THE TUFTS DAILY
Rain 44/36
TUFTSDAILY.COM
TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015
VOLUME LXVIV, NUMBER 46
Where You Read It First Est. 1980
Two ChildObesity180 initiatives move forward, expand by Kathleen Schmidt News Editor
Courtesy Nicholas Pfosi Photography
51 Winthrop St. was dedicated as a function space to honor Alison “Sunny” M. Breed and her prolific achievements as a Tufts alumna.
51 Winthrop Street dedicated to alumna by Marianna Athanassiou Assistant News Editor
At the 60th anniversary of the Tufts University Alumni Association’s (TUAA) Senior Awards Ceremony on March 28, 51 Winthrop Street was dedicated as a function space in honor of Alison “Sunny” M. Breed (J ’66, G ’72), according to Timothy Brooks, executive director of Alumni Relations. “The Board of Trustees and the Tufts Administration unanimously agreed that naming the function space in honor of Sunny M. Breed would be an appropriate and welldeserved tribute to her legacy of service and commitment to Tufts,” Brooks said. Breed, a Board of Trustees member, passed away unexpectedly in December 2013 in Long Beach, Calif.
According to Brooks, the new space has been named the Sunny M. Breed Memorial Hall after Breed’s nickname, “Sunny,” which represented both her personality and the impact she had on others. During her senior year in 1996, Breed was selected by the TUAA Awards Committee as an honoree exemplifying service, loyalty, commitment and leadership to her community, according to Brooks. The Tufts Alumni Senior Awards program was established in 1955, and it awards graduating seniors who have demonstrated outstanding student leadership, academic achievement and service to Tufts and the community with a framed certificate and a written cita-
ChildObesity180, an organization at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy that works to reduce rates of childhood obesity on a national level, is reaching new stages in the implementation of two of its initiatives. Healthy Kids Out of School, an initiative that works with short duration, out-of-school programs to make them healthy environments for kids, is starting to scale its three-year regional pilot program up to the national level, according to Project Manager Megan Halmo. The new Restaurant Initiative’s mission is to reduce excess calorie consumption among children when they eat in restaurants, according to Program Administrator Vanessa Lynskey. The initiative works with members of the restaurant industry to build a business case for restaurants
to show that healthier kids’ meals are a good business decision, Lynskey said. Healthy Kids Out of School focuses on three areas to make out-of-school programs such as youth sports, scouting programs and 4-H healthier for kids, Halmo said. “There’s ‘Drink Right,’ which is to drink water instead of sugary drinks; ‘Move More,’ which is to increase physical activity in all programs and ‘Snack Smart,’ which is, when snacks are served, make them fruits and vegetables as much as possible,” she said. When Healthy Kids Out of School was started, it brought together CEOs of a number of the initiative’s national partner organizations including Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, YMCA, US Youth Soccer, Pop Warner and 4-H, among others, according to Halmo. “We brought all those CEOs and executive directors together, and they agreed on [our] three principles … and
see DEDICATION, page 2
they said their organizations would adopt them and they agreed to be healthier out-ofschool-time organizations,” she said. The initiative then focused on how to implement the principles on the ground, Halmo said. They received $1.5 million in funding from Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Foundation over three years to test program implementation in Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, she said. “We did trainings both inperson and online, we created the Scout Strong healthy unit award, we created supporting materials and resources, we created messaging and communication and really tried to get it integrated with all those programs at the local level,” Halmo said. That three-year funding will be ending this summer, when Halmo and her colleagues will focus on scaling the initiative up to the see OBESITY, page 2
shirley wang / the tufts daily
Distinguished professor to discuss nuances of GMOs by Alexander Spring Daily Staff Writer
The Environmental Studies Program is hosting a university-wide event on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) entitled “Future Food: Ecofriendly GMOs” in collaboration with the Community Health Program and the International Relations Program with support from the Office of the Provost this Thursday from 6:30-8:00 p.m. in Eaton 201. The event will be led by Professor and Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences John A. Pickett from Rothamsted Research in the United Kingdom. Pickett will speak on the topic of genetically modified crops as a tool to increase productivity and sustainability in food production systems, according to the event’s Facebook page. Because there are several different tracks in the Environmental Studies
Program, Program Director Colin Orians believes the program should bring in speakers to expose students to a wide range of topics in environmental studies, both for students exploring different careers and for those on campus who are curious about topics such as food production. “Everyone is very interested in the food they put in their mouths, where it comes from and how it is produced,” Orians said. According to Director of the Community Health Program Jennifer Allen, an associate professor of public health and community medicine, the topic of GMOs is a very controversial issue, which is why these programs wanted to bring the topic to campus for discussion. “We wanted to think about how we might think about this as a onehealth issue and bring that to campus,” she said. “How do the ways that we produce and distribute food influ-
Inside this issue
ence the environment, and how does that influence human and animal health?” The Environmental Studies Program has brought in different guest lecturers to talk about GMOs, but Orians said he believes that Pickett will present a unique viewpoint on the subject. “John Pickett has a fairly nuanced view of GMOs. He sees a role for them and he also sees a role for really good science and ecology,” Orians said. “We thought it would just be a phenomenal perspective.” Pickett will discuss moving away from the traditional use of wide-spectrum pesticides to more precise control through compounds targeted against specific pests, according to the event’s Facebook page. “[Pickett is] someone who thinks about ecological systems not as a sterile system, but as one where you want to promote ecology and one where you
may want to bring in technology to protect crops,” Orians said. In addition to the community health aspects of the event, international relations also plays a key role in our food system, Allen said. Orians emphasized the importance of finding effective pest control systems in developing countries around the world. “It isn’t just a United States problem, it’s global. It’s farmers in developing nations trying to grow cassava, papayas and bananas, but are having problems controlling pests,” Orians said. According to Sara Gomez, a postdoctoral researcher in the Orians Lab, the topic of GMOs and transgenic crops is very difficult in the context of international cooperation. “This is a very complex issue, but perhaps the most obvious aspect is the fact that countries have very different perceptions and legislation regarding see GMO, page 2
Today’s sections
Sherman Teichman talks with the Daily about EPIIC’s past and future themes.
Under a new coach, the men’s crew team came out victorious in Malden.
see FEATURES, page 3
see SPORTS, back
News 1 Features 3 Arts & Living 5 Editorial | Op-Ed 8
Op-Ed 9 Comics 10 Sports Back
2
The Tufts Daily
Event addresses international ramifications of GMOs GMO
continued from page 1
transgenic crops, which can raise problems in terms of export if some countries, like those in the European Union, oppose the consumption of transgenic crops,” she said. The issue of GMOs is timely and important, according to Orians. “Genetic modification [(GM)] is not a uniform thing. There are GMs that I am not excited about, and there are other GMs where there is a potential to have that be a pretty useful technology,” he said. “There is going to have to be constant change because insects are going to evolve, pathogens are going to evolve
and climates are going to change, so we’re never going to be able to say, ‘Oh, we’re done.’” Gomez stressed that while the points covered in the discussion will be controversial, people should come to the event in order to engage with those points. “Given the widespread adoption of transgenic crops in the U.S., I would like that those who don’t know about this technology take the opportunity to learn more about it by coming to the event and those who oppose it come with an open mind to discuss a technology that has great potential to help reducing food insecurity,” she said.
Police Briefs The Beautiful Game At 7:12 p.m. on March 27, the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) received a report of a minor injury sustained by a student at the Mayer Campus Center. The student had been playing ping pong when the injury occurred. In pursuit of a ping pong ball, he had run into a TV, causing minor lacerations. Tufts Emergency Medical Services (TEMS) arrived at the scene and examined him, asking him if he wanted to go the hospital. The student refused and was sent on his way. X Marks the Spot At 11:50 p.m. on March 28, TUPD received a report of an intoxicated student in Houston Hall. The student
‘Sunny’ M. Breed leaves lasting impact DEDICATION
continued from page 1
tion at a semi-formal ceremony, Brooks said. As of 2009, honorees also receive a $1,000 check, he added. “Since 1955, there have been over 550 senior awards presented by the TUAA, and most of them are active and engaged alumni today, all underscoring the primary aims of the program,” Brooks said. The program connects an extensive group of Tufts community members, Brooks said, including alumni volunteers, members of the Alumni Relations staff, faculty, sports team coaches, academic advisors and high-ranking university administrators. The program’s goals include building strong and positive relationships with top seniors,
encouraging the involvement and volunteer service of these seniors as future alumni leaders, providing members of the Alumni Council the opportunity to meet Tufts’ top seniors and allowing honorees the opportunity to thank the members of the council for the recognition and award, Brooks said. Kate Kaplan, president of the TUAA, said that one of her greatest pleasures as president is the opportunity to preside over awards ceremonies like the Senior Awards. “The evening was especially poignant, as we were able to dedicate the space we were in to the memory of Sunny [M.] Breed, a mentor of mine,” she said. “She’s a phenomenal example of the ultimate alumni leader, and she herself received a Senior Award in the spring of
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
News
1966 — it was so appropriate to connect her memory with this next generation of Tufts alumni leaders.” This year, the remarks of University President Anthony Monaco at the end of the ceremony were particularly powerful because he felt a connection with Breed herself, as well this year’s seniors, with whom he arrived on campus during their first years at Tufts, Brooks said. At the time of Breed’s passing, Monaco told Tufts Now in 2013, “I will always be grateful that when I first arrived here, she generously shared her insights on the university and how to build strong connections with our alumni community. I looked forward to the warmth and good sense she brought to every Board of Trustees meeting and will truly miss her.”
in question was discovered by another student after he fell in a corridor and hit his head on the wall. TUPD officers observed that he was bleeding when they arrived. In addition, they noted that the student bore a red X on his right hand. At this point, the drunk student stated to the officers that he had been drinking at the ATO fraternity. After hearing this, TUPD verified that ATO was in fact using a red marker to mark the hands of students who were under 21. After finding other underage students at the ATO party, it was shut down. The intoxicated student in Houston Hall was transported to the hospital.
Food Porn An intoxicated female student in a dormitory was reported to TUPD at 12:50 a.m. on March 29. She had a black X on her hand. There were two fraternities using black markers that night, and the student explained to the officers that she had been at a party hosted by Theta Delta Chi. Officers also noted that the student had chocolate on her. Upon checking in on the party at Theta Delta Chi, officers discovered that the party was “Candy Land” themed. Partygoers were observed to be squirting each other with whipped cream and chocolate sauce in accordance with the theme. —by Daniel Bottino
According to Brooks, the factors behind dedicating the function space to Breed this year stemmed from the connections between this year’s honorees and Breed and the fact that the honorees exemplified the same dedication as Breed. Since her undergraduate graduation in 1966, Breed impacted her alma mater and her fellow alumni for 47 years in a wide variety of roles. After graduating, she began her career as an admissions officer from 1966 to 1972 before taking on roles as the Los Angeles Tufts Alliance (LATA) chapter leader from 1980 to 2002 and as an Alumni Council member from 1983 to 2003. She received the TUAA Distinguished Service Award in 1979, and was awarded the TUAA Lifetime Service Award short-
ly before her death. She also served as TUAA’s Regional Programs Committee chair, and as TUAA president from 2006 to 2008, among other TUAA leadership roles. Breed also developed an extensive nonprofit leadership record. She served on the United Way of Greater Los Angeles Board of Directors and was president of the TongassAlaska Girl Scouts Council when she lived in Alaska. Breed was also president of the Greater Long Beach Girl Scout Council in California, according to Brooks. The hope behind the function space’s dedication is “to inspire current students and fellow alumni to step up to the task of serving and supporting Tufts in the exemplary way that Breed did throughout her lifetime,” Brooks said.
Initiatives aim to improve out-of-school programs, kids’ meals in restaurants
OBESITY
continued from page 1
national organizations and spreading Healthy Kids Out of School across the country. “What’s cool is once these things start catching on, like we’re starting to see them do, there’s sometimes less work to do,” Halmo said. “It facilitates people getting excited about it themselves and wanting to pick it up themselves, rather than us having to push it on folks.” The Restaurant Initiative has been in various stages of development for the past three years, according to Lynskey. “Healthy Kids Out of School is much further along,” Lynskey said. “They have a much clearer plan of what they’re doing, they’ve been implementing and evaluating for three years, they have some plans for national scale and expansion — while the Restaurant Initiative, while we’ve been working on it for three years, it’s a very tricky space, and so we’re still in the process of determining the best path forward.” According to Lynskey, the Restaurant Initiative is pursuing its goal of reducing excess calorie intake by children at restaurants through two strategic approaches: industry engagement and evidence dissemination. She emphasized that these two strategic approaches are self-reenforcing. “We have a relationship with someone from the National Restaurant Association … so we’re not specifically working with any brands, we never have, we don’t take money from any brands, but we’d like to get their perspective on things so that we can really develop a strategic approach to the problem that considers all the relevant factors,” Lynskey said.
Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, a researcher for the Restaurant Initiative, said they’ve been learning that restaurants are interested in and receptive to interventions that would make their menus healthier or changes to their restaurants’ environments that could promote healthier eating. Anzman-Frasca explained that existing nutrition guidelines, including
the National Restaurant Association’s Kids Live Well program, can be used as benchmarks to determine the accessibility of healthier and unhealthy kids’ meals. They also help in understanding the ways restaurants can promote increased uptake of healthier kids’ options, she said. According to Anzman-Frasca, the ini-
tiative focuses on types of food served rather than portion sizes, and their research represents regions broader than just Boston or the northeast. “When we do research, we’ve got a specific question in mind, and we really try to take the results of that research and put them into practice in our initiatives,” Lynskey said.
courtesy steve cohn photography
The Friedman School of Nutrition’s ChildObesity180 has been developing two programs, Healthy Kids Out of School and Restaurant Initiatives, for several years.
Features
3
tuftsdaily.com
Kendall Todd | Culture Shock
Mountaineers
A
Nicholas pfosi / the tufts daily
Sherman Teichman, the IGL Director, introduces the IGL Alumni Award during the EPIIC Cultural Evening on Feb. 26, 2014. Teichman is currently weighing several different options for topics for next year’s EPIIC Symposium.
Q+A: The IGL's Sherman Teichman on next year's EPIIC topic by Jake Taber
Executive Features Editor
Over the past three decades, the Institute for Global Leadership’s interdisciplinary EPIIC program has explored foreign policy, global politics and security from a different angle each year. The 2013-14 and 2014-15 symposiums focused on the Middle East/ North Africa and Russia, respectively; previous topics included oil and water, the politics of fear and the future of democracy. Though the theme of next year’s conference is largely believed to be China and/or the Asia/Pacific region, Sherman Teichman, the IGL’s founding Executive Director, clarified that while China is an option, next year’s topic is still very much under discussion. The Daily spoke with Teichman about possible topics, as well as EPIIC’s history at Tufts. The following is an abridged version of the interview. Tufts Daily: So, what is the confusion about next year’s conference being about China? Sherman Teichman: [There’s a rumor] that China is the theme that we chose for next year, or the Asia-Pacific region, and that is not so. It may very well be that that is ultimately what we will do, but at this point, we are facing the Institute [for Global Leadership]’s 30th anniversary. So our Russia forum that was just included this past year was our 30th EPIIC, but our 30th anniversary for the institute itself, which now has many more programs other than EPIIC, is still under consideration. China was the theme that we were thinking of, in particular because we were also mindful that Obama had mentioned that they were now going to be doing a pivot to Asia, and for about 10 years, the institute had done a major symposium on China because we had a very distinctive program with Zheda [University] … and several Hong Kong universities. We also thought it was going to be China because we had an overture from the Pacific Command of the U.S. Navy that was interested in creating a special forum with us in Hawaii, with what they call AIRAS, the Asia Institute for Resilience and Sustainability. That’s still alive, but it’s been delayed, and as a consequence we have held off on going back to the China or Asia-Pacific theme. Very importantly, a project that we began a number of years ago, I think eight years ago, to honor one of our alumni who sadly died after graduation … that program, which was an individual lectureship on China and U.S. relationships and security — because he was very interested in going into naval intelligence and spoke wonderful Mandarin — that program
has evolved into what you might see very shortly, which is called the SURGE program, which is on China and the U.S., a very very expensive symposium. It’s almost like bringing coals to Newcastle: We don’t like to encroach on other groups sovereignty, especially groups we helped to nurture. TD: So if EPIIC takes on the China theme, it might overlap with SURGE and other symposiums? ST: Not necessarily overlap, but detract from those efforts that students put a lot of time and effort into, so for that reason, for the moment at least, the Asia/Pacific forum is not the automatic default theme for next year. TD: What are some other themes that IGL is considering? ST: There are a number of themes under consideration: It might be interesting to go back and think about the very first year of EPIIC, which was on international terrorism, 30 years ago. And people wondered then why we were doing that theme, and now of course, there’s no wonder why. Now, of course, we might go back to something we did in 1988, which was the foreign policy of the next presidency, and bring back that theme as we prepare students for the 2016 elections, and what it is that the different camps are going to be thinking of, from the issue of China to the Middle East to climate change or what have you. So those themes would resonate our history on [IGL’s] anniversary year, but we have many, many different ideas. One of the things our provost has asked us to consider is big data, and we’ve always looked at the complexity of science and public policy as well… We’re also looking at politics, culture and society; a theme that might be cool that might be called “Memory: The Power of the Past,” which would look at history and truth and reconciliation commissions, shared narratives and all the differences and fractured conflicts where the past is called to justify the future, whether it’s uses and abuses of the Holocaust, or the way in which the legacies of the disappeared in South America — Argentina and Chile — could be understood. So we have a lot of disparate themes. We’re looking at the concept of violence, which could be a whole range of different approaches, so there’s just a lot afoot right now. We might determine these themes about by the middle of May, and as a customary, we’ll send out a brochure in the middle of August to all the majors that might be interested. We will as well be holding orientation for the incoming freshmen, so they also have a way in which they can interact. TD: EPIIC’s previous two themes have been region-based. Are any other regions being considered for next year?
ST: It’s a good question. Latin America’s out there, Africa’s out there, there’s perhaps a void in Latin American studies that might make us interested in that. There’s a great deal of interest in [Africa]; there’s a lot of academic coursework done in that. Last year there was virtually nothing happening on the campus [about Russia] beyond the Russian language program. I think that I myself am more partial to a more theoretical [topic] which can relate to a whole range of areas or countries, and so the theme memory is particularly resonant with me. TD: EPIIC focuses on topics important to students of IR. What, in your opinion, is the most important field for IR majors to be focusing on today? ST: We’re part of the World Economic Forum through our Empower program … they’ve canvassed 800 global experts and they tried to take a look at the future challenges, and they range from interstate conflicts to what I think is something that we’ve dealt with in a very interesting way years ago: [in] 1992 we ran sort of a first curriculum of something called International Security: the Environmental Dimension. So climate change, which is quite contested obviously, and is inherently part of what is a presidential campaign per usual, though in the last campaign Obama mentioned it not once, nor did anyone else. So now I don’t think we can escape this. Climate change is a particularly important security issue; it affects refugees, it affects development. One of my things that I’ve been thinking about is something that I would call C-4/2C-, which is Semtex, like the explosive, versus a twodegree rise in Celsius — what happens to the world’s oceans, what happens to agriculture, food security, and you know there’s a whole range of things that are perfectly reasonable. It’s a wide open field for [IR majors]. We anticipated doing this in ’92, the environment, security, became a large issue. I think we tried to hit things that are salient. TD: Anything else you’d like to mention? ST: Two years ago, we got a precedent-setting grant [from the Carnegie Corporation], the first time ever [that it was given] to an undergraduate entity filled with undergraduate students. And [Carnegie grants] are, to my mind, the gold standard for foundations who handle international security issues, essentially saying we’re a proven breeding ground for the education of the next generation of security experts, foreign policy experts. In essence, we’re trying to fulfill that expectation, and we have decided to be much more deliberate about the way we choose themes.
s I type this column, I am sitting in a cafe at the very summit of a 1,379 meter mountain just outside of Geneva, Switzerland. The sky is blue, and I can count only three individual clouds, two of which are wispy barely-there streaks of translucent white. The city below is sprawling and lovely, all white buildings and green trees with a slash of blue lake in the middle. A few minutes ago, I was exploring a nearby meadow with one of my travel buddies — I am not ashamed to admit that I performed an enthusiastic rendition of The Sound of Music (1965) there, spinning and singing near the precipice of the mountain, enjoying the sun (and only barely tolerating the wind. It is really rather cold here today). “How did we get to the top of this mountain?” you might ask. I’m happy to tell you, as I’m actually quite proud of myself for being brave enough to do it. No, we didn’t hike — this mountain is too cliff-like for that to be a viable option for non-climbers. Instead, we took a “téléphérique” — a gondola — which hung suspended from two practically vertical cables extending from the summit to the ground below. Honestly, I found the whole experience terrifying, though worth it in the end — the view from the top is unlike anything I have ever seen. I’m not really looking forward to the journey back down, though. I’m watching a gondola descend right now and it looks like a possibly scarier experience than the ascent, unfortunately. This whole weekend has been full of gorgeous scenery and adventurous activities, really. And, now that I think about it, I’ve spent rather a lot of time climbing hills. We started in Lyon — we took the train from Paris on Friday afternoon — and spent the following two days exploring the city in the occasional wind and rain. Old Lyon is mostly atop a steep hill, requiring a funicular ride to get to the top. The city is a fascinating mix of old Roman ruins, 18th century architecture and narrow, winding medieval roads: There was plenty to see there, and we covered most of it on foot. Lyon is also a city renowned for its culinary prowess. We tried as many local Lyonnais delicacies as we could, even if that meant eating questionable-looking tripe or sausages (well, technically, I didn’t eat those things — being a vegetarian has its perks sometimes). We also tried the “Coussin de Lyon,” which is chocolate covered in teal-colored marzipan, and “Tarte aux Pralines,” a pastel-pink concoction of almonds, sugar and pastry crust. We determined that trying local pastries is generally a better idea than trying various unsavory parts of animals, regardless of how traditional they are. Sunday, we took the train from Lyon to Geneva, entertained the entire way by a small blond boy who continually asked his mother questions in charmingly childish French. Geneva, as it turns out, is incredibly cold this time of year, as the wind coming off the lake is horribly strong. The city is beautiful, though, and for an international relations major like me, it’s exciting just being in the same city as one of the headquarters for the United Nations, which we visited this morning, and in which I took an embarrassing number of selfies in front of the rows on rows of international flags. Unfortunately for us, the fact that it was Easter weekend meant that most places were closed, so we didn’t actually get to see the museum, but I was thrilled nonetheless. We’re headed back to Paris tonight, which, oddly enough, has started to feel a little like home. I’m definitely looking forward to not having to sleep in a hostel bunk bed. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the cafe employees are starting to give me looks for sitting here for so long, so I’d better go. Another gondola ride awaits — keep me in your thoughts in this difficult time. Kendall Todd is a junior majoring in international relations and French. She can be reached at kendall.todd@tufts.edu.
4
The Tufts Daily
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Advertisement
Tufts Alumni invites you to join the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Panel! Saturday, April 11 • 3:30-4:30pm • 58 Winthrop St These alumni will be discussing their inspiring work and sharing their vision for the future of their fields
DR. AKUDO ANYANWU IKEMBA Founder of Friends Africa Working toward an Africa free of AIDS, TB, and Malaria DR. SEAN B. CARROLL Award-winning scientist, author, and educator
JUDGE ANDRÉ BIROTTE U.S. District Judge, appointed by Obama Has worked to eliminate police corruption H.E. JUDGE JOYCE ALUOCH First VP of the International Criminal Court
Featured in The New York Times and on NOVA RSVP to taylor.austin@tufts.edu
Advocate for the safety of children in Africa
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
The Tufts Daily
5
Advertisement
Vote today! All students can vote! Remember to Vote!
Vote All
1. Log into your SIS. 2. Click on “Student Living” tab. 3. Choose”Web Center” 4. Click “Elections Online” 5. “Click here to Vote” 6. Vote! 7. Tell your friends to vote!
now: ecom.tufts.edu/Vote
clAsses mAy Vote.
Polls
oPen until midnight.
ECOM
@tufts.edu
Arts & Living
5
tuftsdaily.com
Restaurant Review
Hong Kong in Harvard Square not worth trek
by Josh Podolsky Assistant Arts Editor Hong Kong Restaurant, which is a stone’s throw away from the Harvard red line stop, was near-
Hong Kong Restaurant
1238 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA
(617) 864-5311 $$ ly empty on a Sunday evening — not an unusual occurrence for a restaurant in Boston. It should be noted, however, that Hong Kong Restaurant was considerably less busy than its restaurant neighbors. After failing to get a table at a nearby ramen shop, a party of four was readily welcomed at Hong Kong. Hong Kong Restaurant serves up pretty standard Americanized Chinese food. The pupu platter comes with an assortment
of offerings from the appetizer menu, including short ribs, chicken fingers, chicken wings, a couple teriyaki skewers and crab rangoon — basically a smorgasbord of fried foods. None of the dishes in the sampler were stellar, but the individual elements weren’t abysmal either. Another dish, the Szechuan wontons, had an excess of wrapping, and the sauce in which the dumplings were served was noticeably lacking in Szechuan. Thus, the dumplings were swimming in oil rather than any discernible kind of sauce. The vegetable rolls at Hong Kong Restaurant are par for the course and bland. The main courses tell a more varied story. The chicken with broccoli was palatable, yet somehow the sauce had a completely uneven texture. Parts of it were thin like water, while other parts were more viscous like syrup; even more perplexing, the thin parts of the sauce were extremely
Martin Pool via Flickr Creative Commons
The dun dun noodles at Hong Kong were served with peanut sauce, making the dish disappointingly lacking in spice.
salty (almost like ocean water), while the thick parts were sweet and flavorful. The chicken was either bone dry or deliciously moist; just like the sauce, there was no rhyme or reason to how the chicken varied. The dun dun noodles were more consistently disappointing. This dish is typically served spicy, yet at this restaurant the noodles are incredibly mild. The waiter said they were made with peanut butter; perhaps this should have been a warning. In any case, the noodles tasted just fine, but those expecting a spicy dish may be disappointed. Meanwhile, the Szechuan beef was very good. Admittedly, this reviewer did not get to taste the dish — the person who ordered it ate it too quickly for the reviewer himself to get a piece to sample. The final person in the party merely pointed to a random spot on the menu when ordering her dish and received a noodle dish adorned with pork and vegetables. No one could venture a guess as to what the dish was actually called, and it felt too awkward to ask the server what it was. In any case, the noodles were bland, but the pork was delicious. It makes no sense how two vastly different elements — one so flavorful, the other so devoid of flavor — can sit in such proximity, but this
dish defies sense in this regard. The service at Hong Kong was fine. Even though the place was practically empty, service was extremely quick; in fact, it was a bit too quick. The appetizers came out almost too soon after the order had been placed, leaving little time for diners to enjoy conversation before eating. Everything was served hot, so it was not like the food had been sitting on a warming shelf, but something just felt a little off about food being ready that quickly. In any case, the water service was comically inconsistent — at one point the server filled three full cups to overflowing and ignored the empty cup on the table altogether. Hong Kong Restaurant is fine if you have nowhere else to go and you really want Chinese food. But if you are going to venture beyond Davis, you might as well take advantage of the multitude of better options. Hong Kong Restaurant is located at 1238 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02138. It can be reached at 617-864-5311 or on its website. The restaurant is open Sunday – Wednesday 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 a.m., Thursday 11:30 a.m. – 2:30 a.m., Friday – Saturday 11:30 a.m. – 3:00 a.m. Its delivery hours are Sunday – Thursday 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 a.m. and Friday – Saturday 11:30am – 2:00 a.m.
Album Review
Sufjan Stevens paints moving family portrait by Nika Korchok Executive Arts Editor
With an intimacy that is at times both jarring and comforting, Sufjan Stevens once
Carrie & Lowell Sufjan Stevens Asthmatic Kitty Records again lets listeners into his private, imperfect world, allowing flaws to shine through to create an album with dimension and honesty. On his seventh studio album, “Carrie & Lowell,” released March 27, Stevens spends 43 minutes addressing themes of his youth and dissecting family relationships with a calculated hand that is often unforgiving in the portraits it paints. The album cover itself features a photo of Stevens’ mother and stepfather, and he spends the majority, if not the entirety, of the album delving into the relationships he had with both. Most specifically, the album addresses Stevens’ complex relationship with his mother, who died in of stomach cancer in 2012. There is no electronica here, and listeners tired and frustrated after Stevens’ sixth studio album “The Age of Adz” (2010) will enjoy a return to hushed depth from Stevens. Yet the journey through the album is not an easy one. The album sometimes feels like a recorded version of Stevens in therapy as he seethes out lyrics like, “Beloved my John, so I’ll carry on / Counting my cards down to one / And when I am dead, come visit my bed / My fossil is bright in the sun,” while soft
guitar plays in the background. The tracks weave tales that read like recycled fairytales: elements of magic repackaged for suburban America. The juxtaposition between pain and pleasantry would be funny if it wasn’t so honest and uncompromising. The entire album reads like an episode of “The Wonder Years” (1988-1993) gone awry, one in which Norma Arnold leaves her family and young Kevin is left wandering around suburbia by himself, held together with too much angst and without an outlet for the profound sense of abandonment that runs through the core of “Carrie & Lowell.” The album has an avoirdupois that would be suffocating if it was not so subtle. The whisper melodies and acoustic guitar create a beautiful sound on “Carrie & Lowell” — a sound that only barely masks the pain evident in the lyrics. The album begins with “Death with Dignity.” A soft guitar plucking out swift runs as Stevens’ voice hits falsetto with an angelic grace. While lyrics play up that balance between fairytale and documentary in Stevens’ storytelling, it is the blunt force of lyrics like “I forgive you, mother, I can hear you, / And I long to be near you / But every road leads to an end” that really drive the song. “Should Have Known Better” digs in deeper as it discusses Stevens’ mother; Stevens sings, “When I was three, three maybe four / she left us at that video store.” On the track, Stevens’ voice seems to trip over lyrics at the ends of lines, as though in a rush to get out the emotion that is laden in them. There is a consciousness here, as Stevens acknowledges exactly how uncompromisingly he is telling
Garrison Reid via Flickr Creative Commons
Sufjan Stevens returns to sparse folk instrumentation and haunting vocals on his honest and unflinching lyrical masterpiece “Carrie & Lowell.” his story, but with his refusal to tell anything but the truth comes a greater success for the album musically. “Drawn to the Blood” highlights the hymnal and delicate voice of Stevens. There are clear parallels to the acoustic melancholia of Elliot Smith and the lyrical complexity of Nick Drake. The album evokes the one-two punch of raw-nerved lyrics with melodic, acoustic accompaniment a la Fleet Foxes on their self-titled “Fleet Foxes” (2008), where songs like “White Winter Hymnal” paired lyrics like, “And Michael, you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime,” with a soft choral back-up section and an acoustic guitar accompaniment. “Eugene” brings in more personal details that flesh out the story of Stevens’ youth and pull listeners in to his life. At times, the track, and the album, has a childlike sense of wonder, a delicate touch that exists in the soft playing of chords. At other moments,
the specificity of details cuts deep, and the listener needs to come up for air to recover from their intensity. Lyrics like, “Some part of me was lost in your sleeve / Where you hid your cigarettes / No I’ll never forget / I just want to be near you,” often necessitate pausing the track to digest everything Stevens is throwing at his audience. At times, the album seems to hit one note and stay there. Its themes can feel self-serving and haunting, as though Stevens is circling back to the same ghosts over and over, unable to move on. But for listeners, the journey is one of tremendous substance. Stevens is not distracted by experimentation or by the temptation to compromise lyrical quality for complex melodies. The center of the album is the poetic exploration of death and grieving. It is a relatable journey, and one in which Stevens offers an outstretched hand searching for love, imploring listeners to feel as raw and free as he does.
daniel bottino | frost for you
'Out, Out —'
G
rowing up in rural Maine, I have spent many hours with my dad chopping and sawing firewood. Although I enjoy the work, I am also aware of the danger. One slip, and my ax might miss the chopping block, slicing through my lower leg. Or my saw might miss its groove in the wood, jump out and cut my arm in two. It is just such dangers that Frost describes in one of his most viscerally powerful poems, “Out, Out —” (1916). The poem’s subject, a young boy, has been working long at cutting firewood with a buzz saw: “The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard / And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood.” All seems tranquil until a slight interruption: The boy’s sister arrives to announce supper. At this unexpected proclamation, the boy’s concentration breaks — a fatal mistake: “At the word, the saw… / leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap — / He must have given the hand. However it was, / Neither refused the meeting.” And so the saw cuts the boy’s hand cleanly off, the red blood gushing forth from the stump of the arm. I imagine that this boy, like me, takes pride in his labor. However, his work of sawing is also a vital task for his family’s survival. My dad and I do not need to cut our own firewood, as we can buy it from the local gas station. But the early 20th century situation of the boy is different: Without the wood he cuts, his family would have no defense against the bitter New England winter. Aware of this, the boy has exerted himself beyond his capability, taking on himself a task better suited for older men. As the boy’s life fades rapidly away, Frost’s central message becomes starkly apparent. Despite our hard work, our life’s labors can be lost in one unexpected second: alive one minute, “Out, Out –” the next. And when misfortune strikes, we can only watch in horror. In momentary shock, Frost’s boy realizes everything is lost: “Then the boy saw all — / Since he was old enough to know, big boy / doing a man’s work, though a child at heart — / He saw all spoiled.” With just one tiny slip of the hand, success has transformed into disaster. Desperate to redeem himself, the boy’s thoughts turn to his severed hand, the instrument of his work, as he deliriously pleads with his sister to stop the doctor from amputating it: “Don’t let him cut my hand off.” But it is no use, as “the hand was gone already,” lying on the ground next to the freshly cut wood. In this tableaux of agony, we can picture the boy’s life blood splashed on the freshly cut wood, the product of his long day’s labor. He cannot stop “the life from spilling” — it exits fast in one final burst of bloody vitality, the heart expending its dying energies on pumping blood out of severed arteries. And then it is all over — the wound unstaunched in time, the boy’s pulse fades and vanishes, “and that ended it.” But Frost reserves his starkest message for last. The boy’s family easily moves on from his death, almost callous in their indifference: “And they, since they / were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” In a similar vein to Frost’s “In a Disused Graveyard,” (1923) the boy’s tragic and soon-forgotten death emphasizes the transitory nature of earthly triumphs. In the end, all it takes is momentary negligence, and the boy’s vital woodcutting has come to naught. When I return to my own woodcutting this summer, I will take this message to heart and treasure every day of satisfying work accomplished, knowing it may be my last. Daniel Bottino is a senior majoring in psychology. He can be reached at daniel. bottino@tufts.edu.
6
The Tufts Daily
Advertisement
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
TUFTS SUMMER SESSION 2015 prepare. eXpaND. Develop. school of arts and sciences | school of engineering
Three sessioNs: May 20–JuNe 26 | JuNe 30–augusT 7 | May 20–augusT 7 go.tufts.edu/summer Follow us:
Convenient, Affordable, Flexible Day & Evening Courses
ON-CAmpus & ONliNE
Dreaming about summer? Stop by the Campus Center to
Get the Scoop on Philanthropy!
President Monaco, Provost Harris, Coach Megerle and the Deans will be serving up ice cream sundaes! Keep an eye out for tags on campus with fun facts about how philanthropy supports student life at Tufts. TODAY from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. at the Campus Center!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
The Tufts Daily
7
Advertisement
Vote today! All students can vote! Remember to Vote!
Vote All
1. Log into your SIS. 2. Click on “Student Living” tab. 3. Choose”Web Center” 4. Click “Elections Online” 5. “Click here to Vote” 6. Vote! 7. Tell your friends to vote!
now: ecom.tufts.edu/Vote
clAsses mAy Vote.
Polls
oPen until midnight.
ECOM
@tufts.edu
8
The Tufts Daily
THE TUFTS DAILY
Editorial
Drew Z. Robertson Editor-in-Chief
Editorial
Jacob Indursky Reena Karasin Managing Editors
Audrey Michael Executive News Editor Daniel Bottino News Editors Jenna Buckle Shana Friedman Nina Goldman Stephanie Haven Patrick McGrath Justin Rheingold Kathleen Schmidt Jei-Jei-Tan Melissa Wang Meagan Adler Assistant News Editors Marianna Anthanassiou Melissa Kain Arin Kerstein Safiya Nanji Sophie Lehrenbaum Aaron Pomerance Emma Steiner Roy Yang Gabriella Zoia Jake Taber Executive Features Editor Lily Sieradzki Features Editors Hannah Fingerhut Jessica Mow Mengqi Sun Nicole Brooks Greta Jochem Arin Kerstein Assistant Features Editors Becca Leibowitz Yuki Zaninovich Nika Korchok Executive Arts Editor Dana Guth Arts Editors Grace Segers Nitesh Gupta Assistant Arts Editors Jessica Mow Anjali Nair Joshua Podolsky Jennifer Straitz Ross Dember Marcus Budline Alex Connors Wil Glavin Sam Gold Steven Hefter Alison Kuah Tyler Maher Alex Schroeder Maclyn Senear Chris Warren Ray Paul Biron Phillip Goldberg Josh Slavin Scott Geldzahler Susan Kaufman Olivia Montgomory Ruchira Parikh Erin Sifre Ty Enos Fury Sheron Jennifer Lien Hannah Hoang Katie Matejcak Natasha Khwaja Bailey Werner
Executive Sports Editor Sports Editors
Nicholas Pfosi Evan Sayles Caroline Ambros Sofie Hecht
Executive Photo Editor Assistant Photo Editor Picture Tufts Editor Section Liaison
'Feticide' case sets dangerous precedent
It hasn’t been a great week for Indiana. The state’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act effectively gives a green light to anti-LGBTQ* discrimination and has been inspiring outrage for days, resulting in an endless parade of think pieces, sound bites and backlash. At the same time, another controversy has been building in the embattled state: Last Monday, Indiana resident Purvi Patel was convicted of feticide for what she argues was a miscarriage. The state claims that Patel deliberately terminated her own pregnancy, making her the first person in U.S. history to be sentenced to jail for feticide on these grounds. While her conviction was based on dubious and hotly contested medical evidence, Patel has nonetheless been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Even though this case is the first of its kind, it sets an extremely dangerous precedent with far-reaching implications for the future of reproductive justice in the United States. As of now, we don’t know for sure whether or not Patel deliberately termi-
makes little sense, but the unfortunate reality is that this decision will inevitably be used as legal precedent in the future, and it allows the judicial system to play politics. This precedent gives the state frightening new opportunities to prosecute Indiana residents for failing to carry their pregnancies to term. Such precedent may also discourage people from seeking necessary medical care in the future for fear that any problems with their pregnancies, whether due to injury, drug abuse or any other reason, will be cause enough to commence a full criminal investigation. Patel’s case, along with the disturbing nationwide trend of state-based attacks on access to safe and legal abortions, illustrates that the fight for reproductive justice in the United States is far from over. Instead of protecting the bodily autonomy of our citizens, we criminalize their reproductive choices.
fury
Executive Op-Ed Editor
Cartoonists Editorialists
Off the hill | Yale University
For smoking ban
PRODUCTION
Jewel Marie Castle Production Director
Executive Layout Editor Layout Editors
Executive Copy Editors Copy Editors
Andrew Stephens Creative Director Shirley Wang Graphics Editor Nitesh Gupta Executive Online Editor Max Bernstein Executive Tech Manager Qinyue Yu Caroline Talbert Suhyun Evelyn Kim Vera Masterson
nated her own pregnancy. What we do know is that this case began when she arrived at an emergency room bleeding heavily and seeking medical assistance. She told the doctors that she had miscarried and, in a moment of panic and confusion, put the fetus in a dumpster. This emergency hospital visit kicked off a full-scale investigation into the specific circumstances of Patel’s miscarriage. Ultimately, Patel was charged with both feticide and child neglect. As some contend, these are two crimes that by definition could not have been committed simultaneously; no one knows whether a live birth occurred, but in this case Patel will be punished according to laws pertaining to both sets of circumstances. If it strikes you as absurd that a woman can go to the ER for emergency treatment and end up being convicted both of inducing an illegal abortion and of killing a live infant, you’re absolutely correct. The state’s handling of this situation
Assistant Sports Editors
Blair Nodelman Executive Jumbo Beat Editor Rachel Sheldon Senior Jumbo Beat Editor Aastha Chadha Jumbo Beat Editors Ethan Chan Jade Chan Kristie Le Tanay Modi Nimarta Narang Grace Segers
Molly Harrower Hannah Fingerhut Kathy Lu Lily Hartzell Reid Spagna David Westby Jonathan Heutmaker Joe Palandrani Arthur Beckel Aastha Chadha Nina Goldman Serena Kassam Michael Rubinstein Julia Russell Rachel Salzberg Jei-Jei Tan Caroline Watson Yan Zhao Andrew Kager
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
EDITORIAL | op-ed
Marketing Director Media Coordinator Social Media Manager Social Media Manager
BUSINESS
Chris Chininis
Executive Business Director Li Liang Receivables Manager Ariel Gizzi Ad Managers Kristie Le Ad Director Joshua Morris Amanda Saban Yiran Xu Daphne Zhao P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com
by Nathan Kohrman The Yale Daily Herald
In the pilot episode of Mad Men (2007-present), the protagonist Don Draper has a problem. He’s tasked with writing a new ad campaign for Lucky Strike, a cigarette brand that’s just been busted by the Federal Trade Commission for obscuring health concerns about smoking. Draper comes up with the slogan, “It’s Toasted,” side-stepping the health claims with feel good farm imagery. In 2015, the dangers of smoking are no longer ambiguous. According to the Center for Disease Control, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. That translates to roughly 1,300 deaths per day. While a 2011 survey in the news suggests Yalies smoke at far lower rates than the national average, the university ought to implement a smoking ban on campus. Smoking’s economic damage is clear. In 2012, despite the tobacco industry’s $35.1 billion in profits — roughly the combined profits of McDonalds, Microsoft and CocaCola — the costs of tobacco-related death and disease exceed an estimated $289 billion. Clarity has come with some substantial progress. Smoking rates for American adults have dropped from 42 percent in 1965 to 19 percent in 2011. But ultimately, public knowledge of smoking’s danger is not enough to keep millions of young Americans from buying their first pack. The 2012 National Survey
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.
on Drug Use and Health among college-age Americans found that in the past month, 31.8 percent of Americans between 18 and 25 had used cigarettes. According to the CDC, more than 3,000 American teenagers try their first cigarette every day, and more than 2,000 young adults make the hop from habit to addiction. Those numbers will come as no surprise to my fellow Yalies, but millions of Americans our age smoke anyway. Even on our campus, cigarettes have enormous social cache. They’re cool. They suggest confident vagaries at a time when our lives are in flux. A universal accessory, cigarettes look natural in the hands of hipsters, hackers, frat stars and any other identity we might try in the seven years between prom night and our third year out of college. Smoke suppresses your appetite and calms you down. It’s a social lubricant — an excuse to chat, flirt and “step outside.” Cigarettes are still cool because they’re visible. Lucky Strike’s worldwide sales have increased by more than 10 billion packs a year since Mad Men first aired in 2007. Yale cannot stop us from watching Mad Men, but it can deprive smoking of its vogue status by making it inconvenient. A campus ban would reinforce the uncontroversial notion that cigarettes are bad for our community, creating social space for peers to mock smoking as an unhealthy affectation. The benefits of a smoking ban would extend far beyond our campus. American higher education looks to the Ivy League to
set the example, and as of now, no Ivy League college has a campus-wide smoking ban. (Harvard has a ban on its Medical, Dental and Public Health schools.) If Yale were to mandate a campus-wide smoking ban, it would create a precedent and political space for other universities to do the same. Our school is one of a handful of universities that has the necessary profile and social capital to launch the fight against tobacco. I am not the first person to recommend this policy change. Last year, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy called on schools in Connecticut to ban smoking. In 2011, Yale administrators entertained the idea of a campus-wide ban on smoking by creating a Tobacco-Free Yale Workgroup to consider policies that could reduce smoking on campus. Little has happened. It’s too bad. Yale could lead the charge in preventive public health, the way it has with sexual violence and, though reluctantly, with mental health. It’s needless torpor. A galvanized multi-college smoking ban would save the American taxpayer millions of dollars and prevent thousands of premature deaths. Yes, it seems borderline puritanical to begrudge a stressed out student the occasional midnight smoke. But when you’re 19 years old, it isn’t just a smoke. The stakes are higher than that. Our generation’s college smokers stand at the brink of a public health precipice. Yale is in a position to make sure they don’t fall off.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters must be submitted by 2 p.m. and should be handed into the Daily office or sent to letters@tuftsdaily.com. All letters must be word processed and include the writer’s name and telephone number. There is a 450-word limit and letters must be verified. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length.
ADVERTISING POLICY All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editorin-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director. A publication schedule and rate card are available upon request.
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
The Tufts Daily
op-Ed
Acceptance in the rapidly evolving same-sex equality debate Jamie Neikrie
Op-Ed Contributor
Yesterday, I wrote an op-ed documenting the outrage and controversy surrounding Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). The law prevents the government from impeding a person’s religious rights unless it has a compelling government interest and is acting in the least intrusive way possible. While RFRA laws have been enacted for decades, including another one recently in Arkansas, Indiana’s law significantly expands on past statutes by allowing people to use religious liberty as a defense in suits involving private individuals and companies, rather than just the government. The reaction to Indiana’s law has been tremendous, with the LGBT movement drawing support from private companies like Angie’s List, businessmen like Apple CEO Tim Cook and sporting organizations like the NFL and NCAA. What started as a backlash to a discriminatory bill, however, has become an ugly battle, with bad behavior on both sides. Clearly searching for a story, local TV reporters interviewed Crystal O’Connor, the co-owner of the openly Christian (there are crosses on the wall) Memories Pizza in Walkerton, Ind. When asked whether she would serve gays and lesbians, O’Connor said yes, but that, because of her religious beliefs, she would refuse to cater a gay wedding. A wave of outrage followed, with ugly comments on Yelp and protesting that has since caused the restaurant to close for good. This, of course, sparked a backlash to the backlash, with conservative supporters starting a GoFundMe page to support O’Connor and make a point about religious freedom. With an initial goal of $25,000, the fund has raised over $840,000 in three days, with donations from more than 29,000 people. The incident — as well as Indiana and Arkansas’ religious freedom laws — has created a public debate as to the rights of private business owner to withhold service under personal beliefs, when those beliefs verge on
bigotry and the role of the state in these proceedings. In the United States, federal anti-discrimination law provides for protected classes — characteristics of a person which cannot be targeted for discrimination. These categories include race, religion, national origin, sex, citizenship, marital status and others. Currently, 22 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation, and 19 states plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico outlaw discrimination based on gender identity or expression. Indiana and Arkansas do not protect against either. However, these laws do provide the framework for understanding what counts as “discrimination” under the law. Conservatives have raised the fact that Indiana’s law allows business owners or landlords to refuse service to a Neo-Nazi or a white supremacist. Nazism and white supremacy, however, aren’t protected groups. Indiana governor Mike Pence has signified his intent to clarify the law to prohibit discrimination, including on the basis of sexual orientation. Currently, though, Indiana’s law serves to allow discrimination under the pretense of religious freedom against groups that aren’t protected federally. That includes, chiefly, gay and lesbian people. There seems to be a greater debate at play here. In the past decade, the gay rights movement has progressed faster than any other civil rights movements in history. A 2001 Pew Research poll showed that Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a 57 percent to 35 percent margin. Today, a majority of Americans (52 percent) support same-sex marriage, compared with 40 percent who oppose it. The amount of people who support same-sex marriage has grown exponentially in nearly every category, from Christians, to Republicans to the elderly. Of course, the gay rights movement does not begin and end with marriage equality, but the outrage to Indiana’s highly technical law alone demonstrates how public support has swelled around gay rights. With such rapid changes in public opinion, it is easy to see how some may
have been left behind. Store owners like Crystal O’Connor simply see their decisions as a product of their religious beliefs. Inherent in their reactions, and in RFRA laws in general, is a sense that the tide of history is against them. “Just 10 years ago, this wasn’t an issue,” they must think. “Now I’m a bigot for my beliefs?” In some ways, this mindset is understandable. But history has shown that civil rights movements cannot wait for those more entrenched in their ideologies to catch up. During the AfricanAmerican civil rights movement, the Brown v. Board of Education decision declared the system of legal segregation unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ordered the states to end segregation with “all deliberate speed.” However, “all deliberate speed” became “all deliberate obstruction,” and the the vagueness about how to enforce the ruling gave segregationists the opportunity to organize resistance. The same could be said for “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” legislation, and the stance of the military on gays serving in the military. Military officers often claimed that allowing gay soldiers to serve openly would disrupt the cohesiveness of military units. They said that allowing black people to serve would disrupt the unit too. Guess what? The unit adjusted. The gay rights movement cannot allow conservatism to stand in the way of progress. As a group of people who have been historically discriminated against, however, they must remember where the real problems of society lie. Crystal O’Connor is wrong for refusing to cater gay weddings, but she is not the chief problem — Indiana’s RFRA law is, and gay rights supporters who helped shut down Memories Pizza undermined the great work they did combating a discriminatory law. Business owners should not be allowed to discriminate against gays under the basis of religious freedom, but, similarly, not every person who opposes gay marriage should be sued, or have their business shut down. At least until every state has enacted gay rights antidiscrimination laws, Crystal O’Connor is not the enemy.
off the hill | Vassar College
Yik Yak users responsible for app content Sarah Sandler
The Miscellany News
I first became aware of the app Yik Yak at the end of my senior year of high school. Within a few days, students from all grades were using it to make mean-spirited comments about teachers, people from neighboring towns or each other. My brother, who at the time was a senior at the University of Richmond, showed me snapshots of his Yik Yak feed at UR. It included some of the same hateful things, and was also dotted with harmless funny posts about a student’s daily life. Quickly realizing that the posts around my high school were immature and pointless, I deleted the app from my phone just a few days after downloading it. Though I only became familiar with it again — this time at Vassar — in the last few months, Yik Yak was created in 2013 by two fraternity brothers at Furman University. Unlike other anonymous online forums, such as the website Formspring which was popular in middle school, the founders of Yik Yak had a novel goal in mind. Because the popular Twitter accounts at their university were mostly those of student athletes and other well-liked students, they wanted to even out the playing field. Instead of letting social media be in the hands of few, they wanted every student’s words to get equal attention online. While this is an innocent objective, the app evolved into something the founders did not expect. Once the app spread to colleges and universities across the country, it morphed into what we now know as a forum where students can say whatever they want without fear of penalization.
A few days into Orientation Week at Vassar, I downloaded Yik Yak once again because I heard so many of my new fellow students talking about it. Now that I was on a college campus and not at my high school, the anonymous posts were for the most part innocuous and amusing. Frequent topics included Vassar’s womp-womps and whatever the Deece was serving that day. I have not looked at Vassar’s Yik Yak feed in a few months, but during the time that I looked at it often, posts rarely included cruel things about students or faculty. On many other college campuses, though, Yik Yak has become a growing issue among administrators because of the significant cyberbullying it elicits. Given the ability to say whatever they want with a veiled identity, many people use Yik Yak to comment on their peers. This gets especially hurtful when remarks turn to things involving appearance, sexuality and sexual history, race or intelligence. A student at Kenyon College went so far as to propose a rape at the college’s women’s center through the anonymous app. While many posts are malicious yet harmless in theory, some posts can pose a serious peril. Yik Yak has indirectly facilitated bomb and gun threats, which are very difficult to trace because of the app’s anonymous structures, forcing police to work tirelessly to keep students safe following a post of this nature. Most of the threats are empty, but they still result in a waste of police resources and deny the offender their appropriate punishment by authorities. Middle schools, high schools and universities have attempted to eliminate Yik Yak from their campuses because of the way their students and faculty were being affected by
9
Op-Ed
it. On many campuses, students involve staff and faculty, such as professors or cafeteria workers, in the cruelty, sometimes commenting on their appearances or talking about them in a sexual way. If students are connected to a school’s Wi-Fi network, Yik Yak can be blocked by administrators. If this were to happen, though, students could just access the app using data from their cellular service instead. As much as an administration may implore their students to discontinue their use of Yik Yak, it is up to the students to follow through. This often proves extremely difficult, because if a student on a campus where Yik Yak is popular lobbies for the end of its usage, they could provoke a backlash from their peers. The backlash often appears on — what else — Yik Yak itself. Another issue that could arise is that banning Yik Yak would be a violation of one’s right to free speech or would hinder discourse on a campus. Yik Yak’s original motive of making social media popularity more accessible to the average college student was a valid one, but it is only really rational at schools where sports are a bigger deal and athletes achieve a level of fame. In reality, social media websites and apps have become so integrated into our society, especially at colleges, that any student can have a presence in just a few clicks if they want to. Therefore, Yik Yak’s purpose has really become about saying nasty things, because if someone wanted to publicly say something genuinely funny or meaningful, they could just do so on Twitter or Facebook. Because of the slew of issues that arise in attempting to eliminate Yik Yak, it is ultimately the student’s job to get rid of Yik Yak and end the damage that it entails.
Adam Kaminski | The Cool Column
Fallible machines and Candy Crush
I
t’s easy to adopt the mindset that progress for the sake of the progress, never mind progress for the sake of Super Smash Bros. (1999-present) fanatics and squeegee enthusiasts, is an inherent and unquestionable good. This perspective is convenient and intuitive; ideology, the dogma of a Christian Scientist or the ravings of a polemic philosopher gone haywire, for instance, seems like all that could conceivably lead someone to reject triumphs like neuroprosthetics, supercomputers and my latest Candy Crush (2012) high score. Safety, however, especially as technological advancements continue to be made, requires devil’s advocacy and prudence to assess the potential dangers of marching ceaselessly and heedlessly into a future made of silicon. What are the disadvantages and shortcomings of technology? And what are the consequences of relying on it? Before tackling technology’s shortcomings, which I’ll do next week as well (you know, so I can be verbose), it’s interesting to note that these consequences can be linked to technology’s benefits; the service of machinery boils down to efficiency, but stupid efficiency. The theoretical physicist Richard Feynman demonstrated this with an allegory about filing clerks. There exists a clerk whose job it is to take out employee data cards and multiply how much each sold that month with each’s commission rate, then put the cards back. The clerk is quite good at this, but then one day he is replaced by someone who cannot multiply, who can just read instructions. Instead of multiplying the figures, this clerk takes out other cards on which there are multiples printed. The second clerk’s process may be a step longer, but he is 10 times faster than the old one. He is efficient. Eventually this second clerk is replaced by a third, another dumber but quicker chap. So it goes until all the new hire can do is distinguish ones and zeros. So technology is quick. We no longer have to know how to navigate (unless you consider getting your friends lost while “navigating” from the passenger seat), need a great memory or feel the need to multiply. We have technology to do these things for us. One problem arising from this is that we can be lulled into ignorance and can lose potentially lifesaving intelligence by outsourcing it. I didn’t just throw around “potentially lifesaving” to be grandiose; ignorance really can be dangerous. One need only investigate the current state of airline pilots to ascertain that pilots have become, in practice, system managers in the business of maintenance. Besides crucial points at a plane’s takeoff and landing, a pilot’s job isn’t necessarily very strenuous or interesting; most of the navigation and piloting is done by the machine itself. Minimizing the amount of work humans do seems to be a trend of technological development, but each job should be approached differently. People sometimes forget that technology can fail — and what failing means isn’t always no Wi-Fi; sometimes it’s death. The Colgan Air Flight 3407 crash in 2009 is one poignant manifestation of technologically induced ignorance and mechanical failing. The two pilots of this plane were cruising in autopilot when they failed to follow the “sterile cockpit” rule, a regulation that talk in the cockpit after the plane has dropped below ten thousand feet can only be about the flight. This understandably proved to be difficult, but also deadly, when Flight 3407 began to plummet downward, its airspeed unmonitored. This tragedy speaks to the diminution of human talent and attention, and the dangers of relying on high-stakes but fallible machines too faithfully. As technology continues to replace human activity, it is important to know what factors reduce the risk of future calamity like Flight 3407. For example, maybe in the future autopilot should randomly give out, or maybe Candy Crush should randomly tell me to go pick up a book.
Adam Kaminski is a sophomore who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at adam.kaminski@tufts.edu.
10
The Tufts Daily
FOR RELEASE APRIL 7, 2015
Crossword
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Doonesbury
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Lewis
ACROSS 1 Peru’s __ Picchu 6 Angle iron 10 Highest point 14 Kindle download 15 SeaWorld performer 16 Ellington’s “Take __ Train” 17 Older name for a passenger bus 19 Glass darkener 20 Responded in court 21 Cape NNW of Cod 22 Saguaros, e.g. 23 Covered up 24 Wedding gown follower 27 Place in quarantine 29 Legal thing 30 Came down with 31 Kate, before Petruchio’s “taming” 32 Bit of legislation 33 U2 lead singer 34 Like one resisting innovation 38 Die dots 41 Thumbs-up 42 Best man’s offering 46 Santa __ winds 47 Fellows 48 Stir-fry vegetable 50 Pirate Blackbeard’s real name 53 Rank below cpl. 54 Believer in the Great Pumpkin 55 NYC airport 56 Narrow opening 57 Installed, as carpet 58 Hole-making tool 61 Years, to Nero 62 Wows, and how 63 Stone marker 64 Droops over time 65 Peel in a cocktail 66 Filled with cargo DOWN 1 Tennessee home of the NBA’s Grizzlies
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Comics
Non Sequitur
4/7/15
By David Poole
2 Do away with 3 French department that translates to “golden slope” 4 Robin __ 5 Kiev is its cap. 6 Canadian coin nicknamed for the bird on it 7 Lego or Eggo, for example 8 Duke Univ. conference 9 Stadium shout 10 Rose essence 11 Lake Michigan metropolis 12 Bring up 13 Chip away at 18 Golfer’s ride 22 Dollar divs. 24 Cry out loud 25 Curved foot part 26 “Dallas Buyers Club” actor Jared 28 Some summer babies, astrologically 32 Summer coolers, for short 33 What winds do 35 Like Easter eggs
Monday’s Puzzle Solved Monday’s Solution
Married to the Sea
©2015 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
36 Emailed 37 Texter’s “From a different angle ...” 38 Spanish rice dishes 39 Gary’s home 40 Hocking 43 Answered a help-wanted ad, say 44 Whence Rossini’s barber
4/7/15
45 Spilled the beans 47 Dalloway’s title 48 Most judicious 49 Virg. neighbor 51 German cars 52 Actor Cary 56 Latina lass: Abbr. 58 Peace, in Acapulco 59 Be indebted to 60 High-speed www option
www.marriedtothesea.com
SUDOKU Level: Liking your friend’s cover photo promoting an event.
our contact (617) 440-7361 or
bostonburgerco.com
our hours
our location 37 davis square somerville, ma 02144
mon - wed:
11 AM to 10 PM
thurs - sat: 11 AM to 11 PM sun: 12 PM to 8 PM
Please recycle this Daily.
Monday’s Solution
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
The Tufts Daily
11
Sports
Wanted $$SPERM DONORS WANTED$$ Earn up to $1,500/month for less than 5 hours’ time. Help families through California Cryobank’s donor program. Apply online: SPERMBANK.com
classifieds policy All Tufts students must submit classifieds in person, prepaid with check, money order or exact cash only. All classifieds submitted by mail must be accompanied by a check. Classifieds are $20 per week or $4 per day with Tufts ID or $30 per week or $8 per day without. The Tufts Daily is not liable for any damages due to typographical errors or misprintings except the cost of the insertion, which is fully refundable. We reserve the right to refuse to print any classifieds which contain obscenity, are of an overly sexual nature or are used expressly to denigrate a person or group. Questions? Email business@tuftsdaily.com.
Jumbos look to hammer out early-season rust MEN’S CREW
continued from back
boat, said. “The goal was to row 2,000 meters more efficiently than we had ever before and really set the tone for the beginning of the season.” In the second varsity race, Tufts won in fairly comfortable fashion, besting Hamilton 6:26.8 – 7:00.00. The time was a solid indicator for the squad and only 22 seconds off the time rowed by the first varsity boat. For the rowers, it was an optimistic sign for what they hope will be a strong spring season. “We had a real promising race out there,” Williams said. “We were very smooth and efficient in our strokes, which has been our main focus of practice. It was really nice seeing that translate to boat speed during the race.” The race between the top varsity boats would be much closer. Since the course in Malden features a slight bend, the Jumbos, having the inner lane, started out staggered behind the Continentals. The race was close coming through the curve, yet Tufts was able to pull ahead and win by 5.8 seconds, 6:14.5 – 6:20.3, over Hamilton. Given the layout of the course and the jitters that come with starting
on the inside, senior Christopher Rickard, who competed in the first varsity race, was impressed with how the boat handled the situation. “The best thing we did was keep our composure,” Rickard said. “We stayed with our race plan and ultimately took the lead [after the bend] and won.” Still, there were a few mishaps that the team could not overlook. The rowers struggled to stay consistently in sync and row as smoothly as they had hoped. “We didn’t row the cleanest race we could’ve,” Rickard said. “When we got out of the water, we all knew we could row a much better race than we did.” While these struggles partially overshadowed the joy of the early-season victory, they were a reminder that the team is still at the stage of the season where hiccups and miscues are to be expected, as it looks to hammer out problems before the big races approach. The win did, however, give the team confidence, which has been rising since Wanner’s hire. Despite only being with the program for a short time, the attitude from the team has been overwhelmingly positive toward the new coach. The former head coach
of Middlebury’s men’s and women’s teams and a native of Cambridge, Wanner has helped fuel strong competitiveness throughout the team. “The one thing Noel has made very clear is that it is not about seniority, and it’s not about where you come from,” Williams siad. “It’s about right here and now. It is his mentality to put the best eight people in the boat at that moment, whether that is a freshman that has been exceeding his expectations [or] someone who has been on the team for years who has really taken strides in improvement.” The Jumbos will return to the Shoemaker boathouse for two different races. On Saturday, April 11, Tufts will compete against a triumvirate of New England opponents ( Wesleyan, Bates and the University of New Hampshire) and then take on Amherst the next day. After shaking off the rust against Hamilton, the team hopes to continue making steady, incremental improvements as the temperature does the same. “This weekend is going to be a lot more competitive, and we are confident that we will have a very competitive and fast race,” Rickard said. “We are excited about that.”
continued from back
came on a free-position attempt and trimmed Tufts’ lead to two. Williams continued to play well in the second half but was unable to overcome their early deficit. Bowser controlled the opening draw and scored again at 29:20 to make the Jumbos’ advantage 5-2, but Bell responded for the Ephs with her second goal of the game less than two minutes later. Both teams alternated goals again before Meek netted what would prove to be the game-winning goal, putting Tufts up 7-4 with 18:11 to go. The Jumbo defense fended off a late surge by the Ephs, holding on for the 8-6 victory. “[Against Williams], our defense played the best defense of the entire season thus far,” Meek said. “I was so proud as I
C
Junior tri-captain Rob Jacobson and the rest of the Jumbos entered Saturday as clear underdogs. blow us away. It will come down to who is better prepared and who is the grittier team.”
Sam Gold is a senior majoring in religion. He can be reached at samuel_l.gold@tufts.edu.
watched every single girl on the defensive end have such an amazing game.” Bell led all scorers with three of the Ephs’ six goals. Bowser, Ross and Walker all scored twice for the Jumbos, with Bowser adding an assist and three ground balls. First-year goalie Hannah Wiltshire had a strong game for Tufts as well, notching 10 saves in 16 attempts. Her performance merited another start against Wesleyan on Saturday, to which she responded with six stops in another solid effort. “Hannah [ Wiltshire] really stepped up and played amazing in both games,” DiGate said. In both games, however, Tufts played considerably better in one half. With their season heading into the home stretch, the Jumbos are still searching for more consistency going forward.
“Playing good lacrosse for 60 minutes has been a team goal since the beginning of the season and continues to be something we strive for,” Bowser said. Tufts has a full week of practices before traveling to upstate New York for games against Hamilton and Cortland State next weekend. The Jumbos will look to extend their current winning streak to five against the Continentals on Saturday. “I feel the team is in a great place, and we are really starting to fully come together on all aspects of the field, which is something that is very rewarding to see as an athlete,” Walker said. “We all are on the same page and want the same things going forward with the rest of our season.”
Jumbos kick off NESCAC portion of season MEN’S TENNIS
continued from back
“Our preparation for every match is always the same,” Jacobson added. “The minute one match ends, in our minds, the next match begins. So our preparation for each match is interpreted as part of the match. Everyone is just working as hard as we can, and we take every match with the same importance. Obviously, Trinity is a ver y big match for us as a big NESCAC rival, and we will treat them no differently as we played the defending national champions, and hopefully we will come through.” In order for the Jumbos to advance to the NESCAC tournament they will have to win a number of these upcoming matches, beginning with Trinity and ending with Bowdoin on April 24. Trinity has begun the season 5-2 and is fresh off of two straight victories. “Trinity is a very seasoned team with a lot of upperclassmen,” Gregor said. “That’s always going to make them a tough team, and over the past couple seasons we’ve traded matches. We’re expecting to see a really tight battle there, and we’re not going to blow them away and they won’t
The case for Calipari onsider a scenario: “Studentathlete” is recruited by a booster, who receives kickbacks from a major program at a major university. This “student-athlete” comes from a poor family, whose livelihood hangs in the balance, entirely dependent on a future lucrative professional contract. The transition from high school to college goes smoothly; soon, this “student-athlete” is basking in (uncompensated) stardom, the toast of the collegiate sports scene. Then, a precipitous fall from grace. The “student-athlete,” amid a flurry of outstretched hands, is signing autographs after a huge win. One hand extends a gift, a personalized t-shirt bearing the name and likeness of the “student-athlete,” which he takes, unthinking, so as not to be rude. A few days later, the phone rings — it’s the NCAA. The “studentathlete” has been banned for life for accepting a gift in violation of NCAA rules. Draconian, but permissible nonetheless. Though an extreme case, the above example is illustrative of the inane restrictions imposed by the NCAA against “student-athletes.” Coaches, on the other hand, who commit similar infractions, often go unpunished, privileged by impunity until caught on camera or brought down by a whistleblower. The latter model, however, while seemingly unjust and even immoral, might actually be the better one. John Calipari, whose Kentucky Wildcats were ousted this weekend by Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin Badgers, is no stranger to controversy. Wherever he’s coached — UMass Amherst, Memphis, Kentucky — he’s won. The problem is, it’s not merely that he wins, but rather “how” he wins. The speed with which he has found success has occasioned suspicion, if not outright condemnation. His programs are stopovers for elite one-and-done types, whom Calipari grooms into first-round draft picks, whose exploits at the next level are widely foreordained. This is because Calipari is an expert recruiter, although, as evinced by the controversy surrounding former players Marcus Camby and Derrick Rose, he has cut corners. Yet his track record eclipses his shadier dealings, and today Calipari is a celebrity. Calipari is unrepentant about his modus operandi. He does not walk the tightrope that divides sports and academics, like the North Carolina football program tried and failed to do. He is squarely on the side of sports. Calipari is not a shill for the NCAA or the several programs that have employed him; in a recent interview, he endorsed the idea that college programs should insure their “studentathletes.” He does not partake of the charade. Calipari’s kids are rarely, if ever, in trouble, and he instills in them a team-oriented style of play that is a rarity among the upper echelon. This character-building is something to celebrate. While he is not at all beholden to the academic side of college sports, this is not the business he is in. It is far better that he acknowledge his ambit — he is a coach, after all, not a professor — than placate his critics by dissembling a teacher-coach. His forthrightness is a refreshing counterweight to the farce that big-time programs are equally committed to athletics as to academics. If Calipari is indeed flouting the rules, he should be reprimanded. Still, it is worth examining the impetus behind those rules and their unequal application. Athletics and academics have for so long been entwined that it will take a herculean overhaul to extricate them from one another. Either the NCAA will cling to the improbable marriage between athletics and academics and let it run itself into the ground, or it can be upfront about the inherent contradiction between academic integrity and for-profit college sports. In this regard, Calipari is a beacon.
Tufts earns important victory over Ephs WOMEN’S LACROSSE
Sam Gold | The Gold Standard
Caroline Geiling / The Tufts Daily
The Jumbos will take on the Bantums at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday in Hartford, Conn.
Sports
12
tuftsdaily.com
Lacrosse
Tufts moves up in standings with pair of NESCAC wins by Tyler Maher Sports Editor This season, seven NESCAC teams currently sit at .500 or better, and all of them have at least one loss. Therefore, the women’s lacrosse team’s wins over Williams and Wesleyan took on extra import as they moved Tufts (5-2, 9-2) into sole possession of third place and above the fray in the NESCAC. “I think the keys to success in both of those games were respecting possession, staying composed with the ball and playing great team defense,” senior tri-captain attack Kali DiGate said. Tufts moved up to third place in the NESCAC with Saturday afternoon’s 17-8 rout of last-place Wesleyan, lowering the Cardinals’ conference record to 0-6. With the nets weighted down by sandbags due to windy conditions at Bello Field, the Jumbos rode a 10-goal second half to victory. The game was initially much closer than the final score would indicate, as both sides traded goals for the first 15 minutes. Tufts led 7-5 at the half, then broke the match wide open with a second half scoring rampage. The Jumbos’ passing game was exceptional given the adverse conditions, shredding the Cardinal defense and setting up numerous scoring opportunities. “Everyone deserves a shout-out for the Wesleyan game because our whole team put on strong perfor-
mances, which was reflected in the final score,” Taylor Meek, a first-year attack, said. The box score was just as lopsided as the final result. Tufts took 29 shots on goal — more than double Wesleyan’s total of 14 — and controlled the ground ball game 17-10. In addition to going a perfect 12 of 12 on clears, the Jumbos also won three more draws and committed four fewer turnovers than the Bantams. DiGate and junior tri-captain attack Caroline Ross paced the attack with 13 goals between them. Ross was also the team leader in assists with three, scoring or lending a hand in 10 goals. “Kali Digate and Caroline Ross had great games this Saturday,” senior midfielder Lindsey Walker said. “[ Junior midfielder] Brigid Bowser coming up with almost all of the draw controls in the second half of the Wesleyan game was a momentum changer and allowed us to pull ahead of our opponent.” Tufts avenged last year’s NESCAC tournament defeat to Williams with Wednesday night’s 8-6 triumph. Playing under the lights at Farley-Lamb Field, the visiting Jumbos jumped out to a 4-0 lead, scoring their first goal 43 seconds into the game on Bowser’s free-position shot. Following a lengthy but fruitless Williams possession, Tufts reeled off three straight goals as DiGate, Ross and Walker all found the back of the net in rapid succession for the Jumbos.
Tennis
Katy McConnell / The Tufts Daily Junior Brigid Bowser dominated draw controls over the weekend for the Jumbos.
Williams broke through for its first goal of the game at 8:57 with senior Rebecca Bell scoring off an assist from junior Anne Rehfuss. After six minutes of scoreless play, the Ephs scored another
goal from junior midfielder Natalie Gill with 2:55 remaining in the first half. Gill’s goal — her ninth of the season — see WOMEN’S LACROSSE, page 11
Crew
Jumbos fall to reigning Tufts wins both varsity races national champions 7-2 in Wanner's debut by Ray Paul Biron Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s tennis team lost on Saturday to No. 5 Amherst 7-2, falling to 3-3 on the season and 0-1 in the NESCAC. Both of Tufts’ points came from first-years, as the doubles team of Zain Ali and Griffin Brockman claimed victory over Amherst seniors Jon Cypers and Andrew Scheiner. Ali was also able to secure a victory in singles over sophomore Andrew Arnaboldi. The No. 23 Jumbos went into the match knowing that they would be the underdog to the 2014 national champions, but almost came out of doubles with a lead, which could have perhaps tilted momentum in their favor. For one of their losses in doubles action, the Jumbos came within one point of claiming a victory and taking a 2-1 lead. “It literally came down to us not capitalizing on a few points,” junior Nick Cary said. “Coaches can say that as much as they want to players, but we realized that there is a lot of truth behind that. Having there be a reemphasis on the fact that every point matters and that we should capitalize on major points has been hammered home, and that’s something we can take with us for sure.” A highlight of the match was again the play of Tufts’ first-years, even without key contributor Rohan Gupte, who was sidelined with an injury but should be ready for the next match. Tufts’ first-years were one of the main reasons the team was so excited and optimistic at the beginning of the season.
“We played some good tennis,” junior co-captain Rob Jacobson said. “Zain Ali, one of our freshmen, really played well in a very high-pressure doubles match to put us on the board early on, and he played a great singles match as well. That was really positive for us, having a bunch of younger players coming through against a national title contender.” Interim head coach Karl Gregor also found his own positives from the match. “I was a little down after and really thought we had it in us to make it a closer and better match,” Gregor said. “But the very next day, Amherst played Washington University, which is ranked third in the country, and they beat them by the same score, 7-2. So in retrospect, I look back and realized that we played a really good team.” The Jumbos will next travel to No. 22 Trinity College to play another important NESCAC match. Cary played for the Bantums his first year before transferring to Tufts as a sophomore. “I think it’s a good and even match-up,” Cary said. “Where they have experience, we have a bunch of freshman talent. Both of our styles of play are also very similar. We both have talent and both teams try and emphasize a certain level of fight and grit in their style of play. Both teams realize that talent and skill can only get you so far and emphasize the things that are not necessarily dictated by how good you are.” see MEN’S TENNIS, page 11
by Ross Dember
Executive Sports Editor
In its first appearance of the spring, the men’s crew team entered the two varsity races with a different perspective than when it last competed over five months prior. While the low-50 temperature felt fall-like, a new coach at the helm, Noel Wanner, signi-
fied a new era for the program. The Jumbos kicked off his tenure with a victorious, albeit rusty, matchup against the Hamilton Continentals. Entering the race, both Tufts boats saw the opportunity to put into practice months of offseason preparation that consisted of early morning training and a trip to Florida. Given free reign to
put out maximum effort in a competitive environment, the team was looking to test its limits early in the season. “We went into the race not only to compete against Hamilton, but also to compete against ourselves,” junior Jon Williams, who rowed in the second varsity see MEN’S CREW, page 11
Alex Cherry / The Tufts Daily
After months of preparation, the men’s crew team returned to competition last weekend.