TuftsDaily11.07.13

THE TUFTS DAILY

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VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 42

Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM

thursday, November 7, 2013

Dan Markey discusses U.S.Pakistani relations

by Josh

Weiner

Daily Editorial Board

followed by a huge baby-boomer generation, which is again followed by a small one-child generation.

“This doesn’t mean that China can’t continue to grow its economy, to prosper and to expand, but it does suggest that it is going to be much more difficult to continue to grow the economy as fast as it has been over the next 30 years compared to how it was over the last 30 years,” he said.

Assistant Professor of Chinese Foreign Relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy Sulmaan Khan next presented what he believed

Daniel Markey, senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia for the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke in Barnum Hall yesterday as part of the Frank C. Colcord Lecture Series, hosted by the Department of Political Science.

During the discussion, Markey discussed his new book, “No Exit: America’s Tortured Relationship With Islamabad.” He explained that the book’s namesake, “No Exit” by JeanPaul Sartre, served as an effective analogy for the current phase of U.S.-Pakistani relations. He remarked that the plot of the 1944 existentialist play centers on three characters who are trapped in hell, forever tormented by each other’s company.

“I found this all too reminiscent of our relationship with Pakistan,” Markey said. “We are well-suited to torturing one another, and we have done so in many ways over the decades since Pakistan was founded in 1947.”

Markey understood the enormous pressure for the United States to exit Pakistan, given many Americans’ belief that the billions of dollars spent within the region has yielded little to no benefit. He argued that, in spite of such opposition, remaining in Pakistan is important for the United States’ long-term interests in Asia, particularly in terms of countering terrorism, violent extremism and expansion of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

“Pakistan is vulnerable in the world, and [for] the U.S., given how powerful of a nation it is, [Pakistan] cannot be avoided,” Markey said.

“We have a challenge in Pakistan that’s likely to last for a very long time. So, there is no exit.”

Markey said that it was important to keep Pakistan well-monitored during such a precarious period. Though Pakistan is already a densely-populated country with nearly 200 million inhabitants, its population is

see CHINA, page 2

see MARKEY, page 2

christie wu for the Tufts Daily

Students were invited to attend the fall event of the sixth annual China-U.S. Symposium yesterday in the Terrace Room of Paige Hall to analyze challenges to China’s rise in power.

Panelists discuss rise of China

The fall kickoff event for the sixth annual China-U.S. Symposium was held yesterday in the Terrace Room of Paige Hall. Panelists and audience members discussed the rise of China as an international power.

Although the symposium has previously been hosted in the spring, this year two events will be held — one in the spring and one in the fall — in order to provide students with more opportunities to connect with involved faculty members, according to Symposium Co-Director Lizzy Robinson. by

Annabelle Roberts

Daily Editorial Board

“It’s a good opportunity for people to have a conversation with professors,” Robinson, a junior, said. “As much as the spring event is great, there is less dialogue.”

All four speakers at the event, titled “The Rise of China,” presented challenges they saw in China’s continuing growth.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Michael Beckley spoke first, addressing two often-overlooked factors in China’s growth — the nation’s geography and demography.

Beckley commented on China’s challenging geopolitical environment and unequal population distribution, where the small, oldest generation is

Holocaust survivor describes experience in Nazi Poland

by Victoria

Leistman

Daily Editorial Board

Holocaust survivor Moshe Baran spoke at Tufts Hillel last night on his experience during Nazi occupation of Poland as part of the Cummings / Hillel Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education.

Baran, and his story of determination, survival and courage, came at a time of remembrance for the Jewish community — only a few days before the anniversary of Kristallnacht, according to Tufts Against Genocide co-President Sofi Shield.

Shield, who has brought her grandparents and grand aunt — all Holocaust survivors — to speak at Tufts, said she was particularly honored to give that same opportunity to senior Jeremy Rosenblatt, Baran’s grand nephew.

Baran, speaking to an overflowing audience, began by quickly recounting a bit of Jewish history, which he finds helpful for giving his experience context.

He then described how life was once the Nazis arrived in his hometown of Horodok, Poland in the spring of 1942.

His family was forced to move into a ghetto called Krasne, where he worked

12-hour shifts that consisted of laying railroad ties to build a supply line to the Eastern Front.

“I’m looking for words because whenever you want to talk about the Holocaust — what happened — words that describe that situation are not in the dictionary,” Baran said.

Baran gave details about what it was like to be a young person in the ghetto and the decisions he made that led to his escape.

“The question for us young people was, ‘What do we do?’” he said. “If we try to do something, try to escape or obtain weapons, our families, the population, will pay the price for it.”

Eventually, he found a woman who knew of a group of Jewish families who were in hiding in the forest. After digging under the ghetto fence and walking 15 or more miles to escape, he was able to stay in hiding for two years.

“I looked up at the sky and I took a deep breath and, for the first time in 18 months, I felt free,” he said.

Baran went on to eventually participate in the resistance movement. He helped sabotage railways, plant explosee SURVIVOR, page 2

Inside this issue

Annie Levine / The Tufts Daily

Tufts Hillel hosted Moshe Baran, a Holocaust survivor, last night as part of the Cummings / Hillel Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education.

Today’s sections

Many students have long since begun their housing searches for the next school year.

‘Big Bad Wolves’ will be shown at the 25th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival on Saturday.

see FEATURES, page 3

see WEEKENDER, page 7

News Features Weekender Editorial | Op-Ed

1 3 7 10

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

11 12 14 Back

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News

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Markey describes future challenges in Pakistan MARKEY

continued from page 1

Josh Weiner / The Tufts Daily

Daniel Markey, senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia for the Council on Foreign Relations, spoke about future United States-Pakistani relations.

expected to grow by 85 million over the next two decades. Markey predicted that the nation will not be able to deliver the education, jobs, infrastructure and industry necessary to properly accommodate such a dramatic increase in population.

“If Pakistan can’t come to terms with its educational and infrastructural deficits, then this youth bulge will be very dangerous,” he said. “Right now, it doesn’t look like they will.”

Markey described the Pakistani military as the most organized, capable and well-supplied institute of the nation, causing citizens to oftentimes turn to the army in times of need. As a result, the military has now gained overwhelming control of the nation and turned Pakistan into something of a garrison state.

Baran hopes to inspire next generation to be active against hate SURVIVOR

continued from page 1

sives, ambush German trucks and cut their supply lines. He even confronted German soldiers in a gun battle.

Finding rational answers to what happened is impossible, he said, because the logic used by the perpetrators to justify their actions was senseless.

“I never used the word ‘died,’” Baran said. “They didn’t die. Dying is normal.

They were killed. They were murdered.”

Baran said that while his mother, father and sister were all also able to escape the ghetto, there are people who will never be recovered.

“When you write the history of this event, you can write a history of the perpetrators,” he said. “You can write a history of the bystanders, a history of the collaborators. You can write a history of the survivors, but you cannot write the history of those who were murdered because their history was individual.”

After the war, Baran spent some time in a refugee camp, where he met his wife.

In 1950, he came to the United States and lived in New York for forty years. He recently went back to his hometown in Poland, where his story first started.

“Imagine this,” he said. “I’m there in 2010, some 60 years later, standing in the same place where I was a slave laborer in 1943, with my daughter and two grandchildren. Looking at this place now, there’s no words to describe the emotions.”

Baran’s goal is to make his history known in order to encourage people to get involved and be responsive to

their world. It may just take a smile to a stranger to start a ripple effect of positivity, he said.

“My inspiration is to ... make people be aware, to prevent any beginning of hate,” he said.

Baran said that if people live life like their goals have been reached, they will become their reality. He added that students should remember to be active, and not apathetic, in moments of concern.

“I want to make sure that you appreciate the country you’re living in,” he said. “Something that you have is hard to appreciate. Your role is to be involved. Don’t be a bystander to things that are happening. Don’t be passive.

Passivity is the way the dictators take over power.”

Rabbi Jeffery Summit said that Baran’s visit is especially important when considering how little time is left for students to hear directly from survivors.

“We are in such an important time right now,” he said. “Part of what we’re doing through our Holocaust and genocide education is making sure that as many people as possible have first hand experiences with people who are survivors.”

Tufts Against Genocide brings a Holocaust survivor to campus every year and sponsors events that invite survivors of the Holocaust and other genocide to attend, Shield said.

“Especially as the number of survivors grows smaller, it falls on the younger generations to become advocates and fighters for justice, tolerance and truthful remembrance,” Shield said.

“It is often said that countries have militaries,” Markey said. “Pakistan is a military that has a country.”

Markey stated that a culture of violent extremism and terrorism has developed in some regions of the nation. He noted that many of al-Qaeda’s most prominent figures, both past and present, have had ties to the nation. These include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whose parents were both Pakistani, and Osama bin Laden, who was harbored in Pakistan during the final years of his life.

“Pakistan is not just an incidental place where bin Laden might have been found,” he said. “Al-Qaeda’s roots in Pakistan run very deep.”

Markey stated that that many young Pakistanis are still holding out hope for a positive future.

“Youthful idealists,” as he described them, have often displayed great energy and reform-minded ambition in leading campaigns for

change within their society.

“Young Pakistanis have called for change,” Markey said. “Not radical or revolutionary change, necessarily, but for reform.”

There are many obstacles which have oftentime prevented productive U.S.-Pakistani agreements, Markey acknowledged.

Some Americans have considered immoral to negotiate with previous military dictators of Pakistan.

On the other hand, Pakistanis feel abandoned by an American government that has pursued its own national interests within the region at the expense of Pakistani democracy.

Still, he expressed hope that the two nations will eventually be able to overcome their considerable differences.

“We share the world, and the world has gotten too small for us to escape from each other,” Markey said.

Panelists speak about growth of China at symposium fall event CHINA

continued from page 1

to be evidence for a collapsing China.

Currently, the country faces issues involving water, farmland, demographics, weak government, food prices and generational changes.

“As much as China’s rise has been a theme of concern for U.S. policy, I think some of our energy should be devoted to figuring out what might a collapsing China look like, how can that collapse be prevented, and if the worst does indeed happen, what America is going to do about it,” Khan said.

Xueping Zhong, director of the Chinese program at Tufts, started by playing a short clip from a documentary titled, “Filming a Land in Flux,” which depicts the changing landscape of China from the perspective of a moving train. The only panelist who did not specialize in political science, she instead described the cultural aspects of China, such as the internal debates that exist within the country.

“I think that China rising ... may not be on the minds of the Chinese, as much as I think [it may be on] the people outside’s, but that doesn’t mean that their thinking is less important,” Zhong said. “In fact, if one wants to understand if there is such a thing as China rising, it is better to understand what is being debated within China.”

Finally, Associate Professor of Government at Wesleyan University Mary Alice Haddad described China’s extreme environmental issues, which

she believes present the most imminent and intense strains in the country.

“China’s environmental crisis is a global environmental crisis, not just a national one,” she said. “The sulfur dioxide in our air comes more from Chinese coal plants than it does from our own. It doesn’t just matter to the Chinese people, but it matters a lot to the Chinese people. In China, it is causing a health crisis, an economic crisis, a social crisis and a political crisis, and the Chinese government knows this.”

Haddad ended on a positive note, describing successful environmental campaigns within China that target the private and public sectors, and have resulted in relatively dramatic pro-environmental changes.

After the panel, 30 minutes were reserved for a lively question and answer session in which the speakers elaborated on their varying perspectives.

The spring event for the China-U.S. Symposium will be held in April of next year for those interested in discussing U.S. and China relations further.

Although throughout the panel, the focus was on the issues China faces in continuing to rise as an international power, Haddad joked that it was the U.S. government, and not China’s, that recently shut down due to internal disputes.

“In many ways the Chinese government is operating a lot better than our own government,” Haddad said.

“China has bigger problems, but in some ways they are more functional than we are.”

Department of Biology to move to new location

kyra sturgill / the tufts daily

The Department of Biology is considering moving its main location from Barnum Hall to 574 Boston Ave.

Tufts Department of Biology may move from Barnum Hall, the department’s base since the late 1930s, to a new space at 574 Boston Ave. in coming years.

University President Anthony Monaco mentioned the potential move at a Senate meeting on Oct. 20. Department of Biology Chair Sergei Mirkin later confirmed the possiblity.

“There are plans to relocate biology faculty to the new science building behind Anderson Hall,” Mirkin said.

If the move is finalized, it will take place three years from now, he added.

Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler explained that the warehouse at 574 Boston Ave., a space which Tufts is currently renovating, could host a number of science and social science disciplines along with the biology department.

According to a May 7 Medford Patch article, the four-story, 96,000 square foot

warehouse may offer new teaching and office space.

The building is located at the corner of Boston and Harvard Avenues in Medford. Prior to May 31 of this year, the warehouse served as a workspace for a number of local woodworkers and artists who had worked together in the building for more than 20 years.

The eviction sparked controversy among community members and Tufts students who argued that the warehouse provided a “brain trust” of creativity for the people who worked there. While the univeristy provided the former residents with local commercial brokers’ contact information, the artisans were still struggling to find a suitable location as of last April.

Although the changes are still far in the future, the relocation would provide the biology department with new facilities and resources better equipped for the modern

study of biology, Thurler said.

“For some time, the university has recognized a need for additional space to serve students and faculty in these disciplines,” she said. “There has been preliminary discussion of creating a facility for science and engineering.”

According to Thurler, in these departments, the current state and size of faculty, classes and students may require an expansion to maintain the university’s high standard of education and research.

Thurler continued to explain that the details are still very scarce and at this point largely undeveloped. “[The] thinking is in the very early stages and it would be premature to speculate on most common questions,” she said.

--by Adam Kaminski

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Competition pressures students to sign leases for off-campus housing early

by Julia

Lily Sieradzki | Media Junkie

Saying No to the Dress

McDaniel

Daily Editorial Board

This year, the scramble to find offcampus housing started even earlier than in previous years, with many students signing leases for next year starting as early as the beginning of September.

Students have noted that the level of panic among students about finding offcampus housing seems even higher than last year at this time.

After the crises of many current juniors to secure housing late in the last academic year, many students reacted by searching for next year’s housing within the first few weeks of arriving back on the Hill this fall.

“We heard from our upperclassmen friends that you have to look for houses early in the year,” sophomore Kentaro Okazaki said. “We knew we had to be really quick about it before other people take all the houses and before we run out of time.”

Okazaki said he and his roommate began their search in September, and recently signed a lease with four other friends. An upperclassman friend who is graduating in the spring currently rents the house, which helped the group’s search process.

“We were lucky because we knew this upperclassman who was looking for

Maya blackstone for the tufts daily

In the rush to secure off-campus housing, students are feeling pressure from landlords and peers to sign leases, but also a lack of support from the university. underclassmen to give her house to. So it worked out well,” Okazaki said.

Other students, however, have not been so lucky.

President of the Sophomore Student

Council Julia Turock also signed her lease in September, but she said her group of friends felt additional pressure from the see HOUSING, page 4

Professors of English mentor students in classes based on publishing experience by

Annaick Miller

Daily Editorial Board

Linda Bamber, an associate professor in the Department of English at Tufts, is turning heads with her latest book, “Taking What I Like.” A collection of short stories drawn from classic literature, six of the eight stories are based on Shakespeare’s works.

There’s a twist, however: The stories take place in modern society, making for an inventive, contemporary spin on original texts.

“It’s a mixture of narrative, history, criticism and sometimes a little autobiography or memoir, mostly set in the present day,” Bamber said.

In “Taking What I Like,” the cast

members of “Othello” are members of a college English department navigating an affirmative action search, the protagonist from “As You Like It” dates three men from “Henry IV” and inmates at a Missouri prison put on a production of “Hamlet.”

Last December, the publication received a prestigious shout-out on National Public Radio’s (NPR) “All Things Considered” program. NPR was hosting acclaimed author Ben Fountain at the time, who chose Bamber’s book as one of the top four picks for best forthcoming fiction of 2013.

“I’d like this book to reach the people who will enjoy it,” she said. “And this means that perhaps it will.”

Bamber is particularly pleased to

note that Fountain characterized her work as “laugh-out-loud” funny.

“I really hope this book gets a lot of play,” Fountain said during the NPR program. “It deserves it.”

With Desdemona as the central character of the Othello story and Cleopatra occupying a prominent role in the aptly named chapter “Cleopatra and Antony,” a female perspective underlies “Taking What I Like,” according to Bamber. In several stories, she takes a minor female character from a text and makes her the focus.

“There’s a slight women’s perspective that arises and passes here and there,” Bamber said. see ENGLISH, page 4

Throwback Thursday

Adam Lesser (LA ‘09) / Tufts Daily Archives

The Committee on Student Life held a meeting on Feb. 2, 1987.

T

his week, my housemates and I have been indulging in mini-marathons of “Say Yes to the Dress,” as a direct result of a new flat-screen TV being installed in our house. It’s really fun to watch. One of the main reasons for this are the dresses themselves. Analyzing different styles — mermaid, poofy, risqué,窠empire waist, small to moderate to huge amounts of lace and sequins — never gets old.

And neither does the endless petty drama that goes along with it. One common tension that arises is the bride finds the perfect dress — but the obstinate mother rejects it. Or sometimes, the fiancé, who is untraditionally present, doesn’t like it. And of course, because the future husband’s opinion matters over all, it’s back to the drawing board.

This is all very entertaining to be sure, but I’ve recently realized that the real draw of this show is its indulgence in feminine fantasies that many, if not most, women have. It’s a narrative that we’re taught from a very young age: true happiness and love culminates in a white, beautiful wedding.

It’s a kind of fairy tale. We land the man and then as a reward, we get to wear a huge sparkly princess dress and be the center of attention for a day.

That’s the narrative that all the women on “Say Yes to the Dress” model (as the correct and dominant narrative) to their audience. It is a very normative vision of weddings and marriage. Unless I’ve just missed these episodes, there are very few interracial couples, no gay couples and no people hoping to celebrate a union with a long-term life partner without the official apparatus of marriage. Although the price range for the dresses varies, all the women come in expecting to pay a certain baseline amount of around $2,000. The show is clearly aimed a very specific group: white women, who want a traditional, heterosexual marriage and who can pay for it.

That aside, all female desire in the show is centered on the wedding, not marriage in and of itself. The women in the show, and by extension, the viewers (your truly), give little thought to the quality of the intimate, important relationship they are about to enter. Given that choosing a life partner is a hugely important decision in our society, that’s problematic.

But on another level, what about thinking about the institution of marriage as a whole? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this structure that our society posits as so obvious and natural? All of these difficult but necessary questions can be easily avoided by simply focusing on the occasion, the ceremony, the tradition of the wedding. The wedding is the day that we, the women, get to be special. It needs to be perfect, and we’re allowed to go a little crazy to make it that way (see the phenomenon of bridezillas). But what about the ways women get to be within a marriage?

The show also tells us that the way to make our wedding perfect is by purchasing the perfect things — the dress primarily, but also the cake, the ring, etc.

I could argue, fairly reasonably, that the show’s generation of consumer desire around weddings is really just fueling the wedding industry.

When it comes down to it, I think it’s okay to indulge in these feminine fantasies from time to time — I’m definitely guilty of it. What’s important is to be aware and critical of the implications, often anti-feminist, that these types of show carry. Be an informed media consumer. Pay attention to what these shows are telling you about how you should be, with regards to gender, race, class and general identity. And, when necessary, point these things out, even if it makes you a killjoy. It’s worth it.

Lily Sieradzki is a junior majoring in English. She can be reached at Lily.

Sieradzki@tufts.edu.

4

The Tufts Daily

Features

Thursday, November 7, 2013

maya blackstone for the Tufts Daily

With information advisory sessions and resources for students, the Tufts administration is trying to make the off-campus housing search easier for students.

Despite some ResLife resources, students want additional support throughout process HOUSING

continued from page 3

landlord to sign immediately so as not to lose the house.

“My group all wanted to be off-campus and find a house they really liked and sign the lease [as soon as possible], so it was really stressful,” she said. “We all put a lot of pressure on ourselves to sign the lease in like, two days, so everything went really quickly. It was crazy.”

According to Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel, landlords may be aware of the increased pressure that students are feeling to secure off-campus housing earlier.

“We didn’t understand the rush to sign leases a year before apartments were needed until recently ... [and we] think this may allow landlords to raise rents,” Rubel told the Daily in an email.

Turock agreed that landlords can seem aggressive.

“There is a lot of pressure to sign off-campus housing in the first month or two of school. You hear everyone else doing it, and landlords are pushing people to sign,” Turock said. “These landlords know that there are 10 people in line to sign the lease after you, and if you want to negotiate ... they’ll just get the next group to sign it instead. There’s little room for negotiation.”

Turock also pointed out that decisionmaking is especially difficult for sophomores, who have additional time-sensitive decisions to make, including whether to study abroad in their junior year.

“I think the timeline is very difficult,” Turock said. “The off-campus housing rush starts before people know when they’re studying abroad, so that there’s a

big disconnect between the on-campus housing timeline, the off-campus housing timeline and the study abroad timeline.”

The timeline has been widened even further this year. Although the off-campus housing rush has begun earlier, the majority of study abroad applications through Tufts programs are still due in February and the on-campus housing lottery process begins later in the spring.

An additional stress is that lottery numbers for on-campus housing are nearly impossible to find online through Tufts websites and resources.

According to Rubel, the Tufts administration is working to help smooth out the process for students.

“We’re working with [the Office of ] Residential Life [and Learning (ResLife)], the Dean of Student [Affairs] office and Health Service to look at [the rush] and offer more comprehensive information to students about the process of finding offcampus housing and living there successfully,” Rubel said.

Additionally, there were two information sessions about housing hosted by ResLife and Sophomore Student Council in September.

“We had Yolanda King from ResLife and representatives from Community Relations and Health Education come to talk to students about what their options are for living on-campus and off-campus for next year,” Turock said.

These events may have been held too late in the process. Even though they occurred in September, according to Turock, there were only about 80 attendees at the housing informational event.

Besides these events, ResLife plays its part also by posting links online to advice about leases, finding a house and

some financial details about renting. The Financial Aid Office also offered three presentations for students receiving financial aid and looking for off-campus housing, according to Amy Piantedosi, associate director of financial aid.

Many students, however, are not aware of these resources.

“There is a big lack of information,” Turock said. “The ResLife website is available, they do have a section about offcampus housing, but I don’t think a lot of people know that exists or know what information is on there.”

Instead, like Okazaki, students find themselves relying on information from other students throughout the process. He and his roommate, for instance, did not attend an information session but still felt pressured to start the process early.

“We figured it out by depending on our upperclassmen friends,” Okazaki said.

When it comes to actually signing a lease, students noted that they do not use the resources offered through ResLife.

“People were worried, because there are things that you have to look at in the lease, like the no-pet policy, and some things like insurance policy and other legal issues,” Okazaki said. “The only resources we used for that were our parents.”

Turock, who said her group also relied on the advice of their parents, noted that the lease signing would have been much easier if ResLife had offered services to directly help out, such as checking over the lease before they officially signed with the landlord.

“No one has ever had to figure this stuff out on their own, and there aren’t enough resources for what to look for in a lease, or how to find a lease,” Turock said. “At some point ResLife had a full-time staff

Associate Professor of English Bamber releases new book ENGLISH

continued from page 3

The book combines a deep admiration for classic works with a sense of humor.

“An important point to me is that those two things don’t have to be separate,” she said. “They can come together, and in fact they often should come together.”

The title of Bamber’s collection of short stories reflects the juxtaposition of deep respect for literature and playfulness with it.

“I love these plays, and I also feel free to take liberties with them and do whatever I please,” she said. “That’s why it’s called ‘Taking What I Like.’”

One of Bamber’s students, sophomore Philip Host, pointed out that Bamber also calls attention to humorous aspects of literature in her Short Fiction course.

“Something that she definitely emphasizes is humor in writing, which is kind of cool,” Host said. “Because, as she has brought up several times, often even the driest authors have a sense of humor.”

Host, who is majoring in English, noted that Professor Bamber’s Short

Fiction course stands out to him as a class dominated by rigorous discussion.

“Of all the English classes I’ve taken so far, [it’s] probably the most discussion-based, and probably the best at doing it, too,” he said.

Like Bamber, many professors in the Department of English at Tufts are published authors and bring that expertise to the classroom. Marcie Hershman, a lecturer for creative writing classes, has published several books, fiction and non-fiction, as well as many essays.

Hershman noted that her approach to teaching is influenced by her experiences as a writer, particularly in the way she mentors student writers.

“I know from my own experience how tough it is to write,” Hershman said. “I hope to create a supportive environment for students, but one that also really challenges them to do something they may not want to do.”

She explained that, although this process can be difficult, she believes that it allows students to develop into better writers. Professor Bamber likewise thought that being an author translates

very well into teaching.

“I’m always looking at what I teach from the perspective of both a critic and a writer,” she said. “So issues of craft and construction are very much on my mind when I teach.”

Hershman acknowledged that, while she publishes and teaches professionally, the role that personal experience plays in written works is central to many authors as well.

“I think every writer draws from his or her own experience, but not necessarily from the events themselves, just from the feelings, the pressures, the curiosity,” Hershman said.

Bamber echoed this sentiment.

“I think anything that anybody writes that’s any good connects in some profound way to their own life. ... If the writing is any good, the writer has a stake in it, and that comes from what goes on in his or her own life,” she said.

According to Hershman, making sure to challenge yourself is a critical component of good writing.

“If you just write what you already know how to do well, you’re not going anywhere,” Hershman said.

member whose job it was to help people find off-campus housing. That would be really useful. You used to be able to take your lease over to ResLife and have them take a look at it. They don’t have a person there to do that anymore.”

The university does help full-time faculty members in Arts, Sciences and Engineering in their search for housing.

In order to do this in a streamlined way, there exists an affiliation between Tufts and Walnut Hill Properties. Rubel pointed out, however, that Tufts administration does not participate in discussion with property owners for undergraduates.

“The university is not involved in the interaction between students and prospective landlords ... Walnut Hill does rent to a few of the fraternities,” Rubel clarified.

While the company is technically separate from the university, Tufts actually owns Walnut Hill Properties and has the company manage its real estate.

Graduate students often occupy these units, as do faculty members, according to the housing assistance program for new faculty.

The program for housing assistance for new faculty consists of rental property owned by Walnut Hill and incoming faculty can rent a unit for up to three years.

Amidst all this confusion of resources and pressure to sign leases early, Turock offered up some reassuring advice for students looking for housing.

“It’ll work out in the end,” she said.

“You could sign a lease now, and if you wait a month you could still probably find a lease to sign. Just because you heard that someone else signed a lease doesn’t mean that you have to do that tomorrow to have a place to live.”

Host said that he too sees taking English classes as a way that students can challenge themselves and examine many facets of life.

“The way I see books in general is that they offer you models for looking at different aspects of life. ... English is modeling how people interact with the world around them and each other,” Host said.

While Host is enthusiastic about his class with Bamber right now, he has found himself disappointed in the format of some of his past English courses and says there is room for improvement. Despite enjoying the book selections and the vast amount of knowledge that professors can impart to his or her students, Host said that if there were fewer lecture-dominated courses at Tufts, he would be pleased. “[Classes] are often supposed to be discussion-based and that seems like the only thing that could be beneficial in an English context,” Host said.

“An English lecture doesn’t make that much sense. It’s just kind of a lesser version of what English should be, in my mind.”

Thursday, November 7, 2013

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Arts & Living

Weekender

25th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival offers something for

everyone BJFF features new programs, awards and surprise films Courtesy Aharon Keshales / BJFF

Horror film ‘Big Bad Wolves’ will screen at midnight on Nov. 9 at the Coolidge Corner Theater.

by

Grace Hoyt

Daily Editorial Board

T

he 25th Annual Boston Jewish Film Festival (BJFF) kicked off this Wednesday with an impressive and diverse lineup of entries. The festival, founded by filmmaker Michal Goldman in 1989, has since grown from 10 screenings to more than 50 at various Boston and Brookline venues, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) and the Coolidge Corner Theater (CCT). According to Executive Director Jaymie Saks’s comments on the BJFF website, the festival expects “thousands of passionate film-goers” to attend the screenings.

The core mission of the festival, according to the website, is to celebrate the richness of the Jewish experience through film and media and “invite the community to explore the full spectrum of Jewish life, values, and culture.”

Origins This year, the program will honor festival founder and Boston native Michal Goldman. Goldman, an award-winning filmmaker, decided in the ’80s to move back to Boston from Northern California and start the festival. MFA film curator Bo Smith saw potential for a larger festival and offered the museum’s Remis Auditorium for screenings.

With financial support from philanthropist Norton Sherman, Goldman selected her first few Yiddish films from the National Center for Jewish Film archive. Even in its first year, the festival achieved significant success.

Since its inaugural run, the festival has shown over 1,000 films and hosted over 250,000 audience members. Many of the featured films have been nominated for and won Academy Awards, including “The Pianist” (2002), winner of Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay in 2002, “Nowhere in Africa” (2001), winner of Best Foreign Film in 2002 and “The Personals” (1998), winner of Best ShortSubject Documentary in 1998. Directors come from around the world to introduce their films and conduct panel discussions, and showings are often complemented by music — scores for silent films, full concerts and dance performances are some of the highlights of the event.

Making the cut The selection process for films is competitive.

Contenders are reviewed by a team comprised of an Arts Director and other film professionals.

One key requirement is that the films cannot have been previously been shown in Boston — the BJFF prefers to be the first in the area to screen selected films. This year, Arts Director Amy Geller viewed

between 300 and 400 films with her team, narrowing that number down to just 48 for the festival.

Audience members are also allowed to cast ballots and vote for the best film among a series of short films — a practice that began in 2002. Today at 7 p.m. at the Somerville Theater in Davis Square, audience members are invited to view six short films. After, they can vote via text for their favorites, and the winners will receive $1,500 and $1,000, respectively. Following the competition, there will be a 21-and-over event at Orleans for those who attended the showing.

Connecting with younger audiences Geller, a graduate of Bates College, started as Artistic Director for the BJFF almost two years ago, after years of experience in filmmaking and production. Recently, Geller enrolled in a few directing courses at Suffolk University and was struck by the “fearless creativity” of her fellow students. She hopes the festival will help recreate the same dynamic, educational experience she had at Suffolk and convey it to viewers.

“Short films are an increasingly popular art form, but a really good short film is rare,” Geller told the Daily. “At the festival, I try to create a similar environment where our team can push the boundaries of creativity and where everyone can learn about issues that affect people at home and abroad. Where else can you see amazing films from 13 countries including Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Israel and the Netherlands?”

One of Geller’s main goals for this year’s festival was to reach a more diverse audience.

“Typically our audience tends to skew a little bit older. We’ve programmed this [event] to cater to the 20 to 40-[year-old] professional crowd,” Geller said. “[Now] we’re reaching out to a younger group of people and hoping that they will be just as excited about our films as the older crowd is.”

The 2013 festival will feature the Israeli thriller, “Big Bad Wolves.” With this film — which Quentin Tarantino called the best of 2013 — the BJFF hopes to attract a younger audience, particularly by screening it at midnight on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the CCT — a first for the BJFF. “Big Bad Wolves” marks a return by Israel’s first-ever horror filmmakers, Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, who are best known for “Rabies” (2010). Their film tells the tale of a cautious police detective and a revenge-seeking father who, after a series of violent murders, set out together to capture the accused serial killer.

The film was nominated for 11 Ophir Awards — the Israeli equivalent of the Oscars — and was the winner of five: Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Makeup, Best Original Music and Best Original Soundtrack.

Festival milestones 2013 marks the inaugural presentation of the BJFF Community Leadership Award, which has been given to Lisa Simmons, the founder the Color of Film Collaborative and co-producer of the Roxbury International Film Festival.

“She’s just a real force in the community for creating opportunities for filmmakers of color to exhibit their movies,” Geller said. “And we just felt like we should expand and honor someone who is doing such great work in the Boston community.”

Additionally, the BJFF is not only celebrating its 25-year anniversary this year, but also its strong, successful relationship with the MFA. “We have a long history with the museum,” Geller said. “Former film curator Bo Smith kind of moved it from being a series with a small selection of films to a bigger festival with a venue. He really helped in seeing that there could be a Jewish film festival in Boston.”

Looking ahead Some of Geller’s goals for future festivals include exploring storytelling through new mediums, such as web series and gaming.

“I’m also hoping to infuse more interactivity and audience participation in our future events,” she said. With so many ideas for next year and beyond, Geller stresses the importance of funding, as the BJFF relies on donations.

Overall, Geller feels happy to be involved in such an enduring cultural event.

“The festival has been making people think, laugh, feel, love and dream for a quarter of a century. I am so proud and honored to be part of this rich cultural legacy,” she said, adding that the BJFF can attribute much of its success to its attendees.

“I think we have a very dedicated and loyal following because we show the best films with Jewish content from all over the world,” Geller said. “The word ‘Jewish’ might turn a lot of people off. Some might say, ‘That’s not for me.’ But if you like incredible movies, like to cry, to laugh and to learn a few things along the way, then the BJFF is for you. Period.”

This festival truly has something to offer everyone, regardless of background. Geller looks forward to 2013 being another great success and hopes the festival will continue to flourish.

For more information about the festival, including schedule and ticketing, visit http://www.bjff. org. The festival, which opened yesterday at 7 p.m. with a showing of “The Zig Zag Kid” at the Coolidge Corner Theater, runs until Nov. 18. Tufts students will have an easy time accessing the short films screening at 7 p.m. at the Somerville Theater, for which tickets are still available on the BJFF website.

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Weekender

Thursday, November 7, 2013

What’s Up This Weekend Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!

Legends Way, Boston. Tickets are $27-$57 and can be purchased on Ticketmaster.com.)

at 7 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased from tuftstickets.com.)

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis: Rapper Macklemore and his partner Ryan Lewis will be performing in Boston this weekend as part of their latest tour in support of their bestselling album “The Heist” (2012). Talib Kweli will be performing as the concert’s opening act. (Friday at 7:30 p.m. at TD Garden, 100

Break the Stage: Now in its 10th year, the annual Break the Stage step team competition returns this weekend. Hosted by the African Students Organization, which are also working with Tufts step teams Blackout and ENVY, the competition features teams from throughout the New England area. (Saturday

Tufts Takht: Post Card from Damascus: The Arabic Music Ensemble, Tufts Takht, will perform new music by Syrian composers this weekend. The concert will feature special guests Essam Rafea and Kinan Idnawi, as well as performance faculty Mal Barsamian and Beth Bahia Cohen. (Sunday at 3 p.m. in

Distler Performance Hall. Admission is free.)

Small Jazz Concert: This concert will feature two of Nando Michelin’s jazz ensembles. The program will feature world music through a jazz approach and several jazz standards.

(Sunday at 7 p.m. in Distler Performance Hall.

Admission is free.)

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

movie review

Courtesy Summit Entertainment

The Battle Room scenes display an impressive cinematography and choreography, making highlights of ‘Ender’s Game.’

‘Ender’s Game’ succeeds as compelling sci-fi film by

Kumar Ramanathan Daily Staff Writer

Classic novels have a long tradition of resisting successful film adaptations, and science-fiction stories are all the more chal-

Ender’s Game Directed by Gavin Hood Starring Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld lenging to remodel for the screen. In particular, Orson Scott Card’s 1985 bestselling novel “Ender’s Game” has a history of being called “unfilmable” due to its violence, heavy plot and author, whose bigoted politics have often overshadowed his stories. With all of these disadvantages, it’s even more surprising that this year’s adaptation of “Ender’s Game” succeeds as a lean, compelling and meaningful science-fiction film.

“Ender’s Game” is set in a future where Earth has survived an initial invasion by an insectoid alien species known as the Formics. A hegemonic International Fleet is tasked with finding and training young children who have demonstrated natural strategic genius as humanity’s best hope to stave off future invasions. It selects Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) as its most promising candidate. Ender propels his way through Battle School under the tutelage of manipulative teachers who seek to use his skill for the greater good. At once shy and empathetic, but also brutally violent, Ender proves to be an almost too-perfect candidate for the military, as he begins to uncover dark secrets that the leaders of this dystopia are hiding.

Faced with infamously complex source material, “Ender’s Game” chooses to build a cohesive film out of the novel’s central elements, rather than cramming as much content in as possible. The result is a propulsive film that barely stops to appreciate the expansive world that it has constructed.

Under Gavin Hood’s masterful, fast-paced direction and buffeted by powerful performances, this momentum works in the film’s favor. Whereas a lesser, more bloated version might have sacrificed themes in favor of plot, here, the high-level energy makes the film’s themes both pronounced and engaging.

The best sequences of “Ender’s Game” take place in the Battle Room — a zero-gravity structure where Battle School students are pitted against each other for combat train-

ing. The three-dimensionality of this space is beautifully captured using restrained cinematography and human choreography — ultimately, we begin to see Ender as a leader because of how elegantly and effectively he commands his Battle Room team. As viewers watch him evolve into a more complicated character, the camera movements also grow increasingly complex. All the while, the vastness of outer space sits ominously in the background, creating both a sense of grandeur and fear.

In the pantheon of science-fiction filmmaking, “Ender’s Game” is more “Star Trek” (1979) than “Star Wars” (1977). While the operatic space battle scenes are impressively crafted, they each only last for a few minutes. The film emphasizes brooding character development over intense action. Its main focus is the political interplay between Ender and his adult mentors — intergalactic war takes a backseat, serving to raise the moral stakes of the story but not overwhelm it. Hood exhibits an impressive tonal consistency throughout, creating a story that has room both for huge space battles and dark, effective metaphors about bullying, manipulation and militarism.

At times, the film’s fast pace prevents it from reaching full potential in some of its most epic scenes. For example, the first 20 minutes are dense enough to constitute an entire film — but unfortunately the scenes pass so quickly that the audience doesn’t have time to digest all the exposition and character development that takes place. We understand the gravity of events that occur, but we are unable to build emotional connections with many of the supporting characters.

Some of the omissions from the source material do act in the film’s favor. Card’s repulsive personal politics — particularly his bigotry against queer people — have been well publicized, and the film does well to sidestep them whenever they threaten the story. The novel’s derogatory term for the aliens, “Buggers,” is omitted for the more technical name, “Formics.” Multiculturalism is amplified, while imperialist attitudes are excluded. Card’s politics may forever hang darkly over this series, but the film does not let them infect its storytelling.

“Ender’s Game” is an entertaining and enthralling exploration of humanity’s relationship with compassion and violence — all seen through the eyes of children. It is not as complex as the book, but it isn’t trying to be. Instead, the filmmakers have taken the core of the novel and crafted a smart, energetic adaptation.

Courtesy Richard Foreman Jr. / Summit Entertainment

Asa Butterfield stars as the titular main character in ‘Ender’s Game.’

Artsy Nugget

‘SNL’ mocks lack of cast diversity with Michelle Obama sketch The “Saturday Night Live” (1975-present) crew poked fun at itself — and its cast’s own lack of diversity — this past weekend when “Scandal” (2012-present) star Kerry Washington dropped by to host the show. Washington acted as Michelle Obama, and she is the first black actress to portray the first lady since Maya Rudolph did so in 2007. In fact, this is the first time during her husband’s presidency that “SNL” has featured Mrs. Obama in its skits.

Having recently received flak for its overwhelming number of white male cast members, “Saturday Night Live” has long struggled to appear diverse. After taking on five more white actors and one white actress for this season, “SNL” has decided to tackle the obvious issue head on. The sketch depicts Jay Pharoah as Barack Obama spending a rare private moment with his wife, when Taran Killam, as the press secretary, announces that Oprah

Winfrey has arrived. Washington at first appears confused by the announcement — until Killam suggests she leave so that Oprah can come in. Washington then asks, “Kenan won’t?” — satirically wondering why the only other black “SNL” cast member, Kenan Thompson, couldn’t play the part.

The sketch concludes with a grand display of self-mockery — scrolling text apologizes to Washington “for the number of black women she will be asked to play tonight.” As the text moves across the screen, six Matthew McConaugheys enter the Oval Office — a jab at the plethora of white males who usually assume the role.

Promising to “rectify” the situation, the show continues on, completely absent of any black comediennes. But at least no one can say that “SNL” can’t laugh at itself.

—by Brendan Donohue

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Tufts Daily

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Weekender Susie Church | Food Fight

concert review

Boston Burger Company vs. Mr. Bartley’s

I

f you’re a vegan or veg head, I’d stop reading right here and now — this one’s for the carnivores out there. This week I went on the hunt to find the juiciest, most tender burger at two famous and beloved burger joints in our area: Boston Burger Company and Mr. Bartley’s. Read on to see which one is the heartier of the two.

Boston Burger Company was my first

Price: Flavor: Location: Envir.:

Courtesy Stu Rosner / Boston Symphony Orchestra

Christianne Stojin was the highlight of a lackluster performance at the BSO.

Mezzo-soprano Christianne Stojin lifts BSO by

Tamara Win

Daily Staff Writer

The Boston Symphony Orchestra performed the last concert of a program including the American premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Speranza” and Gustav Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” last week. Although stylistically different, both pieces were thematically similar: each one expressed a feeling of hope. The title of the first work, “Speranza,” means hope in Italian, and the names of the four movements of the piece come from Arabic, German, Gaelic and Hebrew equivalents: “Amal,” “Hoffen,” “Dochas” and “Tikvah.” The pairing of this work with Mahler’s orchestral song was notable because “Das Lied von der Erde” also possesses pan-cultural elements, with the piece including German translations of Chinese poetry.

Mark-Anthony Turnage originally composed “Speranza” in memory of poets and writers who had committed suicide, such as Romanian poet Paul Celan. In an interview with boosey.com, Turnage explained that he initially wanted to write “a big, dark, despairing work.” However, he decided what he had written was a bit too melan-

cholic, especially for a 45-minute piece, and began incorporating more positive elements — transforming the piece into something more uplifting and optimistic.

The work has taken a decidedly different turn from his initial intentions, but Turnage noted that “although ‘Speranza’ shimmers a lot, I suspect the dark heart of the original idea still peeks through.”

And he is certainly right. There are moments when “Speranza” did “shimmer” — the third movement was especially energetic with its jazzy, syncopated melodic ideas. Turnage’s music is much influenced by jazz; as a composer he has featured deliberate allusions to jazz legends such as Miles Davis and Gil Evans.

Despite the liveliness of the third movement, the rest of the piece is noticeably darker, saturated with dense harmonies that lent a gloomier edge to the upbeat rhythms. The closing notes are played by a duduk — a Hungarian wind instrument whose timbre adds a mournful quality to the composition. Ironically, heavy, sorrowful sounds seem to weigh down “Speranza.”

The second half of the program consisted of “Das Lied von der Erde,” which — although written at a very difficult time in Mahler’s life

— focuses on beauty rather than despair. The soloists were mezzo-soprano Christianne Stojin and tenor Michael Schade. The duo had an interesting dynamic: a restless Schade spent the duration of the performance with his music binder in hand, not quite connecting with the audience, while Stojin read from a mini-score and seemed contemplative and reflective on stage.

Unfortunately, the overall performance was rather unremarkable. The tenor solo voice is written quite high, and against a full orchestra it was difficult to hear Schade, especially in the opening minutes. There was a point when conductor Daniel Harding, making debut with the BSO, helped balance all the parts, finally allowing the refrain to be heard. However, the subsequent movements were not particularly noteworthy.

Stojin’s performance was the saving grace of the evening. Her tone was full and resonant, and she rarely looked down at her score, keeping the audience completely captivated. Her performance was truly one of realized hope.

Be sure to check www.bso.org for upcoming concerts including Benjamin Britten’s unforgettable and haunting War Requiem this Veteran’s Day Weekend.

The Artsy Jumbo

Yessenia Rivas balances dance, theater Coming from a small town in southern Texas, Yessenia Rivas has been practicing dance since her mother enrolled her in classes at the age of two. A senior majoring in drama, Rivas said that one of the best aspects of her Tufts experience was discovering a vibrant dance and theater community, something that was lacking back home.

Since arriving at Tufts, Rivas has joined a variety of dance and theater-related campus groups. She is an active member in the dance ensembles Sarabande and Spirit of Color, working as a choreographer for both and serving as vice president of Sarabande. On top of dance, Rivas is highly involved in the Tufts theater community, having been in a few drama department productions, as well as having participated in the student theater group, Pen, Paint & Pretzels (3Ps).

Rivas has even incorporated her activities into her academics, working on a drama thesis that fuses dance and theater together with her experience as a Latina student at Tufts.

“My drama thesis combines my involvement with dance and with theater. I’ve been collecting stories from Latinas ... and telling about their experiences [of] being Latina on a campus that is predominantly white,” she

courtesy timothy peng

said. “From there, we’re going to add music to it and, rather than people acting it out, we’re going to hear the words with the music and people dancing.”

Citing her lifelong dream of becoming an actress, Rivas hopes to enter a graduate pro-

gram for acting post graduation. Her ultimate goal is to one day return to Boston and form a theater company to serve the larger Latino community in the city.

—by Dan O’Leary

BBC $9.75 8/10 Davis Uninspired

Bartley’s $10.75 9/10 Harvard Retro

victim. On a Sunday afternoon I walked into Davis Square with a friend, hoping to beat the infamous lines I always witness while waiting for the Joey. The menu at Boston Burger Company is intense. While they do offer a basic burger, cheeseburger and a make-your-own burger, the possibilities extend into the wild and crazy.

Inside, burger anatomy guides decorate the walls to help customers visualize its craziest creations. The restaurant is known for dishes like the “Artery Clogger” — “a deep fried, beer battered burger topped with bacon, American cheese and BBQ sauce”; the “Vermonster” — maple mayo, sharp cheddar cheese, caramelized granny smith apples, red onions, maple syrup and bacon” and the “420 Burger” — “American cheese, bacon, golden BBQ sauce, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, French fries and mac and cheese bites.” I decided to put aside my pride during the meal and ordered the “Hot Mess.” Topped with American cheese, pickles, jalape𮱬 bacon, onion, shredded lettuce, Thousand Island dressing and sweet potato fries, this burger was truly intimidating.

However, after a few bites I was at peace with my dressing-soaked hands and messy plate — this burger was just that good. However, I finished it pretty quickly — the meal wasn’t as heavy as the daunting description had led me to believe. There were only five sweet potato fries and the ratio of Thousand Island dressing to lettuce was about six to one. The quality of the burger was surprisingly good for a restaurant that touts its quirky combinations more than the actual quality of its meat, making Boston Burger Company a fun, solid lunch.

Meanwhile, I avoided the usual crowds at Mr. Bartley’s in Harvard Square by stopping in on a weeknight. The restaurant is small but welcoming, with funny signs and photos lining nearly every inch of the wood-paned walls. Mr. Bartley’s menu is no less extensive than Boston Burger Company’s, though the options are a little more conventional. Every burger has a punny, political or socially relevant name. My favorite was the “Obamacare: “NOBODY KNOWS WHAT’S IN IT ask the liberal sitting next to you.” I went for the “Guy Fieri,” hoping for a reasonable comparison to the “Hot Mess.” The result was a much more traditional looking burger: a bun topped with sesame seeds, a hunk of iceberg lettuce, a liberal slice of beefsteak tomato and a much more conservative serving of Russian dressing. This burger was less messy and, this time, the toppings enhanced the eating experience rather than overwhelming it. Every ingredient seemed very fresh — the meat was incredibly juicy and the burger was more substantial than the one at Boston Burger Company. Plus, the atmosphere only added to what turned out to be a really lovely dinner.

I have to say that Mr. Bartley’s grabs this one based on simple quality. However, both restaurants provide unique dining options that I wholeheartedly endorse. If you’re looking more for creativity or are too sleepy to venture out to Harvard, Boston Burger Company is the place for you. I can only hope that Boston Burger Company and Mr. Bartley’s keep doing what they do best: making great burgers.

Susie Church is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. She can be reached at Susannah.Church@tufts.edu.

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THE TUFTS DAILY Hannah R. Fingerhut Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Jenna Buckle Melissa Wang Managing Editors Abigail Feldman Executive News Editor Daniel Gottfried News Editors Victoria Leistman Menghan Liu Melissa Mandelbaum Annabelle Roberts Mahpari Sotoudeh Josh Weiner Sarah Zheng Daniel Bottino Assistant News Editors Alexa Horwitz Denali Tietjen

Shannon Vavra Executive Features Editor Lily Sieradzki Features Editors Charlotte Gilliland Emily Bartlett Vicky Rathsmill Emma Arnesty-Good Assistant Features Editors Caitlin McClure Sabrina McMillin Julia McDaniel Caroline Welch Executive Arts Editor Dan O’Leary Arts Editors Veronica Little Drew Robertson Assistant Arts Editors Brendan Donohue Lancy Downs Grace Hoyt Alexander Schroeder Executive Sports Editor Marcus Budline Sports Editors Aaron Leibowitz David McIntyre Zachey Kliger Jake Indursky Claire Sleigh Kate Klots Matthew Berger Tyler Maher Assistant Sports Editors Ross Dember Jason Schneiderman Alex Connors Elayne Stecher Bhushan Deshpande Tom Chalmers Matthew Crane Nick Golden Jehan Madhani Keran Chen Denise Amisial Benjamin Boventer Scott Geldzahler Susan Kaufman Anantya Sahney

Editorial | op-ed

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Editorial

Supporting students’ search for off-campus housing In light of last semester’s housing lottery and the lack of on-campus housing for then-rising juniors and seniors, students are now scrambling to find off-campus housing for next year. The mad-dash last semester to find housing off campus was so stressful that students started as early as September of this year to avoid being locked out. Next year’s upperclassmen are afraid that they will not be granted on-campus housing if they do not get a head start in the search, and many current sophomores and juniors are skipping the housing lottery altogether and opting for off-campus living.

Even local landlords have noted that students are searching for houses and signing leases much earlier this year than in previous years. Many students have already secured their homes for next year and some have even signed two-year leases to eliminate the housing search entirely.

In a school of over 5,000 students, it is no wonder that housing is a hot commodity and that the use of a lottery appears to be the optimal and most effective way to designate who will live where.

It is understandable that housing cannot be guaranteed, as there are too many students to house on campus, and it is impossible to tell any individual student what his or her chances are for a particular year. Beyond that, we recognize that the housingassignment process for dorms that are not for seniors only cannot be moved any earlier in the semester, as each incoming freshman class brings a large number of students in need of on-campus housing to the Hill.

Between a one-question survey sent in October asking whether students were looking for on-campus housing for the following year and various information sessions in the fall detailing the process of looking for off-campus housing, the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) is taking the right steps to accommodate all upperclassmen. Yet additional measures can be taken to give rising juniors and seniors a better idea of where they stand in the lottery, and therefore, whether they can afford to wait until the spring when housing is released.

This system, despite being the most

sensible and convenient means for determining student housing, poses challenges for students deciding between on- and off-campus housing.

ResLife does not release the average lottery numbers for students, who secured singles or suites in Sophia Gordon Hall or other popular dorms for juniors and seniors, which makes it nearly impossible to determine if a student’s or group’s lottery number is high enough to wait until the spring. Students who wait to find out about on-campus housing risk struggling to find off-campus housing if there is not enough room.

Releasing average lottery numbers from previous years would help students decide whether to wait for the lottery or to take matters into their own hands and look off campus. Holding the lottery for Sophia Gordon Hall earlier in the school year might also help students figure out whether they can live on campus sooner, which would give them more time to find off-campus housing if necessary. Though there are resources available for students looking to live off-campus, more can be done to support them throughout this process.

KERAN CHEN

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Off the Hill | University of Minnesota

Catcalls aren’t compliments

By Aditi Pradeep Minnesota Daily

A couple of days ago, I had a rather eye-opening social media experience.

A Facebook friend of mine posted a link to the photo series “City of Brotherly Love” in which Philadelphiabased photographer Hannah Price turned her camera toward the men who catcalled at her. The series went viral last month, appearing on National Public Radio and BuzzFeed.

However, my close friend’s response to the link truly shocked me.

My friend left a comment saying she enjoyed catcalling. She said she felt appreciated when men hollered and whistled at her.

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.

“If a man whistles at you, do not respond. You’re a lady, not a dog.” This quote, usually posted with a picture of its supposed source, Adele, also went viral during this year. Despite its meme qualities, the quote brings up an important question: Should women be expected to feel flattered when a man catcalls?

Catcalling is not a form of flattery; rather, it’s derogatory street or sexual harassment. Catcalling robs its subject of control in an unnerving way. How would you feel if someone sexualized you without your consent, especially in public?

A Minneapolis woman called out a man who catcalled at her via a Missed Connection ad on Craigslist in September.

“When you comment on a woman’s appearance, you are not doing it for her,” the ad reads. “You are doing it for you.”

A catcall is not simply a compliment, and women shouldn’t welcome the objectification. Catcallers do not deserve a response or reciprocation.

There’s also the question of safety.

Do you speed up or slow down when you’re walking down the street and someone hollers at you? Making public advances incites fear in a very direct way. In some cases, a woman may feel unsafe or threatened by a sexual comment. Catcalling shouldn’t be welcomed or considered flattery.

Catcalling problematically falls under the guise of a compliment, but it can be harassment.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 2 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com.

All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 450-word limit and letters must be verified.

The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editorin-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.

The Tufts Daily

Thursday, November 7, 2013

11

Op-Ed

Adam Kaminski | The Cool Column

Off the Hill | Johns Hopkins University

Give soccer a chance! Guiding Americans to the beautiful game by

I thought I went to Tufts

Aishwarya Raje

I

The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

At the 2014 FIFA World Cup next summer, soccer fans around the globe will rejoice in their love for the sport. But while the world celebrates the gathering of the most talented soccer players in the world, there is no doubt that the United States will show a striking lack of enthusiasm.

It has always surprised me that the most influential nation on Earth is unable to share the rest of the world’s love for soccer. Of course there are plenty of soccer fans in the United States, but unlike other nations we have prevented the sport from becoming a part of our cultural identity. In fact, we don’t even care to refer to it by its proper name. For some reason, Americans insist on calling the sport “soccer,” even though the internationally common “football” is the most straightforward name for the game.

The accessibility of soccer allows the sport to have far-reaching effects on diverse populations and has greatly contributed to its global popularity. Playing soccer is not limited to professional athletes, allowing essentially anyone with a ball and a few friends to participate. The purpose of the game is very clear, and apart from a few technicalities the rules are simple to understand as well.

On the other hand, American football would most likely be impossible to follow for a foreigner. Why is this sport even called football? Why are there so many different positions? Why are some players jumping on the player holding the ball? From an objective standpoint, watching football for the first time can only result in pure confusion.

Nonetheless, this country has embraced football as a staple of Americana. If we are willing to embrace a sport that is complicated to understand, then why not soccer?

I understand that people have different preferences in terms of which sports they find appealing. I, for one, think baseball is incredibly boring (please don’t revoke my citizenship) but in this country soccer is generally met with apathy and disengagement. So far, I’ve encountered three reasons for this.

First, soccer is not seen as an “exciting” sport. Goals are not made as often as viewers would like, especially in higher level leagues. As a whole, Americans prefer constant action in sports.

But the beauty and uniqueness of soccer lies not just in how many goals are scored, but how players display their athleticism and skill. While it may be underwhelming to see a score of 0-1 after 90 minutes, soccer should be judged based

MCT

on how the game was actually played.

Plus, the unpredictability and rarity of goals makes them — and the game itself — all the more thrilling. A second reason for American apathy is that American professional soccer is usually not the best. Specifically, men’s professional soccer has been the source of much scrutiny after years of average results. The team is able to play competitively on the international level, but when faced with the world’s most successful countries in soccer such as Brazil, Spain and Argentina, the US typically falls short.

It is natural to have minimal interest in a sport in which your country does not dominate, but it is important to remember that the US men’s team has in fact qualified for the World Cup next year and is under the management of legendary former German striker JKlinsmann. Over the past few years, the men’s national team has steadily improved, and this progress will hopefully give Americans more interest and

incentive to follow the sport.

The final American critique of soccer is that it is widely regarded as a kid’s sport given its popularity among young children. The seemingly simplistic style of play combined with the lack of specific equipment makes playing soccer an attractive choice for young kids. For this reason, soccer has the stigma of being exclusively for children. However, soccer requires an incredible amount of physicality, agility and pure skill.

Though there are various levels of difficulty in the sport, professional soccer teams rely heavily on techniques and stamina that only an adult would be able to master.

In many parts of the world, soccer represents much more than just a sport.

It is ingrained in the culture and history of many nations. If so much of the international community can take part in enjoying soccer then why can’t we?

Let’s give it a try. I promise, 90 minutes is much shorter than it seems.

Off the Hill | University of Houston

Smoking bans pose constitutional questions by

Bryan Washington The Daily Cougar

Our nation’s war on smokers is reaching a fast climax.

Lawmakers in New York City approved measures on Wednesday to increase the legal age of tobacco purchases from 18 to 21. It’s the most stringent criterion in any American city. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been waging a battle on public fumes for some time, from pushing to curb public inhalation to similar efforts at striking the age at which New Yorkers begin smoking.

He’s been mostly successful.

The New York Times detailed the opinion of Democratic assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal of Manhattan: “He had other battles that he wanted to win before the end of his term, things he can accomplish in the next couple of months,” she said.

Whether to take on “the long, drawnout battle” entailed by a display ban,

she added, will be up to his successor.

The age requirement for smoking in most states is 18, but some have pushed it to a year later. The increase is almost always accomplished only after months of pushing from the parties concerned, and the variables underlying the decisions made almost always extend past health concerns alone — the political climate in the districts at hand, the popularity of the entities proposing the notion and the political involvement among those whom the bill would be most likely to impact.

Most of the time, it’s pretty nil.

As a nod toward public health, it’s an obviously beneficial move. Tobacco causes cancer. That’s non-negotiable.

Alternatives to cigarette cartons may be less overtly detrimental to passersby — from chewing tobacco to electronic light-ups — but they, too, have their downside. They kill you.

“This is literally legislation that will

save lives,” Council speaker Christine C. Quinn said shortly before the bill passed 35 to 10.

And it might. But it raises the question of limits: At what point does a ban reach its climax? James Calvin, the president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, argued that the incidental ban on cigarettes can only give way to further, more malicious bans. Constitutionality becomes an issue when young people are asked to lay their lives on the line as defenders of public health despite their own inability to purchase a pack of smokes. It sets the chain for a double standard. It sets a precedent that’ll be hard to contain.

Then again, there are simpler reasons for skepticism. According to the New York Times, moments before the final vote, Nicole Spencer, 16, was in Union Square in Manhattan with a cigarette wedged between her fingers. Her verdict?

“I don’t think that’s going to work.”

remembered this morning that I live in the Northeast. Put bluntly: it’s too damn cold. In November. Already. Wrenching myself from bed I lumbered to my dresser in search of a sweatshirt. I found one quickly, the letters T-U-F-T-S printed squarely on its chest, and, once again, was filled with a sense of pride. Call me romantic, emotional or whatever else you want, but as I traverse campus it’s exciting to spot Tufts sweaters, Tufts LGBTQ pins, Tufts hats, Tufts canteens and the occasional Tufts student. My cherished collegiate sweater almost makes me welcome the cold weather. Almost.

This particular morning, however, I noticed something off-kilter, something remotely disturbed within our student body. I noticed a Yale sweatshirt. Stricken and dumbfounded as to why anyone would wear such a false article of clothing (no, that is not your institution), I continued on my way in confusion. Coincidently, the more I looked about campus, the wider the range of universities I saw represented at our, just to clarify, one university. Middlebury, Harvard, Lehigh, Wesleyan, UConn, McGill, UCLA and other alternative-college paraphernalia were present. Dare I say shown off. I was taken aback by this spectrum to such a degree that I decided to uselessly do the one thing I could: report.

Meet Harry Weissman: An ethnic Jew from Syosset, NY, a resident of South (hit him up!) and the proud owner of a confounding, worn, Yale T-shirt. It was time for a virtual interrogation. I bombarded Harry via text, where over “hahahaha”s and “Lolol idk”s we contemplated the perplexing issue at hand. Why does he wear such a false, misleading T-shirt?

How does it make him feel? Conspicuous?

Special? Does he feel accomplished shocking overly sensitive, whiny university students?

How has he interpreted his Jewish heritage throughout the angst-y teenage years?

Harry answered these questions with grace I had previously assumed foreign to the sober IM-er. His replies were concise and honest. “It’s already obvious we go to Tufts,” he mused. “I like the feel and design, I don’t support those colleges over Tufts.”

I mean, “why not?” was the gist. Awkward and nervous laughs aside, Harry had a point, an elementarily simple but profound point.

Why not? Why shouldn’t he represent Yale and its summer program he attended a few years ago? Why shouldn’t he dress in the most illustrious of the Ivy cotton? I won’t risk sounding like a nefarious fascist-overlord and make a rebuttal. Though, to play devil’s advocate, the cotton quality argument does sound like a bunch of horse manure.

While Harry graciously spurred the conversation with his experiences, our correspondence left me thinking about mine. I scrutinized my emotions, my sensitivities, my vulnerabilities and my ability to conduct an efficient, fluid interview.

Why did I construct competition between these prestigious universities? Must education be such an antagonistic sport? Did I merely intuit rivalry? Did I really just use the word “intuit?”

I pondered and pondered and finally got that preachy countenance common to public-speaking rabbis. I realized how detrimental my close-minded thoughts were to the universal academic environment. I remembered that academia requires camaraderie and collaboration to progress. Neither vying nor rivaling will lead us to our aspirations.

Competing will only stunt our evolution.

Nothing similarly synonymous, not even the ol’ college rivalry, belongs in the university setting. Especially not on the Tufts campus.

So yes, it’s still fall, and yes, we live in the Northeast. As Tufts sweatshirts begin to appear snug on our student body so will the inevitable, “wrong” Yale hoodie, and that’s okay. I’m not as perplexed by our spectrum of represented institutions. I would much rather ask you Yalies for help editing this column I’m writing.

Adam Kaminski is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Adam.Kaminski@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.

The Tufts Daily

12

Comics

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Actually sticking to No Shave November.

Late Night at the Daily

Thursday’s Solution

Want more late-night laughs?

Follow us on Twitter at @LateNiteAtDaily

Chelsea: “Ugh, I have an ingrown hair in my armpit.”

Please recycle this Daily.

by

Wiley

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Tufts Daily

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$$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ Earn up to $1,200/month and give the gift of family through California Cryobank’s donor program.

Convenient Cambridge location.

Apply online: SPERMBANK.com classifieds policy All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order or exact cash only.

All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $15 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.

Editors’ Challenge | Week 9 Boo! Trick or treat! What’s that? You thought Halloween was over? Well, Week 9 of Editors’ Challenge is here to cause some more mischief before Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season comes along. We’ve even got the ghost of a former “head honcho” hanging around the sports section and contributing some picks, so let’s get to it.

We have a new leader folks! Jason “Milky Way” Schneiderman is shooting for the stars with an impressive 11-2 performance that has officially catapulted him in front of the pack. Schneiderman, a newcomer to the masthead, is certainly making his presence known around the Daily office.

Behind Schneiderman are Marcus “Skittles” Budline, Aaron “100 Grand” Leibowitz and Zachey “3 Musketeers” Kliger. Budline’s colorful display in Eds’ Challenge has kept him hanging around the top two spots for practically all of the season, and he is arguably our most consistent performer.

Leibowitz is also putting up big numbers, and his new website, which he pays $12.99 a year for, officially establishes him as a mogul among the other inferior editors of the section. Check it out at aaron-leibowitz.com!

Rounding out the group of three tied for second place is Kliger, who has snuck into the top rankings after hovering around the middle of the pack. We’ll have to keep an eye on this soccer writer as he continues to climb the rankings.

Former top dog Ross “Snickers” Dember has nothing to be laughing about as he has dropped to the third spot after a long run at No. 1. An avid Jets fan, he should be used to disappointment.

Next up is our esteemed Matt “M&M’s” Berger. A Daily legend, Berger has undoubtedly revolutionized the sports journalism world, and his lasting impact will influence many a writer to come.

OVERALL LAST WEEK WAS at MIN SEA at ATL DET at CHI PHI at GB JAC at TEN STL at IND OAK at NYG BUF at PIT CIN at BAL CAR at SF HOU at ARI DEN at SD DAL at NO MIA at TB

Jason 88-45 11-2 WAS SEA CHI GB TEN IND NYG BUF BAL SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Marcus 86-47 7-6 WAS SEA DET PHI TEN IND NYG PIT CIN SF HOU DEN NO TB

Aaron 86-47 8-5 WAS SEA DET GB TENder IND NYG PIT CIN SF ARI DEN NO MIA

Zachey 86-47 8-5 WAS SEA DET PHI TEN IND NYG PIT CIN SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Ross 85-48 7-6 WAS SEA CHI PHI TEN IND OAK BUF CIN SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Matt 83-50 6-7 WAS SEA DET GB TEN IND NYG BUF BAL SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Behind Berger is Alex “Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups” Schroeder who has remained in the dead center of the group the entire year. A consistent fan-favorite, Schroeder will continue to make risky picks to try to fight to the top.

Behind Schroeder is another three-way tie between Jake “Crunch” Indursky, Alex “Sour Patch Kids” Connors and David “Baby Ruth” McIntyre. Indursky is trying to gain some traction in the middle of the pack and establish himself as a contender to take over the section next semester. Connors has been making up ground and showing the competition he’s not just an average rookie, and McIntyre has turned his season around with two straight outstanding weeks, showing he doesn’t deserve to be lumped at the bottom of the standings.

The three last spots belong to Claire “Starburst” Sleigh, Kate “Butterfinger” Klots and Tyler “Runts” Maher. Sleigh has put up solid numbers, but she can’t seem to separate herself from the rest of the basement dwellers. Klots, on the other hand, was looking to make a move up the ladder before she slipped up and dropped the ball, taking home an abysmal 3-10 record this week. She’s back in a tie for last place with none other than Maher, who might actually still be celebrating the Red Sox victory. We had to remind him that he was picking football games, not baseball games. Hopefully he can return his focus to the NFL in the coming weeks.

Lastly, but most certainly not least, is our former sports exec Ben “Laffy Taffy” Kochman. He’s known to have had some of the worst Eds’ Challenge numbers ever, and we wanted to give him a chance to redeem himself now that he’s off in the exciting world of adulthood and the Bronx Times.

This could be Kochman’s last chance at proving himself to be anything but a Peter.

Alex S 82-51 8-5 MIN SEA DET PHI TEN IND NYG BUF CIN SF ARI DEN DAL MIA

Jake 81-52 7-6 WAS SEA DET PHI JAC IND NYG BUF CIN SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Alex C 81-52 9-4 WAS SEA CHI PHI TEN IND NYG PIT CIN SF HOU DEN NO MIA

David 81-52 9-4 WAS SEA DET GB TEN IND NYG BUF CIN CAR HOU DEN NO MIA

Claire 76-57 8-5 WAS SEA CHI PHI TEN IND NYG PIT BAL SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Kate 70-63 3-10 WAS SEA CHI PHI TEN IND NYG PIT BAL SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Tyler 70-63 8-5 WAS SEA DET GB TEN IND NYG BUF CIN SF HOU DEN NO MIA

GUEST Ben Kochman MIN ATL DET PHI TEN IND NYG PIT CIN SF HOU DEN NO MIA

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Tufts Daily

Women’s Crew

Women scullers end fall season at Princeton by

Maclyn Senear

Daily Staff Writer

Wrapping up its fall season, the women’s crew team brought its sculling boats to Princeton this Sunday to compete in the Collegiate Small Boat Regatta. Led by senior co-captain Caroline Ricard, whose second place finish in the Singles C Final was Tufts’ best at the regatta, the Jumbos rounded out a successful fall with a strong showing in their final event this season.

“I can say with confidence that we have never had such a successful fall season,” said Ricard, whose time of 8:52.26 was just six seconds behind the first-place finisher in her race.

The Small Boat Regatta in and of itself was a special event. The emphasis in American rowing for years has primarily been on larger boat racing, especially the big eight-man boats, but Sunday’s regatta was the first major event to abandon this convention and feature solely one- and two-person sculling races.

“This past weekend may have been a watershed in women’s rowing in the US,” coach Brian Dawe told the Daily in an email. “[It may have been] because we still don’t know if there will be a second regatta next year to follow up this inaugural small boat challenge. Some of us [coaches] have been talking about this kind of sculling race for a number of years, and it’s finally happened.

All indications are that the event was very successful and that all the participants — scullers, rowers, coaches and organizers — found the event rewarding and energizing.”

Dawe said he prefers this kind of event, where the focus is on small boats and sculling, since it allows the team members to develop individual skills first before rowing in the big eights.

Tufts faced fierce competition at the event, which featured scullers from predominantly Div. I schools that the Jumbos would usually not compete against, such as Syracuse, UMass-Amherst and several Ivy League schools. The team came out looking to have an impact in this inaugural event, and though none of Tufts’ finishes were very high, the Jumbos definitely had a strong presence at the regatta racing against such rowing powerhouses.

continued from back

#2. Senior skipper Ben Weigel and junior Hannah Duggan raced in the A division, and sophomore Rolfe Glover and junior Caitlin Durand sailed in the B Division.

Even though the teams had a lot of success over the weekend, there is always room for improvement, especially while adjusting to the new Bacow Sailing Pavilion.

“We just moved in to the new boathouse, which is super exciting, but it’ll be important for us to get settled quickly and fall back into the routine we were

Courtesy of Anna Lindgren-Streicher

Freshmen Julia Davis and Natalia Kastenberg took fourth place in the Doubles F Final.

The team competed in both singles and doubles sculling races, sending six single boats and six doubles boats to the competition. Moving on to the spring season, the team will be competing in the larger fourand eight-person rowing races, so this regatta also marked the last time the team will be using the sculling boats this year.

“As the last sculling race of our college career, this race held a lot of emotional weight for the seniors on the team,” Ricard said. “Coming off the final I felt like we didn’t leave anything on the table, which is all I can ask for.”

Sophomore Claire Sleigh, who is also a sports editor for the Daily, raced in the Singles C Final alongside Ricard and took fifth place. In the D Finals, senior Ginnie Trumbull finished in sixth place in the singles event, recording a time of 9:33.58, while junior Emily Eickhoff and sophomore Emma Wells placed fourth in the doubles D flight with an 8:20.65.

The team also received commendable performances in the E, F and G divisions. In the E Finals, freshman Nika Wakulich took first place with a time of 9:38.42 while sophomores Kate Ainsworth and Claire Markoff took third and fourth in the same race, with times of 10:06.07 and 10:37.37, respectively.

The doubles boats of freshmen Julia Davis and Natalia Kastenberg, which posted an 8:43.69, and juniors Maddie Morley and Brett Mele, which clocked an 8:49.89, represented Tufts in the F Finals

by taking fourth and fifth place.

Rounding out the Tufts contingent at Princeton were juniors Maureen Hilton and Laura Aravena and seniors Alecia Hagman and Sofi Shield, all of whom raced in the G Finals. In an impressive performance, the boat of Hilton and Hagman took first place in the race with a time of 8:53.88, while Shield and Aravena took second with an 8:56.89.

Looking ahead, Ricard is hopeful with regard to their prospects, especially with the team’s balance between promising underclassmen and experienced upperclassmen.

“From the promising varsity freshmen, like Nika Wakulich, Natalia Kastenberg and Julia Davis, to the seasoned veterans who continue to improve their technique, like Brett Mele, Maddie Morley, Alecia Hagman and Maureen Hilton, everyone has been able to see tangible improvements in their performance,” Ricard said.

In preparation for the spring, the team will be primarily focusing on conditioning, especially strength training and on rowing machines, to meet the physical demands that rowing in the larger boats will entail.

“Our goal, as it was last year, is to have our best race in our last event on Sunday afternoon, the 11th of May, at the ECAC championships,” said Dawe. “All that needs to happen in the next 26 weeks is training that will allow that to happen. If the women want to win, they will have to transform themselves physically in this next half year.”

able to have last year,” Wasynczuk told the Daily in an email. “Communication on and within the team is going to be increasingly important, too. There are a lot of really talented upperclassmen on the team, and a lot of underclassmen with a lot of potential, and I think it’s going to be important to be working to narrow that disparity in knowledge and experience.”

The teams are excited to continue and finish their respective seasons strong. The co-ed team will compete at various races in New England this Saturday and Sunday before the Atlantic Coast Championship takes place in Charleston, S.C. on the weekend of Nov. 16.

“As the season comes to a close, I’m hoping to do well at ACCs,” Grasberger said. “After a few rough weekends, it would be really nice to end the season on a strong note.”

The next race for the women’s team is the Atlantic Coast Championship during the same time frame, but its races are held at Cornell University.

“I’m really excited to keep sailing and to continue to learn as a team; we’ve worked well together this season and complement each other nicely,” Wasynczuk said. “We’ve improved a lot over the course of this season, and I can’t wait to continue doing so into the spring.”

Eight-time champ weighs in on current NBA trends SANDERS

continued from back

was awarded the John Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, an accolade shared by just three other Celtics: Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy and Dave Gavitt.

Tufts Daily: What’s your fondest memory of being a Celtic and playing in the NBA? Satch Sanders: Initially I wanted to be a Knickerbocker, that was home for me, but meeting the [other Celtics] I recognized that I was in the right place because it took me a little longer to become the player I became, and the Celtics had won a couple of championships so they were more patient. My greatest memory was that I was able to start in the playoffs, against St. Louis that first year, and I felt really good about that.

TD: What did you learn during the course of your career?

SS: I learned that I could not take what I wanted, and I was very physical about playing hard and trying to take a position because I didn’t want to go back

Ross Dember and Alex Schroeder | Five-feet Nothing

Forlorn to run

F

Both teams poised for competition at ACCs SAILING

15

Sports

home and have the guys laugh. I learned that I had to win the position.

so it takes them longer to pick up things on the pro-level.

TD: What was your personal experience adjusting to life after the NBA? SS: Well I was fortunate to still be exposed to basketball after the NBA. I coached college basketball at Harvard for four years immediately after [leaving the NBA] so that made the transition much easier.

TD: Who has been your favorite player to counsel?

SS: You’re talking about hundreds of players, but I think [Charles] Barkley stands out because he was a good student of the game. He always came with questions.

TD: How do you think the NBA has changed since you played?

SS: The biggest thing that has changed has been the money and the fact that players are much better physical specimens than we were — they eat better, they travel better, all kinds of things in their favor now to help them be better.

They aren’t better, because they haven’t gone through all the coaching that we had; of course, we had to go to college for four years, which made a big difference. We also had an adjustment period, you couldn’t play in your freshmen year, and so you learned how to be a better player in college. A lot of the young players now are better athletes, but their knowledge of the game isn’t totally there,

TD: Who’s your favorite player to watch in the NBA right now?

SS: Artest was a good player to watch early on. Right now I have moved my allegiance to Kevin Garnett, certainly Lebron James, it’s easy to appreciate Kobe [Bryant] and certainly I like Rondo a lot. Stephen Curry as well.

TD: Who are your picks for the finals this year?

SS: The finals should be a toss up, either Brooklyn or Miami in the East, and in the West, San Antonio again and possibly the Clippers.

TD: Who is your pick to win it all?

SS: None of them are that superior but I think the deepest team is Brooklyn.

or the past few weeks, Alex and I have been discussing the beautiful, embarrassing pain that comes from organized youth sports.

What has been overlooked so far in this series is organized youth sports’ soul mate: middle school gym class.

Now 95 percent of middle school gym class is half-heartedly playing kickball or acting like “speedball” is a legitimate sport, but twice a year we would have the dreaded “fitness week.” This consisted of the typical gym class exercises: push-ups, shuttle-run, crunches, etc. It was miserable. While most team sports give you opportunities to hide your incompetence, or at least minimalize it, fitness week clearly quantifies just how weak you are.

To cap off each fitness week, the gym teachers would take us to a quartermile loop for the finale: the mile run.

It was four laps of glory for some, pain for others and dread for me.

Going into the mile run in the fifth grade, I was mistakenly confident. I thought I looked like a good runner; I was really skinny and had little natural upper body. Besides, I had no sprint speed, so I assumed I possessed natural endurance to compensate for my slow leg turnover. As we waited for the girls to finish so we could start, I had a big smirk on my face. I had no idea I was about to find out how little I knew about physiology.

As soon as the race began, a group shot to the front. Through the first lap, being behind the front pack only made me cockier. They may have been ahead of me for now, but I had not reason to worry. I was pacing myself, and over the next three laps I would overtake them and finish in the top five, at worst. Looking back at it, I was wrong all the time when I was younger.

During the second lap, I quickly realized that I was the one getting slower, and by the third I was being passed by kids who had slowly jogged the first lap as a sign of protest (over what, I do not know) against the gym teachers. When the fourth lap came, I was so gassed I could not even respond as another group sprinted past me on the final straightaway. Crossing the line, I looked around at who had finished and came to an impossibly sad conclusion: half the kids had already finished their post-race stretch and were mocking the current finishers.

The next year, I asked my mom to take me to the track the week before the run so I could time myself. In seventh grade, I “coincidentally” bought new running shoes a week before fitness week and tried a couple two-mile runs. None of it mattered. Each year the disappointment grew.

A month out of fitness week in eighth grade, I decided to train a little.

Occasional jogs became nearly daily runs, and by the time fitness week rolled around, I was ready for the last event. I went through the first lap with the main pack, dropped off a bit in the middle two, but held on at the end.

When I looked around, I cheerfully pointed out to myself that for the first time in my middle school career, I was above average in the mile run.

I had finally conquered my demons and ended a fitness week with some level of accomplishment, yet somehow I was not finished. With trepidation, I joined my high school’s cross-country team, where I was once again one of the worst there. After finishing far behind the pack on the first run, I came back the next day with patient optimism and never looked back. This time, I was a runner.

Ross Dember and Alex Schroeder are both sophomores who have yet to declare majors.

Ross can be reached at Ross.Dember@tufts. edu, and Alex can be reached at Alexander.

Schroeder@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

INSIDE Women’s Crew 15

tuftsdaily.com

Sailing

Jumbos get back on track with strong showings

by Steven

Hefter

Daily Staff Writer

The co-ed and women’s sailing teams competed in five different regattas this past weekend. Seven Tufts sailors participated at the main co-ed event, the 73rd Annual Professor Schell Trophy at MIT, while six others raced at the women’s event, the Victorian Coffee Urn at Harvard. Nine sailors were at the secondary co-ed event, the Dave Perry Trophy at Yale, and 18 freshmen sailors stayed in Medford for the Nickerson Trophy, hosted

by Tufts. Finally, the third co-ed event, the Providence College Invite #2, featured four Jumbo sailors.

Tufts placed well in the events, including earning second at the Schell Trophy of 18 teams. Senior captain skipper Will Haeger and senior crew Paula Grasberger sailed in the A Division for Tufts, while junior skipper Alec Ruiz-Ramon and junior Sam Madden competed in the B Division.

Tufts came in second with a team score of 102, only six points behind the winner, Dartmouth College.

“The greatest success was placing second at the Schell, which was our qualifiers for the Atlantic Coast Championships, to be held [Nov. 16-17] at Charleston,” Grasberger told the Daily in an email. “Our B division [boat] won, which went a long way towards getting us to second place, only a few points out of first.”

The other big success from over the weekend was at home. Tufts won the Nickerson Trophy, an all-freshmen regatta, coming in first out of 13 teams. Skipper Griffin Rolander and Natalie Danziger sailed in the A Division, while skipper Sam Gates and Alex Tong raced in the B Division. Tufts had a team total of 55 points, which was six better than the second place team, Dartmouth College.

The women’s team came in 14th place

Courtesy Ken Legler

Tufts co-ed sailing team took home a second-place finish at 73rd Annual Professor Schell Trophy at MIT, while the women’s team’s took 14th place out of 18 teams at The Victorian Coffee Urn at Harvard. out of 18 teams at The Victorian Coffee Urn. Freshman skipper MaryClaire Kiernan, sophomore Kate Wasynczuk and senior captain Kathleen Kwasniak sailed in the A

Interview | Tom “Satch” Sanders

Eight questions for eight-time NBA champion Satch Sanders by

Alison Kuah

Daily Staff Writer

Tom “Satch” Sanders, 13-year Celtic great and eight-time NBA champion, visited Tufts last week as part of Jan Volk’s “The Business of Sports: A Study of the NBA” Ex-College class. Satch holds the third most Championship titles in NBA history behind teammates Bill Russell and Sam Jones.

Satch, a New York City native who attended New York University, was the eighth pick overall in the 1960 draft by the Boston Celtics, a team he played with for all 13 seasons of his NBA career. He amassed 8,766 points and 5,798 rebounds in 916 games with the Celtics (the sixth

most in team history). The Celtics retired his No. 16 jersey in 1973 and he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Best known for his defensive contributions and his off-the-court personality, Satch was the player that would be called upon to defend the likes of Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere or Elgin Baylor.

After his career, Satch continued to contribute to the NBA in his retirement, essentially single-handedly founding NBA Player Programs and the NBA Rookie Transition Program, which aim to help rookies and veterans with the transition in and out of the NBA. For his contribution, Satch see SANDERS, page 15

Division, while juniors Katie Levinson and Emily Lynn competed in the B Division.

Levinson and Lynn came in sixth place in the B Division.

Finally, Tufts came in first place out of 10 teams at the Providence College Invitational see SAILING, page 15

Men’s Soccer

Blumenthal honored with Academic AllDistrict team selection Senior tri-captain Scott Blumenthal of the men’s soccer team was recently named to the District I Capital One Academic All-District team for NCAA Div. III players. The teams, picked by the College Sports Information Directors of America, recognize the nation’s top student athletes for outstanding performance both on and off the field.

Blumenthal was the only player from the NESCAC selected for the District I team, which comprises student athletes from Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Later this month, Capital One Academic All-America Team ballot voting will occur, and members from the All-District teams are eligible for selection to one of three All-America teams. Last season, Pat Bauer (E ‘13), a former co-captain and defender for the Jumbos, was selected to the 2012 Capital One Academic AllAmerica Second Team for NCAA Div. III.

Blumenthal started 10 of 15 games this fall for the Jumbos and finished with two goals on the season, the most recent of which came against Conn.

College on Oct. 12. Blumenthal also netted the first goal in an early season non-conference matchup with Suffolk University on Sept. 11 as the Jumbos rolled to a 7-0 victory.

In 2012, Blumenthal was a member of a Jumbos side that qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996. He finished third on the team in points with 11 coming from five goals and one assist. The Jumbos reached the semifinals of the NESCAC Championship before falling to Williams in penalties.

Blumenthal is also a two-time Academic All-NESCAC honoree, and he will earn that accolade once again later this fall.

—by Alex Schroeder

Sofia Adams / The Tufts Daily via Wikimedia Commons

Former Boston Celtics player Satch Sanders visited Tufts recently as a part of former Celtics general manger Jan Volk’s Ex-College course.

Senior tri-captain Scott Blumenthal, who finished with four points on the season for the Jumbos, has been selected for the 2013 District I Capital One Academic All-District Team.