TuftsDaily04.10.14

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THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 2014

VOLUME LXVII, NUMBER 50

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Tufts develops coding app for children

by Yan Zhao

Daily Staff Writer

The Development Technologies (DevTech) Research Group at Tufts is working to develop an iPad and Android application that teaches young children coding basics.

DevTech is working in conjunction with the MIT Media Lab and the Playful Invention Company (PICO) to create the app, ScratchJr, which is expected to be released in 2014, according to PICO Co-Founder Paula Bonta.

"We have a long relationship with the MIT Media Lab, with Mitchel Resnick's group, and we have spent many years developing digital construction tools for ... very young kids," Bonta said.

The idea for ScratchJr came from the original app, Scratch, which his group developed

several years ago, according to Resnick, the LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research and head of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. "My research group at the MIT Media Lab developed Scratch to enable young people, ages eight and up, to program their own interactive stories, games and animations — and, in the process, learn to think creatively, reason systematically and work collaboratively," he said.

After experiencing success with the initial app, Resnick's group decided to develop a new app that would reach an even younger age. In order to do so, his lab and PICO teamed up with Marina Bers, the director of Tufts' DevTech Research Group.

"We believe that learning see SCRATCHJR, page 2

CAROLINE GEILING / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Anna Troein encourages the audience to only engage in activities in which they are genuinely interested during the annual Tufts Idea Exchange.

Students host annual Tufts Idea Exchange

by Justin Rheingold Daily Editorial Board

COURTESY MARINA BERS

Mitchel Resnick and Marina Bers pose with the ScratchJr app they are developing to help teach children to program.

TCU Elections Update In an April 9 TCU Elections Update, the Daily listed the recently elected Class of 2017 senators, the new Latino Center Representative, Class of 2015 secretary and the new Class of 2017 president. Although previously unreported, freshman Shai Slotky was also elected as a senator representing the Class of 2017.

Numerous other positions were filled on April 8, although no election was held as they were uncontested. Michael Maskin, Robert Joseph, Andrew Nunez and Matthew Roy will represent the Class of 2015 and Ethan Finkelstein, Brian Tesser, James Golden, Janna Karatas, Adam Kochman, Sam Berzok, Sawyer Dew and Anna Hymanson will represent the class of 2016 in the Senate. Betty Fong will represent the Asian-American community, John Kelly will represent the LGBTQ community and Alison Aaronson will represent the Women's Center on next year's Senate. Linda

Jiang and Ece Kocak will serve on the Committee for Student Life and Anna Weissman, Becky Goldberg, Michael Kalmans and Jonathan Zfira will serve on the TCU Judiciary.

Many of the class council positions were also uncontested. For the Class of 2015, Julia Stein will serve as Vice President, Adiel Pollydore will serve as the marketing chair, Mark Bernardo will serve as the finance chair and Grace Michaels will serve as President. For the Class of 2016, Mauri Honickman will serve as Vice President, Jason Brillon will serve as the marketing chair, Matthew Marber will serve as secretary and Julia Turock will serve as President. For the Class of 2017, Patrick Allen will serve as Vice President, Anastasia Antonova will serve as the marketing chair, Michelle Bornstein will serve as the finance chair and Katie Waymack will serve as secretary.

—by Justin Rheingold

Seven members of the Tufts community, including students, a professor and an alumnus, delivered short presentations on their unique ideas as part of the fifth edition of the Tufts Idea Exchange (TEX).

TEX, which is part of the Institute for Global Leadership's Synaptic Scholars Program, is based off of the popular Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conferences. This year's presentations consisted of a vast array of ideas, ranging from the role coffee shops play in our daily lives to the impor-

tance of hip-hop sampling and the possibilities of synthetic biology.

The evening began with a lecture from Maryanne Wolf, a professor in the EliotPearson Department of Child Development, who spoke about her efforts to increase literacy rates among children around the world.

"Most of you take it completely for granted — you think that reading is a natural thing," Wolf said. "It could not be unnatural ... It is a platform for releasing the potential of children to learn beyond whatever their backgrounds are ... Yet 72 million children in this world

are not only not literate, they will never ever have an opportunity [to learn to read]."

Wolf explained that she and her team at the Center for Reading and Language Research are working to develop a digital learning program that enables children to learn to read on their own and without a human teacher.

"What we want to do is begin to make templates for people in different languages and use it as a way not just to share knowledge ... but also break down barriers about who is 'other,'" she said. "One of the most imporsee TEX, page 2

Former Ambassador Swanee Hunt delivers guest lecture

by Justin Rheingold Daily Editorial Board

Former U.S. Ambassador to Austria, Swanee Hunt, spoke with students and faculty yesterday about the evolving role of women in government decision making, particularly in those decisions involving conflict.

Hunt, who is currently the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, was introduced by Associate Professor of Political Science Richard Eichenberg and Dean of the Tisch College Alan Solomont.

"Swanee Hunt's mission through life is to achieve gender parity, especially as a means to end war and rebuild

Inside this issue

societies, as well as to alleviate poverty and human suffering," Solomont, a former ambassador, explained.

Hunt, who spent her lecture dissecting the reasons why women may be better suited to resolve conflict, explained that she has pursued her research for reasons other than gender equality.

"I care a lot about women, but that isn't the most important driving force for me," she said. "I care a lot about poverty and people having hope in their lives and I come to those issues through the gender lens."

From 1993 to 1997, Hunt served as the ambassador to Austria, an important time for the Baltic States as Yugoslavia was in turmoil. She told the

story of the Bosnian War, a conflict she worked to resolve through peace conferences in Vienna.

"I made probably 25 trips to Bosnia because Vienna was the last sane place before you dropped into hell," she explained. "You all are aware of what's happening in Syria ... Bosnia was the Syria of the time. It was a three-and-a-half year siege ... We had 40,000 refugees that streamed across the border into Vienna."

Working to reduce the conflict, Hunt sought to reduce the number of warring parties from three to two by bringing the Bosnians and Croats together. During the negotiations, she noticed a lack of see HUNT, page 2

Today’s sections

Tufts music scene explodes with fusion groups and eager jamming.

Nalaga’at Theater Ensemble movingly depicts life for deaf and blind.

see WEEKENDER, page 5

see ARTS, page 6

News 1 Features 3 Weekender 5 Editorial | Letters 8

Op-Ed 9 Comics 10 Classifieds 11 Sports Back

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The Tufts Daily

Thursday, April 10, 2014

News

Police Briefs HANDS OFF

DANCING IN THE DARK

TALKING A BIG GAME

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) on April 4 at 1:15 a.m. were overseeing the buses returning students to campus after Senior Pub Night. Officers observed two students exiting the bus, one student supporting the other who appeared to be intoxicated. As officers approached the students to verify this, the student who was supporting the other told officers that his friend was fine and there was no need to call Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS). The officers told the student not to interfere and then called TEMS. At this point the intoxicated student told the officers to "get the f*** off" him and tried to walk away. The intoxicated student was taken to Somerville Hospital and a report was filed against both of the students for their behavior.

Police on April 4 at 11:50 p.m. responded to a panic alarm set off at 92 Curtis St. Upon arrival, police discovered a large group of people in the house, dancing in the dark. The officers turned on the lights and cleared everyone out of the house.

They then found many empty beer cans and three empty vodka bottles. Police suspect that the panic alarm was triggered by someone accidentally bumping into it.

Police on April 5 at 3:17 a.m. received a call from the Somerville Police Department who had been alerted to a Tufts student trying to force his way into a house on Powder House Blvd., thinking it was Lewis Hall. When police asked if the student had been drinking, he responded that he had, saying he had consumed 19 alcoholic drinks. Later the student changed his statement, saying he had "actually maybe had five" alcoholic drinks. The student was permitted to sign a medical refusal form and was taken back to Lewis Hall.

SITTIN' IN THE RAIN Officers on April 5 at 1:45 a.m. saw a female sitting in the rain on the curb in front of 92 Professors Row talking to two people. TUPD found out she was not a student and was 17-years-old. She claimed that she and a friend were visiting the friend's brother who is a student at Tufts. She was able to sign a medical refusal form.

LETTING THE BIRD FLY Officers on April 5 at 4:55 p.m. responded to a call about a disturbance in Robinson Hall. A student in a Wall Street prep course had received a text from another student saying, "Tell Wall Street prep I'm giving them the bird. Say this out loud." Later the student who had sent the text entered

the classroom in a suit and tie, placed a raw chicken on the desk, and left the area.

Police found the student in Miller Hall.

When police asked him about his behavior the student was very apologetic, saying it was a misunderstanding and that he just wanted to give the Wall Street prep class the bird and display his middle finger.

A VISIT TO REMEMBER TUPD on April 6 at 1:02 a.m. saw an intoxicated female being supported by a male student. When TUPD asked what was going on, the male responded that he had seen the female sitting on the corner of Packard Ave. and Professors Row where she had vomited. The male student said he was trying to help the female, who was a student at Dartmouth College, find her friends who she was visiting. The female was transported to Somerville Hospital.

—compiled by Kathleen Schmidt

Students discuss coffee, biology during TEX TEX

continued from page 1

tant things we want to do is use this open platform for other people to contribute to other forms of literacy."

After Wolf concluded her talk, senior Noha Ahmed followed with her presentation, titled "Demystifying the Bean," during which she spoke about the prevalence of coffee and coffee shops in everyday life.

Calling coffee a "liquid cup of motivation," Ahmed explained that it is a gateway to adulthood and gives people a much needed, albeit false, sense of productivity.

"For college students, coffee shops are an escape, an escape from the sterile and often ill-vented library environment that is Tisch, and a place for us to get away from campus, get away from our friends without it being weird, and sit down and just do some work," Ahmed said. "What's more is that coffee shops harness creativity ... Research has found that the ambient sound of coffee shops, the sounds of coffee grinding, orders being taken and people chatting is just the perfect level of noise to provide a productive distraction."

Junior Scott Delisle spoke next about the connection between mental illness and artistic talent. He discussed how suicide rates among artistic groups are more than 18 times higher than those for nonartists, and that the most productive artists were those who didn't treat their ill-

nesses. Delisle, however, said that people should not be left to suffer simply because it may increase their creativity and suggested that art can and should be used as a cure for mental illness.

"Art is all about taking something that, on its own, is totally unremarkable ... and making the audience feeling something new or something familiar in a new way through experiencing it," he said. "We all have our own aspirations, our own stories to tell and our own paintings to paint."

Senior Anna Troein spoke after Delisle about the need for Tufts students to step back and reexamine the activities in their seemingly always-busy lives. Troein explained that being busy should not be a competition, and people should only participate in activities in which they are genuinely interested.

"When you commit yourself, commit yourself 100 percent," she said. "When you're not willing to do that anymore, let everyone else know."

For graduate student Dylan Portelance, hip-hop is a fantastic mode of self-expression because of its endless sampling possibilities. Adding onto the idea of opensourcing material, Portelance explained how this process provides artists with a limitless palette.

"If we sample each other rather than rely on our isolated abilities and resources, we have the power to not only create

Hunt: Women help bring sustainable peace

HUNT

continued from page 1

women.

"I look around and I realized there were no women on any of the negotiating teams," she said. "There were no women and I didn't see it ahead of time.

The reason I didn't see it was because I was looking through a lens that is called security."

A major problem with many negotiations is their temporary nature, according to Hunt. She explained that men often do not seek sustainable peace, something that women may be more inclined to discover.

Hunt showed clips of various women working to resolve conflicts around the world, including a woman in Northern Ireland, one in Rwanda and one in the Philippines. In many of the videos, the women brought additional resources to the negotiating table, started from the grassroots and sought broader peace. She explained that in many of these cases, women, unlike men, are likely to align themselves with one another.

"When women are involved in the negotiations, they actually advocate for other marginalized groups," Hunt said. "If you build up the number of women

in both parties, the women will vote as a block."

In Rwanda, for instance, women's involvement in negotiations has seen a dramatic increase — women now make up 75 percent of Parliament.

While women were previously forbidden from speaking in public, they have been responsible for trying the people responsible for the recent genocide, and have had marked success, Hunt said.

"The large majority of the witnesses [of genocide] were women," she said. "Women were not to speak in a forum where men were present and here they were really taking hold of this process and what you found were how many people were actually acquitted. “ Overall, Hunt expressed optimism and hopes the Rwandan example will be replicated. She said she sees an expanded role for women in future negotiations.

"What I love is seeing the same phenomenon over and over again and that's what it is about — women as they are able to secure the future of us all," she said. "This isn't women helping women, this isn't women helping girls. This is women carrying the future on their backs."

a vastly greater range of contributions to the world, [but] we also could draw from a vastly greater range of artistic resources," he said. "Creativity could be our culture."

Petar Todorov added that, for him, this sense of creativity lies in the field of synthetic biology. Todorov, a senior, explained that recent science now allows humans to use DNA as a building block to alter life forms and potentially create new ones. He addressed concerns that genetically modified organisms are unethical, unhealthy or potentially dangerous, but said that most people who use synthetic biology want to use it to help, not hurt, society.

"It's going to revolutionize our health, our industry and our everyday life, so get ready," he said.

Senior Gavin Murphy followed Todorov with a presentation titled "What If I Told You Just a Story" in which he spoke about the power of storytelling. According to Murphy, listening to someone's story can help others connect with that person more deeply.

"What's most captivating for me about stories is the transfer of truth that happens," he said. "The way you end up extending that moment is through the connection that you build while you're there. You can just tell a story, and then you can leave, or you can think about how you're building the story."

CAROLINE GEILING / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senior Gavin Murphy speaks about the importance of storytelling during this year's Tufts Idea Exchange

ScratchJr teaches basic programming skills to 5- to 7-year-olds SCRATCHJR

continued from page 1

how to code is a way to express yourself that allows children to think in systematic ways," she said. "When they are expressing themselves, they are also thinking about steps on problem solving."

Bonta explained that while Resnick's group provided much of the development and PICO provided the actual software programming expertise, the Eliot-Pearson Children's School at Tufts was critical in developing a program useable by children.

"The Tufts team really focused on childhood, that's their strength, and everything they had to do with starting this very important field test," she said. "We did six rounds of field tests with kids and that takes a lot of effort and hard work."

Bers elaborated on the process and explained that it involved both children and their parents.

"We worked with children, we worked with parents and we observed what they were able to do and what they were not able to do," she said. "We went back and created the design many many times so that it really can be a tool for

young children."

According to Bers, children can not only program their character into doing a series of activities like jumping, dancing and singing, but also can make them come to life using a paint editor, adding their own sounds and photos.

"It gives children the possibility to express themselves by creating a personally meaningful project, and at the same time learning fundamental ideas of computer programming," she said.

Resnick noted the importance of young children learning how to code. He explained that coding has long been viewed as something difficult, which only a small part of the population is capable of doing — but that the situation is changing.

"Computer programming or coding is like a new form of writing, a new type of literacy," he said. "Like writing, when people learn to code, they learn new ways of organizing their thinking, new ways of expressing ideas. When you learn to code you are learning many other things."

Resnick would like the app to be free. In order to do so, the team has to do sig-

nificant fundraising. But the group received initial funding from the Lego Foundation, the Code-to-Learn Foundation, British Telecommunications and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

According to NSF Program Director Elizabeth VanderPutten, the NSF gave a significant grant due to the reach and benefits of ScratchJr. "This contract can contribute to both understanding of what and how students can learn at this age and provide a useful tool to formal and informal educators," VanderPutten told the Daily in an email.

Overall, Resnick said the group hoped to raise $60,000 to release an iPad version of the app, an amount they have now surpassed. He hopes that the new app will reinforce design skills and problem solving, and put to use the increasingly frequent use of digital technology by young people "They use math and language in a meaningful and motivating context, supporting the development of early-childhood numeracy and literacy," he said. "With ScratchJr, children aren't just learning to code, they are coding to learn."

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

WMFO provides students with creative outlet

by Maya Blackstone Daily Editorial Board

WMFO, Tufts University's radio station and one of the oldest college stations in the country, is run by both students and community volunteers. Radio broadcasts run 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and in recent years, student DJs have brought new energy to this long-running radio program.

According to the Tufts Digital Archives, the radio station began broadcasting from Curtis Hall on Feb. 6, 1971 as a daily AM radio station. According to the WMFO website, the first song ever played was "Here Comes the Sun" (1969) by The Beatles.

A few years later, the radio station — in response to local interest from the Medford/Somerville community — made the switch to the FM band. In 1973, WMFO was able to expand to broadcast coverage of the local elections.

With funding from the Tufts Community Union Senate, the station began broadcasting 24 hours a day in 1974, and created the freeform format that remains in place today.

Despite suffering a large fire that destroyed most of the WMFO studio in 1977, it was quickly rebuilt and the station has remained on the airwaves ever since.

Two student DJs are rejuvenating WMFO's longstanding freeform style by exploring Tufts history for their listeners every Friday from 3 to 4 p.m. on their segment "Age before Beauty." Juniors Michael Maskin and Sam Zollman decided to start their show in the fall of 2012.

"We were at the homecoming football game when we got the inspiration for the show," Maskin said. "We saw these two old alums walking around wearing Tufts paraphernalia, and it was just so funny to see them reliving their glory days."

"Age before Beauty" features Maskin and Zollman performing as two fictional members of the Class of 1953. Maskin plays DJ Horace Hildabran, a fictional Tufts alum who has a bachelor's degree in international relations, and Zollman plays DJ Jasper VonSiegfried, who has a bachelor's degree in economics.

"We don't take ownership of the characters," Zollman said. "It's as if these people are actually DJs hosting the show, and the music they play is what we believe these characters listen to."

Because the characters graduated in the 1950s, the show's music serves as a tribute to that era, featuring the hits of artists like Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

The show also features singing from the show's DJs. "We start out every show singing about 'our dear alma mater,'" Maskin said.

Maskin and Zollman typically play tracks

EVA BATALLA-MANN | VALUABLE DELUSIONS

Ballooms and "The Seinfeld Show"

S ANDREW MORGENTHALER / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

In addition to broadcasting student shows, WMFO also features local radio hosts from the Medford/Somerville community. from various genres that were popular in the 50s, but also take suggestions from listeners and incorporate their own commentary as Horace and Jasper.

"It is ... a pretty even [ratio] of talking to music," Maskin said. "The banter is all adlib and improv."

In the show, the two elderly DJs reminisce on their days at Tufts, discussing — among other things — their favorite places on the campus and their relationships with other fictional characters, such as a student named Bowen with giant lips — their explanation for the kissing tradition behind Bowen Gate.

"In one segment we had a public service announcement about webcam language," Maskin said. "Horace and Jasper didn't understand how the NSA could fit into their computer, and another time one thought that their great-grandnephew actually had a band in the garage, instead of the computer program GarageBand."

While the characters and their plotlines are all made-up, the show's creators adequately researched the time period, in order to present their characters through an accurate historical context, Maskin said.

"We [also] want to make it clear that we're not [trying] to be mean or ageist in any way," Zollman said.

Maskin and Zollman were both involved in theater in high school, and became friends when they both joined Tufts Traveling Treasure Trunk. Like many DJs on WMFO, however, they were new when they began their radio show.

Maskin and Zollman aren't the only students with creative broadcasts. Senior Ellen Mayer has also developed two unique WMFO shows. The first, called "In(die) Vogue," was founded with her friend and roommate, senior Kelly O'Hara, and focuses on independent music. "Hipnotized," her second show, is dedicated to hip-hop.

Mayer became a member of the WMFO board in the second semester of her junior year. As the current co-director of music, her job includes acquiring new CDs and communicating with promoters who send music to the station. She explained that, as a DJ, it's often difficult to gauge your audience.

"It's hard to know how many people listen to each WMFO show," she said. "There is not a huge range, and we don't have any way to know how many people are listening in their cars. Sometimes you can have eight to 15 listeners and other times it's more like six. [But] there are also many community DJs who have [an] avid following."

Though these statistics may appear exceptionally low when considering the roughly 5,000 undergraduates at Tufts, Maskin said that the number of listeners is not an accurate measure of success.

"What results [from a show] is a safe way to be creative, with tons of freedom to do whatever you want in a judgment free zone," Maskin said. "You can try out anything, and it's up to you to use the time for whatever you want."

Zollman, however, feels that WMFO programs can improve its reach on campus.

"I wish more people were aware of WMFO," Zollman said. "I think it gets overlooked by the student body. It could be played more around campus, like in Dewick."

As for WMFO's future, Mayer explained that the Internet poses challenges to radio in general.

"I think freeform radio is really fun, and I'm glad that Tufts has it and [that] I'm able to get involved, but we have the Internet now, and the Internet is freeform ..." Mayer said. "In a sense, WMFO is totally obsolete, but that also doesn't mean that it shouldn't exist — because it does create a really fun space ... [where] people can make their own projects."

STEPH NEWMAN / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVES

Then-Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.), now the Secretary of State, spoke before the Tufts College Democrats in 1989.

ometimes you think you know something. You would bet money on it. But, in the end, you would lose that money if you did. While writing a paper on Paul Gauguin, I realized halfway through that I had been spelling his name wrong the whole time.

This type of mistake is a relatively small problem, but still something that has the ability to shake the foundation on which you have built your life.

You may say I'm being dramatic, but once you start doubting yourself all bets are off. This got me thinking about all those small things that we do wrong.

We go about our business saying "restauranteur"; that we "could care less" or find ourselves singing along, "I can see clearly now 'Lorraine' is gone." And while it may be super annoying to people that know otherwise, it's really not that big a deal. It's okay that I called balloons "ballooms" until I was five years old and that my dad calls "Seinfeld" (1989-1998) "The Seinfeld Show" despite my constant nagging.

We all figure it out eventually — finding out that they are called "balloons" was quite the game-changer — and go about our lives as wiser and more enlightened people. Let's be honest; we can all be know-it-alls and love to blow other people's trips when they don't use "whom" or conspicuously pronounce the L- in Ralph Fiennes' name. But I feel like often we are questioning the wrong things. These little things are easy to get wrong and therefore easy to correct. You get called out once or hear something said the right way and you change your behavior so you don't look unintelligent (or a better way of saying "stupid"). But that doesn't take much audacity. What does take courage is challenging conventional wisdom.

I often hear people say how many things are "so Tufts." I think the plethora of things I'm referring to is pretty selfexplanatory so I won't go into it (ahem, social justice). This, often accompanied with an eye roll, can cheapen many people's pursuits of social change. A lot of things get brushed off in the shuffle.

Because of this, it is sometimes suggested that the questioning of things that people of conscience see as unjust is bothersome.

I see that in the constant stream of talks, meetings, symposiums, and Social Justice Seders that it can seem that normal parts of our daily lives can get lost — and it can be overwhelming. But it's important to keep questioning. It takes courage and tenacity and can be done on any level.

We are in such an exciting position in our lives. In the face of an injustice, we can be courageous enough say that something that is happening is wrong.

While this is far more exciting than correcting someone's grammar, it is definitely a whole lot scarier. But I guess that is kind of why we are here. We all have convictions that are important to us and important to the greater good of whatever communities we are a part of.

While we wait to find things we are passionate enough about to put ourselves out there for, I suggest we blissfully sing along, "the ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the wind" and learn about the "statue" of limitations, and don't worry about it too much. Go ahead and sing loudly and let them stare. In the meantime I am going to go back through my paper and hopefully spell Gauguin correctly this time.

Eva Batalla-Mann is a sophomore majoring in peace and justice studies and community health. She can be reached at Eva. Batalla_Mann@tufts.edu.

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The Tufts Daily

Features

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Weekender Arts & Living

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tuftsdaily.com

Tufts music scene displays variety, talent

Courtesy Waldo

These Battle of the Band winners, Waldo, have their eyes set on future success.

Three bands poised to continue Tufts' musical legacy

by Veronica Little Daily Editorial Board

As the birthplace of successful musical acts like Guster and Timeflies, Tufts has for years maintained a competitive and burgeoning music scene among its student body. In fact, the university draws musical students from all disciplines — as countless YouTube application supplement videos can attest to. With engineers who can shred any Jimi Hendrix lick to social justice advocates who share a love for Bob Dylan and slapping the bass, the current music scene on the Hill reflects a wide-array of backgrounds, styles and aspirations.

At Battle of the Bands, an annual event for serious oncampus music groups, Shark Saddle, Not So Gentlemen, Waldo and Thoroughfare and Telly, rocked the stage. Each band brings a unique flavor to Tufts' musical landscape.

Indeed, for many of these groups — some of which were formed during orientation events or in residence halls — their identities are intimately tied to the Tufts experience. This connection is what makes these groups feel homegrown and universal.

The Daily had the opportunity to sit down with a few of these bands and discuss who they are and what they hope for the future.

Not So Gentelmen In the misty mountains of New Hampshire during Tufts Wilderness Orientation (TWO) in 2012, sophomores Max Leonhardt and Avram Ellner bonded over their love of music.

After heading back to the Hill for orientation, Leonhardt met talented drummer junior Henry Butler. Observing that Ellner and Butler had similar styles and were both eager for a new pal to jam with, Leonhardt decided to introduce the two musicians.

Ironically, Leonhardt — who brought the band together and is now its bassist — didn't play an instrument in the early days of this trio's friendship.

"I didn't pick up a bass until Not So Gentlemen [formed]," Leonhardt said. "We started hanging out more, and I decid-

ed to go out and buy a bass guitar to join in on the fun."

Frequent hangouts transformed into informal jam sessions, which then moved to practice rooms in the Granoff Music Center and thus, Not So Gentlemen was formed.

The band's style, however, is much more elusive than its history. Leonhardt, Ellner and Butler each have unique musical influences and intuitions. Though they do share a few favorites, including Jimi Hendrix and Parliament Funkadelic, the three band members have different preferences and musical heroes.

"Henry loves the Red Hot Chili Peppers and [funk in general]," Leonhardt said. "Avram is a straight up metal-head — he loves Metallica and Black Sabbath. I have a thing for the more psychedelic jams, but also Johnny Cash and, of course, [Dylan]."

This fusion has made for an interesting sound. Playing what the band has dubbed "blunken" — a fusion of blues and funk — Not So Gentlemen has a decidedly vintage and laid-back tone.

"We're just rocking and rolling with it," said Leonhardt.

"We're having so much fun playing and jamming with other bands."

Not So Gentlemen, a relatively young band on campus, has garnered a fairly substantial following. Placing second at Battle of the Bands, Not So Gentlemen will be performing at the upcoming Tuftonia's Day. However, even with its success and growing fan base, the end of this year means an indefinite hiatus for the group, as Leonhardt will be taking a year off to pursue a teaching position in Wisconsin. Ellner and Butler plan to continue making music together and collaborate with Leonhardt remotely.

"We don't like to look ahead," said Leonhardt. "We love playing here. We want to play as many shows as we can before the year [is] out, and we plan to keep playing and jamming next year."

Shark Saddle Perhaps the most tempo-

rally impressive band on the list, Shark Saddle, a seven-piece ska-reggae and soul fusion group, is comprised of all freshmen. The band's members — Aidan Scrimgeour and Jackson Clawson on keyboards, Greg Warns on guitar, Michael Seltzer on saxophone, Ben Averill on trumpet, Dan Callahan on drums and Rohan Joshi on bass — all met through their freshman-year housing.

"Five of us lived on the same side on the same floor of Houston," said Warns. "The group kind of organically grew from there."

Many of the band members came to Tufts looking to play music, but didn't want to join a class or club to do so. And like Not So Gentleman, the members of Shark Saddle come from diverse musical backgrounds.

While some of the Shark Saddle musicians boast jazz chops and more classical repertoires, the band's sound remains vibrant and energetic.

Despite their unique sound, it is a bit of a mystery how seven freshmen could so successfully gain a following in such a short period of time. During Battle of the Bands, many in the crowd were donning Shark Saddle tanks and dancing animatedly to their tunes.

"It's all about reckless and shameless self-promotion," Scrimgeour said. "As a band, your goal is to play as much as you can and get the word out that you're here."

Utilizing social media platforms and word of mouth recommendations, Shark Saddle has certainly made a name for themselves. However, with success come challenges. With so many members, including five engineers, even organizing practices can pose logistical difficulties. They hope that their housing arrangements for sophomore year — with five members living together in a suite — will help facilitate more practice, song-writing and musical growth.

Though they didn't place at Battle of the Bands, Shark Saddle will continue playing at Tufts and producing music in their own time. By the end

of the year, the band hopes to release a single and begin working on a music video.

Waldo Though their name may connote obscurity (think: the illusive animated character of "Where's Waldo?" fame), the band Waldo is open about who — and where — they are.

Made up of four juniors — Connor Cunningham on guitar and vocals, James Forward on bass, Jonathan Gilad on drums and Jake Mills on guitar — Waldo positively fits the bill for an alternative indie college rock band. Citing musical influences that range from Dr. Dog to The Strokes, Waldo has quickly risen to a premier position in the Tufts music circuit.

Like Not So Gentlemen and Shark Saddle, most members of Waldo met early on during their freshman year. With each possessing a penchant for music, Cunningham, Forward and Mills began playing together, and by the second semester of their sophomore year the musicians had recorded an eighttrack original album.

As the winners of Battle of the Bands, Waldo will play the opening set at Spring Fling, and the group now is looking to reinvent itself musically.

"We started out as freshmen jamming together, writing songs on the fly," Cunningham

said. "Now, we're constantly practicing so ... we're super tight, [and we are] producing a higher standard of music."

The members of Waldo take their craft seriously. Though they are all dedicated to school, they are fully committed to the band: Forward and Mills, for example, decided to hold off on going abroad in order to continue growing as Waldo.

"We love playing to our peers," Mills said. "We just want to make music that we would want to listen to. It's all about making the best music you can."

With their eyes firmly set on the future, Waldo says they will maintain their presence in the Tufts music scene.

"We're just really stoked about what's going at Tufts right now," Mills said. "There's such a movement to harness all this great talent. It's a great thing to be a part of."

Bands in action Each of these groups can be found on Facebook, and all three will play at the Leo Lewis Music Festival at Lewis Hall tomorrow, Friday, April 11 from 2 to 5 p.m. You can catch Waldo playing at Relay for Life, also on April 11. Shark Saddle and Not So Gentlemen will be performing on April 12 in Hotung Cafe for the SEALs, Sharks, Food and Great Music event.

Courtesy Not So Gentlemen

Known for their blue funk fusion, the members of Not So Gentlemen has quickly made a name for themselves at Tufts.

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NASH SIMPSON | THROWBLACK THURSDAY

Paint

WEEKENDER

CONCERT REVIEW

Lake Street Dive encapsulates longstanding sound at recent concert

by Lauren Samuel Contributing Writer

Y

ou're the not-so-average educated Joe, mean muggin' the formless, intangible blur that is your future. Before you know it, it's time to grab onto that lingering blur and to form it into what you will. You're pulling up your bootstraps just like everyone else, or so it seems. The problem is that as much as you wish to blend in with the masses, invasive thoughts of ineptitude plague your mind as you inevitably realize that, even though the straps on which you pull perfectly match the ones that belong to your fellow neophytes to the left and to the right you, your boots are of a different brand than theirs. They stick out like a sore thumb in a surrounding sea of what you perceive as sameness. In other words, it just so happens that you're a black man in a not-so-black world. Try painting your boots to fit in, and the ephemeral layer simply dries up and withers away.

Perhaps a mother who has seen it all provides you with an endless supply of paint, her necessary keys to success that you have come to know well. She chants, she coerces, she rants: "Tuck in your shirt," "Wear a suit," "Cut you hair," "Put away the do-rag," "Learn to play golf," "Speak properly," and "Take it easy on the hip-hop. It's not going to help you."

"Okay, I've heard you," you think, but then the voice of that cool uncle with the clean dreads sneaks into the picture. He holds a small suitcase and a one-way train ticket to your heart. He comes to dwell deep in recesses of your mind, to remind you to shine "dem" different colored boots and forget the paint altogether as he whispers to you, "Grow you hair," "Dress as you please," "Wear dashikis," "Keep your accent" and "Listen to the music and the poetry of your people."

So what if you decide to push the second voice aside and keep your boots painted, slapping on layer after layer as you scoop self-suppression from an infinite supply you've been collecting since childhood? Would you still be black? Director Kevin Hook's 1991 film "Strictly Business" closely examines this very question.

The film's main character, Waymon ( Jospeh C. Phillips), is a black realestate broker whose only mark of "blackness," as defined by the film, is his skin. He's basically racist, but he shamelessly exonerates himself of all his implicit condemnations of black culture. Juxtaposed with Waymon is Bobby (Tommy Davidson), a black mailman who speaks with an old-school Harlem accent, dresses freely and parties on weekdays. But Bobby also happens to be a college graduate, and he aspires to someday work with Waymon.

Who better than the beautiful Natalie (Halle Berry) to bring these foils together? The two agree that in exchange for introducing him to Natalie, Waymon would get Bobby a job in his firm. The plan was to switch personalities, with Waymon becoming "thug" enough for Natalie, and Bobby pretending to be like Waymon — "whiter than the whitest white man" — to get hired.

Predictably, they both end up somewhere in between, easily finding ways to reconcile expressions of their blackness with the demands of newly attained illustrious careers in the firm. How nice.

So the answer to the film's central question should be "yes," right?

Not so fast. See, this is the real world.

And there again, you stand, looking down at your American Dream-walking boots. Perhaps you smile at a movie like "Strictly Business." And then come to your senses and frown. You make the only choice you have. You lean down and you paint. You paint over Bobby's face until he looks like just like Waymon.

Then you paint some more — until all the black is gone.

Nash Simpson is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at Nash.

Simpson@tufts.edu.

Anyone who has had the slightest taste of Lake Street Dive's music, even if it is just a few seconds of their famous cover of The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" (1969), would probably acknowledge that the group has talent. And, indeed, the decade-old band, which originated in Boston, has certainly climbed their way up the music scene, booking spots this past year with stints on the likes of "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993-present) and "The Colbert Report" (2005-present). Known for their indie jazz sound, skilled upright bassist, gratuitous trumpet solos and, finally, for lead singer Rachel Price's powerfully smooth and miraculously controlled voice, the band's recent media attention is certainly merited.

Yet, no amount of prior awareness of the group's talents could have prepared any audience member standing on the floor of the swanky Royale Boston nightclub for the performance Lake Street Drive delivered last Sunday. After hearing the solid, but fairly unoriginal opening act from Ages and Ages, there was a palpable hunger for Lake Street Drive's unique sound in the crowd. Although it took a while for their performance to begin, this long wait was forgotten as soon as the group began to play.

The band members swarmed the stage, exhibiting a sense of charm that has been lost among many of today's indie acts. Opening with "Stop Your Crying," a tune off the newly released album "Bad Self Portraits," Price's flirtatious demeanor and passionate swaying complemented her strong, booming voice.

This energy was not short-lived. For the remainder of their set, Lake Street Dive's performance was inexplicably captivating and incredibly infectious.

The crowd — considerably older than might have been expected — was no less enthusiastic, cheering and hollering non-stop. Everyone, from middle-aged mothers to groups of thirtysomething men, was swaying, clapping and screaming. It didn't really matter that the pieces did not posses a sing-along quality; people were still fascinated by the music and the vocals,

WFUV VIA FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

Lake Street Dive brings soul and energy to its music. both of which were flawless.

While Price's singing was a highlight, the rest of the band got a chance to shine too. Bridget Kearney on the stand-up bass was truly impressive, and watching her dexterous fingers maneuver the strings of an instrument much larger than her small frame was a treat. The fantastic Mike Olson’s trumpet solos garnered a particularly emotional response from concertgoers, and drummer Mike Calabrese delivered an effortless performance, even showcasing his vocals on the catchy "Seventeen," another track off "Bad Self Portraits."

As the show progressed, Price engaged more and more with the crowd, revealing comedic details about her struggles in love, life and with her upstairs neighbor, fellow band member, Olson. This was followed by a low-key performance of 2010's "The Neighbor Song," which featured Price slowly belting the line, "I don't mind my neighbors making love upstairs / Cause I was once a lover making all my neighbors scared."

Throughout the concert, Price

TOP TEN | HOSTS TO REPLACE DAVID LETTERMAN With news that David Letterman will step down from his post as the host of "Late Show With David Letterman" (1993-present), rumors about potential successors have been flying around. We in the Daily Arts Department have our own opinions on who could best fill the long-time host's shoes.

10.) An oil painting of Vladimir Putin: Former President George W. Bush recently unveiled a portrait of the world leader that he painted himself, and the strong chin and proportions of his Putin would offer a commanding presence.

9.) Stephen Colbert: The faux-conservative Comedy Central host would have to leave his lauded position over at "The Colbert Report" (2005-present), but his new role would certainly rejuvenate "Late Show" with a younger audience.

8.) Craig Ferguson's gay robot: Who better to host a program loved by the elderly than a homosexual animatronic human corpse? Geoff Peterson (Josh Robert Thompson), the beloved animatronic skeleton from Ferguson's "The Late Late Show" (2005-present), could add that missing edge factor to "Late Show."

7.) Dina Lohan's dog: What late night television is really missing is Lindsay Lohan's crazy mother's pampered pooch.

6.) The ghost of Philip Seymour Hoffman: With the fantastic actor's recent and untimely death, many of us were left wanting to see more of that incredible "Shut up!" scene from

"Punch-Drunk Love" (2002). Who says his ghost couldn't inject a sense of spirituality into "Late Night?"

5.) Banjo, the ostrich: Do you really think they took that thing to be cleaned?

Come on, people! The infamous French starlet has been groomed to become a late night talk show host, ready to discuss pop culture and schmooze with celebrities.

4.) Hodor: The "Game of Thrones" (2011-present) character (Kristian Nairn) has been carrying Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) around on his back for a few years; who's to say he can't carry a popular television program, as well? HODOR HODOR HODOR. 3.) Conan O'Brien's contract: Admittedly, this one might not work out so well. We all know that thing can't sit anywhere for longer than a few days.

2.)Paul Shaffer: Letterman's sidekick and musician for over 30 years? Who better knows the program than Paul? In fact, the two might as well just switch seats from now on.

1.) A top-10 list: Go for the meta option.

Letterman's popular segment is one of the most successful parts of his show.

Why not allow it to be all of the show?

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

revealed how each band member contributed to the songwriting effort on the recent album and, indeed, the bond between band members was abundantly clear on stage. The strong connection between the four musicians, solidified since their third studio album, 2012's "Fun Machine," manifested itself in their flawless harmonies.

The band exited the stage after concluding a nearly 20-song set list with the famous, "You Go Down Smooth." The departure was merely a tease, however, and Lake Street Drive returned a few minutes later for a two-song encore, formally ending the evening with a cover of Hall and Oate's "Rich Girl."

As the Royale emptied out and hoards of people swarmed the coat check, almost every fan was wearing a satisfied smile on his or her face. For those in the crowd, it was easy to see that Lake Street Dive will be going places in the near future, and it felt good to have been with them — even if only for two hours — on their inevitable rise to well-deserved recognition.

'Not By Bread Alone' provides sensory delight

by Alison Graham Contributing Writer

It is not often that a performance can successfully create a close rapport between the audience and the cast mem-

Not By Bread Alone Directed by Adina Tal ArtsEmerson 559 Washington St., Boston, MA 02111 bers, but this is exactly what "Not by Bread Alone," a live performance piece brought to Boston by ArtsEmerson and performed by members of the Nalaga'at Theater Ensemble, achieves. The theater was buzzing long after the curtain dropped, and viewers, trying to make sense of what had just happened, congregated around the actors. Everyone wanted to talk with the performers, but they were limited to handshakes and hugs of appreciation due to one simple fact: the entire cast of "Not by Bread Alone" is deaf-blind.

Indeed, the Nalaga'at Theater Ensemble is no ordinary theater group.

It is composed of 11 men and women see BREAD, page 7

The Tufts Daily

7

WEEKENDER

Characters invite audience to share in laughter, baking BREAD

continued from page 6

from Tel-Aviv many of whom were born deaf and have gradually lost their sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. Others in the ensemble still have traces of sight and hearing.

In Hebrew, "nalaga'at" means "please touch," and, fittingly, the actors communicate on stage by touch and touchsign language. Those who can talk speak in Hebrew and Russian. English supertitles appear above the stage, and a translator signs their words to the audience.

Upbeat, lively music plays throughout most of the show, but vibrations of a single drum are what cue the actors to move about the stage. Often the actors themselves remind each other of a scene change by squeezing the hand of their neighbor, as if playing a game of telephone.

Despite these rather unconventional elements, it soon becomes obvious that these men and women are hardly handicapped. Their collective energy emits a sense of both joy and peace, and, some-

how, the reality on stage seems almost more candid than real life — an effect is perhaps due to the fact that each actor in the troupe plays him or herself.

This personal touch is evident from the opening scene. Sitting almost shoulder-to-shoulder behind long, wooden rectangular tables in a kitchen reminiscent of a Parisian boulangerie, men and women knead bread together. Their faces bear a melange of expressions — some of them focused on the task, others smiling out into the audience — but their hands are most expressive, creating shapes from the dough and brushing against those of their neighbor as if to share a nervous laugh.

Eventually one of them drops the dough and stands up. Itzik, a tall, ruddyfaced man is first to speak. He tells us he was born blind and became deaf after contacting meningitis at age 11.

Then Bat-Sheva pipes up, a sparkling voice bursting from her small frame. "I like to run around without anyone to help me," she declares. Other introductions come from Yuri, who "enjoy[s] fish-

COURTESY AVSHALOW AHRARON

Each actor shared personal narratives and vignettes as bread slowly baked.

COURTESY AVSHALOW AHRARON

The Nalaga'at Theater Ensemble invites its audience into the world of the deaf-blind. ing" and Shoshana, who slowly explains, "What is important to me is that people shake my hand because this way I know [they exist]."

As each person shares a taste of their story, the audience begins to understand a little bit about the values, hopes and ambitions of these actors, a comprehension aptly captured by the line, "Welcome to our lives ... our darkness and silence."

As bread rises in the oven and the aroma fills the theater, it transports the audience into the world of the actors, where smell, taste and touch are paramount senses. Then, through a series of vignettes, they illustrate the sensory experience of their everyday lives. In one emotionally raw monologue, Itzik recalls a lonely holiday when the ability to walk outside alone, smoking a cigarette in the cold night, became an elated moment of independence.

Those who once were able to see describe the beauty of a lightning storm; two nearly deaf women argue about whether the drizzle in Israel can compare to the Russian rains. With childlike delight they act out the small, pleasur-

able moments of life — dancing, getting a haircut, holding a baby — as well as their fantasies. Genia wants to marry her childhood sweetheart. When she finds him, he recognizes her hands and draws her close.

Occasionally, a memory or fantasy requires exaggerated gestures in order to clearly convey what is happening.

Though everyone is always charming, the increased animation of these bits reminds the audience that the internal lives of the actors can't possibly be realized on stage.

Yet the actors themselves remain so real. Remarkably, as they manage to glide gracefully around the stage, the audience can almost see them working, counting how many steps they can take before reaching the edge. Through their movements, the actors carry their stories, their worries, their insecurities and joys. They cannot hear the audience's laughter, sighs or applause, just as theatergoers cannot feel the touch of their hands. But in this theater, for one night, everyone can smell the bread baking and share one small pleasure of the human experience.

8

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THE TUFTS DAILY Caroline A. Welch Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL

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Executive Arts Editor Arts Editors

Thursday, April 10, 2014

EDITORIAL | OP-ED

EDITORIAL

This is why we can't have nice things The weekend late-night dining operation at the Commons in the Mayer Campus Center has rolled back its closing time from 2 a.m. to 1 a.m. in an apparent attempt to alleviate the stress placed on the facility and Tufts Dining Services (TUDS) employees by generally unruly and inebriated students in search of food.

Anyone who has been to late-night dining at the campus center has seen the chaos that can ensue when large numbers of students fresh from parties around campus are all in search of latenight snacks. Students regularly neglect to respect TUDS employees and campus center facilities.

Oftentimes, the mess will roll over into the following morning, with scraps of food and trash strewn about the floor of the campus center. This shows an unacceptable level of disrespect for Tufts employees and facilities. TUDS employ-

ees are already working late hours to accommodate the demand for an oncampus late-night dining option and should not have to put up with irresponsibility and inconsiderate behavior from Tufts students at a time when they would much rather be at home.

The lack of respect for TUDS employees and the general mess created in the campus center as a result of students obtaining late-night food is reprehensible. Students must take responsibility for themselves and treat late-night dining as the new privilege that it is — and realize that it can be taken away.

Furthermore, if Tufts students are serious about ever obtaining an on-campus bar, a they should think of the late-night dining pilot program as a trial run. If Tufts decides students can't handle congregating in the campus center at midnight, the university certainly would not welcome to the addition of a campus bar.

The addition of an on-campus latenight dining option has provided Tufts students with an invaluable place to congregate on weekends. Students now have another place to eat, socialize and hang out on Friday and Saturday nights other than fraternity basements and residence hall common rooms.

Tufts Dining Services might try to alleviate some of the discord at late-night dining by managing the line through the normal Commons checkout area, instead of sending students in and out of the same entryway, which currently leads to rowdy crowds forming by the central stairwell.

However, Tufts students must learn to act responsibly and with respect when utilizing the late-night dining services at the campus center. The campus center has become a great space for students to congregate on weekend nights and we should work to maintain it.

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Common Core program causes frustration in the common student

by Megan Kallus The Daily Cougar

A Facebook post made by a father frustrated with his son's Common Core program math homework has been attracting widespread attention on social media.

Jeff Severt posted a photo of his son's math worksheet to Facebook. The worksheet asked students to use a convoluted formula to solve the problem "427-316" rather than simply subtracting 316 from 427.

Severt's response read, "I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering, which included extensive study in differential equations and other higher math applications. Even I cannot explain the Common Core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct. In the real world, simplification is valued over complication."

Severt's post is timely and highly relevant, following on the heels of Indiana's decision to withdraw from Common Core educational standards.

Many opponents of Common Core have been attacking the program for fear of federal intrusion on state and local educational policy. They might be focusing on the wrong aspect of the Common Core.

The concept at the heart of the Common Core program isn't necessarily bad. The federal system gives state and local governments a lot of power to determine school curriculum and set

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.

educational standards. Although the freedom to set local school curriculum is a valuable power, the system opens the door to serious discrepancies in the educational performance of students from different states.

These discrepancies in state educational practices exacerbate existing socioeconomic problems. The U.S. Department of Education report on state-by-state educational performance reveals that students from wealthier states, such as Massachusetts, are two to three times more likely to be proficient on national educational assessments than students from poorer states, such as Mississippi.

Significantly, these gaps between states persist even when student results are adjusted for factors such as race and family income. African-American students in Mississippi still perform substandard in comparison to their Massachusetts peers.

While demography might be important, state policy clearly plays a major role in determining educational outcomes. States that lag at the bottom in some measures of student performance top the charts in others. Policy accounts for this interesting variation in state performance.

The Common Core represented a major opportunity for educational reformers and policymakers. Common Core standards established national educational benchmarks that had the potential to level the educational play-

ing field between states while preserving local authority over school curriculum.

However, Severt's response to his son's homework assignment poses more interesting questions concerning the future of Common Core. Changing standards might do more harm than good if educators do not carefully consider the learning methods used to teach students required Common Core skills.

Other parents and educators in Chicago have raised complaints about poorly designed and counterintuitive Common Core instructional material.

The teacher's advocacy group Educators 4 Excellence offered some practical suggestions to fix Common Core implementation in New York. Among their suggestions were paid teacher development sessions focusing on teaching strategies for new Common Core material and state review of Common Core-suggested teaching materials.

Texas, Alaska, Virginia, Nebraska and recently Indiana have opted out of the Common Core; Minnesota adopted only the English language standards. However, the vast majority of states elected to adopt Common Core standards.

The Common Core will not go away.

It might be more productive to discuss changes to the Common Core rather than abolish the program entirely.

The Common Core is a useful bluntforce tool to raise national educational standards, but the program and associated learning materials will require reworking in the future if educators hope to

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Thursday, April 10, 2014 OP-ED

The Tufts Daily

9

Op-Ed JONATHAN MOORE | POLITICALLY ERECT

Relaying for a change

When it happens here

by Maggie Nazarenus, Jon Duval and Caroline Kaufman "Why do you Relay?" You may be surprised at how infrequently we, the Co-Chairs of Tufts Relay For Life, are asked this question. We Relay because we know cancer too well. In fact, all of Tufts knows cancer far too well.

Whether you have watched a loved one struggle against cancer or simply been moved by the story of an acquaintance battling this disease, cancer has affected all of our lives in one very real way or another.

In Maggie's case, cancer announced its looming presence when she was seven: "One night, my family was sitting down to eat cheeseburgers, my favorite meal as a kid, when my parents received a phone call. My mom was told that the headaches she had been suffering from were caused by medulloblastoma, an incredibly aggressive type of brain tumor. Stage IV cancer had spread throughout her brain and spinal cord.

My mom underwent surgery and began intense rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Within weeks, my mom was a gaunt, 5'11", 95 pound version of the once lively woman who had raised me. My mom, who was an accountant, was no longer able to do basic arithmetic such as 10 times 10.

One night, I woke up to the sound of my mom screaming, sobbing and yelling 'I'm going to die.' I stayed huddled in bed until my dad brought me to my sister's room, which was further away from theirs. In the morning, my mom was back in the hospital.

After almost a year of aggressive treatment and frequent hospitalization, my mom made an amazing recovery. To this day, the doctors refer to her as a miracle. I know how lucky I am to have this incredible woman in my life.

However, cancer didn't leave the people I love alone. My mom supported her mom through two rounds of breast cancer and held her younger sister's hand when she passed away from leukemia; she was 39, the same age my mom was when she had been diagnosed with cancer."

OP-ED

A

DAVID COHEN / TUFTS DAILY ARCHIVE

The ugly truth is that cancer is out there and it does not discriminate; in their lifetimes, one in every two men and one in every three women will be diagnosed with cancer. Though these statistics may sound overwhelming and intimidating, we tell you this in hopes of inspiring you. We hope that we can change these statistics.

Because through the pain and heartbreak of cancer, we have also witnessed hope — hope that the human spirit can prevail through the toughest of fights and hope that our loved ones who did not prevail will never be forgotten.

So, why do we Relay? We Relay to unite the Tufts community, so that together we can celebrate the triumph of survivors and remember our loved ones who were lost too soon. We Relay to fight back against cancer, to show the same resilience that we have seen in survivors. We Relay to tip the statistics back in our favor, so that the future can have more birthdays. We Relay because we have hope. So come on, Tufts, have some hope. We invite

you to take a stand with us and finish the fight against cancer.

Relay For Life will take place this Friday night from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in Gantcher Center. Relay is overnight to symbolize a cancer patient's journey through the original darkness of a diagnosis to the promising light of recovery. During the night, we will hear from an inspiring cancer survivor as well as someone currently undergoing treatment. Please join us for a powerful and inspiring night.

For more information, or to sign up, please visit relayforlife.org/tufts or email tuftsrelay@gmail.com Maggie Nazarenus is a senior who is majoring in Chinese. She can be reached at Margaret.Nazarenus@tufts.edu.

Jon Duval is a senior who is majoring in architectural studies. He can be reached at Jonathan.Duval@tufts.edu Caroline Kaufman is a senior who is majoring in international relations. She can be reached at Caroline.Kaufman@ tufts.edu.

Response to the last senate meeting

by Saba Kohli Dave

Many of us are aware that Tufts has a diverse international body on its campus. Over the last few months there has been debate over the creation of an International Community Representative in the Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senate that would address issues that many, if not all, of the international students on campus face. Many of the arguments in favor of an IC Rep emphasized how international students are excluded from things like internships, job opportunities, financial aid and other material disadvantages. Although this argument is extremely valid, I was disappointed about how little of our oppression was discussed as intersecting identities. The international community often feels oppressed not only because of our identity as being international, but also because of other ascribed, attained or adopted identities that intersect with what some of the other centers represent.

In the meeting someone said that though all experiences of women are not the same, women as an identity group are oppressed by the larger patriarchal structure of society. I wholeheartedly agree — but which

society is being discussed? Because in my knowledge and limited understanding of history and the present, women all around the world face oppression in different ways and through different methods. My experience of being marginalized as a woman in India does not always fit into the discourse of structural oppression at Tufts. But how am I supposed to voice this and more importantly, be heard, without a formal advocate on the Tufts campus?

Along the same vein, though many of us phenotypically fit into certain racial, ethnic and even cultural categories in the United States (white, black, Indian American, etc.), the fact that we are automatically regarded as belonging to one of these identities (from the moment of admission) is in itself discriminatory. In many countries, the institution of race manifests differently and doesn't follow the same format as it does in the U.S., but we have to identify ourselves into one of the specified categories on most administrative documents. Most of us are socialized in vastly different cultural, political and social systems and learn different morals and values than those practiced here, but we have to "get used to it." Previous discussions

(here I must credit Ogul Girgin, whose knowledge on this subject is far greater than mine) have made me aware of how much many of us try to assimilate into what is considered the dominant "American" outlook.

So we adopt social markers. We change our accent, clothing, behavior and many other aspects of our identities so as to not be exoticized. The fact that we feel the need to assimilate at all is oppressive and I don't believe that this aspect was emphasized enough at the debate on Sunday. The formation of a representative for the international community is indeed a positive addition to the Senate, but the immediate debate that led to it was sadly disappointing. How the international community, or any minority community really, is oppressed should not be talked about in a vacuum. One may face discrimination based on overlapping identities and that is where cross-cultural and transnational dialogue between the centers, including the International Center, becomes necessary.

Saba Kholi Dave is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. She can be reached at Saba.Dave@tufts.edu.

s Wednesday's "It Happens Here" event approached, many of my friends asked me if I would be there. I told them that I wouldn't, but only because I would be in Atlanta for a conference. I wish I could have been there, however, to witness the remarkable resilience and courage of my peers as they shared their experiences with sexual violence on campus. I was wholly unprepared that in the lead up to the event, online and in-person, many of my friends who have been at Tufts much longer than I have would share their own personal experiences. The sheer number of familiar faces not only shocked me, but frightened me at the very same time — how many other people did I know are battling this fight, far too often left to heal and make sense of the violence and subsequent injustice waged against their bodies alone?

As a queer, cisgender man of only 18, I happened to have no story to tell, no experience to reflect upon, no history or fear of being ignored and silenced into near submission to ponder. Yet, I have heard the stories of brave souls whose refusal to be politically correct and convenient comes attached with years of steadfast self-love, shame, hope, depression, fear and determination, and am a better man for it.

Their presence on this campus must be met with the same intense support, as it was on Wednesday, every day, if we are ever to truly knock at the knees of a culture that justifies rape, makes combatants out of victims and victims out of assailants. The uncomfortable is often the essential and talking openly about sexual violence on campus will never be "comfortable" or easy to digest, nor will the very real experiences of those who we love and care about at this university. But out of education and awareness comes an enlightened understanding of our role in the lives of others — those of us who have not experienced sexual violence on this campus, or anywhere, must not forget that we have become the minority in communities around our world, varying in race, gender identity and sexuality.

No one is safe if we fail to secure the safety and ensure the recovery of women and men who have done nothing "wrong" but survive and speak. It's so easy to compartmentalize sexual assault in our minds to the point where it is isolated from reality, nothing more than a joke or impossible circumstance that befalls everyone but us. Our contribution as individuals and a community to a counteractive culture that pretends these things don't happen rivals the act itself because were it our sister or our brother our minds and bodies would be hard pressed to stay silent and just "accept it," as so many survivors of sexual violence are expected to do.

There is very little I can contribute to the incredible work being done to bring these issues to light other than to give my voice to the cause and support those on campus who are dedicated to changing the status quo. These words are dedicated to everyone who spoke at "It Happens Here" and made their story known. We owe you more than you will ever know, and your defiance is truly inspiring. You have decided to live, and you are so loved. Stay politically erect.

Jonathan Moore is a freshman majoring in american studies and political science.

He can be reached at Jonathan.Moore@ 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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Comics

Doonesbury

CROSSWORD

Thursday, April 10, 2014

by Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

TUESDAY’S SOLUTION

by Wiley

Thursday, April 10, 2014

The Tufts Daily

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Sports Wanted

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All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $20 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

Jumbos benefit from off-season training, finish fifth GOLF

continued from back

in Tisch where the squash courts are [located], and on the day of the tournament we went to the driving range over in Lexington," Pendergast said. "But we're still working on [finding training spaces].

Two or three courses that we usually play at won't be open [until] April 12."

The spring break trip to Arizona also increased the team's comradery. While players’ chemistry is important in most team sports, it plays less of a role in golf — where five players play individually, often completely isolated from their teammates.

"One of the alums, John Bello [(LA '68)] had us stay in his resort, and we golfed with him and a few other Tufts alums every day," Alperin said. "It's great to bring everyone together outside the practice environment, where everyone just got to know each other better. There are other teams, like lacrosse or soccer, where players have every meal together, but it hasn't always been this way [for golf]."

The long break between the fall and spring seasons — the Jumbos' last official tournament had ocurred nearly six months prior, on the weekend of Oct. 27-28 — meant that each player had a longer time to focus on his mental game.

"In golf, your biggest challenger is yourself," Koh said. "The biggest challenge is to remain focused for the six-hour game. Every golf shot is definite, and even the smallest miscalculation could mess the whole game up for you."

Pendergast also acknowledged that the increased value each player placed on the tournament stemmed from the fact that the team was missing its top two players — juniors Alex Zorniger and John Wawer — both of whom are abroad for the spring semester. As such, with the exception of Koh and fellow sophomore Jay Wong, many of the players were approaching this tournament with the mindset that such an opportunity might not come around again. "[Our players were] focused more than they usually were," Pendergast said. "[This tournament] really gave players like Owen [Elliott] a chance to step up and play, which he took and played well."

Freshman Ben Ruskin was among Tufts’ top four on both days and finished with a score of 175. Wong shot an 88 for Tufts on Friday and concluded the competition with a two-round score of 177.

Senior David Carson's score of 86 was the third best for Tufts on Saturday, and his Friday score of 89 gave him the same two-day score of 175 as Ruskin, which meant he and Ruskin rounded out Tufts' top-four The strong performances from Elliott and the other Jumbos who scored over the weekend, are evidence of a team that is trying to capitalize on the short spring season, seeing it a stepping-stone for the upcoming fall season where the Jumbos will attempt to qualify for the NESCAC tournament. "[The team] knows that we only have two [more] events this year," Pendergast said. "Then, before you know it, we have the fall coming where we have a whole load of really good freshmen coming in."

The Jumbos will try to carry their momentum from this past weekend into those final two tournaments: the Hampton Inn Invitational at UMass Dartmouth on April 11-12 and the Western New England Invitational on April 17.

A new sports hero

I

've had a handful of sports heroes.

Usually, it's the best player of the moment on my favorite teams: Mike Piazza (went as him for three straight years on Halloween), Allan Houston, David Wright. They were great players and seemed like pretty decent human beings.

Now I have a new sports hero: Richard Sherman. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm doing a senior project about the media response to his "Don't you ever talk about me!" postgame interview with Erin Andrews, which means I've spent dozens of hours reading and thinking about him over the past few months. But it might also have something to do with the fact that, well, he's a hero.

After his interview with Andrews, which sparked a massive public outcry, Sherman could have simply issued a PR-soaked apology — "I would like to sincerely apologize to all those whom I have offended..." — and moved on.

But Richard Sherman is not most athletes.

Sherman apologized for drawing attention away from his teammates. Then he proceeded to call out the public and the media on its racially coded reaction. Calling him a "thug," he explained, is akin to using a racial slur. If it's not, he added, then why aren't players in the white-dominated NHL — where fights break out constantly — ever referred to as thugs?

Last week, Sherman was at it again. In a piece for Sports Illustrated's MMQB, where he has been a semi-regular contributor, Sherman responded to the news that the Eagles had cut DeSean Jackson amid reports of Jackson's "gang ties." Sherman grew up with Jackson in Los Angeles.

"I'm not going to tell you that DeSean Jackson isn't in a gang, because I can't say unequivocally that he isn't," he begins. "I can only tell you that I believe him to be a good person, and if you think, say or write otherwise without knowing the man, you're in the wrong."

Sherman then spelled out the racist and classist double standards that exist in the NFL: "[W]hat did [the Eagles] do to Riley Cooper, who, if he's not a racist, at least has 'ties' to racist activity? They fined him and sent him to counseling. No suspension necessary for Cooper and no punishment from the NFL, despite its new interest in policing our use of the N-word on the field."

"Commit certain crimes in this league and be a certain color, and you get help, not scorn. ... But DeSean Jackson is the menace, right?"

Today's athletes are heavily commodified.

For the most part, they stick to the script — and when they don't, it's assumed they are simply trying to "build their brand." After the Andrews interview, some suggested that Sherman had green on his mind.

But Sherman has proven to be much more than a corporate cog. He is putting his reputation, his employment status and his endorsements on the line by speaking his mind and doing anti-racist work.

The era of the political athlete — of Muhammad Ali refusing to go to Vietnam — may feel like a thing of the past. But perhaps we're at the dawn of a new age of political athletes, with Sherman leading the charge. Kain Colter, the Northwestern quarterback fighting to establish a college football players' union, stands at his side.

Charles Barkley once famously declared that he is not a role model. I agree: professional athletes are just people who happen to be good at sports, and it's unfair to ask them to be perfect.

Still, if you're searching for a sports hero, give Richard Sherman a try. He's not perfect, but he's fighting for what he knows is right.

Aaron Leibowitz is a senior who is majoring in American studies. He can be reached at Aaron.Leibowitz@tufts.edu.

Sports

12

tuftsdaily.com

GOLF

Koh finishes first among 83 golfers at RIC Invitational

by Alison Kuah Daily Editorial Board

Sophomore Brendan Koh earned medalist honors at the Rhode Island College Spring Invitational this past weekend, playing at the par-72 Valley Country Club with a two-day score of 154. Koh, who shot a 79 on the first day and a 75 on the second, finished 10-overpar to beat out 82 other golfers and claim the title honors. "[Koh's] putting was a little shaky," assistant coach George Pendergast said. "But his high-end play was just so precise that he made seven or eight birdies."

Koh led a strong Tufts team that placed fifth out of 17 teams. The host, Rhode Island College (RIC) took first place overall. Its highest individual finish coming from sophomore Jonathan Cooper (8174), who tied Tufts freshman Owen Elliott (79-76) with a score of 155.

RIC senior Tim Leigh rounded up the top four with a two-day score of 156 (78-78).

After the Jumbos' NESCAC hopes eluded them last fall following a sixth-place finish in the Sep. 28-29 competition at Bowdoin – leaving them two spots away from qualifying – Koh's win could be the motivation the team needs for next fall.

"I know it [has] been more than six or eight years [since a Tufts player has won an individual tournament]," senior captain Kenny Alperin said. "It hasn't happened since I've been here."

This win is also individually significant for Koh, who sees it as validation for himself and his coaching staff.

"Let's be real — I should have been benched [this past fall], but [the coaching staff] never benched me," Koh said. "They put me in the starting five, and I'm glad their confidence in me has paid off. My poor performances in the past, if anything, were a reminder and motivation to do better the next time.

That [motivation] coupled with the amount of confidence my coaches showed me. I really appreciated [their support]."

After the first round of play, Tufts stood firmly at the sixth spot overall with a score of 334, trailing firstplace Endicott College (318), and second-place RIC (320).

Bill Hutchins from Husson was in the individual lead after shooting a 75 on Friday, while Koh's 7-overpar score of 79 was tied with teammate Elliott for fifth individually after the first round.

Despite Koh's strong showing on the first day, the possibility of winning his first individual college tournament never really crossed his mind. When Koh finally realized that winning was possible, however, he started feeling the pressure.

"On the second day after the first six holes, suddenly I look at my scorecard and realize I'm two under par — I'm doing really well," Koh said. "When I realized that, I kind of psyched myself out a little bit."

COURTESY TUFTS ATHLETICS

Sophomore Brendan Koh won his first tournament of his collegiate career, shooting a two-day 154 at the Rhode Island College Spring Invitational.

Koh was able to overcome the pressure of the situation and finish the round with a 75, four strokes better than his previous day's score.

Tufts improved its overall position on day two, sliding up a spot to fifth overall behind Koh and Elliott's strong showings. Tufts' score of 334 (the aggregate scores of its four best players) was three behind fifth-place Johnson & Wales (331) after Friday. On Saturday, the Jumbos improved by 10 strokes, with a score of 324. Their tournament total score was 658, 26 strokes behind RIC's score of 632.

Additionally, the rain and 40-degree temperatures over the

COED SAILING

Jumbos qualify for Nationals for first time since 2010

by Steven Hefter Daily Staff Writer

Coming off a strong secondplace finish at the Marchiando Team Race, the coed sailing team entered the New England Team Racing regatta with a concrete goal: to qualify for the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Team Racing National Championship.

The team accomplished that goal, coming in fourth place to grab the final qualifying spot.

"We knew that we could do it," junior Sam Madden said.

The team ended the race with an 11-5 record, finishing behind Roger Williams University(13-3), Yale (13-3) and Boston College (11-5). These teams, including Tufts, will represent the region at the Team Racing National Championship, which takes place from May 31 to June 2 in St. Mary's City, Md. This is an extremely important feat for head coach Ken Legler, as this is his first appearance in the Team Racing Nationals since 2010. The Jumbos have missed the cut by one point each of the past two years, making this qualification even sweeter. The sailing team has won five Team Racing Nationals, the last one in 1996.

"It [has] been four years since Tufts qualified last for Team Race Nationals," Madden said. "We've been working really hard at this [goal], and we finally have got the team with the right chemistry to do it."

The New England Team Racing regatta was split into two rounds, with the top-six teams from the first round advancing to the final round. Tufts finished the first

round with a record of 8-3, which was good enough to advance to the finals. The Jumbos had some mixed results in the final round, posting a record of 3-2.

The wins came over the New England champion, Roger Williams University, Dartmouth and Harvard. The losses came against two teams that finished ahead of Tufts in the final standings, Yale and Boston College.

The fifth place team, Dartmouth, ended the regatta with a record of 8-8.

"Our coach [Ken Legler] told us we needed [the Roger Williams] win to significantly improve our chances of qualifying," Madden said. "We finished the race with a win over Roger Williams. We sailed down to the dock, and Ken was standing on the pier pumping his fists in the air, and that was ... the moment when we knew that everything we'd been working for, for the last month or so, had come true."

Eight sailors competed for Tufts at Connecticut this weekend: three skippers and five crews.

The three skippers were senior tricaptains Will Haeger and David Liebenberg, along with junior Alec Ruiz-Ramon. The five crews were senior Paula Grasberger, senior tricaptain Kathleen Kwasniak, freshman Scott Barbano, Madden and freshman Alex Tong.

Despite the positive results, the Jumbos still feel they can improve as they continue the season.

"We are still making small mistakes," Madden said. "The way you win [Team Racing Nationals] is by being the team that makes the [fewest] number of mistakes and sails the smartest. We're fortunate that

NICK PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY

The coed sailing team finished fourth at the New England Team Racing regatta.

New England is a very competitive area and also that all the teams that qualified are pretty close by."

With the Team Racing Nationals over a month away, Tufts will benefit from continued competition against some of the best teams in the country.

"We plan to continue practicing and sparring with [Boston College], Roger [Williams University], and Yale over the next month and a half, and so hopefully when we show up at Nationals we've got a lot of practice and we're ready to win," Madden said.

Although Nationals are now the team's biggest focus, the Jumbos still have several regattas before they head to St. Mary's, including the Truxtun Umsted Trophy at Navy on April 12 followed by the Admiral's Cup at Kings Point on April 19. The regattas and additional practice time means that the Jumbos will have plenty of time to prepare before attempting to win their first championship since 1996.

weekend helped the Jumbos, who were better prepared for the weather than their competitors.

"I've always told my guys – get ready for this golf tournament like you're going skiing," Pendergast said. "As [Elliott] went from one hole to the other, I took his bottle, which had ice in it, and got him hot water. A lot of these other kids were wearing golf shirts, and a nylon windbreaker. They were frozen."

The team, who took a spring break trip to Scottsdale, Ariz., to prep for the spring season, also benefitted from the additional playing time.

"We took eight kids out to Arizona, and it helped that they

played four [or] five solid rounds of golf going into the spring season." Pendergast said. "Many of the other colleges in the area hadn't played at all, so we had a leg up on that one."

The team has traditionally had problems training in the offseason, especially with the winter weather in New England, which is not ideal for sports like golf that require large outdoor courses. Pendergast acknowledged that finding alternative spaces for the players to practice their swings and their techniques is still a work in progress.

"We have a hitting net upstairs see GOLF, page 11

MEN'S LACROSSE

Tufts survives late surge from Endicott to pick up ninth win Men's lacrosse defeated Endicott 18-13 on Tuesday night at Bello Field, improving to 9-2 this season. Senior tri-captain attackman Beau Wood and junior attackman Cole Bailey led the way for Tufts, scoring a combined nine of the team's 18 goals.

Tufts and Endicott came into the game with two of the top-20 scoring offenses in the nation; the Jumbos in first place with 18 goals per game and the Gulls tied for 17th with 13.45.

Both offenses, however, struggled to get going in the opening quarter. Although the Jumbos scored quickly in the third minute on a goal from sophomore attackman Chris Schoenhut (assisted

by Bailey), they were unable to score again until Bailey's strike with 2:17 remaining in the quarter. Endicott also scored two goals in the quarter, both by junior midfielder Harrison Cotter.

The pace picked up significantly in the second quarter as the Jumbos went on a crucial 6-0 run, in which five different players scored. The Gulls tacked on two goals at the end of the quarter, but Schoenhut added one more in between to make the score 9-4 at the half. Tufts dominated groundballs in the quarter, racking up 14 against Endicott's five, and out-shot Endicott 15-10. The secondquarter run was essential to the Jumbos’ victory, as Endicott battled back in the second half.

The Jumbos started off strong again in the third with two quick goals from Wood, increasing its lead to seven.

The Jumbos and Gulls traded goals for the rest of the quarter, the Gulls scoring three and the Jumbos two, making the score 13-7 going into the fourth. Tufts took 20 shots on net, but were unable to break away as they had in the second.

The Jumbos once again started off strong in the fourth, scoring two quick goals to increase their lead to eight. The Gulls then fought back mounting a 6-1 run that saw the Jumbos’ lead cut down to three with six minutes left. Tufts then locked down on defense and tacked on two more goals to secure the 18-13 victory.

In addition to the efforts of Wood and Bailey, the Jumbos saw a strong performance from sophomore midfielder Connor Helfrich, who won 66 percent of his face-offs (19-29) and also gathered 10 ground balls. Schoenhut also contributed three goals and remains in the top 10 in scoring in the nation with 3.8 goals per game.

Tufts will have little time to recover from Tuesday's game, as it has another tough contest this Saturday when the team will take on No. 20 Amherst at Bello Field. The Jumbos now have four more regular season games before the postseason begins.

—by Ray Biron