commencement

THE TUFTS DAILY VOLUME LXI, NUMBER 60

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM

Commencement 2011

“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” —Nelson Henderson

The Tufts Daily

2

News A possible non-Tufts study abroad program to Cuba hits administrative blocks. see page 4

Commencement 2011

A proposed bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would expand colleges’ duties in reporting sexual assault. see page 5

The Beyond Boundaries campiConstruction on the Steve Tisch tal campaign is at 99 percent Sports and Fitness Center began completion, with $15 million left in April and is expected to finish to raise toward its final goal. see page 5 in 2012. see page 4 Tufts Medical Center narThe university will hire a new rowly avoided a nurses strike director of Greek life, a position planned for May 6 by reaching left vacant for most of the last two a union agreement for safer years, by the end of the summer. staffing levels. see page 6 see page 4

Arts | Living

Time flies, but pop culture milestones ensure memories If you’re willing to go to South will remain.

Boston, the SoWa open marsee page 18 ket is a great place to find fresh produce, crafts and Follow this arts tour from the antiques.

East Coast to the West. see page 17 see page 18

The Daily takes a look at what this summer has to offer in the way of literary releases. see page 19 For graduating seniors who have some downtime in between job interviews, the Daily previews this summer’s movies, music, theater and TV shows. see pages 22-23

highlights

Features University President Lawrence Bacow discusses the highs and lows of his decade leading Tufts. see page 11 An introspective look at Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha’s tenure on the Hill. see page 11 The Daily looks at the college careers and future plans of six outstanding graduating seniors. see pages 12-13 The Tufts Roundtable Commons, a website for interactive political discourse begun by graduating seniors, is a rapidly expanding forum for blogging by people both on and off the Hill. see page 14 The rigorous foreign language requirement may play into Tufts’ prowess in international relations, but some students are questioning its relevance across all majors. see page 14

Photographs from this year’s Spring Fling, which brought The Roots and RJD2 to the President’s Lawn. see pages 26-27

Sports

The Daily examines the top 10 moments in Tufts athletics Lightning stuck twice in two over the past year. see page 40 days as the men’s lacrosse team took home the NESCAC Championship in thrilling fash- The class of 2011 is leaving behind a hefty athletic legacy; ion last week on Bello Field. see page 46 the Daily takes a look at some of the seniors whose impact has With the help of some late- been particularly significant. see pages 36-37 inning heroics, the baseball team won its second straight NESCAC Tournament and moved on to NCAAs. see page 46 The women’s tennis team has made the national quarterfinals for the first time in school history after crushing No. 9 Johns Hopkins in the NCAA Tournament. see page 46

From 2007 to 2011, graduating seniors have seen a lot happen on the Hill, and the Daily has a recap of it all. see pages 24-25

Op-ed

Incoming TCU President Tomas Garcia outlines his future plans.

Outgoing TCU President Sam see page 31 Wallis looks back at the major events, on and off the Hill, of Rising senior Victoria Fashakin dispast four years. cusses the proposed Africana studsee page 30 ies department. see page 31 Facebook offers more than meets the eye, according to ris- Rising senior Cleo Hirsch offers a ing sophomore Sydney Post. perspective from abroad on Osama see page 30 bin Laden’s death. see page 32

Stay informed. Stay connected. Stay tuned.

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Blogs, videos and other interactive features.

Photos: Front cover by justin mccallum/tufts daily, back cover by aalok kanani/tufts daily, Inside Back by William H. Butt V/tufts daily

Today’s sections News 3 Features 11 Arts | Living 17 Four Years in Review 24

Captured Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Sports

26 28 30 46

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

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News

Africana studies task force set to deliver final report this month by

Kathryn Olson

Daily Editorial Board

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

As a significant number of senior administrators prepare to leave Tufts, many have voiced confidence in the strength of the school’s institutional memory.

In time of major transition, many heartened by signs of continuity by

Ben Gittleson

Daily Editorial Board

One university president.

Five deans. A provost, an associate provost and the chief executive of a teaching hospital. All are stepping down this year or have left their positions in the last year and a half.

As the presidential transition draws near, a significant number of senior adminis-

trators are moving on from Tufts, some in concert with University President Lawrence Bacow’s departure and others by coincidence.

Administrators and faculty members have voiced hopeful anticipation of what the next president and provost might bring to the university, and many said they were see TRANSITION, page 8

Members of the task force on Africana studies are set to deliver their final conclusions on the future of the study of the African Diaspora at Tufts near the end of this month, with the administration prepared to use its recommendations in making a decision on the issue by September.

Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne BergerSweeney in February announced the creation of the task force, largely in response to an appeal from the Pan-African Alliance for the university to form an Africana studies department.

The Tufts Community Union Senate in November passed a resolution in support of the appeal and asked the university to consider transforming the existing Africa in the New World minor into an Africana studies major and department.

The task force is composed of a chair — Wellesley College Professor Emeritus Wilbur Rich — two Tufts undergraduate students, seven Tufts faculty members and administrators and faculty members from Dartmouth College and Brown University.

Another external member, a faculty member from Harvard University, has dropped out of the task force since its inception, Berger-Sweeney said.

The Tufts representatives of the task force have submitted their unofficial recommendations to Berger-Sweeney, and they are expected to join the group’s external members in briefing the administration on an official report by the end of the month, according to Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences Andrew McClellan, a member and spokesperson for the task force.

The external members of the task force joined the Tufts team earlier this month for two days of meetings with administrators, students and each other in hopes of rounding out their consideration

of the feasibility of an Africana studies department or possible alternatives, said McClellan.

The task force received feedback on its findings in a May 12 meeting with a group of students who had previously shown interest in the issue.

Rising junior Groom Dinkneh, who was present at the meeting, said he saw it as an opportunity to hold the administration accountable for its promises of a “holistic education.”

“We were there to explain why Africana studies is important and why it’s pivotal to enhancing our experience,” Dinkneh said.

In recent months, students have urged the task force and the administration through letters and public displays to consider creating an Africana studies department with, the message that such a department would broaden the university’s academic offerings to represent a larger segment of the student body.

The creation of an Africana studies department or major would be a critical step toward that goal, according to Dinkneh.

“The goal of a college education is to expose yourself to difficult issues and difficult conversations,” he said. “It’s important to introduce as many views as possible. If we’re allowed to open our minds to those issues now, it will not only create a better society but healthier individuals who seek to understand each other.”

Berger-Sweeney, University President-elect Anthony Monaco and members of the Office of the Provost will meet throughout the summer to discuss how to proceed and will deliver a final decision to the student body in September, according to Berger-Sweeney.

The task force has considered multiple options, including the creation of an Africana studies prosee AFRICANA, page 10

Backed by university, annual winter festival will succeed NQR by

March, Bacow announced that such a level of risk had become unacceptable and that NQR would not be permitted to continue.

In response to this announcement, Tufts Community Union (TCU) President Sam Wallis and Programming Board co-Chair Sarah Habib, both graduating seniors, sent an email to the student body soliciting proposals for a new tradition that would take place on the night NQR customarily occurred.

Matt Repka

Daily Editorial Board

A new student-run event will offer Tufts undergraduates a fully clothed way to celebrate the end of classes next December.

The event, known as WinterFest, will take place on the Medford-Somerville campus on the evening of Dec. 12, the last day of fall semester classes.

Featuring music, food, a snow sculpture competition and other attractions, its creators envision the WinterFest as an event that will appeal broadly to the student body and present an alternative to the Naked Quad Run (NQR), which the university announced in March it would no longer tolerate.

NQR, a long-standing Tufts tradition with origins in the 1970s, grew from an informal curiosity to an officially sanctioned event as the university lent barricades and police to the Res Quad course in an attempt to ensure participant safety beginning in 2003. The event, however, became progressively more associated with alcohol abuse in recent years, resulting in physical inju-

dilys ong/Tufts Daily

WinterFest, a new student-run event involving music, food, a snow machine and a sculpture competition, will serve as an end-of-classes celebration after the university canceled the Naked Quad Run in March. ries from falling and exposure to cold temperatures, as well as the threat of alcohol poisoning.

This last danger proved the most grave, with several students coming

dangerously close to serious harm and even death as a result of drinking on the night of NQR, according to University President Lawrence Bacow.

In an op-ed published in the Daily in

A “new tradition” takes shape A committee comprised of Programming Board members and TCU Senators reviewed 15 student proposals before unanimously deciding on the WinterFest model in April, according to Habib.

The committee coordinated with Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds, the Department of Facilities Services and the Tufts University Police Department in selecting the new event, Habib added. see WINTERFEST, page 7

Tufts to give out over 3,300 degrees at Commencement today by

Martha Shanahan

Daily Editorial Board

A total of 3,377 students will accept degrees today during the university’s 155th commencement ceremony.

All of the university’s schools will gather on the Academic Quad between Ballou and Bendetson Halls for the first phase of the ceremony from 9 to 11 a.m. This phase consists of the Academic Procession, the presentation and granting of honorary degrees and recognition of faculty emeriti.

Graduates can collect their diplomas in Dowling Hall following Phase I through 4 p.m. today.

They will also be available next week in Dowling.

National Academy of Engineering President and President emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Charles Vest will

receive an honorary degree and deliver the Commencement address.

Harlem Children’s Zone CEO Geoffrey Canada, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden, acclaimed writer Jamaica Kincaid, social justice advocate Pamela Omidyar (LA ’89), eBay founder and chairman Pierre Omidyar (E ’88) and Nobel laureate economist Robert Solow will join Vest in receiving honorary degrees.

During the second phase of Commencement, scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., degree recipients will participate in ceremonies and celebrations specific to their departments and schools.

Of the degrees awarded today, 1,536 will go to undergraduates and 1,841 will go to graduate students. These numbers were accurate as of press time before

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

see COMMENCEMENT, page 10

Graduating students from across Tufts’ schools will gather on the Academic Quad for the first phase of today’s Commencement ceremony.

The Tufts Daily

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News

Commencement 2011

Faculty seeks approval for study abroad program in Cuba by

Daphne Kolios

Daily Editorial Board

Students and faculty are working to overcome administrative hurdles to gain approval for a non-Tufts study abroad program in Cuba in an effort to align student travel and study in the country with recently passed federal law.

Several Tufts faculty members conceived of the study abroad program in conjunction with members of the Juan Marinello Cuban Institute for Cultural Research, a postdoctoral research institute focused on the social sciences of culture and culture policy. The institute would serve as the host for the program and local professors would teach courses.

With travel restrictions to Cuba easing since 2001, Tufts students have been able to study in the country for short periods of time under the university’s license for academic travel to Cuba.

Recent U.S. legislation, however, has necessitated that students studying abroad must now demonstrate that classes taken while in Cuba are accepted for credit by their university, according to José Antonio Mazzotti, chair of the Department of Romance Languages.

The legislation holds that American stu-

dents interested in studying abroad in the country are now not allowed to do so unless they can show that they are sponsored by an accredited university to receive academic credit.

Tufts faculty members conceived of the program last year as a fundamentally non-Tufts program after requests to start a Tufts program in Cuba were denied by the administration, according to professor emeritus Claudia Kaiser-Lenoir, a former associate professor in the Department of Romance Languages, who was one of the main faculty members involved in the program’s inception.

Under the proposed program, students would take classes through the Juan Marinello Institute, an organization for which there is no equivalent in the U.S. education system, according to Kaiser-Lenoir, who has served as the primary liaison with the institute. “[It’s] a mix between a think tank within a field of expertise and an institution for advanced research within the university,” she said.

Questions regarding the researchoriented nature of the institute, howev-

MCT

see CUBA, page 7

Students and faculty are standing behind a proposed non-Tufts study abroad program in Cuba despite administrative complications in approving the program for credit.

Athletic center construction on track Tufts aims to hire new Greek head this summer

by Jenny

White

Daily Editorial Board

Construction on the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, the second phase of a three-part plan to revamp Tufts’ athletic facilities, began in April and is on track to open to students at the beginning of September 2012.

“We’re right on schedule,” Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds said.

“When we first started working through the plan last summer, this is the timeline we had in mind. This will allow us to finish in time to have it ready for the opening of school.”

The three-story building, home to a new fitness center, sports medicine facilities and offices, will expand Tufts’ athletics facilities and reshape the entrance of the Medford/Somerville campus. Construction on the 42,000-

square-foot project, estimated to cost $16.6 million, began April 12 and is slated to finish by Aug. 1, 2012, according to Project Manager Mike Skeldon.

Stanmar, Inc., a construction company that specializes in athletic facilities for educational institutions, is heading up the project. So far, the company has removed topsoil from the construction site and prepared concrete foundations that will support steel pillars, Reynolds said.

Steel for the building frame is expected to arrive the first week of June, at which point Stanmar can begin work on the frame, according to Reynolds.

The goal is to have the building fully constructed and weathertight before November of this year, leaving work on the interior for the colder months, Skeldon said.

During construction, the

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

The Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center is expected to be open for student use in September 2012.

entrance to the existing athletic center has been shifted to the Cousens Gym doorway. Besides a different entryway and some minor work on doors between the old and new buildings, the construction process is not expected to interfere with normal operations in the existing athletic buildings, according to Reynolds.

“Everything will be open and fully utilized during the whole construction period,” Reynolds said.

In addition to the updated interior facilities, the plans for the new athletic center give the entire complex a more defined main entrance, according to Athletic Director Bill Gehling, who said the old ramp entrance “gave the wrong message for what happens down here.”

“We’ve known for a long time that our fitness center was inadequate,” he said. “And a suitable entrance to the facility was needed for a long time.”

Assistant Athletics Director for Athletics, Facilities, Fields and Game Management Tim Troville agreed. “Right now there are multiple doors in many locations.

Finding the entrance is difficult,” he said. “[The new building] is going to give us a central welcoming atrium.”

Additional locker rooms and a new sports medicine facility will be found on the lower level of the new building. Troville said the expanded medicine facility will be able to serve a more diverse segment of the student body.

“It’s currently overcrowded with varsity athletes, runners from the President’s Marathon Challenge, club sports and physical therapy patients,” Troville, who is also the Athletics Department’s project manager for the construction, said. “This will be a very nice way to help the population as a whole.”

The ground floor will be devoted to a fitness center, essentially doubling the current size of Tufts’ workout facilities, Reynolds said.

Half of Chase Gym is currently designated for sports team use while the other half is meant for all students. Once the new building is open, the general student body will use the new 7,000square-foot facility, and the Chase Gym will open exclusively for team use, Reynolds said.

“It’ll vastly expand fitness opportunities for students at see COMPLEX, page 9

by

Corinne Segal

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts hopes to hire a new director of fraternity and sorority life before the start of the fall semester, heading an office that has lacked permanent leadership for the majority of the past two years.

The position has been vacant since February, when former director Tanya McGinn Paolo, who started as director at the beginning of last semester, left Tufts with little explanation from the university as to the reason for her departure. Jamie Engle, who served as the coordinator of orientation and administration in the Undergraduate Orientation Office, took on the role as interim director as the university searched for a permanent replacement.

Before Paolo, the position sat vacant during the 2009-10 academic year, during which a flexible hiring freeze prevented the addition of a new director. During that time, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman served as interim director while Engle took on some of the position’s responsibilities.

The university has been searching for a new director since Paolo’s departure, Engle said. Reitman told the Daily in March that he had hoped to hire a new director by the end of this semester, but Engle confirmed this month that Tufts aims to hire someone during the summer who could come to the Hill before the start of the fall semester.

“The earlier the better,” she said, “so they can have more time to be acclimated to the Tufts campus and meet some of their colleagues and establish those relationships.”

Inter-Greek Council President Eric Swanson, a rising senior, said that the recent lack of continuity in directors was largely attributed to former directors’ personal decisions rather than flaws at Tufts.

“I don’t think it’s an issue with the Greek community or the Tufts community as a whole, but more so just personal decisions by the previous Greek directors,” he said.

After reviewing applications and conducting phone inter-

views, Tufts brought several finalists to Tufts for on-campus interviews during late April and early May, Engle said. She would not comment on the number of finalists who have been interviewed on campus.

Though an official search committee does not exist, Engle said, many members of the community, such as representatives from Student Affairs, the Tufts University Police Department, the Community Relations Department and the Department of Judicial Affairs, among others, have been involved in the process.

Engle invited fraternity and sorority presidents, Greek council presidents and representatives from the Tufts Community Union Senate to give feedback on the visiting candidates.

The backgrounds of the applicants are varied, according to Engle.

“We’ve seen people from small institutions similar to Tufts and some from large state schools with enormous systems,” she said. “Each of those candidates bring very valuable experience to Tufts University.”

Outgoing Panhellenic Council President Dana Traub said the Greek community needs a director to serve as a liaison between it and the rest of the university.

“There are a lot of things we’ve gotten used to doing independently that we shouldn’t and that we could do more effectively with someone who’s present,” Traub, a graduating senior, said.

Traub said that students often had to make rushed and disorganized decisions because there was no permanent director, citing Greek Week, a week of Greek-oriented events open to the larger Tufts community, as one example.

“Even though Greek Week was really successful this year, and we did more than we’ve ever done before and we had more participation … I do think that there was a lot of behindthe-scenes things going on at the last minute,” she said.

The new director, Traub hoped, would work on improving the relationships between see GREEK, page 7

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

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News

Federal budget cuts largely spare nonprofits and financial aid by

Amelie Hecht

Daily Editorial Board

A month after a heated debate over the federal budget brought the government dangerously close to a full shutdown, members of the Tufts community can breathe easier knowing that the budget cuts were less severe than anticipated for local nonprofit service organizations and need-based federal financial aid for college students.

The FiscalYear 2011 (FY2011) Continuing Resolution will fund the federal government until Sept. 30. The bill cut roughly $38 billion in federal spending, but largely preserved funding for nonprofit service organizations that serve the Medford and Somerville communities and engage student volunteers and graduates.

The passed budget was more conservative than the proposed Republican budget that passed the House of Representatives in February, which would have cut a total of $61 billion.

The passed FY2011 budget made modest cuts to funding for Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which oversees AmeriCorps, as well as different sources of federal funding of lowincome college students.

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

Federal budget cuts to local nonprofits and need-based federal financial aid for college students were less severe than anticipated.

Tufts service learning spared The bill cut 6 percent of CNCS funding, a decrease of $72 million from last year.

The cut will be felt primarily by programs such as Learn and Serve America, which supports service learning courses, and

Retired and Senior Volunteer Programs, a program that engages seniors in volunteer work, both of which were entirely eliminated.

The Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service received $500,000 in federal funding for the Project PERIS (Partnering for Economic Recovery Impact through Service) initiative through Learn and Serve America, according to Tisch College Director and Associate Dean Nancy Wilson.

The Project PERIS funding was a three-year grant, however, and will not be impacted by the cut, Wilson said. She noted that the university had not anticipated renewing the grant after it expires next year.

“Our grant is secure for the time being because it was funded out of last year’s budget in its entirety,” Wilson said. “[Learn and Serve America] is not a place we thought we would be likely to get money again soon from anyway.”

Affording school becomes even harder The final budget preserved the Pell Grant program, the largest source of needsee BUDGET, page 10

US senators propose sexual violence legislation for universities by

Elizabeth McKay

Daily Editorial Board

U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Pa.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) last month introduced legislation into the U.S. House of Representatives that would expand universities’ obligations regarding reporting and adjudicating incidents of sexual violence on college campuses.

The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act would amend the 1990 Jeanne Clery Act, a federal law requiring all institutions of higher education participating in federal student aid programs to publish an annual report of their crime statistics.

The amendment would mandate that universities include instances of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking in their annual reports. Universities would also be required to provide victims of sexual violence with a written summary of their rights and provide bystander education for students.

The bill also calls for institutions of higher education to clarify and publish their policies and procedures for dealing with incidents of sexual violence

on campus. Those policies must include a definition of consent.

Campus SaVE was designed to clarify both universities’ duties and students’ rights surrounding reports of sexual violence, according to Ian Jannetta, deputy press secretary for Casey.

“Campus SaVE provides a greater level of detail to ensure that students are given the information they need to protect themselves and to get the help they need if they have become victims,” Jannetta told the Daily in an email. “There is a lot of overlap between Title IX and Clery; the Campus SaVE Act makes it clear what institutions’ responsibilities are, all in one place.” Title IX bans sex discrimination in schools.

Although Tufts already complies with some provisions of the proposed legislation, Campus SaVE would bring significant changes to Tufts’ practices, according to Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman.

The school’s annual Clery Act-mandated security report includes reports of forcible sex offenses, such as rape, and nonforcible offenses, such as statutory rape. The SaVE Act will expand the report, requiring it

andrew morgenthaler/Tufts Daily

Legislation introduced last month in the U.S. House of Representatives would expand universities’ role in reporting and punishing campus incidents of sexual violence. Above, students strung t-shirts on the Academic Quad as part of a project during Sexual Assault Awareness Month earlier this year. to include statistics on instances of domestic violence, dating violence and stalking, according to Jannetta.

The university already has a clear sexual assault policy and sexual assault adjudication

Capital campaign set to reach $1.2 billion by June deadline by

Ellen Kan

Daily Editorial Board

Beyond Boundaries: The Campaign for Tufts, the university-wide capital campaign initiated by University President Lawrence Bacow early in his tenure, is on the brink of completion with 99 percent of the $1.2 billion total raised thus far.

With $15 million left to raise, administrators are confident that the campaign is on track to close by the end of June and Bacow’s tenure at Tufts.

Beyond Boundaries, which started with a quiet phase in 2002 and was publicly launched in 2006, has focused on the three priorities of supporting the student experience, building up a stellar faculty and enhancing physical facilities.

“The nice thing is that the campaign was launched under Larry’s presidency … so his presidency has kind of tracked with the campaign,” Director of Advancement Communications and Donor Relations Christine Sanni (LA ’89)

said. “It’s nice that it will close for his departure and under his leadership.”

The past year of fundraising has seen a number of campaign donations in honor of Bacow and his wife Adele Fleet Bacow. Board of Trustees Chair James Stern (E ’72) and Board of Trustees Chair Emeritus Nathan Gantcher (A ’62) led the effort to raise funds on behalf of the couple in response to a large number of requests, raising $41 million in the Bacows’ name and far surpassing the original $15 million target, according to Director of Central Development Programs Christopher Simoneau.

“From the day that Larry announced it was going to be ten years, which was a year ago in February, I was inundated by trustees and emeritus trustees asking, ‘What are we doing for Larry and Adele; we’ve got to do something,’” Stern said.

Stern emphasized that Beyond Boundaries was an enormous undertaking for the university, aiming to raise see CAMPAIGN, page 8

procedure, both of which were rewritten last year, Reitman said. He anticipates, however, that the policy will undergo some minor revisions regardless of the bill’s fate.

“We know already that there

are some things that need to be tweaked and improved for clarity, so that’s a plan for this summer,” he said.

The university’s updated polisee SAVE ACT, page 9

2010-11 Senate wraps up year of projects, initiatives by

Minyoung Song

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate this year supported changes to multiple areas of campus life, including the function and logistics of the body’s community representative position, improved communication between the Senate and the student body and cost-cutting measures for students.

The body accomplished many of the goals that it set out to achieve at the beginning of the academic year, outgoing TCU President Sam Wallis, a graduating senior, said.

The role of community representatives in the Senate changed this semester after a school-wide vote between two referenda in September granted them the power to vote on fiscal matters.

The body in February also amended its bylaws in accordance with the winning referendum to allow any TCU-

recognized group to apply to submit a community rep candidate in a schoolwide ballot. Student leaders from any Group of Six center may also submit a candidate with approval from the director of the center.

The changes to the bylaws also established a Diversity and Community Affairs Officer position as an overseer for community reps.

Despite a low candidate turnout in the spring semester’s elections for community rep positions, the changes will ultimately benefit the Senate, outgoing TCU Senate Parliamentarian Dan Pasternack, a graduating senior, said.

“I think we took the changes that were made at the end of last year and we made them something that could be used next year to better the system,” Pasternack said.

The Senate in November passed a resolution advocating the creation of an Africana studies department in support of an appeal to the university, spearheaded by the Pan-African Alliance. see SENATE, page 9

The Tufts Daily

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Commencement 2011

Nurses union reaches contract agreement with Tufts Medical by

Laina Piera

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts Medical Center officials in the early hours of May 6 narrowly avoided a nurse’s strike that had been planned to begin hours later. Administrators reached an agreement on a contract extension agreement with the union for Tufts Medical’s 1,200 nurses, according to Barbara Tiller, a nurse at Tufts Medical and chair of the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) bargaining unit.

The 18-month contract extension contains provisions that increase staffing, limit nurses’ patient assignments in a number of areas in the hospital, curtail the use of mandatory overtime, and protect nurses when they are asked to float to other areas of the hospital.

In addition, all nurses will get a 2-percent wage increase.

Tufts Medical and the MNA have been in negotiations since November following changes in the hospital’s staffing pattern early last year.

The MNA claims that the changes meant that, among other grievances, too many patients were assigned to each nurse, thus making the working conditions less safe.

The hospital has, with the new contract, agreed to limit patient assignments for nurses on the medical-surgical floors to six patients on the night shift and to no more than five patients on the day and evening shifts, Tiller told the Daily.

Previously, the hospital had a seven-toone patient-to-nurse ratio, Tiller said.

“Six-to-one is still a tough assignment, but the hospital is telling us that they will meet us and collaborate and work on getting resources to the nurses better than they have in the past,” Tiller said.

The hospital has also agreed to limit patient assignments for nurses in the intensive care units (ICU) to two patients per nurse in most cases, according to David Schildmeier, director of public

courtesy david schildmeier

Nurses at Tufts Medical Center, shown here picketing in March, reached a contract agreement with Tufts Medical officials to narrowly avoid a strike that had been planned to begin May 6. communications for the MNA. According to Julie Jette, director of media relations and publications at Tufts Medical, the MNA and the center have agreed that current staffing levels for day and evening shifts are appropriate and will not be changed.

“There are rare occasions that necessitate flexibility and changes to the current staffing patterns,” Jette told the Daily. “In these situations, staff nurses

Student fund garners record donations by

Rachel Rampino

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts Student Fund (TSF) saw record engagement in its effort to bring the Tufts community together in fundraising efforts this year.

The final count of 1,200 students contributing donations represents a nearly 50 percent increase in participation from last year, according to TSF coChair Kyle Sircus, a graduating senior. TSF received just over 800 student donations during the 2009-2010 school year.

The Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences and Engineering established the fund in 2008 to ease financial stress on students. The funds raised help a single student each year with his or her tuition bill.

TSF co-Chair Daniel Slate, a graduating senior, said this year’s success could be attributed to the group’s ramped-up outreach efforts.

“We’ve done more to go to people instead of expecting them to come to us,” Slate said. “These donors aren’t necessarily going to go out of their way to donate, but they aren’t opposed.”

The group began campaigning for donations with a kickoff event at the Mayer Campus Center in March, he said.

TSF also solicited donations at the campus center, at campuswide events such as Tuftonia’s Day and Spring Fling and via the Internet and a text-to-donate application, he said. The additional option of donating using JumboCash using portable card swipe machines also boosted the numbers, Slate added.

The committee continued

its practice of “dormstorming,” or going directly to dorms to ask for donations, in an effort to increase donations from the freshman and sophomore classes, Slate said.

TSF also attempted a campus-wide challenge to student groups, according to Slate. As part of the challenge, students could indicate their group affiliation along with their donation to encourage competition among groups. While this effort was not as successful as hoped, Slate said improvements in the logistics of the challenge could make it a larger part of next year’s campaign.

“It didn’t work as well as we thought, but we’ll try it again next year with some tweaks; we’ll keep fixing it and making it more successful,” he said.

TSF this year worked toward a goal of collecting 1,852 student donations after an anonymous alumnus donor agreed to match the donations with a $50,000 gift if they were able to reach it. TSF chose the number because it was the year Tufts was founded and because it was ambitious, Slate said.

While TSF was unable to meet its goal of 1,852 students, the donor agreed to increase the amount he would match from each student donation in order to donate a full scholarship for the chosen student recipient, Sircus said, adding that the record is a triumph in itself.

“We knew we had an ambitious goal, but the 1,200 students that did donate is a sign towards accomplishment,” Sircus said.

“We thought we didn’t reach our see TSF, page 9

will work with nurse managers to make suitable and safe adjustments.”

The contract also limits the use of mandatory overtime so that nurses are allowed to refuse overtime if they are ill. Nurses will not be required to work more than 16 hours in a single shift and may not be assigned more than 12 hours of mandatory overtime in a calendar quarter.

In the past, nurses have been man-

dated to stay overtime nearly every day, but recent additions to the hospital staff will limit the use of mandatory overtime, Tiller said.

Tiller said that she is satisfied with the overtime provision and the agreement overall.

“They beefed up the staffing and they’re going to keep it that way so that the mandatory overtime isn’t happening every day,” Tiller said.

As of press time, Tufts Medical planned to hold an all-day vote on May 19 to ratify the contract, according to Schildmeier.

All nurses at Tufts Medical who pay their dues to the MNA were able to cast a vote by a secret ballot process.

Schildmeier believed the contract would pass.

“The nurses, from what we’ve been hearing, have been thrilled with the agreement, and there’s always someone who will want more, but overall, there’s overwhelming support for the agreement.”

Schildmeier said this contract, if approved, would serve to provide safer patient care.

“I am optimistic that the hospital is sincere in its commitment and its commitment to the nurses, that they understand that they have work to do to restore the trust and to listen to the nurses,” Schildmeier said.

Jette echoed Schildmeier’s optimism.

“We are extremely pleased to be moving forward with our nurses,” Jette said.

“This fair settlement responds to the needs of our nurses and maintains the flexibility necessary to adjust to the diverse patient needs we treat in an academic medical center setting.”

Tiller added that the nurses would continue to meet throughout the 18-month duration of the contract to make sure that the process runs smoothly.

“We’ll be working on this process through the 18 months,” she said. “If they’re not hearing us or if they fly back to where they were, it will be a fight.”

Campus center to get summer facelift by

Nina Ford

Daily Editorial Board

Students will return after the summer to a renovated Mayer Campus Center featuring new heating, ventilation and air conditioning as well as aesthetic improvements and improved accessibility.

The Campus Center will close tomorrow for the duration of the summer to undergo the $3.6-million renovation project and will be completed by the beginning of the fall semester, according to Senior Construction Manager Ray Santangelo.

The new air conditioning system will make the building more comfortable for students, Associate Director of Campus Life Laura DaRos said.

“They’re switching the system so we’ll have better control over the heat in the building,” DaRos said. “There will be a more consistent climate.”

The installation will necessitate new mechanical equipment and new ceilings throughout the building, according to Santangelo.

The renovations will also bring a fresh layer of paint and new carpet in the offices and conference rooms and make the Commons wheelchair-accessible by bringing its floor level with the floor in Hotung DaRos said.

Both Santangelo and DaRos said the renovations mark a significant improvement to the campus center’s atmosphere.

“I think students will really benefit because the building will be much more comfortable as far as the air and the temperature and consistency,” DaRos said.

“The cosmetics of having new carpet and paint [will] give it a facelift,” she said.

The Facilities and Construction

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

Major renovations to the Mayer Campus Center will begin tomorrow and close down the center for the rest of the summer.

Department has been working with an architect and a contractor for the past year to develop the plans for the renovations, Santangelo said.

The new projects follow up on work done over last summer to redesign the information booth and install in the Campus Center’s main entrance aesthetic changes

and new technology like a display screen for the JoeyTracker GPS service.

“I think it’s going to really tie in the work we did in the lounge and the lobby,” Santangelo said.

“I think it’s going to bring that feel to the Commons as well as see CAMPUS CENTER, page 9

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

7

News

After long vacancy, Greek community looks forward to new director next fall GREEK

continued from page 4

the Greek community and other communities, such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Center, as well as multicultural fraternities and sororities. An ideal candidate would be able to connect well with students and be able to represent students in communication with the administration, she said.

Outgoing Interfraternity Council President Elias Kahan, a rising junior, said that he would look for reliability in a new director.

“We’re really just hoping to find someone who’s able to stay with the community and be a rock that everyone could go to,” he said.

Swanson hoped that the new director would communicate well with other staff members, something he said has been made difficult in the past by the placement of the Greek director’s office in Curtis Hall, across campus from where most other administrators are based. The office will next year relocate to the Mayer Campus Center, he said.

“The office was kind of isolated,” he said. “I think the transition from the old office to the campus center will definitely be beneficial to take away some of the difficulties that other direc-

tors have had in the past.”

Traub similarly felt that the new director would face the challenge of improving the Greek community’s relationship with the administration.

“Our campus is not perfect,” she said. “Our relationship with the faculty and administration needs a lot of work.”

Despite the discontinuity, Traub believed the Greek community has this year successfully encouraged collaboration between fraternities and sororities for philanthropic events.

“Each chapter has really grown and been more productive, but this year for the first time I saw multiple houses coming together,” she said.

The community contributed to philanthropy this year by raising around $4,000 for Relay for Life through Party 4 Life, a series of five ticketed parties. Chapters also collaborated to donate Thanksgiving meals this year in an effort spearheaded by Delta Upsilon, and sororities raised nearly $1,300 for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center through the Walk for Change on April 10, according to Traub.

Still, she said, there was more to be done in improving Greek operations on campus. In particular, she hoped the new director would pursue the creation of a new sorority, as well as help organize more philanthropic events

meredith klein/tufts daily

The university hopes to find a new Greek life director by the end of the summer. that do not involve alcohol.

Engle said that she had never intended to take on the position of director permanently and did not consider taking the job herself.

“It was never a part of the plan,” she said. “I really enjoyed getting to know the students and

Program would build on history of student involvement in Cuba, faculty say CUBA

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er, have complicated the approval process. Tufts’ policy requires that study abroad programs be offered through accredited degree-granting institutions, according to Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser, and the Cuban institution does not meet this requirement.

The policy ensures the legitimacy of students’ study abroad requests, Glaser said.

“The fact that it’s … an accredited degree-granting [institution] gives us some assurance that certain requirements have been met, and so we don’t have to go into every university and know every detail of how they’re operating,” Glaser said. “The accreditation tells us that this has been looked up by people who are knowledgeable and it’s been given their stamp of approval.”

Kaiser-Lenoir explained that the institute was chosen as the host institution because of its broad research in the social sciences and because professors for the courses offered come from Cuban universities.

“In several trips, we contacted the [Institute] and they were very open to holding meetings with our students … so when we starting thinking about what kind of place we could find to have a program that would offer this kind of very interdisciplinary environment, we thought about [it],” KaiserLenoir said. “There are many others … but the Juan Marinello was the one that had the intellectual range that seemed to fit the students that we would take.”

Since the institute does not grant degrees, discussion is ongoing about changes that would have to be made to the program to align it with university standards and allow Tufts students to attend, according to Glaser.

Thus far, the program’s supporters have worked to demonstrate that the Juan Marinello Institute is comparable to a graduate school under the U.S. higher education system.

If the program is not approved for Tufts students in its proposed form, an alternative would be to seek an affiliation with another institution, according to Mazzotti.

A future possibility would also be to open the program to students from other universities.

Mazzotti emphasized that those involved are receptive to making the necessary alterations to ensure the program’s viability and compliance with university standards.

The International Relations Program, the International Letters and Visual Studies Program, the Latin American Studies Program, the Department of Romance Languages and the Institute for Global Leadership have endorsed the program and are involved in getting administrative support, he added.

Students have also been working to demonstrate interest in this proposal, initiating a petition in mid-April once they learned of the logistical issues that had arisen, according to rising junior Rosario Dominguez, one of those involved.

“What [we’re] trying to do is show the administration that there’s a lot of student support for this, there’s a lot of interest,” rising junior Miguel ZamoraMills, another petition organizer, said.

“We’re trying to show that this would be a fantastic opportunity for Tufts, even if it’s not a Tufts program.”

Dominguez considered a Cuba study abroad program beneficial as a way to educate students about the country.

“This would provide a wonderful opportunity for Tufts students to be in Cuba at a very interesting time in Cuba’s history,” Dominguez said. “Most importantly, as active citizens, we should be responsible … and knowledgeable of relations with Cuba, because … we don’t have this past of the Cold War and Fidel [Castro]. It’s turning a new page in U.S.-Cuba relations, which could potentially be very interesting.”

Kaiser-Lenoir noted that if the program is approved for Tufts credit, it would build on a legacy of student involvement in Cuba starting in 2001.

The program’s organizers, however, are committed to ensuring the program’s availability to Tufts students for credit. “[That’s] part of what we do here as faculty,” Mazzotti said. “We open possibilities, a place for Tufts students to learn different ways to approach social, cultural and political issues while, in this specific case, taking a first-hand look at historical experiences on environmental care, public health issues, ethnic diversity — in this case Afro-Cuban — and many other aspects of this particular and unique Latin American country.”

working with the fraternities and sororities, but this isn’t my particular area of student affairs that I see myself going into, so I’m happy that we’ll be bringing in somebody.”

Both Kahan and Traub said that Engle has been an effective interim director.

“She’s definitely a big advocate for us and tried to work with the administration and faculty on things that she didn’t even have to do. She went above and beyond,” Traub said. “She does really care about the community, even if it’s not her fulltime job.”

WinterFest’s creators see broad appeal in new end-of-semester event WINTERFEST

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Wallis said this month that the Office of Student Affairs and the Office of the President had seen a copy of the WinterFest event proposal.

The format of the event features several smaller events that will be spread across the Academic Quad and President’s Lawn.

Snow machines and ramps will be brought to campus to construct a tubing course on the President’s Lawn, making the event more ambitious in scope than NQR. A tubing course will also run downhill, while a heated tent will feature a DJ, hot chocolate and food.

One of the most prominently featured attractions is a snow sculpture competition in which teams of five or more students will compete for a $5,000 prize to be applied toward group programming. The snow sculpture contest revives an old Tufts tradition from the 1950s in which campus groups competed against each other to build the best snow sculpture, Wallis said.

In its design, WinterFest evokes similar collegiate winter carnivals like those at Dartmouth and Middlebury Colleges. The Dartmouth Winter Carnival this year celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Don’t call it a replacement WinterFest, like NQR, will be student-run and co-sponsored by the TCU Senate and Programming Board, according to Wallis and Habib.

Wallis and Habib expressed their satisfaction with WinterFest’s design.

“We wanted to come up with something great for students to enjoy on their last day of classes,” Habib said. “I think the whole student body is going to get excited about this.”

Habib expressed a desire to return to the Medford-Somerville campus in December for the event.

Wallis praised WinterFest for its varied nature, which he called “more inclusive” than NQR. “We think this event will appeal to a broader swath of students,” he said.

TCU Senator Wyatt Cadley, a rising junior who served on the committee that selected WinterFest, agreed. He said many committee members came to the table with different goals in mind, but that WinterFest emerged as

the winning proposal because of its wide-ranging appeal.

“We’ve created a space where students can get together, where there are activities going on that everyone can enjoy,” Cadley, who is the incoming TCU Vice President, said. “I think that’s something really meaningful, that can give Tufts a sense of identity.”

“From the looks of it, it has the potential to be a really cool programming event,” incoming TCU President Tomas Garcia, a rising senior, said. “[It’s] a way to bring the Tufts community together at the end of the semester.”

University administrators are committed to supporting the new tradition, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman told the Daily earlier this month. The university since 2003 has lent resources in support of the Nighttime Quad Reception, and that support will continue with WinterFest.

“We’re intending to be as helpful as we possibly can to make it a success,” Reitman said. “I hope it takes root quickly, and I hope it’s successful.”

Students and administrators alike emphasized that WinterFest is not simply an NQR replacement.

“The student community has really come to look forward to a culminating event after the long fall semester, and it’s something that has been the focus of a lot of school spirit and a lot of Tufts pride,” Reitman said.

“To think of it as a replacement or an exact alternative is not the way to look at it, because that’s not what it’s designed to be,” he said.

Cadley further stressed a hope that WinterFest will become an established part of Tufts culture despite lingering resentment over NQR’s fate.

“It’s well-understood that there’s a lot of student anger about the end of NQR, but in the end, this is totally different,” Cadley said. “Some students are going to find this event more accessible and some might not be as willing to embrace it right away.”

Wallis agreed.

“We know NQR is irreplaceable,” Wallis said. “But with the options available to us, I think this is a really positive step going forward and it’s something I think in time is going to grow to be as popular as or more popular than NQR was.”

The Tufts Daily

8

News

Commencement 2011

Donations on behalf of Bacows bring hallmark capital campaign near objective CAMPAIGN

continued from page 5

60 percent of the total goal for the endowment.

“Tufts is the only school where when they announced a campaign, the size of the campaign was greater than their original endowment. I am reasonably certain that has never been the case,” he said. “To call it an ambitious goal is an understatement; the fact that we are going to achieve it is obviously more than very satisfying.”

Stern added that the campaign’s completion is made more remarkable by the fact that the funds raised have gone toward supporting the main priorities of the campaign and Bacow’s vision for the university, namely “great students and great faculty.”

“What has made this campaign better than just achieving it is it’s really been the money raised exactly for the reasons we sought to raise it — primarily for academic scholarships and to attract, recruit and retain great faculty,” he said.

A total of $427 million has been raised to support students,

including 270 endowed scholarships and 354 term scholarships, according to Sanni.

“One of the things we are most proud of … is the amount of financial aid we have provided to students has more than doubled at the undergraduate level during this campaign, making Tufts more accessible,” Simoneau said.

The campaign has also raised $376 million for faculty, fully funding 21 professorships in addition to other gifts to support the work of junior faculty.

The $41 million donated in honor of the Bacows has gone toward causes that are especially meaningful to the couple, in particular the renovation of the athletics facility, construction of a new Lawrence S. Bacow and Adele Fleet Bacow Sailing Pavilion and financial aid.

“They asked him what are the things he’d like to have raised and he said that he wanted the athletics facility completed,” Sanni said “Which is great; that’s been a hallmark of his presidency — the focus on fitness and wellness, making sure

students have access to better facilities — so it’s great that with this fundraising we are able to break ground on this facility.”

Sanni added that a more recent gift in Bacow’s honor was a $400,000 commitment from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar (E ’88) and his wife Pamela (LA ’89) to fund a term scholarship. One of the most notable campaign donations came from Trustee Emeritus Edward Merrin (A ’50) and his wife Vivian Merrin, who last year committed $30 million for undergraduate financial aid.

Almost all the trustees who have served at some point during Bacow’s tenure donated money in his honor, according to Stern, and the $41 million was raised with relative ease.

“I’ve been involved in various forms of fundraising … certainly in my close to thirty years on the board. … I’ve had easy money to raise; there’s been hard money to raise; this was not difficult,” Stern said.

“The love, affection and respect for Larry and Adele as people and equally important for what

they have accomplished and how they’ve transformed Tufts — it’s an easy A.” Bacow expressed his gratitude for the personalized contributions.

“Adele and I are moved beyond words by the many gifts that have been made in our honor,” he said in an email.

“By any measure, it has been a huge success.”

Even the economic downturn beginning in 2007 did not derail the campaign’s completion.

“We obviously were concerned about the economic downturn but remained positive throughout because of the alumni and friend support for the university which is so strong and stayed that way throughout the downturn as well,” Simoneau said.

“In the last couple of years, not-for-profit fundraising in general has been difficult with all that’s been going on with the economy,” Stern said. “So this is a pretty extraordinary achievement and a tribute not just to President Bacow and his vision but to [Vice President of University Advancement] Brian Lee and all

the people who worked so hard to make it happen.”

Fundraising will continue after the completion of Beyond Boundaries, although the initiation of the next capital campaign will await President-elect Anthony Monaco’s strategic direction.

“President Monaco will have a vision to build on what we have done here and we will design the next capital campaign at that time around this vision,” Stern said. “There will certainly be another large capital campaign and it will certainly be done in the context of Tony Monaco’s presidency.”

Sanni explained that the university advancement team was already beginning to prepare for post-Beyond Boundaries fundraising, particularly to continue supporting faculty and students in, priorities that Monaco has already identified.

“People — the students and faculty — are things that are always most attractive for donors and we will continue to raise money for them even though we are not in an active campaign,” she said.

Hopeful anticipation descends on Tufts ahead of senior administrator transitions TRANSITION

continued from page 3

convinced Tufts’ culture would remain constant, its institutional memory left unscathed by the winds of change.

Even as the deanships of half of Tufts’ schools change hands, administrators said that the trustees who selected University President-elect Anthony Monaco, set to move to the Hill this summer, signaled that they wanted a continuation of the positive trajectory many have come to associate with the tenures of Bacow and Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha.

“The new president gives every indication of being very committed to the defining strengths of Tufts,” said Rob Hollister, who will step down at the end of next month after a decade as the founding dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service. “The job description around which he was hired very much is a game plan for sustaining and continuing the legacy of the Bacow and Bharucha years.”

A sense of sadness, unease Moments of transition often usher in periods of unease, and faculty members and administrators alike expressed hope that a variety of initiatives from recent years would continue.

“There is a sense that there is a lot of alteration, things are in a bit of a limbo,” Ayesha Jalal, a professor of history, said, adding that many faculty members are concerned about what all the turnover may bring with it.

Many of the administrators and faculty members interviewed for this article expressed sadness over the end of the Bacow era.

“There’s an ineluctable sense of loss,” said Professor of Child Development Maryanne Wolf, who directs the Center for Reading and Language Research.

From a focus on strengthening graduate studies and improving crossschool collaboration to a close relationship between the School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center, some said they were optimistic that Monaco and his new provost would soon come to understand Tufts’ strengths.

Wolf said the “inspired choice” of Monaco as president could ensure that Tufts continues to combine excellent research with top-notch teaching, particularly since Bacow and the incoming president share similar backgrounds in both the classroom and the front office.

Monaco, a geneticist who worked at Oxford University as both a professor and researcher, leaves England after nearly two decades at the institution, serving most recently as one of its top administrators.

“I think the choice of someone who

has been highly successful as a faculty member, as an administrator and as one of the most successful researchers in the field of genetics is a fabulous combination for us to move incrementally into the future,” Wolf said. “So I think what we have is more of a bridge than meets the eye.”

Either way, Sol Gittleman, the Alice and Nathan Gantcher university professor and a former provost of Tufts, said a new president and all the other administrative changes were not enough to push Tufts in a new direction.

“The fundamental nature of Tufts cannot change” with just a presidential turnover, said Gittleman, who served as provost from 1981 to 2002, under three different presidents. Unless the trustees decide to invest a large amount of money in drastically expanding Tufts’ research activities, he said, Tufts will at its core remain “a teaching university where everybody does research.”

“The search committee is made up of trustees with memory,” Gittleman said.

The current amount of administrative change is not particularly out of the ordinary, he added, and the university will undoubtedly move on.

“People come, people go,” he said.

The view from MIT This year’s transition is not the first Bacow has experienced. A look back at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) about five to 10 years ago sheds light on the possible impact so much administrative turnover could have on Tufts.

When Bacow stepped down as MIT’s chancellor in 2001 to come to Tufts, he was just one of five MIT administrators over the course of a decade to leave the Cambridge school to lead a major university.

Later, when Susan Hockfield became president of MIT in 2004, the university faced a situation similar to Tufts’ current circumstances. At around the same time of Hockfield’s arrival, the deans of four of MIT’s five schools turned over, as did the provost and a number of vice presidents, according to Kirk Kolenbrander, vice president for institute affairs and secretary of the corporation at MIT. Kolenbrander advised Hockfield on building her new team and was involved in selecting Bacow’s replacement as chancellor.

Picking a popular provost from among the MIT faculty pleased and reassured longtime members of the faculty, Kolenbrander told the Daily. At the same time, he added, they understood the benefits of bringing in new people.

“The MIT community recognized that change was something that’s helpful and necessary,” Kolenbrander said.

“It’s always a balance of valuing the

heritage and the memory with embracing new ideas and thoughts that folks from other institutions can help bring to the community. So it’s a balance that needs to be struck and can be struck.”

Daniel Hastings, dean for undergraduate education at MIT, said that while it is essential that universities from time to time gain new energy, ensuring that institutional memory remains in place is also key.

“One hopes that enough of the other people are around who can remember why decisions were made,” Hastings, who joined the MIT faculty in 1985 and has served in its administration for 10 years, told the Daily. “You need to have that.”

Losing an entire leadership team will inevitably have an impact, according to MIT Chancellor Eric Grimson, although he added that this loss can be mitigated by the fact that much corporate memory at MIT resides in those who serve just below the deans, many of whom have spent years at the university.

“I don’t recall a huge disruption,” Grimson told the Daily, referring to the turnover at MIT in the 2000s. At that time, Grimson served in various administrative positions in the university’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

“Obviously when you have new senior officers, things do change as they take on new initiatives and bring a new style to it,” Grimson said. “But I don’t have any recollection of any hiccup or really any major disruption.”

Ensuring a smooth transition Administrators at Tufts have been working to ensure that those who are staying behind have a central role in any transition process.

At Tisch College, Nancy Wilson, the director and associate dean, will take over as interim dean when Hollister steps down. Wilson has been at the college for seven years and has worked closely with Hollister on setting strategy. Most of the senior staff, she said, has been in place for a long time, too.

“The new things that we do won’t be so much because I’m new and we want to take it in a completely new direction,” she said, “but mostly because circumstances and opportunities at the university change.”

Similarly, the interim replacement for Eileen Kennedy, the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Robin Kanarek, has significant experience at the school she will soon head.

Joanne Berger-Sweeney, who assumed the deanship of the School of Arts and Sciences last summer following the departure of then-dean Robert Sternberg, said she has benefited from catching the tail end of the tenures

of the outgoing administrators. Real change will occur, she said, when a new provost comes to Medford and works with the new president to impart a fresh vision and energy upon current operations, although that process could take time.

“New faces always means to me new opportunities,” she said.

Berger-Sweeney served in the administration at Wellesley College before coming to Tufts, and she said a similar presidential transition there — complete with significant administrative turnover — brought the remaining senior staff members together, empowering them and sharpening their leadership skills.

For their part, Bacow and Bharucha maintain that the presidential transition will take place seamlessly.

“It’s fairly common for there to be turnover when there’s a change of presidency,” Bharucha said. “It’s healthy for the institution.”

And Tufts has an advantage over many other schools that might face a similar threat to their institutional culture or memory, according to Bharucha: its ability to adapt.

“It’s entrepreneurial,” Bharucha said of Tufts, “in that it’s able to adapt to change more than at many other universities where the culture is much more hidebound.”

Institutional memory lies more with the trustees and longtime members of the faculty anyway, Gittleman said.

And, a number of administrators noted, Tufts has been around for a while.

“I don’t fear for the culture at Tufts,” said Associate Provost Vincent Manno, who is leaving the university to serve as provost and dean of faculty at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Needham, Mass. “It’s a culture that’s taken a century and a half to establish itself.”

At a March town hall meeting on Tufts’ Boston campus, discussion about the administrative turnover dominated part of the discussion.

“We will work through these transition issues,” Bacow told staff and faculty members, adding that the university has done well with change in the past. “There’s always a hard time with uncertainty, but it will be resolved.”

The fact that the trustees see eye-toeye with the administration and that most of the senior central administration will stay intact will make the transition easier, he said.

“There will be no fall off,” Bacow told the audience, “because the important work of the university is not done by the people at the top but by the faculty who are still here teaching and researching.”

Ellen Kan contributed reporting to this article.

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

Proposed Clery Act amendment expands responsibility of colleges SaVE ACT

continued from page 5

cy includes a definition of consent as “an affirmative, conscious decision to engage in mutually accepted sexual contact.”

Tufts does not currently present reported victims of sexual assault with a written summary of their rights, though the sexual assault policy and adjudication procedures do outline victims’ resources and possible courses of action, according to Reitman.

Reitman said if the changes were enacted, the responsibility of compiling the summary would fall to the university’s interim Title IX Coordinator Sonia Jurado at the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action.

The proposed bill would also mandate that universities provide all incoming students and employees with primary prevention and awareness programs, including ones that deal specifically with bystander intervention.

The university already has several bystander intervention awareness programs in place for new students, with several more in the works, according to Elaine Theodore, the university’s Health Education and Prevention Coordinator and Sexual Violence Resource Coordinator.

In the SACK (Safety, Awareness, Consent and Knowledge in relationships), a mandatory presentation during fall freshman orientation, specifically addresses bystander intervention, according to Theodore. The program is one of the most popular among the school’s orientation activities, Theodore added.

In addition, next fall’s freshman orientation will have the theme of “just ask,” according to Theodore. The theme not only highlights the need for consent in

sexual intimacy, but also the importance of bystander intervention.

“It was promoted as ‘ask if this is OK’ or ‘ask if you are OK,’ really giving people permission to intervene in anything they felt was potentially not a good situation,” she said.

Also on the horizon is a proposed collaboration between Theodore and the Athletics Department. The program, which originated at Northeastern University as Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), would train student athletes in bystander intervention, Theodore explained. “[The program] will train a cadre of students in [bystander intervention] curriculum, to go out to different groups on campus, to teams, to Greek houses and do workshops,” she said.

The collaboration is still in the developmental phase, according to Theodore.

Reitman praised the legislation’s mandate for bystander education.

“I don’t think we could do anything more important than bystander intervention encouragement,” Reitman said. “It seems extremely significant to prevent this social victimization rather than adjudicate it after the fact.”

Reitman stressed, however, that the cultural change will have a greater impact than legislative change in ending sexual victimization.

“I think a lot of the emerging laws are very important, but changing the culture and the mindset is just as or more important,” he said. “I don’t think relying on the laws is either prudent or pragmatically useful. You need to do more than that.”

The Campus SaVE Act has been referred to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, according to Jannetta. It will have to pass to the full body before it can be voted upon, he said.

New athletic center construction on pace for September 2012 opening COMPLEX

continued from page 4

Tufts,” Troville said, adding that gym users will notice an improvement in terms of accessibility.

“The current fitness center is inadequate as far as equipment quantities,” he said. “This will cut wait times down significantly.”

A multipurpose room for activities such as yoga and aerobics, a meeting room and various lounge areas are also incorporated into the building’s design, Skeldon said.

The top floor will host the new Athletics Department offices, which are currently located in Halligan Hall, Gehling said. The neighboring Departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering in Halligan will expand into the old athletics offices, Troville said.

“We’ve outgrown our space, and they’ve outgrown their space, too,” Troville said.

Department of Computer Science Chair Carla Brodley said the members of her faculty are ecstatic at the prospect of extra space.

“We’re completely overcrowded,” Brodley said. “We’re bursting at the seams with respect to our classrooms and lab space,” Brodley said, adding that some faculty are currently sharing offices or using makeshift office space.

The outdoor surroundings of the new building will also receive a facelift, with more plants, according to Gehling. The fence around the parking lot opposite Cousens will be removed, and the lot exit will be reconfigured for better traffic flow on College Avenue.

The construction of the sports and fitness center is the second stage in a threephase plan. The first phase involved renovations to Cousens Gym in 2008. Plans for the third phase are still indefinite, as construction options will depend on fundraising and will not be solidified until after the current project’s completion, Reynolds said.

Gehling said the principal goals for the third phase include a new swimming pool, regulation-size squash courts and additional locker and equipment space.

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Dining Services to offer alternatives while campus center remains closed CAMPUS CENTER

continued from page 6

the other areas in the building. It’s just going to be much brighter and more comfortable and a better space.”

Tufts has not planned any further renovations to the campus center following this summer’s projects, according to DaRos. The OCL would like to see more interior updates in the future, however, she said.

“Of course we would love to be able to continue to put new furniture in here and modernize the building a little, but more because it’s such a high-traffic place,” DaRos said.

Dining Services plans to provide two new eateries to temporarily replace locations affected by the construction. The ‘Lobby Shop at Dewick’ in the lobby of Dewick Dining Hall and the ‘Cart on the Quad’ will serve as alternatives to the Commons and Hotung while they are closed for the duration of the renovations, according to Director of Dining Services Patti Klos.

The Campus Center’s normal eateries will reopen for full use in late August.

The ‘Lobby Shop at Dewick’ will offer sandwiches, salads, snack foods and beverages similar to those at Brown and Brew or The Tower Café, Klos said.

“The tables and couches are coming out, and we’re going to set up some equipment in the lobby,” she said.

Limited seating will be available.

The ‘Lobby Shop at Dewick’ will open at the start of the first summer session on May 25, and will close at the end of the second session, according to Klos.

In addition, Dining Services will during the summer revive the ‘Cart on the Quad,’ which offers snacks and beverages near the entrance to Dowling Hall.

“We eliminated that service two years ago when the market tanked, but we’re going to bring it back,” Klos said.

“We’re just trying to give the community an additional service point for summer.”

2010-11 Senate prioritized cost-cutting SENATE

continued from page 5

In response to the appeal and resolution, Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney announced in February that a task force comprised of Tufts students, faculty members and administrators, as well as faculty members from Dartmouth College, Harvard University and Brown University, would be created to assess the options for Africana studies at Tufts.

The task force visited the Hill earlier this month and presented their findings to Berger-Sweeney, who will then make a decision on how to proceed.

The Senate in March encouraged the university to allow the inclusion of student participation in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) on transcripts in an effort to promote formal recognition of the program. The faculty last month voted to allow for limited ROTC recognition on transcripts in the form of notation.

Chair of the Senate’s Administration and Policy Committee Yulia Korovikov, a rising junior, along with Director of Alcohol and Health Education Ian Wong, worked to gather data in support of an effort to encourage accurate perceptions about social norms and health on campus.

As a part of the effort, the university distributed an anonymous American College Health Association survey to 2,400 undergraduates to gather information on students’ perceptions of alcohol and drug culture among their peers.

The Senate took on several initiatives this year to increase communication between its members and the student body, Wallis said.

These included the Senate’s secondannual leadership dinner, which gathered leaders from TCU-recognized student groups to promote discussion and

solidarity. The body also improved outreach by buying advertising space in the Daily and publishing a weekly update, as well as revamping its website.

The Senate continued this year to prioritize cost-cutting measures for students, Wallis said.

“No matter what resolution we talked about, cost was something that we always talked about,” he said.

In this vein, the Senate supported the implementation of a textbook rental program through the campus bookstore, according to Wallis.

The Senate in March passed a resolution calling the university to weaken its penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

It also advocated that the university change its policy on fines for off-campus noise violations. The noise violation resolution specified that the school should allow students the option of performing community service in lieu of a $300 fine to the Tufts University Police Department.

The change would help students who are facing financial difficulty or who receive financial aid from the university, incoming Senate President Tomas Garcia, who guided the drafting of the resolution, said.

“I see this as a first step towards finding a replacement towards all monetary fines,” Garcia, a rising senior, said.

The Senate this year supported the possibility of establishing a fully equipped kitchen space that would be open for student use and could serve as a venue for cooking classes. Trustee Representative Alix Boulud, a graduating senior, pitched the idea to members of the Board of Trustees during their visit to the Hill in February.

An effort made possible by $50,000 in Senate-allocated funds brought a fleet of 30 bikes to the Hill in a new bike-share program marked by high participation and satisfaction among users in its first weeks.

1,200 student donations to be matched with $50,000 from alumnus TSF

continued from page 6

goal, but we had such an increase [in donations] that is prompted the alumnus to say we can still award the scholarship.”

TSF asked students to make a donation of $1 each, according to Slate. The goal was to encourage a spirit of giving, regardless of how much, he said.

“The fund this year really had one purpose — to engage undergraduates in philanthropy,” Slate said. “We’re trying to develop the mindset of giving [as] undergrads without having to give a lot of money,” he added.

Students formed TSF three years ago, according to Sarah Pease, volunteer coordinator for the Tufts Fund for Arts, Sciences and Engineering. It emerged from the previous student branch of the Tufts Fund, the senior class gift, to engage all undergraduates in fundraising, Pease said.

Pease said the students in TSF were large-

ly responsible for its outcome.

“I help them make great ideas happen by facilitating things, but all the ideas and marketing come directly from the students,” Pease said. “They’re the ones running it and I support their efforts.”

Slate said the switch to having TSF be student-run as opposed to managed by the university has allowed it to be more successful.

“It is easier being approached by your peers than the administration or the Advancement Office — it’s a more credible image,” Slate said. “Students doing the majority of asking made a big difference.”

TSF gives students an opportunity to engage in active citizenship in their own community, Sircus said.

“The Student Fund is a great opportunity for students to really walk the walk of active citizenship,” Sircus said. “It’s about cultivating philanthropy as students — we’re responsible for continuing that legacy.”

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

The TCU Senate finished out the year with a variety of influential projects and resolutions under its belt.

The Tufts Daily

10

News

Commencement 2011

Student-driven LIFT, Jumpstart and Teach for America expect no change in funding

BUDGET

continued from page 5

based grants to college students, with the maximum grant remaining at $5,550. The bill discontinued the year-round Pell Grant program, however, which permits college students who attend college through the summer to receive two grants in a year.

The cut will save the government $35 billion over 10 years.

Approximately 50 Tufts students received Pell Grants to subsidize the cost of summer classes last year, earning an average of $1,300 in grant money, according to Director of Financial Aid Patricia Reilly.

“Students were able to get a second Pell to help pay for summer courses to accelerate their degree,” Reilly said. “This year they were able to get the grants, and last year they were able to get the grants, and next year that program will be gone.”

The bill decreased funding by $20 million for Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), which also help low-income students pay for college.

Tufts last year received $576,000 in SEOG funding, money allocated to the university and distributed to students with the highest need, Reilly said.

Approximately 380 students last year received SEOG assistance, with an average grant disbursement of $1500, according to Reilly. She said that the university will not know exactly how significant a cut they will experience for a few weeks.

“The cut to the program was not a straight across the board cut and not all schools are impacted the same way,” Reilly said. “I think that if we get cut at all it will be a nominal amount.”

The university has no plans as of yet to allocate any additional money to financial

aid in order to fill the gap caused by the budget cuts, according to Reilly.

“I expect [the cut] will be small enough that it won’t impact our students,” Reilly said. “Because we don’t routinely offer summer financial aid, that’s not something we are going to replace. Summer is a discretionary expense.”

Nonprofits receive level funding but see no growth CNCS is still in the process of determining how the cuts will impact its existing grants and renewal grants for other nonprofit organizations it oversees.

AmeriCorps, a CNCS-house organization that funds national and local service organizations, experienced a $23 million reduction in funding.

AmeriCorps-supported programs such as LIFT, Jumpstart and Teach for America, however, expect to receive level funding next year.

LIFT, a national organization that trains college students to address the immediate needs of its low-income clients, employs approximately 45 Tufts student volunteers in its Somerville office, according to Colleen Flynn, LIFT Communications and Media Relations Manager. LIFT’s site coordinators, who manage the day-today operations of the organization’s local offices, are paid through AmeriCorps direct grants, Flynn said.

“Right now, LIFT doesn’t have any conclusive information about how [the cuts] will affect us,” Flynn told the Daily in an email. “We do know that for 2011 we will not be losing any AmeriCorps staff, but we will not be adding any new AmeriCorps staff.”

Jumpstart, a national nonprofit that aims to prepare preschoolers in low-

income communities for kindergarten, operates in 45 preschools in the Greater Boston area and employs between 50 and 60 Tufts students each year. The organization receives 40 percent of its funding from AmeriCorps and anticipates that it will receive level funding next year, according to Jumpstart Northeast Region Executive Director Susan Werley Slater.

“For Jumpstart, we are in the middle of a three-year continuation grant, so it is pretty hard to change that amount of money during the grant period,” Werley Slater told the Daily.

Werley Slater said that while Jumpstart will not be forced to shut down any of its current programs in Massachusetts, the cuts would impact the organization’s growth plan. Jumpstart will need to increase its private donations by 18 percent in order to fill the gap.

“It means that if we want to grow we have to think about how we are going to supplement our revenue with private fundraising,” Werley Slater said. “We may have to scale back our growth plan because we don’t want to roll something out that we can’t fully fund.”

Job opportunities remain intact Teach for America, a program that hires recent college graduates to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools, is popular among Tufts graduates. AmeriCorps funding for Teach for America provides corps members with education awards toward future educational expenses or to repay qualified student loans, according to Teach For America Regional Communications Director Kaitlin Gastrock.

“The changes to AmeriCorps’ funding will not impact the education awards corps members receive in the 2010-11 school year and it’s too early to say how it might affect education awards in 201112,” Gastrock told the Daily in an email. “It will not impact the number of corps members Teach For America is able to recruit, train and support next year.”

Looking to the future While nonprofit organizations may have largely dodged a bullet for FY2011, they are once again at risk as Congress begins to consider the FY2012 budget.

“2011 was the staging grounds for what we will see in 2012,” Jumpstart Government Relations Coordinator Alyson Silkowski told the Daily.

Nonprofit organizations are gearing up to preserve their funding for 2012, engaging in lobbying and efforts to educate congressmen about the importance of public service.

“The thought is to do as much education with members of Congress to know that they know how financially important it is to have these service programs running,” Werley Slater said.

Jumpstart is preparing for a long battle ahead, according to Silkowski. She predicts another contemptuous debate and a series of continuing resolutions for the FY2012 budget.

“The rest of the spring and the summer we are going to be as proactive rather than reactive as we can,” Silkowski said.

“We are going to work as hard as we can to meet the needs of the college students and children and their families by doing as much as we can to make sure the funding for service is preserved.”

Per recommendations, administration to decide on Africana studies by September AFRICANA

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gram instead of a department, in striving to reach a consensus on a structure that would heed students’ calls for a furthered commitment to academic diversity.

“The task force had a variety of recommendations,” McClellan said. “Different people on the task force favored different types of programs and activities. Members were equally divided among the different options.”

McClellan stressed that the task force has performed its duty well.

“Our job is to represent the best interest for Tufts as an institution,” he said. “We were trying to find the best solution that fits the different constituencies that make up the university community. We’ve done exactly what we needed to do.”

Looking forward, BergerSweeney said she will use multiple criteria in deliberating the path the university will take with regard to Africana studies at Tufts.

“I believe that [Africana studies] is a field that is very forward-looking and is relevant not [only] tomorrow but also 20 years from now,” she said. “But we’re also trying to determine if a department would be the

kind of entity that students would want to participate in.”

Berger-Sweeney expressed concerns that the creation of a new department may not encourage a sustainable academic structure, noting that interdisciplinary studies are becoming increasingly relevant.

“I believe in general that academic departments are a nineteeth-century structure — they aren’t the most fluid or forwardthinking,” she said. “The future of [academia] is organizing ideas, curricula and faculty in a more fluid organization that allows for the intersection of knowledge as opposed to siloing knowledge into departmental structures.”

Berger-Sweeney added that because departments are created with the ultimate approval of the faculty, it would have to be strongly supportive of a department before any decisions were made.

McClellan pointed out that academic departments are slow to develop and require a significant number of new faculty members.

“Creating new departments is very rare; they are difficult and time-consuming,” he said. “We cannot simply add as many faculty positions as we would like due to financial constraints.”

Berger-Sweeney acknowledged that a new academic structure would not by itself necessarily alleviate concerns about of how issues of race and diversity are handled at Tufts.

“We need to think seriously about how to address diversity and inclusion as well as campus climate,” she said. “Curriculum and

climate are different, and you can’t just compound them. Diversity is too complex an issue to think that a department will solve all issues of diversity and inclusion … it’s not a silver bullet.”

Berger-Sweeney added that the administration would continue to strive to strengthen fac-

ulty diversity across all existing academic departments.

“Not all the diversity should be concentrated in one department,” she said. “We need to be thinking not just about the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty members but what kind of courses they will teach,” she said.

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

The task force on Africana studies is set to deliver its final conclusions to Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney and other administrators this month.

Vest to deliver Commencement address in first phase of two-part ceremony COMMENCEMENT continued from page 3

final grades, on which graduation depends, were taken into account.

Of the undergraduate degrees, the School of Arts and Sciences will distribute 950 Bachelor of Arts degrees, 131 Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and 279 Bachelor of Science degrees. The School of Engineering will give out 176 Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences will award 496 degrees. These include 167 Master of Arts, 128 Master of Science, 105 Master of Arts in Teaching, 25 Master of Fine Arts, 6 Master of Public Policy, 51 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), two Doctor of Occupational Therapy and 12 Education Specialist degrees.

The Graduate School of Engineering will

award 164 degrees today, among them 81 Master of Science, 39 Master of Science in Engineering Management, 19 Master of Engineering and 25 Ph.D. degrees.

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy will give out 418 degrees, including 266 Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy, 70 Master of Arts, 45 Master of International Business, 21 Master of Laws in International Law and 16 Ph.D. degrees.

The School of Dental Medicine will award 24 Master of Science and 174 Doctor of Dental Medicine degrees.

The School of Medicine will award 141 Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degrees. It will also distribute joint degrees, including 19 M.D./Master of Public Health, 11 M.D./Master of Business Administration in Health Management and four M.D./ Ph.D. degrees.

The Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences will award 196 degrees. These include 70 Master of Public Health, 58 Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences, 10 Master of Science in Clinical and Translational Science, six Master of Science in Pain Research, Education and Policy, three Master of Science in Health Communication, one Master of Science in Immunology, one Master of Science in Pharmacology and Experimental Therapies, 33 Ph.D. and 14 joint Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences/Master of Public Health degrees.

The Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy will give 59 Master of Science, eight Master of Science and combined dietetic internship degrees, two Master of Nutrition Science and Policy and six Ph.D. degrees. It will also award several

joint awards, of which 19 will be Master of Science/Master of Public Health and four will be Master of Arts in Humanitarian Assistance degrees.

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine will award 96 degrees. Among them are eight Master of Science in Animals and Public Policy, three Ph.D. and 77 Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) degrees.

Two joint D.V.M./Master of Public Health and six joint D.V.M./Master of Science in Laboratory Animal Medicine degrees will also be awarded.

In the event of inclement weather, the first phase of the Commencement ceremony will be held in the same place but will be cut short or canceled if conditions are more severe. In either case, changes to the Commencement Day schedule will be announced before the beginning of Phase I.

Features

11

tuftsdaily.com

‘Please, call me Larry’: The Bacow era ends The past 10 years proved to be both challenging and rewarding by

Michael Del Moro Daily Editorial Board

For years, University President Lawrence Bacow has been greeted with enthusiastic chants of “Larry! Larry!” as he approaches the stage for the annual commencement ceremony, but with Bacow’s departure this year, the change that ripples through Tufts may mean more than just a new name yelled out at graduation.

The outgoing president leaves behind a legacy of optimism and promise that began in September 2001 when Bacow first sat behind his desk in Ballou Hall. Little more than a week later, the country suffered one of the worst tragedies in its history, the effects of which touched the lives of every American, including thousands of globally aware Jumbos.

Bacow had some careful decisions to make following the Sept. 11 attacks, such as whether to adjust class schedules or cancel study abroad programs, but the president felt that keeping the community functioning normally was what was best.

“It was more, ‘How do we return the campus to a sense of normal discourse while recognizing the magnitude of what had just happened?’” Bacow said. “If the choice was to let students sit by themselves in their dormitory rooms or have them come together collectively, it seemed better to come together collectively, so that’s what we had to decide.”

Programs abroad continued, classes went on as usual, but classroom dialogues were forever changed. As Bacow faced this first challenge of his presidency, the community faced the challenge of getting to know its new leader.

According to Bacow, perceptions of his leadership were quite ambiguous at first.

“It takes every new president a while to find their voice,” he said. “Adele and I just,

we became part of the community, and people accepted us that way. I don’t think I did anything differently in years two, three and four as I did in year one; it’s a process of getting to know you.”

As this process continued, the impact of other national events were felt on the Hill and inevitably reached Bacow’s desk.

In a 2003 message to the Tufts community, he encouraged those with differing views about the U.S. invasion of Iraq to voice their opinions in a respectful way.

The close election in 2004 between Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and incumbent President George W. Bush engaged the usual civically minded Tufts students in the electoral process, but it was nothing compared to the election in 2008.

“One of the most memorable experiences of my 10 years here was the night of the election,” Bacow said. “Students spontaneously rallying and marching up to the residential quad, and thousands of students breaking into the National Anthem, ‘God Bless America.’ … Just explicit over-patriotism that I actually hadn’t seen since September 11th, and I think it was really heartwarming to see.”

Money, money, money In 2006, the university announced its Beyond Boundaries capital campaign, a rigorous donor solicitation drive that is on target to reach its $1.2 billion goal this summer. At the announcement ceremony, Bacow emphasized the move toward need-blind admissions, a goal met just one year later but that would ultimately prove short-lived.

Indeed, financial issues largely characterized the latter half of economist Bacow’s tenure, during which even the wealthiest institutions like Harvard University suffered damaging blows to their endowments.

Though the relative size of Tufts’ endow-

meredith klein/Tufts Daily

University President Lawrence Bacow leaves Tufts this year after a decade-long tenure. ment and careful financial planning on the part of its fiduciaries and Bacow himself prevented severe losses, the university was not immune to the effects of the financial crisis. Changes in students’ financial circumstances permeated all socioeconomic levels, requiring substantial increases in financial aid packages over the last two years and a suspension of the need-blind policy.

“One of my biggest regrets as president is that we’re not need-blind,” Bacow said.

“I thought we were getting there. If the economy hadn’t tanked, we would have.”

Though the university may not have achieved need-blind admissions, Bacow is see BACOW, page 15

Provost Jamshed Bharucha heads to the City by

Alec Ernest

Contributing Writer

Tucked away in the corner of the second floor in Ballou Hall, where the slick marble floors, meticulously maintained carpets and extra-high ceilings are more reminiscent of a grand hotel than an administration building, hangs a painting titled “Portrait of an Unknown Man.” It is just outside the office of Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha, who has established himself as a key player in the university’s increasing prestige in his nine years on the Hill.

But as the 2010-11 school year comes to a finish and over 1,300 undergraduate students and six other senior administrators, including President Lawrence Bacow, prepare to leave the Hill, Bharucha is also planning his departure. He will become the 12th president of The Cooper Union in New York City, effective July 1. Bharucha’s

work as provost entailed so many responsibilities that are hidden behind the scenes that it can be difficult to conceptualize how he spent his time. What exactly is a provost, and what will Tufts lose when Bharucha heads to the big city?

His relaxed and friendly demeanor — the man looks more like a diplomat than a violinist-cum-cognitive psychologist — masks the large amount of work he carried out on a regular basis. Officially, the provost oversees nearly every aspect of academic operations at Tufts. His duties include recruiting faculty and administrators, major fundraising efforts, overseeing diversity and supervising the tenure and promotion of faculty.

Bharucha’s days tended to be so densely scheduled that he humorously referred to the job as chaos.

“A typical day is back-to-back meetings. ... I can show you a visual of the calendar,” he said with a grin. “Not even any time to

follow up in between and do emails and phone calls.”

While Bharucha admits to having an easier time now, he maintained a grueling schedule when he first arrived in February 2002. Between traveling, grant-writing and attending dinners and receptions, he found that he still worked well beyond full-time.

“When I first started, I was jumping in and learning and having to make decisions on the fly as well,” he said. “Back then, I think I was putting in fifteen-hour days for my first two or three years.”

The difficulty, Bharucha said, lies in how overwhelmingly complex Tufts is, with 10 different schools spread over four campuses. From the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine to the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Bharucha had to navigate a maze of interdisciplinary interests. see BHARUCHA, page 15

Charles Vest delivers Commencement address today Commencement Speaker Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and president emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — where he served as president from 1990 to 2004 — has received honorary doctorate degrees from 14 universities, including an honorary Doctorate in Law from Cambridge University in 2006 and one from Harvard University the year before. Prior to his presidency, Vest earned his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from West Virginia University and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan, and then became its provost and vice president for academic affairs in 1989.

During his tenure at MIT, Vest made contributions to multiple fields, including undergraduate education, racial and cultural relations and other research programs. His team included many notable alumni, one of whom was Tufts University President Lawrence Bacow, who will leave his post at Tufts this year.

Vest has chaired the U.S. Department of Energy Task Force on the Future of Science Programs and then-President Bill Clinton’s Advisory Committee on the Redesign of the Space Station, and he was a vice chair on the Association of American Universities. He was previously a member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology, the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on

Economic Growth and Technology and the National Research Council Board on Engineering Education.

He is the author of two books: “Pursuing the Endless Frontier: Essays on MIT and the Role of the Research University” (2004) and “The American Research University from World War II to World Wide Web” (2007).

Born in Morgantown, W. Va., Vest is father to two children and has three grandchildren. He lives with his wife and daughter in Wellesley, Mass.

Vest will receive an honorary Doctorate of Science from Tufts following his commencement address today.

—by Jon Cheng

Stephen Miller | Counterpoint

Words of wisdom?

W

ell, this is a little awkward. I had a whole Jumbo-sized load of Tufts nostalgia that I spilled out into what I thought was a goodbye final column a couple of weeks ago. Looks like I spent it a little prematurely. Now I don’t really have much left to say except maybe something along the lines of, “Hi Tufts. It’s been … um … something.

Don’t bother calling. Cheers!” However, the wigs behind the scenes laughed and told me that was a little too short.

And now, aside from currently having less to say than Charlie Sheen in a game of “Never Have I Ever,” it’s a little weird to be writing this article. First off, I’m not hungover on a Sunday morning scrambling to get this in before my editors hunt me down with a baseball bat. Second, with a Commencement article, I feel like I should be imparting some words of wisdom. Well, just yesterday I learned about a girl who didn’t know she was pregnant until she went into labor. Suffice it to say, that little nugget has me questioning what I considered to be the hard and fast truths of the world.

And last of all, as I write this, it’s only May 6, and I’m still a skip, hop and a jump away from graduation, a fact my mother keeps imploring me to remember. Right now, I still have plenty of time to fail and put off life a tad longer. Throw Senior Week in the mix, and there are way too many opportunities to get kicked out for this to be a joke. Hell, the Vegas odds on a post-exams casualty at 9 Fairmount are about 4-1.

My first message, then, would be, “Good luck, Steve. A) I hope you’re still alive, and B) I hope you’re picking up a $200,000 piece of paper today. God knows you didn’t earn it.”

My second and third messages are a wee bit contradictory. They are less my messages to others and more my (presumably shared) visceral reactions to today. “It’s about time,” and “Shhhi … oot!” (Sorry. Forgot there were parents out there today.)

Let’s cut through all the nonsense for a minute. College has been and will remain the plushest, easiest four years of many of our lives. Now most of us are trying to join a dwindling modern phenomenon known as “the work force.” One piece of advice about jobs: Unlike classes, I’m pretty sure attendance is mandatory. But at the same time, this is an exciting time. For the past four years, I’ve been developing the necessary skills to function in the real world. I finally get to take my esoteric knowledge of Chaucer and early Middle English and apply it in my work … as a bartender. I hear the ladies love that one about the Wife of Bath and the Knight.

Fourth, realize that the bar is set pretty low. As long as you aren’t moving back in with your folks, you are winning. Don’t be tempted by heated apartments, free laundry or “cooked food.” Otherwise you may end up like me. It’s temporary, all right!

TEMPORARY! Finally, there is one real piece of advice that I think I’m overly qualified to impart.

We may all be about to enter the “real world,” but that doesn’t mean we have to take life too seriously. The world is a more fun place when we’re willing to laugh with each other, and we’re happier people when we’re willing to laugh at ourselves.

Other than that, I don’t have much to say.

Congratulations to everyone, I guess. We’ve made it this far; we’ll all be just fine in the next phase. It’s been a pleasure writing this column every week. I hope you maybe had a laugh on some dreary Mondays, and for those of you who sent me angry emails, thanks! They’ve been terrifically validating.

It’s been great. You’ve been great. And now, in the words of esteemed M.D. Dr. Dre, “just chill, ’til the next episode… ”

Stephen Miller graduates today with a degree in English. He can be reached at Stephen.Miller@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

12

Features

Commencement 2011

Spotlight on the class of James Mackenzie

Matthew Kincaid

Mike Niconchuk

dilys ong/tufts daily

Matthew Kincaid

Jodi bosin/tufts daily

Mike Niconchuk When graduating senior Mike Niconchuk leaves the Hill today, he will be leaving behind one of Tufts’ most successful student-led interdisciplinary programs: Building Understanding through International Learning and Development (BUILD). BUILD is based on educating students in sustainable development, both in theory and in practice, through partnerships with rural communities. Niconchuk and a friend came up with the idea for the current form of BUILD in their freshman year.

“It actually started with a rejection from a former version of the program,” Niconchuk said. “I applied for that program ... and they said sure, you can help us do some research. My friend and I took that idea and ran with it. We wanted to make it just students working directly with communities. We gave them the proposal, and they absolutely loved the idea.

When we said we were freshmen, they didn’t believe us.”

In the summer of 2008, Niconchuk helped lead BUILD’s research trip to Santa Anita la Unión, Guatemala. From the research conducted that summer, the students established a plan for overall community development, and BUILD Guatemala was subsequently formed. The program has been a success in terms of community development in Santa Anita, but Niconchuk says it’s about more than just that for him.

“In my mind, all of that is completely overshadowed by those students who are younger than me who say I’ve inspired them,” he said. “It’s about the people that work there, students who have no idea, no experience with these types of things, plunged into adult situations, without anyone to hold their hand. If I’ve served any role with that process, that’s great.”

While BUILD may have been the defining feature of Niconchuk’s time at Tufts, he has also been involved in other research initiatives. In 2009, Niconchuk won the Anne E. Borghesani Memorial Prize for research in international relations for a project on Iranian politics and economic development in Bolivia.

“One of the downfalls of being busy, of investing so much of your identity in things you do and projects you design: It’s very easy to lose yourself in those things and forget the appropriate sources of validation in your life: family, friends and people who love you,” Niconchuk said.

As for the future, Niconchuk says his plans are wide open.

“I feel I’ve built up so much momentum in college, I want to take some time off to breathe,” he said. “I’m waiting on something where I can utilize my skills and passions to their potential. I’ve got a couple of ideas, and we’ll see what comes to fruition.”

—by Angelina Rotman

One thing Tufts students aren’t short on is impressive résumés, and graduating senior Matthew Kincaid is hardly an exception. A first-generation college student from St. Louis, Mo., Kincaid applied to be and was accepted as a Tisch Scholar for Citizenship and Public Service as a freshman, and he has been an actively involved citizen since.

He has volunteered at Boston’s Asian Community Development Corporation, writing curricula for race and ethnicity awareness education and for the Middlesex Courts Juvenile Diversion Program, acting as a mentor to first-time juvenile offenders. He is a member of the historically black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha, gave the student address at Tufts’ Black Solidarity Day celebration in 2009, and has spent time in his home state volunteering as a coordinator for St. Louis Gateway Homeless Services.

But countless accolades aside, Kincaid’s involvement in the push for an Africana studies department is what he believes defines his four years at Tufts, a time that he admits has been a constant struggle.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to have the same dream college experience that everyone else has,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time fighting for a community that affirms all its students.”

Kincaid said that Tufts, while outwardly accepting of all its students, pointedly ignores the issues of race that inevitably surface at a predominantly white university. Speaking from personal experience, Kincaid feels as though Tufts has long turned a blind eye to the true experiences of its students of color.

“I’m passionate because I’ve personally experienced a lot of trials at the university based on my racial experience here,” he said, adding that he has been the subject of racial slurs and police harassment.

JAMES mACKENZIE “If you ever have to run away from an alligator, run away in a zigzag line, because they can’t turn as quickly so you’ll escape them,” graduating senior James Mackenzie said. Billed as “the guy who knows everything,” it comes as no surprise that after graduating, Mackenzie will be returning to Google — where he interned last summer — to start his career.

Mackenzie, an economics and community health double major, interned for Google’s Building Opportunities for Leadership & Development program. “What I did was work on their international benefits team. I did a lot of work with their different offices in Asia, as well as with EMEA — Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I was just trying to work with the benefit specialists there and streamline what we offer in America to the other offices.”

Mackenzie, who has also worked at Tufts’ Women’s Center and as a research assistant at a Spanish design firm while studying abroad in Madrid, said that he was pleasantly surprised by his first exposure to the corporate world.

“You hear about how strict, cold and dressed-up [the corporate scene is], but everyone at Google is surprisingly down-to-earth. They’re chill and personable while still extremely driven,” Mackenzie said. “You’d be surprised as to what they’re interested in: sailing, dancing, yoga.

Everyone brought those special elements of themselves to work, and I learned a lot about collaborating and working on a team.”

No stranger to extracurricular activities himself, Mackenzie has participated in several dance endeavors, including Tufts Dance Collective, Spirit of Color Dance Troupe and Tufts Dance Marathon.

He spent his entire junior year in Madrid, an experience he said he would repeat “in a heartbeat.”

“I got to see the world,” Mackenzie said. “Never in a mil-

ashley seenauth/tufts daily

“Tufts in particular has done a very poor job in dealing with these issues.”

Kincaid drew attention not only to harassment issues, but also to the retention rate of students and faculty of color, as well as the inclusion of ethnic studies in the Tufts curriculum. He has fought particularly hard over the last four years to make ethnic studies — Africana Studies in particular — a reality here.

“We don’t just want to study next to people of different ethnicities and cultures, but to study about different ethnicities and cultures,” he said.

Kincaid believes that without an academic program to back up these issues’ legitimacy, there will continue to be a lack of dialogue about the struggles that people of color — at Tufts and beyond — deal with, only making it easier for students and faculty here to ignore problems that many of them have never had to face.

“I believe all students should grow from having to lean into discomfort,” he said. “We need a university that pushes students to lean into that discomfort.”

Kincaid believes the university is headed in the right direction, citing both this year’s April Open House, where current students talked to prospective students about the racial climate at Tufts, and the headway the movement for an Africana studies department is making as evidence that the Tufts community is ready to open a dialogue about uncomfortable issues.

Having spent four years dedicated to building a community that can openly tackle issues of race, Kincaid may have missed out on some aspects of a typical college experience, but he emphasizes the necessity of that sacrifice.

“Someone has to stand up for these particular issues. … Otherwise generation after generation of students [will] pass without having a real stake in this university,” he said.

—by Falcon Reese lion years would I have thought that I would have traveled so much of another continent.”

The increased fluency he acquired in Spain also opened the door for him to travel to Guatemala with the Tufts Timmy Foundation this past winter break. “[In Guatemala], we’d hold a mobile clinic and have patients come in,” Mackenzie said. “We had doctors and a pharmacy where we could prescribe certain things as they were needed.”

While it may be easy for some students to tune out social and political issues while immersed in the schoolwork at Tufts, Mackenzie said he made a point to stay up to date with the news and embrace differing stances.

“I love when I can debate,” he said. “Especially when I can take something from the conversation and learn something new. … I’m more of a problem-solver than anything else. I love giving advice, and I’m very good at doing so while still staying out of the picture. I can help you see both sides of things.”

His is a personality that seems tailor-made for Google.

His job will begin as a rotational program in which he won’t know exactly what he’ll be doing until he’s assigned to it. He will be working for the Human Resources division and will work on three separate teams during his contract there, switching every nine months. After this trial period is over, he’ll be able to choose which one he wants to be on permanently.

“While I don’t know exactly where I’m going to go yet or what I’m going to do yet, I want the work that I end up doing to have an impact and help people,” Mackenzie said.

“I’m very interested in public policy. … I’m very interested in marginalized communities, so if I can equalize the playing field for some, then I would say that that’s a success.”

—by Amelia Quinn

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

13

Features

2011: Senior profiles Alexis Sue Yan Yuen

Signe Porteshawver

Tomoaki Takaki

bruce wang/tufts daily

SignE Porteshawver Though she hails from Davenport, Iowa, graduating senior Signe Porteshawver didn’t know much about farming besides corn when she matriculated to Tufts. Now, four years later, sustainable agriculture has defined her academic career and become a life-long passion.

“It’s so interesting to grow up in a place like Davenport because Iowa imports 98 percent of their food — of course I had no idea about any of this,” Porteshawver said. “I never even fathomed agriculture because you don’t see it. ... I learned so much when I came here about agriculture back home.”

Porteshawver’s involvement with sustainability at Tufts began her sophomore year after she read “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by journalist and activist Michael Pollan. Porteshawver also credits her growing interest in the environment at the time to getting a bike and discovering more people and places around Cambridge.

“I think that really changed my outlook on things because I didn’t realize how it’s just freedom,” Porteshawver said. “You can go so far and to so many places people normally don’t go ... and then it’s just like a bike community. You end up meeting other people who ride bikes, and bike people talk about environmental stuff.”

As her interest in agricultural practices around the globe grew, Porteshawver turned her focus closer to home. Along with the help of Yosefa Ehrlich (LA ’10), Porteshawver created the garden located downhill on Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus.

The two also worked with students at the Friedman School of Nutrition and Science Policy to develop an Experimental College course in practical gar-

Alexis Sue Yan Yuen Graduating senior Alexis Sue Yan Yuen founded the LUX China Care Fashion Show, has worked as a Tisch Scholar and graduates today with a dual degree from Tufts and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She now knows that she wants her life’s work to combine her love of art with her talent for marketing, but she wasn’t always so sure.

Her initial aspirations included becoming a doctor, so she took a year off after freshman year and spent time in Ghana as a medical volunteer for the organization Unite for Sight. She ended up taking a different approach than she had intended, spending more time documenting eye surgeries as a photojournalist.

When her time in Ghana was over, she volunteered for the Red Cross in Sichuan, China, after the devastating earthquake.

“I thought doing pre-med was the best way to help people, but after trying to be pre-med in Ghana, I realized to be creative is the best way to contribute,” Yuen said. “I can help make an impact even doing things that I really like and am really good at. I came back because I knew that my first reason coming to Tufts was right, to focus on civic engagement and internationalism.”

Yuen says this was just the experience she needed to move ahead.

“I found out what I liked, and I could go on at full speed without doubt once I came back,” she said.

Yuen came back and began her first project as a Tisch Scholar in which she worked with the Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence. She worked with its youth empowerment program, helping to equip high school students with the language to talk about

dilys ong/tufts daily

dening and sustainable food systems. Along with being called a “bio-head” by Associate Professor of Biology George Ellmore, Porteshawver considers the day the class was approved one of her best undergraduate memories.

The other major mark Porteshawver has made on environmentalism at Tufts is the redesign of the old student group ECO into the current Tufts Sustainability Collective with fellow graduating senior Sally Sharrow.

The two looked to create a more efficient structure for Tufts’ environmental initiatives that prompted students to take action instead of simply discussing ideas. The collective is now the umbrella organization overseeing four main groups: Students for a Just and Sustainable Future, Tufts Bikes, Tom Thumb’s Garden and Tufts Against Plastic.

Porteshawver wrote her senior thesis on Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and alternative economics and will be taking these ideas with her as she moves on from Tufts. Having already worked at numerous farming and outdoor-related nonprofits in the area, Porteshawver is excited to apprentice at Drumlin Farm this summer tending crops and selling them at the farmers market. Afterward, she wants to work more with CSA, in which members of a community financially support a local farm in return for produce on a regular basis.

“I really want to start a Boston-area CSA coalition,” Porteshawver said. “I also want to have an urban farming venture where I compost from restaurants and raise chickens and grow mushrooms.”

Regardless of what path she chooses next, Porteshawver is pleased that, at Tufts at least, she is leaving a greener trail behind her.

jodi bosin/tufts daily

Tomoaki Takaki

these personal issues and creating photo essays with students about their own experiences. She spent this year working with the Chinese Progressive Association on marketing for their new W/Y Gallery.

It was initially a challenge to work as an international student in a program benefitting local communities, according to Yuen, who has lived in Hong Kong and London.

“People were kind of skeptical with how much I could help because they knew one day I would leave and were scared I would leave halfway [through],” she said. “Getting people to let me work with them was hard. I learned more, and throughout the past few years, it has changed from a disadvantage to almost an advantage. I’m almost like a cultural ambassador, asking people to think from a different perspective.”

Yuen sees collaboration as the root of all her successes, especially in establishing the LUX China Care Fashion show, which started as a small event and this year sold out Cohen Auditorium. Proceeds from the show go to China Care, an organization that provides medical care to orphans in China. She credits the event’s other organizers, the diverse group of models who walked and an audience from all over Tufts for the event’s growing success.

“There’s such a strong community of people who care about the world in the way I do,” she said. “In the gap year, I was alone in many countries, and although I was okay doing certain things, it was difficult struggling alone. Everyone at Tufts is active on a certain issue and that pushed me to work harder on everything I do, and that’s something I’m going to miss next year — having a supportive community.”

Looking back at his college years, graduating senior Tomoaki Takaki talks proudly about meeting new people and taking full advantage of what Tufts has to offer.

Takaki is part of the small group of Jumbos who belong to the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), the United States’ collegiate officer commissioning program.

He was awarded both the Tufts Army ROTC award and the Distinguished Military Graduate award, the latter of which is given to the nation’s top 20 percent of ROTC seniors — Takaki ranked within the nation’s top 1 percent.

“It’s nice to try to excel and work really hard and have your efforts rewarded,” he said.

As an ROTC cadet, Takaki has had the opportunity to meet students from Harvard, MIT, Wellesley and several other schools.

“Some of my good friends I would’ve never met without doing ROTC,” he said.

Although ROTC has been very rewarding, especially in terms of enhancing his leadership skills, Takaki said that adjusting to the program’s lifestyle has not always been easy.

“I am a little atypical for a college student,” he said, adding that unlike most college students, he had to learn to go to sleep early at night and study in the mornings.

Takaki is graduating with a degree in international relations (IR) with a concentration in the Middle East and South Asia. He explained that through the academic opportunities Tufts offers, he has been able to explore his interests both on and off campus.

Takaki participated in the 2010 Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) Symposium on South Asia and traveled to India as a part of the program. There, he was able to work on his research on youth voting trends. In addition, he has been an active member of the Institute of Global Leadership’s Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES), through which he also found an internship at the U.S. Army War College. He is also a member of the Sigma Iota Rho International Relations Honor Society, Beta Chi Chapter.

Originally from Japan, Takaki explained that his exposure to the international community started when he was very young.

Later, at Tufts, he met many international students who later became his great friends and his inspiration to both study IR and to become an International Orientation Host Advisor during his sophomore year.

Throughout his Tufts career, Takaki has had the opportunity to travel around the world — to India, with EPIIC, as well as to Egypt, Morocco and Hawaii.

“That has colored my perceptions,” he said. “It has been cool to go to these places and visit my Tufts friends.”

This summer, Takaki will be interning at the Pentagon, followed by his initial five-month officer training. After that, he hopes to find a job to complement his part-time commissioning as an Army Reserve Second Lieutenant.

Takaki leaves with the satisfaction of knowing that he got as much as he could out of Tufts and eagerly looks forward to continuing to meet interesting people in his journey after college.

—by Alexa Sasanow

—by Emilia Luna

—by Sarah Strand

The Tufts Daily

14 Romy Oltuski | The Dilettante

I

Dewey’s turf

t came as a surprise to many of my friends that I waited until the last week of my senior year to hole up in Tisch Library for the first time. It’s not that I’ve never been immersed in Tisch culture — I’ve met people for coffee in it; I’ve used its printers; I’ve rented its DVDs; I’ve taken classes in it; I’ve made out in its book stacks; I’ve smoked on top of it; I even, to my dismay, once saw someone in the back room of its media center jerking off behind his computer in the dark, probably (hopefully) thinking he was not in plain sight of those walking by its roof.

But my relationship with Tisch Library was always sort of a Giving Tree relationship — it gave to me, and I took. I never thought to sit down in one of its chairs and keep it company.

Until now. On the whole, what I gathered from this experiment was more than I had expected. I came for a few hours of study, and I got a glimpse into a world in miniature, a strange culture with its own rituals and mores, all contained within the giant, white brick walls donated to Tufts

by Jonathan M. Tisch but entirely separated from them. As an outsider, I was able to observe its subcultures objectively.

Tour with me: Walk in, turn right, and you’ll find the Tower Café, where students drop by for caffeine or sit down to flirt with their TAs and professors, facilitated by the university’s free-coffeefor-students-with-professors policy. A decent studying venue if you like loud background noise you can drown out or if you want to spy on people walking down ProRow through the windows. In both cases, beware: While the Tower is a part of the library, it is not conceptualized as such, and your presence there will be understood as your wanting to talk to people. Musicless headphones are a must if you plan on getting things done.

Moving out of Tower, you’ll find several students sprawled on armchairs in the hallway leading from the cafe to the library’s main atrium. They are either on the phone or part of a fringe subculture I don’t yet understand.

Turning right and right again, you have the group study area, equivalent to the building’s nightclub. Here, you’ll find pickup artists, socializing and music coming from iPods whose owners don’t realize their headphones aren’t plugged in all the way. This area is not as loud as Tower; it is louder. And the people who come here are more interested in watching YouTube videos and each other than working. Good for study breaks.

Returning to the main atrium and heading down the stairs, you are faced with a decision. Turn right if you are either really loud or a shut-in and therefore need your own tiny room within the library, or if you have to pee. But really, turn left, make a U-turn and head straight until you reach the rounded oasis of desks and carrels facing Anderson Hall and labeled “Quiet: Study Area.” If you have arrived at this place, you have won. The harsh overhead lighting is assuaged by the full wall of natural light. The noise level is low enough but not so low that you feel bad noisily resituating yourself in your chair.

Now let’s take a trip downstairs. You may think that we are already downstairs. But there’s more: There’s Level G, only reachable through one stairwell but worth the search. Its merits are many.

First, there are comfortable armchairs available in its small group study area, which, from what I glean, is rarely a group study area because groups rarely find it.

Second, it has movable stacks that are ideal for hide and seek and squashing people you don’t like. Third, it resembles the oasis above it but has a cooler climate, if you’re into that.

I hope that this outsiders’ recount has been educational, and I hope you’ll share with me your input or dissenting views about these and other subcategories of Tisch’s socio-cultural geography.

Obviously, we’ll leave out late-night study.

There are some sacrifices not worth making for research.

Romy Oltuski graduates today with a degree in English. She can be reached at Romy.Oltuski@tufts.edu.

Features

Commencement 2011

For interactive political talk, fast-growing Tufts Roundtable Commons website offers a forum by

Meg Young

Daily Staff Writer

Tufts Roundtable Commons, an interactive news website created and run by a group of Tufts students, has reached 200 bloggers and users. Since the website’s redesign in October 2010, the average number of visits per month has increased to just under 9,000.

The website, trcommons.org, which brings together hundreds of blogs by members of the Tufts community including students, alumni and faculty, addresses topics ranging from campus and international news to how to brew your own beer or plan a trip to Paris. It also features a small audio section where bloggers can post their own podcasts.

Graduating senior Shabazz Stuart, co-founder and president of Tufts Roundtable, the organization that encompasses both the Tufts Roundtable Commons website and the Tufts Roundtable magazine, said that the organization plans to make the website larger despite its successful figures.

“Our number one priority is to continue to expand,” Stuart said. “There are a lot of bloggers at Tufts and in the larger Tufts community, and we want to find all of them.”

Rising junior Aeden Pillai, webmaster of Tufts Roundtable Commons, echoed the organization’s goal.

“Our commitment has always been to foster a conversation by those connected in some way to the Tufts community,” he commented in an April post on the website.

Indeed, this mission has characterized the website’s evolution over the course of the past few years. The website was originally created to support Tufts Roundtable, a quarterly political magazine started by Stuart and fellow graduating seniors Sam Wallis and Chas Morrison during their sophomore year.

“We wanted to create a nonpartisan political magazine,” Morrison said. “There was no common space for students to have a discourse. Tufts [Democrats] have the Public Forum, the Republicans have [The] Primary Source. We founded Tufts Roundtable to be the first step in creating that larger space for campus.”

But the founders soon decided that the organization needed an online, not just print, presence.

“We quickly realized that [a] magazine was insufficient for creating campus discourse, so we launched a website,” Stuart said.

Although they originally did not

have sufficient resources to create a comprehensive website, the team subsequently created a second version of the site. Then, in the summer of 2010, the team received a grant which enabled them to hire professional help in overhauling the website to its current form.

Over the course of this process, the Tufts Roundtable magazine and the Commons website have been somewhat differentiated from one another.

“At first, a big part of the website was just hosting content from the magazine — it was just to download the PDF of the magazine. Then we started off a community of bloggers, including students, faculty and people abroad. It became an independent community that was separate from the magazine and created specifically for the website,” Morrison said.

Today, the magazine still maintains a separate website, which can be found at tuftsroundtable.org.

“Originally, the magazine’s focus was on politics, and we try to catch all kinds of things, but it really was an unexpected thing, and when we launched the redesign, it was continuously an experiment,” Pillai said.

There is still, however, some consee ROUNDTABLE, page 16

Language requirement unnecessary, some say Students disagree with Tufts’ emphasis on foreign language

by Sarah

Korones

Daily Editorial Board

With the exception of engineers, almost every student at Tufts is all too familiar with Olin Hall, the tall brick building at the top of the Hill that houses the university’s foreign language departments. In an effort to prepare students for an increasingly global and connected world, Tufts requires that every student in the School of Arts and Sciences become proficient in a language other than English by taking at least six classes in a foreign language or culture before graduation. But due to the structure of the requirement and the wiggle room it leaves to avoid actual language classes, the value of the requirement has been questioned, leaving many students to wonder — is the walk to Olin worth it?

For rising senior Eric Morrissey, the decision to enroll at Tufts three years ago did not factor in the emphasis on foreign languages. It instead- came down to his knowledge of the school’s celebrated science program and its strong music department. Now, as a physics major and a member of the Beelzebubs, an allmale Tufts a cappella group, Morrissey splits the time in his busy schedule between the lab and the recording studio. Morrissey, who admits that foreign languages aren’t his forte, found the extensive requirement to be a source of stress and anxiety.

“I was pretty worried about it, because I knew I didn’t intend to major in anything relating to it,” he said. “Engineers get let off the hook, but science majors still have to do it, so that was kind of frustrating.”

Every student in the School of Arts and Sciences must take six semesters of foreign language courses. The requirement is further broken down into two parts. First, students must demonstrate knowledge of a foreign language either through three semesters’ worth of courses at Tufts or by placing into higher levels through the language placement test offered during Freshman Orientation or Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB) or SAT Subject Tests in the foreign language of their choice.

Once a student has completed this part of the requirement, he or she may choose to continue with his or her original language of study, complete another three semesters of study in a new language, or take three courses that examine a foreign culture.

Morrissey, like many students, was able to fulfill the requirement by tak-

ing only one actual language class and two culture classes. While Morrissey views himself as lucky for getting the requirement out of the way in a relatively quick and easy manner, he admitted that his Spanish skills are probably not up to par.

“I haven’t taken a [Spanish] class since freshman year,” Morrissey said. “I didn’t go abroad, so I didn’t really give myself a chance to be around the language. I just haven’t used the skills at all since freshman year, so they’re pretty much gone.”

But according to Dean of Academic Affairs for the Arts and Sciences James Glaser, the foreign language requirement is anything but a waste of time and actually does provide incentive for students to learn and become proficient in a foreign language.

“It’s true that the requirement at Tufts is heavier than at many other institutions, but we’re proud of that,” he said.

“We have long viewed ourselves as an international organization, and our curriculum reflects that.”

According to Glaser, many Tufts graduates come out with a facility for one or more languages, and that is often due to the foreign language requirement.

“Approaching fluency in another language has long been an important value for education at Tufts,” he said.

For Glaser, the opportunity to learn other languages and gain knowledge of different cultures is invaluable, no matter what major students ultimately choose. see LANGUAGE, page 16

lane florsheim/Tufts Daily

The rigorous foreign language requirement has elicited mixed reactions from students.

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

15

Features

Tufts’ provost looks back at his time at the university BHARUCHA

continued from page 11

“The sheer volume and diversity of issues that hit you constantly — you have to learn about a wide range of fields.

Taking care of the concerns of the arts departments are very different from the medical school,” he said.

Bharucha has been reviewing his work at Tufts repeatedly in the past few months in preparation for his departure.

“As I look back, I probably appointed eleven deans,” he said.

During his tenure, admitted students’ academic profiles have improved — the class of 2015 boasted the strongest academic profile in Tufts history.

He designed academic programs such as the Provost’s Fellows program and the Graduate Competitiveness Initiative, both of which are designed to improve Tufts’ recruitment of doctoral students, and took a major role in the construction of the Granoff Music Center, after which enrollment of prospective music majors doubled, he said.

Enlisting faculty, more than any of his duties, addressed what he considered the most important part of his job: meeting the needs of students.

“Faculty define the academic and intellectual experience that students have,” Bharucha said. “And if you can get the very best, then they are able to provide the students with challenge and opportunity that our students, who are the best, deserve.”

Bharucha’s strategy for assembling this faculty dream team drew upon Tufts’ upward momentum in academics, the competitive packages it offers for research support and the institution’s location in one of the most academically driven cities in the world.

“You play the Boston card. Boston is the ultimate destination for a professor,” he said.

Bharucha attributes his leadership style to his background in music, having picked up classical violin as a child in Mumbai.

He believes his experience in ensembles taught him how and when to assert himself and when to “play background.”

He still studies and performs music,

continued from page 11

still pleased with the wide swath of students that Tufts accepts and enrolls every year.

“The good news is that, you know, even though we’ve been need-sensitive over the last couple of years, the socioeconomic profile of the class really hasn’t changed. We’ve been able to preserve the ethnic, the racial, the socioeconomic diversity and the geographic diversity.”

Bacow also pointed out that his successor, Anthony Monaco, has placed financial aid as his highest priority and that Tufts has recovered well from the downturn in 2008, boasting high financial ratings from Moody’s and Standard and Poors.

Yet the economic downturn was not the institution’s only money issue during Bacow’s tenure. In 2007, Bacow learned of the embezzlement of student activity money

by Office of Campus Life (then Office of Student Activites) Director Jodie Nealley and her co-worker, Ray Rodriguez. In two completely separate schemes, the two stole close to a combined $1 million from Tufts. Each received a two-year prison sentence in 2009.

“It was like somebody had punched me in the stomach. I was in complete disbelief that she would do something like this,” Bacow said regarding Nealley’s crime.

A less personal but more devastating blow to Bacow and the university came a year later when Bacow was faced with telling students and donors of Tufts’ $20 million loss at the hands of Ponzischemer Bernard Madoff. Though Bacow insisted that all of the right questions were asked when making the investment, he admits that he felt personally responsible for the loss.

Making the tough calls To govern is to decide, and this could not be truer for Bacow, who has been faced with tough decisions on a daily basis for the past 10 years.

Let the nostalgia commence

I

jodi bosin/Tufts Daily

Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha is leaving his post at Tufts. including a recent performance of Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony with the Tufts Symphony Orchestra during a farewell show in his honor.

As he got older, he changed his course, earning his bachelor’s degree in biopsychology at Vassar College and then a master’s in philosophy at Yale University.

When applying to doctorate programs, a chance encounter introduced Bharucha to the then-avant-garde world of psychology and music. Spotting a flyer while touring at Harvard University, he returned for a lecture by Carol Krumhansl, for whom he later did research.

“It was a big risk because all of my advisers said, ‘Don’t do it,’ because integrating music with psychology or with neuroscience was still not seen as a mainstream thing,” he said. Only a few years later, he received his Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Harvard and launched a career researching the link between music and psychology.

Bharucha’s background in psychology also fueled his rise from professor to dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Dartmouth College, becoming the first Indian-American dean of an Ivy League school.

“Understanding psychology is extremely beneficial to being a more effective and skillful leader,” he said. “Leadership is about people, and people are compli-

cated.”

Yet despite the challenges that come from leading an academic institution and its people — 11,000 staff members and students at Tufts — he considered the chance to head to the big city one that he couldn’t pass up.

“This opportunity that I’ve been given is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead an institution that has an extraordinary history as one of the most selective colleges in the country,” he said.

Although leaving Tufts was the right choice for him, he insists that Tufts has made a lasting impression on him.

“I leave Tufts feeling very, very fulfilled.

I’ve been part of something great,” he said. “Tufts people are authentic people.”

But he has not left yet. Keeping up with his intense travel schedule, this summer he plans to conduct his final inspection of the academic rigor of Tufts in Talloires, an inspection that may just have to include paragliding off the cliffs there. After nine years of tirelessly working to help Tufts become what it is today, a summer in France is a welcome respite.

Preparing for his final Commencement ceremony, Bharucha hopes to leave students with a few words of wisdom.

“The most important thing in life is to help other people,” he said. “That way of thinking comes very naturally at Tufts, and all I can say is, let it stay with you.”

Bacow reflects on a presidency and tenure marked by personal connections as much as national events BACOW

Alanna Tuller | Archive Addict

“Literally every decision that comes to you as president is a tough one; the nobrainers are all taken care of before they get to you,” he said. “If something comes to you, it’s because it’s a 51-49 choice.”

Deciding what is best for the university in the long term, like the president’s recent decision to end the Naked Quad Run, may not always be what students or faculty want to hear, but in Bacow’s eyes, it sometimes must be done.

Some of the particularly difficult decisions that Bacow has faced have resulted from diversity and tolerance issues like the April 9, 2009, bias incident, in which a heated fight broke out between a white student and Asian-Americans in Lewis Hall. Two years earlier, The Primary Source published two articles that offended other ethnic communities at Tufts. One implied that Muslims were violent, and the other criticized affirmative action in such a way that suggested African-Americans were academically unqualified for admission to Tufts.

In both cases, pressure mounted on all sides for consequences and administrative action, and in both cases, Bacow favored community participation and dialogue, standing by the principles of free speech and expression but condemning intolerance. He commissioned in 2008 a special task force designed to tackle this very goal — crafting a university-wide policy on freedom of expression — and supported the policy that was approved by the Board of Trustees a year later.

“I’ve always tried to do the right thing and not everybody’s agreed. That’s why it’s a university,” he said.

The memories Bacow is excited to return to teaching next year as president-in-residence at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, and while he claims that four years from now, those of the Monaco era will look back and say “Larry who?,” the mark he has

left at Tufts suggests otherwise. Many of the connections and friendships he has made will far outlast his time here, and donors, administrators, coaches and even student advisees that he’s consistently taken on every other year all hold a special place in his heart, he said.

In terms of the less quantifiable legacies, Bacow said he can feel a sense of pride, institutional integrity and innovation that have all grown under his watch.

“I remember talking to an alumna in Hong Kong who said that in the past when she told somebody that she went to Tufts and they would say, ‘Where’s that?’ she thought that reflected poorly on Tufts,” Bacow said. “She said, these days if I meet somebody and I tell them I went to Tufts and they say, ‘Where’s that?’ she thinks it reflects poorly on them.”

These sorts of encounters reflect how Tufts’ prestige and general profile have grown over the past decade, he said. Though there is no real way to measure this, its results, he believes, have been palpable both on and off the Hill.

“As we’ve become better known, I think it makes it that much easier for our graduates to go out and find jobs, to make connections, but at the same time as that’s happened, it’s made it much easier for us to recruit students, for faculty to secure resources, for us to recruit people from around the world,” he said.

Indeed, this growth in prestige was one of Bacow’s principal aspirations for Tufts, even before he took office. He feels that the advancements made under his watch and the flourishing of Tufts as a prestigious university will continue to benefit the community for years to come, particularly with a new leader at the helm.

“One reason for me to step aside is … to give the institution, as well as the new president, the idea to take a fresh look at the challenges as well as the opportunities with a new set of eyes,” he said.

t sounds trite, but Commencement exercises make me feel really nostalgic. I think this nostalgia is partially due to the fact that Commencement is the last time an entire graduating class will be together, but I also find myself feeling a sense of nostalgia for the more distant past. One would think our current Commencement traditions link us Jumbos throughout the ages, right?

Well, yes and no.

The Commencement ceremonies a hundred years ago were not, in all honesty, that much different from today. For commencement on June 21, 1911, students and their families gathered in Goddard Chapel to begin with morning prayers.

Student speakers then shared speeches ranging over a variety of topics, including titles such as “An Appreciation of the Classics” and “Etiology and the Prevention of Irregularities in Teeth.” (I’m assuming the latter fellow was graduating from Tufts’ Dental School.) Degrees were then distributed — all 217 of them — and the ceremony closed with a benediction.

This was not, however, the full extent of Commencement celebrations at Tufts a century ago. In addition to the official ceremonies, there was a tradition known as Class Day in which the entire university gathered to celebrate and honor the graduating seniors. Although thundershowers struck on Class Day in 1911, it would have taken more than a little rain to dampen the celebrations that lasted from 9 a.m. until midnight.

Class Day began as any other at Tufts, with morning prayers in Goddard Chapel.

Family and friends later joined the seniors and listened to speeches given by the class orator, poet and president, as well as some wise words conferred by President Frederick W. Hamilton. I don’t know about you, but I think I’d be a bit bored at this point with the barrage of speeches and endless yammering about graduation and life after Tufts. Thankfully, in response to this anticipated boredom, the next phase of Class Day moved the revelers outdoors for a few hours of organized chaos.

The “Tree Exercises” were the next activity on the program. Visitors and Tufts students would gather under a tree between Ballou Hall and Goddard Chapel to listen to a Tree Oration, sing class songs and distribute gifts to underclassmen. Seniors provided toy guns for the junior class as a symbol of bravery, old shoes for the sophomores to symbolize following in the seniors’ footsteps and children’s storybooks for the freshmen as a symbol of knowledge. (I guess it really is the thought that counts.)

And while I’m sure singing round after round of “Tuftonia’s Day” and distributing presents to hundreds of underclassmen was certainly a rousing good time, it seems like all hell really broke loose in the next phase of the celebrations. Each class, still seated around the tree, would take turns creating cheers for P.T. Barnum, the trustees, the president and the sports teams.

The cheering continued as the band played and seniors and sophomores marched across the quad, shouting and cheering for each building the crowd thundered past.

After the hullabaloo subsided, the different fraternities and clubs hosted dinners, and the Glee Club performed on the steps of Barnum Hall. The Tufts Weekly also tells us that when evening fell on Class Day in 1911, “The Hill never looked more beautiful with its perfect green slopes, the decorations and the thousands of vari-colored lanterns.”

And so ended Class Day one hundred years ago.

Although it’s sad that some traditions, like the Tree Exercises, are lost to the annals of Tufts history, there are others I think we are better off forgetting about (for example, until 1868, Commencement exercises were conducted almost entirely in Latin). But whether you choose to storm the quad in a cheering mob or hang a few lanterns from the trees, I hope your graduation is as memorable as your last four years at Tufts.

Congratulations, and good luck!

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

The Tufts Daily

16

Features

Commencement 2011

Yuantee Zhu | What Would Yuantee Zhu?

Divided on Dearborn

D

ear Yuantee,

This week I was offered my dream job as an entry-level accountant at Ernst & Young in downtown Boston. I should be ecstatic, I know, but I’m hesitant. My three best friends and girlfriend are all moving into a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn while they chase their respective dreams, and a part of me wants to follow them, help them chase these dreams and, of course, look after my girl. I’ve been working toward this moment for 22 years, Yuantee, but now I’m wondering if punching numbers into an Excel sheet while sitting in a cubicle all day is as glorious as it’s made out to be in the movies. What should I Zhu? —Divided on Dearborn DD, I’ve been waiting for this question and the opportunity to share my own story, my own dreams. For 22 years (22, like you), I’ve sacrificed sleep, relationships, writing this column for 3 1/2, an acting career, a fulltime position as the drummer of iconic Tufts band Knives For Sale, many pints of blood and a few tears, choosing instead to spend my time diligently, selflessly working on a cure for Parkinson’s disease. I’m moving to Nashville next month to chase my dream alone at medical school while my three best friends and girlfriend move into a three-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn of their own. Personally, I’m dumping my girlfriend. I haven’t told her yet, but she reads the column.

This does not, however, mean you should Zhu what I Zhu, but rather to take what I would Zhu, along with everything else you may consider, into account when you make your decision. And understand that as similar as our situations may seem, there are significant differences, the obvious one being the apparent natures of my dream and yours — mine being to save lives, yours to save money. But as you and the rest of my readers must know by now, I am far from the average, rashly judgmental eye. I admittedly don’t know much about accounting and am willing to assume you have only the noblest intentions: curing the financial pains of suffering clients while diligently, selflessly working toward calculating that perfect, elusive common denominator between reckless overspending and tragic frugality. You know what I mean.

I’m also assuming you’ve attempted to land a job accounting in New York because if you haven’t, you may as well stop reading now and look into that. I know Ernst & Young has offices in New York, if working for Ernst & Young specifically is indeed critical to fulfilling your dream as an accountant.

The question, essentially, comes down to how committed you are to your girlfriend. In your proposed arrangement, your “dream” scenario, you may be relegating yourself to seeing your beloved at most every other week and your best friends even less. While doable, this is clearly far from ideal. Picture the following plausible scenario, keeping in mind your ripe old age of 22: You make $600 selling fresh eggs from a chicken coop in your backyard. You take this money and move to Brooklyn with your friends and hang out with them all the time. You share a bed with your girlfriend and pay half her rent. You let your relationship unfold naturally, without the pressures of distance. Find a job bootlegging or hand-modeling or something if you really can’t find anything in accounting. Do some hard living while you’re young. Chase someone else’s dream. Reconsider yours for the hell of it. Look into Parkinson’s disease, researching new treatments or measures of prevention. Save lives. Live yours. Collect experiences and relationships while cultivating the ones you already have. Then, do what you do best, DD. Add it all up.

Then get back to me.

At least, that’s what I would Zhu.

Yuantee Zhu graduates today with a degree in biology. He can be reached at Yuantee.

Zhu@tufts.edu.

justin mccallum/Tufts Daily

Left to right, rising senior Nate Kerbin, rising junior Stefan Schwarz, graduating senior Shabazz Stuart and rising junior Aeden Pillai browse the Tufts Roundtable Commons.

As they graduate, founders express optimism about future roundtable

continued from page 14

nection between the two. Both fall under the umbrella of the organization Tufts Roundtable, of which Stuart is the president. “I’m the president of the whole organization. The magazine on a day-to-day basis is managed by others and they do 99 percent of the work, so I’ve taken a lot of time with the Commons. There are two different staffs, and I’m the link between the two,” he said.

Stuart and Morrison both said that although they are graduating, they have no doubt that the magazine and website will continue at full force in the coming year. “They are totally self-sufficient. Sam and I don’t have daily ties to the Roundtable. Shabazz publicizes, but now it’s evolved even beyond what he had in mind. It’ll definitely survive, and I know that it’ll be in great hands,” Morrison said.

Stuart added that because one can

Some see value in extensive language exposure LANGUAGE

contribute to online media from any location, he will be able to continue to support the Common even after he leaves Tufts.

There is also interaction and exchange between contributors to the Commons and to the magazine. “The magazine does pursue people who write on the website and might track them down,” Stuart said.

Pillai added that, similarly, they are trying to get writers from the magazine to contribute to the website as well.

There are a wide variety of options for individuals who wish to blog on the Commons website, Pillai explained.

If someone already has a blog, the Commons can syndicate it, meaning that updates to the personal blog will automatically be posted on the Commons website. Numerous student groups, such as Brand Haiti and Tufts Energy forum, have used this option to help spread their message to a wider audience.

J O I N

Becoming a blogger on the website is relatively easy. “You go to the website, sign up and then you’re ready to go,” Pillai said. The greater struggle, however, is to convince people to post continuously after their initial commitment to be a blogger.

Stuart explained that as a general rule, on any social networking site, 80 percent of the content comes from only 20 percent of the users, and this is true for the Commons as well.

“We have a core group and an auxiliary group,” Stuart said.

Nonetheless, Stuart said, one of the main advantages of the Commons is that it gives wider visibility to individual bloggers. “In the end,” he said, “it is all about audience. Writing online has the problem of lack of audience.

We try to give people a central place to post. Blogging gives people a higher degree of freedom compared to an op-ed. But it’s all about audience, and this could be a new way to go.”

T HE

C ULT

MEDFORD, MASS

continued from page 14

“I would be disappointed if people thought it was a waste of time,” he said.

This sentiment certainly proved to be true for senior Sarah Tavares, a double major in math and Spanish. Like Morrissey, Tavares had always viewed herself as more of a math and science person and was not thrilled to learn about the foreign language requirement upon matriculation to Tufts.

“I had taken Spanish in high school and was never a huge fan of my language classes, but I figured I’d take it since it’s such a widely spoken language,” she said. “At that point, I saw it as something I just had to get out of the way. I placed out of three semesters of it, so I assumed I could just take three more and be done with it.”

As she worked toward fulfilling the requirement, however, Tavares found her language classes to be extremely engaging.

“As I got to the more advanced classes that focused on literature rather than tedious grammar skills, my interest in continuing with the language grew,” she said. “My professors were also amazing, and my classes were way more engaging than my high school classes.”

After spending a semester abroad in Madrid, Tavares realized that she could easily fulfill the major requirements in addition to her math major.

Nearing graduation, she has no regrets about her time in the classroom.

“The language requirement is definitely something I approve of,” she said. “I probably would have avoided language classes altogether otherwise, and yet now I’m a Spanish major.”

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Work with us, be smart about what you eat.

You will lose fat and gain energy and strength.

Learn to exercise effectively with CrossFit H2O. Full time students get 10% discount for regular membership at CrossFit H2O.

XFH2O.com

Arts & Living

17

tuftsdaily.com

Event Profile

Eugene Kim | Alleged but Not Convicted

How to exit gracefully

O

Though a trek from Tufts, SoWa market offers refreshing summer fun for locals

by

Ashley Wood

Daily Editorial Board

When students first arrive at Tufts, there is a common list of locations that they can expect to see at some point during their four years. The Museum of Fine Arts, Faneuil Hall and Newbury Street are just a few of the common tourist spots that Boston boasts. But there is one experience that students are unlikely to have unless they spend their summer taking classes at Tufts or interning in the city. Beginning in May each year, the SoWa Open Market takes place on Sundays throughout the summer in South Boston and gives visitors one day each week filled with music, art, crafts and food from local Boston artists and vendors.

Unfortunately, SoWa isn’t exactly close within range of Tufts’ Medford/ Somerville campus, but for a lazy Sunday afternoon it can be the perfect reason to get out and explore the local vendor scene in Boston. For those many carless Tufts students, SoWa can be reached by taking the Red Line to Broadway and walking about half a mile to Harrison Avenue.

The open market is broken up into three sections:

a farmers market, a crafts market and a vintage market. The first two contain what one would usually expect from any outdoor fair or festival. Food vendors provide goods composed of organic, locally grown ingredients and craft vendors sell their handmade designs, ranging from uniquely shaped soaps to sterling silver jewelry.

In terms of food, SoWa offers a variety of food trucks that park along the outer walls of the crafts section.

From Vietnamese-inspired cuisine to barbecue ribs, visitors are guaranteed a large range of choices when it comes to grabbing lunch. The farmer’s market contains more specialized goods, with stands serving samples of honey, granola, cheese and baked goods. Danish Pastry House, a favorite of many Tufts students, even had a stand, proffering pastries and breads to passers-by.

Cyndi Jacobs of The Best Damn Granola said she has been vending at SoWa for the past two years. When asked why people should come and buy food here, rather than at a grocery store, Jacobs explained, “[ Vendors] use fresh, local ingredients here,

and everything is made by small, local companies. The vendors are also always changing, so people can come back each week and see something new.”

The third section — the vintage market — is a welcomed nuance to the typical market scene. Located indoors, the market provides each vendor with a section of the spacious, interconnected rooms to sell their products.

Items spotted in this section include vintage jewelry from Givenchy and Chanel, an old newspaper reporting on the death of Princess Diana, vintage silk blouses and recycled silverware bent into bracelets.

Kathleen Bitetti from Tangerine Boutique discussed the uniqueness and durability of vintage clothing. “It’s great stuff at an affordable price, and no one else will have it,” she said. “If they’ve lasted this long, then they’re going to last you a long time.”

Ari Carrigan, another vintage clothing vendor, is partial to selling bold, printed designs made of finer materials, in addition to colorful shoes and jewelry. Carrigan has been a vendor see SOWA, page 19

photos by dilys ong/tufts daily

f all the lessons I learned while on the road as a semi-professional cup stacker, it was the importance of making good memories that mattered most. I broke a lot of hearts on the Bible Belt Cup Stacking circuit, and I had mine torn up once or twice. Our hedonistic lifestyle with no regard for UTIs or the future meant we were always doing awesome stuff. And what happened when we inevitably parted ways due to the harsh realities of our paths in life? We accepted it because no good thing lasts forever and we had enough Nutella’d and handcuffed memories to keep that fire going.

Let me put it this way: did the X-Men spend the last week they had together, before going their separate ways at the end of the movie, moping about how it was the last time they were going to fight Magneto as a group?

Hell no; they just ganged up on that old crazy and delivered the beating of a lifetime. So when they finally did break up, they all had some things to remember. Stopping to say out loud, “Hey, Professor X, I don’t think I’m ever gonna get brain-prodded by your Cerebro ever again. … Aw … this is so sad,” would’ve led to some Stormbrain splatter on the floor. Don’t stop to think and reminisce before you even have a reason to reminisce, but instead do some sweet spinning kicks that you can stew upon when the time is right (for me, it’s usually while weeping in the back of a Chuck E. Cheese’s).

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Carter stopped in the middle of an international crime syndicate investigation to say, “LEE! We spent the last hour and a half running through boat parties, crossing the Pacific and gambling in Las Vegas — I probably won’t be seeing your tiny little Asian behind until the next ‘Rush Hour’! Oh, and look out behind you!” There are times for action, and then there are times to get all weepy and emotional. Chris Tucker has it right: Do things when you can and tell war stories over a beer later. If you mix the two up then you lose the chance to make new memories and you’ll regret lost opportunities.

Name a buddy cop movie. “Lethal Weapon” (1987)? “Bad Boys” (1995)?

“Demolition Man” (1993)? Well guess what: They didn’t even acknowledge the fact that they’d be splitting up until five short minutes before the credits! It’s not like they didn’t want to, but they had a plot to progress and a script to work through; stopping to chitchat about their feelings wouldn’t help anyone. Cock that pistol, put a round in the chamber and get going.

But don’t forget to look good while you’re doing it.

I, like a number of you Tufts students, am graduating today. I’ve been making the time I had left as an undergrad as debauched and reckless as possible (a la some of the classic college films: “Old School” (2003) and “Animal House” (1978)), as all of you should have been, too. There will be time for mopey walks down Pro Row when you have your diploma and when you’re an old (mid-20s) real person nostalgiaing for the glory days — now you have the chance to squeeze in a few more awesome stories with your friends.

It’s your chance to uppercut Magneto and to chase mysterious crime lords through the seedy underbelly of Hong Kong.

I have my cups, ready to stack; where are yours?

Eugene Kim graduates today with a degree in biology. He can be reached at Eugene.Kim@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

18 Madeline Hall | The Tasteful and the Tasteless

True to taste

I

once dated a kid who listened almost entirely to ambient music. Every time I entered his car, some variation of plinking, dinging bells over a dull whir of soft noise was emanating from his speakers, creating such an intensely boring aura that it was capable of knocking me out for days.

He loved those ambient tunes more than any other kind of music I threw at him; folk could not sway him, Motown made his skin crawl and twee pop actually offended his ears. He was nothing if not devoted to the genre, and I admired that sense of dedication. I would therefore humor him some and would listen to the drowsy music until consciousness failed me.

I could listen to his ambient music in an attempt to honor his particular preference. What I could not bring myself to do, however, was lie and say that I enjoyed that particular genre.

What fluff! What fleeting, meaningless music! There was no message, no sentiment of personal strife or joy or anything! Ear-rotting doesn’t even begin to cover it!

But that one lie could have saved me from so many heated discussions about the merits of ambient music.

It could have saved me endless hours of defending my position. My calm explanations only confused him more and made him shake his head in disbelief. The offense of my inability to love the ephemeral sounds of computergenerated droning was tantamount to infidelity, a betrayal of compatibility and similarity that hurt him.

I wanted to like his music. Honestly.

But I couldn’t; the plinky-plunky ambient music could not grip me, and I could not deny as much. I owed it to my taste to be honest; any lie would have been a betrayal of self.

But this doesn’t stop others from fabricating fancies! I have seen countless individuals lie about their taste in music, movies, art and the varied tenets of choice in order to appear more compatible or appealing to another person.

Sensing that there is somehow a “right” or “wrong” set of preferences dictated by a higher cultural authority, fearful friends have launched blatant lies at unsuspecting targets to win their tasteful approval. “Oh, I love jazz. Uh, John Cold-Train, right? He’s my favorite.”

That one kills me every time.

What they fail to realize is that it’s not what your taste resembles, but the integrity of your taste that matters. How honest you are about what you love reflects an integrity and self-awareness that means so much more than a list of “cool” or culturally impressive favorites. If you truly love the smooth styles of Rod Stewart and are willing to be honest about said infatuation, then God bless you! Your virtue will not be overlooked! Your sincerity will make up for any criticism launched against you.

There will be times of temptation, of course, when the easy thing to do is lie about what you love. Barbra Streisand is actually your most-played artist on iTunes, but you’ll meet a mysterious, brooding beauty whose favorite music takes the form of Brazilian guitar trios.

In other words, Barbra just doesn’t mesh well in this case.

But you do yourself no favors in claiming a particular liking of Brazilian guitar trios if you, in fact, know nothing about them! Instead, take a stab at honesty and admit that nothing gets you going quite like “The Way We Were” (1973). Their inability to accept this preference would indicate that they’re not worth your (or Barbra’s) time anyway.

Vulnerability is scary; honesty and sincerity are not humanity’s strongest traits. But try, in taste, to be true to yourself, true to your loves and true to the world. It’s certainly worth trying.

Madeline Hall is a rising junior majoring in international relations. She can be reached at Madeline.Hall@tufts.edu.

Arts & Living

Commencement 2011

Pop Culture Retrospective

Time flies but pop culture makes memories A retrospective look at the entertainment that defined the class of 2011 by

Mitchell Geller

Daily Editorial Board

Time moves quickly. Your presence here, today, is proof of that. Whether you’re a graduate or someone who helped a graduate get to where he or she is today — a parent, friend, sibling, relative, professor, etc. — you’ve likely stepped back in shock a number of times over the past few weeks and wondered where the time has gone.

While we all mark the passage of time in our own ways, through photographs or journal entries, postcards and home video tapes, we all, for the most part, share the same pop-cultural cornerstones The class of 2011 has been in school since the early 1990s. Most of us entered kindergarten in 1994, the year that Quentin Tarantino won the Palme d’Or for “Pulp Fiction.” We have been in school for 17 years since then.

We have seen the second half of the “Star Wars” series unfold, as well as the final chapter (we hope) in the “Indiana Jones” franchise.

We watched intently as “Lost” (200410) and “The Sopranos” (1999-2007) went through their motions and flocked to the theaters in droves to see history come to life as James Cameron’s “Titanic” (1997) smashed not only the iceberg, but all expectations and box office records.

J.K. Rowling’s “boy who lived” started a cultural phenomenon that, without a doubt, many of the class of 2011 have to thank for their love of reading and, as it follows, their place at this university.

Playing Gameboy and Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 and the original Playstation were our childhood activities. Our soundtrack oscillated between sugary pop — *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears — grungy alternative — this year marks the 20-year anniversary of Nirvana’s “Nevermind” and the 15th anniversary of Weezer’s “Pinkerton” — and hip-hop of every shade, from the squeaky clean Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, to the white America-scaring N.W.A. Where were you when you heard that

absolutepunk.net

It’s hard to believe Weezer’s ‘Pinkerton’ came out over a decade ago.

Michael Jackson was dead? What was it like getting your first MP3 player? What was your first YouTube video? Your first time on Chat Roulette?

Yet it isn’t just major cultural moments that we share. The very ways in which we interact have changed within our lifetimes: This class learned to navigate the terrain of the World Wide Web as we learned to ride bikes without training wheels.

Getting our first cell phones was a rite of passage and, for most of us, life today is unimaginable without them.

Most of us can look back and share our embarrassing stories of MySpaces,

Xangas, LiveJournals, Friendsters and AOL chatrooms.

The advances in technology have shrunk the timescale of nostalgia to the point where we can reminisce fondly about viral videos from no more than two or three months ago (Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” anyone? “Charlie Bit Me,” perhaps?), as our parents or grandparents do about albums or television shows from their youth.

I’d like to think that we still have the ability to concentrate, that it isn’t true, as many have said, that this gensee RETROSPECTIVE, page 21

Arts Road Trip

rukes.com

The Electric Daisy Carnival brings together electronic music lovers.

From East to West Coast, a roadtrip of the best A guide to the top museums, concerts and festivals to see this summer by

Rebecca Santiago

Daily Editorial Board

If you’re fortunate enough to be footloose and fancy-free for the next month (hey, it’s called “funemployment” for a reason), then there’s no time like the present to celebrate being young and carefree by going on a road trip. From exhibits to concerts to art festivals, there’s a goldmine of artistic experiences lined up in the good old US of A. We’ve concocted a route that ensures the artsiest

cross-country experience — and don’t worry, we’ve spared you the International Gourd Art Festival.

Take the next few days to pack and formulate a few impeccably hipster driving playlists and hit up the best of the current Boston arts scene, like the Dale Chihuly exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston or Lyric Stage Company’s production of the classic and uproarious Marx Brothers musical, “Animal Crackers.”

Come May 27, hop in a car and head to Provincetown, Mass., to exercise your

intellectual muscles with a feminist art exhibition. The Bowersock Gallery is featuring “Bits, Bobs, and Bubble Wrap,” which showcases the work of oil painter Erin Murray and assemblage/ jewelery artist Lauren Pollaro. Murray uses images and bubble wrap to explore how women express themselves and their cultures by what they choose to showcase or conceal.

Now that you can officially feel like see ROAD TRIP, page 21

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011 Summer Book Preview

From guilty pleasures to academic heavy lifting, the summer book season has it all by

Allison Dempsey

Daily Editorial Board

Ah, summer. Time to dust off those books that have been sitting on your nightstand all semester and read more than three pages before passing out at 1 a.m. Whether summer means leisurely days on the beach, long international flights to glamorous places or a lengthy commute on the T, a good book is your best friend. We took a look at many of this summer’s literary releases and are here to tell you how you should be spending your time when you don’t have to worry about Blackboard readings or response papers.

If you want to revisit some literary favorites from middle school and lament how your favorite characters have grown up: “Incredibly Alice” by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.

When I said goodbye to Alice, I was an eighth grader graduating from middle school, facing high school. Unbeknown to me, Naylor continued the series over the past eight years and with the latest installment, “Incredibly Alice,” Alice herself is on the brink of graduation — but from college.

Sound familiar? (Available now.)

If you have no shame in your literary taste and want to combine as many ridiculous genres as possible: “Vampires in Atlantis”

by Alyssa Day. Historical romance, smutty sex scenes, bloodsucking creatures and a disappearing city: What more could you ask for in terms of a self-indulgent read? Might want to go the Kindle route with this one, though, to avoid being judged in public. (Available June 7.)

If you like vodka as much as Chelsea Handler does: “Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me” by Chelsea Handler.

In the follow-up volume to her wildly successful tomes “Are You There, Vodka? It’s

Me, Chelsea” (2009) and “Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang” (2010), funny girl Handler is at it again, but this time with tales from her family and friends about how she thwarted them in one way or another. A perfect beach read. (Available now.)

If you’re not so desperate as to resort to reading a trashy vampire romance novel: “Happy Birthday” by Danielle Steel.

Steel is known for her myriad romances with great potential to be adapted into Lifetime Original Movies. Fact: She has sold more books than any other living author.

You should probably help her maintain this extremely honorable title by delving into her latest, a tale of class, wealth and romance among the New York City elite.

(Available July 19.)

If you wonder what kinds of things Carrie Bradshaw would possibly put on her body in the ’80s: “Summer and the City” by Candace Bushnell.

The follow-up prequel to the 2010 “The Carrie Diaries,” this latest chronicle of everyone’s favorite Manolo Blahniksporter follows Carrie Bradshaw as she makes her pioneer voyage to her Mecca and future home: New York City. Follow Carrie as she meets future besties Samantha and Miranda and turns into the cosmopolitan-drinking, fashion-savvy sex guru that everyone knows and loves.

(Available now.)

If you want to solve a bigger mystery than whether or not you will get sunburned today: “I’ll Walk Alone” by Mary Higgins Clark.

Known first and foremost for her mystery novels, Clark is a well-respected figure in the world of suspense. “I’ll Walk Alone” deals with everything from New York City glamour to identity theft to kidnapping and is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

(Available now.)

Courtesy Simon & Schuster

Mary Higgins Clark’s latest is sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

If you want to spend your days dreaming about getting away: “The Tao of Travel” by Paul Theroux.

Renowned travel writer Theroux is back again with this collection of literary travel anecdotes. In referencing icons such as Jon Krakauer, D.H. Lawrence and Marco Polo, readers will enjoy the travels and travails of these world wanderers while daydreaming of their own adventures. (Available now.)

If you have major European envy and like non-fiction: “La Seduction” by Elaine Sciolino.

The French live a glamorous life, and it is in large part because of the role see BOOK PREVIEW, page 21

SoWa market covers broad range of foods, products

Congratulations, Class of 2011!

SOWA

continued from page 17

Are you tweeting about Commencement?

Be sure to use the hashtag

#tufts2011 To search and view an interactive campus map on your web-enabled mobile device, visit

m.tufts.edu/maps or scan this QR code on your phone: What is a QR code? Learn more: m.tufts.edu/qr

!

19

Arts & Living

since 2009, and reasoned, “A lot of this stuff is being reproduced now, but you’re not going to get the same quality as you would with vintage.”

For those uninterested in secondhand clothing or jewelry, the vintage market also contains an array of furniture, dishes, decorations and even video games.

The crafts section, although perhaps the least unique of the three, still contains some interesting products for the visitor who has everything. Large stones turned into clocks, recycled beer bottles blown in to cups and bowls and soaps shaped like cupcakes are just a few of the novelty items visitors may find.

One of the most popular stands in the crafts section is, in fact, not selling a product at all, but rather capitalizing on a current feather hair trend. At Lana Soussan’s Feather Fiend stand, located near the front of the entrance, girls line up to have her weave feathers into their hair. Soussan said she has been visiting SoWa for eight years, but never had anything to sell.

“This is my first year vending. I do hair, and then this whole fashion trend came along, so I gave it a chance,” she said.

Although the SoWa Open Market resembles a typical fair or farmer’s market in many respects, its unique additions like the vintage market and the variety of food trucks make a visit down to South Boston well worth the effort. Anyone interested in finding something fun to do on a warm Sunday afternoon should hop on the Red Line with a friend and prepare themselves for a day of craft browsing and overeating.

Emily Balk | Whisk-y Business

Sweet tart

C

ooking is about so much more than the assembly of ingredients. It’s about building and combining flavors and textures in a way that creates something greater than the sum of its parts. The collective knowledge of both chefs and home cooks has yielded an arsenal of particular ingredients known for their unique properties that, without further alteration, add a very special flourish to a dish.

I see them as shortcuts.

Some of these ingredients, because of their rarity, are prohibitively expensive.

Foie gras, the rich, fatty liver of goose or duck, and truffles, the earthy, aromatic mushrooms that grow in symbiosis with the roots of certain trees, are particular favorites in fine dining establishments and will drive up the cost of a meal with devastating certainty. Saffron will run you around $5,000 per pound. Of course you’d need to make a literal boatload of paella and risotto alla Milanese to use a pound of saffron, but the point remains that some flavoring agents are too precious for everyday use — make that anyday use for college undergraduates.

But some of the most incredible flavors can be achieved with the most humble of ingredients. Some of my personal favorites — shallots, onions and garlic — hail from the genus Allium.

All three pungent plants are versatile, cheap and keep forever if you don’t live in a jungle. It’s a shame that, for the most part, shallots, onions and garlic are relegated to supporting roles. Slice a head of garlic laterally, wrap in foil with a drizzle of olive oil, place in a 300-degree oven and you’re an hour away from the most incredible, mellow, butter-soft spread for toast.

Equally stunning is the Cinderella transformation of homely onion to star of a quiche via caramelization. I’ve never seen a recipe or cooking show host properly explain how to caramelize onions to their most sweet and complex potential. Cooking them for 20 minutes at medium heat won’t do it.

Adding sugar is cheating. Caramelizing onions is not for the lazy; it’s endurance cooking, marathon waiting. The tarte a l’oignon, basically a shallow onion quiche, employs caramelized onions as the primary filling ingredient, and it wants for nothing more.

11” x 1” tart pan Enough pie crust, rolled out 1/8 inch thick, to fit in the pan. Store-bought is fine.

7 medium onions, sliced. Tissues recommended for the inevitable tears.

1/4 cup butter 5 large eggs 1 1/2 cup heavy cream Salt, pepper, nutmeg to taste 10 ounces grated gruyere Water Prebake the crust at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Fill the crust with pie weights or raw beans to prevent the crust from puffing up and remove those when the crust has finished prebaking.

Cook onions over low heat with a pinch of salt and butter in a large pot until a brown layer (the fond) forms on the bottom. Add a few tablespoons of water, scrape that layer up, let the water evaporate and do that again and again until the onions are a deep shade of brown.

This will take at least one hour.

In a bowl, mix the eggs, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spread onions in bottom of crust. Cover with the cheese and pour in the egg mixture.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes.

I realize that not everyone has an 11” x 1” tart pan lying around. For a nine-inch pan, use three or four eggs, one cup cream and seven ounces of gruyere. A nine-inch pan may be deeper and require additional baking time.

Emily Balk graduates today with a degree in biopsychology and community health. She can be reached at Emily.Balk@tufts.edu.

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The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

Commencement 2011

Thank You to the 1,200 students who donated to Tufts this year.

We have inspired an alumnus to fund a

$50,000 scholarship

for a classmate next year!

Congratulations to the Class of 2011

M.S. IN MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY

IN NEW YORK CITY

Leverage your combined interests in business and technology to earn a Master of Science in Management of Technology.

NYU-Poly’s MOT program enables students to gain an exceptional foundation in management theory and practice with specific application to technology and business innovation. Students have the added advantage of interning with major corporations and fast-paced startups in the amazing environment of New York City.

Applications are now being accepted for Fall 2011. Learn more today at www.poly.edu/mot2013 t XXX QPMZ FEV NPU

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

Adele at Dallas’s House of Blues, Vegas’s Electric Daisy Carnival just two of summer’s not-to-miss roadtrip stops ROAD TRIP

continued from page 18

you’ve put your college education to good use, it’s time for the fun stuff. Set your GPS for New York, but before you get there, pull over in Connecticut and distract yourself with the “American Storytellers: Norman Rockwell & Mark Twain” exhibit at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford until May 29, when Paul Simon will (gently but melodically) rock the MGM Grand Theatre at Foxwoods in Mashantucket. After that, proceed on to the Big Apple, where you should see at least two Broadway plays (we recommend anything but “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark”) and the “Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The next leg of your journey takes you south to Washington, D.C., if you’re interested in seeing throwback bands New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys at the Verizon Center on June 3. If you’re too cool to appreciate ’90s boybands — even ironically — then keep driving until you hit Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for a concert at the Culture Room on June 5, featuring Matt & Kim, DJ Autobot and The Thermals. Don’t worry, “Daylight” (2009) won’t be stuck in your head forever. Swing up to Manchester, Tenn., to partake in Bonnaroo, the four-day camping and music festival featuring Eminem, Lil Wayne, The Black Keys and Beirut, to name a few.

Detox in Dallas, Texas, a few days later with Adele at the House of Blues on June 15. Stick around until at least the 18th, when the Dallas Museum of Art, the Crow Collection of Asian Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center will team up to host their annual summer block party, including outdoor concerts and films, performances and after-hours tours of all three museums.

Artwork © 2011 by Chihuly Studio, All rights reserved.

Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Dale Chihuly’s “Mille Fiori “ is currently on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Check the oil in your car before you continue to push west, because you don’t want to miss big things happening on the West Coast. If you can make it to Santa Barbara, Calif., for its Bollywood Party on June 21, so much the better; if not, just be sure you’re in Las Vegas, Nev., by June 24.

Otherwise, you’ll miss the annual Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), which is essentially a three-day dance party (read: rave) that has the largest attendance of any electronic dance festival outside of Europe.

As any rave frequenter knows, events like EDC are about far, far more than the featured musicians or DJs, regardless of what big name acts might come. Instead, they’re about wearing tutus and electric blue boots, giving strangers hugs and basking in the cloyingly sweet glow of the

raver’s credo, PLUR (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect).

If you survive EDC (we think you will — you made it through senior week alive), then your options are wide open.

You can hang around on the West Coast until the Burning Man festival in Black Rock Desert, Nev., which starts on Aug. 29, or you can speed back to Boston to celebrate the Fourth of July (fireworks are definitely artsy). Either way, this road trip will be a landmark experience for you as you move forward in the world, and maybe even a cultural enhancer worth discussing with your new, grownup friends at your new, grown-up job — though it might be best to gloss over some of the finer points of the Electric Daisy Carnival and Bonnaroo.

This summer offers something for all readers BOOK PREVIEW

continued from page 19

of seduction in their society. Sciolino takes the reader on a journey through the sensual aspects of the French lifestyle, from food to art to fashion, and explains just how they incorporate these values into their society. Grab a copy and get seduced. C’est la vie!

(Available June 7.)

Courtesy Craig Blankenhorn/HBO

‘The Sopranos’ paved the way for high-quality television drama.

A look back at the pop culture cornerstones of our generation RETROSPECTIVE

continued from page 18

eration has no attention span. Rather, things just move much more quickly.

There’s just as good a chance that you’re reading this on your laptop or iPad or Android phone as in the good old-fashioned print edition of The Tufts Daily. We are all constantly connected — I’ll be very surprised if multiple people don’t live-tweet Commencement — and our popular culture is moving more quickly than ever.

The webcomic (a thing which didn’t exist when this current class was born) XKCD recently ran a chart listing films and their release dates, reminding readers just how old they are.

“Terminator 2,” for example, came out in 1991, the same year that “Beauty and the Beast” and “Silence of the Lambs” were released. See? Time does move quickly.

These touchstones that we all share give us common ground. When we

got to college, many of us spent hours combing through each other’s iTunes libraries to find commonalities and hanging up posters. Whether we realized it or not, these served as advertisements to our new classmates: “This is who I am,” they said. Simple, easy ice-breaking.

So time does move quickly. It never stops. It just keeps going. Earlier this month, the fifth film in the “Fast and the Furious” franchise was released.

One day, not too long from now, that will seem like an ancient event. A lot has happened over these past four years, and a lot more happened during the 13 that preceded them.

Today, May 22, 2011, is unlikely to see a major event in pop culture; no record-breaking movie will be released, no game-changing album will leak.

Nevertheless, the thousand and a half graduates and their families and loved ones will always remember today. And for all those other moments? Well, we always have pop culture.

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Arts & Living

If historical thrillers are your guilty pleasure: “In the Garden of Beasts” by Erik Larson.

Fans of “Devil in the White City” (2004) will gravitate toward Larson’s latest book about an American fatherdaughter pair in Berlin during the rise of Hitler. The literary manifestations of these dark and twisted times are wellresearched and extremely thorough on Larson’s part and readers won’t be able to tear themselves away from William and Martha Dodd’s exploits in New Germany. (Available now.)

If you want “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific” in book form: “Matterhorn” by Karl Marlantes.

Newly released in paperback form, Marlantes’ fictionalized chronicle of the Vietnam War is now just as long but less heavy — physically, anyway. Taking us through the vividness and horrors of the Vietnam War, “Matterhorn” is sure to impress any history buff. (Available now.)

And if you loved all your summer reading so much that you couldn’t possibly stop during the school year: “11/22/63”

by Stephen King.

The next highly anticipated release from world-renowned author King is approaching and he wraps up time travel, the JFK assassination and changing the course of history all in one book. At 960 pages, if you start it upon its release you might be done by the time Spring Fling rolls around.

(Available November 8.)

Mitchell Geller | Makes It Rain

Never forget

T

hey call it Commencement because they say it’s the first day of the rest of our lives. I call that the ultimate in hokey. I’ll concede that it sort of makes sense that the past two decades of non-stop schooling have been something like practice, but it’s totally cheesy nonetheless.

We celebrate today as a crowning achievement, and rightly so. It’s a day that most of us will remember for the rest of our lives, or at least be reminded of on a regular basis when we see the hundreds of pictures that our parents and relatives are going to take and then — even in this digital age — get developed (or, you know, printed) and proudly keep on their mantles, desks, refrigerators and credenzas until they are so yellowed and caked with dust that they’ll seem like someone else’s proud day.

And we’re allowed to celebrate once in a while. So many of us have spent so much time over the past few years stressing and whining and worrying about so many things, from work to world peace, that it’s only fair for us to remember this “first day” as something special. I mean, it even happens in hip-hop.

In 1993, at the height of his violent gangster-rap days, Ice Cube released a song called “It Was a Good Day.” The track is a four-and-a-half minute ode to a pretty boring, normal day. There’s some strange stuff that happens, like Ice Cube randomly seeing his name on a blimp, but for the most part it’s things like playing some basketball, watching MTV and going on a date (with the woman he would later marry).

Most people probably think of Ice Cube as that angry guy from N.W.A. who would later sell out and star in children’s movies, but he’s actually he’s just like us.

Only better at rapping.

Nearly every rapper has at least one song that’s totally, for want of a better word, adorable: songs about mothers, partying, having good, clean fun, anxiety or otherwise un-gangster activities. On his breakout album, “Doggystyle” (1993), Snoop Dogg, for example, has “Gin and Juice,” which is about chilling out and having a drink. A few songs later on the album there is a track called “Serial Killa” that starts with the line “six million ways to die, choose one.” It’s a weird juxtaposition.

Similarly, 50 Cent, a rapper who might be famous precisely because he is a tough guy — he was, if you haven’t heard, shot nine times — skyrocketed to popularity based on a song that’s basically a rap version of “Happy Birthday to You,” and Kanye West has too many songs about his mother to count (including the too-creepy, unreleased “Mamma’s Boyfriend” (2010) (Google it, but don’t say I didn’t warn you).

The ultimate in not-gangster, however, is Dr. Dre. The good doctor pioneered the “huh?” rap song with his N.W.A. hit “Express Yourself” (1989), a song about positivity and good, clean living that appeared on the same album as a song called “F--- tha Police,” but surpassed it in every way with the pathetic “Forgot About Dre” (2000), a song about remembering and reminding.

None of us should ever have to release a song to remind people who we are and what we’ve done, metaphorically speaking.

Or not, you know, literally — commencement, new beginnings, we can do anything, etc. So as my fellow Jumbos and I accept our diplomas and wander, shell-shocked, into that great big world, forced to face the fact that we need real jobs because, as the Wu Tang Clan has been warning us for so long, “cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M.,” it’s OK if we celebrate our accomplishments today.

I’ve written this column for a full year now and it feels just as odd for me to be signing off with no snark or irony as it does to hear Ice Cube talk about the delicious breakfast his mother made for him.

But,after all, today is a good day.

Mitchell Geller graduates today with a degree in English and psychology. He can be reached at Mitchell.Geller@tufts.edu

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Arts & Living

Commencement 2011

School is out, but a summer Summer Music Preview

Summer Movie Preview

Reunion albums, follow-ups mark this summer’s music scene by

Matthew Welch

Daily Editorial Board

courtesy Paramount Pictures (Top); Courtesy Robert Zuckerman (Bottom)

Summer promises string of flashy films, both new and franchised

by Joseph Stile

Daily Editorial Board

Summer movie season is synonymous with big stars, huge action and explosive spectacles. Hollywood saves the biggest blockbusters for these upcoming months, presenting moviegoers with a swath of sequels and superheroes, and the Daily has a rundown of some of the season’s most anticipated films.

The Harry Potter film franchise has been one of the most successful in Hollywood history, grossing well over $6 billion worldwide already, but all good things must come to an end. The final installment of the series based on the beloved children’s books by J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” opens July 15. The eighth film in this series is bound to be as epic as the previous movies, as Harry, Ron and Hermione venture to find the last of the Horcruxes and finally defeat Lord Voldemort.

Another part deux sure to catch fans’ attentions is “The Hangover Part II,” which is being released Memorial Day weekend. Part one was a surprise hit in 2009 and showed that there is a large audience for more extreme R-rated comedies. With almost the entire cast returning for this sequel, this time set in Thailand, fans can expect the same outrageous situations as the last outing.

In a similar vein to “The Hangover,” “Bridesmaids” follows an insane adventure in Las Vegas. This time, however, it’s about a group of women celebrating their friend’s wedding. Produced by Judd Apatow, this movie should prove that ladies can star and sell a big, gross-out comedy film. While comic actresses like Jane Lynch, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey have dominated the small screen, few big Hollywood comedies in recent years have been led solely by females. This film, which is already playing in theaters, should be able to get that trend started and let some seriously funny women carry a picture.

Of course, it would not be the summer movie season without some mega-action epics. The third picture in the popular “Transformers” series, based on the Hasbro action figures, will be crashing into theaters on July 1. The film, titled “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” gained notoriety for its production problems, including director Michael Bay’s temper and his controversial decision to exclude Megan Fox from the cast. What really matters, though, is that the film delivers the mindless fighting and impressive CGI effects fans have come to expect. People looking to relive their ’80s childhood, or just looking to see things explode really loudly, should buy a ticket early for this one.

Comic book hero Green Lantern is also

taking the jump to the silver screen in 3-D this June 17. Starring Ryan Reynolds, “Green Lantern” looks to be a cool sci-fi film for all audiences. In the early 2000s, comic book adaptations like “Spiderman” (2002) were huge hits, but in more recent years, audiences have been colder to these types of films — “Watchmen”(2009) and “Kick-Ass” (2010) underwhelmed at theaters. Director Martin Campbell is surely hoping “Green Lantern” can reinvigorate the genre and maybe even launch a franchise with a solid hit.

Jon Favreau, who already directed the hit comic book adaptation “Iron Man”(2008) and its sequel, looks to keep in the adventure-fantasy genre with his latest, “Cowboys & Aliens,” due out July 29. Based on an acclaimed graphic novel and starring two of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig, this picture has blockbuster written all over it. Taking cues from old westerns, alien invasion pictures and thrillers from the 1970s, “Cowboys & Aliens” looks like it will be a satisfying genre-bending flick.

Aliens seem to be a popular subject matter this summer, as “Super 8” makes apparent. Written and directed by “Lost” (2004-10) creator J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, the film seems like a geek’s fantasy.

Though the contents of the plot are still very secretive, the film seems to be influenced

by Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977); “Super 8” has intrigued many around the world and seems to be gaining a quiet buzz as its June 10 release creeps closer.

Other pictures without big stars and bigger budgets will also be finding their way to the cineplex this coming summer. The British coming-of-age comedy-drama “Submarine,” which has already been lauded in the UK and praised at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, reaches theaters this side of the Atlantic on June 3. The picture has been positively compared to other indie comedies like “(500) Days of Summer” (2009) because of its quirky style and humor. The movie also features an impressive soundtrack that was written and performed by Alex Turner, the front man of the celebrated underground-rock band Artic Monkeys.

This is just a short sampling of what’s to come this summer in the movie world. There are going to be tons of other mammoth films to check out during the hot summer months (“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “X-Men: First Class,” “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “Kung Fu Panda 2”), as well as other indie offerings (“The Tree of Life,” “Another Earth,” “Sarah’s Key”). But one thing’s for sure: If anyone is looking to escape the heat, a movie theater will be the perfect getaway for a few hours.

Summer has always been a great time for music. Unless you live in California or another glorious climate, it marks the time when outdoor shows and festivals become possible again, and even for those who don’t attend outdoor shows, summer usually presents any music fan with a slew of new, interesting releases from a variety of bands. Some of the most accomplished working musical artists wait until the warmer months to release their new material, and this year is no different, with offerings from a smorgasbord of different groups.

Reunion albums are dominating this summer’s music scene, with yesteryear’s pop rock giants like The Cars releasing their first new material in over a decade.

It’s always refreshing to see older icons try their hand in today’s competitive music culture. When bands haven’t released new music in over 10 years, they risk seeming anachronistic or stale, but the singles from The Cars’ latest album, “Move Like This” (released May 10) stacks well against any of today’s electro-themed dance groups like LCD Soundsystem.

“Move Like This” will certainly be heading the pack of interesting releases this summer. The Cars’ previous album, “Door to Door,” was released back at the height of synth-pop in 1987. It will be interesting to see how the latest production will fare in today’s scene, but new songs like “Blue Tip” have all the delicious synth riffs and dance beats that fans have loved them for since the late ’70s.

More contemporary artists like Bon Iver are also releasing new albums. Bon Iver’s haunting debut album, “For Emma, Forever Ago” (2007), combined graceful vocal harmonies with affecting, often sparse acoustic guitar work. The group’s much anticipated follow up, “Bon Iver,” is slated to drop June 21. Lead singer Justin Vernon is trying to expand the group’s sound on this latest recording, which features indie-sax giant Colin Stetson (a frequent collaborator with Tom Waits and Arcade Fire) and numerous other studio musicians. Like the group’s debut, “Bon

Iver” was recorded in an isolated location, prompting many to think that the themes of loneliness and isolation that characterized “For Emma, Forever Ago” will still be felt on the band’s latest effort.

Arctic Monkeys, one of the most popular indie rock bands of the past few years, will be releasing its much-anticipated fourth album “Suck It and See” on June 6. The band achieved worldwide notoriety for its debut, “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (2005), which became the most financially successful debut album in England’s recent history, breaking records for selling over 360,000 copies in its first week. Arctic Monkeys’ latest effort is rumored to boast a more direct pop approach than the group’s last effort, “Humbug” of 2009. The album’s only released single, “Don’t Sit Down ’Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair,” sees the band in its usual rock mode, with Alex Turner’s vocals delivering a U2-esque melody over a driving drum beat.

Brian Eno will be releasing another new album, “Drums Between the Bells,” on July 5. This collaboration with poet Rick Holland was announced a few months after Eno released “Small Craft on a Milk Sea,” a collection of ambient tracks, last November in the United States. Eno’s catalogue is filled with collaborations with artists as diverse as Talking Heads and John Cale, making this endeavor with Holland all the more interesting. The only single released so far, “Glitch,” features the poet’s work read through a vocoder over a shifting background of electronic drones and squeaks.

This release will most likely continue Eno’s trend of ambient-focused releases that eschew conventional song structures and production techniques. The inclusion of this album really rounds out this summer’s catalogue, keeping everyone from indie-rockers to neo-hippies happy.

Anyone can turn on the radio and hear the latest Top 40 releases this summer, but there’s so much more to the summer music scene than just the latest from Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. If you’re looking to branch out in your musical tastes or you’re just sick of the same old generic pop, be sure to check out these upcoming releases.

(clockwise from top left) Courtesy Jagjaguwar; thecars.org; MCT

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

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Arts & Living

of arts is just about to begin Summer Boston Theater Preview

Summer TV Preview

Several new TV series will provide recent grads with something to do

Seniors, once you move back into your parents’ basements, you’re going to have a lot of free time on your hands.

Instead of wasting it on applying for jobs (futile) or researching grad schools (why?), do something productive and check out this handful of television shows premiering over the summer: Falling Skies: Robert Rodat and Steven Spielberg have teamed up to create a series so high-budget it will almost inevitably fall short of viewer expectations. “Falling Skies” documents the struggle for human survival after a vicious alien attack on the planet. Mixing state-of-the-art computer graphics with Spielberg’s longstanding sci-fi instincts, this show has enormous potential but even bigger shoes to fill — after all, he did direct “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982). (Premieres June 19 on TNT.) Switched at Birth: ABC Family continues its obsession with teenage familial drama with this upcoming series that follows the lives of two 16-year-old girls who were — you guessed it — accidentally switched at birth and taken home by the wrong families. One of the girls, the ineptly named Bay Kennish (Vanessa Marano), consequently grew up quite wealthy in a nuclear family, while the other girl, Daphne Vasquez (Katie Leclerc), struggled through her adolescence in a single-parent home.

When the two families find out and are forced to converge and conflict happens, or something. To top it off, poor Daphne went deaf as a child from an untreated case of meningitis (this touches my heart?). Let the squabbles and subsequent cheesy bonding sessions begin; this one’s a winner for all you viewers out there who curl up in your Hannah Montana PJs and watch marathons of this garbage while eating peanut butter from the jar. (Premieres June 6 on ABC Family.)

The Hot Zone: Set in Afghanistan in 2006, this hospital drama will delve by

Andrew Padgett

Daily Editorial Board

Photos courtesy American Repertory Theater

Boston theater: Shakespeare, bin Laden and soul searching, oh my! by

Emma Bushnell and Rebecca Santiago Daily Editorial Board

As the sun begins to beat down on the city of Boston, why not escape the heat (and reduce your risk of developing melanoma in the future) in a cool, dark theater? This summer, Boston theater companies are tackling everything from Shakespearian classics to bold experimental pieces that promise to entertain at least as well as your favorite beach read. So hop on the T to check out what’s playing — your skin and your sense of culture will thank you.

American Repertory Theater: There’s no shortage of soul-searching pieces on the American Repertory Theater’s (A.R.T.) Loeb Stage this month. “Mouth Wide Open,” directed by Sabrina Peck, stars Amy Brenneman in her autobiographical play. The “Private Practice” star guides the audience through Hollywood, hospitals and holy hotspots (including a Tibetan temple and an evangelical church), where she seeks the balance between fame and meaningfulness. (Running May 24 to 29.)

Another introspective piece, “I Speak, Therefore I Am,” explores the power of the human voice. Director John Tiffany collaborates with the A.R.T. Institute class of 2011 in this theatrical hodgepodge, embracing everything from fairy tales to physical theater to examine how speaking enables us to express our identities.

(Running May 25 to 28.)

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre: The Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, founded in 1981 to promote new works, is the home of the New England premiere of Enrique Urueta’s “Learn to be Latina.” A lesbian romantic comedy with an acidic bite, the play is about a Lebanese pop star who discovers that faking a Latina heritage means she is able to sell more records. (Running through June 5.)

Company One: In light of Osama bin Laden’s recent capture, Jason Grote’s “1001,” a portentous reinvention of “Arabian Nights,” has become increasingly meaningful and relevant. The play explores American and Middle Eastern

identities by conjuring a storybook world that collapses suddenly into an apocalyptic envisioning of the 21st century; bin Laden even makes a cameo. (Running July 15 to August 13.)

The Huntington Theatre Company: The Huntington goes Shakespearean this summer, playing the Bard’s “Richard III” and “Comedy of Errors” in repertory. Both productions are the Boston debuts of the all male Propeller Theatre Company from England and are innovative adaptations of the time-honored works.

“Richard III,” Shakespeare’s play about one of the darkest figures in English history, is set in a gothic Victorian hospital and features the dark aesthetic of Grand Guignol. “Comedy of Errors,” a play with a bit more levity, follows two sets of identical twins who have been separated at birth and reunited in adulthood with farcical consequences. This version of the comedy is set in Mexico and is replete with sombreros and a mariachi band for maximum zaniness. (Both running through June 19.)

The Nora Theatre Company: Located just a few miles from Tufts, The Nora Theatre Company in Central Square is too convenient not to know about. This summer, The Nora is offering an original musical written by local playwright Amy Merrill and music and lyrics by activist folksinger Si Kahn. “Silver Spoon,” set in the 1960s, follows Polly Bullock, a woman who works at her family’s Wall Street brokerage firm and moonlights as a radical underground newspaper publisher. Exploring themes of self-definition, class and family commitments, this colorful and original production will definitely be worth watching. (Running through June 19.)

SpeakEasy Stage Company: SpeakEasy embraces spirited, self-conscious theater with “The Drowsy Chaperone,” directed by David Connolly. When a die-hard musical fan listens to his favorite cast album, the show magically comes to life, ushering him and the audience into front-row seats for a hilarious celebrity wedding. Wacky antics abound. (Running through June 5.)

into the professional and (obviously) personal lives of war zone doctors from Canada, Great Britain, the United States and other allied countries. No trailer has been released yet, but the show could prove refreshing compared to the current TV drivel, with plots that fixate more on sexual matters than medical ones. If the writers and producers are brave enough to explore the gritty, terrifying day-to-day turmoil of an Afghanistan war hospital, then “The Hot Zone” could turn out quite hot indeed.

(Premieres June 21 on ABC.) Happily Divorced: Here’s to getting with the times: Peter Marc Jacobson, who co-created “The Nanny” (199399) with then-spouse Fran Drescher, is now teaming up with his ex-wife once more. “Happily Divorced” will closely mirror the couple’s real-life divorce, shortly after which Jacobson came out of the closet. The two (in true Hollywood fashion) remain close friends, and apparently feel that it’s necessary to retell their wacky story in sitcom format. Drescher will star as the suspiciously named Fran, opposite John Michael Higgins playing the male lead of Peter. This is either a desperate re-creation of the past (both “The Nanny” and their past life together), or a witty homage to their lifelong relationship. (Premieres June 15 on TV Land.)

Wilfred: Probably the most winning of the shows previewed in this article, “Wilfred” stars Elijah Wood as Ryan, a struggling young man who freaks out further when his neighbor’s dog, Wilfred, starts appearing to him as a human in a dog suit (played by series co-creator Jason Gann). Together they conquer delightfully surrealist territory — to Ryan’s dismay, Wilfred looks and acts like a plain old dog to everyone else. Since Gann also starred in the previous Australian version of this series, it will be interesting to see how he adapts himself to an American audience. My bet is that Wood will be great; arbitrary joke about hobbits.

(Premieres June 23 on FX.)

courtesy Bruce Birmelin (top); courtesy Michael Becker (Bottom)

The Tufts Daily

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Four Years in Review

Commencement 2011

Four Years

2007-2008 Following the July 26 death of Professor of History Gerald Gill from arterial sclerosis, the Fares Center, the Department of History and Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha launched the Gerald R. Gill Lecture Series. Gill was a beloved member of the Tufts community and a well-respected figure in the fields of civil rights and black history. The series aimed to stimulate on-campus discussions about black history in honor of Gill’s academic research, with Indiana University Professor Khalil Muhammad delivering the inaugural lecture on Feb. 25.

The summer was also marked by the untimely deaths of two recent alumni: Paul Farris (LA ’06) and David Rawson (LA ’07).

Crime was a prevailing theme on and off campus, most notably with the embezzlement of over $300,000 from student activity accounts.ThenDirector of the Office of Student Activities (now Office for Campus Life) Jodie Nealley was subsequently fired for stealing the money and the university was forced to take a closer look at the way in which student funds are handled.

Somerville resident Nicholas Chacon in the fall was arraigned for five sexual assaults he committed in the area in April 2007, providing relief for members of the Tufts community. Conversely, the Tufts community was shocked to discover that Kenneth Hall, an employee in the Office of Residential Life and Learning, had been convicted as a sex offender and subsequently fired. In light of the previously men-

tioned crimes and a spate of armed robberies on campus, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate proposed changes to the university’s police escort service. Public safety also gained attention as a central theme in then-sophomore Duncan Pickard’s (LA ’10) successful bid for the TCU presidency.

Theyearmarkedasignificantmilestone in regard to student financing.

In a major move toward increased economic diversity, the university announced in January that all loans for students from families in the sub-$40,000 income bracket would be substituted for grants. Tufts additionally announced that it had been operating under an unofficial needblind policy in part due to recent large gifts from alumni, and that the class of 2011 had been successfully admitted need-blind. The university introduced its Loan Repayment Assistance Program, which applies to alumni working in the nonprofit or public sectors and forgives all student loans.

The university’s finances also received a marked boost in part due to a major gift from Frank Doble (E 1911) upon release of his trust fund.

The Doble donation amounted to $136 million, the largest single gift in Tufts’ history.

The Hill attracted the socially conscious rapper Common and the “Celtic punk” Boston-based Dropkick Murphys for Spring Fling.

Co-host of NBC’s “Today Show” and contributing anchor for Dateline NBC Meredith Vieira (J ’75) delivered the commencement address to the class of 2008.

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2008-2009

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Concern about the worsening financial situation came to the forefront during the 200809 academic year. In November, University President Lawrence Bacow in an email to the Tufts community discussed the recession’s effects on the university and the endowment in particular. Bacow predicted a 25 percent drop in the endowment; the figure was later increased to 35 percent. In response, the university was forced to make budget cuts across the board amounting to $36 million, as well as delay capital projects and lay off staff.

The university’s financial situation faced another setback with news of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, of which Tufts was among many affected institutions. The university lost $20 million through 2005 investments made in the hedge fund Ascot Partners, Bacow announced in an email to the Tufts community.

Even amid financial turmoil, the university remained positive. Tufts upheld its commitment to meet the financial need of enrolled students and the financial aid office’s budget saw a 12-percent increase in anticipation for increased need among Tufts

families. The unofficial need-blind policy, however, was suspended.

Students received even better news when recovered funds from an embezzlement scandal were made available to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate for allocation at the start of the academic year. The Senate received $902,338 in response to the theft of student activity funds between 2001 and 2007 by former Director of the Office of Student Activities Jodie Nealley and former Office of Student Activities Budget and Fiscal Coordinator Ray Rodriguez.

After much deliberation during the fall semester, the Senate decided to allocate $87,780 to student groups, place $300,000 in a savings account and use some of the funds to repay debts. Controversy ensued, however, in the dispersal of the recovered funds. Tufts’ student-run radio and TV stations, WMFO and TUTV, respectively, received funds without a hitch, but the Senate faced heavy criticism when it voted to allocate $230,000 to the Tufts Mountain Club for the construction of a new Trips Cabin near the Loj in New Hampshire.

Courtesy Robert Biswanger

Student protest against the project specifically pointed to the Trip Cabin’s off-campus location and limited benefit for the majority of the Tufts community.

Students did have good reason to flock to New Hampshire, as it turns out, because of the heavy canvassing that led up to the fall 2008 presidential election. Jumbos of every political persuasion traveled to the neighboring swing state to campaign for their respective candidates, and political organizations such as Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans — as well as nonpartisan groups Tufts Hillel and Tufts Votes — all sponsored initiatives to increase student turnout on Election Day. When the results finally poured in and Barack Obama was officially declared president, students flooded the Res Quad and Davis Square en masse, celebrating and singing patriotic songs.

Enthusiastic celebration continued at the annual Spring Fling concert, with performances by Ludacris, the Decembrists and Asher Roth. Irresponsible behavior, namely heavy drinking, led to a “mass casualty inci-

dilys ong/Tufts Daily

dent,” as the number of students requiring medical attention overwhelmed the medical staff on duty and later forced administrators to examine the alcohol policies governing the concert.

Student behavior also manifested itself in negative ways when an intoxicated freshman harassed members of the Korean Students Association, uttering racial slurs and initiating a physical alteration. The student’s actions led to a wider discussion about race on campus, peaking in an anti-bias rally on the Tisch library patio.

The Hill attracted a variety of notable speakers, including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), conservative activist David Horowitz and culinary aficionado Anthony Bourdain.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the Isaam M. Fares Lecture, in which he focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and “Hardball” host Chris Matthews spoke at the annual Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) addressed graduates at the Commencement ceremony.

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

In Review 2009-2010

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Four Years in Review

virginia bledsoe/tufts daily

This year was one of many changes to Tufts students’ social lives. Students returned to campus in September to discover that the administration had implemented a more stringent alcohol policy: Underage students caught drinking would no longer simply receive a warning, but would be placed immediately on level-one disciplinary probation. (The policy would be reversed the following year.)

The three largest school-sponsored social events — Fall Ball, Winter Bash and Spring Fling — all underwent major changes. Fall Ball was made a ticketed event and attendance was capped at 2,500. Winter Bash was moved off-campus and students were charged $10 to attend in an attempt to reduce a perceived recklessness in alcohol consumption in previous years. Also in response to alcohol-related concerns and the previous year’s mass casualty incident, students were for the first time barred from bringing alcohol to Spring Fling; OK Go and Drake performed.

In October, the I-Cruise organized by the International Club was cut short when overly intoxicated students led the boat captain to refuse to leave the mooring. In the wake of inappropriate conduct by intoxicated students at the first Senior Pub Night in September, the administration canceled the events for the rest of the semester. Pub Nights returned in the spring semester without major incident.

Tufts made national headlines — and latenight monologues — when the Daily reported in September that a new university guest policy for on-campus housing explicitly barred students from engaging in any sexual act while their roommates were present. The story was picked up by outlets from CNN and The New Yorker to Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno.

But changes were not limited to the social realm. University President Lawrence Bacow on Feb. 8 announced his decision to step down from his post at the end of the 2010-11 academic year, completing a 10-year tenure. A 13-member Presidential Search Committee was subsequently formed and spent the semester consulting members of all of the campus communities

courtesy carolina ramirez

in their search for Bacow’s replacement. Dean of Arts and Sciences Robert Sternberg left the university at the end of the academic year.

In November, the Board of Trustees adopted a Declaration on Freedom of Expression that was engendered by two controversial articles by The Primary Source, published the year before the class of 2011 arrived on campus, which had a deep impact on the Hill.

The document praised access to freedom of expression and inquiry but said that those rights “are not absolute.”

Mother Nature made her mark on the year as well. Tufts was not spared from the H1N1 flu epidemic; scores of students came down with the strain and were quarantined or sent home by the university in an attempt to stem the flu’s spread. In the face of unanticipated demand for the H1N1 vaccine across the country, Health Service struggled to maintain sufficient supplies.

In the spring, abnormally heavy rains caused rampant flooding in residential and academic buildings across campus. A water main break on May 1 — the day of Spring Fling — made tap water on both the Medford/Somerville and Boston campuses undrinkable. A power outage in October left much of the Medford/ Somerville campus in the dark for nearly an entire day; another blackout in January lasted three hours.

International tragedies also affected the campus. January and February earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, respectively, spared members of the Tufts community working and studying abroad; several student groups rallied to raise money and awareness for the two tragedies. A group of students from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy used crisis mapping to aid rescue and relief efforts in Haiti.

Financially, the university fared well. Bacow expressed optimism about Tufts’ recovery from the financial crisis; his hallmark capital campaign, Beyond Boundaries, reached a key milestone of $1.05 billion; and the School of Engineering received $40 million from Trustee Emeritus Bernard Gordon (H ’92).

2010-2011 Members of the class of 2011 returned to the Hill to the last year of an era at Tufts, as administrators across the university’s schools and campuses prepared to depart. In November, the Daily reported that University of Oxford geneticist and ProVice-Chancellor Anthony Monaco would replace Lawrence Bacow next year as university president.

A number of other senior administrators announced their intentions to leave Tufts with Bacow and the senior class. Among them was Provost and Senior Vice President Jamshed Bharucha, who in February announced that he would assume the position of president at The Cooper Union in New York City starting this July.

Also informing the community that they would be stepping down at the end of academic year were Dean Robert Hollister of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Dean Eileen Kennedy of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Dean Lonnie Norris of the School of Dental Medicine. Ellen Zane, president and CEO of Tufts Medical Center, announced that she would retire at the end of September.

Several policy changes went into effect. The university implemented at the start of the academic year a revised alcohol policy, scaling back what were considered overly harsh punitive measures, and a bolstered sexual assault judicial policy.

The Daily learned in March that the university would no longer sanction Naked Quad Run (NQR), the decades-old tradition in which students partook in a large-scale, clothing-free sprint around the Res Quad to celebrate the end of fall semester classes.

The decision was reached in large part over concerns that the event, which has been characterized by the over-consumption of alcohol in recent years, could escalate to a student’s death. In an op-ed in the Daily, Bacow wrote, “Even if I did not act now, NQR would end some day. The only question is whether a student has to die first.” Reaction to the decision was divided, with some students seeing it as a prudent choice and others an overreaction.

Following the passage of a Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate resolution in support of the creation of an Africana studies department, Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney in February launched a task force to consider integrating Africana studies into the Tufts curriculum; its findings are expected to be announced

by September.

Later in the spring, roughly 40 students gathered on the Academic Quad during April Open House in support of the department and to inform prospective freshmen about the racial climate on campus.

Many of them wore T-shirts reading either “Ask me about white privilege at Tufts” or “Ask me about being a student of color at Tufts,” a move the Office of Undergraduate Admissions considered inappropriate for the event.

Another incident raised similar discussions. An African-American male in December was carrying a ratchet wrench on campus that was mistaken from afar as a handgun by a caller to the Tufts University Police Department. The incident prompted a poster campaign and conversations between students and administrators regarding race on campus.

Dining Services also enacted changes, ridding trays from the dining halls following a months-long effort by members of an environmentally focused class the year prior. A new student group brought an equally environmentally friendly initiative to fruition: a bike-share program.

Discussions surrounding a change to the community representative position on the TCU Senate came to a head in September, when Referendum 3, which offered community representatives the ability to vote on fiscal matters, passed by a single vote against its competitor referendum. Despite the changes, only two of the four cultural houses put forth a candidate in April.

The Senate’s April election season was also marked by low interest. Only 17 students submitted paperwork for the 21 seats open for sophomores, juniors and seniors, and they all walked onto the positions.

The month of April brought three particularly noteworthy speakers to campus: Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited the Hill for the inaugural Alan D. Solomont Lecture, television journalist Katie Couric spoke at the Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism and journalist Bob Woodward of Watergate fame headlined the Richard E. Snyder Presidential Lecture.

And as the class of 2011 makes way for the class of 2015, this year also saw the largest-ever applicant pool and lowest admissions acceptance rate in Tufts history. An 11-percent rise in applications dropped acceptance rates from 24.5 to 22 percent for the class of 2015.

Aalok Kanani/Tufts Daily

Meredith Klein/Tufts Daily

Meredith Klein/Tufts Daily

—by Alexandra Bogus, Mick B. Krever and Saumya Vaishampayan

26

The Tufts Daily

Captured

Commencement 2011

Captured

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

Captured

Spring Fling photos by Justin McCallum and Oliver Porter

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The Tufts Daily

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THE TUFTS DAILY

editorial

Alexandra W. Bogus Editor-in-Chief

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Editorial | Letters

Commencement 2011

Picking up where Bacow left off

Throughout University President Lawrence Bacow’s tenure, Tufts has experienced enormous change and growth. Since Bacow took the reins a decade ago, he has led the campus through periods of student-body growth, an increase in university prestige and, most recently, national economic uncertainty. While lauding his accomplishments, however, we must be mindful of his shortcomings and urge President-elect Anthony Monaco to address these issues as Tufts moves into a new era of leadership.

Bacow, an economist by trade, sought policies that have solidified the university’s financial standing. One year into his term, he quietly initiated the Beyond Boundaries capital campaign.

An extremely ambitious program — it aimed to generate $1.2 billion by June of this year — it has already met over 97 percent of its goal, or $1.17 billion. The campaign advances Bacow’s vision for Tufts: improving the quality of student life and academics through financial aid, endowed professorships and facility improvements at each of Tufts’ three campuses.

Bacow saw the role of the endowment as providing stability, not growth.

His decision to use the endowment, which is more susceptible to market fluctuation than other sources of university revenue, for only a small portion of operating costs was a wise one. His financial foresight proved particularly adept during the economic crisis and has allowed Tufts to avoid the budget cuts so many other institutions have had to carry out to stay afloat. He leaves Tufts in a strong position for the future.

Along with the litany of successes that Bacow has achieved during his time as president, there have been shortcomings that should be addressed in the next administration. Monaco will

take the helm at the end of June. From the outset, he will undoubtedly feel pressure from all sides to spend more money and implement more projects, but he must be prudent in his choices.

Students complain of unsatisfactory dormitories, and faculty lament the shortage of research space. These are reasonable complaints, but Monaco should be sure to respond to these demands in the long run, rather than attempt to fix them immediately. In the short term, his attention should be centered on financial accessibility, quality of academics and institutional diversity.

Converting to a completely needblind admissions process was a goal that Bacow aspired to but failed to achieve. Yes, the university unofficially adopted a need-blind policy when it admitted the classes of 2011 and 2012, but the financial crisis dealt a blow to this plan. Establishing need-blind as a permanent fixture of admissions should be one of Monaco’s highest priorities. If we truly wish to be a diverse and dynamic campus, it is imperative to disregard financial need as a qualification for admission to Tufts.

Yet the issue of financial accessibility is manifold, stemming most obviously from considerable rises in tuition rates.

Tuition and fees have increased from $30,817 in the 1998-99 academic year to $51,088 in academic year 2009-10.

Although tuition hikes are a national problem, this is no excuse for Tufts riding the wave. A $20,000 tuition increase over the next decade, like the one before it, would be unbearable. Preventing exorbitant tuition increases will not only reduce the extent of financial aid requested but will also help protect middle-class students who do not qualify for need-based aid but cannot keep up with constantly rising costs.

Monaco should also focus on further-

ing the quality of academics at Tufts. To preserve our elite status, he should continue to be cognizant of hiring for tenure-track positions, often easy to forgo during difficult economic times. Monaco should also prioritize investing in research and graduate programs, which contribute to higher national rankings.

These programs are large sources of money for universities, as research can lead to government grants, and strong programs further attract high-level faculty. A balance must be struck, however: Unlike a number of peer institutions, Tufts undergrads have historically been a high priority for the administration. A bolstered focus on graduate programs should not leave undergraduate academics in the shadows.

The final priority should be in the area of institutional diversity. Regardless of our reputation as an internationally oriented establishment, Tufts is not such a diverse place. Last year, a study found that only 7.7 percent of Tufts’ tenure-track faculty were AfricanAmerican or Hispanic. Though this is on par with other Boston-area schools, it is still far less than satisfactory. At a time when a number of senior administrators are leaving Tufts, the Monaco administration has an opportunity to make having a diverse background just as substantial a qualification in the hiring process as academic and professional credentials.

Bacow has exceptionally maintained the university’s financial footing and its reputation for and commitment to academic excellence. We laud him and are grateful for his 10 years of service, responding to every email and Halloween trick-or-treater along the way. Yet Bacow’s tenure was not perfect.

At this time of transition, what Bacow leaves to be done indicates not holes in his presidency but instead opportunities for Monaco’s.

EDITORIAL

Looking forward, the Senate must improve student outreach As seniors leave the Hill this spring, new opportunities for transformation, growth and improvement of the ever-changing Tufts community are bestowed upon their successors.

Nowhere on campus are these opportunities more present for students than within the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate.

This year, the TCU Senate made some commendable accomplishments in an effort to improve campus life and student welfare. Following suggestions from students, the Senate in November passed a resolution urging the university to create an Africana studies department. The university has since created a task force to address the issue and explore options for such a department. The Senate also worked this year to push for measures that would reduce students’ costs, such as a textbook rental program and the option for students to replace the off-campus noise violation fine with community service.

As within any governing body, however, there is always room for further development and, in the case of the Senate, there is one area in which such an improvement would greatly benefit the student body: visibility.

This spring, 17 students walked on to the Senate in uncontested elections because students appeared uninterested and, in some cases, uninformed about the election process. Within the past two years, referenda have failed to pass not due to high levels of opposition but rather to lack of voter participation. It is clear from the popularity of politically oriented majors that students at Tufts are interested in politics and being proactive, yet most do not

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.

seize the opportunity to get involved in campus politics.

This disconnect between the Senate and the student body is something that needs to be changed if the Senate is going to function as a truly representative body. There are steps that senators and TCU Elections Commission (ECOM) can take to help this shift occur.

As it stands now, there is little reason for students to get excited about TCU elections; this mentality, however, should and could change. One of the ways to do this would be changing the elections process itself. Office for Campus Life Director Joe Golia recently suggested that the Senate and ECOM work together to create an election season. By consolidating several elections for referenda and senators into one election, ECOM could pool its budget to hold larger election rallies rather than spreading out funds to several smaller efforts. ECOM could host events leading up to candidate forums and offer free giveaways and food as an incentive for students to attend. Such rallies would hopefully one day draw as much participation as those preceding Homecoming and other campus-wide celebrations that draw widespread student interest.

In addition to the election process, an improvement in Senate awareness and information may increase student interest and involvement. Incoming TCU President Tomas Garcia included in his campaign platform a plan to increase student-Senate communication by creating a weekly newsletter to inform students about the body’s activity. While this idea represents a step in the right direction, there are also other ways to integrate the Senate

into students’ lives and consciousness. Orientation programming could include an information session about how students can take advantage of the Senate, not simply by joining the body but by using its services to support their own interests. Students may not know how to go about starting a group or getting funding for their activities, and a brief overview of this process for incoming students could prevent this confusion. The Senate should be vigilant and consistent about putting resolutions online and using social media and TuftsLife to spread news about what they are doing.

Improvement to both election and general awareness will work hand in hand: As students became more interested in the election process, their interest in the Senate may also increase. Once the interest in Senate increases, there will be more reasons to care about elections. And if the Senate manages to garner more interest, it will become more influential.

The university will feel the pressure of the entire student body when resolutions come to the table, rather than just a small, isolated group.

The campus climate when it comes to the Senate is, in many cases, apathetic. Garcia, a rising senior, ran for president on the platform of increasing Senate visibility, and with a fresh group of students moving into power, now is the perfect time to ensure that these changes actually occur and move beyond campaign rhetoric and ideology. Many Tufts students are interested in politics and activism. It is up to ECOM and the Senate to ensure that this untapped possibility for student interest is brought to its full potential.

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Commencement 2011

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Editorial | Letters

Devon Colmer

erin marshall

Editorial

louie zong

A mouthpiece for the student body

Every so often, a particularly contentious issue arises in our coverage and the comments section of the Daily’s website is flooded with angry criticisms assailing the quality of our reporting.

And that is too often where the conversation ends. This presents a frustrating disconnect between on-campus media and their readership. At Tufts, readers can sound off through anonymous online message boards. They can even write letters to the editor. But readers have traditionally lacked a means of communicating directly with the editors of their publications, of engaging in a dialogue with them. In other words, readers had the tools to criticize campus media, but they lacked a way of actually holding the publications accountable.

Enter the public editor, a position created three years ago that falls under the Media Advocacy Board (MAB), the association of student media organizations at Tufts (the Daily is loosely affiliated but not a member).

The public editor acts as an ombudsman between the readership and campus media. The position was created to provide an objective representative for the student body, someone who can do more than merely comment on the issues that are covered in the Daily, The Tufts Observer and all the other media outlets on campus. The public editor

is supposed to analyze the quality of journalism of on-campus publications on behalf of the readership, to use his or her knowledge of journalistic principles to suggest how campus media can better serve its audience.

The MAB will soon be selecting a new public editor, and we believe it is important to establish concrete guidelines for what kind of commentary should and should not fall within the scope of his or her duties.

It is crucial that the public editor have a great deal of knowledge about the ethics of reporting. He or she should be analyzing campus dialogue through the lens of his or her own journalistic expertise. The public editor’s role is to analyze, not to give a personal opinion.

Consider some of the work of this year’s public editor, graduating senior Jacob Kreimer. In his Dec. 2 op-ed in the Daily, “Stranded on the moral high ground,” Kreimer remarks that the Daily’s policy of printing uncaptioned photos of destruction in Israel alongside op-eds on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could improperly impact how readers perceive the writing.

Kreimer’s observation is astute: The Daily’s photo policy demonstrates just one of many areas where journalists can accidentally introduce bias into conversations in which we should remain

objective. Reporters have a great deal of power over how issues are perceived in the public consciousness, and it is the job of the public editor to ensure that that power is not being abused.

Yet in the same piece, Kreimer admonishes students for publishing excessively contemptuous op-eds about the conflict and urges them to engage in less polarizing dialogue, going so far as to suggest that those who disagree take each other out to eat to discuss their opinions.

Kreimer’s call for more diplomatic conversation is admirable, but it is not the job of the public editor to dictate the tone of or facilitate dialogue on campus. The public editor should limit him or herself to commenting on the media’s coverage of the issue, not the issue itself.

Jeremy White (LA ’09), who in spring 2009 was the first pubic editor, shows how such expertise benefits a thorough review of campus media policies. In an April 2009 blog post, “Reporting Bias Impartially,” he examines the Daily’s coverage of an incident in which a freshman student allegedly verbally and physically assaulted members of the Korean Student Association.

Crucially, White does not take a position on the incident itself, nor does he make suggestions for how students should go about engaging in racially sensitive dis-

cussions. Instead, he analyzes the Daily’s reporting of the incident — the sources the reporters used, the tone of the writing and the decision by the editors to withhold the name of the freshman student — to assess whether or not the Daily succeeded in remaining objective.

The Daily would have benefited from this kind of scrutiny this semester, when students on the website’s comments forum and on our op-ed page accused the Daily of acting as a “mouthpiece” for the administration through its coverage of NQR’s cancellation and the incident on the library roof on April 20 (“President Bacow’s scarecrows: Of joints, TUPD and our wayward president” by rising junior Ben Van Meter, April 26). This is exactly the kind of controversy that calls for the public editor’s input, to examine the complaints of the student body and offer an analysis of the Daily’s coverage that the average reader cannot provide.

This is, to be sure, a tall order. The public editor must walk an extraordinarily fine line between analyzing campus conversation and injecting his or her personal opinion into it. In selecting a candidate for the position next year, we encourage the MAB to find a student who has a strong background in the standards of journalism and who is prepared to rigorously — and regularly — apply them to campus media.

The Tufts Daily

30 Prashanth Parameswaran | The Asianist

Al-Qaida after bin Laden

F

rom the obnoxious frat-boy shrieks overheard at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy on the night of May 1 to the outpouring of patriotism that swept many parts of the United States over the days that followed, it is clear that the death of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is a defining moment in American history. Less clear and more contentious, however, is what exactly this means for the future of the U.S.-led fight against terrorism and al-Qaida as an organization.

Some claim the death of the world’s most recognizable Islamist terrorist may be the final nail in the coffin of a fading al-Qaida, while others dismiss it as an insignificant triumph in a broader sense, given the decentralized nature of the organization.

As is often the case, both sides are partly correct. For while bin Laden’s death further cripples a wounded al-Qaida by removing a key source of its ideological appeal, it does little to assuage the central U.S. dilemmas in winning the war on terror.

Bin Laden’s death is unquestionably a devastating loss for al-Qaida. Much of the organization’s appeal was tied to his story as a man who gave up power and wealth in Saudi Arabia to build and manage a network committed to waging violent jihad against the crusader West and establishing an Islamic caliphate. Bin Laden’s beaming charisma and compelling narrative as al-Qaida’s ideological leader swelled al-Qaida’s ranks in a way that his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri will find difficult to replicate.

This news also comes at a particularly bad time for al-Qaida. Over the past few years, its numbers have dwindled, cash has dried up and its major operations and communications have been intercepted.

Mounting CIA-controlled Predator drone missile strikes in North Waziristan have killed many senior figures and operatives. The organization’s influence has also waned in many Muslim countries, including in Palestine, where only a third of respondents now say they have confidence that bin Laden is “doing the right thing in world affairs,” compared to over 70 percent in 2003. The “Arab Spring” has also undermined the very rationale of alQaida because countries like Egypt and Tunisia have illustrated that authoritarian regimes can be overthrown through democratic, peaceful revolutions rather than violence and terrorism. And even within al-Qaida, there is talk of divisions over its future direction that could widen after Mr. Zawahiri takes the helm.

Despite this, the impact of bin Laden’s death is limited by his organization’s structure. Over the past few years, al-Qaida has evolved from a more hierarchical organization into a devolved set of networks, with an al-Qaida “core” in Afghanistan and Pakistan only exercising control over strategy and ideology, while offshoots in countries like Somalia and Yemen are executing direct operations. Of particular concern is al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen, which, under the leadership of Nasser al-Wahayshi, a close associate of bin Laden, and Anwar al-Awlaki, a charismatic American-Yemeni cleric, has inspired incidents like the Fort Hood shootings and the attempted Christmas underpants bombing. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, an entrenched jihadist subculture supported by elements of the army and intelligence agencies continues to move domestic groups such as Lashkar-eTaiba closer to al-Qaida, as was seen in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Looking ahead, bin Laden’s death also does little to change the fundamental dilemmas that U.S. policymakers will have to grapple with. True, more intelligence seized from bin Laden’s compound may increase the wherewithal of American law enforcement agencies to foil potential terrorist plots in the near future. And this case does demonstrate the utility of limited, targeted U.S. operations to disrupt terrorist networks in countries where alQaida still thrives.

But after spending 15 years in pursuit of see Parameswaran, page 32

Op-Ed

Commencement 2011

Class of 2011: Bringing change to Tufts since 2007

by Sam

Wallis

Congratulations, class of 2011. When you think about it, we’ve been here a long time. A lot has happened both at Tufts and off the Hill since the last time we all sat together at Matriculation in 2007. As I began brainstorming with my friends, I started developing a list of things that many, if not all of us, can remember. Some of these things put in perspective the time we’ve spent together on the Hill. This list is by no means comprehensive but rather some of the first that came to mind.

When we entered Tufts, we could still sexile our roommates. No one had heard of Sarah Palin or an Angry Bird.

And the old voice in the Tisch Library Hirsh Reading Room still told us when to pack up.

Just months after arriving, we saw one of our peers from the University of Florida taken down at a Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) event to shouts of “Don’t tase me, bro.” As our freshman year went on, a little-known senator rose in the polls. The campus was divided between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and a small group held out for a John McCain win. But almost everyone had an opinion. And many of us made trips to New Hampshire for our respective candidates, through the cold of the primaries and on into the early fall months leading up to the election.

That year the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in Superbowl XLII, and the New York contingency at Tufts gloated for months. It took Common and the Dropkick Murphies to bring the campus back together on the President’s Lawn.

We learned about the embezzlement of nearly $1 million in student activities fee money, and the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate had the ability to spend the recovered money however students saw fit. We chose to invest some of it to increase annual programming and to use some to build the Trips Cabin at the Loj. Fall 2008 was a crazy time. We saw Wall Street brought to its knees and our college savings evaporate. During most recessions, students are usually insulated. But as the university’s endowment fell, we feared the effects on the financial aid budget. Tufts did its best to keep true to its commitment to keeping every student here, regardless of need.

Only weeks after the economic collapse, our class witnessed the election of Barack Obama. We took to the streets in a march down to Davis Square to show that we had spoken at the polls.

Seeing so many people amassed outside Olin Hall looking for somewhere to express their enthusiasm for the political process is an image that will stick with many of us.

Many of us went abroad during our junior year, reaching every corner of the globe. When we returned, we came back to a university that had gotten hip while we were away: YouTube submissions had become part of the admissions process; administrators learned to tweet; and some of the dorms had gone wireless in time for us to move off campus.

Also while we were away, Massachusetts elected its first Republican to the Senate in decades, and Congress passed a health care reform, allowing us to stay on our parents’ insurance plan until we’re 26.

We’ve had the opportunity to see great things at Tufts. Our men’s lacrosse team won Tufts’ first NCAA championship, and our women’s tennis team has risen to the top. An incredible number of speakers have answered our questions or offered advice, including John Kerry, Tony Blair, Michael Pollan, Seth Meyers and, most recently, Bob Woodward. We could watch the Bubs in Goddard Chapel and on NBC. And we’ve had the opportunity to run NQR all four years at Tufts.

Since we’ve been here, we’ve seen American culture develop around us.

We first learned the Soulja Boy dance, then had to learn the Dougie. We got tanning advice from Jersey Shore and help picking a seat from Rebecca Black.

We had to learn to talk in @’s and #’s. And most importantly, we were reminded to “hide our kids, and hide our wives.” We witnessed the rise and fall of an empire: 4Loko. And we’ve witnessed the rise and rise of Rubinoff.

And after all of this, we’ve reached that day that had, through all of these events, seemed so distant.

I want to congratulate all of my classmates on our graduation today. While we didn’t agree all the time, we’ve been through four years together. And I’ve enjoyed the ride. Good luck next year.

Unlike past grads, we’ll be able to keep up with each other on Facebook and Twitter, perhaps the biggest change we’ve seen since we moved in on that hot summer day in 2007.

Sam Wallis graduates today with a degree in political science. He is the outgoing TCU president.

The morality of laundry: A Facebook debate

by Sydney

Post

I think it’s fair to say that everyone at least vaguely enjoys a good debate. We come to college and, all of a sudden, we’re exposed to 5,000 new people with 5,000 new opinions that we’ve never encountered before.

A whole new arena for conversation.

Some of the most interesting meals I’ve had here at Tufts are the ones that took place around lively debates with my friends about gendered language or nuclear war. I recently found myself engaged in similar discussion about the morals of doing laundry, but this time I wasn’t sitting in Dewick or at a table in the Mayer Campus Center.

Instead, I was sitting at my desk in my room, watching a Facebook comment thread grow.

It was 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, around the time when most people are thinking of throwing in the towel on homework, or maybe just wishing they could. I had long since given up on doing anything productive and was wasting time watching episodes of “Stargate SG-1” (1997-2007) while occasionally checking Facebook in the hopes that something exciting would appear on my news feed. I’d be willing to guess that this is a fairly familiar scene for most college students.

At some point I saw that a friend of mine had posited a scenario in his status: What do you do if you’re about to do laundry and you notice that someone has paid for a dryer but neglected to press “Start”? Do you push “Start” for that person, or do you take advantage of free dryer usage?

By the time I saw this status, about seven minutes had gone by since it had been posted, and there were already eight comments and three people sounding off on the subject. I joined the fun and soon found myself eagerly refreshing the page over and over again. Usually when I’m doing this on Facebook, it’s because I have nothing better to do with my time. This time, however, I was actually interested in seeing where the conversation went.

Eighty-four comments and an hour later, the discussion had touched on theft, values and self-interest, as well as international relations, karma and political theory.

meredith klein/tufts daily

I find this whole interaction — call it an online exchange of ideas — fascinating, not only because of the subject matter but also because it happened at all. Too often, I blame Facebook — and the Internet in general — for being a tool in my procrastination, for allowing me to distract myself from readings or research papers by promising me interesting or, more often, less-than-interesting updates on my friends’ lives. I don’t think I’m alone in this. The Internet is often bemoaned as a waste of time. But it occurred to me about 75 comments into the thread that Facebook doesn’t have to just be a place where people post photos of their crazy weekend parties or update everyone on the fact that they woke up this morning with a cold. Maybe it’s time we stop thinking of it in that light; after all, this can’t be the first time that 10 college students have had an actually intelligent conversation on Facebook. It shouldn’t be revolutionary. It probably isn’t.

I’m not advocating a change in the

use of Facebook. Not entirely, anyway. I’m simply saying that maybe, just maybe, it’s a more valuable tool than we give it credit for. Ninety-five comments on one person’s status on a random Sunday night got me thinking about morality outside of the hypothetical laundry scenario. It got me using my brain and actively debating a subject that I probably wouldn’t have had the courage to pipe up on had it been raised in a class. In fact, it got me thinking about things that I probably wouldn’t have thought about at all. Through Facebook, I was able to sit at my computer in my pajamas and debate morality with others, including some people I’ve never met, who were sitting at their computers in dorm rooms all over the country. And what’s more, this conversation wasn’t full of the kind of long-winded replies that one encounters on discussion boards. It was a live debate — with no time to make our answers glossy or see FACEBOOK, page 32

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

Ever onward by

Tomas Garcia

I’d like to begin by taking the time to thank and congratulate the class of 2011. I count many of you as my friends, peers and mentors, and while I am sad to see you end your time on the Hill, I know that you will make those of us still at Tufts proud with whatever you choose to do next in your lives. Know that we at Tufts will always be here to support you in your endeavors and hope to remain connected into the future.

It is my goal as the newly elected Tufts Community Union (TCU) president to continue the extraordinary effort and work that each of you has put into this university.

Right now, we are students at a firstrate institution with third-rate facilities.

However, with a new university president comes a new presidential taskforce and an opportunity to address some of the largest problems facing our campus. When University President Lawrence Bacow arrived, his task force on the undergraduate experience addressed the issue of professor-student relations, resulting in the creation of The Tower Café and other programs. I will advocate that long-term physical investment in facilities be the subject of the next presidential task force. The class of 2011 has seen all that Tufts has to offer academically; I would like the facilities for future graduating classes to match this standard of excellence.

While a more transparent long-term capital plan will benefit future generations of Tufts students, we should also take shortterm steps to make our campus feel more like a collegiate institution. They say a new

coat of paint isn’t much, but it’s a start.

Under leadership from the class of 2011, this year’s TCU Senate has worked to prioritize campus spaces. Beginning next year, for example, a campus kitchen that provides a new space for students to learn and cook together is set to begin construction.

Every graduating senior should look back on the past four years with pride. We do many things incredibly well at Tufts, but there are quite a few things that we could do better. I will seek to keep costs low and increase academic opportunities on campus.

This year, the Senate has gone to great strides to reduce costs for students. Every Tufts student can relate to not being able to handle all of the expenses of college life.

We introduced textbook rentals through the bookstore, and worked to create the option of performing community service in place of a monetary fine for noise violations. I plan on extending the choice of performing community service as an alternative to all monetary fines on campus, not limited to just noise violations.

We need greater academic opportunity on this campus. After a large push from the student body calling for the option of allowing entrepreneurial leadership studies as a secondary major, the Senate put forth a resolution asking for exactly that. The Senate this year also passed a resolution supporting the establishment of Africana studies at Tufts. I plan on continuing to push for the addition and expansion of academic opportunities for students at Tufts.

Every student on campus should be able to follow their passions, whether in the classroom or out.

Ashish Malhotra | Follow the Leader When you visited Tufts for the first time you were likely told how Tufts enrolls over 5,000 unique undergraduate students who come together to form a greater Jumbo identity. However, I sometimes feel as if this sense of common identity is absent from our campus. We need to take pride in one another, both who we are and what we do.

The stands should be packed during sports games. There shouldn’t be such a thing as an empty seat in the Balch Arena Theater during a student performance.

When the Bubs are on “Glee,” a watch party should be taking place in the Mayer Campus Center. At the end of the day, it’s about coming together and taking pride in each other.

When it comes down to it, each and every one of us makes up this school. The class of 2011 has made great strides in advocating on behalf of the entire student body. As TCU President, I will fight to represent every single one of us to the administration, with the goal of improving every student’s day-to-day life on this campus in some form or another.

Seniors, thank you and congratulations once again. As you move forward into your lives beyond the Hill, know that we will miss your leadership and direction, and wish you well. I hope that you remain connected with your fellow Jumbos who remain behind, continuing to guide us ever onward.

Tomas Garcia is a rising senior majoring in international relations and quantitative economics. He is the incoming TCU president.

Dismantling diversity

by Victoria

Fashakin

When I first heard of the renewed interest in establishing an Africana studies department at Tufts, I was rather skeptical. I found highly dubious the claim that a department dedicated to the African diaspora and African-American history would help to heal the racial tensions on campus. After all, Harvard established a department for African and African-American studies more than 40 years ago. Yet when I visited the school during their April open house as a prospective student, I realized the school still has a distinct racial divide. An op-ed by rising senior Jacob Schiller in the Daily last month endorsing Ben Richards, also a rising senior, for Tufts Community Union President briefly mentioned “fringe minority groups that dominate our school, that take their causes and launch them onto every student as if they are issues of life or death.”

Initially, I thought he was referring to different racial groups on campus in light of events such as the wrench/gun controversy, the Diversity Task Force and students discussing race at April Open House. Although I realize he may have genuinely meant nothing to do with race, his words affected certain students on that basis. If that were not the case, however, he would by no means be alone in expressing such sentiments or dismissing underrepresented groups in the Tufts community. Rather than vilify Schiller, possibly wrongfully, I want to place his words in a racial context to highlight the larger issues at Tufts. Ultimately, exploring the implications of those sentiments will enable us to carefully weigh the Africana studies department that Tufts is contemplating and to better consider the place of diversity in our university.

First, we need to realize what I have long felt is a much-ignored truth: Lack of information about minorities is no longer the basis for most discriminatory acts. Indeed, from the Group of Six to recent community conversations, Tufts wisely offers many organizations and avenues through which we can all grow to appreciate the validity and importance of each other’s concerns.

Despite these resources, intolerance and discrimination still occur on our campus.

Information alone cannot end bias, although it is an important step. In actuality, many educated and accomplished individuals have been responsible for minimizing the experiences of “fringe minority groups.” For a striking example, one need only consider the prominent twentieth-century American historian Henry Elmer Barnes.

Educated as he was in history of all things, Barnes was nonetheless a Holocaust revisionist — better known to some as a Holocaust denier. A lack of understanding of history was

clearly not the basis for his determination to deny a historical fact. Keeping in mind that, sadly, prejudice can exist side by side with full awareness of information that, ideally, should make the prejudice impossible will help us temper our expectations of the contemplated Africana studies department.

None of this is to say the department should not be created; I am simply observing that expecting this department, or any programs focused upon historically marginalized groups, to radically change relations on campus is naive. Furthermore, such an expectation excuses the marginalization of diverse groups by holding intolerant stances as products of simple misunderstanding. Reality at this point in Tufts’ life, and in American life, is more complex than that. Thus, as long as we keep these realistic expectations in mind, the Africana studies department will not be considered a failure should it not miraculously and instantaneously bring about racial harmony. The department’s success must not be measured by such a simplistic approach.

Second, many underrepresented groups, in my personal experience, do feel as though they are underappreciated and insignificant at Tufts. The first step to progress on our campus is to illuminate the ways in which minority groups are indeed still relegated to the fringe at Tufts. The opinion that there is a “time and a place for groups like that, but it is not at the center of our student body’s voice” only serves as confirmation of the fact that treatment of diverse voices as less important continues to be a problem. While some may believe that the periphery is the proper domain of those who do not look like them, those of all colors who share Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream must ask how to ensure that all students, all fellow Jumbos, are included.

Furthermore, if those of us who believe all voices deserve to be heard are not in the majority, then we have to ask if awarenessraising actions of the activist students at April Open House are not justified. If being a minority on campus means being a “fringe minority group,” then shouldn’t students know that before they get here? As a university, we must ask ourselves what our values really are in regard to inclusion. Giving diverse perspectives their proper place in Tufts’ academic life through the creation of an Africana studies department may help send a powerful message about which values are dominant at Tufts.

Third, Tufts professes to “value a learning community — of women and men of different races, ethnicities, religions, geographic origins, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identity and expression, ages, personal characteristics and interests — where differences are understood and respected.” To uphold this ideal,

31

Op-Ed

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin should not focus solely on the quantity of students of color. Rather, we must consider the quality of our community and create an environment that welcomes and appreciates each member irrespective of background. We must question the type of community we are fostering where individuals feel free to denigrate others with impunity. Indeed, free speech is an essential civil liberty, but the fact that ridicule and inappropriate, sometimes spiteful, comments are often targeted toward a certain demographic on campus is telling.

Moreover, the aim of diversity is twofold; it is about teaching one another and celebrating our differences. Are those considered the majority, or “average” students at Tufts, diverse? Do they possess unique perspectives and varying backgrounds as well? The onus is on all members of our community — students, faculty and staff — to build a diverse community. People of color add to diversity, but they do not comprise the sole ingredient.

Last, it is important we all realize that an Africana studies department and other efforts to create a place in the sun for all students at Tufts are not part of some crusade against Tufts by disgruntled minority students. Rather than being viewed as attempts to foist the issues of “fringe minority groups” on the campus, these efforts should be viewed as ways to fill an academic hole.

All students deserve to have a curriculum that reflects their interests and allows them to learn more about various topics. That is the purpose of higher education and it should not be thwarted simply because that interest is African and African-American studies.

How can a school with one of the top international relations programs fail to offer a single African language for the international relations language requirement? Considering that 53 of the world’s countries are in Africa, Tufts’ oversight is a huge one.

The debates over the creation of an Africana studies department and other campus incidents have exposed the complex relationship of students of color with the greater campus. These issues must prompt us to turn a critical eye on our campus. As Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney stated in the memorandum regarding Africana Studies: “Each generation of faculty, administrators, staff and students must define for itself how to enact this vision of diversity on our campus and how to engage with our aspirational goals. Now it is our turn and responsibility.”

Victoria Fashakin is a rising senior majoring in chemistry. She is currently abroad in London, England.

Somber reflections

W

hen President Barack Obama announced on May 1 that Osama bin Laden had been killed, there was much rejoicing around America and by some at Tufts. Personally, however, I felt a little uncomfortable about the festive atmosphere surrounding bin Laden’s death. While I understand the perspective of those who celebrated bin Laden’s death, personally I have spent the past few weeks grappling with what it was exactly that bothered me about the celebrations. It turns out there are multifarious reasons for my discomfort.

I found some solace in the fact that I found plenty of people who felt the same way. Their reasons, however, weren’t always the same as mine. For some, it was as simple as saying, “I’m not celebrating Osama bin Laden’s death because I don’t celebrate death, no matter who it is.” This is certainly a noble and virtuous viewpoint that was part of my reasoning for taking exception to the celebrations (yes, I am noble and virtuous). My concerns, however, ran deeper than this (yes, I am deep, too).

Celebrating this victory in the War on Terror loses sight of all of America’s “collateral damage” over the course of this war. Countless innocent people who were imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay and today suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. Over 600,000 dead and millions displaced by the war in Iraq that ultimately had nothing to do with al-Qaida or weapons of mass destruction and was illegal in that it was not authorized by the United Nations in the first place.

Celebrating this victory in the War on Terror justifies the notion that targeting leaders of terrorist organizations is the best and only strategic way to fight terrorism. This may be an erroneous line of thinking. Killing a figurehead like bin Laden only creates a vacuum waiting to be filled by another terrorist leader, using the motivation of their previous leader’s death as fuel for future attacks.

In reality, while the violent means that terrorists use to achieve their goals is misguided and morally wrong, there were indeed political motivations behind al-Qaida under bin Laden, such as U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Additionally, issues of poverty and inequality create circumstances under which young people are more likely to be attracted to a radical ideology. Until these underlying causes of terrorism are addressed, there will be no long-lasting and meaningful victory in this War on Terror. Celebrating this “victory” in the War on Terror makes it that much less likely that alternative and complementary strategies of dealing with terrorism will surface more prominently in public and political discourse.

Celebrating this victory in the War on Terror also energizes a vitriolic and hateful atmosphere, all in the name of nationalism.

In the madness of intense nationalism, the passionate feelings behind it can be misdirected at innocent bystanders. We saw this after 9/11, when over 1,500 hate crimes directed at Muslims occurred in America in 2001.

Members of non-Muslim religous groups mistaken for Muslims (not that it is justified to attack people for being Muslim, of course), such as Sikhs, were also targeted in the post9/11 wave of Islamophobia.

The type of hubris on display after bin Laden’s death serves as a concern that a postbin Laden wave of Islamophobia is on its way. There has already been one such shameful incident of note. Two harmless Muslim men robed in traditional dress were removed from a Delta Airlines flight from Memphis to Charlotte on May 6 because the pilot and passengers did not feel comfortable with them on board. The biggest irony of it all was that the two men were on their way to a conference on Islamophobia.

Finally, celebrating this victory in the War on Terror can be seen as hypocritical.

America is a country that views itself as operating on a moral high ground. Instead of killing bin Laden and dumping his body at sea, America could have tried bin Laden in a court of law, where justice would have been served. Additionally, by celebrating death so joyfully, it seems that some Americans have lost the plot. As a global leader, this was an opportunity for America to show how morality can triumph over violence. Instead, it seems to have been an opportunity lost.

Ashish Malhotra graduates today with a degree in international relations and political science. He can be reached at Ashish.

Malhotra@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

32

Op-Ed

Commencement 2011

The death of Osama bin Laden and the reaction of the American people by

Cleo Hirsch

Waking up in Dakar, Senegal, to the news of Osama bin Laden’s death has sparked a whirlwind of emotion and confusion for this young American.

Living for the past four months with a devoutly Muslim family in a country that is more than 90 percent Muslim, my opinion of Islam and of religion in general has shifted greatly throughout my time here in Senegal. Arriving as a self-prescribed atheist, I viewed the idea of religion in general in a less-than-positive light; it was easy for me to see religion as something that only created conflict and led to fanaticism, as seen in the likes of Osama bin Laden’s distortion of Islam for his own political purpose and his grave distortion of the notion of jihad as a vehicle for politically motivated violence.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden declared jihad against the United States when I was just seven years old. Throughout the Western world, he was viewed as the face of terrorism, but it was all too easy for young America to view him as the face of Islam as well. With his five wives, upward of 25 children and long beard and turban, he was oftentimes the only face of Islam that we were exposed to. After the Sept.

11 attacks, Osama bin Laden himself declared, “These events have split the world into two camps — belief and disbelief.” While we may have been taught that this was not the reality, that Osama bin Laden was not representative of the true Islamic religion that teaches peace and self-discipline, it has often been difficult for Americans to separate our emotions concerning the movement that bin Laden stood for and our emotions toward the rest of the Muslim world. This has led to a great deal of anti-Muslim sentiment within our country and a feeling abroad that America is an anti-Muslim nation.

My family here in Dakar, like the family of Osama bin Laden, is polygamous. My siblings wake at 6 a.m.

every morning to begin their day with their morning prayer. A teacher of the Quran, or a “Marabout,” comes to our house two times a week to teach my siblings the Quran around our dining room table. In my opinion, Islam is the glue that is holding this country together. From slavery to colonization to the World Bank’s restructuring policies during the 1980s, the Western world has made it only more difficult for this African democracy to climb its way out of poverty. Senegal is a country that today is experiencing undeniable hardship and poverty, with a 50-percent unemployment rate and a general lack of opportunity for those looking for a better life. And yet every day, I am amazed to see the country wake up at 6 a.m., pray and commence with the laborious work each day brings. The Senegalese people have proven to be kind, welcoming, generous and quietly determined to live their lives in a peaceful and respectful way, as the Quran teaches. Time and time again families with almost nothing have opened up their homes to me, a young American who, if anything, has benefited from the same policies that have left Senegal impoverished, and offered me a delicious meal of “Ceebu Jen,” the national dish of rice and fish. All this generosity despite the fact that, more often than not, the only news Senegalese people have heard concerning America’s view of Islam is that of the Quran-burning pastors. It is my opinion that it is Islam that fuels this ability to give when one has nothing to give, and it is Islam that holds together this society teetering on the edge between hope and despair.

I read the news of Osama bin Laden’s death and the apparent American “victory” within this context sitting in my Muslim, polygamous home in Dakar, Senegal. My emotions are mixed. I look at the photos of the young people in the United States, celebrating so fervently the death of this murderer. I, too, am happy to see him go. But I can no longer view the world in terms that

courtesy rob silverblatt

are black-and-white enough to call this occasion a time for celebration.

Because, while bin Laden was evil, I believe that Islam can be a religion of unprecedented positive power. And in celebrating his death as if it were a victory, we can easily ostracize huge sections of the world that may see this event in a more complex, more nuanced light.

This morning, I received the following email from the director of my program here in Dakar, Serigne Ndiaye. He wrote: “Bush tried it, Obama did it! Ten years after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Osama Bin Laden has finally been killed. This event may spur anti-American sentiment in some places around the world. While most people in Senegal will probably welcome the news with joy and relief, I would like you to exert more caution and keep a low profile. Obviously, this is not to make you feel unsafe in Senegal. I just want to draw your attention to the possibility of some isolated violent reactions to this situation.”

While I understand that our generation is overjoyed to see Osama bin Laden go, I think that we could all take a lesson from Mr. Ndiaye’s caution.

This may be the symbolic end to the chapter in our nation’s history within which we have come of age, but celebrating in the streets may only serve to incite those who (perhaps rightfully) feel an affinity for some of the factors that fueled Osama bin Laden’s popularity. So at the same time that I take some pride in Obama’s strong leadership and the actions of the military and intelligence forces, and I wish for nothing but peace for the families whose loved ones were killed on Sept. 11, I am also reminded today that the world is complex, that we are not always in the right and that thinking about the events of the world from more than one perspective is essential if we wish to truly end to terrorism and find peace.

Cleo Hirsch is a rising senior majoring in political science. She is currently studying abroad in Dakar, Senegal.

Facebook more than meets the eye FACEBOOK

continued from page 32

Congratulations Community Health Program Class of 2011!

Falilat Akinleye Joke Alesh Jennica Allen Emily Balk Sunetra Bane Rosemarie Barker Abigail Benudis Alisa Brennan Kathryn Carpenito Kaitlin Cassidy Mary Cheng Anna Chute Rebecca Citron Katherine Clavelle Katherine Colson Lauren Coy Allison Dempsey Chloe Dillaway Clark Duverger Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot Ekow Essel Kristin Finigan Samantha Frank Anisha Gandhi Amanda Garces

Jamie Greenberg Sarah Hacking Dana Harada Stuart Henige Alexander Hoffman Rebecca Hornthal Madhuri Indaram Gillian Javetski Benjamin Jaye Christina Kay Lindsay Kephart Sarah Kowitt David Landy Allison Lawrence Samuel Levine Arielle Levy Maegan Lillis Erica Lokken Sophie Lyons James MacKenzie Deborah Mailand Krizia Malave Lydia Mitts Alison Moore Danny Newhide Haley Newman Andrea Nortey

Caitlin Payne Andrew Petrone Chloe Poon Gabriel Prussin Philip Ramirez Melissa Reifers Alene Rhea Maria Rios Shannon Robinson Chloe Rousseau Aiyana Ryan Andrea Schpok Amanda Schulte Stephanie Seller Swati Shah Maayan Simckes Emily Spooner Jessica St. Louis Holly Stewart Emma van der Weerd Laura Van Tassel Anna Van Slyke Ha Vo Alexandra Voutsiotis Neha Wadekar

perfect — made up of 95 different blips of dialogue, almost as if the 10 of us had been sitting at a table and sharing our ideas.

The conclusions we came to don’t really matter, though if you’re interested, there were several different ideas and some of those spawned new topics of discussion. Eventually the thread calmed down as people logged off and returned to their homework. The last comment was simply “:p” — a far cry from earlier posts on whether or not our choices influence others. But I don’t think a single one of us left without having at least entertained one new idea.

There are plenty of us who have heard our parents and other adults bemoan the amount of time we, as a generation, spend glued to our computer screens browsing social networking sites. We depend on the Internet for social interaction and that probably won’t change any time soon. I’m not saying that it should. But maybe, if we’re going to spend so much time online, we should use it for some thinking once in a while. Maybe we’ll find that we’re a little more intelligent than we give ourselves credit for. And, maybe, we’ll actually learn something new.

Sydney Post is a rising sophomore who has not yet declared a major.

Bin Laden death will not end terrorism Parameswaran

continued from page 30

bin Laden, years that involved two quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan, over $1 trillion and the loss of at least 150,000 lives, the basic realities of the war on terrorism remain unchanged. In Afghanistan, U.S. President Barack Obama is likely to face even more pressure to withdraw troops now that bin Laden has been killed, despite the fact that the Afghan security forces and government still do not have the capacity to fend off the Taliban without foreign assistance. Pakistan’s tacit support for militant groups is likely to continue unless it realizes this creates Frankenstein monsters it cannot control and starts taking responsibility for its own actions rather than just blaming outsiders.

And al-Qaida’s ideology will continue to breed in countries where political oxygen allows it to do so, like in Yemen where a fledgling government faces multiple emergencies including rebellion in the north, secession in the south and rapidly depleting resources like oil and water.

There are things the United States can

continue do at the margins, like showering states with billions of dollars in economic and military assistance to help fight terrorism, using drones and other targeted strikes, cheering on indigenous democratic movements in the Arab world and improving its own image in the region.

But beyond this, nations must realize themselves that terrorism is a threat that needs to be eradicated, develop the necessary capacities and take significant steps toward doing so. As every counterinsurgency manual tritely advises, the sustainable way to wage an effective war against terrorism is not to destroy the enemy but to provide lasting security to the local population to win it over.

Not even the death of one of the world’s deadliest terrorists changes this age-old prescription, no matter how loud the frat boy celebrations may have been that May night.

Prashanth Parameswaran is a rising secondyear graduate student at The Fletcher School. He can be reached at Prashanth.Parameswaran@ tufts.edu. His blog is asianist.wordpress.com.

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

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The Tufts Daily

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Sports

Commencement 2011

Jumbos begin defense of national championship with 6-5 win over Dutchmen MEN’S LACROSSE

continued from page 46

College 6-5 at home on May 14. Statistics from that game were unavailable.

MEN’S LACROSSE POSTSEASON AWARDS LSM Alec Bialosky (’11) First Team All-NESCAC A DJ Hessler (’11) First Team All-NESCAC NESCAC Player of the Year A Sean Kirwan (’12) First Team All-NESCAC M Kevin McCormick (’12) First Team All-NESCAC A Ryan Molloy (’11) Second Team All-NESCAC M Matt Witko (’11) First Team All-NESCAC The Jumbos — the No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament and defending national champions — notched an impressive 12-2 regular season and closed out the conference tournament in style, but still have a long road ahead if they want to repeat as national champions.

Tufts, which enjoyed a firstround bye in the NCAAs, held

off Union in the second round, though they never led the Dutchmen by more than two goals in the second-round matchup.

“In the Union game, we were all fired up to play, but I think we might have underestimated them a little bit,” graduating senior quad-captain longstick midfielder Alec Bialosky said. “We got lulled to sleep on defense a few times and we weren’t quite playing at full speed a hundred percent of the time, which could come back to bite us. Going forward, we need to have that laser-lock focus and look at the little things.”

In the regular season, the Jumbos topped the NESCAC, posting an impressive 8-1 conference record. After dropping their final game to Bowdoin 15-9, the Jumbos rebounded quickly in the NESCAC tournament.

In the Championship game, the Jumbos played some of their toughest lacrosse yet. In a thrilling overtime finish, Tufts outlasted Middlebury 13-12, securing its second victory over the Panthers in 2011 — the fifth consecutive overall — and, more importantly, repeating as NESCAC champions.

Tufts led Middlebury by four until the visiting Panthers staged a five-goal run to give them their first lead of the game with less than three

DIV. III NCAA MEN’S LACROSSE TOURNAMENT First Round May 11

Second Round Quarterfinals May 14 May 18

*TUFTS *Nazareth Union *Stevens Inst.

Montclair St.

Union

Semifinals May 22

Final May 29

*TUFTS

*Cortland St. Stevens Inst.

Cortland St.

*Middlebury Castleton

Middlebury

Keene St.

*Amherst

Amherst

*Amherst *Rochester Inst. *Denison Ohio Wesleyan

*Salisbury Springfield *Endicott

*Wittenberg Adrian

*Rochester Inst.

Denison

*Salisbury

Endicott

NATIONAL CHAMPION M&T Bank Stadium Baltimore, Md. *Denotes host institution

*Dickinson

Dickinson

Wittenberg

*Gettysburg Scranton

Gettysburg

Colorado Coll. *Roanoke *Roanoke *Cabrini Widener

Cabrini

Roanoke

*Stevenson

*Stevenson

Virginia Bledsoe/tufts Daily

Graduating senior quad-captain midfielder Matt Witko notched the game-tying goal against Middlebury with nine seconds remaining in the NESCAC Championship Game. The Jumbos would go on to win 13-12 in overtime. minutes remaining. After rising senior midfielder Kevin McCormick tied the game again, Middlebury graduating senior attackman David Hild delivered a silencing goal with a minute remaining to put a Tufts repeat in serious doubt.

In the final minute, however, Tufts regained possession out of the face-off, and after rising junior defensive midfielder Sam Diss brought the ball into the restraining box, coach Mike Daly called a crucial timeout.

After the huddle, the Jumbos fired two shots off the mark, but graduating senior quadcaptain midfielder Matt Witko maintained his composure, firing a top left-corner rocket past Middlebury graduating senior goalkeeper Ryan Deane to tie the game with nine seconds remaining and force overtime.

“When we called the timeout before Witko scored we were all on the sideline mentally getting ready for that next face-off,” Bialosky said. “We knew that our offense was going to get the job done and then Witko got that great shot and put it in.”

In overtime, the two teams traded possessions until Bialosky forced a turnover on the Panthers and recovered a ground ball, allowing Molloy to complete a pass to Kirwan for the golden goal.

“On that groundball I got, [rising junior defender] John Heard

was doing a great job on-ball, forced a pass and we slid to the guy he threw it to so he had to make another pass and the kid just dropped it. It was pretty simple,” Bialosky said. “Then we just attacked, which is our philosophy. We never slow it down, and we just got off that quick pass to Ryan, to Sean, to the goal.”

Where many teams would have taken a timeout, the always attack-happy Jumbos were right in their comfort zone.

“We’re not nervous; we’re kind of excited and anxious and looking for that kind of opportunity,” Molloy added. “Thank God Alec came up with that groundball and pushed transition, and because of the way we play we’re able to not take a timeout and score that goal and end the game.”

In the conference semifinals, Tufts delivered an equally exciting last-minute victory over Bowdoin. In the fourth quarter, the Jumbos led the Polar Bears 10-5 when Bowdoin launched a five-goal, six-minute scoring campaign to tie with 4:09 left.

After several threatening Bowdoin possessions, rising sophomore goalkeeper Patton Watkins controlled a Bowdoin clear from graduating senior goalkeeper Jake McCampbell, and aired a last-ditch clear out of his own crease with just 12 seconds remaining. Graduating senior quad-captain attackman D.J. Hessler controlled the outlet and flicked it to Molloy.

Molloy then faked out McCampbell, launching a low bounce-shot past the goalkeeper’s left side and into the back of the net with 0.4 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

“Honestly, at that point, I was just hoping that they didn’t score,” Molloy said.

“When Patton caught the ball I thought he was probably going to hold it but then he sent it down the field, and really nothing was in my mind other than that instinct that took over. D.J. threw it to me and I didn’t even realize how much time was on the clock. I just made sure the ball went in the net.”

Although the Jumbos certainly finished the NESCAC tournament with two of their more stunning victories, Daly’s squad proved itself time and time again in high-pressure situations throughout the season. In fact, seven of the Jumbos’ games have been decided by one goal, including a 6-5 regular season victory over Conn. College, which Tufts beat handily 12-6 in the NESCAC Quarterfinals.

“Something that my high school coaches used to say is, ‘If you win by a lot it shows your talent, but if you win by a little, it shows your character.’ No one on our team ever quits when we’re down,” Bialosky said. “As long as there’s still time on the clock, we’re still fighting to get the ‘W,’ so all those one-goal games, they add up. They’ll help us in the long run.”

Young team appears poised to achieve greater heights in 2011-12 campaign MEN’S T & F

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improving his previous best by six inches.

The 4x400 relay team also had a breakout meet, running a season-best 3:21.37. After an injury left the third leg unfilled, graduating senior co-captain Jeff Prunier stepped up to fill the spot.

The foursome of Prunier, rising senior Ben Crastnopol, rising junior Lawrence Xia and rising sophomore Graham Beutler combined for the strong time, with PRs by Prunier and Xia. Overall, the Jumbos combined for six points, which put Tufts in 26th place at the meet.

Though the bulk of the team headed to Connecticut, the performance of the weekend happened in New Jersey. On May 13, rising junior Matt Rand headed to the IC4A Championships at Princeton, looking to improve his NCAA provisionally qualifying time of 30:59.86 in the 10,000meter race — a time that ranked him 34th

nationally. With some top competition, Rand, the only Div. III athlete in the field, did just that, finishing seventh among 28 athletes in a time of 30:26.59.

“It was probably the best race of my life,” Rand said. “The competition was great. I definitely could not have run that time without some really fast guys running with me. It was mostly Div. I guys, so they took it out fast, and I hung onto the lead pack as long as I could and they really pulled me through to the end.”

Rand’s time, a 33-second PR, moves him up to 13th in the national rankings, which he expects to be good enough to earn a spot at nationals.

Before traveling to Connecticut and Princeton, the Jumbos headed to MIT for the Div. III New England Championships on May 6.

Despite bringing only a limited squad, the Jumbos earned fifth place with 46.5 points, just one point out of fourth — an improvement on their sixth-place finish in

the indoor tournament during the winter.

“The finish was really good,” graduating senior co-captain Sam Read said.

“We did better than we were expecting because we weren’t trying for the team title, so we didn’t throw out all our best guys in every event, so coming in fifth was pretty solid for us.”

Rising junior Michael Blair earned the Div. III New England title in the high jump, clearing 6-6. On the track, rising sophomore Liam Cassidy also claimed a victory, crossing the line of the 5,000-meter run in 14:57.89 to earn his title.

“Liam ran an absolutely perfect 5K,” Rand said. “He went out in the middle of the pack and just worked his way up and just dropped everyone with two laps to go.

He closed with a 2:11 800 [meters], so that is really impressive for a freshman.”

The pair of Nakanishi and Read continued their success in the pole vault, earning fourth and fifth, respectively, each clearing 14-11. Ajayi added two fifth-place finishes,

launching himself 22-8 in the long jump and 45-3 1/2 in the triple jump.

Another impressive race by the 4x400 squad earned them third place. The team of Beutler, Xia, Crastnopol and rising sophomore Daniel Lange-Vagle crossed the line in 3:21.44.

Over the course of the two meets, Read provided the only points that will be lost to graduation, leaving a promising team itching to come back even stronger next year.

“It was a definitely a good season, and we definitely proved we’re more of an outdoor team than our indoor team this year,” Read said. “Considering this was supposed to be a rebuilding year, I think it was a step in the right direction, and everyone stepped up when they needed to.”

Those that secure their sp-ots at NCAAs will travel to Ohio Wesleyan University to face off against the best competition the division has to offer on May 26-29.

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

Jumbos awarded No. 1 seed in New England Regional BASEBALL

continued from page 46

21 innings of work over the first two days of the tournament, Mother Nature did her part in the championship game against Bowdoin. A steady rain delayed the game’s first pitch by three and a half hours, and just an inning into the contest, yet another downpour nixed it for good.

By the time the umpires called the game, the Jumbos had already mounted a five-run, first-inning rally, jumping ahead on a pair of doubles by graduating senior outfielder Chase Rose and rising junior first baseman Tom Howard. The 5-0 lead was washed away, but thanks to wins on Friday and Saturday, Tufts was awarded the NESCAC title, its second in as many years and third overall in program history.

Saturday’s contest against the Polar Bears — a 12-inning affair that had both teams on edge throughout — was the epitome of the toughness that has become synonymous with Tufts baseball.

The starting pitchers, Tufts graduating senior Pat O’Donnell and Polar Bears rising sophomore John Lefeber, dueled through four scoreless innings before Bowdoin drew first blood in the bottom of the fifth.

Tufts quickly countered, and when O’Donnell left in the eighth inning, the game was tied 2-2.

Then came what Sager called “the defining moments of the team’s season.” Graduating senior Ed Bernstein relieved O’Donnell with one out and stranded potential insurance runs at second and third.

An inning later, with the winning run on second for Bowdoin, Lefeber drilled a single into right field that seemed certain to end the game.

But rising junior right fielder Nate Izzo gunned down the runner, rising sophomore catcher Duncan Taylor, at the plate, denying the Polar Bears a walk-off victory.

Bernstein shut down the Polar Bears’ offense for the next three frames, giving the Jumbo offense an opportunity to finally break through.

The Jumbos did just that in the top of the 12th. Izzo got things started with a leadoff single, then scored on a triple by graduating senior centerfielder David Orlowitz. Sager drove home Orlowitz with another single, giving Bernstein a two-run lead to protect. The righty worked around a leadoff hit, punched out the final two batters of the game and sealed the win for Tufts.

“The way the team came together in extra innings, the way we were able to grind things out as the away team with the threat of a walkoff always there — that was the best game we’ve played this season,” Sager said.

As much as Saturday’s win over

Bowdoin was a nailbiter, Friday’s rout of Middlebury was a laugher.

The Jumbos arrived at American International College in Springfield, Mass., ready to make a statement, after salvaging just seven runs across two games in a disappointing split against the Panthers in the final games of the regular season.

The Jumbo offense had no such problems on Friday, scoring five runs in the first inning. Tufts had built an 11-0 lead by the time Middlebury finally got on the board in the seventh and came away with a 14-2 drubbing that put the rest of the conference on notice.

“Our experience really helped us going into the Middlebury game,” Sager said. “We were confident and didn’t force things, knowing that we didn’t have to win the game individually because we were stronger as a team.”

Orlowitz led the way with a 5-for5 effort, including a homer and a double, scoring four runs and driving in three. Sager also chipped in three RBIs and reached base four times, while Izzo and graduating senior second baseman Frank Petroskey added two knocks each to the 15-hit output.

On the mound, rising senior Dave Ryan avenged his only loss of the year by hurling seven innings and improving to 7-1. Ryan allowed six hits and five walks but posted six goose-eggs before Middlebury plated a pair in the seventh. Rising sophomore Christian Sbily mopped up the last six outs of the game, effectively pitching to contact with the huge lead.

“I was excited to get another shot at them,” Ryan said. “In terms of pitching, I wanted to throw my changeup for strikes because that wasn’t there in my last outing. I was able to focus more on that once we had the big lead.”

Although the Jumbos are thrilled to have achieved their preseason goal, they are eager to test their mettle against inter-conference opponents in the NCAA Regionals.

Ranked No. 16 in the nation and top in New England, Tufts was awarded a No. 1 seed in the regional bracket and took on eighth-seeded Bridgewater St. in the first round.

Results from the New England Regionals, held at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, Mass., from May 18-22, were not available at press time.

“There’s definitely a sense of accomplishment after NESCACs,” Ryan said. “But being in the regionals last year and getting as close as we did makes us realize that there’s still a lot of baseball to play.”

If the Jumbos capture the regional crown, which they were one win away from doing in 2010, they’ll move on to the national championships in Appleton, Wis., for the first time since 1950.

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Allen stakes claim as best thrower in region by racking up 30 points at Div. III Championships Women’s T & F

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events was great,” Allen said. “I didn’t [set a] PR in any of them, but I still had very solid throws in each one.”

The fourth victory for the Jumbos came from Wilfert, who won the steeplechase in 10:54.42, easily outdistancing the rest of the field.

In the 400-meter hurdles, Hieber recorded her best time of the season thus far and placed second overall. The time (1:02.59) ranks her 16th nationally.

“I think that Jana can hit an [automatic] qualifier this year as a freshman and that is a great sign for her future,” Wilfert said. “It really shows what a great athlete she is and how talented she is. She has gotten so close so many times this season, and I think she has it in her.”

Jones also recorded a second-place finish in the triple jump with a distance of 39-0 1/2. Kabongo was just behind in fourth with a jump of 37-10. Kabongo also added a second-place finish in the long jump, launching herself 18-0 3/4.

Theiss finished fifth in the pole vault, clearing 11-7 3/4, a provisional qualifying jump that puts her in 18th on the national list.

Justin McCallum/Tufts Daily

Graduating senior Kanku Kabongo, here at a meet this winter, provisionally qualified for NCAAs with a jump of 38-0 at the New England Open Championships.

Haeger, Levinson earn All-NEISA honors at the helm of A-division dinghy sailing

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national powerhouses such as No. 1 Georgetown and No. 2 Boston College, as well as West Coast juggernaut No. 10 Stanford.

The road to the National Championship was not an easy one, however. The Jumbos had to endure a rigorous series of regattas in order to qualify. After placing sixth at the Coed Dinghy Championships hosted by the University of Rhode Island on April 17, Tufts needed to place in the top nine at the ICSA Eastern Semifinals in Long Beach, Calif., to qualify for nationals. With strong performances from both the A-division boat that featured rising sophomore skipper Will Haeger and graduating senior crew Sally Levinson and the B-division boat of Soriano and graduating senior crew Roisin Magee, the team locked up a repeat

spot at nationals by finishing seventh.

“I think sailing is a lot about peaking at the right time,” said graduating senior tricaptain Margaret Rew. “We … really built off of our whole season from last semester and really peaked at the end of this season to do well in the postseason.”

The Jumbos had an opportunity to secure a spot in the ICSA Team Racing National Championship finals as well this past weekend at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association (NEISA) Team Racing Championships hosted by Dartmouth College, but fell short, finishing in seventh with a record of 3-11. Only the top three teams qualified for the national championship.

Tufts has been led all year by coach Ken Legler, who has coached 19 national championship teams and 92 AllAmericans in his illustrious

31 years at the helm. Legler’s experience will be key for a young team — stacked with 23 freshmen — at the National Championship later this month.

In addition to the team’s post-season success, a few individual members of the squad recently received recognition from the NEISA. Levinson was named to the 2011 All-NEISA Second Team as a crew, and Haeger, who took over as skipper of the A-division boat late in the season, earned NEISA Rookie of the Year honors.

The No. 14 women’s sailing team also enjoyed a successful season, just missing out on a return to the women’s National Championships after finishing in eighth place at the Women’s New England Championship at Bowdoin on April 24. The Jumbos were a mere four points away from a seventhplace finish and a spot at the ICSA National Championship.

Class of 2011 leaves its mark on the history books, paves way for future success legacies

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on the cross country squad. Perhaps her most impressive run came two years ago when, as a sophomore, McNamara won the 3,000-meter race at the Tufts Invitational by a remarkable 25 seconds, earning the secondbest time in program history in the event.

McNamara was the only Jumbos runner to earn Performer of the Week honors during her sophomore season.

Fortunately for the Jumbos, the cross country team was able to overcome McNamara’s injury and enjoy a successful season thanks to the efforts of another stalwart performer: Amy Wilfert. The Westborough, Mass., native had a terrific senior campaign, earning her third straight All-NESCAC honor as well as a trip to the NCAA National race at Wartburg College, where she placed 50th in a pack of 279 runners and finished just 15 seconds short of being named an All-American for the second time.

Wilfert continued her success into the spring track and field season, earning a NESCAC

Performer of the Week award on April 18. She helped the Jumbos to a 10th-place finish at the All-New England Championships, finishing fifth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and won the 1,500-meter race at the NESCAC Championships. Wilfert’s time of 4:34.06 in the event was the seventh-fastest among all Div. III competitors, and provisionally qualified her for Nationals.

Anthony Fucillo, quarterback, football: Though Fucillo played only two seasons at Tufts after transferring from Div. I Colgate, they were more than enough to cement his status as one of the program’s most prolific passers. In 2011, thanks in no small part to the institution of a new spread offense, Fucillo became the Jumbos’ single-season leader in passing yards, attempts, completions, touchdowns and total offense, and his 117.2 career passer’s rating ranks first alltime. On Oct. 30, 2010 at Amherst, Fucillo — who graduated early, in December, and is currently playing professionally in Denmark — became the first NESCAC and New England Div. III player to pass for over

500 yards and was awarded the prestigious Golden Helmet Award for his efforts.

Vanessa Miller, guard, women’s basketball: Arguably the hardest-working player in the senior class, 5-foot-2-inch Vanessa Miller has won back-to-back NESCAC defensive player of the year awards with little more than hustle, smarts and speed. While she often ceded the spotlight to fellow graduating senior Colleen Hart, her performances were just as vital to the Jumbos’ three consecutive NCAA tournament appearances from 2008-10. She also proved herself to be an adept scorer this winter, putting up 16- and 17-point performances while Hart was sidelined with an injury.

Amanda Roberts, midfielder, field hockey: Roberts is the glue that held together the field hockey squad over the past few years. The three-time All-NESCAC midfielder, including a first-team selection this past fall, doesn’t rack up the stats like her teammate graduating senior Tamara Brown, but is an essential part of Tufts’ transition game. Roberts has the rare ability to quickly bring the ball from

the defensive end into the attacking zone, weaving through the opposition using her athleticism and stick skills to get the ball to the scorers up front. She also plugs up the midfield along with fellow graduating senior AllNESCAC midfielder Jess Perkins to alleviate pressure on the defense. Roberts’ dominating presence is unmatched and certainly one of the greatest in Tufts field hockey history.

Sarah Nolet, soccer, basketball, track: Many athletes here impress us day in and day out with their dedication to their sport, but none as much as Nolet, who competes for Tufts in three different sports. In the fall, she was the soccer team’s co-captain, a three-time first-team All-NESCAC, a second-team AllAmerican center back, and the heart of one of the nation’s best defenses and the NESCAC’s regular season champions. In the winter, she was a key role player for the basketball team, coming off the bench as the team’s tallest player at 6 feet tall to help defend opposing forwards. And in the spring, she took to the track where she competed in everything from the 200-meter to the discus to the high jump.

The Tufts Daily

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Sports

Commencement 2011

Raising the bar: Class of 2011 graduates as by

Phil Dear and Alex Prewitt Daily Editorial Board

The legacy of the class of 2011 encompasses overarching success across all sports and has helped usher Tufts into the upper echelon of Div. III athletic institutions. Whether the “Best Ever” label can be slapped onto the latest crop of graduating Jumbos is a matter of opinion, but one can certainly make a strong case given the evidence presented.

Athletics Director Bill Gehling is reluctant to speak in extremes, but will readily admit to the class’s contribution to the program’s overall growing status as a national power, as well as the unique talent of this outgoing group. Citing the difficulties of comparing generations with each other, Gehling instead reflected on the steady improvement of all teams at Tufts, including the larger number of squads that have recently achieved success on a national level.

“I think that if you look at the last five or six years or longer, our overall athletic success has been going like this,” Gehling said, waving his hand like an airplane taking off. “Our teams have been getting stronger and stronger and more competitive on a national basis. Clearly there are a lot of reasons for that, but this senior class has an awful lot to do with that evolution.”

Since the class of 2011 arrived on the Hill, Tufts has averaged around an 11th-place showing in the Director’s Cup, a national ranking of schools based on success in all sports. In the 12 years prior to the class of 2011’s matriculation, on the other hand, the Jumbos’ average finish was 38th, a staggering increase that hardly appears coincidental.

According to men’s lacrosse coach Mike Daly (LA ’95), the current senior class represents a changing landscape in Tufts athletics. Daly led the Jumbos to a 20-1 season in 2010, including the team’s first-ever NESCAC Championship and, most notably, Tufts’ first-ever NCAA team

title. Though Daly noted the team’s tremendous internal hunger for success, he believes that part of the fuel came from watching fellow teams and players — like the field hockey team and graduating senior Tamara Brown — prosper over previous years.

“A lot of our success last year was on the confidence of the field hockey team going to the [2008 NCAA] Championship game and knowing that it was possible,” Daly said. “The deep runs of our [women’s] basketball team and softball team making it to the final four [in 2009] … that all certainly is cumulative in what we think about and our guys’ confidence.”

Graduating senior D.J. Hessler, men’s lacrosse’s all-time points and assists leader, agreed with his coach.

“I’m sure back in the day there were some great athletes, but the program as a whole coming together is what makes it so

andrew morgenthaler/tufts daily

Tamara Brown but also from other athletes whom he has grown close with over the past four years. The inter-team support, according to Hessler, has made all the difference in making Tufts athletics one of the top programs in the nation.

38.00 vs. 10.67 1

2

1. Tufts’ average ranking for the Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, an annual ranking comparing the cumulative success of all Div. III schools across all sports, from 1995-96 to 2006-07, the first 17 years that the award existed.

2. Average Director’s Cup ranking over the past three years since the Class of 2011 arrived on the Hill.

special,” Hessler said. “You know, you can have amazing people and amazing teams, but if you don’t have the support around them from the other teams, it doesn’t really work.”

Hessler appreciates not only the support from his teammates

“While [growing support] might be an aftereffect of the athletics programs’ recent success, at the same time I think it fosters success,” Hessler said. “It’s fostering that kind of environment where people expect success and it’s not like we have an OK

athletics department; we have an athletics department that’s incredible and we’re going to win games. If that doesn’t make people excited, then they’re joining the wrong place.”

Perhaps most importantly, the class of 2011 will leave behind a tradition of national achievement, one that longtime baseball coach John Casey says will help motivate and challenge future generations to step up to the same level this current crop of Jumbos has reached.

Success, according to Casey, breeds more success, and that in turn attracts higher levels of recruits to Tufts who will want to surpass the all-time records that various members of the class of 2011 have set and bring Tufts to even higher ground.

“The box don’t get any bigger unless you push against the sides, and they’ve broken it open and said, ‘Listen, you can achieve

Tamara Brown

Julia Browne The list of accolades is staggering. In every sense of the phrase, Julia Browne is the greatest women’s tennis player in Tufts history.

The evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of the graduating senior tri-captain. As a sophomore, Browne burst onto the national scene by winning the ITA New England Region singles championship. Under a month later, she followed it up with an ITA National Small College doubles title with then-junior Meghan McCooey, the first of two times that the pair would win ITAs.

winning every set she played while cruising to the national championship that cemented her status as the country’s best Div. III women’s tennis player. Beginning

this summer, Browne will try her hand at professional tennis, but will surely graduate Tufts with a legacy of unparalleled success.

3

Number of NESCAC Player of the Year awards Julia Browne has won over her four-year career.

At press time, Browne had an 90-20 career singles record, helping the Jumbos reach an all-time-high No. 5 national ranking this season. Along the way, Browne won three NESCAC Player of the Year awards and was named an AllAmerican three times for doubles and twice for singles. Perhaps more notably, Browne has climbed to the top with unmatched hard work and sportsmanship, as evidenced by the 2011 Senior Sportswoman of the Year honor as well as the Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship that she was given at the 2010 U.S. Open.

The pinnacle of her career came last spring when, as a junior, Browne dominated the field in Fredericksburg, Va.,

great things here’” Casey said.

“And now people come here thinking that they can be the national champion in tennis because [graduating senior] Julia [Browne] did it. Every team’s sitting there thinking that they can win the national championship because lacrosse did it.”

Regardless of whether the class of 2011 can be named the best in Tufts history — and, given the overwhelming evidence, arguing the contrary would be difficult — members of this outgoing class have brought the Jumbos into a new realm that is accompanied by higher levels of expectation.

“What was acceptable four years ago would be considered a total disappointment of a season now,” Brown, field hockey’s alltime leader in points and goals, said. “Now that the bar’s been raised, everyone’s going to be doing what they need to do to raise it again or meet it.”

Graduating senior Tamara Brown’s legacy was cemented after she led the field hockey team in scoring in 2008, her sophomore year, and brought the team within one goal of a national championship. That season, she broke the Tufts single-season scoring record with 28 goals. And she was just getting started.

Brown has been named NESCAC Field Hockey’s Player of the Year in two consecutive seasons, 2009 and 2010, leading the conference in scoring in both seasons. The all-time leading scorer in Tufts history, she has aggregated 78 goals and 26 assists for 182 points in her impressive career — and that includes her injury-plagued freshman year, during which she scored only five goals and had a single assist. Twenty-one of her goals have been game-winners, a testament to her ability to perform at the most critical times.

79

Career-point differential between Tamara Brown and Michelle Kelly (LA ‘09), who ranks second all-time with 103. The difference is so staggering, it alone would place Brown in a tie for fourth all-time on the career points list.

virginia bledsoe/tufts daily

Julia Browne

During Brown’s four years, the field hockey squad went an impressive 65-12. The Jumbos made it to their first ever National Championship Game in 2008 and won their first NESCAC title in 2009 with Brown in full force. With three straight appearances in the NCAA tournament to prove it, this team is headed in a winning direction, and Brown has played the biggest role in establishing this trend over the past four years.

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

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Sports

arguably the greatest class of Tufts athletes Colleen Hart

D.J. Hessler

For a 5-foot-4-inch guard, graduating senior Colleen Hart has put up some towering numbers throughout her time at Tufts.

Armed with a deadly accurate jump shot and lightning-quick speed, Hart graduates today as the most prolific scorer in women’s basketball history and quite possibly the school’s greatest player.

Over the course of an illustrious four-year career under coach Carla Berube, Hart started nearly 100 consecutive games, racking up 1,422 points, tops in program history. She also hit a staggering 231 3-pointers, 92 more than any other Jumbo, and shot an unbelievable .410 from beyond the arc. For all her scoring prowess, Hart also served as Tufts’ point guard for the past four seasons and currently ranks second all-time on the career assists list with 343 — an all-time mark that, had she not gotten hurt and missed seven games this past season, would likely have belonged to her as well.

All-NESCAC three times after being selected as the 2007-08 Rookie of the Year and AllNESCAC Second Team. She has also led the conference in scoring for the past two seasons and finished in the top 20 in her fresh-

man and sophomore years. As a junior, Hart broke the program’s career 3-pointers record and was named a D3hoops.com fourth-team All-American. She also holds the all-time record for free throw percentage (79.9).

.859

Winning percentage for the men’s lacrosse team in the past three years, as of press time, with Hessler at the helm.

96

Consecutive starts for Colleen Hart over her illustrious four-year career with the Jumbos. Since the 2007-08 season, Hart has started 94 percent of Tufts’ games and only nearly missed out on reaching the century mark when she got hurt earlier this season.

Under the leadership of the two-time captain, the Jumbos made three consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances — their first three ever — from 2007-08 to 2009-10. Hart has accumulated a .863 winning percentage in four seasons; for comparison, in the 35 seasons before Hart planted her flag on the Hill, the Jumbos had a .569 winning percentage.

Along the way, Hart was a four-time AllRegion player and was named first-team Besides our Fantastic Four, many more star athletes graduate today as part of a class that has set a new standard for Tufts athletics. Below are a few of those graduating seniors who will leave behind impressive legacies from their time in brown and blue: Ryan Molloy, attackman, men’s lacrosse: Molloy has been the left jab to fellow graduating senior attackman D.J. Hessler’s right hook from the moment the incredible duo stepped onto Bello Field — they thrive off each other. While Hessler has led the NESCAC in scoring over the past three seasons, Molloy has been right there with him: As of the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Molloy had scored 131 goals and 75 assists in his career. In 2009, he ranked fifth in the conference with 62 points.

Last season, he ranked second with 65, and so far this season he has 58; he was named to the All-NESCAC team earlier this spring.

Molloy doesn’t buckle under pressure, either. He scored in last season’s NCAA Championship game and most recently helped the Jumbos to a third-consecutive appearance in the NESCAC title game by scoring a game-winning goal with just 0.4 seconds remaining to oust Bowdoin.

Molloy’s mark on this program has been tremendous, and as one of the top-ranking scorers in Tufts history, he will certainly be hard to replace.

Tom Derosa, forward, ice hockey: In what turned out to be a mostly disappointing season for the hockey team, Derosa’s performance was anything but. The quad-captain, Charlestown, Mass., native capped off his fine Tufts career with arguably his best-ever campaign, finishing fifth in the conference in total points and second in points per game. Derosa racked up 21 assists on the year, including two critical third-period setups in the team’s 6-5 victory over the University of New England on Feb. 11, a win that broke

The stats tell the story: D.J. Hessler is exceptional around the crease.

The graduating senior quad-captain of the men’s lacrosse team, as of press time, has accrued 136 goals and 171 assists for 307 points in his historic career. He has led the NESCAC in scoring the last three seasons and was a mere six points off the lead in his freshman campaign. His exceptional field vision helps him find even the most inconspicuous cutters and drive opposing defenses insane.

He is Tufts’ all-time leading scorer.

virginia bledsoe/tufts daily

Colleen Hart

Tufts’ 12-game losing streak.

Derosa, who transferred from Merrimack College after his freshman year, also made program history in the process: He is the first Tufts player to be a three-time member of the All-Conference team since the beginning of the NESCAC era in 2001. Unquestionably, Derosa’s production will be sorely missed by the team, but the graduating senior can look back with pride on a hockey career that was surely one of Tufts’ finest.

Dawson Joyce-Mendive and Caitlin Updike, outside hitters, volleyball: Updike and Joyce-Mendive leave behind an unmatched legacy of offensive dominance, which includes a landmark season in 2009, when the volleyball team won the New England Regional to advance to the National Quarterfinals for the first time in school history. That season, set up by Tufts’ all-time assists leader Dena Feiger (LA ’10), Updike and Joyce-Mendive fueled an offense with the most kills in the NESCAC. The pair of outside hitters were both in the top eight in the conference in kills per game, and put fear in the hearts of every NESCAC opponent.

Right before this season started, in August, Joyce-Mendive suffered a season-ending ACL tear, but stayed with the team as a manager as the Jumbos made their thirdstraight NCAA appearance. Updike, even while fighting through a fractured ankle, still managed to lead the NESCAC with 421 kills even as opposing teams game-planned against her.

Izzie Santone, pitcher, softball: The softball team’s run to the 2009 College World Series may never have been possible without the emergence of Izzie Santone as the squad’s ace. Only a sophomore at the time, she finished the year 21-2 with a 1.13 ERA while starting five of the team’s eight NCAA tournament games. She has continued to impress since, putting together a 10-4 record with a

2.34 ERA in her final season, and has also been integral to the development of the next generation of young Tufts pitchers, including rising juniors Rebecca DiBiase and Aly Moskowitz.

A Perfect Ten, the baseball team’s seniors: Before the largest class in Tufts baseball history ever stepped onto Huskins Field, the Jumbos had won only a single NESCAC title. The 10 graduating seniors on coach John Casey’s squad changed that number, and quickly. The class of 2011 has now won two consecutive conference championships, including a 34-7 2010 season that set program records for hits, runs, RBIs, strikeouts and wins.

All told, the class of 2011 has combined for five All-NESCAC selections, a Rookie of the Year Award, two conference titles and Tufts’ first two appearances in the NCAA

After leading all scorers with a goal and four assists, Hessler was named Most Valuable Player of the 2010 NCAA Div. III Championship game, in which the Jumbos dismantled powerhouse Salisbury 9-6 to win Tufts’ first-ever NCAA team title.

As if the slew of NESCAC and All-American honors weren’t enough, Hessler was named a nominee for the prestigious Tewaaraton award — similar to football’s Heisman Trophy, which is given to the nation’s top collegiate lacrosse player. Hessler was the only Div. III player in both the men’s and women’s nominee groups.

No Div. III player has ever won the award.

Hessler, though, is focused on the program more than himself, which is the biggest reason why he has helped create a legacy of success in Medford.

“It’s an honor to be nominated,” he said of the Tewaaraton award, “but I’d much rather see this team win a second national championship.”

Arguably the most successful athlete in Tufts history, a second national title just might seal the deal.

Tournament since 2002. On an individual level, the 10 seniors will arguably go down as the greatest overall class ever, thanks to Jumbos like Dave LeResche (two-time captain; top-10 all-time in hits, runs and stolen bases); Chase Rose (second alltime in RBIs, NESCAC Rookie of the Year); Ian Goldberg (third all-time in triples); and David Orlowitz (2011 team leader in batting average, runs, home runs, triples and OPS), as well as pitchers Derek Miller (first all-time in win percentage); Pat O’Donnell (top 10 all-time in strikeouts); and Ed Bernstein (lowest single-season ERA ever).

Megan Kono, women’s swimming: One of the most decorated swimmers in Tufts history, Kono will graduate this spring holding records in a bevy of freestyle events. Kono has excelled in both short sprints and marathon swims, topping Maureen

Monahan’s (LA ’91, SMFA ’93) marks in the 200- and 500-yard free, and shattering the 1,000- and 1,650-yard free records by six and 19 seconds, respectively.

The La Grange, Ill., native served as a tri-captain for the team this spring, consistently providing leadership both from the deck and in the pool. Kono’s freestyle dominance fueled many of the Jumbos’ victories, including their third-place finish at the NESCAC Championships.

Stephanie McNamara and Amy Wilfert, women’s track and cross country: The cross country team suffered a staggering blow last fall when standout runner McNamara sustained a season-ending injury.

But even though the ailment cut short her Tufts career, McNamara will leave an impressive legacy see LEGACIES, page 35

virginia bledsoe/tufts daily

D.J. Hessler

The Tufts Daily

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Sports

Commencement 2011

Fall and Winter Sports Recaps Men’s Cross Country The men’s cross country team boasted a deep, talented young squad this fall. The early season was highlighted by a tie for first place out of 19 teams at the Conn. College Invitational on Oct. 16. At the NESCAC Championships in late October, the Jumbos took third as rising junior Matt Rand earned AllNESCAC honors. After Rand came the tightest pack in Tufts history, with a mere 16 seconds separating the team’s second and seventh man. Tufts was the only squad to have nine runners in the top 50. The next weekend, the squad’s depth was on display once again with its second group of seven athletes finishing fourth out of 44 teams at the ECAC Championship.

At the New England Div. III Championships, the Jumbos took home eighth, a finish that dashed their hopes of earning a team bid to the NCAA Championships. With such parity across the region, the eighth-place finish was just 17 points out of fourth place — the final spot that would have earned the team a bid to nationals.

Rand and rising junior Kyle Marks led the squad at regionals, both earning All-Region honors. Marks was one of seven competitors from New England to earn an individual NCAA berth, and the following weekend he took 64th at the national race. With only one junior and one senior on its regionals squad of seven, a young team will return more experienced next year to try to top a strong 2010 season.

Women’s Cross Country Starting the season off with a little uncertainty, the women’s cross country team was able to pull things together down the stretch. The team’s top returner, graduating senior co-captain Amy Wilfert missed much of training during the summer due to hamstring problems, and her ability to compete at a high level was questionable. As the championship season came around, however, Wilfert found her old form and led the Jumbos to a fifth-place finish at the NESCAC Championships

resented the Jumbos individually at NCAAs, where she placed 50th.

Rising senior Anya Price was the team’s second-best runner for most of the season and fought back from a tough race at NESCACs to earn AllRegion honors at the Regional meet.

Rising junior Lilly Fisher had a breakout year and was often on Price’s heels.

Her rise, along with those of rising sophomore standouts Lauren Creath, Laura Peterson and Abby Barker, provided a spark for the team, as well as a great foundation to build upon for several years to come.

Men’s Soccer The Jumbos’ first season under new head coach Josh Shapiro saw marked improvement on the 2009 campaign.

Tufts lost in the NESCAC quarterfinals to Middlebury, 3-0, capping off a 5-8-2 overall record and a 3-4-2 record in NESCAC play, good for sixth in the conference.

Notable wins included a gripping 2-1 victory over Bates in front of a raucous Homecoming crowd and a 1-0 doubleovertime victory at Conn. College, in which graduating senior quad-captain midfielder Ron Coleman’s header, with just under three minutes remaining in the second overtime period, all but clinched a postseason berth. In the Homecoming affair against the Bobcats, graduating senior forward Ben Green’s brilliant free kick in the 71st minute put Tufts on top for their first Homecoming victory since 2006.

The Jumbos were 1-3-2 in six overtime contests, four of which went to double overtime.

Green led Tufts in scoring with four goals and two assists, which earned him 10 points. Rising junior forward Franco Silva netted three goals for the Jumbos, while rising senior goalie Alan Bernstein, in his first season as a starter, made a number of miraculous saves and held opponents to a .93 goalsagainst average.

Women’s Soccer

Defense didn’t win championships for the women’s soccer team this past fall, but it did earn the Jumbos their first NESCAC regular-season title since 2005. On the strength of nine shutouts, including eight in their last nine games, Tufts dropped just one match in NESCAC play and finished with 20 points, three points ahead of national quarterfinalist Williams.

But the Jumbos’ offensive struggles finally caught up with them in the NESCAC Tournament, as Bates held them to a scoreless draw through 120 minutes. In penalties, each team made two of their first four before the Bobcats slotted home the winner.

The final chance went to rising senior midfielder Alix Michael, whose attempt was Anthony Fucillo stopped, ending the quarterback team’s season.

Despite the premature exit, the Jumbos still had plenty to be proud of and an eighth- this season. Their defense, led by gradplace finish at uating senior co-captain center backs the New England Sarah Nolet and Carrie Wilson, finished ninth in the country in goals against, Regional meet.

Wilfert’s lead- allowing only .43 per game. On the ership, combined attacking end, rising senior Jamie Lovewith the rise of a tal- Nichols and rising sophomore Maeve ented core of under- Stewart each had four goals on the classmen, carried the year, with Love-Nichols chipping in two Jumbos to a success- assists while Michael pulled the strings ful season. While the from the midfield, finishing with three team was unable to goals and an assist. qualify for the NCAA Championships, the Football young runners give the team great opti- In the debut season of the footmism for the future. rep- ball team’s high-powered, no-huddle

spread offense, the Jumbos overhauled Volleyball the record book, shattering numerous program, NESCAC and New England The women’s volleyball season marks. Unfortunately for Tufts, started with high expectations, the excitement ended especially after the squad there. Despite leading earned the No. 1 seed in last six of eight games at year’s NESCAC Tournament halftime, the team and advanced to the nationsuffered its first 1-7 al quarterfinals for the first time season since 1996, in school history. But the Jumbos were winding up in the struck a crushing blow early in the conference cellar season when graduating senior despite boasting quad-captain Dawson Joycea pass offense that, Mendive, an outside hitter on Oct. 30, 2010, at who was named an AllAmherst, racked up American Honorable 671 yards of total Mention as a sophooffense. more, was lost for the In that game, season with an ACL graduating senior injury.

Anthony Fucillo Despite the became the first adversity, the quarterback to eclipse team started the 500-yard passing the season at a mark in New England blistering pace, Div. III history, and currattling off wins in rently holds program 14 out of 15 games records for single-season from Sept. 11 to passing yards (2,475), comOct. 6. The squad pletions (215) and passing was unquestiontouchdowns (16), as well as ably led by gradutotal offense (2,598). But after ating senior quadwinning the season-opener against captain Caitlin Hamilton, 21-10, Tufts dropped Updike, who led seven straight, including a 21-20 the NESCAC with 421 decision on Homecoming to Bates, kills and was named which snapped a 24-year winning to the AVCA Allstreak against the Bobcats.

American team as At the end of the season, an honorable menlongtime coach Bill Samko tion, as well as the announced his departure All-New England from the program after just First Team. one winning record in the Other key conpast seven seasons. Former tributors were offensive coordinator Jay rising senior Melissa Burke Civetti took over as the libero Audrey forward interim head coach, Kuan, who is and inherits a also an online young squad editor for that includes the Daily, All-NESCAC and rising selections Sam junior setDiss, a rising junior ter Kendall cornerback, and rising senior Lord, who were linebacker Ferras Albitar. Graduating both named to the Allsenior quad-captain running back Pat NESCAC team along with Updike.

Bailey also earned Second Team All- The Jumbos made a run to the finals NESCAC honors after leading the con- of the NESCAC tournament as the No. ference in receptions.

4 seed before losing to Middlebury, and then earned a surprising NCAA at-large bid. Although they were knocked out in Field Hockey the first round by Springfield College, The field hockey team had another the squad can look back with pride on impressive run into the post-season in a season in which they fought through the fall. The Jumbos finished No. 6 in rough stretches to still reach the national the nation at 15-3 and took home the tournament.

NESCAC regular season title. Yet two of the team’s three losses came in the last Men’s Basketball two games of their season: the NESCAC Championship game against eventual The resurgence of the men’s basketnational champion Bowdoin and the ball team proved to be the story of the second round of the NCAA Tournament winter in Tufts athletics. Finishing at against Middlebury. Those defeats 13-12 as the NESCAC No. 5 seed, the marked a bitter end to a campaign Jumbos posted the first winning season that started with nine straight victories and earned the first conference playand had fans whispering of a poten- off seed of any of the current players’ tial first-ever national championship. careers. Nonetheless, Trinity dashed the Still, the disappointment should not team’s hopes of a Cinderella finish to the detract from a team that brought Tufts season, posting a definitive 70-47 victory a plethora of honors and confirmed the over Tufts in the NESCAC Quarterfinals.

Jumbos’ presence as a powerhouse in Despite the disappointing tournathe Div. III field hockey world. ment loss, the 2010-11 campaign overall Graduating senior forward Tamara marked a turning point for a rebuildBrown took home NESCAC Player of ing program. As tri-captains, graduating the Year for a second consecutive sea- seniors Matt Galvin and Sam Mason, as son along with first-team All-American well as rising senior James Long, cultihonors and will graduate as the pro- vated a new team atmosphere that holds gram’s all-time leading scorer. Brown promise for the future. finished her final season with an aver- “I’m proud of the team and what we age of 1.33 goals per game — good for were able to accomplish this year with so fifth in Div. III — and will be sorely many people thinking we weren’t going to missed on the Jumbos’ front line. be any good again,” Mason told the Daily In the backfield, rising senior defend- in late February. “This year we were just er Taylor Dyer took home NESCAC barely above .500, but it’s a good founDefensive Player of the Year honors and dation. I think Galvin and I established joined Brown on the All-America First a good attitude and work ethic moving Team. Dyer led the division’s fifth-best forward for the rest of the guys.” defense, which posted 10 shutouts and The team has a lot to look forward averaged just .72 goals against. to next year. The Jumbos will return Overall, the team’s entire graduating all their top performers, including this class of 2011 will leave big holes in next year’s top four scorers, and welcome season’s roster. The team says good- an impressive recruiting class that bye to four starters in co-captain and includes Vermont’s “Mr. Basketball,” second-team All-American midfielder Ben Ferris. It seems the years of being Amanda Roberts, co-captain midfielder dominated by the rest of the NESCAC and All-Region selection Jess Perkins, are over, and Tufts is in prime position forward Melissa Burke and midfielder to climb even further up the conferTess Guttadauro. ence ladder next winter.

The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011 Women’s Basketball Led by one of the strongest senior classes in program history, the Jumbos entered 2010-11 primed for a successful run. But a series of crippling injuries took their toll on the squad and led to a disappointing NESCAC quarterfinal exit.

Tufts began the season by winning 10 of its first 11 games, led by graduating senior cocaptain Colleen Hart and strong starts from rising sophomores Liz Moynihan and Ali Rocchi. But in the closing minutes of a 62-49 win over Bowdoin on Jan. 21, Hart suffered an injury that kept her out for nearly two weeks.

During that period, graduating senior Vanessa Miller and rising senior Collier Clegg stepped up to fill the void — each earning NESCAC Player of the Week honors in the process — but the team dropped three of six and plummeted down the conference standings, forced to settle for a fifth-place finish in the regular season.

This led to a matchup with Williams, which came back from eight down with under five minutes to play to knock out Tufts in overtime.

Hart finished her career as the program’s all-time leading scorer while earning first-team All-NESCAC accolades for the third straight season. Miller was named the NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.

Ice Hockey Though the men’s hockey team came out of the gates with a 4-2-1 start to the season, from there the wheels came off, as the Jumbos endured a 12-game losing streak and continued to have difficulties against NESCAC opponents. Tufts did have one particularly notable crowning achievement, however: a 3-0 victory over conference power Middlebury Panthers in the season opener, which marked a first for the team’s graduating seniors.

Throughout the difficult season, those seniors demonstrated their leadership, and their patience, at the helm of a young squad. With 11 goals and 21 assists, graduating senior quad-captain forward Tom Derosa led the Jumbos in points for his third straight year.

Additionally, the Jumbos’ youngest players showed promise, hinting at a successful future for coach Brian Murphy’s squad. Kyle Gallegos, a rising sophomore forward from Colorado, led the team in goals with 15 and finished second in scoring. The Jumbos will look to him as a spark plug and a playmaker in future seasons.

The Jumbos suffered a key loss early when rising senior goalkeeper Scott Barchard, a quad-captain and Div. III All-American, injured his ankle in a Nov. 27, 3-3 tie against Brockport.

Classmate Evin Koleini filled in for the remainder of the season, finishing with a .887 save percentage and gaining valuable in-game experience.

Men’s Squash The men’s squash team, plagued by the graduation of more than half of its starters from a year ago, suffered through one of its worst seasons since coach Doug Eng took control of the

program 15 years ago. The No. 27 Jumbos finished the 2010-11 campaign 9-16 overall and just 1-6 in NESCAC play, including three

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Sports

divers to Tennessee for Nationals, where all seven earned All-American honors.

Rising sophomore diver Johann Schmidt emerged as a star, winning the 1-meter and 3-meter dives at NESCACs. Schmidt also placed sixth in the 3-meter competition at NCAAs to snag All-American honors. Meanwhile, graduating senior Trevor Stack received the four-year high-point award for diving at NESCACs. Several swimmers set Tufts records, including the 400-yard freestyle relay team of rising juniors Owen Rood and E.J. Testa and graduating seniors Zed Debbaut and Michael Del Moro; Testa in the 50-yard backstroke; and Del Moro, who is also a news editor for the Daily, in the 100-yard backstroke.

The Jumbos won five of eight headto-head meets, beating Bates, Conn.

College, Middlebury, Wesleyan and Wheaton, as well as placing third out of six teams at the MIT Invitational.

Women’s Swimming and Diving

Dylan Cooper forward consecutive losses in the NESCAC Tournament.

D espite its goal of remaining in the Collegiate Squash Association (CSA) C-division, Tufts fell into the D-division at the CSA Team Championships on Feb. 25. In their final match of the tournament, the Jumbos knocked off No. 29 Georgetown, 5-4, to secure third place in one of the team’s most exciting and competitive matches of the season.

Another highlight for Tufts was the play of graduating senior captain Alex Gross, who has held the team’s No. 1 spot for the past three seasons. Gross finished his illustrious collegiate career with 45 individual wins and ended his stint at Tufts with a 1-2 performance at the CSA Individual Championships on March 4.

Women’s Squash The women’s squash team ended its season on a high note with two consecutive upset wins in the Epps Cup D-division of the Walker Cup, finishing 21st overall in the tournament. To end the season, Tufts beat Colby after losing to the Mules twice earlier in the season on Jan. 28 and Feb. 5. Rising senior Alix Michael at the No. 1 spot on the ladder was key to the tournament victory, managing to win a close five-game match against Colby’s Kate Pistel after previously falling to her in three games in both January and February. Tufts showed further improvement towards the end of the season when they beat Vassar after losing the two teams’ first meeting 6-3 in February.

The Jumbos’ only other NESCAC wins came twice 6-3 against Conn.

College. Tufts also plowed through Boston area opponents Boston College and Northeastern with 7-2 and 9-0 victories, respectively.

Graduating senior co-captain Valerie Koo and rising senior co-captain Mercedes Barba led the team to a No. 24 ranking and an overall season record of 9-14. Koo was a major player and leader for the team, and ultimately earned NESCAC All-Conference second-team honors for a second consecutive season. She won ten matches this season all at the No. 2 spot on the ladder, and is one of just six players in the NESCAC to be a repeat All-Conference selection.

Men’s Swimming and Diving The men’s swimming and diving team placed third at the NESCAC Championships and 20th at NCAAs to cap a successful 2010-11 season. The Jumbos cracked the top three at the conference meet for the sixth straight season and sent seven swimmers and

The women’s swimming and diving team set a goal of finishing third at the NESCAC Championships. After a season marked by numerous personal records and impressive performances, the Jumbos did just that.

Graduating senior tri-captain Megan Kono enjoyed many of the team’s best individual efforts, including a school-record time of 1:54 in the 200yard freestyle at the Div. III National Championships. Kono also excelled in long-distance freestyle races throughout the season, winning three events at a dual meet against Wheaton to secure NESCAC Performer of the Week honors on Jan. 31.

A strong group of freshmen also helped the Jumbos earn a 4-4 record in their meets. Rising sophomore Sami Bloom was terrific off the diving board, consistently placing in the top spots in both the 1and 3-meter events.

Meanwhile, rising sophomore Jenny Hu had a strong campaign in the breaststroke, including two top-three finishes at the NESCAC championships.

In perhaps the most exciting race of the winter — the 400-yard medley relay against Wheaton in the final meet of the season at Hamilton Pool — rising senior Courtney Adams swam an outstanding freestyle leg, propelling the Jumbos to a thrilling come-from-behind victory.

Men’s Indoor and Field

Track

The men’s indoor track and field team took fifth at the New England Div. III Championships, a downgrade from a third-place finish in 2010.

After losing some big contributors to graduation last spring, the majority of points scored for the Jumbos at the regional meet were by freshmen or sophomores, showing the incredible young talent on the squad.

At the All-New England Championships in late February, rising junior Jeff Marvel and rising senior Connor Rose both shattered the 17-year-old 800-meter record — Marvel in 1:52.12 and Rose in 1:52.44. Both marks were good enough to send the two to NCAAs in the 800-meter, where Rose’s and Marvel’s times in the preliminaries were 10th and 12th, respectively, just short of moving on to the finals. Rose is also a senior staff writer for the Daily.

The Jumbos’ Distance Medley Relay (DMR) also had an impressive showing indoors at Boston University’s Valentine Invitational. The foursome of rising sophomores Jamie Norton and Graham Beutler and rising juniors Marvel and Sam Haney ranked 15th nationally and narrowly missed earning an NCAA bid. The young squad carried its training into the spring, looking to improve on its times during the outdoor season.

Women’s Indoor Track and Field Throughout the winter, the women’s track and field team focused on improving every week they competed. The Jumbos were able to do just that, saving their best performances for the championship season. As a team, the women finished third at the Div. III New England Championships and second at the ECAC Championships.

The Jumbos were able to send seven individual athletes to the NCAA Championships in Ohio, many of whom excelled on the national stage. Rising senior Nakeisha Jones finished sixth in the triple jump at NCAAs, earning the lone All-American honor for the Jumbos.

The Distance Medley Relay (DMR) had an excellent showing at ECACs, where they ran an 11:52.87, qualifying them for NCAAs. The team of rising sophomores Laura Peterson and Jana Hieber and graduating seniors Kaylee Maykranz and Amy Wilfert had a ninth-place championship finish, less than five seconds shy of AllAmerican honors. Wilfert also ran a 4:55.80 in the mile to qualify her individually and finished 10th in the preliminaries of the mile at NCAAs. Rising seniors Dayorsha Collins and Heather Theiss also represented the Jumbos at NCAAs. Collins finished 15th in the high jump and Theiss finished 14th in the pole vault.

Fencing Under first-year head coach Ariana Klinkov, the women’s fencing team had a tumultuous season that culminated in five individual berths to the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships.

After sending four fencers to the Northeast Regional Championships in 2010, the Jumbos have something to boast about once again in 2011 as two fencers, including rising sophomore standout Julia Hisey, placed in the top 20 in New England. In addition to Hisey’s 19th-place finish in the women’s sabre competition, the women’s fencing team sent rising junior Abigail Hepworth, rising senior Sarah Danly and graduating senior captains Georgia Ranes and Coryn Wolk to the competition. Ranes was the only other Jumbo to crack the top 20, placing 17th in the women’s epee competition.

Although the team ended the season with a losing record overall, the wins and losses don’t entirely reflect the progress made throughout the season. After starting out with some close losses early on, the team put together a string of impressive wins to close out the season, defeating Queens College, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Fairleigh Dickinson University the weekend before Regionals.

Vanessa Miller guard Compiled by Lauren Flament, Claire Kemp, Kate Klots, Alex Lach, Aaron leibowitz, david mcintyre, alex prewitt, daniel rathman, connor rose, ann sloan, ethan sturm and nick woolf photos by alex dennett/tufts daily and virginia bledsoe/tufts daily design by emily rourke and steven smith

The Tufts Daily

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TOP 10

Sports

Commencement 2011

moments in Tufts athletics, 2010-11

virginia bledsoe/tufts daily

In a 2010-11 season that saw two Tufts teams defend NESCAC championships and many others pull upsets, hit game-winners and redefine the record books, the Daily sends off what is arguably the greatest athletics class of Jumbos ever by remembering the top 10 moments of the year.

10. Fucillo, Jumbos light up the sky against Amherst: In the ultimate showcase of the football team’s new spread offense, Anthony Fucillo — who graduated early, in December — shattered the record books at Amherst on Oct. 30 by racking up 503 passing yards against the Lord Jeffs.

Of those yards, 203 came through the air to rising junior Dylan Haas.

Though the Jumbos ended up losing the game by what seemed like a basketball score — 70-49, the most points scored in a NESCAC game ever — Tufts’ 671 yards of total offense showed the potential of the team’s new no-huddle, high-powered attack.

9. Men’s basketball makes it back: On Senior Day, in front of a crowd of at least 500, the men’s basketball team gutted out a 66-62 win over Bates. The victory clinched the Jumbos the No. 5 seed in the NESCAC tournament as rising junior forward Scott Anderson and rising senior forward Alex Orchowski pulled down rebound after rebound to seal the game. Though Tufts was dismantled in the first round of the conference tournament by No. 4 seed Trinity, the efforts on that day, from a team that will return all five starters next season, ensured the Jumbos’ relevance in the NESCAC.

scored the decisive goal off an assist from classmate Melissa Burke with 15 minutes left in the first half, and the Jumbos continued to cool off the Polar Bear attack for a momentous win, giving up only three shots to Bowdoin all game. Even though the Polar Bears would ultimately go on to best the Jumbos 3-0 in the NESCAC Championship Game, the victory was still a landmark for the impressive Tufts field hockey program.

7. Men’s lacrosse puts down Mustangs in No. 1-No. 2 battle: In an early-season non-conference game that was delayed until 9:45 amid thunderstorms in the Baltimore area, then-No. 1 Tufts bested then-No. 2 Stevenson 14-13 in an electric affair. The game was originally slated for a 4 p.m start at Stevenson University, but was played at nearby Towson University instead, where rising senior Steven Foglietta had 24 saves under the lights and the Tufts defense weathered a 76-shot onslaught to escape with a hard-earned win over one of the nation’s best teams.

6. Ice hockey nets historic win against Middlebury: Entering this season, the last time the ice

hockey team beat Middlebury was when Dwight Eisenhower was president, and many of the current players’ parents had not even been born. But all of that changed with a remarkable 3-0 shutout on Nov. 19 at Kenyon Arena. Rising senior goaltender Scott Barchard keyed the victory for the Jumbos, saving all 29 of the Panthers shots. Graduating seniors Zach Diaco and Dylan Cooper put the Jumbos ahead 2-0, and rising sophomore Garrett Sider sealed the deal with an empty netter in the waning minutes. With the victory, Tufts is undefeated against Middlebury over the past two seasons and is slowly improving its overall mark against the Panthers, which now stands at 2-16-3.

5. Hessler enters the record books … again: At 11:38 in the third quarter of an otherwise pedestrian drubbing of Lasell College in Newton, Mass., on March 15, graduating senior attackman D.J. Hessler put in a goal off an assist from rising junior attackman Andrew Fiamengo to make the score 13-4. But what may have not been a big goal in the context of the game had a huge impact on the lacrosse record books, as the goal was the 236th

8. Field hockey ices Polar Bears for top seed: In a titanic regularseason finale for both teams, the field hockey team eked out a 1-0 victory over rival Bowdoin on Oct. 29 to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NESCAC Tournament. Graduating senior forward Tamara Brown

virginia bledsoe/tufts daily

point of Hessler’s career, good to pass Bryan Griffin (LA ’05) as the highest scorer in school history and make official what fans, teammates and opponents have known for years: D.J. Hessler is one of the best lacrosse players in the nation.

4. Miner strikes gold with walkoff: The most unlikely of heroes came up huge for the softball team in its season finale on May 1 on Spicer Field against Colby.

Though graduating senior outfielder Kim Miner hit at only a .184 clip this season, it was Miner who came through with a gamewinning hit off the Mules’ Lauren Becker in the bottom of the seventh inning to break a 0-0 pitchers’ duel and clinch a NESCAC East title for the Jumbos. As a result, Tufts earned the right to host the NESCAC Tournament.

3. Hart and soul: With 5:19 left in the second half on a Dec. 11 non-conference tilt with SUNYNew Paltz, graduating senior tricaptain Colleen Hart did what she has done so well throughout her illustrious career at Tufts: She scored. Only this time, after nailing consecutive free throws, Hart moved into first place on the Jumbos’ all-time scoring list,

courtesy amherst athletics

andrew morgenthaler/tufts daily

breaking a 21-year-old record and officially cementing herself atop the record books as Tufts’ most prolific offensive player.

Hart currently has 1,422 career points, 165 ahead of second-place Teresa Allen (LA ‘89), and moved into second place on the all-time assists list this season as well.

2. Double your pleasure, double your fun: A crushed RBI triple from graduating senior centerfielder David Orlowitz followed by an RBI single from rising senior third baseman Sam Sager in the top of 12th inning broke a 2-2 tie to launch Tufts past Bowdoin in the NESCAC Winner’s Bracket game on May 14 — a game that, due to rainstorms the following day, turned out to be the decisive contest in the NESCAC Tournament. Graduating senior Ed Bernstein closed out the Polar Bears in the bottom of the frame to finish a clutch 4 2/3 of work and keep his ERA perfect on the year, and the Jumbos earned their second straight NESCAC title.

1. Re-lax, bro: Fans of the men’s lacrosse team might have needed a defibrillator at times throughout the NESCAC Tournament May 7-8, but the near-heart attack was ultimately worth it for fans on Bello Field, as the Jumbos won their second consecutive NESCAC title thanks to a pair of wild finishes throughout the weekend. In the semifinals against Bowdoin on May 7, graduating senior attackman Ryan Molloy scored with 0.4 seconds left, juking out the Polar Bears goalie just before the final buzzer to give Tufts a 11-10 win.

Just 24 hours later, coach Mike Daly’s squad clinched the conference championship when rising senior attackman Sean Kirwan scored the game-winner in overtime against Middlebury in a 13-12 decision that set off a wild celebration on College Ave. —by the Daily Sports Department

William H. Butt V/tufts daily

Commencement 2011

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Sports

Blau, Monaghan to take on larger roles next season MEN’S TENNIS

continued from page 45

doubles and rising junior Mark Westerfield and rising senior co-captain Morrie Bossen dropping their match 8-4 in No. 2 doubles.

The efforts of graduating senior co-captain Paul Kohnstamm and rising senior Sam Laber in the No. 3 doubles match presented Tufts with its lone victory of the day in a wellfought 8-6 decision.

“We had a tough match in Bowdoin,” Lutz said. “We knew going in we’d have to take at least two doubles to have a shot. However, doubles just didn’t go our way. Kai and I were outmatched at [No.] 1 and our No. 2 guys felt the same way. Paul and Sam were great, but that’s all we got.”

Tufts’ day only became darker as the singles matches started and finished quickly. At No. 1, Victoria fell 6-0, 6-1. In the No. 3 match, rising junior Ben Barad lost 6-1, 6-2. The No. 4 match was the last of the day as rising sophomore Pat Monaghan tumbled 6-1, 6-1.

In the unfinished matches, rising sophomore Austin Blau and Laber both were behind one set while Lutz was up a set.

“With the strength of Bowdoin’s singles players, going down in doubles really hurt us,” Bossen said. “Their players who won quickly are amongst the best at their respective position in all of the NESCAC.” Still, the Jumbos admit that they were not on top of their game.

“Unfortunately, in singles play, Kai, Ben and Pat didn’t have their best days,” Lutz said.

“The score is the score; it doesn’t look pretty, but who knows, if all the matches had been played out it could have been 6-3.”

This offseason, the team’s expectations for itself and its national reputation should soar from recent years. The Jumbos began the season ranked 14th in the Northeast Region and finished sixth. Additionally, Tufts started the year without a national ranking and, having made the NESCAC championship, will likely earn a spot in the final rankings.

Looking back, the team considers this season a great success and stepping stone for the program to move forward.

“It was nice to have that experience and make NESCACs,” Lutz said. “We now know

continued from page 45

found the net twice more but lost, 13-7, to end their season.

WOMEN’S LACROSSE POSTSEASON AWARDS A Lara Kozin (’12) First Team All-NESCAC M Casey Egan (’12) Second Team All-NESCAC M Steph Perez (’12) First Team All-NESCAC

“We weren’t passing well; we couldn’t stop their scheme in the midfield; a lot of people were injured or hurt yesterday — it just really wasn’t our day,” graduating senior defenseman tri-captain Yael Tzipori said.

Attackman Steph Perez and midfielder Casey Egan, both rising seniors, had to sit a few minutes after getting injured early, while Kozin played the entire game after cutting her finger with a bread knife and receiving stitches that morning.

The Jumbos were also mentally unprepared for the Red Dragons’ playing style.

“I think that we were outplayed in terms of aggressiveness,” rising senior midfielder Emily Pillemer said. “They were not only dirtier but were also going for more ‘50-50’ balls. They played a different style of lacrosse than we did, and we didn’t expect that.”

Just three days earlier, Tufts went to Beverly, Mass., to take on Commonwealth Coast Conference champion Endicott, a team the Jumbos had handled 19-10 on Bello Field earlier this season. This time, the stakes were higher and the Gulls had the home-turf advantage, but the result was the same.

Tufts dominated, taking a 10-3 lead into halftime and stretching it to 14-3 in the second. From there, the Jumbos cruised to a 17-6 victory.

“I think we’re just a better-skilled team

Teach your children

I

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

Rising junior Andrew Lutz, here in a match earlier this season, was up one set in his match at No. 1 singles against Bowdoin in the NESCAC tournament when the Polar Bears clinched the overall victory. the level we need to play at to get there and the level we need to play at to win in the tournament.”

“I’m very happy we made it to NESCACs,” Bossen said. “Obviously I’m disappointed how we lost to Bowdoin. However, this should be our baseline goal for next season.”

The loss of graduating seniors Kohnstamm and Tony Carucci will be a tough hole for the Jumbos to fill. However, Bossen expects rising

sophomore standouts Blau and Monaghan to move into a more prominent role at the top of the lineup for next season.

“I think we’ve got some expectations for next season,” Bossen said. “Individually, given their talent, I’m interested to see how our two freshmen improve. As a team, our outlook is very positive. We should get a higher national and regional ranking and return to the NESCAC tourney.”

Five one-goal losses put damper on Jumbos’ season WOMEN’S LACROSSE

Ethan Sturm | Rules of the Game

than Endicott, so we were able to move the ball around them very quickly on attack,” Tzipori said. “On defense, we’re good at stopping drives and that’s pretty much all they do, so I think that was why that worked for us against them.”

Tufts subdued an Endicott offense that entered averaging 15 goals per game by holding the Gulls’ top two scorers — rising senior attackman Morgan DeShaw and rising junior midfielder Holly Davis — to two goals apiece. Meanwhile, rising sophomore attackman Gabby Horner had four goals, Kozin had three goals and five assists and Egan added three goals and three assists for the Jumbos.

In the NESCAC Tournament the previous week, Tufts played two 13-12 thrillers, beating Middlebury on May 1 but falling to then-undefeated Trinity in the semifinals on May 7.

Against Middlebury, Tufts took a 13-10 lead with 3 1/2 minutes left and held off a late surge by the Panthers to win. The Jumbos were outshot 29-22, but graduating senior tri-captain Sara Bloom made 12 huge saves in one of the best performances of her career. Egan, Horner and rising senior attackman Kelly Hyland each scored three goals.

In the semifinal showdown against Trinity, the Jumbos were on the other end of a near-identical scenario, trailing 13-10 with just under three minutes to play. Rising junior attackman Kerry Eaton and Perez scored to cut the deficit to 13-12, but Tufts was unable to muster one more goal in the final two minutes.

The loss ended a wild season of conference play for the Jumbos. They played 11 NESCAC games, including the championship, seven of which were determined by a single goal. Between April 23 and May 7, they played four straight one-goal conference battles.

“All four of our [regular-season] league losses were by one, and it was incredibly disappointing to have that keep happening,” Tzipori said. “I’m not really sure why that kept happening, either. It shows that we are a good team; we can compete with every team in our league; and for

whatever reason it just wasn’t our year in terms of those one-goal games.”

With a 5-4 conference record and an 11-6 overall record, it seemed the Jumbos were on the outside looking in for an NCAA Tournament berth. The day after the NESCAC Semifinal defeat, NCAA. com streamed its Division III Women’s Lacrosse Selection Show to announce the 31-team tournament field.

The only thing the Jumbos could do was cross their fingers.

“We were very surprised,” Tzipori said. “We knew that we had a decent chance because there are so many atlarge bids and we’re a top-20 team ... but we just weren’t sure if it was actually going to happen.”

Pillemer agreed with Tzipori.

“We didn’t expect it, but we knew we deserved it,” Pillemer said.

It was the program’s second tournament appearance; the first was in 2009, when the team, which included 12 members of the current squad, also reached the second round. Five NESCAC schools earned a bid this year.

Despite their victories in the conference and NCAA tournaments, the Jumbos can’t help but wish they had come out on top in more one-goal games this season.

“We had six losses [before NCAAs]; five of them were one-goal games, and we should have won each of them. That’s really demoralizing,” Pillemer said. “I think next year we have to regroup and come back as a team and not lose those one-goal games, because that’s what killed us this year.”

Still, it would be unfair to label as a failure a 12-7 season that included wins in both the NESCAC and NCAA Tournaments.

“I had a satisfying season in terms of just really enjoying being part of that team; it’s an amazing team,” Tzipori said. “Honestly, I think we could have done much better than we did, and I think that the scores of the games we lost show that. It could have been better record-wise than it was, but I still had a great time.”

happened to be home for a couple days over reading period, and my family had the old home videos playing. Between the infinite birthday parties and chorus performances (trust me, I can’t sing now and I couldn’t sing then), we stumbled upon the videos from when I was born. And sure enough, there I was, just two days old, sitting on a hospital bed intently watching the MLB playoffs.

I may only be a sophomore, and all of you graduates are two years ahead of me in this long, strange highereducation journey, but I do have one piece of advice for you, one last rule of sports fandom to impart. As you move on to the real world and eventually start families, it is your job to implant a love of sports in your kids in order to develop another generation of sports fanatics. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (which sounds a bit like a collection of current or future sports hall-of-famers) had it right when they said, “teach your children well.”

Now, I’m sure some sports fans will say that they developed their love of the game themselves, but for every one of those, there are a hundred that were introduced to sports when they were an infant, knew the rules before they could read and could tell you the home city of every team in the league before they could even place the U.S. on a map. These are the ones you’ll find in their dorms all day on a Sunday watching football from morning to midnight.

The ones that are up at 4 a.m. to follow live coverage of the Olympics on a continent on the other side of the planet.

But giving kids a chance at that passion for sports is about more than just teaching them. It’s about creating that special bond between father (or mother, we’re not sexist here) and son (or daughter). Some of my earliest memories were getting to stay up with my dad to watch the 1996 World Series or going to the Little League field to watch him coach, dreaming of some day getting to play for him.

As I’ve grown up, sports remained an important part of our relationship.

A Sunday morning fight is easily remedied by sitting down on the couch to complain about the Giants. At school, I often will call him multiple times a week to discuss the Yankees’ pitching staff or March Madness. Nothing makes me happier than being able to go out with him all summer and umpire baseball games.

Does it define our relationship? Of course not. But it is an important way for us, like any two sports fans, to bond. In the world of sports, there is always something to talk about. News and history are being made every single day, and you never know when the next big thing is about to happen. It’s almost like politics; just without the backroom dealings and labor deals (oh wait …).

But unlike politics, you become bonded to a team, and anyone who shares that bond is a friend, whether you have known them for a day or your entire life. It is for this reason that parent-child sports relationships thrive.

I know I have begun to rant a bit, but I feel as though our nation has reached a crossroads, not just in how people follow sports, but in how intrafamily relationships develop. Today’s average kid would rather play Madden 2050 than throw around the football, would rather learn how to tweet than learn how to throw a curve. This has clearly taken its toll on both our nation’s health and the strength of family.

So as you continue into the real world after today, remember that you are now a teacher, and sports are one of the greatest lessons. That’s my final, and most important, rule of the game.

Ethan Sturm is a rising junior majoring in biopsychology. He can be reached at ethan. sturm@gmail.com.

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Sports

Commencement 2011

Jumbos lose to Panthers twice in five hours to seal fate

SOFTBALL

continued from page 45

said. “We accomplished a lot this year: we earned the right to host the NESCACs, we played into the championship game and we

Final four on the line in rematch with Amherst WOMEN’S TENNIS

SOFTBALL POSTSEASON AWARDS

continued from page 46

pares to take on NESCAC rival Amherst on Tuesday in the national quarterfinals in Claremont, Calif.

1B Lena Cantone (’12) NESCAC Player of the Year

WOMEN’S TENNIS POSTSEASON AWARDS

C Jo Clair (’14) NESCAC Rookie of the Year

Julia Browne (’11) NESCAC Player of the Year

2B Emily Beinecke (’13) First Team All-NESCAC

Shelci Bowman (’14) First Team All-NESCAC, doubles

CF Lizzy Iuppa (’12) Second Team All-NESCAC

Steven Smith/Tufts Daily

Rising senior Lena Cantone’s efforts this season were strong enough to earn her NESCAC Player of the Year honors, but Tufts ultimately fell to Middlebury in the conference title game.

P Izzie Santone (’11) Second Team All-NESCAC just came up a little bit short. Sometimes that just happens.”

It was the second win for the Panthers over the Jumbos, coming less than five hours after they handed Tufts its first loss of the weekend in a game which due to rain spanned two days. Graduating senior Ali McAnaney got the start for Middlebury while it was Santone on the mound for Tufts. The Panthers got on the board in the first and McAnaney held onto the small advantage, scattering five hits in four innings before heavy rains delayed the game to the following day.

Play resumed early Sunday, and graduating senior Nellie Wood, hitting in the nine-spot for Middlebury, opened with a bang, driving the third pitch of the morning far over the centerfield wall. Graduating senior Geena Constantin took over in the circle for the Panthers and was unhittable for three innings, striking out four while allowing no hits and securing her team the victory.

With the Panthers awaiting the victor, the Jumbos and Bantams took to Spicer Field early Sunday afternoon for the loser’s bracket final. The contest was a low-scoring affair.

Trinity starter, graduating senior Kristen

Anderson, was perfect through three innings while Tufts starter, rising junior Rebecca DiBiase, was also strong.

Tufts rising senior co-captain Lena Cantone broke the ice in the fourth frame, connecting on a one-out double to left-center field to drive in Iuppa. It was Cantone’s second RBI of the weekend and gave the Jumbos a 1-0 advantage.

With the Jumbos on top, DiBiase looked poised to secure the advantage, retiring nine Bantams in a row following a one-out single in the fourth. But Trinity finally got to DiBiase in the bottom of the sixth when, with one out and nobody on, rising sophomore Abigail Ostrom launched a solo home run over the left field fence.

The offensive struggles continued for both teams as they were unable to push across any runs in the seventh and eighth innings. The ninth inning seemed to be much of the same but with two outs and nobody on base, the Jumbos caught a break.

Rising sophomore catcher Jo Clair lofted a high fly ball down the right field line that seemed certain to end the inning. But the ball was just far enough away to cause the Bantams’ right fielder trouble, and before

anyone knew what had happened, the ball was dropped and Clair was standing on third base.

A few pitches later, a ball squeaked by the catcher and Clair darted for home. The ball beat her by nearly five feet but the umpire ruled that the pitcher had obstructed the base line without the ball and granted Clair home plate and the Jumbos a 2-1 lead.

DiBiase returned to the mound in the bottom of the frame to shut down the Bantams in order, capping her heroic nine-inning effort.

The one-run, seven-strikeout performance helped advance Tufts to the championship round against Middlebury.

“I definitely felt good about the way I pitched,” DiBiase said. “I’m just happy I was able to help my team win and move on.”

Tufts opened the weekend by defeating ex-Tufts coach Kris Herman and her Williams squad in another close game. Things were all tied up at two in the bottom of sixth when Cantone followed a single from rising senior shortstop Mira Lieman-Sifry by airing a fly ball out to left that just made it over the glove of the Ephs’ left fielder. Lieman-Sifry came around to give her team a lead it never relinquished.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL 2011 GRADUATES! FROM THE OFFICE OF THE UNIVERSITY CHAPLAIN REVEREND DAVID O’LEARY, S. T. L., D.Phil.

UNIVERSITY CHAPLAIN NAILA BALOCH, M.T.S. MUSLIM CHAPLAIN LYNN COOPER, M.Div. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHAPLAIN REV. KERRIE HARTHAN, M.Div., M.Ed. PROTESTANT CHAPLAIN RABBI JEFFREY SUMMIT, Ph.D. JEWISH CHAPLAIN

Lindsay Katz (’13) Second Team All-NESCAC, singles Coach Kate Bayard NESCAC Coach of the Year “The last week of practice has been unbelievable,” Kenney said. “We respect Amherst; they’re a great team, but I like our matchup against them. The girls are well-aware of how close they are. I like our matchup against them.”

For a chance at the semifinals, the Jumbos will have to get by a Lord Jeffs squad that they lost to 5-4 at home on April 19. In that match, Katz went to three sets in a No. 2 singles defeat, and Amherst took two of three doubles to cede control early.

Tufts is no stranger to the perennial national powerhouse. In her four-year career with the Jumbos, Browne has faced Amherst seven times, but has never defeated the Lord Jeffs. Yet if any team is going to make history against Amherst, this year’s just might be the one. “[Amherst] is a team we’ve seen a lot over my four years,” Browne said. “They’re always in the Elite Eight. We’re going to practice as hard as we can to get ready, and hopefully we can get it done.”

Commencement 2011

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Sports

Men’s Track and Field

Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville

Jumbos earn fifth at Div. III Championships

Wanted ads for recent grads

by

Lauren Flament

Daily Editorial Board

The men’s track and field team put together several strong performances from the young members of the squad to wrap up the spring season.

Rising sophomore Ben Wallis led the way for the Jumbos at the New England Open Championships hosted at Southern Conn. State from May 12-14.

The team brought a smaller squad to the meet, which pitted the Jumbos against the best teams of the region from Div. I, II and III schools.

Wallis earned a fifth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, posting a personal record by five seconds and an NCAA provisionally qualifying time of 9:23.89.

“The race went as well as I think it could have. It was a competitive field and great conditions,” Wallis said. “I didn’t have much of a plan going in. I just wanted to go out and race. The best performances come when you don’t try to force the time and instead just compete. All I focused on was working up through the field and trying to get the next runner.”

Rising juniors Tyler Andrews and Brad Nakanishi both added a point to the Jumbos’ score. Andrews finished eighth in the 10,000-meter with a new best time, 31:39, while Nakanishi tied for seventh in the pole vault, clearing 14-9.

Fellow rising junior Gbola Ajayi also had a strong day, earning 10th in the long jump with a leap of 22-4 1/4, narrowly missing his PR and advancing to the finals.

A big PR came from rising junior Curtis Yancy, throwing 144-10 in the discus, see MEN’S T & F, page 34

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

Rising senior Ben Crastnopol was a part of a season-best 4x400 relay team at the New England Open Championships.

Sailing

Coed team to make repeat trip to nationals by

Nick Woolf

Senior Staff Writer

At the outset of the 2011 season, the sailing team’s ultimate goal was a repeat of last season’s success, which SAILING POSTSEASON AWARDS

“One of our main goals every year is to qualify for all the national competitions,” rising senior tri-captain Massimo Soriano said. “The fact that we completed one of these goals is great.”

The coed squad enjoyed a highly successful spring season in 2011, winning several regattas and moving up five

spots in the rankings from No. 17 at the start of the season to No. 12 as of May 4.

Tufts will be rewarded with a return to the National Championship, where last year the team finished 10th.

Tufts is one of 18 schools to qualify for the prestigious event that includes see SAILING, page 34

Sara Carnahan (’11) Second Team All-NEISA Will Haeger (’14) Second Team All-NEISA NEISA Rookie of the Year Sally Levinson (’11) Second Team All-NEISA saw three Tufts teams — the coed team, the women’s team and the team racing squad — qualify for season-ending national tournaments. But after a long, grinding season, only the No. 12 coed team will continue to compete at the coed Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA)/Gill National Championship in late May in Cascade Rocks, Ore.; the No. 14 women’s team and team racing squad failed to qualify.

After months of intense competition, the coed Jumbos finally punched their ticket to nationals with a seventh-place finish at the ICSA Eastern Semifinals in Long Beach, Calif., on May 1.

Courtesy adam weisman

After finishing seventh at the ICSA Eastern Semifinals, the coed sailing team will head to ICSA/Gill National Championship in Cascade Rocks, Ore.

Crew

Jumbos achieve mixed results at ECACs to close season The men’s and women’s crew teams traveled to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., for the ECAC National Invitational Championships on May 8. They faced stiff competition, with teams from all divisions and from as far away as Michigan participating in the regatta.

Amid some highlights, the Jumbos returned with mixed results, including a 16th-place finish for the women and a 21st-place standing for the men.

The women’s squad qualified for the

varsity eight Grand Final, and finished fourth with a time of 8:06.37, about 22 seconds behind the winning Simmons boat. The Jumbos added another fifthplace result after qualifying for the Grand Final of the novice eight race, coming in at 7:37.07, 35 seconds behind No. 1 Williams.

On the men’s side, Tufts qualified for the Petite Final of the novice eight race, and earned a fifth-place finish at 6:30.48. Marist won the event with a time of 6:10.42.

The Jumbos fell 16 seconds short of qualifying for the Grand Final, and took third in the Petite Final. Racing in lane one, Tufts came within 6.5 seconds of second-place Tulane, and 10.4 seconds from the top finisher, Bucknell.

The ECAC Championships were the last event in the collegiate careers of the teams’ seniors. Nine Jumbos will graduate from the women’s team, while four will leave the men’s squad.

—by Daniel Rathman

G

reetings Tufts University class of 2011, and welcome to the real world, the ultra-depressing, decidedly non-MTV reality check that, when you cross that stage and accept your hardearned diploma, will surely smack you right across that East Coast-educated face until you cry the sorrowful tears of unemployment and sob your way right back into your parents’ basement, finally free to waste away on pizza bagels and Funyuns without academic consequences looming over your head.

I know, it’s quite sobering to realize that your current chances of finding a job in this economy are slimmer than … well … your current chances of finding a job in this economy. But fear not, Jumbo alums, because we at the Live From Mudville Career Center, through numerous anonymous sources, have obtained quite the collection of wanted ads from potential employers for you recent grads. Applications must include résumés, references and a stool sample. But please, no cookies. You should have learned your lesson when you got rejected from Harvard because you sent the admissions office Snickerdoodles. And because of that, you had to go to Tufts. That was foolish.

WANTED: Comparative religions instructor, Washington Redskins: Seeking a potential educator with an interest in teaching religions, preferably with a concentration in Judaic Studies, to instruct Dan Snyder on what actually constitutes anti-Semitism, as well as the difference between the Devil’s horns and Jewish horns. Experience not necessary — we will grossly overpay you regardless of your previous employer or reputation. Contract will be for seven classes, but, in the interest of disclosure, you will be likely be benched after one and subsequently released following the semester. Washed-up applicants preferred.

WANTED: Nap time supervisor, China: Seeking a qualified supervisor to oversee nap time for the Chinese women’s gymnastics team.

A part-time position; will only be needed after practices and before the Olympics. A background in child development a must, as well as a bubbly personality capable of handling six prepubescent girls. Stereo for lullabies will be provided. Other tasks include story-reading, timeout-giving and juice box-distributing.

WANTED: Official tribal liaison, Cleveland Indians: Searching for an American Indian whose name is not an onomatopoeia to serve as an official representative of Major League Baseball to the people we viciously demean with our horrendously offensive logo. Ethnic and racial sensitivity a plus. Also might be called upon to occasionally serve as Shin-Soo Choo’s personal driver.

WANTED: Executive editor of social media, everywhere: Job description: Will sit in a massive control room, kind of like Morgan Freeman in “The Dark Knight” (2008), and monitor tweets from every athlete ever, checking for any misspellings, irrational comments or thoughtless 140-character-long ejaculations.

Qualifications: Basic computer knowledge, as well as common knowledge (i.e., the knowledge of what will offend the general public).

WANTED: Meditative guru, Los Angeles Lakers: Seeking spiritual teacher to oversee meditation training and instruction with freefalling National Basketball Association club.

Specialization in meditation, astral travel and truth-finding a plus. Will regularly teach yogic practices to entire team, as well as one-on-one sessions with Andrew Bynum to help control whatever weird rage problem he seems to have developed. Fluency in English, Spanish and Phil Jackson absolutely essential.

NEEDED: Athletics enthusiasts, Tufts University: Seeking fans to come to games for the following Div. III sports teams: all of them.

Don’t like the above-listed careers? Here are some others that are open for application but didn’t make the final cut: Zamboni waxer; human end-zone pylon; Hungry, Hungry Hippo feeder for Milton Bradley; on-call pallbearer for the Oakland Raiders; official birdwatcher for the Arizona Cardinals; Goodyear Blimp co-pilot; and John Madden translator.

So go forth, fellow Jumbos, and see what lies in store within this grand world of opportunity. I can’t wait to see you next year when you creepily return for Spring Fling.

Alex Prewitt is a rising senior majoring in English and religion. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu. His blog is livefrommudville.blogspot.com.

The Tufts Daily

44 Brian Rowe | Calls the Shots

Want to be an athlete?

I

’ve never quite understood why athletes have been described as “role models” for the rest of us. I mean, yes, we can surely attempt to jump like Michael Jordan, throw like Pedro Martinez or catch like Jerry Rice, but I’m referring to a more holistic sense of the word. To really model ourselves after these people? Well, that requires learning about them in a way that the media do not necessarily help, understanding their idiosyncrasies that can be difficult for us to decipher and occasionally learning that these athletes are not who we thought they were.

I spent my formative teenage and college years idolizing Tom Brady. The man wins, is always polite in public settings, receives rave reviews from his teammates and manages to have perfectly coiffed hair under his helmet. Who wouldn’t want to have his life? Well, if you’ve followed sports long enough, you know that it has a dark underbelly. If you want to learn negative things about an athlete, we all know the Internet is a big place.

I’m personally fine with what I know about Brady now and haven’t explored further, but some athletes haven’t been so lucky to keep any or all skeletons in the closet.

Tiger Woods was on top of the world in 2009. He had won The Masters in 2008 on one leg, was approaching Jack Nicklaus’ record at a young age and had command of any and all endorsement deals that he wanted. Tiger was synonymous with golf, and it was only a matter of time before he went down in history as the greatest to ever play the game. But then Thanksgiving of 2009 happened. His life was turned upside down, his golf game suffered and his reputation suffered even more. He lost much of what made him great, falling quickly from his image-enhanced perch above the rest of us. Do we still copy his swing, buy his products and worship his competitiveness? Why is it so difficult to separate these from his fractured home life and personal demons?

Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs in 2001, an absurd number of home runs.

He also alienated roughly 100 times that number of people during his career. Bonds was a famous dichotomy of talent and unpleasantness, winning seven MVPs without anyone outside of San Francisco actually liking him as a person. Do we get on his level? If we’re that much better than everyone else at something, does it excuse personal flaws? How come he got away with it?

Many would love his baseball instincts, but can you have them without the whole package?

Kobe Bryant won his fifth championship in 2010. He’s one ring behind Jordan, revered by LA fans and considered maybe the greatest of his generation. His face is known around the world, and his bust will be prominently featured in the Hall of Fame some day. He’s also been accused of sexual assault, and recently was caught using the word “faggot” on national television. Do these transgressions overshadow his unmatched workout regimen?

His dedication to winning at all costs?

Can we compartmentalize the parts of Kobe we want to imitate?

And yet, Tiger Woods built a 35,000-square-foot learning center for kids in California. Barry Bonds formed the Barry Bonds Family Foundation in 1993 and it remains active to this day.

Kobe Bryant is the official ambassador for After-School All-Stars. We want the philanthropy, right? The giving back?

We want the skills, we want the desire, we want the respect for community, but we don’t want the negatives. Can we ask them to be perfect? Is that fair? Or do we look for role models elsewhere?

Sports are beautifully simple, but athletes … not so much.

Brian Rowe graduates today with a degree in economics. He can be reached at B.Rowe@ tufts.edu.

Sports

Commencement 2011

Women’s Track and Field

Allen, Wilfert shine as team wraps up season

by Connor

Rose

Senior Staff Writer

With the NCAA Championships looming on May 26-28, the Jumbos accumulated numerous impressive individual marks and finished 10th out of the 22 teams that scored at the New England Open Championships on May 13-14 at Southern Conn. State. The team additionally finished third at the Div. III New England Championships a week earlier at MIT and many athletes also competed last weekend at ECACs at Moravian College, but results for that meet were not available at press time.

The Jumbos faced stiff competition at the New England Opens against Div. I and Div. II athletes, but still were able to hold their own.

Rising senior Nakeisha Jones continued her late-season push in the national rankings, triple jumping a season-best 39-3 3/4. The mark moved her up to seventh in the nation.

Graduating senior tri-captain Kanku Kabongo also had a successful day in the triple jump with a mark of 38-0, which qualified her provisionally for NCAAs and ranked her 19th nationally.

The pair finished third and seventh, respectively, in the event. Kabongo also earned a fifth-place finish in the long jump with a distance of 18-3.

Strength in the field events did not

stop there. Rising junior Kelly Allen continued her dominance in throwing events, winning the discus throw with a distance of 144-5. Allen also earned seventh place in the shot put with a throw of 41-10 and eighth in the hammer with a throw of 159-9. Despite her success, Allen hopes to make improvements in the coming weeks in the discus, for which she has already automatically qualified for Nationals.

“In discus, I still need to work on my consistency,” Allen said. “I usually have one big throw a meet which is great, but I need to be able to hit the right form more than once a meet in order to give myself a better chance at throwing farther.”

Rising senior Ronke Oyekunle and rising junior Sabienne Brutus joined Allen at the competition. Oyekunle finished right behind Allen with an eighth-place finish in the shot put, throwing 41-8 1/2. In the hammer throw, Brutus and Oyekunle finished in 21st and 22nd with throws of 130-7 and 127-4, respectively.

Rising senior Heather Theiss added to the field tally by finishing eighth in the pole vault with a vault of 11-5 3/4.

On the track, graduating senior Amy Wilfert finished fifth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a personal best of 10:50.16. The mark improved her previous NCAA provisional qualifier and

moved her up to 14th on the national rankings. Wilfert, however, believes her time can improve even more with more experience in the event.

“I was hoping that the more I ran the race, the more efficient my water jump would become,” Wilfert said.

“I didn’t have to run quite as fast between the barriers to make up the time I lose. If I can improve my water jump, I think I can save a lot of energy elsewhere in the race.”

Rising sophomore Jana Hieber continued her quest for an automatic bid to NCAAs in the 400-meter hurdles.

She finished third in the event, running a 1:02.65 and again just missing out on the 1:02.00 mark necessary for qualification.

At Div. IIIs at MIT, Tufts finished third overall with 96 total points. The host Engineers defended their track, winning the meet with 141.5 points.

A familiar group of athletes scored points for Tufts and propelled the Jumbos to their third-place finish.

Allen provided 30 points out of the total 96. She won the discus (147-10), the shot put (41-8 3/4), and the hammer throw (158-7), establishing herself as the best Div. III thrower in the region.

“I had a good day, and winning all the see WOMEN’S T & F, page 35

Jumbo stars: The Daily hands out its athletic awards for 2010-11 Male Athlete of the Year: D.J. Hessler, Men’s Lacrosse After leading Tufts to its second straight NESCAC tournament title, graduating senior D.J. Hessler is our male athlete of the year. The quadcaptain attackman has been remarkably consistent over his career, leading the NESCAC in scoring three years running. As of the Jumbos’ NCAA Tournament win over Union College on May 14, Hessler had racked up 81 points on 34 goals and 47 assists in 2011, including an assist to graduating senior quad-captain attackman Ryan Molloy to clinch a NESCAC semifinal win over Bowdoin with 0.4 seconds remaining. Hessler also had three goals and two assists in Tufts’ 14-13 victory on the road at powerhouse Stevenson on March 23.

Already Tufts’ all-time assists leader following his junior year, Hessler added to his legacy by becoming the Jumbos’ all-time leading scorer on March 15, when he amassed six goals and one assist in Tufts’ rout of Lasell College 23-5 to pass attackman Bryan Griffin (LA ‘05) on the all-time list.

Hessler has also been nominated for the Tewaarton Award, lacrosse’s equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, which spans all divisions of collegiate lacrosse.

Female Athlete of the Year: Tamara Brown, Field Hockey For a second straight season this past fall, this star graduating senior forward was named the NESCAC Player of the Year, after leading the Jumbos to a 15-3 record and a third straight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Brown, the all-time leading scorer in Tufts field hockey history, amassed 24 goals and seven assists to lead the NESCAC in scoring in 2010 with 55 total points. Not only did she score goals in quantity, but she also performed in crunch time, scoring the game-winning goal in six of the Jumbos’ 15 wins.

Brown started off the season particularly strong, scoring two of the Jumbos’ three goals in a 3-0 victory over Middlebury in the season’s opener, followed by another goal in the squad’s second NESCAC contest, a 3-0 decision over Amherst. She exploded for three goals and an assist in a 7-1 victory over Bates on Homecoming and scored another hat trick against Gordon College in an 8-0 win on Oct. 19.

Brown closed out a spectacular regular season by scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 victory over eventual national champion Bowdoin to win the NESCAC regular-season title.

Coach of the Year: Bob Sheldon, Men’s Basketball Sheldon led the men’s basketball team to a 13-12 record (4-5 in NESCAC play) and was at the helm for its first NESCAC playoff berth since the 2006-07 season. Coming off a 6-17 season and losing Tufts’ all-time leading scorer Jon Pierce to graduation, few outside of Medford expected much in the way of progress from the squad. But with a young team willing to work, Sheldon got the most out of his players, and the team was able to win some of the close games that it had given up in years past. After the team lost its opening two NESCAC games, the Jumbos swept a Maine weekend against Bowdoin and Colby, surprising many across the league.

The highlight of the season, though, was a nail-biting victory against Bates in front of an exuberant Senior Day crowd, a win that secured Tufts the fifth seed in the NESCAC tournament.

The Jumbos lost that opening round game to Trinity, 70-47.

The 2010-11 season was the 23rd at Tufts for Sheldon, who has compiled an impressive 327-247 record during his tenure.

Team of the Year: Men’s Lacrosse Winning the national championship does not come without baggage; the following season, the defending champions had to deal with the unenviable task of warding off the bull’s-eye placed on its back by every one of its opponents.

The men’s lacrosse team was able to deal with this pressure and repeat as NESCAC champions, further cementing the upward trajectory of the program.

The Jumbos, ranked as the national preseason No. 1, enjoyed a strong start to their season, winning their first nine games, including a memorable 14-13 victory against Stevenson over spring break under a torrent of rain, thunder and flashing lightning. But the Tufts Express was temporarily derailed by disappointing losses to Endicott and Bowdoin, throwing into question the team’s will to repeat as league champions and knocking it off its perch as national No. 1.

Yet the Jumbos proved they had plenty left in the tank, turning in two gutsy performances in the conference tournament semifinals and finals the weekend of May 7-8 to reclaim their league title. In both games, Tufts built up big leads, surrendered them in the fourth quarter, and then showed the mental toughness characteristic of a Mike Daly-coached (LA ‘95) team in rebounding to score the deciding goal.

Neither game was consistently pretty, but the Jumbos did what they’ve learned to do so well over the past two seasons: win.

Male Rookie of the Year: Kyle Gallegos, Ice Hockey Although the ice hockey team finished a disappointing 6-16-1, rising sophomore Gallegos was a major bright spot, finishing with a team-high 15 goals. His 23 points were good for second on the roster after graduating senior Tom Derosa.

The Westminster, Colo., native was also the heart and soul of the Tufts power play, notching seven goals with the man advantage, which was more than double the tally of any of his teammates and a key reason why Tufts finished third in the NESCAC in power play efficiency.

What made Gallegos’ year even more impressive was the fact that the other top four scorers on the team were all seniors, including the All-NESCAC quad-captain Derosa. With those other contributors moving on to bigger and better things next year, the Jumbos will be counting heavily on Gallegos to build on his promising freshman year and carry them through his sophomore campaign.

Female Rookie of the Year: Jo Clair, Softball Jo-ing, Jo-ing, gone.

Coming into the season, many questioned where the power would come from in the middle of the lineup on the softball team. Rising sophomore Jo Clair provided the answer, and her historic performance has earned her our women’s rookie of the year.

Clair did not wait long to make an impact, slamming her first home run on just the second day of the season.

The following day, she hit two more, and by the end of the team’s trip to Florida, she had already launched five.

Back in New England, Clair looked even more comfortable at the plate. From March 31 to April 10, she had six home runs in seven games, leading the team to a 6-2 stretch. At one point in early April, Clair was on pace to contend for the national record but had to settle for 16, still the highest recorded single-season total in NESCAC history and good enough to be tied for fifth-most in the country.

But Clair was not only about home runs, a fact that was perhaps best demonstrated in the NESCAC loser’s bracket final. Her hustle in the ninth inning turned a dropped fly ball into a three-base error, and her aggressiveness caused an obstruction call on the pitcher on a wild pitch, bringing her across for the winning run.

Her performance this season was enough to earn her NESCAC rookie of the year, and it was more than enough for us to follow suit.

—by the Daily Sports Department

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

45

Sports

Women’s lacrosse

Jumbos justify NCAA Tournament at-large bid Team notches first-round victory over Endicott, falls to Cortland St. by

Aaron Leibowitz

Daily Editorial Board

The women’s lacrosse team reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history,

7 13

First Round at Beverly, Mass., May 11 Tufts Endicott

17 6

12 13

Quarterfinals, May 1 Tufts Middlebury

13 12

falling to No. 4 Cortland State just after a resounding 17-6 round-one victory on the road against Endicott.

Host Cortland entered the May 14 contest with a 19-1 overall record and an undefeated record in the SUNYAC conference and gave Keene State a 21-3 thrashing in the first round. The Jumbos worked hard to keep themselves in the game and, with less than two minutes to go in the first half, rising senior attackman Lara Kozin scored to cut the lead to 6-5. But the Red Dragons roared back, scoring twice before the end of the period before adding five more unanswered goals to start the second half.

At that point, a 13-5 Cortland lead with less than 14 minutes remaining put the game out of Tufts’ reach. The Jumbos see WOMEN’S LACROSSE, page 41

Caroline Geiling/Tufts Daily

Rising sophomore Gabby Horner, here in a game on April 29 against Bowdoin, had four goals in Tufts’ thrashing of Endicott in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Tufts ultimately lost in the second round to Cortland State.

Softball

MEN’S TENNIS

Milestone season Tufts falls to Middlebury in NESCAC championship round culminates in NESCAC bid by

Zachey Kliger and Ethan Sturm

Senior Staff Writer and Daily Editorial Board

Though the softball team earned the right to host the NESCAC Tournament on Spicer Field as the NESCAC East top SOFTBALL (23-18, 9-3 NESCAC East) NESCAC Tournament Spicer Field, May 8 Middlebury Tufts

7 4

Trinity Tufts

1 2

(9 inn.)

Spicer FIeld, May 7 Middlebury Tufts

2 0

Spicer Field, May 6 Williams Tufts

2 3

seed, it fell short of its goal of advancing to the NCAA Tournament after losing 7-4 to Middlebury in last Sunday’s conference final. After defeating Trinity in a thrilling elimination game early Sunday afternoon, Tufts was unable to best NESCAC West top seed Middlebury and subsequently did not receive an at-large berth to the national tournament.

The Jumbos rode a wave of momentum into Sunday’s championship matchup against the West’s top-seeded Panthers and pieced together four runs in the top half of the first inning on just one hit. Rising senior centerfielder Lizzy Iuppa jump-started the rally with a leadoff walk and rising sophomore left fielder Sara Hedtler capped the

I

1. Develop the Youth For soccer to really become a sport Americans care about, it has to start with young children, more of whom need to be taught to follow and play the game. Just imagine if, instead of a dad teaching his son about the Red Sox and the finer points of the national pastime, the focus were on the New England Revolution and the art of the free kick.

There are two main ways to achieve this utopic vision: Increase investment in academy and development teams and continue to market the sport aggressively. The fruits of this strategy have already started to show themselves: There is a wealth of young, American talent in the MLS (for example, 18-yearold striker Juan Agudelo of the New York Red Bulls), while thanks to the 2010 World Cup, more young people are interested in the game than ever before.

If that trend continues, American soccer will be of a higher quality, and the fans of the game here will be stronger in number and intensity.

NESCAC Tournament at Hartford, Conn.

Semifinals, May 7 Tufts Trinity

Looking into the future n my last column of the semester, I want to look at the future of soccer in the U.S. and what needs to happen for the sport to become more mainstream. After all, if soccer doesn’t get more popular, I’ll still be the only guy waking up at 7:45 on a Saturday morning to watch a grainy Internet stream of the English Premier League.

And that’s no fun. So, without further ado, my top three keys to soccer’s popularity in the States:

WOMEN’S LACROSSE (12-7, 5-4 NESCAC) NCAA Tournament Second Round at Cortland, NY., May 15 Tufts Cortland

David McIntyre | The Beautiful Game

frame with a two-out, two-run single to give Tufts a 4-0 edge. Unfortunately for the Jumbos, the offensive outburst and lead were both short-lived.

Middlebury responded almost immediately, scoring two runs in the bottom half of the frame to cut the deficit in half. The Panthers’ bats came out strong in the second frame as well, tacking on three more runs to reclaim the lead from the Jumbos, 5-4. The inning was highlighted by a two-out, tworun single off the bat of graduating senior Megan Margel, who earned NESCAC Player of the Week for her performance.

After starting the game off strong, the Jumbos failed to push another run across the plate in the last six innings of the seven-inning contest. The Panthers, meanwhile, added a pair of insurance runs in the fourth inning off a two run homer by rising junior Jessa Hoffman to produce the game’s 7-4 final.

Tufts graduating senior co-captain Izzie Santone was not in top form on Sunday.

After being handed an early 4-0 advantage, Santone allowed five runs, four of which were earned in just 1 2/3 innings of work.

Rising sophomore Lauren Giglio was strong in relief, however, surrendering just two runs in 4 1/3 frames.

“I definitely was unhappy with the way I pitched out there,” Santone said. “They were all over me today, but give them credit: They’re a good team with good hitters who will make you pay if you make a mistake.”

With the victory, Middlebury improved to 29-6 overall and, more importantly, secured the conference’s automatic NCAA berth.

With a 23-18 overall record, Tufts was not chosen for the national tournament as an at-large team.

“It’s bittersweet right now,” Santone see SOFTBALL, page 42

by

Alex Arthur

Senior Staff Writer

The men’s tennis team went 11-7 overall in the fall and spring seasons, marking the program’s highest win total MEN’S TENNIS (11-7, 4-3 NESCAC) NESCAC Tournament at Middlebury, Vt., May 6 Tufts Bowdoin

1 5

since 1996. After reaching the NESCAC Championships for the first time since the tournament’s inception in 2006, Tufts fell to Bowdoin 5-1 in the first round.

Tufts qualified for the tournament despite losing its final regular-season match 5-4 to Bates. In a three-team tiebreaker among Tufts, Trinity and Bates, the Jumbos and Bantams were selected for tournament play.

“We were really excited to make the tournament,” rising junior Andrew Lutz said.

“Especially after having lost to Bates — had we won that we would have clinched — we didn’t control our own destiny. We felt we deserved that No. 5 seed.”

The Jumbos entered the first-round match as the underdogs against the No. 4-seeded Polar Bears, who beat Tufts in the regular season, 8-1. They once again had no answer for Bowdoin, falling 5-1 with three matches not needing to be finished.

The afternoon began with rising senior Kai Victoria and Lutz losing 8-3 at No. 1 see MEN’S TENNIS, page 41

2. Access, Access, Access This is where my grainy Internet stream comes in. If you’re a soccer fan in the U.S., you know how difficult it can sometimes be to watch your favorite team play in Europe (or South America). If the game’s not on TV or espn3.com, you basically have no option except to resort to a low-quality (read: illegal) Internet stream on an obscure website. Meanwhile, MLB. com boasts the most advanced video streaming system in pro sports, offering a yearlong, high-quality streaming service to fans at a fixed rate, accessible anywhere in the world.

It’s as simple as this: Soccer, and the Premier League in particular, need to set up a similar, legal streaming service. For a league that is so international and widely followed, the Premier League is the equivalent of a caveman when it comes to Internet exposure.

Just imagine how many millions of people, particularly in the U.S., would be willing to pay for legal, high-quality streaming of the Premier League, enabling them to watch any game they wanted. The technology exists — it’s just a matter of putting it all together and making soccer more accessible for U.S. viewers.

3. The Big One This is most difficult of the three: The World Cup needs to come to the U.S. I know what you’re thinking: Didn’t the U.S. just lose a World Cup bid for 2018?

But despite that disappointment, getting the World Cup to the U.S. should the most important priority for the U.S. Soccer Federation. It would be so different from 1994 — more people are interested in soccer in the U.S. now, and seeing the world’s best on home turf would lock in a generation of fans to the sport. When Sepp Blatter finally retires and FIFA comes to its senses about where to place the World Cup (hint: not in Qatar!), the U.S. should be poised to bid for the 2026 tournament.

I know it’s a long way away, but if we could get the World Cup, it would be a dream come true for every soccer fan in the country.

David McIntyre is a rising sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.McIntyre@tufts.edu.

Sports

46

INSIDE Women’s Lacrosse 45 Softball 45 Women’s Track and Field 44

tuftsdaily.com

Twice as nice: Pair of Tufts squads repeat as NESCAC champs

Men’s Lacrosse

baseball

Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily

Andrew Morgenthaler/Tufts Daily

Rising senior midfielder Kevin McCormick fires a shot on goal against Middlebury in the NESCAC Championship Game on May 8. McCormick’s four goals helped the Jumbos edge the Panthers in overtime to win their second straight NESCAC title.

Graduating senior centerfielder David Orlowitz, here in a game earlier this season, came up huge in last weekend’s NESCAC Tournament, smashing an RBI triple in the 12th inning of a game against Bowdoin and going 5-for-5 against Middlebury in the first game of the tournament.

Wild weekend sends men’s lacrosse to NCAAs

Baseball takes home rain-shortened tournament

by

Kate Klots

Senior Staff Writer

Over the NESCAC Championship weekend, the skies were threatening and so were Bowdoin and Middlebury.

MEN’S LACROSSE (16-2, 8-1 NESCAC) NCAA Tournament Second Round, Bello Field, May 14 Union Tufts

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NESCAC Championship, Bello Field, May 8 Middlebury Tufts

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NESCAC Semifinals, Bello Field, May 7 Bowdoin Tufts

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But with the fate of the men’s lacrosse season on the line, lightning struck Bello Field — twice.

Two times in two days the Jumbos found themselves tied with their opponent late in the fourth quarter.

And twice the Jumbos found a way to win: Graduating senior quad-captain attackman Ryan Molloy ended Bowdoin’s upset hopes with just 0.4 remaining in the game in the semifinals on May 7, and rising senior attackman Sean Kirwan scored in overtime in the championship game to seal a 13-12 win against Middlebury the following afternoon.

As of press time, the men’s lacrosse team has a spot in the NCAA Quarterfinals — a home battle against last year’s NCAA Semifinal opponent Cortland State — after beating Union see MEN’S LACROSSE, page 34

by

Daniel Rathman

Daily Editorial Board

From the moment the baseball team began conditioning in the fall through its practices during the winter and the 2011 BASEBALL (26-7-1, 11-1 NESCAC East) NESCAC Tournament at Amherst, Mass., May 15 Bowdoin Tufts

Canceled

at Amherst, Mass., May 14 Bowdoin Tufts

2 4

(12 inn.)

at Springfield, Mass., May 13 Middlebury Tufts

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regular season, Tufts’ goal was to repeat as NESCAC champions. The Jumbos returned from Amherst, Mass., on Sunday afternoon with that mission resoundingly accomplished.

Tufts (26-7-1 as of press time) entered the tournament facing considerable adversity, with its top two starting pitchers — graduating senior Derek Miller (shoulder) and rising senior Kevin Gilchrist (hand) — and rising senior catcher Matt Collins (wrist) shelved by injuries. But the team was confident that others would ably fill their shoes.

“One of our strengths as a team is preparing everyone to be ready to go in any situation,” rising senior co-captain third baseman Sam Sager said. “The injuries really weren’t a concern because of the depth we have and everyone knowing that guys were ready to step up.”

With the pitching staff exhausted from see BASEBALL, page 35

Women’s Tennis

Jumbos reach new heights with run to national quarterfinals by

Ann Sloan

Daily Editorial Board

For the women’s tennis team, 2011 has been a year of firsts.

WOMEN’S TENNIS (16-5, 6-2 NESCAC) NCAA Tournament Third Round at Baltimore, Md., May 15 Johns Hopkins Tufts

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NCAA Tournament Second Round at Baltimore, Md., May 14 Hunter Tufts

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After victories against then-No. 4 University of Chicago and thenNo. 8 Washington and Lee during the regular season, Tufts moved up to a program-best national No. 5 ranking. But that was just the beginning for the Jumbos, who made history again on May 15 when they beat No. 9 Johns Hopkins 5-1 in the NCAA Regional Final to advance to the national quarterfinals for the first time in school history.

“It’s seriously a dream come true.

We’ve wanted this since my freshman year, and we’ve come really close in the past, but this year has been just absolutely incredible,” graduating senior tri-captain Julia

Browne said. “We have such a great bunch of girls and everybody fought really hard. We’re trying to keep it going as much as possible because I really don’t want this team’s season to end.”

Tufts started the match off against the Blue Jays by taking No. 2 doubles, where rising junior Lindsay Katz and rising sophomore Eliza Flynn won easily in a 8-2 match, and No. 3 doubles, where rising junior Lauren Hollender and rising sophomore Sam Gann won 9-8(6). Gann also grabbed the first singles win, dominating rising junior Andrea Berlinghof, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 6 singles.

“I really wanted to win for the team and I knew the win was bigger than myself,” Gann said. “I just tried to relax before every point to try to close out the matches to put the team in a better position to win the whole thing.”

With the Jumbos up 3-1, Katz’s opponent at the No. 2 spot, rising junior Nandita Krishnan, hurt her knee and retired. Tufts eventually clinched the win when Browne took a 6-1, 6-1 victory from rising senior Carolyn Warren, the nation’s 15thranked player.

“We were all really pumped and we all knew that we definitely didn’t want the season to end. We knew it was our match for the taking, so we were really excited

Oliver Porter/Tufts Daily

Rising sophomore Shelci Bowman, left, and graduating senior tri-captain Julia Browne, right, will compete together at the NCAA Tournament in doubles in late May. But first, the pair will lead Tufts in a rematch against NESCAC power Amherst on Tuesday. about that,” Gann said.

In the second round of NCAAs the day before, Tufts swept Hunter College 5-0, setting a new school record for wins (15) in the process.

Katz and Flynn and Hollender and Gann both won 8-1 at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, respectively. At the No. 1 spot, Browne and rising sophomore Shelci Bowman won 8-4. In singles play, Flynn and Hollender earned the first two

wins to capture the team victory.

During all this success, the Jumbos have been playing in the NCAA Tournament without coach Kate Bayard, who recently gave birth to her first daughter.

“It’s really weird not having her here, actually. She’s coached me for four years and she’s put this program in a really wonderful place and she gave us all the tools in order to achieve success,” Browne said.

“Our assistant coach and volunteer coaches have done a wonderful job stepping in when she hasn’t been able to be there physically.”

Assistant coach Jaime Kenney, who has taken over for Bayard, is enjoying the experience of helping the Jumbos to their best postseason showing ever, but recognizes the challenge ahead as Tufts presee WOMEN’S TENNIS, page 42

Commencement 2011

The Tufts Daily

“The man who has no imagination has no wings.” ­—Muhammad Ali

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The Tufts Daily

Commencement 2011

“You have to create a track record of breaking your own mold, or at least other people’s idea of that mold.” —William Hurt (A ’72)