Category: Katherine Geyer
Worcester Native Stirs Deaf Debate
FERNANDES
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University News Service
December 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 —Growing up in the Newton Square neighborhood of Worcester, Jane Kelleher Fernandes played piano, figure skated and went to Midland Street Elementary like all the other kids.
But she always did things a little differently.
Born deaf to a hearing father and a deaf mother in a time and place where she was not exposed to sign language, Mrs. Fernandes, now 50, communicated solely through spoken English until she was in her 20s. And since she had never met another deaf person outside her family when she was a child, she was never part of a group where she felt she belonged.
In May, Mrs. Fernandes emerged in the national spotlight after her controversial appointment as president of Gallaudet University, the world’s only liberal arts university for the deaf and hard of hearing, located in Washington, D.C.
She said she had a plan to turn the school around and make it more welcoming to all deaf people, including those who have not learned American Sign Language, which is the glue that many deaf leaders claim holds the deaf community together and sets it apart from the hearing world.
“Those who come to Gallaudet are faced with a sink or swim mentality—they either fit in or they leave,” she said.
But when the Board of Trustees told the school’s 1,800 students that she would replace retiring president I. King Jordan, a student protest erupted. She had been a divisive leader in her six years as provost and the presidential search process was flawed, the protesters said.
They marched to Capitol Hill, erected a “tent city” on campus, launched a hunger strike and shut down the school for several days. As many as 400 participated in the campus protests, according to a university spokesperson. Protesters showed up at her childhood home in Worcester and knocked on neighbors’ doors, asking questions about her. They then confronted her parents at their home in Cape Cod. She received threats and heard rumors that a mob would show up in front of her rural Maryland house.
With many considering Gallaudet to be the world leader on issues relating to the deaf, many look to the school’s president as “mayor” of the deaf world. All eyes were on Mrs. Fernandes and the debate spread around the globe.
On October 29 the Board of Trustees succumbed to the mounting pressure and by majority vote revoked her appointment as their first deaf female president, saying it was in the best interests of the university. Three board members resigned, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of several members of Congress who served on the board. Mr. McCain said in a statement he disagreed with the decision and considered it “unfair.”
On Dec. 10 the Board selected Robert Davila, the former vice president for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, in Rochester, NY, to be the school’s interim president until a permanent president is chosen.
Visiting her quiet 10-acre Maryland farm 30 miles east of Washington, one might never guess Mrs. Fernandes is the subject of such contentious debate. Her husband, son and daughter, all hearing, grow blueberries in their backyard where deer roam freely. Her daughter Erin, 13, plays the saxophone and Sean, 15, plays basketball in the driveway. And she owns two Collies, the same breed of pets she had growing up in Worcester.
In her first face-to-face interview since the Board’s decision, Mrs. Fernandes sat down recently with a Telegram reporter to discuss what had happened. She appeared to react with little anger to the controversy swirling around her, but expressed disappointment and frustration over how she had been portrayed.
Mrs. Fernandes uses the simultaneous communication of spoken English and sign language, which is unpopular with some in the deaf community. “The protest was about my not being deaf enough,” she said. “That sends a hurtful message to deaf and hard of hearing youth throughout the United States and the world that if they don’t fit a certain mold, they don’t belong at Gallaudet.”
Mrs. Fernandes charged that her strategy for broadening the student base was essential to improving the quality of education at Gallaudet. The academic accreditation of the school is currently under review by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which has publicly expressed concerns about the presidential search process, student recruitment, retention and graduation rates and academic rigor at the school.
Gallaudet receives more than $100 million annually from the federal government and is subject to federal review. A 2005 report from the Office of Management and Budget rated Gallaudet “ineffective” in its performance including “the number of students who stay in school, graduate and either pursue graduate degrees or find jobs upon graduation.” OMB and several other federal agencies are working with Gallaudet to develop a plan to improve performance at the school.
Mrs. Fernandes said Gallaudet’s low graduation rates are of serious concern. Of the full-time undergraduate freshmen who entered the school in 1999, only six percent graduated four years later compared to a national average of about 50 percent for private schools. After six years, only 28 percent of them had graduated, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. The average six-year graduation rate for private, non-profit four-year institutions was about 64 percent during the same time period, according to the center’s statistics.
Kevin Carey, research and policy manager at Education Sector, an education think tank in Washington, said that schools like Gallaudet should have a graduation rate of at least 40 percent over a six year period. He said that although Gallaudet is a unique university, “they could probably do substantially better than 28 percent.”
Mr. Carey said graduation rates are usually tied to the level of preparation students have when they enter the school. Faculty Senate Chair Mark Weinberg told The Washington Post that Gallaudet is so “desperate” for students that “they’ll go out and yank people off the street who don’t have the skills or who are not ready for the college experience.”
“This raises questions about the role and purpose of a private university receiving a large amount of support from the federal government,” Mrs. Fernandes said. “It seems almost anti-American.”
“This is exactly why my vision for Gallaudet was so essential,” she said. “Becoming an inclusive deaf university was critical to improving the university’s outcomes.”
As a child, Mrs. Fernandes was reserved, but “extremely bright,” said her father Richard Kelleher, who served as a Worcester District Court judge. Both he and her mother, Kathleen Cosgrove Kelleher, were born and raised in Worcester. Mrs. Kelleher attended the public schools as a deaf student and at 72 still has not learned sign language.
Jane was also sent to public school because her parents “didn’t know any other way,” said her father.
Although Mrs. Fernandes credits her Worcester teachers with being sensitive to her needs, she said it was challenging to succeed in an educational setting that was not set up for her.
“I was always studying, always trying to make up what I missed from the class discussions,” she said.
Mr. Kelleher said that one day in elementary school, she was sharpening her pencil with her back to the class when her teacher told her several times to sit down. Because she could not hear, the other students laughed. She ran home in tears, but her mother sent her back. “She became strong because of that,” he said.
The only girl and the oldest of five children, Mrs. Fernandes has one brother still living in Worcester. Joseph Kelleher, also deaf, works at a U.S. Post Office in Worcester.
Mrs. Fernandes said she learned to lip-read through a process of trial and error and with the help of a speech pathologist who worked for the Worcester Public School District. An honors student, she learned English, French and Latin at Doherty High School before ever knowing that a sign language existed. And although she couldn’t hear the music, she took piano lessons for several years.
After receiving her Bachelor’s degree from Trinity College in Connecticut, Mrs. Fernandes received her master’s degree and Ph.D. in comparative literature at the University of Iowa. That’s where she joined a deaf club and was first introduced to American Sign Language at the age of 23.
She said she absorbed the language and culture of the deaf like a sponge. “That was the first time I saw a large number of deaf people,” she said. “I thought, wow, all of these people are really like me.”
She added: “I became a more whole person– a genuine person– and developed greater self-confidence.”
She even competed and won the Miss Deaf Iowa contest and represented the state in the Miss Deaf America competition, an event in Baltimore that her parents attended and one of many times that her father said he was incredibly proud of her.
After her experiences in Iowa and exposure to the deaf culture, Mr. Kelleher said he saw a change in his daughter. “One day, we were sitting at my house and she told me that her goal in life was to bring us, the hearing people, into the deaf world and bring deaf people into our world.”
After graduating, Mrs. Fernandes worked at Northeastern University and then Gallaudet for a year as chair of the Sign Communication Department, where she met her husband, James. The two moved to Hawaii, where she served as director of the Hawaii Center for the Deaf and the Blind, a Pre-K through 12th grade school.
She returned to Gallaudet in 1995 as a vice president to direct a center that focuses on innovations in deaf education and set up a cochlear implant education center at the elementary school run by the university to teach sign language to children with implants. In 2000, she became Gallaudet’s provost.
Her efforts to introduce cochlear implants were controversial at Gallaudet. “At first, a lot of people resisted that idea,” she said. “But as we’ve seen more deaf adults getting implants and seeing that they are able to harness technology and still not change their identity, the implant center has become more acceptable.”
It was this view of cultural wall breaking that would have taken Gallaudet in a new direction during her presidency, Mrs. Fernandes said. And she said it was also what spurred the “fierce nature” of the protests, which included students burning an effigy of her in the protest’s final hours.
She said the protesters treat Gallaudet as if it is a deaf club, rather than a deaf university.
“I believe that it’s about deep, deep-seated fighting to maintain a strong deaf cultural identity,” she said.
Because today’s disability laws require public schools to provide interpreters and notetakers for deaf students, it has become easier for them to become “mainstreamed.” These students often use both spoken English and ASL and may or may not consider themselves to be part of deaf culture. Many attend public universities rather than relying on schools like Gallaudet that specialize in facilitating communication among the deaf.
Mrs. Fernandes said that 95 percent of deaf infants are born to hearing parents, who are eager to get cochlear implants for their children in order to “fix” the problem.
“An implant is not something I would choose for myself and would not choose it if I had a deaf baby,” she said. “But it is an option that people have and nothing that I or other people do will stop that from happening.”
Mrs. Fernandes emphasized that despite what some of the students may believe, she is deeply committed to her deaf heritage. “To be clear about my own view, I believe that I am deaf, and I am happy to be deaf, and proud to be deaf. I don’t want to be fixed and I learned that attitude from my mother, who’s deaf also, even though we did not learn sign language. We were not deaf culture members. We are deaf people who believe that deafness happens in families and we live with that.”
But there is disagreement in the deaf community on this issue. Some deaf educators say that the respect and preservation of the identity of the deaf community is bound to the use of ASL.
“The concern is that mainstreaming dilutes the use of ASL and what ASL significantly stands for beyond just being ‘a language,’” said Judy Fask, director of the Holy Cross Deaf Studies Program.
Mrs. Fernandes’ use of both spoken English and sign language shows she “lacks respect for the use of ASL as the primary language of deaf individuals,” said Dennise Scott and Ying Li, both deaf studies professors at Holy Cross and alumni of Gallaudet, in an email interview.
But Gallaudet has seen its enrollment decline in recent years and Mrs. Fernandes said part of the reason may be the extreme emphasis by some students and faculty on ASL and deaf culture and the exclusion of those who don’t fit that mold.
“[Gallaudet] needs to try to draw in more deaf students of color and more deaf students who have cochlear implants and create a more inclusive deaf university of academic excellence,” she said.
The protesters who opposed her cited a number of reasons for why they did not want Mrs. Fernandes to be president of Gallaudet.
Some claimed she was “not deaf enough” because of her mainstreamed upbringing, some because she cut funding for their programs. And some of the protesters said she simply wasn’t friendly enough and was too stand-offish with the students.
“Dr. Fernandes has created a climate of fear through her style of management, which was clearly intimidation,” said Tara Holcomb, a student leader of the protest. She said Mrs. Fernandes may be able to explain what inclusiveness means, but she was unable to put it into practice.
Ms. Holcomb and others said their protest was not about a fear of cultural change but more about Mrs. Fernandes’ leadership style. “She was known as an exclusive leader who bypassed important university policies to get what she needed,” Ms. Holcomb said. A number of protestors said Mrs. Fernandes had alienated faculty, staff, students and parents.
But supporters compare her leadership to that of a parent who makes decisions based on her children’s needs rather than wants.
“She has high expectations of students,” said Shirley Shultz Myers, Honors Program director. “She cares so deeply about students that she is honest with them when their behavior or academic integrity is questionable.”
Leslie Page, the diversity fellow in the president’s office, said Mrs. Fernandes sometimes made unpopular decisions. “In the deaf community, it seems to me that decisions are made based on popularity and that is not how Dr. Fernandes operated,” Ms. Page said.
Jonathan Cetrano, a Gallaudet student from Fitchburg who worked in the provost’s office, said Mrs. Fernandes is misunderstood. “Since she is introverted, some people have a difficult time getting to know her,” he said.
Her husband, James Fernandes, who worked at Gallaudet for 30 years, said during the protests much was said and written about his wife that was not true and he believed it was driven by the students’ fear “that they were somehow going to lose their identity by making Gallaudet a more welcoming place for different kinds of deaf people.”
Mr. Fernandes said he didn’t recognize his wife in the caricature painted by her opponents. “She is a very caring person…she’s very determined. She is a woman of great principle and integrity and poise. She’s not a politician.”
And part of it may have to do with the fact that she is a woman, according to Mrs. Fernandes. “There’s the idea that a woman has to be warm and loving and friendly and if a man did the same thing that I did, they would say he’s very busy with million dollar decisions on his mind.”
Although Mrs. Fernandes has the option of returning to teach at Gallaudet after taking a one-year sabbatical, she hasn’t made any decisions about the future although she said she hopes to remain involved with deaf education. “I will open myself to new possibilities and where I end up remains to be seen.”
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McGovern, Anxious to Leave Iraq, Backed Murtha
MCGOVERN
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University News Service
November 16, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16- Rep. James McGovern (D-Worcester) voted for Rep. John Murtha (D- Pa.) for House majority leader in Thursday’s election, he said, because he agrees with Mr. Murtha’s opposition to the war in Iraq.
Murtha lost to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) in a vote of 149-86 when the Democrats of the 110th Congress met to choose the party’s House leaders starting in January.
Mr. Murtha, a Vietnam veteran and two-time Purple Heart winner, has called for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Iraq region.
“I voted for Murtha in large part because I feel so strongly that we need to do everything we can to end this war in Iraq,” Mr. McGovern said. “I think it would have been another powerful signal that would indicate to the White House that we need to get serious here.”
Mr. Hoyer, who is finishing his second term as the House minority whip, does not share Mr. Murtha’s views on Iraq and has said that the U.S. needs to provide the troops with every resource necessary to succeed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Mr. McGovern said he does not believe that the other House Democrats voted based on the war or other ideologies. “For some people it’s like, ‘rather than shake things up or rock the boat, let’s just stay with the team that is tried and true and we know works,’ ” he said.
“I think Steny has been a good whip,” he said. “I think that’s more the reason than ideology.”
Mr. McGovern said personal relationships also played a role in the Democrats’ decisions.
“It was kind of a mixed up vote based on people’s personal relationships,” he said.
Stephen Hess, professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, agreed. “These things are always to some degree a popularity contest,” he said.
“It’s an election in which they intimately know the candidates running for office,” he said. “So to that degree, it’s more like electing to choose the senior class president in high school. More people like Steny Hoyer than John Murtha.”
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who the Democrats elected as their new speaker, publicly endorsed Mr. Murtha as majority leader. Some political analysts have criticized her decision to support Mr. Murtha, who managed her campaign during her race against Mr. Hoyer for minority leader in 2001.
“This was her first challenge [as Speaker-elect] and in political terms, she certainly failed it,” said Mr. Hess. “But it doesn’t mean very much other than the sense that she’s not as shrewd or as smart or as clever as she otherwise might have been.”
Mr. McGovern said he believes Ms. Pelosi’s power has not been diminished.
“Inside The Beltway, that’s what everybody thinks. That if you don’t win everything, somehow you’re weakened,” he said. “It’s nice to win, but sometimes loyalty and standing up for your convictions is every bit as important.”
Mr. Hess said the real test of her leadership is going to be how well she can push the Democrats’ agenda next year.
“With winning the majority, as we did on Nov. 7, comes great responsibility,” Mr. McGovern said. “The American people are expecting us to change things, to move things in a different direction.” He said he’s confident that Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Hoyer can do just that.
“People should feel pretty good about this team,” he said.
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Holy Cross Students Witness History at Democratic Party
DCCC
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University News Service
November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8-- Before the confetti fell at the Democratic election party Tuesday night, Patrick Rodenbush predicted that the Democrats would regain control of the House and that the 3,000 Democrats in the large hotel ballroom would “go nuts.”
And within minutes, the 20-year-old Holy Cross student was proven doubly right.
Mr. Rodenbush is one of the 16 Holy Cross students spending the fall semester in the nation’s capital. The program has students interning at the White House, the State Department and with various senators, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., for whom Mr. Rodenbush interns.
He chose to go to Washington to “see how the process works” and went in the fall so that he could be there for the elections. He and fellow student Steven Hickey were volunteers at the election party hosted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. A big fan of politics, Mr. Rodenbush described the night as “definitely the highlight of the semester.”
The event featured likely new Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who would become the first woman to hold that position. Joining her were possible Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and several House members who are part of Ms. Pelosi’s “30-something working group,” which she formed to engage the younger generation in the political process.
Bill Burton, communications director at the DCCC, estimated that one-third of those who attended the event were under the age of 30.
Among the top issues Ms. Pelosi and other speakers at the event mentioned were college tuition, affordable health care and the war in Iraq, which Mr. Rodenbush said was the reason that younger people have recently become more politically involved.
An estimated 10 million Americans under the age of 30 voted in Tuesday’s election, according to the Maryland-based Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. That would be an increase of 2 million from the 2002 midterm elections.
“The Iraq War has played a big role in that,” Mr. Rodenbush said. “Kids our age are over there fighting. They’re people we know and people we went to high school with.”
He added: “Our generation is defined by September 11th. I think people then realized how important government is in our lives.”
As for students’ political interest back at Holy Cross, he said a lot of the students are engaged in politics.
“Many students want to get involved and feel included,” he said. “It helps to see a 30-something standing up there, rather than somebody who is a lot older and might be out of touch with where you are as a student.”
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DAR Takes on Myths of Early America
- Photos by Jill Connor
MYTHS: In the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum in Washington D.C. down the street from the White House houses a number of artifacts from the Worcester area especially in the Massachusetts room shown here. In the corner stands a grandfather clock made in Oakham by William Crawford between 1790-1820. Patrick Sheary, is originally from Worcester but now lives in D.C. and works as the Curator of Furnishings for the DAR museum.
MYTHS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katie Geyer
Boston University News Service
November 2, 2006
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 -- The tall wooden timepiece built in Oakham, Mass., and now on display at the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum here can be called a tall clock or a case clock. But never call it a grandfather clock.
The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), with a mission of promoting historic education and preservation, is out to set the record straight. Tall clocks were not called grandfather clocks until the 1870s, when the song “My Grandfather’s Clock” became popular. So tall clocks like this one, made by William Crawford between 1790 and 1820, must not be labeled “grandfather.”
The clock myth is part of the DAR's exhibit, “Myth or Truth? Stories We've Heard about Early America,” which began on Oct. 6 and will run until next March 31 at the museum. The grandfather clock myth is one of many that the museum director, Diane Dunkley, says have been driving the DAR and other American history buffs crazy.
"They're the sorts of things that historians know but the general public doesn’t know," she said. "There’s a lot of discussion [at the DAR] all the time about ‘did you hear this one?’ ”
And so was born an exhibit that challenges silverware, flag makers, door hinges, Yankee Doodle and the number 13.
Ms. Dunkley said the myths come in several different forms.
"There are myths that start out with a kernel of truth and then just sort of get embellished for whatever reason," she said. "It's like playing a game of whispers."
"And then there are things that people just make up to explain things," Ms. Dunkley said.
Patrick Sheary, the DAR Museum’s curator of furnishings, is a native of Worcester and regularly maintains furniture in the museum’s various state rooms, including the Massachusetts room. The room is a replica of the front parlor of the Hancock-Clarke House in Lexington, Mass., where John Hancock and Samuel Adams were said to have been when they heard Paul Revere’s message in 1775 that the British were coming.
Mr. Sheary, who has worked there for 11 years, said that the most famous item in the room is a Chinese tea chest said to have been one of the two surviving tea chests thrown into Boston Harbor during the Boston Tea Party in 1773.
“It conjures up lots of debate,” Mr. Sheary said, because without the presence of water marks, he said, the DAR questions whether the box had any involvement with the Boston Tea Party.
One myth featured in the DAR’s exhibit is the common assumption that people were shorter, on average, during the revolutionary period, than they are today. The DAR says scholars have compared the average height of Revolutionary soldiers with the height of soldiers in the 20th century, and the difference is within fractions of an inch.
Similarly, at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Mass., curator Tom Kelleher frequently explains to visitors that the village’s low-ceilinged revolutionary period houses are not necessarily evidence that people were shorter back then.
When people make assumptions about the low ceilings, he said, he asks them, “Well, are you hitting your head?” Although the ceilings seem low, “you don’t have to duck,” he said.
Mr. Kelleher said that Americans have come to expect a certain amount of space in a house and that high ceilings would have been seen as a waste of material and of heat back then.
The curator echoed the DAR’s warning about historical myths.
“Good stories stick in our minds,” he said. When people hear of evidence that Americans have changed, he said, they think it is very interesting. But as interesting as these stories sound, Mr. Kelleher said, it is best to have a healthy skepticism.
He said questioning history teaches critical thinking. “Not just about history, but about life in general,” he said.
But Kenneth J. Moynihan, a professor of history at Assumption College, said that myths about height and artifacts and the like may catch the public’s eye, but they are not the kind that really have power. “We have myths about everything,” he said. “Some of them are important and some of them are not.”
For example, he said, there is a powerful myth that surrounds the founding of our nation. “A major factor in our self identity is that either we bought the land fair and square or the Indians had it coming because they [attacked] the white people,” he said. “That’s the level of myth that really has power, not necessarily myths about how tall people were.”
The professor said he is working on a book about Worcester’s early history in which he plans to challenge some of the assumptions about the town’s past.
Ms. Dunkley of the DAR said the public as well as historians should always question the sources of their information.
"What we really want the public to do is say, 'OK, that’s an interesting story.' Then go see what they can find out."
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McGovern Uses Excess Funds to Help Other Democrats
FECworcester
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University News Service
October 18, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18-- While many Democratic congressional candidates around the country are finishing up fundraising efforts and pouring their funds into the final days of their own campaigns, Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, has used his funds to help other Democrats secure victories in November.
Mr. McGovern has raised $672,349 over the past two years – to go with the $45,093 he had in the bank after his last election – and because he is unopposed in this election, he is able to give thousands of his excess dollars to other Democrats throughout the country.
As of the end of September, the most recent reporting period, Mr. McGovern had spent all but $101,103, according to his filings with the Federal Election Commission, and his spokesman, Michael Mershon, said there will probably not be any more major expenses during this election cycle. Most of the campaign money was used for fundraising, payroll expenses and the overhead of keeping a campaign office. But according to Mr. Mershon, “a big chunk” of his money has gone to supporting other Democrats.
Unopposed candidates can keep their funds for their next campaign, or they can donate to other candidates to help them out.
Over the past two years, Mr. McGovern’s Re-elect McGovern Committee has given $150,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to help support what the committee spokeswoman Jen Psaki described as “our best opportunities across the country to pick up Republican House seats.”
Mr. Mershon said that the Mr. McGovern also wrote individual checks to Democratic candidates. In 2005 and 2006, Mr. McGovern’s campaign committee donated a total of $5,000 to Democrats in Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and Vermont.
He spent an additional $4,500 supporting Democrats not on the targeted list, such as Reps. Chris John of Louisiana and Doris Matsui of California, both of whom, Mr. Mershon said, are close friends of Mr. McGovern.
In July, Mr. McGovern sent a letter to his donors asking for contributions so that he can continue to support Democratic candidates in need.
“This November, we will have an opportunity to dramatically change the direction of this country by electing a new Congress,” he wrote. “If Democrats are going to win, we must be able to counter Republican attack ads that are being developed right now in Karl Rove's office.”
Donald Melville of Worcester donated money to Mr. McGovern in 2005 and 2006 and said he doesn’t mind that his money may be going to an out-of-state candidate.
“He’s not going to give it to Republicans,” Mr. Melville said. “He’s going to give it to Democrats, and frankly, the more Democrats we can get into Congress, the better off we’re going to be.”
But according to Massie Ritsch, communications director for the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign finance issues, some donors may be disappointed to learn that their donations may not be going toward their candidate’s own campaign.
“I think many donors would be surprised to know that their contributions ended up in the campaign of someone else,” he said. “Within the Democratic Party, as in the Republican Party, there are a number of ideologies. Donors who agreed with the candidate they gave to might not agree with the candidate to whom he turns over their money.”
Mr. Ritsch said that donating to other candidates shows the candidates and party leaders that the candidate is a team player, and “that can be rewarded.”
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Mail Trivia
-- In one week, Rep. James McGovern’s office gets an average of 500 e-mail messages and only 30 letters via traditional mail.
-- If a class of third graders writes to Rep. John Olver, his staff will reply to each student individually.
-- Mr. McGovern’s office received thousands of letters about the horse slaughter bill that the House approved in September.
-- Mr. Olver’s office gets a bundle of mail the size of a carry-on suitcase several times a day.
-- When the Washington offices receive letters on local issues, they send the letters for responses to the district offices in Massachusetts.
-- Mr. McGovern signs every response letter that is addressed to an individual. He often writes a personal note at the bottom.
--Katherine Geyer
They’ve Got Mail: A Look Inside Congressional In-Boxes
LETTERS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University News Service
October 10, 2006
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 -- Some are e-mails about Medicare or privatization of Social Security. Others are notes asking Congress to help free reality-TV stars from prison.
But despite the weekly influx of thousands of letters to Reps. James McGovern (D-Worcester) and John Olver (D-Amherst), every letter writer from the 1st and 3rd congressional districts receives a response.
At their Washington offices, Reps. McGovern and Olver each has a legislative staff of five to eight who continuously sort and read the e-mails, letters, faxes and postcards that the representatives receive on a daily basis. The staffs also determine which letters will make it to their bosses’ desks.
“We are a lightning rod for everybody to tell us how they feel,” said Hunter Ridgway, the chief of staff for Mr. Olver’s Washington office.
Mr. Ridgway said that because of the volume of messages, the legislative staff is forced to prioritize messages and choose which ones they will mention to Mr. Olver.
“The congressman’s philosophy is to prioritize individuals who really think about what they’re writing and craft their own thoughts and messages,” Mr. Ridgway said. “They’re first in terms of the responses they get back and the timeliness.” At the bottom of his list, Mr. Ridgway said, are people who send just a postcard, in either an electronic or paper form.
In Mr. McGovern’s office, Legislative Aide Lisa Salerno spends two to three hours a day with the representative’s mail and says that e-mail messages trigger the quickest response. She blamed the time lag of traditional mail on security precautions that force each letter addressed to a member of Congress to be re-routed to a facility in Pennsylvania where envelopes are opened, inspected, and tested for hazardous materials.
Although many people think of members of Congress as being inaccessible, the aides who handle the mail in these two offices say that it is certainly possible for a constituent’s letter to make it into their boss’ hands.
Mr. Ridgway said that if a constituent wants to influence the Mr. Olver, he or she has to be one of the first to write regarding an emerging issue.
“If you’re ahead of the curve, you can have more of an impact on a congressional office,” Mr. Ridgway said. “If a principal from a school writes in about an issue they’re concerned about before the national organizations write us about it, it will tend to have more of an influence.”
Similarly, Mr. McGovern says that the more personal the letter is, the more powerful it is.
“It’s not that big of a hurdle for a letter to end up on my desk,” he said. “The more individualized they are, the more likely they are to get out of the huge pile.”
He said that he has received letters that have prompted him to hand-write personal responses and even, at times, to make phone calls to constituents to address their concerns.
Mr. McGovern said that although letters and other messages don’t usually change his mind on a particular issue, they are part of the conversation.
“On some issues, I don’t have a position,” he said. “So if I’m getting letters from people educating me on a particular viewpoint, that will contribute greatly to how I may end up voting or speaking out on a particular issue.”
Mr. Ridgway said that whenever Mr. Olver is trying to make a decision on something happening on the floor, he will ask his staff, “What are people saying on this?”
“[Mr. Olver’s] like a judge,” Mr. Ridgway said. “He only makes a decision when he feels he has enough information to do it.”
Mr. McGovern’s staff noted that, based on the letters they have recently received, the hot topics in the 3rd district include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, global warming and the war in Iraq.
Mr. Olver’s staff cited the same environmental issues as well as strong concerns about the crisis in Darfur.
Mr. McGovern said that despite the overwhelming volume of letters his office receives, he always welcomes mail.
“It’s very satisfying that people care enough to write and that they’re engaged,” he said. “It’s democracy at its best.”
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McGovern, Olver Push Darfur Resolutions
DARFUR
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University
News Service
September 28, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28-- There is always a wave of urgency rippling through the Capitol to get bills passed, but two Massachusetts representatives are saying that delaying certain legislation until after the campaigns could cost thousands of lives.
“The situation in Darfur grows more desperate every day,” U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-Worcester) told the House last week. “Many humanitarian aid groups have had to pull out, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without food and water.”
U.S. Rep. John Olver (D-Amherst) and Mr. McGovern have been urging Congress to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act of 2006, achieving success Monday when the bill was sent to the President for his signature.
The bill “imposes sanctions against individuals responsible for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, supports measures for the protection of civilians and humanitarian operations, and supports peace efforts in the Darfur region of Sudan,” according to a description of the bill in the Congressional Record.
This bill is in response to the 200,000 people who have died and the 2 million who have fled the Darfur region of Sudan because of the conflict there since 2003. The U.N. Security Council recently authorized a 20,000 person peacekeeping force, but the Sudanese government has rejected their deployment. The African Union Peace and Security Council recently voted to extend the mandate of the current 7,000-troop A.U. peacekeeping force from September 30 until the end of the year. That force is widely seen as lacking the resources necessary to stop the violence.
Mr. McGovern and Mr. Olver also convinced members of the House last week to approve two resolutions that encourage President Bush to increase his support for an international peacekeeping mission to Darfur. The resolutions also call upon the Sudanese government to withdraw military aircraft from the region.
Mr. Olver said that these resolutions had to be passed before Congress leaves to campaign, otherwise the Sudanese government will not take the U.S. government’s efforts seriously.
“Every time there's a good deal of international focus on it [the genocide], the Sudanese government removes the foot from the pedal of their actions,” Mr. Olver said. “They slow down the Janjaweed and stop giving them the support that they would otherwise give.”
Mr. Olver said that the 200,000 deaths have been the result of “deliberate and indiscriminant” slaughter.
“The Sudanese government is using the same kind of terror tactics as Iraq used in the 1980s,” he said.
Mr. McGovern and Mr. Olver both point out that Darfur needs a U.N. peacekeeping force to help stabilize the area.
“The African Union peacekeeping force finally decided they would stay until the end of the year,” said Mr. Olver. “But if we don't equip them and train them and give them a mandate, they will still just be watching the slaughter of innocents. I'm very worried about that.”
“The A.U. forces only have 7,000 boots in the ground, and the region of Darfur is about the size of France,” Mr. McGovern said in his speech to the House last week.
Humanitarian groups, such as the Genocide Intervention Network, have recently been critical of Congress, saying that it has done little to follow through with a resolution passed in 2004 calling for an end to the genocide.
“I think in 10 years we’re going to look back and say not nearly enough was done at all levels of government, not nearly enough attention was paid and not nearly enough funds were appropriated,” said Sam Bell, director of advocacy at the non-profit, non-partisan Genocide Intervention Network in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Bell said that the Massachusetts delegation has been the exception.
The Genocide Intervention Network released a scorecard in August rating members of Congress on their efforts in passing this legislation. They gave both houses of Congress an overall rating of C, but gave most of the Massachusetts members an A.
“The Massachusetts delegation has been a leader on this and lord knows where we would be without them,” said Mr. Bell.
He particularly praised the efforts of U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass), who recently introduced the Peace in Darfur Act of 2006.
“It hasn’t gotten a lot of support yet, but it is important legislation and I think it will,” Mr. Bell said.
He noted the efforts of U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Somerville) for helping to secure an additional $50 million for the African Union Mission in Sudan in March 2006.
He also stressed the importance of Mr. McGovern and Mr. Olver being arrested outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington in April of this year. The two representatives were detained on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly while attending a rally to end the genocide.
“These guys are putting their teeth into the game and showing that they’re committed in a real way,” said Mr. Bell.
Mr. McGovern, who has his arrest record framed in his office, recently sent letters to his constituents pleading for support in the divestment in the Sudan and encouraging involvement in Darfur rallies.
“It was so funny that he lobbied his constituents,” Mr. Bell said. “That’s how strongly he feels about the issue.”
Mr. Bell agrees that the Sudanese government is looking at the U.S. to see how seriously we’re taking the problem.
“For them to see that people of power are really putting themselves out there, this is what threatens them and shows them that we’re for real,” he said. “And that’s the thing that’s going to get them to stand down.”
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Putting Heart and Soul in the Cancer Crusade
CELEBRATION
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University Washington News Service
September 21, 2006
WASHINGTON, Sept. 21–Nancy Kowal is concerned about a lot of things. She’s concerned about her cancer patients back in Worcester who are in the fight of their lives. She’s concerned that the members of Congress in the Capitol behind her aren’t taking her seriously. And she’s concerned about the results of her recent biopsy. Her cancer may be back.
Ms. Kowal, 63, of Worcester, was a Massachusetts ambassador for the American Cancer Society’s “Celebration on the Hill” event on Wednesday. She joined thousands of cancer survivors and advocates representing each state to spread awareness of the disease and encourage members of Congress to increase cancer research spending by at least 5 percent.
She knows that once a person is afflicted with cancer, it never truly leaves their life, and she doesn’t allow members of Congress to forget it. She said that because of her persistence, she’s known on Capitol Hill as a “certified pain.”
Ms. Kowal was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1979 when her three children were just toddlers. She had a lumpectomy and cared for two sick children, one of whom died of severe heart disease at the age of six. “I got a little psychotic and made out my will and guardianship and almost sent my husband to the psychiatrist,” she said. “It almost devastated my family.”
As a nurse practitioner at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Ms. Kowal’s specialty is pain management. “Pain crosses all walks of life,” she said. “It directly affects how good your outcome is—whether you have surgery or whether you have a chronic condition. It’s the difference between walking and lying in bed.”
Ms. Kowal educates her patients on standards of pain for the various procedures so that they will know if they aren’t getting adequate care.
“Providers are not gods,” she said. “Patients need to be accountable and responsible for their own health.”
Ms. Kowal originally found her lump during a self-exam shortly after her mammogram came back negative. “I had to push to get proper care for myself,” she said. “It's better to live and enjoy your family than to die from denial.”
She travels to Washington every few months to “cause trouble on the Hill,” she said. She studies the agendas of the members of Congress and doesn’t hesitate to let them know when they’re wrong. “It can't all be about money, needles and surgery,” she said. “It has to be about long-term quality of life. It’s Band-Aids versus global thinking.”
Ms. Kowal often takes cancer patients with her when she meets with members of Congress to show them the human faces behind the stories. “I haven't seen a legislator yet,” she said, “who can sit in front of a cancer patient and tell them, ‘No, I won't.’ ”
Although she frequently encounters roadblocks, she said she believes in the legislative process. Since 1996, she has worked closely with U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. James McGovern (D-Worcester). Mr. McGovern said Ms. Kowal has poured her heart and soul into this cause.
“She represents hope,” Mr. McGovern said. “These women aren't a briefing book. They represent real life.”
Mr. McGovern said he agreed that Congress needed to increase funds for preventive care. “What they say is that we don't have the money, but the deal is, if you find better ways to treat people or cure people or prevent people from getting the disease, in the long run, we will save money,” he said.
Ms. Kowal said she believes in the future of cancer research. “I just hope I live long enough to see it all,” she said.
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Massachusetts Gets an F in College Affordability
TUITION
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Katherine Geyer
Boston University News Service
September 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Massachusetts received a failing grade for “College Affordability” but earned an A in every other category in a recent report on higher education.
The percentage of family income used to pay college expenses at Massachusetts’ public universities has increased to 34 percent, which forced undergraduates to borrow an average of $4,342 last year, according to the new report, released by the non-profit, non-partisan Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.
“The state has been falling further and further behind in their support,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy. “The state appropriations for higher education fell by 25 percent in 2005.”
Like Massachusetts, most states received a satisfactory grade in the other categories, but when it comes to affordability, Massachusetts is just one of many that received a failing grade. The highest-scoring states in this category were California and Utah, each receiving a C-.
The report, which graded each state on such categories as college preparation, participation and completion, stressed the value of an educated workforce and stated that the high percentage of Massachusetts residents with bachelor’s degrees has substantially strengthened the state’s economy.
“We have 75,000 jobs in Massachusetts looking for people when we have close to 200,000 people who are unemployed,” Mr. Kennedy said. “How are we going to develop the innovative industries of our time to be able to develop high-paying jobs with good benefits and maintain a world class economy that is second to none? Education is at its core.”
Mr. Kennedy believes that bringing competition to the student loan programs will help ease the financial burden. The current system is “working very, very well for the banks, but not for our students,” he said.
Mr. Kennedy blames the Bush administration for not increasing subsidies adequately. But Dan Lips, an education analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation, argued that an increase in federal subsidies won’t necessarily help the problem.
He said that over the past decade, federal support for education has increased, but there need to be fundamental reforms in the education system for significant changes to occur.
“It’s clear tuition prices are out of control,” he said. “But we need to look at different solutions, such as increasing competition.”
Kaine Thompson, a spokeswoman for Worcester State College, said that tuition, set by the state, has not increased.
“Student fees, however, set by the Worcester State College Board of Trustees, have increased to maintain our educational quality.” She also stated that the number of students receiving financial aid has increased over the last five years.
Eileen O’Connor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education agreed that for Massachusetts, the problem doesn’t lie with the tuition prices.
“Tuition has remained the same over the past few years,” she said. “It’s the mandatory fees at the individual schools that have gone up.” She believes this is because of a combination of factors, including rising costs and decreased state funding.
Azure Collier, a spokeswoman for Fitchburg State College, said 78 percent of the school’s students are receiving some sort of financial aid. The mandatory fees for the college have jumped from $3,216 for the 2003-2004 school year to $4,572 for 2006-2007. These fees are in addition to the $970 that full-time Massachusetts students pay annually for tuition.
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