THE TUFTS DAILY
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TCU Presidential Election The Tufts Community Union (TCU) presidential election began today at midnight and will continue through 11:59 p.m. tonight. Students can access the ballot by logging onto WebCenter, choosing “Election Online” from the drop down menu and following the instructions. The two candidates in the election are juniors Wyatt Cadley and Logan Cotton. Information about these candidates can be found in the news section of yesterday’s edition of the Daily and on the Elections Commission website. All undergraduates, including seniors and students studying abroad, can vote.
TUFTSDAILY.COM
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
VOLUME LXIII, NUMBER 55
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
Brian Williams discusses career, election season by
Elizabeth McKay
Daily Editorial Board
NBC Nightly News anchor and managing editor Brian Williams discussed his career, entertainment journalism and the upcoming elections in front of a packed Distler Performance Hall yesterday for the seventh annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism. The forum, which was moderated by University Trustee and Co-Chairman of the Board of Loews Corporation Jonathan Tisch (LA ’76), was sponsored by the Communications and Media Studies (CMS) Program, the Edward R. Murrow Center for Public Diplomacy at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and the Tisch
—by Patrick McGrath
see WILLIAMS, page 2
Justin McCallum / The Tufts Daily
NBC Nightly News Anchor and Managing Editor Brian Williams visited the Hill yesterday to discuss his career and the upcoming elections at the seventh annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism.
Senate passes resolution backing fee waiver by Julia
Evans
Contributing Writer
told the Daily in an email. The minor has kept the same format it had while within CIS, requiring students to take five courses from at least three of the following departments: Anthropology, Art History, Child Development, Community Health, Economics, Education, History, Sociology, Political Science and UEP. UEP wanted to preserve the traditional interdisciplinary structure of the minor, Wu said. “We want to keep that tradition so that our students are exposed to discussions of urban issues from anthropology or even history, from humanities to social science,” she said.
The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on April 15 passed a resolution (15-7-1) supporting a financial assistance program and fee waiver for student parking passes as a way to address the high cost of the passes. The resolution states that $550 for a full-year overnight student parking pass is a significant financial burden for many students who need a car on campus because of distance from home or a significant commute length to work-study jobs. The resolution was submitted by Gavin Matthews and TCU Associate Treasurer Ard Ardalan, both juniors. Matthews said his personal situation motivated the creation of the resolution. Although he receives assistance from the financial aid office, Matthews needs to work in order to cover the cost of going to Tufts and needs a car for transportation for certain obligations, but he could not afford the student parking pass. “While my case is uncommon, I was required to have a car,” he said. “Having a car is not necessarily a privilege. At a certain point, the car stops being a privilege and becomes almost a burden.” The final resolution supported the enactment of a fee waiver program through the Department of Public Safety rather than through the financial aid office. Going through the financial aid program would require setting aside money for financial assistance whereas public safety would only have to waive the fee, Ardalan explained. “In this way, it would be much more efficient,” he said. Owning a car does not necessarily reflect a higher socio-economic status, Ardalan said. “Students should shy away from the idea that students with a car do not
see URBAN STUDIES, page 2
see PARKING, page 2
Scott Tingley / The Tufts Daily
The Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning has re-launched the Urban Studies minor, which was previously housed in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies.
UEP relaunches Urban Studies minor by Victoria
Leistman
Daily Editorial Board
The Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning (UEP) this semester relaunched the Urban Studies minor, which was previously housed in the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (CIS). According to Professor of UEP and Urban Studies Minor Program Coordinator Weiping Wu, UEP, which offers two graduate programs, took the initiative to re-launch the minor program in order to reach out to undergraduates. “We basically felt that given how closely our master’s program matches
the undergraduate minor, we put in a little bit more effort to get students into this field,” Wu said. “If you have a department that can house a degree program or even a minor program, it’s always better for the students,” she added. CIS, which administers four of the university’s academic programs and is affiliated with 20 other interdisciplinary studies programs, was unable to give the Urban Studies minor enough resources and attention, Wu explained. “It makes sense to house Urban Studies in a setting as close to its core knowledge base as possible,” Assistant Professor of Sociology Ryan Centner
Inside this issue
Today’s sections
The battle for women’s rights is not over and feminism is still alive and well on the Hill.
The Daily interviews Joss Whedon, director of “The Avengers,”which hits theaters on May 4.
see FEATURES, page 3
see ARTS, page 5
News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters
1 3 5 8
Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports
9 10 14 Back
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News
Williams recounts career highlights with Tufts community WILLIAMS
continued from page 1
College of Citizenship and Public Service. Williams, who succeeded Tom Brokaw and has anchored the nation’s top-rated newscast since 2004, followed past speakers Katie Couric, Ted Koppel and Dan Rather in honoring the legacy of renowned CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and discussing the future of journalism. Julie Dobrow, director of the CMS Program, introduced Williams as a “journalistic trailblazer” not unlike Murrow. “Through his years of fascinating and insightful interviews, reporting and news analysis, he is furthering efforts to use media in ways that extend the scope and reach of journalism today,” she said. Tisch began the interview by highlighting Williams’ lack of a college degree. Williams, who attended three colleges without ever graduating, explained that his working-class upbringing in New Jersey proved an initial barrier to his education.
“I couldn’t have defined for you the Ivy League. It wasn’t in our canon,” he said. “I’ve since put a daughter through [ Yale University], officially achieving the American dream.” Williams said that his parents had wanted him to attend Tufts but that he could not do so because of financial limitations. “I don’t recommend [not completing college] for anyone,” he said. “But I chose the one occupation where if you can sit down blind on jetlag and in a hostile environment, and you’ve been flying and traveling for 36 hours, and you sit down at a keyboard and you can write, you’re in.” In addition to his unusual career path, Williams told the audience of students, administrators and local community members about his experience moderating in what has proven to be a robust presidential debate calendar. “It’s as alert as you have to be in my job,” he said. “It is a high wire act. A mistake or a word used or omitted here or there can change the tenor.” “I think we can always learn watching someone on their feet,” he added.
Williams also acknowledged the backlash that he inevitably faces when confronting politicians with difficult questions. “It’s red meat. We are not in this occupation to get ticker tape parades and win popularity awards,” Williams said. “We still have a vital job to do in a democracy.” “It comes with the territory,” he said. Williams said that he only abandoned his self-effacing humor to recount his now infamous experience covering Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He described his frustration watching as National Guard soldiers patted down refugees entering the New Orleans Superdome for shelter, merely to ensure that they were not bringing lighters into the building, where open flames were prohibited. “They get patted down, handed a [Meal Ready-to-Eat]. Each [Meal Readyto-Eat] contains a pack of matches,” he said. “It started there and it became tragic. We saw people dying in the structure, just in the shelter of last resort — you know the trips when you have to pull up anchor and go.”
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The veteran reporter expressed both wariness and enthusiasm for entertainment news shows such as “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” which he referred to as a “supplement” to more traditional news sources. “I would be very, very concerned if you’re getting your news from Jon [Stewart],” he said. “[But] he fills an absolute role in our democracy ... They call people out on an equal opportunity basis, and I think it’s the best public-service use of comedy,” he added. When prompted about the possibility of running for public office, Williams responded with a definitive negative, citing the difficulty for a journalist to return to journalism after crossing into politics. While he acknowledged the prevalence and importance of alternative news sources, Williams expressed hope that consumers will return “home” to NBC Nightly News. “We’re like a public utility: We’ll always be there,” he said. “Especially when things happen, when people need the world explained.”
Resolution supports parking pass fee waiver system PARKING
continued from page 1
need financial assistance,” he said. According to Ardalan, situations like Matthews’ need to be corrected. “It does not make sense that a student has to pay money in order to make money,” he said. Other Senate members did not support the resolution because they believed it unfairly biases students who live closer to campus. “I don’t like the idea of financial aid going to specific groups of people based on their geographical location,” Freshman Senator Jessie Serrino, who voted against the resolution, said. Serrino said the administration should focus on financial aid packages and lowering tuition for the entire student body instead of specific case-by-case assistance programs. She is worried that the program, if enacted, would only affect the small group of students who have a car on campus. “If you have a whole bunch of programs helping few people, you get big costs for everyone,” she said. According to Senior Senator Jonathan Danzig, who voted against the resolution, the resolution distracts from the greater issue about high tuition costs and if enacted would only affect an arbitrary group of people. “The proposal is neither workable, effective nor equitable,” Danzig said. This view was reflected in a resolution calling for the administration to lower tuition costs for the entire student body that the Senate passed almost unanimously (25-1-0) on March 4. TCU Treasurer Christie Maciejewski, who voted in favor of the resolution concerning parking permits, said she supports it because it helps a small group of students who are in need of financial assistance. “This program would be extremely beneficial for few students without being a huge burden on the administration,” Maciejewski, a sophomore, said.
Scott Tingley / The Tufts Daily
The TCU Senate this month passed a resolution supporting a financial assistance program and fee waiver for student parking passes.
Urban Studies minor expected to increase in popularity URBAN STUDIES
continued from page 1
“Cities are the most complex, multifaceted and inspiring yet disheartening human creations of all time,” Centner said. “Even beginning to deal with them sensibly and creatively necessitates some dexterity across fields of knowledge.” Robert Joseph, a freshman who is pursuing a minor in Urban Studies, enjoys the program because of its interdepartmental design. “It’s incredibly interdisciplinary,” Joseph said. “That’s one of the things I like about urban studies. I think it covers a lot of different things.” Chase Maxwell, a junior, said he became interested in Urban Studies
after taking advantage of some of the UEP courses available to undergraduates and only declared his minor in Urban Studies after the program was relaunched by the department this semester The main benefits in grounding the minor program in UEP are the affiliation with a specific department and the opportunity to work with faculty, Maxwell explained. The minor also requires students to complete a capstone project in collaboration with two faculty members from any of the departments that list courses for the minor. One of the faculty members must agree to work with the student as the project director, according to the UEP website.
The project can take a variety of forms including a thesis, a comprehensive research paper or a visual presentation, Wu said. Both Maxwell and Joseph expressed interest in the possibility of an Urban Studies major program being offered in the future. “I just hope that the [minor] program has a lot of opportunities to work with faculty, and they do end up eventually planning the [major] program, even if it’s not in my lifetime at Tufts,” Joseph said. The current goal is to spread awareness about the minor and build up the program from two students last year to at least four or five students this year, Wu said.
According to Centner, there is strong student interest for the program and it is just a matter of establishing unified faculty support for the program outside of UEP. “Now that Professor Weiping Wu has reached out to urban faculty and worked cooperatively to flesh out [and] move forward with an enhanced program, we have the potential to really make something impressive out of Urban Studies at Tufts,” Centner said. “Now, the challenge for Wu and her successors is to make sure Urban Studies garners more faculty, connects with similar initiatives at Boston-area institutions and develops crosscutting relationships with other programs here at Tufts.”
Features
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tuftsdaily.com
Ben Schwalb | Das Coding
T
kyra sturgill / the Tufts Daily
The Women’s Center hosts regular workshops and discussion groups that tackle issues such women’s health and the role of feminism on campus.
Echoing national trends, gender equality at Tufts continues to evolve by
Melissa MacEwen
Daily Editorial Board
Is feminism dead? Many people seem to think so. Male and female students go to college in roughly equal numbers in the United States, women have breached fields long dominated by men and the mainstream American public is starting to embrace a wide spectrum of gender identities. Although women may have gained rights they did not have half a century ago, they are still subject to discrimination and judgments in male-dominated society. Whether it manifests as a fear of walking alone across campus at night or anxiety about the repercussions of Arizona’s mandatory 24-hour abortion waiting period or smoldering anger at the knowledge that American women earn around 77 cents to each man’s dollar, women frequently face discrimination, though it is more subtle than it has been in the past. Even on the Tufts campus, women tangibly have less of a voice: There are nine fraternities but only three sororities, and about two thirds of the Tufts Community Union (TCU) senate is male. Still, campus politics generally echo national politics, and efforts have long been underway to bridge gaps between the genders and sexes. Founded in 1972, the Tufts Women’s Center grew out of the second-wave feminist movement. Along with other women’s centers across the country, it developed with the goal of promoting gender equality and providing a safe space for all genders to gather, learn and examine their identities at a time when women were greatly underrepresented on college campuses. “Definitely, the Women’s Center pays attention to issues that have historically impacted women, but we also pay attention more broadly to how issues related to gender play out,” Director of the Women’s Center Steph Gauchel said. “For example, sexual assault, sexual harassment and discrimination have always been serious issues faced by women, but it’s not an issue exclusively faced by women, and it is not just women’s responsibility to address these issues.” Gauchel said she has been pleased with the center’s popularity and influence on campus since she became its director four years ago. “I personally have experienced and had the opportunity in my professional roles to see the impact that understanding the
ways that our identities can inform our lives,” she said. “There’s a lot of empowerment in understanding the ways that we can set and figure out for ourselves who we want to be.” The center stresses the importance of gender acceptance, but it also focuses strongly on identifying and examining the intersections of gender, class and race in a person’s identity. Gauchel believes that food is a good illustration of this: While food can be associated with traditional gender roles for women, it also is tied to questions of body image and eating disorders and can help illuminate inequality in the lives of food industry workers. Even in her short time at Tufts, Gauchel has witnessed a number of positive steps for gender equality. The campus has crafted a broader sexual assault policy, for example, and has gained a new director in the office of equal opportunity and a new Title IX director. She is also excited by Students Acting for Gender Equality’s (SAGE) recent victory in implementing a gender-neutral housing program on campus. Sophomore Zoe Munoz, the outreach and marketing intern at the Women’s Center and a member of TCU’s Culture, Ethnicity and Community Affairs (CECA) Committee, believes that the Center is primarily a safe place to learn about gender issues that is open to all members of the community. “We’re a space in which gender is not binary — which it shouldn’t be — and that’s what we very much strive to encapsulate,” she said. Munoz cautions that although the Center does emphasize feminist ideals, one should avoid indiscriminately lumping the Center and feminism together. In her opinion, despite common misconceptions, there are many different types of feminism and discussing them in a valuable, intelligent way requires some education. “If you haven’t taken a class about feminism, then you really don’t have the vocabulary to talk about it. You don’t know what it is,” she said. “Before we can get into a discussion about feminism, both sides need to have at least an introduction to basic theory and practice.” Education, she believes, is also an important step toward ending gender inequality in the long run. “A class like Sex and Gender in Society is crucial in opening up your eyes to the ways in which different genders are treated very differently and how that treatment has
different consequences in day-to-day life,” she said. VOX: Voices for Choice is one of the organizations that use the space provided by the Women’s Center. Its goals include increasing campus dialogue about sex, destigmatizing female sexuality and spreading information about reproductive health. Though VOX receives funding from the TCU Senate, it is first and foremost one of the campus branches of Planned Parenthood. VOX has likely gained nationwide success because of its widespread appeal. “What’s interesting about VOX is that people are coming to it from such different places,” junior Lexi Sasanow, a member of VOX, said. “Just because people care about gender justice in general doesn’t mean that feminism is a monolith.” Current VOX president Liza Gordon, a sophomore, became interested in feminism while in college and was quickly struck by the perspective it added to her upbringing. “I grew up in a very conservative neighborhood,” she said. “I went to ballroom dancing, etiquette school and a very strict private school. Never, ever, ever in my hometown does a boy not open a door for a girl.” Learning about feminism has helped her understand the impact of the gender roles she grew up with, though it often leaves her feeling conflicted. In particular, it has caused her to question the gender relations at her parents’ shared jewelry business. Though most of the salespeople in the store are female, the managers are all men, and customers often assume that her mother does not own a share in the company. Gordon acknowledges that feminism and acceptance of female sexuality still have a fair amount of progress left to make, but she feels that VOX has already had a significant, positive impact on campus with widely attended events like Oh Megan! and the March Sex Fair. “People are like, ‘Of course the events are well-attended. You’re talking about sex and giving out condoms.’ But that’s what the goal is — sex positivity,” she said. Even if the events do nothing more than help people become more comfortable with sexuality as a topic, Gordon will be satisfied. “You’re not going to be able to talk about sexual health if you can’t say the word vagina. You just have to start somewhere,” she said. see WOMEN, page 4
Cloud computing: Too big to fail
he standard definition of cloud computing is a service that allows you to store your files in the cloud (i.e., on a server connected to the Internet) so that you can access them anywhere, anytime. But of course, there’s a little more to it than that. The idea of using another computer to store your stuff is actually incredibly old. The very first computers had to be programmed in person. Of course, everybody wanted a turn, so people wrote programs at home and waited until it was their turn to run their program. But soon people realized that a computer could manage the list of programmers waiting for their turn better than an administrator. Thus, so-called timesharing computers were born. The system could handle multiple “users” at different terminals networked to the mainframe computer, running their programs on the computer at once. If Jack was running a program and Jill told the computer to run hers, the computer would wait until Jack was done and then run Jill’s program. As computers became smarter and more powerful, many even ran multiple programs at once by quickly switching back and forth between each program. This would allow Jack and Jill to get intermediate results relatively quickly and allow Joe to pause both their programs and run his if it was more important (assuming his account was allowed to do that). Computing power is now fairly widespread via personal computers, and the next big change is high-speed Internet everywhere. Most well-populated areas are accounted for, and the Internet is spreading to more rural areas and cell phone networks. These faster and more widespread connections allow people to use their computers and other devices to access the cloud. “Other devices” is a key cloud computing phrase. One of the reasons businesses love the cloud is that it isn’t limited to one operating system or device. An Android app can’t run on a Mac without being changed, but both devices can access the cloud via an Internet browser. This means that companies can now pay their programmers to make one website instead of making a program for PCs, Macs, iPhones, smartphones and other devices. In addition, consumers can access the same data via all of their devices. But in addition to platform independence, cloud computing offers elasticity. This principle is best explained by the example of Netflix. The movie streaming function on Netflix is very prone to peaks and lulls. They host their movie streaming on Amazon’s Elastic Computing Cloud which, come Sunday afternoon (peak viewing time) allocates more of its computers to dealing with the increased number of users. It would be too expensive for Netflix itself to buy and maintain the servers needed for peak times, but Amazon can afford to do this because its other clients have peaks during Netflix’s lulls. Amazon’s cloud is good for the little guy as well. The myriad small startups can all run their websites on a single Amazon computer for a low price and be sure that the system will automatically add the needed computing power should their site go viral. You might be thinking that an entire computer is probably too much for one small startup website, and you’re right. Amazon takes advantage of a technology called virtualization, which allows one physical computer to act like, or “emulate,” multiple computers, each with their own operating system, hard drive, etc. Using virtualization and the scale of the cloud, a developer can have the experience of using one personal server whether they are sharing one with multiple people or using multiple servers to host a huge website or run a data-intensive program. Ben Schwalb is a member of the Class of 2012 who majored in computer science. He can be reached at Benjamin.Schwalb@ tufts.edu.
The Tufts Daily
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Features
On Tufts campus, feminism still plays vital role WOMEN
continued from page 3
SAGE also gathers at the Women’s Center to discuss pertinent gender-related issues with the goal of understanding and analyzing gender discrimination. Senior Garrett Gilmore joined SAGE in his freshman year after taking a class with a teaching assistant who was a graduate assistant at the Women’s Center. Though the primarily female group initially daunted him, he soon settled in, especially after a smattering of fellow male students began to come more regularly. When asked why he is interested in gender equality despite being a member of a well-represented, dominant gender, Gilmore had a ready reply. “It feels right for me politically,” he said. “I care a lot about politics, but I don’t like party politics and the governing side of it. I’m much more interested in activist politics.” He also noted that being a student at Tufts presents him with an opportunity to engage directly with both community and largescale political issues. In terms of gender politics, Gilmore argued that most inequality results from the fact that people are rarely made to question the way they were raised. His sensitivity to the subject, he believes, is a result of his growing up in an unusual family. After his biological parents divorced when he was a child, his mother moved in with another woman, which quickly became a new “normal” for him. “For me, I think having my world shaken like that was a good thing. If you’re not going to have that at college, then you’re wasting an opportunity,” he said. “We’re in an opportunity where you’re supported for your four years to do something. I think that part of that should be thinking critically about how you got here and why you’re interested in what you’re interested in.” Sophomore Grainne Griffiths, another SAGE member and a member of the TCU’s CECA Committee, echoed Garrett’s thoughts with the assertion that modern men are mostly by-products of a pre-established, patriarchal society. “It’s not individual men [that cause gender discrimination], by any means. That’s a
common misconception,” she said. “Every opportunity [that puts women at a disadvantage] was created by a system that has long privileged men. Men went to universities when women couldn’t, so men had high positions, and they got to create this structure that privileged them.” It is because of these conflicts between genders that Griffiths believes representation by both genders at SAGE meetings is so valuable in promoting equality. “It’s gender equality, it’s not just girl talk at all. It’s academic and activist-focused. Guys bring a lot to that,” she said. Though SAGE is arguably not as well known on campus as VOX or the Women’s Center, the group has succeeded in implementing changes felt across the Tufts campus. Gender-neutral housing, for example, was virtually all SAGE’s doing. This housing option has been offered in apartment-style suites but will now be available in a variety of rooms in Bush Hall and Latin Way dormitory starting next year. SAGE also helps ensure that the Tufts University Police Department receives student feedback, especially for its escort service, according to Gilmore. “We do things that I think a lot of people take for granted, and we’re fine doing that,” he said. The question still remains why gender inequality is so prevalent to begin with. Feminist philosophy professor Nancy Bauer believes that gender roles probably arose as a result of basic physiological differences between males and females. “When surviving and technology depend on physical strength, then men may have an advantage,” she said. “Also, the biological ability to bear children is something that can sideline women from other activities. Right before and right after you have a baby, it’s very difficult to do a whole lot of physical, manual labor.” A belief that men are dominant over females probably developed out of these initial conditions and was passed down over generations, even though technology has ensured that humans’ survival is not dependent on a division between the sexes. Still, Bauer is sympathetic to the large percentage of the population that
aligns itself with “traditional” gender roles. “We grow up with [these roles], and they strike us as normal and natural,” she said. “It’s hard to separate them from our own identities, so we just keep replicating them over and over again.” According to Bauer, as soon as we are born, we are “gendered” by society and through smaller factors like our parents’ choice in our name, our toys and our clothes. For better or worse, we grow up with an intimate understanding of society’s gender divisions. Bauer believes it would theoretically be possible to maintain some gender distinctions while treating people as perfect equals, but she acknowledges that our society is far from that point. Women — as well as those who do not conform to traditional gender roles — are marginalized in the process. College campuses and the professional world remain relatively hostile environments for women, she said, even if they do not outwardly appear that way. “You’re always around these ideas of what a woman is supposed to do, or what it means to be a woman,” Sasanow said. “There are all these social ideas about what it means to be a woman instead of it being, ‘You’re a person, let me get to know you.’ It gets very complicated.” Junior Eliza Ziegler, the treasurer of VOX, recounted a specific incident in which she stepped outside of her traditional gender role, to interesting results. While she was riding on the subway, she noticed two men looking at her, but not in a flattering way. “They looked terrified, and I realized that they had just been staring at my hairy legs the whole time,” she said. “I felt empowered, because they looked pretty freaked out by it.” Young, college-age women often believe they have the right, the talent and the ability to succeed as professionals, which gives them a tremendous sense of power and autonomy, Bauer said. She explained that once these women enter the workforce, they experience a rude awakening. Women run only around five percent of Fortune 500 companies and are greatly outnumbered by men in a variety of fields. “I hear from my students, ‘We got a raw
THE BIOLOGY DEPARTMENT PRESENTS THE BARNUM MUSEUM LECTURE 2012
MARY HENDRIX Northwestern University School of Medicine
Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center
“Targeting the Plasticity of Metastatic Tumor Cells” Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 4:00pm-5:00pm Barnum 104
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
deal. We were promised something better, and it’s much, much harder than we thought it would be,’” Bauer said. Bauer added that the balance women must strike between their personal and professional lives is especially difficult. While men’s role as breadwinners is embraced by society, women are still expected to be the emotional hearts of their families. They also face pressure not to work too many hours in any given week for fear that their families will be neglected. Still, Bauer is not pessimistic about the situation. Her feminist philosophy classes are increasing in popularity among a wide variety of men and women, and she feels that there is plenty of untapped interest among students. Associate Professor Sonia Hofkosh, director ad interim of Women’s Studies, agrees that the fight for gender equality has gained a societal foothold, but that it still has a long way to go. “I don’t feel that as an academic discipline at Tufts, that we’ve made all that much progress,” she said. “But we certainly have in academics more broadly, through both the county and the world. Now, there are Ph.D. programs in women and gender studies.” Women also earned an important victory when they gained wider access to contraception. Students might take for granted the huge bowls of condoms and dental dams that await them at Health Services, but this availability is still a relatively new concept. “You just need to read the paper to learn that there is a huge movement to limit access to contraception [of] poor women, and that there’s a whole problem being debated and voted on in Nebraska about whether those some call ‘illegal aliens’ should have access to prenatal care funded by the state,” Hofkosh said. She also pointed out that women’s studies does not get the same recognition as other fields such as the natural sciences, partly because women’s studies and feminism have historically been grounded in a fight against the status quo. “It’s by no means a done deal,” Hofkosh said.
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TV Review
Chris Poldoian | The Gourmand
‘Community’ hits a mid-season slump
Aspects of show’s humor have gone stale by
Alex Hanno
Daily Editorial Board
There is no denying it: “Community” is a cult TV show. What is more, this cult following is the primary reason
Community Starring Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi and Alison Brie Airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on NBC that “Community” has remained on the air throughout its struggle-ridden run. That’s not to say the series isn’t deserving of avid fans — quite the contrary. When a series builds as loyal of a fan base as “Community” has, it merits some attention. Yet since its return from a hiatus last month, “Community” has failed to produce the quality material audiences have come to expect. While the cult following refuses to admit this truth, unable to look past the series’ sheen, some of the less enamored fans have come to accept the sad but undeniable facts. Thanks to huge fan support, “Community” managed to come back after its winter respite, but without the level of innovation it regularly produced in the past. With this performance, the series isn’t likely to see COMMUNITY, page 6
Rob Poetsch via Flickr Creative Commons
The writing for Abed (Danny Pudi) has declined since ‘Community’ returned this spring.
Interview | Joss Whedon
Craig Gobler via Flickr Creative Commons
Director Joss Whedon, whose film ‘The Avengers’ hits theaters on May 4, discussed the inspiration for the film with college media from across the country.
Director of upcoming summer blockbuster ‘The Avengers’ talks about the process Joss Whedon as big a Marvel fan as the audience by
Alex Hanno
Daily Editorial Board
As part of a promotional campaign for the highly anticipated Marvel Studios production, “The Avengers,”
director and writer Joss Whedon recently took part in a college press conference, fielding questions from students across the country. Question:
How
did
you
become
attached to this project?
Joss Whedon: I’ve known [Marvel Studios President] Kevin Feige for a see JOSS, page 6
Stop! In the name of foie
F
orgive me Father, for I have sinned. I love foie gras. Before PETA dumps a pint of red paint on me, let me set the record straight — I’m not a bad person. Sure, I’ve sinned as much as the next Tufts student (sorry, Mom, Dad, President Monaco) but by no means do I belong in Dante’s lowest circle. Foie gras translates from French to “fat liver.” It is a rich paste made from the fattened goose or duck liver. Cooked in a terrine or else prepared as a torchon, this buttery delight can be served cold with a little bread like a pat矦or a smooth, full-bodied mouthfeel, or foie can be seared for melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Either way, it’s delicious. Pair it with a small glass of Sauternes (French dessert wine) for the ultimate luxury. The controversy that surrounds this delicate dish stems from the way in which the birds are fattened. Farms use mechanized tubes to forcibly overfeed them to the point that the livers swell to six to ten times their normal size. This fattening technique, referred to as gavage, has been around for over four thousand years; however, people with pacifistic palates have gotten their napkins all in a bunch. Most recently, California banned foie gras altogether. The law, which takes effect this July, carries a hefty $1,000 fine for violation. To demonstrate their disgust with this law, Californian chefs began serving as much foie gras as possible. One restaurant called Melisse instituted a Foie For All tasting menu that incorporated the controversial ingredient into each of the eight courses. That’s right, we’re talking everything from foie gras flan to foie gras parfait. The history of this ban can be traced back to Chicago in 2006. Rather than deal with Chicago’s rising murder rate and drug crimes, Alderman Joe Moore dedicated taxpayer money to passing a law that prohibited the sale of foie gras and fined any disobeying restaurant. Chicagoan chefs found an interesting loophole: by providing complementary foie gras to patrons, they were not technically guilty of selling the illegal ingredient. Others simply broke the law and made no changes to their menus. Indeed, over 46,000 pounds of foie gras were sold during the first year of the ban. In 2008, less than two years later, lawmakers came to their senses and overturned this micromanaging law. Many argue that foie gras is the result of animal cruelty, which is biologically false. Physiologically, ducks and geese have an expandable esophagus that allows for overeating. Unlike humans or various farm animals, ducks and geese don’t have a gag reflex. Furthermore, gavage only occurs during the last couple of weeks of the animal’s life. Prior to this final stage, the birds are often given free range. The few farms that produce foie gras are meticulously caring to these birds throughout the process. If you consider gavage cruel, then take a hard look at the ways in which all animal products are made. Most store-bought chicken eggs are the result of circadian manipulation and genetic engineering. And all that chicken meat you buy? Ever wonder what that label about water retention means? Answer: You don’t. For anyone other than vegans, it would be hypocritical to oppose foie gras on the basis of animal welfare. At best, such an opinion is uneducated. At worst, it is self-righteous and arbitrary. If you personally dislike the ethics of gavage, then don’t eat foie gras. It’s that easy. After all, it’s not as though fattened goose liver is ubiquitous here in the United States. Demonstrate your dislike by avoiding dishes that utilize it. But don’t vilify the honest farmers at Hudson Valley, the hardworking chefs in New York or me for our love of foie gras’ inimitable flavor and consistency. Chris Poldoian is a senior majoring in Spanish and economics. He can be reached at Christopher.Poldoian@Tufts.edu.
The Tufts Daily
6
Arts & Living
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
‘Community’ can still come back from its slump
COMMUNITY
continued from page 5
sustain the support it needs to reach a fourth season. It’s almost impossible for Tufts students to avoid campus articles about “Community,” but for the few who don’t know, the premise is simple but unique. The show follows the exploits of Greendale Community College’s study group as it deals with intergroup relationships, wages paintball and pillow wars and attends one of the school’s numerous dances. Almost every episode pays homage to a piece of pop culture in some way, with episodes from this season harking back to Ken Burns’ “Civil War” documentary (1990) as well as “Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse” (1991). In short, you never really know where the series will take you. However, “Community” has repeatedly let down its dedicated fan base since its spring return. While certain elements continue to appease, such as spot-on character acting from most of the cast, the story arcs have been less than appealing. Perhaps the most disturbing plotline involves the falling-out of best friends Troy (Donald Glover) and Abed (Danny Pudi). By far the show’s best component, the friendship between these two uber-dorks was once hilarious and touching at the same time. When the show began to tear them apart, episodes took on a slightly more serious tone in spite of their zany, superficial appearance. Though the pair has reunited, their friendship is in no way the same, and a gap that can never be filled has developed between them. Episodic plots have not escaped disappointment either. From Britta (Gillian Jacobs) falling in love with a Subway “corpohumanoid” named “Subway,” to Jeff ( Joel McHale) struggling with his narcissism yet again, the show hasn’t been endearing or riotous in some time. While “Community” is still known for its originality, certain recurring jokes and characters have become stale. Among the worst cases of overworked humor are Pierce (Chevy Chase) and Chang (Ken Jeong.) Everything they say is all too expected, the former being sexist, grotesque or racist and the latter lame or creepy. While these characters might have been funny at the start, their lack of growth has made for bland and predictable moments when either is on screen. Nonetheless, “Community” still has the potential to be one of the funniest and most emotional shows on television once again. The Dean’s ( Jim Rash) continued use of costumes and his physical infatuation with Jeff, while both odd, are quite humorous to longtime fans. Troy
little bird feet via Flickr Creative Commons
Donald Glover, who plays Troy, is one of the most consistent characters in ‘Community.’ and Britta’s growing relationship may be just as odd and enamoring. If Abed continues to spout off pop culture references that only the most culturally educated fans will understand, “Community” is bound to make fans laugh. “Community” might have a hitch in its stride at the moment, but there is hope for the future nonetheless.
If its cult following starts criticizing the series instead of ignoring the faults simply because “Community” is “Community,” maybe show creator Dan Harmon will head back to the drawing board and improve it before it is too late. Even if “Community” doesn’t survive to see the autumn, somewhere
down the road things might look up for it, as the cult TV series “Arrested Development” (2003-2006) has demonstrated with its impending Netflix/ film return. The cult won’t want to see it come to this, but unless “Community” kicks things up a notch, such a revival might be the best fans can hope for.
‘Indiana Jones’ provides inspiration for ‘The Avengers’ JOSS
continued from page 5
while. I’ve known comics for a lot longer and I think Marvel has a great nose for a director who has a passionate vision, who’s not famous for turning out big-budget hits but will bring something a little bit fresh to the concept of a hero movie. It’s one of the things that I respect the most about them. It just seemed like a good fit. The only other movie I’ve made had a very similar problem: How do you structure a story that some people know very well, and other people don’t know at all? I think they regret it now, but, too late [Laughs]. Q: What was your process for writing the film? Did you already have a directorial vision when you were penning the screenplay? JW: Yes, I did. Half of writing a script is writing visually, fig-
uring out what you need it to look and feel like as much [it is about] what they’re going to say. The process, therefore, was pretty organic, particularly because we had such a tight schedule. They needed some things to be worked on before I’d even written the script. So I was writing visual cues and action and descriptions before I had finished structuring the story. Q: How did you mentally prepare yourself to carry on the stories of all these established superheroes with an already fervent backing? JW: I am the fervent backing, so it wasn’t that hard to key in. I’ve done a lot of work for things that already exist. I’ve worked on the “X-Men” [films], I wrote an “Alien” movie and, in working as a script doctor, you come in after things have been established. On a TV show, even if you’re the one who established it, every
time you write a script, you’re dealing with an established universe.
Q: Because Marvel is attempting to create an interlocking film universe, did you feel the need to maintain a directing style, an aesthetic similar to work of the other Marvel Studio directors? JW: There’s no way you could make a movie that looked like a Jon Favreau, Kenneth Branagh, Joe Johnston or Louis Leterrier movie. You have to take from each of them the thing that is useful and will jive with the rest of them. I do think the DNA of the Marvel movie begins with “Iron Man,” and that’s very grounded in the real. I tend to be a tiny bit florid with my camera work and my dialogue, but hopefully in a way that feels like a realistic version of a comic book universe. My own style is actually kind of smack dab in the middle of what all those
guys do.
Q: Did you have any particular combination of superheroes that you thought were the most interesting to see interact? JW: You know, the tragedy of the movie is that you don’t get to have scenes of everybody interacting because they are all so interesting up against each other. I love the Bruce Banner/ Tony Stark relationship. Bruce is the first guy Tony’s come across that really operates on his level intellectually, who isn’t a villain. So the way Tony nudges him and Tony’s particular attitude about the Hulk is both endearing and cool. But I also love Tony and Steve and how much they can’t stand each other. Q: College students have a lot of options this summer with movies to see during their break. Why should “The Avengers” be first on their viewing list?
JW: I think “The Avengers” is the kind of movie that I grew up wanting to make and thought they had stopped making. When I grew up, the summer movie was literally created as a concept, and all my life I wanted to do something like that, something like the first “Indiana Jones,” something that was steeped in character, in love of the genre that it was portraying, that had intelligence, real acting and a story that wasn’t just a sort of big premise you already knew going in. More and more summer movies have felt a little cynical — they’re not interested in a story, they’re interested in barraging you with excitement, imagery and brand names. Marvel doesn’t operate that way. They care about the people. That’s why they hire some of the best actors in the business to play their heroes. This is an oldfashioned movie, and it’s a little bit bigger than life, but it’s very human.
The Tufts Daily
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Editorial
Daniel J. Rathman Editorial
Editorial | Letters
Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of “NBC Nightly News,” visited Tufts yesterday to discuss political and election news coverage for the annual Edward R. Murrow Forum. Williams is the most-watched evening news anchor in the country and in 2007 was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. The talk concerned his career, the field of journalism and the upcoming elections. His presentation was filled with self-deprecating jokes and honesty. He recounted his unusual career path, which included dropping out of college and interning with President Jimmy Carter’s administration, and discussed the precision and discipline required to interview politicians and cover major national news stories such as Hurricane Katrina. Williams’ speech was outstanding, and audience members undoubtedly came away with a better understanding of the field of journalism. It’s too bad that only a few Tufts students actually got in.
Students who arrived within 20 minutes of the start of the event were shuffled into the overflow room in Granoff M155 because Distler Auditorium had reached its capacity. During the question-and-answer session, the camera streaming into M155 broke down, and the feed was lost. The forum was open to the public, and people from outside the Tufts community filled the majority of the auditorium before the students for whom the university organizes the forum could arrive. We support the community’s right to see a man of Williams’ stature speak for free. Access to renowned speakers like Williams is one of the benefits of living near a major university, and we wouldn’t want to see the university deprive Tufts’ neighbors of these opportunities. Nevertheless, the university needs to do a better job of regulating attendance at these events. The public should be filling the seats Tufts students don’t want, rather than taking seats that Tufts students want but can’t get. Admitting
audience members on a first-come, firstserved basis is a lazy and unfair method, especially since it all but ensured that the many Jumbos with 10:30 a.m. classes wouldn’t get in. It also didn’t help that the forum occurred on a Jumbo Day, which meant that parents of admitted students could stroll in as well. When the university draws an ace, students should be given first crack at the seats, since they’re the ones paying tens of thousands of dollars to be on the Hill. Implementing a ticket system, at least so that students could reserve seats within a certain window before the rest become walk-ins, would eliminate this issue. The university could justifiably turn students away because they hadn’t reserved seats and had walked in too late, instead of having to throw together an overflow room. A great talk is of no use if the students for whom you put it together can’t see it. Fortunately, there is a very easy solution to prevent a similar problem from occurring next time.
negatively, yet he lets the acts of a minority paint his entire opinion of the Jewish communities at Tufts. Furthermore, he reduces the Jewish communities at Tufts to a single organization on campus, Tufts Hillel, by describing the national Hillel policy stating that campus Hillels will not co-sponsor events with organizations that support Boycott , Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) (and therefore, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)) as the best proof that the “Jewish community” has adopted the principle that Jews should not outright disagree with Israel. Besides the fact that one can disagree with both Israel and BDS, Tufts Hillel does not represent every Jewish community on campus. More problematic than that is describing a single Hillel policy as proof of the position of any Jewish community at Tufts, including ones centered on Hillel. I am on Tufts Hillel’s student executive board, yet I find the national Hillel policy regarding SJP unproductive and an affront to Jewish
values that promote dialogue, and I have no problem stating so publicly. Disagreeing with Israel is not antiSemitic or anti-Jewish. Like Elliott, I have met people on this campus who fail to see this distinction. I have tried my best to have productive dialogues with them, yet I won’t allow their opinions to paint my opinion of what it means to be a Jew. I am disgusted by the people who have called Elliot an anti-Semite and other derogatory terms. However, I invite Elliott and others who feel the same way to explore the many Jewish communities on campus, as there are many Jews on this campus who, despite their own opinions on the conflict, recognize that there is nothing more Jewish than being critical and having productive dialogues on complex issues, especially regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, Last Thursday, Elliott McCarthy wrote an op-ed in which he talked about the need for constructive dialogue about the IsraelPalestine conflict. I am deeply saddened that he has come to feel unwelcome in his own faith. However, I was perplexed when he went from stating that “the message from many Jews is clear: in order to be Jewish, you need to unconditionally support Israel” to “The Tufts Jewish community has adopted these principles as well.” I cannot deny Elliott’s experience or how it has shaped his view of “the Tufts Jewish community.” However, I personally find his labeling of the “Tufts Jewish community” as a community that encourages one to “question Israel but not outright disagree with it” problematic. The Tufts Jewish community is not a monolithic community. There are a multitude of Jewish communities on this campus, and there is a wide variety of opinions among them. As Elliott says himself, most Jews did not respond to his views
The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.
Sincerely, Jordan Dashow Class of 2014
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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Op-Ed
Shalom, Namaste
Walt Laws-MacDonald | Show Me The Money!
by Shira Shamir and
Neha Madhusoodanan
Our story begins with two Americans, one with an Indian background, the other Israeli, living in a pocket of suburban Long Island. With little in common other than a few mutual friends and an extracurricular activity connecting our two high schools, we became fast friends. However, when we realized we’d be attending the same university, we expected to stay friendly but to go our separate ways. Little did we know that this friendship would become a microcosm of the alliance between our two countries. This year marks the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between India and Israel. To commemorate the occasion, Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna visited Jerusalem to lay out future plans for continued collaboration between the two nations. You may be wondering, so what? Why is the 20-year milestone of this relationship so important, and to whom? When most people think about India and Israel together, they probably wouldn’t picture the ever-strengthening partnership that exists today. Most people probably wouldn’t even think about India and Israel in the same sentence or thought, let alone think of them as partners in a blossoming alliance. On the surface, the two nations could not be more different. Their cultures, religion and traditions are vastly distinct from one another. When the two countries were first established (within months of each other), they lacked any relationship. India did not recognize Israel as a state until 1950 and even then, the ties between the two countries were loose or non-existent. However, following the establishment of official diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992, the Indo-Israeli relationship has flourished into a strong alliance driven by continued cooperation in the fields of agriculture, trade, science and technology, homeland security, culture and tourism. The Indo-Israeli relationship is unique in its unlikelihood and unprecedented in its scope. When one takes a closer look, the two countries actually have a good deal in common. Both were born from the British Empire and quickly established themselves as democracies. Both continuously face the external security challenges presented by international terrorism, which are compounded by internal ones regarding natural resource scarcity. But most importantly, both societies work to maintain the delicate balance between seizing the progress they have made in the modern world and preserving the ancient tradition and culture that make up their respective foundations. For the past 20 years, based on these inherent commonalities, a strong relationship has continued to thrive between the two countries and it deserves to be commemorated, its accomplishments highlighted. Since 1992, trade between India and Israel has grown immensely from $180 million annually to more than $5 billion; both countries hope to establish a free trade agreement this year. In 2010, India and Israel set up a joint research and development (R&D) fund to strengthen cooperation on renewable energy, water management and computer science research. Additionally, because Israel and India both face the challenge of water scarcity, their collaboration in agriculture is vital and largely unprecedented. The exchange of knowledge, including the transfer of Israeli drip irrigation system technology to Indian farmers and the joint Indo-Israeli R&D farm established in the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, allows these two countries to address the challenges of food security together through constant innovation — a true example of the tangible rewards of cooperation. One of the strongest links that binds India and Israel together is the threat of terrorism. Both countries are surrounded by continuous hostility and are under constant security threats, particularly
W
mct
from state-sponsored terror groups. Even before diplomatic relations were established, Indian and Israeli security personnel maintained secret channels of communication. During the past 20 years, India and Israel have come together to combat terrorism through the exchange of important intelligence on terrorist group activity and weapons technology. As of 2008, Israel has become the largest weapons supplier to India and signed agreements to develop an anti-aircraft system and missiles for the two countries. Israel has also provided training in logistics, intelligence gathering, surveillance and military strategy to Indian security forces. For Israel, the unparalleled control of South Asian waters that India holds would prove indispensable for safe trade in a truculent climate. Recently, India has launched a spy satellite to help give Israeli intelligence eyes in space. This satellite is meant to monitor activity in Pakistan and nuclear developments in Iran, a major concern to Israel, the United States and India. Israel and India are tied together by many threads, but perhaps the most vital and least recognized is the thread tying together these two peoples and their cultures. Here at Tufts we’ve both found communities that celebrate our own cultures and identities. What we didn’t realize is that those communities on a grander scale have found ways to support one another. There is a small but thriving Jewish population of 70,000 in India that has existed consistently throughout India’s history and that enjoys a peaceful life free from anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, there is also a small population of Indian Jews in Israel that continues to grow, most notably the Bnei Menashe community. Beyond that, India has become a hot spot for Israeli tourists. About 35,000 Israelis select India as a travel destination each year with many returning several times throughout their lives. India and Israel further demonstrate their desire for understanding of one another through Hindi courses offered at Tel Aviv and Hebrew University, along with other courses related to India and through
scholarships granted to Israelis by the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs every year. The most significant display of the cultural ties between India and Israel began last May when the Indian Embassy organized and held a month-long festival in Israel titled “Celebrating India in Israel,” which showcased traditional Indian culture and was a major success. The Indo-Israeli relationship is often overshadowed in the media by the obvious regional and domestic issues of both countries. We believe that this relationship deserves to be recognized and highlighted for all of its contributions. By working together to face their own challenges, India and Israel have shown themselves to be a prime example of the benefits of cooperation among nations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently described the relationship with the sentiment that “India and Israel are two ancient peoples seizing the future.” For the two of us, the most amazing part of the relationship between India and Israel is the way it has unknowingly impacted our own lives. Coming to college, we’ve both embraced our separate identities, one by becoming heavily involved in the Indian community on campus through Salaam and Pulse, and the other through active involvement in Tufts Friends of Israel and Hillel. However, despite our expectations that these different interests would distance our friendship, they have only brought us closer together through mutual understanding and shared dedication to the development of our countries. For this reason we feel it is important to recognize 20 years of Indo-Israeli friendship and support. By working together to find commonalities while embracing our differences on campus and beyond, sometimes the most unlikely of friendships can form. Shira Shamir is a sophomore majoring in international relations. Neha Madhusoodanan is a sophomore majoring in international relations and economics.
Losses that really matter
arren Buffett — who, I in an inexcusable, likely hunger-related error referred to as “Warren Buffet” in a previous column — announced that he had been diagnosed with stage one prostate cancer last week. Buffett made the announcement in his favorite form of communication: a letter to his shareholders. In his usual, understated tone, Buffett wrote that his doctors told him his condition “is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way.” Buffett prides himself on his transparency and relationship with Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders. The chairman and chief executive made it clear that he should be around for a long time, saying, “I feel great — as if I were in normal excellent health.” But at 81 years old, Buffett understands that he will not be around to run his beloved company forever, and he has already instated a succession plan. Whenever a powerful figure like Buffett steps down, the business community’s collective heartbeat flutters — what will the future of Berkshire Hathaway hold without Warren Buffett’s brilliant mind behind the reins? The business world has already lost two tremendously important leaders in the past year. Steve Jobs, co-founder and longtime CEO of Apple, passed away last October due to complications from pancreatic cancer. Steve Appleton, CEO and former president of chip maker Micron Technology, died while piloting a stunt plane near the Boise, Idaho, company headquarters. Both Apple and Micron had endured stints without their chiefs, but they eventually brought them back on. Jobs was fired by Apple’s board in 1984 and would not return to the company until 1996. Micron’s board forced Appleton to abruptly resign in 1996, only to have him return within the same month. The death of an important figure — business, political, pop culture or otherwise — is always met with an initial phase of shock. Even when a death is anticipated, a knee-jerk reaction is usually our first response. Steve Jobs’ health had clearly been on the decline, but Wall Street and the Apple masses could never have expected him to pass so suddenly. Appleton’s death was even more unexpected. The 51-year-old had always lived life on the edge, racing motorcycles, cars and offroad vehicles in his spare time. Micron froze trading of the company’s shares as news of the crash trickled out, and quickly released an official statement announcing his death and sending condolences to his family. When Jobs announced he would resign from his position as CEO of Apple in August of 2011, shares tumbled 5 percent. News of Appleton’s death erased Micron’s early gains and sent the stock down several points. Quantifying a CEO’s legacy by looking at his or her company’s stock does little justice to his or her character — but let’s take a peek anyway. Apple has vaulted forward since Jobs’ death, nearly doubling since his resignation. Micron, however, has fallen nearly 20 percent since Appleton’s death. While Apple has benefited from Jobs’ lasting vision, Micron has suffered from wider chip manufacturing trends and has not surpassed its price from before Appleton’s death. Though death is never an easy thing to comprehend, both men spoke of it with grace and understanding. Appleton told The Wall Street Journal five years before his death, “It is kind of a cliche, but I’d rather die living than die dying.” In his 2005 Commencement Address at Stanford, Jobs told the audience “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” I believe — and really, sincerely hope — that Buffett will be around for years to come. He has already left a lasting mark on investment and philanthropy, just as Appleton did with the memory chip industry and Jobs did with personal computing. So, Mr. Buffett, I wish you well for what will come and thank you for what you have done. Stick around.
Walt Laws-MacDonald is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Walt.Laws_MacDonald@tufts.edu.
Op-ed Policy The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than noon on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.
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Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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2012 Light On The Hill Award & Lecture
Gloria White-Hammond M76, H06 Executive Director and Co-Founder of My Sister’s Keeper, a women’s humanitarian effort in Sudan Co-Pastor of Bethel AME Church, Boston Member of the Tufts Board of Trustees since 2007 Former pediatrician, South End Community Health Center A FREE event open to the entire Tufts community. Sponsored by the TCU Senate and the Tufts University Alumni Association
Tuesday, April 24th 6:00PM Alumnae Lounge Award presentation, lecture and reception Food and refreshments served
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NESCAC Player of the Week
Scott Tingley / The Tufts Daily
Sophomore Shelci Bowman notched an impressive singles victory against No. 1 Williams on Saturday, beating the 18th-ranked player in the nation 7-5, 6-1.
Tufts takes positive signs from loss to No. 1 Williams WOMEN’S TENNIS continued from Back
Alberstone, 6-1, 6-1. Bowman played in Flynn’s old No. 3 spot and, despite playing a spot lower than she normally does, lost 6-3, 6-2 to Emily Lombardi. The lone win on the Tufts side came from Lam, who took her match 6-4, 6-2 over Hannah Hoerner. “The loss against Bowdoin was pretty disappointing,” Gann said. “We had really high hopes going in, and unfortunately we didn’t play to the best of our abilities.” On Saturday, the Jumbos were unable to capitalize on an opportunity to topple the country’s top-ranked team at home, but overall they felt more positive about the match. “I thought we did really well againstWilliams even though the score was 8-1,” Bowman told the Daily in an email. “Everyone showed a lot of fight and positive energy. I think it was the closest we’ve come to beating Williams yet, even if the score says otherwise.” The doubles pairings went unchanged from the match against Bowdoin, and they suffered the same fate: losses across the board. Both Katz and Bowman at the top spot and Schonfeld
and Kimmel at No. 3 lost by 8-4 margins. However, the singles matches were much more competitive. While Katz and Schonfeld lost in the top two positions, Bowman scored a huge upset against 18thranked Nancy Worley, winning 7-5, 6-1. Bowman’s strong play was encouraging, especially since the Jumbos need someone to step up in Flynn’s absence. Gann gave her opponent a scare after losing the first set 6-0, rallying to take the second set, 7-5, and sending the third set to a tiebreaker before finally falling, 10-6. “We are taking away a lot of positives from this match and are really taking major steps forward as a team, and I think that after making such great progress during Saturday’s match, we are a serious threat moving forward into this crucial part of the season,” Gann said. “We are really pumped up for Wednesday’s match against Amherst.” Tufts will travel to Amherst on Wednesday for a rematch against the third-ranked Lord Jeffs. The teams previously met at the Wellesly Invitational on April 8, when the Lord Jeffs beat the Jumbos, 8-1.
Scott Tingley / The Tufts Daily
Senior co-captain Matt Collins hit .630 (17-for-27) with 12 RBIs and 12 runs in seven games this past week.
Collins named Player of the Week after seven-game tear After rattling off seven straight multihit games, senior co-captain Matt Collins was named NESCAC Player of the Week yesterday. Collins, the reigning NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year who underwent Tommy John surgery in the offseason, carried the Jumbos during their recent seven-game winning streak, hitting .630 with 12 RBIs and 12 runs scored. He also recorded six extra-base hits. The designated hitter ranks fifth in the conference in doubles (11), fourth in batting average (.419), third in slugging percentage (.629) and second in runs scored (34). The baseball team bounced back this week after losing five out of six conference games, and Collins was in the thick of it all. On Monday, he went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, two runs, a double, a walk and a sto-
Fournier breaks Tufts’ single-season strikeout record SOFTBALL
continued from Back
the speed, she has the movement and now she’s hitting her spots like she did on Friday. It’s nice that we can rely on other people than Allyson. It goes to show [that] not only do we have depth in our batting order, but in the pitching rotation, too.” In game two, the duo of Fournier and DiBiase combined to shut out the Bobcats, surrendering just four hits and
three walks in the contest. Fournier, who leads the NESCAC with a 0.42 ERA and 149 strikeouts, fanned eight of the 14 batters she faced. Fournier now holds Tufts’ all-time single-season strikeout record, surpassing Jodie Moreau (LA ‘02), who had 140 whiffs during her senior year. Not only has Fournier broken the record as a freshman, but she has done it with eight regular season games remaining. Tufts’ offense got off to a hot start
in the second game of the series, scoring five runs on seven hits in the first three innings. Cantone led the attack with three hits and two RBIs, while Hedtler and junior second baseman Emily Beinecke each recorded two hits and scored a run. The Jumbos are now 28-4 overall and have won their last five games. With just six games left in the regular season, they are starting to set their sights on the larger task at hand.
len base in a doubleheader sweep of UMass Dartmouth. On Thursday, he went 2-for-5 with two RBIs, and followed that up with another 4-for-5 day on Friday. Then, in a doubleheader at Williams on Saturday, Collins capped off his incredible week with five hits and five runs scored in the two games. Despite a 20-8 overall record, Tufts is in danger of missing the conference playoffs after winning the NESCAC in each of the past two seasons. With Trinity having secured the number-one seed in the NESCAC East, the Jumbos will take on the Bowdoin Polar Bears this weekend to determine who makes the tournament. Tufts must win at least two of three to earn a chance to defend its title. —by Alex Baudoin
“I think overall we are looking to come out every day like we are one of the best teams in the country, whether it’s in practice or a game,” Cantone said. “If we want to be a championship team, we need to have the mentality that we are one. We need to come out with that intensity every game. When we do get to the conference tournament and hopefully regionals, we will have that same intensity that can match any team in the country.”
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Tufts Daily
15
Sports
Club Baseball
Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville
Next stop, .500: Despite obstacles, club baseball team trending upward this season by
Zachey Kliger
Daily Editorial Board
After wrapping up one of its better seasons in recent memory on Thursday with a loss against the University of New Hampshire (UNH), the club baseball team is now looking ahead to the fall with hopes of both improving and expanding. Playing in the New England Club Baseball Association, the squad competes against UNH, Trinity, Maine, Boston College and Connecticut’s Three Rivers Community College and plays its home games at Boston College’s Cassidy Park. Occasionally, the players travel to New Hampshire to compete on the UNH campus. According to members of the team, this year’s 5-6 record marks one of the best finishes in recent club history. Sophomore G.J. Vitale, who is also a staff writer for the Daily and played baseball at the varsity level until February, said the season was also memorable for reasons other than just the won-lost record. “We started off the year 2-0, which I heard is rare,” Vitale laughed. “But more importantly, we had a strong turnout for almost every game, with 11 or 12 kids usually showing up to play. The enthusiasm is definitely there.” The turnout is particularly impressive considering that the team held only one organized practice during the entire season and that there are no
coaches. While roughly 20 players are on the roster, many on that list have never shown up. “We are definitely more laid back than some of the other teams,” Vitale said. “New Hampshire and Boston College take it a lot more seriously. But then again, they have much bigger schools and probably more kids willing to make the commitment. They also have coaches and a stronger talent level.” “There are some kids that take it a little more seriously,” freshman Jack Zurier added. “It largely depends on the time of involvement. The upperclassmen are a little more invested. Also, we don’t have a coach, so I think a lot of people see that as a reason not to take it seriously.” Accordingly, the talent level is, at times, lacking. Vitale explained that he pitched four games this year, going the distance in all of them and posting a 0.81 ERA. His record in those four games? 1-3. Clearly, runs were hard to come by. “To my knowledge, there is nobody other than myself who was playing varsity and is now playing club,” Vitale said. “Most of these kids are former high school players who just want to get out and play the game they love.” While an infusion of talent would be preferable, it is difficult for Tier II club sports to attract many players due to time and money constraints. Tier II teams are permitted to compete under the Tufts University name, but are not
guaranteed any funding or space. In contrast, Tier I club sports receive both funding and space for practices, games and scrimmages. Simply put, Tier II teams are largely on their own, with players forced to take the initiative in terms of traveling to games and ensuring attendance. “Right now it’s very casual, and we want to keep it that way,” Vitale said. “But at the same time, getting a coach and having more participation would go a long way to helping us become a Tier I club sport.” Though there are not currently any coaching prospects on the horizon, the team hopes that, as the players become more committed, the job becomes more appealing. In addition, Vitale and Zurier hope that, by the time they graduate, the team will have grown considerably. Vitale, for his part, believes club baseball has given him a new perspective on the game. “I’ve played baseball all my life, and it’s always been for a purpose, it’s always been serious,” Vitale said. “But playing at the club level really brings you back to the root of baseball and reminds you that it’s just about having a good time, getting out on the field, smiling and enjoying the game that you love. I got to know a ton of people and made a bunch of friends from this team, and I realize I’m a lucky kid to have the opportunity to do this.”
Playoff spot on the line at Bowdoin this weekend BASEBALL
continued from Back
a 1-5 stretch and were a testament to the team’s ability to remain in the moment. “I don’t know if we’re doing anything differently, guys just understood that we needed to play better,” said Collins, who was named the NESCAC Player of the Week. “We just started focusing on things in our control, and the most important thing is going out there and playing hard. I think we’ve adopted that mentality this past week, and fortunately it led to some wins.” Though Saturday’s doubleheader at Williams didn’t count toward the NESCAC standings, the Jumbos took the Ephs to task in a two-game sweep. Sophomore Christian Sbily has strung together consecutive strong starts after failing to record an out against Colby on April 14, and he held Williams to five hits and one run over seven innings in a 10-1 win. In the nightcap, senior Kevin Gilchrist moved to 4-2 on the heels of Tufts’ first no-hitter since 2003. He was aided by a 4-for-5, three-RBI performance from freshman third baseman Wade Hauser in a 7-3 win. Now, the Jumbos turn their attention to the Polar Bears and this weekend’s series in Brunswick, Maine, which will decide the second playoff spot in the NESCAC East. Trinity has locked up home-field advantage throughout the conference tournament, but Bowdoin and Tufts both have a shot. The scenario is simple: win the series and the Jumbos are in. Lose the series and the season is effectively over, aside from three relatively meaningless home games with nothing to play for but pride. Now, Tufts has all week to let the magnitude of this weekend marinate. “I think we rebounded pretty well after our losses to Colby,” junior right fielder Eric Weikert said. “We gathered ourselves, re-centered our focus. We’re focused on Friday, 3 o’clock. The season’s on the line, there’s nothing else to tell you. We just have to come out and play great baseball.” The Polar Bears (18-13, 5-4 NESCAC) enter with a dangerous pitching staff headlined by 5-foot-9 righty Oliver Van Zant, who lasted just 2 2/3 innings against Trinity but is coming off a complete game two-hitter versus Colby that earned him NESCAC Pitcher of the Week honors. Entering last week, the sophomore ranked third in the nation with 13.12 strikeouts per nine innings. The magnitude of the series is obvious
Scott Tingley / The Tufts Daily
Senior co-captain Sam Sager is batting .529 with seven runs and five RBIs over the Jumbos’ last four games, helping to extend their winning streak to seven and improve their overall record to 20-8. — but the Jumbos aren’t talking about it. “No, and I don’t think we will,” Collins said, when asked if Tufts had even addressed the importance of this weekend. “One of
our biggest things is approach every game the same way, and you can’t get caught up in the magnitude of certain games. That’s how you’re successful as a team.”
A goodbye
S
even semesters ago, an ephemeral time period by any standard except perhaps one labeled “Kardashian Marriage,” I began writing this column. Today marks my penultimate penning, the final weekly installment of “Live From Mudville.” And there are so many people I would like to thank before the orchestral music plays me off the stage. Thank you to those who provided me with a constant source of material over the years. Ozzie Guillen, LeBron James and all the rest of the other volcanoes for traditional column fodder, spewing hatefilled vitriol and naivete that never failed to beg for social commentary on the state of the world. Thank you Jeremy Lin and Tim Tebow, for repeating the trope of the alluring narrative, that black hole of story that sucks in fans and media alike, spiraling the story so far out of control that it almost becomes unrecognizable, too distant from its origin. Thank you March Madness, Marathon Monday and any other alliterative springtime traditions that I can relentlessly ridicule, all in the name of fun. My relationship with such events is somewhat like a schoolyard bully pulling the pretty girl’s pigtails. Because man, are those fun to write about. Thank you to the Miami-based Sled Dog Action Coalition, for emailing me at 8 a.m. one morning my freshman year to teach me about cruelty in the Iditarod. Your credibility is through the roof, especially given that your intern presumably spent the morning frolicking on Google News, trolling for someone — anyone, even a Tufts Daily columnist — to send your prepackaged, South Beach rhetoric about a snow sport to. Thank you to the Tufts athletics community, for welcoming me into its ranks and giving me journalistic access. Thank you to the brains behind the men’s basketball team’s “Circus” promotion, to football coach Jay Civetti and baseball coach John Casey for their willingness to talk and to their players for opening up to a kid. I’d like to thank you, my reader. All one of you. Over the past seven semesters, I’ve written about Thanksgiving, Patriots’ Day and Christmas. I’ve written about why we love to hate, why we cry at a trivial game featuring players with whom we will never come in contact but grow angry when those same players show that same emotion, and why we love these same players to whom we somehow feel this spiritual connection, bonded through sport. I’ve written about scapegoating, reactionary fans and knee-jerk panic; the appeal of enmity; the plight of the masses and the road to becoming a legend. I wrote about Anne Frank’s purported blindness, dropping the f-bomb on television and the Beef O’Brady’s Bowl. And then I went out and ate Beef O’Brady’s. I’ve written serious open letters to idiot coaches, hopeful ones to budding leaders and satirical help-wanted ads for Tufts graduates. I wrote that The Tufts Daily sent me to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and people wondered how I made it back for class later that week. I wrote about a “fantasy-fantasy baseball” draft featuring only fictional players, and I solicited user submissions for columns about your most glorious moments playing fantasy football. I told readers about my love for Kool-Aid Jammers, “(500) Days of Summer” and “Recess.” To pretend I, or any columnist at the Daily for that matter, maintains a loyal readership would be delusional. But this is an amazing platform for expression, for a weird kid to make bad jokes and write about the intersection between sports and life on a weekly basis. So thank you for reading, and thank you to those — editors, readers, friends — who helped make this column somehow last seven semesters. Most of all, I want to thank Jesus. Jesus Montero. Catcher for the Seattle Mariners. I like the way he plays sports. Thanks, Jesus. For everything. Alex Prewitt is a senior majoring in English and religion. He can be reached on his blog at http://livefrommudville.blogspot.com or followed on Twitter at @Alex_Prewitt.
Sports
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INSIDE Club Baseball 15
tuftsdaily.com
Softball
No. 9 Jumbos number one in NESCAC East by
Alex Baudoin
Daily Editorial Board
After a 4-0 weekend that included a three-game sweep of conference rival Bates, the No. 9 softball team, SOFTBALL (28-4 Overall, 12-0 NESCAC East) at Waltham, MA, Sunday
R H E Tufts 1 0 2 3 3 2 0 -- 10 10 2 Brandeis 0 0 0 1 3 0 1 -- 5 10 4 at Lewiston, ME, Saturday Tufts Bates
4 0 6 1 0 0 4 -- 15 16 1 0 0 1 4 0 0 0 -- 5 8 5
at Lewiston, ME, Friday Tufts Bates
1 2 2 0 0 0 0 -0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --
5 0
8 1 4 3
Tufts Bates
0 0 1 0 1 0 0 -0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --
2 0
9 0 0 0
which owns a perfect 12-0 record in the NESCAC, has clinched the first seed in the NESCAC East division. Propelled by sophomore Lauren Giglio’s no-hitter on Friday to lock up first place, and freshman Allyson Fournier’s continued excellence, the Tufts pitching staff allowed just 10 runs over the four games. “The pitchers do a lot of live practice [during off days], which is really good for them,” sophomore catcher Jo Clair said of her pitching staff. “They throw to us as batters, and I think using an offense as potent as ours as your practice, and then going in and facing offenses that maybe aren’t as potent as us, is what is really contributing to their success. They are learning how to get hitters out like us, and they’re translating what they do in practice to what they are doing in games.” On Sunday, the Jumbos banged 10 hits on their way to a 10-5 non-confer-
ence victory over the Brandeis Judges. Junior right-hander Rebecca DiBiase, who is second on the team with 10 wins, pitched a complete game in the win. Entering the top of the fourth inning with a 3-0 lead, Clair blasted a threerun homer over the center field wall that plated freshman rightfielder Gracie Marshall and senior centerfielder Lizzy Iuppa. The Jumbos would go on to score two apiece in the fifth and sixth to win by a final score of 10-5. Clair, the NESCAC leader in home runs with eight, finished the game with three hits and three RBIs to raise her batting average to .463. Senior tri-captain first baseman Lena Cantone, the reigning NESCAC Player of the Year, chipped in with two hits and two runs scored. Despite boasting one of the best offenses in the conference, the Jumbos struggled to get going early on in Friday’s doubleheader against the Bobcats. In the opener, Tufts managed just two runs off Bates senior starter Kristen Finn. “Our offense was a little slow in the first few games,” Clair said. “It got better as the weekend went on and the offense is picking it up slowly, which is good because I think we’ve been in a little bit of a hitting slump. So it’s good to see the offense coming back around just in time, right in front of NESCACs and regionals.” The lone RBI of the contest came off Clair’s bat on a fielder’s choice in the third inning, scoring sophomore left fielder Sara Hedtler. Cantone scored the game’s final run on a wild pitch in the fifth inning. The story of the game, however, was Giglio’s performance on the mound. In her seventh start of the season, Giglio threw a no-hitter against a Bates squad that is hitting .339 this spring. The sophomore struck out 11 and improved to 4-1 on the season. “I think that progressively through the season, [Lauren] has been gaining confidence,” Cantone said. “She has see SOFTBALL, page 14
Scott Tingley / The Tufts Daily
Senior second baseman Emily Beinecke had nine hits, four RBIs and five runs scored during the Jumbos’ 4-0 weekend.
Baseball
Women’s Tennis
After poor NESCAC stretch, Jumbos win seven straight
Tufts drops pair of NESCAC matches to top-10 teams
by
Alex Prewitt
Daily Editorial Board
The bats came out and the wins came back. Five losses in six NESCAC games turned BASEBALL (20-8 Overall, 4-5 NESCAC East) at Nashua, NH, Sunday Tufts 0 Daniel Webster 0
0 1
3 0
2 0
0 0
R H E 1—6 7 0 0—1 3 1
at Williamstown, MA, Saturday Tufts 2 1 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 — 6 Williams 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 — 3 Tufts Williams
7 5
0 4
0 3 0 2 4 1 0 — 10 13 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 5 1
at Nashua, NH, Friday Tufts 4 0 2 2 0 0 2 1 2 — 13 16 1 Daniel Webster 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 — 1 7 1 at Waltham, MA, Thursday Tufts Bentley
0 0 0 0 10 5 0 0 0 — 15 8 1 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 — 4 4 5
into seven straight wins for the baseball team, which capped off a much-needed 7-0 week on Sunday and heads into this week-
end’s three-game series at Bowdoin with a playoff spot on the line. Beginning with a doubleheader sweep against UMass Dartmouth on April 16 and ending with Sunday’s 6-1, rain-shortened win at Daniel Webster, the offense pounded out 64 runs on 81 hits. It was a forceful week across the board, with a pitching staff that took its fair share of lumps during the NESCAC schedule rebounding to the tune of one shutout and four one-run showings. In his past three appearances entering Sunday, freshman Kyle Slinger had allowed 16 earned runs in 7 2/3 innings, his ERA ballooning from 2.18 to 6.67. He rebounded in a big way against Daniel Webster, hurling six innings of three-hit, one-run ball. Senior co-captain Matt Collins slugged a three-run homer, his third of the season, and finished with four RBIs against the Eagles while serving as the designated hitter. He currently leads all of Tufts’ regular starters with a .419 batting average and is slugging a preposterous .629. Over Tufts’ seven-game winning streak, Collins hit .630 (17-for-27) with 12 RBIs and 12 runs scored. Alongside senior co-captain shortstop Sam Sager — who is hitting .529 over the past four games with seven runs scored and five RBIs — Collins has helped carry the Jumbos back from the precipice of disaster. Their seven straight wins followed see BASEBALL, page 15
by Jake Indursky
Senior Staff Writer
Coming off a 9-0 victory against Bates on April 16, the No. 13 women’s tennis team entered Thursday’s matchup against WOMEN’S TENNIS (7-7 Overall, 3-2 NESCAC) Voute Courts, Saturday Williams Tufts
8 1
at Brunswick, ME, Thursday Bowdoin Tufts
8 1
Bowdoin with a perfect 3-0 record in NESCAC play. But after a tough weekend during which the Jumbos suffered losses to both the 10th-ranked Polar Bears and the No. 1 Williams Ephs, they now find themselves in a much different position heading into their midweek contest against the No. 3 Lord Jeffs. Although there were positives to be taken away from the two defeats — both of which came by 8-1 scores — the team finds itself in need of a signature win after
a pair of losses to top-10 teams. However, that win will be hard to come by, not only because the Lord Jeffs are the next opponent, but also because the Jumbos are now without Eliza Flynn, who had been playing number-three singles and number-one doubles. While the team did not disclose the reason for Flynn’s absence, it was glaring in the recent defeats, and forced the lineup to be shuffled. Against Bowdoin, the doubles pairings were altered for the second time in as many weeks, with junior captain Lindsay Katz and sophomore Shelci Bowman joining forces at the top spot and sophomore Rebecca Kimmel and freshman Sophie Schonfeld teaming up at third doubles. The duo of junior Janice Lam and sophomore Samantha Gann, which has been together at number-three doubles for most of the year, moved up to the No. 2 spot. The new pairings did not serve the Jumbos well, as all three doubles teams fell to a Polar Bears squad that took advantage of Tufts’ inexperience. The closest match came at the No. 3 spot, where Schonfeld and Kimmel held their own until they were finally defeated, 8-6. Singles did not go much better for Tufts, especially at the top of the ladder, where Schonfeld — a new addition to the singles team — fell to national No. 7 Kellen see WOMEN’S TENNIS, page 14