2012-2-22.pdf

THE TUFTS DAILY

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TUFTSDAILY.COM

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

VOLUME LXIII, NUMBER 18

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

‘1.4 Billion Reasons’ addresses UIT expands Tufts’ virtual private network extreme poverty around the world

by Stephanie

Haven

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts University Information Technology (UIT) expanded its virtual private network (VPN) on Jan. 8 in response to a Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate resolution from earlier this academic year.

The resolution had asked UIT to implement a “fully tunneled” configuration that would allow students, staff and faculty to use a secure connection when accessing the Internet, even from offcampus locations.

With the new changes, the VPN allows users with a Universal Tufts Login Name (UTLN) and password to access the Tufts network through an encrypted channel from any location. Before the resolution, students could only access the VPN while on campus, UIT Director of Information Security Chuck Young told the Daily in an email.

“We think it makes sense to improve security where we can, especially where there is no cost or inconvenience for students,”Young said. “We’ve heard that additional security without inconvenience is a pretty good thing. And those who

are not aware of the change benefit without knowing it.”

To access the VPN while off campus, faculty, students and staff must log in at vpn.tufts.edu using a Tufts UTLN and password, Dawn Irish, UIT Director of Communications and Organizational Effectiveness, told the Daily in an email. Internet activity will function securely through the VPN until the person logs out of the website.

“Since nobody knows what is happening in untrusted locations, this provides reassurance that regular traffic is better protected, and that sensitive exchanges are double secure,” Young said. “This makes local wireless snooping in an offcampus location much more difficult, and safer for everyone.”

Prior to the new changes, Tufts used a “split-tunneled” configuration where the VPN only protected Internet-based Tufts services but not other online activities, TCU Senator Michael Vastola, a member of the Senate Services Committee, said.

“It’s a common-sense change to shore up information security for students who are accessing see VPN, page 2

by

Leah Lazer

Daily Editorial Board

The Global Poverty Project last night brought its “1.4 Billion Reasons” presentation to Tufts to describe the current extent of global poverty and present practical tools for addressing it.

The event was co-sponsored by Tufts Engineers Without Borders and Tufts Timmy Global Health.

The Global Poverty Project aims to eradicate extreme global poverty within a generation by teaching techniques for effective activism to people around the world. “[‘1.4 Billion Reasons’ is] meant to bring awareness and teach skills to student groups and other leadership groups about fighting global poverty,” sophomore Brooke Schuman, a member of the Engineers Without Borders: Uganda group, said.

“We hope that by bringing this presentation, it will bring awareness both for the work that we do and also the larger outstanding goal of understanding how 1.4 billion people live in the world,” Tufts Engineers Without Borders President Scott

With grant, Friedman School tackles malnutrition in Ethiopia by

Melissa Wang

Daily Editorial Board

The Feinstein International Center (FIC) at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy received its largest funding award yet in the form of a $7.3 million research grant aimed at fighting child malnutrition in Ethiopia, according to a Feb. 9 press release.

This award is expected to be disbursed over five years and is part of a larger grant of more than $50 million given by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to Save the Children, a non-governmental organization dedicated to supporting children in developing nations, according to FIC Director Peter Walker.

Walker noted that the FIC’s role in this larger plan of action is to focus on research.

“Our job is to be the research component of the project, looking at what really are the critical things where research and new knowledge will make a difference or where new policies and programs may need to be developed,” he said. “We’ve also been asked to help with the monitoring and the evaluation of existing and future programs that are being implemented.”

Meanwhile, Save the Children and other partners involved with see ETHIOPIA, page 2

ashley seenauth for the Tufts Daily

The Feinstein International Center (FIC) at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy received a $7.3 million research grant to combat child malnutrition in Ethiopia.

Inside this issue

scott tingley / tufts daily

According to Tyler West and Dan Skallman of the Global Poverty project, 1.4 billion people worldwide subsist on less than $1.25 per day.

McArthur, a senior, said.

“1.4 Billion Reasons” was presented by Tyler West and Dan Skallman, Global Poverty Project Fellows who are touring campuses and communities across the country.

The presentation interspersed slides displaying graphics and

informational points with video testimony from impoverished individuals and experts in related areas and focused on answering questions related to defining extreme poverty, the barriers to ending poverty, ways see POVERTY, page 2

Tufts’ Boston campus to go tobacco-free in April

by Victoria

Leistman

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts’ campus in downtown Boston will on April 16 begin implementing its new initiative to become tobacco-free by prohibiting smoking in the vicinity of the building.

The Tobacco-Free Tufts Boston Initiative is the university’s response to the Boston Public Health Commission’s citywide plan to make medical school campuses in Boston tobacco-free, according to Vice President of Human Resources Kathe Cronin.

“After much consideration of the pros and cons, the Boston campus school administrators along with central university administrators decided to go tobacco free,” Cronin told the Daily in an email.

According to Cronin, the policy will ban smoking at all building entrances and in the garage and other universityand medical center-owned outdoor space, in addition to the already smoke-free university buildings.

Tufts’ Boston campus is joining the Tufts Medical Center, the Floating Hospital for Children and numerous other healthcare organizations that are implementing tobacco-free programs.

“We invited Tufts University to join us and the university made its own considered decision to make Tufts Boston campus tobacco-free,” Tufts Medical Center Internal Communications Manager Linda Shelton told the Daily in an email.

“We are one of 10 hospitals in Boston who pledged to go tobacco-free on our campuses this year as part of an initiative with the Boston Public Health Commission and Massachusetts Hospital Association,” Shelton said.

The three goals of the initiative are to improve the health of the community, to create a culture of support for employees who would like to stop using tobacco products and to reduce involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke, according to a message to all Boston campus faculty and staff from Cronin and Director of Human Resources at Boston and Grafton Sabrina Williams.

“We welcomed the opportunity to support our employees’ and students’ health by further minimizing the effects of second hand smoke and supporting employees and students who do smoke but would like to quit,” Cronin said. see NONSMOKING, page 2

Today’s sections

The Tufts community has had a mixed reaction to Obama’s new tuition plan.

“Luck,” HBO’s latest offering, takes a look at the seedy underbelly of horse racing.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Classifieds

1 3 5 6

Comics Editorial | Letters Op-Ed Sports

7 8 9 Back

The Tufts Daily

2 TCU Senate Update The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate at its meeting Monday night voted down a resolution that would have recommended to the Tufts University Admissions Department that it eliminate the “Celebrate your nerdy side” optional essay on the Tufts supplemental application. The resolution, which was sponsored by senior TCU Senator Jonathan Danzig, argued that the essay prompt is overly normative and limits the number of people who can answer it.

The resolution vote count was 10-13 with one abstention, according to Senate Historian and Student Outreach Chair Joseph Donenfeld, a sophomore.

—by Laina Piera

News

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

‘1.4 Billion Reasons’ offers practical tools for eradicating poverty POVERTY

continued from page 1

to address poverty and why it is an important issue.

West in his presentation explained that extreme poverty is not the result of a lack of resources, but rather caused by the unequal distribution of the plentiful resources that do exist. These inequities are perpetuated within regions and across generations.

“Tonight 1.4 billion people will go to bed hungry, but there is enough food in the world to feed everyone 1.5 times over,” West said. “Extreme poverty can become a trap that doesn’t let people escape.”

The World Bank in 2005 defined extreme poverty as living on less than $1.25 per day.

Skallman described the role of aid in alleviating poverty, emphasizing that the best form of aid aims for long-term, selfsustainable development in areas like education and infrastructure. A video clip explained

that aid should be seen as an investment in our national security, not a gift.

“Ending extreme poverty is extremely important to helping our own economy,” Skallman said.

The overarching message of the presentation was hopeful, pointing out that we already have the resources and knowledge to make significant progress toward eradicating global poverty.

The organizers of the event hoped that it would help students conceptualize the reality and scale of global poverty, while providing them with practical tools to bring back to student groups.

“When you talk about global poverty, it’s so hard to imagine what that is … It’s never something that you can really point at,” Advocacy Chair for Tufts Timmy Global Health Lucia Smith, a junior, said. “With the 1.4 Billion Reasons project, it will show you some of the reasons why you should care about it.”

The organizers of this event believe the presentation is well suited to Tufts because of the many student groups that address international issues related to poverty.

“Many student groups do something like this and would be able to apply these skills in their projects,” Tufts Timmy Global Health President Molly Goodel, a junior, said.

The response from attendees was positive overall.

“It was engaging and inspiring,” Leah Cohen, a sophomore, said.

“It’s the sort of presentation [that] makes you want to get up and do on-the-ground work but also gives you concrete tools to make a difference in ways that are practical for a college student,” Becky Allen, a sophomore, said.

The event organizers received support from the Global Health Network under the supervision of Professor Edith Balbach, the director of the Community

Health Program at Tufts, and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, according to Smith. “[Tisch College has] been incredibly supportive,” she said.

“They’ve been the catalyst for helping us all put it together, in terms of funding, support, and advising.”

Schuman took the lead in bringing the Global Poverty Project to Tufts and initiated the close collaboration between the student groups.

“This type of collaboration is something that will definitely continue,” Goodell said.

The Global Poverty Project emphasizes a community-based approach to hands-on work.

“Part of it is you need to create a foundation for your program for it to be sustainable,” Schuman said. “Something like this program is going to bring awareness to that fact that projects need to develop relationships with communities.”

TCU Senate resolution provides new outlets for safer Internet access VPN

continued from page 1 the Internet from unsecured, offcampus wireless connections,” Vastola, a senior, said. “Over a secure channel [like the new VPN], no one can see what I’m doing and no one can interfere with the communication that’s happening without being detected.”

The VPN has the greatest impact on members of the Tufts community who want to access a secure connection while they are not at school, Young said.

“Anyone can use the VPN while on campus to further secure connections that are already encrypted, for things like Gmail, online banking or SIS, or to encrypt regular traffic such as Yahoo Mail or Facebook,” Young said. “However, we believe the real benefit is for students off-campus and around

the world who use wireless connections in unknown surroundings and situations.”

Access to the VPN is more complex than simply connecting a computer to the Tufts wireless internet connection, according to Vastola.

“It creates a connection, a secure channel of data, between your computer and the Tufts VPN server,” Vastola said. “Through that secure channel, they emulate a situation of Internet security in which you are directly connected to the Tufts network despite not being on campus.”

UIT had initially planned to implement the new aspects of the VPN that the Senate proposed over a longer time period, Young said. After the resolution was passed, UIT simply accelerated their pre-existing schedule.

“It was a very quick turn-

around,” Vastola said. “It was great, and they were extremely nice about it. I have no complaints.”

To increase the number of students who access and understand how to use the VPN in the future, Vastola said he plans to advertise the new configuration on TuftsLife, of which he is the chief operating officer.

Although it is unclear how many people in the Tufts community have used the VPN, Irish hopes that UIT’s updates will encourage those who have not accessed it in the past to utilize its benefits.

“If students choose to use it in the future, their data ‘in motion’ will be more securely transmitted wherever they are,” Irish said. “By reconfiguring it, we are now better able to protect the personal data of our community members who use the VPN.”

Open space makes tobacco-free policy difficult on Medford/Somerville campus NONSMOKING

continued from page 1

Shelton added that this policy of becoming smoke-free was in line with the goals of most medical institutions.

“As a health care organization, it’s the right thing to do to help protect the health and safety of our patients, visitors and employees,” Shelton said.

Cronin noted that smoking and non-smoking administrators, staff and students from all the Boston schools have come together to form an ad hoc advisory group that will oversee and guide the implementation of the new policy.

“The group strongly endorses a supportive and straightforward approach to implementing this enhanced policy,” Cronin said.

“For instance, multiple smoking cessation ‘lunch and learns’ will be held on campus and [will be] open to all faculty, staff and students who are interested in quitting smoking.”

The message sent out to the community also included information about other resources available to those trying to quit smoking, including the Employee Assistance Program and The Massachusetts Smokers’ Helpline.

The Boston Public Health Commission is also offering Boston residents free nicotine patches to help them quit

smoking for the first time.

Cronin emphasized that members of the community who smoke are expected to obey the new smoke-free signage and policy on campus, regardless of whether they personally choose to quit.

She added that the administration could potentially consider making the tobacco-free initiative a university-wide project should the interest arise. Still, Cronin noted the

differences in the layout of the other Tufts campuses.

“Given that the Medford/ Somerville and Grafton campuses are quite different from the Boston campus, with much more open space, going tobacco-free on those campuses would present unique challenges,” she said.

The reaction to this latest policy decision has been generally well-received on the Boston campus, according to Cronin.

ashley seenauth for the Tufts Daily

Tufts’ Boston campus is participating in the Boston Public Health Commission’s initiative to make all medical schools in the city smoke-free.

Scott Tingley / tufts daily

Tufts University Information Technology (UIT) expanded its virtual private network (VPN) so that members of the Tufts community can now access the Tufts network through an encrypted channel from any location.

Tufts research team plans trip to Ethiopia in March ETHIOPIA

continued from page 1

the plan will direct their energy toward actually implementing nutrition programs in Ethiopia.

“What Save the Children will do with the money is improve the specific dimensions delivered that might have an impact on mothers’ and children’s nutrition, as well as improve the monitoring and evaluation of those programs so they can better measure what the impact of these nutritional efforts are,” FIC Senior Researcher Kate Sadler, who will lead the Tufts research design team, said.

Along with Save the Children, Sadler and her team will partner with faculty members from two Ethiopian schools — Hawassa University and Jimma University — as well as The Ethiopian Health and Nutrition Research Institute.

Sadler believes that Ethiopia is in need of significant assistance to fight hunger and that the FIC is well prepared to provide this assistance since it is part of a nutrition school.

“In Ethiopia, there has been a lot of focus for many years on emergency humanitarian intervention by focusing on food aid to tackle problems of malnutrition,” Sadler said. “What both the government and many long-term donors to Ethiopia want to see happen now is a shift to trying to address some of the longer-term problems of property, food insecurity, health and all the other underlying causes of malnutrition.”

Walker highlighted that the FIC

has been working in Ethiopia for several decades and has a full-time office there, factors he believes contributed to the receipt of this grant.

“In some ways this is an extension of our past programs,” he said.

“We’ve done smaller programs, and what happens is they point you in the direction of where research is needed and they also establish your credibility … which makes it slightly easier for you to apply for and ask to come in with these larger grants.”

Sadler anticipates traveling in March to Ethiopia with a group of Tufts faculty members to meet with other partners. Data collection may not start until the end of the year.

“The main objective of the first meeting is to finalize and prioritize the research agenda and the actual questions that we’ll be focusing on and running the research around,” she said.

Sadler noted that women and children in Ethiopia are most affected by malnutrition, and that malnutrition’s consequences — such as higher mortality risk, as well as inhibited development, IQ and productivity — make it a critical issue to address.

Walker added that in addition to advancing the fight against child hunger in Ethiopia, the grant allows the FIC to fund some master’s degree and Ph.D. students in Ethiopian universities and to offer a Ph.D. position at Tufts.

“We’re taking advantage of this grant to help build the next generations of really good nutritionists in the country,” he said.

Features

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tuftsdaily.com

Ben Schwalb | Das Coding

Don’t drop the SOPA

S

MCT

President Barack Obama’s plan to make college more affordable drew mixed reactions from students and administrators on the Hill.

Obama pitches controversial proposal to decrease cost of higher education Students, university officials skeptical of potential benefits by

Amelia Quinn

Daily Editorial Board

At high-cost universities like Tufts, tuition is often a deciding factor in whether students attend — an issue that President Barack Obama is attempting to ameliorate. Students and faculty on the Hill, though, doubt that Obama’s ideas will bring about positive change.

During a speech at the University of Michigan on Jan. 27, Obama outlined a plan to reduce the cost of higher education by linking how successfully colleges could reduce tuition with the amount of federal grant money they are given in low-interest loans.

According to an article in The New York Times, Obama’s proposal would increase federal funding in the Perkins loan program from $1 billion to $8 billion, with distribution based on how well schools could lower tuition, serve low-income students and provide students with the most bang for their buck.

Obama’s plan would also provide an additional $1 billion to states that check the cost of higher education and create a $55 million prize awarded to schools through a competition for developing innovative ways to boost productivity.

While the plan is appealing to young voters, university officials remain skeptical about whether it will garner congressional approval given the nation’s current state of debt.

“The issue of affordability is complex and is highly specific to each individual college and university,” Senior Vice President of University Relations Mary Jeka said. “Many details of the president’s plan are still forthcoming … It is too soon to predict all of the specific impacts.”

Obama’s message carries traces of the concerns that fueled the Occupy Wall Street protests and comes in the wake of a strategy to consolidate federal student loans and reduce interest

rates in order to help college graduates escape their debt.

“President Obama has made a number of proposals in his recent budget that are focused on the affordability of higher education,” Jeka said.

“Tufts University supports proposals that seek to increase financial aid to students and open the doors of education to students regardless of family income.”

In his speech, Obama emphasized that rising tuition costs were unacceptable if the universities that raise them expect to continue to receive adequate levels of federal funding.

“You can’t assume you’ll just jack up tuition every single year,” Obama said.

“If you can’t stop tuition from going up, your funding from taxpayers will go down. We should push colleges to do better; we should hold them accountable if they don’t.”

Obama also asked Congress to revoke a proposal that would double the interest rate on federal Stafford loans.

“In general, I am in favor of proposals that increase federal funding for need-based financial aid,” Patricia Reilly, director of financial aid and comanager of Student Financial Services, said. “In particular, I support efforts to keep the federal student loan interest rate at 3.4 percent instead of letting it double to 6.7 percent on July 1, 2012, as it is currently set to do.”

Reilly pointed out that without knowing all of the details of Obama’s higher education proposals, it is impossible to know exactly how they might impact Tufts students. Critics of Obama’s proposals cite the fact that punishing high-cost colleges and universities by reducing or completely taking away their federal aid would affect needy students at those same institutions.

According to the College Board, for the 2011-2012 year, the average cost of tuition for private nonprofit colleges is $28,500 and the total average cost including room and board is $38,589.

Tufts University ranks among the most expensive universities in the country, with a full cost of attendance totaling $54,474 for the 2011-2012 academic year, according to the Tufts University Bursar. However, this figure does not consider financial aid.

“I think that the Tufts tuition is very high, but a lot of people make it work,” sophomore Sara Makaretz said. “I think that Obama’s plan has the potential to work really well, but at the same time it’s true that if a college is ‘cut off ’ from federal financial aid funding, it would further divide the upper and lower classes by making some colleges inaccessible. I don’t think that cutting schools off is a good idea, but I also am not sure about what would be a good ‘punishment’ for schools that can’t cut costs.”

Makaretz, who qualified for a workstudy job last year and has a Stafford loan, expressed concern that young voters might not take into account all of the consequences that Obama’s proposal could present.

“I think that young voters will probably see ‘reducing college costs’ and think it’s great but may not fully understand the implications of the program,” she said.

While critics predict that Obama’s plan will never make it through the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, it does raise awareness of the high price that young Americans are paying for a college degree.

“At Tufts, we will continue to make every effort to manage tuition increases and grow our financial aid resources so as to minimize the impacts on our students and their families,” Jeka said.

“We are also committed to spending our resources wisely to attract world-class faculty and students while maintaining state-of-the-art facilities that will support our core mission of teaching and research across our three campuses.”

o tech has been in the news a lot recently. Congress flip-flopped SOPA and PIPA into nonexistence.

MegaVideo.com was shut down. But what does it mean? And why should you still care now that it’s already happened?

At the core of the argument in both cases is the role of the messenger. Those of us who grew up in the digital age are very familiar with the difference between the content providers (e.g. MegaVideo) and the content creators (e.g. 40-year-olds with nothing better to do than to post recorded episodes of “The Vampire Diaries” online).

SOPA and PIPA sought to enact a strategy of “shoot first, ask questions later” into law, whereby a claim of copyright infringement could shut down a website for months while its owners are simply waiting for a court date. The current law is not that different, as evidenced by the fact that MegaVideo was shut down, even though it is still under dispute if the company reacted properly to reports of copyrighted content on its servers (some claim the company acted swiftly to remove infringing material; others claim it didn’t to make money).

My simple question is this: What happened to innocent before being proven guilty? We’ve for the most part accepted that web distributors are not liable for infringing content posted on their site. To expect any more would be unreasonable for sites such as YouTube, which for example receives 48 hours of uploaded footage every minute.

But we have not accepted that these sites have a right to exist. To completely shutter a website for months based on suspicion is an unreasonably harsh punishment. We wouldn’t expect a person to rot for months in jail, robbed of their income and livelihood, based solely on hearsay from another party, and we shouldn’t expect that of a website.

SOPA and PIPA were attempts to strengthen the ability of the government to shut down such sites quickly, that preferred speed over due process, and this is the important point and why I’m, as usual, writing about something that happened a while ago. Few would argue that it’s right to pirate movies and TV. I think even those of us who do so probably have a bad conscience while doing it. But that’s no reason to enforce harsh, draconian measures.

I think requiring due process will actually be a good way to solve this problem in the long run. Shutting down MegaVideo may have worked for now, but there are still other websites out there. It’s worth mentioning that some big name file-sharing websites voluntarily shut down after the MegaVideo incident, but it’s also worth noting that many more still exist. Not to mention the fact that others are sure to be created.

Simply chasing down the next content provider as quickly as possible is a cat-andmouse game that benefits only the content owners. Requiring the due process of a court case allows the MPAA and other content creators to prosecute the big players, preventing piracy from growing rampant, while thinking of better business models than charging $11 for a movie (before popcorn and drinks) that’s often of lackluster quality.

Many industry analysts expect the lobbyists backing SOPA and PIPA to attempt to reintroduce similar bills under a different name in the future, relying on the fact that most people will have forgotten it. It is important to watch out for this and other legal issues, which affect everybody’s Internet. At the same time, it’s important not to be a pirate, and support business models like Hulu that charge a reasonable price (watching a few ads) for entertainment, while allowing lesser-known talents to make it big without losing all their profits to middlemen.

Ben Schwalb is a member of the Class of 2012 who majored in computer science. He can be reached at Benjamin.Schwalb@tufts.edu.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Arts & Living

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Music Review

Following strong debut, Sleigh Bells disappoint with unoriginal sophomore album by

Andrew Garsetti

Contributing Writer

I’ll be the first to admit that after the release of “Treats,” Sleigh Bells’ debut album from 2010, I was one of the many

Reign of Terror Sleigh Bells

Mom + Pop Records who immediately deified the noisy duo from Brooklyn, placing them atop my musical pantheon.

Guitarist Derek Miller and frontwoman Alexis Krauss manufactured an instant classic, defying genre standards with monolithic walls of sound that flooded speakers. Thick and deliberate hip-hop beats cracked satisfyingly; screeching guitars riffed dirty power chords up and down. Krauss — the goddess she was — managed to keep it all together with an intoxicating mix of cheerleader chanting and delicate cooing. The sound was raw and unnerving but incredibly focused — it was my undisputed pick for 2010’s album of the year and has been a mainstay in my “Recently Played” playlist ever since.

“True Shred Guitar,” the opening track from their newest output, “Reign of Terror,” there’s a confusing amalgam of sounds — something resembling a field recording of a Def Leppard con-

David Price via Flickr Creative Commons

Her swag doesn’t make Alexis Krauss’ sound any less stale. cert in the worst possible way. A large crowd roars in a homogeneous rumble, and a woman who must be Krauss spews painfully cliche metal-concert banter: “New Orleans! What the f---’s up?” “I wanna see your f---ing hands in the air!”

In the background, Miller apathetically noodles on a distorted guitar. But it all builds slowly into something organized, and eventually the proper song

Restaurant Review

begins — sans the crowd noise. Miller’s guitar sounds like a high-school sophomore jamming to Judas Priest in his dad’s music studio. A drum machine, too low in the mix, blasts a more derivative beat than anything on “Treats,” and Krauss yells, “Push it! Push it!” with an alarming lack of authenticity. It’s an unfortunate start to what turns out to see TERROR, page 6

TV Review

Hackneyed, slow plot spoils ‘Luck’ by

Molly Wallace

Contributing Writer

What is there left to say about HBO productions? That they’re gorgeously shot, impeccably acted and inge-

Luck

Zach Drucker / Tufts Daily

Though well-prepared, the mineral taste of Toro’s buffalo heart overwhelms the dish’s subtler flavors.

Oringer’s Toro brings zesty Spanish flair to Boston by

Zach Drucker

Daily Editorial Board

In the core of Boston’s South End, Toro sits proudly, just like the prized Spanish bulls after which it was named. Heralded

Toro 1704 Washington St. Boston, MA 02118 (617) 536-4300 $20-35 as the vanguard Spanish culinary destination in Boston, Toro doles out awardwinning tapas seven days a week.

Toro is owned by renowned chef Ken Oringer, Boston’s foremost culinary celebrity, who boasts ownership of other gourmet endeavors including Clio,

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Farina, John Ortiz, Nick Nolte Airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO

Coppa and La Verdad. Nevertheless, Toro may be Oringer’s most chic and eclectic eatery, due to its varied menu and intimate ambiance. With a small, rustic space, an open kitchen and a casual bar area, Toro does not occupy enough area to accept dinner reservations. Because of this, the restaurant often sports a multiple-hour wait, and rightfully so. The food is well worth the delay.

Served in the traditional Barcelonian style, the majority of Oringer and cochef Jamie Bissonnette’s unique dishes run between $3 and $16, offering small samplings of pinchos (bar food) and hot and cold tapas. For diners looking for a heartier meal, Toro also provides two paella variations, but most patrons opt to order tapas, anywhere from two to four per person, in order to experience a broad confluence and range of flavors in one sitting.

niously scripted? That they’ve got more star power than a $35,800-perplate Obama fundraiser? At this point, all of this is a given, and HBO’s new series, “Luck,” certainly adheres to the network’s golden standard.

How is it cosmically possible, then, for such a perfectly crafted show to be so outrageously boring?

Sure, the cinematography is astonishing — director and executive producer Michael Mann (“Last of the Mohicans” (1992) and “Public Enemies” (2009)), has seen to that.

Plus, “Luck” boasts arguably HBO’s single greatest writer of all time in David Milch, creator of “Deadwood” (2004-2006). As for the acting? Only one name is necessary to draw in audiences: Dustin Hoffman.

The show centers on Hoffman’s mobster hijinks at a California racetrack after his release from a threeyear prison sentence, though it takes four episodes for viewers to discern that small amount of plot infor-

see TORO, page 6

see LUCK, page 6

Elizabeth Landers | Campus Chic Report

N

Good, bad and wearable

ew York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is officially a wrap (I can breathe again, thank goodness). Of course, the true jetsetters are already in London and moving on to Milan later in the week. The circus caravan has relocated, but not without making some lasting impressions on my little peepers, which caught around 30 fashion shows. After clearing my brain of all the din, I have compiled a list of the good, the bad and — most important for a college student — the wearable trends and collections for fall 2012.

The Good: The runway trends this season were much to my taste for fall: less black, splashes of cobalt blue, sexy cutouts on dresses and pants, winter whites and fur, fur, fur.

A perennial commercial success, BCBG showed silky, airy dresses and separates with a healthy infusion of color — notably bright blue. Though the geometric lines evoked a Mondrian painting, the overall result was smart and chic.

If you thought cutouts were just for ASOS and Urban Outfitters, think again. Cushnie et Ochs whipped up nude numbers with seductively placed cutouts at the collarbone and artful slashes at the waist. Naheem Khan, better known for his separates and bright colors, showed black, column-straight, floorlength dresses with a few dramatic cutouts that had showgoers wondering how the dresses stayed on.

PETA would have had a field day at many of the fall shows, as they were infused — often not subtly — with fur. Vera Wang showed fur hoods and capelets with biker shorts, while Carolina Herrera, the queen of the crisp white shirt, turned out a skirt trimmed with goat’s hair and ostrich feathers. St. John kept it comparatively PC with faux ocelot sweatshirts and relaxed oversized faux fur hobos.

The Bad: I appreciate Marc Jacobs for his creative genius (merci for revamping Louis V. into more than monograms), but this collection was theatrical in the worst way. The hats recalled the Mad Hatter, and the models could barely see from underneath their wide brims. Not to mention the ensemble’s pilgrimbuckle shoes and awkward mid-shin length pants. I should have liked the collection, but I unapologetically didn’t.

Another no-no: the Charlotte Ronson show.

Though her front row is always jammed with pretty young things, the clothes were anything but. Her collection was Americana with the prairie-girl-cum-Navajo fusion of chiffon printed dresses paired with white tights (not flattering) and chunky, earth-colored knits with bursts of neon in the pattern. There’s nothing groundbreaking about the construction of her clothes, and her collection was not cohesive.

The Wearable: J.Crew seems obvious, but it’s obvious for a reason: Creative director Jenna Lyons is a freaking genius. She does color like nobody’s business, and the price points (maybe on sale) are perfect for a college student. Her presentation at Lincoln Center showed modern tailoring for a working woman who possesses style, confidence and some irony.

Kate Spade took a cheeky nod from French girls this year. Quality is paramount in accessories and has been carried over into clothes, which were a mod mix of London and Paris, replete with bright reds, emerald greens and mustard yellows. “Pardon My French” was etched into the metal frame of a handbag; for someone who loves attention to detail, this is the perfect new purse to pick up.

Fashion Week is a whirlwind, mostly because more than 300 designers show in eight days. The more I attend shows, the more I realize that there are people who drain their coffers for clothes that are not extraordinary enough in concept or construction to merit a show. Thankfully, I was stunned by a number of other garments that looked creative and simply chic. Hopefully, you’ll be able to use this rundown to navigate the waters of travesty and tremendous for your next stylish outfit.

Elizabeth Landers is a junior majoring in political science. She can be reached at Elizabeth.Landers@tufts.edu.

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Toro’s bold take on traditional fare makes restaurant gourmet hub Toro

continued from page 5

House Favorites include the gambas al ajillo — succulent shrimp grilled in a creamy garlic sauce — and costilla a la cazadora, a thick, braised short rib cooked with sherry, onions, tomato and maitake mushrooms.

Both plates are cooked to perfection. The shrimp are crispy and sweet, and the tender short rib melts on the palate.

For vegetarian guests, the maiz asado con alioli y queso cotija is sure to satisfy and delight. Branded the “especialidad de la casa,” or “house specialty,” this corn dish is Oringer’s take on Mexican street food. Halved ears of corn are grilled in a house-made alioli, rubbed with lime juice and espelette pepper and topped with

shredded, aged cheese. Even for strict carnivores, Toro’s maiz is a welcome accompaniment to any meal. Additionally, anyone can make his mother happy with an order of coles de Bruselas a la plancha — griddled Brussels sprouts doused in olive oil and sea salt.

Many dishes at Toro are not for the faint of heart … literally. Corazon, for example, is a small helping of smoked buffalo heart, thinly sliced and neatly adorned atop a piece of soft bread with romesco sauce. The romesco sauce, a condiment made from almonds, pine nuts, roasted garlic, olive oil and peppers, is quite tasty, but it does little to counterbalance the distinctive iron and mineral flavors of the smoked heart.

Adventurous eaters might prefer the

asado de huesos — roasted, gelatinous bone marrow with radish citrus salad and oxtail marmalade — or the uni bocadillo.

This bocadillo, a common Spanish sandwich, features uncommon ingredients.

Borrowing influences from Uni, Oringer’s sashimi bar in the Eliot Hotel, this bocadillo brims with sliced uni (sea urchin) topped with miso butter and pickled mustard seeds.

To accompany an exceptional dining experience with a plethora of diverse tastes, one needs the perfect drink. Toro offers an extensive wine list, compromised purely of Spanish wines and sherries that tickle the fancy. Not to mention, Toro has a fine selection of creative cocktails such as verdad y amor, a refreshing mixture of

hibiscus tea-infused Milagro tequila, ginger simple syrup and fresh lime juice.

For dessert, Toro only offers one option: churros con chocolate. This classic Spanish treat is composed of fried dough sticks enveloped in cinnamon sugar served with a molten chocolate dipping sauce. Though saccharinely sweet, this simple dessert is worth saving some room for.

The cozy atmosphere coupled with the assorted menu of stylishly crafted and utterly delectable samplings makes Toro a must-try. Oringer and Bissonnette flaunt their adaptability and flair with this authentic tapas eatery, cementing their title as two of the best and brightest chefs in a city that is becoming increasingly popular among intrepid gastronomes.

‘Reign of Terror’ unsuccessfully breaks from ‘Treats’ legacy TERROR

continued from page 5

be a fairly disappointing album.

Krauss seems to have spent the year and a half off accumulating an even larger amount of swag than what she flaunted on “Treats.” That may sound appealing at first, but there’s a fine line between endearing aggressiveness and flat-out cockiness. Hearing Krauss sing an unrelenting barrage of unoriginal lines (“I got a crush on you” and “Don’t run away from me, baby,” for example) forces one to yearn for 2010, when Krauss’ lyrics were so genuinely weird and fun that she could spend an entire song singing only the line, “Got my A machines in the table/ got my B machines in the drawer,” and be totally lovable for it.

Equally distressing is the lack of vocal variation she exhibits over the course of the record’s eleven tracks. One of the things that made “Treats” so desirable was the volatility and variety in Krauss’ delivery — shrieking or chanting at one moment, playfully chirruping at the next. On “Reign,” she spends the majority of her time operating within the constraints of the coy taunt that was really only present on “Rill Rill” back in 2010. However tongue-in-cheek the bombast is intended to be, it comes off as kitschy and stale from oversaturation. “Reign’s” best moments come when Krauss sheds this newfound role as a temptress and veritably lets loose — tracks like “Demons” and “Born to Lose” find Krauss yelling for the hell of it, reveling in and contributing to the noisy chaos Miller creates for her.

Miller’s shift in production is certainly interesting, if not misguided. “Reign of Terror” is loud and undoubtedly more guitar driven than its predecessor. These guitars — however distorted — are surprisingly sterile and calculated throughout the album’s 36 minutes. Eighties-style hair metal is a definite steppingstone for Miller here, and it’s not wrong for him to find inspiration in a pre-established genre form.

The problem arises when he attempts to combine the style with inconsistently complex beats from his drum machine and Krauss’ overbearingly monotonous vocals. At some points he gets the formula right — the mercilessly quick and fun beat collage on the aforementioned “Born to Lose,” for example — but at others it goes terribly wrong, such as in the agonizingly simple and unvaried pound on “Road to Hell.” The guitar doubling and soaring riffs are a guilty pleasure for sure, but the attempt at mixing and matching everything proves to be too difficult a task.

The “sophomore slump” is one of the most loaded notions in music. If a debut album from an artist is fresh in breadth and adored by fans and critics alike, there really isn’t much that the artist can do to escape the demands for and comparisons to their debut work. Sleigh Bells should be praised for trying to escape this trend: They attempted to establish a new direction without deviating too far from their original path. Unfortunately, on “Reign of Terror,” it’s as though Krauss and Miller are too in their own heads about this fact, and they make more missteps than progressions.

Robert Loerzel via Flickr Creative Commons

Bland lyrics and humdrum guitar mar ‘Reign of Terror.’

Richard Yaussi via Flickr Creative Commons

Fast horses and slow plot combine poorly in ‘Luck.’

‘Luck’ needs more consistent action, excitement to reach full potential LUCK

continued from page 5

mation. “Luck” also highlights other goings-on in the racing world: racism among trainers, hardships among gamblers and old people talking about horses as if they are people.

So where exactly does “Luck” go wrong? For starters, horse racing is a pretty niche subject. Most Americans only pay attention to racing three times out of the year — during the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and … what was that last one? Still, this was an opportunity for Milch, a thoroughbred owner himself, to bring the exciting world of the racetrack to the forefront of popular culture. Instead, he created yet another slow cooker about seedy gangsters, a subject that has definitely never been breached

by HBO before, especially not on programs like “Boardwalk Empire” and “The Sopranos” (1999-2007).

Here’s the real problem: Hoffman is old. His co-star, Nick Nolte, is old.

Dennis Farina, in a dramatic career shift that finds him playing yet another mobster (this time Greek!), is also old.

The youngest lead actor on “Luck” is in his 40s, and you’ve probably never heard of him ( John Ortiz, anyone?).

Clearly, HBO knows its adrenaline-seeking demographic of upper middle-class, New York-based subscribers very well.

This is not to say that there aren’t moments of pure blood-pumping

excitement — every race is exhilaratingly portrayed, and every win feels like a Triple Crown victory. Still, for each episode’s two minutes of elation, there are 10 minutes of Nolte talking to a horse. No, that can’t be right; “talking” implies that Nolte says more than three words per minute. And just when you thought the show couldn’t move any more slowly, they add a scene of trainers euthanizing a horse to an entire Sigur Rós song. However artistically the scene may have been shot, it didn’t do too much to imject some much-needed life into the show.

That said, “Luck” still may be worth following to the bitter end. After all, this is David Milch we’re talking about!

He likes to take his time to get things moving and, truth be told, his products almost always end up worth the wait ... Except for “John from Cincinnati” (2007). Ouch! And who knows, the show might introduce a seductive woman or two. Plus, Michael Gambon just joined the cast and, though he is also incredibly old, at least he was Dumbledore.

Either way, it’s a better way to stave off the cold until “Game of Thrones” returns than watching “Pan Am” or whatever garbage the major networks are pushing these days.

“Luck” airs every Sunday at 9 p.m. on HBO, and every episode so far is available online at HBO GO for those who have parents who are subscribers or pay for the service themselves.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012 Crossword

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

editoriAL

Daniel J. Rathman Editorial

Editorial | Letters

The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate partook in a lengthy debate on Monday night. At stake was a resolution that failed to pass by a narrow margin of three votes. The debate and resolution weren’t about a topic like financial aid, diversity or sustainability, but rather about an optional Tufts admissions essay question and the definition of the word “nerdy.”

The resolution in question called for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions to replace one of its six optional response topics in the Tufts supplement to the Common Application. The topic in question tells applicants, “Celebrate your nerdy side.”

The resolution argued that the topic can restrict the pool of applicants who could answer to those who have a nerdy side and that “nerdy” has negative connotations. Before the close vote that shot down the resolution, the senate debated the resolution for about an hour and spent a good deal of that time focusing on what exactly the word “nerdy” means.

That our student government representatives spent so much time debating

a resolution protesting a completely optional college application response is indicative of larger problems with the TCU Senate. If some members of the senate hope to move into politics after graduation, they’re getting good training: The body as a whole can act just as ineffectually as the real U.S. Congress.

As for the resolution itself, the Daily believes that it is making much ado about nothing.

Not only is the “nerdy” response one of six options — and therefore completely avoidable — it is no more restrictive than Tufts’ highly publicized YouTube application option. That option arguably discriminates in favor of individuals who are charismatic and photogenic, and who have access to high-quality video equipment.

Furthermore, the prompt does not require respondents to be full-fledged nerds in the traditional sense. It only requires them to have a nerdy side: It does not exclude members of stereotypical high school cliques like the goths, preps, jocks, hippies, greasers and plastics. As long as they have some sem-

blance of a nerdy side, they’re more than able to answer the optional question.

Since members of the Tufts Class of 2015 had a mean high school rank in the top five percent of their class, it’s hard to argue that admitted Tufts students don’t all share a nerdy trait: academic excellence.

Tufts itself has an inherent nerdy quality that the response option embraces. One of our most popular sports is Quidditch. We crowd around our TVs to watch an a cappella group compete on NBC’s “The Sing-Off.” Our library has a tapestry written in binary.

The Department of Computer Science shares a building with the Athletics Department. Tufts is a nerdy school, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.

While the word “nerd” certainly has historically negative connotations, there’s no reason nerds can’t work to own the term as people who are intelligent and interesting. The optional question itself is more inclusive than restrictive — it does nothing to discourage the “cool kids” from applying, but it does let nerdy people know that it’s OK to be themselves.

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“Guess it’s off to BC for me!”

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, On Tuesday, Feb. 14 you ran a frontpage, above-the-fold story, “TCU Senate Survey Response Rate Down,” with two pictures concerning student’s responses to the TCU Senate Survey or rather the lack thereof. Most readers probably came away with the impression that as students get older they care less and less about what the Senate does, which probably has some truth to it. However, just the day before you ran a front-page, below-the-fold blurb, “TCU Senate Update,” covering what transpired during Sunday’s Senate meeting. In that meeting, the TCU Senate awarded nearly $40,000 to the Tufts Culinary Society so they could bring in a celebrity chef.

The Tufts Daily effectively has a monopoly on how students hear about the day-to-day news of the university

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. EDITORIAL POLICY Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board.

and how it will affect the lives of students on campus. Since you are a major component of the fourth estate here at Tufts, I feel that the Daily has a responsibility to provide more coverage on what the Senate is actually doing. (Like many of my colleagues on Senate, I voted in favor of this allocation, but few will ever know why.) If the Daily were to provide more coverage on what the Senate is actually doing rather than why people don’t care about it, then I would argue people would start to care and properly react to the actions of their representatives.

You then probably wouldn’t have to run as many “Off the Hill” op-eds, and there may actually be elections to get on Senate.

Furthermore, on the 14th, you also used your editorial page to address New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s

stance on gay marriage. While gay marriage is an important issue and I am not trying to belittle it in any way, I think the Daily has a responsibility to provide opinions on news that directly affects students and not the political happenings of New Jersey.

(I would also add that spending 40 grand for a chef is more controversial than gay marriage at Tufts.)

In short, we the Senate and the collective student body need a fairer and balanced approach covering the Senate’s actions to better understand what we are doing and why, while you should need us so you can run stories and editorials that directly affect the lives of students on campus.

Sincerely, Ben Richards TCU Senator, Class of 2012

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Tufts Daily

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Op-Ed

The impersonalization of warfare by

Darcy Covert

Few countries pride themselves on a concrete and stringent set of values in the way the U.S. military has since its founding. That is not to say that those values are not breached within its borders, while they are consistently and strongly advocated outside them. Yet ethics are neither absolute nor enduring, as is exemplified by the phenomenon of technological advancement in the context of war.

In this country, soldiers are supposed to be courageous and fearless, dedicating their lives to protecting the “freedoms” of citizens without asking questions. At the same time, civilians are assumed to unhesitatingly endorse these wars, and when they don’t, they are accused of not supporting “our troops.” In the societal action of war we accept mass casualties and the death of people whose identities we will never know and whose faces we will never see.

But war technology — both remote controlled and robotics weapons systems — only widens the gap between killers and killed, pushing us to ask: How does this “revolution in military affairs” affect the values of military combat and of society in general? While the topic of the ethical implications of these developments has been largely bowled over by the unquestioning pursuit of more advanced technology, a consideration of their moral consequences is imperative.

In 2002 and 2003, the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq with a handful of unmanned vehicles. Since then, development of war technology has soared: By 2008, there were 5,331 drones in the U.S. military’s inventory and about half that many unmanned planes, to say nothing of their other robotic and unmanned gadgets. This has been the response to a change in tolerance for war deaths: While Americans are growing less tolerant of the loss of their soldiers’ lives, they are becoming desensitized to other victims. The loss of an American life is tragic, but the deaths of thousands of people of other

nationalities aren’t even worth a headline in a newspaper that will have cover stories about nasty words exchanged between presidential candidates.

As a response, trillions of dollars of American funding for technology is finally starting to be able to replace human presence on the battlefield.

Pilots control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from trailers outside Las Vegas and kill people in rural Afghanistan more than seven thousand miles away, putting another human being’s fate in the motion of a joystick or the pressing of a button. This distance not only affects how the controller looks at the target — consider how this situation mimics that of a video game — but also how she or he looks at herself or himself, allowing the adoption of a different personality as a player in a game very distant from reality. Unmanned robots have also taken on an important role in war: These devices can be sent into dangerous areas where soldiers would otherwise be risking their lives.

Some work with human teams to identify and dismantle improvised explosive devices that used to claim dozens of American lives a month. Others are sent to explore dangerous situations in the battlefield, and an increasing number of them are mounted with weapons — marking a break with Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as well as some ethical and logical considerations.

I would argue that each of these technologies brings with it perils for the future of warfare, both how and when it is waged. Those who develop them emphasize that they lessen the risk posed to soldiers and that they actually decrease the number of civilian casualties: Technology is “described as a way to reduce war’s costs and passions.”

This is supported by the idea that UAVs allow for increased surveillance and thus a more accurate determination of targets. Further, removal of humans from the battlefield allows technology to calculate decisions that are supposedly not susceptible to human error, such as nervousness and surprise in combat or even unsteadiness and impaired vis-

MCT

ibility. But to say that these systems do not succumb to the same mistakes as individuals is to ignore their origins: They do have to be programmed by people, and they certainly malfunction, and who is held accountable for these errors?

Those who question this technology are not saying that we should ignore that which could save lives, but instead that there needs to be a debate about the implications of this technology and its ripple effects through society. Replacing soldiers with robots makes it considerably more likely that a country will go to war because of its relatively low cost compared with the value of human lives. Also, people are drifting further and further out of the “loop” with this technology, as machines are allowed to make more decisions based on extensive computable information but not ethical or situational considerations.

Further, it is human nature to protect ourselves from emotional pain, and putting a soldier behind a computer screen subconsciously allows that reality filter to develop and decisions to seem like

they don’t have real life consequences.

Is a war fought on one side primarily by technology still considered “just war” that follows the inherent laws of morality? It certainly makes more likely the possibility of going to war without establishing jus ad bellum, the right to go to war based on cause and intentions.

What does this astronomical investment in military technology say about the United States, or other countries that are also trying to make war more “efficient?” Without even questioning the act of war and the pursuit of the deaths of groups of people who a government has deemed “guilty” of some crime, consider our bent towards war and the implications of what military historian John Keegan calls the “impersonalization of battle.”

If you’d like to find out more about this issue, and various others, come to the EPIIC symposium on “Conflict in the 21st Century” from Feb. 22–26.

Darcy Covert is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.

Not so fast: Technology’s role in anti-government movements by

Michael Fishman

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a 2009 interview with The Guardian that in the age of the Internet “you cannot have Rwanda again.” His logic was appealing. If knowledge of atrocities can be spread instantly and globally, surely the nations of the world would no longer stand idly by as innocent civilians were killed. His beliefs and hopes were shared by many who saw the proliferation of Internet access as heralding a new era in global politics, in which global connectivity and awareness gave individuals power against oppressive regimes. Some commentators went further, claiming that Internet access would fundamentally alter the structure of global politics in favor of the masses. Almost three years later, it is clear that the truth is much more complex. The “Arab Spring” has achieved great success utilizing new technologies, but there have also been failures, and protesters are not the only ones who are finding ways to use this new tool.

New information technologies have certainly changed the ways in which

populations struggle against their governments. Sociologist Zeynep Tufecki is fond of describing a common technique of oppressive regimes that she calls the “whack-a-protest.” In the “whack-a-protest” model, an oppressive regime would respond to dissent by isolating an area, expelling journalists, and eliminating dissent with violence. For regimes, this method was an effective and economical tactic. Advancements in information technology such as the proliferation of Internet, cellphones, and mobile video recording devices have made this tactic less effective. This allows information to be spread to two important groups, fellow dissidents and the global community, giving protesters the ability to coordinate better within their own movement and share their plight with the world.

Another way in which new technology has been purported to help spread democratic movements is its ability to break down “pluralistic ignorance,” a situation in which the majority of a group rejects an idea but publicly supports it due to the mistaken belief that it is widely accepted.

People in an oppressive regime may fear

to speak out because they think they are alone, and oppressive regimes often heavily censor the media. As the Internet, in the words of activist John Gilmore, “interprets censorship as damage and routes around it,” it breaks down pluralistic ignorance and opens the door to the formation of anti-government groups.

Unfortunately for those struggling for freedom, there is another side to the story.

While the Arab Spring has claimed many successes, it is important not to give new technologies too much credit or place in them too much hope. Gordon Brown’s words mentioned earlier were in reaction to the “Green Revolution” in Iran, but three years later Iran’s political system remains unchanged and Iranian dissidents suffered from a government crackdown that was aided by an easy-to-follow data trail provided by Internet activity.

Despite what Brown said, it is easy to see how Facebook is a gold mine for government police. A list of dissidents’ friends and logs of their communications is only a password away, and few dissidents in Iran or elsewhere had the expertise to protect themselves from a determined

police inquiry.

The attention of the world is, today, on Syria, and the outcome remains uncertain. But amid widespread violence and assertions from the White House that the Syrian government is receiving assistance with the technological tools of oppression from Iran, the situation looks bleak.

Syria may well become a second Iran, rather than a second Tunisia. While new technology has helped ignite and fuel protests, it can also be a tool to extinguish them.

This year’s EPIIC symposium will provide ample opportunity to discuss these issues with experts in a variety of fields.

Three panels, Power Transitions in the 21st Century (Feb 22. at 7 p.m.), #Power: Youth, Technology and the State (Feb. 24 at 2 p.m.), and The Media and Warfare (Feb. 23 at 8 p.m.) will all relate to the ways in which populations come into conflict with their governments as technologies change.

Also, the Catholic Church cannot force its position on birth control on its nonCatholic employees. In a letter to the Archdiocese of Boston, Cardinal Sean O’Malley claims the Obama administration’s policy “strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith.” Cardinal O’Malley could not be more wrong. On the contrary, the Obama administration is protecting the

non-Catholic employees’ liberty without infringing upon Catholics’ rights. Under the policy, no Catholic would be forced to use contraceptives.

Finally, I would describe myself as not just a moderate Catholic, but a liberal Catholic, and as such I assert my right and the right of all Catholic women to access affordable contraceptives. I applaud the Obama adminis-

tration’s advocacy for women’s rights and religious freedom and am disappointed in its final decision in not forcing Catholic organizations to provide contraceptive coverage.

Michael Fishman is a junior majoring in political science.

Letter to the Editor Dear Editor, As a Catholic woman and Obama supporter, I thought I should state that Obama has not alienated me by supporting women’s rights or holding the Catholic Church to the same standards as other organizations. Many Catholic hospitals receive government funding and as such should not be exempt from providing contraceptives to their female employees.

Sincerely, Megan Clark Class of 2014

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

Six Jumbos earn All-Conference recognition over the weekend WOMEN’S SWIMMING continued from page 12

shared success in the 400-yard individual medley race. In the finals, Garvey finished in 4:33.12, good for fifth place, and Wachenfeld touched the wall in 4:34.21 for sixth. Both times qualified for the national B cuts.

Sophomore Ellen Gage had a very strong preliminary swim in the 50-yard breaststroke, recording the third-best qualifying time before placing seventh in the finals. Gage was even better in the 100-yard breaststroke, touching at 1:06.90 to earn fifth place.

The Jumbos accrued many of their points in the diving events.

The duo of senior Kelly Flanagan and sophomore Sami Bloom, which has been a source of points for the Jumbos all season, performed very well at NESCACs. Bloom placed fifth in both the 1-meter and 3-meter events, while Flanagan rounded out the top eight in the 1-meter dive and finished one spot behind Bloom in the 3-meter.

Relays highlighted the Jumbos’ weekend at NESCACs. The team of Adams, Sliwinski, senior Paulina Ziolek and Coniglio took second in the 200-yard freestyle relay, and their time of 1:36 in the finals beat the school record they had set just days earlier in the preliminary race.

The 400-yard relay team of Adams, junior Lizz Grainger, Garvey and Sliwinski recorded a school record with a time of 3:32.91, placing fifth in the finals.

The 400-yard medley relay team — led by Sliwinski, continued

by Gage and Greenwald and anchored by Coniglio — set the new school mark at 3:55.22 and finished fifth in the finals.

Knowing that many of the seniors were swimming for the last time in their Tufts career provided an extra push for the team.

“Swimming with seniors on relays is a huge motivator for me,” Hu said. “I want to swim as fast as I can for them, because it’s their last chance. [Adams] and I have been on almost every championship relay together in my Tufts swimming career, and she inspires me so much. This year’s senior girls are a really special group of girls, and losing their leadership will be really hard for the whole team.”

Following her team’s stellar performance, coach Nancy Bigelow was named Coach of the Meet for the second time in her career. “[Coach Bigelow] has been so supportive, always wanting the best for our team,” Hu said. “I think it’s great that she and the rest of the coaching staff were recognized for all their work and dedication to the team.”

Six Tufts swimmers were named to the NESCAC AllConference Team for 2012, which is comprised of the top three finishers in each event at the championship meet. Adams earned All-NESCAC recognition for the third time; Greenwald and Hu each received their second All-Conference honors; and Sliwinski, Coniglio and Ziolek were named to the team for the first time.

Those swimmers who qualified for the national B cuts will now await the results from the rest of the Div. III conference meets to see if their times are good enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis from March 21-24.

Sports

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Careers may be winding down for club heroes Fergie and Wenger SOCCER

continued from page 12

Champions League before the group stage for the first time since the 2005-06 season. The Red Devils were in perhaps the easiest group of the whole tournament, but the grinding Champions League campaign exposed their lack of depth and quality, especially in the midfield. Even though United is still in second place in the Premier League, getting knocked out of the Champions League so early was a major embarrassment and led some to question Ferguson’s ability to get the job done going forward.

Wenger has had an even more difficult season, with things going from bad to worse.

Arsenal lost 8-2 at the hands of Manchester United in August

while taking a full three points in just one of its first five matches.

The Gunners then crashed out of the Carling Cup in November against Manchester City.

Arsenal has since stabilized in the Premiership, improving to a tie for fourth in the league, but just last week suffered a 4-0 away thrashing to AC Milan that essentially knocked them out of the Champions League as well. They completed the tournament dropout trifecta with a 2-0 FA Cup loss to Sunderland, leaving their chances of ending a trophy drought that began in 2005 at nearly nil.

So the question becomes: how much longer can these two hold on? There is growing speculation that Wenger may be fired if he does not manage to qualify for next season’s Champions League

by finishing in the top four of the Premier League.

For a man who is immortalized with a bust inside the Emirates, Arsenal’s home pitch, an ignominious end would be disappointing. He is likely Arsenal’s greatest manager ever and is directly responsible for making Arsenal a modern-day “superclub.”

Similarly, Sir Alex Ferguson has taken Manchester United to international fame and fortune under multiple owners, but unlike Wenger, there is probably never going to be a situation where he would be fired. Still, eventually, both Ferguson and Wenger will have to face Father Time.

In sports, even the most brilliant careers must eventually end, and for these two titans of the game, it will be no different.

Experience should benefit Jumbos next season MEN’S SQUASH

continued from page 12

past MIT, 8-1, and in the semis, the team bested Georgetown, 5-4, in a match that was not as close as the final score indicated. Tufts jumped out to a 5-1 advantage, meaning that they had already sewn up the victory after the first six matches.

But the momentum gained from those two triumphs couldn’t fuel Tufts past No. 26 Hobart, who came into the championships ranked one spot below Tufts. Because of the loss, the Jumbos will most likely wind up with that 26th spot at the end of the season, putting them one slot above

last year’s finish.

“Even though we got second place, it’s still better than we did last year,” Ho said. “It shows how much effort people are putting into really improving their games.”

Ho, like so many of his teammates, still has multiple seasons remaining, which gives the Jumbos more chances to improve and vindicate this year’s frustrating loss at nationals.

Throughout the competition, the five freshmen in the top nine found themselves matched up against seasoned veterans. In a year, that disparity won’t seem so large — something Ho took into

account when looking back on the team’s campaign.

“Especially considering that this team [has] so many young players … it requires a whole different line of thinking. Everyone played well, and everyone improved,” Ho said. “I don’t think I could’ve expected any better from any of my teammates.

Schweitzer will advance to individual nationals on March 2, but for the rest of the team, the season is over, and the loss is a tough one to swallow.

Nonetheless, Meggitt is optimistic about the future and looking ahead to next year.

“We know there’s going to be other opportunities,” he said.

The Tufts Daily

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

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Sports

Inside MLB

Sam Gold | The OT

Baseball offseason’s winners and losers by

Model Athletes: A Rare Breed

Matt Berger

Daily Editorial Board

While the MLB season officially begins in early April in sold-out ballparks around the country, true baseball fans know that the start of a new campaign really occurs in small towns around Florida and Arizona in mid-February. Now that pitchers and catchers have reported to spring training, it seems appropriate to begin gearing up for the 2012 season.

This offseason was one of the more exciting in recent memory, as many premier players ended up switching teams during free agency, dramatically shifting the balance of power in baseball. Here are this offseason’s top three winners and losers:

Winners Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim The Angels were winners this offseason mainly because they signed nine-time AllStar and three-time MVP Albert Pujols.

It’s hard to lose when you nab the best player in baseball and stick him smack in the middle of an offense that previously lacked the power to compete with league heavyweights such as the Yankees, Red Sox and Rangers.

In addition to adding Pujols, the Angels also signed former Rangers ace C.J. Wilson, who finished in the top 10 in the American League last season in ERA, wins and strikeouts and will likely be the Angels’ No. 3 starter behind co-aces Jered Weaver and Dan Haren.

With these signings, the Angels have clearly vaulted themselves into the top tier of the American League. They should challenge Texas for the AL West pennant, and they may even compete with New York, Boston and Detroit for the American League pennant.

Washington Nationals It once seemed like the Nats were always in the mix for top-class players but never ended up landing them. That changed last winter when they nabbed outfielder Jayson Werth.

This offseason, general manager Mike Rizzo added former Oakland ace Gio Gonzalez to their starting rotation via trade. Previously acquired by the Athletics in a trade that sent Nick Swisher to the White Sox, Gonzalez has blossomed of late and was named to the 2011 All-Star Game.

Washington further improved its rotation by re-signing John Lannan and adding free agent Edwin Jackson, who was an All-Star in 2009 and signed just a one-year contract, making him an essentially risk-free pickup.

Jordan Zimmermann and Stephen Strasburg are also promising youngsters that should factor into the rotation this season.

Detroit Tigers While it remains to be seen whether Detroit overpaid when it gave former Milwaukee slugger Prince Fielder a nine-

T

MCT

With the addition of nine-time All-Star and three-time MVP Albert Pujols (left), the Angels have a daunting lineup and a chance to compete with the American League’s best. year, $214 million contract to take his talents to the Motor City, one thing is for sure: Detroit now has a powerful offense to go along with an improving starting pitching staff.

Fielder and Miguel Cabrera, who will be hitting together in the middle of the Detroit lineup, have a combined 495 home runs over the last eight seasons, and both are repeat All-Star selections.

The Tigers also grabbed relievers Octavio Dotel and Collin Balester to shore up an already stellar bullpen that includes closer Jose Valverde, who converted all 49 of his save opportunities last season and recorded a 2.24 ERA.

Houston Astros The Astros were the worst team in baseball in 2011, and they did little to improve this offseason. Houston’s biggest acquisitions were Red Sox utility infielder Jed Lowrie and 25-year-old pitcher Kyle Weiland, who posted a 7.66 ERA last season and has yet to prove that he can stick at the major league level.

Houston also failed to move average players with big contracts, including starting pitcher Wandy Rodriquez and first baseman Carlos Lee. Rodriquez was just 11-11 last season with a 3.49 ERA, while Lee — who is entering his sixth year in Houston — has seen a sharp decline in home runs and batting average over the last three seasons.

Losers New York Mets In arguably the most improved division in baseball, nobody is quite sure what the Mets were thinking this offseason. With the seventh-highest payroll in baseball last season, it sure seems like the Mets could have made a run at a few top free agents.

New York’s biggest signings were back-end relievers Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch and outfielder Andres Torres, but the Mets hardly did anything else of note.

In addition, the Mets lost arguably their best player in shortstop Jose Reyes. The 2011 NL batting champion elected to head south and play for the Miami Marlins, which may mean that the Mets will find themselves in the cellar come September.

Even worse, the Mets failed to move overpriced stars Johan Santana, Jason Bay or David Wright for financial wiggle room and a stable of prospects to begin what could be years of rebuilding.

Baltimore Orioles Baltimore hasn’t had a winning record since 1997, and it looks like that isn’t going to change this season. The Orioles failed to improve on a 2011 squad that won just 69 games.

Since the beginning of their 15-year slide, the Orioles have gone through seven managers and six general managers. Owner Peter Angelos, who has been the one constant throughout the losing years, pegged former Red Sox GM Dan Duquette as the latest hire this offseason, even though he had been out of major league baseball for nine seasons.

Duquette failed to make a splash during his first free agent signing period with the Orioles, as Baltimore — despite reportedly making runs at Prince Fielder and Manny Ramirez — failed to sign anybody of note and lost arguably its best starting pitcher in Jeremy Guthrie, who was traded to the Rockies for below-average veterans Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom.

DAILY DIGITS

25

$21,000,000 Amount the New York Yankees are paying right-handed starting pitcher A.J. Burnett to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Signed for five years and $82.5 million prior to the 2009 season, Burnett helped the Yankees win the World Series in his first season, but has become an overpriced, underperforming pitcher since. The final straw came last season, when he posted a 5.15 ERA and was wildly inconsisent. After the Yankees acquired Hiroki Kuroda and Michael Pineda, he became expendable, and the team traded him to the Pirates for two minor leaguers.

Times the Tufts women’s basketball team has held opponents to 40 points or fewer this season. The latest such game was the Jumbos’ 57-40 victory on Saturday over visiting Conn. College in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. The first time the two teams met in January, the Jumbos held the Camels to just 21 points. Thanks to their tenacious defense, Tufts has outscored opponents by 392 points over the course of the season. The team advances in the tournament to face No. 3 seed Bowdoin at Amherst College on Saturday in the NESCAC semifinals.

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Factor by which the hockey team has improved its NESCAC winning percentage, going from .263 in 2011 to .528 this season. The turnaround has been remarkable and is due in large part to the return of senior tri-captain goalie Scott Barchard, who was sidelined for much of last season with an ankle injury. Despite being outscored in the conference by a margin of 65-46 on the season, the Jumbos will play their first home conference tournament match in the NESCAC era when they face Williams at the Malden Forum on Saturday.

Times in NBA history that a single team has had three different players accrue 50 points, 40 points, and a triple double in the same game.

The Oklahoma City Thunder achieved the feat on Sunday, as Kevin Durant scored 51 points to help his team to a 124-118 overtime victory over the Denver Nuggets. Russell Westbrook had 40 points, and Serge Ibaka put up the triple double, posting 14 points, 15 rebounds and 11 blocks. It was the first time that two teammates had scored 40 points in the same game since 1996, when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen pulled it off.

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Points scored by Bates senior forward John Squires in his team’s 57-54 quarterfinal upset of Tufts at Cousens Gymnasium on Saturday.

Squires also posted 13 rebounds, giving him more than double the points and rebounds totals of Tufts’ leaders in those categories.

Squires was 12-for-21 from the field and led his team in scoring by 16 points, good enough to earn him NESCAC Player of the Week honors. Tufts finished the season at 16-9 overall, while Bates will move on to face No. 1 seed Amherst in the tournament semifinals on Saturday.

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Games won in a row at home by the Detroit Red Wings, a new NHL record.

During the home win streak, the Red Wings have catapulted to the top of the NHL, even while enduring a finger injury to their starting goaltender, Jimmy Howard. Untested backup Joey MacDonald has performed admirably, winning six games in a row. The Red Wings show no signs of slowing down, and will look to continue their streak in their next home game on Thursday against the Canucks.

im Tebow and Jeremy Lin: One was a highly touted player out of high school, the other an unknown from Palo Alto. One was a first round draft pick, the other undrafted.

One received a multimillion dollar deal, the other a partially guaranteed contract.

Their paths to stardom couldn’t have been more dissimilar, yet they have merited comparison because of their affinity for and undying devotion to Jesus Christ.

What lends additional credibility to this comparison is that each player has conducted himself in the manner of a model athlete — a refreshing throwback to the days of team-before-individual.

Neither one would ever concede that he has singlehandedly led his team to victory, but that’s just modesty at work, and it speaks volumes about a character trait sorely lacking in contemporary athletics.

Meanwhile, a few thousand miles away in London, a 23-year-old Chelsea winger named Juan Mata whizzes up and down along the sideline, orchestrating attacks with lethal precision and a dancer’s nimbleness.

The young Spaniard has all but justified his £23.5 million summer transfer fee, having registered five goals and eight assists in 23 games. Far and away the most inventive Blues player, he has settled quite nicely into the groove of a team whose upper management and star players have been under fire since the season began.

Mata was also recently voted the best winger in the Premier League in a poll of over 22,000 fans conducted

by Givemefootball.com. He edged out superstars Gareth Bale, last year’s Players’ Player of the Year, and Antonio Valencia, who has had his best season to date in a Manchester United uniform.

Perhaps it is because soccer, for whatever reason, generates megalomania in smaller doses than does American basketball or football, but Juan Mata’s exemplary deportment as well as his numerous and remarkable accomplishments off the pitch have flown under the radar — and I’d argue that his surpass those of Tebow or Lin. Language transition, an oft overlooked aspect of international soccer, was hardly an obstacle for Mata, who is “already fluent in English, and has made a seamless transition to life in the hustle and bustle of the capital,” according to Paul Bailey of givemefootball.com.

Not only was adjustment a breeze for Mata, but he also managed to do it while simultaneously studying for two degrees — sports science and marketing — at Madrid’s Complutense University. In his spare time, he doesn’t like to go clubbing or philandering around London; instead, he prefers to backpack through the Spanish countryside and around the Greek islands, and, more frequently, explore his new host city.

Mata’s sheer love of the game is yet another distinguishing factor in an era of exorbitant contracts and grossly inflated individualistic thinking. He has expressed his desire to play in both the Euros and the Olympics, a grueling succession of matches that would exhaust even the fittest players.

If only we could watch contests played by teams full of Matas, Tebows or Lins — though I myself am not a fan of invoking God or Scripture so prominently. In reality, however, and much to the detriment of major sports everywhere, team loyalty has been tossed to the wayside, superseded by senseless holdouts and clamoring for trades.

These guys have got it right. They’ve recognized, as all their counterparts should, that high status in the sports world should not suddenly allow athletes to forgo humility and forget why they picked up a ball in the first place: for the love of the game.

Sam Gold is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at Samuel_L.Gold@tufts.edu.

Sports

12

INSIDE Inside MLB 11

tuftsdaily.com

Women’s Swimming and Diving

Jumbos break 11 school records, place third at NESCACs by

Zach McGowan

Daily Staff Writer

The Jumbos went to the NESCAC Swimming and Diving Championships at Wesleyan with high hopes this past weekend, and they were not disappointed. Tufts posted 11 school records and seven national B-cut times,while earning third place overall.

Williams, the overwhelming favorite entering the meet, claimed its 12th straight NESCAC crown with a score of 1,826 points.

Amherst, which trailed Tufts until the third and final day of the meet, pulled ahead and finished with 1,460.5 points. Tufts accumulated enough points on Sunday to edge Middlebury for third place. The team’s score of 1,261.5 points was its highest total in the 12-year history of the meet.

“I think the team’s performance as a whole was the best performance we’ve had at NESCACs in the four years I’ve been here,” senior co-captain Valerie Eacret said. “We are usually fighting for third place — we hadn’t really ever been in a place where we could have placed ahead of Amherst for

second. This year, we held on to second place for the first two days of the meet, which was unprecedented for our team.”

Sophomore Maggie Rosenbaum of Hamilton College earned Swimmer of the Meet honors, sweeping all three backstroke events for the second straight year.

McKenzie Murdoch of Williams was named Diver of the Meet, a well-deserved honor for the sophomore who claimed the 1-meter and 3-meter titles.

Sophomore Jenny Hu was one of the main contributors to the Jumbos’ success. In both the 50and 100-yard breaststroke races, Hu placed second, swam national B-cut times and set school records. Her time of 1:05.78 in the 100-yard breaststroke surpassed her own previous school record, and in the 50-yard breaststroke, Hu broke a record that had stood for five years.

Sophomore Mia Greenwald, one of the favorites heading into the meet in the butterfly events, also performed very well.

Greenwald finished fourth in the 100-yard butterfly, making the national B cut in the process.

Scott Tingley / Tufts Daily

Sophomore Mia Greenwald finished fourth in the 100-meter butterfly and broke a school record in the 50-meter butterfly at the NESCAC Swimming and Diving Championships at Wesleyan this past weekend.

The Jumbos were well represented in the 50-yard butterfly, with Greenwald and Eacret both putting up excellent times.

Greenwald’s preliminary time of 25.50 broke her previous school record by a quarter of a second. She finished third in the final heat, and Eacret — who had qualified for the finals with

Men’s Squash

the eighth-fastest preliminary time — finished just behind Greenwald in fourth place.

Eacret sang the praises of the freshman swimmers, who did not let their nerves get to them in their first NESCAC championship meet.

“The freshmen all stepped up this weekend in their first col-

legiate championship meet,” Eacret said. “Sam Sliwinski was of course a standout and broke school records. Amanda Wachenfeld had a great 500 [freestyle], and Kathryn Coniglio and Scarlett Hao also had great performances this weekend.”

Sliwinski, who has been phenomenal for the Jumbos all season in the freestyle and backstroke events, broke a four yearold school record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.13. She swam the 100-yard backstroke as well; her time of 59.36 set a new school record and was good for seventh in the finals.

Senior co-captain Courtney Adams tied Tufts’ eight year-old 100-yard freestyle record with a time of 52.96. She finished sixth in the finals.

Several other Jumbos enjoyed success in the freestyle events.

Wachenfeld finished fifth in the 1,000-yard freestyle, and junior Christine Garvey notched a fifth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

Garvey and Wachenfeld also see WOMEN’S SWIMMING, page 10

Inside INTERNATIONAL Soccer

Tufts falls to Hobart in rematch for Conroy Cup title by

Marcus Budline

Contributing Writer

Tied at three wins apiece entering the last round of play at the College Squash Association National Championships at Princeton this past weekend, the Conroy Division Championship between Tufts and Hobart came down to the final three matches.

After a victory by freshman Zach Schweitzer, Tufts was one win away from hoisting the Conroy Cup. But sophomore Michael Abboud and freshman Hugo Meggitt lost their matchups and Hobart walked off with the dramatic victory in the final, 5-4.

The two teams played to the same score in their previous meeting, but last time it was the Jumbos that came away with the win. Evidently, the Statesmen were out for a statement victory and revenge on the big stage at nationals.

“Hobart was really coming out to prove that they were better than us,” sophomore Jeremy Ho said. “They came out really strong.”

Even with Hobart’s intensity, Tufts was

able to build an early 2-1 lead on the strength of captain Henry Miller and Eli Borek, the two seniors in the top nine, who both ended their Tufts careers with convincing victories. The next win was secured by freshman Elliott Kardon, but two other Tufts losses set up the drama of the final round of competition.

After Abboud went down, the pressure of the final match fell on Meggitt, and he eventually fell to Hobart senior Grant Bercari in four sets. “[I] had time to get off the court before any celebrations took place,” Meggitt said. “[But] it definitely sucks to be the one to lose it.”

“Everyone was just really intense, so when we saw the final point, everyone was definitely disappointed,” Ho added.

“You could see it on everyone’s faces.”

With the loss, the Jumbos also missed out on a chance to end the season with a .500 record, finishing at 10-12, including their two wins in the quarter- and semi-finals of the Conroy Division.

In the first round, Tufts cruised easily see MEN’S SQUASH, page 10

alex dennett / tufts daily

Senior captain Henry Miller went out with a bang on Sunday, winning his last Tufts match in four sets in the Conroy Cup final. The Jumbos eventually fell to Hobart, 5-4.

MCT

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is a soccer legend, but at 70 years old, he could be close to calling it quits.

End of era approches in EPL by

David McIntyre

Daily Editorial Board

If sports teach us anything, it’s that no one can hang on to a job forever. No matter how good somebody is for years on end, eventually the time will come when the reality of age sets in and new ideas are needed to move organizations forward. In the English Premier League, two such cases are playing out at almost exactly the same time. Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United and Arsène Wenger of Arsenal, two of the greatest managers of all time, are nearing ages after which they might need to consider stepping away from the game.

Whenever they do decide to hang up their coaching whistle, Ferguson, 70, and Wenger, 62, will go down as titans of the English game and of soccer at large.

Ferguson has led Manchester United since 1986, hauling in an incredible 12 Premier League titles, five FA Cups and two Champions League titles, as well as numerous other trophies and awards during his tenure. But perhaps his greatest achievement is his longevity and versatility, as he has rebuilt the United ros-

ter numerous times to adapt to different trends in the game, making it the most popular sports team in the world in the process.

Wenger also totes a record that any manager would envy — in addition to three Premier League titles and four FA Cups, he oversaw probably the greatest single season in European soccer history in 2003-04, going the entire league season undefeated. The squad known as “the Invincibles” is Wenger’s greatest achievement and will be talked about for years to come, regardless of the situation regarding his retirement.

But despite all their former achievements and the legendary status they retain at their respective clubs, it’s their future chances of victory that concern both fans and management and will determine how long the two can keep their jobs. This is mostly due to a disastrous 2011-2012 campaign that has not gone as planned for either man.

For Ferguson, disaster struck on Dec. 7, when his team lost 2-1 to FC Basel of Switzerland, bowing out of the see SOCCER, page 10