TuftsDaily09-27-2012

Partly Cloudy 67/49

THE TUFTS DAILY

Evernote sponsors MiniHackathon

by Justin

Rheingold

Daily Staff Writer

Tufts’ first MiniHackathon, sponsored by the technology company Evernote, will take place today and give computer science students an opportunity to build their ideas using Evernote’s programming interface.

The event is a six-hour marathon during which students will undertake a series of programming and design challenges in pursuit of prizes.

Each student who participates will receive Evernote Premium software for the fall semester.

Evernote and the university have collaborated to organize the competition, according to Lecturer of Computer Science Ming Chow (E ’02).

The MiniHackathon is unrelated to last year’s student-run Hackathon and will be hosted solely by Evernote, according to Evernote Senior Web-Developer Chris Traganos.

During the Hackathon last spring, students were able to use whichever programming interface they desired. The event was student-run and co-sponsored by companies such as Evernote, Microsoft, Crashlytics, GitHub, Thoughtbot and the New England Venture Capital Association.

More restrictions will be in place for the MiniHackathon,

TUFTSDAILY.COM

thursday, September 27, 2012

VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 15

and the projects that students build will have to communicate with Evernote software, Traganos said.

“You’ve got to use Evernote API, Evernote libraries,” he said. “You can build whatever you want for the iPhone, for Androids, for the web, for another language, but it’s going to have to be something to do with note taking.”

Chow explained that finding great programmers is a difficult task but that Evernote is up to the challenge.

“The recession did a good job of weeding out the people who didn’t belong in the field, but now we’re in a situation where it’s just so hard to find good talent,” Chow said. “We don’t produce enough engineers and high-tech folks.”

Tufts has been very successful in developing computer programmers and web designers, according to Traganos.

“When it comes to looking for great talent and great engineers, Tufts has a great Computer Science Department,” Traganos said.

“We’ve hired some Tufts students, so we are definitely familiar with the [computer science] group.”

In addition to hosting this event, Evernote will also be presenting at the Tufts Career Fair tomorrow and is looking see EVERNOTE, page 2

Tisch Library holds focus groups for planned renovations

by James

Pouliot

Daily Editorial Board

Tisch Library last week set in motion a project to upgrade its facilities, holding

a series of focus groups that will determine the project’s direction through student and faculty input.

The upcoming renovations are the result of an ongoing

by

Menghan Liu

The Department of Public and Environmental Safety (DPES) has this semester revamped its safety escort service, revising the program’s name and the guidelines for its use.

GoSafe, as it is now called, has been designed as a free service for students concerned about their safety between destinations rather than for on-demand transportation, Director of Public and Environmental Safety Kevin Maguire said.

Results from a survey DPES distributed last year about GoSafe’s predecessor, Safe Ride, showed that students thought of the service as an alternative to the Joey shuttle or a way to get to class when the weather is inclement.

Thirteen percent of students polled said they believed an escort should be provided for transportation to offcampus parties, 26 percent for rainy and snowy weather and 40 percent thought the

see TISCH, page 2

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

service should be available to help them move large or heavy objects, according to Maguire.

“There was a fundamental misunderstanding about the former service,” he said. “It became transportation-ondemand.”

Maguire said that students who wanted free rides rather than Tufts University Police Department ( TUPD) protection were causing longer wait times for those who called the service for its intended use.

“Folks were complaining that we were taking too long to service calls,” Maguire said.

“We needed to take action.”

Further evidence of misuse, Maguire said, lies in the over 1,000 percent increase in escort requests over the last six years without any parallel increase in crime.

The redesigned service includes more specific guidelines and provisions for its users, including a designated service area that comprises the entire campus and Davis see GOSAFE, page 2

university-wide strategic planning process, according to Director of Communications Anne Fishman. The Schools of

Tisch Library is seeking student and faculty input about its facilities in preparation for a large-scale renovation project.

Public Safety escort service debuts new route, hours Daily Editorial Board

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

GoSafe: What you need to know When: Monday through Sunday nights, sunset to sunrise.

Peak use: Campus officers will operate Thursday, Friday and nights from 10:00 3:00 a.m.

security the vans Saturday p.m. to

Phone: Call 617-627-3030 to request a ride. Provide your name, phone number, location of pick-up and destination and the number of people in your group.

Where: Anywhere on campus within the borders of Medford St., Winthrop St. and Route 16/Mystic Valley Pkwy., including Davis and Teele Squares.

Wait time: 5-15 minutes When not to call: - During the day - Outside the service area - For a group of four or more people - For a reason other than personal safety.

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

GoSafe, the new campus safety escort service, is offered instead of SafeRides starting this year.

Inside this issue

Today’s sections

Tufts Admissions explains its rebranding of Tufts’ identity for prospective students.

This year’s Emmy Awards continued troubling trends.

see FEATURES, page 2

see WEEKENDER, page 5

News | Features Weekender | Arts Editorial | Letters Op-Ed

1 5 8 9

Comics Classifieds Sports

10 11 Back

The Tufts Daily

2

News | Features

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Evernote looking to recruit Tufts programmers EVERNOTE

continued from page 1

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

The software company Evernote arrives on campus today to host Tufts’ first MiniHackathon for computer science students.

GoSafe puts security officers behind the wheel on weekend nights GOSAFE

continued from page 1

and Teele Squares.

Public Safety security officers, not TUPD officers, will drive the vans during peak hours on weekend evenings and act as walking escorts, according to TUPD Deputy Chief Mark Keith.

The change addresses perennial student concerns that calling for a ride from a TUPD officer while intoxicated would result in legal ramifications.

Having security officers run the service during weekend nights also increases the availability of TUPD officers

for more crucial purposes, Maguire said.

“We wanted to be able to free up police officers to be able to respond to those more urgent emergency calls,” he said.

Services will generally not be provided during the day, to groups of four or more or to locations outside of the designated service area.

Junior Clara Bieck agreed with the idea behind the new service, since students can use the Joey for transportation purposes during the year.

“But if they’re going to vamp down the escort service, they should do something over the

summer, like provide the Joey,” she said.

Maguire believes that by renaming the program GoSafe, DPES is promoting the service as it should be used — as a helping hand to students who feel unsafe rather than as a free ride.

“It’s our fundamental responsibility to help students if they don’t feel safe moving about campus,” Maguire said. “We want students who don’t feel safe to give us a call. We think our students will make the right decision and provide for their own transportation if it’s a matter of convenience.”

to recruit Tufts students with computer science experience, according to Traganos.

“People who are participating in this MiniHackathon will likely wind up with nice job offers this spring,” Traganos said. “This trip is really focused on finding great talent.”

The student-run Hackathon last year was very successful, according to Alden Keefe Sampson, a senior majoring in computer science and one of the event’s organizers.

“I was especially impressed with what the younger people, especially freshmen and sophomores, were able to do in that period [of 24 hours],” Keefe Sampson said.

Traganos hopes that the

Police Briefs

Red solo cup Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers at 11:40 p.m. on Sept. 21 received a call to break up a party on Edison Avenue. At the scene, police saw students drinking from red cups and found approximately 75 people drinking from a beer keg in the backyard. Police proceeded to shut down the party.

As you wish TUPD and Somerville police at 1:35 a.m. on Sept. 23 arrived at a party in a student’s house in Somerville.

When officers arrived on the

Tisch conducts focus groups about upcoming renovations TISCH

continued from page 1

Arts and Sciences and Engineering will jointly fund the project.

After the focus group phase is completed this December, the results will be used to determine which construction projects will take precedence over the course of the renovation, Tisch Associate Director Laura Walters said.

Construction is slated to begin at the end of the 2013-2014 academic year.

The focus groups are led by Alexander Cohen of Aaron Cohen Associates, a library consulting group based in New York.

“When we’re done with this process [of conducting focus groups], the university will prioritize the projects within budget,” Cohen said. “The most important aspect of this is that the result aligns with something that is cost-effective and within budget. It’s a prioritization of what improvements should be made in the near term and the long term.”

Students and faculty will be represented by three focus groups, each over the course of several weeks, Walters explained. The undergraduate focus groups on Sept. 19 and 20 were attended by nine students each.

“We want to learn about how students use our space,” Walters said. “A lot has changed about how faculty teach and the projects that students work on.”

Cohen and Walters gathered student opinions about the library through a tour in which students could discuss each area’s usage and features, according to senior Brianna Brandon, who attended the Sept. 20 focus group. Students then graded each area based loosely on the A-F academic scale.

Spaces given a lower grade may receive a higher level of attention and investment than more satisfactory spaces, Brandon said.

A running theme throughout the focus groups was the need for more areas devoted to group study, Walters said. While attendees emphasized the

MiniHackathon will attract computer science students of the same caliber as those who took part in the Hackathon last April.

“We were pretty impressed by the quality and the level of code the students created,” Traganos said. “Three computer science students won the Evernote prize, [and] we actually flew them out to Silicon Valley to our big Evernote conference to present what they built.”

According to Keefe Sampson, he and his friends are looking to host another Hackathon event, tentatively scheduled for early next February.

The Evernote MiniHackathon will take place today in room 012 of the Mayer Campus Center from 4 to 10 p.m. and is expected to draw about 75 students, Traganos said.

importance of having quiet space in the library, many voiced complaints that the library does not provide enough space for group discussion during its peak hours.

Students were especially concerned with the low availability and inconvenient placement of the existing group study rooms, she added.

“Someone suggested a system similar to LaundryView.com, where people could reserve a room or see which were available,” Brandon said.

Others proposed adding circular tables to the “purple hallway” at the rear of the library’s main level and moving the reference books and microfilm equipment to a less prominent location, according to Brandon.

Walters said both groups suggested that the Mark Computing Lab be transformed from a restricted classroom to an individual desktop study area.

Students also asked that space be freed up for more desktop computers,

scene, someone was heard shouting, “Police, get out!” as people were leaving the house. One group exited the house carrying empty plastic pails and drumsticks. A resident was asked to show an ID and went inside to get it.

A second student then came out of the house and stated that the police had no right to be there. At first the student refused to show an ID, and then he said, “Give me a ticket if that’s what you want!” The student received a $300 noise violation.

—compiled by Audrey Michael

she said.

“We thought, given that almost everybody has a laptop now, maybe there wouldn’t be a need to have that hardware anymore,” Walters said. “Both groups not only said that they want the computers that are there, but that they would also like to have a more quiet room for computers.”

Despite her excitement about the upcoming changes, Walters explained that the project will likely take place in staggered phases over a long time period. Current seniors and juniors will not see the results by the end of their Tufts career, she said.

“We’re not certain of the scope yet,” she said. “It might be that we could say, ‘We have the money to do phases one and two, but we’re going to wait and think about phases three and four.’”

Cohen encourages students and faculty who do not attend a focus group to contact Aaron Cohen Associates with comments and suggestions.

Selling Tufts: How admissions officers court students by

Caitlin McClure Daily Staff Writer

The admissions process for prospective students at any university is chock full of flattering statistics, gratifying rankings and self-proclaimed assets. At Tufts, the undergraduate student body of 5,194 students — about 16 percent of whom are international — and a student to faculty ratio of nine to one may be among the most sought-after facts by prospective students and their parents. Yet when push comes to shove, the Office of

Admissions — through its’ employees, representatives and student surrogates — has one job: to sell Tufts. And that means looking past the statistics and numbers.

When Admissions Officer Justin Pike addresses high school students, his primary goal is to be helpful.

“Many seniors in high school meet with a parade of college reps that focus on facts and figures which tend to blur together,” Pike said. “What are the students like? Why is it actually cool to be smart here? What makes a Tufts student interest-

ing to talk to? If I can shed light on those questions, I see a lot of eyes light up for Tufts.”

When Larry Bacow stepped in as president 11 years ago, Tufts branded itself as a good school that was medium-sized and near, but not in, a city.

“It wasn’t an identity,” Associate Director of Admissions Daniel Grayson said.

Grayson, a Tufts alumnus himself, reflected on his experience from the other side.

“When I arrived [as a student] in 2002, the admissions office had virtually no message,” he said. “When I did my campus

tour and [information] session, I can honestly say those things made no impact on me whatsoever when I was choosing my college.”

As Tufts began to search for its identity, Bacow and Admissions did not attempt to create one from scratch, instead looking to articulate what was already here, according to Grayson.

To distinguish itself from other top institutions in the Boston area and beyond, Admissions must sell a personality and environment unique to Tufts. They accomplish this by selling the personalities of the admissions

officers themselves.

“I go into school visits and try the best I can to represent Tufts as a place that is smart and interesting by being myself smart and interesting, with surprisingly little hard detail about the school,” Grayson said. “The goal is to simulate meeting a bunch of Tufts students [and to] do that myself.”

First-year students recalled the application process and fond memories of their interaction with Tufts’ representatives. see ADMISSIONS, page 3

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Representatives go beyond statistics to sell the Tufts identity ADMISSIONS

Jacob Passy | A Bit Off

Turning a new page

continued from page 2

“When [the admissions officer] answered questions, he talked about the a cappella groups and the weird traditions like the cannon, making it seem more like a place to be than just an academic institution,” freshman Annie Kolle said. “He was really funny and definitely on the weird side, in a good way.

Very quirky, enthusiastic and fun.”

An interdisciplinary approach is the cornerstone of Tufts’ academic environment, and Admissions looks to draw upon this important characteristic to differentiate itself.

Freshman Seth Gray described Grayson’s memorable visit to his high school last fall.

Grayson provided a list of undergraduate majors and asked students to pick any two from the list.

“I picked geology and history, and he proceeded to show me how I could study both at the same time,” Gray said. This strategy not only revealed the diversity of classes and academic opportunities offered at Tufts, but engaged students in an interactive way.

“I don’t really remember facts, but it’s the one college talk I remember,” Gray said.

As an engineering student, senior tour guide John Gill noted this interdisciplinary approach as a major reason for choosing Tufts himself. He emphasizes this point on his tours by talking about the Experimental College.

“You’re not coming here just to be an engineer,” Gill said. “You’re taking classes all over the board, and the ExCollege is a really great way to do that.”

Diversity is a second point Admissions looks to promote, but not in the traditional sense of the word.

“The main thing about Tufts is [that] at my high school everyone wanted to be the same, but here everyone wants to be different,” Gray said.

When Gray visited Tufts as a prospective freshman, a Shakespeare flash mob broke out in Dewick-MacPhie Dining Center while he was eating lunch.

“People were reenacting the balcony scene of ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” he recalled.

“At first I assumed everyone was going to start laughing and stare, but when I realized everyone was just watching, I was like, ‘this is awesome.’”

Sophomore tour guide Abbie Cohen emphasized the importance of a student body with a unique and fun collection of interests.

“I always stress how many various opportunities Tufts has, because I know that each one will connect with a different student on my tour in a different way,” Cohen said.

Tufts may have an ethnically diverse student body, but Admissions is working to promote the intellectual diversity that more appropriately represents what makes the Tufts community unique, Grayson said.

“As much as possible, I try to describe diversity [not as] a set of identifiers — things you can check off on a census form — but to describe the reason it’s important, [which] is intellectual diversity,” Grayson said.

Qualities such as race and socioeconomic status can influence an individual’s worldview, but they aren’t the only factors that matter according to Grayson.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions, in its search to embody the Tufts community, looks for ways to be distinctive. One way they have achieved this in the past is through the introduction of a new supplement to the application two years ago, which gave prospective students the opportunity to post a YouTube video as part of their application. “[The YouTube supplement] hasn’t changed anything about the way we do admissions or what we look for, but I think having it there represents something important to high school students and their counselors — that there are a lot of different ways to demonstrate your sense of self and your identity,” Grayson said. “I think that there are a surprisingly few number of schools that enjoy a reputation nationwide for being places where who you are matters in the admission process, and we’re one of them.”

zhuangchen JJ zhou for the Tufts Daily

Admissions officers, student representatives use a unique strategy to sell the personality of Tufts.

With this new identity to project outward, Admissions faced a new set of challenges.

Buzzwords such as “globalism” and “diversity” tend to be associated with Tufts and reflective of the campus community, but they carry meanings outside of Tufts that differ from what they were initially intended to portray on campus.

One example is active citizenship, which has come to mean community service to those off-campus, but was originally used at Tufts to describe how students use their intellect and passions and frame them in such a way that the world benefits, Grayson explained.

“The identity of Tufts in high schools is IR [international relations]-dominant, not because Tufts is IR-dominant, but because globalism has come to carry that meaning,” Grayson said. “We would talk about globalism and be describing the type of globalism that exists in the School of Engineering, but what people would hear is IR.” Gill, though, feels that this trend is changing.

“Admissions has definitely made a switch between the old focus of purely international to something more of the unique Tufts experience and trying to define that for high school students,” he said.

Grayson cited early evidence of this change, saying that Admissions has seen a new diversity of interests among the students applying early decision over the last several years.

“The ED pool used to be really IR and political science-centered, and we’ve started to see an increase in majors that are really good here but don’t fall under the social science [and] Fletcher umbrella,” Grayson said.

A more recent way Admissions is working to project the Tufts name and image is through a program called “Who Gets In and Why.” The program presents a case study of six Tufts applicants, simulating the kind of conversations that take place in an application committee process.

By attracting students and high school guidance counselors, Admissions hopes to extend Tufts’ reach and attract students

in areas from which they have previously not received many applications — perhaps due to a lack of awareness for what Tufts stands for.

“I think that moment where adults around you say, ‘Oh, what is Tufts?’ is a huge intellectual and emotional barrier in a decision people are making,” Grayson said.

Admissions is looking to erase whatever stigma may exist in regards to applying to Tufts by reaching out to guidance counselors with programs like “Who Gets In and Why.” “It’s a presentation that’s completely changing the way we get traction and visibility in cities, states and countries where the Tufts name is not as well known as it should be,” he said.

Ultimately, the student community is the biggest selling point for admissions officers, but selling prospective Jumbos on what Grayson calls the “vibe” of Tufts can be a tricky business.

“Vibe matters, but you can’t talk about vibe to talk about vibe,” Grayson said. “That’s immediately inauthentic.”

“I can address their fears, connect them to students back on campus and bring with me whatever of that campus ‘vibe’ I can,” Pike said.

Admissions officers may accurately imitate a great campus “vibe,” but the decision to apply ultimately rests with the applicants themselves.

“It’s almost scary how little time a prospective student has to judge a school, and conveying enthusiasm for your school is so huge in recruiting students,” Gill said. “Every new tour guide sits there practicing with their flashcards knowing the admissions percentages. At this point, I’ve forgotten every fact they’ve ever told me.”

Gill explained that when parents ask about the student-faculty ratio, it’s much more meaningful to respond with a story about a freshman year English course or a really great Experimental College class experience than to lay out cold, hard facts.

“Especially as you get older and have more and more stories to share,” he said, “that’s what your tour becomes.”

W

henever the work piles up, I head to Tisch Library out of instinct. But sometimes Tisch can be too much. The crowds are a bit too noisy, the lights a bit too bright and the atmosphere a bit too stressful. At times like that, I miss my neighborhood public library.

When I decided to make the trek to the Somerville Public Library’s Central Branch, I had my reservations. But when I walked through the library’s doors, I was immediately at ease in a way that I never can be at Tisch.

Honestly, I question why students don’t make it out there more often. First off, getting to the public library doesn’t have to be a huge trek — there’s the temple-looking West Branch right near Davis Square. But, if you really want to see a nice library, you’ve got to take the walk down Highland Avenue — or catch the 88 bus for those that are lazy.

The walk down Highland Avenue, though, is enough to make me go back.

Typically, walks down Highland end at Kickass Cupcakes for a bit of deliciousness. But walking past the bakery proved to be eye opening. The houses on Highland are quintessential New England: stately, painted beautiful colors and complete with a visceral sense of history.

This walk will ultimately take you to a hill, which also features Somerville High School and a small park — a nice alternative to the Tot Lot behind South Hall, eh? If you walk around the building, you even get a nice view of Bunker Hill and the surrounding area that rivals that of the Tisch roof — yet another way in which the Somerville Public Library represents a fine alternative.

Stepping in, I was impressed. The library has many levels, with rooms dedicated to teen and children’s books. I mention these because I know I could sometimes use a break from studying to read something nostalgia-inducing and whimsical, like “The Runaway Bunny” (1942).

What struck me the most was the library’s main level, named Wellington Hall. The room, in many ways, felt like what a library should be. Library guests are surrounded by gilded molding depicting figures that looked as if they were headed to battle.

Columns dot the walls on the highest floors. The room just feels important. And isn’t that how all libraries should feel?

With plenty of computers, and tons of books at your disposal the library serves as a more-than-adequate replacement for Tisch. And the lighting is better to boot.

Ambiance and children’s books, however, are not all the Somerville Public Library has to offer — though these are clearly of the utmost importance.

There are books for sale at much cheaper prices than our own beloved bookstore.

And these are not throwaway volumes either, but great titles like the Booker Prize-winning “The Bone People” (1984).

They also offer a variety of book groups — a particularly interesting one focused on book-to-film adaptations — and a weekly chess club.

Walking into the library also gives you a better sense of the community that Tufts is a part of. With notices about local festivals and events, it made Somerville feel far more alive than it ever normally does for me.

At the end of the day, the Somerville Public Library has a ton to offer, and it doesn’t cost a penny to get a library card — all you need is a piece of mail. All I know is that come reading period in December, when Tisch is filled to the brim, I’ll be heading down Highland Avenue for a bit of comfort and Roald Dahl.

Jacob Passy is a senior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at Jacob.Passy@tufts.edu.

4

The Tufts Daily

advertisement

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone, Congressman Michael Capuano, and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare present

A Forum on the Status of Social Security and Medicare Friday, September 28, 2012 11:00 a.m.—1:00 p.m.

Cohen Auditorium, Medford/Somerville Campus Participate in a panel discussion and Q&A with: Congressman Michael Capuano

Massachusetts U.S. House of Representatives

Associate Professor Raymond Hyatt, Ph.D. Department of Public Health & Community Medicine Tufts University School of Medicine

Chris Christie L. Hager, J.D., M.P.H.

Regional Director, US Department of Health and Human Services, Region One (New England)

Ann Hartstein

Secretary of Elder Affairs, Commonwealth of Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs

Dan Adcock

Director of Government Relations and Policy, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare

The Daily wants to hear from YOU. Have a problem with our coverage? Upset about something happening at Tufts or in the community?

The Daily welcomes thoughts, opinions and complaints from all readers — have your voice heard!

Send op-ed submissions, 800-1200 words, to oped@tuftsdaily.com. Send letters to the editor to editor@tuftsdaily.com.

Weekender

5

tuftsdaily.com

Arts & Living

Emmy voters mired by favoritism Ceremony rewards same shows and people

by Joe Stile

Daily Editorial Board

T

he 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were announced this past Sunday, giving the public a telling picture of how the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences views the state of pop culture and mass media. The Primetime Emmys are considered by most as the gold standard for television awards. They set the trend for what is considered good television and what is not, and they provide a benchmark against which every show can judge its own artistic merit.

The Primetime Emmys tend to be a conservative organization. Their picks for the most outstanding programs are usually more standard shows that don’t push the boundaries of television. They also tend to reward the same programs and people year after year, even if the quality has gone down.

Since becoming an official category in 2003, the award for outstanding reality competition program has been won by “The Amazing Race” nine out of 10 years. Shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Voice” have had much higher ratings than “The Amazing Race,” while shows like “Survivor” and “American Idol” made much larger cultural impacts in their prime. Still, none of those shows have ever won the top prize for reality programs. It is surprising that the Emmys are so stuck on rewarding this one program, but its consistent victory speaks volumes about the Academy’s tendency to choose a show and then dote on that show year after year.

“I think its ironic that ‘The Amazing Race’ has won all these awards over ‘Survivor,’ because it lacks the interpersonal conflict that ‘Survivor’ has,” senior, Tufts Community Union President and “Survivor” megafan Wyatt Cadley said. “‘Survivor’ was Mark Burnett’s first and best show, yet ‘Amazing Race’ wins all these awards. Even people who don’t watch ‘Survivor’ are familiar with the show.

I don’t think someone could say that about ‘The Amazing Race,’ though.”

A similar trend appears in the Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series category. This division is large enough to encompass a variety of shows and yet “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” has won the category

every single year since 2003. These are 10 years when the Emmys didn’t reward other important variety, music or comedy programs including Conan O’Brien’s major television comeback, the groundbreaking “The Chapelle Show” (2003-2006), “Saturday Night Live’s” political humor before the 2008 presidential election and many other worthy shows. Not even “The Daily Show’s” spin-off, “The Colbert Report,” has won the big prize, despite having many of the same writers and covering much of the same territory as its parent show. It’s as if the academy has gotten in such a habit of voting for “The Daily Show” that they have completely shut themselves off from rewarding other equally, if not more, deserving programs. This favoritism certainly isn’t lost on fans of “The Daily Show’s” competitors, either.

“All of SNL’s digital shorts are just hilarious. They are some of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on TV,” senior Ariel Ortiz said. “Also, all of SNL’s political stuff is so important and spot on.

It’s amazing. They definitely deserved to win at least once in these past few years. Especially since the quality of ‘The Daily Show’ has really gone way downhill since the 2008 election was over. They really haven’t had as much to talk about since then.”

The Emmy’s category for Outstanding Television Miniseries falls into much of the same trap. This category, which in 2011 merged with the television movie category, has been won by either an HBO or PBS program eight out of the last nine years running.

Before the categories combined, HBO won nine out of the last 10 Outstanding Made for Television Movie awards, including the last seven in a row.

HBO’s dominance in the category might seem logical given that HBO tends to have more money to spend on its programs and has fewer restrictions on its material because it is a subscription station. Still, it is strange that no other cable or broadcast station has won as much as HBO, especially given its production of highly acclaimed and revolutionary television movies like ABC’s “A Raisin in the Sun” (2008).

Furthermore, HBO programs don’t just dominate the outstanding miniseries and television movie award — they dominate the entire category. The program that wins the top prizes usually takes the outstanding directing, writing and/or acting awards as well. This year saw HBO’s “Game Change” (2012) take the top prize, as well as the writing, direction and lead actress awards, despite exceptionally strong competition from “Sherlock” and “American Horror Story.” Junior and avid television-watcher Audrey Abelleira is one of many fans displeased by this outcome.

“I’m surprised ‘American Horror Story’ didn’t win. My friends and I all loved the show,” she said. “There haven’t been many great horror TV shows like this before. Plus ‘Game Change’ was pretty boring. The movie just recreated a bunch of scenes and interviews that people already saw and heard about when the 2008 campaign was going on. It really didn’t deserve to win all those Emmys.”

Emmy voters are obviously stubbornly stuck in their way, as evidenced throughout almost all the major categories. Even one of the night’s biggest prizes, the award for outstanding comedy series, falls prey to the same trend.

“Modern Family” took home the prize this past Sunday and has for the past

three years. The show has been given the top award every year since it premiered, despite a noticeable slide in the show’s quality from season one to more recent episodes. During the three consecutive years before “Modern Family” premiered, “30 Rock” won an award for each of its first three seasons.

During this stretch, the Academy never honored critically acclaimed series like Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Girls,” “Parks and Recreation,” “Louie” or “How I Met Your Mother.”

Some programs like “Community,” “Girls” and “Louie” seem to be too boundary-pushing to receive any Emmy awards. All three programs break from traditional constraints on what a comedy show can be and what it can say. The programs have loyal fan bases and critical acclaim, but they can never win television’s top prize because they are not as conventional as a show like “Modern Family” in terms of episode and joke arrangement.

“I don’t understand the point of watching the Emmys if it doesn’t introduce me to something I haven’t already seen several times,” said sophomore Hannah Furgang. “‘Modern Family’ is a pretty standard sitcom; it isn’t as unique as ‘Girls’ is.”

Many people view the Primetime Emmy Awards as the highest honors for the best television programs of the year. This assumption is wrong. The Academy is stuck in its ways and it is slow to reward new or different programs for their excellent material. Time will hopefully change the conservative attitude of the Emmy voters, but they currently seem more willing to favor the same few people while ignoring others’ considerable accomplishments.

Wikimedia Commons

David Shankbone via Flickr Creative Commons

Kimmel’s hosting the 64th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards couldn’t save the ceremonies from predictable results.

Claire Danes took home the best actress Emmy for her performance in Showtime’s “Homeland.”

flickr creative Commons

Weekender Feature

The Tufts Daily

6

Weekender

Thursday, September 27, 2012

What’s Up This Weekend

Looking to make your weekend artsy? Check out these events!

Timeflies: The music duo bring “The The ICA Presents: An Evening of Recent One Night Tour” to Boston, with sup- Films by the Quay Brothers: Swing by port from opener Leah LaBelle. The the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston group, consisting of Tufts alumni Rob (ICA) to check out two animated films by Resnick and Cal Shapiro, released their filmmaker brothers Stephen and Timothy mixtape, “Under the Influence,” this Quay: “Mask” (2010) and “Through the past summer. Tonight at 7 p.m. at Weeping Glass: On the Consolations House of Blues Boston. Tickets cost of Life Everlasting” (2011). Saturday at $37.05 on Livenation.com.

7 p.m. at the ICA, 100 Northern Ave, Boston. Student tickets are $8 and can be purchased at www.icaboston.org.

CHROMO-MANIA!: The Art of Chromolithography in Boston, 18401910: Get historical this weekend with this exhibit on chromolithographs and Boston’s role in the 19th-century printing technique for color pictures. Over 60 pieces from the museum’s collection will be on display. Opens Friday at 9 a.m. and runs through Jan. 12 at the Boston Athenaeum, 10 1/2 Beacon Street, Boston. Admission is free.

McCoy Tyner Quartet feat. Gary Bartz:

Famed jazz pianist McCoy Tyner will bring his quartet to campus this weekend. Tyner has won five Grammys and has worked with many distinguished musicians throughout his career, including John Coltrane. Friday at 8 p.m. in Distler Performance Hall.

Tickets are free with a Tufts ID. A limited number of rush tickets will be available at the door on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

TV Review

In typical Murphy fashion, ‘Normal’ has its moments

by Joe Stile

Daily Editorial Board

Like most Ryan Murphy productions, “The New Normal” tries to cover a lot of ground in a small

The New Normal Starring Andrew Rannells, Justin Bartha, Georgia King, Ellen Barkin Airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on NBC space. Sometimes it works and all the various characters and plotlines blend together well. But other times, the show just seems like a series of missteps.

“The New Normal” stars Justin Bartha and Andrew Rannells as David and Bryan, a gay couple who have decided they’re ready to have a child together. Georgia King plays single mom Goldie.

Determined to turn her life around, Goldie has left her smalltown Midwestern life behind for bigger dreams in Los Angeles.

At first glance, these two sets of characters seem as if they could be on separate shows, and “The New Normal” often presents as such. But these individuals eventually come together when Goldie agrees to be David and Bryan’s surrogate in order to make money for law school.

During the scenes depicting David and Bryan together, “The New Normal” feels like an amusing, sweetly domestic comedy.

For the committed couple, having a baby seems like the natural next step. However, both men are more than a little nervous about raising a child. Their moments of uncertainty provide much of the show’s comic relief and situational humor. Though they are incredibly different people, David and Bryan work well together. Their chemistry translates to viewers and will have audiences laughing and smiling.

Goldie’s story is little less light-hearted. Usually, scenes with Goldie come off as satires of the “underdog” role, chronicling the well-worn tale of the single waitress with a no-good boyfriend who beats the odds

and ultimately makes something of herself.

After Goldie discovers that her boyfriend cheated on her less than five minutes after she left their house for work, she just wants to drive away and never come back.

She asks her eight-year-old daughter Shania, played by Bebe Wood, where they should go.

“I’ve always wanted to drive to Hawaii,” Shania replies.

“I think we can make it to Honolulu on half a tank,” says Goldie — an Ohio resident — with nothing but sincerity in her voice.

Goldie may not be the smartest, but the viewer does get a chuckle from the television cliche of the upset character just picking up and driving off into paradise, even if paradise lies in the middle of the ocean.

“The New Normal” gets another jolt from the hilarious dialogue and fiery one-liners of Jane Forrest, Goldie’s antagonistic grandmother, played by Tony Award-winner Ellen Barkin.

Barkin has a touch for the crazier moments in the script and she sells them well. For example, when Jane sees a lesbian couple with a child, she begins to rant about how she doesn’t think two men should have a baby. When Goldie tries to explain to her that love is love and that those are actually two women, Jane becomes even more certain that the lesbians are just a pair of ugly men. It’s the kind of rant that could make the character seem overly crazy and offensive, but Barkin’s manic energy gives it just the right amount of absurdity to make it work.

NeNe Leakes, best known for her stint on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta,” plays Rocky, Bryan’s assistant. Unfortunately, the series doesn’t really seem to know what to do with her. She appears in scenes, rattles off a few quick, aggressive jokes and leaves. Her punch lines do hit hard — to one of Jane’s racist comments, she responds, “The last time I checked the diamond watch my gay boss bought me without his consent, it was 2012” — but something about her lines and her character feel off.

When the two main storylines come together, the show can’t decide which one of its many tones

Georges Biard via Wikimedia Commons

Ellen Barkin plays the highly-opinionated Jane Forrest on “The New Normal.” to follow. This makes the series feel slightly jarring. The show can’t be both a feel-good people-helpingpeople comedy and a bitter and

quick one-liner show.

While “The New Normal” might need a few episodes to iron out some of these tonal problems,

the talented cast and its genuine humor give it plenty of potential.

It very well may develop into a solid sitcom.

Top Ten | Child stars who disappoint us After hearing the news about Amanda Bynes’ driver’s license suspension — the latest in a string of unfortunate incidents for the former child star — we began to reflect on other child stars who have left their glory years well in the past. Here are the top 10 child stars we’re no longer charmed by.

10. Danny Bonaduce: He went from star-

ring as Danny Partridge to downing vodka on a network whose biggest reality star was Flavor Flav. Quite the career path!

9. Dustin Diamond: In 2006, Diamond cre-

6. Shia LaBeouf: He pulled off the

3. Lindsay Lohan: What more can be

8. Haley Joel Osment: He famously declared, “I see dead people” in “The Sixth Sense” (1999). We see a dead career.

5. Jesse McCartney: The former teen

2. The Olsen Twins: The twin child stars have used their massive fortunes and ’90s successes to pioneer wearing circus tents.

ated a sex tape called “Screeched — Saved by the Smell.” The less said about Screech’s exploits, the better.

7. Britney Spears: Between her 55-hour marriage in 2004 and spontaneously shaving her head back in 2007, Britney has come a long way since her “Mickey Mouse Club,” days.

impressive task of being one of the most lifeless members in a cast filled with giant robots.

star has gone from writing Top 20 hits to earning his living by voicing an animated squirrel in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” (2007-2011) movie series.

Need we say more?

4. Kel Mitchell: Kenan ended up on

“Saturday Night Live.” Kel ended up with rumors about his death.

said? Considering the “Mean Girls” (2004) star’s driving record, we estimate her car insurance cost around the GDP of a small island nation.

1. Macaulay Culkin: The once-successful child star seems to have metamorphosed into his Michael Alig character in “Party Monster” (2003).

—compiled by the Daily Arts Department

Thursday, September 27, 2012

The Tufts Daily

7

Weekender

Album Review

Jazz pianist Mehldau amazes in ‘Where Do You Start’ by

Matthew Welch

Daily Editorial Board

For anyone concerned with the increasingly institutionalized, curatorial nature of contemporary jazz,

Where Do You Start Brad Mehldau Nonesuch pianist Brad Mehldau’s latest album, “Where Do You Start,” is a welcome breath of fresh air. As many contemporary jazz albums lean towards either hyper-esoteric technical accomplishment or nostalgic reiterations of past trends, Mehldau seems to be doing something altogether different.

Within the context of his trio, which includes bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, Mehldau is exploring all of the sonic possibilities available to an open-minded instrumentalist and song interpreter with his immense talents.

Mehldau has received much acclaim for his wide-ranging appreciation of music and his unique ability to adapt songs of all genres to the open formats of jazz, classical and solo piano. This is evidenced beautifully on “Where Do You Start,” which sports reinterpretations of songs by artists as diverse as the folk exemplar Nick Drake, the Brazilian songwriter Chico Buarque, Sufjan Stevens and Alice in Chains.

In fact, there is only one original Mehldau composition on the entire album: the subtly propulsive “Jam.” The rest are covers.

Given the huge breadth of Mehldau’s source material, the remarkable cohesion of the album is truly impressive and speaks highly of the pianist’s abilities as an interpreter and arranger. It doesn’t hurt that he is backed by one of the tautest and most communicative rhythm sections in contemporary jazz.

Jeff Ballard’s drumming walks the line between melodic commentary and fluvial timekeeping, constantly trading between additional rhythmic input and pulling back to let the other members of the band take the groove over.

The same can be said for Larry Grenadier’s bass playing, which gives the trio a melodically compelling and expressive foundation. The nuance and complexity of his playing is soft spoken but ever-present. Anywhere you listen on the album, you can hear him giving the tune more than just a routine bass line. Nowhere speaks of this more clearly than the trio’s

Scott Lenger via Flickr Creative Commons

Improvisation among members of the trio is one of the highlights in “Where Do You Start.” exceptional interpretation of Nick Drake’s classic “Time Has Told Me.” Grenadier’s bass solo is restrained and adheres faithfully to the melody of the song, but his keen sense for inflection and rhythmic displacement give the performance an exuberance that any but the most accomplished bassists would fail to deliver.

“Aquelas Coisas Todas” presents another high point for the album.

Ballard’s drumming shifts and trades between speedy rimshot accents, manic hi-hat runs and Latin-inflected fills on the toms, giving the song a Brazilian vibe that complements the groove of the original piece. After a sprightly intro, Mehldau’s playing slows down to become almost contemplative as it shifts through some thick harmonic changes, creating a strong contrast to Grenadier’s devilish rhythms. As the song progresses, the two approach a common ground of intensity and Mehldau’s virtuosic, double-handed runs in his solo mark a point of intersection between all the members of the trio as they collaborate for some of the most invigorating interplay of the album.

Even though Mehldau shows himself quite capable of bringing pop, rock and folk into the sphere of his trio’s playing, he is just as adept at giving jazz standards a fresh interpretation. His breathy, spaced-out rendition of Sonny Rollins’ “Airegin” begins gloomily, with Mehldau playing the melody over a plodding, funereal left hand ostinato that eventually breaks

out into broader chords. Mehldau’s strong sense of space and timing give this performance its bite. Though the pianist could easily fill the song with bebop runs and jam pack it with his virtuosity, he holds back. Even when he does play an expertly executed flurry of notes, it’s almost always surrounded by space on both sides.

When the trio kicks into full swing halfway through the track, Mehldau still keeps the listener on the edge of his seat with his remarkable juxtaposition of excess and minimalism. The concluding drum solo is deliciously rhythmic without being in your face and Grenadier keeps a groove while maintaining complex commentary on the toms.

The wonderful mixing of the album gives the drums a lively presence on the record’s soundstage, with the various parts of the kit voiced in different channels to surround the listener with Ballard’s drumming and create an immersive listening experience.

All in all, “Where Do You Start” is a wonderful album that provides a great look at the best of contemporary jazz.

All three members show why the piano trio is such a great format for improvisation: Each instrument can solo and support with almost equal measure, making for communicative and expressive interplay that runs through every portion of the song. For anyone looking for an introduction to contemporary jazz or piano trios, they could hardly do better than the aptly titled “Where Do You Start.”

The Artsy Jumbo

Singer Kevin Thomas balances wildly different genres Where else but Tufts could you simultaneously be in one group that focuses on Scottish folk songs and one that primarily performs a cappella R&B? Kevin Thomas, a junior, is involved in both the Chamber Singers and S-Factor. He has been singing since ninth grade.

Chamber Singers is the smaller, more select of the two chamber choir groups on campus. It includes an average of 30 people.

After singing in the larger group, Chamber Choir, for his freshman and sophomore year, Thomas has graduated to the more elite group and is enjoying the change. He also joined S-Factor, Tufts’s only all-male R&B a cappella group, just last year.

A lot of practice goes into balancing the two singing groups, but Thomas enjoys the challenge.

“My boarding school tried to make us all really well-rounded,” Thomas said. “I had never sung before, but I just signed up to fulfill an arts requirement. After that first year, I [received] encouragement from the choir director and have been singing ever since.”

The Chamber Singers have two con-

certs coming up in November, the dates of which will be announced soon. Thomas notes that the group has covered William Schuman and “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff.

“I’m just a fan of music in general,” Thomas said. Through these wildly

different genres, he’s making his mark on the Tufts campus one musical group at a time.

—by Kate Griffiths

Mae Humiston and Sara Gardner | Let’s Talk About Food

Cooking up a movement

F

ood is life. We all need to eat to live, whether we survive on lettuce or dine on foie gras and fine wine. Indeed, food affects nearly every facet of human existence. People often wax poetic about the experience of preparing and enjoying food, elaborating on the pleasures of a meal well-had and on the nature and symbolism of our relationship with food. This connection to what we eat is the impetus behind the food movement — the importance of food and the complexity of our interactions with it inspire people to question and explore what they consume.

It also leads them to improve the food quality and mitigate the consequences of our means of nourishment.

The language it uses, however, can easily misrepresent the admirable goals of the food movement. As this weekly column acts as a voice for the Tufts food community, much of the vocabulary that gives shape to this movement will be used in each article.

To make our points clear and to avoid the detrimental effects of jargon, we are going to make this article a go-to glossary of buzz words that will reliably appear whenever and wherever you see the words “food movement.” Hopefully, having this as a source will better your understanding of food-related topics, from what exactly the food movement is to what the “organic” label actually means. Here’s a list of the words we feel are the most important, along with somewhat concise definitions, to try to better explain the complexities of our food: Food Movement: A broad name given to the cumulative efforts of individuals, initiatives and interest groups to promote the fair production and consumption of healthy goods made with environmentally sound practices and/or by justly treated workers, including those groups addressing issues of access, resource use and labeling. These articles generally refer to the food movement taking place in the United States.

Agricultural Development: Refers to the origin and expansion of farming systems, as well as the integration of the agricultural sector into the United States economy and policy. It generally implies the industrialization of agriculture and the monopolistic growth that has taken place within the US agricultural sector.

Food Justice (Equity): Seeks to redistribute inequities of the risks and benefits as a result of how food is produced, distributed, consumed and disposed of. Food equity specifically focuses on the fair distribution and consumption of food.

GMO: Stands for “genetically modified organism.” This means that the genetic material of a plant or animal has been engineered in order to change one or more of the organism’s features. This column uses GMO in reference to plants — like the uniformly round and red tomatoes in the supermarket — as well as animals.

Organic: According to the USDA, organic foods are grown without the use of synthetic additives, such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and aren’t genetic engineering.

The USDA “organic” label implies that for processed food, 95 percent of the ingredients used in that product are organic.

Fair trade: Refers to the movement that favors a market-based approach to helping producers in developing countries to promote sustainability and provide workers with occupational rights and fair pay.

Hopefully, it ultimately becomes clear that these definitions, save a couple, tend to be amorphous and specific to individual people. The ultimate goal is to create a sustainable movement that’s palatable — if you’ll pardon the pun! — to everyone, to the point where we can make a positively delicious impact on how we interact with our food.

ashley seenauth / the tufts daily

Mae Humiston is a senior majoring in anthropology. She can be reached at Mae. Humiston@tufts.edu. Sara Gardner is a freshman whose major is undecided. She can be reached at Sara.Gardner@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

8

THE TUFTS DAILY Rebecca K. Santiago Editor-in-Chief

Editorial Ben Kochman Falcon Reese Managing Editors Jenna Buckle Executive News Editor Shana Friedman News Editors Lizz Grainger Stephanie Haven Amelie Hecht Daphne Kolios Patrick McGrath Laina Piera Martha Shanahan Melissa Wang Jenny White Sharon Lam Menghan Liu Assistant News Editors Melissa Mandelbaum Audrey Michael James Pouliot Josh Weiner Hannah Fingerhut Executive Features Editor Jon Cheng Features Editors Amelia Quinn Derek Schlom Lily Sieradzki Emily Bartlett Assistant Features Editors Alexandria Chu Jacob Passy Melissa MacEwen Executive Arts Editor Kate Griffiths Arts Editors Alex Hanno Joe Stile Matthew Welch Alex Kaufman Assistant Arts Editors Dan O’Leary Caroline Welch

Jonathan Green Bhushan Deshpande David Kellogg Seth Teleky Yiota Kastritis Louie Zong Jyot Singh

Editorial | Letters

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Editorial

In U.N. address, Obama’s disposition contrasts starkly with Romney’s

President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations on Tuesday, Sept.

25, touching on a number of subjects in recent international discourse, ranging from the Syrian crisis to Iran’s nuclear program. His speech focused on the implications of the death of the American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, after protestors, some of whom were armed with small arms, attacked the American consulate in Benghazi.

The president urged the world to react to transitions due to the Arab Spring with tolerance, encouraging them to support free speech and values that would promote conversation as these new governments attempt to foster freer societies.

His speech called on these nations to understand the importance of such values, presenting “a choice between the forces that would drive us apart, and the hopes we have in common.” In a manner that recognized some harder truths about how people view him, the president offered his opinion of the role of free speech and America in the world:

“I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day, and I will always defend their right to do so.

Americans have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their views — even views that we disagree with.”

This statement and the President’s overall approach to his speech draw a contrast with the foreign policy approach espoused by Mitt Romney.

The president is known for his cool demeanor and detached pragmatism.

In contrast, Romney, who has expressed moderate support for some ideas founded in neo-conservative philosophy, has stressed a need for the U.S. to be tougher; he has chided the administration for its apologizing for the antiIslamic video that inflamed the Arab world in recent days, as well as for the president’s “reset” policy with Russia.

Romney often remarks that the president is too compromising in his dealings with the world, often calling him out for his “apology tour” while pur-

porting that the president does not believe strongly in American exceptionalism.

The contrast here between the two is legitimate, especially in mien. On his trip to Europe during the summer, Governor Romney hoped to up his foreign policy credentials. However, due to a number of missteps — not all his own — Romney’s trip resulted in a number of gaffes, ranging from his questioning the preparation of the London Olympics to suggesting that Palestine was less successful than Israel due to its culture. Much as he has on domestic tours, Romney lacked certain tact in speech that most politicians gain through experience on the job.

Perhaps comportment should not be everything in politics, but the way a candidate carries himself is undeniably important. One has to wonder how Romney would do addressing the multifaceted United Nations, and whether he could overcome both his tendency to make gaffes and his belief in uncompromising values to be a bold, strong and unifying leader.

Keran Chen

Executive Op-Ed Editor Op-Ed Editors

Cartoonists Editorialists

David McIntyre Executive Sports Editor Aaron Leibowitz Sports Editors Ethan Sturm Kate Klots Zachary Kliger Alex Baudoin Jake Indursky Assistant Sports Editors Andy Wong Marcus Budline Virginia Bledsoe Caroline Gelling Oliver Porter Ashley Seenauth Kyra Sturgill William Butt Lane Florsheim Meagan Maher Misako Ono Gabriela Ros Clarissa Sosin Andrew Schneer

Executive Photo Editor Photo Editors

Assistant Photo Editors

Staff Photographers

Jodi Bosin Executive New Media Editors Brionna Jimerson Justin McCallum

Off the Hill | Iowa State University PRODUCTION Alyssa Kutner

Production Director Elliot Philips Executive Layout Editor Jen Betts Layout Editors Matthew Cardarelli Gabrielle Cella Sarah Davis Shoshanna Kahne Sarah Kester Adrian Lo Danny MacDonald Reid Spagna Nina Goldman Executive Copy Editors Drew Lewis Lauren Greenberg Copy Editors Adrienne Lange Patrick McGrath

George Brown Executive Online Editor Darcy Mann Online Editors Daniel Kotin Executive Technical Manager

BUSINESS Christine Busaba Executive Business Director Simmone Seymour Advertising Director Li Liang Receivables Manager Shang Ming Wu Sales Director

P.O. Box 53018, Medford, MA 02155 617 627 3090 FAX 617 627 3910 daily@tuftsdaily.com

Replacement referees jeopardize safety, integrity of football

by Iowa State

Daily Editorial Board

Iowa State Daily

We’ve seen it since week one: replacement referees — as society has learned to call them — have missed calls and become more willing to throw flags and create just utter uncertainty about the game.

You think you have seen this before, another rant about replacement referees, and how they simply have struggled for the past four weeks.

But this argument begs more serious questions, such as: When will this end, and how are the botched calls affecting the safety of the players?

In week one, it was a shock to the culture of football players, coaches and fans. “Maybe it was a fluke. It’ll be better next week, right?”

Week two, we saw the same thing.

Allotments of extra timeouts, missed calls and incorrect calls, giving teams an extra 15 yards when they should have been allowed 10.

Football fans may have caught the worst of it during week three. A replacement referee was caught using his Facebook to support the New Orleans Saints only hours before officiating — yes, you guessed it — the New Orleans Saints’ game.

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.

That raises the question: How many more referees are out there supporting their biases of the teams they so dearly love?

As NFL football fans, most bleed those team colors. But when the zebras are out there bleeding red, black and white for the Bucs and not black and white — the color of the NFL Refs — the line of being biased is crossed.

But the beef with the referees isn’t just with fans.

After Sunday night’s flag fest of a football game with the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens, coach Bill Belichick was seen grabbing an official’s arm after the game was over.

The rule is any physical contact between a coach or player with a referee will result in a fine.

But the rules also state that holding call should be 10 yards and not 15 yards. Maybe Belichick will appeal for offsetting penalties?

But things are looking more and more bleak as we head deeper into the season.

Last week, fans saw a Dallas Cowboys touchdown possibly slip through the hands of receiver Kevin Ogletree as he slipped on a hat a replacement ref threw at him.

Yes, his hat.

Olgetree took a — what could have

been more dangerous than it was — spill in the end zone. This then begs a more serious calling of what will happen if players become injured because of poor mistakes made by officials?

In week three, Oakland Raiders wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey took a hospitalizing blow to the head when stretching for a reception. Heyward-Bey was knocked unconscious for more than 10 minutes.

Luckily, Heyward-Bey was released Monday afternoon, saying he would be able to make a full recovery.

But where was the flag? How many yards did the Raiders gain after the illegal hit?

Zero. The hit went unflagged and unfined.

It’s becoming old and it’s only week four. How many more games will fans have to sit through and watch the same old blown pass interference calls or sit through an extra five minutes because the referee allotted a fourth timeout?

Some are saying when TV ratings drop, then the NFL will do something about it.

Others say we’ll see replacement referees all season.

Or maybe, just maybe, an agreement is just around the corner. And we won’t have to see the 2012-13 NFL replacement season continue.

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.

The Tufts Daily

Thursday, September 27, 2012 Off the Hill | The Pennsylvania State University

Mitt Romney would likely never win the honor of ‘Employee of the Month’

by Sarah

Moesta

The Daily Collegian

It scares me that I have exhibited a greater understanding of human decency in my job in the food service industry than Mitt Romney has, thus far, in his political career. Allow me to explain myself.

I have worked at my local Bruster’s Real Ice Cream since I was 14 years old.

I worked there all throughout high school and I returned the past two summers to toil with sticky, chocolate syrupcovered arms over hot waffle machines and grinningly shove sugar cones into the faces of ungrateful customers who rarely felt inclined to tip me.

When one of my fellow scoopers experienced an irritating interaction with a customer, I would totally judge them based upon whether or not they could maintain the grace and friendliness that I could when a customer and I didn’t see eye-to-eye.

Thank goodness Mitt Romney will never seek minimum wage work in his lifetime, because if I were to slap my ugly work visor on his well-coiffed head and hand him a scoop, I know he wouldn’t be able to effectively deal with the customers. Last week, following the tragic deaths of four U.S. citizens in the attack of the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, Romney heavily criticized the issued statements released by the Obama administration.

The attacks were apparently prompted by an offensive, American-made, antiMuslim film that sparked a lot of anger in the Muslim community.

The official statement released by Obama stated that America would seek justice for this tragedy. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also offered a statement in which she said that the U.S. “deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others,” but went on to say that “there is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.”

Romney took advantage of this cata-

strophic event to criticize the Obama administration and boast his own ideas of how foreign policy should be handled.

In a statement released Tuesday, Sept.

11, he called the Obama administration’s handling of the situation “disgraceful” and went on to suggest that the response acted to “not condemn attacks on our diplomatic mission, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.”

Romney wouldn’t find himself “Employee of the Month” with that attitude.

Sometimes I’d bring customers the wrong flavor of ice cream. Sometimes I’d bring them a cookie dough milkshake instead of a cookie dough blast, or I’d forget to put nuts on their sundaes. Sometimes the customers would be irrational and irate about my errors. They’d blow my mistakes out of proportion and yell at me until I blinked back humiliated tears.

Still, each time, I’d offer my best puppy dog eyes and sympathetic smile and apologize for my mistake in my sugarysweet customer service voice until I was certain they were placated. Sure, the customers were wrong to scream at me.

But if I mess up, regardless of the way other people perceive and handle my mistakes, I’m going to apologize. It’s the right thing to do.

Haven’t we always been taught that two wrongs don’t make a right? Apologizing for inappropriate or incorrect behavior is not a sign of weakness and it certainly does not go against what America stands for.

Clinton’s statement was simultaneously professional and unmistakably angry. The attacks were an inexcusable reaction to a video that made Americans seem hateful.

But, what Romney doesn’t seem to understand is that the best way to perpetuate a hateful image of America — and to invite more attacks and conflicts — is to suggest that apologizing for the spread of offensive material is a sign of weakness. On Monday, Sept. 17, a video

was leaked of Romney saying that 47 percent of Americans “believe they are victims” and that he will never “convince them they should take personal responsibility for their lives.”

He then goes on to say that it isn’t his job “to worry about those people.” He’s absolutely right. It isn’t his job to worry about those people. It is, however, the job of the President of the United States of America to worry about those people.

When I got my job at Bruster’s, I understood that it was my job to serve every customer the ice cream they wanted with equal enthusiasm. Customers have thrown weird coupons I’d never seen before on the counter and I’d have to spend a few confusing minutes scouring the surface of the cash register for a button that would make some sense of the madness. I’m not going to say it wasn’t annoying.

However, the customer had come by that irksome “free dino sundae” coupon by circumstances I couldn’t imagine because I didn’t personally know that individual customer or their life story or their struggles. The only thing I knew was that they were just as deserving of a high quality, enjoyable dino sundae as any other customer.

I would return to the window with the correct amount of change and I would provide these customers with equally beautiful towers of whipped cream as I would present to customers who paid full price because my customers were human beings who were completely deserving of my respect.

I was hired to make sure that every customer was equally cared for.

Romney has tended to politicize courtesy and humanity and compassion in the arms race that has been the 2012 election season.

But at Bruster’s, we don’t call politeness, respect and positive interactions with the people we’ve been paid to serve “liberalism.” We call it “not being a jerk.”

Off the Hill | Iowa State University

Fuel economy improvements positive

by Ian

Timberlake

Iowa State Daily

Depending on what news you were reading, Aug. 27 might be a strong indicator as to whom you will vote for come November.

The opening day of the Republican National Convention, President Barack Obama announced he finalized his plan to raise Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency to 54.5 mpg by 2025.

In the works since 2009, by the end of 2012 automakers are to have an average fleet fuel economy of 28.7 mpg. Currently, they all are exceeding that standard at 28.9 mpg. Vehicle gas emissions are estimated to drop 50 percent while reducing fuel consumption by approximately 40 percent by 2025. According to the White House, $1.7 trillion — or as Obama puts it, “that’s trillion, with a ‘t’” — will be saved by families in gas costs alone and $8,000 through the lifetime of each vehicle. By 2016, the industry is planned to be up to an average of 35.5 mpg.

Obama, alongside all major automaker CEOs, stated in 2011: “This agreement on fuel standards represents the single-most important step we’ve ever taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil The companies here today have endorsed our plan to continue increasing the mileage on their cars and trucks over the next 15 years. We’ve set an aggressive target, and the companies here are stepping up to the plate.”

Mind you, this was an agreement struck between the Obama administration and automakers, as Obama put it: “This agreement was arrived at without legislation. You are all demonstrating what can happen when people put aside

differences — these folks are competitors, you’ve got labor and business, but they decided, we’re going to work together to achieve something important and lasting for the country.”

A nonprofit organization called Ceres was teamed up with Citi Investment Research to conduct a study to assess the economic implications of such a massive plan. The first thing that was noticed was that “higher standards mean higher profits.” It also found that Obama’s plan would lead to 484,000 new jobs in 49 states.

Walter McManus, research professor at Oakland University, analyzed the data.

He found that by 2020, $2.44 billion will be brought into U.S. automakers just because of the increased standards and that all automakers will see an increase of $4.76 billion. He also proclaimed all American automotive industries will then become more competitive internationally, which is important for our need to start selling more goods overseas.

Those who claim the technology is not there are simply misinformed. Mitt Romney’s campaign representative Andrea Saul said: “Gov. Romney opposes the extreme standards that President Obama has imposed, which will limit the choices available to American families The president tells voters that his regulations will save them thousands of dollars at the pump but always forgets to mention that the savings will be wiped out by having to pay thousands of dollars more upfront for unproven technology that they may not even want.”

Alan Baum of Baum and Associates, a business that provides research and analysis for the automotive and related

9

Op-Ed

industries, says: “There is a whole variety of technology to meet the standard, and the primary method will be the internal combustion engine. The automakers understand that and they have technology to allow for that.” He stressed that the improvement will not remove any wellselling vehicles from the fleets, including high-end sports cars.

Dan Meszler of Meszler Engineering Services says that the cost of the automotive technologies would be outweighed heavily by the savings consumers make at the pump. “The break-even point is about $1.50 a gallon,” he says, according to his calculations. Which, in my opinion, we will never see again. He went on to say, “What [the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency] does is floats all boats.”

Some might argue, myself included, that a 54.5 mpg average standard is unattainable in 15 years time. But that argument is moot because any standard increase will be beneficial for this economy, all families and the environment.

Not only has Romney stated his disapproval of this plan, but he has stated he will do what he can to reverse it should he become President. The greatest thing you can do to help with this issue is either vote for a reelection of Obama or do what you can to convince Romney of the dangers of reversing the Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency plan.

I am proud to be a part of a university that goes through such great practice in becoming more energy efficient.

Supporting not just Obama’s plan but also this trend is incredibly important — and after being informed of the facts and numbers, it becomes a no-brainer.

Walt Laws-MacDonald | Show Me The Money!

AAPLs and oranges

O

H MY GOD IT’S FINALLY HERE IPHONE 5 OH MY GOD. Get it out of your system. Take a lap. It’s just a phone. Or is it?

Yes, it is just a phone. But that’s not what everyone is so excited about. It’s the economic event that surrounds every one of Apple’s product launches.

So there’s a new iPhone. It has the usual laundry list of new features: bigger screen, better camera, iOS 6, etc., etc. But as rival handheld maker Samsung has quickly pointed out, most of the features on the new iPhone have been a part of Android phones for several months. The Samsung Galaxy S III, released in May of 2012, has a larger screen, more memory and a bigger battery. But it’s not an iPhone.

Apple’s mobile dominance is a product of its own success. When comparing an iPhone to any other phone — or any Apple product to its non-Apple competitor — the biggest victory for Apple is simply being Apple. Apple brings a consistency across its platforms that the open-source format of the Android operating system inherently cannot provide.

Apple products look cool. Yes, maybe it is just a black rectangle, but it’s the sleekest black rectangle you have ever seen.

In Apple’s own words — seriously, check the website — the iPhone 5 is “The biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone.” Really Apple? Other gems include “So much more than before. And so much less, too.” and “It’s not just bigger. It’s just right.” Sure, maybe they could be a bit more descriptive, but the vagueness adds an air of mystery to the phone.

Apple barely advertises its products.

When Apple’s Vice President of Marketing Phillip Schiller testified in the Samsung patent case, he said that Apple “didn’t need to” advertise after the release of many of its products. The media hypes up its product launches so much that Apple cannot do much more to spread the word. When combined with Apple’s TV and movie presence — ever notice that MacBook on Jimmy Fallon’s desk? — traditional advertisements seem unnecessary.

Preorders of the phone have already topped those from last year’s iPhone 4S, with some analysts estimating that Apple could conservatively sell between 10 and 12 million iPhones from October to December this year.

Though Apple products have always had huge launches, Apple’s ability to consistently outdo itself in this regard is unique. With the mobile space converging to the iOS and Android platforms, Apple has consistently proven itself the winner. Though Android controls the majority of the mobile market, Apple’s one device has crushed those of the plethora of Android manufacturers.

Perhaps the craziest stat I can drop today is that the release of the iPhone 5 is estimated to raise the United States’ fourth -quarter GDP growth by 0.5 percent. That means that iPhone sales could account for a quarter of our country’s entire economic growth for the end of this year. Forget manufacturing, construction, services — the iPhone could be a quarter of our economy’s growth. And it’s just a phone.

So when comparing the iPhone to its competitors, it really is like comparing Apple to oranges. They might perform the same tasks and come with similar technical specifications, but each phone represents far more than a means of communication. iPhones are still status symbols — less so than when the original was released, but status symbols nonetheless. I’ve never seen a line around the block for an Android phone, and I don’t expect to see one anytime soon. The Cult of Apple is alive and well, and the end is not near.

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

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

The Tufts Daily

10

Comics

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Doonesbury

Crossword

by

Garry Trudeau

Non Sequitur

Tuesday’s Solution

Married to the Sea

www.marriedtothesea.com

SUDOKU Level: Styling your hair to look like Syndrome’s

Late Night at the Daily

Wednesday’s Solution

Ben P: “I’m curious about possessive apostrophes.”

Want more late-night laughs?

Follow us on Twitter at @LateNiteAtDaily

Please recycle this Daily.

by

Wiley

The Tufts Daily

Thursday, September 27, 2012 Wanted

Services Hair’s 2U - 20% off Tufts students.

154 Main St. Medford, next to Dunkin Donuts. 781-391-2222.

Open Mon-Tue 9-3; Wed-Fri 9-6; Sat 9-3; Sun 10-2 Full Service Salon

—

11

Sports

Housing

Housing

Housing

Apartments for rent on Ossipee. A 2, 5, and 4 bedroom apartment, 5 bathrooms in one house. Available June 1, 2013. Good Condition.

Walking distance from campus.

Call Maria (781) 942-7625.

Shop early and get what you want!

3 br, 4 br, 5 br, 6 br, 7 br, 8 br, 9 br.

All convenient to school. Call: 617448-6233

-

Apartments available right on campus! 3 br, 4 br - convenient to school! Get them before they’re taken! Call: 617-448-6233

—

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

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

Volleyball

Brian Tan | Now Serving

Tufts Volleyball looks to join in the spirit of Homecoming by

MVPosey

S

Alex Schroeder

Contributing Writer

After a tough second day of competition on Saturday at the MIT Invitational, held at Brandeis, the volleyball team is looking to regain its high level of play in their two games scheduled for homecoming weekend.

Losses to Springfield and MIT in four sets and three sets, respectively, dropped the team’s overall record to 6-4. But the losses have contained bright spots for Tufts as well, and the team has undoubtedly shown what it is capable of. Those positives, and improving the steadiness of their play, are what the Jumbos will focus on in their upcoming games.

“We are looking to improve consistency throughout our play,” senior tricaptain Kiersten Ellefsen said. “In our first set against Springfield, we played the high level of play we are capable of. We want to try to reach that level of play and keep it there.”

The team will need to maintain that attitude as they head into Homecoming weekend. Tufts will take on Connecticut College at 8 p.m. on Friday, followed by a Saturday game against Wesleyan at 2 p.m. But these games are more than just a chance for the Jumbos to get back on track. They also are the first homecoming games anyone on the team will ever play.

“I’ve never played in a homecoming game before,” senior tri-captain Kendall Lord said. “This is my first one, the first one for the team in many years.”

The privilege of playing in such a game is not lost on the Jumbos, who hope that the school spirit usually displayed that day on Zimman, Kraft and Bello Fields will spill onto the court and into the stands at Cousens Gymnasium.

“We have an incredible amount of Jumbo pride, and now we really get to share that,” Ellefsen said. “I hope the school Jumbo pride carries right over from

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

The volleyball team will be looking to rebound from a tough second day at the MIT Invitational with victories in the team’s first Homecoming games in many years. the football game to the volleyball game.”

That said, the results of this weekend’s upcoming matches will also play a definitive role in the team’s aspirations for the rest of the season. A weekend of victories could set the tone for an energetic and consistent level of play the rest of the way, which will be critical if Tufts wants to remain competitive in a difficult NESCAC. “This weekend we’re hoping to improve our all-around game,” Lord said, when asked what positive steps the team can make in these next two games. “We need to play together, as a team. I’m really excited for this opportunity, we can learn a lot.”

The biggest test this weekend for the Jumbos will be one of character. Handling the excitement and channeling it into cooperation will be crucial, as the hype could just as easily turn into panic. The

team will have to focus on recovering and improving after last weekend’s mishaps.

However, the road to victory will not be an easy one, especially considering the high caliber of their opponents, particularly Conn. College. Coming into the weekend game, the Camels hold a 10-1 overall record, with a 2-1 record in the conference, and will be looking to assert themselves as a strong force in the NESCAC by knocking off the Jumbos on their home floor.

Meanwhile, the Wesleyan Cardinals are 3-6 overall with a 0-3 record in the NESCAC, making them the weakest of the pair of opponents for Tufts this weekend.

Regardless of the records coming into the weekend though, both games are winnable for Tufts — and victories in these matches will go a long way to help the Jumbos secure a high seed in the postseason conference tournament.

Editors' Challenge | Week 4 Whoops! Unfortunately for the sports editors, their performance in last week’s pick ranks among the worst sports disgraces and errors of all time, with not a single editor going over .500.

First, there’s the fearsome foursome leading the pack, who used pretty bad but not catastrophic performances last week to slog to the top of the standings. David “Brian Scalabrine” McIntyre, Andy “Roger Goodell” Wong, Ethan “Chris Webber” Sturm and Marcus “Leon Lett” Budline have made numerous mistakes, from misthrown passes to lockouts to phantom timeouts to blocked kick recoveries, but in the end, they showed that their true colors can’t be defined by a few errors.

The same can’t be said, though, for the rest of the sports editors, starting with Ben “David Stern” Kochman and Zachey “Bud Selig” Kliger. Even though they’re both still near the top, Kochman and Kliger may have held onto power for too long.

Indeed, the former leaders of the standings have already begun to weaken under the intense pressure of old age, lockouts and calls for more instant replay by the other sports writers.

OVERALL RECORD LAST WEEK Clev. at Baltimore Carolina at Atlanta N. England at Buff.

Minn. at Detroit S. Diego at KC Seattle at St. Louis San. Fran. at NY Jets Tenn. at Houston Cincinatti at J’ville Miami at Arizona Oakland at Denver N. Orleans at GB Wash. at T. Bay NY Giants at Phila.

Chicago at Dallas

David 27-21 8-8 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Minnesota San Diego Seattle San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Miami Denver Green Bay Wash.

NY Giants Chicago

Andy 27-21 8-8 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Minnesota San Diego Seattle San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Arizona Denver Green Bay Wash.

NY Giants Chicago

Ethan 27-21 8-8 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Detroit San Diego Seattle San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Arizona Denver Green Bay Tampa Bay NY Giants Chicago

Marcus 27-21 8-8

Baltimore Atlanta N. England Minnesota San Diego Seattle San. Fran.

Houston Jacksonville Arizona Oakland Green Bay Wash.

NY Giants Chicago

Standing in seventh place is a sports editor who’s experienced a quick decline, Aaron “Roger Clemens” Leibowitz. Once the undisputed leader of the sports section, Leibowitz now spends most of his time fighting lawsuits and admiring his once-great physique.

We now move to the cellar of the standings, where the sports editors have embarrassed themselves with their lack of NFL prognosticating ability, as their risks in picking clearly did not pay off.

Evidently, Kate “Marion Jones“ Klots, Alex “Plaxico Burress” Baudoin and Jake “Sammy Sosa” Indursky have suffered severe falls from grace and need massive comebacks over the next few weeks to get back to the upper echelon of sports editors and recover from bouts with steriod use, self-inflicted gunshot wounds and steroid use respectively.

Guest picking this week is Elliot “Ron Artest” Philips, who has had many difficulties in his career as the executive layout director, but is ready to bounce back, stop elbowing and punching people and dedicate his forthcoming picking championship to his therapist.

Ben 26-22 6-10 Baltimore Atlanta Buffalo Detroit Kansas City Seattle San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Arizona Denver Green Bay Tampa Bay Phila.

Chicago

Zachey 26-22 6-10 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Detroit San Diego St. Louis San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Arizona Denver Green Bay Tampa Bay NY Giants Chicago

Aaron 25-23 8-8 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Minnesota San Diego St. Louis San. Fran.

Houston Jacksonville Arizona Denver Green Bay Tampa Bay NY Giants Chicago

Kate 24-24 7-9 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Minnesota San Diego St. Louis San. Fran.

Houston Jacksonville Arizona Denver Green Bay Tampa Bay NY Giants Chicago

Alex 23-25 6-10 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Detroit San Diego Seattle San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Arizona Denver Green Bay Wash.

NY Giants Dallas

Jake 22-26 7-9 Baltimore Atlanta N. England Detroit San Diego St. Louis San. Fran.

Houston Cincinatti Arizona Denver Green Bay Wash.

Phila.

Dallas

Elliot Philips GUEST Baltimore Atlanta N. England Detroit San Diego Seattle San. Fran.

Tennessee Jacksonville Arizona Denver Green Bay Tampa Bay NY Giants Chicago

ept. 9, 2012: Giants catcher Buster Posey is in the batter’s box, the count is 1-2 and Dodgers pitcher Joe Blanton is pitching. Blanton sets up and makes five great pitches in a row that are either out of the zone or on the corners.

One by one, an off-balanced Posey fouls off put-away pitches, as Blanton later called them, while being off-balanced to live to see another pitch. Then, on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, Blanton throws a hanging slider over the middle, top half of the plate. Posey puts his bat on the ball and backspins it over the 399 feet sign on the centerfield wall of AT&T Park.

Buster Posey then proceeds to round the bases for his 20th home run of the year.

With less than two weeks left in the baseball season, the race for the MVP awards is heating up. In this week’s column, I’m going to make my picks for the NL and AL MVP awards and talk about the biggest surprise of the year.

Buster Posey is one of the frontrunners and my pick to win the NL MVP. Together with Pirates and Brewers outfielders Andrew McCutchen and Ryan Braun, this contention is a three-man race. A year after season-ending surgery due to a broken leg, Posey rebounded very nicely and led the San Francisco Giants to an NL West title.

This pick is probably just a little biased, with my being a Giants fan, but Posey catches one of the league’s best pitching staffs, all while gunning down base stealers left and right and leading the Giants in home runs, RBI and on-base percentage, thus proving himself to be the most valuable player in the National League.

In the AL, the MVP race will come down to Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera and Los Angeles Angels centerfielder Mike Trout. Mike Trout has played like a superstar despite only turning 21 in August, and leads the league in runs scored, stolen bases and Wins Above Replacement. He is a lock to win Rookie of the Year and has been the biggest reason why the Angels turned around their slow start and are now contending for the playoffs. Trout has shown off his incredible talent countless times on SportsCenter highlights, from his sensational home run robberies to his 92 percent success rate in stealing bases. Even though Cabrera has a chance to be the first player to win the Triple Crown since 1967, Mike Trout deserves to be taking home the trophy because he has been the single most valuable player in the American League.

Meanwhile, the biggest surprise of the year has been the story of the Oakland Athletics. This Oakland team was projected by experts to lose 100 games this season. However, the A’s have shocked the country as they’re on pace to win 91 games. The A’s currently have the second wild card spot in the American League, which would put the A’s in the playoffs were the season to end today.

They play in baseball’s toughest division — sorry Red Sox fans — and have the second best team ERA in the league.

Contributing to this success is Josh Reddick, of former Red Sox fame, who has so far hit 29 bombs, after hitting only ten in the three previous seasons combined. The pitching staff is made up of rookies and relative no-names from Jarrod Parker to Dan Straily, while the starting infield is made up of guys like Chris Carter and Josh Donaldson. How have the A’s stayed so hot and won so many games? Clutch hitting — they lead the league in walk-off wins — and strategic “Moneyball” (2011) management from Billy Beane and the front office.

Brian Tan is a sophomore who is majoring in economics and Chinese. He can be reached at Brian.Tan@tufts.edu.

Sports

12

INSIDE Volleyball 11

tuftsdaily.com

Men’s Soccer

Men’s Soccer takes on toughest test yet

by Jake Indursky

Daily Editorial Board

The men’s soccer team entered last weekend with hopes of continuing their season opening winning streak but instead came away with two draws against the Colby and Trinity teams that they beat last season. This week, the challenge is different, but the expectations are the same, as Tufts prepares to battle an Amherst team ranked second in the nation.

The Jumbos, unhappy with their results from last weekend, are looking to prove that it was an anomaly in an otherwise spotless season. And there is no better way to prove themselves than by taking down the No. 2 team in the country.

“Especially this game, coming off of two results that we know we could have done better on, and the fact that Amherst is doing well this season, makes this a very big game for us,” senior co-captain Rafa Ramos-Meyer said. “We’re looking to make a statement, and if it were to happen, it would happen [this] Saturday.”

Team scoring leader Maxime Hoppenot, a sophomore, agreed with Ramos-Meyer but also added that the team will go at this game just like any other.

“This is a great opportunity because they’re undefeated, ranked second in the nation, and whenever you have the chance to beat a team like that, or a ranked team, it’s a good opportunity,” Hoppenot said.

“But I think we’re just going to try to treat it like any other game.”

But it’s hard not to take notice of Amherst.

The Lord Jeffs, who are 6-0 on the year and 3-0 in the NESCAC, have outscored their opponents by a staggering 22-1, scoring five or more goals in half of their games.

“One of the things you have to handle against them is their ability to score off of set pieces. I think more than half of their goals have come from set pieces,” coach Josh Shapiro said. “Our ability to neutralize that as much as we can and limit their opportunities is important.”

More than anything, Coach Shapiro and the rest of the team believe that the key to success is playing Tufts-style soccer.

“They’re very good in the air, and they’re a big, physical team. If we can keep the ball on the ground and play our brand of soccer, I think we have a terrific chance,” Shapiro said. “If the ball is in the air the whole time and we’re playing their style, I think it will be very hard.”

The success of Amherst starts and ends with their dominant attack, led by the reigning NESCAC player of the year, senior Spencer Noon, and his fellow forward, junior Jae Heo, who both have a team-leading 13 points this season.

But while the team is aware of the individual talent that Amherst boasts, coach Shapiro does not want to let his player’s focus stray.

“We’re very aware of these guys, but we’re not going to be a team dictated too much by our opponents,” he said. “I want our team to be aware of who their dangerous players are and who they might be looking to in certain situations, but at the end of the day, we’re going to play our style of game and not let whoever comes in here dictate what we do.”

Shapiro did add that his defense will have to step up for its biggest challenge of the year, as they try to slow down an attack that has already attempted 158 shots, 68 more than a Jumbos offense that is itself well regarded.

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

The men’s soccer team will face No. 2 Amherst on Homecoming, a team that has outscored its opponents 22-1 so far this season.

In order to keep up with the highflying Lord Jeffs, the Jumbos will need to create opportunities for its dynamic sophomore duo of Hoppenot and classmate Gus Santos, who have combined to score more than half the team’s goals this year.

As Ramos-Meyer pointed out though, it is not only about creating opportunities for the attack but also executing and finishing those opportunities.

“We were able to create good chances this past weekend,” Ramos-Meyer said.

“We just didn’t execute and didn’t finish.

I think we’re definitely going be more

aggressive and take more risks on offense.

It’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

In fact, over their two games this past weekend, Tufts combined for 32 shots, but those shots yielded only one goal.

That lack of efficiency won’t cut it against an Amherst team that consistently capitalizes on its chances.

In the end, it’s who can put the ball in the net that matters, and scoring often comes down to a lucky bounce and which team is out there competing more.

“We just need to be ready to battle,” Hoppenot said. “It’s going to be contested game, and we just have to be ready to go.”

Women’s Soccer

Nothing to lose for Tufts in Homecoming match against Amherst by

Ethan Sturm

Daily Editorial Board

Six games into the Tufts women’s soccer team’s season, the tale has been nothing short of Jobian.

They’ve lost four players to injury, of which at least two are season ending, and now are playing with a roster of just 19, three of whom are goalies. They had to deal with hurricane-like conditions in their season opener and have been undone by the post and crossbar time and time again.

But with the halfway point of the season quickly approaching and the losses — already four in the NESCAC without a win or draw — piling up, the team needed to remember why they played soccer in the first place.

They had to remember to have fun.

“We all play because we love the game,” junior striker Anya Kaufmann said. “A lot of times, you can lose sight of that when you’re stressed out because of school and stressed out because we’re losing, so I think bringing it back to fun will hopefully take us to that next step, which is now we’re going to win.”

Another point stressed to the team is the need to stay strong as a group even when adversity sets.

“Our coach [MarthaWhiting] said after the game that the most important thing is that we can’t turn on each other,” senior tri-captain goalie Phoebe Hanley added. “That we need to be there for our teammates and be there as a team, because the minute we turn on each other is the minute we fall apart. Team bonding and mental strength is going to get us there eventually.”

But despite the positive attitudes, the Homecoming matchup with No. 6 Amherst on Saturday afternoon is quickly approaching,

and the team finds itself at a crossroads. Coming off a brutal backto-back conference weekend, a pair of losses to Colby and Trinity, Tufts find themselves facing a second NESCAC doubleheader in two weeks, a result of the harsh new scheduling format that began this past season with the addition of Hamilton to the conference.

“Because of the way the NESCAC is, it’s very competitive no matter who you’re playing,” senior tri-captain midfielder Rachel Aronchick said. “You have a top team that’s playing a bottom-ranked team, and the game is still really close. So you are going to have a very physically demanding game, and having two of them back-to-back is tough, especially back-to-back weekends.”

Their first doubleheader week-

end of the season wasn’t simply a test of their skills, but of their physical and mental toughness.

Aronchick was subbed out with a knock in the 54th minute of Sunday’s game and didn’t return.

Kaufmann, on the other hand, played more than 30 minutes of that second half.

“It was really just physically exhausting,” Kaufmann said. “You get to a point in the second half of that second game where it’s all mental. Whether or not you are going to get your legs to move to the ball or whether or not you are going to make that checking run.”

Given desperately needed days off from practice on Monday and Tuesday, the captains and veterans focused on bringing the team together and connecting as a group

off the pitch. The focus remained on enjoying what they were doing.

“We had the last two days off, and today, as a team we baked cookies and played Catch Phrase, because we have to have a little competition,” Hanley said. “You’ve got to have fun. We’re trying to tap in to our hard work and working for each other, and you can’t force that upon anybody. They have to work hard for their teammates, and the only way they’ll do that is if we show them that it’s fun to work for your team and that it’s fun to play for Tufts.”

Of course, a result on Saturday will be a tall task even for a revitalized Jumbos squad. Amherst enters the game undefeated, with the only smudge on their resume a 0-0 draw at Middlebury. They haven’t allowed

Caroline Geiling / The Tufts Daily

The women’s soccer team got off to a rough start this season, but is looking to rebound this weekend against Amherst.

a goal this season and scored two against both Hamilton and Bates.

But Amherst would be remiss to overlook Tufts.

“We’re in kind of a good situation here, because we have nothing to lose coming into this weekend,” Aronchick said. “The pressure is on them to uphold their ranking; we just have to play our game.”

To take anything positive from this game, it will likely have to start with Tufts’ defense and goalkeeping. Junior Kristin Wright was phenomenal in the team’s 0-0 draw with No. 16 Wheaton and will likely need a similar performance against Amherst to keep Tufts in it.

But even if their defense plays out of its mind, the Jumbos may need a goal to get something from this game. And with only two goals in six games so far this year, that could seem to be a tall task. But Kaufmann, who got her first of the season on Saturday on a penalty kick, appears up to it.

“It’s very important to get that first goal,” Kaufmann said. “As an offensive player, you can get into a goal-scoring slump, but once you get that first goal, from there it just flows. I had a few opportunities against Trinity, and I know it’s coming. It’ll be there on Saturday.”

Despite the rocky start to the season, Kaufmann and the team’s other veterans continue to exude confidence. Confidence that the goals will come. Confidence that the wins will come. And as judgment weekend approaches, it might be just what the doctor ordered.

“Right now our goal is making the tournament,” Hanley said.

“Once we get there, anything can happen in the NESCAC.” “We can’t look at ourselves as defeated,” Kaufmann added. “Any team can win any game, and we can win every single game from here on out.”