TuftsDaily04-04-2013

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THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Thursday, April 4, 2013

VOLUME LXV, NUMBER 45

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Kappa Alpha Theta to join Greek community by

Lizz Grainger

Daily Editorial Board

caroline geiling / the tufts daily

Tufts Votes is encouraging students to vote in the upcoming special election.

Massachusetts to hold special election for Senate seat

As candidates line up for a special statewide election to fill a seat on the U.S. Senate following the appointment of former Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) as U.S. Secretary of State for President Barack Obama’s second term, Jumbos have mobilized yet again to register their fellow students to vote and by

Hannah Fingerhut

Daily Editorial Board

advocate for candidates on both sides of the aisle.

The state primary for the Democratic and Republican Parties will take place on April 30, with the election set for June 25. Congressman Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) are vying for the Democrats’ nomination, while former Naval Special Warfare Lieutenant

Commander Gabriel Gomez, former U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and Massachusetts State Representative and Tufts alumnus Daniel Winslow (R-Norfolk) (A’ 80) have announced their candidacies for the Republican nod.

Junior Jacob Wessel has been leading Tufts Votes in its efforts to encourage students to regissee ELECTION, page 2

Tufts Panhellenic Council (PhC) last week voted to extend invitations to two new sororities — Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Gamma Delta — to join the Tufts Greek community.

Kappa Alpha Theta will begin recruitment for the chapter on campus in the fall, while Alpha Gamma Delta will establish a presence on campus in one to three years, according to Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Su McGlone.

PhC approved the recommendation issued earlier in the month by the sorority extension committee, led by Director of Programming for PhC Alexandra Horvitz and comprised of two undergraduate members, one alumna from each sorority, PhC President Carolyn Pruitt and McGlone.

The new sororities were chosen from a pool of four finalists that also included Gamma Phi Beta and Kappa Kappa Gamma, McGlone said.

The search for new sororities began last year when an announcement was sent out to the National Panhellenic Conference, which consists of 26 different national sororities, including Tufts’ three existing chapters, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi and Chi Omega.

The committee based its selection in part on Kappa Alpha

Theta’s and Alpha Gamma Delta’s unique philanthropic efforts and strong member development program, according to McGlone.

“We really like the support structures they are able to offer,” she said. “They are both groups that are able to bring something new and unique to the community in a way that’s really going to complement the community and complement what we already have.”

Pruitt, a senior, explained that the committee was particularly drawn to Kappa Alpha Theta’s philanthropic work with Court Appointed Special Advocates, an organization that recruits and trains volunteers to represent abused and neglected children in the judicial system.

“That’s something that none of the other organizations on our campus currently have anything related to, and there really isn’t anything in the Tufts broader community that’s specifically related to that kind of topic, so we felt that would bring something new to our campus,” she said.

Alpha Gamma Delta won the committee’s vote because of its initiative for each class of seniors to create a legacy project involving the community, according to Pruitt.

Horvitz, a sophomore, said Kappa Alpha Theta will be eligible for a house after three years on campus. The chapter see GREEK, page 2

Annual symposium to tackle future of water by

Daniel Gottfried

Daily Editorial Board

The fourth annual, studentorganized, Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) Interdisciplinary Water Symposium will take place tomorrow in Cohen Auditorium, featuring water experts and a discussion of water and agriculture in countries around the world.

This year’s symposium, titled “Feeding Ourselves Thirsty: The Future of Water and Food Production,” focuses on the interactions between water, food and large-scale agricultural systems, Tufts Student Organization Committee member Kate McMahon said.

“We wanted to make sure that the conversation about water in our food system is part of the broader conversation that is already happening about water, climate change and resource constraints, as well as making sure that those who are working on food systems and other areas related to food are considering water as something that is important,” McMahon, a first-year student at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said.

The issues to be discussed at

the symposium are relevant to all global citizens, she added.

“This is very much a necessary conversation that people in any form of study need to be thinking about,” McMahon said.

“I think that as the planet continues to warm, and we have more people and a hotter planet, we are going to have a lot of choices to make about how we are using our water sources.”

The 24 students organizing the event are members of the WSSS program, an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program comprised of students from multiple graduate programs at Tufts, according to Faculty Committee Chair of WSSS John Durant.

“The students have had the leading role in organizing this symposium and have done so every year,” he said. “It is a yearlong effort for them to conceive of, fundraise for and develop and plan the symposium.”

Craig Cox, senior vice president for agriculture and resources at the Environmental Working Group, and Roberto Lenton, founding executive director of the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of see WATER, page 2

MCT

The fourth annual Water: Systems, Science and Society (WSSS) Interdisciplinary Water Symposium, taking place tomorrow in Cohen Auditorium, will feature discussions about global water and agricultural issues.

Inside this issue

Today’s sections

Students and alumni dive into a growing startup world.

Brunch restaurants make Ball Square a mainstay for the breakfast crowd.

see FEATURES, page 3

see WEEKENDER, page 5

News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

9 12 13 Back

The Tufts Daily

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News

Thursday, April 4, 2013

New sororities head to Tufts GREEK

continued from page 1

will host events and meetings in available venues on campus until they have a house, according to Pruitt.

Kappa Alpha Theta will be fully chartered and ready for formal recruitment by January 2014, at which time it will be able to recruit up to the average chapter size of approximately 100 members, according to McGlone.

“There’s a structure in place, and there’s the philanthropies that they’re going to be doing that already exist,” she said. “[Students] can join and be a part of over 100 years of history in this organization, but at the same time they get to be part of something new, so it’s that really nice combination of legacy and new at the same time.”

Kappa Alpha Theta’s national organization will send two leadership consultants to campus to recruit sophomores, juniors and seniors in September to begin the new chapter, according to McGlone.

“They will be teaching that first class how to be a sorority, and they will work with Panhellenic to learn how to be a sorority at Tufts,” she said.

The leadership consultants will remain on campus for one or two years, and the national organization will check in periodically with the new chapter to ensure the process is going smoothly, McGlone said.

Tufts’ three existing chapters will help the new sorority navigate campus, McGlone said.

Existing chapters may hold mock recruitment events to help the new sorority acclimate to Tufts Greek life, she added.

“We’re going help them out and show

courtesy jessica kahn

Two new sororities, Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Gamma Delta, will join the Tufts Greek community in the coming years. support for that fact that they’re here,” Horvitz said. “We want women to be joining their chapter because it’s really an amazing time for our campus.”

The new sororities will provide oppor-

tunities for women on campus for whom the existing sororities may not have been the right fit, Horvitz said.

“It’s going to be an exciting time for not only the Greek community, but the Tufts

Tufts Votes revives voter registration efforts ELECTION

continued from page 1

Caroline geiling / the Tufts Daily

Tufts Votes is encouraging students to register to vote to elect a new Massachusetts senator. The Democratic and Republican primaries will take place on Apr. 30, while the election itself is on Jun. 25.

ter before the April 10 deadline to vote in the June contest — the only election that is taking place in the country at this time.

“We are registering voters right up until that deadline,” Wessel said. “We luckily registered a lot of people in the fall, but a lot of people registered in their home states because they lived in a swing state. ... We’re trying to get them to switch the registration to Massachusetts because this is where the vote will matter at this time, and they should know that they can always switch back.”

Tufts Votes is currently compiling a list of the addresses of residence halls — after checking with the Medford City Clerk s Office and registrar of Medford voters — to ensure that students properly fill out the registration forms, according to Wessel.

When registering, students must fill in the actual address of

Panelists to explore link between water and agriculture

WATER

continued from page 1

Nebraska, will deliver keynote addresses at the event.

The symposium will also include three panels discussing agricultural water contamination, demand for resources and sustainable water-resource management, according to McMahon.

These are issues in need of solutions, especially in regions of the world where water is scarce, Durant said.

“Some kinds of agricultural systems use a tremendous amount of water, so we are reducing the amount of available water in our rivers and our aquifers and food production,” he said. “This is critical because it becomes just another competing factor for this dwindling resource.”

The WSSS program partnered with the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst to sponsor the symposium, Durant said.

“Just by their participation in organizing the conference [and] helping us run the poster session, they are bringing in a

large audience,” he said.

According to current registration information, over 200 people will be in attendance at the symposium, McMahon said.

“We expect that there will be a group that is just as interdisciplinary as WSSS itself is,” she said. “We expect a large swath of folks from the Tufts graduate programs. We have been reaching out to the undergraduate campus, we’ve gotten in touch with other schools in the Boston area such as [the Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and Harvard [University] and we have also reached out to farmers in the community.”

McMahon highlighted the networking opportunities for students who attend the symposium.

“We have a lot of really interesting people coming to speak, and the opportunity to speak to these different leaders in communities that are either dealing with the impacts of water or trying to change things to make sure that we are looking at water differently in our food systems ... is really special,” she said.

community,” she said. “I’m so excited that women will be able to get what they want out of the new sorority that they couldn’t have in the other ones.”

their dorm instead of their mailing address under the line that asks for the “address where you live now.” The address at which students receive packages, which includes the dorm room number and hall name, belongs on a separate line asking for the “address where you receive all your mail.”

Beyond getting students to vote at the primary, Wessel said that Tufts Votes is also working to make sure students are able to vote in the June 25 election since most students will be home for the summer.

“We have absentee request forms that we can give to students — those will be at our registration tables. Students can fill those out and wait, or we can keep them and send them in after the April 30 primary,” Wessel said. “We want students to vote in the June 25 general election ...We will be out on campus after April 30 helping people fill out those forms.”

Police briefs

Wessel added that election season is never over and, depending on who is elected to fill Kerry’s Senate seat, another special election could follow.

Tufts Votes is also working to improve the voting process for students, especially after issues that arose during November’s presidential election when students at the Gantcher Center polling location were told they were not on the record and could not cast a ballot, he said.

“The problems of last semester have not all been solved,” Wessel explained. “We’ve been working with the Office of Community Relations, with Tisch College, with [The Office of Residential Life and Learning] to resolve some of those problems. The laws in Massachusetts for voting are not great. There are currently hearings going on in the legislature to reform them ... Hopefully things will be easier.”

Third time’s the charm

Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) and Somerville Police Department on March 30 at 1:30 a.m. reported a noise complaint at a house on Curtis Ave. Officers found 10 to 15 people there, who were all leaving when police arrived.

Officers issued a $300 noise violation because they had responded to similar complaints at the house twice before.

backyard, they discovered several people urinating from a second floor window, and a student attempted to slam a door on the hand of an officer investigating a separate disturbance on the third floor.

The officers found another 50 people hiding in one of the rooms. The residents are scheduled to meet with the Medford Chief of Police to discuss repeated disturbances at the house.

The magic ingredient

Blackout

Police on March 31 at 12:45 a.m. observed a student urinating outside of Pearson Chemical Laboratory. When officers asked him what he was doing, the student stated that he “needed to pee” and then apologized. He was reported to the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs.

Welcome to the funhouse

TUPD and the Medford Police Department on March 31 at 1:30 a.m. responded to a call about a 300-person party at a house on Bristol Rd. When officers checked the

TUPD on March 31 at 2:40 a.m. received a call from Conwell Ave. about a female student who had fallen and hit her head and was unresponsive. When officers arrived, she had been brought inside the apartment and appeared unconscious.

Her friends explained that she had struck her head on the pavement when getting out of a cab. She was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and has been released.

—compiled by Jenna Buckle

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

Tufts students, alumni dive into growing startup world by

Amelia Quinn

Daily Editorial Board

Harvard may be able to boast the founder of Facebook, but Tufts has several notable success stories of its own in the business world. Both past and current Tufts students have founded and currently run successful startup companies, and according to Getable founder Kevin Halter (A ‘03), flexibility is key to getting a startup off the ground.

“In the beginning, you need people who can wear multiple hats,” Halter said. “Whether you are on the business side or the technical side, if you don’t know how to do something, learn how to do it. So it’s exciting when you work at a smaller company, you have less resources but you learn more because you are forced to.”

Getable aims to make equipment rentals easy and manageable through mobile phones, with a broader aim to change the way that people consume.

According to Halter, Getable experienced early success partially due to good fortune procuring investors. The company raised $1.4 million a year and half ago and $1.8 million more recently.

Halter maintains, however, that money is not the only thing that matters.

“We’ve been very fortunate and I think what helps is not only selecting the right team members but selecting the right investors. If you select the right investors and are able to get them excited about your vision and the market opportunity, that can steamroll things in a good way,” Halter said. “They tell their friends and they tell their friends and the next thing you know, you have a great group of investors.”

“But I think, to raise money, you have to have a big vision,” he added You have to think big, you have to go after a big market opportunity, you have to put together a good team and you need to have a good product idea. They really need to see that you are going to try to have a ‘change the world’ type of idea,” he said.

Finding investors can be one of the major obstacles for young entrepreneurs looking to launch their own startups. A new platform called AngelList helps to connect people with potential capital investors, helping to break down the barriers that exist for those who are not initially well connected. In addition, last April Congress passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups ( JOBS) Act in support of entrepreneurship and small

courtesy Jack McDermott

Junior Jack McDermott’s startup, Balbus Speech, creates interactive speech therapy apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. business growth. The JOBS Act eases federal regulations and allows individuals to become investors in an effort to encourage small business and startup funding. Still, turning a profit remains difficult and many new companies fail.

So what does it take to create a successful startup? Forming strong partnerships, says Halter.

“You can start out solo, but usually it’s better to have a teammate because you go through a lot of extreme highs and lows, and it’s nice to have someone there to support you,” Halter said.

“You’ve really got to find some people that you see yourself working with because you are going to work long days, long hours, but it shouldn’t feel like work.”

Beginning and maintaining a startup is about balancing the early energy and excitement with a realistic business model, according to Neil Blumenthal (A’02), cofounder of Warby Parker. Warby Parker sells prescription vintage-inspired eyeglasses and sunglasses at a reasonable price.

Founded in 2010, it has largely operated through online sales but will open its first flagship retail store in New York City’s Soho neighborhood

on April 13 and a shop on Newbury Street in May. “You need a sound business idea, and the best business ideas solve real problems,” Blumenthal told the Daily in an email. “You test them by learning as much as possible about your potential customers and you build your model on that information. When it comes to execution, entrepreneurs need to be task managers. They see a cliff that needs to be jumped, and they break that leap into a million tiny steps,” he said.

Blumenthal stressed the importance of balancing personal needs with those of a target demographic, using the Warby Parker Buy a Pair, Give a Pair campaign — which distributes a pair of glasses to those in need for every pair sold — as an example.

“Pick something you’re passionate about. That’s number one. But it’s also crucial to know your client base — their taste, their motivations, what they are passionate about,” Blumenthal told the Daily. “Just because somebody identifies with your mission doesn’t mean it’s the primary incentive in their mind for doing what you want them to do, whether that’s shopping online, downloading music, whatever.”

Throwback Thursday In a remote corner of the Daily office, we discovered a dusty box of photos of Tufts from the paper’s early days.

Jonathan Grauer / Tufts Daily Archives

Freshmen in the Class of 1994 sit on the Hill for the traditional candle-lighting ceremony to celebrate their matriculation at Tufts.

Junior Jack McDermott is the CEO of Balbus Speech, which creates apps for speech therapy for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. McDermott founded his company for very personal reasons.

“I’ve stuttered my whole life, so I went through speech therapy ever since I was three, so for about 15 years I struggled a lot,” McDermott said. “Finally, when I was going into tenth grade in high school, I enrolled in an intensive speech therapy program based in Boston ... [it was] painstaking work.”

“So that’s where the idea came from, that it would be a lot better if I could not have to go into Boston every day for seven hours and use a tape player, a stopwatch, a textbook, and instead use an iPhone, and iPod touch,” he said.

Through Balbus Speech, McDermott has launched two different apps geared towards speech therapy that have been downloaded almost 10,000 times and reached over 200 schools, and is now looking towards creating a more web-based program. While his company began in his dorm room, he is working with a full team and a real office this summer.

In terms of advice for prospective entrepreneurs, McDermott kept it simple.

“Start one,” he said. “Read, and talk to as many people as possible. The sign of a new entrepreneur is someone who makes people sign contracts before they talk about their ideas, as if it’s some brilliant secret — when really it’s about talking to a lot of people, getting their feedback, and growing your idea.”

McDermott explained that founding a startup has been a unique and valuable educational experience for him.

“I’ve probably learned more from starting a company than I have in all of my classes combined over the past three years,” he said. “The way to learn is by doing, and there’s no better way to do it than by doing it for yourself.”

Tufts doesn’t have as strong of a reputation for tech startups as schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Stanford, but there is more and more happening on campus, said senior Eric Peckham, who founded Tufts Venture Fund, a student group that works to support student entrepreneurs with venture capital.

According to Peckham, Tufts has the potential to become a frontrunner due to its international focus. “[Even if ] Tufts maybe isn’t as famous for computer science, I think that we can compete ... with other schools in our own sense, where a lot of the International Relations focus and the Fletcher School can really be leveraged in terms of using technology or other kinds of business initiatives to solve problems in emerging markets,” Peckham said.

“I think that is a massive opportunity right now that more and more tech investors are trying to tap into, and I think that Tufts students more so than traditional startup schools are very aware of the problems in those parts of the world, and the intricate details about how you can go about trying to fix them,” he said.

Even as the programs geared toward supporting young entrepreneurs at Tufts expand, the core of what makes Tufts students qualified to become successful entrepreneurs runs much deeper than ELS classes, Halter said.

“I think what separates Tufts is that everyone that’s there is hardworking.

And that matters, now that I’m in a role where I hire people. Skills can be learned ... but what you can’t really teach someone is passion and work ethic and drive,” he said. “And I think that’s what’s cool about Tufts — everyone there has really high bars for work ethic and passion and drive, and that sort of stuff that’s hard to teach.”

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Weekender

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Arts & Living

Weekender

Exploring breakfast culture in Ball Square

by Veronica

Little

Daily Editorial Board

If you were to ask any Tufts student where to find Ball Square, they probably wouldn’t have much luck locating your elusive destination. Ask a Tufts student where Sound Bites is, however, and you’ll be in the center of Ball Square in no time. A sleepy area that is almost entirely encompassed by the city of Somerville, Ball Square — which is on the more docile side of Broadway — is, quite frankly, not known for much. It contains an unassuming local dance studio, a small place to purchase fine wines and liquor and a Tufts convenience store (which is anything but convenient for Tufts students).

A proverbial ghost town during the week, Ball Square stirs itself into a frenzy on weekend mornings because of the rush for the perfect breakfast or brunch. That’s right, Ball Square is the premier destination for the first meal of the day and restaurants like Sound Bites provide hungry costumers with gourmet menu items and quick service.

The culture of Ball Square is one that has become defined by the breakfast and brunch crowds, with many restaurants and businesses pandering to the needs of their early morning patrons. For some business, the breakfast rush is both a blessing and a curse. In this feature on Ball Square, the Daily has chosen to focus on three sites of business, all independently owned and founded; True Grounds, Ball Square Café and Sound Bites.

True Grounds Café and Coffee House, founded and run by owner Rhett Richard since 1994, is primarily a coffee shop on the opposite side of Broadway from Sound Bites and the Ball Square Café. With a hipster vibe and great burritos, True Grounds is not a classical outlet for breakfast foods in Ball Square. However, Richard was determined to make sure that the business that Ball Square received through the breakfast and brunch crowds became his business as well.

“Ball Square has really grown in the nine years we’ve been here. Even back then, people didn’t realize that Ball Square existed, but they knew that this is where you went to get breakfast,” said Richard. “At first, we had no interest in delving into breakfast, but because you get lines 50 people deep for a couple of hours on the weekend, we had to expand our breakfast menu significantly.”

True Grounds has branded itself as the on-the-go type of breakfast experience, with various egg sandwiches and breakfast burritos that are portable, nutritious and delicious.

However, True Grounds is not the only business in Ball attempting to entice potential breakfast goers. Ball Square Café is almost a Frankenstein of some Ball Square standbys. Founded in 2007 — making it a relative late-comer into the breakfast game — Ball Square Café was founded by Mike Moccia of Victor’s Deli, a small delicatessen immediately next door to the smaller Ball Square Café. Furthermore, Moccia teamed up with Omar Djebbouri, a chef from Sound Bites. This pairing helps to explain the similarities between Ball Square Café and its two parent businesses. Ball Square Café has the aesthetics of Victor’s Deli with a very similar menu to Sound Bites. Furthermore, Ball Square Café is only open for breakfast and for lunch, opening at 6:30 a.m.

— 3:00 p.m. daily. Their website boasts that they are “Your breakfast hot spot,” again highlighting the prevalence of the breakfast market and the importance that Ball Square Café and other

restaurants in Ball Square place on carving out a loyal breakfast time following.

Why would Ball Square Café be so desperate to mimic Sound Bites? Well, it’s simple. Sound Bites is perhaps the most well-known and adored breakfast place in Ball Square. On weekend mornings, it is not uncommon to wait for a half hour or more trying to get a table at Sound Bites. The cult mentality surrounding Sound Bites began almost immediately after it was established in 1996, according to owner and founder Yasser Mirza.

“We have always had very busy weekends. People line up out of the door,” he said.

Sound Bites offers a varied array of breakfast items, and are most known for their variations of stuffed French toast, eggs Benedict and omelets.

Furthermore, Sound Bites — just like Ball Square Café and True Grounds — serves breakfast all day. Regarding its popularity, Mirza offered this explanation: “Fresh food is what people want and that is what we serve,” he said simply. Lining the walls of Sound Bites are countless newspaper articles and magazine awards lauding and recognizing the restaurant’s high quality food and service. Most recently, Sound Bites was recognized as one of Boston’s best restaurants with a Best of Boston award in 2011 by Boston Magazine. This success is easy to envy yet not easy to emulate, so many local eateries find themselves playing second fiddle to Sound Bites during the weekends, while other business are more than content to absorb the extra business that Sound Bite brings in.

For many businesses in Ball Square, however, there are some major drawbacks to the breakfast mentality that defines the area.

“People just assume that True Grounds is a breakfast place. Granted, 75% to 80% of our business is done before one o’clock,” said Richard, owner and co-founder of True Grounds.

“My goal for True Grounds is that it will be an afternoon, early evening kind of spot. For us in Ball Square, after four o’clock there is really no reason for us to be open. Our closing time used to be nine o’clock at night and we’ve had to move that up to six o’clock. It’s not ideal.”

Even for Sound Bites, the mainstay and rock of Ball Square, the early morning mentality is forcing Mirza to create incentives for late afternoon and evening customers.

“We have started doing trivia and are starting to offer events like live jazz music and good wines and beers to equalize the amount of customers during the day,” he said.

In comparison, Moccia and Djebbouri, owners of Ball Square Café, have taken stock of the customer flow situation and instead of attempting to create business in terms of a dinner crowd, the Café has opted to close at 3:00pm. However, this may change in

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the future due to a recent MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority) announcement.

Ball Square is scheduled to be a stop on a planned extension of the Green Line. This extension could very potentially throw Ball Square for a loop by suddenly making it accessible and busy. According to the Green Line Extension project website, the new line will be made “beginning at a relocated Lechmere Station in Cambridge and traveling north to Medford; and [there will be] a branch line operating within the existing right-of-way for the MBTA Fitchburg Line to Union Square in Somerville.”

Still, Rhett Richard spoke optimistically about the Green Line extension.

“With the Green Line coming around, it should be good,” he said. “I

o

think a lot of us are waiting for that development instead of changing the way we do our business to suit the quiet atmosphere of Ball Square.” Yasser Mirza also spoke briefly about the planned development.

“The more people that can make it to us, the better,” he said.

The Green Line extension, however, is fairly far off in terms of a completion date. According to the project documents posted to the MBTA Green Line Extension project website, the line should be completed and fully functional by December 2019.

It seems that, for now at least, Ball Square will remain a quiet and safe bastion for breakfast and brunch lovers alike. Only time can tell what the Green Line may bring. For many business owners in Ball, they hope that the Green line brings people — and lots of them.

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Gabriela Ros / The Tufts Daily

Sleepy Ball Square transforms into a bustling breakfast destination on weekend mornings.

Gabriela Ros / the Tufts Daily

Restaurants like Sound Bites and True Grounds are mainstays for Ball Square breakfast crowds.

The Tufts Daily

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Weekender

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Gallery Review

courtesy museum of fine arts, boston

This piece, called ‘Work 0808’ by Harumi Nakashima is a major draw for the exhibit as it serves to intrigue and entice viewers.

New exhibit celebrates evolution of old tradition by

William Owen

Daily Staff Writer

Through July 14, the Museum of Fine Arts will host “New Blue and White,” an exhibition of contemporary pieces that

New Blue and White

February 20 Through July 14, 2013 Museum of Fine Arts (Foster Gallery) 465 Huntington Avenue

celebrate the ancient, global tradition of blue and white ceramics. “New Blue and White” boasts incredible diversity in the media, themes and cultural influences of its works of art.

The use of the two colors in ceramics emerged in the Middle East over 1000 years ago, and has also had a strong presence in the Americas and Europe. The MFA’s exhibition connects these old traditions with con-

temporary innovations, using pieces from artists all over the world. The pairing of blue and white can signify political power and has often been associated with the ruling class. Its omnipresence also has strong ties to memories, stories and traditions.

“New Blue and White” provides a calming, beautiful space for visitors to the MFA. There is something captivating yet relaxing about seeing the same two colors used over and over again, and this presentation allows the importance of this ancient contrast to sink in. The cross-cultural interaction among the pieces feels effortless given their common aesthetic theme. A massive, full-scale installation stands next to small, understated ceramic pots and vases; wood-soled wedges and other fashion pieces don’t seem out of place next to abstract, esoteric creations.

The exhibit features “Yu Yu Blue” (2012),

by Somerville artist Mark Cooper. It is an incredible example of organized chaos, with all sorts of media mashed up together in one cohesive piece. Cooper uses ceramic, wood,

aqua resin, fiberglass, silkscreen on muslin, acrylic paint, metal brackets and rice paper with printing ink in this one installation. “Yu Yu Blue’s” wooden supports crawl across the wall and rise from the cement floor like termite nests, with irregular blue and white ceramics covering its entirety. It’s really a piece you have to see to understand.

Nestled in a corner along with the exhibition’s other abstract pieces is “Work 0808” (2008) by Harumi Nakashima. This wacky use of glazed stoneware masterfully utilizes irregular, rounded geometric shapes that undulate into one another. Its base color is white with blue dots of different sizes painted all over its varying forms to bring out their volume. “Work 0808” is aggressively contemporary yet undeniably tied to tradition.

Another particularly interesting work featured is Steven Lee’s “Vase with Landscape and Butterflies” (2012). Lee utilized porcelain and cobalt inlay, and was inspired by the European inlay traditions in his technique.

The vase is highly asymmetrical and not exactly functional, with calculated cracks all

over and a stem that looks like it is collapsing into itself. Like “Yu Yu Blue,” Lee’s piece exploits a sense of organized chaos that is eye-catching to observers.

Vipoo Srivilasa provides a fascinating, thought-provoking series of smaller ceramic pieces in “New Blue and White.” All are “artifacts” he would like in his tomb after death.

“Canopic Jar” (2012) was certainly a standout in the series. It is an odd little ceramic jar of cobalt pigment, porcelain, clear glaze and liquid gold. Its exterior has a haunting image of a brain, suggesting what he would like placed inside of it after his death.

“New Blue and White” is highly worth the visit, bringing to consciousness the sacred connection between these two colors in art.

Still, the exhibit’s lack of ancient blue and white pieces was somewhat disappointing.

Obviously, the exhibit’s purpose was to highlight contemporary artists, but “New Blue and White” would likely be more interesting if it included at least a few blue and white pieces from the MFA’s collection of ancient art to provide context to the exhibit.

What’s Up This Weekend Looking to make your weekend artsy?

Check out these events!

the Campus Center Info Booth or tuftstickets.com.

LUX Fashion Show: Tufts China Care will host its annual charity fashion show this Friday, which is entirely student-run and features student models. Funds raised from the event will go toward providing surgeries for orphaned children in China.

Friday at 9 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium.

Tickets are $8 and can be purchased at

Russian Music Festival: The Tufts Russian Circle is co-sponsoring its annual festival of Russian music that will take place this weekend. The festival celebrates music from a variety of genres, featuring performances from professionals and amateur artists. Saturday at 8 p.m. in Distler Performance Hall.

Admission is free.

Tufts ASO & CC Culture Show: Ananse: The Tufts Caribbean Club and African Student Organization are collaborating for their annual culture show, this year titled “Ananse: A Modern Afro-Caribbean Tale.” The evening will feature food, fashion, stories and performances from groups including Tufts African Dance Collective, S-Factor and La Salsa. Saturday at 7 p.m. in Cohen Auditorium. Tickets are free at Cohen Box Office and Campus Center Info

Booth with a Tufts ID. sQ! Spring Show: A cappella group sQ! will be having its spring show this weekend. The co-ed group promises to entertain with its set and three new members.

Saturday at 8 p.m. in Goddard Chapel.

Tickets are free and can be picked up at the Campus Center Info Booth or tuftstickets.com.

— compiled by the Daily Arts Department

The Tufts Daily

Thursday, April 4, 2013

7

Weekender

Movie Review

Joe Stile | Amo

HappyGo-Lucky

A

courtesy lisa tomasetti/The Weinstein comapany

The characterization of the main roles in “The Sapphires” relies on character tropes rather than actual development.

Weak character, plot development bring down ‘Sapphires’

by Sophia

Wright

Contributing Writer

Inspired by a true story, “The Sapphires” captures the journey of four young Australian Aboriginal women as they launch their brief,

The Sapphires Directed by Wayne Blair Starring Chris O’Dowd, Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy but dazzling, rise to stardom as a soul -singing quartet, performing for U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968.

Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), Gail (Deborah Mailman), Julie ( Jessica Mauboy) and Kay (Shari Sebbens) allow Dave (Chris O’Dowd), a talent scout with a kind heart and strong alcoholic tendencies, to manage their group as they embark on a wild tour through Vietnam.

The film, focusing on controversial and serious themes like race, gender and power, contained a sense of lightheartedness that left the film lacking.

The young Aboriginal quartet is persuaded to stop singing country music, seemingly because of its members’ race. However, the reasons for this change and the repercussions of it are never explored in the film.

In a Q&A session, the director, Wayne Blair, described how the reallife Sapphires took little ownership of the feature film, though it was

produced within the family. The cowriter of the film and writer of the stage play, Tony Briggs, is the son of the real life Julie.

Generally, throughout the film, character development is weak. At the drop of a hat, the women in the film could build up the necessary strength to overcome challenges. Still, the film has very little nuance, no unforeseen twists and each plot development is strongly foreshadowed by a very obvious chain of events. The film relies heavily on character tropes to construct the characters’ images in the minds of the audience.

The film briefly touches on the deep social issues that the real life Sapphires were likely subjected to.

However, these fleeting forays into the trials and tribulations of these women leave the viewer feeling that there is something being left unsaid. The strange moments where white soldiers are present and being entertained by these black women are meant to present the Sapphires as being subject to the male gaze, but little emotion is involved in these moments.

Indeed, men play a rather disappointing role in the film overall, especially considering that “The Sapphires” superficially seems to espouse female empowerment and autonomy. Male love interests are crucial to the story, and the female characters are all too often defined by their relationships with men. Furthermore, scenes in which the protagonists are interacting with men are barely processed at all, despite their implications.

Overall, the film plays out as a comedy despite the possibly heavy nature of the subject. Emotions are always strong and it’s easy to get the sense that important transition scenes are missing.

The strong sense of injury or fear held by the main characters comes almost as a surprise to the audience, with a lack of prompting for the deep emotions that come to the fore. One scene in particular where the emotions reached a fever pitch is the scene that contains the death of Martin Luther King Jr. The scene is voiced-over by the Sapphires singing an aboriginal song to their mother over the telephone.

Given the life choices that these women made upon returning to Australia, and their strong commitment to family suggested by the reallife narrative, it seems that the producers, directors and writers missed an opportunity to show the deep connections of community that motivated these women to do what they did.

The movie is, simply speaking, black and white, both in terms of race and plot development. The movie seems to have been filmed for a largely non-critical audience that is searching for a “good drama” speckled with satisfying love interests who bring on a heartwarming finale. There are moments in the film that suggest depth, however these elements are left unexplored, and thus the film only begins to scratch the surface of the brilliant real-life story on which it is based.

Top Ten | People you will meet at a music festival Boston Calling, the city’s first multiday, multistage, ticketed rock festival, was just recently announced. Along with it, the summer promises some great music festivals like Bonnaroo, Pitchfork and Sasquatch. Whether you’re already planning your festival trip or you are still deliberating whether or not to take the leap, here are the ten people you will undoubtedly meet at the festival of your choosing.

10. The (undercover) drug dealer: Have you seen Molly? Well, have you?

9. The former hippies: These old bags certainly haven’t showered since their stint at Woodstock. They might be a little weird, but they’re totally innocuous.

8). The entrepreneur: He bought 20

packs of water from Sam’s Club and is reaping an outrageous profit.

7. The groupie: The girl who manages to be way too into it all, but completely out of it. The whole time.

6. The sorority girl: OMG! They played this song at our semi-formal! I love Vampire Weekend. Robert Pattinson is so hot now that he’s in a band.

5. The middle-aged couples trying to bring some spark back into their lives: Unfortunately, they’ll be hard to tell apart from the hipsters. They’ll both be wearing their fanny-packs, ironic sunscreened noses and unsatisfied faces.

4. Nudists: And they can never just be quietly nude. They always put on a pro-

duction with their junk.

3. Stoned security guards: Well, they’re unemployed and can’t afford tickets, so... why don’t we just let them be in charge of everybody’s safety? Sounds like an airtight plan!

2. The chronic “Instagrammers”: “Hey, look at this blade of grass! It’s so alt. Are you feeling Kelvin or Black & White? No filter? You’re a visionary!”

1. The underage kids who are being chaperoned: I’m sorry, but a music festival just isn’t the place for sixth graders and their confused parents.

— compiled by the Daily Arts Department

lmost all comedy is cynical.

Someone or something is always the punch line and no matter how harmless it may seem, someone is being laughed at.

Our world is pretty sarcastic. A recent New York Times op-ed, “How to Live Without Irony,” talked about how saturated with irony our present culture has become and how detrimental that can be. Irony creates a separation that allows people to be cold and to disengage from what’s right in front of them.

It’s a way of life that rejects any kind of sincere optimism or genuine attempts at happiness.

This is why Mike Leigh’s excellent film “Happy-Go-Lucky” (2008) can feel both original and fresh while never being too out-there. The movie removes all pessimism from its main character, the aptly named Poppy (Sally Hawkins). Poppy smiles and laughs her way through life, refusing to let the indifference or cruelties of the world around her take away her cheeriness.

At first, this is just as grating as it sounds. In the opening scene, Poppy enters a bookstore and continually tries to chat with a worker who seems like he would rather be dipped in liquid fire than have to converse with this perky woman. She ignores his distaste for her zest for life and continues to try to break down his walls to get him to engage. In the end, she fails miserably but this doesn’t seem to faze her at all.

The viewer gets the impression she has faced this kind of apathy before but refuses to give up.

Leigh has to do a similar job with Poppy, as he needs to break the audience’s expectations of movies and their characters. There are very few, if any, main characters in stories that are earnestly happy and completely nonsarcastic without being seen as dumb, simple or uninformed. Poppy doesn’t foolishly think everything is the best and great. She knows and acknowledges the awful aspects of life, yet she just chooses to be optimistic and not be sucked down into the negativity.

Because of this, Poppy has a childlike whimsy about her and much of the film’s tension comes from how much of the world’s gloominess can she run into without ever succumbing to it.

Poppy faces her biggest challenge in her diametrically opposite driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan). Scott is a mess of rage and disapproval. His motto is “expect the worst” and he lives by it to the letter. His over-seriousness and barely suppressed anger at all that is wrong with the world is a true test to what Poppy tries to live by. While much of the comedy of the film stems from them butting heads, watching romantic comedies has taught me to expect Scott and Polly to learn from each other, become less extreme and fall in love.

This thankfully never happens, though, which speaks to the refreshing realism of the picture. The movie ignores those kinds of film tropes and instead focuses on the points it wants to make about how people live life and their attitudes about it. Instead, Polly meets and connects with a social worker who also wants to make a difference and who understands her quirkiness.

The two are compatible in a way that shows that Polly isn’t looking for a guy to make her change because she doesn’t need to change. She is happy and even if some of it is over the top — in one scene she laughs as she is in excruciating back pain — there is no reason why she shouldn’t live her life like that if she wants to.

“Happy-Go-Lucky” is a low-key film, but it also challenges viewers to engage in the world and not get trapped under self-made negativity, which makes it an important watch for our current cultural time.

Joe Stile is a senior majoring in political science. He can be reached at Joseph.Stile@ tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

8

Weekender

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Artsy Jumbo

Freshman Nive Ramesh balances disparate dance forms

courtesy nive ramesh

Freshman Nive Ramesh had been studying dancing for years before she arrived at Tufts this past fall, as she started taking lessons in Indian classical dance when she was only five years old. In addition to studying classical dance throughout her childhood, Ramesh also participated in Bollywood and fusion-style dancing and helped co-found a dance team in high school.

Ramesh has continued to pursue dance by joining two teams at Tufts — Tufts Tamasha and Pulse. Tamasha incorporates many different styles such as contemporary, hip-hop and Bollywood film style, as well as using modern songs. Pulse, on the other hand, is an all-female classical team that performs mainly instrumental or classical pieces. For competitions this year, Ramesh said that Pulse did Indian classical dance styles Odissi, Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi.

Participating in two teams means lots of practicing for Ramesh, who says she averages eight hours of practice a week since each team typically meets twice a week for two hours. Ramesh said that participating in national and regional competitions has been one of the highlights of her year.

“We also get to meet other teams, which is really cool, because they have so much in common with us since they’ve [also] been practicing for this many hours a week,” she said.

Facing a busy schedule in future years as a pre-med student, Ramesh isn’t sure if she will be able to continue to commit to both teams. But regardless of her future plans at Tufts, she is confident dancing will be a part of it.

“I’d definitely like to be on a dance team no matter what,” she said.

— by Dan O’Leary

Thursday, April 4, 2013

The Tufts Daily

Weekender

9

The Tufts Daily editorial | op-ed

10

THE TUFTS DAILY

EDITORIAL

Tufts should embrace burgeoning startup community

Martha E. Shanahan Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Nina Goldman Brionna Jimerson Managing Editors Melissa Wang Executive News Editor Jenna Buckle News Editors Lizz Grainger Stephanie Haven Amelie Hecht Victoria Leistman Patrick McGrath Audrey Michael James Pouliot Abigail Feldman Assistant News Editors Daniel Gottfried Xander Landen Justin Rheingold Annabelle Roberts Sarah Zheng Lily Sieradzki Executive Features Editor Jon Cheng Features Editors Hannah Fingerhut Jacob Passy Amelia Quinn Falcon Reese Derek Schlom Charlotte Gilliland Assistant Features Editors Jessica Mow Shannon Vavra Melissa MacEwen Executive Arts Editor Dan O’Leary Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Claire Felter Assistant Arts Editors Elizabeth Landers Veronica Little Jacqueline Noack Akshita Vaidyanathan Elayne Stecher Bhushan Deshpande David Kellogg Seth Teleky Peter Sheffer Denise Amisial Jehan Madhani Louie Zong Keran Chen Drew Lewis Nicholas Golden Scott Geldzahler

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Tufts has in the past few years seen a boom in the amount of startups that its students and alums create, whether with computer science skills or otherwise. As a university, Tufts does not have a longheld reputation for producing a great number of entrepreneurs or startups akin to that of MIT or Stanford. Still, the campus has a number of alums who have taken the skills they learned at Tufts into the startup world. Even some students have taken to the entrepreneurial life from their dorm rooms. Though it is not traditionally fertile ground for startups, Tufts should use its unique traits to bolster its future entrepreneurs by emphasizing its international focus and reaching out to its alumni who work in finance. Doing so not only strengthens one more facet of our curriculum, but also increases students’ chances in a difficult jobs market.

As a university, Tufts has produced entrepeneurs like Kevin Halter (A ’03), founder of Getabale, an app, and Neil

Blumenthal (A ’02) founder of Warby Parker, a vintage prescription glasses store. The two serve as examples of the type of people and enterprises Tufts can produce. Certainly, there are some immediately evident actions that can be taken to continue building up this part of our academic programs. Computer science, a major growing in popularity on campus, could see crossover classes with Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies (ELS) to examine the crossroads of technology and business. Tufts Venture Fund has put focus on the capacity of Tufts to use its international and global focus to inform its entrepreneurial-minded students in a way that makes them able to think differently and compete more intensely. At another side of the entrepreneurial equation lies the financial support expressly important to nascent startup companies. Tufts has a large alumni community in finance and many students interested in financial futures.

Whether by supporting the crossing of

these two focuses in academics or in internships and programs, the administration can use available resources to round out entrepreneurial students in potent ways.

Tufts has a great deal of potential to be a great school for students interested in starting a company or major project.

The university’s global focus and international emphasis as well as its diversity of student interests serve to make its average student, and therein its average entrepreneur, that much more worldly and socially conscious. Being able to produce entrepreneurial students not only takes advantage of an era in which the government is desperate to stimulate business in the United States, but also equips Jumbos with the skills they need to make their dreams and passions come to life. Boosting our startups and entrepreneurial students is a venture that the administration has great reason to engage in. Doing so is the all-important, and elusive, next step.

denise amisial

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Off the Hill | Brown University

Just a small town student by

Brown Daily Herald Editorial Board The Brown Daily Herald

With the advent of April, many Brown students look forward to the promises of next year, when the community will welcome the new Class of 2017. This incoming first-year class is considered the most diverse ever, with 45 percent identifying as students of color, the Herald reported Monday. But there remain many talented and deserving students who aren’t even considered by the university. And it is not because their applications didn’t stand out — it is because they never submitted them in the first place. The university must work to expand its outreach to lowincome, rural students in particular.

A significant cohort is missing: lowincome students from rural high schools.

A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that most high-achieving students from low-income households do not apply to a single competitive college or university.

Several factors contribute to this phenomenon, such as a lack of awareness of such institutions, concerns about affording tuition and the rise of alternative forms of learning.

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.

These students’ dilemmas are indeed as unfortunate as they seem, because they can easily be solved with one thing: information. With easier access to crucial information — about schools’ programs and financial aid offerings, for instance — high-achieving, low-income rural students should have just as much of a chance as a student from a private high school in New York City. Inspired by their peers, parents, guidance counselors or teachers, high-income students from urban areas are often raised to aspire to attend top colleges.

But for students in rural areas, the story plays out quite differently. According to the National Bureau for Economic Research study, most of these students have never met anyone — a teacher, another student or a guidance counselor — who attended a selective college. Without guidance, students qualified to attend or interested in attending a selective institution have far more difficulty with the admissions process and navigating the numerous applications for financial aid.

Top universities such as Brown must expand their efforts to incorporate these left-out students and pay more attention to recruitment. They can take

note from an intervention conducted by the Stanford University Institute for Economic Policy Research, in which about 40,000 high-achieving, low-income rural students were provided valuable resources such as the idea of “net price” versus “sticker price,” graduation rates for top colleges versus local colleges and application fee waivers. These interventions worked wonders. The students submitted 19 percent more applications, and 31 percent of them were likelier to be admitted to a highly selective institution. By eliminating one of the biggest deterrents — the misconception about what these institutions would cost — and raising awareness about the feasibility of attending, top universities can strive to become more diverse, as they already claim to do.

Attracting these intelligent students from rural areas is necessary not only for the benefit of the university, but also for the benefit of the public. By expanding its efforts to appeal to students in rural public schools, Brown can pick up crucial pieces missing in its student body.

We urge the administration to make an invested effort in obtaining low-income, rural talent.

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

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

Thursday, April 4, 2013 Op-Ed

The Tufts Daily

11

Op-Ed Walker Bristol | Notes from the Underclass

Handicapped accessibility: the civil rights movement of the future

by James

I

Golden

Tufts University, a bastion of liberalism and progressivism in the heart of Massachusetts. Who would think that a policy of our university directly and actively discriminates against those members of the student body who happen to be disabled? Since our inception as a college in 1852, Tufts has considered itself a forward-looking and well-meaning, beneficent institution bent on ameliorating the problems of the world, one student group at a time.

However, it reflects quite poorly on our school if we are unable to advance the plight of the handicapped in our midst with such great resources available. A host of other colleges have mandated that fraternities and sororities all across their campuses update their facilities to offer equal accessibility to those who are unable to ascend the steps as a typical brother or sister would.

Unfortunately, the efforts to do so on our campus have been at best lackluster.

The most recent update to our handicap accessibility on campus came a long five years ago, when West Hall, Metcalf Hall and South Hall were renovated to include an appropriate degree of handicap accessibility to accommodate the Tufts student body. This era of renovations failed even to begin to address the problem of fraternity handicap non-accessibility. Each and every fraternity and sorority house, in fact, denies access to the disabled members of our Tufts family as, unfortunately, they are all accessible only via staircase.

Fortunately, there is hope for the cause of handicap accessibility for fraternity and sorority life on campus as there has been some debate recently on the strong merits of universal accessibility on campus.

President Monaco, as well as many faculty, have spoken out against human rights violations and all manner of other social issues worldwide, yet seemingly do nothing to combat this injustice which happens to be so prevalent on our very own campus.

MCT

However, it is not to say that updating the accessibility of fraternity and sorority houses across campus will be easy; rather, it may be cost-prohibitive for some of the smaller, less well-endowed Greek organizations here at Tufts. Following the lead of many other institutions of higher learning that have already mandated a change in this policy, a subsidization of renovation costs would go a long way to facilitate meaningful and lasting change.

Moreover, it is necessary to inform the student body of the heightened importance of this issue, especially as we move forward with a variety of other non-discrimination and equality movements, such as the recent debate over the Committee on Student Life’s allowing religious exemption from the non-discrimination policy.

Student involvement with pressuring the administration is perhaps one of the most important tools that activists use to force positive change in any number of organizations across the country. With proper publicity, the students at Tufts can be galvanized for yet another cause, which calls for the utmost degree of concern and

attention in our modern era. In furthering the push for equality for the disabled members of our community, however, we must be wary of over-radicalization and alienation of various, legitimate concerns.

We must approach the issue in a way that fosters compassionate, reasonable discussion, focused on policy, rather than ideology. By doing so, change can be made.

The importance of improving accessibility to the fraternity and sorority houses on campus is not simply a problem for Tufts, but rather an endemic societal issue whose death-knell has long tolled. We must actively facilitate action against discrimination towards our disabled brothers and sisters, rather than insulting them with inaccessible social environments. We must continue to pursue a more equal, fair and just community — one that embodies that original vision of progressivism set forth by the founders of our great university.

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

Op-Ed

Lend Your Leg for a day: show you care about landmine victims by

Mariana Berenguer, Pablo Jimenez, Sofia Linares and Santiago Ossa

According to the United Nations (UN), between 15 to 20 thousand people are killed by landmines each year. Landmines are small explosive devices designed to detonate upon contact. Often times these bombs are concealed as ordinary objects or hidden below ground, which allows them to serve as ideal war tools. Although landmines target enemy soldiers, approximately 80 percent of victims are civilians, according to the UN, most of whom are women, children and the elderly, who accidentally detonate these devices, which are present in over 78 countries across the globe. Most active landmines today are remnants of previous civil and international conflicts that have ended, yet they continue to pose the same threat long after the conflict ends.

Making landmines is cheap and easy, but the process of removing them from the land is difficult and expensive. While the UN reports that it costs between $3 and $75 to make a landmine, safely removing each one from the land costs between $300 and $1,000 dollars. Due to their nature, landmines must be removed manually and individually which puts many more at risk of suffering from the explosion of one of these artifacts.

The victims — who are not always human, as animals also commonly fall prey to landmines — that are not fatally wounded often lose one or more extremities, such as a leg or an arm. Many also suffer burns on their faces and lose their hearing or sight. International agencies and governments have been trying

to keep records of the number of victims for years, but many of the cases remain unreported because they tend to occur in rural communities in developing countries where communication is difficult and media coverage is rare.

Since the introduction of landmines during WWI, many groups have spoken out against them and the opposition continues to grow each day. In 1994, President Clinton was the first government leader in the world to call for a ban on landmines. This triggered the development of the Ottawa Treaty, often known simply as the Mine Ban Treaty, which called for the prohibition of production, use, trade and stockpiling of landmines. At the time of the treaty’s adoption in 1997, 122 countries signed the convention, a number that has now soared to 161. The Unites States, however, has not signed. Despite being the first proponent of an international ban, the U.S. claims that it has the right to use landmines in certain situation and thus refuses to sign.

We adamantly believe that a universal ban on landmines is crucial to protect the lives of millions of people throughout the world and move toward peace. As Colombians, we have had the opportunity to witness the atrocious consequences of landmines both on their individual victims and on the greater society.

Our country suffers the loss of innocent lives and the pain of civilians who have fallen prey to the dangers of these devices daily. The fact that certain countries are still ambivalent on the international landmine ban saddens us because it is a problem that urgently needs to be addressed. Forcing influential nations to sign the Mine Ban Treaty is not within our immediate power. What is within our power

is to bring the issue to Tufts and ask for support in raising awareness for this cause of global significance.

It is important to remember those who have unjustly lost their lives or limbs to landmines and to show our support to those who have suffered physically and mentally from them. It was in this spirit that in 2005 the UN General Assembly designated April 4 as the annual International Day for Mine Awareness and that each year since then, thousands of people have participated in the different campaigns to bring attention to this pressing issue. One such effort is the Lend Your Leg campaign, in which people roll up their pant legs to symbolize the lives and limbs that have been lost as a result of landmines.

This year, April 4 will be a day to show we care by doing something as simple yet meaningful as rolling up our pant leg in recognition of landmine violence and its consequences. Today we will show victims our admiration and our support. Today we will lend them our legs. And today, we are asking the Tufts community to join us.

Mariana Berenguer is a sophomore majoring in sociology. She can be reached at Mariana.Berenguer@tufts.edu.

Pablo Jimenez is a sophomore majoring in international relations. Pablo.Jimenez@ tufts.edu. Sofia Linares is a sophomore majoring in international relations. She can be reached at Sofia Linares@tufts.edu.

Santiago Ossa is a sophomore majoring in environmental engineering. He can be reached at Santiago.Ossa@tufts.edu.

Art in every action

n red, black and white, a masked face peeks out from a wall outside the Mayer Campus Center. Fingers flash a peace sign. A soldier holds a gun with the nuclear disarmament symbol on her jacket. The ironic characters and whispers of injustice make clear, in an image we pass by every day, that oppression lingers around us.

Shepard Fairey’s street art mural, now in its fourth incarnation, is displayed outside JumboExpress. Intentionally temporary — quoted in the Daily in 2009: “It’s like everything: it eventually goes away” — it depicts anti-war symbolism in Fairey’s signature “OBEY” style and it is seared into the subconscious of the students who see it all the time. It would be absurd to say that there is art that doesn’t express a message — just as it would be to say that there is activism that doesn’t rely on a thread of creativity.

At an October peace march through downtown Boston, one activist held a large cardboard predator drone. She led a line of Guy Fawkes-masked protestors, associating in the minds of onlookers the violence of signature strikes with the anonymous distance from the victims. The march had hundreds of other sign holders chanting passionately for harmony, which made the silent line of drone victims even more distinct. The purpose of this sort of demonstration isn’t to be so compelling that a policymaker immediately signs a law: it’s to show a community that rejects the violence of the rest of society and can flourish without it. Illumination, though, takes imagination.

Recent on-campus actions have taken this mantra to heart. In February, the Consent Culture Network (CCN) rallied at the Winter Bash bus stop chanting, “Hey, I just met you/And this is crazy/ But back the fuck up/If I say ‘maybe’.”

It’s wacky. It’s memorable. It makes you smile. And it’s exactly in keeping with the protest’s message: only yes means yes. The ruggedness of the crowd of voices actually made the chant even more compelling, as students passing by stopped to listen to the lyrics and watch the performance.

But the art in activism doesn’t necessarily just draw attention, it breathes life into action and texture into a message.

When Tom Morello travels to a union rally or an Occupy encampment playing his energetic Worldwide Rebel Songs, the demonstration is empowered by the connection the music inspires between their plight and others around the globe.

Common symbolism creates a network among all resistance, and even if its just a song played at a ton of protests, a community signifier is formed that gives the individual strength.

Activism is social reformation. Art is re-imagination. Both are education and, in fact, inseparable. We’re quick to label events like HONK! as exemplars of wedding art and activism, but care to remember that art isn’t discrete — it permeates everything around us, and perhaps when it is most subtle, it is most compelling.

A march seeks to reform society by reimagining scale to draw attention to and enlighten the community. Occupy reimagined society itself, creating an anarcho-syndicalist commune in the middle of a sea of capitalism — illuminating how society can function without an oppressive class hierarchy.

After Occupy Boston was evicted, Os Gêmeos, a Brazilian street artist team, created a massive graffiti mural of a young protestor sitting on a building adjacent to Dewey Square. The artistic dimension of resisting oppression may be subtle or may be at the forefront, but it is never absent. All of our pain is interconnected and those connections are beautiful.

Walker Bristol is a junior majoring in religion and philosophy. He can be reached at Walker.Bristol@tufts.edu

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

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Women’s Softball

Jumbos split doubleheader, streak snapped by

Tyler Maher

Daily Staff Writer

The softball team split Tuesday’s nonconference doubleheader at Babson College in dramatic fashion. After blowing Babson out of the water in the first game of the day, the Jumbos coughed up a three-run lead in game two and ended their rollercoaster day with a crushing 4-3 defeat that snapped their 16-game winning streak.

Tufts came out and pounded the Beavers in the opener, 15-5.

Every Jumbo starter recorded at least one hit en route to 17 total, and every starter either scored or drove in a run.

Tufts’ dynamite offense scored early and often, building up a 7-0 lead by the end of the third inning to force Babson’s starting pitcher, Kathleen Conway, from the game.

The Beavers strung together a rally with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, trimming Tufts’ lead to three — but the Jumbos returned fire by exploding for eight runs in the top of the fifth.

Christina Raso punctuated the prolific inning with a grand slam, the exclamation mark on her 4-for-4 day, with four runs scored and five RBI. The freshman had plenty of help from her teammates, including catcher Jo Clair, who went 3-for-4 with four RBI, and first baseman Kayla Holland who went 3-for-3 with two runs scored.

Head coach Cheryl Milligan believes her team is capable of such performances every time they take the field.

“Many of the players have stepped up their game at the plate,” she said of her lineup. “The freshmen are doing great. We are a strong hitting team that gives our great pitching staff a lot of run support.”

With their bats still smoldering from that afternoon’s slugfest, the Jumbos burst out of the gates in the second game as well. Tufts struck for three quick runs in the top of the first and seemed poised to run away with the nightcap.

But it was not to be. Babson starter Tess Rubega settled down, keeping Tufts at bay and allowing the Beavers to battle back. Babson answered with

Courtesy Patricia Cordeiro

Sophomore Allyson Fournier had allowed just two earned runs in her previous 42 innings but suffered her first loss of the season when she allowed a walk-off hit in the bottom of the sixth. a run in the bottom of the first by working four walks off Aly Moskowitz, who struggled with her command and issued six free passes in all. Aided by a Tufts fielding error, Babson evened the score at three-all in the bottom of the fifth.

Moskowitz completed the inning before giving way to Allyson Fournier, brought in to finish out the game.

Fournier was able to strand the potential winning run in the bottom of the sixth but had no such luck the following

inning, when Babson belted back-toback doubles to complete their comeback and walk-off with the win.

Fournier, who had allowed just two earned runs in her previous 42 innings, suffered her first loss of the season. She expects the seventh-ranked Jumbos to bounce back and start a new winning streak at Bowdoin on Friday.

“The NESCAC teams we face always put up a fight, so we will have to come out ready to play,” she said.

Baseball

Jumbos outlast Judges 5-3 After a disappointing NESCAC series loss over the weekend, Tufts hit the road for the first time since returning from spring break to take on the Brandeis Judges on Tuesday afternoon.

The Jumbos threatened to turn the game into a blowout early, with three runs in the first three innings. But when the hitting slowed down, it took a strong all-around effort from the team’s pitching staff to capture a 5-3 victory and remain above .500 for the season.

Tufts started things off with a boom in the top of the first inning, as sophomore third baseman Wade Hauser launched a two-out solo home run, his first of the year, to get the Jumbos out to an early lead.

In the third inning, they extended their lead, taking advantage of some control problems from junior Dylan Britton, the Judges’ starter. Britton hit two batters in the inning and walked a third, senior first baseman Eric Weikert, with the bases loaded and two outs. The result was a

Sofia adams / The tufts daily

two-run inning that stretched the lead to 3-0 early.

Brandeis got two back in the fourth inning on one swing of the bat by freshman first baseman Kyle Brenner, who recorded the first home run of his career.

But Britton’s control issues continued to plague him, and in the top of the fifth he gave two runs right back to the Jumbos after hitting the first batter of the inning and walking the second. A single by Hauser, his second RBI of the

day, and a sacrifice fly from sophomore catcher Bryan Egan were enough to stretch the lead back to three. Tufts’ bats went cold from there, but the Judges couldn’t close the gap, grabbing just one more run.

The game served as one of coach John Casey’s infamous staff days, with no pitcher throwing more than two innings.

Sophomore Willie Archibald got things started with two scoreless innings, improving his ERA to 0.96 in just over nine innings

of work, and junior Christian Sbily added a perfect inning of his own before sophomore Tom Ryan surrendered the home run in the fourth. Junior Josh Manning and freshman Andrew David did enough to get it to first-year closer Matt Moser, who picked up his third save of the season, allowing just one hit and striking out two in two innings of work.

Moser continues to impress in his first campaign with the Jumbos and now boasts a 0.64 ERA in 14 innings of work while averaging more than a strikeout per inning. Hauser was the only Jumbo with two hits, upping his batting average to .379.

Tufts will take the rest of the week off before hosting Hamilton College for a fourgame set on Saturday and Sunday. After the slow start to the conference season against the Bobcats, the Jumbos will need to rebound against the 7-9 Continentals.

—by Ethan Sturm

G.J. Vitale | Who’s on first

6 other “almost” perfect games

I

n the wake of Yu Darvish losing his perfect game with two outs in the final inning this Tuesday, let’s look back at some of the best “So close!” moments in baseball perfect game history.

Harvey Haddix: In perhaps the most epic near-perfect game ever, Haddix managed to go 12 innings, retiring every batter he faced — he got nine extra outs!

— in a 1959 game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Unfortunately for him, Brewers’ pitcher Lew Burdette was keeping his Pittsburgh Pirates scoreless. By definition, the pitcher must get the win to throw a perfect game. In the 13th inning — yes, he was still pitching — an error ended the perfect game bid. Even more unfortunately for Haddix, he wound up not only losing the perfect game, but the no-hitter and the game itself.

Pedro Martinez: While on the Montreal Expos, Martinez did something very similar in a 1995 start against the San Diego Padres: He faced 27 hitters and got all 27 out in a row. Like Haddix, however, his team did not score either, so the game went into extras where Martinez gave up a double to lead off the 10th.

Milt Pappas: During a late-season matchup while with the Chicago Cubs in 1972, Pappas had a perfect game with only one out to go in the ninth. He had two strikes on the hitter but was apparently squeezed by home plate umpire Bruce Froemming on two consecutive pitches, resulting in a walk and loss of the perfect game. Pappas easily retired the next batter to complete the no-hitter, but the no-no would remain an opportunity lost for Pappas. Froemming and Pappas even had it out live on a talk radio show 20-something years later.

Armando Galarraga: Galarraga is someone who knows what it means to be short-sided by an umpire’s call. On Jun. 2, 2012 against the Cleveland Indians, he was one out away when a ground ball was hit to first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Covering first to receive the throw, Galarraga simultaneously caught the ball and touched the base a full step before the runner, but umpire Jim Joyce called him safe.

Galarraga went on to retire the next batter, but unlike Pappas, he did not have a no-hitter to fall back on, since the play at first was by definition an infield single. The blown call thus removed Galarraga from either revered list. Joyce has since bravely admitted his missed call tearfully saying, “I just cost the kid a perfect game.” Galarraga has publically forgiven Joyce.

Mike Mussina: Throughout his career, Mussina gained the reputation as a tough-luck pitcher. He took a perfect game into the ninth inning twice in four years. While with the Baltimore Orioles in 1997, he needed just two more outs, but a single followed by two strikeouts meant he would have to settle with a complete game shutout. In 2001, with the Yankees, he retired the first 26 batters faced in a game against the rival Red Sox, only to give up a bloop-single to pinchhitter Carl Everett before recording the final out for the shutout win.

Hooks Wiltse: In 1908, with one out to go in the ninth, poor Hooks ruined his perfect game by hitting, of all people, the opposing team’s pitcher. A tough one to swallow.

This list is by no means exhaustive. If Yu Darvish-ing for more, take a look at the long list of players who just missed out on the perfect game: Brian Holman, Dave Stieb, Ron Robinson, Tommy Bridges, Billy Pierce, Milt Wilcox and Ernie Shore.

G.J Vitale is a junior majoring in biologypsychology and English. He can be reached at Gregory.Vitale@tufts.edu.