2010-10-06

THE TUFTS DAILY

Rain 60/51

LGBT candlelight vigil held in Boston

School of Medicine to establish rotating delegation in Haiti BY

KATHRYN OLSON

Daily Editorial Board

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

Area residents, including Tufts students, last night attended a rally at the Massachusetts State House in Boston in support of victims of anti-LGBT bullying. The vigil was part of a response to several suicide cases among LGBT teens and young adults nationwide. See tomorrow’s Daily for more coverage of this issue.

Grant to fund middle-school math program BY

AMELIA QUINN

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts hopes to give a boost to a new generation of young students by improving instruction in a number of middle schools across New England.

Tufts has recently joined forces with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help improve middle school math education in nine communities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine thanks to a five-year, $9.5 million grant from the NSF. Tufts mathematicians, physicists and educational researchers will partner with public school teachers from the selected districts to staff the Poincaré Institute for Mathematics Education.

Named for French mathematician Henri Poincaré, the program will train teachers through a series of interactive online courses developed by Tufts faculty and designed to improve mathematics and science education, Professor of Physics and Poincaré participant Roger Tobin said.

“We hope to deepen the understanding of the [involved] teachers among the various mathematics they teach and the connections between the mathematics and society and science,” Tobin said. “Our hope is that the teachers will take this back to their own classrooms to deepen and enrich their curriculum. Teachers who understand their subject matter more deeply will do a better job of educating their students. … The goal is not to teach them more mathematics, but a deeper understanding of the math they are teaching.”

Tobin emphasized that the Poincaré Institute is a partnership; the program will not attempt to design curricula or micromanage teachers’ courses, but will instead help them teach their material more effectively. see INSTITUTE, page 2

TUFTSDAILY.COM

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 19

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

A Tufts delegation plans to establish a yearly rotation in Haiti to aid residents in the wake of January’s earthquake.

Twelve faculty members and seven students from the Tufts University School of Medicine (TUSM) and the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service embarked on a six-week research trip to Haiti six months after the earthquake.

The group worked in Milot, a town 70 miles north of Portau-Prince, making rounds alongside local physicians at the Hôpital Sacré-Coeur, and conducted community health projects in the surrounding areas, according to secondyear medical student Graham Brant-Zawadski.

“The projects were informed by the community’s needs,” TUSM Dean of Multicultural Affairs and Global Health Joyce Sackey, who participated in the trip, said. “We were very careful about listening to the community and the leadership of the hospital as to what their priorities were.”

The group hopes to expand on their first visit to form a permanent rotation in Haiti.

Although the exact terms have yet to be confirmed, the group has already obtained funding for future rotations, according to second-year medical student Sally Greenwald (LA ’07).

“There’s no possibility we’re stopping,” Greenwald said. “We have funds left over from Tisch College and TUSM travel grants and have already established a fund for future projects. Tufts has pledged financial support to con-

tinue this as a yearly rotation.”

Sackey also expressed optimism about a permanent TUSM presence in Haiti. She said the first trip’s success helped cement the decision to try to continue the program.

“Our long-term goal is to establish a longitudinal engagement in Haiti with new crops of students who wish to go and build on the projects we have already started [in order]to maintain the momentum we have started,” Sackey said.

The group focused on three separate community health projects: increasing preventative screening for chronic diseases, improving maternal health education for new mothers and establishing an emergency response system, according to Greenwald.

“Haiti has the highest rate of cervical cancer in the world, and see HAITI, page 2

LiNK seeks to raise funds for rescue of North Korean refugees hiding in China BY

CORINNE SEGAL

Daily Editorial Board

A Tufts student organization launching this fall hopes to play a role in alleviating the North Korean refugee crisis through education and fund raising measures.

Co-founders senior Ronnie Lim and junior YouJin Kim re-established the Tufts chapter of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) in response to North Korea’s refugee crisis. LiNK aims to raise awareness about the refugee situation and to raise money to finance the rescue of North Korean refugees hiding across the Chinese border, according to LiNK Chapter Coordinator Megan Rhodes.

“All the funds the chapters raise will go directly to our fieldwork to support the rescue of a North Korean refugee from hiding in China,” Lim said.

LiNK is an international organization with approximately 80 chapters worldwide, most of which are supported by religious and educational institutions, Rhodes said. This fall marks LiNK’s return to the Tufts campus after the MCT

see LINK, page 2

North Korean refugees in China face harsh punishment if discovered.

Hillel parternship hopes to promote social activism BY

MINYOUNG SONG Daily Staff Writer

Supported by a national grant, Tufts Hillel this fall will begin a new partnership in a bid to promote community service-related initiatives and the link between social justice concepts and Judaism.

Tufts Hillel at a kickoff event tonight will officially announce a new partnership with Repair the World, a national organization dedicated to promoting social activism and community service among American Jews and their communities.

Senior Kira Mikityanskaya and junior Julie Kalt are heading the initiative, funded by a

Inside this issue

grant received from the national Hillel organization. The initiative will involve student leaders from Hillel, the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) and the Roosevelt Institute.

Repair the World has provided financial assistance to Jewish organizations committed to social activism in the past, but this is the first year in which the national organization is distributing grants to universities, according to Mikityanskaya. Tufts is one of the first universities to receive a grant, Kalt said.

Having been involved with Tufts Hillel since their respective freshman years, Mikityanskaya and Kalt were entrusted with the responsibility of increasing the number

of Tufts students performing work related to social justice on regular basis.

“Our mission on behalf of the grant is to substantially increase the number of students that are directly involved in community service and to strengthen the connection between social justice and Judaism,” Mikityanskaya said. “Since we are such an active campus, both politically and socially, we hope to find a way to directly connect people to what they are passionate about.”

Mikityanskaya added that organizers hope to encourage students to actualize their goals. see HILLEL, page 2

Today’s Sections

Students and professors weigh in on the role of personal opinions in political science classes.

Staging of ‘In the Next Room’ delves into the lives of a doctor’s family in the late 1880s.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts | Living Captured Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 14 Back

2

THE TUFTS DAILY

NEWS

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

LiNK returns to the Hill, intends to raise funds for North Korean refugees LINK continued from page 1

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

A National Science Foundation grant will fund Tufts’ math programs in middle-schools.

Tufts receives $9.5 million to improve math education in NE public schools INSTITUTE continued from page 1

“By enriching the intellectual background of the teachers and what’s known about student understandings, this will enrich what’s going on in their classrooms,” he said.

The teachers will also be involved in ongoing discussion groups, in which they will talk about how to apply changes in the classroom. The middle school teachers will meet weekly, and Tufts staff will attend on a monthly basis.

“We hope to better prepare math teachers for their task,” Tufts Professor of Mathematics Montserrat Teixidor I Bigas said. “A good number of middle school teachers who are currently teaching math did not take many courses in this subject when they were in college. Even those who did rarely thought about the relationship between the supposedly higher-level math taught in college and the mathematics that they had learned in elementary school.”

Teixidor explained that middle school teachers are also faced with the task of changing curricula and often need assistance with this adjustment.

“Some topics that weren’t traditionally taught [until] high school, like algebra, are now routinely offered in middle school or are introduced in earlier grades. The main goal of the courses that will be part of the Institute is to provide teachers with a wider and deeper vision of mathematics that allows them to make connections among various topics, present them in a unified way and engage the students in their classes,” she said. “We hope that these children will then be able and willing to take more advanced math classes in high school and college and make use of this knowledge when studying other topics or when faced with a variety of situations in their life.”

The Institute’s collaborators chose to focus their efforts on middle school students because the period is a critical one in the development of the target students’ mathematical skills, Teixidor said.

“This is a transition period. In elementary school, children are instructed mostly in arithmetic. In middle school they start to think in more general terms; letters are often replaced with symbols and concrete objects by structures. It is also a time when many school systems start streaming their pupils and when the gap widens between racial, socio-economic and even gender groups. It is particularly important at this point to make sure that every student is able to achieve at a high level and is not relegated to remedial classes by the time he or she reaches high school,” she said.

The Poincaré Institute will follow the model of an earlier Tufts program, the Fulcrum Institute for Leadership in Science Education, which is a two-year series of online graduate courses that supplement the science portion of teachers’ education for kindergarten through eighth grade.

“Six or seven years ago, a group of us put together a physics and science [program], the Fulcrum Institute,” Tobin said. “We found this very fulfilling and productive.

As this was coming to a close, some of the faculty decided to expand it to mathematics. It took a couple years; we were highly rated but not [sufficiently] funded, so it took another year for the funding.”

The goal of the Poincaré Institute is to promote and maintain the interest of students, ensuring that they continue to pursue mathematics successfully, Tobin said, and the project’s success relies wholly on the participating educators’ drive.

“Where does the impetus come from?

The commitment of faculty to improving science and math education,” he said.

Hillel leaders hope to work with other organizations to Repair the World HILLEL continued from page 1

“Our goal is to take it to the next level and actually go out into the communities so as to practice what we preach,” she said.

The student leaders hope to integrate social justice into their project by applying the CASE methodology, an acronym that stands for community partnerships, advocacy, service and education, according to Kalt.

In addition to formally announcing the newly formed partnership, the aim of the kickoff dinner at the Granoff Family Hillel Center is to gather student leaders and give them the opportunity to exchange ideas about the new initiative, according to Mikityanskaya.

Beth Cousens, the associate vice president of the Joseph Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Experience at Hillel’s Schusterman

International Center, will speak about the connections between the initiative’s goals, social justice and Judaism.

By including other student initiatives within the scope of the Repair the World initiative, Mikityanskaya and Kalt hope to highlight the fact that their goal of increasing student participation in service work cannot be achieved without contributions from an array of student bodies on campus.

LCS plans to assist in matching interested students with the resources and partnerships that the organization has already established, according to LCS Presidents Shir Genish and Gregory Lee, both seniors.

“Because students often forget about the importance of volunteering and what they could gain from volunteering, it is nice when a new initiative gets introduced and serves as a refresher,” Lee said.

national organization in 2007 closed the Tufts branch in a chapter-restructuring effort, according to Lim. “A grassroots movement is, we think, the best way to make a change,” Rhodes told the Daily. “Our chapters are a really vital part of that movement.”

Kim said that the Tufts chapter’s goal is to raise at least $2,500 this year, the amount typically spent to rescue one refugee.

“That provides them with safety, it provides them with shelter, it gives them resources,” he said. “It allows them a normal life, a life that we take for granted here.”

There are approximately 300,000 North Korean refugees in China at present, according to Rhodes. LiNK partners with Chinese organizations to transport some of these refugees to shelters and resettlement areas in the United States, she said.

Rhodes said that LiNK’s relative anonymity in the region helps the organization to operate inconspicuously.

“It’s a little bit underground what we do, by necessity. It’s better for us that we keep things a little quieter,” she said. “If [the refugees are] discovered in China, they’ll be repatriated to North Korea, where they’ll face severe punishment, possibly death.”

Lim became involved with LiNK while working as a resettlement program intern at LiNK’s national headquarters in Torrance, Calif. over the summer. She said that, despite having lived in South Korea, she never knew the full extent of the situation in the north.

“Growing up in South Korea, I knew what was going on in North Korea, but not accurately,” Lim said.

She lived with two refugees during her internship. One of them, Lim said,

survived and escaped to China after his father died from starvation in North Korea. The refugee, whom Lim identified as Joseph, now lives with a foster family in Virginia and studied for the SAT in Los Angeles this summer, Lim said.

“Just seeing him really convinced me what people do here is working and making a really meaningful impact on individual lives,” she said. “It’s really nice to see how their lives have been transformed so much just by coming here.”

Kim was pleased at the interest non-Korean students have shown in the group at the LiNK general interest meeting on Thursday. “It was really great to see that other people — a diverse crowd — were interested in this issue as well,” he said.

LiNK member Ken Nozaki, a junior, said the issue extends past Korean borders. “The refugee crisis there is becoming more of an international issue, not just a Korean issue,” he said.

Nozaki added that LiNK focuses more on refugees’ needs than the political situation in North Korea.

“They’re trying to move away from a lot of the political issues that are surrounding North Korea and trying to focus more on individuals that really need help,” he said.

LiNK at Tufts is planning a filmscreening event in November that will coincide with a visit from representatives from the national organization, according to Lim Kim said that other Boston-area schools, including Wellesley College, have contacted the group in the hopes of collaborating to raise funds.

“There are people who are really interested in this issue and are willing to reach out and coordinate with people with similar passions,” Kim said. “I think with that kind of attention and that kind of communication, we can get something really big going on.”

COURTESY SALLY GREENWALD

Sally Greenwald was part of a delegation from the medical school that visited Haiti.

TUSM delegation seeks to make a difference in Haitian health care HAITI continued from page 1

one way to reduce mortality is by screening,” Greenwald said.

Greenwald noted that pap smears, the most common procedure to test for cervical cancer, are costly and require technology most hospitals in Haiti do not have.

An alternative technique, visual inspection with acetic acid, commonly known as VIA, would be more cost-effective for Haitian hospitals, which are operating with very limited resources, Greenwald said.

“Over the last 20 years, most relief agencies focused on infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. …

Now people are living longer and suffering from chronic diseases like hypertension and cervical cancer,” Greenwald said.

“In the [United States], we operate under the notion that we can spend $1 billion to save a person, but that philosophy doesn’t work in Haiti,” Greenwald said.

“We need to develop a sustainable screening protocol in the most cost-efficient way.

Otherwise, the screening won’t happen.”

Another goal of the trip was to establish an effective emergency response system in the wake of the Jan. 12 earthquake. The group evaluated Hôpital Sacré-Coeur’s ability to respond to emergencies and attempted to set up criteria to train officers and improve emergency triage and patient transport, according to Brant-Zawadski.

“One aspect of the project was to introduce a simple system that would depend on cell phone technology used by trained health care workers,” Sackey said. “This way, you could train the community to call the cell phone when someone needs help, and people would get attention much earlier than before.”

The group also researched issues surrounding infant mortality and lack of education on the part of new mothers.

They worked to establish a community intervention program that teaches mothers to respond to potentially dangerous symptoms exhibited by their children, according to Sackey. She emphasized that learning through global citizenship is an important aspect of the education program at the School of Medicine.

“It’s an issue of equity,” Sackey said.

“Anyone who is social justice-minded would say, ‘There is something wrong when babies are dying before they are five in someplace so close by. We should help.’”

Sackey noted that the educational opportunities afforded by such trips, although less altruistic, are equally important to medical students.

“Students have the opportunity to learn about cross-cultural medicine and will see things they definitely will not see in Boston,” she said. “It’s also a huge time for personal growth. Students can see that what they do makes a huge difference.”

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

With elections approaching, professors question whether to voice political opinions BY

DEREK SCHLOM

CJ SARACENO | BAN TOGETHER

Confessions of a call boy

Daily Editorial Board

T

With midterm elections approaching in four weeks, the opportunity for debate in political science classes over potential candidates, initiatives and referenda is at a peak. Students will inevitably clash over liberal and conservative viewpoints and whether congressional incumbents should return to their posts.

But the highly politicized environment leaves students and faculty alike wondering when it is appropriate for professors to weigh in and when personal opinion should be kept out of classroom discussion.

In addition to the personal political leanings one might expect from any involved citizen, university professors have a particular affinity for backing up their leanings with action; oftentimes many of them even rally behind similar causes.

A Center of Responsive Politics study last month revealed that educators nationwide have donated large sums of money to federal midterm election candidates this year — primarily to Democratic ones.

But the potential for subjectivity in political science classrooms is not limited to candidate preference or even party affiliation. According to the Tufts Department of Political Science website, students in political science courses are introduced to questions that invite interpretation rather than concrete answers — on the part of their professors as well.

“Students … face the enduring questions of political philosophy, questions relating to liberty and equality, justice, democracy, power and mortality,” it states. So where does one draw the line?

Lecturer of Political Science Dana Blander, who is currently teaching a course on Israel’s democracy, prefers to err on the side of reservation and said that she usually refrains from disclosing her views on the subject matter of her class, which hap-

MCT

see POLITICS, page 4

Political science professors often have a difficult time deciding when to bring their personal opinions into class discussions.

Runners commence training for final President’s Marathon Challenge with Bacow BY

LAINA PIERA

Contributing Writer

Even with 193 days left until the race, members of the Tufts community have already started training for the 115th Boston Marathon in April of next year.

Every year, a team of Tufts students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends join the Tufts President’s Marathon Challenge (PMC) to compete in the Boston Marathon.

University President Lawrence Bacow initiated the program in 2003 as a way to connect the Tufts community and raise money for university health and wellness programs.

PMC Director Don Megerle, a former Tufts swim coach, is in his fourth year as coach of the team and his 40th year overall at the university.

“It’s a high-quality program,” Megerle said. “I don’t think there’s anything like it in the United States.”

Approximately half of the 200 marathon runners are faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university, while the other half are students.

Students are expected to raise $1000, while non-students must raise $2500.

The money raised goes toward the Personalized Performance Program, which is a health and fitness program for Tufts students, faculty and staff, and toward Friedman School of Nutrition Professor Christine Economos’s efforts to curb adolescent obesity. Since 2003, the program has raised over $2.6 million.

Many resources are available for the runners in the months leading up

to the marathon. The official website contains important information, such as the training schedule, inspirational stories and tips on injury prevention and fundraising.

In preparation for the marathon, the team has started training on Wednesday and Sunday at 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., respectively. The distances vary between 4 and 14 miles depending on individual fitness levels. While Sunday morning practices are a bit more popular than Wednesday mornings, turnout has been strong.

Runners should not be worried that the early morning practices will have an effect on their social lives. “The main concern is that you have to get up really early, but even if you’re staying up late, you can still pull it off,” Jack Miszencin, a junior said.

Freshman Katie Lowe has enjoyed training with the team, even though she realizes that she will probably not get a spot on the actual team this year.

“It’s a motivation to get out if I have a group of people to run with,” Lowe said.

“The group of people on it are really nice.

I get to meet a lot of older kids, too.”

Megerle and Dan Kopcso, a member of the Tufts athletics staff, set up snack stations at the end of the runs to refuel the runners. “The chocolate chip cookies after the run make my life,” Miszencin said.

So far, over 300 runners have signed up, though Megerle expects over 400 to sign up eventually. Only 200 Tufts runners are actually able to compete in the marathon, so there are procedures that dictate who gets a spot.

In order to get a spot, runners must complete a 10-mile qualifying run in December to show commitment. The final group of 200 is chosen in January.

Non-students get automatic placement, while students are chosen based on seniority.

Interest in the challenge has been growing each year. When asked how the challenge has changed throughout the years, Megerle said that there are simply more runners.

“I see a lot of veterans around campus,” he said. “Their enthusiasm has transferred

“It’s a high-quality program.

I don’t think there’s anything like it in the United States.”

Don Megerle PMC director to their friends, and a lot of their friends are running this year. They’re coming in with a good frame of mind.”

When asked why she has decided to run the marathon, senior Amanda Roberts said it is because of a tradition within the Tufts field hockey team.

“Almost every year, the graduating seniors all run the marathon together, so that certainly influenced my decision,” Roberts said. “Four of the other seniors will be running it with me this year.” see PMC, page 2

he Jumbo herd was not stampeding in anger over last week’s call to ban the Daily, proving my column’s ineffectiveness. Thankfully, the pitchforks I ordered could be resold to the Tufts Gardening Alliance. My column’s popularity was, however, affirmed by the student body’s decision to not ban the Daily, despite its obvious shortcomings. To take advantage of this unanticipated second chance for the “Ban Together” series, I present my second ban proposal — this time of Tufts Telefund.

Telefund is the front name for the thirdparty company that turns a profit by calling people and asking them for money.

Telefund’s goal infects its culture and employee experience, in which rewards are based on how much money an individual can procure in one shift or call. The stakes are high and the pressure is real. You could be an all-star one night and win an iPod for getting someone to pay via credit card. Yet by the end of your next shift, you could get fired for going soft on a caller.

This dynamism might make Telefund seem like a great job — one that comes with high wages, a flexible schedule and a convenient location, at that. But I worked there for longer than anyone I know (3.2 months), and even though it was over a year ago, I still steer clear of classes in Eaton Hall just to avoid the horrific memories.

My experience working at Telefund can only be compared to the movie “Boiler Room” (2000). Both feature jobs in which workers desperate for cash do whatever it takes to charm strangers into blowing money on unbeneficial things. A donation to Tufts may not be equivalent to spending on millions of shares of fake stock, but the methods employed are largely the same.

This becomes apparent when you enter the Telefund calling center, where legions of cubicles are packed into a small basement chamber beneath Eaton and, for hours on end, only the dim hum of false kindness and forced conversation can be heard. Absent from these conversations is the word “no.” Telefund trains employees to avoid the word, encouraging instead the use of non-confrontational alternatives to be repeated at least four times per phone call. Managers are there to prevent collateral damage; after an elderly woman broke down in tears upon confessing her financial plight to me, a manager had to approve my decision before I removed her from our calling list.

The average Telefund call uses a classic bait-and-switch method to trap unassuming callers into giving away their money.

Like some cheesy pickup artist, the caller lures in his victim with a false sense of comfort, often steering the conversation toward the target’s fondest college memories. The caller then channels that nostalgia into his first pitch — that Tufts can only continue with the help of the target’s $50 donation.

If rejected, the caller begs until the target hangs up on him.

Very few people seem capable of earning a livelihood based on this system of institutionalized begging, especially when that money may be going toward something that’s not exactly the most charitable cause (e.g., a professor’s salary, a lacrosse stick, a new TV for a freshman dormitory).

Tufts knows that soliciting donations is a dirty but necessary job. That’s why it outsources this duty to a private company, RuffaloCODY. This organization is the one we must set our sights on. It is trapping our fellow students into positions as mercenaries squaring off directly against alumni and Cat Fancy Magazine subscribers. Tufts may be able to turn a blind eye to the employment practices and psychological manipulation the organization uses to acquire as much money as possible — we no longer have that luxury.

CJ Saraceno is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Christopher.

Saraceno@tufts.edu.

4

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

FEATURES

Tufts professors say subjectivity in the classroom can be beneficial POLITICS continued from page 3

pens to be a particularly contentious topic, according to some. “It depends on the context,� Blander said. “Usually I share non-controversial opinions about past events if it’s essential for class discussions. I never present opinions as fact.�

Blander said that students usually don’t inquire any further about her political leanings.

Sophomore Matt Roe explained that professors’ beliefs and opinions often enhance classroom discussion; however, beliefs become problems, he said, when they are not clearly labeled as such. “They have to be acknowledged as personal opinions because they taint the class if they aren’t acknowledged,� Roe said. “But opinions definitely have a place

“To agree with me on the basis of sloppy analysis is not rewarded, but to disagree with me on the basis of strong analysis most certainly is.�

Kent Portney professor of political science MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

President’s Marathon Challenge runners don’t sleep in on Sunday mornings.

Marathoners start preparations early PMC continued from page 3

Roberts also acknowledged that Bacow’s imminent departure from the university may have influenced others to join the team. “He’s done so much for the university, and a lot of people see it as a tribute to him,� Roberts said.

When asked if Bacow’s departure will have an effect on the challenge, Megerle

said he thinks the only real change may be the name. “We don’t know what we’ll do for the name. The new president may be a runner who welcomes the idea of the President’s Marathon Challenge,� he said. “If he or she is a runner, then great.

But I don’t know what we’re going to do.

I like the name PMC.�

in the classroom, just like student opinions are warranted.�

Roe dropped a class this semester when he found that the professor’s liberal views were overshadowing the course curriculum. “The professor continuously injected his personal point of view rather than teaching in an unbiased way, and he never provided any disclosure that those were his personal opinions,� Roe said. “A lot of the students in the class seemed to be taking his opinions, which were definitely left-wing, as absolute fact rather than just one side of an argument, and that bothered me. Most of

my [political science] professors have been liberal, and so am I, but I’ve found that the students tend to just fall in line behind the professor.�

Professor Tony Smith agreed with Roe, arguing that subjective remarks do not necessarily lack educational value. “I make every effort to make my opinions known in my class,� Smith said, regarding his views on neoconservatism and U.S. foreign policy.

Still, Smith emphasized that his opinions are never presented as the be-all and end-all on position of the particular topic at hand. “I also try to make clear my hesitations, my lack of assurance, why I might be wrong, places where my own information is thin and times when I am unsure what kind of judgment to make,� Smith said. “Ultimately, what is important to me is not so much to be agreed with as to see strong analysis of whatever our topic is. To agree with me on the basis of sloppy analysis is not rewarded, but to disagree with me on the basis of strong analysis most certainly is.�

Smith said that his students value his candor on politics during class discussions. “Attendance and participation are high, and I think the members of the class would confirm ‌ that they rather like the approach,â€? he said. “I appreciate the opportunity I have ‌ to vent my opinions.â€?

Professor Kent Portney, who teaches classes on American politics and political behavior, takes a similar approach to Smith in that he discloses his personal politics but makes sure to justify his beliefs and open the forum to debate.

Often, he said, through presenting subjective opinions, he is better able to promote critical thinking and inspire students to develop counterarguments. “My personal preference is to express my opinions and to make clear the basis for my opinions, to provide [rationality], to make my opinions open — to signal that I’m willing to discuss alternative points of view,� Portney said.

%H\RQG 'HYDVWDWLRQ 5HFRYHULQJ )URP 3DNLVWDQ¡V )ORRGV )URP 3DNLVWDQ¡V )ORRGV

(QJDJH LQ D SDQHO RQ WKH DIWHUPDWK RI WKH 3DNLVWDQ IORRGV DQG WKH OHVVRQV OHDUQHG IURP WKH GLVDVWHU )HDWXULQJ 'U $OL &KHHPD

'U 3HUYH] +RRGEKR\

0RGHUDWHG E\ 'U $\HVKD -DODO

9LVLWLQJ )XOEULJKW )HOORZ +DUYDUG DQG $VVRFLDWH 3URIHVVRU RI (FRQRPLFV /DKRUH 8QLYHUVLW\ RI 0DQDJHPHQW 6FLHQFHV ,163,5( )HOORZ ,QVWLWXWH IRU *OREDO /HDGHUVKLS DQG 3URIHVVRU RI 3K\VLFV 4XDLG H $]DP 8QLYHUVLW\ ,VODPDEDG 0DU\ 5LFKDUGVRQ 3URIHVVRU RI +LVWRU\ 7XIWV 8QLYHUVLW\

2FW WK SP LQ %UDNHU SP LQ %UDNHU 6SRQVRUHG E\ 6RXWK $VLDQ 3ROLWLFDO $FWLRQ &RPPLWWHH &R VSRQVRUHG E\ &HQWUH IRU 6RXWK $VLDQ DQG ,QGLDQ 2FHDQ 6WXGLHV

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

THEATER REVIEW

ASHLEY WOOD | FASHION CONTRACEPTIVE

Fangbanging

A

COURTESY STRATTON MCCRADY

In SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of ‘In the Next Room,’ Sabrina Daldry (Marianna Bassham) and Catherine Givings (Anne Gottlieb) engage in a little titillating self-medication.

‘In the Next Room’ is an electrifying performance set in an 1880s household BY

BRIANNA BEEHLER Senior Staff Writer

Electricity. The minute you walk in for the SpeakEasy Stage Company’s production of Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room

In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) Written by Sarah Ruhl Directed by Scott Edmiston At the SpeakEasy Stage Co. through Oct. 16 Tickets $30 to $55 (or the vibrator play),” you can’t help but notice the buzz both on and off stage. The electrical currents are palpable in the room, but fortunately for the audience members, the play lives up to the excited hum felt before the show.

Shocks, sparks and bolts of all types define this scintillating and ultimately euphoric performance.

Ruhl’s play is set in the late 1880s and derives its plot from the late 19th century medical practice of using vibrators to treat cases of hysteria by inducing “paroxysms” in the patient. The nervous illness was commonly associated with women, but in some cases, as we see in Ruhl’s play, men also sought treatment for cases of anxiety. The play focuses on the household of Dr. Givings (Derry Woodhouse), in which we witness awakenings of many kinds as the doctor’s family, patients and staff come to terms with the advent of electricity in all its forms.

Like the characters’ initial reactions to the substitution of electrical lighting for the more romantic candlelight, the play takes a while to warm up. Givings’s wife, Catherine (Anne Gottlieb), at first comes off as a merely immature, insipid character, and the first patient, Sabrina

BOOK REVIEW

‘Social Network’ source material lacks spice BY

LAURA MORENO

Daily Editorial Board

Facebook is one of those fascinating companies that young entrepreneurs dream of creating. In “The Accidental

The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook Ben Mezrich

Anchor Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal,” Ben Mezrich, the author of “Bringing Down the House” — the basis for the movie “21” (2008) — attempts to tell the story of how today’s most widely used social network was born. Although informative, Mezrich’s book uses overly simplified language and contains a bitter undertone, turning a potentially fascinating account into a drab tale of how two dorky Harvard students come up with a good idea.

Mezrich, a Harvard alumnus himself, based the story on “dozens of interviews, hundreds of sources, and thousands of pages of documents,” according to the author’s

note, yet failed to get firsthand face time with Mark Zuckerberg, the genius behind it all. Although “The Accidental Billionaires” is based on a true story, it certainly incorporates several fictional elements like madeup scenes, a recreated dialogue and an unconvincing Zuckerberg. If Mezrich’s use of fiction is to make the story of Facebook more interesting, he fails dismally.

The premise of the book is simple enough: Two Harvard University undergraduate students begin a business in a dorm room, and their idea goes viral, quickly getting out of their hands and growing into a multibillion dollar company. As more people get involved in Facebook, Zuckerberg is cast in an increasingly negative light. Nevertheless, the fact that Zuckerberg is described in the book as a bloodsucking, insensitive and socially awkward boy may very well be a way for the author to vent his frustration with his subject.

This book hovers in a regretful state of limbo between being a fictional thriller and a factual account of Facebook. The author craftily and conveniently navigates between the minds of Zuckerberg’s victims — such as the wealthy Winklevoss twins, from whom Zuckerberg supposedly steals the Facebook idea — and his see BILLIONAIRES, page 6

Daldry (Marianna Bassham), starts out as a pallid and thin-voiced creature as a result of her nervous condition.

As we soon see, however, it is not the fault of the actresses, who, incidentally, reveal themselves as excellent in their roles during the course of the play, but the fault of the society that has raised them as sheltered and repressed individuals. Woodhouse’s rendition of the confused, conservative doctor is especially convincing and, as the scene develops, we see that he is not so much a proponent of the system as a victim himself.

The play contains many sexual charges, clever reversals and humorous comments that add to an already captivating topic. For instance, despite Catherine’s protestations that electricity bores her, she acknowledges its power and clearly finds it just as fascinating as her scientifically-minded husband does. She articulates the sparks of sexual tension see VIBRATOR, page 6

TV REVIEW

‘Glee’ retains fans, loses quality BY

ALEX KAUFMAN

Contributing Writer

“Glee” became an instant sensation when it first aired in September 2009. Since its pilot episode — the

Glee

Starring Matthew Morrison, Lea Michelle, Jane Lynch, Jayma Mays Airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox brainchild of Ryan Murphy, formerly known for “Nip/Tuck” (2003-10) — it has turned into something of a cultural phenomenon, evidenced by its 19 Emmy nominations and four wins.

“Gleeks” have rejoiced to see this musical-dramedy back for its second season — but has it lost some of its spark? see GLEE, page 6

s many of you are already aware, 2009 (and probably 2010, 2011 and so on) was dubbed the “Year of the Vampire,” due to the outrageous popularity of the “Twilight” franchise and HBO’s “True Blood.” There appears to be something universal and fascinating about the desire for a bloodsucking, undead boyfriend. Even Tufts’ curriculum has been affected by the trend: Vampires in Civilization is currently an Experimental College course. But what most people are probably not thinking about is how society’s fascination with vampires affected the fashion industry during the 2009-10 season.

When most of us envision modern vampire clothing, we see leather jackets, RayBan sunglasses and various other items that are reminiscent of James Dean circa “Rebel Without a Cause” (1955). Or, if you’re feeling especially dirty, you might picture the recent Rolling Stone cover that features the “True Blood” cast naked and covered in artificial blood. This is the vampire that Hollywood has created for us. They’re in a business where sex sells, and therefore, they make blood-sucking look sexy.

Fashion, however, is in the business of selling wearable contraceptives and so designers took on the daunting task of de-sexifying vampires. This meant that the 2009 and 2010 runways did not sport Edward Cullen and Bill Compton lookalikes but rather channeled a more classic look: Picture Bela Lugosi in “Dracula” (1931), widow’s peak and all.

Alexander McQueen’s menswear line was perhaps the most vampiric, featuring a series of black capes, chapeaus and extremely fancy walking sticks to accessorize the largely black and grey ensembles. Alexander Wang, in his Fall 2010 women’s line, presented a deep red velvet dress with a black torn cape attached, worn by an extremely pale, gothic-looking model. Oddly enough, I think my mom has the same exact dress stored in our Halloween costume trunk at home.

Ignoring the fact that red velvet is only sexy when it is part of a Santa-themed lingerie set, I would like to focus mainly on the menswear. Some people say capes and chapeaus could still be sexy — Yves Saint Laurent and John Varvatos were among the other designer labels to sport these items as well — and you would only be half wrong. Jim “Jesus” Caviezel, in the 1800s period piece “The Count of Monte Cristo” (2002), wears all of these pieces and remains undeniably sexy. But in 2010, the context is just wrong.

Imagine your boyfriend/crush/friend showing up to Winter Bash wearing a cape. It would seem like he was just stopping by on his way to play Dungeons & Dragons.

And if you needed any more convincing that cape-wearing would totally kill your ability to attract the opposite sex, there’s always Ke$ha’s response to the vampireinspired trend. In an interview with MTV, the pop-singer discussed her plans for her upcoming clothing line and said, “There will be capes involved. I’m trying really hard to bring back capes. They’ve been out since, what? The 1800s? I think it’s about time they came back.” Sorry, Ke$ha, but you are simply wrong. Her other brilliant fashion idea addressed in this interview, by the way, was to scoop up roadkill off the highway and glue the decomposing remains to her clothing because … that’s more humane than real fur or something.

Needless to say, I don’t think Ke$ha is the person to go to for advice on how to attract the opposite sex and, sadly, neither is the fashion industry. On a side note, though, I will be asking my mom about that Halloween costume.

Ashley Wood is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Ashley.

Wood@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

6

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

ARTS & LIVING

Foray into Top 40 songs a misstep for ‘Glee’ in its second season GLEE continued from page 5

Led by the overly ambitious Rachel Berry (Lea Michelle), students of McKinley High’s New Directions glee club cope with their personal lives while facing harassment by fellow students for their membership in this unpopular group. Even teachers attack these unfortunate teens: The comically sinister cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) tries tirelessly to disassemble the club. Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), the corny glee club teacher, inspires the students to continue expressing themselves through music, regardless of the adversities they face.

“Audition,” the second-season premiere, presents a new soiree of drama.

Fresh faces add to the intrigue of the plot: A new football coach siphons off Sue and Will’s club budgets, and two new students come into town, both coincidentally with fantastic singing abilities. The appearance of the latter two on the scene is convenient enough, as the glee club needs new members.

The second episode, “Britney/ Brittany,” featured the music of Britney Spears and brought back the old love triangle between Will, his psycho ex-wife Terry (Jessalyn Gilsig) and Emma (Jayma Mays), the neurotic guidance counselor.

The glee club wants to perform Britney Spears’s songs for the homecoming assembly despite Will’s insistence that Spears is not a good role model.

These opening episodes unfortunately seem to indicate that this lauded series has become a victim of its own hype. The first episode was extremely ambitious

FOX.COM

The New Directions glee club heads in new directions in the second season of “Glee.” in establishing characters and plots while simultaneously trying to woo a new audience turned on by the show’s rise to fame.

Something that many dedicated viewers found appealing about “Glee’s” music was its mixture of old and new songs. As part of its attempt to attract a new audience and still maintain its loyal fans, the show integrated five Top 40 hits into the first episode.

This change might have come off as effortless if it had been done in the right context, but the show seemed too rushed and eager to show off its new “cool” pedigree, and little attention was paid to the logical segueing into song.

Even so, the first episode was not without its rewards.

The songs performed by the glee club were executed as excellently as ever. The introduction of the new football coach, Bieste (Dot Marie Jones), added a healthy and much-desired dose of drama. And, of course, no “Glee” episode passes without imparting a moral: Sue’s failed plan to tarnish her new opponent’s reputation teaches the audience a valuable lesson about treating others with respect.

As for the highly anticipated Britney episode, fans may have hoped for the same success evident in season one’s Madonna

episode. The strength of the latter was its successful incorporation of Madonna songs into the established plot.

The Britney episode unfortunately lacked that integration, and it’s just too early in this season to have an episode take a break from plot arcs that have barely been established.

Although the episode’s cabaretstyle theme was highly entertaining, Murphy made a poor directing call by offering this episode so soon in the season.

Not all is lost for “Glee.” The show still brings the novelty of musical comedy to the homes of millions every Tuesday

night. The characters, including Mercedes (Amber Reilly), Kurt (Chris Colfer) and Artie (Kevin McHale), still have lessons to teach us about how to deal with our differences in the context of a myopic society. And, of course, viewers look forward to the melodrama created by the relationships, alliances and enemies made through the glee club.

Hopefully, the show will return to what made it so famous in the first place: its authenticity.

“Glee” is about being an individual, a character and even an outcast, and on some level, everyone can relate to that.

Excellent staging of ‘Next Room’ fills audience with good vibrations VIBRATOR continued from page 5

by saying, “On, off, on, off,” while playing with the switch of a lamp.

The charismatic and entertaining Leo (Craig Wesley Divino) encourages Catherine to see the artistic beauty of electric light and, in doing so, succeeds in lighting up the stage with his humor and charm. The wet nurse Elizabeth (Lindsey McWhorter) provides a different sort of ray of hope, teaching Catherine what it is to be a mother and what it means to love a child. Both Divino and McWhorter are valuable assets on the stage, and the cast comes off as very well balanced and intelligent as a whole.

Throughout the play, Ruhl once again proves her strength as a playwright through her well-developed characters and dialogue — clearly, this play is justified as both a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist and a 2010 Tony Nominee for Best Play.

What the “Next Room” is exactly, and what is happening in it, become increasingly ambiguous as the characters become more entangled in their interactions and confessions. The set is divided between the doctor’s Operating Theater and the wife’s living room,

where she continuously runs into the patients despite her husband’s urgings for her to avoid meeting his “sick” visitors. The slight angle of the set gives it a surreal, “Alice in Wonderland” feel that, despite the otherwise historically fixed setting, gives the play an artistic and ambiguous touch.

The actors make good use of the space, and at first, it is seemingly obvious that the doctor’s theater is the mysterious “Next Room” to which his wife is denied access. In a hilarious fit of mad, overwhelming curiosity, Catherine and Mrs. Daldry break into the operating theater while Dr. Givings is out. From then on, which of the two rooms is in fact the proverbial “Next Room” is completely reversed. While the women have found a common bond through a self-discovery that is both touching and uproariously funny, Dr. Givings remains oblivious.

In the final climax between Dr. Givings and his wife, the barrier between the two rooms falls and the “Next Room” becomes one that contains the audience. As the house lights turn back on, the room is once again abuzz. This is not a performance that will leave you feeling static.

COURTESY STRATTON MCCRADY

Dr. Givings (Derry Woodhouse) admires his own technique in this electrifying play.

KNOPFDOUBLEDAY.COM

‘The Accidental Billionaires’ comes off as a one-sided portrayal of the events surrounding the origins of Facebook.

‘Accidental Billionaires’ treads the line between fiction and fact BILLIONAIRES continued from page 5

rich Brazilian friend, Eduardo Saverin, who provides much-needed startup capital only to have his role reduced in the growing company.

As Zuckerberg stabs strangers in the front and friends in their backs, he boldly makes his ascent into fame. A key turning point is Zuckerberg’s first meeting with Sean Parker, another computer science nerd and one that Zuckerberg admires very much for co-founding filesharing service Napster. Portrayed as a powerful and savvy scoundrel, Parker is quick to knock Saverin out of his way as he and Zuckerberg greedily make Facebook grow, resembling two villains rather than two intelligent computer nerds-turned-entrepreneurs.

As stated in the author’s note, Mezrich conducted interviews with key but bitter participants in Facebook — albeit the ones who didn’t make it into the future of the business, such as Saverin.

Nevertheless, Mezrich’s failure to obtain Zuckerberg’s side of the story means that he must rely on limited information.

Mezrich’s failure to fully sketch

Zuckerberg results in a flat and underdeveloped character, causing uneasiness rather than admiration. Zuckerberg is portrayed as a selfish genius who is cold-hearted almost to the point of a social deficiency.

Fictional as it may be, the story being told is exceptionally interesting and relevant to all users of Facebook. However, the account tends to focus more on the social scene of Harvard and less on the details of the company itself. What we are left with is a mere outline of a successful company and a meticulously detailed account of what it is like to be an undergraduate student at Harvard.

If you are looking for a true glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg, look no further than a recently published New Yorker article, “The Face of Facebook” by Jose Antonio Vargas. Vargas actually manages to get Zuckerberg to sit for an interview and provides a much better depiction of the mogul and of the creation of Facebook than Mezrich does. “The Accidental Billionaires” is nothing more than a story of a genius butchered to pieces by the sore losers of Zuckerberg’s — and Facebook’s — past.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

7

ADVERTISEMENT

Engaging the Middle East: After the Cairo Speech

The Fares Center The Fares Center

for Eastern Mediterranean Studies

A conference sponsored by The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies, Tufts University OCTOBER 14–15, 2010 CABOT INTERCULTURAL CENTER TUFTS UNIVERSITY Medford/Somerville, Massachusetts

Hassan Abbas

Rami G. Khouri

John P. Abizaid

Marc Lynch

Deborah Amos

Malik Mufti

Lawrence S. Bacow

John A. Nagl

Ruth Margolies Beitler

Emile A. Nakhleh

Jamshed Bharucha

Vali Nasr

Stephen W. Bosworth

Shuja Nawaz

John L. Esposito

Michael E. O’Hanlon

C. Christine Fair

Robert H. Pelletreau

Fares I. Fares

Nadim N. Rouhana

Farideh Farhi

Trudy Rubin

Leila Fawaz

William A. Rugh

Shai Feldman

Richard Shultz

Chas. W. Freeman, Jr.

Barbara Slavin

Leslie H. Gelb

Randa M. Slim

Querine H. Hanlon

Shibley Telhami

Robert M. Hollister

Stephen W. Van Evera

Ayesha Jalal

Ibrahim Warde ILLUSTRATION BY WASMA’A CHORBACHI

Muqtedar Khan

CONFERENCE PROGRAM Thursday, October 14, 2010

Friday, October 15, 2010

REGISTRATION 2:00–3:00 p.m.

WELCOME 8:30–8:45 a.m.

WELCOME 3:00–3:15 p.m.

SESSION II: 8:45–10:30 a.m.

New Strategies for Managing Old Conflicts: Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon

KEYNOTE ADDRESS 3:15–4:30 p.m.

“Is There a Workable U.S. Strategy for the Middle East?

No! Then What?”

SESSION I: 4:30–6:15 p.m.

The Arab-Israeli Conflict RECEPTION 6:15–7:15 p.m.

Hall of Flags

SESSION III: 10:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Afghanistan and Pakistan

SESSION IV: 2:45–4:30 p.m.

Conflict and War Today SESSION V: 4:45–6:30 p.m.

Engaging the Muslim World PLENARY SESSION: 6:30–7:15 p.m.

The Future of U.S. Soft Power in the Muslim World

WEBCAST KEYNOTE ADDRESS 1:15–2:15 p.m.

“Strategic Directions in the Middle East”

To register or for more information, please visit our website at http://farescenter.tufts.edu or contact Tufts University Conference Bureau by telephone at 617.627.3568, or e-mail at conferences@tufts.edu.

ë à Ài`ÊLÞÊ"vwViÊ vÊÌ iÊ*À Û ÃÌ]Ê/ÕvÌÃÊ1 ÛiÀà ÌÞÊUÊ/ iÊ iÌV iÀÊ-V ]Ê/ÕvÌÃÊ 1 ÛiÀà ÌÞÊUÊ/ iÊ7 Ê Õ `>Ì ÊUÊ ÌiÀ >Ì > Ê,i >Ì ÃÊ*À }À> ]Ê/ÕvÌÃÊ1 ÛiÀà ÌÞÊUÊ ÌiÀ >Ì > Ê-iVÕÀ ÌÞÊ-ÌÕ` iÃÊ*À }À> ]Ê/ iÊ iÌV iÀÊ-V ÊUÊ/ ÃV Ê i}iÊ vÊ Ì âi à «Ê > `Ê*ÕL VÊ-iÀÛ Vi]Ê/ÕvÌÃÊ1 ÛiÀà ÌÞÊUÊ À°Ê >ÃÌ>Ãà ÃÊ °Ê >Û `

8

THE TUFTS DAILY

CAPTURED

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Captured Tufts Homecoming Weekend 2010 ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

See Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com for more photos of Homecoming Weekend.

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

CAPTURED

9

EILEEN GUO/TUFTS DAILY

OLIVER PORTER/TUFTS DAILY

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

ALEX DENNETT/TUFTS DAILY

THE TUFTS DAILY

10

THE TUFTS DAILY

EDITORIAL

Say it right

BENJAMIN D. GITTLESON Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Managing Editors

Ellen Kan Carter Rogers Matt Repka Executive News Editor Alexandra Bogus News Editors Michael Del Moro Nina Ford Amelie Hecht Corinne Segal Martha Shanahan Brent Yarnell Jenny White Daphne Kolios Assistant News Editors Kathryn Olson Romy Oltuski Executive Features Editor Sarah Korones Features Editors Alison Lisnow Emilia Luna Alexa Sasanow Derek Schlom Jon Cheng Assistant Features Editors Maya Kohli Amelia Quinn Emma Bushnell Executive Arts Editor Zach Drucker Arts Editors Mitchell Geller Rebecca Goldberg Benjamin Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch Rachel Oldfield Larissa Gibbs Elaine Sun Seth Teleky Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Rebekah Liebermann Ashish Malhotra Josh Molofsky Alexandra Siegel

Executive Op-Ed Editor Assistant Op-Ed Editors

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

College, at its most basic level, is about learning through the exchange of different ideas and beliefs. While every student has the right to express his or her opinion in a classroom setting, however, the question of whether a professor should be allowed the same degree of expressive freedom begets no simple answer.

A classroom is meant to be a learning environment, and in order to learn, a student must be able to voice an opinion and learn to understand those of others. The main problem with a professor — a figure of authority — openly expressing his or her — usually liberal — views on subjects like politics in a classroom setting is that some students might mistake opinion for fact, thus compromising their learning experience.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions and professors are no exception to this rule. Furthermore, it is pretty safe to assume that a college student has, at some point, learned the difference between something that is a fact and something that is an opinion. A professor introducing his or her opinion into a class discussion to help drive it along or to provoke some thought among students does not disrupt the learning environment, but rather works to enrich it.

The problem, however, is that if professors let their views on issues pertinent to the class be known in an inappropriate manner, they could potentially stifle discussion by causing students to become uncomfortable with expressing their own opposing views. Everything, from stating debatable theories as fact to adorning their office doors with politically explicit bumper stickers and projecting a dismissive attitude when discussing alternative views, can have this chilling effect.

A class discussion is significantly more enriching if students are willing to share and defend viewpoints that diverge from those held by the majority of their classmates. Professors have a responsibility to ensure that their students feel that they are able and encouraged to do this.

Some students can be fearful of reprisal, in the form of a professor either shooting them down in the discussion or lowering their grades, if they let their true views be known, no matter how factually grounded the views are. As reported in today’s Daily, one student felt the need to drop a class because he believed that the professor’s liberal opinions and beliefs completely overshadowed the course material.

Even something as simple as a joke can alienate students in a class. If a professor lampoons former President George W. Bush for a few cheap laughs, a student who disagrees might feel obliged to chuckle along with the class rather than voice disagreement. This sort of behavior can often alienate conservative students who are led to believe that they stand apart from both the professor and their classmates due to their political views.

Professors are human beings with their own thoughts and beliefs. As long as a professor is careful about the way and the context in which he or she presents opinions, such a move will generally enhance the learning experience of students. These are individuals who have studied a plethora of material and possess a substantial bank of knowledge — their opinions should be valued. Hence, to exile them from the classroom would be unwarranted.

Expecting an educated professor to conceal his or her beliefs at all times is both unrealistic and unwanted. Professors must ensure, however, that they express their views in a manner that encourages students to share their own, thus living up to their mandate to foster an intellectually stimulating environment at this university.

Cartoonists

DEVON COLMER Editorialists

Philip Dear Executive Sports Editor Lauren Flament Sports Editors 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 Meagan Maher Ashley Seenauth

Executive Photo Editor Photo Editors

Assistant Photo Editors

Staff Photographers

Mick B. Krever Executive New Media Editor James Choca New Media Editors Kerianne Okie

PRODUCTION Leanne Brotsky Production Director Andrew Petrone Executive Layout Editor Sarah Davis Layout Editors Adam Gardner Jason Huang Jennifer Iassogna Alyssa Kutner Steven Smith Sarah Kester Assistant Layout Editor Zehava Robbins Executive Copy Editor Alexandra Husted Copy Editors Isabel Leon Vivien Lim Linh Dang Assistant Copy Editors Si Kyun Im Andrew Paseltiner Melissa Roberts Elisha Sum Darcy Mann Executive Online Editor Audrey Kuan Online Editors Ann Sloan Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager Michael Vastola Technical Manager

BUSINESS Benjamin Hubbell-Engler Executive Business Director Laura Moreno 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

OFF THE HILL | NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

You don’t have to go to college BY

MADELINE PAUMEN

Washington Square News

Why are you here? Most of us have probably grown up with the assumption that after high school, you go to college.

And obviously since we are all here, this assumption was correct.

Let’s assume for argument’s sake that all of us attend this fine institution of higher learning for somewhat similar reasons: We want to expand our minds and horizons, we thrive on acquiring knowledge, we want to gain a deeper understanding of human nature, we strive to develop insight and enlightenment … or at the very least we are hoping to land a cool, high-paying or highly rewarding job.

But college is not for everyone. Having a college degree does not guarantee that a person will get his dream job, make a

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.

lot of money or be personally fulfilled.

With the economic hardships of the past two years, we probably all know college graduates who are still looking for jobs and others who have taken jobs far below their perceived experience or educational level.

What’s worse is that, according to the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, only 55.9 percent of American college [freshmen] who entered in 2002 ended up with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree by 2008. That means more than 40 percent of said students did not graduate in six years — and I’d bet most of them are still paying off college debt for a degree they never earned.

It’s a valid question. Especially when you couple the high rate of college quitters with U.S. government reports that there is a skilled labor shortage. Add that

23 of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate in the next 10 years do not require a college degree and one is left to wonder if some students who have grown up with the doctrine, “after high school, I will go to college,” would have preferred never to have started college in the first place.

In a May piece in [the] New York Times, Jacques Steinberg wrote, “A small but influential group of economists and educators is pushing another pathway: for some students, no college at all. It’s time, they say, to develop credible alternatives for students unlikely to be successful pursuing a higher degree, or who may not be ready to do so.”

So maybe four years of college shouldn’t be the default. Pursuing any sort of education past high school is a significant investment of time and money and, for some, it may be one that doesn’t pay off.

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.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

11

OP-ED

Beyond devastation: Recovering from Pakistan’s floods BY

FARIS ISLAM

This summer, Pakistan witnessed an attack like never before as monsoon rains unleashed their full fury upon the country. The resulting floods, UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-Moon said, were the largest humanitarian disaster the UN has ever dealt with and have triggered the launching of the United Nations’ largest appeal for humanitarian relief.

Indeed, the number of affected people surpasses the total figure for the number affected by the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2005 Kashmir earthquake combined. In my own home province of Sindh, 19 of the 23 districts in the province have been affected. In Swat, those struggling to rebuild their lives after the army drove out militants the year before watched helplessly as, for the second year in a row, their livelihoods and lands were destroyed.

While in Pakistan this summer, I was fortunate to join a group of friends on a trip to the flood-affected areas a few hours north of my home in Karachi. As we traveled up from the Arabian Sea coast, we snaked along the path of the mighty Indus River basin till we reached the edge of the Thar Desert that merges into the Indo-Pak border.

En route, we saw scenes of devastation that will never leave us — families on the sides of roads living with nothing; entire communities forced to flee and seek shelter on raised embankments; children drinking muddied water, unable to bear the heat and thirst any longer; and families piling all their belongings onto a truck and fleeing as fast as possible away from the mighty torrent that had descended upon their

homelands.

The scenes we saw, in addition to moments even more heart wrenching and devastating that we did not witness, were unfortunately repeated all across Pakistan; one-fifth of the country’s landmass and 20 million people — constituting an eighth of the populace — have been significantly impacted by the flooding. In addition to the devastation, we also saw hundreds of volunteers and social workers from all over Pakistan and across the world selflessly giving their time, energy and effort to help those in need — saving the world one child at a time throughout Pakistan.

While many across the world have been racing to help the affected people, others have been content to criticize and complain. Unfortunately, accusations of corruption and a lack of trust in Pakistan miss the point of disaster aid and only serve to worsen the lives of all those who are innocent and suffering.

I’ll be among the first to admit that corruption exists in Pakistan, but in that, Pakistan is far from alone. Corruption is a problem in all developing, cash-strapped countries across the world and has involved victims of disasters like those that occurred in Haiti and Indonesia. To assume that not donating money will ensure that there is nothing for political elites to siphon off is naïve and will only serve to further the oppression of those already suffering under the thumb of corrupt governments. Indeed, tackling these perceptions as well as donor fatigue will be crucial not only for Pakistan, but for the entire international community, as the scale and frequency of major disasters seem to be increasing.

Helping us understand the scale and implications of this disaster and offering

MCT

their experiences working on the ground are Pervez Hoodbhoy and Ali Cheema, both Pakistani academics who have been working in the field since the disaster struck and are eager to share their experiences. They will be joining the history department’s Professor Ayesha Jalal at Tufts today at a panel discussion on the floods in Pakistan.

Hoodbhoy, a scholar in the Institute Scholars and Practitioners in Residence (INSPIRE) program at Tufts’ Institute for Global Leadership and a Pakistani physicist, and Cheema, a visiting Fulbright scholar at Harvard University and an associate professor of economics and political science at Lahore University,

will also be talking about lessons we can learn from this disaster, both for Pakistan in particular and disaster management in general.

The Tufts Association of South Asians’ (TASA) event, “Beyond Devastation: Recovering from Pakistan’s Floods” will be held today at 6:30 p.m. in Braker 001.

The panel was spearheaded by TASA’s political arm, the South Asian Political Action Committee. For more info, check out “Beyond Devastation” on Facebook.

Faris Islam is a senior majoring in political science and history. He is a member of the Tufts Association of South Asians.

Nobody’s perfect, not even Sweden BY

EMILIE PARMLIND

Try to picture Sweden. It is a frigid utopia where the health care system is perfect, ABBA plays incessantly on the radio and you can eat those tasty meatballs that they sell at IKEA in their natural setting. People eat lots of smelly cheeses and enjoy yodeling, but the most notable characteristic of Sweden is the people — a blond-haired, blue-eyed, very attractive race.

Men are called Sven Svensson and the women all belong on the Swedish bikini team. Swedes are a liberal, open-minded bunch; just like their country, they are pretty cool.

These are a few common perceptions of Sweden, but some are far from the truth.

While it is easy to explain that yodeling is a stereotypical pastime in Switzerland, not Sweden, trying to define who the Swedish people are is not so simple.

In Sweden’s recent September parliamentary election, the failure of the Social-Democrat bloc to gain a parliamentary majority was overshadowed by the significant gains by a radical anti-immigration party, the Sweden Democrats.

Campaigning on the message that the growth of Sweden’s Muslim minority is the greatest threat to the country since World War II, the party won 5.7 percent of the vote, gaining seats in parliament for the first time — 20 of them.

Many have been disappointed to have their illusions shattered after learning of the flourishing of racist and anti-immigrant sentiment in Sweden, a country that we

tend to view as some sort of utopia where socialism works and people get it right when it comes to human rights and the environment. We throw up our hands thinking that if even the Swedes who are perceived as liberal and progressive cannot get it right, then surely we are left hopeless.

The growth of anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment is not restricted to Sweden. It is on the rise throughout Europe and, of course, right here in the United States. Far-right parties with anti-immigration agendas have made great strides in the past decade. France recently banned burqas and any face covering that completely conceals the face. This can either be viewed as a push to liberate burqa-wearing women,or as an anti-Muslim policy and a means of keeping such Muslim, foreign-looking attire out of the public eye.

Immigration is not a new phenomenon, especially in Sweden. It has been happening steadily for the past 70 years.

Sweden’s export industry flourished following World War II, leading to a period of practically unrestricted labor emigration from Finland and Southern Europe from 1949-1971.

The 1970s and 1980s brought an influx of refugees from the Middle East seeking asylum on the grounds of religious persecution. Many Kurds emigrated from Eastern Turkey, while the largest groups came from Iraq and Iran, with Iranians arriving in the 1980s in response to the Islamic Revolution and the war against Iraq. Increasing repression in Saddam Hussein’s regime prompted the arrival of

Kurdish Iraqis in Sweden in the 1990s. Today, foreign-born immigrants make up nearly 14 percent of Sweden’s population of 9.1 million, with the biggest groups of non-European immigrants in the last decade coming largely from Somalia and Iraq. These people are Swedish, too, even if they are not blond.

Now that the majority of immigrants come to Sweden from the Middle East, immigration is suddenly perceived as a grave problem by a swath of the Swedish population.

The Sweden Democrats gather strength from xenophobia, trying to instill fears that Swedes could become second-class citizens. While many Swedes have been shocked and embarrassed by the election results, the votes have been cast and reflect real xenophobia within Sweden.

Our surprise at Sweden’s perceived lapses should cause us to reexamine our own.

The United States is a nation of immigrants and, in many ways, they have historically been made to feel unwanted and unwelcome. When the Irish immigrated to the United States, they experienced open prejudice often through signs in storefronts commonly advertising, “Irish need not apply.” The Irish often came as indentured servants and worked in very menial positions, but this was justified by claiming that the Irish were more savage and thus suited to be relegated to the lowest rungs of society and to be treated as borderline slaves.

Immigrant populations that deviate from an established white, English-speaking view

of normalcy have traditionally suffered additional hurdles in the United States. Despite our melting pot ambitions, immigrants that are not white often carry a negative connotation of foreignness with them. In “A Different Mirror” (1993), the Japanese-American Ronald Takaki recalls an instance when his cab driver remarked that he was impressed at Takaki’s flawless English. Takaki’s family had been in the United States for several generations, yet he was presumed to be foreign simply because he had Asian features.

Different cultures and populations are becoming increasingly intermingled and any country that attempts to maintain a white majority and a culture of white normalcy is fighting a losing battle.

We need to understand and accept that it is possible to be a Quran-reading American or a dark-skinned Swede. For those immigrants already settled in Sweden, organizations like the Sweden Democrats generate an atmosphere of hostility and prejudice. Children of immigrant parents who have spent their entire lives in Sweden are made to feel foreign, dangerous and unwelcome. This is clearly wrong. Hate and fear do not benefit anyone and are not solutions.

Why do xenophobia and racism occur? Perhaps it is because when we are happy with things as they are, we fear the addition of new elements which could alter the balance.

But will the world implode because we have more Spanish speakers in the United States or because a smaller percent-

age of Swedes are blond? A main fear voiced by opponents of immigration such as the Sweden Democrats is that immigrants cause an erosion and loss of traditional culture.

However, cultural identity and traditions do not vanish into thin air just because people from other cultures and traditions are being incorporated into your country.

As the world gets “flatter,” all countries are faced with the challenge of maintaining their own cultures and values while simultaneously including those of others. We Americans are quite happy to eat tacos, burritos and pizza, all the fruits of immigrant populations. We embrace the tasty culinary aspects of other cultures but have a tendency to reject the people themselves, pushing them out of all but the most menial of jobs and regarding them as others.

We need to recognize that the new immigrant populations will not erode our traditions and country’s identity, but will more likely enhance them. White needs to stop being a defining characteristic of the typical Swede or American. The world will keep on turning. Swedes can still dance around the maypole on Midsummer if it is important to them, and we can eat hotdogs at baseball games; but far better be it that in this changing world of increased extremism, we maintain traditions of humanitarianism and acceptance.

Emilie Parmlind is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major.

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than 12 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

THE TUFTS DAILY

12

COMICS

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

DOONESBURY

CROSSWORD

BY

NON SEQUITUR

BY

TUESDAY’S SOLUTION

MARRIED TO THE SEA

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Not getting a seizure from the lights at a SigEp party

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY Tuesday’s Solution

Kerianne: “It’s my pony pillow pet, its name is Fat Pony.”

Please recycle this Daily.

GARRY TRUDEAU

WILEY

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

13

ADVERTISEMENT

Write to Us! We want to hear from you! Send an opinion piece 600 to 1,200 words in length or an op-ed cartoon to oped@tuftsdaily.com and/or a letter to the editor at letters@tuftsdaily.com.

For full op-ed submission policies, see page 11.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

1133

OP-ED

Dear Tufts Daily,

Bare feet: just watch what you eat

NADIA DI MARCO

I am currently sitting in the Tower Café mortified and surrounded by bare feet.

There is a girl to the left of me bobbing her head to the music surrounding her ears. She is completely oblivious to the fact that her bare, wiggling toes are less than two feet away from my face.

She’s not even comfortable. She keeps adjusting, readjusting and moving around.

Perhaps it’s a new trend? To my right there is another young girl resting her bare feet on the marble table.

On the table.

The very same table upon which this girl’s feet are splayed is one where I ate many a time last semester. I’m not alone in my repulsion; I see the girl sitting next to her eyeing her feet as well, but she’s just oblivious. That’s two people in a five-foot radius with zero consideration for their fellow neighbors.

When I sit on an airplane and the person (usually a kid) next to me has his or her bare feet on the tray table, I get the same feeling of disgust. I don’t understand why anyone

would think that it is okay to throw their feet about in public.

Do people like the thought of licking other’s people feet? (Let’s leave kinky cases out of this.) How about the thought of smelling other people’s feet? No, no, no! In our society, feet are known to be dirty, smelly and unpleasant; I mean come on, I don’t even want to be close to my own feet.

By the way, as I type, the girl next to me just moved her foot even closer to me!

Why don’t people get it? It is just plain common sense! You would think attending Tufts University would be enough to figure out that being barefoot in a café is not only rude, it’s despicable. It says, “I don’t care about anyone but me and my own comfort.”

Imagine going into work and putting your bare feet on your desk or going to a client’s job site, or anywhere else professional.

Imagine walking into your dean’s office and he or she has his or her bare feet on the desk.

It would never happen, because it’s not okay.

We are here to get ready for the real world.

Speaking from experience as a Resumed Education for Adult Learners student, you

can trust me, people: No one will take off his or her shoes in a professional atmosphere.

My rampage has turned into concern; these kids need to understand it’s not okay. When their rude habits leave Tufts, they’re in for a big surprise.

Is it that unreasonable to ask that people keep their shoes on in obvious places? Take ‘em off at the beach, at home or in a Japanese restaurant — I don’t care! But please keep them on when you’re next to the poor girl on the couch trying to concentrate.

And for crying out loud, please keep them off the table!

I came in here just to eat my lunch and read some books for class, but I got too distracted by disgust. To vent, I decided to write this piece. I’m not the type of person to say, “Can you please get your feet out of my personal space?” I’m shy, hate controversy and I can’t go around telling everyone I see with bare feet that they are rude and inconsiderate. I see enough people reading the paper that I figure if my rampage does get published, the bare feet people might read and understand what they are doing wrong.

And just in case you are someone who

I really like the panini machines at Dewick.

They make my sandwich so delicious...

Obama for (vice) president

MATTHEW LADNER

On Monday, Will Ehrenfield voiced his support for Sen. Barack Obama in the coming Presidential campaign (“Obama for president”, Sept. 10). I too, at one point, supported Obama in his bid for the White House. He is an intelligent, charismatic man whose greatest political asset is indeed his criticism of the war from the start. And he may be the harbinger of great change to Washington. That’s why he’d be a great vice president for Sen. Joseph Biden.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many people are not familiar with Sen. Biden; in fact I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many people are not familiar with most presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican.

The media, in their attempt to focus on Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have allowed candidates such as Sens. Biden, Christopher Dodd, Sam Brownback, and former Ark. Governor Mike Huckabee to fall through the cracks. However, attention needs to be paid to these “also-rans,” because among them lies the best man to lead our country.

It is true, Biden did vote to authorize the war in 2002. When asked about this vote, Biden says that, as President, he too would have asked for the authority to go into Iraq. He simply would not have used it. It is also true that he voted for the special funding bill earlier this year, while Obama and Clinton did not. He explained this in a debate soon after, saying that he “knew the right political vote.” But he also knew that a large portion of that funding would be going to better equipment for our soldiers.

Biden is the only candidate with a viable, possible plan for post-Bush Iraq. N. M. Governor Bill Richardson wants to leave within 6 months of being inaugurated. Unfortunately, that’s physically impossible. There are simply too many men to be withdrawn in 6 months. If all of the troops are withdrawn right now, as soon as possible, we’re going

“I would like to tell you that the war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever as the wind blows in this direction with God’s help. If you win it, you should read the history. We are a nation that does not tolerate injustice and seek revenge forever. Days and nights will not go by until we take revenge as we did on 11 September, God willing, and until your minds are exhausted and your lives become miserable.”

(Osama bin-Laden, January 19, 2006) If you feel a slight rumbling beneath you at this very moment, do not be alarmed. It is simply the collective reverberation of proud Americans from previous generations turning over in their respective graves.

Our nation has lapsed into a fit of defeatism and self-proclaimed declinism as our politicians and, more tragically, our citizens have forgotten the courage, values and resolve that propelled our country to greatness.

Even worse, we have betrayed our forefathers’ confidence in the righteousness of fighting on freedom’s behalf — a confidence that once instilled courage in the hearts of American revolutionaries despite the seeming impossibility of victory and later invigorated Allied forces fighting fascist enemies in Europe and Asia.

We are assured of America’s defeat daily in Iraq, not by our enemies on the battlefield, but by a growing contingent within the Democratic Party. It is this lot — led by Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. John Murtha and the party’s presidential candidates — who insist on the futility of U.S. military and Iraqi political efforts alike.

They insist on the rapid withdrawal of troops from battle.

They insist that staying in Iraq to fight extremism, to deter Iranian interference, to run with the current wave of military momentum and to build on popular uprisings against alQaeda throughout the country (or, what residents of the now famous Anbar province call the “Great Awakening”) is contrary to American security interests.

Sean O’Loughlin is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.

Nadia C. Di Marco is a sophomore majoring in clinical psychology.

It’s time to wake up: Iraq, jihad and America’s choice

SEAN O’LOUGHLIN

to need a lot of helicopters.

Saigon told us that much. We cannot simply up and leave. But it’s clear that staying the course and continuing the surge is not working. The notion of a “strong, central, democratic” Iraqi government is simply naïve. It will not happen in our lifetime. The Biden plan is the only option.

The Biden plan is simple.

Imagine a country with a national government, but also with distinct regions, each with certain jurisdiction, that is complementary to, yet still subordinate to the national government. If this sounds familiar, you may live in the United States of America. This is also what it says in the Iraqi constitution. The Bush administration has said that for the Iraqi constitution to be implemented, the national government needs to be strong enough to enforce security throughout the country.

But as the success of al-Anbar province has shown us, security is built from the ground up, not the top down. The Biden plan does just that.

Biden was elected senator in 1972. He has served as chair of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. What our country needs most right now is foreign relations experience, and Biden’s got it. He is the best man, Democrat or Republican or Green or Bloomberg, to sit in the Oval Office.

For more info, please visit joebiden.com.

ANNIE WERMIEL/TUFTS DAILY

doesn’t notice the barefoot problem, be aware they are out there, so think twice before eating on a table on campus.

It is in this certainty of defeat, however, that the broader implications of a precipitous retreat — and make no mistake, bloodthirsty terrorists aching to extend their jihad would understand our withdrawal as nothing less — are lost. What is remarkable is how salient these consequences are, yet how obfuscated they become in the midst of political posturing and rhetorical pandering.

There is little question within American military circles, and on the streets of Baghdad, that U.S. forces are the dam preventing unmitigated sectarian violence and the Talibanization of Iraq.

To leave now, to abandon the progress that our troops have recently made on the security front, to simply throw the country into the wind, is to condemn hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to unfathomable misery. For the sake of comparison, think Rwanda, Darfur or Bosnia.

Interestingly enough, these are thoughts that seem to weigh insignificantly on the conscience of Sen. Obama, who indulgently lauds himself as a champion of hope. His hope is an audacious brand indeed.

The reality is that we are in the midst of the first great war of the 21st century. It is a war of ideology as much as it is a contest to be won on the battlefield. And whereas Iraq may not have been the frontline of this struggle in 2003, it is the theater of the conflict today.

On one end of the spectrum is the United States, defending the rights of ordinary Iraqis and committed to the creation of a stable ally in a region otherwise defined by dysfunctional government. While American-style democracy may never take root, Iraq still clings to the prospect of representative politics.

Amazingly, after four years of devastating violence, Iraqis continue to show resolve and an admirable determination to emerge from the shadows of despotism and terror.

At the other end of this spectrum are the existential enemies of human progress. Peddling an antiquated ideology of extreme Islam and preaching a virulent message of hatred, the warriors of Islamism draw on a totalitar-

ian vision of societal order that is, at its most basic level, a fantasy. Their unrelenting pursuit of a long-dead caliphate is glaring in its denial of modern political realities and the overwhelming power of the Western world. However, this delusional ideology sanitizes indiscriminate violence and brutality, deeming them obligatory within a framework of “defensive” jihad against Islam’s enemies.

In fomenting civil war in Iraq, al-Qaeda and its proxies seek to engender despair, inefficiency, insecurity and resentment — the air to their militant fire. We must realize the simple truth that just as Iraq is our frontline against terror, so too is it the terrorist’s against Western civilization.

After turning back the “effeminate superpower,” their next step is cleansing the Holy Lands of infidel blood and ousting a Saudi regime that is, unbelievably, inadequately Islamic. From Mecca to Egypt to Jerusalem and beyond, the caliphate is to be extended and its enemies destroyed. Thus, looking to those among us who frown at American military gains and find a perverse vindication of their anti-war politics in every truck-bomb that claims innocent Iraqi lives, we find a segment of our country definitively unprepared to face civilization’s enemies.

It is true that our predicament is a frightening one. Armed with a dangerous irrationality and a passion for martyrdom, the jihadists are decisive and resolute. There is no appeasing this enemy. There is no reasoning with it. There is no compromising and there is no coexistence.

Surrender or Persevere.

These are the only options and the choice is ours to make.

In choosing the path to victory, however, one thing has become increasingly clear. In November 2008, American voters will have to send the Democrats the very same message that must thunder in the ears of those extremists who dare to wage war against the United States of America: “You cannot win and you will not prevail!”

Matthew Ladner is a junior majoring in international relations.

THE TUFTS DAILY

14

Housing

Wanted

Don`t Wait - Will Not Last!

Two 3 BR, Two 4 BR, One 7 BR 2 Baths. Very convenient to school.

Call (617) 448-6233.

-

-

$$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Become a California Cryobank donor and earn up to $1,200/ month, receive free health and infectious disease testing, and help people fulfill their dreams of starting a family. Convenient Cambridge location. Apply online: SPERMBANK.com

in Cambridge, Mass., on Oct. 23-24 and the Head of the Fish Regatta in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on Oct. 30, both sweeping (one-oar) competitions.

The team usually practices on the Malden River, a Charles River tributary, but Lohmann said that the lock that often prevents them from reaching the Charles will be open this weekend; the team will row there to get a sense of the turns, bridges and obstacles that await them in the Head of the Charles.

“We’re testing boats out, trying new things, getting new combinations and switching around every day to see what it’s going to take to get as fast as we can get, and to get a taste of what the competition will be like going into the spring,” Hodgkin said. “Now it’s time to really buckle down and see how it all shakes out.”

continued from page 16

great that we got out there, that we did it, that we finished. It went off without a hitch, and I think that’s what really matters — everyone got a chance to do it and got that taste of what it feels like to finish a race. … Overall, it was a great day.”

Lohmann was equally enthusiastic.

“I think we did great,” she said.

“Because it was such a new experience for so many of the girls racing, the fact that no one flipped or hit anything, that we stayed on course and that we were able to row reasonable times and be reasonably competitive was pretty impressive.”

For now, though, the Jumbos will put sculling behind them as they train for their two premier events of the fall, the Head of the Charles Regatta

-

-

CLASSIFIEDS POLICY All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order, or exact cash only.

All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $15 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature, or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

Putting aside sculling, Head of the Charles becomes focus of women’s crew WOMEN’S CREW

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

SPORTS

Something’s Brewin’ In Medford Square

Free WiFi!

Now Open Sundays!

Show your Tufts ID & get a free medium coffee with any pastry purchase!

Offer expires 11/31/10

~ Coffee, espresso drinks & yummy pastries ~ Open 7am-7pm M-F; Sat 7am-2pm; Sun 8am-1pm Mystic Coffee Roaster LLC 30 Riverside Avenue, Medford, MA 02155

The Phillies and the Braves most likely to prevail in NLDS matchups NL continued from page 16

Cincinnati Reds vs.

Philadelphia Phillies As the final weekend of the regular season passed by and the final two postseason berths were clinched by the Giants and Braves, the fans of those teams had two things in mind: They wanted to play the Reds, and they did not want to play the Phillies. On paper, this matchup is a mismatch.

Manager Charlie Manuel selected the longer version of the NLDS, which runs Wednesday to Wednesday, enabling the Phillies to maximize the greatest disparity between the teams: their starting rotations. In this week-long series, each team will need only three starting pitchers, and the Phillies have the best trio around in Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

The Reds will counter with Edinson Volquez, Bronson Arroyo and Johnny Cueto, all of whom may dazzle on any given night, but whose inexperience could lead to inconsistent results.

The teams’ lineups are about equal in talent, with the

but will have him available for Game 1 on Thursday. The Braves will be forced to start Derek Lowe instead of their No. 1 man Tim Hudson, giving the Giants the early edge in starting pitching.

The health of Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta’s No. 4 starter who is dealing with a balky knee, is also in question. With workhorse Matt Cain and surging lefty Jonathan Sanchez — owner of a 1.02 ERA since Sept. 1 — behind Lincecum, the Giants have the deeper staff, even with young phenom Tommy Hanson set to follow the sinkerballers for the Braves.

On offense, both teams have had more problems than solutions. An intriguing subplot that matches Rookie of the Year hopefuls Buster Posey and Jason Heyward against each other is overshadowed by glaring weaknesses on both sides. The Giants are a station-to-station team, whose only true steal threat is leadoff man Andres Torres and whose lack of speed leaves them susceptible to double plays. The Braves, on the other hand, lack the power that most contenders bring to the table, ranking

be too big an obstacle for the Reds — who had a lowly .340 winning percentage against over-.500 teams during the regular season — to overcome.

Phillies boasting superior hitting but the Reds playing better defense.

There is no better heartof-the-order in the National League than second baseman Chase Utley, first baseman Ryan Howard and right fielder Jayson Werth, and from one to eight, every Phillies hitter is capable of changing a game with a home run.

The Reds have a scrappier offense — led by Votto and veteran third baseman Scott Rolen — which relies on platoon advantages and small ball, as well as the speed of second baseman Brandon Phillips and outfielder Drew Stubbs.

If the Reds have an advantage in this series, it may lie in the bullpen, because the Phillies ranked just 18th in the league with a 4.02 bullpen ERA this season. Reds manager Dusty Baker has a not-so-secret weapon in rookie flamethrower Aroldis Chapman, whose 103-mph fastball might be exactly what Cincinnati needs to neutralize Philadelphia’s left-handed sluggers in the late innings.

In the end, though, the Phillies’ big three starters will

In the end, though, the Phillies’ big three starters will be too big an obstacle for the Reds — who had a lowly .340 winning percentage against over-.500 teams during the regular season — to overcome.

Atlanta Braves vs. San Francisco Giants Unlike the Phillies and Reds, the Giants and Braves did not know that they would be in the playoffs until the very end of the regular season.

Fortunately for the Giants, they did not need two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum to clinch the NL West crown

just 16th in the league with 69 homers since the All-Star break. But they have plenty of contact hitters and are capable of mounting a rally.

Both teams’ bullpens are excellent, starring shutdown closers in Brian Wilson and Billy Wagner, as well as reliable setup men. The Giants and Braves ranked second and third, respectively, in bullpen ERA during the regular season.

Therefore, a close, lowscoring affair is likely in store.

In fact, this may be the best bet of the four division series matchups to become the first to go to the maximum of five games since 2005. The Braves’ multi-dimensional offense gives them a slight advantage overall, so expect them to prevail in five.

In the hypothetical NLCS showdown between NL East rivals, the Phillies’ 1-2-3 rotation punch once again gives them a sizable head start. The Braves’ only advantage will be their bullpen, and the Phillies will answer with the more talented lineup, so expect the Phillies to win their third consecutive NL pennant in six games.

STATISTICS | STANDINGS Field Hockey (6-0, 4-0 NESCAC) NESCAC

Bowdoin Tufts Wesleyan Amherst Trinity Conn. Coll.

Middlebury WIlliams Colby Bates

W 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 1 0 0

T. Brown M. Burke J. Perkins S. Cannon T. Guttadauro A. Roberts K. Murphy M. Karp C. Yogerst L. Griffith

G 10 4 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

Goalkeeping GA M. Zak 2

Women's Soccer

Men's Soccer

Football

(3-2-2, 2-1-1 NESCAC)

(4-2-1, 2-1-1 NESCAC)

(1-1 NESCAC)

L 0 0 1 2 4 2 3 5 4 6 A 1 1 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 1

T 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pts 21 9 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 1

S S% 11 .846

NESCAC OVERALL

NESCAC OVERALL

OVERALL

L W 0 6 0 6 1 6 2 5 2 4 2 5 2 3 4 2 4 3 5 1

NCAA Div. III Field Hockey

Volleyball (13-3, 5-0 NESCAC)

Bowdoin Tufts Middlebury Amherst Williams Conn. Coll.

Trinity Wesleyan Hamilton Bates Colby Offensive C. Updike C. Spieler N. Shrodes L. Nicholas K. Ellefsen K. Engelking K. Lord Defensive A. Kuan C. Updike C. Spieler K. Lord N. Shrodes K. Engelking

W 5 5 3 2 2 2 1 1 0 0 0

L 0 0 0 1 1 2 3 3 3 4 4

W 11 13 11 10 11 9 9 4 8 5 4

L 5 3 3 1 6 5 4 6 6 9 9

Kills SA 209 20 117 13 95 11 69 20 46 0 41 6 41 29 B Digs 0 172 8 114 15 113 28 98 7 53 5 30

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

W 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 0

M. Stewart J. Love-Nichols A. Michael S. Wojtasinski S. Nolet L. O’Connor O. Rowse C. Wilson

L 0 0 1 1 2 2 3 1 2 3 G 3 2 2 1 0 0 0 0

T 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 1

W 4 4 3 5 5 4 2 1 2 2 A 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1

L 2 0 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 3

T 2 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 1

Pts 6 5 4 3 1 1 1 1

Goalkeeping GA S S% K. Wright 2 10 .833 P. Hanley 3 14 .824

NESCAC

W 3 2 2 2 1 2 1 1 1 1

L 1 0 1 1 0 3 2 2 3 3

B. Green F. Silva M. Blumenthal R. Coleman S. Atwood S. Blumenthal K. Lewis B. Ewing P. Bauer

G 3 3 1 1 1 1 0 0 0

Middlebury Williams Bowdoin Tufts Amherst Colby Bates Conn. Coll.

Trinity Wesleyan

T 0 2 2 1 3 1 1 1 0 0

W 7 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 4 3 A 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1

(Oct. 5, 2010)

OVERALL

L 1 0 1 2 0 3 3 3 3 4 Pts 7 6 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

Goalkeeping GA S S% A. Bernstein 3 28 .903 Z. Cousens 3 7 .700

T 0 2 2 1 3 1 1 1 0 0

Amherst Williams Bates Colby Middlebury Trinity Tufts Wesleyan Bowdoin Hamilton

W 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0

L 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2

PF 82 62 21 44 51 54 41 56 22 31

PA 7 36 64 60 59 35 31 45 71 56

Rushing P. Bailey R. Pollock

Att. Yds. Avg. TD 13 47 3.6 0 12 34 2.8 0

Passing A. Fucillo

Pct. Yds TD INT 48.6 596 4 4

Receiving G. Stewart B. Mahler P. Bailey

No. Yds Avg. TD 18 193 10.7 0 12 139 11.6 2 9 101 11.2 1

Tack INT TFL Sack Defense 26.0 0 1.5 0.5 F. Albitar M. Murray 16.0 1 1.5 1.0 Crittenden 13.0 0 0.0 0.0

Points (First-place votes) 1. Salisbury, 903 (11) 2. Tufts, 900 (20) 3. Messiah, 876 (7) 4. Lebanon Valley, 852 (8) 5. Ursinus, 783 (1) 6. Bowdoin, 707 (2) 7. Christopher Newport, 610 8. Eastern, 605 (1) 9. Skidmore, 595 10. SUNY Cortland, 559

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

15

SPORTS ETHAN FRIGON | THE BEARD ABIDES

What a Lebracle!

L

MCT

CC Sabathia will have to eat more than his share of playoff innings for the Yankees.

Price vs. Lee could be best pitching matchup of the irst round AL continued from page 16

ing staff. New York rode a three-man rotation consisting of CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte to a championship a year ago. But a lot can change in just one season. While Sabathia remains an ace, Burnett has an ERA above 5.00 and is in line to be replaced by 24-year-old Phil Hughes, while Pettitte has yet to prove he is 100 percent since returning from a groin injury in mid-September.

Even more troubling is that some of the team’s stalwarts have been struggling in recent months. Mariano Rivera blew three saves in September, and Derek Jeter is hitting .270 on the year, the worst of his career.

While both teams have their shortcomings, the Twins are not quite ready to break the trend. Pettitte, Jeter and Rivera always show up in October, and Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira both put up strong numbers down the stretch. The champs move on.

Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Rays For many people, there is nothing quite like an October pitcher’s duel.

Two pitchers putting goose egg after goose egg on the scoreboard in one of the biggest games of the season is a recipe for excitement.

The bout between the Rangers and Rays may feature the best pitching matchup of any divisional series, with Cy Young candidate David Price (19-6, 2.72 ERA) facing off with 2009 playoff superstar Cliff Lee (12-9, 3.18 ERA).

Price has become one of the top pitchers in the league in only his second full season as a starter. Mixing a high-90s fastball with a nasty breaking ball, he has been unhittable for large stretches of the year.

Lee put himself on the map last October pitching for the Phillies, going 4-0 with a 1.56 ERA. In the World Series, he bested the Yankees twice, including a complete-game victory in Game 1.

While the focus may be on the pitchers, both teams bring deep lineups to the series as well. Carl Crawford will be looking to perform for the Rays in his final audition before free agency this winter, while Evan Longoria could make a serious case for being the best third baseman in the league with a strong October.

In the Rangers’ dugout, there is unsurprisingly an overload of offense. Josh Hamilton was the best hitter in the American League this year (.359 average, 32 home runs) and the ageless Vladimir Guerrero proved his critics wrong by hitting .300. Michael Young and Nelson Cruz round out a potent middle of the lineup that slugged 104 home runs over the course of the season.

The series will likely hinge on Price and Lee’s two showdowns in a five-game slate. The Rays already beat Lee all three times they faced him this season and have the tools to manufacture runs with speed and small ball even if he does manage to shut them down. The Rangers may have made the playoffs for the first time in the new millennium, but that is as far as they will be going.

In a potential matchup between the Yankees and Rays, it’s hard to pick against the defending champs. New York has more experience and a deeper lineup. With Carlos Pena having an off-year, Tampa Bay just does not have enough bats to swing with the Yankees.

It will be tight, but the Yankees should be lifting the William Harridge Trophy in late October.

SCHEDULE | Oct. 6 - Oct. 12 WED

THU

FRI

vs. Wellesley 5 p.m.

Field Hockey

at Brandeis 7 p.m. .

at Colby 12:30 p.m.

JumboCast

vs. Endicott 4 p.m.

at Colby 2:30 p.m.

at Wellesley 7 p.m

vs. Amherst 8 p.m. (at Middlebury)

TUES at UMass Dartmouth 7 p.m.

All New England Championships (at Franklin Park) 12:30 p.m.

Men’s Soccer

Golf

MON

at Colby 1 p.m.

Cross Country

Volleyball

SUN

at Bowdoin 1 p.m.

Football

Women’s Soccer

SAT

at Middlebury 1:30 p.m.

at Nichols Invitational

eBron James — formerly the most beloved superstar in the NBA — had the worst offseason for an athlete that didn’t involve a DUI, drug bust, accusation of steroid use or Tiger Woods-ing his wife.

The source of King James’s troubles?

He had the audacity to utilize some newfangled system called “free agency” to leave a Cleveland Cavaliers team that was utterly dependent on him and go to a Miami Heat squad that’s much better positioned to win championships both now and in the future. And he even ended up taking a smaller contract to do so. So an athlete took less money for a better chance at winning — we’re supposed to like that, right? Well, yes and no. Under normal circumstances, definitely yes, but there were two reasons LeBron’s circumstances are far from normal.

The first reason is his loathsome “The Decision” special. Never mind the unbridled narcissism in putting on a one-hour special to tell the world not only where he’ll be playing next year, but also just how freakin’ awesome he is in general.

He even had his people script out a tortuously long and stupid interview about how hard the decision was before he even revealed his choice.

LeBron also, in effect, went on national television to break the collective sports heart of Cleveland, arguably the most tortured sports city in the country. When I heard that LeBron was announcing his decision on his TV special, I was sure he was staying in Cleveland — there was no way he would do that to Cleveland.

When I mentioned this to a friend who knows absolutely nothing about basketball, her response was, “No, I think he’s going to Miami.” Her reason? “People. com told me he wants to go to Miami to play with his friends Chris and Dwyane.”

And who was right?

The second reason LeBron’s decision caught him so much flak is that he’s so damn good at basketball — good to the point that we want him to be able to carry his own team to a championship. We want him to loathe Dwyane Wade with every bone in his body, not want to join him in Miami. We see his absurd physical gifts and want him to want to eviscerate his rivals the way Michael Jordan wanted to eviscerate Karl Malone and Charles Barkley. He’s one of only four current NBA players of whom we have this expectation (the others being Kobe Bryant, Wade and Kevin Durant, whom I’ll get back to in a minute). The rules are different for LeBron, and he either didn’t understand that or didn’t care.

The other thing tangentially working against LeBron is the rise of Kevin Durant.

No longer can LeBron be the “young, freakishly talented phenom” when Durant, who hasn’t even turned 22 yet and already has three NBA seasons under his belt, just led the league in scoring and led Team USA to gold at the World Championship last month, averaging 33 points in the tournament’s final three games. Instead, fairly or not, LeBron already seems to have acquired the “veteran who can’t win one on his own” tag.

Furthering this positive image of Durant is the fact that he just signed a contract extension with the smallmarket Oklahoma City Thunder in very low-profile fashion. Despite the fact that Durant’s situation was completely different from James’s — due to the rules of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), Durant still had another year on his contract and would only have been a restricted free agent, not to mention the fact that there will be a new CBA soon, which probably would have diminished any potential contract not signed this summer — some more easily duped members of the media took the opportunity to juxtapose the “arrogant” LeBron with the “humble” Durant. In the end, LeBron’s decision was a possibly fine, possibly brilliant move. His “Decision,” however, was an absolute Lebracle.

Ethan Frigon is a senior majoring in economics. He can be reached at Ethan.

Frigon@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Schedule 15 Statistics |Standings 14

tuftsdaily.com

WOMEN’S CREW

Jumbos ind success at last tune-up before Head of the Charles Focus shifts from sculling to sweep rowing for the premier events of the fall BY

AARON LEIBOWITZ

Contributing Writer

Eight rowers on the women’s crew team took to the Merrimac River in Lowell, Mass., Sunday at the Textile River Regatta, where the Jumbos notched a first-place finish in their lone quad race.

Seniors Jenna Lohmann and Alison Hodgkin and sophomores Lucia Smith and Molly Goodell steered the quad to victory in the open four-boat event, winning by 32 seconds with a time of 23:09.

The Tufts rowers in that event did not compete in last week’s Green Mountain Head Regatta, and therefore the focus was once again on sculling. For a team with very limited sculling experience — this was only the foursome’s fifth time rowing together — the win was quite a feat. “[Sculling] takes a lot more coordination than sweep rowing because you have two oars instead of one, and you don’t have a coxswain,” Lohmann said.

“Normally you have a coxswain who is looking forward and steering the boat, but with sculling, the person who’s sitting in the bow has to turn around and constantly be yelling out commands. …

There’s a lot more to think about.”

Despite the positive result this weekend, Lohmann said that sculling is a skill that takes a while to master as a team.

“We definitely need to just spend the time on the water and spend more time practicing to get better at it,” she said. “Hopefully, over the course of the next few years, as our new coach [Brian Dawe] gets the program up and

COURTESY BIANCA VELAYO

Four Jumbos sculled a quad to a first-place finish Saturday on the Merrimac River at the Textile River Regatta. running the way he wants it to, people will become more comfortable with sculling and will be able to be more competitive.”

The Jumbos also entered two singles and one doubles boat in the regatta, which included not only college boats but also high school and club rowing

squads from throughout New England.

Sophomore Catherine Brena raced one of two collegiate-affiliated boats in a six-boat contest and placed fourth, while sophomore Nina Arazoza was the only competitor in the novice singles race. Sophomores Sarah Camitta and Sheila Dave finished 20th out of 26

NL PREVIEW

Depth makes Phillies the favorites Pitching to take center stage in Braves-Giants series BY

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

in a doubles race in which Tufts and Bowdoin were the only colleges represented.

“Everyone was really happy with how they did, and for most of us, it was our first race sculling,” Hodgkin said. “It was

AL PREVIEW

AL teams inish weakly, look to rebound BY

ETHAN STURM

Daily Editorial Board

For the first time in seven years, the National League will have home-field advantage in the World Series. That’s excellent news for all four Senior Circuit playoff teams, considering that each of them this season posted a markedly better record at home than on the road.

The two-time defending NL Champion Philadelphia Phillies, coming off their fourth straight NL East division title and led by a stellar rotation and a power-packed lineup, are once again the favorites to win the pennant. But the other three NL qualifiers aren’t about to go quietly.

The upstart Cincinnati Reds, making their first playoff appearance since 1995 as the winners of the NL Central, have a nice mix of veterans and young studs, including MVP candidate Joey Votto.

The San Francisco Giants, back in the postseason for the first time in the post-Barry Bonds era, won the NL West on the strength of a phenomenal pitching staff and a lineup that epitomizes the adage: “One team’s trash is another team’s treasure.”

The Atlanta Braves, hoping to send legendary manager Bobby Cox off with a world championship, barely snuck in as the NL Wild Card. Their lateinning relief corps, featuring closer Billy Wagner plus setup men Takashi Saito and Jonny

Atlanta Braves Manager Bobby Cox is taking his farewell tour this October.

To paraphrase Billy Beane, the MLB playoffs are a crapshoot. Analysts tend to favor teams that were hot down the stretch, but unfortunately for those analysts, none of the four squads facing off in the American League playoffs have much momentum heading into October.

Rather than sprinting across the finish line, the New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers limped, crawled and hobbled their way over. New York and Tampa Bay both played sub.500 ball in the final month of the season, while Minnesota dropped eight of its last 10 to cede home-field advantage.

Texas may have been the best of the bunch, managing to go merely 16-14 in September and October.

Although none of the four teams are currently flourishing, they all bring potent rosters to the postseason.

However, nobody has the dominant rotation that often guarantees postseason success. The race for the pennant is wide open, but the Daily will try to break it down for you, series by series:

Venters, is arguably the best of all eight teams still standing.

So, which of the four contenders will represent the National League in the World

New York Yankees vs.

Minnesota Twins Things could not have gone worse on the final day of the season for Twins fans.

MCT

Series beginning Oct. 27? The Daily goes series-by-series to figure it out: see NL, page 14

see WOMEN’S CREW, page 14

Not only did they come up short of gaining home-field advantage, but a Rays win, coupled with a Yankees loss, meant another matchup with the Bombers.

While Minnesota has been one of the most consistent teams in the AL in recent years, it has been tormented time and again by New York. Since 2002, the Yankees are 54-18 against the Twins, including 9-2 in the playoffs. Most recently, New York thumped Minnesota 3-0 in the 2009 ALDS on its way to a World Series Championship.

In what has become the quintessential big market vs. small market matchup, the Twins have not been able to acquire the talent to go swing for swing with the Yankees.

They may, however, have fixed the problem during the offseason by signing Jim Thome, who is now eighth all-time in home runs. Thome hit 25 home runs in just 276 at-bats and is slugging .627, his highest mark since 2002.

Thome will need to produce in the heart of a lineup that lacks Justin Morneau, who is out with a concussion. Granted, the Twins still have Joe Mauer, who hit .327 on the year, but they’ll need more than that to keep pace with the Yankees.

The Bombers have their own slew of problems, mainly centered on their pitchsee AL, page 15