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THE TUFTS DAILY

ADL offers reward for information on graffiti vandals

by Denali Tietjen Daily Editorial Board

The Medford Police Department and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the identification of those responsible for numerous graffiti incidents around Medford over the past year.

According to ADL Regional Director Robert Trestan, police discovered antiSemitic and racially offensive graffiti in two vacant Medford homes this September. The graffiti is allegedly linked to two dozen incidents of vandalism that have occurred in the city since last spring.

The reward, provided by the ADL, serves as a monetary incentive for those who have information to come forward.

“From [ADL’s] perspective ... there is a person who knows who’s responsible,” Trestan said. “Somebody has information and somebody knows who’s responsible for this graffiti, and the reward is an incentive to draw out the persons who have information.”

The most recent graffiti included apparent references to Aryan Nations, swastikas and a quote from Red Sox player David Ortiz’s post-Boston marathon bombing speech in which he said, “This is our f**king city.”

Similarly profane imagery was found throughout Medford on April 7, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day. According to an email to the Tufts community last semester, signs and other structures on Bello Field were defaced with swastikas and white supremacist slogans, among other offensive graffiti.

At the time of the Bello Field investigation, Medford police were already working with area gang units who identified a number of gang tags, such as clovers and the words, “Crew 28,” according to FOX 25.

see ADL, page 2

TUFTSDAILY.COM

thursday, november 14, 2013

VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 46

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Hudson-Jinks appointed CNO at Tufts Medical

by Victoria

Leistman

Daily Editorial Board

Former Vice President of Patient Care Services at the Tufts Medical Center Terry Hudson-Jinks became the center’s new Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) on Oct. 31 after serving there for 28 years.

In the new position, Hudson-Jinks is responsible for all nursing concerns at Tufts Medical, reports directly to the president and sits on the senior team, she said.

“I have influence in that level of discussion and decision-making,” Hudson-Jinks said.

“My voice and the voices of the nurses are heard in that arena.”

According to Michael Wagner, interim chief executive officer at Tufts Medical, HudsonJinks for five months served as interim CNO when her predecessor, Nancy Shendell-Falik, took a job at the Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. Her transition to permanent CNO was smooth, he said.

“It was natural for her to step into the interim Chief Nursing Officer role,” Wagner said. “I led the process ... of coming up with a decision as to how we’re going to move ahead with a permanent CNO.” Wagner said that, after interviewing four other strong candidates from outside institutions, Hudson-Jinks still stood out as the best candidate.

“Terry really provided the greatest skill set combined with a deep knowledge of our organization,” he said. “She was the obvious choice for us to move ahead and make the permanent CNO.” Hudson-Jinks said that she most values patient care and plans to stress nurse engagement as she moves forward as CNO. “As we launch into new and ever-changing elements in healthcare, I think, for me, what’s important is truly ensuring and continuing the work of quality patient care for every patient every day, having a voice for the nurses at the senior team level and really engaging the staff,” she said.

A new project that Hudson-Jinks has focused on involves reducing “hospital acquired harm,” such as infections contracted while receiving care for other conditions.

“There’s an initiative having to do with catheter-associated urinary tract infection,” she said. “It’s a patient safety initiative. She’s been working very closely with

Courtesy The Boston Business Journal

Terry Hudson-Jinks, formerly the vice president of patient care services, assumed her new position as Chief Nursing Officer at the Tufts Medical Center on Oct. 31. our Chief Medical Officer on our patient safety initiatives.”

Hudson-Jinks explained that she joined Tufts Medical right out of college and worked at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for 10 years

as a staff nurse. After returning to graduate school to study nursing administration, more opportunities opened up for her at the see HUDSON-JINKS, page 2

Leong discusses gentrification of Chinatowns

by Yan

Zhao

Contributing Writer

Ethan Chan for The Tufts Daily

Andrew Leong, an associate professor at University of Massachusetts Boston, gave a presentation titled “Gentrification: Disappearing Chinatowns” last night in Braker Hall.

Inside this issue

Associate Professor in the College of Public and Community Service at University of Massachusetts Boston Andrew Leong spoke about gentrification of Chinatowns around the world last night in Braker Hall.

The presentation was hosted by Tufts Asian American Alliance and featured information from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s (AALDEF) recent report called, “Chinatown Then and Now: Gentrification in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.”

Leong was one of four authors who worked on the report.

Leong began his lecture by introducing background information about historical changes in Chinatowns. He read feedback about a tour of Chinatown,

given to him by one of his students, to offer a living example of how locals observe change. “‘I do think Chinatown is trying to become more modern, but I also think that the community is trying to retain its past and culture,’” Leong read.

According to Leong, gentrification of Chinatowns is happening everywhere — even within Asia.

“When I go back [to China], I see the same issue happens in Hong Kong, in Shanghai, in Beijing where communities are just wiped out overnight,” Leong said. “And then boom, skyscrapers come out of nowhere. We are talking about communities in Beijing that have existed for centuries, all of a sudden, wiped out just like that.”

In understanding these changes, people must first see CHINATOWN, page 2

Today’s sections

Marston “Doc” Balch played an integral role in the development of Tufts theater.

Alumnus Gregg Kallor discusses finding success as a composer.

see FEATURES, page 3

see WEEKENDER, page 5

News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Medford police investigate offensive graffiti spree ADL

continued from page 1

Although Bello Field is the only location on the Tufts campus to have been vandalized, many areas of the Medford community, including public schools, businesses and playgrounds, have been defaced, Trestan said.

“Incidents like this often are not directed at one individual or one individual group,” Trestan said. “They’re directed at multiple, including the community. It’s important to remember that the community has not forgotten, that the police have not forgotten, and that they will continue to work on this until the people responsible for this are caught.”

This most recent incident has resparked investigations from the spring, Trestan explained.

“In the interim time between the recent incident and last spring, nobody had been identified as a possible suspect and so the latest incident was a bit of a reminder for everyone that the person, or persons responsible, [is] still out there,” Trestan said.

While Medford police are leading the investigation, Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) is also providing assistance, according to an ADL statement announcing the reward. In the announcement, Director of Public and Environmental Safety Kevin Maguire expressed the university’s support of the ADL initiative.

“We are proud to be part of the col-

via Wikimedia Commons

Medford police have partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to grant a $1,000 reward to individuals who come forward with knowledge that leads to the arrest of those who defaced property around Medford. lective voice denouncing these incidents and, as always, we will assist the Medford police with their investigation as appropriate,” Maguire said in the statement.

Leong speaks on importance of history CHINATOWN

continued from page 1

wonder why Chinatowns are important, Leong said. To answer this question, Leong described their long histories.

Many Chinatowns were built partly as a reaction to anti-Chinese movements on the West Coast and partly to fulfill a need for cheap labor. At the time, racism toward Chinese was very prevalent.

Leong described acts of violence against Chinese immigrants, such as the Rock Springs massacre of 1885.

“There were quite a few people that were actually killed,” he said. “There were some arguments that happened and then you had about 650 to 700 Chinese that were basically evicted overnight.”

Leong also spoke about the onceprospering adult entertainment scene in Chinatown. When no other neighborhood wanted to host adult entertainment, Chinatown adopted it, Leong said. Business owners profited in the short-term, but the money came at a cost. Drugs, prostitution and crime came with the adult entertainment industry.

“I recall when I was going to law school, a couple of decades ago, when we finish[ed] studying we would go to Chinatown at one in the morning,” Leong said. “We would be eating in the restaurant, but we would be sitting next to johns, prostitutes and pimps.

What the business owners didn’t realize, or didn’t want to realize, was that with the short term profit you would also have to take the long term cost —

the social cost that is associated.”

Despite the rise in crime, Chinatowns did not receive more attention from police or social aid programs.

Leong also remarked on Chinatown buildings and the ways that cities have allowed Chinatowns to become overdeveloped.

“It’s city hall that says, ‘We allow adult entertainment here in this particular area,’ but it’s also city hall that gives the exemptions for developers to build above and beyond the height limit,” he said.

At this point, Leong said, the exception has become the rule in terms of the number of floors that developers are allowed to add to buildings.

According to Leong, the white populations in Chinatowns are growing.

“The land in Chinatown has now become desirable, whereas at one point [in] time it was not,” he said. “Now all of a sudden, after decades living in this community, it is white flight back into the city.”

Leong ended his lecture with a reminder about the importance of historical context.

“We need to back up and say, ‘What’s our history?’” And we see some of the different issues that we are struggling with even today [were] back then much more prominent,” he said. “We see community health. We see [English as a second language] classes, we see storytelling here. We see community guard in here. We see struggles for housing and civil rights...Every distinctive city [has] its very special history.”

Trestan is hopeful that the award will inspire people with information to step forward, and is happy for so much cooperation between the police forces and the ADL.

“Everyone is working together in sync to spread the word which will hopefully lead to the perpetrators being identified,” Trestan said.

Hudson-Jinks plans to emphasize nurse engagement

HUDSON-JINKS

continued from page 1

center. She served as nurse manager of the surgical ICU for 11 years before stepping into her most recent role as vice president of patient care services.

In the vice president position, HudsonJinks oversaw critical care in areas like the Cardiovascular and Neuroscience Centers, and worked hand in hand with other nurse executives and physician leaders under the leadership of Shendell-Falik.

“I’ve had many opportunities here at Tufts to learn from great leaders and work alongside and then lead great nurses and partner with physicians,” Hudson-Jinks said. “I’ve been here my entire career, learning and growing and contributing to healthcare.”

She said she will be earnest in carrying out her new responsibilities as CNO and that she is dedicated to ensuring quality patient care and safety.

“The expectations are clearly outlined by our regulating agencies and professional organization,” Hudson-Jinks said. “Nursing care has to meet certain standards for patient care, and that’s very near and dear to me. I take that ultimate responsibility incredibly seriously.”

The interim period, in which HudsonJinks was able to continue to work with Shendell-Falik, was crucial to the smooth transition process, Hudson-Jinks said.

Specific projects that Shendell-Falik had been working had to be handed off and carefully communicated.

Wagner said that he has met one-on-one

with Hudson-Jinks throughout the transition process to help her acclimate to the new position.

“Over [her time as interim], she has been part of our senior team and has been pulled into all of our executive leadership groups,” he said. “She hit the ground running as interim, and in her transition she continues to be a very active learner.”

Wagner expressed confidence in HudsonJinks’ leadership abilities.

“My expectation is that [Hudson-Jinks] will come to the executive team with the wisdom and leadership to ensure the organization is constantly thinking about the quality and safety of care that we provide every day in a patient-centric manner,” Wagner said.

Hudson-Jinks plans to proceed with enthusiasm and a strong presence at the center.

“I’m a very visible leader in the unit and plan to probably take a very active role in ensuring those voices are heard,” she said.

“I’m truly honored and excited to lead in this capacity going forward.”

Wagner, who has worked with HudsonJinks over the past five years, said that she is incredibly positive, optimistic and engaging, and maintains a steadfast focus on what the center needs to move forward.

“She’s a phenomenal nursing executive that’s come up through the ranks at Tufts Medical Center,” Wagner said. “It’s truly our pleasure to honor her for the role that she’s done, and we’re looking forward to the leadership that she’ll bring to the organization.”

Police briefs Lock your doors

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) on Nov. 4 at 4:45 p.m. received a report concerning a break-in on College Avenue. The victim believed the break-in had occurred earlier in the afternoon while she was taking a nap. She said that she woke up at 2 p.m. to the sound of her bedroom door opening and closing and, thinking it was her roommate, went back to sleep.

When she got up later at 2:30 p.m., she noticed that her MacBook, jewelry and $70 in cash were missing. Another student’s iPad was also missing. All of the apartment’s doors were unlocked. The Somerville Police Department was contacted about the incident.

Drive-by yeller

TUPD on Nov. 6 was notified about an incident that occurred on Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. A female student was standing at the bus stop near Professors Row and College Avenue when three occupants of a red sedan drove up, yelled out the window and swore at her. The student reported the event the following day.

Basement burglar

A female student on Nov. 7 at 11:15 p.m. reported a break-in on Medford Street and Frederick Avenue between 12:20 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The student came home and noticed items missing, including two MacBooks, a watch, an iPhone, an iPad and a pair of Beats headphones. The basement door was found open.

Don’t tell mama

Police on Nov. 10 at 9:25 p.m. received an incident report from three female students. The females were walking from Cousens Gym on College Avenue toward Boston Avenue when a gray-silver SUV with two or three males inside rolled down the window and yelled derogatory comments. One student noted the license plate number and called TUPD. Officers traced the plate to a residence in Wilmington, Mass.

Medford Police had reported a similar incident with the same vehicle. The owner of the vehicle stated that the driver was her son and insisted that she would take care of the situation when he returned home.

—compiled by Menghan Liu

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

History on the Hill: Marston ‘Doc’ Balch’s legacy lives on at Tufts by

Lily Sieradzki | Media Junkie

Natalia Kastenberg Contributing Writer

Tufts was the first in New England to have a Department of Drama and Speech when Marston “Doc” Balch established the program in 1940. A professor on the Hill for 35 years, Balch had an impact both on and off campus.

One of his former students, Elizabeth Bottomley Noyce ( J ‘52), even donated The Marston S. Balch Arena Theatre in 1983 in his honor.

During his time at Tufts from 1935 to 1966, Balch directed and produced approximately 100 plays, many of which he personally translated from French and presented in the United States for the first time. During his time at Tufts, Balch published at least 40 scholarly articles, 60 articles for the Tufts theater publication Prologue and six books.

According to Sol Gittleman, the Alice and Nathan Gantcher University Professor of Judaic Studies and former provost, Balch was stylish as well as worldly.

“He was the best-dressed, most dapper and stylish member of [the] faculty ... [with his] great mustache, terrific waistcoats [and] elegant[ly] spoken English.

Never a dandy; always the polished man of the world,” Gittleman said.

Before arriving at Tufts and making a name for Tufts theater, Balch graduated from Kalamazoo College in Michigan with a degree in English in 1923, and received a Master of Arts in 1925 and a Ph.D. in 1931 from Harvard University.

During this time, Balch taught English at Williams College and served as the theatrical director.

Soon after receiving his Ph.D., Balch came to Tufts in 1934 as an assistant professor of English. The following year, he became the director of Drama, according to the Anne Sauer’s Concise Encyclopedia of Tufts History. “[Balch] inspired generations of students and faculty, teaching them that theater without intellect and compassion is inevitably theater without artistry and humanity,” Sauer wrote.

Balch’s excitement for theater was further shown when he became executive director of the Tufts College Theater, as well as the advisor of Tufts’ Pen, Paint and Pretzels (3Ps) in 1935.

As advisor to this student-run performance group, Balch became part of the oldest student organization on campus, founded in 1910.

According to current President of the 3Ps, senior Cole Von Glahn, Balch’s legacy lives on in the group to this day. “[Balch] was all about providing opportunities for artistic development, and that is still the driving force behind 3Ps,” Glahn said.

Perhaps one of Balch’s greatest accomplishments during his time at Tufts was the establishment of the Department of Drama and Speech in 1940, for which he served as chairman for 26 years, according to Sauer.

According to Fletcher Professor of Oratory and Director of Graduate Studies in Drama Laurence Senelick, Balch ran the department as a oneman show, something he attributed to the department’s small number of faculty at the time. Despite this hurdle, Senelick said that Balch’s devotion to the department and his students helped legitimize the drama department in the eyes of the university.

Senelick described how the theater scene used to be on Tufts campus.

Back in Balch’s day, there was one theater and everyone would come to one event, Senelick said. He explained that going to an event through the department used to be more of a community outing, while now the drama scene is more splintered with a lot of different groups. Under Balch’s leadership, Tufts put on shows that were, for the most

Justin McCallum / Tufts Daily Archives

Balch’s influence can be seen on campus in the Balch Arena Theater, donated by a former student in his honor. Last spring, 3Ps performed Michael Frayn’s ‘Copenhagen.’ part, serious — not farces, Senelick added.

Balch temporarily left Tufts during World War II to serve as chief of the French Press and Radio Analysis Section of the United States Information Service and as chief of the Cultural Relations Sections under the Department of State. Balch received three honors for his time in France from the French Republic, including a medal and honorary membership in the Association des Professeurs de Langues Vivantes, the Médaille de la Reconnaissance française and the Croix de Chavalier de la Légion d’Honneur, more commonly known as the Legion of Honour. He returned to Tufts in 1947.

Balch served outside of Tufts in other ways as well. He extended his interest in drama off the Hill and became involved in the National Council of Arts in America in addition to serving as the executive secretary for the National Theatre Conference from 1961 to 1968.

Drama, however, was not Balch’s

only interest. He was the first university presenter at Tufts, serving between 1957 and 1969; the chairman of the Arts and Sciences Faculty Committee on Academic Awards and the Fletcher professor of oratory before retiring in 1971.

Balch’s legacy lives on in the donation of his books to the drama department, helping create a library for graduate drama students. According to Burnim, who was Balch’s successor as chairman of the Department of Drama and who wrote about Balch after his passing in 1987, Balch’s legacy was also more personal.

“He earned for the Tufts University Theater a reputation for quality, integrity and variety in which it still basks,” Burnim wrote. “For all of his achievements and honors, [Balch] remained a modest and sweet man ... No teacher ever kept in such constant and devoted contact with his former students, writing and phoning, encouraging them on to their aspirations, comforting them in their disappointments.”

Throwback Thursday

S

Is Carrie Bradshaw a feminist?

ex and the City” (1998-2004) certainly has its virtues. It’s pure glamour: New York City, fashion, dating and romance.

It offers real talk about women’s experiences of sex, which is unusual in the mainstream media, and refreshing. In the show, women actually have agency when it comes to sex — they know what they want and how to get it.

Whether it’s pursuing a traditional feminine narrative like Charlotte or rejecting monogamy in favor of sexual freedom, like Samantha, these women are empowered when it comes to sex. The close friendships between Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda are a model of a strong community of women who support each other in the face of society’s pressures.

I’ve heard it said, however, that “Sex and the City” is a celebration of post-feminism, or the idea that feminism is no longer needed because equality for women has already been achieved. This just might be true, and it’s not a good thing. The show does glorify female sexual empowerment while continuing to promote other, more problematic, norms for women that go along with it.

The biggest problem that I can see is the centrality of men and marriage in the characters’ lives and the show’s plot. For all four of the women, although in different degrees, their life goal is to find a man and settle down once and for all. That is their key to achieving happiness, implying that without the men, happiness would be something unavailable to the single, 30-something New York woman.

They date serially, and the big questions they deal with together revolve around men and how other women relate to men. What do you do when increasing amounts of your friends are married and you’re still single? What if the guy you’re seeing is all-around great — but has some weird sex habit that you can’t stand? My question is — what about other relationships with family and friends? What about personal goals and struggles? Those questions are left out, and the characters are left flat and one-dimensional, primarily concerned with romantic aspirations.

Their career goals are a tiny part of their lives.

Carrie is a sex columnist for a New York City tabloid — does she ever have any other journalistic aspirations? Or a desire to write about anything other than just sex and romance? Miranda is a high-level lawyer, but this is still a small part of her life on the show. She is also portrayed as less feminine than the other three — she is more likely to wear pantsuits and overalls and has a boyish haircut — but gets just as much action.

Another thing is the shopping, which they are always doing. This clearly links physical appearance (through clothes and most importantly, shoes) to their attractiveness to men and by extension, their self-worth. It advocates consumerism as an important part of femininity.

To be a real woman, you’ve just got to shop and love shoes and hats and fabulous style.

Carrie tends to start her weekly column with: “Do ALL women ...?” But she’s really referring to only white women. The main cast and every other important character on the show are white. The romantic and sexual experiences of black, Latina, Asian or Native American women are clearly not Carrie’s issue here — although she would probably argue that her advice is universal.

The show is also adamantly hetero-normative. In one episode, Charlotte befriends a lesbian couple and begins to attend their parties and gatherings. Her friends tease her about becoming a lesbian, and she laughs off the idea. The idea of non-straight love is not taken seriously by any of the women, even though it is posited in its own separate, distanced community. Carrie has the token “gay best friend” in Stanford — he is portrayed stereotypically and with a lack of personality outside of his overwhelming gayness.

So, is “Sex and the City” all bad? Not quite.

But definitely not at all good either. Just some things to keep in mind for any and all of your guilty-pleasure shows.

Shane Tilston

George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars performed at Spring Fling in 1996 to carry on a tradition that began in 1980 when the Tufts Community Union Senate noticed a surplus in its budget.

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

Sieradzki@tufts.edu.

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Arts & Living

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[

Alumnus discusses making career out of performance

Courtesy Alan McIntyre Smith

Weekender by

Composer Gregg Kallor explores New York through music

Gregg Kallor’s (LA ‘00) piano suite ‘A Single Noon’ is on the Grammy ballot for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

Lancy Downs

Daily Editorial Board

F

or big-name musicians, making a music video tends to be a glamorous affair. Sets bustle with hair and makeup teams, craft services tables, well-stocked trailers and world-class choreographers and dancers. For Gregg Kallor (LA ‘00), however, the making of his music video, “Broken Sentences,” was decidedly different — and much less plush.

Instead of a buzzing set and endless production assistants, Kallor, a New York-based pianist and composer, simply had himself, his filmmaker friend Alan McIntyre Smith, 88 pianos and the five boroughs. The idea for the video was to film Kallor playing “Broken Sentences” at the nearly nine-dozen handdecorated pianos placed around New York for public use by the non-profit organization Sing For Hope, which Kallor describes as “the Peace Corps for artists.” The catch: The pianos were only available for approximately two weeks in June — and after that they would be gone.

In order to make the video in just two weeks, Kallor said that the pair had to plan extensively and work quickly.

“It was tough because we didn’t want to monopolize the pianos,” he said. “So it would be quick and dirty. I would play through the piece once, maybe twice if we had time.”

Despite the rushed filming schedule, Kallor and Smith were committed to making sure the video’s creative core was not lost in their haste.

“Alan tried out a bunch of different film techniques and shots,” Kallor said. “We brought a steady cam and also filmed a bunch of still shots that we later pieced together in the video.”

Kallor, for his part, said the location of the pianos — in busy, public places around New York — did not affect the emotional effort that goes into performing, though the experience was assuredly not conventional.

“It was a strange feeling, I was pouring my heart into this thing, but it takes a lot to grab the attention of New Yorkers, so for the most part people ignored me,” he said.

Nevertheless, he would occasionally find a small crowd gathered around him, which he attributes to the “otherness” of the project.

“I think there’s something about seeing this crazy looking piano and trying to understand the context of it,” Kallor said. “People got a special experience in not going to a concert hall.”

Kallor was not alone in thinking he and Smith had made something special. “Broken Sentences” made it onto this year’s Grammy ballot for Best Music Video.

Starting out at Tufts Although Kallor appreciates the recognition, he does not take it for granted — getting to this place in his career has been a long and challenging journey. Kallor came to Tufts as

a transfer student and enrolled in the university’s dual degree program with the New England Conservatory of Music. However, he ultimately withdrew from the program to work solely toward a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Tufts, citing the intensity of the program as a reason for leaving.

“It looks pretty sexy on paper to say you went to music school and to Tufts, but there was so much going on I felt I didn’t have time to delve in at either place,” he said.

Kallor also acknowledged that his time at conservatory did not allow him the freedom he wanted with his music.

“I had grown up with classical music and jazz and a bit of musical theater, but I left [the] conservatory because I didn’t want to give up either classical or jazz,” he said. “They wanted me to pick one. It turned out not to be for me.”

Kallor’s path, as it happens, has balanced the two genres — and even as his career has progressed, he remains hesitant to put himself in categories.

Despite his passion for music, it was not the focus of his time at Tufts.

“I either minored in music or double majored — I can’t quite remember,” he said.

“Tufts didn’t have a direct impact on my career, but it was a really special time. I made great friends, took classes with incredible teachers and really learned to think for myself.”

Kallor even went to Talloires with Tufts — a program that continues to be a hallmark experience for many students today.

Humble beginnings As college wrapped up, Kallor looked to pursue a career in music.

“I’d always known it was what I wanted to do, but a part of me was a little unsure senior year. All my friends had applied to grad school or were going off on some major career path,” he said. “I wasn’t really sure until right after I graduated and thought, ‘What the hell?’ and I moved to New York.”

It certainly wasn’t smooth sailing.

“There was a lot of hair pulling, teeth grinding and nail biting,” he said of the beginning of his post-college life. “I really had no idea what I was doing. I came here not knowing anybody.

I knocked on doors of clubs and restaurants looking for gigs.”

Kallor was also torn creatively. Pursuing jazz more than composition or classical when he arrived in New York, he eventually turned back to classical after working with a piano teacher who “reignited [his] passion” for the genre.

The starving artist stereotype Kallor’s bold risk has paid off, and he has found significant success as a musician, though he acknowledges that there is truth in the starving artist stereotype.

“There is no doubt that it is a struggle, but the arts have always been tough,” he said.

“People feel entitled to consume art for free, and that makes it difficult for a creative professional to make a living.”

Despite financial concerns, Kallor feels that more and more young people are unwilling to take the risks he did.

“We’ve become so concerned with money, and I don’t mean to sound like my head is in the clouds because financial stability is very important, but people aren’t asking, ‘What is it that I have to do to make this work?’ anymore,” he said. “It’s sad to me that there’s not more value placed on the cultural side of things.”

Kallor believes that it is possible to work as an artist or performer and still make money — he pointed to himself as proof — and that although the challenges are plentiful, the reward is just as great.

“I have to do this. I wake up with a burning desire to do it,” he said. “I feel fulfilled, and that outweighs the professional difficulties.”

Finding success Kallor is now facing a new set of difficulties as he attempts to promote “Broken Sentences” and “A Single Noon,” a solo piano suite inspired by his experience with New York — both of which are on the Grammy ballot — for Best Music Video and Best Contemporary Classical Composition, respectively. It’s his first time being involved in the esteemed competition, and he admits that he’s “still trying to wrap [his] head around how the whole thing works.” With so many entries in each category, it can be hard to attract voters’ attention. So far, Kallor has been trying to publicize his work by introducing it to other academy members.

Though, he admits, this process is “clearly better if you’re Beyoncé.”

Kallor has also found that even with a career on the upswing, he’s still tackling new tasks — including playing at Carnegie Hall and going on tour. Kallor has performed three times at

the famed venue, and each recital has been a challenge, albeit for different reasons.

“The first time was my official New York debut, and when I walked through the door, it was like being on some kind of crazy drug,” he said. “The adrenaline was so powerful I went into a time warp, and I have no memory of the actual concert. I remember walking out on stage and leaving it, but no recollection of what happened in between.”

Determined to savor every moment the next time around, Kallor felt more comfortable during his most recent performance.

“It was the most ‘me’ of all those concerts. I felt like I’d really found my own voice,” he said.

Performing at Carnegie Hall may have become easier with experience, but Kallor endeavors to make each concert special.

“There’s a reverence for the space, for the history, but at the end of the day, with a little more experience, you have to get past the awe and remember that there are almost 300 people who chose to spend two hours with you,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s in Carnegie Hall or Brown and Brew — I love playing and want to share the experience with my audience.”

Kallor has also spent much of this year on tour and, though he has heard complaints from fellow musicians that touring is exhausting, for him the novelty has yet to wear off.

“I still get a thrill from going to a new place,” he said. Though he has traveled across the country for concerts, master classes and charity events — even visiting Austria this summer — Kallor has his eyes set on returning to a certain Boston-area school.

“I haven’t been back to Tufts since I graduated, and I would love to give a concert there,” he said. “If there’s anybody reading this who can make it happen, let me know.”

Courtesy Alan McIntyre Smith

Kallor plays ‘Broken Sentences’ at a Sing For Hope piano on Coney Island.

The Tufts Daily

6

weekender

Thursday, November 14, 2013

What’s up this weekend Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events.

Sarabande Dance Ensemble Presents: Illuminate: Sarabande Dance Ensemble will deliver its end-of-semester performances this weekend, featuring a variety of dance styles including modern, jazz, ballet and more. The shows will also feature appearances from Spirit of Color, Tap Ensemble, La Salsa and other student groups. (Tonight at 9 p.m. and

Saturday at 8 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium.

Tickets are free at Cohen Box Office with a Tufts ID.) Cage Rage: The Campus Consciousness Tour featuring Grouplove: The fourth annual Cage Rage returns this weekend, this time with Grouplove headlining the concert as part of The Campus Consciousness Tour.

The concert will also feature Saints of Valory and The Knocks. (Friday at 7 p.m. in Carzo

Cage. Tickets are $5 and can be purchased on tuftstickets.com.)

Peter Pan: This weekend, Somerville Theatre will host a screening of the silent classic “Peter Pan” (1924), shown using a 35mm film print. The screening will be accompanied by silent film musician Jeff Rapsis. (Sunday at 1 p.m. in Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at www.somervilletheatreonline.com.)

Tufts Concert Choir: This weekend will see the Tufts Concert Choir performing a concert of choral music as part of the Sunday at Tufts Community Concert Series. The choir, under the direction of Jamie Kirsch, will present a program featuring works by John McDonald and Bach. (Sunday at 3 p.m. in Distler Performance Hall. Admission is free.)

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

Exhibition Review

Courtesy Harvard Film Archives

‘Le Joli Mai’ features interviews with Parisians after the end of the Algerian War.

Harvard Film Archive exhibits visionary director’s work by

Max Bienstock

Contributing Writer

Chris Marker has long been known in film circles as one of the most delightfully enigmatic figures in French cinema. In the last years of his life, he didn’t like to be photographed and would often distribute photos or cartoonish animations of his cat, Guillaume-en-Egypte, in his place.

Despite this reclusive facade, Marker’s films are strikingly personal portraits of his world as he experienced it. Marker died last year and the Harvard Film Archive (HFA) is honoring his memory by screening more than 30 of his incredible films through Dec. 16.

Marker’s most famous film is certainly the sci-fi short “La Jetée” (1962). The protagonist is a man in a future dystopia whose forced time traveling is overwhelmed by a hauntingly fleeting memory from his childhood that he hopes to understand. The film is almost entirely composed of ephemeral images: still photographs accompanied by sound effects and voiceover. Yet, despite being known for “La Jetée,” Marker was mainly a director of documentaries and mutant documentaries known as personal essay films — a form that he pioneered.

Watching a Marker documentary gives a glimpse at what the documentary form — and cinema in general — has the potential to be. How many times have recent documentaries followed the same formula — interviews with expert talking heads interspersed with archival footage to make sure viewers understand exactly what’s going on? Marker recognized that documentaries had to do more than just relate facts in order to be compelling pieces of work. An interesting premise isn’t enough; at its core, a great documentary still has to be a good movie.

In Marker’s great pure documentary “Le Joli Mai” (1963), various Parisians are interviewed after the end of the Algerian War, between France and its former colony. It was the first month of peace in almost eight years, and Marker was eager to know what these people were thinking as the fighting concluded. Marker’s subjects spoke frequently about memory, and while this might have been enough for an anthropological piece, Marker pushed the work to another level. He took this raw material and expanded it, focusing on what happiness means even as political unrest continues. Yet Marker’s political engagement never meant disengaging from his poetic side, and “Le Joli Mai” is as visually beautiful as any film he ever made.

But Marker could drift to the other end of the spectrum too — toward lyrical impressionism — as he did in his great essay film “Sans Soleil” (1983). Like many of his essay films, “Sans Soleil” is almost a collage of thoughts and memories filmed either by Marker himself or appropriated from other sources. And, like thoughts, the subject matter of the film constantly shifts. “Sans Soleil” might seem like a travelogue since it’s filled with footage from Marker’s trips to Japan and West Africa. But there are far too many asides and digressions for it to be quite that simple. The best of these cinematic detours involves a layover in San Francisco to pay homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958). Marker’s densely edited images mix the memories of a world traveler with the visions of a future time traveler, which ultimately feel like “La Jetée” in documentary form.

To unify all his diverse images, Marker adds his trademark personal first-person voiceover, with a nameless woman reading from fictional letters written by a man named Sandor Krasna — an imaginary cameraman.

Marker’s colleague Jean-Luc Godard once said, “All great fiction films tend toward the documentary just as all great documentaries tend toward fiction.”

Essentially, the ethics of truth-telling and the aesthetics of beautiful filmmaking are just two sides of the same coin.

To the filmmakers behind purely content-based documentaries, here is the lesson to learn from Marker: you can either lecture at an audience or teach them by exploring themes through a personal lens. Watching a Marker film, you will be forced to think and learn, but the experience will also cause viewers to feel deep emotions and ponder unanswerable mysteries.

Alongside his numerous other great works, “Le Joli Mai” plays at the HFA on Dec. 1 and “Sans Soleil” plays on Dec. 7.

This November and December, Marker dominates the Boston area, with MIT’s List Visual Arts Center hosting a comprehensive exhibition of Marker’s nonfilm work in almost every other artistic medium and the Max Wasserman Forum on Contemporary Art at MIT also honoring the filmmaker’s work. The HFA itself is hosting a free panel discussion on Nov. 14 on the importance of Marker’s work in addition to the retrospective. But no matter when you wander into one of the screenings at the Harvard Film Archive, the experience will surely confirm the power of the documentary form once

Courtesy Harvard Film Archives

Although Marker is best known for his documentaries, his science-fiction short film ‘La Jetée’ is a masterful work.

Artsy Nugget of the Week

Lily Allen returns with stereotype-challenging music video Lily Allen on released her controversial new music video, “Hard Out Here,” on Nov. 12 and racked up over one million YouTube hits in less than 24 hours. The video packs in a scathing statement about the objectification of women in the pop music industry, taking digs at corrupt and exploitative management, Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus, to name a few examples.

Though Allen takes pity on no one, Cyrus takes perhaps the biggest hit of all in this none-too-subtle parody. Allen performs surrounded by a cast of backup dancers who twerk and suggestively lick champagne bottles and oversize pills. Allen’s pop culture references are blatant and pointed — viewers will undoubtedly have flashbacks to Cyrus’ infamous MTV Video Music Awards performance this past summer.

Clearly, the British singer-songwriter wants to get her point across at all costs.

Humorous shots of Allen being shown how to eat a banana by her creepy manager emphasize the absurdity of the issues

she is commenting on and prove that she is not afraid to be the subject of her own joke. Straightforward lyrics such as, “Don’t need to shake my ass for you ‘cuz I got a brain,” and, “If you can’t detect the sarcasm, you’re misunderstood,” help the pop artist further speak her mind.

Still, despite the obvious satire, it’s not surprising that some are taking issue with the video. The clearly sexualized images have been a cause of concern for some disgruntled viewers who believe that young female viewers might be negatively influenced by the material.

Others see it as ironic that Allen’s video has gained so much attention because it incorporates the very behavior she means to condemn.

Critic or not, however, no one can deny that after Allen’s years-long hiatus from the music world, “Hard Out Here” is generating significant waves.

—by Drew Robertson

Thursday, November 14, 2013

The Tufts Daily

7

Weekender

Album Review

Susie Church | Food Fight

Calzones at Helen’s, Espresso, Pranzi’s

I

NRK P3 via Flickr Creative Commons

‘Free Your Mind’ seems to be another step forward for Cut Copy, which has been enjoying increasing success in recent years.

Cut Copy returns stronger than ever by

David McConnell

Contributing Writer

Since releasing “In Ghost Colours” in 2008, Cut Copy has slowly been achieving more and more mainstream success. Its

Free Your Mind Cut Copy Loma Vista/Republic Records latest album, “Free Your Mind,” proves the band is only continuing to move forward.

On its new record, Cut Copy has flawlessly created songs reminiscent of ’80s dance and pop music and, as a four-person electronic band, has been able to accomplish feats that other solo electronic artists simply cannot. Its size enables it to be flexible in its production, since — unlike many other electronic artists — the band has a drummer, guitarist and bass player both, in and out of the studio.

Cut Copy was first formed in 2001 in Melbourne, Australia. The band consists of keyboardist, guitarist and lead vocalist Dan Whitford — the band’s founder — along with Tim Hoey on guitar and sampler, Ben Browning on bass guitar and Mitchell Scott on drums.

Since the band’s conception, it has released four LPs and a number of EPs. Cut Copy has also performed at various international venues, demonstrating a worldwide breakthrough. Another indicator of the band’s rising fame has been its presence at numerous award shows, including the 2012 Grammy Awards, where it received a nomination for Best Dance/ Electronica Release, and the 2011 ARIA Music Awards, where the band won Best Dance Release.

To this day, “In Ghost Colours” remains its biggest commercial success, although “Free Your Mind” definitely has the potential to measure up. Right from the get-go, Cut Copy starts off strong on the album’s second song and title track, “Free Your Mind.” Here, the band displays its true nature with upbeat rhythms and chords, as well as floating vocals, which are integrated fluidly throughout the nearly fiveminute tune. However, “Free Your Mind” almost pales in comparison to “In Memory Capsule,” the album’s seventh track, which features increased vocal variety and a more classic Cut Copy sound than the single. Indeed, this number sounds like it could be straight from “In Ghost Colours,” something that will surely delight longtime fans.

“Dark Corners & Mountain Tops” gives listeners a taste of Cut Copy’s more mellow side, while also demonstrating the

band’s affinity for trippy music. Drifting vocals are the main focus until the upbeat bass sound that Cut Copy enthusiasts so dearly love suddenly makes an appearance, causing “Dark Corners & Mountain Tops” to take a completely different turn. This unusual track exemplifies Cut Copy’s ability keep its listeners curious, constantly guessing where a song will lead. After a short interlude, “Meet Me in a House of Love” begins. After a steady, rhythmic first few minutes, full of bass and layered with trumpet sounds — something not entirely uncommon in the band’s catalog — there comes a lowtempo break, which helps to slow the otherwise fast-paced piece.

While the songs on “Free Your Mind” are certainly catchy alone, Cut Copy excels in making the 14 tracks into a cohesive unit, with each track on “Free Your Mind” flowing almost seamlessly into the next. Many of the songs on the album are really just interludes, allowing the band to effortlessly alter the mood in less than a minute. Indeed, Whitford’s songwriting ability, along with the other members’ musical talents have made “Free Your Mind” a true work of art.

Cut Copy will be playing at Boston’s House of Blues on Nov. 16. General admission is $22.50 and more information can be found at the group’s website, www. cutcopy.net.

The Artsy Jumbo

Architecture meets theater in junior Cameron Longyear Since she was three years old, junior Cameron Longyear wanted to go to art school. Thanks to her architect father, art played an influential role in her childhood — she credits him with exposing her to film, theater and sculpture at a young age. After taking up volleyball in high school, however, Longyear had to make a choice between art and athletics. When she arrived at Tufts, Longyear was a member of the volleyball team, but Longyear has since decided to leave volleyball to pursue a career in the arts.

Today, Longyear is a dual degree student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and at Tufts, where she majors in architectural studies and minors in art history. Her dream? To design sets for films.

“The first time I wanted to do this

was when I saw ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ (1971) when I was five,” said Longyear. “I really wanted to create my own world.”

At Tufts, Longyear is working on set design for various plays and musicals under the supervision of Ted Simpson in the Department of Drama and Dance.

Meanwhile, Longyear is also building her architecture portfolio for graduate school and is experimenting with screen-printing and graphic design.

For now, Longyear is content with the constant challenges and new mediums that life as a dual degree student provides.

“It’s great that you’re not always doing the same thing,” she said.

—by Veronica Little

f there’s one signature food on campus that’s as much a part of the Tufts culture as Jumbo himself, it’s the late-night calzone. Whether you’re studying into the wee hours of the morning or ending a long night out, there’s nothing quite as fitting as going ham on one of these folded pizzas. Eating your first Blue Zone is practically a rite of passage here.

Helen’s Espresso Pranzi’s $11.99 $11.75 $9.95 6/10 8/10 9/10 Unfriendly Diner-like Crisp 11 - 3 a.m.

11 - 3 a.m.

11 a.m.-9 p.m.

So, where do you go to get your fix?

Within just a few blocks on Boston Avenue are three thriving Italian joints.

I’m no stranger to any of these places, but I practically skipped down the hill to try out a basic, Italian calzone at each establishment and deliver my final verdict.

First, there’s Helen’s Pizzeria. Open seven days a week until 3 a.m., Helen’s accommodates the student body at all times, not just on weekend nights out. And of course, Helen’s is famous across campus for the Blue Zone — a buffalo chicken and special sauce calzone served with blue cheese. But how does Helen’s taste apart from its staple dish? Sadly, not too great. I ordered the medium to maintain size consistency between each eatery, and Helen’s calzone clocked in at the most expensive. While the meat was good, the dough seemed dry, sending the whole calzone south. What upset me most about Helen’s, however, was its service.

Ordering there takes significantly longer than anywhere else, and oftentimes the staff is cold and unpleasant. That’s why Helen’s has never been my go-to for any calzone craving.

Next up, Espresso Pizza. Filled with friendly people and big calzones, Espresso was my number-one latenight stop last year, and this time around I still found it incredibly satisfying. While I think their calzones could use more cheese and a little less grease, I’m never disappointed.

However, the price, like Helen’s, is still quite high. Plus, its smaller menu and earlier weekday closing time leaves Espresso with a good amount of room for improvement. Nonetheless, it’s a solid option for a hefty, greasy but delicious calzone.

Then, there’s Pranzi’s. Surely the least well known of the three establishments, Pranzi’s just moved to Boston Avenue this year. With a clean-cut and sleek dining area, this Italian food joint may at first feel a little foreign to students when compared to Espresso or Helen’s. Yet the welcoming staff and extensively delicious menu makes it a great choice for a late-night meal.

Their massive calzone had the perfect ratios of oil, cheese and meat. It was easily the most delicious calzone of the bunch, and the space itself had the nicest atmosphere, too. Pranzi’s, coming out of nowhere, left me a little dumbfounded with its quality. Out of curiosity, I went back for a slice of their pizza and, take this from a born and raised New Yorker: They make a great slice. Pranzi’s, welcome to the neighborhood. I hope we’ll be seeing a lot more of you.

So there it is. The newcomer wins this one. To anyone who is seething with anger right now over my disregard for Helen’s or Espresso and has never heard of Pranzi’s, I urge you to take a leap of faith and try it out. It is a well-worthy venture. Other than that, happy eating!

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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Editorial | Letters

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Keeping our distance

While Tufts Health Service’s recent campaign educates on drug and alcohol use, the presence of smoking on the Hill is also worth considering.

Regardless of any efforts to denounce drugs and alcohol, a number of smokers can always be found outside of Tisch Library, at the tables outside of the Mayer Campus Center and in other high-traffic areas. With other universities in the Boston area — such as Northeastern University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and even Tufts’ Boston campus — banning smoking on their campuses altogether, Tufts’ Medford/ Somerville campus seems to be an outlier.

The university policy on smoking follows Massachusetts state law by banning smoking in all university

buildings, residence halls, fraternities and sororities and entranceways.

However, students may need to be reminded of university protocol, which requires students to smoke a minimum of 20 feet away from all residence halls, as explained by the Office of Residential Life and Learning in Habitats. Tisch Library has a sign instructing smokers to keep their distance from the entrance to the building. This rule is rarely observed, as students can often be spotted lighting up right outside the library’s doors.

It is the responsibility of the university to make sure that regulations concerning smoking are both read and respected by all students on campus.

But the responsibility also lies with students to honor designated smokefree areas, such as inside and around

university buildings and residence halls. In addition, a major flaw in the university’s regulation of smoking is its positioning of ashtrays immediately next to the entrances of academic buildings and residence halls.

Ashtrays should at least be placed 20 feet away from the buildings, so as to enforce both the distance rule and to encourage the appropriate disposal of tobacco products.

As public health and the environment become greater concerns in today’s society, it is important that Tufts stays on top of tobacco use on campus Although the university should not ban smoking entirely on campus, as smoking is a legal act under Massachusetts state law, it should certainly enforce its policies in an effort to keep the community clean and its inhabitants healthy.

associated double majors with diverse interests, but now I feel like I have too many interests to package into two majors. I can take classes from as many departments as I want without worrying if they fulfill major requirements. I can study abroad for a semester, and if I wanted to, a full year. I can take four and a half classes every semester to have time for all the extracurriculars I am involved in. And I can take more classes than are required for my major to really dive deep into the graphs and numbers I love so much. According to Robert Mack, associate dean of undergraduate education, “Many students define success by how much they can do, and ... many students are relieved when we talk and redefine success with experiences that are beyond that of an academic major or minor.” In other words, having two majors does not define our success at Tufts; rather, success on this campus encompasses everything from taking classes that one finds interesting to holding leadership positions in campus organizations.

I understand that double majoring can be very beneficial and the right

choice for many Jumbos, but I think more of us should consider single majoring. We came to a liberal arts college for a reason, to get a wellrounded education. The distribution requirements force us to take a handful of courses in different disciplines; however, this aspect of our education does not have to end with these courses. It’s important to remember that we can go beyond the requirements laid out for us to further broaden our horizons and find more topics we are passionate about. For my arts distribution requirement, I took contemporary American theatre and realized that I enjoy looking at plays as an academic as well as an audience member.

I’ve also taken a bunch of classes that count for “nothing” and don’t regret it for a second. So to all of you freshmen out there, just know that you have fellow Jumbos who will only graduate with one major and still receive an amazing liberal arts education.

Keran Chen

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Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, The other day I was walking by the ostrich statue and overheard a tour guide exclaim something along the lines of, “It is very rare that you will find a Tufts student who is neither double majoring nor pursuing a minor.” When I was a prospective student, I actually paid attention to which schools mentioned the fact that a lot of the student body double majors, because how awesome would it be, I thought, to attend a school where everyone is passionate about so many things? During my freshman year, I was completely undecided about my major because so many subjects fascinated me, and I thought of myself as someone who would definitely double major or take advantage of one of the interdisciplinary, innovative minors that Tufts offers.

This year, I finally decided on my one major, not long before I overheard this tour guide’s comment which almost made me second guess my decision.

This comment got me thinking about the amazing opportunities that a single major will give me during my undergraduate education. Earlier, I

Sincerely, Allison Wainer Class of 2016

correction In the Nov. 13 News article titled “TUPD investigates incident of racism,” it was incorrectly reported that Assistant Director of Public Relations Katie Cinnamond said, “I think the main thing about these incidents ... is that they happen all the time. It’s important for us, as global citizens, to think about how to respond to them and to build [safer] communities.” In fact, Sarah Shugars, communications manager at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, gave that statement.

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Thursday, November 14, 2013 Op-ed

The Tufts Daily

9

Op-Ed

The distance rule of my ethical calculus

by Josh

Poretz

This semester I came back to Tufts a day removed from a trip to Nepal (#Thats_ What_YOLO_Means). As the semester creeps to an end, and what you did over the summer has ceased being an appropriate conversation starter, I’ve realized my window for self-congratulation is closing — thus my motivation to write.

My trip to Nepal was incredible and exceeded my expectations of an adventure in a developing country. Like a model Tufts student, I was left with a different perspective and came back to my comfortable Medford-Somerville existence questioning my value system and general orientation toward the world. However, unlike many experiences in developing countries, I did not return with the more cliché and imperialist notions of poor people having “such rich culture” or being happy despite lack of material possession.

I reference these ideas not to claim that I am above such thinking, as I closely monitored the number of Facebook likes my Nepal album accrued, but to point out the difficulty in being a tourist without having imperialist inclinations or projecting your pre-existing value system onto foreigners.

This was the crux of my thoughts upon my return to the campus.

To give a bit more background information, before going to Nepal, I spent three months in New York City, my home for my entire life. During my time in the city I became very conscious of, and troubled by, the prevalence of homelessness, particularly in the face of many of the city residents’ superfluous wealth and dismissive attitudes towards poverty. And this is where my dilemma sets in: While at home, my behavior was influenced by my moral judgments on the treatment of homeless people, but upon entering a foreign environment like Nepal, I practiced a completely contradictory ethical calculus. Nepal is a poor country that is heavily dependent on tourism and resultantly tourists are constantly approached by beggars. Yet in three weeks, I never gave anyone a single cent. To be frank, I treated Nepali beggars in a far crueler fashion than any Park Avenue billionaire who had never given a dollar to a homeless man — I treated them as pigeons, a mere nuisance whom I would shoo away at the slightest suggestion that they wanted my money.

As I re-acclimated to the United States and regained my liberal arts-emboldened moral compass, I reflected on my behavior and was mildly horrified. How was my morality so fickle? Why did I have such an explicit double standard on my sense of responsibility to the poor? Was it all out of convenience? Ultimately I realized that my ethical calculations are based on the distance between me and the person to whom I feel responsible, with people further away evoking less responsibility. There is a famous thought experiment that essentially asks if you had to choose between getting $20 and saving a drowning person, which would you pick? Of course the appropriate response is to save the drowning person, but that begs the question why, in times of crisis, when a contribution of $20 could literally save a life, more people don’t give to charity? In 2010, a flood in Pakistan affected 20 million people and killed thousands. Yet despite this tremendous catastrophe, only 20 percent of the requested $460 million in relief funds was provided. For reference, the U.S. Predator Drone program, which has also destroyed the lives of countless innocent Pakistanis, costs $2.4 billion. So why is it that people care so much more about the drowning person in front of them than the drowning person in Pakistan? Could it be that many Americans, the leading donors of humanitarian causes, have never met a Pakistani? Could it be that many Americans have prejudice toward Muslims? If a severe flood hit the New York metropolitan area, and its population of 20 million people, would we only provide 20 percent of the necessary funds? Of course not; in fact there was a tremendous funding surplus for Hurricane Sandy relief. This inconsistency is wholly because the extent and the magnitude of people’s moral responsibility are determined by their distance to the victim.

The filter and the frat man

communities to improve on standardized tests designed by a misinformed, privileged bureaucracy, those standards should never have been imposed in the first place. Maybe communities would be better off if this student just went straight to law school, though of course the privileged Tufts student would have been deprived of a “life experience.”

Let me be clear: I do not mean to condemn people for wanting to help others but rather condemn the arrogance of some altruistic pursuits. The TFA participant, in his assumption that he is making positive change, may be doing more harm than good because of his lack of understanding or the fickleness of his commitment to those he is trying to help. If neither of those were true, say the student returned to teach in his community, or the student agreed to teach indefinitely, this wouldn’t be nearly the same ethical conflict. Thus good intent can be harnessed productively if people work with those with whom they are familiar or to whom they have a permanent commitment. For example, starting a homeless shelter in New York, where I have knowledge and a substantive tie to the environment, is much less dangerous than starting a charitable program in a foreign country where my only knowledge of the area is that there are poor people there, as do missions.

While until this point I have promoted ethical calculations based on a self-centric model, I truly do not know what the just or best basis for morality is. For instance, should the US intervene in Syria? While a distance calculation might say no, and point to a history of western involvement in the Middle East that only exacerbated crises, it pains me to think that my government, with all the capabilities of being “the superpower,” will sit idly by as over 100,000 people suffer premature deaths. Again, I don’t know what the US should do in Syria or what is right or what is wrong.

So what is the value in this op-ed? What is my actual opinion? Ultimately, this op-ed, and my distance rule, is only a critique. It is a critique of those who put up a Kony 2012 sticker and thought that they understood the complexities of life in Central Africa after watching a massmarketed YouTube video through their high-definition LCD screens. It is a critique of those who, despite good intentions and a $200,000 liberal arts education, brazenly seek to change the world and help people whom they’ve only seen from a superficial distance or learned of through a sociological journal. It is a critique of self, for as I try to grow out of the arrogance and narcissism of my adolescence, I have only begun to understand what my responsibilities are and what my place in the world is. Critique may seem like an unsatisfying conclusion but ultimately it is all I believe in and all I can advocate for: Through critique we can tackle complex questions, we can discriminate affectively and fairly and we can make the world a better, more beautiful place.

As someone who thoroughly enjoys writing lousy columns, I didn’t think my commitment to the Daily would extend beyond this goofy, useless babble. I imagined becoming happily snared to Op-Ed and willfully trapped in this column until my four unproductive years came to a sudden halt. It would feel a lot like being trapped in a theme park, only the theme is vague, inconsistent and basically irrelevant.

Unsurprisingly, my blissful dreams have not been realized; I have begun to write for News (cue cries of grief). Surprisingly, I’m not all too concerned. Maybe even glad. It’s not that my column’s points are totally questionable and my audience is totally nonexistent (they’re not, though my audience is mostly nonexistent), but that I want to explore other methods of writing, specifically writing for dull, drab but important news.

Honestly, I’ve noticed only a few similarities between the two. They are published in the same newspaper, are often difficult to remember to write and are delivered each morning by the same elusive, mystery-cloaked eagle-man scout (I can only assume). So, considering I just referenced a mythical humanoid, one should conclude that the similarities are scarce. Also, it’s possible I don’t know what I’m talking about.

In News, unfortunately for some naïve columnists, one has to “know what one is talking about” pretty much always. That’s a major difference I’m still learning to handle.

You can’t just free associate, listening to Daft Punk and stealing pretzels from your roommate, and expect a conclusion with a moral to tie loose ends. You need consistency and pointed knowledge throughout.

As creatively sobering as not being able to say literally whatever you want is, writing for News can be intellectually inebriating.

Already, I’ve learned about anthropology and omnipoetics (and how they collude!), about the protein collagen and nerve re-growth and about how people actually do want to be quoted accurately and with journalistic integrity. Knowing what you’re talking about isn’t necessarily a drawback.

The balance between zany, creative columns and formal, intellectual articles, assuming this is a week I’ve remembered to write both, is fulfilling when achieved artfully. They’re two vastly different methods of expression and (watch out as I get super corny) act symbiotically. They parallel the cycle of learning and teaching.

Want to learn something interesting you probably didn’t know? Write for News. Want to share your ideas, frightening and disturbing peers along the way? Write a column.

Where news writers act like filters, soaking in pond water before spitting it out clear, columnists act like drunk fraternity brothers, barfing on one another, spitting up whatever happens to be brewing within their bowels. Fortunately, Tufts kids eat some interesting stuff.

If here I’m giving Op-Ed a negative connotation, I’m only being fair. I did call News “dull” and “drab” not two minutes ago. And besides, my allegiance to Op-Ed runs strong.

I’m only just beginning to realize the balance is more valuable than any single outlet. I mean, if I don’t feed myself more knowledge, what am I going to have to barf up?

The dance of education (the perpetual process of learning and teaching) has been fun and worthwhile, far more so than any dance Tufts Dance Collective would host.

This is partly because I can’t move my feet and torso simultaneously, but also because I’m educating and expressing myself how I want to, all while learning the practical skill of balancing my palate.

Now comes the part where I’m glad this is a column. Otherwise, I’d have to conclude by tying loose ends, by urging readers to find a similar balance, or by making at least a minuscule of sense, but I’ll save that for News. Here, I don’t even need a conclusion.

Josh Poretz is a junior who is majoring in economics. He can be reached at Joshua.

Poretz@tufts.edu.

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

via wikimedia commons

I must add that the ethical calculation is not based on distance in a physical/material sense but more as a distance of association to self. That is why, to me, a homeless person from New York evokes a greater sense of sympathy and thus creates a stronger sense of responsibility than an equally poor person in Nepal. If you still aren’t sold on this, think about the magnitude of the association and how much money you would be willing to lose for the foreign, drowning person. What if it wasn’t $20 but $10,000, or your whole net worth? What if the drowning person wasn’t a stranger but a loved one or a family member — how much would you give up then? Simply, the closer the person comes to an association with you, the more you are willing to sacrifice to help them.

This is how I have learned to interpret my ethical calculations; yet I still question whether it is right or wrong. It is easy to label it wrong: Ethics should rise above subjectivity and self-centeredness, which are undeniably at the core of my proposed ethical calculus.

It seems logical and moral to believe that no person is more valuable than another and thus shouldn’t be treated differently on the basis of proximity to self. But is it really true? There is a distinct danger in a foreigner assuming they know what is best for a stranger. While this may justify complacency when confronted with ethical questions of foreign origin, I can act confidently among people with closer associations to me. For example, if I saw my close friend passed out on a sidewalk I would know, as I feel comfortable with my knowledge of him, that he needed help.

But I cannot presume the same of the homeless in New York City, and while I can observe their lifestyle and feel sad about the fundamental inequalities pervading our society, it would be truly inappropriate to use my value system to assume I knew what was in their best interest. Ultimately one group of people imposing their values on another is the basis of imperialism, religious coercion and a history of material and cultural destruction.

So what is the value in my proposed ethical calculus? Mainly it is to propose a justification for being more self-centered in your sense of moral responsibility, because maybe it is best. Under the opposite conditions, an expansive sense of moral responsibility, there is a clear and often realized danger in acting on naïve assumptions of foreign communities or having a transitory commitment, both of which exacerbate problems.

Imagine a Tufts student brought up in a nice suburb who, upon taking Race in America, feels compelled to right the wrongs of his entitled existence. Emboldened by a new “social awareness,” he leaves school and works for Teach for America or some other “humanitarian” organization. After his twoyear commitment, in the case of TFA, he leaves and goes to law school. He goes on to live a great upper middle class life, as his parents’ income dictated that he would, but has a feeling that he “contributed” or “made a difference.” But whom has he truly helped — the communities he worked in that will remain as structurally disadvantaged as they were before he arrived? Or has he helped himself, sleeping easier knowing he’s contributed to a “noble” cause? Maybe instead of creating an organization to bring privileged young adults to underprivileged

Adam Kaminski | The Cool Column

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

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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Iniquities and Inequities in the U. S. Criminal Justice System TOMORROW, November 15, 1:00pm, Sophia Gordon All-Purpose Room JT Thompson

After being released from Louisiana’s Angola State Penitentiary in 2003 after 18 years—14 on death row—for a murder he did not commit, Thompson founded Resurrection After Exoneration, the only reentry, transitional housing and resource center for men who were wrongly convicted and exonerated.

Emily Maw

Emily Maw has been has been the Executive Director of The Innocence Project New Orleans since 2003. She is licensed in Louisiana and Mississippi and litigates cases of wrongful conviction in both states while directing operations for the rest of the organization. Prior to working at IPNO, Maw worked with the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center for several years as an investigator for capital cases in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. She also worked at the Texas Defender Service.

Gina Womack

Fielding phone calls from distraught families who had committed their at-risk children to state institutions for treatment, care and job training only to find them ensnared in a brutal system in which parents had no choice or voice, Womack lobbied to start a support group. Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC) was born in 2001, taking its place in Louisiana’s history with a Mock Jazz Funeral that wound through the streets of New Orleans, mourning the dead and dying dreams of Louisiana’s children.

Co-sponsored by The Africana Center The Center for the Study of Race and Democracy The Department of Philosophy Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service For more information on this event or the Petra Student Fellows program at the IGL: x73314 or tuftsgloballeadership.org

Thursday, November 14, 2013

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Women, Islam, and Reform in the Middle East 2013 Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award Lecture TONIGHT, Thursday, November 14, 8:00pm

Cabot Auditorium

ISOBEL COLEMAN

Dr. Isobel Coleman is a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in New York, where she directs CFR’s Civil Society, Markets, & Democracy program.

Her areas of expertise include the political economy of the Middle East, democratization, civil society, economic development, educational reform and gender issues.

She is the author and coauthor of numerous books, including Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East. She writes the blog “Democracy in Development” on CFR.org. In 2011, Newsweek named her as one of “150 Women Who Shake the World.”

For more information: x73314 or tuftsgloballeadership.org Photo by Elizabeth D Herman (EPIIC’08, Exposure), Egypt

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Comics

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Finding something that doesn’t go well with chocolate.

Late Night at the Daily

Wednesday’s Solution

Elliot: “You know you shouldn’t shove pencils in your ear, right?”

Want more late-night laughs?

Follow us on Twitter at @LateNiteAtDaily

Please recycle this Daily.

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Wiley

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Thursday, November 14, 2013 Wanted

Services

Housing

$$ SPERM DONORS WANTED $$ 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

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Great 3BR Right On Campus – Clean + Excellent Condition – free Parking – Available June 1st 2014.

Call 617-4486233

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 10 Well, here we are at Week 10 of Editors’ Challenge, and last week was pretty terrible all around.

The standings were shaken around a bit, and the Jaguars actually won a game, to the delight of just one writer. Let’s see how the standings look going into the weekend.

After storming to the top of the league, Jason “Goofy” Schneiderman has stumbled from the throne with his poor 5-9 performance from last week and now shares a hold of first place with three other writers.

Tied with Schneiderman are Marcus “Donald Duck” Budline, Aaron “Tarzan” Leibowitz and Zachey “Peter Pan” Kliger. Budline has stuck around the top throughout the whole season, and no one would be surpised if he actually turned out to be the real deal and take the league. Leibowitz is just a natural-born winner. How can one man be so good at the Daily, swinging from storyline to storyline? Lastly, Kliger has somehow magically floated his way to the top of the standings after staring the season in the middle. It’s anyone’s game at this point.

Next up, we have arguably the Daily’s biggest asset, senior editor Matt “Quasimodo” Berger.

Although Berger may have been on an unofficial leave of absence last semester in silent protest, he’s back and more beloved than ever, and certainly making his presence known in Eds’ Challenge with a league-high 8-6 record last week.

Behind Berger are Ross “Dopey” Dember and Alex “Sleepy” Schroeder. Dember put up an awful record last week at 4-10, and the former frontrunner has now fallen straight to the middle of the pack. Schroeder, on the other hand, may just be the league’s sleeper pick for the crown, as he has been consistently lurking in the middle of the pack, slowly making his way to the top.

OVERALL LAST WEEK IND at TEN NYJ at BUF BAL at CHI CLE at CIN WAS at PHI DET at PIT ATL at TB ARI at JAC Hou at oak SD at MIA SF at NO GB at NYG MIN at SEA KC at DEN NE at CAR

Jason 93-54 5-9 IND BUF CHI CIN WAS DET ATL JAC HOU SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Marcus 93-54 7-7 IND BUF CHI CIN PHI DET ATL ARI OAK SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Aaron 93-54 7-7 IND NYJ CHI CIN PHI DET ATL ARI HOU SD SF NYG SEA DEN NE

Zachey 93-54 7-7 IND BUF CHI CIN PHI DET ATL ARI HOU SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Matt 91-56 8-6 IND NYJ BAL CIN PHI DET TB ARI HOU SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Ross 89-58 4-10 IND NYJ CHI CIN PHI DET ATL ARI HOU SD NO GB SEA DEN CAR

Jake “Buzz Lightyear” Indursky has soared to infinity and beyond — or maybe negative infinity and beyond. He did pick the Jaguars this week, which somehow paid off, but the future exec looks shaky and hasn’t made any moves since he last had first place after Week 1.

Behind Indursky are Alex “Bambi” Connors and David “Mr. Incredible” McIntyre. Basically polar opposites, the two sit tied in the lower half of the standings. Connors slipped a bit with a 6-8 performance last week and seems relatively harmless in terms of making any runs to the top. McIntyre, on the other hand, can never be counted out, and he’ll be one to watch for as he tries to catch the title for the second fall semester in a row.

Next up is Claire “Lilo” Sleigh. Sleigh has been just ahead of the bottom two spots for basically the whole season, and her average numbers have kept her from making any significant progress in the Eds’ Challenge. She will continue to say “Aloha” to the bottom of the standings if nothing changes.

Rounding out our standings are Kate “Eeyore” Klots and Tyler “Pluto” Maher. Klots has been slow to vie for a respectable position in the rankings, as she has countered any smart picking with ensuing poor jobs. Maybe she’ll make a last push for the top soon.

Maher seems to just be in it for the fun — either that or he doesn’t know how to read stats or numbers, because he has constantly been the cellar dweller for the league. It would be quite the feat if he even made the top 10 by the end of the season.

Lastly, we have our guest picker, the exec of the opinion section, Elayne “Cinderella” Stecher. It would be a remarkable story if she did well this week, as she’s a bit unfamiliar with all teams but the Giants. However, who knows — we’ve seen crazier things happen, folks.

Alex S 89-58 7-7 IND NYJ CHI CIN PHI DET TB ARI OAK SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Jake 88-59 7-7 IND BUF BAL CLE PHI DET TB JAC HOU MIA SF NYG SEA DEN NE

Alex C 87-60 6-8 IND NYJ CHI CIN WAS DET ATL ARI HOU SD SF NYG SEA KC NE

David 87-60 6-8 IND NYJ CHI CIN PHI DET TB JAC HOU SD NO NYG SEA DEN CAR

Claire 83-64 7-7 IND BUF BAL CIN WAS DET ATL ARI HOU SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Kate 77-70 7-7 IND NYJ BAL CIN WAS PIT ATL ARI HOU SD NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Tyler 75-72 5-9 IND NYJ CHI CIN PHI DET ATL ARI HOU SD NO GB SEA DEN NE

GUEST Elayne Stecher IND NYJ CHI CLE WAS PIT ATL ARI HOU MIA NO NYG SEA DEN NE

Tufts Dance Program Department of Drama & Dance

Fall Dance Concert Featuring The Tufts Dance Ensemble Directed by Daniel McCusker

Fri Nov 15, 7pm Sat Nov 16, 7pm Jackson Dance Lab Free and open to the public

More info: dance@tufts.edu 617.627.2556 http://ase.tufts.edu/drama-dance/

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Thursday, November 14, 2013

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Sports

Jumbos to graduate six seniors from squad

Ross Dember and Alex Schroeder | Five-feet nothing

MEN’S SOCCER

Our own ‘Sandlot’

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moved from the regular cellar-dweller of the conference to a force to be reckoned with and legitimate title contender.

“Coach Shapiro has always said how difficult it is to jump into the top of the NESCAC,” Blumenthal said. “In my last two seasons, we finished in fourth place and established Tufts soccer on the national level. I think that, going forward next season, the team is ready to make that final jump into the top one or two in the NESCAC.” For all the seniors moving on, there are plenty of positive memories that will live on.

“My soccer career at Tufts will certainly be one of my favorite college memories,” Blumenthal said. “Our home playoff win against Bowdoin last season and our team making the NCAAs for the first time in 16 years are two memories that really stand out for me. In general, playing with my brother for two years, and with some of my best friends, are things that I’ll always remember.”

E

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

The men’s soccer team’s season came to a halt after a loss to Bowdoin in the first round of the NESCAC Championship. The Jumbos, however, again proved they are a contender in the conference with their second-consecutive fourth seed ranking.

NBA executive alumnus returns to share career experiences TAPSCOTT

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of what helped launch me to things I ended up wanting to do and was able to do.”

One of the values Tapscott took out of his time at Tufts — and stressed during his talk — was leading a balanced lifestyle.

“I work in an athletic environment, and I see guys who have certainly emphasized their athletic development throughout their lives,” he said.

“As a result of that ... they have turned that into lucrative professional careers.

However, the one thing they can’t stop is aging, and at some point, the muscles that you use in your body will stiffen and slow, but the one muscle you can continue to develop is the brain. I left [Tufts] with a fairly good appreciation of how to use both.”

Tapscott, however, was not all brains and no brawn. During his Tufts athletic career, he was a captain of the basketball team for his junior and senior seasons and ended up eighth all time on the career assists list for the school.

Tapscott used the unique atmosphere that Tufts provided to propel himself through life, and eventually, into a job in the NBA. From athlete to coach, and everything in between Despite his impressive post-graduate professional resume in athletics, Tapscott originally came to Tufts with the intention of becoming a lawyer. He went on to graduate from American University with a Juris Doctorate in 1980 and only began to get truly involved in athletics when he was promoted to head coach of American’s men’s basketball team in 1982.

Tapscott finally left Washington, D.C.

after eight successful seasons, leaving behind a legacy as the coach with the second highest winning percentage in school history. However, Tapscott, who preached the value of competitiveness during his talk, did not end his professional climb at American.

“I really tried to diversify my portfolio,” he said. “I didn’t want to be stuck doing one thing. When I left college coaching, before I even went into the NBA, I was an attorney agent. All of a sudden, I was out of coaching and in the business contract side of it. Then when I joined the Knicks, I was in the administrative side of things.”

Tapscott continued to build his resume, working in television and then for several pro teams in different capacities, before he got his big break with the Charlotte Bobcats.

“I never seemed to specialize in any one thing,” he said. “I was a jack of all trades, and that seemed to serve me extremely well.”

Tapscott was rewarded for his hard work when he was the first employee hired to run the Charlotte Bobcats as the executive vice president and chief operating officer. After he left the Bobcats, he joined the Wizards in an administrative role and was named the team’s interim head coach in 2008.

Tapscott explained that although he had experience coaching in college, the transition to the NBA required a different type of thinking.

“Coaching in college is an exercise in authority, and coaching in the NBA is an exercise in creativity,” he said. “You have to create things that focus interest and attention, and do so in a manner that [the players] will embrace. It makes it interestingly challenging.”

Tapscott, who returned to the front office of the Wizards after the year, believes that his roles as both coach

Jumbos look forward to ACCs SAILING

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Although the Jumbos have found a sailing strategy they are comfortable with moving forward, there are still areas in need of improvement if Tufts is to have successful finish to the fall season.

“I think the biggest improvement we need to make is sailing cleaner races,” Porter said. “We all had to do penalty turns a few times throughout the regatta, which slowed us down considerably and, in a couple cases, may have cost us the race.”

“Throughout the fall season we have been very inconsistent. We need to reduce the amount of time that we are off-sync, and hone in on every regatta weekend in order to do our best,” Ruiz-Ramon added.

Tufts’ biggest success over the weekend came at the Professor Noringer regatta. The Jumbos came in first

place out of 13 teams. Sophomore skipper Pierre DuPont and classmate crew Gracie Peck raced in the A Division, while junior skipper Grace Olsen and freshman crew Isabelle Sennett raced in the B Division. The Jumbos defended their title from last year with a score of 28 points, finishing one point ahead of the secondplace team, Brown University.

The annual Snow and Satisfaction Regatta also proved to be a strong showing for Tufts. The race is primarily for the best alumni college sailors, and only a select few undergraduates are invited. Two seniors were invited from Tufts — tri-captain skipper Will Haeger and crew Paula Grasberger.

Haeger and Grasberger showed they were up to the challenge, taking home the trophy of the prominent regatta.

The next race for the team is the Atlantic Coast Championship in Charleston, S.C. This is arguably the

and administrator naturally play off of each other.

“Coaching and administration [have] so many parallels,” he said. “It’s about managing egos; it’s about organizing; it’s about enforcing a discipline that becomes self-enforcing. There are so many parallels.”

Bringing it back For Tapscott, who had a remarkably long and intricate journey through both athletics and academia, the idea of coming back to Tufts and sharing his story was extremely appealing.

In his speech, Tapscott had two main focal points — the importance of competitiveness and technology — to accompany numerous interesting anecdotes about working in the NBA. “Tufts gave me that foundational confidence that I think is extremely important,” Tapscott said of his focus on competitiveness.

He explained that he sees competition as one of the keys to success in the world today, and that in and outside of athletics, having a competitive spirit will hold one in good stead.

Tapscott also spent time speaking about technology, its role in society and in the world of sports.

“Like anything that’s new and the arc is fresh, there will be some trial and error to [technology],” he said. “The question I put to people [last Tuesday] is, ‘What’s the balance point?’”

The event, which was attended by both athletes and non-athletes, proved to be what Weiller had hoped for, and hopes to see more of in SAAC’s future.

“We are looking to do more of these talks, that have to do not just with sports business, but instead how to use what you learn at Tufts to go into any business,” Weiller said.

most important race of the fall season, and Tufts is excited to show the other teams how good they really are.

“The co-ed team is going to the Atlantic Coast Championship held in Charleston, S.C. this upcoming weekend,” Porter said. “It’s the last regatta this season, and everyone is excited and hoping to do well.”

Regardless of what the result is in Charleston, the Jumbos have a long offseason in which to practice and reduce mistakes.

“There is a lot to talk about over the offseason,” Ruiz-Ramon said. “The winter is a nice break, and when we get back in the spring we have to be focused. We have the potential to do really well. In my opinion, we have the potential to win championships.”

The up-and-down fall season is almost behind the Jumbos, and the team is confident it can produce results in the spring.

nough stories of organized, high-stakes middle and high school sports that often end in embarrassment and disappointment. Alex here, and I’m back to talk about the real gold from our childhood competitions: backyard sports.

Sure the video game series was great, but nothing really compares to your elementary and middle school days — when you would get home, spell a couple of words, figure out a couple of multiplication problems for homework and then get outside and just play in the yard or street of the neighborhood.

The value of being active is undoubtedly important for establishing healthy habits at a young age. The NFL has Play 60, a campaign to counter any notion of childhood obesity with the mission of encouraging kids to be active for at least an hour a day.

As true and beneficial as this is, that’s not why we were out there.

We just had fun.

I remember being in elementary school and starting a home run derby with my younger brother. There were trees planted around my backyard, and at the time, they were only seven feet tall or so. Translation: the perfect height to hit a Wiffle ball over and feel immensely proud of what you had just accomplished.

We would each get 10 outs, similar to the MLB’s rules for its home run derby, to see who could hit the most homers.

We would use a technique called “bottlecapping,” however, which involves throwing the ball up to yourself and then hitting it, rather than having a pitcher. We had a souped-up plastic bat with electrical tape wrapped at least five times over on the barrel. I would win some and he would win some, but no matter the outcome, we always came back for more.

Then there was the outdoor football league we had going at my friend’s house down the street. Sure, there were some trees in the yard we had to watch out for, and the neighbor once kicked us off his lawn that served as one end zone because we ran into his plants, but we kept playing.

There were around seven or eight of us, and we would break up into fairly even teams and “kick off ” to each other. It was a game of tackle football, which sometimes meant injuries and other times meant cowering in fear of the kid who had 40 pounds on you.

It evened out, though, as it always did, and that was the beauty of backyard sports: There were hardly any pressures outside of wanting to impress your friends. It was a carefree environment to laugh, joke and definitely show off. We could try out different positions, and if it didn’t work — if you threw an interception — it didn’t count for anything but a joke from your friend.

I remember making diving catches and feeling like a real player. I remember trash talking before and after the games. I remember walking back up the hill to my house with my brother as the sun was setting. The results of the game didn’t matter in the long run, but the rest did. We weren’t especially busy back then, so we could wake up every day knowing that later on we would get together as friends and enjoy ourselves.

There was a real feeling of camaraderie established in those days, and I was just talking to one of my friends last week who says he wants to try and get a game going for fun when we’re all back in town.

I don’t think I could pass up the opportunity.

Ross Dember and Alex Schroeder are sophomores who have not yet declared majors.

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

Schroeder@tufts.edu.

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

SAAC hosts former Wizards interim head coach Ed Tapscott

by Jacob Indursky

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC) hosted a talk on Nov. 5 led by former Washington Wizards interim head coach and long-time NBA executive Ed Tapscott (LA ‘75). The talk, which was moderated by sophomore women’s soccer player Allie Weiller, is one of the first steps that SAAC has taken in advancing its organizational goals.

“Originally, a few years ago, when [SAAC] was really starting to pick up, [the goal] was simply to bring fans to sporting events, which Tufts kind of had an issue doing,” Weiller said. “I think now, with Fan The Fire, that is not an issue anymore, and it’s more of a routine. I think the next biggest thing we’re working on is bringing athletes and non-athletes together.”

According to Weiller, talks led by individuals like Tapscott will be vital because they appeal to a wide range of students and can serve to bridge the gap between

athletes and non-athletes.

“Since we are branching out past Fan the Fire this year, I thought the best way of doing that was bringing in someone that could talk to the Tufts community about how their experiences helped them get to such a vibrant and amazing career that they have today,” Weiller said.

For Weiller and SAAC, Tapscott was an obvious choice.

Life at Tufts Tapscott, who graduated from Tufts with a degree in political science and a job coaching the Tufts freshman basketball team, believes his time at Tufts was extremely influential to his life — one of the reasons he agreed to speak at the university last week.

“I really believe that my athletic experience, as well as my academic experience [at Tufts], has really shaped who I became,” Tapscott said. “I think that my experience here was certainly part

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

see TAPSCOTT, page 15

Ed Tapscott (LA ‘75), former Washington Wizards interim head coach, visited campus on Nov. 5 to speak about his life in collegiate and professional sports.

Sailing

Jumbos post impressive results at weekend regattas

by Steven

Hefter

Senior Staff Writer

The co-ed sailing team had another busy weekend, competing in six regattas over Saturday and Sunday.

The team was all over the Northeast, competing in the Hap Moore Team Race at the Coast Guard Academy, the Mike Horn Trophy at Harvard, the RI State Championship at Salve Regina, the Crews Regatta at MIT, the Snow and Satisfaction Regatta in Branford, Conn. and the Professor Noringer regatta at Boston University.

At the Hap Moore Team Race, eight Tufts sailors competed, and the team finished in eighth place of 12 with a record of 5-6. The pairings were made up of senior tri-captain skipper David Liebenberg and classmate tri-captain crew Kathleen Kwasniak, senior skipper Willem Sandberg and senior crew Tori Porter, junior skipper Alec

Ruiz-Ramon and classmate crew Sam Madden. Although the result was not ideal, there was some progress made.

“At the Hap Moore I’d say the biggest success was how easily we were able to work together on the race course.

We have a lot of people who are good at team racing so we brought four skipper/crew pairs,” Porter said. “This could have been difficult since things were constantly shifting around, but it was never an issue and I think it even helped us to always have a pair on land watching the races and providing feedback after each one.”

Ruiz-Ramon also credited the success of the team to how the four boats learned from each other.

“The four boats did really well in observing what the other boats did and what were the tough parts of the course,” he said. see SAILING, page 15

Nick PFosi / The Tufts DaIly

The co-ed sailing team won two more regattas over the six races that spanned Saturday and Sunday: the Professor Noringer regatta and the Snow and Satisfaction Regatta.

Men’s Soccer

Solid season ends in early exit from NESCAC tournament by

Zachey Kliger

Daily Editorial Board

The men’s soccer team saw its season come to a devastating end last weekend in penalty kicks in the NESCAC Quarterfinals against Bowdoin. The loss brought an end to an up-and-down year that never saw the team reach its full potential.

The team was hot out of the gate this fall. After defeating NESCAC rival Bates 3-0 in the season-opener, Tufts returned home and trounced Suffolk 7-0 in their home-opener, and followed that performance up with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Colby three days later. It was only the second time in 10 years that Tufts began the year 3-0.

But following the fast start, the Jumbos’ momentum stalled. The team finished 5-5-2 in its last 12 contests.

Marred by injuries on the frontline, the Jumbos’ offense struggled to produce goals throughout the year, and the team as a whole played inconsistent soccer. In the team’s first three wins, the Jumbos tallied an impressive 11 goals. In their final 12 games of the season, they were only able to match that number.

Nevertheless, this season ended with plenty of positives to take into the next.

The Jumbos finished 8-5-2 en route to securing a top-four seed and homefield advantage in the first round of the NESCAC tournament.

“From being the first team to win at Hamilton in over a year, while playing a man down, to coming back from a two-goal deficit in the last four minutes against Bowdoin, I think our team really showed the heart that we have,” senior tri-captain forward Scott Blumenthal said.

Tufts also boasted one of the best backlines in the NESCAC this season. Jumbo fans were able to witness the growth of freshman keeper Scott Greenwood, who will certainly be a focal point of Tufts soccer in the years to come. Greenwood recorded seven shutouts in his freshman campaign, which puts him in a four-way tie for second on Tufts’ all-time list. He’s also tied for the top spot on the all-time list for fewest goals allowed in a season, as the first-year conceded just eight goals in 13 games.

“It’s been great to see how far he’s come in such a short time,” said sophomore midfielder Connor Brown. “We felt confident this whole season that our backline wasn’t going to give up

that much, and he has a lot to do with that. It’s going to be great to have him in between the posts the next few years.”

True to their character throughout the season, the Jumbos did not go down without a fight in their final showing at Kraft Field. Late defensive miscues led to two Bowdoin goals in the final 20 minutes of regulation, and seemed to doom the Jumbos’ chances. But with less then 10 minutes remaining, and its season on the line, Tufts upped the offensive pressure, bringing the entire team up into the Polar Bears’ zone, with the exception of just one defender. With the box full of players from both sides, junior midfielder Kyle Volpe was able to possess the ball, get a good look at net and deliver a strike past the Bears’ keeper to cut the deficit to 2-1 with a little over five minutes left.

With the home crowd on their feet, the Jumbos looked to produce one last opportunity, and got their chance with a corner kick in the 87th minute.

Sophomore midfielder Rui Pinheiro lofted a cross into the middle of the box, only a few feet away from the goal line. Amidst the chaos in front of net, sophomore forward Monil Patel found himself unmarked and delivered a headed ball into the back of the net for the equalizer. On their last gasp, the Jumbos had clawed back and forced overtime.

Neither team was able to break the deadlock in two overtime sessions, and it was left to a penalty shootout to decide the fate of the two squads. After the teams traded goals, Bowdoin goalkeeper Noah Safian made a great save on the Jumbo’s second shot to give the Bears a one-goal advantage. Then, with Bowdoin already leading 2-1, sophomore Andrew Jones scored the decisive penalty kick to clinch the victory and send the Bears on their way to the NESCAC semi-finals.

The loss was especially tough to take for the Jumbos’ six graduating seniors, who got to play their final collegiate game in front of the screaming home crowd. All six graduating seniors contributed to the rejuvenation of Tufts soccer over their four years. Prior to the 2011 season, Tufts had not finished with a winning record against NESCAC opponents since 2001. Since 2011, Tufts has boasted three consecutive winning records in the NESCAC, and the team has hosted first-round NESCAC games in 2012 and 2013. They have see MEN’S SOCCER, page 15