2010-03-18

THE TUFTS DAILY

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THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2010

VOLUME LIX, NUMBER 34

Sol Gittleman to deliver commencement speech BY

ELLEN KAN

Daily Editorial Board

Sol Gittleman, the Alice and Nathan Gantcher university professor and former provost, will on May 23 deliver this year’s commencement address, according to a press release from Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler.

Gittleman will also receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters, along with four other individuals.

University President Lawrence Bacow noted that Gittleman represents Tufts at its finest.

“I often tell freshmen that if they want to experience Tufts at its best, they should take a class [with] Sol — any class,” Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily.

University officials cited Gittleman’s reputation as an excellent teacher and educator as an important reason for his selection.

“When the university looks for commencement speakers, they look for commencement speakers who are going to be able to deliver a memorable address,” Thurler said. “[We look for] people who have interesting things to say and give graduates, their families and other members of the Tufts community information that is compelling, inspiring … Sol Gittleman is known for being able to do that in the classroom.”

Bacow likewise highlighted

Gittleman’s inspired teaching. “Sol is not only a great scholar, he is the Babe Ruth of teaching, one of the very best teachers of all time,” he said.

Administrators also emphasized that fact that Gittleman has been a longtime member of the Tufts community. “[Gittleman] also knows Tufts and the student experience better than anyone I know,” Bacow said.

“He’s been a member of this community for many years and this has the potential to be a really terrific address,” Thurler said.

Gittleman first joined the Tufts faculty 46 years ago as an associate professor of German. He served as provost from 1981 to 2002 and today continues to teach undergraduate classes like America and the National Pastime and Introduction to Yiddish Culture.

“Sol Gittleman has influenced generations of students through his teaching and mentoring,” Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha said. “He continues to have virtually unbounded passionate energy. I will always cherish his wise counsel and friendship when I arrived at Tufts from Dartmouth to become his successor as provost.”

Gittleman expressed his appreciation at being selected as the commencement speaker. “In some ways, I’m just a faculty member who just gets up and talks for the

rest of the faculty, which is a great honor,” he said.

The decision came as a surprise, according to Gittleman.

“I’ve been here a long time, I probably taught half the trustees already, I guess they were generally satisfied with their grades,” he said. “I was very surprised. This is the [trustees’] choice, they wanted to do this … I’ve been sort of sitting waiting for them to change their minds and it hasn’t happened.”

Gittleman says he has been too busy grading midterms to think about what he wants to say in his speech but keeps it at the back of his mind. He believes a good commencement speech should not be long and hopes what he says will be memorable for graduates.

“I don’t even remember my commencement speaker for my bachelors degree or Ph.D.,” Gittleman said. “I want to say something that sticks with them … I would like them to remember so it would be great if I can think of something that will do that.”

Both Bacow and Thurler expressed their confidence that Gittleman’s speech will be a meaningful one for audiences. “His commencement address is sure to be very special, personal and memorable,” Bacow said.

“There’s a good chance that this year’s seniors are going to get a real COURTESY TUFTS PUBLIC RELATIONS

see COMMENCEMENT, page 2

Sol Gittleman has been chosen as this year’s commencement speaker.

Somerville begins compliance checks of city liquor vendors

BY SAUMYA VAISHAMPAYAN

Daily Editorial Board

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Director of Somerville Cares About Prevention (SCAP) Cory Mashburn last week announced the start of Somerville’s annual liquor vendor compliance checks, which will continue until July.

The compliance checks, carried out by the Somerville Police Department in conjunction with SCAP and the youth

group Somerville Positive Forces 100 (SPF 100), will focus on underage alcohol sales, which make up approximately 15 percent of total annual alcohol sales in Massachusetts, according to Mashburn’s March 9 press release.

SCAP is a coalition of Somerville residents that strives to prevent substance abuse, with a focus on underage members of the community. It works with SPF 100, its youth subcommittee consisting of 10 high school students.

In the press release, Mashburn highlighted the importance of compliance checks to the overall goal of curbing substance abuse in the community.

“Frequent oversight of alcohol retailers increases compliance, and with our dedicated youth leaders and volunteers, we hope to continue our successful campaigns against drug and alcohol abuse, beginning here in our own community,” see LIQUOR, page 2

Greek community reinstates judicial board BY

MARTHA SHANAHAN Daily Editorial Board

The Inter-Greek Council (IGC) is in the process of reestablishing the Fraternity and Sorority Judicial (FSJ) Board, following the board’s absence this year.

The FSJ Board, which handles judicial cases involving fraternities and sororities, has not been used this year. Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter said that the board has always been a part of Greek policy but fell out of use when the director of fraternity and sorority affairs position was left vacant after former director Patrick Romero-Aldaz resigned in August.

Sophomore Jake Schiller, IGC vice president of governance and Sigma Phi Epsilon president, has been spearheading the project, which has involved reviewing and streamlin-

Housing lottery to move online next year BY

HARRISON JACOBS

Daily Editorial Board

The next time students select their on-campus housing, it will not be in Cousens Gym, or any other campus building for that matter.

Students will instead be able to participate in the housing lottery via a new online system.

The housing lottery system will first be used in the coming fall by students studying abroad selecting spring semester housing.

According to the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) Director Yolanda King, the decision to move to an online housing lottery has been in the works for a while.

“The decision came from feedback from the student body a few years ago and we are now in a place where can do it,” King said in an e-mail. “We are excited for this to be happening for students.”

A major advantage of moving to the online system is the elimination of the proxy system for students abroad, who currently must appoint another student to pick rooms for them, according to King.

“It will … permit students who are abroad to more directly participate in selecting their rooms and not relying solely on our proxy system,” she told the Daily.

Additionally, students under the new lottery system will be able to access a customized view of available rooms based on their class year, the type of room they are looking for or the building they wish to live in, according to James Moodie, the associate bursar of systems

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

see JUDICIARY, page 2

see LOTTERY, page 2

The Greek community is reestablishing a judicial board to oversee Tufts chapter houses.

Inside this issue

Today’s Sections

Tufts band The Smoking Jackets releases its first EP.

Junior pitcher Izzie Santone leads the softball team back into action.

see WEEKENDER, page 5

see SPORTS, back

News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 13 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

NEWS

Gittleman will give outstanding commencement address, administrators say COMMENCEMENT continued from page 1

treat in terms of the speech,” Thurler said.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick last year delivered the commencement address.

Addressing possible concerns that students may have about the speaker not being a celebrity, Thurler stressed that what counted was the quality of the speech.

“I’ve been to commencements at Tufts and other institutions, and the value I find in the remarks doesn’t necessarily correlate with whether the speaker is what one might consider a household name,” she said. “I think we’ve all been to occasions when someone was expected to give

a very insightful address and didn’t come through. I don’t think that will happen with Sol Gittleman.”

Bacow two years ago made this same point in an interview with the Daily, in which he said that in an ideal world the honor of commencement speaker would be bestowed on a faculty member who could effectively provoke thought instead of an external celebrity speaker.

Gittleman is the recipient of two Fulbright awards and the Harbison Prize of the Danforth Foundation for Oustanding Teaching. He was also named Professor of the Year by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Drew University, a Master of Arts from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Michigan. He also holds honorary degrees from Hebrew College, Stonehill College, Drew University and the University of Tübingen.

At the commencement ceremony, four individuals will receive honorary degrees, two of whom are Tufts alumni.

Richard Dorsay (LA ’60), founder of the Leonard Carmichael Society and retired professor and chief of radiology at Kaiser Hospital-South San Francisco, will receive an honorary doctorate of public service, while Gordon Wood (LA ’55), a Pulitzer

Prize winning historian and professor of history emeritus at Brown University, will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Meanwhile, Kristina M. Johnson, undersecretary of energy and former provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University, will get an honorary doctorate of science.

Musician Ann Hobson Pilot, a distinguished harpist who was the first AfricanAmerican principal in the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the first African-American woman appointed to a principal position in a major orchestra, will receive an honorary doctorate of music.

Greek judicial board to be reinstated JUDICIARY continued from page 1

MCT

Liquor stores in Somerville will be subject to compliance checks.

City seeks to prevent substance abuse in underage community LIQUOR continued from page 1

Mashburn said.

During a compliance check at a liquor outlet, an underage youth tries to purchase beer without an I.D., Mashburn explained to the Daily. A member of SCAP and a compliance officer accompany the youth to the location and wait outside.

In the event that the vendor makes an illegal sale, the youth leaves with the alcohol, and the vendor subsequently receives a citation from the compliance officer, a member of the Somerville Police Department.

Mashburn added that for safety purposes and to prevent recognition, the youth involved is always from another town.

Providing alcohol to someone underage warrants a $2,000 fine and six months to a year in jail, according to Lovelee Heller, SCAP community organizer.

There are over 200 locations to purchase alcohol in Somerville, including restaurants, bars and liquor stores.

The last round of compliance checks, which ended in July 2009, resulted in three illegal purchases, Mashurn said. None of the implicated vendors were located near Tufts.

He emphasized, however, that the timing of the checks greatly affects the number of illegal sales to minors. There is greater demand for alcohol among the underage population during prom season, for example.

Tony Iamunno, a manager at Downtown Wine and Spirits in Davis Square, has noticed a decline in minors trying to purchase alcohol with fake I.D.s, a possible result of the compliance checks.

“I’ve worked here for about four years, and when I first started we saw fake I.D.s constantly,” Iamunno said. “Now, since we take the fakes, people are less inclined to come in because they know that they’re

not going to get away with it.”

Chris Lianos, the owner of Ball Square Fine Wines, agreed that Somerville’s extensive underage drinking prevention programs have forced vendors to be more stringent in checking I.D.s.

“The City of Somerville has a great program,” Lianos said.

“It makes retailers aware that there can be a sting operation anytime.”

Lianos added that although his store is located near Tufts, he has not had any major problems with people under 21 trying to purchase alcohol.

Besides the compliance checks, SPF 100 also sponsors other initiatives that seek to encourage the city’s youth to make healthy life choices.

“SPF 100’s mission is to support social change and to support youth to make healthier decisions regarding the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs,” Heller, who works closely with SPF 100, said.

Two of SPF 100’s most visible outreach efforts are the Sticker Shock Campaign and Shoulder Tap Survey, according to Heller.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving sponsors both initiatives.

Shoulder tap surveys consist of underage students approaching adults outside of participating alcohol vendors to request their assistance in buying alcohol. The main goal is to determine how easy it is for minors to procure alcohol.

“We’re really trying to tell how long it takes for a minor to get alcohol,” Heller said.

During the Sticker Shock Campaign, students involved place stickers that display the drinking age on alcohol bottles at liquor stores. The stickers are in multiple languages to reach a broader spectrum of Somerville’s population, according to Heller. “[The campaign] educates the community and raises awareness about the minimum drinking age,” Heller said.

ing procedures.

“It’s an attempt to revamp [the FSJ Board], put on a little new polish,” he said. “We’re going back, looking at the organization … as well as the protocol, cleaning things up and making it a little more organized.”

IGC President Andrew McGowan, a junior, explained that the board will hear cases involving the violation of university rules by fraternity and sorority chapters as a whole.

“It’s basically set up [for cases in which] an entire house is implicated for something so that they have an avenue for their case to be heard among members of the Greek community,” McGowan said. “The actions of an individual who happens to be a member of the Greek community would be taken off to other judicial processes.”

Carter said that the board will enforce university policies as well as rules set forth in the IGC constitution. She echoed McGowan in emphasizing that the Division of Student Affairs will handle any cases involving individuals.

“All cases come to my office, and only the ones that pertain to a fraternity or sorority as a whole will go to [the FSJ Board],” she said.

Schiller feels that the reestablishment of the board will give the Greek community more ownership

over its governance.

“It’s meant to hold the [fraternities] responsible for what its members are doing on its behalf,” he said.

“It’s an opportunity for the Greek community to grow in both autonomy and influence in the school.”

The IGC, in conjunction with Carter and Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, are still in the process of working out the board’s protocol and functions, according to Schiller.

“It’s still a little unclear; we’re trying to [define] what kinds of cases come before it, what are we supposed to do as opposed to the [Tufts Community Union] Judiciary, and what policies we use,” Schiller said.

It has been established, however, that cases coming before the FSJ Board will be heard by five randomly chosen board members. McGowan stressed that board members will never be involved with a case involving their own chapter. “No member should have to hear a case about their own house,” he said.

McGowan and Schiller have been working with Carter to equip new members to serve on the board.

“We’re still in the process of training and inducting members,” Schiller said. “It’s an ongoing process.”

To date, seven chosen fraternity representatives have attended daylong training sessions with Carter intended to give them an idea of the

policies and procedures involved.

More training sessions are being planned.

“We sit down with the new members and go over the policies that are going to be used … which follow the same guidelines as the student [judicial] handbook,” Schiller said.

Representatives from Delta Upsilon, Alpha Phi and Alpha Omicron Pi have yet to be chosen, according to Schiller.

McGowan added that about 20 members of the Greek community have been interviewed for board positions and that more interviews have been scheduled. He expressed a desire to have a representative from every Tufts chapter on the board.

“When all is said and done, we should have a member from each fraternity and sorority,” McGowan said. “We’d like to have every [chapter] represented so that we get a body that’s pretty diverse.”

Although details are being finalized, McGowan said that FSJ Board members are already prepared to handle cases. “We’re ready to go, we’re ready to use it if we need to,” he said.

Schiller believes that the reinstatement of the FSJ Board signifies growth in the Greek community. “It shows that we are respectful and mature [institutions],” he said.

Online system will improve roommate pairing LOTTERY continued from page 1

and programs.

StarRez and StarNet Systems, an Australia-based software development firm specializing in telecommunications management and the management of residential living facilities in various colleges and universities, will be creating and running the system.

The selection process for choosing a vendor for the lottery system began almost three years ago, according to Moodie. He explained that StarRez emerged as the final choice as it was the only company that could tailor its system to Tufts’ housing lottery.

“The university had to go through a lot of hoops to find a system that could handle our system. We have a very unique approach to the lottery system,” Moodie said.

He noted that the administration felt retaining the current lottery procedures should be a high priority. “[The administration] had just gone through a fairly long examination of our lottery process and came up with a solution with input from the students that included the reciprocity and advance notification [in the current lottery system],” Moodie said. “To have that system in place and then change it so soon would be unfair to the people relying on that system.”

Staff members in Student Services and the Student Information Services (SIS) Technology Team have been working with StarRez to replicate the Tufts housing selection process online as accurately as possible, according to King.

One aspect of the lottery that the online system will be able to accom-

modate is group applications, like those for suites in Wren and Sophia Gordon Halls.

Moodie explained that students will apply as a group and be provided with an exclusive time to pick their room or suite based on the average of their lottery numbers.

This same timed system will apply for the larger lottery. Depending on the size of the lottery, that exclusive time window may vary.

Moodie compared it to the current system for class registration.

“If you fail to pick within your time, the next round could pick,” he said. “It’s fairly analogous to Web registration.”

The StarRez system will also perform functions beyond facilitating the housing lottery. It will be used for judicial matters and to administer roommate questionnaires for incoming freshmen, according to Moodie.

“From an administration standpoint, it will have far more robust reporting,” he said. “We’ll be able to host a questionnaire that matches students based on 12 different music preferences as opposed to now just asking the question, ‘Do you like music or not?’ Hopefully, we can tailor [the system] so people are getting better roommate matches.”

With regards to judicial affairs, ResLife Assistant Director of Community and Judicial Affairs Carrie Ales-Rich said the new centralized system will improve tracking and reporting of student offenses.

“StarRez will allow all incidents … to be ‘housed’ in one central location as well as any other information pertaining to each incident,” she said in an e-mail. “This will cut down on the amount of paper files … We will have

the ability to create various reports to better keep track of the kind of behavior occurring on campus.”

Ales-Rich added that the online system will facilitate improved communication. “Anyone managing a specific case will be able to send out all correspondences through the system ensuring consistency among the different case managers,” she said.

Moodie pointed out that the online system, beyond providing improved services, will save a lot of manpower.

“Normally, we take away the gym for three days … there’s a lot of staffing involved to basically set up an office in the gym and have Student Services’ and Yolanda’s staff,” he said. “We ask our students to sit in a gym for an hour or so. Hopefully, this will expand our level of service and reduce stress for everyone involved.”

The decision to eliminate the physical lottery system is part of larger goal to eventually replace SIS with a more modern system.

“There is university information that exists on the SIS system that you are familiar with, but it also handles housing and billing,” Moodie said.

“This is something that the university eventually wants to replace. They are slowly moving functionality off SIS to a newer system.”

King added that StarRez was a popular choice in the industry.

“They are well known in terms of other housing departments at other schools,” she told the Daily.

Other institutions of higher learning currently using StarRez for their residential living facilities include Harvard University, Boston College and University of California, Berkeley.

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

First annual ResLife shorts competition hopes to highlight benefits of on-campus living BY

CARTER ROGERS

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts students who have a penchant for filmmaking and live in university housing will soon have the opportunity to compete in ResLife Shorts, a short film competition allowing students to highlight different aspects of living in university housing.

A panel of judges will select three winning videos, and those three will be posted on the Office of Residential Life and Learning’s (ResLife) Web site for the next academic year and will be used in Tufts promotional materials. The winners will be revealed at an “Oscar Night” event on April 14.

The idea for the competition came from Assistant Professor of English Radiclani Clytus, the faculty member in residence for Houston Hall. Clytus became a faculty in residence about a year ago.

“This year while on sabbatical, I’ve been pretty much away from the dorms and had to do a lot of research for my first book,” Clytus said. “I thought one way I could actually kind of keep myself involved in academic community was to put on an event that could possibly involve the entire campus.” “[The idea for the competition] came out of essentially seeing how the relationship between ResLife and students is oftentimes kind of an antagonistic one. People would often talk about the nature of ResLife as being one where you don’t get the kind of room or housing that you wanted,” Clytus said.

“Ultimately, I thought, ‘Is there a way in which we can do something that will allow students to be more self-reflecting about the more productive aspects of living on campus?’

“I thought one way that could actually happen is by having them do kinds of self-reflective video statements about their organization or the kind of social life or academic or cultural communities that have been facilitated because they reside on campus, or in on-campus housing or make use of the resources provided by the university,” Clytus added.

Clytus hopes that students without extensive filmmaking experience and equipment don’t feel intimidated into believing they need top-of-theline gear to produce a good film. “The idea was supposed to be that students wouldn’t have to go out and buy some expensive … $1,000 HD camera, but that you could use whatever pre-existing technology you already have on your cell phone or … Flip cameras,” Clytus said.

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

Students do not need advanced equipment to make a successful video for the ResLife short film competition.

Though Clytus’ expertise is 19thcentury American literary history and African-American literature, his work has led him to study cinema. “As someone who got a Ph.D. in American Studies, a lot of my work focuses on visual culture, and so I’ve always been interested in moving images and the history of moving images,” Clytus said.

Both individuals and groups can submit videos to the competition. “I thought that people would make videos about study groups, friendships and social organizations. I happen to know that there are a number of culture houses that are going to produce videos about their organizations on campus and what kinds of benefits [the campus] serves for the student community academically, socially or otherwise,” Clytus said. Clytus noted that some might use the competition to take a critical look at parts of the university if they so choose.

Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser is one believer in the potential of the ResLife Shorts compe-

tition. “I think that one of the things we can do here is make sure learning happens in all kinds of environments, and I think the residence hall is a very healthy environment to have intellectual exchange and cultural experiences and middle-of-the-night conversations, you know, deep conversations about life,” Glaser said. “So, I’m very happy when there are initiatives coming out of ResLife to engage students intellectually, and this was one such initiative that really came from the minds and imaginations of the scholars in residence.”

Glaser credited professors Clytus and Assistant Professor of History Kris Manjapra for developing the idea for the competition. “I had no role in the conceiving of the project and no role in developing the idea. I am providing a little bit of money to help them, and I’m providing my services as a judge, but I have no qualifications as a judge other than willing to give a little bit of my time,” Glaser said.

For students wondering what judge

Glaser might be looking for in entries, he said he is looking for creativity rather than technically proficient filmmaking. “What I care about is that people exercise their imagination, and so obviously there will be people there that have a sense of what film looks like technically and from the perspective of a cinematographer, but I don’t have any expertise in that at all, and the only thing I feel capable of judging is my own response to it and I tend to respond to imagination and creativity, so that’s what I’m going to be looking for,” Glaser said. “But there’s several different judges and they’ll all be brining something different to the table.”

Students who are looking to enhance the cinematic qualities of their entries can attend a film-editing seminar today from 12 to 1 p.m. in Barnum 008 or from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Pearson 106.

Columbia University School of the Arts film student Bryan Parker, a friend of Clytus, will be instructing for the see FILM, page 4

Despite no Tufts houses, students in ethnic Greek organizations find community rich in tradition BY

MAYA KOHLI

Daily Staff Writer

Through Tufts has 11 Greek organizations with physical chapters that enjoy the benefits of on-campus housing and schoolwide recognition, Tufts is also home to several ethnic sororities and fraternities that do not have a physical presence on the Tufts campus. These organizations, coordinated by the Multicultural Greek Council (MCG), are citywide, with members from several Boston-area schools.

On the Tufts campus, both black and Latino Greek organizations are represented: Alpha Phi Alpha and Phi Beta Sigma (fraternities) and the Delta Sigma Theta sorority are historically black organizations, while Sigma Lambda Upsilon and Lambda Upsilon Lambda are Latino-centered sororities

and fraternities, respectively.

While black and Latino Greek organizations are not extremely visible at Tufts, they do have a long and rich history. According to current chapter members, ethnically specific Greek organizations were typically founded to fulfill the institutional and social needs felt by minority college students.

Accordingly, the majority of black Greek organizations were founded in the early 20th century when blacks were beginning to trickle into higher educational institutions, while Latino fraternities began to form in the late 1970s.

Black fraternities and sororities are grouped under the National PanHellenic Council (NPHC), which incorporates nine historically black Greek fraternities and sororities, referred to as the “Divine Nine.” The NPHC was

formed in 1930 at Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C. The Latino counterpart, the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO), was founded in 1998 and encompasses 20 different organizations.

While ethnic Greek organizations do enjoy some school-specific chapters and houses, members explained that in the Northeast region, where ethnic students are not as heavily concentrated and Greek life is not as popular as in other areas of the country, citywide chapters are more conducive to garnering enough members to sustain a chapter. For example, Delta Sigma Theta — a black sorority that is recognized as a student group at Tufts — incorporates several schools in its chapter, including Babson, Bentley, Brandeis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(MIT), Harvard and Wellesley. Other ethnic chapters present on the Tufts campus also encompass members from other Boston-area schools. Many of these city chapters are small — Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity currently only has two members in its Boston chapter, while Sigma Lambda Upsilon sorority has six — and when a pledge class (known in ethnic organizations as a “line”) graduates, there is a possibility that the Greek organization it represents will lose all of its members.

Despite the small size of these chapters, many of their members agree that what makes these organizations unique is the fact that they draw members with similar values and ideals and they do not hold a formal “recruitment” period. see GREEK, page 4

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

FEATURES

Black and Latino Greek organizations strong despite small numbers GREEK continued from page 3

“I didn’t come here wanting to be Greek, but I heard stories about the brotherhood and the camaraderie of black fraternities that lasted outside of college,” junior Matthew Kincaid, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, said.

Kincaid also emphasized the role that his love of black history played in his search for a fraternity.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Duke Ellington, Thurgood Marshall — all are men of Alpha,” Kincaid said.

Ariana Matias, a senior in Lambda Upsilon Lambda, emphasized the convergence of values that she held with her sorority. “A lot of us do the same work. We have our ideals: leadership, service, cultural enrichment and sisterhood. For me, it was about finding women who were as driven as I was and who were in a position to help drive me,” Matias said.

Although they may seem geographically disparate, members of ethnic Greek organizations cherish the bonds they have created with students from other schools. “It’s part of the culture — I have brothers at MIT, Harvard, [Boston University] — if I want to get off campus, the brotherhood is as strong as on campus,” Kincaid said.

Brianna Atkinson, a sophomore in Delta Sigma, agreed. “It’s been cool getting to know girls from different schools. Our older sisters are from Wellesley, MIT and Harvard, and I have enjoyed getting to know their experiences at those schools,” she said.

“Just having sisters at other schools is great — our network is huge. We do believe that our sisterhood is until death; we are always there for one another,” senior Vanessa Salazar, the president of the MGC and a member of Lambda Upsilon Lambda, said.

Ethnic Greek organizations are specifically focused on community service, a feature that members agreed initially drew them to their respective chapters.

“I also liked what [my chapter] stood for,” Montez Paschall, a junior in Phi Beta Sigma, said regarding how he felt during initial events.

Recently, his chapter organized a scholarship gala, and it enjoys close ties with the Greater Boston Food Bank. Sigma Lambda Upsilon, whose national philanthropy focuses on literature, held a collaborative “Bowling for Books” event with the MGC; all the funds went to Haiti and Chile earthquake relief.

“Our organizations tend to be more service-oriented — service and brotherhood are our two tenets. In many ways, these fraternal organizations were meant to help us come together and help us serve our communities,” Kincaid said, emphasizing the centrality that community service plays in ethnic organizations.

Because the Northeastern region lacks concentrated groups of minority students, ethnic fraternities and sororities can sometimes experience difficulties at their campuses. The organizations are frequently highly complex and involve various rituals and historical traditions.

“There are so many cultural and historical elements of black fraternities that people may not understand,” Kincaid said. This barrier can make it difficult for the organizations to get the same mainstream appeal as traditional houses.

Matias explained that the lack of a formal recruitment process also makes getting numbers difficult: “The student body doesn’t know; we don’t recruit.

Our organizations aren’t looking for numbers, we are looking for quality people who are leaders and committed on campus — that’s not how we get members,” Matias said.

Matias is especially aware of this aspect — after her graduating line, the chapter will become “dormant,” as it has not received any new members. Despite this, both Matias and Salazar praised the Tufts administration’s openness to ethnic groups. As the president of the MGC, Salazar has worked closely with Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman this past year.

“He has shown that the administration understands the presence of black and Latino fraternities and our mission,” Salazar said.

JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY

Professor Radiclani Clytus’ time as the faculty member in residence in Houston Hall led him to think that a film competition was a good way for students to reflect on the positive aspects of residence hall living.

ResLife film competition lets students showcase advantages of campus living FILM continued from page 3

seminar. The seminar will focus on editing with Apple’s popular iMovie editing software.

Parker has extensive experience in numerous types of filmmaking and will be able to instruct students in a variety of film styles.

“I used to do documentary work for the U.N. so I spent a few years in Asia shooting docs for them, basic projects and project documentaries. I graduated from

Harvard with a degree in political science and documentary filmaking,” Parker said, “Now, I go between neo-realism and social problems and offbeat comedies.”

Parker also shoots music videos and commercials with fellow Columbia film student Gregg Conde, who also knows Clytus. “It helps pay the bills,” Parker said.

The deadline for submissions for the competition is April 7. Students who want to learn more can visit the ResLife Web site.

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Weekender ARTS & LIVING

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tuftsdaily.com

Tufts’ own Smoking Jackets digitally releases debut EP

BY JOSH

ZEIDEL

Daily Editorial Board

This past Monday, the all-Tufts piano rock band The Smoking Jackets digitally released its debut EP, “Wolves in Cheap Clothing.”

The five-track sampler displays the band’s versatility, with songs that range in feel from the adult contemporary jazz of Jamie Cullum to ironic piano-punk a la Ben Folds. The Daily decided to take an in-depth look this eclectic group of musicians to learn more about the band’s formation, songwriting process and sound, its debut EP and the group’s plans for the future.

What’s in your Jacket?

The Smoking Jackets — consisting of junior Ben Anshutz on keyboard and lead vocals, senior Will Maroni on bass, senior Alex Berdoff on drums, sophomore Connor Ferguson on trumpet and backing vocals, sophomore Matt Davis on alto and tenor saxophones and junior Hanson Gong on baritone saxophone — was formed toward the end of the 2008 fall semester when Anshutz decided he wanted to start a piano-rock band.

“I’d written a few rock tunes for piano and kept hearing horn lines,” Anshutz said. “I dug the idea of piano being the only chordal instruments, [but I also] wanted to try out a full, three-part horn section. It would require us to solve musical problems in interesting ways, so I went out a-hunting.”

Berdoff had previously played with Anshutz in the now-defunct Tufts band Party Hat, and Anshutz gathered the remaining musicians to staff his band through posters, classmates and previous band members.

“Basically, I just threw up flyers around the music building and asked friends in my music classes if they wanted to jam,” Anshutz said. “We started messing around that fall, but really came together in the spring.”

moved too far from where it started.

“I think we’re still in the ‘early days,’” Anshutz said.

“Maybe we’ve gotten a little bit more punk-ish than the first songs we were working on, but I’d say we’re really just establishing a sound now. This is the start.”

A Five-Pack of ‘Wolves’ “Wolves in Cheap Clothing,” the newly-released EP, clocks in at just five songs through which the band must demonstrate both consistency and versatility. An EP, or extended play, format is favored by bands just starting out for its lower production costs, but allows no room for filler material, unlike the EP’s big brother, the LP, or long play. “Wolves” begins gently, with the jazzy, vaguely Broadway-inspired “Cameo.”

“Sometimes you meet people,” Anshutz said. “And then they get all high and mighty on you and forget where they came from. It’s a love song on the surface, but it’s also about being that guy who’s been left behind in the crowd and gets swallowed up by the hustle and bustle.”

The sassy “Ms. Practice” follows, riding a driving

Writing a Smoking Song The group takes a very improvisational approach to its songwriting process, doing very little of what one would traditionally think of as formal composition and arrangement.

“Ben writes a tune, and he’s just got a piano part and some singing,” Ferguson said. “Ben plays it through once, Alex adds a beat, and we all play different things to see how they sound. We [the horn players] start catching on to what others are doing; like if Matt has a cool line, I’ll do the same thing, but working on a harmony for it. And nothing’s ever written down. Not a single note. Not even chord changes.”

“It comes down to just playing songs over and over again and trying something else cool each time until we find something we all like,” Berdoff added. “It tends to work, though, in my opinion.”

While the group’s lineup has remained constant since its very first jam session, its sound has undergone a little bit of evolution. “We’ve gotten so much better at composition,” Davis said. “I listened to [saxophonist] Jerry DePizzo of O.A.R. a lot, as far as rock saxophone goes, before joining Smoking Jackets, so my initial conception of playing in a rock setting was very solooriented. In the first semester playing with the Smoking Jackets, it was kind of a problem.”

“We had this motto for awhile: ‘Everybody needs to play less,’” Berdoff added.

The band’s initial influences ranged from Ben Folds to James Brown, from the Beatles to Stevie Wonder, although Anshutz feels that the sound hasn’t really

strap, and dances about as though struck with a serious case of “Saturday Night Fever” (1977).

The track that follows — “Heartache with a Side of Mayonnaise” — can best be described as an angsty, copyright-infringing, piano-rock mashup. The Smoking Jackets lift a bridge melody from the theme to the TV show “Doug” (1991-1999); the band also copies wholesale the verse instrumentals of Jukebox the Ghost’s “Good Day” (2008). The resulting tune plays like an ironic spoof of Ben Folds — if he were on an old-school Nickelodeon kick.

“So the cat’s out of the bag,” Anshutz said. “It’s about the show ‘Doug.’ Except now Doug is in college, and he hears Roger Klotz taking Patti Mayonnaise’s virginity in the room next door. It’s tragic. He gets all pissed off and curses a lot.”

The final song on the EP is “Karma Kid,” a tune whose soulful piano lines and “la-da-da” choruses call to mind the effortless, lounge-pop sounds of jazz pianist Jamie Cullum. The lyrics paint a decidedly carefree perspective on life in general: “It’s an old-school kind of philosophy/ I just do what I want the world to do back to me/ It’s as simple as the light of day/ Come on be a Karma Kid with me, and let the music take you away.”

In accordance with a pay-it-forward world view, the Smoking Jackets are offering these five songs for free download through numerous outlets, including myspace.com/smokingjacketsrock, thesmokingjackets. bandcamp.com, reverbnation.com/thesmokingjackets and purevolume.com/thesmokingjackets.

Jackets With Dreams

COURTESY SARAH BRANDT VOREL

The Smoking Jackets perfom in Hotung. piano line reminiscent of Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” (1972). The song narrates a story of forbidden love, as Anshutz explained. “I worked at a supermarket when I was 16, [crappy] job. I had to wear a bright orange vest while I bagged groceries and fetched shopping carts.

Newport Beach, [Calif.], my hometown, doesn’t just have Silicon Valley but also some other silicon topography, if you catch my drift. It’s basically about that: topography.”

“Wolves” then takes a turn for the decidedly retro, with the ’80s synth sounds, “four-on-the-floor” dance beat and thumping slap-bass line of “Baby, Can You Disco?” In live performances of the song, Anshutz dons an actual keytar, complete with a fuzzy pink guitar

The Smoking Jackets have used the online community extensively to promote awareness of “Wolves in Cheap Clothing” — even the title itself came from a Facebook. com-based fan contest to name the EP, in a move that Berdoff referred to as “crowd-sourcing.” The band plans to encourage further participation from its Internet audience by hosting a remix competition for “Baby, Can You Disco?” Toward the end of April, the Smoking Jackets will be selling physical copies and digital downloads of an extended edition of the EP; this version will include as bonus tracks the winning fan remix of “Baby, Can You Disco?” as well as another original song, “I’m Out,” and an up-tempo cover of Otis Redding’s soul hit, “(Sittin’ On The) Dock Of The Bay” (1968).

While Anshutz and Gong study abroad this semester in India and France, respectively, the band remains on hiatus, but the band is booking several dates in the late spring and early summer, including appearances in New York and Washington, D.C. Though Berdoff and Maroni will both graduate this May, members of The Smoking Jackets are not yet ruling out the possibility of continuing to play together.

“Next year is next year,” Anshutz said. “We’ll see where everybody is in the world, and if we’re near enough to make music together, you better bet you’re ass that’s what we’ll be doing.”

THE TUFTS DAILY

6

Thursday, March 18, 2010

WEEKENDER

TV REVIEW

Comedy Central’s newest animated series, ‘Ugly Americans,’ depicts a New York City beset by zombies, land-whales BY

ANDREW MILGROOM Contributing Writer

Any guess that Comedy Central’s new animated series “Ugly Americans” is about a

Ugly Americans Starring Matt Oberg, Kurt Metzger, Natasha Leggero, Randy Pearlstein Airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. on Comedy Central typical New Yorker, in typical New York City, will be off by quite a bit; rather, this strangely comedic TV show tells the story of a man too normal to fit into the phantasmagorical society surrounding him.

With an actual demon for an ex-girlfriend, young Mark Lilly (voiced by Matt Oberg) seems to be the only normal person in a fantasy-netherworld version of New York City. As a social worker at the city’s Department of Integration, Mark is saddled with the duty of helping twoheaded monsters and giant chickens become functional members of an already psychotic society.

The show takes the viewer to a Manhattan inhabited by such strange creatures as werewolves, zombies and land-whales (whales with legs). The protagonist Mark, however, seems to be quite normal despite his ridiculous living conditions, which include rooming with a recently undead zombie named Randall (Kurt Metzger) bent on eating his brains. If one had to guess, the title is based on the appearance of zombies

THEAPIARY.COM

“I’m with Zombie,” says Dumbledore doppelganger. (they’re usually ugly).

Cartoon-savvy viewers may recognize this wicked style of humor as heavily influenced by the previous work of the show’s co-creator, cartoonist and animator Devin Clark. “Ugly Americans” heavily draws on the comedic style and artistry of Clark’s animated online shorts

“5 On” (2010), in which demonic creatures on the street are asked all types of questions ranging from immigration policy to elections. In the world of Devin Clark, it seems that the stranger a concept is, the better it is.

Ironically, Clark’s oddball comedic interests seem a bit less weird when seen in context

with recent American pop culture trends that have cast the fodder of horror films into the limelight. Over the past several years, the American viewer has once again developed a new taste for the monster classics, and “Ugly Americans” could be viewed as an attempt to capitalize on recent enter-

tainment appetites. The wildly popular “Twilight” films (20082009) and the HBO Original Series “True Blood” represent extremely successful adaptations of the classic vampire genre, but tailored more toward a demographic that see UGLY, page 9

WEEKENDER INTERVIEW | DAVID M. STERN AND PETE HOLMES

Executive producer and comedian discuss new Comedy Central show BY

ANDY MILGROOM

Contributing Writer

In anticipation of this week’s premiere of Comedy Central’s new animated series, “Ugly Americans,” the Daily sat down with Executive Producer David M. Stern and voice talent Pete Holmes to get the scoop on the latest installment of American monster pop culture.

Question: How did you come up with the idea for “Ugly Americans?”

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David M. Stern: Well, the idea came off a web series called “5-On” (2010). It was created

by Devin Clark and Dan Powell, who was executive in charge of production at Comedy Central.

Internally, he took it to a point with the basic structure and the basic concept mapped out and brought me on to execute it. I wouldn’t try to take credit for it.

Pete Holmes: Yeah, I actually worked for “5-On.” I did some of the voices. Horror comics are a style that I haven’t really seen.

We’ve got our own vision and our own stories to tell. We definitely have comic book elements in all of our episodes. We are going out of our way to have it that way, too. It is the vision of this show; “Family Guy” had [Seth] MacFarlane, “The Simpsons” had Matt Groening, and we have Devin Clark.

DS: … And [“5-On”] was a very crude form of animation, which I happened to really like. It was basically on-street interviews with all these freaks, demons or wizards, with interviews on some topical event. I tried to carry some of that over into “Ugly Americans,” which takes form in the group counseling sessions at the Department of Integrations.

Q: David, you’ve been in the animation business as far back as the ’90s writing for “The Simpsons,” which has a knack for featuring guest stars. If you could get other voice talents to be featured in your show, who would you want?

DS: Well, I was going to say Bill Hader, but we already got him.

Bill Hader is a great voice actor and super funny. But what’s great about when we were first making “Ugly Americans,” we’d say, “Oh you know who would be great to have is Jack McBrayer [Kenneth Parcel on ‘30 Rock’] or Kristen Wiig [SNL cast member],” and then they’d do it. All these people would read the script, like it and want to be a part of it, so that made it like a dream show. And a dream job.

I also want Alec Baldwin. He’s kind of the king of New York, right? And this is a very New York-based show. We’ve tapped see INTERVIEW, page 8

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, March 18, 2010

7

WEEKENDER

GALLERY PROFILE

MEME makes space for contemporary performance art

BY JESSICA

BAL

Daily Editorial Board

A man in a suit carefully empties the contents of a box onto a folding table. He removes three vases and begins arranging three groups of flowers: red, purple and white. As he positions them in the glass containers, a woman in black emerges from inside a stack of tires in the corner of the whitewalled room. One by one, she hoists the tires up from around her body and onto the floor.

The occasional slap of rubber pierces an otherwise silent gathering of onlookers.

Sounds confusing? Such a performance is not out of place in Cambridge’s MEME Gallery in Central Square, a space that since June 2009 has been reserved for experimental performances and otherwise oddball concept art. The shows, like the tire climber who performed on Friday, March 12 as a part of MEME’s event “Control Y Control Z,” are fleeting and sometimes foreign to those unaccustomed to contemporary performance art, but MEME is carving a space for new ideas in the Cambridge community.

The MEME Team, as members call their clan, consists of six curators: Dirk Adams, Vela Phelan, Alice Vogler, Bradley Benedetti, Sandrine Schaefer and Phil Fryer. The group is made up of artists, and most have been involved in performance for some time, organizing events that were originally held in free venues like Franklin Park and Midway Studios in Fort Point. Many of the spaces

COURTESY MEME GALLERY

Artists perform in the MEME Gallery on Friday, March 12. in this artists’ community, like Midway Studios, are no longer free for the artists to utilize; but as other curators moved out of the Cambridge building now home to MEME, the team sensed a moment of fortuity.

“After the free spaces died out

… this came by, and it was our opportunity to have our own space,” Phelan said.

“The front windows really offer a lot in terms of people being able to experience what’s in here,” Adams said, who is a graduate of the School of the

SPRING BREAK READING LIST | PROFESSORS’ RECOMMENDATIONS Because Spring Break is tangibly close, we asked our favorite professors for their book recommendations.

Their suggestions were as varied as the departments in which they teach, but we hope you’ll enjoy these ideas wherever your travels may take you.

“Suite Française” (2006) by Irène Némirovsky and “Shadow Tag” (2010)

by Louise Erdrich Claire Schub, Lecturer Department of Romance Languages “Suite Française:” “Reading it for the second time with my class, I’ve been drawn into this text in unexpected ways. This is the long-lost novel written by a Russian/French/Jewish woman writer, describing first the exodus from Paris in June 1940, and then a French village during the beginning of the Occupation. Némirovsky was deported and killed in Auschwitz. She wrote her novel as the events were happening.

Her writing is fascinating and deeply moving.”

“Shadow Tag:” “Anything by Erdrich is worth reading, as her writing is intensely beautiful and poetic, and her books reveal a world of mid-western Native Americans and characters with connections to that world, with a sort of magic realism and attention to startling inner and outer landscapes.

It is one of the most troubling novels about the destruction human beings can bring upon each other that I have ever read.”

“The Three Musketeers” (1844) by Alexandre Dumas Anne-Christine Rice, Lecturer Department of Romance Languages “I recommend ‘The Three Musketeers’

by Alexandre Dumas for the adventures, the fun and the intrigues. You will not be able to put the book down!”

Museum of Fine Arts. “It’s a really busy neighborhood, so one of the unexpected things is the amount of people in the neighborhood who aren’t coming here to see art, but stop by and look in.”

With strong ties within the

art community in Boston and beyond, the MEME Team has been able to bring in a variety of talent, from the local level to the international one. From Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, artist Eric Scott see MEME, page 9

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE TUFTS DAILY

“Walt Longmire Mysteries” (200410) by Craig Johnson Nan Levinson, Lecturer Department of English “Johnson has written six books about Wyoming Sheriff Walt Longmire that you won’t be able to put down.”

“The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film” (2002) by Michael Ondaatje and “Walden”(1854)

by Henry David Thoreau Jeanne Dillon, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Senior Lecturer American Studies Program “For students who love film, try Michael Ondaatje’s ‘The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film.’ It sucks you in, and you eat it up fast. And for the best wrangler of the English language after Shakespeare, go with Henry David Thoreau’s ‘Walden.’ We are the tools of our tools, dudes!”

“The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power” (1990) by Robert Caro John Fyler, Professor Department of English “Last summer I finally got around to reading the first volume of Robert Caro’s three-volume biography of [Lyndon B. Johnson], ‘The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power.’

It’s an extraordinarily interesting look at Texas politics, the Great Depression and LBJ’s enormous energy, with his equally outsized moral virtues and moral failings. Caro also explains the complex workings of Congress with great clarity. Time after time, I was surprised by how often the political and economic arguments of the last few years have repeated the arguments of —compiled by the Daily Arts Department

BABBLE.COM

Dear Kate Winslet, We adore you, which is why we were saddened (and somewhat overjoyed, for reasons we’ll get to later) about your recent separation from your husband of seven years, Sam Mendes. While divorce is never something to laugh at, especially since you have two young children together, we know now that you will be able to move on to the man who you belong with, the man of your dreams — in essence, the king of the world: Leonardo DiCaprio.

That’s right. We all saw “Titanic” those 13 long years ago. From the moment you two locked eyes on that doomed death boat, you, and we, knew the ultimate truth — that you two were meant to be. Though you two have wasted our best years with Kate marrying down (sorry Sam!) and Leo dating up (Bar Refaeli is way too hot), we will forgive you both … but only if you procreate with Leo, giving us an ultimate actor child. Oh yeah, and we’ll forgive you for that depressing mess of a film, “Revolutionary Road” (2008), which we thought was a sequel to “Titanic” when we went to see it.

Don’t you realize that Leo only modelizes to get over the pain that you chose Sam over him? Come on, Leo seems somewhat deep — he hangs out with Al Gore, at least.

Ah, yes, models like Gisele must have tons of excellent quips and insights to provide … not.

Stop denying your destiny. We want more sex scenes in the back of a car. We want more eternal declarations of love (but, please, none of that screaming and yelling that was going on in “Revolutionary Road”). And everyone saw you win that Golden Globe last year and publicly declare how in love you are with Leo. Go for it, girl; Bar ain’t got nothing on you.

Love, The Daily Arts Department

THE TUFTS DAILY

8

Thursday, March 18, 2010

WEEKENDER

What’s Up This Weekend?

Want to make your weekend more artsy? Check out these events!

Mat Kearney and Ingrid Michaelson: Didn’t get enough of Ingrid at Jumbo Jam earlier this month? See her at the House of Blues with Mat Kearney. (Tonight, 8 p.m. Tickets start at $22.50.)

FUSION: Like slam poetry? Come see featured Def Poetry Jam poet Beau Sia perform at FUSION, the Asian American

Alliance’s annual concert. Sia will also be judging some of Tufts’ very own aspiring spoken-word artists as they compete for prizes at Hotung Cafe.

(Tonight, 9 p.m. Free admission.)

Chris Daughtry with Lifehouse: Daughtry, the fourth-place finalist on season five of “American Idol” turned rock star is coming to Boston University’s Agganis Arena with special guest Lifehouse. (Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets start at $52.95.)

“Entertaining Mr. Sloane:” Seduction and desperation abound in Joe Orton’s dark, sexy comedy. A suave Mr. Sloane (Jack Cutmore-Scott) arrives at a decrepit house with a delusional landlady (Sandra Shipley), creating a collision with a startling conclusion. Directed by Eric Engel. Plaza Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts. (Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Regular tickets are $33-$37.50, and student rush tickets are half-price.)

Boston Symphony Orchestra: Maestro James Levine leads the Boston Symphony Orchestra for several of Beethoven’s symphonies. Boston Symphony Hall.

(Tonight, 8 p.m., Friday, 1:30 p.m., Saturday, 8 p.m. Tickets start at $30.)

— compiled by the Tufts Daily Arts Department

Comedy veterans collaborate to create new show ‘Ugly Americans’ INTERVIEW continued from page 6

into like half the SNL cast. I’d love to get the “30 Rock” cast. I’d also personally like Eugene Mirman, solely to play the actual role of a merman.

Q: With all of the animated series already out, like the new FX series “Archer” and of course “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” “South Park” or the dozens of shows on Adult Swim, do you think “Ugly Americans” will resonate with your audience as the new kids on the block?

DS: We have a lot of horror comedy elements that I don’t see anywhere else.

I wrote for “The Simpsons” for a few years, and “Treehouse of Horror” was always the highlight of the year, but I always sort of wanted more of that.

But because of the structure of “The Simpsons,” it wasn’t really possible, being it was so specifically based on this grounded family. In our show, the character lives with a zombie, dates a demon and has a wizard coworker.

We have a lot of fantastical and horrific creatures, which seems to me is sort of everywhere right now. There always seems to be another werewolf or vampire movie coming out, and this is a chance to really spoof all of that. If there’s a “South Park” that involves Hell, it’s really a wild episode. I’m writing

ed s s d-to a n a H Pizz

an episode now where they go to Hell for the holidays, and in our show it’s all completely regular. It’s a weird way to set the show, but it’s a way that will hopefully resonate with the audience.

Q: There have been suggestions that “Ugly Americans” has a hint of political commentary on immigration policies.

Do you confess?

PH: Any time we start to get too overtly political, it instantly feels heavy-handed and not funny. We’re telling more the story of east coast immigration, coming through Ellis Island — the story of America, not so much what’s going on with the new immigration along the Mexican border. We try to stay away from that; we find that that’s not the richest place for comedy.

Q: David, you’ve co-produced “Monk” during its early years, wrote for “The Simpsons” and now are starting your own project. Is this your dream come true?

DS: “Ugly Americans” is a dream job, being able to work with the funniest and sharpest writers in New York and L.A. to write a limitless show where we can make anything happen. As long as it makes us laugh and makes other people laugh, I think that really is the dream. I

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David M. Stern is the creator behind Comedy Central’s “Ugly Americans.” can do six voices and go out on the street, and no one will really bother me. If we start doing live shows, that would really be the icing on the cake for me.

you know?

Q: Are any of the ghoulish and demonic characters of the show based on people

PH: Leonard is an alcoholic wizard. I’m guessing that’s your dad?

DS: Yes, and that’s as far as I’m going to go.

Want to reach Tufts students?

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THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, March 18, 2010

9

WEEKENDER

Animated series spoofs recent surge in monster themes in popular culture UGLY continued from page 6

EATSLEEPGEEK.COM

David M. Stern is the co-creator behind Comedy Central’s “Ugly Americans.”

devours romantic themes. “The Wolfman” (2010) made a similar attempt to resuscitate the monster genre, although the film stayed closer to the horror themes of its original inspirations. Set against this cultural backdrop, “Ugly Americans” is merely the logical continuation: a barefaced spoof of nightmarish, monster-themed entertainment that effectively

mocks the resurgence of the genre in contemporary books, television and cinema.

With two episodes already produced and screened — the series premiere aired last night — the show seems to have a lot of promise. It may never reach the status held by animated stalwarts such as “The Simpsons,” “South Park” or “Family Guy,” however, as the bizarre nature of the show may have limited its range of

appeal.

For the college-age demographic though, the show will find a sizeable following. In that respect, “Ugly Americans” seems like it would be better suited for Adult Swim, a partner network of Cartoon Network where more adultthemed cartoons, such as “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” and “Robot Chicken,” have earned it a reputation as the home for more peculiar animated series.

MEME gallery exhibits performance art, attracts community attention MEME continued from page 7

Nelson, who currently lives in South Korea, visited Boston and contributed a project that extended beyond the walls of the gallery. Nelson wandered around Boston blindfolded during his stay and then produced audio recordings, as well as wall images, based on his experience in MEME’s space.

Adams explained the unpredictable nature of curating performance art and the importance of placing faith in an artist’s ability to create a successful new piece based on their previous work.

“There’s this level of trust that goes into having performance events, and it’s played into a lot of things we’ve had,” Adams said. “It’s interesting because it’s not like we’ve seen your paintings and want to hang them in a gallery for a few weeks. That kind of curating becomes more about selecting things you have an attachment to, but that’s not what we’re doing.”

Last weekend’s event, “Control Y Control Z,” featured, among others, Alice Vogler performing “To Enhance the Probability of Survival II” and Cara Brostrom with “Proof/Pudding #11.”

Vogler’s piece encouraged visitors to

write down what influences their decisions on slips of paper, which she then attached to syringes and stuck in her

“There’s this level of trust that goes into having performance events ... It’s interesting because its not like we’ve seen your paintings and want to hang them in a gallery for a few weeks.”

Dirk Adams MEME Team curator own legs.

Heather Zeiden, 27, of Arlington had never been to the gallery before and said that she felt a range of reactions to the performances she witnessed. For Vogler’s piece, Zeiden contributed her own written influence: fear. “It was easy to think of something but hard for me to watch her put the needle in,” Zeiden said. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen performance

KRISTEN COLLINS/TUFTS DAILY

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art, so I’m really impressed.”

Brostrom’s performance addressed the audience right from their entrance into the gallery, as she offered to feed visitors Boston cream pie — an act that was being recorded by a video camera. Emerson student L.J. Frezza, 21, enthusiastically partook in the project, chatting with Brostrom between bites.

“I guess I had never really thought about small talk as being as significant as it is,” Frezza said. “And it kind of put a greater significance on it because of the recording.”

Zeiden also participated in Bromstrom’s “Proof/Pudding,” though she said it produced discomfort for her. “I was embarrassed a little bit to eat in front of people, especially because I wasn’t feeding myself,” she said. “This was different; it was more intimate, which I think is why I felt uncomfortable. “[MEME] has a different kind of energy,” Phelan said. “There’s definitely a different activation going on now with the space ... and the way it functions. We’re more active, and that has made more interaction.”

MEME will feature performer Kristina Lenzi on March 19. For more information regarding upcoming events, visit memegallery.com.

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THE TUFTS DAILY

10

THE TUFTS DAILY

EDITORIAL

Gittleman appointment underwhelms

KERIANNE M. OKIE Editor-in-Chief

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

The announcement of Professor Sol Gittleman as this year’s commencement speaker will likely inspire an array of mixed reactions and some reservations among seniors. There are undoubtedly reasons to be excited about Gittleman’s selection. An engaging lecturer and professor, Gittleman’s classes continue to be some of the most popular on campus, and there is no question that he is an entertaining and likable speaker. But in spite of his ability to charm and engage a crowd, Gittleman’s appointment may remain questionable in the eyes of many seniors.

Simply put, the decision to make Gittleman this year’s commencement speaker is a bit of a letdown. With the last few commencement ceremonies boasting speakers such as Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts; Meredith Vieira, co-host of The Today Show; Michael Bloomberg, the current mayor of New York City; and Lance Armstrong, seven-time winner of the Tour de France, seniors were expecting to see a somewhat more highprofile speaker behind the podium.

While Gittleman will undoubtedly deliver a meaningful speech — stemming largely from the fact that he has spent so much time at the university and knows so many Tufts students —

graduating seniors often look forward to commencement as a time when they will hear from someone outside of the university who can offer a perspective apart from the context of the Tufts community. Many of those in the Class of 2010 will sit down to listen to Gittleman’s presentation having already heard him speak about various topics in class. He has proven himself to be widely accessible to students, encouraging undergraduates to visit during his office hours to talk about anything from baseball to travelling to Yiddish culture. While his affable nature is admirable, many of those in the Class of 2010 have already had numerous conversations with Gittleman and are looking for a new perspective in their commencement speaker.

University President Lawrence Bacow has expressed his desire to select Tufts professors as commencement speakers over celebrities. While an address from a faculty member might be more personalized to the Tufts campus and therefore more meaningful to seniors, commencement is also a time when students bring family members and friends — many of whom have traveled great distances — to experience the ceremony. Gittleman will undoubtedly be able to strike chords in the hearts of Tufts students who share his nostal-

gia for life on the Hill, but generating excitement for the ceremony not just at Tufts but also among students’ family members would be far better done by someone with greater name recognition and an outside perspective.

In previous years, Bacow has explained the selections of commencement speakers by noting their distinguished accomplishments, their abilities to inspire and their relevance to the world into which graduates are about to enter. Last year’s speaker, Patrick, was introduced by Bacow as someone able to impart fresh advice on entering into a poor job market, as well as being the first African-American governor of Massachusetts. Some criticized the decision to have Patrick speak, as his recognition outside of Massachusetts is not as widespread as that of prior speakers such as Armstrong. Bacow defended the choice last year, noting that delivering a meaningful and informative speech is more important than bringing a famous face to Tufts. While the Daily agreed with the decision to appoint Patrick last year, sharing Bacow’s sentiments that the governor would deliver a provocative and relevant speech, choosing an in-house speaker overshadows the benefits of Gittleman’s eloquence and the fact that he will likely deliver an exceptional address.

it had approved construction of 1,600 new settlements.” I am unclear if this was meant to be deceitful, or if Mr. Minch is uneducated in how to properly use this terminology.

A “settlement” is like a town. When someone uses the word “settlement.” they are referring to a small town in the territories that Israel has occupied since the Six Day War in 1967. A settlement can have anywhere from a few hundred houses to a few thousand.

The total number of Israeli settlements is under 200. It has been years since Israel approved the building of a single new settlement.

To claim that Israel plans to increase their settlement number from 200 to 1,800 is complete nonsense. I believe what Mr. Minch was referring to was the plan to build 1,600 housing units in East

Jerusalem. To confuse housing units with entire settlements is a mistake so large that it makes the rest of the column unintelligible. If the whole piece is about the fallout of the Israeli announcement but Mr. Minch got the announcement wrong, then the rest does not make much sense, does it?

I would like to give Mr. Minch the benefit of the doubt and assume that he did not intend to mislead. He is probably merely uneducated in this arena.

Therefore, I would like to propose that Daily columnists be required to undergo more extensive training in crafting articles so as to avoid issues like this in the future.

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor, Teddy Minch’s March 17 column “Israeli Insubordination” tells the reader about an announcement from the Israeli government. He shows us how this announcement had implications for the diplomatic process in the ongoing conflict. He spends most of the piece discussing these diplomatic results. He concludes that the United States should be tougher with Israel and not allow the Israeli government to act as they had intended. So essentially, he tells us what Israel did, how the United States responded and what he thinks about that response.

The problem is that he told a boldfaced lie and no one on the Tufts Daily staff noticed. Mr. Minch writes, “Israel’s Ministry of the Interior announced that

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OP-ED

An update on on-campus composting

BY LUCY MCKEON You may be unaware that Tufts began an on-campus compost collection last semester. Now that you’re up to speed, allow me to tell you the latest in composting news: In addition to the original bin, located at the rear of Miller Hall to the left of Tufts Institute of the Environment (TIE), a new bin has been added outside the back door of Tisch Library for your convenience. Now those of you downhillers or off-campus elders can easily bring your compost by the library on your way to a study session, no longer constrained by the difficulty of trudging all the way up the hill into ResQuad territory. It’s that much easier to drop off compostables, and let me tell you, the people of Tufts have spoken, and they are excited.

Senior and Tufts Office of Sustainability Intern Sarah Ullman helps out with composting at on-campus events like Undergraduate Orientation, including the Food Fair, by standing next to the assortment of waste receptacles. “I’m basically educating people as they’re throwing out their meal,” she said, supplementing the explanatory signs by talking to people about what they can and can’t compost. “This year during orientation meals, we used plates and silverware that were made of corn products so they were compostable.”

So why does she do it? “It’s important to reduce waste whenever you can, and maybe I’m a little bit of a dork, but it’s kind of cool that it goes back into the cycle that can be used to grow new food.” Dorkiness aside, I’ve got to agree.

Composting is cool and is, for the most part, receiving a very positive response from on-campus residents.

But students aren’t the only ones capitalizing on the joys of composting. Jeanne Eisenhaure, operations coordinator in the Office of the Vice Provost, is a big fan of Tufts’ compost bins. “It’s so convenient!

I actually find it’s a lot easier to compost than not to. Our trash doesn’t smell, there are no fruit flies, and we don’t have to take it out as frequently. We take out our garbage maybe twice a month now.” Further, composting is important to Jeanne “from an environmental standpoint. We have limited land space, and it doesn’t make sense to trap all those nutrients in airtight landfills. Composting is just kind of part of the natural cycle converting the soil’s nutrients

DAVID PERNICK

I was concerned by Ibrahim Khwaja’s March 10 op-ed regarding the supposed oppression of opposing viewpoints by “neoconservative, pro-Zionist” groups with accusations of anti-Semitism. Yes, Norman Finkelstein’s views are not antiSemitic as much as anti-Zionist. But Khwaja portrays groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and Bak Shalom as paranoid suppressors; Finkelstein is the victimized seeker of truth and justice. Taking a quick look at Finkelstein’s Web sites or key points from his publications reveals otherwise.

This scholar is an enormously biased, disrespectful piece of work. He looks to undermine the State of Israel at any and all turns while supporting and/or conveniently overlooking the crimes of terrorist groups committed to its destruction.

It is undeniable that AIPAC toes the line for Likud, a major center-right political party of Israel, rather than Kadima, a centrist political party. It has also become apparent that AIPAC throws down the anti-Semitism card with a troubling amount of ease. But it is simply not true to suggest that AIPAC applies this term to anyone who disagrees with them. They have respected the views of those, like Vice President Joe Biden, who are committed to Israel’s security but evenhandedly criticize antagonistic measures like settlement construction. It is only when one makes criticisms of Israel’s history solely to delegitimize its standing as a nation today, as does Finkelstein, that one’s criticisms are

Men are from Mars...

T

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into nutrient-rich foods, and they should go back into the soil to continue the cycle.

It just makes ecological sense.”

In case you aren’t familiar with the benefits of composting, let me give you a quick rundown. For those of you who have already heard this, please excuse my repetition. In the current climate of environmental consciousness, you’re already aware that waste in general is a problem. Composting is an easy way to cut back on the amount of waste that’s disposed of because it allows organic materials to be reused. With the aid of oxygen and moisture, bacteria, fungi, molds, earthworms and other soil organisms eat and convert organic materials into nutrients that plants can utilize; this natural process is called biodegradation.

Composting is just purposeful biodegradation that creates a natural fertilizer that improves soil and therefore plant growth, an accessible application of the favorite “R” — reuse! — in an attempt to further the reduction of waste. Organic waste’s unique potential to be reintegrated into the natural world and actually aid the environment should be too enticing to pass up.

In a time of such awareness about diminishing resources, why wouldn’t we convert our organic wastes into resources?

Thanks to Grounds Manager John Vik,

who offered to arrange regular-service pickup of the compost bins, Tufts students can ensure a better future for their natural waste. All you have to do is separate your organic materials — no animal products!

— from the rest of your garbage and bring them to either of the two bins behind Miller or Tisch any time during business hours (9-5 p.m.) Monday through Friday.

At the uphill site, you’ll find the key to the bin on a hook just inside the entrance for TIE (it must stay locked to avoid contamination); unlock the bin, put your organic waste in, relock it and return the key as you found it. The Tisch bin is accessible any time because the key to the bin is in the mailbox above the bin. The materials you bring will be mixed in with grass clippings and transported to a composting facility by Jayco Landscape Supply Co. of Waltham.

It’s that simple. And easy!

So jump on the biodegradable bandwagon and start composting. And if you haven’t found the argument of peer pressure persuasive enough, consider the importance of waste-reduction in the future of our planet.

Lucy McKeon is a senior majoring in English.

She is an intern at Tufts Recycles!

McCarthyite Zionism: Part three BY

ELISHA SUM | OUR GENDERATION

beyond “the limits of legitimate critique.”

It is also disgustingly ironic that Finkelstein would, as Khwaja mentioned, invoke his parents’ experiences in the Holocaust to legitimize himself as an objective human rights activist. In doing so, he engages in the very exploitation of the Holocaust for personal gain that he so condemns. It is debatable whether Israel’s actions in the 2006 Lebanon War were justified self-defense or overkill. Personally, I feel that both Israel and Hezbollah committed an egregious error by failing to distinguish between military and civilian targets. But whether or not one agrees with Israel’s defense strategy or its current housing policy (Lord knows I don’t), one pursuing human rights and justice should never support Finkelstein. This is a man who has said that we should stand in solidarity with Hezbollah, even after it initiated the war with rocket launches into Israeli border towns and persisted, specifically aiming to kill Israeli citizens. He has repeatedly tried to justify the actions of Hamas, a terrorist organization that has launched rockets from schools and hid in them, daring Israel to attack; in other words, a party that has committed some of the most grotesque violations of human rights in the past 40 years.

What’s happening is not German “neoconservative” forces trying to suppress free speech in order to preserve a McCarthyist sham, and not only because the word “neoconservative” is exclusive to American politics. Bak Shalom stopped the promulgation of Finkelstein’s skewed perception of human rights, one which

may be readily accepted by idealistic yet ill-informed university students. It defended Israel against those who are predisposed to get riled up by the crimes of individual Israeli soldiers, yet tried to justify the sanctioned crimes of those who seek Israel’s destruction. And while AIPAC does have enormous leverage in Congress, they should not be characterized as a conspiratorial force. Labeling those who opposed the 2007 Gaza blockade or the current settlement construction as antiSemites is wrong. But this is not, with the exception of the recent J-Street conflict, what AIPAC does. Its accusations of anti-Semitism do stand up, however, as debatable assertions against those like Finkelstein, whose stance against the Jewish state is vehement to the point of his view of the Jewish people becoming questionable — even if he is a Jew himself.

Before human rights activists like Khwaja point the finger at Israel and condemn the “silencing” of those who decry its every policy, they should look at both sides of the issue. As former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Israeli Leader of the Opposition Tzipi Livni have admitted, Israel has made mistakes. But the human rights spotlight must first be shone on the sanctioned yet repeated atrocities of Hamas and Hezbollah and on those who defend them.

David Pernick is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He is a member of Tufts Hillel and Tufts African-American Jewish Alliance.

ori Amos once sang, “Maybe she’s just pieces of me you’ve never seen well.”

The propensity to cling to the existence of a biologically determined set of differences between the sexes often leads us to pose blanket statements that reproduce gender differences in all arenas of society.

In doing so, we cultivate a defeatist attitude in facing gender inequality, for if difference is rooted in biology, it must be natural and inevitable. Thus, the dissemination of another approach toward the supposed polarity of men and women is essential to feminism in order to dismantle the misleading foundations of gender difference that support the continual existence of gender inequality. In this column, I hope to challenge the idea of biologically based gender differences through a more nuanced perspective.

Conceptualizing a diagram of the genders in terms of characteristics and behaviors that overlap significantly across a spectrum, instead of one that places women and men at opposite ends, would provide a more accurate portrayal of reality by highlighting our similarities. The self-fulfilling longing to suppress our resemblances more accurately points to the nature of our sexist society and its effects on our worldview, rather than to scientific fact.

We subscribe to a certain level of faith in scientists, but we cannot overlook the influence our imperfect society wields on their interpretation of results, especially when considering the confounding effect of the media in its oversimplification of data. In the last century, research on the hemispheres of the brain has performed some noteworthy acrobatics. Regarded as superior, the left hemisphere used to be the domain of men — that is, until the right side asserted the many advantages it could provide. Science now attributes the right hemisphere to men and claims that women use both sides equally.

In addition, let’s not forget that the mainstream discourse once considered education as too dangerous to give to women, for it would surely overwhelm their delicate sensibilities and lead to horrors like sterility and a proclivity to leave the domestic sphere. Current statistics, however, attest otherwise, as more women obtain college degrees than men. It seems that the switcheroo has been a little too confusing for men.

The changing stories surrounding the brain provide evidence that institutionalized bigotry permeates the scientific field in order to support the politicized, useful narrative of gender differences.

Consequently, in order to properly assess research findings and form a better conception of reality, we must use a more complex approach that not only takes nature into account but also recognizes the importance of nurture and the society we live in. Applying an approach that takes into account societal misinformation to a rather well-known gender stereotype, team-oriented versus competitive behavior in the workplace attributed to females and males, would provide a strong argument to dissipate the existence of gendered behavior in this example.

A 2009 study that refused a simple acceptance of gender difference found that women, when placed in situations similar to those surrounding men (e.g. being presented with opportunities for advancement and networking) behaved in the same “masculine” way as men; men meanwhile behaved in “feminine” ways when placed in situations more common to women. The results suggest that gender difference is rooted in responses to the environment more so than biology. Therefore, we should be wary of the insistence upon gender differences.

Taking into account the previous two examples, I support the notion that though some women may differ from men, more women are ultimately similar to more men.

We must actively remember the influence of institutionalized sexism which supports, instills and reproduces sexist conceptions.

Elisha Sum is a junior majoring in English and French. He can be reached at Elisha.

Sum@tufts.edu.

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Snodgrass’ innovation helped propel Gardel and Matera to NCAAs DIVING FEATURE continued from page 14

local circus troupe, where the duo’s “adagio” routine — one of the twins would lift up the other, who would engage in an array of acrobatic endeavors — dazzled audiences.

Melissa was always a little more interested in diving than her twin, who also was a prodigal piano player and was unsure of how much she wanted to commit her time to diving.

While Melissa chose to dive at Div. I UPenn, Lindsay was adamant that if she decided to dive, it would be at a Div. III school.

Ultimately, diving wasn’t a major factor in Lindsay’s college decision; if it was, then perhaps she would have thought twice before committing to four years of having to leave Tufts to practice and of being forced to go to MIT to compete even at “home” meets.

“I know Lindsay didn’t choose Tufts for the diving,” Melissa Gardel said. “Our dad went to Tufts, and she liked it and applied early and got in. That was it.”

Freshman year was tough on the Gardel twins, who had never slept in different rooms before college and now found themselves hours apart.

“It was really weird,” Melissa Gardel said. “I was used to telling her immediately about all of the random stuff that I’d think of. I probably called her up to 10 times a day that first year.”

Similar to Matera, Lindsay had doubts

about the commitment level expected of her in college. But she, like Matera, could not help but plunge herself headfirst into improving her diving. Piano, she decided, could wait; the opportunity to dive with a quality coach and form lasting relationships with her diver friends was fleeting.

“As freshmen we came in and everyone on the diving team was new; we had transfers and a lot of freshmen,” Lindsay Gardel said. “So we formed a great team, and people bonded pretty fast. It was for the social aspect too that we were really into it.”

While Snodgrass says that Lindsay has improved by leaps and bounds since she arrived on campus four years ago, as a freshman, she was significantly more polished as a diver than Matera was. Whereas Matera won this year’s NESCAC title off the 3-meter board, where he can overcome a mistake in form with his ability to pull off massive twists and flips, Gardel won in the 1-meter event, where her technical consistency and ability to make a “rip entry” — meaning no splash — are spotlighted.

“Lindsay looks very good on the board, and compared to Rob, who is not the most finesse diver and who is still learning, Lindsay looks good in the air and gets into the water clean, with no splash and just disappears,” Snodgrass said. “That’s a challenging skill, but on her best days, she can rip her dives on both

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1-meter and 3-meter.”

Building a champion Snodgrass’ coaching philosophy is to have his divers practice mostly on the 3-meter board, and to, after a warm-up, practice mostly harder dives. His logic is that if a diver can do his or her hard dives, the easy dives will be learned in the process.

It’s hard to argue with Snodgrass, who has over two decades years of coaching experience and who before that dove as an undergrad at Columbia. Snodgrass approaches the process of teaching diving with the perceptive and experimental eye of a scientist, which is not surprising considering his other job: a chemist for the company Novartis.

Ten years ago, Snodgrass installed a security video camera next to the pool, attached by duct tape to a nearby pole, which he uses in his coaching. Even after four years of diving at Tufts, Matera and Gardel still makes mistakes, and the camera ensures that no error goes unnoticed.

“There’s been a lot of research done about what they call ‘mirror neurons’ where you basically learn — I call them the ‘monkeysee monkey do’ neurons — by watching,” Snodgrass said. “They help you learn movements by just visualizing it.”

But while Snodgrass maintains that a diver’s intelligence can be a major asset, success in diving comes also from trusting one’s body and shutting off the brain. Hesitation can lead to a mediocre dive, or even worse, an injury.

“Diving is extremely mental,” Matera said.

“A big part of doing your dive well is just getting yourself up to do it, and a lot of that entails just shutting your mind off and just letting your body do it. We’ve been practicing it for so long, you just got to let your body take over. If you start analyzing every little piece of it, they’re so many pieces that you’ll just mess it up.”

The camera is set to play back a dive in a 40-second loop. After Matera attempts an inward 2.5 — one of his most daring dives, as it starts with him facing backwards and diving in towards the board — he trots over to the TV to analyze his performance.

On the screen, he sees a man standing with his back to the pool, preparing to begin. The miniature video-version of Matera wipes his hands and arms off with a small towel, which he calls his “chamois.” He starts to bounce up and down — Snodgrass calls this “riding the board” — in order to gain momentum.

And in the moment before he makes his leap of faith, which will end with a blind entry into the pool, one cannot help but wonder what is going through his mind. Perhaps he is thinking about this weekend’s meet: his last chance to make the finals at nationals. Maybe he is visualizing the 2.5 flips that he is about to attempt.

But most likely, his mind is empty and at peace. After four years of daily practice, after thousands of repetitions and late-night drives to MIT and back, the hard part is over. Now he just has to jump and let his training carry him to yet another impressive finish.

This is the fun part.

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Senior divers Lindsay Gardel (left) and Rob Matera will cap their banner careers on the Hill at the NCAA Div. III Championships in Minneapolis this week.

Unlikely pair of Jumbo divers heads to nationals BY

BEN KOCHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

Four and a half miles. Four stops on the T. An approximately 15-minute-long ride in the athletic van.

This is what separates Tufts’ Hamilton Pool from MIT’s Zesiger Sports and Fitness Center. The distance might not seem so significant at first. But multiply this trek by upwards of five times per week during the bitter Boston winter.

Multiply it by four years of dedication and hard work.

Seniors Rob Matera and Lindsay Gardel are used to the Tufts-to-MIT journey at this point after four years on the Tufts diving team. Since Hamilton Pool in Medford does not

have adequate diving facilities, for the last few decades, Tufts divers have been the nomads of the Boston collegiate diving scene, practicing first at Harvard and now at MIT’s seven-year-old aquatics center.

For Matera and Gardel, two former gymnasts who arrived at Tufts in the fall of 2006 with relatively little diving experience, the transformation from talented freshmen to NESCAC champions has not always been smooth. But after four years of intense training, after thousands of acrobatic twists and somersaults have made being upside-down actually feel normal, the dynamic duo has emerged as two of the finest Jumbo divers in the history of the program. And this weekend, Matera

and Gardel approach the culmination of their Tufts diving careers at the NCAA Championship meet in Minneapolis, Minn.

A gymnast on a diving board Matera, who will graduate from Tufts this spring with a degree in biochemistry, recalls with a grin the story of how he ended up a Jumbo diver.

“I wasn’t planning on diving at Tufts,” said Matera, who grew up in Connecticut and spent up to 20 hours a week from the age of seven through high school training as a competitive gymnast.

“But in my application, in the extracurricular section, I had said that I won a diving meet in high

school, and one of the admissions officers was an ex-swimmer and read my application and contacted [diving] coach [Brad Snodgrass], and was like ‘Coach, I didn’t know you had this diver coming.’ And coach told him, ‘I don’t have any diver coming.’”

Snodgrass called Matera and asked the prospective freshman if he would be interested in joining the Tufts diving program.

Matera agreed to give it a shot and arrived at practice in the fall with loads of raw acrobatic talent, but without the technical precision of a diving champion.

Snodgrass, a coach of both MIT and Tufts’ diving teams for the past 22 years, saw Matera’s potential and immediately went to work.

For Snodgrass, who has coached national champions at both Tufts and MIT and has been honored as NCAA Diving Coach of the Year in 2005 and 2008, this task was an intriguing challenge.

“There is no comparison [between Rob as a freshman and now as a senior],” Snodgrass said.

“I hadn’t even met him until he showed up at practice the first time.

He did dives like a gymnast because he was a gymnast, and he was doing dives that looked like a gymnast’s floor routine.”

As a freshman, Matera was unable to complete a “back 1.5,” which in diving lingo means launching oneself off the board facing backwards, doing one and a half somersaults and ultimately making a headfirst entry into the water. While for more experienced divers the back 1.5 is a simple move, Matera — who had managed in high school to often win by finishing his dives mostly feet-first — had years of gymnastics programming which told him: If you want to survive, do not land on your head.

“The [back 1.5] is a particular problem for gymnasts because now we have to teach someone who is used to landing on their feet how to hand on their head, someone who used to avoid like the plague landing on their head,” Snodgrass said.

The method Snodgrass uses for teaching new dives requires a level of trust between player and coach that sometimes takes years to develop, but Matera didn’t have that kind of time. To learn the back 1.5, a diver jumps off the board and enters his “tuck”, with knees clenched to chest.

The diver keeps his tuck tight until the coach yells for him to release and make an entry into the water.

Only a few months earlier Matera had doubted whether he

even wanted to dive at the collegiate level, and now he was being asked to put his wellbeing in the hands of a coach whom he had just met a couple of days before.

Yet Matera committed himself to improving his technique, and over time, he has developed into a formidable performer on the board.

“Brad completely re-taught me how to dive,” Matera said. “When I came to Tufts, I couldn’t do a back dive, any of the dives that I do now, couldn’t do a headfirst entry. Coach took me down, took all my diving away and then built me back up.

That’s all Brad.”

For the third consecutive year, Matera is one of 22 divers selected for the Div. III NCAA Championships, held this weekend in Minneapolis.

Matera’s biggest asset as a diver is his ability to do dives with a high degree of difficulty (DD); while he entered Tufts hesitant to land headfirst, now his repertoire includes some of the more difficult dives in the sport. Raw talent has been converted into silky fluidity: Matera can now not only land on his head but can also — in what is known as a “reverse 1.5 with 2.5 twists” — flip backwards 1.5 times while at the same time twisting 2.5 times, and then land headfirst, without a second thought.

Taking an acrobatic path Gardel grew up in Wayland, Mass., where she also was a youth gymnast. When Gardel’s hometown gym closed down during her seventh-grade year, she and her identical twin sister Melissa tried many sports before settling on diving during freshman year of high school.

Gymnastics is the Gardel twins’ first love (Lindsay still maintains that if she could give up diving today for gymnastics, she would), but diving, with its focus on acrobatic motion, proved to be a worthy substitute.

“Melissa and I were very hyperactive kids, and when we quit [gymnastics], we tried soccer, track, pole vaulting,” Linday Gardel said.

“Our high school didn’t have gymnastics, but we had a friend on the diving team, and he basically dared us to come to practice. So we did, and it was the closest we could get to gymnastics.”

The sisters spent their childhood doing all kinds of activities together, including a five-summer stint in a see DIVING FEATURE, page 13

Visit tuftsdaily.com for video of Tufts’ duo preparing for NCAAs.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Thursday, March 18, 2010

15

SPORTS

Santone leads deep rotation of pitchers SOFTBALL continued from page 16

large gap in the rotation. While the Jumbos primarily used only Santone and Gelmetti this past campaign, they may be rotating in up to five pitchers this year, including seniors Stefanie Tong and Erin Gallagher, who threw only 36 innings combined in 2009.

“Last year, Lauren and I had a good routine going,” Santone said. “It will be different this year, but that doesn’t mean any worse.”

The Jumbos will also be looking to get production out of some of their newest additions. Freshman infielder Emily Beinecke will be playing a central role in the lineup right from the beginning, while fellow first-year pitcher Rebecca DiBiase will be counted on to absorb a lot of innings throughout the season.

“They are both very hard workers and have played a lot of softball,” Sullivan said.

“They are going to make an impact this year, and we need them to if we are going

to be successful.”

While a return to the College World Series is always on the team’s mind, the squad’s first and foremost goal is another NESCAC championship. The Jumbos have taken home three straight NESCAC titles and have won 23 of their last 24 games against conference opponents. To the team, anything short of another conference trophy would be a disappointment.

“I expect us to win the NESCAC,” Cantone said. “Though people think that the NESCAC isn’t as good of a conference, there are definitely strong teams.

Winning the NESCAC is always our first goal of the season.”

But conference play will have to wait, as the team will pack its bags and head out to California to participate in the Sun West Tournament once again to begin its season. For the Jumbos, who were in the preseason top 25 but have since fallen out as other teams have started play, there will be a lot to prove on their weeklong trip. The 12-game slate

DAVID HECK | THE SAUCE

includes matchups with Cal Baptist and St. Thomas, the latter of which received two more votes than Tufts in the latest national poll.

“The St. Thomas game is going to be very important,” Sullivan said. “We want to prove how good we are, and playing against a team like them will prove how much talent we have. To play against a team like that in the first week of the season will definitely be a challenge. If we do really well, it will prove we are a good team still.”

Tufts enters this season with a lot of youth and a lot of enthusiasm. While the team may lack the experience, it has all of the tools to make another deep run into May. “Every year is different,” Santone said.

“We might need to find our stride, but I have full faith that when we find it, we will be just as good if not better than in past years. I am really excited about this year and am looking forward to California when we can get our rhythm going and really perform well as a team.”

Jumbos will face NESCAC foe Colby this weekend MEN’S LACROSSE continued from page 16

half — and showed no sign of letting up.

Just minutes into play in the second half, Kirwan netted his third and final goal of the game with an assist from senior tricaptain Eytan Saperstein, while Molloy scored back-to-back goals with the help of Hessler, who led Tufts with five assists on the day. Rounding out the third quarter, first-year attacker Andrew Fiamengo took a feed from senior tri-captain Doug DiSesa for the first goal of his collegiate career. In all, with an array of Tufts players’ scoring four more goals before the end of regulation, a late resurgence by the Lasers in the final minutes of the fourth quarter wasn’t enough to overcome the 16-goal deficit.

Helping the Jumbos maintain possession for the majority of the game, the defensive unit allowed just 18 shots in all and made 21 of 26 clears to keep play

out of Tufts’ backfield. Additionally, the Jumbos relied on three goalies — sophomore Steve Foglietta starting, junior Bryan Petillo and freshman Tyler Page — who made a combined six saves on the day. With a comfortable lead, the Tufts squad could benefit from trying out a range of players in various defensive positions.

“It’s still early in the season, but our defense is really coming into its own,” Molloy said. “Lasell was pretty talented on offense, but we really locked them down and our goalies only saw really solid shots. By the end we were able to get a bunch of guys in, which was really good for improving our game.”

After recording their largest margin of victory since March 2009, the Jumbos look forward to their second NESCAC opponent this season, the 1-1 Colby Mules, to whom they have not lost since 2006. The Mules graduated their

top-scoring player last year and sat just above .500 mark at the end of the 2009 slate. Nevertheless, the Jumbos are gearing up for an offense that includes senior Whit McCarthy, who ranked fourth in goals-per-game last season in the conference.

“Getting into NESCAC games, it’s certainly important to have a lot of depth because teams won’t be able to just look to this guy or that guy,” Hessler said. “It’s good to have an entire team instead of a few individuals.

“We’ve had success against Colby in the past, but they’re a very young team and a very good team,” he continued.

“They’re an up-and-coming program, so it’s going to be a good game. Especially going up there to Maine, we’ve got to really make sure our heads are on right and we’re ready to play.”

Evan Cooper contributed reporting to this article.

VIRGINIA BLEDSOE/TUFTS DAILY

The women’s lacrosse team rebounded from its opening-season loss by taking down Wellesley on the road on Tuesday, 13-5, behind four goals from sophomore Casey Egan.

Jumbos now set sights on registering first NESCAC win WOMEN’S LACROSSE continued from page 16

midfield, too, eliminating oneon-ones against ourselves. We were really able to shut them down as a team.”

Despite the positives from this win, a real test awaits the Jumbos on Saturday in the defending NESCAC champion and nationally ranked No. 8 Colby. And while the team finally delivered on its offensive potential, Tufts will have

to improve its stats in almost every category to recreate the 13-9 win over the Mules it registered last season.

Still notably lacking at either end of the field for the Jumbos is a sense of cohesion. The defensive breakdowns in the midfield that gave up fast breaks in the beginning of both periods on Tuesday could be exploited by a fast Mules squad, and unassisted goals will be harder to come by as Colby’s defense — which led the

conference in caused turnovers in 2009 — will challenge drives to the net. However, despite Colby’s lead in the rankings, the Mules are without 2009 Player of the Year Kate Sheridan, who graduated. And, with a rivalry that includes five one-goal games in the last seven years, it’s really anyone’s game.

“We’re in good shape for Saturday, I feel,” Egan said. “But we need to practice our plays a little bit more and work on our

shot accuracy. We’re trying to work on our fluidity on offense — work more as a team to find open cutters. We want to try for more unassisted goals instead of one-on-ones.”

“We’re all just excited,” Pillemer added. “We’ve put in a lot of work over the last few weeks, and it’s starting to show more and more. We’re really not thinking about the rankings, just confident and ready to get our first NESCAC win.”

A Master plan?

F

or a man who has earned over $1 billion in his career, you would think that Tiger Woods would have some better PR people and strategists on his payroll.

Since he crashed his car in the early morning the day after Thanksgiving, Tiger has played pretty much everything wrong. He didn’t talk to the police or the media from the outset, allowing rumors and speculation to run rampant about what had actually happened.

Once all of his alleged mistresses started coming out of the woodwork, he released a public statement that was vaguely apologetic and extremely critical of the media. He said he regretted “those transgressions” without ever establishing what they were, and he chastised the tabloids because he and his family were being “hounded.” Because, you know, when arguably the biggest sports-related story of the decade erupts, the media has no right to inquire and investigate.

He supposedly checked into a sexaddict rehabilitation center, even though it’s unclear if he actually is a sex addict or is just wildly unfaithful. But I guess I can’t be too critical of that one — even if the cynical part of me thinks it screams “PR move,” at least Tiger can say he’s made an effort to change.

But then came his public, nationally televised apology. The speech itself said what it needed to say — it featured pretty much everything you’d want in an apology, such as an explanation of what he did, why it happened and a commitment to change — but it was the way Tiger read it that made viewers skeptical. His speech was choppy, he lacked emotion and his level of sincerity was unclear (again, for a man that’s worth $1 billion, you would think he could take some public speaking lessons). Overall, he came off like a sixthgrader running for student government.

And he didn’t take any questions, only raising further suspicions about what he was hiding.

I understand that Tiger has always enjoyed his seclusion and has worked to protect his privacy during this time, but like it or not, he’s a public figure — a figure that I’ve rooted for in dozens of golf tournaments, a figure that’s tried to sell me video games and razor blades and sports drinks. He owes it to me and the rest of the public to come out of hiding.

Which is why I’m happy that Tiger has announced that he will play at the Masters. It’s good for golf — honestly, how many people would watch a major that Steve Stricker was favored to win?

— and it’s good for Tiger. The only way people are going to move past everything is for him to come out, answer the questions that everyone’s been asking and then do what the world wants him to do: play golf.

Some will say that Tiger’s return will overshadow the Masters and is disrespectful to the sport and one of its most vaunted events. But go ask PGA commissioner Tim Finchem how he feels about Tiger’s return. I’m sure he’s not upset.

What does surprise me a bit is the fact that Tiger’s not going to play a tournament before the Masters. But honestly, I like that even more. The drama will make for one of the most exciting golf events — if not sports events — in history.

He’s ending a four-month hiatus from the sport by playing in the event that first propelled him to national stardom.

Imagine if he wins! I’m probably getting ahead of myself — the chances of him coming out cold turkey and trumping the field are minimal — but wouldn’t it be one of the greatest comeback stories of all time?

Plenty of people will be rooting against Tiger, and I’m sure there will be a fair share of hecklers following him around the course. But I’ll be pulling for him. I don’t condone what he’s done, and I’ll never view him the way I used to. But what can I say? I’m just a sucker for redemption.

David Heck is a senior majoring in philosophy. He can be reached at David.Heck@ tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Editors’ Challenge 13 Diving Feature 14 The Sauce 15

tuftsdaily.com

SOFTBALL PREVIEW

Jumbos looking to make bullish run back to World Series BY

ETHAN STURM

Senior Staff Writer

After one of the greatest seasons in school history, which included a NESCAC championship and a trip to the Div. III College World Series, the softball team graduated eight players, which accounted for nearly half of the squad.

But talking to this confident bunch, you would never know it.

“I see our team right now as the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s,” senior co-captain and shortstop Casey Sullivan said. “We graduated a lot of talent, but will still have Michael Jordan in [junior] Izzie [Santone], Phil Jackson in coach [Cheryl] Milligan, and [sophomore] Lena Cantone is like our Dennis Rodman — she’s crazy out there.”

The Jumbos will definitely need to play like the Bulls if they hope to repeat the success they had this past season. Led by stellar hitting and even better pitching, the Jumbos won both the NESCAC title and their NCAA regional tournament while only dropping a single game. They finally fell to Gustavus Adolphus, only four wins away from the national title.

But with the loss of eight players and the addition of four freshmen, the Tufts squad will have a very different identity this season. Still, the Jumbos are ready to move forward, and they do not plan on spending any time dwelling on the successes of the past.

“We know that we are capable of being successful, but I feel if we are thinking about what happened last year, it’s not going to happen,” Cantone said. “We can’t dwell on it.

If we come into this season like it’s a new year, we’ll be fine.”

Cantone will be an integral part of the lineup this season. As a freshman, she settled comfortably into her role. With the onus on the upperclassmen, she hit an impressive .375, the fourth-best on the team, while driving in 40 RBIs, second-best in the NESCAC. Her play earned her second team AllAmerican honors.

But this season, she will be right in the heart of the lineup, and putting up similar numbers will be essential if the Jumbos hope to produce as well as they did last season. Right alongside of her will be Sullivan, who was tied for the most home runs on the team last season with five while batting at a .379 clip. Together, Cantone and Sullivan will be two of just three remaining from last season’s starting lineup. It will be up to this pair to set the tone for the new starters and consistently produce throughout. But there is little doubt that opposing pitchers will be gunning for them all spring.

“I approach every time I hit the same way, regardless of who is batting around me,” Cantone said. “We still have the bats in the lineup to keep it going.”

“We are going to be just as strong as we were, and there won’t

DAILY FILE PHOTO

Junior pitcher Izzie Santone, who posted a 21-2 record last year, looks to help carry Tufts’ success into the 2010 season. be anyone that can be pitched around,” Sullivan added. “We are going to need to be more strategic with where people are batting in the lineup. That isn’t to say that

we don’t have strength in hitting, but that we are going to need to be more creative in using it.”

Tufts’ pitching situation will also be quite different this year. While

Santone, who last year was 21-2 with a 1.13 ERA, returns, the loss of Lauren Gelmetti (LA ’09) leaves a see SOFTBALL, page 15

MEN’S LACROSSE

WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Force of Jumbos overwhelms Lasers in 20-4 victory

Tufts downs Wellesley for first win in 2010 BY

BY

CLAIRE KEMP

Daily Editorial Board

MICHAEL SPERA

Daily Editorial Board

It didn’t take long for the women’s lacrosse team to bounce back from its loss to

With two games under its belt this season, the men’s lacrosse team has shown that, NESCAC or nonconference, the Jumbos will come out on top.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE (1-1, 0-1 NESCAC) at Wellesley , Mass., Tuesday

MEN’S LACROSSE (2-0, 1-0 NESCAC) Bello Field, Tuesday Lasell Tufts

1 2 0 1 — 7 5 7 1 —

Tufts Wellesley 4 20

On Tuesday’s home-opener at Bello Field against the Lasell Lasers, the nationally ranked No. 9 Tufts squad managed a resounding 20-4 victory in its second game thus far this season. With the scoring spread among 13 different players, the Jumbos showed off their depth and versatility on offense.

“Anytime you’ve got a whole lot of guys scoring, it just goes to show that we’re not onedimensional and we can get scoring from anyone,” said junior attacker Ryan Molloy, who led the Jumbos with three goals on the game. “We prepared for Lasell like we did any other team because they’re a strong program.”

“It’s always good to get everyone out there and get everyone a chance to play,” junior attacker D.J. Hessler added. “Everyone has shown that they can score.”

In the first half, the Tufts squad controlled possession from the start, notching the game’s first six

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

Sophomore Kevin McCormick and the No. 9 Jumbos destroyed visiting Lasell on Tuesday, trouncing the Lasers 20-4. goals — all from different players — within 10 minutes of play.

After an unassisted goal from senior tri-captain Mike Droesch put the Jumbos on the board 1-0, sophomore attacker Sean Kirwan took a feed from junior midfielder Tom Butterfield-Bragg, with Bragg following up soon after with a goal of his own on a pass from Hessler.

While Lasell junior Sam Wilcox countered with two of three Laser goals in the first half, it was not enough against a Tufts squad that blanketed the Lasell backfield with a flurry of six more goals before the half ended, putting the Jumbos up 12-3 at the intermission.

“We jumped out quick in the first five minutes, which immediately gave us the edge in the game, and we maintained it from there,” Molloy said. “Offensively, I thought we did a great job spreading around the ball and scoring from a bunch of different areas. We always stress that there are no garbage games; [Lasell] still came out to play, and we did a great job keeping that in mind.”

In building its substantial lead, Tufts edged out Lasell by a margin of 39-8 in shots and won 11 of 17 face-offs in the first see MEN’S LACROSSE, page 15

8 1

5 4

— —

13 5

Amherst on Saturday. On the road on Tuesday, the nationally ranked No. 13 Jumbos unleashed an offensive barrage on the Wellesley Blue, notching their first win 13-5. After going down by one on a goal from Wellesley senior attacker Molly Morrow in the first 26 seconds, the Jumbos scored eight unanswered goals to dash any hopes the Blue had for an upset.

“On offense, we were just much more controlled and relaxed than on Saturday,” sophomore midfielder Casey Egan said. “Instead of trying to force on fast breaks, we took our time and settled the ball. We were able to eliminate small mistakes as we got our confidence back, and it showed in our execution. It was just a cleaner game offensively.”

Senior co-captain Jenna Abelli started Tufts’ scoring just over a minute after Morrow on an unassisted tally. In the next eight minutes, Egan would register a hat trick, and senior attacker Emily Johnson would net two goals of her own. Sophomore midfielder Steph Perez and classmate attack-

er Lara Kozin would each add one before the Jumbos sent a battered Blue to the bench down 8-1.

But, in a replay of the beginning of the game, Wellesley scored first after the break and put Tufts briefly on its heels. Egan answered with her fourth goal of the game while Abelli stretched the lead to eight. Then, backto-back goals from Wellesley’s junior attacker Jenny Holland cut the spread to six for as many scoreless minutes, but Perez, Abelli and Johnson each added one more score in a span of less than four minutes, and Tufts was able to empty the bench and win going away.

Overall, the game showed marked improvements on both sides of the ball since Saturday.

Offensively, the Jumbos outshot the Blue 27-15 and went two-forthree from the free position line, a significant improvement from their one-for-four mark over the weekend. On defense, Tufts more than doubled its ground ball total, picking up 28 compared to Saturday’s 13. The defensive unit also caused 23 turnovers on the day and effectively thwarted two man-down opportunities, allowing junior netminder Sara Bloom to be relatively untested, as she recorded six saves in goal.

“Our communication was a lot better on our defensive end,” sophomore midfielder Emily Pillemer said. “It makes a big difference in our zone when we’re aware of where each other are.

We got more people involved in the plays on attack and in the see WOMEN’S LACROSSE, page 15