2009-12-08

Page 1

THE TUFTS DAILY

Sunny 41/31

Tufts ranks as one of Kiplinger’s ‘best values’ BY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2009

VOLUME LVIII, NUMBER 59

HARRISON JACOBS

Daily Editorial Board

Even as Tufts takes the top spot as the priciest college in Massachusetts, students may not be completely down for the count. Finance magazine Kiplinger ranked Tufts No. 22 on its list of best values in private universities. The university took the third spot for overall college value in Massachusetts in the rankings, which the magazine released in early November. Kiplinger rated the overall value of universities based on their quality and financial affordability, considering factors like the school’s overall

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Today’s special election not widely known, despite costs

cost and cost after need-based aid. Jane Bennett Clark, senior associate editor at Kiplinger, explained that the magazine drew information from a number of areas, initially gathering information from Peterson’s, a company that specializes in test preparation and offers searchable databases on colleges and financial aid. With this information, she told the Daily that the magazine sorted schools based on several “quality measures,” including admission rates, number of incoming freshmen, graduation rate and faculty-student ratio. “Once we have culled rankings from see BEST VALUE, page 2

BY

MATT REPKA

Daily Editorial Board

Barring unforeseen circumstances, today’s special Democratic primary election will determine Massachusetts’ newest U.S. senator. On a more local level, Somerville is facing unexpected costs for an election that has garnered little interest among Massachusetts residents. Four Democratic challengers are seeking the seat vacated by the late Ted Kennedy: Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley; U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano; Alan Khazei, founder of the youth service organization City Year; and businessman and Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca.

Capuano represents Massachusetts’ 8th district, which includes Somerville and Cambridge. Somerville will have to pay approximately $130,000 to facilitate the special primary and general elections, according to the Somerville Journal. A Nov. 22 University of New Hampshire poll of 537 likely Democratic voters in Massachusetts showed Coakley leading the pack with 43 percent. Capuano, the next-closest challenger, was 21 points behind. Pagliuca commanded just 15 percent, and Khazei was in a distant fourth with six percent. But Capuano recently received the Boston Herald’s endorsement, while the Boston see ELECTION, page 2

Harvard set to employ wind energy for campuses by 2010 BY SMRITI

CHOUDHURY

Daily Staff Writer

Wind blowing across Maine will soon power 10 percent of Harvard University’s campuses in Cambridge and Allston, if all goes according to the school’s plans. Harvard on Nov. 2 made a 15-year agreement to purchase wind power from the Bostonbased company First Wind, continuing the college’s pursuit of eco-friendly energy solutions. The deal will make Harvard the largest institutional buyer of wind power in New England.

Harvard’s new power source will come from First Wind’s planned facility, known as Stetson II, located near Danforth, Maine. It is scheduled to begin operations by mid-2010 and will feature 17 General Electric turbines. Construction began on the facility on Nov. 23. Stetson II is an extension of the Stetson I facility, which was completed in January. When Stetson II is completed, the two power arrays will form the “largest operational utility-scale wind farm in see WIND, page 2

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts School of Medicine readjusted its curriculum to focus more on geriatric care in order to meet the needs of a growing elderly population.

Med school focusing more on elderly BY

MONICA MOWERY Daily Staff Writer

A growing elderly population has led to an increased need for doctors with adequate training in treating seniors, and a revamped curriculum at Tufts School of Medicine attempts to address this rise in demand. First-year medical students this semester took a course that, for the first time, included a component on medical interviews in both hospital and residential settings. This is part of an increased focus on geriatric patients throughout the curriculum. A medical-school course on patient care has been taught at the Tufts medical school for almost 15 years, but has focused on the doctor-patient relationship only in the hospital setting. This semester marked the first time students interviewed patients outside of the hospital, according to course director Wayne Altman, an associate professor of family medicine.

Part of an 11-week course called “Foundations of Patient Care,” the readjusted approach to medical interviewing came about in the context of a redesign of the School of Medicine’s four-year curriculum. “In medicine, we get caught up in being disease-focused; we teach about the disease of cancer, of heart disease, and forget that the patient who has heart disease is of critical importance,” Altman said. Incorporating interviewing early in medical students’ training could improve doctorpatient relationships in the future, Altman said. Jody Schindelheim, a clinical professor of psychiatry who leads the medical-interviewing part of the course, said that it gives students an appreciation for the elderly and is part of an effort to train doctors for future trends in medicine. The need for doctors who are skilled at working with older patients is also widely recognized by those out-

side of the medical community. “I hope that exposing [medical students] early will get more of them interested in geriatrics,” said Molly Cohen-Osher, site director at Brighton’s Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE). Students conducted their “at home” interviews with JCHE residents. These accounted for half of the students’ interviews; the other half were conducted with hospitalized patients. Interviewing patients in their homes builds strong relationships between students and the people they care for, Schindelheim said. “Hearing the life stories of people who have had a lot of life experience proves to be very inspiring to the medical students, as is the opportunity for the elderly patients to tell their stories,” he said. Faculty felt students needed to spend more time with patients

Inside this issue

ALEXANDRA LACAYO/TUFTS DAILY

see INTERVIEWING, page 2

Harvard plans to use wind power from Maine to meet 10 percent of the university’s electricity needs.

Today’s Sections

A Tufts alumna draws on her college experiences to challenge cultural stereotypes in her writing.

The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams put on strong performances at an invitational over the weekend.

see ARTS, page 5

see SPORTS, page 9

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 6

Op-Ed Sports Classifieds Comics

7 9 10 11


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