2011-12-06

THE TUFTS DAILY

Rain 59/40

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 57

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Tufts sees drop in number of Fulbright scholars by

Kathryn Olson

Daily Editorial Board

Gabriella Ros/Tufts Daily

Active Minds at Tufts has set up collection boxes in the library for students to submit their secrets on homemade postcards.

Active Minds uses PostSecret to destigmatize mental health issues

The Tufts chapter of Active Minds, inspired by the wellknown PostSecret project, is collecting personalized postcards that anonymously reveal students’ secrets in an effort to destigmatize mental health issues.

Members of Active Minds placed blank postcards and instructions for participating in the project in approximately 3,500 on-campus stuby

Nina Goldman

Daily Staff Writer

dent mailboxes. Blank postcards are also available at the Rez and the Tisch Library circulation desk, where the postcards must be submitted by the end of this week, according to senior Lindsay Eckhaus, co-founder and executive board member of Active Minds at Tufts.

The inspiration behind this initiative is PostSecret, a popular community project that invites individuals to mail in their secrets on homemade postcards, which are then

MBTA reports crime rate increase of 16 percent

by Sharon

Lam

Contributing Writer

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) Transit Police reported that this year the T crime rate has increased by nearly 16 percent, making this the second consecutive year that rates have increased since their record low in 2009.

The increase refers to Part I crimes, which includes acts such as aggravated assault, robbery, burglary and larceny — often of electronic devices. Such incidents have increased to 1,009 from 871 in the same period last year, according a statistical report cited by MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.

These figures exclude statistics on Part II crimes, which consist of indecent assaults, vandalism, drug violations and disorderly conduct.

The increase in crime rate was mostly fueled by more frequent occurrences of non-violent crimes or some variant of larceny, according to Joseph O’Connor, deputy chief of the MBTA Transit Police.

“What is driving it is the larceny category — in particular, bicycle larceny is up 29 percent and pickpocketing 30 percent,” O’Connor told the Daily.

O’Connor said that there has been an increase in T ridership and hence an accompanying rise in the number of electronic devices and bicycles in public transit stations, presenting more opportunities for crime to take place. “What we are seeing is that ridership on the MBTA is increasing,” he said. “We are at record levels of 1.35 million riders a day — these are the highest numbers recorded at the MBTA.” “If you look at the increases in robberies and larcenies, there’s a dramatic increase in the number of people carrying electronic devices,” O’Connor continued.

“That creates opportunity for people … if you went back 10 years, there might [only] be 10 bicycles parked at Davis Square.”

In response to this increase in crime, MBTA officials are continuing prior anti-crime initiatives and implementing new ones, including distributing leaflets at stations and initiating campaigns urging people to be cautious with their smart phones.

“We have an ongoing partnership with the [Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC)].

We have Operation StopWatch,

published online or in books.

Active Minds is a national non-profit organization dedicated to educating college campuses about mental health and providing resources for students who need and want help.

The Tufts chapter hopes to use this PostSecret project as an avenue to normalize mental health issues through anonymity, and as an outlet for students to talk about see POSTSECRET, page 2

Nine Tufts students were named Fulbright scholars for the 2011-12 year, down from the 17 students who last year were awarded the prestigious scholarship. Still, scholars and administrators believe that the university prepares students to be competitive applicants.

Tufts in the 2010-11 year tied with Harvard and Johns Hopkins Universities for the 12th place among national research institutions that produced Fulbright scholars. This year, Tufts tied for No. 38, according to a report released last month by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program, offered through the U.S. Department of State, offers nine- to 12- month research grants and English Teaching Assistantships (ETA) in foreign countries to over 1,700 graduating seniors each year.

Forty-three Tufts students applied for Fulbright scholarships in 2011, compared to 63 in 2010 and 47 in 2009. Director of Advising and Scholarships Laura Doane said that although fewer Tufts students won Fulbright scholarships, the university had the same num-

ber of finalists as in 2010. She also explained that the numbers do not reveal the full picture as several finalists were omitted from the official count due to factors such as canceled programs, affecting the total number of scholarships reported and lowering Tufts’ national rankings.

Doane cited as examples two students who had been accepted to programs in Egypt and Syria that were later canceled due to regional unrest, and a student on an ETA in France that the French government considers a grant instead of a Fulbright award.

Additionally, one student turned down the award for another opportunity.

The uniqueness of each year’s applicant pool also makes it difficult to estimate the number of scholarships that will be awarded, according to Doane.

“Other than that, stuff just happens,” she said. “It’s hard to know the applicant pool each year.”

Approximately two-thirds of Tufts Fulbright scholars received yearlong teaching assistantships, while one-third received full research grants to study in see FULBRIGHT, page 2

Tufts students qualify for Irish step dancing world championship

by Victoria

Leistman

Daily Staff Writer

Siblings and fellow Tufts students Claire and Conor O’Brien each won this year’s New England Oireachtas, a regional Irish step dancing competition, earning places to compete in the 2012 World Irish Dancing Championships in Belfast, Ireland.

In the regionals held Nov. 18 to 20, junior Claire O’Brien finished in the top five for the fifth year running and qualified for the world championship for the sixth time. Her younger brother, Conor O’Brien, has finished in the top five and qualified for the world championship for the past seven years, according to the O’Briens.

“It was really awesome that we both won,” Conor O’Brien, a freshman, said.

The O’Briens started Irish step dancing — an interest passed down by their mother and older sister — before the age of five, according to Claire O’Brien.

They were able to continue attending their dance school, the O’Shea-Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance, even after matriculating at Tufts because they grew

COURTESY CLAIRE O’BRIEN

see STEP DANCING, page 2

Claire and Conor O’Brien earn spots to compete in the World Irish Step Dancing Championships in Ireland.

see MBTA, page 2

Inside this issue

Today’s sections

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

The ‘Over the Rainbow’ cabaret will raise money and awareness for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 7

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

1 3 7 10

Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds

11 12 13 14

The Tufts Daily

2

PostSecret-inspired project to address mental health issues POSTSECRET

continued from page 1

personal problems they normally would keep to themselves, according to Jacob Borodovsky, co-president of the organization.

The postcard submissions will be displayed at a hightraffic area on campus during reading period, Borodovsky, a senior, said.

“We’re going to find some way of displaying them publicly, maybe in the Campus Center … so that people can see it, stop by and read it and hopefully in some small way change their whole perspective on the issue,” he said.

Borodovsky explained that a problem that Active Minds hopes to address with this project is the stigmatization of mental health issues. He hopes that if people see that many members of the Tufts community are facing similar problems, they will be more open to talking about their own emotions.

Eckhaus added that she would like people to see the positive side of their situations instead of dwelling solely on what is wrong with their lives, as is often the case when dealing with mental health issues.

“Talking through an issue kind of helps you realize that you’re probably thinking about something irrationally,” she said.

“With a lot of mental health issues you’re really only focusing on the threat or the negative aspect and not seeing the whole picture.”

Adiel Pollydore, a freshman who is participating in the project, said she is curious to learn about what Tufts students really think.

“Seeing people’s secrets … it can just toss all of those pre-

conceived notions about your peers aside,” Pollydore said.

She is looking forward to the potential impact of the PostSecret project.

“It’s just a huge relief… when you have your secret floating out there but still remain anonymous,” Pollydore said.

Active Minds at Tufts has considered pursuing a PostSecret project since its foundation but instead decided to focus on hosting speakers and screening movies, Eckhaus said.

She explained that the group was heavily influenced by other Active Minds chapters that have planned similar projects.

“Active Minds really supports doing a PostSecret event because it is so tied to mental health, the idea of keeping secrets and kind of restraining yourself and not being who you actually are,” she said.

Although the group has not received many cards in the collection box yet, Eckhaus is expecting a lot of late submissions. She said the group expects to receive approximately 100 cards, but hopes for more.

Pollydore thinks, however, that many students will not submit a postcard because they are uncomfortable with sharing their secrets.

“I think many people are nervous about what they want to say,” she said.

Still, Borodovsky said that regardless of the number of submissions, he would consider the project a success if it makes even a small impact.

“If you’re going through something, it can be a very isolating feeling,” he said. “Even if it just affects one person, like really impacts one person, that’s all that matters.”

Increase in crime on the T attributed to ridership, smartphones MBTA

continued from page 1

which is a partnership with the Boston police and school police.

We will constantly be looking to re-evaluate what we’re doing and better police strategies,” O’Connor said.

The MBTA’s initiative with the BARCC is aimed at raising awareness about sexual assaults on the T and to encourage riders to report such crimes.

Operation StopWatch is a program to monitor the behavior of students using public transportation.

O’Connor also cited the successful utilization of an extensive closed-circuit television system, which is used on the subway and approximately 350 buses.

He further dismissed the notion that there are particularly dangerous lines or hours that riders should be wary of.

“I wouldn’t categorize any line to be more dangerous than others,” O’Connor said. “We do have some stations that do have slightly higher numbers that occur … it could be higher volumes of people with valuables that they may set down.”

Despite O’Connor’s dismissal, many students report feeling less safe on the T at night.

“If it was empty and I was alone, I would probably feel uncomfortable, but I usually walk in well-lit areas,” Anne-

Marie Vu, a freshman, said.

“Yes I feel safe, but I probably wouldn’t ride it alone late at night,” Alexandra Zeitouni, a freshman, said.

MBTA officials encourage riders to view the new crime statistics in the context of increased ridership.

“We’re certainly not satisfied

“If you look at the increases in robberies and larcenies, there’s a dramatic increase in the number of people carrying electronic devices,” Joseph O’Connor Deputy Chief MBTA Transit Police

and we’re going to work harder to bring down the crime numbers,” O’Connor said. “[But] when you put into perspective … the chances of you being victimized remain very, very low.”

He stressed the need for commuters to be vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to a uniformed MBTA representative or the emergency hotline.

“People need to be aware of their environment … we want to urge people to report incidents,” O’Connor added.

News

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Fulbright scholars claim that in spite of its challenging process, Tufts is a source of support

FULBRIGHT

continued from page 1 a foreign country, according to Doane.

She explained that students seeking a Fulbright scholarship must apply a year in advance, and should ideally begin preparing their applications in the summer before their senior year. Candidates then interview with a faculty committee at Tufts, edit their proposals according to the committee’s feedback and submit their final applications in mid-October.

Finalists are notified in January if their application is being forwarded to the destination country. The respective country governments have the final say in each application.

Doane said that although the process is rigorous, Tufts offers a wealth of resources to help students strengthen their applications. Fulbright applicants meet with graduate writing consultants who provide them with feedback on their application essays.

“Even though students put in a lot of work in their initial application, they have to consider revising it. Some students make full revisions up to eight times,” Associate Director of Writing Resources Kristina Aikens said.

Hameto Benkreira (LA ’11) is currently on a Fulbright ETA at an Islamic boarding school in Bogor, Indonesia. He praised the guidance that the university provided to applicants.

“The application process … turned out to be a bit challenging because the Fulbright program looks for very specific criteria to be fulfilled in the application,” he said in an email to the Daily. “Tufts has definitely created an effective system for guiding applicants through the process.”

Jasleen Kaur via flickr creative commons

Though the number of Tufts students awarded Fulbright grants has dropped, scholars believe that the university adequately prepares potential applicants.

Benkreira said that he chose an ETA grant due to his interest in education issues in the United States.

“Though I am an English teacher, I firstly consider myself a student because I am always learning from everyone and everything around me,” he said. “Indonesia was an attractive choice for a host country for me because of the prominence of Islam and its robust developing economy.”

Doane said that Tufts’ focus on experiential learning and programs such as the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) and the Undergraduate Research Fund help students to prepare for research-based scholarships such as Fulbright.

“Tufts offers a lot of opportunities to delve into different fields, and that’s very good preparation,” she said. “I see a lot of applicants who have had a taste of what research is like and can perhaps picture [doing research] better than applicants from other schools.”

Allison Coffey (LA ’11) last year won a Fulbright research grant to continue her study

of police presence in Rio de Janeiro’s slums, which she began while studying abroad in Brazil.

“I began researching issues of public security in the favelas during my junior year in Brazil and wanted the chance to deepen what I’d already been working on with both the time and support to examine the nuances,” she said in an email to the Daily.

Coffey said that the IGL’s Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) and Synaptic Scholars programs, as well as the International Relations Department’s International Research Colloquium course helped her formulate ideas for a proposal and enhanced her understanding of the application’s requirements.

“The IGL was instrumental in helping me craft the direction of my research, my thesis advisors were there to help push the boundaries of my research, and the IR International Research Colloquium course gave me a solid understanding of the entire research process,” she said.

Irish step dancing still a passion for the O’Briens

STEP DANCING

continued from page 1

up in Newton, Mass. Dancers are only allowed to compete if they are affiliated with a registered teacher of the Irish Dancing Teachers Association of New England, according to Claire O’Brien.

They started out in group competitions before going solo, but even now at the individual level, the siblings still practice and cross-train together, the O’Briens added.

Typically, they have dance practices three or four times a week, but training intensifies as competitions approach.

The pair also runs and bikes to complement dancing, and even participates in triathlons to stay in shape, Conor O’Brien said.

The world championship was originally held only in Ireland, but in recent years has expanded locations — in 2009 it was held in Philadelphia.

It will be back in the United States in 2012 with Boston hosting, according to Claire O’Brien, who ranked 24th at the 2010 World Championship in Scotland.

The regional and world competitions both consist of three rounds for dancers in each age bracket, she explained.

The first round requires performers to wear heavy shoes and dance either a hornpipe or jig.

The second round involves light shoes and is either a reel or slip jig. The type of dance alternates every other year for each age group, Claire O’Brien added.

Based on the first- and second-round rankings, the top 50 percent of the dancers are called back to compete in a third round, according to covice president of the Tufts Irish Dance Team Alexa Petersen.

In the third round, dancers can choose from a list of contemporary set dances and can determine the speed and tune of the music they dance to.

This is the opportunity to showcase personal style and highlight individual strengths, according to Claire O’Brien.

Petersen, a junior, has competed with Claire O’Brien for 10 years in the New England region. The two became close friends when they came to Tufts, she said.

Depending on the number of dancers, the top five to eight competitors from the regionals typically qualify for the World Championship, Petersen said.

Both Claire O’Brien and Petersen insist that dancing competitively did not strain their friendship. In fact, Petersen said that they relied on each other for encouragement in the absence of their home dance studios and teachers.

The two practiced together often, according to Petersen.

“It’s really wonderful when you’re still competing in college to have somebody to talk to,” she said.

Claire O’Brien said that although Petersen retired last year after winning the regional competition and ranking 18th in the world championships,

she still goes to watch and help Claire practice.

“I couldn’t be happier for her ... she’s one of the hardest workers I know,” Petersen said.

While the Tufts Irish Dance Team consists only of experienced dancers, the atmosphere is pretty informal, according to Co-President Lauren Milord, a senior.

Milord added that the 11 students currently on the team practice for performances rather than competitions.

The lack of competition for the Tufts team doesn’t detract from the enjoyment, according to Claire O’Brien, who is co-vice president.

“It is really fun to get out there and show people something they can enjoy without any pressure,” she said.

Conor O’Brien, on the other hand, wanted to try out other kinds of dance when he came to Tufts.

He is a member of the campus step group BlackOut. While it is difficult for him to manage his time with Irish step dancing, he enjoys learning a different type of dance after exclusively focusing on one style.

“In the next four years, I want to really focus on getting as much as I can out of dancing,” he said.

Claire O’Brien said the spirit of Irish step dancing is what means the most to her. “[The] support from within my competition and all my friends and my teachers and everybody, that was the best part,” she said.

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Faith on the Hill: Islam by

Kacey Rayder | Insult to Injury

Martha Shanahan

My last hurrah

Daily Editorial Board

Last Friday afternoon, as they are every week, two large prayer rugs were rolled out onto the floor of an airy room on the second level of the Interfaith Center on Boston Avenue. A collection of Muslim students at Tufts — both graduate and undergraduate — trickled in, kicking off their shoes and finding a place on the rug as an imam chanted the first of two calls to prayer which are a staple in the traditional Friday congregational worship mandatory for Muslim men.

As the worshippers touched their foreheads to the ground or sat cross-legged, two smaller, wide-eyed faces poked up over the bowed heads. The weekly Friday prayer service is sponsored and organized by the Tufts Chaplaincy in coordination with the Muslim Students Association (MSA), but it is also open to all and welcomes members of the local community and, at least today, their small children.

Approximately 40 men eventually found a space on the rug and prayed along with the four women sitting behind them, standing and kneeling before the sermon began.

On what sophomore Sabrina Ghaus called a “pretty globally aware” campus, members of the Muslim community say that finding a niche on the Hill, and acceptance among their peers, is easily done.

“I think for many reasons … on this campus there’s been a very open, warm environment in terms of practicing religion, whereas in other parts of the world it’s not met with such kind reception,” Belal Hakim, a senior and Vice President of Religious Affairs for the MSA, said.

“In terms of being able to practice my faith in the way that I want to, I don’t feel any limitations; I don’t feel any negative consequences,” Hakim added.

The students who come to the weekly Friday prayer services at the Interfaith Center represent the community of Tufts Muslims who most strictly follow the principal tenets of Islam, according to Muslim Chaplain Naila Baloch.

“The people who come are pretty committed. There’s a small community core that’s pretty active, and then people come and go, and it changes every year because new people come in. The Friday prayers are the congregational prayers and they’re not compulsive for women; they’re only compulsive for men. And then of course there are students who have classes … so sometimes they can’t make it. It’s hard to judge that in terms

D Kyra Sturgill/Tufts Daily

Muslim students at Tufts join members of the surrounding community for Friday communal prayers, mandatory for Muslim men, each Friday. of what levels that people practice.”

Baloch, who is in her fourth year in the post, said that while the chaplaincy exists to serve Tufts’ Muslims, their services and activities are open to anyone who wishes to join.

“It’s definitely a student community. We are here for [Tufts], but we welcome other people if they want to come and pray. The people that come from around here are people who work, and it’s really easy for them. It helps build some sort of community or community partnership.”

For Jasmin Sadegh, a junior, arriving on the Hill for the first time and navigating the world of a college campus was made additionally difficult by the challenge of finding her religious center in a new environment.

“It was so weird when I was a freshman,” she said. “First of all, I had to explain to my roommate that I was going to pray and explain to her what that was [and] why I was doing it. That was kind of weird, first having to pray in front of someone. I had people walk in on me freshman year, because, you know, nobody locks their door.”

In a larger sense, Sadegh said, the process of finding her religious center away from home made her reassess her relationship with Islam.

“I didn’t have my parents around, and

we would always pray together so that was a pretty coordinated [thing],” she said. “It became my own responsibility to dictate how I was going to incorporate religion into my life.”

“It was … a struggle because it was so effortless just to follow people and do stupid things. There came a point where I was like, ‘You need to re-center,’ because I wasn’t happy either. I was much happier when I went to the women’s circle and I talked to people and they were always very focused … and more religious than I was. It was always inspiring and it just always felt good to leave there.”

Ghaus had a similar experience adjusting in her first year away from home.

“It’s a little difficult of course because you’re new and you don’t know the area. Back home, your parents were the ones who decided what mosque you should go to, where we’re going for Eid — but here you have to make all of those decisions for yourself, where you’re comfortable going, what you feel like doing.” “[That’s] part of being an adult,” Baloch teased.

Having her sister nearby at Wellesley College was helpful, Ghaus said, especially when she was able to celebrate Eid-al-Adha see ISLAM, page 4

Inked up: Tufts gets creative with tattoos by

Melissa MacEwen

Daily Editorial Board

It can be hard to stand out on this campus, what with the crazy haircuts and eye-popping body piercing. For students looking to make a more permanent mark, tattoos make for an alternative canvas on which to paint their individuality.

Junior Stephan Goeman proudly wears a tattoo of the logo of the Tufts Freethought Society. Although he was initially hesitant to get inked, Goeman said he eventually decided that the permanence of the tattoo wasn’t an issue when he considered the importance of the meaning it would carry.

“The Freethought Society has been really important to my development. It’s more than a memory, and it’s something that I hope will stay with me after I graduate,” he said.

Goeman got his tattoo from Matt Crocker of the Boston Tattoo Company, a rapidly growing tattoo shop in Davis Square. Crocker, heavily tattooed up to the neck and down his arms, got his start in professional tattooing while apprenticing under a friend at a tattoo shop in Harvard Square. Initially, he practiced by giving his friends small tattoos.

“They were loyal,” Crocker said. “When I got good, they came back to me and I covered up the s---ty ones I did. It was the least I could do.”

Crocker is also known for fielding any tattoo request as long as it is feasible and logical.

“If it’s something that won’t work as a tat-

too, I won’t do it,” Crocker said. “It’s hard to drive that home for people — people want what they want, when they want it.”

Crocker also stressed the importance of going traditional when it comes to tattoos.

The style of the tattoo, rather than the type of ink used, determines how well a tattoo will age. With their bold lines and vibrant colors, he said, “old-school” tattoos tend to fade more slowly than do their modern style counterparts, which often use detailed, subtle shading. Detailed portraits and drawings can be striking at first, but they tend to blur relatively quickly.

“I’ll have an old biker come in, and the lines will have stayed. ‘Bold will hold,’ that’s what we say. I try to steer every tattoo I do into that traditional style,” Crocker said.

Along with style and design, one of the more important decisions in choosing to get a tattoo is placement. Most inked Jumbos focused on discretion when choosing where to get their tattoo. Because of this, students said their design choices rarely presented them with challenges. Still, there were occasions when having tattoos could be slightly uncomfortable. Senior Luke Pyenson, who has a tattoo of an eggplant on his chest, mentioned that during his time abroad, the cultures in which he was immersed weren’t necessarily accepting of tattoos.

“I studied abroad in Morocco, and Islamic culture is a little less … down with tattooing.

But Berber culture is fine with it. My host family thought it was a little weird, especially because it’s a vegetable,” he said.

Freshman Emily Ehrmann’s concerns about her tattoos struck a bit closer to home, but she said she hasn’t experienced any difficulties.

“One of my friends was telling me that whenever people see [my tattoo] that they’ll judge me, but I haven’t really had any problems with it. I don’t think it would ever affect work,” she said.

Most students expressed no regret over their decision to get a tattoo, and many doubted that they ever would. Some students, however, were concerned with how their future children might perceive them.

“Being a dad on the beach with an eggplant tattoo will be a little weird, but I’ve made the choice. Now, I can’t imagine not having it. It’s as if I was born with it,” Pyenson said.

With her foot tattoo of the Chicago skyline and a tattoo of Virgo on her side, Ehrmann echoed these thoughts, saying she is afraid it might give any of her children the wrong impression of their mother.

“I would never discourage my kids [from getting] a tattoo, but I would have no leverage if I wanted to,” she said.

Junior Mariah Gruner doesn’t regret getting tattooed, but she has found that her tattoos can still surprise her. She has two tattoos — one is a map of Virginia’s James River on her back, and the other is the Latin phrase “pax vobiscum,” meaning “peace be with you,” on the inside of her upper arm. see TATTOO, page 4

on’t you just hate it when you prove yourself wrong? Or those times when, mid-sentence, you realize that you’re only going to contradict yourself if you keep talking? Well, readers, this is my last column, and all I’m going to say is that this entire semester of column-writing has made me realize that I’ve done both of those things. This may sound extremely cheesy, but I have proven myself wrong. Turns out I didn’t really hate that many things, after all.

I mean, for the first few weeks I was golden. I had topics coming out my ears and was certainly more frustrated with mundane events of daily life than the average person. Everything was unnecessarily obnoxious! This column has been a nifty little soapbox for me.

Taking into account, however, that at times my subject matter was definitely not serious and, really, not practical (although a ski lift would definitely be cool), I think this has definitely been a fulfilling semester.

And it’s made me realize that I’m not really as much of a “debbie downer” as I thought I was all these years — who knew? To be sure, I’m picky, conscientious and probably overly critical. Now, though, I’m using these attributes less “for evil” and more “for good.” Or, I’ve found that they’ve diminished and, in certain cases, disappeared completely.

I’m just not in “that” mood any more!

Rather than seething to myself about how much I hate this or that, or what this person said or what that person is wearing, I say something about it — right then and there. Or I just ignore it and keep going on my merry way. I’ll have to get back to all of you after a few months and let you know whether or not I’ve become such an improved citizen as a result of growing up or as a result of having a weekly soapbox to shout from.

But, for now, I’m going to have to just suck it up and say that my parents, close friends and probably some of you readers were right. I do like some things. I like a lot of things, actually.

And though it’s important to me to be able to talk about the things I don’t like — how else can you bring about change? — I’ve come to realize that it’s just as important to talk about the things I do like. Puppies, for instance.

Seriously, who doesn’t like puppies?

But an entire column about random things someone likes would be just plain boring, unless the writer has some seriously eclectic interests — that is not me. It’s easy to talk about things that irritate you. It gets people all fired up and sometimes makes them laugh. And that’s something I like. I like pushing buttons, and I like seeing how far I can push somebody before they get angry.

Call me annoying, but it’s just plain fun.

Try it sometime, maybe to a friend who has done the same thing to you. It’s very much like the “I’m not touching you” game I’m pretty sure we all played as young kids. And it’s just as satisfying when the unlucky subject of such abuse either breaks down laughing or explodes out of frustration. The way you react might even tell you something about yourself!

Anyway, readers, it’s been real. Maybe I’ll catch you all again some time in the future. For now, though, just know that although I don’t have much else in the way of new things to gripe about, I still feel the same way about leggings as pants.

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

Rayder@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

4

Features

Tufts’ Muslim students juggle the expectations of their faith with a college lifestyle ISLAM

continued from page 3

last month at the home mosque of her sister’s friend, who lives near Wellesley.

The Chaplaincy doesn’t hold Eid services because the holiday is based on the idea of joining a larger community for prayer, Baloch said.

“Everybody congregates in one place,” she said. Rather than stay at Tufts, she explained, most students will go to a bigger mosque in the area, from which there are many to choose.

Freshman Youssef Bargach agreed that, at least for practical reasons, the separation from home took some getting used to.

“During the week my family would all pray together, so it’s a lot more accessible, whereas here you have to do it individually [except] on Fridays [when] we have ... group prayer.”

A new schedule hasn’t hindered him, though, he said. “I think it’s actually easier here, because I lived in Houston so the mosque is fairly far away. I’d have to wait for people to come drive me there.

Whereas [here], I live in Bush Hall, so it’s not too far away.”

For followers of a religion that prohibits the consumption of alcohol, the principal discrepancy for Muslim students on a college

campus was the drinking culture they saw among their peers.

“I guess there’s definitely certain college activities that a lot of Muslims don’t feel comfortable partaking in … like going out and partying every night or drinking,” Ghaus said. “In the end you find ways around it; it’s not like you can’t have fun.”

Bargach agreed.

“That’s probably the main [restriction] that doesn’t fit with people’s lives,” he said.

“Some people find it strange … a lot of people who don’t drink just choose not to go out. But I can still have a good time without drinking alcohol.”

Even on a campus that assumes itself to be culturally aware, Muslim students find that they are prompted to correct common misconceptions about Islam on an unexpectedly frequent basis.

“It’s surprising, actually, how many people don’t actually know a lot about Islam, especially when there’s a really big international awareness on campus. We’re generally pretty globally aware, but there’s quite a few misconceptions about Islam,” Ghaus said.

“I mean, there’s the usual,” she added.

“People are very curious. There’s a lot of people who have a lot of questions about things like the hijab and women’s rights, and people tend to think that women are

all oppressed in Islam. I just tell them what I think … I’m happy to answer questions. It’s better that people ask me than just hold it in themselves and not actually get an answer, not get clarifications.”

Bargach said he handles misconceptions about Islam in a similar way.

“You have to know the reasons why you’re doing it ... I need to have a reason why I’m doing this. With that it’s a lot more research and a lot more understanding of the religion, so as long as you can explain that to people who are interested, they become less ignorant about the religion.”

“What I’ve seen is that in today’s time everyone seems to be an expert on the faith,” Hakim added. “The biggest misconception that I’ve seen is on who can authoritatively speak about Islamic values.”

As part of a student community largely hinged on activities and services organized by the MSA, Tufts Muslims have access to practical and spiritual amenities, as well as a supportive group of peers that Hakim said made Muslim life on the Hill easy.

“We have a nice community here so we’re able to work with each other and to encourage each other,” Hakim said. “[The MSA strives] to have an open environment where anyone would feel comfortable … whether they’re practicing Muslims or not, or whether

they’re Muslims at all or not, we do want everyone to feel comfortable. That’s what we want [and] what we strive for.”

Along with support provided by the MSA, he added, students have the opportunity to live in the Muslim House and get halal meat, or meat that is ritually fit for use according to Islamic law, at Dewick-MacPhie Dining Hall. This factor keeps Hakim on a meal plan even as a senior, he said.

“It’s pretty sweet,” he said. “It’s a pretty good incentive … so I end up going to Dewick for that anyway, just for that reason. [And] obviously there’s a very large seafood and veggie section, and I always eat seafood and veggies, so that’s good.”

“The MSA here and the chaplaincy do a really good job with … letting people know, you know this is how you get halal meat, places that you can go to pray,” Ghaus said.

For Sadegh, the individuality of the religion is what makes it meaningful for her.

“That’s why Islam to me is so beautiful, because it’s so simple and you can take it as far as you want to,” she said. “I have discussions with people about drinking and smoking, and all that stuff and also about praying five times a day. At some point you [just] want to please your Creator; it’s just a feeling.”

Tufts tattoo scene: Everything from Latin to eggplants goes in ink TATTOO

continued from page 3

I get sort of startled, especially by the one on my back because I can’t see it on a daily basis,” she said.

Gruner added that despite her efforts to make her tattoos discreet, they could still attract unwanted attention. “[Having tattoos] makes you visible in a way that’s sometimes not what I want.

Sometimes at parties, people feel like they can just grab you and ask you about it. It’s a consequence,” she said.

Despite the possible negative attention, Jumbos agreed that tattoos could be surprisingly addictive. Once a person has overcome their trepidation about getting a first tattoo, it’s easier to be more open to

getting additional tattoos in the future.

“After I got the first one, I really wanted to get another one. I’m on my third one now. They say it’s addictive, and it is,” senior Elizabeth Bernstein said.

Bernstein currently has two tattoos.

On her arm, she has a Bronze-Age fish design and on her leg, she has a tattooed copy of a line from a letter. Though she’s satisfied with the two tattoos she already has, their addictive potential already has her thinking about what she might do for a third.

“I’m sort of into the idea of a pure geometric design. I’m interested in getting something on my spine, like a line down my spine, or dots,” she said.

T h e

Melissa MacEwen/Tufts Daily

Mariah Gruner shows off her smaller tattoo, which means ‘Peace be with you’ in Latin.

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

“Is the Revolution Here Yet? Assessing the 2011 Upheaval in the Middle East”

Augustus Richard Norton

Professor of International Relations and Anthropology, Boston University

Augustus Richard Norton is a Professor in the Departments of International Relations and Anthropology at Boston University, where he is the Director of the Institute for Iraqi Studies. He is also Visiting Professor in the Politics of the Middle East at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. His books include Hezbollah: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2007, 2009), Civil Society in the Middle East, as editor (E. J. Brill, 2 vols., 1995, 1996, 2005), and Amal and the Shi'a (University of Texas Press, 1987). His 2011 publications include a study of al-Najaf, the Shiite center of religious scholarship, published in Middle East Policy; and an essay on the “Arab Upheaval" for the Foreign Policy Association’s “Great Decisions” program. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 5:30 pm Cabot 7th Floor - 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

Melissa MacEwen/Tufts Daily

Freshman Emily Ehrmann has a tattoo of the Chicago skyline on her foot.

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Want to sleep with 40 freshmen?

Get there early, only a limited number of tickets!

ONLY $10!

Hillel Freshman Retreat Ticket Sales Wednesday, Dec. 7 at Noon at Hillel For more info contact: Anna.Simonovsky@tufts.edu or Julia.Wedgle@tufts.edu

Arts & Living

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Movie Review

Cold War-era, star-studded ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ is haunting and relevant by

Kumar Ramanathan Daily Staff Writer

Adapting novels to film is a difficult task, especially since the film’s producers must

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Starring Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt Directed by Tomas Alfredson find a way to make it relevant to the modern world.

As a Cold War-era espionage thriller examining the fading influence of Britain in the global sphere, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” faces an especially intensified version of that problem.

Based on John le Carré’s seminal eponymous 1974 novel, the film’s prologue depicts the fall of Control ( John Hurt), a top player in the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), following his controversial announcement that there is a Russian mole in their midst. The newer methods of the younger members of the Service win out over Control’s classicism, as they

work on planting moles and an angle to engage the Americans. George Smiley (Gary Oldman) follows his boss out of the SIS, only to be called back years later for a covert operation when SIS discovered that there is indeed a mole. Our suspects are four shadowy figures with whom Smiley once shared an office, played by Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Ciarán Hinds and David Dencik.

Set in 1970s Britain, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” feels for the most part like a period piece. From the minutia of costuming to speech patterns, no expense has been spared in giving the film a genuinely historic feel.

The film is adeptly directed by Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson. Alfredson keeps the story’s characteristic Britishness intact, but he infuses the film with tension and drama, which push the boundaries of the specific world in which “Tinker Tailor” is set. The nit and grit of the thriller plot weave through the characters and into the story to acquire haunting and resonant thematic power.

As we follow Smiley’s investigation, we learn more about Smiley than we do any of our suspects. A dapper

Studio Canal

‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ features an impressive number of heavyhitting British actors. and respectable man, Smiley often feels like the only likable character out of the upper echelons of the SIS. But beneath the prim and

proper facade lies a darkness borne from decades of deceit. The characters of see TINKER, page 8

Theater Preview

‘Over the Rainbow’ celebrates life by

Ashley Wood

Daily Editorial Board

ing director for several years at Disney Theatricals.

The event began with theater and movie trivia, giving the audience members a chance to win a signed copy of Maxwell’s new novel. Maxwell proceeded to discuss his work as a producer before taking questions. Mixing anecdotes with advice, Maxwell made his passion for his work apparent.

In fact, musical theater got Maxwell into Tufts. Originally headed to Purdue

Tonight’s production of “Over the Rainbow,” the usually gender-bending Pen, Paint, and Pretzels (3Ps) cabaret to raise HIV/AIDS awareness, will be given a fresh spin.

Originally conceived by 2011 graduates Samantha Kindler and Jeewon Kim, this is the first year “Over the Rainbow” has officially passed into the hands of new leadership, demonstrating the recently conceived tradition’s staying power on campus as it graces Balch Arena Theater for the fourth time.

In contrast to previous performances, boys will be boys and girls will be girls this year in “Over the Rainbow.” The performance will also take on the additional theme of celebrating life to complement the previous years’ focus on defying adversity.

“Something people say a lot about AIDS these days is that it’s no longer a death sentence, and we’ve been incorporating that by making this event’s theme a celebration of life,” Jeff Ryder a senior and executive producer of “Over the Rainbow” said.

“It should be a fun night for the audience to come and have a good time and donate and learn.”

The biggest change in this year’s production is the decision for the performers to no longer swap gender roles.

see MAXWELL, page 8

see RAINBOW, page 8

Courtesy Downing Cless

Mitchell Maxwell’s new novel discusses his college drama experience.

Tufts grad offers anecdotes and advice to theater hopefuls Esti Bernstein

Contributing Writer

Mitchell Maxwell (A ’75) and his wife, Carol Castelli, spoke about their experiences in the entertainment industry on Friday, Dec. 2 in the Balch Arena Theater.

Over the last 35 years, the award-winning producer’s work has graced the arenas of Broadway, off-Broadway and film, and with his recently published “Little Did I Know” (2011), Maxwell can add “author” to his list of accolades. Castelli works with her husband and was the market-

Destination: childhood

I

promised I’d enact a reading revival and bring to you sincere books of all shapes and sizes for our college student reading list. Since then, we’ve been around the United States and the world: “Less Than Zero” (1985), “The Rules of Attraction” (1987), “The Last of the Savages” (1996), “Bright Lights, Big City” (1984) “Just Kids” (2010), “Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography” (2011), “A Little History of the World” (2005), “Shampoo Planet” (1992), “How I Became Hettie Jones” (1990), “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream” (1972), “Mythology” (1940), “Japanese Children’s Favorite Stories” (1953) and “Play It As It Lays” (1970). In our last week, I say we start at the beginning.

Author: L. Frank Baum and Norton Juster Title: “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” (1913) and “The Phantom Tollbooth” (1961) Number of Pages: 352 in the 1995 HarperCollins edition and 272 in the 1988 Yearling edition Whimsicality: Through the roof

Theater Profile

by

Alexandria Chu | Hit Li(s)t

When we were little, everything was magical. I found possibilities in a stop sign, made friends with inanimate objects and dreamt of climbing Mount Everest. But ever-eager to grow up, we all did and discovered limits, structures and responsibilities instead. I bet most miss their childhood.

Two of my favorite childhood books bring you to the Land of Oz, Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. “The Patchwork Girl of Oz” is the seventh story in the Land of Oz series, the first being the iconic “The Wonderful World of Oz” (1900) with Dorothy and her friends.

This story centers on Ojo the Unlucky, a Munchkin who must create an antidote to the Liquid of Petrification, an unfortunate accompaniment of the Powder of Life. And in “The Phantom Tollbooth,” a bored child, Milo — remember the luxury of being bored?

— enters a magic tollbooth to save Princess Rhyme and Princess Reason among a world of idioms, puns and mathematical lingo.

Both these stories capture the essence of childhood, but in a way that an adult can appreciate. In fact, it’s likely you’ll get much more from “The Phantom Tollbooth” the second time around, once you can understand all its references. In addition, this week’s authors were actually novelists by default. Baum tried his hand as a journalist, poultry breeder, shop-owner, actor and editor before he wrote 55 novels, 82 short stories and over 200 poems. Meanwhile, Juster has written nine fiction books and two non-fiction books but works as an architect. Though as children, we may dream of engaging countless professions that we can’t possibly all take on, Baum and Juster prove that even as adults, your second — or sixth — profession might be your most fulfilling.

Yet, in books, you can still be anyone and anything. Reading can take you back, take you forward and take you anywhere.

Books have never failed me. Even some bad ones are entertaining — here’s to you, “Twilight” (2005) — and it’s always inspiring to me that you can read the hard work of someone you’ve never met.

Meanwhile, books can let you become an Everest climber, or, at least, can help you understand one. You can inhabit eras you missed or imaginary futures. Oz’s novels spoke of the television, laptop computers and wireless telephones before such things existed. Books can also help you better understand yourself. Juster’s second book, “The Dot and the Line” (1963), depicts the human behavior of opposites attracting. In essence, books allow us to engage in make-believe all over again.

Thanks so much for creating a book list with me this semester! I hope these works will make their way onto your own personal reading list. But, most of all, I hope every title makes you believe in the influence and power of words.

Alexandria Chu is a junior who is majoring in English. She can be reached at Alexandria.Chu@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

8

Arts & Living

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Maxwell returns to campus to discuss his coming-of-age story, theater MAXWELL

continued from page 7

University on a football scholarship, a car accident after high school changed that plan.

On a trip to Boston, he visited a friend at Tufts, saw a production by the newly founded musical theater group Torn Ticket (now Torn Ticket II) and learned that Tufts offered few musical theater opportunities.

Excited about the school, he spoke to a dean and promised that if admitted to Tufts, he would make a difference in Tufts’ theater scene. The rest is history.

Speaking from experience, Maxwell dispensed wisdom and encouragement, discussing pursuing one’s passions and motivation. Principally, he told the audience to follow their dreams, even if those dreams change. As an artist and a producer, he stated that his motivation is always the words and the story that he wants to present. “You do it because you have to do it,” Maxwell said.

Additionally, Maxwell discussed “finding joy in the journey,” and shared stories of both success and strife, including his work with George Abbott, the librettist for the musical “Damn Yankees” (1955).

Three themes that pervaded Maxwell and Castelli’s advice were emphasizing the individual as important, choosing a direction and creating art that will make you proud instead of trying to please an audience.

“If you do what you do well, you will please your audience,” Maxwell said. As a corollary, he added that an artists must always be humble and willing to reinvent themselves, but only listen to people who share your perspective, especially when evaluating a work in progress.

Fondly recalling his time on the Hill, Maxwell says that everything he knew about producing theater he learned at Tufts.

He remains especially attached to Torn Ticket II. “It gives students the chance to do work they haven’t earned yet,” he said, explaining that those opportunities do not exist in the professional world.

Furthermore, Maxwell credits the troupe for giving him the opportunity to create theater and develop his own plan to pursue the arts professionally.

Throughout the event, Maxwell turned to his novel, encouraging the audience to read it and take the message to heart.

He explains that “Little Did I Know” is a coming-of-age story that chronicles his own experience immediately after graduating from Tufts, when he spent the summer fixing up the Priscilla Beach Theater in Plymouth, Mass. He wrote the book after a period of depression: After leaving a theatrical production due to artistic disagreements, he was tempted to leave show business when Castelli suggested he reconnect to what made him love theater originally.

Maxwell also announced that the story doesn’t end with the novel: “Little Did I Know” will be adapted into a movie, which will be shot on location at the Priscilla Beach Theater. Furthermore, he and his wife bought the theater and, after shooting the movie, they plan to restore it and establish Plymouth as a cultural hub.

In the mean time, Maxwell is working on another project, an off-Broadway show which will open at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York City this spring.

Maxwell and Castelli not only dispensed stories and advice, but also hope to inspire Tufts’ performing arts community, reminding its devotees that success comes if you pursue it.

courtesy downing cless

Mitchell Maxwell (A ‘75) came to the Hill to discuss his novel, ‘Little Did I Know’ (2011).

Under new leadership, ‘Over the Rainbow’ transforms in fourth year RAINBOW

continued from page 7

SCOTT TINGLEY/Tufts Daily

‘Over the Rainbow’ educates in its fourth year.

“We made the decision not to do that this year, partially because it’s easier singing in the range that [a song is] written in, but also because the original creators of ‘Over the Rainbow’ wanted to make it clear that ideally it didn’t have to stay exactly as it was,” director Nadav Hirsh, a junior, said.

Not everything has changed.

As in past years, there will be a 45-minute semi-formal reception taking place at 7:15 p.m. in the Balch Arena Theater’s lobby.

While the show is free, guests are encouraged to donate to the cause or to take part in the silent auction fundraiser and raffle.

Student artists and faculty artists prepared artwork for an AIDSrelated prompt that will be auctioned as well.

All money raised is donated to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, a group that pairs theater with a good cause. Previous “Over the Rainbow” productions at Tufts have raised as much as $5,000 for the group.

The reception is not just for donating, however, because it also serves as an opportunity to educate people about the current state of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

“The theme this year for the lobby is teaching people about the misconceptions of AIDS and righting the things that people think to be true, that aren’t,” Ryder said.

This goal leaks into the performance as well, which alternates musical numbers with powerful readings of passages that reflect the prejudices and misconceptions about people with HIV/ AIDS. More than an educational tool, the cabaret also functions as a showcase of the talent in the theatre department.

With minimal props, a simple set and no costumes, the performers rely on bare-bone vocals and piano accompaniment.

It helps that nearly all involved are Tufts drama veterans, and many have already appeared in shows earlier this semester.

Hirsh himself has had experience both performing in and

assistant directing “Over the Rainbow’s” previous productions.

With the exception of a performance by Sarabande and a mime skit by the Tufts theater manager and her husband, the cabaret consists mainly of Broadway songs that range in topics of loss and triumph, overcoming obstacles and ultimately the happiness that can arise from unlikely circumstances.

Hirsh made sure to strike a balance between the joyous, the bitingly witty and the somber in his song selection. While the Broadway numbers did not address HIV/AIDS in their original conception, the songs have been selected for their ability to be re-contextualized into the “Over the Rainbow” cause.

Tickets are still available for “Over the Rainbow” at the Balch Arena Box Office, and 50 standing room tickets will be provided on the day of the show if it sells out.

Swing by Balch tonight to enjoy hors d’oeuvres, drinks and a celebratory night of theater — all for a good cause.

‘Tinker Tailor’ is aesthetically beautiful, thematically engaging TINKER

continued from page 7

this film spend an awful lot of time trying very hard to make sure they’re not telling each other anything remotely close to the truth. Fantastically underplayed by Oldman, Smiley proves an effective focal point for the audience, quietly upsetting the fragile house of cards that his colleagues have built in his absence.

Among the characters that aid Smiley are the young but promising office boy Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) and the once-renowned hotshot spy Ricki Tarr ( Tom Hardy). The divides between characters establish fascinating tensions, setting Smiley’s old wisdom and Tarr and Guillam’s young blood against the middle-aged power players currently in the SIS. The only thing that seems to unite all of these men is a general distrust for each other, even before they become aware of a mole in their midst. Trust is anathema to anyone in this line of work, and it seeps over into their friendships, marriages and the most intimate moments of their private lives.

The aura of betrayal and deceit is masked beautifully in visual metaphor.

Amid the pristine setting, tiny movements and alterations are immediately noticeable, egging on the upset of the careful world Smiley orchestrates.

The visual art of the film is gorgeous, from the impeccable and quiet detail of the production design to the exquisite

photography that captures it. Half the frames of this film would make striking photographs in their own rights.

In a film that could easily have been dialogue-driven, the powerful acting and attention to visual detail and power give it a great deal of gravitas.

With a plot so dependent on character relationships, acting can make or break a film. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” resolves that problem by filling its cast with every single male British actor of note today. The famous faces quickly meld into a fascinating tapestry of people who live and hunt in the shadows. Viewers truly watch these characters instead of merely listening to them explain the plot.

The pieces all add up to create a work that explores bonds and betrayal in a world consumed by mistrust. Everyone in this film is struggling for relevance: Smiley to reclaim his and Control’s names, the new generation of leaders to make their SIS as glorious as it once was and the British government to match its American counterpart.

“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” invites its audience into a luscious world of darkness sheathed in pristine British suits.

Though its story decidedly belongs to a certain era, its themes extend the film’s relevance, and the consequently powerful piece haunts viewers long after the credits roll. For marrying a fast pace with high quality, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” finds itself in the rare but magnificent category of the poetic thriller.

Studio Canal

Gary Oldman plays a neurotic spy called back from retirement.

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Center for Engineering Education and Outreach

Studying abroad spring 2012?

Be prepared for your semester abroad!

Required pre-departure meetings:

4 Annual Open House th

December 8th, 2011 4pm-7pm

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

474 Boston Ave ~ Curtis Hall, lower level ceeo.tufts.edu/directions Light refreshments will be served

Our Open House is your opportunity to learn all about Tufts CEEO:

Non-Tufts Programs

Tufts Programs

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

Tufts in Madrid/Paris/Tübingen

*all meetings in Braker Hall 001*

*Take a close look at the research our Graduate Students are doing *Test our educational technologies

Tuesday, Dec. 13 @ 10:30 am

*Learn more about ways to get involved with the CEEO

Non-Tufts Mainland Europe

Wednesday, Dec. 14 @ 10:30 am

Wednesday, Dec. 14 @ 3:30 pm

ceeo.tufts.edu Can’t make it, but want to learn more about the CEEO? Scan our LEGO QR Code for more information...

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

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

Meetings are required.

Questions? Call x7-5871.

Questions? Email magee.giarrosso@tufts.edu

Make Your Own Fresh Latkes

Gelt Hunt in Whipped Cream

Tufts in Hong Kong

Non-Tufts UK/Ireland/Australia/ New Zealand

*and of course, play with LEGO products!

Tuesday, Dec. 13 @ 1:30 pm

Wednesday, Dec. 14 @ 1:30 pm

*Test Undergraduate Design Robotics projects and give them your feedback

Dreidel Painting and Playing

*all meetings in Braker Hall 001*

Candle Squirt-Gun Shootout

For more information, contact Amy.Strauss@tufts.edu or Jonathan.Arditti@tufts.edu

The Tufts Daily

10

THE TUFTS DAILY

Editorial | Letters

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

wes engel

Carter W. Rogers Editor-in-Chief

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

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editors Assistant Op-Ed Editors Cartoonists

Editorialists

Daniel Rathman Executive Sports Editor Matthew Berger Sports Editors Lauren Flament Claire Kemp Ben Kochman Aaron Leibowitz David McIntyre Alex Prewitt Ann Sloan Ethan Sturm Kate Klots Assistant Sports Editors Josh Berlinger Virginia Bledsoe Kristen Collins Alex Dennett Justin McCallum Ashley Seenauth William Butt Lane Florsheim Caroline Geiling Meagan Maher Oliver Porter Scott Tingley Dilys Ong

Executive Photo Editor Photo Editors

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor,

Assistant Photo Editors

Staff Photographers

Ellen Kan Executive New Media Editor

PRODUCTION Jason Huang

Production Director Alyssa Kutner Executive Layout Editor Rebecca Alpert Layout Editors Jennifer Betts Shoshanna Kahne Sarah Kester Emily Rourke Elliot Philips Assistant Layout Editors Andrew Paseltiner Executive Copy Editor Ben Considine Copy Editors Patrick Donnelly Sara Eisemann Katrina Knisely Drew Lewis Ashley Cheng Assistant Copy Editors Linh Dang Lauren Greenberg George Le Gregory Witz Audrey Kuan Executive Online Editor Darcy Mann Online Editors Ben Schwalb Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager

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

The Daily covers a lot of on-campus news. There are sports articles, fashion columns, even updates on the innerworkings of the Tufts Community Union Senate. But there is also something curiously missing from that coverage: up-todate reporting on the successes of Tufts’ non-athletic competitive teams.

Take this weekend, for example. Tufts Debate brought a record number of competitors to campus for their annual tournament. Tufts Mock Trial claimed an unbelievable first-place victory at Yale’s mock trial invitational, beating out teams

like Princeton and Cornell. At the same time, Tufts Ballroom was holding their yearly Tufts Ballroom Competition right here on campus.

That’s three of Tufts’ competitive organizations participating in tournaments this weekend, two of which were held on the Hill, but none of which were covered in Monday’s paper.

Understandably, one newspaper cannot cover everything. But given that these groups regularly compete, much like our athletic organizations, it would be an incredible improvement for the Daily to begin announcing the results of such competitions. We want to hear about it

when a pair of Tufts dancers wins a ribbon, or when a mock trial team brings back a gleaming trophy. We want to know about it when our friends work hard, rise to the top and make those Ivy League kids wish they had half the talent, creativity and ability of our Jumbos.

And we want to wake up Monday morning and see it, right there in black and white on our favorite school paper. The Daily needs to start covering our competitive teams. Jumbo pride depends on it.

Sincerely, Brian Pilchik Class of 2014

Off the Hill | Louisiana State University

Failure of diplomacy: A plea to Republicans to find quality presidential candidate by

Zachary Davis

The Daily Reveille

Republicans, there are very few people I would disagree with more than you.

Whether it’s the usual Republican stance on taxes, national security, gay marriage or other viewpoints which mingle church and state, there simply isn’t much we agree on.

While most of these positions are insane, I know my beliefs are seen as far more crazy by most of you. Differences of opinion cause a lot of frustration but are vital for any political system in the long run.

Although our two-party system may not be ideal, it sure beats the totalitarianism in most single-party states. So while I criticize the Republican Party, I do acknowledge its importance to the system.

But during this semester, there has been a certain something else — something insane and certainly not as beneficial for the political system as differing opinions. I’m referring to the jokes who are the Republican presidential candidates.

Between the willfully ignorant Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign Dec. 3,

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

the Bush 2.0 Rick Perry or the simply crazy Michelle Bachmann, there is no one who seems like a reasonable candidate.

As it stands now, Mitt Romney seems to be the only candidate who can withstand the limelight for longer than a week without imploding. Without “oops” moments the other candidates had, his relative reasonability seems to have been enough to keep him afloat.

But is not making a political faux pas the only requirement to take a shot at the presidency? Something more than this would be required if the Republican Party has any chance to beat Obama next year.

Just look at how fierce the battle was between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the months leading up to Obama ultimately being decided as the Democratic nominee. Both candidates had to do their best to win over voters by debating and campaigning, not simply by an omission of mistakes.

The worst thing is that this really should have been a one-term presidency for Obama. Disregarding his actual policies, the economic climate under which he took

office should have sealed such a fate. But with no real contender from the Republican Party, this may not be the case.

In the last few months of the 2008 election, the Republican Party started to go the wrong path. In choosing Sarah Palin as [John] McCain’s running mate, he stirred up a nest of insanity which had been dormant.

Since then, the Republican candidates who get the most attention are those who flail about the most wildly.

This isn’t to say all the candidates are without merit. Jon Huntsman seems to be one of the more reasonable politicians running, yet he simply doesn’t get nearly as much attention. Between Huntsman and non-politician Herman Cain, it’s obvious who should be getting more support.

This is all up to the Republican voters.

You need to find a reasonable candidate.

Obama needs to be forced to fight for his second term, and clearly Republicans would like to see him out.

But given the events of this semester, it definitely doesn’t seem likely.

Get it together, Republicans. Democracy deserves no less.

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The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 Off the Hill | Boston College

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11

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

Make fun, not war

Chin up, Wall Street

Tim O’Connor The Heights

Last month, Activision/Blizzard smashed an entertainment industry record with the release of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” (MW3). Within 24 hours of the game’s launch, the publisher sold 6.5 million copies of the game, garnering an estimated $400 million in revenue. MW3 dethroned the previous record-holder, last year’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” by roughly $40 million.

Want to guess who held the record before “Black Ops”? I’ll give you a hint: it starts with “Call” and ends with “Warfare 2.”

Since the inception of the franchise in 2003, the “Call of Duty” (COD) series has sold over 110 million games, placing it comfortably in the top 10 video game franchises of all time. Talk about war profiteering. Fans and critics herald it as the gold standard for the first-person shooter genre, which, to be straightforward, means a game where you look through the eyes of a character and shoot things with guns. In this case, “things” generally refers to other people.

Not other characters in the game, but actual players, who you compete with online. The “Call of Duty” games are renowned for their multiplayer component, which allows up to 18 players from anywhere in the world to duke it out in dense jungles, corrupt urban favelas or pretty much any locale you could find in a Tom Clancy novel.

With that in mind, the reason behind the series’ financial success suddenly becomes clear. Take a target demographic of 18 to 25-year-old males, let them anonymously talk trash while playing soldier over the Internet, and throw in a bunch of statistics, measurements, and unlockable features that let you show off just how much better than your friends you actually are. In terms of appealing to that raw, adrenalinepumping, testosterone-boosting competitive spirit, “Call of Duty” falls somewhere between football and bare-knuckle bar fights. And there’s nothing wrong with that, really. Competition is a natural impulse. It’s been around since the dawn of the species, and it isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

For some, it manifests in sports. Others take it to the boardroom or stock market.

It’s in all of us.

W

MCT

What is a bit disturbing, though, is how we’ve let that competitive spirit manifest in a virtual representation of very real wars. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming actual violence on violent video games, as now-disbarred attorney Jack Thompson attempted to do in 2003, when he claimed his 16-year-old client committed murder as a result of his obsession with the game “Grand Theft Auto III.” Rather, I wonder why we have to resort to intense, photorealistic depictions of everyday violence as a way to satisfy our animalistic kicks.

Plenty of games, like the almost-as-popular “Halo,” offer the same fundamental experience as “Call of Duty” (i.e. shooting other people), but distinguish themselves with a science fiction or fantasy setting.

What makes COD more successful? Why does wrapping the entire thing up in a “realistic” package seem to resonate with consumers in a way that other games don’t? Why is it more satisfying to shoot your friend who lives across campus with a (virtual) M16 assault rifle, rather than the imaginary “Halo” equivalent?

The possible answers are too numerous to list. It is, of course, plausible that “Call of Duty” is simply a better-designed game, but I somehow doubt Freud would stop there. Perhaps taking out aggression in a simulation of real-world violence is

simply more fulfilling. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism. Not many of us are directly impacted by the wars in the Middle East, but they certainly haunt the periphery of our lives. Packaging up a complex and terrible conflict into a bite-sized, $60 morsel of stress relief helps resolve the nuances and complexity of the perpetual state of war that most of us have grown up under.

Personally, I think we can do a whole lot better when it comes to our entertainment. The technology and resources we have access to empower a freshman computer art student to put “Star Wars” to shame. YouTube lets anyone with a camera phone become a filmmaker. We have the ability to bring virtually any story we can dream up to life; our popular entertainment is bound only by the limits of our imagination. As a nation, we’ve always defined ourselves by the stories we tell, from the rugged pioneers who journeyed west to the astronauts who braved the cold depths of space. Our generation must choose the story that it will live by. We’ve been told by many that it is a story of perpetual threat from zealots who will stop at nothing to destroy us. We’ve been told that unless we destroy them first, our way of life will certainly end. This is the story we tell with “Call of Duty.”

Forget that. It’s boring. Let’s come up with something a bit more fun.

Off the Hill | Louisiana State University

Shockingly simple: Faulty memory falsely imprisons innocent man for 30 years by

Andrew Shockey The Daily Reveille

Henry James was released last month from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola after 30 years of imprisonment when DNA evidence exonerated him from the 1981 rape of his neighbor.

James reportedly maintained his innocence during his three-decade incarceration, continually appealing his case until his acquittal with the help of the Innocence Project, a non-profit group dedicated to ending false imprisonment through DNA evidence.

According to the Innocence Project, James’ accuser originally told police she did not know her attacker, but later picked James out of a lineup, resulting in his wrongful incarceration. After 30 years in Angola, James was released when a DNA test showed the bodily fluids obtained through a rape kit of the victim were not his.

James’ case shows just how unreliable the memories of eyewitnesses can be, especially after traumatic events.

According to The New York Times, some memory researchers believe witness testimony should even be treated as trace evidence rather than hard proof.

The first man to be exonerated via DNA evidence was freed in 1989. Since then, 280 people have been freed, of which about 75 percent of single perpetrator crimes were wrongfully accused based on faulty eyewitness testimony.

Experiments over the past few decades have shown how susceptible memories are to suggestion and misinterpretation and how easily the mind can miss important details when occupied with other tasks.

A famous experiment conducted at Harvard University involved a group of test subjects watching a video of people dressed in either white or black passing basketballs. Participants were asked to keep track of how many times a person in white passed a ball.

A few seconds into the video something unusual happens. A woman in a gorilla suit walks through the group of people dodging basketballs as they fly left and right.

Most people are successfully able to count the number of passes, but only about half of test subjects notice the gorilla walking through the group of players.

The experiment was spoiled for me since I read about it before watching the video, which you can find on YouTube by searching for “selective attention test.” I showed the video to friends and was astounded when half of them completely missed the gorilla walking through the brief clip.

The gorilla test exhibits the challenges our memories face when recalling past events. If half of us are unable to notice a gorilla right in front of our noses because our minds are too busy counting basketball passes, we cannot rely solely on eyewitness testimony of a traumatic event.

Many people believe our memories

operate as a kind of video camera or filing cabinet, storing memories away until they are recalled. Scientists are now discovering our memories are incredibly susceptible to suggestion, and even the act of recounting a memory can have effects on our recollection over time.

In James’ case, he lived next door to his accuser and had helped her husband with car repairs the day before the rape occurred. Later that day, James and the husband were involved in a car accident, which resulted in the husband’s arrest.

James visited his accuser around 8 p.m. to inform her of the arrest.

At around 6 a.m., a man broke into the woman’s house and raped her at knifepoint. Immediately after the rape, the woman told police she did not know her attacker but gave a brief description to police. James was picked up for fitting the description and was eventually picked out of a lineup by the victim multiple times despite having an alibi corroborated by three witnesses. After 30 years in prison, DNA evidence overruled the accuser’s memory and James was finally released.

The victim was unable to identify her attacker during a traumatic experience, but her mind tricked her into accusing the wrong man.

Hopefully cases like this will impact our legal system and make it more difficult for a man to spend more than half his life in prison for a crime he did not commit.

hen I first told my grandmother that I would be interning at a commodities trading firm for the summer, she grimaced — then she hugged me with a laugh. “Well I hope I don’t hate you by the end of the summer!” she said with a smile.

I love my grandma, and I know she loves me. Why would she ever hate me because of my job?

Sadly, this would not be the first time I received such a response. My friends and family involved in finance congratulated me, while others responded with an enigmatic, “Oh … that’s pretty cool I guess.”

It should come as no surprise that I usually support Wall Street. Though it deserves most of the blame for the housing collapse in 2007 and the subsequent recession, it also deserves most of our thanks for getting our economy out of the gutter. It has yet to find the secret to job creation, but our banks have staved off depression and kept fears of a doubledip recession at bay. With the help of the Federal Reserve, they have pushed our economy into recovery without the aid of austerity measures and major fiscal or governmental reform.

Many have unfairly vilified Wall Street for simply doing its job. Finance is far and away the most productive sector of our economy, and it has consistently kept our economy chugging ahead. Though many disagree, we have not had mass riots in front of our capital building — although Occupy Wall Street pushed some protesters toward hostile situations, such isolated incidents of police and protester brutality pale in comparison to the warzone-like streets of Athens.

A recent New York Times Dealbook article reported on Yale students protesting outside a hotel where Goldman Sachs was holding a recruiting event.

Economics professor Robert J. Shiller said, “I teach financial markets, and it’s a little like teaching R.O.T.C. during the Vietnam War. You have this sense that something’s amiss.” The students chanted, “Take a stance, don’t go into finance,” but I encourage my peers to go into finance. Some of our nation’s brightest minds work in finance, and our economy would not be the same without them.

People were angry at banks before Occupy Wall Street so strongly vocalized this anti-finance sentiment. As I said before, they deserve to be angry. But the loudest voices from both politics and Occupy Wall Street tend to forget that capitalism is an economic system, not a governmental one.

Investment banks might drive economic growth, but I firmly believe that they have no effect on our civil liberties.

Despite such strong anti-bank sentiment Occupy Wall Street has instilled in our society, our banks are the best in the world. Wall Street, and by extension the United States, is the financial capital of the world. Why attempt to downplay our greatest asset when Europe would give anything for our banks? Though “too big to fail” came under heavy fire, it appears that Europe should have taken a hint and recapitalized its own banks before starting on the road to recovery.

It’s a macro world after all. Europe seems to throw out a new bank bailout plan every other week, but most of its banks still hang on the edge of failure.

Europe will continue to drag down our recovery, but our banks are doing a tremendous job carrying on despite adverse economic data.

The next time a friend says they’re trying out finance, try to appreciate it; we Jumbos are good-hearted people.

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

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The Tufts Daily

12

Comics

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

by

Monday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Having your hand cramp up while making flashcards

Late Night at the Daily Monday’s Solution

Niki: “You got a problem with me being on top?”

Please recycle this Daily.

Wiley

Sports

13

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Men’s Basketball

Jumbos win New England Big 4 Challenge Anderson earns MVP in second tournament title of 2011 by

Claire Kemp

Daily Editorial Board

The winning continues for the men’s basketball team. After kicking off the weekend with a 92-75 victory at Wheaton on Thursday, MEN’S BASKETBALL (7-1, 0-0 NESCAC) New England Big 4 Challenge at Salem, Mass., Sunday Tufts Salem State

41 44 37 36

— 85 — 73

at Salem, Mass., Saturday Tufts Babson

24 30 20 28

— 54 — 48

Tufts went on to capture its second tournament title and MVP nod of the season on Sunday at the New England Big 4 Challenge hosted by Salem State.

On the road to the championship game, Tufts took out Babson College 54-48 on Saturday, before defeating the hosts 85-73 in the finals. Junior tri-captain Scott Anderson took home the MVP award for his 35-point overall performance to help his team improve to 6-1 with their first Crotty Cup in the three years they have participated in the event.

“It was huge for us to win the Big 4 Challenge this year because it really speaks to how far we’ve come,” Anderson said. “In the past two years, especially two years ago, it seemed like we were satisfied with getting one win and seeing what happened in the championship game. This year our mindset from the get-go was to win the whole thing.

We are a lot more focused this year than we have been in the past and it doesn’t hurt that we have more talent too.”

That talent was on display from the start of Sunday’s championship against the Vikings.

Although Tufts came out strong in the first half, Salem State was able to build a one-point lead two minutes past the break at 44-43.

A well-timed three-pointer from freshman guard C.J. Moss erased the advantage, before a three and a two-point jumper from senior tricaptain brothers Dan and Brian Clark put the home team back up by one with 8:15 to play.

But the resilient Jumbos responded again, and this time, it was sophomore guard Oliver Cohen’s three that sparked a 9-2 run to erase Salem State’s momentum, as Tufts built a 71-65

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

Sophomore guard Kwame Firempong was a flawless 18-for-18 from the free-throw line this weekend, helping the Jumbos ice their victories over Salem State and Babson down the stretch. margin heading in to the final five minutes.

The Vikings pulled back within four twice, but the Jumbos were composed and confident as the clock wound down. Sophomore point guard and eventual All-Tournament selection

Kwame Firempong went 12-for-12 from the free-throw line to secure the victory.

“We’ve been ahead at half every game so far, and we always try to focus on slowly extending the lead until we’re in control by double dig-

its at the end,” Moss said. “We didn’t have a specific focus on protecting our lead during [Sunday’s] halftime, but we had the mentality that we weren’t going to lose the game.”

Tufts had a strong mindset from the start.

After the Vikings struck first, Tufts answered with a 14-2 run that would hold up until half.

Salem State looked dangerous late in the first half, raising the tempo with a 7-0 run in the final minutes that put them within two just 20 seconds before the intermission. Although Firempong was able to respond with two free throws that gave the Jumbos the 41-37 halftime lead, it took a huge effort from the Jumbos in the second half to fend off the pesky Vikings.

Firempong led the team on the day with a career-high 22 points, four assists and two steals. Anderson chipped in 20 points, including 14 in the first half.

On Saturday, Firempong’s free-throw shooting would again seal the deal for the Jumbos.

After leading by seven on a jumper from the guard with 2:30 on the clock, five unanswered points and a steal from Babson left Tufts with a precarious two-point lead and Babson ball with 1:32 remaining.

But the Beavers missed a jumper and senior forward Alex Orchowski came up with the rebound, forcing Babson to foul after a Tufts timeout. Firempong hit the two free throws and Orchowski earned another rebound before taking the line for another two points to make it 52-46 with 16 seconds on the clock.

Moss blocked Babson’s next attempt, before Firempong took the line again to punch the Jumbos’ ticket to the championship, 54-48.

In the first half — riding high afterThursday’s victory in which the Jumbos shot at a blistering 63 percent clip from the field — Tufts came out firing against previously undefeated Babson. The Jumbos jumped out to a 12-point lead on an old-fashioned three-point play from Anderson in the first 13 minutes.

But Babson’s defense had the answers that Wheaton’s did not, holding the Jumbos to just 43 percent shooting before halftime. However, Tufts’ defensive effort was even better, as the Beavers made just 36 percent of their shots from the field, enabling the Jumbos to mount a 24-20 halftime lead.

“Normally our offense is what drives us,” Moss said. “But because Babson’s zone was so effective, we had to put more focus into winning the defensive battle.”

That defensive battle fell off briefly after the break, when Babson opened the second with a three that drew the Beavers within see MEN’S BASKETBALL, page 15

Women’s Swimming

Jumbos earn third-place finish at MIT Invitational Greenwald excels in both relay and individual events by

Zach McGowan

Daily Staff Writer

The women’s swimming and diving team competed in its last meet of the semester on Friday and Saturday at the MIT Invitational.

The meet featured Div. III swimming powerhouses MIT and NYU, as well as fellow NESCAC schools Colby and Bowdoin, in a seven-team field. Despite the high level of competition, Tufts posted an impressive third-place overall finish with a total of 564 points, behind only NYU and the hosts, who tallied 1,308 points for the victory.

“We got to race some teams like NYU and MIT that are really fast that we wouldn’t normally get to race because they’re not in our NESCAC conference,” freshman Kathryn Coniglio said. “These teams are all shaved and tapered [and we are not], so it’s really fun when we beat them and it’s a real confidence boost going into the second half of the season.”

Some teams, such as NYU and MIT, are already tapered and wearing fastskins in meets, which gives them a significant advantage and decreases their times dramatically.

Tufts waits until later in the season to make these adjustments, and hence, the third-place

finish is very promising for the Jumbos.

Tufts scored more than three times as many points as Colby and almost twice as many as Bowdoin, two teams that they will be competing with at the end of the season in the NESCAC championships.

“Even though we had a tough week with a meet on Wednesday and three sessions of the MIT Invitational, and were racing girls who were tapered and wearing fastskins, we still had some great swims, which is a really good sign for later in the season,” sophomore Mia Greenwald said.

The Jumbos’ success was largely due to the performance of their relay teams. Two of those squads — the 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle — have been a consistent source of points for the Jumbos all season, and the MIT meet was no different.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of seniors Courtney Adams and Paulina Ziolek and freshmen Sam Sliwinski and Coniglio delivered the Jumbos’ best result of the meet, placing third with a time of 1:39.20.

Tufts had four other top-five relay finishes at MIT that propelled them to their third-place overall finish. Adams and Coniglio were joined

Scott Tingley/Tufts Daily

see SWIMMING, page 15

Sophomore Jenny Hu swam the breaststroke leg of both the 200- and 400-meter medley relays, helping the Jumbos to a fourth-place result in both events.

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Women’s Squash

Tufts halts skid, wins three in a row Depth key to victories at Wesleyan Round Robin by

Ann Sloan

Daily Editorial Board

After a two-week break from competition, the No. 21 women’s squash team was back in action last week, losing to Boston College on Thursday and then going 3-1 at the Wesleyan Round Robin this weekend.

Heading into winter break, Tufts’ record sits at a respectable 5-3.

At Wesleyan on Saturday, the Jumbos won three straight matches against No. 23 Colby, No. 25 Smith and No. 28 William Smith.

Tufts had an impressive 9-0 sweep over William Smith, in which eight of nine Jumbos won in three straight games.

Freshman Ann Bellinger lost her first game before winning the next three with 11-9 scores to take the victory. Junior Jessica Rubine shined in the No. 1 spot, only allowing William Smith sophomore Caroline Moxley to take eight points.

Earlier in the day, Tufts enjoyed a commanding 8-1 victory over Smith. Rubine faltered in this match, falling to freshman Jacqueline Zhou in three games, but that was the only loss in the contest for Tufts, though junior Madison Newbound had a close five-game victory in the No. 8 spot, losing her second and fourth games.

At the No. 3 spot in the lineup, freshman Paige Dahlman was down one game before rallying to take the next three.

Tufts’ first match of the day against Colby proved to be the most exciting, with seven of the nine matches lasting more than three games. The Jumbos managed to come away from the NESCAC matchup with a 5-4 win over the Mules.

The importance of Tufts’ deep lineup showed on Saturday, when the top three players in the Jumbos’ ladder Rubine, senior co-captain Mercedes Barba, and Dahlman all suffered tough losses against their Mules opponents. The team relied on some of its younger players to step up and rally to victory.

“We have new players this year, and younger players than years previous,” senior co-captain Alyse Vinoski said. “It’s

great when the lower end of the ladder gets to play some really hard matches and do really well and persevere ... A lot of people viewed the Colby match and other matches as good learning experiences.”

Bellinger and Vinoski each had impressive five-game wins in the No. 4 and 5 spots. Bellinger lost her first and fourth games, and Vinoski lost her first two games before making a comeback to win the next three 11-9, 12-10 and 11-8.

“As a senior, I still struggle with being down. I was down two, and really somehow needed to find the mental ability to push yourself past it,” Vinoski said. “It’s not about the physical; it’s about the mental game and struggling with that. We see that we’re all getting a lot out of every match that we play.”

Junior Hafsa Chaudhry broke a 1-1 tie with two straight wins in the No. 9 spot.

Tufts has always had close matches against Colby, a team they faced three times last season. The Jumbos lost 5-4 the first two times they met, but turned things around the third time, beating the Mules 5-4 in the Walker Cup on Feb. 19.

“After losing a few matches before Saturday, we came back and wanted to win so badly,” Rubine said. “Having those three wins in a row really boosts our confidence levels and shows us we can win and can move up in the rankings. It was a big win to beat Colby, and it was awesome to beat them the first time we played them this year.”

The Jumbos struggled in a 9-0 loss to No. 19 Wesleyan on Friday, extending their losing streak to three games before Saturday’s wins righted the ship.

Barba was the only player able to extend her match to more than three games against the Cardinals. She won the first game 11-4 before dropping the next two. Barba then tied the match by winning a thrilling fourth game 13-11, but was unable to persevere, falling 11-3 in the decisive fifth.

The day before, Tufts fell 5-4 to No. 31 Boston College. The Jumbos were missing two of their starters — Vinoski and senior

Jennifer LaCara, who usually play in the No. 5 and 6 spots, respectively. Vinoski had a class conflict and LaCara was out due to an ankle issue.

With their absence, juniors Risa Meyers, Newbound and Chaudhry moved up in the lineup, and classmate Desen Ozkan and freshman Carol Tan Shu Wei competed in scoring positions for the first time this season.

Rubine, Barba and Dahlman won their matches, but the Jumbos were unable to sustain that success down the ladder, losing five of the lower six matches.

Chaudhry was the other Tufts player to win her match, beating Gina Giuggio in three games. Bellinger and Newbound each won their second game, but were unable to keep up the momentum, losing the next two. Tufts beat Boston College 7-2 last year.

“We were obviously all really disappointed in the outcome, but I don’t think it represented how we play,” Rubine said.

“It affected us that we were missing two people, but at the same time, I think we can still play better than we did.”

The team took the loss as motivation for increased effort in practice and a commitment to improving.

“It was definitely rough,” Vinoski said.

“People were in some ways surprised, but it was also a good wakeup call to know that teams change every single year and you never know based on years previous what it’s going to be like. You really have to take every game as it comes and do your best one way or another.”

The Tufts season continues in January when the Jumbos play in the Pioneer Valley Invitational on Jan. 21-22. The team plans to travel to Florida over winter break, where they will be able to compete against club teams and have more practice time before the season gets going again.

The team will lose two of its starting players, Meyers and Newbound, who will be studying abroad. Fortunately, the Jumbos will welcome back juniors Ushashi Basu and Caitlin Doherty, who both saw competitive action last season.

Alex Dennett/Tufts Daily

Senior co-captain Alyse Vinoski won all three of her matches at the Wesleyan Round Robin, leading the Jumbos to a sweep.

Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville

That’s the ticket ollege football’s bowl system is at

C

an impasse, and it has absolutely nothing to do with an LSU-Alabama rematch in the BCS Championship Game or Virginia Tech somehow getting selected for the Sugar Bowl over Kansas State and Boise State. It has nothing to do with BCS or Oklahoma State’s relegation despite the Cowboys’ stomping of Oklahoma last weekend, but everything to do with the tumultuous situation occurring in Happy Valley.

Penn State’s biggest fears have already been realized, so what happened Sunday pales in comparison to its legendary football coach being fired after his defensive coordinator allegedly sexually molested young boys. But from a football standpoint — and I can’t stress enough how little this matters in the grand scheme of things, but it still maintains relevancy given that sports will likely help heal a betrayed campus — getting invited to the TicketCity Bowl was just about the worst thing for the Nittany Lions.

Though Penn State finished tied for the fourth-best record in the Big Ten at 9-3, it was relegated to Dallas for the TicketCity Bowl, the seventh bowl on the list of games affiliated with the conference to select. There’s no doubt that the other bowls — three of which picked Iowa (7-5), Ohio State (6-6) and Northwestern (6-6), all teams that lost to Penn State this season — were terrified at associating themselves with the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Injustices happen every season, especially in college football. Virginia Tech, for some reason, is playing in the Sugar Bowl even after the Hokies played three games against ranked teams and lost two of them, both to Clemson, by a combined 48 points, most recently in a 38-10 rout in the ACC title game on Saturday.

And the Sandusky case is a colossal injustice unto itself. But this is unprecedented — a football program being punished for the nonfootball-related crimes of one of its staff members. While USC is currently serving a two-year postseason ban for infractions dating back to the Reggie Bush era of 2004, an instance that correlates directly to on-field performance.

The thing is, no one will get bent out of shape about this, because who could possibly counter the decision on this? Who would dare stand up and say that Penn State deserves better in spite of what occurred?

To do so would result in being labeled an apologist, even if such a knee-jerk reaction means equating Sandusky’s actions with the program as a whole.

The bowl system had no other option than to choose the “moral high road,” a gross irony considering that it makes millions each year consciously avoiding that same path. This doesn’t reek of a distraction, by any stretch of the imagination, but rather just another way for college football to say, “Hey, we do the right thing from time to time.”

In spite of the snub, this might be a bestcase scenario for the Nittany Lions. They’ll be playing in a low-profile bowl on Jan. 2, likely void of the overwhelming national scrutiny they would have received had, say, they been selected to the Insight Bowl. Their opponent, Houston, boasts the nation’s top offense and one of the most prolific college quarterbacks of all time in Case Keenum and would have reached the BCS had it not lost to Southern Mississipi in the Conference USA championship game.

Plus, new Penn State President Rod Erickson has already announced that his university will donate $1.5 million of its bowl money to a pair of sex-crime advocacy groups. So at this point, it seems to matter little where and when the Nittany Lions will go bowling; what matters is that the administration is viewing it as an opportunity to help make amends.

But I’m sure the players are upset nonetheless. Wouldn’t you be?

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

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Tufts Daily

15

Sports

Jumbos to host Plymouth State at Cousens Gym tonight

Men’s Squash

MEN’S BASKETBALL continued from page 13

Alex Dennett/Tufts Daily

Senior captain Henry Miller defeated Vassar’s William English in four games on Friday, helping the Jumbos blank the Brewers.

Jumbos dominate at Vassar as freshmen impress The men’s squash team tacked on two more wins this past weekend at Vassar, moving to 4-2 on the season. The squad put on a clinical display, sinking the No. 42 hosts and No. 52 Bard handily in 9-0, shutout victories.

In the Jumbos’ most commanding trip thus far, each player — from senior captain Henry Miller to the “freshman five” — went through the matches with ease. The Jumbos claimed seven of their nine contests against Vassar in three sets, and they won by default in four of their matches against an undermanned Bard team.

In their first game against Vassar, the Jumbos cruised, toppling the Brewers without breaking much of a sweat. Just when they thought it couldn’t get any easier, though, Bard came along with only a fiveman squad.

Although the six-through-nine spots didn’t have to play a single point against Bard, the first five — freshmen Alex Nalle, Zach Schweitzer and Elliot Kardon and sophomores Michael Abboud and Benjamin Briggs — were hardly challenged. All five players won in straight sets, but Briggs was especially dominant, dropping only three points in his entire match.

Coach Doug Eng was thrilled with his

team’s performance but still saw room for improvement.

“If it was football, the score would [have been] like 42-10 and 56-0 with 600 yards gained per game versus 200 yards given up,” Eng said. “[But] let’s say we [also] had a couple turnovers and miscues.”

Although the trip to Vassar didn’t test the Jumbos, it was still valuable, as the victories bolstered the team’s intangibles and confidence.

“We didn’t have to work that hard to win the matches,” Kardon said. “But we had a fun time building some team camaraderie on the ride to New York and back.”

With these victories in hand, the Jumbos will traverse the Charles River tomorrow to take on No. 34 MIT, while hoping to match their overpowering 8-1 win last year.

Even without home-court advantage this time around, things are looking up for the Jumbos, as the Engineers have slipped two spots from last year’s final rankings.

A solid 5-2 record would bode well for the youthful Jumbos heading into the winter recess, and it appears very much within their grasp.

— by Sam Gold

one. Firempong answered with two from the line, followed by a jumper by Anderson that started an 8-0 run, putting Tufts up 34-25 with 16:07 to play. From there, Tufts never relinquished the lead.

Anderson led the effort on Saturday with a game-high 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, followed by Firempong — who again shot at 100 percent from the line, going 6-for-6 — with 10.

“We’re always focused on free throws,” Anderson said. “All of us stay late after practice every day to get up at least 10 before we leave.

We also always end up in a good situation at the end of games because our best free-throw

shooter is also our point guard, Kwame.”

Tonight, Tufts will return to Cousens Gym to take on the 2-4 Plymouth State Panthers — a team which overcame an 18-point first-half deficit to upset the Jumbos in 2010. This year, the Jumbos will look to close out the Panthers early and start off the final week before winter recess with an impressive 7-1.

“We need this win,” Anderson said. “A team like Plymouth State, with a not so good record, has seemed to be our kryptonite in the past so we know we have to come out aggressive early. Going into break after a 2-0 week would be great, but we need to focus on the first one before we can start thinking about MIT [on Saturday].”

Swimmers start the season strong SWIMMING

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by sophomores Jenny Hu and Greenwald for the 200- and 400-yard medley relays, earning fourth-place finishes in both. The foursome missed third place in the 200-yard medley relay by just seven-hundredths of a second.

“The chemistry on our relay team is awesome; we are all getting really comfortable with each other,” Coniglio said.

Sliwinski, Adams, Coniglio and junior Christine Garvey finished fifth in the 800yard freestyle relay with a time of 8:09.11.

The Jumbos also had success in the 400-yard freestyle relay, where Sliwinski, Adams and Coniglio were joined by freshman Scarlett Hao, and their touch at 3:41.73 was good enough for fourth.

Greenwald, who has had a tremendous year so far, was the Jumbos’ best overall performer at the meet. In addition to contributing to the relay teams’ success, Greenwald placed third in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 2:13.15 and finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 59.27. Her third-place finish in the 200-yard fly was the only top-three individual finish for the Jumbos in the meet.

Sophomore Sami Bloom had another strong performance in the diving events for Tufts, ranking fifth in both the one- and three-

meter dives, with scores of 208.85 and 208.75 respectively.

Bloom has consistently performed well this season. She swept the one- and three-meter dives in the first two meets of the season, and among a talented field of divers at the MIT Invitational, Bloom was still able to record top five finishes in both events.

The Jumbos’ third place finish at the MIT Invitational is a fitting end to a great first half of the season. In recent years, the team has struggled at the beginning of the season before reaching their full potential after the break, but they have broken from that tradition this winter. Tufts heads into the midseason hiatus at 3-1 and has already topped Conn. College for the first time since the 20052006 season.

“Generally we taper better than any team in the NESCAC,” Greenwald said. “But we went into this year with the goal to have a better in-season record as well, not only to have times that will be seeded better at NESCACs, but also to let every other team know that we’re serious competition.”

The Jumbos will now have a month off from competitive action before returning to the pool for the second half of their season on Jan. 14, in a tri-meet against Williams and host Wesleyan.

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The Tufts Daily

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Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Help Welcome the New Jumbos from the Class of 2016!

Apply to Be Part of Orientation 2012!

Coordinator Applications Now Available (3 full-time summer positions) Orientation Leader Applications Available Monday February 13, 2012

For Information and applications go to WWW.ASE.TUFTS.EDU/ORIENTATION