TuftsDaily11-13-2012

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THE TUFTS DAILY

TUFTSDAILY.COM

Tuesday, november 13, 2012

VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 43

University celebrates Veterans Day with flag-passing ceremony

Ordinance passes to regulate food trucks by

Hunter Ryan

Contributing Writer

Nick Pfosi for the Tufts Daily

In honor of Veterans Day, members of the Tufts community and veterans came together for a Passing of the Flag ceremony yesterday afternoon.

Seniors to hold admissions interviews by

Melissa Wang

Daily Editorial Board

Members of the Class of 2013 will now serve as interviewers of prospective students over winter break, filling the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Tufts Alumni Admissions Program (TAAP)’s need for more interviewers in certain locations.

Though TAAP and the admissions office have used senior interviewers in the past, this is the first year seniors will conduct interviews in their hometown over the winter break, according to Associate

Director of Admissions Emily Roper-Doten.

According to Roper-Doten, there were not enough alumni interviewers to meet the demand of prospective students in rural areas.

“When you think of a typical college kid coming out of college, you graduate and move to a city,” Admissions Senior Intern Taylor Schwartz said.

“All of our big cities have a lot of people. Not saying there’s not a need there, but we’re really lacking the alumni interviewers in rural and suburban areas.”

By inviting seniors to inter-

view hopeful members of the Class of 2017, more prospective students will have the opportunity to be interviewed, according to Schwartz.

“It’s kind of a way of covering more ground,” he said.

“Applicants may not have to travel into a city to go do an interview.”

Roper-Doten hopes each participating senior will conduct around three or four interviews at home, or however many the local committee needs him or her to complete. If a senior is not able see INTERVIEW, page 2

Alumna and NBC producer discusses journalistic integrity by

Melissa Wang

Daily Editorial Board

Tufts alumna Marian Porges (LA ’82), a senior producer at the News Standards and Practices division of NBC News, spoke about journalistic ethics and media coverage of this year’s election at Eaton Hall on Friday.

The event, titled “Election Aftermath: Why Should I Believe What I See on the News?,” was sponsored by the Communications and Media Studies (CMS) Program and focused on how fast-paced modern news media can be threatened by ethical breaches.

CMS Director Julie Dobrow gave opening remarks describing Porges’ career in journalism as a producer for ABC News, a pro-

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

see PORGES, page 2

Marian Porges (LA ‘82), a senior producer at NBC News, last week came to the Hill to speak about journalism and its role in the 2012 election.

Inside this issue

Where You Read It First Est. 1980

The Somerville Board of Aldermen on Oct. 25 passed an ordinance to regulate the operations of food trucks in the city.

The debate to write an ordinance began approximately eight months ago and brought to the Board’s attention that the city had no rules in place for food trucks, according to Ward 7 Alderman Bob Trane.

Potential food trucks in Somerville must now comply with requirements outlined by the Board and submit an application for a license, according to Alderman at Large Bill White. Food trucks must also undergo a public hearing with the Board, which will look at a number of factors before issuing approval, including the location that the food truck applies to be stationed at, health and safety standards and business hours.

Each food truck will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, Trane said.

Until the passage of the ordinance, food trucks were allowed to operate at any time or location, Trane said. The Board now has more of a say in where food trucks may go and their hours of operation, according to Ward 4 Alderman Tony Lafuente.

For example, food trucks now are not allowed to operate outside the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. unless the own-

ers receive a special permit.

In addition, food trucks must remain in one location and are prohibited from moving around, Trane said.

“They can’t keep bouncing all over the place or go willynilly in a different spot,” he told the Daily.

Food trucks must also conform to health and safety requirements before receiving a license, White said.

Lafuente added that the Board of Aldermen seeks to avoid complaints about generator noises and food smells.

“We’re going to control as much as we can,” he said.

The Board will also evaluate the impact that a food truck might have on existing businesses in specific locations.

One of the main concerns that propelled the debate for a new ordinance was food trucks’ potential threat to local businesses, White said. The ordinance will favor restaurants that have been in business for a long time, and food trucks will not be allowed in Davis Square in order to preserve the local eateries.

Before the passage of the new ordinance, food trucks received their licenses under a different ordinance designed for hawkers and peddlers, which was not specific to food trucks, according to White.

Very few licenses were issued under that ordinance, he added. see FOOD TRUCK, page 2

TCU Senate update

TCU Senate to vote on safety resolution The Tufts Community Union Senate began its meeting last night with a moment of silence for poet Brandon Lacy Campos, 35, who died Friday after speaking at Tufts’ Black Solidarity Day rally on Nov. 5 and for the Tufts undergraduate who was hospitalized after being struck by a car at the intersection of Packard Avenue and Powder House Boulevard. Senators announced the creation of a resolution in support of safety upgrades at the intersection, which will be put to a vote at next week’s session.

The Senate changed its agenda this week to allow for individual senators to announce progress on their own projects. Projects include research on extending the pass/fail deadline, encouraging minority leaders to create a community forum and ongoing work with Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman to adjust Joey drivers’ contracts to accommodate the use of the JoeyTracker GPS service.

Senators approved a funding request for nine members of the improvisational comedy group Cheap Sox to attend a professional improvisation workshop in Chicago. Though the group had initially requested

$3,856, the Allocations Board recommended a total of $2,214, with the greatest deduction being a 60 percent reduction of the requested funds for food, in accordance with standard Board procedures.

The body also approved two allocations totaling $925 for the Tufts chapter of the healthcare nonprofit GlobeMed. The funds will be used for the group’s Fall Color Event and for printing quarterly/annual reports for their donors.

The Senate allocated $432 to itself for several events, including a conference at Williams College. The Tufts Pre-Law Society received $141 of a $700 request for advertisements and speaker fees. Reductions were due to Senate procedures, including limits on the percentage of an allocation to be spent on food and a prohibition on re-imbursing subway costs.

Allocations were refused for the fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi’s Halloween party, on the grounds that the Senate does not fund events retroactively.

—by James Pouliot

Today’s sections

Seniors discuss their reasons for writing senior theses.

Ben Gibbard played an intimate concert at the Somerville Theatre on Nov. 4.

see FEATURES, page 3

see ARTS, page 5

News Features Arts & Living Editorial | Letters

1 3 5 8

Op-Ed Comics Sports

9 10 Back

The Tufts Daily

2 Visiting the Hill this Week TUESDAY “Sticks and Stones: Freedom of Expression and Political Correctness” Details: Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, will be delivering the 16th Richard E. Snyder President’s Lecture. The lecture series is meant to promote discussion about current events and issues by bringing distinguished guest speakers to campus. Free tickets are available at the front desk in Dowling Hall.

When and Where: 4:30 to 6 p.m.; Distler Performance Hall, Granoff Music Center Sponsors: University Advancement WEDNESDAY “Wandering Jews: American Jews, Human Rights and Humanitarianism” Details: Michael Barnett, university professor of international affairs and political science at George Washington University, will be speaking.

When and Where: 5 to 6:30

p.m.; Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center Sponsors: The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the Department of History and the Department of Religion “The Lyon and Bendheim Alumni Lecture Series” Details: Seth Godin (E ‘82), author and marketing expert, will be speaking. Godin has been described as “the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age” and writes the most widely read blog in the world written by a single author, according to his website.

When and Where: 7 to 9 p.m.; ASEAN Auditorium, Cabot Sponsors: Tufts University Alumni Association, Tufts Gordon Institute and the Entrepreneurial Leadership Program THURSDAY “Creating ONE Sustainability Footprint” Details: Robert Pojasek, sustainability leader at The Shaw Group and adjunct lecturer at Harvard

News

University, will be discussing corporate social responsibility as part of the Environmental Studies Lunch & Learn Program.

When and Where: 12 to 1 p.m.; Rabb Room, Lincoln Filene Center Sponsors: Environmental Studies Department and Tufts Institute of the Environment “Author Talk Featuring Hugh Howard” Details: Hugh Howard (LA ‘74) will be speaking about his book “Mr. and Mrs. Madison’s War: America’s First Couple and the Second War of Independence.”

A book signing will follow the discussion.

When and Where: 3:30 to 5 p.m.; Hirsh Reading Room, Tisch Library Sponsors: Friends of Tufts Libraries Scott Tingley / Tufts Daily Archives

―—compiled by the Daily News Department

Food trucks regulated under new ordinance FOOD TRUCK

continued from page 1

“It didn’t have the same extensive regulations that we have now,” White told the Daily. “Some of the food trucks may have had licenses from the state and didn’t think they needed one from the city.”

Current food trucks with an existing license will be grandfathered in. When the license expires, they will be required to apply under the new ordinance, White said.

Moe Stewart, the owner of Moe’s BBQ Trolley that has been in operation for seven years and stations itself on campus at Packard Avenue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, said that his food truck will not face any new changes with the ordinance. He said he is in favor of the new ordinance, noting that food trucks used to have to move around every 20 minutes.

“I told [ The Board of Alderman] they had to have [the ordinance],” Stewart told the Daily.

Although the new guidelines state that food trucks must have special permission to operate after 9 p.m., Moe said the new ordinance will not pose a problem for the operation of his food truck in the evenings.

Sofia Adams for the Tufts Daily

The Somerville Board of Aldermen last month approved an ordinance that requires food trucks to apply for licenses from the city, among other regulations.

“I’ve always had permission,” he said.

Since the passage of the new ordinance, no potential

food trucks have applied for a license yet.

“But [the process] shouldn’t be bad,” White said.

Porges describes ethics, election at NBC PORGES

continued from page 1

ducer for NBC News, the director of NBC News’ Journalism Program and her current position as a senior producer.

“Marian [Porges] is somebody that we were anxious to invite back to campus because she has had a long and really interesting career in television news,” Dobrow said.

Porges, who was one of the four recipients of Tufts’ Eighth Annual P.T. Barnum Awards for Excellence in Entertainment this past year, began the lecture by discussing NBC News Standards and Practices’ focus on maintaining journalistic and ethical standards.

“We want to make sure that we’re bringing to the viewer and the reader, in the case of our websites, the most accurate and fair information that we can,” she said.

An important part of upholding journalistic ethics is maintaining

transparency, Porges said.

“If we have someone on the air who has a bias of some sort, we need to be transparent about that,” she said. “It just helps the viewer to understand where these people are coming from.”

Porges also commented on how the social media craze has sped up the process of news reporting and threatened the ability to consistently uphold journalistic standards. “[Social media is] the only form of communication that we have at NBC News, that anybody has in any news organization, where information isn’t vetted,” she said.

“Everything that gets on the air has to be seen by someone from the News Standards area and a lawyer, except for what goes on in the social media world.”

She explained that social media affected NBC’s election coverage, as it is against NBC’s policy to tweet or post any information

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

before it is officially reported and checked. NBC has a group of social media experts monitoring Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to make sure that no one affiliated with NBC posts incorrect information and that no one else posts incorrect information about NBC. “We did pretty well. We only had two error tweets, and one was actually not by someone in our division,” she said. “It’s so easy for our integrity to be damaged and infiltrated since anyone can just tweet whatever they want.”

According to Porges, NBC set up what it called “Democracy Plaza” outside of its New York City headquarters on Election Day, where there were studios along the ice rink, a map of the United States on the rink to color in states as they were being called and a display where red or blue lights would turn on as electoral numbers went up.

“All of that’s great, that’s fabu-

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is for the first time enlisting the help of seniors to interview prospective students over winter break.

Seniors alleviate demand for admissions interviews INTERVIEW

to meet with interviewees in person over winter break, she said, Skype interviews are also acceptable.

The idea was conceived over the summer when several Tufts admissions officers attended a conference at which other universities’ admissions officers discussed their alumni interview practices, Roper-Doten explained.

“A couple of the schools there had talked about how they were using senior interviewers over winter break, and [it] seemed like something we potentially could replicate here, so that’s why we were doing this expanded pilot this year,” she said.

Roper-Doten said that, in the past, around 20 to 25 seniors per year were used as interviewers. They were often affiliated with the admissions office either at the time or previously.

“We’ve used them to help relieve some local TAAP committees that have really high percentages of students in boarding schools,” she said.

“We’ve had senior interviewers who go up to some of the boarding schools in the area and [do] interviews there.”

In total, there are around 3,700 alumni interviewers around the world, Roper-

Doten said. Over 150 Tufts seniors have volunteered so far, and all interested seniors are welcome to partake in the program, she said.

“This was the first time that we were expanding it to a larger campaign of advertising because we thought that there might be more students out there who maybe haven’t been involved in admissions before but might have an interest in interviewing,” she said. “I think right now 150 is a great number.”

Roper-Doten believes that allowing prospective students to meet with current undergraduates can help high school seniors gain further perspective into the student experience at Tufts.

“The benefit of having an undergraduate student do the interview gives that applicant another person to think of in terms of their potential classmates,” she said.

As in previous years, these optional interviews will not decide who gets admitted, instead adding another dimension to a student’s application, according to Schwartz.

Roper-Doten said that interested seniors must attend one of two training sessions, which will take place on Nov. 14 at 5 p.m. and Nov. 19 at 12 p.m. The program is still accepting seniors who would like to sign up, Schwartz said.

lous, but we still had an editorial show to put on the air and we had to make sure that we got it all right,” she said.

She described how the broadcast networks and the Associated Press hired people to go to the polls to ask people how they voted. Because of low budgets, they focused their resources on exit polling in swing states, Porges said.

“Knowing that the battleground states were going to be so important, they didn’t go to the states ... they knew would go one way or another,” she said.

Porges also noted issues that NBC has had with the campaigns this year, explaining that campaigns would take portions of what certain NBC reporters said on the air, take the snippet out of context and put it in their political ads.

“We may have someone saying something out of context, and it looks like that person is endorsing

the candidate,” she said. “We as journalists have to maintain our objectivity as much as possible.”

She later spoke about the need for budding journalists to learn techniques for using digital platforms if they want to succeed in the media world.

“Technology has helped us cover a whole lot more than we were used to, but on the downside it’s made it such that people don’t have the expertise they used to have,” she said.

Porges then reiterated the importance of integrity and reputation in the media, explaining that NBC would rather release the correct facts than be the first to break news.

“It’s all about reputation, because if your reputation isn’t up there, people aren’t going to believe you, and once our viewers stop believing us, we’ve lost it all,” she said.

continued from page 1

Features

3

tuftsdaily.com

Yuri Chang | I hate you, but I love you

R.I.P. Fail Whale

I

Alex Schmieder / Tufts Daily Archives

Students engaged in research during their undergraduate careers often choose to write a senior thesis.

Students, faculty weigh in on value of senior theses as number and interest grows by

Emily Bartlett

Daily Editorial Board

The Tufts student body is hardly lacking in commitment to academics. This passion can be put to good use by students in their senior year, when they can choose to delve extensively into a subject and complete a senior thesis.

Within the Class of 2012, 158 seniors wrote a thesis — the most that have ever done so at Tufts. This increase in number of seniors electing to write a thesis reflects the growing interest on campus as students are learning more about and taking advantage of the research opportunities that are available to them.

“When I first started it was more like 120, but it always breaks 100. Last year was the biggest of all time,” Associate Director of the Academic Resource Center Kristina Aikens said. “Students are obviously becoming increasingly interested.”

According to Aikens, students majoring in psychology and international relations in the Class of 2012 were the most likely to have written a thesis, with English, American studies, biomedical engineering (BME) and biology majors following closely behind.

Program Specialist for Scholar Development Anne Moore explained that writing a thesis is intellectually beneficial for both the individual and to Tufts.

“If you do a senior honors thesis, it teaches you to take yourself seriously as an intellectual, and I think that’s the kind of thing that leads you to go on to further graduate study ... that’s the kind of thing that universities want,” Moore said.

Students can begin to consider the option of engaging in research and writing a relevant thesis as they settle on a major as an underclassman, but the decision should ultimately be made in their junior year.

“Ideally, [students] should certainly be thinking in their junior year. Some students start thinking earlier than that, but I think that might even be too early,” Aikens said. “By spring of your junior year, [though], you should have some sense of whether or not you want to write one, and a general idea of the topic.”

Chair of the Department of Psychology Lisa Shin also expressed that many students end up writing a thesis after having been involved in research already during their undergraduate career.

“Normally a student has actually been involved in that area before they even start with the thesis, and normally in that area is where they start having conversations with their mentors about how to proceed with the thesis,” Shin said.

“There’s [a process] in the background to work toward a thesis topic.”

Junior Josh Levy, a math and chemistry double major, is thinking about writing a senior thesis next year as a continuation of the research he has been working on for the past two years.

“I’ve been working with my professor on this math research project. It’s focused on tomography which is a blend of analysis and applied mathematics,” Levy said. “I’m really interested in the material, and as we’ve done research and developed stuff this is kind of a culmination of that project.”

While there are many reasons to do a senior thesis, many students choose to do so based on the requirements for their major. Senior Joey Herman decided to write a thesis because of encouragement from within her American studies major.

“In American studies, you have to do either a full-year thesis or a semesterlong project, and so looking at those two options, I realized that I really wanted to spend a year doing something that was really important to me and really get that experience,” Herman said. “This is an opportunity that isn’t always available to you, so I wanted to take advantage of that.”

Senior Sam Kupferberg finds the challenge of researching a thesis rewarding.

“I was always thinking that I would do it. I’ve never really done a project like this, and I wanted to see if I could, especially if I could find a topic I was interested in,” he said. “So I decided it would be a little bit of a challenge, [but] it was also something that I wanted to do.”

Both Kupferberg and Herman each took sufficient time to determine exactly what they wanted to focus on and drew from many resources before making the final decision.

“It was a long, spread-out process. I [became] really interested in the U.S. drug policy, and its foreign policy especially. I was thinking that it had to be within the United States because of American studies,” Herman said. “But then I talked to my advisor who really encouraged me to do what interested me

in the first place, so they helped me find a way to study how U.S. foreign policy in Latin America is also implicated in America itself.”

Kupferberg found that his topic evolved from courses he took at both Tufts and abroad, as well as from conversations with professors.

“It evolved from some classes I took and some discussions I had with [Associate Professor of Political Science] Ioannis Evrigenis, my advisor, as well as some classes I took abroad at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland,” Kupferberg said. “I became interested in the historical development of science as a way to study politics.”

Kupferberg also participated in Summer Scholars, a Tufts program that helps students get started on research during the summer with the aid of grants.

“It’s a great program,” he said. “You work with a professor while you’re doing research. You do it in close consultation with a professor so you really learn their methods or the way they think you should approach these issues and you can constantly be in discussion with them.”

This allowed Kupferberg to get started on his research early in the summer, which helped with the heavy workload of a senior thesis.

Herman, who didn’t have the summer to get started, touched on the sacrifices she had to make in order to make time for her thesis.

“I’ve definitely had to cut down on my extracurriculars and have been taking it easier this semester,” she said. “I’m taking one less class than I would normally take. It is definitely a good amount of time, [and] it’s so self motivated that you really have to be on top of it.”

Despite this intense time commitment, students and faculty remain enthusiastic about writing a senior thesis.

“If you have something that you’re really interested in and invested in, if it’s something that’s important to you, it’s really exciting to have that independence and the freedom to just do what you want to do,” Herman said.

Moore echoed the idea that passion for a particular subject can emerge from writing a thesis.

“It gives you an opportunity to figure out what you’re obsessed with, and I think that’s what education should be about,” she said.

s it official? The two places I checked to be sure: Fox News and Twitter. On the night of the election at 11:17 p.m.

ET, Fox News officially announced that Barack Obama had indeed won the election, regardless of Karl Rove’s awkward self-denial. Several minutes later at 11:20 p.m., the official Obama twitter account (@BarackObama) tweeted the words “Four more years,” along with a photo of Barack and Michelle locked in beautiful powercouple embrace.

At that exact minute, people posted nearly 875,000 election-related tweets, averaging at approximately 15,107 tweets per second, a record-shattering high for Twitter.

The folks at Twitter had plenty to celebrate that night. In Twitter’s earlier days, the “fail whale” page used to greet users when Twitter went over capacity. Luckily, the frustrating sea mammal didn’t show up even once throughout Election Night 2012 despite Twitter’s off-the-charts activity.

A couple of hours after Obama had officially won and Twitter’s servers were in the clear, Twitter Creative Director Doug Bowman posted his pithy victory tweet, “R.I.P., Fail Whale,” encapsulating what I imagine to be the Twitter team sighing of relief and then proceeding to rage in their San Francisco headquarters.

Nate Silver, who I’m assuming is now the New York Times’ Golden Boy, also indulged in a victory tweet after having correctly predicted Obama’s performance in the polls across all 50 states by using statistics.

“This is probably a good time to link to my book,” Silver tweeted after his estimates proved to be 100-percent accurate.

It was a successful night for Obama in the Twitterverse as well. After he won the election, Obama’s campaign staffers released the photo of Obama hugging his wife with a caption that read “Four more years.” Although only Michelle’s back is visible in the photo, the President’s facial expression exudes love and gratitude, perhaps making the photo’s message that much more powerful. Within three hours of being published, the tweet was shared over 472,000 times and crushed Justin Bieber’s previous record for the most re-tweeted tweet ever. Thank you Twitter, for renewing my faith in America.

Perhaps Twitter’s biggest loser that night was Donald Trump, who went on an angry tweeting rant when Obama was announced winner. Trump tweeted that “this election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy!” He even tried to incite a revolution by posting, “[Let’s] fight like hell and stop this great and disgusting injustice! The world is laughing at us.”

He later went back and deleted some of these tweets, but of course in the age of the Internet permanently erasing is no longer an option. NBC News’ Brian Williams attacked some of Trump’s tweets on air, saying he had “driven well past the last exit to relevance and veered into something closer to irresponsible.” Leave it to Donald Trump, America’s favorite multi-billionaire clown, to provide you with a regular dosage of crazy.

This column started as a place for me to publicly air my woes against social media, and Twitter was admittedly number one on my hit list. I found its form to be too short, sporadic and self-promoting to amount to anything of substance. I wanted people to join me in denouncing their Twitter accounts and all things #hashtag.

However, the presidential election and the death of the Fail Whale have caused me to reconsider my war against Twitter and acknowledge that our methods of communication are becoming more dynamic and interactive, and — I’ll admit it — that they’re changing for the better.

Yuri Chang is a senior majoring in international relations. She can be reached at Yuri.

Chang@tufts.edu.

The Tufts Daily

4

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

ANTHONY D. ROMERO STICKS AND STONES: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

Democracy means a great many things

to a great many people. But it must never

be a quiet business.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2012 LECTURE: 4:30-6:00 P.M. RECEPTION TO FOLLOW DISTLER PERFORMANCE HALL GRANOFF MUSIC CENTER 20 TALBOT AVENUE MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE CAMPUS For any available tickets, please visit Distler Performance Hall after 4pm ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero will discuss the impact of the political correctness movement on the First Amendment and freedom of expression, noting that freedom of expression is not confined to speech but impacts what is not said, not written, and not thought; the importance of pushing back the boundaries of free speech as new media and vehicles emerge; and the definition of what is “acceptable” speech in the face of those who cry “dangerous” or “offensive.”

Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, the nation’s premier defender of liberty and individual freedom. He took the helm of the organization just seven days before the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Shortly afterward, the ACLU launched its national Keep America Safe and Free campaign to protect basic freedoms during a time of crisis, The ACLU’s sixth executive director, Romero is the first Latino and openly gay man to serve in that capacity. In 2005, he was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Hispanics in America. In 2007, Romero and NPR correspondent Dina Temple-Raston co-authored In Defense of Our America: The Fight for Civil Liberties in the Age of Terror, which takes a critical look at civil liberties in this

Richard E.Snyder country at a time when constitutional freedoms are in peril.

PRESIDENT’S LECTURE SERIES

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT 617.627.3787

Arts & Living

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Concert Review

Ben Gibbard delivers captivating solo performance at Somerville Theatre

by Sam

Helrich

Contributing Writer

Ben Gibbard, frontman for both Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, stopped by the Somerville Theatre on Sunday, Nov. 4 to promote his new solo album “Former Lives.”

Every aspect of Gibbard’s show was geared towards intimacy. Soft lights lit a simple red curtain behind him as he stood alone, drawing in the audience with clear vocals, unimpeded by traditional stage distractions. Stripped of any supporting group members, Gibbard had no problem filling the theater with his emotional lyrics, acoustic guitar and soft piano.

The set was a combination of tracks from “Former Lives,” hits from Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service and a few covers of songs from other bands, including The Lemonheads.

Almost every song was preceded by a short anecdote about its origin and a few musings from Gibbard. This conversational feel gave the show an almost one-on-one feel, creating a unique personal atmosphere that is simply unattainable in larger venues.

Gibbard began the show with “Shepherd’s Bush Lullaby,” a short a cappella piece that is also the first track of “Former Lives.” During the opener, his voice rang out starkly through the theater, devoid of any accompaniment — even the guitar in his hands lay silent. This was the perfect way to introduce a set focused on an individual musician performing his songs in their simplest forms.

Much of the night was devoted to songs off of “Former Lives,” which debuted earlier this fall. The album features Gibbard’s signature poetic lyricism and its sound is comparable to recent releases from Death Cab for Cutie. An extended rendition of “Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke),” a cheerful, upbeat tune from the new

Julio Enriquez via Flickr Creative Commons

Gibbard is a multitalented instrumentalist who sang and played guitar and piano during his recent one-man show. record, proved particularly memorable, lasting several minutes longer than the regular album version.

Fans of The Postal Service were treated to two songs off of the group’s only album, “Give Up.” Gibbard broke into “Such Great Heights,” one of the band’s most popular and successful songs, towards the beginning of the set, garnering obvious signs of approval from concert-attendees.

TV Review

Unfortunately for The Postal Service fans, however, The Postal Service songs were heard only once more when Gibbard finished with “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight,” before he returned to stage for a final encore.

Gibbard also opted to play several covers and a few songs only found on see GIBBARD, page 6

Film Review

Humor, horror continue in season two of ‘American Horror Story’

by Joe Stile

Daily Editorial Board

Ryan Murphy’s “American Horror Story” has gained a reputation for amping up the terror, laughs and thrills.

American Horror Story Starring Jessica Lange, James Cromwell, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters Airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX Now in its second season, the show is back with still more hilarious insanity.

Aside from a few recurring actors and writers, this season of “American Horror Story” is completely self-contained and has so far made no reference to season one. Making each season independent gives the show a sort of bizarre structure and allows it plenty of room for experimentation. The format also enables “American Horror Story” to be more surprising and suspenseful than other shows.

In other programs, the viewer knows that the main characters aren’t going to be in any real danger within the first few episodes of a season. With “American Horror Story’s” huge cast, however, anything could happen to anybody at any moment — and it often does.

This season, the horror stems from an unwholesome ’60s psychiatric hospital.

Picture inpatients paired with Nazis, demon possessions, aliens and a brutal serial killer and you’ll start to understand the show’s craziness. This multitude of stock horror tropes all thrown together might sound overwhelming, but really, that’s the fun of the show.

The program packs every episode with plenty of campiness and jumpin-your-seat scares. Scene to scene, the show morphs between countless different horror aesthetics and tropes, keeping fascinated — if confused — viewers glued to the screen. In the season premiere, the show first takes the form of a slasher film when Bloody Face, a serial killer who scalps his victims then wears their faces, terrorizes and disembodies a young married couple. A few minutes later, it pays homage to “The Exorcist” (1973) when a group of priests try to save a disturbed young boy from the devil that possesses him. Not too long after, alien abduction and sinister medical experimentation joined the mix.

The show only manages to feel cohesive because of its incredibly talented cast. Emmy-winner Jessica Lange gives a stellar performance as Sister Jude, a nun in charge of the asylum. Lange plays a stern character, but she also masterfully balances hyperbole and vulnerability.

She controls her wards with an ironfist, but she also clearly cares about the asylum and her religious cause. Sister see HORROR, page 6

Despite rough edges, ‘Flight’ takes off by

Claire Felter

Contributing Writer

Robert Zemeckis’ “Flight” initially appears to be ripped from the headlines, a story parallel to that of pilot

Flight Starring Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly Directed by Robert Zemeckis Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s heroics during his emergency landing on the icy Hudson River in 2009. “Flight” might well have turned into a melodramatic feel-good movie by replicating the “Miracle on the Hudson,” but writer John Gatins and director Zemeckis provide the audience with an experience far richer than one which might be derived from the simple replication of an uplifting news story.

“Flight,” a return to conventional drama by a director who has devoted the last decade to whimsical motion-capture films, begins with an improbable crash-landing see FLIGHT, page 6

Joe Stile | BASSic

Trust issues

T

o the delight of fans around the world, The Weeknd’s new song, “Valerie,” hit airwaves this week. It serves as the closing track for his sinister mixtape, “Thursday,” which is part of his three-part debut album, “Trilogy” (2012).

Much of that mixtape concerns Abel Tesfaye — otherwise known as The Weeknd — and his relationship with a girl who he condescendingly refers to as “Thursday.” It just so happens that this is the one day of the week he stops cheating and is fully hers.

The nickname has a metaphorical meaning as well. Thursday is one of the days closest to the weekend, but it is not actually part of it. In a similar vein, The Weeknd sleeps with “Thursday,” and might even say he loves her, but she isn’t actually a part of his life. No matter how close she is, there always remains a visible separation between the two of them.

In “Valerie,” The Weeknd finally uses her real name, giving her the humanity his other songs have denied her. It also makes the song sound raw, as if he is realizing that his destructive lifestyle has an effect on other people.

With “Valerie,” The Weeknd seems to have gained more perspective on his situation. He starts out talking about himself in the third person rather than in the deeply intimate first person he is used to. This could mean that he’s finally found a way to take a step back from his situation and see it for what it really is.

A more cynical interpretation could just be that copious amounts of drugs and meaningless sex have left The Weeknd so detached from his own life that he’s now only an observer of the vicious cycle he’s trapped in. Throughout the song he says things like “I wish I didn’t have to lie” in a painfully honest tone, which suggests he lost the power to fight back against his demons long ago.

In the song, The Weeknd says that he needs to be done with cheating and just love Valerie. After he sings this, though, he hauntingly says, “And nobody’s going to know if it’s true.” This line poignantly shows that a person can apologize after breaking someone’s trust, but there will always be lingering doubt beneath the surface. The line also suggests that even The Weeknd doesn’t know if what he’s saying is true or not.

As a teaser for the song, The Weeknd released a 30-second music video of a woman in a beautiful dress, completely alone, surrounded by a bunch of party balloons and crying. The balloons start to pop one by one as she uncontrollably sobs. In less than a minute, the video magnificently captures her entire relationship with The Weeknd.

While it’s obvious from her emotional display that she’s been crushed, her surroundings and her outfit give the viewer a glimpse of how her night might have gone if The Weeknd were different. It could have been a magical evening for her, but instead she is left downtrodden and broken because he was reckless with her heart.

Over this footage, The Weeknd’s line, “You’d rather this than be alone?” seems more like a sincere question than anything else. That Valerie would even consider answering “yes” in her state further points to how much she loves The Weeknd. This makes his self-destruction all the more tragic, as it becomes no longer just about him, but also about the other people he’s leaving splintered in his wake.

After The Weeknd is done saying how much he loves Valerie, the song continues on with the same spacious beat that it started with, illustrating that, despite everything that has been said, nothing has actually changed.

The cycle continues.

Joe Stile is a political science major and English minor. He is a senior and can be reached at Joseph.Stile@tufts.edu.

6

The Tufts Daily

Arts & Living

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Denzel Washington delivers disturbing performance in ‘Flight’ FLIGHT

continued from page 5

in southern Georgia. Following the crash, the plane’s pilot, Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington), is subject to an investigation into the flight’s failure. There is consensus in the public and media that Whitaker deserves to be deemed a national hero, but the inner circle of the investigation team is aware of other possible reasons for the plane’s malfunction. The story focuses on Whitaker’s days leading up to the FAA hearing about the crash.

The terrifying twenty-minute sequence depicting the actual flight is so masterfully constructed that it might very reasonably scare viewers into never boarding a plane again. Zemeckis assiduously builds the scene to generate maximum tension. The audience is aware that Whitaker has consumed alcohol and snorted cocaine prior to take-off, and Whitaker’s co-pilot, Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty), is visibly agitated

by Whitaker’s demeanor in the cockpit.

When the plane begins to dive, however, it is Whitaker who firmly takes control and maneuvers the crippled plane to safety.

Between scenes leading up to the flight, Zemeckis introduces a side plotline involving a female heroin addict, Nicole (Kelly Reilly), who fails in her attempt to “keep clean” and overdoses. The minor storyline seems out of place at first and the viewer can’t help but wonder how the dual plots will be complementary, but after the crash Whitaker becomes linked with Nicole, whose character provides a surprising second dimension exploring the harrowing difficulties of drug addiction.

Washington’s performance ranks as one of his best, standing alongside his roles in “Glory” (1989) and “Training Day” (2001).

His incisive portrayal of an alcoholic who uses cocaine to stabilize his cognitive abilities is both frightening and disturbing.

Washington employs a stammer to great effect whenever his character is questioned about his drinking.

Well-wrought characters portrayed

by John Goodman, Don Cheadle and Melissa Leo add to the film’s verisimilitude. Goodman provides much-needed comic relief as Whitaker’s raucous friend and drug-dealer, while Cheadle is detached

aktivioslo via Flickr Creative Commons

Denzel Washington’s performance as pilot Whip Whitaker is a highlight of “Flight.” and icy as Whitaker’s self-serving attorney.

Leo, in a cameo, establishes a vivid presence as Whitaker’s interrogator, the only one to force Whitaker into acknowledging his compromising addictions.

Of note is Zemeckis’ thematic weaving of predetermined fate within “Flight.” Scenes in the film often rotate about a core suggestion that no event is random and that the flight’s crash, in particular, was destined

Ryan Murphy’s campy thriller returns for season two HORROR

continued from page 5

Jude also elicits viewers’ sympathy as she fights against the scorn she faces as a woman in power.

Proving that nothing is sacred to “American Horror Story’s” writers, Anne Frank (Franka Potente) made her season debut in last week’s episode. In the show’s alternate universe, Frank survived Auschwitz and is out to hurt Arden ( James Cromwell), who, she remembers, used to torture and experiment on girls in the concentration camp. This arc epitomizes the show’s tone — it is bizarre, boundary-pushing and, yes, gripping.

“American Horror Story” also does an interesting, if sometimes flawed, job of incorporating social issues relevant to the time period. So far this season, “American Horror Story” has examined

interracial relationships, homosexuality, sexual liberation and feminism.

These issues give the show additional depth, are less heavy-handed than they could be and still permit shocks and gore to take center stage.

It’s exciting to think about how all these seemingly disparate plotlines will come together over the 13-episode season. So far, the audience has no idea how the alien abduction introduced in the first episode relates to the serial killer who has been on the loose for over 50 years, or how the devil possessing a nun to wreak havoc on the Catholics relates to the flesh-eating mutants living just outside the asylum. Whether these plotlines will all coalesce in the end or will just derail, “American Horror Story” is so enthralling in the moment that petty things like cohesion and logic just don’t matter.

Courtesy of Byron Cohen / FX

“American Horror Story” strikes an effective balance between scares and laughs.

to occur. Cheadle’s character fights for the cause of the flight failure to be labeled as an “act of God.” From his hospital bed, Evans heatedly blames his injuries on Whitaker’s substance abuse, then abruptly transforms into a devout believer of a predetermined plan who sees the crash as one link in the chain. While this facet of the overall storyline comes across as contrived at times, the idea is threaded fittingly throughout and adds

another layer to the film’s implications.

Despite the length of the film, and the early placement of the harrowing flight scene, Zemeckis succeeds in holding the audience’s attention throughout. One might quibble with some mawkish moments near the film’s conclusion, but “Flight” certainly exceeds expectations and Washington’s portrayal of a troubled man in desperate need of self-direction deserves high praise.

Gibbard impresses audience with dreamy, career-spanning performance GIBBARD

continued from page 5

soundtracks. A little more than halfway through the set, he performed a beautifully reimagined version of “( This is) The Dream of Evan and Chan,” the initial 2001 collaboration between Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello that many believe led to the formation of The Postal Service a few years later.

Gibbard delivered an excellent rendition of the piece with light strums of his guitar, a significant contrast to the original’s rapid synthetic beats. Even ¡All-Time Quarterback!, Gibbard’s brief side-project from the late nineties, was included in the evening’s performance with a version of the song “Cleveland.”

Many of the most notable songs of the night were popular hits from Death Cab for Cutie. Because they are usually played with the backing of a full band, Gibbard’s solo performance made many these familiar songs sound different.

The ethereal “Soul Meets Body” was particularly haunting, substituting a sharp snare for piano, which seemed to hang onto every note. But the piano had its time to shine, especially on “Passenger Se bnat,” a minimal, melancholic standout. Though the song is composed of few notes and words, each packed an intense emotional punch that Gibbard conveyed with pinpoint precision.

With every song, the crowd moved in closer and closer to stage. Throughout his performance, even the soft voices of fans singing along remained at bay, as if to ensure that none of Gibbard’s notes were missed. Indeed, the show maintained such an intimate feel that the only indication that Gibbard was playing a sold-out theater was the roar of applause at the end.

Julio Enriquez via Flickr Creative Commons

Ben Gibbard had audiences mesmerized for a full 90-minute set.

The evening served as tribute to a brilliant songwriter and musician, highlighting both new and old favorites from the entire span of Gibbard’s career. Few artists are capable of holding the attention of a full theater for more than 90 minutes, but when Ben Gibbard concluded his performance, the audience was left only wanting more.

The Tufts Daily

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

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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 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

editorial

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Editorial

In support of proposed Environment House

The university has taken positive steps recently to become more sustainable, as evidenced by the LEED gold-certified Sophia-Gordon Residence Hall, the water-purifying rain garden currently under construction in front of Lewis Hall and various eco-outreach programs set up by the Office for Sustainability.

The proposed Environmental House, currently up for consideration by the Office of Residential Life and Learning (ORLL), would take Tufts’ green initiatives further by providing a valuable hub for environment and sustainability related events and ideas.

The Environmental House, which is being proposed by the Sustainable Action Squad (SAS), would serve a purpose beyond simply a living space for eco-conscious Jumbos. Just as the Arts Haus, Rainbow House, Crafts House, International House and the

other 11 Tufts themed houses provide essential cultural diversity and special interest-related activities on campus, the Environmental House would act as a catalyst for Earth-friendly activities like composting and recycling and would serve as a haven for all sustainability-related events and discussions.

The house also has plans to screen films and plant a garden, according to the SAS proposal.

Institutionalizing a center for environmental awareness where environment-conscious students can work toward educating the larger community would be a valuable nod to the green initiatives currently on our campus, which include the addition of recycling bins in campus housing and Tufts Dining’s elimination of trays in the fall of 2010.

The addition of an Environmental House would also help Tufts to com-

pete with other universities on the eco-friendly frontier. Sixty-seven other institutions of higher learning currently have residences devoted specifically to green-friendly living, according to SAS’ proposal.

By joining that list, Tufts would display a more progressive image and support its students’ commitment to sustainability.

A center like the Environmental House could provide the groundwork for a more progressive sustainability policy, one that includes greater emphasis on composting, recycling and clean energy.

By providing a specifically-designed building for environmentally progressive students to operate from, the campus as a whole will profit from having a stronger and more organized sustainability contingent fighting for the environment.

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The ghosts of Ole Miss are far from dead

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by

Lexi Thoman

The Daily Mississippian

In one word, I was shocked.

Shocked like so many other members of the Ole Miss family — students, alumni, faculty and staff — when I woke up Wednesday morning to the news that protests had occurred on campus in the wake of President Obama’s re-election.

But as I read articles, Facebook posts and Twitter feeds documenting the blatant use of racial slurs toward not only the president, but also other Ole Miss students, my shock turned into anger. And my anger turned into shame.

Even though initial reports of full-on “riots” proved to be blown out of proportion, the damage is done. The nation’s modern understanding of The University of Mississippi, which this entire year had focused on the 50th anniversary of integration and progress in race relations, was eclipsed in an instant. What should have signified a new chapter in Ole Miss history has been forgotten.

As the fallout from the protests unraveled Wednesday, I heard many people argue that the protest was justified under the First Amendment’s protection of the freedom of speech. While I agree that the tenant is both an essential human right and a cornerstone to the democratic foundation of the United States,

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.

the actions of the election night protesters were absolutely inexcusable and carry consequences that we have only just begun to consider.

One of the easiest, most basic ways to assess whether an action is morally right or wrong is to analyze its consequences.

But beyond protecting the freedom of speech, I cannot find one single argument or example of how the protest actually benefited our university, our community or even the protesters themselves. In contrast, there is already a mountain of evidence to explain how the protest hurt the Ole Miss family, and it is only the beginning.

Just like any other school, Ole Miss works hard to “recruit” not just athletes, but a well-rounded student body. If the riots that surrounded integration half a century ago still haunt the athletics and admissions offices today, this week’s protest will have an effect as well. Prospective students are less likely to see us as the beautiful, vibrant university that we are and are more likely to judge us based on the ghosts of our past and the ignorant actions of a small but vocal minority.

As a senior applying for jobs, including many that are out of state, I honestly fear what possible employers think when they read “The University of Mississippi” at the top of my resume. It frustrates me

beyond words to know that the actions of a few disgruntled, immature students on election night will seriously affect Ole Miss’s public image for the foreseeable future. The protesters not only degraded our Alma Mater, but the degrees held by every single alumnus.

The protesters have reminded the entire nation of the stereotype that Ole Miss has fought for 50 years to dispel.

They perpetuated the belief that we are racist, that we are ignorant and that we are unwilling to accept inevitable social change.

I, for one, am tired of trying to convince people that this is no longer the case.

As voluntary members of the Ole Miss community, we pledge to respect the dignity of each person, to believe in fairness and civility, and to believe in personal and professional integrity. These values are spelled out in the University Creed, but not one of them was upheld by the protesters on election night.

What happens now is up to us. We are an imperfect community still coming to terms with our past. But I know that Ole Miss has the resolution, spirit and drive to do what is morally right: to address this issue, learn from our mistakes and look towards the future.

The ghosts of Ole Miss might not be dead, but we can refuse to be defined by them.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Tufts Daily

9

Op-Ed

Zeta Psi banner removal reflects double standard by

Michael Weinberg

On Sunday, Nov. 4, several Zeta Psi brothers put a political banner supporting senatorial candidate Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass., LA ’81) on the front of our house at 80 Professors Row. The next morning, TUPD came onto our property and asked us to take down the sign on behalf of the Office of Student Affairs, due to a policy in the Tufts Student Handbook that forbids banners from being posted on the exterior of campus housing. While our brotherhood admittedly disagreed on whether the house should have put up the sign in the first place because of differences in political ideology, I am dismayed and outraged by the university’s decision to force us to take it down. This banner policy may not even apply to our house, is not universally enforced and stifles the ability for students to express political opinions in an election season.

For those who are unaware, Scott Brown is both an alumnus of Tufts and an alumnus of Zeta Psi. Thus, at a certain level, this argument is not even political.

As said before, our entire brotherhood has different political views on Scott Brown. But the decision to ultimately put the sign up was a matter that was handled in-house, by the brothers. It should not have been Tufts’ prerogative to order us to suspend our public support for an alumnus and a brother.

In fact, Tufts may not have even had the right to require us to take the sign down.

The banner policy in the Tufts Student Handbook states: “students may not hang any banners or items outside their university residence windows.” Our house might be considered on-campus housing because sophomores can live in it to satisfy the residential requirement and because it sits literally in the center of the campus. But our house is not owned and operated by Tufts. Rather, our alumni association owns it, and brothers handle all daily operations. Therefore, it seems that our house had no duty to comply with the banner policy, and we feel that Tufts had no right to enforce it against us.

But regardless of whether or not we fall under the school’s jurisdiction, the banner policy is clearly not consistently administered. If Tufts actually stayed true to its policy, there should be no banners, flags or signs hanging from any

Liza Bagley

Yesterday, we all sighed with relief knowing that we had been granted the gift of an extra day off from classes for studying, writing, practicing or watching movies (which was technically studying because our textbooks were open next to us). We thought about our problem sets and our group meetings and our homework deadlines, but how much did we think about the reason for our much-needed extra day? For sure, in past years I rarely took a moment on Nov. 11 or the following day off to honor our country’s veterans with more than a quick thought of thanks for my paper extension. This year, however, Veterans Day means something much more to me because my big brother and best friend became Private Gordon Bagley when he joined the United States Army.

If you’re like me, you probably don’t know much about joining the military except for what you’ve seen from movies about war or maybe half-heard from an older relative around the Thanksgiving table. What I have learned in the months since my brother joined is that the sacrifice men and women have to make to become a member of our military is immense.

Servicemen and servicewomen often have no idea when or to where they will be deployed. There is no clause in their contracts that says “feel free to sit out the next war if you don’t like it.” Conscription in the United States hasn’t been in effect since 1973, which means that the estimated

Math and other sins

O

from where to pull funding to partisan election-season politics. To be perfectly honest, I don’t care about finger pointing.

I do care about the lack of support for these men and women, even though they put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of over 311 million Americans, most of whom they will never meet.

I do not wish to say “shame on you” for not paying enough attention on Veterans’ Day. My point is to share my experience as the sister who didn’t really notice all that servicemen and women do until I had a future veteran in my household. I didn’t think that Veterans’ Day had much to do with me at all. On behalf of all the sisters out there who watch their best friend, their role model and their greatest ally put on a uniform, please don’t make the same mistake I did. Veterans’ Day has to do with all of us. There are soldiers at home and abroad risking their lives to protect all of us, and if that’s not an important connection, then I don’t know what is. So please, take a moment this week to keep in mind the veterans and soldiers you know and the ones that you may never meet. They think about you every day when they put their lives on the line to protect yours. As someone who loves one of those soldiers very much, please allow me to ask you to take a moment to think about them, too.

ur long national nightmare is over.

President Obama has been re-elected. Mitt Romney’s political career will now go the way of the VCR, mostly forgotten about but occasionally dusted off and admired as a nostalgic reminder of less enlightened times. We can all put a hideously long and tedious campaign season behind us.

On to an equally exhausting enterprise: governing.

Congress is still divided and will most likely remain so for the duration of Obama’s second term, so major reforms will only occur at the conclusion of an excruciating give-and-take process between Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner.

Those reforms will likely be smaller in scope than most of us would like, but they’ll be staggering compared to the policy nightmare we just avoided. If Romney had become president, the only thing for the next four or eight years standing between Republicans and overturning Roe v. Wade years would have been the health of 79-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And the Affordable Care Act would have gone on life support if it didn’t die outright.

Those would have been costly defeats. They might not have been as bad, however, as the symbolic meaning of Romney defeating Obama in spite of the overwhelming mathematical evidence that Obama would win.

When it comes to naming this year’s Election Day winners, the middle class, women, gays, the poor, immigrants and healthcare all earn a rightful place on the list, but arithmetic gets the top spot.

Just a few days after Romney officially conceded defeat, stories began to emerge that he was “shell-shocked” by the loss. In spite of the fact that almost every poll of every swing state showed him trailing and every data-driven analysis of his chances pegged them at miniscule, Romney’s campaign team really thought it had the race in the bag. They thought they’d not only win, but win handily, possibly taking states like Minnesota and Michigan that Romney eventually lost by nearly ten points.

And it wasn’t just the Romney team. Most conservative pundits, from Karl Rove to Dick Morris, predicted a solid victory for Romney.

Anyone who watches FOX News tuned in on Nov. 6 expecting Romney to be declared the next president.

There was no data to back this up, not even internal Romney campaign data. Romney said, only hours before the networks declared him the loser, that he knew he was going to win. He was sure of it, but it wasn’t numbers that gave him his confidence. That was based on subjective measures like the enthusiasm of supporters at his rallies and blind faith that young people and minority voters wouldn’t turn out the way they did in 2008.

Romney did have internal polling, but what it showed was that if turnout plummeted among Democrats, then Romney would win. Without any actual data about what turnout would look like, that’s a pretty useless finding. In retrospect, the data-gathering wing of the Romney campaign seems stunningly inept, especially given that Romney himself made his fortune in the data-heavy finance industry.

The Obama campaign had reams of both internal and public data pointing to victory, along with the most sophisticated get-out-thevote operation in the history of American politics. The Romney campaign had a gut feeling.

Democrats couldn’t outnumber Republicans this year, they told themselves. They just couldn’t. It wouldn’t happen, and all the polls suggesting it would have to be skewed.

Math, like climate change, like evolution, like basic economic principles, like the truth about homosexuality, was just another dirty trick by secular progressives, an inconvenient truth to be swept aside in the pursuit of some elusive, higher-order reality.

So thank God math won. Thank God we didn’t give the right wing evidence that their gut feelings about how things work are more accurate than science.

Liza Bagley is a senior majoring in Arabic.

She can be reached at Elizabeth.Bagley@ tufts.edu

Craig Frucht is a senior majoring in political science and psychology. He can be reached at Craig.Frucht@tufts.edu.

Kyra Sturgill / The Tufts Daily

dorms or on-campus housing. But when we walk around campus, students see many examples of such “banners” that would seem to violate the University’s bylaws. If the policy was enforced in all situations, shouldn’t a student be forced to remove a rainbow gay pride flag or an American flag hanging from his or her dorm window? There seems to be a double standard here, one that unfairly targeted our house and, even worse, an alumnus of our school.

Even if Tufts chose to enforce this policy universally, its wisdom is highly questionable. Tufts professes to be a school that values a diversity of opinions and beliefs and that promotes “active citizenship.” That is one of the main reasons why many of us chose this school in the first place. But I find it extremely unfortunate that Tufts would have a policy that hinders every student’s freedom of expression, and the banner policy does just that. There is no reason why an on-campus dormitory or house, with the consent of its members, should not be able to express its beliefs in an appropriate and respectful manner.

Over the last several years, the Tufts administration has attempted to limit free speech on numerous occasions. For that reason, in 2011, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education deservedly ranked Tufts as one of the twelve

worst violators of free speech among all American colleges and universities. Tufts has created a slippery slope towards further infringement of free speech, and this incident is yet another example of the school’s willingness to exert its power inappropriately.

It is troubling for a university to silence the opinions of its students when it does not necessarily agree with those opinions. Would Tufts have required us to take down the sign it if was in support of a different candidate or was a rainbow gay pride flag? The undeniable fact that banners and flags remain ubiquitous on the exterior walls of on-campus housing suggests that it might not have.

More generally, Tufts should have policies that allow students to express political opinions, not stifle them. When the beliefs of some are silenced, there is no true freedom of expression. I think that the entire Tufts community should be interested in hearing the University’s justification for making us take down our sign and should be ashamed that the school has developed a reputation for consistently violating the First Amendment.

Michael Weinberg is a sophomore majoring in political science. He can be reached at michael.weinberg@tufts.edu

Don’t forget to remember our veterans by

Craig Frucht | Road to November

1,456,862 men and women currently serving in the United States Armed Forces are doing so voluntarily.

The motto of the United States infantry is “Follow Me.” Our servicemen do and have put their bodies, minds and souls into voluntarily defending us everyday so that we can go about our lives feeling safe. It seems painfully obvious that, as a nation, one of our first priorities should be protecting our currently serving troops and caring for the men and women who fought on our behalf and have returned home to us. Despite this, in 2009, the Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs estimated that 75,609 out of about 22 million veterans were homeless and that veterans make up about 14 percent of the homeless population in America.

There are several organizations throughout the nation dedicated to helping veterans, including the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans and Veterans for America. Organizations such as these provide services for homeless veterans, including psychological trauma support, job training and housing assistance, but there are still many aspects of veteran support that America needs to work on.

On Sept. 19 of this year, the US Senate blocked the Veterans’ Jobs Bill, which would have given $1 billion over five years to assist veterans in finding jobs. The New York Times reported that the bill, which had the potential to create 20,000 new jobs for veterans, was struck down for reasons ranging from disagreements over

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Comics

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Doonesbury

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Non Sequitur

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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

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Sports

Panthers pull away in fourth quarter after key fumble football

continued from back

But as Dodds started to hand off to freshman running back Justin Weaver on that 14th play of the drive, the ball slipped out and Middlebury senior linebacker John Wiet was off to the races.

Wiet scooped up the ball and rumbled 65 yards the other direction, and just as he was about to be chased down by Tufts senior tight end Nick Kenyon, he tossed the ball behind him to junior Jared Onouye, who ran the rest of the 25 yards to double the Panthers’ lead, 28-13.

“I don’t know exactly what happened on the fumble. I just looked back and the ball was headed the other way,” Weaver said. “That was definitely a killer for us.”

Middlebury would go on to add another touchdown at the end of the game to bring the final score to 35-13, finishing off another impressive performance for the 7-1 Panthers.

The day had started well for the Jumbos, as they drove 61 yards on the first possession of the game for a 10-yard touchdown reception by senior tri-captain Dylan Haas.

But the Panthers would answer quickly on their next drive, tying up the score on a pass from junior quarterback McCallum Foote to senior wide receiver Zach Driscoll, a tandem that haunted the Jumbos all afternoon.

Driscoll picked up 124 receiving yards on 10 receptions against Tufts, all part of Foote’s 389-yard outing.

Those yards put Foote in the NESCAC record books, as he broke the single season passing yards record with 2,897 on the year. The quarterback was the key in Middlebury’s first-ranked passing offense all year — and for the Panthers to stave off the Jumbos on Saturday.

“They executed well on offense,” freshman linebacker Wes Hartman said. “Their quarterback is just really good. We had a good game plan, but it just didn’t end up working out.”

All of the Panthers’ offensive touchdowns came through the air, including a one-yard reception from Driscoll at

virginia bledsoe / the tufts daily

Tufts once again came close to victory on Saturday, but let the chance at the comeback slip away in the final minutes of the game. the end of the second half that gave the Panthers a 14-7 lead at intermission.

In the third, the teams traded touchdowns, and the game stayed even until that fateful fumble that sent the Jumbos home empty-handed.

“We competed well all the way up until the fourth quarter,” Weaver said. “We were playing a 6-1 team and I don’t think there was anyone watching that game that didn’t think we had a chance to win it.”

Weaver was the standout for the Jumbos in the contest, as the power back picked up 112 yards on the ground to go with 38 receiving yards, the Jumbos’ best rushing performance of the season.

But that still wasn’t enough to measure up to the firepower of the Panthers, both offensively and defensively. The Jumbos can feel pleased with the effort, but find themselves once again frustrated with the results.

“We certainly had the game in our sights in the fourth quarter,” coach Jay Civetti said. “But it was a disappointing loss considering we had an opportunity to compete for a victory.”

For the second season in a row, the Panthers have crushed the Jumbos’ hopes of sneaking out a win in the final game of the year, providing them a glimpse at victory before snatching it away as the clock wound down.

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Sports

Matchup with DePauw awaits in national semifinals FIELD HOCKEY

continued from back

another penalty corner opportunity 12 minutes into the period. After Riley’s initial shot was blocked, senior defender Brooke Phinney corralled the rebound and took aim again. The Jumbos’ last line of defense, senior co-captain Rachel Gerhardt, then made a crucial defensive stop, knocking the ball away just inches before it crossed the goal line.

In the final minutes, the Jumbos took full advantage of the second chance that Keenan’s and Gerhardt’s stops had given them them. Perkins earned yet another penalty corner, inserting from the right side of the cage to Gerhardt on the circle. Gerhardt ripped a shot into junior forward Chelsea Yogerst, who put the tip-in past Lessard, tying the game in the 51st minute.

“I think after we scored, we had more positive momentum,” junior goalkeeper Katie Stuntz said. “After we were able to tie things up, it just completely shifted the dynamic of the game and gave us more hope for a comeback.”

The Jumbos had taken the upper hand and continued to control possession, earning another penalty corner in the 62nd minute. Perkins inserted to Gerhardt, whose driving shot was batted away by Lessard. Freshman midfielder Dakota Sikes-Keilp collected the rebound, and pushed it to Sagerman, who finished the ball from close range for the go-ahead goal with just over ten minutes remaining.

After that go-ahead goal, the Jumbos battled the Polar Bears back and forth along the sideline as each team struggled to break into open field. But in the final minutes, Bowdoin broke into Tufts’ defensive end, earning themselves a series of penalty corners.

The Jumbos, playing with a slim, uncertain advantage, tried to clear the ball several times unsuccessfully. Each time, the Jumbos ran into a thicket of Bowdoin offensive players, who had pushed everyone up in a last minute effort to tie.

Finally, the last seconds ticked off the

clock and the Jumbos ran to greet Keenan at the other side of the field.

“This is the first time we’ve ever beaten Bowdoin twice in one season, and the first time we’ve ever beaten them in the postseason,” Yogerst said. “The game just proved that we could take the NESCAC tournament loss with a grain of salt and focus on using our skill and talent to beat them and prove that our regular season win wasn’t a fluke. We knew that if we played our best game of hockey that we’d beat them, and we did.”

In their second-round win the day before, the Jumbos’ dominance was never in doubt. In the 19th minute, cocaptains Gerhardt and Sagerman connected on a penalty corner, as Sagerman dove forward, driving home the first goal of the contest moments before she hit the ground.

In just two minutes, the Jumbos doubled their advantage. Chapman took a penalty corner, inserting to Gerhardt at the top left of the circle. Gerhardt drove a rocket in towards the left side of the cage, where Yogerst waited to tap it in past sophomore goalkeeper Catherine Hare.

In the second half, the Jumbos remained in control, and they notched their third goal of the game just five minutes in when Perkins inserted to Cannon on a corner. Cannon launched the ball across to Chapman, who sent a line drive in from the top right of the circle.

Chapman’s shot threaded the William Smith defenders and rolled past Hare into the back of the cage.

Junior midfielder Melanie O’Connor then scored and gave the Herons some hope. But in the 58th minute, Perkins took a penalty corner for Tufts and after Gerhardt’s shot was blocked, the Jumbos earned a penalty stroke. Cannon stepped up to take the stroke and cleanly drove it into the board to the keeper’s right.

“Even as they battled back, we knew to just keep playing our game and stay composed,” Yogerst said. “I think we dominated throughout, but it was just a matter of us finishing our opportunities. Getting

a solid win gave us confidence for the next day, knowing that it doesn’t matter who we play, we’re still capable of making adjustments during the game and changing things up.”

This week, the Jumbos will spend just three days at home in preparation for the Final Four. After having returned from William Smith late Sunday night, Tufts will head back to Geneva on Thursday afternoon in order to get as much rest and opportunities to practice as possible before their game against unranked DePauw University on Saturday morning. Their opponent, however, may just be the most unexpected part of their championship weekend journey.

Just as Tufts completed its come-frombehind win over Bowdoin on Sunday afternoon, another NESCAC power was tumbling out of the tournament. National No. 1 Middlebury, the tournament’s firstseeded team, suffered its first loss of the season in a devastating 2-1 double overtime decision to DePauw.

“When we found out that Middlebury had lost, we were still on the field after the Bowdoin game and the results were announced over the loudspeakers,” Yogerst said. “We had assumed that they would win their game, and we were surprised to say the least, but it just goes to show that you can’t underestimate any team, and anything can happen especially in the playoffs.”

Had the Panthers won, the Jumbos would have faced them in next weekend’s semifinal contest. But the absence of Middlebury presents a golden opportunity for Tufts, who lost to the Panthers 5-2 in ugly fashion in the first game of the season. Regardless, the Jumbos know they will have to dig deep if they are to make it through to Sunday.

“A lot of our preparation last week was focused corners and tipping, and it paid off,” Cannon said. “Except for my penalty stroke, all of our goals this weekend came off of corners. After the Bowdoin game, we know we can beat anyone and we intend to do that.”

Golden goal penalty kick ends the Jumbos’ season MEN’S SOCCER

continued from back

Jumbos’ 26 goals and 16 of their 21 assists came from sophomores and freshmen.

According to senior co-captain Rafa Ramos-Meyer, who has played a major role in the program’s turnaround, the production from the team’s youngest players is a testament to Shapiro’s ability as a recruiter and bodes well for the future of the program.

“Going from one of the worst teams in the conference to making the first round of the NCAA tournament has been incredible, and I’ve been so happy to be a part of that,” he said. “I’m just really excited for our program going forward because it’s going to get even better.”

Still, the Jumbos will miss the leadership of its five graduating seniors: Ramos-Meyer, co-captain defender Pat Bauer, forward Franco Silva, midfielder John Lewis and defender Michael Walker.

With the injection of two extremely talented recruiting classes, the playing time of all but Bauer has decreased, but Shapiro credited all five with playing integral roles in the turnaround of the program by leading by example and mentoring the younger players.

“These were the first guys who were with me, and they stepped up in my first year to help get the program going with the right culture and the right mentality,” Shapiro said. “It can be hard sometimes when you are not playing as much, but I credit all of them for handling that with class.”

Having proven this season that they can play competitively with any team in New England, the challenge for the Jumbos next year will be to win more of those close matches and truly establish themselves as a regional powerhouse. On paper, though, it seems like Tufts has the returning players to work towards that next step The Jumbos bring back four of their five defensive starters from a back line that allowed only 12 goals in 17 matches this season and recorded seven shutouts. They also return plenty of experience in the midfield, including juniors Scott Blumenthal and Jono Edelman, sophomores Kento

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

Junior midfielder Scott Blumenthal will be one of the leaders next season of the men’s soccer team, which is looking promising even after the squad’s 1-0 loss to Vassar in the NCAA tournament.

Nakamura, Gus Santos, Mike Miele and Kyle Volpe, and freshmen Rui Pinheiro, Jason Kayne and Connor Brown. And at forward, sophomore Maxime Hoppenot, who led the team with seven goals and was the only player to start all 17 matches, will

be back for his third season.

If the team continues to play consistently at the back and is able to do a better job of finishing its opportunities, expect the Jumbos to make even more progress in 2013.

Aaron Leibowitz | The Fan

Sympathy for a millionaire

W

arren Buffet once said it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. For Jason Bay, it took six years to build a reputation as one of the top-hitting outfielders in baseball, and three years to blow it to pieces.

Imagine failing so miserably that your employer pays you to leave. Now, imagine failing so miserably that your employer pays you $21 million to leave.

That’s what the Mets last week agreed to pay Bay to get the hell out of Queens and never come back. The 34-year-old left fielder had just finished the third year of a four-year, $66-million contract with a one-year option. It didn’t quite go as planned.

There are busts, and then there’s Bay. From 2004 to 2009, Bay averaged 30 home runs and 99 RBIs with the Pirates and Red Sox. From 2010 to 2012 with the Mets, he averaged 9 home runs and 41 RBIs. Injuries played a role — Bay missed 198 games in the last three years, mostly because he had a penchant for running into outfield walls.

Still, his fall from grace was nothing short of mind-boggling.

Mets fans — myself included — got used to ridiculing the soft-spoken Canadian each time he hit a weak grounder to shortstop or waved at a breaking ball in the dirt. Sometimes, laughing was all we could do to maintain our sanity.

At the same time, though, it was so sad to watch. Day after day, bad at-bat after bad at-bat, Bay walked around the ballpark with a bewildered look on his face. You could almost hear the voice in his head: “What happened to me? Where did I go wrong?”

After each game, Bay sat by his locker in a daze, staring into the cameras and the faces of reporters, telling them that he was just as confused about his failures as they were. He was going to keep working hard, he’d say, keep searching for the hitting stroke he’d misplaced somewhere en route from Boston to New York. He had to come around eventually.

With the Mets, he never did.

On the one hand, it’s hard to sympathize with someone who’s making more money each year than most of us will make in a lifetime.

Twenty-one million dollars to not play baseball for the Mets? Jason Bay might as well have hit the jackpot.

But I would not want to be him.

Failing to live up to expectations — and coming up short by a long shot — can be crushing to a reputation. For athletes, it all plays out in the public eye.

When Bay’s baseball career ends — assuming it’s not over already — he’ll still have a wife and kids and enough cash to last a lifetime. He’ll still have six years of good baseball memories in Pittsburgh and Boston, a Rookie of the Year award and three All-Star game appearances.

And yet, unless he can resurrect his swing, Bay will always be remembered as the guy who forgot how to hit — the guy who, inexplicably, was a good player one moment and a dreadful one the next.

Now, all he can do is hope someone’s willing to give him another shot, whether it’s the Red Sox, the Pirates, his hometown team in Seattle or anyone else. This time around, he won’t be making $66 million. He may not even make $1 million.

For Bay, it’s no longer about the money. It’s about redemption. It’s about pride.

It’s about rewriting a baseball legacy that, in the span of three years, has been so horribly tarnished.

Aaron Leibowitz is a junior who is majoring in American studies. He can be reached at Aaron.Leibowitz@tufts.edu.

Sports

16

tuftsdaily.com

Field Hockey

Jumbos head to Final Four for first time since 2009 with victories over Bowdoin, William Smith by

Kate Klots

Daily Editorial Board

The No. 10 field hockey team wrote a new chapter in its history this weekend.

On Sunday afternoon, the Jumbos finally FIELD HOCKEY (17-2 Overall, 10-2 NESCAC) at Geneva, N.Y., Sunday NCAA Third Round Tufts Bowdoin

0 1

2 0

— 2 — 1

at Geneva, N.Y., Saturday NCAA Second Round Tufts William Smith

2 0

2 2

— 4 — 2

scored revenge for years of heartbreaking losses to conference rival and national No. 6 Bowdoin, coming from behind to beat the Polar Bears 2-1 and advance to next weekend’s NCAA semifinals.

The Jumbos have not made it this far since the 2009 season, when they suffered a 1-0 semifinal loss at the hands of Salisbury University. Since that year, Tufts has seen early exits in both the NCAA and the NESCAC tournaments.

The victory over Bowdoin came on the heels of an impressive 4-2 win the previous day against No. 9 William Smith, which sent Tufts into the third round.

But the most important victory came on Sunday, as the Jumbos and Polar Bears squared off for their third contest of the season. The previous meetings were split, as Tufts took the regular-season finale in a 3-1 win at home before losing 4-1 to Bowdoin in last week’s conference semifinals. Hungry for revenge, the Jumbos came out in full force but initially struggled to piece together threatening scoring opportunities near the cage.

Ten minutes in, senior forward Kelsey Perkins inserted a corner to the top of the circle, where it was knocked in front of the cage.

As senior co-captain forward Lia Sagerman attempted to put it in from close range, the ball hit a post and rolled out of bounds, denying the Jumbos an early chance to lead.

The Polar Bears counterattacked quickly and had a penalty corner of their own. Tufts sophomore goalkeeper Brianna Keenan dived to her right to make a stop,but as the ball ricocheted Bowdoin junior forward Katie Riley controlled on the left side of the cage and pushed it across to classmate Lauren Schroeder.

As Keenan lay on the ground, the midfielder knocked it into the empty net to give the Polar Bears a 1-0 advantage at the 10:27 mark.

“We had had several opportunities of our own before they scored,” junior midfielder Emily Cannon said. “We knew that if we kept the pressure on that we’d be able to get one and put it away, so we tried not to let it get to us when they went ahead, even though the stakes were incredibly high.”

Over the next several minutes, Tufts produced several scoring opportunities.

Each time, however, Bowdoin senior keeper Kayla Lessard came out of the cage to kick the ball away. Sagerman had another chance to score as she broke into the circle and received a pass, but the senior lost her footing on the slick AstroTurf, allowing the Polar Bears to recover.

The key moment in the first half came when Bowdoin returned to the offensive.

With numbers on the Jumbos, the Polar Bears sent a sweeping pass across the front of the cage. No one was there to receive the pass, but the Polar Bears earned themselves a penalty stroke in the middle of the chaotic scene in the middle of the field.

Senior defender Kassey Matoin lined up to take the stroke, and as she put her stick on the ball Keenan lunged to her right.

Keenan had guessed correctly, and managed to push the ball away as she dove to the ground, preserving the single-goal deficit for the Jumbos as the game entered intermission. “[Keenan’s] save really kept us within striking distance and gave us an extra burst of intensity,” Cannon said. “Coming out of the half we knew that we just had to keep the pressure and knowing that we had [Keenan] behind us made us a lot more confident in pressuring harder.”

In the second half, the teams traded possession until the Polar Bears notched

Oliver Porter / The Tufts Daily

see FIELD HOCKEY, page 15

Senior co-captain forward Lia Sagerman scored the winning goal in the No. 10 Jumbos’ 2-1 NCAA third round victory over No. 6 Bowdoin.

Men’s Soccer

Tufts downed in NCAA tournament opener against Vassar by

Matt Berger

Senior Staff Writer

A historic Tufts men’s soccer season came to an end in devastating fashion on Saturday in the first round of the NCAA MEN’S SOCCER (9-4-5 Overall, 6-2-4 NESCAC) at Waltham, Mass., Saturday NCAA First Round

OT OT Tufts 0 0 0 0 — 0 Vassar 0 0 0 1 — 1

Div. III tournament. Under the lights and on the turf at Brandeis University’s Gordon Field, the Jumbos dominated the Vassar College Brewers for all 90 minutes of regulation but were unable to score a goal, leaving the door open for Vassar to steal the win with an overtime golden goal off of a penalty kick in the second minute of the second overtime.

In the 102nd minute, Vassar’s Dante Varotsis, a senior co-captain forward, beat Tufts junior defender Luke Booth to a ball near the end line on the left side of the box.

Booth appeared to pull Varotsis down, but coach Josh Shapiro and other members of the team still questioned the referee’s

decision to award a penalty kick in sudden death overtime.

“I think Luke Booth was pretty unlucky to be in that situation,” Shapiro said. “Was it a foul? Probably. But was it a foul that you expect to be called? Probably not. But regardless, I think it was a very harsh way for it to end given the performance that we had.”

After the call and amid protest from some of the Jumbos, Vassar’s senior cocaptain defender Zander Mrlik stepped up to the spot and put the game away. He calmly sent a low penalty kick to the right of junior goalkeeper Wyatt Zeller, who had no chance of making a save after guessing the wrong way and diving left.

Despite the controversial finish to the game, players on the team admitted that Tufts should have won in regulation. The Jumbos were especially dominant in the first half. After 45 minutes of play, Tufts held a 7-1 advantage in shots, a 6-0 lead in corner kicks, controlled the majority of possession and created several dangerous scoring opportunities. The Jumbos did this despite not having their top scoring threat, sophomore midfielder Gus Santos, who missed the game with an illness.

“That’s just kind of the nature of the game of soccer,” Zeller said. “You can outplay people and then eventually the

statistics don’t really matter because it just comes down to who can put the ball in the net.”

“At the end of the day, I think we created enough chances to take the game, but we just didn’t capitalize, and that will often come back to haunt you,” Shapiro added.

Despite the fact that the team struggled to score goals at times this season, the Jumbos still built on last year’s 9-4-2 campaign with a 9-4-4 overall record this season. Tufts accomplished all three of its preseason goals by appearing in the national top 25 rankings, hosting and winning a NESCAC tournament game, and playing in the NCAA tournament. The Jumbos had not earned a home conference playoff game since 2001 and had not qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1996.

“We definitely hit all of our goals that we wanted to achieve during the season,” Zeller said. “The fact that we feel that we underachieved but still hit all of our goals really says something about where this program is headed.”

The Jumbos should also be encouraged by the fact that they are still a relatively young team. Against Vassar, Tufts started four sophomores and three freshmen.

Over the course of the season, 17 of the see MEN’S SOCCER, page 15

Football

Season finale fumbled as Tufts finishes winless by

Marcus Budline

Daily Editorial Board

The Jumbos were just 10 yards away from a potential game-tying touchdown. Thirteen plays had brought them FOOTBALL (0-8 Overall, 0-8 NESCAC) at Middlebury, Vt., Saturday Tufts Middlebury

7 0 7 7

6 7

0 — 13 14 — 35

89 yards down the field, tantalizingly close to a chance to knot up the game.

But one play later, the chance was out of Tufts’ grasp. The team watched Middlebury race down the field on a fumble recovery, putting the game away and capping Tufts’ second straight winless season and their 23rd loss in a row.

It had been the Jumbos’ most impressive drive of the day. After being pinned on their own one-yard line, senior quarterback John Dodds had methodically worked the ball up the field, hitting six different receivers on nine attempts. see FOOTBALL, page 13