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THE TUFTS DAILY
TUFTSDAILY.COM
MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015
VOLUME LXVIV, NUMBER 45
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
‘Powerhouse female lineup' to take Spring Fling by Arin Kerstein Assistant News Editor
Pop artist Kesha is scheduled to headline this year’s Spring Fling concert on April 25. Her performance will follow opening acts Lion Babe, an R&B artist, and MisterWives, a former ’80s cover band. It is no accident that women are dominating this year’s lineup, Concert Board Co-Chairs Matt Marber and Katie Kurtz explained. When looking at previous Spring Fling lineups, they said they noticed a historical lack of female representation. Marber noted that Spring Fling has not seen a female headliner, or even female performers, in the last 20 years. “We knew we had to change that,” he said. “We don’t want another male artist, we don’t want another rap artist, we want something female, fresh and fun.” Immediately following Cage Rage in November, Concert Board established its goal to book a female lineup, the cochairs, both juniors, explained. “We set out from the beginning, not just to have a female headliner, but we wanted this powerhouse female lineup,” Kurtz stated. She mentioned that previous co-chairs have tried to book female acts, noting the difficulty in finding “big-enough named” female artists in an affordable range. “It’s so hard to find a woman who is touring and in our price range, so people have looked at opening acts, they’ve looked at female-fronted bands … Last year, the co-chairs tried for Azealia Banks, but [were] told that she’s too hard to handle,”
Kurtz said. She added that when she and Marber were first-years, “Kesha came up in conversation, and one of the talking points was that we can’t book her because we’ve heard she’s ‘rough’ hospitality-wise, which is a story based on nothing. How would we ever know that? It’s just things that we were told to deter us from booking females.” Assistant Director for Campus Life Ashley Tello, who acts as staff advisor for Concert Board, noted similar stigmas toward women in the music industry and said she fully supports Concert Board’s decision to solidify a female lineup. “I think female artists in general get a lot of trouble from the music industry,” she said. “They are disrespected a lot, or music isn’t very woman-friendly as an industry as a whole, so I thought it was really important for them to make that decision for the right reasons in saying that we support women as musicians, and we support the women on campus that are going to be at the show.” Along with its initial $100,000 budget allocated at the beginning of the year for Spring Fling performers by the Tufts Community Union ( TCU), Concert Board received an additional $25,000 in supplementary funding from the TCU Allocations Board to ensure a “fuller lineup,” Marber said. He noted that Concert Board also received another $25,000 from a re-allocation of funds within Programming Board, initially intended to finance the Fall Gala tent, which was not rented because the event was moved inside the Gantcher Center. see SPRING FLING, page 2
nicholas pfosi / the tufts daily
Housing comptetiton this semester led some students to submit false roommate groups to boost lottery number averages.
On-campus housing lottery draws to a close by Sophie Lehrenbaum Assistant News Editor
Following a series of lotteries beginning Feb. 2, the twomonth-long housing selection process for the 2015-2016 school year draws to a close with a final Catch All lottery beginning on April 13. The lottery and on-campus housing systems, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL), are mechanisms to help allocate and distribute rooms among undergraduate students. First-years and sophomores who are not commuting from home are required to live on campus, while upperclassmen are not guaranteed on-campus
housing, requiring many to lease apartments and homes in surrounding Medford or Somerville neighborhoods. According to ORLL Director Yolanda King, the most sought-after on-campus accommodations this year included group apartments in Latin Way, Hillsides, Sophia Gordon Hall, Carmichael Hall, Wren Hall and Stratton Hall, as well as singles in other traditional halls. In addition, about 150 rising juniors were able to secure rooms in this year’s lottery, with a small number remaining on a wait list. However, in an email to undergraduates on March 4, King noted an unusual hiccup in the standard hous-
ing procedure of years past involving a large volume of calls to ORLL regarding the configurations of six-person apartments. The letter, signed by King, explains that the ORLL has noticed a recurring pattern in which five rising sophomores and one rising junior intend to live together. There was concern that in a number of these cases, students may have been exploiting the fact that juniors have higher lottery numbers than sophomores. By throwing these upperclassmen’s numbers into the mix, the group average as a whole could be elevated, affording them an advantage in the lottery. see HOUSING, page 2
GreECO Reps bring sustainability initiatives to Greek houses by Gabriella Zoia Assistant News Editor
Thirteen of the fourteen Greek life houses on campus have signed up to be part of the GreECO Reps collaborative. Ellen Osborn, a junior, created the GreECO Reps as a spin-off of the Tufts Eco-Reps that are currently present in Tufts housing. Osborn explained that she launched the GreECO Reps last semester as a branch of the EcoReps, which operate through the Office of Sustainability. “I formulated the structure over the summer, and we were able to hit the ground running in the fall, getting over 30 applications from nearly every Greek organization on campus,” Osborn said. “Now we have participation from thirteen of our fourteen large-housed campus chapters.”
Students living in Greek housing have a large effect on campus resources, but according to Osborn, existing campus sustainability efforts often exclude them. “Students in Greek life are active, involved and want to make a difference — our goal is to give them an outlet to get involved in environmental issues on campus,” Osborn explained. Austin Brush, a sophomore, said that the GreECO Reps program increases accountability in Greek houses and encourages them to pursue better sustainability practices. For example, in his fraternity, Pi Delta (formerly Alpha Epsilon Pi), Brush works to “create awareness on how we’re doing as a fraternity and relay that information to the rest of the organization to see how we can improve,” he said.
The organization is in the process of setting up metrics to measure their improvements. For example, Tufts does not release utility bills, so the organization is working to secure energy audits for the Greek houses that Tufts does not own, Osborn said. Both Brush and Osborn explained that metrics including energy savings from the house audits, hours dedicated to environmentally-minded service projects, increases in recycling and compost infrastructure and social media outreach will be used to assess each house’s improvements in sustainability. To complete these initiatives, the GreECO Reps are in the process of matching their goals with those of groups such as Balance Your Life and the Student
Inside this issue
Garden in order to encourage more students in Greek life to get involved. The representatives are also working closely with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, the Greek councils, the Office of Sustainability and other local service organizations, Osborn added. According to Osborn, they are also collaborating with the Office of Sustainability’s Eco-Reps “to plan community service organizations, educational events and sponsorships.” Brush explained how each Greek organization elects a representative to liaise with the other representatives within Greek life. Osborn added that GreECO Reps also work to make improvements within their own houses. “Each of the Reps also has goals within their chapter, curat-
ed to their individual needs, that they consistently work on,” Osborn explained. Osborn noted that the GreECO Reps program is only the most recent effort that Greek life has taken to become more sustainable. “People would be surprised how open and enthusiastic Greek life has been to expanding sustainability efforts,” she said. “The missions of many chapters are to create wellrounded citizens of the world through social empowerment, and this extends naturally to creating citizens of the planet. I haven’t been able to keep up with all the amazing goals and ideas that have emerged through the program, so I can’t wait to see what they come up with for the rest of the semester and going into next year.”
Today’s sections
Peter Secrest brings innovation to “Dr. Faustus” by bringing puppetry to the demonic world of the play.
The women’s track team once again battled against tough conditions and won at Amherst last weekend.
see ARTS, page 5
see SPORTS, back
News 1 Features 3 Arts & Living 5 Editorial | Op-Ed 10
Op-Ed 11 Comics 12 Sports Back