2011-10-25

THE TUFTS DAILY

Mostly Sunny 62/39

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 32

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Task Force Somalia to receive earnings from Cause Dinner

by Josh

Weiner

Daily Staff Writer

This semester’s Cause Dinner, a biannual charity event hosted by Tufts University Dining Services, will take place tonight in Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall and Carmichael Dining Hall.

Money raised through the dinner will go to Task Force Somalia, an undergraduaterun organization created in response to the famine in East Africa, which plans to funnel the money to UNICEF in order to provide food aid to the victims of the lethal drought.

Students who head to either dining hall for their evening meal tonight will have the option of “double swiping” their IDs upon entering, which will charge the students for two meals instead of one, according to co-Chair of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate Services Committee Lia Weintraub, a sophomore.

A donation of $2.50 per meal will go to Task Force Somalia. Students without meal plans can also donate to the cause using JumboCash, according to freshman Rebecca Dewey, co-chair of Task Force Somalia.

The Senate Services Committee last Thursday selected Task Force Somalia as the group toward which proceeds from the Cause Dinner will go, according to Committee coChair Jeremy Zelinger, a junior.

Based on the amount of money raised in past years, the Senate estimates that the group will raise between $1,000 and $1,200 from student donations tonight, according to Weintraub.

The event has occurred on campus once per semester since the 1970s, according to Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos.

“Cause Dinner creates an opportunity for a worthy organization to benefit from the generosity of Tufts students,” Klos said.

“It’s a great opportunity for students to understand specific means by which to help the larger world.”

Task Force Somalia is a newly-formed student group comprised of members of the Institute for Global Leadership and Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, according to Dewey.

Members of Task Force Somalia will be stationed at the entrance to both dining halls tonight, advertising their cause and providing “Fast Facts” sheets about the ongoing famine, Dewey said.

Task Force Somalia is working to help provide humanitarian aid to the millions of Somali citizens whose lives have been threatened by the worst drought in East Africa in the past 60 years, she added.

“Sending aid to this region has become a very pressing issue,” Dewey said. “750,000 people could die from this famine in the next twelve months, and there are already 12 million people lacking sufficient resources. Not only do you have a famine going on, but you also have many people who cannot get aid because Somalia’s government is so disoriented.”

In light of the government disorganization, Task Force Somalia will be working with the UN relief agency, UNICEF, to distribute the funds raised.

“UNICEF is one of the few organizations in Somalia with good access to aid,” Dewey added. “They’re very reliable, they can reach out to people and we felt they were the best organization to support.” see DINNER, page 2

Tufts Ivory Book aims to revive Jumbo spirit

by Julia

Wedgle

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate earlier this month voted unanimously to endorse a project of Senator Yulia Korovikov to research means of editing and distributing the Tufts Ivory Book, a pocket-sized book containing university history and traditions.

The book is a modern reincarnaContributing Writer

tion of the Tufts Ivy Book, a book containing Tufts traditions that was published annually between 1902 and 1971 by the Ivy Society, a sophomore honor society disbanded in the ’70s, according to Director of the Digital Collections and Archives (DCA) and University Archivist Anne Sauer.

Korovikov, a junior, brought the book see IVORY BOOK, page 2

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

The Tufts Ivory Book, which contains information about university history and traditions, was reprinted this summer and distributed to freshmen during Orientation week.

Inside this issue

Justin McCallum/Tufts Daily

Students joined with union representatives and members of the Tufts janitorial staff yesterday to air their grievances about UGL Unicco’s failure to fill 62 vacant janitorial positions.

Students, janitors protest hiring practices by

Elizabeth McKay

Daily Editorial Board

Dozens of Tufts students, janitors and union representatives marched to Ballou Hall yesterday afternoon to protest the hiring practices of UGL Unicco, Tufts’ new campus-cleaning contractor.

The march began in front of Tilton Hall, where representatives of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Jumbo Janitor Alliance (JJA) denounced Tufts’ new janitorial service provider’s failure to fill 62 vacant janitorial positions, despite the abundance of part-time workers willing to take on full-time positions.

The controversy began over the summer when Tufts switched its janitorial services contractor from American Building Maintenance Industries to UGL Unicco.

Sixty-two janitorial positions were vacated in the wake of the move but have yet to be filled, according to Matt Gulish, deputy director of Higher Education for SEIU, the union that represents Tufts’ janitors and maintenance workers.

“There are a lot of part-time workers and janitors here at Tufts that would love to be full-time and really need the hours in order to get healthcare and benesee JANITORS, page 2

Students appointed to serve on student-faculty committees

by Victoria

Leistman

Contributing Writer

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate last week announced the appointment of 29 students to 12 different studentfaculty committees, having received an unusually high volume of applications for committee seats this year.

Selected students will work side by side with faculty members to contribute student opinions to decisions on various campus affairs.

Applications for students wishing to serve on student-faculty committees were due at the beginning of the month. TCU Vice President Wyatt Cadley selected which applicants would serve on which committees, and the Provost’s Office approved each student last week.

“I am very satisfied with how this whole process turned out,” Cadley, a junior, said.

The number of applications this year exceeded expectations, he added. Between 30 and 40 students applied to serve on various student-faculty committees, and many candidates applied to serve on more than one committee.

Traditionally, most candidates for the positions have been TCU senators. This year, however, Cadley received approximately a dozen applicants from non-senators and selected 11 to serve.

The application process required interested

students to provide basic personal information and to submit a 250-word essay explaining why they wanted to represent their peers.

In the past, applicants often served on more than one committee in order to fill positions that otherwise lacked student interest.

This year, however, every position was filled and very few students were appointed to serve on multiple committees, Cadley said.

Applicants had the option to serve on one of the following committees: Athletics, Budget & Priorities, Campus Planning & Development, A&S Curriculum, Engineering Curriculum, Educational Policy, Equal Educational Opportunity, Faculty Research Support & Facilities, Information Technology, Library, Summer School and Undergraduate Admission & Financial Aid Committees.

Seats in the Budget & Priorities and Education & Policy Committees were the most desired positions this year, with between eight and 10 students applying for each one, Cadley said.

Seth Teleky, a junior, was one of the nonsenator applicants chosen to serve on the Budget & Priorities Committee. Teleky, who is also an assistant op-ed editor for the Daily, said he found out about the opportunity through a friend on the Senate and through an announcement posted on TuftsLife.

“I’m generally interested in seeing what happens, as someone who hasn’t served see COMMITTEE, page 2

Today’s sections

The Daily takes a look at the Hindu community at Tufts.

The Daily reviews a new Western, ‘Blackthorn.’

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Comics Arts & Living

1 3 4 5

Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Classifieds Sports

8 9 10 Back

The Tufts Daily

2 Police Briefs Watch your mouth!

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) at 1:45 p.m. on Oct. 21 responded to a noise complaint on College Avenue.

When the officers arrived at the offcampus house, they saw approximately 20 people inside.

“We heard a lot of wild music,” Sgt. Robert McCarthy said. TUPD identified the residents of the house and broke up the party. One of the residents was not happy that TUPD was present, McCarthy noted, and asked the officers to leave.

As the officers were leaving, one of the residents “called an officer an a-hole,” McCarthy said. Because the officers had identified the student, a report about her behavior was sent to the Office of Student Affairs.

Treacherous Talbot Avenue At 2:43 p.m. on Oct. 22, a student approached TUPD officers on Talbot Ave. to report that his friend had fallen off his skateboard. The friend

was lying in the street and bleeding from the head. He was transported to Cambridge Memorial Hospital and was treated but not admitted overnight.

Out Cold At 3:21 a.m. on Oct. 22, TUPD received a call that a male individual was passed out on the ground on a street on campus.

When the officers arrived at the scene, they identified him as a Tufts student. Armstrong Ambulance Service transported the student to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Five other students were admitted to either Somerville Hospital or Lawrence Memorial Hospital this weekend due to alcohol poisoning. One was transported from Cousens Gym, two from Houston Hall and two from Bush Hall.

“It is a lot really, we’ve had more,” McCarthy said, regarding the number of students admitted to area hospitals for alcohol poisoning over the weekend.

—by Marie Schow

News

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

TCU Senate appoints fresh faces to student-faculty committees

COMMITTEE

continued from page 1

before and isn’t involved in the Senate,” Teleky said.

On each committee, there is a facultystudent ratio of about three or four to one, Cadley said.

“Everyone [operates] in good faith, with students learning from the faculty and the faculty learning from the students,” Cadley said.

Rules within the TCU Constitution guided Cadley in the selection process. The document dictates that a TCU senator must be on every committee to ensure that someone will be able to report back to the Senate on committee affairs, Cadley said.

Many of the individual committees’ bylaws also require that there be at least one student from the School of Engineering represented.

Cadley said that while ensuring this was one of his most difficult tasks, this year he was able to fill every seat reserved for engineers.

Most seats are occupied by fresh faces, Cadley noted, as only a few of last year’s members returned to the committees on which

they served in the 2010-2011 academic year.

“There are pros and cons of having new voices come in versus having a certain degree of stability year to year,” Cadley said. “We try and find a balance between the two.”

TCU Treasurer Christie Maciejewski, who served on the Budget & Priorities Committee last year, said that committee meetings are conducted as open discussions in which faculty encourage student members to share their opinions.

Richa Batra, a senior who served on the Equal Educational Opportunity Committee two years ago, echoed this sentiment, noting that that faculty seemed open to listening to student views.

“Students definitely brought a different perspective to the meetings,” she said. “I loved the experience because I felt like I saw different side of Tufts.”

Cadley said that students do have power to influence the meeting proceedings.

“I think the impact is substantial,” he said.

“Whether it be offering student input or student opinions, even setting the student agenda for what certain students want to talk about.”

Janitors and supporters bring grievances to Monaco JANITORS

continued from page 1

fits,” Jumbo Janitor Alliance Treasurer Daniel Rosebrock, a junior, added.

The absence of 62 workers on campus negatively affects the remaining workers’ ability to do their jobs, Rosebrock noted.

“There’s no one working those hours, so dorms are getting understaffed,” he said.

Paula Castillo, a janitor who has worked at the university for 15 years and serves as an elected representative of Tufts janitors to SEIU, agreed.

“Now we can’t keep the place clean the way it was [before],” she told the Daily through a translator. “There are fewer workers, [but] we have more work.”

“Now I clean West Hall and Bendetson, and I only have seven-and-a-half hours,” she added.

During the march, which was organized by both SEIU representatives and the JJA, the crowd of approximately 60 traveled from Tilton Hall to Ballou, chanting in both Spanish and English slogans such as “Tufts escucha!

Estamos en la lucha,” and “No pare, sigue! Sigue!” [“Tufts, listen! We are in the fight! … Don’t

stop; keep going! Keep going!”]

After several minutes of chanting in front of Ballou, University President Anthony Monaco came outside to greet the cheering crowd.

He thanked those present for bringing the problem to his attention and promised future action.

“I was not aware that we had an issue,” he said. “I am very happy to look into what the issue is for you to see if we can come to some resolution.”

He encouraged the protesters to contact Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell with additional questions.

In response to Monaco’s address, JJA co-Chair Liam Walsh-Mellett, a sophomore, expressed his disappointment that Tufts did not ensure that the contractor followed up on previous promises to retain all current Tufts janitors.

“Last year we talked to Patricia Campbell, and Patricia Campbell and [Vice President for Operations] Dick Reynolds assured us that in the change of contractors that no conditions would change … And now that’s not the case,” Walsh-Mellett said to the crowd.

Revamped Tufts Ivory Book keeps traditions alive IVORY BOOK

continued from page 1

back to life this summer after reading old issues of the Tufts Weekly — the predecessor to the Tufts Observer — and noticing frequent mentions of the Ivy Book. She recognized the current lack of Jumbo pride on campus, and she set about trying to revive it.

“The Tufts Ivory book is a little book of Tufts spirit,” Korovikov said.

The pocket-sized book contains sections explaining topics such as university history and traditions and lists Tufts facts, figures, divisions, fraternities and sororities, clubs, athletics, songs and cheers, as well as the university calendar.

The Senate voted over the summer to approve distribution of the book, according to TCU Vice President Wyatt Cadley, a junior. He said the book provided insight into what it means be a Jumbo and is a great way to boost spirit on campus.

Korovikov received funding from the Tufts University Alumni Association (TUAA), the Office of Student Affairs, Tufts Health Service, Tufts Athletics, DCA and Tufts Public Relations.

The funding was enough to print 800 copies of the book, most of which were distributed to freshman during Orientation, according to Korovikov.

“We feel a little bit betrayed,” he added.

The president again assured the group that he would examine the matter, before he departed amid cries of “Si se puede!”

Union representatives are expected to meet with UGL Unicco today to discuss the school’s contract, according to Rosebrock. The march organizers hoped that yesterday’s display of solidarity would pressure the contractor to fill the 62 vacant positions, Rosebrock added.

“We’re trying to put a little bit of pressure onto the contractor, just to tell them what they did was wrong,” he said. “We just want to get as much student support to show that what the contractor did wasn’t right.”

The start of a new Tufts presidency was also a motivation for the rally, according to Gulish.

“We know there’s a new president that may not be aware of the situation, and because we’re concerned that the contractor will keep on delaying and delaying and delaying and not allow people to move from part-time to full-time,” he told the Daily.

“We thought that now was a

She is now working to put a PDF version of the book to put on the TCU Senate website.

The original form of the Ivy Book was a pocket-sized book that all freshmen were required to carry.

It contained information such as a calendar, college policies, campus cheers and songs, a schedule of athletic events and a list of traditions.

A new version of the book was published each year.

Sauer explained that the Ivy Book in its original form ceased to be produced when the Ivy Society disbanded.

“The disbanding of the Ivy Society occurred at about the same time that a whole host of student organizations were ended,” Sauer said in an email. “The interests of the student body changed, and there was a desire to begin new traditions and new groups.”

With the disbandment of the Ivy Society, the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs began publishing a similar document called the Student Handbook in 1971. The university later replaced the Student Handbook with the Pachyderm in 1977.

Korovikov aims to keep the old traditions alive by printing a new copy of the Ivory Book each year.

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

University President Anthony Monaco told protesters that he was unaware of the complaints against cleaning services provider UGL Unicco, and promised to look into the matter. good time to come educate the president and make sure that the contractor knows how deeply we care about this,” he added.

Castillo expressed her hope that future events will see more involved students.

“We hope that the students

support us,” she said. “I want to thank all the students for fighting along with us.”

“Only workers can’t [make change]. But if we get support from the students, I think we can do it. I think all together, we can,” she continued.

Cause Dinner benefits UNICEF in Somalia DINNER

continued from page 1

The Senate received applications from 11 charity organizations this year, all hoping to be promoted at Cause Dinner, according to Weintraub. She was impressed with the pool of applicants this year.

“We had applications for groups working for causes in the Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Cambridge and more,”Weintraub said. “They were supporting a wide variety of global communities.”

Zelinger agreed, noting the difficulty the committee had in selecting the winner.

“It was really hard to choose just one,” he said. “We had to meet with the committee and

decide which group would benefit the most from people donating the value of a meal to them.”

Zelinger thinks that the Senate’s selection of Task Force Somalia was the right choice.

“Out of all the groups that applied, we felt that Task Force Somalia represented the most current and pressing cause,” Zelinger said. “A lot of students would recognize the importance of this cause and be willing to contribute to it.”

Weintraub strongly encourages students to participate in Cause Dinner.

“It takes such little effort and makes such a difference,” she said. “It will really spread awareness in the area of what’s going on in Somalia right now.”

Daily File Photo

Students entering Dewick-MacPhie or Carmichael Dining Hall tonight can give $2.50 to benefit humanitarian efforts in Somalia by donating an extra meal.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Kacey Rayder | Insult to Injury

How much is that doggy in the window?

I

Kyra Sturgill/Tufts Daily

Hindu students at Tufts find a sense of community and an open forum for worship on the Hill.

Faith on the Hill: Hinduism by

Melissa MacEwen

Daily Editorial Board

When the Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali, hits the Hill tomorrow, Hinduism will once again return to the spotlight at Tufts. And when it does, it’ll be in full force — the Hindu religion at Tufts, while small in numbers, is solidly represented by a close-knit community who worship both individually and as part of student organizations such as the Hindu Students Council (HSC).

Outside the walls of college campuses, Hinduism is classified as a minority religion in the United States, according to a 2012 statistical abstract from the U.S. Census Bureau.

This is hardly surprising, given that only with the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Services Act of 1965 did a significant number of Hindus begin to immigrate to the United States from India and other parts of Asia.

The nuts and bolts of the practice of Hinduism range from person to person, but Tufts’ Hindus are quick to point out that Hinduism is much more a way of life than a religion. According to the HSC’s secretary, sophomore Neha Madhusoodanan, Hinduism centers on a belief that an overarching power or force balances nature and peoples’ lives. Dietary restrictions, prayer schedules and participating in festivals all come secondarily, she said.

“Hindus in general are not very zealous or dogmatic about their religion because it’s not really a religion,” Madhusoodanan said. “We do pray to gods, but it’s a lot more about philosophy.”

Adhvait Shah, a senior and co-president of HSC, stressed the ubiquity and universal access to the Hindu deity.

“God is everywhere,” he said. “You can remember him any time you want.

As far as rituals go, Hinduism is a lifestyle. You can practice your lifestyle wherever you go. It all comes down to faith.”

HSC Vice President Malvika Arya, a sophomore, explained that Hinduism is best understood in the context of “Om,” a Hindu mantra that expresses the concept of the essence of the

entire universe.

Contrary to Western misconceptions, Hinduism is essentially a monotheistic, rather than polytheistic religion, Arya explained.

“We pray to gods because gods are reincarnations of the force; you can’t pray to a force. Om is basically the center of Hinduism,” she said.

“In Hinduism, we think that God is everywhere, in every human. We pray to statues because it helps us focus, but really, God is everywhere. He’s in the trees, he’s in the air. Because God is so omnipresent, we don’t need to take time out of our lives to remember him or to pray to him.”

The concerns of Hindus who practice at Tufts are primarily logistical ones. Madhusoodanan mentioned, for example, that religious fasts called for

by Hindu custom sometimes interfere with her ability to participate in dance practices.

Priyanka Kancherla, a senior and co-president of HSC, added that often the independence students gain when coming to college can be accompanied by the challenge of self-motivation.

“Here we really have to seek out — why are we doing this?” Kancherla explained. “Why are we celebrating this? At home, you have your parents to tell you what to do and how to do it.

It’s a much more self-driven initiative here,” Kancherla said.

As is the case with many Hindus at Tufts, freshman Annirudh Balachandran’s family is spread around the globe. He sees the HSC as a way to maintain a supportive community.

“You miss the family aspect of it — trips to the temple, money on holidays. Everything is a family affair.

Being a part of the Hindu community at Tufts helps make that absence easier,” he said.

“The good thing is you don’t miss out on the social aspect of things here. You get to hang out and talk about what’s going on in your life,” Balachandran said.

Though many students do come to Tufts having grown up in a primarily Hindu environment, others only begin to discover Hinduism for themselves after arriving at college.

Having grown up in a particularly culturally diverse part of New York

with companions who were mostly also first-generation Americans from a diverse set of backgrounds, Madhusoodanan likened her personal discovery of Hinduism when she got to Tufts to a “Julia Roberts spiritual awakening.”

“I think that it took me a while before I got to a point where I wanted to practice,” she said.

“My family is mixed religion — we’re half Jain [a small but politically influential religion based in India] and half Hindu,” Madhusoodanan said. “I think that a lot of people get to college and find their religion. Honestly, for me I think it happened out of guilt.”

Kancherla said HSC has undergone a period of growth and transition since she joined as a freshman, and that it now includes between 14 and 20 regular members.

“It’s been one of my most rewarding experiences here to see the club grow,” she said. “We now have weekly meetings [and] people come to our events … It’s been just so rewarding to know that I’m a part of that, and to watch that happen.”

The club actively engages its members in traditional Hindu practices and provides them with a way to get in touch with their heritage. At the beginning of each meeting, Kancherla said, the council holds a prayer known as “aarti.” During finals week of each semester, members engage in a traditional ritual in which students place all of their study materials on an altar to be blessed. “[HSC] helps because after a long day of work … it’s nice to come to meetings and relax or … make rangolis [artwork made with sand],” Balachandran said.

Tufts’ Hindus also try to engage the entire Tufts community to participate in holidays such as Diwali and Holi, the Hindu festival of color that welcomes the arrival of spring and celebrates the triumph of good over evil.

Hundreds of Jumbos hit the Res Quad every year to join in the celebration of Holi by throwing colored powder and water on each other. “[ Throwing powder] dissolves all barriers. It is this philosophy that has been woven into the festival,” Shah said. “All our festivals have significance like that.”

’d like to apologize in advance if this column is a little less articulate than my previous ones, as I’m currently at home recovering from a tonsillectomy. I’m hoping to be done with this recovery from hell soon enough; then I can get back to feeling normal again.

This week’s column topic, however, is completely unrelated to my tonsils — or lack thereof. I have chosen to address the issue of pets; namely, the issue posed by people who own pets but cannot afford them. Having worked as a veterinary technician for six consecutive summers, I’ve seen my fair share of both responsible — and irresponsible — pet owners. The responsible owners come in annually to get their pets vaccinated, spay and/or neuter their new pets as needed and don’t whine endlessly about the cost of medications like Frontline and Heartgard. The irresponsible owners do just the opposite.

My main argument can be summed up in one sentence: if you can’t afford to vaccinate an animal, feed it, neuter or spay it and protect it against fleas and ticks, you shouldn’t be allowed to own a pet. It’s unfair both to you and your furry friend. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen someone walk into the vet’s office I worked at with a dog — and, consequently, a house and car — completely infested with fleas, only to have the owner either refuse to believe that the infestation is really that bad, or refuse to pay for treatment.

Flea and tick prevention is extremely important for your animal. A small animal can actually die from flea anemia. I once helped treat a cat whose white fur had turned pink because it had so many fleas.

In addition, parasites like fleas, ticks and ear mites feed on humans as well as animals. By not treating your animal, you are basically inviting a whole host of parasites into your home — and these things nest everywhere.

Heartworm prevention is equally important for your pet. Heartworm disease is transferred via mosquito bite, so unless you’re giving your animal some kind of heartworm prevention pill every month, you are literally taking a shot in the dark as to whether or not your pet might get infected.

Heartworms are dangerous — albeit really cool to look at under a microscope — and recovery is definitely not fun for your dog — crate confinement and very little exercise until the worms are gone, which can take months.

Perhaps my biggest gripe here is people not spaying or neutering their pets.

I think there should be a law mandating that, unless you are a certified breeder, you must spay or neuter your cat or dog. The problem of pet overpopulation connects directly to the problem of people wanting their pet to have “just one litter.” What happens when you can’t sell the puppies or kittens in that litter? They end up in a shelter.

Shelters are overcrowded for this very reason — if you want a new puppy or kitten, please go to a shelter. And please spay it or neuter it. Having a pet go through a pregnancy is an extremely expensive process — if you go through it the right way — and unless you are a breeder, chances are half of the puppies or kittens are going to end up in a shelter anyway.

Do the right thing, and wait until you can afford a pet before you make the commitment to that new puppy or kitten. That animal depends on you to take care of it, and if you can’t provide for it, who else does your furry friend have to turn to?

Kacey Rayder is a junior majoring in English.

She can be reached at Kacey.Rayder@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

4

Comics

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

by

Monday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Pulling off a sexy nurse costume

Late Night at the Daily Monday’s Solution

Carter: “Vin Diesel as Moses? Yes, please!”

Please recycle this Daily.

Wiley

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

Restaurant Review

Catalyst creates pricey, delicious experience by

Alec Schilling

Contributing Writer

Walking into Catalyst Restaurant, it is abundantly clear that you are in Massachusetts Institute of Technology terri-

Catalyst 300 Technology Square Cambridge, MA 02139 (617) 576-3000 Price Range ($-$$$$): $$$ tory. The spacious dining room features an uncovered concrete floor, no-frills wooden tables and a wooden latticework ceiling through which you can just see exposed pipes and vents. Instead of feeling unfinished, however, the effect is one of elegant simplicity. Floor-to-ceiling windows look out on Kendall Square, and the lighting is dark enough to feel cozy but light enough to read your menu.

My mother, aunt and I ordered drinks from the full bar while we perused the menu.

I recommend the FloraDora, a house drink with Hendricks gin, lime and muddled raspberries. Being big believers in eating familystyle, we ordered three appetizers and two entrees and split everything, a request that the helpful staff easily accommodated.

First up: an arugula and endive salad with Asian pear, walnuts, Berkshire bleu cheese and a whole-grain mustard vinai-

grette. Generally, to enjoy an arugula and endive salad, one ought to have a particular love of sharp, somewhat bitter foods, but the sweetness of the pear and the bleu cheese balanced the flavors out nicely. This dish was finished at an undignified speed, and I caught my mother using her fingers to pinch up the last little pieces of bleu cheese before the server took the plate away.

Next was the farmers’ market vegetable salad, which featured turnips, fennel, radishes, peppercress and a topping of crispy onions — basically tiny little onion rings. The dish was unfortunately forgettable. It lacked both flavor and interesting presentation. The crispy onions were definitely the best part.

Moving right along, we had the appetizersize version of the mushroom ravioli with “hen of the woods” mushrooms. I have no idea what “hen of the woods” actually means, but it’s freaking delicious. Despite the poultry reference, the dish was actually vegetarian and featured perfectly cooked ravioli stuffed with pockets of earthy, savory mushrooms. Even my self-proclaimed food-snob aunt declared this dish “more than passable” as she snatched the last piece directly off my plate.

Then they brought out the big guns. We ordered the honey-glazed duck breast with baby turnip, bok choy and water chestnuts, and the tournedos of beef with rainbow chard, Taleggio ravioli, garlic and parsley bordelaise sauce — both medium-rare.

The duck was a shade rare for my taste, but still delicious, with a peppery crust and a sweet sauce to balance out the saltiness. A word of caution: The dish consisted of several slices of duck and proved too much even for

Movie Review

our voracious appetites. Order only if you’re feeling extremely hungry and ambitious.

The tournedos of beef were the highlight of an already impressive meal. For those of you who, like me, have no idea what tournedos are, the term refers to the central portion of the tenderloin. The two medallions were perfectly cooked — juicy, but not too rare; garlicky, but not overwhelmingly so. The rainbow chard was an ideal accompaniment; it allowed us to pretend to be healthy as we tore through slabs of red meat and creamy bordelaise sauce. The last few bites of this dish sparked major family drama, but thankfully the staff seemed accustomed to this type of competition.

At this point in the meal, the three of us were borderline comatose, but I had already offered to write a review, and by God, I was going to order dessert if it killed me. I looked at the menu for about thirty seconds, saw the word “chocolate” and placed my order. The dish turned out to be chocolate fondant with caramel glaze, banana coulis and hazelnut streusel. A chocolate mousse-esque interior covered by a more solid chocolate layer wasn’t quite what I was expecting, but the plate blew me out of the water nonetheless.

Good thing I wore my stretchy pants.

Though I definitely want to go back to sample the rest of Catalyst’s menu, the price and location are deterrents for a humble college student. I would recommend dining there with parents — they’ll love the sleek decor and well-prepared, elegantly presented food. You, on the other hand, will get a meal that will put Dewick-MacPhie to shame.

Theater Review

‘Blackthorn’ imperfectly ‘Or’ a shallow re-examines iconic Western waste of time

by Samantha

Ferello

Contributing Writer

Ridiculous. That was the one word going through my head both during and after the Lyric Stage Company

Or Written by Liz Duffy Adams Directed by Daniel Gidron At the Lyric Stage Company through Nov. 6 Tickets $25 to $65

The film, a spiritual successor to “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969), follows James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard), a well-respected American playwright. The setting is Bolivia; the time, a few decades after the iconic standoff that supposedly put a definitive end to our merry band of outlaws.

In fact, that isn’t so — Butch Cassidy has returned, and he’s a rather cranky old man.

There are clumsy expository details about returning to America, a squirrelly bit about some money that Cassidy’s traveling companion, Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega), has stolen from an abandoned mine and a dark-clad band of horsemen in hot pursuit.

All the tidy plot-point boxes get checked off nicely, and there’s even a measure of contrived, shoehorned-in romance with a beautiful — and much younger — Bolivian woman (Magaly Solier). Also thrown in: doses of screenwriter-induced improbabilities, courtesy of Miguel Barros.

Rolled together, these missteps conspire to make the opening act a cer-

of Boston’s play “Or.” This production was so utterly ridiculous that I’m itching to convey how disappointing it was.

“Or,” written by Yale School of Drama alumnus Liz Duffy Adams and directed by Daniel Gidron, builds on the mysterious life of Aphra Behn (Stacy Fischer), alleged spy and one of the first female playwrights in 1660s Britain. Having just returned from espionage work for the king, Behn plans to start a career as a playwright. First, however, she must find a patron and escape debtor’s prison.

When King Charles II (Ro’ee Levi) steps up as her patron — and lover, Behn’s life becomes chaotic as she attempts to juggle secret relationships, finish her first play and escape her haunting life as a spy. “Or’s” plot points — which fail to balance with excessive, hefty dialogue — culminate in a peaceful morning scene as Behn finally manages to finish her play … and begins a threesome with her patron and her play’s leading actress, Nell Gwynn (Hanna Husband).

Adams focuses on the changing possibilities for women during the enlightened reign of Charles II. This

see BLACKTHORN, page 5

see OR, page 5

Courtesy Magnet Releasing

The quieter moments featuring Sam Shepard are among the most compelling of the film.

by John-Michael Sequeira

Shoot a proper Western these days and you have to do something different: let it run for as long as its title — Senior Staff Writer

Blackthorn Starring Eduardo Noriega, Sam Shepard, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier Directed by Mateo Gil see “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007) — be sure your last name is Coen — see “True Grit” (2010) — or reinvent an American classic a la “The Good, the Bad, the Weird” (2008).

So director Mateo Gil is in a rather tough spot now that the genre’s standards have been ratcheted up in recent years. Gil attempts to take the “inspired by” approach, but a flat-footed script and uncertain direction leave “Blackthorn” an interesting but flawed mix of mostly half-baked ideas.

Alexandria Chu | Hit Li(s)t

World adventure

A

s we get deeper into the first semester and it gets colder out, I always find myself enjoying being intellectual: getting a cup of hot chocolate, curling up in leather couches with blankets and reading a good book.

The following book is neither East Coast nor West Coast, as previous weeks have explored, but an intellectual adventure all around the world.

Author: E.H. Gombrich Title: “A Little History of the World” (1935) Number of Pages: 284 in the 2005 Yale University Press edition Originally In: German I miss geography class. Somewhere between middle school and high school, the subject faded away, and I doubt you’ve met many geography majors in college.

Gombrich’s book brings me back to geography days of yore, with its brevity and endless parade of names and nations. Yet, unlike a normal history textbook with names, times and lots of details, Gombrich covers the entire history of our universe in less than 300 pages. Although I’m sure he’s left a few bits out, it’s a good place to start.

Written in the ’30s in six weeks, Gombrich would research throughout the day and write each entry at night. Since “A Little History of the World” was actually meant for children, he breaks down our world into short chapters that keep even the most fidgety child intrigued, with just enough enticing details to stay interesting. From Mesopotamia to China to England to America, every locale is celebrated. Thus, a history of the world becomes a history of us, without boundaries of race, religion or ethnicity. Despite the universality of its message, it wasn’t until 2005 that the book was translated into English.

One of my favorite accounts in the book involves Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire. After his empire broke apart, he went away to a monastery where his main hobby was taking care of all the clocks.

Charles desperately wanted them to all chime at the same time. All his countless hours were to no avail, and Charles was never able to get all the clocks to chime at the same time — a reminder of his failure to unite his empire. How poignant!

Another tidbit: Did you know the Chinese created paper, compasses, woodblock printing and gunpowder before any other civilization? Or that Alexander the Great took over half the world, from Greece to Africa to the Middle East?

Another interesting observation considers historical periodization, examining the names of eras and just how subjective they are. Gombrich points out that people in the Dark Ages wouldn’t necessarily call the period by that name; in fact, it wasn’t until the Enlightenment that the Dark Ages were considered “dark.” And the Enlightenment wasn’t the Enlightenment until long after the time of Locke. How do you think our time will be personified later on? How will we, the Millennials, be characterized?

Sometimes I become so overwhelmed with school, work, clubs, family, friends and life in general, but Gombrich’s little book puts the entire big world in perspective.

His collection shows us the unifying power of history; every country goes through the same things, and thus we repeat the same dilemmas as well. There are great rulers and awful rulers; there is greed and pride and every other emotion. I’m sure they even had some amazing parties with beautiful people and pumping music.

Though Gombrich’s last chapter on our mortality is a bit of a downer, it’s also hopeful and inspiring. We must make the most of our time, just as past civilizations and leaders have. And, maybe, one day, our own personal history will be part of the world’s history as well.

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

Chu@tufts.edu.

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Arts & Living

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Refreshing premise is play’s only success OR

continued from page 4

translates less as a triumph over prejudice than an awakening to sexuality.

In fact, the majority of the plot, script and theme revolve around sex and sexuality. While this makes sense, as Adams also attempts to highlight parallels between the 1660s and the 1960s, the topic is approached with all the grace and subtlety of a crash

of angry rhinoceroses. Sex is either a motivator or a tool used by each of the four main characters. Behn’s use of sex to further her career is hardly a shining moment in a story meant to highlight feminism.

In that vein, the lackluster plot centers more on relationship management than historical comedy. The play’s seduction and espionage are loosely pulled together by a string of

Timothy Dunn/Lyric Stage Company

Writer Liz Duffy Adams’ attempts to explore Behn’s sexual freedom come off as degrading rather than celebratory.

Gil’s film flits between action and contemplation BLACKTHORN

continued from page 4

tified mess. When characters talk, it’s to hash out what we’ve already seen happen, what’s happening in that very moment or to outline in painfully obvious terms what they’re about to do.

Barros seems to have forgotten the most basic element of screenwriting: When something’s happening right before your eyes, there’s no need to spell it out any further.

Here’s a perfect example: Cassidy croaks to Eduardo, “Come saddle up, I’ve got mules out here!” Guess what happens with a cut to the next scene? Hint: It involves walking outside and mounting a mule.

And yet, with all this formulaic, handholding storytelling early on, the film eventually manages to steady itself. The constant, quick shifts between introductory scenes begin to unspool into somewhat longer takes and a more meditative pace. The too-neat, amateurish quality of “A follows B follows C” gives way to a spindly chase across a wonderfully shot stretch of empty, white salt flats.

The narrative frees itself up to simply show a weathered, hardened Butch Cassidy struggling to keep alive on the frontier, and it does so beautifully. These mysterious, dreamy images, like Cassidy

sitting quietly cross-legged on the desert earth in a wordless duel with his revealed enemy, can’t help but linger after the credits. They’re moments of inspired composition in a film that’s largely uncertain of just what it wants to be.

“Blackthorn” tends to waver between a plot-driven adventure yarn loosely inspired by Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s 1969 film, and a more thoughtful examination of Cassidy himself, but it never comes down definitively on either side. Its cards aren’t half bad, but Gil shows them too late, long after the viewer’s faith in the film’s overall trajectory has begun to erode.

The brilliant moments — and it has its share — offer hints of what the film could have been were Shepard allowed to command each frame: a characterdriven Western that relied on thought instead of unnecessary action. Truth be told, Sam Shepard is a highly capable but criminally under-appreciated actor; his craggy face and cold, harsh eyes couldn’t be more suited to the genre and a figure like Cassidy. He’s a man with character written all over him, but even that can’t undo the weight of weakly written material.

At best, we’re left with a few gorgeous threads of a film that almost was.

Courtesy Magnet Releasing

Sam Shepard’s rugged face and nuanced acting make him a well-suited vision of Butch Cassidy after the action.

events that, while chaotic, did not provide a substantial conflict for the heroine to overcome.

Of course, Behn may have been too busy trying to overcome the shallow acting to even notice her character’s struggles. Stereotyped British personalities — and accents — highlight the play’s palpable lack of depth. The performances feature little nuance, and the emotional levels remain stagnant for the majority of the play.

To be fair, that fault may lie more with “Or’s” script than its actors. An overwhelming amount of dialogue dominates the play, and movements or physical representation of emotion act as space fillers instead of serving a purpose. The conversations also seem more like filler than plot drivers and developers.

On the subject of character development, Behn and her lovers are given, even in this melodramatic plotline, opportunities to grow. Adams explores none of them in her script. Each character leaves the way he or she entered — it’s unclear why the events of the play were significant in the first place.

The true tragedy of “Or” is that it has such a good foundation. The story of how a 17th-century, enlightened woman’s experiences reflected those of women in the 1960s could make for an insightful historical drama or comedy.

“Or,” however, is too busy discussing sex to get there. Maybe I’m a just a nerd, but I felt insulted by the fantastical, overly sensual representation of a historical woman who, frankly, deserves better.

Timothy Dunn/Lyric Stage Company

Aphra Behn’s sexual exploits drown out her historical accomplishments in ‘Or.’ After racking my brain to find reasons for you to shell out money for Lyric’s production, I’m throwing in the towel. Ladies and gentlemen, run to your dorm, grab some snacks, throw on your pajamas and have a movie night.

Or, better yet, explore some events on campus. Whatever you do, don’t waste your money on “Or.”

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

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Editorial | Letters

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

wes engel

Carter W. Rogers Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Niki Krieg Adam Kulewicz Managing Editors Amelie Hecht Executive News Editor Kathryn Olson News Editors Laina Piera Corinne Segal Saumya Vaishampayan Bianca Blakesley Assistant News Editors Gabrielle Hernandez Brionna Jimerson 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 Anna Christian Devon Colmer Westley Engel Louie Zong Craig Frucht Jonathan Green Michael Restiano

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Dear Editor, This is in response to the op-ed published in the Daily on Oct. 11, 2011, “In search of a two-state solution.” As president of the Director’s Leadership Council (DLC), I’m submitting this as a response: The op-ed in response to the DLC’s lecture, “The Palestinian Bid for Statehood,” made many compelling points about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the various proposed solutions that are shared by members of the

Tufts community. The DLC and its sponsoring organization, the International Relations Program, certainly believe that all the viewpoints on this sensitive issue should be heard on campus. The purpose of this DLC event was singularly to look at the Palestinians’ historic attempt to achieve statehood through the U.N. and the reasons for doing so at this point in time, all within the constraints of a one-hour lecture. This event was only a part of the ongoing fair and balanced dialogue on campus about the issue.

This dialogue has included Friends of

Israel events that were supported, both financially and through advertising, by the International Relations Program, such as the September event, “Israel at the UN: A Nation that Dwells Alone,” and the March event “Israeli Democracy and the Middle East.” We look forward to working with the entire Tufts community to further the ongoing dialogue on this issue.

We just wanted to remind everyone about a free, zero-emission mode of transit available to students, faculty and staff year-round — TuftsBikes. Through this bike-share program, you can check out a bike, lock and helmet — for free — at the Tisch Library for up to eight hours.

Not only is it carbon-neutral, you can also get in your cardio workout for the day.

You can even bike all the way downtown.

It’s a shorter schlep than you think.

What are you waiting for? (Hopefully not the Red Line shuttle.) Check out TuftsBikes.WordPress.com for information on bike maintenance clinics and group rides. Also, BostonBiker.org has some tips for biking warm in cold weather.

clothes were worn by the young women attacked strikes me as reflective of a painfully archaic attitude toward sexual violence. There is simply no link between what a woman wears and whether or not she is assaulted. Moreover, there is an implication here that to some extent the women attacked were partly responsible for the incident by virtue of their clothing. For most of us, the woefully incorrect “you-were-asking-for-it” notion is sickening. More objectively, it is stated that the women were usually wearing a skirt or dress, further calling into question the relevance of this detail.

This story was printed in Sunday’s Boston Globe, which included the excerpt from the Tufts Police Department’s email about what the women were usually wearing at the time of the attacks.

Sexual violence is a terrible crime with only one guilty party: the attacker.

Let us create an environment that fosters this attitude by excluding these irrelevant details in the future.

Sincerely, Nat Schils Class of 2012

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, RE “Goodbye, Weekend Excursions,” Editorial, Oct. 23: Thank you for alerting Jumbos to the impending replacement of weekend subway service with shuttle buses between Harvard and Alewife stations from November to March. It truly stinks. Who wants to wait outside for a bus, especially during the winter months?

Sincerely, Chris Girard School of Medicine Master of Public Health, Class of 2013

Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager

BUSINESS

Letter to the Editor

Laura Moreno

Dear Editor,

Executive Business Director Christine Busaba Advertising Director Saanya Gulati Receivables Manager P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com

Recently, there have been several sexual assaults in the Somerville area.

We were notified via email by the Tufts University Police Department, whom I contend do an upstanding job at tirelessly protecting the Tufts community.

However, I take issue with their recent notification, which included certain details about the attacks. In particular, we were told that “the target is typically a lone female, usually wearing a skirt or dress.”

The inclusion of details about what

Sincerely, James Gaylor Tufts Post-Bac Premedical Program 2012

Corrections The Oct. 21 article, “Activists highlight commonalities between indigenous experiences,” incorrectly referred to a documentary as being titled “We Still Live Here.” The actual title was “We Are Still Here.” Furthermore, the article neglected to mention that the Tufts University Art Gallery was the organization spearheading the event.

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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Tuesday, October 25, 2011 Off the Hill | University of Connecticut

Bank of America’s downfall is greatly exaggerated

by Srivats Satish

The Daily Campus

Bank of America Corporation (BAC), the nation’s second-largest lender, has been taking a beating in terms of stock value over the past two months, which has lead to some financial experts giving up on the prospects of a stock rebound.

Some claim that the potential of a Greek default, lawsuits by AIG and slowing economic growth will hamper Bank of America’s future capital appreciation.

I thoroughly disagree with this notion and am still extremely bullish on BAC. First of all, though the fears of a Greek default are completely valid, investors need to realize the crisis will resolve itself. Political posturing in Europe is no different than the posturing we had to put up with during the debt ceiling debate, which eventually got resolved.

Second of all, the closer the lawsuits come to a resolution, the closer it is that the bank will place toxic disaster Countrywide into bankruptcy, which will eliminate bank liabilities and increase investor confidence. The New York Stock Exchange has seen volatile swings since the credit crunch of 2008 that led our economy into a position of anemic growth and dissipating hope.

The banking sector, which led our economy from 2002 to 2007, has been hit the hardest with the fallout still affecting lenders today.

Bank of America’s stock depreciated over this past summer, having fallen by 31.69 percent over the past three months, and has fallen by 8.16 percent this month alone. Currently BAC stands at $6.64 a share, far from the $12.34 share price at the start of the year. The stock has been hit fiercely by short sellers, panic from the potential of a Greek default, bad mortgages and lawsuits because of its ownership of Countrywide and the slowing growth in the general economy. Market hawks look at the general market and feel that the Bank of America’s weakness will beget

Off the Hill | Dartmouth College

by Jonathan

more weakness and that the stock is doomed to a fate of $2 to $3 a share before a rebound. On the other side of the coin, value investors see the panics in the markets as a perfect time to put more money in and buy Bank of America shares when they are so cheap now.

I’m with the value investors on this one. In fact, the wealthiest man in the world, Warren Buffett, agrees with this view. Berkshire Hathaway invested $5 billion into Bank of America in late August, in a star-studded deal that briefly surged the stock past $8 a share before the markets corrected back to the mid$6 range BAC stands at now. Buffett still maintains his faith in the company as he stated in a September interview that, even though Bank of America is going through problems that will take much longer to clean up, the company and its underlying business is still fine.

I feel that Bank of America remains severely undervalued, as it has for the past two years, and will rebound in a big way when the general economy gets back to reasonable growth. Bank of America, as well as every other major bank out there has been taking losses due to fears from Europe and the possibility of Greek default. A Greek default would recreate the hysteria of 2008, when investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy and AIG underwent a liquidity crisis that called for a huge bailout from the federal government. We have learned since then, and European leaders have sworn to not let Greece default regardless of the political posturing going on right now there. Although the problems of Europe involve social and political factors, its problems will be resolved, the Germans will contribute more toward helping Greece manage its budget and, similar to the debt negotiations America had to put up with earlier this year, the European deal will get done. This will renew confidence in all sectors of the market, but especially the financial sector and will give American banks like

Bank of America the boost they need.

Brian Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America created a plan to get the bank back on track in early September called “Project New BAC,” which cuts the size of the bank, increases efficiency in management and cuts tens of millions of dollars worth of idle real estate owned by the bank. The plan outlines how Bank of America is going to scale down in the future and focus on being the best rather than the biggest bank out there. For example, the plan cuts the private equity department of the bank, which will save millions over the next few years as well as cut bank stations in unprofitable areas. Rumors have also surfaced that the bank might put Countrywide into bankruptcy as well as spin off Merrill Lynch. All of this is great news for shareholders, as the bank is looking to cut its costs tremendously over the next few years while still maintaining top market share. This cost cutting will be key to reverse Bank of America’s negative earnings per share that is turning off some investors right now.

Overall, the bank is taking a proactive approach to solving its problems and that the infrastructure and strong management it has in place right now will pay off in the future. Moreover, almost any investor can see that the intrinsic value of America’s second-largest lender is certainly greater than the $6.64 a share it stands at today. The Wall Street Journal rates the company as having an average target price of over $10, and several other notable reports have the banks estimates in the $10 to $11 range by the end of the year. The bank’s main problem is its debt, and that will take a few years to resolve. The debt from mortgages has kept the bank down from the mid-$50 share price before the crisis, and it will take a few years for the bank to get completely healthy again. I am confident that the time will come.

Yet again, Warren Buffett will have been proven right and Bank of America will reclaim its strength.

Stem the contagion

Pedde

The Dartmouth

The Eurozone crisis has played out like a slow-moving Greek tragedy. The European political elites who created the euro in the 1990s were warned of problems inherent in their plans, but they ignored these warnings. Once the problems came to a head, European politicians dealt with each new problem in a haphazard way that temporarily postponed the worst, but was not enough to end the overall crisis.

Unless this approach changes, the outcome could potentially be disastrous, not only for Europe, but for the world. The United States should intervene in hopes of precluding this dire possibility.

The current crisis is largely the result of two predictable flaws of the Eurozone — one financial, the other relating to exchange rates. The latter problem is rather straightforward.

Prices and wages in peripheral countries like Greece and Spain are high relative to prices and wages in core countries like Germany. As a result, countries like Germany are running large trade surpluses compared to countries like Greece, which is part of the reason that the economic downturn has been far more severe in countries like Spain than countries like Germany.

If Spain and Greece had different currencies than Germany and their exchange rates were flexible, there would be no problem — Spain and Greece’s currencies would fall in value relative to the German curren-

cy. This would then increase demand for Spanish and Greek goods, thereby increasing employment in Spain and Greece. However, the existence of the single currency precludes the possibility of devaluation. As a result, peripheral countries like Spain and Greece will probably suffer several more years of deflation and high unemployment.

The Eurozone’s financial problem is more complicated. When you deposit a dollar at the bank, the bank promises to give you that dollar on demand, but the bank does not actually keep that dollar in its safe — instead, the bank only keeps a few cents on hand and lends the rest out. Your deposit at your bank is nothing more than an IOU. The reason that you consider a bank deposit to be worth as much as the money in your wallet is that the federal government guarantees your deposit. Since the federal government controls the supply of dollars, there is no question about its ability to guarantee bank deposits. In countries that use the euro, this is not the case.

The Irish government guarantees Irish bank deposits, but it does not have control over its own currency. Today, many Irish depositors reasonably wonder whether the Irish government will be able to repay its own debts. If it cannot do so, it will not be able to repay Irish banks’ debts, either.

As a result, banks in countries like Ireland and Greece have been experiencing a slow-motion bank run for over a year now. These countries’ citizens have realized that a bank deposit that is guaranteed by the Greek or Irish

9

Op-Ed

government simply is not worth as much as a bank deposit that is guaranteed by the German government.

Thus, Greek and Irish citizens have been withdrawing their domestic bank deposits and depositing their money in other European countries instead.

While the euro should never have been created, it would probably be far too costly to allow a breakup now.

Given that Greece is insolvent and several other countries will need the backing of their stronger peers in order to avoid contagion, the solution is clear: Greece will have to default in an orderly fashion, and countries like Germany are going to have to put up a lot more money — probably well over 1 trillion Euros — in order to guarantee the debts of countries like Spain and Italy.

If this doesn’t happen, and financial markets lose confidence in the creditworthiness of a government like Italy’s, the ensuing financial crisis would wreak havoc not only in Europe but probably also here in the United States. Perhaps, in a gesture of support, the U.S. federal government should offer to put up some of the money necessary to guarantee European sovereign debt, with the intention of helping convince the German government to finally offer the monetary amount truly needed to prevent the crisis from spreading.

Would it be unfair for American taxpayers to partly be on the hook for a crisis almost entirely of the European political elite’s making?

Yes, but the alternative is quite possibly far worse.

Walt Laws-MacDonald | Show Me the Money!

A

It’s not a coupon — it’s a tax plan

s the long, debate-fought GOP primary race slugs ahead, its focus has shifted from a myriad of issues to one simple number: nine.

Immigration, abortion, and states’ rights have taken the backseat to a concept that remains stamped on the license plates of our capital, “Taxation without representation.” Why? Because Herman Cain is here to offer you the same tax revenue at the low rate of just 9-9-9.

Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza and current poll leader in the GOP primary race, has undergone attack after attack on national television as his fellow Republicans rip apart the 9-9-9 plan. The plan is simple. Crazy simple. Crazy enough that it might actually work.

The current tax system is riddled with corporate kickbacks, confusing income brackets and a plethora of loopholes. Every year people pay accountants thousands of dollars to make sure they’re paying what they should (or less than they should), and corporations spend millions on tax lawyers to ensure that the government skims as little as possible off the top of their business.

Income tax, payroll tax, property tax, sales and excise tax, Social Security and Medicare tax — what does it all mean?

Well, let’s look at Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. The three nines stand for three separate taxes, each with a tax rate of nine percent. In short, a 9 percent business tax, a 9 percent individual tax and a 9 percent national sales tax. The current system is known as a “progressive” tax system; the more you make, the greater portion of your wealth you owe to the government. Cain’s system would be a “flat tax”; it doesn’t matter if you make $100,000 or $100 million a year — you still pay 9 percent. Anyone that falls below the poverty line, however, pays no tax. Cain’s goals are to eliminate both the incentive and opportunity to evade taxes, and to remove the class divisions found in today’s system.

It’s hard to say exactly what these taxes mean for the average citizen, as they combine multiple taxation systems into one easy-to-read number. Many of Cain’s Republican rivals have railed against the system for just that. At a recent debate, Jon Huntsman joked, “I think it’s a catchy phrase. In fact, I thought it was the price of a pizza.” Michele Bachmann took a decidedly firmer stance, drawing a connection to “6-66… the number of the beast.”

But does this tax plan deserve such harsh criticism? Although 9-9-9 is taking it a bit far, Cain definitely has the right idea in mind.

Economist Arthur Laffer, former advisor to Republican messiah Ronald Reagan, stood up for Cain and the 9-9-9 plan in a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, noting the positive effects of lower overall tax rates and their ability to jumpstart the economy.

Though economists have disagreed on the numbers, Cain maintains that his tax plan will bring in the same tax revenue as the current system.

Though Cain lacks the proven economics to back up his plan, he does have something that no other Republican candidate does: a comprehensible, concrete plan of action. I could explain the 9-9-9 plan to my 9-yearold brother. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry can talk about “freeing up the country’s entrepreneurs” all they want, but Herman Cain has taken the bold step of actually coming up with an idea.

Detractors have argued that Cain’s plan is a tax plan, not a jobs plan, but what does a jobs plan really look like? A jobs bill can’t just magically employ people. Economic growth has to start somewhere, and that somewhere might just be Herman Cain’s proposal. I doubt Cain or the 9-9-9 plan will make it past the primary, but until then I wish him the best of luck. Now, how about some pizza?

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

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Sports

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WOMen’s Soccer

First trip to Hamilton results in scoreless draw Jumbos’ scoreless streak passes 300-minute mark by

Ethan Sturm

Daily Editorial Board

It was a new experience for the women’s soccer team as the squad traveled to Clinton, N.Y., for its WOMEN’S SOCCER (4-3-2 NESCAC, 6-4-3 Overall) at Clinton, N.Y., Saturday Tufts Hamilton

0 0 0 0 — 0 0 0 0 0 — 0

first-ever NESCAC matchup with Hamilton College. The Jumbos played well, but could not find the back of the net, instead settling for a scoreless draw with the Continentals.

“Yesterday was a good turningpoint for us, even though a 0-0 result doesn’t say much in that regard,” senior left back Laney Siegner said.

“We came together and we played really well, and it’s hard to be really frustrated when we were creating chances. But the result didn’t go our way. We struggled to be creative enough in that final third to get a really dangerous opportunity.”

The matchup in New York created some new logistical issues for the Jumbos. Facing a car ride of over four hours, the team elected to spend Friday night at a hotel near the Hamilton campus. While it was a significant change in routine, the team took the opportunity as a bonding experience.

“The whole trip became this big event,” Siegner said. “We left practice early, we created this ‘Fun Friday’ video together for the bus.

There was a lot of team bonding time, and I think that helped us on the field.”

On game day, both teams got out to slow starts, with the Continentals

earning more of the scarce scoring chances early on. Tufts sophomore keeper Kristin Wright was forced into three saves on just three firsthalf shots, while her counterpart, sophomore Liza Gergenti, only had to make two. The best chance came for Hamilton, as junior Charlotte Cosgrove volleyed a cross at goal that went directly at Wright. The game entered halftime with little further action.

Things began to open up in the second half, with both teams pushing for a winner. Tufts saw its best chance in the 67th minute, when senior forward Jamie Love-Nichols ran onto a long ball before powering it towards goal. Gergenti could only get part of her hand on it, but that was enough to redirect the ball off the post, preserving the shutout.

In the 70th minute, disaster nearly struck for the Jumbos when Wright bobbled a catch and let the ball slip past her. But sophomore right back Blair Brady rescued her keeper, barely clearing the ball off the goal line. Though the teams combined for 12 second-half shots and Hamilton earned three corner kicks in the latter 45, neither side was able to break through with a goal in regular time.

In the two overtime periods, Tufts came out hungry, outshooting the Continentals 4-2. The Jumbos had a golden opportunity for the win when, in the second overtime period, junior midfielder Alyssa Von Puttkammer put a free kick on the head of sophomore forward Maeve Stewart. But Gergenti was once again up to the task, making the save and preserving the shutout. In total, Gergenti — the NESCAC co-Player of the Week — made eight saves in the draw, while Wright had seven.

“We out-possessed them, we outworked them, we dominated the

Scott Tingley/Tufts Daily

Senior forward Jamie Love-Nichols, seen here against Williams, had the best scoring opportunity of the day for Tufts, but she was denied by Hamilton keeper Liza Gergenti. entire game, we just couldn’t finish,” senior co-captain midfielder Lauren O’Connor said.

With the draw, the Jumbos have now gone 324 consecutive minutes without a goal, the longest stretch of their season. After being shutout just twice in their first 10 games, they now have been shutout in their last three straight.

“I think we are just overthinking it at this point,” O’Connor said.

“It’s weighing on us that we haven’t scored in three games and we just have to stop thinking about that and play games. We know how to score goals; we proved that earlier in the season — we just have to have faith in our capabilities.”

The rough stretch statistically has

also coincided with a difficult part of the schedule. The Jumbos played a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader a week before making their longest conference trip to take on Hamilton.

But the team sees these struggles as a chance they have not had in past years to make adjustments before the playoffs.

“In past seasons, everything has just kind of gone well, and then postseason comes and you get that one loss and suddenly the season is over,” Siegner said. “This year we have been able to address things throughout the season and finetune our team’s mentality.”

Tufts finishes the regular season tomorrow when the Jumbos travel to Bowdoin. A win or draw against the Polar Bears would seal up the No. 4 seed in the NESCAC and a home game for the quarterfinals. A loss, combined with a Wesleyan victory, would drop the Jumbos to the fifth seed. While they will likely face the Cardinals either way, a game at Kraft Field is undoubtedly valuable: Tufts is 4-1-2 at home and only 2-3-1 on the road so far this year.

Despite the disappointing result, the team seemed content with the improvement in play they displayed on Saturday. Bowdoin offers the team one final tune-up before the NESCAC Championship, which Tufts is eagerly awaiting.

“We needed to prove to ourselves that we could play hard for 90 minutes, and at Hamilton every single person that stepped on the field for us played their hearts out,” O’Connor said. “Now, moving forward, we just have to get back to our roots of possessing and not forcing opportunities, just letting them happen and putting it into the back of the net. Every year we have peaked too early, but this year I think we are going to peak at exactly the right time.”

Women’s Cross Country

Hieber leads Jumbos to first-place finish in Mayor’s Cup by

Connor Rose

Senior Staff Writer

The women’s cross country team traveled to Franklin Park this weekend to compete in the Mayor’s Cup fivekilometer race, and for some members of the team, Sunday marked the last cross country race of their collegiate careers, while for the rest it was the last of the season. But despite the finality of the race, the Jumbos were still able to compete in an event mostly filled by post-collegiate club teams.

The top 12 women for the Jumbos were taking the weekend off as they prepare for the NESCAC Championships on Oct. 29, leaving the Jumbos without their best runners. Nonetheless, Tufts was still able to finish first out of 14 teams.

Sophomore Jana Hieber was particularly outstanding, coming in as the second female overall, finishing in 19:47 — a personal best at the distance. She was bested only by Adrienne Filippazzo, who was running unattached and crossed the line in 19:11.

Freshman Lindsay Rogers was next for the Jumbos, finishing 10th in 20:21, while sophomore Molly Mirhashem placed 20th in 20:41, which was also a 5K personal best. Rounding out the top five finishers for the squad were senior Lauren Flament — who is also a sports editor for the Daily — and freshman Liz Webber-Bruya, com-

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

Sophomore Jana Hieber, seen here during the track and field season, was the second overall finisher at Mayor’s Cup. ing in 27th and 28th, respectively, with times of 21:06 and 21:07.

Seniors Sarah Boudreau, Bryn Kass, Callie McHugh, Grace Perry and Nicole Priscal all finished their collegiate cross country careers at a familiar course, one which Tufts travels to several times every year for races and workouts.

“We didn’t really talk much about it being our last cross country race beforehand,” Priscal said. “I was very aware of the fact that it would be the last time I ran up the bear cage hill and through wilderness with my teammates. There weren’t any negative emotions, though.”

With men and women of all ages and

abilities, some of the racers found it mentally difficult to get into a normal routine at the start. But once things got going, it was just another race.

“I didn’t really like that there were a bunch of guys in the race,” Priscal said.

“After a little I settled in and just focused on running with the teammates that were around me and on the person ahead of me. I focused on sticking to the packs of people ahead of me throughout the race. I was happy that I finished my last race next to an old man.”

Even though it was an atypical experience, the Jumbos were upbeat and happy to be finishing their successful cross country campaigns.

“The girls racing were proud of their efforts today,” Priscal said. “It was nice to have the non-racers there as well. It is always great to have the support of the full team when you’re working hard and giving your best effort.”

In what will be a good preview of the Div. III New England Championship on Nov. 12, the NESCAC Championships at Amherst College should be a very competitive race for the Jumbos. With five teams in the top 30, nationally, and two in the top three, the conference is full of top-tier talent. Williams and Middlebury figure to lead the pack, and Amherst should contend as well. see WOMEN’S XC, page 11

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The Tufts Daily

11

Sports

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY

Jumbos end regular season at Mayor’s Cup Top 12 gear up for NESCACs on Saturday

While the varsity squad of the men’s cross country team rested for championship season, four Jumbos suited up to wrap up the regular season at the Mayor’s Cup at Franklin Park on Sunday.

Three Tufts athletes, sophomores Brandon Wheeler and Peter Lewis and freshman Justin Rheingold, toed the line for the Championship 8,000-meter race, each looking for a positive season-ending contest.

Wheeler led the trio in 27:23, placing 127th among 197 competitors who were mostly elite club athletes. The race was won in an impressive time of 23:46 — 26 seconds faster than the winning time at the Open New England Championships, composed of New England’s Div. I, II and III top athletes, raced on the same course two weeks earlier.

“The best performance of the day was by sophomore Brandon Wheeler, who after having a slow start to the season was able to end on a very solid fast race,” senior co-captain Scott McArthur said.

“He would have scored if he had run that time at Open New Englands in the subvarsity race, which is impressive.”

Lewis and Rheingold crossed the line back-to-back, clocking times of 28:30 and 28:32, respectively, good for 160th and 161st.

Senior Cliff Bargar suited up for the 5,000-meter race on Sunday, returning from injury to get one race in during the 2011 season. Bargar crossed the line in 17:27, capping off his collegiate cross country career.

Meanwhile, the top runners used this weekend to gear up for the start of championship season, opening with the NESCAC Championships next Saturday at Amherst. The conference finals pit the top 12 athletes from each of the schools against one another.

While the team’s long-term goals are set by

Lauren Flament

Daily Editorial Board

for the NCAA Div. III Championships on Nov. 12, the NESCACs are an important preview, since five of the region’s top six schools are part of the conference. The team’s finish at NESCACs may also be taken into account if they are being considered for an at-large bid to nationals.

Middlebury enters the meet as the favorite, having placed first among Div. III schools at the Open New England Championships.

Tufts and Williams will also be schools in contention, with the Jumbos having outscored the Ephs by just three points at Opens to claim second place among NESCAC schools, and third among Div. III squads, behind Middlebury and MIT. Bates, which was absent at Opens, will be the last team to watch this Saturday.

The four likely will be battling it out for the conference title, and should once again be the top competitors at the New England Regionals, with the addition of MIT to the mix.

“We’re obviously going for the win and I think we can be in contention for it,” sophomore Ben Wallis said. “Right now four of the top five teams in the region are in the NESCAC, and they are all fairly close in depth and talent, so it’s just going to come down to who is having the best day.”

Going into this weekend, the Jumbos are confident in their talent and depth.

“The team is looking really strong,” Wallis said. “The workouts the past week or two have proven that everyone is in the best shape they’ve ever been in. The depth is really coming through, and we’ve finally got to piece together our top 12 and everyone is really working together.”

At Open New Englands, the Jumbos’ frontrunner, junior Matt Rand, went neckand-neck with Middlebury senior Michael Schmidt for the title of top Div. III runner in the region. Rand came out on top, crossing the line just one second ahead of Schmidt.

According to Wallis, this battle will likely be repeated on Saturday.

“Matt is our clear frontrunner, and he is

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going to be challenging for the individual title. We have a great asset in that he can score very few points for us,” Wallis said.

“After that, a really important part for us is to get our two through four runners closer together. They’ve been separated a little the past few weeks, so if we can get them in the chase pack, that would be really good for us.”

“Each team is only as good as the strength of their fifth man and we have a lot of guys who could step up and score as our fifth guy, so we just need one of them to have a really good day Saturday,” Wallis added.

So far this season, Wallis, senior Connor Rose and junior Kyle Marks have established themselves in the top four alongside Rand. Wallis’ strategy will be to group with his teammates and keep the trio within the chase pack.

“We look great. Right now, people are just trying to maintain their fitness and sharpen up for these final meets,” McArthur said. “A race like NESCACs, because we have 12 people running, plays to the advantage to a team of depth, which we no doubt have this year. We’d like to be one of the top three teams finishing, but I think we have the ability to beat any other team in the NESCAC.” Sophomore Liam Cassidy will be another Jumbo to watch, as he has made his way back from injury to join the NESCAC squad after an impressive freshman season last fall that had him as the sixth Jumbo to finish at Regionals.

The 12 athletes will toe the line at noon on Saturday, using the race to make a statement to the conference and tune up for the Regional Championships.

“We have this saying on our team: ‘head, heart, team.’ Run the first two miles with your head, the second two with your heart and run the last one for the team, so we’ll try to follow that model as best we can,” McArthur said.

“NESCACs is definitely an important race and a big stepping stone, but the real effort is in three weeks for Regionals.”

Jumbos have an advantage in championship season Women’s XC

continued from page 10

“We need to get the fifth spot at regionals, and we are very close with Colby for that spot,” sophomore Lauren Creath said. “Our main goal for this weekend is to show that we can beat Colby. That’s what it comes down to. We need to build our confidence and show them that we are a threat.”

Senior tri-captain Anya Price and junior tri-captain Lilly Fisher, in addition to being experienced leaders of the team, have been the Jumbos’ top two runners throughout the season and will be expected to head the squad. Sophomores Madeleine Carey, Lauren Creath and Abby Barker have consistently finished in scoring position for Tufts and will look to provide the depth needed to place well as a team.

“We don’t have that standout lead runner this year, but everyone is a lot more team-oriented,” Creath said. “Last year, the team was geared around supporting Amy Wilfert [A ’11]. Now it’s more about supporting everyone else; leadership is coming from all around and everyone is conscious that this needs to be a team effort.

We all understand that we need points from every top-five runner. Everything is more team-oriented and that has been conducive for everyone contributing to the leadership of the team.”

With 12 women racing, there is a great opportunity for the Jumbos to show off their depth. Beyond the top seven, who will be suiting up two weeks later, the next group of women has been right on their heels, pushing the lead runners to improve.

The Jumbos head to Amherst with no freshmen running in the top 12, a sign of the strength of their upperclassmen.

Their collective experience in big races is as great as it has ever been and should prove valuable throughout the championship season.

Voices of Tufts: The Diversity Experience

HOST FOR THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE! October 27th-28th An overnight program for prospective students interested in learning about diversity on campus

Volunteer to host at the Student Outreach website,

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If you have any questions, please contact Naiara Souto at Naiara.Souto@tufts.edu

Sports

12

INSIDE Women’s Soccer 10 Women’s XC 10 Men’s XC 11

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s Soccer

Jumbos squander lead, fall to Hamilton 2-1 Loss ends historic six-game unbeaten streak by

Matt Berger

For the first 78 minutes of Saturday’s NESCAC match at Hamilton, everything was going as planned for Tufts, which Daily Editorial Board

MEN’S SOCCER (4-3-2 NESCAC, 8-3-2 Overall) at Clinton, N.Y., Saturday Tufts Hamilton

1 0 0 0 — 1 0 1 0 1 — 2

entered the game ranked No. 5 in New England and was controlling play with a 1-0 lead.

However, after Continentals freshman forward Griffin Abbott netted an equalizing tally in the 79th minute and a gamewinning score in the second overtime period, the Jumbos were sent home with their first loss in three weeks and their third of the season.

With the loss, Tufts dropped to 8-3-2 overall, 4-3-2 in the NESCAC and fifth in the conference standings.

Tufts looked like the stronger team in the first half, firing ten shots at Hamilton junior goalkeeper Eric Boole, who made six saves in the first 45. Hamilton, on the other hand, could only muster one first half shot on goal and did not look nearly as dangerous in the attacking third. Tufts senior tri-captain keeper Alan Bernstein made five saves, moving his saves per game mark to 4.30, good for second in the NESCAC. The Jumbos’ first-half offensive pressure paid off in the 26th minute when freshman midfielder Gus Santos scored his team-leading seventh goal of the season. With the strike, Santos now leads all NESCAC first-years in goals and is tied for fourth overall in the conference in scoring.

“Gus has shouldered the offensive load for us all season,” Bernstein said. “Even more so than all the goals and assists, he

Scott Tingley/Tufts Daily

Junior Pat Bauer and the Jumbos defense could not deny a valiant second-half rally by the Continentals. can get us going when we need a spark, which is rare for a freshman.”

Santos’ goal was set up by junior midfielder John Lewis, who played a nifty ball in from the right wing. The Tufts first-year got onto the end of the cross and buried the volley past Boole for the match’s first goal. This boded well for Tufts, which, coming into Saturday’s match, was a perfect 6-0-0 in matches where they scored first.

Hamilton, however, looked like it would equalize in the 55th minute when the Continentals were awarded a penalty kick after a foul was called on Tufts in the box.

Senior midfielder Frank Campagnano, who had not yet attempted a penalty kick, stepped up to the spot.

Bernstein, however, was up to the task, stopping Campagnano’s initial shot with

a diving save. Hamilton junior forward Anthony Balbo controlled the rebound but sent his try off the crossbar to keep Tufts ahead.

“I honestly thought that he was going to save it,” junior midfielder Rafael RamosMeyer said. “[Bernstein] got a great read on it ... and made a big play for us.”

Unfortunately, Hamilton pulled even with an opportunistic goal in the 79th minute. The Continentals played a long ball into their attacking third that was deflected at the top of the penalty box.

Sophomore defender Ben Ewing and Bernstein both had an opportunity to corral the loose ball but neither made the critical defensive play. Eventually, Abbott ran on to the ball and buried a shot into an open net to draw the Continentals even.

After 21 minutes of scoreless, midfielddominated play, Tufts and Hamilton entered the second sudden-death overtime frame still deadlocked 1-1. Coming into the match, the Jumbos were undefeated in overtime matches, going 3-0-2 in games that went past 90 minutes.

But Tufts lost its perfect overtime mark just over a minute into the period when Continentals senior defender Bennett Weinerman found Campagnano in the center of the pitch. After controlling the pass, Campagnano flicked the ball on to Abbott who, after cutting back to his left, fired a left-footed shot past Bernstein to give the Continentals their second NESCAC victory of the season.

The Jumbos finish their regular season tomorrow with a mid-week road match at conference rival Bowdoin, a critical contest for Tufts, which can secure a top-four seed and therefore a home playoff match with a win and a loss by either Trinity or Williams. The Bantams and Ephs both face tough road tests against Wesleyan and Middlebury, respectively.

“This has to be our biggest match of the year,” Ramos-Meyer said. “We know that we have to come out strongly and get this win. If we can do that, we’ll let everything else take care of itself.”

Victories

Games of the Week looking back (OCT. 22) | State Comes through in the Nichol of Time A humdrum college football season took a dramatic turn late Saturday night, as thenNo. 6 Wisconsin fell to then-No. 16 Michigan State 37-31 on a last second 44-yard Hail Mary from senior quarterback Kirk Cousins to classmate Keith Nichol. The pass was batted out of the end zone by a Badgers defenseman and landed in Nichol’s hands on the 1-yard line. Nichol lowered his head and tried to force his way through four opposing players. He was originally ruled short, but a review of the play overturned the call on the field, ending Wisconsin’s hopes of a national championship in the process.

The Spartans looked to be the better team for most of the night, and took a nine-point lead into the half after returning a blocked punt for a touchdown. They were up 14 after a fourth-quarter strike, but Wisconsin responded with two late touchdowns — one with less than 90 seconds on the clock — to tie the game at 31.

Michigan State, which did not commit a single penalty on the night, looked content to send the game to overtime, but a Badgers time-out gave them a chance to move the ball — which they capitalized on — setting up the game-winning Hail Mary. While neither team is now likely to figure into the BCS title game picture, America can only hope for a rematch between these two for the first-ever Big 10 Championship Game on Dec. 3 at Lucas Oil Stadium.

MCT

looking ahead (OCT. 29) | Jumbos Look to Collect NESCAC Quarterfinal Victories

K.C. Hambleton/tufts daily

Men’s and women’s soccer, along with field hockey, will all be starting their NESCAC Championship campaigns on Saturday. Field Hockey is guaranteed to be playing on Bello Field, while women’s soccer has a home game all but sewn up heading into their final regular season contest on Wednesday. Men’s soccer will need a victory on Wednesday against Bowdoin and a little help to join the other two squads on the Hill.

No matter where the games are played, all are expected to be exciting contests. Field hockey and women’s soccer will both likely be going in as the fourth seeds, putting them against Trinity and Wesleyan, respectively. Field hockey snuck by the Bantams 3-2 in overtime during the regular season, while women’s soccer hung on for a 1-0 victory against the Cardinals.

The men’s soccer team’s seed is more variable, and they could go into the tournament with anything from the fourth to the seventh spot. Regardless the squad, currently ranked No. 4 in New England, will be one of the most dangerous underdogs in the tournament.

Field hockey will play on Bello Field at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, while the men’s and women’s soccer schedules will be solidified after Wednesday night’s games. Check the Daily on Thursday and Friday for updated information and postseason previews.

Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville

Tebow, God

J

esus would have Tim Tebow on his fantasy football team.

People refer to Tebow as the Denver Broncos’ savior, which is really just another way of ascribing deity-like capabilities to a mortal. And if God ever manifested himself in a mid-level NFL quarterback with quick feet and an elongated release, it would probably be through Tebow, the gun-slinging embodiment of faith.

Tim Tebow has poise. Heart. God on his side.

The Florida product engineered a nearly impossible comeback on Sunday against the Miami Dolphins, bringing Denver to an 18-15 overtime win after overcoming a 15-0 deficit with under three minutes remaining. And as such, we’re forced to endure phrases like “unshaken faith,” “the man, the myth, the legend,” and “Tim Tebow is God,” until we somehow manage to relieve ourselves of these absurd correlations.

The problem is, this will likely never happen. Tebow wants to be known as the God Guy, the one who penned Bible verses on his eye black and prayed before the Wonderlic test. It’s an identity and a catchy one at that.

I don’t doubt Tebow’s faith; that has proved unshakable.

What I doubt, however, is our abilities to separate Tebow the football player from Tebow the God figure. It’s become impossible to objectively analyze Tim Tebow without talking about “the myth and the legend,” without analyzing the “God versus man” relationship more so than the “Broncos versus Dolphins” one. To avoid a theoretical discussion on the purpose of religion, I’ll settle on this simple fact: Religion is subjective. Proof primarily exists within the self, in the spiritual feeling.

There’s no scientific way to prove that God exists, nor is there any method for disproving his existence either.

So in an objective game like football, one in which the outcome is predicated on a simple formula — you win, lose or, if you feel like kissing your sister, tie — it’s very simple to determine the heroes and the goats. It’s easy to attribute results to the subjective because, well, we can’t prove otherwise. In this case, it’s not God to whom we attribute a believer’s failings, but he who believes in the mystical who inserts his subjective beliefs into a wholly objective atmosphere.

Religion is still very much a part of the NFL. Players thank God after touchdowns and flex their muscles clad in religiously symbolic tattoos. Catholic and nondenominational church services are offered to players in hotels the nights before games. Bible studies among players are also commonplace.

So what makes Tebow different? At what point did he become the media’s Messiah, the football manifestation of religion? Other players pray. Other players are religious. But Tebow is the only one to whom we actually correlate faith with performance.

Tim Tebow won a football game against a team that starts Matt Moore at quarterback. In his first start of the season, Tebow did what he was supposed to do, even though he struggled through three quarters of subpar play. He went 13-for-27 for 161 yards and two touchdowns. He did not turn wine into water, and he did not die for the sins of the living, although he did somewhat resurrect a terrible Denver offense.

Drew Brees threw for five touchdowns and the Saints put up 62 points. Aaron Rodgers was nearly perfect and out-dueled an impressive rookie in Christian Ponder. Cam Newton was, again, solid. And yet the spotlight continues to shine on Tebow, on the quarterback who hardly needs any favors because he has God as his PR director.

Religious phrases are embedded in sport.

We talk about having “faith” in a team or “believing” in a player’s capabilities. And when someone like Tebow, who definitively bridges whatever small gap existed between sport and religion, comes along, it’s impossible to look away.

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.