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THE TUFTS DAILY
TUFTSDAILY.COM
tHURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015
VOLUME LXVIV, NUMBER 43
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
Forum attendees oppose proposed DTZ cuts by Emma Steiner News Editor
Tufts Labor Coalition’s (TLC) Public Forum last Friday, March 27 brought a large crowd to Braker Hall 001 to challenge Tufts’ proposed cuts to the janitorial budget. Students, janitors, parents, alumni and administrators gathered at 2:30 p.m. to share their opinions, demonstrate their opposition to the proposed cuts and show their support of the janitors. TLC organized the forum as a response to Tufts’ plans to cut part-time workers from the janitorial staff. The forum was intended to give all members of the Tufts community a chance to speak for themselves, according to TLC President Lior Appel-Kraut, a sophomore. TLC and Tufts administration made the decision to hold the forum in December as a result of negotiations between the two parties, Executive V i c e - Pre s i d e n t Pa t r i c i a Campbell said. “When we met with the Tufts Labor Coalition in December, we agreed it would be important to hold a forum like this so we could be transparent, share information and answer questions,” Campbell said at the forum. “We also agreed if there were to be changes, and we agreed there would be, we said that they would be done with sensitivity to the people impacted.” Vice President of Operations Support at DTZ Inc. John Kennedy explained that the plan would cut 35 workers from the part-time faculty and have an impact on the hours and working schedules of an additional 56 employees. “The plan was designed to realign services in accordance with when and how they can best be utilized,” Kennedy said at the forum. “It is consistent with industry standards and employs best practices. We have emphasized sustainability.”
TLC member Cynthia Guerra, a senior, opined that sustainability and cost efficiency should not take precedence over job preservation. She emphasized the severe consequences that job losses or re-allotments of hours could have on the people involved. “These are people’s lives,” Guerra said. “Every hour they are cutting back is an hour less of work for someone and less money to support their family.” Guerra further argued that that the workers who would have their jobs redefined instead of eliminated may still face economic and employment challenges because of the new hours. “This will force more people to quit their jobs,” Guerra said. Many of the part-time workers employed by DTZ at Tufts have second jobs in other locations, she further noted. If DTZ changes workers’ hours they may face scheduling conflicts that impede their ability to maintain other commitments. Kennedy explained that in an attempt to alleviate the negative effects of layoffs, DTZ would initiate a hiring freeze at its other Boston locations. If any positions there become available, former Tufts workers will be given preference for those positions, he said. Guerra countered that these alternative positions were not guaranteed and were likely to be temporary or seasonal employment. Many other event attendees spoke out against the proposed cuts. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32 BJ District Director Roxana Rivera said the new plan frustrated her because SEIU has been working for the past 12 years to improve wages and industry standards for custodians, and she worries that these changes would undo see FORUM, page 2
Nicholas Pfosi / The Tufts Daily)
Trayvon Martin’s parents speak during the Evening with Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton lecture event in Cohen Auditorium on Tuesday, March 31.
Parents of Trayvon Martin share story, discuss racial injustice by Nina Goldman and Hannah Fingerhut Senior Editors
Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, whose 17-year-old son Trayvon Martin was fatally shot three years ago, opened up about their grief and their commitment to combating the pervasiveness of racial and ethnic profiling during Tufts Hillel’s eighth annual Merrin Distinguished Lecture Series in Cohen Auditorium Tuesday night. Since Trayvon was killed while out buying snacks by a man who identified him as “suspicious,” his parents’ lives have been torn open. “It’s not just a case for me. It’s not just a trial for me,” Fulton said. “It’s my life.” An initiative of Hillel, the Merrin Moral Voices program plans a keynote lecture each spring to “raise a moral voice” on a social justice issue, accord-
ing to Moral Voices Chair Ariana Nestler, a senior. This year’s theme of gun violence follows a long list of issues Moral Voices has taken on, most recently gender-based violence and food justice. Along with Moral Voices, the Africana Center, the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD), the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Peace and Justice Studies (PJS) program co-sponsored the event. Fulton described the day of her son’s funeral as the worst day of her life. “To see my son in the front of the church dressed all in white, as if he was an angel that had fallen asleep … When you lose a child, it’s a different kind of pain,” she said. “We didn’t lose Trayvon. He was murdered. We absolutely know where he is. He’s in heaven.” Martin said he and Fulton spent a year after their son’s death trying to understand what
AOII to host Month of Kindness this April by Jei-Jei Tan News Editor
Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII) will host Month of Kindness this April, during which members of the sorority will be performing acts of kindness on campus such as giving out candy and doing favors for people. “The goal [of Month of Kindness] is to promote happiness and well-being across Tufts and bridge gaps between the Greek community and the Tufts community,” AOII President Taylor Kennedy said. “We want to … make everyone at Tufts feel like they’ve been bettered by our efforts and our events.”
AOII Vice President of Communications Amanda Danielson, who is organizing Month of Kindness, said that a Facebook event page will go live the first week of April to keep the Tufts community updated on the sorority’s events. “It’s going to be a little spontaneous,” Danielson, a sophomore, said. “Part of Month of Kindness is the surprise element.” Kennedy explained that she started Month of Kindness two semesters ago as the chapter’s vice president of communications, a position responsible for managing social media and public relations, which includes organizing nonphilanthropy events. She was inspired by National Random Acts of Kindness Day, which falls on Feb. 17.
Inside this issue
“Everyone loves free stuff. It’s not expensive to buy some lollipops and tie some inspirational messages on them,” Kennedy said. “It doesn’t take that much work, and a little bit goes a long way. It shows people that not only does AOII care about our sisters and our philanthropy, we care about the campus and making people happy.” According to Kennedy, previous Month of Kindness acts have included passing out lollipops with inspirational messages in Tisch Library, giving out hot chocolate and sending Halloween and Valentine’s Day grams. This semester, as a precursor to Month of Kindness, AOII gave out free chai in the Mayer Campus Center on March 11.
they could have done as parents to prevent this tragedy, growing frustrated with media mis-characterizations of their family. “We thought we did everything in our power to raise our children to be upstanding citizens,” he said. “There’s nothing that we did wrong in raising our kids.” Fulton said she initially did not want to come to terms with the racial biases that contributed to her son’s death. “I didn’t want to believe that we were still in a society that judges us because of the color of our skin,” she said. “The media told me that it was because of his hoodie. I told myself it had to be the hoodie.” But as the trial of George Zimmerman unfolded, Fulton saw how her son had been racially profiled by his killer. “He was looking for somebody, an African-American,” she said. see TRAYVON, page 2
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive responses,” Danielson said. “A lot of people are very taken aback when we tell them that things are free.” Kennedy noted that attendees at the sorority’s philanthropy events are usually students who are involved in Greek life or who are friends with the sisters. One of the objectives of Month of Kindness is to actively reach out to the wider Tufts community, she added. “If we’re walking around with lollipops in Tisch, it doesn’t matter if you know us, we’re still going to give you a lollipop and engage you in conversation … so it’s a really good way to meet peosee AOII, page 2
Today’s sections
First-year Harry Paul recently presented his work to help patients suffering from scoliosis at the White House.
Marcella Hastings seeks to bring fun and a sense of community to Tufts with a silent rave.
see FEATURES, page 3
see ARTS, page 5
News 1 Features 3 Arts & Living 5 Editorial | Op-Ed 8
Op-Ed 9 Comics 10 Sports Back
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The Tufts Daily
Thursday, April 2, 2015
News
Students, professors, union reps voice opposition to proposed cuts at forum FORUM
continued from page 1
much of that work. “Tufts is not an island,” Rivera said. “This is a phenomenon happening in many places … the fight for keeping good jobs starts now.” Tufts’ decision to cut workers will have an impact on its relations with the larger Somerville community, Tufts alum and Somerville Alderman Matthew McLaughlin said. He shared his own story as the son of janitors in Cambridge and stressed how important his parents’ ability to maintain employment had been in his family. McLaughlin added that if Tufts continues to pursue these cuts, he will be hesitant to support Tufts’ requests to the city in the future. “Anytime Tufts comes before us with their payment of taxes, which is insignificant compared to what MIT and Harvard contribute to Cambridge, anytime they need an event permit … I am going to question that,” McLaughlin said. TLC member Arismer Angeles, a first-year, argued that public and student support would be necessary to change the Tufts administration’s position on the cuts. “The more we can raise student awareness, the easier it will be to get the attention of the administration,” Angeles said. “Public press from the surrounding areas will help a lot, because [Tufts] cares too much about their reputation.” Professor of Physics Gary Goldstein, who has vocally
supported the janitorial staff since the first cuts were made in 1997, agreed that students needed to make their grievances known in order to capture the attention of the administration. “The administration pays attention when a lot of students get upset because their parents pay tuition to the university,” Goldstein said. “No matter how much research money [ Tufts] is getting, it relies on tuition, so when students indicate that they are upset in large numbers, that will have an effect.” The janitors themselves also spoke on their own behalf at the forum. Paula Castillo, a DTZ employee, made a statement on behalf of all the janitors in attendance, which emphasized solidarity within the community. “I represent all my co-workers from Tufts and Boston,” Castillo said in Spanish, which was translated into English by an interpreter. “We feel harassed and discriminated … but we are not alone.” Lorena Narita, a fellow DTZ employee, appealed to Campbell and Vice President of Operations Linda Snyder as mothers. Narita also delivered her statement in Spanish, which an interpreter also translated into English. “If you were going to lose your jobs at this moment, as a mother are you concerned about your kids’ dreams?” Narita said. Narita also asked Kennedy and DTZ to consider the human impact of their decisions rath-
Nicholas Pfosi / The Tufts Daily
Custodial members applaud during the Open Forum on March 27. TLC organized the forum as a response to Tufts’ plans to cut part-time workers from the janitorial staff. er than just monetary gains or practical needs. “To DTZ, have you thought in reality how we are going to sus-
tain our families once we lose our jobs?” she continued. “I think you are only thinking about what you will gain from
Moral Voices hosts Trayvon’s parents despite concerns, petition TRAYVON
continued from page 1
“What an awful mistake to make because of the color of his skin.” While one can take off a hoodie or any other so-called “suspicious” clothing, Fulton explained, “I cannot remove the color of my skin.” With this realization, Martin and Fulton began speaking about their experience and founded an organization, the Trayvon Martin Foundation, to address violent crime and support the families of young victims. “Fulton has become a role model to many by turning her grief into advocacy,” N’Dea Hallett, a senior who introduced Fulton and Martin, said. Martin said that, while they knew nothing they could say or do would bring back their son, by speaking out they could provide a “voice for the voiceless.” “Everyone’s afraid to get to know the real us. We are passed judgment so fast,” he said. “We can be the voice for our communities.” While Fulton described how difficult it is to speak about her son’s death, she feels it is both necessary and therapeutic. “I just felt like I needed to do more than just cry,” Fulton said. “I think it’s a part of my healing, and it’s important that I get it out and it’s important that I say it.” Fulton spoke about the importance of discussing issues of racial injustice in the United States, but emphasized that simply acknowledging the problem is not enough. “Don’t just get upset,” she said. “You have to get involved. You just can’t be a silent party anymore.” After George Zimmerman was acquitted under a Florida law known as Stand Your Ground, Fulton realized that part of the problem came from within the American justice system.
“We understand that the justice system is broken,” she said. “People need open-minded people on these juries.” She also stressed the importance of education, a key mission of the Trayvon Martin Foundation. Among other programs, the Foundation currently provides some college scholarships, with plans to add more soon. To close the talk, Africana Center Director Katrina Moore posed a challenge to the Tufts community to actively confront these issues. “I would just like to challenge you, Tufts students, faculty, staff,” she said. “You can’t make it one person’s issue. It is all of our issue.” Hallett, who was involved in the planning process as a student leader at the Africana Center, found Tuesday’s events both humbling and emotional. “I think one of my peers said it best: Being able to talk with them and hear their story in person took them from being a headline to really hearing their lived experience,” she said. “I think that was really powerful, especially for a lot of black students to have that.” Hallett said she became involved in preparations for the event to ensure that there was representation from the black community, which she thought was important given the initial controversy it garnered. Moral Voices moved forward with preparation of the event, despite audible concern from students in the Pan-African Alliance (PAA) and Black Student Union (BSU), among others. In early February, a petition drafted by the PAA on Change.org circulated the Tufts community and was supported by nearly 200 signatures. “Simply put, we, the concerned primarily-Black students on this
campus do not agree with your event which will effectively exploit the murder of Black people in order to host a superficial discussion on liberal reform — all the while completely ignoring the imperial, capitalist, White-centered, and antiblack system that you support,” the petition stated. One student of color, who wished to remain anonymous, had attended a Moral Voices planning meeting early in February, but decided not to return in the weeks leading up to the lecture. “In that space, there were only a couple other people of color, so I don’t know that I felt comfortable asking them about race,” she told the Daily last month. “And the fact that I didn’t feel comfortable in that setting kind of alluded to me that the program itself isn’t something that I wanted to be part of. It was just kind of a feeling.” Many students attended an open discussion with Moral Voices leadership to voice frustrations over the lack of transparency in the decision to invite Fulton and Martin to campus, which was made over winter break. “In the fall, especially in the light of Ferguson, we felt that we couldn’t ignore the intersections between race and gun violence, and we were pretty much focusing on the social justice issues that lead to gun violence,” Nestler said. “Actually the agent of [Fulton and Martin], when he heard our topic was gun violence, he suggested them to come and speak.” Students also showed concern for the perceived lack of people of color in the planning process, and felt the decision to co-sponsor with communities of color appeared to be an afterthought. According to Nestler, the intent from the start was to collaborate with other organizations in an effort to plan the keynote with representatives from communi-
ties of color. Other aspects of students’ concerns also stemmed from Moral Voices’ theme of “gun violence,” which seemed to ignore the larger systematic issue of race in the case of Trayvon Martin. The anonymous student explained that focusing on gun violence skirts around the racially-charged root of the problem. “Gun violence can go in the direction of types of guns. [So] why are the parents there … it doesn’t have much to do with that,” the student said. “It’s kind of even exploiting their traumatic experience … it’s basically like, a drunk driver talking about the car that they drove.” Hillel’s Neubauer Executive Director and Rabbi Jeffrey Summit said that the decision to continue with the keynote as planned came after speaking with Fulton and Martin’s agent, who made clear that Fulton and Martin hoped they could share their message with the Tufts community. “They wanted to go ahead with the lecture with Moral Voices, and they just really hoped that … students would work together in a spirit of harmony and solidarity for their lecture,” Summit said. While Tuesday’s lecture itself was powerful, Hallett reiterated the significance of continuing the conversation on campus, where these issues affect students each day. “I think it’s important for the campus to really try to dive into these issues more than on a surface level, because, like, although these experiences are just headlines to us, a lot of people have these lived experiences on this campus,” Hallett said. “I think Tufts in general should step out of its bubble in the way that it thinks about these issues and really get to the root of the problem, versus skirting the surface.”
the contract, but you don’t look at us as the human beings that we are. You have to be human to make everything better.”
Sorority sisters to perform acts of kindness AOII
continued from page 1
ple who wouldn’t necessarily go on their own to our events,” Kennedy said. Danielson explained that, along with giving out candy after exams, she hopes to expand Month of Kindness to faculty and staff by potentially working with the Tufts Labor Coalition. Month of Kindness was planned for this April because of midterms and finals season, which tends to be a stressful time when students need a small lift in their spirits, Danielson said. Month of Kindness will also coincide with the sorority’s philanthropy week, AOII Goes Blue. According to AOII Philanthropy Chair Zoe Baghdoyan, who organized AOII Goes Blue, the programming will begin on April 13 and culminate in a dodgeball tournament on April 17. Events will be held every day, with proceeds going to the Arthritis Foundation for juvenile arthritis research and toward tuition for a child to attend Camp Dartmouth-Hitchcock, a camp for adolescents with juvenile arthritis. “Month of Kindness is about serving the Tufts community through simple acts that could relieve test-taking stress or just make someone smile,” Baghdoyan, a sophomore, told the Daily in an email. “We wanted AOII Goes Blue week to get students interacting and having fun, continuing the idea of Month of Kindness while also doing important work for those affected by juvenile arthritis.”
Features
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Lex Erath | Sugar & Spice
Conflict
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Evan Sayles / The Tufts Daily
First-year Harry Paul worked on his invention, a spinal implant to help people with congenital scoliosis, throughout high school. He is currently working to get it patented.
First-year Harry Paul presents work on scoliosis at White House by Emma Steiner Daily Staff Writer
Tufts first-year Harry Paul presented his invention, intended to ease the lives of children living with congenital scoliosis, to President Barack Obama and other White House officials earlier this month. Paul has been working on the device for three years and recently submitted it for a patent. The Daily spoke with Paul about his invention, its inspiration and the process he went through to create the device. The following is an abridged version of the interview. Tufts Daily: What inspired you to build this device? Harry Paul: I was born with congenital scoliosis, a curvature of the spinal column, which, because it happens so early in development, gets much worse over time and really affects the development of the thoracic cavity, which is all of the space where the heart and lungs and other vital organs develop. So when you have congenital scoliosis, it restricts the amount of growth that can happen, which compresses those organs and hinders them from developing, which as you can imagine is very, very dangerous. So most people who have congenital scoliosis will die before the age of 4 if he or she doesn’t have treatment. What current treatment does is surgeons put rods in, and the rods keep the spine straight, but they have to be lengthened with another surgery every three to six months. So I went through all that and it wasn’t that fun. I decided that I wanted to try to learn about the different treatments out there and see if there had been anything that had been developed to make it easier, and there really wasn’t anything. TD: Can you explain, in simple terms, how the device works? HP: So what I did is I invented an implant that grows with the spinal column to keep the spine straight as growth is happening, minimizing the number of surgeries the child would have to have and lengthening the time between surgeries so they can have less complications, less time out of school, less of all the bad things. Then as I was doing that, I realized that in order to test it, I would need to put it in either a human or an animal and I wasn’t really into that, nor could I because I was a high school student. So what I did is I built my own mechanical model of the spinal
column. I used computers and an engineering lab and 3D printers and screws and bolts and mills and all that good stuff to build [it]. It was just made out of plastic and metal but it simulates the natural growth of the spinal column. So we could not only put my implant on the trial spine … but any other implant that might be developed in the future to see whether it’s going to work or not. I hope this will stimulate more and more people to not only get involved in science and STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education] as a whole but to focus on this problem, because it is a field that has been sort of stagnant lately, and that’s not a good thing. TD: Were there any technical difficulties in your process? HP: For most of it I would do things, find out how much it would cost to do what I needed to do, find out it was way too expensive, and because of that have to make something myself. So part of it was, I didn’t have the money to put it in an animal trial, or to pay a surgeon to test it out, so I had to do something else. I have incredible parents; I am lucky that they have supported me, not just emotionally, but financially as much as they can. So when I said that I wanted a computer that could handle this ridiculously powerful engineering program, they rolled their eyes and then found a way to do it. Also in the high school I went to, I was in a science research program, so I had a very limited amount of funding through that, but I used all of what I could and tried to weasel more money out of them. So that was great, and then eventually, as I started to really get into this and to really develop this, I partnered with an engineering firm in Virginia called K2M, and they were just an amazing company and really supported me, not just by letting me use all their facilities to do these things but to talk to some of the best people out there. It took many months, and the whole thing took me three years to do. TD: How did your device get recognized? HP: I certainly didn’t start at the White House. I first started contacting people to ask them questions about their articles. So this was years ago, before I had even started to make something myself. I was just reading about my disease and I had questions about the articles and the books so I emailed the authors and I eventually started talking about
what they were doing, and I learned about it through that. And then, through the science research program at my high school, we had to apply to science competitions and I did and I ended up winning, and then people took note. And since I went to the biggest science fair [last May], which is the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair … and since I won there, the press has sort of gotten wind of it… The White House found out about me through Society for Science and the Public, which is the organization that runs and administers the Intel fair. Two weeks ago I got a call. I screamed. TD: What was the presentation like? HP: I presented to way more people than I can ever remember … When I saw [Obama] walking towards me with his amazing smile on his face, I didn’t think real life was happening. But when he asked me about my device, he was just another person to talk to about the science, which I am so passionate about. TD: How has your research continued at Tufts? HP: Freshman year, I knew I wanted to take a break. Mostly because I had to. Right now, we are submitting a patent, and so I’m not allowed to work on it or put it in clinical trials until the patent gets approved … The process can take up to 5 years. Right now, I am in the process of looking at all the amazing labs [at] Tufts. I love research in general, so I am figuring out what lab I want to apply to. TD: Will your device be available for widespread medical use? HP: Yes but no. After the patent is approved, we can start manufacturing and we can start doing more intensive tests or put more funding into it. After we do that, we would need to do clinical trials to develop the implant and test it in an animal to make sure there are no adverse reactions. And then there is the whole FDA (Food and Drug Administration) regulatory process. TD: Do you have any advice for young engineers? HP: Anyone who is really passionate about something should have a chance to keep talking about and working on it. It doesn’t matter who you are to be interested in science, and if you are interested in it, you can go as far as you want. Don’t give up. I could have given up a trillion times. My device failed again and again and again. I could have just said, I failed, I didn’t win, and given up. You will keep having failures until you don’t fail, and then it’s amazing.
wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy á la Mean Girls (2004). I wish I could bake any sort of cake, really, to help me get through this week. Actually, I wish I could bake, period, since my lack of talent in the kitchen is so nonexistent it’s bordering on negative, but that’s a story for another day. Conflict arises when people want opposite, mutually exclusive things. For example, on Fridays, I’m in conflict with my professor when he expects attendance at my 8:30 AM lecture and I expect to get more than six hours of sleep. I’m often in conflict with my housemates when they want to have significant others over and I don’t want to be wearing clothes. I’m usually even in conflict with my best friends about whose house to pregame at, since although we all live roughly 47 seconds apart, our laziness is truly remarkable. The sad truth of the matter is that conflict is a part of everyday life, and we’ve just got to learn to deal with it as best we can. But, not to fear: Here are several tried-and-true methods for resolving conflict that are bound to end with you riding off into the rainbow sunset on a unicorn, or at the very least getting your way. Method 1: Focus on your own point of view. Group members say you’re not pulling your weight? Kindly inform them that you are absolutely slammed with work this week, as you’ve fallen three episodes behind on “House of Cards” (2013-present) and absolutely need to catch up before “Game of Thrones” (2011-present) kicks in as well. Plus you bought some ingredients for two new recipes you want to try, and it’s crucial you do those ASAP before your imported zucchini goes mushy. Remember, it’s you that you’ve got to think about; no one looks out for your own best interests better than you. Method 2: Intimidation. If you approach a confrontation with a calm, reasonable attitude, everyone will instantly target you as the one most likely to cave in and take a bad “compromise.” Instead, make sure to arrive all guns blazing: Impassioned shouting, obscene hand gestures and crazy eyes are all good places to start (extra points for kicking the door down). If you prefer the more subtle route, work your Russian mafia connections into the conversation or casually adjust your jacket to reveal your loaded Glock. Intimidation tactics have been propelling dictators to absolute domination for centuries, and if that’s not a tried-and-true strategy for avoiding compromise, I don’t know what is. Method 3: Passive-aggressiveness. Some people just don’t have the guts to make mob acquaintances while abroad (it’s all about the networking) and may prefer a less bloody approach. Enter passive-aggressiveness, the tactic favored by middle school girls and opposing parties of Congress. Here, it’s all about letting the other person know you’re displeased with them without actually spelling it out. What makes this so fun is that you can get quite creative in how you communicate your irritation: Procrastinate doing things they want you to do, speak to them only in monosyllabic words, or — if you’ve really got it out for them — turn your read receipts on and ignore their texts regardless (the ultimate power move). The takeaway from all this is that while cake may be nice (seriously, hit me up if you’ve got some), there’s nothing quite like sticking a severed horse head in someone’s bed. Go get ’em! Lex Erath is a junior majoring in economics and biopsychology. She can be reached at alexandra.erath@tufts.edu.
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Tu f t s U n i v e r s i t y
Margaret Henderson Floyd Memorial Lecture
American Glamour: Architecture and Design in the 1950’s Alice Friedman Wellesley College Tuesday, April 7, 2015 6:00pm Tisch Library, Rm. 304 35 Professors Row Medford, MA Professor Margaret Henderson Floyd taught at Tufts University for two decades before her untimely death in 1997. A distinguished scholar of American architecture, Professor Floyd was an inspiring teacher and mentor to a generation of undergraduate and graduate students. This lecture series honors Margaret Floyd’s memory, her scholarship, her service to Tufts, and her devotion to her students.
The eleventh Margaret Henderson Floyd Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Alice Friedman of Wellesley College, where she is Grace Slack McNeil Professor of the History of American Art, and Director, McNeil Program for Studies in American Art and Architecture. Professor Friedman is an internationally renowned historian of both Renaissance and Modern architecture. Her books include House and Household in Elizabethan England: Wollaton Hall and the Willoughby Family (1989) and American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture (2010).
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is available on Upper Campus Road and the Dowling Hall parking garage at 419 Boston Ave. For more information call 617-627-3567 or email Rosalie.bruno@tufts.edu. Donations to the Margaret Henderson Floyd Fund can be made by contacting Amy West, Department of Art and Art History, Tufts University, 617-627-2785.
TUFTS SUMMER SESSION 2015 prepare. eXpanD. Develop.
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30th ANNUAL BEYOND THE CLASSROOM Student Forum for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality
PROGRAM Panel I
Exploring Roots
Faculty Moderator Peggy Hutaff, Religion
10:00
Samantha Karlin, “The Roots of the Anti-Choice Movement” Hannah Arnow, “College Women of the 1950s: A Look into the Why” Andrew Núñez, “The Boy Scouts of America: Colonial Manhood Project” Drew Zeiba, “Fuzzy Futures: Fur in the Clothing of Viking Prophetesses” Jamie Wollum, “Representations of Female Identity in Las Carpas”
Panel II
Consciousness Raising
Faculty Moderator Paula Aymer, Sociology
11:00
Anastasiya Lobacheva, “The Utility of Consciousness Raising as a Defense Against Gaslighting” Jackie Tissiere, “Jerome’s Ordained Eating Disorder: The Desexualization of Early Christian Women through Ascetic Fasting” Alyssa Hatch, “Middle School: Roof, Road, and the Queer Coming of Age Story” Sarah McDaniel, “of the fish she had lost and the fish she had won” Nina Hofkosh-Hulbert, “Looking Backwards Toward the Wreck”
*LUNCH
Guest: James Glaser, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences
Panel III
Bodies
Faculty Moderator Sarah Pinto, Anthropology
1:00
Kendall Reingold, “Religious Menstrual Taboos in Three Cultures of Spain” Ariel Weinstein, “Transgender Politics of the Women’s Colleges” John Kelly, “An ‘Ugly Sin’ and A ‘Beautiful Girl’” Maria Goretti and Catholic (Mis)Use of Survivors” Jennine Sawwan, “A Bird with One Broken Wing”
*Please RSVP for lunch: http://goo.gl/forms/n31oklbH3Q
Arts & Living
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Theater Preview
Silent rave to happen tonight in Crane Room by Jennifer Straitz Assistant Arts Editor
Campus swanster Marcella Hastings is honing her creativity yet again. Luckily, all of the Tufts community will have a chance to participate in her latest enterprise tonight, April 2, at the Crane Room, where Hastings is set to host a silent rave. This is no April Fool’s joke; this dance party is actually happening. A silent rave is an event where every person plays their music from an MP3 player in synchronicity, rather than listening to a DJ. In an interview with the Daily, Hastings explained what went into the planning of the event, quite possibly the first of its kind to hit Tufts campus. Earlier in the semester, as Hastings and her housemates brainstormed events they wanted to hold at their Somerville apartment, they knew that they “really wanted to focus this semester on the awesome people at Tufts and bonding with each other and just doing fun things together as much as we can.” According to Hastings, when the idea of a silent rave arose, the group jumped on the idea. “[My housemates and I] realized that this was really an event that wasn’t well-suited to a single house but was really something [we] wanted to open up to the whole community,” Hastings said. Once the crew had established that this was the event they wanted to see happen, Hastings set to work enlisting the help of friends for various aspects of the planning and imple-
Emily Gruzdowich | A caffeinated critic
Zachary Robert Repko via Flickr Creative Commons
Marcella Hastings’ silent rave will combine dancing, wild costumes and personalized MP3 playlists. mentation of the project. She turned to Andrew Dempsey, a musician who was previously featured in the Daily as an Artsy Jumbo, to put together the playlist. “I figured, rather than just put together a list of my favorite songs I’d enlist slightly more professional help,” Hastings said. “[Dempsey’s] done a lot of mix tapes … He’s involved in the electronic music scene. I reached out to him and he agreed to make us an hour-long mix for the event. It’s awesome; I just got it a couple days ago and it is super fun and super energetic so we’re excited about that.”
Along the way, she noted, “[I’ve] had a lot of support … I bounced [the rave] off a lot of people to make sure we would actually have an audience and so a lot of people have been really encouraging. Andrew’s been awesome with the playlist. [Senior Tony Cannistra] helped me with some other advertising.” Not only has Hastings drawn on the support of multiple friends to put the rave together, but she also drew her inspiration to hold it from a variety of sources. Hastings cited one source of inspiration as Improv see RAVE, page 6
Spotlight
Chris Hnin creates documentary to explore identity, tell important stories by Dana Guth Arts Editor
Chris Hnin launched a documentary centered around one fundamental question: What does it mean to be a woman in her hometown of Yangon, Myanmar? The answer lies in the dozens of interviews, relationships and stories that Chris, a sophomore, uncovered as she traveled home last summer to produce her documentary in conjunction with a local film company. Funded by a grant through the Institute of Global Leadership (IGL), she chose to focus on the narratives of three Burmese women. “We worked nonstop for three months,” Chris said. “It reveals a local dilemma between work and love, and the different stages of love.” After growing up for 10 years in Yangon and 10 years in Singapore, Chris was inspired by her own struggle
to form an identity tied to two such ideologically distant spaces, specifically when it came to attitudes toward women. She spoke about this struggle in last week’s production of Not Your Mother’s Monologues. “I used the experience of working with a local NGO that deals with sexual harassment to write my monologue. It was a public round-table, about 20 women, just given a space to discuss their stories.” While the documentary is currently in the post-production stage, with a rough cut due at the end of April, Chris stays busy with another creative endeavor: Namely, authoring and illustrating a fulllength children’s book called “Gruffle and Something Very Shiny.” “Burmese children have folklore, but no imaginative children’s books,” she said. “Stories are simple, but very powerful. My hope is that, one day, I can write bilingual stories for them.”
Courtesy Chris Hnin
Chris Hnin is producing a film that tells the unique narratives of three women in her hometown Yangon, Myanmar.
What's up this weekend Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events! Battle of the Bands 2015: Come see the contest whose winner will play as an opener at Spring Fling! The bands competing are GGGGHOSTS, Maevey, Rollersnakes, Wakana and Shark Saddle. (Friday at 9:00 p.m. in Hotung Cafe. Admission is free. No tickets required.) Major: Undecided Presents: France France Revolution: Major: Undecided will be performing its last show of the year (maybe) about the French Revolution and its connections to dance video games. BU’s Slow Children at Play will open for Majors. (Friday at 10 p.m. in Cabot Auditorium. Admission is free. No tickets required.)
SALAAM Presents: Penn Masala: South Asian Literary, Arts and Music Magazine presents Penn Masala, the world’s first a cappella group who formed at UPenn in 1996 and have produced eight records to date. Penn Masala’s music combines musical influences from both Eastern and Western cultures for a unique blend of songs. (Doors open at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday in Goddard Chapel. There is limited seating, so seats are given on a first-come first-served basis. The show starts at 9:15 p.m. Admission is free with a strongly suggested donation of $5. No tickets required.)
Tufts NME: Walking on Water: Tufts New Music Ensemble performs a concert under the direction of Donald Berman. (Tonight at 8 p.m., Granoff Music Center. Admission is free. No tickets required.) createDATE: Maker Night — 3D Printing Workshop: The Tufts Art Gallery Student Advocacy Council is holding a createDate on 3D printing. Come learn how to turn your ideas into real creations using 3D printing techniques! No experience necessary. Attendees are strongly encouraged to bring their own laptops. (Tonight at 6 p.m., Tufts University Art Gallery. Admission is free. No tickets required.) —by Nika Korchok
Geometric destruction
T
he beauty of dilapidation reveals the cyclical nature of life. As the grandiose is detached from the grand, each component is shown in its singular form. The seamlessness of creation is fractured, unmasking the creator’s artifice. Life is seen as it is: unfiltered and unaware. Capturing the subtle transformations of physical, natural and human forces, Michael Nyman seeks to unveil the principles of truth, which lie at the root of each image. Fixating on the raw unfiltered state of humanity and creation, Nyman captures the pathos of being. The Tufts University Art Gallery, located in the Aidekman Arts Center until May 17, houses “Images Were Introduced,” an exhibition on film and photography by the artist. Spanning his 50-year photographic archive, the exhibition touches on the multi-faceted nature of Nyman’s work across mediums. Featuring photographic stills of the collapse of the Cine Opera, a series of ‘grids’ or compilations of multiple pictures into ordered geometric frames, and the centerpiece “NYman With A Movie Camera” (2010), the exhibition explores both the process and product of creation. Sequentially progressing, the exhibition begins with destruction, ebbs into order and culminates with a cinematic juxtaposition of disorder and order. The pulsating rhythm of the cinematic show radiates through the exhibition’s three rooms, setting the eerie mood. While intrigued by the inventive perspectives featured in the Cine Opera stills, which captured the devolution of a Mexico City opera house into a hovel, I found the mastery of perspectival manipulation to be in Nyman’s grid “Braque Series.” In this work, the viewer’s eye tumbles downward, bouncing off of the concrete steps and refracting off of the angular walls. The perception of depth is wholly remarkable; the descent is seemingly limitless. Framed by angular horizontal lines and the linear repetition of the staircase, the building stairwell evolves beyond its primary practical function. Nyman succeeds in transforming the mundane and the everyday into the revolutionary. Arranged in a three by three grid, the “Braque Series” stills are unified by their unceasing undulation. Synchronized with cinematic editing, Nyman’s film “Images Were Introduced” ascends on crescendos, subsequently descending on diminuendos. The film is comprised of images from Nyman’s 50-year photographic archive; it is a cinematic remix that depicts the evolution of people and ideals on a global scale. The images match the musical score with mathematical precision. One is granted the control of a composer. The 12 screens, which simultaneously display different clips from the film, can be divided into string, woodwinds, brass and percussion sections. Pulsating to the rhythm of the music, the images visually depict the controlled chaos of the score. An interpretation of the Soviet artist Dziga Vertov’s film, “Man with a Movie Camera,” produced in 1929, “Nyman With A Movie Camera” is an inventive film about filmmaking. Intentionally revealing the artist’s hand in its creation, the movie acknowledges the subjectivity of artistic creation. The artist is autonomous; he chooses the elements that are concealed and revealed. However, Nyman and Vertov’s films are significant because they do not seek to mask the truth of nature or their role in creating the film. You can see both of the artists’ hand in their final products. A common theme emerges in all of Nyman’s work. Inspired by both the creator and the creation, I gravitate toward works that emulate the rises and falls of the cycle of nature. Attracted to the grotesque in Goya’s “Disasters of War” (1810-1820) prints as well as the product of technological innovation in Calder’s mobiles and Ganson’s mechanical sculptures, I find beauty in the extremes. Nyman’s photographic stills revert the commonplace divide between destruction and creation. The pieces on exhibition are simply an interpretation of this theme in another medium. By recording destruction and geometrically rearranging its chaos into a thought-provoking product of innovation, Nyman injects structure into the ruins, beauty into the fallen. His stills can be examined to arrive at a comparison between the previous trends in art and architecture and the cutting-edge field of photographic media. Emily Gruzdowich is a sophomore majoring in political science. She can be reached at emily.gruzdowich@tufts.edu
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The Tufts Daily
Top 10 Senior Gala locales that are not Houston, Tex.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Marcella Hastings plans to spice up Tufts art scene with a silent rave RAVE
continued from page 5
For those underclassmen who have not heard, there was quite the mix-up that happened a few days ago involving Tufts seniors and social media. Particularly, a bunch of Tufts seniors were mysteriously invited to the Facebook event for the Rice University Senior Gala. Now, in case you don’t know, Rice University is in Houston, Tex. Tufts University is not in Houston, Tex. It was quite a shock for those seniors who found out that they had just RSVP’d to an event for the wrong university. I can’t confirm who started this, or how, so don’t ask me about it. I’m sure Houston is a very nice place (I don’t know, I’ve never been). However, there are much better places where we can spend our senior gala (including the place where we are actually going) that are easily accessible by car, T or Uber. Here are the top 10 places we should have our senior gala instead. 1.The Westin Copley Place I mean … we are going there. It’s not really a question anymore. What? You still want some more ideas, in case of emergency? Okay, here are nine more: 2. Houston Hall Take that, Rice University! We have our own Houston, and we don’t have to fly all the way to Texas to get to it! Sure, it’s a bit smaller … but the population is probably more fun. 3. Boston Commons Let’s mix it up and take Senior Gala outside! It’ll probably be warm enough by then, right? Well, at least the snow will be gone (knock on wood). Plus, there are cool things like that gazebo and the frog pond to explore. 4. Fenway There is literally no better way to celebrate Boston than by visiting Fenway Park. If you’re a hardcore Yankees fan, this would be your one opportunity to visit the architectural landmark without having to bother with all that dumb Red Sox stuff (kidding, guys — please don’t kill me). 5. The MFA We get free admission anyway, so why don’t we just take advantage of that and party with art? Just be careful with that red wine by the paintings, so stay away from the walls … on second thought, this is probably a bad idea. 6. The aquarium Okay, so now that we’ve ruled out partying with art, let’s instead party with FISH! Seriously. The aquarium would be an AWESOME place to have a Senior Gala. It would be the perfect ambience for an event worthy of James Bond-level class. The fish would also provide fun entertainment if you get bored. 7. On a boat Maybe a senior booze cruise in the harbor shouldn’t be our Senior Gala — it should be in addition to it! Another way for us to class it up before we do the exact opposite when we graduate — and no art for us to ruin in the process. 8. Whisky Saigon, AGAIN!! We love Whisky Saigon. We’ve been there twice now for senior pub night, so why not just go back? I’m sure they love us too … right guys? 9. The (closed-down) Estate The last senior pub night was at a club called the Estate, which (rumor has it) shut down the day after. Let’s just go back to the same place and take it over. What, it’s not like anyone will be there to stop us right? 10. Gantcher — recreate your drunk college kiss at Fall Ball Recreate your first drunk college that you experienced at Fall Ball first year! What a way to say, “F–k
Arts & Living
first kiss your you,
—by Jessica Mow
Everywhere, a prank-based collective that has hosted silent raves in the past and referred to them as “Mp3 experiments.” “I was in New York when one of the Improv Everywhere versions was going on,” Hastings said. “Theirs has a lot of instruction, and … props and interaction with the world … Ours is going to be really just a dance party.” She also couldn’t help but emphasize the importance of rediscovering her music from years gone by. “I found my iPod nano from middle school which hasn’t been charged in five years,” Hastings recalled. “I charged it up and listened to my ‘Dancy Dance’ playlist. And it was hilarious. I had things like Missy Elliott followed by the Muppet’s ‘Mahna Mahna’(1977). But the point was I had a really fun time just dancing around my house listening to it, and I thought that would be a great feeling to extend to the whole Tufts community.” Intrigued readers can make their way to the Crane Room at 8:30 p.m. tonight to dance their hearts out at Hastings’ silent rave. According to the website for tonight’s event, www. silentrave.club, this is the place to be for those students who “live to dance … need a dose of endorphins before [heading] back to the library [or] want
Zachary Robert Repko via Flickr Creative Commons
Music plays through each person’s headphones in synchronicity at a silent rave. to get pumped before [their] next weekend activity.” Unsure what to wear? Hastings’ website has readers covered. It states, “Dress code includes appropriate dancing clothes, which include but are not limited to leotards, crop tops, jungle costumes, bangles, froufrou, minimalism, excessive scarves, wands, cat ears or whatever you wore to class.”
Last but not least, besides your funky attire, Hastings noted that all you need to bring is your headphones and MP3 device with the playlist available for download from SoundCloud here and on the event website. In the words of Hastings, putting together the silent rave has “really been a collaborative effort, [and] the impression that I’ve gotten is that this is something the community really wants to see happen.”
Artsy Nugget
Brandon Flowers releases spooky new video for 'Can’t Deny My Love' by Anjali Nair
Assistant Arts Editor
Brandon Flowers, the singer best known as the sultry front man of The Killers, released the first single on March 30 from his upcoming album, “The Desired Effect,” set for release on May 19 in the United States. Bold and infectious, “Can’t Deny My Love” is a logical next step for Flowers, whose new wave and synth pop influences have been creeping into The Killers’ music since the band’s debut in the early 2000s. For the music video accompanying the single though, Flowers travels back beyond the ’80s and into Puritan New England. Heavily inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” the video starts out with Flowers packing for a mysterious journey. His wife, portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood, asks him to stay back — to stay with her — but he denies her pleas, promising to be back in the morning. Fast-forward and Flowers is in a dark forest, meeting a creepy stranger (Psychedelic Furs’ Richard Butler) who tries to hand him a serpentine staff. Flowers refuses, freaked out by the hellish hot flash he experiences when he tries to take hold of the staff. Moments later, Flowers finds a pink ribbon on the ground, much like the one his wife wears tied around her hair. To his disbelief, he soon realizes that his wife has accepted Butler’s staff and is undergoing a ritual of mysterious black magic. However, Flowers suddenly wakes up the next morning, unsure of whether he dreamt the whole thing. When he returns home, he finds that his wife is still there, hair ribbon intact. The relief he feels is only momentary though, because he finds the ribbon from the previous night still in his bag. This video is exquisitely directed, with shadowy color schemes and an eerie performance from Wood. While the plot of the video stays fairly true to Hawthorne’s short story, Wood’s portrayal of the wife is far less innocuous, creating some interesting foreshadowing even before the viewer sees her in the forest. Flowers isn’t too shabby of an actor himself, though most of his facial expressions make him look like a confused/bemused male model. Still, “Can’t Deny My Love” bodes well for the critically anticipated new album with its poppy brilliance and literary tilt.
vagueonthehow via Flickr Creative Commons.
Brandon Flowers, most famous for being the singer of the band The Killers, released a music video for his new single “Can’t Deny My Love.”
Thursday, April 2, 2015
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Thursday, April 2, 2015
EDITORIAL | op-ed
editorial
Indiana Bill is a wake up call, equality must prevail
One of the most controversial news stories in this past week was Indiana Governor Mike Pence’s decision to sign into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which enables individuals or corporations to cite serving LQBTQ* individuals as damaging to their religious freedom and essentially deny them service based on their sexual orientation. This news has garnered many thought-provoking, even heartbreaking responses, and rightly so — at the heart of the matter lies a deep question, a conflict between two inalienable rights: the right to religious freedom, and the right to live free from discrimination of sexual orientation. The United States government prides itself in operating under a secular system. The separation of church and state is one of the cornerstones of our government. Yet the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and several other recent incidents reveal how religious lobbies can twist and turn religious expression into something that is inherently discriminatory and immoral. Just last year, the Supreme Court a the precedent for family-owned corporations when Hobby
Lobby was allowed to bypass federal laws that required it to provide contraception to its employees because it violated their religious freedom. Of course, religious freedom is essential, enshrined by U.S. culture and the First Amendment. But while religious freedom is one of the founding principles of the United States, this does not mean that it should be used as an argument to invalidate other essential human rights. While LGBTQ* rights are not explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution, they are undoubtedly as essential, and their preservation as precious, as any other protection granted by the Bill of Rights. The way religious freedom is invoked in legislation such as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act has become quite discriminatory. Religious freedom is the ability to express a religion or religious belief without the threat of persecution. When freedom of religious expression is manipulated to lead to even more persecution, and then that persecution is enshrined by the law, something has gone wrong. (Not to mention, it makes little sense why this law inherently
favors some beliefs, while certain religious groups in the United States remain actively threatened.) When allowed, institutions and individuals will interpret their own freedoms as broadly as possible, but can it be that one person’s expression of freedom, unchecked, may lead to the persecution of another? Yes. Simply put, no essential right should be used as an excuse to invalidate another. This conclusion, however, is far from universally acknowledged. As the 2012 Chick-fil-A controversy (which arose after it came to the public’s attention that the chain’s profits were being managed by the family owners to oppose LGBTQ* rights) and the contentious decision to disband Tufts Christian Fellowship prove, tension exists — even here inside the so-called “Tufts Bubble” — about the relative expression of human rights. The fight against discrimination never truly ends. Yes, there are victories, and they should never be understated or ignored, but winning a battle is far from winning a war, and we must acknowledge the prejudice which still exists, in order to fight it.
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off the hill | university of south florida
Let’s stop separating the arts from STEM by Isabelle Cavazos The Oracle
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Many college students have likely been within earshot of some witty remark about what liberal arts majors lack in comparison to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors. A recent Inside Higher Education column only added more fuel to this debate and argued for the erasure of the “A” in “STEAM,” an acronym that integrates the arts into STEM education. Immediately after defending the arts as a “source of enlightenment and inspiration,” the column then pointed to the ways STEAM takes too much attention away from the hard sciences. In suggesting that the arts are counterproductive to the push for students to prepare for STEM jobs, it implies that the arts can go on the backburner, at least for the time being. This, of course, isn’t a new debate. STEM has been praised for its postgraduate job stability and, as the col-
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umn addresses, the need for STEM education is due to the lack of entry-level job applicants who are familiar with these subjects. Still, it makes no sense to value the benefits of the arts — especially those in relation to STEM majors — while simultaneously writing them off. The arts don’t just exist to pepper broad, creative and analytical thinking skills into STEM education, although they do add this skill set. Rather, they are valuable in their own right, and the integrative term STEAM doesn’t water down the focus on science and math. Even without trying to shorten STEAM and further stigmatize the arts, one can still recognize the differences between the arts and STEM fields. It’s not as if having a background in the arts will hold a science or math graduate back from getting a job in her field, just as graduating with a liberal arts degree doesn’t guarantee unemployment. As mentioned in a Forbes article, having internship experience can offset whatever negative conno-
tation some employers have of arts degrees. Acknowledging the arts isn’t a bad thing. As noted in an article on Fast Company, liberal arts graduates can bring perspectives they practiced in the classroom to tech companies, from the ability to think beyond just one “correct solution” for a problem to the ability to think of finding long-term solutions to a problem. The appeal here isn’t just to defend the worth of these degrees in the workplace. Rather, it lies in understanding how these abstract skills in a particular field have their applications in STEM careers. It’s time to end conversations about whether arts degrees are more valuable than science degrees, or vice versa, as separate career pathways. Obviously, those heading into either field have some idea of what the workplace expects of graduates of each. So when it comes to how students perceive STEM degrees and the market for jobs in these fields, the “A” for arts is still needed in order to make sure these graduates harness skills they might otherwise miss.
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Thursday, April 2, 2015 Op-Ed
by Zach Shapiro
The Tufts Daily
A new Iran strategy
Op-Ed Contributor
As the Obama Administration misses yet another soft deadline in its negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, a number of contrarian voices emerge at the forefront of debate. Back in 2008, then-presidential candidate John McCain quipped, “Have you heard that old Beach Boys song? Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.” More recently, American Enterprise Institute scholar John Bolton, former American ambassador to the United Nations, argued for the use of force to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and agenda in a New York Times op-ed. It is reasonable to balk at the use of force, especially in such a volatile part of the world. But in considering this conundrum, I cannot help but recall Robert Heinlein’s observation in “Starship Troopers” (1959) that “naked force has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.” Whether or not force is the right option, negotiations with Iran are not working. Sanctions against the Islamic Republic, however, are economically sound. The Iranian government hemorrhages money as it falls quite short of breaking even on oil production and exports. Experts across the political spectrum have pointed to President Hassan Rouhani’s softened stances on various issues, coupled with his tweets of holiday greetings to Jews on Rosh Hashanah (from an unverified twitter account), in a desperate attempt to justify negotiations. I find it hard to believe President Rouhani as the Ayatollah leads raucous chants of “Death to America” at massive rallies and Iranian weapons, money and support flow to Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza. One diplomat was right in remarking; “With Rouhani, all we really get is a turban and a smile.” Negotiating with Iran also lacks sound strategic payoffs. The Obama style of negotiating, employing flexible deadlines and receding red lines, cements America’s loss of escalation dominance in confronting a rising regional hegemon. The Obama Administration’s inaction in Syria and Yemen certainly does not help the case for American credibility. Say the Obama Administration succeeds in reaching a deal with the Iranian Regime. Now imagine potential consequences of a successful negotiated deal with Iran. The current form of the elusive agreement, for instance, would allow for Iran to keep approximately two-thirds of their centrifuges spinning.
Photo by Mikhail Metzel/Itar-Tass/ABACAPRESS.COM
President Obama’s precedent would not deter nuclear proliferation. Rather, an accommodationist American approach would encourage it. It would make sense for the Saudi Arabian monarchy to seek nuclear capabilities to balance those of its rival, Iran. Besides, how could one convincingly persuade Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who fashions himself a new Sultan, not to pursue even a weakened capability afforded to multiple neighbors? President Obama is a smart man, but even he cannot master the rhetorical gymnastics required to get America — and the greater Middle East — out of that nasty bind. At the end of the day, hard as it may be for us to swallow, the use of force has a history of deterring the Iranian Regime. In 1988, for instance, the USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner, killing 300. Not more than a month later, the Iranian Government accepted a conciliatory cease-fire and the Iran-Iraq War came to an end. Morally reprehensible
as this act may be in isolation, it served as an effective means to a telling strategic end. Yet again the Iranian Regime yielded in the face of American force as troops rolled into Iraq in 2003. Say what you will about Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Bush Administration’s mistakes: In response to American force exertion, Iran temporarily shut down their nuclear program. In the era of political correctness and ubiquitous taboos, the belief that might makes right is controversial. Perhaps it is time to stop stigmatizing force, in the pragmatic spirit of “Starship Troopers.” Whatever each of us chooses to believe about pre-emptive strikes on Iran, it is time to be honest, to admit that negotiations are not getting the job done. Whether or not it is too soon to bomb Iranian centrifuges, it is time to take negotiations off the table and put the ball in the Supreme Leader’s court. How Iran responds will be reveal a lot about the Regime’s intentions.
Celebration of space exploration needed The Daily Trojan
When astronaut Scott Kelly, who blasted into orbit on Friday for a oneyear stay on the International Space Station, returns to Earth in March 2016, he will have spent more time in space than any other American astronaut. Scientists hope that his year in zero gravity will help establish the physical and psychological effects expected of long-term space missions, including an eventual NASA expedition to Mars. Meanwhile, Dutch nonprofit Mars One is working to establish the first permanent and sustainable human colonies on the red planet, with a launch date scheduled for 2024. All of this comes on the heels of a tide of scientific literature suggesting the prior existence of water on Mars and the likely presence of other sentient life in the universe. Therefore, recent undertakings point to outer space as the last and greatest frontier for human discovery. Yet, despite the promise of extraterrestrial research, NASA’s funding remains highly contentious in annual congressional budget battles. Cuts to NASA’s $17.6 billion budget threaten the five decades of science and infrastructure that have been the crowning achievement of human innovation. The shrinking of the agency’s funding is not
Rebecca Solomon and Pooja Sivaraman | New York Style Delhi
That’s not how we roll
R
off the hill | University of Southern California
by Austin Reagan
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Op-Ed
merely a consequence of recession-era pullbacks. In fact, since 1973 — the end of the Apollo lunar missions — NASA’s annual allotment has gradually declined from 1.35 percent of government spending to less than 0.6 percent. Still, recent debate over the financial future of the agency has become particularly vitriolic. Lamar Smith, a Tea Party Republican from Texas who currently heads the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, has derided much of NASA’s work as frivolous. GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz has described the agency’s exploration of the outer solar system as a “political distraction.” These criticisms have bolstered concerns among the scientific community that the GOP control of both houses of Congress will result in a draconian diminishment of grant funding and scientific spending. Such cuts would be entirely unjustified. Even aside from the grand wonder of discovery, investment in space exploration yields tremendous advantages. Money allotted to NASA helps power innovative companies in the private sector and encourages the development of technologies that heighten prospects for the economy and security. Today, our ability to compress and transmit large data over the internet is mostly the result of telecommunications research conducted by NASA engineers. The
informational networks, the predecessors to the computers of today, were founded at the space agency. Much of the technology that we take for granted today has trickled down from the laboratories of some the country’s top space scientists and engineers. Additionally, the study of other planets and their climate histories could help us predict the changes in earth’s climate due to increased greenhouse gases. And, of course, every dollar invested in space exploration brings us one step closer to definitively answering the most primitive of scientific inquiries: Are we alone in the universe? Prominent hypotheses — from claims of fossils on Mars to suggestions that Jupiter’s moon Europa may hold oceans of water — posit that the answer to that question is just around the corner. Finding it will unlock a world of further research and might help clarify the murky story of life’s origins. The politicization of this scientific field is not only inconvenient, but unjust. Politicians urging cuts to NASA and other extraterrestrial research grants disservice their constituents, depriving them of the knowledge and benefits to be derived from further space exploration. We must celebrate the immense achievements that have been made thus far and renew our commitment to a peaceful and determined mapping of the universe.
ebecca: For the most part, in my life I have never been in the position where I wanted something that was completely reasonable and could not have it. With the exception of my third grade crush who refused to hold my hand because “girls have cooties,” I have been pretty fortunate. This all came to a halt over spring break. Every time that I come home, my dad, brothers and I go to our favorite Chinese restaurant. As always, my brothers and Dad chose to start with soup. I, however, was feeling adventurous and dared to order an egg roll. To my surprise, the waiter looked at me and simply said, “No.” Assuming that he was kidding, I laughed and ordered it again, to which he responded, “No.” My dad and brothers chuckled awkwardly and the waiter made me choose a soup. Begrudgingly, I settled on wonton. My family and I began to create hypotheses of why I could not have an egg roll. Ultimately, we settled on the theory that they ran out. When the meals came out, however, everyone had an eggroll with their dish but me. It was enraging. I have come to conclusion that the waiter was sending me a message. He was telling me that I needed to watch my figure and stop indulging in fried foods if I wanted a man. After receiving his message, I proceeded to steal my brother Danny’s egg roll. I refuse to be shamed in healthy decisions. PLEASE LIST YOUR FAVORITE MOVIES OF ALL TIME? Rebecca: This question was submitted to our Google Doc in all capitals, so I am assuming it’s urgent. I am a big fan of lists. When I applied to Wake Forest, one of their essay questions was, “List your top 10.” I proceeded to list my favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavors. I often make pro/con lists before making any major decision in my life: pizza or Chinese for dinner, beach or pool, one cupcake or two cupcakes. As a Libra, I am painfully indecisive. But while I love lists, I hate listicles. Reading articles like “22 Lifehacks” makes me cringe. I feel that they cater to our generation’s inability to focus. I prefer lists or articles but not a bastardization of the two. So here is my list of my favorite movies in no particular order: About a Boy (2002), Rushmore (1998), Charlie Bartlett (2007), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) and Manhattan (1979). Pooja: Although I could make a list of movies that are my favorite, that demonstrate my artistic taste, my level of cultural knowledge and my hipness, I will instead tell you my secret list of guilty pleasure movies. I will tell you the list of movies that if any of them were on HBO, it would take nothing short of an earthquake to stop me from sitting down and watching the entire thing. The first would be White Chicks (2004) — what humor. Then obviously Love Actually (2003), any Disney Channel movie that was released in the early 2000s (The Lizzie Mcguire Movie (2003), Cadet Kelly (2002), etc.). The Master of Disguise (2002) is an all-time winner, and Tuck Everlasting (2002) never fails to make me cry. To end our column, I decided to share a bit about Rebecca’s background with Chinese food that might feed into the knowledge of her introduction. When Rebecca came to visit me in China, I knew there would be some surprises. What I didn’t know was that Rebecca has an insane obsession with spring rolls. Yes, they are served at Chinese restaurants, but no, they are not the only item in the cuisine. At every single restaurant in Shanghai and Beijing, Rebecca would want to order spring rolls — which is probably why she is still not able to get over such an injustice.
Rebecca Solomon is a junior majoring in economics. She can be reached at rebecca. solomon@tufts.edu. Pooja Sivaraman is a junior majoring in economics. She can be reached at pooja.sivaraman@tufts.edu.
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On the Hill
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Thursday, April 2, 2015 by Ty Enos and Vincent Carbone
THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME
by David L. Hoyt and Jeff Knurek
Unscramble these four Jumbles, one letter to each square, to form four ordinary words.
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KUSYH MITURA
BLUMEH
SUDOKU
Check out the new, free JUST JUMBLE app
NYARI
Level: Taming Tim Riggins.
Now arrange the circled letters to form the surprise answer, as suggested by the above cartoon.
A: Yesterday’s
(Answers tomorrow) Jumbles: ABOVE FLUTE INCOME INDIGO Answer: When they decided not to pull an April 1 prank on readers, their editor said — NO FOOLING
Late Night at the Daily
Tuesday’s Solution
Drew: “He went to the bathroom and whipped out his nips.”
Please recycle this Daily.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
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Sports
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Tufts looks to improve upon fall season
Steven Hefter | The Association
Where amazing happens?
WOMEN’S CREW continued from back
splash among the New England rowing elite. As their off-season approached, the rowers were prepared to work together in the varsity gym as well as individually on their own time. They logged their workouts in order to keep each other accountable and tracked their progress as the off-season progressed. “This winter, more than any I have seen before, our women were really buying into the training program and taking advantage of the website,” senior tri-captain Emily Eickhoff said. She noted that what helped them in particular was spending even more time on ergometers, which simulate real races without actually getting out onto the water. “There are technical aspects we can fix on an erg that translate to the boat, so even when we don’t have water time we are constantly improving and are ready for the boat,” Morley said. Even though the Jumbos have not been able to spend much time on the water, which was often coated with ice and thus unnavigable whenever temperatures plummeted during this harsh winter, they are still prepared to compete because of the time the spent in Florida over spring break. While there, the team was able to practice three times each day, a grueling regimen in preparation for the race this weekend. “I’m optimistic that, despite the short amount of time we’ve had to practice on the water, we have positioned ourselves to be competitive in the spring season,” Eickhoff said. “We should be confident in the training we put in over the winter and preseason.”
T
Courtesy Nicholas Pfosi Photography
Women’s crew practices on the Malden River in the fall. Tufts will open its spring season on April 4. Eickhoff is not alone in her thinking. The Jumbos as a whole are abiding by a remarkably forward-looking philosophy, having relegated their not-too-distant fall season to the team archives. “Aside from having trained harder than [in] most years, we have a lot of horsepower, a lot of technical skill and a lot of depth,” Peabody said. “Additionally, I feel that, more so than most years, all the women, including the inexperienced novice, are inspired about being a part of the program. They want — as much as anyone would — to be at 6 a.m. practice. They want to make their boats faster.” Moreover, the Jumbos’ success is as much a product of their cohesiveness as
of their indomitable work ethic. While the atmosphere remains collegial, however, things are beginning to heat up as teammates vie with one another for spots in the lineup. Yet, the captains all agree that this is salutary; they do not anticipate intra-team conflict, but rather an iron-sharpens-iron result. “At team lifts, seniors partner up with freshman and other rowers … Cohesiveness off the water is integral to [cohesiveness] in the boats,” Peabody said. The Jumbos hope to capitalize on both their industrious spring break and their newfound motivation in order to reap the rewards of their offseason and preseason diligence.
Annie Levine / The Tufts Daily
On Saturday, the men’s track team bested 21 teams to grab first place at the Snowflake Classic.
Jumbos open up season with big win MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD continued from back
in the discus throw, shot put and hammer throw, respectively. Pagano was very happy with the team result. He was sure to keep in
mind, however, that the focus was on getting in shape for the NESCAC championship later this month, which the team has won the past two years. “The first place finish was definitely what we’re looking for,” he explained.
“[Right now,] we’re getting used to competing, and duking it out with your competition will be what makes the difference come NESCACs.” The NESCAC Championships will be on April 25 at Williams College.
he NBA playoffs will begin in midApril, and participating in the 16-team tournament are the best eight teams from each conference. Notice that I did not say that the best 16 teams in the league are competing. That is because the Pelicans and Suns, who currently sit in the ninth and 10th positions, respectively, in the Western Conference, will see their seasons end in April. These teams are both over .500, but nowadays in the West, that doesn’t get you anywhere. Meanwhile, three teams in the East have lost more games than they have won and still will have a chance to win a world championship this year. Fair? Maybe not. Unfortunate? I’d be the first to agree with you. The West is just a better conference, plain and simple. Take the Pelicans, for example. New Orleans, led by Anthony Davis, who I think will win an MVP someday, is in last place in the Southwest division and is five games above .500. Memphis, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas will all be in the playoffs this year, making it the only division, as of now, with four teams in the playoff field. That means that the Pelicans have to deal with these great teams a total of sixteen times over the course of the season, more than any other team. To make for a fair comparison, I’ll look for the best conference in the East. It is most definitely the atrocious Atlantic, which houses the Raptors and the potential eight-seeds Nets and Celtics. The Southeast and Central both have three playoff teams, one of which has lost more games than it has won. Those would be the Bucks and the Heat. My point here is that the Pelicans have played a much more difficult schedule and are a better team than the bottom three teams in the Eastern playoffs. My only response to a complaining Pelican fan would be, “You’re right, but play better to get into the playoffs.” There have been talks in the past about changing the playoff format to further ensure that the best teams are in the playoffs, regardless of conference. I think that putting the 16 teams with the best records in the playoffs is not feasible. For this to work, every team will need to play the same schedule, which is just not going to work due to travel constraints. If every team played a different strength of schedule, then a record wouldn’t really be a measure of how good a team is, would it? We would be entering the dangerous realm of a committee, which the NCAA uses to select teams for the annual March Madness tournament. An idea I like is decreasing the number of teams in the playoffs. What about having six teams in the playoffs from each conference? The NBA has 30 teams, and the fact that over half of them are in the playoffs is a little much. Pushing the seven- and eight-seeds out of the playoffs will help everyone; those teams will have a lottery pick to get better, and it will heighten the accomplishment of making the playoffs. The top two teams will receive first-round byes, which is a further incentive to finish at the top of the conference standings. I doubt this idea will come to fruition any time soon, if at all, but if there is anything we have learned from Adam Silver, it is that he is much more open-minded than David Stern on issues such as these. Lastly, I think that this issue of conference inequality is cyclical. In 10 years, we might be talking about how the Pelicans don’t deserve a playoff spot and an Eastern conference team does. For now, finish in the Steven Hefter is a junior majoring in economics. He can be reached at steven.hefter@tufts.edu.
Sports
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tuftsdaily.com
Track and Field
Tufts takes first in Snowflake Classic
Crew
by Jack Szumski Contributing Writer
The snowy weather may have disappointed in Tufts’ first outdoor meet, the aptly named Snowflake Classic, but the team’s results certainly did not. On Saturday, the track team opened its spring season account with the best possible result: a first-place finish out of 22 competitors. While the weather was far from spring-like, the team battled through the unfavorable conditions to earn its first win of the season. Tufts was joined only by Div. I Northeastern in finishing with 100 or more points. With 111.5 points, Tufts surpassed second-place Northeastern (100 points) and third-place Bridgewater State (91). The impressive result included standout performances from a large batch of Tufts athletes. One standout performance came from a first-year who, just a couple of months ago, was plying his trade as a guard for the Jumbos basketball team. Having impressed on the indoor track at the Tufts Last Chance Meet, Stefan Duvivier sought a similar result over the weekend. Duvivier performed well, earning scoring finishes in both the triple jump and the high jump. The first- year notched a season- best 42’7” leap to earn fourth in the triple jump and a 6’2” clearance in the high jump, earning fifth in that event. Having notched a Tufts’ season-best high jump of 6’6” in the Last Chance Meet, Duvivier has great incentive to surpass this outstanding result in future meets. “I trust in the regime that my coaches have me doing, and I expect it to help me see some real improvements,” he said. Duvivier also revealed that his highest priority in training at the moment is increasing his endurance in order to match the demands that come with being a collegiate athlete. The Jumbos showed some dominant performances on the track as well. Most impressively, Tufts was able to collect 33 important team points from the 10,000meter run. Senior co-captain Marshall Pagano, who earned fourth in the 800, believes the 10,000 was the highlight of day among a large batch of top performances from the team. Of the top eight spots in the race, six of them were claimed by Tufts runners. In fact, the top four spots were all taken up by Jumbos, with senior Colin McCrory, sophomore Tim Nichols, junior Michael Curley and senior Nick Guarnaccia finishing in first through fourth, respectively. Senior Greg Hardy followed up in sixth, and junior Michael Caughron came in eighth to round out an impressive team performance. Tufts runners did not stop there, turning out more top finishes in the 1,500-meter, 800-meter and 400-meter races. Junior Francis Goins fared well in the 400-meter dash. The junior managed a third place finish in the race with a time of 50.69. In the 1,500 two Jumbos landed in the top eight scoring places. Sophomore Ty Enos grabbed fifth in 4:06.39, while sophomore Luke O’Connor beat out teammate junior James Traester to land in eighth with a 4:07.67 time. Half of the top eight scoring spots in the 800 meters were also composed of Tufts athletes, with all four finishing in the top six. Those four runners were senior Evan Cover, junior Alex Apostolides, Pagano and O’Connor. The quadrant landed in second, third, fourth and sixth, respectively, earning 22 team points in the process. Meanwhile, the highest collection of team points by any one Tufts athlete came from senior Brian Williamson with 19 points collected over three events. Williamson was highly impressive in every throwing event in which he participated, earning second, third and fourth see MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD, page 11
Courtesy Nicholas Pfosi Photography
The women’s crew team has spent hours on the erg in preparation for its spring season.
Optimistic Jumbos hope for strong start to spring season by Alexa Meltzer Daily Staff Writer
The women’s crew team begins its season on April 4, on home turf, with a race against Hamilton, Mount Holyoke and Trinity at the Shoemaker Boathouse. The No. 11 Jumbos enter their season full of optimism as they prepare to hit the water for the first time all year. “I’ve been rowing for Tufts for four years, and I’ve never been more optimistic about a spring season,” senior tri-captain Emma Peabody said. The Jumbos last rowed competitively on Oct. 25, when they participated in the Head of the Fish Regatta hosted by Skidmore, where they finished second out of eight, their best finish of the fall season.
“At Head of the Fish, our two quads — four scullers in one boat — placed second and third, losing only to Div. I crew UMass Amherst,” Peabody said. “Second place was the open weight quad with [senior] Rachel Paterson at stroke, [senior] Laura Washburn at 3-seat, myself at 2-seat and [senior] Taylor Maykranz at bow. In the lightweight quad that placed third, [first-year] Emma Conroy was at stroke, [junior] Laura Hoffmann at 3-seat, [senior tri-captain] Maddie Morley at 2-seat and [junior] Emma Wells at bow.” Further building the team’s confidence is the improvement of the firstyear rowers. “Helping this fall season’s success were the strong freshmen rowers who
came in with ample experience, as well as the many returning rowers who have developed into proficient scullers,” Morley said. “It was clear everyone had put in the work over the summer and got much faster, which allowed us to focus on technical aspects and fixing the stroke, all while maintaining boat speed.” The Jumbos made a point in the fall to focus a great deal on improving their technique, which translated to success, especially toward the end of the season. It is evident that they have made steady strides over the past few years and that they are going to be very competitive against some big-name teams as they try to make a see WOMEN’S CREW, page 11
DAILY DIGITS - Allyson Fournier Edition 17 On Wednesday, senior tri-captain Allyson Fournier became the 17th pitcher in Div. III to reach 1,000 career strikeouts. Against Babson, Fournier struck out 14 batters in the 2-0 victory over the non-conference foe.
0.13 Fournier’s ERA so far this season in 10 apperances and eight starts. She has allowed only one earned run for the entire year, which came against Wisconsin-River Falls in Tufts’ 2-1 victory. It was the Jumbos’ seventh game of the season, and she started the season with 40 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.
14.91 Fournier’s average strikeouts per game total. There are seven innings in a collegiate game, which meanst that on average, a game that is started and completed by Fournier will have 71 percent of the opposing outs come from strikeouts.
.080 The batting average against Fournier this season. Opposing hitters have gotten a total of 14 hits against Fournier this season. In that stretch, they have walked eight times and struck out 115 times. Last year the batting average against her was a higher, yet still impressive .112.
85-5 Fournier’s career record. She has been the Jumbos’ primary pitcher since her rookie year of that season. In that span, the program has won two national championships and three NESCAC championships.
12 The number of times Fournier has been named NESCAC Pitcher of the Week. The most recent award was given for the week that ended on Sunday, March 19. Fournier has been named to the first-team AllConference team in the NESCAC for three consecutive years and has been an All-American for each of those years. In 2013, she won the Honda Sports Award as the top female athlete in Div. III.