TuftsDaily09.17.13

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

VOLUME LXVI, NUMBER 8

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Students to release updated Joey-tracker app by

Abigail Feldman

Daily Editorial Board

Two students will this Wednesday unveil PartyBus, an updated Joey-tracker application for smartphones, with the release of the new iOS 7 Apple operating system.

Creators Mario Hall and Brendan Conron, both juniors, explained that users will see an updated form of the current PartyBus app with a different tracking strategy.

“We’re in the process of redesigning [the app] for iOS 7, which is the new version of the software, to make it better and easier to use,” Hall said.

The first version of PartyBus, Hall and Conron said, used “crowdsourcing” to track the location of the Joey. Students were able to send in feedback on the Joey’s whereabouts by selecting its position from a list of stops or by enabling the phone’s location-tracking function once on the bus. From these “tags,” other students could follow the Joey’s progress on a map.

Instead of relying on student “tags,” the new version of the app estimates the number of minutes until the Joey’s arrival at three stops based on the sched-

ule posted online, Hall said. “Everything’s hardcoded without Wifi, without data, and you just go on your phone and you can see all the times,” Conron said.

Hall explained that the changes to the app were necessary since PartyBus remains fairly unknown on campus.

“We’re realizing that people really aren’t going to send in stuff,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out a way to design around that so that the app isn’t useless without it. And that’s what we’re stressing with this whole scheduleview thing.”

Eventually, Conron said, the team hopes to reintroduce the crowd-sourcing feature and make the scheduled times a fallback time estimate for when no “tags” have been recently added by students.

“We just want an app that works right now,” he said.

“Once that’s solid and works, we’ll put back user activity,” he said.

Hall said he came up with the idea for PartyBus while walking back to his dorm last winter. After wondering aloud where the Joey was, his friend said he knew where it was because another friend had see PARTYBUS, page 2

TCU Elections update The candidates for the Tufts Community Union (TCU) general elections have been announced following the Candidates Meeting last week, according to TCU Election Commission (ECOM) Public Relations representative Paige Newman, a sophomore.

Elections will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 12 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Tufts WebCenter. There are seven Freshman Class Senate Seats, seven Class Council positions, two Judiciary seats and three Committee on Student Life (CSL) seats.

Two Senior Senate Seats were filled in an uncontested election.

The following candidates will run in the elections on Wednesday: Committee on Student Life: Nina Bernstein, Walker Bristol, Tafari Duncan and Andrew Nunez Judiciary: Matthew EnderSilberman, Matthew Felsenfeld and Anna Weissman Freshman Senate Seats: Allison Aaronson, Oghenefego Ahia, Andrew Brodsky, Manal Cheema, Kelly Fahey, Ryan Johnson, Liam Jones, Isabella Kahhale, Stephen Michel, Josh Morris, Michael Rubinstein, Ramiro Sarabia, Gauri Seth, Shai

Slotky, Alex Spring, Hannah Steinberg, Rita Wang, Constantin Weiss, Kristen Weller and Bryson Wong Freshman Class Council President: Connor Fallon and Praz Perkasa Freshman Class Council Vice President of Academic Programming: Anna Linton, Marissa Sashihara and Ruth Sun Freshman Class Council Vice President of Social Programming: PJ Allen, Kristina Barounis and Karynne Campbell Freshman Class Council Treasurer: Michelle Bornstein and Ian Luo Freshman Class Council Secretary: Eliza Dillaway and Katie Waymack Sophomore Class Council Vice President of Academic Programming: Priya Ban, Matthew Marber and Temi Owoyemi S o p h o m o re Class Council Vice President of Social Programming: Imane Aitnouri, Mauri Honickman and Rosalie Zurlo Here are the uncontested winners for the Senior Senate Seats: Warren Rixon and John Rodli — by Abigail Feldman

MCT

Students will discuss the current crisis in Syria as part of their course material for this year’s Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) colloquium on the future of the Middle East and North Africa.

EPIIC to explore issues in Middle East, North Africa by

Alexa Horwitz

Daily Editorial Board

This year’s Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC) colloquium will focus on the future of the Middle East and North Africa.

The two-semester program, run through the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL), will examine topics such as the management of the Middle East and North Africa, the ongoing crisis in Syria, nuclear threats in Iran and the increasing role of nonstate actors like Hezbollah and the Kurds.

According to IGL Associate

Director Heather Barry, the topic was chosen for the sheer quantity of discussion material. Set against the backdrop of the 100th anniversary of World War I, the course will examine an area of the world that is currently experiencing political instability, demographic growth and urbanization.

“Look at what is talked about in today’s news,” Barry said. “There is so much turmoil in this region, and it is important to look at the impact so many of our decisions will have on the people living in these areas.”

The topic has both national and international relevance,

Barry added.

“It’s so prevalent because it has such an impact on our country as we look at negotiations over Syria,” she said.

Both Barry and IGL Director Sherman Teichman agreed that the Tufts community is already interested in the subject matter and that providing background on these important issues will benefit students.

“It’s exciting that we have the chance to introduce a number of students that represent all four grades and come from extraordinarily diverse backgrounds to an see EPIIC, page 2

Students engage in debate at forum by

Daniel Bottino

Daily Editorial Board

Seven candidates competed for spots on the Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Judiciary and the Committee on Student Life (CSL) during last night’s TCU Senate Candidates’ Forum held in the Hotung Cafe.

This year’s candidates for CSL included senior Nina Bernstein, junior Andrew Nunez, senior Walker Bristol and freshman Tafari Duncan.

Freshman Matthew Felsenfeld, freshman Anna Weissman and sophomore Matthew EnderSilberman ran for spots on the Judiciary.

The debate opened with oneminute long opening statements from each candidate.

Bernstein focused her opening statement on the future of the CSL, claiming that it should work to be more connected with the student body.

Inside this issue

Nunez emphasized his experience in the Senate and his disagreement with the CSL’s “justified departure” policy.

“Last year was a hallmark for me — realizing what the university is capable of doing and how that affects the student experience this year,” Nunez said. “The new CSL policy towards student religious groups completely changed my opinion of what the faculty’s and administration’s idea of the student experience is.”

Bristol picked up Nunez’s denouncement of CSL’s “justified departure” policy and explained that he saw the student body and the faculty as deeply divided.

“I want to appeal this incredible affront to equality and diversity —this ‘justifiable departure’ policy,” he said.

Running for a position on the Judiciary, Felsenfeld emphasized his strong belief

in student gover nment, claiming that he was capable of internalizing student government decision-making.

Weissman focused on her traits of honesty and honor and declared that she was determined to support the structures put in place by former students.

Ender-Silberman departed from the conventional introduction and instead explained his love for the Tufts community.

The last student to give an introduction was Duncan, who said that he was willing to devote himself for the next four years to bettering the Tufts student experience.

After the introductions, the candidates were presented with a series of questions submitted via e-mail. Each candidate was given approximately 45 seconds to answer. see ELECTIONS, page 2

Today’s sections

Tufts alumna takes on position of U.S. public printer.

This year’s Mixfest concert boasted a high-profile lineup.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

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Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

9 10 11 Back

The Tufts Daily

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Students compete for spots in EPIIC EPIIC

continued from page 1

extremely compelling region in today’s world,” Teichman said.

The goal of this year’s program is to provide students with a more nuanced understanding of the Middle East, according to Barry.

“We are not just focusing on political or economic issues,” Barry said. “We want our students to walk away with an overall understanding of these regions and to spark their imagination for ways in which they can get engaged with these issues.”

Barry expressed excitement for the upcoming year, which will include visits from speakers such as journalist Scott Anderson on Sept. 17 and Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi in November.

The speakers hail from a variety of places, including Egypt, Syria, the U.S. Department of State and even Tufts.

“We are really looking forward to each and every one of our speakers,” Teichman said. “All of them are influential, and each of them was chosen very carefully.”

Teichman is happy to introduce a strong class of new students at this year’s symposium. Students underwent a rigorous selection process during which many had to be turned away, he said.

“While we have wonderful students, we had to disappoint a number of students,” Teichman said. “Before finalizing the class list, we spent close to 25 hours interviewing applicants, so we know a lot about our students even though it is just the beginning of the year.”

Freshman Jonathan Moore, a member of the EPIIC class, was enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn about the issues facing the Middle East.

“I like that [Teichman] and [Barry] expect us to go above and beyond to learn and grow as individual learners, scholars and global citizens — the bar is set high, and jumping to reach is equally intimidating as it is awesome,” Moore told the Daily in an email.

The course’s spring culmination will mark the 29th Annual Norris and Margery Bendetson EPIIC International Symposium and Teichman’s 28th year at IGL. Teichman believes that this year’s EPIIC will be a success.

“We are trying to provide our students with the highest degree of quality,” Teichman said. “The strong quality of the students and the interest they have already expressed is an indicator that we will have a successful year.”

News

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Candidates field questions at forum ELECTIONS

continued from page 1

The first question, directed to all the candidates, was whether the candidates would base their CSL decision making on logic or emotion. Bernstein said she would trust neither, but instead talk to people, look at what was possible and base her decision on practicality.

Bristol also emphasized the need to consult other students, especially minorities, while Nunez declared that the question presented a false dichotomy. Claiming that emotions simply represent people’s reactions to injustice, he proceeded to move into a denouncement of the “justified departure” policy.

Several more rounds of questions followed. The CSL candidates were asked for their opinions on the work of the Tufts Divest For Our Future student group. On this issue, the candidates agreed that divestment was, in their view, the best choice for the environment and the best choice for Tufts.

However, Duncan argued that although he personally supported divestment, it was important to also consider the implications of divesting, such as the

possible rise of tuition rates.

Another question posed to the candidates dealt with religious convictions on campus. All of the candidates adamantly declared their support for religious tolerance. Bristol also took the opportunity to note that, as the president of the Tufts Freethought Society, he considered himself to be in tune with how religious groups operate on campus. He stated that he preferred to see open relationships between all of the groups.

Nunez declared his support for the chaplaincy in its task of coordinating student religious groups.

“We have to remember that [student religious groups] are not churches,” Nunez said. “They are co-curricular spaces.”

After the question and answer portion, the candidates were given 45 seconds for a concluding statement, and most took this opportunity to reiterate their opposition to discrimination.

Polls for this year’s elections will open at midnight on Wednesday and remain open until 11:59 p.m.

Voting instructions can be found by visiting ecom.tufts.edu/vote.

New app predicts Joey arrival times PARTYBUS

continued from page 1

just texted him from inside the bus.

“That made me think, ‘Oh, we could crowdsource the Joey,’” he said.

When the app came out last semester, Hall and Conron focused more on working out technical bugs than promoting it. This time, Hall said, they plan to market the app with pamphlets in the dining halls and posters around Joey stops.

“It’s not going to work if people aren’t using it, so there’s going to be a lot more push once we get it working,” Hall said.

According to Conron, the original app debuted in February of last year after he and Hall worked on it for two months. A few technical issues discovered in the first few weeks of the app’s existence, however, prevented it from becoming fully functional until the last month and a half of school, Conron said.

“The biggest bug was that if you didn’t enable your location and used the app, it would tag you at [coordinates] (0,0), which is somewhere off the coast of Africa,” Conron said. “So the Joey was in

Africa for a while.”

Both the first version of PartyBus and the new edition are free for students to download.

“Our idea was it should be a wake-up call to Tufts if two students in their spare time can make a better functioning system than an entire school with literally millions of dollars in endowment,” Hall said.

By charging people to download PartyBus, Hall said, the team would run the risk of fragmenting their user base, resulting in fewer people using the “tag” system.

As of press time, more than 200 people have downloaded the old app, Hall said. He expressed satisfaction with this number given the lack of advertising.

“We’re happy it’s sort of spreading by word of mouth,” he said.

Hall and Conron encouraged people to download the new app in order to make Joey-tracking more accurate in the future, when the crowdsourcing features are reestablished.

“If people help, then it will be accurate, so it’s really up to students,” Hall said.

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

Two students will release an updated version of the Joey-tracker app PartyBus on Wednesday.

Students disco at Nielsen TOPTEN promotion

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

Nielsen TOPTEN came to the Hill yesterday as its first stop on a national tour promoting its new smartphone app. Students were welcome to partake in a “silent disco” on the Res Quad from 12 to 2 p.m.

Features

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Petar Todorov | Lab Notes

Better than new

M

Via Wikimedia Commons

Davita Vance-Cooks (J ’77) is the first woman and African-American to become U.S. public printer of the Government Printing Office.

Tufts alumna breaks barriers as U.S. public printer by

Emily Bartlett

Daily Editorial Board

Davita Vance-Cooks’ ( J ’77) nomination as 27th public printer of the Government Printing Office (GPO) is trend-breaking in two ways: VanceCooks is both the first African-American and the first woman to ever hold this title. President Barack Obama on May 9 announced her nomination as public printer, and she was later sworn in on Aug. 21. Her confirmation marked the fastest Senate confirmation of a public printer in nearly 20 years.

Glad to be altering the status quo in the GPO, Vance-Cooks told the Daily about becoming a role model as she assumes her new position.

“How do I feel about being the first woman and first African-American? I am absolutely excited,” she said. “I am very proud to be in the conversation about how I could be considered a role model for those who look just like me coming behind me, and who have terrific credentials. If they consider me a role model, I think it’s great.”

Vance-Cooks brings experience working in the public sector for over 30 years to the position of public printer. She cited her time at Tufts as crucial to developing the skills necessary for the job.

“I was a psych major, and I ended up really enjoying statistics ... which was helpful because when I got my MBA in marketing and finance, I noticed that I was gravitating towards the math and data crunching,” she said.

Vance-Cooks explained that the GPO is the legislative branch agency responsible for the production and distribution of information products and services for all three branches of the federal government. This includes passports for the Department of State, as well as the official publications of Congress, the White House and other federal agencies in digital and print format, according to an Aug. 21 GPO press release.

As head of the GPO, the public printer must understand how to deal with and distribute massive amounts of information, she said.

“We operate 24/7 when Congress is in session ... We’re working around the clock,” Vance-Cooks said. “They send us their files, and we process them all

night and then send them back out. We put them up online, and we also put them in press.”

One of the documents that VanceCooks handles is the Congressional Record, which is a daily source of proceedings and debates from Congress.

The GPO also disseminates the Federal Register, the official daily publication for rules, proposed rules and notices of federal agencies.

At the center of all of these operations is Vance-Cooks, who oversees the agency’s everyday operations and handles strategic planning. The position also allows Vance-Cooks to help guide the GPO through the digital age.

“My job is to lead the agency as it transforms itself from print-metric to digital,” she said.

Vance-Cooks has already developed a five-year strategic plan that outlines changes the public can expect to see as the GPO moves into the digital era.

“The reason I have [the changes] on a five-year plan is because change takes time,” she said. “And it’s important to make sure that we have strategic direction.”

Laura Wood, director of Tisch Library, commented on the necessity of such changes within the GPO. “I looked at the strategic plan, which I think is really very rooted in the reality of where we are, with what it means to effectively distribute documentation now, how it’s created and how it can be most effectively shared,” she said.

Wood explained Tisch Library’s place within Vance-Cooks’ plan.

“If you look at the strategic plan, one of the things Vance-Cooks talks about as stakeholders is the government document libraries: [Tisch is] one of those,” she said.

According to Wood, these types of libraries contain government documents in order to make them accessible to the public.

“Actually getting them into your hands as a student or a resident of Medford, having them in a facility like Tisch Library makes that possible,” she said. “We are obligated to provide access to those documents to any member of the public that wishes to have access to them.”

Wood expressed the significance of public access to government documents.

“The distribution of information about our own government is, I think, a very important part of democracy,” she said.

Vance-Cooks plans to focus on the switch to electronic delivery during her term, aligning with the GPO’s new branding as the “Official, Digital, Secure” provider of the federal government’s information needs. She elaborated on the three aspects of this brand.

“Official, meaning the documents that we get from Congress and that we actually put online or in print are authentic,” Vance-Cooks said. “Digital, because of the fact that more and more of our stakeholders want their information readily available, therefore online ...

Secure, because of our work involved in secure credentials.”

The news of Vance-Cooks’ nomination as public printer has been well received at Tufts. Senior Grainne Griffiths, an intern at the Women’s Center, believes that the appointment is a step forward in the push for gender and race equality.

“I think it’s tremendous, as I think there should be more women in such positions,” she said. “I think it’s important to have different sorts of people in office, people from different backgrounds, people from different classes, different races and different genders ... because then you’re truly representing all of America.”

Wood was likewise enthusiastic about Vance-Cooks’ nomination.

“I think it’s a phenomenal appointment. I’m very excited for her; it’s great to break the glass ceiling whenever you can,” Wood said. “[Vance-Cooks] herself mentioned the significance that in previous modes it was always that [the public printer] was addressed as ‘Mr. Public Printer,’ and to change that tradition is a wonderful opportunity for her.”

Vance-Cooks spoke fondly of Tufts, explaining that she matured during her undergraduate years.

“I know this sounds cliche,窠but it was a time of intellectual stimulation,” she said. “We had lots and lots of late night conversations about the meaning of life, politics, just what we were doing and how we could make a difference — it was all during that [undergraduate] time period.”

ad-eye Moody’s eye can peer through walls and Invisibility Cloaks. Tony Stark’s heart is safeguarded by the Arc Reactor that powers his Iron Man suit. Deus Ex’s Adam Jensen is crushed and burned before receiving augmentations that make him exceed human capabilities. In fiction, characters are often nearly obliterated, only to return better than new. In reality, we humans are much more fragile than we’d like to believe.

Despite our most recent advances, we’re much more difficult to repair.

Sadly, the strongest driving force in the development of prostheses is war. Since the American Civil War, the chance of surviving a combat wound has become much greater. The number of disabled veterans returning from war has increased with every major conflict. For the longest time, most artificial limbs were much closer to Moody’s peg leg than to his enchanted, all-seeing eye. Termed “dumb” prostheses, these aids do little more than give one a stick to prop up on, or a hook for a hand that can only execute the most rudimentary tasks.

Fortunately, new prosthetic technology is catching up with, and at times even surpassing, able-bodied humans. Oscar Pistorius’ carbon fiber running blades caused a stir when the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee suspected he had an edge over other sprinters. But even these highly engineered devices are overly specialized and quite awkward in day-to-day activity like climbing stairs and navigating terrain that is rougher than the sports track.

Over the last decade, “smart” prostheses with onboard electronics have emerged.

Iceland’s Össur specializes in devices that contain myriad sensors and continuously respond to their environment. Their Power Knee can easily ascend a staircase, and the Proprio Foot adjusts to uneven ground.

Those who are lucky enough to afford these gadgets can navigate daily obstacles more easily. Unfortunately, high-tech prostheses like the ones produced by Össur can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Like most medical devices and procedures, their true price tag is undisclosed. Web forums put the Power Knee in the ballpark of $40,000$70,000. That’s akin to a new BMW 3 Series.

Joel Gibbard, an inventor from Bristol, UK, has set out to make prostheses more accessible. An engineer of robotics by training, Joel created the Open Hand Project, an open-source initiative to develop and release a 3-D printed prosthetic hand called Dextrus for a final cost of under $1,000.

The custom fabricated hands would be fitted to each user and capable of attaching to an already existing artificial limb. The project launched a campaign on the popular crowd-funding platform Indiegogo last week. Aiming to get £39,000 (or about $60,000) the campaign entices backers with rewards like T-shirts, 3D printed figures of their choice, or if they donate enough, the complete Open Hand. Mr. Gibbard’s video shows the Dextrus handling delicate objects, like eggs, with a precision normally reserved for devices that are hundreds of times more expensive. The hand was developed with input from a disabled individual, Liam Corbett, a chef who lost his right hand to meningitis. He has already been testing a prototype. In the Indiegogo video, Corbett enthusiastically states, “I would be proud to wear this, it would make me feel more confident.”

Mr. Gibbard’s Open Hand Project is definitely worth keeping an eye on. Its promise of low-cost, open source prosthetics is inspiring: The Dextrus would not only make these devices more accessible to the disabled, but also to the hackers and tinkerers looking to modify and innovate them. Perhaps, someday, losing a hand will mean coming out better than new.

Petar Todorov is a senior majoring in chemistry. He can be reached at Petar.Todorov@ tufts.edu.

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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

ANTONIN SCALIA INTERPRETING THE CONSTITUTION

“…the Constitution sometimes insulates

the criminality of a few in order to protect the privacy of us all.”

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2013 LECTURE: 4:30–6:00 P.M. GANTCHER SPORTS AND CONVOCATION CENTER 161 COLLEGE AVENUE MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE CAMPUS Tickets will be available Tuesday, September 24th at Student Services, Dowling Hall Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 11, 1936. He married Maureen McCarthy in 1960 and has nine children—Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane.

He received an A.B. in 1957 from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, an LL.B. in 1960 from Harvard Law School, and was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960 –1961. He was in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1961–1967, and served as Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 1967–1971, as Professor of Law at the University of Chicago from 1977–1982, and as Visiting Professor of Law at both Georgetown University and Stanford University. He served as Chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law from 1981–1982 and its Conference of Section Chairmen from 1982–1983. He served as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1971–1972, as Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1972–1974, and as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974 –1977. He served as a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982.

Richard E.Snyder PRESIDENT’S LECTURE SERIES

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL 617.627.3787 FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL 617.627.3787

PHOTO: THE COLLECTION OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

Nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Reagan, he assumed that office on September 26, 1986.

Arts & Living

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Concert Review

Powerhouse lineup draws crowds to MixFest

Backstreet Boys, Of Monsters and Men, Gavin DeGraw perform at Esplanade by

Ryan Hasting

Contributing Writer

MixFest, a free annual concert held by Boston radio station Mix 104.1, drew an impressive audience last Saturday to the Hatch Shell stage on the Charles River Esplanade. The event, which began at 4 p.m., had attendees lining up before the gates even opened at 1 p.m., hoping to be among the first of thousands to enter the venue. Those who were successful received pink wristbands that granted them access to the stage area. Others who arrived later had no choice but to watch from afar — if they were allowed in at all.

The people who were lucky enough to make it inside, however, would likely agree that the show was worth the three-hour wait in the relatively cold and windy weather. With an impressive lineup that included The Backstreet Boys, Of Monsters and Men and Gavin DeGraw, fans were treated to an experience they will not soon forget.

The concert began on time with a short, 20-minute set from up-and-coming musician Alex Preston. Preston was offered the opportunity to perform after he won Mix 104.1’s “15 Seconds of Fame/ Open for MixFest” competition. The singer-songwriter from New Hampshire performed several original songs, impressing the crowd and generating excitement for the main performers. His entirely acoustic set complemented the larger production acts that followed, and his delivery was both genuine and sincere.

The next artist to take the stage was Gavin DeGraw, whose history as a threetime MixFest veteran was evident through his comfortable stage presence and the jokes and conversation he made with the audience. In his roughly 45-minute set, he chose to vary his material, alternatsee MIXFEST, page 6

Michaela Mellen for The Tufts Daily

A.J. McLean of The Backstreet Boys performs at this year’s MixFest.

Toronto Film Festival features Oscar contenders by

Lancy Downs

Daily Editorial Board

The 2013 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) wrapped up this past Sunday, concluding the first chapter in this year’s awards season race. The Academy Awards themselves aren’t until March 2014, but that doesn’t stop rabid speculation from building months in advance of the ceremony. The TIFF provides the perfect arena for premature Oscar prognosticating; the festival screens numerous highly anticipated films to audiences (and critics), whose reactions can set the tone for the rest

of the awards season. Last year, Ben Affleck’s “Argo” (2012) opened at Toronto to rave reviews and significant Oscar buzz — and February found Affleck on the stage of the Dolby Theatre thanking the Academy for his film’s Best Picture win. It’s a critical jumping-off point for films hoping to make similarly positive impressions on these early audiences.

This year, most Oscar buzz focused on one film in particular: acclaimed British director Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave.” The movie portrays the life of Solomon Northup, a black man

Album Review

The Weeknd sometimes struggles on ‘Kiss Land’ by

Brendan Donohue

Daily Editorial Board

When young artists surrounded by a great deal of hype see success, they will often stick to their original style for

Kiss Land The Weeknd Universal Republic

©DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC via Flickr Creative Commons

as long as possible. Even after his fifth album, The Weeknd’s music still includes his trademark sensual singing and electronic-inspired beats. His new album, “Kiss Land,” is an enjoyable display of this brand — a relaxed listen despite its anxious vocals. Although The Weeknd’s lyrics have recently begun to edge towards ridiculous, “Kiss Land” remains a solid play and a pleasant 55 minutes of his signature sound.

Abel Tesfaye began releasing music as The Weeknd in late 2010. His identity at first unknown, he attracted attention after uploading his music to YouTube. When he released his “House of Balloons” mixtape the following spring, the project garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews.

The R&B singer employed musical techniques similar to those of the electronic artist Burial and rapper Captain Murphy and continued to generate hype through intrigue and mystery.

That mixtape, which featured drugand-sex-riddled lyrics over slick, slow

Benedict Cumberbatch, seen here as Julian Assange in ‘The Fifth Estate,’ starred in three films screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

see WEEKND, page 6

see TORONTO, page 6

Megan Clark | Where’s The Craic?

A guided tour of Irish film

W

here’s the craic?” is an Irish slang phrase that translates roughly to “What’s up?” or “Where’s the fun?” While the spelling of “craic” (pronounced crack) suggests an ancient Gaelic origin, it is actually derived from 19th century English and Scottish usage. At the time, it was spelled “crack” and usually meant “gossip.” It was not until the 1950s that “crack” entered Irish parlance and was used to refer to gossip, news or fun. In the last few decades, the spelling of “crack” has evolved into the pseudo-Gaelic “craic” and is now culturally and conversationally ubiquitous.

Just as “craic” combines current and historical concepts, I hope for this column to explore current themes in Irish film and the historical context that informs these themes. Every week I will examine a different movie, usually from the early 1990s to the present day. My goal is to present a wide range of films, encompassing historical dramas and family comedies. This is a continuation of the column I wrote last year, in which I focused heavily on movies involving the Irish director Jim Sheridan and the IrishBritish actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Sheridan and Day-Lewis first introduced me to the pleasures and complexities of Irish film, and I will revisit their movies again and again.

However, this year I plan to introduce readers to some less well-known but prolific actors such as Colm Meaney, Fionnula Flanagan and Liam Cunningham (who appears in “Game of Thrones”). I will also be reviewing book-to-film adaptations of several novels by the Irish author Roddy Doyle, all of which showcase life in working class Dublin.

I myself am a relative newcomer to Irish film and am really looking forward to learning about new movies with the Daily’s readers. I recently spent a semester in Dublin and arrived thinking I was pretty hot stuff due to my intimate knowledge of the SheridanDay-Lewis canon. I was quickly knocked off my high horse, however, when I realized the huge holes in my Irish movie arsenal.

While my favorite movies were all filmed in or after the 1990s, most of them deal with rather bleak historical matter, usually the Irish Revolution, Civil War or the more recent “Troubles” in Northern Ireland.

After spending a significant amount of time in modern Dublin, I realized that it is a unique place — clearly a city, but with a familiarity amongst people that evokes the feeling of a small town. Many of the comedies I intend to review, especially the ones based on Roddy Doyle novels, feature various small communities of Dublin and the way their members interact in both supportive and contentious ways.

While films from within and outside the country’s borders depict the older generations of Ireland as particularly understated, the younger Irish are presented as much more extreme and often in violation of various social taboos. This cinematic and literary tradition is reflected in the speech of actual Irish youth. Words like “dire” and “bleak” are thrown around with great frequency. For example, an Irish university student might say to another one, “Have you been reading this American’s column on Irish movies? It’s dire.” And people really do use the word “craic.” Therefore, you could ask your friend, “Where’s the craic?” and they might respond, “The girls and I are watching ‘The Snapper.’ I just adore its depiction of familial love and support amidst a small, moralizing community.”

Thank you in advance for taking this tour with me. I must warn you that the first review of the year is, to use the Irish parlance, rather bleak, but also philosophically fascinating — tune in next week for “Hunger” (2008).

Megan Clark is a senior majoring in English and history. She can be reached at Megan.

Clark@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

6

Arts & Living

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

The Weeknd runs into issues on ‘Kiss Land’ WEEKND

continued from page 5

beats, was exceptionally popular with music blogs. An amalgam of electronic sounds and contemporary R&B comparable to Jeremih and Drake, “House of Balloons” had Pitchfork calling the album a “remarkably confident, often troubling debut that excels at both forward-thinking genre-smearing and good old-fashioned songcraft.”

The Weeknd sticks firmly to this formula on “Kiss Land,” singing about sex with a level of candor that would make most people cringe. On this album, however, the lyrics become self-mocking instead of effective. Whereas his uneasy crooning about nervous lovemaking was chill-inducing on older songs like “High for This,” the lyrics from the album’s title track sometimes come off like bad jokes.

It’s not that this hyper-sexualized formula is overly tired or that The Weeknd’s style is a thing of the past. More so, it feels like The Weeknd’s lyrics fail to provide anything new this time around and have lost some of their nervous, energy-fueled power. He still sings anxiously and urgently — no one will doubt that he is an excellent R&B singer — but “Kiss Land” just doesn’t have the type of edgy,

Fred von Lohmann via Flickr Creative Commons

The Weeknd’s lyrics often border on self-parody throughout ‘Kiss Land.’ innovative language that his previous albums did.

Regardless of its lyrical faults, “Kiss Land” is an enjoyable listen, even after numerous times. It takes a bit of effort from the listener

to allow the lyrics to slide, but the music is solidly produced, and a feature from fellow Toronto native Drake adds to The Weeknd’s melancholic singing. The album’s opening track, “Professional,” is an example of one of

the better songs. Acting as a gentle introduction to the album, the song begins slowly, incorporating echoes before transitioning into a fuller, more developed track. Singing the words, “It’s ideal / You need someone to tell you how to feel,” The Weeknd promises an album full of stories about twisted romances and broken relationships.

The seven-minute closing track, “Tears in the Rain,” is one of the best on the album. The productions loops, with Tesfaye singing over his own voice as each line ends. This lends a sense of urgency to the song and creates a feeling of longing for something that he will not attain. The lyrics enhance this concept, with Tesfaye singing, “You deserve real love / And I deserve to be by myself.”

The songs situated between these two bookends of the album wave by like underwater reeds, at times slightly distorted and unclear, but overall smooth and pleasant.

The Weeknd’s “Kiss Land” is an effective album with intriguing sounds and experimental beats that play to the singer’s strengths. Although the record’s trite lyrics border on silly and inane, The Weeknd’s vocal talents and the excellent production push past these flaws, making “Kiss Land” a respectable record.

MixFest’s 20th anniversary a resounding success MIXFEST

continued from page 5

David Shankbone via Wikimedia Commons

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup in the critically praised film ‘12 Years A Slave.’

‘12 Years A Slave’ wows early audiences TORONTO

continued from page 5

born into freedom in antebellum America that was later kidnapped and sold into slavery. Based on a true story, “12 Years a Slave” was Academy catnip based on the trailer alone. The reaction to the film itself, however, has been nothing short of astonishing.

Critics have reported audience members sobbing through the film and leaving the theater utterly speechless. Kyle Buchanan, a writer for Vulture (the online pop culture component of New York Magazine), explained a conversation with a colleague after seeing the film.

“I said, ‘A century from now, when they put together a montage about the history of movies?

They’ll put the film we just saw in the first 10 seconds of that montage,’” he said.

Anthony Breznican, who covers the awards season race for Entertainment Weekly, predicted that “12 Years” will easily land an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and that Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Northup, will receive a Best Actor nomination. Ejiofor and his costar Lupita Nyong’o have been at the epicenter of the nomination guessing game, overshadowing their more famous costars including Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti and Michael Fassbender. There is plenty of time left in the awards season race for a shakeup, but for now, “12 Years” has a commanding and decisive lead, bolstered by its People’s Choice Award win at the TIFF. When it opens on Oct. 18, audiences will be able to judge for themselves whether the hype surrounding the film is justified.

Several other films with solid chances at the Oscars also screened at the TIFF, including “Gravity,” “Dallas Buyers Club” and “August: Osage County.” Sandra Bullock has been garnering positive reviews and significant Oscar buzz for her role in “Gravity” as an astronaut trying to survive after her space shuttle is damaged. Directed by Alfonso Cuar򬪠the movie takes place in zero gravity, which

provided Bullock with a tricky and isolating filming experience — though one that is earning her universal praise.

“Dallas Buyers Club” and “August: Osage County” both have potential as Academy fodder as well.

Matthew McConaughey, who leads the cast of “Dallas Buyers Club,” famously lost 38 pounds to play Ron Woodroof, a homophobic Texan diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in the ’80s. Thus far, reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and the film holds an 87 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Dallas Buyers Club” continues McConaughey’s streak of more serious roles — a bold, rewarding move away from the romantic comedies that made him famous.

“August: Osage County,” the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name, features an impressively high number of famous faces, including Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Chris Cooper, Ewan McGregor, Dermot Mulroney and Cumberbatch (who starred in no less than three films screened at the TIFF). With the play’s established prestige and a cast of Hollywood heavy hitters, expectations for “Osage County” may have been impossibly high. Reviews have been mixed so far — though it is hard to imagine a film of this stature getting shut out this awards season.

“12 Years a Slave,” “Gravity,” “Dallas Buyers Club” and “August: Osage County” are only a handful of TIFF movies slated for awards season success. Cumberbatch turned heads as controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in “The Fifth Estate.” “Enough Said” features James Gandolfini in his one of his final performances, while Idris Elba turned in a charismatic performance as Nelson Mandela in the biopic “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.” Ron Howard’s Formula One racing drama “Rush” also screened at Toronto, as did Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day,” starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. The TIFF has certainly kicked off the race to the Oscars, but with the awards show months away and several potential contenders that have yet to premiere, the race is hardly locked up.

ing between his better-known songs and some that certain spectators might not have recognized. All of the songs were well received, but “In Love with a Girl” and “Not Over You” were crowd favorites. He also took the opportunity to perform a song off his new album, “Make a Move,” set to debut in October.

Throughout the performance, DeGraw continued to amaze fans and casual listeners alike with his incredible live vocals and music, bringing a touch of soul that made each and every member of the audience feel like a part of the show.

DeGraw would have been difficult to follow for any performer, but The Backstreet Boys have never been just any act.

Immediately picking up on the energy of the crowd, the group performed a rather short list of songs to perfection. The group stuck to what they know best — crowd pleasers from their early days — but managed to sprinkle in a few highlights off their new album, “In a World Like This.” Fan favorites included “As Long as You Love Me,” “I Want it That Way” and, of course, the iconic “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back).” Perhaps the only disappointing part of their 20-minute performance was the end, where the group ignored an enthusiastic request for an encore and left the stage without much ceremony.

Finishing off a concert featuring such high-profile musicians takes a special kind of group, and Of Monsters and Men delivered completely.

The Icelandic singing duo charmed spectators with powerful yet subdued vocals, and band member Ragnhildur Gunnarsdóttir amazed with her abilities on trumpet. Rather than sticking to their hits, the group took their time meandering through the songs on their albums, both singles and B-sides. They eventually closed with “Yellow Light,” a haunting number that embraced the almost palpable silence surrounding entranced concertgoers. As the song came to an end, snow began flying off the stage and onto the audience, reaching over their heads and into the streets.

An almost four-hour concert filled with performances from well-known artists, MixFest certainly surpassed fans’ expectations. The only downside of the afternoon was admission; the small capacity of the Hatch Shell unfortunately limited the number of people inside. For the thousands that were turned away and forced to watch from outside the gate, the concert may have fallen short. But for those early arrivers who managed to secure a spot inside, the show was unforgettable.

And the best part? It was completely free.

alaina.buzas via Flickr Creative Commons

Gavin DeGraw’s funny banter with audience members made him a fan favorite at MixFest.

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

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

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Editorial | Letters

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Editorial

Efforts to limit the financial burden of textbooks

Tuition at Tufts this academic year comes out to $45,590. This cost is often defrayed by financial aid, but after students and their families manage to sort through their finances, they are then faced with the cost of textbooks.

Many of us grew up reading hardcover books from bookstores, no more than $30 apiece at most, or from public libraries. But this is not how the collegiate textbook market works.

Textbooks are printed and sold at a price that has seemingly very little to do with the cost of production.

New editions of books are printed as soon as the secondary market gets sufficiently populated, regardless of how many changes need to be made.

Students who attempt to go through secondary markets are often unpleasantly surprised to find that they need an access code for an online component of the book, which costs nearly as much as or more than the book itself. This hurts first-year students especially, pressured by the short time

in between registration and the start of classes.

Both professors and the Tufts administration should be willing to use their positions to lend a helping hand to students. First, professors could be more accommodating in the first few weeks of class as Amazon orders trickle in through an overbooked Mail Services.

Many professors, especially in the arts and humanities, often assign individual course packets instead of forcing students to buy expensive books.

While this is cheaper, doing this also eliminates any resale value and forces students to venture to the Boston Avenue Gnomon Copy, which is open only during inconvenient weekday hours. Professors who do this, or who assign books out of which only a few chapters are used, would better assist their students by uploading as much as is legally possible to Trunk.

Many professors put a single copy of the textbook on reserve in Tisch Library for students who truly cannot afford to buy the textbook or are still waiting

on their book to arrive. However, that single copy is generally insufficient for the needs of the student body, especially for large lecture classes during the first few weeks of the semester and during reading period and finals.

For this as well, there are potential solutions. If the administration facilitated either a reserve system through Tisch, where students could donate old editions of books, or a proper textbook resale website for Tufts (as opposed to the inefficient TuftsLife), there would finally be a proper secondary market for textbooks.

The Tufts Bookstore still has its uses, especially for students who don’t want to go through the hassle of buying books online. But if students want to find other alternatives, professors should be accommodating by publicly posting syllabi and required textbooks online well before the start of classes.

Students who have already paid tens of thousands of dollars to enroll in classes should not be burdened with one final monetary barrier.

Course enrollment was capped to reflect the smaller number of seats, even with the combined classes. Additional technical support has been provided to set up the classes in advance and to aid the interaction between the faculty and students, particularly in the split classes. Systems are in place to accommodate the questions of students during and after class.

Although the Daily editorial mentioned that technological glitches seemed inevitable, I am happy to say that very few have been reported. This is due to the shared goal of the faculty and all those behind the scenes to successfully bridge the month until classes can again be held in Cohen with high-quality alternative learning spaces and technology.

I believe you will find the temporary delay to be worth the wait. Next month, the greatly improved technology throughout Cohen Auditorium will benefit classes, events and performances through better audio, projected images and lighting. Performances will further benefit from new curtains, a new stage floor and trusses for adjusting stage lights. For the first time, the stage is

wheelchair accessible. And, the new mechanical systems are far more efficient than more easily controlled.

We can all be proud of this project, which took 18 months to plan, design and construct. In fact, the Daily first reported the Cohen renovation in Oct. 2012, highlighting a need for more student input regarding the scope of work. As a result, the Office for Campus Life organized two meetings last year between Tufts students and the project architect, Leers Weinzapfel. Students shared their ideas regarding the current and future use of the auditorium, voted on the final color scheme, tested the seating options and argued (successfully) for additional scope to support stage performances.

Construction should be complete in just a few weeks, classes should resume in Cohen in early October and all of us will be able to enjoy our newly renovated auditorium.

Jehan Madhani

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Dear Editor, In response to the Sept. 5 editorial “Cohen renovations a hindrance to learning,” let me start by saying that I regret the inconvenience to students and teaching teams resulting from the relocation of classes as the major renovation of Cohen Auditorium is completed. The cooperation and understanding that students and faculty have shown during this time is greatly appreciated.

We all agree that streamed lectures are far from ideal. However, the teaching faculty, the Cohen renovation project team, Tufts Technology Services and the Music Department have been working together since last winter to ensure that contingency arrangements — should they be needed — would be as smooth as possible for students. And they have been.

As noted in the editorial, four courses scheduled in Cohen are temporarily being taught in Distler Auditorium. Two of those classes exceed the capacity of Distler or any other teaching space on campus and, therefore, are being streamed via a Web feed to other classes: Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room in the case of EC 5 and Barnum 008 in the case of BIO 13.

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, September 17, 2013 op-ed

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Op-Ed Eloise Libre | Frankly Candid

Why the Patriot Act needs revision by

You are where you study

Charles Shiro Inouye

By now, most people know about the incarceration of the Japanese Americans during World War II. All the members of my family, on both my father’s and my mother’s side, were forcibly relocated to camps in Wyoming and Utah from their homes on the West Coast.

Day by day, knowledge of this past abuse of power is growing. What fewer people still realize is that another, smaller roundup occurred not months, but days, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Soon after news of the attack, the FBI came knocking on my grandfather Sashichi Inouye’s door. They came for him.

Had it not been for my father, who stood in the doorway and resisted the agents with arguments about civil rights, my grandfather probably would have joined hundreds of other community leaders, who were taken away that day and imprisoned for the duration of the War. Sometimes, a little resistance goes a long way.

Surely, the imprisonment of innocent people is troubling. But perhaps the most troubling aspect of this incident is the speed with which it happened. It takes more than a day or two after an incident like Pearl Harbor (or the bombing of the World Trade Center) to determine who the leaders of a given community are and where they are living. In the case of Pearl Harbor, the government would have had to have access to the data of the U.S. Census, and they would have been willing to use that information illegally.

There is no other explanation.

I’m sure people back then were told, as we are now, that it was their duty to volunteer personal information: ages, family relationships, race, addresses. Surely, they were told then, as we are now, that this information would be protected and used properly.

When it comes to the usefulness of data, the temptation for abuse is too great to resist. With Edward Snowden’s recent disclosures, the secret is out.

In response to the Patriot Act of 2001 (extended for another four years in 2011),

A MCT

the NSA has been gathering information illegally. Perhaps the biggest difference between 1941 and 2013 is only the level of dishonesty required to do so. Today, no one breaks a promise about what they might be learning about you because no one asks you for your information in the first place.

Our government simply takes what it wants, and we let it do this because we are patriots. Beyond being patriotic, we have also become habituated to a loss of personal control by the way we interact with each other. As consumers of goods and information, we allow the cookies embedded in the software we use to track our daily choices and habits.

Technology has no soul, but do technologists? Does our country’s famously rigorous engineering curriculum teach its students to think about what they are doing? Do arts and sciences students think about what they are doing?

Big data serves the hidden masters of both big government and big business as they operate with the blessings of Democrats and Republicans. The Clinton administration contributed to the erosion of personal freedom by allowing electronic surveillance to grow more efficient and widespread. The Bush administration encouraged the passing of the Patriot Act at a time of national vulner-

ability. The Obama administration now defends the NSA from criticism following the disclosures made by Edward Snowden and others.

Unless this issue matters to us, we can only expect that greater technological sophistication will only lead to greater challenges to personal freedom.

Ironically, it was Dostoyevsky’s axe murderer Raskolnikov who waxed philosophically, “Happy people live without locks.”

Back then, it was axe against lock. Today, it is algorithm against encryption. If our computers are incessantly asking us to provide passwords to lock up this or that data, why do we give our information so easily to organizations like the NSA, FBI, CIA, Google and Facebook?

If the abuse of power happens to one of us, it happens to all of us. Petition your representatives to revise the Patriot Act by requiring approved justifications for the electronic surveillance of both foreign and domestic persons and institutions. At this point in time, that is what we can reasonably expect.

Charles Shiro Inouye is a professor of Japanese in the department of German, Russian and Asian Languages and Literatures at Tufts. He can be reached at Charles.Inouye@tufts.edu.

Off the Hill | University of Minnesota

The truth about textbook piracy by

Luis Ruuska

The Minnesota Daily

Journalist James Surowiecki epitomized the textbook industry’s business in the New Yorker years ago as a fight against used book sales via new, expensive editions of books released every few years. For Surowiecki, these obsolete texts are planned to manipulate the industry to profit from students.

The cost of textbooks has skyrocketed a whopping 812 percent since 1978. In comparison, the Consumer Price Index has only risen 250 percent since 1978. Additionally, it is estimated that students pay anywhere from $800 to $1,000 annually for textbooks at four-year public universities.

With no end in sight for the high cost of textbooks, students are increasingly turning to more unscrupulous methods to acquire their course materials.

While students are continuing to pirate their favorite TV shows, movies and albums, the odd PDF of their Monday class’s textbook may not look so out of place in their BitTorrent client these days.

In 2010, around 20 percent of students surveyed by the Book Industry Study Group reported illegally downloading course content. Today that number has risen to 34 percent. Over the same period of time, the amount of students who admitted to photocopying or scanning textbooks rose from 21 percent to 31 percent.

It is clear that more than a third of students see pirating textbooks as a viable option for making the grade, but are they in the wrong?

Legally, yes. It’s irrefutable that downloading copyrighted textbooks for free is illegal.

How could it not be?

But to simply state this obvious fact and declare that this issue is a black-and-white

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

one where the lazy and self-centered college students are in the wrong and the hardworking, law-abiding textbook publishing industry is in the right is to miss the point entirely.

While pirating textbooks may be illegal, students have every ethical right to do it provided that they accept there may be legal consequences for their actions. Why? Because, as the old saying goes, it takes two to tango and the textbook publishing industry has kept prices exorbitantly high for more than three decades.

Too long have the requests and complaints of students to the textbook publishing industry fallen upon deaf ears. At some point, we as students need to draw a line in the sand and decide whether to refuse to support an industry whose profits rise as our modest finances diminish. If the textbook publishing industry does not want to compromise, then it shouldn’t be surprised to see its profits begin to dwindle year by year.

For some students, drawing that line will

mean only renting or buying used books.

For others, this will mean pirating to make the grade.

The exponential rise in piracy over the last decade is the reason many industries have released streaming services like Hulu and Spotify in a gesture of compromise to their customers. The book industry has also recognized the value in digital content, and retailers like Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble have eagerly adopted their respective e-book devices, e-books and e-book loaning services and inadvertently opened the door to piracy even further.

Only a tiny fraction of “pirates” face consequences each year. Students are going to be surprised to discover that pirating their textbooks is as easy and as relatively safe as pirating their favorite albums. But they will also need to decide for themselves if the ends justify the means. In this case, the ends might mean hundreds of dollars saved each semester and a little less debt after graduation.

dmit it. Tufts students tend to enjoy a nice brag about how many hours they’ve been spending in the library.

Often, it feels like we participate in some sick, ongoing competition, vying for the title of Most Hours Spent on Homework.

But how many of those hours are spent actually focusing on school, and how many do we waste chatting away with friends, downloading music or Facebook-stalking the cutie who bought you Moe’s on Saturday night — all from the guise of a Tisch cubicle?

Whatever the excuse, we spend a ridiculous amount of time in libraries and other workspaces pretending to be productive, just for the bragging rights of that “hardworker” label. But let’s be honest — where you choose to “study” dictates exactly what you’re doing and what your motives are.

The Tisch conversation area: You tell everyone you’ve spent five straight hours locked in the library, but in reality you’ve spent five hours catching up on “Arrested Development” with intermittent chats across a table of similarly glowing laptops and trips to the Tower for some welldeserved nourishment.

The outskirts of the convo area: You operate under a slightly more productive pretense, but you still get distracted every 10 to 20 minutes by your friends and the proximity to snack foods, especially if it is any later than 9 p.m.

The inner depths of Tisch: You are fairly serious about getting work done. A table provides ample space for your spread of books, water bottles, coffee mugs and occasional eye contact with a friend. A cubicle generally attracts headphones, ongoing Gmail chats, thick reference books and other indicators of solitary confinement.

Ginn Library: Either finals season is approaching or you are buckling down on that thesis you’ve supposedly been working on. Now you really mean business, especially if you post up in that Harry Potter-esque reading room. One time, an angry Fletcher student kicked me out of there for crunching too loudly on Lucky Charms marshmallows. True story.

The Rez: This is the ultimate social scene of homework; you want cool people to witness your “studies.” If the suave hipsters don’t have proof of your work ethic, then it doesn’t exist, right? We all know that frequent occupiers of the Rez care more about their Lucy in the Chai than about that research proposal due tomorrow. Since it’s so distracting, the Rez generally attracts English, history and women’s studies majors, considering their workloads are arguably less pressing. This academic demographic subsequently accounts for the Rez’s hipster nature.

Level G of Tisch: Why anyone would ever go down here puzzles me. Better known by frequent library-goers as the G-Spot, this elusive basement lacks cell phone service and is far too sterile to concentrate on anything other than weird fantasies in the stacks. The best part about this floor might be the bathrooms. Since so few people venture down here, they are usually clean and unoccupied, allowing you to poo in peace without the pressure of other people noticing that you’ve been in there for ages (think: Tisch reading room). I do wonder, though, why the G-level restrooms need to post signs forbidding the disposal of sharp objects.

The President’s Lawn: Who are we kidding? You can hardly see your computer screen with the glare of the sun out here.

Of course, we want to take full advantage of those beautiful autumn days, but we all know the Prez Lawn is not a place to get real work done. Sure, you might be able to read a few pages, but after about half an hour, you and your friends will digress to napping and/or flirting with the next person who walks a dog past you.

Eloise Libre is a senior majoring in history.

She can be reached at Eloise.Libre@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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Comics

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Finding Marie wearing purple.

Late Night at the Daily

Monday’s Solution

Jamie: “It can’t be like a New York Post article— ‘Man touches tot.’”

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Please recycle this Daily.

by

Wiley

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, September 17, 2013 Wanted

Services

These 2 Champion Sired, AKC Registered puppies will be ready for a new home We have 1 males and 1 females,if interested kindly contact the James family: jamestore01ltd@ gmail.com

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Sonny’s Barber Shop. Look Good – Best Haircuts Around! 5 Minutes from TUFTS – 282a Main st.

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Jordan Bean | Sacked

A lesson learned

W

Courtesy William Hutchings

Tufts sailing picked up their first victory of the year in the Harmon Cup-Sloops regatta, while the rest of the team competed in eight other regattas over the weekend.

Jumbos divide team across many regattas SAILING

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women’s team competed over the weekend. Sophomores Kate Shaner and Caroline Atwood skippered and crewed, respectively, for the A division portion, while sophomore Amanda Sommi and first-year Julia Fuller sailed in the B division. The first tandem ended up in 14th place, while the latter group finished in 11th, as Tufts took a 14th place finish overall in a regatta that mostly

comprised upperclassmen.

For the skippers on the team, this was an opportunity to prove that they belong in the conversation for a slot on the national championship team. Last year’s B skipper William Hutchings (LA ’13) has graduated, making Saturday and Sunday the first major auditions for the position. Despite being a deep team, finding a capable replacement depends on more than pure skill.

“We have many people with the speed for the position,” senior tri-captain Kathleen Kwasniak said. “But not everyone has had experience starting at a major regatta, which is crucial to fill that spot.”

Next week, the co-ed team hopes to repeat its 2012 victory at the Hatch Brown Regatta hosted by Boston University, while the women’s team has its first intersectional of the season as it heads to Dartmouth for the Mrs. Hurst Bowl.

DAILY DIGITS 2

45-0

Wins for the Kansas City Chiefs, equaling their total from all of last year. The Chiefs most recently took down the Dallas Cowboys 17-16 in head coach Andy Reid’s home debut. This is only the third time since 2005 that Kansas City has started 2-0. The Chiefs will look to remain undefeated Thursday when they take on the Eagles in Philadelphia.

Record of boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. after he won his fight against Canelo Alvarez Sunday night. Mayweather dominated throughout, and although he did not receive a unanimous decision, there was no doubt that the undefeated champion would win. “Money” seems a fitting nickname for the fighter, as he is guaranteed $41.5 million, though he will make even more after the profits from pay-per-view are counted.

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8

Jersey number of Jack Doll, junior quarterback for the Jumbos who was recently named the starter.

Prior to the intrasquad scrimmage Friday, Tufts had four players in contention for the starting position.

Now, Doll will lead the Jumbos in the first ever NESCAC night game Saturday at Wesleyan, where the Jumbos will look for their first win since 2010.

Number of shots taken by senior forward Anya Kaufmann of the women’s soccer team in Tufts’ matchup with Colby Saturday.

Kaufmann scored the first goal of the Jumbos’ 2-0 win in the 28th minute as she fired in a shot off of a cross from junior Carla Kruyff. The Jumbos will look for their second win of the season Wednesday at home against Wheaton College.

3 Goals from sophomore forward Tal Smith of the men’s soccer team in the first three games of the season.

Smith is a transfer student from Howard University who has immediately made his impact coming off the bench for the Jumbos. Smith’s latest strike came on a beautiful back heel goal in the team’s Saturday matchup against Colby. The next game for men’s soccer is today at Wesleyan.

4

Games the Boston Red Sox need to win in order to clinch the American League East. The Sox currently hold the best record in baseball at 92-59, and they are a comfortable 9 and 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East. After sweeping the Yankees, the Sox have shown they are in top form and ready to make a run at the World Series come October for their first championship win since 2007.

elcome back to year two of Sacked! For anyone new to the column, I sift through a week’s worth of sports stories to pick out those which I deem most worthy of being ‘sacked’ and give you, the reader, an in-depth analysis and ways to improve the situation.

Over the course of the summer, I learned a very valuable lesson about us, the sports viewers. No matter the circumstances, we are willing to defend and forgive our athletes in exchange for one simple thing: production.

Any number of situations helped bring me to this realization. Whether it was Yankees fans clamoring for Alex Rodriguez to be suspended for the rest of his life (or was that just me?) or the media talking nonstop about Johnny Manziel signing autographs, scandals loom large in the moment.

However, it’s amazing how quickly this can all change when a player hits a homerun or throws for a touchdown. Now, I’m not saying I still don’t want A-Rod suspended for the rest of his career, but for the time being, I’m content looking the other way while the Yankees make a surge for the second wild card spot.

With Manziel, the story of his offseason had been exhausted. From the courtside seats, celebrity meetings and autograph fiasco, I thought ESPN might just keep a camera on him every step of his life — kind of like CBS did this past Saturday. However, after his laughable one-half suspension, the talk shifted from infractions and consequences to touchdowns and wins.

Ryan Braun, following his finger-pointing, adamant statement defending himself against his positive drug test, quickly reclaimed his spot as a fan favorite when he took the field the next spring and produced again for the Brewers. That is, before he was officially found guilty of substance abuse and deservedly took his suspension.

A pattern has developed for players who find themselves on the wrong side of public opinion, and it turns out there’s a very easy remedy to fix that.

After committing the act, a public apology is expected. The perpetrator will usually appear sincere enough — but not too sincere as to make it look fake — admitting nothing, but apologizing for everything. Through this, they acknowledge guilt but still remain ambiguous enough that we don’t know for sure what they did wrong.

Next, they accept the penalty and allow themselves to fade into the background while the next big story takes the lead on SportsCenter. They come in the next preseason, tell the media they are “moving on” or “looking forward” and proceed to put up big numbers while the fans sit back, basking in the glory of their team winning.

This brings up an interesting, deeper question. How much are we willing to forgive before we realize it’s bigger than our team winning a handful of games? Ray Lewis allegedly murdered someone, yet the stories now are about what a great motivator and leader he is. Michael Vick was immersed in a dog-fighting ring, and all we hear about is Chip Kelly’s new offense that he’s at the helm of. Alex Rodriguez consistently cheated the game and his fans, but when he trots out to third base after reenergizing the Yankees’ season, he’s met with many more cheers than a few short months ago.

Ultimately what this leads to is: the next time your favorite player returns from a suspension to take his first snap, step up to bat or throw down the first dunk, will you be cheering for the value he adds to your team or stay true to the same morals you hold yourself to?

Either way, the blame still goes to the players committing the actions, because without them, there’s no discussion in the first place.

So, until next time, players — you’re sacked!

Jordan Bean is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Jordan.Bean@tufts.edu.

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Volleyball

Jumbos split pair of doubleheaders by

Tyler Maher

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts volleyball continued its strong start to the season by picking up a pair of wins in four games played in the MIT

VOLLEYBALL (6-3 Overall, 0-0 NESCAC) at Cambridge, Mass., Saturday Tufts MIT Tufts Endicott

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25 14 23 25 15 — 3 18 25 25 19 7 — 2

at Cousens Gymnasium, Friday Springfield 21 25 25 25 — Tufts 25 19 21 20 —

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Regis Tufts

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Invitational tournament this weekend.

“We played really well against some really good teams,” sophomore Carolina Berger said. “I was proud of our team’s composure this weekend.”

The Jumbos, now 6-3, began the tourney with a home doubleheader on Friday. Tufts dominated the opening match against Regis College, routing the visitors by scores of 25-7 and 25-4 in the first two sets. Regis responded to the pair of blowouts with a much better effort in the third set, but its rally fell short as Tufts finished off the sweep with a 25-17 victory. Junior Hayley Hopper led the way with ten kills, while sophomore Esme Nulan chipped in six

kills and four aces.

The Jumbos kept rolling against Springfield College in the second game, winning the first set to stun a Springfield side that had not previously dropped a set through five games. The Pride, however, shook off the rare defeat and recovered to beat Tufts in three straight sets and win the match. The Jumbos didn’t lose by much, though, and were outscored by a margin of eleven points in the four sets.

On Saturday, the tournament shifted to MIT, where it looked like Tufts was headed for another tough loss when they fell behind Endicott College two sets to one. Needing a win to stay alive, the Jumbos fought back to win the fourth set 25-19, then completed their comeback by edging the Gulls 15-7 in the fifth and final set. Freshman Mary Maccabee stepped up with a team-high 13 kills and Hopper totaled 12 kills.

But the comeback appeared to exhaust the Jumbos, who ran out of steam against MIT in the finale and were swept for the first time this season. Despite ending the tournament on a loss, Tufts can feel good about holding its own against tough competition.

“Overall, we did well,” Hopper said.

“I was proud of the way the team came together and persevered throughout the tournament. It was great to see the freshmen grow into their positions on the team.”

Berger also saw the team’s freshmen make great strides this weekend.

“All of our freshmen have really stepped up to the plate,” she said.

“They have quickly adjusted to the college-paced game.”

Seeing as how Tufts is a young team

Sailing

First weekend for Tufts marked by victory in Maine by

Ross Dember

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts sailing team was back on the water this weekend as it opened the 20132014 sail season with a first-place finish at the Harmon Cup-Sloops Regatta in Penobscot Bay off of Maine. The team also competed at the Harry Anderson Trophy at Yale and various smaller regattas, showing signs of good things to come for the No. 10 co-ed team in the country.

Seniors William Haeger, David Liebenberg and Paula Grasberger — the three returning members of last year’s team that finished first at the Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Match Racing National Championship in November — were joined by junior James Downer at the Harmon Cup-Sloops.

With tri-captain Haeger back at skipper, and Grasberger once again taking up her role in the crew, the team returned to its old ways, jumping out to an early lead and never looking back. Likewise, Liebenberg was back from San Francisco where he and classmate Solomon Krevans placed fifth at the Red Bull Youth Americas Cup. Scoring 17 points in the nine-race Harmon Cup-Sloops Regatta, the Jumbos easily blew out the competition. In fact, the Jumbos placed first in five of the races, making them the only team in the regatta to win more than once.

In order to compete at the national championship, you must first qualify for New England championships, which the Jumbos did by winning in Maine. This victory therefore starts the long and arduous process of qualifying for nationals. For now, however, the Jumbos are just focused on taking care of business and ensuring they will be ready when the big meets come later this fall.

“This was an easy qualifier for the [New England] Match Racing Championships and the first step to defending our national title,” head coach Ken Legler said. “We could

have gone to a tougher qualifier at Coast Guard, but the conditions were much nicer on Penobscot Bay.” In New Haven, the Jumbos placed 10th out of 18 teams scoring 251 points in comparison to the 135 scored by Yale, who won the regatta. Surrounded by other top sailing programs in the country, the Jumbos held their own. Juniors Alejandro Ruiz-Ramon and Sam Madden manned the Division A boat, and in a regatta defined by wide swings in finishes from race-to-race, Ruiz-Ramon and Madden remained consistent in what turned out to be a wildly close division, finishing tied for eighth.

Meanwhile, over at the B division, senior Julie Pringle and junior Duncan Swain dug themselves into an early hole, finishing 16th in the first race. Despite the slow start, the duo showed improvements as the competition wore on, slowly chipping away at the score gap to climb the standings for a finish in 10th place.

Tufts was represented at seven other smaller regattas, providing more highlights for the large team. Also in Penobscot Bay, seniors Elizabeth Keys and Charles Proctor scored 44 points in 10 races to win the B division of the Penobscot Bay Open. They combined with classmates Willem Sandberg and Tori Porter, who sailed in the A division, to finish second overall.

“Smart and consistent sailing was key for us,” Keys said. “It was important not to be [committing false starts], especially in the lulls.”

Furthermore, senior Ben Weigel and junior Erin Bondy led the Jumbos at the Mystic Lake Open in West Medford, finishing third out of 34 teams. The two other teams competing in West Medford finished fifth and 10th, putting three Tufts teams in the top 10.

Another major result for the team came at MIT in the Toni Deutsch Trophy where the see SAILING, page 11

Christie Wu for the Tufts Daily

Junior Hayley Hopper (9) led the Jumbos as the server for 12 straight points against Regis College Friday. on which the freshmen play a big role, this year’s team will go only as far as its first-year players can take it. So far, the freshmen have risen to the challenge.

They are flourishing under coach Cora Thompson, who took great care during the preseason to integrate them into the team and prepare them for the season ahead.

With the team’s first-year players already making key contributions, Tufts is poised to improve throughout the year, as the rookies mature and gain additional experience. The Jumbos will also look to take advantage of six straight games on their home court starting on Wednesday against Western New England University.

Golf

Golf finishes in middle of pack again at Middlebury Alex Connors

Tufts placed 14th out of 22 teams at the 30th Duke Nelson Invitational golf tournament hosted by Middlebury College on Saturday and Sunday.

Tufts brought five athletes to the tournament — juniors John Wawer and Alex Zorniger, and sophomores Jay Wong, Matt Lesnik and Brendan Koh. The scores of the top four on the team over two days were added together to create the team’s final score of 631.

Wawer had the best round for the team on day one, shooting a five-overpar 75, which put him seven shots behind leader Rob Donahoe of host Middlebury College. Donahoe’s twounder 68 that day was the best round played all weekend.

Wawer led the Jumbos again on day two shooting a 76, good for a 151 weekend score. His team-leading score was good enough to tie for 21st in the entire field. Wong was close behind, scoring a 153, which put him at a tie for 28th overall.

“As a golfer, you always see the negatives in your rounds, thinking of missed opportunities,” Wawer said. “In that sense, you’re never completely pleased.

But with some very respectable rounds, I was pleased with both my and the team’s performance. Even those who didn’t score especially low had some tremendous nine-hole stretches.”

Zorniger shot a 160, placing 65th overall, and Lesnik and Koh both shot 167, tying for 85th overall. Interestingly, Lesnik and Koh both shot 81 in the first round and 86 in the second round. Both players will look to push each other in the future for the fourth scoring position on the team.

“I thought the team took a positive by

Daily Editorial Board

step this weekend,” Zorniger said. “We had some kids that played well and put up some decent numbers. We didn’t get the full team effort that we hoped for, but we were very competitive.”

According to Zorniger, consistency is the key to the team’s future success.

“Of the kids that didn’t play as well, it’s still an inconsistency that we need to work on,” Zorniger said. “We had some kids, including me, put up some of the best and the worst golf in their careers in the same round. Continuing with a constant practice regimen will work that out.”

In fact, the Jumbos were able to put together a more impressive performance this past weekend than the scoreboard showed.

“If you look at the scores, we were only a couple of strokes away from the top 10, which would’ve been a good result in a tournament with the depth and size of the Middlebury field,” Zorniger said. “We know we can play better, but it was a much better effort than last week,” he said.

Instead, the weekend was less an example of poor performance, and more of squandered opportunity for a young Tufts team.

“As for the course, it was there for the taking,” Zorniger said. “Very fair and the scores showed that. Our result this year would have been quite a few spots higher in last year’s field.”

Four of the five Tufts players, besides Wong, shot better rounds on Saturday than they did on Sunday. Seven of the 22 teams scored better as a whole in the second round than in the first, while Tufts was one of the many teams that went the other way, shooting nine shots worse on Sunday.

The Jumbos’ next test will come this weekend at the Williams Invitational.