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THE TUFTS DAILY
TUFTSDAILY.COM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2009
VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 38
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
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MICK B. KREVER
Contributing Writer
VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY
TCU Treasurer Aaron Bartel, middle, Associate Treasurer Kate de Klerk, left, and the rest of the Senate on Oct. 25 discussed an appeal from the student journal Discourse for more funding.
Debate over TCU funding vote exposes procedural ambiguities BY
BEN GITTLESON
Daily Editorial Board
This is the first article in a two-part series taking a deep look at a funding request from a student journal. The first piece focuses on the Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate meeting at which students representing the publication appealed for more funding. The second piece will focus on Discourse’s transition away from Institute for Global Leadership sponsorship, and the Senate’s procedure for allocating funding to student groups. Fifteen leaders of the student magazine Discourse stood in a stuffy room in the campus center last month watching
thousands of dollars and, essentially, the future of their publication debated in an intense and at times confusing Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate meeting. The proceedings shined a light on a number of ongoing controversies over the way student publications apply for and receive funding — as well as a lapse in adherence to the bylaws that govern treasury appeals. Members of Discourse, an interdisciplinary journal with strong connections to the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), had originally asked the Senate for $23,500 to fund two issues, to be printed in color. The Allocations Board (ALBO) voted 5-1, with one abstention, to recommend that Discourse receive only $3,700, to fund one scaled-back issue. see DISCOURSE, page 2
Man arrested for breaking into off-campus student house A Medford resident was arrested last week for breaking and entering into a Tufts student’s home on Sunset Road, according to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sgt. Robert McCarthy. Robert Kocourek, 36, was arrested by TUPD and Somerville police on Chetwynd Road as he fled the scene of the crime on Thursday night, McCarthy said. A female student called 911 at 9:06 p.m. on Thursday to report a man breaking into her house on Sunset Road, located near the intersection with Curtis Avenue. Somerville police responded and alerted TUPD, which arrived at the scene first. Officers searched the area for the man, who had left the house. He was described as white, in his 40s, wearing a New England Patriots shirt and carrying a laptop.
A TUPD officer and a Somerville police officer observed Kocourek, who was wearing a white shirt and otherwise appeared to fit the description, coming out of a driveway on Chetwynd Road, which is adjacent to Sunset Road. Kocourek said he did not live there. Police officers subsequently searched the area and found a Patriots shirt along with a laptop in the yard from which Kocourek emerged. The student identified Kocourek as the man who entered her house, and Kocourek admitted guilt, according to McCarthy. TUPD and Somerville police cooperated effectively, McCarthy said. “It was a good arrest,” he said, adding, “The girl did the right thing not trying to get involved, just calling us.” — by Ben Gittleson
Hip-hop artists Brother Ali and the Cool Kids will perform at Concert Board’s annual Hip Hop Show on Nov. 12 — and they’ll have a bit more breathing room than previous acts. The show, which has typically been held at Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall, will take place in the Rocco J. Carzo Cage in Cousens Gymnasium. The change in venue from Dewick to Carzo comes after the 2008 Fall Rock Show, featuring Hellogoodbye, demonstrated that Dewick was unfit for large concert crowds. “Evidently, during the show … the floor was moving as people were jumping up and down, and [we] brought it to the attention of the people in the Office for Campus Life [OCL],” said senior Robert Seiden, co-chair of Concert Board. Carzo Cage, with a standingroom capacity of over 900, will offer more than twice as much room than Dewick did. “There really aren’t that many locations on campus where you can have more than 350 people,” said Concert Board Co-Chair Alan Munkacsy, a senior. “The cage is really the only available option that we thought would be a great spot for that kind of show.” But the new venue presents its own set of complications. Due to the cage’s status as an active athletic space, Concert Board may have to delay the event because of a volleyball game. Tufts’ volleyball team has applied to host a tournament the weekend of the concert. If Tufts is selected, the tournament would include a game that is scheduled to overlap with the concert by about an hour. Though the concert and game would take place in separate areas of
the gym, the time of the concert would be pushed back to accommodate the team, Seiden said. Tickets for the Hip Hop Show go on sale tomorrow in the campus center. Brother Ali, a rapper from Minneapolis, has released six albums, the most recent of which, “Us,” came out in September. The Cool Kids, a hip-hop duo that gained renown in 2007 via MySpace. com, will open the show. Revelations about capacity issues in Dewick prompted discussions between a number of departments, including the OCL, the Facilities Department and the Department of Public Safety, on how to host major social activities in the future. “Facilities, Public Safety, OCL, and Dining [Services] met and determined that events where a large group of students would be moving in unison, such as a dance or concert, were no longer safe to hold in the space,” the OCL’s Assistant Director for Campus Life Jamie Engle said in an e-mail. Engle said that Dewick will still be used as a space for non-concert events like comedy shows and the annual Mr. Jumbo competition. Last spring, the annual Jumbo Jam show, which had previously taken place in Dewick, was held at the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. Jumbo Jam is geared more toward alternative and folk artists than Spring Fling and the Hip Hop and Rock Shows, making it a good fit for the theater. “It was a great success, and we hope to return there for future Jumbo Jams or even other shows,” Seiden said. The theater’s fixed seating seemed inappropriate for the Hip Hop Show, which will be general admission and standing-room-only. see HIP HOP, page 2
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DAPHNE KOLIOS
Contributing Writer
Classes will be held on Veterans Day next week, after Tufts officials found the academic calendar one day shy of the required number of school days for this semester. Staff will have off for the Nov. 11 federal holiday, but faculty and students must attend class. After the discovery that another day of classes would be needed, “the choice was between the 11th and the day before Thanksgiving,” Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser said in an e-mail. The faculty decided on Veterans Day in a vote in the spring, according to Glaser. Some see the university’s decision to hold classes on the day as showing disregard for the holiday’s message. Veterans Day honors all who have served in the military, whether in peace or in wartime.
Inside this issue
Tufts Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) member and squad leader Sean O’Loughlin, a junior, was among several who felt that Veterans Day has a greater significance than simply being a day off from school. He said that the calendar mix-up should have been resolved in a way that avoided holding class on Veterans Day, suggesting that an alternate solution would have been to hold class on Columbus Day. “I think that I understand the administration was put under pressure in one way or another to eliminate a day of vacation from the schedule, but I think that they were shortsighted in choosing Veterans Day rather than Columbus Day because of the relative importance of those two holidays,” O’Loughlin said. Though schools, local governments and businesses are see VETERANS DAY, page 2
JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY
Veterans Day is a university holiday this year, but students will have classes.
Today’s Sections
A French film that lingers on the small things teases out the beauty in letting love change with time.
Led by All-American Jesse Faller, Tufts’ cross country team finished third at the NESCAC Championships.
see ARTS, page 5
see SPORTS, page 11
News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters
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Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds
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