Spring 2014 - Issue 6 by Tufts Observer

Tufts Observer VOLUME CXXVIX, ISSUE 6

APRIL 22, 2014

ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE AGE OF ANONYMITY (PAGE 2)

COMMUNITY HEALTH AS A STANDALONE MAJOR (PAGE 18)

HOW BUSH’S NEW HOBBY IS CHANGING HIS LEGACY (PAGE 22)

Staff editor-in-chief Nicola Pardy managing editor Evan Tarantino creative director Bernita Ling asst. creative director Ben Kurland

April 22nd, 2014 Tufts Observer, since 1895

Volume CXXVIX, Issue 6 Tufts’ Student Magazine

Table of Contents

section editors Anika Ades Robert Collins George Esselstyn Nicholas Hathaway Justin Kim Ben Kurland Moira Lavelle Katharine Pong Sahar Roodehchi publicity director Stephen Wright photography director Knar Bedian photography editor Alison Graham art director Griffin Quasebarth

BERNITA LING

FEATURE You Don’t Know Me and You Can’t See Me: Accountability in the Age of Anonymity by Justin Kim

lead artists Mia Greenwald Eva Strauss

lead copy editors Eve Feldberg MT Snyder

NEWS Accountability Briefing, 2014

copy editors Brett Mele

by Robert Collins, Ben Kurland, and Tyler Green

design assistants Anastasia Antonova Conner Calabro Elizabeth Kaleko

POETRY love letters to nobody

web director Kumar Ramanathan

staff writers Allison Aaronson Ellen Mayer Julia Malleck Jamie Moore Xander Landen editor emeritus Molly Mirhashem

by Elayne Stecher

PHOTO INSET Candid Characters

BERNITA LING

OPINION The Responsibility to Unlearn by Miranda Wilson

GEORGE W. BUSH

ARTS & CULTURE The Artist Formerly Known as the President

The Observer has been Tuftsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; student publication of record since 1895. Our dedication to in-depth reporting, journalistic innovation, and honest dialogue has remained intact for over a century. Today, we offer insightful news analysis, cogent and diverse opinion pieces, creative writing, and lively reviews of current arts, entertainment, and culture. Through poignant writing and artistic elegance, we aim to entertain, inform, and above all challenge the Tufts community to effect positive change.

by Moira Lavelle

@tuftsobserver

www.tuftsobserver.org

Contributors EVA STRAUSS

PROSE Infinity

by Julia Richieri

GRIFFIN QUASEBARTH

CAMPUS Tufts in Need

ARTS & CULTURE Miyazaki: The Artist and his Final Film

OPINION Inclusive Education

OFF CAMPUS Dan Hogan & The Revival of Club Passim

by Kumar Ramanathan

by Kathleen Li and Angie Lou

by Xander Landen

by Andrew Wofford

Selin Ipek Madeleine Lebovic Daniel Macdonald Chelsea Newman Vishakha Ramakrishnan Ana-Maria Murphy-Teixidor

Cover by Bernita Ling

FEATURE

YOU DON’T KNOW ME YOU CAN’T SEE ME Accountability in The Age of Anonymity

By Justin Kim

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

GRAPHICS BY BERNITA LING

FEATURE

rendan Eich, by all accounts, is a highly accomplished and brilliant individual. As an engineer for Netscape in 1995, Eich created JavaScript, a computer programming language that has been integral to the development of web applications and serves as the foundation of nearly all new age websites. JavaScript has become so important that it is now required learning for any serious programmer. In 1998, Eich cofounded Mozilla, a project designed to create opensource applications that eventually birthed Firefox, the acclaimed and still widely used web browser. Throughout Eich’s tenure at Mozilla, he served as a member of the Board of Directors, Lead Technologist, Chief Technology Officer, and on March 24, 2014, after 16 years at the corporation, was appointed Chief Executive Officer. Just eleven days later, on April 3, 2014, Eich resigned as CEO. It turned out that in 2008, Eich had donated $1,000 in support of California Proposition 8, an anti-gay marriage law that defined marriage strictly as “between a man and a woman.” While this donation was publicized back in 2012, Eich’s appointment gave it the heavy media coverage it originally never received. The social media backlash was immediate. Multiple LGBT activist groups called for a boycott of the company, the dating site OkCupid requested that all members stop using Firefox, and Mozilla’s own employees called for his dismissal. Even members of the company’s Board of Directors resigned following his appointment. While Eich tried to remedy the situation, he ultimately refused to publicly change his stance on same-sex marriage. It became clear that the alarming lack of support for a newly appointed CEO would cripple the development of the company; Eich had no choice but to resign. While opposing same-sex marriage is widely seen as an anachronistic and objectionable view, it is by no means an illegal one. But in Silicon Valley, a region where social acceptance is as much of a defin-

ing trait as technological innovation, Eich’s views are particularly appalling. No matter how impressive his resume, Eich was publicly held accountable for his actions. News of his resignation served as a reminder that everything we say or do has lasting consequences, especially in this age of digital permanence. The Internet has brought with it networks of information that are growing exponentially by the millisecond. A tweet can travel thousands of miles in the blink of an eye and a video shared on YouTube can be viewed by millions of people in just a few hours. Our words and actions move faster and farther than ever before. And as evidenced by Eich’s road to resignation, in this world of unlimited, lightning-fast information diffusion, the most attention is reserved for news that drives controversy. There are two sides to every issue, and controversy by its very nature drives debate. Eich’s critics refused to support a company led by a man who wanted to keep gay marriage illegal, and his supporters defended his right to free speech. While both have merit, much of the online discussion on the subject consisted of little reason and plenty of personal attacks. Unfortunately, this has become far too common in online debate. It has fostered what Jon Lovett of The Atlantic (and former speechwriter for President Obama) calls “The Culture of Shut Up.” Debate and dialogue surrounding important issues are far too often undermined by what he refers to as “vicious personal attacks and self-righteous calls for apology.” This culture has been facilitated in part by the increasing accessibility to online anonymity. According to Ruogu Kang, one of the researchers behind a study done by Carnegie Mellon University exploring why people seek anonymity on the Internet, people engage in “anti-social”, or hateful, online anonymous behavior because they “don’t have the burden of their real-life identities attached to messages that they share on those applications.” They feel like they “have to maintain a consistent

April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

FEATURE

Anonymity makes attacks more cruel, reactions more dramatic, and issues unnecessarily more divisive. self-image” when dealing with public profiles as they do on platforms like Facebook, and anonymity is a convenient way to shirk this kind of responsibility. Kang also emphasized that people were much less likely to engage in this sort of misconduct in spaces where their identities were publicly available. Opinions will inevitably differ, and disagreements are a necessary part of discussion and debate. But the art of argument has turned more toward accusatory attacks simply for the sake of feeding controversy, as evidenced by the discussion surrounding Eich. Those who support gun control, for instance, are often easily dismissed as “anti-American,” and those who question climate change are often regarded as “anti-science.” People should be able to express themselves, but dialogue should not be any less substantiated and thought out simply because

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

people can now hide behind a computer or smartphone screen. Anonymity makes attacks more cruel, reactions more dramatic, and issues unnecessarily more divisive. One new venture that supposedly seeks to reverse this trend is Secret, an application hoping to bridge the gap between anonymity and a culture of productive, honest expression. The app, whose slogan is “Speak Freely,” is essentially a messaging service that allows users to share posts anonymously. Its mission statement claims that it is designed to “bring more authenticity, self-awareness, and empathy to the world.” The driving force behind this mission is that while platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn place social pressure on users to project an artificially polished image of themselves, Secret allows members to express all opinion with “free speech and uninhibited communication.”

FEATURE

The app is already gaining serious traction, despite its launch just two months ago. In March, the company announced that it had raised $8.6 million in Series A funding, and now there are rumors that Facebook has looked into it as a potential acquisition (with a valuation exceeding $100 million). While Secret eliminates the potential anxiety that can arise from maintaining public profiles, it also removes all accountability. Silicon Valley executives like Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s VP of Advertising and inventor of the News Feed, have seen numerous posts attacking their reputations and careers. Users continue to utilize the platform as a soapbox for hateful personal attacks, all without the slightest fear of retribution or recrimination. Secret has already had to adopt a policy of warning users not to “defame” others on the service. Yik Yak, a similar anonymity-based application, had to limit its membership to adults after its middle and high school users were found responsible for a series of cyber bullying incidents and bomb threats. At the end of the day, the fact that technology has made it possible for virtually anyone to share his or her opinion is better than those opinions

not being heard at all. In a way, social media is the ultimate manifestation of free speech, as a message on Twitter can fuel political revolutions and a video on YouTube can spark protests in a matter of hours. Voices are being heard, but sometimes the sound of those voices turns rather cacophonous, tainted by a sour blend of vigor, spite, and drama. Referring to Secret’s skyrocketing popularity, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz and Netscape, wrote, “Every day, each one of us has many choices about whether to lift people around us up or tear them down. For most of us, those choices are local in nature—people we know or meet, interact with face-to-face, one on one. But for some of us, those choices loom larger, in the social software and systems we design, build, report on, advertise on, fund.” In short, we can decide to use this new power of speech to engage in productive discussion with others or spread vicious rumors and launch personal attacks in order to vilify them. Above all, it is our responsibility to remember that regardless of the space in which they exist, our words are not autonomous. Rather, they come with consequences for which we must hold ourselves accountable. Doing so might just encourage dialogue instead of diminishing it.

April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

NEWS

Accountability Briefin New York, February 6

Hedge fund titan walks.

edge fund trader Matthew Martoma was convicted in the largest insider-trading bust in the history of finance—but his billionaire boss, Steven A. Cohen,

walked. It was no secret on Wall Street that SAC Capital had been cheating using illegal inside information, yet the firm’s illegal practices went on for twenty years. To get an edge on the market, SAC relied on “material non-public information” provided by a network of informants. Martoma was convicted for using information provided by a pharmaceutical industry insider. SAC’s returns, which averaged 30 percent over the firm’s run and made it the most successful hedge fund in the world, were considered by many to be too good to be true. They were. The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bahrara, hoped to coax a plea bargain out of Martoma, who now faces five years in prison for conspiracy and an additional forty years for securities fraud. Martoma did not implicate his boss, and was convicted. He sought a conviction reversal on April 7. It seems that Cohen had distanced himself from the day-to-day management of the firm such that he was not implicated by the evidence the state gathered. Some additional evidence was allegedly destroyed by SAC traders. It is not clear why Martoma (who had been expelled from Harvard Law School for fabricating his transcript) accepted the conviction rather than the plea bargain. SAC has pled guilty to insider trading, and is paying a $1.8 billion fine. The firm survives, and this month rebranded itself Point72 Capital. Cohen has not been charged. He retains his $11 billion fortune, not including his $700 million art collection. O —Robert Collins 6

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

Vatican City, March 5

Pope defends Vatican’s response to sexual abuse of children.

or almost a year, Pope Francis avoided even mentioning the clergy sex abuse revelations that have shaken the Catholic Church to its core over the past two de-

cades. Since his accession in March 2013, Francis had offered his prayers to victims of sex abuse, but he had not specifically addressed the culpability of the Catholic Church. Now he told an Italian newspaper that “no one has done more.” Francis had indeed done more than any previous pope to combat sex abuse. He founded an investigative committee to advise him on how to address the scandals, and he had made the sexual abuse of children, for the first time, an official crime in the Vatican. Francis, who is the last absolute monarch in the world, has an imposing task ahead of him. Pope Benedict XVI, his predecessor, had been the first pontiff to resign from office in nearly 600 years, and had proven unable to overcome the unspoken scandals that wracked the Vatican—and created millions of former Catholics. On April 12, Francis said that he takes personal responsibility for the child sex abuse scandals. He asked for forgiveness but has not taken additional action. Sexual abuse allegations have cost the US Catholic church roughly $2.6 billion. O —Robert Collins ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRIFFIN QUASEBARTH

NEWS

ng, 2014 Washington, February 26

Piercing the veil of government secrecy?

lenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras returned to the US two weeks ago to accept a Polk Award for their reporting on National Security Agency surveillance, confident that their decision to publish classified information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden was not a crime. A month and a half earlier, another momentous declaration came without the same media attention—this time from the gridlocked US Congress. The House unanimously passed a bill that would reform the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the public’s only legal tool for checking government secrecy. The bill skirted across the House floor without fanfare. It now awaits a Senate vote. The proposed legislation comes five years after President Obama urged government agencies to adopt a “presumption of disclosure” in their classification processes. The proposed reforms, introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa, are intended to pressure government agencies to adopt a more proactive stance toward declassifying records by enforcing “presumption of disclosure.” Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, the largest non-profit user of FOIA, told the Observer last September that the president failed to substantially reform the open records law because “turnover in White House staff after the first two

BEAU COLLINS

years [of Obama’s first term] meant nobody was in charge of the transparency issue, nobody enforced the Obama policies.” “[The administration] never ordered a review of pending FOIA litigation to see if the government’s position needed to be changed and lawsuits settled” Blanton said. “They never ordered the agencies to update their regulations on FOIA, so many are completely out of date and contradict the President’s policy.” According to Blanton, the Snowden revelations showed that the NSA and wiretap court process was “vastly over-classified, stifling debate that needed to happen.” Since the Guardian and Washington Post’s first reports on NSA surveillance programs in June 2013, which were based on Snowden’s leaks, about 5,300 FOIA requests have been sent to the NSA, according to Al Jazeera, which obtained the agency’s FOIA logs. That represents a seven-fold increase over the previous year. The NSA’s chief FOIA officer, Pamela Phillips, told Al Jazeera that her department had requested more staff to deal with the flood of requests, but had received none from the agency. O —Robert Collins

April 22 , 2014

Tufts Observer

NEWS

New Orleans, since 2012

New Orleans Police ignore reforms mandated after Katrina shootings.

n the days after Hurricane Katrina, some members of the New Orleans Police Department—historically one of the most violent law enforcement institutions in the country—shot to kill. Though the governor of Louisiana denied having declared martial law to stop the looting that broke out across the city after one of the most devastating natural disasters in American history, some cops took the law into their own hands. Eleven New Orleans residents were reportedly shot by police immediately after the storm. The remains of Henry Glover were found days after the storm in a car a few blocks away from a New Orleans police station. Glover had been burned to ash. His body was taken to the morgue in five plastic bags. Five years later, Officer George McRae admitted to purposely burning Glover’s body. Another NOPD officer had allegedly shot Glover in the chest with a .223 rifle at a nearby strip mall, and conspired in the cover-up. At the Danziger Bridge six days after the storm, five New Orleans police officers allegedly shot six people, killing two. The officers allegedly fabricated a police report claiming that four people were firing on them when they arrived at the bridge in response to a fictional “officer down” call. Charges against the officers were vacated last fall because of prosecutorial misconduct. The retrial is still pending. In 2012, the Justice Department came to an unprecedented consent decree agreement with the NOPD, which stipulated that the NOPD would enact a series of reforms, some specifically aimed at constraining officers’ use of force. But New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu has criticized the agreement, saying it costs too much for the weak New Orleans tax base to handle. The NOPD has been slow to report its progress. Critics say the department is stalling until the agreement expires in 2017. O —Robert Collins 8 Tufts Observer April 22, 2014

Chicago, March 26

Northwestern football players win right to unionize.

he football team at Northwestern University became the first ever to be allowed to unionize, after a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) at the end of March. The players will hold an internal election on April 25 to determine whether they will create the first collegiate sports union in the nation. Regional Director of the NLRB, Peter Ohr, issued the ruling after deciding that college football players are employees of the university who offer athletic services to the university and receive scholarships in return. Despite an NCAA rule that players can’t devote more than 20 hours per week to athletics, Ohr found that the players at Northwestern were devoting around 40 to 50 hours per week to the sport, making them not just employees, but full time ones. The ruling noted that players must already adhere to strict rules, many of which prioritize athletics over schoolwork. Players have to check their course schedules with the coaching staff and cannot take a class if it conflicts with practice. Players are required to disclose information about their cars, living situations, and to friend their coaches on Facebook. Mark Emmert, the NCAA President, called the ruling “ridiculous” and “grossly inappropriate” when he held a Sunday morning press conference after the ruling. Mr. Emmert was paid more than $1.7 million in 2011. Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald sent a letter to his students, urging them to vote against the creation of the union. Mr. Fitzgerald is Northwestern’s highest paid employee, with $2.2 million in 2011 compensation. Northwestern has already appealed the ruling. O —Ben Kurland

NEWS

Washington, March 27

SEC lawyer resigns, lambasts agency for failing to take on Wall Street.

ames Kidney pulled no punches in his retirement speech at the end of March. An attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission who had spent a quarter century enforcing finance law, Kidney addressed a crowd of 70 at his retirement party with harsh word for his former employer. He called the SEC “an agency that polices the broken windows on the street level and rarely goes to the penthouse floor.” He railed against the toothless nature of the modern SEC, calling the fines it has levied on Wall Street institutions in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis “at most a tollbooth on the bankster turnpike.” Kidney critiqued the agency for failing to pursue litigation against those who were responsible for the financial collapse. Kidney’s comments come after years of reticent conduct by the SEC. Despite evidence of wrongdoing leading up to the 2008 meltdown, no bankers went to jail and fines levied were kept minimal — in part, due to an SEC policy to avoid fining banks that received bailouts out of concern that the U.S. Government would only be receiving its own money back. “I have had bosses, and bosses of my bosses, whose names we all know, who made little secret that they were here to punch their ticket,” he said. “They mouthed serious regard for the mission of the commission, but their actions were tentative and fearful in many instances.” Kidney finished his speech—and his career—to applause. O —Ben Kurland

Japan, April 2

UN saves the whales.

n March 31 the United Nations International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered Japan to immediately discontinue its whaling activities in the Southern Ocean. Although a global moratorium on the commercial harvest of whales was established in 1986, Japan had been able to legally kill around 1,000 whales per year for the purposes of “scientific research.” Many conservationists, however, argued that the Japanese JARPA II program, a whaling research program, is actually a cover for the commercial hunting and sale of whale meat in Japanese domestic markets. Since 1988, Japan has killed over 95 percent of the 14,410 whales harvested under the auspices of the scientific research permits. Pleasing environmental activist groups such as the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has opposed Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters since 1988, the ICJ supported the complaints filed by Australia, concluding “the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking and treating of whales in connection with JARPA II are not for purposes of scientific research.” A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan in response to the World Court ruling said, “Japan is disappointed…however, Japan will abide by the Judgment of the Court as a State that places a great importance on the international legal order and the rule of law.” O —Tyler Green

April 22, 2014 Tufts Observer 9

OPINION

The Responsibility to Unlearn By Miranda Willson

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

PHOTOS: CREATIVE COMMONS; BERNITA LING

OPINION

few Saturday nights back, a drunken acquaintance of mine greeted me with the following remark: “Oh look, it’s the feminist!” Aside from the initial surprise from this sudden tongue-in-cheek outburst, I felt no anger or offense. Instead, I felt frustrated. I sensed that to him, the word “feminist” was synonymous with someone who hates men, blames all men for the world’s problems, and assumes that men are all sexists and/or rapists. To him, feminism is the exclusion of men, and patriarchy is just a buzzword used to justify this exclusion and “misandry.” The encounter reminded me of a discussion I had in my Environmental Justice and World Literature course. While discussing an essay that addresses the intersections between patriarchy, the military-industrial complex, and environmental degradation, some students said they felt personally offended by the text because it said that “all men” were responsible for perpetuating not only the military-industrial complex, but also the degradation of women and the environment. But these students missed the point of the essay. In reality, the blame does not lie on (most) individual men, but on larger systems of oppression at play—primarily patriarchy, in this case. Similarly, during Israel Apartheid Week, I overheard a few Tufts students complaining about Students for Justice in Palestine’s actions because the group made them feel guilty for being able to go on Birthright trips while Palestinians are denied access to their ancestors’ homeland. For this reason, they dismissed SJP’s efforts to educate Tufts students about this form of oppression because it made them feel uncomfortable, and they misunderstood SJP’s critique of Israeli policies as an attack on them. I wish that these students, my peers in Environmental Justice and World Literature, the boy who intended to insult me by calling me a feminist, and the entire Tufts student body could understand what oppression entails. While oppression can be personal, it is also systemic. Being a feminist does not correspond to hating all men, just as advocating for racial justice does not entail hating all white people and educating people about racist Israeli policies does not entail hating all Jews or people who have the privilege to go on Birthright trips.

It frustrates me to see people choosing not to learn about these forms of oppression because they feel personally attacked in talking about them. Patriarchy, racism, classism, and other systems of oppression are not the fault of those who benefit from them. Rather, people who benefit from these systems were born into them, just like those who suffer from them. We have all been taught, explicitly or implicitly, to adhere to them. Jewish Americans who have gone on Birthright trips should not feel uncomfortable or guilty discussing injustices committed against Palestinians or the problems with the Birthright program simply because they benefit from a system over which they have no control. Most often, they have been taught that they have a “right” to reap the system’s benefits, and it can be difficult to unlearn what they have been taught. But this does not mean that it is not our responsibility to unlearn.

While oppression can be personal, it is also systemic. In order to stop perpetuating these systems of oppression, those who benefit from them need to join the effort. They— or we, since I benefit from many systems of oppression—need to recognize that although we are not at fault for systems of oppression, we are implicated in them, and it is our responsibility to educate ourselves about them. It can be hard for those in positions of privilege to see these systems, because we often assume that the privileges they grant us are not privileges at all but just rights that we have as people. This is exactly why we must be willing to educate ourselves about the experiences of marginalized peoples and confront our own responsibilities to combat these systems. In another essay I read in my class, “Moving Beyond White Guilt,” author Amy Edgington makes an important point: “The more I learn about racism, the less I tend to see it as an individual moral problem and the fewer mistakes I make as an

individual.” This is because racism is “built largely on the complicity and inaction of white people.” Other systems of oppression endure for this same reason. White people must not refuse to talk about racism because they feel that there is nothing they can do to change history, or because they feel that it is not an issue that concerns them; this very act perpetuates and engrains white supremacy. The boys who scoff at feminism must recognize that feminism exists because of the very systems they perpetuate simply by not educating themselves and by not taking action. It can be scary to talk about our own privileges and the systems from which we benefit because of the guilt that often ensues. Some people even feel threatened once they recognize that they have had an unfair advantage over others in many aspects of their lives. The boy who scoffed at feminism, for example, might feel threatened by feminism because it strives to eliminate male privilege and give men and women equal opportunities. But this minor fear pales in comparison to the reality that many marginalized people deal with oppression every day of their lives, and they will continue to be at a disadvantage if these systems do not change. Patriarchy and sexism involve men just as much as they do women, racism involves white people just as much as it does people of color, homophobia involves straight people just as much as it does gay people…I could go on. Unfortunately, those who benefit from systems of oppression have the privilege to choose when to address these issues, whereas those who are discriminated against, ignored, harassed, and marginalized because of them cannot opt out when they want to. Nonetheless, those who benefit are just as affected by these systems, even though they have the privilege to take them for granted. I’d like to tell everyone at Tufts who feels guilty, uncomfortable, or simply annoyed in hearing about privilege and oppression on campus that the only thing they have to feel guilty for is their refusal to learn about these issues. We cannot let our guilt about our privileges scare us into inaction; we should let it inspire us to take action, to change the way people think and help tear down these huge, longstanding systems of oppression. O

April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

POETRY

love letters to nobody by Elayne Stecher

THERE IS A GIRL AND SHE MAKES ME FEEL SO MANY THINGS OTHER THAN COLD AND SHE KEEPS ME UP AT NIGHT WITH HER SHAKING AND SHE TOUCHES ME LIKE MY PLEASURE WAS MADE FOR HER AND SHE SINGS IN THE SHOWER SO ONLY I CAN HEAR AND SHE MAKES MAPS OF THINGS IN HER SLEEP SHE IS ME SHE IS ME SHE IS ME 12

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

Vishakha Ramakrishnan

Madeleine lebovic

Candid Characters MAY 7, 2012

TUFTS OBSERVER

Alison graham

Ana-maria Murphy-teixidor

TUFTS OBSERVER

MAY 7

Alison graham

Ana-maria Murphy-teixidor

MAY 7, 2012

TUFTS OBSERVER

selin ipek

16 TUFTS OBSERVER MAY 7 ana-maria murphy-teixidor

chelsea newman

PROSE

Infinity by Julia Richieri

That night, the sky looked like infinity. The sky looked like infinity the night before that and the night before that all the way into the beginning of time. Even still, there was something different about the foreverness of that night. I liked the way the night felt—warm, still beating against my body and pressing my heart ever upwards into the sparse clouds. I suppose I should have stayed in my room and looked at the night, but I’ve always needed to experience things before I get the whole feel of it. Armed with a book of world mythology, a towel, a bottle of bubbles, and a sweatshirt, I made my way up the 8 flights of stairs to the shoddy roof deck of my building. I lived on the 5th floor, and I guess I could have taken the elevator, but I wouldn’t have felt right if I had taken the elevator to go outside. So I walked up the dingy stairs, past the stroller Amy had grown out of, past last night’s pizza boxes, past the trash bags, and I came out into the clear evening air. I dragged two plastic lawn chairs out of the shed and arranged them facing each other on the wooden deck. I put my sweatshirt on before sitting down and throwing the blanket over my stretched out legs. I wiggled out of my flip-flops and pushed them over the edge of the chair. I took out the book and began to read. I read about gods and goddesses, humans and animals, the beginning and the end, with the sun setting at my back all the while. I didn’t get very far before I couldn’t read anymore, so I just put the book down and looked up. As I watched the sky, the moon rose slowly and surely to take her place among the stars and the sun dimmed his golden crown. I leaned back in my chair so I could see better, but it just made my neck hurt, so

I uncovered my legs and lay the towel on the wooden picnic table. As I lay down on the towel, I could see the city coming to life around me. I unscrewed the lid on the plastic bottle of bubbles and put it next to my head so I could reach for it later without a problem. I crossed my arms over my chest, like King Tut once did, and I just sort of waited there. What I was waiting for, I’ll never know, but I got the feeling that I was waiting for something. I listened to my breathing and as it slowed to barely anything, I let my mind wander. I thought about how I am a human—not a cat or a fish or a firefly, but a person. I remembered the belief of re-incarnation and how I could very well have been a cat or a fish or a firefly. I thought about music, flowers, whales, glass… I thought of anything and everything until I realized that the moon was higher now, and shining on my body. I’ve always loved how beautiful the moonlight is. Even my scarred and stubby hands look beautiful and ethereal, and I stretched my fingers up to the stars just to make sure my hands were really mine. I reached across my face and grabbed the bottle of bubbles. I sat up where I was, and dipped the bubble wand in the solution. I waved the wand around, but I decided I should blow the bubbles myself rather than flail around like a fool. At first only one came out, but then hundreds and hundreds more. Then I put my hands at my sides and I watched as the bubbles drifted up. Up the dingy stairs, past the stroller Amy had grown out of, past last night’s pizza boxes, past the trash bags, and up and out into the crisp night air. The city lights and the moon and the stars reflected off of the bubbles, and if I looked carefully at the right moment just before they popped, I could see the sky itself, and it looked like infinity.

ART BY EVA STRAUSS

April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

CAMPUS

Tufts in Need Public health education is becoming a national trend. Will Tufts keep up? By Kumar Ramanathan

“W

here are the professors going?” asked a Facebook event title that spread around the Tufts community two weeks ago. “No, but really, what’s going on?” The event page was created by two seniors majoring in Community Health, Katie Li and Sarah Diaz, to organize their peers around student concerns about the Community Health program, and to encourage attendance of a “state of the major” forum. Those concerns were sparked by the recent departure of Professor Linda Martinez, the third lecturer in Community Health to leave Tufts in two years after Professors Edith Balbach and Kevin Irwin left for retirement and personal reasons. Li and Diaz told the Observer that they organized students to attend the forum because they were concerned that Community Health professors lacked tenure opportunities, that there was a lack of diversity in course offerings, and that the program was not a primary major. They

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

also collected 83 responses in a survey of Community Health majors, which reflected the student community’s desire for increased resources for the program. Professor Jennifer Allen, director of the Community Health program, said she organized the “state of the major” forum toward the end of her first year at Tufts to hear student concerns and solicit opinions on the state of the program. She stressed that while three professors leaving in two years seems rapid to students, “with a small faculty this level of turnover is not at all above average.” Community Health has strong roots at Tufts, with the undergraduate program beginning in 1975 as a certificate program, when undergraduate education in public health and interdisciplinary fields in general was much less common. “The idea that we could train people at an undergrad level in a liberal arts setting was very exciting,” Allen said, referring to the

program’s early days. The program began to offer Community Health as a second major only in 2002. The major attracted 38 students in its first year, and has steadily grown, consistently drawing between 50 and 80 students a year. The world of public health education has changed greatly since 1975. In a 2003 article entitled “Who Will Keep the Public Healthy?” the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommended, “All undergraduates should have access to education in public health.” And given the aging population of public health practitioners and the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, “there is a growing need for people who can work in this interdisciplinary field,” Allen said. More and more of Tufts’ peer schools, like Cornell, Duke, and Georgetown (among many others) are offering public health majors. Against the backdrop of rapidly growing undergraduate offerings in public health nationally, students at the forum voiced frustrations that Community Health at Tufts remains a second major. According to Li and Diaz, many students know they want to pursue the major, but end up declaring it late because they must first declare another major. In their survey of 83 students in the program, 67 percent of respondents said they wished Community Health was a primary major. Allen is optimistic about the program’s prospects of becoming a primary major. “At this point in time, it’s a very well-accepted major. ... I think that students are ready and I think that our curriculum is in good shape. … My sense would be that there’s fairly widespread consensus that this could be a strong, standalone primary major.” Professor James Glaser, the Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts & Sciences, also told the Observer that Community Health’s status as a second major is being re-examined. Li and Diaz’s most pressing concern was the lack of tenure-track opportunities for Community Health professors. Currently,

CAMPUS

pro argument is that there are some scholars that we may be missing by just hiring within disciplines,” said Glaser. “The main argument against it is that creating more small units is not efficient. … There are things inherent to small units that are, in my own personal view, problematic,” he added, suggesting that faculty members in these “small units” would be stretched thin with additional responsibilities. Interdisciplinary education receives significant attention in Tufts’ recently released university-wide Strategic Plan. But Li and Diaz expressed frustration that, amid the energy for branding new interdisciplinary ventures, Community Health seems to have been overlooked despite its long history of interdisciplinary innovation. Referring to the Strategic Plan, Diaz said, “They say, ‘We’re looking forward to the future,’ but what do you mean the future? You already have this program that you could give resources to, and you’re not.” Dean Glaser stressed that these decisions would take time. “We can’t just wave our hand over the situation...students have a shorter perspective than we do. They

have a desire for a program to be a certain way…and they want to experience it. But we have to work within policies and within histories, and a lot of these things are highly political and require votes and persuasion and space and resources, and those things take time.” To continue the conversation, Allen is holding a follow-up forum for students, where she will share information gathered from the first meeting and continue to solicit ideas from students. Although Li and Diaz are both graduating, they are confident that student movement to expand Community Health’s stature and resources will continue into the fall. Current junior Becky Darin Goldberg is planning to push for a TCU Senate Resolution to show student interest in the program becoming a primary major. “When it first started, the Community Health program was cutting edge,” said Daiz. “Tufts was one of the first, if not the first, to have an undergrad program.” Li added, “But when other schools are now giving professors tenure track positions and more resources…we’re not cutting edge anymore.”

INFORMATION COURTESY OF TUFTS UNIVERSITY FACT BOOK

faculty are appointed through the School of Medicine in order to earn professorial titles, which they cannot receive on the undergraduate campus because they do not sit within a traditional department. In other programs such as International Relations or American Studies, professors receive their titles from and occupy tenure track positions within traditional departments. Although this arrangement offers titles to Community Health faculty, it limits them from receiving tenure track positions and opportunities in the same ways as other professors do on the undergraduate campus. “We are very aware that the status and resources that are allocated to you in academia because you have tenure track positions ... are things that academics value and need,” said Diaz. “It’s hard to attract quality professors … if we can’t offer them back anything promising in return.” Professor Martinez, the most recent professor to announce her departure, is leaving Tufts to take up a tenure-track position at Boston University. In an interview with the Tufts Daily in March, current Professor Cora Roelofs noted that, “When those scholars have options, a non-tenure track job at Tufts versus a tenure track job at another university, even if it’s not as desirable a university, is going to look more appealing.... Community Health is at a disadvantage by not offering a tenure track position.” Li and Diaz added that in order to increase the diversity of course offerings within the program, more faculty will have to be hired. They worry that Tufts will not be able to attract and retain such faculty, noting that the public job posting for Professor Martinez’s replacement is currently listed as a one-year position only. Axner further noted that it is imperative to focus on hiring professors of color, who are currently lacking in the program. According to Dean Glaser, the faculty has been engaging in conversation about whether interdisciplinary programs should be able to make tenure track hires outside of traditional departments. “The

community health majors by year = 10 students

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INFOGRAPHIC BY SAHAR ROODEHCHI

April 22, 2014

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Tufts Observer

OPINION

Inclusive Education Making Resources for ESL Students a First Priority By Kathleen Li and Angie Lou

f you are an undergraduate Tufts student looking for English as a Second Language assistance, where do you go? When you Google “Tufts ESL,” the first search result leads you to “Summer English Language Programs.” These programs are primarily geared towards high school students, pre-matriculated students, and non-students. The second search result looks more promising, titled “ESL Program.” However, the page simply describes Tufts’ 25 years of support for ESL international graduate students, then links back to the “Summer English Language Programs.” Other search results include an LCS program for Spanish-speaking staff at Tufts and more information about the “Summer English Language Program.” When you Google “ESL at Brandeis,” or other similarly competitive schools in the area such as Boston University or Harvard, you immediately arrive at their ESL programs’ pages. So why doesn’t Tufts have an easily accessible center or program to provide undergraduate ESL students with support? With 15 percent of undergraduate students coming from overseas, this is not an issue that can simply be

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

overlooked. The problem is a divide between cultures that is manifesting itself in the form of language. And it can be a difficult problem to seek help for––especially when it feels like no one else around you feels the same way. Tufts Undergraduate ESL student “M*” frequented a Graduate Writing Consultant for help on English papers throughout her freshman year. However, she still faces difficulties as a sophomore: “Sometimes I feel more frustrated with my writing after I talk about it with someone.” Speaking from personal experience as a Writing Fellow, I know how common it is to find difficulty in communicating with ESL students about their writing. There can be embarrassment about and fixation on grammar. Often there is frustration about an inability to express complex ideas to us verbally. After an hour-long session, we sometimes worry, “Where will they turn for help next?” Lynn Stevens, the director of English 3 and 4 (ESL Writing) notes, “I think the hard thing is that students don’t realize that they deserve help. They think they’re just supposed to struggle with what doesn’t work for them. I’m a person with my own re-

sources but I haven’t actually had anywhere to direct them.” Thus, because undergraduate ESL students often do not voice their needs, this lack of resources has slipped by unnoticed. Why is there a lack of resources and support for ESL undergraduate students? This might be because they are expected to have a high baseline English proficiency. However, this translates into a false sense of diminished need. “Historically, Tufts has always had the philosophy that if you have a high scores on your standardized Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) then your language proficiency must be very strong,” said Jane Etish-Andrews, director of the International Center. “But just because these undergrads score very well on the TOEFL, it doesn’t mean they don’t need help too.” While it is true that the international students admitted must have demonstrated high English language proficiency, the TOEFL is a single test that does not bridge the gap between cross-cultural writing norms, speaking ability, idiom usage, and other nuances in English that native speakers have no problem with. *Name has been changed.

OPINION

Why is there a lack of resources and support for ESL undergraduate students? M, for example, describes her experience writing essays at a non-international Chinese school: “It’s just right and wrong answers. It doesn’t involve research or analysis of books. It can include your own opinions and not very specific. I need to learn and become accustomed to this new way, and this is a lot. It’s overwhelming.” The administrative focus on getting ESL students support has been on the graduate students. They are admitted into certain specialized programs, and their skills in specialized fields are more valued. For this reason, there is less emphasis on English language skills as a factor for admission. However, “Graduate students tend to be squeakier about their needs, and they are very involved in supporting each other,” says Carmen Lowe, Dean of Academic Advising and Undergraduate Studies. She explains, “In their orientation they have large-core language tutors...second or third year Fletcher students circulate a list at orientation to introduce themselves, then they pair people up. The Fletcher program has existed for more than 10 years, even though it is a student-run program, and it is a paid position.” In addition, the International Center runs an Intercultural Conversation Program, in which native speakers of English are paired with Fletcher students, to promote growth in English oral speaking

skills. The lack of communication between similar programs and the Tufts undergraduate ESL population creates a cycle: the less evidence there is of a support network, the more students believe there is no one they can turn to. And when students do not speak up about their needs, the administration assumes there aren’t any. The administration would support the creation of an ESL program, but we need to demonstrate that there is a need for one. Dean Barker proposed two questions that must be answered before an ESL program can be established: “How do we better distribute the resources we have? What are the things we still need? If a lot of the students do not have enough resources, we will take it to the administration.” In other words, the administration needs to have student voices documented. Specific suggestions that can improve on our existing undergraduate ESL support infrastructure: 1. Support for the enhancement of oral communication skills: This could adopt a similar structure to that of the Intercultural Conversation Program for graduate students, pairing up native English speakers with ESL students. The goal would be to help ESL students gain confidence in their English speaking abilities. 2. Grammar seminars and workshops: Lynn Stevens held these in the past, ad-

dressing specific issues targeted at specific language groups. These could be held by undergraduate students in English classes, Writing Fellows, or perhaps Graduate writing consultants. However, these seminars must have enough visibility for ESL students to utilize them. 3. Focus groups of ESL students: This could work to bring up the needs of their ESL peers with administration. These students would talk with their peers and compile their concerns to figure out what resources are still lacking. Needs may vary year to year, depending on changing student demographics and skill levels. Also, different needs may exist between students in different programs, such Arts & Sciences students versus Engineering students. When I spoke with Carmen Lowe, she expressed eager willingness to have conversations with such a group of students. Kristina Aikens, Associate Director of the Academic Resource Center, puts into perspective the obligation we have to support Tufts undergraduate ESL students: “If we are going to be a global community we need to support the students who come across the ocean to attend this school. International students are a very enriching part of Tufts, and we need to make this a supportive environment in any way we can.” O April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

ARTS & CULTURE

The Artist Formerly Known as President

by Moira Lavelle

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

ART BY GEORGE W. BUSH

ARTS & CULTURE

he imperious portraits stare ahead with slightly uneven eyes. Art critics across the country have dubbed the works “awkward” while simultaneously “earnest.” The collection of 30 oil paintings in the new exhibit are not quite “high art,” but they are oddly revealing and almost uncomfortably human. The paintings are not perfect depictions of their subjects, but they do seem to illustrate quite a bit about their creator, former president George W. Bush. The world learned of W’s new hobby two years ago when a slew of artwork was posted online after his family’s email was hacked. Among the leaked collection were several paintings of Bush’s pets, as well as some landscapes. But most shocking were two self-portraits of the president bathing: one shows Bush’s bare upper back in the shower, with his eyes reflected in a small hand mirror; the other shows the former leader’s bare legs submerged in a tub, his feet poking out at the end. In all the photos it is clear what is supposed to be depicted, but there always seems to be something off. A lack of depth maybe, or an impossible amount of stillness. In a recent interview on NBC conducted by his daughter Jenna, Bush expressed some remorse. Said Bush, “… And nor do I want my paintings to get out. And I found it very interesting the first painting that came out was the one I painted of myself in the bathtub. I did so because I wanted to kind of shock my instructor.” Bush’s painting instructor was Gail Norfleet, a painter from Dallas who seems to have a similar style to Mr. Bush in both color and in the way her brush strokes are visible on the paper. Bush began taking painting lessons after reading Winston Churchill’s essay “Painting as a Pastime,” which had been suggested to him by Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis.

Later last year, Bush made an appearance on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno. When asked about his new hobby, Bush confidently asserted, “I am a painter.” He went on to explain, “I do take painting seriously, it’s changed my life,” before presenting the Tonight Show host with a portrait of his face—famous chin and all. But today Bush has shaken off his coyness, and has taken on new artistic challenges. “The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy,” a new exhibit at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, features portraits of world leaders that Bush encountered during his time as President of the United States. There is also a painting of the president himself, clothed in the usual suit and tie, as well as one of his father. In a video that plays on continuous loop at the exhibit, Bush explains, “I spent a lot of time on personal diplomacy and I befriended leaders. I learned about their families and their likes and dislikes, to the point where I felt comfortable painting them.” The topic has played out across all media, with news hosts and writers alike gently jibing the president for his skills or lack thereof. There has been some controversy over the accusation that Bush used the top Google image of each world leader as the basis for his paintings. And though it appears that Bush heavily employed the “image search” feature, accusations of laziness or copyright infringement seem a bit desperate. What is in fact the most interesting about Bush’s new hobby is that it seems to have consumed the rhetoric concerning the president himself. One of the top four searches on Google when searching Bush’s name is “george w bush paintings.” This is the president who ended his term with an approval rating of 34%. In 2009 Bush was widely hated—seen as responsible for an

economic crisis, not to mention a trilliondollar war that at that point had lasted for over eight years. But today in his retirement, Bush is best known for a painting of Putin that is more or less accurate, though the leader looks slightly jaundiced. Is it possible that this could change Bush’s legacy? Will history books be gentler on the amateur painter who was once a president than they would have been on a detested world leader? The most recently retired presidents provide no clear answer to this question. While Bill Clinton’s legacy is still clearly marred by the Monica Lewinsky scandal and ensuing impeachment, it is clear Clinton’s various diplomatic missions to Haiti and North Korea, as well as his support of his wife Hilary, have helped his public image. Bush Senior is now discussed largely in connection with his age, and seems to have lost his reputation as an out-of-touch prep school boy. But no former president seems to have been able to make the complete 360-degree change that the younger Bush has. The amnesia regarding Bush’s presidency is especially startling considering the exhibit of paintings features the people Bush met in his capacity as president. And yet, the focus in recent news coverage has not been on Bush’s relationship with these leaders but rather on the giant, tangible brushstrokes. The New York Times mentioned that perhaps the portrait of Putin is so cold because of the tense relationship between the two leaders, but there was no larger extrapolation. It raises the question as to whether the “The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy” exhibit is merely a very odd publicity stunt. Perhaps W. has decided it is better to be seen as a vaguely ridiculous art hack rather than the leader that initiated two wars and was at one point the most unpopular president to date. O

April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

ARTS & CULTURE

Miya The Artist and

ne of the world’s most talented and prolific animators is putting down his pencil for good. Hayao Miyazaki, the 73-year-old artist who has crafted over a dozen anime epics and brought the Japanese genre to an international audience, says that it’s time to retire. The Wind Rises, which was released in the US last month, is his final feature length film. In many ways, The Wind Rises is also Miyazaki’s tamest, and most realistic work. The animator who took viewers soaring alongside a broomstick-wielding witch-intraining in Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) and transported us to a world of spirits in Spirited Away (2002), now polishes off his portfolio with a period piece. Miyazaki brings viewers back to World War I-era Japan in The Wind Rises. The story follows Jiro, a passionate aeronautical engineer who builds fighter planes for Japan’s air force. Jiro’s character is based on a real engineer, Jiro Horikoshi, who built the Mitsubishi A5M, a renowned aircraft that Japan manufactured and deployed during the war. But the Jiro in Miyazaki’s film yearns for something beyond bloodshed. It is his dream to create planes that aren’t valued as tools of violence, but as works of art. Unsurprisingly, the film expresses a certain anxiety towards technological advancement and its potential for destruction. This anxiety is not only a common theme in Miyazaki’s films, but also in his own life. While Miyazaki’s films are in no way aesthetically simple, his method for creating them is staggeringly so— he uses his hands. The prolific filmmaker used computergenerated animation sparingly in most of his past films, but before he started animating his penultimate feature, 24

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

Ponyo (2009), he shut down the entire computer graphics department at Studio Ghibli, his personal film studio. Miyazaki always preferred the rough, natural quality of hand drawn animation, and believes that relying on computers to produce artwork impedes the imagination. “[My] staff had computers coming out of their heads,” he said in a 2009 interview with IGN. “Their hand-drawn drawings became more awkward because they’d try to match the drawings on the computers.” Even without computers, Ponyo turned out to be one of Miyazaki’s most visually striking films. The plot pays homage to The Little Mermaid and follows a half girl, half fish, in her quest to live permanently among humans. Viewers are swept up in the current of a technicolor underwater world in constant motion. Ponyo is also one of Miyazaki’s many films that supports another common thread in his body of work—a prominent female protagonist. In most of his films, young women are heroic figures: in Kiki’s Delivery Service, a 13-year-old witch saves her city from an aviation accident, and in Spirited Away a ten year old girl is able to outwit the bureaucracy in a world of greedy spirits when all other humans who try to do so fail. Interestingly enough though, Miyazaki’s last film does not feature a female figure. The Wind Rises seems to be more autobiographical than his other works, and many parallels can be drawn between the film’s leading character, Jiro, and its animator. Although Miyazaki and Jiro were alive during different generations, they both faced wartime conditions and economic and social instability early in their lives. In the film, Jiro experiences losses in World War I and JapART BY GRIFFIN QUASEBARTH

ARTS & CULTURE

azaki his Final Film by Xander Landen

anese disasters like The Great Kanto Earthquake, which killed and displaced thousands. The devastation Miyazaki saw in Japan is comparable, as he was just a boy during Japan’s World War II efforts and disasters, including the bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For both, an exposure to destruction and instability early on led to an opposition to violence. Miyazaki is notorious for his politicized position against violence. Last summer he wrote an op-ed criticizing the Japanese government’s plans to amend the nation’s Pacifist Constitution, which prevents the creation of a military. He also didn’t show up to the Oscars in 2003 to accept Spirited Away’s award for best animated feature because he didn’t support US military intervention in Iraq. In The Wind Rises, Jiro doesn’t openly protest violence, but at the end of the film, he deeply regrets the contributions his planes make to the death toll in WWI. The film ends on a somber note, with Jiro looking back on what he’s created for the war effort with detachment and regret. His artistic and wholesome desire to create “beautiful” airplanes to benefit society was overshadowed by utilitarian, wartime demands. But at his core, Jiro is warm-hearted, pacifistic, and, like Miyazaki, motivated by the singular desire to perfect his craft. The recurring line in the film, “Le vent se lève, il faut tenter de vivre” (“The wind is rising, we must try to live”), expresses an anxious, inevitable reality in the film: after a certain amount of time, one loses the ability to create. Jiro is told by his mentor, the great aeronautical engineer Giovanni Caproni, that a true artist only has ten years to master his craft. Who knows if this is how Miyazaki felt about his own

life as an artist, but his age certainly hasn’t stopped him until now. In fact, Miyazaki didn’t begin releasing his masterful feature films, which made him a household name in Japan, until he was in his forties. It has been reported that 95 per-

At their cores, both Jiro and Miyazaki are motivated by the singular desire to perfect their crafts. cent of people in Japan have seen at least one of his films, and with the success that The Wind Rises experienced in Japanese box offices as the number one grossing film in 2013, the domestic scope of his artistic reach is evident. But it seems that Miyazaki believes that every artist’s day must come to an end. At the conclusion of The Wind Rises, Jiro halts his career as an aeronautical engineer even though his creations are widely praised by the public and by the government. Perhaps like Jiro does at the end of the film, Miyazaki will also ponder his life’s work for the next few years and try to decide whether or not it turned out like he hoped it would forty years ago. O April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

OFF-CAMPUS

Dan Hogan & the Revival of Club Passim By Andrew Wofford

lub Passim is often called a hidden gem—and it’s quite literally hidden. The tiny, dimly lit basement in Harvard Square is tucked away beneath Palmer Street. After descending into the redbrick building, concert-goers are immediately struck by a sense of intimacy. It is only one room and seats no more than 102 people; the stage rises only a foot above the ground floor. Passim’s physical space perfectly reflects the Club’s character and mission: to provide the most personal musical experience in town. When 70-year-old Dan Hogan took over as the Executive Director of Club Passim in 2008, the iconic music venue was on the brink of financial collapse—but Hogan had come prepared. He devised a plan to rescue the organization from bankruptcy, and within two years he and his staff had transformed Club Passim into a growing, community-based music organization. Hogan is a tall, slender man with bright blue eyes. He is remarkably fit for his age, and bikes to work every day no matter what the conditions. An avid folk music fan and guitar player, he leapt at the opportunity to run Club Passim, a Cam-

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

bridge mainstay and a celebrated folk music hub for over 50 years. But his excitement quickly turned into concern as the global economy—along with Club Passim’s assets—plummeted. “That was probably the worst time to take over an organization. The market went really south right after that,” he recalls. The 2008 economic crisis had come after a decade of financial mismanagement at Club Passim, leaving the organization in dire straits. Surprisingly, Hogan saved the venue from what seemed to be inevitable liquidation. He appealed to creditors and donors to buy time and breathing room, allowing him to get the organization back on track. By May of 2009, Club Passim had spent the entire month “in the black” (making a profit). Under his leadership, the organization continued to achieve this feat every single month for the next two years. But Hogan was not able to set Club Passim on a path towards long-term financial security without making some very difficult decisions. “I had to let a number of people go and really cut expenses,” he recounts. In total, he cut 23 percent of

the operating budget as well as five of the twelve staff members. Although his decisions upset some members of the organization, Hogan believes many understood the realities of the situation. “A lot of those wounds have been healed. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was probably necessary for the survival of the organization.” Eventually, those painful choices paid off. In just two years, Club Passim had eliminated all of its $89,000 debt in the midst of a major recession. But Hogan was not content with just a financial turnaround; he wanted to reclaim the lauded reputation that the venue had lost after ten years of financial disarray. “We had such a bad record before. I really wanted to establish the fact that we were running a different enterprise,” he explained. “We changed over almost everything.” Hogan sought to maximize the staff ’s efficiency, revamp the organization’s website, streamline ticket sales and significantly increase community outreach. Under his tenure, the Passim School of Music grew from 366 students in 2008 to over 700 in 2013. (The school was founded in 2000, offering classes and workshops taught by

OFF-CAMPUS

Club Passim is hidden in a Harvard Sq. basement on Palmer St.

local musicians who perform at the venue.) Meanwhile, the venue itself hosted 455 concerts last year—more than one a day. Along with his expansion of existing projects, Hogan has brought many fresh ideas to the table. In 2008, due to a large contribution from a donor, Hogan created the Iguana Music Fund, which annually awards grants of $500 to $2,000 dollars to 25 budding musicians in New England. Additionally, Hogan initiated two free, weekly concert series that run throughout every summer in Kendall Square and Harvard Square. For Hogan, it is this type of outreach to local artists and the Cambridge community that originally drew him to the job. “There is a financial side, but the reason we’re in business is to fulfill our mission,” he explained. “We’re trying to provide exceptional musical experiences, nurture artists at all stages of their development, and build a vibrant musical community.” Hogan’s efforts have reestablished the success that Club Passim experienced in its heyday from 1958 to 1968. During this golden age, Club Passim—then known as

PHOTO BY JOHN PHELAN

There is a financial side, but the reason we’re in business is to fulfill our mission.

Club 47—attracted some of the era’s most talented musicians who had yet to be discovered. Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, and Bob Dylan are only a few of the many seminal artists who got their start at the club. It was this high concentration of talent that drew Hogan to the venue in 1965, while he was a student at Harvard Law School. But marriage and family soon brought Hogan to the Boston suburbs, where he lived for three decades. When he returned to Cambridge in 2000, Hogan reconnected with the organization and eventually joined its board of directors in 2005. While Hogan might seem like the perfect man for this job, his route to Club Passim was an unconventional one. The All-American golfer and self-taught guitar player graduated from Yale with a degree in philosophy; he received a J.D. from Harvard Law, and also earned a PhD in psychology from Harvard. But Hogan’s many Ivy-League honors never led him down a clear-cut path. Tired of law school after two years, he dropped out and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho. When he returned, he worked for a grassroots anti-racism organization called Community Change, before finally finishing

his law degree. He eventually worked in management consulting for thirty years. Hogan rejects the idea that he is a Renaissance man. “I’ve just been trying to figure out what I was meant to do in life, and for a variety of reasons that was not easy,” he explains. “I went down a lot of wrong paths.” Nonetheless, Hogan admits that his diverse background has equipped him with the skills to handle many different situations. Whether he is dealing with a contractual issue or staff communication, Hogan often relies on his training in law, psychology, and leadership consulting in his everyday work at Club Passim. Hogan wants to ensure the long-term success of the organization and potentially oversee a major renovation of the venue to make it handicap-accessible. He is unsure though, whether it will be feasible to accomplish the multi-million dollar project before he leaves within the next few years. Hogan has revitalized one of the most important folk music venues in America, but he still has one last item on his personal to-do list: “My dream is to play on the stage of Passim,” he says with a smile. O

April 22, 2014

Tufts Observer

EXTRAS

investigations The Tufts Observer is partnering with ProPublica, a Pulitzer-prize winning newsroom in New York, to investigate unpaid internships at Tufts. Help shed light on the issue by sharing your experiences with #ProjectIntern.

news@tuftsobserver.org

Tufts Observer

April 22, 2014

@TuftsObserver

facebook.com/tuftsobserver

PARTING SHOT

Daniel Macdonald is a junior at Tufts. You can find more of his work at: http://cargocollective.com/danielamacdonald

april 7, 2014

TUFTS OBSERVER

please recycle