2010-11-10

AM Showers 48/38

THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 43

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Senate passes resolution supporting Africana studies major, department BY

BRENT YARNELL

Daily Editorial Board

OLIVER PORTER/TUFTS DAILY

A Monday Green Line extension working group meeting at Tufts allowed the public to voice concerns and ask questions about the project.

Green Line extension planners meet with the public at Tufts BY

MARTHA SHANAHAN Daily Editorial Board

Members of the Green Line Extension Design Working Group met Monday night for the second time to discuss detailed plans for the extension of the T’s Green Line through the Union Square and Medford Hillside neighborhoods.

The working group meetings, which are hosted by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) and open to the public, bring together MassDOT and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) employees and representatives from the surrounding neighborhoods of each proposed station to discuss details and concerns as the project progresses. Tufts Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel represented the university at the meeting, which took place at 51 Winthrop St.

MassDOT Green Line Extension Project Manager Kate Fichter began the meeting with an overview of the project’s current status. The extension project is now centering on finalizing the Green Line’s route and proposed stations.

“We are … also working on the final environmental assessment, which is the federal assessment,” Fichter said.

At the meeting, Ellin Reisner, the president of the Somerville Transportation Equality Partnership, was unanimously elected by members of the group to join Fichter as a group co-chair.

MBTA Deputy Director of Design Marggie Lackner then presented several design options for the seven proposed stations, including possible materials for different surfaces in the stations. see GREEN LINE, page 2

By a 20-4 vote with four abstentions, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sunday resolved to support the establishment of an Africana studies department.

The Senate resolution calls for transforming the Africa in the New World (ANW) Interdisciplinary Minor into an Africana studies major and the foundation for an Africana studies department.

Senators Chartise Clark, Ryan Heman,Yulia Korovikov, Shawyoun Shaidani and Joe Thibodeau sponsored the resolution.

Heman, a senior, said that the resolution supports the latest effort by student groups to realize a longstanding interest in Africana studies.

“There has been a real demonstrated need for an Africana studies program going on for 40 years now,” Heman said. The resolution cites student and faculty calls for an Africana studies program dating back to 1968.

The establishment of an Africana studies department will “set a precedent for other historically marginalized groups to address their academic needs,” according to the resolution.

Clark, a senior, said the only academic program currently concentrating in Africana studies is the interdisciplinary ANW minor, in which there are currently five students enrolled.

To complete an ANW minor, students must take five relevant courses in at least three departments and complete an independent project. Students may also major in interdisciplinary stud-

Tisch College celebrates 10th anniversary

MEAGAN MAHER/TUFTS DAILY

The Tufts Community Union Senate on Sunday evening passed a resolution supporting the creation of an Africana studies major and department. ies with a focus in African studies, African-American studies or African diaspora studies.

Clark said an Africana studies major should additionally include a foundational Introduction to Africana Studies course, as well as advanced courses focusing specifically on issues in the field.

“You would have things that explore the subject on a deeper level, rather than just skim the surface,” Clark said.

Several senators voiced reservations on Sunday about calling for the creation of a new academic department.

“I didn’t feel confident enough voting to create an entire department when a lot of the information presented appeared to me to be nebulous, in particular, [concerning] costs, maintenance and purpose,” TCU Vice President

BETH MEBRATU

Senior Staff Writer

VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY

Inside this issue

see AFRICANA, page 2

Expanded Somerville bike lanes to facilitate cycling in the city BY

Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chris Rogers addresses attendees at the ‘Tisch College 10th Anniversary Celebration’ at 51 Winthrop St. yesterday. Speakers, including faculty and students, honored the college’s first decade of promoting active citizenship.

Birthday cake was served.

Tomas Valdes, a senior, said.

TCU President Sam Wallis said he favors establishing an interdisciplinary Africana studies major but voted against the resolution because creating academic departments for all cultural groups is unfeasible.

“I’d love to see everybody study what they want, but when you bring it to a department, then not everybody has that opportunity anymore because of the high start-up cost,” Wallis, a senior, said.

Senator Christie Maciejewski said the resolution’s supporters provided no data about student interest in the program, and the resolution failed to specify the requirements for creating an Africana studies major.

Somerville’s cyclists are in luck, as the city has recently more than doubled its bicycle lane mileage, completing a goal of an ongoing project begun last spring by Mayor Joseph Curtatone to facilitate road safety.

The project adds 10 miles of new bike lanes along Somerville’s roads, expanding upon eight miles of existing lanes, according to city spokesman Michael Meehan.

A desire to improve public safety was one of the city’s primary motivations, Meehan said.

“A lot of people are reluctant, and rightfully so, to get on a bike and ride around the city when there aren’t any bike lanes,” Meehan told the Daily. “This is going to make roads safer for bicyclists, motorists and even pedestrians.”

Though it is not directly part of Shape Up Somerville — the city’s healthy living campaign — Meehan explained that increasing bicycle accessibility fits neatly with the program’s aims.

“It’s tied into Shape Up Somerville,” Meehan said. “We just want to make this a more active community.”

The new lanes create a path from the Powder House Circle area to Union Square, including parts of Powder House Boulevard, College Avenue and Somerville Avenue.

Meehan views the extension of bike lanes as inevitable for an urban community like Somerville. He said that the city intends to pave an additional 11 miles of bike lanes in 2011.

“One of the realities is that we’re part of the urban Boston mix, and when you’re part of a big urban metropolis, there will be bicycles,” Meehan said. “We need to make sure the city is catered to the people who live there.”

Somerville is also planning an on-street parking program for bicycles and is seeking businesses that are interested in replacing their parking areas traditionally reserved for cars with spots for bikes instead, according to Meehan. A bike parking spot would resemble a “glorified bike rack” and be able see LANES, page 2

Today’s Sections

Tufts receives grant for math and science middle and high school teacher training.

Talented singers power BLO’s moving production of Puccini’s opera, ‘Tosca.’

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts | Living Captured Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 13 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

2

Expanded bike lanes improve cyclists’ travels in Somerville LANES continued from page 1

to accommodate a dozen bikes in a single space.

“A shop with a heavy number of bicycle customers might like that,” Meehan said.

Tina Woolston, program director for Tufts’ Office of Sustainability, believes the new lanes will increase biking’s appeal in the local community.

“One barrier to biking in an area is that the roads are pretty dangerous,” Woolston said. “They’re kind of narrow, there are cars parked along the side of them. I see bike lanes as a way to make biking safer, and I’m sure more people might do it as a result.”

Woolston thinks that the bike lanes will enable Tufts students to travel to more distant parts of the city.

“This is a way of making other parts of Somerville accessible, especially to students who don’t have cars,” she said.

Senior Emily Ruff, one of the Office of Sustainability’s Eco-Reps, has already made good use of Somerville’s bike lanes.

“I’ve found the bike lanes very, very useful, and even though I rode around Somerville before the bike lanes, I certainly noticed them and have been planning my routes to use them,” Ruff said.

She said that the bike lanes add to her sense of safety when traveling through the area.

“I feel much safer using the bike lanes than just riding around,” Ruff said. “As much as cars should give equal rights to the roads to bikes,

often this doesn’t happen, so it’s nice to have clear lines and lanes to keep people safe and not interrupt traffic.”

Sally Sharrow, a member of Environmental Consciousness Outreach (ECO) and Tufts Bikes, believes that the new bike lanes will help demonstrate to automobile drivers the need to share the road.

“Bikes have a right to be on the road,” Sharrow, a senior, said.

“Drivers don’t necessarily know that. I think with more bike lanes, it will be clearer that bikes have a right to be there.”

Sharrow hopes that more Tufts students can gain access to bikes in order to utilize the new bike lanes.

Sharrow is a co-founder of Tufts Bikes, a new student group aiming to bring a bike-share program to Tufts.

“We’re trying to make bikes available for Tufts students,” Sharrow said. “If we get money from Senate, we’d buy 30 bikes to be checked out from the library with a student ID, and students would bring them back within a given amount of time.”

Tufts Bikes also plans to host bike workshops, teaching users simple mechanics as well as how to ride safely in the city, according to Sharrow.

She said that the new Somerville bike initiative reflects a more widespread biking trend.

“I think that biking is becoming so much more popular around the States,” Sharrow said. “It is exciting to see these initiatives take place that will make biking easier.”

OLIVER PORTER/TUFTS DAILY

A cyclist speeds along a Somerville street. The city has more than doubled the number of its bicycle lanes and is planning to expand them further next year.

Police Briefs A SMOKING GUN Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers at 1:21 a.m. on Nov. 3 saw three male students by the side of Lane Hall. When the officers approached, they smelled marijuana and saw one of the individuals throw a metal object over the railing.

The officers retrieved the item, which turned out to be a marijuana grinder with marijuana in it. They also found a bag that contained a bong with smoke still inside the chamber.

The students all denied ownership. TUPD confiscated and destroyed all of the items and sent a report to the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs.

INNOCENT ERS

BYSTAND-

TUPD at 11:45 p.m. on Nov. 6 received a call about a loud party taking place in Hillside Apartments. Officers reporting to the scene found loud music, underage drinking and a beer pong game set up. One of the residents stated that some of the alcohol was his, but that he

had not given it to any of the underage attendees.

“What do you think?” TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy said.

TUPD broke up the party and confiscated the unclaimed alcohol.

PLEASE RECYCLE THIS DAILY TUPD officers at 10:15 p.m. on Nov. 7 reported to a South Hall dorm room in response to reports of a strong odor of marijuana. When the residents opened the door, officers saw a marijuana vaporizer machine with an attached hose that had burnt marijuana residue in it.

Officers also found an old issue of the Daily rolled with “something white” in it, according to McCarthy.

“They recycle; let’s put it that way,” he said.

The students turned over three small plastic bags to TUPD officers.

—compiled by Alexandra Bogus based on reports from the Tufts University Police Department

See tuftsdaily.com for an interactive map.

NEWS

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

USDA Deputy Secretary Merrigan speaks at Friedman

USDA.GOV

U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan delivered the keynote address on Friday at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy’s symposium, titled ‘Nutrition Security: Challenges and Advances.’ After the keynote, Merrigan spoke with the Daily about her efforts to aid local farmers in the United States. See Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com for the full interview.

Senate hopes resolution will catalyze creation of new Africana studies major AFRICANA continued from page 1

“I’d like to see more concrete evidence about the classes that would fulfill the major, and I’d like to see whether or not a new professor would have to be hired in order to create a major and support it,” Maciejewski, a freshman, said.

Shaidani, a sophomore, said students supporting the establishment of an Africana studies department have heard varying estimates about the costs of doing so.

Clark said that students involved in the project have located a few dozen alumni who have committed to donating specifically to an Africana studies program, but she said details were not available for immediate release.

Korovikov, a sophomore, said the bulk of the courses for an Africana studies major could come from existing courses offered by several departments.

“I know specifically of a large number of anthropology courses and dance courses, arts courses, English courses, history courses

and political science courses that all deal with issues that are relevant to Africana studies,” Korovikov said. “If you look at a lot of the American studies courses right now, they really fit into Africana studies.”

The ANW website lists across 17 different departments 38 professors who teach courses that currently count toward the ANW minor.

Assistant Professor of Music Stephan Pennington, Associate Professor of English Christina Sharpe and Assistant Professor and Director of the ANW Interdisciplinary Minor Pearl Robinson have expressed support for an Africana studies department, according to Clark.

Clark said Students for Educational Equality (SEE) last year began lobbying for an Africana studies department, and the Pan-African Alliance (PAA) currently spearheads the effort.

Clark, the vice president of the PAA, said the resolution granted additional legitimacy to the groups’ efforts.

“From this point on, the resolution will basically serve as a lobbying tool for a lot of student organizations who are pushing forward the initiative with the administration,” Clark said.

She said that a department in Africana studies, unlike an interdisciplinary major, would be able to hire professors holding degrees in the field.

Chair of the Liberal Arts and Jackson Curricula Committee Frances Chew said in an e-mail to the Daily that the faculty of the School of Arts and Sciences must approve all proposals for new majors.

Chair of the Arts, Sciences and Engineering Educational Policy Committee Jack Ridge said the Board of Trustees must also approve proposals for the creation of new departments.

The Senate’s fall semester survey will ask students questions relating to Africana studies, including whether they would consider declaring a major or minor in the field, according to TCU Historian Tomas Garcia, a junior.

Working group, community members discuss Green Line extension plans GREEN LINE continued from page 1

Lackner emphasized that the overall design of each station remains flexible to accommodate its location.

“Almost every station is going to have a unique plan in relation to the street,” she said.

One of the proposed stations along the Green Line’s route will fall near the Tufts campus at the intersection of Boston and College Avenues.

Eric Bourassa, the transportation manager at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, gave a presentation on a planning study done on a proposed site of the final stop of the extension to be located at Mystic Valley Parkway/ Route 16.

After a discussion of design principles for the station, the floor was opened for several members of the community and representatives of community groups to ask questions and voice their opinions about the project.

Fichter, calling the meeting a success, told the Daily afterward that she was encouraged by the public’s participation.

“It was nice to have the working group together as well as the members of the public … and there were a lot of good questions raised,” she said, adding that MassDOT relies on the input of the working group during the design process.

“The most important … part [of the group] is to help us sort through all the … tradeoffs

that come to play during the design,” she said.

The group will meet again sometime after Jan. 1, although members discussed scheduling for upcoming community workshops to accept more feedback from the communities surrounding each station.

Seth Rau, a junior who attended the meeting as a member of the public, emphasized the need for increased student involvement in discussion about the project.

“I feel like even though I’m a junior right now and I … will not see the fruition of this project,” Rau said, “right now there’s a lot of voices — there’s five thousand of us — and our voice was not heard in this.”

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

$2.1 million dollar grant enables Tufts to train graduate students to teach in public schools BY

AMELIA QUINN

CJ SARACENO | BAN TOGETHER

Don’t do the Loko-motion

Daily Editorial Board

As college students, it’s easy to see the importance of great teachers — students often choose or avoid courses based on the professor’s reputation, no matter what the subject. It is for precisely this reason that, around the country, school officials have emphasized the urgency of recruiting strong teaching candidates. At Tufts, the need for more high-quality public-school teachers, specifically of mathematics and natural sciences, is being addressed with a budding scholarship program for graduate students of education.

The National Science Foundation has given Tufts a $2.1 million dollar grant to fund Tufts’ participation in the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, which works with universities around the country to prepare Master of Arts in Teachers (MAT) candidates to teach math and science to middle and high school students.

The program is currently working with Tufts mathematics, natural science and education professors to train eight graduate students in 2011 who will go on to teach at public schools after earning their degrees. It plans to work with an additional eight students beginning in 2012.

The program also provides mentoring and monetary support during participants’ first four years of teaching subsequent to the completion of their education.

“The Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program is for … MAT students who are interested in teaching math or science at the middle or high school levels in high-need urban districts,” Todd Quinto, a professor of mathematics at Tufts and one of the schol-

T

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

Next year, eight Tufts students will be chosen to participate in a program that will turn them into quality middle and high school teachers. arship program’s investigators, said. “The scholarship … provides students, known as Noyce teaching fellows, with full tuition scholarships, more than $20,000 to cover living expenses and internships under the guidance of an experienced teacher. Upon completing the year-long MAT program, fellows commit to teach in a middle or high school in Boston or in a similar urban district for at least four years.”

As an additional support system for the teachers-in-training, Boston Public Schools’ (BPS) Human Resources office provides assistance for Noyce Fellows applying for teaching positions at local public schools.

“The Residency Model of the Noyce

Teacher Fellows Program is highly regarded

by BPS as an effective way to prepare teachers [for] urban classrooms,” Quinto said. “During each of their four years of teaching, fellows will receive a stipend of $13,500 in addition to their annual salary and are eligible to take one class per year at Tufts University without any additional cost.”

According to Linda Beardsley, director of teacher education in the Department of Education at Tufts’ Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the new program is a response not just to a local insufficiency of teachers but a national one. see NOYCE, page 4

The North End: Pastry shops to suit every taste

BY JON

CHENG

Daily Editorial Board

As many Jumbos will attest, a trip to Boston’s North End is not complete without a stop at one of its many iconic pastry shops.

But with such variety and with different loyalists swearing by each shop, it’s hard to know what you’re signing up for when you join one of the many long lines of hungry customers dotting the North End’s streets.

The first step to a successful pastry hunt is to know the shops.

Maria’s Pastry Shop: Warm service and tradition (46 Cross St.) Opened less than 30 years ago, Maria’s Pastry Shop is younger than some of its competitors, but owner Maria Merola more than makes up for its newcomer status with the traditional Italian family recipes she uses to make her fresh pastries every morning.

As the shop is not as bustling as some of its better-known neighbors, Maria often finds the time to chat with her customers and provide recommendations — which customers can certainly use given the variety the store offers. On display are 15 varieties of cookies and eight kinds of cake, which include everything from the traditional Tiramisu to Zuppa Inglese, a cake made from savoiardi (lady finger cookies), Amerena cherries, chocolate and vanilla cream, rum flavoring and fresh whipped cream.

Her speciality, however, is Sfogliatelle, a traditional Neapolitan sweet filled with ricotta cheese, semolina flour and citrus fruit.

Merola said that the pastry, which resembles a dense croissant, makes for an excellent breakfast food because of its subtle taste, which carries a hint of orange marmalade.

“It’s not sweet like any other pastry,” Beth Applebaum, a tour guide based in the North End and frequenter of Maria’s, told the Daily.

“And [the Sfogliatelle], like all other pastries,

“To be honest, I should actually teach this class. I am so good, I could give classes to the professor.”

—Tufts student outside Braker Hall “Ugh. I hate Wednesdays.

They’re just like the Porter Square T stop — unnecessary.”

—teenage girl on the phone

“I just shower Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends — nothing more is necessary.”

—a student outside the library

is really fresh, and there aren’t any preservatives, which shows how much the people here in this bakery really care about quality.”

According to Merola, she sells between 500 and 1,000 Sfogiatelle per week, making it by far the shop’s most popular item. Her second best-selling item is the Panettone, a sweet traditional Milanese bread — the only one handmade in the North End, Merola said.

Although Merola also offers cannoli, she only makes them on days when she believes there will be high customer traffic as cannoli enthusiasts usually flock to the nearby Mike’s or Modern Pastry.

While she considers Mike’s and Modern Pastry competitors, Merola explained that her shop occupies a niche that sets it apart.

“I’m traditional and they’re commercial,” Merola said. “We offer pastries that are different from what you normally expect from traditional Italian pastry shops.” see PASTRIES, page 4

“I think I need to go to ‘Family Guy’ rehab. Is there a place for that?”

—addict in the Eaton Hall lobby

“After two weeks, the Chilean miners sent up a note that said, ‘Send booze please,’ and they got back a note that said, ‘Sorry, we don’t serve miners.’”

—MBTA bus driver —compiled by the Daily Features Department

Overheard something funny? Want to profess your love? Need to give a shout-out to that kid you always see unicycling on campus? E-mail features@tuftsdaily.com with the subject “Overherd on the Hill.”

he fervor to ban Four Loko, a popular alcoholic beverage and energy drink, has reached unprecedented heights.

Just this Friday, the state of Michigan banned the item, citing its 12 percent alcohol content and colorful design, which legislators see as an appeal to the youth market.

Other university administrators are already fully cognizant of the threat posed by this miracle drink — Harvard, Boston College and Northeastern have all issued warnings to their student bodies. The problem with Four Loko is that once it gains a foothold, its steady and disseminative leakage into surrounding communities soon becomes a flood that rapidly converts innocent people into dedicated consumers.

The town that makes up half of our campus, Somerville, seeks to reverse this trend by banning Four Loko. That’s right, city officials — and, more specifically, Alderman-at-Large Bruce Desmond — want to ban Four Loko.

Some view Alderman’s ill-fated attempt to save his community from a worldwide trend as a noble effort, but the college community will likely disapprove.

However, before readers pass judgment on Desmond’s motion, I urge them to consider the ban as an opportunity for a groundswell of active citizenship.

This active citizenship will save our campus, culminating in a movement that will unite the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, the Institute for Global Leadership, the Leonard Carmichael Society, the Tufts Peer Health Exchange and the Daily Features Department. These student groups must form a coalition with local politicians in an attempt to ban Four Loko on the basis that it will relieve the tension stemming from our strained “town-gown” relationship. By engaging with the disenfranchised community of Somerville, we could improve our standing with townies everywhere while giving our student activist population some experience in true social justice.

The problem is that as progressive-minded as Tufts students are, few of them would ever consider banning Four Loko. The benefits of the drink are simply too difficult to pass up: It gets you very drunk in a short amount of time, it keeps you awake long after the Tufts University Police Department has shut down every party within a five-mile radius, and it’s more economical than dropping five dollars for a cup at some hipster’s basement costume party where the keg will be kicked before you manage to get even one refill. Four Loko even tastes better than beer — you just need to discover your right flavor, a sensation only comparable to a Na’vis from “Avatar” (2009) first mounting his lifelong Ikran.

Four Loko also addresses the personal needs of Tufts’ social scene. Who needs beer goggles when you can wear Four Loko’s virtual reality headset — the beverage unfailingly renders even the most unsightly of potential partners into a palatable option. They don’t call it “blackout in a can” for nothing.

Despite these various benefits, the activists of Tufts must ban Four Loko. They must ignore claims made by the manufacturer of the drink, Phusion Projects, which recently declared, “when consumed responsibly, [Four Loko] is just as safe as any other alcoholic beverage.” Instead, these activists must point out that Four Loko is a harmful drug that poses a threat to unassuming consumers. They must join me in declaring that the party is over, and in order to avoid a life-crushing societal hangover, we must renounce our consumption of Four Loko. And we must do it alongside our fellow progressive-minded legislators and city officials, whose desire to intrude on private life remains intact despite voters’ recent backlash against such measures.

Such perseverance should motivate the true active citizens of Tufts to bridge the gap with our townie brethren in order to save the world from Four Loko once and for all.

CJ Saraceno is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Christopher.

Saraceno@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

4

FEATURES

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Program trains grad students to teach middle and high school math and science

Pastry shops in the North End add their own touch to traditional Italian pastries

NOYCE

PASTRIES

continued from page 3

“It is well known that there is national crisis in terms of the need for math and science teachers,” she said. “The fact that the National Science Foundation and the Noyce Foundation have released significant resources to teacher preparation programs to build a generation of well prepared, committed Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) teachers is testimony to the commitment these organizations have to respond to the needs of school districts and youth all across the country.”

The need for an increase of high-quality math and science teaching has become a hot political topic across the country, and on Sept.

27, President Barack Obama announced his goal of recruiting 10,000 STEM teachers over the next two years and 100,000 over the next decade, according to a statement released by the Office of the Press Secretary.

Beardsley explained that training teachers to educate middle and high school students is particularly important because those early stages in a students’ educational development are often when their interests in specific subjects are sparked.

“The best engineers, chemists, bio-ethics specialists, surgeons and radiologists, not to mention stellar science teachers … have probably been inspired by wonderful teachers in middle and high schools,” she said. “Students who have enjoyed learning math and science throughout their education [and] have found the disciplines exciting and creative should consider sharing their enthusiasm and understanding with future generations of students.”

Hugh Gallagher, associate professor of physics at Tufts, agreed with Beardsley, explaining that middle and high school teachers shape students’ educational foundations.

“I’m sure all of us remember particularly strong — even inspirational — teachers in high school or middle school,” he said. “They knew the material inside and out, were passionate about it, and were able to explain even the most difficult concepts with clarity. … Hopefully, the students supported by this grant will go on to become those kind of inspirational teachers.”

The choice to train teachers to work specifically with students attending urban public schools has been met with some negativity, Beardsley said, with some fearing the schools might be dangerous or unsupportive. But the classrooms Beardsley and the other project participants have in mind are anything but those stereotypes, she said.

“People have a host of misunderstandings about what it means to teach in urban schools,” Beardsley said. “Well-run urban public schools, like the schools we are partnering with in our Noyce grant, are among the most vital examples of schools that work for students, professionals and families in the nation.”

Gallagher believes that the grant will not only equip students with superb teaching skills but also provide them with the resources to find teaching jobs after they earn their degrees — a pressing concern for many students.

“I think that this grant, as well as the numerous other ongoing or upcoming STEM education initiatives, will impact Tufts in numerous ways. They will give science and math majors resources if they choose to pursue a career in teaching. These initiatives are making it possible for faculty like myself in research-oriented STEM departments to devote some of our time to helping to address the current crisis in STEM education in our nation’s schools,” Gallagher said.

Moreover, Beardsley said, the students selected to partake in the scholarship program will have the opportunity take their areas of expertise beyond the theoretical environment in which they are usually studied.

“The Noyce Project will support teachers to learn how to take their excitement about math and science and share that with students who have often not seen that math and science have much to do with their lives,” Beardsley said. “The candidates who are selected to be part of this program will have the opportunity to work in excellent schools alongside master teachers and university faculty who are dedicated to improving math and science education for all students and, in the end, improving the national picture of math and science literacy for all of us.”

continued from page 3

Mike’s Pastry: Commercial done right (300 Hanover St.) While a stop at Maria’s is certainly warranted, a visit to both Mike’s and Modern Pastry is mandatory. Both are known as the crème de la crème of all pastry shops because of their famous cannolis.

The 48-year old Mike’s Pastry, brainchild of 88-year-old Mike Mercogliano — operations are now being handled by his stepson Angelo Papa — attracts big crowds on any given day.

Mike’s cannolis are characterized by a thick tube of deep-fried crispy pastry and are typically filled with ricotta cream.

Although plain ricotta is Mike’s best-seller, the store also offers a variety including chocolate cream, chocolate chip, Italian yellow cream and “New York Cheesecake.”

All are paired with a selection of either Mike’s original-flavored shell or one dipped in chocolate sauce. “[The cannolis] at Mike’s are bigger and slightly sweeter,” sophomore Daniel Fortunato, who has eaten at both shops several times this year, said. “You can sort of taste more of the ricotta over at Modern because its fresher, but you ultimately get more value for your money over at Mike’s.”

On the pastry side, Mike’s offers Sfogliatella, also known as “lobstertail,” a flaky pastry shell filled with either white or yellow cream.

Modern Pastry: Gluten-free heaven (257 Hanover St.) North End locals looking for more “authentic” cannolis head to Modern Pastry, a newer shop housed in a smaller venue — but one whose cannolis sell just as well as Mike’s Pastry’s, according to a Modern Pastry employee who requested to remain anonymous.

“I remember someone saying online that we sell over 2,000 cannolis a day,” he said.

“And then I started approximating figures myself and realized that it was about the right number.”

MEAGAN MAHER/TUFTS DAILY

Customers in the North End can often be seen lining up outside of Mike’s Pastry, a popular choice for cannoli lovers.

But the difference in taste between the standard ricotta-cream cannolis at Mike’s and those at Modern Pastry is quite distinct, Fortunato said.

Additionally, among Modern Pastry’s bragging points is that their cannolis are filled to order, unlike Mike’s Pastry’s, whose cannoli are prefilled.

The two shops compete on a host of other pastries, as well — Italian yellow cream at Mike’s, for one, is easily confused with its Modern Pastry counterpart, vanilla custard. Both also price their cannolis at $2.50 for regular fillings and $2.75 for upgrades.

Still, the shops have their differences, and Modern Pastry sets itself apart most notably by offering patrons gluten-free pastries, olive oil, dried pastas and artisanal chocolate truffles that come filled with exotic liqueurs and non-liqueurs alike — cherry, grand marnier, Irish cream, Kahlua, peanut butter and mint, to name a few.

"….this was, perhaps, the most valuable class I took at Tufts. Here's why: I learned enough about astrophysics, geology, chemistry, biology and anthropology to discuss these topics and learn more about them. I took this class because I needed a science requirement, but it exceeded my expectations."

“This class was fantastic! No better way to fulfill a science requirement."

(Course feedback from Tufts students in spring 2010)

Bio 0006/ Chem 0006/ Phy 0006 Tu/Th 3:00-4:15pm J+ block

From the Big Bang to Humankind

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

OPERA REVIEW

ASHLEY WOOD | FASHION CONTRACEPTIVE

It’s a man’s world

I

COURTESY JEFFREY DUNN FOR BOSTON LYRIC OPERA

In ‘Tosca,’ Floria Tosca (soprano Jill Gardner) makes a drastic decision to protect herself and her love from Baron Scarpia (bassbaritone Bradley Garvin).

‘Tosca’ dishes up drama, classic music

BLO’s production is a mixed bag but does Puccini’s music justice BY

EMMA BUSHNELL

Daily Editorial Board

I will admit, “Tosca” has never been one of my favorite operas. Puccini’s music is lovely — and at many points in the opera even achingly beautiful

Tosca Music by Giacomo Puccini Directed by David Lefkowich At the Boston Lyric Opera through Nov 16th Tickets starting at $34

— but the melodramatic, even pulpy plot, along with some questionable compositional choices, has led many critics to dismiss Tosca, as contemporary musicologist Joseph Kerman put it, as a “shabby little shocker.”

The Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) has presented a production of “Tosca” that is delightful to watch. The small cast is made up of exceptionally strong singers whose clear and characteristic voices not only do justice to the music, but also add layers of nuance to the plot. Soprano Jill Gardner returns to BLO as the titular diva, Floria Tosca, and her commanding and full voice fits the bill of the jealous, fiery heroine. Her second act aria “Vissi d’arte,”

INTERVIEW | EDGAR WRIGHT

DAVID GITTESS

Contributing Writer

Though this summer’s “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” might not have struck it rich in the box office, the film garnered its fair share of critical praise. Happily, high quality and low revenue pair with engrossing, geeky appeal to propel “Scott Pilgrim” down the path of cult classics. The DVD and Blu-Ray of the film arrived in stores yesterday, and director Edgar Wright sat down with the Daily in a roundtable interview on Nov. 1 to discuss his experience with the film.

Question: Were you always a fan of the “Scott Pilgrim” (2004-2010) comic books? If so, what were your major concerns translating the comic book into the movie?

Edgar Wright: I just started reading it as soon as it was published in 2004. I read the first volume when it came out, and, you know, I was already in conversation with

see TOSCA, page 6

TECH REVIEW

Wright talks about ‘Scott Pilgrim’ experience BY

arguably the most famous to come out of the opera, was brilliantly sung, and Gardner ably conveyed all the emotions wrapped in the aria without overstepping the bounds of believability.

As wonderful as Gardner’s performance was, the standout performance of the evening was Bradley Garvin as the malicious Baron Scarpia. The opera originally took place during the Napoleonic invasion of Italy, but BLO has cleverly updated it to Mussolini’s Rome. Garvin appears as a higher ranking member of Mussolini’s army, and he looks truly imposing with his tall frame clothed in a dark, sleek uniform.

[creator] Bryan Lee O’Malley. He wrote the [first] book before the second [volume] was published, and so we were already working on the film as he was writing. And, you know, I just tried to kind of involve Bryan with each step. … There are great things that are in the book that are not in the film.

I think the two things were kind of like companion pieces, really. … My concern was really about getting the tone of the books across, of capturing the Katayanagi twins and how to translate that visual imagination to the screen.

Q: [Regarding the special effects,] is that [novelty] something you consciously aimed for when you were making Scott Pilgrim?

EW: One of the things that was irresistible to me making this film was that I felt like nothing quite like it really existed, you know? That was what was kind of fun to me — the idea of see WRIGHT, page 6

iPhone 4’s good looks backed by great personality BY

MITCHELL GELLER

Daily Editorial Board

With the release of the iPhone 4, Apple has ushered in “The Future.” The iPhone 4 is the all-singing, all-dancing

iPhone 4

Apple smart phone that multi-taskers, technophiles and gadget nerds have been waiting for. For the rest of us, though, it might be a little overwhelming.

Holding the iPhone 4, the first thing you notice is the beauty of the thing.

It manages to be both imposing and miniscule at the same time. And it sort of looks like the monolith from Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), which is pretty cool.

Unlike previous generations of iPhones, the iPhone 4 is flat on every side. And it’s skinny. Really, really skinny. According to Apple, the thing is just 9.3 millimeters (.37 inches) thick, making it the thinnest smart phone in the world. But the screen, the new “Retina Display” that Apple has been gabbing about, is 3.5 inches diagonally, comprised of 326 pixels-perinch. For those who don’t know how to interpret that last figure: It’s really, really sharp-looking.

Apple claims that it has developed pixels so small that the human eye can’t differentiate them, so images look crisper and more fantastic than ever.

And it’s actually true. The iPhone 4’s screen makes any other cell phone look

EWEN AND ONABEL VIA CC

Wright admits to have chased a few Ramonas in his adolescent days.

see IPHONE, page 6

have been writing this column for nearly two months now, and I can’t help but feel as though there’s an explanation in order.

Although I began writing with the intention of creating gender-neutral material, it’s ended up being largely biased toward women’s fashion. The fact of the matter is that men’s fashion has the opposite sexual effect as women’s fashion, which inevitably makes it less entertaining to write about. What do I care if a guy wears a Dolce & Gabbana suit or a Tom Ford one? He’ll look sexy in either.

The decision between a jumpsuit and harem pants, however, is far more debatable.

I have a theory behind this blatant inequality in male and female dress. It boils down to simple, physical chemistry: The majority of fashion designers must like penises. From straight women such as Ann Demeulemeester and Frida Giannini to gay men like Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs and the late Alexander McQueen, why would these fashion gods have chosen to dress their flawless male models in outfits that they didn’t deem sexually attractive?

If a straight man had the opportunity to dress about 15 long-legged, gazelle-like women, do you really think his first thought would be maxi skirts and harem pants?

Hardly. In fact, he probably wouldn’t dress them at all.

In order to prove my point, here is a short list of sexy, Vogue-approved fashion items for men: Skinny/straight-leg pants: While women wander around in oversized jeans and pants that make it impossible to tell where their crotch begins, men get to enjoy the advantages of showing off their bums in thigh-hugging jeans and dress pants. After all, straight men aren’t the only ones who enjoy seeing the opposite sex in tight, form-fitting clothing.

Why else would I watch the baseball team practice in high school?

Skinny ties: Skinny ties are useful for making the male chest appear broader. It’s a matter of proportions: Wear a thick tie, and your chest will seem less robust. Fashionable women, on the other hand, should have no chest. This is unfortunate and rather socially impractical, since men normally like boobs. I’m sure that even lesbian women like boobs. However, gay male and straight female designers apparently have very little use for them. Boobs are a fashion faux pas.

Short shorts: Both Dolce & Gabanna’s and Gucci’s Spring 2011 menswear lines include very fitted shorts that cut off well above the knee. So while women are being thrown back into a ’50s ankle fetish revival, men reap the benefits of the ’70s and get to show some leg. And let’s face it — it’s practically a law of nature that all men have nice calves.

Despite how easy it is for men to be both fashionable and sexy, it’s much harder to convince them to dress accordingly. Men who care about clothing have been defined by the condescending term “metrosexual,” which somehow has been colloquially transformed to imply lessened masculinity.

It’s practically the 21st century version of being a leper.

Tufts men frequently scorn fitted jeans and shirts and replace them with more “manly” athletic gear, like oversized sweats accompanied by running shoes. I would complain more about this fact, but to be honest, I secretly condone it. Their irrational fear of appearing feminine levels the fashion playing field for women like myself.

If the male student body insists upon wearing woman-repelling baseball caps and clothing that looks like it was tailored to fit a hippo, then surely I can continue to prance around in my non-sexy, jockstrapinspired Alexander Wang underwear.

Ashley Wood is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Ashley.

Wood@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

6

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

ARTS & LIVING

Strong cast of singers makes BLO’s staging of ‘Tosca’ aurally pleasing TOSCA continued from page 5

APPLE.COM

Apple’s iPhone runs apps, checks your e-mail, plays music and probably washes your car.

Apple’s iPhone 4 excels at doing everything except being a phone IPHONE continued from page 5

absolutely ridiculous. Computers don’t stand a chance against the screen. HDTVs might even look a little silly.

It’s a pleasure to look at, watch videos on and play games on — generally, eyes will enjoy staring at the iPhone’s screen, even though it’s still relatively small. And not only is it incredibly clear, but in using “in-plane switching” technology, its range of viewing angles is wider than most normal LCD displays, so you can view the thing from almost anywhere.

But the iPhone isn’t just the prettiest phone on the market — it’s also one of the most fullfeatured. It boasts two cameras: a rear-facing five-megapixel camera with an LCD flash and a high-quality, forward-facing camera. Using a photographic technique that’s new to the iPhone — HDR (high dynamic range) — the camera snaps three photos in quick succession and blends them to produce an even higher-quality image. It looks great even in poor lighting situations. A fun feature of the phone is that users can switch between the cameras to take great photos of things you’re looking at or to take self-portraits.

With the promise of “The Future,” Apple had to contend with video calling. It’s unclear why calls would need to include video in the future, but some people like these things. So Apple invented FaceTime, which basically amounts to built-in video calling right out of the box for every iPhone 4 user. It’s super easy to use: Just hit an on-screen button during a call with a fellow iPhone 4 user, and you’ll find yourself staring at your similarly equipped co-converser. And now with FaceTime available on new iPod Touches and all Macs, everyone can basically video chat with everyone else all the time.

With over 300,000 applications available, automatically geo-tagged HD photos and videos, video and photo editing, music recording and editing, e-books, tons of games, full e-mail integration, video calling, multitasking and an amazing screen, it’s really easy to forget that the iPhone 4 is meant to be, first and foremost, a phone. And that’s really its only issue.

It’s sort of cumbersome to make a call.

Contact lists can be strangely awkward to scroll through. And, although it’s featured at the bottom of every screen, the phone button’s location isn’t intuitive.

Call quality is good but not great, although the phone is the ideal shape and size for an adult’s head. I didn’t experience any of the phantom call-dropping that the iPhone 4 has been associated with, but I hold the phone with my right hand, so it’s difficult to comment on the problem.

To the phone’s credit, however, I didn’t read any manuals before I picked it up. After playing around with it for a while, I did crack the books open, but the learning curve is almost nonexistent. The iPhone 4 is nearly foolproof.

If you see it, you can touch it; if you can touch it, you can use it.

Multi-touch capabilities, like the two-finger pinch-to-zoom function, make the interface incredibly easy to use, and the thought process that must have gone into crafting every aspect of this iPhone generation is staggering. Nearly everything is totally intuitive, and the stuff that isn’t probably isn’t worth doing on the iPhone. It even does doubleduty as a full-featured iPod. Is it really a phone, then? It’s the phone as MP3 player, camera, camcorder, GPS device, videogame console, Internet tablet, e-book reader, editing station, flashlight, airhorn (really!), barcode scanner, radar detector and Rolodex — ad infinitum.

The iPhone 4 almost does too much. It’s a wonderful piece of technology. It’s basically a tiny little go-anywhere, do-(almost)-anything computer. Compared to the phones that most people still carry around every day, or even to most smart phones — well, there is no fair comparison. While so many phones market themselves as iPhone killers, the iPhone really has nothing to worry about.

The phone certainly isn’t for everyone.

Some people will be overwhelmed by the iPhone. For users who just need to make and receive calls and text messages, the iPhone is completely superfluous. But for those who need, or at least want, to be super connected all the time, there is simply no beating the iPhone 4.

Garvin was handily the best actor of the bunch. While stage director David Lefkowich allowed some members of the ensemble to wander around the stage distractingly at times and the focus of the singers was often centered more on musicality than believable acting, Garvin appeared ever-comfortable as he strutted around with decisive movements and presented the audience with a complicated and eerie villain, backed with dominating and precise vocals.

Attacks on the other singers’ acting may not be entirely fair, though, given that tenor Diego Torre, who normally appears as Tosca’s lover, was sick and had to be replaced at the last minute by the Metropolitan Opera’s Richard Crawley. Crawley was a wonderful addition to the cast — his third act aria “E lucevan le stele” was a literal showstopper — but some awkwardness must be expected to ripple through a production when an unfamiliar cast member is injected into the production in the eleventh hour.

Aesthetically, the production was a mixed bag. Gorgeous lighting design appropriately enhanced the moods of each individual scene and truly interacted with the plot and the characters on stage. The costumes were rich and also helpful in building the tone of the production — the soldiers’ dark, shiny boots and Tosca’s luxurious fur stole were visually stimulating and exciting.

COURTESY JEFFREY DUNN FOR BOSTON LYRIC OPERA

The Jailer’s Son (treble Ryan Williams) cleans the shooting area atop the Castel Sant’Angelo as the tortured Mario Cavaradossi (tenor Diego Torre) awaits his execution.

Edgdar Wright identifies with Scott Pilgrim, talks about the film’s irresistibile nature WRIGHT continued from page 5

making something that … wasn’t completely bound to any like reality. The things that you accept in comics, you can’t often do on the big screen.

Q: How did you actually plan those action scenes? Did you lift many of the images from the comic books, did you drop the storyboard, or did you just tell someone in computer design, “Give me something dramatic”?

EW: Kind of a bit of a mix of the first two. We didn’t really do too many animatics — [the] only time we did kind of animatics was [in] the scene with the dragons. But even that [scene] had been sort of heavily storyboarded before. A couple of the slides strongly matched the comic, like the [Matthew] Patel fight and parts of the Todd Ingram fight. But then other ones, like the fight with Lucas Lee and the Gideon fight at the end, are very different. If you look on the BluRay, you can see the storyboard for

every single scene. And you can see, for the most part, how closely they resemble the finished thing.

Q: How would you say that the Internet and the Internet community have helped Scott Pilgrim thrive beyond its initial theatrical run?

EW: I don’t know. I mean, it’s kind of too early to tell, really — all I can say is that ... it’s interesting just hearing people’s stories on the Internet of how many times they saw it. There’s one guy in Seattle who’s seen it 31 times, and he photo-blogged his ticket stubs to prove it. It’s nice to also hear the fans’ response to the material, really, and what they took away from the film and things they spotted and what people saw on a second and third watch. So that’s very gratifying, and it’s nice. I feel as if though the Internet has been very kind to me over the years in terms of all the things I’ve done.

Q: To what degree do you identify with the generation that you portrayed?

BLO may have gotten a little too enthusiastic with their sets, though: An opulent Catholic church, an overstocked study — with a conveniently placed bed that appeared to exist just to make the attempted rape of Tosca more comfortable for the actors but would normally serve no practical purpose in a military leader’s office — and a prison roof equipped with a story-high stone angel all combine to overwhelm the audience.

Levels are always nice to have on stage, but Cavaradossi’s painting platform in the church was awkwardly situated such that actors were constantly climbing up and down steps and turning toward and away from the action as they go. With so much drama playing out in the opera, a barer set would have been welcome. Instead, bombarding the performance space with so many unused elements and props made the show come off as trying too hard.

I have been ranting about the dramatic plot of Tosca, but I have to admit that drama is not always a bad thing.

This opera will certainly arrest an audience’s attention, even if one has seen the show before — a mad cocktail of jealousy, lust, torture, murder, suicide and betrayal, coupled with some truly wonderful music, does tend to go down well. BLO has mishandled some aspects of the play — the sets and some awkward stage direction — but ultimately it isn’t the backdrop that matters as much as the sweet, ever-popular music of Puccini, and with that, the production succeeds handsomely.

EW: I feel like I identified with it a lot, which is what attracted me to the books. I felt like Scott Pilgrim, particularly; I felt like I’d been a lot like him when I was a teenager. I’ve definitely chased a few Ramonas in my time, and [I was] wrapped up in my own bubble of existence when I was a teenager. So I definitely can vibe with a lot of the books. A lot of people made comments about it being a very young film and being so very contemporary and maybe not appealing to anybody over 30.

But most of the interests within the film have all been around for decades. Even the video game references I feel are a lot more nostalgic than contemporary.

Q: You’ve been hired as one of the writers for [the 2011 film] “The Adventures of Tintin: [The Secret of the Unicorn],” which is being directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson. How awesome does that feel?

WRITING+SLC+NYC! SERIOUSLY INTERESTED IN

WRITING?

SERIOUSLY INTO

NEW YORK? Achieve your full potential as a writer by enrolling in Sarah Lawrence College’s Spring Writing Semester in New York! s 7ORK ONE ON ONE WITH 3,# S DISTINGUISHED WRITING FACULTY s !TTEND ORGANIZED READINGS AND LITERARY EVENTS ON CAMPUS AND IN .9# s 2ECEIVE TRANSFERABLE ACADEMIC CREDITS

With 8 million stories at your doorstep and 44 wooded acres at your feet, you’ll have plenty of material to work with.

s 2ESIDE ON 3,# S SUBURBAN CAMPUS MINUTES FROM -ANHATTAN AND INTERACT WITH 3,# STUDENTS AND A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY OF SUCCESSFUL WRITERS

Learn more and meet the faculty at

EW: It is awesome.

www.slc.edu/springwriting

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Tufts ROTC Joint Operations And

Advocates for Tufts ROTC

Invite you to attend

The Veterans Day Ceremony Thursday, November 11, 2010 11:30 a.m.

Passing of the Flag Ceremony Memorial Steps Flag Recipient: Benjamin Sands, E54 Capt. USMC (Ret) Followed by Cadet Tomoaki Takaki A11, Army ROTC Master of Ceremonies Invocation: Rev. David M. O’Leary Tufts University Chaplain Greetings: James M. Glaser Dean of Academic Affairs Speaker: Edmund Johnson A51, M55 Capt. USMC (Ret) Former Pease Greeters Co-Chair at

The Coolidge Room Ballou Hall *Refreshments

RSVP: Ellie.short@tufts.edu (Coordinator) Margot.Lenhart@Tufts.edu 1-800-326-4001 or 617-627-3485

* Sponsored by Tufts University Alumni Association

ADVERTISEMENT

7

THE TUFTS DAILY

8

CAPTURED

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Captured Performing arts on the Hill

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

CAPTURED

9

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts’ performance art scene displayed its diversity this weekend. Captured here are scenes from Break the Stage, an intercollegiate step competition, and the Tufts/NEC Dual Degree Concert.

JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY

JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY

THE TUFTS DAILY

10

THE TUFTS DAILY BENJAMIN D. GITTLESON Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Managing Editors

Ellen Kan Carter Rogers Matt Repka Executive News Editor Alexandra Bogus News Editors Michael Del Moro Nina Ford Amelie Hecht Corinne Segal Martha Shanahan Brent Yarnell Jenny White Daphne Kolios Assistant News Editors Kathryn Olson Romy Oltuski Executive Features Editor Sarah Korones Features Editors Alison Lisnow Emilia Luna Alexa Sasanow Derek Schlom Jon Cheng Assistant Features Editors Maya Kohli Amelia Quinn Emma Bushnell Executive Arts Editor Zach Drucker Arts Editors Mitchell Geller Rebecca Goldberg Ben Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch Rachel Oldfield Bhushan Deshpande Larissa Gibbs Dave Kellog Kevin Luo Jeremy Ravinsky Daniel Stock Elaine Sun Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Craig Frucht Rebekah Liebermann Ashish Malhotra Josh Molofsky Michael Restiano Alexandra Siegel

Executive Op-Ed Editor Assistant Op-Ed Editors

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

Africana studies program — not department The Tufts Community Union Senate on Sunday adopted a resolution that urges the Board of Trustees, the administration and the faculty of the School of Arts & Sciences to start transitioning the Africa in the New World minor — currently affiliated with the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies — to an Africana studies major. The resolution says this should be accomplished by increasing the number of related courses offered and goes on to call for the creation of an Africana studies department as soon as it is financially possible.

The Senate is certainly justified in putting forth a resolution advocating for an Africana studies major. Doing so would diversify the Tufts curriculum and allow some students to better pursue their academic passions.

On a symbolic level, strengthening Africana students at Tufts would help demonstrate a university-wide commitment to the representation in academia of minorities and historically marginalized groups on campus and would be a welcome addition to existing programs such as women’s studies and Judaic studies.

While creating an Africana studies major

is an important step in designing a more representative curriculum, the development of an independent Africana studies department — instead of just administering the major through an independent program — may be an unnecessary endeavor.

Existing Africana studies programs at peer institutions are clearly interdisciplinary in nature, with major requirements that include classes from history, political science, sociology, drama and language departments, among others. A comparable program at Tufts would likely lend itself well to the structure of an interdisciplinary major rather than an independent department. It seems wasteful to devote time and resources to creating an official department when the existence of a major or a program administered by or affiliated with the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies would likely be sufficient — as demonstrated by the success of the International Relations, women’s studies, Latin American studies, Middle Eastern studies and environmental studies programs.

Although the development of an Africana studies department may appear to lend

more legitimacy to the proposed major, this claim is debunked by the fact that the International Relations major — one of the most popular and renowned majors at Tufts that attracts many prospective students — is not housed within an independent department. Instead, like other interdisciplinary programs at Tufts, it is affiliated with the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, draws on faculty from a wide range of departments and is coordinated by program administrators who play key roles in coordinating between faculty and administrators across disciplines.

By taking advantage of existing courses and professors, it should be possible to craft a rich and diverse curriculum for the proposed Africana studies major, which could incorporate courses taught by the anthropology, economics, community health and music departments, to name a few. Creating a department is not necessary to achieve this.

Instead, forming a robust interdisciplinary program could more effectively send a strong signal and better reflect the interests of the student body.

ERIN MARSHALL

Cartoonists

Editorialists

Philip Dear Executive Sports Editor Lauren Flament Sports Editors Jeremy Greenhouse Claire Kemp Ben Kochman Alex Lach Alex Prewitt Daniel Rathman Noah Schumer Ethan Sturm Assistant Sports Editor Aalok Kanani Meredith Klein Danai Macridi Andrew Morgenthaler Tien Tien Josh Berlinger Virginia Bledsoe Kristen Collins Alex Dennett Emily Eisenberg Dilys Ong Jodi Bosin Jenna Liang Meagan Maher Ashley Seenauth

Executive Photo Editor Photo Editors

Assistant Photo Editors

Staff Photographers

Mick B. Krever Executive New Media Editor James Choca New Media Editors Kerianne Okie

PRODUCTION Leanne Brotsky

OFF THE HILL | HARVARD UNIVERSITY

No we can’t?

Production Director Andrew Petrone Executive Layout Editor Sarah Davis Layout Editors Adam Gardner Jason Huang Jennifer Iassogna Alyssa Kutner Steven Smith Sarah Kester Assistant Layout Editor Zehava Robbins Executive Copy Editor Alexandra Husted Copy Editors Isabel Leon Vivien Lim Linh Dang Assistant Copy Editors Andrew Paseltiner Melissa Roberts Elisha Sum Darcy Mann Executive Online Editor Audrey Kuan Online Editors Ann Sloan Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager Michael Vastola Technical Manager

BUSINESS Benjamin Hubbell-Engler Executive Business Director Laura Moreno Advertising Director Dwijo Goswami Receivables Manager The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com

BY

BEATRICE WALTON

Harvard Political Review

Immediately following the midterm elections, newspaper headlines from around the world told the tale of an American president embarrassingly “defeated” and “apologetic” of his presidency thus far.

From titles such as “No We Can’t” in the Kuwait Times to [“Barack Obama admits he needs ‘to do a better job’ after midterms defeat”] in the London Guardian, to pouting faces of Obama on front pages from Brazil to China, the international media has cast Obama as a chastised president of remorseful policies.

Sadly, Obama sealed his own fate, particularly in the midterms, by allowing the media, Republicans and even some Democrats to spin his hard-fought achievements against him.

It’s a mystery to me how easily the coun-

try has rendered Obama, the most effective progressive since FDR, who managed the largest economic disaster since the 1930s while passing [health care] reform, financial reform, winding down the war in Iraq, engaging with the Muslim World, significantly expanding Pell grants for low-income college students, appointing more openly gay officials than any other president, creating more private sector jobs than during entire Bush years, signing a new START Treaty with Russia, increasing fuel economy standards, and repealing restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, as a delinquent, incompetent president out of touch with America’s problems.

And yet, much of this portrayal I fault with Obama’s recent demeanor. Instead of touting his impressive record, Obama took a defeatist line after the midterms and promised that in the future he would simply try to “do a better job.”

Now that’s an Obama we haven’t seen before.

And yet unfortunately, it’s an Obama of whom we will probably see more and more.

In his Op-Ed in the NY Times yesterday, Obama wrote about his upcoming trip to Asia that surprised me in one line. He wrote: “If we can, we’ll be able to complete an agreement that supports jobs and prosperity in America.”

If we can?

What happened to yes we can?

Obama needs to pull together in the wake of his party’s bloody midterm results to regain the confidence in his policies and penchant to radiate hope that propelled him to office in the first place.

Otherwise, Republicans and Democrats alike will simply be battling it out in Congress, conducting phony investigations, and bickering about power, while attempting to fix American problems, “if they can.”

Correction Monday’s op-ed “Obama’s Latin America policy: No policy at all” misspelled the name of the country Colombia.

EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the editorialists, and individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 4 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com. All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 450-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

11

OP-ED JOSHUA YOUNER | CONSCIENTIOUS AND CONTENTIOUS

Creating a conflict-free campus BY

Dynamic diplomacy

AUDREY G. MILLER

When women are systematically raped as a weapon of war in the Congo, what does it have to do with you? When an estimated 45,000 people die each month in the Congo from famine, preventable disease, displacement, killings and sexual violence, what does it have to do with you?

If you own a cell phone, a laptop or an MP3 player, then it actually has quite a lot to do with you. By purchasing products such as these, which contain conflict minerals, you are funding these mass atrocities.

Here’s some background. Five million people are purported to have died during the seven years of conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 1998 and 2003, making it the deadliest war since World War II. Despite several peace agreements since then, the violence is far from over.

In eastern Congo, which includes the provinces of North and South Kivu, the prevalence of rape and sexual violence has been described as the worst in the world. According to the aid organization Oxfam International, there are as many as 200,000 rape survivors living in the Congo today. Additionally, the Genocide Intervention Network estimates that there are 2.1 million people displaced within the DRC. Since January 2009, at least 900,000 thousand people have had to flee their homes and 1,433 civilians have been killed in the provinces of North and South Kivu.

What funds this deadly conflict?

Conflict minerals.

Conflict minerals are the “three T’s” — tin, tungsten, tantalum — and gold.

By trading in these minerals, armed groups in the Congo earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year, which they use to fuel a campaign of violence against civilians and to purchase weapons. Virtually all the consumer electronics we buy are made using these “conflict minerals.”

We are all complicit.

However, I am not advocating that we abandon our electronics altogether. Instead, I want us to channel our complicity into action as consumers.

By putting pressure on corporations and our government, we can help to eliminate conflict minerals from the market and stem the tide of violence in the Congo by cutting off a major source of financing for armed groups.

Actions such as these are not unprecedented. Just a decade ago,

T

are what compel our fellow countrymen to military service and are as noble as any others in a culture of entitlement and self-advancement.

Tomorrow, Nov. 11, take a minute to think about the men and women who give up a part of themselves to defend their land and to become a willing implement of our government.

Be grateful for their spirit of selfless and willing sacrifice, courage, honor and tenacity, for they are the ones who stand ready to answer the call, keeping us strong and secure in a volatile and shifting world.

The ROTC cadets and midshipmen at Tufts would appreciate it if you would join us in honoring the veterans of our nation by attending the Veterans Day ceremony, sponsored by Tufts ROTC Joint Operations and the Advocates for Tufts ROTC, at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow on the Memorial Steps. There will be a brief flag passing ceremony followed by a speaker and refreshments in the Coolidge Room in Ballou Hall. We look forward to seeing you there.

he closest thing to a universal collective security institution, the United Nations (UN) serves a very important role in international affairs. The Security Council, which is its primary peacekeeping arm, is arguably the most important and powerful organization within the UN. Made up of five permanent members with veto power and 10 elected rotating members, the Security Council has been a significant player in virtually every peacekeeping effort since World War II and its authority extends well beyond the members’ borders.

Yet in recent years, the influence of the Security Council, as well as the UN as a whole, has waned. With the emergence of strictly economic groups such as the Group of 20 and the World Trade Organization, diplomatic bodies have become less relevant. Bilateral cooperation among the world’s most developed countries has led to a decrease in the political power of other multilateral institutions.

Additionally, NATO, which is primarily a military body, retains its top position in the world. Like other regional institutions, NATO oftentimes disregards UN interests and pursues its own agenda. This was seen during the events leading up to the largely U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in which many NATO member countries participated.

As these developments increase in frequency and thus decrease the legitimacy and relevance of the Security Council, new questions are raised. Predictably, the question of the value or necessity of the UN as a whole has also been discussed with more frequency recently. In order to counter these doubts and reinforce the importance of the world’s most successful cooperative body, the Security Council must be reformed.

On Monday, Nov. 8, President Barack Obama left for a 10-day trip. While exclusively visiting Asian democracies, Obama’s only interaction with China will be at the G-20 Summit in Seoul.

Obama also took the opportunity to announce his support for India’s bid to become a permanent member of the Security Council. The president believes this will ensure the promotion of an “effective, credible and legitimate” UN. This announcement was made in India at a joint press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and it signaled a major shift in U.S. foreign policy.

This decision to essentially ally with the world’s largest democracy shows that the United States is worried about China’s rise.

In the coming years, India will be a major counterweight to China’s economic successes and thus a valuable asset to the United States.

The threat of China to American dominance is all too clear — something must be done to ensure that another world war is neither impending nor inevitable.

This support will also reassure many in India, including Singh, with regard to Pakistan, which, in his words, is a “terror machine.” He argues the United States is taking a stance that is too conciliatory in order to accomplish its own goals in Afghanistan. Clearly, support for India’s bid for a permanent Security Council seat has many implications worldwide. It will serve as yet another litmus test as to whether or not diplomacy can be used to avert war.

It is important to reassess the effectiveness of the Security Council, and supporting a reform is a necessary starting point. Other nations aside from India also aspire to join the Security Council as permanent members, signaling a shift in the international environment. Brazil, Japan and Germany are all making legitimate claims to permanent seats.

Brazil, along with India, is a large supplier of UN peacekeeping troops. Japan and Germany as of 2009 are the UN’s second and third largest funders, respectively, and have been looking to join for many years.

As the geopolitical landscape changes over time, it is necessary to adapt institutions in order to tackle new problems as they arise. It is wise to take another look at an aging institution that has been relatively stagnant since World War II. Obama’s decision to support this sort of effort is an efficacious and constructive way to conduct foreign relations.

Edward Limmer is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He is a member of the Tufts’ Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.

Joshua Youner is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Joshua.Youner@tufts.edu.

MCT

wars in Sierra Leone, Angola and Liberia were being fueled by the illegal trade in blood diamonds. After an outcry from the international community, a comprehensive certification system known as the Kimberley Process was implemented. This significantly reduced the blood diamond trade, and today, those countries are considerably more stable.

Recent U.S. legislation makes enacting similar policy toward conflict minerals in the DRC possible. A new provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act requires companies that report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and manufacture products that contain the “three T’s” and gold to trace and disclose the origin of these minerals.

If a company finds that the minerals used in its products come from the Congo or one of its neighboring countries, it must report on how it has exercised due diligence to ensure that its supply chain does not fund armed groups controlling mines in eastern Congo, either directly or indirectly.

Though a step in the right direction, this is still not a comprehensive solution. Currently, the legislation only requires companies to trace and audit their supply chains, without establishing either a certification requirement or penalties for those companies who do source from conflict areas. However, the information from these audits will be valuable. As individual consumers, we can pledge to only buy conflict-free products once they are available and to pressure corporations to manufacture more of these products.

Also, we can think bigger.

STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition and the Enough Project are working on conflict-free campus initiatives across the country. Tufts, with its self-proclaimed global awareness, can become “conflict-free.” The most powerful collective step we can take is to get the Tufts administration to change its policy when it comes to buying computers and electronics. As a university, Tufts is a major purchaser of these kinds of products. On the Medford campus alone, there are five different computer labs, in addition to computers in many classrooms and offices. If all the new products bought for these spaces were conflict-free, it would send a significant message.

Tufts needs to be a leader in this movement. The university should state its intent to purchase conflictfree electronics and to prioritize the companies that make the most effort to track their supply chains. This policy would be a real, direct and feasible way to enact change in the Congo.

If you are interested in helping with the planning stages of our conflictfree campus initiative or simply learning more about this and other humanrights issues, the Tufts STAND chapter meets Monday nights at 9:30 p.m. in room 206 in Eaton Hall.

Remember this: Doing nothing is doing something. To enact change and help bring a measure of peace and stability to the Congo, we must take a stand. Working together, let’s make the Tufts campus conflict-free.

Audrey G. Miller is a junior majoring in English. She is a member of Tufts STAND.

An invitation BY

EDWARD LIMMER

My father was an officer in the U.S. Army, so, growing up, I always had an ingrained respect for the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who have volunteered to give up time, security, comfort and personal freedoms to protect that of their fellow countrymen. I think that most Americans share this respect and reverence, but after one war that many Americans opposed and another that seems to be dragging on, it is my sense that many of my peers have lost some respect for how important our men and women in uniform are.

Growing up in a nation at war, we have become accustomed to an active military and so the great sacrifices of many go unseen, passed over as a ten second clip on the news.

Of course, a lot of people don’t agree with the wars that we are fighting.

Nations use their militaries to further their interests, and the United States is no exception. In fact, looking back to the devastating wars against Native Americans, to expansionist conflicts in the Philippines and in Latin America and to our no-holds-barred anti-communist stance during the Cold War, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the

United States military is a force of global, cultural and ideological assertion.

Our country has used its military in liberating and defensive roles as well, but this is not the place for argument over the role of our military in the world.

Veterans Day is about our servicemen and women.

The fact is that our military is a tool of our government — whether you see it as a sword or a shield — and not an independent entity. Because of this, those who serve give away that one thing which is valued so much in America: the ability to make their own choices and determine their own futures. They serve where and how they are ordered to so, and they do it to the best of their ability, no matter how they personally feel. This selfless sacrifice gives us security in uncertain times.

My reasons for joining the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) are like those of most servicemen and women: I wanted to serve my country, to be part of something bigger than myself and to do something that most other people wouldn’t, so that they wouldn’t have to. These reasons can seem like lines from a recruitment poster, but that is because they are so universal and timeless, simple yet strong. They

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than 12 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

THE TUFTS DAILY

12

COMICS

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

DOONESBURY

CROSSWORD

BY

NON SEQUITUR

BY

TUESDAY’S SOLUTION

MARRIED TO THE SEA

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Getting into a class after being fifth on the waitlist

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Tuesday’s Solution

Steve: “That’s what she said.”

Carter: “Who is ‘she’?”

Steve: “The one with the banana.”

Please recycle this Daily.

GARRY TRUDEAU

WILEY

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, November 10, 2010 Housing SUPER CLEAN 2 BEDROOMS APARTMENT New updated Lg Eat-in-Kitchen, dishwasher, fridge, new gas range, Lg Dining or office rm. Lg living room. New Renovated Ceramic tile Bathroom, New Windows.

Plenty Off-street parking. GREAT LOCATION, Close to Tufts, Rt 93, Rt 16. No Laundry - Laundry Mart 1 Block away. No Smoking, No Pets. AVAILABLE NOW $1300/mo Call (781)507-6351

Housing Apts for Rent well located. available. 5 bedroom + 4 bedroom equals 9 bedroom in same building. Also, 6 bedroom+4 bedroom equals 10 bedroom same building. call 617-448-6233 Apts for Rent well located. available school year 2011-2012. 4 bedrooms. one 5 bedrooms. one six bedrooms. call 617-448-6233

13

SPORTS

Housing

Housing

Across from Professors Row 6 BR, 2 bath w livingroom, hardwood floors throughout, ceramic tile eat in kitchen, dishwasher, refrigerator, washer/dryer, front/ rear porches, 4 car off st parking. $4650/mo incl heat and hot water.

Avail 9/1/11. Call Bunny (954) 9424848

APT FOR RENT Somerville-4 bedroom, 1 bath.

Teele ave across the street from campus. $2,500/month, not including utilities. 617-625-3021

Housing

Wanted

College Ave 5 BR Apt 2 1/2 Baths, kitchen, living room, off-street parking, w/d basement.

Available June 1, 2011. Rent: $3250. First and last month rent required. Tenants pay utilities.

Larger apts available. Call Guy (617) 590-7656.

$$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Become a California Cryobank donor and earn up to $1,200/ month, receive free health and infectious disease testing, and help people fulfill their dreams of starting a family. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply online: SPERMBANK.com

CLASSIFIEDS POLICY All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order, or exact cash only.

All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $15 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature, or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

It’s no surprise that Texas Christian and Boise State may get snubbed again NCAA continued from page 16

Last year, after the Horned Frogs and the Broncos completed their undefeated seasons, we learned the answers to these questions: No and no. Texas Christian finished fourth in the BCS standings and Boise State finished sixth — Florida, with one loss, was fifth — and the two met in the Fiesta Bowl, which Boise State won 17-10 after a fake punt led to the go-ahead touchdown. It was the first time two non-automatic qualifiers made a BCS game and the first BCS contest featuring two unbeaten teams that wasn’t the championship.

By making the Fiesta Bowl, both teams earned national attention and respect, as indicated by their top-10 rankings in this year’s preseason polls. They returned almost all of their starters and now they are exceeding expectations.

Boise State has both the secondbest offense and defense in the nation.

Led by a 507-yard passing performance from Heisman candidate Kellen Moore, the Broncos crushed Hawaii on Saturday, 42-7.

Texas Christian’s defense, meanwhile, is first in the nation, allowing an average of 8.5 points per game. This weekend the buzz about a potential championship bid for Texas Christian heightened when they trounced then-No. 5 Utah 47-7.

But both teams seem to have hit a glass ceiling. The No. 3 Horned Frogs are left looking up at No. 1 Oregon and No. 2 Auburn, Pac-10 and SEC powerhouses, respectively, that should play for the championship if they win their remaining games. The No. 4 Broncos are stuck behind Texas Christian, and their remaining competition — the best of which is No. 21 Nevada — gives them little hope of surpassing TCU in the rankings, let alone making the title game.

Oregon could still lose to No. 18 Arizona, and Auburn has yet to play No. 12 Alabama, but Texas Christian and Boise State have little control over their own fates. While the MWC receives more respect as a conference than the WAC, both teams’ non-BCS statuses mean they get snubbed come bowl sea-

MCT

Texas Christian quarterback Andy Dalton passes in the first quarter as the Horned Frogs play Boise State in January’s Tostitos Fiesta Bowl. son. For two straight years, they have done nothing but win, and yet the BCS leaves them no chance to prove they can beat the best on the biggest stage.

This is far from the first time an undefeated team may be short-changed. Utah, a member of the MWC, went undefeated in 2004 and 2008 but finished No. 6 both years. In 2007, Hawaii, a WAC member, ran the table and ranked No. 10. And the Broncos certainly remember 2006, when they went undefeated and finished No. 8 behind several two-loss teams.

In this skewed universe, every team loses. The mid-majors lose because they don’t get the chance to control their destinies. Powerhouses like Oregon and Auburn lose because they can never truly prove they are the best teams in

the land. The fans lose because they don’t get to see a playoff.

But the conference commissioners who run the BCS are too stubborn to care. When they met in April 2008, they shot down the “plus-one” model of a four-team playoff, all but guaranteeing that the system will remain unchanged until at least 2014, when the current BCS contract with ESPN expires.

After all, why would the major conferences want anything to change? They rake in money from the same bowl games every year — the Rose Bowl almost always invites at least one Big Ten team, for example — and wouldn’t want a playoff system to jeopardize that. In their minds, as long as they are making money, they are the winners.

More surprising is the fact that WAC commissioner Karl Benson also had no complaints at the 2008 meeting, and continues to support the current system.

Boise State earns $18 million to be distributed amongst the WAC every time it makes a BCS game, regardless of whether that game is the National Championship.

The powers that be in college football are businessmen who lack an incentive to change the status quo.

Fans would like to think that TCU and Boise State are facilitating the process of derailing the BCS and creating a playoff system even if they don’t make the championship game. When two non-automatic qualifiers are this good for this long, something has to change, right?

Dream on.

Editors' Challenge | Week 10 Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, we’re not quite there yet, and we know that 94.2 percent of Tufts probably doesn’t even celebrate Christmas, but that doesn’t mean we can’t promote the beautiful holiday spirit to get everyone out of the dumps in this sickness-ridden, darkness-bringing and exam-taking time of year. So ho, ho, ho, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s time for the Week 10 installment of the Daily Sports Editors’ Challenge.

Retaining his stranglehold on first place and building up a two-game lead is Steve “Lord-ALeaping” Smith, whose 11-2 Week 9 was good enough to move him to 85-45 overall, two games ahead of the defending champion, Jeremy “French Hen” Greenhouse. Apparently, Greenhouse is part French, which is strange because he hasn’t surrendered to Smith yet. Weird.

In third place at 82-48 overall and three games behind the leader is Ethan “Partridge in a Pear Tree” Sturm. We know the metaphor is a stretch because this partridge does little else but sit in a tree filled with very average fruit, but Sturm has done little else but sit near the top of Eds’ Challenge standings all year in a leaderboard filled with otherwise very average pickers.

After some healthy separation outside the top three last week, a three-way tie made the fourthplace spot pretty muddled heading into Week 10. Alex “Swan-A-Swimming” Prewitt moved into OVERALL RECORD LAST WEEK

fourth with an 11-2 week, while Alex “Calling Bird” Lach finally gained ground on Phil “Golden Ring” Dear. Dear dropped into the three-way tie with the Alexes after having a 9-4 week, earning him the nickname of the only one on the list that isn’t a living and breathing person or bird.

Claire “Piper Piping” Kemp turned an 11-2 Week 9 into a 77-53 overall record, which was good enough to gain the one game that previously separated her and Noah “Turtle Dove” Schumer. The pair are now tied for seventh place.

Kemp’s mark moved her ahead of Lauren “Maid-A-Milking” Flament, who stayed in ninth place with a 9-4 week. Daniel “Goose-A-Laying” Rathman, who basically just lays goose eggs now, remained at 10th with a 9-4 week, unable to gain any ground on the editors ahead of him.

In a tradition as standardized as opening presents on Christmas morning, leaving cookies out for Santa on Christmas Eve or drinking every time Scrooge says “Humbug” — wait ...that’s just my family? I thought everyone did that — Ben “Drummer Drumming” Kochman is still stuck in last place, unable to cross the 70-win plateau.

Guest-picking this week is Zehava “Lady Dancing” Robbins, who will inevitably find something grammatically incorrect with everything that we am wrote here.

Steve

Jeremy

Ethan

Alex L.

Alex P.

Phil

Claire

Noah

Lauren

Daniel

Ben

85-45 11-2

83-47 10-3

82-48 10-3

79-51 10-3

79-51 11-2

79-51 9-4

77-53 11-2

77-53 10-3

75-55 9-4

72-58 9-4

67-63 8-5

Baltimore Atlanta Baltimore at Atlanta NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets at Cleveland Indianapolis Indianapolis Cincinnati at Indianapolis Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Carolina at Tampa Bay Buffalo Buffalo Detroit at Buffalo Houston Jacksonville Houston at Jacksonville Miami Miami Tennessee at Miami Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota at Chicago Kansas City Kansas City Kansas City at Denver Arizona Arizona Seattle at Arizona NY Giants NY Giants Dallas at NY Giants St. Louis at San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco Pittsburgh New England New England at Pittsburgh Philadelphia Philadelphia at Washington Philadelphia

Baltimore NY Jets Indianapolis Tampa Bay Buffalo Houston Tennessee Minnesota Kansas City Arizona NY Giants St. Louis Pittsburgh Philadelphia

Atlanta Baltimore Atlanta Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Cleveland NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets Cleveland NY Jets Indianapolis Cincinnati Cincinnati Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Indianapolis Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Carolina Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Detroit Buffalo Detroit Detroit Detroit Buffalo Buffalo Jacksonville Houston Houston Houston Jacksonville Jacksonville Jacksonville Miami Tennessee Tennessee Miami Tennessee Miami Tennessee Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Chicago Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Kansas City Denver Denver Kansas City Kansas City Kansas City Kansas City Arizona Arizona Arizona Seattle Arizona Arizona Arizona NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco St. Louis San Francisco San Francisco St. Louis Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh New England New England Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Philadelphia Washington Washington Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia Philadelphia

GUEST Zehava Robbins

Atlanta Baltimore NY Jets NY Jets Indianapolis Indianapolis Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Detroit Detroit Houston Jacksonville Miami Tennessee Chicago Chicago Kansas City Kansas City Arizona Seattle NY Giants NY Giants St. Louis San Francisco Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Philadelphia Washington

THE TUFTS DAILY

14

SPORTS

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Sailors’ consistency leads Tufts past competing teams at Hap Moore Regatta SAILING continued from page 16

second out of 18 total squads. Two boats represented each school that competed.

Freshman Polly Murray coached the team, and the Jumbos sent their top two freshman skippers, William Haeger and David Liebenberg, to race. Haeger sailed with senior crewmember Paula Grasberger and Liebenberg with freshman crewmember Julie Pringle.

“The two crews hadn’t really sailed FJs, but they adjusted well and were pretty consistent in that respect,” Murray said. “We had some streaks that were very good with straight bullets [first-place finishes] and others that weren’t. We had both competing boats doing well, so we overcame other teams’ inconsistencies. For example, the first Yale boat finished fifth and the other finished last.”

The Jumbos’ freshman sailors are a talented group; their overall finishes have been promising, and Haeger has already proven himself in earlier regattas this season.

“It’s really nice knowing we will have them around for the next four years to continue their improvement and positive results,” Rew said.

Next weekend, the coed team will travel to Navy to compete in the Atlantic Coast Dinghies Regatta. The women’s team will be in South Florida at Eckerd College competing in the women’s Atlantic Coast Championships, for which it qualified two weekends ago.

COURTESY ADAM WEISMAN

Despite dropping four places in the national rankings, the Jumbos placed sixth in this weekend’s Hap Moore Regatta.

Rose, Rondo, Westbrook among top young point guards taking control of league NBA continued from page 16

ning in his rookie season, and no one in the league appears to be able to match the Rookie of the Year candidate’s speed and quickness.

Then there’s last year’s Rookie of the Year, Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans, who has continued his impressive play.

Even players like the Memphis Grizzlies’ Mike Conley (15.6 points, 8 assists, 3.4 steals

per game) and the Charlotte Bobcats’ D.J. Augustin (6.4 assists per game but a phenomenal 4.5 assists/turnover ratio) are quietly enjoying breakout years in increasingly important roles.

Now accepting JumboCash

Medford’s Best Italian Food and Grocery Delicious Subs and Sandwiches On Main St. close to the Alumni Fields Store Hours: Sunday 8-7 Monday-Thursday 9-8 Friday-Saturday 8-8 324 Main Street Medford, MA 02155

Phone number:

Website: www.bobsfood.com

Paul and Williams certainly still reside near the top of any fan’s list of the elite point guards in the NBA, but that list is as dynamic as the players on it. It’s the trend those two brought back, however, of

explosive, play-making point guards who can attack the rim or find the open man and become the leaders of their team that has taken hold in this league, and the results have been exciting to watch.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

15

SPORTS

INSIDE THE NHL

Devils, Sabres lag behind despite big additions BY

Oh, Jerry!

HARRY POTTER

Daily Staff Writer

Perhaps this year’s biggest offseason news to both casual and diehard NHL fans was the re-signing of New Jersey Devils star Ilya Kovalchuk. The first attempt from the Devils, a deal for $102 million over 17 years, was nixed by the NHL for violating the league’s contract rules. Eventually, the Devils completed a contract for $100 million over 15 years that the league approved.

What does New Jersey have to show for this big-ticket signing? The Devils are at the very bottom of the Eastern Conference — 15th place — with just nine points. That puts them on pace to collect 49 points this season, which would be the team’s lowest total since 1984.

A major source of this poor showing is Kovalchuk. The Russian phenom has but three goals and five assists in 14 games. His team has a goal differential of -6 with him on the ice. The stats aren’t awful, but the goal differential is a particularly worrisome blemish.

The real issue with the left wing isn’t just his performance but the fact that his massive contract has severely handicapped the Devils with respect to the salary cap. There was a time early in the season when, due to injuries, the Devils couldn’t even put together a full roster of 20 men; instead, only 17 were able to play. The team couldn’t afford to bring someone up from the American Hockey League (AHL) because it had less than $80,000 in cap room.

New Jersey’s management did eventually figure out a way to fill out its roster, but the team’s problems were aggravated by injuries. Three defensemen — Bryce Salvador, Anton Volchenkov and Matt Corrente — are hurt, forcing AHL defensemen to take their spots.

Those three players were not All-Stars, but when you lose three defensemen and replace them with inexperienced players, opponents are going to have an easier time scoring goals.

Given those injuries, it might seem surprising that the Devils are third in their conference in goals against. But that’s mainly thanks to future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur, who has compensated for the disheveled defense with stellar play between the pipes. The team’s offense — of which Kovalchuk is a major part — isn’t backing Brodeur up, though, averaging less than two goals per game and keeping New Jersey out of the win column.

The Buffalo Sabres bear a striking similarity to the Devils in a few ways. Both teams came into last year’s

ETHAN FRIGON | THE BEARD ABIDES

D

MCT

New Jersey Devils left wing Ilya Kovalchuk celebrates scoring a goal during the third period against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York last month.

Stanley Cup playoffs riding a hot streak, Buffalo as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and the Devils as the No. 2. Both were bounced in the first round by scrappy, low-seeded teams in disappointing upsets. But that’s where the similarities end.

Last year, the Sabres were effective because of an extremely tight defense that scored by producing turnovers.

They were an opportunistic team that fed off of its opponents’ mistakes.

They also had last year’s Vezina Trophy and U.S. Olympic Team darling goalie, Ryan Miller.

This year it is a truly stark contrast.

Ryan Miller has come down to earth, allowing an average of 2.71 goals per night. His save percentage early in the season wasn’t awful but is now a lowly .903, ranking 33rd out of the 38 netminders who have played at least five games. Clearly, the Sabres rode their elite goalie to the playoffs last year, and the team is now looking anemic on both sides of the puck.

That begs the question: What has changed?

On the offensive side, the Sabres

are scoring 0.5 fewer goals per game this year than last. The power play is less than half as effective, scoring only around 10 percent of the time.

The main problem this year on offense is an inability to keep a lead.

Last year, the Sabres were undefeated when they led after two periods. This year, they seldom maintain leads that late, but even when they do, they only win a third of their games.

On the defensive side, beyond an inability to protect the puck and being 25th in the league for penalty killing, the drop-off for the Sabres may be less about the team changing and more about the league changing around them.

The Sabres’ offense wasn’t stellar last year, and its defense wasn’t even the best in the league. But it was fast, and it was opportunistic. If a team committed any mental errors, the Sabres usually made them pay, with a proactive defense that forced turnovers leading to goals.

This year, teams are getting wise to the Sabres’ strategies. They now stand in last place in their division with 10 points and have yet to win a game at home.

The Daily wants to hear from YOU. Have a problem with our coverage? Upset about something happening at Tufts or in the community?

The Daily welcomes thoughts, opinions and complaints from all readers — have your voice heard!

Send op-ed submissions, 600-1,200 words, to oped@ tuftsdaily.com. Send letters to the editor to letters@ tuftsdaily.com. For full policy, see pages 10—11.

allas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones yesterday finally fired head coach Wade Phillips. All it took was a 45-7 thrashing at the hands of the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field.

My personal favorite part of the beatdown: After letting the Packers march down the field and score late in the first half, the Cowboys proceeded to seemingly fumble the ensuing kickoff. Packers safety Nick Collins snagged the ball and easily returned it for a touchdown, making the game 28-0.

Except Cowboys kick returner Bryan McCann clearly didn’t fumble the ball — his knee was easily down, and the call would have been overturned on a replay challenge.

But the Cowboys couldn’t challenge the ruling. Why not? Well, Phillips had previously decided to challenge a clear touchdown by Brandon Jackson from the 1-yard line — on first down! Even if you really, truly believe that the ball never crossed the plane, you have to just accept that the Packers would score anyway, be it on second, third or fourth down.

Instead, Phillips decided to challenge the ruling, lost and burned a timeout that would have come in handy later on in the half. It was a boneheaded move and one that surely angered Cowboys fans, many of whom had been itching for Phillips’ ouster since the end of September, at least.

And Jones, despite proclaiming less than a week earlier that he would not fire Phillips midseason, finally gave the Cowboy faithful what they wanted.

Now, I’m not normally a fan of midseason coaching changes, especially for a team like the Cowboys, who at 1-7 are clearly out of the playoff race. However, the move appears to make sense.

A few years ago, Jones essentially named offensive coordinator Jason Garrett head-coach-in-waiting, and, despite some lackluster results this year, Jones is apparently still willing to give Garrett a shot at the head coaching job. Jones named Garrett the interim head coach and said that Garrett has an actual chance to keep the job.

The Minnesota Vikings, who have also disappointed this year and who have their own hotshot assistant in defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, were supposedly on the verge of doing the same. But they won — narrowly — this week, so Brad Childress survives for now.

As for the Cowboys, I’m not sold that Jones will actually give Garrett an honest chance at the real head job barring a massive — I’m talking 6-2 — turnaround. Jerry’s angr,y and what is he going to do to solve his problems?

Throw some — i.e., a whole boatload of — money at them. Jerry Jones wants a name in charge of his team, a Jon Gruden or a Bill Cowher or at least a John Fox. The problem with going after a big name is that this particular strategy hasn’t been all that successful in recent years. Take Joe Gibbs’ second go-around with the Redskins as an example. Or even better, one from Jones’ own relatively recent past: the Tuna himself, Bill Parcells. For whatever reason — maybe they lack the same hunger the second time around, maybe they’re too rich, or maybe the game has just passed them by — bringing back coaches who were once successful but have since retired just doesn’t seem to work all that well.

Until I see otherwise, though, I’ll remain convinced that that’s what Jones has his rich little heart set on. In the meantime, it might serve him well to actually give Garrett a real shot at holding on to the head coaching job.

Ethan Frigon is a senior majoring in economics. He can be reached at Ethan.

Frigon@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Inside the NHL 15 Editors’ Challenge 13

tuftsdaily.com

SAILING

Jumbos improve performance, finish sixth at team race Freshman teams bring promising results for the sailing team over the weekend

BY SARAH

TRALINS

Daily Staff Writer

The coed sailing team traveled to New London, Conn., this weekend to compete in the Hap Moore Team Race Regatta. The U.S. Coast Guard Academy hosted the regatta on the Thames River, which saw great sailing conditions throughout the weekend. In a highly competitive field, the coed team came in sixth of 12 while local rival Boston College — the No. 1-ranked team in the nation — placed first overall.

Tufts is currently ranked 13th in the nation, four points behind Stanford and six behind Navy. This drop in ranking from ninth earlier in the season is attributed to poor finishes and inconsistent sailing in recent regattas.

The Hap Moore Regatta is the only major team-racing regatta of the fall.

In a team race, three boats compete together, and the same low-point scoring system is used as in fleet racing, with the winning team determined by the best combination of points.

“It’s like a qualifying series, and we finished third the first round, so we went to gold round, and we finished sixth place overall,” junior Nicolas Russo-Larsson, who skippered with senior Roisin Magee as his crew, said.

“We were willing to give up first place to help our teammates. It’s about finishing your team, not just your own boat.”

Junior skipper Massimo Soriano raced with senior crewmember Margaret Rew, while the last boat was skippered by sophomore Will Hutchings and crewed by junior Midori Tanaka. Team regattas are more common during the spring season, so both Soriano and Rew have relied on practice to get back into the team-racing mentality.

“Our performance this weekend is how we want to perform in spring,” Rew said. “We qualified for nationals last year and hope to do so again. It’s lots of fun to race in teams, and we are prepping now for the spring season.”

At the Freshman Intersectional at Conn. College, the Jumbos came in COURTESY ADAM WEISMAN

see SAILING, page 14

The coed sailing team got in valuable team-race practice for the spring this weekend.

INSIDE THE NBA

Making a point: Point guards taking over early NBA headlines BY

ALEX LACH

Daily Editorial Board

If the 2010 MLB season was the “Year of the Pitcher,” the 2010-11 NBA season, at least through the first two weeks, can be characterized as the “Year of the Point Guard.”

While the New Orleans Hornets’ Chris Paul and the Utah Jazz’s Deron Williams first started this resurgence a few years ago and remain at its forefront, a new vanguard is picking up where the two left off. Players like the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose, the Boston Celtics’ Rajon Rondo and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook, among others, have taken center stage this season, and the league is taking notice.

Rose already has a season’s worth of highlights in just two weeks. A physical freak, he has established himself as the league’s premier penetrating point guard, not just for his ability to beat any defender off the dribble but also for his extraordinary finishing talents at the rim. He has mastered a tricky floater, and he has displayed a full array of gravitydefying up-and-under moves

MCT

Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose leads all NBA point guards, with 23.8 points per game this season.

WOMEN’S FENCING

er combined this season. He is at his best on the fast break, where he loves to dive into the line and allow the defense to collapse around him, all the while knowing that either Paul Pierce or Ray Allen is spotting up at the three-point arc. At 11.1 points, 14.7 assists, 3.1 steals and 5.5 rebounds per game, Rondo has become the driving force on a team stacked with All Stars and future Hall of Famers.

Westbrook is in a much different position from Rondo, as the third-year UCLA alum has to take on more of a scoring responsibility with fewer capable teammates — other than Kevin Durant, of course — to pass to. Yet Westbrook has also taken his game to another level this season, raising his scoring (21.2), rebounding (6.5) and stealing (2.30) as he does a little of everything for a Thunder team with high expectations.

More examples pop up throughout the league. The Washington Wizards’ John Wall, much to ESPN commentator Colin Cowherd’s chagrin, has literally hit the ground runsee NBA, page 14

INSIDE NCAA FOOTBALL

Fencing flourishes at ‘The Big One’ The women’s fencing team sliced its way through the competition in this weekend’s “The Big One” Invitational at Riverside Fencing Club in Hadley, Mass.

Standout performers for the Jumbos included seniors Georgia Ranes and Coryn Wolk, who tore it up for 5thand 11th-place finishes, respectively, in the epee event. Freshman Julia Hisey thrust her way to a team-best 11th place in the sabre category, while freshman Isabella Connelly foiled enough foes to finish 39th in the foil, the best among six Tufts fencers who entered the event.

First-year Laurel Hutchinson slashed her way to a 38th-place finish in the epee, best among the five Jumbos

,as well as a Nov. 5 dunk over the New York Knicks that merits considerable rewatching on YouTube.

His points (23.8), assists (9.2) and shots (21.0) per game are all high as he has taken leadership of a Bulls team trying to hold down the fort while they wait for offseason signing Carlos Boozer to return from injury.

Rondo, in a very different manner, provides just as many highlights as Rose and has also found his way into the record books. He broke John Stockton’s and Magic Johnson’s record for most assists in the first five games of a season with 82 and he stands second behind Stockton with the most assists through eight games with 118. He also tied Isiah Thomas’ record for most assists during a triple-double with his Oct. 29 performance against the Knicks in which he recorded 10 points, 10 rebounds and a phenomenal 24 assists.

As ESPN’s TrueHoop points out, he has posted at least 15 assists in a game five times this season, which matches the total number of 15-assist games of every other NBA play-

competing in the event. Junior Brianna Smith and sophomore Daphne Kolios finished 22nd and 23rd in the sabre, respectively; Kolios is also an assistant news editor for the Daily.

The invitational tournament consisted of 19 competing schools from different divisions and regions across the country. According to the Tufts squad, though the meet does not count toward NCAA standing, it serves as an ample warm-up for the rest of the season.

The team’s season starts on Nov. 21 against Stevens Tech and Yeshiva at home.

—by Ben Kochman

Cinderellas unlikely to be invited to the ball ... again BY

AARON LEIBOWITZ Daily Staff Writer

The story is all too familiar. With the regular season almost over, the No. 3 Texas Christian Horned Frogs and the No. 4 Boise State Broncos remain undefeated.

Their top players are shining, their track records are flawless, and their wins are convincing. And yet, because they play in non-BCS conferences, they will likely be excluded from the National Championship Game — just like last year.

Once again, the essential questions in the ongoing debate about the BCS

have come to the forefront. What does it take for a non-BCS conference team — a non-automatic qualifier, a “midmajor”— to earn a spot in the National Championship? Can an undefeated team from Texas Christian’s Mountain West Conference (MWC) or Boise State’s Western Athletic Conference (WAC) merit a higher ranking in the BCS rankings than an undefeated team from the SEC, the Pac-10 or the Big 12? Can an undefeated Texas Christian or Boise State rank higher than a one-loss Florida or LSU? see NCAA, page 13