Tuftsdaily02.19.15

Snow 4/26

THE TUFTS DAILY

National health survey reissued to students

by Miranda Willson Contributing Writer

The Tufts Department of Health Promotion and Prevention (DHPP) sent the National College Health Assessment (NCHA) survey to randomly selected undergraduates earlier this week.

The survey, designed by the American College Health Association (ACHA), is sent to approximately half the undergraduate population at Tufts every two years to gauge health and wellness needs on campus.

“The survey gives us a good snapshot of the health status of our campus,” Beth Farrow, a health educator and prevention specialist at the DHPP, said.

The survey, which is conducted entirely online and takes approximately 20 minutes for respondents to complete, covers five core issues: alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; sexual health; weight, nutrition and exercise; mental health; and personal safety and violence.

Ian Wong, director of health promotion and prevention, encourages all selected students to complete the survey because the results often translate into new health and wellness programs for students, such as the DHPP’s recent Balance Your Life campaign.

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Thursday, February 19, 2015

VOLUME LXVIV, NUMBER 20

Once the DHPP collects the survey results, they are sent to the ACHA, where specialists create an executive summary of the data and return it to Tufts, Farrow explained. Farrow, Wong and others at the DHPP are then able to compare Tufts students’ data to national data from other colleges and universities, as well as to previous years’ survey results from Tufts to see which areas of wellness are improving and which need more attention.

“In the past, Tufts’ results have been closely in line with national data,” Farrow said.

Farrow hopes to receive a diverse sampling of students in order to determine which demographics are most affected by various health problems.

“We’re hoping that this year we can do a more in-depth analysis of the multiple years of data we have on this survey,” she said.

“For example, we might look at the nutritional data between males and females, between years in school, between races, etc., so we can see if there’s one population that’s doing better or worse. That will tell us more specifically where we need to target our programming efforts.”

While the NCHA writes the survey questions, colleges and

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

After unionizing, full-time faculty prepare for next steps

by Emma Steiner Assistant News Editor

After officially forming a union on Feb. 12 and joining the parttime faculty in collaborating with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 509 through its Faculty Forward project, Tufts full-time, non-tenured faculty are now preparing to begin negotiating as a union with the university, according to Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Lecturer Penn Loh. “We have already started an online survey of full-time lecturers to gather input on our priorities for negotiating a contract,” Loh told the Daily in an email. “We want this process to be democratic and open, as our process has been so far. We believe the part-time lecturers union provides a good model for us, with a bargaining committee that was open to all but that also sought representation from as many departments as possible.”

The decision, which followed a similar vote to unionize among

part-time adjunct faculty last fall, passed with a two-to-one margin in favor of unionization, with over 80 percent of full-time faculty casting a vote.

Discussions about unionization for full-time faculty began in the spring of 2014, according to Loh. Initial meetings were held to gather information and learn from the experiences of part-time lecturers, who formed their union in the fall of 2014, he explained.

“I believe that we have a right to collectively bargain and that if we exercise this right, we can come to the fairest and most effective solutions for making Tufts the best it can be, while respecting the dignity and rights of those of us who work here,” Loh said.

According to Michelle Gaudette, a biology lecturer who was also involved in discussions about organization, a union will allow faculty members to more effectively discuss their needs with administrators, particularly in relation to workload and equal treatment across departments.

“As far as I knew there was no mechanism in place to collectively bring [issues] to the administration,” Gaudette said. “We felt that collective voices are much stronger and louder than single voices and if enough of us felt that we weren’t being treated the way we should be treated, then if enough of us got together perhaps we could make a case for ourselves … Unionization seemed to be the most logical step in that direction.”

The decision for unionization was not unanimous, however. At least one-third of full-time faculty who voted do not feel that joining the union will increase benefits for themselves or students.

Anne Mahoney, a classics lecturer, said that she feared a decrease in opportunities for adjuncts due to the demands of the union.

“It’s almost as if every progressive person on campus hears ‘union’ and assumes it must be an unmitigated Good Thing,” Mahoney told the Daily in an email. “I fear that … see UNIONIZATION, page 2

see SURVEY, page 2

Second Fletcher Africana Conference to occur this Friday The second annual Africana Conference at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, titled “Africa on a Global Stage,” will take place this Friday, Feb. 20, running from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The conference, organized by the Fletcher School’s Africana Club, aims to understand and explore Africa’s role in the international community.

It will feature four different panels, according to Africana Club Co-president Sabina Ndakorerwa. Each panel will have three to four speakers.

The first panel will focus on security and foreign relations, the second on technology and innovation, the third on governance and the fourth on trade and investment, according to the conference’s website.

Ndakorerwa added that each panel will have a moderator.

Speakers will introduce their point of view on the subject of the panel, and at the end there will be the opportunity to involve the audience in an open discussion.

According to the conference’s website, the event’s keynote speakers include Her Excellency Amina Salum Ali, the African Union ambassa-

dor to the United States and Antoinette Monsio Sayeh, the director of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) African Department. U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Mali, Beth Leonard and Lee E. Dirks Professor of Diplomatic History Alan K. Henrikson, will be making opening remarks.

Most of the speakers were confirmed over winter break, Ndakorerwa explained.

Ndakorerwa said she hopes students who attend the event will gain a greater insight into what is happening on the African continent.

She explained that this event is open to the entire Tufts community and that it will be a good opportunity to have discussion and meet new people with similar interests. She also added that it will provide networking opportunities, which she noted as a good benefit for undergraduate students who attend the conference.

“I want to highlight that this is really a Tufts-wide event,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to have everyone come together.”

—by Meagan Adler

Courtesy Turner Construction Company

A worker walks in the construction site for the new Science and Engineering Complex behind Anderson and Robinson Halls on Dec. 19.

Construction on new science and engineering building continues

by Sophie Lehrenbaum Assistant News Editor

Construction is underway to build the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) on the Tufts Medford/ Somerville campus.

The building, which is scheduled to open in 2017, will house laboratories and research facilities for disciplines such as biology, chemical biology, civil engineering, bio-medical engineering and environmental sciences.

The construction site falls in between Bromfield-Pearson, Anderson and Robinson

Inside this issue

Halls and was deliberately selected in order to promote an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research.

Construction will be completed by Turner Construction Co. According to Strategic Capital Program Director Barbara Stein, administrators had been planning to create a new building to house science and engineering classrooms for years, far before she assumed her position at Tufts two years ago.

“It was planned before the 2008 downturn and it didn’t happen because of that downturn… [but] since the begin-

ning of 2005, a new state-ofthe-art integrated lab complex has been … in the works,” Stein said.

Stein further explained that the need for more enhanced accommodations was felt most profoundly within the biology department.

Currently, biology labs are located in Dana Laboratory, a building Stein emphasized was primarily constructed to serve as a museum.

She described how time has rendered the equipment antiquated and the facilities sub-optimal. see SEC, page 2

Today’s sections

Tufts senior Theo Friedman serves luxurious dinner for 11.

Tufts women’s basketball will start its campaign for a second NESCAC championship Saturday at home.

see WEEKENDER, page 5

see SPORTS, page 16

News 1 Features 3 Weekender 5 Arts & Living 6

Editorial | Op-Ed 10 Op-Ed 11 Comics 12 Sports Back

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The Tufts Daily

News

Thursday, February 19, 2014

Faculty express concerns about lack of choice under unionization UNIONIZATION

continued from page 1

if union members insist on compensation for ordinary faculty activities … then the logical thing for the administration to do is ask us ‘not’ to take on those activities.”

According to Mahoney, advising and sitting on committees could be possible responsibilities the administration would take away from adjuncts if the union were to bargain for higher wages based on workload.

Currently, sitting on committees is a way for adjuncts to participate in Tufts community, but if lecturers were to demand extra wages to sit on committees, it would be less expensive for administration if committees were made up entirely of tenured faculty, Mahoney explained.

“This would have the effect, not of paying us for our extra work, but of taking away our voice,” Mahoney said.

David Proctor, a history lecturer, added that now that the faculty has voted to unionize, the union’s negotiations will determine outcomes for all full-time adjunct faculty regardless of whether they want to join the union or not.

“My choice is that I can join the union [or] I can not join the union but still pay the agency, and regardless of whether I join the union or don’t join, the union will impact me and will effectively direct what my salary is going to be [and] what my work load will be,” Proctor said.

“My only choice now is to agree to join the union so that I can hopefully have some voice in my own future.”

Proctor echoed Mahoney’s sentiments as well, saying he was concerned the union would impede adjuncts’ ability to fully participate in the Tufts community.

“The reality is that full-time lecturers have the voice, if they choose to use it,” Proctor said.

“We are fully enfranchised members of faculty … My own concern is that the coming of the union will damage that. I hope that the union will not interfere with the ability of those of us who are actively engaged in the full scope of the life of the university — teaching, advising, serving on committees, chairing committees — that this won’t interfere with our abilities to do our jobs.”

According to Gaudette, however, rather than break up all faculty responsibilities into jobs that need compensation, negotiating a contract that will still have room for advising and sitting on committees while creating a reasonable expectation of course load and fair compensation for the work as a whole is a realistic expectation.

“We are not saying we are against the administration — we’re not — we want to work with the administration to make our working conditions more tenable for us so that we can focus on our job, which is teaching our students,” Gaudette said.

Proctor also feared the union would have the unintended effect of marginalizing the full-time lecturers by taking away

their voice and changing their position in the eyes of tenured faculty, rather than helping them strengthen their positions in the Tufts community.

Despite potential changes in full-time faculty positions due to unionization, Gaudette said she was not worried about relationships with other faculty.

“I think that Tufts is a very collegial place,” Gaudette said. “I think that whether you are part-time, full-time, or tenure-track faculty, we all have the same goal in mind, which is making the university a top notch institution, educating our students [and] having the best interests of our students in mind. I’m hoping that unionization is not a road block in relationships with any of our colleagues.”

Proctor expressed additional concerns that unionization efforts were not sufficiently discussed among the affected faculty.

“For any decision as important as this, information is critical,” Proctor said. “I have not received during this entire process any communication from the union. Anything I know about what they are looking for has been the result of my own research so I could cast an informed vote.”

Proctor praised the Tufts administration for circulating detailed information about organizing efforts without presenting any bias.

According to Loh, several meetings were held throughout the process to keep appropriate faculty updated on any progress being made.

An Organizing Committee was created in June 2014 to further explore the possibility of unionization and to gather support for forming a union represented by SEIU Local 509, Loh said. After early conversations, the Organizing Committee held strategic meetings to discuss moving towards organization; meetings were open to lecturers who had signed a union authorization card, and public information sessions were also held to make sure all lecturers were aware of the progress being made, he explained.

SEIU Local 509 was involved in supporting the Organizing Committee, according to Gaudette.

“SEIU was a very supportive organization … SEIU representatives were there to inform us of what our legal options were … I think the process [went] smoothly,”she said.

Gaudette explained that despite the concerns expressed, she expects the union will bring representation to all faculty.

“I know that there are some people not in favor of the union and I’m hoping that we can address their concerns,” Gaudette said. “Their concerns are very important. We don’t want to move forward with a union that seems to be neglecting part of the membership or potential membership so I think … that we need to listen, we need to have our ears open, as much as we wanted the administration to have their ears open, in order to move forward.

Survey seeks data on student health SURVEY

continued from page 1

universities may add their own questions at the end of the survey, although Tufts usually opts not to. “The survey has been tested for reliability and validity, so I’m pretty confident in the instrument,” Wong said.

Previous survey results have helped the DHPP address health issues on campus such as alcohol consumption. “From past surveys, we found that a lot of students already knew the educational components of the alcohol segment,” Wong said.

This led the Tufts administration to conclude that while students were aware of the dangers of alcohol, this knowledge was not translating into reduced alcohol consumption at social events, Wong said. This information influenced the administration’s decision to change Fall Ball into Fall Gala, and Winter Bash into Winter Ball, creating fancier atmospheres that encouraged dancing and discouraged drinking at these annual events. As a result, alcohol consumption at these events has decreased, he explained.

Balance Your Life, a healthy lifestyle campaign and student organization, emerged from the results of previous NCHA surveys.

Grace Goodwin, a graduate student at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition and an intern at the DHPP, works with Balance Your Life and its student mem-

bers, supporting their efforts to engage students in health issues such as nutrition and physical activity. Most recently, the club held an event called “Girls’ Night at the Gym,” inviting female-identifying students to come to the gym and learn new workout techniques in an inclusive, female-friendly environment.

Goodwin’s experience working with Balance Your Life has led her to conclude that Tufts students face health issues similar to those most young Americans face. “The issues at Tufts are issues that young people on college campuses in general can always work on, like eating fruits and vegetables, eating less processed food, getting enough sleep and getting enough exercise. But from what I can tell Tufts seems like a pretty healthy place,” she said.

The ACHA survey includes a comment section for students who have questions or concerns with the survey or with the DHPP. Selected respondents are not required to answer every question, and the survey results are completely confidential.

Farrow again encouraged all selected students to complete the survey. “It benefits them because we’re going to look at this information very closely to get programs and services that are tailored to the needs of this campus,” she said. “And we’ve put in some really good incentives this year, so hopefully that will help.”

courtesy Turner Construction Company

Construction is underway to create a large, modernized central hub for science and engineering, which will be connected to Anderson and Robinson Halls.

Students, faculty look forward to SEC’s updated facilities and labs

SEC

continued from page 1

“We need to have a more modern space for science research and teaching,” Stein said. “Biology is the second largest major and the latest labs in Barnum-Dana date from the 1970s.

Most students had better labs in their high school.”

Stein further illuminated the various steps that the school has undertaken in commencing the construction process. She clarified that in 2009, Tufts completed a master plan with the aid of the architectural firm William Rawn Associates, which was later updated in 2012.

After conducting thorough interviews of various architectural firms, the project was awarded to the firm Payette Architects Inc, which presented the most cutting-edge idea: Connecting the new structure to Robinson and Anderson halls to maximize square footage and engineering a prominent 175,000-square-foot center of gravity on campus, according to Stein.

As a result of the decision to combine the existing buildings with the SEC, the budget has increased from the version set forth at the project’s inception in order to account for renovations to Anderson and Robinson, Stein said.

News of the move from Barnum has enthused many students and faculty within the biology department, including Professor of Biology Colin Orians, who also echoed Stein’s assessment of the current biology labs’ archaic nature.

“Our offices will be relocated to Robinson Hall and the labs will be in the adjacent SEC building. It is exciting to see all of this come together,” Orians said in an email.

Orians alluded to some roadblocks that arose as the planning process began to take off, but explained that they were addressed in a manner that met the needs of all parties involved.

“Initially we had expected to have to relocate entirely into the new SEC building, but it became apparent that this would be problematic from a space perspective and the administration really stepped up to find a solution.

We are all very pleased with the current plan,” he said.

In devising designs for the building, Stein explained how an additional emphasis has been placed on pursuing a model based on sustainability.

“The President and the Trustees have placed a high value on sustainability and being a resilient campus in the face of climate change. Science

and engineering buildings by their nature use a lot of energy … so we set out to be the most efficient lab building in the country from an energy use perspective … and we are very close,” Stein said.

She also explained how the building designs have been undergoing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum certification from the US Green Building Council, and how the drawn up plans seek to surpass many existing standards for environmental consciousness.

According to a release by the Tufts University Operations Division, beyond developing energy-efficient facilities, the building plans boast 38 wet lab research modules, six computational lab modules, four multidisciplinary teaching labs intended for undergraduate courses, a café and social and conference spaces.

In addition, Stein noted that the complex will contain an atrium and a terrace.

Biology major Lucy Zwigard, a firstyear student, has taken several lab sciences within the Dana facilities, and will likely utilize the new laboratories within the SEC before she graduates.

She is excited by the prospect of stateof-the-art labs and maintains that it will help secure the Tufts science departments’ position at a caliber equal to those of similar research institutions.

“I am very much looking forward to the new facilities,” she said. “Compared to my high school bio labs, the Dana labs have more equipment, but everything seems to be more outdated and a bit rundown.

Compared to other schools with comparable selectivity, say Georgetown, … [which several] years ago did a huge renovation and built a new science facility… our science facilities are definitely at a lower standard.”

Zwigard, Stein, Orians and many of the other students and faculty directly impacted by the construction of the SEC eagerly await its completion. As Stein explained, building the SEC represents the chance to access untapped potential and create more unity across various disciplines and the greater campus.

“We are trying to be very collaborative with the users and promote forward-looking, new and contemporary spaces into the Tufts landscape, so we are really excited,” she said. “We hope it is also a crossroads for people, … a public space creating energy around science and engineering.”

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

New Dean of Arts and Sciences James Glaser discusses his career, plans for Tufts’ future

by Becca Leibowitz

Lex Erath | Sugar & Spice

Odyssey

Assistant Features Editor

Earlier this month, James Glaser became the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences after six months serving as the interim dean. The Daily sat down with Glaser to discuss his new official position as dean and his plans for Tufts.

Tufts Daily: You’ve been at Tufts since 1991. Can you describe your Tufts career up to this point and how it’s led you to your current position as dean of arts and sciences?

James Glaser: Sure. Well, the first thing I would say is that when I arrived here in 1991 I had no idea that I would end up here in 2015. My career path has been unexpected, but filled with surprise and filled with a lot of excitement.

Throughout this entire period of time I’ve been a professor in the political science department. I worked my way up through the ranks in the department, and I continue to be a proud member of the Political Science department.

In 1999 I became the chair of the political science department shortly after I got tenure. In 2003 I became dean of undergraduate education, a job that I got in part because I participated in President Bacow’s Task Force on the Undergraduate Experience, which was a very enriching, exciting experience, and as dean I was able to implement many of the recommendations of that task force. In 2010 I moved here to Ballou where I served for four years as the dean of academic affairs, and for the past six months I’ve been interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, and for the past week or two I’ve been the dean. So I’ve had a lot of different positions here, and it’s been very enriching to have all these different opportunities to do all these different things.

TD: So you said that it was “unexpected,” the way that things panned out— JG: Right. Which I hope students will look at and say, you know, we don’t have to know everything that’s going to happen in our lives and in our careers.

They evolve and sometimes they evolve in strange and exciting ways, and that’s certainly been the case with me.

TD: What was the process by which you were selected for the position of dean?

JG: Well, there was a search, there was a search committee that was comprised of faculty and administrators. It was run by the provost, Provost [David] Harris.

As I understand it they brought in about eight different candidates to interview them, and then they narrowed the field down to two or three finalists and then I was selected out of that group. Many dean searches operate with those sort of two layers of process.

TD: What exactly does the dean of arts and sciences do? What do you have the power to change?

JG: The dean is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the school. That doesn’t mean that I’m involved in every decision that happens in the school, but I am connected to the management of all the different parts of the school, and I am responsible for conceiving the grander vision of the school, of course in consultation with my colleagues and of course in consultation with faculty. And I’m responsible for trying to generate some of the resources available to meet that vision, and I’m responsible for allocating resources throughout the school so that the different departments, the different programs, the different units, the different organizations can reach their goals and ambitions.

TD: You have nine Strategic Goals for 2014-2015. Which of these, if any, is a significant change from past policy?

JG: We’re building on the past and we’re trying to forge new ground as well. You know, I’m very excited about some of the things that we’re hoping to do, particularly—and I think students

Evan sayles / the tufts daily

Dr. James Glaser has recently been appointed dean of the college of arts and sciences after serving as the interim dean. will be most interested in this — we’re hoping to lead some changes in the curriculum and some changes in our departments. We would love to see and are working with our colleagues in the departments to get community health to departmental status, probably in combination with another department; a major in education; a minor in nutrition and food studies; a major in film and media studies. These are all very exciting curricular initiatives that are going to, I think, create opportunities for students to do very exciting things while here at Tufts, and then beyond when they shoot out into the world.

TD: One of your goals is to support a diverse and inclusive environment.

How will you achieve this? One of the bullets under this [Strategic Goal] is to reinvigorate the Diversity Fund—what exactly does that mean?

JG: The Diversity Fund has had a number of different incarnations in the past couple of years, and it was not fully utilized last year because I think we hadn’t set it up correctly. We have sort of redesigned the process by which faculty and staff can request support from the Diversity Fund, all the time involving the faculty on the Equal [Educational] Opportunity Committee, and we’re hoping that we have at the end of the day more and better programming for events and programs with diversity themes.

Additionally, the deans who are responsible for supervising the departments and I will continue to work with the departments to diversify our faculty.

We’ve made a lot of progress in recent years. There’s nothing new that I want to do here, there’s just something sustained that I want to do, which is to approve positions where we have opportunities to diversify and work with departments to assure that we have diverse pools of candidates as we hire new people for the faculty. We’re in the middle of hiring season right now, so it’s too early to say what this year’s results will be, but we have as a general goal ... to have as diverse a faculty and as diverse a student body as we can.

TD: Tufts has a new chief diversity officer. Do you plan to work with him in any regard?

JG: Yeah, I hope so. I’ve only met him once when he came through to interview. He seemed like a very capable person, and I look forward to partnering with him. Of course, he’s got a big job, and he’s going to be working across all the schools, so all the deans – I hope – will have a relationship with him.

TD: How do you plan to maintain accessibility to a Tufts education, which is another one of your Strategic Goals?

JG: There are sort of two ways to define accessibility. One is through dollars, and the other is through acces-

sibility for students who have disabilities of various kinds. We’re putting more resources into our accessibility services in Dowling Hall. There are some very, very talented students who we’re not serving as well as we hope to, and we hope that what we’re able to put into place will work better and for more people. Accessibility also means making sure that the education that you offer is available to as broad a swath of society as it’s possible to sustain. It really requires financial aid.

Tufts is a full-need institution. There aren’t actually all that many institutions that are full-need institutions.

We’re not need-blind, but we are fullneed, and that actually is an expression of our values. In my mind it’s a very virtuous policy.

It means that if your need changes, we are committed to changing your aid package, and that was very apparent in the wake of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. That’s an expensive policy, but it’s the right thing to do. Financial aid is a hungry beast. It is very expensive to provide financial aid to the many students who have financial need and could not attend Tufts without the kind of help that we provide. It’s hugely expensive, and part of my job as dean and part of the job of my colleagues in the administration and in our advancement operation is to raise the funds to make it possible to provide as much financial aid as we possibly can.

TD: And those funds would be coming from alumni donations?

JG: Yes, that’s right.

TD: My last question for you is: What are you most looking forward to as dean of arts and sciences?

JG: I am looking forward to working with my colleagues to make this place as good as it possibly can be. I have great hopes for this place. The material is here for us to be a superior place in terms of the creation of knowledge and in terms of the transmission of knowledge as teachers to our students. I’m very excited to help implement the [T10] Strategic Plan, which is a plan that has been put together by faculty and representatives from the student bodies—the undergraduate student body and the graduate student body—[that] plots out a five to 10 year plan for the school and [that] we hope will improve our facilities in many different places, boost graduate studies so that it’s really operating at the same level that our undergraduate programs are operating at, and continue to be able to make Tufts an accessible place, a place that’s open to lots of different kinds of people and to be a full-need institution. So those are the three grand goals of that Strategic Plan, and I am looking very much forward to taking that blueprint and pushing forward the agenda that’s in that blueprint.

S

ince we’ve all taken high school English, I’m going to go ahead and assume we’ve all read (or at least skimmed the Sparknotes for) Homer’s epic “The Odyssey,” which tells the story of one extremely unfortunate traveler’s 20-year journey home from the Trojan War. Homeboy Odysseus deals with all sorts of bad luck in his trip, including angry gods, ravenous monsters and bewitching sorceresses; seriously, if you think you’re having a rotten day, he’d trade places in a heartbeat.

(Quick aside: In case you are currently impressed by the literary caliber of this column thus far, I assure you it shall now deteriorate into my trademarked brand of mindless drivel.) Now, I know it may seem hard to find any parallels between Odysseus’ lengthy journey and our own daily lives, but we have more in common than you might think. It is now that time of the year where each and every one of us must undertake perilously dangerous, extremely time-consuming and just generally awful expeditions on a daily basis. I am talking, of course, about Going Outside.

The dangers involved in braving the elements are perfectly obvious. Ice, black and otherwise, coats nearly every walkable surface, and gross slushy puddles lie in ambush every other foot, eagerly anticipating their chance to soak you halfway up the calf. Already overaggressive Massachusetts drivers like yours truly seem to have acquired a new level of peripheral blindness, almost as if they can’t be bothered to scrape the ice off their side mirrors as well as the windshield (how curious). I myself have acquired the special talent of always walking directly into the wind (apparently the laws of physics do not apply to me when the temperature is below 20 degrees; I am truly a freak of nature).

Equally annoying is how much longer it takes to get anywhere. Just like how it took Odysseus decades to get home when it should’ve taken months, it now takes me fifteen minutes instead of five to cross just half of campus. The sidewalks are so narrow that obliviously oozing groups of first-years now constitute an impenetrable barrier rather than a minor inconvenience during the rush to class. And on top of that, the aforementioned dangers require extra caution and, thus, extra time. This also just makes life more tiring — constant vigilance takes a lot out of you.

And of course, perhaps the most obvious Homeric reference of all can be found in our two dining halls, which despite their harmless appearance manage to affect the more dangerous aspects of both the Sirens and the Lotus Eaters; you’re lured in by the always-on-point tunes of DJs Carm and Dewick, and once you eat the food you never, ever want to leave the warmth and never-ending supply of free carbs. (If you can’t grasp just how perfect an analogy that was, embark on your own Odyssey over to Tisch to culture yourself.)

So, Jumbos, keep your heads up during this long, long winter; you’re suffering just as much as one of history’s most famous heroes, and things turned out all right for him. We’ll hope, of course, that you don’t finally return to your dorm room to walk in on your backstabbing roommate and cheating significant other, but if so you will get to slaughter them quite magnificently — a lá Odysseus — so it’s really not all that bad.

‘Tis the season, after all; revenge is a dish best served cold!

Lex Erath is a junior majoring in economics and biopsychology. She can be reached at alexandra.erath@tufts.edu.

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jon garcia / the tufts daily

Senior Theo Friedman continues to impress his peers with culinary ability

by Jennifer Straitz Assistant Arts Editor

This Valentine’s Day, most Boston-area students were not traveling through a snowstorm on a quest to find squid ink.

Then again, most students were not preparing an exceptional 13-course dinner, nicknamed “13,” to serve that Sunday night.

Enter senior Theo Friedman, an American Studies major and Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies minor and his talented crew of five supporting chefs: senior Jack Watterson, juniors Ezra Schwartz and Benjamin Silver and sophomores Ryan Johnson and Nathan Finberg. The team, made up entirely of Tufts students, welcomed the Daily to follow the elaborate process which went into planning 13, offering their insight into the meaning of food and the bonds it can create.

For anyone who has interacted with Friedman over his last four years at Tufts, it likely does not come as a surprise that his latest dinner included such an impressive number of courses. Since his first year in South Hall, he has been creating dining experiences for friends, classmates and now students in his Experimental College course, “The Chemistry of Cooking: Science in the Kitchen,” co-taught with Schwartz.

Though a brief hiatus from big dinner events was necessary Friedman’s sophomore year due to a lack of suitable cooking space in Wilson House, he picked the tradition up again the following fall. Now a senior, Friedman’s style has definitely evolved through the years. Particularly, he explained, this year’s dinners have been generally “much more casual” than past events — including two taco nights, each with nearly 100 guests packed into his Somerville home. With only eleven guests,

13 was a return to “the more refined, more fine dining style” that he loves.

Driving with Friedman to Market Basket early Friday morning to pick up some staples for the dinner, the culinary connoisseur revealed that he only began his cooking ventures upon his arrival to college. Beforehand, his “strong background in art” focused on photography. However, according to Friedman, he has “loved food [his] whole life,” and came to view cooking as a natural extension of both the food world and the art world. Clearly someone who takes initiative, he has already progressed from working unpaid at a farmto-table restaurant to being employed at Michelin-starred restaurants in Boston and New York.

Despite these fantastic experiences in restaurant kitchens, Friedman still calls the grocery store his “favorite place in the world.” Constantly picking up the food, seeing it, touching it … this is where Friedman says ideas start to “turn into reality.” Visibly happy, he made his way through the aisles, pen behind ear, meticulously going over his printed-out list. And when two women standing nearby struggled to think of the name of a fruit, he cheerfully told them what they were looking for was a pomelo, pointing them in the right direction: “They’re right over there!”

The Daily stopped by Theo’s house on Sunday afternoon to find him and some of his team working in the kitchen. Music played from a laptop on the table, with a slew of ingredients and knives neatly lined up alongside it. Notes written on pieces of paper denoting the ingredients in each course lined the wall under canvassed artwork and posters denoting species of fish, types of fruits and vegetables and the classic “Les Champignons.” If he was

jon garcia / the tufts daily

Theo Friedman, and his team of five other Tufts students and co-chefs spent 18 hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday preparing for the dinner.

stressed, the lead chef hid it well as he danced around the kitchen.

Later in the evening, around 6:30 p.m., guests started arriving to Friedman’s house. Maya DeBellis, a first-year in Friedman’s Experimental College class, wandered into the kitchen with her fellow dinner guest, sophomore Julie Sanduski, and was playfully quizzed by Friedman on the latest chemistry-based cooking methods/concepts she had learned in the course: spherification and reverse spherification.

Once all of the guests were present, everyone was seated at a long dining room table, a giant number 13 decorated the chalkboard positioned behind the head of the table adding to the comfortable, eclectic feel.

Stepping out of the adjoining kitchen, Friedman welcomed everyone to the meal.

“Because it’s kind of this test here, I want this to be a real conversation between us [the chefs] and you guys. I want to hear if something works for you … if something totally offends you, if you love something, if you hate something, if something sparks some emotion, some feeling, I want it all, please communicate back,” Friedman said, by way of introduction. “I see food as a way to communicate and a way to express, so that’s really what this is, it’s a communication between us and you guys, and communication goes both ways.”

Shortly after, the first course — a pea soup — arrived. In no way, however, was this one’s average soup. Served in a vintage box flipped open by one of the chefs, each guest was invited to take out a small, chilled sphere the size of a Lindt chocolate to pop into their mouth in one bite, immediately bursting the delicious liquid center. As the dinner guests, called by Friedman “a diverse group of people … from different circles,” became more accustomed to one another, they also became accustomed to the beautiful presentations and experimental use of ingredients by the chefs throughout the night. Friedman’s skill and that of the accompanying chefs was undeniable; almost every course was visually stunning, and met with a flurry of flashes from smartphones and independent cameras upon its placement on the table.

Well into the meal, first-year Daniel Navon, another student of Friedman and Schwartz, summarized the experience by noting the chefs’ ability to “move all of the senses.” One primary example, a dish of cauliflower tartare, was served individually with an accompanying raisin curry on a beet meringue. The meringues appeared like leaves as they rested atop individual twisting pieces of metal extending from a wooden base, evoking the image of a small tree.

Guests were treated with the opportunity to talk candidly with the chefs after the whole meal, offering praise and con-

structive feedback. One of the most discussed dishes was the Adult Candy Bar, which involved a chicken liver pate served in a dark chocolate mold. As a guest very fond of cooking herself, Sanduski called the dish “a risk.”

“It was an experiment … and it was executed perfectly,” Sanduski said. And while the majority of guests seemed to enjoy the dish, they also offered suggestions such as presenting the unique flavor combination in a different form.

Far from being taken aback, Friedman welcomed their responses; this feedback was exactly what he wanted.

The rest of Friedman’s semester will be dedicated to a senior American Studies capstone project, an ambitious 20 course meal, for which he plans on “going back and reworking these dishes, testing … a bunch of new ones out.

“I’m going to try to look at it through the lens of the dinners as a performance piece and the paper as an artist’s statement like you would see in a gallery exhibition,” he said.

This artist’s perspective echoes what Friedman was thinking on the Market Basket visit.

“I try to scan my memory and there’s nothing that I’ve eaten that I don’t like,” Friedman explained. “I know it sounds kind of silly to say, but in a way I kind of look at food and flavors as a painter might colors … I’ve never heard a painter say they don’t like blue. If it’s used in the right way, I think everything has power.”

And truly, the power of Friedman’s food to captivate his audience, the guests at 13, was palpable.

“To hear everyone talking and having a good time, and then silence when we brought the food out … that was amazing, it was great, to be able to bring people together like that,” Watterson said.

Schwartz shared a similar sentiment: “Cooking brings people together, eating brings people together, because it’s just about being in a time and spot. You’re not thinking about anything besides what you’re doing right now and who you’re doing it with.”

The hours of work — “about 18 hours on Friday, 19 hours yesterday, and …another 18 on Sunday, according to Friedman — stand as a testament to the chefs’ passion. Exhausted after the weekend, but clearly feeling fulfilled, Friedman mused on this subject.

“For me, I don’t even see it as passion; I feel like it’s a necessity … people say, ‘Oh, I express myself through painting,’ dance, or something like that … I really use this [cooking] as a way to communicate.”

Passion or no, it’s a drive for which Friedman seems grateful, and is lucky for students fortunate enough to collaborate with him. And, of course, lucky for those who taste the fruits of his “necessity”: cooking.

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The Tufts Daily

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Arts & Living

What's up this weekend TASA Culture Show 2015: Stumped!: The Tufts Association of South Asians is holding its annual culture show, featuring a variety of acts to watch and a variety of samosas for snacking.

T-shirts and after-party tickets will be sold today in the Campus Center from 11-2. T-shirts are priced at $10, after-party tickets are priced at $12, with a deal of both for $20. Proceeds from sales will go to Shanti Life. (Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium. Tickets are free with a Tufts ID, limit two per person; $10 for each additional ticket; tickets on sale in the Campus Center and tuftstickets.com.)

Tufts Comedy Blastoff 2015: The Tufts Stand Up Comedy Collective presents its spring show. Come watch Tufts comedians perform their newest and best stand-up routines. Several performers in the show have been performing at comedy clubs in New York and Boston, so the content is going to be top quality. Hosted by Brad Frizzell and Matt Braly, performances by Aidan Sears, Brennan Corriston, Christina Lee, Dan Kamlarz, Emily Baker, Evan Starr, Isha Patnaik, Jamie Juviler Jared Bronen, John Merfeld, Laura Donovan, Lillianna Levonick, Lily Blumkin, Luke Makana Hanley, Max Cohen, Sam Gordon, Temi

Sahlabim Owoyemii and Thomas Rind. (Friday at 9:45pm in Distler Performance Hall. Admission is free. No tickets or reserved seats, so those wishing to see the show should arrive early to secure a spot.)

Tufts Hillel Presents: The Matzah Ball!: Join Tufts Hillel in dancing the night away at the Somerville Armory. Get dressed up and enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres and a Matzah Ball bonanza at Hillel’s annual semi-formal. Buses will be leaving from the lower Campus Center at 7:30, 7:45 and 8:00 PM. Any ticket can get a student onto any bus, but the buses fill up quickly, so it is sug-

gested that students take earlier buses. (Saturday at 8p.m. at the Somerville Armory. Tickets are on sale in the Campus Center are on tuftstickets.com for $5 each. Each student can buy up to 2 tickets to invite guests, who may or may not be Tufts students.)

Tufts Film Series Oscars Viewing Party: Come to the Campus Center on Sunday to join the Tufts Film Series in watching the Oscars. Popcorn will be available for snacking and students can walk a red carpet and make Oscars predictions. The Tufts Film Series will also be playing two of the movies nominated for Best Picture earlier in the weekend,

see event below. (Sunday at 7 p.m. in Mayer Campus Center Lounge. Admission is free. No tickets required.)

Tufts Film Series: Boyhood and The Theory of Everything: Join the Tufts Film Series and watch two of the movies nominated for Best Picture for the 2015 Oscars. “Boyhood”(2014) will be screened Friday and Saturday at 9:30p.m and “The Theory of Everything” will be screened Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.

(Friday and Saturday at various times in Barnum 008. Admission is free. No tickets required.)

—compiled by Nika Korchok

Artsy Nugget

Speedy Ortiz delivers nonchalant feminist anthem, 'Raising the Skate'

by Anjali Nair

Assistant Arts Editor

Female-fronted rock groups have had quite the year thus far, with 90s punk Sleater-Kinney making its triumphant return and more contemporary bands like Florence + the Machine and Screaming Females announcing new albums. Massachusetts’ own noise punk hero, Speedy Ortiz, is now joining the ranks. Released Feb. 10, Speedy’s latest single, “Raising the Skate” (2015), is an electrifying reintroduction into front woman Sadie Dupuis’ offhand witti-

cisms and the teetering guitar lines that define the band’s repertoire.

Though the track starts out with apprehensive tremolos, the song soon bursts into a familiar riff-driven nonchalance. When Dupuis’ vocals come in, the guitar meekly follows the melody before bounding off into haphazard taglines, another Speedy staple. The song, however, soon breaks the formula of juxtaposed riffs with a harmonized post-chorus section and, later, a quiet interlude in which the vocals take precedence again. Drummer Mike Falcone, whose playing style can be

described as almost impossibly natural, throws in spontaneous syncopations and monster drum fills as if he could nail them in his sleep. The impressive swagger of the music is matched by Dupuis’ articulate lyrics.

Toning down the cryptic tone typically found in the band’s lyrics, the song advocates for female empowerment, with Dupuis asserting herself over those who question her authority as a woman.

Earlier in the month, she opened up to Fader magazine: “It’s crazy frustrating seeing women and girls, myself included, put in positions in which they

have to shirk credit for their talent or otherwise risk getting dissed as overbearing and b*tchy.” Preach, sister. In solidarity with other icons of feminine power, Dupuis even borrows a line from Queen Bey herself in the chorus, candidly announcing, “I’m not bossy, I’m the boss.”

While 2013’s “Major Arcana” was a breeding ground for wry self-deprecation, “Raising the Skate” reflects the attitude of a band who has been around the block and promises unabashed confidence in its upcoming album, “Foil Deer” (2015), set for release on April 21.

bradalmanac via flickr creative commons

Speedy Ortiz focuses on female empowerment and blunt lyrics.

Greg Chow via Flickr Creative Commons

Sadie Dupuis declares herself the boss in “Raising the Skate.”

Want to be part of a section where you can be creative, explore a rich diversity of cultural experiences and get free tickets to concerts and movies?

Write for the Tufts Daily Arts Section!

Email arts@tuftsdaily.com to get involved!

The Tufts Daily

Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Tufts Daily

Spotlight

Sarah Gruen makes stress taste good

by Josh Podolsky Assistant Arts Editor

Talking to sophomore Sarah Gruen is like riding a roller coaster while wearing a blindfold — you have no idea where you’re going, and she’ll take you through some twists and loops, but it’ll definitely be a good time. Along the way, she will throw in quips that seem to come from left field, yet they carry the conversation rather than knock it off its feet.

Gruen puts her skill with words to use writing and acting with The Institute, a student sketch comedy group, which participated in the National College Comedy Festival at Skidmore College this past weekend, as well as pursuing majors in political science and

English (both undeclared, she is quick to point out). Gruen is also a member of Tufts’ only co-ed Jewish a cappella group, Shir Appeal, co-chair of Jewish Women at Tufts and “also a fan of long walks on the beach.”

Perhaps one of Gruen’s most striking traits is her penchant for baking, which started in high school as a means to relieve stress. She learned how to set goals by learning how to follow recipes. When questioned about the healthiness of stress-baking, Gruen quipped, “That also contributed to the Sarah Gruen great weight gain of 2012.”

Exercise had also been an option; baking just proved more satisfying.

Now in college, Gruen bakes far less often than she did in high school.

Dorm kitchens are not the ideal loca-

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Arts & Living

tion for baking, apparently, and the microfridge is not a suitable substitute for its macro counterpart. Baking without real utensils can make the process stressful and affect the finished product. That, said Gruen, defeats the whole point.

At home, she bakes up a storm, often bringing back goodies for her friends here on the Hill. In fact, one of Gruen’s goals for this summer is to bake a wedding cake. “Not for a wedding! I just want to make a wedding cake — like four tiers, the whole shebang — just for sh*ts and giggles.”

If you see her on the Hill, say hi, and maybe she will bake you something delicious. The fastest way to her friends’ hearts, she says, is through their stomachs — “It’s worked so far.”

Nikki Blank | A SWUG's Life

Where the wild SWUGs are

D

uring a recent trek through the arctic to visit campus, I stopped

by The Rez, decked out in an excess of Tufts apparel to fill up on over-priced bulk coffee. During this visit, a bold Rez employee had the audacity to ask me if I was a prospective student*, to which I responded with a less than flattering answer: “I was learning multiplication tables before you were even born.” She took thirty cents off of my coffee for the mistake. I walked off feeling giddy that I still look like I’m 17, and concurrently, concerned that I still look like I’m 17. To ensure that mistakes like these will no longer occur on campus, here are some tips for how to spot SWUGs in the wild. I’ll be pitching this idea as a documentary for Planet Earth later this month, so I’m trusting you all to not take my idea and turn it into a reality show before I do. *In this Rez employee’s defense, I haven’t grown since the seventh grade, and I had just done some serious damage at the bookstore on my father’s credit card (sorry Bob).

SWUGs will only venture onto campus when necessary. These necessary engagements include (but are not limited to): Class (sometimes); a free meal swipe in Dewick (not yours, of course); an event with free food; a sex tape being filmed on campus; puppy therapy in the library; a need to print something; an interview; to drop off a form that can’t be emailed; a decently themed frat party; risking your life to take a snowy insta of the quad; a gym session (because spring breaaaaaak!!); a Journey to the Center of the Earth; an underwhelming adventure to check out the new Commons; graduation.

Lisa Meehan courtesy Sarah Gruen

Sarah Gruen’s penchant for baking, especially as a panacea for stress, began in high school.

Top ten artsy things to do when you are stuck at the SMFA waiting for the Tufts shuttle The snow is fun for a lot of things: making cubist snow angels, having an excuse to drink excessive amounts of coffee because you’re cold, bringing back your mom’s leg warmers from the ’80s.

The snow is not fun when the number of snow days begins to outnumber the number of Picasso prints owned by the MFA, or when transit along the Fenway, or any part of Boston, is faster on Calvin Klein leather bootclad feet than by bus. If you’ve finished your six-hour-long Observational Painting class and you just want to go home and watch a Hal Ashby movie, you’re not in luck, because the MBTA has become Satan and decided that the T will not operate. It’s okay, at least you have the trusty Tufts/SMFA Shuttle.

The Tufts/SMFA Shuttle is a winter myth. It no longer exists from JanuaryMarch. It’s part of a new Jeff Koons exhibition and it is permanently in the Whitney, not traversing the streets of Boston.

If you’ve been waiting for the shuttle to arrive for several hours, you know you still have a good amount of time left to kill before it arrives. Never fear! The Daily is here to provide you with a plethora of activities to keep your cold artsy self occupied while you curse the weather.

10. Try different flavors of cigarettes that people are smoking outside. American Spirits? Camels unfiltered? Who needs health when you are going to die in the cold anyways!

9. But don’t smoke menthols. It doesn’t matter how cold you are. You are not in seventh grade anymore.

You may die in the cold, but you will die with some class.

8. Ask that girl with the purple hair what brand she uses for hair dye.

Then ask her to redye the entire left side of your head lavender. Nothing says “I’m ready for spring” like an aggressively pastel hue.

7. Check the Joey Tracker for the thousandth time. Cry softly. Throw your phone at the brick wall. Record the whole thing on a camera adjacent to the courtyard and turn it in for your final for your Performance Art class.

There are no grades at SMFA, but the project will earn you a hard “Pass.”

6. Make an abstract sculpture out of snow and ice. Title it “Untitled.”

Send a picture to your parents. Yell at them when they don’t get your work because they’re just not on “that level.”

5. Start burning the snow. Take a Polaroid picture of you burning the snow. Develop the photo at CVS. Scan the print onto your computer.

Photoshop the picture. #nofilter 4. Create the best artsy playlist you can: Hello Ulrich Schnauss and MNDR. The entire “CATS” soundtrack. Lana Del Rey forever.

3. Create the worst artsy playlist you can: Celine Dion. Nickelback.

Phish. (Didn’t you make this joke last week, Daily? No. We’ve been waiting outside for a really long time.)

2. Watch Richard Simmons aerobics videos from the ’70s and try and recreate them in the courtyard.

Bonus points if you change into spandex. You didn’t wear spandex to class today? Go inside. Someone is wearing them, guaranteed. Ask them to trade outfits for the sake of Richard Simmons’ legacy.

SWUGs are usually seen wearing: 1. Tufts Gear. Since we only have a few more months during which this is considered acceptable wear, we must milk it for all it is worth. Over the years we’ve spent thousands of dollars on neon tank tops emblazoned with stupid puns.

Most of these items of clothing will soon be passed down to younger students, Goodwill or Somerville landfills. Embrace the “college” look while ya can!

2. A hiding hat. Do you ever notice that big sunglasses and baseball hats make more of an appearance on hungover Sundays? Well, senior year is a perpetual hungover Sunday. Us SWUGs can be spotted hiding beneath our oversized sunglasses, unflattering hats and our furry Canada Goose hoods (sorry?). We don’t want to be seen, and we definitely don’t want to see you. Don’t poke the bear.

3. SWUGs are (usually) never seen wearing something scandalous or provocative.** This was appropriate our freshman and sophomore years, when we were relevant and active members of the hookup scene. Now as SWUGs, we are just trying to blend in as much as possible (or stand out looking as absurd as possible). A pajama themed party!? All aboard the Onesie Express! Call on Me? More like Call on Meh. Spanx over spandex, am I right? Also heels are a definite no unless you’re attending a date function or you hate yourself and your feet.

There’s going to be snow on the ground until May, so Ugg boots it is.

I hope this helps clear up any confusion about what a SWUG looks like in the wild, and why they might be spotted on campus. If a SWUG you know comes out of hibernation, please give them a hug.

We’re past the 100-day-mark until graduation and ’tis the season for job rejections. To quasi-quote my favorite childhood book, “Where The Wild SWUGs Are”: “Let the wild rumpus start!”

XOXO, SWUG

1. Call an uber. Pay $97.95 to get back to Tufts. Sue everyone. Call it performance art. Or don’t. Just sue.

**Exceptions to this rule include “I’m feeling really skinny after the stomach flu,” and, “But my crush RSVP’ed attending on Facebook.”

—compiled by Nika Korchok

Nikki Blank is a senior majoring in English.

She can be reached at Nicole.Blank@tufts.edu

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THE TUFTS DAILY Drew Z. Robertson Editor-in-Chief

Editorial

Jacob Indursky Reena Karasin Managing Editors

Audrey Michael Executive News Editor Daniel Bottino News Editors Jenna Buckle Shana Friedman Nina Goldman Stephanie Haven Alexa Horwitz Patrick McGrath Justin Rheingold Kathleen Schmidt Jei-Jei-Tan Denali Tietjen Melissa Wang Meagan Adler Assistant News Editor Marianna Athanassiou Melissa Kain Arin Kerstein Eeman Malik Safiya Nanji Sophie Lehrenbaum Aaron Pomerance Emma Steiner Gabriella Zoia Jake Taber Executive Features Editor Maya Blackstone Features Editors Sophie Dasinger Hannah Fingerhut Jess Mow Mengqi Sun Shannon Vavra Nicole Brooks Greta Jochem Assistant Features Editors Arin Kerstein Becca Leibowitz Yuki Zaninovich Nika Korchok Executive Arts Editor Dana Guth Arts Editors Grace Segers Anjali Nair Assistant Arts Editors Joshua Podolsky Jennifer Straitz Ross Dember Executive Sports Editor Marcus Budline Sports Editors Alex Connors Wil Glavin Sam Gold Steven Hefter Alison Kuah Tyler Maher Jorge Monroy-Palacio Alex Schroeder Maclyn Senear Chris Warren Ray Paul Biron Assistant Sports Editors Phillip Goldberg Josh Slavin

Thursday, February 19, 2015

EDITORIAL | OP-ED

Editorial

Proposed snow dump raises environmental concerns for Boston Harbor

These days it really seems that all everyone talks or thinks about is the insane amount of snow that Boston has received so far this winter. And you can’t blame them, as the snow has become an all-consuming monstrosity, taking a toll on all activities, classes and work.

Here in the Boston area, things have become so desperate that we have now reached the point where Mayor Marty Walsh is considering dumping snow into the Boston Harbor as a matter of public safety.

There have been predictions of serious damages due to the snow that range far beyond annoyances, and include roofs collapsing and the drain on governmental funds, as clean up efforts have cost millions of dollars, not to mention the impact that white-out days have on small businesses.

Yet dumping snow in the harbor will have numerous environmental implications.

Specifically, there are concerns that debris and salts from the snow may increase harbor pollution. Thus, it has become an issue of short-term public safety versus the long term effects on the environment.

Understandably, when there is an immediate danger to the public, hard decisions must be made, and under these circumstances, a snow dump may be the best solution.

Almost every media outlet (including The Tufts Daily) has written volumes about

this season’s “record breaking snow fall” and the various impending storms. Just strolling around campus, one is surrounded by piles and piles of snow, many of which are taller than the average student and most of which range from a pristine white to a dull, drab, dirty grey. And no matter how much shoveling is done, a layer of snow still perpetually covers every sidewalk and street, adding an extra five to ten minutes to one’s routine walk to class, not to mention congesting streets for drivers. And of course, there is the general disruption it has caused with classes being cancelled and the MBTA out of service. Sometimes it’s baffling that the pretty white snowflakes that so gently fall from the clouds can so suddenly accumulate, paralyzing one of America’s biggest cities. This is not to mention the flooding that will happen upon the melting of this white sleeping giant.

Thus, with the inches of snow accumulation still rising, and a dearth of other solutions from which to choose, drastic options such as relocating the snow to the water seem to be widely accepted. Notably, environmental officials have not met the idea of dumping snow into a body of water with much resistance. In fact, many, including representatives for the nonprofit organization Save the Harbor, have actually condoned it in light of public safety. Other

experts have said that the Boston Harbor gets enough pollution year round so that this snow, which will also be removed of debris, will not have a significant impact.

But still, this response raises two concerns for the student body to consider. The first is the dilemma of putting public safety emergencies above long-term protection, and the second is our general environmental consciousness. It is clear that these snowstorms that have ravaged the Boston area can be classified as a crisis, so naturally we tend to look to our leadership for authority and security during this time. Because of this crisis mentality, environmental officials may be reluctant to cause more panic and confusion by criticizing government decisions in the name of public safety. Even though dumping snow into the harbor may be the practical, and even the best decision, it is still important to have critiques and resistance during times of shock and crisis.

Often, the public and the media are only concerned with the environment in light of a large impending event or decision, such as the snow dumping. The media never seems to acknowledge the fact that every day salts and debris, among other things, are contaminating the Boston Harbor. But it shouldn’t take a crisis for us to worry about the environment; rather, it should be a matter of constant concern.

Jennifer Lien

Scott Geldzahler Executive Op-Ed Editor Ray Bernoff Susan Kaufman Olivia Montgomory Ruchira Parikh Keran Chen Cartoonists Ty Enos Jennifer Lien Hannah Hoang Editorialists Katie Matejcak Natasha Khwaja Bailey Werner Nicholas Pfosi Evan Sayles Caroline Ambros Sofie Hecht

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Starbucks announces select delivery service, phone bills begin to skyrocket OFF THE HILL | University of Tennessee

Obama's prayer breakfast speech rightly puts burden on individual rather than ideology

by Hannah Marley The Daily Beacon

While many criticized President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast as an attack on Christianity and justification of acts of terror taking place across the globe, the outrage prompted by the remarks is the exact reason why they needed to be said in the first place. In referencing the equally brutal history of the dominant religious tradition in the U.S., Obama was reminding us of the dangers that come with a belief in religious exceptionalism and the fact that persecution and discrimination do not come exclusively in the form of Jihad.

In a paragraph that would have crippled future political prospects for anyone hedging their bets on reelection, the president leveled the ethical playing field and criticized Christianity: “Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history. And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.”

The backlash was immediate and intense, with everyone from talk show hosts to state governors weighing in on the president’s supposed abandonment of the nation’s largest current and historical religious tradition.

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.

This is understandable. By criticizing Christianity, Obama was challenging more than just the GOP — he was challenging a series of assumptions that form the foundation of the way many Americans conceptualize nations, religious traditions and, at the heart of it all, other people.

If you believe in the Christian God (which 78.4 percent of religiously affiliated Americans do), you likely believe in a God who governs the world according to his will. If this God is perfect and makes no mistakes, then anyone who follows the will of this God, as described in the Bible, is justified in any actions that do not directly contradict God’s word.

For anyone who relies on this basic idea as their moral litmus test, it is illogical and inconvenient to see any biblically justified actions by other Christians as morally wrong.

In doing so, they risk criticizing the foundation of Christian ideology: That there is a God, he is the only God and he is just. In following the teachings of God, any Christian individual’s behavior is justified by the assumed moral superiority of the book that influences their actions.

Which is why, on Fox News and talk shows and in political press releases, the Crusades and Inquisition are either diminished or deemed irrelevant. It is inconvenient to be reminded of fact that “in the

name of Christ,” and with justification from Christian religious leaders and texts, individuals and nations alike are capable of committing atrocities.

It is inconvenient to realize that in condemning ISIS but ignoring Christian shortcomings, we are creating a moral double standard that absolves the right people from the right religious tradition from taking responsibility for their actions.

In referencing the historically documented brutality of past Christians in comparison with ISIS, Obama was attacking neither religion, but attempting to argue a case for common humanity between the two: An acknowledgement that regardless of any kind of divine moral right, Christianity, like Islam and Hinduism and Judaism, is a tradition comprised of people, each individually responsible for his or her actions regardless of any ideological justification.

The quote is neither a condemnation of Christianity nor a defense of radical Islam, but a shift in focus from ideology to individual. When newlyweds are murdered in their homes and Qurans burned at the door of the Muslim Community Center in Knoxville, Obama’s quote seems more appropriate than ever before — a call to dissolve any moral double standard that might exist, and to instead embrace a condemnation of actions, not cultures and beliefs.

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Tufts Daily

Op-Ed

Open letter to Peter Dolan, chairman, and the Board of Trustees of Tufts University

by Tufts Climate Action

Dear Peter Dolan, chairman, and the Board of Trustees of Tufts University, As you may have heard, around the time of your meeting this past Saturday morning, around 80 students gathered to show their support for fossil fuel divestment. This diverse coalition of students rallied from the Campus Center up to the pillars of Ballou Hall as speakers reiterated the moral imperative of divestment, reminding us that our investments in fossil fuels are a vote of support for industries that fuel injustice around the world. The week leading up to the rally, hundreds of students wrote what they stand to lose as a result of climate change on slips of paper.

We linked these slips into a chain that we crossed over the doors of Ballou Hall. We demand that you strengthen and protect this chain, not break it.

At Tufts, fossil fuel divestment has been endorsed by the student body through thousands of petition signatures and a public referendum, hundreds of alumni and 45 faculty members so far. When you had the opportunity to make Tufts a leader on this issue, you chose not to, instead rejecting divestment. We cannot, and will not, accept no for an answer. You told the Tufts community that divestment would not be considered at this time, but this issue cannot wait any longer.

Now is the time.

Op-Ed

With the crushing significance of this international movement in mind, we demand that the Board take the following actions, and see no reason why you would fail to do so.

We ask you to re-engage with Tufts Climate Action and the Tufts community to discuss complete divestment from fossil fuels in a formal, democratic and public setting.

We ask you to reach out to Cambridge Associates, the biggest endowment consultant in the United States, which has offered to connect investors with fossil fuel free managers and sustainable reinvestment strategies.

We ask you to reach out to peer colleges and universities, many of which are also considering or have previously rejected fossil fuel divestment, to create a commingled fund that is fossil fuel-free. The institutional members of the Talloires Network and the earlier Talloires Declaration, organized by Tufts’ leadership to strengthen universities’ civic, social and environmental responsibility, can serve as excellent tools for beginning that process. We ask that Tufts do this to reduce the costs and difficulties of managing funds on its own.

Finally, we request that a Tufts administrator or trustee attend the Intentional Endowments Network’s Mount Holyoke Conference on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2015.

The conference will explore the construction of “intentionally designed endowments,” which “involve aligning invest-

ment portfolios with institutional mission, values and sustainability goals, without sacrificing returns.” Having a Tufts representative at this event would help our school explore reasonable and effective divestment strategies while also allowing us to communicate more effectively with other schools pursuing the same goal.

Tufts should take this opportunity to create an investment strategy that better reflects its values. Our mission statement reads: “Tufts is a student-centered research university dedicated to the creation and application of knowledge.

We are committed to providing transformational experiences for students and faculty in an inclusive and collaborative environment where creative scholars generate bold ideas, innovate in the face of complex challenges and distinguish themselves as active citizens of the world.” Divestment is a bold idea that tackles the complex challenge of climate change. Tufts Climate Action wants to use the collaborative environment of our university to work with you, the Board of Trustees, to distinguish ourselves as active citizens of the world by taking a stand against fossil fuel industries.

With love, Tufts Climate Action Tufts Climate Action is a student group focused on environmental issues. It can be reached at gracecoop@gmail.com.

How to speak 'Hawk'

by Daniel Weaver

In his Feb. 12 op-ed, tritely titled ‘A time to break eggs,’ Zach Shapiro advocates for a full-fledged ground invasion aimed at ISIS. Though a brash call for war, what I think is most important about this piece is its frequent indulgence in a unique brand of American political language: Hawk rhetoric. The piece rolls out familiar and woefully dependable vocabulary of justifications previously used to garner support for America’s international adventures in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and countless others. It’s deployed here to rationalize an American ground invasion of what I can only assume is the entire Middle East.

Geographical specifics seemed to have been deemed superfluous in this particular usage of Hawk language.

The beating heart of Hawk rhetoric is its ability to resonate with an American “City on a Hill”-type cultural and ideological imperialism. Though distinct from its European parent, both share an appalling lack of self-awareness. Take for example how Hawk rhetoric characterizes the “moralistic few,” who fear that a ground war against ISIS “blurs our moral superiority.” While there is no argument for the moral merit of ISIS’s actions, various examples of America’s not-so-superior behavior in Abu Ghraib, Vietnam, Japan, Guantanamo Bay, etc. constitute a whole family of skeletons in America’s closet that erodes any claim to such a moral superiority. But Hawk rhetoric isn’t used to argue the existence of an American moral superiority, because those utilizing Hawk rhetoric have assumed this superiority, and are counting on the fact that you have, too. The important thing about this assumption is that it raises the superior Us above the inferior Them, and if you look carefully at how Hawk rhetoric describes the “Enemy,” disturbing trends abound.

This particular rendition of Hawk rhetoric variably describes ISIS as “new barbarism,” the “epitome of bad guys” and “savages” who commit “medieval brutality.” Though explanations are lacking regarding what is “new” about ISIS’s brutality, or how something can be both “new” and “medieval,” let’s talk instead

about the troubling overtones of the language used. Consider which societies Europeans have also referred to as ‘savages.’ Hernan Cortés’ descriptions of the “most horrid and abominable custom[s]” of indigenous societies in the New World and their “barbarian lord,” for example.

Nearly all are societies which the West has, at one point or another, spent a whole lot of time and resources trying to eliminate from the map, and often succeeded. The hot-breathed exhortations of America’s “moral superiority” are inseparable from the bitter historical baggage of American and European imperialism.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that every American military endeavor is a deliberate act of imperialist fervor, but the deeply involved meanings of this rhetoric which inevitably precedes each and every American military action have undeniable and troubling roots in America’s violent and hate-filled past.

When the rhetoric has stoked your patriotic passions and convinced you that They are definitely “pure evil” (a reliable go-to Hawkism) you are told that war is our only option. Considerations of alternatives meet the same fate as geographical specifics when Hawk rhetoric talks about war; they fail to garner even a dismissive head-nod. In the keen eyes of America’s Hawks “we can all agree that no one else can do that which is necessary.” I might timidly suggest that we think about why it is that “no one else” is willing to commit to a full-fledged ground invasion of an entire region for the second or third or fourth time, depending on how far you want to go back. My guess is that either other countries suffer a greater proportion of “moralistic” individuals, or that policymakers elsewhere are more apt to soberly assess the effectiveness of military action in suppressing violence. Hawk ideology might much appreciate the practicality and amoral nature of the latter. But Hawk rhetoric doesn’t lend itself to that conversation, so you won’t catch it discussing alternatives.

The historical amnesia that permits claims to “moral superiority” is conveniently disabled to provide historical precedent for America’s wars abroad. Often

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Op-Ed

Hawk rhetoric invokes the past, asking Us to consider a world where we failed to violently respond when “the Luftwaffe bombarded London, Free France fell or the British retreated from Dunkirk.” While World War II is often the Hawk’s trumpcard in terms of justifying foreign invasions, and is probably the most compelling argument for wars abroad, I only ask that we also consider a world where that sentiment also prevented the American fire-bombing of Tokyo, nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima or any of a truly limitless number of atrocities committed by our European allies between 1939-45. I would think carefully about the despair, poverty and hatred generated by the long shadow of war for decades after occupying forces have left. Similarly, Hawk rhetoric martyrs those killed by Them. Though “Monday morning quarterbacking” cannot “bring back Kenji Goto, Stephen Sotloff or James Foley,” the obvious problem here is that nothing can “bring back” the dead, despite what Hawk rhetoric has to say about revenge.

But again, that’s not the point, because Hawk rhetoric isn’t interested in bringing anyone back from the dead. It’s sole purpose is to get you standing up, red-faced and frothing in rage as you shout, and then vote, for the complete and total destruction of a terrifying and nigh-unstoppable Them, who threaten everything dear to us.

I want to clarify that none of this is to say that ISIS is defensible, or that no military action should be taken. This is only to say that we all should be aware of the Hawkrhetoric that seeks to draw us unthinking into violent conflict year after decade after century. That though we are most familiar with seeing this rhetoric preached from a righteously indignant anchor on Fox News, sometimes it can show up in the Op-Ed section of the Tufts Daily. That without utilizing this really quite dangerous rhetoric, you probably can’t make an argument for war in a 900-word Tufts Daily op-ed.

Daniel Weaver is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major. He can be reached at daniel.weaver@tufts.edu.

Pooja Sivaraman and Rebecca Solomon | New York Style Delhi

The yoga faux pas

R

ebecca: “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape,” is one of those positive self-talk quotes. The man who coined this phrase (Michael McGriffy) has never met Pooja, nor has he seen her in Power Yoga.

This semester, Pooj insisted we take yoga, reminding me that she had spent her summer at a New Jersey Ashram. After taking Yogalates, I figured that Power Yoga could not be any harder. I was wrong; remaining in a high plank position is not for sissies. The only solace that I find in the class is that Pooja is worse than me. Pooja cannot touch her toes, nor can she switch between up dog and down dog without the instructor guiding her through the positions. However, Pooja is becoming distracting to me — I find myself laughing at her so much that that I forget to breath. It’s not a good look for either of us. Last class, the instructor threatened to separate us. My new method is to wear blinders to class and forget that Pooja is next to me, hyperventilating in child’s pose. While she catches her breath, let’s check out the questions.

Dear NYSD, The love of my life has seen my first snap story and did not proceed to see the second one. Does that mean the potential for our holy matrimony has decreased by 35 percent?

Rebecca: I do not have a Snapchat. While many people might find this surprising, I know that the second I have one, I will not be able to stop snapping. Moreover, I have been sending people photos of my face since 2010 so I like to think that I invented it. However, my housemate, Estelle Tcha, has made me somewhat of a snap celebrity. My daily routine has become the bread and butter of her snap story. One can see me go through the motions: Putting on mascara, listening to music or putting in my night-guard on any given day. It does not make me seem like the most attractive person; it gives me the air of Britney in 2007. So as a snap celebrity who is currently taking statistics, I feel qualified to answer this question. Your matrimony’s potential and your snap story have no correlation. I’m sure he will check your next snap as soon as you post it.

Dear NYSD, I see you don’t like Conn., but thoughts on N.J.?

Pooja: While Rebecca made her thoughts on Connecticut quite clear, and while our column received a large amount of hate mail, I have actually never been to Connecticut — that is, apart from pit stops on the drive to New York. I have, however, been to New Jersey and spent several days there. Since Rebecca brought up my impressive yoga skills, I thought I’d comment on my summer in the Ananda Ashram. The Ashram is located in the middle of a forest on the outskirts of Jersey, quite literally in the middle of nowhere.

My mother and I had originally planned on staying for the silent retreat, where you are essentially cut off from all forms of communication including your voice. Now if you’ve ever met me, or furthermore my mother, you’ll know that for us, three days of not talking is our utmost form of torture. We spent our first couple of days trying to talk ourselves out, learning the life stories of everyone in the Ashram. At some points it seemed like we might have been in a horror story, for it seemed like everyone had been drinking the same calming potion for way too long. It became the running joke that the only two Indians came all the way from India to New Jersey, because apparently we couldn’t find it back home. Overall, we had a very calming break and made sure to pack our bags and leave within the first hour of the silent retreat.

So to answer your question, my thoughts on N.J. are probably very different from a regular person’s experience of N.J., but in my opinion, it’s pretty chill.

That’s all for this week, PLEASE keep sending us questions (we keep the answers forum as a saved tab on our browser and check it on the regular).

Pooja Sivaraman is a junior majoring in economics. She can be reached at pooja.sivaraman@tufts.edu. Rebecca Solomon is a junior majoring in economics. She can be reached at rebecca.solomon@tufts.edu.

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

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The Tufts Daily

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Comics

Doonesbury

Crossword

by Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur by Wiley

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Shoveling your car out for the third time this week.

Late Night at the Daily

Wednesday’s Solution

Jewel: “Jake, you’ve made me happier than any man ever has.”

Please recycle this Daily.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

The Tufts Daily

13

Comics

Letter from the Creative Director Hey Tufts Daily readers!

We take pride in the student contributions to our paper — all of the articles, photos, reviews and graphics are created by Tufts students for our publication. But there’s one page that has much less of that — our comics and games page — and today we’re changing that. Starting next week, we’ll have four new comic strips written and drawn by Tufts students. You can preview

each one here, then start following your favorites as they appear each week. Some focus on the humorous side of life at Tufts, and some find humor from other sources.

Either way — we hope they make you smile as you’re doing the sudoku in class!

Happy reading!

Andrew Stephens Creative Director

Critters R Us

WordArt Kit Collins

Dog humor, visual wordplay, and obscure political pet peeves. Thematic discontinuity trumps narrative in these irreverent hot takes.

Publishing Every Monday

On the Hill Max Cohen

Never has there been a comic strip that has changed the world so profoundly that it was declared People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” 3 years in a row. And there never will be.

Publishing Every Wednesday

Ty Enos and Vincent Carbone

The basic story is simple: a group of 4 students must climb Tufts’ hill (a huge mountain) to reach the mythical Dowling Hall.

Pass/Fail

Publishing Every Thursday

Emma Plankey and Fury

Take your typical Tufts student and imagine their life in a sitcom — complete with all the drama and hilarity that comes from living in a West quad.

Publishing Every Friday

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Thursday, February 19, 2015

Thursday, February 19, 2015

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Sports

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Jumbos victorious at Harvard this weekend WOMEN’S SQUASH

continued from page back

spots all securing victory in fewer than the maximum five sets.

Although final results were impressive, the Jumbos had a few close calls, but they were able to pull through, bolstered by spirited encouragement from both teammates and fans.

“For me, the highlight was watching [senior tri-captain] Ann [Bellinger]’s match knowing that we had already won but yet still cheering for her so loudly so she could finish her last college match with a win,” first-year Claudia Udolf said. “It was the feeling of unity that I loved so much about this weekend.”

Stanco concurred, likewise attributing their success to the enthusiasm displayed by their supporters.

The captaincy has historically played a crucial role in the successes of the women’s squash team, and this go-round proved no different.

“Everyone on the team wanted to win for our two dedicated senior captains: Paige [Dahlman] and Ann [Bellinger],” sophomore Anna Bezahler said. “They have put so much time and heart into the team.

Leaving with a win and moving up in the rankings would show our appreciation and love for those two.”

That upsurge of support indeed spurred the Jumbos to success, but it was their mental toughness which was crucial.

“Throughout the season we have worked so hard on and off the court, but I think our greatest asset was our mental game,” Udolf said. “These matches could have gone either way, but it was our ability to stay focused that really gave us the victory.”

Bellinger echoed this sentiment.

“Every team strives to peak at nationals, which isn’t easy to do with such a long season split up with winter break,” she added. “But we went into every match extremely focused and ready to handle the pressure.”

Ultimately, it was Stanco who clinched the finals match, dispatching her opponent in a swift three games.

“When I walked off the court after winning my match, clinching the title, there was just an overwhelming happiness across the team,” Stanco commented. “We were all very excited as we continued to cheer for our team members who were still on court.”

Steven Hefter | The Association

One of the players still on court after the match had already been decided was Bellinger. She had a very successful national tournament, going 3-0 to finish her collegiate squash career.

“My matches this weekend showed me how far I’ve come since [my first] year, and I attribute that to our head coach, Joe McManus, our assistant coach, Eric Lamsa, and the unconditional support from my teammates,” Bellinger said, reflecting on her four years.

Because Tufts had already won, in Bellinger’s match against William Smith, she had to try extra hard to remain focused.

Luckily, she was able to do so and ended up winning her match.

“It was the absolute best way to end my time as a teammate with Tufts squash,” she said.

Overall, the Jumbos leveraged their physicality, unwavering focus and team camaraderie to finish their season on a high note.

“All the girls on the team were very focused in practice as well as team-oriented and, honestly, fun to be around,” Bezahler said. “All of these things seemed to come together perfectly at nationals this weekend and drove us to win.”

Experienced Tufts roster to take on eighth-seeded Hamilton in first round WOMEN’S BASKETBALL continued from back

with 17.4 points per game and sits at third in the conference for rebounding with 9.6 per game. Getman is second on the team with 9.1 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.

The Jumbos, who lead the conference on defense allowing just 46.5 points per game, have some NESCAC leaders as well. North is first in the conference shooting 58.2 percent from the floor in 24 games played. Senior tri-captain guard Hannah Foley leads the conference in 3-point shooting, hitting 46.2 percent of her shots from beyond the arc. Senior tri-captain forward Hayley Kanner also leads the Jumbos in the front court, with 13.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.4 blocks per game.

46.2

Another key statistic for this Tufts team comes in the form of experience. With the exception of first-year point guard Lauren Dillon, who has stepped up to replace the injured senior tri-captain Kelsey Morehead, the other four expected starters for Saturday’s game — Kanner, North, Foley and junior guard Emma Roberson — all logged minutes in last year’s conference championship game. Fresh off the program’s first NESCAC title, this team knows what it takes to win big games.

Despite the talented veteran lineup, however, Tufts knows anything can happen in this tournament. To ensure success, the team must be prepared and focused.

“There’s quite a few of [the team members] that were here during the

DAILY DIGITS 12.0

Points allowed per game by the women’s basketball team. It is currently the lowest in the nation for Div. III. The Jumbos have scored 67.2 points per game and have the 13th-best scoring margin the country heading into the NESCAC playoffs.

Points per game for Milwaukee Bucks’ 20-year-old forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Official Athlete of the Tufts Daily sports section. As a rookie last year, he averaged 6.8 PPG and won the hearts and minds of millions of basketball fans.

1:49.16

5

Time run by junior track star Mitch Black on Saturday at BU in the 800 meters. It is currently the fastest time in the nation for Div. III. Black was an All-American both indoor and outdoor last season, coming in third and second at nationals, respectively.

Consecutive years a Jumbo has won the 3-meter diving competition at the NESCAC Championships. Last year’s winner, sophomore Matt Rohrer, looks to add on to the streak this weekend at Middlebury.

year that we lost in the first round, so I think that’s something that they can pull from that experience,” Berube said. “And then also the experience of hosting the whole tournament last year is a great experience to have as well. It was awesome last year, but there are quite a few players that didn’t experience that. So we want to have that same feeling again. The crowds were awesome last year, and we’re looking forward to that again, but we’ve definitely got to take care of business on Saturday to host the semis and finals the following weekend.”

Tufts will play visiting Hamilton on Saturday at 4 p.m. in Cousens Gym. If the Jumbos advance, they will host a semifinals matchup and potentially a finals matchup at home the following weekend.

1 The amount of days the Official Athlete of the Tufts Daily sports section has existed. (It should be noted that this title was not created as a last-ditch attempt to befriend a beloved and ridiculously entertaining NBA player with AllStar potential.)

22-5 The women’s squash team’s matchby-match record in its win of this weekend’s Epps Cup. The Jumbos beat all three opponents and did not have more than two players lose in any one matchup.

College basketball!

T

he 64th NBA All-Star game took place on Sunday night in New York City, and the Western All-Stars defeated the Eastern All-Stars in a high-scoring affair, 163-158. Since the NBA has taken a break and some players have returned to their collegiate stomping grounds, I too will take a peek into the college basketball world.

The No. 1 team remains mighty Kentucky, and after last night’s road win at Tennessee, the Wildcats are off to a school-record 26-0. They have answered every challenge they have faced, including a week in early January of two overtime games against inferior opponents in Ole Miss and Texas A&M. After junior forward Alex Poythress tore his ACL earlier this year, it seemed that the platoon system would be doomed. Quite the opposite. Once again led by a dominant first-year class, coach John Calipari’s Wildcats are proving their doubters wrong.

His “one-and-done” style was questioned last year when Julius Randle, James Young and company did not quite click during the regular season on their way to an eight-seed in the NCAA tournament, but they went all the way to the national championship, and that is the last game Calipari lost. Maybe we should listen to Calipari and start calling his system “succeed and proceed.”

When I fill out my bracket on Selection Sunday, which is March 15, I will probably slide Kentucky right into the Final Four and maybe even into the big national championship box. But there will be 67 other teams that will try to steal the nets away from Kentucky.

Another clear No. 1 seed is Virginia.

Coach Tony Bennett’s squad gives up the fewest points per game in the nation at 50.8 and plays exemplary team defense.

The Cavaliers sit at No. 2 in the national rankings and have earned a 24-1 record, with the lone loss coming at home to Duke on Jan. 31.

The other team I like a lot is Wisconsin, who I think can go undefeated from here on out until the tournament. The Badgers’ only tough games come on the road at Maryland on Feb. 24 and at Ohio State on March 8.

Bo Ryan coaches a contender year in and year out, and with senior forward Frank Kaminsky, arguably the country’s best big man, and Sam Dekker leading the charge, this year is no different.

Gonzaga is No. 3 in the country in this week’s polls with a record of 26-1. Similar to Wichita State, who entered the NCAA tournament undefeated and lost in the third round (yes, it’s technically the third round) to Kentucky, the Bulldogs from Spokane play in a weak conference. Kentucky junior transfer forward Kyle Wiltjer leads the team with 16.4 points per game and senior point guard Kevin Pangos adds veteran leadership. The lone loss comes back on Dec. 6 at Arizona; save for this one game, against a Wildcats team that was No. 9 in the country at the time, this Gonzaga team is not battletested. For that reason, I do not think they will make a deep tourney run.

The Big 12 has beaten each other up all season, and despite how top-heavy the ACC is, I believe the Big 12 is the deepest conference in the country. Bill Self’s Jayhawks are just four wins away from an 11th consecutive regular season Big 12 crown, as it appears the trophy will be staying in Lawrence. Other conference leaders include Villanova from the Big East and Arizona and Utah from the Pac-12.

The tournament is always fun, but this year there are not the type of dominant teams we are accustomed to seeing. My waytoo-early Final Four prediction: Kentucky, Wisconsin, Arizona and Iowa State.

Steven Hefter is a junior majoring in economics. He can be reached at Steven.

Hefter@tufts.edu.

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Women’s Squash

Tufts ends season with Epps Cup victory in CSA Team Championships

by Alexa Meltzer Contributing Writer

Despite having been snowed out of several practices leading up to the Collegiate Squash Association’s (CSA) Team Championships, the women’s squash team defied the odds and concluded its season with a stellar spate of performances at Harvard this past weekend.

Sitting at 6-13 overall heading into the event, the Jumbos nevertheless went into the tournament with a decidedly positive attitude. They kicked off play in the D division of the Epps Cup on Friday with a 7-2 win over Haverford. The following day, Tufts toppled Conn. College 8-1, which marked the Jumbos’ third win over the Camels this month.

In the finals, Tufts defeated firstranked William Smith, to whom it lost in just its second match of the season, 7-2 on Sunday night. With junior tri-captain Paget Stanco back from her studies abroad, the team won handily, with the one through seven

see WOMEN’S SQUASH, page 11

Courtesy Sally Pratt

Clutch shots and an energized cheering section helped the Jumbos come out on top this weekend.

Basketball

First-seeded Jumbos to begin search for second consecutive NESCAC title

by Alex Schroeder

Last year proved to be a milestone season for coach Carla Berube’s women’s basketball team, as the Jumbos captured the first NESCAC championship — after not dropping a single game to a conference opponent all season long — in program history, subsequently advancing as far as the NCAA Championship Semifinal en route to a 30-3 record. Tufts knocked off Amherst, a team that had won the conference championship five of the previous six years and beaten the Jumbos twice over that span, Sports Editor

in the NESCAC final by a decisive 62-46 margin. What’s more, they did it in front of the home crowd at Cousens Gymnasium.

One year later, the No. 5 nationally ranked Tufts squad finds itself in exactly the same position, ready to defend home court advantage and make a run for a second championship in as many years.

“Just having that experience of winning that last year and being able to cut down the net. I mean that was one of the best feelings I had last year,” sophomore center Michela North said of winning the NESCAC title last year. “I know

just about the whole team that returned definitely wants that feeling again. That’s what we’re after. And I mean, postseason is like a whole new season so we have to really stay focused and get after it.”

After closing out the regular season at Cousens Gym with wins over Colby on Friday night and Bowdoin on Senior Day Saturday, Tufts has cemented its place as the No. 1 overall seed for the NESCAC tournament. They’ve now beaten the conference’s second seed, No. 18 Bowdoin, and third seed, No. 12 Amherst, each by double-digit margins. The team is undefeated at home, where

Ethan Chan / The Tufts Daily

Sophomore guard Josie Lee is one of many returning players from last year’s NESCAC Championship team.

it will play all of its NESCAC tournament games should it advance to the final. The Jumbos have thus built some momentum headed into the most crucial part of the season with big wins of late.

“I think the Bowdoin game especially was definitely a confidence booster because we had beaten Amherst, and Bowdoin and Amherst are two of the other top teams in the NESCAC,” North said. “And to see that we can go on runs against them, and be up by a lot, and keep a lead throughout the game is definitely going to help our confidence going into the playoffs. Knowing that we can beat the other top teams in the NESCAC is definitely helpful.”

Before any talk of a repeat, though, the Jumbos are focused on handling their business one game at a time. And what better way to kick off their NESCAC journey than a matchup on Saturday with the NESCAC team that gave them the most trouble and took them down to the last minute of regulation during the regular season: the Hamilton Continentals. If not for a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Josie Lee in the final 30 seconds of regulation of their Feb. 6 matchup, the Jumbos would have been sent home from Clinton, N.Y. with their first NESCAC loss of the season. The shot, however, tied the game just before the end of regulation, and Tufts was able to control the final overtime period to escape unscathed. As fate would have it, they will face off once more in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.

Although Hamilton enters the playoffs with the lowest seed in the NESCAC, they came the closest to spoiling an undefeated NESCAC regular record for Tufts. The

Jumbos welcome the opportunity to play the Continentals at home and hope this time around,with some experience under their belts, they will be able to seize control.

“It lets us know that it’s gonna be a fight and yeah, they have some very good talent with [junior Sam] Graber and [first-year Lauren] Getman, and some really strong guard play,” coach Berube said of having played such a close game with Hamilton the first time around. “We have to play them to the best of our ability and have a better defensive outing than we did out at Hamilton, because they’re a very good team as a whole as well as their parts. So it’s going to be a very important week of practice to prepare for them, and it’s good that it wasn’t that long ago that we played them, so it’s not like we’ve forgotten all about them.

We’re excited for the opportunity to host them here and for a great showing.”

“Honestly, I’m actually really happy that we get to play them again, because since that game did go into overtime we didn’t really feel like we deserved that win too much,” North said.

“And so I think getting another chance to play them, and to really play at our level this time — and it’ll be at home, so we’ll have home-court advantage with our fans and I think it will be a lot better game for us hopefully.”

This will be the first postseason meeting between Hamilton and Tufts, and it will be the second time that Hamilton has advanced to the championship quarterfinals.

The stars of Hamilton include Graber, who leads the NESCAC see WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 11