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THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 40

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

High dropout rate for SMFA program BY

KATHRYN OLSON

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts’ five-year combined degree program with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) has experienced dropout rates of up to 50 percent in recent years, largely due to financial and scheduling difficulties imposed by the program.

The combined degree program provides students accepted to both Tufts and the SMFA with the opportunity to graduate with both a Bachelor of Fine Arts and either a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree at the conclusion of the five-year program.

The program in 2009 graduated nine out of the 18 students who had originally entered the program in 2004, according to Susan Lush, associate dean of academic affairs for undergraduates at the SMFA. Similarly, nine of the 16 students who enrolled in the fall

of 2005 completed the program in 2010, Lush said.

Students typically drop out of the combined degree program in their fourth year, opting instead to receive only a Tufts degree rather than both the Tufts and SMFA degrees conferred through the program, according to Lush.

Lush said that although the dropout rate is high, the small number of students in the program means individual dropouts alter the statistics significantly year to year.

“The dropout rate has been as high as 50 percent at certain points depending on the number of students,” Lush told the Daily.

“Considering the economy, we are actually surprised at the retention rate we’ve been able to maintain.”

Students often drop out of the combined degree program for financial reasons, she said.

“Typically, it’s a money issue,” Lush said. “Combined-degree

students have to pay for an additional year of tuition. Students see their friends graduating and get burned out.”

Combined-degree students pay five years of tuition to Tufts and receive five years of financial aid from Tufts. The SMFA does not provide any financial assistance to Tufts students, according to Lush.

Although financial demands can play a role in whether students choose to stay in the combined degree program, students said that logistical difficulties and academic restraints also affect their decision.

The SMFA reduced its graduation requirements in 2006 from 93 studio art credits to 84, in addition to 24 academic credits required by Tufts, in recognition of the fact that many students could not complete the program, according to Lush. see SMFA, page 2

CAROLINE GEILING/TUFTS DAILY

Stanford University biologist Drew Endy, right, addressed attendees at the inaugural Knox Lecture yesterday in Alumnae Lounge.

Drew Endy examines ethical side of biotech BY

ELIZABETH MCKAY Contributing Writer

Stanford University biologist Drew Endy delivered the inaugural Knox Lecture in Engineering Ethics, sponsored by the Tufts Gordon Institute, in the Alumnae Lounge yesterday afternoon.

Endy’s work concerns the impacts of biotechnology on civilization.

According to Endy, biotechnology can play a role in solving problems like dependence on oil, but the biologist cautions that developments in the field may create new ethical dilemmas with which the public will have to grapple.

Endy spoke with the Daily’s Elizabeth McKay before the lecture. An excerpted version of the interview is published here, and the full version is available at blogs.tuftsdaily.com.

Elizabeth McKay: What do you hope that your audience will take away from this lecture?

Drew Endy: I hope they’ll take away … that a full engineering education includes advancing one’s capacity to choose what to work on. …

Second, I hope that people, if they don’t already appreciate, begin to appreciate how we’re entering a period of time at the intersection of biology and engineering where there seems likely to be sustained improvements in tools, and sustained improvements in tools are what leads to technology revolutions. And when that happens, with the next generation of biotechnology, questions that people are already familiar with, like genetically modified organsee ENDY, page 3

After three-year break, Eco-Reps program returns to campus primarily structured by undergrads BY

MAHPARI SOTOUDEH Contributing Writer

Tufts’ Eco-Reps program, which enlists students in an effort to promote environmental efforts on campus, has returned as a pilot initiative after a three-year hiatus.

Ten Eco-Reps and two coordinators — whose goal is to bring about change by informing and educating their peers about environmentally responsible behavior — are part of the program, which falls under the advisory of Office of Sustainability Program Director Tina Woolston.

Students involved in the program resolve to set a standard for their peers in dormitories and work with the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ResLife) and residential assistants to institute changes within dorms.

When Anja Kollmuss (GA ’01) first established the Eco-Reps program in 2000 as part of her master’s thesis, it was the first of its kind in the nation. Following Tufts’ lead, other colleges and universities nationwide adopted similar pro-

Dow Chemical Company awards grants for sustainable initiatives BY

MONICA MOWERY Senior Staff Writer

FourTufts students won awards last month from the second annual Dow Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge, sponsored by the Dow Chemical Company.

Winning criteria for the grants focused on feasibility and innovation, as well as how the project was connected to Dow’s 2015 Sustainability Goals, according to Assistant Provost Vincent Manno, who is also a professor of mechanical engineering.

“The overarching idea of the Sustainability Innovation Student Challenge is to focus on the triple bottom line, which is to support ideas that are not just green, but also envi-

ronmentally, socially and economically sustainable,” Mike McCaffrey, a spokesperson for Dow, said.

“If a solution or program doesn’t have all three components, we don’t want to do it. By definition, it’s not sustainable,” McCaffrey said.

The grants are for $10,000 each, according to Manno, who convened the Tufts faculty committee that selected the winning candidates from Tufts. The awards were announced on Oct. 15.

Tufts, along with six other universities — University of California, Berkeley; University of Cambridge; University of Michigan, Ann see DOW, page 3

Inside this issue

MEAGAN MAHER/TUFTS DAILY

A student recycles a water bottle in Metcalf Hall. The Eco-Reps program, revived this year, is trying to kindle environmental awareness. grams, according to the Office of Sustainability website.

A lack of funding and a change in leadership within the Office of Sustainability caused the program to disband in 2007. It returned as a pilot program this year after a number of the participating students took part in Woolston’s

Experimental College course “Environmental Action: Shifting From Saying To Doing” last year, Woolston said.

While Kollmuss served as the main coordinator of the old program, Woolston said she wanted see ECO, page 3

Arabic is among the most popular subjects for tutoring at Tufts BY

NADEZHDA KAZAKOVA AND MAYA KOHLI

Contributing Writer and Daily Editorial Board

The Academic Resource Center (ARC) recently released data indicating the most popular subjects for tutoring at Tufts.

Biology 14 was followed by Chemistry 2 as unsurprising first and second places for the Spring 2010 semester. But Arabic 1, a less obvious contender and the only language among the top 10, was fourth, which some have taken as a sign of the Arabic Department’s expansion and increased appeal among undergraduates.

Rana Abdul-Aziz, a lecturer of Arabic at Tufts, has watched the Arabic

Department evolve over the last couple of years and explained that its expansion was less a growth spurt than a slow building of student interest in Arabic language and culture over the past decade — specifically since 2001.

“The growth of Arabic is very closely related to the events of 9/11, and the interest in the region is linked to the politics and the desire for American students to be more familiar with the Arabic world — the desire to want to understand the region,” she said.

The Department has most recently extended its program with a new Arabic see ARABIC, page 2

Today’s Sections

3Ps’ new show focuses on the complex relationship between a teacher and a student.

An MFA exhibit covers shifts in the classification of two-dimensional art in the latter half of the 20th century.

see ARTS, page 5

see ARTS, page 5

News | Features Comics Arts | Living

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NEWS | FEATURES

Friday, November 5, 2010

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

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Dual-degree students, from left, Ada Goldfeld, Natasha Jessen-Petersen and Miriam Ross-Hirsch get off the SMFA/NEC shuttle outside the SMFA in Boston.

Tufts/SMFA program marked by high dropout rate SMFA continued from page 1

Four SMFA credits are equivalent to one Tufts credit.

Amy Connors, a Tufts junior who withdrew from the program after two years, said she was not surprised by the dropout rate.

Connors said the large number of studio classes the SMFA requires can make it difficult for combined-degree students to switch their major at Tufts.

“The credit requirements are definitely an issue,” Connors said. “If you don’t have a concrete plan on what you’re going to major in at Tufts and the SMFA, it’s hard to catch up.”

The SMFA is planning to make further adjustments to the credit requirements for incoming students, although the school has not yet decided the specific changes, according to Lush.

By giving students greater flexibility in scheduling, reduced requirements could improve the retention rate of the program, Lush said.

Scheduling classes at both the SMFA and Tufts can be complicated. A typical studio class at the SMFA lasts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which often prevents combined-degree students from taking Tufts and SMFA classes on the same day and limits their course selec-

tion, according to Lush.

“There’s no magic bullet for the scheduling issue,” Lush said. “Our schedule makes it very challenging for students to come up with a schedule that works, especially if they want to take a lot of academic classes.”

Starting next fall, the SMFA plans to add more evening classes in order to accommodate the schedules of combined-degree students, according to Lush.

Fourth-year combined-degree student Suzanne Grossman said that a lack of academic support from SMFA administrators makes it difficult for students to complete the program.

“It’s difficult as a combined-degree student because they don’t look out for you in a way that’s different from the art students.

We all get lumped together,” Grossman said.

“I really love the program, but the advising system is a weak part.”

Lush explained that students are assigned faculty mentors at the beginning of the program, and most of the mentors only teach day classes. Students transferring into the program after their first semester at Tufts or students who only take evening classes typically are not assigned a mentor and tend to “fall through the cracks,” according to Lush.

“We need to make sure combined-degree students are plugged into that system bet-

ter,” Lush said.

“Because it’s not structured and a lot to keep track of, its easy for people to lose motivation,” Grossman said. “I’m able to navigate [the combined-degree program] because I’m very confident in what I want to get out of it.”

Lush noted that with new SMFA President Christopher Bratton, the school plans to make additional changes to the program that would make it easier for Tufts students to graduate with a combined degree rather than choosing to pursue just one degree halfway through the program.

Tufts Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Jeanne Dillon and Connors pointed out that logistical and academic demands are inherent in the combined degree program, but the potential benefits of the program outweigh its downsides.

“Students have to navigate two different worlds, but it’s two four-year degrees we’re smashing into five years,” Dillon said.

“Students can definitely get a lot out of that.”

“It’s a great opportunity, but it’s very different on paper [than] it is in actuality,” Connors said. “People have to understand that you’re splitting yourself between two campuses and getting two different college experiences, but that shouldn’t deter people if they really want the degree.”

Arabic is fourth most tutored subject at the ARC ARABIC

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continued from page 1

major, which was added just this year.

“The major was only approved last semester, and we announced it as the senior class was graduating. … This semester, students are in the process of declaring last-minute, especially seniors. At least six seniors have declared last-minute, and sophomores and juniors would be another handful,” Abdul-Aziz said.

But Arabic’s many tutees cannot all be explained by the department’s expansion alone. Unlike biology and chemistry, whose popularity sophomore biology tutor Maria Kryatova attributes to the classes’ large enrollment, Arabic classes are much smaller. According to Abdul-Aziz, Arabic 1 currently has 78 students, and the upperlevel classes are even smaller, with 28 students in the two 121 classes.

“Purely statistically, there are more students that need tutoring [in math and science], either because of inadequate high school preparation or because of poor study skills or an initial lack of effort that has caused them to fall behind,” Kryatova said.

But Arabic 1 is nowhere near the fourthhighest enrolled class at Tufts. Rather, there are a host of reasons why Arabic has become a hot topic at the ARC, including its difficulty to absorb for students with Western backgrounds with closer-to-home Romance languages, senior Ryan Hunter, an ARC Arabic tutor, said.

“It’s very different from learning any Romance language because you have to learn an entirely new alphabet and set of sounds which do not exist in English,” he said.

Furthermore, Hunter explained, the popularity of Arabic tutoring may, in part, be due to the vast resources that the Arabic tutoring

KRISTEN COLLINS/TUFTS DAILY

Arabic students are diligent in their attendance of Academic Resource Center tutoring sessions. program offers. In addition to traditional one-on-one tutoring, Arabic tutors host both an upper-level and lower-level grouptutoring “Table” in Olin each week and organize review sessions for major exams.

“We have a very strong community of dedicated, creative and talented tutors in Arabic,” Robin Olinsky, assistant director of the ARC’s Undergraduate Peer Tutoring Program, said.

Hunter confirmed Olinsky’s praises and explained that most ambitious Arabic students are unusually committed to the study of the language.

“The existence of these review sessions is really just a product of the Arabic tutors’ devotion to the subject and to the new students coming in,” Hunter said. “In order to stick with Arabic for four years, study abroad in the Middle East and devote time to being an Arabic tutor, you really have to love the language, as well as the politics, history and culture associated with it.”

While students of more commonly studied languages like French and Spanish need out-of-class help as well, sophomore tutor Marta Kupfer explained that people who

have questions about more common languages often have the opportunity to seek informal tutoring from friends.

“I used to tutor Spanish to my friends outside the ARC last semester,” Kupfer said.

“I would not be surprised if a lot of people are just too lazy to schedule an ARC appointment when they can easily ask a friend, given the popularity of the language, or go online and get a translator.”

And then there’s the Arabic Department’s most attractive, sure-fire offer of extra credit for students who attend the Arabic Table, Abdul-Aziz said.

“What we have done is work closely with the tutors to make sure we are enriching our program through the ARC program tutors and their services. We offer extra credit to our students who attend the Arabic Table, which [provides] cultural activities [the chance] and to use Arabic. I encourage students who struggle with speaking to use the tutors, who help them,” she said. “It’s another person to check in with and a resource to help instructors. … We have created this wonderful partnership with ARC so our students can succeed.”

Correction Due to a production error, yesterday’s Sports “Schedule” feature incorrectly stated information about upcoming volleyball games.

In fact, the team will compete against Conn. College in the NESCAC quarterfinals today at 8 p.m. at Amherst. If the team wins in that match, it will compete in the NESCAC semifinals at Amherst tomorrow at 1 p.m. or 3:30 p.m. If the team wins that match, it will compete in the NESCAC finals at Amherst on Sunday.

Friday, November 5, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

3

NEWS | FEATURES

Eco-Reps’ initiatives include composting, green certification, ‘Trashion Show’

Dow grants fund sustainable projects

ECO

Arbor; Northwestern University; Peking University; and the University of Sao Paulo are in partnership with Dow. Winners from all seven universities, as well as representatives from the partner universities and Dow, convened at an awards luncheon at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences on Oct. 22, Manno said.

The committee selected eight finalists from around 30 to 40 applicants, according to Manno.

The Tufts committee reviewed a diverse set of applications, Manno said.

“We had a lot of perspectives from different fields,” he said. “To level the playing field, we had a format for people to describe their projects, which emphasized the potential impact of what they were doing.”

Karen Kosinski, a Ph.D. candidate in environmental and water resources engineering, won one of the grants. She worked on a primary prevention project in rural Ghana to prevent urinary schistosomiasis, a disease caused by a common parasite transmitted through contaminated water.

Kosinski’s project established a recreational water area for more than 500 children in Kwabeng, a town in Ghana.

Dow awarded the grants for research on sustainable solutions to environmental, economic and social problems.

Kosinski said that for schoolchildren, the primary risk of contracting schistosomiasis comes with recreational contact. Since 2007, her project has built a recreational area that opened in 2009 and precipitated a dramatic decrease in disease in the rural community, according to Kosinski.

She believed the project has potential to be implemented in other areas of the world. “The project is considered a sustainable form of research; it capitalizes on rainwater collection instead of using electricity or chemicals,” Kosinski said.

Most winners use the award to further work on their research project, according to Manno.

continued from page 1

the new Eco-Reps program to be structured primarily by undergraduate students.

“The students in the class were learning how to be leaders, and I wanted to provide a place for people interested in pursuing environmental leadership to express their enthusiasm and energy,” Woolston said. “I wanted to see Eco-Reps become more selfsustaining and more student-driven.”

The new program’s main goal is to foster a general sense of environmentalism at the university and make students more aware of the collective impact of their decisions on the environment, according to Eco-Reps cocoordinator Jess Madding, a senior.

“It’s our first semester, so we’re really just trying to gauge the student response to our pilot program,” Madding said. “We want students to know there are resources out there for the environment. Tufts is pretty disjointed in its environmental efforts … with the EcoReps, Tufts Institute [of the] Environment and the Office of Sustainability. The general student body doesn’t understand how they all relate, and we’re trying to change that.”

Although the Office of Sustainability is temporarily funding the program for the year, the program is seeking a permanent source of financial support. Accordingly, it needs to establish a group on campus, Woolston said.

“The pilot program is important because we’re feeling out the campus’s reaction to us,” senior Emily Ruff, an Eco-Rep for Sophia Gordon Hall, said. “We definitely want to expand, but we’re starting at the ground and working our way up.”

Eco-Reps are chosen by the student coordinators and receive a stipend from the Office of Sustainability, according to Woolston.

Much of the program’s work involves educating students about the choices available to them in order to create a base of environmental knowledge on campus that will allow the program to become self-sustaining, Woolston said.

“There’s a lot of will on this campus to be more environmentally sustainable, but we want to give people the tools to do those actions,” Ruff said. “We want students to take this up individually and become their own stewards.”

Beyond its efforts to raise environmental awareness at Tufts, the program has more universal goals, according to Ruff and Woolston.

“The academic side of Tufts is very much about educating its students to become active citizens in the world, and I think this is a part of that,” Woolston said.

Eco-Reps are working to implement initiatives including composting and establishing “free boxes” in dorms to allow students to discard and exchange unwanted possessions.

They also are looking at a process of “green dorm certification,” by which residents can meet environmentally sustainable criteria to receive recognition, according to Madding.

Additionally, Eco-Reps are planning oncampus events, including a waste reduction contest between Metcalf Hall floors this week that culminated in last night’s “Trashion Show” event, also in Metcalf Hall.

“I think students are getting excited as they become more aware of the Eco-Reps and their efforts on campus,” junior Daniel Meer, an RA in Metcalf Hall, said. “Students were eager to participate in the effort to reduce their hall’s waste during the week leading up to our ‘Down with Waste’ event this [last] night.”

Biologist Drew Endy: ‘Our entire civilization depends on biology’ ENDY continued from page 1

isms … those are really the tip of the iceberg, and what’s coming for the next generation of genetic engineers and everybody else is many more questions, many more opportunities, many more puzzles, many of which are closely coupled to ethics. …

I don’t think, for example, that on any one topic that this is the right thing or the wrong thing to do. … The answer we might come up with by consensus or by vote in December of this year — that might change 10 years from now.

And so it becomes very important for people to engage and to be constructive and positive in their dialogue.

EM: Do you think it’s a good idea for even non-engineers to take a part in this discussion?

DE: Yes. Because it impacts you. … So it turns out that our laundry detergent has biology in it. [It contains] these proteins that help degrade and remove oil stains and whatnot from your clothes. They tend to come from organisms that lived in high temperatures, and so what that meant is that when you washed your clothes, you had to have high wash temperatures.

So [a] company back in 1980 figured out how to get these enzymes to work, by genetic engineering methods, to work at low temperatures. So now all of a sudden you have nice clean clothes without having to go at high wash temperatures. The net impact is to reduce the demand for high water heating across every house in the United States. And in 1980 numbers, it was estimated that reducing hot-water wash temperatures to cold-water wash temperatures would have a 10 percent savings on domestic oil consumption for hot-water heating.

Ten percent in 1980 was 100,000 barrels of oil a day. 100,000 barrels of oil a day is at least five times as much as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. So one protein that gets engineered and then integrated into everybody’s existence is a real big bioenergy saving.

So even if you’re not an engineer or a biologist, the fact is, you’re impacted by biotechnology, whether you know

it or not, and our country is making investments in biotechnology that are smart or misguided or both, and so in the same way that we might talk about the trade deficit or education or taxation or military operations and wars, science engineering needs to be part of the public discussion.

It seems very likely that everybody should have the opportunity to become literate in biology and biotechnology because it’s just simply going to be really important for the next hundred years. We have the capacity, basically, to reframe the manufacturing of materials in our civilization to come more and more from biology, much like it was before we discovered oil in this part of the world, when we had to make biology do a lot more for us, but we’ve taken this detour going through 55 gallon drums of oil, and we have to sort of get back to a more modern … manufacturing economy that is a better partnership with the natural world.

Biology’s going to have a lot to say in that. There’s going to be fortunes made and lost, and there’s going to be people hurt and benefited, and it would be good for everybody to be participating in that discussion.

EM: It really seems like [synthetic biology] touches on so many different aspects of our lives, that what seems to be just something that is reserved for engineering is actually so important to all of us.

DE: That’s exactly right. Our entire civilization depends on biology. Never mind our parents and, if we’re lucky, our children, but the oxygen we’re breathing, the foods that we’re eating, the clothing that we wear — even the fuel, even if we dig it up, it’s coming from biology. And so pretty much our entire civilization depends on biology.

It would be hard to overstate that. It’s just simply not possible to overstate that. Thus it should not be surprising as we collectively increase our capacity to engineer and partner with the living world — that’s going to impact everybody. So you just have to begin to frame it in that context and prepare for it. And not everybody’s going to do it, but everybody should be literate.

DOW continued from page 1

“I spent a big chunk of it in Ghana this past summer to buy extra supplies and pay the translator and lab technician,” Kosinski said.

Georgia Kayser, a Ph.D. candidate at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in the Water: Systems, Science and Society program, was another winner. She studied technological interventions to improve access to clean water in Honduras and El Salvador.

Kayser collaborated with non-governmental organizations in the area, including the International Rural Water Association, which distributed technologies to the communities.

“Previously, there was no evaluation or knowledge about how effective interventions were,” Kayser said.

Kayser recently presented her project at the International Symposium on Rural Water Services. She said her project’s methods could be applied to provide sustainable water services in countries by NGOs interested in using similar techniques.

The other two Tufts winners were Ellen Tyler and Amanda Beal, both students at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program.

Tyler and Beal researched farming and fishing communities in Maine with the goal of bringing them together.

“We both grew up on the coast of Maine, where seafood and coastal resources are a big part of the food economy,” Tyler said.

The pair hosted five forums for fishermen and farmers throughout Maine to discuss collaboration through policy, marketing and infrastructure, according to Tyler.

“Fishermen and farmers talked about potentially sharing transportation and going to farmers’ markets together or possibly having a CSA [communitysupported agriculture] box that includes shellfish,” Tyler said.

The project has resulted in a document that will be delivered to the governorelect of Maine, Paul LePage. It outlines the policy challenges of such collaboration, according to Tyler.

Tufts Programs Abroad Upcoming Informational Pizza Parties

Tufts in Tübingen: Monday, November 8th at 6:00pm Dowling Hall 745A

Tufts in Paris: Monday, November 15th at 6:00pm Dowling Hall 745A

Come learn more about our programs! http://uss.tufts.edu/studyabroad

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COMICS

Friday, November 5, 2010

SUDOKU Level: Finding a Tisch library bathroom after 9 p.m. that isn’t disgusting

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Arts & Living

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THEATER PREVIEW

3Ps production of ‘Oleanna’ promises engrossing drama BY

REBECCA SANTIAGO

Daily Editorial Board

Though a university professor and a struggling female student make up the entire cast of David Mamet’s “Oleanna,” it only takes

Oleanna Written by David Mamet Directed by Charlie Laubacher At the Balch Arena Theater Nov. 8 two to create engrossing drama in this evocative play. Tufts’ Pen, Paint & Pretzels (3Ps) on Monday will present the haunting interaction between John (senior Gideon Jacobs) and Carol (senior Lily Zahn) and its devastating aftermath.

“The major themes [in this play] are … gender issues, socioeconomic hierarchies and systems of power and privilege in the academic context … a lot with academic freedom and freedom of speech and who’s given a voice,”

DANAI MACRIDI/TUFTS DAILY

Seniors Lily Zahn and Gideon Jacobs rehearsed a scene from ‘Oleanna’ last night.

Director Charlie Laubacher, a junior, said.

“Oleanna” opens with a discussion between John and Carol about the latter’s poor performance in the classroom. Carol’s frustration with the course material is palpable — unable to grasp the concepts of the course, she laments to her professor, “I walk around, from morning ’til night, with this one thought

in my head: I’m stupid!”

Though John is distracted by frantic phone calls from his wife about a meeting with the realtor of a house they are purchasing, he becomes determined to help Carol understand the course material. His insistency confuses Carol, and it seems to confuse him, too. When she asks him why

he’s so set on helping her, the only reason he provides is, “Because I like you.”

Their conversation spirals into a criticism of the hypocritical nature of the academic world. Though John is a tenured professor who specializes in educational theory, he readily acknowledges the disconnect between abstract academia and its application, citing this disengagement as the reason why Carol is so lost and furious.

“John sort of represents the academic … and Carol represents the person caught in the reality of the things they’re talking about,” Laubacher said. “Their conflict arises in some ways from the lack of real understanding of the situation he’s supposed to be writing about.”

In his efforts to help Carol understand the material, John explains, “I don’t know how else [to help you] except to be personal.”

His reliance on intimate connection complicates the plot significantly when, in the second act, events transee OLEANNA, page 6

MOVIE REVIEW

Danny Boyle’s latest prepares viewers for the unthinkable BY

ROBERT GOTTLIEB

Contributing Writer

Danny Boyle, the Academy Award-winning director of “Slumdog Millionare” (2008), has

127 Hours Starring James Franco, Kate Mara, Amber Tamblyn Directed by Danny Boyle done it again. The steady pulse of “127 Hours” never seems to slow down. An adaptation of Aron Ralston’s 2004 account of

his extreme sacrifice, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” “127 Hours” describes the severalday period when accomplished climber Ralston (James Franco) became trapped in Utah’s Blue John Canyon and had to cut off his right arm to escape.

The film recounts his struggle to escape, both physically and spiritually; as the film plays out, the audience gets a window into the depths of Ralston’s mind. We leave the canyon with Ralston and gain access to his private memories and hallucinations, his childhood and young adult life, and we come to understand his regrets and his past relationships. Boyle transforms the placid Utah landscape into an

oppressive space that grips viewers by the arm and does not let go.

In a groundbreaking performance, James Franco delivers as a hero forced to take a breath and reckon with the forces of nature. To prepare for the role, Franco turned to Ralston himself, who participated in the film’s production and generously donated the videotapes he recorded in the canyon. These video clips become an important part of developing Ralston’s character, and it is these darker, satirical moments of Franco’s performance that stand out.

In the film these moments appear in dream-like instances where Boyle inserts his signature style of cinematography.

The rapid cuts, saturated colors and use of split frame all serve to heighten the tension and involve his audience more intimately in the drama. Determined to create a heightened visual reality with different perspectives, Boyle brought on an additional cinematographer, Enrique Chediak, to work alongside his usual collaborator, Anthony Dod Mantle.

Perhaps most effective is Boyle’s collaboration with the Oscarwinning composer of “Slumdog Millionaire,” A. R. Rahman. The electric rhythm of the film’s score is completely captivating, especially when combined with throwback hits used ironically, like Bill Withers’ “Lovely Day.” The opening

song, Free Blood’s “Never Hear Surf Music Again,” incites the incessant urgency and anxiety characteristic of Boyle’s style, its catchy beat drawing us immediately to Ralston’s character. Through the soundtrack we are pleasantly distracted for at least a solid 20 minutes.

“127 Hours” is just as much a character drama as a thriller.

Ralston tells himself, “This rock has been waiting for me my entire life,” and we are made to understand why. Grounded in the Aristotelian tradition of a tragic hero with a tragic flaw, Ralston is deceptively simple: He is an archetype with an overdose of pride, prone to careless see 127 HOURS, page 6

GALLERY REVIEW

‘New Works’ unites ideas, techniques and materials of latter half of 20th century

BY SHOSHANNA

KAHNE

Contributing Writer

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s “New Works: Prints, Drawings, Collages” tackles an

New Works: Prints, Drawings, Collages At the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston through May 1, 2011 465 Huntington Ave., Boston 617-267-9300 interesting shift in the classification and labeling of twodimensional art in the latter half of the 20th century. The works are united by attempts to layer ideas, techniques and materials, but each piece finds its own place in the range between these three categories.

The space is small and intimate, with gray walls, a comfortable bench and unassuming frames. The works are close together on the wall, some immediately above or below each other, giving the room a more personal, less pretentious air. The plaques on the wall intimate few grandiose concepts; everything is just what it is.

Though the pieces are roughly contemporary, they are linked aesthetically and conceptu-

ally only in how they break the boundaries between drawings, prints and collages. Some of the works are more involved, longterm projects, such as Michael Oatman’s “Exurbia (more leisure time for artists everywhere)” (2004), and some of it records fleeting memories in quick studies, such as Markus Raetz’s “Gaze” (2001).

A whole wall of the square gallery is devoted to one fourpart series and a diptych by Christiane Baumgartner: “Schkeuditz I-IV” (2005) and “Trails I” and “Trails II” (2008), respectively. All six pieces are woodcut prints made from television stills. For the fourpart series, Baumgartner chose specific moments as a car approaches an overpass. The other two prints are made from two images of Allied bomber vapor trails originally from a German propaganda film.

In the same way that a television makes a picture from dots of color and light, Baumgartner makes a picture by wavering line and varying tone in stripes of ink and paper. From very close, all the viewer can see are horizontal, withering lines, but when one steps back, the whole picture comes into view. The idea of slowing down to contemplate something that happens so quickly is elegant and simple, and the

examples are very evocative.

Some of the more visually simplistic but still compelling pieces are Tara Donovan’s “Untitled” (2008) and Arnulf Rainer’s “Red Cross” (1990-91).

Donovan uses shattered glass panes as inking plates, reassembling the shards to form fractured imprints of the original glass plates. The result is a dynamic splaying of white lines threading through stark black masses. Rainer violently gauged the surface of a copper plate, cutting the plate into the shape of a cross and printing the plate in bright red ink. He applies enough pressure that the actual shape of the cross is embossed into the page.

My favorite pieces of the show were Terry Winters’ “7-Fold Sequence, Two” (2008) and Julie Mehretu’s “Entropia: Construction” (2005). Both pieces distill high-energy, threedimensional realities into the two-dimensional facets that make them up.

“7-Fold Sequence, Two” is a rough grid of knot drawings representing only positive and negative space. The blobs of filledin graphite are not necessarily negative space, and the uncolored paper is not necessarily positive space, but the twisting see NEW WORKS, page 6

MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON. THE VIRGINIA HERRICK DEKNATEL PURCHASE FUND. REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION. PHOTOGRAPH © MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON.

‘Untitled’ (2008), by Tara Donovan (American, born in 1969).

6

THE TUFTS DAILY

ARTS & LIVING

Friday, November 5, 2010

Mamet play offers compelling look into student-teacher relationships

Franco’s acting adds to ‘127 Hours’

OLEANNA

mistakes and resolved to isolation from his family and friends.

Initially seen as a cruel punishment by some fate-inspired power, Ralston’s entrapment is essential to his own transformation.

The film becomes a redemption story in which he tames his human weaknesses and reminds himself of his primitive roots; it is only because Ralston arms himself with these animal-like survival skills that he is able to make the decision to save his life.

The impossible and, for most of us, unimaginable dilemma Ralston must overcome is what many viewers who have not yet seen the film may remember from the news coverage surrounding Ralston’s triumphant escape in 2003.

It would be easy and unfair to dismiss the film and not see it because of this scene, complete with graphic and gory details. It is certainly not for the squeamish, but it is acceptable, even for the most dedicated

continued from page 5

spire that Carol perceives to be sexually inappropriate between the student and teacher.

“Basically, [‘Oleanna’] comes down to the ideas of intention and perception,” Laubacher said. The severe dichotomy between John’s alleged intention and Carol’s perception of the situation have dire repercussions: In the third act, Carol files a lawsuit against her professor for sexual assault.

Theatergoers expecting a simple resolution to this intense clash between the two characters will be disappointed: In the end, neither John nor Carol is exalted or condemned, and the issue of culpability falls to the viewer’s discretion. “[ John and Carol] are pretty villainous in each other’s lives, but they’re both kind of guiltless in the grand scheme because that’s just sort of the nature of academia,” Jacobs said.

“The same incident can be either completely innocent or completely [the opposite],” Zahn said with regard to the audience’s interpretation of John and Carol’s open-ended conflict. “Two peo-

ple experience the same situation, and then, depending on whose side you’re sitting on or who you’re watching or connecting to, it can be very different.”

By offering strong and vivid portrayals of their characters’ personalities, Zahn and Jacobs bring a fiery chemistry to the stage. A riveting tension exists between the pair, even in the moments when they agree with and begin to understand each other.

The two actors adeptly characterize the struggle to form a bridge of comprehension between two people completely at odds, as well as the staggering ramifications of their eventual failure to forge this connection.

“I think this is an important and relevant piece of theater, as it takes place in a university setting and tackles some prevalent issues,” junior Justin Gleiberman, the producer of “Oleanna,” said in an e-mail to the Daily.

The broad scope of pertinent subjects that this play covers — from academic frustration to drastic misunderstandings — marries remarkable poignancy to make “Oleanna” a truly moving performance.

Array of ideas and media in ‘New Works’ creates an engaging experience NEW WORKS continued from page 5

and folding-in of something like string comes across clearly.

Mehretu’s approach with the piece was to see the knots almost as planes, bending and turning, and to draw the idea of knotting, as opposed to physically entangled material. The knot drawings are like quick studies — simple and numerous — as if the viewer is watching the artists learn to see and think this way.

“Entropia: Construction” is actually five stacked drawings on almost transparent Japanese paper. And while it’s hard to separate the drawings individually, it is interesting to note that some of the layers are representational — of buildings, streets and cars — and that some are purely abstract — swinging arcs and spirals. There is a freneticism and fever to these lines. The sense of the moving and changing city, and of what it is like to stand still among such chaos, is quite strong.

127 HOURS continued from page 5

viewer, to look away. It is important to note, however, that the nearly four-minute scene is anything but gratuitous; by this point, we are rooting for him to do the deed already.

Despite reports that a small number of viewers fainted in early screenings, Boyle works meticulously to prepare us and make us want it to happen.

There is a possibility that “127 Hours” will be known, at least in short, as the movie in which Franco does the unthinkable, but there is so much more to be appreciated.

The combination of Franco’s unbelievable performance and Boyle’s original visual aesthetic and musical sensibility is epic.

Boyle transforms the potentially static, abstract fable of the true story and engenders an uneasy — but extraordinarily powerful — experience. Unlike Ralston, however, we are lucky enough to escape relatively unscathed, back to our own creature comforts, suppressing our animal instincts until the moment in which they might come in handy.

THE TUFTS DAILY

Friday, November 5, 2010 Wanted

Housing

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Available June 1, 2011. Rent: $3250. First and last month rent required. Tenants pay utilities.

Larger apts available. Call Guy (617) 590-7656.

Apts for Rent well located. available. 5 bedroom + 4 bedroom equals 9 bedroom in same building. Also, 6 bedroom+4 bedroom equals 10 bedroom same building. call 617-448-6233

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Apts for Rent well located. available school year 2011-2012. 4 bedrooms. one 5 bedrooms. one six bedrooms. call 617-448-6233

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CLASSIFIEDS POLICY All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order, or exact cash only.

All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $15 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature, or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.

Future of volleyball team’s season hinges on match against Trinity tomorrow VOLLEYBALL continued from page 8

last six matches and 10 of 11 overall to close out the regular season.

“We all know we can beat Conn. because we did it before,” senior quadcaptain Kelly Engelking said. “They are a solid team with a great outside hitter, but nothing we can’t handle or haven’t seen before.”

This season also marks a stark shift from the 2009 and 2008 campaigns, when Tufts hosted the NESCAC Championships as the number-one seed, only to lose to the eventual champion Williams Ephs in the finals

and semifinals, respectively. This year, Tufts enters the end-of-season tournament in the middle of the pack, with Amherst and Middlebury grabbing the title of pre-tournament favorites, and the three-time defending champion Ephs serving as an underdog at the number-six seed.

“The NESCAC is so strong, so there’s no telling who will end up on top, despite what the seeds and records say,” Engelking said. “We get to play teams in our conference we have all seen at least once already in the regular season.”

Tufts will be looking to build on its

relative historical success in the tournament, having reached at least the semifinal round in the last three seasons and in five of the last six overall.

The actual championship has always proved elusive, though, with Tufts winning no titles over the past decade while perpetually strong Williams collected seven championships during the same period.

Winning the title this year would take on an even greater significance, because it is the only way that the Jumbos can qualify for the NCAA tournament.

Last year, they made the tournament as an at-large bid based on their strong

performance in the regular season, even though they lost in the finals of the NESCAC tournament, eventually losing in the NCAA quarterfinals to Hope College.

This year, however, the Jumbos have no chance for an at-large bid because of the ups and downs during the regular season and a final record of 20-9, so they must win the NESCAC tournament to secure the chance to battle for the National Championship.

“It’s definitely the most thrilling time of the season for us,” Engelking said.

“We’re all excited to do our best in the upcoming tournament.”

Bailey, Mahler and Stewart succeeding under football team’s new offense FOOTBALL continued from page 8

sion come Saturday.

Not for the Three (Silent) Musketeers.

“I’ve always tried to not be an emotional player,” Bailey said. “It’s an emotional game and I think we all get emotional about it and fired up, but it’s more of an eternal thing rather than a non-existent emotion.

It’s football. We all get fired up and [some] people show it and some people don’t.”

It’s not that Bailey, Mahler and Stewart are robots; far from it, in fact. While some release emotion by screaming, others, like three of the top receivers in the NESCAC, find release in an inner focus.

One of the reasons Samko switched the Jumbos’ offense from a smash-mouth style to its current spread formation was because of this talented bevy of available route-runners.

“As a receiver, you couldn’t ask for anything more,” Mahler said about the new offense.

“Sometimes it feels a little bit like track and field mixed with football, but it’s been a blast.”

Bailey, a local from Beverly, Mass., is listed at 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds. The NESCAC leader in receptions, with 44, Bailey has quietly been one of the most produc-

VIRGINIA BLEDSOE, JAMES CHOCA AND JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

With a knack for silence and catching the football, from left, seniors Pat Bailey, Billy Mahler and Greg Stewart have been enjoying a stellar final campaign with the Jumbos. tive performers over the past two seasons. In ’09 he was second in the league in all-purpose yards at 152.4 per game and currently ranks ninth this season.

“Although I’m in the backfield a lot, in the majority of plays I’m not running the ball or pass-protecting; I’m usually out in a route,” Bailey said. “It’s almost like I had to learn a different position.”

Then there’s Mahler, the speedy 5-foot-10 Midwesterner. Mahler has almost tripled his offensive output from ’09, and sits at fourth in the conference with 37 receptions, seventh with 398 yards and has a teamhigh of four touchdowns.

“I think the three of us try to lead by example,” he said. “There’s always going to be guys on any team, whether it’s football or any other sport, who will be the big talkers and constantly send a verbal message, but you also need the guys who will lead by example.

One way isn’t necessarily better than the other.”

After entering this season with one career catch — he sat out most of 2009 with mononucleosis — Stewart has had at least two receptions in each game this season, piling on 400 receiving yards and a pair of scores. He had a 13-catch, 126-yard coming-out party on Homecoming, a 3-for-60 day versus Trinity and a five-catch, 90-yard performance against Amherst which included a 65-yard touchdown, the Jumbos’ longest offensive scoring play of the season.

Saturday’s home tilt with Colby will be the last at Zimman Field for Bailey, Mahler, Stewart and the 10 other Tufts seniors.

“In the back of our minds we probably have the time bomb ticking that we have a certain number of games left, but I don’t think it’ll be anything different,” Stewart said.

“I think we’ll most likely be feeling

it when we walk off that field and realize that was the probably the last game we’ll play here.”

In a few weeks, the brown and blue jerseys will be hung up for the last time, the days of lining up together in the fast-paced, no-huddle attack gone. The friendships?

Those have no scheduled end.

When Mahler miscalculates something, there’s Bailey, quick to jump in and remind everyone that the English major was never “a math guy.” Bailey and Mahler, part of the same fantasy football league, laugh and make fun of Stewart for initially rejecting participation, saying that he “wants so bad to join, but his pride won’t let him,” according to Bailey. Stewart, on the other hand, claims to not play out of fear of “total domination, of making these guys feel bad.”

In an instantaneous alteration of mood, any pregame lightheartedness turns to intense focus

when the opening kickoff rolls around. But while Bailey, Mahler and Stewart stand out by transcending the stereotypical model of the boisterous, bro-tastic football player, this humility seems to be the norm under the academicsfirst, football-second model Samko has built at Tufts.

“All that stereotype stuff is crap anyway,” Samko said. “I coached 30 doctors. Are doctors supposed to be football guys? Yes, they are. You don’t get into this place because you’re a football player. You could be Tom Brady and they won’t take you here just because you can play football.

You have to do the work.”

Perhaps such character can only exist at small schools like Tufts, where NFL aspirations are stashed on layaway upon checkin. The focus remains on academics with a heavy emphasis on football, all with hardly uttering a word.

“In some ways you get spoiled with the guys here, because it’s not that way every place,” Samko said.

“Football guys here, they’re not angels all the time and I understand that, but it’s not real hard because you know you’re going to get a good effort everyday. The kids, at least the guys I work with, I trust them, they have a strong work ethic and a great value system.”

Editors' Challenge | Week 9 Wave your hands in the air in a nonsensical manner and combine random sounds to make funny words because it’s time for the Week 9 installment of the Daily Editors’ Challenge, where, as our antics get older, we get progressively less funny over time yet still put out bigbudget movies that ultimately don’t make that much money and aren’t that entertaining.

Leading the way in the standings this week, taking over first place, is Steve “Ace Ventura” Smith, who recently discovered his form through some serious sleuthing — OK, maybe he just did well for a few weeks — and remains atop the leaderboard. Just one game behind him, however, is Jeremy “The Mask/Stanley Ipkiss” Greenhouse, who had a little trouble figuring out which alter ego to go with at the beginning of the season but has recently settled on the one that simply wins.

It seems as though all eyes are now on Ethan “Truman Burbank” Sturm, who fell from the top spot after a less-than-stellar 7-6 Week 8 and is now two games back of the leaders, alone in third at 72-45 overall. Hopefully paranoia won’t set in over time for the rookie.

For the past few weeks, the picks by Phil “Lloyd Christmas” Dear have made the executive sports editor look dumb, and then dumber, and then dumber-er. Now Dear has turned OVERALL RECORD LAST WEEK Tampa Bay at Atlanta Chicago at Buffalo New England at Cleveland NY Jets at Detroit New Orleans at Carolina Miami at Baltimore San Diego at Houston Arizona at Minnesota NY Giants at Seattle Indianapolis at Philadelphia Kansas City at Oakland Dallas at Green Bay Pittsburgh at Cincinnati

it around thanks to a 10-3 week, the best of Week 8, and vaulted his once-clueless self up to sole possession of fourth place.

Alex “The Riddler” Lach was bumped down to fifth place after a 7-6 showing and will look to solve his picking woes in order to reach the 70-win plateau this week. Alex “The Grinch” Prewitt is just behind his first-name buddy and, at 68-49 overall, is well within striking distance.

Further down the board in seventh place after an 8-5 Week 8 is Noah “Ebenezer Scrooge” Schumer, grizzly beard, general grumpiness and all. Right behind him is the double-x-chromosomed duo of Claire “Officer Charlie Baileygates/Hank” Kemp and Lauren “Mary Swanson” Flament, who are tied for eighth at 66-51 overall.

Still stuck in the penultimate position of suckiness is Daniel “Horton” Rathman. He can hear a Who all he wants, but it probably won’t help his 11-game deficit. In last place, just one game above .500, is Ben “Count Olaf” Kochman. What a series of unfortunate events for the perennial bottom-feeder.

Taking the time to guest-pick this week before she hits the field along with the topseeded field hockey team for the NESCAC Tournament is Taylor “Bruce Nolan” Dyer.

Steve

Jeremy

Ethan

Phil

Alex L.

Alex P.

Noah

Claire

Lauren

Daniel

Ben

74-43 9-4

73-44 8-5

72-45 7-6

70-47 10-3

69-48 7-6

68-49 7-6

67-50 8-5

66-51 7-6

66-51 7-6

63-54 8-5

59-58 5-8

GUEST Taylor Dyer

Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Atlanta Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Chicago New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England New England NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets Detroit NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets NY Jets Detroit Detroit New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans New Orleans Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Baltimore Miami Baltimore Baltimore San Diego Houston Houston San Diego San Diego Houston Houston Houston San Diego Houston Houston Houston Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota Minnesota NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants Ny Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants NY Giants Indianapolis Philadelphia Indianapolis Indianapolis Philadelphia Indianapolis Indianapolis Philadelphia Indianapolis Philadelphia Indianapolis Indianapolis Oakland Kansas City Oakland Kansas CIty Oakland Oakland Oakland Kansas City Kansas City Oakland Kansas City Oakland Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Green Bay Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Cincinnati Cincinnati Pittsburgh Pittsburgh

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8

INSIDE Editors’ Challenge 7

tuftsdaily.com

FIELD HOCKEY

Huge matchup against Trinity looms for field hockey team Jumbos try for second straight NESCAC title against only team they lost to this season BY

CLAIRE KEMP

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts’ win on Oct. 29 against national No. 5 Bowdoin posed a clash of two NESCAC field hockey titans, but the Jumbos’ real rival will emerge this weekend. In tomorrow morning’s NESCAC semifinals, the national No. 4-ranked Tufts team will play host to No. 19 and sixthseeded Trinity, the only team to have scarred the Jumbos’ otherwise-perfect season.

On Oct. 16, the Bantams walked away with a 2-1 overtime victory over the Jumbos in an eerie repeat of their 2009 regularseason encounter. The Jumbos got the last laugh over the Bantams with a 3-2 win in last year’s NESCAC title — Tufts’ first NESCAC crown. Now, as the No.1 seed in the NESCAC tournament, the Jumbos look to seek post-season revenge on their biggest rivals once again.

In their first meeting of 2010, the Jumbos fell behind early and found themselves playing to the Bantams’ whim. This time around, the Jumbos are committed to staying loyal to their composed, short-pass style and exploiting Trinity’s strict reliance on run-and-gunning.

“We’re watching a lot of film and working on our game, because last time we didn’t play our game for the first 20 minutes and that hurt us in the loss,” coach Tina McDavitt said. “I think if we just stick with how we play and take care of the ball, we’ll be fine. … We’re working on pressuring, too, since Trinity tends to slam the ball a lot.”

If Tufts keeps up its strong play from this season, it will likely be enough for a win. The Jumbos’ offense currently ranks third in the

conference with 3.73 goals per game, and the defense averages a league-best .46 goals given up a game.

“I think for us the biggest factor is going to be confidence in our style of play and from the first minutes of play that we control the pace,” sophomore midfielder Rachel Gerhardt said.

“We want to simplify the game … going from making one good pass or one good play and going from there. We just need to make sure we play composed.”

Senior forward Tamara Brown will be a key performer for the Jumbos up front. Brown leads the NESCAC in goals and points with 23 and 52, respectively. On the other side of the ball, junior Taylor Dyer has emerged as the heart of the defense and will work to shut down a quick Trinity squad and help classmate goalkeeper Marianna Zak earn the team’s 10th shutout.

But the Bantams have some all-stars on their end as well. The All-NESCAC trio of senior co-captains Christy Bradley and Robyn Williams and junior Payson Sword will come out swinging. Bradley paces the offense with a team-leading 26 points, while Sword and Williams are tied for second with 21 points each. The Bantams’ attack turned it on in the postseason, upsetting NESCAC No. 3 Middlebury in the quarterfinals with three second-half goals. The Bantams will be doubly motivated, as they are playing in a do-or-die situation, trying to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament that would be hard to come by otherwise for a team currently 9-6 and outside the national top 15.

Tomorrow will be the fourth tournament meeting between these two teams in the past five years. The Jumbos have won every

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

NESCAC goals and points leader Tamara Brown leads the Jumbos into a clash with Trinity. time, but on each occasion the Bantams were just one goal short. To win and advance to Sunday’s final against either Bowdoin or fourth-seeded Amherst, the Tufts offense will need to put their finishing problems to rest, and the defense must expect the fastest attack they have seen thus far this season.

“We need to be ready for every situation,” McDavitt said. “Whether it be being down by one or up by one, we need to be ready for everything.”

VOLLEYBALL

Jumbos prep for championships Team to face Conn. College in quarterfinal match BY

DAVID MCINTYRE Daily Staff Writer

Fans from both sides are sure to turn up for this showdown, but nothing can negate the fact that Tufts has a home-field advantage on their side.

“Obviously to play home and to have the opportunity to win at home is huge,” Gerhardt said. “It’s one of the ultimate goals we have at the beginning at the season. Right now, the overall feeling in the locker room is not nerves: it’s confidence and an overall feeling that we know we can do this.”

FOOTBALL

The double-edged sword of silence BY

ALEX PREWITT

Daily Editorial Board

The volleyball team has experienced a season of highs and lows this year, losing senior quad-captain Dawson Joyce-Mendive to an ACL injury in the preseason, then rattling off a 10-match winning streak before losing three critical conference matches, and finally rebounding to finish the season by winning its last three matches.

The Jumbos have to put that all behind them now, though, as they head to Amherst this weekend to compete in the NESCAC Championships as the number-four seed. Their opening round match will be against the Conn. College Camels, whom they easily defeated on Oct. 1 in straight sets.

The Camels are not to be taken lightly, however, as they have one of the strongest weapons in the league: junior hitter Amy Newman, who is dominating the NESCAC individual leaderboard with a remarkable 5.22 kills per set. The Jumbos will also be keeping their eye on sophomore hitter Rachel Schroff, who has posted an impressive 2.80 kills per set this year.

“Conn. College is a great offensive team,” senior quadcaptain Caitlin Updike, who leads Tufts with 3.87 kills per set, said. “It’s going to be important for us to serve tough in order to make them run their offense out of system.”

Updike has also been nursing an ankle injury since the team’s Oct. 9 game against Middlebury, which has limited

The cliche holds that silence is a virtue. For three seniors on the football team, silence also serves as a weapon.

Gather Pat Bailey, Billy Mahler and Greg Stewart together and the conversation will inevitably consist of a few laughs and the occasional verbal jab. But just like Stewart levitating in the back of the end zone or Mahler going across the middle for another leaping grab, so too does silence consistently hang in the air. Unlike the awkward type of calmness that stomps on social normalcy, however, this silence seems natural.

“They’ve got a great toughness level and they bring their own

stuff,” coach Bill Samko said. “It’s not like they’re not emotional.

Different guys get motivated in different ways, and their way is to be into what they’re doing and it doesn’t have to be and loud and boisterous.”

Some players, like junior Donnie Simmons, have no problem showing emotion. Battle-hungry war cries are a regular occurrence on the Jumbos’ sideline. Especially in a testosterone-fueled game like football, keeping excitement, anger or frustration internally bottled is a tall order. More often than not, these emotions will bubble over like some sort of Mentos and Diet Coke-fueled concoction that gets released in a fit of verbal passee FOOTBALL, page 7

Tufts wall-sit record shattered

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Junior Lexi Nicholas will need to be part of a strong Jumbos block against Conn. College’s Amy Newman — the NESCAC leader in kills. her playing time significantly.

She is expected to play in the upcoming tournament.

Meanwhile, the Camels are

entering the tournament at their peak, having won their see VOLLEYBALL, page 7

A month after senior Eugene Kim set a new Tufts wall-sit record with 25 minutes, three members of the National Champion men’s lacrosse team have raised the bar.

Senior T.C. Neuhs, junior Kevin McCormick and freshman Ernesto “Ernie” Melero all broke Kim’s record on Wednesday afternoon at the end of an offseason workout. After Neuhs bowed out at 31 minutes, McCormick and Melero went quad-to-quad until Melero — a first-year who hails from South Central, Los Angeles, and sports a gnarly mohawk — bested McCormick by just one second.

The new record is an astounding 42 minutes and 46 seconds.

“I thought that they would match it but it was surprising how

long they went,” trainer Marten Vanderwelde said. “I had set aside 25 minutes but then they kept going. I missed a meeting.”

Melero may not have much time to relish in his glory, however. Kim, who spent the summer honing his leg muscles in Marine training, plans to raise the bar even further. The quad-captain of the crew team is prepared to face off against the lacrosse team in one final showdown, to settle once and for all the eternal question: Who has the strongest quadriceps on campus?

“It will suck, but I’ll do an hour,” Kim said.

—by Ben Kochman