2010-03-02

THE TUFTS DAILY

Snow 37/31

TUFTSDAILY.COM

TUESDAY, MARCH 2, 2010

VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 22

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Students in Chile safe, Tufts program slightly delayed

BY JENNY

WHITE

Daily Editorial Board

TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY

The Senate’s proposal would have granted students additional credit for courses with mandatory labs.

Senate proposal to add credit for labs not well received BY

BRENT YARNELL

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate’s recommendation that science departments in the School of Arts and Sciences award an additional half credit for courses with mandatory laboratory sections has been met with a negative response from administrators.

The Senate’s resolution, passed on Feb. 21, called on departments to consider adopting a model in which the lecture section of a course would count for one credit and the co-requisite lab section would count for an additional half credit if it lasts at least two-and-a-half hours.

TCU Associate Treasurer Kate de Klerk, a sophomore who authored the resolution, explained that this initiative was created with the hope of granting students proper recognition for their work.

“Students need to be rewarded for what they do,” de Klerk said. “Whether that’s spending five or six additional hours on these labs, then it seems to me slightly unfair that that’s not being recognized.”

This same sentiment was noted in the resolution, which cited the fact that that lab sections often involve an additional two-and-a-half hours of in-class time, the amount of time usually dedicated to a full credit course.

De Klerk last week champisee LABS, page 2

In the wake of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that early Saturday morning shook the central coast of Chile, university officials have received word that all Tufts students studying there are safe.

“By Saturday night, we had gotten in contact with all the students down there,” Sheila Bayne, associate dean of programs abroad, said. “There are six students starting the Tufts-in-Chile and twelve students in four different nonTufts programs, and all are accounted for.”

Although unexpected earthquakes and tremors are not a rare occurrence in Chile, this was the worst the country had seen in decades.

The Tufts-in-Chile program is located in the heart of Santiago, Chile’s capital city situated in the central region of the coastal country.

Although the brunt of damage caused by the earthquake was experienced further south, Santiago has still been significantly affected by the quake.

“Only 13 people in Santiago have died, which is terrible, but still those are low numbers compared to the [723] in the total death toll,” junior Gabrielle Bills, who is spending the whole year in Chile through the Tufts program, said. “But still, bridges, buildings are damaged, and water and power have been down for two days.”

CARLOS VARELA, CC

Chile has been devastated by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake.

Bills, who is currently in the United States for winter break, was scheduled to fly back to Santiago on Sunday, just in time for the start of the spring semester, which was scheduled to begin with an orientation on March 1 and classes on March 3. Her flight, however, was canceled because the Chilean government has halted all flight activity at the country’s airports.

She also noted that onground travel in Chile has been disrupted. “There are also transportation problems getting there,” Bills said.

“They’re telling people not to drive near the airport for security reasons.”

Bayne explained that the Tufts-in-Chile program is still

going ahead as it normally would, just a few days later.

“Things are going to be a bit delayed,” she said. “From what I hear, electricity is being delayed, but otherwise the program is set to proceed.”

Bills added that she managed to reschedule a flight for next Monday, which is when classes will begin.

Orientation is set to commence on Thursday.

Junior Charles Skold, who spent last semester on the Tufts-in-Chile program, said that to his knowledge, the campus remained intact.

“We haven’t heard that there was any structural damage to the Tufts-in-Chile camsee CHILE, page 2

Boston Public Library considers branch closures, service cuts

BY JENNY

WHITE

Daily Editorial Board

The Boston Public Library (BPL) faces the prospect of closing eight to 10 of its branch locations and cutting services because the state of Massachusetts and City of Boston are cutting funding for the library by as much as $3.6 million in fiscal year 2011.

Founded in 1848, the BPL is the nation’s oldest publicly supported library. The library has two central locations in Boston, a public loan library and a research library, and consists of 26 branch locations dispersed throughout different Boston neighborhoods, according to director of the Tisch Library Jo-Ann Michalak.

The city of Boston in the 2010 fiscal year provided 72.2 percent of the BPL’s funding while the state of Massachusetts accounted for 9.8 percent of its annual funding.

According to the BPL’s operating budget overview released to the public, the state’s contribution in fiscal year 2011 is estimated to decline by 40 percent or $1.6 million, while the city’s contribution is expected to see a one percent drop, amounting to $300,000.

These estimates led to a total revenue

prediction of $38.7 million, which would fall short of the predicted $42.2 million maintenance budget.

In response to this, the library’s Board of Trustees on Feb. 17 held a meeting to discuss budget options to ensure that in the upcoming year the maintenance budget can match available finances. All discussions at the meeting were strictly preliminary, according to Gina Perille, the communications manager at the BPL. The closure of approximately a third of the BPL network is one of the options being considered to counteract the expected funding reductions.

The Board of Trustees is also considering whether slashing hours and operating days at each branch, perhaps down to only three days per week, would be preferable in terms of continuing to serve the communities that use the libraries as resources.

“Now that [BPL] President [Amy] Ryan has direction from the Board in terms of continuing to examine options, focusing on criteria on the consolidation of service points is a high priority for the Boston Public Library,” Perille said in an e-mail to the Daily.

Other options under review by the Board of Trustees to manage the bleak budget outlook for the coming year include cut-

Inside this issue

ALEXANDRA LACAYO/TUFTS DAILY

The Boston Public Library is facing tough budget decisions due to funding cuts. ting back on a number library services.

“The preliminary funding numbers indicate that the BPL may have to reduce — but not altogether eliminate — statefunded services such as interlibrary loan,

reference and research services and the procurement of electronic databases,” she said. see LIBRARY, page 2

Today’s Sections

Despite rising costs, more students interested in medical school.

Women’s basketball team receives NCAA bid.

see FEATURES, page 3

see SPORTS, back

News Features Arts & Living Comics

1 3 5 7

Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Classifieds Sports

8 9 11 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

NEWS

Administrators feel current lab credit policy is adequate

Police Briefs

LABS

LOCK OUT LOCKS IN POLICE ATTENTION Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers at 6:09 p.m. on Feb. 24 responded to a call from a student who had been locked out of his room.

Upon arrival to let the student into his room, the officer noticed bags of what appeared to be marijuana in plain view inside the room. After admitting that the bags did contain marijuana, the student handed over more drugs that he had in his possession.

TUPD has yet to determine what specific drugs the students possessed in the bags but will continue investigating the situation.

I’LL CHARGE THE $5 FOOTLONG PLEASE TUPD at 2:50 p.m. on Feb. 25 received a call from a student reporting the theft of his credit card, which he had last used on Feb. 23.

The thief had since then used the card at several locations, particularly in Davis Square. The card had been used at Subway, Tedeschi Food Shops and several other businesses in Boston.

“We do have some leads on it, but it’s still under investigation,” TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy said.

— Compiled by Corinne Segal

An interactive map is available at tuftsdaily.com

continued from page 1

oned the Senate’s recommendations in meetings with the chairs of the science departments, but found that they were largely unreceptive towards the proposed changes.

“I met with all the science department heads and none of them were super excited about what I was doing,” she said.

The main reason for this, de Klerk noted, was that the existing lab policy had already been well thought out by administrators and undergoes regular review.

“I think I certainly ruffled some feathers there, and that’s totally understandable because they put a lot of time and effort and thought into these polices … and I see their commitment to the students,” she said.

Following discussions with the department chairs, de Klerk also decided that the resolution’s recommendations should apply mostly to biology courses rather than physics and chemistry courses, whose labs generally do not exceed two hours.

Explaining his support for the proposal, TCU Senator Dan Pasternack, a junior who previously served as treasurer for the Tufts Pre-Medical Society, noted that courses with mandatory labs require a greater time commitment and are often more demanding than those without.

“If you want to have a lighter schedule knowing that you’re taking such a demanding course load, then you wouldn’t have to take more classes because you have that extra credit,” he said.

De Klerk added that because the science course counts as one credit, some students might underestimate the commitment of the class and take on a greater workload than they can handle.

Adding the extra half credit, she said, could mitigate this by pushing some students over the 5.5 credit limit, forcing them to petition to their deans in order to take more classes.

Associate Professor Juliet Fuhrman, chair of the Department of Biology, however, feels that the issue of students unknowingly taking on overwhelming workloads has not been significant.

“The students that we see pretty much know what they’re getting into,” she said Fuhrman added that advisors to biology and pre-med students do a good job informing students about the workload involved in each class and that a wide variety of non-lab classes are available to non-majors.

“If a non-major student were to take that course, they might underestimate it, but it would be one of many courses they would have for fulfilling their science distribution,” she said. “All of our science departments have a large number of offerings that might be better directed for students who are nonmajors.”

De Klerk found in her conversations with deans at other Boston-area schools that many of them offer additional credit for co-requisite lab classes.

She cited Brandeis University as one of the schools that moved from a system resembling Tufts’ to one like the system de Klerk was proposing.

Fuhrman said, however, that Tufts’

policy was on par with that of its peer institutions. She explained that Tufts awards credit per course instead of other schools’ policy of granting credit based on class hours. Lab sections thus do not get credit because they are not a separate course.

“Whereas you spend an extra three hours in the laboratory, that reinforces the rest of the course,” she said.

Fuhrman added that comparable work in a humanities course would be a research project or final paper.

Pasternack also raised one possible drawback to adding credit for labs, noting that it could adversely affect a student’s transcript. In the foundational Biology 13 course, “Cells and Organisms,” lab participation makes up 23 percent of the grade. Adding a separate half credit for the class would increase the weight of the lab grade on the transcript.

Likewise, Fuhrman noted that splitting the course credit could be damaging for the student, leading to a lower grade for the lecture section.

“If a medical admissions committee is looking at a course of organic chemistry and they see the great grade in the lab and the not-so-great grade in the lecture course, I know what’s going to catch their eye,” she said.

Howe v e r, f re s h m a n Pa r s a Shahbodaghi, who is taking Biology 13, echoed the senators, noting the extensive work that lab sections require.

“The work people put into [the lab portion of Biology 13], studying for quizzes each week, writing argument papers, writing two lab reports … it’s a course unto itself,” Shahbodaghi said.

State and city cut funding for Boston Public Library LIBRARY continued from page 1

Perille stressed that all options are being closely studied, and the board on March 9 will deliver a further report.

BPL is part of the Boston Library Consortium, of which Tufts’ libraries are also members. These potential service cutbacks would also have an impact on partner libraries like Tufts.

“I know that they are also reviewing whether or not they can continue to be part of the Boston Library Consortium,” Michalak said. “[Tisch Library depends] on some of their resources for interlibrary loan requests. We spoke to them to try to convince them to remain in the consortium, but we understand they have a lot to deal with.”

Susan McAlister, president of the Massachusetts Library Association Board of Directors, said that the financial predicament the BPL finds itself in is one that libraries nationwide are increasingly having to deal with.

“Boston’s facing what libraries across the state and across the country are facing: a terrible lack of funding,” McAlister told the Daily.

In Massachusetts alone, at least 100 libraries applied to be considered for a grant from a state-aid program, according to McAlister. She predicts, however, that very few of these applicants will receive any help due to economic circumstances “The state is in a pretty traumatic state itself,” McAlister said. “Library funding in general seems to get cut more than other public funding.”

McAlister explained that overall library financial support in Massachusetts has remained largely stagnant over the course of the past decade and a half.

“For fiscal year 2011, funding for the Board of Library Commissioners in Massachusetts will be at 1994 levels,” she said. “Libraries have really taken a big hit.”

Michalak expressed her con-

cern not only about the possible impact of BPL’s withdrawal from the consortium, but also about this cross-country trend of deepening disregard for the importance of libraries to communities.

“These are community centers that they might be closing, and I’d hate to see that happen,” she said. “A library is not just a research center, but a place where people can come to interact. The more they have to close community centers, the more it diminishes the role the library has to play.”

Another consequence of this decline in funding is a reduction in employee positions across the BPL system, an option that, according to the board of trustees’ budget overview, appears to be inevitable.

This has prompted the BPL to ensure that its decision-making process is kept entirely transparent to the public and involves the workers’ unions whenever appropriate.

“Members of the unions and all members of the BPL staff are important partners in this ongoing budget planning process,” Perille said. “Some of the proposed options from the February 17 Board of Trustee[s] meeting would require bargaining over the impact of changes.”

McAlister said that from the perspective of someone who dedicates her time to servicing libraries, she sympathizes with the budgetary woes that the BPL must overcome and the potential effects on the whole library community.

Nevertheless, she expressed her hope that cutbacks to library services will not lead the public to lose sight of the valuable role that libraries play.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, who needs libraries anymore?’”

McAlister said. “But it’s the librarians who provide you with resources and skills, and essential services for information literacy … Just because you have the Internet doesn’t mean you don’t need libraries.”

MCT

Saturday’s 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile has left some areas of the country in shambles.

Tufts students studying abroad in Chile have all been accounted for CHILE continued from page 1

pus,” he said.

Both Bills and Skold said that they successfully contacted their host families through Facebook.com and were relieved to find out that they were fine and had suffered minimal damage to their houses.

Although most in Santiago and other areas have evaded physical harm, many have in the quake’s aftermath lost their homes and access to basic resources. News reports have indicated that 1.5 million people lack electricity in Santiago and its surrounding towns.

Skold explained that within Santiago and other cities, there are varying degrees of

damage from the earthquake.

He cited the stark dichotomy of the city’s wealthy and extremely poor areas as the reason for this discrepancy, since less structurally sound homes in the poorest sectors would be more likely to crumble under the tremors.

Bills noted that areas further south from Santiago and closer to epicenter of the earthquake are experiencing much more chaos, according to news accounts and her friends in Chile.

“Down south they’ve had problems with people leaving, people who are in need of water and food,” Bills said.

“Others are just opportunists and looting electronic stores, but none of that is in Santiago. The worst-hit areas

were definitely Concepción, Maule, Bio-Bio.” Local governments have sought to counter looters at grocery stores by employing tear gas and water cannons, and as the situation in some parts of the country worsens, the government has been seeking to restore stability.

Skold noted that approximately two million Chileans have been displaced by the disaster, making up a significant percentage of the Chilean population.

Bayne said that recovery from the catastrophe is underway.

“There has been a major event, but things are picking up again,” she said. “An important thing is that all of our students are alive and well.”

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

Pre-med interest up as need for doctors grows Economic climate, reform affecting medical school enrollment BY

WILLIAM C. WINTER AND WILLIAM K. WINTER

ROMY OLTUSKI | WORD UP

Simpsons did it

Daily Staff Writers

Each September, hundreds of freshmen arrive on the Hill focused on their next goal: gaining admission to medical school. Before they can learn how to heal, they must first learn the prerequisites — namely biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry and physics — prescribed by many medical schools prior to matriculation.

However, these pre-medical students must do so while facing the realities that await them should they succeed in their medical training: rising education costs, expensive malpractice premiums and insurance programs that are reluctant to reimburse physicians for their services. Surprisingly, the added pressure of possible government health care reform doesn’t seem to be a deterrent for many pre-med students.

President Obama’s health care plan would dramatically revolutionize the way medicine is practiced. On Feb. 22, President Obama unveiled the outline of his proposed plan, which would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to individuals with existing illnesses and provide fee waivers to those who could not otherwise afford insurance.

While a government-sponsored insurance plan would undoubtedly help millions of people gain access to affordable health care, the resulting competition could cause financial strain for private insurance companies and lower reimbursements for doctors. Most importantly, the potential plan could indirectly reduce the amount of time a patient spends with a doctor.

Enrollment in family practice residency programs has decreased by 27 percent between 2002 and 2007, according to a report recently published by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). The same report also indicates that significant decreases in the number of practicing surgeons, oncologists and cardiologists also occurred during that timeframe. To meet this shortage, nearly 90 percent of medical schools plan to increase the number of available first-year spots over the next few years. Tufts’ School of Medicine added 22

N

SCOTT TINGLEY/TUFTS DAILY

Tufts is one of many medical schools that has increased its enrollment to meet demand. spots to this year’s incoming class, according to a report by the AAMC. The University of Central Florida, Florida International University and Texas Tech University also recently opened medical schools.

Some Jumbos are concerned about this shortage. “I think something has to change.

There is a real lack of primary care,” freshman Caroline Patterson said.

Current freshmen and sophomores seem enthusiastic to fill the growing need for health care professionals, despite the difficult course load that pre-med students are required to take.The number of students who finished Biology 13 (Cells and Organisms) increased by more than 15 percent from last year, according to statistics provided by

the course’s coordinator, Associate Professor of Biology Kelly McLaughlin. Similarly, the number of students who completed Chemistry 51 (Organic Chemistry 1) has increased by 29 percent since 2002, according to Chemistry Professor Robert Stolow, the course’s professor.

“You’re not going to take all the hard courses if you’re not interested in the altruistic nature of medicine,” Patterson said.

“I strongly believe that medicine continues to attract a lot of individuals because medicine is [a] highly respected profession in almost every culture,” Associate Director of Pre-Professional Advising Shirley Smith said see HEALTH CARE, page 4

Budget cuts, fee increases draw anger of University of California students BY

NOA NAFTALI

Contributing Writer

For many high school students, the University of California (UC) system offers the perfect option for higher education. The UC system’s appeal, aside from the sunny California weather, lies in the competitive education it offers for in-state tuition fees at a fraction of the cost of a private university for California locals. In light of the recent economic crisis, however, the ability of the UC system to continue to offer financially appealing education is uncertain.

In November, University of California’s Board of Regents voted to raise tuition by 32 percent in response to a $637 million cut in state funding, resulting in a series of protests that are still ongoing months after the cuts took effect.

While the hike of student fees has been at the epicenter of student protests, other serious measures have been taken to cut costs. This past summer, 2,000 UC staff and faculty members were laid off. The rest of the staff and faculty are required to take furlough days — or short, unpaid leaves of absence. This has resulted in pay cuts of up to 10 percent, according to a press release issued last July by the Office of the President of the University of California. Class sizes are expected to increase as a result of the layoffs, and programs and classes are being cut.

“Mostly liberal arts related majors have been hit, like philosophy majors,”

Jihan Batuman, a sophomore at UC Davis, said. “Those are the ones that are being cut the most.”

According to Batuman, the tuition increase has had a palpable effect on the UC campuses. “A friend of mine’s boyfriend couldn’t come back due to the fee increase; he couldn’t afford to be here anymore,” he said. “We all had to spend more money. Some students had to get jobs … Almost everybody knows someone who is being affected by this.”

These changes have been met by protests at the various campuses. UC Berkeley, known for its history of activism — most notably the Free Speech Movement in 1964 and 1965, a response to the university restricting on-campus political activities — has been bustling with student outrage.

“There have been lots of intense protests,” Emma Levine, a freshman at UC Berkeley, said. “It’s Berkeley, dude.”

Levine spoke about the occupation of Wheeler Hall, the largest classroom building on the Berkeley campus. The protest took place two days after the Board of Regents voted to raise tuition fees and lasted for 11 hours. Sixty-six individuals were arrested, according to a UC Berkeley press release.

Protests turned violent last week when a group of students entered a building closed for construction and vandalized it, breaking windows and writing graffiti on the walls. Students clashed with campus police officers and blocked them from entering.

Two of the protesters were arrested. “[S]uch action does incredible damage to our advocacy efforts with Sacramento and with the California public to preserve public higher education. We call on our campus community to work together to express our support for State reinvestment in public higher education in ways that uphold Berkeley’s values of peaceful protest and freedom of expression,” Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau said in a letter to the UC Berkeley community issued last Friday.

“From a system-wide perspective, I can tell you that in terms of the UC President [Mark G. Yudof], we think the violence was unacceptable,” UC spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez said. “The UC President is a staunch defender of students’ rights to free speech.” Vazquez added that it was unfortunate that students’ practice of legitimate free speech was “marred by violence.”

The student response to the cuts was similar on the UC Davis campus, according to Batuman. “There were a lot of protests a couple of weeks prior to and a couple of weeks after the Board of Regents voted to raise fees,” Batuman said. Fiftytwo students were arrested on the day of the vote, according to Dateline UC Davis, a campus news service. “That was the high point of the protests,” Batuman said.

In response to these protests and others like them, the University of California Academic Council wrote an see CALIFORNIA, page 4

ot a dedicated “South Park” fan, I often find myself standing idly by as my friends engage in the classic American pastime of quoting lines and jokes from the Comedy Central series, most of which I do not understand and, frankly, do not find funny. However, one friend recently mentioned (i.e. recited word for word) an episode that hit close to home.

In the episode, fourth-grader Butters — or rather his villainous alter-ego, Professor Chaos — is looking to stir up unrest in the town of South Park, Colo. and commits a series of unusual practical jokes and acts of vandalism, only to find each time that similar events had already appeared in earlier episodes of “The Simpsons.”

In a sense, Butters is made to grapple with an inescapable dilemma of the post-modern world; where he thought he would find a boundless potential for originality, he instead finds finiteness and constriction.

How many times in our lives have we been proud of an essay, only to find that someone else has presented the same ideas, only better? How many times have we formed a student activist group to realize that there are three others at Tufts that do the exact same thing? How often have we composed a song that contains our heart’s deepest emotion and then turned on the radio to hear Pachelbel, U2, Vitamin C and Aerosmith playing back our very chords?

How many times have “The Simpsons” done it first?!

No one can escape it.

Recently a topic of considerable media coverage, the New Oxford American Dictionary (NOAD) voted “unfriend” the word of the year for 2009, generally a title given to “new’”words.

In reality, it seems more appropriately the word of 1659.

The NOAD 2009 word of the year, defined as “to remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook[.com],” dates back to 2007 in dictionary history. But, as Oxford University Press Senior Lexicographer Christine Lindberg pointed out after the word’s big day, the dictionary definition of “unfriend” as a noun meaning something like “enemy” dates back to the late 17th century edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Some even say we have records of the word that reach back to the 13th century.

Or, in other words, “The Simpsons” did it already.

But even the Simpsons themselves are not impervious to the difficulty of innovation.

Homer Simpson’s “D’oh,” for one, is not actually quite Homer Simpson’s. While the show certainly led to the phrase’s golden era of popularity, “d’oh” dates back to a 1945 radio script of the BBC comedy “It’s That Man Again” (1939-1949).

“The man I marry must be affectionate and call me ‘Dear,’” Diana, one of the characters, says to Tom, another. “Oh, you’re going to be a stag’s wife,” he answers. Her response?

“D’oh,” defined by the OED as an expression of frustration “at the realization that things have turned out badly…”

Clearly a recurring phenomenon, the human tendency to turn certain old words into new ones, or at the very least think of them that way, has been explained in several different terms. Linguist Arnold Zwicky dubbed it the “recency illusion;” columnist Ben Zimmer points out the many examples as the Rip van Winkles of the dictionary; Lindberg thinks of this year’s word specifically as the “sleeping beauty of 2009.”

It is worth noting, however, that each seems to stress a spirit of revival, not of creative damnation. Just as certain generations, far apart in time, share qualities that their children and parents do not, certain eras have a common need for a word that might fall out of vogue for several decades and later on, have a way of rising from the dead — a topic, incidentally, that “The Simpsons” have already done.

Romy Oltuski is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Romy.

Oltuski@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

FEATURES

UC schools struggle with budget cuts CALIFORNIA continued from page 3

open letter last November in which they expressed their concern about the nature of the protests, which have resulted in numerous injuries. “We are especially concerned about group protests in which a number of individuals attempted to move past police barricades, physically threaten and throw objects at police, and surround vehicles to trap those within,� the Council wrote.

The Council also said that the role of police in the protests would be examined. “We realize that there may be failures of policy or individual action,� the Council wrote.

Student responses to the letter varied. “The [protest] that took over Wheeler Hall disrupted my class that day,� Levine said. “I wasn’t able to go to class, and this whole thing is about paying for education. I am paying for my education, and was not able to attend class that day. So I think that there are two sides to this whole thing. I understand the protest, but I think there are more effective ways to protest than stopping school.� Levine denies that there is truth to the reports of violence from the students, but said that, in her opinion, the police behaved questionably. “I was watching the protest for most of that day, and I did not see anything violent

from the students,� she said. “But the police were really violent. They brought in a SWAT team. They were being aggressive toward the crowd watching outside and extremely threatening to the protesters inside. There are still investigations going on around that, and it is still a big topic on campus.�

Also of note is the effect these recent events will have on students applying to UC schools in the next few years. “Families are so nervous about all of the bad press that they are hearing in the news, that it may dissuade them from sending a child there,� Melissa Palmer, a college counselor at Oakwood School, a private K-12 institution in Los Angeles, said. “For families who are applying for financial aid, they might find that an aid award from a private school makes that school competitive with a UC [school] for tuition.�

Some UC students are taking their grievances to the California lawmakers in Sacramento. A Student Lobby Day, where students met with lawmakers to lobby for a raise in state funding, occurred yesterday.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that he plans to redirect money toward the UC system, but, even if those efforts are enough to pull the UC system out of its financial troubles, UC students may be left wondering if education is, in fact, only for the wealthy.

Medical school applications increase, even in economic downturn HEALTH CARE continued from page 3

in an e-mail to the Daily.

The growing interest in becoming a doctor isn’t unique to Tufts. According to the AAMC, there are 10,644 more students vying for a spot in medical school this year than there were during the 2002-03 cycle, representing an increase of nearly 32 percent, a majority being first-time applicants.

The current economic situation could be causing some students to rethink entering

Barack Obama and American Democracy Symposium Sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Department of History at Tufts University

March 5-6, 2010 Two days of panel discussions featuring nationally renowned speakers and scholars, including Callie Crossley, Boyce Watkins, John Stauffer, and Peniel Joseph, who will critically analyze President Barack Obama’s first year in office. All of the Tufts University community is encouraged to attend.

Friday March 5, 2010 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Center for the Humanities at Tufts Fung House, 48 Professors Row Panels: Obama and the Joshua Generation, The Obama Doctrine: American Foreign Policy in an Era of War and Peace

Saturday March 6, 2010 9:00 a.m. – 5:15 p.m.

Coolidge Room Ballou Hall, 2nd Floor Panels: Civic Engagement and the Media in the Age of Obama, Hope and Change?: Assessing Obama’s Domestic Policies, What Barack Obama Means for American Democracy

other professions, such as law and business.

From 2004, the number of students applying to law school decreased by 13 percent, according to a publication by the Law School Admission Council. However, these trends have not translated to the health sector. “Even in a down-turned economy, the health care industry continues to grow,�

Smith said. According to the United States Department of Labor, the total number of health care jobs is expected to increase 22 percent by 2018.

STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT SESSIONS DOWLING HALL, ROOM 745 MARCH 3rd @ 3:30 – 5 pm MARCH 30th @ 12 – 1:30 pm If you are graduating in May and have borrowed federal loans while enrolled at Tufts you should attend one of these sessions which will cover: REPAYMENT OPTIONS INCLUDING INCOME BASED REPAYMENT CONSOLIDATION * PUBLIC SERVICE LOAN FORGIVENESS

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23/2:7<3( ;/@16 #

Honor a staff or faculty member by making a 2010 Distinction Awards nomination.

This program celebrates unsung heroes and those who excel in building bridges in the workplace, as well as those whose customer service and innovation advance Tufts' mission.

These awards recognize excellence outside of teaching and research.

If you have more than one federal loan you may find a Direct Consolidation Loan to be beneficial for you. These sessions will cover the pros and cons of consolidating your loans.

Go to: http://distinctionawards.tufts.edu

Please contact Student Services in Dowling Hall with any questions at 617-627-2000 sponsored by office of the president human resources

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

TV REVIEW

CARYN HOROWITZ | THE CULTURAL CULINARIAN

‘How to Make It in America’ portrays young New Yorkers trying to live American dream

Thank you,

REBECCA GOLDBERG

BY

Massachusetts

Daily Editorial Board

M

What is the American dream of the 21st century? Is it running one’s own company and finally experiencing financial success?

How to Make It in America Starring Bryan Greenberg, Victor Rasuk, Luiz Guzmán, Kid Cudi Airs Sundays at 10 p.m. on HBO Is it being a part of the melting pot, with friends from all corners of the cultural landscape? Is it living in a scrappy apartment on the Lower East Side while working on Fifth Avenue, going out for sushi and partying with fashion models and art gallery owners? Is it finally paying a sketchy cousin back and escaping without a broken arm?

HBO’s “How to Make It in America” is like a hipster scrapbook of New York City’s unsung, struggling dreamers. The new series is yet another HBO entry — like last year’s “Hung” — with a genre that is difficult to crack. Rather than being a comedy or a

HBO.COM

HBO’s “How to Make It In America” depicts young New Yorkers living in the city. drama, it’s more like a visual experiment: part documentary and part music video.

Every minute, however, paints a landscape, using indelible images of areas all around New York City and from all walks of life to present its version of the American dream.

Principally, “How to Make It” follows Ben Epstein (Bryan Greenberg), an affably

GALLERY REVIEW

KATHERINE DEANE Daily Staff Writer

After traveling to London and New York City, the exhibit “Roni Horn aka Roni Horn” has finally made its way

Roni Horn aka Roni Horn At the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, through June 13 100 Northern Avenue, Boston 617-478-3100 to the Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston (ICA). The show has been slightly altered in each city in order to best inhabit its current space, leading Horn’s works to be viewed differently as they respond to the area around them. This change is particularly relevant in an exhibition such as this because Horn’s show is predominantly based on ideas of shifting identities and memories surrounding the artist’s experience with the world around her.

Horn was born in 1955 and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she obtained her undergraduate degree. She then traveled to Iceland to create a number of works that led to her living alone in an old lighthouse on the coast. This country is of particular importance to her art because she formed such a deep connection with its cold and isolated, yet beautiful, nature.

Horn, who is openly gay, experiments with an art that is autobiographical, yet simultaneously encompasses more universal ideals in its conceptual format.

Horn’s artwork is very at home in the ICA because of the museum’s location and architectural design. Her show is significantly more powerful in this museum than it was at the Whitney Museum of American Art because many of Horn’s works demand the luminous quality of natural light to impart their full effect on the viewer.

From the moment one enters the lobby of the ICA, one is immediately confronted with “Pink Tons,” a glass sculpture in the shape of an enormous cube. This piece, like a number of Horn’s works throughout the exhibit, is literally illuminated by the sunlight that

see AMERICA, page 6

MOVIE REVIEW

‘Roni Horn aka Roni Horn’ explores isolation, identity BY

handsome design school dropout looking to finally make his mark. He and his best friend, Cam (Victor Rasuk), decide to “f--k the man” — whatever that means — and start their own denim fashion line called Crisp NYC. To do it, they borrow money

streams in through the ICA’s expansive glass windows. It would not be nearly as powerful in an artificially lit gallery because of its entrancing pink transparency, which almost appears liquid when the bright light shines on it.

Despite the importance of sculpture in Horn’s oeuvre, her body of work covers much more than this medium of artistic presentation. Much of her art in this retrospective exhibition is composed of photographs organized into discreet pairs and other types of thematic groupings, giving them an almost architectural presence. One particular instance of this technique is discernable in her iconic work “You are the Weather,” a series of 100 photographs of the same female model.

Taken from a very close perspective, these images allow viewers to see little more than the figure’s face and her immediate surroundings.

These photographs, some of which are black and white, while others feature saturated pigments, are organized in an eye-level, horizontal band that encircles the entire room, creating the effect of a horizon line. The images are further divided into distinct sets that depict the

‘Acoustics’ provides visual journey BY

ALEX MASUROVSKY Contributing Writer

There are only so many ways to make a documentary engaging. As an added challenge, when the subject

Visual Acoustics Starring Julius Shulman Directed by Eric Bricker

COURTESY ICA

of a moving picture is unmoving pictures, a filmmaker has to get a little creative.

Granted, a picture can never be found to be physically in motion, but it can still be emotionally moving.

The photographs featured in “Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman” (2008) are some of the most famous in the world, and the man who took them is, by many accounts, one of the greatest architectural photographers of all time.

Director Eric Bricker’s documentary, which opened on Feb. 26 at Kendall Square Cinema, celebrates the artwork of Julius Shulman. Though many viewers might not know Shulman or know the nuances of photography as an art form, people will come away from this movie having learned something. For enthusiasts of architecture, photography or both, this movie is fascinating and even thrilling, and for Shulman enthusiasts, this movie is 83 minutes of pure bliss.

Bricker did not have too much to work with in the storyline department: Shulman, a self-proclaimed environmental photographer, simply had a unique talent in capturing man-made structures. During his illustrious career, he linked up with Richard Neutra and R.M. Schindler, two visionaries who helped shape modern architecture. Shulman’s pictures were taken so well that he start-

The print “You are the Weather” is composed of over 100 photographs of the same model.

see ACOUSTICS, page 6

see RONI, page 6

y week has not been going too hot.

Well, actually, my face has been inflamed and I have periodically been covered in hives, but figuratively, not so hot.

In one of my first “Cultural Culinarian” columns, I discussed my newly developed peanut allergy. For the past two years, I have been adjusting to my allergy, which has steadily become more sensitive. After my initial reaction to the lethal legume (peanuts are part of the bean family, which is why a peanut allergy is diagnosed separately from a tree nut allergy), I went for months without problems. But food allergies are very unpredictable, and it is common for them to ebb and flow; I am flowing big time right now. In the past six days, I have broken out in hives from accidental close encounters with Nutter Butters and a bag of roasted peanuts.

The hardest part of being a devoted foodie and suffering from a food allergy is eating out. In the safety of my own home, I can control what I eat and intensely study the labels of my grocery store purchases.

When I eat out, however, I am putting my health in the hands of complete strangers working in an unfamiliar kitchen. While peanuts themselves may be listed on a menu, it is impossible to know who is using peanut oils. Everyone from chains like Five Guys to famed New York hotspot Balthazar uses peanut oil to make their french fries, so I have to be extremely inquisitive when I place my order.

I usually experience two different reactions from waiters when I tell them about my peanut allergy. Either the staff is extremely accommodating and waiters will list off every ingredient in anything I want to order to check that I will be allergen-free, or they act as if I am a nuisance and begrudgingly check with the chef before I place my order.

More often than not, this reaction is a result of the wait staff not being informed of the allergens in the food at their restaurant.

Massachusetts is looking to change this, and in the wake of my recent reactions, I am even more thrilled than when I first heard about this proposed piece of legislation two weeks ago.

The Department of Public Health on Feb. 11 revealed plans for groundbreaking statewide food-allergy rules. The new policy will require every menu in Massachusetts to bear the words, “Before placing your order, please inform your server if a person in your party has a food allergy.” Restaurant workers will also be required to attend allergy training sessions, including learning about all of the allergens — nuts, peanuts, dairy, etc. — in the dishes on their restaurants’ menu, and allergen information will be posted on kitchen walls. Massachusetts’ Public Health Council will vote on the rules in April and, if they are passed, they will go into effect in July.

Ming Tsai, the James Beard award-winning chef at Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Mass., has been at the forefront of the push for the legislation; he even helped make a video that will be part of the required training sessions. Tsai’s son suffers from a host of food allergies, so the chef has deep-rooted personal connections to the legislation. Tsai published a touching account of his son’s allergies and his feelings on the new policy in the February issue of The Atlantic that nearly brought me to tears.

To some, these new rules may seem like a waste of time and money; I have heard countless people say that my allergy is my problem, not a restaurant’s. But anyone who knows someone with a food allergy — particularly someone like me whose allergy is constantly changing — knows what a huge difference it will make to feel safe dining out.

Caryn Horowitz is a senior majoring in history. She can be reached at Caryn.

Horowitz@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

6

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

ARTS & LIVING

‘How to Make It’ offers strong city theme, lacks character development AMERICA continued from page 5

from Cam’s cousin Rene (veteran character actor Luis Guzmán), who has recently been released from prison, and they make plans to beat the odds.

Ben and Cam are not the only characters with business in mind. Even the soulful theme song, Aloe Blacc’s “I Need A Dollar,” makes it clear that the characters think that “making it” happens on monetary terms. Rene decides to enter the legitimate business world by distributing an energy drink called Rasta Monsta. Ben’s friend Gingy (Shannyn Sossamon) sells photos in her art gallery in order to remain financially independent from her rich father. David (Eddie Kaye Thomas), who knew Ben in high school, works for a hedge fund and lives in a lush uptown apartment.

David, in his own opinion, has not achieved the American dream. He’s a selfdescribed “loudmouth Jew” who hires call girls to shop at Barneys with him and pays Ben and Cam $3,000 to convince a club’s doorman that he’s cool. David thinks that Ben and Cam have it all: the hip, multiethnic friends, the streetwise authenticity and the downtown sensibilities. Though Blacc sings about money in the opening credits, the images that accompany the music combine New York iconography and colorful portraits of people to depict the city as a hipster paradise. The imagery subtly says that if one experiences this New York, one actually has “made it.”

The show’s light touch works for its visual component, but the writing is equally breezy to a fault. The jokes don’t go far enough to tease out a laugh, and the drama doesn’t dive deep enough to create an emotional con-

HBO.COM

HBO has a new series on beautiful people in the city that never sleeps. nection with the characters. There’s plenty of theme, but there isn’t enough plot to drive each episode. A lack of back story also means it’s not a character-driven show; these people only exist in a moment in time.

“How to Make It” hints that some events in the characters’ lives have affected them — Ben’s on-and-off relationship with Rachel (Lake Bell), for instance, or Cam’s supposedly difficult childhood — but the show never reveals any details.

Most exposition that’s not doled out in

the loose dialogue comes in the form of rapid flashes of photographs or images that supply names to faces or fill in gaps in time. This conceit is artsy and clever, but it can’t sustain a long-form serial show forever.

The best way to describe “How to Make It in America” to someone who’s never seen it is to liken it to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ music video for “Empire State of Mind” (2009).

“How to Make It” is deft with quick cuts, iconic imagery and an admirably firm grip

on its visual representation of New York.

Even if the show’s storylines feel as if they — and the characters — are running in place, the tone and colors of the city lend it a kind of buoyancy and profundity.

The city in “How to Make It” is a rich, multiracial wonderland of crime and family, fashion and scrappy idealism. Maybe the city’s centrality provides an answer to the question of the “how” in the series’ title. After all, there is a rumor that if someone can make it there, they can make it anywhere.

Horn uses words to deepen the meaning behind her works

Architectural photography showcased in Shulman’s documentary ‘Acoustics’

RONI

ACOUSTICS

continued from page 5

woman’s face in various bodies of water, ranging from indoor pools to natural Icelandic hot springs.

The range of atmospheric conditions featured seems to refer back to the title of the work by suggesting different types of weather, as well as relating the figure’s changing expressions to the state of nature.

“You are the Weather” makes viewers question the identity of its subject, what her relationship may have been to the artist and how an individual person may be able to represent something as grand as the weather, while leaving everything unanswered.

Horn carries this ambiguous aspect of her art into other works such as “Bird,” a work that features pairs of photographs depicting the backs of birds’ heads, which appear almost abstract due to their stark and simplistic qualities. By refusing to reveal the birds’ faces, yet creating such explicit relationships between the pairings, Horn demands that her viewers look closely at the works in order to form their own opinions about their significance.

This makes viewer interaction with Horn’s work an integral

part of every single work’s meaning and importance.

Meaning is something that is generally associated with words, thus revealing another definitive part of Horn’s collection. In a film that is continually looped at the ICA, Horn describes this aspect of her work by saying, “I move through language to arrive at the visual.” In fact, written words are present in a number of her works at the ICA. On display is a series of Horn’s large-scale drawings, which are actually collages created by cutting up smaller drawings and then piecing them back together. This act of careful deconstruction and reconstruction is achieved through the use of words as markers to help fit the puzzle pieces of the drawing back together.

By writing these small key words on various edges of the parts, Horn is able to apply method to her madness even though the words seem to have no obvious meaning themselves. This confusing, yet precise way of working creates a current that runs through all of Horn’s conceptually stimulating pieces, which are so beautifully displayed in the ICA’s curatorial masterpiece.

COURTESY ICA

Roni Horn showcases her glass sculpture “Pink Tons.”

continued from page 5

ed getting gigs from the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright. Though not quite a Cinderella story, it is nice to know that a talented artist like Shulman is getting recognized for his work.

Fortunately for viewers, Shulman is a character.

Throughout the film, he is portrayed as a loveable old man with the determination and zest of a much younger man.

Clips of Shulman in action — with his mildly amusing witticisms, charming immodesty and quixotically wise words — are some of the small joys that keeps viewers interested in this film.

One such instance of Shulman’s grandfatherly wisdom is his discussion of how the view from one of California’s magnificent modernist houses was blocked by a house built right next door.

The owners could have prevented this from happening by buying up the land next to

them when they bought the house. “It’s the story of our lives!” Shulman muses theatrically to the camera. “You have to plan ahead.”

The title “Visual Acoustics” comes from another quote of Shulman’s. In defending certain lighting choices he made in a photograph, he says, “I like to control the visual acoustics.”

Though the title seems to be coming from an obscure quote, it accurately describes the artfully crafted interplay between the film’s wonder-inspiring music, images of beautiful and strange modernist houses and breathtaking shots of the southern California landscape, not to mention the quirky montages that serve as chapter headings for the various stages of Shulman’s life.

Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, whose animated and boyish voice appropriately matches Shulman’s own personality, “Acoustics” is built around picture montages, featuring nifty transitions and music

that put PowerPoint presentations to shame. One particularly noteworthy montage is a crash-course on architectural modernism toward the beginning of the film, complete with a Monty Python-like caricature of Louis Sullivan decrying “Form follows function!”

As the film attests, architectural modernism essentially became a movement to follow Sullivan’s mantra, while keeping in harmony with the natural environment surrounding a building site.

Though it is not entirely clear exactly how functional the extravagant houses at the focus of Shulman’s photographs are, they are undeniably a pleasure to see. As would be expected, so much screen time is given to Shulman and his work that the film serves as a sort of exhibition. Viewers see from these amazing photographs why Shulman was granted an honorary degree in architecture from Burbank’s Woodbury University.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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BY

GARRY TRUDEAU

NON SEQUITUR

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COMICS CROSSWORD

WILEY

MONDAY’S SOLUTION

MARRIED TO THE SEA

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LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Monday’s Solution

Kerianne: “Caryn, Ricoh doesn’t like anyone touching him but you.”

Please recycle this Daily

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THE TUFTS DAILY KERIANNE M. OKIE Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Caryn Horowitz Grace Lamb-Atkinson Managing Editors Ellen Kan Executive News Editor Michael Del Moro News Editors Harrison Jacobs Katherine Sawyer Saumya Vaishampayan Marissa Gallerani Assistant News Editors Amelie Hecht Corinne Segal Martha Shanahan Jenny White Brent Yarnell Carter Rogers Executive Features Editor Marissa Carberry Features Editors Robin Carol Emily Maretsky Mary Beth Griggs Assistant Features Editors Emilia Luna Alexa Sasanow Derek Schlom Catherine Scott Executive Arts Editor Jessica Bal Arts Editors Adam Kulewicz Charissa Ng Josh Zeidel Michelle Beehler Assistant Arts Editors Zachary Drucker Rebecca Goldberg Niki Krieg Crystal Bui Nina Grossman Laura Moreno Andrew Rohrberger Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Alex Miller Louie Zong Vittoria Elliot Rebekah Liebermann Marian Swain

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editors

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

‘One course, one credit’ system needs review The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Feb. 21 passed a resolution calling for a change in the course credit system in order to award an extra half credit for labs that exceed two-anda-half hours in science courses; the resolution refers specifically to biology classes, as physics and chemistry lab sections are shorter. The student sentiment that generated this resolution is indicative of the greater issue surrounding the way that course credits are assigned at Tufts. The administration should reconsider its “one course, one credit” policy in light of the different time commitments and workloads associated with different courses.

Sophomore Kate de Klerk, associate treasurer of the TCU Senate, drafted the resolution with the aim that students would receive credit for the hours of extra work they put into preparing for and attending lab each week, as students in science classes write lab reports and study for quizzes in their lab courses.

However, Associate Professor of Biology Juliet Fuhrman, the chair of the biology department, argues that the extra work students put into lab work is comparable

to the extra time students in humanities courses put into a research project or a long final paper.

It is true that there are certain courses in both the sciences and the humanities at Tufts that require greater time commitment and work than others. With the one exception of organic chemistry, which does give an additional half credit for the lab section, all courses at Tufts are awarded only one or one-half of a credit.

Should an introductory-level survey class that meets once a week receive the same number of credits as a science class with a three hour lab, or a high-demand seminar course with capstone projects? This system of “one class, one credit” does not appropriately reward the work that students put into their courses.

The 5.5 credit limit per semester is meant to maintain a reasonable workload for students. However, 5.5 credits can mean a widely different workload depending on which classes a student is taking. A revision of course credit assignment based on hours and workloads would open up students’ schedules and allow them to effectively balance their course loads each semester.

Most of Tufts’ peer institutions allocate credits based on the hours or level of the course. There are issues with the “one course, one credit” policy, but the system must be revised in a university-wide review, not one resolution at a time. Organic chemistry is already the exception to the rule, and making specific exceptions for biology classes with lengthy labs will not solve the larger problem, as it does not address the extra workload of upper-level research, highdemand and seminar courses.

There are students in all departments taking extremely rigorous courses with heavy workloads, and they all only receive one credit. Biology students should not be the only ones to receive recognition for their extra time commitment for a course.

The Senate’s resolution to give biology lab sections an additional half credit would only create another exception to an unfair rule. The university administration should reconsider the “one course, one credit” policy in order to better reflect the varying time commitments and workloads involved in different courses throughout multiple departments.

WAYNE STAYSKAL

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OFF THE HILL | MARSHALL UNIVERSITY

We should pay attention to other countries

BY SHEA

ANDERSON

The Parthenon

Cambridge is one of the quaintest places I’ve ever been. It lies along a river, always full of rowers. Bicycles glide up and down the paths along the bank. The stone buildings are all charming, but not nearly as much as the decorated brick streets they sit on, separated by miniature parks or ‘green spaces.’

So it’s always nice to go for a stroll around town. As long as you don’t get too close to the swans, it’s a peaceful walk.

One of the most interesting things to notice when you go through Cambridge is the variety of accents and foreign languages. You can hardly go a block without encountering a family chatting away in French or a group of students joking in thick German accents. It’s very culturally diverse.

Because countries in Europe are so close to [one] another, it is easy to travel.

Most of the people I have met here have taken several trips across Europe and

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

visited at least five other countries. With flights as cheap as $10, or one dollar on occasion, weaving through the continent is affordable even for students.

The close proximity also means Europeans are much more knowledgeable about foreign affairs. I try to keep up with major events in the world, but everyone I’ve met here is able to carry on a conversation about current news and politics in the U.S., while I struggle to understand some of their discussions about England and Europe.

In school, the students all took American history. I had a world history class, but aside from brief notes on the country’s involvement in previous wars, I know nothing about British history.

British people are also very interested in American television. While the only British channel I have at home is the BBC, English people have access to a lot of American programming, and my friends watch the same television shows I do. I’ve only seen a couple episodes of “Doctor Who.”

It’s embarrassing to live in a place I don’t know much about when everyone here is so knowledgeable about America.

I’ve learned a lot by being here, but it really makes me feel like we live in a bubble.

American media publicize international stories but not on the same scale, and we learn about other countries in school but not in the same detail.

I wish I had taken time to learn more about England and Europe. The truth is, though I may not have had a British history class, all the information is easily accessible on the Internet. Even when I knew I was going to be living here for a while, I didn’t take the personal responsibility to learn more about the country.

It’s easy to ignore the issues of other countries when America as a whole focuses so much on itself. But what good will this do us in 20 years as the world becomes more and more interconnected? Globalization is happening rapidly.

Travel, communication and exchange are all easier. We should embrace this and be more aware of global issues.

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Tuesday, March 2, 2010

9

OP-ED

‘Unión, poder, y justicia’: Unity, power and justice

BY SUZANNE

LIS

Last Thursday, I stood in the visitor entrance to the Massachusetts State House, delighting in the anticipation that permeated the tiny lobby. People of all nationalities surrounded me, and my ears were filled with the sounds of greetings, as friends recognized each other in the line to the metal detector.

My peers and I filed through and were immediately directed by guards and people with signs to Gardner Auditorium.

The anticipation heightened as we descended the stairs, and the amplified voice of a man was distinctly heard. The table outside the auditorium was manned by students and young adults who greeted us warmly. Once we filled out our interest cards, we were ushered into the hall.

We were at a rally organized by the Student Immigrant Movement, whose banner was prominently placed above the central podium of the hall. Over 200 people had shown up to convince Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts to approve in-state tuition for undocumented students who have resided in the U.S. and graduated from a U.S. high school. One of the leaders of the Student Immigration Movement, José Palma, was already speaking when we entered, so we made our way past the rows of people and sat toward the back.

The following hour and a half was a daze of moving words, accent-tinted stories, cheers, standing ovations and cries of “Sí, se puede!” I feverishly took notes the entire time, but I could have quoted every word they said. Palma said, “We don’t want anything for free,” and many people around me nodded in solemn agreement.

The next speaker was State Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz (D-Boston), who co-sponsors the in-state tuition bill. At first, she was strictly a politician. She discussed the reasons for supporting the bill: fairness and “what is smart,” as she put it. She urged everyone to talk to their representatives, to send letters and especially to emphasize the role of money. Money makes people listen, and in this case of in-state tuition, it is the money that can put “the people first, and the politics last.”

Senator Chang-Díaz then talked about her background. She spoke honestly and proudly of her father, Franklin Ramón Chang-Díaz, who came from Costa Rica with “$50 in his pocket.” After a very difficult start in high school, he obtained a scholarship to the University of Connecticut and after years of education, became one of the first Hispanic Americans to go into space. He now runs Ad Astra Rocket Company, and Senator Chang-Díaz praised him as one of the classic examples of an immigrant giving back to the country that welcomed him. He gave his time, his money, his perseverance and his acute mind to the progress of the United States.

Ending with this powerful anecdote, Senator Chang-Díaz left the podium to tumultuous applause.

Another speaker was Thomas Pineros Shields (GA ’96), a sociology professor from Brandeis University. In 2004, he was doing research on students’ involvement with civic life. He said he was very discouraged by the results, as most students seemed to just pad their résumés. However, he met East Boston students who “called the State House their second home.” They

CHRISTIAN HOLLAND, CC

threw themselves wholeheartedly into their roles as citizens, and they inspired him to write his dissertation on them in 2006. At this point during his speech, the East Boston kids let loose their ear-splitting cheers and applause; their teacher was translating all the speeches into Spanish for them. Dr. Shields made several compelling arguments and cited several reports that economically supported the bill. These will be used in future editorials in response to criticisms of in-state tuition and the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act. Interspersed with all these speakers were the stories of high school students. They varied in their interests and aspirations. One student, originally from Brazil, had won the John and Abigail Adams Scholarship, only to realize upon opening the letter that she had to be a U.S. citizen to receive it. One was a shy, aspiring physics major who could not get paid for his time-consuming and exhausting internship at UMass Dartmouth because he lacked a Social Security number. They all captivated the crowd with their honesty and sheer courage; they looked out into the audience with a brazen, empowered look in their eye.

“We are all citizens here by heart,” one said frankly.

Grace Ross, a 2010 Democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts, swiftly connected to this line. She described the history of the United States as one of a perpetual struggle between the people on the inside and the people on the outside, and “the inside people always win.” The Student

Immigrant Movement students behind the podium were all nodding in consensus, for the movement draws many ideas and inspiration from the Civil Rights Movement.

The rally was brought to a closer, more intimate ending with the words of a young man named Chris Lagunas. He took the microphone from the podium and walked in front of the seats instead, speaking nostalgically of the beginning of the movement. Five years ago, on the Grand Staircase at the Massachusetts State House, Lagunas saw the beginnings of what had bloomed into a hugely supportive community and network of immigrants. He discussed the motto of Centro Presente, a Latin American immigrant organization: “¡Unión, Poder, y Justicia!” A chant of the three words erupted, and then evolved into “¡Sí, se puede!”

When I left the State House that afternoon, my ears ringing and the pages of my notebook full, I realized the enormity of the Student Immigrant Movement’s actions. They had accomplished their “unión,” for the crowd pouring out of the State House doors was remarkable; they had recognized their “poder,” or power, for they had logic, reports and evidence on their side; now, they were demanding their justice: “justicia.”

Suzanne Lis is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. She is the student and academic outreach coordinator for Students at Tufts Acting for Immigrant Rights.

OFF THE HILL | COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The death of Women’s History Month

BY VAIDEHI JOSHI The Columbia Daily Spectator

Tucked away in a corner of Barnard Hall is a small piece of women’s history — and it is highly likely that generations of Barnard and Columbia students have unknowingly walked past this small museum for years.

The boxes that line the shelves of the Barnard Center for Research on Women’s humble library are filled with colorful posters, periodicals, pamphlets and plenty of unpublished papers. While digging through this treasure trove can be a bit dusty, the reward is well worth the effort. The archives transport you back to a time when Vietnam was making headlines, a typewriter pumped out a 20-page thesis and the issue of sexual harassment — now depicted in period dramas like “Mad Men” — was very much a reality.

But even digging through these dusty tombs can be unsatisfying. As useful as these sources are, very few are from before 1970. This archive only accounts for the past 40 years of women’s history. What about everything that happened before?

Thinking back to those U.S. history textbooks we all had in the seventh grade, it’s hard to remember more than a chapter devoted to the lives of women. Judging only from those textbooks, it would appear that, every hundred years or so, a brilliant woman came around and revolutionized medicine, technology or politics. They were always the

exceptions and never the rule. The farther back in time we went, the harder it was to get any sense of how Simone de Beauvoir’s “second sex” lived.

While it is well known that the Brontë sisters both wrote under pen names in the 19th century to hide their identities, protect their reputations and increase their chances of being published, it is surprising to many that our generation’s own beloved J.K. Rowling did the very same. Rowling used the initials “J.K.” instead of Joanne, her full first name.

Although it is unclear whether this was her own doing or the creation of her publisher, Bloomsbury, it is evident that the reasoning behind it is no different than that of the Brontë sisters: a fear that men would not purchase her book knowing that it was written by a woman.

With so many obstacles facing women even today, it’s hard to imagine how women as far back as the Renaissance had the courage to break the boundaries separating them from the literary world. Of the few surviving texts written by women, many are in the form of diaries and letters. With the exception of a few casual poems written for pleasure, almost everything else we have from that era was written by men.

Why is it that we know so much about Shakespeare and so very little about the 17th-century dramatist Aphra Behn?

Time travel in the search of the feminine is essentially a search for a needle in a haystack. Eventually, we are forced to learn about those voiceless women through the words of loud and often authoritative men. We never hear the other

side of history, the one from the mouths of women.

It is this lack of knowledge that is at the heart of Women’s History Month. This month is not a time to dismiss men, but rather a time to acknowledge women. It is a time to assert the importance of giving women a voice with which to tell their own stories and to recognize the value of the untainted truth. The history we study today was written by those who came before us. We, too, have the duty to provide future generations with the most unbiased and pure documentation of historical events possible.

But as crucial as Women’s History Month is for both our generation and the next, the fact that we even have to have a specific month devoted to the study of the role of women in history speaks volumes on the miles we have yet to go.

Successful, outspoken and courageous women surround us here at Barnard and Columbia, and it is safe to say that, unlike what our middle school textbooks suggest, there will be more than one brilliant woman remembered from our century.

Women’s History Month celebrates both these women and the generations of women whose stories have not yet been told. But, at the same time, I can only hope for a day when there will be no need for a Women’s History Month and the relics housed in the Barnard Center for Research on Women archives will be solemn reminders of a time when women had to fight to be remembered. The voices of women from the past will finally be heard.

LET THE CAMPUS KNOW WHAT MATTERS TO YOU. The Op-Ed section of the Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. Submissions are welcome from all members of the Tufts community. We accept opinion articles on any aspect of campus life, as well as articles on national or international news. Opinion pieces should be between 600 and 1,200 words. Please send submissions, with a contact number, to oped@tuftsdaily.com. Feel free to e-mail us with any questions.

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2010

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL FOUR

BLOOMINGTON, ILL. March 19

BLOOMINGTON, ILL. March 19

Baruch (23-5)

Bowdoin (20-6)

Muhlenberg (21-5)

TUFTS (20-5)

Penn State-Berks (19-9)

Kean (26-1)

First Round March 5

Tufts Daily MARCH MADNESS

Medaille (25-2)

Scranton (22-5)

Washington & Jeff. (23-4)

Marymount University Arlington, Va.

Lebanon Valley (23-4)

Messiah College Grantham, Penn.

Marymount (26-1)

Lakeland (22-6)

Mount Union (24-4)

Neumann (20-9)

Messiah (23-4)

Fontbonne (18-9)

DePauw (25-3)

SPORTS

Thomas More (25-3)

Denison (21-7)

Maryville (22-5)

Hope College Holland, Mich.

Hope (27-1)

Washington U. (23-2)

Thomas More College Crestview Hills, Ky.

Calvin (24-4)

Northland (18-8)

Minnesota-Morris (19-7) St. Norbert (22-3)

St. Norbert De Pere, Wis.

Carthage (22-4)

UW-Whitewater Whitewater, Wis.

UW-Stevens Point (21-6)

UW-Whitewater (20-7)

St. Thomas (21-7)

Chicago (19-6)

Redlands (22-5)

THIRD PLACE

Simpson (22-5)

Puget Sound (23-4)

Franklin (21-6)

Louisiana College (24-2)

Illinois Wesleyan Bloomington, Ill.

Illinois Wesleyan (26-1)

THE TUFTS DAILY

George Fox (25-2)

George Fox College Newberg, Ore.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Cortland State (25-3)

Mary Washington (21-5)

Babson (25-3)

University of Rochester Rochester, N.Y.

Rochester (19-6)

Colby College Waterville, Maine

Emmanuel (22-5)

Husson (19-8)

William Paterson (25-2)

McDaniel (20-6)

Gettysburg (22-4)

Colby (23-4)

Roanoke (23-3)

Farmingdale State (25-1)

Washington and Lee (18-9) Christopher Newport Newport News, Va.

Bowdoin College Waterville, Maine

Kean University Union Township, N.J.

Second Round March 6

Utica (21-6)

Sweet Sixteen March 12

Christopher Newport (28-0)

BLOOMINGTON, ILL. March 20

Elite Eight March 13

Moravian (25-2)

WOMENâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S BRACKET

DIV. III NCAA TOURNAMENT

FINAL FOUR

U. of New England (23-5)

Moravian College Bethlehem, Pa.

Elite Eight March 13

Williams (18-7)

Sweet Sixteen March 12

Western Connecticut (22-5)

Ithaca College Ithaca, N.Y.

Amherst College Amherst, Mass.

Second Round March 6

Mount St. Mary (22-5)

DeSales (18-9)

Ithaca (22-5)

RPI (17-10)

Southern Maine (20-8)

Mass. College (18-9)

Amherst (27-0)

First Round March 5

10 Tuesday, March 2, 2010

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11

SPORTS

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Pearls of wisdom

WOMEN’S SQUASH

B

continued from page 12

ALEX DENNETT/TUFTS DAILY

Junior tri-captain Valerie Koo played in the No.1 spot for the Tufts women’s squash team, which won two out of three games this weekend at Yale. which its top players will participate.

“We definitely played the best we could and improved a lot since first semester,”

Koo said. “The most important thing was that we had fun out there and we just played with a good attitude.”

Matera posts lone win for Tufts on Sunday MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING continued from page 12

pool Friday night with 526 points, over 200 points behind Williams’ tally of 740.

But while the team was never able to recover from Friday’s deficit and stayed behind the Ephs in the standings for the rest of the weekend, the momentum turned around Saturday afternoon, when the Jumbos’ 200-yard medley relay team — composed of juniors Michael DelMoro and Zed Debbaut, senior Patrick Kinsella and sophomore Owen Rood anchoring — squeaked by Amherst to win with a national “B” cut-worthy time of 1:32.28.

“We didn’t quite do so well in the Friday session, so when we got to that Saturday session … we wanted to show the other teams that we were a force to be reckoned with,” Rood said. “Together we knew that we had to set the tone, to come out and win right off the bat.”

Tufts’ victory in the 200-yard medley relay was its second consecutive conference title in the event. Before the four Jumbo swimmers on the 2009 relay team — of whom only Rood returned, as then-seniors Andrew Shields (LA ’09) and James Longhurst (E ’09) graduated and then-freshman E.J. Testa took part in another relay — won the event with a Tufts record time of 1:31.04, the Jumbos had never won a relay at the NESCAC Championships.

Yet after Rood touched the wall Saturday afternoon less than a second ahead of

Amherst junior Alex Fraser, he broke more new ground, becoming the first Jumbo to be part of two NESCAC champion relay teams.

“Swimming is a huge sport for momentum, and it showed, because as soon as we won that relay, things turned around,” coach Adam Hoyt said. “There hasn’t historically been an expectation to win these big relays at the conference championships, but last year we won the same relay, and it was great for our team to defend that championship and win it again.”

The medley relay was the first of a total of six national “B” cut performances for the Jumbos in Saturday’s events, including two third-place, all-NESCAC performances — Kinsella in the 100-yard butterfly and Debbaut in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The 200-yard medley relay B foursome of sophomore E.J. Testa, senior quad-captain Lawrence Chan, freshman Beckett Linn and junior Gordy Jenkins also qualified for nationals with a “B” cut qualifier of 1:33.92.

In the diving events, Matera finished in third place in the 1-meter event, behind two divers from Wesleyan, sophomore Giovanni Galluzzo and senior J.P Valette. But on Sunday night, the All-NESCAC performer was able to rally from a third-place prelim finish in the 3-meter event with a score of 465.15 to ultimately close out his NESCAC career with another impressive victory.

“It felt amazing; there was no better way to end my college career,” Matera said. “It was a little disappointing not to win the 1

meter, but I had much higher expectations for myself in the 3 meter event.”

While the only other Tufts event victory came on Sunday with Matera’s win, the depth of the Jumbos’ squad — which was ultimately able to amass 1452.5 points toward the total team standings — enabled it to gain enough points to surpass Amherst for the second year in a row.

“For the team, it’s always about a complete team effort; depth is what truly defines us,” Hoyt said. “It’s not about one individual. There are 46 guys on the team and we need the best out of every one of them… we need all the 24 guys [at the NESCAC Championships] to give their all, and that’s what happened.

“We had a great meet,” Hoyt continued.

“We went into it with really high expectations, and on the first day we were a little off from those expectations. It took us about a day to come to terms with not meeting all of our expectations, but when we relaxed and started to have fun, I think in many ways we exceeded our expectations.”

The Jumbos, who were able to qualify for nationals either this weekend or earlier in the season, will now have a couple of weeks off before heading to Minneapolis for the Div. III NCAA Championships.

“We’ve been tapering for a while now, so we’ll start training a little bit harder and then shave and taper down our workouts once again,” Rood said. “And we’ll head up to Minnesota and show what we can do.”

Difficult draw includes Muhlenberg, Final Four favorite Kean WOMEN’S BASKETBALL continued from page 12

Sixteen a year ago.

The nationally ranked No. 22 Mules are paced by sophomore Alexandra Chili, who has averaged 17.4 points and 2.9 threepointers per game so far this season.

“She’s a great three-point shooter — always has been — and she looks for that every game,” said Weiner, who played against Chili in high school. “That’s her deadly weapon.”

If Tufts was to get past its most formidable first-round opponent in its brief NCAA Tournament history, it would almost certainly take on host Kean for the right to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. Riding a 26-game winning streak, the second-ranked

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Jumbos show marked improvement No. 3 spot. Freshman Jessica Rubine also had an impressive match as she forced a fifth game, but she eventually bowed to her opponent 11-8 in the final game at No. 4.

“I think we all played really hard considering Madison wasn’t there at No. 6,” Koo said. “So that was a pretty big disadvantage. We were pretty close at the top of the ladder, so when we didn’t win we at least forced those games.”

Both captains, though, felt that the effort from the Columbia match reflected well on the team’s ability to perform amply regardless of the health of its players.

“We were hoping to win in the middle of the ladder since the bottom got pushed up one spot, and the top is pretty strong,” Bruynell said. “I think everyone played their hardest. It was still a pretty tough match.”

Even though the loss to Columbia marked the end of a losing season, the Jumbos made a substantial improvement since last semester. Tufts won five of its final nine matches after winning just one match before February and has only the CSA Individual Championships left this weekend, in

Wanted

Cougars have lost only to Div. I Rutgers this year, steamrolling through the New Jersey Athletic Conference at a 13-0 clip. Two years removed from an appearance in the Elite Eight, Kean is considered an odds-on favorite to reach the Final Four for the second time in program history.

Having played national powerhouses Mary Washington and Messiah in NCAA play in recent years, Tufts would look forward to the challenge of facing another of Div. III’s best.

“It’s how we roll — when our backs are against the wall, that’s when we play our best basketball,” Berube said. “I don’t think we like the easy road.

“I think Kean is a very, very strong team that’s had a strong season,” she continued.

“It’ll be interesting and fun to watch them and see who they are. But Muhlenberg is the focus.”

At the very least, the Jumbos know that their cutthroat conference has prepared them well for the difficult road ahead.

“We know walking into a gym that we’ve played one of the hardest schedules and that we’ve played some of the best teams in the country already,” senior tri-captain Vanessa Miller said. “We have a lot of experience playing very, very solid basketball teams, which not everybody can say they have at this point in the season. Some teams start to play their toughest games of the season in the first round of NCAAs, and for us, we already have a couple of those under our belt. It’s good experience to have.”

ear with me for a second because I’m going out on a limb here. Just call me Homer Simpson about to jump Springfield Gorge. Weeks before March becomes madness, I’m making a snap judgment, and believe me that it’s going to come true. Don’t need facts, because this is coming from the gut.

The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team will make the Final Four. Gasp.

But wait, the bracket hasn’t been released, the SEC Tournament is over a week away and the Volunteers still have two regular-season matchups left. How can you make this bold prediction this early? Because I just know.

This weekend, coach Bruce Pearl’s scrappy unit lost a 19-point lead to national No. 2 Kentucky and then promptly closed the game on a 9-0 run for a 74-65 victory. Playing a team with a star-studded lineup of players John Calipari siphoned from Memphis, Pearl’s squad punched the Wildcats right in the mouth. For most schools, beating Kentucky would be a dream come true. But not for Tennessee. Saturday’s victory came over a month after the Vols bounced No. 1 Kansas from the top spot on Jan. 10, a game even more impressive than the win over the Wildcats. Versus Kansas, Pearl rallied his depleted team, which had just lost its best player in Tyler Smith and three others after they had been charged with gun possession, to a monumental win on a three-pointer by walk-on Skylar McBee. So therein lies Tennessee’s power. It can win against the nation’s best. The Vols became the first team since the 2001-02 season to beat No. 1 and No. 2 ranked squads in the same campaign. That year, both Oklahoma and Maryland did it. And where did they end up at the end of the year?

That’s right. The Final Four.

Of course, both of Tennessee’s wins have come at home in Thompson-Boling Arena, a place where they won’t be come tournament time. But as long as Pearl can energize them to the same level that allowed the Vols to open up an 18-4 margin in the first few minutes against Kentucky, Knoxville will be singing “Rocky Top” far into March.

On the note of singing “Rocky Top,” Tennessee fans actually can bank on Pearl to deliver in the clutch. Compare that to the efforts of a certain weasel, a recently departed football coach who entered Knoxville promising upsets of Florida and accusing SEC coaches of various transgressions and who then promptly left the program in the dust.

But I digress. For a men’s athletics program that has fallen under severe national media scrutiny recently (read: Lane Kiffin, that slime ball. Think I’m bitter?), Pearl’s real power comes not in pumping his immediate troops up for a big win, but in giving Rocky Top its first Final Four appearance ever.

The real question is: Can Tennessee keep this focus up throughout the SEC Tournament and into March? After all, the Vols do have losses on the road at Georgia and a 22-point embarrassment at USC. But when you pair the wins over Kentucky and Kansas with a narrow one-point loss to Purdue in November, the Vols have a fairly impressive résumé.

Currently listed as a four seed by ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi, Tennessee could very well be that sleeper coming out of a major conference, like Arizona did last year. That is, of course, if the momentum keeps up — and the Kentucky win makes me fairly confident it will. So cut down the nets, Bruce Pearl, because your team is going to Indianapolis on April 3.

And now, of course, the Vols will get bounced in the first round because of that horrendous jinx. Whoops.

Alex Prewitt is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu.

Sports

12

INSIDE NCAA Tournament Bracket 10 Live from Mudville 11

tuftsdaily.com

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING

Tufts one of five NESCAC schools to receive NCAA bid

Tufts finishes second at NESCAC championships

BY SAPNA

BANSIL

Daily Editorial Board

As part of a historic day for the NESCAC, the women’s basketball team was awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament yesterday afternoon by the tournament’s selection committee.

The announcement ended over a week of anxiousness for Tufts, which was thought to be on the tournament bubble after losing three of its last four games. Ultimately, however, the unparalleled strength of the Jumbos’ conference helped propel them to the Big Dance for the third consecutive year.

Tufts will be joined in the field of 64 by four NESCAC rivals: automatic qualifier and conference-champion Amherst, as well as Pool C entrants Bowdoin, Colby and Williams.

The five total bids awarded to the NESCAC were the most in its history, topping the four it received in 2006.

“It definitely says that the NESCAC is the best conference in the country this year,” coach Carla Berube said. “I think five teams deserve it. Some of us played the toughest schedules in the country, and it’s great basketball. It makes sense.”

After Tufts lost to Bowdoin in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament on Feb. 20, its at-large chances were perhaps a bit shakier than in year’s past. But ultimately, the selection committee weighed the team’s overall body of work — a 17-4 record against the fourth-toughest in-region schedule in the country, as well as notable wins over three regionally ranked opponents — more heavily than its recent struggles.

Still, the Jumbos did not go entirely unpunished for their earliest conference tournament exit in four years. A possible candidate to host the first two rounds of NCAAs until its late-season slide, Tufts wound up being shipped over 230 miles to the campus of Kean University in Union,

BY

BEN KOCHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts men’s swimming and diving team started its season with one date above all circled on its calendar:

MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING NESCAC Championships at Williamstown, Mass., Friday-Sunday 1. Williams 2. Tufts 3. Amherst 4. Middlebury 5. Hamilton

makes us focus only on the game rather than classes and the daily routine at school. It’s a chance to get away and have some fun.”

The Jumbos were further penalized for stumbling down the stretch by being given possibly the toughest draw of any of the five NESCAC teams in the tournament. First up is Centennial Conference runner-up Muhlenberg, which earned a return ticket to March Madness after reaching the Sweet

this weekend’s 12th-annual NESCAC Championships, held at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. After finishing only 237 points behind the Ephs at least year’s tournament, the 24 Jumbos competing at NESCACs had high hopes that this would finally be the year that they would break through and claim their first-ever conference title.

When the water ripples had settled this weekend, however, the Ephs had once more proven their NESCAC superiority, and Tufts had — for the fourth time in five years — finished in runner-up position.

Tufts’ chances to end Williams’ sevenyear streak of conference championships were quickly put in doubt after a disappointing showing in Friday’s opening events. While in last year’s tournament the Jumbos jumped out to an early lead after the first day, this year Tufts retired from the

see WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 11

see MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING, page 11

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

Juniors Lindsay Weiner, left, and tri-captain Colleen Hart, shown here against Worcester State, are gearing up for their opening game in the NCAA tournament against Muhlenberg at Kean University on Friday.

N.J., where it will take on Muhlenberg in Friday’s opening round.

The Jumbos are used to hitting the road this time of year, however. Because Cousens Gym was not a regulation-size facility until this season, Tufts was forced to play out-ofregion NCAA games in both 2008 and 2009, even though it could have made a case to host each year.

“We’ve traveled the past two years, and every time we do, it sort of gets us in the NCAA spirit,” junior Lindsay Weiner said. “It

WOMEN’S SQUASH

1937.5 1452.5 1352 1029.5 757

SKIING

Tufts finishes well at Epps Cup For Bresee, regionals beget nationals BY

EMILY BEINECKE

Daily Staff Writer

After two straight weeks of friendly scrimmages without a single match, the women’s squash team came away from the Epps Cup (D Division) at Yale University with a strong performance, defeating nationally ranked No. 32 Boston College and No. 28 Northeastern before falling to a talented opponent in No. 26 Columbia.

The Jumbos began the long weekend with an early morning match against Boston College (BC) on Friday, clipping the Eagles 9-0 overall and starting off the seasonconcluding tournament on the right foot. Only two of the matches lasted longer than three games. At the No. 7 spot, senior tri-captain Erin Bruynell came back from a 1-0 deficit against Eagle senior Caroline Cannon to win in four games, 6-11, 11-4, 11-3, 11-8.

Unfortunately for the Jumbos, though, freshman Madison Newbound, who typically plays at the No. 6 spot, had to sit out the weekend’s tournament with a stomach ailment, forcing the squad to move the bottom of the ladder up one spot each. Because of this adjustment, senior Lauren Lanster played her first match of the season that contributed to the final score, assuming the No. 9 spot against the Eagles and defeating her opponent in straight sets.

“Lauren played really well for her first games that counted,” Bruynell said. “I think we all played really well, but we expected to beat BC because they don’t have the most skilled program.”

Saturday’s afternoon match against Northeastern mirrored

the tempo that Tufts had set Friday morning, as it defeated the Huskies by a comfortable score of 8-1. Senior Sairah Mahmud had the most success, allowing only 11 points to her opponent at the No. 8 spot. Tufts’ only loss came at the No. 1 slot, as junior tri-captain Valerie Koo fell to skilled junior Tessa Martin, the National Junior Squash champion of Trinidad and Tobago.

“Last time we played Northeastern, they didn’t have their No. 1,” Bruynell said. “This time we played up one spot, so we ended up facing players who were better than the players we played against last time.”

Even though the Jumbos faced a more talented Husky lineup, they stepped up their game at all spots. Sophomore Alyse Vinoski, who suffered the Jumbos’ only loss in the first Northeastern matchup, came back in this weekend’s grudge match to take down her opponent in four games at No. 5. “[The Huskies’] No. 1 and No. 3 are really strong,” Koo said. “And the whole team won, which is what really counts.”

The victory against the Huskies advanced Tufts to the finals of the Epps Cup as the No. 1 seed to take on No. 2 Columbia. Despite an impressive effort from the Tufts squad, the Jumbos were unable to pull off wins in the spots they had hoped to, falling to Columbia 7-2.

The sophomore class led the way for Tufts, as Vinoski took down Lion senior Monica Gorman in four sets, and Mercedes Barba followed up with a straight-set victory against junior Anne Cheng in the see WOMEN’S SQUASH, page 11

BY

ETHAN STURM

Senior Staff Writer

For the ski team, the regional race usually serves as a measuring stick for the team to end its season. But for junior captain Brian Bresee, the Eastern Regional Championships from Feb. 20-21 at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire were simply another stepping stone.

With impressive runs in both the slalom on Feb. 20 and the giant slalom on Feb. 21, Bresee finished 15th individually and qualified for Nationals next weekend. It will be his first time competing at that level. For Bresee, who had struggled down the stretch in the team events in prior weeks, the performance was quite a relief. He had failed to finish three of his last four races and knew there was no room for error going into the weekend.

“It definitely crossed my mind,” Bresee said. “But you always have some races where you fall. I wasn’t too worried about it and tried to not let it affect me.”

Bresee wasted no time getting off to a good start. In the first run of Saturday’s event, he recorded a 45.27, putting him in a comfortable 11th place position.

“Starting off with slalom was good because it’s always my stronger event,” Bresee said. “The biggest part of both races this weekend was simply to finish both of them, but the slalom definitely had me feeling good.”

Bresee, however, stumbled a bit in the second run of the day, and with most competitors putting up better times than their first by almost a second, he was forced to settle for a time of 45.76. He dropped to 14th place, but was

still in good position going into the second day of competition.

Sunday brought another day and a new event: the giant slalom.

Bresee once again earned a strong position on his first run, and his 1:03.68 showing had him sitting in 17th place. But like on Saturday, his opponents became more familiar with the course and posted substantially better times in the second run. Unable to keep up with the competition, his 1:02.76 dropped him to 20th place on the day.

“After the first run on Sunday, I was definitely worrying about qualifying, and it started affecting my races a little bit,” Bresee said.

His two races earned him a total of 29 individual points, which put him in a tie with Boston College senior John Ramer for 15th place.

As the highest-placing skier on a team that did not qualify for nationals, Bresee was awarded the sole individual invite.

“On my second run, when I came down, I thought I got knocked out of the spot,” Bresee said. “Another skier was only a couple of points behind me, and it wasn’t until someone came down and told me that I knew I had qualified.”

Bresee’s performance was also integral to Tufts’ success in the team competition. He was the Jumbos’ best finisher on both days, though fellow junior Arlin Ladue finished second on the team in both events, taking 31st on Saturday and 30th on Sunday.

For Ladue, who seemed to find his form late in the season, it was a very satisfying result.

“Personally, it always feels good to finish strong,” Ladue said. “I thought I skied well both days, and it’s always fun to do well on the last day of competition.”

In the absence of injured junior Thomas Valentin, it was up to other team members to step up.

Freshman Nathan Goldsberry closed out the team scoring for Tufts on Saturday with a strong 43rd-place finish in his first-ever race at Regionals. Senior Joseph Tonelli took 40th and was the last skier to count for the Jumbos’ overall point total on Sunday.

Tufts finished with 15 team points on the weekend, tying the team with Worcester Polytechnic Institute for seventh in the region and second in the Thompson Division. The squad finished just outside of the top six, which are given team invites to nationals.

“It was a really positive thing that we could prove we are the second-best team in the division,” Ladue said. “We feel we could have been right there with Castleton all season. The fact that we could compete with Tom out really says something about the strength of our team.”

It was an encouraging result for Tufts, which, due to a series of bad breaks, had finished outside of the top two in the division for the first time since 2007.

“We were really looking for experience so that hopefully next year, with Brian, Tom and I all seniors, we can make a run for nationals,” Ladue said.

But for Bresee, there is still more skiing to come. He will have a chance to compete in nationals at Thunder River in Maine this coming weekend.

“It is definitely a tougher field,” Bresee said. “I have never been there, so I can’t say exactly where I hope to place. If I can finish strong and do my best I will be happy no matter where I end up.”