2011-10-04

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THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 18

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Tufts formalizes music engineering minor

by Stephanie Straus

Contributing Writer

Tufts Department of Music last semester began offering a music engineering minor — an interdisciplinary program for students interested in both music and engineering — prompted by increased student demand.

The minor in music engineering, co-directed by Paul Lehrman, a lecturer in the music department, and Professor of Mechanical Engineering Chris Rogers, was initiated in February of this year and graduated five students this past May, according to Lehrman.

Eight students are pursuing the minor this year.

Although all of the courses that make up the minor had already been established, Lehrman and Rogers compiled these music and engineering classes into one program in response to student and personal interest.

The program grew out of an existing

minor in musical instrument engineering, which focused on acoustic instrument design. To this, two new areas of focus were added to create the new program.

Students minoring in music engineering can now choose to pursue one of three tracks: acoustic instrument design, which is overseen by Rogers, electronic instrument design or sound recording and production, both overseen by Lehrman.

The minor consists of five courses, three of them spanning the overlap between music and engineering, and the other two concentrating on the student’s track of choice.

To complete the minor, students must also do a final project or honors thesis.

Open to all students in the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences, the minor hopes to attract a variety of majors from see MUSIC, page 3

Daily File Photo

Cardibo.com, which currently allows visitors to track the usage of treadmills in Cousens Gym, will eventually monitor bike and elliptical machines.

Uphill central heating plant Cardibo allows gym-goers to switches to natural gas track exercise equipment use by

Michelle Stevens

by Sharon

Contributing Writer

The Department of Facilities Services is currently working on converting the main fuel source for the Medford/Somerville campus to natural gas in an effort to reduce the university’s carbon emissions.

The university will switch its energy source from number six fuel oil, otherwise known as bunker C or residual fuel oil, to natural gas, considered a cleanerburning fuel.

Construction to accommodate the switch is on track to be completed by the end of October, according to Director of Facilities Technical Services and Tufts Energy Manager Betsy Isenstein.

Changes involve infrastructural improvements and the installation of additional equipment to support the volume of natural gas being used and allow for the burning of gas at the uphill central heating plant located between Dowling and East Halls.

The uphill central heating plant serves much of the main campus, Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds said. All buildings serviced by the plant will now be heated by natural gas.

After modifications, the plant will have two sources of fuel: natural gas and oil number 2, otherwise known as heating oil, which will be used as backup in case Facilities runs into any difficulties with the natural gas source, according to Reynolds.

National Grid, the company that provides Tufts’ electricity, completed construction on Sept. 28 to replace a portion of the gas main on Boston Avenue, enabling it to contain natural gas. A gas service from the main on Boston Avenue up to the plant will be implemented in the next week or so, Isenstein said.

Recent drops in prices for natural gas make this project affordable and the choice of fuel makes the decision environmentally sound, Isenstein noted.

Lam

Contributing Writer

Gym-goers trying to pick a good time to make the trek over to the athletic complex can now check the availability of Cousens Gym equipment on a new website, Cardibo. com.

Cardibo, which uses vibration censors embedded in the exercise machines to identify when equipment is in use, went live in the middle of last month, according to co-founders Rameen Aryanpur and Jackson Dolan, both of whom are in their fifth year of a joint master’s and Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering program.

The website features a layout of the gym floor plan, indicating which machines are open and how long unavailable machines have been occupied. The “trends” feature

Oliver Porter/Tufts Daily

Tufts is converting its main fuel source for the Medford/Somerville campus to natural gas.

“It’s not only the cleaner burning fuels as much as far as emissions is concerned, but it’s also a cleaner fuel in the [aforementioned] plant, and plant workers are not having to deal with oil,” Isenstein said. “[Natural gas] makes plant maintenance and operation easier, smoother, cleaner.”

Environmental Studies Program Director Colin Orians raised concerns about the extraction of natural gas.

“While natural gas definitely reduces our carbon footprint, the extraction of natural gas can cause other pollution problems,” Orians told the Daily in an email.

“I think it is important to know where our gas comes from. If it is leading to environmental destruction in, say, Pennsylvania, I would not be too pleased.” see OIL, page 3

Inside this issue

uses historical data to predict how crowded the gym will be at a given time of day.

Sensors embedded in the machine respond to vibrations and transmit the data online, Dolan said. The website currently only displays information about the use of the treadmill machines, but developers are in the process of hooking up the bikes and ellipticals to the monitoring technology.

The idea for the project grew out of a mechanical engineering senior design class that Aryanpur and Dolan took last fall. They realized the project they were working on could satisfy a real student demand.

“A lot of times I’d go [to the gym] and it would be really crowded,” Aryanpur said.

“I’d have to wait 15 to 20 minutes, which isn’t that big of a deal, but when you have see CARDIBO, page 3

Pathway by cannon closed for renovation The Department of Facilities Services this past weekend closed off the path around the cannon and the back of Goddard Chapel for curb replacement and new planting, according to Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds.

The changes were originally scheduled to take place over the summer as a part of the campus improvement program, but they were pushed back when the necessary construction materials were not available in time, according to Reynolds. He anticipates the path will be reopened by the end of the week.

The updated section of the walkway will feature a granite curb that will create a more uniform appearance with the rest of the path in front of Ballou Hall, Reynolds said. New hedging will replace the plants between the path and the President’s Lawn, he added.

The changes were prompted by comments from visiting parents and alumni about the appearance of the path.

“We discovered that a lot of parents and alumni and parents of people visiting the university have commented that they thought it didn’t look in keeping with the quality of [the university],” he said. “We decided that since that’s a major area as people go from the upper campus [to lower campus], it should be keeping with the quality of the rest of the area.”

While the redone curb will be granite, the path itself will remain asphalt, according to Reynolds.

“The curbs were asphalt, and it just wasn’t attractive,” he said, adding that the vegetation between the walk and the lawn was “pretty scruffy.”

—by Elizabeth McKay

Today’s sections

A look at the Protestant community on the Tufts campus.

“Up All Night” takes to the small screen.

see FEATURES, page 5

see ARTS, page 7

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

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Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

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News

Music Engineering provides new learning opportunities MUSIC

continued from page 1

Cardibo.com

On the website Cardibo.com, users can learn which pieces of exercise equipment are open and how long unavailable machines have been in use.

Cardibo developers consider future plans CARDIBO

continued from page 1

a class in an hour from then it can really mess up your schedule.”

After a brief hiatus during the spring semester, progress on the project restarted this past summer, Aryanpur said.

“We ran data tests, seeing how well the server handles the load and how long the battery life is,” Dolan said.

Two months later, Cardibo passed a twoweek trial period with no complications, Aryanpur said.

Dolan cited services, such as the JoeyTracker and LaundryView, which show students which laundry machines in the dormitories are in use, as their inspirations.

The project was entirely independently funded, Aryanpur said. He noted that the Athletics Department was highly receptive to the new program.

Marten Vandervelde (LA ’08), a temporary employee in the Athletics Department, said the program will benefit those students who prefer to exercise when the gym is unoccupied.

“I wonder what brings people to the gym, and what scares people away, and I wonder if the general business plays an

effect one way or another,” Vandervelde said. “There are people who don’t want to be seen by a soul.”

He predicts that Cardibo will be most useful to casual gym-goers.

“The people who go to the gym are a wide array — the regulars are probably never going to use it,” Vandervelde said.

“The people who are on the fence, and the people who have never been there, maybe that will be it.”

The future of Cardibo, Dolan and Aryanpur said, is contingent on student response.

“We want to do as much for Tufts as we can and we’ll see how it is,” Aryanpur said. “If it’s well-received, expanding it [to other schools and commercial gyms] would be great.”

The founders are considering the launch of a comprehensive predictive system, which would use past data collected to forecast when specific machines will be in use in the future, Dolan said. The program’s accuracy would increase as it collects more statistics.

“Cardibo will tell you how long someone’s on the machine for and how long they will be on for — that’s the utility of it,” Aryanpur said.

throughout the university. Although many mechanical and electrical engineering students participate in the program, Rogers made clear that the minor is not just limited to those musically or mathematically inclined.

“We’ve had all types [of students],” Rogers said. “We’ve had people who’ve never played an instrument before; we’ve had people that are not engineers.”

Steinway & Sons piano company, whose current CEO, Dana Messina (E ’83), is a Tufts alumnus, created a grant to support highly specific research projects, providing funding for materials, tools and consulting resources, Lehrman said.

The grant benefits both music engineering minors and non-minors alike; recipients must only be engaged in projects related to the furthering of music engineering education research, he added.

Two teams of undergraduate students are being funded through the grant for their work to improve pianos, while others are designing new interfaces for instruments, Lehrman

said. Students have also built instruments themselves, ranging from trumpets to Irish bagpipes.

Next semester, the program is hoping to put together an electronic music ensemble course, Lehrman noted, in which students will play music with some electronic instruments of their own creation.

Lehrman believes the creation of this program is a prime example of Tufts’ willingness to respond to the desires of its undergraduates.

“As far as I know, we are the only undergraduate program in the country that does this,” Lehrman said.

“There are programs that teach recording engineering and how to make music, but I don’t know of any other program that brings all of them together, with all of the elements in one place.”

Mical Nobel, a junior minoring in the program and majoring in electrical engineering, said the program is a perfect fit for her.

“I’ve played piano for a really long time and have been interested in music as a listener and player, so it’s a great way to mix both interests,” Nobel said.

Heating plant to burn debatably more environmentally-friendly fuel OIL

continued from page 1

The change in fuel source for the uphill central heating plant was in part prompted by the discovery of issues with the existing tanks during a power outage early last semester.

“We’ve known that we needed to make a switch for a while,” Reynolds said. “We had an outage in February or March and we discovered that we had some leaks in some of the tanks.”

Isenstein does not foresee any problems with the new natural gas source.

“Historically, if you look at the price of gas verses the prices of fuel, gas is considered premium and much more expensive [than oil],” she said. “In the

past couple of years I’d say that that’s flip-flopped, and now gas is much more affordable, so that made [converting] the right thing to do.”

Isenstein added that the change is in keeping with a recent trend on campus to move buildings to natural gas.

“I would say that our trend over the years has been to convert facilities to gas as it became feasible to do, so this is perhaps the largest [conversion],” she said.

“It’s not necessarily a new idea.”

The construction will be completed once a few final parts are delivered, Isenstein noted.

“This is an exciting project for us,” she said. “We’re looking forward to operating under these new conditions.”

Dilys Ong/Tufts Daily

Sophomore Nate Harada, considering minoring in music engineering, works on a project in the multimedia lab in Granoff Music Center.

Police Briefs Revenge isn’t so sweet Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers at 12:50 a.m. on Sept. 25 discovered a car behind 114 Professors Row with all of its windows smashed. The officers found the student who owned the car, but the student was unsure why his car had been vandalized. He believed it may have had to do with a verbal altercation he and some of his friends had with local kids.

“We have no idea who did it, or even if those kids were involved in it,” TUPD Sgt. Robert McCarthy said. The student will have to claim insurance on his car. No further damage was done.

Too cool for fire drills TUPD officers at 7:26 p.m. on Sept. 27 responded to a report that four students did not exit Latin Way as instructed during a fire drill. It is unclear why they did not respond to the practice alarm, and a report will be sent to the Office of Student Affairs.

Going all Jackson Pollock on DTD TUPD officers at 3:45 p.m. on Sept.

28 received a report from a construction worker at 98 Professors Row, the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house. The worker explained that an individual or a group of people had apparently broken into the house the night before and splashed cans of paint on the basement-level floor. The TUPD detective received the report and is investigating the matter. TUPD does not yet know who the vandals are.

Obviously didn’t read the manual TUPD officers at 11:06 a.m. on Sept.

30 responded to a fire alarm in the Hillside Apartments. Upon arrival, they realized the fire alarm had been activated by a broken sprinkler. A resident had hung clothes on the ceiling sprinkler, which then broke and set off the fire alarm. The sprinkler system was only activated in the first-floor apartment, so damage to the building was minimal.

Wear a helmet!

TUPD officers at 12:00 p.m. on Sept.

26 responded to an accident on College Avenue in the front of Cousens Gym. A motor vehicle, driving towards Medford, struck a bicyclist. The fall left the bicyclist scraped and bruised, but he was otherwise unharmed. Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) and Armstrong Ambulance Service responded to the accident, but the student signed a refusal of care. TUPD spoke to the student driving the car as well.

A bad week for pedestrians A motor vehicle at 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 26 struck a pedestrian staff member crossing the Professors Row and Packard Avenue intersection. After the accident, the pedestrian was alert and conscious, but did complain of a headache.

Somerville Police Department (SPD), TEMS, Cataldo Ambulance Service, Inc. and TUPD responded to the scene.

The staff member was transported to Somerville Hospital for further observation. SPD did not issue a citation to the driver of the vehicle.

Seriously, don’t cross the street A motor vehicle at 8:48 a.m. on Sept.

29 struck a pedestrian on the Capen Street and Winthrop Street intersection.

The motor vehicle hit the pedestrian while attempting to take a left-hand turn off Capen onto Winthrop. TUPD, Medford Fire Department, Medford Police Department (MPD), TEMS and Armstrong Ambulance Service responded to the scene. The pedestrian was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital. An MPD officer collected information from the driver of the motor vehicle, but McCarthy was unsure if the officer issued a citation.

— compiled by Brent Yarnell based on reports from TUPD

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OP-ED

Bare feet: just watch what you eat

My Op-Ed NADIA DI MARCO

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

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

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

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

On the table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We are here to get ready for the real world.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And just in case you are someone who

All of my thoughts on the important issues on campus, like Dewick’s panini machines Obama for (vice) president

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

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

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

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

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

ANNIE WERMIEL/TUFTS DAILY

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

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

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

Want to get your news online?

MATTHEW LADNER

to need a lot of helicopters.

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

The Biden plan is simple.

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

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

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

For more info, please visit joebiden.com.

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

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

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

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

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

They insist on the rapid withdrawal of troops from battle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Surrender or Persevere.

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

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

Matthew Ladner is a junior majoring in international relations.

www.tuftsdaily.com

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

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Friday. Op-Ed welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be no more than 500 words in length. Editorial cartoons and Op-Eds in the form of cartoons are also welcome. All material is subject to editorial discretion, and is not guaranteed to appear in The Tufts Daily. All material should be submitted by no later than 1 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication. Material may be submitted via e-mail (viewpoints@tuftsdaily.com) or in hard-copy form at The Tufts Daily in the basement of Curtis Hall. Questions and concerns should be directed to the Op-Ed editors. The opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Tufts Daily itself.

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

Kacey Rayder | Insult to Injury

Tattoo eew

T

Justin McCallum/Tufts Daily

Protestant Chaplain Rachael Pettengill serves as the spiritual and logistical leader of the Protestant community at Tufts and the newly established Protestant Students Association.

Faith on the Hill: Protestantism by

Maya Kohli

Daily Editorial Board

As a branch of Christianity whose primary founding tenants include a call for lay participation in government and the public affairs of the Church, Protestantism seems especially suited to this active citizenship-crazy campus. If there’s anything Tufts students are good at, it’s participation.

As of last year, Tufts’ Protestant population has a defined forum to join in on the fun — taking an active role in exercising their religious lives at Tufts and reaching out to welcome the participation of their peers through the newly established Protestant Students Association (PSA).

A sense of organization can breathe life into any group of like-minded students — an especially challenging feat to accomplish given the wide range of branches to be found under the Protestant umbrella.

Upon arriving at Tufts, it was a job that Protestant Chaplain Rachael Pettengill was ready to take on.

Finding no official organization tailored for Protestant students when she arrived at Tufts in 2009, Pettengill last year began making motions to start one.

As a preliminary measure, she met with Protestant students to gauge what kinds of things they were looking for in their relationship with the chaplaincy and then moved to establish a leadership structure for the group that would represent the larger Protestant student body at Tufts.

“I believe church is about the people, so I recruited nine students to help out and take leadership roles,” Pettengill said.

“The student leaders are a pretty diverse group. We are putting a lot of energy into letting people know that we are here and letting them know that there are lots of ways to get involved.”

Given the numerous denominations that constitute Protestantism, Pettengill strove to emphasize the open and welcoming nature of the PSA. “One of the things we value in the chaplaincy is embracing our diversity,” she said. “We welcome everyone to the table, no matter what tradition of Christianity,” Pettengill said. “The meaning behind that is that Jesus ate with everyone. He didn’t discriminate and so we don’t to anyone who comes to the table.”

Pettengill herself is an Episcopalian — as are sophomore Anna Graham and junior Virginia Saurman, who serve as the PSA’s team coordinator and communications officer, respectively.

Both students were raised Episcopalian, and both have turned to the PSA in their efforts to continue their spiritual journeys after coming to Tufts.

For Saurman especially, the creation of the group last year filled what she saw as a dearth of opportunities for Episcopalians to worship together.

“When I came to Tufts [my] freshman year, I was surprised that there weren’t a lot of services for Episcopalians,” Saurman said.

“My junior year, [Pettengill] emailed me saying that she wanted to get to know all the students who identify as Protestants to start up a students’ association. She requested that I join her — that’s how the PSA has its current crop of student leaders,” Saurman said.

Graham got involved with the group in a similar way and noted that the experience has helped strengthen her connection to the Protestant community on the Hill.

“I’ve had a very good experience with it,” she said. “Based on the group that I’m in, I’ve met a lot of interesting people from different walks of life, particularly a lot of very accepting and open people,” she said.

Sophomore Keara Jones, who works at one of the worship coordinators for the PSA, further emphasized the progressive nature of Protestant students at Tufts. Jones, who identifies as nondenominational, said that this inclusivity provides a learning opportunity for all of those interested.

“The Protestant community at Tufts is very diverse,” she said. “There’s this broad range of different people with their different denominations but it never ceases to amaze me how accepting and genuinely interested we are in other practices.”

“From what I’ve seen in the people I’ve met, the Protestant community at Tufts is a great group of people who have a genuine interest in enhancing their overall awareness or strengthening their own personal spirituality,” Jones said.

As part of her duties as the university’s Protestant chaplain, Pettengill schedules the regular Protestant services in Goddard Chapel.

To meet the demands of an over-

whelmingly Episcopalian presence, Pettengill organizes a pattern of weekly Protestant services that brings Episcopal ministers to Goddard every other Sunday.

In the interest of accommodating the many other Protestant denominations, Pettengill also brings in ministers of different spiritual traditions from the local community every alternating week.

“The goal is to have all the other denominations represented throughout the year,” she explained. “In the coming weeks, we are having a Unitarian Universalist minister, and we have a Lutheran, a Methodist and a Presbyterian on in the spring.”

Pettengill said that she takes the spiritual needs of the Protestant students she meets into consideration when compiling the list of guest ministers.

“When I meet with students, I make a point to try and find a minister within their denomination.”

The PSA takes its own initiative in supplementing the services with activities such as a weekly noontime prayer and Bible study sessions. The group is also trying to coordinate more outreach activities, such as community service, social gatherings and group retreats, according to Pettengill.

Pettengill emphasized that such activities provide an opportunity to socialize and to strengthen spiritual practices.

“The students told me that it’s a good way to meet people and build up the Protestant community, and a lot of people say that it provides an opportunity to center themselves in the middle of their busy weeks,” she said. “It allows them to find their center and move on.”

While Protestants at Tufts come from different spiritual traditions and practices, they agree that their religious beliefs play a crucial role in their daily lives.

“I would say my faith makes me a strong person,” Graham said. “I definitely see a higher power in my day to day life, which gives me strength to do things and that keeps me sane.”

Jones agreed that a deep religious foundation has helped her navigate through the college experience.

“Even in rougher patches, or ‘notso-righteous’ moments, I always have my faith. I guess I just wake up everyday with good intentions, knowing there’s a higher purpose to be served, somehow,” Jones said.

his week’s topic is “bad tattoos.”

I’ll note that I have two tattoos — one on my shoulder blade and another on my foot. I love tattoos. New ink is expensive, however, and a permanent piece of body art isn’t something you want to “cheap out” on.

The only thing that a cheap tattoo will get you is a faded blob of ink that looks horrible 20 years down the road. Spend the money and get something that’s worth it.

What I’m irked by, though, is when tattoos are close to one another but completely different. The differences between the tattoos can be qualitybased or subject-based, but we can all agree on one thing: They just don’t look good.

I’m a big supporter of the “get a tattoo because it means something” idea.

It’s stupid to walk into a tattoo parlor and pick a stencil design off the wall, only to have it tattooed somewhere on your body that same day. No matter how much you insist to me that the stencil “means something” to you and that it’s “unique,” I will still chuckle as I walk away.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have a tattoo just like it, maybe even in the same location. The stencil tattoo is the perfect cop-out for someone who doesn’t want to spend a lot of money, but who wants to have a tattoo because it’s “cool, bro.” If you want to have a truly unique tattoo, come up with an idea yourself.

Most parlors will require that you have a consultation before you get the tattoo you want, and during that time you can talk with your artist about ideas you might have for your future tattoo. The artist can work on a design suited to your desires — this design will be truly unique, unlike that massproduced stencil you found on the wall.

Now, back to my original point.

Tattoos that don’t go together just look dumb. Like a mermaid and a portrait placed side-by-side, for instance, with one obviously less expensive than the other. Or some stars and a big, detailed rose vine.

When I see people at the beach with tattoos like these, I do laugh to myself.

The idea of making sure your tattoos go together isn’t unfamiliar to those who have considered sleeves or large works — you need to make sure your piece has a theme, or otherwise it just looks like you’ve slapped a bunch of random tattoos all over yourself without rhyme or reason. It looks like a busy mess of stencils and words, slapped on a random body part.

I have strong feelings about tattoos, maybe because I am an artist myself.

Composition is a huge part of any piece of artwork, tattoos included. If you’re going to have a permanent mark on your body, you shouldn’t be cheap about it. Save up for a quality tattoo — years down the road, you’ll be glad you did.

And think about the tattoo before you ink it into your skin. It’s a lot harder and more painful to remove the ink once it’s there than it is to get the tattoo in the first place.

The tattoo parlor isn’t going to go anywhere, and you have all the time in the world to make sure you have your perfect tattoo all planned out before you make the commitment. Consider any tattoos you have already, and tattoos you might get in the future, before you get your next piece. And make sure it means something to you! Because, in the end, that’s really the most important thing.

Kacey Rayder is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Kacey.

Rayder@tufts.edu.

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When? Thursday, October 6th from 6 PM – 8 PM. Where? Alumnae Lounge

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Arts & Living

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Movie Review

Gory ‘Tucker & Dale’ elicits giggles, grimaces in standard plot Mike Acquafredda

Picture this: You and your best friend finally accumulate enough funds to buy a lovely by

Contributing Writer

Tucker & Dale vs Evil Starring Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine, Katrina Bowden and Jesse Moss Directed by Eli Craig cabin in pristine hills of West Virginia. The first time you visit the estate, you plan to carry out a few minor renovations, but things do not go according to plan. Your property is invaded by none other than the most wild, unpredictable and evil group ever to exist: college kids!

“Tucker & Dale vs Evil” follows Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), a dynamic duo of longtime best friends, and their conflict with a few unwelcome teenagers.

Despite his large stature and grisly facial hair, Tucker is a goodhearted, genuine and sensitive man. Think of him as an Appalachian teddy bear.

Though he has an uncannily photographic memory, he is

Courtesy Magnet Releasing

‘Tucker and Dale’ is a campy slasher comedy filled with screams and laughs. not the slightest bit sharp.

Dale, a typical country boy, usually acts as the brains for the pair.

One night while fishing, the friends encounter a band of drunken college kids

skinny-dipping in the lake close to their cabin. Allison (Katrina Bowden), the outlier in her group of stuckup, preppy friends, falls into the water and hits her head.

Heroically, Tucker dives into

the murky swamp waters and rescues her.

Unfortunately for Tucker, Allison’s friends mistake his act of heroism for something see TUCKER, page 9

Album Review

TV Review

Blink’s new sound barely differs from old one

by Ian

Donovan

Contributing Writer

The first time I heard Blink-182’s “Take Off Your Pants And Jacket” (2001), I was 10, and a friend of mine revealed

Neighborhoods Blink-182 DGC, Interscope

premise of the show. Arnett and Applegate respectively play Chris and Reagan, a successful couple with a newborn baby; shenanigans ensue. Meanwhile, Rudolph plays an Oprah-esque TV personality named Ava, Reagan’s boss and best friend.

It’s a simple enough premise, but it reveals nothing about the show’s quality and potential.

As the terrible poster suggests, the marketing for “Up All Night” could not be worse. Promos on NBC feature “No Sleep Tonight” by the Faders — the one-hitwonder band from 2005 you can barely remember — and most ads for the show feature some kind of diaper joke. NBC is angling for cheap laughs by presenting this show as a fish-out-of-water comedy.

However, viewers willing to look beyond

the CD case from his backpack at the end of a school day. We ran to his house at the bell to enjoy the nearly perfect pop-punk sound I now associate with my youth. The power chords, active drumming and the songs about girls being drags: it all resonated, and still does. Alongside “Enema of the State” (1999), the album remains one of my favorites from that time period, and nostalgia only plays a small role.

They’re simply great pieces of music.

Blink-182’s self-titled 2003 album marked a shift in the band’s style. The earnest awkwardness of youth and potty humor was converted to introversion. The power-trio instrumentation was sprinkled with piano, string flourishes and a cameo appearance from The Cure’s Robert Smith. I loved it, but for completely different reasons.

This was a “mature” Blink, one that couldn’t get the girl and didn’t want to move past it. It is this iteration of Blink182 that makes a return in their newest release after an eight-year hiatus, “Neighborhoods.”

Fans who long for the days of penis jokes and songs about pooping are going to be woefully disappointed by the band’s latest effort. Those who hated the direction of the self-titled album

see UP, page 9

see NEIGHBORHOODS, page 8

Colleen Hayes/NBC

Christina Applegate and Will Arnett star as young parents struggling hilariously with parenthood.

‘Up All Night’s’ pilot shows potential Kumar Ramanathan

The poster for “Up All Night” features its stars, Will Arnett and Christina Applegate, lying slumped on the ground with a baby by

Contributing Writer

Up All Night Starring Christina Applegate, Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph Airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on NBC on top of them, as Maya Rudolph sits in the background looking important. Under the show’s bright purple title, the tagline reads, “Sleep is for babies.”

Superficially, it does convey the basic

Alexandria Chu | Hit Li(s)t

East coast hedonist

T

his week, we’re going to revisit another member of the ’80s literary “Brat Pack” that paved the way for many young writers. Let’s take a look at his stats: Author: Jay McInerney Titles: “The Last of the Savages” (1997) and “Bright Lights, Big City” (1984) Number of Pages: 288 in the 1997 Penguin edition (same as “The Rules of Attraction”!) and 208 in the 1984 Vintage edition Movie Versions: Both in production, and a previous film adaptation of “Bright Lights, Big City” came out in 1988 John “Jay” McInerney was born in Hartford, Conn., and his novels personify the East Coast as cool and collected.

Since his first publication at the age of 29, McInerney has been an active writer: He has published seven novels, one collection of short stories and two non-fiction books on wine. McInerney has been scrutinized for the extent to which his personal life is reflected in his stories.

However, the author’s personal hijinks do not detract from his unique storytelling abilities. I have included his books on this list because, though they utilize varying writing styles, all are equally powerful. McInerney excels at creating unique characters and situations, so his stories are incredibly distinct, but also relatable. So I do not need to be, for example, a young model/wife who has run away from my husband in order to genuinely connect with Amanda of “Bright Lights, Big City.”

First up is “The Last of the Savages.” At its heart, the novel may be a riff on “The Great Gatsby.” The story tracks the diverging friendship of Patrick, a lower class Irish student from Boston, and Will, a wealthy southern rebel with whom Patrick is enamored. There are many surprising twists and powerful themes throughout the story, but most striking is McInerney’s exploration of why friendships seem so weighty at our age. Is it just because this is our first time experiencing life away from our family?

How do these friendships grow in time — or become strangled by distance?

“Bright Lights, Big City” is McInerney’s most famous work, and rightly so. Since it’s written in the second person, you are literally dropped into the nameless main character’s head and life. You become him, an aspiring writer in his early twenties living in the “Devil’s Playground” of New York City and stuck in a dead-end job. Freshmen and sophomores perhaps cannot relate to this scenario, but in my experience, juniors and seniors can empathize with the pressures of the post-graduation world. Don’t fear! I swear the character in “Bright Lights, Big City” has a lot more on his plate.

Like Ellis’ stories, McInerney’s translate well onto the big screen. The script of “The Last of the Savages” is in the hands of Oscarwinner Frank Pierson of “Cool Hand Luke” (1967) fame, and an updated “Bright Lights, Big City” is in development by “Gossip Girl” (2007) developer Josh Schwartz. The older version of “Bright Lights, Big City” is pretty entertaining, with Jamie (Michael J. Fox) completely buyable as the protagonist.

Unfortunately, the charm and effect of the novel is lost when the character becomes concrete and separate from you, the reader and viewer.

McInerney’s talent lies in his ability to use empathy to weave us into his flawed characters, making their outrageous, excessive lives feel like extensions of our own.

But I must leave you with one warning: Don’t let free association lead you to CeeLo Green’s new single, “Bright Lights Bigger City” (2011). You lose all of McInerney’s charm and heart in a music video with calculated shots of the reflection of city lights on a limousine and a handcuffed dominatrix model subplot. I can’t believe I just typed that last bit! That’s why I stick to the book.

Alexandria Chu is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Alexandria.

Chu@tufts.edu.

8

The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Blink-182’s comeback album fails to reinvent old sound NEIGHBORHOODS continued from page 7

should move right along — there’s nothing to see here. The general mood remains much the same: Several songs are fast and poppy enough to be categorized as fun, but none are exactly jolly.

On the other hand, if the intro of 2003’s “Violence” makes your heart smile, “Neighborhoods” may be worth your money.

The opening of this album contains some of the strongest material the band has ever recorded.

Tracks like “Ghost on the Dance Floor” and “Up All Night” are thematically similar to the tunes from eight years ago; “Ghost,” in particular, is a highlight. Inspired by the passing of drummer Travis Barker’s friend DJ AM, the song’s driving beat is infectious.

“Natives” and “Heart’s All Gone” sound like more-aggressive versions of something from “Dude Ranch” (1997), with added complexity. Rapid hi-hat triplets form the foundation of the solid “After Midnight,” an ode to friendly decadence.

Vocally, Blink has stepped its game up considerably. Bass guitarist and vocalist Mark Hoppus and guitarist and vocalist Tom DeLonge trade lines on a few songs, and the harmonies here are beyond anything they’ve offered in the past. Fans of the ending of 2003’s “Feeling This” will be pleased with much of the material here. “Up All Night” has the two musicians’ voices melding together during the chorus, while the verses are traded off.

The song even features an honest-to-goodness breakdown, not unlike “Aliens Exist” from 1999.

So, what’s the problem? After the poppy “Wishing Well” — which contains a pre-chorus harkening back to 2001’s “Story of a

Lonely Guy” — the quality of the songs drops off considerably.

The second half of the record seems thrown together simply for the sake of completeness.

Hoppus and DeLonge fill the void with excessive experimentation. Before Blink-182’s reunion, the two had outlets for their “not-Blink-appropriate” ideas in their individual side projects.

However, now that the band is back together, too many of the songs on “Neighborhoods” sound like B-sides from a mediocre Angels and Airwaves album.

Adult Blink is interesting when it has something unique to say, but tracks like “Love Is Dangerous” make a mockery of the band’s progression.

Drawing particular ire is the awful “Fighting the Gravity,” a special treat for those who obtain the deluxe edition of “Neighborhoods.” The song has a promising start, with a descending bass line and moderate feedback, but when it transitions into Hoppus singing, “This makes no sense” in a layered, delayed and spacey manner, the listener is inclined to agree. The rest of the song fails to ascend from overtly experimental drudgery.

Experimentation can work for Blink-182 — “Snake Charmer” uses some of the same mechanics with greater success — but when it falls flat, the result is more than a bad song: it’s a cacophony of failed ideas.

Taken as a whole, “Neighborhoods” is an average album that could have been a lot worse. Fans who enjoyed Blink182’s 2003 reinvention will find a lot to love in it, and others will have a hard time believing that an eight-year break failed to result in a more triumphant resurgence.

Blink182.com

After an eight-year hiatus, Blink-182 has returned with an album that’s more of the same.

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

9

Arts & Living

Colleen Hayes/NBC

Though Maya Rudolph’s performance as Reagan’s boss is well done, her character is still developing.

‘Up All Night’ broaches modern family issues from fresh angle UP

continued from page 7

the network’s bland and tacky advertising will find a wholehearted and genuine comedy.

The pilots wastes no time in exposition.

As soon as Chris and Reagan discover that they’re about to have a child, the opening credits walk us through their past — crazy clubbing pictures included — and the pregnancy and lo and behold, Reagan’s getting ready for her first day back on the job. And all before the first ad break.

Within its first few minutes, “Up All Night” clamors to remind viewers it’s a family comedy for the 21st century. Its portrayal of a modern family work surprisingly well.

Chris is revealed to be a stay-at-home dad.

Formerly a lawyer, he’s left his job to take care of the newborn Amy. His decision is

never played up in terms of gender issues — he’s just a character, not a caricature. “Up All Night” is reminiscent of “The Kids Are All Right” (2010) and “Modern Family” in how it adapts modern, progressive ideas of what family means without making them the central feature of its story.

The show’s sincerity is its defining characteristic. In the first scene that features Amy, Chris and Reagan express their awe for their “f--king beautiful” baby. The line could be played for cheap laughs, but Arnett and Applegate’s convincing performances make the moment heartwarming.

The pilot sets up the framework of the show seamlessly — the primary plot centers on Chris, Reagan and Amy at home, while the secondary plot features the exploits of Reagan and Ava at the office. Though Ava is completely forgettable in the pilot, her role

begins to pick up speed in subsequent episodes. Writers have started to transform Ava into a more offbeat character, and wackiness nicely foils Chris and Reagan’s relative normalcy.

Arnett steals the best moments in these early episodes. In the very first episode, he has a magnificent sequence in which he braves the wilds of a grocery store, desperate to find some regular cheese and aching to return to the safety of his suburban fortress.

All the while, he’s protecting his child from doting old ladies.

Critics and fans have expressed valid concern that “Up All Night” will be damaged by its gimmickry. Though the first few episodes offer clever humor and remarkable balance, they also contain signs that the show might descend into diaper jokes, or get too distracted by the workplace subplot.

Fortunately, creator Emily Spivey and her writing team demonstrate with each new episode a deeper grasp of a grander set of themes for the show. “Up All Night” is becoming a show about finding maturity in the starkness of adult life, and approaches the subject in the way “Community” and “Modern Family” did in their first episodes.

It is also a show about finding happiness in the calmness and normalcy of settling down — a topic too often relegated to the Disney Channel and “Full House” (19871995) reruns.

“Up All Night” still needs to find a balance between its primary and secondary plots, but all signs point to great potential.

Perhaps it’s too early to compare the show to “Community” and “Modern Family,” but “Up All Night” is definitely one of fall’s most promising new shows.

Highly original deaths, morbid possibilities highlight ‘Tucker & Dale’ TUCKER

continued from page 7

far worse: They believe Tucker is a hillbilly, and that he is kidnapping their friend.

So begins a hilarious chain reaction of miscommunication, false assumptions and misjudgments between the students trying to “save” their friend and Tucker and Dale, who are just trying to help the injured Allison.

This sets the stage for some hysterical antics — and plenty of gory bloodshed.

Eli Craig directed this slasher comedy, and though his resume boasts some obscure titles, this movie will definitely boost his renown. The dialogue is cheesy at times, but Craig and Morgan Jurgenson’s script is quite engaging. Almost every scene manages to make the audience laugh just before another gruesome death unfolds. Even the corny dialogue manages to add to the film’s appeal. A film in this genre must be impeccably balanced in order to be successful; Craig executed the vital laugh-to-squirm ratio flawlessly.

Typically, knowing exactly when to expect a horrifying moment detracts from the movie-watching experience, but anticipation plays a different role in “Tucker & Dale.” In this film, however, being able to predict a horrendous death somehow seems to draw the audience in even further. After all,

Courtesy Magnet Releasing

There’s no shortage of gore in Eli Craig’s latest film.

the highly original deaths offer some of the film’s best moments, and the slew of morbid possibilities allow viewers to really interact with the film. Rather than relying on standard shootings and stabbings, “Tucker & Dale” kills off characters using everything from wood-chippers to impalements.

Much of the story’s appeal is due in large part to its charming main characters, attractive female supporting actresses and easy-to-hate antagonist. Craig does an excellent job building Tucker’s character in particular; that kind of character development is a rarity in horror flicks.

Viewers naturally feel attached to this clumsy Good Samaritan who inadvertently draws his best friend and himself into a terrible ordeal.

Nevertheless, affection for Tucker’s character will not stop the audience from laughing at his misadventure. In fact, many of the movie’s laughs are built around others’ misfortunes — for example, Tucker’s painful attempt to smooth-talk Allison, or Dale getting stung by an entire hive of bees. The characters’ awkwardness and injuries really do make this movie sidesplitting.

Overall, “Tucker & Dale vs Evil” is a great movie that promises audiences a few good screams, plenty of laughs and a wonderfully satisfying viewing experience.

The Tufts Daily

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THE TUFTS DAILY Editorial Niki Krieg Adam Kulewicz Managing Editors Amelie Hecht Executive News Editor Kathryn Olson News Editors Laina Piera Corinne Segal Saumya Vaishampayan Brent Yarnell Bianca Blakesley Assistant News Editors Gabrielle Hernandez Brionna Jimerson Michael Marks Elizabeth McKay Marie Schow Minyoung Song Mahpari Sotoudeh Martha Shanahan Executive Features Editor Jon Cheng Features Editors Maya Kohli Amelia Quinn Falcon Reese Derek Schlom Victoria Rathsmill Assistant Features Editors Margaret Young Rebecca Santiago Executive Arts Editor Zach Drucker Arts Editors Anna Majeski Charissa Ng Joseph Stile Matthew Welch Ashley Wood Melissa MacEwen Assistant Arts Editors David Kellogg Bhushan Deshpande Seth Teleky Devon Colmer Louie Zong Craig Frucht Michael Restiano

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Editorial

Lessons from the Amanda Knox trial

Carter W. Rogers Editor-in-Chief

Editorial | Letters

After serving four years in prison for allegedly murdering her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, while studying abroad in Perugia, Italy in 2007, American Amanda Knox was acquitted yesterday by an Italian court. Her ex-boyfriend and co-defendant, Italian Raffaele Sollecito, was also acquitted. The pair was convicted in 2009 with questionable evidence and prosecutorial claims that Kercher was killed during a satanic sex ritual.

The many facets of the case, including a separate murder conviction for Perugia resident Rudy Guede, are too numerous to discuss here, but what Tufts students should glean from the Amanda Knox case is that frequently reinforced negative stereotypes of Americans can have terrible consequences for students abroad.

Any American who has studied or traveled abroad has doubtlessly encountered — or potentially been a part of — the stereotype of the loud, obnoxious American, stumbling drunkenly on some form of

public transportation or even vomiting or urinating in public. Likewise, Americans can be known for getting a bit more than acceptably sloppy and enthusiastic at a club. And even if you haven’t encountered the beast itself, locals accustomed to such behavior may have nonetheless stereotyped you as such an American thanks to the actions of your predecessors.

American students abroad have quite the reputation for debauchery and questionable decision-making. And while we at the Daily would never want to suggest that going abroad shouldn’t be fun or that it isn’t a time to explore, more than a few students manage to cross the line.

Being part of an abroad program offers students a level of security, a buffer zone of safety and order while dealing with culture shock and the stress of international travel and living. Often, students don’t have to deal with the hardships of bureaucratic foreign governments, finding a place to live or navigating class

registration at a foreign university on their own. As a result, some students feel comfortable lowering their guard and acting in ways that would otherwise be unsafe or disrespectful.

Reinforcing the stereotypes of Americans as loud, crazy, promiscuous and drunken not only makes travel more difficult for other Americans, but can also mean that foreign hosts might take issues of safety less seriously. In particular, American women could become victims of assault or be the recipients of unwanted advances, thus making the abroad experience more dangerous than expected.

This is not to say that the Daily believes that everyone who goes abroad drinks like a fish or can’t have wonderfully meaningful cultural and personal experiences.

However, in taking safety for granted and throwing caution to the foreign winds, students can make themselves vulnerable or, if nothing else, reinforce negative perceptions of Americans abroad.

WES ENGEL

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Off the Hill | Louisiana State University

Saudi women earn right to vote but can’t drive to the polls

This past week, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah granted women in his country the right to vote. Whoop-dee-doo.

We act like this is news. This is nothing. Women’s suffrage is not a novel concept. Most people, including yours truly, believe universal suffrage must be a staple in any truly democratic society.

For those of you who are unaware, Saudi Arabia is a monarchy in the Middle East. The United States depends heavily on it for oil, so naturally our diplomatic policy toward the country has been something along the lines of “to each his own.” And I do mean “his.”

Saudi Arabia is a feminist’s worst nightmare. Women aren’t allowed to drive or leave the house unaccompanied by a man. If they do, they can be lashed. It is an extremely conservative and religioncentric society — like Mississippi with a bit more sand.

For some reason, every time Saudi Arabia decides to grant its citizens a little more freedom, the world rejoices. I just don’t understand.

Yes, women now have the right to vote, but like I said earlier, they are not by

Parker Cramer

The Daily Reveille

allowed to drive or be in public without a male escort. So, if their husband doesn’t want to take them, they won’t be able to vote. Women’s suffrage is dependent on male accompaniment. How is that a freedom?

I’m curious to see how many women actually cast ballots in the next Saudi election, because I don’t think it will be very many.

All this shows is that King Abdullah and the Saudi Arabian establishment are scared.

They are far from stupid. They see what’s been going on in Egypt, Libya, Syria and Bahrain. The Arab Spring would be the end of Saudi Arabia as we know it.

Having said that, the United States will never openly support a Saudi regime change — not unless we are sure the rebels would win. We learned our lesson in 1970s after aiding Israel despite a threat from Saudi Arabia to cut oil production that resulted in a gas crisis and recession.

As long as Saudi Arabia’s rich, ruling aristocracy can remain in power and in control of the black gold, I can guarantee we won’t supply their rebels with weapons. This isn’t Libya, for Allah’s sake.

King Abdullah and the Saudi elite are

afraid of losing control. That’s why they have done everything they can to keep the masses happy and at bay. Afraid of the women? Let them vote — or at least try to.

If King Abdullah and his family want to retain their royalty, they’ll do what the British monarchy did — slowly but surely give more power back to the people.

That way, they stay alive, they stay rich, and they become a national beloved figurehead instead of ending up like the monarchs in France and the Romanovs in Russia.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Will the Arab Spring spread to Saudi Arabia? And if so, will it succeed? As of now, it’s looking like the answer is no.

While this slight progression towards democracy in Saudi Arabia should be rejoiced, my advice is to remain skeptical. It’s not like King Abdullah watched just enough Lifetime Channel to have a change of heart. He has ulterior motives.

Deterring the Arab Spring is the King’s top priority and he will continue to provide his people with illusions of freedom in order to accomplish this goal.

Corrections In the Sept. 29 issue of the Daily, in Ben Kochman’s column, “The Wackness,” Irish tennis player Conor Niland was incorrectly referred to as being from the United Kingdom. Niland is not from the United Kingdom; he is from the Irish Republic.

The band in the photo of the Sept. 30 article “Wild Beasts rock the Paradise in concert on Tuesday” was not Wild Beasts, but rather the band Bobby, an opening act.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. 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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The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

11

Op-Ed Walt Laws-MacDonald | Show Me the Money!

#OccupyWallSt; protest without a cause

O Justin McCallum/Tufts Daily

Let’s support the ‘Occupiers’ Gary Goldstein

Several articles, op-eds and an editorial have appeared related to Occupy Boston. I went down to Occupy Boston Sunday afternoon. I ran into another Tufts faculty member and an alumnus.

It wasn’t easy to find other Tufts people among the several hundred encamped there. I know some of you were there.

Why did I go down to Occupy Boston? I saw the news that 700 “Occupy Wall Street” people were arrested in New York City! Is that freedom of speech? “Freedom of speech” for large corporations, e.g. Bank of America, Exxon-Mobil and General Electric was recently guaranteed by the Supreme Court. Corporations can virtually buy politicians and elections. What about the rights of citizens to protest? You might say, “Well, they blocked traffic!”

What could threaten civil order more, blocking traffic and the inconvenience it causes, or taking away people’s homes, employment, health benefits, retirement pensions and education opportunities?

Do we sit back while corporate and government policies leave 25 million people unemployed or underemployed? Do we accept that sending people away to endless wars of destruction is how our economy should be funneled? Do we accept that the United States has the highest prison population — well over 1 million — among industrialized nations? Do we tolerate the further erosion of opportunities for the growing numbers of poor among us? Well, 700 people who do not by

accept and tolerate these intolerable circumstances were arrested for speaking, shouting, protesting and marching. So I went to Occupy Boston. I urge you to do the same.

The Occupy Boston camp is a very impressive undertaking. People, mostly under 40 years old, are very well organized in non-hierarchical, open democratic ways, committed to the cause of economic equity and settled in for a long haul. They are attracting local media attention, at least for now. The police are not large in numbers. The feeling is very upbeat and hopeful. I am reminded of sit-ins, teach-ins and occupations of administration buildings over many years of being politically active during my time at Tufts and earlier. It is a good feeling! It will grow.

The criticisms that there is not a single guiding message or an identifiable leader are premature and, perhaps, misguided. Successful movements don’t spring up, fully formed out of nowhere.

They build gradually, attract more and more attention and gel around central issues. Looking back at popular history can be misleading. Charismatic leaders like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela didn’t appear overnight with full-blown movements of thousands. They emerged from long struggles carried forward by hundreds of anonymous supporters of causes and strategies that cohered over time. Workers’ rights, gay rights, women’s rights, social welfare programs,

unionism, the ending of the Vietnam War, the reduction of nuclear weapons all resulted from the efforts of thousands of people, now unknown, who were fired up to demand change.

We should support the beginnings of a movement that aims to ameliorate the social and economic inequalities that now plague the United States. We see huge corporations and banks cutting costs and workers, sending work abroad, while pulling in record profits.

Most members of Congress spend their days cutting budgets for social programs, education, health and welfare, scientific research and grants for states and cities.

The results we see — increasing unemployment and misery for many, especially among minorities, while the United States wages indefensible, enormously expensive wars of destruction, ruining the future for Americans and threatening the rest of the world. Tufts students are not immune. The search for suitable jobs after graduation will be difficult.

We are living in difficult times. Without support for meaningful change we will be left with declining prospects for the fair and equitable society that we all hope to inhabit in the future. There is much hope in this new movement. Go downtown to Occupy Boston! With your support and participation we may see a movement grow and succeed.

Gary Goldstein is a professor of physics and astronomy.

Off the Hill | University of Central Florida

Grant the Pell preservation by

Central Florida Future Editorial

Board

House Republicans are proposing legislation in Congress that will aim to tighten eligibility on Pell Grant programs and would also eliminate 31 education programs, according to a report from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), would maintain a maximum Pell Grant of $5,550 but would also tighten eligibility for these grants.

Now is not the time to be tightening the noose around those trying to achieve a higher education. Pell Grants are an important means for those who cannot afford an education to be able to obtain one. Unlike a loan, a Pell Grant does not have to be repaid, which is of significant importance to students getting their first degree. Graduating with less debt provides significant breathing room to be able to find work and take out loans for other needs, such as a car.

In his own opinions piece in the Huffington Post, Sen. Sheldon Central Florida Future

Whitehouse (D-R.I.) argued that Pell Grants have long been on the hit list of Republicans, stating that they view them as “welfare” for children.

Whitehouse said that a full Pell Grant covers 34 percent of the cost to attend a public four-year university, as opposed to the 72 percent that it covered in 1976.

Even so, it can mean the difference between going to college or not going for many students.

Whitehouse notes that the House of Representatives already passed a budget that would have slashed Pell Grant funding, reducing the average award by $1,775 and slashing grants for more than 1.3 million students across the country.

That proposal was ultimately blocked by the Senate.

It is an undeniable reality that things need to change in order to balance the federal budget and put the federal government on a course toward fiscal health. This will require some painful cuts and sacrifices from both political parties. But it is wrong to attempt to take a sledgehammer to a program that has already faced massive cuts, to the point where it only finances a fraction of what

a public university education costs.

Fewer students with access to this resource will mean fewer students being able to attend college. This could potentially mean more students that would be earning less money than they would be through a university education. This, in turn, could mean less tax receipts coming in to the federal government, which is only going to hurt the effort to balance our budget.

Rather than propose such measures, a better alternative is to allow the current debt super committee to do its work. This committee has an important responsibility before it, and its work should ultimately be the framework upon which Congress decides the fiscal future of the federal government.

Acting independent of outside political influence, they need to find ways to work together to reform our tax code so that revenues can be increased while also making responsible spending cuts.

The Pell Grant program, however, is one that needs to be preserved for the sake of students. This program is critical to helping those who want a higher education to achieve one.

ver the weekend more than 700 protesters from the “Occupy Wall Street” movement were arrested on the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge, capping a week of countless pepper-sprayings on YouTube, a handful of celebrity cameos and one non-existent Radiohead show.

Occupy Wall Street and its local spin-offs have taken Twitter and Facebook by storm for all the wrong reasons. So what exactly does the movement stand for? I found the following blurb on their website: “Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions … using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends.” Their slogan, “We are the 99 percent,” represents the admittedly alarming statistic that the top one percent of earners in the United States controls more than 40 percent of financial wealth.

Even if you take a closer look at these statements, you still can’t find a clear goal.

In a New York Magazine poll of protesters, ideas to fix Wall Street ranged from a “maximum-wage law” to “burn it down.” Another question asked protesters to finish the following sentence: “the proposal to prohibit banks from engaging in both client trading and proprietary trading is called…” The most popular response, chosen by 40 of the 100 protesters polled, was the Glass-Steagall act, a post-Depression bill that separated investment and commercial banks. The correct, and coincidentally least popular answer with just six votes, was the Volcker Rule.

I don’t mean to make a vast generalization about the protesters, but I get the sense that these people don’t actually understand the financial regulations they’re arguing for. This, in combination with the yahoos seen on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report,” invites critics like me to readily poke holes in their logic. So you want to create a maximum-wage law? This country was founded on the principles of freedom and liberty and on the possibility of infinite gain; if you tax how rich people can get, you tax the American dream itself. You want to burn down Wall Street? Financial services account for the largest sector of U.S. gross domestic product.

That being said, this movement has legs.

Thousands of people have mobilized to a small park in Lower Manhattan, and they haven’t shown signs of leaving anytime soon.

Videos of police brutality quickly found their way on to our computers and TVs, pulling in more supporters. There are millions of eyes hanging onto their every word and trafficobstructing march. Just look at me — I find the whole movement annoying, but I still check their website every day.

Yet, by defining themselves as a “leaderless movement,” they demonstrate a clear lack of a united front. Protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge held signs that read, “They lynched Troy Davis” and “The NYPD protect and serve the rich.” Other causes have jumped at the chance to piggyback on the attention “Occupy Wall Street” has received.

The movement needs to define what the end of the protest will look like. Is it sweeping financial reform? Is it a new income tax bracket or some variation of Warren Buffet’s billionaires’ tax? I’d love to know when they figure it out.

Until then, business on Wall Street will continue as usual. Unlike the Arab Spring protest — “Occupy Wall Street” is fighting against private enterprises. The whole world could protest against them and, barring government intervention, they would continue to offer terrible student credit card rates and leverage billions of dollars. I want to see “Occupy Wall Street” come up with a concrete resolution.

But for now, they should just stay out of the street. People have to get to work.

Walt Laws-MacDonald is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Walt.Laws_MacDonald@tufts.edu.

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

Comics

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

by

Wiley

Monday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Blowing an 8.5-game lead on Sept. 5

Late Night at the Daily Monday’s Solution

Jason: “Whoa, Beyoncé’s pregnant?”

Niki: “Yeah, she’s been for months.”

Jason: “By who?”

Niki: “Jay-Z ... her husband.”

Jason: “Oh. Yeah, Jay-Z!”

Please recycle this Daily.

Sports

13

INSIDE Crew 14 Daily Digits 15

tuftsdaily.com

Field Hockey

Tufts splits weekend with ranked NESCAC opponents Jumbos could slip from top 10 for first time since 2008 by

Claire Kemp

Daily Editorial Board

Last weekend did not go as smoothly as the No. 9 field hockey team hoped. Though FIELD HOCKEY (3-2 NESCAC, 6-2 Overall) Bello Field, Sunday Tufts Trinity

2 1

0 1

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at Amherst, Mass., Saturday Amherst Tufts

1 0

2 1

— —

3 1 Katherine Hambleton/Tufts Daily

Sunday’s matchup with No. 14 Trinity ended with a 3-2 overtime win on a penalty stroke, Saturday’s trip to No. 11 Amherst didn’t go as well.

The Lord Jeffs — who hadn’t scored on the Jumbos since 2007 — upset Tufts in a decisive 3-1 victory. The 1-1 weekend showed the resilience of the offensively frustrated squad, but the downside is that the previously No. 9 Jumbos may now find themselves outside the national top 10 for the first time since 2008.

On Sunday, Tufts was clearly the dominant team. But, as they have in four of their last six meetings with the Jumbos, the Bantams took Tufts to overtime.

The extra frame didn’t start out well for the Jumbos’ core seven. Trinity quickly earned back-to-back penalty corners, which senior goalie Marianna Zak had to clear away to keep Tufts in the game. And Zak did her job, as Tufts soon went on the offensive with a breakaway run from junior forward Lia Sagerman.

Sagerman found herself one-on-one with Trinity’s senior goalie and former NESCAC Defensive Player of

Senior co-captain defender Taylor Dyer drilled a penalty stroke past Trinity goalkeeper Gina Dinallo to give the Jumbos a 3-2 overtime victory on Sunday. the Year Gina Dinallo, but before Sagerman was able to test the keeper, Dinallo let her desperation get the best of her, taking Sagerman out in what the referee judged to be a tackle with no effort towards the ball. The call on the field: penalty stroke.

Senior co-captain defender Taylor Dyer stepped up to the line — for the second time during the weekend — and beat an already rattled Dinallo for the much-needed 3-2 win.

“Our win against Trinity was huge,” Dyer said. “We hadn’t really had a lot of success against the top teams in the NESCAC so far in the season, so it was really important that we finally got one. I think it was most important because we finally played at a level that we knew we were capable of but hadn’t really reached all season.”

The Jumbos had scored first out of the gate, 3:52 into the first quarter, on a penalty corner combination of junior midfielder Rachel Gerhardt to classmate forward Missy Karp, which marked the first time

Men’s Soccer

Santos’ golden goal propels Jumbos past Bantams by

Matt Berger

Daily Editorial Board

For most of Sunday afternoon’s match against NESCAC foe Trinity, it seemed the men’s soccer team simply wouldn’t be able to MEN’S SOCCER (2-2-1 NESCAC, 4-2-1 Overall) Kraft Field, Sunday Tufts Trinity

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at Amherst, Mass., Saturday Amherst Tufts

0 0

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3 0

finish off the Bantams.

Following 90 minutes of scoreless play against the visiting Bantams, the Jumbos had gone 205 consecutive minutes without a goal — the team’s longest scoreless streak of the season — and were coming off an embarrassing 3-0 drubbing at the hands of

opponent.

“Heading into the game against Trinity we knew we had to step it up,” senior cocaptain Lindsay Griffith said.

“A loss is always going to fire you up, but that shouldn’t have to be the case ...You could see it in our play from the opening whistle — we won the balls we were missing on Saturday and we had more focus and determination. We knew that we were going to win that game at all costs.”

The Jumbos’ win Sunday was especially important since Saturday’s showdown on the road with the Cinderellaesque Lord Jeffs did not go as well. Despite holding an 18-8 advantage in shots and a 9-4 edge in penalty corners, it became increasingly clear with every tick of the clock that the Jumbos were not playing to their potential.

And Tufts’ disappointing showing came on the day that Amherst played some of its best field hockey of the season. The 3-1 score doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story, as most of the game was played

Tufts had scored first in its last three NESCAC games. But the lead wouldn’t last long as Trinity fed off the goal and answered with a trademark fast break three minutes later, beating Zak with a two-on-one after a defensive misstep on Tufts’ backline.

Less than two minutes after that, the Jumbos made it a 2-1 game as they converted on their second penalty corner of the afternoon — this time with Dyer finding Sagerman on the post at 26:46.

And Tufts thwarted any hints of another first half tie until intermission.

But the Bantams came out hot in the second and after a series of huge defensive saves from Dyer and Zak, Trinity earned a corner and capitalized for the equalizer at 14:40.

At 2-2, Tufts continued to keep the pressure on, but after three scoreless corners after the regulation whistle, the Jumbos knew a win would have to come in extra minutes, where Dyer’s penalty stroke gave Tufts its first victory of the year against a ranked

No. 4 Amherst.

With three minutes left in the first suddendeath overtime period, the Jumbos looked like they were going to beat Trinity senior goalkeeper Grant Schonberg and finally break their scoring drought. Freshmen midfielders Maxime Hoppenot and Kyle Volpe combined with junior defenseman Michael Walker to fire four shots at the Bantams’ goal from point-blank range. The Bantams, however, somehow managed to keep the ball out with three blocked shots and, finally, a save from Schonberg, leaving the Jumbos frustrated yet again.

The Jumbos, however, brought another offensive rush less than a minute later. Volpe sent a looping pass that landed at the feet of freshman midfielder Gus Santos, who had run past Trinity sophomore defenseman Shaun McGann and was making a streaking run down the left wing. Santos took a couple of touches and calmly poked the ball around Schonberg, into the back of the net for his second tally of the season and the lone goal of the weekend for Tufts.

According to coach Josh Shapiro, the Jumbos’ ability to stretch the field made them see MEN’S SOCCER, page 15

in the Jumbos’ offensive zone, but the Lord Jeffs earned each of their three goals and conceded just the one on another Dyer penalty stroke just 2:37 before the game ended.

“Over the season we’ve talked about playing a full 70-plus minutes of hockey,” Griffith said. “Saturday we weren’t able to do that … our energy wasn’t where it needed to be and Amherst took advantage of that. We played an outstanding last 10 minutes but that’s never going to be enough against NESCAC opponents.”

Twenty minutes into the game, the Lord Jeffs earned a two-on-one with Zak after a botched Tufts penalty corner and took a 1-0 lead before the Jumbos could recover defensively. Amherst tripled its advantage over the course of the next 40 minutes, and, heading into the last 20, the Lord Jeffs seemed comfortable with a 3-0 lead.

Then, something seemed to click on Tufts’ side as the team began a fierce attack see FIELD HOCKEY, page 14

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Jumbos trade shutouts with Bantams, Lord Jeffs by

Ethan Sturm

Daily Editorial Board

The women’s soccer team dropped its first game of the season on the road at No.18 Amherst Saturday, but finished its WOMEN’S SOCCER (3-1-1 NESCAC, 4-1-2 Overall) Kraft Field, Sunday Tufts Trinity

1 0

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— 2 — 0

at Amherst, Mass., Saturday Amherst Tufts

1 0

1 0

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2 0

pair of games against top-four NESCAC squads by dominating Trinity 2-0 24 hours later. In doing so, the Jumbos established themselves in the upper echelon of the conference at the halfway point of the season.

“I think we responded pretty well [on

Sunday],” head coach Martha Whiting said. “We are fortunate that we have a pretty deep bench and that we were able to use it. Our mindset was good [Sunday]. We were really frustrated with [Saturday’s] loss, but I think the attitude was really positive and we came out ready to play and ready to play hard.”

Any worries of a slow start Sunday were quickly proven to be unfounded, as Tufts grabbed the initiative from the get-go. The squad dominated possession early, earning a pair of back-toback corner kicks in the seventh minute. On the second, junior midfielder Alyssa Von Puttkammer put a ball perfectly on the head of sophomore forward Maeve Stewart, who nailed one in from the far post for her second goal of the season. The Jumbos have now outscored opponents 4-0 in the first 12 minutes of games.

“The talk that Martha gives us before each game is ‘show them how much you want this,’” Von Puttkammer said. “I think when we go out we do show them that by scoring early.” see WOMEN’S SOCCER, page 14

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Jumbos stymied by undefeated Lord Jeffs’ defense in 2-0 loss WOMEN’S SOCCER continued from page 13

The early goal also continued a theme for the Jumbos of dangerous set pieces.

Of the team’s 12 goals this season, four have come off a corner or free kick.

On all of our set pieces, we just want it more,” Von Puttkammer said. “We go into them with the mentality that we are going to score. No matter how we make it happen, it’s going to happen.”

With both teams playing their second game of the weekend, the pace of the match slowed after the opening goal, as each squad created just a few chances for the remainder of the first half. In the 14th minute, Bantams sophomore Martha Dane found some space on the left side of the box, but she could only drive a weak shot right at sophomore goalkeeper Kristin Wright.

Halfway through the period, Tufts senior left back Cleo Hirsch played in a dangerous cross that caught the foot of senior co-captain Olivia Rowse less than 10 yards out. But Bantams senior goalkeeper Lily Pepper covered up her goal well, preventing further damage.

The final chance of the half fell to the Bantams in the 35th minute after a poor clearance from the Jumbos back line created a loose ball in the Tufts box.

Trinity senior forward Jenny Ley managed to get a foot on it with a sliding shot that likely would have tied things up had it not gone directly at Wright.

But it did, and the Jumbos took a 1-0 lead into the break.

In the second half, the Bantams were able to create some chances early.

Another defensive giveaway almost gave Trinity an opening in the box, and a shot from Ley was deflected off freshman center back Catharine Greer before going just wide of the post. The subsequent corner was punched away by junior goalkeeper Phoebe Hanley, who replaced Wright at the intermission.

But as time crept on, Tufts began to regain control. In the 63rd minute, senior forward Jamie-Love Nichols made a run down the left side before cutting it back to her right foot and forcing a diving save out of Pepper. Less than two minutes later, Stewart made an almost identical run with the same result.

Yet despite the dominant effort from the Jumbos, the team was almost undone in the 79th minute when Trinity sophomore forward Katie Giberson was played in behind the defense. Hanley came off her line and all the way out of the box, forced to make the stop without using her hands. She was able to do just enough — despite taking a hard knock in the process — to keep Tufts in the lead.

The result would not be in doubt much longer. Just a minute later, Stewart made yet another run down the left side, and this time her hard drive was

Scott Tingley/Tufts Daily

Sophomore forward Anya Kaufmann tallied her second goal of the season in the win over Trinity on Sunday. flicked over the senior goalkeeper’s head by sophomore Anya Kaufmann for her second goal of the season. The goal all but sealed the win for the Jumbos, and it became official 10 minutes later.

Once again, it was Stewart who was in the middle of all the action. Making just her second start after returning from an injury, she created a series of dangerous chances for Tufts. Whiting has not been at all surprised by Stewart’s speedy resurgence.

“When you are coming off an injury, it takes a lot of time to get your fitness back,” Whiting said. “But Maeve just has a natural fitness. The minutes she has been able to give us in these past few games really has blown me away. She is a big part of our team, a big part of our offense, so it’s great to have her back.”

Against a No. 18 Amherst team with a perfect record, things did not go quite

CREW

Jumbos enjoy strong start at Textile River Regatta The men’s crew team finished fifth and 14th at the Textile River Regatta, but the women’s event was scratched due to unsafe river conditions, as the crew team kicked off its year in split squad action.

The men’s varsity squad fielded two boats in the men’s club eight event, which was held on the fast-moving — but safe — Merrimac River in Lowell, Mass. Although Wesleyan dominated the event, finishing first and third with its two squads, the fifth-place finish was still a strong result for Tufts in a race that included several top competitors from the University of New Hampshire and WPI. The women’s varsity team, meanwhile, saw its first event of the season canceled due to dangerous conditions at the Green Mountain Head Race in

Putney, Vt. However, the women’s novice eight was able to compete at Textile River, blowing away the field with a 24-second lead over its next closest competitor. Several individuals on the novice team also competed, with sophomore Caroline Ricard and junior Kapri Walling finishing second and fourth, respectively, in the singles event, while sophomores Sonia Chokshi and Kate Lowe finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the women’s lightweight single.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will be back in action on Oct. 25 at the Quinsigamond Snake Regatta in Worcester, Mass.

—by David McIntyre

as smoothly for the Jumbos on Saturday.

Tufts earned a pair of corners early, but was not able to convert on either. From there, it was largely all Amherst for the remainder of the half. The Lord Jeffs forced a pair of tremendous one-onone saves from Wright, and the Jumbos defense denied another chance by clearing a ball off their line.

But in the 44th minute, it all went wrong for a Tufts squad that had been resolute defensively. A hand-ball in the box gave Amherst junior Kathryn Nathan a chance to put Amherst ahead with a penalty kick. Wright did not have enough magic to stop this one, and the Lord Jeffs had a momentum shifting goal just before the break.

Amherst pushed forward with its momentum in the second half, outshooting Tufts 8-2 and earning seven corners to the Jumbos’ one. But the Jumbos did

manage their best chance at equalizing early, when a free kick from senior cocaptain Lauren O’Connor forced a save out of senior goalkeeper Allie Horwitz.

With time running out, and the Jumbos needing to push forward, the Lord Jeffs took the opportunity to put the game away for good. In the 83rd minute, sophomore Kate Sisk found space on the left side of the box and masterfully placed a shot in the right corner, sealing the win. “[Amherst] did impress me,” Whiting said. “They don’t have any superstars, but I think they are very solid in every position and they play with a lot of heart and they are really tough. They gutted it out and played a little tougher than we did, and I think we definitely learned a lesson.”

Despite the definitive loss, the Jumbos are confident they can hang with the Lord Jeffs if they see them again in the NESCAC Championships.

“They were a good team, but I think we were pretty evenly matched sides,” Von Puttkammer said. “We got a little bit unlucky, which was frustrating, but we used that frustration against Trinity. If we were playing up to our full potential, Amherst wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“We need to play with more heart, and that will come from the games ahead of us and what we do in practice,” Whiting added. “Tactically and physically we have the players and ideas to play with anyone, but sometimes it comes down to the intangibles. I think we’ll get there, and it showed against Trinity.”

It looks like things very well could be shaping up for a semifinal rematch.

Tufts has now taken 10 points out of five NESCAC games, putting the Jumbos in third place behind undefeated Amherst in first and one-loss Middlebury in second. Williams has only played three games and will likely leapfrog the Jumbos when they have caught up to them in games played. While Hamilton sits just one point behind Tufts, they still must play Williams, Middlebury and the Jumbos. It seems unlikely that the Continentals will keep up their early season form.

As the postseason scenarios begin to pile up, the team is trying to stay focused on the present, and not get ahead of itself at the halfway point of the season.

But the Jumbos will admit that, after their statement win on Sunday, they are quite happy with where they are.

“We feel pretty good,” Whiting said.

“We have all these games ahead of us so you don’t want to peak at the wrong time, and we want to be playing out best coming into the home stretch. We have some new players in key positions, and I think it’s taken this long for everyone to figure each other out. Now we can really move forward playing as a group.”

6-2 start puts pressure on Jumbos FIELD HOCKEY

continued from page 13

that would ultimately cause Amherst’s defense to commit a foul on the goal line, giving Tufts a penalty stroke. Dyer converted for Tufts’ only goal on the day, but it was too little, too late for the struggling Jumbos, whose last-chance penalty corner 30 seconds later was turned away by a diving senior cocaptain Carly Dudzik.

“Amherst is always a really skilled team that challenges us, but in the past we have always come out strong against them and have been able to get big wins against them,” Dyer said.

“Having said that, we just came out flat and not ready to play against them on Saturday. We knew it was going to be a hard game, but they were the ones who came out to play like they wanted

a win.”

Overall, the game was a disappointment for a Tufts team that knew it could play better. But the last 20 minutes showcased a totally different squad and, encouragingly, the momentum carried over to the next afternoon.

From here on out, the team knows that it needs to pick up its play in order to put itself in the best possible position for NESCACs and the NCAA tournament.

“We’ve got a lot of really tough games left to play,” Griffith said. “Like always we’re focusing on taking it one game at a time and becoming better every day. We’re practicing as hard as we play and working on developing a mental toughness. After Sunday, there is no question that we can do it. We’re all really excited to get back out there.”

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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

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Second-half flurry leads Amherst past Tufts MEN’S SOCCER

continued from page 13

more dynamic offensively and eventually led to the game-winning goal.

“We think it’s very hard to defend us if you have to defend 70 yards of width,” he said.

“That’s going to make Gus [Santos], [junior forward] Franco Silva, and the other fast guys up front more dangerous. Ultimately, a great ball from Kyle unlocked them and Gus showed what he can do and won the game for us.”

Shapiro elected to play six freshmen at the beginning of overtime. Santos, Volpe and Hoppenot were joined by defensemen Sam Williams and Peter Lee-Kramer, plus midfielder Kento Nakamura. Less than a month into the 2011 campaign, the firstyears have already shown maturity beyond their years, impressing their head coach and earning his trust.

“I think they’re growing up quickly,” Shapiro said. “I think Sam Williams doesn’t look like a freshman anymore.

Peter [Lee-]Kramer is beginning to not look like a freshman anymore. Kyle Volpe and Kento Nakamura are becoming integral parts of our midfield. It’s definitely an encouraging sign.”

Sophomore defenseman Ben Ewing offered high praise for Williams and Kramer — the Jumbos’ two starting center backs.

“It really is no different playing with two freshmen on defense,” he said. “Sam and Pete are both exceptional players, and neither one of them lacks the confidence to play at this level.”

Tufts appeared to be the stronger team throughout Sunday’s match, generating five shots on goal and 14 total tries against the Bantams. It was a strong response from Tufts, which needed a promising offensive performance after Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Amherst.

“It was crucial for us to beat Trinity,” said Ewing, who has been a mainstay at right back for the Jumbos. “We played well, got the result we deserved, but most importantly, we regained our momentum that we can bring into [Saturday’s] game against Conn.

College and the rest of the season.”

Although the Jumbos played tight with the Lord Jeffs early on, Amherst registered a trio of goals in just 11:34 of game action at the beginning of the second half to quickly put Tufts away.

Sophomore forward Jae Heo scored the first on a header in front of the goal. Junior

Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville

forward Spencer Noon pounced on another header to double the advantage. And junior midfielder Alejandro Sucre added the third, after controlling a Heo rebound and slotting the ball past Jumbos’ senior goalkeeper Alan Bernstein.

Shapiro thought the match was actually much closer than the 3-0 score showed.

“It was a game that we felt was pretty even between the penalty boxes,” he said. “We didn’t see our lines well enough, and they made more precision plays than us. We have to realize that soccer isn’t all about what happen between the boxes.”

Ewing echoed his coach’s sentiments and even took something positive out of Saturday’s disappointing result.

“We learned that we can play with anyone in this league,” he said. “But when it comes down to it, you have to make plays in the penalty boxes. Amherst did that and we didn’t.”

Having regained their momentum against the Bantams, the Jumbos’ focus will turn to the Conn. College Camels, who come to Kraft Field on Saturday. The Camels are 5-3 overall and 3-3 in the NESCAC after splitting their weekend matches against Bowdoin and Middlebury.

Kyra Sturgill/Tufts Daily

Freshman midfielder Gus Santos snapped a scoreless streak of over 200 minutes with his golden goal.

DAILY DIGITS

25 Consecutive road losses for the Detroit Lions before they ran off five straight wins in their last five away games, culminating in a 34-30 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday.

The Lions have been adept at playing from behind, coming back in all three of their road contests this season. No deficit was larger than Sunday’s: The Lions trailed 27-3 in the third quarter and looked to be done. But, led

by Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson, the team went on a 31-3 run, scoring the go-ahead touchdown with less than two minutes to go.

0.72 Yards per carry for Tufts in its 28-9 loss to the Bates Bobcats on Saturday. This put added pressure on senior quarterback Johnny Lindquist, who tossed four interceptions with zero touchdowns. It also led to a series of short fields for the Bates’ offense, which capitalized and put points on the board multiple times. The loss was just the team’s second to the Bobcats since 1986.

Tufts will look to get its first win of the season when Bowdoin comes to Zimman Field on Saturday.

5 Return touchdowns in Sunday night’s matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets. After Ed Reed forced a fumble that was taken into the end zone by Jameel McClain on the Jets’ first offensive play, Joe McKnight took the ensuing kickoff 107 yards to the house.

Each team added an interception return for a touchdown, while Baltimore forced one more fumble that was returned all the way en route to a 34-17 victory.

2005

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The last time the men’s and women’s soccer teams both defeated Trinity on the same day before doing so once again on Sunday. The women’s side controlled their game from start to finish and walked away with a 2-0 victory, while the men’s team won in exciting fashion with a golden goal.

Interestingly enough, the men also won in overtime back in 2005. Thanks to the pair of victories, the women now sit third in the conference, while the men moved up to sixth.

Starts by Matt Moore in the Major Leagues before taking the mound Friday in Game 1 of the American League Divisional Series against the Texas Rangers.

Despite his inexperience, Moore dominated the Rangers’ potent offense for seven shutout innings, allowing just two hits. He easily out-dueled Texas ace C.J. Wilson, earning the win in a 9-0 Rays victory. After yesterday’s game, the Rangers now lead the series 2-1.

Number of penalty stroke goals scored by the Dyer twins this weekend, including one game-winner from each twin on Sunday. Tufts senior co-captain Taylor Dyer scored against Trinity on Sunday in overtime to clinch a 3-2 Tufts win, while Taylor’s sister, Tatum, who goes to American University, fired one past Temple for an Eagles victory the same day. Taylor’s first goal of the weekend came Saturday against Amherst.

Doing the goat

W

henever anything goes wrong in my life, I tend to deflect blame onto something else, preferably an intangible or helpless entity. Step in a puddle? Bad karma. Fail a test? Teacher’s fault; too hard.

Mother gets mad at me for not flushing the toilet? Blame the dog.

This mentality is at once irrational and an accurate explanation for the Terry Francona situation and, for that matter, every reactionary coaching decision in history.

The notion of a scapegoat extends back to the Old Testament and Leviticus. In chapter 16, Aaron lays his hands on a live goat, confessing the Israelites’ iniquities and their sins before sending the goat away into the wilderness. The goat, it is written, will carry the Israelites’ burden past the city limits and into the wild.

The eerie parallels between the way we treat sports and the way the Israelites, well … built a nation, was initially brought up

by Ohio minister Kathleen Rolenz in the ESPN documentary “Catching Hell” (2011), the story of exiled Chicago sports fan Steve Bartman. Bartman was the ultimate scapegoat, the film argues, a peaceful man forced to unfairly bear the weight of a suffering sports town, a man who’s never returned after being forced out the door.

Within this knee-jerk sports world in which we dwell, Francona’s departure makes sense. The Red Sox went 7-20 in September and blew a 9.5-game Wild Card lead to the Tampa Bay Rays and missed the postseason despite a gaudy payroll and an All-Star lineup that got preseason touts as the greatest in Boston history.

This is textbook. Players underperform late in the season. Fan morale tanks. The media descends. Insane notions of curses resurface. And the spotlight falls on the expendable one, the non-investment, the scapegoat. It’s unavoidable; that much is certain.

But why?

We’ve traced the scapegoat’s origins as a method of expelling sin and immaterial notions of wrongdoing. At its core, having a scapegoat makes us feel better. It deflects blame from ourselves and shoulders the burden onto an object that cannot fight back.

And somewhere along the line, it superseded a religious purpose and entered the everyday sports lexicon. Scapegoating is no longer about righting our wrongs; it’s about righting the wrongs of those whom we feel have wronged us.

The assumption is that the blame falls on a manager. When Terry Francona tells the media about “my team’s” failures, he’s using the first-person possessive for a reason. He shoulders the burden because he must — because when ink touched the dotted line eight seasons ago, the implications were as meaningful as the money.

You win, you’re a hero. You lose, you’re a goat. Players will get blamed on a micro level, on a game-to-game basis. An error here, a blown save there, you get the idea.

It’ll get written up in the newspapers and on the blogs, only to disappear within days.

That’s inherent with a 162-game season.

But tank September, string together errors and blown leads on a daily basis, and somewhere along the line the blame shifts from the soldiers to the general.

Phrased like that, it only seems natural that Francona would exit unceremoniously, leaving behind him a decade of glory and two World Series. Francona is the rule, not the exception.

Granted, some Red Sox will be scapegoated too. John Lackey has attained pariah status and Carl Crawford will be highly scrutinized for his gaudy contract that hardly matches up with an inability to catch Texas Leaguers.

Francona has exiled himself past Boston’s city limits and there are surely greener pastures ahead. The gates of Chicago have opened, but the unmistakable stench of Beantown’s frustration, etched into the scapegoat’s hide, will forever linger.

Alex Prewitt is a senior majoring in English and religion. He can be reached on his blog at http://livefrommudville.blogspot.com or followed on Twitter at @Alex_Prewitt.

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