2011-3-16

THE TUFTS DAILY

Rain 50/37

Vice Provost Newell pegged as interim replacement for Bharucha As the university continues its search to replace Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha, faculty members learned yesterday that Vice Provost Peggy Newell will hold his position in the interim beginning July 1.

Newell does not wish to be considered for the permanent position, University President Lawrence Bacow and incoming University President Anthony Monaco said in an internal e-mail to faculty and staff members informing them of the change.

Bharucha last month announced that he would step down at the end of the academic year to become president of The Cooper Union in New York City. He is one of a number of top administrators who plan to leave Tufts this year. Associate Provost Vincent Manno last month announced that he would leave Medford in July to become the provost and dean of the faculty of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.

Bacow and Monaco in the e-mail also announced the formation of a search committee to find a permanent replacement for Bharucha. Headed

by Vali Nasr, a professor of international politics at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the committee con-

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

VOLUME LXI, NUMBER 33

sists of administrators and faculty members from across the university and will collaborate with the executive search firm Isaacson Miller.

“The search committee will be asked to move ahead expeditiously, and it might be possible to have a new provost in place at the beginning of the spring 2012 term,” Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler said in an e-mail to the Daily.

Bacow and Monaco expressed confidence in Newell’s past leadership and her familiarity with research at Tufts.

“She is well-known, admired and respected on all three campuses as someone who deeply understands and respects the work of our students and faculty,” their e-mail said. “We are confident that she will keep the office running smoothly until we have a permanent successor to Jamshed in place.”

In the short term, Professor of Mathematics Misha Kilmer will serve as a special adviser to Newell and Monaco on academic appointments and will lessen the burden on the office as the two adapt to their positions. Kilmer will give advice on issues like tenure and promotion decisions, Bacow and Monaco’s e-mail said.

—by Ben Gittleson and Ellen Kan

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

MIT president emeritus Vest to deliver commencement address by

Martha Shanahan

Daily Editorial Board

Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and president emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will in May deliver the 2011 commencement address to this year’s graduating senior class.

Vest served as president of MIT from 1990 to 2004 before taking the top position at the NAE in 2007.

“Chuck Vest is perhaps the most powerful voice speaking in the United States today on behalf of continued investment in science and engineering,” University President Lawrence Bacow said in an e-mail to the Daily. Bacow served for three years as MIT’s chancellor while Vest was president there.

Bacow recounted Vest’s accomplishments at MIT and his skill as a public speaker.

“During his tenure as president of MIT, he was widely regarded as the nation’s best college president. He is a true moral leader — courageous, down to earth and inspiring.

“He also has a fabulous wit,” Bacow added. “I think he will give a memorable speech.”

Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler said Vest’s extensive experience in higher education administration makes his selection pertinent to students.

“His selection as this year’s speak-

Courtesy Tufts Public Relations

MIT President Emeritus Charles Vest will deliver the 2011 commencement address on May 22.

According to a press release from Thurler, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on May 21 will address graduates of The Fletcher School

er is based on his extraordinary overall record of leadership and innovation, not specifically because of his engineering credentials,” Thurler said. “I think that he will give people something to think about.”

see COMMENCEMENT, page 2

TuftsTools can now be used for online password change by

Pattra Audcharevorakul Contributing Writer

internships, according to senior Michael Niconchuk, the program’s co-coordinator.

Niconchuk said a total of 20 students applied to the program.

This year’s Oslo scholars will have the opportunity to intern with Izzeldin Abuelaish, a doctor from Gaza; Justine

In a further attempt to make Tufts’ system of passwords more user-friendly, University Information Technology (UIT) has implemented TuftsTools, a web application that allows members of the Tufts community to change and update their Active Directory (AD) password and e-mail account information online.

Students use their AD passwords to access campus computers and their accounts on the Microsoft Exchange e-mail platform that will by June replace Trumpeter Webmail across Tufts’ campuses.

TuftsTools goes hand-in-hand with UIT’s Simplified Sign-On (SSO), the project which has been replacing all of the passwords students are currently required to remember with the AD password. The SSO project will improve the security of Tufts’ various online applications, Director of Communications and Organizational Effectiveness for UIT Dawn Irish said.

Students and faculty can now use TuftsTools to change their passwords online whenever needed, according to Irish. Before UIT developed the service, the passwords had to be changed in person when they expired with a

see OSLO, page 2

see PASSWORD, page 2

courtesy MIchael niconchuk

Romanian President Emil Constantinescu, modern slavery expert Ben Skinner, and Chechen human-rights activist Lidia Yusupova at last year’s forum.

IGL will sponsor trip to Oslo Freedom Forum by

Minyoung Song

Daily Editorial Board

Four students this May will have the opportunity to travel to Norway to participate in the international Oslo Freedom Forum as part of a new initiative launched this semester by the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) and the Human Rights Foundation.

The Oslo Scholars Program this week will select four students to attend the third annual human rights forum, in which dozens of activists lend their perspectives to a certain aspect of the politics and study of human rights, Vice President of Strategy at the Oslo Freedom Forum Alex Gladstein (LA ’08) said.

The program will also match the selected students with human rights activists for

Inside this issue

Today’s Sections

Agriculture is gaining popularity as a career path for recent college graduates.

South-Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong explores the power of poetry in her aptly named movie, ‘Poetry.’

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts | Living Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8

Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds

9 10 11 15

The Tufts Daily

2

Police Briefs Return to sender Students living in houses on Powderhouse Boulevard at approximately midnight on March 12 reported to Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) that an individual wearing a light-blue shirt and blue jeans was trespassing on their porches. Two officers responded and found an 18-year-old drunk male matching the descriptions slumped over a porch railing on a house on Powderhouse.

The suspect told officers he was visiting a student from Tufts and got lost. He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital.

A prickly situation TUPD officers on Professors

Row at 12:55 a.m on March 12 responded to a student’s report that his friend had just been hit in the face by another male who was then walking away.

The officers caught up to the alleged assailant, a 20-year-old male, who denied involvement.

When the victim insisted that the the suspect was his attacker, the suspect produced a fake Arizona driver’s license and claimed he was visiting Tufts from Arizona.

He eventually admitted the ID was fake. The officers arrested the suspect for assault and battery and disorderly conduct.

I get by with a little help…

A TUPD officer at 2:55 a.m on March 13 responded to a

News

See tuftsdaily.com for an interactive map. call regarding a drunk male student lying on the sidewalk in front of Olin Hall. His friends had attempted to help him home until he fell over. He was not otherwise injured but was still transported to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Duh. A student at 10 p.m. on March 13 reported to TUPD that his bike had been stolen between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the same day from a house on Curtis Street. The student had locked the bike’s wheel to its frame, but had not secured the bike to anything else.

—compiled by Brent Yarnell based on reports from Tufts University Police Department

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Former MIT president, Kerry to speak at graduation ceremonies COMMENCEMENT continued from page 1

of Law and Diplomacy during the school’s annual Class Day ceremony on the Saturday prior to Commencement. Kerry is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Thurler said that the commencement speaker, selected each year by the university president in collaboration with the Board of Trustees, is based on a number of qualifications.

“We look for people who are going to have something noteworthy to say, people who have modeled achievements that they can use to inspire the graduates and people from a variety of different fields,” she said.

Vest chaired the former President

Bill Clinton’s NASA Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station in the early 1990s.

Former President George W. Bush in 2004 also named him to the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and in 2006 awarded him the National Medal of Technology.

Vest will receive an honorary doctorate of science at the ceremony on May 22. Six other honorary doctorate degree recipients, including director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden, eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (E ’88) and Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow, will join him in receiving honorary doctorates.

Password changes can be done online PASSWORD

continued from page 1

UIT worker authorized to complete the process.

Lee Raymond, manager of the e-mail transition and head of the SSO project, said this in-person system was inefficient for busy students whose schedules may not align with UIT’s office hours.

“Right now, if you want to have your password reset, you need to have an IT colleague assist you, whether it’s going to Eaton Hall or working directly with other support staff,” Raymond said. “We saw many people resetting their passwords at 10 o’clock at night or 11 o’clock at night, and we know that students are up working at different times than we are working.”

UIT made both the TuftsTools and SSO initiatives available to students and staff at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy early last month, according to Raymond.

TuftsTools offers other features beyond password resets, Irish said, including e-mail forwarding and reminders of

students’ Tufts usernames.

“It’s a self-service portal for all things password,” she said.

Tufts OnLine Supervisor Judi Vellucci commended the service for making the password system more accessible to the student body and comprehensive in its offerings.

“Most importantly, it’s user-friendly,” Vellucci said. “It takes so much time for reviews and approvals, and sometimes it seems slow, but it’s thorough.”

Password consolidation through the SSO initiative has already begun and will occur in phases throughout the rest of the semester. All members of the community, including all graduate students and staff, are expected to switch to the new password system by the end of June, according to Raymond.

“We’re constantly bringing in new technology. Our overall goal — not just UIT, but for the entire university — is to make life for students and faculty members both easier and better,” Irish said. “It’s a very simple tool that does great things.”

Danai Macridi/Tufts Daily

Students no longer have to visit the Eaton computer lab to update their Tufts passwords thanks to a UIT program that allows them to do it online.

IGL program will select students to work in May with human rights experts in Oslo OSLO

continued from page 1

Hardy, a journalist who has written about Kashmir; Vincent Manoharan, an activist for Dalit rights in India; and Busi Kheswa, a LGBT rights’ activist in South Africa, according to Oslo Scholars Program co-coordinator Alisha Sett, a junior.

Niconchuk said the program will allow participating students to network and provide them with a base for a practical education in the study of human rights.

“The [objective of the] Oslo Scholars Program is to directly engage with and work for the advancement of both international and local-level human rights campaigns around the world,” Niconchuk said.

Senior Molly Dow, who applied to the program and is waiting for notification of her acceptance, said she was impressed with the program’s caliber.

“I think it’s a really high-rate opportunity for students and it’s surprising how high-level it is,” Dow said. “I’m happy that IGL is taking on this kind of project.”

The forum typically attracts policymakers, business leaders, public intellectuals, journalists, social entrepreneurs and legislators who are passionate about human rights issues, according to Gladstein.

He said the interdisciplinary nature of the event sets it apart.

“From my perspective, the reason why I think it’s unique is that it [the Oslo Freedom Forum] really brings together completely diverse community of people to talk about human rights,” Gladstein said.

Gladstein said he first envisioned the Oslo Scholars program two years ago during a conversation with IGL Director Sherman Teichman.

Sett, who attended last year’s forum with Niconchuk, said Oslo was an appropriate location for the event.

“Being in a city where you have so many

courtesy michael niconchuk

The IGL will sponsor the Oslo Scholars Program this May. Oslo City Hall, seen above, was the location of a reception for last year’s forum. human rights symbols all around you is … great,” she said.

This year’s Oslo Freedom Forum, scheduled for May 9-11, will feature about 40 speakers who will give individual presentations and lead panels, Gladstein said.

Niconchuk said that the forum will be publicized across Europe.

According to Niconchuk, the program gives students opportunities they wouldn’t

otherwise find at Tufts to directly interact with human rights leaders and conduct an intensive study of the discipline.

“The IGL doesn’t have a program yet that is exclusively dedicated to human rights,” he said.

The Human Rights Foundation helped the IGL to fund the students’ trip and stay in Norway.

“We’re trying to cover most of the fund-

ing for both the forum and the internship,” Niconchuk said. “[The] Human Rights Foundation is providing a very large subsidy.”

Niconchuk said the program will bring a personal feel to the forum for its student participants.

“No students other than Tufts [students] will be participating,” he said. “You’re not competing for endless attention, and it’s a very intimate thing.”

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Alanna Tuller | Archive Addict

Eightyeight! Rah rah rah!

I

Courtesy Lisa Yarnell

Farming is no longer confined to rural areas like Montana, pictured above, but is now spreading to urban areas.

Farming re-emerges as viable career path Agriculture a growing vocation among young work force

by Vicky

Rathsmill

Contributing Writer

Many 20-somethings are leaving their books behind upon graduation and preparing to get their hands dirty — literally.

The number of young farmers in the United States is growing, despite data from the 2007 Census of Agriculture indicating that the average age of American farmers is around 60, according to a March 5 article in The New York Times.

Jeffrey Hake, M.S. candidate in agriculture, food and environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and aspiring farmer, said that a substantial divide exists between the two generations of farmers. Many older

farmers, especially those who work with commodity-type crops like corn and soy in the Midwest, according to Hake, feel stuck in the same agricultural process.

“For farmers who are starting out now, there is a lot more hope, as well as a sense of innovation,” Hake said. “They are much more excited about the opportunity to become farmers.”

Molly McCullagh, who is pursuing an M.A. in urban planning and an M.S. in agriculture, food and the environment at the Friedman School, said that in general, the young crop of farmers is exhibiting ingenuity and entrepreneurship as they enter the field. “[They are] not just taking over their parents farms — they’re starting their

own,” she said.

Both Hake and McCullagh indicated that new farmers embarking on such a traditional path see a tangible opportunity to make a difference.

“People recognize all of the issues in the environment, like global climate change, and feel powerless to do anything because a lot of it has to do with societal behavior and federal policy,” McCullagh said. “[But] farming represents one way that they can have an impact on the environment.”

Hake noted that many farmers once saw their work as a practical manifestation of passion for environmental issues.

“Back in the late ’60s, during the hippie see FARMING, page 4

Websites designed for the college crowd give new definition to the term ‘user friendly’ by

Falcon Reese

Daily Editorial Board

For time-strapped undergraduates, efficient and useful resources are never unwelcome. Although universities strive to provide such services, the Internet is often a more looked-to source for assets aimed specifically at college students.

One such source is NoteWagon.com, a website that allows users to upload their class notes. The site then pays that user when another student in the same class downloads those notes. Founded in May 2010 by Saif Altimimi, Gabriel Chan and Ali-Reza Asaradizeh, three students from Waterloo, Ontario, the company was launched in October and was made available to Tufts students this month.

Altimimi told the Daily that the site grew out of his frustration with classes that didn’t cater to his personal learning style.

“Basically [it was] a pet peeve of mine — I’d take a lot of courses which are very note-intensive,” he said.

The goal then evolved to provide a resource for students who had difficulty extracting anything useful from a barrage of lecture material, accord-

ing to Altimi. This aim translated into a website catering to a restricted — yet ever-expanding — community of universities in which student users tag their uploaded notes as class-specific and receive tokens for their uploads.

Tokens not only give users the ability to buy others’ notes but can also be traded in for actual money.

NoteWagon has now expanded out of Canada and into the Boston area.

“It just blew up at our own school,” Altimimi said. “We just launched four months ago, and we’re already at 15,000 users.”

Despite the relatively simple service that it provides, Altimimi sees the website as much more than a forum for note exchange.

“Our vision is not just sharing notes; we’re technically a social-learning platform,” he said, adding that in the future the site will incorporate videos to facilitate online teaching and tutoring services.

“We’re releasing new features pretty much every week,” Altimimi said.

Another of Altimimi’s goals is to open the site up to not only more and more universities but college-hopefuls as well. “[We] want to open up to high school

students,” he said, explaining that the clientele should have the ability to go online and preview class notes to get a sense of what they’ll actually be learning in college. This, Altimimi envisions, will aid the process of choosing a course of study.

Despite all of NoteWagon’s future goals, its endgame remains simply to encourage learning in all forms, according to Altimimi.

“Each student has a different learning style and our vision is to facilitate those styles of learning to enhance the university experience,” he said.

Another website providing a unique service is DateMySchool.com, which will make its way to Tufts next month.

Founded by Columbia Business School students Balazs Alexa and Jean Meyer, DateMySchool is an online dating service originally meant to foster interdepartmental relationships.

In an interview with the Daily, Alexa related a story about a date he went on with a fellow Columbia student.

Over the course of the date, Alexa’s companion complained that her peers from the university’s School of Social Work were mostly female, leading Alexa see WEBSITES, page 4

can’t wait for spring break to arrive, but I’m not exactly looking forward to what will greet me upon my return: April Open House. Though I freely admit to feeling quite nostalgic as hoards of pre-frosh swarm the Hill, it’s difficult not to feel a little cynical as I wait for massive tour groups to stop blocking the entrance to my dorm. Of course, this overcrowding wouldn’t have been an issue had I attended Tufts when the entire student body was smaller than my “Principles of Economics” lecture last semester.

In light of the pending admissions decisions for the Class of 2015, I began to wonder how I would have fared as an applicant in the late 1800s, despite the fact that my gender would have barred me from admission. Although Tufts did not ask lengthy essay questions or request YouTube supplements, the requirements back then were still fairly strict.

Rather than submitting an application, prospective students came to campus and completed an entrance examination the June before their first year. The exam covered a wide range of subjects — if “wide” can be taken to mean classical history, languages and literature.

Students taking this exam in 1888 were tested on Caesar, Cicero, Virgil and Ovid in Latin, as well as Homer’s writings in their original Greek.

Students also solved problems in arithmetic, algebra and plane geometry; demonstrated their knowledge of ancient Greek and Roman history and geography; and translated a passage of “The Iliad” into English. And no need to worry about running out of time: This exam lasted for two days.

But let’s say you came out of the womb reading Virgil and could practically translate ancient Greek in your sleep. What could you expect once you arrived for the 1888-89 academic year? To say the least, Tufts was a pretty happening place to be.

In the spirit of a true Tufts education, the class of 1888 represented a geographically diverse mix of three states. Of the 21 students in this class, 14 came from Massachusetts, six came from Vermont and one brave soul ventured all the way from Maine. And although I’m still uncertain as to what this term actually means, the class of 1888 lists ten additional “Special Students” in its yearbook, including a young man from São Paulo, Brazil. Therefore, a whopping 3 percent of the undergraduate population was comprised of international students (or international student, I suppose).

But enough about demographics; how was the social scene? For starters, we didn’t have fraternities, but instead “Greek Letter Societies.” Jumbos had the option of pledging Theta Delta Chi, Zeta Psi or Delta Upsilon, all of which are still represented on campus today. Even if you chose not to participate in Greek life, you wouldn’t have been a social outcast. In fact, the entire university convened every day for the required morning prayers in Goddard. (The effectiveness of this requirement is debatable, however. A faculty letter in the 1889 yearbook stated: “You worried us considerably last [semester] because you cut chapel so much; it doesn’t look well.”)

Much like the Tufts of today, the class of 1888 represented a wealth of musical talents.

Jumbos of yesteryear could sing in the Glee Club, strum along in the Banjo Club or play in the College Orchestra. I’m not sure, though, that a cornet, three violins, two flutes, two clarinets and a piano, which comprised the entirety of this last ensemble, actually qualify it as an “orchestra.”

And as if this rousing social scene wasn’t enough of a draw, the strong sense of school spirit surely would have convinced you to attend Tufts. Although we recently lost a beloved Tufts tradition (R.I.P. NQR), I believe we can all learn a lesson in school spirit from the class of 1888 by examining their mindblowingly creative official class cheer: “Eighty! eighty! eighty-eight! rah! rah! rah! rah! eighty-eight!”

Alanna Tuller is a sophomore majoring in English and Spanish. She can be reached at Alanna.Tuller@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

4

Features

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Farming among post-grad options for some Jumbos FARMING

continued from page 3

movement, a lot of people got into communes, and there was a more ideological rhetoric and hard-line philosophy in these communities,” he said.

According to Hake, many now see farming as a viable career option rather than an alternative lifestyle or a way to get back at the “man.” Hake — unlike many of his peers, he said — sees agriculture as a fulfilling way of life.

“A lot of people are missing [fulfillment],” Hake said. “That’s why [farming] is attractive to me.”

For Hake, the entire profession and the feelings that surround it are changing.

“Instead of being a cog in the machine, which for many older farmers is demeaning and condescending, we have the chance to be creative,” he said. “You can be known for your tomatoes and lettuce, but you can also decide to plant some raspberries and start making jam. There is so much more available, and that’s very attractive for people our age.”

Younger farmers are embracing more specialized markets than their predecessors, according to McCullagh.

“A lot of new farmers are doing a more diversified production,” she said. “There are also more specialty niches that support a healthy diet.”

The growing interest in sustainable agriculture is also visible at Tufts. Hake last fall co-taught a class at the Experimental College called “Emerging Alternatives in Modern Agriculture.” Registration for the class filled up in the first hour of registration, Hake said, and the waitlist was crammed soon after.

Interest is also evident on campus with students groups like the

Tufts Sustainability Collaborative, which is committed to maintaining a student garden, called the Tom Thumb Garden.

Another factor in the surge in farming among college grads is the growth of agriculture in cities across the United States, rather than strictly in rural areas. Urban farms have existed since at least the 1800s and have resurfaced in recent years, according to McCullagh.

“In one sense, it is part of the new farmer movement, but it is also a tool for revitalization for cities that have a lot of surplus land, especially post-industrial cities [in] the Rust Belt such as Detroit,” McCullagh said.

She added that community gardening plays a vital role in urban revitalization.

“In response to the obesity epidemic, health inequities and urban populations who can’t afford healthy food, community gardening serves as a way to get food to populations and engage them in growing food themselves.”

Although Hake recognizes that space for farming is limited in cities like Boston and New York, he embraces the challenge.

“Part of the reason people are excited about urban agriculture and becoming farmers is these creative challenges that are new and novel,” he said.

Skeptics who may consider this merely a passing trend among youth are barking up the wrong tree, according to Hake.

“This ... has a lot of traction, so [naysaying] is unfair to people who are taking [farming] incredibly seriously,” he said. “Anyone getting into farming knows it’s going to be really hard. Most people are very aware of how difficult it’s going to be, and they’re excited about that.”

notewagon.com

NoteWagon.com, founded by three Canadian students, offers students the ability to buy and sell class notes.

New academic and dating sites appeal to college students for their specialized features WEBSITES

continued from page 3

to realize that most of the business students were male.

A lack of communication and interaction between the schools inspired the idea for the website.

“There’s not much communication going on between different departments and universities even though they are very close to each other,” Alexa said.

The site is currently only available at a limited number of schools, including Columbia, New York University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and a few small colleges in California.

Next month, DateMySchool will become available for students at Tufts, as well as those at local schools like Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The website’s primary goal, Alexa said, is the privacy of its users; as a result, DateMySchool offers a customizable user interface.

“All the controls are in the hands of users,” he said. “It’s a very transparent, very clear experience.”

Alexa also emphasized that the exclusivity and adjustable settings offer an appeal beyond simple privacy, saying that many students either feel too embarrassed to use online dating websites or think that the services did not provide enough safety.

“We found that less than 20 percent [of students] have tried an online dating website,” he said. “People feel that it’s embarrassing, [which] half of them say [is] because they are seen by friends and family.”

As such, the site’s privacy settings allow for fine-tuned

Author Kavita Ramdya discusses the dating and marriage process as viewed and interpreted by first and second generation Hindu Americans. She explores the influence of Bollywood – the Hindi-language film industry – and the impact of inter-racial and inter-religious marriages on these generations.

Her talk will be followed by a dinner and discussion.

Kavita Ramdya received her B.A from New York University and her M.A. and Ph.D from Boston University. She is a regular Arts Op-Ed columnist for “News India Times” and writes about culture and current events for “India Abroad” and “The Indian American”. She also co-chairs the Women for Women International London Junior Leadership Circle, a charity which provides financial and emotional assistance to women survivors of war. She is currently working at an American bank in London.

control over who exactly can view a user’s profile, providing users with the sense that they know exactly who they will be meeting, according to Alexa.

“It’s anonymous, it’s exclusive and it’s extremely safe,” he said. “[Users] go on the site, and within two hours they [have] a date … and you can be sure that you can trust them.”

As a site that operates without making a profit, the founders keep DateMySchool ad-free and therefore have no incentive to sacrifice the user privacy that they pride themselves on in order to generate revenue, Alexa said.

“Whenever we face a tradeoff, we always choose to maintain the value that we promised,” Alexa said. “We care about users getting the safest and most secure service and that’s how it’s going to be forever.”

Arts & Living

5

tuftsdaily.com

Movie Review

Lee Chang-dong’s ‘Poetry’ is, well, poetic

Thoughtful characters, subtle storytelling make for a poignant film

by John-Michael Sequeira

Daily Staff Writer

Relinquishing control to the audience must be a nightmare scenario for any writer-director but is a necessary sacri-

Poetry Starring Jeong-hie Yun Nae-sang Ahn and Da-wit Lee Directed by Lee Chang-dong fice for any film seeking to pull off subtle, understated storytelling. With “Poetry,” South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong wisely strikes such a bargain, offering an antidote to the brashness and ham-fisted symbolism of would-be “art film” fare, while deftly proving the merits of narrative restraint.

The 56-year-old filmmaker, now presenting his fifth feature, has every reason to show such quiet confidence — with a win at Cannes last year for this film’s screenplay, he’s clearly on to something.

The story here, perhaps surprising on account of its award-winning nature, resembles a character study more than it does a hidebound plot. Moving deliberately, but not slowly, as it crosses the twohour mark, the picture glides through the life of aging grandmother Yang Mija (a captivating Jeong-hie Yun) as she wrestles with the combined struggles of earlyonset Alzheimer’s disease and a delinquent grandson who scarcely acknowledges her existence.

And while Mija’s trials embody the film’s content, they hardly reflect its emotional core. This isn’t a film about Alzheimer’s — see Sarah Polley’s “Away from Her”(2006)

filmx.net

This South Korean film explores the power of poetry. for that — nor is it one about ungrateful adolescents. Instead, the story is but Lee’s means to an observational end, a tender exploration of human nature both closest to death and furthest from it, in the form of a cross-generational portrait of Mija

Album Review

Noah and the Whale explore new, more upbeat style by

Kate Griffiths

Contributing Writer

Noah and the Whale fans will be surprised by the more upbeat sound of the eagerly anticipated third album from the folksy quar-

Last Night on Earth Noah and the Whale Mercury Records tet. “Last Night on Earth” is a positively happy sounding album, and those with educated ears will know it marks a change from the band’s previous sound.

The album opens on a strong note with “Life is Life,” a catchy pop tune that hooks the listener with a desire to experience the rest of the album. The chorus is an amalgamation of cheerful voices singing “your life is your life,” with Charlie Fink’s strong tones proclaiming over the top, “and it feels like his new life can start/ and it feels like heaven.”

This is definitely a different approach from the melancholy themes of the group’s previous album, “The First Days of Spring” (2009).

The most notable change between Noah and the Whale’s first two albums is the lack of a female backing singer on the second album, due to Laura Marling’s departure from the band. This meant that its sophomore album see NOAH AND THE WHALE, page 6

myspace.com/noahandthewhale

Noah and the Whale is back and exploring a new musical frontier.

and her grandson Jongwook (Da-wit Lee).

The structural framework traces the languorous progression of Mija’s ailment as it is paralleled by a disturbing social see POETRY, page 6

TV Review

In TV show, ABC helps millionaires spread the wealth by

Alex Kaufman

Daily Staff Writer

Watching “Secret Millionaire” will reveal the answer to a question many of us ask on a day-to-day basis: Are there truly good people out there?

Secret Millionaire Airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC “Secret Millionaire,” a reality TV show now on ABC after spending a single season on Fox three years ago, depicts a predictable yet praiseworthy plot: Millionaires leave their families behind for a week and are thrust into a poor town or city to volunteer, with only a small stipend on which to live.

As the title implies, their wealth is kept a secret until, after interacting with the local organizations, schools or other such worthy causes, they reach into their deep pockets and donate to the places and people they deem most deserving.

The season premiere follows Dani Johnson, a successful, self-made entrepreneur as she volunteers in some of the poorest areas of Knoxville, Tenn.

In addition to the fact that she is a secret millionaire, this episode has a second twist. We learn throughout the episode that Dani is no stranger to poverty. She and her sister grew up on food stamps and welfare, and she see MILLIONAIRE, page 6

Emily Balk | Whisk-y Business

Pass that herb

Y

ou know those men’s soap commercials where there’s a buff guy lathering up in a shower and suddenly, cue snaking vines, the bathroom morphs into a verdant forest in spring? To me, this series of images encapsulates the two facets of the world’s feelings toward cilantro. Either you think it tastes like soap, or you think it is the essence of freshness in a plant, making it the world’s most polarizing (legal) herb.

The extent to which some people hate is so great that it inspires anti-cilantro blogs and even real scientific inquiry into the possible genetic and evolutionary basis of cilantro loathing. The vocal minority makes such a hullaballoo about their dislike of the little green leaf that I can’t help but think that maybe they should stop eating it and move on to different seasonings.

Taste preference is a fascinating phenomenon. Having had the same friends for a long time, I can definitively recite their least-favorite vegetables or most-beloved candy. There’s the one who doesn’t like bacon unless it’s crispy-sweet with brown sugar. Another cringes at the slightest whiff of broccoli. There’s the guy who won’t eat food that came from nature and the one who drowns nearly everything in Sriracha sauce (he might actually be a dragon).

As for myself, I don’t think I’ll ever understand Boston’s single-minded devotion to Dunkin’ Donuts when clearly the title of superior doughnut belongs to Krispy Kreme. I pity those who have not experienced the benediction of a hot Krispy Kreme doughnut, freshly emerged from a waterfall of glaze like a tiny inner tube from heaven.

The talk of taste preference starts to sound snooty, albeit hilarious, when it turns to wine. No unoaked Chardonnay for you? Riesling too sweet for your Cabtrained taste buds? Like everyone else, there are flavors I hate and those that I love, but I have little patience for judgment when it comes to what people enjoy or don’t enjoy eating. People can get really crazy over food opinions, but those opinions have nothing to do with superiority and very much to do with nothing.

That’s why I’m not going to let the cantankerous few make me feel bad about loving cilantro. Yes, I love cilantro like Asher Roth loves college and no, I don’t think it tastes like soap. Not one bit. It’s the verdant forest for me when I dunk fistfuls of the stuff into a scorching hot bowl of pho. The balance of those lovely translucent spring rolls wouldn’t be right to me without the bright herbal note of the cilantro, which you can always find peeking coyly from behind the rice noodles.

One of the simplest applications for cilantro is in guacamole, which in itself is a great example of a food easily adjusted to suit personal preferences. The following recipe is written according to my taste, but you cannot make guacamole without tasting it along the way. If you think it needs more of an ingredient or a smoother texture, go for it, and don’t let anyone tell you that it’s wrong. Just don’t leave out the cilantro. That would be nuts.

2 ripe Haas avocados, flesh spooned out and diced into large chunks.

1 tsp mashed garlic 1/2 cup finely minced onion (for a less sharp onion flavor, rinse with running water and drain) 1 tbs. fresh lime juice 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 cup chopped cilantro Mix the ingredients together, mashing the avocado until the desired consistency is reached. I like it chunky. You can serve this mix with tortilla chips.

Emily Balk is a senior majoring in biopsychology and community health. She can be reached at Emily.Balk@tufts.edu.

6

The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Lee’s ‘Poetry’ an interesting mood piece, grounded in emotion POETRY

continued from page 5

Courtesy ABC

Twins Ellen Turner and Helen Ashe run The Love Kitchen, one of the organizations featured on the premiere of ‘Secret Millionaire.’

‘Secret Millionaire’ is uplifting TV fare MILLIONAIRE

continued from page 5

herself was homeless for a period.

She first visits The Love Kitchen, founded by two passionate, elderly twins named Helen and Ellen — a place, Dani says, similar to one she used to go to growing up. The two women and their organization serve over 2,000 people each week, providing hot meals for all who enter and creating a space for friends and families to gather — it is, in effect, a community center.

The next place Dani volunteers is Joy of Music, a school where students of all ages are provided with instruments, lessons and a space to grow. Frank Graffeo, the director of the center, tells Dani that many parents of the children at the center face unemployment, are on welfare and are generally unable to even rent instruments for their children.

Graffeo introduces Dani, and the audience, to several musical prodigies: obviously the school’s brightest stars, who have attended the school for many years and are recipients of scholarships.

Dani volunteers last for Special Spaces, an organization dedicated to providing children who are suffering from severe illnesses with their dream bedrooms.

Dani meets Jennifer Swain, the founder of Special Spaces, as she and other volunteers prepare the truck to make over the room of Daisy Silva, a five-year-old girl afflicted with leukemia. The Silva family leaves as the volunteers do their work, and when they return, the smiles on their faces

just show how much good was done.

At every one of these sites, Dani volunteered with and encountered people who benefited from the center’s work. The struggles of the volunteers easily overshadow many of the troubles an average college student would face, and surely one who is as well off as Dani.

Dani was touched differently, but touched nonetheless, by every site and person she met. She expressed her belief in each site’s worth and value as she found it.

The secret millionaire ended the episode by donating a total of $100,000 to the three organizations she volunteered at and to the Silva family for Daisy’s treatments.

Each check she gave out was met with hugs, gratitude and tears.

“Secret Millionaire,” though predictable, gives each of us hope, and some of us a good cry. To see a millionaire — from a class of people that many of us initially judge as only self-absorbed and fixated on rising up the social ladder — take from her pocket and donate truly from her heart is heartwarming and inspiring.

This show also shows a more positive trend in reality TV. Instead of always showing the harsh, vulgar and inappropriate side of people that entertains (such as what you might see on “Jersey Shore”), shows like “Secret Millionaire” and CBS’ “Undercover Boss” have conveyed to the American viewer that execs and businesspeople can lend a helping hand to others and that they do care about their less welloff counterparts.

scandal, in which her grandson and a band of his cohorts are accused of driving a female classmate to suicide. On the fringe of these darkly spiraling narrative pools is Mija’s enrollment in a poetry course and resultant attempts at artistic reflection, seeking to capture a semblance of meaning and understanding in her late life before language slips away from her entirely.

Each shot of Jongwook’s blank gaze at the television seems to be mirrored by one of Mija earnestly studying the sunlight or the taste of fruit or finding just the right word to express a color. While he actively collects external stimuli — blaring music, constant companionship and a depthless appetite — she discovers life’s smallest joys amid the chaos of the surrounding world.

Perhaps in other hands, the undercurrent of social commentary would be brought to the surface, gaudily unveiled.

But Lee is able to create dialogue on matters so complex as human nature and life before death precisely because he doesn’t seek to provide any answers; he contents himself with simply asking the best questions. Using the tools of observation and reflection as Mija searches for meaning and definition, the phrase “to really see things” becomes an identifiable personal challenge and one that succeeds as a narrative by shying

away from traditional resolution and over-characterization.

By twisting away from expectations, Lee manages to provoke thought on traditionally held values and, in the process, creates a wholly unexpected thematic landscape.

Rather than hammer away at the sorrow of memory loss and impending senility, Lee colors them almost seductively, using the grimness of reality to show the bliss of forgetfulness and living in the moment.

As her illness progresses, Mija seems more and more to float through her surroundings with a demure sense of detachment, encased in her own private world, even as her circumstances would seem to render this an impossibility.

Shrouded in half-light, Mija becomes an altogether difficult entity to pin down, just impenetrable enough to provoke curiosity but so authentic that even her most surprising actions never ring false. It’s a quality that carries through to her actions in the film’s final moments, which end “Poetry” on a note of partial finality that only leads to further questioning.

Much like poetry as an art form, the matter of resolution becomes one of personal interpretation. The writer essentially cedes trust over to the viewer, a gift in the world of art. And while in this film especially it’s often a challenge to know just what it is you’ve been handed — and just what it means — it would be a grave injustice not to thank its maker for his thoughtfulness.

filmx.net

The effect of art on a person’s life is examined in the new film, ‘Poetry.’

Noah and the Whale maintains original identity but takes on new style NOAH AND THE WHALE continued from page 5

consisted purely of male voices, lending the band a different sound without the purpose of doing so.

Yet the band seems to have found a female backup singer to contribute to the chorus for the second song, “Tonight’s the Kind of Night,” another strong, optimistic tune. With lyrics like “His heart is full of perfect joy/ He whispers his goodbye/ ’Cause tonight’s the kind of night/ Where everything could change,” it is evident that while Fink’s previous state of heartbreak lent him the inspiration for the perfect self-indulgent ballads, the band’s new state of buoyancy does not detract from its ability to compose finelytuned indie folk songs.

The first single off the album, “L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.,” is a catchy, somewhat bluesy song with a chorus able to be sung along to by anybody who can spell. The continuous strain of solid tracks bordering on the pop side of the genre ends with “Wild Thing,” a slower tune, relying mainly on Fink’s voice and the resonating guitar chords.

“Give It All Back” seems at first to be a return to Noah and the Whale’s roots, when the ukulele was an instrument unheard of on the indie music scene and Mumford & Sons were but a budding idea in the head of a schoolboy, yet 10 seconds in the band manages to effectively balance between new and old. Noah and the Whale has moved on to a more guitar-based phase in its sound while retaining remnants of its former sound in each of its songs with the use of a cheerful violin in “Just Me Before We Met.” The short interlude “Paradise Stars” is confusing and more out of place than anything else. A one-and-a-half minute piano-fueled

myspace.com/noahandthewhale

Noah and the Whale’s Charlie Fink uses his life as inspiration for his songs. instrumental piece in minor key seems to conflict with the optimistic timbre of the rest of the album — maybe it is a reminder of what the band is capable of, maybe a prelude to the hopeful lyrics and tone of the ensuing song, “Waiting for a Chance to Come.”

Mostly, it is forgettable after the joyful chords and confident drumbeats of the next song

start.

The last two songs on the album, “The Line” and “Old Joy,” are a reminder of Noah and the Whale’s proficiency at composing folksy ballads that, while bordering on melancholy, still manage to be heartfelt and not contrived. “Old Joy” especially is an elegiac tune with surprisingly positive lyrics, “Day by

day/ Old joy/ Comes back to me.”

Avid fans of Noah and the Whale may be sad at the departure from its previous trademarked folk sound, but “Last Night on Earth” is a solid, genuine album — though it certainly is telling that an album focusing on hope is 10 minutes shorter than one about the pain of heartbreak.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

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Editorial | Letters

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Libyan no-fly zone is a slippery slope

The Group of Eight (G-8) nations were not able to agree yesterday, after negotiations in Paris, on the issue of a no-fly zone over Libya. Intended to shield civilians and opposition forces from Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the measure was strongly supported by France and the United Kingdom, while Germany and Russia led the opposition. The United States has, thus far, been hesitant to support intervention. The Daily believes that the Obama administration should not support a no-fly zone.

President Barack Obama has stated his desire to see Qaddafi leave office and allow for a transfer of power. Though he has been cagey in his response, he has reportedly been considering, in addition to the no-fly zone, aerial surveillance, humanitarian assistance and tougher enforcement of an arms embargo that was passed by the U.N. Security Council two weeks ago.

The United States was wise not to jump to intervention at the first sign of violence against the population. Now, it seems as though these other options make more sense.

Though France has been a proponent of a no-fly zone, the French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé told his parliament

yesterday that it may now be too late to implement. It would no longer be viable, he said, and at this point, the ground movement of Qaddafi’s troops is the utmost concern.

The significant progress made by Qaddafi’s forces on Tuesday included the overtaking of Ajdabiya, one of the rebels’ essential cities. No more than 10 days ago, rebels were close to marching on Libya’s capital and Qaddafi’s stronghold, Tripoli, but the momentum has shifted toward Qaddafi’s forces over the last week. The Libyan leader said the opposition’s only options now are to “surrender or run away.”

If a no-fly zone were implemented, the United States and other nations would be putting themselves at the top of a very slippery slope toward on-the-ground intervention, a move which many would agree is unacceptable. Were the measure put into place and Qaddafi continued to massacre the opposition from the ground, would the international community stand by? With their airplanes overhead enforcing the no-fly zone, it is difficult to imagine intervention not increasing.

Nor, for that matter, is the implementation of a no-fly zone a benign step. Defense Secretary Robert Gates,

in testimony before Congress two weeks ago, rightly said, “Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses.”

The situation is complicated by the fact that Libya is entering what increasingly appears to be full-scale civil war. Though Qaddafi’s forces clearly have the upper hand militarily, the opposition is not a defenseless and complacent people being massacred by its leader. This differs, for example, from the no-fly zones enforced by the United States and others in Iraq in the 1990s. In that case, it was clearer that, in the wake of the Persian Gulf War, a nofly zone could impede Saddam Hussein’s hostilities. In Libya, Qaddafi has made it clear that he will not tolerate any efforts by the opposition to secure autonomy in its eastern stronghold.

Due to the lack of consensus from the G-8, the issue was punted to the United Nations Security Council, where a resolution is being sought by its member nations. Given the degree of mayhem on the ground, it is clear that a no-fly zone is untenable. Instead, the Obama administration should focus on the less interventionist options it has on the table as a way of inducing Qaddafi to step down.

I have noticed that the university has attempted to remove the stickers, causing damage to the “no solicitation” notices. Not only does the university have to replace damaged notices, but also the process of removing the stickers has wasted the valuable time of our (unionized) Facilities Services staff.

I urge the administration and Tufts’ police department to investigate the matter and punish any members of the community that were involved in this vandalism. Moreover, the perpetrators ought to pay for the replacement of the

“no solicitation” notices. Lastly, if a Tufts Community Union- (TCU) funded group used Student Activities Fee money to buy the stickers that were placed across campus, the members of the group should be required to reimburse the TCU Treasury.

I applaud my fellow students for advocating for causes they believe in, but I urge them not to vandalize our campus in the process.

alex miller

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Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, I have noticed recently that the Tufts “no solicitation” notices that are posted at the entryways of nearly every university building have been vandalized in the past week with stickers that say, “We support Justice for Janitors.” While my classmates and other members of the university community are welcome to voice their support for the janitors during the university’s bid process for the janitorial contract, they cross a line when they vandalize school property.

Sincerely, John K. Atsalis Class of 2011

Corrections Yesterday’s op-ed, “Reflections on Israeli Peace Week,” mistakenly stated that Abu Rahmah had been released from prison after four months. In fact, he was released after 16 months, four more than his original sentence. This was a mistake made during the editorial process and was not the fault of the writer.

In Tuesday’s article, “Students protest NQR’s end with ResQuad run,” senior Sarah Habib was incorrectly identified as the chair of Programming Board. She is the co-chair. The article also incorrectly stated that Habib and Tufts Community Union Senate President Sam Wallis sent the e-mail announcing a contest for an NQR replacement on behalf of their respective organizations. In fact, they sent the e-mail as individuals heading the search for a new event.

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

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9

Op-Ed

Larry Bacow is not my homeboy by

Ben Van Meter

University President Lawrence Bacow’s decision to end Naked Quad Run (NQR) is symptomatic of Tufts’ widespread failure to address the flourishing drinking problem on campus. The administration’s past behavior suggests that Tufts is clueless about how to stifle rampant alcohol abuse and relies on increasing security or canceling events to give the appearance of meaningful action. But buffed-up security and event cancellations don’t improve Tufts’ drinking culture; it only decreases the opportunities it has to be visible.

Perhaps as a PR ploy, Bacow’s decision was successful, but otherwise it displays an alarming lack of judgment.

I have no illusions about the problems NQR presents. A bunch of drunk, naked college students running around in subfreezing weather is almost any school’s nightmare. However, President Bacow’s — and the Daily’s — worry that someone will eventually die is misplaced. Once again, I don’t deny that NQR has the potential — often actualized — to be dangerous. But this danger stems primarily from Tufts’ drinking culture, not anything inherent to NQR. Bacow’s melodramatic line, “no tradition is worth sacrificing a life to preserve,” only obscures the reality of the drinking culture on campus. Excessive drinking, not NQR, puts students at risk.

Canceling NQR does not remove the danger posed by alcohol poisoning; it merely pushes it further out of sight from administrators and the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD).

We tend to take perverse pride in how much and how often we drink. Binge drinking, while not glorified, is certainly encouraged. My friends and I often come up with occasions to justify binge drinking (celebrating National Punctuation Day comes to mind). As a participant, it is hard for me to frown too intensely on such practices, but from the standpoint of an administrator, such drinking should be anathema. NQR only provides an occasion for such bacchanalian pursuits to be visible. Canceling the event will only force such festive libations into dorm rooms, frats and off-campus houses. Far from preventing eventual student demise, President Bacow seems to be encouraging that it happens away from TUPD, Tufts Emergency Medical Service (TEMS) and anyone else who could help.

Moreover, President Bacow and all who support his decision seem to have a particularly rosy-eyed picture of their ability to end this tradition. The Daily’s editorial states “NQR isn’t coming back” and Bacow said, “In the end, it’s my decision.”

Though other adjectives to describe such sentiments come to mind, I will stick with “deluded.” Since NQR is a student tradition, the school has absolutely no guarantee that students will abide by the president’s wishes. Bacow’s warning that a student violating his decision will be punished is hardly doing the school a favor. Considering the accusations leveled at TUPD after last fall’s NQR, Tufts would best avoid lawsuits by keeping Tufts’ finest uninvolved. Pledges made by the university and the Tufts Community

Prashanth Parameswaran | The Asianist

Union Senate to come up with an alternative tradition ring of both paternalism and wishful thinking. Tufts seems much more willing to eliminate NQR than to deal with its void.

Even more curious is Bacow’s insistence that his decision sprung from “responsibility to an institution.” President Bacow, who is leaving this particular institution in June, will not be the authority overseeing next year’s possible rebellious reassertion of NQR. I understand that the difficulties a school president faces are monumental, but the responsibility of enforcing Bacow’s decision lies with his successor. This decision seems rooted more in the determined pursuance of a failed policy. More cops and fewer events do not control drinking.

Tufts does have a drinking problem, but the fact that Tufts students run around naked when drunk is an eccentricity, not the cause of the campus-wide drinking problem. The endemic drinking culture, unfortunately, is much less simple to remedy than the decisive cancelation of NQR and any solution is less likely to impress Tufts’ trustees. Regardless, for a president who ostensibly promotes doing “what is right, not what is easy,” (a particularly Spiderman-esque phrase), this decision marks a serious failure in both policy and judgment. I suspect that Tufts’ love of binge drinking, and perhaps NQR, will outlive Bacow’s tenure, no matter what his decision may be.

Ben Van Meter is a sophomore majoring in Russian and East European studies.

Technology, politics and fear by

Evan Weixel

Much news these past days has rightly focused on the terrible disaster happening in Japan. Most of the coverage has been on the ongoing problem of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station. The situation there is critical, and it seems now highly likely that there could be a significant release of radioactive matter. As frightening as this is, the continuing news coverage has helped me realize the thing I fear the most in the world.

Most media outlets are doing their very best to sensationalize the story.

Newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, CNN and The Associated Press, have all published articles that confuse readers about what the actual danger from the nuclear reactors is. Small sidebars contain miniscule links to difficultto-follow stories on how nuclear reactors work. Words such as “meltdown” — general and ambiguous terms with little actual meaning in the nuclear power community — are used freely. In many of the reports, radiation is discussed without any note of the actual levels, and rarely are benchmark radiation levels given. An article in the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, calls this disaster “Japan’s Chernobyl,” yet neglects to mention that the differences in reactor type, design, regulation and operation between the doomed Ukrainian plant and Fukushima Daiichi mean that even in the worst-case scenario, Japan will face a disaster several orders of magnitude less than that at Chernobyl.

Frankly, the public is being misinformed.

The comments on these stories are even more worrisome than the stories themselves. A vast amount of reader posts on websites ranging from The Huffington Post to Fark.com are to the effect that the results from this disaster are going to be as bad as, if not worse than, Chernobyl, that the reactors will explode like giant nuclear bombs and that under normal operating conditions, there is no radiation emitted from nuclear power plants.

These statements, however, are all false. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) has called for a halt on all nuclear-power construction projects in the United States until the faults in the Japanese plants can be found yet seems unaware that current reactor safety systems are much more advanced than those on the aging

MCT

Japanese plant and are continuously trend must change. The degree sheet for a peace and justice studies major being improved.

It would seem that many of the people should list fewer courses like “From the posting comments online are unaware Big Bang to Human Kind” and more that their knowledge of nuclear energy courses like “Clean Energy Technologies is lacking. Yet there is ample opportunity and Policy Issues.” for the general populace, the media and However, this works both ways. politicians to learn about these facts. Mechanical engineers need to study ecoThere are many credible experts who are nomics if they want to understand the willing to make statements as to the truth financial ramifications of their new devicof the situation. Even the Wikipedia page es. Biochemists must learn the ethical on nuclear energy, a source that should dilemmas of genetically modified food. in almost every case be questioned, pro- And most importantly of all, everyone in a vides an honest, easy-to-understand technical field needs to learn how to combasic level of knowledge. But the unin- municate their ideas effectively, because formed voices are clamoring louder than it is through this communication that ever and are unfortunately influencing misinformation can be fought.

Scientists and engineers must step up the world’s policymakers.

Nuclear power is but one of many tech- efforts to combat technological ignonologies misunderstood by the general rance. We must become more involved in public. This misunderstanding leads to politics and policy. We must not remain fear, and fear causes the rejection of a quiet when we hear a fallacious discuspotentially beneficial discovery. Vaccines, sion in our area of expertise. We must climate change, even wind and solar expand educational efforts, not just to power have all been misunderstood, have those still in school, but to all people who all been subjected to fearful, knee-jerk lack a solid understanding of a subject. reactions and have all suffered because Only then will there be a chance to curof it. And appeals in the court of public tail the all-too-common backlash against new technology. opinion are almost impossible to win.

The fact is that the future of science and Because my greatest fear is not nuclear technology is controlled by people, who energy creating three-eyed fish, global one, have no understanding of it; two, warming destroying the planet or even believe false things about it; and three, being hit by a car while crossing College have no desire to correct points one and Avenue in front of Anderson Hall. My bigtwo. Even at Tufts, where interdisciplinary gest fear is for a potentially life-changing study and broad interests are the norm, it technology to be kept from use by easily is a rare political science major willing to preventable scientific ignorance. take a course on biotechnology, fuel-cell design or hazardous-waste management.

How can we hope to face these issues Evan Weixel is a senior majoring in chemiif we know nothing about them? This cal and biological engineering.

Staying cool on Vietnam

W

henever starry-eyed investors knock on his door at the Vietnamese embassy in Washington, D.C., Tung Nguyen, the boyish, bespectacled deputy chief of mission, is sure to inject a dose of reality into their sunny optimism.

“I have to cool them down, because things are not that rosy in Vietnam right now,” Mr. Nguyen told a roundtable at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy last month.

Vietnam has certainly made great strides over the past few decades, digging itself out of the ravages of war, pushing for economic reforms and pulling an astonishing 40 percent of its population out of poverty. The Goldman Sachs and HSBCs of the world have boldly included Vietnam in their catchy lists of future emerging markets, citing its robust economic growth (7 percent per year on average), well-educated and young populace and stable political system.

Yet a gloomy shadow has recently descended upon the rising dragon.

Vietnam has struggled to restore investor confidence amid stubbornly high inflation, ballooning trade and fiscal deficits and an ever-weakening dong. Its large, unwieldy, state-owned enterprises still have an iron grip on the economy despite their inefficiencies and abject recent failures. The government continues to round up dissidents and suppress media freedom, an authoritarian streak that manifested itself most recently when a U.S. official in Vietnam was roughed up while attempting to visit a dissident Roman Catholic priest. Most worryingly, the Communist Party elite appears to be turning Vietnamese capitalism into a family business through powerful, corrupt networks.

These problems are not intractable, particularly for a resilient nation like Vietnam, which has persevered through centuries of war and weathered several economic crises over the past few decades alone. But they are formidable nonetheless. Mr. Nguyen laments that there is “frankly speaking no political will” to battle corruption and that Vietnamese macroeconomic policy continues to be run by interest groups rather than intellectuals.

For years, Vietnam’s party elite has tried to set policy from behind the scenes and delegate implementation to the state, nudging and pushing where appropriate. Now some wonder whether the party will either be overwhelmed by corrupt forces or be underwhelmed about redistributing wealth from its wealthy supporters to the poor.

To their credit, Vietnamese leaders have recently hiked interest rates and slashed the dong to control inflation, which hit an alarming annual rate of 12.2 percent in January. Yet many believe that deeper changes are required with regard to corruption, government spending and the state sector in order to avert a financial crisis. They were disappointed when the Communist Party’s five-yearly congress concluded earlier this year with an unwavering commitment toward maintaining heavy state involvement in the economy and remain unconvinced that the government has decided to put tackling inflation ahead of stimulating growth.

In his declaration of independence speech in September 1945, Vietnam’s revolutionary hero, Ho Chi Minh, spoke colorfully about “mobilizing” all the “physical and mental strength” of the Vietnamese people. That may well be the kind of energy the Vietnamese government needs to confront the emerging problems that it faces en route to becoming a major economic power.

Prashanth Parameswaran is a first-year Fletcher student. He can be reached at Prashanth.Parameswaran@tufts.edu. His blog is asianist.wordpress.com.

Op-ed Policy The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than noon on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

The Tufts Daily

10

Comics

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Picking the perfect upset to brag to your friends about

Late Night at the Daily Tuesday’s Solution

Rebekah: “Every single morning, I wake up and find different people’s clothes in my room.”

Please recycle this Daily.

by

Wiley

Sports

11

tuftsdaily.com

Baseball

Jumbos have rare opportunity to repeat as NESCAC champions by

Daniel Rathman

Daily Editorial Board

The baseball team won a program record 34 games last year, took home the NESCAC championship and needed just one more victory to clinch a trip to the Div. III College World Series. But, as any member of this year’s squad will attest, a frustrating defeat in the New England Regional championship game left a sour taste in the Jumbos’ mouths.

Tufts carried a 6-3 lead into the fifth inning of that contest against UMass-Boston, but the Beacons surged ahead in the middle frames, and their bullpen slammed the door shut at the end. The 12-6 defeat brought an abrupt end to an historic season, but the 2011 Jumbos are determined not to let another season end like that. see BASEBALL, page 14

James Choca/Tufts Daily

Senior shortstop David LeResche hopes to follow up last year’s AllNESCAC performance with another strong season.

Baseball

Men’s Lacrosse

Hessler breaks all-time scoring record in blowout win over Lasell It’s official: Senior attackman D.J Hessler is the best offensive — if not overall — player in Tufts men’s lacrosse history.

With a goal at 11:38 in the third quarter of last night’s 23-5 victory at Lasell College, Hessler passed Bryan Griffin (LA ’05) as the program’s alltime highest-scoring player with 236 points. The senior co-captain tied the record with an unassisted goal late in the second frame.

The top-ranked Jumbos moved to 2-0 with a crushing victory over Lasell, racking up Tufts’ highest goal total since March 23, 2009, when the Jumbos had 26 tallies versus Mount Ida College.

Tufts’ defense was strong in the Amherst win last Saturday, but the offense struggled at times, managing just one goal in the third quarter and 13 overall. But after starting last night’s game slowly, and even trailing 2-1 midway through the first frame, Tufts began

—by Ben Kochman

Baseball

Jumbos dive headfirst into spring trip games by

Alex Prewitt

Daily Editorial Board

Andrew Morgenthaler/Tufts Daily

Junior Chris DeGoti, Tufts’ all-time leader in saves, will miss the entire 2011 season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.

All-American DeGoti out for season with elbow injury When the baseball team kicks off its season on Friday at Lynchburg College, the Jumbos will do so without the services of the most prolific closer in school history. Junior Chris DeGoti, a 2010 D3baseball. com First-Team All-American and 2011 preseason First-Team All-American, will miss the entire 2011 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow, coach John Casey confirmed to the Daily.

DeGoti is not currently listed on Tufts’ roster and is reportedly taking the spring semester off to rehab his injury at home in Florida. According to Casey, DeGoti injured his elbow during the summer while playing for the Kauai Menehunes of the Hawaii Collegiate Baseball League.

Casey said that the surgery, which replaced a ligament in

to score in bunches, dwarfing Lasell 17-2 in the second and third quarters combined.

Hessler led the Jumbos with seven points, to which junior attackman Sean Kirwan and senior attackman Ryan Molloy added four points apiece.

Junior goalkeeper Steven Foglietta split time between the pipes with sophomore Tyler Page and first-year Patton Watkins, a threesome which as a unit gave up five goals on 31 shots.

With a seven-point game, Hessler now has 238 points on 109 goals and 129 assists in his career. He already holds Tufts’ all-time assist record, having broken Griffin’s mark of 101 with a six-assist performance in last May’s NESCAC Quarterfinal win against Williams.

The No. 1 Jumbos will continue their season against NESCAC rival Colby on Saturday at Bello Field.

DeGoti’s elbow with one from his leg, was done by James Andrews, a renowned orthopedic surgeon who has performed surgery on professional athletes like Albert Pujols and John Smoltz. According to a 2007 ESPN.com article, Andrews had performed over 2,500 Tommy John surgeries up until that point.

The Jumbos will lose the program’s career leader in saves, a mark DeGoti set during a prolific sophomore campaign in which he tied for the Div. III lead with 12 saves. He also recorded a 1.17 ERA in 20 appearances, allowing just three earned runs in 23 total innings. During Tufts’ NESCAC Championship-winning effort, just the second in school history, DeGoti saved two out of the three games.

“My feeling is, we’re going

to miss Chris,” Casey said. “He brought a bit of something to us at the end of games, a lot of confidence.

“But from a purely statistical standpoint, it’s a hell of lot easier to replace 22 innings than it is to replace 80, so we’re going to have to do the best we can without him. Why worry about things you can’t control?”

In other injury news for the Jumbos, senior pitcher Jack Dilday will not play on the team’s spring trip after hurting his elbow a week and a half ago. The flamethrower, who appeared in nine games for the Jumbos in 2010, will still travel with the team to Virginia and North Carolina.

The timetable for his return is uncertain and depends on the results of an MRI. —by Alex Prewitt

John Casey isn’t sure how one of the baseball team’s longest-standing traditions began; it’s happened for so many years now that the origins are hazy for the coach, who is now beginning his 28th season with the Jumbos. The event occurs annually — that much is certain — just outside the Best Western Ocean Front in late March, beyond the grainy sand and razor-sharp shells of Virginia Beach and beneath the backdrop of the setting sun.

On the final Friday of Tufts’ spring-break trip to Virginia and North Carolina, with winter finally entering hibernation and temperatures still colder than desirable, the baseball team goes swimming. For after a dizzying slate of 11 games in 10 days, it’s only fair that the Jumbos partake in a bit of relaxation and unwind in the water.

When the team boards its Amtrak train later tonight, Tufts will, like in the many years before, head South past the Mason-Dixon Line to kick off its season with a schedule that would make even the most seasoned major-league veterans tired. The team will travel just under 2,000 total miles over spring break, heading from Medford to 10 different Div. III schools, all of which are in the middle of their seasons.

Just like the late-night dip into the Atlantic Ocean or one of the other traditions that inevitably emerge while packed into vans rolling down the highways, the spring trip has evolved into another attribute of the baseball team’s distinguished culture.

“It’s like living with your family,” Casey said.

“You love them, but they also see your best side and your worst side … Baseball’s a social sport. When you come back from a baseball game, you talk more baseball. It’s a good bonding experience and becoming a team is something we always talk about.”

Being on the road, without homework or other collegiate worries, allows the Jumbos to get a taste, for a few days, of the professional baseball experience. The hotels, the vans and the day-night doubleheaders make dreams come true.

“The spring trip is really, for most of us, the best part of the season,” senior co-captain shortstop Dave LeResche said.

“You almost feel like a minor league baseball player. You’re waking up, eating, playing baseball and sleeping.”

Such a demanding schedule, on the surface, should theoretically take an emotional and physical toll on a roster. But this is what the players live for; after months of cramped practices and outfield-less scrimmages in the Carzo Cage, Casey’s squad will finally step between the lines to officially start yet another season.

“When we first started going a zillion years ago, it was more of a ‘spring trip,’ where guys would just find the lineup and do all of that stuff,” Casey said.

“With the way the NCAA is now, with every game counting, Lynchburg on Friday is our opening game, and that’s how we prepare for it. It’s a little bit different now.”

The constant travel mirrors the grind of road trips in the NESCAC, and Casey has made a concerted effort to accentuate that at various stages throughout the trip. To wit, the Jumbos will deliberately spend Thursday night away see SPRING TRIP, page 15

12

The Tufts Daily

Sports

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Tufts Daily

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

13

Sports

Sailing

Brian Rowe | Calls the Shots

Best pitcher in the NL?

A

Courtesy Ken Legler

The co-ed sailing team, seen here at a meet over spring break last season, hopes to make noise in the playoffs this spring.

With 2010 behind them, sailors aim to have similar success in the spring by

Nick Woolf

Daily Staff Writer

Ranked as high as No. 9 in the country last fall, the sailing team is focused on one thing this spring: a return to Nationals, where early last summer the team finished in an impressive 10th place. And with two weekends of regattas under their belt and high expectations to fulfill, the No. 15 Jumbos are ready to kick it into high gear as the season heats up.

“I think we’re pretty psyched,” senior tri-captain Margaret Rew said.

“The thing about the spring season is

that it’s a sprint. We spend all winter getting mentally prepared for it, but as soon as the gun goes off this coming weekend, we’re at a full sprint the rest of the semester.”

The Jumbos are coming off a successful fall season in which they were consistently ranked in the top 15 teams nationally. The team last November finished eighth overall at the Atlantic Coast Championship, with junior tricaptain Massimo Soriano and sophomore Amelia Quinn capturing sixth place in the A Division. Quinn is also a features editor for the Daily.

Based on the team’s fall results, the

Sailing World College Rankings has Tufts at No. 15 in the country, while the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association has ranked the Jumbos No. 7 in New England behind rivals Vermont, Brown, Roger Williams, Yale, Boston College and Harvard.

“I think we don’t get too nervous about rankings,” Rew said. “We’ve been sitting in the top 20 in the nation for 30 years now, so it’s really nothing too new.

It has a lot more to do with the other teams and sort of seeing how it’s going to play out against them.” see SAILING, page 15

Elephants in the Room TV show I’d like to guest-star on

Chris Flaherty Senior midfielder Men’s soccer

Katie Lotz Junior defenseman Women’s Lacrosse

Steph Perez Junior attackman Women’s lacrosse

Sam Sager Junior infielder Baseball

Best birthday present I’ve ever received

My top pick-up line

First thing I’d download in the matrix

What I do on a first date

“The Wire”

If you were a Red Sox-Yankees booger, I’d pick tickets you first.

Better pick-up lines

Don’t get them.

(See: top pick-up line)

“Lost”

Are you returnPhish tickets (but ing something?

I haven’t actually ‘Cause you’re gotten them yet) bringing sexy back

Speak every language in the world

Salsa dancing

“Modern Family”

Barbie dreamhouse (with elevator)

Do you mind if I stare at you up close instead of from across the room?

“Californication”

Tickets to my first Mets game

Slow down sugar, I’m diabetic

The zoo, then an How to play the Italian restaurant, drums then a movie

Cook anything in the world

Share some Pizza Days

all photos courtesy tufts athletics

sking others whom they consider to be the best pitcher in the National League is like asking them their favorite fruit: It changes every few minutes, you can’t really argue with them because they’re all so good and as soon as they mention one you hadn’t thought of, you find yourself nodding and convincing yourself that the newest name is the right answer. I like blueberries and Cole Hamels, you like strawberries and Chris Carpenter; potato-potahto. There are at least four or five good choices, some better in the first half (first bite of a good peach), some better towards the end (last bite of a good banana), and some good the whole season (Grapes.

Are these ever out of season?).

Enough with the fruit. Let’s kick off the discussion with the reigning Cy Young winner, and “ace” of the Philadelphia Phillies. Ace is debatable purely because of the quality of the other pitchers on the staff, not because of his ability. Many consider Roy Halladay to be the gold standard of modern-day pitchers for his durability, consistency and amount of sweat that drips off his nose. He’s brought home baseball’s premier pitching award twice in his career and led the league in wins, innings and complete games last year.

Not one team in baseball would be disappointed to have Halladay headline its rotation.

His partner in crime on the Phillies recently finagled a contract more than twice as large as Halladay’s, despite a slightly shorter track record. Cliff Lee might be the coolest 32-yearold around these days, after taking October by storm for the second year in a row. The dude walked 18 batters in 212 innings last year. Eighteen in 212!

That’s like walking through Tufts and only 18 of the 212 people you see are unhappy NQR was canceled. You know it should be more than that.

Tim Lincecum? Somehow the San Francisco Giants’ No. 1 starting pitcher has managed to accumulate two Cy Young awards, 18 inches of hair, zero percent body fat and one misdemeanor for smoking weed in the past three years. “The Freak” plays with the best of them, leading the league in strikeouts since the start of 2008 and holding pole position on looking most like a 16-year-old. Underestimate him at your own risk; he’s the best chance you have at seeing a 300-strikeout season this year.

The St. Louis Cardinals have a long history of good pitchers, notably Bob Gibson’s ’68 season, but Adam Wainwright is their most recent incarnation of dominance exemplified. Yes, he just had Tommy John surgery, yes he’ll be back better than ever in 2012 and yes he will maintain his top spot among awkward ESPN.com player card pictures. Over the past two years, he ranked third in innings and second in ERA, showing that his strikeout of Carlos Beltran in Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS was not a fluke.

The list stretches on, moving to Ubaldo Jimenez, Josh Johnson, Yovani Gallardo, Matt Cain; trying to name all the good pitchers is like trying to name all the bad (good?) Samuel L. Jackson movies: You just have to realize you’re going to miss a few unless you look them up. Many of these guys are young, still evolving and we haven’t yet seen their best years.

But my pick for the 2011 Cy Young?

He’s 22, fearless and inspires visions of Sandy Koufax. Clayton Kershaw of the Los Angeles Dodgers, with a curveball dubbed by Vin Scully to be “Public Enemy No. 1,” will take home the hardware at the end of the year. As for my favorite fruit? Clementines. Catch them at their best, like Kershaw on the mound, and they can’t be beat.

Brian Rowe is a senior majoring in economics. He can be reached at B.Rowe@ tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

14

Sports

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Tufts confident in 2011 season’s first conference matchup against Bates BASEBALL

continued from page 11

“Our goals this season are to match and exceed what we did last year,” senior pitcher Derek Miller said.

“We want to get through regionals in

Harwich, [Mass.] and take a flight to the World Series in Wisconsin. As far as we’re concerned, we’re currently on a one-game losing streak.”

A challenging, 35-game regular-season slate stands between the Jumbos

Daily file photo

Junior co-captain Sam Sager, pictured above on April 19, 2010, was last year named to the All-NESCAC First Team along with senior co-captain David LeResche.

Tufts may be Div. III, but THE SCORE is No. 1 blogs.tuftsdaily.com/thescore the Daily sports department’s place for the latest info on all things sports

and the playoffs. The team recognizes that its route back to the postseason is a marathon, not a sprint.

“The key for us is to approach every situation the exact same way and not change who we are or how we play,” senior second baseman Frank Petroskey said. “We can’t control how the other team plays, but we can control focusing on every pitch and being ready for every situation.”

One factor working in the Jumbos’ favor is experience. The team will return the vast majority of its starting position players from last season, including perhaps the best infield in the conference. Co-captains junior Sam Sager and senior David LeResche were both named to the All-NESCAC First Team in 2010 for their efforts at third base and shortstop, respectively.

Petroskey was a Second-Team honoree after batting .353 in his first season at Tufts after transferring from the University of Vermont.

The outfield, meanwhile, will return seniors Ian Goldberg, Chase Rose and David Orlowitz, as well as classmate Ben Walkley, who split time at designated hitter and in the outfield in 2010. All of those players hit over .300 last season and had at least 20 RBIs. Additionally, the Jumbos have brought in sophomore Nate Izzo, a transfer from Div. I Boston College.

Coach John Casey’s pitching staff will feature even more continuity than the lineup. Miller and junior Dave Ryan had the most starts last season, while senior Ed Bernstein led all relievers with 42 strikeouts. Four of the team’s top five pitchers from last year, in terms of ERA, will all take the mound for the Jumbos again. Junior closer Chris DeGoti — a preseason All-American — is the lone exception, as he will miss the entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. (See the accompanying box on page 11 for more information on DeGoti’s injury.)

“It’s always in your favor to have guys who have been here before,” Petroskey said. “We have a large group of upperclassmen to help the young guys learn the ropes, but we’re going to need everyone to play their part in order to be successful.”

Ranked No. 17 in the latest NCBWA top-25 poll, the Jumbos are ready to embark on their annual spring break trip to Virginia and North Carolina. The team does not plan on taking its first competitive action of the year lightly — especially considering the transition outside. The team has spent the snowy weather practicing in Carzo Cage, as it usually does each winter.

“We’ve been able to work on a lot of things while practicing indoors, but there are elements of playing outside that will be different, so we need to be prepared for that,” Petroskey said.

As the defending conference champions, the Jumbos know that once they return from spring break and kick off the NESCAC portion of their schedule, they’ll be targeted from the get-go.

“After winning NESCACs last year, every team is going to be pumped up to play us,” Miller said. “The league is very balanced this year, and every team You tell him about the hot girl in your Psych class.

You even tell him about your sleeper pick for fantasy football.

is capable of sneaking through.”

This year’s conference docket begins with a three-game series against Bates at Huskins Field on April 1-2. Like the Jumbos, the Bobcats are a veteran team and set a school record with 25 wins last season. Bates — along with all the other teams in the conference — is hoping for even greater things this spring.

“Bowdoin was a team that gave us a run last year and Trinity has done it the last few years,” Miller added. “But Bates, Colby and all the teams out west are great too, and every league game can make or break your season.”

The Jumbos believe that their blend of depth and experience gives them a chance to win every game. They are anxious to take the field and begin their quest to repeat as NESCAC champions, a feat that only two teams — Amherst in 2004-2005 and the Bantams in 2008-2009 — have accomplished this decade.

“We have the talent to compete with any team in New England,” Miller said.

“But we have to show up to play and take it inning by inning, pitch by pitch, to give ourselves a chance.”

FIVE FOR FIGHTING Coming off one of the most prolific seasons in program history, the baseball team will look to replicate its efforts beginning on Friday at Lynchburg. Here’s a look at the top five games for the Jumbos which could make or break their season: 5. Fri., March 18 at Lynchburg The season-opener is always one of the most exciting games of the year, and it’ll be the first chance for the Jumbos to prove that they’ve retained their prowess from 2010.

4. Mon., May 2 at Eastern Conn. St. Tufts faced ECSU twice last year, and the results – a 19-5 loss during the regular season and a 3-0 win in the New England Regionals – couldn’t have been more different.

3. Fri., April 1 vs. Bates Don’t be fooled by the upstart Bobcats when they come to Medford for the conference-opener, armed with new coach Mike Leonard and four All-Conference seniors.

2. Sat., April 30 vs. Bowdoin (Game 1) Sophomore Oliver Van Zant, the reigning NESCAC Rookie and Pitcher of the Year, is likely to be on the mound for the 2010 runner-up Polar Bears in the seveninning middle match. Van Zant struck out 51 batters in 39 innings during his freshman year.

1. Sun., May 22 vs TBA in Harwich, Mass.

The Jumbos’ goal is to return to the New England Regional Championships and be the last team standing when the final out is recorded at Whitehouse Field. You can bet May 22 is circled on their calendars.

You tell him where to get the best pizza on campus.

So when will you tell him he has a gambling problem?

When it stops being a game… it’s time for straight talk.

800.426.1234 masscompulsivegambling.org Funded in part by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services.

Reproduced with permission from the Vermont Council on Problem Gambling.

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On Southern road trip, ‘van culture’ a unique experience for the Jumbos SPRING TRIP

continued from page 11

from Lynchburg, the site of the team’s season-opener on Friday, to simulate the experience of waking up early for games that becomes commonplace during the conference slate.

“We move operations a few times, but there’s a method to the madness,” Casey said. “I think it’s like living what you always wanted to do. If you’re playing baseball, wouldn’t you want to keep playing it at a higher level? What more do you want if you’re a baseball player?

This is it. This mirrors what you were dreaming about when you were eight years old, dreaming about putting on a major-league uniform.”

With little else to do but focus on the game, the Jumbos are afforded ample opportunities to prove themselves on the field before they return to the Hill and begin conference action. When LeResche was a freshman, for instance, then-sophomore catcher Alex Perry (LA ’10) was sidelined with an injured hamstring. LeResche, who had never caught before in his career, had to suit up behind the plate for four games during the trip. His strong efforts caused the coaching staff to reshuffle the starting infield to make room for LeResche, who ended up starting 29 games in 2008.

The Jumbos used to make the 10-plus-hour drive down to Virginia, but school rules forced the team to switch to flying in 2009. This season, for the first time ever, they will make the journey by train. Regardless of the method of transportation, though, the importance of spending time with teammates in an exclusively baseballlaced environment, away from other on-campus distractions, isn’t lost on the Jumbos.

“It’s just a bunch of guys hanging out,” said senior pitcher Ed Bernstein, who will be making his fourth trip this season. “Every year, Coach impresses on us how important it is to become a team, how important it is to trust each other and play together. So you’re around people all the time who you love to play with.”

For a program that, along with a history of success, preaches the importance of camaraderie, there is no better arena to foster friendship than in cramped vans.

Each year, the team holds its annual “van draft” to select players to fill the cars, and each class must be represented in each van. LeResche fondly recalls what he describes as a distinct van culture, which extends to everything from music selection to baffling word games.

“Every van has a unique culture, different vans have their own things, it’s the place where you’re with guys for hours at a time,” Bernstein said. “The

Daily File Photo

The baseball team, seen here in 2009, will head South tonight to embark on a 11-game spring break trip. team’s a team. I think we pride ourselves on not being cliquey.”

In a sport Casey describes as containing more frustration and failure than any other, such traditions — like when parents join the team for dinner or the annual Sunday brunch towards the tail end of the trip — preach the subliminal message of fun through sport.

“All [the players] do is turn it into something that’s fun,” Casey said. “You can’t have a good team if you don’t

enjoy being around each other. We tell them all the time, ‘You can’t force team.’ The first thing is you don’t have to love everybody but you have to respect everybody. But if you try to incorporate it and guys start to have fun with each other.”

For the seniors, the spring trip has provided them with some of their best memories in the program. In 2010, the Jumbos racked up an 8-2 record, the most victories earned on the trip since

2000. That set the tone for a recordsetting campaign in which Tufts set a new program record for wins.

“Some of the best memories I have, personally, are from spring trip games or being in Virginia Beach with the guys,” LeResche said. “You’re going to be thinking about baseball and talking about baseball, which is great. We really use that as a bonding experience.

The intangibles really come out there.”

After dominating performances in practice meets, Tufts will travel to Navy SAILING

continued from page 13

The squad, which includes 23 freshmen, spent much of the offseason in the weight room, according to Soriano.

“A lot of our team members practiced over winter break on their own, and since we’ve gotten back from break we also started having weekly meetings to get us in the right mental state for the season,” Soriano said.

But there’s still one dilemma for the Jumbos heading into their spring season — Upper Mystic Lake in Medford has yet to thaw out.

“It’s been a little tough to

practice because our lake is still frozen,” Soriano said. “We’ve been sailing on the weekends and whenever we can scavenge a practice together. We sailed down at BU a couple times and even made the trek down to Roger Williams twice, two weeks ago.”

But even an iced-over lake hasn’t stopped the Jumbos from competing.

“They’ve really been warmups — the way our coach puts is that they’re just ‘practice hours on the water,’” Rew said.

“We weren’t up against the best competition, but we definitely showed that we can dominate and hold our position against

the teams that we should be able to.”

At the Thames River Team Race at Conn. College on March 5 and 6, its first regatta of the season, Tufts dominated its New England competition.

The Jumbos’ A Division team won the regatta and the B team finished fifth in the eight-team field.

The Jumbos also competed in two more regattas this weekend: the Wood Trophy at Salve Regina University and the Team Racing Invite at MIT. The Truxtun Umsted Trophy, the team’s first real challenge of the season, takes place this weekend at Navy.

At the helm of the sailing team is Ken Legler, who enters his 31st year as head coach of the squad. In his career at Tufts, Legler has coached 19 national championship teams as well as 92 All-Americans. Legler’s experience and success should keep the Jumbos on course throughout the spring.

Standout freshman Will Haeger is a key sailor to watch this season. The brother of a two-time women’s All-American sailor at Boston College, Haeger will be moving up to the teamrace squad this spring.

As for season-long goals, Tufts is simply hoping for another successful postseason run.

“One of our main goals is to qualify for all the national competitions,” Soriano said. “Last year we had an exciting post season, as we qualified for all three, the women’s Nationals, the coed Nationals and the team racing Nationals.”

Rew is equally confident in her team’s potential this spring.

“I think sailing is a lot about peaking at the right time, and we’re ready to build off of last fall,” Rew said. “What I’m really looking for this spring is to be able to build off of our whole season from last semester and really peak at the end of this season to do well in the postseason.”

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The Tufts Daily

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Wednesday, March 16, 2011