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THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Friday, March 8, 2013

VOLUME LXV, NUMBER 31

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

Alpha Phi raises $13K for women’s health by

Patrick McGrath

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts chapter of Alpha Phi raised a record $13,000 for women’s health at its annual Bid Your Heart Out event last Saturday, collecting bids at two auctions to far surpass the amount they have raised in previous years.

“It’s such a fun event, and all the girls are so enthusiastic about it,” senior Jenna Rennert, who directed the fundraiser, said.

“We always have great support from the entire chapter, and everybody loves to participate. I can only hope that we keep raising more and more money every year for our cause.”

The event raised around $5,500 in its first year and almost $10,000 last year, according to Rennert.

“We’re constantly trying to grow and improve,” Alpha Phi President Madeline Kern, a junior, said. “The progress from last year to this year, just in terms of money raised for our philanthropy, is unbelievable. I’m so shocked that we were able to do that but obviously very happy.”

The event included both a silent auction in the Aidekman Arts Center’s Alumnae Lounge and a live auction in Cohen Auditorium, according to Alpha Phi Philanthropy co-chair Alexandra Zeitouni.

“We had hors d’oeuvres and people just milled around,” Kern said. “It was really social.”

Auction attendees bid on items from

categories including beauty, fashion, entertainment and food, according to Alpha Phi Vice President of Marketing Emily Rennert, a sophomore. Some of the items offered included lunch with University President Anthony Monaco, a gift card for Dave’s Fresh Pasta and a gift card to the Georgetown Cupcake.

Spirit of Color kicked off the live auction event, where the Tufts Beezlebubs also performed.

Emily Rennert explained that most of the items offered during the live auction were interactive ― she also said while someone of the auctions’ offerings were the same as those from previous years, were similar to those offered in years past, while others were different.

“A lot of [sisters’] families will donate things — so that stuff was different,” she said.

The sisters had been worried about turnout before the event when tickets had sold out beforehand, but the number of people who bought tickets at the door made up the difference, she added.

“Going into these events, you can never tell what’s going to happen.” Jenna Rennert said. “I’m always a little hesitant.

“I think the event went amazingly. We almost sold out in Cohen Auditorium, which is about 600 people. Almost every seat was filled. When I heard that number that night, I was shocked.”

The auction is typically held during the see AUCTION, page 2

Robotics Club navigates first official semester fully charged by

Rebecca Sinai

Contributing Writer

Robots of “The Jeffersons”-style fiction are built to cook and clean, but the Tufts Robotics club is building a club around more creative concept.

While this year is the club’s first as an officially recognized and funded organization, Tufts Robotics is highly active, with members meeting up to six days per week in the Botlab, otherwise known as Room 101 of Bray Laboratory.

Tufts Robotics aims to provide students with an outlet to express their creativity, while engaging their critical thinking and problem-solving skills, its members said. According to the Tufts Robotics’ club website, the club’s goals are to “bring together like-minded individuals to share experience and have fun building robots,” and to “empower students with the possibility of getting their hands dirty and learning by doing.”

The club’s president, junior Quinn Wongkew, has had an interest in robotics since childhood and took over leadership this year from last year’s graduating seniors. It was a daunting task, he said.

“Since the seniors left, we realized there was a big hole that we needed to start filling,” he said. “We started brainstorming about how we could develop the club.”

Wongkew said the club’s members displayed some of their projects to the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate as a part of the process of applying for official recognition.

“[I] and other representatives from Tufts Robotics had to show the [Senate] how 3D printers work,” he said.

Wongkew said that 3D printers, which are used in the club’s projects, are just one example of the technological innovations that draw significant interest in robotics from the student body.

As a result of heavy recruiting this year, the club consists of about half freshmen — the remaining members are sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Wongkew said he is encouraged by the interest from freshmen and he hopes that this will allow Tufts Robotics to continue to grow and expand in the future.

The club, which has about 14 regular members, provides several weekly opportunities for students to learn and practice their skills. Along with holding general membership meetings once a week, the club hosts four tutorials a week on a variety of topics in order to reach out to the wider Tufts community. These range from basic trainings on using Arduino microcontrollers, a form of open-source hardware, as well as electromechanical systems like the servo and the motor, according to the website. Students from any academic background and any level experience are welcome.

“During first semester, we started by focusing on how to get people educated on basic Arduino, which is like the brain of the robot, slowly graduating them to cooler and more mechanical stuff of a see ROBOTICS, page 4

Inside this issue

Courtesy Jim MacKenzie

Brown University professor Jessica Wilson is scheduled to give the keynote address at tomorrow’s ninth annual Emerging Black Leaders symposium, at which two panels of speakers and student performances will focus on gender and race politics.

Black Leaders symposium to focus on gender, race politics

Daily Editorial Board

The ninth annual Emerging Black Leaders symposium kicks off tomorrow at Cabot Auditorium, with speakers addressing this year’s theme, “Matters of the Body: A Cross Section of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Power.”

This year’s event will feature keynote speaker Tricia Rose, a professor and chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Brown University, who will speak about race theory and gender politics, according to Jessica Wilson, one of the event’s organizers.

Two panels will touch on “gender politics and also current events within gender and the African-American community, looking at [things like] misogynistic representations of black men and black women in culture and pop media, movies, music, etc.,” according to Wilson, a junior.

The first panel, titled “Body & Politics: Black Gender Expression and Its Policies,” will focus specifically on gender’s historical construction, according to Jared Snead, who also helped to organize this year’s symposium.

The four-person panel will include Tufts Associate Professor of English and American Studies Christina Sharpe,

by Sarah

Zheng

as well as professors from Brown University and University of Maryland, College Park, he said.

“All of them are academics, but in the end every time I read [their work] it’s like ... this is beautiful right here, this is speaking to me,” Snead, a senior, said.

The second panel, “Body Politics: Being the Body in the Image,” will feature four speakers from various disciplines with perspectives ranging from careeres in journalism to activism Snead said.

In between the two panels, the symposium will showcase various performances by student groups and individuals, according to Wilson. The lineup includes sophomore Amber Rose Johnson, who will be performing spoken word, and a rendition of jazz singer Nina Simone’s “Four Women,” which will be performed by event organizer Sarah Duarte, a junior, and three other students.

A board of about 10 members began planning this year’s symposium in early September, according to Snead. Much thought went into the selection of a theme and the panelists, he said.

“We chose a topic that’s salient to our community and pertinent to whatever see EBL, page 2

Today’s sections

ArtsEmerson tackles an inspired prodcution of Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella “The Metamorphosis.”

The women’s basketball team looks for a victory tonight against Amherst.

see ARTS, page 3

see SPORTS, back

News Arts & Living

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Comics Sports

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Friday, March 8, 2013

Alpha Phi raises record donations for women’s health AUCTION

continued from page 1

fall, Jenna Rennert said, but a push to include new sorority members in planning the event led to a switch to the spring semester this year.

Planning for the event began over break, according to Zeitouni.

“We started out going around to local stores and restaurants and asking them for donations, and then we also had each sister make some sort of donation,” she said. “Basically we just wanted all the girls to participate in the event.”

Jenna Rennert explained that she helped develop the initial idea for the event during her sophomore year.

“We were...sitting around one night and thought up an auction and thought it’d be a great idea,” she said.

“This philanthropy is such an important part of being in a chapter on campus...We had no idea that it would be so successful.”

Courtesy Emily Rennert

Alpha Phi raised over $13,000 in its annual Bid Your Heart Out fundraiser last weekend to for women’s heart health.

Emerging Black Leaders symposium to feature Brown Africana Studies chair Tricia Rose EBL

continued from page 1

issues are going on,” Wilson explained.

Much of the symposium will discuss the study of gender from various points of view, according to Wilson.

“We’re looking at gender from a racial perspective, sexual perspective, and we’re looking at gender politics,” Wilson said. “This includes horizontal sexism in the black community, but also vertical sexism from communities of privilege and power on other communities — the African-American, Asian-American, Latino/Latina, LGBT community.”

Snead emphasized the relevance of exploring these aspects of gender and society.

“Gender is very important to me specifically,” he said. “We just wanted to be able to expose people to how gender is played out in all of our bodies because gender affects everyone on this Earth.”

Snead hopes that the symposium will prompt discussion about control of gender politics and an examination how it has become controlled.

“It’s about how some gender performances and some gender expressions are preferred over others depending on

your body and how you look and where you’re from, and beginning to dissect those things,” he explained. “It’s about reconciling oneself with one’s dominant society and trying to push against that.”

Wilson said the symposium is not a solution, but rather the start of conversation within the black community at Tufts and the community at large at Tufts.

“We’re hoping to get different people from different communities...within Tufts to join us in this conversation,” Wilson said. “I really, really hope to see support and participation by Tufts and the...community around us.”

In first year as recognized group, Tufts Robotics gets hands dirty with creative projects, volunteer work ROBOTICS

continued from page 3

full-on robot,” Wongkew said. “This [semester] we’re using that knowledge to work on projects but we still didn’t want to leave new people who haven’t been exposed to it yet, so that’s why we’re doing the tutorials.”

Senior Robert Hayes, a tutorial manager, has been impressed with the progress that students have made throughout the tutorials. However, Hayes constantly strives for improvement in how he and other club members run tutorials.

“We’re able to effectively run the lessons in the two hours we’ve allotted ourselves,” he said. “Things can only go better in the future, as I’m certain, at least for my lessons, that the limiting factor is not the students’ ability to learn but my own ability to teach — this is something which I learn to do better each time we run a tutorial.”

Freshman Andrew Stephens, who is also an assistant layout editor for the Daily, attended a tutorial last week on basic Arduino and programming.

“The tutorial gave me a foundation of how this popular device could be useful for future projects,” Stephens, a computer science major, said. “I was able to get to know a great group of knowledgeable and helpful students who shared similar interests.”

Although Tufts Robotics mainly attracts engineering students — particularly mechanical engineers and computer science majors — the club has hosted have included students in liberal arts. The club hopes to incorporate all the talents that Tufts students have to offer, while especially engaging the skills that mechanical engineers and programmers have developed.

“In the past we’ve gotten computer science majors as well as other engineers and education majors,” Hayes

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.

Courtesy Andrew Schneer

Tufts Robotics’ members work on projects and run tutorials for interested students. said regarding the tutorials. “Our students are usually [undergraduates], though we’ve had at least one grad student attend a lesson and are working to get useful lessons offered for another [graduate student].”

Along with the tutorials, Tufts Robotics meets once a week on Fridays to work on their many ongoing projects.

According to the website, these include the Bloombot, a hydroponic garden, and the Jumbobot, a battlebot designed to flip other robots. Both these projects and many more were designed to compete in the various competitions the club competes in roughly once a semester, according to Wongkew.

Tufts Robotics is now focused on its next project for April’s Trinity Firefighting Competition, which the club participated in in 2010 and 2011. The robots built for this project,

which can extinguish a burning candle through a maze, will require skill and creativity from programmers and engineers, according to Wongkew.

The club has also focused on robotics outreach in the greater Boston area, volunteering at the Junior First Lego League Team, where members teach first graders robotics, as well as volunteering at competitions for middle school students in the Melrose School district.

Tufts Robotics hopes to increase activity among students in the Tufts community. By reaching out to freshmen engineers as well as the rest of the Tufts community through their tutorials, Tufts Robotics hopes to give students the opportunity to apply their skills and see firsthand how math, science and creativity can produce tangible results.

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Arts & Living

3

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Theater Review

Innovative ‘Metamorphosis’ translates novella creatively to stage by

Danielle Jenkins | Greenwise

Vegetarian is as vegetarian does

Avani Patel

Contributing Writer

In Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella “The Metamorphosis,” protagonist Gregor Samsa is a hardworking German man with a solid sense of morality. One morning, however, he wakes up in his own home and finds his body has morphed into that of a hideous insect.

Despite his changed appearance, his human-like thoughts and words still make sense to him. Sadly, his family is unable to understand anything Gregor says. Their relationship with him quickly sours, and Gregor is soon banned from entering any area of the house outside of his room.

Bringing words to life through theater seems enough of a challenge in itself.

Tackling words that effectively portray a human’s transformation into an unintelligible giant bug, however, is a challenge on its own level, one that ArtsEmerson overcame with inspired creativity.

The play touches on a variety of issues: How important are appearances to the ones we trust most in this world? Can the loss or gain of power alter the nature of a human being? What are the rules of disease and obligation? These questions and more were raised in this atypical story, which was told in an unconventional format.

The set, divided into two parts, had a main level with a normal room orientation, as if the viewer were looking at a family seated at a kitchen table. The top level gave the illusion that the viewer was (in keeping with the insect theme), a fly on the ceiling looking down into the bedroom. The floor, therefore, was where one would expect a back wall to be, and the bed was upright and vertical.

Lighting was used tastefully, and it kept with the mood of each scene. Darker scenes were matched with dim lighting, and normal conversations were given a regular wash. In one scene, white lights shone through the vertical cracks of the top room’s floorboards to create the illusion of a symbolic jail cell. The only distracting aspect of the production was the music, which often felt melodramatic and unnecessary.

Rather than relying on ornate costumes to depict the creepy-crawly aspect of Gregor’s character, the produc-

Courtesy Eddi via ArtsEmerson

Gisli Orn Gardarsson portrays “The Metamorphosis’” protagonist in an incredibly acrobatic and original manner. tion instead chose the acrobatic talents of Gisli Orn Gardarsson. Gardarsson’s ability to navigate around the set like a true insect was impressive enough — the fact that he could also deliver his lines flawlessly while upside-down was an added factor well-received by the audience. Overall, Gardarsson was the ideal actor for the part. His talents were matched by Selma Bjornsdottir, who played Gregor’s sister, Greta. Able to embody both the empathy of a young girl and the rage of a grown woman, Bjornsdottir made her character’s transformation seamless and believable.

Unfortunately, Gregor and Greta were paired with parents of less impressive talents. Ingvar Sigurdsson played Herman, the angry and lazy father of the family. Though able to embody these two traits quite well, Sigurdsson was unable to convince the audience of any other emotional qualities. For instance, his drunken state in one of the later scenes seemed contrived, and his subse-

quent breakdown was of similar caliber.

Edda Arnljotsdottir, who played Lucy, acted a sub-par mother. Most distinctive was her fight with Greta, which was executed not only awkwardly, but also stiffly, hindering the impact of the moment. Arnljotsdottir did offer comic relief at various points throughout the play, but, outside of that, her ability to convincingly play Lucy was lacking.

Overall, the production was highly impressive and mind-blowingly innovative. The team took on a difficult script, yet made it look effortless — a difficult balance to strike. “Metamorphosis” will have you questioning society, morality and yourself. As they say in the play, “The time will come when we will clear the vermin from society and you are on the street.” So, who are the real vermin?

ArtsEmerson’s rendition of “Metamorphosis” played from Feb. 27 to March 3 at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and ran for a full 80 minutes with no intermission.

Conference Review

Annual Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference continues by

Melissa MacEwen

Daily Editorial Board

The 2013 Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ (AWP) annual conference is now well underway, and many would argue that the best is still to come. The conference will continue through Saturday, March 9, having begun on Wednesday.

Despite being a niche event that appeals primarily to fans and members of the literary underground, the AWP Conference has become something of a national tradition, and its appeal is on the rise. A whopping 9,700 people preregistered for this year’s conference, with more than 11,000 total people expected to attend. It may be a large-scale event, but the conference’s raison d’etre is ultimately to provide a distillation of the contemporary world of writing, where literary giants rub shoulders with upand-coming writers and where writers and publishers from around the world gather to catch up and share ideas.

“I like to think of the AWP conference as a big tent where everybody is together,” said Christian Teresi, the AWP

Courtesy Stanislav Lvovsky via Flickr Creative Common

Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott is one of two Keynote Speakers at this year’s AWP Conference.

Conference Organizer. And Teresi’s opinion is far from isolated. Though fans come for the events and speakers — which this year include dual Nobel Laureate key-

note speakers Seamus Heaney and Derek Walcott, as well as featured readers that see AWP, page 4

H

alfway through freshmen year I became a “vegetarian.” Let’s be honest — I still eat fish on occasion, so I’m not really a full-blown vegetarian, but who likes labels, anyway? Now, don’t mistake this column for an ode to vegetarianism or an attempt to convert all of the meateaters in the world. I’m not into that.

This is merely intended to enlighten all who may not have seen the meatlessmeal light. Speaking of the light, it took a lot for me to make the transition from carnivore to herbivore. Before I fully committed to it, I watched my friend Karen enter the world of vegetarianism our freshmen year. She made the switch look effortless, not even realizing she was doing it until one day someone asked her about her vegetarianism, to which she replied, “I’m not — oh, I guess I haven’t eaten meat in a while.”

It had started with her not wanting to eat meat every day, and ended without her ever realizing that she was a “vegetarian.” The dining halls made the transition incredibly easy for her and then, later, for me. We could walk into Chez Dewick and the first food we would see was the line of grains, vegetables and sauces, all designed for a vegetarian diet. As if to solidify my decision to be a vegetarian, it did not hurt that I’m incredibly impatient and that the line for the hot, non-veg meals was always too long for me.

That said, let me explain why replacing a little meat with more vegetables is better for your health and your wallet, as well as for the environment. Diets higher in vegetables and lower in meats are linked to lower risks of heart disease, certain types of cancer, diabetes, obesity and hypertension. The German Cancer Research Center did a longitudinal study on vegans, vegetarians and “moderate vegetarians” — people who still ate fish and meat occasionally — and found that all three groups lived longer than individuals observed with “normal” diets. Vegetarian men reduced their risk of early death by 50 percent, while vegetarian women reduced their risk by 30 percent.

Cool. Now, the typical question people ask after they find out I’m a vegetarian is, “Where’s the meat?” Translation: “How do you get enough protein?”

According to a study by Door to Door Organics, and contrary to popular belief, Americans actually consume nearly 50 percent more protein than is recommended for a healthy diet. So far, I’ve survived off of Greek yogurt, nuts, cheese and eggs: No problem. Like I said, I do occasionally consume fish, but it’s not for protein — it’s because my dad’s salmon is a work of art.

Now, for the cherry on top, let us not forget that eating less meat is cheaper. Go into a grocery store, pick out the amount of meat you consume in a week and see how much it costs.

Now go to the vegetable section and pick out the number of vegetables you would need to replace that for one day.

Calculate the cost, and you have substantial savings.

Now, I’m not saying you should completely change the way you look at food, but try having a meatless meal once a week. I promise it won’t kill you.

Cook up some brown rice and stir-fry some vegetables, add a few cashews and sesame seeds to the mix and you’ll have a meal fit for a king.

Danielle Jenkins is a senior majoring in English and environmental studies.

She can be reached at danielle.jenkins@ tufts.edu.

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Arts & Living

Friday, March 8, 2013

Writing conference proves successful for indie writers and publishers AWP

continued from page 3

range from Augusten Burroughs to Z.Z. Packer and Don DeLillo — the conference is ultimately much more than its sum of lectures, book fairs and social events.

“I really think the idea of social capital, particularly in the digital age, is something that is becoming increasingly more precious,” said Teresi. “In the world of Facebook, people are looking for more and more opportunities for real, personal interactions.”

Smaller indie publishers arguably benefit the most from the event, as theirs is a world of personal connections and careful networking. Other larger companies don’t rely as heavily on this groundwork.

“The indie-lit scene is all very online ... and there’s not necessarily a good point at which you can meet people faceto-face. AWP really provides that,” said Tufts alumnus Emma Bushnell (LA ’11), the assistant editor of Nouvella Books.

Though Nouvella travelled to Chicago for AWP’s conference in 2012, this will be the company’s first year to have a table at the book fair. “Tabling” will give Nouvella a chance to attract new writers and customers, in addition to giving them a chance to mingle with fellow publishers.

This sense of human connection is what continues to attract publishers, even once they’ve established themselves in the literary world.

Indie publishing darling McSweeney’s has been coming to the conference “since they could afford the plane tickets,” says Andi Mudd, editor of McSweeney’s monthly magazine, “The Believer.”

Though most of the AWP crowd has probably already heard of McSweeney’s, Mudd still looks forward to reuniting with friends, promoting “The Believer’s” 10th anniversary and looking for new, young writers.

Plus, there are always plenty of afterhours events to look forward to — and most of them don’t require registration. A galaxy of evening events and parties is scheduled after each day of the conference. Mudd is particularly

Courtesy of James Windsor via Flickr Creative Common

Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney is among the great writers and publishers that will speak at the AWP conference. excited for the McSweeney’s party with fellow San Franciscans, The Rumpus, on Friday night.

“It’s fun to go and unwind a little bit with the other people who have been working all day long,” she said.

Those who do register for the conference have a smorgasbord of events and speakers to choose between — of the 1,300 submissions conference organizers

received, more than 550 unique events were included in the schedule.

Events centered on memoir writing and poetry are poised to be especially popular this year, though Helene Atwan, a member of Boston’s AWP Planning Community, predicts that conference-goers will also be intrigued by writers’ recent creative environmental activism. She also urges those in attendance to check out Andre Dubus

III, Rosanna Warren and Edith Pearlman — all of whom are Boston natives.

The presale may be over, but it’s still possible to register for the conference onlocation at 900 Boylston Street, Boston: Member tickets are $190, non-member tickets are $285, and student tickets are a paltry $60. More information about the conference can be found online at www. awpwriter.org.

Friday, March 8, 2013

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Friday, March 8, 2013

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Non Sequitur

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OP-ED

Bare feet: just watch what you eat

My Op-Ed NADIA DI MARCO

I am currently sitting in the Tower Café mortified and surrounded by bare feet.

There is a girl to the left of me bobbing her head to the music surrounding her ears. She is completely oblivious to the fact that her bare, wiggling toes are less than two feet away from my face.

She’s not even comfortable. She keeps adjusting, readjusting and moving around.

Perhaps it’s a new trend? To my right there is another young girl resting her bare feet on the marble table.

On the table.

The very same table upon which this girl’s feet are splayed is one where I ate many a time last semester. I’m not alone in my repulsion; I see the girl sitting next to her eyeing her feet as well, but she’s just oblivious. That’s two people in a five-foot radius with zero consideration for their fellow neighbors.

When I sit on an airplane and the person (usually a kid) next to me has his or her bare feet on the tray table, I get the same feeling of disgust. I don’t understand why anyone

would think that it is okay to throw their feet about in public.

Do people like the thought of licking other’s people feet? (Let’s leave kinky cases out of this.) How about the thought of smelling other people’s feet? No, no, no! In our society, feet are known to be dirty, smelly and unpleasant; I mean come on, I don’t even want to be close to my own feet.

By the way, as I type, the girl next to me just moved her foot even closer to me!

Why don’t people get it? It is just plain common sense! You would think attending Tufts University would be enough to figure out that being barefoot in a café is not only rude, it’s despicable. It says, “I don’t care about anyone but me and my own comfort.”

Imagine going into work and putting your bare feet on your desk or going to a client’s job site, or anywhere else professional.

Imagine walking into your dean’s office and he or she has his or her bare feet on the desk.

It would never happen, because it’s not okay.

We are here to get ready for the real world.

Speaking from experience as a Resumed Education for Adult Learners student, you

can trust me, people: No one will take off his or her shoes in a professional atmosphere.

My rampage has turned into concern; these kids need to understand it’s not okay. When their rude habits leave Tufts, they’re in for a big surprise.

Is it that unreasonable to ask that people keep their shoes on in obvious places? Take ‘em off at the beach, at home or in a Japanese restaurant — I don’t care! But please keep them on when you’re next to the poor girl on the couch trying to concentrate.

And for crying out loud, please keep them off the table!

I came in here just to eat my lunch and read some books for class, but I got too distracted by disgust. To vent, I decided to write this piece. I’m not the type of person to say, “Can you please get your feet out of my personal space?” I’m shy, hate controversy and I can’t go around telling everyone I see with bare feet that they are rude and inconsiderate. I see enough people reading the paper that I figure if my rampage does get published, the bare feet people might read and understand what they are doing wrong.

And just in case you are someone who

All of my thoughts on the important issues on campus, like Dewick’s panini machines Obama for (vice) president

MATTHEW LADNER

On Monday, Will Ehrenfield voiced his support for Sen. Barack Obama in the coming Presidential campaign (“Obama for president”, Sept. 10). I too, at one point, supported Obama in his bid for the White House. He is an intelligent, charismatic man whose greatest political asset is indeed his criticism of the war from the start. And he may be the harbinger of great change to Washington. That’s why he’d be a great vice president for Sen. Joseph Biden.

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many people are not familiar with Sen. Biden; in fact I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that many people are not familiar with most presidential candidates, Democrat and Republican.

The media, in their attempt to focus on Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have allowed candidates such as Sens. Biden, Christopher Dodd, Sam Brownback, and former Ark. Governor Mike Huckabee to fall through the cracks. However, attention needs to be paid to these “also-rans,” because among them lies the best man to lead our country.

It is true, Biden did vote to authorize the war in 2002. When asked about this vote, Biden says that, as President, he too would have asked for the authority to go into Iraq. He simply would not have used it. It is also true that he voted for the special funding bill earlier this year, while Obama and Clinton did not. He explained this in a debate soon after, saying that he “knew the right political vote.” But he also knew that a large portion of that funding would be going to better equipment for our soldiers.

Biden is the only candidate with a viable, possible plan for post-Bush Iraq. N. M. Governor Bill Richardson wants to leave within 6 months of being inaugurated. Unfortunately, that’s physically impossible. There are simply too many men to be withdrawn in 6 months. If all of the troops are withdrawn right now, as soon as possible, we’re going

“I would like to tell you that the war is for you or for us to win. If we win it, it means your defeat and disgrace forever as the wind blows in this direction with God’s help. If you win it, you should read the history. We are a nation that does not tolerate injustice and seek revenge forever. Days and nights will not go by until we take revenge as we did on 11 September, God willing, and until your minds are exhausted and your lives become miserable.”

(Osama bin-Laden, January 19, 2006) If you feel a slight rumbling beneath you at this very moment, do not be alarmed. It is simply the collective reverberation of proud Americans from previous generations turning over in their respective graves.

Our nation has lapsed into a fit of defeatism and self-proclaimed declinism as our politicians and, more tragically, our citizens have forgotten the courage, values and resolve that propelled our country to greatness.

Even worse, we have betrayed our forefathers’ confidence in the righteousness of fighting on freedom’s behalf — a confidence that once instilled courage in the hearts of American revolutionaries despite the seeming impossibility of victory and later invigorated Allied forces fighting fascist enemies in Europe and Asia.

We are assured of America’s defeat daily in Iraq, not by our enemies on the battlefield, but by a growing contingent within the Democratic Party. It is this lot — led by Sen. Harry Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. John Murtha and the party’s presidential candidates — who insist on the futility of U.S. military and Iraqi political efforts alike.

They insist on the rapid withdrawal of troops from battle.

They insist that staying in Iraq to fight extremism, to deter Iranian interference, to run with the current wave of military momentum and to build on popular uprisings against alQaeda throughout the country (or, what residents of the now famous Anbar province call the “Great Awakening”) is contrary to American security interests.

Sean O’Loughlin is a freshman who has not yet declared a major.

Nadia C. Di Marco is a sophomore majoring in clinical psychology.

It’s time to wake up: Iraq, jihad and America’s choice

SEAN O’LOUGHLIN

to need a lot of helicopters.

Saigon told us that much. We cannot simply up and leave. But it’s clear that staying the course and continuing the surge is not working. The notion of a “strong, central, democratic” Iraqi government is simply naïve. It will not happen in our lifetime. The Biden plan is the only option.

The Biden plan is simple.

Imagine a country with a national government, but also with distinct regions, each with certain jurisdiction, that is complementary to, yet still subordinate to the national government. If this sounds familiar, you may live in the United States of America. This is also what it says in the Iraqi constitution. The Bush administration has said that for the Iraqi constitution to be implemented, the national government needs to be strong enough to enforce security throughout the country.

But as the success of al-Anbar province has shown us, security is built from the ground up, not the top down. The Biden plan does just that.

Biden was elected senator in 1972. He has served as chair of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee. What our country needs most right now is foreign relations experience, and Biden’s got it. He is the best man, Democrat or Republican or Green or Bloomberg, to sit in the Oval Office.

For more info, please visit joebiden.com.

ANNIE WERMIEL/TUFTS DAILY

doesn’t notice the barefoot problem, be aware they are out there, so think twice before eating on a table on campus.

It is in this certainty of defeat, however, that the broader implications of a precipitous retreat — and make no mistake, bloodthirsty terrorists aching to extend their jihad would understand our withdrawal as nothing less — are lost. What is remarkable is how salient these consequences are, yet how obfuscated they become in the midst of political posturing and rhetorical pandering.

There is little question within American military circles, and on the streets of Baghdad, that U.S. forces are the dam preventing unmitigated sectarian violence and the Talibanization of Iraq.

To leave now, to abandon the progress that our troops have recently made on the security front, to simply throw the country into the wind, is to condemn hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to unfathomable misery. For the sake of comparison, think Rwanda, Darfur or Bosnia.

Interestingly enough, these are thoughts that seem to weigh insignificantly on the conscience of Sen. Obama, who indulgently lauds himself as a champion of hope. His hope is an audacious brand indeed.

The reality is that we are in the midst of the first great war of the 21st century. It is a war of ideology as much as it is a contest to be won on the battlefield. And whereas Iraq may not have been the frontline of this struggle in 2003, it is the theater of the conflict today.

On one end of the spectrum is the United States, defending the rights of ordinary Iraqis and committed to the creation of a stable ally in a region otherwise defined by dysfunctional government. While American-style democracy may never take root, Iraq still clings to the prospect of representative politics.

Amazingly, after four years of devastating violence, Iraqis continue to show resolve and an admirable determination to emerge from the shadows of despotism and terror.

At the other end of this spectrum are the existential enemies of human progress. Peddling an antiquated ideology of extreme Islam and preaching a virulent message of hatred, the warriors of Islamism draw on a totalitar-

ian vision of societal order that is, at its most basic level, a fantasy. Their unrelenting pursuit of a long-dead caliphate is glaring in its denial of modern political realities and the overwhelming power of the Western world. However, this delusional ideology sanitizes indiscriminate violence and brutality, deeming them obligatory within a framework of “defensive” jihad against Islam’s enemies.

In fomenting civil war in Iraq, al-Qaeda and its proxies seek to engender despair, inefficiency, insecurity and resentment — the air to their militant fire. We must realize the simple truth that just as Iraq is our frontline against terror, so too is it the terrorist’s against Western civilization.

After turning back the “effeminate superpower,” their next step is cleansing the Holy Lands of infidel blood and ousting a Saudi regime that is, unbelievably, inadequately Islamic. From Mecca to Egypt to Jerusalem and beyond, the caliphate is to be extended and its enemies destroyed. Thus, looking to those among us who frown at American military gains and find a perverse vindication of their anti-war politics in every truck-bomb that claims innocent Iraqi lives, we find a segment of our country definitively unprepared to face civilization’s enemies.

It is true that our predicament is a frightening one. Armed with a dangerous irrationality and a passion for martyrdom, the jihadists are decisive and resolute. There is no appeasing this enemy. There is no reasoning with it. There is no compromising and there is no coexistence.

Surrender or Persevere.

These are the only options and the choice is ours to make.

In choosing the path to victory, however, one thing has become increasingly clear. In November 2008, American voters will have to send the Democrats the very same message that must thunder in the ears of those extremists who dare to wage war against the United States of America: “You cannot win and you will not prevail!”

Matthew Ladner is a junior majoring in international relations.

OP-ED POLICY The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Friday. Op-Ed welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be no more than 500 words in length. Editorial cartoons and Op-Eds in the form of cartoons are also welcome. All material is subject to editorial discretion, and is not guaranteed to appear in The Tufts Daily. All material should be submitted by no later than 1 p.m. on the day prior to the desired day of publication. Material may be submitted via e-mail (viewpoints@tuftsdaily.com) or in hard-copy form at

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Women’s Basketball

Jumbos gear up for one more showdown with Amherst by

Ethan Sturm

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts enters this weekend two wins away from the program’s first-ever trip to the Final Four. But the team’s focus is squarely on their game tonight, a rivalry matchup with Amherst whose importance transcends the NCAA Tournament. A victory would not only put the Jumbos in position to contest for a National Championship, but would also turn six years of heartbreak and disappointment at the hands of the Lord Jeffs on its head.

Earlier this season, the Jumbos traveled to LeFrak Gymnasium, the cathedral of Div. III college basketball, for a battle of undefeated sides. Amherst came away with the win 54-48, their ninth straight over Tufts, in what could only be described an ugly performance from both sides. Now, the Jumbos will return to western Massachusetts for a chance at perhaps the biggest win in the team’s history. Here’s what they have to do to shock the Lord Jeffs and earn a spot in the Elite Eight.

1. Beat the crowd In February, when the two teams first met up, LeFrak was absolutely roaring with chants, cheers and jeers. Tonight, with so much at stake, it may very well be rocking off of its hinges, an environment Tufts is not especially used to playing in. While graduate student cocaptain Kate Barnosky loves the energy, it’s also impossible to ignore that it can have an effect on gameplay.

“It’s fun to play in a loud environment, even if the crowd’s against you,” she said. “It’s fun to go back at them, and try to silence them.”

A rowdy crowd can really hit an unprepared team hard if it throws off offensive communication and free throw shooting. Last time, the offense went stagnant at times in the second half, with the similar offensive sets being trotted out again and again. The Jumbos were also uncharacteristically poor from the line, going just 9-of-13. Sophomore guard Hannah Foley, an 86 percent free-throw shooter, missed two, while junior guard Liz Moynihan, a 76 percent free-throw shooter, missed one of her three.

“I think the crowd last time might have thrown some people off,” Barnosky said. “I think we just need to focus and drown them out. Enjoy the fun, loud environment, but, when it comes down to it, focus on what we need to do.”

The best way for the Jumbos to neutralize the effect of the crowd is to jump out in front earlier. Last Friday against St. Lawrence, Tufts got out to a 19-5 lead in the first six minutes, hitting all four three pointers they took. Not only would a similar start settle down any nerves, it’d settle down the volume as well.

2. Stop Marcia Voigt In her final year at Amherst, senior and firstteam All-NESCAC award winner Marcia Voigt has become prolific in all facets of the game.

She not only leads the conference in assists per game and is second in steals per game, but is also seventh in points per game. Orchestrating the offense through its never-ending series of screens, Voigt is comfortable pulling up for a shot, finding a lane to drive or dishing

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

Sophomore guard Hannah Foley will play an integral part in locking down Amherst’s Marcia Voigt if the Jumbos are to advance to the Elite Eight. if the defense overcommits. In the NESCAC final against Williams, she had 19 second-half points. The Ephs as a team only had 21.

“She’s very experienced, and she’s also a relentless player,” Barnosky said. “She goes to the hoop hard, she cuts hard, she just does everything very aggressively. You can’t take a single second off with her, or she’ll make you pay for it.”

In the teams’ first meeting, Tufts handled Voigt by literally taking her out of the game.

Forced to the bench with two early fouls, she played just nine first-half minutes. But she made up for it after the break, chipping in nine points and five assists, including a banked three as the shot clock expired that served as the dagger.

Obviously, the Jumbos can’t rely on foul trouble to keep Voigt out for a second straight game and may have to rethink their defensive plan. Last game, Foley handled almost all of the man-marking on Voigt, but Tufts may be better-served mixing it up and giving

sophomore point guard Kelsey Morehead a chance, who had an excellent defensive weekend last week, or even senior NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year Bre Dufault some reps on the star guard.

“We need to put a lot of ball pressure on her early and really take her out of her rhythm,” Dufault said. “We have to focus on ball screens and hedging out well and recovering to the roll at the same time.”

Of course, no one player can take the full responsibility, thanks to the screen-heavy style of the Amherst offense, so it will take a team effort to shut her down.

“It’s just about being disciplined in our communication and talking our guards through those screens,” Dufault said. “Then, if you can tell they are really getting hit, helping out when you need to.”

3. Win the defensive glass The numbers don’t tell the whole story — while the Jumbos allowed just eight offensive

zhuang-chen Zhou / The Tufts Daily

Senior co-captain Kate Barnosky leads the Jumbos into her final showdown with Amherst tonight at LeFrak Gymnasium in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.

rebounds in the first game, the timing was critical. Tufts allowed three of those in the final nine minutes, with each forcing precious seconds off the clock. Defensive rebounding has been an issue for the Jumbos all season, and they can’t afford to let it be one tonight.

The Lord Jeffs are first in the NESCAC in the category, with sophomore Megan Robertson leading all players. They already lead the conference in scoring offense. They don’t need more help.

Luckily, Tufts looked much better on the glass this past weekend. They held Babson’s 6-foot-2 star senior forward Sarah Collins without a single offensive rebound, allowing just five total on 27 missed shots. They will need to bring this same kind of energy into tonight’s game.

“Coach has emphasized that we need to box out shooters and the weak side as well, and really prevent them from getting the second-chance points,” Dufault said.

“If they get an opportunity, they usually capitalize, so if we can prevent them from scoring on that first shot, we definitely need to secure the rebound.”

4. Answer the runs Games between Tufts and Amherst tend to follow one of two patterns. In both, the teams start out level before the Lord Jeffs pull ahead with a run. If the Jumbos can’t answer it, as they couldn’t in last year’s NESCAC championship game after a 20-4 run to begin the second half, the game quickly becomes one-sided. If they do, as they did in answering runs of 5-0, 6-0 and 10-2 in February, the game will typically come down to the wire.

For the Jumbos, they have no worries they can do the same again this time, and match the Lord Jeffs possession for possession.

“Every good team is going to go on a run, and Amherst does that especially well, especially at home,” Barnosky said. “That has been something that’s been tough in the past to answer, but I think we just have to have the mentality in this game that our season is on the line, and we’re not going to let a run stop us.

We’re going to answer back, and we’re going to want it more than them.”