2013-02-06.pdf

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THE TUFTS DAILY

VOLUME LXV, NUMBER 10

Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Programming Board cancels Jumbo Jam due to budget restrictions Facing budget restrictions from the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate, Tufts Concert Board canceled its annual spring Jumbo Jam concert, which traditionally features lesser-known artists than Spring Fling and Cage Rage, to prevent cuts to Spring Fling funding.

Programming Board, the umbrella organization for Concert Board, did not have enough money to allocate to Concert Board events, Office for Campus Life Assistant Director David McGraw said.

“Our budget is fixed on just Cage Rage, Battle of the Bands and Spring Fling,” Concert Board co-chair Julia Stein said.

“This year they cut funding for [all of Programming Board], and rather than cutting into Spring Fling, we decided to cut Jumbo Jam to focus on making Spring Fling as great as it possibly could be.”

To make up for the budget shortfalls, McGraw and Concert Board said they were hoping to recuperate funds from tickets to Cage Rage.

“We were hoping this year to get enough revenue off of Cage Rage to go ahead and have a Jumbo Jam either way,” McGraw said.

“However that event didn’t generate revenue beyond what we anticipated.”

McGraw said Jumbo Jam was the most obvious event to cancel due to its lower popularity in the past.

“Senate came back and said ‘You’re requesting too much money, we have to figure out places to cut back,’” he added. “So looking at events to pull money from, sadly to say Jumbo Jam has not been as successful.”

Concert Board co-chair Mark Bernardo

said he agreed that Jumbo Jam has not been one of the more popular events in the past.

“Traditionally, Jumbo Jam is more of an indie-acoustic show, and not as many people are into that so it’s hard in terms of publicity,” he said.

This is not the first time Jumbo Jam has been cut for budgetary reasons, with similar circumstances leading to its cancellation in spring 2011. It seemed like the best event to cut, according to McGraw.

“A great example was last year when [Jumbo Jam] was in Cohen [Auditorium],” McGraw said. “The rough cost of the event was just under $20,000, but we had about 50 students show up.”

Concert Board’s budget is mostly allocated toward acquiring musical acts for events. It usually spends roughly $30,000 on bands for Cage Rage, $15,000 for Jumbo Jam and $100,000 for talent at Spring Fling, according to McGraw.

After a surplus last year allowed for a $150,000 Spring Fling budget, Stein felt that preserving a high budget for this year’s event would be best.

“Having that extra buffer is important for getting the artist,” she said.

Concert Board had initially planned on announcing this year’s Spring Fling line-up at Jumbo Jam but is now reconsidering how to notify students.

“It’ll be some time in late March or early April, possibly at Battle of the Bands,” Bernardo said.

— by Justin McCallum

Courtesy Alonso Nichols / Tufts University

Diane Souvaine, a professor of computer science, was named the vice provost for research last semester to replace Peggy Newell, who departed Tufts for Harvard last november.

Professor Souvaine to head research office as vice provost

by Jenna

Buckle

Daily Editorial Board

Professor of Computer Science Diane Souvaine entered this semester in a new position as the Vice Provost for Research after being appointed in November. Her appointment followed a two-month internal search to replace outgoing Vice

Provost Peggy Newell, who left Tufts to become Harvard University’s first deputy provost in early November.

Souvaine’s appointment puts her at the head of what Provost and Senior Vice President David Harris called a crucial office for Tufts. see SOUVAINE, page 2

Boston Red Sox nutritionist speaks about athlete diets

by Victoria

Leistman

Daily Editorial Board

It was all in my closet. There was a lot under my bed It was all over everything on my roommate’s side.”

Friedman contacted Tufts University Police Department (TUPD), who subsequently reached out to the Department of Facilities Services.

“Two people from Facilities came and cleaned the room a little bit,” she said. “It

Boston Red Sox team nutritionist Tara Mardigan spoke to the Tufts community in Cohen Auditorium last night about dietary changes that can improve health and athletic performance.

Tufts Dining Services, Balance Your Life, Tufts Athletics and Health Service sponsored the presentation, entitled “Eat Energize Win: Jumbo Performance Nutrition to Build Muscle and Boost Brainpower.” Director of Dining and Business Services Patti Klos introduced Mardigan and thanked Tufts Nutrition Marketing Specialist Julie Lampie for proposing the idea to ask Mardigan to speak.

Mardigan, who graduated with a dual degree from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Tufts School of Medicine in 2002, began her talk by providing a basic overview of what constitutes good eating habits by providing 10 tips put forth by the Harvard School of Public Health. They included eating foods rich in fiber and choosing carbohydrates rich in whole grain. She asked the audience to consider where they would locate their eating habits on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being a perfectly balanced diet.

“The first place to start is, ‘What’s your baseline?’” she said. “How do you eat? Is food working for you or are you working for it?”

The presentation then focused in on the

see MICE, page 2

see NUTRITIONIST, page 2

Danai Macridi / Tufts Daily Archives

Rodent droppings were discovered in the rooms of several Carmichael Hall residents last month, forcing some students to relocate.

Mice, droppings discovered in Carmichael Hall first floor dorm rooms by

Hannah Fingerhut

Daily Editorial Board

Students living on the first floor of Carmichael Hall found rodent droppings in four rooms upon returning from winter vacation last month after mice migrated from the greenhouse area of Carmichael Dining Center.

Mice had been discovered, and subsequently dealt with, in Carmichael

Dining Center over winter break, Residential Facilities Coordinator Jennifer Bevins said.

Laura Friedman, a resident of Carmichael Hall, said she noticed small pellets of mice feces in her dorm room on Jan. 15.

“The closer I looked around my room, I realized it was all over,” Friedman, a sophomore, said. “It was on my desk, in my bed, on my bed, in my makeup.

Inside this issue

Today’s sections

Martsa On Elm delivers some solid dishes, but expansive menu is detractor.

Season four of Archer kicks off with fresh plotlines, character development

see ARTS, page 5

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8

Op-Ed Comics Classifieds Sports

9 13 14 Back

The Tufts Daily

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News

Souvaine replaces Newell as vice provost for research SOUVAINE

continued from page 1

“At a research university, it’s a critically important role,” Harris, who headed the search committee that chose Souvaine, said. “The Office of the Vice Provost for Research is responsible for all the infrastructure around research as well as promoting research.”

Souvaine’s duties, which span all three of the university’s campuses, include overseeing funding for research and ensuring that university researchers comply with federal laws, she explained.

“It’s a position that broadly tries to enable the fabulous researchers that we have here at the university to pursue the kinds of research that they’d like to pursue, whether it’s disciplinary, interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, or translational,” she said.

Souvaine began teaching at Tufts in 1998 after serving as a faculty member at Rutgers University for 12 years. She became chair of the Department of Computer Science at Tufts in 2002.

She is currently serving a six-year term on the National Science Board (NSB), a body that governs the National Science Foundation and advises the President and Congress on science pol-

icy issues. President George W. Bush appointed her to the board in 2008 for her work in computational geometry, and she now sits on the NSB’s Executive Committee.

After deciding to search within the university for a new Vice Provost for Research, Harris convened a committee of faculty and administrators to assess several candidates.

He emphasized that the committee looked from within the university for a strong leader with extensive research experience.

“I want someone in that position who is connected to larger conversations outside of Tufts who can help us find ways to get information about opportunities early and think about how we mobilize,” Harris said. “I want someone who’s forward thinking, who isn’t just happy with what we’re doing now, but says we can be better, we can do better, and I have an idea and a vision of how to get there.”

Souvaine said she aims to encourage and facilitate collaboration among the university’s researchers.

“I think the first goal is to try to remove any impediments that are preventing people from doing the terrific work that they want to do,” she said.

Souvaine will continue to play a key

role in the ten-year strategic planning process, which launched last fall as a university-wide effort to map out the future of Tufts, Harris said.

“Moving forward as the vice provost for research, she’s a part of my senior team and so is involved in a lot of conversations we’re having here about how to prioritize and how to move forward,” Harris said.

Souvaine chaired the strategic plan’s working group on Modes of Research before her appointment as vice provost.

“It’s fascinating and fantastic to have this opportunity to look strategically at where the university’s going and where it can go,” she said.

Souvaine said she has spent the first weeks of her tenure visiting and talking with researchers on the Medford/Somerville, Boston and Grafton campuses.

“I’m learning more and more about the exciting projects that are going on here, whether they’re ones on a single campus or across campuses,” she said. “So really it’s a learning time for me. Once I know more, I’ll have more opportunity to look at potential new projects that people could be doing and ways in which the Office of the Vice Provost for Research can help enhance the ability for people to go and achieve these new goals.”

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

TCU Elections Update Elections for open Tufts Community Union (TCU) positions are taking place today, lasting until 11:59 p.m. Students can vote using Tufts WebCenter.

There are two senior class Senate seats, two junior class Senate seats, two Judiciary seats, two Committee on Student Life (CSL) seats and one sophomore class council treasurer position open. Students can vote for the Senate contenders for their respective classes, and any student can vote for the Judiciary and CSL candidates.

The following candidates are running in the elections today: 2013 Senate Seats: Yulia Korovikov, Jameelah Morris, Tabias Wilson and Jeremy Zelinger 2014 Senate Seats: Shriya Nevatia, Nishant Saharan and Joshua Youner Sophomore Class Council (Class of 2015) Treasurer: Isabel Cuervo and Michael Fein Judiciary: Anna Gaebler, Becky Goldberg and Leah Shaw Committee on Student Life: Daniel Bottino, Emani Holyfield and Kumar Ramanathan — by Melissa Wang

Facilities works to adress mice infestation MICE

continued from page 1

was more of a cosmetic fix — I could still find it all over the room. It was more that they cleaned the surfaces and vacuumed the carpet. And I appreciated what they did, it was really nice of them, but it wasn’t livable.”

According to Director of the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL) Yolanda King, other students called the ORLL to report that they had found droppings in their rooms as well.

“We contacted Facilities and also informed the staff in Carmichael to have students fill out work orders online,” King said. “The cleaning staff made arrangements with the students to clean the rooms in addition to the treatment by the exterminator.

Affected students were also offered temporary housing in Wren Hall.”

At least two of the students have chosen to move to another hall for the remainder of the semester, according to King.

Friedman, who waited some time before deciding to move out, ultimately accepted a room that was available in Richardson House. She explained that in order to make her room livable again, everything would have had to be cleared out anyways.

“I think they kind of thought that because the exterminator had come and Facilities had come once that they had dealt with it, but it wasn’t okay to stay there just because I kept finding more and more and it was all over,” she said.

“They just need to restart that room.”

Students were expected to fill out an online work order request or contact Work Control, as they are for any rodent, bug or pest problem, according to Bevins. The exterminator, who is on duty four days a week, was sent to treat the problem.

The exterminator went to the affected rooms and has been checking back on a regular basis, King said. She said that the mice might have gotten access to the rooms through a hole.

Bevins added that the exterminator has yet to see a mouse in the affected rooms and that, although pests are common, Facilities does its best to respond to and manage the problem.

“Have we had various pests in various rooms? Sure,” Bevins said. “Have there been times when a student has requested a cleaning? Yes. But every situation and circumstance is different. So whether the same thing happened as it did in Carmichael, I have to say no, there are similar situations but it’s not something that comes up every day.”

Caroline Geiling / the Tufts Daily

Tara Mardigan, the team nutritionist for the Boston Red Sox, spoke to the Tufts community last night in Cohen Auditorium about ways to improve athletic performance and brainpower by choosing healthier food options.

Mardigan encourages students to eat healthy NUTRITIONIST

continued from page 1

athlete diet and the connection between what is consumed and how an athlete performs.

“I believe that nutrition can be one of the greatest tools you have,” she said.

“You’re going to have more energy, you’re going to have improved training abilities, you’re going to improve body composition. You’ll have better recovery, reduce inflammation and have less downtime.”

Mardigan broke down what constitutes carbohydrates, proteins and fats and suggested ways to pair them with exercises. Some healthy snack options she recommended included fresh fruit, nuts or seeds, Greek yogurt, string cheese, edamame, vegetables and hummus and dark chocolate.

“Don’t tell me you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it,” she said.

Mardigan also explained the three different body types — ectomorph, endo-

morph and mesomorph — noting that athletes’ diets are partly determined by the type of body they are born with, along with the kind of sport they are performing.

She discussed hydration and the chemical processes that food controls in the body. Glycogen-loaded muscles are important to preventing injury and can be achieved through the proper post-workout food choice, she said.

“You can eat brilliantly, but if you’re not hydrated it’s still going to affect your performance,” she said.

Mardigan addressed the vitamin deficiencies that can arise in vegetarian and vegan athletes and the dangers of eating disorders and negative body image.

She warned against the false claims on unregulated supplements’ advertising and urged those struggling with their diets to personally meet with a dietician.

Achieving a healthy diet is difficult and

people should try to keep an 80-20 perspective, she said. The goal should be to eat well 80 percent of the time but recognize that it is normal to slip up the other 20 percent of the time.

“We are cut out to eat stuff that is not good for us, she said. “We like sugar, fat and salt.”

Mardigan advised students to take advantage of the healthy options offered in the dining hall while keeping a positive mindset.

“Think WIN, which stands for ‘What’s Important Now,’” she said. “You need to believe you can eat better. That does require you to make changes and sacrifices. There’s got to be a little bit of a give and take if you want to achieve those goals.”

Following the presentation, a reception hosted by Dining Services provided healthy options for all attendees. Among the spread was a chocolate fondue accompanied by fresh fruit.

Features

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Tufts Christian Fellowship wavers in pursuit of exemption from nondiscrimination policy

Chaplain indicates support for exemption on basis of religious integrity by

Ben Kochman

Daily Editorial Board

Nobody is sure what the Tufts Christian Fellowship’s next move is — not even the group itself.

Questions about the religious tenets and requirements for leadership of Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF), a Tufts chapter of the national group InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, have kept the group in a state of limbo since the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Judiciary derecognized the group last semester.

The Judiciary ruled that clauses in the group’s governing documents requiring its leaders to strive to abide by a strict set of beliefs — called its Basis of Faith — excluded anyone whose beliefs fell outside these tenets from consideration for a leadership position and violated the nondiscrimination clause in the TCU Constitution.

The debate in October then moved to the Committee on Student Life, whose resulting ruling created a new policy that shifted the responsibility of judging TCF’s requirements for its leaders onto the Chaplaincy, a university department consisting of the chaplains for the four represented religious sects and currently headed by interim University Chaplain Patricia Budd Kepler. As a result of the CSL’s ruling, the Chaplaincy now has the ability to issue permission for “justified departure” from the university’s nondiscrimination policy on a religious basis — if the Chaplain, that is, decides such an exemption has a basis in religious doctrine.

It remains to be seen whether TCF will take the opportunity granted by the CSL to apply for exemption from the university’s nondiscrimination policy. If it does, the group will be required to provide more clarity in the coming weeks on how it interprets its own religious doctrine. In doing so the group would also become the guinea pigs of the CSL’s policy, which asserts, in part, that “it is reasonable to expect that leaders within individual [student religious groups] be exemplars of that particular religion.”

TCF leaders say they have yet to decide if the group will apply for “justified exemption.” Applying through the chaplaincy, for one, they will likely be faced with specific questions about leadership criteria that that the group says they simply don’t feel comfortable answering.

“We don’t have a codified policy about leadership,” TCF Vision and Planning Team member Jessica Laporte, a junior, said. “It is a discernment process, and that’s an important part of what we desire to maintain as a group, that it’s individualized, that it’s not a one-size-fits-all policy.”

If TCF does decide to go forward with the process of requesting religious exemption from the Chaplaincy, they may find an ally in Tufts’ Interim Chaplain, Reverend Patricia Kepler.

Under the CSL’s new policy, she would head a team tasked with ensuring that any student religious group’s deviation from the Tufts anti-discrimination policy is accurately based on the doctrine of that group’s religion.

“I think that it’s common sense that the leaders of a religious group be in adherence of that faith tradition, if that’s what the group wants,” Kepler said from her office in Goddard Chapel last week.

Kepler, whose term as interim chaplain began in early 2012 after longtime chaplain David O’Leary left the Hill to lead a local Catholic parish, added

that it is critical for any religious group to be upfront about what values it believes in. She praised TCF for its decision to hold firm against the Judiciary request that it remove the constitutional clause that potential leaders “support and advocate for the letter and spirit” of the group’s Basis of Faith.

“The reason they didn’t [remove the Basis of Faith], as far as I understand it, is because they have integrity. They said ‘we cannot honestly do that, this is who we are, this is what we believe’,” she said.

The Basis of Faith — initially authored

by InterVarsity — includes a belief in the “entire trustworthiness and authority of the Bible,” and “justification by God’s grace to all who repent and put their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation,” among others.

Kepler said that she does not plan to press any student religious group seeking an exemption to specify its religious doctrine to the utmost detail. The Chaplaincy would not bring up issues of sexual ethical behavior, for example, unless students initiated specific concerns about that. The Chaplaincy, she said, would consider leadership requirements for faith-based positions at “face value.”

“I am not in a position, and I don’t think our other Chaplains are in a position, to require people to defend, expand on or interpret their faith tradition to somebody within the Chaplaincy,” she said. “For instance, if the Protestant group says ‘our leaders need to be Christian’, I’m not going to come back at them and say, ‘What do you mean by Christian?’ That could mean a lot of different things.”

The Judiciary, on the other hand, has more specific expectations for any religious group that might decide to apply for TCU recognition for a justified exemption. The Judiciary would expect TCF or any other group to be entirely transparent about what each component of its leadership guidelines entails. This includes any requirement of a certain behavior component, such as sexual chastity, according to Judiciary chair Adam Sax, a senior.

“This whole policy is about transparency,” Sax said. “For me, saying that we believe in chastity — I want to know what that means. That’s going to have to be spelled out.”

Circling the bureaucratic legalese that has characterized the recent debate over TCF’s leadership selection has been the issue of sexuality. TCF was reprimanded over a decade ago for allegedly denying a TCF member in 2001 a leadership position because she was openly gay. TCF in that case lost — and then regained through a CSL ruling — its TCU recognition. While the debate this time has almost never explicitly referenced how TCF’s Basis of Faith and leadership requirements restrict on the basis of sexuality, it remains a sticking point for those who accuse TCF of discrimination.

Senior Brandon Archambault, who has been active in the TCF controversy as a former TCF member, the complainant in a Judiciary case involving TCF, an advocate for the group’s defunding and a current leader in the Coalition Against Religious Exclusion, said the CSL policy has backed TCF into a corner on that issue.

If TCF leadership were to spell out exactly what its rules for sexual chastity were, he said, the group would be forced to admit to that its religious doctrine with regards to chastity holds a double standard that bars non-het-

erosexual relationships.

“Heterosexual sex is okay [for TCF] within certain limitations, like marriage,” Archambault said. “It’s not in and of itself wrong, it’s only contextually wrong. Homosexual acts are in of themselves wrong all the time, no exceptions.”

Five TCF leaders — Laporte, senior Elaine Kim, senior Emmanuel Runes, senior Ezichi Ednah Nwafor and junior Ji-Sun Ham — declined to comment on whether the Vision and Planning Team has a consensus on how the Basis of Faith applies to sexual behavior or orientation. TCF leaders in 2011 confirmed to the Daily that, based on their value system, they saw any homosexual act as “unchaste.”

“You can date,” former TCF Vision and Planning Team member Wai Cheng (LA ’11), told the Daily in a Dec.7, 2011 article, “but, according to our beliefs, [only] in a heterosexual relationship.”

“If there’s a student who is actively engaged in a homosexual relationship, that’s also not sexually chaste,” former TCF leader and current Intervarsity Christian Fellowship Team Leader Alexandra Nesbesda (LA ’06) added in the article.

According to the student leaders handbook produced by IVCF, it is unacceptable for a Christian to engage in a homosexual encounter. On page 87 of the section “Understanding Your Campus Culture, the handbook reads: “Is it okay to have a homosexual encounter? ... A Christian says ‘no,’ because immorality as defined in the Bible offends God and brings harm to the individuals involved.”

In analyzing TCF’s constitutional leadership requirements, an important distinction lies in the difference between sexual orientation and action, Archambault said. If TCF or InterVarsity discriminated based solely on sexual orientation, Laporte said, she would not have chosen to be a leader in TCF. Laporte wrote last semester in an op-ed in the Daily that she is attracted to both men and women, but would not act on her attraction unless she was married to a man.

“I am not a leader in TCF because ‘I chose to be straight’ but because I have chosen to deny myself in all things and take up my cross daily in order to follow Christ,” Laporte wrote in the the Dec. 10 op-ed. “My sexuality is only one part of my identity that is being transformed by God’s will.”

Moving forward, leaders in TCF said that they are unsure if they want to go down the murky road that the CSL’s route for a justified departure from Tufts’ anti-discrimination policy presents. The group will have to make a decision soon if it intends to reapply for recognition by the Judiciary in time to apply for Senate funding from the TCU Treasury, a process that happens annually each March.

TCF’s leaders are concerned with the potential negative perception the process could create, and remain doubtful that they can explain TCF’s leadership criteria in a way that satisfies the CSL, the Judiciary, and the student body at large.

“Part of this issue has been perception,” Nwafor said. “How do we explain in almost two different languages the concepts of our belief to this campus, and how are we being understood when we do try to explain that? ... I think this policy tried to help us be better understood, but I think it’s leading to even more misconception of our goals and our desires on this campus.”

Alexa Petersen | Jeminist: A Jumbo Feminist

Video game violence The U.S.government has gun control on the mind. Following the devastating massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, President Barack Obama has launched an effort to address gun control. The initiative, spearheaded by Vice President Joe Biden, has also begun to address additional purported causes of Sandy Hook, including mental health issues and video game violence.

The argument here states that video games are harmful to young people because of their promotion of indiscriminant violence.

But there’s another reason why video games can be really harmful to young people, bolstering an already strong argument against the games. And it shouldn’t be ignored. They promote absolutely abominable images and stereotypes of women.

When researching this topic, what I found disturbed me. Women wearing fewer clothes than an average bikini and trying to fight men in full armor who are three times their size. Women “warriors” who are really just tough-looking ballet dancers, only able to lightly and gracefully kick an opponent with a perfectly pointed foot and often lose to their more formidable opponents. Women who aren’t even playable characters, simply there to walk around in the game and look sexually desirable.

There are a couple of stereotypes that appear many times over. The first is the “damsel in distress” character: the woman who is meant to be saved by the large and ill-proportioned male hero. Princess Peach from the Mario franchise is one of these characters. She is described as soft-spoken, is often not a powerful fighter, and is generally being saved in some capacity. Princess Zelda, from the Legend of Zelda franchise, is quite similar. No descriptions of her leave out that she “almost always gets kidnapped” and “almost always needs to be saved.”

The second stereotype is a more physical one. Female characters with absurdly small costumes and absurdly strange body proportions that mirror no female that we’ve ever seen in real life. Lara Croft, of the Tomb Raider franchise, has blogs written about her breasts. Many blogs. Utterly pitiful commentators spend copious amounts of time referencing the growth of her breast size as a proportion of the growth in the popularity of the franchise. Ivy Valentine, a character from Soul Calibur, has such large breasts that each breast individually is larger than her head. Her head. This is no joke. Kaileena, a character from Prince of Persia, is a “warrior” who fights other men in no less than a piece of cloth and a large belt. The cloth leaves very little to the imagination and is simply a preposterous piece of clothing for someone who is doing any kind of physical activity. Countless female characters fall under this scantily clad category. For those that wear armor, it often does not cover or protect any vital organs, or anything else worth protecting. Armor is on their body to look sexually appealing, while the men with the real armor do the real killing — a statement that purposefully bleeds with more than a little irony.

There are countless more concerning stereotypes to discuss. The bottom line is video games often (not always, but often) portray women as in need of male salvation, sexual objects that have mostly useless other skills and characters that must be in the shadow of their strong and burly male counterparts.

It’s not hard to see the damage this can have on the predominantly young boy viewership.

If we are assuming in public discourse that images of video-game violence lead to reallife violence, it follows that images of sexual objectification cannot be too far off from instances of sexual misconduct or assault.

Alexa Petersen is a senior majoring in political science and peace and justice studies. She can be reached at Alexa.Petersen@tufts.edu.

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Arts & Living

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Concert Review

Melissa MacEwen | The Roaming Fork

Purity Ring engages crowd at House of Blues Electro-Indie band is on its way to the top by

Zak Kline

Daily Staff Writer

Electric. The rock star is as dead as a doornail, and we as listeners are left to sift through its ashes, hoping and praying to stumble across bands like Purity Ring.

Wednesday night at the House of Blues, Purity Ring brought its own unique brand of nightmare indietronica to Boston with fantastic showmanship — indietronica being a new genre that combines indie, electronica, rock and pop to create a fantastical amalgamation. Touring to promote its first and only album, Purity Ring’s set ran for one unbelievable hour. The Canadian duo epitomizes the possibilities of new age music in this technological era. While Corin Roddick mans a handmade rig of light-up drum pads and DJ equipment, singer Megan James authoritatively takes center stage.

From the opening song “Amenamy,” James made sure everyone knew that the night was going to be nothing but an electronic house party. Lucky for all of us, the “house” that was originally supposed to be the Middle East was switched to the House of Blues, a sign that this band is on its way up. And while the scene has changed over the years, it was hard not to see James as a modern opera singer as she stood in front of a colossal red curtain and belted out their only cover of the night, Soulja Boy’s “Grammy.” Hump day quickly became thump day as Roddick’s synthesized bass rattled every brick in the building and every bone in the see PURITY, page 6

Courtesy Tom Cardoso via Flickr Creative Commons

Purity Ring’s electrifying indietronica is a dream come true for a 21st century audience.

Restaurant Review

TV Review

‘Archer’ keeps momentum in fourth season by

Tim Charouk

Daily Staff Writer

Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) is back for the fourth season of creator Adam Reed’s hilarious FX show “Archer.” Well, he wasn’t

Archer

Starring H. John Benjamin, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell Airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. on FX really back until fifteen minutes into the first episode of the new season, when he snapped out of his fugue state as Bob in

a highly rewarding crossover between the two animated shows — “Archer” and “Bob’s Burgers” — in which H. Jon Benjamin voiceacts. “Archer” is known for its references and nods to movies and shows, and the new season is shaping up to be no exception.

When Archer — or at that moment, Bob — is attacked by KGB agents, he takes all of them out, with the class and efficiency Archer is known for. He then suddenly speaks in Russian, a slight nod to “A History of Violence” (2005). What keeps Archer distinct from from shows like “Family Guy,” which relies simply on pop culture references for cheap laughs, is its emphasis on see ARCHER, page 6

Quantity undercuts quality at Martsa On Elm by

Melissa MacEwen

Daily Editorial Board

Though it may not be widely known, Somerville has a relatively large Tibetan population. With over 500 Tibetans calling

Martsa On Elm Street Address: 233 Elm St Somerville, MA, 02144 (617) 666- 0660 Price Range: $$

Courtsey Gage Skidmore via Flickr Creative Commons

the suburb home, it should come as no surprise that Somerville also features some of the best Tibetan food in the Boston Metro Area. With Yak and Yeti, House of Tibet Kitchen, Rangzen Tibetan Place and Martsa On Elm all within walking distance of Tufts University, there are plenty of Himalayan eateries to choose from. But, while Martsa On Elm is popular in the Somerville restaurant scene because of its proximity to the heart of Davis Square, it remains a bit of a mixed bag.

On first impression, Martsa’s best feature—its extensive menu—is also its worst.

Even choosing an appetizer can be daunting, but simplicity is often a reliable choice, and the Spicy Potato Bread appetizer did not disappoint. Though not particularly exciting — the bread was sort of a fluffy, buttery pita pocket filled with peppered potato — the appetizer was deliciously fresh and seemed like it would pair well with a sauce-based entree.

Picking an entree was also challenging and took much longer. Vegetarian and chicken specialties each get a page on

H. Jon Benjamin, the creator behind FX’s “Archer,” also voices the charmingly egocentric leading character Sterling Archer.

see TIBETAN, page 6

The journey begins

H

i. My name is Melissa, and this semester I will teach you how to eat bugs. That, however, is but the tip of the iceberg for the dietary adventure I hope to take you on.

Aside from my personal dislike of the starch and cholesterol-heavy dishes that pervade American cuisine, I have no qualms with this country’s cooking.

Honest. However, I do feel that our food tends to be rather bland. Once you get past the foods and dishes that have sort of melded into American cuisine and culture — shout out to Golden Light, Amsterdam Falafel and Anna’s Taqueria — you’re left with the “classics,” the staples that comprise the backbone of what people think of when they picture food in the United States.

When I think American cuisine, I picture an amalgamation of Thanksgiving and the Fourth of July. And there are a whole lot of dishes based in corn, potatoes and meat and cream going on here in ’Murica.

However, one of the best aspects of living in the U.S. of A., especially in a semi-urban area, is that we are constantly surrounded by food from other nations.

Want Tibetan momos for lunch, Pad Thai for dinner and chicken lo mein for a latenight snack? Consider it done. An unintended consequence of this ready availability, however, is that we are frequently left categorizing foods and ingredients based on their origins. For example, to many Americans, any food that involves a curry is automatically considered Indian, and any dish that involves a mole sauce is Latino. While there is some validity in these categorizations, they can lead to food that isn’t from our mother culture feeling “foreign,” or “different,” and can make us hesitant to attempt to integrate these ingredients into our own cooking.

This is a shame.

With this column, I’d like to make foods that are lesser-known in America a little more familiar and a little bit more approachable. Every week, I’ll focus on an ingredient that is significant to another culture: I’ll do a bit of research about it, prepare it and tell you all about how it goes. I intend to cook foods that are staples of different cultures, along with foods that are regarded more as delicacies or treats. It will be an adventure, and I intend to eat plenty of insects. I might also clean out my savings account. (Oh, the things I do for love. And for you, dear reader.)

My goal isn’t to highlight the “weird” foods of other cultures — though that is tempting — so much as it is to expand the American palate. Apart from plenty of Internet research, I have no credentials and don’t know what I’m doing. In fact, I’ll go so far as to point out that I lived off of ramen for a few weeks in my sophomore year but, hey, I like a challenge as much as the next guy.

By the end of the semester, maybe I’ll have convinced you that ingredients need not be bound to particular cultures, but instead can (and should!) be enjoyed anywhere they can be purchased. Heck, by the time we get to mopane worms, maybe you’ll be ordering some of your more exciting ingredients online as well. My only disclaimer is that I am a pescetarian and unfortunately won’t be eating a number of the meat-based dishes that are so important internationally. Maybe this column will make you a little bolder, or maybe you’ll just enjoy being grossed out. Either way, be sure to check out my accompanying photos at: http://blogs. tuftsdaily.com.

Next week, we’ll start off with a bang (or more of a gelatinous sizzle?) with sea cucumbers.

Melissa MacEwen is a junior majoring in biology and English. She can be reached at melissa.macewen@tufts.edu

The Tufts Daily

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Arts & Living

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Authentic Tibetan dishes shine at Martsa On Elm TIBETAN

continued from page 5

Martsa’s menu, with lamb and beef specialties’ nearly full pages each not far behind. The Pan Fried Tofu with Peas in Coconut Curry turned out to be a tasty, but entirely unexciting dish. While Martsa deserves credit for keeping the tofu light and airy, the dish had none of the coconut-based sauciness of a typical Indian curry — which is what the entree seemed to be imitating. The coconut complemented the peas pleasantly, though the “curry” was flavorless and a tad greasy overall.

Finally, the dish’s absence of sauce made the spicy potato bread side dish/appetizer rather superfluous.

Still, this entree stumble likely reflects a rule of thumb that seems to apply at Martsa — that, unsurprisingly, the more authentic Tibetan dishes are tastier. For example, Martsa’s Daysil, a dessert composed of sweet saffron rice, nuts and dried fruit is simple and delicious.

As nice as it is to have such an expansive menu, it seems that Martsa’s sheer quantity bogs down some of its quality. Perhaps Martsa’s chefs spread their nets too wide in an attempt to offer customers dishes they might be a bit more familiar with — such as curries — but paring down the menu to Tibetan classics would make the restaurant more authentic while likely giving the cooks a smaller number of dishes to perfect.

While it can be tempting to overlook the negative aspects of familyrun eateries in the interest of giving non-corporate restaurants credit where it’s due, Martsa does have a few other specific flaws that should be addressed. For one, the television.

While a television makes sense in a location like a sports bar, it really has no place at a sit down restaurant. However subtly, the TV set draws the attention of all patrons facing in its direction, and it can be distracting. The muted television also clashes bizarrely with the more setting-appropriate music that the restaurant plays and the Tibetan

Melissa MacEwen / The Tufts Daily

Martsa On Elm’s low prices and friendly atmosphere compensate for food that can be a bit so-so, like the Pan Fried Tofu with Peas in Coconut Curry. decorations lining the walls.

Secondly, and more importantly, Martsa’s service is very hit or miss (as has become clear through this reviewer’s three recent meals there).

While the servers are universally friendly and accommodating when they interact with customers, the restaurant consistently seems to give better service to large groups.

Either that, or the small kitchen is easily overwhelmed whenever a large group sits down to eat. It’s perfectly acceptable to wait ten or fifteen minutes for an entree; it’s really not okay to have to wait upwards of forty minutes for food just because a table of ten has taken over. It is commendable that Martsa does such an admirable job of accommodating

New season of ‘Archer’ doesn’t disappoint ARCHER

continued from page 5

characters. The characters have all developed in their own interesting ways over the course of the past three seasons.

The second episode of this season is a perfect example of a storyline driven by a character’s flaw, which Adam Reed somehow manages to turn into comedy.

This episode, entitled “The Wind Cries Mary,” addresses Archer’s homophobia when he meets an old ISIS friend — Lucas Troy, voiced by Timothy Olyphant — in Vermont of all places. Through flashbacks, we come to understand the unusually bromantic relationship between these two friends; from ignored

females in a ménage à trois, to fights in the locker room, all while Archer remained hilariously oblivious. Once in Vermont, Archer must come to terms with his denial of obvious signs that his friend isn’t really just a friend. The show also shines when it makes clear that it wasn’t just homophobia that blinded Archer but also his loneliness, which has been a recurring idea throughout the series. Numerous flashbacks show Archer as a child, alone at a birthday party, alone in his bedroom and also alone in the current timeline of the show. The audience never sees Archer interacting with his friends. It is this sort of character depth that keeps this show grounded in reality and,

Courtsey of Audi USA via Flickr Creative Commons

Judy Greer voices the character Carol on “Archer.” This season of “Archer” has resurrected a handful of old plotlines, to the delight of longtime fans.

more importantly, keeps the viewer empathetic to one of the most sarcastic, conceited and egoistic protagonists on a television series.

The third episode of the season also includes a callback to a previous story arc, that of Archer’s deceased lover Katya, who Krieger brought back from the dead as a cyborg only for her to run off with Barry, Archer’s arch nemesis cyborg. Although the show isn’t very serialized and has hardly any season long arcs, it still makes an effort to insert callbacks that reward longtime viewers. This time around, in the aptly named episode “Legs,” Krieger is at it again, fixing Ray’s paralyzed lower body.

Archer’s many repressed memories of Katya resurface as he attempts to thwart the operation.

Beneath all the craziness of fugue states, rogue spies in Vermont and cyborgs, “Archer” ultimately follows a man crippled by loneliness and a ridiculously over-protective mother who scared away any chance of him having a friend. His systematically repressed homophobia and the memories of a deceased, then resurrected, then escaped love, are what has driven the most recent three episodes. This show does a remarkable job of combining the emotion of “Parks and Recreation,” the ridiculous antics of “Workaholics,” the rewarding pop culture references of “Community” and the wit of callbacks and obscure jokes of “Arrested Development” (20032013). It is an amalgam of all that is great about modern sitcoms. It has proven to be one of the smartest shows on television, and the fourth season is shaping up promisingly.

large parties, but doing so should not come at the cost of other diners’ experiences.

Still, Martsa is an overall great place for students, families and couples looking for a night out in Davis, given its location and reasonably priced meals. The aforementioned appetizer, entree and dessert came to just over $18, not including

tip. It’s also open late — until 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. So while the food might not be top notch and service might be a bit iffy, the restaurant will likely remain a local mainstay. It speaks volumes that even on an arbitrary Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m., Martsa was more than half full.

Warm night foreshadows Purity Ring concert success PURITY

continued from page 5

audience’s collective body.

Critics of the electronic genre may reduce it to button-pushing, but Roddick clearly has a strong musical background as he pushes those buttons like David Gilmour or Jimmy Page would play guitar. Credit must be given to Purity Ring for creating its own unique sound in today’s musical age. With song titles like “Crawlersout” and “Obedear,” the nightmare genre tag Purity Ring encompasses really begins to capture its listeners.

Purity Ring’s existence reflects a fundamental change in the structure of a traditional concert. From the ‘60s until the early 2000s, everyone was always fighting to get as close to the stage as humanly possible. This is not the case today.

Standing too close to the stage now detracts from one’s ability to fully absorb the act and the music. Touring, rather than album sales, is what puts bread on the table for today’s performing artist — therefore the spectacle of the show must be worth seeing.

In this regard, Purity Ring’s show looks like something extracted from a David Lynch movie. Twenty to 30 mesmerizing orbs lit up in different colors above the stage enhanced the effect that the music had on its audience. These days, instead of guitar gods we get dramatic DJs,

and Roddick definitely does not disappoint.

The young crowd ranged from couples that are probably frequent visitors to Pitchfork.com, to hip-hop kids undoubtedly present to see the opener Young Magic. The differences in the audience quickly became null, however, as the music reverberated and the head banging and dancing began. For Purity Ring, the show clearly hinged on three songs: the aforementioned opener, “Lofticries” and the “Fineshrine.” Not surprisingly, these songs are the most accessible to today’s audience.

The one negative aspect of the show would probably be the few moments in which the sound strongly resembled the chanting of the monks from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975). Regardless, Purity Ring has a devoted fan base that was capable of packing the House of Blues and that is growing larger and larger everyday.

Either the planets were aligned or Al Gore is not as insane as everyone thinks because a sixtydegree warm night at the end of January in Boston was the first sign that this show was going to be success.

Much like the unseasonably warm night, the performance was like nothing this city has ever seen. Take note, now, everyone, because this band is going to get bigger, and when it does we’re all going to have one hell of a dance party.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

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Editorial | Op-Ed

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Editorial

TCF debacle needs new transparency, decisive action by CSL The debate surrounding the right of Tufts Christian Fellowship (TCF) to claim exemption from the university’s discrimination policy playing out over the past months has brought the campus to an impasse. Since the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate derecognized the group and the process moved through the Committee on Student Life (CSL), the onus will now, presumably, land on the Chaplaincy and the TCU Judiciary determine a proper and final solution. In creating this situation, the CSL has shirked its responsibility to be a helpful player in this increasingly stagnant issue. What the student body deserves now is a measure of transparency from both the CSL and TCF in their deliberations, as well as the kind of mature decision-making that recognizes the extent to which this affects the lives of Tufts students.

One of the biggest roadblocks through the past few months has been an abject lack of clarity on the part of both TCF and CSL. TCF’s constitution is written such that that it cannot enumerate or clarify what the group looks for in its leadership, because following the “tenets of faith” and striving to follow ideals of a religion are innately vague and based on personal belief.

Yet this opens up the possibility of deciding upon candidates for leadership with opaque measurements that make it virtually impossible to prevent discrimination in the group. The vagueness of the rules is inherent to the functionality of the group,

but also allows the problem to persist.

Still, TCF should absolutely clarify what it looks for in its candidates in its constitution, as is required for all other recognized clubs, or face continued derecognition and defunding. The question of whether TCF’s leadership requirements merit religious exemption from any nondiscrimination policy is a separate discussion to be had, apparently, with the Chaplaincy. But apart from becoming a more transparent, both TCF and CSL must respect the need for open dialogue.

The CSL is also at fault because of its failure to engage the student body or relevant parties on what has become a contentious and complicated debate. The CSL’s determination that the debate over recognition for TCF should go to the Chaplaincy and TCU Judiciary offered no direction and, indeed, put a student issue in the hands of an inherently biased, unelected group — the Chaplaincy — as opposed to the office that is meant to handle campus-wide student life, the CSL. The debate had already gone on too long for the CSL to have not offered more guidance. In what it likely fears as taking a stance of objectivity, the CSL rather has shirked its responsibilities and left the issue in limbo.

Certainly, Tufts needs the representation of all kinds of voices — religious, secular, gay, straight, of all backgrounds and beliefs — to truly live up to the liberal arts education it attests to offer. TCF’s ability to exist and

practice, as a conservative Christian group on a secular liberal campus, is as important to our mission as other centers or groups of all stripes are. Still, the tension revolving around questions of rights, morality and sexuality is not impossible to resolve.

At the end of the day, what Tufts needs is equality of voices and people, together. It remains to be seen whether any religious group will take the opportunity offered to them by the CSL’s policy, and the leadership of the Chaplaincy also appears to be on the verge of a change. If and when the Chaplaincy does take the responsibility handed to them by the CSL — the responsibility of essentially deciding a religious group’s doctrine for it — they will need to do so with a steady and objective mindset, remaining critical of the CSL’s actions. We expect nothing less of the Judiciary should TCF or any religious group apply for TCU recognition having been granted this exception. Given the difficult situation in which the CSL has placed each party, they should take a critical look at TCF’s constitution as it stands and evaluate whether such a document has a place in a Senaterecognized organization. If TCF refuses to amend it to be more specific or less exclusionary in its wording, they should not be granted exemption or recognition, clear and simple. At the end of the day, however, standing still only widens a growing gulf between a needed part of our community and the misinformed student body.

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Off the Hill | Iowa State University

Make college more affordable through changes in paperwork

by Iowa State

Daily Editorial Board

Iowa State Daily

Out of all the complicated forms a student can expect to fill out, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, surely ranks among the most arduous of paper journeys upon which a student will have to embark. With the recent arrival in our AccessPlus personal messages, we have been reminded that the deadline to file a FAFSA looms dead ahead.

Within the next few weeks, we will all have to sit down with our parents (if dependent) or our lonely selves (if independent) and spend perhaps hours poring over financial documents. Although you may very well have suppressed the memory of such an event, try to recall its crux: that magic number called an Estimated Family Contribution (EFC). The linchpin of the FAFSA experience, colleges use the EFC “to calculate the amount of federal student aid you are eligible to receive.”

Although it allegedly measures “your family’s financial strength,” the EFC seems like an arbitrary number. If you have the courage to use a worksheet provided by the

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federal government to see how your EFC is calculated, prepare to be baffled with what looks like more arbitrary numbers and a set of forms even less comprehensible than an insurance policy, a credit card policy, a mortgage, or basically any bill that has gone through Congress in living memory.

The website of President Barack Obama’s White House states that Obama has “set a new goal for the country: that by 2020, America would once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” That site offers four general ideas to improve access to higher education: Help middle class families afford college, keep costs down, strengthen community colleges, and improve transparency and accountability.

Simplifying the paperwork associated with getting financial aid would probably help. The current forms are daunting to say the least.

And if you do manage to pass the great barrier form, you may find that your parents make “too much” money and that your EFC is too high to make you eligible for grants. In that regard, the FAFSA — and, therefore, the

federal government — presume a familial relationship in which parents substantially contribute to their children’s college education. With high debts of their own in a slow economy, however, that presumption threatens the creation of a cyclical problem.

Expecting the current college-age cohort’s parents to pay for much of their costs of attendance at college, when those parents cannot, means that students are only eligible for more loans. In a few decades, then, today’s college students will be parents who are unable to pay for their children’s education because they still have loans of their own.

At the end of the day, students must overturn every possible rock for potential scholarships. If the federal government is going to do anything to make college more affordable and accessible, perhaps the FAFSA should be simplified, the EFC made less arbitrary, and a nationwide index of scholarships put together. Uncle Sam taxes everyone, provides health insurance to millions of Americans, and takes a census every 10 years. Making a list of all the college scholarships offered in the United States can’t be that hard.

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Op-Ed

Off the Hill | Harvard University

Walt Laws-MacDonald | Show Me The Money

A house divided

O Courtesy Oliver Porter

Justified civil disobedience by

Alli J. Welton

Over winter break, I was arrested with seven other students for staging a lockin at the Westborough, Mass. office of the TransCanada Corporation in protest of the Keystone XL pipeline. Bound together with chains, sitting beneath the corporation’s logo and the American flag, we made the point that TransCanada is locking our generation into irreversible climate disaster by pushing forward new fossil fuel infrastructure projects like the Keystone XL pipeline.

Growing up, I never expected to be arrested for civil disobedience, but today I find myself and my generation in a desperate situation. We are living in a time of great crisis—the climate crisis. The World Bank recently published a report announcing that we are on track to warm the planet up by four degrees Celsius by the end of the century. The report details predictions of intense heat waves, widespread water shortages, massive wildfires, and the disruption of livelihoods around the world. These alarming details, however, are overshadowed by the authors’ terrifying statement that “there is no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world would be possible.”

We may not be able to adapt to global warming. The basis of our civilization could fall out from under our feet within our lifetimes. Everything we have ever worked for — all the cities, the families, the art, the science — could be lost.

Unfortunately, the unbendable rules of Harvard Crimson

chemistry and physics have set a very narrow timeframe for action against the climate crisis. After humans have warmed the planet up a certain amount, we will cross a natural “tipping point,” such as the melting of the arctic tundra and the accompanying release of potent greenhouse gases locked under its surface. After these tipping points, the Earth will begin to warm itself, and any success we have in lowering our own greenhouse gas emissions will not stop the warming. No one knows exactly when the tipping points will arrive, but the International Energy Agency has projected that we will be “locked in” to irreversible climate change in four years because of our continued construction of fossil fuel infrastructure.

Rage boils up inside of me when I look at these numbers because the world did not need to let things go this close to the edge.

Scientists have been calling for action for more years than I have been alive, yet our government has failed to act. The costs of inaction grow each day, as the timeframe left to transition to renewables shortens and the impacts of climate change, from last summer’s droughts in the Midwest to Superstorm Sandy, start to take their toll.

Even today, our government has failed to act with enough resolve to really solve the problem. Its failure is inexcusable.

If our government will not stop these corporations on the basis of strong scientific and economic arguments, then we must produce the political will to stop them through our actions. The traditional methods of political mobilization—rallies,

lobbying, even opinion polls that show 88 percent support for government action on climate change—have failed to overcome the stranglehold that fossil fuel corporations have on our government. Civil disobedience has thus become a logical and necessary next step for the increasingly powerful and desperate climate movement.

Our action in Westborough was not an anomaly but rather an addition to a growing nationwide narrative as more and more people turn to civil disobedience to stop the climate crisis. Over 1,200 activists were arrested for a sit-in against Keystone XL outside the White House, while dozens of Texan activists have taken courageous direct action to prevent and delay construction of the pipeline’s southern leg.

Coal mines, natural gas fracking wells, and other fossil fuel infrastructure projects are becoming hotbeds for civil disobedience, as are the offices of the decision-makers who irresponsibly let the projects proceed. In a sign of the times, the Sierra Club recently made the first exception in 120 years to its policy against civil disobedience.

By putting our bodies on the line in acts of peaceful civil disobedience, we are making the ultimate moral statement. The message sent by our sacrifices will reverberate through society until the corporations give up or the government finally finds the political will to stop them.

The task of transitioning to renewable energy may look daunting, but as our acts of civil disobedience make clear, our commitment to survival is non-negotiable.

Off the Hill | Brown University

That textbook comes to $0

by

Brown Daily Herald Editorial Board row them “long-term” from the library, Brown Daily Herald

At the beginning of each semester, students begrudgingly trudge to the bookstore to pay an exorbitant price to purchase textbooks for their classes. Many others, looking to save money, resort to purchasing books through online retailers like Amazon, where they often revel in having saved money before realizing they somehow received the wrong book.

In an age where sharing information is even easier than withholding it, students have many options to obtain course materials. Unless the textbook industry plans a significant overhaul in policy and distribution, buying a textbook may soon become obsolete.

Purchasing textbooks is traditionally seen as a necessary college expense and can be a rite of passage for first-years taking their first courses. But students in this day and age have found other, sometimes illicit, approaches to obtaining textbooks. We do not condone the illegality of these methods, but we cannot deny their existence or their appeal to students.

Rather than spending money, students can receive textbooks from a friend, bor-

download them from the Internet, and purchase international editions of textbooks that are often cheaper or even choose not to buy them at all.

We do not specifically advocate any of these options, but they are certainly more sensible to the frugal college student. This begs the question: Should textbook companies adapt to remain relevant cornerstones of our educational experiences? Are they even capable of doing so?

We have nothing against textbooks in general. Many students find having a physical copy of the textbook to be much more conducive to studying, and for those students, who are perfectly content with purchasing textbooks, feel free to stop reading at this point. But many students do look to economize, and it is common knowledge that other options exist, such as the ones outlined above.

After all, there are formal institutions that suggest knowledge is a public good that should be accessible to all who seek it. This is why websites such as Wikipedia have been so popular not just with students, but also with the public.

In addition, the popularity of free courseware with several top institutions

such as Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attest to the belief that the more people gain knowledge, the better. We hope the textbook industry can recognize the trend toward the de-commodification of education and take appropriate and drastic measures to stay relevant in these rapidly changing times.

We understand buying textbooks is sometimes completely necessary.

Many classes require course packets that can only be bought through the bookstore, and it can be difficult to obtain that specific gender studies or post-modernist Bengali poetry book from a friend or online.

But simultaneously, we want to challenge the notion that buying textbooks is the only option or even the best option.

In accordance with the now-prevalent principles of open, accessible knowledge, institutions and the public alike have already fundamentally uprooted the tenets of education. While textbooks cannot be handed out for free, it is time for the textbook industry to seriously evaluate and adapt to compete with the new, worthy competitors that have risen in its previously monopolized market in education.

h, the fiscal cliff? That thing Congress was totally going to take care of before the deadline, atoning for that time they said they were totally going to take care of the debt ceiling before the deadline. Guess what?

No, don’t even guess, just assume: it didn’t happen on time. Thank you Republicans — I mean, Democrats — I mean, Obama — I mean ... Commies?

I understand why putting together a deal did not happen in the timeliest manner. I had preached for months that this was the most important political issue that our nation faced this year— and then two shocking tragedies struck the country, barely a month apart.

First, Hurricane Sandy destroyed thousands of homes along the East Coast, causing billions of dollars of damage and leaving entire neighborhoods with no place to live, just as temperatures began to drop below freezing for most of the Northeast.

With many families still reeling from the aftermath of Sandy, tragedy struck again — this time in an even more unthinkable, heartbreaking way. The country went into full crisis mode again, after a mentally-ill gunman murdered more than two dozen elementary school students and teachers in Newtown, Conn. The event moved President Obama to tears in his press conference, and, like all events of this kind, left the country asking how anyone could do such a thing, or more importantly, how we could allow such a thing to happen.

Suddenly — and, rightfully so — the fiscal cliff was no longer the most important issue Congress needed to work on.

Sandy relief efforts, gun control, and mental health services jumped to the forefront of every politician’s mind. No one wants to be the one to say “Hey, I know millions of people are suffering right now, but can we talk about the economy for a sec?” And so, the fiscal cliff momentarily fell to the back of everyone’s mind.

And yet, despite the seemingly one-sided, unassailable arguments — the areas hit

by Sandy need federal aid; we do not need assault rifles with 20-round magazines — Congress inevitably turned both issues into questions about party politics and what our founding fathers would say.

It seems that every issue in contemporary American politics has been polarized to the point that if you know where the Republicans stand, you can assume that the Democrats stand on exactly the opposite side — and vice-versa. Sandy relief is no longer about getting money to families in need, but about stopping reckless spending and “pork” money. Gun control is no longer about making our towns and cities safer, but rather Second Amendment rights and authoritarian government.

Let me set the record straight: Congress is spending too much, and tougher gun laws will not necessarily stop gun violence.

But to look at these two horrific events, see the suffering they have caused, and then turn around and say, “Now we have some real power,” is truly ludicrous.

And that is why Congress cannot get anything done: they do not debate, they fight. The fiscal cliff, Sandy relief, and gun control talks produced such vitriolic comments from both sides of the aisle that I find it hard to believe Congress ever agrees on anything.

I want to trust Congress, because America is still great; indebted, pugnacious, and perhaps a little bit crazy, but great. But they must learn to think outside their party lines.

So if any of you Jumbos make it to the Hill — and I hope many of you do — do not pull this sort of crap. And maybe balance the budget while you’re there.

Walt Laws-MacDonald is a sophomore majoring in quantitative economics. He can be reached at Walt.Laws_ MacDonald@tufts.edu.

Op-ed Policy The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length. Op-Ed cartoons are also welcomed for the Campus Canvas feature. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. All material should be submitted to oped@tuftsdaily.com no later than noon on the day prior to the desired day of publication; authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. Submissions may not be published elsewhere prior to their appearance in the Daily, including but not limited to other on- and off-campus newspapers, magazines, blogs and online news websites, as well as Facebook. Republishing of the same piece in a different source is permissible as long as the Daily is credited with originally running the article.

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Nina: “Fox sends us severed heads. It’s because we’re legit.”

Please recycle this Daily.

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14 Wanted Apply to be a Host Advisor! Help new International and American students adjust to life at Tufts and in the US at International Orientation (I.O.), August 25-August 27, 2013! You don’t have to be an international student to participate in I.O. Host Advisor applications are due Thursday, February 21 st at 4:45 p.m. You must attend a

Wanted mandatory information session.

Sign up at http://ase.tufts.edu/ icenter/ eventSignup.aspx. I.O. 2013 is sponsored by the International Center – 20 Sawyer Ave., Medford Campus, 617.627.3458.

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

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

Jumbos face Hamilton in season finale this weekend MEN’S BASKETBALL continued from back

game’s final play, but junior Nicholas DaPrato’s final shot rimmed out.

“It’s huge for us to win games like these,” Anderson said. “In years past, these games have slipped so many times, it’s nice to finally pull them out, although winning by double digits is more convenient.”

Junior guard Oliver Cohen, who contributed eight points, three rebounds and three assist in 35 minutes agreed.

“We’ve had a handful of close wins like that throughout the season and it just helps to build your confidence going forward when you’re in tight games later on in the season,” he said.

“To know that we can pull games like that out and win in a variety of ways is a great thing to draw upon later on when faced with similar situations.”

Ferris continued his stellar sophomore campaign with 17 points, seven rebounds, and three steals, while Palleschi tallied 14 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots in the victory.

Coach Bob Sheldon’s squad has the rest of the week off before its regular season finale at Cousens Gymnasium against the Hamilton Centennials, a game that is meaningless for the Jumbos in terms of the NESCAC standings. The game is crucial for the Centennials, however, as they are still in position to clinch the fifth seed and set up a firstround match-up against Tufts.

While it may not have an effect on

Caroline Geiling / The Tufts Daily

Sophomore Ben Ferris scored 17 points as the Jumbos pulled out their first overtime victory of the season against Clark on Monday night. their tournament outlook, it will still serve as Senior Night for Anderson and graduating classmates Matt Lanchantin and Alex Goldfarb, and it could provide a final dose of confidence headed into

the most important weeks of the year.

“The focus from now until the tournament is to first focus on beating Hamilton on Friday night,” freshman swingman Stephen Haladyna said.

“Then we can go into the NESCAC tournament with a lot of confidence and knowing that we can beat any team in the league if we come out with energy.”

The 21st Annual

OLIVER CHAPMAN OLIVER CHAPMANAWARD AWARD

for an outstanding senior who has contributed to the Tufts International Community through leadership and community service.

The International Club and the International Center are now accepting nominations from students, faculty, and staff for an outstanding senior who has demonstrated a strong commitment of service to the international community either on or off campus.

Nominations to be submitted by WEDNESDAY, February 20, 2012 Nomination forms are available at the International Center and online at:

http://ase.tufts.edu/icenter/documents/chapmanApplication.pdf

The award will be presented at this year’s PARADE OF NATIONS CULTURAL EXTRAVAGANZA Friday, March 8, 2013

The Tufts Daily

Jason Schneiderman | Stoppage Time

DAILY DIGITS

1-5

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Sports

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Record of the men’s basketball team in their past six overtime games when they stepped onto the court for five extra minutes against Clark University on Monday night. Needing a win to have a chance at matching their regular season win total from last season, the Jumbos responded to a 3-pointer to open overtime with five straight points of their own. The Tufts defense clamped down, giving up just one point in the final fourand-a-half minutes to earn a 65-64 win.

Winning streak of No. 5 Kansas University at Allen Fieldhouse that was snapped on Saturday afternoon by Oklahoma State University. Riding the hot hands of junior shooting guard Markel Brown and freshman point guard Marcus Smith, who combined for 53 points, the Cowboys outgunned the Jayhawks, winning 85-80.

The home winning streak was the second longest in the nation, behind Syracuse’s 36game run at the Carrier Dome. The loss also snapped an 18-game winning streak overall for Kansas.

Time posted by freshman Alexis Harrison in the 60-meter dash at this weekend’s Tufts stampede, breaking her own school record, which she set on Dec. 1 at the UMass Boston Invitational with a time of 7.97. The old record of 7.98 had stood since 2007. The biology major from Toms River, New Jersey also played basketball in high school, but now devotes her time exclusively to sprints and jumps here at Tufts.

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108.4

Strokes needed by Phil Mickelson to complete the first round of the Phoenix Open, one stroke away from becoming only the sixth golfer in PGA Tour history to record a 59. Playing on his home course, TPC Scottsdale, Mickelson was near-perfect all day and had two chances to reach the coveted 59 on the final two holes. His 18-foot putt on the second-to-last hole fell one rotation short, while his 25-footer on the final hole made nearly a full rotation around the cup before lipping out.

Winning streak of the No. 5 Tufts women’s basketball team that was snapped in a 54-48 loss to No. 4 Amherst on Saturday afternoon. The 22-game streak was the longest in program history and gave the team its highest ranking ever in both the d3hoops.com and NCAA polls. With the game very much still hanging in the balance, Amherst senior guard Marcia Voigt banked in a 25-foot shot as the shot clock expired to put it out of reach. Tufts finishes its season Friday against Hamilton.

Millions of people who tuned in for this year’s Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. The game was the third-most watched television broadcast of all time, but saw a 3% drop in viewership from the Super Bowl in 2012, which at 111.4 million people was the highest.

Super Bowl ratings had increased over each of the past three years before the decrease this year, which some have linked to the third quarter blackout.

Courtesty Nicole Chan

In the previous weekend’s action the Jumbos went 4-0, defeating UMass Amherst, Mount Holyoke, Boston University and Wellesley.

Jumbos go 4-0 in weekend Wellesley Invitational meet, including victory over host team

WOMEN’S FENCING

continued from back

The loss against NYU came for the Jumbos just a week after a 4-0 finish at the Wellesley Invitational multi-team meet, in which the Jumbos overcame four regional foes in UMass Amherst (14-13), Mount Holyoke (17-10), host team Wellesley (18-9), and Boston University (20-7).

“The 4-0 was a huge step for the team and a great confidence boost for the rest of the season. It was entirely a team effort and wouldn’t have been possible

if every fencer hadn’t been doing her part,” Bean said.

Individual highlights included a 3-0 performance by Boden against UMass Amherst, 3-0 performances by Lynch and Boden against Wellesley and 3-0 victories by Hisey and Innes-Gold against BU. Perhaps most impressive among the Jumbos’ wins was its 18-9 match against host Wellesley, as they took overall wins in each weapon, including a 3-0 record for Manser, who helped boost the team’s foil squad past Wellesley’s.

Tufts’ performance this weekend across the three weapons was highlight-

ed by a 33-3 finish by the Jumbos’ sabre squad across both meets, in addition to a total winning record of 22-14 by the epees in their match.

“Every single squad had several moments of greatness, that showed not only how far we’ve come as a team, but how far each of us have come as individual fencers,” Manser said of last week’s competition.

The team’s next challenge comes on the road at BU this Saturday, Feb. 9, where it hopes to carry over its momentum from its Wellesley meet victory over the regional foe.

Cowboys snap Jayhawks’ 33-game run INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL continued from back

Cowboys snapped both the Jayhawks’ overall 18-game win streak and its 33-game home winning streak in Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

Brown especially was terrific, nailing seven of his 10 3-pointers to keep the Cowboys in the game against such an impressive opponent from beginning to end. With his performance, Smart now becomes arguably the best freshman point guard in college basketball and is a potential top-five overall pick come this summer’s NBA draft. Freshman Ben McLemore led the way for the Jayhawks,

finishing with 23 points and scoring double figures for the 19th time on the year.

No. 5 Kansas will play two unranked opponents this week before heading home to face No. 13 Kansas State on Monday, while Oklahoma State will take the court again tonight against Baylor.

Miami Hurricanes jump up six spots in Top 25 after close win against N.C. State Despite a double-double from Wolfpack big man C.J. Leslie, N.C. State was unable to hold off the No. 8 Miami Hurricanes, who remain undefeated in the ACC at 8-0 with impressive wins over powerhouse

No. 4 Duke and now N.C. State.

Down one point with just over 10 seconds left in regulation, the Hurricanes ran a play to sophomore Shane Larken, who proceeded to pull up from the right side with time ticking away. Larken missed the mid-range jumper, but senior center Reggie Johnson was there for the save, as he tipped in the shot with 0.8 seconds left to seal the win for Miami.

The Hurricanes were led by senior guard Durand Scott, who tied Leslie for a game-high score of 18 points and will look to continue their in-conference win streak when they host North Carolina later this week.

No more Nigel

S

occer is a cruel and strange business.

Beloved players are sold, successful coaches are fired and empathy and fairness are rarely present. Nigel Adkins, former manger of Southampton FC in the English Premier League, can attest to this.

One minute he was leading his newly promoted club to a stunning 2-2 draw away at powerhouse Chelsea, the latest in a stretch of 12 matches that yielded only two defeats.

The next, he was inexplicably fired by Italian chairman Nicola Cortese and replaced by Mauricio Pochettino, an Argentine who is just now beginning to learn English.

On the surface, the change makes no sense. No reasonable person could have expected a better two-and-a-half-year tenure than the one Adkins provided for Southampton.

When Adkins was hired in September 2010, Southampton was struggling in the third tier of English soccer. But consecutive promotions brought Southampton back to the Premier League for the first time in eight years. Their opening fixture of the season, away at Manchester City, saw them take the champions to the brink, holding a 2-1 lead late into the second half before ultimately falling, 3-2.

Further brilliant efforts against perennial top teams Arsenal and Chelsea, in which Southampton earned well-deserved draws, demonstrated the attacking prowess and belief Adkins was instilling into his team.

And when the season was at its high point, as he had his team playing at its highest level, Adkins was fired.

The Premier League is no stranger to firings, and in recent years their frequency has become startling.

Just this season, Roberto Di Matteo, manager of Chelsea during arguably their most successful season ever — they won both the FA Cup and the Champions League — was fired after just 12 league matches. The change was not totally unexpected, however, as eccentric Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has fired nine managers since he purchased the club in 2003, which the chief executive of the League Manager’s Associations called “a serious embarrassment to the owner, the club, the fans and the league.”

Not surprisingly, Southampton fans have erupted in outrage, calling for a reason as to why their beloved manager was fired in favor of a non-English speaking stranger who was fired less than two months ago from his managing position at Spanish side Espanyol.

Cortese has yet to speak to the media or release a statement on Adkins’ firing, leading some to believe the chairman did not make the decision in an effort to improve the team. For example, former Southampton star Matt Le Tissier wondered aloud whether the team chairman’s decision was from a purely selfish, nonsoccer-related perspective.

“We have lost just two in 12 in the Premier League and looked like a team that had turned the corner, and now everything is turned upside-down again,” Le Tissier said.

“I don’t know if Nigel was becoming too popular and the chairman didn’t like it he does appear to have a bit of an ego problem.”

If such speculation holds any validity, Southampton owners must take a hard look at Cortese as a long-term chairman. After a string of five years and nine different managers, Adkins was on the way to bringing stability to a team on the rise.

Now, the team is once again in an upheaval, and Pochettino has an extremely difficult task ahead of him.

In a purely results-driven industry, only time will tell whether Cortese made a good decision in changing managers at such a controversial time. He put his reputation, and likely his job, on the line making this unpopular move, and if the season takes a downward spiral resulting in relegation from the Premier League he will likely discover firsthand how cruel a business soccer really is.

Jason Schneiderman is a sophomore who has yet to declare a major. He can be reached at Jason.Schneiderman @tufts.edu.

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Inside NCAA

Major conference matchups clear up late season picture by

Andy Linder and Alex Schroeder Daily Editorial Board

Another week of conference play meant another week of higher stakes as the calendar turns to February. While some teams were completing a climb back to the top, others were continuing to fall. It seems as though no one can hold onto the No. 1 spot for more than a week, with a new team taking the mantle after each of the last four weeks of play.

Here’s what Week 13 brought us: Indiana earns back top spot after victory over Michigan

After two tough losses to unranked opponents earlier in the season, the Indiana Hoosiers have returned to form, defeating the then-No. 1 Michigan Wolverines in a home game on Saturday, 81-73.

The new rankings validated Indiana’s return to the top with its new No. 1 ranking, a position it had held for the first seven weeks of the season. The game was a team effort, with all five Hoosiers starters in the double-figures and forwards Christian Watford and Cody Zeller finishing with 10 rebounds apiece as well. Zeller was unquestionably the star, as his 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting helped to propel the Hoosiers to a lead they would sustain for much of the game.

With the exception of sophomore point guard and leading National Player of the Year candidate Trey Burke, the Wolverines struggled to get into their rhythm offensively the whole night and instead found themselves chasing the Hoosiers until the final buzzer. Indiana will resume play Thursday on the road at Illinois before a trip to Columbus, Ohio to take on the No. 10 Ohio State University on Sunday afternoon.

Pittsburgh tops ’Cuse yet again

their last 10 games against the Pittsburgh Panthers going into Saturday. And things didn’t get better, as the Orange shot an ugly 36.7 percent from the floor while only making 3-of-14 attempted 3-point shots, numbers that contributed to yet another loss, this time 65-55. The loss marked the first time Syracuse has lost consecutive games in nearly two years.

Led by an unwavering defensive intensity and Tray Woodall’s 13 points, the Panthers improved to 18-5 on the season and an impressive 13-1 against Top 10 teams at home for the last decade.

While C.J. Fair of Syracuse led both teams with 20 points, Michael Carter-Williams, the standout sophomore who leads the nation with over eight assists per game, only dished out two, as Syracuse lost its second Big East game and slipped into a tie for first in the loss column with Marquette.

The Orange will be back home at the Carrier Dome to take on St. John’s after a win over No. 25 Notre Dame on Monday, while Pittsburgh, now No. 23 in the country, has winnable games against Seton Hall and No. 17 Cincinnati later this week.

Oklahoma State takes down Kansas in biggest Big 12 upset of the season

When Travis Ford’s Oklahoma State squad dropped three of its first five games to open up 2013, analysts started to believe the Cowboys would be an afterthought yet again in the Big 12 this season.

However, that chatter was quickly put to rest Saturday when junior guard Markel Brown and freshman standout point guard Marcus Smart combined for 53 points on 17-for-34 shooting to take down the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence. With the win, the

Syracuse had lost eight out of

see INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL, page 15

MCT

The Indiana Hoosiers knocked off then No. 1-Michigan on Saturday afternoon to take back the No. 1 ranking they’d held for seven weeks.

Men’s Basketball

Jumbos squeak out 65-64 overtime win against Clark by

Alex Baudoin

Daily Editorial Board

With the fourth seed in the NESCAC tournament and a home quarterfinal game already locked up, the Tufts men’s MEN’S BASKETBALL (15-8, 6-3 NESCAC) at Worcester, Mass., Monday Tufts Clark

28 32 5 — 65 26 34 4 — 64

basketball team faced off against nonconference rival Clark University on Monday night, a team that has beaten the Jumbos in each of the past three seasons.

In a game that featured seven ties and 13 lead changes, the Jumbos were victorious against the Cougars in their first overtime contest of the season, improving their overall record to 15-8.

While much of the game was a backand-forth affair, Clark took a 3-point advantage with 1:23 left in the second half following consecutive baskets by graduate students Brian Vayda and D.J. Bailey. On the next possession, junior

co-captain guard Kwame Firempong, recently inserted back into the starting lineup, knocked down the game tying 3-pointer, his only made field goal of the game, as the shot clock expired to send it into overtime.

In the extra five minutes, Tufts knew its defense would be vital in securing a victory.

“We really focused on defense [heading into overtime,]” said senior cocaptain forward Scott Anderson, who followed up his career-high 35-point game on Saturday afternoon with 15 points and four rebounds against Clark. “We knew Vayda was going to get the ball in the last few minutes so we helped on him and locked the other guys down. We also focused on getting defensive rebounds that we were not getting towards the end of regulation.”

Following a 3-pointer by Vayda on the first possession of the extra period, a layup by freshman center Tom Palleschi and a triple from sophomore guard Ben Ferris gave the Jumbos a 65-63 lead with just three minutes remaining. The Cougars would have one more opportunity to win on the see MEN’S BASKETBALL, page 14

Women’s Fencing

Jumbo fencing falls 13-14 to NYU in close bout by

Andy Wong

Fencing in their only home meet of the season this past Saturday against NYU at Carzo Cage, the Jumbos came within a single bout of victory, finishing 13-14 on the weekend after going 4-0 at the Wellesley Invitational.

“The team fought hard against NYU this past weekend, despite it being a small meet,” junior sabre captain Shelby Bean said. “We only lost by a single bout, but that was a huge improvement over past years.”

For the Jumbos, though, it was an impressive feat to come so close to a nationally respected squad.

“It’s never fun to lose that close, but it shows we’re competitive with NYU, which has a lot of recruited fencers,” senior team captain and foil squad captain Kelly Manser said.

Beginning with the epee squad, freshman Julia Malleck helped lead a strong overall effort, winning all three of her bouts. Fellow epees sophomore Katharine Lynch and senior Abigail Hepworth finished with two victories apiece, giving the Jumbos an early 7-2 lead over NYU. Daily Staff Writer

Against NYU’s foils, Manser led a squad featuring junior Mailin Li and sophomore Flora Lang that felt like a mismatch between the Jumbos’ former walk-ons versus NYU’s recruited fencers. Despite an improved effort since the previous year, the foil squad came down 0-9 against NYU. Finally, in the sabre division, freshman Alexandra Boden won both of her bouts, and Bean added two more victories out of her three matches. Junior Julia Hisey, who typically fences epee, contributed another victory, and sophomore Sarah Innes-Gold finished the squad’s final bout of the day with a victory. InnesGold gave the sabre fencers a 6-3 win over NYU, but the Jumbos still missed out on victory in a narrow 13-14 defeat.

“Sabre did well, as did epee,” Manser said. “Foil, compared to last year, probably didn’t do better in terms of wins, but we’re doing a lot better overall.”

Manser, whose foil squad is still trying to improve with an inexperienced base of fencers added that a better attitude has contributed to their strength.

“We are pushing ourselves more, which has really paid off,” she said. see WOMEN’S FENCING, page 15