THE TUFTS DAILY
Partly Cloudy 71/52
VOLUME LXVIII, NUMBER 7
Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Student groups mobilize for voter registration by Audrey Michael Daily Editorial Board
Tufts student groups and campus leaders are preparing for the U.S. general elections on Nov. 4 by working to register voters and generate interest in political participation. Vote Everywhere Ambassadors for the Andrew Goodman Foundation have organized voter registration opportunities for students and will offer more opportunities in the coming week, according to Vote Everywhere Ambassador Dana Kaufman. She added that the organization helped register voters at the student activity fair, and they are currently planing to host a full day of voter registration for National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 23. The deadline to register to vote in Massachusetts is Oct. 15. “Our big goal is to register as many Tufts students as we can and then get them to vote,” Kaufman, a sophomore, said. “I’m surprised by the number of students who aren’t registered to vote, so I think we can definitely get a lot of students [to register].” The ambassadors are also planning a Vote Everywhere barbecue on Oct. 3, which will aim to incorporate voter engagement with Tufts community talent, including student bands. Vote Everywhere operates through the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, and its ambassadors will now run the Tufts Votes program that has been in place for previous years, according to Kaufman. Kaufman explained that while the previous Tisch College project to encourage electoral participation on campus, Tufts Votes, had “fizzled away” in recent years, the Vote Everywhere ambassadors have begun managing Tufts Votes’ mission of voter engagement. “It’s nice because Tufts Votes left a bit of infrastructure, so the website is still there and we [used] that… to try to provide information about the primary [elections],” sophomore Olivia Carle,
see VOTING, page 2
Nicholas Pfosi / The Tufts Daily
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks during the Alan D. Solomont Lecture on Citizenship and Public Service in Cohen Auditorium.
Warren discusses economy, higher education at Solomont Lecture by Stephanie Haven Daily Editorial Board
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke about her life, the economy and higher education at Tufts yesterday for the Alan D. Solomont Lecture on Citizenship and Public Service. Structured as a question-and-answer session between Warren, students and Solomont (A ’70), the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts, the lecture explored Warren's personal history growing up in Oklahoma and delved into the senior senator's work tightening federal regulations on the financial sector. Warren also participated in a closed forum with Tufts student leaders before the lecture. Warren, who defeated Tufts alumnus Scott Brown (LA ’81) to win her
Senate seat in a heated 2012 race, was the series’ third speaker. She was preceded by Solomont, who spoke last April, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in 2011. Warren was a professor at Harvard Law School when, in 2007, she proposed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has since redirected $4 billion to those who were “cheated” by systematic financial industry failures, she said. She described her role in creating the agency as that of an “intrepid girl policy maker.” “Washington isn’t working at all,” Warren said. “All we got is our voices and our votes, and if we don’t use them, this country fundamentally changes.” Although Warren said she is not worried about a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis, she explained she is “scared” about the continued growth of finance
companies. “There are the systemic risks that still leave America’s families at risk,” Warren said. In May of last year, Warren proposed a bill that would enable borrowers to refinance their student loans at lower rates. Although Senate Republicans blocked the measure, Warren cited the so-called Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act as an example of her work to reduce college costs. She described a dichotomy between the financial support offered to college students now and that which she received for university. “I grew up in an America that was investing in kids like me,” Warren said. “We are losing that America, and we have to fight to get it back.”
see WARREN, page 2
Tufts Tech Transfer office welcomes new senior director by Shana Friedman Daily Editorial Board
Erik Halvorsen started in his new role as senior director of technology transfer and industry collaboration in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research on Aug. 4. Halvorsen comes to Tufts after serving as the executive director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Technology and Innovation Development Office. Halvorsen said that he will oversee the translation of innovation and research into technology, with the goal of increasing the potential of the Office of Technology Licensing and Industry Collaboration, also known as Tufts Tech Transfer, to develop products with an impact. “The function of Tech Transfer is really to take funded research ... to take recent discoveries, innovations, inventions if you will, and trying to figure
out how to turn those into products that can benefit the public,” he said. Those products can include drugs, instructional materials for clinical professionals and medical software, among other inventions developed out of research at Tufts, according to Halvorsen. A large component of his job involves determining the best method to get a product on the market. “The path we take is not a one size fits all… [a] big part of my job is figuring out the best pathway for a given technology or a given discovery, who the best partners are to work on it with us,” he said. Those partners can include other academic organizations, private companies or government organizations or foundations, Halvorsen explained. When determining the pathway for each product, the goal is to give it the highest probability of success. “[ We attempt to] give it the best
Inside this issue
chance possible to succeed and become a product that can benefit the public,” Halvorsen said. He added that he was attracted to the commitment of Tufts Tech Transfer to quality research across Tufts’ schools and disciplines as well as its potential for growth. “There’s so much more that we can be doing in terms of supporting research and innovation and entrepreneurship and translation and commercialization here,” he said. Vice Provost for Research Diane Souvaine expressed enthusiasm regarding Halvorsen’s appointment. “We are so very excited to have Erik Halvorsen join us here at Tufts,” Souvaine said. “He brings a combination of vision, expertise and energy that will certainly transform the way we do things here at Tufts.” Halvorsen has already begun to bring positive change to the Tech
Transfer office, according to Licensing Associate Erika Bechtold at Tufts Tech Transfer. “He has brought with him a great energy and sense of leadership and really rallied the team, and we’re excited to have him on board,” she said. Souvaine noted that Halvorsen has taken initiative in continuing the partnership between the research office and the administration. “He is already actively meeting with the deans, with faculty, with other leaders across the university, and in the course of his first three months has laid out a path for what we can be doing in this area in the future,” she added. Halvorsen’s personal background strongly influences his commitment to work in this field. His daughter was born with heart defects that were
see HALVORSEN, page 2
Today’s sections
Volleyball picks up three wins at MIT Invitational
Students add to social scene with mobile apps
see SPORTS, page 19
see FEATURES, page 5
News 1 Features 5 Arts & Living 7 Editorial | Op-Ed 12
Op-Ed 13 Comics 14 Classifieds 19 Sports Back