2010-10-11.pdf

THE TUFTS DAILY

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VOLUME LX, NUMBER 22

MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2010

English Department ‘squeezed for space’

Senate’s grant program to distribute $200,000 in surplus funds to groups

BY JENNY

WHITE

Daily Editorial Board

East Hall has become close quarters for lecturers, tenured professors and teaching assistants in the English Department, with a recent move leaving parttime faculty members with cubicles that they say make it difficult to carry out their jobs.

Around 20 faculty members relocated this fall to three East Hall offices renovated in June, English Department Administrator Wendy Medeiros said in an e-mail. The new offices — rooms 204, 312 and 314 — are designed in a cubicle arrangement, with dividers between desk areas for personal space for six or seven professors and one desk for a communal computer.

Last year, most offices contained four or five lecturers, Medeiros said. The lecturers enjoyed freestanding desks, too, which created more shelf and wall space than in the present offices.

The space is insulting and insufficient, English Department lecturers said, particularly as it limits their abilities to meet with students. Four lecturers requested anonymity for this article and one declined to comment out of concern for the security of their jobs, as lecturers’ contracts are made on a year-to-year basis.

The lecturers said they were disconcerted by the lack of

consultation they received before they and their belongings were shifted to a new space. They expressed frustration that they did not receive a say in the decision.

“It makes me feel that we’re not particularly valued,” Ronna Johnson, an English lecturer for 23 years, said. “This cubicle office space is like one given to people in entry-level jobs.”

The restructuring created office space for a tenure-track faculty member without a permanent office and for two new full-time faculty members joining the English Department in Fall 2011, Medeiros said.

“If we had more space available in East Hall, we would have not been required to restructure the offices,” Medeiros said.

English Department faculty received an e-mail from the department’s administration in June telling them about the office renovations and relocations, two lecturers said.

“Strangers packed up my personal belongings,” Johnson said, since she was far from Tufts by the time she received notice about the office shifts.

The lecturers said the designated area for each lecturer is insufficient for even typical office possessions and that it is now difficult to hold conferences with students.

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate this year has extra funds at its disposal, thanks to surpluses from last year, and is implementing a distribution program to fund students’ visions for improving campus life.

The Senate currently has approximately $450,000 in surplus funds, according to TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk, a junior. Slightly over half of that surplus is leftover money from last year, as the Student Activities Fee was not spent in its entirety. A quarter of it is surplus rolled over from previous years, and the remaining quarter is made up of returns from some of the recovered funds projects.

The Senate intends to distribute $200,000 of this surplus to student groups this year through a newly instituted grant system, de Klerk said.

The surplus program will fund new campus projects by awarding grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, according to de Klerk.

TCU President Sam Wallis said the grants are available to anyone who submits an application.

see EAST, page 2

see GRANTS, page 2

BY

BRENT YARNELL

Daily Editorial Board

Performers Honk! through Davis and Harvard

MEREDITH KLIEN /TUFTS DAILY

Tufts Community Union (TCU) Treasurer Kate de Klerk has decided to distribute $200,000 in surplus funds via a grant program.

Grass-roots push leads to classes today BY

BRIONNA JIMERSON Daily Staff Writer

JODI BOSIN/TUFTS DAILY

Activist street bands from all over the country this weekend performed in locations across Davis and Harvard Squares as part of the annual Honk! outdoors music festival. Honk! performers all share a common goal, which is to take a stand against injustice and oppression through the act of creating music. Visit Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com for more Honk! photos.

Inside this issue

While many Boston-area colleges and universities have the day off today, Tufts students will be headed to class as usual this year.

The faculty Education Policy Committee (EPC) collaborated with Tufts Community Union (TCU) senators and other students to switch Columbus Day for Veterans Day as a school-wide holiday this year. As a result, classes are held regularly today and not on Nov. 11.

This change comes on the heels of dialogue sparked last year regarding Veterans Day’s status as a university holiday, but one with classes held. Some students saw the decision as a slight to military personnel and veterans, some of whom currently attend or are otherwise affiliated with Tufts.

Sophomore Adam Cohen, a former member of Tufts Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), said the change is a positive step toward the university acknowledging veterans and ROTC members.

“I am happy that the university is recognizing the members of its own community who are veterans and active-duty service members,” Cohen said.

The EPC committee in April approved a recommendation that classes for the 201011 academic year be held on Columbus Day in place of Veterans Day. This year, Veterans Day is again listed as a university holiday, but with no classes, according to the academic calendar.

In deciding to hold classes on Nov. 11 last year, administrators made a decision based on the need to pace the academic schedule. The

benefit of a three-day Columbus Day weekend, which generally falls around midterms, was taken into consideration by the EPC, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Jean Herbert, who serves on the EPC, said.

“The general atmosphere on the EPC surrounding the issue was that students need a break,” Herbert said. “It wasn’t so much that there was opposition to either holiday as it was a scheduling concern.”

The EPC is responsible for creating the university’s academic calendar five years in advance, according to Herbert. She called the scheduling process a “logistical nightmare.”

Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences James Glaser said the process of scheduling holidays can be difficult. “Both semesters are determined by Labor Day with respect to matriculation, and Memorial Day with respect to Commencement,” Glaser, who also serves on the EPC, said.

“Every few years, the holidays fall on certain days, and during those years we cannot accommodate both as school-wide holidays,” Glaser said. “We have to choose either Columbus Day or Veterans Day as a schoolwide holiday or a staff holiday.”

Herbert credited student feedback as the driving force behind the change in holidays.

Senior Bruce Ratain, a former TCU senator, said the significance in honoring soldiers and military veterans outweighed the benefits of the three-day weekend. As a senator last year, Ratain co-authored the Senate’s spring resolution supporting Veterans Day as a holiday.

Ratain worked with Glaser last year to remedy the scheduling issue and said see COLUMBUS, page 2

Today’s Sections

This year’s Coming Out Day features new elements in addition to more traditional events like the annual rally.

Deerhunter’s outstanding album ‘Halycon Digest’ perfectly conveys sense of nostalgia.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts | Living Comics

1 3 5 7

Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Classifieds Sports

8 9 10 12

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Students drove schedule switch COLUMBUS continued from page 1

the EPC was amenable to the Senate’s concerns.

Ratain, along with then-juniors Chas Morrison and current TCU President Sam Wallis — who were both senators at the time — proposed holding school on Columbus Day as a way to make up one academic day in the schedule.

In an op-ed that ran in the Daily on Feb. 25, Ratain presented the argument to the student body, calling for students to voice their opinions on the matter. “The response was almost universally in favor of

removing classes on Veterans Day.” Ratain said.

Ratain, Morrison and Wallis took the proposal to the EPC. The EPC supported the change, which the full faculty then approved.

“I have immense respect for those who have made that choice [to serve in the military], and I have profound gratitude for all that they do for us,” Ratain said.

Ratain said he had heard personally from a Tufts alumnus and military veteran who expressed his thanks for the schedule change.

“I was glad that this change was noticed and had meaning for those we sought to honor,” Ratain said.

ASHLEY SEENAUTH/TUFTS DAILY

Students will make their way to classes today, despite Columbus Day.

Monday, October 11, 2010

NEWS

Visiting the Hill this week MONDAY “Trends in Advertising and Marketing: Janice Dehn” Details: Tufts Alumnus Janice Dehn (J ‘79), a senior advisor of marketing at TV Guide Magazine, will discuss her experience in marketing and advertising.

When and Where: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.; Eaton 206 Sponsors: Communications and Media Studies Program, Imaginet “Dialogue with Don Baer: A No Labels event” Details: Donald A. Baer, chairman of Penn Schoen Berland, D.C., a market research and consulting firm, and former senior advisor to President Bill Clinton, will discuss polarization in American politics.

When and Where: 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Braker 001 Sponsor: Tufts Democrats WEDNESDAY “The American Way to Change — a talk with Shirley Sagawa” Details: While special assistant for domestic policy to President Bill Clinton, Shirley Sagawa

helped form AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service and was the Corporation’s first managing director.

When and Where: 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m.; Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center Sponsor: Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service “Autonomy in Shakespeare with Stephen Greenblatt” Details: Stephen Greenblatt, the John Cogan professor of the humanities at Harvard University, will deliver a lecture. Q&A and reception to follow.

When and Where: 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Alumnae Lounge, Aidekman Arts Center Sponsor: Center for the Humanities at Tufts THURSDAY “Fire in the Heart: How White Activists Embrace Racial Justice” Details: Mark Warren, associate professor at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, is the author of “Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy” (2001).

When and Where: 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.; Paige Hall, Crane Room Sponsor: Division of Student Affairs Social Justice Leadership Initiative “The Supreme Court: Justice Brennan, Meet Justice Roberts” Details: Steve Wermiel (A ’72), a co-author of “Justice Brennan: A Liberal Champion,” will deliver a lecture.

When and Where: 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; Barnum 104 Sponsor: Experimental College FRIDAY “Engaging the Middle East: After the Cairo Speech” Details: Leslie H. Gelb (A ‘59), former New York Times correspondent and president emeritus and board senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, will deliver the conference’s keynote address.

When and Where: 3:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Cabot Intercultural Center ASEAN Auditorium Sponsor: Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies —compiled by Brent Yarnell

Senate’s surplus to fund long-term campus improvement projects GRANTS continued from page 1

“I would really encourage any group to apply,” Wallis, a senior, said. “Any group that has experience in doing programming or on-campus activities” would be a good candidate, he said.

De Klerk, the architect of the program, said the Senate plans to award the grants to projects that would have a long-term impact on the campus and would not otherwise have been funded.

“From year to year, students have these grand ideas for capital projects, things that need to be improved, but they can never get the money,” de Klerk said.

Going forward from this year, the Senate will implement the use of the grant program whenever the surplus exceeds $200,000, de Klerk said.

Groups seeking funds must submit their grant applications to the TCU Treasury by Oct. 29, according to de Klerk. The Senate will select the awardees before the Thanksgiving break, which begins Nov. 24.

Applications must present a proposal for a one-time capital expenditure that will benefit the greater Tufts community, last for a minimum of five years and be implemented by the beginning of the next academic year, de Klerk said.

“There aren’t strict guidelines for what that proposal should look like because we’re expecting a wide range of projects to come forth,” she said.

TCU Parliamentarian Dan Pasternack, a junior, said all types of student groups can apply, including athletic groups.

The potential grant sizes are $10,000, $20,000, $50,000 and $100,000, according to de Klerk, although the Senate will determine the number and variety of grants after reviewing the applicants.

Wallis said the surplus grant program is a solution to a longstanding debate about how the Senate’s surplus funds should be spent.

“We finally found a solution to the budgeting issue, which really is something we’ve struggled with all four years that I’ve been here,” Wallis said.

Pasternack said previous allocations of surplus funds have sparked extensive debates, citing the 1998 decision to build the Mayer Campus Center patio and the 2009 vote to fund the Loj’s Trips Cabin.

“We basically noticed that when Senate has a large surplus, it becomes very controversial to spend it on one project,” Pasternack said. “The idea was to break it up into smaller pieces.”

De Klerk said the Senate’s original plan was to create an endowment from the surplus funds, but the administration rejected the proposal.

Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said administrators from the Schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering felt that

the Student Activities Fee should more directly benefit the students who paid it, rather than members of future classes.

He said the fee is collected for immediate use, not for the purposes of funding an endowment or future activities.

“The thought is that they’re collected from everybody who is enrolled for the purpose of funding that year’s activities,” Reitman said.

The Allocations Board (ALBO), which is responsible for the disbursement of the Student Activities Fee, will consider all submitted proposals over two meetings, de Klerk said.

Following the first meeting, groups will get the chance to fix any flaws in their proposal, while ALBO will meet with administrators to determine the feasibility of the projects, according to de Klerk.

In the interim, ALBO will also solicit senators’ and students’ opinions during an open Senate meeting, she said.

“My hope is that would not be a particularly long discussion, but it would be to let the ALBO chairs get a sense of what Senate and what any members of the community would like to see as winners,” de Klerk said.

After the second meeting, ALBO will eliminate proposals that do not meet its criteria and select a list of projects for the Senate to choose from. ALBO will also draft a runners-up list in case the Senate does not like the recommendations.

One student group hopes to found a saferides system at Tufts through the surplusgrant program. Senator Tabias Wilson, a sophomore involved in the project, explained that a safe-rides system would service the whole campus and run on Thursdays and weekends until 2 a.m. Work-study students would staff the service, reducing some of the pressure on Tufts University Police Department’s escort service.

“It’s a complement to the police,” Wilson said. “It’s important that police are guarding campus and looking for people who don’t belong here.”

He said that the group aims to purchase two vans for the safe-rides service. “It’s really just beginning, so we’re not sure how much money we would need,” Wilson said.

Another group hopes to use surplusgrant funds to establish a bike-sharing program at Tufts. Senior Jason Merges said that such a program would empower students to navigate the local area.

“There’s a lot of places that you can’t get to by using the Joey,” Merges said, referring to the shuttle between campus and Davis Square. “My vision is to give access to the surrounding area and also to give people something fun to do.”

Merges said many students want bikes but do not have them here at Tufts, in part because bikes are expensive in the Boston area. The group has been talking to other universities with bike-sharing programs to build a model for Tufts.

JIAJIE SU/TUFTS DAILY

Renovations have left six or seven English Department lecturers sharing a room.

Cubicles confine English Dept. lecturers to smaller spaces in East EAST continued from page 1

“Some faculty were outraged,” Johnson said. “Our working conditions were truncated.”

Johnson and four other lecturers said the cubicle desks do not allow room for both a student and a professor to look over the same piece of paper, which is critical to discussing English assignments.

“It’s insulting to the student and to the person teaching — like our work isn’t important enough to have space to do it,” one English lecturer said.

A few professors have yet to unpack boxes of personal belongings and academic records from their previous offices, as they no longer have space for them. Johnson said she has 16 full cardboard boxes that she has no idea where to put now.

“The English Department is way too squeezed for space,” Professor of English Elizabeth Ammons said. “Lecturers previously had space which allowed people to personalize it, and it had character. The change makes these offices look like telemarketer space.”

All tenured, full-time professors, as well as a select few lecturers, did not change offices, according to Department of English Chair Lee Edelman. A number of full-time faculty members have offered to share their office with a lecturer in need of more space, Johnson said.

Meanwhile, the two rooms prepared for new full-time faculty members arriving next fall, rooms 308A and 308B, sit empty this entire academic year, according to Medeiros.

Edelman said in an e-mail to the Daily that lecturers may utilize these empty spaces this year to hold conferences with students.

He added that the office relocations were carefully planned out in an attempt to minimize inconvenience to lecturers.

“We have been able to increase the number of individuals assigned to those three offices without increasing the number of people actually using the office at any one time,” Edelman wrote in the e-mail.

Office assignments were based on the lecturers’ schedules and specific fields, Medeiros said.

Last month, the difficulties lecturers were experiencing in the new offices were compiled into a report, which was presented at a department faculty meeting, according to one lecturer. Lecturers anonymously contributed thoughts about the problems with the space to share with the full-time faculty, a lecturer said.

The lecturer said the report’s comments included the fact that professors lack drawer space to lock up personal items, such as a laptop or briefcase. Professors worried about the office situation’s effect on students.

“Students should feel their conversations are granted respect and space by the greater institution that their tuitions support,” the lecturer wrote in the report.

“I think the functionality of this space has been lost now completely. Where are students to sit? Where are they to share a surface and work with their professor?”

The lecturer lamented the loss of a space with a desk and a chair for a student, where students can feel comfortable sharing private conversations with their professor.

“With the space we have now, who’s going to sit back and talk about serious, sensitive issues in a cubicle?” the lecturer wrote. “I don’t feel like this space accords them or us, the staff, the dignity to have that happen now.”

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Tufts celebrates Coming Out Day amid the somber backdrop of recent deaths BY

STEPHEN MILLER | COUNTERPOINT

@%&#$!

DANNA SOLOMON

Contributing Writer

Across the country this week, one thing occupies the minds of activists, proud queer students and allies: coming out. Today is National Coming Out Day (NCOD), and events planned for the week aim to give people an opportunity to come out, whether as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or allied.

On the Tufts campus, though, individuals are invited to come out a couple days later than the rest of the country.

While campus events relating to the celebration will begin today, Tufts will officially observe the event on Wednesday to ensure maximum participation.

It is important to include everyone who wants to take part in NCOD, and although classes are in session, a lot of staff and faculty may not be on campus because today is also Columbus Day and a university holiday, according to senior Simon Katz, co-president of the Queer Straight Alliance (QSA).

“We want to involve the staff as much as possible, so we pushed it to a day when they would actually be there and be able to participate,” he said.

Katz said that many staff and faculty members who identify as queer or allied have been extremely supportive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and make significant contributions to Coming Out Day events at Tufts.

Some staff members are particularly crucial to the campus events, he said, since they work in the LGBT Center. The center not only sponsors the Coming Out Day rally at the Mayer Campus Center, but also oversees all of Tufts’ LGBT interest groups, including the QSA, Team Q, Queer Peers, Bisexual Students Group, Men’s Group, Women’s Group and Queer Students of Color and Allies.

Since its inception, NCOD has taken place every October across the nation, but it was established fairly recently in 1988, when Jean O’Leary, a former nun turned lesbian activist, and psychologist Rob Eichberg, author of “Coming Out: an Act of Love” (1990) decided to rally a group of activists and dedicate a day to the celebration of coming out.

The day they chose was the anniversary of the Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, which occurred exactly one year before

W

DILYS ONG/TUFTS DAILY

Hanging a rainbow flag in your window is one of the many ways to take part in Coming Out Day at Tufts this year. Above, students during during a Gaypril event in April. on Oct. 11, 1987.

At Tufts, Coming Out Day is accompanied by a certain set of celebratory traditions — and new ones are being added each year. Historically, the day has been honored with a rally that packs the campus center patio, during which students and faculty share stories about overcoming anti-gay mentalities they have encountered.

Katz explained that the rally, which will take place this year during open block on Wednesday, intends to encourage members of the community to be public about who they really are — and possibly have the opportunity to find others who are like them.

“It is an event that is really about showing everyone in the community that there are people going through similar experiences that they are going through,” he said.

Tom Bourdon, director of the LGBT Center, expects this year’s rally to draw an unprecedented crowd.

“I suspect that this year’s NCOD will be the biggest we’ve seen at Tufts,” he said.

This year’s rally might take on a more somber tone, though, as Tufts commemorates the recent cases of teen suicides resulting from anti-gay bullying, senior Kara Takasaki suggested. Still,

raising awareness of such tragedies is an important part of Coming Out week, she said.

“We wanted the Tufts student body to have the opportunity to show that what happened, whether it was harassment, abuse, invasion of privacy or physical violence on other campuses which drove students to suicide is neither acceptable nor tolerable in our community,” she said. “At the same time we wanted to foster a sense of solidarity, pride and support for difference on our campus.”

The events planned for the upcoming week do just that. The LGBT Center last year published an “Out List,” a register of names of faculty and students at Tufts who openly identify as queer or allied and are willing to serve as resources for struggling LGBT students.

This year, a second, updated list will be published.

Additionally, the LGBT Center will host a free rapid HIV testing session on Wednesday, and Julia Weldon, a queer musician, will perform at Brown & Brew that night.

According to Katz, Weldon, who will also attend Wednesday’s rally, writes see COMING OUT, page 4

Where have all the students gone?

Some say campus weekend activities lack appeal BY

NADEZHDA KAZAKOVA Contributing Writer

With a beautiful quad on which to relax, varsity sports games to attend and residential dorms in which to socialize, one would expect the campus to be bustling with students every moment classes are not in session.

But some students claim that week after week, as soon as Friday classes come to an end, the quads start to empty — and stay that way until Monday morning, leaving those who emerge from their rooms on Saturday afternoons asking: Where have all the students gone?

Some students, senior Samuel Estridge said, simply do not want to be around the buildings they associate with schoolwork on weekends; staying at home and even not doing anything provides a nice break from the busy work week, he said.

“I observe a general desire to relax and take a couple days off from university … activities,” Estridge said.

“Roughly one-third of the student body lives off campus, so many students who are buzzing around the Academic Quad, the library or the campus center during the week simply spend their time on the periphery of campus when they don’t have classes.”

And with little incentive to attend campus-sponsored weekend events he described as less than exciting, many students who do not wish to spend the weekend indoors would rather spend it outside of Medford and Somerville altogether, he said.

After spending several years on the Tufts campus, many seniors enjoy leaving the Hill during their free time, senior Lumay Wang said. Of course, having a car makes this option more available to some than others.

“If you have a car, it is easy to go on day trips and explore the local area,” Wang said. “Hiking or going into Boston’s Newbury Street are very popular.”

Additionally, many students choose to visit their ex-classmates and friends

around Boston, shop or attend parties at other Boston-area colleges, she said.

According to senior Stephen Gershman, president of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, this might not be the case if Tufts were to organize more weekend events that appeal to students.

“The OCL,” he said, referring to the Office for Campus Life, “ought to do more to engage the campus community aside from the occasional Hotung DJ, which I think upsets hardworking students in the campus center more than it does provide a place for students to hang out.”

Gershman noted that fraternities are almost solely responsible for providing entertainment for students on weekends.

At the same time, he said, there is not necessarily much the university can do to control what students choose to do with their free time. “I’m not sure what OCL can do to change a see WEEKENDS, page 4

ell done, Concert Board: I love Passion Pit. So too, it seems, does 85 percent of the student body, which would explain why I’m sitting in a line that stretches from the Mayer Campus Center past the Crafts House, listening to someone with the worst Spanish 1 accent in the world. No, adding an “o” to the end of a word does not make it Spanish-o. It’s Wednesday morning, and I’m awake significantly earlier than I want to be. At least this justifies my skipping class today.

The Office for Campus Life (OCL) seriously needs to address this line b------- stat — anyone who grabbed a Fall Ball or Senior Pub Night ticket knows exactly what I mean.

Usually I wouldn’t give a damn because I’d walk up to a friend at the front and post up.

But today, the overachievers are MIA, and I’m jammed between Miss South Carolina’s less attractive, Spanish-speaking sister and someone who must be sponsored by Axe. Look, a little while ago this crazy thing called the Internet was invented. Ask Al Gore about it. It’s a wonderful tool of convenience. With the touch of a button I can order Andrea’s while simultaneously watching my Miami Dolphins and Sasha Grey take a pounding. Welcome to the 21st century. And you’re saying there is no way to streamline the ticket process.

Imagine if we could roll out of bed, click a mouse, have a ticket and go back to sleeping through class. And if we needed to go pick up tickets in person, we could at least reserve them online and pick them up anytime during the day. Sounds smart, right? Kind of rational? Instead, someone came up with the wonderful idea to give out tickets … to get new tickets. WTF?!

I will give an “atta’ babe!” to the heads of Concert Board letting us pie them in the face while we wait. Good diversion, but I’m still in line, and, after an hour, I’m not even inside the campus center. If I’d actually gone to class (which I wouldn’t have), I’d be out now. And listening to people babble about The Canterbury Tales is significantly easier to tune out than the nonsense around me.

Now flash forward thirty minutes. I’m at the ticket booth and find that they only have one window selling tickets while the other window is reserved for whatever it is that people go to the campus center for. So … the one person who wants to change the channel on the campus center’s communal TV outweighs the hundreds of students in line for concert tickets. I didn’t know the OCL only hires English majors. I should apply next semester.

I approach the counter after waiting oh-so patiently. The TuftsLife ad clearly stated one ticket per ID at $10 a pop. I hand over my ID as well as my two housemates’ IDs and $30. The booth worker shoots me a smug little smile and tells me it’ll be $50: $10 for my own ticket and $20 each for the others.

Excuse me? I have exactly 30 bucks on my person. Take my money. Give me my tickets. That’s how this works. Psych! After waiting in line for over an hour and a half, I find out that one ticket per ID actually meant wake up early, get pissed off in line and get a big middle finger at the end.

Where are those pie guys now?

At the end of this process, I leave with just two tickets, feeling empty and cheated.

This whole morning has been a terrible, lamentable experience. I feel like the OCL and Concert Board simultaneously took my virginity and refused to cuddle with me afterward. Apart from not getting my third ticket, I got second-hand Axed and listened to a D student fight the good bilingual fight.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to party-o extra hard-o at this concert-o.

Stephen Miller is a senior majoring in English. He can be reached at Stephen.

Miller@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

4

FEATURES

Monday, October 11, 2010

Tufts marks Coming Out Day with old and new traditions

Office for Campus Life should sponsor better weekend events, some say

COMING OUT

WEEKENDS

continued from page 3

her own songs, many of which feature LGBT themes.

“A small, intimate celebration like this has never been done before as a part of NCOD, but we wanted to [do] something a little more different and exciting to bring people in,” he said.

Another new initiative this year, funded by the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, will give students — gay or straight — an opportunity to broadcast their support to everyone who passes by their homes. At the second of two open forums that took place in the LGBT Center to discuss a campus-wide response to the recent teen suicides, junior Elliott McCarthy suggested hanging rainbow flags in the windows of Tufts’ houses and fraternities.

Under Bourdon and Tisch College Senior Program Manager Mindy Nierenberg’s leadership, the idea blossomed, and the initiative was approved by Yolanda King, director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning, who was impressed with the level of support she has witnessed.

“Everyone involved, including students, faculty, staff and the administration, has been greatly moved and motivated by each other during this process,” she said. “Everyone’s committed to fostering a safe and supportive environment at Tufts. The outpouring of positive response and excitement about the flags from the community has been inspiring for all of us involved.”

Free rainbow flags will be available starting today for stu-

dents to pick up from the LGBT Center and display in their windows. They will also be distributed at Wednesday’s rally.

According to Bourdon, the flag initiative marks the Tufts allied community’s desire to act.

“Not only is the queer community activated, but so are large numbers of allies,” he said.

“People I have never met before have been approaching me and asking, ‘What can I do?’ This year, you will see hundreds of rainbow flags all over campus.”

In the wake of the many deaths that have occurred in the LGBT community nationwide, Tufts has intensified its commitment to creating a tolerant community in which people can feel safe and accepted, regardless of their sexual orientation.

These types of initiatives serve as models for eliminating the enduring expressions of hatred that exist in the fabric of society, sophomore Bruce Wang, an LGBT Center intern, said. Wang, who is involved with Team Q, a group that runs discussions and workshops on LGBT issues, explained that many people still overlook how difficult it is for people to come out about their sexuality — and just how important coming out is.

“Although it might sound clinical, coming out is important because it increases visibility for gay and lesbian people,” he said. “People are more sympathetic when someone they know is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. It makes it easier for gay, lesbian, bi and trans people to win their legal rights, along with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

continued from page 3

culture of staying in [or] hiding all debauchery, both for legal reasons and because there’s no easy way to change a culture,” he said.

Still, freshman Veronica Ota said that more social events would inspire students to use the campus as a weekend venue as well, especially for freshmen, who are new to campus and not yet bored of it.

“I wish the university organized more events on the weekends because this will be the easiest way for us to get to know campus and begin relating to the Tufts community in general,” she said. “I’m already in love with Tufts, but such weekend events would really make me feel part of the community.”

The OCL does, however, coordinate some events for those who stick around.

Associate Director of Campus Life Laura DaRos said that the OCL always tries to support student groups who want to organize campus events that might be of interest. OCL also co-sponsors late-night and weekend programming in Hotung Café, she said.

“We work with student organizations to help make their events happen,” she said. “Any organization that wants to plan an event after 8 p.m. on Thursday, Friday or Saturday evening will have any costs for audiovisual services and event staff covered by OCL.”

ALEXANDRA GOLDMAN/TUFTS DAILY

Some students say Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus tends to empty out on weekends. Above, the Academic Quad.

Arts & Living

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tuftsdaily.com

ALBUM REVIEW

‘Halcyon Digest’ sees Deerhunter at its peak BY

MATTHEW WELCH

Daily Editorial Board

Since its 2005 debut, Deerhunter has quickly risen to the top of the indie scene.

Its string of consistently lauded albums

Halcyon Digest Deerhunter 4AD Records has seen the band shifting from punk to shoegaze and ambient electronic genres.

Deerhunter’s latest, “Halcyon Digest,” is the ultimate synthesis of these explorations. Whatever rough edges and incongruities were present on earlier releases have been ironed out for this album.

“Halcyon Digest” is Deerhunter operating at the top of its game.

In interviews leading up to the album’s release, lead singer Brian Cox stated that “Halcyon Digest” is about the ways every person alters his own memories to make them more pleasant. For all the abstraction of this, Cox and the rest of the band do an excellent job of capturing a sad sense of nostalgia.

The album opens dreamily with “Earthquake.” Slow reversed percussion and distant guitar arpeggios underpin Cox’s soft-spoken delivery. Deerhunter’s use of reverb and distortion effects is often hypnotic, inviting the listener back into his or her own memories. Despite the emphasis on noise-rock in its music, Deerhunter has never sounded imprecise or heavy-handed. The distorted segments of “Earthquake” pair perfectly with the song’s more structured sounds.

After its ethereal opener, “Halcyon

Digest” moves into more indie territory.

“Earthquake” is followed by “Don’t Cry,” a much more upbeat tune. The gentle reverb on Cox’s voice and his rockabilly delivery give the whole song a playfully anachronistic edge. “Revival” plays on a similar dynamic, with punchy, rhythmic guitar strumming and a toe-tapping groove. Deerhunter wisely follows these two songs with the gloomier “Sailing.” Though the song only consists of Cox’s voice and simple guitar strums, the ambient layer of noise beneath the playing gives the song an unsettling, deep-running atmosphere that perfectly compliments the joviality of the two preceding tracks.

Deerhunter follows this dynamic for a good portion of the album, alternating darker- and lighter-sounding songs to create a well-balanced listening experience.

“Halcyon Digest” never feels like it dwells on one idea or aesthetic. Unlike many shoegaze bands that base their whole sound around a few key aesthetic choices, Deerhunter has proven itself far more flexible. The production of the album is a huge part of Deerhunter’s versatility: “Helicopter” wouldn’t be as affecting without the impressionistic, blooming background textures. However, the album is just as capable of producing punchy, precise sounds. The punctual bass and drum work on “Coronado” sounds just as natural as the band’s more drone-based pieces.

“Halcyon Digest” plays as solidly as any album Deerhunter has released in the last few years. There isn’t a single mediocre song. The moods and textures are always shifting but never work toward a common high or low point. Some people might prefer a more conventional arc with discernible climaxes and releases to the album’s flow, although such a view seems to gloss over Deerhunter’s goal for the album.

“Halcyon Digest” isn’t content to bring its listener on a little trip and take him or

MYSPACE.COM/DEERHUNTER

In all honesty, the band members of Deerhunter seem like a really cool bunch of people. her safely home. The songs take you out and leave you adrift.

The end of the album’s concluding song, “He Would Have Laughed,” leaves the listener in much the same place as the opening of “Earthquake.” This cyclical dynamic emphasizes the dreaminess of “Halcyon Digest” and gives more credibility to the album’s premise. The album feeds back into itself beautifully, much in the same way as great records, like Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” (2008) or Animal Collective’s “Merriweather Post Pavillion” (2009), do.

“Halcyon Digest” exceeds these albums in the strength of its core sound and the sincerity of its purpose, leaving the listener with as satisfying a listen as they’ll find in the indie genre.

Classic filmmaking pulls ‘Secretariat’ ahead CATHERINE SCOTT Senior Staff Writer

Oscar season kicked off last week with the first major contender presenting itself: David Fincher’s “The Social Network.”

Secretariat Starring Diane Lane, John Malkovich Directed by Randall Wallace Gone are the days of sweeping epics taking home the gold — unless, of course, you pander to the Disney mode of filmmaking.

“Secretariat” is based on the true story of Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), a middleaged housewife who takes over her family’s horse farm after her mother’s death and her father’s illness. Penny hires Lucien Laurin (John Malkovich) to train a new colt that she believes could win the Triple Crown. The fact that the Triple Crown hadn’t been won in over 25 years doesn’t deter Penny from risking her family’s entire fortune on this venture.

Because the movie is a biography, the audience goes in understanding that Secretariat will indeed win the three races in question and that Penny Chenery will save her family and her farm. It’s Disney: Nothing bad will happen. Although this seems like it would make for a boring movie, director Randall Wallace captures the beauty of a powerful horse running to his destiny, and makes it easy to overlook the lack of suspense and be in awe of Secretariat.

Wallace films each race differently to keep things exciting: one from the point of view of Chenery’s family at home watching the television, one from the racetrack and one from the stands with the crowd’s reactions. It’s never boring to see Secretariat come from behind to blow all the other horses away.

Rather than being concerned with an underdog story like “Seabiscuit” (2003),

Wallace focuses purely on the amazing creation of Secretariat. Much of the film has religious undertones, from the soundtrack to a voiceover reading from the book of Job; seeing Secretariat race really does feel like a religious experience, even for atheists in the audience.

If the horse itself is the magnificence the film needs, Lane’s performance is what grounds it in the human experience. Penny is a woman in a man’s world, and that trait is her greatest weapon.

She’s beautiful, yet it’s easy to feel that she is a woman forced to choose between the career she loves and the family she wants to be with. It’s definitely a movie that touts feminine strength, a characteristic often missing from Disney films.

The movie wouldn’t be as strong without Lane in it: It would just be another movie about the ups and downs of horse racing. But Lane makes every movement and facial expression a meaningful gesture made to convey how she puts on a mask of confidence regarding her ability

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

A

MOVIE REVIEW

BY

MITCHELL GELLER | MAKES IT RAIN

to coach Secretariat to a win. The few scenes in which she breaks down are meant to show that she could lose anything at any moment.

Malkovich brings a much-needed element of comedy to the film in his flamboyant portrayal of an aging trainer, and from the horse’s caretaker to Penny’s secretary, the cast fills itself out well enough to hold up under Lane’s thrilling performance.

There are the predictable Disney lines throughout the film, and the screenplay could have used some work, as it often totters between the meaningful and the silly. But the actors never let it get in their way; they just sashay right over it, doing the best they can and hoping the audience doesn’t notice.

In a season that’s bound to bring us a number of great films, “Secretariat” probably won’t hold up so well. It’s a little oldfashioned and somewhat predictable, but ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with the old style of Hollywood film that tugs at the heartstrings rather than the brains.

DISNEY.GO.COM

The cast of ‘Secretariat’ shares a sepia-tone moment.

friend of mine approached me last week after my column about Jay Sean’s “Down” ran: “Hey Mitch,” she said. “I liked what you did with ‘Down,’ but I bet you can’t do that with just any song — what about something crunk?” “[Name redacted],” I replied, “sure I can!”

She challenged me to the following songs: “Get Low” (2003) by Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz (feat. Ying Yang Twins), “Laffy Taffy” (2005) by D4L and the LazyTown/Lil Jon mashup, “Cooking By the Book” (2008). I told her that a mashup didn’t count, but I was confident enough that I could do it, so I took her up on the challenge.

The funny thing is that all three songs — the jam that shuts every club down, the stupidest song ever written (fact) and the mashup, respectively — are actually all about the same exact thing.

All three are feminist anthems.

Now, before your head explodes, think about it for a minute: “Get Low,” “Laffy Taffy” and “Cooking By the Book” all feature lyrics objectifying women, for sure. But rather than claiming ownership of the women, the songs put women on a pedestal: The nameless, faceless women to whom the songs are directed (or, really, shouted) hold all of the power over the men dedicating the song, due to their sex — and sexual power.

The focus of all three songs is, quite explicitly, the vagina. On “Get Low,” Lil Jon barks “Pop that p---- on the pole, do yo’ thang baby.”

The entirety of “Laffy Taffy,” title included, is an embarrassingly juvenile ode to said female anatomy. “Cooking by the Book” features the line “Back that p---- she’s a m-----------.”

The anonymity of the women in the songs gives any one listener the power to put herself in the place of the woman being asked to “pop [her] p----.” While some songs feature lyrics that endorse violence toward women (think: most Eminem songs), D4L and Lil Jon admire the women in these songs.

The lyrics of all three songs are repulsively captivating. Who but Lil Jon could think of this particular combination of words: “Back that p---- she’s a motherfucker”? No one — that’s who. But in his own special way Lil Jon is trying to compliment someone who he finds attractive. Whereas I might tell a woman that she has beautiful eyes, Lil Jon might scream, “Rub that s---: it’s yours, b----! / Grab this d---: it’s yours, b----!”

The message is the same (“you are a beautiful woman”), but my approach might not be as valid in the crunk nightclub setting that Jon seems to perpetually inhabit.

By telling a woman to “grab [his] d---,” and that it belongs to her, he isn’t giving her an order to pleasure him, but bestowing the power in their dynamic. She is the factor that has power over his phallus — the modernist symbol of power — and thus the underlying factor behind his power. Without the woman, Lil Jon is nothing.

These songs bring to mind nervous prepubescent schoolboy chatter. “Get Low” starts in the most singsong, nursery-rhyme manner imaginable: “3, 6, 9 / Damn she’s fine.” This recalls any number of playground taunts (i.e. “Lil Jon and someone sitting in a tree”).

The language featured in these songs also doesn’t support the idea that any of these rappers will be doing anything more than talking about women. Meaningless slang substituted for “adult” words is exactly the sort of thing that children do — such as “skeet” for ejaculate or “laffy taffy” for vagina — and doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in Jon’s or D4L’s statuses as sexually active rap stars.

By putting themselves in a juvenile, impotent, subordinate position, these rappers — regardless of how crude their language is or how obnoxious their heckles are — are empowering the women whom they so desperately want to “toss,” “flip” and “get right back at.”

Mitchell Geller is a senior majoring in psychology and English. He can be reached at Mitchell.Geller@tufts.edu.

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Please recycle this Daily.

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THE TUFTS DAILY BENJAMIN D. GITTLESON Editor-in-Chief

EDITORIAL Managing Editors

Ellen Kan Carter Rogers Matt Repka Executive News Editor Alexandra Bogus News Editors Michael Del Moro Nina Ford Amelie Hecht Corinne Segal Martha Shanahan Brent Yarnell Jenny White Daphne Kolios Assistant News Editors Kathryn Olson Romy Oltuski Executive Features Editor Sarah Korones Features Editors Alison Lisnow Emilia Luna Alexa Sasanow Derek Schlom Jon Cheng Assistant Features Editors Maya Kohli Amelia Quinn Emma Bushnell Executive Arts Editor Zach Drucker Arts Editors Mitchell Geller Rebecca Goldberg Benjamin Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch Rachel Oldfield Larissa Gibbs Elaine Sun Seth Teleky Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Rebekah Liebermann Ashish Malhotra Josh Molofsky Alexandra Siegel

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Monday, October 11, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

EDITORIAL

More consistent surplus distribution needed The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate’s newest plan for the allocation of surplus funds, most of which are leftover from the Student Activities Fee, proves to be another lacking, albeit honorable, attempt at fairly distributing this money.

The proposed grant program, which will allow student groups to apply for grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, is an improvement over previous years’ methods of dealing with surpluses, but remains inadequate in terms of equitability and long-term thinking.

The Spring 2009 decision by the Senate to grant Tufts Mountain Club $230,000 worth of recovered funds to construct a Trips Cabin next to the original Loj in New Hampshire was highly contested by the student body. One of the concerns was that such a large sum of money was going toward benefiting a single student group.

The fallout from the decision highlighted the lack of any standardized system for dealing with TCU surplus funds.

The Senate’s newest distribution plan, however, raises questions about the justification of using surpluses from last year’s Student Activities Fee, a fourth of which was paid by graduated members of the Class of 2010, to fund new campus projects. How reasonable is it to use students’ money to pay for projects that they will not be on campus to enjoy?

The Senate reports having $450,000 in surplus funds and plans to allocate $200,000 of it to various student groups through this grant program. While the Senate’s decision to fund projects that will benefit a significant portion of the student body is laudable, the Daily challenges that this new program potentially distributes funds in an inconsistent and unfair manner.

The Class of 2010 will not get to enjoy the fruits of this grant program despite funding it. Furthermore, since the current plan requires that projects awarded grants be implemented by September 2011, current seniors may still not see the end results.

Instead, one possible solution that would ensure greater consistency and continuity is the creation of a surplus endowment — the Senate’s original plan that administrators rejected. This way, a system will always be in place to allocate the previous year’s surplus to the current year’s projects. In this system, current seniors would not have to worry about receiving the full benefits of their $288 Student Activities Fee; each subsequent year would benefit from the previous year’s excess funding.

This system would also serve to eliminate wasteful and unnecessary spending.

Rather than searching for ways to spend this $200,000, the Senate would have the money available when student groups

actually needed it and had worthwhile projects to fund. While the net result might be the same, it is important that the Senate is not just looking for ways to spend this money just because the extra funding is available. Eagerness to spend the funds could possibly compromise our responsibility to ensure that students’ money is well spent. We urge the administration to reconsider their rejection of the proposal to create a surplus endowment.

Another option is to reduce the annual Student Activities Fee or reimburse students at the end of the year with whatever is left over. With last year’s Student Activities Fee of $278, students could have seen an approximate $45 return.

TCU Treasurer Kate de Klerk’s budgeting plan touches on the need to make the fee more directly beneficial to the students paying it; it is a giant leap forward from last year’s Trips Cabin decision. However, there is still a need for refinement and reconsideration of the best way to handle surpluses to ensure that students are getting enough bang for their buck. Under the proposed program, effectively half of those responsible for the surplus will not enjoy its benefits.

We encourage the Senate and treasury to go one step further and guarantee that every student will benefit and that no one will be paying for more than they get.

LOUIE ZONG Editorialists

Philip Dear Executive Sports Editor Lauren Flament Sports Editors Jeremy Greenhouse Claire Kemp Ben Kochman Alex Lach Alex Prewitt Daniel Rathman Noah Schumer Ethan Sturm Assistant Sports Editor Aalok Kanani Meredith Klein Danai Macridi Andrew Morgenthaler Tien Tien Josh Berlinger Virginia Bledsoe Kristen Collins Alex Dennett Emily Eisenberg Dilys Ong Jodi Bosin Jenna S Liang Meagan Maher Ashley Seenauth

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FROM THE DEAN OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

Cyber bullying BY

BRUCE R. REITMAN

The tragic suicides of gay students on college campuses in recent weeks are the latest striking reminders of the devastating consequences of harassment and of cyber bullying.

College and university communities have seen electronic victimization on the basis of race, gender, sexual identity and religious and ethnic background in growing numbers. No university can claim to be welcoming and free from discrimination until all of its students, staff and faculty feel safe.

The Tufts community is no exception.

While we have not had a tragedy on our campus, the examples of the last several weeks show how quickly and dramatically situations can change. Many of us

know of friends or colleagues who have been victimized by invasive and irresponsible use of electronic communication. We know of some who have felt sufficiently humiliated or threatened by comments on online social forums like CollegeACB.com to consider leaving the university.

Clearly there are postings on the many new forms of electronic communication that no one would say to someone’s face.

The anonymity of the internet is not an excuse for cruelty. If something shouldn’t be communicated directly — it probably shouldn’t be communicated at all. And it will take all of us to be vigilant to avoid becoming enablers of what is really just plain, old-fashioned harassment and invasion of privacy — it makes no difference that it comes in a new electronic form.

I have already begun conversations with students, staff and faculty about how we can best encourage responsible use of the electronic resources of the community. Together, all of us need to consider not only how we use the tools of new technologies, but also how those tools are changing how we communicate and even who we are.

This Wednesday is Tufts’ celebration of Coming Out Day — a day when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and allies gather to say, “You can be anyone you want to be in this community — you’re one of us.” Given what has happened in the last weeks, this will be an important opportunity to join others at the rally (noon at the Mayer Campus Center) and show our support.

Correction Due to an editing error, the caption of the photo accompanying Friday’s article “After historic loss, Jumbos look for redemption” incorrectly stated that the photo pictured a football game against Bowdoin. In fact, it pictured Tufts’ Oct. 2 game against Bates.

EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials that appear on this page are written by the editorialists, and 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.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 4 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com. All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 450-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.

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

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Monday, October 11, 2010

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OP-ED

Confronting Columbus Day: Education, not celebration BY

THERESA SULLIVAN

For most students in the United States, our first introduction to genocide probably came to us during elementary school in the looming form of lessons about the Holocaust. We learned the facts of the Nazi atrocities from the outside looking in, shocked that a government could sponsor the slaughter of millions of its own people.

Genocide was a foreign concept. We were relieved that the United States was not responsible for such stateorganized killing.

Now in college, our understanding of genocide deepens. We learn about Rwanda, Armenia and Sudan, aware that such atrocities are an ongoing problem in our world. Perhaps we join various groups where we proactively speak out against the slaughter of humans. Perhaps we are again glad that we don’t live in a place where genocide happens. But every October, we accept a holiday, in the form of Columbus Day, that glorifies Christopher Columbus and genocide of indigenous Americans in our country.

In our nation’s textbooks, Christopher Columbus was a bold and adventurous explorer, charting unknown lands and bravely conferring European civilization upon the rarely mentioned natives.

We memorized rhymes about 1492 and understood Columbus as the legendary discoverer of the “New World.” What we learned had a distinctly Eurocentric, romanticized perspective and lacked any meaningful mention or analysis of the Native Americans’ experience of invasion and colonization.

On a fundamental and obvious level, our glorification of Columbus as the discoverer of America makes no sense.

To historicize him as the discoverer of the nation entirely neglects and discounts the Native Americans who called the continent home prior to the arrival of the Europeans. More pressing, however, is the reality of what took place after Columbus’s arrival. He made four trips to the “New World” — each time in search of more riches, slaves and personal glory — and his conquests led to genocide, ethnocide and ecocide.

Columbus’s model of exploration and invasion was adopted by many later explorers, and the effects of his colonization reverberate today.

For these reasons, I propose a reinterpretation of the Columbus Day that we will celebrate on Oct. 11 this year.

If we cannot abolish the holiday altogether, our attention would be better turned to education and remembrance rather than celebration. Teaching the history of North America in a balanced, complete, chronological way would signal a more sincere national commitment to social justice issues, both as we acknowledge the past and look to the future.

To change the tone of Columbus Day,

DANAI MACRIDI/TUFTS DAILY

we must first understand the scale and impact of Columbus’s colonization programs. Labeling him as a genocidal leader might initially seem extreme, but this description is apt. Consider the definition of genocide as explained by the United Nations. The internationally understood definition includes five possible criteria, only one of which references directly killing members of the targeted group. Other categories of genocidal activity include causing extreme physical or mental harm to members of the group and deliberately creating conditions designed to destroy the group.

Examined in the context of these criteria, Columbus’s actions in the “New World” certainly qualify as genocide.

Columbus’s regimes on the island of Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti) alone clearly indicate that genocide took place during his European colonization. In his book “Acts of Rebellion” (2002), scholar and activist Ward Churchill illustrates the harm that Columbus brought to the native populations, enslaving Taino people and abducting them as slaves for Spain. He instituted a system of tribute that resulted in poverty for those who paid and physical maiming and death for those who could not. Under his direction, systematic extermination, starvation, torture and spread of disease reduced the Taino population by several million in the span of just four years. Both the direct murder and the willful creation of life-threatening conditions qualify as genocidal activity, and Columbus’s journals and letters betray his willingness to carry out these acts.

It is helpful to draw a comparison between the genocide of Native Americans and the World War II genocide of Jews. While the two events differ somewhat, the mechanics, outcomes and lasting impacts of both genocides are strikingly and sadly similar. The eventual slaughter of Taino people on Hispaniola, estimated to include five million deaths, is roughly equivalent to the number of Jews (approximately six million) who perished during the Holocaust. While those who perished under the Holocaust were victims of a regime specifically designed to bring about their destruction, those who died in the New World suffered from a glaringly oppressive system founded by Columbus whose goal of naked exploitation led to the rapid death of indigenous peoples. Today, oppression and discrimination of both groups continue far beyond the specific confines of genocide. As we learn about and are horrified by the Jewish Holocaust in school, so, too, should we learn and register shock at the treatment of American native people at the hands of Columbus.

The more I learn about present-day racism and genocide, the more opposed I become to our national and university recognition of Columbus Day. The United States only has two federal holidays dedicated to individuals who were not presidents — one to Christopher Columbus and the other to Martin Luther King Jr. It is not fitting that we continue to celebrate Columbus in the same way that we celebrate King, a civil rights luminary dedicated to ending —

not perpetuating — racism.

And anti-Indian racism does perpetuate. We must understand Columbus’s genocide in North America not only for its obvious past destruction but also for how it enabled racism that endures.

Oppression of Native Americans has long since been manifested within United States federal legislation and public policy, from President Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears to aspects of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. Overt, institutionalized racism is accompanied by less obvious but equally harmful bias. How is it acceptable to wear an “Indian” costume for Halloween? Why do we keep racist team names and mascots like the Washington Redskins in play? To understand the root of present-day racism, we must understand historical injustice. The national celebration of Columbus Day only perpetuates racism toward fellow Americans in its glorification of their oppression.

The best way to confront and combat this violent legacy is through education. We can reframe our education both of Columbus Day and of North American history, and this movement is gaining momentum. Some groups around the country have begun to speak out against this holiday, as Marvin Lunenfeld explains in his 1992 article “What Shall We Tell the Children?

The Press Encounters Columbus.” The National Council of Churches, which includes most American Protestant denominations, has noted the genocide, ethnocide and ecocide of Columbus and has deemed Columbus Day celebrations inappropriate. The American Library Association has passed a resolution urging libraries to teach about Columbus from a balanced, truthful perspective that includes the experience of native people.

Scholar James Axtell has led the charge in textbook analysis by illustrating that textbooks are distorted in their depiction of Columbus and rife with omissions. Ceasing the lying by omission and teaching history instead from a chronological perspective would better incorporate the perspective and experience of Native Americans. We should abandon the Eurocentric approach of our teaching and seek to teach the complete, truthful account of history.

Turning away from Columbus Day and restructuring the ways we educate about Columbus would hardly be anti-American or inappropriately revisionist, as some may charge. On the contrary, understanding and acknowledging the clear realities of United States history would make us better Americans, more informed about our nation’s past and better able to stand with those who have suffered and resisted injustice in our own country.

Theresa Sullivan is a junior majoring in English.

Think 2040: What will your future be?

BY

ELIAS KAHAN

Oct. 11, 2040: You wake up to the sound of the television in the background; CNN is covering the 20th anniversary of the Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire. After breakfast, you walk out of the house to find your newly wedded neighbors, Mike and David, mowing their lawn. You step into your hydrogen-powered car and drive to the office, a wind-turbine company centered in Detroit.

Pinch yourself because this is not a dream — this could be your life in 2040.

Think 2040, a national initiative sponsored by the Roosevelt Institute Campus Network, is posing a question to our generation. What do the Millennials want to see happening in 2040?

As the only student-run think tank in the country, the Roosevelt Campus

Network is a means for our generation to actively participate in civic discussions beyond simply phone banking or canvassing in the name of someone else’s policies. Roosevelt is a vast resource that aids in the policy-writing process, as well as passing ideas on to those in Congress.

Think 2040 is a project within Roosevelt that is aimed at directly altering our future for the next 30 years. “For everything past generations said that was wrong, Think 2040 asks us to imagine a world where we get it right.” What if everything we said would happen actually did happen — this is the world Think 2040 is trying to build.

As our generation ages, we will gain more and more influence in society, but now is the time to start initiating change. Think to yourself: what is an issue that you are passionate about, an existing condition that you want to see changed? Now, think about

how you will play a part in shaping that change. Whether you’re passionate about the disparity between economic classes or government torture of prisoners, Think 2040 is an opportunity for you to enact that change you wish to see in our society.

Tonight from 7:30-9:00 p.m. in the Rabb Room of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service’s Lincoln Filene Center, the Tufts chapter of Roosevelt Institute Campus Network will be hosting our first Think 2040 Conversation that poses these very questions to students. You need not be worried about coming prepared for heated debate — no prior experience in policy writing or civic discourse is necessary. This is a forum for you to simply say what is on your mind. The purpose of this initial conversation will be to both brainstorm ideas as well as garner methods for implementing

such initiatives. Roosevelt has both the know-how as well as the resources to draft the policies that will lay the framework for our future. Living on a college campus offers the best opportunities for our generation to be heard.

And Think 2040 is striving to comprehensively represent the ideas held by every individual and student group at Tufts.

Regardless of our actions now, 2040 will be a Millennial America. The only question is whether it is one we are proud of. Come to our conversation, “share your vision” and let your voice be heard. You never know, your idea could be the one to change our future.

Elias Kahan is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He is a member of the Roosevelt Institute at Tufts.

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 12 p.m. 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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Monday, October 11, 2010

SPORTS -

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Injured Updike hopes to return for crucial match against Bowdoin VOLLEYBALL continued from page 12

in a road matchup in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night.

Updike, who yesterday said that she was using supportive crutches, hopes to be back by that match, but her status for Wednesday hinges on an evaluation today by the athletic training staff. Even if Updike is not able to contribute on the court against Bowdoin, she is confident that her teammates are mentally strong enough to succeed in her absence.

“They’ll figure it out,” Updike said. “We do have a deep bench, and everyone will have to show up and step up. It’s doable; even if I can’t play, we’re a good enough team that we can still do well.”

The Jumbos now have two days of practice to come up with a new winning strategy if their star hitter is ultimately unable to play. Being in one of the most competitive Div. III conferences in the country, they cannot afford to do anything less.

“It’ll be really helpful to have the extra practice days to approach maybe not having Caitlin in the equation,” Shrodes said.

“At Middlebury, we had to deal with all of the panic and emotion. Now we mentally prepare ourselves.”

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

After sinking to fourth in the NESCAC, the Jumbos will now have to rally past an injury to senior quad-captain Caitlin Updike in order to win on the road against Bowdoin.

SCHEDULE | Oct. 8 - Oct. 14 MON

TUES

WED

THURS

FRI

SAT

SUN

at Trinity 1:30 p.m.

Football

at Conn. College 4 p.m

Field Hockey

at Trinity Noon

Connecticut College Invitational at 11 a.m.

Cross Country

vs. Endicott 4 p.m.

Women’s Soccer

at Trinity Noon

Men’s Soccer

at UMass Dartmouth 7 p.m

at Trinity Noon

at Bowdoin 7 p.m.

Volleyball

vs. Williams 6 p.m.

vs. Hamilton 1:30 p.m.

at New England Championships

Golf

Volleyball vs. Hamilton 1:30 p.m.

JumboCast

STATISTICS | STANDINGS Volleyball

Field Hockey

(14-5, 5-2 NESCAC)

(8-0, 5-0 NESCAC) NESCAC

OVERALL

W 5 Bowdoin 5 Tufts 4 Trinity Middlebury 3 Wesleyan 3 3 Amherst Conn. Coll. 2 1 Bates 1 Williams 0 Colby

L W 0 9 0 8 2 5 2 5 2 7 3 6 3 5 5 2 5 2 5 4

T. Brown M. Burke L. Saggerman S. Cannon M. Karp C. Yogerst J. Perkins T. Guttadauro A. Roberts K. Murphy

G 13 7 2 2 2 2 0 1 1 1

Goalkeeping GA M. Zak 2

L 0 0 4 3 2 3 3 7 6 5 A 4 1 2 1 1 1 4 1 1 0

T 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pts 30 15 6 5 5 5 4 3 3 2

S S% 16 .889

NESCAC OVERALL

W Middlebury 5 Williams 5 Amherst 4 Bowdoin 5 Tufts 5 Conn. Coll. 4 Trinity 2 Bates 1 Hamilton 1 Wesleyan 1 Colby 0 Offensive C. Updike C. Spieler N. Shrodes L. Nicholas K. Ellefsen K. Lord K. Engelking Defensive A. Kuan C. Spieler C. Updike K. Lord N. Shrodes K. Engelking

L 0 1 1 2 2 2 4 5 5 5 6

W L 13 3 15 6 13 1 12 7 14 5 11 5 10 5 6 11 9 8 4 9 5 11

Kills SA 220 27 122 16 100 15 72 21 51 0 45 29 41 6 B Digs 0 181 17 121 8 121 28 105 7 60 5 30

Women's Soccer (4-2-2, 3-1-1 NESCAC) NESCAC OVERALL

W 3 Trinity 3 Amherst 3 Tufts Middlebury 3 2 Williams 2 Bates 2 Bowdoin Wesleyan 1 0 Colby Conn. Coll. 0

L 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 1 3 3

M. Stewart J. Love-Nichols A. Michael S. Wojtasinski S. Nolet L. O’Connor O. Rowse C. Wilson

G 4 2 2 1 1 0 0 0

T 2 2 1 0 1 1 1 3 3 2

W 4 4 4 5 6 4 5 2 3 3 A 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

L 0 3 2 2 3 4 3 3 3 3

T 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 3 3 2

Pts 8 5 5 3 3 1 1 1

Goalkeeping GA S S% K. Wright 2 12 .857 P. Hanley 3 15 .833

Football

Men's Soccer

(1-2 NESCAC)

(4-4-1, 2-2-1 NESCAC) NESCAC

W Williams 4 Middlebury 4 Bowdoin 3 Colby 3 Tufts 2 Amherst 1 Trinity 2 Bates 1 Conn. Coll. 1 Wesleyan 1

L 0 1 1 3 2 1 4 3 3 4

B. Green F. Silva M. Blumenthal R. Coleman S. Atwood S. Blumenthal K. Lewis B. Ewing P. Bauer

G 4 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0

T 2 0 2 0 1 3 0 1 1 0

OVERALL

W 7 8 5 6 4 5 5 3 3 4 A 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1

L 0 1 1 3 4 1 5 5 4 5 Pts 9 6 5 2 2 2 1 1 1

Goalkeeping GA S S% A. Bernstein 4 33 .892 Z. Cousens 6 8 .571

T 2 0 2 1 1 3 0 1 1 0

Amherst Williams Trinity Wesleyan Bates Bowdoin Tufts Colby Middlebury Hamilton

W 3 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 0

L 0 0 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3

PF 120 103 95 83 21 44 56 64 82 38

PA 38 36 42 65 105 86 53 87 97 97

Rushing P. Bailey R. Pollock

Att. Yds. Avg. TD 25 92 3.7 0 12 34 2.8 0

Passing A. Fucillo

Pct. Yds TD INT 48.9 952 5 6

Receiving B. Mahler G. Stewart P. Bailey

No. Yds Avg. TD 23 242 10.5 2 20 226 11.3 0 18 155 8.6 2

Defense F. Albitar M. Murray D. Simmons

Tack INT TFL Sack 34.0 0 1.5 0.5 25.0 1 1.5 1.0 18.0 0 3.0 2.0

NCAA Div. III Field Hockey (Oct. 5, 2010) Points (First-place votes) 1. Salisbury, 903 (11) 2. Tufts, 900 (20) 3. Messiah, 876 (7) 4. Lebanon Valley, 852 (8) 5. Ursinus, 783 (1) 6. Bowdoin, 707 (2) 7. Christopher Newport, 610 8. Eastern, 605 (1) 9. Skidmore, 595 10. SUNY Cortland, 559

THE TUFTS DAILY

Monday, October 11, 2010

11

SPORTS

FIELD HOCKEY

Undefeated Tufts dominates again, downs Colby 5-0 BY

CLAIRE KEMP

Daily Editorial Board

The field hockey team is rolling, crushing, thrashing and pounding anything in its path, and it simply cannot be stopped.

FIELD HOCKEY (5-0 NESCAC, 8-0 OVERALL) at Waterville, Maine, Saturday Tufts Colby

3 2 — 5 0 0 — 0

After Saturday’s 5-0 trouncing of Colby on the road, it would be easy to run out of words to describe the current streak of the national No. 2 Tufts.

The Jumbos, after all, have now won three straight games by a margin of five goals or more and have taken 45 of their past 49 matches, a mark dating to the beginning of the 2008 season. The win has Tufts sitting at the top of the NESCAC tied with Bowdoin, each with a 5-0 conference mark, while Colby fell to 0-5.

Senior forward Tamara Brown had five points in the contest, scoring a goal while also handing out two assists to classmate Melissa Burke and another to sophomore Missy Karp. Junior Sarah Cannon notched the other goal for the Jumbos, who ended the game with a 32-6 advantage in shots over the Mules.

“I think everything is coming together and it’s starting to click,” Burke said. “And with every game, we’re gaining more confidence and figuring out how to work together, and today was a real demonstration that we’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t and it shows by putting it in the net.”

The Mules had only six shot attempts, but they made them

count, forcing junior goalie Marianna Zak to come up with five big saves to protect the team’s fifth shutout of the season.

“We’ve talked about how important it is to us to preserve the shut-out, even especially when we’re up by a lot,” Zak said. “Colby was putting a lot of pressure on us, especially in the second half. It was a much closer game than the score reflected.”

The past two games have been important in proving the team’s depth this season. The Jumbos’ bench has been racking up considerable minutes as the season has progressed. After last year’s NCAA Final Four experience, in which All-American midfielder Margi Scholtes (LA ’10) and Brown were injured, the Jumbos understand the importance of having strong substitutes. With the bench’s consistently strong play, including three goals early in the week against Wellesley, it seems the team does not have to worry about a drop-off in play when coach Tina McDavitt needs to look to the sidelines.

“We say a lot, ‘We want every person on our team to be better than every person on the other team ... that our number 23 off the bench is better than their number-one girl.’

That’s what we strive for,” Zak said.

“We have some great starters but it’s nice to know your subs are also awesome. They’ve really stepped up the last few games, too.”

Despite all the positives, what does seem to be Tufts’ Achilles’ heel as of late is its accuracy. In their past two games, the Jumbos have rattled off 68 shots but have only put in 11. Meanwhile, opponents have been held to just 10 shots — but Tufts has been forced to make close saves on seven of them. The team’s offense will have to find the open net more often if

ALEX DENNETT/TUFTS DAILY

Senior forward Tamara Brown, above in a game against Middlebury, tallied three assists and a goal to help the No. 2 Tufts roll over Colby 5-0.

Tufts wants to fend off the rapidly approaching Trinity and Bowdoin.

“I think we’re trying to tighten up all over the field,” Burke said.

“And we talk about wanting a shutout as much as a win. Tina always says that she wants us to be the best defensive team as well as an offensive, and there’s always stuff to work on, but we’re really trying to lock down the circle, and with every game we’re getting better at that.”

But before that, Tufts will have some more shooting practice against Conn. College on Wednesday. Conn. College is 5-3 overall and only 2-3 in the NESCAC. Though the Camels are an athletic team that started their season at 4-0, they have not been able to compete with the top tier of the conference, most recently losing 5-1 to the Bantams. The Jumbos will need to capitalize on all their

opportunities and keep the Camels away from prime shooting angles to earn another big win and to make a statement in the conference.

“We’re not taking any team lightly,” Burke said. “And the mentality in the last few games has been the same — that our focus has been on our game, not on how they play, and that’s our goal, to come out and play Tufts hockey for 70 minutes and hope for a good result.”

Football team has trouble sealing the deal in tough loss at Bowdoin FOOTBALL continued from page 12

Before the team’s mishap that gave Bowdoin possession in the red zone, Tufts had put together a strong first half and held a 15-13 advantage heading into the break.

Just five minutes into the game, the Jumbos jumped out to a 12-0 lead.

Fucillo completed his first two passes en route to a 66-yard, game-opening drive that ended with senior running back Pat Bailey catching a pass over the middle and spinning into the end zone from 10 yards out. The new spread offense was at its best as Fucillo completed six of seven passes for 61 yards to start the game.

Bowdoin then took over, eager to strike back after Bailey’s score. The momentum kept building for the Jumbos, however, when sophomore defensive back Tommy Castle intercepted a bobbled pass and returned it 48 yards from midfield to the end zone.

The extra point attempt was blocked, but Tufts’ defensive touchdown on Bowdoin’s first possession both shocked the home team and electrified the visitors’ sideline.

“We thought it was going to be a much better day than it turned out to be at that point,” Bailey said. “We had momentum, the offense was clicking; things really seemed to be going our way.”

Tufts’ two-score advantage over Bowdoin, however promising, was only temporary, though.

Bowdoin freshman linebacker Griffin Cardew netted his first of two interceptions early in the second quarter to give the home team good field position at the Tufts 40. Two minutes later, junior quarterback R.J. Shea lobbed a 24-yard touchdown pass into the waiting hands of junior receiver Dave Westhaver, his only reception of the afternoon.

Shea’s main target of the afternoon

was junior Pat Noone, a first-team AllNESCAC performer in 2009, who caught 13 of Shea’s 15 completions and finished the game with 131 receiving yards.

Despite Noone’s successful outing, the Tufts defense contained Bowdoin for most of the afternoon. Two sacks by junior Donnie Simmons ended a pair of Polar Bear drives, and the home team went just 4-for-15 on third down.

Senior linebacker Matt Murray led the unit with nine tackles, and senior defensive lineman Alex Gresham blocked an extra point.

“I think our defense played tremendous,” Fucillo said. “I think [Bowdoin has] a pretty high explosive offense. …

They have a great receiver. I think the defense played well; our offense just needs to score points to help them out.”

A field goal by junior Adam Auerbach from 28 yards out extended Tufts’ lead to 15-7 midway through the second quarter. The Jumbos were poised to score a touchdown after marching 67 yards to the Polar Bears’ 11-yard line, but a string of three incompletions brought on the field-goal unit.

The Polar Bears struck back before the half when Donnarumma punched the ball in from a yard out. In his third collegiate game, he gained 114 yards on 30 carries.

Bowdoin shut Tufts out in the second half, and Carew’s second interception iced the game for the home team and sent Tufts home on a two-game losing streak.

The Jumbos face their toughest stretch of the year in the next three weeks. The team travels to Trinity (2-1) next weekend, hosts Williams (3-0) the following week and then hits the road again to take on Amherst (3-0), the defending NESCAC champions.

“I think [the] guys are still confident,” Bailey said. “We’ll go forward with confidence, and we’ll regroup and be fine.”

Sports

12

INSIDE Field Hockey 11 Schedule 10 Statistics | Standings 10

tuftsdaily.com

FOOTBALL

Red zone woes damper record-setting afternoon In loss at Bowdoin, quarterback Anthony Fucillo breaks single-game yards mark BY

BILLY RUTHERFORD Daily Staff Writer

Setting a school record in passing yards and lighting up the scoreboard should go hand in hand. Unfortunately FOOTBALL (1-2 NESCAC) at Brunswick, Maine, Saturday Tufts 12 3 0 Bowdoin 0 13 6

0 — 15 3 — 22

for the Jumbos, senior quarterback Anthony Fucillo’s 356 passing yards — which broke the previous mark of 354 yards, set in 1982 — led to just two offensive scores as Tufts fell 22-15 to Bowdoin, leaving both teams with 1-2 records.

“I think we have issues when we get to the red zone,” Fucillo said. “We’ve been moving down the field pretty good, then we’ve stalled.”

The statistics from Saturday’s game support Fucillo’s assessment: Four trips inside the Polar Bears’ 20-yard line yielded just nine points for the Jumbos.

The game turned in the third quarter when a bobbled snap on a Tufts punt gave Bowdoin the ball at Tufts’ 18-yard line. Just four plays later, freshman running back Zach Donnarumma scampered across the goal line for a 6-yard touchdown, giving the Polar Bears a 19-15 lead that they held until the final whistle.

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

see FOOTBALL, page 11

Despite setting the new program mark for single-game passing, senior quarterback Anthony Fucillo — above against Hamilton on Sept. 25 — and the Jumbos fell 22-15 to Bowdoin on Saturday.

VOLLEYBALL

Jumbos’ victory train derailed at Middlebury BY

BEN KOCHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

The volleyball team has been dealing with adversity since early August, when the team was forced to overcome a seaVOLLEYBALL (5-2 NESCAC, 14-5 Overall) at Middlebury, Vt., Saturday Tufts Middlebury

25 18 22 22 — 1 17 25 25 25 — 3

at Middlebury, Vt., Friday Amherst 19 Tufts 25

25 22

25 16

25 — 3 22 — 1

son-ending injury to senior-quad captain Dawson Joyce-Mendive.

This weekend, the team’s quest to host its third consecutive NESCAC tournament hit another major roadblock when it dropped matches to Amherst and Middlebury and lost its most productive hitter — senior quad-captain Caitlin Updike — to an ankle injury.

“We struggled with our mental game a little bit, and our passing was not as dependable as it normally is,” senior quad-captain Nancy Shrodes said. “There were way too many errors on our side.”

The Jumbos were looking to rebound from their Friday defeat against Amherst on Saturday against the host Panthers, who entered the match with an untarnished NESCAC record. But after the Jumbos took the first set 25-17, an injury to Updike forced them to adjust its offense on the fly.

“I went up for a far outside hit, and when I came down, half my foot was on the ground and half was on the [net

post] pole,” Updike, who had nine kills in her limited action in the contest, said.

“I tried to come back into the match in the third [set] a few times, but it just wasn’t working.”

With its two top killers from 2009 now nursing injuries on the bench, coach Cora Thompson was forced to mix up her lineups. First-year Michaela Sinrod was brought in as a second setter, giving sophomore Kendall Lord more opportunities to use her tall frame as a hitter.

Shrodes and junior Cara Spieler shouldered most of the offensive load with 10 kills apiece, while junior libero Audrey Kuan, who is an online editor for the Daily, added 11 digs.

Though the Jumbos forced nail-biting third and fourth sets, Middlebury prevailed on its Parents Weekend match, launching itself into first place in the NESCAC with a 5-0 conference record.

“It’s unnerving when any teammate gets injured, but we have a deep bench, and we switch up the lineups all the time in practice,” Shrodes said. “We definitely fought and battled, but at the end it just didn’t come to fruition.”

On Friday, in their sixth straight road match, the Jumbos fell to the Lord Jeffs in four sets. Tufts’ offense could never get in sync against an Amherst team that combined for 119 digs, with five different players in double-digits in the category.

“Our passing and serving really broke down,” Updike said. “We weren’t able to get the ball to our middles and run our offense. They are a strong defensive team, but we gave them way too many free points.”

With the two losses, Tufts falls into a tie with Bowdoin for fourth place in the NESCAC at 5-2. The Jumbos will get a chance to jump ahead of the Polar Bears

POWER RANKINGS compiled by the tufts daily

We’re through Week 5 of the NESCAC Power Rankings, and Amherst has retained its hold on the top slot. After taking over No. 1 from Williams last week, the Lord Jeffs remained in the lead despite a strong challenge from this week’s biggest mover, Middlebury. The Panthers are just seven-hundredths of a point behind Amherst, propelled by top-five showings from field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball.

Around the league, Tufts dropped from second to fourth after its football team fell to 1-2 in the NESCAC, and Bowdoin fell from fourth to sixth. Trinity was the only other school to increase its position this week, moving from sixth to fifth above the Polar Bears.

THIS WEEK

SCHOOL

FOOTBALL

MEN’S SOCCER

WOMEN’S SOCCER

FIELD HOCKEY

VOLLEYBALL

AVERAGE

1

AMHERST

1.33

4.50

3.67

6.00

2.00

3.50

1

2

MIDDLEBURY

6.17

1.67

3.50

4.33

2.17

3.57

5

3

WILLIAMS

1.83

1.50

4.00

8.83

2.00

3.63

3

4

TUFTS

8.00

5.83

2.67

1.50

3.83

4.37

2

5

TRINITY

3.00

7.17

1.33

3.50

7.00

4.40

6

6

BOWDOIN

6.00

3.00

7.33

1.50

5.00

4.57

4

7

WESLEYAN

3.83

8.67

7.33

4.17

8.83

6.57

7

—

8.33

9.17

7.00

6.00

7.63

8

8 CONN. COLLEGE

LAST WEEK

9

COLBY

6.67

9.17

6.83

8.50

9.17

8.33

9

10

BATES

8.17

9.17

6.83

8.50

9.17

8.37

10

11

HAMILTON

10.00

—

—

—

9.00

9.50

11

The poll was devised as follows: Each voter ranked all NESCAC schools in each sport, and those scores were averaged to create a composite ranking for each sport. The composites were then averaged to determine each school’s overall ranking. Note that Hamilton does not compete in field hockey, men’s soccer or women’s soccer in the NESCAC, and Conn. College does not compete in football.

This week’s list was determined by polling Amro El-Adle (Amherst Student), James Reidy and Seth Walder (Bowdoin Orient), Mike Flint and Nick Woolf (Conn. College Voice), Katie Siegner (Middlebury Campus), Alex Prewitt (Tufts Daily) and Whit Chiles (Wesleyan Argus).

DESIGNED BY STEVEN SMITH/TUFTS DAILY

see VOLLEYBALL, page 10