2012-03-12

THE TUFTS DAILY

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

Monday, March 12, 2012

VOLUME LXIII, NUMBER 31

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

New Office of Intercultural and Social Identities Programs launched by

Brionna Jimerson

Daily Editorial Board

The Office of Intercultural and Social Identities Programs (ISIP) was launched on Friday as a space for students to gain awareness and respect for racial, ethnic and identity diversity on campus, explore their own identities and confront social concerns on campus.

Emma Oppenheim for The Tufts Daily

The Boston Business Journal (BBJ) on Feb. 23 honored Tufts Medical Center as the “Most Admired Health Care Company/Institution in Boston.”

Tufts Medical Center named most admired health care institution

by Jenna

Buckle

Daily Editorial Board

The Boston Business Journal (BBJ) on Feb. 23 honored Tufts Medical Center and its Floating Hospital for Children as the “Most Admired Health Care Company/Institution in Boston” during the BBJ’s second annual recognition of the city’s “Most Admired Companies, CEOs and Brands.”

Tufts Medical was selected as a finalist in the health care category, along with Children’s Hospital Boston and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. BBJ then invited the public to choose the winners for each of the nine “Most Admired” categories through an online vote.

With a total of 69 percent of the vote in its category, Tufts Medical won by one of the largest margins amongst all categories the entire award event, according to Tufts Medical Center Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications Brooke Tyson Hynes.

“Obviously there’s great health care in Boston, so we were honored to receive the most honored in a city that’s known for its world-class

health care,” she said. “Our patients and supporters really came out and voted for us and said how much they appreciate the care here.”

Following its nomination, Tufts Medical staff encouraged people to vote on the BBJ website via social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, Julie Jette, director of media relations and publications at Tufts Medical, said.

“Clearly they responded very robustly,” Jette said. “We do have a very loyal group of patients.”

Hynes noted that Tufts Medical is smaller than the other academic medical center finalists in its category, which she believes contributed to the tremendous public support.

“I think we provide a very warm and intimate atmosphere,” Hynes said. “A lot of patients develop great relationships here.”

“Our staff works really hard to make people feel like a part of the family and not just a patient,” Jette said. “I think that’s what really makes a difference to people.”

Tufts Medical has built its reputation around providing high-quality care at a lower cost, Deeb Salem, see MEDICAL, page 2

Goals of the Office of ISIP “We’re working under the guiding principle that says diversity and inclusion are inherent strengths for academic excellence and not problems to be resolved,” Director of the Office of ISIP and Africana Center Director Katrina Moore told the Daily in an interview.

Moore said the office is working to strengthen diversity and inclusion by providing opportunities for students to think critically about who they are and how their identities impact their experiences at Tufts.

“We’re trying to create a campus that respects all students and [works to build] a campus community that is inclusive and make sure everyone has equal participation,” Moore said. “There are some students more aligned with their religious or ethnic identity, but they still need to have support and feel they are equal participants on the campus.”

The Office of ISIP is focused on ensuring inclusion for undergraduate and graduate students, particularly those from historically marginalized groups, according to Moore.

Student ambassador to the Office of ISIP Genesis Garcia shared her insight on the significance of investigating the meaning of “historically marginalized groups” and “inclusion” in an interview during Friday’s launch day events in the Mayer Campus Center break-out sessions with

ISIP student ambassadors.

“By inclusive, it means that there are a lot of identity groups on campus, and people have had radically different experiences and needs at Tufts,” Garcia, a freshman, said.

“We automatically associate groups of people of color as historically marginalized. [That] almost every identity group — based on religion, race, ability — has been historically marginalized is news for some people,” she said. “And in order for everyone to know, steps must be taken for those who don’t know. I don’t want this to be just another diversity initiative [that] we talk about and nothing gets done.”

The title of the office, Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne BergerSweeney told the audience at the “A Focus on Tufts” dinner event on the launch day, was repeatedly reworked to make it more encompassing of social and cultural experiences.

Moore included among the goals of the Office of ISIP creating a resource directory, an organized “road map” of resources available on campus to help students navigate the services and opportunities at Tufts.

“The road map is a sort of ‘what do I do if ...’ resource, to make sure students are supported, and know what’s available on campus,” Ikenna Acholonu, graduate assistant and program coordinator of the Office of ISIP, said.

“There are many times when students don’t understand the function of the Provost’s Office, or when they need to go to the Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO). We want students to know where to go to address their concerns,” Moore said.

The Office of ISIP is establishing itself as a direct line of communication between students and administrators, through

the support and joint efforts of student ambassadors, a faculty working group, the directors of the Group of Six centers — the Asian American Center, the International Center, the Africana Center, the Women’s Center, the Latino Center and the LGBT Center — and Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies John Barker, according to Moore.

“With ISIP, there is a direct link to the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, so the data we’re collecting has a direct route to decision-makers,” Moore said.

Creation of the Office of ISIP The Office of ISIP began its planning phases in fall 2011, with Moore as the director, at the order of Berger-Sweeney. She had seen a similar program implemented at Wellesley College, where she served as associate dean before coming to Tufts.

According to Moore, adequate qualitative research conducted at other institutions informed the creation of the Office of ISIP at Tufts, along with Berger-Sweeney’s history as Wellesley College.

A report prepared by consultants for Wellesley College concerning multicultural programming aided the creation of such a program at Tufts.

“The consultants found that many institutions had independent houses that reflected singular elements of identity, but these houses did not address the needs of students with complex identities,” Moore told the Daily in an email. “Since the report was research-based and comprehensive, the dean was very well-prepared to address similar issues when she arrived at Tufts.”

According to Moore, Bergersee ISIP, page 2

TCU Senate Update The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate at its meeting last night rejected a resolution (7-14-2) that would have encouraged campus groups, including the Tufts Chaplaincy and the TCU Judiciary, to “interpret the University’s non-discrimination policy in a way that does not bar religious groups from choosing leaders who reflect their views.”

The resolution was submitted by Senior Senators Tim Lesinski and Ben Richards.

“I want to create a broad protection for religious groups in the future,” Lesinski said.

“I think it’s very important that as student leaders we take a stand on this issue,” Richards said. “Religious organizations are very prominent on this campus.”

Members of the body believed that the resolution was proposed in response to recent controversy surrounding the Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF). In November, four students filed a complaint with the Judiciary alleging that TCF’s policies for selecting leaders discriminated against LGBT group members. The students later rescinded the com-

plaint pending the results of a still-ongoing investigation by the University Chaplaincy.

“This is selective democracy and selective protection,” Latino Center Community Rep. Zoe Munoz said. “It’s reactionary, it’s aggressive and it’s reacting to the TCF incident. It’s a slap in the face to the entire Tufts community.”

TCU President Tomas Garcia said the final lines of the resolution “completely contradict the non-discrimination policy.”

The body also approved three buffer fund requests. One is for $407 for Tufts Campus HOPE for a speaker honorarium and speaker travel and board. Another is for $4,250 for Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) for a speaker fee and speaker travel and board. The Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) also received $1,732.16 for field fees, transportation, food, a website, and logistics for an event.

—by Shana Friedman

Inside this issue

Justin McCallum / The Tufts Daily

Comedian Louis Black performed last night in Cohen Auditorium to a sold out crowd. He satirized issues ranging from social media to Rick Santorum, finally informing students that they all suffered from incurable ADD.

Today’s sections

Lisa Freeman discusses proper pet nutrition and the many myths associated with the field.

Actress Emily Blunt talks about her latest role in “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Comics

1 3 5 7

Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Classifieds Sports

8 9 11 Back

The Tufts Daily

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News

Visiting the Hill this Week MONDAY “The Legacy of Love Canal: Environmental Justice and Social Change” Details: Lois Gibbs, the executive director for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) and founder of the Love Canal Homeowners Association (LCHA), and toxicologist Stephen Lester will discuss the combination of environmental activism and the media.

When and Where: 12:00 p.m. in Eaton 206 Sponsors: Communications and Media Studies Program and the Environmental Studies Program TUESDAY “Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest’s Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews” Details: Father Patrick Desbois, an advocate for Catholic-Jewish dialogue and against anti-Semitism, will discuss his experiences talking to witnesses of mass genocide and the Holocaust in

Eastern Europe.

When and Where: 8:00 p.m. to 9:15 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium Sponsors: The Cummings/Hillel Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education WEDNESDAY “A Mixture of Pure Waters: Thoreau Reads the Gita at Walden Pond” Details: Bard College Professor Richard Davis will discuss the interaction between Henry David Thoreau’s transcendentalism and the Hindu scripture Gita.

When and Where: 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Filene Center Sponsors: Department of Religion and the Center for Humanities at Tufts THURSDAY “Environmental Studies Lunch and Learn: The Influence of Habitat Complexity, Prey Quality, and Predator Avoidance on Sea Otter Resource Selection in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska”

Details: Nathan L. Stewart, who holds a doctorate in marine biology from the School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, will discuss his research in restricted habitat use for animals such as sea otters, sea urchins and killer whales.

When and Where: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Lincoln Filene Center Sponsors: Environmental Studies Program “Veritas Forum: Tea with Hezbollah” Details: Carl Medearis, an international expert on MuslimChristian and Arab-American relations, will talk about his peace-building experiences in the Middle East and the importance of creating dialog for reconciliation.

When and Where: 6:00 p.m. in Goddard Chapel Sponsors: Tufts Christian Fellowship —by Melissa Wang

Monday, March 12, 2012

Latest honor adds to Tufts Medical’s growing recognition MEDICAL

continued from page 1

physician-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center, and Sheldon Wolff, professor and chairman of the Department of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, explained.

“I think at a time when businesses and individuals are struggling with rising health care costs, that’s something that businesses and people particularly admire and respect,” Hynes said.

Salem said that in the past few years Tufts Medical Center has garnered considerable public attention, especially in 2010 when it ranked sixth on the University HealthSystem Consortium’s top 10 list of quality academic medical centers in the country.

“All together, we share a wonderful reputation these days,” Salem said.

The hospital has been actively working to expand its primary care footprint, Salem said, adding that the BBJ likely recognized the medical center’s efforts to reach out to the Boston community.

In addition to establishing partnerships with other community hospitals, Tufts Medical has been working in the Chinatown area of Boston in order to provide health care to more of its residents, according to Salem.

“So we’re right out there, not just talking, but really working to help that community, and that’s paying off for us,” Salem said.

Salem hopes that Tufts Medical will continue to gain public approval as a result of this recognition from the BBJ. “In my mind, the best is yet to come,” Salem said. “I think we’re on a very good trajectory. More and more people are going to realize that we do amazing things.”

Hynes expressed gratitude toward the BBJ and the many supporters of Tufts Medical who made their voices heard during the voting process.

“We’re very excited,” she said.

“On behalf of all our doctors and nurses, it’s really gratifying to hear directly from the public how much they appreciate what we’re doing every day.”

Office of ISIP to address diversity, identity issues on campus ISIP

continued from page 1

Sweeney spent her second semester at Tufts — Spring 2011 — speaking with students in sororities and fraternities, the Asian American, Africana and Latino Centers, the LGBT Center and the Women’s Center, and reportedly found that her assessment of the Tufts student body mimicked what she had heard at Wellesley.

Afterward, Berger-Sweeney concluded that the issues investigated in the consultants’ report were not just applicable to Wellesley but also had broader applicability to an institution such as Tufts.

Moore explained in the email that the Group of Six leaders continued to research similar programs in higher education and worked to express the particular needs and specific concerns at Tufts to develop the mission and programming for the Office of ISIP. Moore foresees her dual involvement at the Office of ISIP and the Africana Center as complimentary assets.

“I’m here [at the Africana Center] on a daily basis, [hearing] about experiences students are having,” she said in an interview.

“That helps to inform some of the areas that need to be focused on.”

Moore clarified that the Group of Six centers will not disappear to make way for the Office of ISIP. Rather, Moore expressed plans to make the Office of ISIP a focal point for university-wide events addressing racial, ethnic and identity diversity.

“There are lots of events that have to do with inclusion and diversity. Unless you’re a part of that, you know it and otherwise, it may not feel there’s a lot going on on campus.”

To this extent, according to Moore, the Office of ISIP is currently working with Tuftslife for the creation of an event category for cultural identities-related events.

“Just like you can click and find out sports events, you can click and find out what cultural events are,” Moore said.

Launch and Student Ambassadors Included in the Friday launch events were the student ambassadors’ presentation of their “Say Hello” Campaign Project, small discussions with the Office of ISIP ambassadors in the Mayer Campus Center and dinner and table discussions Friday evening.

The “Say Hello” Campaign has the goal of raising the awareness of all students of the impact of actions and words — even something as simple as saying hello — on another student’s daily life, according to Moore.

“The whole notion around the “Say Hello” campaign is that it’s a way for us to think about how we can do a small simple thing and start to interact with each other more,” Moore said.

Evening table discussions included a preview of the “A Focus on Tufts Initiative” discussion series.

“The series of focus groups is to help create counter-stories, stories that combat issues of racism, classism and other -isms,’”

scott tingley / the tufts daily

The Office of Intercultural and Social Identities Programs (ISIP) was launched on Friday with events such as small discussions with the Office of ISIP ambassadors, a dinner and table discussions.

Acholonu said. “With these focus groups, we will compile qualitative data, so that administrators and policy-makers will be able to make decisions based on the information we give them.”

Acholonu added that the “A Focus on Tufts” discussions would be a large part of the Office of ISIP’s programming initiatives. Future programming initiatives spearheaded by the Office of ISIP will also include the “A Look Within” Series, in which graduate students and professors will showcase their research to build relationships between students and faculty, and the“YourVoice Matters” Conversation Cafe, an opportunity for students to participate in small-group conversations concerning the Tufts community.

The role of the ten student ambassadors recruited to work with the Office of ISIP is to assist with the marketing of the Office of ISIP, serve as a liaison with Tufts student groups and the wider Tufts community, receive social justice and facilitation training and organize programs and initiatives planned by the Office of ISIP to ensure student input in programming, according to an email sent to students nominated by the director of fraternity and sorority affairs, Athletics directors, and Group of Six leaders.

“The activities in the Campus Center are an opportunity for students to hear about the [student ambassador] program,”

Moore said. Moore mentioned the possibility of the role of ambassador becoming an application-based role next semester, with potential for work-study wages, as an oncampus job.

“I was thrilled to receive the email,” student ambassador Kathryn Selcraig, a sophomore, said during the launch day break-out session event. “I want to be a part of this because having a broader conversation and dialogue about learning differences in people [and] structures of privilege [can] create a more inclusive environment.”

Student Response Immediately after its inception, the Office of ISIP came under fire from students. Garcia assured students that the office is actively working to address their concerns.

“I’ve heard so many people saying things about ISIP — negative things, positive things, things they don’t know about ISIP. Whether negative or positive, the only way I can make change is to know what is wrong, what’s missing,” Garcia said.

“There are many assumptions about it already. If you know what’s wrong, there are people in this program who are trying to address this problem. To automatically throw in [the] gutter, I don’t see how that makes any change,” she added.

Acholonu encouraged students to offer

feedback for the office, rather than dismiss it entirely.

Cecilia Flores, a senior, attended the launch dinner and remains unclear of the exact purpose of the Office of ISIP and its functionality in the Tufts community.

“We talked [at the launch dinner] about how Tufts has a lot of resources, but how different students have different access.

I know from first-hand experience that marginalized students do not have the same access to resources at Tufts and are affected by a lot of issues,” Flores said in an interview with the Daily, citing hate speech and Keith Ablow’s statements at a lecture in the fall and how the lack of response left transgender students vulnerable, stigmatized and targeted. “I feel like the ISIP could be doing a much better job incorporating student leaders. The burden cannot be on the students but we need to have power and direction within this push because we are the ones that are affected.”

“We’re trying to gather as much input and feedback as possible,” Acholonu said.

“I want students to know that their voice matters to us, regardless of who they are or what they have to say … Through our connection to aspects of the administration, change can occur, if the students try to engage with the programs and speak their minds.”

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

A Taste of Tufts: Lisa Freeman by

Alyson Yee | Odd Jobs

Ghosts in the machine

Hannah Fingerhut

The most recent installment of the Experimental College’s weekly lecture series, “A Taste of Tufts: A Sampling of Faculty Research,” showcased Dr. Lisa Freeman, a professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. At the lecture in the Granoff Center on March 9, Freeman spoke about her research on the optimal nutrition for pets.

Freeman, a “Triple Jumbo,” has earned a degree from three separate Tufts campuses: a B.S. from the College of Liberal Arts, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Cummings School and a Ph.D. from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.

Explaining that she had always wanted to be a veterinarian, Freeman began the lecture by describing how she became fascinated with nutrition, which is her specialty. Her main research focus is on the use of nutrition to prevent and slow the progression of heart disease, and she is able to use her clinical practice at the Cummings School to help develop her research.

“My particular area of interest is nutrition and heart disease. By using nutrition as a component of the therapy for [the patients in Freeman’s clinical practice], we can actually help them to improve,” Freeman said. “So we use it to help the animals, but we also study this to find what we can feed them and how we can feed them, to get them better more quickly and more effectively.”

Freeman’s lecture centered on exposing the myths of pet nutrition and educating pet owners on how to select an optimal diet.

“It’s a really difficult area for people to deal with because there are so many mixed messages coming out for our own nutrition,” she said. “You look in the newspaper, on the Internet, in the magazines, every single day there is something on nutrition, and then usually the next week there is something contradictory.”

According to Freeman, nutrition is an incredibly powerful area because it is one thing that pet owners can actually control. The $17 billion pet food industry — and the advertising that goes with it — does not help in debunking the myths.

Freeman emphasized that one pervasive myth in particular — the belief that the pet food industry is not regulated, which exploded after the 2007 pet food recall — is not true. According to Freeman, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) serves two crucial purposes: the AAFCO has pet food regulations that set the standards for individual states, and it also establishes nutrient profiles.

But how is this useful for the average pet owner when it comes time to select food? Freeman expressed her disbelief at the number of options in the grocery or pet store aisles, where each brand aims to convince owners that its food is best for the animal.

“The key is that a pet food label is an advertisement as well, and it has to appeal to us as consumers,” Freeman said. “Unfortunately, when I talk to owners, what they base their decision on is the advertisement, not the legal part.”

During the lecture, Freeman asked audience members which pieces of information on pet food labels were most important. According to Freeman, the most common answer given is the list of ingredients, but this is yet another myth.

“The … most important thing is the manufacturer,” she said. “You would absolutely be shocked at the variability in the quality of different companies.”

Freeman explained that at least one full-time, qualified nutritionist, a research and development department, self-operated plants and internal quality control standards are essential for any reliable manufacturer.

“You would be shocked at how many of these pet food companies do not have a nutritionist,” Freeman said. “I also don’t Daily Editorial Board

Y

courtesy lisa freeman

Freeman, who holds three Tufts degrees, lectured on animal nutrition at the latest Taste of Tufts installment March 9. want them to be spending all of their money on marketing. I want research and development [so they] continue to enhance their own foods, to enhance our knowledge collectively about nutrition.”

The second-most important fact on the label, Freeman said, is the nutritional adequacy statement, which reveals three essential pieces of information: whether or not the pet food is complete and balanced, how the company knows that it is complete and balanced and the intended life stage of the food.

“If you’re feeding this to your pet, you want it to meet all the nutrient needs for that animal,” Freeman said. “The best way to decide that is with feeding trials.

AAFCO has regulations, and they make sure that animals fed these foods actually stay healthy on these foods. And finally, the intended life stage — who it’s marketed for can be really different from who it meets the requirements for. That one little statement tells you a tremendous amount of information.”

Freeman presented images of pet food labels representing various brands, reading the nutritional adequacy statements and testing her audience as to whether these statements were reasonable.

One particular label for cat food that Freeman showed listed flaxseed — which can be metabolized in humans and at low efficiency in dogs, but not at all in cats — as an ingredient. According to Freeman, this is an indication that the company does not know a lot about nutrition.

“They used it for us, because we see flaxseed and think it’s great. That is marketing to us,” Freeman said. “People get really deceived by the ingredient list. But that’s how I use it — to look for red flags that say they don’t know very much.”

According to Freeman, pet owners make the process more difficult than it needs to be. She advises customers to be skeptical of marketing, as most of the “stuff” on the label is just advertisement and has little to do with quality.

In terms of assessing the health of a pet, body weight and condition are very important, Freeman said. Although there is a body condition “score chart” that can be used when feeling the animal’s ribs, Freeman has a new trick that she recommends to avoid assumptions.

“Make a fist and feel your knuckles. If you were feeling your dog or cat’s ribs, that’s too skinny,” she said. “Now flat hand, palm up and feel the base of your fingers. That’s overweight. If you make a flat hand, palm down and feel your knuckles … that’s just right. That’s what it should feel like, with that amount of pressure.”

According to Freeman, keeping a pet trim reduces the risk of orthopedic diseases, diabetes and back problems. In one study Freeman cited, dogs that are kept trim lived almost two years longer than dogs that were just a bit overweight.

Freeman drew her lecture to a close by testing the audience on other pet nutrition myths. She revealed that animal by-products are not actually poor quality meats, and that so-called “organic” pet foods do not have to meet specific requirements defined by the AAFCO to be labeled as such. The AAFCO also does not specifically define “human-grade,” “premium” and “holistic”; these are purely marketing terms, Freeman said, adding that “natural” is one word that actually has a specific AAFCO definition.

Freeman emphasized that dietary modifications can benefit animals with hip dysplasia, kidney disease, cancer and heart disease. Her hope is that pet owners are careful about trusting advertisements and believing the myths of pet nutrition.

“It’s a really important issue because there is so much confusion out there,” Freeman said. “[Pet owners] should find out the basics, talk to their veterinarian and be careful about what they read on the Internet. There’s good and bad information, and it’s often really difficult to discern which is which.”

ou’ve probably heard of ghostwriting — getting paid to write books and articles officially credited to another. Ghostwriting is almost as old as time. Early examples include the Bible (certain books have multiple anonymous contributors) and the 11th-century Japanese novel “The Tale of Genji,” which was probably completed by the author’s daughter. And of course, Shakespeare, if you believe the various conspiracy theories.

Ghostwriters are most famously used for autobiographies, but they are also used for other texts, including musical scores and screenplays as well as political speeches. A lot of celebrities who want to tell their stories but lack time or writing ability find a hired gun to polish their life on paper.

How has ghostwriting adapted to the 21st century? Well, there’s Wikipedia. This is the ultimate application of collaboration and crowd sourcing. Anyone can contribute to the articles and stubs online, and it gets really meta when you’re reading (or ghostwriting) the Wikipedia page about ghostwriting.

Another adaptation to today’s information-saturated world: ghost-Tweeting.

Everyone who “follows” Oprah likes to think they’re getting the 140 characters freshly on her mind, but the lowdown is actually coming from her ghost-Tweeter. All celebrities need to sculpt and maintain their public images, and Facebook and Twitter are valuable tools. According to a 2010 Forbes article, a lot of your favorite Twitter-active celebs are too busy or technologically Neolithic to keep up with their own social media — so they call in administrative assistants and public relations whizzes.

Social media outlets like blogs, websites and status updates help famous people get in touch with their fans, appear hip and craft their own image. Instead of relying on mainstream media to tweak, interpret and otherwise remake them, they have unprecedented autonomy in making their impression on the public. But we’re all aware that Facebook and Twitter can be huge time sinks.

Indeed, ghost-Tweeter Annie Colbert admitted in an interview in “Wired” magazine that she spends up to four hours a day Tweeting for one client. Even seemingly simple Tweets have to be researched and match the tone of the supposed author, down to whether they use emoticons with a nose.

Traditional ghostwriters are often paid for a multi-month contract by the page or a percentage of the book’s advance. They generally earn around $30,000 per project, although some ghostwriting services charge significantly less, and high-profile biographies can easily net six figures. Ghost-Tweeters like Colbert also tend to charge flat fees and tailor their work to clients’ needs.

Celebrities aren’t the only ones who need a savvy PR team, either. Ghost-blogger Amanda Alampi has Tweeted on behalf of Rachael Ray, a Pakistani-American imam at New York University and a nonprofit organization in Africa. Although it may seem like a cushy job, it’s no small responsibility. Think about how volatile social media can be when you’ve got 10 million followers. One typo, and you catch a ton of flak. One controversial remark, and the entire brand explodes. You might become a scapegoat (think Ron Paul’s newsletters).

Twitter’s appeal is the personal connection that comes with following, re-Tweeting and otherwise interacting in an online network.

The beauty of celebrity updates stems from seeing those political figures and movie stars express frustrations and joys in daily life, the same as anyone else. Lance Armstrong reportedly Tweeted left handed just hours after fracturing his right collarbone, proving to his followers that he’s the real deal.

For presidential candidates and pop singers, though, Twitter is a marketing tool like any other, and it’s a ghost in the machine that keeps the status updates flowing.

Alyson Yee is a senior majoring in biology and French. She can be reached at Alyson.

Yee@tufts.edu.

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Arts & Living

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Jacob Passy & Alex Kaufman | Sassy Cinema

Movie Review

‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ is standard but enjoyable comedy by

Short reviews just won’t do

Alex Hanno

Daily Editorial Board

Expectations are an odd thing. Despite its actual quality, if the expectations for a film are especially high and it falls below them,

Q

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen Starring Emily Blunt, Ewan McGregor, Amr Waked Directed by Lasse Hallström the film disappoints the viewer. But, if expectations are low and a film surpasses them, it might delightfully surprise the viewer. For the little-known romantic comedy, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” expectations haven’t really existed at all and, for this reason, a fairly average film turned out to be quite an enjoyable experience.

Based on the novel of the same name, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” tells the story of a neurotic fisheries expert, Dr. Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) who, after being prompted by the British government, comes to work on the most unlikely and seemingly impossible project imaginable: introducing North Atlantic salmon into the rivers of the Yemen.

Believing that such an accomplishment would prove to his country that there is still hope for Yemen, Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked) employs Dr. Jones, willing to spend whatever he must to inspire his people.

Aided by Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt), the Sheiks’ beautiful, sharp and witty

Pamelaspunch via Flickr Creative Commons

Sheikh Muhammad (Amr Waked) charges Dr. Jones (McGregor) with populating the river with salmon.

British legal representative, Dr. Jones, comes to realize that in Yemen, anything is possible.

If the theme of this summary seems slightly cliched, it’s because “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” tends to drift into stereotypical territory from time to time. Aside from the unique storyline of trying to transplant thousands of salmon into a river that at first glance can’t feasibly maintain them, the film is largely a predictable romantic comedy.

Yet, despite being a bit of a pastiche on the

Interview | Emily Blunt

surface, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” turns out to be a surprisingly clever and intelligent piece. Thanks to the talent and chemistry of Blunt and McGregor, a plot that might have dragged is ripe with sincere heart and welldeserved laughs. From Dr. Jones’ inability to tell jokes, to his insistence on calling Harriet “Ms. Chetwode-Talbot” every time he refers to her, McGregor continually amuses. As for see FISHING, page 6

Music Review

Wells’ third album wallows in pop mediocrity by

Alex Hanno

Daily Editorial Board

When artists put out a new album, they often change their musical style. Sometimes, this change is

Where We Meet Tyrone Wells Position Music

TD: The director of this movie is Lasse Hallstrom, the one who directed “Chocolat,” (2000), and the screenwriter is Simon Beaufoy, who was the writer for “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) … Were they attached at the time that you [joined the project]?

rewarding, as it allows a musician to evolve and build upon his or her foundation. Other times, such change can lead to a failed attempt at assimilating a genre the artist clearly cannot handle. In the case of singer/songwriter Tyrone Wells and his newest release, “Where We Meet,” the change in style falls somewhere in between. Regrettably, Wells’ latest album leaves behind the folky energy that dominated his early work. While he manages to offer listeners a different vibe, his old flair is sorely missed.

Tyrone Wells started out as a musician in Orange County over a decade ago, playing songs that blended folk, funk, acoustic and pop. Playing in coffee shops and malls across the area, Wells made his name as a certified singer/songwriter that found synergistic beauty in thoughtful lyrics and acoustic guitar. After releasing his first two full-length albums independently — “Snapshot” (2003) and “Hold On” (2006) — Wells established a bold and creative feel that had audiences singing and dancing along to his songs.

Since then, Wells has expanded

see BLUNT, page 6

see WELLS, page 6

Wikimedia Commons

Emily Blunt travelled to Morocco to film “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.”

Emily Blunt discusses ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ by

Alex Hanno

Daily Editorial Board

While promoting her new movie, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” the talented, beautiful and witty Emily Blunt thrilled fans at an early screening by coming out after the show for a question-and-answer session.

Tufts Daily: So, about this film. Were you familiar with the book?

Emily Blunt: I had not read the book, and when I saw the script I thought, “How on earth is this film getting made?” because it

was just such a weird title. I called my mom and I said, “I’ve been offered this movie, I really love the script, it’s ‘Salmon Fishing in the —’” and she went, “‘In the Yemen?’ Oh I really love that book, you have to do it, it’s wonderful!’” So she was all for it.

uirky, depressing, dramatic, horrid. Nowadays, many filmgoers write off movies with one-word descriptions like the above, immediately conjuring an image of the movie and having an immediate guttural reaction. “Oh, it’s depressing? I’d rather not spend $10 on a ticket to be depressed for the rest of the night!” We, at Sassy Cinema, would like to take a stab at figuring out why people are so apt to minimize a movie to one word.

Is it easier to determine Friday night plans? Sure. We’re convinced that when you’re planning your Friday nights with friends or significant others, or just planning a good old movie night (those are still in fashion, right?), describing a movie in several words or less makes planning much easier. And of course that might be a viable and simple way to review a movie for friends. But is the easiest method really the best one? Does classifying a movie in one word truly capture the essence of it?

Thought so.

Did one word in the movie stick out to viewers? This may be a bit of a stretch but stick with us for a moment. Some movies’ main themes could, hypothetically, be summed up by one word of the following words: death, blood, revenge. And that one word is what our friends left the theater with … Okay, we were cringing while we were writing that. That answer is quite hard to swallow.

Maybe people don’t narrow movies down to one-word descriptions to expedite their planning. And we’re sure that a movie wouldn’t be so blunt (in most cases) to restate its one-word theme a gratuitous number of times in the span of an hour and a half. There must be something we’re missing.

Do viewers simplify what they saw into one word? It’s possible that when moviegoers reflect on movies they’ve seen, they automatically narrow it down to one word.

Viewers come out of the theater with just a few words in response like, “It was good” or “It was quirky.” We sassily respond that, while many people do this, anyone who sees a movie can come out of the theater with at least a sentence’s worth of response. We’ve never seen a movie and just had two words to say about it. Rarely do we see a movie and are rendered speechless (though that’s typically due to cinematic genius).

The point we are attempting to articulate is that making sweeping judgments about movies translates into a slew of movies — wonderful, interesting and unique movies — that we’ll miss out on because there were just a few one-word reviews from our peers, whose opinions we of course value above all else.

We contend that movies are so much more than that, and that it’s impossible to categorize a movie with one word. We sass those who defy us and continue to overconcisely typify movies. To make a blatantly cliched metaphor, a movie is like a piece of art or even a favorite book. Each time you go back to it, there’s more to see, more to analyze and more to learn. What we learn and what we as individuals take away from a film will be entirely different. But, nonetheless, that reaction or that lesson that we were taught will be longer than two words: we promise.

Challenge yourselves and challenge your friends to review a movie in fuller detail.

Challenge them to expand their cinematic lens and to open their critical, sassy eye when they consume movies. Who knows, you might find “A Brave New World” to explore.

Jacob Passy is a junior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at Jacob.Passy@tufts.edu. Alex Kaufman is a sophomore majoring in sociology. He can be reached at Alexander.Kaufman@ tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

6

Arts & Living

Monday, March 12, 2012

Wells ‘sells out’ in ‘Where We Meet,’ moving away from his original style WELLS

continued from page 5

his scope, traveling all over the country. But other things have changed about Wells, including his music. Much of the funk that flavored his songs is gone. Sporadic twangs of guitar are no longer strewn throughout, the surprising falsetto is rarely used and those groovy moments of slow, deep bass guitar or synthesizer have been replaced with poppy, generic tunes or meaningless ballads.

That’s not to say “Where We Meet” isn’t worth a listen — there are a few bright spots. Though the lead single, “Freedom,” embodies Wells’ newfound love for synthetic “pop,” it’s undeniably catchy, upbeat and fun. It might not be as artistic as the songs from his past works, but “Freedom” starts the album on a high note and easily gets you up on your feet.

Unfortunately, what follows is a generic, lifeless ballad titled “You’re the One.” Further weighing on the album is the lugubrious dirge “I Can’t Save You Now.” Only with “Satellite” does the album perk back up, demonstrating some of the resonating lyricism that endeared Wells to listeners in the past. Yet, compared to his breakout album, “Remain,” “Satellite” lacks the folksy instrumentality that energized Wells’ earlier music.

Thankfully, Wells saves his album with a string of lively songs. “The Most” starts off rather dull, but picks up as it progresses. The two songs that follow, “Head Over Heels” and “Run Away With Me,” are pure fun. They’re innocent, juve-

nile, and careless in a good way, prompting fans to forget their worries and live in the moment. While the album is devoid of the energy Wells once possessed, these songs are the closest he comes to matching his past whimsy.

The rest of the album droops, with a slew of tracks that satisfy, at least to the point that they do not outright disappoint. These songs, like much of Wells’ newer work, feature sentimental lyrics that get lost in the mediocrity of the album.

The album manages to finish on a relatively strong note, pumping up the listener over the course of “Way Out.” By the time the freeing and easygoing bonus track “Say I Love You” has come to an end, you’ll almost have forgotten about the album’s many letdowns … almost.

It’s tough for an artist to escape the allure of popularity and mainstream success; simply put, it pays. It’s possible, even likely, that Tyrone Wells gave in to this allure with “Where We Meet,” replacing his original groovy, folky style with a more generic pop approach that appeals to a wider audience. The most disappointing part of this change is the quality of Wells’ lyrics. Where once his lyrics were spiritual and full of heart, his newest songs are not nearly as well drafted and feel empty and featureless in comparison.

While Tyrone Wells’ “Where We Meet” is generally a disappointment, the album still entertains at times, and fans can always turn to his older albums for an amazing listen.

Wikimedia Commons

Wells’ artful lyricism is largely absent from his newest album.

‘Salmon Fishing’ features strong acting but suffers from unambitious plot

FISHING

continued from page 5

Blunt, she infuses such frankness, sarcasm and sincerity into Harriet, that you can’t help but smile when she comes on screen.

“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’s” true pleasure comes from the supporting performance from Kristen Scott Thomas, who plays the Prime Minister’s press Secretary, Patricia Maxwell. Thomas serves as the movie’s main outlet for humor, marching across the screen with a no-nonsense attitude and severe bluntness that leave characters stunned in her wake. Of course, the audience can’t help but enjoy it.

Though the film sports some quality acting, it misses the mark at times in terms of plot.

There’s just too much going on. The two leads fighting against falling in love, the outlandish, million-dollar salmon transplant, the ploy by the British government to push the project through as a “good-faith” opportunity in the Middle East; all of these are acceptable plot points and some are interwoven quite well.

Yet on top of all this, the film felt the need to challenge the characters — who obviously have enough conflict on their plate — with radical Muslim terrorists attempting to stop the Sheikh’s plan.

Aside from completely eradicating the lighthearted, endearing tone, this sub-plot just fills up time and slows the pace of the movie, having little to do with storylines the audience cares about. Furthermore, it disrupts the flow of the film and takes what was witty and comedic about it and makes it serious and tragic.

These scenes were likely part of the book and were deemed necessary for the film by Simon Beaufoy, who adapted the screenplay. When a movie diverges from its source material it tends to disappoint, but in this rare case, changing such a minor aspect would have gone a long way in improving the production.

What really made “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” a fun experience though was expectation, or rather the lack thereof. Having heard little about the film, most viewers’ expectations were low, and “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” soared above these doubts with its fantastic cast and surprisingly clever wit. Thus, despite being an average film overall, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” was a delightful experience, simply because it was unexpected.

Of course, this review will boost audiences’ expectations, so who knows how enjoyable it will be now.

Blunt discusses exotic setting of ‘Salmon Fishing’ BLUNT

continued from page 5

EB: Yes, Lasse was attached and that was a real draw for me, because I think he brings the most unique sensibility to all his work, and he’s just full of heart. He’s a wonderfully odd person … I knew he’d bring something interesting and fresh to this film.

TD: It’s beautifully filmed — I mean it looks extremely exotic. Was it fun to be in those locales?

EB: Yeah it was heaven. It was like being in some sort of desert-like Neverland when you’re out in Morocco. It was just beautiful and between takes we were sipping coffee in a Bedouin tent. You just think, ‘Oh my God, what an extraordinary job!’ ... It was just a lovely atmosphere and it was one of those magical films ... They’re not all as easy and effortless as this one was, and everyone had a great time on it, which is quite rare.

TD: Now, the river in the film — is that real?

Is it computer generated?

EB: We built it. We swam in it. Can you imagine green-screening that? … It was freezing, and it was only two feet of water, and we had to pretend we were swimming in this huge dam, [but we’re really] scrapping our stomachs across the rocks, going “Isn’t it beautiful?” It was one of those really weird moments of shooting a film. It was not the most pleasant experience, being in the wade.

TD: Romantic comedy — it’s a very tricky thing, not done terribly well these days. But, it did look like there was a very believable relationship with Ewan McGregor.

Pamelaspunch via Flickr Creative Commons

McGregor’s and Blunt’s chemistry is one of the film’s highlights.

EB: He’s heaven, I mean he’s really easy to work with and he’s fun as hell. He’s just lovely. It’s a funny thing with chemistry, I feel like, with people I’ve had chemistry with — both men and women — that it comes out more effectively if you have a great rapport offset. I think you find a natural rhythm with that person that really resonates on-

screen as well. ... He made it very easy. I’m sure a lot of people love Ewan McGregor.

He’s very easy to love.

TD: In Toronto, huge reaction to this film.

People really loved it. What do you think it is about this film that’s hitting people?

EB: I think it’s uplifting. I think it has a really lovely message of the impossible being made possible, and I think it’s important to show that relationship between the East and West and a shared aspiration. There’s a really hopeful message in there.

TD: This character [Harriet ChetwodeTalbot] is very complex, how did you prepare for the role?

EB: That’s what drew me to the part actually, the complexity of her situation. She’s ultimately grieving for most of the film and yet embarking on this hopeful aspiration, this ludicrous dream. So I thought that was an interesting juxtaposition for someone to be in. ... I really have no process [though]. ...

I just sort of read it, and think, and listen to music and try to identify with this person and her situation.

TD: Do you really speak Mandarin [for the role]?

EB: I only learned how to talk about sandstone walls and water pressure. I don’t know how to say, “Hello, my name is Emily.” But I know how to talk about salmon!

TD: Do you have any funny stories from the set?

EB: Um … I managed to hook Ewan McGregor’s dog when I attempted to fish.

Is that funny or cruel? He has this really sweet little dog that looks like a lamb, I mean he’s such a sweet dog, he’s tiny, I almost just launched him into the lake!

Ewan persuaded me to give fishing a go and I tried once, hooked the dog, and that was it. It’s an awful sound, to hear that “arf.” It’s the worst!

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Monday, March 12, 2012

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Monday, March 12, 2012

The shrinking humanities

Daniel J. Rathman Editorial

Editorial | Letters

What can you do with a Ph.D. in English? Or philosophy? Or history? It’s a question that every undergraduate considering humanities graduate school has to ask him- or herself before filling out applications and taking the GREs. For the majority who would like to land a job in academia, the prospects are uncertain at best. Fewer than half of doctoral graduates with humanities degrees typically receive a job offer that ends up leading to a tenure-track position. And the outlook has only worsened in recent years, with about one open tenure-track position for every four candidates in 2011.

Those who don’t get lucky are often left to patch together a career of low-paying, part-time teaching jobs and hope that a full-time position eventually opens up for them. Or else they move on to another field entirely.

Recently, higher education administrators throughout the country have taken action to reduce the number of unemployed and underemployed humanities doctoral graduates by trimming down the number of students accepted into Ph.D. programs. Although this may seem like a terrible proposition on first read, we think it is a necessary step.

To be clear, this isn’t a matter of a few

middle-of-the-pack graduate schools cutting acceptance rates in order to inflate their prestige. Some of the best humanity graduate programs in the country are curtailing their acceptances.

The English program at The Ohio State University, for example, plans on cutting its acceptances in half for the next academic year. In the late 1990s, the program typically admitted around 60 students a year, but it’s planning on taking just 20 in the future. Some universities are changing their curricula in addition to slashing new student pools. The history department at Pennsylvania State University has eliminated certain subfields and specialization areas in the program because they have found they do not lead to jobs for students.

There’s no denying that the humanities have been — and always will be — an extremely important branch of academia.

It’s definitely sad to see fewer graduate students admitted to Ph.D. programs in areas such as English and art history. But frankly, it’s certainly a more palatable solution than putting students through the ringer for years and years without the ability — or even the likelihood — to provide them with a payoff for their work.

Graduate school requires a great deal

of time, money and effort, and if it doesn’t lead to a satisfying career, wouldn’t it have been better to just get a rejection letter before it all began? We think so, for the sake of both the students themselves and the country’s still-massive unemployment rate.

Smaller Ph.D. programs should also mean that only the most qualified students are admitted to the programs of their choice. This should help ensure that the students that do get in will be more dedicated and prepared for the long road ahead. And it should weed out more of the students who aren’t committed to being in graduate school but rather see it as a failsafe if they have trouble landing a job after their undergraduate work.

Because of the ample job prospects available in the sciences, there’s a never-ending debate among college students over whether the humanities are worth studying. We believe any subject is worth studying as an undergraduate, and students of all majors can go on to have lucrative careers. But graduate school is a different story. Graduate work is meant to be vocational training, and there is no logic in training so many people for a field in which there are so few jobs.

Louie Zong

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Off the Hill | University of Virginia

Phantom tollbooths by

The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board Cavalier Daily

Can anyone remember a time before Amazon? The company was founded in mid-1990s Seattle, which then delivered grunge and is still here, having tracked us students from hometown holidays to our shipping out to college.

Students love Amazon, where they buy fair-priced textbooks at the start of each semester. But on Monday, Feb. 28, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a bill 95-2 — even Amazon can’t normally give us such deals — that would make the company pay and collect sales tax in Virginia starting in September of 2013. Customers of Amazon should nevertheless find value in an Internet company that has willingly asked legislators to tighten industry loopholes, starting with itself.

Since the Supreme Court case Quill Corp. v. North Dakota (1992), the rule has been that a company needs a “physical presence” in a state if it is to be required to collect and remit that state’s taxes. The notion of a sales tax being extracted from Amazon provides an overpass from this physical

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.

presence controversy because Amazon planned to construct two distribution centers in Virginia this winter to help out the elves, presumably.

A 95-2 vote looks too good to be true; even Amazon was all in favor and no one seemed to oppose. Everyone, in fact, looks to profit: with the sales tax from holiday shopping, especially, the state gets revenue, Santa gets cookies and Amazon makes dough.

Starting this February, Amazon rolled out a handling fee as an option to third-party sellers who work through its site. For outside sellers in certain states, this fee takes 2.9 percent off the top for Amazon to process state taxes. This fee could discourage third parties — parties that had previously had the convenience of selling their wares online without considering taxes — from continuing to distribute on Amazon.

Not only in Virginia, but across state legislatures, Amazon has worked with policymakers to coordinate taxes.

Amazon spokespeople have given vocal support and testified before the U.S. Congress about the advantages of having an Internet sales tax. A cynic

might say Amazon is taking steps toward legal legitimacy to make first impressions in legislatures where it may return to lobby later, but Amazon wants such laws to be enacted not only for itself but for all companies online. This is not Amazon’s scheme to crowd out competition by having the same rules apply, but knowing that like any frontier, the Internet needs laws and it’s best to take part in shaping them.

In addition, students who will now pay taxes on textbooks may wonder why Amazon gave up a legal fight that was still undecided, especially since Amazon has made what looks to some like the masochistic move of asking the government to tax them.

But taxes, in their full-blown banality, are the engine driving our education and our protests. The take-home order from the Amazon case is not that taxes should be changed one way or the other, but simply that the ones in place ought to be applied equally.

Though Amazon had lobbied for years against closing tax loopholes, we as university students should learn from its conscientious retraction.

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‘Act of Valor’: Take another look by

Konrad Gessler

While it may not be Oscar material, “Act of Valor” deserves a chance at redemption in The Tufts Daily. “Act of Valor” needs to be seen for what it is: a recruiting film for the Navy SEALs with active duty Navy SEALs as actors. Of course the quality of acting in this movie will not be first rate, but what it lacks in acting it makes up for in accuracy in depicting how the SEALs operate, which in my opinion is the most important aspect of any movie about the military, an institution that most Americans know little about. That being said, “Act of Valor” is a quality movie not because of what it is, but because of what it is not.

Rather than being a movie that makes every 13-year-old leave with the desire to be a badass Navy SEAL, “Act of Valor” drives home the point that in order to be a SEAL, one has to have little regard for his life in the face of danger, and they must be willing to leave family behind in the name of serving their country.

Sporadically inserted into the narrative of the film are quotes by William Tecumseh, a General in the Union Army whose quotes are often used to glorify bravery in warfare. “Live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart” is one of Tecumseh’s quotes that appears in “Act of Valor.”

In my opinion, it’s important for a movie depicting the military, especially the military elite, to demonstrate that a real sense of selflessness and little desire for selfpreservation are critical characteristics for those who serve in these units. You may be wondering why a recruiting film would drive this point home. The Navy SEALs are not looking to recruit everyone. This is an example of targeted recruitment; a few

people have the required characteristics of a SEAL. I agree with the previous review (Mar. 1) that the plot of this movie is unimpressive. The SEALs are up against a Ukrainian drug lord who teams up with a Chechen Islamic fundamentalist who uses Filipino suicide bombers to obtain his terror campaign against the United States. Realistic? Maybe not. However, the sexy locations and nationalities that grace the screen make the movie entertaining to watch, albeit ridiculous.

Bottom line, this film is trying to send the message that we are still in an age of American primacy, and that the United States can act wherever it wants, whenever it wants, with the SEALs as the tip of the spear. Even though the plot may not be accurate, the action scenes that show the SEALs in combat seem for the most part realistic. It’s clear that the director did his research and wanted to make these operation scenes as accurate as possible. He had a real Navy SEAL team at his disposal after all.

It’s interesting to take a look at the timing of this movie. Special Operations is a big winner in the recent budget cuts laid out by the Pentagon in January. Instead of losing funding, Special Operations Command has gained more personnel and a larger budget. Last month, Admiral William H. McRaven, who leads Special Operations Command, called to expand his authority to deploy Special Operation Forces around the world and to have more autonomy to make these decisions. President Obama is continually calling on the SEALs to carry out risky and high profile operations, such as the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, and the rescue of two aid

MCT

workers in Somalia in January.

In summary, “Act of Valor” may not be a movie that has an intricate and clever plot with top-class actors to impress the Academy; however, it was never meant to be this. “Act of Valor” has succeeded in being a film that accurately portrays the Navy SEALs without losing touch of

reality and over-glorifying their heroic actions. “Act of Valor” entices recruits, but it does so tactfully. Think twice before signing up to become a SEAL. Konrad Gessler is a sophomore majoring in international relations.

Defense of the indefensible

by John

Lapin

Andrew Teal, Chaplain of Pembroke College at Oxford University, gave a sermon this week entitled “An Overdue Apology,” spurred by the administration’s decision to ignore a nearly-unanimous Junior Common Room decision to fly a rainbow flag in support of LGBTQ history month. Dr. Teal, who supports the motion, wanted to apologize for the complicity of the Anglican Church in the oppression of minorities and women. Though his church would not fight against birth control, it has a history of collusion and marginalization. Near Pembroke lies a plaque memorializing the 16th century “Oxford Martyrs,” who were burned alive for the crime of being Catholic. Dr. Teal agreed that any defense of the Church must begin with a sincere, heartfelt apology.

I will not enumerate the crimes of the Catholic Church — to do so would be an ad nausea theological and historical exegesis — but rather, I will respond to Mr. Lesinski’s specious defense of the Church in the Daily (Mar. 1) and to his comment about my “troubling” audacity to criticize it.

I want to make explicit from the start that I have no animosity for anyone who has chosen to find comfort or community in the form of religion. To deny these beneficences would be as cruel and contrary to the democratic process on which our country was founded as the actions of the Church itself. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of religion — which we must vigilantly protect. But it also protects citizens from religion, which is what the Catholic Church — and non-Catholics who have opportunistically taken up the charge — jeopardizes in characterizing women’s reproductive health as an assault on religious freedom.

Mr. Lesinski’s accusation that my article is ineffective in advancing the argument for universal birth control coverage misses the point. That argument has been made and won. The vast

majority of Americans believe women ought to have free access to birth control without interference from religious groups to which they may not even belong.

While women’s health should not be a political issue, it has become one. My response to Lesinski’s claim that my challenge does not amount to political discourse rests on two premises: 1) by writing an opinion piece on a political issue, I am exo ipso engaging in political discourse; and 2) it is only because my criticism is directed at the Catholic Church rather than at Republican Members of Congress or presidential candidates that Mr. Lesinski describes it as “petty” and intolerant.

For an illogical reason, religion is given a free pass out of logical discourse. We argue against political opinions but not against religious beliefs.

Why? Religion is based on faith, which claims to be immune to logic, reasoning and debate. But when its practices are imposed on people outside of its membership, criticism should not be off-limits. In criticizing the Catholic Church, I am seeking to engage religion in the same way we engage politics.

I would like to see religious practices included in legitimate discourse, and while such dialogues are rare, they are not unprecedented. Why is someone who criticizes religion labeled as “incendiary” and “hateful,” when someone who criticizes another’s political opinions is just of the other wing?

To remove religion from acceptable discourse is a disservice.

Lesinski does not report his sources on the rise of secularism, so we do not know where he went wrong. But any scholar of history or philosophy could tell you that it originated long before the last 50 years, which Lesinski quotes.

For as long as there has been theism, there has been atheism. Ancient Greek rationalists pre-date Christ by centuries, and the 15th Century printing press catalyzed the Enlightenment of the mid-17th Century.

But this is beside the point. My article sought to expose the hypocritical and archaic practices of Catholic bishops, whose sexism has endured since the first Vicar of Christ took his throne.

The bishops refuse to acknowledge that 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women regularly use contraception.

They do not want women to control their own bodies, and they refuse to accept the emancipation of women from the shackles of patriarchy. By mischaracterizing the birth control issue as an assault on religious freedom, they are complicit in the continued oppression of 50 percent of the population.

Lesinski maintains that criticizing the Catholic Church is “troubling” simply because the Church has been around for 2,000 years. Really? Slavery has existed for far longer than 2,000 years, and we rightly condemn that practice.

Women could not vote in the U.S. for hundreds of years, and we condemn that, too. Are we wrong to denounce those practices simply because they existed for a long time?

The sort of relativism in Lesinski’s argument amounts to nihilism. The Catholic Church burned alive the Oxford Martyrs in 1555 and 1556; we are right to condemn the Church’s actions today, more than 450 years later. Lesinski claims that young people cannot be qualified to be critical of a practice that has existed for a “long” time. Can we only debate events of our own lifetime? And he chides me for not engaging in legitimate discourse.

In any event, the Catholic Church has not been consistent in its practices.

Its doctrinal changes have been clear cases of expediency rather than divine inspiration. The “virtue” of chastity — in some forms, but, tragically, not in others — is a recent practice in the history of the Church. In fact, it was not until the Second Lateran Council of 1139 that the Church decided clergy must remain chaste, and the practice did not become universal until around 1400. But the Church’s rationale

for this change is even more interesting. The Vatican worried that its great land holdings would be diminished if priests had family members to give land to. The concept of purgatory did not become Church doctrine until the Council of Trent in the mid-1500s. The reason for its adoption was to frighten followers into conformity and submission and to fill Church coffers through the sale of indulgences. And it was not until 1964, when political pressure made it necessary to do so, that the Church pardoned Jews of deicide for killing Jesus. These examples show that doctrines of the Church, while long lasting, ought not be taken at face value or be immune from attack. The fact that the Catholic Church has been around for approximately 2,000 years should not itself create immunity from criticism. Nor is it right that the Church cannot be encouraged to change, since it has done so, however slowly, since its beginning. But, alas, the Catholic Church cannot err.

After years of denial, the Church has begun to condemn its institutionalized rape of children. (Though it still rewards those like the villainous former Archbishop of Boston Bernard Francis Law, who was appointed to the Roman Curia and made archpriest emeritus of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, after covering up major cases of abuse.) It’s time for the Church to step back from its paternalistic power plays and acknowledge that women have the right to be free from the interference in the legitimate exercise of autonomy over their bodies.

The Catholic Church must apologize to victims — not repent to God — for the 20 centuries it has spent marginalizing and oppressing women and minorities.

It can start by ending its meddling with women’s reproductive health care and getting its rosaries off women’s ovaries.

John Lapin is a junior majoring in philosophy.

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

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Sports

Monday, March 12, 2012

Comeback effort comes up short in final seconds in wake of controversial call WOMEN’S BASKETBALL continued from Back

in the first half, which led to foul trouble.

Tufts committed 12 fouls in the first, and St. Thomas capitalized by getting to the line early and often, where they shot nearly 85 percent for the night. It also forced senior Tiffany Kornegay, the heart of the Tufts defense, out of the game for nearly 10 minutes because of foul trouble. At intermission, St. Thomas led 22-20.

The second half started the same way the first period did: with stifling pressure defense and dominance down low from St. Thomas.

Layups by 6-foot-2 sophomore forward Maggie Weiers, guard Kelly Brandenburg and Smith stretched the lead to seven by the 13:46 mark. Then, following a basket from junior guard Collier Clegg, the Tommies went on a 9-2 run, giving them a 14-point lead with only eight minutes remaining and forcing the Jumbos to call a timeout.

“With their press, we just had to be aware of where they were on the court,” Foley said of the St. Thomas defense. “[Barnosky] helped bring up the ball, which helped us out. It was tough getting past their traps.”

Tufts refused to go down easily. Following an inspirational speech from Berube during the timeout, Barnosky hit layups on back-to-back possessions. She was fouled on the second, and converted the free throw to bring the deficit back into single digits. A couple minutes later, Barnosky found Morehead on the wing for a three-pointer, and, on the next possession, Foley penetrated to find Morehead again for another three.

All of a sudden, it was a three-point game, 44-41, and the momentum had swung back in the Jumbos’ favor with just four-and-ahalf minutes to play.

“We had huge fight in us one through five on the court,” Barnosky said. “We had plenty of time and we knew we had a good shot if we settled down. We just needed to attack the press and attack on offense and we’d get good shots.”

“We took it one stop at a time and just started slowly chipping away,” Foley added.

“Our shots weren’t dropping, so coach said we should attack more. I think [Barnosky]

did a great job of attacking and getting to the line a couple of times.”

The game was back and forth from there, with Barnosky pulling the deficit to one twice in the final minutes. On one possession she got herself to the line and connected on both free throws, while the second time she hit a jump shot over her defender. For the night, the Jumbos were 13-of-14 from the line.

With just 30 seconds remaining and St. Thomas still clutching onto a one-point lead, Tufts elected to foul sophomore forward Taylor Young to stop the clock. This approach proved successful when Young, an 82.7 percent foul shooter on the season, misfired on both free-throw attempts from the line, giving the Jumbos a chance to take the lead. But the Jumbos could not successfully inbound the ball on their second try, and Ring intercepted sophomore Liz Moynihan’s pass. Ring increased the margin to 50-47 at the line, and the Jumbos were unable to find the rim in their last-gasp effort.

Ultimately, it was the size and length of the Tommies that was the difference in the game. St. Thomas outrebounded Tufts while holding the Jumbos to just 24.6 percent shooting. Smith finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and was a perfect seven-forseven from the field. Young also had an impressive performance with 15 points, four rebounds and two steals.

Barnosky paced the Jumbos with 11 points, five boards and three assists, while Morehead and Moynihan chipped in with nine points each. Morehead’s points came on a trio of three pointers, two of which helped lead the team’s second-half comeback charge.

The Tommies went on to defeat Calvin College, advancing to the Final Four next weekend in Michigan.

In one of the best seasons in program history, the Jumbos finished with five more wins than they had a year ago.

“I’m really proud of everything we accomplished,” Barnosky said. “There were a lot of questions going into the season and we had a disappointing year last year not making the tourney. Everyone stepped up and proved people wrong by putting Tufts basketball back on the map.”

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Matchup with Camels looms on Tuesday WOMEN’S LACROSSE continued from Back

Junior standout Rachel Friedman, who scored 70 goals last year, also came out strong for Hamilton, notching a goal and two assists in the first frame.

But it was the ability to contain Friedman, Hamilton’s best offensive weapon, that gave Tufts the opportunity to surge back in the second half. The Jumbos held the former ECAC Div. III All-Star to just one goal in the final 25 minutes, a crucial accomplishment that ultimately turned the tide of the game.

“During our scouting report, our coaches all said that she was a big threat and that she scores a lot of goals,” Lotz said. “We knew that she likes to get into the crease and cut back, so we focused on that a lot in practice and we knew that we would be prepared for her.”

The turning point came with the Continentals up 6-3 and in possession of the ball after winning a faceoff with 16:55 remaining. Despite multiple attempts on goal and almost five minutes of possession,

Hamilton’s offense could not break through.

Then, following a turnover, Hyland scored and Tufts came roaring back.

“Being down three goals in lacrosse isn’t that big of a deficit,” senior tri-captain Lara Kozin said. “So we just knew that we couldn’t let up any more goals. We just needed to regain some momentum.”

Tufts scored four unanswered goals to take the lead, but Friedman responded with a tally with 2:33 remaining to tie the score at seven.

Then, with 45 seconds left, senior midfielder Casey Egan scored on a free-position shot to give Tufts the win.

Last year, winning close games was not one of the Jumbos’ strengths, as they lost five one-goal contests. On Saturday, they were determined to buck that trend.

“We lost so many one-goal games last year that I think we had the mindset that we absolutely refused to lose that game,” Lotz said.

“That got us even more excited, knowing that we were just not going to let that happen again this year.”

The win was a crucial one for Tufts, which is

Wood scores five points in first career start MEN’S LACROSSE continued from Back

ties in the first half. But we gathered ourselves and put the pieces together offensively and defensively. The defense only giving up two goals in the second half allowed us to convert more and really get the ball on cage for some better looks. We learned from our mistakes and really put together a great second effort.”

Five minutes into the third quarter, McCormick notched his third goal of the day to tie the game, and the Jumbos never looked back. Wood, Bowers, senior George Shafer and junior Geoff Sheasby also added goals during the 5-1 run.

In the final quarter, Tufts outscored Hamilton 5-1 yet again, and after Sadoff buried a feed from junior Luke Walsh at the 9:50 mark, Watkins and the Jumbos’ defense posted a shutout for the remainder of the contest.

Freshman Cole Bailey, who anchored the offense from behind the net for much of the afternoon, notched his first collegiate goal, while Bowers, Wood, Shafer and McCormick finished off multi-point

days with goals in the final minutes.

“Offensively it was great to see guys step up yesterday, with Beau and Cole getting their first starts and coming up big,” McCormick said. “They had a lot of confidence, and Pete Bowers also had a game. It was really great in our first game to see the younger guys step up and fill the voids, and even with [Kirwan] out, Sheasby played a pretty great game in his place.”

While Hamilton consistently struggled to push the ball in transition, finishing 17-for-28 on clear attempts, Tufts completed all but one of its own, executing their transition game flawlessly. “[Saturday] was huge for our defensive game,” McCormick said. “We cleared the ball well from the defensive end all the way to the offensive end. Our attack rode great with the help of our middies and long poles, so that was a real factor, and we turned a lot of their turnovers on clears into goals. We’re always working on pushing the ball, riding hard and just looking to move the ball up the field and attacking goal.”

Tufts held Hamilton’s biggest scoring threats, Leanos and senior Henry Burchenal,

Zach Drucker | The Loser

now 1-0 both overall and in the NESCAC after downing the conference’s newest squad.

“I think it was really important to get the win and beat Hamilton. It kind of set the tone for the season,” Kozin said. “This was the only game we went into without knowing much about our opponent, and so it’s good to know we can take on a team like that and be successful. By winning this one-goal game it definitely gives us confidence knowing that we can come out on top in these close games.”

The Jumbos will have little time to savor the victory; they will travel to Conn. College for another critical conference game tomorrow. Though the Camels had only one win in the NESCAC last year, the Jumbos are not taking the game lightly and are still tweaking a few aspects of their game plan.

“We’ll focus more on our offense and also ground balls and those 50-50 balls, because we got beaten to a lot of those against Hamilton,” Lotz said. “We’re just going to keep improving and practicing parts of our game.”

to a combined four points. With the exception of two short-lived scoring runs in the first half, the Jumbos’ defense — anchored by veteran juniors John Heard, Sam Gardner and Matt Callahan — shut down the Continentals.

“Having all those returners on defense really gives the rest of our team great confidence,” McCormick said. “We trust everyone who’s on the field to do their job, and obviously those guys and Patton in the cage make our job easier. We know they’re going to hold it down on their end and it’s our job to convert on the other end.”

Plenty of critics doubted the offense’s ability to produce goals with a revamped roster coming into the season, but the Jumbos did all they could to silence them on Saturday, proving that they are ready to turn to a new page in the program.

Tufts will play its home opener tomorrow against Conn. College, which is 0-1 in the NESCAC after a 7-5 loss to No. 18 Bowdoin.

“Our focus is all on [Conn.] right now,” McCormick said. “They and us are the only two teams standing in our way, and so starting Monday we’ll watch some film and start game-planning. We’ll be ready.”

Athletes of the Week casey egan | women’s lacrosse With 45 seconds remaining in the women’s lacrosse team’s season opener on Bello Field on Saturday, senior midfielder Casey Egan scored a goal that flipped the script for the day, and, quite possibly, the entire season.

The No. 14 Jumbos trailed the No. 7 Hamilton Continentals, 6-3, with 10:30 to play. But Tufts came storming back, scoring four unanswered goals in a seven-minute span to take the lead. Then, with 2:33 remaining, Hamilton’s star scorer Rachel Friedman came through with her second goal and fourth point of the game to tie it up at seven.

Hamilton won the ensuing faceoff but turned the ball over to Tufts and, with under a minute left, Egan earned a free-position shot. She buried it — and the Jumbos ran out the clock to improve to 1-0 on the year.

Egan was tied for the team lead in goals last season with 39 and was second in total points. On Saturday, she was helped out by three goals from sophomore attackman Gabby Horner and two points each from senior attackmen Kelly Hyland and tri-captain Lara Kozin.

Squeezing out late-game victories will likely be a key area for improvement for the Jumbos this season, considering that they went 3-5 last year in games decided by a single goal.

Kyra sturgill / The Tufts Daily

jana hieber | women’s track and field

courtesy tufts athletics

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Jana Hieber, a sophomore, earned third place in the pentathlon at this past weekend’s NCAA Div. III Indoor Track and Field Championships in Iowa. In doing so, she not only earned her first All-American honor, but also broke an eight-year-old school record in the event, which was previously held by one of Tufts’ best track athletes ever, Jessica Trombly (LA ‘04).

Hieber racked up 3,401 points to shatter Trombly’s previous school best of 3,198, and she especially thrived in the 800-meter and the 60-meter hurdle portions of the event. She won the 800 with a time of 2:17.86 and placed fifth in the 60-meter hurdle, finishing in 9.34 seconds. Entering the weekend, Hieber’s score of 3,236 points — which she achieved at the Tufts Stampede on Feb. 4 — ranked her just 12th out of the 15 athletes in the pentathlon.

As a freshman, Hieber competed at two national meets, but narrowly missed the All-American cutoff as part of the ninth-place Distance Medley Relay team at last year’s indoor championships.

Hieber’s third-place result was the best of any Tufts athlete at the national meet. Ten members of the men’s and women’s teams were named All Americans, including all four representatives of the women’s squad. Seniors Nakeisha Jones and Heather Theiss and junior Kelly Allen each placed in the top eight in their events.

Pey It Forward

T

his past weekend, the New York Jets made two decisive moves in one swift action. Jets management extended much maligned starting quarterback Mark Sanchez’s contract, solidifying Sanchez’s role at the helm of the organization. But this move had a reverberating upshot, since it effectively removed the Jets from the Peyton Manning sweepstakes.

So did the Jets make the right decision? The answer, from this lifelong Jets fan’s perspective, is yes and no.

On the bright side, the Jets showed uncharacteristic restraint. Recently, Jets management has attempted to resurrect the franchise by signing big name players to bloated contracts.

They doled out millions to Ty Law, Braylon Edwards, LaDainian Tomlinson and, most recently, Plaxico Burress. Most of these investments did not pan out, as these players did not produce as expected and the Jets still have not made it to their ultimate destination, the Super Bowl, since 1969.

Many presumed the Jets would be interested in signing Manning, even before the Indianapolis Colts and Manning officially severed their ties. General manager Mike Tannenbaum confirmed these suspicions, stating, “When a first-ballot, Hall of Fame quarterback becomes available, you look into it.”

Had the Jets outbid the other Manning suitors, they would have sunk an enormous amount of money into one player, limiting their salary cap flexibility and constricting future contract negotiations or free agent additions.

Not to mention, the mere prospect of a Manning signing evoked painful memories of Brett Favre’s one-year stint in Jets green.

Though Favre’s New York woes may have come from a shoulder injury — after all, he led the Minnesota Vikings to the NFC Championship game the next year — Jets fans hold crippling grudges that would have made a Manning acquisition difficult to swallow.

When a team signs a veteran quarterback to be the starter, that team essentially declares that it has the talent to win a Super Bowl.

Rather than build for the future, that franchise vows to strive for a ring in the next few years, until they are beheaded by the quarterback’s impending retirement. In the case of Favre, Gang Green was also looking for a way to breathe new life into an atrophied franchise.

Yet had the Jets vied for Manning, their Super Bowl aspirations would have been unreasonable. Frankly, the Jets do not have the offensive firepower to compete because of the underdevelopment of Shonn Greene, the demise of Santonio Holmes and Burress and Sanchez’s inconsistency. Plus, Ryan’s defense was exposed last season as trigger-happy blitzers who lacked tackling ability and broke down in coverage — aside from Revis Island, of course. Moreover, if Peyton played with the Jets, he would be the second best Manning in the Big Apple; Eli could slip both of his rings onto his thumb and index finger in the shape of a sardonic “L.” Many storied quarterbacks have seen success after migrating to a new franchise.

Favre had his run with the Vikings, and Joe Montana led the Kansas City Chiefs to an AFC Championship appearance as a 38-year old in the ‘93 playoffs. Judging by Manning’s age, (he turns 36 later this month), durability (he had never missed a game prior to 2011) and postneck injury progress, do not expect this perennial Pro-Bowler to fizzle out like Johnny Unitas of the San Diego Chargers or Joe Namath of the Los Angeles Rams. No, this old show dog still has some tricks, and he will be ready to play football come July training camp.

Though the Jets were wise to resist the temptation of a Manning pursuit, they clearly overpaid Sanchez, whose regression through three seasons has been debilitating.

Zach Drucker is a senior majoring in international relations and Spanish. He can be reached at zachary.drucker@tufts.edu.

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Women’s Basketball

Bittersweet: Jumbos’ tournament run ends in heartbreaking fashion with nailbiting loss to Tommies by

Alex Baudoin

Daily Editorial Board

After trailing by as many as 14 in the second half, the women’s basketball team was just one basket away from completing WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (23-7, 8-2 NESCAC) NCAA Round of 16 at Chicago, Ill., Saturday St. Thomas Tufts

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an incredible comeback and upsetting No. 12 St. Thomas in the final minute of Friday night’s Sweet 16 game in Chicago. But several late-game miscommunications — both on the court and at the scorers’ table — derailed their hopes of taking down the Tommies and ended their historic season.

With 21 seconds left and Tufts trailing 48-47, the Jumbos successfully inbounded the ball from half court. Two seconds ticked off the clock, but the referees felt the clock had not started quickly enough, an issue that had occurred multiple times throughout the game. The referees did not reset the clock to 21, but indicated that the Jumbos would have to inbound the ball once more.

But this time, St. Thomas’s Kellie Ring stole the pass and took off down the court before she was fouled hard by freshman Kelsey Morehead as she went up for a layup.

She hit both her free throws with 15 seconds left, forcing the Jumbos to hit a three to tie.

They were unable to get off a clean shot in

the final seconds, and as the clock hit zero, St. Thomas celebrated its 50-47 victory and trip to the Elite Eight.

The Jumbos ended their season with a record of 23-7, an impressive feat for a young squad that entered the season as a long shot to even contend in the NESCAC. But instead of letting the talk get to them, they responded with a strong campaign, ultimately reaching the Sweet 16 for just the second time in program history.

Tufts stumbled out of the gate Friday night, failing to register a bucket until the 11:53 mark in the first half. The Tommies employed a stifling full-court press that prevented Tufts from finding its groove offensively, and the Jumbos’ cold shooting allowed St. Thomas to grab an 8-0 lead. The Tommies were led early on by All-MIAC first-team center Sarah Smith, whose size and skill on the block gave the Jumbos difficulty throughout the game.

“They played really good defense on us,” senior co-captain guard Kate Barnosky said.

“5-foot-11 guards coming at us full court was something we hadn’t seen all year, so it was tough. I thought we had some good looks but we were missing a bunch of layups. We are a young team and a lot of us had never been in a pressure-packed situation like that, so there were some nerves early on.”

Following a timeout called by coach Carla Berube, Tufts went on a 9-0 run of its own ignited by a deep three-pointer by Morehead.

The three was one of just four makes from downtown in the game for the Jumbos, who shot a dismal 17.4 percent from long-range.

Morehead had three of the four.

scott tingley / The Tufts Daily

Freshman point guard Kelsey Morehead knocked down three three-pointers in Friday night’s Sweet 16 game, helping the Jumbos come back from a 14-point second-half deficit before ultimately falling to St. Thomas, 50-47.

“When we get into lapses offensively, we need to pick up our defense and get out in transition,” freshman guard Hannah Foley said. “We started pushing the ball and tried getting into a flow that way.”

After a flurry of turnovers by both teams in

Second-half carries Jumbos past overmatched Continentals by

Kate Klots

Daily Editorial Board

It was a tale of two halves in Saturday’s season opener, as the No. 2 men’s lacrosse team battled back MEN’S LACROSSE (1-0, 1-0 NESCAC) Clinton, N.Y., Saturday Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

Senior tri-captain Casey Egan scored with 45 seconds left on Saturday to put the finishing touches on her team’s comeback against Hamilton and give Tufts an 8-7 victory in its season-opener.

Egan’s game-winner caps statement win David McIntyre

Daily Editorial Board

Nearly 10 minutes into the second half on Saturday, the No. 14 women’s lacrosse team was WOMEN’S LACROSSE (1-0, 1-0 NESCAC) Bello Field, Saturday Hamilton Tufts

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see WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 10

Men’s Lacrosse

Women’s Lacrosse

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the early minutes, the Jumbos and Tommies began to settle in and traded buckets for the better part of the first half. The Jumbos had problems handling the Tommies’ height

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in danger of suffering a bitterly disappointing start to its season.

Trailing No. 7 Hamilton 6-3, the Jumbos were consistently getting beaten to loose balls by the NESCAC debutants, and they endured prolonged stretches on defense as the Continentals maintained possession and tried to put the game out of reach.

But the Jumbos refused to give in. Boosted by senior attackman

Kelly Hyland’s goal with 10:28 to go, they elevated their play, scored five of the last six goals and — after senior tri-captain midfielder Casey Egan put them ahead with 45 seconds left — walked away from Bello Field with a critical opening day conference victory, 8-7.

“One of our big goals for the season is to always stay positive, to always believe that we can come back even if we’re down,” senior tri-captain Katie Lotz said. “We all have that mindset. Three goals in lacrosse really isn’t that much, and once the goals started coming we got more and more pumped up.”

Before the comeback, Tufts had a lackluster first half in which Hamilton dominated almost every aspect of the game. The Continentals outscored the Jumbos 4-2, outshot Tufts 10-4 and committed fewer turnovers. see WOMEN’S LACROSSE, page 11

Tufts Hamilton

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from a one-goal halftime deficit to outscore Hamilton 10-2 in the final 30 minutes. The Jumbos ultimately defeated the host Continentals 15-8, earning their first victory of the year and giving the hosts their first taste of NESCAC competition.

The two teams squared off on a bitterly cold day in Clinton, N.Y., where several inches of snow accumulated overnight and the gametime temperature was below freezing. In the end, it was the Jumbos who iced the Continentals with senior Nick Rhoads leading the way by winning a sensational 19 of 25 faceoffs.

“Everyone on the team has so much confidence in Nick that I don’t think it surprised anyone how well he did,” said sophomore midfielder Beau Wood, who earned his first start on Saturday. “Our wing guys also did an extremely good job eliminating their opponents from the ground ball battle, and it was important that Nick generated fast transitions right off the faceoff.”

“We’ve been looking forward to this game since we started,” senior co-captain midfielder Kevin McCormick said. “Coming up the night before helped so that we didn’t

have to leave early in the morning on Saturday and we were relaxed and could get to the field with time to spare. Once we were there it was easy to get up for the game and we were just more than ready to play someone besides ourselves.”

While senior co-captain attackman Sean Kirwan sat out the game with a sprained ankle, McCormick and Wood each contributed four goals and an assist for a combined total of 10 points.

“Because of the hard work we put in during the offseason and the preseason, meshing with the returning contributors wasn’t really a problem for us,” Wood said. “I think we definitely had some jitters coming into the game, but at the same time, the game atmosphere and all of our teammates created a great amount of confidence.”

Tufts jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Wood scored just 40 seconds into the contest, and McCormick doubled the Jumbos’ advantage with a strike of his own past Continentals’ senior keeper Max Vaickus less than a minute later.

“Scoring the first two goals so quickly was definitely a key for us,” Wood said. “It set the tone of how the game was going to be played, and we like to play at an up-tempo pace.”

Two minutes in, the Jumbos appeared well on their way to victory, but the Continentals answered with three quick goals of their own to take the lead. Later, after a failed clearance gave Hamilton the ball and an empty cage from 40 yards out, Tufts sophomore goalkeeper Patton Watkins, who stopped eight shots on the afternoon, made an impressive save to reject the Continentals’ long-range snipe.

McCormick, Wood and sopho-

more midfielder Peter Bowers added tallies in the up-and-down half to push Tufts’ lead back to two, but Hamilton captain Luke Sadoff and sophomore attacker Paul Armideo each bested Watkins to equalize at 5-5.

With less than two minutes left in the half, Hamilton senior attackman Jon Leanos helped midfielder Pax Anthos to a man-up score, giving Hamilton a one-goal advantage heading into the intermission.

“Going into the half, you would have never guessed that we were down,” Wood said. “I think that just shows the trust and confidence that our team has. Coach [Mike] Daly basically just told us that we needed to do our jobs and let the opportunities come to us.

“We knew that they had firepower on offense, so we knew that they would answer our scoring runs with runs of their own,” Wood added. “I think the key to coming out in the second half was the physicality of our defense. They played well [and] caused a ton of turnovers in transition.”

The Jumbos emerged from the break with a heightened sense of urgency, peppering Vaickus with shots and playing the majority of the half with the same intensity they showed in the game’s opening minutes. The Jumbos took 25 shots in the second half, compared to just 15 in the first, and their depth proved to be too much for the Continentals’ defenders, who were relatively untested against NESCAC-caliber offenses.

“That’s something that happens — [it happened] last year too. We get going a little late,” McCormick said. “We missed some opportunisee MEN’S LACROSSE, page 11