2010-11-15.pdf

THE TUFTS DAILY

Cloudy 55/42

No diversity director before president is found

Holy snitch: Tufflepuffs stun Quidditch community, finish second at World Cup BY

ALEX PREWITT

BY

Daily Editorial Board

It turns out that Tufts Muggles can make magic.

At the fourth annual Quidditch World Cup this weekend, the upstart Tufflepuffs — Tufts’ Quidditch team — shocked the Quidditch community with a pair of historic upsets on the single-elimination second day, ultimately finishing as the runner-up in their first-ever appearance in the tournament.

Though the Tufflepuffs fell in the finals to Middlebury, a team that has never lost since bringing “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling’s sport to the non-wizarding world in 2005, Tufts’ squad officially cemented its place among the Quidditch elite.

“It was just sheer happiness, and a little bit of shock,” sophomore Howie Levine said. “We never expected this to happen. We just came in hoping for the best and hoping to make it to the second day out of group play.”

The Tufflepuffs did far more than just make it to Sunday; in fact, Tufts found itself under the lights at New York City’s DeWitt Clinton Park, squaring off against three-time defending champion Middlebury in

TUFTSDAILY.COM

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010

VOLUME LX, NUMBER 45

KATHRYN OLSON

Daily Editorial Board

As the Office for Institutional Diversity (OID) approaches a full year without a director, the position’s future remains uncertain in light of expected high-level administrative changes.

Lisa Coleman, the last executive director of the OID, resigned in December 2009, shortly before University President Lawrence Bacow’s February announcement that he would be leaving Tufts at the end of this academic year.

Bacow has declined to appoint a new OID director before his successor takes office, citing the fact that the director reports directly to the university president, according to Chief of Staff Michael Baenen. The Board of Trustees is expected to name the next university president by the end of the calendar year.

“As a practical matter, it would have been difficult to attract outstanding candidates for the position if they did not know the president they would be working with after this year,” Baenen said in an e-mail to the Daily.

Baenen said that new presidents usually initiate administrative restructuring upon

COURTESY ARLIN LADUE

Austin Bening, Jebediah Silver and Rajah Reid celebrate their team’s success. the championship game. With the eliminated teams cheering for an upset of Quidditch’s premier juggernaut, Tufts seeker Duncan Leaf, a freshman, snagged the Golden Snitch — actually a sock-encased tennis ball tucked into the pants of a neutral runner, who can do anything from climb buildings to beat up seekers — officially ending the match.

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Though the extra 30 points that came with the Snitch’s capture only cut the deficit in Middlebury’s 100-50 win, simply being in the finals was far more than the Tufflepuffs expected.

“We went in knowing, from previous games, that we had what it took to beat certain see QUIDDITCH, page 2

assuming office, so the nature of the OID’s director office is subject to change.

“It is too early to predict how the position may evolve until the next president has the opportunity to assess Tufts’ needs and opportunities,” Baenen said.

The director is tasked with promoting institutional diversity, working with administrators across the university and reporting to Bacow, according to Baenan.

Tufts Community Union ( TCU) Senator Ryan Heman, a senior who sits on the Equal Educational Opportunity Committee, said the director also researches faculty retention, faculty enrollment, student recruitment and other benchmarks of institutional diversity.

Baenen said the responsibilities of the vacant office have been temporarily delegated to various administrators, including Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Jacqueline Hymes, Director of Diversity Education and Development in Arts, Sciences & Engineering Margery Davies and Associate Provost Vincent Manno.

Meanwhile, the Arts, Sciences & Engineering Equal see DIVERSITY, page 2

Substance abuse drops among Somerville high school students, survey results show BY

KATIE ELKINS

Contributing Writer

A recently released survey reporting on the health of Somerville high school students showed that substance abuse among the city’s youth dropped slightly over the past several years, pitting the city’s level of underage drug use at lower levels than the state average.

The Somerville Student Health Survey, released Wednesday and based on the responses from over 1,000 Somerville students in grades 9 to 12, showed a decrease over the past 10 years in substance abuse, including usage of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana.

Alcohol use among Somerville high school students has also fallen slightly since 2008, dropping from 37 to 33 percent. Use of other drugs also slightly decreased or plateaued.

Residents of Somerville and surrounding communities met on Wednesday to discuss the results of the survey at a public forum held at the Somerville High School Auditorium.

The city-sponsored group Somerville Cares About Prevention (SCAP) organized the survey in conjunction with the Somerville Health Department and Somerville Public Schools.

When compared with the rest of Massachusetts, Somerville generally rated better or about the same. For substance abuse, Somerville high school students reported considerably fewer instances of abuse.

Other issues addressed by the survey included violence and safety, mental health, sexual health, weight perception and physical activity.

Even as the city beats the state average in substance abuse, Somerville students are having sexual intercourse at a younger age than are their peers across the Commonwealth. Meanwhile, the use of condoms by Somerville students is higher than the use by students in Massachusetts overall, according to the survey.

The rates of violence among Somerville high school students in school and at home, including physical fights and incidents with weapons, slightly dropped from last year. Even so, the number of students who reported verbal or emotional abuse in the family and witnessed violence in the family showed a roughly 5 percent hike since 2002, when SCAP first started conducting the annual survey.

The overall mental health of students has improved over last year, and levels of selfharm, depression and suicidal tendencies have decreased since 2002.

Fewer students perceived themselves as overweight, and a greater number of students are engaging in vigorous or moderate physical activity, relative to 2002 levels.

Student community involvement and the use of social supports have also increased since 2002.

The survey is administered during class time and is completely anonymous.

Administrators go through the results by hand to look for untruthful answers in order to make the results as conclusive as possible, according to SCAP Director Cory Mashburn. see SURVEY, page 2

Inside this issue

JIAJIE SU/TUFTS DAILY

Sophomores Wyatt Cadley and Kevin Li browse for books in the university bookstore.

Administrators are considering a textbook rental program that would provide a cheaper alternative to buying books.

Administrators consider textbook rental program to reduce student costs BY

CORINNE SEGAL

Daily Editorial Board

Students stressed by high book prices may have more options next semester if a proposed pilot program takes shape.

Director of Dining and Business Services, Patti Klos, said she is researching a textbook rental program that the university could implement as early as January.

Barnes & Noble, the distributor for Tufts' campus bookstore, piloted a textbook rental

program in January and expanded it further in August. Under that program, college and university students rent textbooks from their campus bookstores or directly from the Barnes & Noble website.

Klos said she first pitched the idea of bringing the program to Tufts this fall. She has met with the executive administrative deans for the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering to explore the see TEXTBOOKS, page 2

Today’s Sections

Is leisure reading disappearing as a traditional pastime?

‘Conan’ lives up to its host’s pedigree but does not reinvent the wheel.

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 Back

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Diversity position remains unfilled DIVERSITY continued from page 1

Educational Opportunity Committee is meeting with administrators and faculty across the university to assess the impact of leaving the OID director’s position vacant, according to committee chair Keith Maddox, associate professor of psychology.

Maddox said the committee will lobby the new president and his staff for what it eventually decides is the best way to ensure institutional diversity at Tufts, which could include renewing, expanding, restructuring or even abolishing the directorship entirely.

He said that having an OID director is not necessarily the only way to pursue institutional diversity.

“On the surface, having this position sounds better but having a position that is efficient and achieves a good outcome is more important and is what we will advocate for,” Maddox said.

Maddox hopes the next president will appoint a new OID director, or at least ensure that some other position exists to continue the director’s functions.

“In general, it would be a bad idea to get rid of the position, but the administration would have something in its place to take on those responsibilities,” Maddox said. “If the position isn’t replaced by some other body, it could be a step backwards.”

Heman said that while there is no way to ensure the responsibilities held by the previous director will be met under the next administration, he is confident the university will continue to pursue institutional diversity.

“As far as I know, there isn’t a particular body that will assure this position will

“Perspectives on Public Service” Details: Three individuals working in different areas of the public service sector will discuss their experiences in a panel. The discussion will feature Timothy McCarthy, program director of Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, State Sen. Benjamin Downing (D-Pittsfield) and Avi Green, executive director of non-profit voter engagement organization MassVOTE. When and Where: 7 to 8:30 p.m.; Lincoln Filene Center, Rabb Room Sponsors: Tufts Democrats, Roosevelt Institute at Tufts, Institute of Political Citizenship “How Can We Help Bring Positive Change to Israel and Palestine?”

Details: Diana Buttu, former legal adviser and negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and Alice Rothchild, a Jewish activist and author, will discuss how to work toward Middle East peace.

When and Where: 7 to 9 p.m.; Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room Sponsor: Students for Justice in Palestine WEDNESDAY “Why Americans Should Be

Upsets over Emerson and Pittsburgh send Tufflepuffs to Quidditch finals QUIDDITCH continued from page 1

COURTESY ALONSO NICHOLS FOR TUFTS UNIVERSITY PHOTOGRAPHY

Former Office of Institutional Diversity Executive Director Lisa Coleman resigned in 2009. exist in the future, but regardless of how this position is filled, diversity won’t be left behind,” Heman said. “Diversity has been the hot topic when searching for the new president and the university has made very clear that they are committed to diversity.”

How the university will pursue that goal of diversity is as yet undetermined, Heman said.

“It’s an issue of timing and an issue of waiting,” he said. “It’s not something students should be mad about but something they need to ... keep their eye on.”

Visiting the Hill this week MONDAY “Energy and Climate Policy in a Mosaic World” Details: David Cash, assistant secretary for policy in Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, will discuss climate issues and the process behind determining the state’s energy, land and water policies.

When and Where: 6 to 7:30 p.m.; Cabot Intercultural Center, 7th Floor Sponsors: Department of Economics, Tufts Institute of the Environment, Center for International Environment and Resource Policy

Monday, November 15, 2010

NEWS

Confident About Israel” Details: Israeli journalist Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent for The Jerusalem Post, will discuss why, in spite of enduring tensions in the Middle East, Americans should be optimistic about Israel’s future.

When and Where: Noon to 1:15 p.m.; Granoff Family Hillel Center Sponsor: Tufts Friends of Israel THURSDAY “Fork in the Road: Decision Time for Israel on Peace, Democracy and its Jewish Character” Details: Jeremy Ben-Ami, president and founder of the nonprofit pro-Israel organization J Street, will speak about the political choices facing Israel in the near future.

When and Where: 6 to 7 p.m.; Cabot Intercultural Center Sponsors: Charles Francis Adams Lecture Series, J Street U Tufts “Pragmatic Approaches to Promoting Human Rights” Details: Columbia University Professor of International Relations Jack Snyder will discuss the role of human rights in foreign policy and, in particular, the position the United States has historically taken on the matter.

When and Where: 7 to 8:30 p.m.; Ballou Hall, Coolidge Room Sponsors: Department of Political Science, International Relations program.

“Amahoro: Envision the Future of Rwanda” Details: Students from Rwanda’s Agahozo Shalom Youth Village will share stories of their experiences and offer their take on the country’s future prospects.

The village houses young people orphaned as a result of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

When and Where: 7 to 9 p.m.; Alumnae Lounge Sponsor: Tufts Hillel

teams, but we didn’t think that we would get this far,” sophomore captain Carly Boxer said. “Going in against Middlebury, we talked about how we had made it this far, and whether we won or lost it didn’t matter as long as we gave it our all.”

While Middlebury’s victory was hardly a surprise given its historical prowess on the national stage, not even the most experienced seer could have predicted the Tufflepuffs’ Cinderella run to the championship.

No one, that is, except for sophomore Austin Bening.

“I told everyone before we came here — Tufts has a national championship team, prepare for an international one,” Bening said, referring to the men’s lacrosse team, which captured the school’s first-ever NCAA title in the spring.

After going 2-1 on the first day and obliterating Ryerson University and America’s Finest Quidditch Club by a combined 320-50, the Tufflepuffs headed into Sunday’s 24-team elimination round as the 13th seed. An 80-10 win over Vermont and a 120-50 pounding of Chestnut Hill College put Tufts up against Emerson with a semifinal berth on the line.

And that’s when the magic began for the team the World Cup announcers dubbed the “Giant-Killers.”

Emerson, which finished second in last year’s World Cup, held a 50-30 lead until Tufts sophomore Drew Fuchs

caught the Snitch at the 16:23 mark.

The bonus turned a 10-point deficit into another upset for Tufts when Fuchs snuck up behind the Snitch, who was hiding in the crowd and had his attention turned to the Emerson Seeker.

“I was jittery for the next 20 minutes,” said Fuchs, recollecting his game-winning grab against Emerson. “Everyone in the Boston area wants to beat Emerson because they’re so good and so physical.

But we knew we could take it to them.”

A similar result unfolded in the semifinals, when the Tufflepuffs took down top-seeded Pittsburgh, 50-40.

Employing speed against the physically superior Pittsburgh squad, Tufts moved onto the finals after Leaf snagged the Snitch just 10 minutes into the 30-minute match.

With the championship long over, the Tufts team found itself without a ride home. After all, the Tufflepuffs had bought tickets for a 6 p.m. bus back to Medford, thinking that they would be long since ousted from the World Cup by then.

But waiting around for a few extra hours to catch a later ride — or even delaying a trip home due to limited seats on the next Megabus — seems completely justifiable in retrospect. “[Making it to the finals] was really the only thing that would make it worth it to spend the night in the city,” Bening said. “This is a bunch of people who are dedicated and committed their time to something that hasn’t been given much attention or recognition by the school. It was pretty incredible.”

Textbook cost reduction a priority for the Senate TEXTBOOKS continued from page 1

plausibility of a rental program.

"We're looking at the availability, what the logistics would be, and what the impact on the university might be," Klos said. "It seems like it's very simple and straightforward; we're just trying to understand a bit more about how it would work."

A rented book typically costs about 50 percent of its new retail price, according to Klos.

"It can be a significant saving for students," she said.

Klos said Barnes & Noble only makes textbooks available for rental if the class is offered for multiple semesters. If implemented, as many as 8,400 books could be made available for rental under the program.

"That could affect a lot of students, and we're hoping that we can move forward with this," Klos said.

Several hundred schools nationwide have implemented the rental program, according to Klos.

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate attempted to implement a textbook rental system three years ago, according to Services Committee Chair Meredith Goldberg, a sophomore.

Goldberg said textbook rental programs were not commonplace at the time. "There was no other example of ways to lower book prices in the area, whereas now our peer institutions have this established already," she said.

TCU President Sam Wallis voiced support for a textbook rental program, saying it was a campaign goal stemming from last spring's TCU presidential elections.

"It was a very big part of my campaign," Wallis, a senior, said.

"I think it would be the best way to reduce out-of-pocket costs for students."

Wallis, who chaired the TCU Senate's Task Force on the Financial Crisis in spring 2009, said reducing textbook costs was the Task Force's primary recommendation.

"If an economics book cost $100 new, and you bought it at our store, but you could rent it for $50, I think that would be attractive to a student," Klos said. "It can be a significant saving for students."

"The university is very interested in trying to keep the textbook materials, the course-related materials, and anything else you might want at a campus store, as affordable as possible," Klos said.

Goldberg said this goal is a perennial Senate objective. "One of the major goals of Senate this year is always to lower prices for students, and whether that's through tuition or book fees, that's always an ongoing project," she said.

Goldberg expressed optimism about the pilot program's prospects.

"I think the fact that there's so much passion behind it, both from the students’ and administrative standpoint, leads me to believe that it has a very strong, good outlook," Goldberg said.

Somerville high school substance abuse drops SURVEY continued from page 1

High school students are polled every even year and middle school students are polled every odd year, Mashburn told the Daily.

Organizations throughout Somerville, including Somerville Public Schools and Shape Up Somerville, a citywide initiative that encourages physical activity and balanced eating, use the results of the survey to write grants and learn more about issues it needs to address within the community, according to Mashburn.

“So many people work on youth health in Somerville,” he said.

The youth survey speaks to a number of prevention programs SCAP organizes. Somerville Positive Forces, a subgroup of SCAP, consists of 10 high school students from Somerville campaigning against substance abuse in the community, according to Lovelee Heller, a community organizer for SCAP. “We focus on changing the environment that the individual is living

ALEX DENNETT/TUFTS DAILY

City administrators discussed the results of the Somerville Student Health Survey at a forum on Wednesday at Somerville High School. in,” Heller told the Daily. “Research shows that the individual education is much less effective than the environmental factors.”

Ian Wong, director of health education at Tufts, believes that students need to be cautioned against substance abuse before they arrive

at college. Stemming drug usage at the high school age, he said, could prove successful in achieving this.

“People have a tendency to abuse [substances] during big transitions,” Wong said. “We have an opportunity here at Tufts to work with Somerville on transition programs.”

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

CONFERENCE CALL

Is leisure reading an extinct pastime?

Enrolling in college is synonymous with signing up for four years of poring over books, textbooks, photocopied essays and online readings. But with ever-increasing forms of electronic entertainment ranging from YouTube videos and social networking to Hulu and time-wasting games, is leisure reading disappearing as a traditional pastime? —by Emilia Luna

Lee Edelman The disappearance of leisure reading is the disappearance of our intellectual foundations

TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY

Maryanne Wolf, a professor of child development and director and founder of the Center for Reading and Learning Research at Tufts, is not worried about what people read but about how they read.

“If you are reading to enter this cognitive space in which you are literally going into a realm where your thoughts are meeting the author’s, and they are going somewhere new, that takes a lot of contemplative, deliberative processes — the deep reading processes,” Wolf said.

According to Wolf, the amount of time students spend on academics, extracurricular activities and social engagements have always left them with little leisure time and have directly affected students’ reading habits. Now, the added virtual requirement to engage with social media websites has left students with even less time to relax — or read deeply.

“The sheer amount of time that you

James Glaser Leisure reading resumes postgraduation

MEREDITH KLEIN/TUFTS DAILY

Elizabeth Ammons, a professor of English, believes that the importance of reading in modern-day society is a highly personal matter.

“For many people, reading is important psychologically and even spiritually,” she said. “For many people it satisfies something that other media cannot, but that is not true for everybody.”

The act of reading is changing as the world changes, she said, but that does not mean it has lost its value — nor does it mean it is going anywhere.

“Reading is one of the important ways that we gather knowledge, information and truth, challenge our own thoughts and learn about ideas,” she said. “I do think it impoverishes a liberal arts education if it does not guarantee some amount of reading.”

Lee Edelman, a professor of English and the chair of the English Department, attributes the slow but sure disappearance of leisure reading to the current younger generation’s tendency to put reading for pleasure aside in favor of resume-boosting activities.

“Since much of the scheduling of young people’s lives is organized to produce the best profile for college admissions committees,” he said, “reading too often gets shunted aside in favor of more highly visible activities involving citizenship, sports and clubs.”

In addition, the advent of social media has become an obstacle to students who might have dedicated more time to leisure reading in the absence of so many distractions, Edelman said.

“With the explosion of online media, social networking and video technologies, making the time to read — or, better, the time to think while you’re reading something slowly — becomes increasingly difficult,” he said.

Perusing the vastly under-read classics is important, whether for coursework or pleawould ordinarily sequester yourself, being away from the world and into your own thoughts, has changed a great deal by the social pressure of social digital media,” Wolf said.

The use of e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and Google is replacing the traditional act of leisure reading, she said.

Liberal arts curricula do work to educate students in a variety of subjects and encourage them to read broadly, Wolf said, but students’ ability to become cultivated also depends on their willingness to continue to read and educate themselves beyond the classroom.

“The way the requirements were set up was to facilitate everyone to be reasonably familiar with the great works of history, philosophy, literature, the arts and sciences,” she said. “We want liberal arts minds, and [the fact that] leisure time and reading are vanishing affects that mind.”

James Glaser, dean of academic affairs for arts and sciences, said that college students’ tendency not to do much leisure reading during their university years is an aberration from their normal reading habits rather than a solidification of them.

“My expectation is that while students are here, they have a lot to read to make it through their classes,” he said. “But what I hope happens is that we plant seeds while students are in their undergraduate experiences and that those seeds grow over the course of their lifespan.”

“Students are studying really hard during the week, reading their text messages and going to parties on weekends because it is part of the college experience,” he added, “but I do hope that this will lead to a lifetime of pleasures of reading, learning, growing and attaining oneself.”

The divide between academic and leisure reading is not a rigid one, Glaser said.

“If we have done our job well, and you develop the habit of reading,” he said, “as While the selection of media at people’s fingertips has widened and many texts have moved online, the act of reading is still essential, Ammons said.

“You can’t Tweet or look at your e-mail or do Facebook without reading,” she said. “The venues have changed, and the way people get information and tell their stories is not necessarily sitting in a solitary way, reading silently to themselves.”

Ultimately, what matters to Ammons is that people still read, not that they still read what past generations were reading.

“We can’t do it all,” she said. “For a given person it might be important to read Aristotle, and that is fine, but if you go your whole life without reading Aristotle, that is fine by me, too.”

sure, but what matters more than the book’s title and author is what the reader gets out of it, he said.

“We are always disadvantaged by not having read the works that have shaped the world we live in, whether those are the canonical works of major authors from our own culture or the more recently recovered texts of persons whose audiences were more limited,” Edelman said. “What matters is not the fame of the author but the degree to which the work itself becomes an occasion for genuine thought.”

Reading important literature is how people gain access to knowledge and build their intellectual foundations, Edelman explained.

The dwindling popularity of these texts has much more severe implications than does the shift from paper to screens.

Edelman believes that Tufts should do more to encourage students to read a broad range of literature outside of class reading, as reading great works should be a priority not only in college but throughout the course of a one’s life.

Maryanne Wolf How — not what — is what’s important

TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY

you get older and your life patterns change, you will read and take advantage of it.”

Additionally, he said, technology — rather than deterring students from reading — actually supports and supplements traditional methods of learning in a positive way.

“We are enhancing learning by using different vehicles like film,” he said. “With that said, there isn’t quite anything like a skillful lecture.”

A liberal arts curriculum, Glaser said, requires that students acquaint themselves with the foundations of a number of academic areas but also grants them the freedom to choose what they read.

“We put into place requirements and guides to make sure you make sensible choices and that you come out of here with exposure to a lot of things on the breadth side and with a certain depth of knowledge in at least one discipline,” he said. “I hope one of the choices they make is to expose themselves not only to the great works of Western culture but of world civilization.”

Elizabeth Ammons Whether and what to read is a personal decision

TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY

STEPHEN MILLER | COUNTERPOINT

Beer

I

took a wonderfully overpriced Amtrak train back home last week for a couple days of R & R. Between home-cooked, non-Market Basket meals and visits to unemployed friends living with their parents, I made a wonderful discovery. A very good friend of mine took me to a recently opened microbrewery right near my house.

As I enjoyed free samples of Captain Lawrence Double IPA and Kölsch, I got to thinking about the variety of golden elixirs we know and love on campus. It made me very sad. While I’m no sociology major, I thought maybe a brief classification of the beers on campus would be an interesting project. And so, without further ado, in order of descending quality, the Tufts beer scene: The special occasion: Bottled beer that costs more than $8 for a six-pack.

This is a tiny minority of beer on campus but also the kind with the most examples: Long Trail, Harpoon, Rogue, Dogfish Head, etc. These are delicious.

However, they are also expensive. When we have real incomes, we can get to know these better.

Hecho en Mexico/The study abroad experience: Corona, Dos Equis, Heineken and Amstel. Anyone who has spent two seconds in Europe can vouch for the latter two. They are everywhere — in bars, in clubs, in restaurants, in roadside kiosks, for crying out loud.

Corona and Dos Equis are a smidge below the first grouping but still good choices for a beer to kick back and relax with.

The up-and-comers: Narragansett and Rolling Rock. Due to the qualityto-cost ratio, they’ve earned the third spot. Rolling Rock bottles have recently stormed the castle with dirt-cheap prices, and there’s nothing better than a tall boy of Narragansett. It’s also a Rhode Island beer: +1.

You think I’m good because I have funny ads during football games: Bud, Bud Light, Miller Lite and Coors Light.

I will admit I like your commercials.

“PLAYOFFS?!” (Coors Light) and “Mr. Really Bad Toupee Wearer” (Budweiser) are classics, but your beer isn’t particularly delicious. And some of your gimmicks — cold-activated mountains?

If my beer has been in the fridge for a while, Coors, it will be cold. Vortex bottle? Aside from the actual physics involved (again, this is coming from an English major) … WTF, Miller Lite? On top of that, these beers are in the awkward price range between good stuff and water, making them inefficient as party beer and unsatisfying as a chill beer. Poor form.

Really? This isn’t beer: Bud Light Lime, Miller Genuine Draft 64 and Bud Select 55. No. You’re not allowed to artificially flavor beer. That’s not cool.

That’s not delicious. MGD 64 and Bud Select 55 are meant to be low-calorie beers. They taste like water but not like high-quality New England water — more like grimy, Florida swamp water.

Tinted water in an aluminum can: PBR, Natty Light, Keystone Light, Busch Light, Milwaukee’s Best (aka “The Beast”) and Genny Light. Ah, the Tufts comfort zone. Quality beer?

Absolutely not. But it’s cheap. Good for parties and perfect for drinking games.

Love it.

The ultimate bargain: Olde English, Steel Reserve, King Cobra and Colt 45.

Oh, malt liquor, what to say? The only time you should ever be consumed is when duct-taped to my hands.

And finally, last and also least — the what-happened-last-night category: Keystone Ice, “Natty Ice,” Icehouse and Four Loko. Sad face.

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

Miller@tufts.edu.

THE TUFTS DAILY

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Monday, November 15, 2010

FEATURES

Can a prayer a day keep the doctor away?

Poll finds religious Americans have higher levels of well-being than their non-religious counterparts

BY SOPHIE SAVELKOULS

Contributing Writer

Ask a religiously observant American why they practice religion, and you’re likely to end up with a host of answers, including spirituality, community, tradition and belief. Few, however, are likely to mention the health benefits.

According to an October Gallup poll of 550,000 people, religious Americans have higher levels of well-being than non-religious Americans. After controlling for variables including age, ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status, the organization, which conducts statistical research and analysis, found that those that self-identified as “very religious” scored 4.5 percent better than those they identified as “moderately religious” or “non-religious” on their well-being index — a statistically significant figure, according to the group.

Gallup’s well-being index measures factors such as an individual’s self-reported physical and mental health and satisfaction with their work environment.

“I don’t think it is necessarily surprising,” junior Hillary Sieber, who has served in leadership positions at Tufts Hillel, said about the poll’s results. Sieber explained that many religious people in America are members of strong communities of people who share common beliefs and values. The resulting social net and sense of belonging could explain why religious community members have an advantage when it comes to well-being.

Sophomore Stephen Goeman, a member of the Tufts Freethought Society, agreed, noting that the positive effect of membership in a community is one aspect that draws people to religion.

“I wasn’t too surprised if you consider what religions are supposed to do for people,” he said.

Sieber said that the events and programs that Hillel offers on campus provide a welcoming environment for those who are looking for

one. Communal experiences like Sabbath celebrations on Friday nights are definitive of Sieber’s life at Tufts and integral to her mental health, she said.

“It’s a nice time to relax, a really nice way to recharge,” she said. “It makes me a happier person.”

Goeman explained that because many communities form around religion, non-religious people often miss out on that group social experience and feel unfulfilled without it.

“Non-believers are sort of out there on their own,” Goeman said.

“Often they don’t have a community looking out for them.”

Goeman, however, said that religious communities are not the only organizations that can provide the communal support people seek.

“Organized humanistic communities can also accomplish some of the goals that religions do,” he said.

Along with providing people with a community — and a regular communal meeting place — religion offers believers a sense of certainty, James Hoagland, an atheist, pointed out, which can also explain the correlation between religion and well-being, he said.

“I do not speak for all atheists here, but if I knew that what I was doing every day was verifiably the right thing to do, I would certainly feel a lot better about myself,” Hoagland, a freshman, said. “One of the problems of being an atheist is that you do have to wonder everyday, ‘Is what I am doing right, and can I justify that,’ whereas highly religious people have their justification.”

Still, Hoagland was reluctant to believe that any concrete conclusions could be arrived at from the poll’s results, explaining that while religion and well-being may be connected, there are a number of possible relationships they may share.

“The first thing to note with any study that anybody does is that correlation does not equal

causation,” he said. “Just because well-being and religiosity correlate does not make one come from the other.”

According to Elizabeth Lemons, a religion lecturer at Tufts, it is also important, when analyzing the poll’s findings, to consider how the researchers defined their terms — in this case, religiosity. Gallup categorized all respondents as “very religious,” “moderately religious” or “non-religious” by asking two questions — one about how frequently they attended religious services and one about the importance of religion in their lives.

People were only classified as “very religious” if they attended services on a regular basis and considered themselves very religious.

But there is a significant problem in defining religiosity based on those two factors alone, Lemons said.

“To say that you are very religious because you go to services once a week as well as that you consider yourself religious is going to skew your data to a particular kind of religious practice among Americans,” Lemons said. “For traditions that think that going to services is important, it is a good index. But for other traditions, it is not a very good index.”

Lemons explained that Americans embrace a diverse range of religious practices and that within the context of certain religions, weekly service attendance is not essential to religious observance. Some people who do not affiliate with any particular organized religion, she pointed out, regularly engage in spiritual practices and consider themselves deeply spiritual or religious.

The Gallup Poll misrepresents people who practice religion in less traditional ways — like meditation — according to Lemons.

“They may never go to a group setting for meditation, but they might meditate daily,” she said.

“I would like to have a lot more information before I could draw a conclusion.”

TIEN TIEN/TUFTS DAILY

The sense of community gained from attending religious services can be beneficial to one’s well-being, a Gallup poll shows.

Today on Jumbo Slice: Does a flash mob count as ‘flash’ if everyone in the room is either participating in the show or seems to have been awaiting its start?

Decide for yourself at...

Arts & Living

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TV REVIEW

MITCHELL GELLER | MAKES IT RAIN

Conan returns with successful formula

The perfect gift

BY JOSEPH STILE

Daily Staff Writer

Conan O’Brien is back on the air with his new TBS talk show, “Conan.” Conan’s new program is just like his old one, an

W

Conan Starring Conan O’Brien Airs Weeknights at 11 p.m. on TBS approach that guarantees laughs but keeps things from feeling fresh. Conan is a very funny, quick guy though, and his goofy and nicely timed deliveries will keep most viewers smiling for the entire hour.

Conan looks comfortable as host and keeps his persona intact while at ease in the big chair. He has been a talk show host for almost two decades now, and it shows in the effortlessness of his monologues and one-liners. He is a man who knows what is funny and is not afraid to deliver it.

In his triumphant return, he has brought an excitement with him that seems barely containable at times, as if he has spent these past 10 months waiting for his chance to be back on television again.

Many of the jokes are targeted at the NBC debacle with Jay Leno over the fate of “The Tonight Show.” The zingers are always clever and bring some nice laughs, though their predictability keeps them from being brilliant. Conan never seems vindictive in these jokes about NBC; most of the punch lines actually belittle Conan rather than NBC, which keeps the show feeling fun and enjoyable rather than spiteful and vengeful.

Most of Conan’s crew is back on his new show including his sidekick Andy Richter.

Richter balances well with Conan, and they have a chemistry together that can only come from the many hours they have spent together over the years. They know how to bounce bits off each other in such a playful way that they seem more like old buddies joking around than talk show personalities.

MCT

Conan O’Brien’s new show on TBS, ‘Conan,’ shows there is life after ‘The Tonight Show.’

Most of Conan’s old house band is back, setting the mood for the show and introducing guests. Max Weinberg, the old band’s leader, is no longer with the show. To reflect this change the band now goes by the name of Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band.

Initially, because of all the hype about Conan’s return to television, the show feels like a minor let down. Conan is not trying to reinvent television with his new show; he is simply trying to get people to laugh, and he accomplishes that. Once the hype wears off, the viewer can once again enjoy the quality humor that is employed in the show and its guest selection. Conan is creating the same quality program as he did on NBC, only on a different network.

Conan’s talk show does a great job of mixing hot, in-demand guests with staple celebrities, which makes the show more widely accessible. Younger viewers will love “Glee” star Lea Michele’s appearance, while Tom Hanks’ interview probably pleased more of the older viewers. Conan knows how to elicit great stories from his guests

and create a humorous back and forth, always in good spirits. It is a real testament to Conan’s strength that he can still pull in A-list stars despite no longer being on one of the major networks.

Throughout his entire first week, Conan seems to only get better and more content in his new show, something that viewers will love. Conan easily compels his audience’s attention at all times and knows how to move quickly through different timely subjects, whether it is BP’s latest fumbles or Brett Favre’s scandal. By always switching up the subject and jokes, his show never feels stagnant.

After the catastrophe that ensued because of Conan’s gig hosting “The Tonight Show” and its fallout, it was unclear whether Conan would ever truly rebound and conquer television again.

After watching his new show, it is certain that he has. Team Coco will be extremely grateful to know that Conan has created a new show that is up to the quality level of his previous talk show.

ALBUM REVIEW

N.E.R.D’s latest fails to deliver despite high aspirations The hip-hop fusion group makes strange, unsuccessful musical choices BY

NASH SIMPSON

Contributing Writer

Like the Black Eyed Peas, N.E.R.D is traditionally known for its unique stylistic blend of hip-hop, R&B and rock. Over the

Nothing N.E.R.D MYSPACE.COM/NERDOFFICIAL

These guys are too cool to be N.E.R.Ds.

Interscope Records years it has managed to stay notable in the music industry, always releasing unexpected material and almost never failing to exceed expectations.

Pharrell Williams continued to keep his fans guessing when he accepted the task of creating a soundtrack for the hit movie “Despicable Me,” with Hans Zimmer. Those who have seen this recent animated film can attest that he did a phenomenal job. Williams should have stopped there. Inspired by his soundtrack experience, however, he decided to create another album with fellow N.E.R.D members, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley.

Their latest album, “Nothing,” is what they came up with. Their intention was promising, as displayed by their intensely creative album cover. “[The cover] represents a mix of many things,” Williams said. “The feathers represent the peace and the helmet represents the war. It’s like where we are right now.

There’s a lot of war that people can’t necessarily explain. The economy sucks and

girls are still beautiful. We wanted to make music that reflected that. So people can look back 20 years from now and say, ‘this is what’s going on.’”

The ambition that inspired the making of this album is nothing less than admirable.

For perhaps the first time in N.E.R.D’s career, however, it failed to meet expectations.

The success of the first two 2010 singles released — “Hot N’ Fun” featuring Nelly Furtado and “Hypnotize U” — raised expectations for the album. The first of the two is an upbeat track that gets better every time you listen to it. It’s classic N.E.R.D, blending as many types of music as possible, starting off with catchy rap lyrics that smoothly lead into a hot and fun groove.

“Hypnotize U” is a truly unique piece, perhaps only to be appreciated by true N.E.R.D fans. It has an old-fashioned, James Brown-meets-Eddie-Murphy kind of sound to it that only works because of Williams’ stylistic falsetto. Appreciating this track calls for an acquired taste for Williams’ voice and N.E.R.D’s style in general.

The rest of the album is close to being a

disaster. It sounds like it was taken from a bad 1970s R&B mix tape and splashed with confounding doses of funk and soul. The album tries to hold the listener’s attention with bizarre drumbeats, synthesizer solos, brass instrument interruptions and distracting handclaps, but it simply doesn’t work.

The one good thing about the album is that it grows on you. As you listen to the songs more and more, you realize that the unimpressive beats have no correlation to the lyrics and you inevitably begin to appreciate the poetic nature of the verses. Though this is far from being the greatest of N.E.R.D’s albums, true fans can appreciate the risk that the band took by adding more to the 2010 hit singles. This album could be a benchmark moment in the group’s career, signifying a change in direction and therefore worth adding to the Williams/N.E.R.D section of your iTunes library, if one actually exists.

If you have never been big on the unusual style of Wililams, Hugo and Haley, however, I would certainly discourage you from starting with “Nothing.” Stick with the Black Eyed Peas and watch “Despicable Me.”

ith a liberal arts education comes the awareness that everything is horrible. Any general knowledge of the theories of Sigmund Freud, for example, ruins everything. Literally everything. More specifically, it ruins Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex” (2009).

Upon first listen, the song appears to be a standard R&B slow jam about having sexual intercourse with a girl on her birthday. But true meaning never comes from a first listen.

To understand this song we must understand Freud’s conceptualization of the psyche, comprised of the id, the ego and the superego. The shorthand of the model is that the id is the instinctual part of the psyche that seeks out pleasure; the superego opposes the id and punishes misbehavior and excessive pleasure; and the ego attempts to moderate between the two.

“Birthday Sex” embraces the id, offering a full day of sex, alcohol, romancing and, ultimately, unrestrained pleasure. The birthday is framed as an opportunity to completely ignore the shame of the superego. “Don’t tap out; fight until the end,” Jeremih instructs.

This can be understood as the superego’s drive to stop, to come short of experiencing the full breadth of the pleasure available.

In Lacanian terms — Lacan was, after all, first and foremost, a Freudian — this would be the birthday girl’s “jouissance,” the unrestrained, shattering, potentially lethal experience of something akin to excess pleasure that ultimately becomes painful and unbearable. Experiences of jouissance are few and far between, and Jeremih seems to propose that he and the girl search for the objet petit a, the unattainable object of desire.

To do this, Jeremih proposes copulation all over his house: the couch, the kitchen, the stove, the table, the waterbed, etc. The complete disregard for the ramifications of sex in all of these places is a further disregard of the superego, but that’s not the only force present in “Birthday Sex.” “I been fiendin’; wake up in the late night/Dreamin’ about your lovin’, girl,” Jeremih sings. Much of Freud’s work is concerned with the unconscious, and a common trope is that of the Oedipal complex, the desire to eliminate the father figure in order to obtain relations with the mother.

Freud uses this as an explanation of how the superego comes into being: By repressing the Oedipal urges, we learn to moderate other desires. Hence, superego.

It would not be a stretch, by any means, to suppose that Jeremih’s late-night dreams are about his mother, as, Freud contends, many sexual dreams are.

The ideal birthday sex, then, is Oedipal. It is the anti-birth-day sex: On Jeremih’s birthday/day of birth, he was removed from his mother’s womb. On his mother’s birthday, he could make her whole again.

The song even sounds like a suggestion from a little child, the ramblings of an over-libidinous, unrestrained toddler to his mother/the object of his desire. He does what many children do in the early years of speaking and discovering language — he claims ownership of everything he talks about: “my house,” “my couch,” “my waterbed.” He also makes strange justifications logical only to a child, such as, “you say you wanted flowers on the bed/But you got me and now it’s on again.”

Many of the lines even include what is apparently a nervous stutter, yet another vestige of childhood: “It’s your birthday so I know you want to ri-i-i-ide out/Even if we only go to my-y-y house/Sip Mo-y-zy as we sit upon my-y-y couch.”

By disregarding the superego completely, Jeremih is able to justify the desire to commit incest.

With this twist, the song takes on a new, highly uncomfortable nature. Liberal arts ruins everything.

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

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EDITORIAL

Bans on Four Loko misdirected

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 Ben Phelps Anna Majeski Assistant Arts Editors Rebecca Santiago Matthew Welch Rachel Oldfield Bhushan Deshpande Larissa Gibbs Dave Kellog Kevin Luo Jeremy Ravinsky Daniel Stock Elaine Sun Devon Colmer Erin Marshall Lorrayne Shen Louie Zong Craig Frucht Rebekah Liebermann Ashish Malhotra Josh Molofsky Michael Restiano Alexandra Siegel

Executive Op-Ed Editor Assistant Op-Ed Editors

Monday, November 15, 2010

EDITORIAL | LETTERS

Is it fair to ban a product because of its potential misuse? As the popular alcohol-infused energy drink Four Loko flies off the shelves, either because of popularity or prohibition, we must ask this question.

Four Loko, along with similar beverages, has already been banned in the states of Michigan, Washington, Utah and Oklahoma. The Daily on Friday reported on a statement released by Somerville’s Board of Aldermen; the body does not have the power to impose a citywide ban, so it appealed to local liquor distributors to voluntarily remove the product from their shelves.

The issue of Four Loko consumption has also been taken up by college administrators. Harvard University undergraduates recently received an e-mail from their health services director outlining the dangers of the drink. Following an especially troubling incident at Central Washington University in which nine students at a single party were hospitalized after consuming Four Loko, the drink was banned on that campus. A similar ban was put into effect at the University of Rhode Island and Ramapo College of New Jersey.

This is far from the end of the story on Four Loko. It has received a great deal of

press and, if incidents keep occurring, the response from state liquor boards, college administrations and the Food and Drug Administration is likely to be swift and heavy-handed.

The danger presented by Four Loko is obvious: A heavy dose of caffeine conceals the effects of alcohol, increasing the risk of overconsumption — without a proper understanding of the drink’s potency, incidents like the one at Central Washington can occur. The brightly colored can and the price of the drink also make it highly marketable and appealing to minors.

It is undeniable that Phusion Projects LLC, the company that produces Four Loko, is culpable to some degree. Its product is inherently dangerous because of the drink’s contents and price. But banning the substance is the wrong response. It misses the point of the issue at hand: the responsible consumption of alcohol by college students. There will always be new products that are dangerous to students — Four Loko is only filling a niche once occupied mainly by the mix of Red Bull and vodka.

Four Loko has become an easy target for politicians and college administrators in recent weeks despite having

been on the market for the past two years. Banning Four Loko is the easy response, a way to demonize the product rather than the consumer. The focus must remain on cultivating a healthy drinking culture in U.S. colleges and universities, a culture in which students do not find it acceptable to regularly abuse the substances they have access to. Unfortunately, this is not the case: Students at Tufts and elsewhere frequently consume alcoholic drinks other than Four Loko in dangerous excess.

The manner in which Harvard University dealt with the issue is commendable — it promotes a culture of education and cooperation between the students and the administration rather than strict paternalism. To its credit, the Tufts administration has taken a similar stance for the time being. Four Loko will be treated like any other alcoholic drink on campus unless a serious issue arises.

The potential for the abuse of Four Loko is there, just as is the case with any alcoholic beverage. Banning it merely temporarily addresses the symptoms of a drinking problem among college students.

We must attack the issue at its source and address the need for a shift in our attitude toward alcohol consumption.

ence with other platforms in a journalistic world that is not always print-based, the Communications and Media Studies (CMS) program will next semester offer a new, cutting-edge course on multimedia journalism taught by alumnus Anthony Everett (LA ’83), a former Daily editor-in-chief and broadcast journalist at WCVB-TV with many years of experience in utilizing print, broadcast and social media.

CMS’ internship program, which runs both semesters and over the summer, provides yet another outlet for aspiring student journalists to get “hands-on” experience at media outlets in Boston and around the world. Our January “winternship” program gives students an intensive one-week experience at many print and broadcast companies in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. And

our David Burke Media and Public Service Internship offers a paid summer experience at a major media outlet such as ABC News in Washington or WBUR. Every working journalist I know tells me that the single best preparation students can get for a career in journalism today is not a journalism degree: It’s a rich liberal arts education, some knowledge of media gleaned in communications classes and the opportunity to practice the craft of journalism through working at campus publications, TV or radio stations and at internships. Tufts offers all of these to our students.

LOUIE ZONG Cartoonists

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 Liang Meagan Maher Ashley Seenauth

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PRODUCTION Leanne Brotsky Production Director Andrew Petrone Executive Layout Editor Sarah Davis Layout Editors Adam Gardner Jason Huang Jennifer Iassogna Alyssa Kutner Steven Smith Sarah Kester Assistant Layout Editor Zehava Robbins Executive Copy Editor Alexandra Husted Copy Editors Isabel Leon Vivien Lim Linh Dang Assistant Copy Editors Andrew Paseltiner Melissa Roberts Elisha Sum Darcy Mann Executive Online Editor Audrey Kuan Online Editors Ann Sloan Ammar Khaku Executive Technical Manager Michael Vastola Technical Manager

BUSINESS Benjamin Hubbell-Engler Executive Business Director Laura Moreno Advertising Director Dwijo Goswami Receivables Manager The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community.

P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Dear Editor, Rachel Shapiro’s article “The Boston Globe partners with students at BU to give students a shot at professional journalism” that appeared in the Daily on Nov. 9 suggested that there are few opportunities for student journalists at Tufts to gain the kinds of journalism experiences provided by the Boston University program.

While it is true that we do not have a large school of journalism like BU, I’d like to suggest that Tufts does, indeed, provide a rich range of possibilities for those who wish to pursue training for careers in journalism.

Apart from the two courses in print journalism now offered by the English Department, there are often courses offered through the Experimental College.

Recognizing that students need experi-

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.

Sincerely, Julie Dobrow Director, Communications & Media Studies Program

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, November 15, 2010

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OP-ED

A film for Israel’s real allies BY

LUCAS KOERNER

One of the most dangerous facets of the conflict in Israel/ Palestine is the reflexive tendency on the part of both actors in the conflict to immediately dismiss any and all thoughtful critique as threats to their very existence.

As an American Jew, this seems to me most tragically apparent in the case of Israel. Witness a Daily op-ed from earlier this month: A highly acclaimed film critical of the Israeli government’s policies of occupation was vociferously condemned for its alleged “mission” to “evoke in its viewers contempt for the State of Israel.”

In that op-ed, published on Nov. 3, we witness the harbinger of what may prove to be an ominous trend on our campus: the constriction of intellectual space for critical debate on the question of Israel/Palestine.

On the one hand, constructive dialogue is obstructed by a determined mystification of the facts of the conflict, and on the other, it is hijacked by a proclivity for conflating criticism of the policies of the State of Israel with attacks on the character of the Israeli people or Jews more generally.

If we follow the lead of the film “Occupation 101,” which screened at Tufts last month, and adopt as our framework the unequivocal standards of international law, we quickly realize who is indeed guilty of the “misrepresentations of the facts.” According to Article 2 of the U.N. Charter, acquisition of territory by military conquest is illegal, and gaining sovereignty via military occupation is likewise illegal. Moreover, military occupation, generally, is not defined by the presence of a settler population but more logically in terms of control of borders, coastlines and airspace. Israel’s own High Court of Justice has “held contrary to Israel’s claim, stating that the creation and continuation of an occupation does not depend on the existence of an institution administering the lives of the local population, but only on the extent of its military control in the area,” according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.

Therefore, contrary to the claims of the aforementioned op-ed author about the Gaza disengagement, the Gaza Strip, whose borders, coastlines and airspace all remain under Israeli

military control, is still an occupied territory. As the occupying power, Israel is fully responsible for the civilian populations under its military control, who, according to Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, “are entitled, in all circumstances, to respect” and who “shall at all times be humanely treated, and shall be protected.”

In subjecting the Gaza Strip to an indefinite state of siege as well as launching repeated military incursions, Israel has violated its legal covenant to the civilian population, perpetuating, according to Richard Falk, the U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the Palestinian territories, an act of collective punishment against a civilian population of over 1.5 million “for the actions of a few militants.”

The Nov. 3 op-ed author would argue that this “humanitarian crisis,” as the siege has been so labeled by just about every international organization from the United Nations and Amnesty International to Oxfam International and B’Tselem, is justified on the grounds of preventing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. Rocket attacks are utterly illegal and immoral and must be condemned as such. However, the principle of proportionality forbids such drastic measures as military siege, according to Article 51 of the 1977 Protocol Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions.

By the same logic, Operation Cast Lead, the winter 2008-2009 Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip that resulted in the killing of around 1,400 Palestinians — the majority being civilians, including almost 400 children, according to B’Tselem — and 13 Israelis, three of whom were civilians, was profoundly disproportionate.

Apart from procedural violations of international law — documented at length by the Goldstone Report — Operation Cast Lead qualifies as a “crime against the peace,” one of the gravest breaches of law under the U.N. Charter. In June 2008, Israel and Hamas signed a sixmonth ceasefire agreement. For a period extending to Nov. 6 of that year, the number of rocket attacks decreased significantly. On that fateful day, an Israeli airstrike killing Hamas militants provoked return rocket fire, breaking the ceasefire, which Hamas went on

MCT

the record attempting to renew in early December 2008. In lieu of renewing the ceasefire, Israel commenced its three-week winter offensive, which, according to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, was planned prior to March 2008.

Furthermore, claims regarding the use of civilian infrastructure as bases for rocket attacks are largely unfounded, with the United Nations flatly rejecting this allegation with respect to its over 50 facilities targeted by the Israel Defense Forces. With regard to widespread claims about “human shields,” reports

by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch found that Israel, not Hamas, had made a systematic policy of consistent use of civilians — often children — as human shields in the occupied territories, a fact later confirmed by the May 4, 2010, conviction by a military court of two Israeli soldiers of carrying out that very act.

Since it was clearly premeditated and could easily have been rendered unnecessary by a diplomatic solution — as Israel’s contravention of the Jan. 9, 2009, U.N. Security Council ceasefire resolution further illustrates — Operation Cast Lead was evidently an act of aggressive war illegal under Principle I (1970) of the U.N. Charter.

The mandate of international law with respect to the Separation Wall, like the settlements, is unequivocal: According to a 2004 International Court of Justice ruling, the “separation barrier,” a wall that is in parts twice as high as the Berlin Wall and will stand nearly four times as long, once complete — a wall that cuts deep into Palestinian territory and annexes large swaths of land — is illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention and various U.N. Security Council and General Assembly resolutions and must be dismantled. Like the blockade of Gaza, Israel’s “separation barrier” has nothing to do with security, for if that was its intention, it would have been constructed along the Green Line as opposed to deep into the West Bank.

The Separation Wall never has and never was intended to reduce violence, for it was not anywhere close to finished when a supposed 90 percent drop in violence occurred. According to the Shin Bet, Israeli state security, the reduction in violence by 2005 was a result of the fragile “truce in the territories” declared

by Palestinian factions and, in particular, Hamas’ moratorium on suicide bombings. Viewed through this lens, we see the purpose of the wall in stark relief: a land-grab that confiscates nearly 10 percent of the area of the West

Bank, a significant blow to any future Palestinian state.

“Occupation 101” is hardly intended to defame the Israeli people or their nation. In fact, as a Jew, I highly recommend this film to all those likewise dedicated to Israel’s security. This very legitimate goal of achieving security cannot be accomplished through an illegal military occupation that produces the desperate conditions under which a small number of people are prompted to engage in immoral acts of violence that threaten that very security.

As one of the most egregious violators of U.N. resolutions and international human rights accords, the Israeli government has exhibited utter contempt for the rule of law, an extralegal disposition — made possible by United States’ veto power on the U.N. Security Council — that has understandably provoked the ire of people across the globe. Only by complying with international law and implementing a two-state solution according to the international consensus can the Israeli government end its pariah status, guaranteeing Jews and Palestinians alike lives of peace and security.

Lucas Koerner is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He is a member of the Tufts chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Tufts deserved ‘D’ for endowment transparency BY

CAROLINE INCLEDON

Tuesday’s front-page article on Tufts’ sustainability ratings highlighted many of the great ways the university works to build a sustainable community. However, the article seemed to focus on the flawed methodology of the Sustainable Endowments Institute (SEI) in creating their College Sustainability Report Card.

For example, the questions and criteria used were said to “be flawed and vague,” and Tufts is currently focusing on a different study, according to Executive Vice President Patricia Campbell. The student body must do its own research to determine the validity of these claims.

We should question whether the university’s participation in a different study — namely, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) — is necessarily more effective.

An area where Tufts consistently performs poorly is in its Endowment Transparency Rating. This year, the

school earned a “D.” Yet this poor grade has little to do with flawed methodology or vague questions. Instead, it accurately speaks to the current endowment transparency climate at Tufts. Presently, endowment holdings and proxy voting records are only available to top administrators. This is incredibly problematic and quite different from practices at other nearby schools, such as Harvard University, where proxy voting records are fully accessible to the entire public.

The College Sustainability Report Card accurately assesses endowment transparency by asking how the school handles proxy voting, who is given access to investment information, where endowment holdings are held, and whether alumni can direct gifts to an investment fund allocated to tackle sustainability issues. All of these questions have multiple possible answers, as well as space for clarification.

For example, in response to the question, “Where is information about

proxy voting records made available?” there are five possible answers, including: information is not made available; information is available at the investment office or similar office on campus; information is sent to individuals upon request; information is on the school website with password protection; and information is on the school website and is accessible to the public.

This allows for a specific and finely tuned ranking.

On the other hand, the STARS system, which Tufts is adopting, is much less specific. Like that of the SEI, the rankings are derived from self-reported data from Tufts. However, STARS uses simple “yes” or “no” questions. For example, they simply ask the school to respond in the affirmative or negative to broad topics such as “endowment transparency,” “committee on shareholder responsibility” or “investment screening.” Under these broad criteria, schools could score highly even if their

transparency committees or screened investments are so small or so ineffective as to be basically nonexistent.

Obviously, the school should not fall prey to the multitude of ineffective ranking organizations. On the other hand, we should ensure that any decisions to work with a particular ranking organization are motivated by the desire to evaluate Tufts truthfully and will not result in possibly skewed or misleading rankings.

At the end of the day, Tufts deserved a “D” in endowment transparency, and the school should recognize that and work to promote change. Hopefully, we will see a commitment to endowment transparency that will pass the test of any ranking system.

Caroline Incledon is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. She is a member of Students at Tufts for Investment Responsibility.

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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SPORTS

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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.

Gritty season shows Tufts is consistent power in New England volleyball RECAP continued from page 12

NCAAs was in doubt. The Jumbos convinced the committee of their worth with huge late-season wins over UMass Boston and Amherst, both in straight sets — for comparison, UMass Boston is currently in the NCAA Quarterfinals after taking down Middlebury 3-1 and Springfield 3-2.

The Jumbos made a run as the No. 4 seed to the NESCAC Tournament final, coming within two sets of the title. They did so with the emergence of sophomore setter Kendall Lord, who earned MVP honors at the Judges Classic and made her first All-NESCAC Team as a bona fide star. Steady defense from All-NESCAC libero junior Audrey Kuan, who is also an online editor for the Daily, kept enough points alive for Tufts to gut its way to victories even when the offense wasn’t clicking.

And of course there was Updike, who this season earned her second straight FirstTeam All-NESCAC selection. Updike, never reluctant to carry her team on her back in clutch situations, played the final third of the season on a fractured ankle prone to swelling up. She still finished the year with a NESCAC-leading 421 kills.

“It was a building and learning season,” junior Cara Spieler said. “It didn’t end exactly the way we wanted, but it was still a successful year.”

The team’s final record of 22-11 won’t raise any eyebrows, but the Jumbos’ resilience this season should. It was the reason that the committee placed Tufts in the eight-team New England bracket as a rare third NESCAC team.

After the Jumbos in 2008 went undefeated in the NESCAC, it was an easy decision to put

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

A frustrating 2010 campaign left the Jumbos, above celebrating a win against Bowdoin, with a 22-11 overall record and a first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament. But that wasn’t enough to spoil all the positives of the team’s gritty, injury-ridden season. them in the bracket. The same applies for last season, when Tufts was the No. 1 team in the region before being upset in the NESCAC finals by Williams. In that season, Tufts made history with a run through the New England Regional section to the NCAA Quarterfinals.

But this season was different. The team suffered double-digit losses and played through fatigue and injuries. The Jumbos emerged from a season-long emotional roller coaster in the middle of the NESCAC pack and firmly on the NCAA bubble.

Loss to Springfield marks end of the road for volleyball seniors VOLLEYBALL continued from page 12

to breach — the Jumbos dominated the defensive statistics, with juniors Cara Spieler and Audrey Kuan posting 17 and 16 digs, respectively; Kuan is also an online editor for the Daily.

Unfortunately, a strong defense wasn’t enough to overcome the Pride’s relentless attack. The final tallies for the match — 25-14, 25-19 and 25-20 — showed a clear disparity between the two squads as the Pride took each set with relative ease.

“They played really well and really hit us with some strong serves and digs,” Updike, who also added four digs in the losing effort, said. “Their hitters dominated the attack, and we weren’t able to get going.”

Coach Cora Thompson chose to use only the minimum seven players in the match while the Pride played nine players. By going with a shorter lineup, Thompson hoped to put her strongest squad on the court and give her team the best chance to win, but in the end, the Pride were able to swipe away the Jumbos and move on to the next round.

“It wasn’t our strongest performance,” Spieler said. “They had great support from their home crowd; it was a really fun environment, but we just came up short in the end.”

The Pride have used the victory over Tufts as a springboard, upsetting Amherst in straight sets and moving on to the third round, where the team ultimately fell to UMass Boston in a close 3-2 decision. The results represent an admirable achievement for Springfield, which was ini-

tially seeded fifth in the region but now has defeated, in straight sets, the No. 4 seed Tufts and the No. 1 seed Amherst.

The NESCAC, in fact, has no representatives left in the tournament after UMass Boston took down Middlebury by a score of 3-1.

This starkly contrasts with the last two seasons when NESCAC squads made it to the regional final.

“They played really well and really hit us with some strong serves and digs. ...

Their hitters dominated the attack, and we weren’t able to get going.”

Caitlin Updike senior quad-captain

The match represented the final act for the seniors on the court: Updike, Kelly Engelking and Nancy Shrodes. Those three players, along with their fellow quadcaptain Joyce-Mendive, have represented the core of the team all year and will be sorely missed in the coming seasons.

Nevertheless, the Jumbos have few regrets. “We were still glad to be there,” Spieler said, referring to the NCAAs. “We certainly could have played better, but we were happy for the bid, and we still enjoyed the opportunity.”

Because of Tufts’ new status — stemming from last year’s epic run — as a member of New England volleyball’s elite, the Jumbos’ ride continued for one more week. And for the non-graduating members of the team, the ride is just beginning.

POWER RANKINGS

compiled by the tufts daily

After a third-place showing in the final NESCAC Power Rankings for the fall season, Williams began the winter on a high note and is the top finisher in the season’s preseason standings.

Thanks to a unanimous first-place rank in men’s basketball and top-four placings in the remaining three sports, Williams moved ahead of Amherst, the fall’s top finisher. Bates made the biggest leap, thanks in large part to the fact that the Bobcats don’t participate in men’s and women’s hockey, moving from 10th in the fall rankings to fifth in the winter standings.

Tufts, on the other hand, fell the furthest, thanks to a last-place showing from men’s basketball and a middle-ofthe-pack finish for men’s hockey, and now sits at ninth overall.

Amherst earned a unanimous first in both women’s basketball and women’s hockey.

THIS WEEK

SCHOOL

MEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S HOCKEY

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

AVERAGE

FALL FINISH

1

WILLIAMS

1.00

3.00

3.75

4.25

3.00

3

2

AMHERST

6.00

1.00

4.25

1.00

3.06

1

3

BOWDOIN

5.00

4.50

1.25

4.75

3.88

4

4

MIDDLEBURY

2.00

9.00

1.75

3.00

3.94

2

5

BATES

4.00

5.50

—

—

4.75

10

6

TRINITY

7.25

7.00

4.50

2.00

5.19

6

7

COLBY

3.00

2.50

8.25

7.75

5.38

9

8

HAMILTON

—

—

5.75

6.25

6.00

11

9

TUFTS

9.75

4.50

7.00

—

7.08

5

10

WESLEYAN

7.75

8.00

10.00

9.00

8.69

7

11

CONN. COLLEGE

9.25

10.00

8.50

7.00

8.69

8

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 men’s and women’s basketball in the NESCAC, Bates does not compete in men’s and women’s hockey, and Tufts does not compete in women’s hockey.

This week’s list was determined by polling Mike Flint and Nick Woolf (Conn. College Voice), Katie Siegner (Middlebury Campus), Ann Curtis and Emily Gittleman (Trinity Tripod) and Alex Prewitt (Tufts Daily).

DESIGN BY STEVEN SMITH/TUFTS DAILY

Monday, November 15, 2010

THE TUFTS DAILY

11

SPORTS

QB McKillop’s six touchdowns spoil Jumbos’ final game of the season FOOTBALL continued from page 12

“They both ran pretty hard and they were both definitely shifty,” Simmons said.

Simmons added that he was expecting the Middlebury offense to throw the ball more.

Despite Tufts’ defensive tribulations, the team had two third-quarter chances to climb within a score of the Panthers. Early in the quarter, trailing 28-17, the offense drove 63 yards and into the red zone but turned the ball over when Kenerson netted his second interception from a tipped Fucillo pass.

On the Jumbos’ next possession, a pair of completions combined with a personal foul penalty against the home team gave the Jumbos a first down at the Middlebury 29-yard line.

The offense turned the ball over on downs after three straight incompletions and a sack, however, and Fucillo and company failed to capitalize on the situation.

Middlebury proceeded to march 65 yards down the field at the start of the fourth quarter. The Panthers scored on McKillop’s 17-yard touchdown pass down the middle of the field to sophomore receiver Zach Driscoll in a drive that took 5:39 off the clock and effectively put the game out of the Jumbos’ reach.

“The past few games we’ve been doing really well in the red zone,” Bailey said. “We of course had a lot of trouble with that earlier in the year, and that, whatever it is, kind of came back yesterday.”

Middlebury took full advantage of its scoring opportunities throughout the game, scoring touchdowns on all five trips to the red zone. The Panthers’ win was their third in their last four games, while Tufts’ defeat capped a seven-game losing skid that came after defeating Hamilton 21-10 in the opening game.

The Jumbos’ disappointing season was the inauguration of a new upbeat offense that led the NESCAC in passing yards and ranked last in rushing, which is no surprise given that the team had four or five receivers in the game at all times and threw the ball in over 71 percent of plays. The offense showed its potential in scoring 49 and 41 points in losses to Amherst and Colby, respectively.

“I think we didn’t start out the way we wanted to; there were a lot of mistakes early on,” Bailey said of the spread offense. “But we kind of got into a comfort zone towards the end of the season … and I think it was really the right change to make.”

QUINT KAPPEL | FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

JOSH BERLINGER/TUFTS DAILY

Senior wide receiver Greg Stewart, above in Tufts’ Sept. 25 game against Hamilton, finished seventh in the NESCAC in both receptions per game and receiving yards per game, raking in 42 receptions for 550 yards and four touchdowns.

Fucillo finished the year with 2,475 passing yards and 16 touchdowns, both Tufts records.

Among his favorite receivers was Bailey, who led the NESCAC in receptions with 56 for 428 yards. Bailey, a triple-threat player as a receiver, running back and returner, ranked fifth in the league in all-purpose yards with 1,017 and sixth in scoring with seven touchdowns.

Fucillo and Bailey were part of a group of 13 seniors that included stalwart linebacker Matthew Murray, who led the team in tackles for the second consecutive year with 69 and was a constant presence in the middle of Tufts’ defense. Seniors Billy Mahler and Greg Stewart both benefited from the pass-heavy offense and finished in the top ten in the NESCAC in receptions.

“We’re used to [the seniors’] words, their actions,” Simmons, who led the team with three sacks, said. “We come to practice; they set an example to the younger guys. It’s going to be a big hole, but I think the younger guys are going to step up.”

Simmons will join junior linebacker Ferras Albitar next year as a leader of the Jumbos’ defense that was the league-worst against the run this season, allowing over 220 rushing yards per game. The defense this year was on the field for nearly 37 minutes per game due to the quick strike nature of the offense. Returning team members will work with coach Bill Samko and his staff in the offseason to improve the glitches in all phases of the game to have a more successful 2011.

In the meantime, the seniors agree they will reflect on more than wins and losses.

“It’s a good group of guys to be around,” Bailey said. “I think that although we didn’t have the success in the wins and losses columns like we would want to, we still had fun.”

“It’s a great senior group, and I’m proud to have played with them,” Fucillo added. “And I’m going to miss it a lot.”

The bonds between players, of course, will exist indefinitely.

“What I’m most proud of ... I think it’s the friendships I’ve made in this program, seniors to freshmen, top to bottom, coaching staff, guys I can always count on if I need something,” Murray said.

Sports

12

INSIDE For Your Consideration 11 Power Rankings 10

tuftsdaily.com

FOOTBALL

Red zone scores steer Middlebury to victory BY

BILLY RUTHERFORD Daily Staff Writer

The Jumbos’ trip north to Middlebury on Saturday quickly lost fuel as the football team FOOTBALL (1-7 NESCAC) at Middlebury, Vt., Saturday Tufts 14 3 0 3 — 20 Middlebury 7 21 0 14 — 42 ended its season with a 42-20 loss at Alumni Stadium.

Panthers’ senior quarterback Donald McKillop threw for 339 yards and a school-record six touchdown passes while dismantling the Tufts defense, which finished the season last in the NESCAC in both points and yards allowed. Tufts ended the season tied for last place in the league with a record of 1-7, the Jumbos’ worst finish since 1996, while Middlebury broke even at 4-4.

As was often the case this season, the Jumbos commanded an early lead — 14-7 — after one quarter of play. Tufts scored on its second possession when freshman Pat Nee caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from senior tricaptain and quarterback Anthony Fucillo, who finished his year as the school single-season record holder in passing touchdowns, yards and completions.

“I think we were building off the offensive momentum we’ve had the past few weeks; things were just clicking,” senior tri-captain running back Pat Bailey said.

Middlebury negated Tufts’ early efforts by scoring touchdowns on four consecutive possessions to take a 28-17 halftime advantage. Two of their firsthalf scores were connections of 5 and 50 yards from McKillop to junior receiver Matt Rayner, who finished with 6 catches for 111 yards.

The first Rayner touchdown gave Middlebury its first lead of the afternoon at 21-14 after a 77-yard drive aided by an 18-yard facemask penalty against the Jumbos. The Panthers got the ball back after Fucillo threw the first of his three interceptions to defensive back Daniel Kenerson and subsequently broke the game open with McKillop’s 50-yard connection to Rayner.

McKillop, who last year set all the major NESCAC single-season passing records, earned high praise from his opponents for his decision making.

“He gets the ball out quickly,” junior tri-captain and defensive lineman Donnie Simmons said.

“He’s a scrambler if he needs to.

He makes his reads and he makes the right throws.”

Middlebury’s offense only went three-and-out once all afternoon and benefited from a balanced attack that capitalized on the Jumbos’ league-worst rushing defense. Panthers’ senior running backs Gary Cooper and Andrew Plumley combined for 39 carries and chalked up 123 and 60 yards, respectively. see FOOTBALL, page 11

The Collegeville Curse: Field hockey falls to Middlebury

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

For the second time in three years, the field hockey team, above in the NESCAC Championship game against Bowdoin, ended its season in Collegeville, Pa., at NCAA Regional host Ursinus’ home turf. In their second round matchup with NESCAC rival Middlebury, the Jumbos squandered two leads, including a 2-1 advantage gained on junior Lindsay Griffith’s fourth goal of the season, eventually falling to a strong Panthers squad by a score of 3-2. See tomorrow’s Daily for full coverage.

VOLLEYBALL

VOLLEYBALL SEASON RECAP

Jumbos end season falling to dominant Pride 3-0 in first round of NCAAs

Roller-coaster season comes to a close

BY

DAVID MCINTYRE Daily Staff Writer

After making the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year, the volleyball team was confident that it could make a strong

BY

VOLLEYBALL (7-3 NESCAC, 22-11 OVERALL) NCAA Tournament First Round at Springfield, Mass., Friday Tufts Springfield

14 19 20 — 0 25 25 25 — 3

run and face NESCAC rivals Amherst and Middlebury in the later rounds. However, it turned out that the Lord Jeffs and Panthers would represent the conference by themselves in the later rounds, as the Jumbos fell on Friday night in straight sets to host Springfield.

Facing the Pride for the first time this season, the Jumbos were defeated handily, scoring no more than 20 points in each of the three sets. As expected, Springfield had a distributed, highly efficient attack, with senior Sarah Lang-Rodean and junior Lauren Torvi posting double-digit kills and freshman Tessa Smolinski contributing five.

In contrast, only senior quad-captain Caitlin Updike reached double digits with 14 kills for the Jumbos, who had been hampered the whole season by the loss of experienced hitter and senior quad-captain Dawson Joyce-Mendive to a preseason ACL injury.

The Tufts defense, however, was tough see VOLLEYBALL, page 10

BEN KOCHMAN

Daily Editorial Board

ANDREW MORGENTHALER/TUFTS DAILY

Despite a strong defensive effort, the Jumbos, above in a game against Brandeis, could not muster enough offense to overcome the Pride, ultimately falling 3-0 to the hosts and ending their season with a 22-11 record.

It wasn’t the perfect season. It had no Hollywood ending. But 2010 just might have been the year that Tufts volleyball etched its name as one of New England’s most respected teams.

The volleyball team on Friday lost to Springfield in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. To get there, the Jumbos’received an at-large bid from the selection committee for the third consecutive season. But unlike in 2008 and 2009 when slotting Tufts into the bracket was a no-brainer, the Jumbos were the epitome of a bubble team this year.

“We overcame a lot of ups and downs, but we kept up our level of play through all of it,” senior quad-captain Caitlin Updike said.

The Jumbos’ path to Friday’s season finale was rocky, but the team stared down and conquered obstacle after obstacle.

There were injuries — first a seasonending ACL tear to last year’s kill leader Dawson Joyce-Mendive and then an ankle injury that limited Updike’s effectiveness.

The team also went on a three-week-long road trip that culminated in three NESCAC losses in five days to Amherst, Middlebury and Bowdoin. And there was a heartbreaking loss to lowly Endicott on Senior Night, when coach Cora Thompson mixed and matched her lineup to no avail.

But this scrappy team refused to lie down, even when a return trip to the see RECAP, page 10