TuftsDaily11.18.14

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THE TUFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXVIII, NUMBER 48

Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

ALLIES conference hosts disaster relief professionals

by Dana Guth

Daily Editorial Board

Alexandra Magnani / The Tufts Daily

Barry Shrage speaks to students at the J Street U Conference on Nov. 16 about Israeli security and peace initiatives.

Barry Shrage speaks on Israeli security at J Street U conference

by Nina Goldman Daily Editorial Board

Barry Shrage, president of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, addressed a crowd of almost 200 students attending J Street U’s East Coast Regional Workshop in Barnum Hall this Sunday.

To begin the event, moderators Tali deGroot, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Eli Philip, a senior at Brandeis University, asked attendees who supported the state of Israel to stand. Nearly all did, which Shrage cited as an indicator that Israel could be a uniting factor for young American Jews.

“You are what we have left,” he said. “I’m not worried about you.”

The crowd, however, clashed with Shrage’s position on a two-state solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, which he described as desirable but not immediately attainable.

“Right now, this is our fate. This is where we are,” he said. “I wouldn’t be too optimistic.”

The moderators and other attendees advocated for a more urgent resolution in line with J Street U’s stated goals, which support a two-state solution. But Shrage said that current instability in the Middle East brought on by the Islamic State, among see SHRAGE, page 2

Tufts Alliance Linking Leaders in Education and the Services (ALLIES) hosted its first annual Civil-Military Relations Conference this past Friday and Saturday. The conference, titled “In Case of Emergency: Civil-Military Relations and Disaster Response,” featured a panel of disaster relief professionals.

“We wanted this conference to be more of a ‘voices from the field’ type event, in which we bring in people from across the humanitarian aid and disaster relief field to talk about their experiences responding to natural disasters,” ALLIES Conference Co-Director William Beckham said.

The panelists included keynote speaker Col. Wiley Thompson, chair of the Geography and Environmental Engineering Department at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and Michael Marx, senior civil-military coordination adviser for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“We tried to bring in people who had a very diverse range of experiences and a diverse group of perspectives,” Tufts ALLIES Co-Director Joseph Sax said.

According to Sax, a senior, this year’s conference theme was in part inspired by “Armed Humanitarians: The Rise of the Nation Builders,” a book by Nathan Hodge that explores the potentially troubling consequences of humanitarian assistance in disaster relief.

“We thought, ‘This is a real conversation we should have with people on both the military and civilian side,’” he said.

“We hope students learn[ed] a lot about the initial controversies should the mili-

tary be involved in disaster response. We hope to inform peoples’ understanding of how emergency disaster response works — at Tufts, I think it’s a question people have a fairly substantial amount.”

Beckham, a senior, added that the goal of the conference was to spark thought and debate regarding how all these different organizations are able to join together for the specific cause of humanitarian relief and whether or not they should be doing so at all.

“When you have institutions and organizations as varied as the Red Cross, the U.N., USAID and other civilian aid agencies, militaries, smaller NGOs, etc. responding to major natural disasters around the world, it really warrants a discussion on how these organizations manage to work together — or not,” he said. “Natural disasters represent some of the world’s most urgent, unpredictable humanitarian crises, and organizations need to understand how the other actors in the field operate if they want to be successful.”

Beckham added that that ALLIES exists to facilitate these discussions.

“Is it appropriate for militaries to be involved in natural disasters in the first place?” he asked. “Dialogues on topics like [this] are why ALLIES was founded.”

According to Beckham and Sax, this is the only time ALLIES has hosted a major event on this topic, but the group intends to host a similar conference each fall semester in the future. Additional ALLIES chapters from universities across the country were also invited to participate. “[Seeing] 30 other ALLIES members come from our chapters at the U.S. Naval see ALLIES, page 2

TCU Senate update In a nearly four-hour meeting Sunday evening, the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed a resolution urging the university to establish equal opportunity in admissions for undocumented students and hosted Sexual Misconduct Prevention Specialist Alexandra Donovan for a discussion on the sexual assault prevention programming that the university is developing. The TCU Senate also discussed new bylaws on formal recognition of student groups and allocated funds to several student organizations.

The Senate passed “A Resolution to Establish Equal Opportunity for Undocumented Students” 25-0-1. The resolution, which was drafted and presented by members of Tufts United for Immigrant Justice (UIJ), urges the university to “consider undocumented students as domestic students” and to establish an explicit admission and financial aid policy for undocumented applicants.

Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine, Tufts Labor Coalition, the Association of Latin American Students and Tufts Asian American Alliance attended the meeting to support the resolution. With Senate’s endorsement, UIJ will now present the resolution to the administration.

The Senate also hosted Donovan to discuss her newly appointed role as sexual misconduct prevention specialist. The position, along with the new sexual misconduct response and resource coordinator, was introduced this semester by the university’s

Sexual Misconduct Prevention Task Force to address the recognized need for preventative sexual misconduct programming and resources on campus. Students on the task force, however, have maintained this semester that the administration has still not taken enough substantive steps toward promoting a culture of consent.

Donovan said she plans to expand the sexual assault education program during orientation and develop a bystander intervention program for juniors and seniors, who she believes have the social capital necessary to initiate change that firstyears may not. Donovan explained that although plans for such programs are still in their early stages, she plans to work with fraternities and student groups to develop tailored education programs.

The TCU Judiciary presented new bylaws and strengthened preexisting bylaws on formal recognition of student groups.

Recognition allows student groups to apply for funding from the TCU Treasury, to reserve campus space and to use the Tufts name, but it is not necessary for operation.

The new bylaws differentiate between funded groups (those groups that require an annual budget for operation) and nonfunded groups (those that do not), Chair of the Judiciary Becky Goldberg, a senior, explained. Unfunded groups will still be allowed to apply for supplementary funding twice a year with a $1,000 funding cap, according to Goldberg.

Inside this issue

The current requirements for recognition are a membership of at least 15 students, proof of having hosted three events or activities, a written constitution, and one semester in existence. The new bylaws strengthen these existing qualifiers by requiring phone numbers of all members to verify active membership, defining “proof of activity” more concretely and requiring differentiation between the mission statements of student groups, according to Goldberg. The bylaws, which were drafted by and will be voted upon by the Judiciary, are in their final revisions and will take effect next semester.

The Senate voted to allocate money to each of the six organizations that requested funding and approved an appeal from SinoU.S. Relations Group Engagement (SURGE) to increase its previous approved funding for the annual China-U.S. Symposium hosted in April. Due to a miscommunication that was the fault of both SURGE and the Allocations Board, the Senate previously approved funding for 11 speakers rather than the 18 speakers the group intends to host. The appeal to increase the budget by $350 to a total allocation of $2,764.01 in order to fund the seven additional speakers passed 20-7-0.

The Senate also approved unanimously 26-0-0 an unadjusted allocation of $25,000 to Concert Board to fund additional talent for Spring Fling. This allocation will supplement its existing $100,000 budget, accord-

ing to TCU Treasurer Adam Kochman, a junior. Also passed by acclimation was an adjusted allocation of $2,964.00 to the Tufts Premedical Society to attend a medical conference, an adjusted allocation of $780.00 to the Tufts Undergraduate Research Journal and an adjusted allocation of $2,750 to sQ! to help supplement its annual winter trip.

The Senate also approved 25-1-0 an adjusted allocation of $263.96 to Tufts Tabletop Gaming Club to fund various programming and approved 24-1-1 a largely reduced allocation of $5,455 to Pulse to fund costs for an upcoming competition.

Tonight, Senate will be sponsoring its biannual Cause Dinner, in which a portion of proceeds from dinner meal swipes at Carmichael Dining Center and DewickMacPhie Dining Center will benefit Tufts Timmy Global Health. Other committee updates included an update from Education Committee Chair Sam Berzok, a junior, that a resolution to extend the 1+4 joint undergraduate-graduate program is being drafted, and an update from Services Committee Co-Chair Janna Karatas, a junior, that tickets for the annual Turkey Shuttle are now on sale for $5.

The committee is also working to make Brown & Brew available to student groups to host events.

—by Denali Tietjen

Today’s sections

With new equipment, JumboCast looks to stream additional athletic events.

Both the men’s and women’s cross country teams qualified for next weekend’s national championships.

see FEATURES, page 3

see SPORTS, page 12

News 1 Features 3 Arts & Living 5 Editorial | Op-Ed 8

Op-Ed 9 Comics 10 Classifieds 11 Sports Back

2

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

News

Police Briefs Visitor from a Strange Land A student reported to the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) on Nov. 6 at 1:45 p.m.that an unknown man had entered her apartment on College Ave. on Nov. 1. The student stated that when she woke up, she encountered an unknown college-age male standing in her bedroom. The intruder, who was wearing a blonde wig and speaking in a French accent, informed the student that he was looking for her roommate. He then apologized and departed. The student’s roommate could shed no light on the identity of the intruder.

Police Officer Poser On Nov. 7 a student reported to TUPD at 12:50 p.m. that she had just received

a call from a person claiming to be a police officer from the Medford Police Department. The alleged police officer informed the student that there was an outstanding arrest warrant for her and that she needed to pay a fine to avoid arrest. The student fell for the fraud and made the payment.

Champagne Hangovers At 2:12 a.m. on Nov. 9 an intoxicated student at an off-campus apartment was reported to TUPD. The student claimed that she had consumed five or six shots of vodka, a few mixed drinks and some champagne. She was subsequently transported to the hospital.

Missing the Benchmark It was reported to TUPD at 1:48 p.m. on Nov. 10 that a bench had been stolen from the inside patio of Edwin Ginn Library. The bench, which was last seen on Nov. 5 at 8:00 p.m., had been displaying an assortment of free items accompanied by a sign saying, “Take me home.” TUPD commented that the bench thief may have taken the sign too literally.

Sandwich Mystery A past larceny was reported to TUPD by an employee of Mugar Cafe. The employee claimed that on Nov. 6 at 8:30 p.m. she had put two egg and cheese sandwiches in the microwave in order to heat them up.

When she returned to remove them from

the microwave, the two sandwiches were gone. TUPD commented that the crime was probably unsolvable, as the evidence was no longer present.

Haskell Hemp At 2:44 a.m. on Nov. 11 a TUPD officer observed a group of three female students entering an alcove behind Haskell Hall.

When the officer approached the group, one of the students was seen to be holding a small sandwich bag containing a green, leafy substance. A green pipe was also observed.

When questioned, the students admitted that they were there to smoke marijuana.

Everything was confiscated and disposed of.

—by Daniel Bottino

Tonight’s Cause Dinner to support Tufts Timmy Global Health

by Alexa Horwitz Daily Editorial Board

Tufts Dining Services and the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate will tonight host their biannual Cause Dinner in support of this year’s selected organization, Tufts Timmy Global Health.

To participate, students will donate a meal swipe in Carmichael Dining Center or Dewick MacPhie Dining Center by writing their name and ID number on lists held by Tufts Timmy student volunteers, according to Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos. A portion of these diners’ funds will then be contributed to the organization.

Tufts Timmy President Alejandra GarciaPletsch explained that the organization works to address international health disparities on a global level, while advocating and educating on a local level.

“For the past seven years Tufts Timmy Global Health has set up clinics [and] pharmacies and provided care for impoverished, indigenous communities in Guatemala during its annual medical brigades,” Garcia-Pletsch, a senior, wrote in the Cause Dinner application form submitted last week to TCU Senate.

Garcia-Pletsch said that the Tufts chapter of Timmy Global Health also makes strong efforts toward public health initiatives, including the creation of informative short public service announcement videos translated into the local dialects.

“We are also trying to start a soap-making project using Guatemala-based materials,” she said. “This would become a microfinance type of project to promote hand-washing.”

Janna Karatas, co-chair of the TCU Services Committee, said that the committee selected Tufts Timmy for the Cause Dinner out of 17 applicants.

Nicholas Pfosi / The Tufts Daily

Tufts Dining Services and Tufts Community Union Senate’s annual Cause Dinner, which will take place in Carmichael and Dewick-MacPhie Dining Centers will benefit Tufts Timmy Global Health.

“An email is sent to all of the signatories of recognized groups on campus asking for applications to receive the funds raised during a Cause Dinner,” she said.

“Our group then meets and reads the applications and chooses which cause we would like to benefit.”

Karatas, a junior, noted that Tufts Timmy stood out from the other applicants because it provided a very tangible description of where the money would go.

“Tufts Timmy described in their application that $100 would provide an antiparasitic for 120 patients,” she said. “It was great that they were so specific.”

According to Karatas, Cause Dinners typically raise between $2,000 and $3,000.

Tufts Timmy is aiming to raise at least $10,000 overall this year, according to Garcia-Pletsch. The organization hopes that funds from the Cause Dinner will contribute at least $2,000 toward that goal.

“The funds from the Cause Dinner would prove to be instrumental in supporting our efforts to improve the quality of health in the communities we serve,” she said. “By receiving funds from the cause dinner, we would also help empower Tufts students to assist patients involved in international health disparities. This could help inspire any future career goals the students may have in global health or clinical medicine, supplementing their education with firsthand experience.”

Klos explained that Dining Services purposely allows TCU Services Committee choose the organization.

“We think this is an appropriate way for peers to determine who receives the money raised from a Cause Dinner,” she said. “With that being said, we do give TCU Senate some parameters — the organization must be service-oriented, and we hope that at least one of the two Cause Dinners that take place annually raises money for something hunger or water related.”

According to Garcia-Pletsch, a member of Tufts Timmy for three years, the organization has applied to receive funds from the Cause Dinner in previous years, but until now had not been selected.

Klos said that Tufts Timmy will have designated tables in both Carmichael and Dewick MacPhie, where student volunteers will solicit their peers to write their name and ID number down to indicate they are donating a meal.

“If a student participates while on a full meal plan, it doesn’t mean a whole lot because they have multiple accesses to a dining hall each meal period,” she said. “For those students who are not on unlimited meal plan, we indicate on their meal plan that a swipe has been deducted as a result of a Cause Dinner.”

Tufts Timmy will continue fundraising throughout the year, and the group will host a pizza sale after the second Senior Night this Thursday from 12:30 – 2 a.m. on Mayer Campus Center’s lower patio.

Karatas added that the TCU Services Committee next semester will select another student organization to benefit from the Cause Dinner, and the biannual event usually alternates between benefiting local and global causes.

Two-state solution not a short-term priority, according to Shrage SHRAGE

continued from page 1

other forces, made Israeli security the top priority for the moment, and policy changes would have to wait.

“Support Israel when you have to,” he said.

“It’s clearly impossible to create a two-state solution right now.”

Noah Weinberg, a sophomore at Tufts, asked about ending Israeli occupation of the West Bank, which he cited as the country’s most pressing security and human rights issue.

“The key to our Israeli future is ending the occupation,” he said.

While Shrage agreed that the occupation needs to end, he said he sees it as less of a moral issue and more of a public relations blight.

“You have to be so careful with positions,” he said. “We’re going to lose the whole game if we don’t do something about this.”

Shrage criticized international media for putting Israel under “vicious and stupid attack,” noting that he considered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to have been “as humane as possible” in this summer’s conflict.

“It’s not like the settlements are the biggest offense to human rights on the face of the planet,” he said. “Why is this receiving so much attention compared to everything else that’s going on in the world?”

While noting the need to discourage racism and discrimination against Israeli Palestinians, Shrage emphasized that the stability of Israel remained his top priority.

“I’m not arguing for Palestinian human rights, I’m arguing for Israeli security,” he said. “Our first commitment is to the Jewish people, to the state of Israel and to its security … If Israel goes down, you’ll go, and you’ll go down with it.”

Shrage argued that making plans for a twostate solution right now would only build up false hope.

“Pretending that there are solutions when there are no solutions isn’t going to get you anywhere,” he said. “Let’s not lie to ourselves, let’s not lie to the Israelis.”

DeGroot asked how she, as a member of the American Jewish community, could engage with Israel to help bring peace to the region.

“What is our role as American Jews in that?” she asked.

While Shrage said some political pressure could come from the American Jewish community, he characterized the conflict as a problem best left to the Israelis themselves.

“It’s their kids more than ours,” he said.

Shrage criticized J Street U for attempting to get involved in Israeli discourse over the dangers posed by Iran.

“That’s way above our pay grade,” he said.

ALLIES conference explores intricacies of disaster relief ALLIES

continued from page 1

Academy, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Wellesley College [to] attend the event has been a huge plus for us,” Beckham said.

The final stage of the conference involved a diplomatic crisis scenario during which participants acted out a real-time disaster

response simulation, the specifics of which were not revealed beforehand, according to Beckham.

“The diplomatic crisis scenario, crafted by [retired Lt. Col.] Mark Stanovich, was staged in 2018 and dealt with a devastating typhoon that hit Vietnam and resulting geopolitical China-U.S. relations,” ALLIES Conference Co-Director Jackie Faselt told

the Daily in an email. “The Military Fellows from Fletcher, who have begun to attend weekly ALLIES meetings, played a helpful role in facilitating the scenario.”

Faselt, a sophomore, added that future conferences should be even more successful as word spreads and a larger, more varied portion of the student population begins to attend.

“Be a little bit careful about deciding that you’re the ultimate arbiters.”

University of Maryland senior Benjy Cannon, who serves as president of J Street U’s National Student Board, said the conference invited Shrage to speak due to his prominent role in the American Jewish community. CJP is a major philanthropy organization that provides support for 80 social service agencies as well as Israel programming.

“We wanted to continue developing a relationship with him and CJP around our shared interest in Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state,” Catie Stewart, the northeast representative for J Street U told the Daily in an email.

Shrage insisted that he was happy to further discuss the topic, and that at the end of the day, he shared many values with the audience.

“I totally feel your complete commitment to love and defend the Jewish people,” he said.

“I’ll meet with anybody, any time.”

“I would love to see more students who don’t usually come to ALLIES events in attendance,” she said. “Although the [International Relations]-security crowd seems to populate many of ALLIES’ events, topics covered this weekend were applicable to many different fields of studies including computer science, environmental science and public health.”

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

After revamp, JumboCast is back in the game and ready to boost sports coverage

by Emma Steiner Daily Staff Writer

Tufts JumboCast, an organization and website that webcasts Tufts athletics events, upgraded its 10-year-old equipment this summer, bringing new cameras, new software and new programs to its live stream.

The previous equipment was outdated, and put a strain on JumboCast’s already-tight funding and its relationship with the Athletics Department.

The site that the group had used to host the broadcasts, AudioVideoweb, was costing hundreds of dollars per month and streaming poor quality broadcasts. As a result, the Athletics Department hired an outside company to cover most games, leaving only the football team’s four home games for JumboCast to cover, according to junior and General Manager of JumboCast Jake Hellman.

“We were basically told at the end of last year, ‘You guys have football but that’s it,’ and so my worry at the start of this year was that we would do the four football games and then not exist as a club for the rest of the year,” Hellman said.

Director of Sports Information Paul Sweeney explained that the Athletics Department needed consistent, highquality broadcasts of all games — something that JumboCast wasn’t able to provide.

“We sort of became dissatisfied with the amount of webcasts that JumboCast was producing,” Sweeney said. “This is over the last two or three years. Last year we started contracting with Pack Network … they are a professional company that webcasts games for universities, so they did hockey for us, and then they did all our spring sports. It was [high-definition] broadcasting, and the quality of JumboCast wasn’t as good as the Pack quality.”

Sophomore and Programming Director Bernie Birnbaum also commented that the group’s technology limited its capabilities.

“We were using a computer that was probably as old as JumboCast,” he said. “It was one computer that was only used to do broadcasting, and it was very limited in what it could do.

It was very difficult for us to even put a scoreboard on the screen, and we had a crappy camera and we were using outdated technology to stream it online.”

JumboCast’s main updates include a new camera and an editing and streaming program called Wirecast. This change in technology will not only simplify the broadcasting process, but also make it look more professional, according to Hellman.

Since the introduction of the new equipment, feedback after the end of the football season has been very positive.

“Pack doesn’t always have commentators, and they don’t have halftime shows, so we like to think that our product is nicer,” Hellman said. “At the end of the football season, we were able to show that, yeah, it is work for [the Athletics Department] to coordinate with Pack and us, but we can offer what we think is a higher quality product.”

After JumboCast’s success in covering the home football games, Hellman and Sweeney reentered the discussion about the opportunity to cover more games throughout the year. JumboCast is now planning to cover 11 out of 20 home basketball games during the winter season, and potentially some baseball games in the spring, Hellman said.

Coordinating with both Pack Network and the Athletics Department

has been a challenge for JumboCast, according to Hellman. Because Pack requires a contract at the beginning of every season, JumboCast has to predict which games it will be able to cover months in advance.

“That was extremely challenging for us because we had never before had to predict through February what everyone’s schedule was going to be,” Hellman said. “The thing that I am personally nervous about is if we default if someone becomes busy … we tried to make sure we were very confident in our plans, but no one even knew when they would have class next semester.”

Hellman added that this uncertainty could potentially create tensions with the Athletics Department.

“My worry is that if we fail to do a broadcast, then the Athletics Department will be upset, so we need to make sure we come through on all of our commitments,” he said.

Despite the frequent broadcasting changes, football Coach Jay Civetti has remained a proponent of JumboCast.

“It’s always something that I try to be as supportive of as I can of any student run organization,” he said. “It is such an important connection for the alumni, for parents who can’t be here, for people who bleed brown and blue.”

In terms of its budget, JumboCast’s switch from AudioVideoweb to YouTube will help keep spending down, according to Hellman. Hosting through AudioVideoweb cost close to $300 per month, Hellman said.

YouTube allows users to enable their accounts to live stream for free, cutting thousands of dollars of spending out of their budget.

The new physical equipment will also help cut expenses.

“Basically, 10 years ago what you needed was a computer that was specifically dedicated to broadcasting, and a ton of very expensive stuff, but now if you have a laptop you can do it all,” Hellman said. “So now we broadcast straight from my laptop.”

Despite this change in spending, JumboCast still deals with a tight budget.

“Unfortunately, we are running off my laptop because we can’t buy one,” Hellman said, “We just applied

for supplementary funding from TCU for over five grand. We are hoping to get a new computer so I don’t have to be at every broadcast, and the program will be able to continue after I graduate.”

The new camera and switch to YouTube will allow JumboCast to broadcast its program in HD. “Our old camera was standard definition, so in terms of videos that [people] watch, standard definition … doesn’t exist anymore,” Hellman said.

“Everybody watches things in HD.” Wirecast, the new editing program, will allow the group to increase the professionalism of their broadcast.

According to Hellman, they will now be able to include scoreboards on all of their live streams, and Hellman hopes they will soon be able to add a clock.

A major change in JumboCast’s programming because of the new technology has been the incorporation of a halftime show, according to Birnbaum.

“I always thought it was kind of goofy when it would be halftime and we’d put up a graphic, and for 15 minutes it would just be that graphic and dead silence,” Birnbaum said. “I figured, ‘Why not turn the camera back around and do something fun with it?’”

So far, Birnbaum has included interviews, updates on the new technology, a “fun facts” section, a highlight reel and a Twitter poll during halftime.

“It’s like eight to nine minutes of programming [per show], but it’s better than a blank screen,” he said.

The halftime shows also create an opportunity for the audience to interact with JumboCast. Birnbaum asked viewers to tweet questions at JumboCast during the first half of the first home game, which would then be answered during the halftime show.

“We got a couple of tweets, which was a nice way to interact with our audience that we hadn’t been able to do before,” Hellman said.

This year, JumboCast’s first basketball broadcast will air on Nov. 21.

“The idea is that [broadcasts] will become even better,” Hellman said.

“By the end of the basketball season, if we don’t fail on any games, we are hoping that we will have really impressed the Athletics Department.”

Courtesy JumboCast

Stina Stannik | A Jumbo in Ghana

Normalizing generosity

I

n American culture, generosity feels like an exceptional quality. We don’t all exhibit it all of the time; when we do, we often expect gratitude or reciprocation. I have a spatial sense of generosity as being an extension beyond the expected.

In Ghana, generosity is commonplace.

People will go out of their way to help you — and treat it like a tiny favor. We were in the market one day and asked a woman from whom we had just purchased fabric where we might find baking soda. She called over a friend to watch her stand and led us halfway across the market, stopping traffic, to a nondescript store that carried baking soda — then led us all the way back again.

I had an experience this weekend that made clear to me just how “normal” generosity is for most Ghanaians.

On Friday afternoon, a friend from one of my classes texted me out of the blue, “I told my mother you will be coming home with me this weekend, so we will leave at 8” (Generous Act #1). My friend lives in a neighborhood outside of Accra. We took a trotro there — she paid for me (Generous Act #2). Much of her extended family lives in a pair of neighboring housing complexes, so within minutes I met her parents, her brother, her cousin and her aunt, then was introduced to the rest of the family as two giant photo albums were placed in my lap (I consider being welcomed into a family’s personal history like that Generous Act #3).

My friend’s mom learned I was vegetarian, so she brought out some salad and bread (#4). Someone casually mentioned that a grandmother’s funeral was taking place next weekend; within minutes I had been invited and traditional cloth was measured and cut so that I could have an appropriate funeral outfit tailored (#5, #6).

Speaking of important personal family events — my friend’s cousin was getting married that day, and we could drop in on the reception! She found me a dress of hers to wear, her brother went out and bought jewelry and hair things, she searched through all her shoes until she found a pair I could squeeze my feet into and loaned me a clutch; her brother drove us forty minutes to the reception (I’m going to stop counting generous acts now). I met a million aunts and cousins, who ran around finding vegetarian food for me and who ended up driving us home.

Back at my friend’s house, her mom had bought a package of cookies and a bottle of juice for me. We went next door to her aunt’s house, where her aunt was making dinner, and she took the time to explain the process of making banku. She fried delicious maize pudding dumplings — I tried to share them evenly with my friend but she made me take at least two-thirds.

In all these interactions, I tried to express my profuse gratitude and amazement. My friend kept laughing at me. “Stina, why are you always thanking us? This is normal.” Today, she called to check up on me, saying her mom was concerned that their food would upset my stomach. This intensive mode of looking after guests and friends wasn’t even noteworthy to my Ghanaian hosts.

I don’t know what the Final Tally of Generous Acts was for the day — but the experience definitely showed me that for all the adjustment and learning I have done here, culture shock is never-ending!

Stina Stannik is a junior majoring in peace and justice studies. She can be reached at stina.stannik@tufts.edu. She is also a Contributing Writer at the Tufts Daily.

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The Tufts Daily

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Stop by the Student Thank-a-Thon and write thank you notes to the alumni donors who help make Tufts the special place it is.

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Arts & Living

5

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Movie Review

Vincent Carbone | Media & Me

'Rosewater' offers sincere, intriguing portrayal of a political prisoner

Damned if you do...

by Kumar Ramanathan

T

Contributing Writer

In a powerful scene from the second act of “Rosewater,” the film’s protagonist, from within his solitary confine-

Rosewater Directed by Jon Stewart Starring Gael García Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Dimitri Leonidas, Haluk Bilginer ment cell, imagines a Leonard Cohen song and finds himself dancing. At this point, he has been imprisoned for months and interrogated relentlessly for a confession. He is routinely deprived of his senses, blindfolded whenever taken out of his cell and only ever given small amounts of tasteless food. But, in that one moment, he enjoys a brief respite of resistance, finding music within himself even when he is allowed none. There are a few hopeful, joyous moments like this one scattered throughout “Rosewater” that demonstrate how powerful it can be to tell meaningful stories through film, even in a film that often feels lightweight.

The story at hand is that of Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal), an Iranian-Canadian journalist who was imprisoned while covering the protests that unfolded after the controversial 2009 presidential election in Iran for Newsweek. Bahari was held largely in solitary confinement in a state prison

Open Road Films/MCT

Gael García Bernal plays journalist Maziar Bahari in historically and politically steeped film “Rosewater.” in Tehran for 118 days, accused of being an American spy. As one would expect, the subject of “Rosewater” is in many ways the strength and resilience that Bahari displayed, but the film is just as much about how much he falters and stumbles. It is also, in part, about the people that he meets — the young activists who encourage him to scratch under the surface, the interrogator whose rosewater perfume gives the film its name and dead family members who return to him as ghostly and hallucinatory guardians.

Movie Review

“Rosewater” is Jon Stewart’s first film as a director and writer, yielding a sincere, earnest and narrow treatment of this powerful story. The film’s 103 minutes go by quickly, as it has a very clear structure: the first act focuses on Bahari’s interactions with the local activists that he meets as the post-election protests unfold, and the second and third take us into the depths of his days in prison. While the source material, Bahari’s 2011 book see ROSEWATER, page 6

TV Review

Final season of 'The Newsroom' keeps focus on characters

by Grace Segers Daily Editorial Board

Aaron Sorkin — famed creator of “Sports Night” (1998), “The West Wing” (1999-2006) and, more recent-

The Newsroom Liam Daniel/Focus Features/MCT

Though it packs scientific language, “The Theory of Everything” does better as a heartfelt romance than a thought-provoking feature.

'The Theory of Everything' succeeds as love story at most

by Abigail Feldman Daily Editorial Board

It seems that this year’s Academy Award picks will be full of geniuses.

Stephen Hawking’s story, “The Theory of

The Theory of Everything Directed by James Marsh Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior, David Thewlis Everything,” released on Nov. 7, will join ranks with “The Imitation Game” (2014), a thriller about the life of mathematician Alan Turing, in the running for Oscar success. Unfortunately for us, a brilliant protagonist does not necessarily make a brilliant film. Lacking an impressive screenplay to support its impressive cast, this newest film leaves a lot to be desired.

The title, “The Theory of Everything,” refers to Stephen Hawking’s (Eddie Redmayne) quest to find one equation

Starring Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Olivia Munn, Dev Patel

Airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO

to unite Einstein’s theory of relativity with quantum physics, so as to understand the universe in its entirety. The bulk of the film, however, is more concerned with Hawking’s personal universe and his relationship with his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Time, important in Hawking’s theories, is a central theme of the film itself.

Beginning with Stephen and Jane’s first meeting at a university party, the film spans the couples’ lives so far, keeping their relationship at its center as Hawking rises from newly-diagnosed Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) patient to worldrenowned cosmologist.

The film, an adaption of Jane Hawking’s memoir, “Traveling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen” (2013), succeeds as a tasteful and mostly faithful account of the Hawkings’ complicated relationship. Though generally slow-paced, especially in its second act, it remains fairly engaging to the end.

In truth, most of its flaws could have been overlooked if the script weren’t so unnat-

ly, “The Newsroom” (2012-present) — is not known for his subtlety. Indeed, “The Newsroom,” which entered its third and final season on Nov. 9, has been criticized for its flashy portrayal of fictionalized television news channel ACN and the heavy-handed lessons it doles out. The show exists in a delayed reality, in which the characters are reporting on events that happened around a year-and-a-half ago. The third season begins with the Boston Marathon bombing, which quickly becomes one of the focal points of the first episode.

In the first season, anchor Will McAvoy ( Jeff Daniels) goes on numerous angry tirades about the state of America and ethical journalism. The characters, in general, were entertaining, and the story was intriguing at best, but the self-righteous tone of the show exceeded even that of “The West Wing” and prevented the series from becoming something great.

The second season was far better, as it dropped some of the relationship drama that plagued the first season, allowing some of the previously

see THEORY, page 6

see NEWSROOM, page 6

his last week has been pretty busy for me, being midterm season and all. I have so many assignments I’m supposed to be doing, I can barely ignore them all! Fortunately, there are plenty of scary video games to distract me.

Now, for those of you who don’t follow the horror game scene, all you need to know is in the last few months, two of the scariest games ever created were released. One of them is about walking down a long hallway, and the other is about sitting in a chair and watching a bunch of TV channels.

Now I know what you’re thinking: “Vincent, those games both sound really boring! Are you a boring person? Have I spent the last semester reading a boring column written by a boring man? Oh God, what else in my life is boring without me realizing it? Am I boring, too?”

Well, fear not dear reader, because I am not boring, and neither are these games.

In fact, I think these two games present perfect examples of the two ways that horror games can scare the player.

For example, let’s examine a creepy little PS4 exclusive called “P.T.” — that’s the hallway game that I mentioned earlier. It’s a puzzle game that requires you to examine certain objects within a house in order to progress, all while being haunted by a dead old woman and a freaky baby.

Each level is a little creepier than the last, and each puzzle is more difficult. But the thing that makes “P.T.” really interesting is the fact that there is almost nothing that the player can do to impact the world around them. Enemies can’t be killed and traps can’t be avoided. All you do is walk around and look at stuff.

This creates a terrifying atmosphere of helplessness, to the point that it can sometimes become too frightening to continue. I personally had to stop for a few hours when I rounded a corner only to see a tall female silhouette standing at the end of the hallway, with no way to avoid her. It’s very unnerving to have no control over your fate. To know that no matter what you do, the ghost will always come after you, the lights will always flicker and the creepy baby will always cry.

“P.T.” scares you by forcing you into an uncomfortable situation. It drops you into a terrifying place and tells you that nothing you do will ever make it less scary.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” (FNAF) sends the exact opposite kind of message. That’s the TV game I mentioned way back at the beginning of this column. See, “FNAF” doesn’t start you in an uncomfortable place. It starts you in a safe one. You play as Mike Schmidt, a security guard at a local Chuck E. Cheese’s rip-off. Unfortunately for you, the animatronic animals are trying to kill you. Luckily, you never have to leave the safety of your security office. Mike can lock the doors whenever he wants.

Unfortunately, doing so wastes power, and when the power runs out, you die.

If you don’t close the doors, you’ll die, and if you close them for too long, you’ll run out of power and die. It’s all about finding the rhythm and pattern to the enemies’ attacks, and then not blowing it. Unlike “P.T.,” “FNAF” generates horror by giving the player complete control over his or her fate. If an animatronic bunny or duck jumps out and kills you it’s because you messed up. That creates a lot of tension and anxiety.

So what does it mean that these games scare us? Simple: We don’t like to be without control, but we don’t like the pressure of being in control either.

Vincent Carbone is a senior majoring in biology. He can be reached at vincent.carbone@tufts.edu.

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The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Arts & Living

Sorkin takes on the Boston Marathon in season premiere NEWSROOM

continued from page 5

annoying characters to develop into entertaining, multi-dimensional people. This middle season focused on the troublesome idea of misreporting, with the crew of ACN publishing an incorrect news story. This fictionalized scandal allowed the show to take a step back from covering old news — which had at times made the plot feel redundant — and develop this newsroom as a whole.

Though it may be an exaggeration to say that the third season premiere of “The Newsroom” is better than the entirety of the first season, it’s only a slight one. The formerly preachy Will is now a loveable curmudgeon, who is having trouble giving rousing speeches to his colleagues.

Will’s failure to express moral outrage in a monologue — one of his typical attempts to talk about what America means — is a comedic point in the episode. It’s as if Sorkin has realized that the strength of the show is in its characters and in its plot, not necessarily in its idealism. It seems clear that the third season of “The Newsroom” isn’t going to spare much time for preaching liberal values.

Another benefit of this third season is that all of the characters are contently in romantic relationships, removing those distracting will-they-won’t-

they plotlines from the first and second season. Will is now engaged to MacKenzie McHale (Emily Mortimer), his producer and previous ex-girlfriend.

The tension between Will and Mac was entertaining at first, but became tired by the second season. Now that the two have decided to settle down and get over themselves, their relationship feels far more real. It has retained the chemistry but lost the irritating melodrama.

Arguably the two best but most underused characters, brilliant anchor Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) and producer Don Keefer (Thomas Sadoski), are now in a relationship. The scenes when they are together are the best of the episode.

Both Munn and Sadoski have excellent comedic timing, from deadpan Sloan to perennially amused Don. Though they may be minor characters, the two are so exciting to watch that they have proven themselves deserving of the airtime.

Even without romantic strife, the drama is upped in the third season — and not simply because the ACN team is reporting on the Boston Marathon bombing. Handled with appropriate sensitivity, the coverage of the bombing is only a launching pad for the real drama of the ensuing season: By the end of the first episode, computer genius Neal Sampat (Dev Patel) seems to have convinced a source to give

Melissa Moseley/MCT

Aaron Sorkin’s latest creation, “The Newsroom,” begins its third season. him government secrets regarding a fictional African country.

What’s more, ACN is in the middle of a hostile corporate takeover. These two arcs seem to be promising fodder for some intriguing action in the coming episodes of season three.

But the strength of “The Newsroom” isn’t in its plot, although the second season proved that a well-crafted plot can cure many ails. And it’s not all about the moral high ground and exceptional journalism in the face of adversity, although that may have

been Sorkin’s original intent.

The main strength of the HBO stronghold is, in fact, in the characters whom the audience has watched grow, and become increasingly realistic and developed with each passing episode. It is the characters who make the show what it is, and will be remembered when it is gone.

At the very end of the first episode of season three, Will says “We’re not in the middle of the third act. We just got to the end of the first.” Reinterpreted as a comment on the show

itself, the statement is, on a literal level, completely incorrect: “The Newsroom” has reached its third and final season. However, Will’s words could be taken as an attempt by Sorkin to asserts his own continued relevance in the annals of pop culture. Still, it might also mean something more. For the characters that fill the newsroom at ACN, their initial development is finally coming to a close. The show may end, but the characters and their ideas will soldier on, and perhaps even be acted out by their counterparts in real newsrooms.

Acting performances shine while plot suffers in ‘The Theory of Everything’ THEORY

continued from page 5

ural. The jarring, matter-of-fact scientific conversations might be commonplace for a super-genius like Hawking himself, but in the film they’re just distracting.

That said, “The Theory of Everything” has its touching moments, too. The most realistic interactions involve Jane and Stephen coping with Stephen’s illness and trying to find a way to preserve their love for each other. This is because “The Theory of Everything” is most comfortable as a love story — the other elements of Hawking’s story just get in the way.

The film’s failures, however, should not reflect on the actors’ talent. Redmayne, known for his role as Marius in “Les Misérables” (2012), does a phenomenal job portraying Hawking’s slow physical decline, work that will likely win him a nomination come Oscar season. Even after his character has lost nearly all mobility, Redmayne’s talent shines through, capturing Stephen’s subtle humor and wit. Jones, too, gives an admirable performance, quietly supporting the film as Stephen’s patient, if sometimes frustrated, spouse. Though Jane’s role is less dramatic, the film, like Stephen, would suffer without her.

Those who walk into the theater hoping to learn about Hawking’s scientific achieve-

ments — wishing, maybe, to get a glimpse of what the coveted “theory of everything” might be — will walk away disappointed.

There is a lot of scribbling on chalkboards and big prestigious lecture halls. There are even several cliche scenes of animated students using nearby objects to illustrate big concepts about the universe. But the film is not educational; the science it includes is not prioritized and, chances are, audience members will end up tuning most of it out.

On the flip side, there’s an awful lot of unexpected discussion about the existence of God. Within the first two minutes of the film, Stephen has adamantly declared that he is an atheist, while Jane has shyly admitted that she belongs to the Church of England. Like the science in the film, this back and forth about faith has no real purpose except to support the love story. For this reason, Stephen’s words about his personal philosophy at the conclusion of the film, though meant to sound like a ringing existential declaration, feel a little hollow.

So far, “The Theory of Everything” has made only a modest sum at the box office — this week underselling even “Gone Girl” (2014), which came out more than a month ago, by a wide margin — and it will likely stay that way. With so many good films in theaters right now, it’s best to save that weekend ticket for something else.

Kris Connor / Focus Features / ABACAUSA.COM

Redmayne should be recognized come award season for portrayal of scientist, Stephen Hawking.

Open Road Films / MCT

Jon Stewart’s first film brings to life the true events of Maziar Bahari’s capture and imprisonment.

Jon Stewart’s directorial debut tells story of Maziar Bahari ROSEWATER

continued from page 5

“Then They Came for Me,” weaves his account with the stories of his late father and sister’s experiences as political prisoners, Stewart focuses the film on Bahari’s individual perspective and experiences throughout.

This narrow focus can sometimes make the weight of the story feel inconsequential, but more often it reflects a sense of humility on both Stewart and Bahari’s parts. While Bahari’s experience is representative of much broader issues — the Ayatollah’s regime, youth activism in Iran, political imprisonment of journalists worldwide — Stewart and Bahari understand that they are both, to varying degrees, outsiders with access to only a slice of the story. Truly, the two minds behind this film are journalists: “Rosewater” often feels more like an emphatic account of a single set of experiences, designed to alert its audience of greater issues but never claiming authority over them.

Stewart and Bahari first encountered each other when a correspondent for “The Daily Show” interviewed Bahari for a parody segment about American spies in Iran. The interview was played for Bahari during his imprisonment and was used to interrogate him further. These events unfold in the film as well, signaling

a refreshing humor. Stewart’s eye as a filmmaker is particularly suited to capturing and portraying how Bahari found humor out of the absurdity of his imprisonment and used it to withstand isolation and sensory deprivation. The comedic moments of “Rosewater” are flashes of genius in an eloquent but restrained film.

While this is a political film that has a clear agenda, it does not aspire to educate its audience about its wider political context in the way that English-language films set in foreign countries, such as “Argo” (2012) or “The Last King of Scotland” (2006), often do.

The ideology of the film is easily digestible but also very narrow, openly and clearly crafted to use Bahari’s work to support imprisoned journalists worldwide. While an effort to better elucidate the complex politics of Iran would have contextualized and deepened this story, it is refreshing to see a film that is aware of its limits. Perhaps Bahari’s story will be retold on a wider canvas someday, but “Rosewater” is not that film, nor does it try to be.

In Stewart’s hands, Bahari’s story is distilled to a straightforward narrative, one that is ultimately powerful enough to carry “Rosewater,” and the sense of humility and humor that push the movie forward. This may not be a revolutionary or ambitious film, but it is an admirably and refreshingly sincere one.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

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THE TUFTS DAILY Alexander J. Schroeder Editor-in-Chief

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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Editorial | Op-Ed

EDITORIAL

Tufts should implement UIJ's resolution in support of undocumented students

In a crucial step to provide institutional support for undocumented immigrants applying to college, Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate passed United for Immigrant Justice’s (UIJ) “Resolution to Establish Equal Opportunity for Undocumented Students” on Sunday in a nearly unanimous vote. The resolution calls for Tufts Undergraduate Admissions to consider undocumented applicants as domestic students, instead of the current policy that considers them as international students. In addition, the resolution aims to implement uniform financial aid awards for undocumented students and improve support throughout their time at Tufts. The university should implement these policy changes, thereby making a bold move toward opening up educational opportunities for undocumented immigrants.

Increasing financial support for undocumented applicants is essential for pro-

viding access to Tufts for undocumented immigrants. Because these applicants are currently recognized as international students, the financial aid policies that apply to them do not adequately meet their needs.

Tufts should provide greater financial backing to undocumented applicants to provide the economic support that these students may realistically need in order to attend. In doing so, the university could take a concrete step toward improving its accessibility and inclusion of all students.

The deferred action for childhood arrivals (DACA) allows undocumented students to pursue a college education in the United States. However, there are many requirements to be eligible for DACA status. These include entry to the United States before one’s 16th birthday, a high school degree or General Education Development (GED) certificate, and a record clean of a felony or a significant

misdemeanor. Many undocumented students are not eligible for DACA, yet still hope to attend college and are unable to do so. The recently passed resolution calls for Tufts to recognize and include undocumented applicants both with and without DACA status.

Tufts is currently one of many colleges and universities that considers undocumented students as international students. It should become one of the first to change its policy. We call on President Monaco and the administration to implement the policies proposed by UIJ’s resolution, which has already received unprecedented levels of student support. If Tufts is centered on social justice, there is no better way to show it than to reaffirm the basic humanity of all people who live in our country, regardless of legal immigration status, by providing access to higher education.

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Off the Hill | University of Mississippi

A stiff, mustached upper lip: gender and emotion

by Morgan Philley The Daily Mississippian

Emotion, according to Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, is “an intense mental state that arises subjectively rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes.”

We learn about our feelings at a very young age through experience and formal education. Pre- and elementary schools are full of coloring sheets that display faces contorted into various expressions, or large blocky letters naming the particular emotion. Happy, sad, afraid. These are pretty basic concepts, and for the most part, by the time we’re adults, we have a pretty good handle on them, or at least can usually recognize them with a certain degree of accuracy.

So why is it that when it comes time to attributing emotions to one side of the (obviously useless) gender binary, all the blame lands squarely on women? I chose the word “blame” intentionally, because when it comes to women, emotions are always counted as a liability. The number of times that women are depicted as “emotional” or “irrational” is beyond count. For some reason it’s still considered acceptable

and even funny to wave away women’s emotions as products of their menstrual cycles (which, for the record, not all women have, and not everyone with a menstrual cycle is a woman).

There is a unique outlier in the culturally enforced female monopoly on emotions, however. Men are granted access to one emotion without any consequences: anger.

No one could argue that anger is not an emotion. It’s been on those coloring sheets since we were knee-high, right? It certainly counts as “an intense mental state,” and is indeed “accompanied by physiological changes,” and cultural depictions of men allow them to express anger without any judgment. For them, anger is seen as the default mode of being or a natural response to stressful circumstances. Of course Liam Neeson is going to lash out when his daughter has been taken for the seventh time, or the moody detective is going to punch a hole in the wall when his lead goes cold.

We’ve been culturally conditioned to see these explosions as typical responses, not as emotional outbursts that a woman would be demonized with. A female character who throws plates in response to stress would be labeled ‘hysterical.’ Walter White can kill

people and scream that he’s “the one who knocks” with impunity, but audiences will call Skyler White a bitch because she’s angry that her husband is selling meth.

Anyone who doesn’t believe men are emotional creatures has clearly never encountered a men’s rights activist blinded by his privilege and deafened by his own petulant shrieks of “Not all men!” Yes, all men do experience emotions, and yes, all men benefit from male privilege, having their anger dismissed as natural and not compromising their judgment.

I will freely admit that, as a man, I am angry. I am emotional in this situation, because I am angered and appalled by this blatant disrespect and blindness toward women. If you are a man, you have emotions. If you are a woman, you have emotions. Everyone has emotions to greater or lesser extents, and this systematic deriding of women and denial of men’s anger as a feeling is harmful and exhausting to everyone. Plus, look at the handy definition of emotion up there at the beginning of this column — that line of thinking doesn’t even make sense.

So, with all this in mind, are you feeling better yet?

Correction In a Nov. 17 article titled “Concert Board employs new marketing method for Cage Rage” it was incorrectly stated that the Tufts playlist for Cage Rage garnered 750 followers. In fact, the follower count was 450.

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

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Off the Hill | Harvard University

Reconceptualizing needles

by Ignacio Sabate

Harvard Political Review

It is estimated that in Southeast Asia there are 4.9 million people living with HIV, and the number of new infections is rising every day. More AIDS deaths occur in this region than any other region except for SubSaharan Africa. At the same time, millions are spent every year waging the war on drugs in Southeast Asia. This policy, however, is working to increase the threat of HIV in the area.

By treating drug use as a crime instead of a public health issue, drug users are pushed into precarious positions.

While governments in Southeast Asia espouse many of their drug prevention programs, the war on drugs has inadvertently increased the prevalence of HIV/AIDS amongst drug users. Aggressive drug law enforcement practices aimed at reducing the prevalence of drugs in Southeast Asia drive addicted individuals away from public health services and into environments that promote the spread of disease. Because the criminalization of the distribution of clean syringes has become integral to the efficacy of the drug war in the region, drug users are pushed to the very margins of society to find the needles they desire for their drug use. As a result, addicts are forced to share used and contaminated needles and syringes, promoting the spread of HIV/AIDS. By waging a war on drugs and treating drug use as a crime, governments have driven people toward riskier drug practices.

Southeast Asian governments’ criminalization of drugs also drives heavy drug users away from health institutions, further reinforcing the issue of HIV/AIDS. By treating drug use as a crime, the public health field becomes imbued with stigma against drug users, shaming drug addicts away from hospitals. In numerous Southeast Asian countries, health providers are often entitled to refuse patients service based on their drug use, breach promises of confidentiality, require patients to be drug-free in order to

be eligible for treatment and use official government registries to list people as current or past drug users, thereby inhibiting their ability to find jobs. Consequently, drug users have lower rates of antiretroviral therapy use and higher AIDS death rates, showing that by conditioning medical care on drug use as per the war on drugs, people at risk of infection are left out in the cold.

Measures to fight against these issues in the status quo are hardly sufficient. At a 1998 U.N. special session of the General Assembly, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations established a goal to make the region “drug-free” by 2015. Unfortunately, opium production in the Golden Triangle “has doubled over the last ten years,” and in places where opium eradication has been effective, users have simply moved on to using other drugs, mainly methamphetamines. Many studies cite the drastic regional transition from smoking opium to injecting heroin, which has presented a new demand for needles and syringes.

The U.N.’s Global Synthetic Drug Assessment states that there are increasingly large quantities of amphetamine-like synthetic drugs manufactured in East and Southeast Asia, which have driven overall drug prices down. For example, from 2002 to 2011, lower drug prices increased demand in Thailand, contributing to a rapid rise in the number of HIV-positive people receiving antiretroviral treatment.

In Malaysia, two-thirds of the entire HIVpositive population contracted the virus from injecting drugs. The unfortunate failures of the war on drugs have created a scenario where there is a clear correlation between drug use and HIV. The issue is that in many of these Southeast Asian countries, public health and drug policy are on the same legislative chopping block. As a result, with every escalation in the drug war there is a decrease in funding for public health resources. In numerous countries, such as Myanmar and Thailand, legislative officials have merely paid lip ser-

vice to public health. In fact, in the vast majority of countries in the area, most of the funding for protecting people from HIV comes from NGOs rather than the government. In the future, a reduction in funding for the drug war and a reallocation of those funds toward public health may yield tangible benefits.

For the meantime, however, two of the most effective ways of combating the effects of the war on drugs on public health are syringe exchange programs and supervised injection centers. Indeed, even in an early 1997 study, researchers found that HIV prevalence increased by approximately six percent per year in 52 cities around the globe that lacked syringe exchange programs. Countries in the region that already have syringe exchange programs include Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar and Taiwan, but such locations require buyers to present certification, a legal status that functionally excludes current drug addicts. The effectiveness of syringe exchange programs has already been established in many countries, such as Estonia, where the number of injectors who came in contact with HIV halved after the introduction of the syringe exchange program. Similarly, supervised injection facilities, where drug users can inject their illicit drugs under the supervision of medical staff and with clean needles and syringes, have proven to increase the number of people pursuing addiction treatment, reduce the percent of people injecting drugs and decrease the spread of HIV. Through these simple policies, Southeast Asian countries can at least begin to tackle the issue of the spread of HIV via drug use.

By fundamentally changing the way drugs are viewed in Southeast Asia and treating drug use as a health concern as opposed to a crime, it becomes evident that the spread of HIV can at least be slowed. People in the region have had to put up with far too much violence and casualties to bear an ineffective and, in many regards, detrimental war on drugs.

Off the Hill | University of Southern California

Politically charged street art should be valued

by Veronica An

The Daily Trojan

Street art posters labeling U.S. Representative Maxine Waters as a “poverty pimp” sparked controversy in the communities of California’s 43rd District, which was impacted by the signs. The posters are reminiscent of works by street artists Robbie Conal and Shepard Fairey. Though the “poverty pimp” posters make a strong statement, they blur the line between street art and political campaign tactics. Artists should not be penalized for addressing political themes in their works. Street art can be directly connected to political campaigns without losing value a form of art.

Despite their political message, the “poverty pimp” posters seem to fit better into the realm of street art than campaign tools. Graffiti is generally thought of as unwarranted vandalizing of public spaces, while the term “street art” does not carry such a negative connotation.

According to Examiner.com, “Street art is basically art created by any artist not sanctioned by a gallery or commissioning body of some sort.”

In addition, as Examiner.com added, the purpose behind this type of art is to comment on “socially relevant themes, or, in other words, a protest of some sort,” which explains why authorities tend to respond so negatively to street art. Last month, council members of Clacton-onSea, England removed a racially charged Banksy mural. The pseudonymous yet renowned artist is known for creating works that address sensitive topics, such as war, surveillance and poor working conditions, often making political statements about them.

In order to prevent similarly provocative art pieces, some counties have laws prohibiting non-commissioned street art. The Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs has a lengthy application and review process for all street murals.

According to the Department of Cultural Affairs’ website, this process includes an application, a community meeting, an initial review and a final review of the proposed work. Though the Department of Cultural Affairs aims to promote creativity in the community, this process undermines the spontaneity and uncensored expression typified by street art.

Freedom of expression allows individuals to critique institutions, which shouldn’t confine artistic works. Even seemingly mild forms of censorship, such as the prohibition of street art, can greatly infringe upon freedoms. Artistic expression is the mark of a democratic society and should be respected. Without the guarantee of uncensored expression, society is unable to acknowledge alternate perspectives and risks becoming close-minded. Even though politically tinged street art might make the viewer uncomfortable, it provokes thought and challenges the viewer to reconsider his or her perspective; it is essential in creating a dialogue about sensitive topics. Street art is accessible. The large scale and public location of street art makes it the ideal medium to address issues that concern the community. Instead of being confined to art institutions, it confronts the viewer in his or her own environment.

It is site-specific; the message depends on the context in which it is created and cannot be moved. This makes street art all the more powerful — it sends a direct message that resonates with the immediate community.

9

Op-Ed

Despite ongoing legal battles over graffiti and its presence in urban spaces, artists should not be restricted by harsh backlash from the community. Street art is a valuable expression of freedom, and raises sensitive issues that impact surrounding communities. If artistic production is based solely on political correctness, then confrontational works — including the murals by Los Angeles artist Free Humanity — would not have been possible. Though these works are bound to ruffle some feathers, their potential to create much-needed dialogue outweighs their confrontational nature.

Uninhibited art can expose injustices and promote social change. Street art is a wholly democratic form of expression; it is not exclusive to galleries or museums, but meant for collective viewing. Last month, pseudonymous Los Angeles street artist Skid Robot painted murals depicting the dreams and aspirations of the homeless.

In a statement to the Huffington Post, Robot said, “I’m drawing attention to a human being who more often than not is looked at as nonexistent.”

Though street art might not address the most comfortable topics, it is a testament to freedom of expression and allows artists to raise thought-provoking questions in public spaces. Art should not be restricted to institutions or bounded by topical constraints. Instead, it should be the voice in and of the community.

Just as the “poverty pimp” posters demonstrate, street art can have a political tone without losing its value as a work of art. It can incite action and create a public dialogue in ways other forms of expression cannot. Whether stenciled on the streets or pasted on the side of a building, the value of street art is more than just a can of spray paint.

Henry Jani | Reply All

LOL at your palooza

D

ear concert-goers, You get your freak on, boys and girls. In light of Tufts’ annual Cage Rage blowout, I’ve been thinking about the concerts I’ve attended in my days. I think I’m pretty familiar with that weird sweat/peculiar scent status that can be found at every musical performance.

But from grandiose arena shows to sketchy dive bars (RIP Peabody’s in Cleveland and its numerous toilets but mysterious lack of stalls), general motifs and habits recur throughout each scenario. That’s right, from Bjork to Beastie Boys, Nelly to Nickleback (yikes), Madonna to MC Hammer, each venue will have concert faux pas perpetrators. So take these few admonishments, and it’ll be smooth sailing at your next concert. Unless it’s Nickleback.

Or Creed. All hope is lost there, so go wild.

First off, phone usage. Many major artists, such as The Eagles and Prince, have created policies against cell phone usage at concerts in efforts to displace the negative effects of modern technology and new cultural norms. Basically, the idea is that if you’re recording or taking pictures at a performance, the experience and purity of the artist’s work is ruined. And I completely agree. A few snapshots, maybe even a 30 second video, are the limit. Anything past this threshold completely jeopardizes the ability of experiencing a concert in the intended style and atmosphere. But most importantly, cell phones are huge aggravators to anyone else behind you trying to enjoy the show. One time, someone in front of me pulled out an iPad during the middle of a concert and recorded a third of the set with it. So put down your tablet-sized phones and watch the show through your eyes, not through a screen.

In a similar realm as the phone recorders are poster-bearers. Everyone knows that you love the artist if you are at the concert. But if a tri-fold is brought up during the third song of the set, you’re doing it wrong. There’s a very, very low chance that the performer will be able to read whatever you wrote to him, but the probability of the people behind you being very angry is EXTREMELY high. If you want the artist you’re watching to get a message, tweet at her. Send a zealous letter. Locate his house and throw a rock with a note through a window. Whatever you need to do. Just leave the posters at home.

Next are the hardcore viewers. Getting into the music at a concert is great, and generally is what musicians hope for. But there’s a cap to be respected. I’ll use an anecdote from one of my friends to expound upon this notion. The Orwells, a rock band from Illinois, were performing in our hometown.

This band, like many others, has attained a solid groupie following. The organizers kicked my friend in an unfortunate occurrence involving the group’s leader, honey and on-stage vomiting. Another kid broke his kneecap in a similar occurrence. Getting rowdy at a show does not imply unnecessary injury toward others. Also, it seems like everyone is trying to mosh or crowd surf at every concert now. Nine times out of 10, you look like a douche. Especially if it’s at an Ariana Grande concert.

A last group of perpetrators are the concert-lovers. The heat of the moment, natural attraction, adrenaline — whatever.

Some PDA is acceptable, but if I can only see the artist on stage through tongue, something’s wrong. Plus, you’re just asking to break a tooth if the show is packed.

Drunk teenage girls are likely responsible for keeping dentists in business from concert-related injuries. So go ahead and smooch at concerts if you want, but please have your insurance card ready.

Keep it classy, Henry

Henry Jani is a first-year who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at henry.jani@tufts.edu.

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

10

The Tufts Daily

FOR RELEASE NOVEMBER 18, 2014

Crossword

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Doonesbury

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis

ACROSS 1 Italian scooter 6 Weird 11 “This is so frustrating!”

14 Sharon of Israel 15 Old-timey “Yikes!”

16 Coventry bathroom 17 Like a fajita pan 19 Perrier, to Pierre 20 Casual Friday top 21 FAO Schwarz specialty 22 Turn away 24 __ vivant 25 Tiny bit 27 Daisy-plucking words 33 Farm or home ending 34 Troubles 35 “Now __ me down to sleep ...”

37 James of “The Godfather” 38 Count Chocula wear 39 Turn on a pivot 40 Start of many Internet addresses 41 Actor Thicke 42 “I can take __!”

43 To the point 46 Bonny girl 47 Owned 48 Hangout for some 38-Down 51 Word spoken while pointing 53 Short change?

56 Month after avril 57 Not a likely chance, and, literally, a hidden feature of 17-, 27- and 43Across 61 Pre-holiday time 62 Part of USNA 63 “Keen!”

64 Twin of Bert Bobbsey 65 Picket fence parts 66 Barbershop band?

By Marti DuGuay-Carpenter

DOWN 1 Like outer space 2 Weird-sounding lake 3 Clothing label number 4 Candy in a collectible dispenser 5 With everything accounted for 6 Choosing word 7 Omelet base 8 Cheering syllable 9 Binding words 10 Real __ 11 Delight 12 Crowd cacophony 13 Defeat decisively 18 Prefix with sphere 23 Disappeared 24 Skinny sort 25 Hawaii component 26 Siberian city 27 Box score numbers 28 Moor 29 Luxurious homes 30 Online finance company

11/18/14

Monday’s Puzzle Solved Monday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

31 Stan’s partner 32 Gibe 33 UCLA or USC 36 To this point 38 Some strays 42 Rouses from bed 44 Synthetic fibers 45 In pumps, say 48 “So be it!”

49 Volcano output 50 Burden for some debtors 51 Future atty.’s

11/18/14

exam 52 Many Manets 53 Blacken on the grill 54 Four-legged Emerald City visitor 55 Halt 58 “Friendly Skies” co.

59 New Deal energy prog.

60 Put in rollers

www.marriedtothesea.com

Unscramble these four Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.

HGILT ©2014 Tribune Content Agency, LLC All Rights Reserved.

ALEIG TOCLEK

Find us on Facebook http//www.facebook.com/jumble

by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

NARMEN

SUDOKU Level: Procrastinating over Thanksgiving break.

Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.

“

-

Yesterday’s

by Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur by Wiley

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

Answer here:

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Comics

”

(Answers tomorrow) Jumbles: GIVEN DIVOT SAFETY ABRUPT Answer: After wearing his uniform for three days straight, Beetle was — FATIGUED

Late Night at the Daily

Monday’s Solution

Nick: “I got lost in Google Maps today.”

Please recycle this Daily.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014 Wanted

The Tufts Daily Services

$$SPERM DONORS WANTED$$ Earn up to $1,500/month for less than 5 hours’ time.

Help families through California Cryobank’s donor program.

Apply online: SPERMBANK.com

11

Sports

Housing

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

Jumbos look to improve on last season’s 13th place finish at nationals WOMEN’S XC

continued from back

of the race at the top of the largest hill on the course. Middlebury senior and NESCAC champion Alison Maxwell was second overall, just out-kicking Gould in 21:48.8, while MIT sophomore Sarah Quinn, who has dominated Div. III all season, ran away with the individual title in 21:39.9. Fahey returned to form as the Jumbos’ number-two runner, earning herself All-New England status with her 32nd place finish in 22:52.2. Junior Olivia Beltrani was a few ticks behind, placing 44th in 23:04.4.

Sophomore Alice Wasserman was next for Tufts, placing 53rd overall in 23:20.0, and junior Michele de Mars rounded out the scoring for the Jumbos, claiming 75th place in 23:44.0. First-year Sara Stokesbury finished sixth for the Jumbos, placing 76th in 23:45.1, while sophomore Sam Cox, fresh off a quality performance at last week’s ECAC meet, was seventh for the Jumbos in 78th place in 23:46.9.

“Ideally, we were racing for fourth or fifth place, but we ended up coming in sixth.” Fahey said. “Because of that we were anxious to hear back if we would

receive an at-large bid for nationals, but we were hopeful because we had a strong season leading up to the championship races.”

De Mars, Tufts’ fifth runner, explained that her strategy for the race was to start conservatively.

“I knew I wanted to go out more conservatively than I did at NESCACs, so I was aiming for a more controlled first mile,” de Mars said. “Then I focused on using my teammates to push me through. All season, we have done well when we race together, and Saturday was no exception.”

“The key for us as a team for the meet was to stay relaxed and focused,” Fahey said. “We always want to run every race like we run our workouts.”

The energy of the “Tufts crazies,” as they are known, also pushed the girls to their limits in their races. Over 100 members of the cross country and track teams, as well as members of the men’s and women’s crew teams, made the trek all the way out to Williamstown, clad in brown and blue body paint.

“The energy of over 100 Tufts students covered in body paint holding giant heads of the runners and waving the Tufts flag was surreal,” Fahey said. “They

lined the course and chanted cheers that motivated all of us to run faster. We had by far the largest fan turnout at the meet, and we were thankful that we have such a supportive fanbase.”

“Suddenly, as the gun went off, we became swept up in the energy and the ‘crazies’ lining the course,” de Mars added.

Although the team started off strongly, faltering slightly in the championship part of the season, de Mars had nothing but praise for the squad.

“I was extremely proud of all the work we put in this season and the great strides that many of our girls have made,” she said. “Obviously, I thought we deserved a spot at nationals, and I was hoping the committee would agree, but I knew that either way I am extremely grateful to be apart of TUXC.” The Jumbos will head to Mason, Ohio on Thursday for Saturday’s National Championship meet.

Last year, the team finished 13th overall at this meet. The Jumbos lost four of last year’s top seven due to graduation, but will still aim for a better performance as they have a strong group of girls with the potential to get the team a top-10 finish.

Courtesy Alyssa Rivas

Sophomore Alice Wasserman leads a pack of runners through the course. An at-large bid resulted in the teams heading to Nationals.

Jumbos display both offensive and defensive dominance in tournament win WOMEN’S BASKETBALL continued from back

preaches fundamentally sound defense, which leads to easy scores. Coach has instilled a sense of urgency on the defensive end, and when our defense has high energy and great communication, the offense follows suit.”

Both teams were slow out of the gate, due to a great extent to each other’s gritty defense.

They combined for a mere 13 points in the first 10 minutes.

Tufts led 28-21 at the half, and six minutes into the second period, sophomore guard Josie Lee connected on a 3-pointer to extend the lead to 40-30.

“We were familiar with UNE and their style of play,” Foley said. “They have almost the exact same personnel as last year, so I think we prepared really well on the defensive end. We knew what hurt us last year, and we weren’t going to let that happen again. Offensively, we struggled at times with their zone, which they execute very

well. I think it is in part due to how early in the year it is, but people stepped up and made shots and plays when we needed them, and that pulled us through.”

UNE senior forward Kelly Coleman, who was ubiquitous on the floor, went nine-for-10 from the free throw line, sinking two of her 20 total points, which led all scorers from the stripe with about six-and-ahalf minutes remaining to bring the score to 50-48. That was as close as things would get, however, as senior tri-captain Kelsey Morehead drained her lone 3-pointer of the day to ice the game. A smattering of points here and there, a timely turnover and a clutch 3-pointer — that was the winning formula.

The day before, Tufts took on Keene St. to begin its season. Whereas the championship game brought Tufts’ defensive prowess to the fore, the first game showcased Tufts’ offensive skills.

After a 9-point deluge in the first four minutes, Tufts never looked back en route to a resounding 79-48 win over Keene St. Tufts’ smothering defense hounded its opponents throughout the contest, holding them to 32.2 percent shooting, while the offense was firing on all cylinders.

“In the Keene St. game, I thought we were doing a good job of attacking and hitting open shots, which allowed me to get good positioning for offensive boards and easy put-backs if they didn’t fall,” Kanner said.

Foley and Kanner led the way, with Foley hitting four of five from downtown and Kanner sinking eight baskets.

Both grabbed six rebounds and recorded two assists.

Morehead, running the point, dished out seven assists.

Having secured the lead for good, Tufts emptied its bench and was rewarded with some quality court time from its reserves. In particular, firstyear forward Melissa Baptista

made the most of her minutes, as she scored 10 points on fourof-10 shooting and nabbed six rebounds, three of them on the offensive glass. She also flashed her defensive skills to the tune of five steals, and was perfect from the foul line.

“Because of the depth that we have, other teams have a tough time matching up to us,” Morehead said. “A lot of teams are worried about defending our posts inside that they will give our guards more room to shoot.”

The gaudy stats — 50.8 percent from the field overall, 71.4 percent from deep — made it seem as though there was no long, intervening offseason, that Tufts had transitioned seamlessly from a grueling NCAA tournament back to the regular season.

It is unanimously held among the team that, while Tufts was pleased with its showing, and regardless of the individual accolades (Foley’s MVP award and Kanner’s all-tournament team selection), there remains

work to be done.

“I think this weekend’s success was a great steppingstone to where we want to be,” Morehead said. “We especially knew that UNE was a very solid team, and we knew that they really wanted to beat us after our close game with them in the NCAAs last year.

I think the win showed some of our toughness, but I think this weekend also showed a lot of the things we need to work on to become an even better team.”

“It’s a very long season, and we have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be in March,” Foley said. “But we are just taking it one day at a time, getting back after it tomorrow at practice to prepare for our game Tuesday. We really just want to get better every day.”

The Jumbos will have the opportunity to do so Tuesday, when they kick off a two-game homestand against Hartwick College at Cousens Gym.

Sixth place finish at Regional Championship earns Jumbos an NCAA Championship bid MEN’S XC

continued from back

were right by the field again, and you could hear everyone cheering, and it was just amazing to have so many fans out … I’m just really glad that we got so many people out cheering on such a cold day. I think we had … 70 bodies out there, which, three hours away, shows a lot of commitment.”

For O’Connor, making nationals means another opportunity to improve. He predicts that the team will set a lot of personal

records on the flat Ohio course because most of the courses in the Northeast are hilly, resulting in slower times.

According to Nichols, the team was excited to qualify for nationals because it meant that the seniors on the team would get the chance to race again.

“We have four seniors in our top seven,” Nichols said. “I think it means a lot to them to end their cross country careers on a really great note, and going to nationals is … the ultimate goal of the year, so I think

everybody is really pleased and super, super hyped up about it.”

The team’s strong performance in the post-season thus far has resulted in the Jumbos jumping in national ranking from 29th to 24th, and they now hope to exceed those expectations. This improvement is due in part to rapid improvement from the underclassmen on the team, which bodes well for the team at nationals. Nichols and O’Connor hope to improve on their performances from the meet last season.

“Last year, I finished 100th, so [I'm aiming for] maybe top 75, top 50,” Nichols said. “I don’t know what the team will be able to do. I think we are ranked in the mid-20’s in the nation, so I think to aim somewhere around there for a team standing would be good.”

Both Nichols and O’Connor were impressed with Enos’s performance at the NCAA Regional Championship meet. He began the season slowly due to injury, but has been improving consistently with each successive race.

“Enos, as a freshman, he’s been getting better and better each race, and it’s been a pleasure watching him get better as a runner,” O’Connor said. “I really appreciated [my] freshman regionals experience, and I think him getting that experience is going to do wonders for him later on, even carrying on to this next weekend.”

The Jumbos will travel to Mason, Ohio on Saturday to take on the other 31 schools that qualified for the Div. III Championship.

Sports

12

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s Cross Country

Sophomore duo leads Tufts to Nationals

by Phillip Goldberg Contributing Writer

For the fourth straight year, the Tufts men’s cross-country team has earned a bid to the Div. III Championship meet. The Jumbos finished sixth at the NCAA Regional Championship meet on Saturday with a score of 165 to earn the last at-large bid to nationals from the New England region. Colby won the meet with a score of 63 points, followed closely by Amherst (69) and MIT (70). Williams and Middlebury finished fourth and fifth respectively, and MIT was the lone non-NESCAC team to earn a bid from the Northeast.

Sophomores Tim Nichols and Luke O’Connor finished ninth and 17th, respectively, to lead the Jumbos and earn All-New England honors for their top 35 finishes. Senior Nicholas Guarnaccia was third for Tufts and 44th overall. Senior Colin McCrory and firstyear Ty Enos rounded out the Jumbos scoring, finishing 47th and 48th. Senior captain Marshall Pagano fell early in the race, but still managed to finish 85th, two seconds ahead of Tufts senior Greg Hardy, who finished 90th.

The Jumbos were unsure of whether or not they had made nationals at the conclusion of meet because only the top two teams are guaranteed bids. The strength of the New England region usually means more teams from the region get bids, but talented teams nevertheless often miss the cut.

“After everybody finished, I think a lot of the runners on our team were kind of antsy because they knew we got sixth, but they didn’t know if it was quite good enough for us to go [to nationals],” Nichols said. “We were just on the border of getting in … but I think compared to the rest of the country, we definitely deserve to [compete at nationals]. Our conference is very competitive.”

The race was held on Saturday at Mount Greylock High School in Williamstown, Mass. Despite the sunny sky, the temperature hovered around 35 degrees. Nichols explained that the Jumbos had run the course before, but the the temperature was nearly 80 degrees the first time.

The main feature of the course is a large hill that racers must surmount twice. According to O’Connor, some runners can have trouble with the hill, especially the second time around.

He was encouraged by the team’s improvement from the first time they ran the course.

“Times from last time we were there improved a lot,” O’Connor said. “Guys dropped a lot of time from Purple Valley earlier this season to regionals, which is exciting, so I want to see how that translates to a flat course.”

O’Connor noted that the solid turnout among fans was beneficial to the runners.

“We had a lot of fans come out, a

Courtesy Alyssa rivas

Tufts placed 6th at the NCAA Regional Championship meet on Nov. 15. lot of alumni come out, and they were just cheering and yelling, so it’s actually kind of deafening just running by them … but that really gets you excited,” O’Connor said. “It’s great because there were little bits in the woods loop where you came out, and you see MEN’S XC, page 11

women’s Basketball

Tufts begins season with tournament win at Ramada Invitational

by Sam Gold

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts women’s basketball team enters its season as the team to beat in the NESCAC, and in the entire north-

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL (2-0 Overall, 0-0 NESCAC) at Biddeford, Maine, Sunday Tufts UNE

28 21

35 37

— —

63 58

at Biddeford, Maine, Saturday Keene St. Tufts

22 41

26 38

— —

48 79

east, coming off a season in which it reached the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. The Jumbos began the season competing in the Ramada Roundball Invitational at University of New England (UNE) this weekend.

“After reaching the Final Four, we now have a huge target on our backs,”

Nicholas Pfosi / The Tufts Daily

Junior center Hayley Kanner attempts a layup in a 55-35 victory over Castleton in the NCAA tournament Mar. 14. senior tri-captain guard Hannah Foley said. “We know everyone will play their best game against us, and we will be

giving them our best game as well.”

“We treat every game like we are playing the best team in the country,” she said. “Especially the first game of the season, you can’t think at all about how you or your opponent were in the past. It is a new season and a new team. I think we had to shake off some first-game jitters and rust, but we’ve been working really hard this fall, and we were excited to show how hard we have worked.”

In the tournament’s championship game, Tufts faced off against UNE in a rematch of last year’s second-round NCAA tournament thriller in which Liz Moynihan (LA ’14) launched a 3-pointer in the waning seconds of overtime to dash UNE’s championship aspirations. Points came primarily in short bursts as both offenses were kept at bay, which suited the Jumbos’ game plan.

“Everyone’s role is primarily defense,” senior tri-captain forward Hayley Kanner said. “Our program see WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, page 11

Women’s Cross Country

Jumbos earn at-large bid to Nationals

by Chris Warren Daily Editorial Board

This past weekend, the women’s cross country team went into the NCAA Div. III New England Regional Championship in Williamstown, Mass., determined to punch their ticket to the NCAA Championship meet held next weekend in Mason, Ohio. Although the race didn’t go as planned, the Jumbos placed sixth overall, and because of the depth of the New England region, they were able to earn an at-large bid to the national meet.

The top two teams from each region qualify for the national championships automatically, while the teams who place third through sixth wait to see if their efforts earn them an at-large bid to

the meet. Typically, most regions in the nation may earn one or two at-large bids, but due to New England’s depth, this year’s committee chose four teams from the region to race at nationals, in additional to the two automatic bids given to the top two teams in the region. A number of factors go into the decision, including performance at the regional meet as well as teams’ performances throughout the season. The Jumbos had a strong start to their season this fall, capped off by a US No. 10 national ranking in the middle of the season, which gave them a strong case to be considered for nationals.

Temperatures at Mount Greylock High School were in the mid-30s.

Although there was a coating of snow covering much of the area, the ground

was soft and compact, setting the stage for relatively fast times over the challenging course.

“The race was a lot colder than it was the last time we raced at Williams at the Purple Valley Classic in September, where temperatures were in the 80s,” sophomore Kelly Fahey said. “It was definitely more challenging, but coach Morwick bought us gloves and long sleeves to wear under our uniforms, which really helped take the chill off.”

Junior Audrey Gould led the Jumbo herd with her third-place, 21:51.8 time over the six-kilometer course. She hung tight in the pack for most of the race, before making her move toward the end see WOMEN’S XC, page 11

Sam Gold | The Gold Standard

A porous defense

T

hanks to Michael Sokolove of The New York Times Magazine, we can now trace the evolution of the class action suit, initiated by the intrepid lawyer Jason Luckasevic, against the NFL on behalf of countless former players.

It’s a riveting read, a glimpse into power dynamics of the most lopsided kind.

Importantly, Sokolove is careful not to romanticize the current situation; he understands how quixotic an undertaking it is. Nonetheless, as it nears its conclusion, his article dangles a glimmer of hope: Pop Warner statistics (“Between 2010 and 2012, Pop Warner, the nation’s largest youth-football program, experienced a 10 percent drop in participation after years of steady growth”); testimony from a clinical neuropsychologist (“we now know that players are suffering repeated insults to the parts of the brain that cause changes in behavior”); and by drawing a comparison, however far-fetched, to the decline of the cigarette industry.

Parents have steered clear of football en masse, funneling their children instead into soccer or baseball. Yet this exodus has been overshadowed by a rise, conversely, in popularity at the professional level, which enjoys unprecedented support among women. (Let us not forget that a spate of domestic violence cases has befallen the NFL this calendar year alone.) It seems that the NFL and its employees can do no wrong enough to diminish its fan base.

Not even the untimely death of former Minnesota Vikings safety, Orlando Thomas, a little more than a week ago will move the needle. Tragedies like these nowadays are as common as they are woefully underreported, and, although the reluctance to politicize death is understandable, talking heads never broach the culpability of the NFL to any depth. If death himself, that irrevocable force of nature, can’t bring his scythe to bear on public opinion, then the antiNFL brigade will need to mount a Herculean effort just to make a dent.

Luckasevic, to his credit, is giving it a shot. Despite the overwhelming odds, he has embarked on a one-man crusade — commandeered along the way by bigger, more established firms — to right an egregious wrong. His client list is seemingly endless, and growing, and it consists entirely of former players.

That his clients are all retired is telling, but unsurprising. Active players do not want to lock horns with their bosses for obvious reasons. To be blacklisted from their livelihoods would spell financial ruin for most of these players; many have to provide not only for themselves and their families, but for posses — mooching holdovers from childhood — and jilted ex-wives and girlfriends. His clients also have a distinct advantage in a case predicated on assumption of risk: they didn’t know.

“But my guys didn’t know,” Luckasevic said, differentiating between President Obama’s position on the contemporary game, on which he elaborated in an interview with The New Yorker from earlier this year, and the lack of knowledge on the part of his clients.

Moreover, while “they understood that they were giving their bodies over to football … they did not realize they were also putting their intellectual and emotional well-being at risk,” writes Sokolove. Substantive research on any lingering effects, such as permanent brain damage, from football was only conducted long after these players had entered the league. Therefore, given the wealth of information that has circulated since then, this does not bode well for younger guys aspiring to the same fame and fortune.

It remains to be seen whether active players will likewise be compensated for similar injuries, but it will almost certainly be more difficult for them to profess ignorance.

Sam Gold is a senior majoring in religion.

He can be reached at samuel_l.gold@tufts. edu. He is also a Sports Editor at the Tufts Daily.