2010-09-01

THE TUFTS DAILY

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 1

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

A year later, Greek life gets new director

Matriculation 2010

BY

CORINNE SEGAL

Daily Editorial Board

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Matriculation festivities take place atop the Hill today, kicking off around 1,300 students’ undergraduate years. Above, International Orientation participants met in Sophia Gordon Hall on Monday before leaving for Harvard Square. For those new to the Hill, turn to page 11 for a nifty guide to all things Jumbo, from a Tufts glossary to the ABC’s of Tufts athletics.

Tufts has hired Tanya McGinn Paolo as the new director of fraternity and sorority affairs, filling a year-long vacancy of the position.

The previous director, Patrick Romero-Aldaz, left Tufts in June 2009 to accept a job as the director of fraternity and sorority life at the University of South Florida. Tufts did not hire a new director immediately due to a university-wide hiring freeze imposed due to the economic downturn. Instead, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman acted as interim director for the past year.

Reitman, citing Paolo’s vast

experience with Greek affairs, believes she is well-equipped for her new role.

“She’s been a leader in the field for a long time, so we’re lucky we have somebody with her level of experience and background,” he said.

Paolo, who will take office on Sept. 22, has more than 10 years of Greek life experience, serving as Alpha Phi Northeast Regional Manager from 1999 to 2003. She hopes to start out her tenure at Tufts by building relationships with student leaders to establish goals for improving the Greek system.

“I think the first thing for me is see GREEK, page 2

Students to revote on Green Line extension to Tufts’ community rep. reforms neighborhood delayed until 2015 BY

BRENT YARNELL

Daily Editorial Board

After a confusing voting process blocked community representative reform from advancing, students will once again vote on the matter this fall. Tufts Community Union ( TCU) representatives hope that this time, voters will be more informed and a concrete result will be achieved.

In May’s elections, the student body voted on two competing proposals to redefine the role of community representatives on Senate. The proposals were listed as separate referenda items on the ballot and both garnered enough votes to pass, despite being competing reforms that cannot be implemented simultaneously, TCU Judiciary Chair Beth Doyle, a senior, said.

Community representatives advocate for minority groups on Senate and, under the existing system, are — unlike regu-

lar Senate members, who are elected by their members of their class — elected by the student organizations that have been granted representation.

Four campus groups — the Asian Students Union, the Association of Latin American Students, the Pan-African Alliance and the Queer Straight Alliance — currently have community representatives on Senate.

Community representatives’ voting rights are restricted as they do not vote on financial matters, particularly the Senate’s disbursement of the Student Activities Fund.

T h e n - TC U Pre s i d e n t Brandon Rattiner (LA ’09) last spring convened a Diversity Task Force to explore potential reform to the position, in response to popular dissatisfaction with the existing system. see REPRESENTATIVES, page 2

BY

MARTHA SHANAHAN Daily Editorial Board

The incoming Class of 2014 might not remain on the Hill long enough to see plans to build a T subway station adjacent to Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus come to fruition, as new delays have pushed back the expected date of completion for the project by almost a year.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) filed a report in July estimating that the extension of the Green Line into Medford and Somerville, originally slated for 2014, will not be finished until October 2015 at the earliest.

The delay, which stemmed from the relocation of a planned maintenance facility for the new stations, prevents the state from fulfilling its legal obligation to complete the project by the end of 2014 and will thus require a temporary solution to environmental concerns.

The facility was originally going to be built at a site known as “Yard 8” in the center of an industrial

area of Somerville called the Inner Belt. MassDOT officials in May chose a new location, “Option L,” located east of the original site.

The first location would have hindered economic development in Somerville, according to Ellin Reisner, the president of Somerville Transportation Equality Partnership, a community group active in the Green Line Extension project.

“The way the state wanted it would have made it impossible for cars to access that area, and you have to have that kind of access for development,” Reisner told the Daily.

Reisner explained that despite some Somerville residents’ vocal opposition to Yard 8, planning for the site continued until the state intervened in May. “When they proposed the location there was a lot of resistance,” she said. “It’s only recently that the [Massachusetts] Secretary of [Energy and] Environmental Affairs told them they needed to look at alternatives.”

Ken Krause, a representative of another community group, the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance, told the Daily that MassDOT worked with Somerville community members to come up with a compromise.

While the setback is disappointing for many residents, Krause said, he sees it as a sign that the project is being done thoroughly.

“Although it caused a delay, it was a very positive development that they found a new site for the maintenance facility, because the former site was just not acceptable from the standpoint of Somerville residents.”

Yet the delay will have other repercussions for Green Line planners.

The Green Line Extension Project is part of the state’s legal obligation under the federal Clean Air Act to offset the environmental impact of the Big Dig, a mega-highway project in Boston that began in see GREEN LINE, page 2

Trayless initiative makes its way to dining halls this fall BY

ALEXANDRA BOGUS

Daily Editorial Board

Dining Services is on track to “go trayless” in both dining halls this fall and while some students have complained about the resulting inconvenience, most have reacted positively or with indifference, according to the initiative’s proponents.

Dining Services announced in May that it would remove the trays from both Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Halls, following a 13-day trial of the idea in Carmichael. Organized by members of an Experimental College (ExCollege) class, the pilot program’s results showed significant reductions in the amount of food wasted, energy

consumed and water used over the 13 days in March.

Beyond the environmental effects, the test run also gave an indication of the student body’s response to the initiative. Students who in the fall took “Environmental Action: Shifting from Saying to Doing” surveyed undergraduates at the end of the trial period and found that the majority of respondents were either in support of or neutral toward the initiative.

Fully half of the survey’s respondents supported going trayless, according to junior Alex Freedman, a class member.

When asked if the inconvenience of not having trays was at an acceptable level, nearly 30 percent of respondents said “maybe,” while 20 percent believed the

Inside this issue

level of inconvenience was unacceptable, Freedman said.

With 80 percent of the surveyed population either in support of or unconcerned by a move to trayless dining, the initiative’s supporters are consequently optimistic that the Tufts community will receive the change favorably.

“I think the majority of students will adapt quite readily,” Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos said.

Klos noted that the measure has thus far not proven problematic for students who arrived early on campus, notably the resident assistants and resident directors.

Still, students who were involved with last year’s trayless efforts agree that the measure may take some get-

ting used to.

“There will definitely be a period of time when people are upset,” Callie Kolbe (LA ’10), who took the ExCollege course, said. “Then it becomes part of the new culture and a habit for people.”

Sophomore Ariana Riccio calls Dining Services’ decision a positive development consistent with Tufts’ history of promoting green initiatives.

While Riccio acknowledged that going trayless might make carrying items out of the food area inconvenient, she believes the benefits outweigh the disincentives.

“The seating area and the area where the food is are [about] 50 feet from see TRAYLESS, page 2

Today’s Sections

Tufts groups plan humorous shows for incoming freshmen.

Men’s lacrosse caps off a banner year on the Hill.

see ARTS, page 5

see SPORTS, page 19

News Features Arts & Living Matriculation Guide

1 3 7 11

Comics Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Sports

15 16 17 19

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Transition to trayless dining begins this fall TRAYLESS continued from page 1

each other,” she said. “It’s not impacting your life in a huge way.”

Junior Kyle Leggott disagreed. Leggott, who plays football for Tufts, is supposed to be gaining weight for the season. To him, having to make multiple trips from the table and back due to the lack of trays is not just inconvenient but also cuts down on the time he has available to eat.

“It’s a huge inconvenience for people who get more than one plate at a time and more than a couple of drinks,” Leggott said. “It takes three trips.”

In response to such concerns, two students in the spring authored a Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate resolution stressing the need to discuss alternatives to going trayless.

Junior Cory Faragon, a co-author of the resolution, agreed that going trayless can add significant time to the dining experience. What Faragon found most troubling, however, was the “coercive aspect” of trayless dining.

“Instead of simply informing students about the choice at hand and the environmental results of not using a tray, it coerces an effect and students are not permitted to make that choice,” he said.

Kolbe said that while this point was valid, it deserved a more critical look.

“I have not heard one person delve into the issue more than ‘You’re taking away my rights,’” she said. “The stipulations are there for the greater good.”

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

NEWS

Paolo seeks to strengthen relations with Greek leaders GREEK continued from page 1

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Halls have abandoned trays this year, citing reductions in waste.

Even Leggott conceded that the environmental benefits of trayless dining were significant, if intangible.

“Obviously my inconvenience is not as important as the energy savings, but in your day-to-day life, you don’t really think about those savings,” he said.

In response to students’ concerns, Dining Services has relocated some of the silverware in Dewick to maximize convenience, Klos said. Dining Services has also ordered larger, 12-ounce glasses to replace the existing ones, which hold between seven and eight ounces. They are also considering larger bowls that may reduce spillage.

There are no current plans to order larger plates, in line with the trayless campaign’s “mindful eating” goal, which is designed to reduce food waste.

“Often we find our eyes are bigger than our stomachs,” Klos said. “We want students

to be more thoughtful about how much food they take.”

Trays have not been completely banished from the dining halls, however. Klos said that they will remain available for disabled students and others who specifically request one.

Klos added that if there is a backlash from students, administrators will reevaluate trayless dining at the semester’s end. She observed that Dining Services is ultimately a “customer-driven organization.”

Klos believes, however, that such a backlash is unlikely given that most of the students who frequent dining halls are freshmen, whose dining experiences have never included trays.

Incoming freshman Elizabeth McKay said that despite any resulting inconvenience, the energy and water savings make going trayless worth it.

“I don’t feel like I’m going to be missing anything without a tray,” she said.

really spending some time getting to know all of the student leaders and to learn more about the system,” she said. “I think that they have a lot of the framework already in place, but I see my role as the opportunity to work closer with all of them, give them my advice and give them my ideas and suggestions that I have.”

The existing Greek life infrastructure was one of the factors that attracted Paolo to take the position.

“I think a couple things probably drew me to Tufts,” Paolo said. “I was excited about coming to an institution where they have a well-established, good Greek system with lots of history and tradition.”

The search process for the new director began on July 1 with approximately 15 initial applicants, according to Reitman. A core group of students and faculty narrowed the field to five candidates, who were interviewed by phone. Four finalists visited the campus to meet with student leaders and others involved in the Greek system.

The final hiring decision was based on feedback from those visits, as well as references from candidates’ previous jobs, Reitman explained.

The search focused on candidates who had experience at schools whose size and Greek life were similar to Tufts’, according to Reitman.

“The issues that arrive on the campus where there’s a Greek system and half the campus is a member of fraternities or sororities are different in nature than the issues that come up on a campus like Tufts,” Reitman said. “We did not go for people who didn’t have a background in managing systems that were similar to Tufts’.”

Reitman expressed satisfaction

with the final result.

“I couldn’t be happier,” Reitman said. “[Paolo] had good feedback about her candidacy from all different parts of the search committee. I think the Greek system is getting a new director to really bring it to the next level.”

Senior Daniel Wittels, president of Theta Chi, praised Reitman’s service as interim director but said that the appointment of a full-time director was a much-needed move.

“While he’s done a good job as Greek director, I think that it was clear that it was a little too much to keep up,” Wittels said.

Junior Andrew Brinson, president of Delta Tau Delta, said communication with the university administration was at times difficult last year due to the lack of a Greek director.

“The dialogue on the whole between university and fraternities was a little less than optimal,” Brinson said. “Sometimes it was hard to get in touch with [Reitman] because he had other things going on.”

He added, however, that Reitman provided thoughtful leadership for the Greek system.

“He did a great job with it,” Brinson said. “We could talk to him about whatever we wanted to and he would tell us what the rules were, what our liabilities were, and I never felt pressured.”

Paolo has most recently served as the director of student activities at Johnson and Wales University since 2007, a job that included running the fraternity and sorority life program. Prior to that, she was a Greek advisor at Bryant University and a graduate student advisor for Greek life while at Emporia State University. She is also a member of the Association of Fraternity/ Sorority Advisers (AFA).

Green Line extension delayed by nearly a year

Wallis hopes to improve publicity for community representative referenda

GREEN LINE

REPRESENTATIVES

continued from page 1

1991 and lasted over 15 years.

Because the state was required under the federal Clean Air Act to complete the extension by the end of 2014, a temporary fix, or mitigation, to realize those environmental benefits is necessary while the project is delayed.

“The mitigation needs to be targeted at improving air quality for that 10-month period of delay,” State Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford/ Somerville), whose district includes parts of Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus, told the Daily.

Krause said he expects the alternative measures to involve the reduction of emissions from city buses. Kate Fichter, the Green Line Extension’s project manager, said that a plan for the mitigation will not be finalized for several years.

“It’s premature to talk in specifics about that before then,” Fichter told the Daily. “They don’t need to have mitigations in place until December 2014, which is when the extension would have opened.”

Sciortino (LA ’00) hopes the mitigation will include a legal obligation for the state to follow through on its original plan to extend the Green Line to a station near Route 16/ Mystic Valley Parkway. While planners have not completely abandoned the prospect of a Route 16 station, current plans mark a station at College and Boston Avenues as the Green Line’s new terminus.

He said that the state has committed to bringing the Green Line to the Medford Hillside neighborhood, and that a terminus at College Avenue does not fulfill that commitment.

“This is an issue that we will

continue to grapple with,” Sciortino said.

While plans for the Route 16 station remain debated, Krause called the delay for the College Avenue extension unsurprising, considering that the project has already been hindered by a number of setbacks.

In particular, Krause said that MassDOT’s June filing of the Final Environmental Impact Report was 10 months behind schedule. The report, approved by the state in late July, outlines potential environmental effects of the project.

Krause said that while federal approval of the report is still needed, getting state approval was important for moving the project forward.

“It was a big milestone,” he said.

“This is an important development because [now] a lot of the specifics regarding station design will be finalized.”

Design working groups conducted by MassDOT and consisting of representatives from the surrounding neighborhoods of each proposed station have already begun to meet to discuss the needs of riders, according to Reisner. They have worked with MassDOT to organize community workshops for each station.

“This is the part where the neighbors can put their opinion forward on every level of design to ensure it will be the best fit for each neighborhood,” Krause said.

Accessibility to the stations by bicycle or foot is one of the central issues in designing the stations, according to Sciortino.

Krause agreed. “One important thing that will determine the success or failure of these stations is how easy it is for people to get to them,” he said.

continued from page 1

Senior Nedghie Adrien, former chair of the Senate’s Community, Ethnicity, and Cultural Affairs Committee (CECA), explained that the community representatives’ effectiveness was hindered by the challenging structure of the position.

“The reps felt that their voices weren’t strong in the Senate…because their roles weren’t clearly defined and they didn’t have the fiscal vote,” Adrien said.

Following discussions, the task force drafted a referendum outlining the majorityapproved proposal.

Dissenting members of the task force joined with other students to create an alternative referendum, called the Community Empowerment and Equity (CEE) Model, because they disagreed with the task force decision to continue the existing practice of denying community representatives full voting rights, according to senior Chartise Clark, a senator and co-author of CEE. Senior Nadia Nibbs, a senator who also worked on CEE, said depriving community representatives of full voting rights weakens their voice on Senate.

“Having members who sit on Senate who don’t have the same responsibility as everyone else immediately puts them at the bottom,” Nibbs said.

The CEE model would grant

community representatives the right to vote on all matters and also expands the process by which they are elected — candidates would be nominated by their respective culture centers and would then be subject to a campus-wide vote.

Opponents of CEE argue that granting community representatives a fiscal vote will give students from minority groups a disproportionate amount of influence on Senate.

“I oppose CEE because I believe in one student, one vote,” senior John Atsalis, a task force member, said in an e-mail to the Daily. “Minority students vote for TCU Senators, just as I do, and they are able to vote their wishes.”

Both proposals tie the community representative position to the culture centers, involving them in the selection and supervision of community representatives.

Additionally, both referenda create a diversity and community affairs officer who would chair CECA and spearhead Senate’s minority representation and outreach.

Since both referenda received enough votes to pass, Doyle said it was impossible to determine the opinion of the student body.

TCU President Sam Wallis, a senior, said that this situation arose because the differences between the two referenda were not made clear to voters.

“I think there absolutely

was a breakdown in communication, and that’s why we got into a situation where we need to have a revote,” he said.

Part of the problem, Wallis said, was the short time span between the drafting of the referenda and the vote. The proposals were finalized in the first week of April and voting on them took place April 28.

“They didn’t give it the time it needed [last spring],” Wallis said. “I want to give this the proper time and discussion it deserves, and that includes getting this out to the community and making sure the proper information is being spread about both proposals.”

Wallis also cited the nature of the voting process as a potential source of confusion. Under Tufts Elections Commission (ECOM) bylaws, the resolutions had to be voted on individually, misleading voters into thinking that both could be passed simultaneously.

Nibbs blamed a lack of communication between Senate, the Judiciary, ECOM and the resolutions’ authors for causing confusion and hampering the outreach process.

Wallis said he has worked with ECOM to change the bylaws so that the proposals can run against each other on a ballot. He also plans to convene a council comprised of members of Senate, the Judiciary and ECOM to help coordinate the outreach effort.

Features

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Searching for the next Bacow From diversity to management style, everyone weighs in with different priorities BY

ALEXA SASANOW

Daily Editorial Board

When University President Lawrence Bacow announced in February that he would be stepping down at the end of the 2010-2011 school year, the search for his successor began almost immediately. The Presidential Search Committee was formed to vet appropriate candidates and determine who would be tasked with building on the progress made during Bacow’s tenure in the areas of Tufts’ reputation, endowment and admissions competitiveness.

The search committee is comprised of 13 members, including university trustees, professors, administrators and one student, senior Sarah Habib. While the search committee declined to comment on the search process and progress thus far due to confidentiality agreements, it posted an official position description on its website, presidentsearch.tufts. edu. The position description outlined the qualities the committee deems essential in the next Tufts president.

One such quality listed in the description is a commitment to diversity in all forms, in line with Tufts’ continuing commitment to attaining need-blind admissions.

“Both faculty and students appreciate that diversity adds in every dimension to the richness of the educational experience,” the position description states.

Diversity, both of the student body and of the presidential applicant pool, was an issue emphasized in open forums that the committee hosted and in an open letter to the committee authored in the spring

by Lucy McKeon (LA ’10).

Tufts Feminist Alliance Co-Chair Cory Faragon, a junior, hopes that the committee will keep women’s issues at the forefront of its discussions.

“Of course they’ll be assembling a pool of diverse candidates but let me underline this

— female is important, feminist is essential,” he said. “We can’t accept anything less than a president for whom feminism is a guiding principle.”

While dealing with on-campus issues makes up a great deal of a president’s responsibilities, the search committee emphasized that the next leader of Tufts must also be dedicated to active citizenship in the world at large and in local communities.

So p h o m o re Ro s a r i o Dominguez commended Bacow for his efforts to integrate Tufts with its host communities.

Dominguez referred specifically to Bacow’s support for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, a Congressional bill that would increase immigrant students’ access to affordable education.

“I think he’s done a great job promoting the partnership, if you want to call it that, between Tufts and the immigrant communities of Somerville and Medford,” Dominguez said.

“That’s what I look for in the next president — to keep Tufts on that path so that it’s not above the community and doesn’t seem like a pretentious institution.”

The search committee also called for the next president to build unity across all Tufts campuses and between students and staff.

One hot-button issue centers on Tufts clerical workers’ attempts in recent years to unionize, which has been rebuffed by administration officials. The Jumbo Janitor Alliance ( JJA) is calling for the next president of Tufts to maintain neutrality on this issue and to let the clerical workers decide for themselves whether the formation of a union would be helpful at this juncture.

Alana Epstein (LA ’10), a member of the JJA’s labor task force, said that the administration’s openly negative views on unionization are intimidating because the livelihoods of the MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

see PRESIDENT, page 4

For nearly a decade, the Bacows have lived in Gifford House, which will soon house Tufts’ new president.

A Room with a Preview

Freshmen turn to matchmaking sites to find their perfect roommates BY

MAYA KOHLI

Daily Editorial Board

For many incoming freshmen, the idea of sharing a room with a complete stranger is the most nerve-wracking element of the new semester. It is only natural, then, that an increasing number of students are opting to pre-select their roommates online in an effort both to ensure roommate compatibility and to mitigate the difficult adjustment of learning to live with someone else.

While Facebook has been the most popular online forum to find potential roommates, a bevy of new websites and online applications have popped up that are exclusively dedicated to the roommate selection process. URoomSurf.com and RoommateClick.com have received particular attention from both institutions and students. Several schools have actually encouraged their students to utilize these websites, and more than 83,000 students at 775 U.S. schools have used URoomSurf since its creation. Both sites follow a sim-

ple, user-friendly format similar to other online communities.

Colleges are far from reaching a consensus about roommate matchmaking; some schools reject the idea as petty, while others have decided to embrace and even encourage it.

While Tufts is not typically an institution to follow the herd, this year the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) introduced an online program to give students the option of selecting their roommates based on detailed profiles similar to those on Facebook.

The system, StarRez — used by 270 colleges, including Cornell, UC Berkeley and Boston College — aims to expedite the university housing process by relying wholly on students’ online selections. The roommate matching service is one of the most striking features of the new program, as it enables students to communicate with various potential roommates directly.

StarRez roommate questions include both basic information, such as bed time and cleanliness level, and a space for a biogra-

phy. Fortunately, it also provides flexibility. “If [students] wanted to do a roommate matchup based on the StarRez profile, they could choose to. Otherwise, they could have [their roommates] randomly assigned. The feature basically gives you the option of seeing who your roommate could be,” Yolanda King, the director of ResLife, said.

Not all would say this flexibility is a good thing: New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd recently wrote an op-ed criticizing roommate screening. Titled “Don't Send In the Clones,” the piece argued that learning to live with someone new and possibly different from you is a critical aspect of growing up.

“Choosing roommates who are mirror images may fit with our narcissistic and micro-targeted society, but it retards creativity and social growth,” Dowd wrote.

While not all hold opinions as strong as Dowd’s, those who support random roommate pairings typically defend their choice with the adage that roommates are meant to be a source of learning and growth — not necessarily best friends.

“I think learning to live with someone is

part of the college experience,” junior Ellie Crutcher, who chose to be randomly paired with a roommate before her freshman year, said. “I knew a few people who did it through Facebook, and I chose not to just because I wanted to leave it up to chance. If I had chosen someone and it was a bad situation, I would have felt responsible.”Crutcher also admitted that she had heard of many situations in which pre-selected roommates “backfired,” further discouraging her from the option.

“I also believe there are a lot of things about compatibility you can't find out over Facebook or online profiles,” she said.

Crutcher was eventually paired with a swimmer in Houston Hall and, despite the differences in their schedules, it was a good experience, she said.

“I don't think you need to room with your best friend,” Crutcher said. “I think living around people you're close with is more important than living with [them].”

Incoming freshman Alexandra Allport thought about using the StarRez matchsee ROOMMATES, page 4

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

FEATURES

Tufts plays matchmaker for freshman roommates

Committee seeks Bacow’s successor

ROOMMATES continued from page 3

ing system but eventually decided to be randomly assigned a roommate for the same reason.

“I made a bio and I got requests from people — but I was sort of hesitant and afraid that I would pick someone too much like me and things would go badly,” she said. “I wanted it to be more organic and standard college procedure. Getting a random roommate is kind of exciting.”

Allport emphasized that her choice to go random did not indicate a disregard for compatibility.

“I wasn't looking for a best friend but I definitely had some preferences: someone who has an appreciation for quiet time but not someone who is a recluse, someone who’s flexible and can make compromises," Allport said.

But, like Crutcher, she is skeptical about the veracity and authenticity of online personas.

“After I received the names of my [StarRez] matches, I would look through their Facebook photos, but that whole process is so judgmental. I think you have just as good a chance at getting along with someone you choose as you do with someone random,” Allport said.

Allport doesn't regret her decision and is excited to meet her roommate, who attended boarding school in New Hampshire — a long way from Allport's home in Oregon.

“I thought it was exciting to be thrown into the mix and be with someone different rather than someone who was too similar to me,” she said.

PRESIDENT continued from page 3

DAILY FILE PHOTO

For roomates who found each other online, move-in day reveals a match made in heaven or hell.

In contrast, King views roommate screening as only helpful.

“Roommate tensions have started to decrease, and I think that has a lot to do with students using Facebook and exchanging information before deciding they want to live with each other. I think it’s a student choice,” King said. “I think some students are more comfortable living with someone they know versus someone they don't know. And some students want to live with other people they don't know.”

Andy Thorne, a junior, was impartial to pre-selecting a roommate when he was approached by another incoming freshman online during the summer of 2008.

“We messaged back and forth on Facebook for a while and it was clear we got along and he wasn’t a serial killer,” Thorne said.

The rest is history, as the two quickly

became inseparable and knew almost immediately that they would continue living together sophomore year. While Thorne admitted that he had exceptionally good luck, he points to several awful roommate pairings he witnessed — including a particularly discordant match in his hall — as proof that going random can have dire consequences.

“The ability to compromise [and] communicate and a good attitude” are the important factors in a roommate, Thorne said. He believes these qualities are more likely to become apparent through direct communication. “We could choose a roommate based on interests and things that were important to us — things that students would actually care about,”Thorne said.

clerical workers are in administrators’ hands.

“Many of the people who would benefit from unionization — people who have worked at Tufts for years and support their families — see that Bacow thinks this union is bad, and they don’t want to risk their jobs by defying what their bosses think they should do. It’s coming from an unfair balance of power — it’s kind of intimidating to be told it’s a bad idea to unionize by your manager.”

JJA Co-Chair and senior Phil Bene mentioned that the new president could foster a better sense of community on campus by treating Tufts less “as a business with a bottom line of costs and profits” and more as the non-profit university that it is.

The next president, no matter what his or her focus, stands to inherit a healthy and diverse institution from Bacow. Twenty-seven percent of the incoming Class of 2014 is of color, and Tufts’ Beyond Boundaries capital campaign is on track to raise $1.2 billion by the end of 2011, according to the search committee’s website.

“No matter who gets chosen, students need to hold our next president accountable to the values students hold at Tufts,” Bene said. “While we can hope for a university president who will respect Tufts workers, have concern for student interests and promote greater community, the most certain way to achieve that is for students to hold the administration accountable to those values.”

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No late submissions will be accepted.

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THEATER PREVIEW

Curtain opens on a new year of theatrics Tufts performing arts groups have laughs and thrills in store for freshmen BY

REBECCA SANTIAGO

Daily Editorial Board

The foreign language placement exam may be the only official assessment Tufts freshmen complete during orientation week, but a new Jumbo’s energy and patience are also tested to the extreme during these first few days on campus. The never-ending stream of handshakes and prepackaged bonding conversations about hometowns and planned majors can quickly grow harrowing, so weary young Jumbos take note: The best tonic for exhaustion is neither coffee nor Red Bull, but laughter.

Tufts’ performing arts organization Pen, Paint and Pretzels (or 3Ps, to anyone in the know) proudly proffers a cure for freshman fatigue with its three comedic orientation shows, scheduled to take place at the Balch Arena Theater. These performances by Tufts’ explosively talented thespians promise not only to elicit chuckles, but also to allow audience members a chance to rest overused hands and vocal chords. Sitting back, relaxing and enjoying the show has never sounded so good.

The theatrical festivities kick off with the Comedy Club on Sept. 2, from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m.

This late-night affair caters to a wide range of tastes by encompassing a medley of comedic genres: From traditional sketch comedy to children’s theater, no stone is left unturned.

The director of Cheap Sox, senior Andrew Morgenthaler, who is also a photo editor for the Daily, denies that the improv comedy group

AALOK KANANI/TUFTS DAILY

On Monday, Cheap Sox members senior Harrison Stamell, junior Sam Vaughan and sophomore David Schwartz prepare for the O-Show. has any special tricks up its sleeve. “Cheap Sox has nothing planned for Orientation.

It’s improv — what kind of a question is that?” His goal for the night is to bring the world of collegiate improv to the class of 2014 by “knock-

ing them upside the head with laughter.”

“Seriously, wear a helmet; it has happened before,” Morgenthaler added.

It may be best to leave those proverbial helmets securely fastened for the entirety of the eve-

SUMMER WRAP-UP

ning, which, along with Cheap Sox and 3Ps, also boasts crack-up performances by Major: Undecided, Tufts’ sketch comedy group, and a buoyant moment of silence from HYPE!, New England’s only collegiate mime troupe. Audience members will be encouraged to

2010 Emmys surprise by rewarding the deserving BY

KATYPERRY.COM

Katy Perry bobbed her way to the top of this summer’s hits with ‘California Gurls’.

Simple, catchy beats dominate summer tunes REBECCA GOLDBERG Daily Editorial Board

Summer radio is always a hypnotizing and repetitive merry-go-round of ups and downs, veterans and newbies, new classics and big flops. But as the summer winds down, the Daily is here to help parse the major trends that defined everyone’s Summer 2010 mixtapes.

see O-SHOW, page 8

EMMY FEATURETTE

BEN PHELPS

Daily Editorial Board

BY

embrace their inner children by Traveling Treasure Trunk, Tufts’ children’s entertainment ensemble. Tufts’ Stand-Up Comedy Collective and cabaret group Surprise Teeth! will also make

Stoned SoCal Chic: In “Your Love Is My Drug” (2010), Ke$ha calls herself a “lovesick crackhead” as she rejoices in true love while likening it to an overdose on addictive chemicals. That mix of sugary sweet and sketchily sour has come to define Ke$ha’s persona since her breakout last year. Her vibe doesn’t appeal to everyone, but with the irresistible sing-along chorus of “Your Love Is

My Drug,” it doesn’t have to.

Katy Perry mixed sweet and naughty more literally in “California Gurls” (2010) in which she threatens to “melt your Popsicle.” Though the simple, childish ditty doesn’t really work as a response to Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” (2009) the way Perry intended it to, it’s see TOP 40, page 8

The Internet has for the past few weeks been aflutter with journalists and bloggers analyzing this year’s Emmy Awards race and taking turns to predict the winners. Those prognosticators learned on Sunday night whether or not their predictions were true when the 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were broadcast on NBC. While there are always bound to be some surprise victories, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is notorious for overlooking new series and letting inertia take over in honoring the same series, actors and other television players year after year. This ceremony still had its share of predictable repeat winners, but the Academy did seem to find more room for first-timers in several major categories, notably in the Outstanding Comedy match-ups, where the main competition boiled down to “Modern Family” versus “Glee,” both freshman comedies produced by 20th Century Fox Television.

The two series kicked off the evening by splitting the first four awards. Despite critics’ speculation that the three nominated “Modern Family” supporting actors would split the vote, Eric Stonestreet deservedly won the award for his portrayal of Cameron Tucker, while a (happily) teary Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Stonestreet’s on-screen partner and fellow nominee, watched from the audience.

After another “Modern Family” win for writing, Jane Lynch won the best supporting comedy actress Emmy for her breakthrough role as Sue Sylvester on “Glee” — one of the few truly funny and consistent parts of the show — and creator Ryan Murphy won for his direction of the show’s pilot episode.

In the end, “Modern Family” came out on top with a total of six awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series, ending “30 Rock’s” threeyear reign. Inexplicably, the category’s nominees did not include even better comedies like “Parks and Recreation,” see EMMYS, page 8

THE TUFTS DAILY

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ARTS & LIVING

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Comedic performances offer barrels of free laughs O-SHOW continued from page 7

appearances.

After a three-day break, presumably to allow mirthful theatergoers an opportunity to nurse their split sides, the knee slapping starts up again with back-to-back performances of 3Ps’ straight play, “The Nerd,” and Torn Ticket II’s musical, “Girl in the Frame,” both produced by seniors Samantha Kindler and Andres Steyerthal.

“The Nerd,” written by Larry Shue and directed by senior Ben Leatham, opens on Sept. 5 at 7 p.m., with a second performance on Sept. 6 at 10 p.m.

In this farcical piece, one hapless architect concocts a harebrained scheme to sever ties with the socially inept man who saved his life in Vietnam. The outlandish storyline marries the more common themes of romantic angst and office woes, which, when filtered

through an absurd lens, prove the makings of a delightfully wry comedy.

“Girl in the Frame,” directed by senior Andrew Squier and musically directed by senior Tatyana Zhukov, takes place on Sept. 5 at 9 p.m. and Sept. 6 at 8 p.m.

Jeremy Desmon’s modern rom-com follows a young, offbeat couple’s struggle to set their wedding date — a task made infinitely murkier when the fantasy partners of the bride and groomto-be spring suddenly to life. This dash of wacky surrealism allows “Girl in the Frame” to seriously question the meaning of romantic perfection without losing its merry energy.

3Ps’ comedic potpourri for orientation week not only provides freshmen with a few evenings of lighthearted entertainment, but also offers a fun and tantalizing taste of Tufts’ performing arts scene for aspiring thespians and avid theatergoers alike.

As fall arrives, a look back at the summer’s biggest hits TOP 40 continued from page 7

MCT

Jimmy Fallon rocked the Emmys with the cast of “Glee.”

‘Temple Grandin’ contributes to HBO’s sweep of awards EMMYS continued from page 7

“Community” and “Party Down,” but “Modern Family’s” win showed a dedication to smart comedy over “Glee’s” hype and place in the zeitgeist.

Other notable comedy awards went to Jim Parsons as the lead actor on “The Big Bang Theory” and to the titular character on not-really-a-comedy “Nurse Jackie,” portrayed by Edie Falco, who noted in her acceptance speech, “I am not funny!”

While the comedy awards went largely to network series and stars, over on the drama side, cable continued to show its dominance. Archie Panjabi pulled out a surprise supporting actress win for CBS’ “The Good Wife,” but lead and supporting actor went to Bryan Cranston — his third consecutive win — and Aaron Paul, respectively, both coming off an incredible season of “Breaking Bad.” “The Closer’s” Kyra Sedgwick took home her first lead actress statuette after four previous nominations, beating out front-runner Julianna Margulies and the perennially snubbed Connie Britton.

AMC’s “Mad Men” walked away with its third Outstanding Drama Series award, continuing the trend of cable network’s two key series splitting the acting and writing in a drama series awards. With “Breaking Bad” out of contention next year due to eligibility rules, one hopes that “Mad Men” can add another acting award to its haul as well.

A big shock came when “Top Chef” unseated seven-time winner “The Amazing Race” to win Outstanding Reality-Competition Program, though the Academy understandably displayed its complacency in awarding Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy

Series to “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” for a record eighth year in a row, saving NBC the embarrassment of having Conan O’Brien win for his shortlived version of “The Tonight Show.”

With most of the awards for comedy and drama categories taking place in the first half of the show, the second half focused on miniseries and TV movies. The Emmy producers probably made a mistake in their arrangement of the broadcast, as home viewers are much less likely to have seen pay cable original movies, but HBO was undoubtedly happy as it swept all eight categories. Their “Temple Grandin” (2010) proved to be the big winner, garnering awards for best TV movie, supporting actor and actress and for Claire Danes as lead actress. The real-life Temple Grandin also stole the show with her enthusiastic appearances on stage and in the audience.

Finally, the biggest surprise of the night was that the telecast itself was actually an entertaining three hours, led by host Jimmy Fallon. The opening bit, a Glee-inspired musical number set to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born to Run” (1975) that featured stars ranging from Tina Fey and Jon Hamm to Kate Gosselin, set a fun, energetic tone for the night, which was sustained for the most part. Fallon’s Twitter jokes fell flat but a taped segment with the “Modern Family” cast and Ricky Gervais’s presenter’s speech both killed.

It wasn’t a revolutionary night of television and the Emmys continue to be constrained by its voting system (Katey Sagal should have won, but was not even nominated, for her stellar work on “Sons of Anarchy”), but overall, it was an enjoyable evening that honored some very deserving folks working in the television industry.

still arguably the song of the summer.

The Textbook Earworm: Taio Cruz, the British singer-songwriter behind “Break Your Heart” (2010), clearly takes notes on the pop music zeitgeist. The R&B hit recalls Rihanna’s “Umbrella” (2007) in its simplicity and repetitiveness but ups the ante with a frantically melodic beat and a guest appearance

by Ludacris.

Meanwhile, crooner Jason Derülo followed up the smash hit “Whatcha Say” (2010) with “In My Head” (2010), which is basically a pop-rock song disguised as R&B using Auto-tune. The crunchy guitar sound distinguished it from this summer’s other hip-hop and pop songs, but the harmonies and catchy hook elevated it to near-constant airplay.

The Unlikely Duet: It’s unmistakably troubling to hear Rihanna, a recent victim of domestic abuse, sing that she “like[s] the way it hurts” to Eminem, who used to rap about killing his wife. Truthfully, “Love the Way You Lie” (2010) has become an anti-abuse anthem whose message has been superseded by its catchiness. Still, it’s interesting to watch the talented Eminem, a former has-been, ride Rihanna’s ubiquity back into the limelight.

Meanwhile, relative newcomer B.o.B. enlisted Paramore’s Hayley Williams to help with “Airplanes” (2010), a wistful track with major crossover appeal. Though B.o.B. and Williams are both young enough to be graduating with the Class of 2011, they reminisce about a time when they weren’t quite so rich and famous. Williams sells it though, and B.o.B. proves that he’s one artist to look out for.

Your Mom’s Favorite Song: It’s hard to imagine a teenage girl calling up her favorite radio station and requesting a mid-tempo joint from Canadian Rat Pack wannabe Michael Bublé. But that’s apparently what happened this summer, as “Haven’t Met You Yet” (2009) received an anomalous amount of airplay. The favorite of the menopause set finally got the breakout hit he’s been aiming for with a bouncing piano line

and unabashed cheesiness.

Even more ubiquitous was the serene, ukulele-fueled “Hey, Soul Sister” (2009) from Train, whose last big hit was “Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)” in 2001. Singer Patrick Monahan seems to channel Jason Mraz as he sings creepily about his “untrimmed chest.” The song’s so much for moms that it’s already being used in commercials for washing machines.

The Post-“Idol” Letdown: Kris Allen and Adam Lambert may have been fairly disparate figures when they went head-tohead on the eighth season of “American Idol,” but they still ended up occupying similar spaces on the radio this summer.

Lambert’s spare-then-soaring “Whataya Want From Me” (2009) serves his powerful voice but mostly ignores his glam energy.

Meanwhile, Allen’s “Live Like We’re Dying” (2009) is a slyly morose jam that plays on his laid-back boyishness.

Irish rock band The Script was never on “Idol,” but it sonically fits into this set with “Breakeven (Falling to Pieces)” (2008). A sorrowful, addictive pop-rock song like this comes around every once in a while, and it always does well on top 40 radio before finding a robust second life on easy listening stations.

Techno Cacophony: Usher’s been having a good year, what with his radio hits and the fact that he’s the one who discovered Justin Bieber. Unfortunately for the multitalented R&B mainstay, this summer’s “OMG” (2010) under-serves his talents. The song is overcooked with Auto-tune, moronic lyrics and a crowd sample reminiscent of “Jock Jams” (1995). Usher actually carries a tune on “Somebody to Love” (2010), a duet with Bieber, but somehow, “OMG” is the one that caught on.

Also betraying his crooning roots this summer was Enrique Iglesias, who inexplicably reappeared with “I Like It” (2010), recorded for the new season of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” (which really says everything you need to know about it). The song is so loud and all over the place that listening to it really feels like being in a Miami club full of drunk people, for better or for worse.

TAIOCRUZMUSIC.CO.UK

British artist Taio Cruz broke into America’s summer with ‘Break Your Heart’.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

9

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

YOU

JUMBO WANTS TO JOIN THE TUFTS DAILY! Come to one of our General Interest Meetings: Wednesday, September 15 at 9 p.m. in Braker 001 or Friday September 17 at 2 p.m. in Braker 001 Potential writers, editors, photographers, graphic designers and technology experts welcome!

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

11

MATRICULATION GUIDE

THE TUFTS DAILY MATRICULATION GUIDE There’s no doubt that Undergraduate Orientation — and the rest of your time on the Hill — can be a confusing time. “What’s my dorm really going to be like?

Who’s this ‘Joey’ guy? What in the world is a NESCAC?” you ask. Whether the subject is Tufts, Boston or what’s really in that peanut butter jar in the athletic director’s office, the Daily is here to provide all the answers.

A look at pre-orientation: History, tradition BY

DEREK SCHLOM

Daily Editorial Board

Welcoming freshmen to Tufts for over 20 years, pre-orientation programs have been a standard part of the Jumbo getting-to-know-you routine for hundreds of incoming freshmen.

The three most popular programs — Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO), Freshman Orientation Community Service and Fitness (FOCUS) and Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts (FIT) — are grounded in traditions and customs passed on by peer leaders to young Jumbos, as is International Orientation (IO) — aimed at foreign students entering unfamiliar territory. Conversation, Action, Faith and Education (CAFÉ), new to the pre-orientation scene, has grown in size since its start last year.

Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO) “As a freshman, doing Wilderness gives you a great connection with the other participants, even with people from other groups,” Benjamin Smith (LA ’10), one of this year’s TWO coordinators, said. “Just to be able to start a conversation with, ‘You did Wilderness? I did, too. What trip were you on?’ gives you a common experience to talk about … It’s a great peer support network.”

TWO is the oldest and largest pre-orientation program. Freshmen have the chance to explore New England by land or sea on one

Program

Nickname

# of Freshmen

It’s not the same without...

Tufts Wilderness Orientation

TWO

Over 200

Painting the cannon on the first night

Freshman Orientation Community Service

FOCUS

150

Arrival Day

Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts

FIT

188

The Boston Cruise

International Orientation

IO

140

Satirical Skits

Conversation, Action, Faith and Education

CAFÉ

9

The Outdoor Church

see PRE-ORIENTATION, page 14

Campus news: A crash course

May: A water main break in Weston disrupts the water supply to parts of the greater Boston area — including Tufts’ Medford-Somerville campus — on the same day as Tufts’ annual outdoor Spring Fling concert. A boil water advisory is effected for almost three days. Tufts administrators draw praise for their effective response to the crisis.

A look back at headlines from the 2009-10 year COMPILED BY MATT REPKA

September—November: Worries about H1N1 influenza spread across campus as the number of students reporting influenza-like symptoms increased. Tufts procures a limited supply of the scarce H1N1 vaccine, which it offers to “high-risk” individuals, and implements emergency management procedures, including quarantines.

March: Heavy storms buffet the Hill with record levels of rainfall, causing floods in several on-campus dorms and academic buildings.

November: At $51,088 for the academic year, Tufts takes the title of most expensive school in Massachusetts, beating out Boston College and Harvard University.

Tufts’ tuition increases 3.5 percent over the previous year.

May April March

January 2010 February December September 2009 November

September: The Daily publishes an article detailing a new Office of Residential Life and Learning policy prohibiting sex in dorm rooms “while one’s roommate is present in the room.” For the next month, Tufts’ new policy is thrust into the national spotlight, becoming the subject of media scrutiny and the target of late-night talk show personalities, even garnering a mention on “Saturday Night Live.”

June

February: The previously infamous Winter Bash, relocated to the Sheraton Boston Hotel and rebranded “Break the Ice,” draws approximately 2,700 students. Marred in past years by rampant drunkenness and public urination, the new event goes smoothly — save for chaos and long lines at the coat check.

February: University President Lawrence Bacow announces that he will retire from the presidency in June 2011 after he finishes his ten-year tenure. The 13-person Presidential Search Committee forms with plans to conclude its search by the end of 2010.

March: The steering committee decides to ban alcohol from Tufts’ annual Spring Fling event.

The decision is one result of a year-long debate over changes to the university’s alcohol policy.

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

MATRICULATION GUIDE

How to survive on a college student’s budget BY

ROMY OLTUSKI

Daily Editorial Board

Cross-country plane fares, parents’ hotel rooms, storage units, U-Hauls — moving into college is a costly procedure, adding insult to the already injurious Tufts tuition.

Unfortunately, if we knew how to circumvent the above nuisances, we would have sold our ideas to Dragon’s Den and gotten jobs at The Economist by now. There are, however, several smaller ways to save on move-in that tend to add up. Read on for $206.91 you could be saving.

Furniture Between Bed Bath & Beyond, Target and the somewhat understocked university bookstore, everything you could possibly fit into a college dorm room is readily available within a short drive of campus.

If your inner interior designer calls for luxury items with a higher price tag than the average plastic storage unit, Christmas lights and one-dollar vinyl records (Goodwill), though, it ill-behooves you to splurge on a brand new chaise lounge beforebrowsing the For Sale section of TuftsLife. com. Assuming you can stomach the idea of a rolly chair someone else has rolled in before, TuftsLife is the best place to buy older Jumbos’ various unwanteds at heavily reduced prices. If you’re not intent on keeping it in the family, Harvard’s annual “Stuff Sale,” Sept. 4 and 5, boasts more variety and higher statistical likelihood of landing you a future celebrity relic.

For additional décor, stroll down Professors Row every couple of days. The organizers of the ongoing poster sale outside the Campus Center apparently read the Tufts viewbook and always tailor to a diverse customer base, from heavy metal fans to hipsters, art nouveau aficionados to the more scantilyclad-women-inclined.

lar updates on where to dine first.

Culinarians in the mood for something more than just basic perishables can also make use of Tufts’ other sources of free food, like Chabad’s standing Friday night dinner and the various one-time events posted to the Free F o o d At Tufts Tw i t t e r account.

Milk,cereal and bread at Shaw’s: $8.57 Milk,cereal and bread via trickturning: $0

which books are “recommended,” which you can share with a classmate and which your class likely won’t get around to.

Most of the books you do need are available on Amazon.com or at Half.com, used, often for a fraction of the retail price.

In addition, free e-reader downloads can be found at ManyBooks. net, which hosts a more limited selection of texts but does feature many classics like the full Shakespeare anthology, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and the ever-popular Holy Bible, among others.

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Textbooks The New York Times estimates that the price of collegiate textbooks between 1986 and 2004 rose at twice the rate of inflation; the Tufts bookstore proves that much progress hasn’t been made since.

In this case, trust an old proverb: Good things come to those who wait.

Students who buy all of their books ahead of time in the bookstore JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY generally end up overspending. If there is a copy of a text available in Tisch Library, photocopy or snatch it. But if you’re too late, know that most professors won’t expect you to have all of your books by the first day of classes — which is when you’ll find out

Economics 5 Textbook at Tufts Bookstore: $215 Economics 5 Textbook on Half. com: $98.99 (includes shipping)

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Daily Editorial Board

As any culture will, college comes with its own dialect. Unfortunately, while Tufts doesn’t offer a prep course that fulfills your language requirement, you will be tested on these. Study up. Nodding and smiling only works for so long.

Active Citizenship — n. Broad term among a family of dogood qualities ascribed to Tufts students. Definition unclear.

In the same family: diversity, problem solvers.

Students at Tufts University are diverse, but they are all active citizens and problem solvers.

Aidekman — n. Black hole into which drama students disappear for the majority of the year.

-I haven’t seen my roommate in days. Should I call TUPD? -Have you checked Aidekman?

T-shirt at Urban Outfitters: $24 T-shirt at the Garment District’s Dollar-A-Pound: $0.66

Gifford House — n. Most coveted real estate on campus, home to University President Lawrence Bacow and wife Adele.

I can’t wait until Senior Dinner to finally glimpse the interior of Gifford House.

Bias Incident — 1. n. Term popularized by the “bias incident” of April 9, 2009, in which a student shouted racial slurs at members of the Korean Students Association, got into a fight and was then suspended. 2. n. Derivative of above definition. Blanket term for any offensive incident.

If you don’t stop with your racist shenanigans, I’m going to report a bias incident.

Frat Row (Also Pro Row) — n.

Slang for Professor’s Row and home to most Greek houses.

Bustling on weekends.

Dude, let’s pound these forties and head to Frat Row.

Go Jumbos! — excl. Appropriate remark at the sight of any elephant, live, inanimate or imagined.

Go Jumbos!

Joey — n. Shuttle bus between Tufts and Davis Square. Not to be confused with other white, unmarked vans.

Are you sure that Joey is safe to get into?

Mass-hole — 1. n. A bad driver from Massachusetts 2. excl.

Expression of road-rage when caught behind one in traffic.

Get out of the way, Mass-hole!

Meal In (Also Guest In) — tr. v.

To give someone else entry to the dining hall using a guest meal.

I lost my ID. Can you meal me in?

Meffa (Also Medfid) — n.

Medford, native pronunciation.

Tufts is in Meffa, Massachusetts.

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

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Trends In the unlikely event that you have extra space in your new closet, you’ll naturally be drawn to the famous Newbury Street. Window shop on Newbury; then shop at the Garment District (Kendall/ MIT stop), Tufts’ favorite vintage and second-hand store, featuring a Dollar-A-Pound pit of clothing (actually $1.50 most days).

Invaluable gems await those who are willing to dig — a skill that can be employed at Davis Square’s Goodwill and Buffalo Exchange as well. The “Bargain Basement” in Harvard Square’s Urban Outfitters has great deals as well, though you’ll have to settle for last season’s ironic tee shirt.

Alternatively, join the Tufts Mountain Club. Members tend to opt for the thrifty-yet-timeless noclothing-at-all look. Or give your own clothing a facelift with the silkscreen machine at the Crafts Center.

Ottoman at Target: $68.99 Ottoman on TuftsLife.com: $10 Food Head to the ever-popular Shaw’s if you’re looking for delicacies unavailable on campus, but if you’re just restocking your minifridge, consider the ultimate perk of freshman year: trick-turning.

No, we don’t suggest you wait on the corner of Talbot Ave. and Packard Ave. for lonely callers in order to subsidize your grocery list; but we do recommend you familiarize yourself with the loopholes of the unlimited meal plan.

The plan allows diners to eat one meal during each meal period either at one of the cafeteria-style dining halls (Dewick-MacPhie or Carmichael Dining Halls) or at Hodgdon Good-to-Go, which, in addition to hot-food options, carries basic groceries. Thanks to a glitch in the system (or, according to a recent conspiracy theory, a psychological experiment), Tufts Dining can only set the registers to detect whether you’ve already used your meal in one of the orders.

Check the “Hodgdon-Dewick Trick Turners” Facebook group for regu-

G

NQR — n. acronym. Officially, the Nighttime Quad Reception.

Really, the Naked Quad Run, an age-old tradition in which the student body drinks itself silly and streaks the Res Quad.

Are you running NQR?

S S A R Y

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Orientation — n.

Three-day festi4 val of debauchery and bonding during which you meet a fifth of your classmates, many of whom you will next see on the quad sophomore year and shout a passing hello to and then again senior year, when you will think for a minute about whether to wave before deciding not to.

-Remember me? We met at Orientation.

-No. Public Journal — n. Notebook left in Tower Café filled with anonymous secrets, gossip and ponderings.

You’re cheating on me? I recognized your handwriting in the Public Journal, you jerk!

Rape Steps — pl. n. Stairs behind Carmichael. According to legend, built to be the length of a woman’s stride so as to help her escape from rapists to the shelter of campus.

I’ll meet you at the bottom of the Rape Steps for lunch.

Res Quad — n. Housing quad next to the academic quad.

According to legend, once home to a reservoir. Now home to guitar players and spontaneous sports games.

We’re playing some Ultimate on the Res Quad later.

TEMS — 1. n. acronym. Tufts Emergency Medical Services.

2. tr. v. To call TEMS to assist a friend, usually a drunk one.

Don’t TEMS me, bro! This is my third strike!

Townie — n. Full-time resident of Medford or Somerville.

Sometimes used negatively.

Are you going to invite townies to your party?

Trick-Turn — v. see “How to survive on a college student’s budget.”

TUPD — n. acronym. Tufts University Police Department.

Great for late-night rides uphill.

I’m sleepy. Let’s call TUPD for an escort.

Walnut Hill — n. Where you now live. Not used colloquially.

Wren Bug — n. Species of creepy crawler found exclusively in Wren Hall.

Um, let’s hang out in my room.

No offense, but yours is infested with Wren Bugs.

Editor’s Note: This article contains information adapted from a similar feature in the Sept. 2, 2009 issue.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

13

MATRICULATION GUIDE

FINE ARTS GUIDE

Boston area has much to offer for art lovers The Daily Arts Department’s handy Boston museum guide BY

ANNA MAJESKI

Daily Editorial Board

Dear freshmen, Welcome to Tufts.

Now that you have successfully arrived on campus, you probably have many questions, such as, “Where the fine art at?” Luckily, the Daily’s Arts section is way ahead of you. Boston and its suburbs have plenty of museums for your perusing pleasure — most of them are even free! Here are some to get you started: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA): Boston’s largest museum — if you’re not sure what type of art strikes your fancy, this is a good place to start. The MFA houses a wide range of artworks, from the arts of the ancient world right up through postmodernism. The collection is enormous, so don’t plan on seeing it all in one go unless you’re prepared to camp overnight. They also host college nights where the museum is open later with music and food. Directions: Take the Red Line to Park and the Green (E) Line to the Museum stop. Price: free with Tufts I.D. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Next-door neighbor to the MFA, the Gardner is housed in the former home of Gardner herself. The house itself is beautiful, and even if you’re not a huge art lover it’s worth a trip. The collection includes nineteenth-century French and American work, as well as work from Classical Rome, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Gardner was good friends with American painter John Singer Sargent, and Sargent’s huge oil painting “El Jaleo” (1882) is not to be missed. The Gardner also hosts special late-night events every third Thursday of the month, also with music and food.

Slightly problematic is the lack of lighting in the museum, so go on a bright day. Directions: same as the MFA. Price: free with Tufts I.D. Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (ICA): If Modern art is your genre of choice, the ICA is a wonderful museum.

The building is half the fun. Built right on the Boston Harbor, it was constructed to take advantage of its location and

is an amazing piece of postmodernist architecture. The ICA’s focus is not just on visual arts but also on film and the performing arts. It’s a good place to go if you’re interested in other artistic mediums. They also hold special nights with food and music. Check the ICA calendar for dates. Directions: Take the Red Line to Park, transfer to Silver Line Waterfront to either World Trade Center or Courthouse stop. Price: free with Tufts I.D.

per semester, as well as smaller exhibits which rotate more frequently. The exhibits are of contemporary work, and frequently Tufts professors cooperate on the exhibition concepts. Tufts exhibits not just conventional ‘art’ but other visual mediums that discuss our world.

Last semester the gallery exhibited the work of “VII”, a group of photojournalists who document major post-Cold War tragedies. It’s a space for art that has the Tufts community in mind, so stroll over to Talbot Ave. (right next to Cohen Auditorium) and drop in.

Harvard Art Museum(s): Not to be outdone by other Boston art institutions, Harvard actually has three separate museums. Two of these, the BuschReisinger and the Sackler Museums, are currently open. The Fogg Art Museum, however, is closed for renovations.

Another all-inclusive collection, Harvard has a number of wonderful pieces, and despite the fact that the Fogg is currently out of commission, it’s worth a visit.

It’s also smaller than the other museums, so it’s easier to look at a little bit of everything in a reasonable amount of time. Directions: Take the Red Line to Harvard Square. Price: $6 for students with valid ID. MIT Public Art Collection and List Visual Arts Center: MIT has both a museum, the List Visual Arts Center, and an amazing public art collection.

The List Visual Arts Center has a number of exhibits per year of Modern art which are always very engaging and especially interesting if you also dabble in the sciences. MIT’s public art collection is located all around the MIT campus both inside and out. Works by greats such as Henry Moore and Alexander Calder make it worth the walking. If nothing else, go see the non-denominational chapel built in the ’50s by architect Eero Saarinen. A modern interpretation of the traditional place of worship, Saarinen’s design includes a moat filled with water which reflects on the insides of the building’s walls; not stuff you see everyday. Directions: Take the Red Line to Kendall Square. Price: free.

Tufts University Art Gallery: Last, but certainly not least, is our very own gallery. Tufts features one major exhibit

MCT

Boston has several world-class museums for the artistically inclined.

We’ve got everything your art desires.

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THE TUFTS DAILY

14

MATRICULATION GUIDE

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

TUFTS SPORTS

The ABCs of Tufts Athletics A

shes: After Jumbo’s stuffed hide burned in a 1975 Barnum Hall fire, his remains were recovered and stored in a peanut butter jar now kept in the office of Athletic Director Bill Gehling. Rubbing the jar before a big game supposedly brings good luck. rown and blue: Our school colors make for some of the most attractive — or ugly, depending on how you look at them — uniforms in the country. ousens Gym: The 78-yearold facility has charm, old-school appeal and — finally — a regulation-size court.

Recent renovations lengthened the court to 94 feet, allowing Tufts’ basketball team to host an NCAA tournament game last fall. irector’s Cup: Tufts scored its best-ever finish in the national aggregate sports rankings, a composite list of acrossthe-board athletic success for each Div. III school. The Jumbos finished sixth, buoyed by tallies from 12 different sports.

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in 1894, it is the oldest sports complex on campus. ree: The price of every single sporting event for all Tufts students — substantially less than a front-row seat at Fenway

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llis Oval: The site of the outdoor track and football field is named for Fred “Fish” Ellis (LA ’29), a four-sport star considered one of the greatest male athletes in school history. Built

raft Field: The home of the men’s and women’s soccer team bears the name of Patriots owner Bob Kraft, who gave the field as a gift to Tufts in the 1980s. arry Bird: The Celtics great once filmed a commercial for the defense technologies company Raytheon in Cousens Gym. alden Forum: The hockey team’s home is located roughly 15 minutes away in nearby Malden, Mass. That’s right, a school located in the Northeast has a giant elephant statue on campus, but not an ice hockey rink.

ESCAC: Boasting four of the Directors’ Cup’s top 10 schools, numerous defending national champions, and, of course, your Tufts Jumbos, the New England Small College Athletic Conference is perhaps the strongest conference in Div. III. ne: The number of NCAA national team titles won by Tufts, after the men’s lacrosse

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Park or even a bleacher seat at Gillette Stadium. antcher Center: Completed in November 1999, the 66,000-square-foot, state-ofthe-art facility houses an indoor track and tennis court. amilton Pool: The oldest pool of any school in Tufts’ athletic conference, the facility is the home of Tufts’ swimming and diving teams. In the past, the facility’s poor air quality has been blamed for the rash of respiratory illnesses seen on the Jumbos’ varsity squads. ntercollegiate football: Athletics Director Emeritus Rocky Carzo has long contended that Tufts and Harvard squared off in the first U.S. college football game in 1875. The history books, however, cite an 1869 Rutgers-Princeton contest, played with a round ball under rugby-style rules, as the birth of the sport at the college level. umboCast: The student-run webcasting group streams live coverage of a selection of Tufts sporting events over the Internet, free of charge.

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University President Lawrence Bacow in 2003, the PMC’s squad of 200 runners is the largest known collegiate marathon team in the country. uinsigamond: Located in Worcester, Mass., the lake hosts many of the men’s and women’s crew teams’ regattas, including the New England Rowing Championships. ichardson, Bill: The New Mexico governor and onetime presidential hopeful pitched on Tufts’ baseball team from 1968-1970 and ranks 15th on the program’s career strikeouts list. ailing: Trinity has a stranglehold on squash and Williams is tops in just about everything else, but the Jumbos’ fans can always hang their hats on the sailing team.

The squad is easily the most decorated team on campus with 20 national titles since 1976. uftonia’s Day: Maybe it’s not as catchy as the University of Michigan’s “Hail to the Victors,” but Tufts’ fight song, penned in 1913, is just as timeless. We still don’t know what a “tuftonia” is, however, or why it gets its own day. ltimate frisbee: Thanks to Tufts’ nationally competitive men’s and women’s Ultimate A teams, E-Men and Ewo, respectively, Ultimate is perhaps the University’s most visible club sport. oute Courts: Home to the men’s and women’s tennis teams by day and health-conscious townies by night. illiam “Bill” Gehling: Tufts’ athletics director

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team captured the school’s first-ever championship this past spring. The NCAA does not sponsor sailing. (See “Sailing”). resident’s Marathon Challenge: Started by

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since 1999. Gehling has spent a lifetime on the Jumbo sports scene, co-captaining the 1973 men’s soccer team to a 10-2 mark before serving as the women’s soccer head coach for the first 20 years of its existence as a varsity program. ’s and O’s: Tufts boasts one of the most decorated coaching staffs in all of Div. III,

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including women’s basketball’s Carla Berube, who played on the 1995 undefeated University of Connecticut squad, and baseball’s John Casey, who won his 500th career game in the spring. oga: As if to compound the whole latte-sipping, leftleaning, NPR-listening stereotype, Tufts students have taken a liking to yoga, which is among the most popular physical education courses on campus. imman Field: The official name of the football field within the Ellis Oval, home to the Tufts football team and surrounded by the Ding Dussault Track, where the outdoor track and field teams hold their meets.

Editor’s Note: This article contains information adapted from a similar feature in a Sept. 2, 2009 issue.

—by Phil Dear

Y Z

Pre-orientation traditions stand the test of time PRE-ORIENTATION continued from page 11

of five five-day trips — backpacking, canoeing, a hybrid of the two, climbing or “trail crew” — and, in some cases, to take off their clothing in the woods.

The program’s primary legacy lies in the bonds formed during the expeditions, Smith said.

“That’s the great tradition — that Wilderness isn’t over when the program ends,” he said.

“A lot of the groups have dinner once a week [throughout the year]. They keep the relationships alive, and the leaders check in on the freshmen.”

Leaders make their charges feel welcome on campus during what might otherwise be a stressful time.

“It made my transition from high school to college a lot smoother,” Smith said, “knowing that I had upperclassmen who were so willing to lend a hand and offer advice.”

Freshman Orientation Community Service (FOCUS) FOCUS, founded in 1997 by Jared Townshend (E ’98) and David Lipsky (LA ’98), follows a design similar to TWO’s — small, independent groups with student leaders go on trips of several days and inherit traditions that have been passed down to each incoming class for years. But FOCUS’s, well, focus is on community service in the Boston area.

Nine groups of freshmen participated this year, each concentrating on a specific theme: hunger, homelessness, the environment, kids, special needs, animals, urban beautification, the elderly and health.

The groups’ activities vary from year to year, but time-honored customs like the “insanity”

of arrivals day remain important elements of the program, according to senior and FOCUS co-coordinator Rory Clark.

“The staff basically storms the kids’ cars and the vans that pick them up from the airport, and we sing, chant, pull all the kids out of the cars and make them run through streamers to officially enter college,” she said.

Clark said that two years ago, she and her fellow staffers, unprompted and without a plan, “went completely crazy” upon the participants’ arrivals. Thus began the ritual.

“It just stuck,” she said. “We’ve kept up the unbridled joy since.”

This year, Clark and her fellow coordinators are at it again, trying to start a new FOCUS tradition. As always, FOCUS participants and their leaders slept on campus in the Gantcher Center for the first night, but this year, the freshmen woke up in the morning to the entire staff performing a choreographed dance to Lustra’s “Scotty Doesn’t Know” (2006).

Another FOCUS ritual occurs on the final night of the program, when the staff and participants return to campus. Each group has a limited time to create a short skit recalling their collective experiences and perform it in front of the whole program.

“Seventy-five percent of the skits are usually dedicated to making fun of the leaders,” Clark said.

Fitness and Individual Development at Tufts (FIT) “Every year we get positive feedback about our traditions from the freshmen, so we know those are their favorite aspects of the program,” senior Max Gray, a FIT head-leader this year, said.

Though FIT, directed by Assistant Director of Athletics

Branwen Smith-King, is a relatively recent addition to the preorientation line-up, participation has steadily increased — from 45 freshmen in 2001 to 188 this year. Most of the actual activities, including workouts, lectures on nutrition and stress management and outdoor adventures like rock climbing, remain basically the same each year with yoga a recent addition to the slate.

Gray attributes the growth in the program to word of mouth.

“One part of [FIT’s appeal] is the traditions we’ve upheld,” he said. A movie night, excursions in Boston and an evening of bowling are some of Gray’s favorite traditions.

Former and current FIT participants and leaders are most nostalgic about a traditional cruise on a chartered, multi-level boat in Boston Harbor on the last night of the program. As a DJ spins tunes, “it becomes one epic dance party,” senior Lorien Whitehead, another FIT head-leader, said.

Despite ever more students to manage, Smith-King says that maintaining small groups with two peer leaders remains one of her top priorities.

“It starts intimate and the kids get to know their leaders, and then the groups start branching out and interacting with other groups. They can ask questions and get to know each other. Friendships are developed and people develop confidence and trust in each other.”

Of course, another FIT tradition that will continue to reel in nervous freshmen is the one that’s perhaps least talked about by leaders — the obvious bonus of moving to campus a week earlier than the rest of the freshman class.

International Orientation (IO) “It all started as an initiative on the part of the I-Center

[International Center] to combine all of the international students and several American students and give them a common place to meet each other and calm the initial fears of coming to college,” senior Mike Niconchuk, one of this year’s IO coordinators, said.

Each year, international students of the incoming class are invited to spend a few days before Undergraduate Orientation on the Tufts campus, playing icebreakers, doing scavenger hunts and taking excursions to Boston’s many neighborhoods. Incoming American freshmen from the Boston area have expressed an interest in international relations or been randomly selected join them on the Hill.

For international students, IO provides the comfort of entering college with a group of other students who share worries about being foreign to American and Tufts cultures, Niconchuk said.

“They get a chance to understand their commonalities. It doesn’t matter if you’re Chinese, Indian from Ecuador,” he said. “You’re all dealing with the same fears.”

Katja Eliassem, a freshman participant from Norway, agreed.

“I think it would be a lot more difficult to adjust if I were coming in with all American students who already knew a lot about the U.S. and Boston,” she said.

At the heart of IO are activities that bring the incoming freshmen together, Niconchuk said, the most popular of which is the satirical mini-show the leaders put on each year. The leaders act out skits on religion and academics at Tufts, roommates, dorm life and first interactions with American culture.

Conversation, Action, Faith and Education (CAFÉ)

CAFÉ, the newest of the preOrientation programs, began just last summer with five incoming freshmen and four student staff members who wanted an opportunity to talk openly about religion and faith and build religious pluralism on campus.

In earlier years, there was a platform for it: Pathways, a university-led pan-collegiate interfaith conference funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

When its grant money ran out, students took it into their own hands to create a student-run replacement: CAFÉ.

CAFÉ runs faith-based discussions for students of all ages during the year, but its pre-orientation has drawn in some of its most dynamic members, senior Kasey Mitchell, one of the two coordinators of CAFÉ this year, said. Nine incoming freshmen will participate this year, up from five last year.

For sophomore Duncan MacLaury, a leader this year and freshman participant last year, one of the most attractive qualities that brought him to CAFÉ was the opportunity to expand his religious education in an informal setting.

“I was raised Unitarian Universalist, and part of that was learning about different religions and their different practices,” MacLaury said, explaining that most participants came from religious settings and had general ideas about their faiths. “CAFÉ further expanded my knowledge.”

While CAFÉ is still in its infancy, it is emulating other programs by laying the groundwork for its own traditions.

Mitchell pointed in particular to a trip to an outdoor church service for the homeless in Cambridge, calling the visit “one of the most powerful things we do.”

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

DOONESBURY

BY

GARRY TRUDEAU

NON SEQUITUR

BY

15

COMICS CROSSWORD

WILEY

The answers to today’s puzzle will appear in Tuesday’s paper.

MARRIED TO THE SEA

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Sitting through 95 degree heat. Happy Matriculation!

Unscramble these four Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

NIFSI ©2010 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

WARLC

CADAFE

NEW BIBLE Jumble Books Go To: http://www.tyndale.com/jumble/

by Mike Argirion and Jeff Knurek

ENBOCK Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

Answer:

“

” (Answers Monday)

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY The answers to today’s puzzle will appear in Tuesday’s paper.

Ben: “I take you for a facial hair woman.”

Please recycle this Daily.

THE TUFTS DAILY

16

THE TUFTS DAILY

EDITORIAL

Carpe diem

BENJAMIN D. GITTLESON Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Managing Editors

Ellen Kan Carter Rogers Matt Repka Executive News Editor Alexandra Bogus News Editors Martha Shanahan Amelie Hecht Jenny White Corinne Segal Brent Yarnell Michael Del Moro Nina Ford Kathryn Olson Assistant News Editors Daphne Kolios Romy Oltuski Executive Features Editor Sarah Korones Features Editors Ali Lisnow Emilia Luna Alexa Sasanow Derek Schlom Jon Cheng Assistant Features Editors Maya Kohli Amelia Quinn Emma Bushnell Executive Arts Editor Mitchell Geller Arts Editors Zach Drucker Rebecca Goldberg Michelle Beehler Benjamin Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

Two weeks of camp-like activities — Undergraduate Orientation and Senior Week — bookend what many say are the best four years of your life. Whether this common sentiment actually holds water and is not just something said by old people trying to sound all nostalgic is up for debate, but what isn’t is that you should make the most of this unique time.

Orientation is one of the few times where you have the opportunity to meet thousands of new people who are actually interested in talking to you, too. It’s a fresh start, with opportunities as varied as you can imagine. But sooner than you expect, your time at Tufts will come to a close and you’ll wish you could repeat these years ad nauseam like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day” (1993).

Unless your zany, National Lampoon-style plan to stay in college forever actually succeeds, you’ll have to leave the Hill one day — so seize the experience while you can, especially during your first months on campus when you’re still finding your place in the Tufts community.

If you’ve participated in a pre-orientation program, great: You may have made several lifelong friends already (most likely not). If you haven’t, no sweat: There are still plenty of options to get to know people beyond those living near you.

Take advantage of those first few weeks when it’s socially acceptable to sit down at a dining hall table with complete strangers and begin a totally random conversation. But beware, they might turn out to be sophomores or upperclassmen: It could be awkward, although most likely they’ll gladly talk to you, too — and maybe even give you some tips on trick-turning and textbook shopping.

Most importantly, step outside your comfort zone and try something new. Whether it’s signing up for a new intramural sport, staying up late to debate philosophical theories with the international student on your hall or enrolling in a class on a topic about which you know nothing, you’ve only got eight quick semesters in the melting pot of ideas, people and awesomeness that is your undergraduate years

(and chances are, you’ll go abroad for one of those terms).

Go to the Fall Activities Fair during the second week of classes and sign up for as many e-lists as you can, even if a club doesn’t seem like your cup of tea at first. Who knows, that budding engineer inside you might harbor some mean salsa moves or have an undiscovered natural talent for mime.

Don’t think that you have the next four years planned out perfectly before you set foot in your first college lecture. More likely than not, you’ll find a calling you never imagined you would.

Don’t be afraid to follow that calling even if it means switching your major late in your academic career.

So squeeze as many general interest meetings into your schedule as possible, and take time to get to know your amazing fellow Jumbos. If your friends are going into Boston to check out a jazz club or a museum exhibit, go with them. Missing one frat party (or class, for that matter) won’t kill you.

Eventually, you’ll learn what you truly want to devote your time to during your four years at Tufts.

LOUIE ZONG Rachel Oldfield Laura Moreno Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Rebekah Liebermann Seth Teleky

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editors Cartoonists

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Phil Dear Executive Sports Editor Evan Cooper Sports Editors Lauren Flament Jeremy Greenhouse Claire Kemp Ben Kochman Alex Lach Alex Prewitt Daniel Rathman Noah Schumer Ethan Sturm Assistant Sports Editor Aalok Kanani Meredith Klein Danai Macridi Andrew Morgenthaler Tien Tien Josh Berlinger Virginia Bledsoe Kristen Collins Alex Dennett Emily Eisenberg Dilys Ong Jodi Bosin Jenna S Liang Ashley Seenauth Meagan Maher

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BUSINESS Benjamin Hubbell-Engler Executive Business Director Laura Galinko Advertising Director Dwijo Goswami Receivables Manager The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

You read it here first Hey, you! Yes, you — you proud, card-carrying member of the Jumbo Nation. You brilliant, handsome, mildmannered young Jumbo, you. The one sweating under the scorching sun, contemplating why you didn’t choose to attend a school on the water.

Are you feeling all matriculated and good to go? By now your mom has probably pinched your cheek enough times to leave a bruise, your dad has bought you a ceremonial six-pack to prepare you for adulthood and your older sister made way too many awkward references to “sexiling.”

The Hill can appear to be an overwhelming place as you struggle to register for classes, perfect your timing on stir-fry night and encounter dozens of clubs trying to win your heart and your surprisingly abundant time. Campus will quickly begin to feel smaller as you make friends and start classes — especially if those classes confine you to a tiny cubicle in Tisch Library for extended periods of time.

But to truly become part of the Tufts community, you must learn something about it. That’s where we come in.

Five days a week, rain or shine or blinding snowstorm, the staff of the Daily churn out award-winning content in print and online at TuftsDaily. com. The work of over 150 students make Tufts the smallest university in the country with a daily newspaper — and the premier source of information

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

about the goings-on of the best college in the country with an elephant from the plains of Africa as its mascot.

Stay abreast of campus, local and state happenings in our News section, keep on top of trends and special-interest stories in Features and maybe feel a little cultured as you peruse the pages of Arts & Living.

Tufts’ athletic teams receive top billing in our Sports section, and you can gauge the campus’s mood on our Op-Ed page or in our editorials. Why stop at reading others’ views? Submit your own opinions piece or letter and let your fellow Jumbos know what you feel passionate about.

And how about the interwebs — you know, that series of tubes that the youths are into these days. We think this whole World Wide Web thing might catch on, so we come at you with loads of multimedia content and two informative, eye-catching and frequently updated blogs: Jumbo Slice, for campus news, arts and photos; and The Score, the Daily’s sports blog.

But the best part of the Daily is not the amazing content or the amazingly useful Sudoku — particularly when brought into a boring lecture. It’s how easy it is to get involved with our organization.

Come write for us! Whether you want to pen one piece or a dozen, working on the Daily is learning-centric. No experience necessary.

If photography, layout or design is your thing, we’ve got a place for you, too. Want to learn the nuts and bolts of business and advertising? Check out our Business Department. Grammer nerd? Did the mistake(s) in the last sentence make you want to scream?

Join our team of brilliant copy editors and safeguard the future of the English language.

And as college campuses become some of the last places you can see large numbers of people sitting with print newspapers open in front of them, the Daily has over the last few years significantly expanded our presence online. If you’re interested in lending your expertise in web design or programming to our website, you could quickly move up in our Online and New Media Departments.

We will be holding general interest meetings on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 9 p.m. in Braker 001 and on Friday, September 17, at 2 p.m. in the same place. If you’re interested in becoming a part of one of the largest, most dynamic, influential — and, might I add, coolest — organizations on campus, check us out.

Oh, and it gets colder in Medford in just a few weeks. No worries.

Sincerely, Ben Gittleson Editor-in-Chief

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 4 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com. All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 450-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

17

OP-ED

We won’t be your wingmen

BY JOSH FRIEDMANN AND IAN HAINLINE Welcome to Tufts, alma mater of the great Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.).

While few new freshmen hail from Medford or Somerville, we would bet most of you have heard of Brown.

Following the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy, members of the Tea Party helped deliver the seat into his Republican hands.

If you align yourself with Scott Brown, more power to you. But if you swing toward the progressive values of Franklin Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and President Barack Obama, then you are a friend of ours, and we need your help.

For those who came to Tufts aiming to immediately jump in and make a difference, your timing couldn’t be better. For those who came to Tufts with no past political involvement, you are needed now. For those who came to Tufts with no idea of what to study and just want to focus on learning your way around campus, we have the same strong advice.

Join a campaign — and not just any campaign. Help us reelect Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.).

While we can’t help you cope with New England winters and we (probably) won’t be your wingmen on Saturday night, early campus involvement is definitely the best way to learn the ropes around the Hill. Maybe you are even already aware of Massachusetts’ bold and progressive governor. You may know about Patrick’s defense of education, the environment and working families. He has been standing up to the corporate big boys since we were in diapers and has kept the Commonwealth a great place to live, work and (definitely) go to school. But this year, Republicans are focusing on state and local races — and especially on popular champions like Gov. Patrick.

Will we trust a Republican alumnus to represent Tufts in the political arena, or will we rally around Deval?

The governor has led six months of job gains, defended marriage equality and passed serious education reforms to target the achievement gap. As one of the strongest local representatives of Obama’s priorities, Patrick implemented insurance reform and ensured coverage for 97 percent of Massachusetts residents. Finally, he passed the nation’s strongest greenhouse gas laws and the

DAILY FILE PHOTO

largest land conservation initiative in Massachusetts history — all while facilitating economic development projects statewide. Now is the time to defend the call for change that elected Patrick and Obama. They stood up for us, and now is the time that we stand up for them.

In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory — and heartened by his work against healthcare, environmental responsibility and new consumer protections — conservatives are energized this year.

Republican forces are pouring in special interest money from Washington, D.C., and the stakes are higher than ever. If you’re a local, you’ll know the Massachusetts state government controls legislative redistricting. A conservative governor would not only try to reverse Deval’s work for our equality and freedoms but could help maneuver Massachusetts’ national representation even further to the right.

Even if that’s looking way too far down the road, there are other reasons to jump into campaign work. Even if you are only lukewarm on politics, you probably want to meet people outside your floor, freshman seminars and orientation group. Getting involved with a diverse and involved group of students will help you find your niche on campus, even if it does not end up being politics.

If you are more politically oriented, you probably want to learn how a good campaign is run, cutting your teeth with field organizing — the same way people like JFK, Rahm Emanuel and Obama began their careers. Deval’s campaign is built on an intense and comprehensive field strategy, winning over voters door by door, friend by friend, vote by vote. If you’ve ever thought of getting involved in a race, the time is now.

This year, Patrick’s campaign is the

best place in the nation to learn the ropes. This race is so important that many of Obama’s leading campaign architects are now hard at work for Deval. If you want to learn more about the President’s operation, you may never get a better chance. Key operatives like David Plouffe are busy on the Patrick campaign, with much to teach eager young progressives.

And they need us.

Whether you want course credit for a campaign internship or would rather just spend a couple hours, we’re looking forward to meeting you. Holler at us: DevalRunsTufts@gmail.com.

Josh Friedmann is a senior majoring in environmental studies and political science, and Ian Hainline is a senior majoring in political science. They co-chair Tufts Students for Deval Patrick.

A welcome from the Tufts Community Union president

BY SAM WALLIS Welcome to Tufts! I’m so excited for all of the first-years to be starting out on the Hill. I am not the only senior who wishes he could go back and relive the last three years of college again.

Everyone feels like they’ve got the key to success at Tufts, and I’m sure that you’ve been overwhelmed by information and advice. And if you haven’t yet, it is only a matter of time. There is so much going on at Tufts that it is hard to take it all in.

A few years ago the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate put together a list of things the upperclassmen wished they had known as first-years. While there are many, many more things to take advantage of at Tufts than what is presented below, here are a few of those recommendations. Hopefully they’ll help you make the most of your time here.

Take advantage of the incredibly long add/drop period. You will have more than two months before the deadline to drop classes. Shop around. Liberal arts students: Register for five classes so you have the option to drop one.

Get into Boston. So many students are attracted to Tufts because of its proximity to Boston, but once they’re here they get so busy on campus that they rarely venture past Davis Square. You can find a list of free or discounted things to do in Boston on TuftsLife.com at the Cultural Ticket to Boston. See a show, laugh at a comedy troupe or check out a museum or gallery.

Take an Experimental College class. The

DANAI MACRIDI/TUFTS DAILY

ExCollege is a really unique opportunity for you to take a class that wouldn’t normally fit within a traditional department at a university. Many of the classes are taught by people with extensive experience in their respective fields. You may have a Massachusetts assistant attorney general teaching constitutional law or an entrepreneur teaching about alternative energy technologies. And they are a great connection for opportuni-

ties outside of Tufts.

Even if you aren’t registered for a class or are on the waitlist, go to the first class and talk to the professor afterwards. Chances are you’ll get into the course.

Talk to professors during office hours.

And if you go to the Tower Café with a professor, it’s free. You never know if you’ll hear about an interesting research opportunity with the professor.

Order used books. The Tufts bookstore offers used books if you order them early enough, but Amazon.com, Half.com and Getchabooks.com are reliable and offer great values.

Take advantage of all of the resources available at Tufts libraries, including a huge music library, DVD rentals, free computer rentals and lockers at Tisch Library.

Free stuff is a college student’s best friend.

Tufts has a ton of free stuff, including any on-campus performing arts show, free condoms at Health Service, free use of expensive software in the Eaton computer lab, weekly movies at Film Series, five free sessions with a personal trainer at the fitness center and free arts and crafts supplies at the Crafts Center in the basement of Lewis Hall.

Book a plane ticket, Amtrak or bus ticket now before prices go up. The academic calendar and final exam schedule are already available online. Don’t expect to be able to get transportation if you try the week before Thanksgiving.

I hope some of these tips will help you make the most of your time at Tufts. You will each find what works for you, but if you put into place any of these suggestions, you are sure to make your tuition money go a little further. Above all, remember why you came here, but don’t be afraid to find other things you love about life on the Hill.

Sam Wallis is a senior majoring in political science and economics. He is the Tufts Community Union president and can be reached at Samuel.Wallis@tufts.edu.

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

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Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Freshmen arrive in wake of title wave

ALEX DENNETT/TUFTS DAILY

The National Champion 2010 men’s lacrosse team exacted revenge on all the teams it lost to in 2009, including victories over Wesleyan, Western New England, Trinity and Middlebury, and, above, a thrilling 14-13 overtime win against Bowdoin in the final game of the regular season.

BY

BEN KOCHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

Memo to the Class of 2014: After a historically significant year for Tufts athletics that included two NCAA championships — including the university’s first-ever NCAA team crown in men’s lacrosse — the concept of Tufts as a sports school is not as silly as the

school’s circus mascot.

“Last year was the among the very best that we’ve had in the last 20 years,” Athletic Director Bill Gehling said.

Gehling played soccer for the Jumbos in the early ’70s and coached the women’s team in the ’80s and ’90s before taking his current job in 1999.

The strong performances of Tufts’ teams in 2009-10 prove that Gehling’s

excitement is more than just a proud Jumbo tooting his own trunk. To top things off, the men’s lacrosse team capped a landmark year by trouncing powerhouse Salisbury College 9-6 on May 30 in front of a reported NCAA Final crowd of 30,000.

“It puts us on the map,” senior D.J. Hessler, the game’s Most Outstanding Player, said.

see TITLES, page 23

TOP 10

DIRECTORS’ CUP

Jumbos match best-ever performance in Directors’ Cup The past school year was arguably the most exciting in recent memory for Tufts athletics and, ever since the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings were released at the end of June, it seems that recognition of the Jumbos’ success has spread throughout the nation.

Tufts teams accumulated a total of 699 points throughout the fall, winter and spring seasons of the 2009-10 academic year to edge out Wisconsin-La Crosse, placing sixth out of the 311 Div. III schools that the organization ranks based on finishes at NCAA championship events.

That ranking ties Tufts’ bestever performance in the Cup (2005-06) and confirms the Jumbos’ status as a national sports powerhouse. The NESCAC also solidified its dominance as the country’s most competitive Div. III conference, with four teams placing in the top 10.

Williams and Amherst finished first and second with 1292.25 and 905.75 points, respectively, and Middlebury placed fourth with 751.

The biggest contribution to Tufts’ strong showing came in the spring season, when head coach Mike Daly’s men’s lacrosse team brought home the university’s first NCAA team title with a 9-6 victory over strongly favored Salisbury, adding the maximum number of possible points per sport, 100, to Tufts’ Directors’ Cup total.

The spring season’s total was also boosted by 64 points each

“I mean, it’s huge,” continued Hessler, who became Tufts lacrosse’s all-time leader in assists last season as a junior. “We’ve always had decent programs across the board, but getting that first championship really solidifies us.”

On the same day, one more Jumbo

What you need to know about Tufts athletics BY

ETHAN STURM

Daily Editorial Board

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

An offensive juggernaut of a field hockey squad, the Jumbos amassed 78 goals in 20 games en route to an 18-2 record and an NCAA semifinal appearance, which scored 83 points for Tufts in the Directors’ Cup. from coach John Casey’s baseball team and Kate Bayard’s women’s tennis squad. Baseball ended the 2010 season as the No. 10 team in the final American Baseball Coaches Association national poll, while then-junior tri-captain Julia Browne claimed the NCAA women’s singles title and earned the NESCAC’s Player of the Year honor. Men’s and women’s track and field also added 23.5 and 54 points, respectively.

In the winter season, coach Adam Hoyt’s men’s swimming and diving team notched 55.5 points with an 18th-place showing at the national meet. Women’s basketball was just behind with 50 points; men’s and women’s indoor track and field as well as women’s swimming and diving also contributed to Tufts’ 237.5 winter season points.

The field hockey and volleyball teams in the fall season earned a combined 156 points for the poll. The field hockey squad, which made an appearance in the 2009 national semifinals, almost beat men’s lacrosse to the national championship punch, ultimately earning 83 points for its performance. Volleyball, which made its way to the national Elite Eight, added 73 points.

In the coming academic year, Tufts teams may face the most pressure yet with expectations high for strong national showings. But, with athletics on the rise across the board for the Jumbos, it should be an exciting year as Tufts’ athletes begin their pursuit of another NCAA Div. III triumph.

—by Claire Kemp

10. Watching games won’t cost you a cent. You may need to take out a loan to attend a Yankees game, but you can cheer on your classmates for free at fields across Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus.

9. We have some interesting venues. While the baseball field — with close to 25 unnecessary yards of foul territory in left field and a commuter rail in right field — is a bit out of the ordinary, nothing can top Cousens Gymnasium, with locker rooms four stories above the arena floor.

8. Our athletes are just like every other student on campus. While former University of Florida star Tim Tebow may have spent his four years on campus driving around in a golf cart, our athletes are much more accessible. Don’t be surprised if last night’s overtime hero ends up in the seat next to you in your earlymorning class the next day.

7. We lack a true rival. While we do have rivalries with other NESCAC squads in individual sports, the truth is that no one is willing to compete with the Jumbos across the board.

6. We play in the NESCAC, the conference of strange mascots. If you think Tufts has an interesting mascot, just wait until the Jumbos play a team within the New England Small College Athletic Conference. When you are facing purple cows, Lord Jeffs and poultry, you will be happier than ever that you are a giant elephant.

5. We have a storied sports history.

Tufts participated in the first-ever College World Series in Omaha, Neb., in 1950, back before colleges were split up by divisions. The university also earned a bid to March Madness in 1945, which is a fun fact to drop on any Northwestern friends you may have.

4. We excel in club sports, too. Just ask the water polo squad, which took first at nationals last fall, if they care about not being a “varsity” sport.

3. Our mascot resides in a peanut butter jar. After the hall containing Jumbo burned down years ago, Tufts employees put his ashes in a recycled peanut butter jar, which athletes now rub for good luck. Just remember, if you are ever looking for a midnight snack, avoid all peanut butter jars in the athletics department.

2. We have one of the best coaching staffs in all of Div. III athletics.

From Carla Berube, who was part of the undefeated 1995 University of Connecticut women’s basketball team, to men’s soccer’s Josh Shapiro, who joins the Jumbos after three years with the Georgetown Hoyas, Tufts has assembled one of the strongest, most experienced groups of coaches anywhere in the country.

1. The curse is over. On May 30, the men’s lacrosse team defeated Salisbury 9-6, ending a team NCAA championship drought that was 55 years longer than that of the Chicago Cubs. With the first one out of the way, the Jumbos will be looking for more this year.

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Want the most current campus news?

I wish I knew who won that women’s basketball game last night! And how active are Jumbos in the ROTC?

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The Daily welcomes thoughts, opinions and complaints from all readers — have your voice heard!

Send op-ed submissions, 600-1,200 words, to oped@tuftsdaily.com. Send letters to the editor to editor@tuftsdaily.com.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

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SPORTS

INSIDE NFL

‘Hard Knocks’: Revis, media and expectations pressure Jets

BY JEREMY

GREENHOUSE

Daily Editorial Board

The AFC East has recently belonged to the New England Patriots. But with a fortuitous run to the conference championship and an overly active off-season profiled by HBO’s television miniseries “Hard Knocks,” the New York Jets have become division favorites as well as the most interesting team in the National Football League.

The Jets surprised in 200910 with a 9-7 record under first-year head coach Rex Ryan and rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez. Now in their second seasons with the club, a step forward would mean the team’s first division title since 2002, or, in Ryan’s words, the chance to “lead the league in f------ wins.”

Ryan, a former coach and coordinator of the renowned Baltimore Ravens defense of the past, brought his boisterous style to the Jets, one now captured on “Hard Knocks.”

Ryan has averaged 30 curses per episode of “Hard Knocks” and has been the show’s main source of comedy. Former Pro Bowl cornerback Antonio Cromartie also drew laughs in a scene in which he struggled to recall the names and birthdays of his eight children by six women in five states, all of whom are under the age of five.

Providing the drama has been the team’s number-one cornerback, and the best defensive player in football, Darrelle Revis, who is engaged in an ugly holdout as he tries to renegotiate his contract with the Jets.

“Revis Island,” who was assigned man-to-man coverage of the oppositions’ top wide receivers throughout last season, was the main reason

MCT

see INSIDE NFL, page 23

Head coach and cusser extraordinaire Rex Ryan has good cause for excitement: The New York Jets are poised for another strong season after their breakout in 2009-10.

INSIDE MLB

The business of baseball: Why the national pastime is as profit-driven as a Fortune 500 company BY

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

Baseball is a business and, like in all other businesses, the goal is to make money.

Fans, players and even owners may hate to admit that profits are the primary concern, but there’s no disputing the fact that dollars come first and wins are just a desirable consequence.

In many cases, though, winnings and earnings come hand in hand. The Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees — three of Major League Baseball’s wealthiest and most fruitful franchises — won the World Series in 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively.

But while virtually every team in the league is turning a profit, some are doing little to reward the fans who bring it in.

The sports blog Deadspin on Aug. 23 released the financial records of several major league teams. The dreaded leak revealed that the Pittsburgh Pirates — arguably baseball’s most maligned franchise, just clinching its 18th consecutive losing season — raked in a combined $29.3 million from 2007 to 2008.

The Pirates have not come close to contention for a playoff appearance since Barry Bonds, then a five-tool phenom and two-time MVP who led them to a 96-66 season in 1992, left for San Francisco. Nor have they appeared in the World Series since 1979.

Fans in the Steel City have enjoyed some flashes in the pan, including Aramis Ramirez, Brian Giles and Jason Bay, but those star players were never given the complementary pieces necessary to keep the Pirates alive in October.

Pittsburgh’s current ballpark, PNC Park, opened in 2001, hosted the AllStar Game in 2006 and is hailed as one of the most beautiful stadiums in the country. Yet the on-field product inside the publicly funded, $216 million facility has been anything but beautiful.

The average attendance at the 38,496seat stadium has dwindled from 30,839 in its inaugural season to just 20,184 this year. Nonetheless, team president Frank Coonelly, majority owner Robert Nutting and their partners are turning a profit, leaving them happy to search for scapegoats that explain the team’s longstanding misery.

Not surprisingly, the list of excuses reaches far and wide. The Pirates have had six managers since 1992, including Jim Leyland and Jim Tracy, both of whom have enjoyed plenty of success since their stints in Pittsburgh.

Likewise, four general managers have tried their hand at fixing the eternally broken roster, and current GM Neal Huntington is still struggling to repair the wounds left by his predecessors.

Of the Pirates’ last 18 first-round picks, only three are still believed to have true star potential.

Pittsburgh selected left-hander

Clinton Johnston in 1998 with the 15th-overall pick, just moments before the Astros nabbed Brad Lidge and the Indians plucked CC Sabathia. Johnston never made it out of Double-A ball, but Lidge and Sabathia were crucial members of the past two World Serieswinning teams.

In 2006, the Pirates used the fourthoverall pick on right-hander Brad Lincoln, who made his big league debut only this year. But the No. 10-overall selection, the San Francisco Giants’ Tim Lincecum, has won two Cy Young awards, and the fifth and seventh picks — Brandon Morrow of the Toronto Blue Jays and Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers — are two of the most promising young hurlers in the majors.

That pins fans’ hopes squarely on centerfielder Andrew McCutchen, third-baseman Pedro Alvarez and righthanded starter Jameson Taillon — the Pirates’ first-round selections in 2005, 2008 and 2010. If they don’t blossom into the core of a perennial contender, PNC Park may not witness postseason baseball for yet another generation.

But all the failed skippers, poor executives and sour luck in the draft cannot explain the past two decades of gloom.

The Steelers and Penguins have both won championships in their leagues, so it can’t be the city, either.

No, the blame rests at the top, with Nutting and Coonelly. And the financial success they’ve achieved in spite

of the Pirates’ .434 winning percentage since the start of the 1993 season leaves little incentive for them to change their ways.

Such is life in baseball under the revenue-sharing system stipulated by the current collective bargaining agreement, which runs through 2011.

The system forces every franchise to contribute 31 percent of its annual revenues to a pot that is then evenly distributed among the 30 teams, in order to level the playing field between the otherwise more profitable franchises, such as the Yankees, and the less profitable ones like the Pirates.

But the use of that money is poorly enforced. The Pirates’ roster has benefited little from the $69.3 million in revenue-sharing profits that the team received between 2007 and 2008, as evidenced by the Pirates’ 100-loss pace this year.

Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista — who currently leads the majors in home runs — was a member of the Pirates from 2004 to 2008, and he wasn’t pleased with the way the organization utilized its budget. He told the Associated Press that Pittsburgh “didn’t do anything illegal or wrong,” but added that the current system has a glaring flaw that allows teams to make money without putting a winning product on the field. The Pirates unquestionably took advantage of it. see INSIDE MLB, page 23

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

SPORTS

Welcome to the NESCAC Welcome to the NESCAC, the strongest Div. III conference in the country and home to national powerhouses across the board. The 11 members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, including Tufts, took a combined six 2009-10 national championships: Tufts in men’s lacrosse, Williams in women’s tennis and crew, Trinity in men’s squash, Amherst in women’s hockey and Middlebury in men’s tennis. In addition, NESCAC schools took four of the top six spots in the final Directors’ Cup standings: Williams (1st), Amherst (2nd), Middlebury (4th) and Tufts (6th). Any Div. III athletic knowledge starts and ends with the NESCAC; so without further ado, the Daily brings you a brief look at the 10 other schools that share a conference with the Jumbos.

Middlebury Panthers Location: Middlebury, Vt. On the Field: Middlebury’s men’s lacrosse team won every conference championship between 2001 and 2007 and Middlebury won a combined 21 national titles from its lacrosse and hockey programs between 1995 and 2006. Most recently, the Panthers’ men’s tennis team took home the national title in 2010.

Mascot Madness: Thirty-three schools in the country have “Panthers” as their nickname, the fourth-most behind “Eagles,” “Tigers” and “Bulldogs.” Real original, Middlebury.

Colby Mules

Bowdoin Polar Bears Location: New Brunswick, Maine On the Field: Bowdoin’s women’s basketball team has been a dominant force in the 2000s, earning five NCAA Elite Eight appearances in the past decade, including a Final Four slot in 2004. But field hockey is where Bowdoin does the most damage, having won consecutive national titles in 2007 and 2008, defeating Middlebury and Tufts, respectively.

Mascot Madness: Adm. Robert E. Peary, part of the team that discovered the North Pole and a member of the Bowdoin Class of 1877, helped bring the Polar Bear moniker to New Brunswick. It was officially chosen as the mascot in 1912, making Bowdoin the only college outside of Alaska to have this cuddly and fuzzy mammal as a mascot.

Location: Waterville, Maine On the Field: Seriously, not much. Athletics isn’t even on Colby’s Wikipedia page. In 2009-10, the Mules finished fifth in the country in women’s lacrosse and took backto-back NESCAC titles in 2008 and 2009.

Mascot Madness: “Quick, everyone run! The ferocious mule is on its way! Oh wait … it’s just sitting there and casually eating grass. Never mind.”

Hamilton Continentals Location: Clinton, N.Y. On the Field: Starting in the 2011-12 academic year, the Continentals will become full-fledged members of the NESCAC. Currently, 21 of Hamilton’s 28 varsity squads participate in the conference, but come next year, men’s and women’s basketball and field hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and men’s and women’s soccer will finally leave the Liberty League for the opportunity to be beaten by Amherst and Williams.

Mascot Madness: What a noble mascot, named after the American soldiers in the Revolutionary War in a true patriotic gesture. And then there’s Al-Ham — the pig named after Alexander Hamilton — which represents the Continentals at many athletic games. I’m sure the founding fathers would be proud.

Bates Bobcats Location: Lewiston, Maine On the Field: In 1875, Bates played the first college football game in Maine against Tufts. So … at least they have that going for them.

Mascot Madness: Class of 1911 member Jack Williams suggested the bobcat as the new mascot for Bates, writing in a letter that “It is small — but Oh! how it can fight.” This accurately sums up Bates — small, with only 1,776 undergrads, but feisty.

Unfortunately for them, winning those fights hasn’t become commonplace.

Williams Ephs Location: Williamstown, Mass.

On the Field: Over the past 10 school years, the Ephs have won 104 total NESCAC championships.

Williams has more Div. III titles in more sports (nine) than any other school and has 23 national crowns.

Mascot Madness: An eph is a purple cow. Really, a purple cow. The mascot, Ephelia, was named after Col. Ephraim Williams.

Trinity Bantams

Wesleyan Cardinals

Location: Hartford, Conn.

On the Field: The last time Trinity lost a match in men’s squash was in 1998 and its baseball team took home a national title after a 45-1 record. In fact, if you drive down I-84 West into Hartford, those two facts are on a roadside sign. How fun!

Mascot Madness: Strangely resembling the San Diego chicken, a bantam is a small variety of poultry. According to Trinity’s website, the new version of the mascot “was designed to represent determination, confidence, and health.” Well, that and fried deliciousness.

Location: Middletown, Conn.

On the Field: As one of two universities in the NESCAC — Tufts is the other — Wesleyan has almost 3,000 undergraduates on campus. The Cardinals, however, have been unable to parlay that into national athletic success: The 1994 baseball team is the only Cardinals squad to play in a Div. III championship game. Wesleyan did, however, win the 2010 NESCAC softball title.

Mascot Madness: The nickname originally referred to the color but the school eventually pluralized it and adopted the bird as its mascot. At least Wesleyan has more sense than the Stanford Cardinal, which has a giant Christmas tree as its mascot.

Amherst Lord Jeffs Location: Amherst, Mass.

On the Field: Amherst is historically one of the most successful athletic programs in Div. III history, having won six NCAA team titles and 60 individual championships.

In 2009-10, the Lord Jeffs captured their sixth straight NESCAC women’s tennis title and became the first program to repeat as women’s ice hockey champions.

Mascot Madness: The Lord Jeffs are named after none other than Jeffrey Amherst, a British commanding general in North America. Seriously, could Amherst have a more self-centered nickname? That would be like the Jumbos being nicknamed “the Charlies,” after founder Charles Tufts.

Connecticut College Camels Location: New London, Conn.

On the Field: Conn. College has never won a NESCAC championship, not even in 2005-06, when nine different schools won conference titles. On the upside, Dwight from “The Office” once hooked up with a girl whose fake basketball team was playing the Camels the next day.

Mascot Madness: Try and make sense out of this one: a blue camel in Connecticut. Go ahead, we dare you.

Editor’s Note: This article contains information adapted from a similar feature in a Sept.

2, 2009 issue.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

23

SPORTS

Jumbos an athletic force to be reckoned with TITLES continued from page 19

took home an NCAA first-place trophy of her own: senior Julia Browne, who dispatched Williams’ Grace Baljon in straight sets to take home the NCAA singles tennis crown.

“I’m so excited that it all happened on the same day,” Browne told the Daily afterwards. “It’s just incredible for Tufts.”

“When I was first looking at schools, I had never even heard of Tufts. Now kids are looking at us and saying, ‘Hey, I want to go there and play at that school.’”

DJ Hessler senior

MCT

Ronny Cedeno and the Pirates can throw up their hands all they want, but Pittsburgh is still stuck in the league basement and financial futility.

Pirates look to future, but front office remains a question mark INSIDE MLB continued from page 21

In

addition to Bautista, Huntington has since shipped All-Stars Jason Bay, Freddy Sanchez, Matt Capps, Nate McLouth and Jack Wilson out of Pittsburgh. Coonelly claims that the organization has reallocated its budget to focus on building a farm system that represents the team’s future, but Taillon

and fellow 2010 additions Stetson Allie and Nate Kingham have a long way to go on their mission to erase the memories of the Pirates’ recent draft nightmares.

The 2009 Yankees were guided by the motto, “Pride, Power, Pinstripes,” and they rewarded their fans with the 27th world championship in the franchise’s history.

The 2010 Pirates chose to adopt a

similar slogan, displaying “Pride, Passion, Pittsburgh Pirates” atop their website.

Their fans may have to settle for the first-overall pick in next year’s draft and become united in their hope for a better future — a future that includes better luck, better management and most importantly, a better revenuesharing system than the one that has left them buried since 1993.

Jets hope to turn preseason hype into postseason success INSIDE NFL continued from page 21

the Jets limited opposing No. 1 receivers to under 30 yards per game, a mark some 20 yards better than any other team. Two of those games featured the league’s premier wideout, the Patriots’ Randy Moss, who was limited to a total of 50 yards and seven catches on 16 attempts.

After such a ballyhooed year, the Jets promised Revis a contract extension but have yet to follow through. Revis, in turn, sat out of training camp, therefore forfeiting the guarantee of $20 million over the final two years of his contract. Revis has his eyes on a longterm deal that will pay him upwards of $15 million per season.

“Hard Knocks” and the media at large have told the story of the negotiations from the martyrdom-seeking Jets’ point of view, but there is no question that Revis is worth what he asks for. The Jets, however, feel that they control too much leverage to give in, as Revis won’t become a free agent for another couple years. They are also afraid to hand out too much guaranteed money heading into an uncapped year.

Even without Revis, the team’s defense is stacked with Pro Bowlers. In Ryan’s 3-4 defense, the nose tackle slot is paramount, and that just happens to be where the Jets’ second-best defensive player resides.

Kris Jenkins missed over half the season due to injury, and his return will require a double-team on every play. That frees up space for pasttheir-prime pass rushers Shaun Ellis and Jason Taylor to come off the edge, and possibly the 2008 sixth-overall pick bust-trying-to-make-good Vernon Gholston, who, according to Ryan on “Hard Knocks,” has “dropped his nuts” during training camp.

The linebacking corps can also get to the passer with the likes of Calvin Pace and Bart Scott, the latter shipped from Baltimore along with Ryan to serve as the coach’s alter ego on the field.

The Jets’ special teams under coach Mike Westhoff has been a strength and should continue to perform. Part of Westhoff ’s inspiration comes from the fact that he’s battled bone cancer, while the rest of his brilliance is derived from telling players to execute blocks even if they have “triple Asian flu.”

With the defense and special teams figuring to be near the top of the league, the offense remains the sole doubt.

Sanchez, 23, should experience his largest season of growth, based on quarterback aging curves. That means this could become a make-or-break campaign for him. He had a rough preseason, the lowlight of which might have been his haggling over breadsticks and sauce while ordering pizza.

Fortunately for him, the Jets have surrounded their young signal-caller with talent, which should enable him to succeed. LaDainian Tomlinson is, at the very least, an able pass-catching back, and Dustin Keller, though not physical, can provide a downfield threat as a tight end.

And then there are the wide receivers, as full of talent as question marks.

Former Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes was suspended for the first four games of the season, and Braylon Edwards’ hands are as suspect as his beard.

Yet the addition of those two in the past year has pushed Jerricho Cotchery, who started last year as the team’s top receiver, into the slot. Those three receivers caught 2,749 combined yards last year while Sanchez threw for only 2,444. With such weapons around him, it’s up to Sanchez to make the whole

equal the sum of the parts.

Winning in the NFL is contingent upon successfully throwing the football, yet the Jets pride themselves on a steady running game.

Shonn Greene provides the power out of the backfield, while Tomlinson, who has scored the third-most touchdowns in football history, could provide some flash. Meanwhile, fourth receiver Brad Smith ran for 207 yards on 18 attempts last year.

Leading the way will be either the ageless fullback Tony Richardson or the upstart John Conner, nicknamed “The Terminator.”

As for the O-line, Nick Mangold is the top center in football and lays claim to a freshly inked $55 million deal. Damien Woody is as good as any guard in the game at run-blocking.

Left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson’s main job is to protect Mark Sanchez’s blindside, which he does capably, but if the 6-foot-6 Pro Bowler can hold his own this year in the run and allow the Jets to even out their run distribution from 32 percent to the right against 16 percent to the left, they’ll be more balanced and therefore more dangerous.

To top it all off, this will be the inaugural season of the New Meadowlands Stadium. And while “Hard Knocks” won’t follow the team into the regular season, the Jets will play in five primetime games.

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, when commenting on all the attention that the Jets have been receiving, said he hates the Jets. He and Patriots coach Bill Belichick have long had the upper hand in this AFC East rivalry, and haven’t shied away from saying as much.

Now, though, the Jets have the loudest voices, the most talent and finally, the highest expectations.

Gehling says he received dozens of calls and e-mails from Tufts alums in the days following the dual titles.

“We had a tremendous outpouring of pride from Tufts alums,” he said.

“Men’s lacrosse and Julia Browne highlighted a great year for us.”

The other national championship-winning squad isn’t officially a varsity sport, but that trivial tag means little to men and women of the club water polo team. Boosted by a core of Tufts’ best swimmers, the water polo team finished in third place at the Div. III Club National Championship in both 2007 and 2008. In 2009, though, the Jumbos could not be stopped as they tore up the competition and took home a national title of their own. All signs point to a repeat this fall, with the return of key players like senior Joe Lessard and junior Benji Koltai.

National championships aside, many of Tufts’ other teams also fared well last year at the national level.

In the fall, the field hockey squad, led by standout then-junior Tamara Brown, made a run to the NCAA semifinals, and Tufts volleyball had its best season ever, crushing its rival Williams in the NESCAC tournament final on the way to an appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals.

Tufts baseball added to the title wave with a big win of its own: a NESCAC tournament victory, the school’s first since 2002.

The rest of the country is starting to take notice of the Jumbos’ success. For the fifth year in a row, Tufts finished in the top 20 of the Learfield Directors’ Cup, which ranks the top 311 Div. III schools in the country based on performance in NCAA tournaments.

“There’s been an awareness for a while that we are getting stronger and stronger; it hasn’t been a secret,” Gehling said, who also noted that finally winning an NCAA Championship brings Tufts to a new level of visibility.

Gehling points to 2008’s wholesale renovation of Cousens Gym as a sign of the Athletic Department’s progress, and hopes to announce more construction on the gym in the coming months. For now, he says, the Class of 2014 should be excited about Tufts sports for the simple reason that the Jumbos just keep on winning.

The goal, says Gehling, is to let the world know that Tufts excels in both academic and athletic arenas.

And according to one of the school’s brightest stars, the plan is working.

“When I was first looking at schools, I had never even heard of Tufts,” Hessler said. “Now kids are looking at us and saying, ‘Hey, I want to go there and play at that school.’”

Sapna Bansil contributed reporting to this article.

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THE TUFTS DAILY

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010