THE TUFTS DAILY
Sunny 45/27
New initiative hopes to bring TEDlike talks to Tufts by
Mahpari Sotoudeh Daily Staff Writer
TED, the idea-exchange platform that has become a global phenomenon, is coming to the Hill through the Tufts Idea Exchange ( TEX), a new initiative that will provide a forum for interested community members to showcase their passions. TEX is now accepting applications from Tufts students, faculty and alumni to share their creative, extracurricular or academic ideas through 10-minute lectures at an April 12 symposium. The goal is to inspire others through their lectures. OneWorld and the Institute for Global Leadership’s Synaptic Scholars Program are co-sponsoring the project. “In a broader sense, the mission is to create a forum for the Tufts community to share innovative ideas for the future,” sophomore Ben Perlstein, a synaptic scholar and OneWorld executive board member, said. TED — a series of global conferences where experts deliver short, ideasfocused lectures about their field — is the inspiration behind this project, according to senior Charles Cushing, a synaptic scholar. The organizers hope to create a space where Tufts students and faculty can be inspired by each other’s ideas and collaborate on them, based on the TED philosophy that ideas give birth to new ideas, Perlstein said. “TED comes from this theory of creativity that really creative ideas come from seeing something in an arrangement that they haven’t been seen in before,” Perlstein said. “We want to showcase the innovative ideas that have been hatched at Tufts in the interest of see TEX, page 2
TUFTSDAILY.COM
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
VOLUME LXI, NUMBER 27
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
Senate backs more lenient marijuana policy by
Elizabeth McKay
Daily Editorial Board
The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sunday passed a resolution calling on the university to follow the lead of the state in assigning relatively weaker penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Two members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and a freshman senator submitted the resolution, which advocated eliminating disciplinary action for possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. The resolution passed in a vote of 16-11 with two abstentions. The measure is an effort to align Tufts’ marijuana policy with Massachusetts state law, according to freshman Lauren Traitz, one of the two SSDP members who submitted the resolution. A successful 2008 ballot question decriminalized possession of one ounce or less of marijuana. Under current policy, the university places students found in possession of a small quantity of marijuana on Disciplinary Probation Level I, or “proone,” and refers them to Ian Wong, the director of alcohol and health education. Students who meet with Wong within two weeks of being placed on pro-one can have their punishment reduced to a warning. The Senate resolution calls for the university to eliminate pro-one as a consequence for possessing small amounts of marijuana, a step that would minimize the involvement of the Judicial Affairs office by sending cases directly to the director of alcohol and health education. The resolution did not advise changing university consequences for students caught distributing marijuana or other related offenses. An SSDP petition calling for changes to the university marijuana policy collected 500 signatures in three days, according to Traitz. Massachusetts law and the policies
Oliver Porter/Tufts Daily
SSDP Co-President Alex Baskin, a sophomore, on Sunday addressed a Tufts Community Union Senate meeting. of other colleges in the state inspired the policy, Traitz said. “We’re not asking Tufts to go against the law, just to correlate with the state,” Traitz said. SSDP Co-President Alex Baskin, a sophomore, added that worries about the future repercussions of drug-related disciplinary action also inspired SSDP’s call for change. Baskin, who was the other SSDP member to submit the Senate resolution, expressed concern that placement on pro-one could affect students’ admission prospects at graduate schools. While pro-one is never noted on one’s academic transcript, employers and graduate admissions counselors may ask job applicants whether they had ever been subjected to disciplinary action. “Disciplinary action is not necessary at Tufts because the Commonwealth of Massachusetts agrees that being caught with small amounts should not result in
criminal punishment,” Baskin said. Under the terms of the resolution, students found in possession of small amounts of marijuana are still referred to the Department of Health Education. The resolution’s backers felt that requiring a meeting with department members would benefit students with legitimate drug problems, according to Traitz. “The policy should help people who need help,” Traitz said, “not punish people who don’t.” Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said Tufts’ policy is already lenient and that the Senate’s initiative does not seem completely thought out. “If this is a fine like parking fines, lock outs, keg fines, etc.[,] those that aren’t paid go on a student’s university account for parents to pay,” he said in an e-mail. “Do students really want see MARIJUANA, page 2
Male athletes urged to prevent violence against women by
Bianca Blakesley Daily Staff Writer
Meredith Klein/Tufts Daily
Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney last month announced the creation of a task force on African Diaspora studies.
Task force to examine Africana studies by
Kathryn Olson
Daily Editorial Board
Claiming that a department might not be the most prudent avenue for Africana studies at Tufts, Dean of Arts and Sciences Joanne Berger-Sweeney last month announced the creation of a task force with hopes to bring in expert opinions on a comprehensive approach to the discipline.
The task force’s establishment comes as a response to last semester’s appeal for the creation of an Africana studies department and major, spearheaded by the Pan-African Alliance (PAA), which cited demand for an Africana studies program dating back to 1968. The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate later in the fall passed a resolution see AFRICANA, page 2
Inside this issue
Administrators hosted a discussion forum last week with the aim of enlisting male athletes in preventing violence against women. The event, held last Thursday in Goddard Chapel, marked the kick-off of the White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) at Tufts. The Department of Health and Wellness, the Athletics Department and the University Chaplaincy sponsored the forum, attended by players and coaches from the men’s sports teams. WRC is an international organization devoted to bringing an end to violence against women through public awareness and education, focusing on men’s education. Jane Doe Inc., a Massachusetts-based nonprofit coalition against sexual assault and domestic violence, helped spearhead the campaign effort, according to Elaine Theodore, coordinator of the Violence Prevention Program at Tufts. Theodore, who organized Thursday’s event, saw it as an opportunity for men
to speak out in order to change the climate of violence against women. “I think that every male and every person can easily get on board saying, ‘I would intervene in these situations,’ or call my friend on behavior that is explicit,” Theodore said. Theodore said that relationship violence, on which the WRC focuses, is easier for men to discuss than sexual violence. “It’s harder to get at conversations that involve things like consent and hookups and sexual violence,” Theodore said. “I feel like this campaign opens a door in order to have those other conversations that are [a] little less clear.” Assistant Director of Athletics Branwen Smith-King worked with Theodore to reach out to the athletics teams. SmithKing was pleased by the willingness of coaches to get their students involved. “When you’re busy, you find time for the things that are important. I think that’s impressive,” Smith-King said after the event. “Some coaches were in season so they came right from practice. It was see CAMPAIGN, page 2
Today’s Sections
Student sex columns may bring more to the table than shock value, argues journalism professor Daniel Reimold.
Hip-hop’s leading artists navigate uncharted waters as the genre evolves.
see FEATURES, page 3
see ARTS, page 5
News Features Arts | Living Editorial | Letters
1 3 5 8
Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds
9 10 11 15
The Tufts Daily
2
News
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Berger-Sweeney creates task force to advance Africana studies curricula AFRICANA
continued from page 1
supporting the appeal. Berger-Sweeney in her Feb. 17 announcement said that the appeal brought up the issue of academic diversity and inclusion and that she decided to convene the task force to give the matter the careful attention it deserves. The task force will assess Tufts’ current academic resources, devise possible models of Africana studies curricula, recommend strategies that will “encourage curricular cohesion and suggest curricular change that will serve the students,” and assess Africana studies in the context of other academic offerings at Tufts, according to the announcement. “The goal is to take a serious look at what it would mean to have Africana studies at Tufts,” Africana Center Director Katrina Moore said. “I think it sends a strong message
to the students that the dean thinks this is important and needs to be looked into. It’s an opportunity for the school to take an important step to address [students’] concerns.” Berger-Sweeney does not think, however, that creating an Africana studies department is necessary in order to address the issues of academic inclusion put forward by the TCU Senate and the PAA. Proponents of establishing a department had argued that it would grant greater legitimacy to Africana studies at Tufts. Berger-Sweeney said she would prefer creating a system that breaks down barriers between departments rather than creating new departments altogether. “I understand the issues and questions that were brought forward, but my first preference would not be to solve them by creating a department,” she told the Daily in an in-depth interview.
Senate: Make university drug policy reflect state law MARIJUANA
continued from page 1
to do this[?] It seems more severe than what we now have. I think we need some more discussion.” Reitman said that he did “not believe that any student has been disciplined this year for marijuana.” Senator Joe Thibodeau, a freshman, voted in favor of the resolution. He said yesterday that Tufts should try to subscribe to the laws of Massachusetts. “The university should recognize that we are adults living in Massachusetts, and we are responsible now to make our decisions and deal with the consequences,” Thibodeau said. Senator Yulia Korovikov said the resolution’s failure to address the issue of multiple infractions influenced her “no” vote. “I am not against the concept of it,” Korovikov, a sophomore, said. “I just wanted to see more research done before I could formulate a real opinion of it.” Now that the measure has passed, the Senate’s Executive Board will present it to the relevant parties across the university, according to Senator Carolina Ramirez, a senior. She anticipated that the administration would be slow to change its policy. “I think they are going to do their own research and figure out what other schools have done and figure out what is best for our campus,” Ramirez said. “I think it will take a long time for Tufts to make its own changes.” Thibodeau hoped that the resolution’s passage will lead to a discussion about drug policy between the administration and students. “The next step is to start a conversation with the administration about drug use and our social norms on campus,” he said. “It is going to sprout a healthy conversation.” —Laina Piera and Amelie Hecht contributed reporting to this article.
“In addition to being a formulized structure that doesn’t suit the academy very well, [departments] take quite a bit of time to establish, and if you really want a faster impact, there are other ways to … create other kinds of perhaps more flexible structures.” Berger-Sweeney said that the task force’s findings, expected by the end of this semester, will factor heavily in her decision. “The reason that I’m having the task force take up the work immediately and completing its task by the end of this semester is to at least have the opportunity to consider [a department] as soon as possible,” she said. “More information sooner allows me the possibility to act sooner rather than later.” Wellesley Professor Emeritus Wilbur Rich will chair the task force, comprised of two Tufts undergraduate students, seven Tufts faculty members and admin-
istrators and three faculty members from Dartmouth College, Harvard University and Brown University. Berger-Sweeney explained that she chose Rich as chair to provide the task force with a new perspective on African Diaspora studies at Tufts. Rich has experience working at academic institutions that have employed a variety of academic structures, including a department, to approach the issue of Africana studies, according to Berger-Sweeney. “There weren’t many people on campus I could identify that had that perspective — that understood both the perspective from a place that had a department and a place that didn’t — because the people here have only been here without a department,” BergerSweeney, who until last year served as an administrator at Wellesley, said. “I thought it was critical … considering there has been more
than 20 years of history on the issue to have an external perspective,” Berger-Sweeney said. Moore praised the selection. “I think it’s an opportunity to have an independent and fresh view,” Moore said. “I think it’s a great idea.” Moore said that strengthening the Africana studies program would benefit all Tufts students by fostering academic diversity and inclusion. Director of Public Relations Kim Thurler agreed with this sentiment. “Intellectual diversity is one of the hallmarks of a great college or university,” Thurler said in an e-mail to the Daily. “Advances in knowledge arise from willingness to ask questions and freely exchange varying ideas with civility and respect. The world is not only a more interesting place but also a better place because of intellectual diversity.”
TEX encourages increased collaboration at Tufts
IDEA EXCHANGE
continued from page 1
breeding new and more creative ideas.” The group is particularly looking out for applicants who will bring an original approach to their field of expertise that will in turn inspire others, Perlstein said. “We want people who have a unique methodology or some kind of fresh philosophy that they’re bringing to the work,” he said. “It’s not so much about the ‘what,’ but the ‘why’ or the ‘how.’” The group recently launched its website at tuftsideaexchange.com, where the application and more information about the initiative can be found. TEX has already attracted several promising applicants and has received positive responses from several professors whom organizers have asked to participate, freshman Tessa Ruben, advertising director of OneWorld, said. “We’ve got an applicant already who designs Lego-robotics for kids with developmental disabilities, which is exactly what we’re looking for: something really eclectic that people from many disciplines wouldn’t have heard about — something that can inform their interests and inspire them,” Perlstein said. Through its inclusive online application process, the initiative hopes to appeal to a diverse, interdisciplinary group of motivated individuals, capable of leaving a lasting impact on the Tufts community, junior Sanjana Basu, the project manager of TEX, said. “It’s really a forum for anything that people are passionate about,” Basu said. “We want people who are engaging and have a balance of passion and an ability to speak about it in a way that is engaging to everyone else.” OneWorld and the Synaptic Scholars Program came together with the shared goal of showcasing the parts of their mission statements that are concerned with forging connections between individuals at Tufts, Perlstein said. “We both sort of conceptualized this,” Cushing said. “From late last semes-
MCT
Photographer Chris Jordan speaks in 2008 at a TED conference, which has rapidly become a global phenomenon and is the inspiration behind the Tufts Idea Exchange. ter, Synaptic Scholars had been talking about doing something similar to this, and Tufts Idea Exchange seemed like a great opportunity for collaboration.” By working together on the initiative, OneWorld and the Synaptic Scholars Program are reflecting the partnerships that they hope TEX will encourage, Perlstein.
“The two groups are co-sponsoring the event, which allows us to model the collaboration that we’re hoping to promote: the marriage of two organizations with overlapping statements, reaching across the boundaries that existed on this campus and bringing people together around this pursuit,” Perlstein said.
White Ribbon anti-violence campaign kicks off at Tufts by targeting male athletes CAMPAIGN
continued from page 1
important to them.” University Chaplain David O’Leary and Athletics Director Bill Gehling welcomed audience members by reminding them that they are the university’s natural student leaders. “Every single one of us has women who we hold dear. These women have a right to feel safe and be treated with respect,” Gehling told the audience. Antonio Arrendel, founder and director of Metanoia Community Change, a Dorchester-based violence-prevention organization, delivered the forum’s keynote address.
Arrendel noted that unlike in past workshops at other institutions, the coaches showed a willingness to participate in the program, which he praised. “The fact that the coaches didn’t put up a wall shows leadership,” Arrendel said. Arrendel, himself a former college athlete, offered audience members an athlete’s perspective on domestic and sexual violence, describing his own experiences witnessing violence in his hometown and during his college years. He appealed to those in attendance to take an active role in combating violence against women by speaking out rather
than behaving as bystanders. Smith-King praised Arrendel’s speaking style. “It was to the point, it was funny, it was entertaining. I think it had all the ingredients to capture our attention. [The subject matter] can become very personal,” Smith-King said. When Arrendel asked those who have known a female victim of violence to stand, nearly every member of the audience rose. “I knew that spousal abuse was out there, but I didn’t realize the extent that it was,” sophomore Kayin Cherry, who attended the event, said. “I didn’t think that however many people that were out there would stand up.”
Interim head football coach Jay Civetti, who also spoke at the kickoff event, said he believed there is a certain power in numbers. “I hope it’s something oncampus men see — that the athletes are standing up and expressing their beliefs in and expressing their support for the campaign and anyone involved in domestic violence,” Civetti said. “It makes it easier for others to stand up and listen.” Sophomore Curtis Yancy said the event helped him realize the power male athletes had on campus to change social norms. “We kind of create the ‘cool male culture’ here, and we have control of that,” Yancy said. “We
can be the change if there needs to be one.” Audience members closed the event by rising to recite a pledge to stand up as active bystanders to prevent violence against women. Volunteers from some sports teams this week will be distributing ribbons and pledge cards in dining halls and the Mayer Campus Center, asking students to commit to the campaign. WRC hopes to expand its efforts in the Boston area, according to Theodore, who mentioned the possibility of future joint discussions with both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Features
3
tuftsdaily.com
Authors argue merits of student sex columns Controversial articles can be fodder for both education and gossip by Sarah
Korones
Daily Editorial Board
There are few things in the Daily that receive more attention than the Jumble or crossword. But when sex columns grace the pages of this paper, the puzzles get pushed aside. Students writing about sex get noticed — and whether they earn applause or simply raise eyebrows, it seems that sex columnists in student newspapers are here to stay. Daniel Reimold, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Tampa, has paid particular attention to this trend and the way in which it is revolutionizing student journalism. Reimold’s book “Sex and the University: Celebrity, Controversy, and a Student Journalism Revolution,” published in September, focuses entirely on student sex columnists. After reading more than 2,000 sex columns written by hundreds of student journalists at colleges across the country, Reimold found that columnists of this type tended to become celebrities on their campuses and paved the way to more open and frank conversations about sex and sexuality. According to Reimold, student sex columnists are able to talk about sex in a way that is scarcely seen in other media outlets. “What I found was that no one else, especially within the media, was talking about sex, dating, sexual health … on any sort of regular basis and with any sort of candor — the type of candor that most of us will have regular conversations about but never see in any larger sense,” Reimold told the Daily. “They joke about it on TV shows, we get glimpses of it in R-rated material or on HBO, and they sort of talk around it and try to sensationalize it on various talk shows, but we don’t see any real-life, real-time discussions about it.”
meredith klein/Tufts Daily Student sex columns, including those featured in the Daily, consistently grab attention, and journalism professor Daniel Reimold believes this is a good thing. Sex columnists, Reimold said, are filling a void — no pun intended. “What the students are doing with these columns for the most part is having the real everyday conversations about sex, sexuality, love and dating that are really missing from the discussion everywhere else in society,” he said. For Reimold, dialogue on topics like these, often considered taboo, should not be something to shy away from. Sex columns serve to remedy this tendency, he said. “They really are sort of revolution-
izing journalism in the sense that they’re opening up the doors to a topic that was thought to be unpalatable for regular readers and finding that, on the reverse, they tend to be much more popular than everything else that runs in the paper,” Reimold said. “People are really clamoring for this type of discussion.” But not everyone has the same open attitude about sex in student newspapers, as some feel that sex columns are inappropriate for campus publications. see SEX COLUMNS, page 4
Demystifying the RA selection process
Resident assistants are subject to rigorous application, training by
Falcon Reese
Daily Editorial Board
Often the first friendly face underclassmen see while moving into their dorms each fall, Tufts’ resident assistants (RAs) create an ever-present support system throughout the year for students in residence halls. One may wonder, however, how the university chooses these friendly faces out of a myriad of applicants to ensure that students have a trusted go-to
resource just a few doors down. The three-part application process for the upcoming academic year is already complete, and on Feb. 24 candidates were informed of the selection decisions. Prospective RAs must first fill out a paper application, which asks a broad array of questions attempting to determine what skills the student can bring to the table. “One of the biggest roles of the RA is to build community, so we ask them what they’d do to build community,” Doreen
Long, associate director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning, said. After submitting their applications, students go through two rounds of interviews in January and February: a group interview and then an individual session. The group interviews are usually conducted among six candidates, with six current RAs and a resident director in the room to supervise. The prospective RAs are given several residence hall-themed activities to complete, according to Will Schwartz, a senior and current RA. “[In one of them] you have a list of phone calls and you have to rank them in terms of importance,” Schwartz said. This activity seemingly tests a prospective RA’s ability to prioritize problems in a dorm, but the interviewers never tell the students exactly why they are performing these tasks. “It’s an interesting experience because as you’re doing it, you’re not really sure what they’re looking for,” Schwartz said. A fair amount of the interview, however, is devoted to assessing group dynamics, according to Long. “It’s really just to see how they interact with their peers,” she said. “A lot of it boils down to leadership.” Schwartz emphasized that they’re looking for a balance. “We want to see if they dominate or to see if they’re a bit too passive,” Schwartz said. Prospective RAs are then brought in for their individual interviews conducted by two current RAs and a resident director. These interviews are not only a chance to further determine what the applicants can
stella benezra/Tufts Daily
The application and training processes for resident assistants are multi-pronged.
see RESIDENT ASSISTANTS, page 4
Romy Oltuski | The Dilettante
Oh you fancy, huh
M
ost people wouldn’t call a man whistling at a strange woman on the street romantic. Some would even call it offensive. In New York, where catcalling is as commonplace as potholes, this is an entirely different story. Its cultural significance is perhaps best demonstrated in the show “The King of Queens”(1998-2007) — a phrase I doubt I’ll see again — when the protagonist Doug pays a construction worker to holler at his insecure wife. It’s not quite that catcalling is a compliment, even. It’s that if you don’t get catcalled in New York, you just don’t look good. When I moved to Medford, it was strange not to have the reliable idlers endorse my outfits to varying levels of approval each morning. But I didn’t recognize the full extent of my nostalgia until they popped back into my life unexpectedly. One afternoon in collegiate New England, a Hummer H3 passed by Olin, windows rolled down, coming from them things too wildly inappropriate for print, and I thought: home. Then the car took off and, poetically, it had a New York license plate. Of course there are several ways to react to such an incident — you can be terrified; you can be pissed off; you can pretend to be pissed off while really thinking, damn, I look good; or you can take the compliment and play along. It all comes down to the power of the gaze. The hierarchy functions so: S/he (but usually he) who looks (or shouts) is in control of the situation, while s/he (but usually she) who is the object of the look (or shout) is subordinated. Terrified, you only acknowledge your role as the latter; pissed off, you welcome it. Or you can play dirty to win the upper hand — keep the basic structure of the game, but reverse the attachments of power. Take seduction: The object becomes willing exhibitionist, the gazer, a helpless gaper. Women who have gotten wind of this generally opt for the last choice, which is the route Miranda famously takes in “Sex and the City” (1998-2004) when she responds to a catcaller’s beckon, “You wanna screw? Let’s screw!” The frightened man admits he has a wife and apologizes. To get to my role in this, though, after having found myself at one point or another in each of these situations, I decided my wonder really lay with the callers. But wondering proved fruitless, so I took the weekend to try on the role. My first attempt went somewhat awry when I woot-wooted at a middle-aged man in a gas station before realizing that my partnerin-crime whose shotgun I was riding was actually pulling into the gas station. After that, I stuck with safer distances. As we were skiing, the ski lift seemed a decent alternative — or would have been had I not shouted at a snowboarder who took a painfullooking fall the moment I re-gathered my courage to hoot. Upon the criticism of my reluctant accomplice, I decided on another tactic. Instead of yelling ambiguous noises, I switched to intimidating phrases. While she approved in general, she said “Yeah, you keep running,” was too intimidating, so I moved on to rap lyrics, channeling Drake circa “Fancy” and Jay-Z circa “Excuse Me Miss” as we rolled back into Somerville in her Nissan 200SX. This left Somerville’s residents, if anything, confused at why I was asking them whether they were fancy. And then it happened. I revolutionized catcalling. At worst, the habit is offensive, at best complimentary. So why not have it be plainly that? Instead of confusing people by yelling things of no relevance, together we complimented loudly every second or so person we saw on anything we thought of. It’s still a work in progress — “nice baby” was a definite mistake, and “I like your legs” sounded creepier than planned — but for the most part, I’m pretty sure I’m good at this.
Romy Oltuski is a senior majoring in English. She can be reached at Romy. Oltuski@tufts.edu.
The Tufts Daily
4
Sex columns serve a purpose on campus beyond shock value, author argues SEX columns
continued from page 3
It is not uncommon for these pieces to cause a stir among the student body. “They’ve always caused a lot of controversy,” Reimold said. “As long as there is sex in the student newspaper, there will be some negative feedback.” Amber Madison (LA ’05), a former Daily sex columnist and author of two books on sexual health, found that her column “Between the Sheets” received a wide variety of responses. “I think Tufts is a very liberal atmosphere, so most students and faculty were receptive. Of course there were definitely students and faculty who were either offended by it or thought I was a whore and generally reacted badly,” Madison said. “I guess what I felt more was when I met people — once they found out that I was the person who wrote the column — they would have strong feelings about me one way or the other that weren’t based at all on who I actually was.” Many critics fear that sex columns do nothing but encourage promiscuity and the hook-up culture that is perceived to be pervasive on college campuses. Reimold, however, believes that there isn’t much evidence to support this argument. “It’s funny to me that these columnists and their editors are often charged with being sort of sexual aggressors or sexual sensationalizers simply because they put this material in the paper or choose to write it,” Reimold said. Instead, he said, these students may provide a bit of wisdom to subjects many are too coy to speak of. “In many cases, more than anyone else in their community, besides maybe the campus health center officials, they’re actually the ones tending to be kind of the voices of caution or the voice of reason in getting students to think about the behaviors
Features
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
ResLife relies on complex, three-part process to pick its resident assistants RESIDENT ASSISTANTS
they’re engaged in,” Reimold said. “It’s interesting to me and sort of sad that the critics often miss that simply because they see the word ‘sex’ in a headline or in a lede sentence and simply assume the worst.” Madison agreed that sex columns don’t promote promiscuity, but added that there are right — and wrong — ways to write one. “A small column in a college paper is not going to all of a sudden make someone have sex who wasn’t going to already,” Madison said. “I think with sex columns, there’s a responsible and irresponsible way to do it. You can take the trashy angle and talk about the details of the people you’ve hooked up with, but you can also make it educational and talk about issues that are really on students’ minds.” Writing an educational sex column doesn’t guarantee that it will be taken seriously. For senior Greg Lee, sex columns are more entertaining than informative. “I don’t read them that often, but when I do, it’s mostly for the shock value,” Lee said. “I feel like it’s hard to take them seriously, but they do provide a certain level of entertainment.” The best sex columns, Reimold said, are the ones that have thoughtful and intelligent questions backing up what may have initial entertainment value. These pieces can serve as resources and catalysts for dialogue about sexual relations on campus. “The good stuff is sort of the candid conversations about the types of issues or activities that students are engaged in but not talking about freely enough,” he said. “I find the best columns or the ones that tend to be the most popular are the ones that are sort of asking the questions, ‘What does it all mean?’; ‘Is this a good thing that we are involved in?’; ‘Is it time for us to stop, slow down and take a look at what we are doing?’”
continued from page 3
contribute to the program, but also a chance to learn about them as people, according to junior Crystal Bui, a current RA. “Speaking to candidates in a personal setting lets us get to know them better,” she said. Bui also believes that having current RAs conduct the interviews is beneficial because of their personal connections to the program and ability to identify other students who will also share a passion for the job. “I have an attachment and a fondness for the position. … Having current RAs interview new RAs is effective because we have that attachment to the position,” she said. Determining if a candidate is a good fit for the program is only half the battle; interviewers also try to determine where the applicants will fit best, according to Schwartz. “We’re trying to identify communities that they work best with,” he said. Long added that RAs have the opportunity to work in some of the specialized housing on campus. “Some RAs want to work with all freshmen,” she said. “Other RAs, not so much. A lot of it is fit. Fit with the building, fit with the rest of the RAs. … It’s kind of like putting a puzzle together.” After completing the interview process and being selected, the new RAs return to campus before freshman orientation begins to undergo an intensive 9-day training session. After a day of moving in, the new recruits are whisked away on an overnight trip. “We take them to a camp down on the Cape,” Long said. “It’s a time to do team building and staff bonding.” Besides playing beach volleyball and kayaking, the retreat is a time to get to know the staff family that they will be a part of for the next year, according to Bui. “There’s a lot of talking and bonding, breaking the discomfort with being with a bunch of people you don’t know,” she said. “They really want to push us to bond naturally in the first couple of days.” Following their return to campus, the schedules of new RAs fill up quickly.
“Then we get into the nuts and bolts of the job,” Long said, adding that the RAs learn about programming, on-call duties, mediating roommate conflicts, different diversity topics and the like. Each day is filled up with training sessions, according to Schwartz. “We spent the whole morning talking about suicide prevention issues once, then we spent the entire afternoon with [Tufts Violence Prevention Program Coordinator] Elaine Theodore, talking about sexual harassment,” he said. A good deal of time is also devoted to alcohol education, including the physiological effects of alcohol, statistics for drinking patterns on campus and alternative programming for those students who don’t drink. “We try to give them a picture of what drinking’s like on campus,” Director of Alcohol and Health Education Ian Wong said. The new RAs are also presented with numerous hypothetical situations. Senior Kenneth Burris, a former RA, said part of training entails going from building to building and dealing with different scenarios in each building. “There’d be someone who is about to commit suicide [in one building] and they wanted to see how you’d react,” he said. The training is less about memorizing hypothetical situations than about giving the RAs a point of reference, according to Bui. She went on to say that training also provides a necessary framework of trust between all the new RAs. “We learn to bond, to trust each other. … The training facilitates a sense of camaraderie,” she said. For Long, the goal of training is to provide RAs with the tools they need to be effective role models and campus leaders. RAs must be prepared for the moments when they must take charge and run programming for their residents. “It’s about making the transition from being a resident to being the person that people are coming to for advice,” she said. “Hopefully in training, we’re giving them the tools so that they can be seen as leaders on the floor.”
The Department of Romance Languages is pleased to invite you to
The 2011 Langsam Barsam Simches Lecture
“Return of the Repressed: Italian Cinema and Holocaust Memory” by
Millicent Marcus Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Italian Department Yale University
Monday, March 14th, 2011 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Olin Center, Room 012 Medford Campus
Contact 617-627-3289 or visit http://ase.tufts.edu/romlang for more info. In English - Free admission - Open to the public!
Arts & Living
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Music Profile
Eazy now, Dre, Part II: ‘Detox’ and beyond Hip-hop scene changes as founding generation reaches middle age by
Mitchell Geller
Daily Editorial Board
This article is the second in a two-part series on hip-hop. Yesterday’s installment focused on Dr. Dre’s most recent single, “I Need a Doctor.” Today’s article examines Dr. Dre in the context of the changing face of hip-hop. “Detox” will not be a game-changing album. Neither of the two officially confirmed tracks, “I Need a Doctor” and “Kush,” are mind-blowing, and the rest of the unofficial leaks have been decent at best. But it’s going to come out, and it’s almost certainly going to be a hit; more importantly, it will be a fascinating artifact. Hip-hop is less than half a century old — most hipstorians (see what I did there?) date its origins to a back-to-school party thrown by DJ Kool Herc on Aug. 11, 1973, at 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in Brooklyn — so Dr. Dre is more or less the first rapper to go through a midlife crisis and express it in his music. Although there are rappers older than Dre, they have stopped producing new music. As it is, sadly enough, most of the O.G. rappers have died. Dr. Dre’s new video also features clips of his contemporary, Tupac Shakur. If Shakur, Biggie, Big L, Eazy-E — and all the rest — hadn’t burned so brightly and died so tragically young, rap would be something wholly different today. But they did. Jay-Z, four years younger than Dr. Dre, has successfully taken up the mantle as hip-hop’s elder statesman. He’s mellowed as he approaches middle age and has been fully accepted as one of the mainstream’s biggest celebrities. Dr. Dre, however, is a close contender for the title. Whether or not
Compiled from MCT; Design by Ben Phelps/Tufts Daily
Lil Wayne, Dr. Dre and Jay-Z are some of hip-hop’s elder statesmen. he can take it from Jay-Z (unlikely) or share it (more likely) depends on how “Detox” is received and how Dre carries himself when he re-enters the public eye before, during and after the album’s release. Lil Wayne once infamously said he wouldn’t be a middle-aged rapper because hip-hop is a young man’s game, but even Weezy is older and, ostensibly, wiser. Just as rock ‘n’ roll has found a nice place with “oldies,” so will rap, and it’s fascinating to watch it evolve and flourish every day. It’s a weird, fascinating, exciting time for hip-hop, especially with the opportunities afforded to kids all over the world who have little more than a crappy computer and an Internet hookup. Soulja Boy, Odd Future, Lil B, Waka Flocka Flame … even Drake owes a lot to the Internet. Ultimately, though, it isn’t just increased visibility that is changing hip-hop. The
Gallery Review
ICA features emerging artist Mark Bradford’s ‘found art’ by
Ashley Wood
Daily Editorial Board
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA), located off the Silver Line on Boston’s waterfront, is all too often forgotten because
Mark Bradford In the West Gallery, through March 13 The Institute of Contemporary Art/ Boston 100 Northern Avenue Boston, MA 02210 (617) 478-3100
waterfront cafe — all overlooking the harbor through entirely clear, glass walls. Created by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the ICA was a project that established their careers in the United States. More importantly, though, their innovative design has made the ICA one of the most comfortable, peaceful and reflective places to view art in the Boston area. But if the calming white and glass interior design isn’t enough to persuade you to visit, then the art surely will be. Devoted entirely to artists currently working and exhibiting, the ICA’s exhibited works are not only relevant but burgeoning. Visitors get to view art as art is happening. They are witnessing pieces of transient history as they’re being created and exhibited for the public. Enter Mark Bradford, an increasingly well-known contemporary abstract artist
genre is becoming increasingly accepted by the mainstream as the rest of society changes, too. What was once a somewhatfeared genre has slowly been integrated fully into normative culture. Lil B, an easy candidate for the position of poster boy for hip-hop strangeness and change, summed it up nicely in a recent interview with MTV: “I think hip-hop is gonna stop being so narrow-minded. Hiphop is gonna progress to something that is more accepting and more revolutionary for the people because everybody will be included. Hip-hop is discriminatory toward gays, against happy people.” And that’s one of the weirdest parts: There are no openly gay mainstream rappers. None. There are allegations — whispers and see HIP-HOP, page 6
Album Review
Former Oasis members join forces once again by
Melissa MacEwen Daily Staff Writer
Oasis fans, listen up: Oasis is back. Kind of.
Different Gear, Still Speeding Beady Eye Dangerbird Records
Courtesy Ashmont Media / Institute of Contemporary Art
As witnessed time and time again, holding some reincarnation of a band together after the death or resignation of a band member is usually easier said than done. Beady Eye, which three of the four core members of highly acclaimed English rock group Oasis formed shortly after the band’s 2009 breakup, is desperately trying to pull off a new stage in the musicians’ musical careers. Drawing on alternative rock, ’60s psychedelia and rockabilly, Beady Eye this year finally released its first album, “Different Gear, Still Speeding.” Whether the band has succeeded musically is up for debate. Oasis’ influence is subtler than one might expect but still crops up frequently, especially on the guitar parts of “Four Letter Word,” “The Roller” and “For Anyone.” Beady Eye instead draws more heavily on rock legends like The Beatles, David Bowie and Pink Floyd to create a sound that has been rehashed for decades. The themes and lyrics of many of the songs border on generic, and Beady Eye seems hesitant to break
Increasingly popular contemporary artist Mark Bradford does not buy his own art supplies — he finds them.
see BEADY EYE, page 6
of Tufts’ partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The architecture of the building, successfully created to be a compromise between artistic reflection and civic space, includes two 9,000-square-foot galleries, multiple film viewing rooms and a
see BRADFORD, page 6
Madeline Hall | The Tasteful and the Tasteless
A declaration of love
S
ince the start of this academic year, my friends have noticed that something has changed about me. My eyes are always wistfully half-open, betraying my daydreaming mind. I walk around listlessly, constantly checking my phone. At any given point in the day, I exhibit an idiotic grin that scares away potential friends. I would be embarrassed, but I’m too giddy to care. I’m sure you understand the feeling: that swooping, gravity-defying lovesickness we all fall victim to at some point in life. Unashamedly, I admit I am in goopy, revolting love. Your happiness for my good fortune is noted — and appreciated! If it were possible, each and every Daily reader would be promptly receiving a silver-print, cream-matted wedding invitation. I must warn you that though I am wholly devoted to the object of my affection, this love affair is probably doomed. It’s just too difficult to make productivity tools love you in return. Some readers might pause upon realizing that this column is, in fact, lovingly devoted to Google Internet applications. To those of little faith, please hear me out. You skeptics are probably still using Tufts Webmail, which is fine. All I am trying to do is open doors for you, though; life does change under the adoring care of Google, if you can ignore the fact that a corporation devoted to technological advancement can’t kiss you back. Whether or not you are a firm adherent to the Cult of Google Chat, or even a dogmatic Google Docs user, it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny the permeation of Google productivity tools throughout our campus culture. More students are forwarding their Webmail to their Gmail account, and the use of Google Groups has increased among student organizations looking to digitize their operations. The services offered by Google Inc. have expanded beyond searching the web, or as adults now colloquially say, “doing a Google.” That’s almost right, Mom, but not quite. The demand for greater levels of organization in our increasingly busy student lives has been eagerly met by Google. Documents, e-mail, calendars, even meals (strike that — Google Foods is still in beta development) are organized and offered to those individuals whose days are so filled with activity that not even human memory can account for everything to be done. Relying on Google is like relying on a snazzy, colorful secretary who never disappoints you or inappropriately flirts with your boss. There’s something of a glamour factor associated with Google, as well. That statement might seem odd on first consideration, but take a second to think of other Internet mail and productivity tool providers. In comparison to services like Hotmail, Yahoo or — God forbid — AOL, Google takes a particular interest in the design of their interfaces and systems. From the dayto-day artful designs of the company logo to the streamlined nature of their menus, it’s clear that a certain level of taste is needed to produce such good-looking services. Though not nearly to the same degree, Google’s preoccupation with design recalls that same attention paid by Apple, though Google executives are probably not as mystical and chic as Steve Jobs. This outpouring of love for technological advancement might seem contradictory in comparison to my previous column that railed against Watson, the IBM computermonster threatening humanity through its participation on Jeopardy! To this, I simply reply: midterms. Because Watson is not readily available for use in organizing my life in light of endless papers and exams, I will have to settle for the less invasive but equally intelligent Google to help me through. I draw the line, of course, at Google Boyfriend. Love can only go so far. Madeline Hall is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. She can be reached at Madeline.Hall@tufts.edu.
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The Tufts Daily
Arts & Living
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Despite moments of originality, Beady Eye fails to escape Oasis sound BEADY EYE
continued from page 5
away from formulaic rock music about life as hard-partying rock stars. In the wake of Oasis, the band seems to have lost much of its sincerity and sense of direction. Indeed, most of the weaknesses of the album, and the band itself, can be surmised during the 12-minute “RAK Them Out” documentary, which is found on the second disc of the album. It is strange enough to have an interview-based documentary on any band’s first album, and this one does little to improve the caliber of the album except make the second disc seem like a nod to “This Is Spinal Tap” (1984). Beady Eye’s problems stem from their desire to “do what Oasis didn’t finish off,” as they express during the documentary. This plan to continue the work of the old band clashes with other messages from the album, as well as other parts of “RAK Them Out” itself, in which Beady Eyes repeatedly tries to portray itself as an up-and-coming band struggling to make a name for itself in the music industry. In the same track, the band seems simultaneously pleasantly surprised to have been able to find gigs and start their music career and proud of its origins in one of the most successful bands of the ’90s. Despite some major weaknesses, “Different Gear, Still Speeding” does have moments of catchiness. The two songs released early as promotional singles especially stand out. The December 2010 single “Four Letter
beadyeyemusic.com
Beady Eye comprises three former Oasis members, and one random new guy. Word” draws heavily on the band’s grungy Oasis roots, maintaining a catchy, hard rock feel. The most notable track on the album is probably “Bring the Light,” which was released as the first single last November. The song’s throbbing bass line, paired with hints of rockabilly and gospel, makes for a track that would certainly never have been released while the band was still Oasis. Lead singer Liam
Gallagher manages to sound impressively less nasal than he did on many Oasis tracks, and he rips through the song with an Elvis-like vitality found nowhere else on the album. Despite Beady Eye’s hints at a new, catchy sound on tracks like “Bring the Light,” the band reverts back to a mix of ’60s rock jams and songs that sound like Oasis B-sides. If “Different Gear, Still Speeding” had been produced by a dif-
ferent band that was actually new, it is extremely unlikely that it already would have garnered the band performances at upcoming large-scale concerts such as the Isle of Wight Festival, the Bilbao Live Festival and Rock Werchter. Beady Eye, and its first album, will most likely be commercially successful for at least a short period of time, but this success hinges more on Oasis fans’ curiosity than on actual musical quality.
Hip-hop’s focus shifts to upand-comers HIP-HOP
continued from page 5
Courtesy Ashmont Media / Institute of Contemporary Art
Contemporary artist Mark Bradford poses in front of one of over 35 installations currently showcased in his exhibit.
Bradford’s work touches on themes of race and sexuality, showcases artist’s rule to only use ‘found’ art supplies BRADFORD
continued from page 5
based out of South Central Los Angeles. Bradford’s work currently occupies one of the 9,000-square-foot galleries at the ICA, with pieces ranging from his early work in 2000 to more recent pieces from last year. Similar to the transient nature of contemporary art itself, Bradford never allows his work to rest on a single subject matter or style. Bradford twists abstract art, which is generally meant to be impressionistic and left to the interpretation of the viewer, by filling it with latent meaning and social references, specifically ones that refer to being African-American or, less frequently, to his sexuality. The exhibit, which moves chronologically from his earliest to more recent work, begins with a piece titled “Enter and Exit the New Negro” (2000), a “painting” that demonstrates some of his earliest artistic styles — most notably, using materials in his art that he has found in his everyday life. Taking end papers used for perming hair from his mother’s salon, Bradford singed and layered the white pieces of paper carefully on top of one another so that they appear to be brush strokes. In minimalist fashion, the creamy grid-like image shows Bradford’s
belief that art should be composed primarily of products that are found — or, in other words, the belief that you don’t have to go to an art supply store to be an artist. The piece also demonstrates his trend of using paper products in his work. In an interview with the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research, Bradford explained, “The reason I use paper is because paper is so unforgiving. It’s opaque. It doesn’t give it up. … Paper is just hard. You’ve really got to struggle with it to lift it. And sometimes it doesn’t. And it demands its physicality.” And indeed, many of Bradford’s works feature painstaking detail either carved or sanded into layers and layers of paper. The paper itself is also usually something that he has found, whether in the form of end papers or advertisements and flyers littering South Central. The posters, which range from topics like DNA paternity testing to foreclosure and credit problems, further emphasize Bradford’s effort to bring a social context to his work. Perhaps Bradford’s most highly featured and referenced piece is a vivid and striking work titled “Scorched Earth” (2006), which was created in response to the war in Iraq. The subject matter, however, does not take the viewer as far as the Middle East, but
instead keeps the context at home by referencing a largely under-publicized 1921 disaster in Tulsa, Okla. In a part of town occupied by wealthy black merchants, dubbed “Black Wall Street,” white supremacist groups began a race riot that led to the burning and destruction of approximately 30 city blocks. The work features mainly a red and black center, with white squares of paper arching over the top left side and closing in on the dark middle. Although not a depiction of an actual map, the picture reads like an aerial view of a city. Instead of simply abstracting a universal idea, Bradford has abstracted an actual event and brought it forth into a current social context. Bradford’s style is ever-changing, and his work is not limited to papering canvases. He has also created multiple sculptures, such as a gigantic paper ark in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, as well as films and multimedia installations. The exhibit offers a unique opportunity to be able to view such a comprehensive collection of an artist’s work, especially at a gallery like the ICA, where the layout and design ease the process of exploring the work of an artist with an immense variety of creative outlets.
rumors at best — but no rappers, male or female, have come out as gay. It isn’t surprising from the genre that spawned the loathed phrase “no homo” and eagerly throws derogatory terms, the likes of which couldn’t be printed unedited in this paper, for easy rhymes. Still, it’s surprising for this day and age. Lil B, who is heterosexual by all accounts, often calls himself a “little b---” and a “lesbian,” among other things — not just for shock value but, as it seems more probable, in an attempt to shake things up and remove the stigma, to pave the way for positive change. For proof that things are actually happening in hip-hop, just take a look at who is nominated for this year’s mtvU Woodie Awards (MTV’s college music awards, given to “alternative,” independent and smaller acts) in the category of “Left Field Woodie.” The award is presented, according to MTV, to “artists who’ve pushed the envelope and taken things to the next level.” This year’s nominees are: Lil B; the white skater-punk-cum-rapper from Alabama, Yelawolf; the bizarre South African rap-rave group, Die Antwoord; the Wesleyan-educated, mixed-race rap group, Das Racist; and the ever-fascinating Kanye West. These guys may not all be household names yet, but even if they don’t break onto the Billboard charts, their relative success to this point says a lot about the current state of the industry. And that’s not even mentioning everything that Kanye West is getting away with. The guard is definitely changing. Even if the “Detox” album flops, it will be an important milestone for the genre. Hip-hop is not, contrary to Nas’ assertion, dead. It is very much alive and kicking. Now is an exciting time, and things are changing at a breakneck pace. The biggest stars are no longer the most threatening or the most hood, but the most talented — a cocky, bougie producer from Chicago, a powerful businessman, a pink-haired girl from Queens, a tattooed self-proclaimed Martian from New Orleans, a white kid from Detroit. As Mos Def (another MC primed to become an elder statesman) put it on “Life in Marvelous Times” (2008), “We are alive in amazing times.” But we still have a long way to go.
The Tufts Daily
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Editorial
University’s marijuana policy already sensible
The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate on Sunday passed a resolution that called for Tufts’ disciplinary policy on marijuana usage to mirror recent changes to Massachusetts’ drug laws. Drafted in part by members of the student organization Tufts Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), the resolution seeks to mitigate the university’s penalty for being caught with marijuana. The TCU Senate declared that the punishment for being caught with one ounce or less of marijuana should match the penalties of the Commonwealth, which currently treats the offense as a civil offense punishable by a small fine. While the Daily supports the fundamental argument made by SSDP and the Senate, we recognize that, in practice, Tufts is already ahead of the curve. Until 2008, Massachusetts treated possession of marijuana as a criminal offense. In the November 2008 elections, voters approved a sensible marijuana policy that decriminalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, replacing arrest with a $100 fine for offenders over 18. The penalties for growing, selling or distributing marijuana, however, are still treated as felony offenses in Massachusetts. The new policy did not seek to legalize marijuana or make it more easily available, but merely aimed to make the punishment
less severe for a rather common infraction that many agree does not warrant arrest. The state views possession of small amounts of marijuana as less offensive than criminal offenses, and so should Tufts, proponents of the Senate resolution argue. In theory, they are right: It does not make sense for the university to treat a student caught with marijuana the same way it would deal with a student implicated in what the state views as a more serious crime, such as underage drinking. But Tufts’ penalty for marijuana usage is already lenient — perhaps more so than the Commonwealth’s. At Tufts, being caught in possession of marijuana on campus currently results in placement on Disciplinary Probation One, or “pro-one.” Yet despite the fact that Tufts imposes an equivalent punishment for small amounts of marijuana possession and underage drinking — an offense which is criminal in Massachusetts — the university’s policy is fair: Students who are placed on proone for marijuana possession can have that designation lifted after meeting with a university health official, and pro-one never goes on one’s academic transcript. In fact, Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman told the Daily that he believed that no student has been disciplined for marijuana use this year. Such facts make
it clear that the university is relatively lenient for an offense that, off the Hill, could result in fines. Supporters of a weaker policy make a valid argument that future employers and graduate schools might ask whether one was ever disciplined as an undergraduate. Most employers, however, ask about criminal infractions, not university-imposed disciplinary infractions. For so many students to sign SSDP’s petition — 500 in three days — means that a sensible drug policy is clearly an issue about which many people care. And the fact that the motion to fundamentally shift how the administration views marijuana possession made it this far demonstrates that there is some logic behind the idea. We agree that if Massachusetts views a certain crime as a minor issue, then institutions in that state should adopt the same policy as well. But it is clear that Tufts does view possession of small amounts of marijuana as a minor issue, in practice if not in theory. Thus, while the Senate resolution and SSDP’s arguments are valid and the university should change its marijuana policy to align with state law, let’s be honest: Possessing small amounts of marijuana is not treated at all harshly at Tufts. In the books, our drug policies should be sensible, but in practice, they already are.
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U.S. intelligence, not military, key to bringing stability in Middle East The revolution currently underway throughout the Middle East reminds us of the power of knowledge and may give reverence to the old maxim that “the pen is mightier than the sword.” With the use of Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere, those oppressed are rallying to the cries of liberty. But these cries have been heard before. They were heard when our troops rolled into Baghdad only a few years ago and when former President George H.W. Bush encouraged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam Hussein almost two decades ago. In recent history, our armies have brought freedom to Koreans, Panamanians and, for some time, the South Vietnamese, just to name a few. As with any potential intervention, members of the American polity and the public are giving leverage to the notion that a swift, focused military intervention may be something for President Barack Obama’s administration to consider. by
Robert Sinners
Daily Gamecock
War is an outdated action in the 21st century. If U.S. military intervention has taught any lessons for consideration, it would lead one to believe that war destroys morale and infrastructure and creates setback for the fledgling nations in which we “bring freedom.” Each of these operations of recent memory cost American lives and dragged out for months, if not years. Our current military operations have put us [in] debt without our consent. These operations require man power, financing and oftentimes leave the scenery and infrastructure devastated beyond repair. Few would recognize Operation Brother Sam — the CIA-sponsored regime changes in Brazil and Guatemala that took place in the 1950s and ’60s. Similar to the events currently underway, they were inspired with the dissemination of information, whether factual or simulated, that led to a public uprising and rapid change of government. Currently, there is debate surrounding the extent of current U.S. involvement. But if history serves as any indicator, our hegemonic being simply can’t afford to sit back
and let events take course. The military cannot afford to reallocate any forces, nor can we afford to open up another front on our “war on terror.” A strategic use of U.S. intelligence forces to aid in the democratization is the only way to bring a swift, calculated solution. What we’re witnessing in the Middle East is not simply a function of public uprising. Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Libya, Jordan and Bahrain are all undergoing a massive change in structure and a new perception of human rights. Many more countries are on that tipping point, and, of course, the sitting governments are in jeopardy. Many of these governments have traditionally strained relations with the U.S., and by involving ourselves — outside of the public eye — we stand to gain the best resolve for U.S. interests. War isn’t the answer to the question of bringing human rights to a democratized Middle East. But I would offer the suggestion that the most undemocratic function of U.S. government — intelligence — might be.
Corrections Yesterday’s article “Tufts set to break ground on athletic complex” incorrectly stated that the Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center was set for completion by next fall. In fact, the university hopes to complete the building by the fall of 2012. Yesterday’s column “March Midnights” incorrectly referred to the Marietta Pioneers as the Patriots and mistakenly referred to Wittenberg University as a college.
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The Tufts Daily
9
Op-Ed
Shedding light on child sex slavery
Elisha Sum | InQueery
DADT: Queer fodder
by Jane Yoon
“Child trafficking” is a dangerous euphemism for one of the most unexposed yet horrific forms of modern slavery. As the student-run Love146 concert cafe night highlighted Saturday evening, the real issue is sex slavery — now the second-most lucrative crime in the world. Every year, it is estimated that at least 1.2 million children are sexually exploited. The sickening tragedy is that children are sold into prostitution every minute, and most people have absolutely no idea this is happening. When you think “sex slavery,” you might imagine poverty-stricken children being kidnapped off the streets of a third-world country. Surprisingly, though, it is an industry that exists in the shadows much closer to where we live and breathe than any of us might really care to know. Forty-five of 50 states in the United States have passed laws against human trafficking. Massachusetts, however, is one of the “dirty five” that has not. Sex trafficking occurs all over the greater Boston area; there are currently sex slaves in Arlington, Cambridge, Braintree and both Somerville and Medford, according to Audrey McIntosh, a full-time volunteer from Not For Sale Massachusetts, a campaign to re-abolish slavery. Let’s not sit back and watch injustice unfold when there is so much we can do. Join an abolition movement, write letters to your state legislature, grab every opportunity you have to tell someone — your family, your co-workers, your roommates. In a world where two children are sexually exploited per minute, it seems we have nothing to lose and millions to gain. Child. Sex. Slavery. Those three words combined terrify us. Society simply does not want to hear about it. On Facebook you can’t even type the words “child” and “sex” in the same sentence without getting a notice of “error” from the system. It is such an easily avoidable issue — that is, until you see it from the perspective of a victim. Imagine you are a young girl. A man beats and rapes you until you agree to be his prostitute. Your name is replaced with a number as your right to have an identity is stripped away from you. You have several clients tonight, and each time you are drugged and sold at a price. Tomorrow, you turn eight years old. The girl I speak of is a child of broken dreams. We see her, but not really. In Boston, she represents the trafficking victims who wander mindlessly on the streets. They hang around train stations and bus terminals with brokenness in their eyes. They see no other way but to sell their bodies as a means of finding purpose in a seemingly cruel and loveless world. As students at Tufts, we can scribble compassionate words onto paper and perform
F
MCT
songs about caged birds and freedom, but where can we go from there? Is it idealistic to think that we are capable of making any real, lasting change? As Tufts sophomore and spoken word performer Barbara Florvil puts it, “Beyond a month, beyond a week, beyond a benefit concert, will you leave and think that child sex slavery is only an anecdote that has nothing to do with you or me?” Without a doubt, child sex trafficking is an overwhelmingly invasive issue that might compel any student to turn a blind eye and run the other way. So how do we approach such a heavy topic? The best way to get at people regarding the horrors of child sex trafficking is to approach the issue in a personal way. And this is exactly what the Love146 concert cafe night aimed to do. The whole point was that people should not simply toss their money into jars and walk away with lighter pockets. Raising funds would be meaningless unless the people leave having felt or learned something. Though the event raised more than $1,000, organizers had a less tangible dream in mind. As abolitionists, our job is to get the message out and get people’s hearts to break for these kids. That’s the only way lasting change will really happen. Above all, we must focus on hope. We can fill our heads with paralyzing statistics, but we will never move past the horror if we cannot envision a world where, as Martin Luther King Jr. said, “justice rolls down like water.” The most effective way of making a change isn’t to scare people into activism, but to motivate them through the idea that change is possible. Love146 emphasizes the truth that recovery is possible. The fact is that formerly sex-trafficked children in restoration homes are getting their lives back. Rob Morris, cofounder of Love146, recounts his interactions with a rescued child in a personal message on the organization’s website: “I remember one girl. She was so broken that she would pour handfuls of dirt over her
head, wanting to disappear into the ground. I can’t even fathom that kind of brokenness, especially in a child. … Just a year later, she came up to me giggling and sparkly-eyed, asking to dance.” As activists, it is our responsibility to act as radiant beacons, shedding light on the heartbreaking and rarely addressed issue of child sex slavery. Even though sex slavery is such a distressing topic, we, as privileged students, have something to celebrate — the opportunity to make a difference. Sophomore Kristen Ford, a member of sQ!, sparked fire in the crowd Saturday night with a bold vision: “Yes, there are 100,000 children enslaved each year, but it’s our responsibility to see that next year that number is lower … until one day we don’t have to worry about the problem at all.” With that said, how dare we, as privileged and educated students, allow the victims of child sex trafficking to multiply before our eyes. As students on a college campus, where it is said that one in four women will become a victim of sexual assault during her academic career, we ought to be the most outraged, most relentless abolitionists of all! As Mr. Morris believes, “There is but one coward on earth. And that is the coward that dare not know. And I think everything in us, when we hear dark stories, we recoil and don’t want to hear them. But I think it’s courageous to remember and hear the stories of children. It’s not only courageous, but honoring.” Child sex slavery is happening today. And it is happening in our own backyards. As students at Tufts, we have no reason not to stay informed, advocate awareness and stand against injustice. We’ve heard the cries of the broken. The time has come to respond and spread the truth. Jane Yoon is a junior majoring in child development. She was an organizer for the Love146 event.
The chaos that is our fitness center: A solution by
Molly Moulton
I would like to begin with a quote from the “Athletics and Fitness” section on Tufts’ undergraduate admissions website: “If you are looking to keep up with (or start!) a fitness routine, you will certainly be motivated by the university’s extensive athletic facilities.” To whoever wrote this, here is my response: I am excited about the pending construction on the athletic complex, but it will not affect me at all. I will graduate in May, having spent four years working out in a gym with eight treadmills for about 5,100 undergraduates, approximately 400 Fletcher students and many members of the faculty and staff. The above figure does not include the one treadmill we reserve for our 28 sports teams. Given that annual tuition at Tufts is over $50,000, the current state of our athletic facilities is completely unacceptable. While the school now seems to agree with me, promising to break ground on construction this spring, I propose an interim solution to deal with the chaos that is our fitness center. I am a runner, so the treadmills are where I spend most of my time. Unfortunately, with spring break only a couple weeks away, it seems like everyone has decided to spend
most of his or her time on the treadmills as well. While our facilities should be able to accommodate everyone who wants to work out on a given day, currently it can’t even accommodate the regulars, who block working out at the gym into their daily schedules. The long line for the machines causes congestion at the entrance and means you spent half your workout time waiting in line instead of actually exercising. To address this issue, which seems to have everyone pretty peeved, I have three suggestions. First, a 30-minute rule should be reinstated. While there are signs posted, requesting people to limit equipment use to 30 minutes, they are often inconspicuously hidden under a pile of magazines or blend into the dozens of other fliers taped to the wall. In order to be the slightest bit effective, there should be multiple, well-marked signs (maybe on a brightly colored piece of paper) posted around the gym. If everyone respected a time limit (whether it be 20, 30, 35 or 40 minutes), there would be greater turnover; more people would be able to run in a given period and perhaps even get back onto a machine more quickly. The signs, however, are essentially useless if the rule is not enforced. Student employees at the gym should keep an eye on the
machines and step in if someone gets a little too treadmill-happy. (Those runners, for example, who cover up their time on the treadmill so that eager line-waiters can’t tell how long they’ve been pounding away. … No, I am not entirely innocent of this, but I recognize it is unfair and needs to change.) That last step is to create a sign-up sheet. With a sign-up sheet or a white board visible to everyone for treadmills, people wouldn’t have to waste so much time in line. They could lift weights, stretch or hop on a bike while they waited. This would alleviate the congestion around the entrance and make the gym experience more pleasant for everyone. While fixing the treadmill and cardio line problem will make things better, it is only a start. The weight area is constantly overcrowded, and the basketball courts are often full. The bottom line is our gym is too small and needs improvement (to say the least). Yes, I am glad the administration is finally paying attention, but for those of us who won’t benefit from the renovation, something needs to change in the meantime. Molly Moulton is a senior majoring in American studies.
or this week, I’d like to focus again on silenced queer voices, this time visà-vis the military service. But before I talk about “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) and queer criticisms, let’s briefly look at queer activism’s history. According to Liz Highleyman’s article in The Gay & Lesbian Review, “GLBT people have also played a vital role in peace and antiwar activism, speaking out against military conflicts from World War I to the current war in Iraq.” For a specific example, let’s look to 1969, a particularly important moment in queer history (think Stonewall). Queer activists, divorcing themselves from the conservative, assimilationist goals of the homophile movement of the ’50s and ’60s, formed the Gay Liberation Front, taking the name from the Vietnamese National Liberation Front. The group advocated revolutionary change through the elimination of social institutions and aspects of American culture, such as marriage and militarism. More recently, however, the media spectacle of DADT and its repeal has not offered critical queer perspectives on getting rid of the aforementioned policy, much in the same way that queer critiques of same-sex marriage do not see the light of day. This column will, therefore, highlight the ignored voices of dissent. Around two decades before the hullabaloo about DADT, comedian Bill Hicks, who died in 1994, during one of his acts scathingly criticized the assimilation of lesbians and gays into the military and called out the hypocritical nature of moralistic rhetoric that supports imperialist American militarism. Last February, an advertisement made by guerilla artists was placed in a bus shelter in the Castro district of San Francisco featuring two slogans: “Do Ask! Don’t Kill!” and “Assimilation ? Liberation.” One of the speech bubbles next to the mouth of the pictured man reads: “I wish our queer organizations worked to end war instead of for my right to be out while I kill or am killed in one.” In the same month, Philadelphia poet and anti-war queer activist CAConrad posted an online petition directed at LGBT community leaders and media, pointing out that having gays and lesbians serve in the military is not an issue of civil rights and that progressive media outlets should clearly outline their stance toward the military and war; they cannot both decry war and root for DADT’s repeal. In November, the drag queen Lady Bunny wrote an article for The Huffington Post expressing antiwar sentiments while emphasizing the horrors of the Iraq war. Then, last month, the nonprofit group Queers for Economic Justice wrote a statement in response to the repeal of DADT stating that “military service is not economic justice, and it is immoral that the military is the nation’s de facto jobs program for poor and working-class people.” One of the concerns lies in framing war as a form of patriotic labor in order to recruit disadvantaged urban and rural youth and disenfranchised youth of color, who then become agents of death and destruction for having enlisted for the promise of a better future. (Veterans live like kings, or so I hear.) Why should we celebrate that homosexuals can now serve openly in the military, an institution fraught with intolerance, discriminatory practices and the perpetuation of imperialism? Queer people have served in the military before, and now we should be glad that we can continue the bloodshed without being afraid of official backlash? Not to mention that the focus on DADT has detracted from much needed attention on other issues, such as securing affordable housing and access to healthcare for the queer community. Queer activism cannot merely rely on an uncritical reasoning that simply equates assimilation to equality. Elisha Sum is a senior majoring in English and French. He can be reached at Elisha. Sum@tufts.edu.
Op-ed Policy The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than noon on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.
The Tufts Daily
10
Comics
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Doonesbury
Crossword
by
Garry Trudeau
Non Sequitur
Monday’s Solution
Married to the Sea
www.marriedtothesea.com
SUDOKU Level: Ordering soup correctly
Late Night at the Daily Monday’s Solution
Aalok: “How am I going to be satisfied, Mick? Are you going to satisfy me? Mick: “I would love to.”
Please recycle this Daily.
by
Wiley
Sports
11
tuftsdaily.com
Worked up over workouts: Treadmill lines frustrate students by
Ben Kochman
Daily Editorial Board
Senior Rebecca Gorodetsky has worked at the desk at the Gantcher Center’s Lunder Fitness Center for three years, but the scene on and around the gym’s eight treadmills during her midafternoon shift the first week of spring semester was among the wildest that she’s seen in her time working at Tufts. “There were so many people waiting that they were blocking the desk, so we couldn’t see,” Gorodetsky said. “The lines were so long that we had to tell them to go into Gantcher.” The legions of students that pack the gym during peak hours — generally weekdays from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. — are among those who will be most affected by the new Steve Tisch Sports and Fitness Center, which the university plans to begin construction on in mid-April if it gains approval from Medford’s Zoning Board of Appeals. The new facility will include a fitness center on the second floor with glass windows overlooking College Avenue. The complex is slated to open in the fall of 2012, if all goes according to plan. Until then, students hoping to run indoors during weekday afternoons, when the varsity track and field team often practices on the track in Gantcher, will continue crossing their fingers that one of the gym’s eight treadmills will be vacant, or else wait it out for a spot to open. “It’s okay in the early morning or late at night, but after 4:30, I’ve seen huge waits,” said sophomore Ben Gertner, who was able to hop on a treadmill yesterday at 4:45 p.m. after
hustling down to Gantcher. “I’ve often had to wait 15, 20 minutes to get on.” The line for a treadmill yesterday afternoon grew to four students by 5:15 p.m., and a handful of students headed to the ellipticals in Gantcher instead of waiting for one of the machines to open up. Earlier this semester, signs advising students to leave the treadmills after 30 minutes were spread around the gym in an attempt to alleviate crowding. Yet at some point these signs were removed, and yesterday’s staff had no knowledge of any treadmill limit. “If there was a rule, no one’s told us about it,” sophomore Jessica Fleischer, a supervisor at the fitness center, said. “It’d be pretty hard to enforce a rule like that anyway.” The waits have been frustrating for students trying to get a workout in during the Boston winter, when running indoors is often the sole option. The late-afternoon time slot is often most convenient for students with busy schedules. Stories of thwarted attempts to get on a treadmill abound. Katherine McManus, a sophomore, walked into the gym two weeks ago at 4:30 p.m. after getting out of a 4:15 class. She was greeted by a line of eight students waiting for a treadmill, she estimates. “I tried to go to Gantcher, but the track team was running, and all of the bikes there were taken up by injured track athletes,” McManus said. “I ended up just giving up.” Some students who have room in their budget have decided to bypass working out at Tufts altogether, said senior Molly Moulton, who was on
Justin McCallum/Tufts Daily
The eight treadmills in Gantcher’s fitness center are struggling to keep up with high demand from students during peak hours. a treadmill at the gym yesterday afternoon. Moulton has friends who have purchased memberships at Boston Sports Clubs in Davis Square in order to avoid the line, she said. “When you’re spending half your gym time waiting in line, it’s just not worth it sometimes, especially when you’re a senior and there’s other stuff to do,” she said.
The treadmills used to automatically turn off after 30 minutes, Moulton said. But now she has seen students stay on the treadmill for nearly an hour, taking their time even as other students wait for a chance to workout. “My pet peeve is when people will stay on the treadmill and walk for five or 10 minutes after they finish running,” she
said. “They don’t need to walk. The system needs to be more organized.” For McManus, the prospect of a new athletics complex is quite appealing, bringing the potential for shorter lines and more workout time. “I’m excited for the new fitness center to open and for us to hopefully not have to wait anymore,” McManus said.
Men’s Squash
Women’s Squash
Jumbos’ No. 1 Gross goes 1-2 at Individual Championships
Barba loses both matches at CSA Individual Tournament
by
Matt Berger
Daily Editorial Board
In his final weekend of play as a member of the men’s squash team, senior captain Alex Gross, ranked 33rd in the Molloy Division of the College Squash Association (CSA) Individual
Championships at Dartmouth, battled through top competition and a back injury and eventually made it to the consolation quarterfinals, where he lost to No. 25 Trevor McGuinness, a junior from the University of Pennsylvania. see MEN’S SQUASH, page 15
Daily File Photo
Senior Alex Gross, pictured here at left as a freshman in 2008, finished his career this weekend as one of the most decorated Jumbos in school history.
by
Anne Sloan
Daily Editorial Board
Junior co-captain Mercedes Barba entered the CSA Individual Tournament this weekend knowing she would face superior competition after coach Belkys Velez picked her, the women’s squash team’s No. 3 player, to compete instead of the team’s No. 1 player, junior Alix Michael. Barba was seeded No. 51 in the Holleran Division, which included the 33rd- through 96th-ranked players in the nation. Facing higher-ranked players, she lost both games she played. Velez, though, was pleased with the junior’s performance. “I’m very happy with how Mercedes did in the individual tournament,” Velez said. “[She] did her best and played very well against really strong players. She put all her effort on the court and tried at every single shot,” Velez continued. “It is impressive that she was able to get points and games against strong competition.” After losing her first match on Friday, Barba entered the consolation-round bracket. She had a bye in the first round and then faced Wellesley’s No. 1 player, Rosemary O’Connor, in the second. Barba put up a good fight but ultimately lost 3-1, resulting in her elimination from the tournament. She lost the first two games but won the third game in a close 12-10 battle before
dropping the fourth in a hard-fought 11-9 round. O’Connor faced Michael both times the Jumbos played Wellesley this season. In the first go-around, Michael defeated O’Connor in five close games, and later in the season, O’Connor cruised to a three-game victory. In her first-round match, Barba was pitted against Brown freshman Dori Rahbar, who is ranked No. 26 in the country. Rahbar beat Barba in three games, losing just eight points and shutting out Barba 11-0 in the third. “It was difficult to play against Rahbar because she had a very strong front game. This year I couldn’t have beaten her no matter what day it was, but hopefully next year I’ll be at that level of competition,” Barba said. “But against [O’Connor], I think I could have definitely won. I was hoping to close out the match, but it was a combination of me not hitting the right shots and getting tired by the end of it.” Brown beat Tufts 9-0 on Nov. 19, Tufts’ first match of the season. Then, Rahbar played at the No. 2 spot against senior co-captain Valerie Koo, beating her in three games. Koo fared slightly better than Barba, though, scoring 14 points. That day, Barba fell to Sarah Domenick, who also played in the Holleran Division of the CSA Tournament this weekend. After beatsee WOMEN’S SQUASH, page 15
The Tufts Daily
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
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The Tufts Daily
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
13
Sports
Men’s Ultimate
Alex Prewitt | Live from Mudville
E-men finish 10th at Stanford Invite, lose to Pittsburgh on day two of tournament by
Nick Woolf
Daily Staff Writer
Months of training and preparation throughout the harsh New England winter culminated in a 10th-place finish at the Stanford Invite in Palo Alto, Calif., for the men’s Ultimate team this weekend. The team — which, as a club sport, goes by the name of the “E-men,” or elephant men — entered what is considered one of the top Ultimate tournaments in the country. “The competition in the tournament was the best in the nation,” junior co-captain handler Alex Cooper said. “Nearly every team that will be competing for the national championship was there.” With cloudy skies, temperatures in the low 60s and no wind, the weather was perfect for Ultimate on Saturday. The E-men, ranked 23rd in the USA Ultimate rankings, were seeded 17th in the competition and were placed in Pool A, alongside UC-Santa Barbara, Texas and national powerhouses UC-Santa Cruz and Carleton College, ranked No. 13 and No. 2 in the country, respectively. The team had practiced indoors since the close of the fall season in November and had to readjust to the outdoor conditions out West. After opening up pool play with an impressive 13-11 win against No. 14 Texas, the E-men’s offense sputtered as they dropped their next two matches to UC-Santa Cruz (8-13) and Carleton (5-13). But the E-men finished off Saturday on a high note in their last Pool A match with a 13-11 win over UC-Santa Barbara. The 2-2 record earned the team a third-place finish in the group, enough to advance it to the championship round on Sunday. “It told us a lot — it showed that we can play with some of the best teams in the nation, but it also showed us that we have a lot of work to do,” senior co-captain deep Jay Clark said. “The wins against Texas and Santa Barbara were big, but we also lost a bunch of close games.” According to Cooper, standout performers on Saturday included senior handler Jason Tsai on defense, as well as junior middle Piers MacNaughton on offense. As promising as Saturday was, the E-men’s run at the tournament championship ended Sunday morning as they fell to No. 5 Pittsburgh in a blowout, 15-6. Pittsburgh went on to lose to Carleton College in the finals, 15-8. In the consolation bracket, the E-men dropped two more matches, falling to host Stanford 12-11 in a highly contested match before ending the competition
2.7
Percentage of total teams in Div. III men’s and women’s basketball that play in the NESCAC. Despite the strength of the conference, which includes four of the top six finishers in the 2009-10 Director’s Cup standings, it only has a single basketball title, won in 2007 by the Amherst men. Bowdoin has come the closest on the women’s side, falling to Wilmington College 59-53 in the championship game. Amherst also reached the Final Four this past season.
15.7
Percentage of teams remaining in the Div. III men’s and women’s basketball national tournaments combined that play in the NESCAC. This includes No. 2 Middlebury, No 4. Williams and No. 9 Amherst on the men’s side and No. 2 Amherst and unranked Bowdoin on the women’s side. Williams and Amherst will both host their regional pods, while the other three teams will have to travel to play.
Gene Buonaccorsi/Tufts Daily
Sophomore Robby Perkins-High led the Tufts elephant men to a 10th-place finish at the Stanford Invite this weekend. with another close loss at the hands of San Diego State, 15-13. “A lot of our mistakes were due to poor communication and poor decision-making,” Clark said. “But that’s something that can be ironed out over time with a lot of practice.” Despite the 2-5 overall record, the two wins were good enough for a 10thplace finish overall. However, the E-men did drop from 23rd to 38th in the USA Ultimate rankings, placing them fifth in New England behind rivals Colby, Rhode Island, Harvard and Dartmouth. “I feel that matches went well for the most part this weekend,” Cooper said. “We didn’t play up to our full potential,
DAILY DIGITS
13
Consecutive shots missed by the Miami Heat in a chance to tie or take the lead in the last 10 seconds of regulation or overtime. Four of these shots were taken by LeBron James in the Heat’s current fourgame losing streak. James and Dwyane Wade on Sunday each missed a potential game-winner in the Heat’s loss to the Chicago Bulls. Miami is now third in the Eastern Conference, with 19 games left to stop crying and start winning.
50
Alleged vertical leap in inches of Jacob Tucker, a 5-foot-11-inch senior at Div. III Illinois College. After completing his final season on the basketball team, Tucker has started an Internet campaign to gain entrance into the NCAA Dunk Contest, which includes a YouTube highlight clip that has almost 300,000 views. He has become a viral sensation overnight, appearing yesterday on the ESPN show “Jim Rome is Burning.”
but we showed the rest of the teams there that we’ll be competitive all season.” Going by previous seasons’ results, the E-men should have high prospects for the spring. The team went 20-9 in all competitions this fall, winning two tournaments — the UMassacre in Amherst and the Huck A Hunk O’ Burning Pumpkin in Portsmouth, R.I. — and finishing in fifth and sixth place in its other two tournaments. After going 26-5 last spring, the team is confident its success will continue. “Our expectations for this spring are high,” Cooper said. “We hope to do well all season and play as late into the playoffs as possible.”
17-20
Ohio State senior Jon Diebler’s 3-point mark over the past two games. The team also knocked down 14 3-pointers in a row against No. 10 Wisconsin, setting a new NCAA single-game record with a 93.3 percent conversion rate from beyond the arc. Backed by Diebler’s effort, the Buckeyes blew out the Badgers 93-65 to clinch their second consecutive Big Ten regular-season championship and improve to 29-2.
4
Schools that have won the NESCAC men’s hockey title in the past four years. Bowdoin defeated Williams 5-2 this past weekend to capture its first-ever men’s hockey conference crown after a runner-up finish last year. Amherst won in 2009 and Trinity won in 2008. Middlebury took the title in 2010. In this year’s tournament, No. 1 Hamilton lost to No. 8 Wesleyan in the first round, opening the door for the Polar Bears.
Boo hoo
T
he Miami Heat have committed the ultimate sin, one far worse than LeBron James’ egregious “Decision” or the team’s 87-86 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Sunday. I’m talking about something that reveals the Heat’s true character, a despicable action that has no place in the manly world of professional sports. Alert the church elders and release the hounds, because the Miami Heat cried. I’ll wait for you to clean up the beverage you just spat all over the newspaper or your computer screen in response to this unbelievable fact. All set? Let’s proceed. It all started with a tweet from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst that reported postgame comments from Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. Not long after, a few players were found crying in the locker room following the loss to the Bulls — a loss which completed Chicago’s season sweep of Miami and moved Derrick Rose and company into second place in the Eastern Conference while pushing the Heat down to 4-6 in their past 10 games and four games back of the Boston Celtics. With this most recent incident, the league’s supposedly greatest trio has effectively cried its way into even less sympathy than it had before. The reaction has been swift. Every demeaning comparison has been thrown at the Heat over the past 24 hours. They’re sissies. They’re weaklings. They’re the slang term for female genitalia. The tear-framed ledes are out in full force, as are the apocalyptic predictions for Spoelstra’s now-inevitable firing and the colossal collapse of the Bosh-JamesWade dynasty. At this point, crying is probably the worst thing the Heat could have done, especially given that they’re already hated by the collective masses outside of South Beach. Because in sports, tearing up is the emotional equivalent of lying down on the court and quitting. To NBA fans, it symbolizes futility and femininity, which has no part in a manly game like basketball, a sport filled with high-flying dunks and muscular idols decorated with Chinese tattoos. Within sports culture, for whatever reason, it’s far more socially acceptable to knock over a Gatorade cooler or punch a dugout wall in fury than express a similar emotion in a more tearful manner. Sure, you may break your hand or embarrass your team, but at least you’re being angry “like a man.” Interestingly, we tend to accept — even praise — joyful tears, especially when they’re connected to winning. Crying and success are synonymous, yet crying and losing are antagonistic. When frustration emerges, as is likely the case in Miami in this tumultuous stretch, it usually occurs in either anger or sadness. The former represents manliness, the latter softness. This anecdote is now the weapon with which critics will mercilessly whip the Heat whenever similar meltdowns occur. “HELL NO. Why? Do better. This ain’t little league,” Charles Oakley tweeted. Even Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony, fellow league stars, laughed at the notion of someone actually crying in a locker room. Whoever — Chris Bosh? LeBron James? Dexter Pittman? — was the culprit, he surely wasn’t the first NBA player to cry in the locker room. But this is different. This is the Miami Heat, the team that entered the season with lofty expectations for winning and even loftier expectations for keeping its emotions in check. Is crying really anything more than mental pain, something every athlete has experienced? Can we really condemn the Heat for succumbing to what longtime NBA personal trainer David Thorpe called “a natural human reaction to pain”? I guess we couldn’t have expected anything less from a team led by an overgrown man-child. But to extrapolate this as a metaphor for the Heat’s weakness? That’s a little sad. Alex Prewitt is a junior majoring in English and religion. He can be reached at Alexander.Prewitt@tufts.edu. His blog is livefrommudville.blogspot.com.
The Tufts Daily
14
Sports
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
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Gross finishes as one of top players in team history MEN’S SQUASH
continued from page 11
Daily File Photo
Junior co-captain Mercedes Barba, pictured here at left at a meet in late January, played well in the CSA Individual Tournament but could not keep up with higher-ranked opponents.
Barba looks to next year after lackluster performance WOMEN’S SQUASH continued from page 11
ing Barba, Rahbar lost to Princeton senior Nikki Sequeira in a five-game contest. The winner of the Holleran Divison was Princeton junior Katie Giovinazzo, who took the title after beating her own teammate, freshman
Alexandra Sawin, in the semifinal round. After this weekend’s tournament, Barba was optimistic about how the Jumbos will fare next season. Koo is the only graduating player on the team, and after Velez’s recruiting efforts this season, the Jumbos hope
to add at least one more experienced player to the roster. “It was a really good experience to play against and watch the top players,” Barba said. “It’s always good to watch other people’s games. This weekend motivated me to pick it up a notch in the off-season for next year.”
Games of the Week looking back (MAR. 5) | UNC 81, Duke 67 For much of the early part of the season, UNC looked like one of college basketball’s biggest disappointments. After starting out at No. 9 in the country, the Tar Heels lost three of their first seven games and plummeted out of the top 25. In January, the squad was embarrassed by ACC cellar-dweller Georgia Tech and lost starting point guard Larry Drew, who chose to leave the team shortly thereafter. But that all seems like ancient history after Saturday’s victory over the Blue Devils, which not only earned the Tar Heels the ACC regular-season title but also may have been the dagger in Duke’s hopes for a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament. Playing in front of a sellout crowd at the Dean Smith Center, UNC exploded for 51 first-half points on the backs of freshmen Kendall Marshall (15 points and 11 assists on the game) and Harrison Barnes (18 points and five rebounds). Duke managed to climb back into the game early in the second half, but got no closer than a five-point gap before the Tar Heels closed the door with a run of their own. With the win, UNC could be looking at as high as a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance, depending on its performance in the ACC Tournament, which begins Thursday in Greensboro, N.C. Duke, meanwhile, will likely need to win the tournament and get some help from other teams to reassert itself as a top seed.
mct
—Ethan Sturm
looking ahead (Mar. 12) | Men’s lacrosse vs. Amherst
Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily
The long-awaited season of the reigning men’s lacrosse NCAA Div. III national champions finally begins this Saturday when the Lord Jeffs come to town for an early-season NESCAC showdown. The Jumbos return much of the core of their title-winning attack, including senior quadcaptains D.J. Hessler (37 goals and 54 assists in 2010), Ryan Molloy (36 goals, 29 assists) and Matt Witko (39 goals, seven assists). There is little doubt that the goals will continue to flow this season. Defensively, there is a lot more turnover for Tufts. They will be relying on sophomore transfer Matt Callahan, who comes in from Div. I Fairfield, and classmate Sam Gardner to lead a young, inexperienced unit with large shoes to fill. Amherst will be chomping at the bit to have the first shot at unseating the preseason No. 1 Jumbos after finishing third in the conference last season. It will also be a chance for the Lord Jeffs to get their first victory over Tufts since 2003, a seven-game span. If they are to end the skid, it will likely be on the backs of their pair of junior All-NESCAC midfielders, Alex Fox and Evan Redwood. Fox finished 2010 with 26 goals and 12 assists, while Redwood had 20 and 16 of his own. The action kicks off at 1 p.m. at Bello Field. —Ethan Sturm
“Alex was hurting a bit,” coach Doug Eng said. “He had some nagging injuries over the last three to four weeks of the season, including a hip flexor that extends to his lower back now. So his performance at Nationals was unfortunately limited.” In his 9 a.m. match against McGuinness on Saturday, Gross seemed to be playing at less than 100 percent, losing 11-3, 11-6 and 11-8 to one of Penn’s top players. McGuinness went on to win the consolation bracket, defeating No. 39 Vir Seth, a St. Lawrence freshman, in the consolation finals. “I knew [Individuals] was going to be tough with the injury and high level of competition, so I was just going to enjoy my last chance to compete for Tufts,” Gross said. “I went 1-2, which was probably the best I could have done given the injury.” After receiving a bye in the first round of the consolation bracket of the Molloy Division tournament, Gross notched his first and only win of the weekend with a 3-0 victory Saturday over Vassar’s Jake Harris, a sophomore who played at No. 1 all season for the Brewers. It was Gross’ seventh career victory in his four years at the CSA Individual Championships, a tournament that Gross has enjoyed in each season of competition. “Playing at the Individual Championships is a lot of fun,” Gross said. “You get to see all the coaches and players you’ve gotten to know over the years. Also, the quality of squash is so high that every match is fun to watch.” Gross began the weekend on Friday morning the same way that he ended it — with a 3-0 loss to an extremely skilled opponent. He fell to a familiar NESCAC rival, No. 34 Caleb Garza from Connecticut College, for the third time this season out of four matchups. After defeating Gross, Garza dropped his next two matches and also finished 1-2 at the tournament. Defined solely by wins and losses, the weekend probably disappointed Gross. As a junior, he had defeated George Washington’s Omar Sobhy, the eventual winner of the Molloy Division this year. Despite this year’s results, Gross’ final collegiate match had special meaning to the senior, who has started at No. 1 in singles for the Jumbos for the last three years. With 45 lifetime wins, Gross finishes his Tufts career as one of the top five winningest players in Tufts squash history. “It was definitely a bittersweet ending to my career this weekend,” Gross said. “It was nice having my parents and brother there for my last matches. However, I have been playing competitive squash for over 10 years, so it’s tough to walk away from that.” It was also an emotional weekend for Eng. The Jumbos’ head coach recruited Gross and his older brother Jake (LA ’08) to Tufts in 2003 and has coached at least one of the brothers ever since. “You often wish that team players are like [Alex],” Eng said. “As with many of our squash players, what you see is what you get, which isn’t the case with many student-athletes today. Honesty and integrity have always been very important to him.” Choosing from among many great memories of playing squash at Tufts, Gross said he will miss the time spent with his teammates the most. “I will miss the competition between teams and other players,” he said. “Also, I will miss the team trips and van rides where we got to spend countless hours just building the great team dynamic.”
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The Tufts Daily
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Tuesday, March 8, 2011
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