectation that we’d scale up to cover more faculty or more students [in the future],” she said. Although the iPads may also be see IPAD, page 2

by Josh

Weiner

Daily Editorial Board

The 10th annual Community Day at Tufts proceeded as planned on the Academic Quad yesterday despite scattered rain showers. The open event, cosponsored by Tufts’ Office of Community Relations and the cities of Medford and Somerville, is designed to foster the university’s relationship with the surrounding towns and draw community residents to campus, according to Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel. Rubel, who has overseen the event since its inception, said she is impressed with how popular it has grown to be. “In our first year, we had maybe 200 people show up, and that’s a generous estimate,” she said. “Attendance has grown every year since then and last year we had around 2,000 people.” While the rainy weather deterred some and resulted in a lower turnout than in years past, Rubel said the event remained extremely well attended thanks to the diverse range of attractions set up across the Academic Quad. “[Community Day] is a chance for people in the Medford/ Somerville community to come and see what Tufts has to offer,” University President Anthony Monaco said. Fourteen student groups took the stage in front of Bendetson Hall, including B.E.A.T.s, Blackout, Sarabande and the Tufts Irish Dance Team. The Tufts Traveling Treasure Trunk, a student-run entertainment troupe for children, and student magician Wally Napier, a sophomore, also performed. “We don’t always interact with the Medford/Somerville community, so it’s nice to finally get the chance to do so,” junior Emma Wise, a member of the a cappella group Jackson Jills, said. “We especially enjoy singing for the kids,” senior Laura Barnes,

Meagan Maher / The Tufts Daily

Residents from Tufts’ neighboring communities flocked to the Hill yesterday for an afternoon of musical performances, arts and crafts, educational presentations and food. president of the Jackson Jills, said. Children were well catered for at the activities tent, where projects included face painting and necklace and mask making. In front of West Hall, the Somerville Fire Department ran an educational demonstration for children about fire safety and prevention. “Looking around, seeing kids having fun with their families, just makes me feel happy,” sophomore

Michael Moore said. “Tufts is taking a step in the right direction with Community Day.” In addition to watching student performances, children had the opportunity to go onstage and perform themselves during an African drumming workshop arranged by Associate Professor of Music David Locke. see COMMUNITY, page 2

Volleyball spectator heckling investigation, Cadley speech highlight TCU Senate’s first meeting The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate last night met for the first time as a full present body, including all recently elected freshman senators and Trustee Representatives. The meeting opened with guest appearances from Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman and Director of the Office for Campus Life Joe Golia, who described their roles on the Hill and their relationships with the Senate. Reitman detailed changes to university policy in recent years that have been initiated within the Senate, including the overhaul of the university’s policy on sexual assault and the language that appears in safe-

Inside this issue

ty alerts sent to the student body. Reitman also went into detail about several ongoing situations involving the participation of TCU governmental bodies. He announced that the Office of Equal Opportunity has hired an external service to investigate allegations that Tufts students shouted out inappropriate or offensive comments at a Sept. 21 Tufts women’s volleyball game. The Senate held an internal election to fill three seats on the body’s Allocations Board (ALBO), which is headed by TCU Treasurer Matthew Roy and works with the heads of student groups to allocate

funding for student groups. Freshmen Amy Kim and Adam Kochman won the two seats open to senators in the Class of 2016. Darien Headen, a sophomore, won a seat that was that was left open to the full body when Yihao Li, a junior senator, resigned Sept. 16. TCU Senate President Wyatt Cadley delivered the State of the Senate report, in which he spoke of ways that bureaucratic inadequacies at Tufts have failed students and voiced his commitment to fixing them. “Our peers deserve a powerful voice to advocate on their behalf,” Cadley said. —by Martha Shanahan

Today’s sections

Inebriation is only a fraction of what a TEMS volunteer faces on a given night.

Boston Fashion Week has arrived, and catwalks teem with pieces from new designers.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Comics

1 3 5 7

Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Classifieds Sports

8 9 10 Back


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