Terral Ainooson, 25, was arrested along with roommate, Ryan Oshima, 23, on November 11, when police found more than a dozen plastic bags of marijuana, and seized cash, a grinder and a scale after searching their Sudan Street apartment.

Each was charged with drug possession with intent to distribute.

Ainooson, elected student body president in fall 2008, is a senior International Management major, according to the school’s student senate Web site. He has a criminal record. Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, said records show Ainooson had faced similar charges at least once before. The records did not indicate other details about the charges except to say they were not brought in Suffolk County, Wark said.

Oshima is a former UMass Boston student, a school spokesman said. The school’s official athletics Web site says he’s from La Jolla, Calif. and played baseball at Umass for three years.

In the raid, police knocked on the apartment door, but when no one responded officers forced their way in. They found the suspects in a bedroom, detained them and read them their Miranda rights, according to a police report. After officers showed them a search warrant, the pair volunteered the locations of the drugs, some of which were hidden in a Cheerios cereal box, and paraphernalia. The report also indicates that Ainooson and Oshima had been under investigation by the drug unit prior to the raid.

Oshima faces up to two years in jail or a fine or both. Ainooson, as a repeat offender, faces at least one year in prison or a fine or up to $10,000, or both.

Eaton has found an artist’s office job — a management position that calls for raw creativity and that satisfies both her idealism and her longing for community. She is Project Manager of Outside the Lines, an art-based day program for adults with developmental disabilities run out of a giant warehouse on the Tufts University campus. The people served by O.T.L. are not simply given art projects to do, they are managed as artists — it is both a workshop and a gallery space in which participants’ artwork graces the walls and gets sold at shows.

“We’re different from other programs,” Eaton explains, “because a lot of them are work-related programs where people mostly just do piece work.”

O.T.L. is an experimental offshoot of the nonprofit organization, Resources for Human Development (R.H.D.). “We call ourselves an ‘alternative day program.’ We give them work that’s more meaningful, I would say.”

Eaton and the staff she oversees are different from most social workers. They are themselves, artists, and they know how to treat their clients as such. Everyone in the building shares the same talents and obsessions, and they enjoy learning from one another.

“Hiring artists works, because we’re all sensitive, we’re intuitive. We’re free with them, and we can treat them like human beings, rather than, like, ‘You’re a patient and we’re going to analyze you,’ we can just be like ‘We are who we are and you are who you are,’ and we appreciate them for that.”

Eaton is 30 years old. She is tall, and although she is soft-spoken, her stature and her constant state of calm make her a convincing figure of authority. She could not, however, be easily mistaken for corporate. While her office is the only closed room with a desk in the scattered warehouse, her speech and dress are informal. Today, she wears a short skirt over a pair of jeans, a dark blouse and a colorful silk scarf.

Eaton was not always specifically drawn to working with the disabled. She has, however, always been an artist. Before O.T.L., she struggled to find an artistic community that felt like home. At Mount Holyoke College, she majored in art and anthropology, and while these disciplines excited her, the “art crowd” she discovered, did not.

A painting by Jose DeJesus, who was awarded “Best in Show” in a recent statewide exhibition at the capitol building for his piece Man from Burma

“I actually got really fed up with the whole ‘Art World.’ It can be really inclusive, if you’re in it. People are making pieces that are speaking to other artists—meaning that those other artists have prior knowledge of art history, or contemporary artists — rather than having an original vision of how to express themselves, with the idea that they can reach people through what they’re creating.

“But art for me is really just doing a thing that I like. Something that I feel like I always have to do — is part of my life in some way. I have to manipulate materials and make pretty things — well not necessarily pretty, but visually interesting. When I was at school though, I got involved with that whole scene.”

Eaton spent her junior year studying photography in Florence, Italy. Her exploration of this new medium combined with her experience abroad and her studies in anthropology led to a new inspiration.

“I wanted to travel, I wanted to tell people about what’s going on in the world through art. I was idealistic, and I did do that for a while. I did travel the world and take pictures. I went to Southeast Asia. I went to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos. That was pretty awesome. It was really amazing.”

Before long, however, she ran into a barrier. Just as she hadn’t been able to connect with what she perceived as the art world, she came to feel that photojournalism prevented her from connecting with the people she found on her travels.

“I took pictures. I mean, I had my camera with me. I was a person with a camera. People would ask me for money for taking their pictures. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t what I really wanted to do.”

Back from the States and out of college, Eaton continued to pursue her skills where she could, but there was a lot missing. “I was working for a jewelry designer and working as a house painter,” she recalls with a laugh, “so the stuff I was doing was kind of isolating and I really felt like working on my own artwork was self-indulgent. I really wanted to be able to reach out to people and be creative.”

Eaton heard about O.T.L. from a friend who worked there before it had a management structure. She began on the floor, as a “Direct Support Professional,” and was prompted once R.H.D. decided a manager was necessary. Her first breakthrough with an artist did not come while working on an art project, but it did call for an important kind of creativity. She was working with a woman known for acting out.

“If she’s not getting what she wants she’ll do temper tantrum kinds of things like, screaming and whining. So she started to do that one day, and I started whining back, and I made it into like, oh, you sound like a seagull,’ Eaton remembers, laughing. “And it totally just threw her off. She thought it was hilarious. So she started doing it in a way where she was calling like a seagull, and then I was calling back like a seagull, and it was just really funny.”

Eaton calls this “redirecting,” and it is central to the work of O.T.L. where one of the defining practices in working with the developmentally disabled is never to punish, never to provide negative attention. As much as in designing art projects, this is where the creativity and sensitivity of the artist are called upon. It’s about finding ways to make abnormal behavior OK, to laugh together and direct focus back to the shared value of art-making. This seems to be exactly the atmosphere Eaton has been searching for, and she is not alone.

“There is a strong feeling of community here,” says Allison Stroh, an Art Therapist, recently hired for the ‘Direct Support’ role. “Everyone here feels part of it. When Else walks in, all of the artists smile. She has a million tricks up her sleeve to make them feel at ease. Meanwhile, she’s got me singing, dancing, working on giant monsters– stuff I never thought I’d get to do at work.”

“We really try to make it so that everyone here just feels comfortable being who they are. No matter who they are,” says Eaton. You know we’re all awkward and weird in some ways and we just let that be. Both the staff and the clients, their personalities really come out here.”

Outside of Eaton’s office, a heavyset man wearing an unattached pair of earphones is showing off his brand new cowboy boots — from L.L. Bean, he boasts — to a bespectacled twenty-something in skinny jeans. The subject exhausted, he shows off his latest glowing cityscape. The kid looks impressed. So does The Hulk.

Or so declared Ben Folds during his Nov. 5 show at Brandeis University’s Shapiro Gymnasium. As it turned out, Folds and his piano were all he needed to prove himself right.

For nearly two hours, the T-shirt-clad Folds belted almost all his classics, along with a couple of newer songs, to the delight of a sing-along crowd comprised mostly of college students. Folds uses every key of his instrument with the fervor and intricacy of a concert pianist, resulting in a fullness of sound that more than did justice to his many multi-instrument studio recordings. Folds once again showed why he singlehandedly made the piano cool again in rock music.

That is, when he wasn’t breaking the Steinway on which he played.

Folds’ merciless pounding ultimately proved to be too much for the Brandeis-owned baby grand. After a low D went dead mid-way through the show, Folds caused what he admitted was a first: a black key completely broke off, which the bespectacled rocker held up to the amusement of everyone in attendance. But the show went on without even the slightest hiccup, displaying the showmanship Folds has become well known for in his live performances.

The Brandeis appearance – which was his second show on the Waltham university’s basketball court – almost didn’t happen. Folds told the audience that he turned down the gig twice before receiving a letter “from a very nice young lady” begging him to come to Brandeis. An attempt at covering a song written by friend and former bandmate nicknamed Snüzz proved to be one of the show’s sweeter moments, with Folds teaching the crowd the song’s refrain and then asking someone with a video camera to record the tribute and post it on YouTube for his friend.

Part of Folds’ appeal – besides his boyish, silky-smooth vocals and his complete mastery of the ivories – is his ability to switch effortlessly from sentimental to silly. Anthems like “Still Fighting It” and “Landed” always empower and inspire, but the crowd favorites were those songs that showcase the wit and profanity that catapulted Folds early in his career. “Rockin’ the Suburbs” was appropriately successful, and a made-up song joking about Brandeis and underage drinking and including an entire stanza of profane filler drew big laughs.

After all, this was a college show, not the Boston Pops.

Folds’ lyrics have matured with each album, but one has to wonder how he will resolve the tension between being 43 and his decision to continue to cater to the more base tastes of college audiences. For now, he seems successful at toggling between his younger listeners (who love his 2001 album, “Rockin’ the Suburbs”) and older, “Boston Pops” fans (who prefer 2005’s “Songs for Silverman” and 2008’s “Way to Normal”) — but will it all catch up with him?

Folds certainly seemed at home Nov. 5 singing many of his more shallow lyrical offerings in front of a sampling of the YouTube generation, as evidenced by his encore selection: “Bitches Ain’t Shit.” Folds retired the satirical Dr. Dre-written song from his live shows, but agreed to play it since he’d never played it live at Brandeis. It was undoubtedly the climax of the show — the song kids had been yelling for Folds to sing the entire night — yet I would have preferred to hear one of his classic ballads like “Brick” or “The Luckiest.”

Filing out of that gymnasium, though, one thought trumped all others: this guy can flat-out entertain. I didn’t take a scientific poll, but I’d venture a guess that if I did I would have been hard-pressed to find someone who wasn’t satisfied – even if he plays one thing for the adults, and another thing for the kids.

Police told the television station that, of youths arrested, 55 were charged with alcohol possession after the blew above .02 percent blood-alcohol content. Others were released to their parents.

The party’s hosts, three Colby-Sawyer students, identified by the television station as Lindsey Randlett, 21, Margaux O’Connell, 21, and Kayla Flynn, 20, were charged with hosting an underage drinking party.

The three live in a house that’s owned by the college and is located 200 yards away from a police station.

Colby-Sawyer College President Thomas C. Galligan Jr. said it was not immediately known what action the college would take. He said, in an e-mail to the news station: “We are aware of the incident last night but have not had a chance to review everything that happened and have not made any decision yet about what processes the college might undertake. Our primary concern is with our students’ education, well-being and safety. We are grateful no one was hospitalized or otherwise injured and will strive. As we understand more, to use these events as an opportunity for community discussion and education. It is normally not our policy to pursue College Community Council processes with events which occur off campus; however, we have not yet determined whether what we will do in this matter. I also do not believe that the lease specifically mentions under age drinking but in my experience it is not common in residential leases to expressly mention many types of illegal conduct. That failure to expressly include does not mean the conduct is condoned.”

Here is a statement released by organizers of the event that Levasseur was scheduled to speak at:

The U.S. Parole Commission has unexpectedly denied Ray Luc Levasseur permission to travel to Massachusetts tomorrow. Though Ray Luc Levasseur will not attend, the talk and forum entitled “The Great Western Massachusetts Sedition Trial: Twenty Years Later” will nonetheless take place on Thursday November 12 at 7:15 p.m. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in School of Management Room 137. Participants will include sedition trial defendant Pat Levasseur, members of the 1989 Springfield sedition trial legal defense team, and a juror from the trial.

Levasseur was released from federal prison in 2004 after serving 18 years for his involvement in United Freedom Front. The group was linked to shootouts with police, bank robberies, and a series of bombings. He was invited to be part of a panel Thursday night speaking about terrorism. The news has sparked outrage from law enforcement and political leaders and very little defense from freedom of speech advocates.

As is with any controversial, or even outwardly unpopular event, police have to be present to maintain peace. This happens all the time — even black officers have been forced to work security details protecting Ku Klux Klan members marching down city streets across the country.

“The (International Brotherhood of Police Officers, Local 432) union leadership wishes it to be recognized that the Local, on behalf of the Officers who will be forced to work this event for public safety concerns plan to donate all proceeds obtained for working this
paid over-time detail to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund in the name of Fallen New Jersey State Trooper Philip Joseph Lamonaco,” said Gerald Perkins, a union spokesman.

Jackie Liebergott, Emerson’s president, in a campus-wide e-mail, reported that Starring died this week.

“He was a bright and talented young man, earning Dean’s list honors every semester,” Liebergott said. “He was a former President and active member of the student A Capella group Noteworthy, lighting up the stage each time he took the lead. He also served as a Student Ambassador in the Office of Admission, providing campus tours for prospective students and their families.”

Liebergott called Starring’s death “an enormous loss” for the college.

Emerson is making staff at the Counseling Center and Center for Spiritual Life available for students tomorrow from 3-4:30 p.m. in Emerson’s Campus Center. A memorial service will be held before the end of the semester.

The speech, delivered at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium, praised the school’s faculty members and students for their commitment to energy research and achieving new advancements in clean energy technologies. He spoke about his excitement after touring the school’s Energy Initiative program laboratories and the benefits that these new technologies can bring to the world.

“Windows that generate electricity by directing light to solar cells; lightweight high-power batteries that aren’t built but are grown. That was neat stuff. Engineering viruses to create batteries; more efficient lighting systems that rely on nanotechnology; innovative engineering that will make it possible for offshore wind power plants to deliver electricity even when the air is still,” said Obama.

He pointed out that every country has recognized that the world’s energy supplies are growing scarcer and “that’s why the world is now engaged in a peaceful competition to determine the technologies that will power the 21st century. The nation that wins this competition will be the nation that leads the global economy,” he said. “I am convinced of that. And I want America to be that nation. It’s that simple.”

Obama also promoted Ricovery Act Investments that are creating advancements in wind energy as well as creating jobs. He said the Act includes $80 billion to create thousands of jobs for Americans developing new battery technologies for hybrid vehicles, modernizing the electric grid and doubling the country’s capacity to generate renewable electricity.

Susan Hockfield, the president of MIT, said that having Obama speak about renewable energy at the university can motivate more students in getting involved in new energy technology and policy development.

“It’s enormously energizing. The Energy Initiative has become a real centerpiece at activities here at MIT. And having the president here to make a major statement about energy really confirms and amplifies the work that’s already been done on campus,” said Hockfield.

MIT’s Energy Initiative program director Ernest Moniz said that energy research conducted around the country has helped the US be a frontrunner for leading the global economy in clean energy. However, he said there’s still much work to be done.

“United States still has, in my view, the world’s foremost science, technology and innovative system. In the other hand, we cannot be complacent. We can compete as long as we have the resources sustained and commitment from the highest levels, which the president demonstrated today,” explained Moniz.

Obama has been the second president to visit MIT but was the only one who met with faculty members and received a tour of school laboratories. The previous presidential visit was made by Bill Clinton who delivered a Commencement address in 1998.

Video report by Melissa Unger

Dr. Evan Dobelle, president of Westfield State College announced today the list of the “Top 25 Best Neighbor Colleges and Universities” at the 15th annual conference of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities in Philadelphia.

“It’s regrettable that with almost a trillion dollars in bailout or stimulus money that more of these funds are not being invested in projects sponsored by campus-based civic engagement initiatives,” Dobelle said in a statement. “Projects don’t come much more turn-key than those in the higher education-community alliance sphere.”

New England just isn’t on the list, with the exception of the Rhode Island School of Design is Providence. None of the 50+ colleges or universities in Boston made the list.

The list:
1. University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, PA
1. University of Southern California – Los Angeles, CA
2. University of Dayton – Dayton, OH
2. University of Pittsburgh – Pittsburgh, PA
5. Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis – Indianapolis, IN
6. Creighton University – Omaha, NE
7. Case Western Reserve University – Cleveland, OH
8. Tulane University – New Orleans, LA
9. Portland State University – Portland, OR
10. Drexel University – Philadelphia, PA
11. Virginia Commonwealth University – Richmond, VA
12. University of Louisville – Louisville, KY
13. University of Rochester – Rochester, NY
14. University of Houston – Houston, TX
14. University of Missouri at Kansas City – Kansas City, MO
14. University of Missouri at St. Louis – St. Louis, MO
17. Emory University – Atlanta, GA
18. University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee – Milwaukee, WI
19. Carnegie Mellon University – Pittsburgh, PA
20. Rhode Island School of Design – Providence, RI
21. Miami-Dade College – Miami
22. St. Louis University – St. Louis, MO
23. Rutgers-Newark, State University of New Jersey – Newark, NJ
24. George Washington University – Washington, DC
25. University of Nebraska-Omaha – Omaha, NE

Criteria for assessment in the survey included length of involvement in the community, dollars invested in local efforts, community service, students in local K-12 schools going on to attend the college/university and recognition of positive community impact from those living in the community.

The show, Dark Wave Disco, was a collection of cocktail dresses. As the models walked around two levels of balconies, spectators lined the balconies with drinks in hand. The crowd loved Mendoza’s collection of dresses that moved, flowed right past you.

According to George F. Noonan, Emerson College’s police chief and director of public safety, the victim was leaving the movie theater when she was approached by a man in his 30s or 40s, who made her sit on a park bench near a bus stop and then touched her “in an inappropriate and impermissible manner,” Noonan said.

The student escaped without physical injury and immediately went to campus police. The suspect is described as white, with a birthmark on the right side of his bald head. He was wearing a gray suit at the time. Campus and Boston police are investigating.

The president, a former Harvard Extension student, was invited by the university to host an open-ended forum with college students. The protesters represented those disquieted by the possibility of a referendum that would allow Uribe to run for a third term in 2010. Students at Harvard also presented the president with a letter encouraging the president to cede his position in the name of democracy, arguing that a third term would go against the fundamentals of the country’s constitution.

“We believe that such a decision will weaken the rule of law, as well as threatening the separation of powers of the Colombian state,” the students wrote in their letter.

While Uribe did not formally announce his intention to seek a third term, the actions of the legislature clearly suggest that he could follow the growing trend of Latin American leaders amending their Constitutions in order to extend their time in power.

Students tried from every angle to get him to disclose his intentions, but Uribe asserted that what he ultimately seeks is a competent leader for his people. “My own destiny does not depend on me, it depends on the constitutional court, on the people and on my God,” Uribe said. “Of course, I consider that it’s much better for my country to have many leaders committed with the general principles that we are fighting for, but, at the same time, … we have lived (through) many, many years of weak governments.”

Uribe also spoke of how his administration has improved the country on many fronts, including his record on human rights, health care, labor laws and public safety.

“This is the government that has recovered freedom in Colombia,” Uribe said. “During our administration, we have received over 51,000 terrorists members who have demobilized.”

He encouraged people to visit Colombia, ending the forum by saying that “the only risk of going to Colombia is wanting to stay.”

They came up with “The Jaguar Club” after drummer Jeremiah Joyce came across the intricate logos of organizations of car devotees one day while doing a Google Image search.

“It’s never been a strong point,” according to Joyce. “We were terrible at coming up with band names.”

Blast chatted with The Jaguar Club at their record release party at Brooklyn’s Union Hall last month. Since forming in 2006, the band has released two EPs. Their first full-length album, “And We Wake Up Slowly,” was released September 1.

Joyce and bassist Yoichiro Fujita met while both were students at Vassar College and eventually moved to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn together.

“In the fall of 2005, we were really getting the itch to start a band,” Joyce said.

Meanwhile, singer Will Popadic, a former Emerson College student who had recently relocated to New York from Los Angeles, posted an ad on Craigslist saying he was looking to meet like-minded musicians.

“It was just so nice and warm and friendly,” Joyce recalled thinking upon coming across Popadic’s ad. “He was like, ‘I just moved to New York…‘”

And the rest, as they say, is history. The newly-formed group began writing songs in the spring of 2006, released an EP that fall, and toured extensively up and down the East Coast in 2007.

“Basically, we hit the ground running,” Joyce said.

“And We Wake Up Slowly” was recorded earlier this year in an 300-year-old barn in New Paltz, in upstate New York — a stark contrast to the Brooklyn basements in which most of the songs were written. The band members say the experience was a bit like camping, with musical instruments scattered around the converted studio, which had no running water.

“It definitely took us out of our element,” Popadic said. “A lot of the sound and texture is a product of being there.”

“You just feel so liberated from everything back in the city,” Joyce said. “It feels like home, for me.”

In fact, much of the record deals with typical quarter-life crisis themes, one of which is “being a country mouse in the city,” as Popadic puts it.

“I don‘t love cities, but I have to be in them to do this,” said Popadic, who is from rural Massachusetts.

The members cite Oasis, Band of Horses, The National, Idlewild, and Radiohead among their influences. Their sound, at times, resembles what The Smiths might have sounded like if they’d been an arena rock band. Popadic’s vocals bear more than a passing resemblance to David Byrne’s, with occasional theatrical warblings like those of Rush’s Geddy Lee.

Still, feeling that their sound was a bit lacking, the trio recently added a second guitarist for live shows, Gavin Dunaway, who had been living in D.C. and had seen the band perform several times.

“We were always looking for ways to make (our sound) bigger,” Joyce said. “He’s like a new pair of socks. They’re so instantly comfortable, and yet they’re new.”

Dunaway’s proposal for a new band name? “Gavin and the Jerks.”

But for now, perhaps out of necessity, it seems “The Jaguar Club” will stick.

“We had a small window of opportunity (to change the name),” Fujita said, as his bandmates considered their newly-minted LP. “And now it’s too late.”

Dunn’s reporting revealed a pattern of at best unscrupulous and at worst blatantly racist behavior by Emerson over several decades of tenure review.

House and another professor named Pierre Desir, who are both black, were denied tenure last year. They were the only professors denied tenure, and they were the only professors who were black.

House filed a complaint with the state Commission Against Discrimination last year.

According to Dunn’s latest reporting, Emerson agreed to take both professors back without tenure. House agreed, and he will be re-reviewed in 2011 for promotion. Desir appears to have declined, and he will not be returning this fall.

Dunn has reported that in Emerson Colllege’s 129-year history, it has never promoted a tenured black male faculty member, even though tenure is usually accompanied by a promotion from assistant to associate professor.

Dunn wrote a series of articles last spring attracting national attention and leading the school to convene an independent review of its tenure process.

The Beacon could not reach house Wednesday night for comment.

OnlineBootyCall, a “casual dating site,” has compiled its list of the worst colleges in the US to hook up at plus a ranking of the top 10 schools to get laid with some of their own wording thrown in.

None of those top 10 “best” schools are here in Boston.

Worst 5 Colleges to Have a Booty Call

5. MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT is famous for its engineering and math programs, as well as their many brilliant pranks. We applaud their deft use of irony, when they named their two official school mascots: the “engineers” and the “beaver.” Sadly for students, the two never meet.

4. Oral Roberts University

Don’t let the name fool you, Oral Roberts is a Christian college located in Tulsa Oklahoma, where up until 2003, a strict dress code forced men to wear button-down shirts and women to wear long skirts. Its most notable alumnus is Ned Flanders. No booty for you here.

3. Princeton University

A common saying in the Ivy League is: “Harvard sucks, and Princeton doesn’t matter.” For good reason, this forgettable campus is bridled with stuffy Ivy leaguers too caught up in their tight J. Crew vests and Burberry scarves. With names like Archibald, Chance, or Skyler, you know these Harry Potter types are not getting any action.

2. BYU – Brigham Young University

This would have made our top ten best schools for Booty Calls back in the 1800’s, when having multiple partners was the rage in Utah. Nowadays, the Princeton Review ranks BYU as the #1 “Stone Cold Sober School.” Sadly, you’ll find no parties and no booty calls on this campus.

1. United States Military Academy at West Point

Just as they were ranked the #1 Best College in America by Forbes, West Point also came first on our list. With a male to female ratio of 85 percent, your chances of hooking up are looking quite slim. West Point’s free tuition is great for the budget, but terrible for booty.

Top 10 Colleges For Hookups

10. New York University
9. Maryland University
8. DePaul University
7. University of Georgia
6. Ohio State University
5. San Diego State University
4. University of Texas at Austin
3. University of Southern California
2. Florida State University
1. Arizona State University

HEY MIT KIDS! Does this piss you off? Is this patently false? Share your MIT hook up story in the comments section for a chance to win Heroes Season 3 on DVD

The school says traffic and building access will not be disrupted but scaffolding will be erected all around the busy corner as Emerson restores the Little Building “to its original splendor,” said Andrew K. Tiedemann, Emerson’s vice president of communications and marketing, in a statement Friday.

“The Little Building, named for local businessman John Mason Little, was built in 1917 on the site of the Hotel Pelham, which was the first apartment house constructed on the Eastern seaboard,” Tiedemann said. “Historian Walter Muir Whitehall declared the Little Building ‘the most glorious office building of the World War I era’ and is considered Boston’s best example of Modern Gothic skyscraper. The building was featured in the August 1917 edition of the American Architect and Building News.”

Emerson purchased the building in 1994 and renovated it in 1995, preserving its original layout and artsy murals. It was concerted to a residence hall with offices on the main floor and Emerson’s student gym and dining hall on the lower levels.

The Boston-based company is offering students across the country a free discount program that works through existing debit and credit cards. Students can register up to five cards online at Edhance.com by entering basic information, including a university email address and the name of the school.

Once they’re registered, they can use those cards in-store and online with registered merchants. They pay full price upfront, Edhance software verifies the consumer is a student, and when the money saved on various discounts reaches $10 or $25, that money is deposited back into their bank accounts.

“Today’s young consumers are more demanding than ever before, and asking them to pay for having a discount card mailed to them didn’t seem like something that would fly in a couple of years,” said Bjorn Larsen, president of Edhance, in an email. “So, we developed a free service where students don’t have to show anything, and merchants know that discounts are only given to verified students.”

Stores can customize their discount rates and even create specials offers like a “Tuesday Night Special” or “Back-to-School” promotion, Larsen said. The Edhance website will also utilize Google Maps to help students locate participating stores in their area. An Edhance iPhone app is also in the making.

Edhance is also beneficial to the merchants who sign up to offer discounts. Currently, stores can’t always trust a student ID card or university email address as verification – alumni can use old IDs, students can share their email address with non-students, and so on. Edhance automatically verifies the card holder is a student when the card is swiped, and it’s done without any additional machines for the store to buy. Plus, it’s free for them to sign up too.

“We only charge a commission when we drive business to our merchant partners, so everything is pay-for-performance. If it doesn’t work for them, it doesn’t work for us either,” said Larsen.

The first in-store discounts will be offered in Boston in September, but they will then expand nation-wide.

“We recently signed a deal with a national financial services company that issues debit cards to over 700,000 students,” said Larsen. “These are located at schools across the country, but we’ll focus on cities like Boston with a heavy college concentration, such as Ann Arbor, MI and Austin, TX.”

Some companies that have already signed up are Apple, Barnes&Noble.com, Toshiba, Puma.com and select New England locations of Qdoba.

Matt Weiss, marketing director for Chair5, the company that operates Qdoba in New England, said they’re going to start offering discounts within a few weeks at some college locations in Boston.

“It’s a really seemless way to engage with this demographic. There’s no heavy lifting on our end,” he said. “The nature of it is just so simple and easy, not only for us but for the customer.”

The New York Post reported that a New York City woman who recently graduated from Monroe College can’t find a job and says her school isn’t helping her land gainful employment. Trina Thompson filed a lawsuit last week against Monroe in Bronx Supreme Court. The 27-year-old is seeking a return of the $70,000 she spent on tuition.

A spokesman for the college called the suit “completely without merit.”

Mr. Twomey became ill June 24.

A Portland, Maine native, he was a 2001 graduate of Cheverus High School. Mr. Twomey received a B.A. in communication arts from Gannon University in Erie, Pa., in 2005. He graduated from Emerson in 2006 with a master’s degree in political and organizational communications.

According to the college, Mr. Twomey had lived in Washington, D.C. since 2007 and was working as an operations coordinator for digital media services for the U.S. Federal Courts Office of Public Affairs since June 2008.

“There are those times in teaching when you are blessed with an exceptionally talented and humane and incredibly gifted student — that was my experience with David Twomey,” said J. Gregory Payne, Twomey’s former professor, in a statement released by Emerson. Mr. Twomey was Payne’s graduate assistant. “He lit up the room with his smile and compassion and love of politics and the promise of public diplomacy. He truly was one of the most gifted students I have ever encountered and left a lasting legacy in whatever he did and to those he touched in his all too-short-time with us.”

A funeral mass was said on Tuesday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine.

A Wesleyan University student was shot and killed at the school’s bookstore Wednesday, according to WTNH-TV New Haven.

Police were still seeking a suspect, but WTNH reported that a gun was found.

The shooting occurred at 1 p.m. at the Red and Black Cafe inside the Wesleyan bookstore, Broad Street Books.

The student’s name has not bee released.

Wednesday was the scheduled day for Wesleyan’s annual Spring Fling concert, a tradition dating back to 1975. Spring Fling, along with all other school events, were canceled after the shooting.

Email boston-party@mit.edu to get on the list if you’re a grad student!

This is one of the most exciting social mixers in the area for students. All graduate students are welcome, and it’s only $4 at the door!

21+ and bring your college ID!

Of the 12 total cases, 11 patients attend Northeastern University.

According to the Health Commission, mumps illness is caused by a virus that lives in a person’s nose, mouth, and throat. It can spread to others who are in close contact with a case through direct contact with infected saliva or through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The most common symptoms are a low fever, headache, muscle pain and swelling in the salivary glands (located at the cheek, below the ear and under the jaw). Symptoms can appear 12 to 25 days after contact with an infected person. Those ill with mumps are most contagious 3 days before until 5 days after symptoms begin. Mumps is usually a mild illness but can cause serious problems in some people.

The Boston Public Health Commission encourages persons who were born after 1956 who may have been in contact with a person who has mumps to contact their healthcare provider and have their immunization status evaluated.

Anyone with symptoms of mumps should seek medical attention right away.

For more information, call the Boston Public Health Commission at 617-534-5611.

Traveling  to the Gordon Indoor Track at Harvard University, Xi-Beta’s team was  able  to raise  $2,000  for cancer research, and logged more than 500 hours  in  service.  Relay for Life is an overnight walk-a-thon. Each team member collected sponsorships and pledged to spend a certain amount of time walking  around  a  track.  At least one person per team was required to be walking at all times.

Team  captain Aaron Gill said he was thrilled with the chapter’s participation, and urged his  fellow brothers to recognize how widespread the reach of cancer can be.

“Sharing in this event with a group of brothers I found to be enlightening. At  one  point in the evening everyone is asked to stand for the different ways they are affected by cancer, and it is always revealing to me just how pervasive this disease is in the lives of so many,” said Gill.

After  the event, American Cancer Society organizers told Xi-Beta that next year’s fundraiser  will  be  held  at  Matthews  Arena on the  campus of Northeastern University.  Organizers  were so impressed with Kappa Sigma’s commitment they are hoping the chapter will volunteer as a major sponsor.

Gill  would  like  to  see  Xi-Beta answer the call because the event is so successful  in aiding  cancer  research.  He also has personal reasons for being  so  involved.  In recent years, members of his own family and close personal friends have been diagnosed with cancer. Three years ago, Gill was approached by a co-worker to participate in Relay for Life. He accepted the challenge only to find out that she was battling breast cancer. That’s when he decided to do more.

“I  will  always  push  Relay for Life to try and give back, because of the impact  that  cancer survivors have had in my life and how influential they have  been to me. All I can hope for is that my efforts will inspire others to do the same,” said Gill.

Kappa Sigma is the largest collegiate fraternity in North America. The Xi-Beta chapter has been awarded as one of the top chapters nationally and is the largest at Northeastern.

Disclosure: Blast editor John M. Guilfoil is a member of Kappa Sigma

Yes, sports fans, she was smooching the runners.

Dow was part of the “Scream Tunnel,” an exciting tradition as the yearly Marathon passes through the Wellesley College leg of the race.

In addition to being reputed as quite the kisser, Dow turns partying into an art form, as you’ll read.

Blast got up close and personal with — though we didn’t lean in for any kisses — with our new favorite blond Wellesley girl.

We also posted a gallery.

Soooo … what’s your story?

My story? Well I’d say I’m a small-town girl who goes to Wellesley, so of course I’m constantly trying to spice things up and party it up in Boston. I just like to have a good time with good friends.

What’s with “Wiz”?

That’s kind of an old memory between my friends and I involving a cruise to Canada, a bottle of tequila, an elevator, and some poorly placed restrooms. Imagine yourself a story and it’s probably what happened.

What gave you the idea to give out kisses at the marathon?

Kissing the runners during the marathon is a long-standing tradition at Wellesley.  It’s one thing the Scream Tunnel is known for.

How many people did you kiss? Any girls? Did you charge for your kisses?

I’d say about 30 guys stopped for a kiss and I even had 2 girls take me up on my offer. I should have been charging — it would’ve made up for the cost of sanitizer.

Were these pecks or full on smooches with tongue?

They were supposed to be pecks, but some of the runners got a little carried away and I actually had to push them back into the race.  As you can imagine, these were sweaty and generally nasty kisses — I wasn’t about to allow tongue on top of it. The only thing that skeeved me out a little was the one guy telling me, “You’re like my granddaughter!” after grabbing my face and laying a fat one on me right on the lips.

What was it like to see your picture on Boston.com?

I was pretty excited. Last time I was on there was a few years ago when I was volunteering for the marathon pasta party. I liked this image much better!

On April 9, students in the Korean Students Association said that another student, a white freshman said to be from Weston, mocked, accosted and assaulted the students, who were in a dormitory common area practicing for a cultural show.

Korean Students Association members, in interviews with Blast Magazine, said that the freshman drunkenly stumbled upon them around 1:45 a.m., while they were practicing a cultural dance routine.

The student allegedly exclaimed “the gayest shit I’ve ever done.”

“After the dancers asked him several times to leave, he responded by saying, ‘Fuck you. Fuck you. I could take all of you. I’ll kill you all,’” said Tufts student Jenny Lau in a statement. “He began spitting on each of the five male dancers whom he had been imitating, and shoving one of them.”

Lau said the student attacked the group, ripping members’ shirts and cutting one person’s forehead. A fight ensued, during which the Korean students pinned the white student down and put him in a headlock until he complained that he couldn’t breathe. As the student’s friends came in and dragged him away, he allegedly shouted to the Koreans “fuck you all, you fucking chinks, go back to China! Go back to your fucking country, you don’t belong in this country.”

The Korean Students Association offered up the name of the student, but Blast is withholding it because neither police nor university officials would confirm it. The student also did not respond to our requests for comment.

The alleged attacker did offer a statement, through his friends, to Tufts Daily, the student newspaper, saying that he was attacked first:

“Severely physically hurt, highly emotionally charged, scared for my life, I yelled obscenities at the group.” Tufts Daily reported from his statement.

The students notified a resident assistant about what happened. Campus police also investigated.

Tufts Police Department Captain Mark Keith called it “an isolated incident,” saying no formal charges have been brought against the student and that he will be dealt with by the school’s internal student judicial system.

The incident left the Asian-American community at Tufts calling for increased administrative response to incidents of bias.

“The Office of the Dean of Students is currently investigating … Many differing accounts of this incident are circulating within the university community,” wrote Bruce Reitman, Tufts’ Dean of Students, in a university-wide email April 10. “While we cannot comment on an incident that is currently under active investigation, we want the community to know that we take seriously our responsibility to pursue this incident and to ensure a safe and supportive environment on campus for all our students.”

Administrators would not comment further nor would they say if the student would face punishment.

Reitman said the school was reaching out to the students affected by the incident, but that’s simply not enough, several students said, and they’re angry.

“Despite the fact that this freshman male made death threats to the 13 members present during the incident, he still walks on this campus,” said Jennifer Kim, the vice president of Korean Students Association.

“It wasn’t alleged. It happened, and it was a hate crime,” said Jenny Lau, a junior at Tufts who helped plan an April 16 rally against racial bias, which was attended and supported by the university’s LGBT and African American communities. City Councilor Sam Yoon, Boston’s first Asian councilor and a mayoral candidate also attended.

To many of the school’s minority students, this incident is part of a larger problem. “It seems that currently, the administration is emphasizing only the violence part and downplaying the race part,” Kim said.

In a letter to the administration, students said the purpose of the rally was to “call on the administration to make effective institutional changes towards ensuring that all students at Tufts have a safe environment in which to pursue their education.”

In their letter, the students are demanding that the school do more to promote awareness of Asian Americans and to dissuade racial stereotyping. The students also want the school to develop a protocol to swiftly respond to future incidents.

“This affects the overall campus climate,” Lau said. “This definitely shouldn’t have happened.”

The Globe, citing city public health officials, said that the results are not confirmed, but that two students came down with symptoms after returning from Ireland, where apparently a mumps outbreak has occurred.

All four students had been vaccinated against the disease, which is not 100 percent effective. The Globe says 10-20 percent of those vaccinated are still vulnerable to the disease.

A Simmons College study reveals that sugar-sweetened beverages increase a woman’s risk of heart disease. Regular consumption of beverages like soda and energy drinks puts women at a higher risk for coronary heart disease, according to research findings of nutrition professor Teresa Fung

Published in the April edition of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the study found “a significant positive association” between sugary beverages and risk of heart disease.

Women in the study who drank two more of the beverages each day had a 35 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who did not.

The study also found that women who drank sugar-sweetened beverages were fatter, engage in less physical activity, and ate fattier foods.

“We all know that drinking lots of sugary beverages is unhealthy,” said Fung. “This study looked specifically at how regular consumption of sugary beverages can lead to an increased risk of heart disease.”

The study included carbonated and non-carbonated drinks, natural and artificial flavors, and caffeinated or decaffeinated drinks.

Other studies show that consumption of these beverages has more than doubled in the last 30 years. Today, 9.2 percent of all liquids consumed by women are sugary drinks.

The one-time only show is free to the public and is expected to fill up fast. This student-run dance group has more than 120 dancers and will be showcasing 16 dance pieces in various styles, including Jazz, Hip Hop, Belly dancing and Lyrical genres to name a few. The all-inclusive No Limits Dance Crew is open to the entire Northeastern Community, and in addition to holding its own performances, the group is dedicated to collaborating with other NU creative arts groups and to being involved in the community.

The group also offers classes in all genres for $2 each for non-members. Classes are free for members. The classes are member-taught and the performance pieces are member-choreographed and this organization is truly a labor of love, and that love is for dance.

The Tower Auditorium is located directly in front of the Green Line E Branch’s Longwood Avenue stop at 621 Huntington Avenue.

A child who escaped the nightmare in Darfur drew this disturbing image coated in candy colors.

That drawing is among a set of 500 others done by child refuges of Darfur as part of a traveling exhibition called Waging Peace.  The event is sponsored by Boston College’s center for Human Rights and International Justice, and the Center for the Arts and Social Responsibilities.

In 2007, Waging Peace member Anna Schmitt went to the country of Chad to learn about the living situations and humanitarian rights of Darfuri and Chadian refugees. Schmitt began collecting testimonials from adults in these areas when her focus turned to the youth, who had witnessed just as much terror as their elders. Schmitt handed out paper and pencils to kids between the ages of 6 and 18, and asked them to draw their future hopes and their strongest memories. What she found were honest depictions of the horror that these children witnessed in their everyday lives.

The government of Sudan’s story of the events that have unfolded in the past four years is not surprisingly very different from the pictures drawn by the children. What makes this exhibit fascinating is that the viewer enters with the back-of-the-mind thought that children have no reason to dramatize or fabricate their illustrations. At this age they are naïve to the workings of politics and of government and its role in the gore and terror that they witnessed.

They just drew what they saw.

The sketches in the exhibit feature a number of elaborate events. Just as an American child might draw a scene from their home or school, the Darfuri children depict villages on fire, men on horseback shooting machine guns into crowds, and tanks and helicopters shooting into the air and dropping bombs on towns. The one common element that ties all of the drawings together is the blatant, and obvious red scribbles. Thick red smudges draw the viewer’s eye to outlines of adults, animals, and babies that lie on the floor of the representational villages, unmistakably and brutally murdered.

The images serve a duel purpose. While serving as a form of therapy for children that have obviously been emotionally scarred, the pictures also serve as an eye opener to audiences that may be unaware of the crisis that has taken over Darfur. The illustrations also provide evidence that there is much more brutality happening in Darfur than is being represented by its government. Therefore, many of the pictures will be submitted as evidence to the International Criminal Courts in the proceedings against officials of Sudan that have denied policies of genocide. The drawings certainly bring a level of awareness of the tragedy in Darfur to Boston, and shows how art therapy can be a useful tool when helping children and others deal with a crisis.

It was mid-day. Northeastern University student Sarah Alverston was sitting in the library staring blankly into a textbook that she couldn’t seem to focus on. She just had a fight with her boyfriend, and she knew she wouldn’t get anything done until she talked to him. So she sent him a text message.

“Sorry about earlier,” it said. “I’ve just been stressed out about other things. Want to meet me at the library? I want to see you.”

About 15 minutes later her boyfriend, Josh, walked up to her table on the second floor. He sat down and apologized as well for being stubborn. Then he gave her a look.

That look.

She knew what that look was for, and she whispered to him, “I can’t leave the library right now I have too much to do.”

But he told her it didn’t matter and winked. He motioned to one of the group study rooms. At first she thought he was crazy. There were people sitting right outside the room. Half of the door to the room was made of glass. There was no way. But then she got a rush of excitement and thought why not? It would be a great story to tell.

Alverston is certainly not the only college student who has performed sexual acts in public. One sophomore at Northeastern, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that part of her job when she worked at the library was to make sure no one was doing things “they weren’t supposed to be doing.”

Last year during Northeastern’s annual sex week, a magazine was put together full of articles about sex. The magazine was called “Stripped” and contained a list of “Top Ten Places to Have Sex on Campus.” The list included places like the college’s underground tunnel network and the saunas at the gym. Number one was the library.

“I know tons of people who have had sex in public places,” said Alverston, in a recent interview. “I thought it sounded fun but I never planned on actually doing it.”

Other students have admitted to similar sexual experiences, the scenes ranging from dorm showers to parking lots. Jordana Kerr, a sophomore psychology major at Northeastern admitted to doing the deed in one of the school’s indoor gymnasiums.

“I worked there life guarding,” said Kerr. “(My boyfriend and I) didn’t get a lot of alone time because we both had roommates. One night he came to visit me and we ended up having sex in the racquetball courts. It was thrilling and it was a fun experience.”

However, if someone were to get caught, the student conduct handbook mentions these types of incidents would be handled as “sexual misconduct.”

Despite prohibitions and threat of punishment, many popular television shows portray sex in public as a natural and desirable activity. An episode of Sex and the City deals with a man who can only have sex if he thinks he might get caught. An episode of Friends includes a discussion about the craziest place the characters had ever “done it.” Even Homer and Marge Simpson rekindle their sex life by doing the deed at a miniature golf course.

This generation did not invent the idea of having sex in a place besides a bed. The openness and in-your-face style however, is something new.

John D’Emilio, author of the book “Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America,” thinks that every generation feels the need to be riskier than the one before it.

“It’s almost as if young people are pushing the boundaries one step further,” said D’Emilio. “Fifty years ago co-ed dorms didn’t exist, and now they do. And there’s no longer a curfew either. If you want to break the boundaries, you have to find a new way to do that.”

How Sex Has Changed

Public displays of affection are a pretty common sight around the streets of Barcelona. Media credit/mmoorr via Flickr

Alverston’s reason for having sex in the library was different from Kerr’s reason for having sex in the racquetball courts. Both of their parents however, probably didn’t think of performing a sexual act anywhere public, for any reason.

According to experts, each generation has had a different attitude about sex and adopted different ways of expressing themselves sexually as a reflection of the beliefs at the time. Sex in public did not used to be a normal practice. D’Emilio relates this trend back to the end of the 1800’s, when it was looked at with disgust.

“At the end of the nineteenth century there was public sex emerging,” said D’Emilio. “But it took place in neighborhoods that were deemed to be sex neighborhoods like red light districts where there was prostitution. This behavior was outrageous at the time.”

Those who were not labeled as outcasts of society kept sexual acts very private. It wasn’t until the emergence of automobiles and their growing popularity did that change. At a time when mobilization was much more plausible, couples began courting in their cars. Whether taking one another on dates to the movies or a remote place for privacy, sex began to move out of the bedroom for young people.

Sex was still relatively private though, and society built structure around this principle. Gina Ogden, a sexual therapist from Cambridge said sex was purposefully very repressed in the minds and practices of people in the past.

“Before and after the explosion of sex in the 60s and 70s, people were very constrained in their thinking of sex,” said Ogden. “There were male and female dorms. There was much less ability to be overtly sexual. During the Reagan years, I was a school psychologist at a boarding school. There was a big movement against ‘public display of affection,’ and people were getting expelled for holding hands. It was awful.”

The shift in how society views sex and also how people express themselves sexually has been a drastic one since then. D’Emilio thinks that societal acceptance plays a big role.

“What has really changed since then is that the assumption has become that young people will have sex before marriage. That’s just normal,” D’Emilio said. “It doesn’t push the boundaries.”

Mandewille was diagnosed with an abnormal heart valve, which is not considered life-threatening, but the problem could become dangerous under the strenuous training regimens of the NFL.

“I told him his health and well-being is what’s important,” Northeastern coach Rocky Hager told the Boston Herald. “I don’t know if that means he’ll continue in a career in sports, but then everybody’s career in sports eventually comes to an end. But I think he’s so well grounded and his parents have done a great job raising him and he always has the right attitude.”

Mandeville caught 63 passes for 863 yards and seven touchdowns in 33 games, worthy of earning first-team All-New England honors. Northeastern’s I-AA football program went 2-10 last year and hasn’t had a winning season since 2003.

“The overarching priority of Emerson College with respect to alcohol and other drugs is to ensure the safety and well-being of our students,” said Ron Ludman, dean of students at Emerson, in an email to the campus. “The College is committed to providing guidance so that students can learn to develop a responsible approach to social challenges, including whether to use alcohol, how to do so in moderation, and how to comply with local, state, and federal laws governing alcohol consumption.”

Ludman said that the college expects students to abide by the law and respect college policies governing drug and alcohol possession and consumption. “However, the College acknowledges there may be times when students may face medical emergencies involving excessive drinking and/or drug use. In these situations students are expected to call for assistance when concerned for their own health or welfare or that of another student,” Ludman said. “In order to encourage students to seek prompt and appropriate attention for alcohol or any other drug intoxication the College has instituted a “Medical Amnesty” policy.”

According to the policy: “Seeking medical assistance for oneself or a fellow student demonstrates responsible student behavior. When evaluating an alcohol violation the College will consider whether a student sought medical assistance for oneself or another person in need, and in most cases view the act of seeking medical assistance as good judgment and accordingly, not deserving of typical disciplinary sanctions.”

Therefore, Emerson students will not be subject to a disciplinary fine, hearing, probation, suspension or other punishment if they exercise good judgment and act in the medical best interests of themselves and their fellow students.

Students’ parents will still be called and students could be required to meet with the Emerson Counseling Center and Wellness
Educator in these cases.

Click here to read the entire Emerson College Medical Amnesty Policy

“Neither Brandeis University nor the Rose Art Museum is on the brink of economic collapse, nor are they unable to maintain the collections,” the Association said in a scathing indictment of the school. “Given that no clear explanation has been offered on the school’s financial exigencies, the closure of the Rose Art Museum and the sale of its collection appear to be in violation of professional museum standards and of academic transparency.”

The CAA cites the Codes of Ethics of the American Association of Museums and the Association of Art Museum Directors, “which clearly state that works of art in museum collections are held as a public trust and that any proceeds of sales must only support the acquisition of new works.”

“However, perceiving an entire art collection as a disposable financial asset and then dismantling that collection wholesale to cover other university expenses is deeply troubling for all college and university collections,” the CAA said in a statement Thursday.

The closing of the museum at Brandeis will be devastating to the academic community, not only affecting our colleagues at the museum and students and faculty in the Department of Fine Arts, which offers programs in both studio art and art history, but also depriving the entire arts-loving public in New England and around the world. The teaching of art and art history in higher education is untenable without the direct study of physical works of art, and it appears the Brandeis Board of Trustees has disregarded the kind of scholarship and creativity that have been the hallmark of CAA members for nearly one hundred years.

The College Art Association is comprised of 14,000 artists, art historians, scholars, curators, collectors, educators, art publishers, and other visual arts professionals are individual members and 2,000 universities and museums.

The association has called upon the Brandeis University board of trustees to reverse the decision.