No More Than Discrimination?

TJ Parker, a 23-year-old student of Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences (MCPHS), followed his father’s footsteps when he chose to move to Mission Hill to attend MCPHS.

Mission Hill has changed drastically in the past 15 years, according to Parker. Due to safety reforms, housing improvements, and its prime location, “…students started flooding in,” he said.

Michael Ross, Boston City Council president, argues the infiltration of students has deteriorated neighborhoods and inflated market values. Ross wants to stem the influx of students into neighborhoods, such as Mission Hill, with the “No More Than Four” zoning ordinance.

The “No More Than Four” ordinance passed unanimously in March of 2008. The ordinance amends the definition of a “family” to exclude five full-time undergraduate students and as a result, no more than four undergraduates can live together in an apartment.

In February of 2009, Ross proposed another ordinance to increase university cooperation in the enforcement of “No More Than Four.” His proposal would build upon a law passed in 2004 that mandated universities to report how many students were living off-campus in a breakdown by Boston zip code, according to the Boston City council website. Ross’ February proposal would require universities to list the exact off-campus addresses of its students as well.

On March 10^th, the committee on Government Operations held a hearing to discuss the newest proposal. At the hearing, universities opposed the proposal because their lawyers advised them that providing exact addresses would violate Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law that protects students.

Jeff Doggett, a representative of Northeastern University, testified that the university accountability proposal was a violation of FERPA. He said, “we are directly challenging a federal law that has been in place for the very protection, and in some cases, put together to avoid this very kind of situation, which is providing information to municipalities.”

“The penalties when universities violate FERPA are massive because you stand to lose your federal aid, which includes work study and financial aid,” Doggett said. Instead, Doggett suggested a “solution that is more FERPA-friendly.”

Meanwhile, a lawsuit is still in court about the legality of the original “No More Than Four” zoning ordinance. Stephan Greenbaum, an attorney for Greenbaum, Nagel, Fisher & Paliotti, LLP, filed suit in April of 2008 against the city of Boston and the Zoning Commission.

Greenbaum represents property owners, managers, and students who oppose the law.  Though the verified complaint lists several legal arguments declaring the zoning ordinance is illegal, the main criticism is that this law targets a certain age group thereby violating the right to equal protection under the law and freedom of association. The verified complaint also states the enforcement of this law would require a violation of the right to privacy.

            Councilor Ross disagrees with Greenbaum and restated his conviction that the zoning ordinance and the university accountability proposal are on “very firm legal ground” at the March 10^th hearing.

            Ross explained in his opening statements at the hearing that the “No More Than Four” rule was to address the loss of community and maintain a certain quality of life for residents, not an attack on students. He cited rising property values in his PowerPoint presentation during the hearing and argued the “No More than Four” law would make housing more affordable.

However, Parker said he believes adjusting housing prices is not within Councilor Ross’ jurisdiction. “City Council shouldn’t affect housing prices. No one has a birthright to live in a neighborhood in a free market. It’s absolutely a form of rental control,” Parker said.

Aside from the legal arguments, many claim the ordinance is unenforceable. Greenbaum said, “this is clearly unenforceable, especially given that the universities are adamantly opposed to the newest proposal.” Ross, himself, conceded that the ordinance was unenforceable standing alone.  That is why, Ross argued, the second proposal should be passed immediately.

Bill Good, the commissioner of Inspectional Services Department (ISD) testified at the hearing to update the committee on the enforcement so far. “As of this date, we have not received a specific complaint that there are more than four students,” said Good

Good explained their strategy to enforce this law so far has been to focus on public information and in response to complaints. According to Good, ISD has relied on complaints instead of going door-to-door due to ambiguous legal conditions.

“Frankly, we’re not certain yet of the enforcement procedure in terms of what information we can collect, or whether we’d have to interview students. Those issues are still in a grey area,” said Good.

Annie McCormack, a Boston University junior, is currently living in Allston with five other undergraduate females. She said the number of parties is completely independent of how many students live together.

“Living with more girls has made it harder to have parties and host events. On any given weekend, one of the housemates has an exam or a paper, has guests coming to visit, or other such events, where it would be rude for the other housemates to host a party at the house,” McCormack said.

A Boston landlord, who wished to remain anonymous, also raised doubts about the effectiveness of the law. “What if you have five 19-year-olds who work at full-time at Starbucks? What if you have students who work at Starbucks and go to B.U. full-time? What happens if you have four undergraduates and 1 graduate? Is that okay? I think so.”

The landlord said he was skeptical about Ross’ intentions. “I think this whole thing is political driven.” He said he attributes the loose enforcement guidelines to the idea that, “Ross does not really care what happens with this law. He doesn’t have to win on this. He just has to get his name in the paper.”

“It’s an easy topic for a politician because it appeases his voting constituents and faces no real opposition; the students in opposition are a transient body that doesn’t vote,” said the landlord.

Similarly, Parker said, “he’s just supporting his voters in Mission Hill.  He’s just supporting who is going to keep him as City Counselor. He doesn’t care about students because students don’t vote.”

“The city is making a huge mistake by not embracing the students. The students keep the economy from turning into Detroit. Without the students, you’re screwed. You should be doing everything you can to make these kids fall in love and stay,” said Parker.

Several residents of Mission Hill and Boston testifying in support of this law said they were not anti-student at all. Rather, they said they are urging for a restored balance in their neighborhoods. Several residents described the effect of apartments over run by students on their families and the housing market. Kate Weldon, a recent graduate, began to cry when she described the frustration of her newborn waking up in the night due to a noisy party.

John R. Connolly, City-Councilor-At-Large, had a less moderate policy. “I come at this as a zero percent guy. I’d like to see the council, elected officials, and universities work to get dormitories built in the right place, so we can see 100 percent of students housed in dormitories.”

Though Parker is frustrated with the general student apathy he has faced, he plans to continue fighting. He began a Facebook group last year that had about 1,300 student members at its peak. His goal was to simply keep students up-to-date. “I didn’t think it’d actually pass because it seemed so ridiculous at that time,” said Parker.

Now, he says his main concern is that, “it [the ordinance] sets a precedent to pass legislation that discriminates students.”

Similar laws limiting the number of unrelated people living together exist in Philadelphia, Gainsville, Fla., Salt Lake City, and Boulder, Colo. Laws specific to students living together exist in Bowling Green, Ohio, Newark, Del., and Bloomsberg, Pa.

            Greenbaum predicts the ordinance will go to trial and whoever is unhappy with the outcome will file an appeal. Even if the accountability report does pass, the landlord said the law would continue to be unenforceable. Students will report home addresses or find ways around the law. Instead he feels the responsibility to control overcrowding, noise, and market values should be left to the property owners of Boston.

            However, Councilman Ross and supporters of this bill argue the future of Boston’s neighborhoods cannot be left to the increasing number of absentee landlords who are only looking for profit. 

CraigsList Killer raises fears on Boston University campus

photo by: David L. Ryan/ Globe Staff/ File

Headlines such as “Cops: B.U. med student the Craigslist killer” splashed across the Boston Herald Tuesday morning and roused a range of reactions on the Boston University campus. 

    Michelle Prevost, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, desc

ribed her first reaction to the news: “I was absolutely shocked and disgusted this happened in right here in Boston.”

            Prevost is also an employee on the medical campus and said part of her anxiety comes from “imagining all his [Philip Markoff’s] friends are there [medical campus] and they’re about to do the same thing to me right now.” The medical campus is approximately 23 minutes away on the free shuttle provided by B.U. according to the B.U. BUS website. 

            Meanwhile, other students remained calmer. Samantha Dickson, a junior in the School of Management said, “unfortunately it will reflect badly on BU, but it’s an isolated incident that could’ve happened anywhere.”

            Leigh Warrington, a senior in the College of Communications, said she was most struck by how normal Philip Markoff appeared. She said, “I was surprised that there was someone like that roaming around campus among us. I was thoroughly disturbed after hearing he was charged with murder.”

            The news of Philip Markoff’s charge as the Craigslist killer also reached the families of BU students. “I’ve had family and friends contact me about this all day,” said Prevost.

            There were varying reactions to the news across the campus, but the Globe reported that

the university has responded by suspending Markoff.

To view a map of the campus: http://www.bu.edu/maps/ 

 

Live Blogging of President Obama's Speech Part II

A Look back at Obama's Opening Statement: 

At the opening of Tuesday night's news conference, Obama rang the bell of healthcare, education, and environmental reform yet again. Many Americans feel that Obama is overly ambitious with his promise to cut the deficit in half while simultaneously tackling the biggest issues in U.S. history. Obama continued to assert that Americans will recover if  "we can travel that road [to prosperity] as one nation." 

Live Blogging of President Obama's Speech

Obama deflects tough questions with confident answers:

Following a prime time speech, President Obama held a question and answer session. When asked why President Obama took days to respond with anger to TIm Geitner's lack of foresight on the AIG bonus scandal, he simply replied, "I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak." He continues to stand behind his economic plan. 

www.cnn.com/Live

The Heart of a Cabbage: A Polish Perspective

By: Saeyoung Cho

photo source: Weronika Glab

BOSTON - “I tell people I was basically raised by wolves,” says Weronika Glab.

Despite being born in Canada and receiving her American citizenship five years ago, Weronika says she has always felt like an immigrant.

With triple citizenship in Canada, the U.S. and Poland, Weronika has an international background. Sitting across from the table at Starbucks, she states this fact matter-of-factly as if it was nothing special. Weronika’s bright blue eyes behind a curtain of long blonde hair and pale skin give her Polish background away.

Her parents left communist Poland in 1987 for Italy, where they got married. The ultimate goal was to come to America because Weronika’s father, Krzysztof, had a notion of a “great American adventure,” says Weronika. But first, they came to Canada, where Krysz struggled to find a proper job.

“My dad finished medical school in Krakow, but was overqualified for a technician position,” says Weronika. Shortly after, the Glab family moved to Albany, N.Y.

As their visas were about to expire, Krysz found a clause that expedited the green card process for doctors who applied for permanent residence in an area in need of medical doctors. So the family moved to Nebraska.

“The hardest part of the immigration process was living in Nebraska for five years,” says Weronika, looking off to the side as if lost in a bad memory. Her father delivered pizzas after long days at the clinic, while her mother was cleaning houses.

Weronika says she feels that her story of odd jobs, employee discrimination, and the struggle to make ends meet is common for immigrants in the U.S.

“I just really don’t have very much sympathy for the argument that immigrants are taking American jobs or taxpayer benefits,” says Weronika, shaking her head animatedly.

“I’m really opposed to some of the things George Bush has done because it’s not very

effective,” says Weronika. She says she feels much of the motivation to come to this country is to make a better life and that a lot of the immigration policies make that more difficult. “People that come here consider themselves political and economic refugees,” says Weronika.

“It’s a positive reflection of the U.S because, in the past, the U.S. hasn’t been perceived as a very open country,” says Weronika. She says she embraces the idea of America as a melting pot and reflects on how she’s held onto her own Polish culture.

Weronika tilts her head back and smacks her lips together as she speaks of pierogies and kielbasa. She says staying in touch with her culture at Boston University has been especially easy due to the on-campus diversity. In addition, her parents have embraced the Polish community in Albany and heavily enforced using the language at home with Weronika and her sister, Martina.

“My parents get together with other Polish families, and we have great big Polish parties,” says Weronika. She spent the past summer in her parent’s hometown in Poland. After her semester abroad in Madrid, she plans to go visit her grandmother in Krakow.

Despite living in North America her whole life, Weronika says she identifies with her Polish culture more. “There are so many American things that I’m really not familiar with because I was raised in such a Polish environment and community,” says Weronika. She considers her upbringing so “un-American,” that she compares it to the raising of wolves. Polish was her first language, and she says she still finds the concept of a slumber party strange.

“Despite the spelling of my name, it’s actually pronounced ‘Veronica Gwomp’,” explains Weronika, “Glab means the heart of a cabbage, but also means a fool or idiot, which I think is really cool,” said Weronika as she giggles under her breath.

As a nation started by immigrants, Weronika says she feels immigrants maintain the U.S. “Hard-working immigrants who’ve lived here for so long should be given a path to citizenship. Our blended cultures is what makes America so unique.”

- 30 -

Trade Secrets: Joyce Franklin

Check out my first published interview in Orange Coast Magazine:

Photograph by Ralph Palumbo

Trade Secrets

The Trade: Hunting down and booking the best exhibits—everything from ancient Rome to chocolate—for Muzeo, Orange County’s newest museum, is Joyce Franklin’s job. So far, she’s been busy: Muzeo is booked through 2013.

http://www.orangecoastmagazine.com/article2.aspx?id=12020

Panel Proposes Legal Solutions for HIV/AIDS in U.S.

BOSTON - A panel of four women put to rest the myth that HIV/AIDS is only an issue for underdeveloped nations Saturday at the American Bar Association (ABA) Midyear meeting.

President Obama expressed his commitment to creating a National HIV/AIDS strategy in 2007. As part of that national plan, the panel outlined legal recommendations to address domestic HIV/AIDS prevention, equal access to care, and the guarantee of civil rights for HIV-positive people.

The specifics of a national strategy are now more imperative than ever with the number of domestic cases of HIV on the rise according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The Houston Chronicle blames former President Bush for the neglect of domestic HIV/AIDS.

“I’m passionate about domestic AIDS because the Bush administration neglected the issue,” said one panelist, Ravinia Hayes-Cozier. Cozier said she has high hopes that President Obama will not ignore the fact that 48 percent of those living with HIV/AIDS are black.

“It [national plan] requires us to come together from a federal agency perspective in a coordinated effort; it gives us not just numbers to try to accomplish, but a comprehensive approach to how to get to those numbers,” said Cozier.

The AIDS coordinating committee, who organized the panel discussion, believes that the current strategy of decentralizing authority to a local or statewide level is ineffective.

            Though many stigmas about AIDS have already been addressed since the epidemic peaked in 1980, Catherine Hanssens, a panelist from New York, charged that much legislation has failed to actually secure the civil rights of those with HIV/AIDS.

“There is a lot of government accommodation of HIV stigma discrimination that President Obama could end with little more than the stroke of the executive pen,” said Hanssens. She recommended lifting the ban on HIV-positive immigrants and eliminating HIV status as a basis for exclusion of applicants to federal agencies, the military, and occupational training programs.

While some of the panel’s recommendations were simply a matter of enforcing existing legislation, many discriminatory regulations regarding health care workers with HIV are in need of thorough revision said Denise McWilliams.  McWilliams’ gained experience on this particular topic from her former work as a litigator in a private practice specializing in healthcare. Now, she is the Director of Policy and Legal Affairs at the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

 She claimed the CDC’s policy about health care employees conducting potentially “exposure-prone invasive procedures” has supported HIV discrimination and contributed to the stigma that HIV can be transmitted by casual contact. McWilliams suggested the CDC revise its policy to instead reflect the idea that  “there is no measurable risk of HIV transmission posed by [HIV positive] health care workers,” a recommendation outlined by major civil rights groups in a To Do List for the New U.S. Administration’s First 100 days.

            Cozier referred to statistics that illustrated the growing inadequacy of health care provided by the federal government for those most at risk of infection: low-income minorities. 

With one in 30 black women diagnosed with HIV, Cozier asserted that minorities are unable to access the care they need due to insufficient federal funding.

            She urged Congress to pass the Early Treatment for HIV act, which would make low-income individuals eligible for Medicaid benefits before they’re considered disabled.

           Panelists listed other Medicaid revisions that they said could help prevent HIV/AIDS. For example, making routine HIV screening a Medicaid service would not only create more equal access to health care but also,aid in prevention. As of now, HIV screenings are considered an optional benefit that varies by state.

             All three speakers made note of needle exchange programs, which have made progress in the effort to prevent HIV transmissions related to drug injection use according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Yet a ban enacted in 1988 does not allow the federal funding of any syringe exchange programs. The Surgeon General published a paper on his evidence-based findings that scorrelate the efficacy of syringe exchange access programs to decreasing HIV infections, while simultaneously keeping more users in substance abuse treatment.

            The long-term prevention technique of comprehensive sex education  also arose during the question-and-answer session. The panel agreed that federal funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage education should be eliminated.

            Andrew Novak, a Boston University third-year law student, attended the discussion to hear McWilliam’s thoughts on the domestic epidemic. Novak had done pro bono work for McWilliams in the past and is now specializes in AIDS in Africa. The panel’s focus on the domestic issue, despite the “typical media blitz on the global side” is what attracted him.

            Cozier said had we implemented a national strategy 20 years ago to address the domestic issue, then, maybe the global HIV/AIDS epidemic wouldn’t be as grim.