2010-12-08

Mostly Sunny 33/18

THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 59

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Sexual assault judicial process questioned BY

MICHAEL DEL MORO Daily Editorial Board

DAILY FILE PHOTO

Winter Bash will not be making a return to its previous location of the Gantcher Center, pictured above during 2009’s Winter Bash. Instead, it will remain an off-campus event held this year at the Copley Place Mariott Hotel.

Winter Bash stays off campus with new location, slight modi ications BY

MARISSA GALLERANI Senior Staff Writer

This year’s Winter Bash event will be held at the Copley Place Marriott Hotel on Jan. 28.

For the second year in a row the event will take place at a Boston hotel, with some revisions to last year’s event.

Most of the logistics of the offcampus event, including the bus loading and ticket systems, will be run in the same manner as last year, according to Programming Board Co-Chair Sarah Habib.

Programming Board, in conjunction with the Office for Campus Life (OCL), sponsors and coordinates the annual event.

Senate considers granting student ‘subgroups’ greater autonomy BY

BRENT YARNELL

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Judiciary is exploring the possibility of ending the practice of subgrouping, according to Judiciary Chair Beth Doyle.

Subgrouping, the process by which the Judiciary recognizes small student groups as subsidiaries of larger groups, is intended to help smaller groups gain membership and navigate TCU Treasury procedures by linking them to larger, related organizations, according to Judiciary New Group Recognition Chair Greg Bodwin.

But subgrouping has actually complicated the budgeting process for many TCU groups, Doyle, a senior, said.

Each TCU group designates two signatories to work with the Treasury, but subgroups share signatories with the larger group, she said.

Bodwin, a sophomore, said the need to coordinate with the larger groups on budgeting, especially when those groups engage in very few related activities, has frustrated many subgroups.

“They had said that they had trouble communicating with the supergroup,” Bodwin said.

“They thought that the supergroup was too stretched out to adequately manage the subgroup’s funds.”

Bodwin said the Judiciary plans to look closely at subgroups during next semester’s rerecognition process, when the Judiciary reviews a membership list of each group and a written statement on the group’s activities over the past year.

Doyle said that groups wishing to remain subgroups will probably be allowed to do so, though no decisions have been finalized.

“It’s going to be an identical event at a new location,” Habib, a senior, said. She said the Sheraton was unavailable because the event space is currently under renovation.

“We created a pretty good recipe last year, and we tried see WINTER BASH, page 2

A non-profit organization that advocates for the prevention of campus crime has alleged that the university’s judicial process for handling cases of alleged sexual assault does not comply with federal regulations.

The nonprofit organization Security on Campus, Inc. (SOC) claims that a provision in the adjudication process that calls for the destruction of all case materials after the case has been resolved may conflict with certain provisions of a federal statute and could require reworking or revision. But Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman refuted the idea and said that Tufts’ current policies are compliant with federal regulations.

Page seven of the Student Judicial Process for Allegations of Violence, including Sexual Assault Cases, states that “after the case has been decided, and all appeals exhausted … all materials created by or reviewed by the Dean and/or the fact-finder will be destroyed, unless the case or elements of the case are in litigation or moving toward litigation, in which case the materials will be preserved until the litigation is resolved.”

Daniel Carter, the director of public policy for SOC, told the Daily that the stipulation violates the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act), a 1990 federal statute that requires all institutions receiving federal financial aid funding to disclose their crime

statistics to the U.S. Department of Education.

Carter first took note of Tufts’ new policy, implemented this fall after extensive deliberations, when he saw a post about it on an independently run website that addresses rape issues at Tufts.

“The biggest red flag was that destruction of records policy,” Carter told the Daily in November.

Reitman denied the allegations in an e-mail to the Daily, saying that that the university’s judicial process is in line with the stipulations of the Clery Act. According to Reitman, the process was also designed to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and to maintain the privacy of those involved in cases of alleged sexual assault.

“The outcome of all cases in the Student Judicial Process are made part of the public record at Tufts, to the extent that they can be made available to the Tufts community without compromising the privacy of the individuals involved,” he said.

Reitman drew a distinction between formal and informal records and said that the Department of Public and Environmental Safety retains all of the documents that the Clery Act requires be kept.

The university updates its policies and judicial processes according to changes in federal statutes, according to Reitman.

“We take great care to comply with the requirements of FERPA and of the Clery Act. see CLERY, page 2

Hillel members sell latkes for charity during Hanukkah

KRISTEN COLLINS/TUFTS DAILY

Junior Matt Davis and sophomore Liz McGarry prepared latkes at Tufts Hillel last night. They will sell the latkes in the Mayer Campus Center today to benefit Solar Electric Light Fund, a nonprofit organization that provides solar power technology to developing countries.

see SUBGROUPS, page 2

Inside this issue

Today’s Sections

A look at the use and definition of the everelusive term, “hipster.”

The men’s swimming and diving team cheer each other on to a third-place finish.

see FEATURES, page 3

see SPORTS, page 13

News Features Arts | Living Semester in Review Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8 10

Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds

11 12 13 14

THE TUFTS DAILY

2

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

NEWS

Winter Bash will remain an off-campus event, cost $10 to attend WINTER BASH continued from page 1

to keep everything the same while just adapting to a new venue,” OCL Assistant Director David McGraw said.

OCL Director Joe Golia agreed. “We felt that Winter Bash was very successful last year, especially doing something of this size for the first time in Boston,” he said.

Golia felt that the new space offers certain improvements over last year’s venue. “The space is very beautiful, and it’s all on one floor, which is a plus. The 21-plus area has its own separate area at the back,” he said.

One of the new improvements will be the coat check process, Habib said.

Last year, the event drew criticism from attendees for a coat check process that resulted in widespread confusion, long lines and some lost coats.

“The coat check last year was mayhem,” Habib said. “This year it is completely new and improved. It will be a self-service coat check with three thousand coat hooks spread out through a couple of different rooms.”

“We’re working with the hotel to make sure that space will not be an issue,” Programming Board Co-Chair Adam Fischer said, referring to the coat check.

Tickets will be priced at $10, the same as last year, according to Habib. She said the tickets are expected to go on sale online starting on Jan. 17, and can be picked up in the Mayer Campus Center beginning Jan. 21.

Beginning Jan. 24, remaining tickets will also be made available at the Information Booth in the campus center, according to Fischer, a senior.

Habib said the proximity of the event to the start of the semester necessitated the online sale. “The reason we have to start selling tickets before school is because ... Winter Bash is the second week that we get back to school, so we needed to make sure there was enough time to sell them,” Habib, said.

Golia advised students to buy tickets early and said event coordinators will be enforcing stricter bus times this year.

“I would just encourage people to buy their tickets early so that they can get their preferred bus times, because we are going to try to make sure that students adhere to their specific busloading times,” Golia said.

“We hope more students come this year,” Golia said. “Last year we had a little over 2,700 students, and we can fit up to 3,000 students in the ballroom.”

He also praised the general conduct of attendees at last year’s event. Winter Bash had been moved off-campus in an attempt to avert the drunkenly destructive behavior that marred the Winter Bash held the year before.

“Student behavior was really good last year,” Golia said. “The hotel was really pleased with us; we had minimal problems.”

“We’re really excited for it,” Fischer said, noting that extensive planning is involved with preparing an event for the entire student body.

“We think that it is going to be great space and a beautiful location … we think that Winter Bash will be a huge success and are hoping the student body enjoys it,” Fischer said.

McGraw expressed similar optimism.

“I think that it’s going to be another

JAMES CHOCA/TUFTS DAILY

Students crowd in line at the coat check at last year’s Winter Bash. Event coordinators were criticized for the coat check, which was the source of mass confusion at the night’s end. great event, and I’m glad to see that this has become a yearly tradition. I think it will be one of the more standout events

of the year and am glad to be part of it, and I hope students come out and enjoy themselves,” he said.

Sexual assault adjudication process faces allegations of legal noncompliance

Judiciary considers abolishing practice of subgrouping

CLERY

SUBGROUPS

continued from page 1

continued from page 1

“Almost every year, there are modifications to these laws and their accompanying regulations, as well as to other areas enforced by the Department of Education,” he said. “University Counsel monitors these changes and the University’s policies are modified, as required, to be in compliance with the current regulations.”

Reitman added that far from noncompliance, Tufts has been recognized for its adherence to the Clery Act. “The university, through the Department of Public Safety, has been a recipient of an award from the Clery Foundation for being a model in meeting the requirements of the [Jeanne] Clery Initiative,” he said. The Daily could not independently confirm the award, as the Clery Foundation does not have an online presence.

“The university considers the privacy of students to be of utmost importance and FERPA prohibits disclosure of educational records, including disciplinary records, to anyone other than the student, unless the student consents or FERPA allows the disclosure as an exception,” Reitman said.

Sara Gast, a public affairs specialist for the U.S. Department of Education, reiterated the Clery Act’s statute about record retention in an e-mail to the Daily but would not comment on whether or not Tufts’ policy violates the standards. She said the matter of compliance is not necessarily cut-and-dry.

“I’m afraid that we can’t really say what would or would not be in violation of Clery for a specific case like this,” Gast told the Daily in an e-mail Monday. “A conclusion like that takes a lot of time and research to come to. We can’t say either way just based on this.”

Carter also called for a reworking of the judicial process’ confidentiality provision, which he said prohibits the victim from discussing the outcome of the case after it has concluded.

Because group recognition is closely connected to budgeting, the Judiciary will solicit feedback from TCU senators to coordinate with the Treasury before making any final decisions, Doyle said.

“We want to have a broader discussion so it’s not just us making the decision,” she said.

Judiciary Vice Chair Adam Sax said that the Judiciary has also contacted Office for Campus Life Director Joe Golia. Sax said that Golia is currently exploring whether the administration would be able to create new department IDs for all the subgroups.

“It’s just the creation of more numbers and it’s paperwork,” Sax said. “We’re seeing if it’s feasible.”

There are currently 20 subgroups and 14 umbrella organizations, Doyle said.

Additionally, the Leonard Carmichael Society (LCS) has 33 subgroups of its own, according to TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk, a junior.

De Klerk said that the practice of subgrouping deprives designated subgroups of financial autonomy.

“It means they don’t have control of their budget, and in the past, that has led to a lot of confusion and money being lost from subgroups because the process for accessing that wasn’t made clear to subgroups,” she said.

De Klerk said that pairing subgroups with larger organizations often proves counterproductive.

“Oftentimes, communication between heads of subgroups and the actual groups was poor,” she said.

Senior Pat Pop, more commonly known by her last

AALOK KANANI/TUFTS DAILY

The university implemented a revised and expanded sexual assault adjudication process earlier this fall.

“Victims have an unconditional right to disclose the final outcome; they cannot be required to keep that confidential,” he said, adding that such restrictions could have an adverse psychological effect on the victim.

According to Reitman, complainants and respondents involved in the student judicial process are prohibited from discussing the case with any-

one other than those directly involved with the case.

“This is a long standing policy here and elsewhere. It helps maintain the integrity of the process and minimizes the chance that witness testimony will be rehearsed,” he said. “Students involved in cases may always seek the support and consultation of many available confidential resources in the community.”

name, founded Tufts Belly Dance. She said the club’s status as a subgroup of the Arab Student Association (ASA) imposed unnecessary complications.

“When it came time to actually do budgetary things, we realized we didn’t know where to go,” she said.

“Getting in contact with so many extra people took up so much extra time with us.”

Pop said that Tufts Belly Dance and ASA rarely communicated because their interests and activities were fundamentally distinct from each other.

“There was no reason for us to be in contact with them because we were doing different events, very separate things,” she said. “There was not much overlap.”

Pop said that Tufts Belly Dance had only agreed to be a subgroup of ASA because they felt the Judiciary would not recognize the organization otherwise.

“The reason we accepted that was because they were kind of pushing it; it seemed like that was the way to get approved,” she said.

Bodwin said subgrouping enables groups with very low membership that might not be able to gain recognition as a full TCU group in a particular year to retain recognition and funding.

“It’s a lot easier to get rerecognition as a subgroup,” he said. “So as a result it was used as something for groups that provided good things on campus but might have trouble sustaining members.”

De Klerk noted that some groups, such as those subgrouped under the Leonard Carmichael Society, benefit from subgrouping because they are too small to need to negotiate their own budgets with the Treasury.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

The evolution and de inition of the hipster BY

ALEXA SASANOW AND DEREK SCHLOM Daily Editorial Board

Hipster — a word vague enough to be discouraged from use in the New York Times by the paper’s standards editor but sufficiently offensive to be insulting when hurled at disheveled, bespectacled English majors who don flannel shirts and tightly clinging jeans.

So is the term merely a derogatory stereotype unfairly aimed at the likes of Pitchfork.com readers, a legitimate definition of a major social group or an outdated term no longer applicable to a single subsection? As the title of a new book on the sociology of hipsters by the editors of noted literary journal n+1 asks, “What Was the Hipster?”(See review, page 5.)

“I think that hipsters, if we’re talking about them as we most commonly refer to them today — skinny jeans, certain styles of hair — represent clusters of taste,” Assistant Professor of Sociology Ryan Centner said. “Most live in cities, are of a certain age, usually from college to maybe their early 30s, but those clusters of taste don’t signify a monolithic group that acts as one.”

According to Centner, the term’s definition is ephemeral and can only be pinned to a single faction for a limited period of time before being attached to another.

“For example, I wrote a paper in the early 2000s on the habitus of the hipster, but by the time I got it published, I had to change the title because that group wasn’t considered hip anymore,” he said. “It was basically a dotcom worker at the time — someone young, new, urban, hip, relatively moneyed — but that aesthetic wouldn’t fit what’s considered a hipster now.”

FALCON REESE

Daily Staff Writer

The treatment of psychological ailments like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has moved beyond the therapist’s office and into the digital realm, allowing patients to face their fears from behind a computer screen.

The goal of so-called “cybertherapy” is to make use of virtual environments and virtual humans to facilitate the treatment of some mental disorders. The cybertherapy trend began to emerge as computers gained popularity. As humans became constantly connected, more software programs were developed that could provide therapeutic opportunities, according to Albert Rizzo, the associate director for medical virtual reality at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies.

“People realized that virtual reality would be a useful tool to deliver therapeu-

Dial down dialogue

M

TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY

The Rez coffee shop at the Mayer Campus Center is known by some as a hangout for Tufts hipsters.

Hipsters are considered a legitimate group to be researched and studied — to a limited degree, Centner said.

“Yes, they capture the attention of sociologists, but hipness is always reinvented,” he said. “The term ‘hip’ itself might go in and out of fashion, and even as that term has remained in common parlance, the definition changes.”

As for how hipsters can currently be defined and whether they exist at Tufts, the some students who fit, to varying degrees, within the predetermined hipster stereotype hold varying opinions.

Sophomore Izzy Star, who does not identify as a hipster but is regarded as a hipster by her peers, cited the reluctance of many hipsters to self-identify as such as one reason for the transience and murkiness of the term’s meaning.

“I think I’m like most people in that I couldn’t come up with one definition of a hipster,” Star said. “[But] the one thing to universally define the hipster is to be hated, so no one really identifies as a hipster, which is why they are not long for this world.” see HIPSTER, page 4

Cybertherapy: The next trend in psychology?

BY

CJ SARACENO | BAN TOGETHER

tic modalities,” Rizzo told the Daily. “Before virtual reality, therapists relied exclusively on imagination and guided imagery.”

Virtual reality was originally a useful tool in a process called exposure therapy, in which a patient with a phobia is continually exposed to the object of their fear until they are no longer afraid of it, a psychological phenomenon called extinction.

Using virtual reality, therapists can create environments in which a patient can face their fears right in the office, Rizzo said.

“With virtual reality, whole worlds could be systematically adjusted,” he said. “With just a couple of keystrokes, we could move them closer to what they fear.”

Since cybertherapy’s inception, the capabilities of virtual reality have grown immensely. This, along with the collection of hard data and the widespread use of the Internet, has prompted the growth of the field, according to Rizzo.

“We can do what we did before in a tenth of the time, at a hundredth of the

“Was she impressed? What kind of question is that? It’s 13 inches.”

—over-compensator leaving Carmichael

“My Secret Santa forgot about me, just like real Santa does every year.”

—sad student in Eaton Computer Lab

cost,” he said.

Rizzo attributed much of the field’s current creative ability to the many advances in graphics driven by the gaming industry.

As the field has expanded, its range of applications has as well. Although initially just a useful tool in exposure therapy, cybertherapy now runs the gamut from social skills therapy to the treatment of addictive behavior. It even makes use of specialized interface devices comparable to the Nintendo Wii. “People can interact in a game-like context, which makes the treatment more motivating,” Rizzo said.

Virtual reality can be a helpful tool not only for patients but for the therapists treating them as well. Developing artificial intelligence software can provide training for these therapists, according to Jonathan Gratch, associate director for see CYBERTHERAPY, page 4

“I hate it when restaurants’ menus say something is oven-roasted. Where else are they roasted? In the desert?”

—picky student

“Winks are just creepy in general. Has a wink ever been properly executed?”

—student in Dewick, responding to a wink

—compiled by the Daily Features Department Overheard something funny? Want to profess your love? Need to give a shout-out to that kid you always see unicycling on campus? E-mail features@tuftsdaily.com with the subject “Overherd on the Hill.”

y favorite scene in “Forrest Gump” (1994) is during Forest’s impromptu running campaign, when a group of reporters chases after him to find out why he’s running. “Are you doing this for world peace? The environment?” They ask. Innocent Forrest’s motives were much simpler: He “just felt like running.”

An op-ed in Monday’s Daily tried to respond to the public’s inquiry regarding what I will refer to as the Ratchetgate scandal in similar Gumpian style. By Ratchetgate, I mean the scandal with the recent posters depicting a black hand holding a wrench and labeled “gun” and a white hand holding a wrench labeled “wrench.” Allegedly, the poster’s originators just felt like encouraging dialogue.

I don’t buy this defense of Ratchetgate. Sure, it might have sparked a dialogue, but I believe the true intent of these posters was no different from any post-bias, sensitivity-awareness session. It was a cheap attempt to capitalize on an honest mistake. Because of this, I dedicate Ban Together’s final installment to banning dialogue.

“But why would you want to ban dialogue? You love dialogue! Wasn’t your column designed to increase dialogue?” you ask.

No: My column and others like it advance opinions in order to persuade others. If a discussion ensues, great. The people behind Ratchetgate are of a different creed. They’re reactionaries taking advantage of the interpretability of an event they read about in an e-mail and simulated in their minds. They seem to have never seen the ratchet; they couldn’t even portray it correctly on the posters still littering our campus. Yet we’re supposed to ignore this because their intent was benign — to encourage dialogue. In reality, they want dialogue, so long as it reinforces the myth that we’re all racist.

It brings me back to the moment the Primary Source published a critique of affirmative action via song, or when then-freshman In-Goo Kwak parodied a Tufts Community Union senator’s campaign ad or when thenfreshman Daniel Foster called some Korean students very bad names while intoxicated.

Yet Ratchetgate differs from these incidents.

There is no witch to burn, no goat to scape.

Protesters now must resort to blaming the entire student body for someone’s mistake instead of doing it through a boogieman. As long as they can advance an agenda that I believe discourages others from talking about subjects even remotely related to race, the nature of the event itself matters little.

Ratchetgate was not a benevolent call for increased tolerance or self-reflection. It was a shoddily put-together, poorly-veiled attempt to once again tame and shame the Jumbo herd into an obeisant, guilt-ridden harem of seals. Its only purpose was to point out our flaws in making snap judgments and the obvious necessity of our own dependency on enlightened beacons of true diversity, be it in the form of indoctrinating professors, community representatives or diversity task forces.

Individuals refusing to accept this guilt are brought down easily with accusations of racism or bigotry, which, like dog droppings, are easily flung but difficult to remove.

Such shaming isn’t unique to Tufts. A 2008 study by, among others, our very own Associate Professor of Psychology Sam Sommers points out that nowadays “whites … strategically [avoid] the topic of race because they’re worried that they’ll look bad if they admit they notice it in other people.”

The study concludes that “bending over backward to avoid even mentioning race sometimes creates more interpersonal problems than it solves.” We can benefit from talking about race but only when we’re freed from the reactionary contexts forged by narrowminded students whose goal is a prolonged fixation on inconsequential events in which someone somewhere might have done something that could potentially be considered racist. It is these dialogues we can do without.

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

Saraceno@tufts.edu.

4

THE TUFTS DAILY

FEATURES

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

‘Hipster’ can mean one thing today, another tomorrow HIPSTER continued from page 3

COURTESY ALBERT RIZZO

Cybertherapy is a new form of psychological treatment that uses virtual reality to simulate real-world situations.

Advances in virtual reality technology bring therapy into new realm CYBERTHERAPY continued from page 3

Virtual Human Research at the University of Southern California.

“There’s a focus on training health care providers, using virtual patients to practice doing assessments,” Gratch told the Daily.

Gratch’s current research project, however, is the SimCoach, a virtual human program designed as a medical navigation tool for war veterans.

“The goal is to help soldiers and their families find appropriate health care treatment,” Gratch said.

The SimCoach provides a virtual person for veterans — traditionally averse to seeking out treatment for problems such as PTSD — to open up to about their difficulties. SimCoach can then make suggestions as to possible treatment options.

“Instead of being stigmatized, they can be anonymous,” Gratch said.

One other treatment option for these veterans is a cybertherapy program that Rizzo is currently developing — a virtual reality program in which a virtual Iraq or Afghanistan can be rendered for the purposes of exposure therapy. To experience the environment, the patient dons a headset and is seated on a platform that can simulate the vibrations of a vehicle or the explosion of an improvised explosive device.

“The purpose is for the soldiers to revisit and confront the traumatic events they experienced,” Rizzo said.

The rendering of a virtual environment such as this also allows for soldiers to be tested before they leave for war. Therapists can take the same environment, put the soldiers in it and attempt to determine if the soldiers are likely to develop PTSD later on. Additionally, soldiers can be trained to avoid developing PTSD, again using the same virtual environment.

“We call it the ‘emotional obstacle course,’ and we can train [the soldiers] to habituate before leaving,” Rizzo said. “We can train coping strategies.”

One inherent difficulty in virtual therapy is the realism of the experience. However, according to Rizzo, how realistic virtual therapy needs to be depends entirely on the application.

“In terms of exposure therapy, [patients] are primed to react to anything that looks like what they’re afraid of,” he said. As

such, graphic detail is unnecessary.

However, in terms of using virtual humans as a therapeutic tool, the degree of reality is much more important. According to Gratch, separate studies have shown that in dealing with a stigmatized illness, anonymity and a personal relationship have both been shown to be beneficial.

“Anonymity is very important because the patient will be more truthful, but interacting with a person can be more engaging,” he said. “With virtual humans, the hope is to get the best of both worlds.”

There is currently a push to model more realistic behavior in virtual humans.

“At this point, they don’t necessarily personalize themselves to you,” Gratch said. “We want it to have more intelligence and persistent memory, so it remembers you and builds rapport.”

Although the realism of virtual humans continues to advance, cybertherapy’s future lies in remote interaction with a therapist, according to Rizzo.

“The ethical question is: Does the therapist have to be in the room with the patient for good therapy to occur?” he said.

Rizzo believes this is possible and that remote interaction provides numerous options to deliver care. David Harder, a professor of abnormal psychology at Tufts, however, sees some potential pitfalls in this form of remote therapy.

“They can’t see the client, and the client can’t see the therapist, which can reduce the human elements,” he said. “The therapist doesn’t have the cues that they’d have in a face-to-face interaction.”

Harder said that from a legal and ethical standpoint, neither the quality of care nor the qualification of the therapist can be guaranteed. “On the client’s end, they don’t know who they’re talking to,” Harder said.

The pros of cybertherapy may outweigh the cons, however, as remote therapy is only a single application of the technology. The possibilities that virtual environments and virtual humans provide are driving the field into the future, Rizzo said.

“We really want to know how we can use these simulations to treat people with clinical disorders in ways that we can’t do in the real world,” Rizzo said.

“There’s been so much trouble coming up with a definition,” she added, “and for other subgroups there’s been a doctrine — you know, what it is to be goth and what you do to be goth.”

Natalie Selzer, a junior who also does not identify as a hipster but suspects that others may consider her one, agreed that hipsters often resist being categorized as such.

“No one wants to call themselves a hipster because we think of hipsters as a------s,” she said. “And no one really wants to call people they know well a hipster, because it’s a negative term. … It denotes a sort of pretension and aloofness. But then we use it to describe almost any style or activity choice that’s kind of associated with it.”

Another reason why people might not willingly identify as hipsters, Star said, is because self-identification is somewhat counter to the hipster attitude.

“Maybe part of being a hipster is denying you’re a hipster, because that’s the common thread,” Star said.

Selzer, who co-manages Midnight at Tufts, a booking group that enlists relatively obscure bands to perform on campus, said that the indie-rock fans who frequent the group’s concerts can’t automatically be categorized as hipsters based on their appearance.

“Sure, the majority of the people that have attended recent shows have been what you might describe as hipsters, if you mean that there’s a lot of flannel and skinny jeans going on,” she said. “But I think … that’s just because going to shows and listening to new live music is sort of a staple of that scene, so those people are inclined to go without being prompted to.”

Matt Roe, a sophomore, concurred that outward appearance and musical taste do not automatically signify hipsterdom.

“A lot of people just point out someone with tight pants and say ‘that’s a hipster’ or because they listen to indie music, ‘that’s a hipster,’” he said. “But that doesn’t make them a hipster. Being a

hipster entails religiously staying up with current trends and consciously rejecting what’s accepted as cool.”

Roe is a DJ and on the executive board of WMFO Tufts Freeform Radio, but Roe said that the perception of college radio stations as hipster territories is ill informed.

“I think that WMFO is just a group of nerds. We’re not at all hipsters,” Roe said.

“Most of us are just into comics, computers and music. People that think the WMFO staff is full of hipsters obviously don’t know what hipsters are and haven’t been surrounded by them before.”

Roe said that being a hipster boils down to intention rather than aesthetics.

“I wear what I wear because my mother buys it for me, not because I think it makes me cool,” Roe said, “and I listen to the obscure music I listen to because I like it, not because I want to impress other people.”

According to Star, formal characterizations of hipsters would exclude Tufts students. “n+1 described it as a culture that consumes rather than creates, which doesn’t describe Tufts students, because they are interested in creating more than consuming, I hope,” Star said. “Things related to being a college student happen to make up what it means to be hipster because some of what it means to be either overlaps, like talking about books.”

Centner had a different theory about why hipster culture tends infiltrate college campuses.

“I think it’s money,” he said. “Whatever hipster is at a given time becomes mainstream and becomes branded and then commercialized,” he said. “So anything that’s considered hipster right now is very expensive, and in order to afford that, you have to have money … and a lot of students who go to liberal arts colleges on the east coast have that.

“And it appeals to those students,” he continued, “because there’s something that’s considered creative, edgy, lefty, that’s all kind of wrapped up in the idea of hipster.”

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

BOOK REVIEW

‘What Was the Hipster?’ was cool before it enjoyed widespread popularity BY

MITCHELL GELLER

Daily Editorial Board

What Was the Hipster?: A Sociological Investigation Edited by Mark Greif

n+1 Foundation

NPLUSONEMAG.COM

The cover of n+1’s ‘What Was the Hipster’ was clearly born from the mind of a hipster. from the blogosphere, while others were commissioned specifically for the book.

Some of the essays take the subject more seriously than others, such as Rob Horning’s “The Death of the Hipster,” from PopMatters.com, but none of the pieces are serious. Horning’s piece isn’t, strictly speaking, serious, but it is when compared to Robert Moor’s ridiculously titled essay, “On D---------.” Irony pervades “What Was the Hipster,” and even the contributors who

Boston Ballet’s staging of ‘The Nutcracker’ is an enchanting classic

BY MARTHA SHANAHAN AND MARIE PERROT

Daily Editorial Board and Contributing Writer

Though attending Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” is a holiday season tradition for ballet

The Nutcracker Music by Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky Choreography by Mikko Nissinen At the Boston Opera House until Dec. 31. naifs and connoisseurs alike, each viewer interacts uniquely with this timeless piece. The magic of “The Nutcracker” cannot be solely attributed to the beautiful dances or the jovial musical score. The true enchantment lies in the experience as a whole.

The Daily sent Marie Perrot to document her own experience at this year’s production of “The Nutcracker” at the Boston Ballet. Additional commentary on the ballet has been provided by Martha Shanahan. This article assesses the cast for the night of Dec. 5; the cast for “The Nutcracker” changes frequently, so a viewer may see an entirely different cast.

I remember being introduced to “The Nutcracker” in the second grade, when my teacher brought a strange-looking, oversized doll into class. I didn’t understand the hype over this grotesque statuette — its bizarre demeanor was not even excused by its practicality as I tried and failed miserably at cracking a series of nuts.

So when my friends asked me earlier in the month to revisit my Nut noncracker at the Boston Ballet, I was a little hesitant, but decided to give

‘Lady boner’ for Leandra

A

n+1’s “What Was the Hipster?: A Sociological Investigation” does not have a foundation in the scientific method. It

does not have a bibliography listing dozens of scholarly articles. It does not have page upon page of dense, boring writing. What it does have, however, is a tongue firmly planted in its cheek — metaphorically speaking.

The book is the result of a 2009 conference held at the New School University in New York, organized by n+1 magazine, a “journal of literature, intellect and politics.”

The event brought together a panel of socalled experts to discuss “the hipster” in an attempt to define the phenomenon.

Most people don’t like hipsters. Most people think they’re a stupid phenomenon. The very existence of a conference to discuss hipsters is basically the most hipster thing possible — an irony in no way missed by Mark Greif, Kathleen Ross and Dayna Tortorici, the editors of “What Was the Hipster?”

The book, published as “n+1 Research Branch Small Book Series #3,” collects essays discussed at the hipster conference, a transcript of the discussion that took place at the conference, reactions to the conference and essays about hipsters and hipster topics. Many of the pieces have been culled

ASHLEY WOOD | FASHION CONTRACEPTIVE

the funny-looking character a second chance.

After braving a few minutes of the wintry New England wind, I would have been as thrilled to enter the Boston Opera House even if it was a shabby closet. But as the crowd hustled into the lobby, I was immediately captivated by the venue’s sheer beauty. My reverence was interrupted by the spirited crowd: Dozens of little girls ran across the ornate premises, dressed in gowns and followed by their equally radiant mothers strutting behind them in their Jimmy Choos.

My amazement only increased upon entering the theater. From the goldengraved scrolls and floral designs on the banisters to the swankily outfitted ushers, everything screamed “refinement.” The ushers, however, did not seem to be quite as taken with me, as they motioned irritably every time I tried to whip out my camera to capture the grandeur of it all.

The music began, flawless and familiar, and lights projected onto the stage, illuminating the dancers as they made their entrances. Dressed in luminous velvet and satin costumes, they pas de bourred down the set, engaging effortlessly in pirouettes and midair splits.

The first act of the ballet, a lively and visually engaging Christmas party hosted by the picture-perfect fictional Silberhaus family, was delightfully presented. An elegant living room set framed dancing children, hobnobbing adult guests and, of course, the antics of the mysterious Uncle Drosselmeier.

Drosselmeier, danced that night by a charming Sabi Varga, brought see NUTCRACKER, page 6

cite sources, include footnotes and make semi-obscure (hipsters will get them, no doubt) academic references — Horning gets a pretty good Slavoj Žižek zinger into his piece, if that means anything to you — are clearly winking very hard, at their readers.

In his preface, Mark Greif, co-founding editor of n+1, dodges nearly every bullet that could be aimed at “What Was see GREIF, page 6

ALBUM REVIEW

Soulja Boy exceeds expectations BY

MITCHELL GELLER

Daily Editorial Board

Soulja Boy Tell ’Em has a new favorite word: “swag.” On “The DeAndre Way,” his third major-label

The DeAndre Way Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em

Interscope Records release, Soulja Boy says “swag” at every occasion. He uses it as a chorus, an exclamation, a statement, a question, a verb, an adjective and a noun. This review is going to do the same thing. Swag! see SOULJA BOY, page 6

s I sat down to write my final column for this semester, I couldn’t help but feel like it should be one last ode to the brilliantly hilarious woman who inspired my topic choice: Leandra Medine.

In case you missed my first column back in September, Leandra is the writer of a blog called “The Man Repeller,” in which she humorously discusses current fashion trends that make men cringe. Recent topics have included footwear resembling vaginas, bowties and inappropriate uses of leather.

Although Leandra is incredibly entertaining, that is only one of the reasons that I decided to write a column devoted to her concept. The approach “The Man Repeller” takes toward fashion not only helps get more people interested in the topic, but it also reinforces fashion as an art form.

I’ve spent the past semester hopefully proving to you that fashionable women consistently sacrifice sex appeal for style.

If fashion was really as frivolous as looking pretty, then why would anyone bother wasting money on things like jumpsuits and men’s trousers? These are the kinds of trends that have inspired Leandra to create a whole new sartorial vocabulary, with phrases like “man repellent” and “lady boner” replacing outdated terms like “attractive” and “flattering.”

Overall, I hope those of you who enjoyed this column will take the time to check out Leandra’s blog. In the meantime, I leave you with a few “man-repelling” trends to look out for this winter and spring: Glittery shoes: Embrace your inner Liberace and invest in a pair of glitter-adorned shoes this holiday season. I highly recommend Giuseppe Zanotti’s glitter ankle boots, or if you’re working with a more realistic budget, Jeffrey Campbell’s glitter Lita heels. If you purchase the latter, not only will you offend men with the disco balls on your feet, but you will also emasculate them by turning into a bona fide Amazon. Together, the heel and platform add about five inches. I know because I own them in green.

Nun-wear: My friend recently sent me a link to a New York Times Style article titled “Good Habits” — as in, the habits that nuns wear on their heads. The article featured pieces from both Celine’s and YSL’s Fall 2010 lines, which were clearly inspired by clergymen and Catholic school nuns. I could possibly justify returning to church solely for this reason.

Turbans: I feel like men generally abhor female headwear, given the reaction I usually get from my Zorro hat, but this one definitely takes the cake. Unless men find the “Girl with the Pearl Earring” — the painting, not Scarlett Johansson in the paintinginspired film of the same name — attractive, chances are, the new trend of turban-like headbands won’t inspire any excitement in their nether regions. Just saying.

Rings that double as brass knuckles: Between jewelry designers like Pamela Love and the Olsen twins, fashionistas everywhere are repelling men not only with their androgynous clothing, but also with the weaponry they’re sporting on their fingers.

My own experience with my Elizabeth and James knuckle ring includes being asked, “Wow, are you going to punch someone with that?” and “Did you break your finger, or is that a ring?” I have since given up on providing an explanation and instead have chosen to embrace the fact that my jewelry can take the place of pepper-spray.

Finally, whether you’re a man getter or a man repeller, I wish you the best in all your love endeavors and truly hope that all those fashion-loving women out there can find a man as appreciative of their harem pants as I am.

AMAZON.COM

Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em swagging it up on the cover of his third major-label release, ‘The DeAndre Way.’

Ashley Wood is a junior majoring in English.

She can be reached at Ashley.Wood@tufts.edu.

6

THE TUFTS DAILY

ARTS & LIVING

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Boston Ballet’s performance of ‘The Nutcracker’ continues to delight audiences NUTCRACKER continued from page 5

dolls and life-sized furry teddy bears to life, frightened the younger guests and delivered Clara (Isabelle Hanson) the best-received present at the party: a small nutcracker shaped like a prince.

Drosselmeier then magically transformed the Victorian living room into the scene of an epic battle between the now life-sized Nutcracker and an army of mice. Interspersed with comic appeals to the adults in the audience, the battle was as gripping as possible given that pieces of cheese and foam balls were the weapons of choice.

Young students of the Boston Ballet proved a synchronized set of soldiers, led in battle by Duncan Lyle as the Mouse King.

When Clara ends the scuffle by decisively throwing a shoe at the Mouse King’s head, an enchanting and beautifully danced snow scene transitions the audience to the Land of the Sugar Plums and the second act.

With Clara and her ambiguously aged prince as an audience, the residents of the Land of the Sugar Plums put on a show worthy of kings. Adorable pintsized lambs boureed at the feet of some cheerful shepherds. Rachel Cossar and Jamie Diaz meticulously executed the difficult choreography of the Arabian Coffee dance, which combines dance, acrobatics and skimpy outfits to make the show entertaining enough for the dads in the audience.

Perhaps the highlight of the second act was a trio of exuberant dancers in the Russian divertissement, whose flying jumps and dizzying turns exhibited the power and style of the male dancers among the Boston Ballet’s ranks.

Together, the Sugar Plum Fairy (Lia Cirio) and her Cavalier (Lasha Khozashvili) topped off a thoroughly enjoyable second act. Clara and her

COURTESY ANGELA STERLING

Boston Ballet’s staging of ‘The Nutcracker’ blends beautiful dance, tradition and holiday spirit. prince set off for home in a hot-air balloon, leaving us contemplating whether what they just saw was real or simply in the mind of our heroine.

I left the theater with the urge to imitate the five-year-old girls in gowns, now choreographing their way down the stairs. Upon exiting, I caught a glimpse

of the Nutcracker standing upright on the shelf of the Opera House gift shop, and had to resist the temptation of purchasing the futile contraption.

Soulja Boy’s new album is pure swag SOULJA BOY continued from page 5

“The DeAndre Way” is a cute title for Soulja Boy’s latest album. See, DeAndre Way is Soulja Boy’s real name, and “The DeAndre Way” is like the way that DeAndre Way does things. And it rhymes. Swag!

Soulja Boy approaches rapping much the same way he approaches album titles. His songs are mostly lazy, and he displays very little skill in them, but they’re impossible not to listen to. They aren’t particularly good, but once you start you can’t turn them off: It’s like listening to a train wreck. A fun, pop-y, weightless train wreck.

“The DeAndre Way” is a 10-track affair that clocks in at under an hour.

Featuring titles like “First Day of School,” “Hey Cutie,” “Fly,” “Pretty Boy Swag” and “Touchdown,” it’s clear that Soulja Boy loves being young, rich and famous.

“Pretty Boy Swag,” the first single from “The DeAndre Way,” sounds like it’s being rapped by Stevie Kenarban (Craig Lamar Traylor), the asthmatic from “Malcom in the Middle” (20002006). The chorus — a concept not understood by Soulja Boy, as it comprises nearly the entire song — is utterly absurd: “This right here is my swag/All the girls are on me, damn/Everybody pay attention/This right here is my pretty boy swag (ayeee)/Pretty boy swag(ayye) [x3]/Girls on my d--- when I pretty boy swag/Girls scream my name when I pretty boy swag/Watch me pretty boy swag (ayye)[x4]/Girls on my d--- when I pretty boy swag/Girls scream my name when I pretty boy swag/Soulja!”

And that’s all there is to it. Swag! It’s a song about something that makes no sense, which is fine for rap music, but it gets dizzying trying to figure out exactly what point Soulja is trying to make. If it were a danceable track, this nonsense would be acceptable, but, as it’s difficult to dance to minimalist techno, there is no clearly imaginable way to dance to “Pretty Boy Swag.”

“Pretty Boy Swag” is an ear worm and an anomaly for the album. For some reason, it simultaneously attracts

and repels. Soulja Boy is worse than a guilty pleasure. Soulja Boy is a guilty guilt. No one should enjoy “Pretty Boy Swag,” but most probably will, and — if they’re self-respecting — they will hate themselves for it. But it won’t stop them from listening to it.

“Pretty Boy Swag” is followed on the album by “30 Thousand 100 Million,” the only track produced by Soulja Boy, and the most notable — not to mention exciting — for its featured guest, Bay Area rapper and self-proclaimed “pretty b----” Lil B. The fact that Lil B is appearing on a major label release is enough of a reason to sit up and take notice, if not to actually buy the album.

Lil B is quite possibly the most divisive figure in internet hip-hop today, and he and Soulja Boy have quite the history. His verse on “30 Thousand 100 Million” is as “based” as anything he’s ever released. Based is Lil B’s term for everything in his universe. He refers to himself as “The Based God,” and talks about being based — a state that exists somewhere between “high on crack” and “religiously sublime.” Soulja Boy’s beat for the track is grimy and deconstructed; it sounds as though he has been getting heavily into dubstep — like someone slipped Soulja a copy of Burial’s “Untrue” (2007) and he loved it and really wanted to show that influence on his album but understood that his fan base probably wouldn’t receive it with open arms. So he put his trademark “Fruity Loop” take on the genre.

Swag! Swag! Swag!

Ultimately “The DeAndre Way” will garner as many haters as it will fans. It will sell millions of units, and people will make fun of it forever. Regardless of what people think, however, Soulja Boy will continue to make untold millions and shout “Swag!” at every chance he gets.

Souja Boy claims he wanted to work with Eminem and Jay-Z for the album; he got 50 Cent on “Mean Mug,” which, as it turns out, isn’t a terrible song.

But that’s life for Soulja Boy Tell ’Em. He’s a young, 21st-century Rodney Dangerfield: He can’t get no respect, but we love him anyway.

NPLUSONEMAG.COM

Hipsters love stuff like leather shoes and rolled up pants, as you will discover in ‘What Was the Hipster,’ available now from n+1 Foundation.

Essays and discussion shed light on hipsters for future generations GREIF continued from page 5

the Hipster.” “All descriptions of hipsters are doomed to disappoint,” he writes, “because they will not be the hipsters you know.” From here, he and his partners in crime have free reign to theorize, philosophize and generally mess around with the concept of the hipster.

It is suggested over the course of the roughly 200 pages that follow this introduction that the hipster is everything from the prototypical “d--------” to the “hip” or “rebel” consumer and the reaction against — well, everything. Each author has his or her own opinion on the subject, and offers a number of ways to look at the phenomenon. The general consensus, however, is that “hipster” isn’t a good thing: It’s discussed as a pejorative, an anomaly and a thing that must either die off or be rooted out and killed mercilessly.

Many of the essays in the collection suggest that “hipsterism” is dying out, or that the hipster is already dead. The very fact that this book exists — complete with

a day-glo pink-and-silver cover, thick, academic off-white pages and stunningly conservative typeface — goes to show that the hipster is very much alive and kicking.

He or she may be hard, if not impossible, to define, but “What Was the Hipster: A Sociological Investigation” is proof that the hipster was what the hipster still is.

In the aforementioned introduction, Greif writes a note to readers in the future: “To those of you, who are reading this in 2050, I can only say this: Everything in this book is true, and its impressions are perfect.” While this is written like a true modernist assertion, it is turned on its head by its context, instantly reeking of postmodernism. A hipster job well done.

The day when a book like “What Was the Hipster?” will be needed for research papers on the culture of the early 21st century is not far off — like all things, the hipster too shall pass — but for now we have these 194 pages first to cherish and then later to smirk at, smugly, because we were the first to read them.

By the time you read this sentence, though, the book won’t be cool anymore.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

7

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The Holidays Are Here! Ã Get in the habit of calling the University Police to report all suspicious persons and activities on campus. Ã Remember to plan a safe route of travel when going to your car or the T. Ã Everyone should be aware of what is going on around them. Ã Enjoy a happy holiday season – use common sense. Ã The Tufts University Police can be reached for emergencies at X66911 or 617-636-6911 (Boston), 617-627-6911 (Medford), 508-839-5303 (Grafton). Ã Impress upon your fellow employees and students the importance of crime prevention. Ã Never walk in areas that are secluded or dimly lit. Ã Guard your valuables – lock your office, lab, or dormitory room when you leave. Ã Stopping a crime before it happens is everyone’s business. Ã Lock all windows and doors, activate security alarms and pull down shades.

The Tufts University Police, Department of Public Safety, would like to wish all of you a happy and safe holiday season.

BEST WINGS!

Studying abroad spring 2011?

Be prepared for your semester abroad!

Required pre-departure meetings:

Programs Abroad staff and study abroad alumni will go over the pre-departure checklist, discuss health and safety issues, transfer of credit, cultural adaptation and much, much more!

Non-Tufts Programs

Tufts Programs

*all meetings in Braker Hall 001*

*all meetings in Braker Hall 001*

Non-Tufts Africa/Asia/ Caribbean/Latin America/ Middle East

Tufts in Madrid/Paris/Tübingen

Monday, Dec. 13th @ 1:30 pm

Monday, Dec. 13th @ 10:30 am

Tufts in Hong Kong Tuesday, Dec. 14th @ 1:30 pm

Non-Tufts Mainland Europe Monday, Dec. 13th @ 3:30 pm

Non-Tufts UK/Ireland/Australia/ New Zealand Tuesday, Dec. 14th @ 10:30 am

PLEASE NOTE: If you cannot make your non-Tufts meeting, please attend another non-Tufts meeting.

If you cannot make your Tufts meeting, please attend another Tufts meeting.

Meetings are required.

Questions? Call x7-5871.

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THE TUFTS DAILY

SEMESTER IN REVIEW

The Semester in Review

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

—compiled by Amelie Hecht, Kathryn Olson, Matt Repka and Martha Shanahan

Bacow’s last year: Departures and arrivals

AALOK KANANI/TUFTS DAILY

COURTESY IAN MACLELLAN

In the face of the impending departure of University President Lawrence Bacow, this semester saw a number of other high-level personnel changes on the Hill.

A Presidential Search Committee composed of alumni, faculty members, administrators and one student concluded a months-long process that began in February, leading to the appointment of University of Oxford’s Professor Anthony Monaco as Tufts’ 13th university president.

Bacow will next year serve as president-in-residence in the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Higher Education Master’s Program. He also told the Daily in a recent interview that he and his wife Adele Fleet Bacow expect to become grandparents this spring.

Former Wellesley College Associate Dean Joanne BergerSweeney joined the Tufts faculty as dean of arts and sciences, replacing Robert Sternberg at the beginning of the semester.

The position of director of fraternity and sorority affairs was filled after being vacant for a year with the hiring of Tanya McGinn Paolo.

The formerly separate departments of facilities and construction united under the banner of Department of Facilities Services, led by newly appointed director Bob Burns.

Other positions, however, remain unfilled, including those vacated by Senior Director of Public and Environmental Safety John King and Office for Institutional Diversity Executive Director Lisa Coleman, in August 2010 and December 2009 respectively.

The announcement of key administrators’ resignations will leave even more vacancies to be filled in the face of an impending presidential transition. After a decade of service, co-founder and Dean of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service Robert Hollister will step down.

Meanwhile, Dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy Eileen Kennedy will pursue a year-long sabbatical beginning in June and will return as a professor in September 2012.

Nineteen years after joining the Tufts community, Director of Tisch Library Jo-Ann Michalak will also leave her position this spring.

JUSTIN MCCALLUM/TUFTS DAILY

Campus events Various events, some of which featured guest speakers, took place on the Hill this semester, capturing the interest and the imagination of Jumbos.

The annual Fall Ball dance in the Gantcher Center, held at the start of September, proceeded without any major incidents.

Meanwhile, the fall rock and hip-hop concerts were joined into a single event — Passion Pit in October headlined the first annual “Cage Rage” concert held in Carzo Cage.

In response to a number of highly publicized LGBT youth suicides, Tufts’ annual Coming Out Day rally in October saw a strong turnout. Students distributed rainbow flags for members of the community to hang from their windows in a show of solidarity, and the supply of flags quickly ran out.

University President Lawrence Bacow sent an e-mail encour-

aging students to attend the rally and a rainbow flag hung from a Gifford house window.

Harvard University Professor Michael Sandel delivered the Richard E. Snyder Presidential Lecture on Nov. 3. Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams, prominent freethought advocate and author Sam Harris, J Street founder Jeremy BenAmi, author Stephen Wermiel, activist Tim Wise, engineering consultant Pamela McNamara and NASA astronaut Rick Hauck (A ’62, H ’07) were just some of the other notable personalities who came to speak at Tufts this semester.

The Tufflepuffs, Tufts’ Quidditch team, became the Cinderella story of the Quidditch World Cup, defying expectations to finish second, losing only to national powerhouse Middlebury College in the tournament, held in New York City in mid-November.

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

SEMESTER IN REVIEW

9

Questions of safety The Department of Public & Environmental Safety this fall distributed new ID cards with emergency phone numbers printed on the back and embedded chips that eliminate the need for separate fob technology to access dorms.

But ID card revisions did not save Tufts from finishing ahead of 457 other institutions to earn the title of most dangerous university in the nation from news website The Daily Beast.

The ranking drew the ire of Tufts administrators, who criticized the rankings for being based on flawed methodology.

A recent change in the application of the definition of burglary will affect the way in which colleges and universities report crime statistics. This modification has broad implications for the accuracy of school’s safety rankings, driving the number of burglaries on campus down to 29 in 2009 from 43 in the previous year when the old guidelines were in effect, according to Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler.

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) sent an

e-mail alert to the Tufts community after Halloween weekend, reporting a sexual assault believed to have occurred in a fraternity house. An examination of TUPD’s public crime log by the Daily revealed that officers responded to a report of a rape at the Sigma Nu fraternity house on Oct. 29. The incident remains under investigation.

To the dismay of college students across the state, the Food and Drug Administration at the end of last month restricted the sale of the popular alcohol-infused energy drink, Four Loko, after a series of high-profile hospitalizations involving its consumption by students.

A pair of safety alerts concerning a possible armed individual on campus roiled the Tufts community last week.

The individual in question turned out to be holding a ratchet-wrench rather than a handgun. The incident, though a false alarm, sparked a poster campaign regarding what students perceived to be racist undertones prompting the incident.

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Policy changes A revised university alcohol policy featuring more administrative discretion and offering a forgiveness option was finalized over the summer and implemented at the beginning of the semester, following a year of deliberations about how the university should combat alcohol abuse on campus.

Dining Services implemented its plan to remove trays from both Carmichael and DewickMacPhie Dining Halls following an initiative organized by members of an Experimental

College class. A 13-day trial of the “trayless” approach in May yielded significant reductions in the amount of food wasted, energy consumed and water used.

Administrators, senators and the student group Students Active For Ending Rape (SAFER) collaborated to this semester bring into effect a new judicial process and a more comprehensive university policy for dealing with cases of sexual assault.

In response to complaints from local residents about

high noise levels at off-campus houses, the university increased from $200 to $300 the fine imposed on students for throwing overly loud or rowdy off-campus parties.

The Office of Residential Life and Learning decided to impose a $100 winter housing fee for students remaining on campus over the 10-day period after the end of finals.

Some international students voiced objections to what they saw as a late notice and a lack of student input in the decision.

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Senate talks diversity, distributes money The Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate oversaw continued discussions of diversity issues on campus and the disbursement of large sums of money.

Students in the spring voted on two proposed sets of reforms to the Senate’s community representative system.

A complication stemming from Elections Commissions bylaws which only allowed students to vote yes, no or abstain on each proposal rather than participate in a head-to-head vote, resulted in the passage of both referenda, which were impossible to implement simultaneously.

In a revote conducted in September, Referendum 3 beat out its competitor by a single vote, passing 516 votes to 515.

A special committee tasked with creating the bylaws needed to implement Referendum 3 assembled

shortly after the vote. Senior and TCU Parliamentarian Dan Pasternack, who chairs the committee, told the Daily last month he expects the bylaws to be finalized before the Senate elections in April.

The Senate last month passed a resolution supporting the creation of an Africana studies department and revamping the Africa in the New World Interdisciplinary Minor into an Africana studies major.

The body in mid-November voted to allocate $200,000 in surplus funds to seven student groups. These groups will undertake large-scale initiatives designed to improve student life, including a bikeshare program, improvements to the Crafts Center and Media Advocacy Board Lab, and new vans for the Tufts Mountain Club, Leonard Carmichael Society and Tier II club sports.

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

THE TUFTS DAILY

10

THE TUFTS DAILY 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 Ben Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch Rachel Oldfield Bhushan Deshpande Larissa Gibbs Dave Kellog Kevin Luo Jeremy Ravinsky Daniel Stock Elaine Sun Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Craig Frucht Rebekah Liebermann Ashish Malhotra Josh Molofsky Michael Restiano Alexandra Siegel

Executive Op-Ed Editor Assistant Op-Ed Editors

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

Consistency needed in sexual assault statutes Although Tufts administrators and students have worked hard to create a revised sexual assault policy and adjudication process that better addresses the needs of the community, certain aspects of the new policy possibly conflict with federal statutes. Sexual assault is shockingly prevalent on college campuses and, unfortunately, Tufts is no exception. It is therefore vital that the university takes steps to protect victims and appropriately discipline perpetrators.

That being said, the possible failure of the university to fully adhere to federal regulations regarding reporting of crime statistics does not mean that it considers sexual assault a trivial matter. Instead, this discrepancy may be more indicative of the nuanced and at times conflicting nature of the federal laws themselves.

The fact that faculty, administrators and students are able to adjudicate cases of sexual assault is itself controversial. It is one thing for university police to have an on-campus drug and alcohol policy that operates outside of federal law, but sexual assault is a far more serious crime.

The fact that universities deal with these would-be felonies outside of the court system raises important questions about how to appropriately protect victims and punish perpetrators.

Internal university proceedings for sexual assault cases are grounded in two federal statutes: Title IX and the Clery Act. Although Title IX is generally known for its stipulations about the equal funding of female and male sports teams, its provisions against gender discrimination also address sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape. The Clery Act is enforced by the Department of Education and requires all colleges and universities that participate in federal financial aid programs to keep and disclose information about crime on and near their respective campuses. Both of these laws require universities to ensure victims certain rights and respond to claims of sexual assault on their campuses.

As Tufts works to comply with Title IX and the Clery Act, the university is also required follow the provisions of

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects the privacy of student’s education records.

FERPA, however, does not clearly define what constitutes an “education record,” and many college administrators have argued that it requires closed disciplinary proceedings for sexual assault and other alleged infractions. Though FERPA is designed to protect student privacy, in the context of sexual assault proceedings, it seems to conflict with legislation designed to protect victims.

In light of this complex legislation, Tufts faces an uphill battle as it works to formulate a sexual assault policy that fully complies with federal regulations.

Sexual assault is a serious problem on college campuses, and it is important to resolve potential conflicts in federal legislation in order to assist universities in creating better policies. In the meantime, Tufts should continue to take steps to provide support and protection to victims of sexual assault while working to appropriately discipline perpetrators.

NATE BEELER

Cartoonists

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 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 Andrew Paseltiner Melissa Roberts Elisha Sum Darcy Mann Executive Online Editor Audrey Kuan Online Editors Ann Sloan Emily Denton Assistant Online Editors William Wong Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager Michael Vastola Technical Manager

BUSINESS Benjamin Hubbell-Engler Executive Business Director

EDITORIAL

Truly global World Cups “We go to new lands,” FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Thursday after announcing that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup. Qatar, originally thought to be a long shot to get the Cup, outbid Australia, Japan and the United States for the right to be host. FIFA, the world’s soccer governing body, announced that Russia would receive the 2018 Cup; the country beat out Spain/Portugal, Belgium/Netherlands and England.

Qatar was a surprising selection, considering the number of concerns expressed about its candidacy prior to the voting. It was initially criticized for its size — it is approximately the size of Connecticut. Because the World Cup will take place in the summer, FIFA officials were also concerned about the extreme temperatures.

Qatar has answered these critics throughout the bidding process. It cited its national wealth, guaranteeing stateof-the-art air-conditioned stadiums, at least one of which is an “island stadium” accessible by water taxi. The committee also downplayed the importance of the country’s size — it preferred to look at it as a way of fostering a more intimate

World Cup community. Qatar expects the time and cost of team transportation to be much lower than that for the average World Cup because of its massive planned investment.

There are many reasons to applaud FIFA for its choice. Expanding the world of FIFA to the Middle East demonstrates its commitment to inclusivity — it brings the world’s largest single-sport event to a population that is not only fanatical about soccer, but that has historically been on the fringe of the world game.

Furthermore, members of the Qatari lobby cited the ability the World Cup has to have a transformative impact on the region. Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani said that he hoped hosting the World Cup would not only unify the Arab world, but also facilitate a positive dialogue with Western nations during the tournament. Already Qatar has promised to allow the Israeli national team to enter the country were it to qualify.

Unfortunately, both Russia and Qatar’s selection comes amid allegations of corruption. There has been widespread speculation that Qatar

influenced voters through bribery, specifically the Argentine vote. Argentine Football Association President Julio Grondona has denied these reports of Qatar sending $78.4 million to his association. While these reports are merely speculation, there is still a great deal of antipathy toward the selection of Qatar from those countries whose bids were denied.

Selecting England and the United States for the 2018 and 2022 Cups would have been the conservative choice. They are large, guaranteed markets with established infrastructures capable of successfully hosting an event as large as the World Cup. The selection of Russia and Qatar is certainly a risk, but a calculated one on the part of FIFA. Both countries possess the necessary financial resources and are emerging markets.

Although the World Cup is still 12 years away from coming to Qatar, the excitement in the Arab world is palpable. The Qatar World Cup may not be the financial boon it would have been in the United States or Australia, but it has unique promise and is a step in the right direction.

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

Correction The men’s soccer photo in yesterday’s “Captured” was not from this semester; it was, in fact, from a year ago. Additionally, the credit accompanying the photo incorrectly identified the photographer as Alex Dennet; the photo was, in fact, taken by Andrew Morgenthaler.

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.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

11

OP-ED

The shape of things: New START and partisan politics in foreign policy BY

AARON ZUCKER

The balance of national politics has only grown more uncertain since the Republicans retook the House of Representatives last month, and it has become evident that every item on President Barack Obama’s agenda will prove to be a strenuous battle of its own. However, this is rarely expected in foreign policy, where politics is said to end at the water’s edge. For that reason, the White House had eagerly anticipated that one of the President’s greatest achievements, the arms reduction treaty known as the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), would finally earn the necessary support from the U.S. Senate this year.

After the president and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the treaty in Prague in April, Obama had hoped that this START treaty, like those that came before it, could be readily accepted by both parties, even bitter enemies in the opposition. And yet, after months of negotiations and deals between the White House and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), the GOP’s point man on START, the senator surprised everyone and announced after the midterm elections that the treaty was unlikely to receive his support.

As Congress debates major issues like energy reform or deficit reduction, there remain serious drawbacks and uncertainties that should make any lawmaker hesitate to push too hard to one side. But that is not the case here.

New START now has the overwhelming support of the U.S. military, allied governments in Western and Eastern Europe, and even former Reagan and Bush senior administration officials, including Colin Powell, James Baker and George Shultz. Few issues are as cut and dry as this one, and therefore, what is occurring today is

not a national security debate, but instead a most blatant game of partisan duplicity.

The White House is frustrated for good reason. They have spent months using every resource possible to prove the treaty’s worth. Unlike the START treaties that came before it, which were ratified quickly and nearly unanimously, New START carefully made its way through the Senate hearing process this summer. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee diligently questioned endless bipartisan commissions and panels of military and foreign policy experts who responded to concerns about missile defense and treaty verification thoroughly and effectively.

Any legitimate doubt had long been removed by their testimony, which is why in September, the Committee voted 14-4 in support of the treaty. It earned the votes of Republican Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), hardly moderates in the Republican caucus.

The treaty has been embraced for many significant reasons.

It requests a modest decrease in the American and Russian nuclear arsenals, which is insufficient to shift the status quo of deterrence but still acts as a powerful symbolic move toward securing the weapons from theft and terrorism and toward a faraway future safe from nuclear annihilation.

Perhaps most importantly, the treaty would return weapons inspectors to nuclear sites after an entire year of their absence following the expiration of the first START treaty. Critics have claimed that this treaty lacks the verification methods necessary for proper implementation, but this accusation lacks credibility for two reasons. Firstly, this concern is easily debunked as field experts confidently

affirmed the strength of the treaty on these fronts in their testimonies. Secondly, without this treaty, we have no verification capabilities at all. We would lack any assured means to protect nuclear materials scattered across the Russian Federation, and we would be forced to focus all of our technical means on Russian facilities instead of where they belong: concentrated on real risks like North Korea or Iran.

This fundamental truth lies at the heart of the differences between START’s countless supporters and its few, confused opponents harboring a Cold War unwillingness to accept Russia as a partner in any form. It is unsurprising that when discussing START, Republican opponents like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) don’t even notice when they warn against “missiles fired by the Soviet Union.” Clearly, they would acknowledge this wording as a slip of the tongue, that they are well aware of the fall of the Soviet Union nearly two decades ago. But it is more evident that they have failed to absorb the vast changes in global politics since that time.

They have ignorantly left their heads stuck in the sands of the Cold War — in a simplified narrative of evil empires — instead of acknowledging the good that can be achieved from cooperation. President Obama has made real progress over the past year in negotiating Russian opposition to Iranian nuclear ambitions, but these Republicans are more content to talk tough than to back rhetoric with action. As a result, they will see their Cold War dreams realized as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has suggested that if START fails to be ratified, Russia will be forced to build its nuclear stockpile.

The White House has negotiated with Senate Republicans beyond all reasonable expecta-

OLIVER PORTER/TUFTS DAILY

tion. Kyl demanded a massive overhaul of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and President Obama delivered with an unprecedented reach into next year’s budget, assuring him nearly $85 billion for weapons modernization. He has also indicated that his support for the treaty would depend on Democrat support for an extension of the Bush tax cuts, effectively tying vital national security priorities with unrelated and controversial political goals. Ultimately, he has requested months of time to deliberate on questions that have long been answered, delaying a final vote from the summer until September, then from September until the “lame duck session” and now until the new Senate can be seated in January, when the Democrats will have fewer assured votes.

Lugar, the ranking member and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has called Kyl’s bluff, saying last month that “every senator has an obligation in the national security interest to take a stand, to do

his or her duty. Maybe people would prefer not to do his or her duty right now. Sometimes when you prefer not to vote, you attempt to find reasons not to vote.” He called on his colleagues to stand up and be counted, to support the treaty as they should, or at least admit that they do not, instead of the illusion that they need more time to deliberate.

The White House has promised a vote before Christmas, although the outcome is far from certain. If Senate Republicans do vote against ratification, it will be a clear sign of the sort of politics that will infect our national security in the 112th Congress.

If New START does indeed die in the Senate, the best thing that we the people can do is notice, call them on it and not forget. There are too many real debates to be had; we cannot afford to invent an imaginary one.

Aaron Zucker is a senior majoring in International Relations.

Bhopal: 26 years of injustice

BY SHAYAN

PURKAYASTHA

For many of the survivors of the dark early morning hours of Dec. 3, 1984, in Bhopal, dawn has yet to break 26 years later. Bhopal, a city in central India once famous for its lakes and old mosques, has since become infamous for being the site of the world’s worst industrial disaster.

The cloud of poisonous gas that leaked from a pesticide plant owned by the chemical giant Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) still looms largely over the city. The 40 tons of methyl isocynate that overnight would cause the deaths of over 3,000 people still lives in Bhopal as poison in the water that the city residents drink and in the air that they breathe. An estimated 17,000 more people have since died from the aftereffects, and scores die each month from the exposure to the waste from the factory’s site that even after 26 years has not been cleaned up.

In a way, the toxic waste in Bhopal is symbolic of the “vision” that Lawrence Summers outlined in his infamous memo in 1991 as the chief economist at the World Bank. Summers claimed responsibility for the memo, stating: “Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the less developed countries?” Summers suggested that “the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable, and we should face up to that.” He would later say that he was being sarcastic. Few buy this.

So, the question arises: Who should clean up Bhopal? Successive govern-

ments, UCC and its current owner The Dow Chemical Company have shrugged off responsibility for the cleanup as well as the compensation and rehabilitation.

Investigations into the leak led to the conclusion that it happened due to the intentional negligence of safety at the plant by UCC, which had used low-quality construction materials, compromised on vital safety measures and adopted hazardous operating procedures. As such, the residents of Bhopal did not realize what was coming until they woke up choking on the black gas that had filled their house, many of them dying in their sleep.

Shortly after the disaster, UCC abandoned its factory, leaving hundreds of tons of toxic waste on the site. After a long litigation battle between the government of India and UCC, a settlement was reached in 1989 under which UCC paid approximately $550 to each victim. That amount was to pay for a lifetime’s worth of treatment costs for each individual, even for those who were chronically ill and needed surgeries and expensive medication. The settlement brought despair to the people of Bhopal who continued their struggle for justice.

In 2001, Dow Chemical bought UCC for $11.6 billion. It immediately distanced itself from the Bhopal disaster. Dow’s argument was that since the disaster happened before it took over UCC, it wasn’t its problem. Not only did Dow shrug off its moral responsibility to the case as the new owner, it also chose to ignore one of the basic principles of mergers and acquisitions: When

you take over a company’s assets, you also take over its liabilities.

More than anything, Bhopal was UCC’s debt, a debt that it had failed to pay. In a press conference in 2002, when asked about Dow’s responsibility to Bhopal, a spokesperson remarked that the $500 paid

by UCC in 1989 to each victim “is plenty good for an Indian.” Dow would later pay the family of Joshua Herb, a child in the United States who became braininjured after being exposed to its pesticide Dursban, $10 million in an out-of-court settlement. The double standard is quite evident.

Financial liabilities aside, the culprits responsible for the negligence that led to the disaster, including Warren Anderson, the CEO of UCC during the gas disaster, have gotten away scot-free. Anderson is now reported to be living in the Hamptons despite the international warrant against him for culpable homicide. Earlier this year, an Indian court convicted some of the guilty to a two-year prison term while letting others go. This unjust verdict brought the issue back to the limelight. Following public outcry, the government was forced to increase its compensation to the affected as well as promise to take up the issue of Dow’s liability. The noise didn’t go down well in Washington. To a question about the Bhopal issue, a White House spokesperson remarked, “Bhopal is a closed chapter.”

Unfortunately, even after almost nine years since it took over UCC and despite all the appeals and protests, Dow Chemical refuses to accept its responsibility to clean

up Bhopal, let alone pay the appropriate compensation. So, what now? How do we as students come into the picture?

Unfortunately, academia is one of the best ways to create a good reputation. In a recent article in Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors, the vice president for research of University of South Alabama talks about how, post-oil spill, BP approached his university with a huge research proposal that would bring in a lot of grant funding to the university. What ensued was a total catastrophe — the research proposal was actually a sly attempt by BP to engage professors in unethical research that would help BP escape liabilities from disasters like the Gulf oil spill.

This is a lesson for all of us in academia, including students. From research grants to student competitions for sustainability, companies like these operate in their own interests. And it is up to us as their prospective researchers and employees to distinguish between right and wrong.

As students, we are also empowered to raise our voices for justice, like justice for the people of Bhopal. And that’s exactly what a group of students from Tufts, part of the Association for India’s Development, did on Friday, Dec. 3. Joining hands with the Boston Coalition for Justice in Bhopal, they raised the slogan “Justice for Bhopal is Justice for All.” Shayan Purkayastha is a junior majoring in computer science engineering.

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 noon 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 CROSSWORD

COMICS

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

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Sports

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MEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING

Tufts notches third-place finish at MIT Invitational BY

AARON LEIBOWITZ Senior Staff Writer

Continuing its strong start to the season, the men’s swimming and diving team this weekend placed third out of six MEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING MIT Invitational at Cambridge,Mass., Fri-Sat 1. MIT 2. NYU 3. Tufts 4. Wheaton (Mass.)

5. Bowdoin 6. Colby

1,424 778.5 736.66 368.16 309.66 108

teams at the MIT Invitational, losing only to Div. III powerhouses MIT and NYU. MIT won the invitational for the fourth straight year with a total of 1,424 points, and NYU edged out Tufts for second place by a mere 42 points with a total of 778.5. Just like last year, MIT won 17 out of 20 races. Much like other tournaments this season, however, the depth of the Tufts squad helped it amass points with numerous top-10 finishes.

All things considered, it was an excellent showing for the Jumbos.

“We always know going into a meet like this that we’re facing pretty stiff competition in MIT and NYU,” senior quad-captain Joe Lessard said. “Since they’re not in the NESCAC, they start training roughly a month before we do. For them, [the invitational] is more of a championship-style meet, so they tend to be well-rested and they wear technical suits, which gives them a major advantage.”

“Everyone swam pretty well, and a lot of people got season’s best times,” senior quad-captain Gordy Jenkins

said. “We kept fighting until the very end, which was very impressive. I was very proud to be a part of this team.”

Several Tufts swimmers performed well in individual events. Junior EJ Testa came in third in the 100-yard backstroke and fourth in the 100-yard butterfly. Jenkins and junior Owen Rood finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle, and freshman Andrew Berman placed fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke.

Senior Trevor Stack came up big in both diving competitions, placing second in the 3-meter and third in the 1-meter event.

Also, in an impressive display of stamina and determination, Lessard finished third out of 19 swimmers in the 1,650-yard freestyle.

“It’s really a mind game when you’re swimming a distance event,” he said.

“You’re thinking about every single lap in terms of what you need to do to win or to pass someone, because you’re trying to plan out the whole race from the get-go. Like in chess, where you have to think two moves ahead, in distance racing you have to think, ‘Where will I be in 200 yards, and where will the competition be in 200 yards?’”

The Jumbos’ relay teams swam some very strong races as well. Jenkins, Rood and seniors David Meyer and Andrew Altman placed third in the 200-yard freestyle relay and then came in second in the 400-yard freestyle relay, the final race of the meet. Jenkins and Rood also teamed up with Testa and senior quad-captain Michael Del Moro for a third-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. Del Moro is also a news editor for the Daily.

“We had a lot of really standout swims see MEN’S SWIMMING, page 15

Men’s and women’s basketball squads see mixed results in last night’s contests

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Despite one of the most impressive alley-oop dunks in the men’s basketball team’s history from junior Alex Orchowski, above, the Jumbos fell to Plymouth State 87-81 in Cousens Gym. Meanwhile, the women’s team was off at Emerson lighting up the Lions to the tune of a 72-46 victory.

INSIDE THE NBA

Enraged Cavaliers fans bring the noise against LeBron BY

ALEX LACH

Daily Editorial Board

Last Thursday night marked the most anticipated return since, well, maybe ever. A player that had spent his entire career playing for the Cavaliers finally came back to the city that had loved him since his entrance into the league. Here’s a hint: It’s not a 7-foot-3 bald Lithuanian.

In case you haven’t heard, LeBron James traveled to Cleveland for the first time

since he left the team, city and state for the greener and sunnier pastures of Miami. In the lead-up to the game, the angry Cavaliers fans lived up to the hype. Quicken Loans Arena was full of an energy unique to this situation. Hatred united 20,000 of them in one common purpose.

As TNT began its pregame show, the chants and jeers were already bouncing around the stadium. The camera that followed the Heat out of the locker room and onto the court

showed LeBron’s perspective, which was nothing short of horrifying. The crowd, right on top of him, let out perhaps the loudest chorus of boos ever unleashed on a single human being. The camera found shirts in the crowd that read “Quitness”, “The Lyin’ King” and “Queen James.”

Yet King James never seemed fazed by the ambush of vengeance that awaited him the moment he stepped on that court. Those first steps, which were actually more of a skip,

told us everything we needed to know about LeBron’s return to his former home: It wouldn’t rattle his confidence. He put on a display of dunks in the warm-up. He went through an array of handshakes with his new teammates when he was introduced. He did his patented chalk toss before the game.

But in unleashing their barrage of fury, Cavaliers fans found a sliver of silver lining in James’ departure and finally got to let him know how they really felt about his decision.

see NBA, page 15

WOMEN’S SWIMMING AND DIVING

MEN’S LACROSSE

Former Jumbos lacrosse player Holm named Assistant Coach of the Year

Jumbos place ifth at MIT Invite BY

DANIEL RATHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

The Intercollegiate Men’s Lacrosse Coaches Associatoin (IMLCA) on Friday named men’s lacrosse team assistant coach Brett Holm (LA ’07) the 2010 Assistant Coach of the Year.

He received the award alongside head coach Mike Daly (LA ’95), who was honored as the Div. III Coach of the Year, at a special convention in Baltimore.

Holm was a rare dual-sport athlete at Tufts during his athletic career, playing for both the football and men’s lacrosse teams and earning all-conference accolades for both. A current graduate assistant at Tufts, Holm used his talents as a player, as well as his aptitude for coaching, to direct the team’s exceptional defensive unit that

For a moment, they had the sympathy of the country on their side, and maybe even a moral high ground to be proud of. Maybe everything would turn out all right, they thought.

And then the game started.

LeBron had perhaps his most LeBron-esque performance of the season, displaying all the talents that Cleveland fans didn’t want to be reminded of. He knocked down 20-foot jumpers fading away. He launched him-

last year stalled many of the nation’s top offenses en route to a NESCAC Championship and the first-ever NCAA team title in Tufts history.

Gearing up for only his fourth season as an assistant coach, Holm has already earned the respect of his players, colleagues and the rest of the lacrosse world as one of the emerging talents in the coaching vocation.

Holm first jumped on the lacrosse world’s grid with an impressive performance in Drew Innis’s (LA ’04) lacrosse team promo video made in 2007, which features Holm crushing bench press reps of 225 pounds with ease.

—by Philip Dear

While most classmates were busy preparing for finals, members of the women’s swimming and diving team spent most of their weekend at the MIT Invitational competing against six other squads, including Div. I Harvard. Tufts placed fifth overall — a successful result, considering that the Jumbos were neither as prepared nor as rested as many of their opponents.

“Our times weren’t the greatest this weekend,” sophomore K.J. Kroetch said. “We definitely showed up to swim and did the best we could given the circumstances, but the stresses of school and being tired caught up to us a little.”

In addition to fatigue, the Jumbos also had significantly less practice time leading up to the event than some of their com-

petitors, who have been training as a team since the beginning of the semester. Such programs use the MIT Invitational to evaluate their swimmers for NCAA Nationals, whereas the Jumbos view it as an opportunity to showcase their skills against some of the best teams in the Northeast.

As has been the case throughout the fall semester portion of the team’s season, freshmen provided some of the Jumbos’ best performances. Mia Greenwald excelled in her two butterfly events, finishing fourth in both the 100- and 200-yard races, with times of 1:00.22 and 2:14.47, respectively. Sami Bloom was Tufts’ most successful diver, placing third off the 1-meter board with a score of 221.80. She added a fourth-place effort off the 3-meter board that was scored at 245.95. see WOMEN’S SWIMMING, page 14

THE TUFTS DAILY

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INSIDE THE WESTERN CONFERENCE

Depth of talent runs through Western Conference Westbrook, Durant leading upstart Thunder, while Nuggets investigate ’Melo trade deals BY

PAUL MCBRIDE

Contributing Writer

Could this be one of the best collections of NBA Western Conference teams in years? If the early portion of the 2010-11 season is any indication, it is hardly out of the realm of possibility.

Seven teams are within four games of each other, making this one of the most top-heavy conferences in recent memory. These seven teams all have above a .600 winning percentage with the exception of one — the Phoenix Suns — who were 11-9 as of yesterday.

The rest of the conference is a virtual who’s who of cellar-dwellers that includes the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and, most surprisingly, the Portland Trail Blazers, a team that is once again plagued by injuries. After the Los Angeles Lakers’ four-game losing streak, the Western Conference playoff matchups are certain to be highly competitive, hopefully providing fans with a June to remember.

With entertaining teams come entertaining players, and this season is no exception. The West has some of the more exciting talents in the conference known for their high-scoring, fastpaced games.

Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook is taking some of the spotlight away from team star Kevin Durant. Westbrook has been making a strong argument for being both the Most Improved Player in the league and the MVP. The third-year guard is posting career-best stats in minutes per game, shooting and free-throw percentage while boasting 23.7 points per game and has led the Thunder to a 14-8 start.

Westbrook takes advantage of the open looks that Durant’s presence on the court allows because of the heavy pressure on defense that opposition puts on the NBA’s reigning scoring champi-

MCT

Chris Paul, right, has helped the New Orleans Hornets start out the season with a 13-7 record despite financial troubles plaguing the franchise. on. Westbrook and Durant are building upon the successes of last year while also playing some of the most exciting ball in the league.

In other Western Conference news, rumors of Carmelo Anthony’s departure from the Denver Nuggets continue to bubble, but nothing has come to fruition. There are still rumblings that the Nuggets may resurrect the trade that

had previously been discussed between Denver and the New Jersey Nets, a deal that would send Derrick Favors and future draft picks to Denver for Carmelo.

The Nuggets are still not ecstatic about the idea of losing one of the best pure scorers in the game in Anthony.

If the team faces problems when the trade deadline approaches, Denver will

likely dump Anthony to avoid a LeBron James-like situation in the ensuing offseason. Other rumors surrounding the Nuggets have included the possibility of trading hometown hero Chauncey Billups, though the Nuggets have denied such rumors all season. Rumors regarding the New York Knicks continue with speculation about Chris Paul’s future in the wake of the ownership issues of the New Orleans Hornets.

The Knicks continue to dream about creating another super trio in the East to combat the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. But, like speculation about Anthony leaving Denver, little has happened thus far. Paul seems happy with the 13-7 Hornets, especially given that New Orleans made a conscious effort to supplement its star with key role players like Trevor Ariza.

Trade rumors have simmered for a while, but fans should anticipate hearing more from the rumor mill once December comes to a close.

In league news, the NBA took control of the New Orleans Hornets, becoming the first NBA-owned team in league history. The NBA purchased the squad to ensure that the team remains attractive to any potential buyers. Commissioner David Stern looks to keep the squad in New Orleans, though there is the possibility of the team moving to another city due to its dwindling home attendance despite being one of the top teams of the West this season.

If the team moves cities, it will only add to its legacy of having a difficult time finding a home in recent years. The Hornets were first moved from Charlotte to New Orleans in the 2002-03 season and had to relocate in the 2005-06 season due to the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans hosted the 2009 NBA All-Star Game, which showcased how the city had overcome the effects of the hurricane. However, the team may soon have to move just to survive the recent economic troubles affecting the entire country.

Tufts holds its own against local powerhouses Harvard and MIT WOMEN’S SWIMMING continued from page 13

Although the Jumbos struggled to keep up in short-distance sprint events throughout the meet, they WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING MIT Invitational at Cambridge,Mass., Fri-Sat 1. MIT 2. Harvard 3. NYU 4. Wheaton (Mass.)

5. Tufts 6. Bowdoin 7. Colby

1,045 772 663.83 508 429.83 220.33 154

were up to the challenge in many of the relays. Three first-years — Jen Konick, Jenny Hu and Taylor Lentz — joined Greenwald in the 200-yard medley relay. The allfreshman team delivered a fifthplace finish in 1:52.62.

Tufts had two other top-five relay results, including the 400-yard medley and the 800-yard freestyle.

Konick, Hu and Greenwald swam with junior Courtney Adams in the 400-yard event, coming in fifth at 4:07.78. Adams was also a part of

the 800-yard freestyle team, along with sophomore Christine Garvey, junior Valerie Eacret and senior tricaptain Megan Kono, touching the wall in fifth at 8:10.22.

Garvey also added the best individual medley finish for the Jumbos, placing seventh in the 400-yard event at 4:52.15.

Senior Maureen O’Neill, who will graduate at the end of this semester, was competing for the last time in her Tufts career.

O’Neill earned a 14th-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle and was a part of both the Jumbos’ seventhplace 200-yard freestyle relay and eighth-place 400-yard medley relay teams.

Joining O’Neill in the 200-yard freestyle relay were Hu, Adams and junior Saheela Mehrotra, who swam the fastest leg of the relay. Mehrotra raced in eight total events and gave the Jumbos a strong boost in multiple relays, including the 200-yard freestyle, 400-yard freestyle, 800-yard freestyle, 200-yard medley and 400yard medley.

O’Neill is extremely impressed with the team and looks back

fondly upon her four years of swimming for Tufts.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better team,” O’Neill said. “Swimming for Tufts has really made me a better person, and it’s very tough and very emotional for me to leave the team. But I’m definitely going to be there during the spring, cheering on the girls, and I’m looking forward to that.”

The Jumbos will now get a full month to rest and practice before joining Wesleyan for a three-team NESCAC meet at Williams on Jan. 15. With a 1-2 record in conference dual-meets so far, Tufts will look to improve its times during next month’s annual training trip to Florida.

“Most of the team is going on our training trip, and that’s a great time for us to practice in a non-competitive environment,” Kroetch said. “We’re going to practice a lot of different things and get faster as a team to get ready for the spring semester.”

The Jumbos’ only remaining home meet of the 2010-11 season will come on Jan. 29 against Wheaton.

DAILY FILE PHOTO

In addition to swimming the 100-yard backstroke, junior Saheela Mehrotra, above swimming last fall, participated in seven events, including five relays.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

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SPORTS

LeBron dominates former team in return to Cleveland

ETHAN FRIGON | THE BEARD ABIDES

Whither Cam’s Heisman?

NBA continued from page 13

self into passing lanes in the blink of an eye. He finished fast breaks with his unique combination of power, speed and body control. And worst of all for Cleveland fans, he was doing it all with a smile.

To top it off, the return of LeBron in a Miami Heat uniform finally forced the loyal Cavaliers fans to come to terms with what’s left of their team.

Feeding off the crowd’s energy, Cleveland matched Miami’s talents with incredible effort and hustle and even held the lead for some of the first quarter. But the Heat fired away, opening up a 19-point lead at the half.

Midway through the third quarter, as the Miami lead extended to 80-50, reality finally set in for Cavaliers fans: LeBron had come back to their home, taken what little remained of their souls and dunked all over it. There was nothing Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao or Daniel Gibson could do to stop the onslaught.

James finished the night with 38 points, five rebounds and eight assists. He only played 30 minutes, and watched the final quarter of the 118-90 Miami victory from the bench.

He certainly noticed the crowd’s reaction, but it never took him off his game.

One particular play typified the entire night: James took the ball on the right elbow, dribbled toward the baseline, met a double-team, dribbled out towards the sideline and took a fall-away jumper that arched over the extended hands of two Cavaliers defenders, went above the corner of the backboard and landed perfectly into the net. It was his night. As much as Cleveland fans booed, yelled, hollered and jeered, there was nothing they could do to stop him.

B

MCT

In LeBron James’s reinterpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tale, the King returned to his throne after a shellacking of the Cavaliers. But he isn’t happy about not having the ring.

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Junior Owen Rood, above swimming last fall, was part of a team that finished third and second in the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays, respectively, as Tufts took on schools like NYU and Harvard at the MIT Invitational, finishing third.

Jumbos will head to Florida during winter break for training MEN’S SWIMMING continued from page 13

from everyone on the team, whether it was people stepping up and swimming an event they’ve never swam before, or people coming together on a relay and putting up solid times to give MIT and NYU a run for their money,” Lessard said.

Even though everyone was exhausted by the start of the Saturday night session, the Jumbos soldiered on.

“It was obvious on the pool deck before that third session started that there was this sort of comatose attitude,” Lessard said. “No one was really

getting into the warm-up, and everyone just looked tired. But I think our team as a whole really stepped up and got ready for their own races and also got behind each other and motivated each other to perform at the level we needed.”

“When you’re doing an individual sport like swimming, it’s so easy to get all your thoughts internalized and self-centered,” Jenkins said. “But with a team like ours, it really is a team sport. They’re swimming for me, and I’m swimming for them. … We were the ones who were behind every lane cheering for our swimmers, and we were the loudest ones there.”

The Jumbos, who won three dual meets prior to the invitational, return to action on Jan. 15 in a tri-meet at Williams with Wesleyan. With a busy, challenging few months ahead, the team will take their talents to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. during winter break for two weeks of grueling training.

“We focus all on swimming,” Jenkins said. “It’s the only time we don’t have school, so we’ll be swimming four hours a day. It’s going to be extremely physically intense, but it’s also a time when we grow mentally, because we have to suffer through all that together.”

ased solely on on-field exploits, Auburn quarterback Cam Newton should clearly win this year’s Heisman Trophy. There hasn’t been this clear-cut of a Heisman frontrunner for as long as I can remember. Sure, Tim Tebow was great in 2007, putting up very similar numbers to Newton this year with more touchdowns and passing yards and fewer rushing yards. A bad defense hamstrung Tebow’s Florida Gators to the tune of a 9-4 season, and Heisman winners almost never play for 9-4 teams — even those with a mediocre defense. Auburn’s defense has been unable to stop Newton from leading them to a 13-0 season and a spot in the BCS National Championship.

For another comparison, Reggie Bush in 2005 — his trophy since returned — who won with the second-most points and first-place votes ever, turned in a much less impressive season than Newton this year. Bush was impressive, sure, but look at how stacked USC’s offense was that season. Heck, Vince Young should have won the 2005 Heisman, but I digress.

As far as competitors this year, only Oregon running back LaMichael James truly has a solid case. But even he has a very good quarterback in Darron Thomas; meanwhile, Newton is basically the extent of Auburn’s offense, and given the state of the Tigers’ defense, the extent of the whole team. Point is, what Cam’s done on the gridiron has more than earned him this year’s highest college football honor.

But look at the pesky little prepositional phrase at the end of the Heisman’s mission statement: “The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity.” “With integrity” is not the way any unbiased observer would describe the Cam Newton saga.

As I mentioned in an earlier column, in the past two years, Newton has left Florida under suspicion of academic fraud, transferred to a junior college and transferred again to Auburn, with allegations that his father tried to secure upwards of $100,000 in return for his college commitment.

Actually, scratch that, his father admitted that he sought to sell Cam’s college commitment. And yet, the NCAA has, for the time being, ruled that Newton is eligible, claiming that because he had no knowledge of this arrangement, he had done nothing wrong. Not only is this claim dubious, the NCAA has even ruled players ineligible in similar cases (see exhibit Damon Stoudamire in 1995).

What happens at the NCAA level seems pretty obvious. Two years from now, it’ll find Newton ineligible and void all of Auburn’s wins from this season. Except at that point, no one will care anymore. In the meantime, the nation’s most dynamic player retains his eligibility, and the NCAA gets a compelling championship game. Without Newton, Auburn would almost definitely have lost one of its last two games, and the NCAA would have gotten an Oregon-Texas Christian national championship game that would have garnered maybe half the television ratings that the actual Oregon-Auburn matchup will.

So what do Heisman voters make of all of this? Honestly, either side is perfectly defensible. Newton supporters can claim that despite his problems, the NCAA has ruled that he is eligible. Plus, his on-field performance is so clearly ahead of the pack, it seems silly to vote for anyone else.

Newton detractors can claim that even if he is currently eligible, he clearly has not gone about his college football career “with integrity.” Also, it looks bad for the Heisman Trust to have to potentially rescind two of its trophies in a six-year span. After Bush, the same thing would likely happen if Newton was ruled ineligible in the future. Personally, I would grudgingly cast my first-place vote for Newton and give my second-place vote to the NCAA reinstatement committee that let Newton — for the time being — maintain his eligibility.

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

Frigon@tufts.edu.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010