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THE TUFTS DAILY
Where You Read It First Est. 1980 TUFTSDAILY.COM
VOLUME LXIV, NUMBER 37
Friday, november 2, 2012
ResLife film competition to resume next semester
Tufts avoids worst of Hurricane Sandy
Contributing Writer Following a brief hiatus, the Office of Residential Life and Learning’s (ResLife) Shorts Film Competition will return for the third time this spring due to the appointment of a new contest administrator. Programming Coordinator of ResLife Elizabeth Hartford was selected to take over and revamp the competition starting in April, Director of ResLife Yolanda King said. The search process lasted for several months after former Programming Coordinator Keiko Zoll left the university in the middle of the 20112012 academic year. According to King, former Assistant Professor of English Radiclani Clytus initiated the competition in 2010 so that students could capture where they live and what their community means to them through film. Students could enter the contest individually or in a group, with the film no longer than two minutes in length and conforming to a theme put forth by ResLife. ResLife staff members judged the contest, which culminated in a showcase of all the entries. Cash prizes sponsored by Tufts’ Toupin-Bolwell Fund for the Arts were given out to the top three films. Hartford said that she has been looking at how the competition has run previously in order to decide what changes need to be made. “The competition will run more quickly this year, start to finish between January and March, as opposed to happening throughout the first semester,” she said. “We will continue to maintain cash-level prizes as we have done in the past.” by
Xander Landen
by Jennifer
The competition ran smoothly in its second year, according to Luke Boelitz (LA ’12), who submitted a video about the Tufts Quidditch Team’s experience at the Quidditch World Cup last year in response to the “Pride in Our Community” theme. When Zoll left, however, communication between ResLife and those who had entered the contest ceased. King said that Zoll’s absence meant the contest could not be organized effectively, as there were no judges or prizes to be distributed for winning submissions. ResLife immediately began its search for a new competition administrator, but it was not until late in the 2012 spring semester that Hartford was chosen. “By the time I was hired, it was too late,” Hartford said. Many students had already been working on or had submitted their short films, King said. “We only had a few submissions at the time Zoll left,” she said. “We explained to those students who had submitted that the competition could not happen, sent them movie passes and encouraged them to resubmit this year.” Senior Lynne Koester, a film studies minor who won the contest in its inaugural year and helped Boelitz edit his submission for last year’s competition, said she was frustrated with ResLife’s lack of communication with contestants early on. “People who submitted videos never heard anything, which can be extremely discouraging,” she said. Koester added, however, that she received a $500 cash prize and a Flip camera for her first-place submission. see RESLIFE, page 2
White
Daily Editorial Board
Tufts’ campuses and surrounding areas suffered only minor damage from Hurricane Sandy on Monday, in part thanks to abated storm conditions and advance preparedness of administrators. Director of Public and Environmental Safety Kevin Maguire said that in emergency situations such as severe weather storms, an Emergency Operations Center is formed by representatives from various campus offices, includingPublicandEnvironmental Safety, Tufts University Police Department, Public Relations, the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs and Facilities Services. From Saturday evening through late Monday night, Maguire and other members of this emergency operations team monitored the storm via updates from the National Weather Service and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, using these sources to assess the safety conditions on all three of Tufts’ campuses. Before re-opening the university after its closure on Monday, the group primarily assessed wind levels, which had been gusting at 60 to 70 miles per hour in the heart of the storm on Monday afternoon but had substantially subsided to around 25 miles per hour by the evening, Maguire said. “Facilities was on campus all
Justin McCallum for the Tufts Daily
The effects of Hurricane Sandy swept through campus this Monday, resulting in widespread tree damage and minor power outages. night long moving branches, cleaning up trees, making sure the campus was ready for Tuesday morning,” Maguire said. “Tuesday morning, the police assessed the campus and determined that we could open safely.” “There were only minor flooding problems, rain wasn’t the issue,” Maguire added. “We were very lucky in that we didn’t lose much power. No one was hurt, no one was injured. There was wind damage to trees that were older, but by and large, there wasn’t much damage.” In total there were approximately 10 significant cases of fallen trees and branches on the
Jodi Bosin for the Tufts Daily
At least 10 cases of fallen trees were reported on the Medford/Somerville campus this week.
Medford/Somerville campus, such as a large branch blocking access to the Dowling Hall footbridge, Maguire said. On the Medford/Somerville campus, power was unaffected except in five smaller buildings: Crafts House, the Hillside House, the Africana Center, the Department of Art and Art History at 11 Talbot Ave. and the Latino Center and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Center. Students residing in any of these buildings were placed in alternative housing until power was restored, Vice President of Operations Linda Snyder said. “We were extraordinarily fortunate, when you look at how devastating the storm was in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, lower Manhattan,” Snyder said. The Grafton campus was the hardest hit by the storm, losing power for two days, according to Snyder. Maguire said that the adverse impact of electricity loss was minimized thanks to several generators, and classes at Grafton were able to resume on Tuesday. There was no damage to the Boston campus, according to Maguire. Snyder said preparation before see HURRICANE, page 2
Women’s Center 40th anniversary to include symposium by
Melissa Wang
Daily Editorial Board
The Women’s Center will celebrate its 40th anniversary this weekend with an archival exhibit, dinner, alumni brunch and symposium. The celebration will chronicle the history of the Women’s Center since its establishment in 1972, address the current state of affairs on campus and discuss the future of the center. The commemoration is co-sponsored by the Association of Tufts Alumnae, according to Director of the Women’s Center Steph Gauchel. “My hope with the 40th anniversary is to highlight the past and current successes of the Women’s Center with attention to gender justice issues on campus in particular and to think about what the future of feminism and gender justice will look like,” she said. The festivities will begin tomorrow at 5 p.m. with an archival display at the Slater
Concourse Gallery titled “An Archive of Feminism: The 40th Anniversary of the Tufts Women’s Center.” The exhibition will feature photos, flyers, posters, letters and newspaper clippings from past Women’s Center events and initiatives, according to Staff Assistant at the Women’s Center Nino Testa. “It’s cool to see a moment in Tufts history where things came and went, how things like that still happen today, and what our connection to them is,” Testa said. The exhibit will be set up in a timeline format, starting in 1972 and ending in 2012, Testa said. “It’s a really good visual way for guests to see how the Women’s Center came about ... and just sort of look for consistent themes across the years and see how the issues [have] changed in the past 40 years,” Gauchel said. Following the unveiling of the exhibit, the 40th Anniversary Dinner at the Alumnae Lounge will feature speeches from Gauchel,
Inside this issue
former Director of the Women’s Center Peggy Barrett, Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Students John Barker and Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman. Gauchel said that during her presentation she will focus on her own relationship with feminism, as well as the women’s rights issues that confront college campuses today. “I’m hoping that I’ll be able to frame a bit of what the Women’s Center work has been since I’ve been here in 2008 and then talk about what the current mission of the center is,” Gauchel said. Barrett, who served as the center’s director for 27 years, said she plans to discuss how the Women’s Center has changed since her time as director, explaining that women do not have as much reproductive freedom as they did back in the 1980s. “I think the Women’s Center has changed because the conditions for women have changed,” she said. “Women’s rights have
decreased over these past years. I think it really is great to be celebrating the Women’s Center these days because I think we need it more than ever.” On Sunday morning, alumni at the center’s brunch will address how they have continued their commitment to various gender and social justice issues post-graduation. Students who attend the brunch will also have the opportunity to ask questions about life after college and network with alumni, according to Gauchel. The two-day celebration will conclude with the Third Annual Women’s Center Symposium on Gender and Culture: Feminism 2052 at 1:30 p.m. in the Alumnae Lounge, Gauchel said. During the symposium, faculty, graduate and undergraduate students will discuss the future of feminism in the next 40 years. Assistant Professor of Mathematics Moon see WOMEN’S CENTER, page 2
Today’s sections
Students pursue courses across the Boston Consortium.
“Paranormal Activity 4” is unoriginal, unscary and leaves audiences confused.
see FEATURES, page 3
see ARTS, page 5
News Features Arts & Living Comics
1 3 5 8
Op-Ed Classifieds Sports
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