2009-12-03

THE TUFTS DAILY

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009

VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 56

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Wren gets wireless Tufts School of Medicine has highest private Internet access school tuition in country BY

BRENT YARNELL

BY

Daily Staff Writer

University Information Technology (UIT) completed wireless Internet access installation in Wren Hall over Thanksgiving break.

The installation marks the completion of the first step in Tufts’ plan to add wireless Internet to all university buildings within the next three years.

“I really like it,” said Caroline McHugh, a sophomore living in Wren, adding that she has experienced no problems so far. “I would say it’s the same speed as all the other wireless buildings on campus.”

UIT Director of Communications and Organizational Effectiveness Dawn Irish said the department finished installation over the break because workers needed to shut down Internet access in the building to do so.

“We didn’t want to do that when the students were here,” Irish said. “We understand that students need the Internet to get work done, so we try to interrupt it as little as possible.”

While wireless has only been available for about a week, the actual installation of access points, items that connect a wireless signal to the hardwired Internet, began this summer, Irish said.

The UIT Network Engineering Group conducted a study of the building to determine the best locations for these points.

“You want to place them around the building to gain optimal access,” Irish said.

Tufts’ Data Communications Services installed the physical wiring, Irish said, after which workers tested the building for “cold spots,” or locations where the signal was weak.

Older buildings like Wren often have thick walls and other features that can interfere with wireless signals. Irish said this presented a challenge that involved “retrofitting everything into an existing structure.”

Wren residents have reported that the introduction of wireless Internet has been a positive addition, with one result being an increase in the use of common rooms. Before, “if you wanted to use a computer, your only choice was to stay in your room,” said sophomore Maggie Debski, a Wren resident.

Students now can use the Internet at any place in the building. “It definitely improves me being able to work in my see WIRELESS, page 2

KATHERINE SAWYER

Daily Editorial Board

While undergraduates at Tufts are facing the highest costs in Massachusetts, students on the Boston campus must deal with an even higher price tag. Tufts School of Medicine ranks as the most expensive private medical institution in the nation.

In its Annual Tuition and Student Fees Report published in November, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) found that the School of Medicine’s 2009-10 tuition and fees came to $54,244.

The next most expensive private school on the list, the medical college at Cornell University, costs close to $3,000 less than Tufts School of Medicine.

Tufts School of Medicine has been the most expensive private medical school nationwide since 2001 except for one year, when Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia charged $268 more for non-resident tuition and fees in academic year 2008-09, according to the report.

AAMC database specialist Susan Gaillard confirmed this information. “[Tufts] has actually had the highest in-state tuition for the past couple of

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts School of Medicine tuition is nearly $3,000 more than the next-priciest private school. years,” she told the Daily.

Tufts’ status as a private university and the school’s Boston location both contribute to the high costs, according

State funding and grants help Tufts’ health sciences schools avoid cutbacks

to Christine Fennelly, the director of public relations for Tufts’ health sciences campuses.

“Contrary to the many public medical schools [in the country], we receive no support from the state,” Fennelly said in an e-mail.

She added that the school’s high tuition can also be attributed to not having a dean’s tax, which requires physicians affiliated with the school’s medical center to give back to the university a portion of their income from seeing patients. Most medical schools outside of Boston receive this tax, Fennelly said, but called it “a longstanding tradition in Boston” for private medical institutions in the area not to require such a payment.

Still, Tufts’ tuition weighs in at several thousands of dollars more than other Boston-area private medical schools, like Harvard Medical School and Boston University School of Medicine, which cost $45,833 and $49,221 per year, respectively.

Several Tufts medical students believe that the school provides valuable opportunities for students, but question its high costs.

Peter Benziger, a first year medical see TUITION, page 2

Professor speaks on televangelists’ effects in Jamaica BY

BEN GITTLESON

Daily Editorial Board

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

According to its dean, Tufts School of Dental Medicine has benefited from the recession. The school has seen an increased clientele who have opted for its less expensive services.

BY

HARRISON JACOBS

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts’ health sciences campuses have been able to stave off major financial cutbacks thanks to grants from the federal economic stimulus package and state funding.

Overall, the Tufts health sciences campuses have received over 50 awards, amounting to more than $16 million in grants funded by the 2009 American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), more commonly known as the economic stimulus package.

In particular, Tufts School of Medicine profited from a significant boost in federal moneys. Both Tufts’ dental and veterinary schools, however, have supported their programs through other funds, relying specifically on state support to stave off cutbacks.

Harvard University Associate Professor Marla Frederick yesterday evening discussed with a Goddard Chapel audience her research on the influence of American televangelists on Jamaicans. She expounded on why those preachers’ messages of prosperity have become so attractive to innercity Jamaicans racked by poverty. see JAMAICA, page 2

see GRANTS, page 2

Carmichael chef stays on the cutting edge BY

GRAHAM ROGERS

Daily Editorial Board

It’s hard to take a college tour these days without hearing a lengthy speech sure to stir an appetite. The academics may be stellar, the campus beautiful and the extracurriculars vast and varied, but if the university can’t give students something similar to Mom’s home cooking, students are going to have serious soul-searching to do when weighing school options. Several organizations, like the Princeton Review and College Prowler, even go so far as to rank the dining options at various universities or award letter grades for different foodrelated aspects.

All of this makes Peter Kourafalos’ job a little different than that of your typical restaurateur. Kourafalos, the chef manager at Carmichael dining hall, not only oversees an eatery that can serve upwards of 2,000 meals in a day, but also provides daily nourishment for what amounts to a small city.

Kourafalos, a self-described “townie,” grew up in Medford in a restaurant family.

His father, who had started as a butcher, became a chef on a cruise liner and eventually opened a local restaurant where Kourafalos often helped out. As a highschool student, he even worked at the Tufts Campus Center eateries. Later, he worked in a deli that sat in the Boston Avenue location now occupied by Boloco. In an era

Inside this issue

before the Food Network, Kourafalos often watched Jacque Pepin’s and Julia Childs’ PBS cooking shows Despite this, Kourafalos never thought he would end up in the food business, much less at Tufts.

“It was one of those things where I tried to shy away from it, but I truly enjoyed it,” he said. “I got into it. I kept coming back.”

After attending culinary school at Newbury College, Kourafalos went on to work in a wide variety of dining establishments, from an Italian restaurant — where he learned the idiosyncrasies of a brick oven — to Marriot hotels to high-end see KOURAFALOS, page 3

ALEXANDRA LACAYO/TUFTS DAILY

Harvard University Associate Professor Marla Frederick spoke yesterday on the influence of U.S. televangelists on impoverished Jamaicans.

Today’s Sections

The Top 10 takes on a whole new significance as the Arts Dept. selects 2000’s top movies, albums and TV shows.

The women’s track and field team has the depth and balance to make an impact on a national level this year.

see WEEKENDER, page 5

see SPORTS, back page

News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 13 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

2

Thursday, December 3, 2009

NEWS

Wireless Internet installed in Wren over break WIRELESS continued from page 1

common room, which is good at night when my roommate needs to sleep,” McHugh said.

Debski also noticed more of her suitemates using the area.

“We all use the common room more often,” Debski said. “It’s something we haven’t really used lately, but with the wireless I can definitely see people using the common room more often to watch TV or do work or just hang out together in general.”

Sophomore Rushabh Shah is happy the installation is

finally complete. “I’ve seen it in the makings so I was expecting it, but it’s pleasant that it’s here,” he said.

UIT plans to install 120 more wireless access points on campus between January and March, according to James Roberts, director of network and telecom services. Tufts’ Network Engineering Group has not yet finalized the locations of those access points.

The majority of Tufts’ residence halls have only wired Internet access, with the exceptions of West and Haskell Halls, which added wireless in 2008.

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts School of Medicine is the most expensive private medical school in the country.

Tufts med school tuition consistently increasing TUITION continued from page 1

student, said that had he not received a significant scholarship from Tufts, he would have “more strongly considered cheaper programs.”

“The cost of tuition did factor into my decision making, and the fact that I received a scholarship making Tufts a considerably cheaper option favorably influenced my selection,” Benziger said.

Alex Kobzik, a second year medical student, felt differently. He agreed that cost might affect a student’s decision of whether to attend a school, but said Tufts’ medical education was worth the price of tuition.

Though Tufts holds the top spot for the most expensive medical school in the country, this standing does not correlate with rankings on its quality.

In U.S. News and World

Report’s “Best Medical Schools” report for 2009, Tufts ranked as 40th in primary care and 45th in research. Harvard took first under the research category and 15th in primary care, while BU’s medical school is ranked 35th as a research institution.

It is not listed under the primary care rankings.

Gaillard, however, questioned whether these rankings reflect the true quality of education at these schools. The AAMC, she said, believes that ranking schools is subjective.

“There’s really not a set list of what makes a school better than another, so we just don’t rank,” she said.

Benziger did not believe that the cost of tuition necessarily equates to a high quality of education. “On a personal level, I think that your education is more about how you learn, how you fit in to the program and what you make of it,” he said.

Tufts is taking several steps to reduce its tuition. Fennelly said that starting two years ago the school has increased funding for scholarships eight fold.

She added that tuition at the medical school has increased four percent a year for the past several years and the school has successfully kept this increase stable through the economic downturn.

The medical school is also part of the $1.2 billion Beyond Boundaries capital campaign.

According to Fennelly, financial aid is the highest priority in the campaign.

Benziger felt that the university was making an effort to reduce costs for students, but believed that the burden to cut costs should lie with the federal government.

“I think the issue of medical student debt is very serious and should be addressed on a national scale,” Benziger said.

Some Jamaicans influenced by U.S. televangelists JAMAICA continued from page 1

The Christian gospel of prosperity, she said, has combined with impoverished Jamaicans’ desire for a new route to modernity and material improvement to offer them hope.

The sermons of American television ministries like those of Joel Osteen and T.D. Jakes, she said, have thus become an important part of spreading faith in Jamaica.

“The instability and malleability of the concept of prosperity is [key] to its longevity,” she said.

An associate professor of African, African-American and religion studies, Frederick was participating in the Office of the University Chaplain’s Forum on Religion and the Media.

Prosperity gospel states that God rewarded faith with physical and material wealth.

Frederick said it has become particularly popular in televangelism.

These television broadcasts are intended for middle-class Americans; the audience she found in Jamaica, she said, appeared completely different than the classic target group.

“The prosperity gospel consistently informs at least some of the religious ideation of the country’s Christian population,” Frederick said. It became clear to her that media played a role in spreading this theology.

Some scholars have determined that the failure of certain routes to wealth have led

many to seek new strategies, according to Frederick. The words of American televangelists have helped fill that gap, she said.

“Prosperity theology provided a promise of a certain return on their faith,” Frederick said of Jamaicans looking for change amid strife. “One’s life did not have to waste away” in nihilism, she added.

Jamaicans pray with American televangelists who “offer them means to material gain,” Frederick said, adding that those Jamaican viewers adapt those messages to their unique contexts.

Frederick began her talk by setting the scene of a violent, poor, urban area. She has conducted research in inner-city Kingston, Jamaica, among what she called “an underworld of drugs and violence,” poverty and a high rate of both political and non-political homicides.

“It’s a different kind of lifestyle than we are used to seeing when we think about Jamaica,” she said. “Not even local churches wanted to set up in this area.”

But the prosperity gospel offered a way into these communities.

She told the audience, which numbered at one point around 20, that during her research, she visited a man named William who engaged in “spiritual warfare with the enemy” by setting up a tent church in a particularly poor and dangerous place where bodies often littered the streets.

“A large portion of William’s

church is made up of single women trying to provide for their children,” said Frederick, who explained that 90 percent of children in Jamaica are born out of wedlock.

An “oasis” amidst a “desert” of impoverishment, Frederick said, the church’s Pentecostal leanings and emphasis on the prosperity gospel have inspired many.

Yet many Jamaicans who follow this gospel remain poor, which begs the question of what the televangelists’ teachings offer them and why they continue believing, Frederick said. Jamaicans often take issue with how, as one person she talked to put it, televangelists make it seem like the gospel is for sale, constantly pleading for money.

She explained that the prosperity gospel has several elements that make it attractive to those in the slums of Jamaica.

In particular, the gospel has an ability to adapt to the unique situation of these individuals and their conception of prosperity, as it often includes less tangible ideas like one’s relationship with God. The reinterpretation of prosperity gospel in Jamaica gives scholars insights into the underlying notions of that theology, she said.

University Chaplain David O’Leary praised Frederick’s study of religion and the media.

“I’m thrilled that more anthropologists are looking into religion to analyze it,” he said, calling that a good sign.

Federal, state money helps Tufts continue operations GRANTS continued from page 1

The medical school received approximately $9.1 million in grants through ARRA as of the end of September. The funding is spread across 39 separate grants according to Christine Fennelly, director of public relations for the health sciences campuses.

The majority of these funds comes from grants funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF). They are typically two-year research grants, otherwise known as challenge grants, according to Marsha Semuels, executive administrative dean of Tufts School of Medicine.

Challenge grants differ from typical grants in that the funds are not awarded until the conditions stipulated by the grant are met.

In total, the School of Medicine has benefitted from 118 grants through NIH, a boost from the 106 NIH grants the school received in fiscal year 2008.

According to Semuels, funding from NIH has been the same or has decreased for the last several years. Because of this and the recession, medical schools across the nation are suffering massive deficits.

“There are about 130 medical schools [in the United States] and 85 of those are research-based; all of them have major deficits … We, like other medical schools have a deficit — $5 million as a result of financial markets,” Semuels said.

“It would have been $10 million if we had not taken the initiative to decrease that impact.”

It is because of deficits like these that the ARRA funds are so important. “These grants come in and support new projects.

We could not research without them,” Semuels said.

She explained that NIH did not just strictly look at new applications for the grants but instead contacted medical schools requiring additional funds. “As a result of the stimulus package, NIH went back and looked at grants that were below the pay line and they said to us ‘what do you need?’” she said.

While the medical school has profited from an increase in NIH grants, the same cannot be said for the School of Dental Medicine.

According to executive associate dean Joseph Castellana, federal funding has remained largely flat.

“Some of our researchers have seen reductions in their own individual grants but we’ve received new funding as well,” Castellana said. “We have more grants but the dollar amount has remained the same.”

In fiscal year 2008, the den-

tal school received seven grants through NIH; this year that number is at nine.

This, however, is not damaging to the dental school’s operations, as only around seven percent of the school’s budget comes from grants similar to the ones given out by NIH, Castellana said.

In fact, he added, the dental school has actually benefited from the recession. “In our clinic operation, we saw a slight increase in our clinic revenue last year,” he said. “We know that private practice dentists saw a reduction in revenue, but what we believe has been the case is that when it comes to some of the more involved dental treatments, people come to the dental school because it is at less expense to them.”

At the dental school, the bigger issue is the prospect of reduced funding for MassHealth public insurance, which is a Massachusetts brand of Medicaid that covers low income residents of Massachusetts.

“There is a threat that the state may either reduce or eliminate MassHealth dental benefits for adults,” Castellana said. “About 20 percent of patients who we treat receive care through Mass. dental benefits. That would have a significant impact on our patients.”

For now, the dental school has staved off major cutbacks through increased clinic volume and, according to Castellana, “some skillful grant writers.”

Federal funding has also remained relatively stagnant for the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, receiving the same number of federal grants as last year totaling approximately $1.9 million.

This has not proved problematic, as the school is far more dependent on state funding than federal dollars. Earlier this year, however, the institution faced a scare that the state would completely eliminate funding, but a compromise was reached and the Cummings School received $2.5 million.

It will be able to stave off major cutbacks thanks to the appropriated funds, according to Cummings School Dean Deborah Kochevar.

“Given the extraordinarily difficult constraints on state revenue this year, we are very pleased to have moved from an appropriation of zero to $2.5 million,” Kochevar said in an e-mail.

“Operation of the Cummings School would be adversely affected if state funding were lost.”

She was optimistic on the future of state funding. “We expect the state’s commitment — and its investment in veterinary education and medicine — to continue,” Kochevar said.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Playing at Tufts: Ways to major in fun Who said college needs to be all work and no play?

BY

DAVID SCHWARTZ

Contributing Writer

School is difficult. In between essays and reading, breakfast bars and hurried dining hall dinners, how can students escape the daily grind? As college students with finals on the horizon, the routine (and many long nights in Tisch library) seems unavoidable. But never fret, fellow Jumbos. There are plenty of ways at Tufts to take a break from it all.

Play with your food Face it — sometimes it seems as if life revolves around eating. A great time to socialize is in between bites with friends and discuss the day. And some Tufts students have superb ideas about how to spice up meal times with a few simple ingredients: Eat out: This innovative but not overly involved idea provides new scenery and different types of food. Mix up restaurants, locations and who’s buying for some extra fun.

Try a dinner rotation: Senior Courtney Morrissey and some friends all sign up for one day every two weeks to cook, and on that day everyone goes to that person’s house for dinner. Competition runs rampant as the friends try to outdo each other

by preparing fancier and fancier dishes.

“I thought it would make my life more stressful, but I’ve found that setting a few hours aside to cook a meal for my friends is exactly what I need to take my mind off school and work,” Morrissey said.

Take a Pizza Days break: Late-night meal breaks double as a fun thing to look forward to and an effective way to set a deadline. Ordering pizza at two a.m., for example, can be a good way to take a break from an intense research paper or stock up on calories for an all-nighter. Alternatively, a late-night meal provides a deadline to complete work. This is not necessarily healthy, but it is good motivation to finish reading all of “Ulysses.”

Game for a … game?

There are plenty of classic board games to whip out on a rainy afternoon. Some Jumbos suggested Settlers of Catan, Scrabble, Taboo, Cranium, Apples to Apples, Catchphrase and Connect Four, to name a few. There are also video games: Super Smash Brothers (either regular-flavored, Melee or Brawl, depending on your preferences), anything for N-64 (because it’s old school) and Halo LAN parties.

Some students have come up with more innovative games, as well.

MCT

continued from page 1

catering businesses and even a hospital. Before arriving at Tufts four years ago, Kourafalos prepared food for the scientists at the Cambridge Pfizer lab, where he prepared soups and sauces from scratch.

“It gave me a great understanding of their components,” he said. And indeed, his entire range of experience seems to have constantly informed his abilities as a chef.

“I always try to take something from an experience,” he said, including the time he had to learn to cook haggis for a goingaway party.

“My wife laughs when we go out to eat,” he said. “I’m always analyzing what I’m eating, trying to figure out what they used and how they did it.”

This continual drive to learn seems to have paid off; he can now gauge the readiness of a piece of meat merely by touch.

In the kitchen, “You have to be paying attention and be willing to learn,” Kourafalos said. “I once worked with a chef who told me, ‘In a kitchen, if you get to a point where you don’t think you can learn anything more, you go find a new place.’ Here, I learn something on a daily basis.”

Kourafalos’ cooking motto seems to be, “Keep things fresh.” This not only refers to his ingredients but also to what he cooks and how he prepares it. He’s constantly on the lookout for new ideas.

During the summer months, he attends collegiate food conferences and turns Carmichael into a test kitchen for new concepts with the summer session students as his privileged guinea pigs.

“We’re always trying to keep up with restaurant trends — to stay on the cutting edge,” he said. “We want to see what’s popular with students. We’re always looking for new stuff.”

Kourafalos is an avid reader of the

Carmichael suggestion board and takes students’ recommendations seriously. He’s even developed entire concepts, like the Carmichael street food nights, from ideas students have posted.

The epitome of his freshness mantra can perhaps best be seen in the way he approaches the specialty food nights, which happen a few times per semester.

“They’re monotony breakers,” he said.

Some, like the Thanksgiving dinner, require more work and prep time. “We really get excited about these. We go all out. It’s a blast.”

Kourafalos and the staff have dressed up in everything from cowboy attire to bathing suits for specialty events and have decorated the dining hall with everything from canoes to a Sparky the Fire Dog mascot.

At the same time, he said, “We try not to overkill items. We don’t want them to lose their spark.”

For this reason, Kourafalos and the dining staff try to vary the specialty nights they put on from year to year. Next semester will feature a Russian food night and an Awards Dinner at which students will vote on their favorite food items and events in a manner similar to the Oscars.

This is all pretty remarkable when one considers that simply running a dining hall on a day-to-day basis has turned Kourafalos’ manager, Dave Kelley, and nutritionist Julie Lampie into logistical maestros.

The quantities of food involved are tremendous: the chicken Caesar salad night alone requires 120 pounds of chicken, and a popular item like General Gao’s chicken might require up to 180 pounds of meat.

Carmichael can go through 150 hamburgers and 60 pizzas during one lunch period alone. Depending on the season, the dining hall might go through seven cases of bananas and six cases of apples in two days.

Bursting at the seams

S MCT

P-p-p-poker face: Have a weekly evening of card game fun. Poker is not just a Lady Gaga song. Make it more competitive: winner can have the last Hostess cupcake.

Scratch ticket nights: Tempt Lady Luck and make a tradition of buying a lottery ticket one night every week with friends.

Scratch it off together and see what you get! Put any winnings in a communal tuition fund, or buy groceries for the apartment. Louisa Bradberry, a junior, said that she and her friends have made scratch ticket night a routine, but they take it a step further: every fourth week they buy a five-dollar scratch ticket.

Hall sports revisited: Okay, ResLife, we know we’re not allowed to play soccer in dorms, but there are completely legal, fun alternatives. Try a contained game, like Spoons. The basic goal is to get a four-ofa-kind hand by passing cards from a deck through a group of players, each of whom can only hold four cards at a time. The first player to hold a winning set grabs a spoon (from a pile of spoons in the center), at which point the remaining players must see PLAYING, page 4

Kourafalos serves up some passion in Carmichael kitchen KOURAFALOS

GRIFFIN PEPPER | EIGHT GIRLS AND A GUY

For Thanksgiving dinner, the staff prepared nearly 300 pounds of turkey.

Because of the abundance of food prepared in Carmichael’s kitchen, orders for ingredients must be placed two weeks ahead of time, using past records and a special computer program to try and predict the popularity of each item.

Menus must be planned at least six weeks in advance to allow the staff to balance the nutritional content of the meals and the time and equipment required to prepare each dish. Menus and nutritional content can then be posted online and the staff can prepare show plates to demonstrate meal balance and intended portion size to students.

This immense amount of preparation often requires Kourafalos to spend long hours in the Carmichael kitchen.

“My wife sometimes feels like I live here,” he said, “but I don’t look at the clock. I truly enjoy what I do, so time goes by so quickly. I’d rather stay and make sure things go off well.”

When he does make it home, though, he doesn’t cease cooking. He loves making Italian food — owing to an early formative experience in an Italian restaurant — as well as Cajun and Creole cuisine. During the summertime, he’ll barbecue ribs or pulled pork with a homemade watermelon barbecue sauce. Sometimes, though, simple comfort food is enough. After a particularly long day in the kitchen, he might find relaxation in a bowl of pasta with freshly made marinara.

He gives huge credit to the chemistry of the dining staff.

“They really pull together,” he said. “A couple of them have been here for almost 35 years. They really look out for students.”

And the passion that Kourafalos brings to his cooking is immediately evident.

“I love to cook,” he said. “It’s definitely one thing I couldn’t see myself not doing.”

tudents often compare Thanksgiving Break to Spring Break, but the two couldn’t be more different.

Thanksgiving happens during that awful, stressful transition from midterm recovery to finals mode. It’s usually grey and rainy and cold. Spring Break is a brighter time when the threat of finals dims under the shadow of blossoming trees and Spring Fling. But this Thanksgiving was more of a transformative period than I thought it would be.

I went to my best guy friend Eric’s house. I needed a little time alone with the man I had neglected for the past four months, staying home and using my housemates as case studies and scapegoats for this column. And, as most people, upon learning about my living situation this year, predicted, the girls started to stress me out.

I needed a little break from the drama that inevitably arises from an off-campus housing situation. Chores, obviously nobody’s top priority, were not getting done; the house looked dirty; my room was a mess from the hectic week preceding Thanksgiving. Everything at 86 was bursting at the seams.

Although I didn’t plan it out like this, Eric’s offer to drive me down to his home outside of D.C. was just what I needed to regroup and prepare for the ensuing weeks of long days of class and work, even longer nights in Tisch and all of that drama that comes in between. This weekend would be great.

It didn’t surprise me, however, that our car broke down in the Bronx, halfway to D.C. As a shady man circled our dead minivan with an aluminum bat in hand and as Eric calmly called AAA and his parents, I wished I were back with the girls, in my kitchen, talking about birth control and broken relationships.

But our problems were soon solved with the help of a generous uncle. The next day, we drove the rest of the way to our destination.

Life at Eric’s house slowed down my life.

Each day was filled with de-stressing activities. No early morning coffee chats about the enormous pile of work we all had to complete, no midday freak-outs about presentations left for the last minute, no early evening stress-pacing through the halls as a housemate or two gathered belongings for an inconveniently-timed meeting. It was relaxing and catching up with Eric was awesome.

His house was definitely foreign to me.

It was much bigger and much more colorful than the houses I’m used to. But I felt most at home when Eric’s mom and sister wandered into the room, asking for my advice or striking up a random conversation about whatever was on their minds.

Eric’s sister writes a weekly column in her college newspaper, and she needed help choosing a topic for this week. Eric’s mom didn’t approve of his hair. You know — the inconsequential stuff that fills time.

I realized, at Eric’s house, how much I missed my home, where my crazy parents would pontificate about nothing in particular, especially as they downed their third and fourth glasses of red wine.

But as the weekend came to a close, I felt a pull in my chest, not back to my home on the west coast, but to my home just off-campus, in 86. The girls in my house are my extended family. Facebook.com even says so.

You never really know what you have until it’s gone. Well, luckily, it’s not gone yet.

I still have the rest of this fall and all of next spring with the wonderful women of 86. I got away from home, which you need to do sometimes in order to put everything into perspective. But now I see how much I love, and need, my eight ladies at home.

Griffin Pepper is a senior majoring in political science, he can be reached at griffin. pepper@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Thursday, December 3, 2009

FEATURES

MCT

Students take a break from the books PLAYING continued from page 3

SANDWICHES WINE & BEER SPECIALTY GROCERY LOCAL PRODUCTS

81 Holland Street Davis Sq. Somerville 617-623-0867 davesfreshpasta.com

race for the rest of the spoons. One person will be left spoonless — like a musical chair and card game hybrid.

One junior who requested to remain anonymous recounted a snowy December morning in his freshman dorm, when spoons was taken to the next level and turned into strip spoons.

To make things even more interesting, the spoons were put on the opposite end of the hallway. Some track talent was discovered that day.

Sub-zero Fun: With arctic weather looming in the future, Jumbos have to get inventive with the snow. So find some long underwear, snow pants, wool socks, boots, sweatshirt, winter jacket, scarf, hat, gloves, ski goggles and an inhaler because some classmates have suggested surefire ways to turn these upcoming weeks into a winter Fun-derland.

Sled-scapades: Many students at Tufts “borrow” trays from dining halls and go sledding on various hills around campus. And there’s a reason why so many do this: it’s awesome, at least according to one student.

“A few times last year I dared to brave the cold and go sledding on trays from Carmichael, and it was amazing. A very fun experience which I highly recommend,”

sophomore Justin Ferranti said.

Get inventive with sledding locations, but be careful, too. Kevan Mamdouhi, a junior, said that while the library steps are his favorite sledding location, he has also broken a few trays there before. Some tips for the sled speedsters: grease a garbage bag and use that as a sled instead.

Ice-skating: Another fun winter activity is going ice-skating at the Common in Boston. This can be great as a date, fine for a bro-venture (just don’t hold hands) and awesome as an icebreaker. Also, take the time for a snowball fight!

Get warm: You can also always cop out. Sophomore Katie Welch said, “There are a lot of good movies that come out during the winter, and going to see one in a warm theater is always a nice way to spend an afternoon or night. Just having movie nights in your dorm is always nice too.”

Additionally, you can go to the Museum of Fine Art or the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston for a warm environment and the top Mona Lisa competitors.

So, whether you’re an advocate of art projects, a lover of lecture series or a fan of alone time with your rolling pin, there are plenty of ways to play at Tufts. Try both the most basic of board games and something totally creative.

Oh! Oh! Oh! OhMegan… Are You Coming?

Whoever you are, whomever you love Come to one workshop, come to both, just come!

All genders welcome Questions? Contact VOX: Voices for Choice at tuftsvox@gmail.com

Weekender ARTS & LIVING

5

tuftsdaily.com

2000-2009 Best of the Decade

A look at the movies, music and TV that shaped the 2000s BY

THE DAILY ARTS DEPARTMENT Daily Editorial Board

With 2010 right around the corner, The Daily Arts Department reflected on noteworthy — and likely enduring — movies, music and television shows. We wrestled with these choices; there was plenty of great material from the 2000s to choose from and not nearly every spectacular work is represented here. These picks are a collaborative effort to be taken as personal preferences from a student group of arts and entertainment enthusiasts rather than the ultimate comprehensive list. We encourage you to respond to these picks and offer up your own — make a comment online at tuftsdaily.com/arts and keep the discussion going. For a look at the favorites we had to let go, check out our extended “Best of the Decade” commentary at blogs.tuftsdaily.com/thescene.

Best Albums:

Best Movies:

Best TV:

1. Girl Talk, “Night Ripper” (2006): Engineer by day, dance party superhero by night: Gregg Gillis has single-handedly changed the face of music, and “Night Ripper” is his best work yet. Gillis’ digital mash-ups expertly combine seemingly incongruous artists’ songs to produce tracks that, though borrowed, feel brand new. (And if nothing else, no one had as much fun in the 2000s as Girl Talk.)

1. “Mean Girls” (2004): “Mean Girls” breaks from the pitfalls of other formulaic rom-coms by showing a more true-to-life, though still outrageous, depiction of how nasty high school cliques can be. This film showcases Lindsay Lohan at her peak and we’d argue that this film is “The Breakfast Club” (1985) of our generation, aware of its absurdity and all the more successful for it. Let’s face it: “Mean Girls” is, like, totally fetch.

(Note: We declined to include any series that premiered before 2000.)

2. The Strokes, “Is This It?” (2001): The Strokes’ debut album came at the beginning of the new millennium and asked the question that was on everybody’s mind: “Is this it?” The answer would come crashing down a scant few months later, but while 9/11 set the tone for the rest of the decade politically, “Is This It?” set it sonically — with strung out vocals, fuzzy guitar and infectious melodies.

3. Arcade Fire, “Funeral” (2004): An indie-rock band doesn’t usually compose a debut album full of majestic anthems, but Arcade Fire’s epic release features swelling string sections, dramatic lyrical references to the apocalypse and calls to revolutionary action. Recorded during a year when four members of the band lost family members, “Funeral” at once conveys melancholy and hope, joy and despair.

4. The Killers, “Hot Fuss” (2004): With this debut album, The Killers burst onto the music scene with a unique and odd blend of pop, rock and synth tunes.

The Killers will forever hold a place in music history as the band that refused to let the best part of the ’80s die for a generation that grew up on boy bands and blonde bubblegum girls.

2. “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004): Kate Winslet gives a career-best performance as Clementine, and Jim Carrey proves he’s more than a funnyman in this winner. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and director Michel Gondry take an age-old quandary — why can’t we forget old relationships — and creates a complex yet accessible film that gets richer (and clearer) with each viewing.

3. “The Dark Knight” (2008): Comic book movies have been good (“Spider-Man 2,” 2004) and bad (“Catwoman”, 2004), but “The Dark Knight” completely redefined the genre, showing that superhero flicks and pieces of artistic cinema are not mutually exclusive. The cast turned in fine performances and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of The Joker is one for the books.

4. “Man on Wire” (2008): This gem of a documentary captures the passion and thrill behind French renegade tight-rope walker Philippe Petit as he dares to do the unthinkable: dance his way across the Twin Towers in New York City. The film is all the more poignant to watch in the wake of 9/11, and its pacing and cinematography make it as enthralling as a heist film.

1. “The Wire” (2002-2008): HBO’s “The Wire” is as close to perfect as anything that’s ever aired on TV, and this isn’t hyperbole. The show is structured like a Greek tragedy with plot threads running through the entire series, each season exploring a different aspect of modern urban life.

While many great shows aired during the 2000s, none were as good as “The Wire,” and it’s hard to imagine that any ever will be.

2. “Arrested Development” (2003-2006): Mitchell Hurwitz’s critically-acclaimed but ratings-challenged “Arrested Development” came to define a new type of comedy. It was smart, topical, meta and flat-out hilarious — and, sadly, gone too soon.

3. “Lost” (2004-present): The show has been known for taking big risks, and while some have failed miserably (think: Nikki and Paulo), others have worked to reenergize viewers and change the course of the entire series.

Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have succeeded in making one of the most mystifying, grandiose and intriguing, not to mention downright beautiful, shows in history.

5. Danger Mouse, “The Grey Album” (2004): By bringing together the most popular rap album of the time, Jay-Z’s “The Black Album” (2003), with one of the most

5. “Finding Nemo” (2003): It was tough deciding between Disney/Pixar’s “Finding Nemo” and “Up” (2009) for best

4. “30 Rock” (2006-present): The series has won the Emmy for Best Comedy Series each of the past three years, but awards alone didn’t get the show on this list.

Rather, it’s the biting television industry satire, smart and quick writing, goofy but lovable characters and the wide array of (mostly) well-used guest stars. Sometimes “30 Rock” gets a little too meta for its own good, but even an off episode is better than most other television comedies on the air.

see BEST ALBUMS, page 8

see BEST MOVIES, page 7

see BEST TV, page 8

TOP L-R JUICEBOXDOTCOM.COM (GIRLTALK), ENCEFALUS.COM (JOKER), TV.ING.COM (THE WIRE), BOTTOM L-R RIALTOTHEATRE.COM (BON IVER), IMAGESDISNEY.COM (NEMO), BUSINESSWEEK.COM (MADMEN)

THE TUFTS DAILY

6 ZACH DRUCKER AND CHRIS POLDOIAN | BAD SAMARITANS

WEEKENDER

Thursday, December 3, 2009

THEATER PREVIEW

Too Soon?

R

ecently, thousands of giddy teenage girls and some extremely lonely, middle-aged cat ladies rushed to theaters to see the latest “Twilight” installment, “New Moon.” The film’s rabid fan base, powered by the most dynamic duo known to man — Robert Pattinson’s cheekbones and Taylor Lautner’s abdominals — helped to propel “New Moon” into the box office record books. “New Moon” currently holds the highest midnight opening and third highest opening weekend.

Fair enough. After all, we boys have Megan Fox and belligerent robots that turn into cool cars in the “Transformers” films. We have our guilty pleasures, so it’s only fair that women get theirs, too.

What does upset us is the fact that Summit Studios will release the followup, “Eclipse,” in June 2010, just seven months after “New Moon.” By speeding up the production process, these executives have shown their utter disregard for creating a film with artistic merit and their simple desire for more money.

In fact, the turnaround was so quick that they had to change directors; Chris Weitz was still handling post-production on “New Moon” when “Eclipse” starting filming. These shotgun movies are becoming exceedingly common, which is bad news bears for film quality.

Studios feel the need to capitalize on whatever is en vogue. Since most fads have the life expectancy of fruit flies, there is a need to strike while the iron is hot. We take offense at this. Apparently all the suits in Hollywood fear that Americans suffer from ADD. But, come on people, have a little more faith in us. Are we Americans really going to lose interest in Harry Potter in the course of one year?

Definitely not. So why release the two halves of “Deathly Hallows” (2010, 2011) eight months apart? A two-year wait didn’t hamper the sixth film’s financial success — in fact, it galvanized the fan base and built up hype. A gap between films can lead to pent-up interest. A bigger lapse also allows the fan base to broaden, as we saw with the “Twilight” series. Curse you, Dakota Fanning!

If anything, time between movies is important as it gives viewers a chance to breathe. You don’t want audiences to tire of a series. The expression, “time heals all wounds,” is particularly noteworthy here. If a movie leaves a bad taste in your mouth, it’s often best to give the audience time to forget about it.

Case in point: “The Matrix” series. The Wachowski brothers (well, technically siblings, since Larry’s habit of dressing up like a woman and calling himself “Lana” was made public) released the second and third Matrix films in May and November of 2003, respectively. The sequel, “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003) was an action-packed disappointment. While the fight scenes wowed, the story left many scratching their heads. Less than six months later, Warner Bros. pinched off the series’ concluding chapter, “The Matrix Revolutions” (2003). Considered both a financial and critical failure, its box office receipts were less than half those of “Reloaded.”

Shoehorning a summer popcorn flick into the November lineup is never a good idea, particularly so soon after the mediocrity that was “Reloaded.” If they had waited until June or July of 2004, more people would have gone to the theatres to get their bullet-time fix.

At the end of the day, the quality of a film and its sequel will determine the success of the franchise. The annual nature of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy worked because Peter Jackson took the time to make good films. On the other hand, the gap between “The Boondock Saints” (2000, 2009) films left too much time for the Saints to fall out of the public eye. It’s all in the timing.

Zach Drucker and Chris Poldoian are sophomores who have not yet declared majors. They can be reached at Zachary.

Drucker@tufts.edu and Christopher.

Poldoian@tufts.edu, respectively.

DANAI MACRIDI/TUFTS DAILY

Hanorah “Nora” Vanni, David Pernick and Ryan Willison star in Torn Ticket II’s production of “Little Shop of Horrors.”

Tufts students enter ‘Shop of Horrors’ BY

MICHELLE BEEHLER Daily Staff Writer

When is enough enough? Opening tonight in Balch Arena Theatre, Torn Ticket II’s production of Howard Ashman and Alan Menken’s “Little Shop of Horrors” will satire and expose just exactly how much is enough to fill the stomach of a hungry, flesh-eating, solar-flared, mutant plant.

Seymour Krelborn (freshman Ryan Willison) is the timid protagonist of the show, a klutzy employee of Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists. He is also the discoverer of a man-eating plant, which he names Audrey II after his fellow employee Audrey (freshman Hanorah “Nora” Vanni), whom he has a crush

on. The plant’s voracious hunger fuels the show’s plot as Seymour struggles to feed it, improve the business at Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists and win over the love of his life.

While at first glance the horror of a plant’s insatiable appetite might seem ridiculous, the show encompasses and represents a broader definition of what is terrifying and dark. Senior director Corey Briskin said the musical addresses the “concept of breaking away from consumerism and the mundane.” The musical is set in the late ’50s to the mid ’60s and takes on the desperation of the time period through a satirical lens, attacking Faustian themes and Hollywood B-movies such as “King Kong” (1933)

and “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951).

The musical itself has an interesting history. The first form of the show appeared in 1960 as Roger Corman’s low budget, cult-classic film. Only after 22 years, in 1982, did the film finally get adapted into an off-Broadway musical — with a film version released a couple of years later in 1986. Finally, 21 years after the offBroadway production premiered and after which everyone predicted the show’s days were over, the musical was revived on Broadway.

Despite its long history, “Little Shop of Horrors” has proved its appealing see HORRORS, page 7

WEEKENDER INTERVIEW | SAIORSE RONAN

Rising star Saoirse Ronan dishes on upcoming ‘The Lovely Bones’ Young actress works with Peter Jackson to bring Sebold’s rich novel to life BY

ZACH DRUCKER

regarding your personality?

Daily Staff Writer

The Daily got the opportunity to conduct a phone interview with the young actress Saoirse Ronan to discuss her role in director Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel “The Lovely Bones.” Ronan described the process she went through to prepare to portray her character, Susie Salmon, a 14-year old girl who is raped and murdered by her neighbor, and discussed her ascent into the public eye since her Academy Award-nominated role in “Atonement” (2007).

Q: Do you interpret Susie Salmon more through the screenplay that you read or through your analysis of the novel? Do you ever find yourself having conflicts with the interpretation of your current director?

SR: Well, I focus more on the character and the screenplay instead of the book because it’s a different version of telling the story. But still, it’s [handy] to be making movies that were based on books. No, I haven’t had any conflicts really with the directors that I’ve worked with, so I’ve been very lucky.

We’ve gotten on really well.

Q: Are there any similarities between you and the character Susie Salmon

SR: Yeah, there’s a few. I mean, Susie’s a typical teenage girl, so I think that hopefully when girls go and see this movie, they’re going to connect with her in some way. But she’s interested in photography and fashion, and things like that. And boys, of course. So, I’m interested in all those things.

Q: What was it like to film the heaven scenes [in “The Lovely Bones”]?

SR: It was a little bit surreal at first because it was all blue screen, and I hadn’t worked with that much blue screen before. And most of Heaven was going to be put in afterwards. So, it was sometimes difficult to try and imagine what it was going to be like. We obviously had an idea in our head of what the basic picture was going to be. But it was great and when I saw the movie, it was a lovely surprise to finally see Heaven.

Q: In both “Atonement” and “The Lovely Bones,” there are a lot of very dark themes, and your character always seems to be right in the middle of the gloom. Given that you’re kind of a cheerful person in real life, how do you place yourself in such dark situations that these movies portray?

AREAVOICES.COM

Saoirse Ronan, Oscar nominee, stars in ‘The Lovely Bones.’

SR: You know, I find sometimes it’s quite easy to be the opposite of how you are in real life. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s just because it’s not somewhere that I go very often. The door is always open for me to go there.

It just takes a lot of thinking and I really understood Susie and Peter [ Jackson]. see RONAN, page 7

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, December 3, 2009

7

WEEKENDER

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE TUFTS DAILY

TOP TEN | DISNEY CONTROVERSIES

Dear Tareq and Michaele Salahi, Last week you snuck in to a White House dinner. You were effectively the first gatecrashers to ever gatecrash the White House. We’ll admit that’s impressive. But, nevertheless, you’re both morons.

Let us explain: We all want to be best friends with President Obama. He seems like a cool guy; he’s our basketball playing, drug taking, chill-chill-bro of a leader. But you can’t just show up uninvited to one of his rockin’ parties. What if we did that to you? What if we just showed up to your house in somewhat offensive clothing (Michaele was wearing a sari to a dinner being held for the Prime Minister of India … weirdo)? You probably wouldn’t like that too much, huh? At your house it’s just called being rude. At the President’s house it’s called being a threat to national security.

This is not “Wedding Crashers” (2005). The stunt you pulled is more like “Let’s Go to Prison” (2006).

We sincerely hope you don’t get chosen to be on the planned “Real Housewives of Washington DC” because then your stupidity would have paid off. We won’t be watching.

With the December release of “The Princess and the Frog” showcasing the first AfricanAmerican princess in a Disney movie to date, we’ve compiled a list of Disney’s less-than-honorable moments over the years. We may not have noticed them as innocent little kids, but now that we’re adults (wait, what?), we’re calling you out, Walt.

Best, The Daily Arts Department P.S. You are cordially not invited to our next dinner party.

10. “Song of the South”: There’s a reason this 1946 movie has never been released in its entirety on video or DVD: It portrays Uncle Remus as a happy plantation worker in the South, which Disney thinks, just maybe, might be considered racially insensitive. Or even a flat-out bias incident.

9. “Sex” written in the sky in “The Lion King” (1994): A subliminal message to innocent, unsuspecting five-year-olds to stop being so innocent and just have sex already. Classy, Disney.

Classy.

8. “Snow White” (1937): Considering their history of racist characters and images, it makes sense that for its first feature film, Disney would choose a pure, angelic white girl who can only be saved by her (white) Prince Charming.

7. “Alice in Wonderland” (1951): Basically, this film should be renamed “Kids, look at how much fun it can be to trip acid!”

And just because something says “Drink Me” on it, doesn’t mean you should. Kids, haven’t you heard of roofies?

6. The priest in “The Little Mermaid” (1989): Some say it’s just an unintentional fold of the robes, some say it’s shoddy shadowing — but guys, let’s call a spade a spade. The dude got a boner.

off the ledge and trampled to death?

4. “Aladdin” (1992): Aladdin, the hero, looks like some white guy, while the villain, Jafar, is a gross caricature of an Arab man.

And apparently cutting off people’s arms for stealing is totally the norm in the Middle East.

3. Walt Disney: The godfather of animation, Walt Disney himself, was, in fact, a raging antiSemite!

2. The crows in “Dumbo” (1941): They’re black crows.

Their leader is named Jim. You do the math.

1. The Siamese cats in “Lady and the Tramp” (1955): “Where we finding baby there are milk nearby?” Really?

5. Deaths in Disney movies: How many of us were scarred

by Bambi’s mother getting shot or Simba’s father being pushed

— compiled by the Daily Arts Department

Ronan reflects on her dark roles and working with Peter Jackson RONAN continued from page 6

Q: You’ve worked with [co-screenwriters and married couple] Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson. How was it working with them?

SR: I absolutely loved working with them. They were brilliant. They’re partners, so they’re together all the time pretty much. And Fran is one of the kindest, sweetest women I have ever met. I love her. She’s funny. She’s creative. She’s just wonderful. And Pete and her are like a rock. They’re just great together and, of course, I love working with Pete as well, as director and as a friend.

Q: Did working on this film with some of the other more experienced actors [like Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan

Sarandon and Stanley Tucci] help you carry away something that you can use maybe in your future films?

SR: I think it’s just the way they are on set. I’ve worked with a lot of actors that just have a really good approach to working with other people and you need that when you’re working on a movie. You become a family unit, so it’s very important to get on with everyone. And, it’s not as much with acting itself because everyone kind of has their own thing that they do. So, the people that I’ve worked with have been very respectful towards me and they know that I have my own thing going on.

Q: How have you responded to all of the attention that “Lovely Bones” has been getting in regards to awards speculation?

SR: To be honest, I try not to think

about award season at all, especially when it concerns a movie that I’ve made. None of the press have actually seen the movie yet, so it’s not fair to say, but it’s great that they’re putting it at such a high level already. Hopefully it does well. I just really hope that everyone enjoys it [and] that they connect to it as much as they did with the book. So, if awards come as well, then that’s brilliant.

Q: How have your roles in “Atonement” and “The Lovely Bones” influenced your outlook on life?

SR: With “Atonement” it wasn’t that influential because [my character] was a bitter girl. I suppose that it would make you think more before you speak if anything. But “The Lovely Bones,” in particular, just made me appreciate

what I have — that I’m lucky to be here, I’m lucky to have the amazing family that I have. It’s also made me more aware of things that go on in the world, these awful crimes that are committed every day.

Q: What should viewers learn and take away from this film?

SR: Well, I think that the message of this movie, although it may not seem like it to people who haven’t seen it yet, is ultimately hope ... When Susie arrives in the in-between, she doesn’t want to go forward, which would mean accepting her death. She wants to be back on Earth with her family and she knows she can’t do that. And to get there, you know, it’s about her love for her family and not the hate and vengeance that she has for her murder.

Tufts students tackle puppeteering in ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ HORRORS continued from page 6 power over the decades and still maintains a cult following, especially for the character of the sadistic dentist who is Audrey’s boyfriend.

The voice and body of Audrey II are played by freshmen Rashad Davis and Matthias Maier, respectively. Learning to coordinate with each other and maneuver the Audrey II puppet was one of the more interesting and challenging technicalities of the show. To make it even more complex, Maier and Davis had to learn to work with four

different Audrey II puppets which represent the growth of the plant throughout the show.

Of playing only the body of a character, Maier said, “It’s easy to lose track of the fact that you don’t think of it as acting, but really it is a lot more than I initially thought it would be. You have to think about how the character would feel, and it’s all the acting except saying the words.”

Martin Robinson, the original plant designer for the off-Broadway production, created a costume that no one thought would survive. It requires the

What’s up this weekend Want to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!

The Tufts University Choruses: The Chamber Singers and the Concert Choir present two holiday concerts, each with several popular holiday standards. The concerts are free, no tickets required.

(Saturday at 1 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., both in the Granoff Music Center) Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker: The annual production of the classic holiday ballet hits the stage this weekend. (Starts Thursday night and runs through Dec. 27 at the Boston Opera House) Shakespeare Explosion: A Panel Discussion about Shakespeare and

Contemporary Culture: Join Artistic Director of the Public Theater Oskar Eustis, renowned Shakespeare scholar Marjorie Garber and A.R.T. Artistic Director Diane Paulus for a conversation about Shakespeare’s impact on contemporary culture. (Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Loeb Drama Center, free and open to the public).

Mortal Terror: Robert Brustiend, a professor at Suffolk University, has written a new play about Shakespeare after being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize last year. His play offers a new take on the famous writer’s life. (Sunday at 11 a.m. in the Loeb Drama Center, free and open to the public).

— The Daily Arts Department

puppeteer to be over six feet tall in order to successfully operate it. A similar version of the original design is used in the Tufts show, which tests the endurance and capabilities of its manipulator. “[The performer] has to have a lot of soul about them,” Briskin said. “They have to feign all this energy without saying anything or being seen.

It’s one of the most thankless jobs you could possibly have.”

Davis has previously performed as the voice of Audrey II in a high school production, but finds differences between that experience and the one at Tufts.

Davis said that in this production, “You have to dig a little farther to find the character and be in the moment.”

As there is no ensemble in the show, the small, tight-knit cast of solely freshmen and sophomores has created an exciting and enjoyable environment, allowing for what freshman cast member Ryan Willison said “is some of the most fun I’ve had working on a show.”

Tickets to performances of “Little Shop of Horrors” are free. The show runs tonight, tomorrow and Saturday night at 8 p.m. in the Balch Arena Theater.

‘City of God’ wins with gut-wrenching story BEST MOVIES continued from page 5

animated film of the decade, but ultimately “Finding Nemo” is the one that stuck with us most — maybe because of the loveable and memorable Dory (voiced by Ellen DeGeneres).

6. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (2007): Julian Schnabel’s interpretation of Jean-Domique Bauby’s poignant memoir is, in a word, beautiful. The film’s restricted view — from the single functioning eye of paralyzed Bauby — is nothing short of visual poetry and opens up into the even more lush landscape of Bauby’s imagination.

7. “City of God” (2002): “City of God” is a punch in the chest.

Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s gripping tale of life in Brazil’s favelas hits every emo-

tion possible: it’s moving, beautiful, eye-opening, terrifying, heartbreaking and often funny. “City of God” serves as an important reminder of masterpieces found outside of American cineplexes.

8. “No Country for Old Men” (2007): “No Country” is a probing examination of what it means to grow old, buried under a nail-biting cat-andmouse game between an everyman and a seemingly soulless killer. The film is riddled with challenges; slow pacing and a maddeningly ambiguous ending among them. But those who can stomach it know “No Country for Old Men” is not a film that is soon forgotten.

9. “Inglourious Basterds” (2009): A list of the decade’s best work would be incomplete

without a Quentin Tarantino film. While “Basterds” may not be Tarantino’s best work, it stands as a testament to what the man is capable of. People accuse Tarantino of a lot of things, most notably being a talentless, narcissistic, egotistical hack, but he’s undeniably one of the most important cinematic auteurs working today.

10. “Moulin Rouge!” (2001): This oft-overlooked musical directed

by Baz Luhrmann not only catapulted Nicole Kidman to superstar status, but also revived the movie musical genre, making way for Oscar-winner “Chicago” (2002) that often gets all the credit. This musical, with its music video quick cuts, stunning costumes, set design and use of popular songs rather than show tunes redefined the importance of song in film.

THE TUFTS DAILY

8

Thursday, December 3, 2009

WEEKENDER

MGMT one of the most influential bands of the 2000s BEST ALBUMS continued from page 5

popular albums of all time, The Beatles’ “White Album” (1968), Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) was able to appeal to pretty much everybody. The combination of J-Hova’s (“God MC”) genius lyrics and The Beatles’ groundbreaking tunes is most definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

6. The Hold Steady, “Boys and Girls in America” (2006): Bar-rock has not died, and The Hold Steady, a rollicking group of Midwest-to-Brooklyn transplants, proved it. A driving backdrop of crunchy, classic rock guitar riffs, sparkling piano builds, punchy bass and hard-hitting drumming provide a refreshing, retroreviving alternative to many of today’s synth-y indie rock bands.

7. MGMT, “Oracular Spectacular” (2008): MGMT’s debut blends neo-psychedelia, electronica, funk, rock and tribal chanting to an extent that defies description. A diverse, eclectic and catchy collection of songs and influences, “Oracular Spectacular” is bound to have appeal for fans of a wide variety of genres for years to come.

8. The White Stripes, “Elephant” (2003): With this album’s simplicity and obvious technical prowess, Jack White made it cool to return to your roots — or at least those of someone you admire. White’s affinity for basic blues licks and Meg’s no nonsense, no solo drumming set the stage for most recent alternative rock and effectively place The White Stripes’ sound at the forefront of this decade.

9. Various Artists, “Garden State OST” (2004): Most of us can’t go back to Zach Braff’s movie without laughing at the line about The Shins, but by the time the first chords of “Let Go” (2002) by Frou Frou kick in during the Newark Airport scene there isn’t a dry eye in the room. From Coldplay to Iron and Wine, this wasn’t just the soundtrack to a movie, it was quite possibly the soundtrack to a generation.

10. Bon Iver, “For Emma, Forever Ago” (2007): Moody guitar loops and front man Justin Vernon’s ethereal vocals combine to create an otherworldliness that transcends time and place. Somehow, “For Emma, Forever Ago” manages to break your heart in a way that leaves you heading back for more.

PEOPLE.UCSC.EDU

The Stokes, “Is This It” (2001), shaped the music scene of the last decade.

American version of ‘The Office’ finds own voice, spot in 2000’s top 10 BEST TV continued from page 5

ing, superb acting and fine direction.

5. “Friday Night Lights” (2006-present): The NBC/ DirecTV drama, based on the book and film of the same name, has managed to turn a story about small-town Texas football into a beautiful tale of middle-American life — no small feat for a program that has narrowly avoided cancellation each season. “FNL” hasn’t relied on gimmicks and stunts to make this list; it has earned it with its stellar writ-

6. “The Office” (U.S. version) (2005-present): Many viewers bemoaned the American adaptation of the British hit “The Office” when it first premiered, calling it nothing more than a rip-off of a classic series. Sure, the pilot was pretty much a carbon copy of the original’s plot, but by only the second episode (“Diversity Day”), the new series found its own knee-slappingly hilarious voice.

7. “Mad Men” (2007-present): On paper it doesn’t sound like anything special, but it’s the packaging that sets “Mad Men” apart. AMC’s glossy period piece has been transporting audiences to a simpler time for three seasons now, each stronger than the last. At the very least, “Mad Men” will be remembered as a game changer in the realm of technology: the show that launched a thousand HDTVs. 8. “The Colbert Report” (2005present): Stephen Colbert’s self-

assured delivery of his cocky-asall-hell alter ego has enchanted us nightly ever since his first address to his “nation.” In fact, we doubt we could have weathered the Bush years without him.

9. “How I Met Your Mother” (2005-present): After the reign of “Friends” ended in 1994, television viewers needed a new Manhattan clique to cling to. “How I Met Your Mother” (HIMYM) was just the rebound audiences needed to satisfy their sitcom fix. What really makes

HIMYM legend — wait for it — dary? Jokes that stick, and an insider’s glossary of terms fans will quote for years to come.

10. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (2005-present): It’s hard to imagine that a show about such inherently bad people could be so good, but it is. The FX comedy about the fictional Paddy’s Pub gang is grossly politically incorrect, but it knows it — and solidly carves out its place in the comedy world.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

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THE TUFTS DAILY GIOVANNI J.B. RUSSONELLO Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Naomi Bryant Managing Editors David Heck Alexandra Bogus Executive News Editor Nina Ford News Editors Tessa Gellerson Ben Gittleson Christy McCuaig Matt Repka Ellen Kan Assistant News Editors Harrison Jacobs Katherine Sawyer Saumya Vaishampayan

Robin Carol Executive Features Editor Marissa Carberry Features Editors Meredith Hassett Alison Lisnow Emily Maretsky Kerianne Okie Romy Oltuski Christina Pappas Charlotte Steinway Julia Zinberg Sarah Korones Assistant Features Editors Carter Rogers

Jessica Bal Executive Arts Editor Emma Bushnell Arts Editors Mitchell Geller Adam Kulewicz Catherine Scott Josh Zeidel Charissa Ng Assistant Arts Editors Benjamin Phelps

Thursday, December 3, 2009

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

Medical school costs affect more than just students $157,607: That’s the average debt owed by graduating medical students in 2008, according the American Medical Association (AMA). That’s enough for roughly 300 flights to the Caribbean, a small apartment in the Boston suburbs or one very nice car.

But here’s the catch: Though most aspiring doctors have to take on a significant amount of personal loans, when they finally begin earning a professional salary after years of studying they are generally able to pay off their debts as well as afford flights to the Caribbean, an apartment in Boston or a really nice ride.

It’s not the overall cost of medical school that is worrisome — undergraduates and graduate students in other fields also pay a lot of money for their education. What is concerning is that the debt owed by medical school graduates is constantly rising, as is the overall cost of attending medical school. Just last year, the debt owed by medical school graduates increased by 11 percent, according to the AMA. This mirrors the rising cost of tuition at medical schools. At Tufts University Medical School, tuition has increased by four percent annually for the past several years. The school is now the most expensive medical school in the nation, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Tuition

and Student Fees Reports, with a price tag of $54,244 in tuition and fees for the 2009-10 academic year — a figure that doesn’t take into account the cost of living or spending on items like textbooks.

Skyrocketing tuition would be problematic for any student, but in the case of medical schools, it threatens to exacerbate one of our nation’s most pressing problems: the health care system. A recent national survey conducted for the AAMC by a national polling organization, Public Opinion Strategies, found that “cost was a major deterrent for all students, and it was the number-one deterrent for black, Hispanic, and Native American students.”

Education costs threaten not only to limit the number of physicians in the United States but may drive many medical school students to pursue professions in more lucrative medical fields — they’ll specialize, becoming surgeons or allergists or dermatologists instead of primary care doctors.

According to the American Medical Group Association, an orthopedic surgeon earned an average of $476,083 annually in 2009. By contrast, a doctor practicing family medicine earned $197,655. Obviously, it’s easier to pay off debt as a well-paid specialist.

But while specializing makes sound financial sense for the individual medical

student, it may lead to a shortage of primary care physicians, thus straining the already ailing American health care system and burdening the American public.

In an interview with the Daily, a Tufts Medical School student indicated that he felt that the debt born by medical students should be addressed at a national level. The Daily believes that relying on the government to address the rising costs of medical school tuition, especially at private universities like Tufts, is a step in the wrong direction. While it seems clear that the rising cost of medical school tuition will negatively impact our health care system, we must first look to academic institutions for a way to mitigate increasing costs.

Perhaps the price of Tufts Medical School, the most expensive in the country, is merited. The school is already in debt. But a steady four percent annual increase raises questions. Why does the school need to continually raise tuition? When, if ever, will the increases stop? This leads back to a question all students ask at some point in their college career: Just where does my tuition go? Universities should take a long, hard look at how much they charge and decide how profit-motivated they truly desire to be.

Unless things change, the cost of medical school may be a debt we all have to pay.

Michelle Hochberg Executive Op-Ed Editor Crystal Bui Editorialists Vittoria Elliott Rebekah Liebermann Victoria Stevenson Marian Swain Nina Grossman Opinion Editors Laura Moreno Andrew Rohrberger Molly Rubin Devon Colmer Editorial Cartoonists Erin Marshall Alex Miller Louie Zong

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BY

LAUREN RODRIGUE

The Daily Free Press

A recent Boston Globe article revealed that a handful of anti-bullying bills are currently under consideration in the state legislature. The bills are the results of an increasingly violent bullying atmosphere reported in Boston schools, most of which already bear the burden of horrible nationwide reputations. Boston public schools and charter schools have been especially topical for years — most recently they garnered considerable attention during the mayoral and city council elections, during which candidates emphasized the urgency of the Boston public school crisis. That being true, the bullying issue isn’t one to be taken lightly, but it also isn’t something that should be seen as a separate problem. Rather, it is a symptom of a much larger affliction, and as common sense would suggest, treating a single symptom will not cure the disease.

The legislative motions seem extreme and out of place — bullying, when stopped early, doesn’t have to become a legal issue, and the logistics of enforcement if such bills were to pass seem unrealistic. Legal punishment for real, lawbreaking criminals is one thing, but it is the job of school administrators, faculty and parents to address young student bullying. Furthermore, it is the job of city government leaders to make sure schools have the resources they need to establish richer, more positive environments for students, as it isn’t a rogue claim to say that better schools foster happier students. All of this can be accomplished without the aid of unfeasible legislative ordinances, which will only cost money, cause confusion and yield ineffective and unfitting punishments, if any at all.

A Nov. 18 Boston Globe article reporting upon this issue actually stated that the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has no formal protocol for bullying policies, and that punitive enforcement

standards vary from school to school. Herein lies the very obvious and very fixable core of the issue — the schools haven’t even made a unified attempt themselves to minimize bullying, and have instead jumped to the legislature for help. That the schools are factioned on this issue suggests that they lack the cohesiveness necessary to not only establish a sound bullying policy but also a sound school system. Here is where the government should see fit to step in — in the revision of the major problems crippling Boston public schools. If the highest city officials can start at the top of the list of problems, addressing the broadest and most detrimental issues like facility maintenance, funding and faculty quality, the benefits of this will trickle down to the lower levels of the system, and school administrators will be able to establish viable anti-bullying programs, as is their responsibility to do so. The children, finally, will have the resources they need, instead of having to face the punishment they don’t.

Corrections Yesterday’s article “Tufts voices concerns over planned T stop” erroneously stated that the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA) projects a traffic increase of 9,000 cars per day at the intersection of College and Boston Avenues, the location of a planned Green Line station.

In fact, the MGNA currently sees about 9,000 daily vehicle trips in the area and has projected an undetermined increase in volume during peak hour Green Line ridership.

Tuesday’s article “Senate supports plan to create endowment for surplus funds” incorrectly states that there will be a projected $72,000 at the end of this year from surplus funds. In fact, total Tufts Community Union surplus funds currently stand at $72,000.

Tuesday’s article “Hillel successfully weathers downturn” incorrectly suggested that Tufts’ endowment declined 25 percent largely due to its $20 million loss in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. In actuality, most of the endowment decline was due to the economic recession; only a small portion can be attributed to the Madoff fraud. This was a mistake made during the editing process and was not the writer’s fault

EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the Editorial Page editors, 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.

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Thursday, December 3, 2009

THE TUFTS DAILY

Oh Megan: Oral pleasure — are you coming?

BY

ALYSSA URSILLO

Ah, it’s that time of year again — the season of giving. And there’s no better feeling than the satisfaction of giving — that is, of course, except for the satisfaction of getting.

But for most of us college students who are strapped for cash and time, holiday shopping is not our favorite activity in the world. Add in the stress of getting the right gift for your significant other, and gift-giving becomes a nightmare. That’s why Tufts Voices for Choice (VOX) is here to help you out this year with our tantalizing event, Oh Megan: Oral Pleasure. With two interactive workshops focusing on female and male anatomy and pleasure, you can learn to give that special gift that keeps on giving, the one that makes you or your partner go, “Ooohhhhh.”

Come learn how to really please your loved one, that girl you hooked up with in the basement of Delta Upsilon or yourself!

It all goes down tonight, Thursday, Dec. 3. VOX will partner with Oh Megan, a sex educator who specializes in the art of oral pleasure.

The pleasure begins in the Crane Room in Paige Hall at 7 p.m. with “Petting the Kitty,” a workshop about G-spots, female hot spots, sex toys and the clitoris. Whether you want to make your partner purr or you want to get down with your sexy self, this workshop is bound to be stimulating! But the fun doesn’t end there; following at 8:45 p.m. is “Fabulous Fellatio: The Art to Oral Sex.” Learn how to blow your partner away and become more comfortable licking the tip. This workshop teaches genital massage, male anatomy and mouth techniques that will keep your partner at attention all night long! You can come to one or both workshops with a partner, a friend or by yourself. Everyone is welcome at both workshops, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

But in case our description of the event is not enough to arouse your interest, here are three reasons you should attend “Oh Megan” tonight: 1. The big O. Besides the obvious pleasure factor, orgasms are also good for your health. Orgasms release endorphins, the feel-good hormones also released during exercise, which lower stress levels. They can also help you lose weight, by releasing phenethylamine and serotonin, which curb appetites and cravings. And they can reduce aging and promote healthy skin by increasing DHEA levels, a chemical that promotes brain function, fat metabolism and lots of other good stuff. As if these reasons were not enough, here’s another really convincing fact: Orgasms boost your immune system by increasing levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that helps fight the flu. We can’t promise you won’t get sick, but coming to “Oh Megan” just might help you and your partner dodge the swine flu! And if you don’t come, you do so at your own risk.

Not being able to orgasm causes distress, which lowers your immune system’s capabilities.

2. Learning valuable life skills. Oral sex should be fun for everyone involved, not just the one receiving. But we all know

women who have been licked in all the wrong places and for the men who can’t forget the time they felt teeth on their sensitive parts, “Oh Megan” can help.

3. Making it to the finish line. Think your partner is physically incapable of orgasm?

Probably not true — you just may not have the right technique. While the male reproductive organ may be a little bit more obvious when aroused, every man is different and there are some useful techniques for getting yours to pop.

Some want it faster, some want it deeper and others just want to lay back and enjoy the ride. Especially if your man is above and beyond average size, you may need a few tips to avoid choking on his tip.

Or you might just need a confidence boost in the head department.

Women on the other hand are a bit trickier.

On average, women take longer and have a more difficult time reaching orgasm than men. Only one-third can orgasm from intercourse without any other form of stimulation. For most women, clitoral stimulation is necessary. Although it may seem small on the surface, the clitoris can extend back into a woman’s body up to threeand-a-half inches and has thousands of nerve endings, sometimes even more than a man’s penis!

Cunnilingus is a convenient and pleasurable way to reach that elusive clit. Of course if you’re not down for that, “Oh Megan” will teach how to hit the mysterious G-spot too. So if your partner plays hard to get, come to “Oh Megan” to learn the rules of the game.

So to wrap up, if Thanksgiving leftovers just didn’t hit the spot this year and you think candy canes and Hanukkah gelt leave something to be desired, then come get down with “Oh Megan” in the Crane Room tonight. Oral sex is a pleasure that should be embraced, shared and celebrated. That is, of course, assuming that it’s consensual, safe and done well. Forcing or coercing a partner to give oral sex is legally defined as rape. So before you test your partner’s skills learned at our fabulous event, make sure they’re in a giving mood. Oral sex can also still transmit STDs, including HPV, herpes and chlamydia. So if you’re not in a monogamous relationship in which you’ve both been tested, make sure to grab DESIGN BY EMILY COHANE-MANN a condom (Try a flavored one!) or dental dam before over? That’s some really messy clean up. anyone goes down. Fresh out of condoms How about the one where the guy gets or wondering what a dental dam is? Come cum in his beard? Another nasty situa- down to the Women’s Center (the little tion. Clearly, there’s a learning curve and white house behind the Campus Center) it takes some skill to give your partner or visit Health Service and pick some up! the O-face. But oral sex is a good way to And as for the done-well part, you’ll just spice up your routine in the bedroom or have to join us at “Oh Megan” tonight to add to foreplay. For heterosexual couples, learn how. After all, ‘tis the season! it’s a guaranteed no-pregnancy pleasurable experience. And for the 67 percent of women who cannot orgasm from vagi- Alyssa Ursillo is a senior majoring in nal intercourse alone, cunnilingus can women’s studies and community health. be God’s gift to the world. So for all the She is a member of Tufts VOX. from our friend’s (and maybe our own) horror stories that oral sex can sometimes be tricky. Ever hear the one where the guy’s well-endowed member triggers the girl’s gag reflex and she vomits all

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OP-ED JACOB KREIMER | THE SALVADOR

Theme park mania!

I

f I ever work for the people who own Walt Disney World, there is no doubt I’d score a bonus big enough to make former JPMorgan Chase execs sick. The plan is simple: Create the ultimate theme park ride simply and appropriately titled Driving at Night in the Third World (DNTW). It doesn’t sound that catchy, but anyone who has had this experience will feel their sphincters tense a little when they hear about the most terrifying, bada** ride ever to grace America.

Transportation-wise, things seemed in pretty good shape after you finished a weekend checking out the provincial tourist destination, if El Salvador has such things, of Suchitoto — a remnant of El Salvador’s colonial wealth (read: exploitation). The 20-person van you chartered through some sticky networking of our Salvadoran host organization might itself be a good starting point for American visitors. After observing other similar buses in San Salvador, it seems that everybody got the same guidebook to pimping their ride; critical elements include a door that refuses to close unless going 30 miles per hour, at least one window completely obscured by adhesive anime drawings of mostly naked 18-to-24-year-olds and no less than three pictures of a whiter-than-the-Hamptons Jesus with encouraging phrases in Spanish such as “Forgive Us!” and “Christ Bless this Business!” Stickers from PepsiCo and opposing political parties are encouraged.

The cousin of the driver’s last girlfriend will at some point get on the bus, and when you realize you aren’t getting mugged (El Salvador has Central America’s worst crime rate; see last week’s column), you relax a little. Sort of.

But any good ride doesn’t give away all its thrills just when you get on (does this look like the Mad Tea Party ride?) For the first hour or so you have the benefit of sunlight, paved highway lanes and the occasional obeyed traffic signal. The real trick would be figuring out the best way to execute a life-like experience for DNTW riders. Is it best to emulate a torrential downpour with virtual-reality screens and sound effects, or to actually douse the vehicle with highpressure streams of water? How can we make an authentic leak in the roof of the van that seems to hit you every time you get close to falling asleep? Of course, people drive in the rain in the United States too, so there is nothing shocking about the first few minutes of the ride; certainly we need to give people time to adjust. However, driving from a more built-up populous center only gets harder and more daunting as the minutes pass and as you advance to your destination deeper in the mountainous region.

The real fun begins when you have been driving long enough that it is pitch black and you are in a rural-enough area that the paved roads have run out. During these circumstances, it seems it is customary to accelerate around turns and speed over potholes to avoid getting stuck in them.

Occasionally, the driver will stop the bus and get out to check the rear left wheel and assure you that nothing is wrong. Repeat 15 minutes later. As you get farther away from where you came, you will hear whistles coming from people you cannot see.

Sometimes they will come to warn the driver he is about to slam into an iron gate; usually they are followed by U-turns on dirt roads barely wider than the van itself.

How the driver defies physics to execute this will baffle riders and add to the experience. Maps are prohibited on DNTW; asking directions from strangers in the random small town you have arrived in is required.

After all, the best rides are interactive these days. Lucky riders will make it back to their host community sans vomit, though still terrified out of their minds.

Venture capitalists interested should give me a call.

Jacob Kreimer is a junior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at Jacob.Kreimer@tufts.edu.

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of the Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. Op-Ed welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. All material is subject to editorial discretion, and is not guaranteed to appear in The Tufts Daily. All material should be submitted by no later than 1 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication. Material must be submitted via e-mail (oped@tuftsdaily.com) attached in .doc or .docx format. Questions and concerns should be directed to the Op-Ed editors. The opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Tufts Daily itself.

THE TUFTS DAILY

12 CROSSWORD

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Maryland could be surprise of ACC MEN’S NCAA continued from page 15

The three upperclassmen have accounted for almost 60 percent of the Blue Devils’ scoring so far this year.

Duke should get plenty of points from its guards and wings, but this year the Blue Devils are as thin as ever down low. With names like Shelden Williams and Carlos Boozer far-gone memories in the minds of Dukies, seniors Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas will once again be the key frontcourt figures. They are joined this year by freshman Miles Plumlee, who has gotten off to a good start, averaging nine points per game and eight boards.

Aside from an impressive win over Connecticut in Madison Square Garden, Duke has yet to play any upper-echelon talent. And while the ACC may be known as a guard-oriented conference, the Blue Devils will likely run into size problems during league play. Thomas is a steady player but not liable to take over any aspect of a game, while Plumlee is mostly unproven and Zoubek is slow and lacks post moves.

But when conference games kick off, expect Duke to do what it has always done best — move the ball quickly around the perimeter and use defensive lapses to either cut quickly to the basket or kick out for a three. If Duke’s main weakness is size, its primary advantage will be shooting ability, as Scheyer, Singler and Smith can all take over a game from deep.

While it hasn’t gotten off to a great start, one team that may end up atop the ACC along with UNC and Duke is Maryland, which has more total victories over the Tobacco Road rivals than

any other team this decade. Venezuelanborn playmaker Greivis Vasquez tested the NBA draft waters but came back for his senior year and is ready to be the go-to guy for a team that was ousted

by Memphis in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year. Vasquez is getting most of his time at the shooting guard or small forward position, while steady senior Eric Hayes handles most of the point guard duties.

Coach Gary Williams addressed his squad’s size needs by bringing in freshman forwards Jordan Williams and James Padgett. The two have seen plenty of minutes already this year, partly due to the suspension of junior forward Dino Gregory, who will return to action later this month. Padgett and Williams have impressed so far, and will be joined in the paint by senior Landon Milbourne, who plays more like a guard, despite his 6-foot-7 frame.

For all of the strong post players in College Park, Md., one name to watch on the Terps is Sean Mosley, a sophomore guard from Baltimore who is second behind Milbourne with 13.1 points per game. At 6-foot-4, Mosley plays multiple positions and uses his above-average strength and athleticism to get plenty of rebounds and blocks. If the freshmen big men pan out and Vasquez plays like he’s capable of, the Terps should reverse their recent trend of being a bubble team in March.

As is the case almost every year, much can happen between now and the Big Dance. But if the early season contests are any indication, the ACC will be a force to be reckoned with when the brackets are ultimately decided.

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Introduce new Jumbos to the Tufts Experience Innovative and Energetic Leaders Needed to Coordinate Orientation 2010!

Positions in Major Events, Leadership &Training, Academic Programs, and Logistics & Communications (4 Full-Time Paid Summer Positions…June, July, August)

more information &application at: http://studentservices.tufts.edu/orientation or stop by Campus Life in the Campus Center.

THE TUFTS DAILY

14

Thursday, December 3, 2009

SPORTS

Wilfert set to lead distance team in McNamara’s absence

Jumbos hope busy schedule will bring first win of year

WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD

MEN’S BASKETBALL

for us,” senior co-captain Andrea Ferri said. “She’s one of our best distance runners. But we still have a great, wellrounded team, with Amy Wilfert on distance, the sophomore jumpers and a freshman class that’s been working hard throughout the fall.”

“We definitely have a good freshman class coming in, but I think our upperclassmen having an extra year of experience is going to help a lot too,” Morwick added. “We didn’t graduate a lot of girls last year, and that continuity is going to help us as well.”

The Jumbos’ indoor season begins in Maine on Saturday, Dec. 12 at the Bates Pentathlon. Tufts will host its own invitational on Saturday, Jan. 16, as well as the Tufts Pentathlon and a second invitational on Feb. 5-6. But undoubtedly the biggest meet of the season will occur on Feb. 19-20: the New England Div. III Championships, which will be held at Southern Maine.

“Our goal is always to improve,” Jones said. “Winning Div. IIIs, getting a lot of us to nationals — that’s always the goal and I think we can do really well this season.”

continued from page 16

well again this year and make it back to nationals, and I know that’s basically our goal for everyone.”

The Jumbos also return Crane, who won a share of the Sebasteanski Award — which honors the NESCAC’s Most Outstanding Performer in track and field — last spring for her standout efforts in the 100m dash and the long jump. She won conference titles in both events at NESCACs in April and will be looking to make it back to nationals after missing out on the event last season.

Wilfert is coming off an excellent performance during the fall cross country season, which culminated with a 31st place finish at nationals that earned her All-American honors, and will lead the Jumbos’ distance unit. With all the returning talent, it’s not hard to see why optimism abounds heading into the upcoming campaign, even though the team will be without McNamara, who will miss the season while recovering from surgery.

“Not having Stephanie is a big loss

continued from page 16

a game where everything just clicks into place and everything’s working,” Galvin said. “But we just haven’t had that moment. Hopefully it will come soon.”

“We just didn’t execute offensively,” Pierce added. “We didn’t always get good shots, we weren’t always listening as a team to the plays our coach was calling and we were forcing to the basket. We weren’t always protecting the ball and had some bad turnovers.

You put those things together and you let a team beat us that shouldn’t beat us.”

In spite of the loss, Pierce put up his usual solid numbers, finishing 11-of16 from the floor for a game-high 23 points. The showing helped bring his career total to 1,505 points, making him the fifth Jumbo to pass the 1,500 mark and fifth-leading scorer in program history.

Tufts will have plenty of chances to find a way to set things right and potentially pick up a win in the coming week, which brings three games in

four days. The schedule doesn’t leave much practice time for the recovering Jumbos as they prepare to face Keene State tonight. Then Tufts will take on Babson and the winner of the Salem State-Brandeis matchup in the inaugural Big Four Challenge Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.

“Obviously we have to work through these things during the games because of our upcoming schedule,” Galvin said. “There’s just not a lot of time to practice, but I think the good thing about playing this many games in such a short period of time is that you can’t focus on the negative stuff — you just have to keep going and move on.

We just want to be playing well going into the break so we can come back knowing what we have to do when we start league play.”

“Our schedule is a good thing and a bad thing,” Pierce said. “It’s going to get the taste of the start of the season out of our mouths, but we just haven’t been playing good basketball like we know how to play. 0-4 is as low as you can be, so we need to get a win in these next games.”

Editors' Challenge | Week 13 his busy schedule of getting sweaty in a Wendy’s bathroom to go an incredible 14-2 last week, nailing, among others, the Philadelphia game. We’ll see if his D.A.V.E. system for making picks serves him as well as it has in the coming weeks.

Lurking behind Heck at 119-57 is Alex “Carmen” Prewitt, who could sneak back into things like a Phillies fan through the secret passageway into Citizens Bank Park. Sapna “Sweet Dee” Bansil is next, four games behind first place at 118-58 and hunting the next most dangerous prey after man — the Ed’s Challenge lead.

Coming in at eighth place, with about as much of a chance at finishing on top as Charlie has at getting with The Waitress, is Ethan “Frank Reynolds” Landy, who went an abysmal 8-8 last week. Landy, now an outcast on the level of the Aluminum Monster or Fatty McGoo, is perhaps in need of an intervention for his increasingly preposterous upset picks.

Brining up the rear, Mike “Ryan & Liam McPoyle” Spera is about as useful as kitten mittens, as he is 10 games back of first at 112-64. Featured in the selection crew this week is Robin “The Waitress” Carol, who had free time after editing her two articles to join in on the fun.

It was another sunny week for the sports editors. Picking members saw some of their records explode, and everyone has surpassed the 110-win plateau. Due to no production last week, you’ll just have to trust us that we tallied up the records correctly. Now, in the home stretch, it appears to be an incredibly tight race for first place.

Padding his stranglehold on first place was Evan “Rickety Cricket” Cooper, who went a solid 11-5 in Week 13 to move up to 122-54 overall. But, like finding a dumpster baby or getting held hostage, the standings are always unpredictable. The wildcard, Jeremy “Charlie Kelly” Greenhouse, has enjoyed a meteoric rise up to first place, appearing to simultaneously solve the North Korea situation as well as the issue of correctly selecting games.

As awesome as Greenman and with glamour muscles to be proud of, Phil “Mac” Dear, the defending champion, is tied for first after going 12-4. With him is Steve “The Lawyer” Smith, whose picks so far have been as sweet as wine in a can. As Dayman is the master of karate, so too are these four the masters of picking.

One game behind the gang of four is Dave “Dennis Reynolds” Heck, taking time out from OVERALL RECORD LAST WEEK

Evan 122-54 11-5

Jeremy 122-54 13-3

Phil 122-54 12-4

Steve 122-54 11-5

Dave 121-55 14-2

Alex 119-57 12-4

Sapna 118-58 12-4

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

NY Jets Philadelphia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Carolina Houston Indianapolis Denver New England Pittsburgh San Diego Dallas San Francisco Minnesota Green Bay

NY Jets Philadelphia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Carolina Jacksonville Indianapolis Denver New England Pittsburgh San Diego Dallas San Francisco Minnesota Baltimore

Buffalo Philadelphia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Tampa Bay Houston Indianapolis Denver New England Pittsburgh San Diego Dallas San Francisco Minnesota Baltimore

Buffalo Philadelphia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Carolina Houston Indianapolis Denver New England Pittsburgh San Diego NY Giants San Francisco Minnesota Green Bay

Buffalo Philadelphia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Carolina Houston Indianapolis Denver New England Pittsburgh San Diego NY Giants San Francisco Minnesota Baltimore

Buffalo Philadelphia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Carolina Jacksonville Indianapolis Kansas City Miami Pittsburgh San Diego NY Giants Seattle Minnesota Baltimore

NY Jets Philadlephia Chicago Cincinnati New Orleans Carolina Houston Indianapolis Kansas City New England Pittsburgh San Diego NY Giants San Francisco Minnesota Green Bay

STATISTICS | STANDINGS Men's Basketball

Women's Basketball

Ice Hockey

(0-4, 0-0 NESCAC)

(3-1, 0-0 NESCAC)

(2-2-1, 0-0-1 NESCAC/ECAC East)

NESCAC

L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

OVERALL

W 3 3 3 3 1 5 2 0 2 5

L 0 1 1 0 3 0 2 4 1 0

Individual Statistics PPG Jon Pierce 17.0 Dave Beyel 14.5 Dan Cook 7.8 S. Anderson 7.8 Alex Goldfarb 5.3 Sam Mason 2.0 Tom Selby 2.0 Bryan Lowry 1.8 Matt Galvin 1.0 James Long 0.5 M Lanchantin 0.3 Reed Morgan 0.0 Team

RPG 7.0 5.0 3.8 3.3 2.3 2.5 2.8 1.0 0.8 1.8 1.0 0.0

APG 1.0 0.8 0.3 0.5 1.5 0.5 0.0 0.3 4.8 0.8 0.0 1.0

60.5 34.5 10.8

NESCAC

W Amherst 0 Bates 0 Bowdoin 0 Colby 0 Conn. Coll. 0 Middlebury 0 Trinity 0 Tufts 0 Wesleyan 0 Williams 0

L 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

L 0 2 0 0 2 3 1 1 1 1

Individual Statistics PPG Julia Baily 19.0 Colleen Hart 17.6 Kate Barnosky 10.0 T. Kornegay 9.8 Vanessa Miller 5.3 Lindsay Weiner 3.0 S. Robinson 2.0 Katie Wholey 2.0 Sarah Nolet 2.0 D. Collins 1.5 Bre Dufault 1.5 Samantha Tye 1.0 Team

NESCAC

OVERALL

W 4 2 4 3 2 1 3 4 2 4

RPG 10.8 4.6 7.4 5.8 3.4 0.8 0.8 1.0 0.7 1.5 1.2 0.8

Mike 112-64 13-3

NY Jets Buffalo Philadelphia Philadelphia Chicago Chicago Cincinnati Cincinnati Washington New Orleans Tampa Bay Carolina Houston Jacksonville Tennessee Indianapolis Denver Denver New England New England Pittsburgh Pittsburgh San Diego San Diego Dallas Dallas Seattle San Francisco Minnesota Minnesota Baltimore Baltimore

GUEST Robin Carol NY Jets Philadelphia Chicago Detroit Washington Carolina Jacksonville Indianapolis Denver New England Pittsburgh San Diego NY Giants Seattle Minnesota Green Bay

SCHEDULE | Dec. 3 - Dec. 7 THU

W Amherst 0 Bates 0 Bowdoin 0 Colby 0 Conn. Coll. 0 Middlebury 0 Trinity 0 Tufts 0 Wesleyan 0 Williams 0

Ethan 115-61 8-8

APG 0.4 0.4 2.4 2.6 2.4 0.8 0.0 0.5 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.8

72.0 42.0 12.4

W Bowdoin 2 Williams 2 Trinity 2 Middlebury 1 Amherst 1 Hamilton 1 Tufts 0 Colby 0 Wesleyan 0 Conn. Coll. 0

L 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 2 2 2

Men’s Basketball

FRI

vs. Keene St. 7 p.m.

OVERALL

T W L T 0 3 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 3 1 0 1 2 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 2 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 1 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 4 0

Individual Statistics Pts. 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 45

Zach Diaco Conor Pieri Tom Derosa Matt Amico Mike Vitale Dylan Cooper Trevor John Lindsay Walker Dylan Plimmer Doug Wilson Team

G 3 1 1 2 1 3 2 1 1 0 16

A 2 4 4 2 3 0 1 2 2 3 29

Goalkeeping Scott Barchard

S 207

GA S % 12 .945

Team

207

13 .941

SAT

SUN

vs. Babson Big Four Challenge 7 p.m.

vs. Salem St./ Brandeis Big Four Challenge 7 p.m.

Women’s Basketball

at Colby-Sawyer 2:00 p.m.

Ice Hockey

at New England at Saint Anselm College 3 p.m.

7 p.m.

Men’s Swimming and Diving

at MIT Invitational 6:30 p.m.

at MIT Invitational 11:00 a.m.

Women’s Swimming and Diving

at MIT Invitational 7:00 p.m.

at MIT Invitational 11:00 a.m.

Men’s Indoor Track and Field Women’s Indoor Track and Field at MIT 10:30am vs. BU at MIT 12:00 pm

Men’s Squash

Women’s Squash

vs. Wellesley (at Dana Hall) 7 p.m.

vs. Cornell (at Harvard) 2:00 p.m.

MON

at Wheaton 7:00 p.m.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

THE TUFTS DAILY

15

SPORTS

INSIDE MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Defending champ Tar Heels lead stacked ACC BY

Do not disturb

BEN WALDRON

Senior Staff Writer

When the North Carolina Tar Heels upended Big 10 heavyweight Michigan State on Tuesday night for the third time in a year, one thing was clear to college basketball fans: The ACC is loaded.

That starts in Chapel Hill, where after a national championship in April, coach Roy Williams figures to have established a pretty sound strategy year in and year out.

This season, the Heels aren’t rebuilding, they’re reloading. With the loss of Ty Lawson, Danny Green, Wayne Ellington and of course Tyler Hansbrough, UNC has only three upperclassmen left on its roster. Yet the Tar Heels have still started out the season 7-1 and sit at No. 11 in the latest AP Poll, though they are sure to move up after their huge win over the Spartans this week.

Senior forward Deon Thompson is poised for a standout year after three seasons of being a role player on a team full of future pros. He is joined in the paint by sophomores Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller, the former having dropped a career-high 22 points on Tuesday.

Senior wing Marcus Ginyard is the go-to scorer in the backcourt, but sophomore guard Larry Drew II has emerged as a more-than-suitable replacement for Lawson at the point. Through eight games this year, the California native has averaged 6.6 assists per game and has kicked in nine points per contest.

But the Tar Heels aren’t the only ones having a stellar start to the campaign.

Down the road in Durham, the Duke Blue Devils will try to turn it around after a couple of relatively disappointing seasons. With do-it-all guard Gerald Henderson gone to the NBA and chief floor-slapper Greg Paulus off slinging passes at Syracuse, the onus is on the big three of senior Jon Scheyer and juniors Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. see MEN’S NCAA, page 13

RORY PARKS | THE LONG-SUFFERING SPORTS FAN

A

MCT

The Duke Blue Devils will be relying on junior Kyle Singler, pictured above, as well as classmate Nolan Smith and senior Jon Scheyer to be the team’s primary scorers.

Huskies’ schedule contains matchups with nation’s best WOMEN’S NCAA continued from page 16

MCT

Head coach Geno Auriemma only speaks the language of winning at UConn, as the Huskies have won 45 in a row.

Not surprisingly, the Huskies are unanimously ranked atop the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll. The team is led by an unparalleled starting five, which includes decorated junior All-American forward Maya Moore and senior center Tina Charles, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2009 Final Four. Together, that duo highlights an efficient attack that has logged a 56.1 field-goal percentage so far this season, as well as a stifling defense, which has held opponents to just 30.3 percent shooting from the floor. The Huskies have dominated the boards 270-149, stolen 80 balls and tallied 132 assists.

Put all of that together, and it’s not surprising that Auriemma’s bunch has more than doubled-up its opponents on the scoreboard, winning by an average score of 90-43.

And there’s no end in sight for UConn, at least until the No. 2-ranked Stanford Cardinal come to Hartford on Dec. 23. If the Huskies can top Tara Vanderveer’s also-undefeated squad, only three true threats to the Huskies’ perfection will remain on their regular-season schedule. Those will come on Jan. 9 against No. 4-ranked North Carolina and on Jan. 16 and Mar. 1 — Connecticut’s two meetings with No. 5 Notre Dame.

Fine recruiting efforts — aided significantly by the professional success of Auriemma’s former players, such as Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird — have once again given UConn a star-studded lineup that makes a 30-0 regular season and a run at its seventh national championship distinct possibilities.

As long as the six-time Naismith Coach of the Year is calling the shots from the Connecticut bench, Auriemma’s Huskies figure to be a mainstay in the NCAA’s elite.

s much as I might hate to admit it, I’m one of those people who would be easily overwhelmed by meeting a celebrity. If, say, Carrie Underwood approached me and asked me a question — which I’m fairly certain happened in my dream last night — I imagine I would turn into a drooling, blithering idiot. I mean, I was pretty star-struck when I saw David Hyde Pierce in “Spamalot.”

So when my friends and family become absorbed in celebrity culture and when E! suddenly turns into the most popular channel in my house, I try to understand — after all, it’s very easy to get hooked.

Sometimes, though, our fascination with actors and athletes goes too far.

Way too far. For example, I have always been opposed to the very existence of the paparazzi, which puts innocent lives in jeopardy every day.

I am also opposed to the recent circus surrounding Tiger Woods. Yes, I know he’s Tiger Woods. And I’m well aware that an athlete of his caliber — or anyone, for that matter — doesn’t often back his car into a tree at 2:25 in the morning.

But what I can’t understand is why this has become such a big deal to us.

It seems obvious to me that there is something going on between Tiger and his wife, Elin, and I’m more than willing to let it go at that.

Certain things, like over-the-top media attention, come with the territory of being a celebrity. A golfer who has won pretty much every golfing competition known to man and who has established himself as one of the greatest athletes of all time knows that his every move is going to be publicly scrutinized. But maybe we should back off just a bit.

The fact that Tiger can hit a ball 250 yards without trying doesn’t mean he can handle family issues and a turbulent home life any better than the rest of us. Rumors are beginning to get out of hand — I recently heard that this whole ordeal was part of a kinky fantasy shared by Tiger and Elin — and it would be a shame to let them tarnish his image.

He may, of course, be in the wrong.

Maybe he really was leaving his house to rendezvous with a mistress, as numerous outlets have reported. But still, it’s a private issue that athletes and non-athletes alike would want to keep private and we should respect that.

I felt the same way when A-Rod was spotted with that mysterious blonde woman some time ago. While I welcome any additional excuse to hate any member of the Yankees, Red Sox or Patriots, the way that story got blown out of proportion was borderline offensive. And don’t even get me started on that “A-Rod as a centaur” business. Is it strange that he fantasizes about himself with a tail and cloven hooves?

Yeah, that’s pretty freaking bizarre, and knowing what I do about A-Rod, he was probably thrilled by the attention he received from it. But I always wondered who found out about the painting and how. As amusing as it might be, particularly in comparison to the Tiger Woods ordeal, it still seems like a blatant and unwarranted violation of privacy.

Like I said, celebrities, athletes and their escapades are just as fascinating to me as they are to most everyone else. And the lack of a true personal life seems a small price to pay for the lifestyle they can enjoy. But sometimes we just need to leave these people alone.

Tell your friends you finally outdrove Tiger Woods, and let that be the end of it.

Rory Parks is a senior majoring in international relations and Spanish. He can be reached at Rory.Parks@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Inside Men’s College Basketball 15 The Long-Suffering Sports Fan15 Eds’ Challenge 14

tuftsdaily.com

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Tufts can’t break into win column, falls to Lesley 57-55 Lynx stage second-half comeback, hit late three to upset Jumbos in final seconds BY

CLAIRE KEMP

Daily Staff Writer

Almost one year ago, the men’s basketball team handily defeated the Lesley University Lynx 92-52 in their MEN’S BASKETBALL (0-4, 0-0 NESCAC) at Cambridge, Mass., Tuesday Tufts Lesley

33 28

22 — 55 28 — 57

most lopsided victory since 1998. After the game, coach Bob Sheldon speculated that Tufts wouldn’t be facing Lesley anymore in the future because the squad saw “better competition in practice.”

But the Lynx found their way onto the Jumbos’ schedule again this year, and unfortunately for Tufts, the rematch on Tuesday ended very differently. The Jumbos fell to Lesley 57-55 in a shocking upset and dropped to 0-4 in nonleague play, their worst start to a season in over 10 years.

Lesley sophomore Shawn Simmons hit a backbreaking three-pointer to give the Lynx the final lead with 14 seconds remaining. Tufts had a chance to tie the score up at 57 and send it to overtime on a late fast break opportunity, but Lesley junior center Jesus Trejo swatted away junior forward Sam Mason’s layup attempt and any hopes of the Jumbos getting their first win.

Tufts held the lead consistently throughout the first half, going up by

as many as 11 points on the Lynx. Led by two of its senior tri-captains — Jon Pierce, who scored 12 points in the period, and Dan Cook, who added 11 of his own — Tufts shot 45.5 percent in the first period and enjoyed a 33-28 advantage at halftime. However, the Jumbos negated their shooting efficiency with eight turnovers, and defensive mistakes allowed the Lynx to tally 12 points from free throws.

“Going into the half up by five is not what we wanted,” said junior guard Matt Galvin, who had 10 assists in his 34 minutes of play. “We wanted a bigger lead. And then, the second half we just had the same problem we’ve had all year: not getting points when we need them.

“I think the first half of the first half we played alright,” Galvin continued.

“But even then our shot selection was not as good as we would like. They pressed us all game and we got through their press all game pretty easily, but once we got to half court we really struggled. They also went 19-24 from the free throw line. If you take away even half of those points, we win the game.”

In the second half, ball protection and rebounding were issues for the Jumbos, who surrendered 15 points off 11 turnovers and were outrebounded 16-10. Again, fouls hurt Tufts, as Lesley continued to shoot well from the line and finished at 79.2 percent, far above their average coming into the game.

“Usually we have that moment in

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

see MEN’S BASKETBALL, page 14

Senior forward Dave Beyel and the men’s basketball team suffered a disappointing loss on Tuesday to Lesley, a team the Jumbos trampled by 40 points last year.

WOMEN’S TRACK AND FIELD

INSIDE WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Loaded Jumbos expecting big winter Auriemma solidifying place in Div. I history BY

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

Balance is the key to many things, and heading into the upcoming indoor season, it is the women’s track team’s greatest asset. The Jumbos hope their ability to perform well in just about every event will lead to their second New England Div. III title in three years.

“That’s definitely the strength of this team — that we’re balanced,” coach Kristen Morwick said. “We also have a little more depth than last year, and I think that will help us do better. That’s always the goal: to do better than the previous year.”

“We won the [New England] Div. III Championships my sophomore year,” senior Logan Crane said. “That’s definitely our biggest goal for this season, because we finished [third] there last year and we know we can do better as a team this year.”

Last season was another banner campaign for Morwick’s team. The Jumbos were the top-ranked team in the inaugural U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Div. III rankings, and at last March’s NCAA championships they shined in a variety of events, placing fifth in a pool of the best teams from across the country. It was Tufts’ second straight finish in the top 10 at the competition, and this year it hopes to replicate, or perhaps even improve upon, that effort.

The distance medley relay

700 wins another feather in his cap BY

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

The NESCAC’s co-Most Outstanding Performer last season, senior Logan Crane will bolster the Jumbos’ ranks this year as they look to make a run at another Div. III title. team of then-sophomores Amy Wilfert and Stephanie McNamara and then-seniors Halsey Stebbins and Jackie Ferry took home Tufts’ second consecutive Div. III national title in the event and the 15th overall single-event crown in the program’s history.

Additionally, then-freshmen

Nakeisha Jones made an excellent first impression, finishing fourth in the triple jump in her first nationals appearance and earning All-American status.

“Making nationals last year in my first year was great,” Jones said. “I hope to do really see WOMEN’S TRACK & FIELD, page 14

After a four-year championship drought, uncharacteristic of their dominance of women’s college basketball during the tenure of head coach Geno Auriemma, the UConn Huskies returned to the top of the NCAA women’s basketball world with a perfect 2008-09 season.

So far this fall, they’ve picked up exactly where they left off, and Auriemma is on his way to rewriting the record books.

When Auriemma became the head coach of the Huskies back in 1985, he took over a middling program that was struggling to find its mettle. UConn had never earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament, let alone a national championship. The Huskies finished an uninspiring 12-15 in Auriemma’s first year on the job, 14-13 in his second and 17-11 in his third.

But since then, they’ve been on a remarkable roll.

The Huskies made their NCAA Tournament debut during the 1988-89 season, and although UConn bowed out in the first round that year, it has appeared in every Big Dance since and made the Sweet 16 in every tourney since 1993. UConn’s first Final Four appearance came

in 1991, and Auriemma’s Huskies struck gold for the first time with a perfect 35-0 season and their first national championship in 1995.

Years have passed and the players have changed, but the newfound tradition of winning at UConn has never wavered. And that’s largely thanks to Auriemma, who on Friday became the 11th coach in Div. I history to notch 700 career victories.

In his 24 years at the helm of the Huskies, Auriemma has won six national championships — including four in five years from 2000 to 2004 — posted an unprecedented 14 30-win seasons and compiled the best winning percentage of any active NCAA coach (.852). The latter mark is second only to that of the legendary Leon Barmore, who coached Louisiana Tech from 1982 to 2002, as Auriemma has not endured a losing season since his first year on the job.

This year’s UConn squad will look to turn in a fourth perfect season for their 2006 Hall of Fame-inductee coach, and they’re off to a 6-0 start.

Auriemma’s team has dominated its opponents over the past year and change en route to the nation’s longest active winning streak, which stands at 45 games. see WOMEN’S NCAA, page 15