THE TUFTS DAILY
Scattered Showers 70/52
Gittleman outlines Tufts presidential history by
TUFTSDAILY.COM
Thursday, October 20, 2011
VOLUME LXII, NUMBER 29
Elizabeth Grainger Contributing Writer
Sol Gittleman, the Alice and Nathan Gantcher university professor who served as provost from 1981 to 2002, last night delivered a lecture taking an audience of students, faculty and alumni through a history of the Tufts presidency. The lecture, entitled “Building a University — The Presidents of Tufts, 1852-2011,” took place in Barnum Hall, as part of a week of events leading up to University President Anthony Monaco’s inauguration on Friday as Tufts’ 13th president. The Experimental College sponsored the lecture, asking Gittleman to share his perspective on Tufts’ journey. Gittleman has been a professor at Tufts for nearly 48 years, and authored “An Entrepreneurial University: The Transformation of Tufts, 1976-2002.” Gittleman opened by assuring listeners that they would make it home see PRESIDENTS, page 2
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
Panelists discuss new sexual assault policy by
Mahpari Sotoudeh
Daily Editorial Board
A group of panelists last night met in Miller Hall for the 4th Annual Tufts Sexual Violence Forum, where they discussed recent changes made to the university’s sexual assault policy that reflect a new interpretation of Title IX. The revisions implemented in the summer follow on the heels of a complete overhaul of the policy just a year ago in the summer of 2010. The overhaul was a response to students’ concerns about the previous policy’s vagueness. The panel was made up of a number of Tufts administrators, including Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman, Judicial Affairs Officer Veronica Carter, Tufts University Police Department Captains Mark Keith and Linda O’Brien, Director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning Yolanda King, Interim Title IX Coordinator Sonia Juardo and Violence Prevention Program Coordinator Elaine Theodore. The panelists highlighted recent developments in the interpretation of Title IX, a federal gender-equity law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs and institutions. Although Title IX is typically invoked in cases involving the allocation of funds to
Virginia Bledsoe/Tufts Daily
Panelists last night gathered in Miller Hall to discuss changes to the university’s sexual assault policy. student athletics, the Office for Civil Rights this April published a letter in which it highlighted the need to expand the statute’s interpretation to encompass cases of sexual violence and harassment. “The text of the law hasn’t really changed.
It’s always said that sexual harassment cannot exist — it was always just interpreted as discrimination in women’s athletics,” Juardo said. “In April this year, the Office of see FORUM, page 2
Men’s Soccer
Shapiro leads resurgence of Tufts men’s soccer by
Matt Berger
Daily Editorial Board
Step inside the Halligan Hall office of Tufts men’s soccer coach Josh Shapiro and you won’t see much. Scouting reports are neatly organized in binders on his desk, four chairs line the far wall, and a few small photos of Shapiro, his wife Amy, and their young children, Benjamin and Sophie, are modestly displayed on the near shelf. In a world of college athletics that places an ever-increasing emphasis on flash and ornamentation to attract top recruits, Shapiro’s office
is one of the rare exceptions. That’s because the Jumbos’ head coach doesn’t need or want to show off past successes like his three NCAA tournament appearances as a player at Middlebury or his seven years of Div. I coaching experience. In fact, take a look at the writing on the wall behind Shapiro’s desk, and you’ll see that the coach’s focus rests squarely on the present and the future. To the left, written in big black letters, is Shapiro’s current depth chart at every position. To the right is his “war board,” a list of about two dozen current high school seniors — chosen out of an origi-
nal pool of several hundred — that Shapiro wants to bring to the Hill next fall. In only his second season at Tufts, Shapiro’s impact on the program is already tangible. The men’s soccer team had gone nine straight seasons without a winning conference record, posting a 28-46-7 NESCAC mark during that span. But this year, Shapiro has led the Jumbos to a 4-2-2 conference record, and a ranking of No. 5 in New England by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. How has Shapiro experienced so much success so early in his head
coaching career? David Saward may have the answer. The Middlebury days Saward, now in his 27th season as Middlebury’s men’s soccer coach, has talked with hundreds of prospective students in his office. While Saward has forgotten most of these conversations, he still remembers his first meeting with Shapiro. “The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘I’m from Leonia, New Jersey. Leonia doesn’t have soccer, but thank God for my club team,’” Saward said. Eventually, the Middlebury head
coach secured a commitment from Shapiro, who was impressed with Saward’s passion for soccer. Under Saward’s tutelage, Shapiro’s play steadily improved each season. “I thought Coach Saward created an atmosphere where players loved to train,” Shapiro said. “I thought that was really important for me as an individual and for the teams that I played on.” In his four seasons at Middlebury, from 1993 to 1996, the Panthers qualified for the NCAA tournament three times and reached the Sweet 16 twice. As a senior, see SHAPIRO, page 14
Tufts team uses bacteria to send secret messages by Smriti
Choudhury
Senior Staff Writer
A research team headed by Professor of Chemistry David Walt last month published a method of using the bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) to encode, deliver and decode messages that they said could lead to the evolution of methods in the area of secret message encoding. Walt, alongside his head postdoctoral associate Manuel Palacios and a group of researchers from Tufts and Harvard University, developed the technique as a way to harness the bacteria, which is best known for its tendency to cause stomach sickness. They color tagged the bacteria, coding the different colors of fluorescent proteins in the E. coli to each represent a particular letter or number — a technique they dubbed InfoBiology. According to the research paper published by Walt and his team of associates in the Sept. 26 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), InfoBiology is “a see BACTERIA, page 2
Courtesy David WalT
A team of researchers headed by Professor of Chemistry David Walt has discovered a way to encode messages in E. coli. proof-of-principle method … [used] to write and encode data using arrays of genetically engineered strains of [E. coli] with fluorescent proteins (FPs) as phenotypic markers.” To translate the genetically engineered strains of E. coli bacteria with fluorescent proteins in order to convey a message with colored strains of bacteria, Walt and Palacios created a form of messages known as Steganography by Printed Arrays of Microbes (SPAM). The
Inside this issue
phenotype of the bacteria can be seen under ultraviolet light and are then decoded to reveal a message using a cipher. According to Palacios, SPAM has the potential to expand awareness within the academic field regarding the ability to trace genetically modified organisms. It won’t be put into use by the likes of the CIA anytime soon, though, he said. “SPAM is mostly an academic exercise, a proof of principle,” he said. Research team member and Postdoctoral Associate Mael Manesse agreed that the uses of this technique are primarily academic. “We are more interested in creating biological watermarks to trace genetically modified organisms,” Manesse said. SPAM was developed in a collaborative effort between the Tufts group and a group of Harvard researchers working under Harvard Professor of Chemistry George Whitesides. The research paper on InfoBiology, published by PNAS, describes the process of creating the SPAM bacteria message involving the growth of bacteria in a plate of agar, which is a seaweed-based gelatin, and then transfer-
ring the bacteria to a membrane that is sent to the person receiving the bacteria message. In order to decode the bacteria message on the membrane, the receiver must transfer the bacteria from the membrane back onto an agar plate. The receiver is then able to read the SPAM message by decoding the colors of bacteria on the plate under ultraviolet light, using the cipher as a color key. Walt explained that the SPAM’s usefulness lies not only in its ability to send encoded messages, but also in communicating through potentially compromised channels and deterring counterfeiting. SPAM allows for the transmission of messaging through an atmosphere where the message might be intercepted as well as preventing the message from being decoded by an interceptor thanks to the use of a unique cipher for decoding the particular message. Palacios said the project was especially intriguing to him because it combined information technology with chemical systems, two of his interests. “The simple question, of how much information there is in an atom, opens so many
Today’s sections
The beat goes on with Tufts DJs.
A look at Boston’s diverse, active art gallery scene.
see FEATURES, page 3
see WEEKENDER, page 5
News Features Weekender Editorial | Letters
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Op-Ed Comics Sports Classifieds
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