2011-11-16

THE TUFTS DAILY

Showers 60/43

VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 46

Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Shorty describes experiences as gay hip-hop artist in Israel by

Mahpari Sotoudeh

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts Hillel last night hosted an event featuring Shorty, an openly gay Israeli hiphop artist who discussed her experiences coming out in Israel and the influence her sexuality has had on her music.

The event, which was co-sponsored by Tufts Hillel, Tufts Friends of Israel and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Center, consisted of a 10-minute speech by Shorty followed by a question and answer session.

Shorty’s presentation is the second event in a three-part “Out in Israel” series.

Out in Israel Month is an educational and celebratory campaign on college campuses throughout Massachusetts designed to inform students about the civil rights of LGBT individuals in Israel.

Junior Daniel Bleiberg, co-president of the Tufts Friends of Israel, said the informal format of the program allowed Shorty to be fully honest about all aspects of her life and helped fostered open dialogue between her and attendees.

Shorty emphasized that she has always believed that her sexuality is not an obstacle to her in achieving her dreams.

“The thing that always led me in my life, the thing that I always followed in my life was it doesn’t matter what you are — if you’re gay, straight, bi, whatever,” she said.

“I can do music but it doesn’t matter what I am, I can work in hi-tech, I can be a professor here at Tufts — I can do whatever.”

The increased visibility of gays and lesbians in the Israeli media has led to a general shift in Israeli attitudes toward the LGBT community, Shorty explained, and has brought about greater social progressiveness in the Israeli community.

“I think that change in attitudes came from the gay people that are in the public eye — you can see us talking more in TV, hosting more shows, making more music, hosting more TV, you can see us everywhere ... and I think a lot of people are giving good representation,” she said.

Shorty explained that American hiphop artists have served as inspirations for her work, particularly ’90s rapper The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, who informed her current conception of songs as vehicles for sparking dialogue about important issues.

“Biggie came out talking about his life ...

I had an interesting life story and I thought ‘Hey, I can write about my life — my life is pretty interesting,’” she said. “I don’t know if my songs are going to get [the issues they are about] fixed, but it’s like, we have a problem, let’s talk about it.”

“That’s the thing that led me through my career — let’s not put it under the table, see SHORTY, page 2

Journalist explores divide of west and Muslim world by

Marie Schow

Daily Editorial Board

Pakistani journalist Irfan Husain yesterday discussed his new book, “Fatal Faultlines: Pakistan, Islam, and the West,” which focuses on the division between the west and the Muslim world.

The lecture, sponsored by the Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies, was held in Mugar Hall.

Husain has written a column for Dawn, an English daily newspaper in Pakistan, for 20 years. He worked for the Pakistani government for several decades, during which he wrote for different newspapers employing various pseudonyms.

Husain gained a unique perspective on the relationship between Muslim and western nations through his work as a civil servant and travel through out the region, according to Ayesha Jalal, director of the Center for South Asian and Indian Ocean Studies.

“He provides a moderate voice in a country that used to be moderate but has since lost its way,” she said during her introduction.

Husain explained that when he began writing his newest book, he did not foresee an optimistic end to his book. “There was little on the horizon to give me reason for optimism,” he said.

The Arab Spring, however, has since changed his opinion and given him something for which to hope. “While these political changes will hopefully make for greater freedom and better lives for citizens of these countries, we can also expect them to transform the relations between the Islamic world and

the west,” he said.

Husain emphasized that the division between Islam and the west is rooted in hundreds of years of history.

“Going back two-and-a-half thousand years, we can see the sense of this epic conflict in the Greek-Persian wars,” he said. see HUSAIN, page 2

Daily File Photo

The university yesterday announced plans to suspend any student who participates in the Naked Quad Run this year.

University promises suspension for NQR runners by

Bianca Blakesley

Daily Editorial Board

Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman sent an email to students and their families yesterday explaining that any student who participates in the Naked Quad Run (NQR) this year will face suspension for the spring 2012 semester.

Former University President Lawrence Bacow last March banned NQR, an event typically held in mid-December to celebrate the end of classes, citing risks to student safety as a result of a combination of dangerous levels of alcohol consumption, icy roads and freezing temperatures.

The Committee on Student Life (CSL), composed of faculty and undergraduate and graduate students, voted to include the policy banning the run in

Patrick McGrath Daily Staff Writer

Dilys Ong/Tufts Daily

Inside this issue

see NQR, page 2

NYU professor discusses trans-disciplinary program by

Pakistani journalist Irfan Husain discussed the roots of the tensions between the west and the Muslim world, which can be traced back through history.

the university’s Code of Conduct for the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The decision to include the new policy in the Code of Conduct was prompted by the university’s desire to ensure all students were aware of the ban, Reitman told the Daily.

The policy stipulates that students who help organize an event in violation of the ban or claim to have run in defiance of the ban will also be subject to suspension. These clauses were added to the policy, CSL Student Chair Brian Yi said, to ensure that students took the ban seriously.

University officials will decide if semi-nudity is considered a violation

In light of the ongoing discussion surrounding the race and ethnic studies program announced earlier this semester, the Transnational Studies Working Group at Tufts is organizing a four-part lecture series that will bring to the Hill academics with experience creating similar undergraduate education programs elsewhere.

Phillip Brian Harper, professor of social and cultural analysis and the Erich Maria Remarque professor of literature at New York University (NYU), last night gave the series’ first lecture, titled “Situating Africana Studies: Analytic Purview, Institutional Location.”

The yearlong lecture series will focus on Tufts’ commitment to the study of social identities, Assistant Professor of English Radiclani Clytus said in his introduction, and is funded through a grant from the Office of the Dean of the

Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Clytus described Harper’s work, emphasizing his role in establishing the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA) in 2005 at NYU. SCA encompasses six programs: Africana Studies, American Studies, Asian/ Pacific/American Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Latino Studies and Metropolitan Studies.

Students at NYU can major in the one of individual programs, except American Studies, or can major in a combination of two programs within the SCA department.

Harper served as SCA’s department chair at its inception.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney in a Sept. 14 email to the Tufts community announced plans to create a race and ethnic studies program, which would offer a major in Africana studies. see HARPER, page 2

Today’s sections

The Daily takes a look at the campus’s new Gun Club.

Bergamot delights with delicious, affordable dishes.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

9 10 14 Back

2

The Tufts Daily

Tension between Muslim world and west has deep roots, Husain says HUSAIN

continued from page 1

He devoted much of the lecture to highlighting the key differences between western and Islamic culture that have contributed to the prejudices felt on both sides.

Muslims, he said, often feel tension toward the west that has lingered since the injustices carried out by the west during the Crusades.

“These ancient conflicts, old symbols, names and places resonate in the modern jihad,” he said. He quoted parts of Osama bin Laden’s rhetoric as an example.

In contrast, the west has developed prejudice against the Muslim world through the widespread use of negative images of Muslims in western media, Husain explained.

He suggested that hatred of the west in the Muslim world may also stem from the political relationships between autocratic governments in Muslim countries and western governments.

“A lot of the hatred against the west has to do with the animosity toward their own dictators and the support the dictators received from west,” he said.

The differences between the roles of women and the idea of secularism also serve as major sources of tension between the west and the Islamic world, Husain noted.

He brought up the contrast between the way the west views burqas, headscarves and full body burqas and the

significance of these clothing items in Muslim culture.

“Let me urge a little caution in reaching fast and hasty conclusions, because the way people express themselves with clothes does differ greatly from place to place,” he said. “For many in the west these concealing garments are symbols of oppressed womanhood, while for many Muslims they are concealing garments and for many others they are defining statements about identity.”

He also pointed out that some Muslim groups throughout history, such as those in Moorish Spain and the Ottoman Empire, oppressed women less than Christian-ruled countries during the same time period.

During the question-and-answer portion of the event, Husain explained that the U.S. sanctions have created a feeling of distrust among the Pakistani people towards the United States.

“Pakistan has often been called the most sanctioned ally of the United States,” he said.

He added that he does not think Pakistan knew of Osama bin Laden’s location before U.S. forces discovered him in Pakistan.

It is necessary for the United States and Pakistan to understand each others’ culture and compromise for the future of their relationship, he explained.

“Misunderstandings will continue until there is a mature review of eachothers needs,” Husain said.

News

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

University adds NQR ban to Code of Conduct NQR

continued from page 1

of the ban on a case-by-case basis.

The CSL held three meetings before voting unanimously on the consequences of the ban on Nov. 8, according to Reitman. One of these meetings took place last semester and two occurred this semester.

Yi, a sophomore, explained that the committee examined the policies of other schools that have banned events similar to NQR in order to develop their own policy.

“We formulated a similar consequence [as other schools] for those who are participating or involved with NQR,” Yi said. “We thought something that was severe enough that people wouldn’t run NQR would be appropriate.”

Reitman urged students to take the ban seriously.

“I am hoping very much that students will not test the policy and will not violate the ban,” he said. “This really was an event that over the years has sent more people to the hospital for varying reasons than anything else that hap-

pened in the calendar.”

Yi expects that most students will respect the ban and not risk the planned punishment.

“I don’t think any Tufts student would want to jeopardize their academics by participating in an event like this and having an academic suspension in their transcript,” he said.

Although students may resent the ban, Yi said, he anticipates it will ultimately be in the best interest of everyone’s safety.

“It’s not meant to take the fun out of anything, it was just purely we wanted people to be safe,” he said.

The university is in the process of planning WinterFest, a winter carnival event designed to serve as an alternative end of the semester celebration for students.

The unseasonably warm weather could turn WinterFest into a more general celebratory event, Reitman said, without the ice sculpture carving events and other snow-related activities the university had initially planned to include.

Out In Israel series designed to educate students about LGBT rights in Israel SHORTY

continued from page 1

let’s talk,” she continued. “It’s a positive thing because you see that people listen, because if they didn’t listen to those lyrics, it wouldn’t hit number one.”

Birthright Israel Coordinator for Tufts Hillel Andrew Cohen said the event served as an opportunity to bring together several different groups on campus to discuss an issue relevant to many. He felt the event would be perfect for the Tufts community, given what he considers to be an open and accepting environment on campus.

“This was an opportunity for us to bring the greater Tufts community to talk about an issue that has many cross-sections here on campus,” Cohen said.

The event was designed to provide

students with a realistic picture of daily life for LGBT individuals in Israel, Out in Israel Program Intern Paris Adler, a senior, added.

“We wanted to have someone that people could relate to and to see that it’s about how people are living and leading their everyday lives and we wanted it to be fun,” she said. “Israeli life isn’t something that should be learned out of textbooks.”

Tufts Friends of Israel Vice-President Erica Feldman thought the event successfully communicated Israel’s progressive attitude toward LGBT rights from the perspective of a young Israeli’s — rather than from a purely academic — standpoint.

“One of the things that we really try to portray to campus is an honest account of Israel,” she said.

Lane Florsheim/Tufts Daily

NYU Professor Phillip Brian Harper discussed his experience helping to create the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU.

Harper shares lessons from creating NYU social and cultural identities department HARPER

continued from page 1

Scott Tingley/Tufts Daily

Shorty, a gay Israeli hip-hop artist, explained that her sexuality has never been a barrier in achieving her dreams.

Harper began by discussing the need for cross-cultural education, which he said is increasingly relevant in a globalized world. At NYU, the importance of cross-cultural education led to the creation of SCA, which emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach in its six programs, he said.

The programs now housed within SCA originally existed independently at NYU, but they were small and each had only a few faculty members, according to Harper.

“It wasn’t so much that things weren’t working, at least on the surface level,” Harper said. “What was true of them overall was that they were running up against their limits as small programs.

There wasn’t enough faculty power to keep the programs going with the intensity that they deserved. It is really hard to maintain that energy level over the long term.”

The initiative to create and get approval for SCA, however, was difficult and time-consuming for those involved given that the programs were so small and different to begin with, he explained.

“We still marvel at the opportunity we were given to create a new department,” Harper said. “We weren’t creating it from the ground up … and that posed certain problems. It was extremely exciting but extremely difficult.”

Harper and other proponents saw the fundamental connectedness of the

different programs within SCA, he said, which is why SCA requires its students to take at least two courses that encompass material from the other programs in the department.

Harper said that those interested in founding similar initiatives need to possess a degree of awareness and regard toward the resources and circumstances of the specific situation.

“The best you can do is try to figure what you have at the institution at which you are located,” Harper said. “It is possible for us to achieve SCA in the context of NYU because of a unique conjecture of events and circumstances.”

A panel consisting of Harper, Clytus and Professor of History Peniel Joseph fielded questions from the audience after the lecture.

Panelists discussed the motivation behind the creation of an Africana studies major at Tufts.

“Institutionally, we don’t quite know why we want to do Africana studies, other than because students are protesting,” Joseph said.

Clytus added that courses that deal with issues of social identity are already available through various departments at Tufts.

Harper said the he saw a possibility and potential for such a program at Tufts to succeed. His experience at NYU has proved that there is burgeoning student interest in the discipline.

“That crowd is growing by the week as we can tell by our enrollment and our attendance of the events,” Harper said.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Jumbos take aim

Student gun club defies stereotypes and looks toward official recognition by

Munir Atalla

Contributing Writer

Founding a club at Tufts is a complex process as is. The Tufts Community Union Judiciary website lists 10 steps of the recognition process, the tenth being a meeting with the Judiciary at which organizers must explain the aims of their new group and justify its creation.

Add the word “gun” to the club name, and the process might get a little sticky. This is why junior Nick Vik, the founder of the campus Gun Club, is working to cultivate the group’s already solid membership base before moving on plans to apply for TCU recognition.

The club, Vik said, has been surprised by the amount of support it has received on a largely liberal campus. This doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t stereotypes to overcome.

“At first glance it sounds like a bunch of gun nuts, but that’s really not what it is,” Vik said.

Now in its second semester, the club has gleaned an active membership of around 30 students, and is focused mainly on target shooting trips and recreational gun use, Vik said.

Vik was aware of the popular stigma that could work against a group affiliated with the use of firearms on a left-leaning campus, and was cautious in establishing this group. It hasn’t been easy, he said.

“Members have felt unfairly judged on this campus,” Vik said.

This is unfortunate, he added, because one of the club’s main objectives is promoting gun safety. It’s also a reason that he looks forward to helping to grow the group before he begins applying for official recognition from the TCUJ. “We want to make sure we have a wellestablished group and member base before we apply,” he said. “There’s a risk with a club like this, there’s a polarizing nature…We needed to establish ourselves first so that the campus understood that we are about the safe and responsible use of firearms.”

Because so many student groups on campus align themselves with political ide-

ologies, there is an instinct to make an that taking aim at targets, skeet or clay assumption that the Gun Club is doing the pigeons is a matter of fine-tuned practice. same, according to junior Carly Fuglei said. “My favorite part of shooting is having a In fact, Vik added, only an interest in rec- skill that not many people have: being able to shoot accurately. It’s something that can reational gun use ties the group together.

“We have a very diverse membership,” really be measured very finely.”

Vik said. “There is a good mix of experi- “It’s not about the power of holding a enced and novice gun users, both male gun,” he said. “I’ve grown up around guns and female. Anyone can join, the only and learned to use them in a way that’s realprerequisite is to have an interest in target ly moderate. I consider it a sport rather than a hobby, [a sport where] you’re competing shooting.”

The club’s organizers are aware that the against yourself every time you shoot.” political aspect of their sport plays a large Vik’s love of the sport appears to be part in how they are perceived. As a result, contagious. Howard said that in addition the Gun Club plans to host speakers from to a growing membership, the club has both sides of the gun control debate so that successfully scheduled its first range trip of students can formulate their own views on the year to the Manchester Firing Line in Manchester, N.H. for next weekend. the matter.

“I think it’s important to have this club on As they gear up to begin the application campus to promote diversity of thought,” for TCU recognition next semester, Howard said he is cautiously optimistic.

Fuglei explained.

New to the club this semester, Fuglei “It’s a difficult thing to gauge just because said she doesn’t consider herself a typical of the nature of our club, but I am hopeful that the university will realize that there is a gunslinger.

“I grew up in Montana where guns are lot of interest at Tufts for a gun club.” part of the culture,” she said. “At one point, if you signed up for DirecTV you got a free gun along with it. I enjoy shooting but am I all about guns? Not really,” said Fuglei.

She added that, as a member of the club, she hopes to present a face of recreational gun use that differs from the Hollywood version.

“It’s not about manliness and guns, it’s more of an outing and a sport.”

The club partially credits burgeoning interest from the student body for its success this semester.

“For our [general interest meeting] that gauged the excitement for the club, about 50 people showed up,” one of the club’s organizers, junior Alec Howard said. “Our e-list includes about 100 people.”

The nature of the sport poses some logistical issues. Target shooting without a license is illegal in Massachusetts, so the club has taken to driving to shooting ranges in New Hampshire for its outings.

“Scheduling events is a big challenge.

Courtesy Nick Vik The range is about an hour away,” Howard Nick Vik, the president of the campus Gun said.

Vik’s decision to found the club stems Club, takes aim in a shooting practice during from his passion for shooting. He explained a club outing.

Campus comment: NQR When University President Lawrence Bacow last semester banned the Naked Quad Run (NQR), the decision was controversial. Yesterday, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman followed up on the decision with emails to students and parents warning that the punishment for attempting to participate in the run this year will be a semester’s suspension. With December fast approaching, here’s what the campus had to say about the cancellation and Reitman’s email.

As soon as I got the email, my dad called me and said, “You are not running NQR! You have to promise that you will not run it!” and I was like ‘Yeah; I guess so.” If they really want to crack down on it, that’s the way they have to do it. They have to make the consequences dire. Hopefully, there will be some bad-a-- people who do it anyway.

—Gabriel Nicholas, junior

I understand why they canceled it. They’re supposed to follow the rules, but at the same time it’s a very uniquely Tufts event, and I know I participated in it last year and I had a blast. I think it’s a little unreasonable; there are so many other schools all across the country that do similar activities and don’t have an issue with it.

-—Alessandra Abouzahr, sophomore

I guess it should just be based upon previous incidents. If in the past there has been a lot of out of control behavior, like people getting injured or getting really drunk or that kind of thing, but unless that’s a serious problem I don’t necessarily think it should be outlawed, but I don’t know what the administration is basing their actions upon.

—Shoshana Spencer, junior

I think that the punishment is unnecessarily severe. I think it’s a little ridiculous that it seems like the administration doesn’t trust their students. People are going to run it, but to threaten suspension is just very extreme.

It’s very extreme to threaten to suspend people for an entire semester for participating in NQR, especially the year right after you lose it, and it was such a cherished tradition for us. I just don’t think that the alternative lives up to the original event, so of course people are going to want to do it. But I don’t think that banning NQR in itself was very unfair. It was very dangerous and it was getting worse every year.

—Amber Jackson, senior

As a freshman coming in here, I can see how this was a beloved tradition for the Tufts community, but I do see logistically how the administration wouldn’t permit this activity. I do think it was a bit awkward that there was such a drastic change in administration from year to year.

—Rachel Moss, freshman

Alison Williams and Sarah Gottlieb | Generation SEX

Bad hair day?

L

ately we’ve heard quite a large amount of people discussing an issue that even the intelligent and resourceful students of Tufts University can’t seem to figure out. What is that issue, you may ask? Some important political argument? Yesterday’s email concerning the consequences of participating in NQR? Why, for some people, class registration never seems to go well? None of the above. Instead, we’re setting out to address something the Tufts campus needs to set straight: pubic hair.

Although the word “pubic” may freak you out, pubic hair itself shouldn’t be avoided just because you think it’s gross. It’s normal.

Everyone has it. As for how to manage it, that’s generally a matter of opinion. Some people like keeping themselves squeaky clean and hairless down there, while others manage their body hair without getting rid of all of it.

Whatever your preference, there are a lot of different ways to deal with your pubic hair.

Shaving: Many people are hesitant to shave down there because your skin can become extremely irritated, so here are some tricks to make shaving easier and less painful. If your hair is long, make sure to trim it before you shave — this will stop your razor from becoming too blunt or clogged too quickly.

Most convenience stores carry trimming supplies, which are convenient if you’d rather just stop after trimming some of your hair off.

Additionally, invest in a good-quality razor rather than a cheap one, as a design with more blades or moisturizers will help you in the long run. It’s better to shave down there if you’re in a hot shower or tub, as pubic hair is thick and takes a while to soften. If you think you’re shaving correctly and your skin still keeps getting irritated, stop by the nearest CVS and pick up some lotion — there are many different brands that make products just for your skin down there!

Waxing: Unlike with shaving, it’s better to keep your skim extremely dry before waxing.

Make sure to test a small area of your skin before waxing a large area, as some people’s skin can react badly to wax. If you’re waxing at home, make sure that the wax doesn’t become too hot and burn your skin. When pulling the wax off, pull back rapidly rather than slowly so you don’t irritate your skin. Just as with shaving, there are tons of products made to heal your skin after waxing, so check them out. Also, waxing is something that you can get done professionally. Although it’s more expensive, some people think it’s better to leave these things to someone who definitely knows what he or she is doing.

Depilatories: Products like Nair or Veet that chemically remove hair from the skin. Many products recommend that you avoid using these in large quantities around the pubic area — if you’re looking to remove hair in a large area down there, this might not be your best bet. However, it can be useful for touch-ups or small amounts of hair. Each product comes with different warnings and instructions, so check out various types and find one that’s right for you.

Some other options include electrolysis and laser treatment, which are both fairly expensive and not the most popular for college students.

Bottom line: be nice to your pubic hair, whether you’re a guy or a girl. While women are most likely to keep it well-groomed down there, men can also benefit from a little “manscaping,” right?

As for personal preference, we asked a lot of people and couldn’t come to a general conclusion. Everyone feels differently about it, so don’t sweat — you shouldn’t feel pressured to tame your pubic hair in a certain way. We just have one request: please stay away from the vajazzling.

Alison Williams is a sophomore majoring in English, and Sarah Gottlieb is a sophomore majoring in psychology.Williams can be reached at Alison.Williams@tufts.edu and Gottlieb can be reached at Sarah.Gottlieb@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

F a r e s C e n t e r f o r E a s t e r n M e d i t e r r a n e a n S t u d i e s Celebrating our 10

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“The Arab Spring and the One-State Solution in Israel/Palestine�

Leila Farsakh

Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Leila Farsakh is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston where she teaches courses in International Relations and Middle East Politics. She is the author of Palestinian Labor Migration to Israel: Labour, Land and Occupation (Routledge, 2005) and editor of Commemorating the Naksa, Evoking the Nakba (a special volume of the Electronic Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Spring 2008), as well as several articles on the political economy of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the one-state solution. She has worked with a number of international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, and since 2008 has been a senior research fellow at the Center for Development Studies at Birzeit University, in the West Bank. In 2001, Farsakh won the Peace and Justice Award from the Cambridge Peace Commission (Cambridge, MA). Farsakh holds a B.A. from the University of Exeter (UK), an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge (UK), and a Ph.D. from the University of London.

Co-sponsored by: The Department of Political Science, The International Relations Program, and The Mediterranean Club

Wednesday, November 16, 2011 at 5:30 pm Cabot 7th Floor - Tufts University Open to the Public Cabot Intercultural Center 160 Packard Avenue Medford, Massachusetts 02155

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Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

Restaurant Review

Jordan Teicher | The Independent

Bergamot puts distinctive spin on commonplace recipes by

Portrait of an artist

Chris Poldoian

M

Senior Staff Writer

The experience of dining out is often a series of compromises. The “either-or” scenario leaves diners weighing the importance

Bergamot 118 Beacon Street Somerville, MA 02143 (617) 576-7700 $$$ of service or ambiance in relation to the quality of food. Generally, if the food is good, diners will overlook subpar service or ambiance. Yet, the holistic dining experience is more than what appears on the plate; rather, it is the aggregate of miniscule details.

Bergamot is aware of every detail that defines the meal. Its superb food lacks pretension or haughtiness. Thanks to its conscientious front-of-the-house service and back-of-the-house staff, Bergamot is the rare restaurant that combines comfort and luxury, featuring Boston-quality food with suburban prices.

The spacious interior peppered with round tables evokes a sense of community.

The well-lit full service bar offers diners a more casual meal. For Tufts students, the bar would be an excellent spot to grab a cocktail and split an entree.

Like most restaurants, dining at Bergamot begins with bread and butter. However, Bergamot treats the bread with as much care as anything else on the menu. Forgoing the breadbasket, the service staff keeps an attentive eye out, offering a new piece whenever they see a barren plate. Instead of wallowing in staleness, the pieces of bread are kept warm and brought to your table as needed.

A wedge of in-house honey compound-but-

Courtesy Mike Ritter

Bergamot blends local produce and unique flavors to great success. ter complements the subtly sweet brioche.

The extensive wine list is sub-divided into naturalistic descriptions of the flavors to make it more approachable. While the sub-categorization is helpful, the descriptions, at times, come off as too elaborate.

But have no fear. The well-versed servers can cheerfully steer you to a wine that is palatable to both mouth and wallet. The cocktail list is equally appealing and incorporates a variety of different liqueurs and syrups. Bottles of wine start in the high $20 range, while the signature cocktails are reasonably priced at around $10.

The appetizer menu dabbled into some staples with decent results, while delicious starters such as the braised sweetbreads,

‘Crazy Clown Time’ wavers between compelling and flat Charles Laubacher Contributing Writer

“Crazy Clown Time,” released on Nov. 7, is the first solo album by the 65-yearold filmmaker David Lynch. Lynch’s

Crazy Clown Time David Lynch

Play It Again Sam trademark dark wit and esoteric creepiness shine through in many of the atmospheric tracks. His music evokes the

see BERGAMOT, page 6

Concert Review

Album Review

by

butternut squash gnocchi and duck confit salad seemed routine in their preparation.

The highlights were the farro and the carpaccio. Farro can be a tricky appetizer due to its density; if the crunchy wheat dish is prepared too generously, diners won’t have room for their main course.

Bergamot smartly emphasized the black trumpet and porcini mushrooms. At the restaurant, the porcini broth, along with several dollops of a truffle emulsion, are used to lend a deep, earthy flavor to the dish.

While the thin slices of raw sirloin provided a strong foundation, the salpicon garnish elevated the carpaccio beyond the conven-

complex and precise sound design evident in many of his films.

Lynch has never limited his artistic scope to films, producing visual art, comics and even collaborating with musicians since the late ’80s, so a solo album does not seem like a surprising next step. What is surprising, however, is how in-step many tracks seem with contemporary sounds.

One reason Lynch’s films are so haunting and unique — and often at odds with prevailing trends — is his ability to incorporate stylistic aspects of many past and present genres. This is certainly evident on “Crazy Clown Time,” which engages see LYNCH, page 6

MCT

David Lynch’s ‘Crazy Clown Time’ is complex, but inconsistent.

Chung’s rapid tempo fails to suit Tchaikovsky by

Panharith Chhum Contributing Writer

On Thursday, Nov. 10, MyungWhun Chung led the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) in performing the overture from Carl Maria von Weber’s “Der Freischütz,” Samuel Barber’s “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra,” Op. 38 and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovksy’s Symphony No. 6, “Pathetique” in B minor, Op. 74. Unlike its English definition, “pathétique” in French most closely translates to “moving” and “touching.”

Chung led an exaggerated performance of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony that did not allow the orchestra to play as effectively as it could have. In general, the tempo was too fast to hear each orchestral part distinctly.

In the introduction of the first movement, there is a restless theme that consists of staccato 16th notes, which is alternated between woodwinds and strings. Under Chung, the introduction was faster than I had ever heard it played before.

Rather than smoothly introducing the mournful main theme, this section came across as rushed.

In the allegro vivo of the first movement, following the departure from D major, the lovely and now-familiar theme abruptly gives see BSO, page 6

y pops is old school. Each week, he sends me movie articles cut out from The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal. While the rest of the world depends on iPads and Twitter, my father still gets the tips of his fingers dirty from newspaper print. His colleagues are developing bionic thumb muscles due to overactive BlackBerry scrolling, and he is single-handedly keeping snail mail in business. Sure, it would be easier for him to send me a link in an email, but there is something refreshing about opening up an envelope and reading a clipped news article.

A few weeks ago, my father sent me an article from the Times about “The Artist,” a black-and-white silent film coming out in a limited release on Nov. 23. Don’t worry if you have to read that sentence twice; I was confused as well. “The Artist,” directed by Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius, is not a re-release of an old movie but a contemporary film made without any dialogue about a fading male actor and a rising female actress who fall in love. Somewhere in Los Angeles, Aaron Sorkin is shaking his head.

Hazanavicius certainly has chutzpah. In this era, you need to be half-crazy to make a film without any dialogue. Additionally, you need a handful of half-crazy producers willing to fund a 100-minute silent movie shot in black-and-white. But early reports — including the article mailed by my father — suggest that Hazanavicius meticulously researched the film culture from the 1920s for months before coming up with the story. So far, critics love the film, and male lead Jean Dujardin is generating serious Oscar buzz after winning the Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

I am surprised at myself for thinking this, but I am very excited to see “The Artist.”

Older films — pre-1960 — often bore me.

I appreciate the way “Citizen Kane” (1941) contributed to the development of filmmaking techniques with crane shots, the use of montage, etc., but I consider the story dull and overly conventional. Many older films have flat characters. The acting is frequently overdramatic. Plenty of modern films suffer from the same shortcomings, but at least in independent films, writers and directors attempt to generate more complex plots and characters.

Yet “The Artist” intrigued me immediately. Producing a silent film from a 21stcentury perspective could counteract the typical monotony commonly found in older films. Hopefully, Hazanavicius finds a way to blend the charm of old Hollywood with the nuance of presentday indie filmmaking.

Today’s audiences may not be ready to support “The Artist,” but it’s about time we had a fresh idea. Hollywood studios seem content to roll out more recycled material each year. There’s a little too much white noise out in theaters for my liking.

I saw the disappointing “J. Edgar” (2011) over the weekend, a movie stuck with an amateurish screenplay that had characters spelling out their feelings. And this kind of film is supposed to be the cream of our cinematic crop: Clint Eastwood directs, Leonardo DiCaprio stars, Dustin Lance Black — who deservedly won Best Original Screenplay for “Milk” (2008) — pens the script. However, aside from DiCaprio’s solid performance, “J. Edgar” was very average.

Maybe silence is not such a bad option.

Maybe we need to restrain the talk-talktalk trend championed by Sorkin, Quentin Tarantino and Diablo Cody just a little bit, because not all filmmakers are capable of pulling off that brand of excessive, speech-prone dialogue. “The Artist” may be the perfect film for right now — a little old-school flair to put us back in the right direction.

Jordan Teicher is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at Jordan.

Teicher@tufts.edu.

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The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

BSO’s pace exaggerates Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony BSO

continued from page 5

way to a frightening orchestral tutti that quickly leads into frenzy. A sneering horn section mocks the listeners as it races with the orchestra toward climax.

This section is somewhat reminiscent of the thunderstorms in Beethoven’s 6th symphony.

Once again, Chung’s tempo made it increasingly difficult to effectively hear the character of all the instruments. As a result of the tempo, rather than giving a sense of arrival, the return of the main theme felt awkward and out of place.

Chung should be reminded that increasing the speed and dynamic of the piece does not always correlate to increasing its emotional impact. Instead of presenting a smooth and continuous piece of music, discrete sections of the first movement felt compartmentalized, and transitions were neither careful nor nuanced.

In the second movement, Tchaikovsky takes us to a ballet with a waltz-like movement in 5/4 that would normally provide a break from the heavy first movement. In this case, it was difficult to hear the pizzicato strings, and the woodwind parts were blurred and difficult to make out.

The exception to this otherwise subpar performance arrived in the third movement. Chung’s conducting briefly transformed the piece into a brisk march. Under his guidance, this movement became especially stately. Its conclusive ending even moved the audience to applause.

Since the third movement has all the bells and whistles of a conclusive finale, I expected the fourth movement to present as a sweet elegy — an afterthought to the first three movements. The fourth movement does not build upon a main theme as obsessively as the first three movements, yet it still complements the first. Unfortunately, Chung’s dynamic and hyperbolic style damaged the subtlety of the fourth movement. The verve

Stu Rosner/Boston Symphony Orchestra

Myung-Whun Chung conducts at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. of the piece should have already ended in its third movement — there was no need for Chung to force the characteristics of a conventional finale into the

Lynch’s intricate album drags at points LYNCH

continued from page 5

elements of ’60s cinematic surf, ’80s rock and modern electronic music.

The album opens strongly with “Pinky’s Dream,” which features the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ vocalist, Karen O. Distant guitars bounce around within a wide-open but driving drumbeat. Karen O’s vocals enter with the plea: “Please, Pinky, watch the road,” plugging us immediately into a classic Lynchian scene of fast cars on the highway at night. At times, “Pinky’s Dream” features echoes of Angelo Badalamenti’s iconic score for Lynch’s televsion show “Twin Peaks” (1990-1991) and of the soundtrack to his 1997 film “Lost Highway,” which featured heavyweights of late ’90s industrial and alternative rock. Like “Pinky’s,” the strongest songs on “Crazy Clown Time” have a cinematic quality, offering frames and scenes from stories, yet follow traditional song structure.

“Pinky’s” is followed by the album’s single, “Good Day Today.” The track offers steady beats and underwater synths reminiscent of recent sounds by artists such as Washed Out; the sound is often characterized as “chillwave.” Lynch’s own voice enters the mix for the first time, filtered through a reedy vocoder and taking on the quality of a “robot voice” that calls Daft Punk to mind. The track is strong overall, if somewhat repetitive.

The use of the vocoder and vocal augmentation pervade the album. Lynch manipulates his voice to infuse different tracks with particular moods or characters. In disguising his voice, he also seems to background himself; his persona fades in the service of the idea of the song.

Lyrically, much of the album touches on common Lynch themes. On “Football Game,” Lynch tells the story of a spurned lover who sees his partner at a football game with another man. Against distorted and out-of-tune guitars, Lynch’s nearunintelligible voice seems to illuminate the sinister and the bizarre in the context of average America.

The title track finds Lynch singing in a childish voice against more spooky guitars, trashy Tom Waits-esque drums and samples of a woman’s pleasure moans.

Lynch narrates a bizarre backyard scene with moments like: “Suzy, she ripped her shirt off completely…/ Then he poured beer all over Sally.” The album is pervaded by this dichotomy between the mundane and the deeply perverse and disturbing. Even on weaker tracks, Lynch’s lyrics shine with the same perplexing resonance as his scripts.

“Strange and Unproductive Thinking” finds a computerized Lynch philosophizing over a mostly repetitive kickand-snare and a simple bassline. While Lynch manages to showcase his own command of sophisticated language and elucidate some of the complex ideas also at work in his films, the musical elements of the track leave the listener wanting more. From the beginning, the track has momentum; it seems to be cooking along towards some grand explosion of sound, yet this moment of release is never reached.

This is a common problem with the album. Many tracks succeed in creating the kind of slow, stewing tension that makes Lynch’s films so gripping to watch, yet they rarely open up to the kind of controlled chaos that is evident in the most terrifying moments of his film work.

“Crazy Clown Time’s” strongest tracks, like “Pinky’s Dream,” are the most conventional. “Stone’s Gone Up” is a standout with a surprisingly catchy chorus.

“These Are My Friends,” a poignant commentary on loneliness and consumerism, moves along at the same heavy tempo as certain weaker songs, but the song is strong because of the presence of real melody in Lynch’s vocals and in the instrumentation.

“Crazy Clown Time” is certainly a complex and interesting album, but at times, Lynch’s propensity toward atmosphere and ideas seems to be privileged over listenability. Like his films, the album can feel drawn out and slow, confusing and contradictory. The crucial difference is that Lynch does not have the same creative command of music as he does over film. A slow moment in a Lynch film may be as rich as an action scene, but on this album, many of the slower moments are simply dull.

fourth movement.

Sadly, Thursday’s BSO’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony was not carefully executed. Chung’s exaggeration

might work well for pieces like Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, but it is not suited for the intricacies and fine distinctions of Tchaikovsky’s music.

Bergamot features reasonably priced, delicious fare BERGAMOT

continued from page 5

tional. The salpicon — a creamy mixture of diced ingredients — contained stinging nettle flowers, king oyster mushrooms and delicate brioche croutons. Topped with a quail egg, the carpaccio was easily the highlight of the evening.

Of the entrees, three stood out as clear winners. First was the hake, a white fish similar in texture and flavor to cod. Its delicate flavor and texture are paired with a subtly sweet saffron broth. Saffron, a traditional Spanish spice made up of the dried stigmas of the saffron crocus flower, is the most expensive seasoning around.

Its flavor in this dish is pronounced, as if to announce itself to the world. I found myself unabashedly spooning up the broth long after the hake was eaten.

Chicken is a hard dish to get right in a restaurant. Many chefs — most publicly, Anthony Bourdain — have expressed apathy toward chicken. But at Bergamot, the breast meat, glazed in its own drippings, is exceptionally moist. Shavings of black truffles garnished the plate like plucked petals of a flower in an epicurean game of she-loves-me, she-loves-me-not. These truffle shavings, along with the leeks and

Swiss chard complement the chicken’s humble flavor.

The lamb special of the evening is indicative of Bergamot’s emphasis on local ingredients. The lamb came from a small Vermont farm and was served both braised and roasted.

There were some lovely ingredients and techniques used in the preparation of certain desserts. While the Bergamot-infused panna cotta was delicious, the highlight was the toffee and pear cake with crème fraiche ice cream and powderized cocoa nibs. The cake was served with slices of compressed pears. Compression is a culinary technique that involves vacuum-sealing and freezing to infuse fruit with a flavor or to compact the loose cell structure and decrease water content. In this case, the thin slices of pear were exceptionally crisp, providing a textural contrast to the dense cake.

Chef and co-owner Keith Pooler and general manager and co-owner Servio Garcia don’t reinvent the wheel — they just try to perfect it. The food at Bergamot excels in its humility. Instead of relying on esoteric or gimmicky ingredients, the kitchen strives to let familiar flavors shine. Bergamot combines honest food with genuine service.

Courtesy Tim Llewellyn

Bergamot features a great wine list and innovative cocktails.

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Editorial

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Many students’ cell phones were abuzz yesterday afternoon with calls from their parents or guardians. Other Jumbos checked their inboxes and were greeted by not just an email from Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman but also one sent by a concerned — or in some cases, amused — parent or guardian.

Families were responding to the email sent out to every Tufts family about the punishment that would be given to students who decided to partake in the Naked Quad Run (NQR) this fall.

Debates about the cancellation of NQR and the severity of the semesterlong suspension punishment for those caught running — as was officially announced yesterday in Reitman’s email — are a discussion for another day.

It’s clear the administration is serious about ensuring that NQR does not take place this year, and, in light of the dangers entailed by drunkenly streaking on the ice and in the December cold, we at the Daily hope these new policies are effective in preventing harm to students. This does not mean,

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Parental email reflects lack of trust

Carter W. Rogers Editor-in-Chief

Editorial | Letters

though, that we condone the administration’s decision to run to our moms and pops for help with canceling a previously university-sanctioned tradition.

There’s no doubt that by now most students are aware of this year’s consequence for braving the cold and streaking the Res Quad at the end of the fall semester. Students who value their time and education at Tufts should be mortified by the prospect of being suspended for a semester, so this should be a perfectly effective means of keeping students from running. It was demeaning, however, to hear that the administration believes they must go through our parents and guardians in order to have us understand the implications of defying their cancellation.

Our parents’ butting into our social lives at college, thus undermining our independence, isn’t necessary. An attention-grabbing, abundantly clear message to the student body is enough; we don’t need to hear it from our parents or guardians, too.

It’s true that most students derive significant support from their parents,

whether it be financial or emotional support. In exchange for this support, parents and guardians certainly have a right to know what’s going on at Tufts.

However, the university is practicing selective informing with this email: Our families are rarely mass-emailed by the administration about disiplinary issues; they’re not even notified when their child is caught in minor violation of the school’s drug and alcohol policy, and they certainly haven’t been contacted about NQR before.

The purpose of this particular email was less about informing families and more about persuading them to contact us to tell us not to run.

In his matriculation address to the Class of 2015, University President Anthony Monaco told families, “It won’t be easy to let go, but [your student’s] independence here on campus is a big part of their transition to become responsible adults. But they cannot become independent unless you truly let go.”

The administration should practice what it preaches and trust students know the serious consequences of running NQR.

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Off the Hill | University of South Carolina

Congressmen overlooked in recent debate; issues, ideas not heard Stephen Barry

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South Carolina and CBS News played host to the most recent Republican presidential candidate debate. The debate focused solely on foreign policy issues America is facing today, such as Iran’s nuclear facilities, foreign aid to other nations — especially Israel — and the practice of torture.

The debate was refreshing for a change because it focused on foreign policy and not the economy or job creation. However, one thing particularly stuck out.

In the 60 minutes of the debate that were televised, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was asked only one question and one follow up-question, a grand total of 90 seconds, far less than the other candidates were granted by the moderators.

So I just have one question for CBS News: What in the world were you thinking?

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Let me give you a couple of facts before we dive into this: Ron Paul was one of the only veterans on the stage; Ron Paul serves on the House Foreign Relations Committee; and Ron Paul is top three in fundraising and most polls.

The thing about Ron Paul is that he has contrasting views from most of the other potential candidates, like nonintervention, reduction of military presence around the world and the end of torture. All of which are things that Americans could rally behind.

These are all views that need to be discussed among the candidates, but this weekend they were ignored. Not only was it a disservice to Paul and his supporters, it was a disservice to the American people.

CBS News should be downright embarrassed. Throughout the campaign, Paul’s camp has cried foul over the insufficient amount of media coverage he has been received. After the

Ames Straw Poll, which Paul only lost by a fraction of a percent, none of the main media sources were giving him any credit and refused to accept that he is a top-tier candidate.

Less than a month ago, grassroots supporters put on a money bomb for Paul entitled “Black THIS Out!” to show the mainstream media that he was a force to be reckoned with. The money bomb made $2.68 million over one weekend. I bet you did not hear about that listening to Fox News or CBS News.

This race is far from over. There is still enough time for the American people to realize they are being manipulated by news agencies like CBS News who have turned a blind eye to a reputable, top running candidate.

Whether you support Congressman Ron Paul or not, the kind of ignorance we saw at Saturday’s debate is wrong and should not be tolerated.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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Op-Ed Amanda Johnson | Senior Moments

A meaningful revamp

W

MCT

US, UNESCO and the Palestinian Statehood Bid by

Thomas Stack

I am writing as a concerned U.S. citizen in protest of my government’s recent decision to withdraw its funding from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In light of the organization’s decision to grant the Palestinian territories full membership, legislation in United States automatically cut off funding to this peacemaking body. It made we wonder, why is this legislation in place? Are we saying that the Palestinians have no right to a culture or education?

UNESCO’s admission of Palestine was passed by an overwhelming majority of 107 to 14 with 52 abstentions. It represented a step forward in Palestinian efforts to gain recognition as a state and thereby equality with Israel at the United Nations.

The United States has decided to withhold its funding from UNESCO, which totals about $80 million a year and comprises 22 percent of the organization’s budget, on the grounds that it is counterproductive to peace between Israel and Palestine. Is our government really cutting funding to a peace-building humanitarian organization? Is this the image we want as Americans in today’s world?

This action by our country’s government is, in my eyes, shameful. In their own words, “UNESCO’s mission is to contrib-

ute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.” This valuable mission should not be held hostage by our nation’s government to fulfill the narrow political goal of dictating negotiations in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. In fact, due to the significant role the United States plays in funding the organization, UNESCO’s ability to carry out its mission is now very much in question. UNESCO provides learning opportunities for children who would not normally have them. UNESCO also works towards gender equity and equal opportunity around the world. Isn’t this the sort of thing America stands for?

That brings me to the point of the Palestinian people. Of all countries that should sympathize with a nation trying to break free of colonialism, we should be the first. We faced similar struggles not centuries ago. Our Declaration of Independence was a milestone in the pursuit of freedom and human rights worldwide. As an American, I sympathize with the right of the Palestinian people, and any people, to self-determination. Israelis have called the Palestinian statehood bid “an obstacle to peace.” Over the past several decades, the United States has claimed to serve as a mediator between these two countries, but

when it comes down to it, we back Israel every time, regardless of the circumstances.

Nine of our last 10 vetoes in the Security Council since 2001 were used in response to resolutions that either sanctioned Israeli human rights violations or sought to give aid to the Palestinians. We claim that we support a two-state solution, but when the second party tries to become a state, we shoot it down and collectively punish an organization like UNESCO. Israel believes that the statehood bid is an affront to negotiations, but how can two parties negotiate if one is inherently asymmetrical both militarily and politically to the other?

Israelis and Palestinians alike have waited too long to achieve a just peace. Both groups now struggle with the daily strains of an ongoing conflict. I, like many Americans, want a peaceful Israel and Palestine that are free from fear. America has supported the Arab Spring in other countries in the region, and I believe that it is time that we start practicing what we preach and allow the Palestinian people to fulfill their statehood wishes, restore funding to UNESCO and take the state of Israel and the then-newly founded Palestinian state to the negotiation table to solve this conflict once and for all.

Thomas Stack is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.

Off the Hill | University of Oklahoma

American student loan program needs revision by

Oklahoma Daily Editorial Board Oklahoma Daily

On Thursday, The Oklahoma Daily published a letter from President Barack Obama outlining recent actions to reduce the burden of student debt.

His plan enables students to consolidate multiple loan payments into one monthly payment at a lower interest rate. It also calls for a program that would lower monthly payments for those students using the incomecontingent payment option from 15 percent of students’ salaries to 10 percent to go into effect next year, two years earlier than planned.

We have to say, President Obama, your actions are a good start. But they’re not enough. Reports show student debt will reach $1 trillion this year, and almost 9 percent of student loans are in default, according to the Department of Education. A problem this serious calls for serious reform, not Band-Aids.

Students often can’t get work right out of school or must accept a lowerpaying position. If students lose their jobs, can’t find work or can’t make a living wage, they will get behind on loan payments. They are then faced with serious consequences, such as ballooning repayments, wage garnishes, heavy fines, destroyed credit scores and the inability to borrow for a house or car.

Even if they manage to get ahead financially, the burden of their debt will

push them back under. They will inevitably default, costing the government — and ultimately, taxpayers — money.

The problem is the American student loan system is not sensitive to the difficulties of those first few years out of school. Under the usual model, the payments are on a set monthly schedule, regardless of income, and spread over just 10 years. Otherwise, for example, students must specially apply for the income-contingent option every year.

But in the British system all loan payments are calculated directly from wages. So payments for the year are capped at 9 percent of any earnings above 15,000 British pounds, or $20,405.

Because of changing costs of living, that cap will be increased to 21,000 British pounds, or $28,571, for those starting their loan in 2012.

This money is taken directly from students’ monthly salaries, like income tax, so there’s no chance of default. If students’ incomes drop below the cap, no more payments are taken until their income rises. The remaining debt is forgiven after 20 years.

The United Kingdom’s progressive student loan system has kept student debt low and defaults lower than 2 percent, according to the Student Loans Company.

In 1997, the year before this system was instituted, the Student Loans Company, which handles all student

loans, estimated 61 million British pounds, or $83 million, would not be repaid because of defaults. This resulted in the British taxpayers paying for 20 percent of the balance that year. Under the new system, that monetary burden has all but evaporated.

The U.S. student loan program is hemorrhaging money. Adopting the British model may cost the government money in the short term by lowering payments and forgiving debt after a certain time, but it ultimately will increase revenue by keeping more students paying off their loans.

Since American students pay more for their education, and thus must borrow more, the United States can expand the time before debt forgiveness to 30 years.

Yes, students may end up paying more in interest by paying off their loans over a longer period, but this increase is vastly outweighed by the fines and fees involved in defaulting.

An income-based plan would save money for both students and taxpayers, not to mention giving the next generation of Americans a way to navigate our failing job market and economy without choosing between an education and a chance at financial success.

In your letter, President Obama, you said you hoped we would join you in your efforts. Now, we’re asking you to join us in an effort to take real action to reform a broken system.

hen I visited The Tufts Daily website yesterday, a headline instantly caught my eye: “Tufts admissions revamps outreach, website” My imagination galloped. Had the university decided to adjust its policy to rein in students from the forgotten stretches of America? Had we chosen to terminate legacy considerations, actively seek students of need and increase our yearly quota of Nebraskans? Was Tufts forgoing another trip to Exeter in order to sprinkle in some visits to meetings of Future Farmers of America and pro-life rallies?

Alas, it was not so. The admissions department has instead conducted a stylistic overhaul of the website and prospective-student magazine, opting once again to address superficial adjustments rather than restructuring the underlying content.

It’s a decision that’s made a lot these days, and, considering today’s attention deficit society, one that makes sense. We watch newspapers revamp their approach, filling their pages with eye-catching design schemes and glitzy decorations as more and more stories fall to AP coverage. Our billboard hits feature autotuned, catchy electronic clips with lyrics that seem to be written to teach suburban white kids dance moves and recount hazy nights than to impart a meaningful message. People jealously admire the coolness of gadgets rather than their utility; we let the flurry of Facebook face-lifts make or break our afternoons though they do little to transform our online socializing. Meanwhile, the stuff of real content is dichotomized into manageable blocs. 99 vs 1.

White vs. colored. Corporations vs. people. If it can fit into a schematic representation, it can be attacked. If we can’t see it, well, we’ll save it for another day.

Our recent dialogue about diversity on campus seems to have fallen into this pattern as well. Our discussion zones in on the ostensible categories of hardship and variety — the more noticeable and exotic the oppression, the more it needs to be tackled. There are very compelling and valid reasons to do this. Those whose group identity can be analyzed from across the cafeteria carry a burden that cannot be escaped by fading into the recluse of anonymity or silence. Our traditional concepts of disadvantaged people exist because they’re very real, and because they capture enduring trends that continue to plague America.

But the quieter profiles, the ones lacking obvious representation and vocal advocates, tend to get lost in the clamor as the focus almost exclusively falls on the more visible elements of diversity. The subtle stories of working and lower class America slip through the cracks, falling short of the admissions office goals and op-ed pages of campus newspapers. At the same time, we treat certain identities as fully embodying the struggles or the luxuries of the grouping to which they claim. We ignore the complexities that don’t fit into our clean categories, and overlook the overlaps that feel contradictory.

A recent study revealed that at the top 146 colleges, a cringe-worthy 3 percent of students are from the bottom economic quartile; 74 percent are from the top fourth. It reinforces what we already know, yet isn’t something that’s addressed a lot as a social problem in our college community. Socioeconomic class isn’t an identity we feel comfortable wearing as our outer layer, and it doesn’t have support groups or active advocates. It’s easy to slip into the solitude of the majority or identify with a more readily discernible identity. We don’t see it, so we forget it’s there.

It is paramount to have these tangible representations of varied groups on campus, which add dimensions to our college atmosphere that are worth a fight. But if we pursue a strategy focused exclusively on the appearance of diversity and forget the many layers and veiled elements of our identity, we risk revamping our image without doing enough to alter its content.

Amanda Johnson is a senior majoring in international relations. She can be reached at Amanda.Johnson@tufts.edu.

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

by

Wiley

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Eating a crazy alcohol rainbow pig

Late Night at the Daily Tuesday’s Solution

Niki: “You made me hot!”

Jason: “No! ... Oh, yes...”

Please recycle this Daily.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

F a r e s C e n t e r f o r E a s t e r n M e d i t e r r a n e a n S t u d i e s Celebrating our 10

t h

Anniversary

“Israel: Social Revolution and Regional Isolation”

Joel S. Migdal

Director, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Near & Middle East Studies and Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington (Seattle)

Joel Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the University of Washington’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and Director of the Near and Middle East Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program. He was the founding chair of the University of Washington’s International Studies Program. Migdal was formerly Associate Professor of Government at Harvard University and Senior Lecturer at Tel-Aviv University. In 1993, he received the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award; in 1994, the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award; in 2006, the Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award; and in 2008, the Provost Distinguished Lectureship. Among his books are Peasants, Politics, and Revolution (Princeton University Press, 1977); Palestinian Society and Politics (Princeton University Press, 1980); Strong Societies and Weak States (Princeton University Press, 1988); State in Society (Cambridge University Press, 2001); Through the Lens of Israel (State University of New York Press, 2001); The Palestinian People: A History (with Baruch Kimmerling, Harvard University Press, 2003); and Boundaries and Belonging (Cambridge University Press, 2004). Migdal received an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Co-sponsored by: The Department of Political Science, The International Relations Program, and The Mediterranean Club

Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 5:30 pm Mugar 200 - Tufts University Open to the Public Cabot Intercultural Center 160 Packard Avenue Medford, Massachusetts 02155

http://farescenter.tufts.edu For more information contact: Chris Zymaris @ 617.627.6560

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Tufts Daily

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Sports

By

Professor Stephen Pekar

Friday, Nov. 18 4 PM

School of Earth & Environmental Sciences Queens College, City University of New York Acknowledgements National Science Foundation Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Ocean Leadership Consortium for the Ocean Drilling Program

NESCAC doubleheader will serve as litmus test for Jumbos ICE HOCKEY

have as captains and leaders.”

Although the Jumbos graduated four of their top five scorers, leading lamplighter Kyle Gallegos — who carried Tufts’ attack with 15 goals — returns for his sophomore season, and juniors Dylan Plimmer and Trevor John will also be crucial assets to coach Brian Murphy’s squad. Plimmer and John finished the season sixth and eighth on the team in scoring, respectively, adding five goals and 13 total assists last season.

“The older players do a great job.

They’re always there, helping out if we have any questions,” Edwards said.

“On the ice and off the ice, they’re great players and great guys. They work hard in practice so they’re really guys that you cannot just listen to, but you can really follow what they do by watching, and they’re a good group to

Can the eight newcomers step up?

Murphy’s roster also boasts eight freshmen who, under the wings of Gallegos and others, have the potential to impact the Jumbos in a big way.

Edwards, an Ohio native, played junior A hockey for the St. Louis Bandits in the North American Hockey League’s (NAHL) Midwest division. Last season, Edwards played in 57 games, and although he scored just once, he delivered 20 helpers for a total of 21 points. As a setup man, Edwards has the potential to create much-needed scoring opportunities and key stops for Tufts, which was outscored 106-66 last season.

Shawn Power, who began skating at age three and transitioned to defense after years of rotating between that position and forward, will add versatility.

continued from page 16

Volleyball

Lord, Kuan named Honorable Mention AllAmericans Junior setter Kendall Lord became the second Tufts volleyballer ever to earn NESCAC Player of the Year honors earlier this week. She can now add a national honor to the haul.

Lord, who joined 2009 winner Dena Feiger (LA ‘10) among the most decorated Jumbos ever, was named a 2011 Div. III American Volleyball Coaches Association Honorable Mention AllAmerican yesterday.

Through the conference tournament, Lord led the NESCAC with 10.61 assists per set while also averaging 3.05 digs and 0.54 blocks. She also ranked 10th in the NESCAC with 0.44 aces per set.

Joining Lord among the Honorable Mention ranks is senior libero Audrey

Kuan, who was named Second Team All-NESCAC earlier this month. Kuan — who is also the executive online editor for the Daily — was second on the Jumbos with 43 aces and recorded a team-high 4.53 digs per set.

Bowdoin’s Kristin Hanczor, the NESCAC Co-Player of the Year alongside Lord, was named to the AllAmerican Second Team, becoming the first-ever Polar Bear to earn national accolades.

Senior outside hitter Amy Newman of Conn. College was named to the Third Team for the second straight season.

—by Alex Prewitt

Last season, Power, who played at South Kent School in Connecticut, posted a goal and 17 assists with the AAA Markham Majors.

Salvatore Revetta, who played high school hockey in St. Louis, is the Jumbos’ final newcomer to the defensive unit.

At the other end of the rink, forward Tyler Voigt will lead the firstyear offensive unit. Last season, Voigt played with the Fairbanks Ice Dogs, putting up an impressive 17 goals and 19 assists in 54 NAHL contests.

Voigt will be joined by Andrew White and Derrek Schartz at the attacking end.

White, a forward who played at Boston College High School, scored eight goals and six assists last season on his way to receiving Catholic Conference All-Star honors. Schartz, who most recently played for Corpus Christi’s NAHL team, finished 15 games with two points for the IceRays.

“I think we have a pretty good class that came in, and we’ve been told that throughout the preseason, so I think we’re going to be relied on more than a regular freshman class would be counted on,” Edwards said.

“We have a couple of older guys who have played a lot of hockey and have a lot of experience, so I think they’re going to be expected to step in right away and make a difference in all situations of play: in power play, penalty kills and whatnot.”

A brutal schedule, a short memory The Jumbos’ upcoming road trip will speak volumes about just how much they have actually improved.

Tufts dropped 6-3 and 8-2 decisions to Wesleyan and Trinity, respectively, in the same doubleheader pairing in February.

Trinity outshot Tufts, 40-24, and the Jumbos went 1-for-5 on power plays, while the Bantams scored five times off seven man-up opportunities.

Against Wesleyan, the Jumbos fared slightly better, converting three of seven

Room 100 Lane Hall

power plays into goals. The Cardinals also outshot the Jumbos, firing 35 shots at Koleini, while the Jumbos mustered just 22 in their three-goal effort against then-sophomore Matt Hadge.

“The Trinity and Wesleyan games last year were obviously a disappointment,” Amico said.

“Going into this weekend, we are making sure that we are prepared to approach each game on a shift-byshift basis and not get too far ahead of ourselves. I think we have the potential for a very strong season, but the outcome will depend on our ability to do the little things correctly and battle through inevitable spells of adversity.”

Another big matchup looms on Dec. 3, when the Jumbos host NESCAC power Middlebury. Last year, the Jumbos’ season-opening 3-0 win against the Panthers marked their first victory over Middlebury since the 1955 season.

In late January, Tufts will host Suffolk, a team to whom the Jumbos fell just short in a 4-3 overtime loss. Finally, Tufts will square off with Hamilton and Williams, who topped the NESCAC last year, two times apiece.

The Jumbos’ performance this weekend, and in those big games, will indicate whether they can play cohesively and consistently, something they struggled to do for the majority of last season.

“Preparation is always key,” Amico said. “In the NESCAC, the level of competition is so high that whichever team shows up best-prepared is going to turn in the better performance.

“Often, the mark of a successful team is a short memory — you have to put the bad games beside you and prepare for the tasks that lie ahead.

That’s easier said than done, but we have made tremendous strides in the pre-season with regard to our preparation and cohesiveness, both of which were elements that were lacking last season.”

The Tufts Daily

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Sports

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

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Tufts players fight for playing time on deeper roster MEN’S BASKETBALL continued from page 16

junior Alex Goldfarb and senior Alex Orchowski. The quartet saw success in 20102011 with Quezada’s quickness and Goldfarb’s accuracy outside aiding Anderson’s and Orchowski’s physicality in the paint. They should continue to lead a widespread and balanced attack.

Orchowski, Anderson and Long will return as Tufts’ top rebounders, while sophomore guards Oliver Cohen and Kwame Firempong will continue to lend their skills behind the ball.

However, all of the Jumbos will have to work a little harder for their spots this year after an intense offseason and the infusion of three hyped freshmen.

“I think one of our greatest strengths this year will be our depth,” Long said. “That makes it necessary that on different nights people are going to have to accept different roles … everyone’s going to get a chance and we all have to be ready for whenever that is because we’re going to need big games from everyone this season.”

The first freshman that will be expected to produce in big

games is Vermont’s reigning Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year, Ben Ferris.

At six-foot-two, Ferris is the tallest guard on Tufts’ roster and will certainly look to use size to his advantage in his pursuit of playing time, though he should eventually develop into a much more diverse player.

C.J. Moss, a smaller incoming guard, is sure to give the field a run for its money, too.

Though a talented shooter, Moss relies on effort in addition to his natural skills.

“The one thing [Tufts] will find out quickly is that he’ll work harder than everyone else,” Moss’ former coach at the Taft School in Watertown, Conn., told the Daily in December.

The final addition to this year’s roster is Kevin Rafferty, who brings something the Jumbos could really use: height.

Rafferty joins the team as the third six-foot-eight center alongside junior Matt Lanchantin and senior Peter Saba — though in the past the talent of the Jumbos’ smaller forwards has kept the upperclassmen off the court.

Rafferty will look to bring

back the center position to a Tufts squad that has lacked a big man underneath in recent years.

Tufts won its first seasonopener in three years last season, and the team knows that a win at the Charlie Ryan Invitational on Friday and Thomas Tip-Off Tournament on Saturday at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine, will signal the start of another successful campaign. Two wins would mark the first time the Jumbos have started a season 2-0 in the NESCAC era.

“This weekend is huge,” Long said. “Friday is what we’re focused on. We want to come out and start the season on the right foot and execute the things we know we can do. And hopefully the win will take area of itself.”

“This weekend we obviously want to win both games, but more importantly we want to be able to come together more as a team,” Anderson added.

“We’ve only had 12 practices so far as a group, so we still have some ‘getting used to’ to get out of the way with all the new guys. I think the easiest way to get rid of the kinks is to get a few wins.”

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

Senior tri-captain guard Amauris Quezada was one of three Jumbos to start all 25 of the team’s games last season.

Elephants in the Room

Natalie Salk Junior Women’s Sailing

When I _____, I _____.

Tattoo I would get

People will remember Joe Paterno as _____

Before I graduate, I want to _____

Get money ...

Get paid

Jumbo screaming with pleasure on a reach

Being stuck in the middle

Win nationals

Harpoon the white whale

James Long Senior Forward Men’s Basketball

Watch Real World ... Feel the drama

Saba’s face with a lion’s mane

Who is Joe Paterno?

Liz Moynihan Sophomore G/F Women’s Basketball

Shower ... Sing

A man who dances whenever I move

The guy with that amazing win record until a sex scandal got in the way

Tim Mitropoulos Sophomore forward Ice Hockey

Play sports ...

Learn something unique

“Hakuna Matata”

A great coach who had an ugly ending

Learn how to do a cartwheel

Paint the cannon

all photos courtesy tufts athletics

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Tufts Daily

15

Sports Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

Inside NFL

How the AFC West will be won by

The sport of Quidditch

Alex Arthur

Daily Staff Writer

If a casual fan were given the opportunity, before this season, to choose a division in which every single team would have a negative point-differential after Week 10, a resounding number of people would have chosen the lowly NFC West.

Alas, no one could have envisioned how extreme an impact first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh would have on the San Francisco 49ers, leading them to an 8-1 record and a point-differential of plus-95, third-best in the NFL. The counterpart to football’s worst division in 2010, the AFC West, has done its best impression to turn into the league’s laughingstock.

The meek denizens of the AFC West all hold point-differentials in the red; the only team with a winning record is the Oakland Raiders at 5-4. By rule, one team from the group of the Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos has to make the playoffs. The question remains, which team will host a firstround playoff game?

This offseason, the Chargers were a popular pick among football experts to not only run away with the AFC West division, but also challenge for a Super Bowl. Coming off a season in which quarterback Philip Rivers had the best statistical year of his career, throwing for 4,710 yards and 30 touchdowns and recording a stellar passer rating of 101.8, the stars were aligned for the Bolts to run away with the AFC West crown.

Rivers, however, has been underwhelming thus far; he’s thrown 15 interceptions and lost six fumbles, both career highs, through just nine games.

The biggest issues for the Chargers, though, have been the team’s overall lack of concentration and proneness to errors in late-game situations that have cost them victories.

They have lost four straight games, and in each of those, a late turnover, a miscommunication between center and quarterback or a wide receiver not making an effort on a pass has been the cause.

Adding insult to injury from Thursday night’s loss to the Raiders, the Chargers lost star left tackle Marcus McNeill to a neck injury. If McNeill misses extended time, San Diego’s offensive line could be in trouble. McNeill’s backup Brandyn Dombrowski allowed four sacks to linebacker Kamerion Wimbley. With only two games left on the schedule against sub-.500 teams, the Chargers have a steep hill to climb to return to the playoffs after missing out last season.

The Chiefs not only lost their first three games of the year but also their

MCT

Raiders running back Darren McFadden is 13th in the league with 614 rushing yards, despite leaving early in their Week 7 loss with a foot injury. best defensive player in safety Eric Berry and top offensive weapon in running back Jamaal Charles. After being written off as playoff contenders and placed in the hunt for likely No. 1 draft pick Andrew Luck, the Chiefs stormed back to win four in a row and put themselves in contention for the AFC West title.

Unfortunately, after two straight disappointing defeats and the potential loss of quarterback Matt Cassel for the season, Kansas City is looking more and more like the team that started 0-3. With a murderer’s row of teams on deck — including the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears, New York Jets and Green Bay Packers — the Chiefs have little hope of repeating as AFC West champs.

This past weekend, Tim Tebow and the Broncos definitively answered the question: Can a team win a football game while completing only two passes? The answer, somehow, is yes, as Tebow has baptized the NFL with his new testament of run, run, run.

The Broncos ran the ball 55 times, versus just eight pass attempts in their 17-10 victory over the Chiefs.

After back-to-back divisional victories, Tebow is 3-1 as a starter and has the Broncos at 4-5, just one game out of first. The Broncos rank second in the NFL with 158.2 rushing yards per game and showed that they can still move the ball on the ground, even after both Willis McGahee and

Knowshon Moreno left last week’s victory with injuries. While rooting for the Tebowmania is exciting week-in and week-out, the Broncos need to throw the ball more efficiently if they are to be taken seriously as playoff contenders.

The Raiders, sitting atop the west, are the division’s most balanced team.

As the only squad with two victories outside of the division against opponents with winning records, the Raiders are also the most battle-tested so far. While the Chiefs and Broncos have overcome injuries and personnel changes, the Raiders have had to replace both their quarterback and their Pro Bowl running back, not to mention rotating wide receivers every week.

For all the flack that Oakland received for trading away two first-round draft picks for quarterback Carson Palmer, he played admirably Thursday night in San Diego and showed flashes of the All-Pro passer he once was. If Palmer maintains this level of play, he is an upgrade over Jason Campbell.

Additionally, the Raiders haven’t missed a beat without Darren McFadden. Michael Bush, the league’s best backup running back, is averaging 4.5 yards per carry and carrying the offense. With McFadden’s return on the horizon and the easiest schedule remaining of all the AFC West teams, the Raiders are in prime position to take the division title, even if they end up with just eight or nine wins.

Tufts to face No. 7 Babson on Saturday Women’s Basketball continued from page 16

play early on, but averaged more than 15 points per game in the team’s last five contests, earning NESCAC Player of the Week honors in the process.

The final three returning players who have seen significant time on the court are junior co-captain Bre Dufault and sophomores Liz Moynihan and Ali Rocchi. Dufault and Rocchi offer much-needed height in the post, while Moynihan is a slasher similar to Kornegay. With a year of starting experience under their belts, Moynihan and Rocchi could both have breakout years.

The largest unknown for the Jumbos this year may be its freshman class, which features five players, making it one of the largest the team has had in recent years. Referred to lovingly by the team as “The Wolfpack,” because of their tight bond, the group looks ready to contribute right out of the gates.

“They literally go everywhere together,” Moynihan said. “We have 6 a.m. practices; they’ll be walking there together. We have 8 p.m. prac-

I

tice; they’ll be walking there together.

Walking to class there are always at least two of them. With that kind of close-knit group it was easy for them to come right in and get right along with us.”

Freshman Kelsey Morehead may very well be the starting point guard for the team when the regular season rolls around, while classmate Hayley Kanner, standing at 6-foot-2, is the tallest recruit the team has had since Katie Tausanovitch (LA ’09). Kanner will be a key cog against some of the conference’s most dominant post players.

“I think they are going to help us out right away,” Berube said. “We’re still trying to figure out exactly who is going to be getting the minutes in the coming weeks, but everyone is working hard.”

In recent years, Berube has often used small rotations of players. But this year, the combination of a deep bench and some height in the post offers her the opportunity to field a fluid lineup.

“The best part about our team is that we are so deep that coach can

pull an entirely new five off the bench and we’ll still be playing the same level of basketball,” Moynihan said.

Though the Jumbos usually have a lighter out-of-conference schedule in the fall semester to prepare for their NESCAC opponents, they will need to prove themselves immediately this season, opening against No. 7 Babson on Saturday at Williams. The Beavers have a pair of pre-season AllAmerican post players — first-team senior forward Nicole Wurdeman and fourth-team junior center Sarah Collins — that will serve as a trial by fire for the young Jumbos. Babson went 30-1 last season, but was criticized for not facing any NESCAC sides in the regular season. It’ll be up to the Jumbos to prove the critics right.

“They have some really good AllAmerican post players, but we have been doing a lot of drills to work on our post play,” Moynihan said. “We’ve got KB down there, we’ve got Hayley down there, Bre is playing well, and I think all of them are going to step up. We have a game plan ready, and I think it’s going to set the tone for our whole season.”

t’s time for a column that I have been putting off for a year now.

Some will scoff, others will laugh, but all the pieces are in place, so it’s time to come out and say it: Quidditch is a real sport.

Yes, that craziness that takes place on the Res Quad every weekend, with people running around on brooms, is as much a sport as baseball or basketball.

In some regards, it may even be more physically demanding.

We’ll start with the basics. The Random House Dictionary defines the word “sport” as “an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature.” Quidditch fits those criteria. Sure the game is played on brooms, but the only reason we don’t question equipment in other sports is that we are used to it. Every sport, when explained to someone with no knowledge of it, seems fundamentally weird. I don’t understand anything about cricket, yet half the world loves it. Not only are the brooms a fundamental part of the game, they increase the skill and physical prowess from our definition that a player needs.

But beyond fitting a definition, Quidditch has solidified itself in the sports echelon because the level of play has risen. This past weekend, I traveled to the Quidditch World Cup on Randall’s Island near New York City for the second consecutive year to play with my friends from home. It quickly became evident that there is no place in the game for the Harry Potter fanboyism that originally embraced it. Sunday morning, I was trucked through defending a fast break by a man from USC who must have quit football when the school lost its ability to play in the postseason. Every limb of my body is in some way battered, bruised or cut open.

The shift can also be seen in the results on the field. The success of small schools — Tufts, Vassar, Middlebury — in the early years of the competition is quickly being usurped by the state-college juggernauts. Kansas won the Midwest regionals over Pitt and Michigan State.

Minnesota, Texas A&M and Florida joined Middlebury in the World Cup semifinals. A game once defined by precision passing is now being decided by who’s biggest.

In an interview with our very own Ben Kochman in Monday’s paper, junior Howie Levine says that Quidditch is “almost losing a little bit of what made it so fun in the first place.” Perhaps that is the most telling statement of just how far the sport has come. In the sports world, a game at its highest level is often about more than fun. When the sport involves as much physicality and as little padding as this one does, that’s even truer.

While the NCAA may not take notice (and hey, do we really want it to?

Quidditch has a playoff to decide its champion already), the game seems prepared to separate itself into different levels of play. The World Cup had two divisions for different skill levels, and many colleges already have intramural teams, but the conscious acknowledgment of the shift from “nerds” to athletes is not far off. And when Quidditch is played at its highest level by a group of highly athletic individuals, there is no denying its sports status.

Does the inevitable loss of the sports’ all-inclusiveness at the highest level sadden me? Of course it does. But I am glad that I jumped on the boat early enough to at least have the chance. As one of my friends put it, “For 48 hours I was the closest to being a ‘famous’ athlete as I will ever get, something I have dreamed of becoming since I was a young boy.

Hell, I watched young kids imitate me and my fellow Quidditch players.”

Even as Quidditch transitions into a full-on sport, it’s still fulfilling fantasies.

Ethan Sturm is a junior majoring in Biopsychology. He can be reached at Ethan.

Sturm@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Inside NFL 15

tuftsdaily.com

Women’s Basketball

Hart-less, but not heartless

Men’s Basketball

Jumbos look to overcome loss of program’s top scorer

Daily Editorial Board

With the graduation of all-time leading scorer Colleen Hart (E ’11) and two-time NESCAC defensive player of the year Vanessa Miller (LA ’11), the upcoming women’s basketball season may look like a rebuilding effort to the untrained eye. But with the return of senior co-captain forward Kate Barnosky from injury along with five other players that started at least 11 games last season, the squad isn’t looking for excuses. They are looking for respect.

“We want some recognition,” sophomore Liz Moynihan said. “Looking at D3hoops[.com], they’re saying things about Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury. Where’s Tufts? We want to put Tufts on the map, and play our game no matter who we’re playing.”

After falling short of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the careers of all of the team’s returning players, there is plenty of motivation being exuded on the Cousens Gym floor. But to make a name for themselves, they will have to battle through a stacked NESCAC that includes three teams in the D3Hoops.com pre-season Top 25 and a fourth just outside of it.

“I don’t think anyone liked how not making the tournament felt last year,” head coach Carla Berube said.

“I would love to win the NESCAC, but it’s going to be tough, and every game is going to be a battle.”

Replacing Hart’s offensive output will be a daunting task. She averaged at least 15 points per game in each of the last two seasons and — when by

Ethan Sturm

Daily File Photo

Junior guard/forward Collier Clegg ranked second on the team with 9.6 points per game last season.

Hart nursed an injury late last season — Tufts dropped a pair of games to Colby and Amherst while only scoring 54 and 35 points, respectively.

Then again, those struggles came with little time to adjust on the court,

whereas this year, Berube has had the entire offseason to prepare a new offense for the squad. She also has Barnosky, who averaged nine points and six rebounds per game as a sophomore, before multiple knee surgeries kept her out of the lineup for almost all of last year. Now, Barnosky’s size and scoring prowess will be vital to the team’s success. Since Barnosky is likely to draw each opponents’ biggest defender, her ability to make plays both in the post and on the outside make her a dangerous threat.

Her natural leadership abilities will also be key for a team in transition.

“It’s in KB’s [Kate Barnosky’s] blood to be a leader,” Berube said. “Even last year when she was on the sidelines she showed it. Now, it’s even better that she’s leading off the court and on the court.”

While Barnosky is not likely to supplant all of Hart’s production, she will be sharing the responsibility with a pair of very capable upperclassmen in senior Tiffany Kornegay and junior Collier Clegg. Kornegay, a dangerous slasher with pure athletic talent, has consistently started for the Jumbos for two years now, averaging more than 10 points per game over that span.

“Tiffany is just a player that changes the game on each end,” Berube said.

“She’s a leader by example and she doesn’t say a lot, but when she talks people definitely listen. I’m looking forward to her having a tremendous senior year.”

Clegg, a highly touted transfer from Colorado College, struggled to adjust to the challenging slate of NESCAC

Picking up where they left off by

Claire Kemp

Daily Editorial Board

The men’s basketball season kicks off on Friday and undeniably bears the highest expectations of any in recent history. After three years in the NESCAC cellar, Tufts broke out last season with a 13-12 record and the No. 5 seed in the conference tournament. And, though graduation left two massive leadership voids with the departure of Matt Galvin (A ’11) and Sam Mason (E ’11), the two combined for just 4.5 points per game last season.

It’s safe to say the team has brought in — and developed — more than enough talent to compensate.

“We know we took some good steps last year, but were really focused on taking the next step,” senior tri-captain James Long said. “We really want to form our own identity as a team this year. We know that that’s not going to happen automatically. It’s something we are going to have to go out and do ourselves.”

“We are very excited,” junior tricaptain Scott Anderson added. “We know in comparison to a lot of other teams in the league, we lost less and gained more in terms of the other top NESCAC teams’ graduating classes and recruits. Everyone knows we have the potential to make big strides, but we haven’t proven anything yet.”

Anderson knows he will be looked on to repeat last season’s campaign as the team’s leading scorer, in tandem with senior tri-captain Amauris Quezada,

see WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 15

see MEN’S BASKETBALL, page 14

Fresh faces, new lifts: Eight freshmen, All-American Barchard hope to redeem 6-16-1 season by

Kate Klots

Daily Editorial Board

Since last spring, the ice hockey team has worked tirelessly to improve upon last season’s disappointing 6-161 finish. The results of their efforts will be on full display this weekend.

Welcoming senior tri-captain goalkeeper Scott Barchard back from injury and eight capable freshmen who are hungry to make their mark on the ice, Tufts will begin its season Friday with a NESCAC showdown at Trinity, before traveling to Wesleyan on Saturday for the second conference game of the Jumbos’ opening doubleheader weekend.

The Jumbos struggled through a 12-game losing streak in 2010-11, one that began in early December and lasted exactly two months until they defeated the University of New England on Feb. 11 — their fifth of six wins last season.

After dropping two more decisions and edging out St. Michael’s 5-3 on the road along the way, the Jumbos’ winless streak and a 5-14 conference record dropped them to 10th place in the NESCAC standings.

The season was further marred by injuries to several of the Jumbos’ key playmakers, including then-junior quadcaptain Barchard, a netminder who received All-American accolades during his sopho-

Alex Dennett/Tufts Daily

Junior forward Dylan Plimmer scored both of his goals and contributed eight of his nine assists in conference play last season. more season.

In a Nov. 27 faceoff with Brockport, Barchard hurt his ankle. In the following weeks, it became clear that Barchard’s injury was more serious than

thought and would require surgery to heal.

As a result, he missed the rest of the season and was replaced by classmate Evin Koleini, whose solid .887 save

percentage was not enough to save the season.

“Any time a player with Scott’s abilities and determination is in the lineup, it is a huge benefit,” senior tri-cap-

tain Matt Amico said.

“Having an experienced goaltender between the pipes also gives us an offensive advantage because we feel confident enough to take a few more risks here and there, which can really break a game open. I also think that his presence has helped improve our overall depth at the goaltending position.”

This year, Barchard returns to the ice and looks to cap off his career with a performance reminiscent of the 2009-10 season, during which his 986 saves and .939 save percentage both led the nation.

“It’s like having a third defenseman back there,” freshman defenseman Blake Edwards said.

“Goalies can win or lose games for you, so when you have someone of his caliber, it’s obviously going to give you a better chance right away.

We’re really confident in his abilities and as long as he stays healthy, we feel like our chances of winning are that much greater, so we’re excited to have him back.”

Barchard’s fellow captains are Amico and junior Nick Metcalfe, both of whom add experience to a young squad.

Last year, the duo combined for five assists, and they have a combined career total of 34 points. see ICE HOCKEY, page 13